The Volume of Philosophical, Medical, and Chymical Letters Written by the Foremost Philosophers and Physicians of Our Age, Now for the First Time Published through the Labour and Industry of Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau

Creator: Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau (Laurentius Scholzius à Rosenaw) | Date: 1598 (repr. 1610) | Notes: Original title: Epistolae philosophicae, medicinales ac chymicae A printed anthology (corpus epistolarum) of learned medical, philosophical, and chymical correspondence drawn from the late-sixteenth-century circle of physicians and natural philosophers gathered around Johann Crato von Krafftheim, imperial physician to Maximilian II and Rudolf II, including Peter Monau, András Dudith, Girolamo Mercuriale, Girolamo Capivacci, and Thomas Erastus. Edited by the Breslau physician Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau, who stripped the letters of dates, dedications, and patient-specific matter and ordered them by controversy, the volume converts private correspondence into a citable disputation. Its recurring theme is how the physician should adjudicate the boundary between Galenic-humoral orthodoxy and Paracelsian and chymical therapeutics—treating questions of contagion and plague, the nature of poison, chymical extracts and potable gold, and the so-called disease of total substance as dialectical quaestiones answered from Hippocratic-Galenic and Aristotelian principles and tested against daily experience. Written in Latin with embedded Greek technical terms, it includes an appended glossary (Interpretatio Graecorum) and indices, and functions as both a theoretical arbitration and a practical formulary. 👉 <a href="https://tryleo.ai/collections/exlatinis/the-handmaid-in-the-citadel-the-galenic-physicians-who-reclaimed-chemistry-as-an-ancient-possession-rather-than-fighting-it">Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here</a> 📜 <a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_K3QoH8w_ypAC">View the original file on Internet Archive</a> This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

Title: The Volume of Philosophical, Medical, and Chymical Letters Written by the Foremost Philosophers and Physicians of Our Age, Now for the First Time Published through the Labour and Industry of Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau
Creator: Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau (Laurentius Scholzius à Rosenaw)
Date: 1598 (repr. 1610)
Notes: Original title: Epistolae philosophicae, medicinales ac chymicae A printed anthology (corpus epistolarum) of learned medical, philosophical, and chymical correspondence drawn from the late-sixteenth-century circle of physicians and natural philosophers gathered around Johann Crato von Krafftheim, imperial physician to Maximilian II and Rudolf II, including Peter Monau, András Dudith, Girolamo Mercuriale, Girolamo Capivacci, and Thomas Erastus. Edited by the Breslau physician Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau, who stripped the letters of dates, dedications, and patient-specific matter and ordered them by controversy, the volume converts private correspondence into a citable disputation. Its recurring theme is how the physician should adjudicate the boundary between Galenic-humoral orthodoxy and Paracelsian and chymical therapeutics—treating questions of contagion and plague, the nature of poison, chymical extracts and potable gold, and the so-called disease of total substance as dialectical quaestiones answered from Hippocratic-Galenic and Aristotelian principles and tested against daily experience. Written in Latin with embedded Greek technical terms, it includes an appended glossary (Interpretatio Graecorum) and indices, and functions as both a theoretical arbitration and a practical formulary. 👉 <a href="https://tryleo.ai/collections/exlatinis/the-handmaid-in-the-citadel-the-galenic-physicians-who-reclaimed-chemistry-as-an-ancient-possession-rather-than-fighting-it">Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here</a> 📜 <a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_K3QoH8w_ypAC">View the original file on Internet Archive</a> This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

Document notes

Original title: Epistolae philosophicae, medicinales ac chymicae A printed anthology (corpus epistolarum) of learned medical, philosophical, and chymical correspondence drawn from the late-sixteenth-century circle of physicians and natural philosophers gathered around Johann Crato von Krafftheim, imperial physician to Maximilian II and Rudolf II, including Peter Monau, András Dudith, Girolamo Mercuriale, Girolamo Capivacci, and Thomas Erastus. Edited by the Breslau physician Lorenz Scholtz von Rosenau, who stripped the letters of dates, dedications, and patient-specific matter and ordered them by controversy, the volume converts private correspondence into a citable disputation. Its recurring theme is how the physician should adjudicate the boundary between Galenic-humoral orthodoxy and Paracelsian and chymical therapeutics—treating questions of contagion and plague, the nature of poison, chymical extracts and potable gold, and the so-called disease of total substance as dialectical quaestiones answered from Hippocratic-Galenic and Aristotelian principles and tested against daily experience. Written in Latin with embedded Greek technical terms, it includes an appended glossary (Interpretatio Graecorum) and indices, and functions as both a theoretical arbitration and a practical formulary. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original file on Internet Archive This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

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EPISTOLARVM PHILOSOPHICARVM: MEDICINALIVM, AC CHYMI. CARVM à Summis nostræ Ætatis Philosophis ac Medicis Exaratarum, VOLV MEN; Opus, cum ob remediorum saluberrimorum copiam; tum ob variam doctrinam, ac variis generis difficulium & obscurarum quæstionum explicationem non solùm Medicis, verumetiam Philosophis admodum utile, ac necessarium. Addito ELENCHO rerum omnium notatu dignissimarum refertissimo. Nunc primùm labore, ac industria LAVRENTII SCHOLZI à Rosenaw Medicinæ Doctoris, isto modo foras datum. HANOVIÆ Typis Wechelianis apud hære- des Ioannis Aubrii. M DC. X. Cum priuilegio Casa. Maiest. ad annos Decem.

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EPISTLES PHILOSOPHICAL, MEDICINAL, AND CHEMICAL Written by the Most Eminent Philosophers and Physicians of our Age, VOLUME; A work, both on account of the abundance of most salutary remedies, and on account of the varied learning and the explanation of various kinds of difficult and obscure questions, very useful and necessary not only for Physicians, but also for Philosophers. With the addition of a most copious INDEX of all things worthy of note. Now for the first time, through the labor and industry of LAURENTIUS SCHOLZIUS of Rosenaw, Doctor of Medicine, published in this manner. HANOVIAE At the Wechelian press, by the heirs of Johannes Aubrius. 1600. With the privilege of His Imperial Majesty for ten years.

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GENEROSIS, MAGNIFICIS, NOBILISS. Q. VIRIS, DN. SIGISMVNDO A ZEDLITZ IN NEVKIRCH, Cratzkavv, Steinberg, Niederionsdorff, &c. DN. MAXIMILIANO A KNOBELSDORF, IN Ruckersdorff, Arnsdorff, Wroblin, Capitaneo Schvvibusiensi, &c. DN. NICOLAO A BURGHAVS, IN STOLTZ, Seiffersdorff, Schiltberg, Girsdorff, Polnisch Neudorff, &c. PATRONIS SVIS PERPETVA FIDE ET OBSERVANTIA COLENDIS, CAMERÆ CÆSAREÆ PER VTRAMQVE SILESIAM IN REGIA VRTISE. PRAELECT. AC MODERATORIB. OMNIB. AC SINGVLIS, RODOLPHO II. AVGVSTO ROMANOR. IMP. OB LAVDEM FIDEI AC INTEGRITATIS IN REB. GRAVISS. DOMI FORISQ. SPECTA. TÆ SINGVLAREM,

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To the most generous, most magnificent, most noble gentlemen, Mr. Sigismund a Zedlitz in Nevkirch, Cratzkavv, Steinberg, Niederionsdorff, &c. Mr. Maximilian a Knobelsdorf, in Ruckersdorff, Arnsdorff, Wroblin, captain of Schwibus, &c. Mr. Nicolaus a Burghavs, in Stoltz, Seiffersdorff, Schiltberg, Girsdorff, Polnisch Neudorff, &c. their perpetual patrons, to be honored with faithful devotion and respect, the Imperial Chamber through both Silesias in the royal city of Vratislav. To the lecturers and moderators, all and singular, under Rudolph II, Augustus, Roman Emperor, on account of the praise of faith and integrity in public affairs, most weighty at home and abroad, and of singular distinction,

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ACCEPTISS CONSILIARIIS, VIRTUTE, PRUDENTIA, DOCTRINA, ERVMQ. VSV PRÆSTANTIIS. HOCCE EPISTOLARVM PHILOSOPHICAR MEDICINAL AC CHYMICAR VOLYMEN, REMEDIIS SALVBERE POVENOR SANITATIS INSTRUCTISS. LAVRENTIVS SCHOLZIVS, A ROSENAW, MED. DOCTOR, PVBL. BONI CYPIDVS, SVE ERCA PATRIAM STVDEI. SYMBOL SVÆ ERCA EOSDEM OBSERVANTIA TESTIMON. L. M. Q. DEDICAT, CONSECRATQ. L A V.

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To the most esteemed counsellors, for virtue, prudence, doctrine, and excellence in the use of things. This volume of philosophical, medicinal, and chymical epistles, most abundantly provided with remedies for the preservation of health, Laurentius Scholzius, of Rosenaw, Doctor of Medicine, desirous of the public good, strives for his native land. As a token of his respect toward the same, he dedicates and consecrates it. L. M. Q. L. A. V.

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LAVRENTIVS SCHOLZIVS A ROSENAW, MED. VRATISL. Omnibus Arci Medica addictis & meditans E volumen istud Epistolarum Philosophicarum, Medicinalium, ac Chymicaru[m], a[n]i[m]b in Me- dicinæ studiosorum manus perue- niat, libet mihi nonnihil Præfationis loco de vsu Epistolarum in mediu[m] adferre. Harum autem non minorem, quam Con- siliorum Medicinalium vtilitatem esse, nulla, vt ego quidem iudico, probatione egere videtur. Vetus est ratio de problemate proposito interrogare, disputa- re, ac percunctanti & sciscitanti respondere, quodq[ue] responsum est ad examen reuocare. Tales Epistolas, suo quodâ iudicio, Rhetores in scholis Dialecticas, Erotematicas, & Didascalicas appellare consueue- runt. Estque hoc genus Epistolarum familiare quidem, at non vulgo, sed eruditorum saltem ge- neri proprium. Hienim vltro citroque missis lite- ris de variis rebus, si quando, vel omnino dubitant, vel in sententiis inter se non prorsus conueniunt, disputare solent. Huius vel in CICERONE exem- plum illud esse potest, cuius initium; Illuseras he- ri inter scyphos, &c. Item illa; Amoverecundiam, &c. Tales sunt, vt exempla alia non accersam, duæ illustres illæ de eloquetiascriptæ epistolæ cõtrariæ, vna FRANCISCI PICI MIRANDVLANI Comi- 3

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LAVRENTIUS SCHOLZIUS of Rosenau, doctor of medicine, at Wrocław. To all devoted to the Medical Art and meditating on this volume of Letters, Philosophical, Medical, and Chymical, let this work reach the hands of those studying medicine. It pleases me to offer, in place of a preface, something about the use of letters in the field of medicine. And that their usefulness is no less than that of Medical Consultations seems, as I judge, to require no proof. It is an old practice to ask about a proposed problem, to debate it, and to answer the one questioning and inquiring, and then to call the answer back for examination. Such letters, by their own kind of judgment, rhetoricians in the schools have been accustomed to call Dialectical, Erotematic, and Didascalic. And this kind of letter is indeed familiar, but not common, being proper only to the learned class. For they, when letters have been sent back and forth about various matters, if ever they either doubt at all, or do not entirely agree among themselves in opinion, are accustomed to debate. An example of this may be found even in CICERO, whose beginning is: “You mocked me yesterday among the cups,” etc. Likewise that one: “Remove shame,” etc. Such are, so that I may not seek out other examples, those two famous letters written about eloquence, opposing one another, one of FRANCISCUS PICI MIRANDULANI Comi- 3

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PRÆFATIO tis, altera MELANCHTHONIS nostri, in scholis passim notæ & celebres. Criticirecentiores, quorum pene nimis est ferax nostrum seculum, quot non Epistolas de certorum locorum in autoribus lectione varia, ac restitutione ediderunt? Id si in minima, ac sæpe nugatoria re, imo vocula, fieri concessum est, quid nobis in re Medica, si quid occurrat, quod nobis dubitationem iniiciat, faciendum esse existimabimus? AVERRHOES de seipso testatur, quod sæpe numero per epistolas Amicorum absentium, quibuscunque de rebus visum fuisset, sententias explorare solitus fuerit. Extant quinetiam Epistolæ multæ cum veterum Theologorum Græcorum & Latinorum, tum aliorum quoq[ue], inprimis vero duodecim illæ nobiles PLATONIS, scriptoris grauissimi, vt taceam de lls, quas Princeps noster HIPPOCRATES scripsit, quoque in operibus eius leguntur? Porro à nostris etiam Recentioribus pro Artis nostræ illustratione plurimæ iam in lucem emissæ sunt, inter quas non postremum certe locum obtinent eruditissimæ illæ Epistolæ IOH. MANARDI, NICOLAI MASSÆ, ALOYSII MVNDELLÆ, IOH. BAPT. THEODOSII, IOH. LANGII, CONRADI GESNERI, MATTHIOLI, IVLII. ALEXANDRINI, HORATII AVGENII Professoris Patauini, & aliorum præclarissimorum virorum, quæ quàm bonis rebus refertæ sint, quantamque ipsis Lectoribustum vtilitatem, tum delectationem adferant, meridiana luce clarius est. DVIDITHIANÆ literæ, licet pleræque dubitent, ac quæstiones mo- ucant,

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PREFACE These are, the other works of our MELANCHTHON, commonly known and celebrated in the schools. The more recent critics, of whom our age is almost too fruitful, how many Epistles have they not published concerning the reading of certain passages in authors, and their correction? If this has been permitted even in the smallest, and often trivial matter, indeed in a single word, what ought we to think should be done in medicine, if anything should occur that might cast doubt upon us? AVERRHOES testifies of himself that he was often accustomed, through the letters of absent friends, to investigate opinions on whatever matters seemed fit. There are also many letters, both of the ancient Greek and Latin theologians and of others likewise, but especially those twelve noble ones of PLATO, a most serious writer, not to mention those which our Prince HIPPOCRATES wrote, which are also read in his works. Furthermore, by our more recent writers also, for the illustration of our Art, very many have already been brought to light, among which certainly not the least place is held by the most learned letters of JOH. MANARDUS, NICOLAUS MASSA, ALOYSIUS MVNDELLA, JOH. BAPT. THEODOSIUS, JOH. LANGIUS, CONRADUS GESNERUS, MATTHIOLUS, JULIUS ALEXANDRINUS, HORATIUS AVGENIUS, Professor at Padua, and other most distinguished men, which are so full of excellent material, and bring to readers both great usefulness and delight, that it is clearer than daylight. The DVIDITHIAN letters, although most of them raise doubts and arouse questions,

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AD LECTOREM ueant, vt in hoc genere scriptor earu[m] artificiosissimus fuit, quem quæso, non afficiunt? MERCVRIALIS vero summi viri, ACERASTI, præstantis Medici, Epistolæ quid aliud faciunt, quam vt de rebus grauisimis aliquid doceant? Tales CRATONIANÆ quoque plerèque suut omnes, plurimum videlicet liberalis, & vtilis doctrinæ continentes. Sed non libet hoc loco in horum laudes excurrere, ne meam potius qualemcumque operam, quam bonitatem Epistolarum, que sese ipsæ, me etiam silête per se commendant, efferre velle videri possim. Et hæc quidem sunt, quæ procemij loco, vt beneuoli Lectores consilii mei rationem aliquo saltem modo cognoscerent, præmittenda esse duxi, quæ vt eo animo, quo à me scripta sunt, accipiantur, & boni consulantur, maiorem in modum peto. Felicissime valete, LECTORES candidissimi, meque syncero animo hæc Clarissimoru[m] Virorum monumenta, multis, vt confido, vtilia, posteritati etiam, vt spero, & vt æquos rerum æstimatores iudicaturos confido, non ingrata futura, in hominum conspectum, & in luminis auras producentem, quod mutuo facietis, amate. Data Vratisl. ex Musæo nostro die 30 Martij, Ann. redemptionis humanæ 1598. 4

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TO THE READER If, in this kind of writing, the most skillful author was such a man as whom, I ask, does he not affect? MERCURIALIS indeed, the letters of the great man ACERASTI, an eminent physician, what do they do other than teach something about the most serious matters? Such too are for the most part all the CRATONIAN letters, containing, as is evident, very much liberal and useful learning. But I do not wish to run on here in praise of these works, lest I seem to want to extol my own rather indifferent labor instead of the excellence of the Letters, which of themselves, and even in silence, commend themselves. And these things indeed are what I thought should be set forth in place of a preface, so that benevolent readers might in some way understand the reason for my undertaking, and I earnestly ask that they receive them in the spirit in which they were written by me, and take them in good part. Farewell most happily, most excellent Readers, and with sincere mind bring into the sight of men, and into the light of day, these memorials of most distinguished men, which, as I trust, will be useful to many, and, as I hope, not unwelcome even to posterity, and, as I am confident, will be judged not unworthy by fair assessors of things. Do what you will in return, and love them. Given at Breslau from our studio, on the 30th day of March, in the year of human redemption 1598. 4

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AD LAVRENTIVM SCHOLZIVM A ROSENAW, MED. VRATISL. ROBVR habet nomen, multis medicamina pollens Viribus, in scriptis quæ lego, CRATO, tuis. CAESARIBVSQ. tribus tua munia grata fuerunt. Et tot Nobilibus complacuere viris. Omin a nominibus non ergo subesse negabit, Nomina cum factis quia tua contulerit: BARTMOLOMÆVS HVENERVS Phil. & Med. D. ac in Inclyta Erphod diensi Academia Professor ordinarius, &c. ALIVD: Te sublimem alii ferant SCHOLZI, grandi loqui carminis alite: Quod dudum es meritus, graus Sudore, inuidiæ cedere nescius. Ass me promere iuuerit Musarum ex adytis, quid tibi nominis Nuper calculus omnium DOCTORVM, indiderit. LUCIFER ipsus est CRATONEM occubuum nouis Clara a stiradiis: linidus infremat Osor. luce tamen tua. Tam CRATO enituit SOLIS vt æmulus Clara, sit, face, Phosphori, Qua in calo is rutilat, splendida ubi apparat Mundum lampade visere, BRESLORVM haud aliter sol inbar exculit Orbi, te duce, redditus. Quem cursu, insequitur LVNA vicario. Æternum Patriæ decus, Insignis Medica arte MONAVVS. Extinctum at media, heu, die Vitæ, quod vario mentis acumine Lucentem aspicimus, tuo Debemus genio, quo velut HESPERVS Præfulges, radians viam LVNAE, quid memorem cætera fideræ Quæ dum clarius emicant Totum id muneris, & luminis est tui. Felicem, o, ter & amplius Tanto nomine quem ASCLEPIADÆ beant? Macte hoc: vt magis in dies Splendentem videant ORTVS & OCCIDENS. ELIAS KUNTSCHEVS SIL. Philos. & Med. Doctor. ALIVD:

Transcription: Translated (English)

To Laurentius Scholz of Rosenau, Doctor of Medicine of Wroclaw The name “oak” has strength, abounding in remedies by many powers, as I read in your writings, Crato. And your services were pleasing to three Caesars. And to so many noble men they gave pleasure. Therefore no one will deny that there is a hidden omen in the names, since your names and your deeds have been joined together. Bartolomæus Huenervs Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, and ordinary Professor in the renowned Academy of Erfurt, etc. Another: Let others extol you as lofty, Scholz, with the wing of grand verse: What you have long deserved, through jealous, envious, unyielding toil. Allow me to bring forth from the sanctuaries of the Muses what recently the judgment of all the learned has bestowed upon you as a name. The very Lucifer himself is the fallen Crato, shining from new rays: let the envious man growl in hatred. Yet by your light. So Crato shone as the sun’s rival, clear, like the torch of Phosphorus, which glows in the sky, bright where it appears to see the world with a lamp, no otherwise did the sun shine forth over Breslau, restored to the world under your guidance. The Moon follows it in a borrowed course. Eternal glory of the fatherland, distinguished by the medical art, Monaus. Though extinguished in the middle of the day, alas, of life, yet with varied keenness of mind we behold him shining; we owe this to your genius, by which, like Hesperus, you shine brightly, guiding the way of the Moon. Why should I mention the rest of the stars, which, while they shine more clearly, all that honor and light are yours. Blessed, oh, thrice and more is he whom the Asclepiadae honor with so great a name? Hail to this, so that East and West may see him growing brighter day by day. Elias Kuntschev Sil. Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine. Another:

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ALIVE: HIPPOCRATES positas DIVVM per templa tabellas, Morborum testes & relevantis, Descripsit primus, solersque redegit in artem, Pergameum quam post protulit ingenium. SCHOLZIADES, Coifelix imitator, & ipse Colligit omnigenum scripta probata virum: Quos Naturaparens Herbis vsuque medendi Eximios inter fecit habere locum. Nam sane, SCHOLZI, ni sic tua cura fuisset, Qua vita & fama consults alterius: Nomina multorum iam putris aranea haberet, Scriptaque perpetuo perderet vmbrasitu. Sed tamen & solitibitam praelara Reperta Quod non seruasti laudis id ampla seges. Omne BONVM, quanto est maius, communius esse Tanto etiam multis poscit, & addit opem. Quid mihi Thesauri, quos terris atra vetustas, V sibus humanis insidiosa, præmit? Quid monumenta virum Doctorum, actique labores, Obscuro cobitet quos gravis vmbrasitu? Quosue triparcamanus priuatos seruat in vsus, Qualiter Hesperidum poma reposta Draco? Non Gemmam inuentam malefidis obruis vmbris Vir bonus: Aonidum semper aperta Foris. T OBIAS SCVLRETUS Hermund: L. C. & P. L Vratisl. F.

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ALIVE: HIPPOCRATES, having set up tablets in the divine temples, witnesses of diseases and their remedies, first described them and skillfully reduced them to an art, which Pergamene genius later brought forth. SCHOLZIADES, a fortunate imitator, himself too gathers the approved writings of men of every kind: men whom Nature, mother of herbs and the practice of healing, made to hold a distinguished place among the foremost. For truly, SCHOLZIUS, if your care had not been such, by which you consulted for both life and reputation: the names of many would now already be held by rotten spiderweb, and writings would be lost forever in the dark of neglect. But still, because you did not preserve splendid discoveries alone, that for which you did not keep the praise is a vast harvest. Every GOOD thing, the greater it is, ought to be the more common, and thus it also seeks, and gives, help to many. Why should I want treasures, which black antiquity, hostile to human use, buries in the earth? Why the monuments of learned men, and the labors accomplished, which heavy neglect hides in dark shadow? Or which the triple-handed man keeps for private use, like the apples of the Hesperides stored away by the Dragon? A good man does not bury a discovered gem in wicked shadows: the door of the Aonides is always open. T. OBIAS SCVLRETUS Hermund: L. C. & P. L Vratisl. F.

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CATALOGVS AVTORVM, Quorum Epistolæ in hoc volumine continentur: D. ABRAHAMVS SETTLER Sil. quotidam Illustriss. Ducis Bregensis Medicus. D. ADOLPHVS OCCO, Medicus Augustanus. ANDREAS DVDTHIVS ab Horeconiza, Co[siliarius, & orator Cæsareus. ARRAGOSIVS Gallus. D. BALTHASAR SCHEIDER, Physicus Vratilauiensis. D. BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRISÆVS. D. CAROLVS OSLEVIVS Sil. Aulæ Cæsareæ Medicus. D. CASPARVS HOFMANNVS Sil. Illustriss. Electoris Brandeburgici Medicus. D. CASPARVS LINDNBRVS, Physicus Posnaniensis. D. CHRISTOPHORVS SCHILLINEVS Sil. CHRISTOPHORVS PITHOPÆVS. D. GEORGIVS VBERVS. D. HIERONTMVS CAPIVACCIVS, Medicus Pataninus. D. HIERONTMVS MERCVRIALIS, Medicus Pataninus. D. HIERONYMVS DONZELLINVS, Medicus Venerus. D. HIERONTMVS SCHALLER, Medicus Norinbergenis. D. HIERONYMVS HEROLDT. D. IOHANNES CRATO à Krafftheim Vratisl. Medicus Cæsareus. D. IOHANNES SCHROETERVS, Medicus Ihenensis. D. IVLIVS CAESAR ARANTIVS, Medicus Bononiensis. D. IVSTIVS PEZOLDVS, Physicus Gothanus. MANLIVS CONSTATINOPOLITANVS. D. MICHAEL BARTH, Medicus Lipsensis. D. PAVLVS CLOSIVS Vratisl. Physicus Glacensis. D. PETRVs MONAVIVS Vratisl. Aulæ Cæsareæ Medicus. D. THEODORVS ZWINCERVS, Medicus Basiiliensis. D. THOMAS ERASTVS Medicus Heydelbergensis. D. THOMAS MOVFETVS Anglus. VALERIVS CORDVS. INDEX

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CATALOGUE OF AUTHORS, Whose Epistles are contained in this volume: D. ABRAHAMVS SETTLER, of Silesia, formerly Physician to the most illustrious Duke of Brieg. D. ADOLPHVS OCCO, Physician of Augsburg. ANDREAS DVDTHIVS ab Horeconiza, Councillor, & Imperial Orator. ARRAGOSIVS, a Frenchman. D. BALTHASAR SCHEIDER, Physician of Breslau. D. BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRISÆVS. D. CAROLVS OSLEVIVS, Silesian, Physician to the Imperial Court. D. CASPARVS HOFMANNVS, Silesian, Physician to the most illustrious Elector of Brandenburg. D. CASPARVS LINDNBRVS, Physician of Posen. D. CHRISTOPHORVS SCHILLINEVS, Silesian. CHRISTOPHORVS PITHOPÆVS. D. GEORGIVS VBERVS. D. HIERONTMVS CAPIVACCIVS, Physician of Padua. D. HIERONTMVS MERCVRIALIS, Physician of Padua. D. HIERONYMVS DONZELLINVS, Physician of Venice. D. HIERONTMVS SCHALLER, Physician of Nuremberg. D. HIERONYMVS HEROLDT. D. IOHANNES CRATO à Krafftheim of Breslau, Imperial Physician. D. IOHANNES SCHROETERVS, Physician of Jena. D. IVLIVS CAESAR ARANTIVS, Physician of Bologna. D. IVSTIVS PEZOLDVS, Physician of Gotha. MANLIVS CONSTANTINOPOLITANVS. D. MICHAEL BARTH, Physician of Leipzig. D. PAVLVS CLOSIVS, Physician of Breslau and Glatz. D. PETRVs MONAVIVS, Physician of Breslau and of the Imperial Court. D. THEODORVS ZWINCERVS, Physician of Basel. D. THOMAS ERASTVS, Physician of Heidelberg. D. THOMAS MOVFETVS, an Englishman. VALERIVS CORDVS. INDEX

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INDEX EPISTOLARVM MEDICINALVM IN HOC VOLVMINE CONTENTARVM. Quarum e[ss]e quæ asterisco sunt nocatæ, nunquam antea edica sunt: Reliquæ vero prius quidem typis expressæ: virum editio præsens priore multo correctior, ac nonnullorum locorum restitutione præstantior est; ABRAHAMVS SEYLLER D. Joachimo Baudisio. col. 1. Idem D. Paulo Closio. col. 2. & 3. *10. Id[em] Dn. Melchiori Latomo. * 4. Idem D. Nicola Taurello * 5. Idem D. Danieli Schepsio. * ib. Idem D. Georgio Beher. * 7. *11. Idem D. Georgio Florschutz. * 11. Idem D. Venceslao Raphano. * 14. Idem D. Paulo Borek. * 15. Idem D. Jacobo Horstio. * 16. Idem D. Bartholomæo Chryszo. * 85 ADOLPHVS OCCO. N. N. 18 ANDREAS DUDITHIVS D. Venceslao Raphano 20. vsque ad 45. Idem D. Laurentio Scholzio 46. Idem D. Monauio 48. cum reliquis seqq. vsque ad 66. ARRAGOSIVS GALLVS, D. Johanni Crat. 67. BALTHASAR SCHEIDER D. Johanni Aurifabro 83 BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRTSÆVS, D. Abrahamo Seyllero * 84 CAROLVS OSLEVVS D. Laurentio Scholzio 86. vsque 95 CASPARVS HOFFMANNVS, D. Johanni Hermanno 96. Idem D. Johanni Weidnero 97. Idem Dn. Abrahamo Bucholzero. ib. cum 3. seqq. Idem D. Laurentio Scholzio. 101. cum 3. seq. CASPARVS LINDNERVS, D. Joachimo Baudisio, 105. cum 3. seqq. CHRISTOPHORVS SCHILLINGVS, D. Andreæ Dudithio. * 109. * ib. * 110. * 111 CHRISTOPHORVS PITOPOEIVS D. Michaeli Barth, 112. vsque ad 119 GEORGIVS VBERVVS D. Andreæ Aurifabro 120 HIERONYMVS CAPIVACCIVS D. Thomæ Erasto, 121. Idem. Petro Monauio, 126. & 129. HIERONYMVS MERCURIALIS, D. Johan. Cratoni 131. Idem D. Remberto Dodonxo 132. Idem D. Petro Monauio 134. vsque ad 141. Idem D. Venceslao Raphano. 142. & 145 HIERONYMVS HEROLD. Dn. Joachimo Camerario * 146. * 148. * 149 HIERONYMVS SCALLER, D. Melchiori Fendio 151 HIERONYMVS DONZELLINVS D. Johanni Cratodl 155 JOHANNIS CRATO N. N. 156. cum seqq. Id[em] Johanni Henrico Hervart. 163. Idem Dn. Quirino Schalner 171. Idem D. Andreæ Dudithio. * 181. * 182. Idem Hieronymo Mercuriali 183. & 188. Idem D. Joachimo Camerario 191. vsq; ad 226. * 227. * 229. * 231. * ibid. Idem Dn. Theodoro Zwingero. * 232. * 233. * 236. * 237. 240. Idem D. Thomæ Jordano, 242. vsque ad 267. Idem D. Petro Monauio. 268. vsque ad 292. * 293. * ib. * 295. * ibid. Idem D. M. Martino Weinrichio. 297. cu[m] 2 seqq. Idem D. Laurentiæ Scholz o 300. idem D. Nicolao Haunoldt, * 301. * 303 IOHANNES SCHROETERVS, D. Iustino Pezoldo 303 IVLIVE CAESAR ARANTHIVS, D. Laurentio Scholzio 304 IVSTIVS PEZOLDS, D. Laurentio Scholzio ibid. MANLIVS CONSTANTINOPOLITANVS D. Ion Cratoni 307 MICHAEL BART, Christophoro Pithopocio. 114. 117 PAVLVS CLOSIVS D. Laurentio Scholz o 310 PETRVS MONAVIVS, D. Andreæ Dudithio 311. vsque ad 330. Idem D. Johanni Cratoni, 331. vsque ad 349. Idem D. Hieronymo Capiuaccio 350. & 356. Idem D. Hieronymo Mercuriali 358. vsque ad 373. Idem D. Thomæ Erasto. 373. vsque ad 390. Idem D. Theodoro Zwingero 397. Idem D. Ioachimo Camerario 393. Id[em] D. Johanni Hermanno, 394. vsque ad 408. Idem D. Johanni Acholzio 409. Idem Dn. Johanni Weidnero 410. vsque ad 441. Idem D. Laurentio Scholzio 442. vsque 466 THEODORVS ZVVINGERVS D. Paulo Hesso, 467. Idem D. Petro Monauio. 468. vsq; 475. Idem D. Johanni Weidnero 476. vsq; 480 THOMAS ERASTVS, Dn. Andreæ Dudithio 481. Idem D. Hieronymo Capiuaccio 482. vsque 507. Idem D. Petro Monauio 508. vsque 518 THOMAS MOYETVS, D. Petro Monauio, 529. vsque 533 VALERIVS CORDVS D. Andreæ Aurifabro, 334

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INDEX OF THE MEDICINAL LETTERS CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME. Those marked with an asterisk have never before been published; the rest, however, had already been printed: but the present edition is much more correct than the former, and more distinguished by the restoration of a number of passages; ABRAHAMVS SEYLLER to D. Joachimo Baudisio. col. 1. Likewise to D. Paulo Closio. col. 2. & 3. *10. To D. Melchior Latomus. * 4. Likewise to D. Nicola Taurello * 5. Likewise to D. Daniel Schepsius. * ib. Likewise to D. Georg Beher. * 7. *11. Likewise to D. Georg Florschutz. * 11. Likewise to D. Venceslaus Raphanus. * 14. Likewise to D. Paulus Borek. * 15. Likewise to D. Jacob Horstius. * 16. Likewise to D. Bartholomæus Chryszo. * 85 ADOLPHVS OCCO. N. N. 18 ANDREAS DUDITHIVS to D. Venceslaus Raphanus 20. up to 45. Likewise to D. Laurentius Scholzius 46. Likewise to D. Monauius 48. with the rest following up to 66. ARRAGOSIVS GALLVS, to D. Johann Crat. 67. BALTHASAR SCHEIDER to D. Johann Aurifaber 83 BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRTSÆVS, to D. Abraham Seyller * 84 CAROLVS OSLEVVS to D. Laurentius Scholzius 86. up to 95 CASPARVS HOFFMANNVS, to D. Johann Hermann 96. Likewise to D. Johann Weidner 97. Likewise to D. Abraham Bucholzer. ib. with 3. following. Likewise to D. Laurentius Scholzius. 101. with 3. following. CASPARVS LINDNERVS, to D. Joachimo Baudisio, 105. with 3. following. CHRISTOPHORVS SCHILLINGVS, to D. Andrea Dudithius. * 109. * ib. * 110. * 111 CHRISTOPHORVS PITOPOEIVS to D. Michael Bart, 112. up to 119 GEORGIVS VBERVVS to D. Andre Aurifaber 120 HIERONYMVS CAPIVACCIVS to D. Thomas Erastus, 121. Likewise to Petrus Monauius, 126. & 129. HIERONYMVS MERCURIALIS, to D. Johann Craton 131. Likewise to D. Rembert Dodonx 132. Likewise to D. Petrus Monauius 134. up to 141. Likewise to D. Venceslaus Raphanus. 142. & 145 HIERONYMVS HEROLD. To Dn. Joachimo Camerario * 146. * 148. * 149 HIERONYMVS SCALLER, to D. Melchior Fendius 151 HIERONYMVS DONZELLINVS to D. Johann Cratodl 155 JOHANNIS CRATO N. N. 156. with following. Likewise to Johann Heinrich Hervart. 163. Likewise to Dn. Quirin Schalner 171. Likewise to D. Andrea Dudithius. * 181. * 182. Likewise to Hieronymus Mercurialis 183. & 188. Likewise to D. Joachimus Camerarius 191. up to 226. * 227. * 229. * 231. * ibid. Likewise to Dn. Theodorus Zwinger. * 232. * 233. * 236. * 237. 240. Likewise to D. Thomas Jordanus, 242. up to 267. Likewise to D. Petrus Monauius. 268. up to 292. * 293. * ib. * 295. * ibid. Likewise to D. M. Martin Weinrichius. 297. with 2 following. Likewise to D. Laurentius Scholz o 300. likewise to D. Nicolas Haunoldt, * 301. * 303 IOHANNES SCHROETERVS, to D. Iustinus Pezold 303 IVLIVE CAESAR ARANTHIVS, to D. Laurentius Scholzius 304 IVSTIVS PEZOLDS, to D. Laurentius Scholzius ibid. MANLIVS CONSTANTINOPOLITANVS to D. Ion Craton 307 MICHAEL BART, to Christophorus Pithopocius. 114. 117 PAVLVS CLOSIVS to D. Laurentius Scholz o 310 PETRVS MONAVIVS, to D. Andrea Dudithius 311. up to 330. Likewise to D. Johann Craton, 331. up to 349. Likewise to D. Hieronymus Capiuaccius 350. & 356. Likewise to D. Hieronymus Mercurialis 358. up to 373. Likewise to D. Thomas Erastus. 373. up to 390. Likewise to D. Theodorus Zwinger 397. Likewise to D. Ioachimus Camerarius 393. Likewise to D. Johann Hermann, 394. up to 408. Likewise to D. Johann Acholzius 409. Likewise to Dn. Johann Weidner 410. up to 441. Likewise to D. Laurentius Scholzius 442. up to 466 THEODORVS ZVVINGERVS to D. Paulus Hesso, 467. Likewise to D. Petrus Monauius. 468. up to 475. Likewise to D. Johann Weidner 476. up to 480 THOMAS ERASTVS, to Dn. Andrea Dudithius 481. Likewise to D. Hieronymus Capiuaccius 482. up to 507. Likewise to D. Petrus Monauius 508. up to 518 THOMAS MOYETVS, to D. Petrus Monauius, 529. up to 533 VALERIVS CORDVS to D. Andre Aurifaber, 334

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SVMMA PRIVILEGII CÆSAREL CAVTVM est S. Cas. Maiest. Decreto, ne quis Typographus, vel quocunq[ue] modo negotiatione[m] librariam exercens, hoc EPISTOLARUM MEDICINALIUM opus, quod nunc primum LAVRENTIOSCHOLZIO, Philosophia & Medicina Doctore, foras datur, per x. annorum spacium, à prima editionis die computandum, intra fines sacri Romani Imperii, Regnorumq[ue] & Dominiorum Cas. Maiest. hereditariorum, simul vel separatim, eodem aut diuerso charactere, formaue, recudere, aut alio recudendum dare, vel alibi expressum importare, vendere quouis modo distrahere, aperte, vel occulte, absq[ue] prædicti LAVRENII SCHOLZII, eiusq[ue] haredum, volutate ac consensu præsumas. Qui secus fecerit, is non solum libris impressis: sed etiam decem, auri puri Marchis, sine vlla veniamulct abitur, vt latius declaratum est in ipso Diplomate Casareo. Datum in ciuitate nostra Imperiali Ratisbona die 20. Mensis Iulii. Anno Christi 1594. RVDOLPHVS Io. W. FREYMONIUS. Ad mandatum S. Cas. Maj. proprium Io. BARVITIVS.

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By Imperial privilege it is provided by the decree of His Sacred Caesarean Majesty that no printer, or anyone carrying on the book trade in any manner whatsoever, shall presume to reprint this work of EPISTOLARUM MEDICINALIUM, which is now for the first time issued by LAVRENTIUS SCHOLZIUS, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, within the space of ten years, to be reckoned from the first day of publication, within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and the hereditary kingdoms and dominions of His Caesarean Majesty, either together or separately, in the same or a different type or format, or to cause it to be reprinted elsewhere, or to import copies printed elsewhere, or to sell or in any way distribute it, openly or secretly, without the consent and permission of the aforesaid LAVRENTIUS SCHOLZIUS and his heirs. Whoever does otherwise shall be liable not only to the printed books being confiscated, but also to a fine of ten marks of pure gold, without any remission, as has been more fully declared in the Imperial diploma itself. Given in our Imperial city of Regensburg on the 20th day of the month of July, in the year of Christ 1594. RVDOLPHVS Io. W. FREYMONIUS. By command of His Sacred Caesarean Majesty, in person, Io. BARVITIVS.

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I EPISTOLAE MEDICINALES. EPIST. I. ABRAHAM SEILER MEDICVS principis Bregensis, &c. Ioachimo Baudisio Med. S. D. < Epilepsia reducta.> ABENT nonnunquam, clarissime vir, morbi eorumque symptomata, vt quotidiana testatur experientia, aliquid præter ideam propriam peculiare, quo ipso- rum inuasiones exacerbantur. Hoc & regulares curationes causas respicientes denotant. Et sane verendum id in coniuge generosi N. N. vsu venire, quæ singulari opera doctissimorum! Medico- rum restitui non potuit, symptomata io pe- lius, vt literis significas, ruunt. Ne autem sus Mineruam videatur, hoc tibi præscribere, cum ipsemet, quod equidem lubens certis de causis fecissem, ad vos ob molem nego- ciorum meorum recurrere non possim, li- buit. Epilepsiæ siue per conseosum, vel es- seoriam fuerint, & causis antecedentib[us] sub- latis si recurrunt subesse, quæ causa vel in ventriculo, vel intestino colo, vel matrice, vel externo membro hæret. Vt autem auferri possit ad medicamenta factis vniuersalibus appropriata, vt vocant, recur- rendum est, si talia excogitari possint. Et fa- cile mihi persuadeo præter cerebrum affe- ctum, colon intestinum, ventriculum, & matricem co[n]sentire. Expertus sum sæpe nu- mero in epilepsia confirmata, si in quadra- tura, & io ipso paroxysmo præsentis medi- dicamenti instar fabæ exhibitu fuerit, quod multi etiam adultæ ætatis liberati sint: quo & generosa domina sine molestia vti poterit si tibi videbitur. Est mirificæ efficaciæ in concursu multarum causarum. Prospicien- dum etiam ventriculo & matrici vnguentis minus odoratis & emplastris, ne euaporan- do sua excrementa cerebro communicent. Per interiora multis medicamentis, cum respuat, molestare non video ex vsu esse. Hæc breuibus currente calamo ad te exara- re volui, vt petitioni toæ satisfacetem. Ha- bes enim me ad quæuis officia tibi deuin- ctum. Dabantur Vratislauiæ 13. Octub. an- no 1570. EPIST. II. ABRAHAM SEILER MEDICVS, &c. Ioachimo Baudisio Med. S. D. A AFFECTIONES, quibus nobilis vir mo- lestatur, ex lôgo eparis vitio resultant. Coactuat indies multas eruditates ex o- cio & ingluuie. Ita enim comparatum est, quando xgri ad satietatem vsq[ue] corpus non replet, se frui inualctudine mediocri. Cum ignorent frugalitatem magnum esse vedi- gal sanitatis. Morbos ex repletione contra- ctos curandos esse euacuatione nos non so- lum senex noster, sed quotidiana docet ex- perientia. Cum ergo corpus scateat malis honorib[us] omnino commodis medicamen- tis euacuandum. Nota est mihi xgri natura, & corporis dispositio, imaginatur se pristi- nam posse acquirere valetudinem. Vrinam ars nostra & natura hæc præstatent, vt sene- ctus in adolescentiam commutaretur. Sed hæc non sunt artis nostræ, verum vt affe- ctiones, quas natura auxiliatrice pharmacia refarcite potest, Medicus solummodo su- bit. Ad impossibilia nemo obligatur. Ad cor- pus euacuandum vniuersaliter nihil com- modius farza vt E. T. est sententia. Vsum li- gni vereor in cotpotib[us] epate calidiori præ- ditis. Benc & feliciter vale. Dabantur rapi- tim Vratislauiæ 22. Septemb. anno 1578. EPIST. III. ABRAHAM SEILER MEDICVS, &c. Paulo Clisio, Physico Clac. S. D. < Experimen- tum quod in quadraturo exhibendit.> CONQVERITVR de febrili accessione detertio io tertium, cum ingenti ca- pitis dolore, vigilis, vomitu nonnunquam, cibi inappetentia, atque virium detectio. Certum est io ventriculo, atque pri- mis venis: cum vrina sit rubicundior, atque arenulæ semper excernantur, aliquam hæ- rere materiam, cum etiam aliquando vo- mitus accedat, quæ fumes est febriculæ diuturnioris. Suaderem ergo vt dic quic- tis de oodulo ex rhabarbaro infuso in vino haustu faceret, posset aliquid cinnamomi admisceri. Die vero inuasiois haustu ex < Remedii > haustus ch[rist]i radice Chinæ propinarem (vel darem pul- < Pulvis 24a doaria.> ueris ex zedoaria, nuce condita, & caphu- ra cuncteti 31.) caperem 3. lb. & cum lb. nih. aq. decoquetem ad medietatis calum, in sive aliquid ligni aloes iniicerem, vtpote 3 lb. deinde colaturam dulcorarem cum 3i. sacch. candi, de hac potione darem 3 v. cum aliquot guttis aq. cinnamomi. < Nodulum eam po applicatum ductu> Carpo quo. que ante paroxymum adhiberem nodu- lum extruta, abrotano, salua &c A

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I MEDICAL LETTERS. LETTER I. ABRAHAM SEILER, PHYSICIAN to the prince of Bregenz, etc., to Joachim Baudisius Med. S. D. < Reduced epilepsy.> There are sometimes, most illustrious sir, diseases and their symptoms which, as daily experience testifies, have something peculiar beyond their proper idea, by which their attacks are aggravated. This is also indicated by regular treatments directed to the causes. And truly it is to be feared that this may be happening in the wife of the noble N. N., who could not be restored by the special efforts of the most learned physicians, and the symptoms are now, as you signify by letter, worsening. But lest it seem that I am prescribing this over-ingeniously, since I myself, which indeed I would gladly have done for certain reasons, cannot turn to you because of the burden of my affairs, it has pleased me to write. If epilepsies, whether by consent or essential, recur after the antecedent causes have been removed, there must be some cause lying hidden, either in the stomach, or in the colon, or in the womb, or in some external member. But in order that it may be removed, one must have recourse to medicines appropriately compounded for universal use, as they are called, if such can be devised. And I readily persuade myself that, besides the affected brain, the colon, the stomach, and the womb are involved in sympathy. I have often experienced in confirmed epilepsy that, if in the quadrature, and in the paroxysm itself, the present medicine in the form of a bean were administered, many even of adult age were freed from it: and your noble lady will also be able to use this without trouble, if it seem good to you. It is of marvelous efficacy in a concurrence of many causes. Care must also be taken for the stomach and womb with less odorous ointments and plasters, lest by evaporating their excretions they communicate them to the brain. I do not see that troubling the interior with many medicines, when it rejects them, is useful practice. These few things I wished to write to you, in haste and at speed, so as to satisfy your request. For you have me bound to you for any service whatsoever. Given at Breslau, 13 October, in the year 1570. LETTER II. ABRAHAM SEILER, PHYSICIAN, etc., to Joachim Baudisius, Med. S. D. A The afflictions by which the noble man is troubled result from a long-standing fault of the liver. Many learned men waste away daily through idleness and gluttony. For thus it is arranged: when the sick man does not fill his body to satiety, he enjoys a moderate state of health. For they do not know that frugality is a great safeguard of health. That diseases contracted from repletion must be cured by evacuation is taught not only by our old master, but by daily experience. Since therefore the body is seething with evils, it must by all means be emptied with suitable medicines. The nature of the patient and the condition of his body are known to me; he imagines that he can recover his former health. Would that our art and nature might accomplish this, so that old age were changed back into youth. But these are not within the scope of our art; rather, the physician only intervenes for those afflictions which nature, with the help of medicine, can repair. No one is obliged to do the impossible. For emptying the body universally, nothing is more suitable than farza, as E. T. opines. I fear the use of wood in bodies endowed with a hotter liver. Farewell, well and happily. Given in haste at Breslau, 22 September, in the year 1578. LETTER III. ABRAHAM SEILER, PHYSICIAN, etc., to Paulus Clisius, Physicist of Cla. S. D. < An experiment to be given in the quadrature.> A complaint is made of a febrile attack on the third day, with great headache, wakefulness, sometimes vomiting, lack of appetite for food, and loss of strength. It is certain that in the stomach and the first veins: since the urine is more reddish, and little grains of sand are always passed, some matter is lodged there; and since vomiting also sometimes occurs, that is the cause of a long-lasting feverish ailment. I would therefore advise that on the quiet day he should take a draught of rhubarb infused in wine; some cinnamon could be mixed in. But on the day of the attack I would give, by draught, from < Remedy > a drink of Christ’s root with Chinese root (or I would give powder from < Powder 24a > of zedoary, candied nut, and camphor together 31.) I would take 3 lb. and with 1 lb. of water boil it down to half, and in it I would throw in a little aloe wood, namely 3 lb.; then I would sweeten the strained liquid with 3i. of sugar candy; of this drink I would give 3 v. with a few drops of cinnamon water. < A little knot to be applied therewith> Also before the paroxysm I would apply the knot, made of wormwood, southernwood, sage, etc. A

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3 EPISTOLA < In dolores laboris. Epithema.> ris confectos. Sunt autem madefaiendi in aceto vini. Quod si post vsum febris non remitteret, darem catapodia coöciatoris, quæ aggregatiuæ nuncupantur cum extract. ellebori nigri 4. vel 5. granis. Dolor capitis vt sopiatur posset epithema ex aquis plantag. rosar. melil. hederæ arboreæ & verbenæ applicari, cui aliquid aceti adliciatur, vt vis me lius pertranseat. Ventriculum quoque, vel < Experimen. cum.> vnguento aliquo, vel cerato robortarem. Expertus sum etiam si ante accessionem febri lem telæ ataneæ cum vnguento populeonis incorporatæ carpo & temporibus, vbi pulsus compebenditur, appositæ fuerint, multum eontulisse. Bene vale, & me ama. EPIST. IV. ABRAHAM SEILER MEDICVS, &c. Paulo Clasio Med. S.D. < Tertianum ita.> INTELLEXI ex literis tuis coniugem istam nobilem febri tertiaea notha laborare, & dolores intensissimos circa vmbili cum, & in exterioribus ipso paroxysmo multum molestiæ adferre, atq[ue] vires deterere. Adhibita sunt commodissima secundum rationem medicamenta, verum eum malum non recedat post euacuationem electiuam, omnino mediam partem philonii pixidi inclusi ante paroxysmum cum hostia < Philonii ante Paroxysmum vsum.> præberem. Hoc sane non solum ad febrem deturbandam, sed etiam dolores demulcendos commodum erit. Post media quantitas vno bolo, vel ad summum deglutiri. Neque negligerem fomentationes ex anodynis concinnatas, forma commoda esset, si saceulus co[n]ficitetur, & loco dolenti applicaretur. Dorsum inungerem infrigidante, cum non sentiat horrores insignes ante paroxysmum, ne materia fuliginosa nimium ad articulos decumbat. Magis per vtrinam fluet, si iusculis aliquid radicum feniciuli incoctum fuerit. Post philonii vsum omni mane darem succi plætag. depurati cu[m] vino non potenti, sed oligophoro [uncia] j. Ita enim no[n] solum appertionis habebitur ratio: sed etiam membris naturalibus robur adde[n]tur. Quantum ventriculus & epar solis aperientibus labefactetur, si ipsorum vsus nimium continuatur, experientia abunde testatur. His si febris & dolor non remitteret, repeterem alteram partem philonii ante paroxysmum. Carpo etiam post euacuationem adhiberem nodulos ex abrorano, & aceto irroratos ante paroxysmum. < Nemia aparvensia noxia.> Enemata plurimum conferrent si possit persuaderi. Vale. EPIST. V. IDEM MELCHIORI LATOMO, Resp. Vratisl. Secretario. S. < In catarrh mane decoctio lemonis noctu garg. rosina repellens vtrandi.> Qvod hactenus ab eo tempore, quo in [con]dibus Dueis suimus, colloquiterum non licuit, fato id imputandum esse auguror. Siquidem Ducem nostrum, longo temporis spacio Vratislauix degentem sequi, cum tamen alias hoc onus in vilissimis ineribus mihi imponatur, nulla datur occasio, vt tua & aliorum amicorum iucundissima coosuetudine frui potuissem. Spero DEVM OPT. MAX. his daturum finem. Quo in statu res meæ sint breui subissime tibi comunieabo. Quod ad catarrhum, quo indies excruiciaris, attinet, suaderem vt tuis decoctionibus, quæ materiam ex capite ad < 20> < 30> < 40> < Palmas florantacorum.> ces, & pectus delapsam abstergunt, leniunt, atque expulsioni aptam reddunt, matutino tempore alternatim vteris, nocturno vero ab his desisteres, ne occasio defluxionib[us] ptæbeatur, licet ad expulsionem sint medicamenta familiaria & accommodata; tamen eum materiæ influxum, qui potissimu[m] noctu contingit, non inhibent, vt et gararismis repellentibus destillationem, atq[ue] ita sine dubio ob varietatem medicamentorum, & materia absumeretur & reperueretur, ne tam magno cum impetu ad thoracem deslueret. Addam & hoc, quod ad reulusionem materiæ spectat, vt per vias conuenientes, & propinquiores materia excernatur, quod commode per nares fit. Itaque mane postqua[m] hauseris decoctioes alternatim, accipe pulverem sternutatoriu[m], & cum aqua maioranæ natibus immittito. < Senties mulum auxilii tibi allaturum. Nam non solum materiam, superfluam & nocua[m] expellit, verum etiam robur addit cerebro. Vale. Olauix, Anno 64. Rosar. rub. m. β. Herbar. plantag. Prunellæ, an. m. ij. Betonie. Capillor. Vener. an. p. j. Malicorii. [uncia] j. β. Balaustior [uncia] ij. Decoq. in s. q. aq. leg. artis ad < 50> < 60> < 70> < Zinz.> tertiæ partis consumptionem. Decocti. lib. ij. β. Syrupi myrtini. [uncia] ij. Diacodii. [uncia] j. β. Misce, fiat gararismus. Puluer. nigel. [uncia] ij. Pyrethri. Piperis long. an. [uncia] ij.

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3 EPISTLE <For pains of labor. Epithema.> …those afflicted. But they are to be moistened in wine vinegar. If, after use, the fever did not abate, I would give the foot-pads of the coagulator, which are called aggregatives, with 4 or 5 grains of extract of black hellebore. That a headache may be soothed, an epithema may be applied from waters of plantain, roses, melilot, tree ivy, and vervain, to which a little vinegar should be added, so that its force may pass through more effectively. I would also strengthen the stomach, or <Experiment.> with some ointment or cerate. I have also found by experience that if, before the febrile attack, spider webs incorporated with populeon ointment were applied to the wrist and temples, where the pulse is felt, they were of much help. Farewell, and love me. EPIST. IV. ABRAHAM SEILER, PHYSICIAN, etc., to Paul Clasius, Doctor of Medicine. Greetings. <Thus for tertian fever.> I have understood from your letters that that noble wife is suffering from a spurious tertian fever, and that most severe pains around the navel, and in the outer parts, during the paroxysm itself, cause much trouble and wear down her strength. The most suitable remedies have been applied according to reason; but since the evil does not recede after the evacuative treatment, I would by all means give half of the Philonium enclosed in a little box before the paroxysm, with a wafer. <Use of Philonium before the paroxysm.> This will surely be useful not only for driving away the fever, but also for soothing the pains. After the half-dose, let it be swallowed in one bolus, or at most. Nor would I neglect fomentations prepared from anodynes; it would be convenient in form if a little bag were made and applied to the painful place. I would anoint the back with a refrigerant, since he does not experience notable chills before the paroxysm, lest the smoky matter settle too much upon the joints. It will flow more by urine if something of fennel roots has been boiled in the broths. After using the Philonium, every morning I would give one ounce of clarified plantain juice with wine, not strong, but weak. For in this way not only will there be benefit for opening the passages, but strength will also be added to the natural parts. How much the stomach and liver are weakened by purgatives alone, if their use is continued too long, experience abundantly testifies. If by these means the fever and pain did not abate, I would repeat the other half of the Philonium before the paroxysm. I would also apply to the wrist, after evacuation, little knots of marjoram sprinkled with vinegar before the paroxysm. < Enemas are harmful if used too often.> Enemas would contribute greatly, if this can be persuaded. Farewell. EPIST. V. THE SAME TO MELCHIOR LATOMUS, Secretary of the Republic of Wrocław. Greetings. <In catarrh, in the morning a decoction of lemon; at night, gargling with rose-water is repellent for expelling.> That so far, since the time when we were in the Duke’s lodgings, it has not been possible to converse further, I judge should be attributed to fate. For, while I have to follow our Duke, who has long been staying in Wrocław, when otherwise this burden is imposed on me among the humblest servants, no opportunity is given for me to enjoy your and the other friends’ most pleasant company. I hope that GOD, BEST AND GREATEST, will bring this to an end. In what condition my affairs are, I shall soon report to you very briefly. As for the catarrh, by which you are tormented day by day, I would advise that you use alternately, in the morning, your decoctions which wash away, soothe, and make fit for expulsion the matter that has descended from the head to the chest; but at night you should cease from these, lest an occasion for post-nasal fluxions be given, although they are familiar and suitable medicines for expulsion; nevertheless they do not prevent the inflow of matter, which chiefly happens at night, as do repellent gargles the dropping, and thus beyond doubt, by the variety of medicines, both the matter would be exhausted and repelled, so that it would not pour down so violently to the chest. I will add this also, as regards the expulsion of the matter, that it should be discharged through proper and nearer passages, which is conveniently done through the nose. Therefore in the morning, after you have taken the decoctions alternately, take a sternutatory powder, and with water of marjoram put it into the nostrils. <You will feel it will bring you much relief. For it not only expels superfluous and harmful matter, but also adds strength to the brain.> Farewell. Olaus, in the year 64. Red roses, 1/2 ounce. Plantain herb. Prunella, 2 drachms. Betony. Maidenhair, 1 drachm. Pomegranate rind, 1/2 ounce. Balaustia, 2 ounces. Boil in a sufficient quantity of water according to the rules of art to the consumption of one third. Take of the decoction 2 1/2 pounds. Myrtle syrup, 2 ounces. Diacodium, 1 1/2 ounces. Mix; let a gargle be made. Black nigella powder, 2 ounces. White hellebore. Long pepper, 2 ounces.

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5 MEDICINALIA. 6 Zinz. alb. ℈i. Misce fiat puluis stenutatorius. E P I S T. VI. IDEM D. NICOLAO TAVRELLO Medico, &c. < Fibris mali. jus. > FEBRIS, quæ passim grassatur, non est purgantibus medicamentis irritanda: Habet enim p[ræ]ter variam humorum commixtionem aliquid peculiare, scilicet, qualitatem venenosam. Quæ dum humores commo[n]mentur purgantibus, radicitus cordi imprimitur. Ideo qui hoc morbo Epidemico apprehenduntur, primo quoq[ue] tempore aluo emollita, illis vena secanda, demum puluis descriptus pondere 3 j. cum aquis cordialibus præbeatur, qui si periculum imminet, quod ex subita viuum deiectione deprehenditur, singulis sex horis exhibendus. Ita enim venenosa qualitas extinguetur, & cor ab eius impetu immune reddetur. Continuandum tribus quatuorue diebus, quod successus declarabit. Aluus autem syrupo pondere 3 ij. cum admixtione aquæ alicuius cordialis inanietur. Et vrgente necessitate ad emolliendum sine noxa quocumq[ue] tempore exhiberi potest. Conueniens tempus est hora vna atq[ue] altera ante pastum mane & vesperi, Vale. Vratisl. Anno 71. E P I S T. VII. IDEM D. DANIELI SCHEPSIO Physico Schuindnecem- fi. S. < Venenum in corporo gentium. > EX litteris tuis, charissime Domine Doctor, intellexi coniugem tuam charissimam seuissimis molestari symptomatibus, quæ sane venenum subesse arguunt, præsertim eum eiusmodi periodice, & per interrualla, recurrant. Num vero venenum propinatum sit valde ambigo. Ego crederem in ipso ventriculo, longitudine morbi labefactato, tale quippiam genitum. Sienim ex optimis alimentis, lacte, vitellis ouorum, femine, sanguine, vitiatis, deleteria vis resultat, cur non magis ex corruptis excrementis. < In ventriculo & vtere genus posse venenum ut culum. > Siquidem alimenticrementum aptior est materia veneno, quam vtile & elaboratum alimentum. Duo membra Galenus constituit, in quibus venenum: gignitur, ventriculum & vterum. Hunc quod excrementorum vniuersi corporis receptaculum atque sentina sit; illum vero quod vario ciborum vsu molestetur, ita vt nonnunquam cibum debite superare non pos- sit. Malum principaliter in ventriculo hærere, & non in matrice, argumento est, quod statuto tempore menses profluunt, neque tempore menstruorum hoc malum exactabatur. Ostendunt biliosæ vomitiones. Quod autem venenum possit in ventriculo gigni, quod vim externi æquet, & in corpore latere & per interualla affligere, ostendit Gale. 3. & 9. de loc. ast. cap. 7. & 6. eap 5. Et Hippocrates in plenritico 3. Epidem. Causa autem non est innatus calor; sed extraneus occupans materiam, quæ sub innato, tanqua[m] rebellis relinquitur. Et sic ex transmutatione per putredinem, vel corruptionem gignitur. Non deprehenditur gradus quanitatis, vel qualitatis materiæ, ex qua venenum per transmutationem genitum est, nec modus transmutationis. Ideo in curatione cogimut ad generalia confugere. Ventriculus tam per superiora à corruptis humoribus liberatur, quam per deiectiones. Leue vomitorium, quod carer occulta vi, nihil proficit, siquidem nec spontaneæ vomitiones mali allevationem adferunt. Ego sane non vererer vsum stimmi dextre præparati, quod & infantibus recens natis tuto & felici cum successu præbeo. Nec puto nos à lenis sententia recedere, ad validiora confugientes auxilià. Valentiorib[us] enim morbis potentissima remedia optima sunt. Talia sunt, quæ ex mineralib[us] compatantur, quæ falso Theophrasto illi Patacelso adscribuntur. Notum enim est veterib[us] chemiam fuisse familiarem. Ignis etenim beneicio medicamenta meliora redduntur, dum subtilior rerum portio à crassiore seiungitur quæ sine omni naturæ incommodo efficacissime vires tuas exerunt. Vt enim cibi succus purus vtilior, & coctu facilior, quâ crassus; ita etiam tenuior & subtilior pars ex herbis & metallis elicita plus efficaciæ, quam pulueres ipsoru[m] in substantia obtinent. Non recedimus hic à methodo rationali, multo minus à sententia Hippocratis; Immutamus duntaxat medicamenta, substituendo ea quæ minimo temporis spacio plus auxiliu[m] sine virium deiectione in partia quantitate allatura sunt, ac si alia in magna copia exhiberentur, & sine optimo fruitraremur. Post vsum stimmi propinarem ad aliquot dies puluerem subscriptum. < Puluis alxæ pharmacææ. > 2. Puluer. Smaragdi. Hiacynthi. Margarit. Corallor. Boliarmeni oriental. Præpar. Scobis Eboris. an. q. s. Quod si malum recurreret, darem & al.

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5 MEDICINALIA. 6 Zinz. alb. ℈i. Let a snuffing powder be made. E P I S T. VI. THE SAME TO D. NICOLAUS TAVRELLUS Physician, etc. < Of malignant fever. > A fever that is spreading everywhere should not be irritated with purgative medicines: for it has, besides the various mixture of humors, something peculiar, namely a poisonous quality. While the humors are stirred by purgatives, this is deeply imprinted on the heart. Therefore those who are seized by this epidemic disease, at the first possible time, after the bowels have been softened, should be let blood; then let the powder described, in the weight of 3 j., be given with cordial waters; and if danger threatens, which is recognized from sudden weakening, it should be administered every six hours. For in this way the poisonous quality will be extinguished, and the heart will be made safe from its attack. It is to be continued for three or four days, as the outcome will show. The bowels, however, are to be emptied with syrup, in the weight of 3 ij., with the addition of some cordial water. And when necessity presses, it may be given at any time to soften the bowels without harm. A suitable time is one or two hours before meals in the morning and evening. Farewell. Vratisl., in the year 71. E P I S T. VII. THE SAME TO D. DANIEL SCHEPSIUS Physician of Schuindneck, fi. S. < Poison in the body of peoples. > From your letters, dearest Doctor, I have understood that your most dear wife is troubled by very severe symptoms, which certainly indicate that poison is present, especially since they recur periodically and at intervals. But whether poison has been administered I greatly doubt. I would believe that something of this sort has been generated in the stomach itself, weakened by the length of the illness. For if from the best foods, milk, yolks of eggs, seed, blood, when corrupted, a deleterious force results, why not more so from corrupted excrements? < In the stomach and womb the kind of poison can arise. > Indeed crude food matter is a more suitable material for poison than useful and elaborated food. Galen established two members in which poison is generated: the stomach and the womb. The latter, because it is the receptacle and sewer of the excrements of the whole body; the former, because it is troubled by the varied use of food, so that at times it cannot properly digest food. That the evil chiefly dwells in the stomach and not in the womb is shown by the fact that the menses flow at the appointed time, and this evil was not expelled at the time of menstruation. Bilious vomitings show it. And that poison can be generated in the stomach, that it can equal the force of an external poison, and lie hidden in the body and afflict it at intervals, is shown by Galen, 3 and 9 de loc. aff. chap. 7 and 6, chap. 5. And Hippocrates in pleuritic 3 Epidem. But the cause is not innate heat; rather an external one occupies the matter, which under the innate heat is left, as it were, rebellious. And thus it is generated from transformation through putrefaction, or corruption. The degree of quantity or quality of the matter from which poison is generated by transformation, and the manner of the transformation, are not discerned. Therefore in treatment we are compelled to have recourse to general remedies. The stomach is freed from corrupted humors both by vomiting upward and by purgations. A mild emetic, which lacks hidden force, does nothing; indeed even spontaneous vomitings bring no relief from the evil. I would certainly not fear the use of antimony duly prepared, which I safely and successfully give even to newborn infants. Nor do I think we depart from a mild approach when we have recourse to stronger aids. For in stronger diseases the most powerful remedies are best. Such are those composed from minerals, which are falsely ascribed to that Theophrastus Paracelsus. For it is well known that the ancients were familiar with chemistry. Indeed, by the benefit of fire medicines are made better, when the subtler part of things is separated from the grosser, which exerts your powers most effectively without any injury to nature. For as the pure juice of food is more useful and easier to digest than the thick, so also the thinner and subtler part drawn from herbs and metals has more efficacy than their powders in substance. Here we do not depart from the rational method, much less from the opinion of Hippocrates; we only change the medicines, substituting those which in the least span of time will bring more help without weakening the strength, in a smaller quantity, than if others were administered in great abundance, and we would not fail to obtain the best. After the use of antimony I would give for some days the following powder. < Powder of the chemical pharmacy. > 2. Powder of emerald. Hyacinth. Pearl. Coral. Oriental Armenian bole, prepared. Ivory shavings, as much as sufficient. And if the evil returned, I would also give another.

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7 EPISTOLA 8 < Rotula ex Antimonio.> tera vice rotulam ex Stibio, quarum duas transmitto. Non intermitterem quandoq[ue] præsertim cum alius nô responderet vsum < Oxymel helleboratum.> oxymellis helleborati. Est enim mirificè efficaciz. Hæc breuibus ad te præscribere volui, vt peritioni tuæ satisfieret. Vale. 21. No uemb. An. 73. EPIST. VIII. IDEM D. GEORGIO BEHR, Physico Saganensi. < 10> REVERENDVM Dominum Abbatem Charissime Domine Doctor, de capitis dolore acuto, catarrhis, vertigine, somno inquieto, ac aliis sympiomatis expituitosis, frigidis, crassis & lennis humoribus proficiscentibus, conqueri, ex literis tuis intellexi, quæ quidem etsi R. D. in ætate consistentiæ constiuntum in morbos periculo- sos nondum deduxerit; tamen apoplexiæ aduentum denunciant; Si Auicennæ & experientiæ quotidianæ credendum. Licet < Lib 3. traffatum 5. 6. 13.> ante quadragesimum annum. Hippo-teste, non accedat; Attamen postmodum cito inuadit, & præsertim etapulæ, iræ, & aliis affectib. animi & corporis indulgentes corripit. Cum autem D. Abbas enumeratis < Apoplexia autem quadragesimum annum non ac modi.> symptomatis afficiatur, & quadragesimum annum superauerit, ae ob Astrologorum quorundam prædictiones vereatur morbi huiusmodi infultum, qui facile interimit, & non admittit curationem, optimum erit vt præcaotione malum cuietetur. Forte enim Apoplexiam curare est impossibile, leuem vero non facile. Prospicietur ergo conuenientiæ dixtæ, & commodo medicamentorum vsu. Hoc vt felicius instituatur omnes causæ, apoplexiam concitantes considerandæ sunt. Apoplexia vel ab intemperie nuda, < Causa.> vel à materia incorpore collecta proficisciatur. Intemperies nuda substantiæ cerebri impressa præleruatione evitatur, semel vero inducta unquam curationem recipit. Materia autem vel est corpulenta, crassa, & viscida, & hæc vel humor pituitosus, vel Melancholicus in cerebro collectus, vel etiam sanguis nitria copia superabundans, vel vaporosa, vel vapor crassus obstruens, vt in < Apoplexia vana à nuda in tempore> tenulentis. De nuda intemperie nihil dicam; cum caro inde apoplexia oriatur, tum quod R. D. optime capiti frigido & nebuloso tem pore prospiciat, atque partes nervosas < Refrigeratio & madens: boni pedis. cibum capito cerebro monsum.> muniat, ventosque austrinos fugiat. Hoc duntaxat monete volui, ne potum cibumue capiat dum pedes madent, vel refrigerati sint. Nihil enim magis cerebrum ad intemperiem, præter enumerata, deducit. Materia autem, quæ ducta symptomata facit, est mor pituitosus, frigidus, crassus & lentus, à quosi obstructiones in cerebro figerentur, facile apoplexiam inducerent. Ea commoda victus ratione, & medicamentis idoneis euincetur. Ideo nihil tutius, quam vt collecti humores auferantur, qui commodissime vere & autumno educuntur. De Melancholico humore, cum sit R. D. boho & hilari animo præditus, non est quod simus solliciti. Quod si R. D. consueuerit adhibere phlebotomiam, non esset inconueniens tempore veris; sed ne magna copia educatur, neque frequens sit, cum ad apoplexiam deducat, suadeo. In autumno omnino intermittat. Facta igitur alui lenitione, & præmissa venæ sectione, si videbitur, diuinum esset auxilium, Decoctum < Decoctum sarsæ remedium præformatione Apoplexia.> sarsæ veris tempore. Etenim non solum materiam detegeret, incideret & obstructiones, si in visceribus subessent, solueret; < Decoctum sarsæ> Verum etiam interiora membta, præsertim cerebrum toboraret. Indulget enim R. D. genio, & nonnunquam plus, quâ par est, ingur gitat, vnde coctiones turbantur, humores crudi colliguntur, ex quibus obstructiones resultant, & membrorum internorum < Decoctum sarsæ> vigor deiicitur. Pararem decoctum hoc modo; < sarsæ> Sarsæ minutim incisæ. ij. Flor. primulæ veris, libri conuallii an. M. t. Semin. Fznicul. vj. Aqua lib. iiiij. Macerentur hocis XXIV. deinde ad casom medietatis decoquantur, in fine decocti iniiciantur Agalochi ij. ss. Et colo trâmissa seruentur ad vsum in lagena vitrea Mane de hoc decocto darem v. vel vj. < Pillulæ Alexandri de Nitro.> adiectis ij. ss. aq. cinamomi, vt R. D. corpore bene cooperto sudaret, absque virium tamen iactura. Absumpto decocto putgarem materiam catapotiis Alexandrinis, quibus aliquid aurearum, & fine quibus, adderem, hoc modo; S. Massæ pill. de nitro ij. aurearum, fine quibus an. j. Cum aqua primulæ veris formentur pillul. num. 17. vel 19. Post vsum repeterem exhiberem pillularum Alexandrinarum j. In autumno, si non recusaret R. D. vsum sarsæ, repararem decoctum, absque sectione venæ, & euacuarem quinto quoque die pillulis aureis & de nitro. Quod si potius loco sarsæ syrupis & decoctis detergentibus delectaretur, non esset alienum à nostris intentionibus. Hyeme singulis mendibus prodessent alephanginæ, vel masticinæ vel ex aloec rosata Arnoldi, quas etiam cum

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7 EPISTLE 8 < Rotula from Antimony.> a second time a little roll from Stibium, of which I send two. I would not omit it sometimes, especially since no one else replied concerning the use of < Hellebore oxymel.> oxymel of hellebore. For it is wonderfully effective. I wished to prescribe these few things to you, so that your inquiry might be satisfied. Farewell. Nov. 21, 73. EPIST. VIII. THE SAME TO D. GEORG BEHR, Physician of Sagan. < 10> THE REVEREND ABBOT Most dear Doctor, from your letters I understood that you complain of acute headache, catarrhs, vertigo, restless sleep, and other symptoms arising from thick, cold, and sluggish humors. Although this has not yet brought the Reverend Father, who is in the age of full maturity, into dangerous diseases, nevertheless it foretells the coming of apoplexy, if we are to trust Avicenna and daily experience. < Lib 3. tract 5. 6. 13.> Although, according to Hippocrates, it does not attack before the fortieth year, afterwards it soon invades, and especially it seizes those who indulge in gluttony, anger, and other passions of mind and body. But since the Abbot is afflicted with the symptoms enumerated < Apoplexy, however, does not befall before the fortieth year.> and has passed the fortieth year, and since, because of certain astrologers’ predictions, he fears an attack of this kind of illness, which easily kills and does not admit of treatment, it will be best to ward off the danger by precaution. For perhaps to cure apoplexy is impossible, and a mild case not easy. Therefore the matter will be addressed by suitable care and the proper use of medicines. So that this may be undertaken more successfully, all the causes that provoke apoplexy must be considered. Apoplexy arises either from a bare intemperament, < Cause.> or from matter collected in the body. Bare intemperament, impressed upon the substance of the brain, is avoided by prevention; once introduced, however, it never receives a cure. But matter is either thick, coarse, and viscid, and this may be phlegmatic humor, or melancholic humor collected in the brain, or even blood in excessive abundance, or vaporous matter, or a thick vapor causing obstruction, as in drunkards. < Apoplexy, a vain thing from bare intemperament in time> I shall say nothing about bare intemperament; since from that alone apoplexy arises. Then the Reverend Father will best take care of his head in cold and cloudy weather, and strengthen the nervous parts, < Cooling and dampness: of good foot. Take food after the brain has been warmed.> and avoid southerly winds. I wished only to warn that he should not take drink or food while his feet are wet, or while they are chilled. For nothing more than these things brings the brain into intemperament. But the matter which produces the symptoms mentioned is a phlegmatic humor, cold, thick, and sluggish; from this obstructions are fixed in the brain, and apoplexy would easily be induced. This will be overcome by a suitable regimen and appropriate medicines. Therefore nothing is safer than that the gathered humors be removed, and these are most conveniently drawn off in spring and autumn. As for melancholy humor, since the Reverend Father is endowed with a good and cheerful spirit, there is no reason for concern. If the Reverend Father has been accustomed to use phlebotomy, it would not be unsuitable in the springtime; but I advise that not much be drawn, nor that it be done frequently, since it leads to apoplexy. In autumn it should be entirely omitted. Therefore, after the bowels have been gently loosened and bloodletting has been performed beforehand, if it seems advisable, divine help would be the decoction, < Decoction of sarsa remedy for the prevention of Apoplexy.> of sarsa in the springtime. For it would not only draw out the matter, cut through it, and, if obstructions were present in the viscera, dissolve them; < Decoction of sarsa> but would also strengthen the internal members, especially the brain. For the Reverend Father indulges his appetite, and sometimes swallows more than is proper, from which the digestive processes are disturbed, crude humors are collected, from which obstructions result, and the vigor of the internal members is weakened. < Decoction of sarsa> I would prepare this decoction in this way; < sarsa> Sarsa, cut small. ij. Flowers of primrose, lily of the valley an. M. t. Seeds of fennel. vj. Water, lib. iiiij. Let them macerate for 24 hours, then boil down to half, and at the end of the decoction add Agalochum ij. ss. And when strained through a colander, let it be kept for use in a glass vessel. In the morning I would give from this decoction v. or vj., < Pills of Alexander of Nitre.> adding ij. ss. of cinnamon water, so that the Reverend Father, being well covered, might sweat, yet without loss of strength. After the decoction had been taken, I would purge the matter with Alexandrian pills, to which I would add something of the golden pills, and without these I would add it in this way; S. Of the mass of nitre pills ij. of golden pills, without these an. j. With primrose water let pills be formed, number 17 or 19. After use I would repeat and administer 1 of the Alexandrian pills. In autumn, if the Reverend Father did not refuse the use of sarsa, I would prepare the decoction again, without bloodletting, and I would evacuate every fifth day with golden pills and nitre pills. But if he preferred instead to be pleased with syrups and decoctions that cleanse, in place of sarsa, it would not be contrary to our intentions. In winter, each month, alephangina, or masticina, or Arnold’s roseate aloe pills would be useful, which also

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9 M E D I C I N A L E S. 10 cum alius non responderet, probar[um] Ven- triculo interim prospiciendum, ne pituito- sos humores gignat, atque cerebro, ne tem- poris protractu, vel intemperies aliqua im- primatur, vel à collectis humorib. obstrua- tur. Quod commode fiet in æstate si ex suc- cioo præparato, & speciebus Diarrhodonis cum saccharo, in aqua cerasoru[m] nigrorum dissoluto, formentur orbiculi, de quibus al- ternis diebus aliquot mane capiat. Hyeme 10 vero possunt Tragæa, & Electuarium alter- natim exhiberi. Item Diacorum. Trageæ non admiscerem opoponacum, cum teste Rhafet. cont. noceat netuis & cerebro. Quod si optaret aquam vltę, posset hoc mo- du confici. 24. Vini maluati destillat. lb. ij. Herbar. melissæ. Flor. liliit conuallil. Anthos. 20 Lauendulæ. Borrag. Primulæ veris. an. M. j. Granor. Paradisi ʒii. Cubebar. Cionamom. Nucis Moschat. an. ʒii. Iosolentur mixta obturato vale, ne quicquâ transpiret, per integrum mensem, & exprimantur postea. De hac siogulis meosibus in 30 nouiloolo & plenilunio, mane cum buccella panis albi capiet ʒb. Mane etiam esset ex vsu, vt R. D. gargarisando os elueret. Posset huc modò parari. 22. Radio. calami odorat. Nucis Moscat. Stœchad. Maceris. Maioranæ. an. ʒb. Decoq. in lb. j. aquæ puræ adde cola- 40 turæ. Aceti rosacei. ʒb. Mellis rosacei. ʒp. b. Sinapi pulucrutati. ʒb. Misce. Adstinatio via & Errhina concurriat cerebrum. Prodest etiam Cubebarum masticatio ma- ne, Abstinerem ab aliis masticatoriis, præ- sertim erthinis, quod nimium concuriant cerebrum. Cæterum habeo pro singulari experimento in arcenda apoplexia vsum sub 50 scriptrarum pillularum, de quibus ʒj. ad no- stem nouilunii & plenilunli exhibeo, etiam æstiuo tempore. Debet autem cæna fruga- lior antecedere; 25. Cubebar. Calamenti. Mastich. Nucis Moscat. Caryophyllor. an. ʒj. Ambræ. ʒb. Moschi. gr. vj. Cum luco maioranæ formentur pillu- lx. Victus ratio si oportuna accederet, facile assequerentur ea, quæ optamus. Verum cu[m] hoc seculo varieras ciborum & concertatio poculorum R. D. ad tuendam dignitatem sit vistata, tædiosum esset aliquid adscribe- re. Consultum tamen vt ferculis libanoris incoquatur. Hoc breuibus ad te exarare volui, vt & tuæ petitioni, & optimæ voluo- tati atque expectationi R. D. satisfiat. Chri- stus Coelestis & summus Medicus omnia secundet, Vale. Vratislau. Anno 77. 10. A- pril. E P I S T. IX. IDEM D. PAVLO CLOSIO Physico Glacensi, S. ALIQUID diulni morbis inesse, arte- stante Hippoc. in prognosti, hoc an- no abunde experior. Quod equidem & in istoluuene fieri fatendum est. Essi corpus huius medicamentis idoneis fatis superque à peccantibus humoribus, qui febrem, & alta mala concitarunt, liberatum sit; tamen restant varia symptomata, quæ mirum in modum vires corporis deiciunt. Dolor & vlgilæ quæ quantum detrahant viribus, non est opus rationibus, vbi experientia loquitur. Accedit & sudor diaphoreticus, qui non ex humorum malorum reliquis, neque alimenti copia resultat, Verum ma- gis naturæ imbecillitatem arguit, & sym- ptomaticus corpus affligit. Hæc restant post institutam methodicam atque rationalem curam, quæ sui ablationem requirunt. Cum autem alui adstrictio concurrat, præ omni- bus adnitendum, vt alius respondeat, allas frustra vel optima auxilia adhibeatur. Cæ modius remedium applicari nô potest, cly- stere ex iusculo caponis cum Saccharo cras- so confecto, quo ego tribus seprimantis in- dices aliquaodo bis terue in ita vsus sum. Hoc non solum alium soluit; sed etiam corporis vires restaurat, atque refocillat, quod & passulæ lotæ ante pastum sumptæ præstant. Balneum aquæ dulcis, si aliquid rosarum rubearum, & florum nenupharis infectum fuerit, somnum conciliat, dolo- rem demulcet, sudorem inhibet, atque ap- petitum promouet. Coociliat quoque so- num medulla cerui recens ii tempora in- ungantur ad noctem. Ab opiatis abstinen- dum. Confert & hic puluis minificet non solum ad somnum inducendum, vtum et- iam vires restaurat, somnia horribilia arce, atque sudorem inhibet; A

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9 MEDICINALS. 10 when the others did not respond, it was found advisable meanwhile to look after the stomach, lest it generate phlegmatic humors, and the brain, lest, through the lapse of time, either some disorder be impressed upon it, or it be obstructed by collected humors. This will be done conveniently in summer if, from a prepared confection and the species of Diarrhodon with sugar, dissolved in water of black cherries, little pellets are formed, of which he may take several on alternate days in the morning. In winter, however, Tragea and Electuary may be administered alternately. Likewise Diacorum. I would not mix opoponax into the Tragea, since, according to Rhazes, it harms the nerves and the brain. If one should desire aqua vitae, it could be prepared in this way. 24. Distilled malmsey wine, lb. ij. Herbs of melissa. Flowers of lily of the valley. Anthos, 20 Lavender. Borage. Primrose, an. M. j. Grains of paradise, ʒii. Cubebs. Cinnamon. Nutmeg, an. ʒii. Let them be digested together, the vessel sealed so that nothing transpire, for a whole month, and then express them. Of this, each month at the new moon and full moon, in the morning with a crust of white bread, let him take ʒb. In the morning it would also be useful for R.D. to wash out the mouth by gargling. It could be prepared thus. 22. Fragrant calamus. Nutmeg. Stœchados. Mace. Marjoram, an. ʒb. Boil in lb. j. of pure water; add to the strained liquid. Rose vinegar, ʒb. Rose honey, ʒp. b. Pounded mustard seed, ʒb. Mix. Chewing and errhines concur in affecting the brain. It is also beneficial to chew cubebs in the morning; I would abstain from other masticatories, especially errhines, because they affect the brain too much. Moreover, I regard as a singular remedy in warding off apoplexy the use of the prescribed pills, of which I give ʒj. at the new moon and full moon, even in summer. But a more frugal supper should precede them; 25. Cubebs. Calamus. Mastic. Nutmeg. Cloves, an. ʒj. Amber, ʒb. Musk, gr. vj. With the juice of marjoram, let pills be formed. If suitable regimen were added, they would easily achieve what we desire. Yet since in this age the variety of foods and the contest of drinks is customary among R.D. for the maintenance of dignity, it would be tedious to prescribe anything. Nevertheless, it would be advisable that it be cooked into lighter dishes. I wished to write this briefly to you, so that both your request and the excellent goodwill and expectation of R.D. may be satisfied. May Christ, the heavenly and supreme Physician, prosper all things. Farewell. Breslau, in the year 77, April 10. EPISTLE IX. TO THE SAME, TO DR. PAUL CLOSIO, Physician of Glatz, greeting. That something of chronic diseases remains, as Hippocrates testifies in the Prognostics, I am abundantly experiencing this year. And indeed it must be admitted that this also happens in pestilential illness. Even if the body has been sufficiently and more than sufficiently freed by suitable medicines from the offending humors which aroused the fever and other evils, nevertheless various symptoms remain, which in a marvelous way weaken the strength of the body. Pain and sleeplessness, how much they diminish strength, need no arguments where experience speaks. Added to these is a diaphoretic sweat, which does not arise from the remnants of bad humors, nor from excess food, but rather shows the weakness of nature, and as a symptom afflicts the body. These things remain after an established methodical and rational cure, and require their removal. But since constipation of the bowels is present, effort must above all be made that the bowels respond, otherwise even the best remedies will be applied in vain. The most appropriate remedy can be applied by a clyster made from capon broth prepared with coarse sugar, of which I have used in this way some three times with some frequency. This not only relieves the bowels, but also restores and refreshes the body’s strength, as do washed raisins taken before a meal. A bath of fresh water, if infused with something of red roses and flowers of nenuphar, induces sleep, soothes pain, checks sweating, and promotes appetite. Sleep is also promoted if the marrow of a deer is freshly rubbed on the temples at night. Opiates should be avoided. Also useful here is a powder, not only for inducing sleep, but also for restoring strength, warding off horrible dreams, and checking sweating; A

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11 EPISTOLÆ 11 < Palæis fem- mum indu- cens & con- roberam.> X. Smaragd. Hincinth. Margarit. Corall. Boli armen. Scobis Eboris an. q. 1. In pollinem redigantur. Ad noctem sub ingressum lecti, quantum media testa nucis ponticæ capit, propinatur. Quod si sudor non cedat, exhibeatur vocata nonella & applicetur cordi, axillis, collo atque inguini subscriptum epithema linteolis: < Epithema.> X. Folior. myrthi. Cortic. granator. an. 3. ii. Gallar. Mannæ thuris. an. 3. ij. Balaustior. 3. j. ss. Aq. tormenill. Rosalum. an. lb. j. Bulliant semel atque iterum & colentur. < Vnguentum adjipinam.> Neque intermittatur inunctio dorsi ex lacte mulieris, facta cum butyro, & oleo violaceo, cui etiam rosaceum addi potest, cum mucillagine psyllii. Restaurantes cibi quoquo modo confecti offerantur. Cæterum calculi quoque habenda ratio, qui si molestauerit, regio renum vnguento rosato Mesue inungi, & radix ibisci iusculis adhiberi potest. Hæc vt & voluntati tux, & petitioni Domini Notarii sanissiar perscribere volui. Vale Vratisl. 4. Augusti. Anno. 77. EPIST. X. IDEM D. GEORGIO BEHR, Physico Schunidni- censi. EX literis tuis proxime ad me datis intellexi < 40> Renerendum Dominum Abbatem curam institutam felici cum successu absoluisse. Vtinam victus ratio apta accederet, ne auxilia dextre adhibita videantur frustra esse exhibita. Tuum est, cum sis præsto, ipsum admonete ne genio indulgeat. Scriptis superioribus mensibus ad me Generosus & Nobilis Dominus N. N. vt animi mei sententiam perscriberem, quid < 50> sibi in extirpanda podagra sit faciendum, aenum CAVTERES huic malo succurri possit. Ego sane diligentia singulari incubui, vt bono viro, de re literaria bene merito gratificari possem. Cum autem videam in hoc malo etiam præstantissima auxilia parum aut nihil confecte, mihi omnino persuadeo vsum cauteriorum multum profuturum. < Cauterium et podagra vtilia.> Ichor enim præbens influ- xui occasionem collectus pedetentim inanitur, & sic articuli à suis molestiis libera- buntur. Ego tuæ sententiæ omnino subscribo, quod mihi summopere placeat, cum sit rationi & experientiæ consentanea. Antequam autem applicentur cauteriæ, operæ præcium erit prius mündificare corpus & primum experiri vsum in pedibus. Quod si ista ad dolores podagricos sopiendos non satisfacient, etiam brachûs erunt adhibenda. Quomodo peragendum sit peculiari- bus literis mandaui, cum alias sit, harum rerum diligens indagator. Quantum ad coniugem spectat, cum sit phthisi obnoxia, in tempore prospiciendum ne malum serpat, præsertim hoc rempore. Est enim Autumnus tabidis inimicus. Cum auem antea ex vsu fuerint præscripta medicamenta, possunt & nunc, taluo tuo iudicio adhiberi. Mundificanda erunt prius membra, & mandantia atque recipientia, cum manna dissoluta in decocto pectorali, & vt magis prospiciatur interceptioni fluxus grana 8. < Pillula de Cynoglossa.> pill. de Cinoglossa sub noctem exhibenda. Vale. 11. Octob. Anno 77. EPIST. XI. IDEM D. GEORGIO FLORSCHVZ Medico Schunidni- censi. NVdius tertius accessit me nobilis Dominus N. N. otans vt de ipsius corporis neutralitate meam ad te perscriberem sententiam. Quod equidem homini pio & bono denegare non potui, etiam atque etiam à te petens, vt in optimam accipias partem. Non dubium est repullulare hypochondriacam passionem, qua superioribus annis longotempore afflictus sunt: Ostendunt oris ventriculi infægnis imbecillitas, quam frequenies ructus, & rugitus in sinistro latere insequuntur, ac cruditates multæ, item tristitia, ac leuis anxietas cum linguæ ariditate. Fidem quoque faciunt, quod ante duos annos sedecim mentes quartana laborauerit, quæ vt plurimum aliquid relinquit mali. Comitantur quoque affectum hunc capitis grauitates ob exhalationem vaporum, qui si non dissipantur, dolorem quoque concitant. Quod si in humorem condensatur frigiditate cerebri, in ventriculum labuntur, & affectum augent. Non sunt confirmata passionis hypochondriacæ indicia, sed porius quædam initia. Malum hoc si primo quoque tempore non auferatur, paulatim radices agit. Itaque non magno negotio expugnabitur, cum

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11 LETTERS 11 < Introducing Paleis fem- mum and con- roberam.> X. Emerald. Hyacinth. Pearl. Coral. Bole armen. Powdered ivory, 1 ounce. Reduce to powder. At night, on going to bed, as much as half the shell of a Pontic nut will hold, is administered. If the sweat does not come, let the so-called nonella be given and the following epitheme be applied with little cloths to the heart, armpits, neck, and groin: < Epitheme.> X. Myrtle leaves. Pomegranate rind, 3 ounces, 2 scruples. Galls. Manna of frankincense, 3 ounces, 2 scruples. Balaustia, 3 ounces, 1 drachm, half. Water of tormentil. Rosalum, 1 pound. Let them boil once and again and be strained. < Ointment with adipose matter.> Nor should the rubbing-in of the back with woman’s milk, made with butter and violet oil, be omitted; rose oil may also be added to this, with mucilage of psyllium. Restorative foods, prepared in any manner whatever, should be offered. Besides, account must also be taken of the stone; if it should trouble him, let the region of the kidneys be anointed with Mesue’s rose ointment, and the root of hibiscus may be used in broths. I wished to write this in order to satisfy both your wish and the request of the Notary, as best I could. Farewell. Breslau, 4 August, 77. EPIST. X. THE SAME TO DR. GEORG BEHR, Physician of Schweidnitz. From your recent letters to me I have understood that the Reverend Lord Abbot has brought the treatment he had undertaken to a happy conclusion. Would that a suitable diet might be added, lest the remedies, though skillfully applied, seem to have been given in vain. It is your part, since you are at hand, to warn him not to indulge his appetite. In letters written to me in the preceding months, the noble and distinguished Lord N. N. asked me to write down my opinion as to what should be done for him in eradicating gout, whether any help could be brought to this evil by cauteries. For my part, I have labored with unusual diligence in order that I might gratify a good man, one who has deserved well of letters. But since I see that in this illness even the most excellent remedies produce little or nothing, I am thoroughly persuaded that the use of cauteries will be very beneficial. < Cautery and gout are useful.> For the ichor, by providing occasion for the flow, is gradually drawn off and emptied out, and thus the joints will be freed from their troubles. I wholly agree with your opinion, which is greatly pleasing to me, since it accords with reason and experience. Before the cauteries are applied, however, it will be worthwhile first to cleanse the body and to try their use first on the feet. If these do not suffice to allay the gouty pains, the arms will also have to be used. How this is to be carried out I have committed to you by separate letter, since you are otherwise a diligent investigator of such matters. As regards your wife, since she is liable to consumption, timely provision must be made lest the evil spread, especially at this season. For autumn is hostile to wasting diseases. And since medicines had previously been prescribed for use, they may now also be used, according to your judgment. The members must first be cleansed, and the opening and receiving medicines, with manna dissolved in pectoral decoction, and in order that interception of the flux may be better provided against, eight grains of < Pillula de Cynoglossa.> pill. de Cynoglossa should be given at night. Farewell. 11 October, 77. EPIST. XI. THE SAME TO DR. GEORG FLORSCHVZ, Physician of Schweidnitz. The day before yesterday a noble Lord N. N. came to me, asking that I would write to you my opinion concerning the neutrality of his body. This I could not refuse to a pious and good man, and I ask you again and again to receive it in the best part. There is no doubt that the hypochondriac ailment has reappeared, with which he was afflicted for a long time in former years. This is shown by the feeble weakness of the stomach, which is followed by frequent belching and rumbling in the left side, together with many crudities, also sadness and a slight anxiety with dryness of the tongue. It is also made credible by the fact that two years ago he suffered from quartan fever for sixteen months, which for the most part leaves something bad behind. This affection is also accompanied by heaviness of the head from the exhalation of vapors, which, if they are not dispersed, also provoke pain. But if, because of the coldness of the brain, they are condensed into moisture, they sink into the stomach and increase the affection. The signs of the hypochondriac passion are not yet fully established, but rather there are certain beginnings of it. If this evil is not removed at the first opportunity, it gradually takes root. Therefore it will be expelled without great difficulty, when

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13 MEDICINALES. 14 cum temperatura non longe distet ab æquali & laudabili constitutione, & quod cuncta hæc ex accidenti potius, quam quod natura ita rulerit, acciderint. Certum est enim vitia naturalia, cuiuscunque modi fuerint, difficilius, quam quæ ex accidenti sunt acquiesita expugnari posse. Accedit & ætas florens, ac multarum vitium, quæ repugnare maiori etiam morbo possunt, & anni tempus præsens commodissimum ad exequendum nostras contentiones, quæ ab effectu perendæ sunt. Vitiata enim est ventriculi coctio ex intéperie iusto frigidiore. ac subest venarum mesaraicarum obstructio ex crudis, & crassis humoribus ob prævam coctionem exorta. Transmittitur etiam ex liene plus æquo atribularius humor, quæ omnia dicta Symptomata excitant. Cum autem intemperatura non simplex sit; sed cum humore, & adiunctam habeat obstructionem: Idro corrigi debet intemperatura, & obstructio aperienda vt alimento per mearus venarum pateat progressus. Itaque elapso plenilunio lenienda erit aluus, vel potiuncula vel tali bolo. <Portio digerim> Rx. Cassia recenter extract. 3 vj. Diaphænicon. 3 j. lb. Specier. hieræ 3 iij. Misce cum sacchar. q. s. Sequenti die, vt retrahantur materiæ pertentes caput, ac vt rutiùs exhiberi possint de obstruentia, suaderem vt sectio venæ basilicæ adhiberetur, deinde subsequentem porionem ad quatuor, vel quinque dies propinatem; <Portio purgam> Rx. Syrup. delupulis. De Cichor. cum Rhabarb. De sumo terræ an. 3 lb. Decoction. lupul. Borrag. Ceterach. Cichor. Cuscutæ. Sem. seniculi. 3 iij. Misce pro vna, & sic pro reliquis, atomatisetur cum aliquot guttis aq. cinnamomi. His absolutis sumat purgans medicamentum, quale hoc est; <Portio purgam> Rx. Lupul. Fumaræ. Bugloss. Cichor. an. p. j. Liquirit. 3 j. Passular. 3 lb. Sem. anisi. Fenicul. an. 3 j. Cinnamom. Zinziber. an. 3 lb. In s. q. aq. fiat decoctio, in sine adriecia- tur; Folior. Senæ. 3 lb. Flor. Cordial. p. j. Rx. Colaturæ. 3 iij. his adde Rhabar. Elect. 3 j. lb. Agaric. Trochiscar. 3 j. Squinanthi. [uncia] v. Macerentur mixta aliquot horis, & <to> postea calefiant, ac exprimantur foruter, add. Syrupi detribus, vel rosac. Solut. 3 j. Aq. cinnamomi 3 j. Hæc purgatio singulis annis verno tempore sufficiens esset ad resistendum symptomatibus. Quod si interim expurgandus erit ventriculus, vel caput, leuissimis vterer medicamentis, & potius laudarem liquidam, quam aliam medicamentorum formam. Conferret optime ad obstructiones tollendas venarum meseraicarum, & eduendas materias ibi contentas subscriptus syrupus, qui cum iusculo capi potest, vel cum decocto Cichor. & fenicul. 3 iij. Etiam esset ex vsu Rhabarbari crudi particulam deuorare. Vt autem capiti & ventriculo robur addatur, capiat de rotulis sequentibus duas vel tres duabus horis ante prandium. <Rotalis> Rx. Specier. diamusci dulc. Aromatic. rosat. Diarrhod. Abbat. an. 3 lb. Sacchar. in aq borrag. dissol. 3 iij. Misce, fiat confectio in rotulis. Poterit & ventriculus hoc vnguento ungi; <Vnguentum stomachale.> Rx. Ol. Mastic. Nardini. Camomil. an. 3 lb. Puluer. mastich. Mentæ. Macis. Corall. rub. an. 3 j. Ceræ parum. Misce. Hæc ad te, vt voluntari ægri satisfacerem, perscribere oportuit. Vale. 10. Feb. Anno 78. EPIST. XII. IDEM D. WENCESLAO Raphano, Physico Oppacusensi. S.D. GILERVM amicum nostrum de purgante fere , mentionem fetisse ex literis tuis intellexi. Is puluis conficitur ex radice Mechoacæ, quæ ex Occidentali India ad nos transfertur, vtor hac radice A 4 feliciter in morbis chronicis & inueteratis.

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13 MEDICINALS. 14 since the temperature does not differ much from an equal and commendable constitution, and because all these things have occurred by accident rather than because nature has so ruled. For it is certain that natural faults, of whatever kind they may be, are more difficult to overcome than those acquired by accident. In addition, the age is flourishing, and there are many defects that can even resist a greater disease, and the present season of the year is most suitable for carrying out our undertakings, which must be judged by their effect. For the digestion of the stomach is impaired by an intemperate condition that is somewhat colder than it should be, and there is an obstruction of the mesenteric veins arising from crude and thick humors because of faulty digestion. A melancholic humor is also transmitted in excess from the spleen, all of which provoke the said symptoms. But since the intemperateness is not simple, but with humor, and has obstruction joined to it: therefore the intemperateness must be corrected, and the obstruction opened up so that food may have passage through the channels of the veins. Thus, after the full moon has passed, the bowels should be loosened, either with a draught or with such a pill. <Portion digerim> Rx. Freshly extracted Cassia. 3 vj. Diaphænicon. 3 j. lb. Species hieræ 3 iij. Mix with sugar q.s. On the following day, so that the matters tending toward the head may be drawn back, and so that the obstructing matters may be more readily administered, I would advise that phlebotomy of the basilic vein be used, then let the following portion be taken for four or five days; <Portion purgam> Rx. Syrup of hops. Of chicory with rhubarb. Of earth fumitory an. 3 lb. Decoction of hops. Borage. Ceterach. Chicory. Dodder. Fennel seed. 3 iij. Mix for one dose, and so for the rest; let it be perfumed with a few drops of cinnamon water. When these are completed, let him take a purgative medicine, such as this; <Portion purgam> Rx. Hops. Fumitory. Bugloss. Chicory an. p. j. Liquorice 3 j. Raisins 3 lb. Anise seed. Fennel an. 3 j. Cinnamon. Ginger an. 3 lb. In a sufficient quantity of water let a decoction be made; at the end add; Senna leaves. 3 lb. Flowers cordial. p. j. Rx. Strained liquid. 3 iij. add to these Rhubarb, choice. 3 j. lb. Agaric, in troches. 3 j. Squinanthus. [ounce] v. Let the mixtures be macerated for some hours, and then let them be heated, and pressed out strongly, add Syrup of violets, or rose syrup, dissolved. 3 j. Cinnamon water 3 j. This purge would be sufficient each year in the springtime to resist the symptoms. But if in the meantime the stomach or the head must be purged, I would use very mild medicines, and would rather recommend a liquid form than any other form of medicine. It would help greatly in removing the obstructions of the mesenteric veins, and drawing out the materials there contained, the following syrup, which can be taken with broth, or with a decoction of chicory and fennel 3 iij. It would also be useful to swallow a small piece of crude rhubarb. But so that strength may be added to the head and stomach, let him take two or three of the following lozenges two hours before dinner. <Rotalis> Rx. Sweet diamuscium species. Rose aromatic. Diarrhodum Abbat. an. 3 lb. Sugar dissolved in borage water 3 iij. Mix, let a confection be made into lozenges. The stomach may also be rubbed with this ointment; <Vnguentum stomachale.> Rx. Oil of mastic. Nard. Chamomile an. 3 lb. Powdered mastic. Mint. Mace. Red coral an. 3 j. A little wax. Mix. These things I had to write to you, so that I might satisfy the wishes of the patient. Farewell. 10 Feb. Year 78. EPIST. XII. TO THE SAME, TO WENCESLAUS Raphanus, physician of Oppacus. S.D. I have learned from your letters that GILERUS, our friend, almost mentioned a purgative. This powder is made from the root of Mechoacan, which is brought to us from the West Indies; I use this root successfully in chronic and longstanding diseases. A 4

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15 EPISTOLÆ 16 in podagra, asthmate, hydrope & aliis morbis à materia frigida originem ducentibus. In æstate & morbis acutis ab eius vsu abstineo. Æsio eius 3j. ad 3ij. Propinatur cum cereuissa, vel immiscetur conieruis, etiam Electuariis solutiuis. Formantur inde etiam Catapotia. < Vixum impedit id. ebrena esse. Æum.> Insufum parum aut nihil virium exerit. Cauendum autem nein prandio vinum hauriatur, quod non solum eius facultates temoratur, & hebetat. Verum etiam < 10> omnino impedit, atque pessundat. Idcirco cum nimium purgando vires deicit, baustrus vini, vel offa panis vino madefacta, exhibentur. Sunt & alia præstantissima medicamenta, quæ nunc adferuntur, de quibus coram. Experimur indies hanc medicinam, cuius parua fuerunt principia, suos facere progressus. Nihil enim simul inuentum & perfectum est. Quod & Comicus nobis insinuat in Adelphis. < Empiria Chymica periculosiss.> Nunquam ita quisq[ue] bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuit, quin res, < 20> etas, vsus semper adporte: aliquid noni, vt illa quæ te scire eredis, nescias, & quæ tibi putaris prima, in experiundo repudies. Chymici Enthusiastæ suis pyreticis medicam[m]eris magnum emolumentum consecutos sibi imaginantur, quæ siq[ui] sis secum d ligenter reputat, plus detrimenti inde corporibus inuri; quam commode acquiri, experientia quotidiana abunde comprobat. Valeant isti < 30> carnifices æquom , nos ea amplectamur, quæ ratione & experientia nituntur. Vale. Vratisl. 25. Feb. Anno 78. EPIST. XIII. IDEM D. PAVLO BORECK, Physico Bregensi S. SVM valde anceps quid in medicamentorum exhibitione sit constituendum. < 40> Etenim cum pensito sententiam Hippo. in Aphorismis, & 6. Epidem. sæpius repetitam (Quæ relinquuntur in morbis recidiuam facere consuenerunt) summe moueor adducendam materiam in corpore adhuc hærentem: Vice versa considerans corporis impuritatem atque immundiciem; Vereor ne post rot eductiones materia commota, nouum nobis facesset negotium. Ego sane < 50> si alius responderet, & vtcumque Illustriss. Ducissa ad ea, quæ offeruntur se optime haberet, ac bene quiesceret, à purgantium vsu abstinerem. Corpus enim eius etiam si ad integrum mensem expurgaretur non redderetur purum; Est tamen vt cumq[ue] & medicamentis, & naturæ conatu, ex purgarum, vt minime commodum sit iudicata mouere atque irritare. Non nunquam natura etiam < 16> impuro sanguine sustentatur, quod in cachecticis & Phthisicis vsu venit, quorum aliquando vita ad multos annos absque purgantibus prorogatur. Quod si ad suppresam aluum inappetentia, & inquierudo accederent, vel borum quicquam subesset, pillulas nuper confectas omnino exhiberem, postquam menses celsauerint, tribus vel quatuor diebus post. Tu præsens, quid ex vlu fuerit, commodius constitues. Indicio tuu omnino me subticio. Vale. Vratisl. 4. Octob. Anno 74. EPIST. XIV. IDEM D. IACOBO HORSTIO, Physico Iglaviensi, S. SCRIBIS ad me Magnificum & Gene- < 20> rosum Dominum N. N. Cæsareæ Maiestatis Consiliarum, Hypochondriaca Melancholia vitra annum mulestari, & nunc morbum in declinatiune variari, ac petis à me rationem medendi, vt tandem libera ri à molestissimo malo possit. Etsi autem tantum mihi non atrogem, vt pro re reexigentia respondere possim: non intermittam tamen ea, quæ mihi cognita & obseruata sunt, ad te perscribere vt intelligas me tuis votis deesse nolle. Nihil enim est, quod tui causa non subirem, quod tibi sane persuasum habeas. Refers mali symptomata magis matutino tempore recurrere, post meridiem veromitiora fieri. Quod denotat malum non per se solum ex ventriculi intemperie cum materia & mesariacarum obstructione proficisci; sed etiam aliquid ex epate & liene, quod malum foucar, affluere. Fidem facit medicamentorum purgantium frequens repetitio, cui malum minime cessit. Nullo modo dada est huic morbo quies. Dum enim radices agit, enelli nuntquam porest, & semper grauiorum morborum præcursor est, sit autem S. M. homo animo, & obtemperet medicorum consilis, brem, Deo annuente, restituetur. Diligenter autem cauendum, cum materia partim transmittatur, partim etiam in ventriculo colligatur, ne vehementia, vel frequetia medicamentorum malum augeatur. Sicut enim electiue purgantia calorem innatum, cuius ope omnes actiones medici gubernantur affligunt, & ventriculum malâ qualitate, cum humores vitiosos alliciant, imbuunt, sic benedicta etiam medicamenta, quæ vt trahendi, vel emolliendi prædita sunt, eandem noxam inferunt. Ac licet commodissimum esset à purgantibus plane abstinere; tamen cum malum non nisi < per>

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15 LETTERS 16 in gout, asthma, dropsy, and other diseases arising from a cold material. In summer and in acute diseases I abstain from its use. Its dose is 3j to 3ij. It is administered with beer, or mixed into confections, also into laxative electuaries. Pills are also made from it. <It is hardly prevented from being drunk at table. Æum.> Taken in infusion, it exerts little or no force. Care must be taken, however, that wine is not drunk at dinner, for not only does it weaken and blunt its virtues, but also <10> wholly impedes them and destroys them. For this reason, when too much purging depletes the strength, a draught of wine, or a morsel of bread moistened with wine, is given. There are also other excellent medicines, which are now being brought forward, concerning which we shall speak in person. We daily observe this medicine, whose beginnings were small, making its progress. For nothing is discovered and perfected at once. The Comic poet also hints this to us in the Adelphi. <Very dangerous chemical empiricism.> No one has ever been so well ordered for life by a carefully weighed reckoning, that age, experience, and use have not always brought something new, so that those things which you believe you know, you do not know, and those which you have thought first-rate, you reject when put to the test. The chemical enthusiasts imagine that they have achieved great benefit for their febrile patients by their remedies; but if one considers the matter carefully, daily experience abundantly proves that more harm is thereby done to bodies than can conveniently be gained. Let those butchers <30> perish; we will embrace those things that rest on reason and experience. Farewell. Breslau, 25 February, year 78. EPISTLE XIII. THE SAME TO DR. PAUL BORECK, Physician at Brieg. Greetings. I am very much at a loss as to what should be determined in the administration of medicines. <40> For when I weigh the opinion of Hippocrates, often repeated in the Aphorisms and in the 6th Epidemics, “What is left behind in diseases is accustomed to cause relapses,” I am greatly moved to evacuate the matter still adhering in the body. On the other hand, considering the impurity and uncleanness of the body, I fear lest, after the bowels have been repeatedly moved, the agitated matter should create a new disturbance for us. Truly, if another were answering, and if in any way the Most Illustrious Duchess were doing very well with what is offered, and were resting well, I would abstain from the use of purgatives. For even if her body were purged for a whole month, it would not be made clean; yet it is nevertheless such that, with medicines and with nature’s effort, after purging, it is not judged at all advantageous to move and irritate it. At times nature is even sustained by impure blood, as happens in cachectic and phthisical patients, whose lives are sometimes prolonged for many years without purgatives. But if to suppressed stool there were added lack of appetite and restlessness, or if any of these were present, I would by all means administer the pills recently prepared, after the menses have ceased, three or four days later. You, being present, will determine more suitably what benefit there has been from them. I submit myself wholly to your judgment. Farewell. Breslau, 4 October, year 74. EPISTLE XIV. THE SAME TO DR. JACOB HORST, Physician at Iglau. Greetings. You write to me that the Magnificent and Generous Lord N. N., Councillor of His Imperial Majesty, has been afflicted with hypochondriac melancholy for more than a year, and that now the disease is changing in decline, and you ask me for a method of treatment, so that he may at last be freed from this most troublesome ailment. Although I do not presume so much as to be able to respond as the case requires, I shall nevertheless not fail to write to you what has been known and observed by me, so that you may understand that I do not wish to be wanting to your wishes. For there is nothing that I would not undertake for your sake; you may be fully persuaded of that. You report that the symptoms of the malady recur more in the morning and become milder after midday. This indicates that the disease does not arise solely from an intemperance of the stomach together with matter and obstruction of the mesenteric vessels, but that something also flows from the liver and spleen, which feeds the disease. The frequent repetition of purgative medicines, to which the illness has by no means yielded, bears witness to this. No rest at all is granted to this disease. For while it takes root, it can never be uprooted, and it is always the precursor of graver diseases. But if His Excellency is courageous and obeys the physicians’ advice, he will, with God’s favor, soon be restored. Care must, however, be taken diligently, since the matter is partly carried off and partly also accumulates in the stomach, lest the violence or frequency of the medicines increase the illness. For just as select purgatives afflict the innate heat, by whose aid all the functions of the body are governed, and infect the stomach with bad quality, since they draw out harmful humors, so also the medicines called “benedicta,” which are endowed with drawing or softening properties, inflict the same harm. And although it would be most advantageous to abstain altogether from purgatives, yet since the disease cannot be cured except by ...

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17 MEDICINALES. 18 per vivacum & contemplationem tolli possit, vivacum vtendum, & vitiosum paulatim tollendum, ita vt bonum in illius locum reponatur, & roboretur, simul ventriculus ne admittat ea, quæ transmittuntur, venæque meseraicæ apertæ, ac meatus epatis & lienis minime impediti sint opera danda. < Extractum Rhabarbari. > Rhabarbari extractum, cum Agarico Trochiscato optimum est. Placeret etiam Rhabarbarum in substantia cum exigua quantitate agarici & aloes, ita vt aqua Cinnamomi in qua mastix sit soluta, irroratur, & cum syrupo de tribus vel rosaceo solutio massa fieret, vel ex specie hieræ simpl. 3 lb. Rhabarb. electiss. 3 ij. spicæ 3 j. Squinantb. [uncia] vj. cum syrupo de Endiua fiat massa, de qua sumatur quantitas conveniens per horamante cibum. Possent tali medicamento vitiosi humores paulum euacuari; 20 < Platina illi teneri ex Rhabarbaro & pessula. > 21. Passular. per setaceum transmiss. [uncia] iiij. Rhabarb. opt. aq. cinnamomi irrorati 3 lb. Specier. diarrhod. abbat. Diatrion. santal. an. 3 ij. Misce. Datur 3 lb. vel quantum pro alui subdnectione opus erit. Ad corroborationem ventriculi exhibetem mel rosaceum cum extracto agalochi, vel spec. < Extractum Agalochi. > Dioxylaloes vt matutinis horis cooblear vnum assumeret. Non solum materiam abstergat, sed etiam symptomata matutine compe[n]scet. 22. Mellis rosacei opt. [uncia] iiiij. Extract. Xyloaloes. 3 lb. vel loco eius specierum 3 j. Misce. < Pulvis stomachalis. > Nonnunquam isto puluere vtor cum lusculo, datur ad 3 j. 23. Tunicar. stomachi galli. [uncia] ij. Spodii præparari. Off. de corde cerui an. 3 j. Margaritar. præparat. an. 3 lb. Specier. diarrhodon. Aromatic. rosar. Diamargarit. frig. an. 3 j. Misce fiat puluis. < Vagaretum ex succus Agrippæ. > Foris etiam inunctiones, vel fomentationes adhiberi possunt ventriculo. Multum quoque auxilii attulisse scimus inunctionem Epatis ex vnguento de succis, & Licnis cum vnguento Agrippæ cum aliquid materiæ ex istis etiam membris transmittatur. Habenda etiam est ratio omni, qui lotionibus pedum & brachiorum pruuocari poterit. In eiusmodi malo felici cum successu ad quietem & corroborationem exhibeo puluerem subscriptum, quantum apice cultri bis capi potest, sub Ingressum lecti; 24. Puluer. Smaragdi. Hiacynth. Margaritar. Corall. præparar. Scobis Eboris. Boli armen. an. q. s. Misce fiat puluis. Cæterum Magnificus Dominus magno sit animo, sibique persuadear. Cum morbus sit in declinatione, se omnino liberatum iri. Christus eclestis medicus benigne secundet. Vale. 12. Decembr. Anno 1580. EPIST. XV. ADOLPHVS OCCO MED. &c. N. N. S. D. NON est aliud medicamentum humano corpori ita familiare, sicut Rbaquod Barbarum vocant, cuius frequens etiam vsus nihil incommodat prorsus, id si mane masticetur pondere vnius scrupuli, deinde deglutiatur, non tantum aluum ipsam molliorem atque obedientem reddit, in iis maxime, qui suapte natura a[n]i[m]a[m] sunt, sed ea etiam masticatione caput expurgat, sensus omnes vegetissimos reddit, ventriculum & reliqua membra si quid aliud mirandum in modum corroborat, citra insignem excalefactionem. Materias tam pituitosas, quam biliosas & adustas, à corpore eiicit, neque propterea aliquam noxam ex longo eius vsu corpori affert, sicut reliquæ faciunt medicinæ. Est etenim omni ex parte medicina rutiissima & nullius prorsus nocumenti. Dentes etiam, præter alias vtilitates, ab omni putredine & nigredine conseruat, gingiua solidas reddit, anhelicum commendat, adeoque diuinum omnino remedium est, & tibi his de causis maxime familiare esse debet. Habeo ex Montano, Hydropicum quendam facie, ventre, pedibus, atque adeo toto corpore intumuisse, atque in summo fuisse periculo, ita vt plerique de ipsius salute desperarent, is fato nescio quo monitus, coepit rhabarbaro modice primum, ex quo subducebar ut alnus, & setositas sine molestia, & optime habere coepit, is augebat pondus quotidie, ita vt à drachmis ad vncias deueniret, atque eas deuoraret, & tandem integras libras, contigit vt cuacuaretur humores noxii, corroborarentur membra & non tum hydropo liberatus, atque adeo bus pro miraculo habitus est, sed membra

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17. Medicinals. 18. by vivacum and contemplation it may be removed, vivacum is to be used, and the vicious part gradually taken away, so that the good may be put in its place and strengthened, while at the same time the stomach does not admit those things that are transmitted, and the meseraic veins being open, and the passages of the liver and spleen by no means obstructed, care must be taken. < Extract of Rhubarb. > The extract of rhubarb, with prepared agaric, is best. It would also please to use rhubarb in substance with a small quantity of agaric and aloes, so that cinnamon water, in which mastic has been dissolved, is sprinkled upon it, and with syrup of violets or rose syrup the mixture is made into a mass; or from the compound hiera simple, 3 lb. rhubarb, the choicest, 3 ij., spikenard, 3 j., squinanth, [ounce] vj., with syrup of endive let a mass be made, of which let a convenient quantity be taken an hour before eating. By such a medicine the vicious humors could be somewhat evacuated; 20 < A mixture of rhubarb and seal. > 21. Raisins passed through a strainer, [ounce] iiij. Best rhubarb sprinkled with cinnamon water, 3 lb. Species diarrhodon abbatis, Diatrion, santalum, each 3 ij. Mix. Give 3 lb., or as much as shall be needed for the binding down of the bowels. For strengthening the stomach, administer rose honey with extract of aloeswood, or species. < Extract of aloeswood. > Two spoonfuls are to be taken in the morning hours. It not only clears away the matter, but also counteracts the morning symptoms. 22. Best rose honey, [ounce] iiiij. Extract of aloeswood, 3 lb., or in place of it species, 3 j. Mix. < Stomach powder. > Sometimes I use this powder with brandy; it is given to 3 j. 23. Tunicar. stomachi galli, [ounce] ij. Prepared spodium. Off. of hart's horn, each 3 j. Prepared pearls, each 3 lb. Species diarrhodon, aromatic rose, diamond pearl, cold, each 3 j. Mix, let a powder be made. < A balsam from the juice of Agrippa. > Also external rubbings or fomentations may be applied to the stomach. We also know that much help has been given by rubbing the liver with ointment from juices and woods, together with Agrippa's ointment, when something of the material is transmitted from those members also. Account should also be taken of everything that can be provoked by washing the feet and arms. In such an evil, with happy success, for rest and strengthening I give the powder written below, as much as can be taken twice on the point of a knife, beneath going to bed: 24. Powder of smaragd, hyacinth, pearls, prepared coral, ivory shavings, Armenian bole, as much as sufficient. Mix, let a powder be made. Moreover, may the Magnificent Lord be of good courage, and persuade himself that, since the disease is in decline, he will be completely freed. Christ, the heavenly physician, kindly grant success. Farewell. 12 December, in the year 1580. EPISTLE XV. ADOLPHUS OCCA, physician, etc. N. N. S. D. There is no other medicine for the human body so familiar as that which they call rhubarb, whose frequent use also harms nothing at all, if in the morning it is chewed in the weight of one scruple, then swallowed, it not only makes the bowels themselves softer and more obedient, especially in those who by nature are sluggish, but by that chewing it also clears the head, renders all the senses most lively, strengthens the stomach and the other members wonderfully in whatever else, without notable heating. It drives out from the body both phlegmatic and bilious and burned humors, and yet on that account brings no harm to the body from long use, as other medicines do. For it is in every respect a most sure medicine and altogether free of injury. It also preserves the teeth, besides other useful effects, from all corruption and blackness, makes the gums firm, improves breathing, and thus is wholly a divine remedy, and for these reasons especially it ought to be familiar to you. I have from Montanus the report of a certain dropsical man, swollen in the face, belly, feet, and indeed throughout the whole body, and in the greatest danger, so that most despaired of his recovery. He, by some fate I know not what, being admonished, began to take rhubarb moderately at first, from which he was relieved like a bowels, and his looseness without trouble, and began to be quite well; he increased the dose daily, so that from drachms he came down to ounces, and swallowed even whole pounds, and it happened that the noxious humors were evacuated, the members were strengthened, and not only was he freed from dropsy, but indeed was

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19 EPISTOLÆ 20 quoque robustiora exinde facta, calot totius corporis optimus, & functiones seuoperationes corporis omnes rediere, vixit sanus & incolumis citra vllam infirmitatem vsque ad primum senium, multas interim congressis pecunias, quas cum vidisset aliquando seruus sicarius, ipsius vitæ insidiari coepit, & eum occidere creuit, vt puto pecunias surripere posset: ingressus aliquando thalamum, in quo cum decumbe- batherus, acuto gladio, quem pistalesum vocant, sub vestibus celato, vno ictu capur amputare decrenit, quod & tentauir: sed res parum feliciter successit, inflixit quidem lethale vulnus, sed prorsus interimere non potuit, prosiluit enim ex lecto, & quanquam lethale vulnus accepisset, tanto tamen robore præditus erat, vt & sicarium contineret, donec opem illi fertent vicini, & parricidam caperent. Accesserunt tandem chiturgi, qui cum viderent vulnus lethale, coeperunt desperare de ipsius salute, telinquebant eum prognosticis, putabant fore vt quarto die moretetur: cum accederent ciciter diem quattum & vulnus aperirent, (quemadmodum in talibus vulneribus lethalibus fieri solet à peritis chiturgis, vt ante quartum non detegantur) reperiebant id citra vllam inflammationem purum & bonum. < Vulnera lethalia cerebri ante quarum non detegenda.> Illud tamen quia lethale prorsus erat, putabant cum septimo die, (qui & criticus est, & vulneribus magnis periculosus, siquidem & melius vel deterius transmutatio fit) esse motiturum. Superuixit tamen septimum diem, indies magis ac magis conualnit, & ad extremum vulnus ex integro coaluit, magna omnium hominum admiratione, & præter expectationem vixit ad vltimum vsque senium. tandem interroga- tus, quo nam pacto tantum corporis robur sibi conciliasset, vt à lethalibus ægritudinis bus euaserit, respondit frequenti vltu habar- bati. Hæc tibi vir humanissime, cum te erga mediocria etiam officia gratissimu[m] videam, communicare volui æquo animo, vt vicissim aliquod gratitudinis specimen acciperes, & vt tibi hoc medicamentum familiarissimum esse posset, ad totius corporis robur conciliandum, & omnes ægritudines arctendas. Ita nobis clarissimus Ioannes Baptista Montanus communicauit priuatim domi suæ, mihi nimirum & domino Hieronymo Scribx, pix memorix, cæteris omnibus absentibus, quæ vt bona sunt, & nemini fere cognita, licet eius vsus sit apud medicus quoridianus, itatibi quoque soli serues rogo. Vale. ET EPIST. XVI. ANDREAS DVIDITH AB HORCKOVIUZA, Consil & Orator Cæsar. &c. Clarissimo viro Dm. D. Wenceslas Raphano Fratist. Physico Oppamensi, S. D. MIRARIS fortasse, cur ad te non redie- ris, quituum tanropere expetebat & consilium & operam. Cognosco causam. De territus mercede, quam cum pharmacopæo postulabatis, Tessinum proficiscitur. ibi in chirurgum, qui lapides è vesicis exsecare solet, incidit, certam, vt solent, salutem, non magno precio, vendentem. Itaque illius se vanitati, vt ego ominot, totum tradit. Quem res exitum habitura sit, audiemus paulo post. Ego vereor, ne imptudennæ suæ pœnas det simul & auaritix. Sic solent plerunque, qui compendia quærunt, magna dispendia referre. Sed valear ille, & suo consilio fruatur, quandoquidem nostro parere noluit. Hæc sensus, non tam vt scires quid consili ceperitis, qui iam meus esse desit oeconomus, quam vt, cum te saluare decreuissem, longiorem ad te darem epistolam. quamuis tu fortasse æquiore animo. inanibus hisce literis meis carere posses. sed ignosce mihi, non possum pati, vt nuper admodum tam feliciter inita inter nos amicitia silentio elanguescat, quam equidem vigere, & mutuis inter nos officiis augere inprimis opto. Nescio quam sis occupatus, hoc præsertim tempore, quo varus morbis vulgus infestatur, sed si tantum est otu tibi, vt libeat animi causa, ad ine excurrere, eris mihi gratissimus & expectarissimus hospes. Sed piscatione delectaris, dabo operam, vt si alia omnia, cerre id apud me desideraturus non sis. Mittam si vules, & cum voles, currum & equos. Si Puteanum habes de medicamentorum Puteanus di purgantibus. purgantium facultatibus, rogo re, vt eius vsum, ad aliquot dies, mihi accommodes. Legi non ita pridem Thomæ Erast, docti viri, eadem de re librum. Erasti sententia do medicamentorum propriu[m] facultatum. cuius si valere sentenia debet, omnem profecto fundirus, vt mihi quidem videtur, medicinam tolli necesse fuerit. Nam vralia omittam, si nulla sunt nulla nulla, & alitis membris accommodata, propriaque, vel vt vulgo vocant, appropriata pharmaca, sed sola vellicatione, aut actimonia, aut etiam ipsa ciborum contra E. copia, facultas expultrix incitata, noxia restimur. quæuis propellit, & excernit; quid iam opus est amplius doctrina illa de alim. fac. de medic. comp. de morborum denique differentuis. Vnum aliquod, qualequale illud sit

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19 EPISTLES 20 also afterward became stronger; the color of the whole body was excellent, and all the functions and operations of the body returned. He lived healthy and unharmed, without any illness, up to old age, while in the meantime he had accumulated much money. When a certain hired assassin saw this, he began to plot against his life and tried to kill him, I suppose in order to steal the money. One day, entering the bedroom in which he was lying down, with a sharp sword, which they call a pistoletta, concealed beneath his clothes, he resolved to cut off his head with a single blow, and he even attempted it. But the affair did not succeed very happily: indeed he inflicted a mortal wound, but could not kill him outright. For he sprang from the bed, and although he had received a mortal wound, he was endowed with such strength that he held the assassin fast until the neighbors came to his aid and seized the murderer. At last the surgeons arrived, and when they saw the mortal wound, they began to despair of his recovery, and left him with their prognostics; they thought he would die on the fourth day. When they came about the fourth day and opened the wound, as experienced surgeons are accustomed to do in such mortal wounds, lest they be uncovered before the fourth day, they found it pure and healthy, without any inflammation. < Mortal wounds of the brain are not to be opened before the fourth day.> Yet since it was altogether mortal, they thought that on the seventh day, which is also critical and dangerous in great wounds, since a change to better or worse takes place, he would die. Nevertheless he survived the seventh day, and day by day grew stronger and stronger, and in the end the wound completely healed, to the great astonishment of all men, and contrary to expectation he lived to extreme old age. Finally, when asked by what means he had acquired such bodily strength that he had escaped mortal illnesses, he replied: by frequent wearing of a beard. This, most humane sir, since I see you are very grateful even for moderate services, I wished to communicate to you in good will, so that you might in turn receive some token of gratitude, and so that this medicine might be familiar to you, for the strengthening of the whole body and the warding off of all illnesses. Thus the most renowned John Baptist Montanus communicated it to us privately in his own house, namely to me and to Master Jerome Scriba, with the memory of the other matters preserved, while all the others were absent. Since these things are good, and hardly known to anyone, although their use is common among physicians, I ask that you too keep them for yourself alone. Farewell. ET EPIST. XVI. ANDREAS DVIDITH AB HORCKOVIUZA, Counselor and Imperial Orator, etc., to the most renowned man Master Wenceslas Raphanus of Fratist, Physician at Oppa, greetings. Perhaps you wonder why you did not return to the man who so greatly desired both your advice and your help. I know the reason. Frightened by the fee which you had demanded together with the apothecary, he sets out for Pavia. There he runs into a surgeon who is accustomed to cut stones from the bladder, a man selling, as they say, certain salvation at no great price. So he gives himself wholly over to that man’s vanity, as I foresee. What outcome the affair will have, we shall hear a little later. I fear that he will pay the penalty both for his rashness and for his greed. In this way, as a rule, those who seek bargains bring back great losses. But let him go on and enjoy his own counsel, since he was unwilling to follow ours. These are my feelings, not so much so that you should know what counsel he has taken, since he is no longer my steward, as that, since I had decided to greet you, I might send you a longer letter. Though perhaps you could, with a calmer mind, do without these empty letters of mine. But forgive me: I cannot bear that the friendship so happily begun between us not long ago should wither away in silence, whereas I most especially wish it to flourish and to be increased by mutual services between us. I do not know how occupied you are, especially at this time, when the people are afflicted by various diseases, but if you have so much leisure that you would like, for the sake of your own pleasure, to run over to me, you will be a most welcome and much-expected guest. But if you take delight in fishing, I shall do my best so that, if all else fails, you will certainly not lack that with me. I will send, if you wish and when you wish, a carriage and horses. If you have Puteanus on the purgative medicines, I ask that you lend me the use of it for a few days. Not long ago I read the book of Thomas Erastus, a learned man, on the same subject. Puteanus on the purgative powers of medicines, please lend me, if you will, its use for a few days. Erastus’s opinion about the proper powers of medicines. If his opinion is to prevail, then surely all medicine must be entirely overthrown, as it seems to me. For I shall pass over the urinary remedies: if there are no specific, no special medicines suited to particular members and proper to them, or, as they commonly call them, appropriate remedies, but only the power of expulsion is stirred up by irritation, acrimony, or even by the very abundance of food, which drives out and evacuates whatever is harmful; what further need is there now of that doctrine concerning alimentary powers, concerning compound medicines, and finally concerning the differences of diseases? Some single thing, whatever it may be,

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sit, medicamentum omnibus humoribus educendis, atque adeo omnibus morbis propellendis suffecerit. Puto te librum legisse. Quare non ero longior. Cupio tamen tuum de eo iudicium audire, tum de antimonio, & aliis Theophrasticis pharmaciis. Video multu[m] illis tribui à multis, & si vera milli narrantur, curant magnos morbos cinistones illi, & vt ille inquit, argenti extenebronides. Verum faciunt id & vetulæ sæpe, vt trium phare iam contra rationales empirici posse videantur. Equidem, vt hoc quoque addam, vidi proxime præterita æstate molestam scabiem (de qua curanda multa & varia, & longa quædam, vestri præcipiunt) vnguento, quod hic quidem parat, depulsam esse quatriduo, nulla vel ætatis, vel sexus, vel temperamenti habita ratione. priuigna mea 14. annos nata, ego 43. & alii diuersæ ætatis, & complexionis, eodem vnguento, eodem modo administrato, sine vlla molestia, conualiumus. Quid dices? alii etiam sua sponte conualescunt, tum ex hoc, tum ex aliis magnis morbis, nullius ope. Quare venit mihi in mentem illius dilemmatis, Omnis morbis, aut in vitam, aut mortem desinit. Vtroque igitur modo medicina inutilis est, cui attinis est & illa quæstio, de vitæ termino. Sed desino pluta nunc garrire. Orote, si quem vnguem nosti bonum & modestum virum, Græcis, Latinisque literis eruditum, & Philosophiæ inprimis ac medicinæ studiosum, qui mecum in hoc otio, & solitudine viuere aliquandiu velit, etus vt mihi operam conducas. Liberaliter & iucunde hominem tractabimus. Fieri vix potest, vt non multos habeas notos, qui talem hospitem quærunt. Filium meum illi instituendum traderem. Vale, & amori meo ignosce, cui hæc omnia adscribas velim. Pascow. 17. Septembr. anno 1577. EPIST. XVII. IDEM EIDEM. REPENTIVS boni huius viti, qui has reddet, discessus, breuiorem me faeit, remitto per eum omnia, quæ mihi miseras, præter Kolreuterum de vrinis, virium, vt video, eruditum, & iudicio minime superstitioso præditum. Vtinam existat aliquis, qui finilem laborem de pulsibus suscipiat. in quibus ipsis quoq[ue] non dubito magnam esse inter Medicos superstitionem. Ausim etiam dicere tot differentias, quot describuntur, a Galeno præsertim, neque intelligi à quoquam, neque obseruari posse. dice- rem quiddam magis etiam , sed nolo vos offendere, nisi quis casus incidat, operam nobis vestram denegetus; hocque modo iniuriam vestram viciscaminu[m] taceo igitur; præsertim quod iam casus quidam aduersus causam mihi adsert, vt consilium atque opem tuam implorem quod mihi, vt communicare quamprimum ne grauere per humanitatem tuam te oro. Filiolus meus annieulus, heri è mensa, in qua iacebat, desertus à vagabunda nutricula, in scammnum decidit; post in terram. vulnus accepit in superiore linguæ parte, quæ palatum respicit, satis profundum; vt duo pita minora capere possit, iuxta se posita, non superimposita, vt hinc etiam latitudinem intelligas. habet dentes duos superiores, totulem inferiores. ex inferiore linguæ parte nullum vulnus apparet, quod mirum videatur, cum mentum contulum sit aliquantulum & sanguine suffusum: vt appateat superioribus dentibus incipam linguam prope apicem, vnius digiti interuallo. Quid iubes nos facere? difficile est infanti medicinam adhibere, eo loco præsertim. Censes ne illi nendam ei linguam melle despumato? Putasne ex hoc vulnere periculum fore, ne vitiose pronunciet? Consule in medium mi D. Doctor. Vereor ne suppuretur. Iam non fugit. ab lactatus est enim iam ab vno mense & amplius. De somno theses Erastl expecto, & si quid eintmodi aliud habes. Valeat Ex. V. meque amet, rescribat, amicos salutet, etsi ignotos. Pascowia, 29. Octob. Anno 1577. EPIST. XVIII. IDEM EIDEM. NOVlieuit citius respondere. Illustris Dominus Zborrouieus Cæsaris pocillator, affinis meus, aliquot dies me detinuit. Cum hoc igitur hospite meotoros dies consumere necesse fuit. Post, multis literis respondendum fuit in varias regiones. tandem in legendis cursim epistolis Gesneri, quas Vienna accepi, aliquot dies posui, hoc animo, vt eas simulatque percurrissem, tecum quoque communicarem, vt minus mihi de tam diuturno silentio succenseres. Vt ingenue dicam, fellit expectationem meam. Lucunda quidem curiosis lector est; sed non video an sit operæ precium. De quotu rectius dicabis. Malumsem de re herbaria meurarium hominis docti, & diligenter edidisset Wolfius; sed, vt video, promisit, in vita Gesneri, & nunc spem fere omnem adimit. quod

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it would suffice as a medicine for drawing out all humors, and indeed for driving away all diseases. I think you have read the book. For that reason I shall not be longer. Yet I am eager to hear your judgment of it, and also of antimony, and of the other Paracelsian remedies. I see that many attribute much to them, and if I am rightly told, they cure great diseases, those “cinistones,” and, as he says, “argenti extenebronides.” But old women also often do the same, so that they seem, by virtue of their three hairs, to be able to stand against rational physicians and empirics alike. Indeed, to add this too, I recently saw a troublesome itch, concerning the curing of which you prescribe many and various remedies, and certain lengthy ones, in your books; but it was driven away in four days by an ointment prepared here, with no regard to age, sex, or temperament. My stepdaughter, 14 years old, and I, 43, and others of different ages and constitutions, were all restored with the same ointment, administered in the same way, without any discomfort. What will you say? Others even recover of themselves, both from this and from other great diseases, with no one’s help. Wherefore the dilemma came into my mind: every disease ends either in life or in death. In either case, then, medicine is useless; and related to this is that question about the end of life. But I cease now to chatter more. I beg you, if you know any good and modest man, well trained in Greek and Latin letters, and especially devoted to philosophy and medicine, who would wish to live with me for a while in this leisure and solitude, that you would help me procure such a companion. We shall treat the man liberally and pleasantly. It can hardly be otherwise than that you have many acquaintances who are looking for such a guest. I would entrust my son to him for instruction. Farewell, and forgive my affection, to which I wish you to ascribe all these things. Pascow, 17 September 1577. EPISTLE XVII THE SAME TO THE SAME. The sudden departure of this good man, who will deliver these letters, makes my message shorter. I send back by him everything you sent me, except Kolreuter on urine, a man, as I see, learned in a degree, and by no means endowed with a superstitious judgment. Would that someone would undertake the like labor concerning the pulse! In that matter too I do not doubt there is much superstition among physicians. I would even dare say that the different kinds described, especially by Galen, can neither be understood by anyone nor observed. I would say something even stronger, but I do not wish to offend you, unless some occasion arises in which you refuse us your help; and in this way I will be revenged for the wrong done to you—I say nothing of it, then, especially since some adverse case now compels me to implore your advice and assistance, which I beg you, out of your kindness, not to delay in communicating as soon as possible. My little son, still in swaddling-clothes, yesterday fell from the table on which he was lying, being left by the wandering nurse, then onto the bench, and then onto the ground. He received a wound on the upper part of the tongue, the side facing the palate, fairly deep; so that two small peas could be placed next to one another there, not one atop the other, so that you may also understand the breadth. He has two upper teeth, and two lower ones. On the lower part of the tongue no wound appears, which seems surprising, since the chin is somewhat bruised and suffused with blood: it seems that the upper teeth began to injure the tongue near the tip, at a distance of one finger-breadth. What do you order us to do? It is difficult to apply medicine to an infant, especially in that place. Do you think we should anoint the tongue with skimmed honey? Do you think there is danger from this wound that he may pronounce words incorrectly? Give counsel in the matter, my Doctor. I fear lest it become suppurated. He is no longer at the breast; for he has been weaned now for more than one month. I await Erastus’s theses on sleep, and if you have anything else of that kind. May your Excellency fare well, and love me, answer me in writing, and greet my friends, even those unknown to you. Pascovia, 29 October 1577. EPISTLE XVIII THE SAME TO THE SAME. I could not reply sooner. The illustrious Lord Zborowieus, cup-bearer to the Emperor, my kinsman, detained me for several days. With this guest, then, I had to spend idle days. Afterward, I had many letters to answer in various regions. At last I spent several days reading through the letters of Gesner, which I received from Vienna, with the intention that, as soon as I had quickly gone through them, I would share them with you too, so that you might be less displeased at my so long a silence. To speak frankly, it disappointed my expectation. It is certainly pleasant for curious readers; but I do not see whether it is worth the labor. You will judge better about the matter. I should have preferred Wolf to have published the account of the herbal matter of that learned and diligent man; but, as I see, he promised it in the life of Gesner, and now almost takes away all hope of it. which

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23 EPISTOLÆ 24 ex eins Epistola, quam Aconito p[er]texuisse, facile intelliges. Dolendum est optimè illius viti labores tantos, tamque vtilis, in tenebris detineri. Sed deest scilicet Mæcenas. Sed de his alias. Spero iam te oculis bene vti; quibus nimiæ vigiliæ obsuerunt, opinor. Vngue passim notaui margines Gesneri: rogo te, vt omnia illa loca punctulis notes, ne mihi totus denuo liber euoluen- dus sit, cum forte quæram aliquid, vt sit. < Historia ægrapocilla.> Nam vnguium notæ cito deterentur, præsertim si liber compingatur, quod vt fieri cures a te peto. Rogo D. Thomam nostrum, vt si ita tibi videatur pro sillolæ meæ morbo, quem paulo post describam, mittat electi Rhabarbari quantum iudicabis necessariu[m] esse. puella est septimum agens annum, ma- crescit admodum, scabie nunquam liberum corpusculum habet, cutis fere scabrosa, & sicca est, colore ad fuscedinem tendente, de colore, imo pallida facie semper. febricu- la sub noctem sæpe affligitur, sine magna si- ti à phthisi timeo, vel etiam ab hydrope. Vi- deo enim epar non fungi officio. Cogita- bam Rhabarbari puluerem ex panniculo lineo suspendere in poculo, ex quo cereui- siam haurit, aut etiam in infusione ei pro- pinare. rogo, vt in medium aliquid consu- las, & præscribas quid facto opus esse indi- ces. < Consolidatis lingua ex parte.> Filiolus conualuerat antequam quic- quam eorum, quæ misisti adhiberemus. pus in lingua concretum continua suctio- ne ipse emundauit sibi, iam sanus est, nisi quod vulnus non coaluit totum Fortasse nunquam continnabitur hæc continut so- lutio. Mittat mihi D. Thomas vnam at- que alteram nucem vonicam, ad inutiles, & noxios quosdam canes necandos. de quo etiam legi in Gesnero. Sed dosios oblitus sum, nec quærere vacat, rogo annota, vna cum modo exhibendi. Mechlocani ra- dix Venetiis ad me allata, iam eatiosa etat filiolo tamen meo, quintum tum annum a- genti, grauissime febricitanti, & aluum ad- strictam habenti dędi. Connaluit tertia post die, nescio an huic medicamento id tribuendum sit, an naturæ simpliciter, quæ ipsa sanat morbos, an quod sotte iam ad exi- tum peruenerat febris. < Lobelium de radice Mechoacan.> Lobelii verba de Mechoacan radice sic habent, Falluntut qui putant Bryoniam esse hanc atque illi, qui laurum cinamomum, & similacem a- spectam salsam parillam, aliasque complures exoticas easdem specie cum nostratibus fa- ciunt. Hanc mittit insula omnium, quæ no- stræ ætati in occiduis insulis innotuerunt, auro, pecore, stirpibus ditissima Mechoa- cam vocata, cui radicem cognominem fe- cerunt Indi, vsumque docuerunt Hispanos, primum fere 20. ab hinc annis, à quibus ac- cepimus, quarum drachmæ puluisculo so- lo, sed ex vino albo, aut iuseculo propinato, commodissime qualibet die, hora & ætate, nulla molestia, aut incommodo, quinquies, sexies aut septies, flauas hydropicorum a- quas eductas, pituitasque quasuis compe- rimus. Hanc non visam, qui cupit nosse, intueatur Bryonæ radicem. sunt enim con- colotes eortice, rugis, & fere magnitudi- ne; sed huins taleolæ, frustaue rotunda transuersim secta, siccandi causa, intus mul- tis circulis à centro ad ambirum parallelis distinguntur, mandendo sapore farina- ceo, nec aeti, odereque neutiquam ingra- ti est: cæterum albida & friabilis, vt bryo- nia, cui similem faciunt sarmentis peda- menta scandentibus & racemis. Folia a- tro virentia, rotunda, perennia, Nympheæ fere, & pariter superne patum acuta. < Marcello d. mememur de Mechoacan.> Mit- to tibi commentarium Marcelli de eadem radice. Vtinam Kolreuterum de arthriti- de nanciseamur, Vale, 11. Nouembr. anno 1577. EPIST. XIX. IDEM EIDEM. ESTO sane. facessant posthac excensatio- nes, & scilant in literis nostris culpæ deprecationes, quoties alter alterius ope- ram requirer. Sed tamen ego hac in parte te frequentior eto. humanitas tua animum addet, vereot, ne minus etiam prudentem efficiat, de quo non dicam plura, ne in eos scopulos deferat, quos me paulo ante fu- gere velle ostendi. Incunda mihi fuit ad- modum Bibliothecæ tuæ inspectio. Video rebonis libris abundare, quod ipsum iudi- etii & doctrinæ elegantis documentum est. quod non equidem propterea dico, vt ea- dem me laude quasi remunereris, cum meorum quoque librorum indicem vide- bis. Illud enim in me quadrat; quod tu in ipsa limine, ex Plutarcho, posuisti, tum , et , et . Misto igitur tibi meum catalogum, qui copiosior esset, si ferre scribendi laborem possem, malo legere. Remitto omnia, quæ inibi vtenda, pro tua humanitate dederas, præter Galenum de humoribus, quem in- tra paucos dies accipies. quantum equi- dem iudicare potui, vix responder titulus hic argumento, nisi quis oranium morbo- rum causas ad humores referat. Quod si valete debet, quid prnhibet, quin omnes & huius & Hippocratis libri de humoribus inscribantur? sed tutor vltra crepidam. Vulnus

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23 EPISTLES 24 from his letter, which you will easily understand to have been tinctured with aconite. It is a pity that so many and so useful labors of that most excellent man should be kept in darkness. But, of course, Maecenas is lacking. But more of this another time. I hope you are now making good use of your eyes, which, I suppose, have been harmed by excessive watching. I have here and there marked the margins of Gesner with my nail: I ask you to mark all those places with dots, so that I may not have to turn over the whole book again when perhaps I am looking for something, as it may be. <History of a little scab.> For marks made with the nail are quickly worn away, especially if the book is bound up, and I ask you to take care that this be done. I ask our Dr. Thomas, if it seem good to you, for my little girl's ailment, which I shall describe a little later, to send as much selected rhubarb as you judge necessary. The girl is entering her seventh year; she is wasting away very much, her body is never free from scabies, her skin is almost scabrous and dry, her color tending toward swarthiness, indeed she always has a pale face. Toward night she is often troubled by a slight fever, without much thirst; I fear phthisis, or even dropsy. For I see that the liver is not performing its office. I was thinking of hanging rhubarb powder in a little linen cloth in the cup from which she drinks beer, or even giving it to her in an infusion. I ask you to consult about something in the middle, and prescribe what you judge needs to be done. <The tongue consolidated in part.> My little son had recovered before we used any of those remedies you sent. The pus congealed in the tongue he himself cleared away by continual sucking; he is now well, except that the wound has not fully closed. Perhaps this continuous loosening will never be entirely stopped. Let Dr. Thomas send me one or two vomica nuts for killing useless and harmful dogs. I have also read of this in Gesner. But I have forgotten the dose, nor have I time to inquire; please note it down, together with the way of administering it. Mechoacan root, brought to me from Venice, was already suitable for my little son, then in his fifth year, who was suffering very gravely from fever and had a constipated bowel; I gave it. He recovered on the third day afterward; I do not know whether this should be attributed to the medicine, or simply to nature, which itself heals diseases, or because the fever had by then already reached its end. <Lobelius on the root of Mechoacan.> Lobelius' words about the root of Mechoacan are as follows: they are mistaken who think this is bryony, and those who make laurus cinnamomum and similax aspera, salsaparilla, and various other foreign plants to be the same in appearance as our native ones. This root is brought from the island, which, of all those that have become known in our age in the western islands, richest in gold, livestock, and plants, called Mechoacan; the Indians gave its root the same name and taught its use to the Spaniards, nearly first some 20 years ago, from whom we received it. Of these, a drachm of powder alone, but given in white wine or broth, very conveniently on any day, at any hour, and at any age, without any trouble or inconvenience, five, six, or seven times, we have found, brings forth the yellow waters of dropsical patients and any phlegms whatsoever. Whoever wishes to know this unseen root should look at bryony root. For they are alike in bark, wrinkles, and almost in size; but this one, cut into slices or round pieces crosswise for the sake of drying, is distinguished inside by many circles running from the center to the circumference. In taste it is farinaceous when chewed, and its smell is by no means unpleasant; moreover it is whitish and friable, like bryony, to which it is made similar by its runners and climbing tendrils and clusters. The leaves are dark green, round, perennial, almost like those of the water-lily, and likewise somewhat pointed above. <Marcello d. mememur on Mechoacan.> I am sending you Marcello's commentary on the same root. Would that we might obtain Kolreuter on arthritis. Farewell, 11 November, in the year 1577. EPIST. XIX. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME. So be it indeed. Henceforth let excuses cease, and let apologies for faults in our letters be written off whenever one requires the other's help. Yet in this I shall nevertheless be more frequent than you. Your kindness will encourage me, though I fear it may also make me less prudent; but I shall say no more about that, lest I carry you into those reefs which I have just shown I wished to avoid. The inspection of your library was very pleasing to me. I see that it abounds in good books, which is itself a sign of judgment and refined learning. I do not say this, of course, in order that you may repay me with the same praise, as you will see also the list of my books. For that saying applies to me, which you placed at the very threshold, from Plutarch, then , and , and . So I am sending you my catalog, which would be more copious if I could bear the labor of writing, but I prefer to read. I return everything that your kindness had given me for use, except Galen On the Humors, which you will receive within a few days. As far as I could judge, the title here scarcely corresponds to the subject, unless one refers the causes of all diseases to the humors. But if health must be preserved, what prevents all the books of both this author and Hippocrates from being entitled On the Humors? But enough—let no one pass beyond his last. Wound

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15 MEDICINALES. 26 Vulnus Lingua. Vulnus in lingua infantis sanatum quidem est, sed non coaluit, neque vnquam amplius coalescet sed erit perpetua solutio continui. Vetor de noceat loquelæ, aut certè pronunciationi. Vale meque mutuo ama, & amicos nostros saluta, 16. Decemb. Anno 1577. EPIST. XX. IDEM EIDEM. 10 BEAST me istis tuis manuscriptis libris. Miratus diligentiam, & sane non mediocres labores. gratias ago de tam insigni humanitate & beneuolentia. retinui lectiones Italicas, cum Galeno de humoribus reliquos omnes remlu[m]. Si pateris, & eatere potes bis scriptis, oro te, sint apud me, dum eorum maximam partem petlego, exscribam etiam aliqua nisi tibi aduersum id fuerit. Quod si etiam noles, remittam statim, simulatque mihi voluntatem tuam significaueris. < Nicolaus Curtius.> Scipsi abhinc triduum Patauium cuidam Mercurialis discipulo, Bernhardo Paludano, Belgæ, vt mihi omnium Doctorum ibi lectiones colligat. Mortuus est non ita pridem Brixiæ, in patria, vir meo iudicio, excellens Nicolaus Curtius. cuius mihi in docendo petspieuitas, & methodus in primis, iam à viginti annis, quibus eum noui, placebat mirissee. Paternus non discedit à Galeno. < Paternus.> Capiuaccius grauis, &, nisi fallor, solidus. Verum tuum hoc iudicium est. ego aureus ille Apuleius ad lyram. Superfusi expectationem meam, vt ingenue fatear, in earminibus pangendis, in quo genere plane artifex es. O quam suauis, quam plenus, quam etiam pius. < Capucinus. Aureus Apuleius.> Video te Phoebo charum esse; qui idem & Poëtarum & Medeorum deus est. anatomica me delectarunt, quæ si augeres, per ocium, emitti possent eum laude. non enim ita facile est ea, tam apte, versibus includere; & neminem hoc antehac tentasse memini. Ain'tu non nociturum filiolo meo illud vulnus? illud tamen non video quomodo fieri possit, vt amplius coalescat, quod persanatum iam à sex fortasse & amplius hebdomatibus est, & ita dinisum, vt coite nullo pacto, nulla industria queat. < Linguæ vulnus.> Quomodo in lingua potest retinere siue oleum, sioe quiequid illud est, quo Inungi iubes? perpetuo linguam mouet, sigit, & sputo repletum est; quam vim vniendi partes in villo medicamento ostendes tantam, vt in momento coalescant? momento autem opus esset, propter illa, quæ dixi, impedimenta, sed difficile tibi erit iudicare de non vitis, vt de vrina scribit ille tuus Kolreuter. < Minium scriptorum.> Minium meum tale est, In aquam impono gummi pet integrum diem, dum liquescat, & aqua tota viscida fiat. Huius aquæ partem marmoti (aut simili alicul rei) inspergo, post cinnabarls pauxillu[m], reto minutissime vt iam ex eo pigmentum fiat. hoc impono vitreo vasculo, eiusdem aquæ infundo tantum, vt color dilutior fiat. sic vtor. Sæpe etiam aquæ simpliciter iniicio, aut aceto, einnabarim in tenuissimum puluerem redactam, & misceo dum color fiat aptus ad scribendum, imposita tamen gummi portiuncula. Hoc sit cum laborem fugio, & bene tamen succedit. Vale mi optime amice, & me ama. Pascouia 7. Iunii, Anno 1578. EPIST. XXI. IDEM EIDEM. GRATIAS ago de responso ad quæstionem. Nondum licuit bene examinare. properabat enim tabellarius? Sed non dubito & docte & accommodate responsum esse. Vetat me secus existimare elegans doctrina tua, & acumen. nescio cur Simonij synopsin, cum aliis vna ligatis libris mihi miseris. Si petij, erraui. nam hos ipsos mihi quotq[ue] adferri curaui. Quoniam tam promptum te video in gratibus quæstionibus explicandis, & magnifico iudicium, & doctrinam tuam, rogo te indica mihi, quid censendum putes, de altera hac quæstione: Quæ potest esse ratio, vt somnus < An summus morandæ non nocenti> meridianus noceat, quem vestri Medici plerunque prohibent, & non noceatis, qui cænam sequitur? Idem ventriculus, idem cerebrum, idem homo, causa somni eadem. noli recurrere ad illas, de noctis frigore, de diuturno tempore, & quæ adferri solent, multa in altera illa quæstione de prandio & cena. nam his facile responderi potest, & videntur . Mittotibi dono, quem me iam pridem misisse putabam librum de Epochis non contemnendum in suo genere. < Epocha. Leibilam. tum Ronseu. Vrren Describute?> Quid te tantopere in Liebelausio delactat? Quid in Ronseo? de descorbuto habes elegantem tractatura in Wierib[us] observationibus medicis. Liber editus est in 4. habet & alias elegantes tractatûn unculas, de quartana, de angina pestilenti. de hydrope. Sinon habes, mittam meum librum, dignissimum leetu. Valemi Domine, & amice Optime. Pascouia, dier. Octob. anno 1578.

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15 MEDICAL. 26 Wound of the Tongue. A wound in the tongue of a child has indeed been healed, but it has not united, nor will it ever unite again, but there will be a perpetual solution of continuity. I fear it may harm speech, or certainly pronunciation. Farewell, and love me in return, and greet our friends. 16 Dec., 1577. EPISTLE XX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. 10 PLEASE me with those manuscript books of yours. I admire your diligence, and indeed no small labors. I give thanks for so remarkable a humanity and goodwill. I have kept the Italian readings, with Galen on the humors, all the rest I have returned. If you allow it, and can spare these writings, I beg you, let them remain with me while I go through the greater part of them; I will even copy out some things unless that be against your wish. But if you do not wish it either, I will send them back at once, as soon as you signify your will to me. < Nicolaus Curtius.> A few days ago I wrote to Padua to a certain pupil of Mercurialis, Bernhard Paludanus, a Belgian, that he should gather for me the lectures of all the doctors there. Not long ago in Brescia, in his native city, there died a man, in my judgment, outstanding, Nicolaus Curtius; his precision in teaching, and especially his method, pleased me wonderfully for twenty years now, since I have known him. Paternus does not depart from Galen. < Paternus.> Capuaccius is weighty, and, if I am not mistaken, sound. But this is your judgment; for my part, the golden Apuleius for the lyre. You surpassed my expectation, to speak frankly, in composing poems, in which genre you are plainly an expert. O how sweet, how full, how pious too. < Capucinus. Golden Apuleius.> I see that you are dear to Phoebus, who is also the god of both poets and doctors. The anatomical pieces delighted me, and if you were to increase them, at leisure, they could be published with praise. For it is not so easy to include such things so aptly in verse; and I do not remember anyone having attempted this before. Do you not think that that wound will do my little son no harm? Yet I do not see how it can happen that it should unite again, since it has already been completely healed for perhaps six weeks and more, and so loosened that it can in no way, with no effort, come together. < Wound of the tongue.> How can it retain in the tongue either oil, or whatever it is with which you bid it be anointed? The tongue is continually moved, the stitch is torn, and it is filled with spittle; by what power of joining parts in that remedy will you show such strength that they may unite in an instant? But an instant would be needed, because of those hindrances I mentioned, yet it will be difficult for you to judge what is not fitting, as that man of yours Kolreuter writes about urine. < Minium of writings.> My minium is prepared thus: I put gum into water for a whole day, until it dissolves and the water becomes altogether viscous. I sprinkle part of this water upon marble (or some similar thing), then a little cinnabar, and grind it very finely until from this a pigment is made. I put this into a glass vessel, and pour in as much of the same water as will make the color lighter. So I use it. Often too I simply add water, or vinegar, and cinnabar ground into the finest powder, and I mix it until the color is fit for writing, provided a little gum is added. This I do when I wish to avoid labor, and yet it turns out well. Farewell, my very best friend, and love me. Pascouia, 7 June, 1578. EPISTLE XXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I thank you for your answer to the question. I have not yet had time to examine it properly; for the messenger was in a hurry. But I do not doubt that it was answered both learnedly and suitably. Your elegant learning and sharpness prevent me from thinking otherwise. I do not know why you sent me Simonio’s synopsis, bound together with the other books. If I asked for it, I was mistaken; for I had ordered these same books to be brought to me as well. Since I see you so prompt in explaining questions, and so great in judgment and learning, I ask you to tell me what you think should be judged concerning this other question: What can be the reason that midday sleep < whether the highest delay not harmful > does harm, which your physicians generally forbid, and does not harm when it follows supper? The same stomach, the same brain, the same man, the cause of sleep the same. Do not fall back on those arguments about the cold of night, the long span of time, and the many things usually adduced in the other question about lunch and supper; for to these an easy answer can be given, and they seem irrelevant. I send you as a gift the book on Epochs, which I had long ago thought I had sent, not to be despised in its own kind. < Epocha. Leibilam. then Ronseu. Vrren Describute?> What is it that so delights you in Liebelausius? What in Ronseus? You have a fine treatise on scurvy in Wier’s medical observations. The book was published in quarto; it also has other elegant little treatises, on quartan fever, on malignant quinsy, on dropsy. If you do not have it, I will send my book, most worthy of being read. Farewell, my lord, and best of friends. Pascouia, day of October, 1578.

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27 EPISTOLÆ 28 EPIST. XXII. IDEM EIDEM. DE literis ad me missis amote. Quæ his adiungentur, rogo te, vt, tua cura, Troi- lo transmittantur; per certum aliquem ho- minem, quem occasio offerret. nihil est ne- cessè proprium cursorem conducere. Mit- to Squarclupi cometam non bene descri- ptam à filiomeo. Rogo te, vt accurat hoc scriptum perlegas, & ad me iudicium tuum perscribas. nunc noctes sunt longiores, non dubito te lucubrare, & non puto ita, vt de die, à tuis ægrotis, te auocati. Strictim nunc attigi, & incidi in quædani loca dum modo huc, modo illuc oculos coniicio, quæ nescio quomodo non ita, vt aute a solebant, me af- ficiunt. Videntur aliqua, ad augendam mo- lem, congesta esse non necessario. Sed de co quoque vt de totare, tum melius indica- bis. Qua quæ accidunt, eisi non esse à voces, vt tu vocas, concedatur, non sequitur ramen, mihi fallor, crinitas tanta illa mala portendere. Quamuis hoc ipso, quod fúnt, è portentorum numero eximuntur, quæ , & quæ , inter te affecta esse, vt habeant. Verum de his in mea illa epistola fusius egi, si recte memini; & hæc Marcelli plurac- iam continent. Erastum equidem magni- facio, magno illius merito; sed ita tamen, vt non propterea suas dotes aliis viris doctis detraham, quas à cumulate accepe- runt, & sua industria, item beneficio auxerunt. In quorum numero te quoque non iniuria collocandum existimo. De fo- mno sententiam tuam non improbo; sed illæ, quæ polliceris & ab ingenio tuo expectari possunt, mallem legere. Il- 40 Nex quieti destinata. lud quidem quod scribebas ex Hippocrate, noctem quieti, diem laboribus destina- tum esse, verum est & sacris literis consentaneum, sed non videtur tamen dubitatio- nis meæ fibras euellere. Verum de his, cum erit otium, cogitabis. Miror Erastum non respondere. si mihi tuas communicabis, dabo operam vt respondeat homo, vt video, ad huiusmodi scriptiones impi- ger. Quin aiunt cum hoc in more positum habere, vt ad viros doctos suamittat, & il- lorum iudicia exquirat. Vale, meque mu- tuo ama. Pascouia, 14. Octobris, anno Millesimo, quingentesimo, septuagesimo o- clauo. EPIST. XXIII. IDEM EIDEM. N ACTVS sum commentarium Domini lordani de Brunno: Gallica lue, vt ego nomino. prorsus mirificus morbus est. de quo videtur mihi docte admodum & acute disputare. Temperare mihi non potui, quin cum tibi ad legendu mitterem, pro amicitia nostra; cum co tamen, vt no[m] emaneat, & cito ad me redeat, illud ne iure queri possit, quod iniusso tuo lucubrationes eius diuulgem: hoc vt remittere possim in tempore. Potes tamen tamdiu retinere, dum tabellarius V- ratislaua recurrat, cum responso ad has li- teras, quas tibi illuc remittendas cu[m] his missi. Rogo te plurimum, vt sine mora nostrum il- lu[m] abire cum his literis, iubeas ad Troilum. Perscribas postea mihi iudiciu[m] tuum de hoc commentario. quod ego iudicium, vt scio, magnifico. Si quid notasti in Simonio con- tra Squarclupum, sac vt sciam, ne tua epi- stola, quam nunc scribes, nihil me docear. Adde aliquid de hoc : eum aquæ coct[us] one euaporent partes subtiliores, & crassiores, magisq[ue] terrestres relinquantur, an recte sacio, quodaquam ad potu[m] coquo ad ignem? Scis enim me abstemium esse. Dein quæ sit optima aquæ concoquenda ratio, tum quæ omnium optima, fontana, putealis, pluuatis, fluuatis, &c. Nectu an antea aliquid hac de re re quælicrim. Item: Galenus de temperamentis aut ex lactuca o- ptimum sanguinem fieri, cum à naturali ca- lore euicta est. Ego inferam, ergo non refer- re calidis porestate, an frigidis escis vrate. Consequentia probatur. Nam si frigida bo- num sanguinem efficiunt, æque illis benc v- ti possim, ac calidis, quia potissimum alimo- torum vsus est, vt sanguis procreetur, quo a- lantur partes, &c. & calor innatus recreetur & confortetur. Si omnes humores ex adu- stione secundum magis & minus, in bilem conuertuntur, quomodo refelli merito po- test paradoxon louberti: omnes febres ex bile sacientis? Deinde quomodo potest ac- cendi pituita separatim, vel bilis, vel humor melâcholicus, aut putrefieri, quin tota mas- sa sanguinis simul accendatur & putrefiat? cum humores no[n] separentur à sanguine nisi , quomodo non accendantur semper principio & statim, quæ sunt maxime ad in- flammatione[m] idonea, vt spiritus, & bilis per se calidissima: hæc etiam siccissima. Ad hæc rogo, tuo more, hoc est, docte & perspicue atq[ue] eleganter responde. Vale, meq[ue] mutuo dilige. Pascouia, 1. Iunii, anno 1579. EPIST:

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27 EPISTLE 28 EPIST. XXII. SAME TO THE SAME. About the letters sent to me, I am not concerned. As for those which are to be added to them, I beg you, by your care, to have them sent on to Troilo; through some suitable person whom the opportunity may provide. There is no need to hire a private courier. I am sending Squarclupi’s comet, not very well described by my son. I ask you to read this piece carefully, and write me back your judgment of it. Now that the nights are longer, I doubt not that you keep vigil, and I do not think you are so much, by day, called away from your sick people. I have touched on these matters only briefly, and have glanced at certain passages now here, now there, which somehow do not affect me as they used to. Some things seem to have been heaped up, not necessarily to increase the bulk. But you will judge better of this too, as of the whole matter. Although what happens, even if it is not, as you say, from “voices,” does not follow, I confess, that those great calamities are portended by the hair. Indeed, by the very fact that they are what they are, they are excluded from the number of portents, which, and which, appear to have been affected in you, so as to possess them. But I dealt more fully with these things in that letter of mine, if I remember rightly; and Marcelli contains many such things. I certainly value Erastus highly, and on account of his great merit; but in such a way, however, that I do not therefore detract from the gifts of other learned men, which they have received abundantly, and increased by their own industry and by favor as well. Among these I think that you too must rightly be placed. I do not disapprove of your opinion about sleep; but I should prefer to read those things which you promise and which can be expected from your mind. That indeed which you wrote from Hippocrates, that night is appointed for rest and day for labor, is true and in agreement with Holy Scripture; but it does not seem to pull out the roots of my doubt. But concerning these matters, when there is leisure, you will think them over. I am surprised that Erastus does not reply. If you will share your letters with me, I shall take care that the man, as I see, prompt in writing on such matters, replies. For they say it is his custom to send his own writings to learned men and seek their judgments. Farewell, and love me in return. Pascouia, 14 October, in the year 1578. EPIST. XXIII. SAME TO THE SAME. I have received Dr. Jordanus de Brunno’s commentary: on the French disease, as I call it. It is a most marvelous illness. On this matter he seems to me to argue very learnedly and acutely. I could not refrain from sending it to you to read, for the sake of our friendship; but on condition that it does not remain away long and returns to me quickly, lest he should justly complain that, without your leave, I am making his labors public. So that I may be able to send it back in due time. You may, however, keep it as long as the messenger is away at Vratislavia and back again, with an answer to those letters which I sent there to be returned to you together with these. I beg you very much to order our man to go without delay with these letters to Troilo. Then write me at length your judgment of this commentary; for I know that I esteem that judgment highly. If you have noted anything in Simon against Squarclupus, let me know, so that your letter, which you will now write, may not teach me nothing. Add something on this: whether, when water is boiled, the subtler parts evaporate and the coarser and more earthy parts remain; whether I am acting rightly in boiling water for drinking over the fire. For you know that I am abstemious. Then what is the best method of preparing water, and which is best of all: spring water, well water, rain water, river water, and so on. Nor do I know whether you have asked something about this before. Also: Galen, in On Temperaments , says that the best blood is made from lettuce, once its natural heat has been overcome. I will infer: therefore it does not matter whether you use hot or cold foods in summer. The consequence is proved. For if cold things produce good blood, I can make as good use of them as of hot things, because the chief use of food is that blood may be generated, by which the parts are nourished, and so on, and the innate heat may be renewed and strengthened. If all humors, through burning, according to more and less, are turned into bile, how can Loubert’s paradox be rightly refuted: that all fevers are produced from bile? Then how can phlegm, or bile, or melancholy humor, be separately kindled or putrefied, without the whole mass of blood being at the same time kindled and putrefied? Since humors are not separated from the blood except by, how can those things which are most suitable for inflammation not always be kindled first and at once, namely the spirits and bile, which are by themselves very hot and also very dry? To these matters, I beg you, in your usual manner, that is, learnedly, clearly, and elegantly, give your answer. Farewell, and love me in return. Pascouia, 1 June, 1579. EPIST:

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29 MEDICINALES. EPIST. XXIV. IDEM EIDEM. EN iterum terogo, vt hunc fasciculum ad Troleum mittas, per amicum aliquem. Cupio scire, quando alterum misisti, quem tibi tabellarius ille noster reddidit superiore hebdomada. Si nondum abiit, poterit eum hoc coniungi. Marcellus rescribit, salutat te, se propediem missurum nobis esse < Marcellus da caeteris.> arcanum illud suum, quod typis edere cogitat in libro, quem de eauteris scribit, cujus multa iam capita absoluit, quæ in charta inclusa leges. Dignus est sane amore tuo præsertim quod in illo scripto, quo offensus videris, nihil reperio, nisi cum honore tuo coniunctum, te amat, eoct, honorar. æquum est, vt par pari referas. Si qua in re ab eo dissernis, eandem illi, quam tibi su- < Marcelli scripta.> mis, libertatem relinque, vt suam Spartam ornet. Trahit sua quenque voluptas. Verum de his satis superque, eum nuper quonque nonnihil si rectè memini, de eo in epistola mea adscripterim. Misit mihi Marcellus tria scripta sua: 1. de gutturosis, quo gutturis, vt vocant, hernia laborant, ni fallor vocant. 11. de fontium & fluuiorum origine. 111. de opportuna purgatione. duo illi libelli paucorum foliorum < Semen in balneo à virginis matrice absurtem.> sunt. tertius æquat magnitudine commentarum illum Iordani de Brunno Gallica luc, aut etiam superat Misissem hunc ad te, sed cito sibi remitti eupit, & ego nondum peruolutaui. Si tamen tantum est otii tibi, & his vacare voles, mittam hæc omnia ad aliquot dies, dum percurras. erit fortasse quod te delectet. Cum apud me esset, ostendit inchoatum opus; nune vt video auxit, & emendauit. tu iudicabis. Rogat te, < Veius.> vt quas in Fernelium escrere scripsisti de podagra ei mittas. æquum perit si descripsisti. Veius nescio quas fabulas Thalaticas mihi recitat. Inter alias, hanc quoque quam item pro fabula habebo, disi tu < An virgo naturaliter ex primo concubita concipias.> leucus affirmabis. ait non posse naturaliter virginem exprimo coitu concipere. te quoque autorem nominat, vt mihi os obtureret, autoritatem equitem tuam non defugit. < Sed eupio hoc ex vestris Medicis aut eorum doctrina mihi, si lubet, & vacat, demonstrari. > Sed eupio hoc ex vestris Medicis aut eorum doctrina mihi, si lubet, & vacat, demonstrari. Ad magnam quandam rem, & maxime paradoxam hoc, vt ipse putat, axiomate abutitur. Ego nullam naturalem causam excogitasse possum quæ prohibeat, quo minus in primo statim coitu virgines concipiant. exempla quoque multa referri possunt earum, quas prorsus virgines fuisse, dubitari vix potest, si quis pudorem, pietatem, 30 educationem spectet. Tu nostræ huius controversiæ arbiter esto. Vale, meque, quod facis, ama. Pascouia, to. Augusti, anno 1579. EPIST. XXV. IDEM EIDEM. DE Thermis Trincinensibus nihil habeo, < Therma Trincinensis.> quod affirmem. Ex Marcello, quoque per literas quæsiui, si quid fortasse à D. Iordani, aut D. Cratonis, aut Medicorum Viennensium obseruatione haberet. nam eum illis versatus est aliquandiu. Sed ne ille quidem quiequam adferre potest. Ad D. Iordanum, cum erit per quem literas mittere possim, scribam. non dubito eum certi, & exploratu aliquid nobis perscripturum esse. Edidit ante multos annos Georgius Vernerus lib. de admirandis Vngariæ aquis. < VVernerus de admirandis Vngariæ aquis.> In eo fortasse reperias nonnihil. Sulfureas & ferreas esse non dubito, tum quod illum odorem exhalare dicuntur, tum quod tmores, & vleera exsiccant. Dieumur etiam podagriei, solo inseffu, & lotione, persanari. sed, quæso, quid te morbi eo inuitat? An oculorum viiiis vllæ Thermarum aquæ subueniunt? Hodie accepi literas à D. Iordano, in quibus scribit se omnes Thermas Morauiacas peragraturum esse, & per destillationem catum naturas & vires exquisiturum, dein commentatorum de eis confecturum breui. Accipe tu Marcelliana, & perscribe mihi quid de his sentias. Inprimis autem de purgatione. Quæ de virgine scribis confirmant sententiam meam. Sed illud Arabis, de semine tnbalneo à virginis matrice absorpto, figmentum velim existimes impudicitiae patrocinantis. Quomodo enim semen, < Semen in balneo à virginis matrice absurtem.> loco præsertim humido, tamdiu consistet, ne diffluat? Deinde quomodo spitiuosum illum calorem, vel momento temporis rerinebit extra vterum muliebrem, si vel in terram, vellapidem, vel aliam quamuis subiectam materiam decidat? si paulo accuratus hæc de recogitabis (si tamen longiore inquisitione digna est) animaduertes commentum ridieulum esse. Oportet fuisse < fuisse certe libidinosam, & incredibilis caloris vtero præditam bonam illam virginem, quam non nisi diuaricatis temoribus, & diducto manibus pudendo, locum illum insedisse (si reliqua concedantur, quæ supra negant) verisimile est. Quæ à virginali pudore abhorrent. Sed putidum est rem obsecenam pluribus persequi. Verum illud, quod maiorem valitarem habet, rogo vt mihi explices, quid omnino de hynene An hymen index verginitatis.>

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29 MEDICINALS. EPIST. XXIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I am once again asking that you send this little packet to Trolius, through some friend or other. I want to know when you sent the other one, which that messenger of ours handed back to you last week. If he has not yet gone away, it can be joined to this one. Marcellus replies, sends his greetings, and says that he will shortly send us his secret, which he is thinking of publishing in the book he is writing on cataracts, many chapters of which he has already completed; you will read them enclosed on the sheet. He is certainly worthy of your affection, especially since in that writing, by which you seem offended, I find nothing except what is joined to your honor; he loves you, honors you. It is only fair that you return like for like. If in anything you differ from him, leave him the same freedom that you claim for yourself, so that he may adorn his own Sparta. Everyone is drawn by his own delight. But enough, and more than enough, about these matters; not long ago, if I remember rightly, I also wrote something about him in my letter. Marcellus sent me three of his writings: 1. On gutturals, in which those who, as they say, suffer from hernia of the throat are dealt with, unless I am mistaken. 2. On the origin of springs and rivers. 3. On suitable purgation. The first two booklets are only a few leaves long. The third is as large as that commentary of Jordanus de Brunno, in French, or even larger. I would have sent this to you, but he wants it returned quickly, and I have not yet gone through it. If, however, you have enough leisure and wish to look at these things, I shall send them all for a few days while you read through them. There will perhaps be something to amuse you. When it was with me, he showed me the work in its first draft; now, as I see, he has enlarged and corrected it. You will judge. He asks you to send him the notes you wrote on Fernelius about gout, if you copied them out. It would be fair if you did so. Veius recounts to me certain tales from Thessaly. Among others, this one too, which I shall likewise regard as a fable unless you, as a learned man, affirm it, and he names you as authority in order to stop my mouth, not shirking your knightly authority. But I am eager to have this demonstrated to me by your physicians, or from their teaching, if you please and if you have leisure. He is using this axiom for a great matter, and, as he thinks, a highly paradoxical one. I can imagine no natural cause which should prevent virgins from conceiving at the very first intercourse. Many examples could also be cited of women of whom there can scarcely be any doubt that they were complete virgins, if one considers modesty, piety, and upbringing. You be the arbiter of this controversy of ours. Farewell, and love me, as you do. Paszovia, 10 August, 1579. EPIST. XXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Concerning the Trincinian baths I have nothing that I can affirm. I also asked Marcellus by letter whether perhaps he had anything from Dr. Jordanus, or Dr. Crato, or from the observation of the Viennese physicians; for he spent some time with them. But even he can bring nothing. To Dr. Jordanus, when I have someone through whom I can send letters, I shall write. I do not doubt that he will write back something certain and well established for us. Long ago Georgius Vernerus published a book on the wonderful waters of Hungary. Perhaps you may find something in it. I do not doubt that they are sulphurous and ferruginous, both because they are said to exhale that smell and because they dry up tumors and ulcers. It is said too that podagric patients are cured, merely by sitting in them and by bathing. But I ask, what disease is it that leads you there? Do any of the waters of the baths help eye disorders? Today I received a letter from Dr. Jordanus, in which he writes that he will go through all the Moravian baths, and by distillation investigate their natures and powers, and then soon produce a commentary on them. Take Marcellus’s writings, and write to me what you think about these matters, especially about purgation. What you write about the virgin confirms my opinion. But that saying of the Arab, about semen absorbed in a bath by the womb of a virgin, I would wish you to regard as a fiction defending lewdness. For how would semen, especially in a moist place, remain in place for so long as not to flow away? And how would it retain that fiery heat, even for a moment, outside the female womb, if it should fall either on the ground or on a stone or on any other surface beneath it? If you reflect on these things a little carefully, you will notice—if the matter is indeed worth a longer inquiry—that the story is ridiculous. Surely that good virgin must have been lustful and possessed of incredible heat in the womb, since it is likely that she sat in that place only with her legs spread and her privates exposed by her hands, if the rest is granted, as above denied. Such things are repugnant to virginal modesty. But it is foul to pursue an obscene matter further. Yet that other point, which has greater force, I ask you to explain to me: what exactly is to be thought about the hymen? Is the hymen an indicator of virginity?

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censendum putes, tum in paruulis, tum in adulcis virginibus, & an omnino existimandum sit posse virginitatem hinc discerni. Nam quasdam natura laxiores vteros habe- re, alias strichores temperamenta & corporis constitutio indicat, ætate quoque p[er]touectiores à iunioribus tum aliis, tum hac in re differe puto. Non habeo nunc ad manus librum vilum, qui mihi dubitationem tollat, & exciderunt quæ legi, quæque a Fallo- pio quondam audiui. Tibi hæc in prom- ptu sunt, in Anatomicis quoq[ue] diligenti; vt ex annotationibus quibusdam tuis in Co- lumbum, & alios animaduerti. Explica i- gitur, amabo te, sententiam tuam de reto- ta, postquam in hunc sermonem incidimus. < Marcelli in Hipp. labor.> Marcellus H p[ro]pocratis opera methodice tractare instituit: hoc est, reuocat omnia, quæcunque in illo autore sunt, ad metho- dum Auicennæ, ant potius Fuchsij, &c. an- notationes quoque adiiciet. Idem in Ga- lenioperibus facere cogitat. Est homo la- boriosissimus, pauci somni, ingenio bono, sciendi cupidissimus. Remitto libros, & gra- tias ago. Freigii, Rectoris scholæ Akorffianæ Reipub. Norihergens. Physicæ quæstiones novo quodam ordine scriptæ videntur. < Freigium.> Nihil mihi facilius videtur, quam hac ra- tione libros magnos edere. Est opus conge- stum ex variis scriptoribus, & scientiis. Tra- hit tuam quemque voluptas. Mihi sane non placet omnia in vna arte docere, quæ dif- iuncta sunt. Vale, meque ama. 14. August. Anno 1579. EPIST. XXVI. IDEM RIDEM. TESTIMONIUM de Marcelli scriptis < 40> tuum, non vulgare est. mirifice homi- nem delectabit. præponet sat scio, libello, vt lectores magis inuicet, atque adeo, vt se mu- niat contra aduersarios tuo tam insigni præ- conio. Quare tu videris, quomodo lustinere possis impetus magnæ turbæ, quæ constabit contra vos, in aduersa acie. ego quoque me vestra cohorti aggregaui iam pridem; vt ex ridicula illa, & plane inepta scheda, quam item libro suo præposuit Marcellus, conii- < 50> cere potuisti; sed quid à me auxilij expecta- ri possit, rudi admodum, atque imperito ty- runculo? Remitto tibi libros omnes, & tuos, & Notarij, excepto Massa de morbo Gal- lico; in quo vidi mitabilem quandam cura- < Curat's vlteru trubra Massa.> tionem vlceris asperæ arteriæ. Illud mihi mirum visum fuit (vt hoc obiter inieciam) quod Massa in altero quodam pessime affe- cto, hyemem fere totam expectauit, ante- quam cutationem aggrederetur. Quod mi- hi & periculosum, & nimine necessarium videtur. adde quod morbus, per tam longas inducias inualescit, vt postea difficilius de- pelli queat. Quasi non potuerit aëris frigidi intemperies (si eare deterrebatut) eorrigi artificio, & temperari tepidario? Hic mihi magnus, & iupei istiosus medicorum Italo- < Tempora expellare in morbus superstiosum.> rum (nescio an allorum quoque) abusus vi- < 20> detur, tempora nescio quæ expectantium, & ægrotos diuturna istiui mudi expectatione magis magisque excruciantium. Quin sta- tim arma expedintur, simul atque hostis nos aggreditur? an expectandum erit, vt nos prius posset nat, conculcetque, vires atterat, ac prorsus eneruet? Magnæ est sane con- suetudinis, & præiudicii vetustatis, in omni- bus fere artibus tyrannis, quæ liberalibus < Tyrannis comiuerunt. nis de voto. Racis.> ingeniis nimis impotenter imperat. Quo fit, vt multi meliota videant, deteriora sequan- tur, religione quasi quadam obligati. Id tu ita esse, tum in tua, tum in aliis artibus, quæ tua est doctrina, & singulare acumen, præ- clate intelligis. Sed hæc poterant taceri, nisi mihi iucundum acciderertereum, de rebus omnibus libere, quicquid in buccam. Di- ligentiam in Mathematicis tuam, vt in aliis studius, exosculot. quamuis hæc , tunc tamen periueunda. Verulima fuit, quæ de medicina scribis Theophrasti, & vetulæ triobolares, quædam etiam ma- tronz illustres, in Polonia, medicinam fa- ciam plerumque stullatitiis suis quibusdam liquoribus, & pulueribus. Quibus si nihili proficitur, vt sit plerunque, semimortui zgrotantes ad Medicos deferuntur. si v- nus aliquis moritur, in medicum culpa reductitur, magnis clamotibus. Ita sit in- famis, deseritur, contemnitur, continet se domi, & quæsitis vitur interea, dum fama conticelit. bteuitet, miseria est in- cludabilis, si visum spectes. Vale, meque, quod facis, ama. Pascowia, 14. Augusti An- no 1579. EPIST. XXVII IDEM RIDEM. LIBERI mei, (quod te libenter cogni- < certo scio) iam tandem conualescunt, v- > turum, pro tua & mea beneuolentia, certo scio) iam tandem conualescunt, v- nius naturæ, aut potius DEI, naturæ omnis opificis, beneficio. nullum enim sibi ad- < 51> hiberi remedium passi sunt. quod quo- ties tentabam, ita tenitentes animaduer- tebam, & ab omni pharmacorum genete abhorrentes, ac fletu, eiulationibus que se- < 52> sc excruciantes, & maius à medicina, quam Ipso

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Whether this ought to be judged, then in little girls, then in adult virgins, and whether it should be thought at all possible to discern virginity from this. For certain women, nature gives wider wombs; for others, narrower ones, and the temperament and constitution of the body indicate this. I also think that those who are somewhat more advanced in age differ from younger women, both in this and in other respects. I do not now have at hand any book that would remove my doubt, and what I have read, and what I once heard from Fallopius, has slipped from my memory. These matters are ready to hand with you, and you are diligent in anatomy as well, as I have noticed from certain notes of yours on Columbus and others. So explain to me, I pray you, your opinion about the rectum, now that we have fallen into this discussion. <Marcellus in Hipp. labor.> Marcellus has set out to treat the works of Hippocrates methodically: that is, he refers everything in that author to the method of Avicenna, or rather of Fuchs, and he will also add annotations. He is thinking of doing the same in the works of Galen. He is a most industrious man, sleeps little, has a good mind, and is most eager to know. I return the books, and give thanks. Freigius, rector of the school at Akorff in the Republic of Nuremberg, seems to have written the questions of physics in a new order. <Freigius.> Nothing seems easier to me than to publish large books in this way. It is a work pieced together from various writers and sciences. Each man is drawn by his own pleasure. For my part, I do not like teaching everything in one art when the subjects are separate. Farewell, and love me. 14 August 1579. EPISTLE XXVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Your testimony concerning Marcellus’s writings, <40> is no common one. It will wonderfully delight the man. I know well that he will put it before his little book, in order to draw readers to him more strongly, and indeed to fortify himself against adversaries by your so notable commendation. Therefore you must consider how you can withstand the onslaught of the great crowd that will stand against you in the opposing line. I too have long since joined myself to your company; as you could infer from the ridiculous and plainly foolish sheet which Marcellus likewise placed before his book. <50> But what help can be expected from me, a very rough and inexperienced beginner? I return to you all your books, and the Notary’s, except Massa On the French Disease; in which I saw a remarkable treatment of an ulcer of the trachea. <Curat's vlteru trubra Massa.> That struck me as remarkable, too, as I add this by the way, that Massa in another very badly affected case waited for almost the entire winter before beginning the treatment. This seems to me both dangerous and altogether unnecessary. Moreover, the disease, by so long a delay, grows stronger, so that afterward it may be driven away with more difficulty. As though the coldness of the air—if that was deterring him—could not have been corrected by art and tempered by a warming room? Here, in my opinion, is a great and highly superstitious abuse of Italian physicians (I do not know whether of others as well), who wait for I know not what seasons and meanwhile torment the sick more and more with this long expectation. Why are arms not at once made ready as soon as the enemy attacks us? Or must we wait until he has first beaten us, trampled us down, worn out our strength, and utterly enervated us? It is indeed a matter of great habit, and of the prejudice of old custom, that in almost all arts a kind of tyranny rules with too much force over liberal minds. Hence many see better things yet follow worse, as if bound by some sort of religion. This you understand perfectly well, both in your own art and in others, in which your learning and singular acuteness are outstanding. But these things could have been left unsaid, unless it were pleasant to me to talk freely about everything, whatever comes into my mouth. I kiss your diligence in mathematics, as in your other studies. Though these things <20> were then very disagreeable, your remarks about medicine were very true: theophrastic quacks, and old women selling three obols’ worth of remedies, and even some distinguished matrons in Poland, usually practice medicine with certain foolish liquids and powders of their own. If nothing is gained by these, as is usually the case, the half-dead patients are brought to physicians. If one of them dies, the blame is laid on the physician, with loud shouting. Thus he becomes infamous, is abandoned, is despised, keeps himself at home, and meanwhile lives by what he has accumulated, while his reputation is silent. Briefly, the misery is indescribable, if you look at the sight itself. Farewell, and love me, as you do. Paskovia, 14 August 1579. EPISTLE XXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. My children, which I am glad you know, <I am certain> are now at last recovering, through the benefit of their own nature, or rather of GOD, the maker of all nature. For they would not allow any remedy to be given them. Whenever I tried it, I observed them resisting, and abhorring every kind of medicine, and torturing themselves with weeping and cries, and more from the physician than from the illness itself. <51> <52>

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33 MEDICINALES. 34 ipso morbo periculum impenderet hoc v- num experiri libnit mulierculis Polonis valde visitarum: quod mihi profecto mira- culi loco est, idque eo magis, quod nul- lam eius rei causam inuestigando reperire possum. Iniiciebatur in labrum aqua ca- lidæ, in quo pueri lauabant, panis in mi- cas friati manipulus, cineris nem parum; elotis pueris, aqua percolata, panis ille in massam compingebatur, hæc massa in di- uersas partes manibus distracta, magnam subtilissimorum pilorum vim oculis offe- rebat primo die: subsequentibus autem diebus pauciores pili, postquam conualue- runt, prorsus nulli apparuerunt. Hos il- læ caninos, alæ vermium pilos vocant, & morbi causam ad hos referunt. Præter- ea hnumeros, & brachiola inunximus fati- na aceto permixta. Vix peracta vnectione, & abluta statim, eminebant ex cute diuer- sis locis tubercula quædam pusilla, vt pa- pauera, coloris cinerici (quæ ab illis ver- mium capitula esse dicuntur) ea statim cul- tello abradebantur. nisi id ocyus fieret, re- condebantur iterum, & intra cutem se re- cipiebant, hi quoque siue vermiculi, siue also quousi nomine vocentur, primo mul- ti sese proferebant, poltes pauciores, po- strema vnectione prorsusnulli foeminæ sum- mis horum vermiculorum capitellis ni- gricantia aliqua, quasi puncta inesse asse- uerabant; quæ tamen egu essi pene cum i- psolynce certare possim, nunquam videre potui. Visa mihi est tota illares prope ea- dem specie; aut certe non dissimilis fordi- bus illis, quæ poris impactæ, in angulis præ- sertim narum exterioribus dignus exp[erienti]mi solent: duricies sunt paulo solidiore. Cum in vestris Medicis quærerem, altum vbi- que silenium reperi. In vno Bacchanello, <Bacchanello.> aut nescio quo de puerorum morbis inue- tui Dracunculos vocaria nescio quibus A- rabibus. Namliber hæc scribent non est ad manum, & quærere piget, cum hæc pro- peranter ad te scribam. Rogote, inqure in causam harum rerum, & sententiam mi- hi tuam perscribe. Oblitus etam hoc quo- que ascribere, me eadem illa omnia tenas- se in reliquis meis libertis sanis; nec tamen vel pili vlli in panis massa, nec dracunculi in <Carbo ab pachnoeces.> cute; ac ne in his quidem duobus ægrotis, poltquam conualuerunt, conspici a quo- quam potuerunt. De pharmacis contra epilepsiam magnas gratias ago. ab eo tem- pore non redit morbus ille, quem sem- per emanere opto. Quæ à carbone Ab- sinthiaco scribis, miratus sum, & aliis af- firmantibus vix crederem eos reperiri, ni- si quis de industria defodisset. Dies D. lo- hannis quoque fidem abrogat, & supersti- tiosi nescio quid habet. Vale mi optime amice meque ama. Vratislau. 6. Nouembr. anno 1580. EPIST. XXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. EPISTOLAM tuam de morbo infantu- <10> li, accurate & docte scriptam, in aulam Cæsaris mittendam esse putandi. ita mihi vi- <10> sa est digna, quæ à doctis viris legeretur. hæc fuit causa, cur nondum responderim. gratias tibi habeo iam ab illo tempore, quod inter alias occupationes tuas, huic quoque contemplationi mea causa, aliquid operæ impertineris. omnia excussisti, vt video, ni- <10> hil intactum reliquisti. Vnum te moneo, vidisse me ante aliquot annos, in libello, ne- <20> scio euius, Bacchanelli praxi adiuncto (qui mihi ad manum liber nunc non est) <Wierne> aliquid de hoc morbo quem si bene me- <20> mini, Dracunculum vocat. Eum tu lo- <20> cum nondum vidisti, inspice: ac si quid est operæ precii, ad hanc tuam elegantem dissertariunem adiice. Admonitus sum à <20> Doct. Monauio ex aula Cæsaris, editum <Wierne> esse librum à Iohan. Wiero, docto illo sa- <20> garum patrono, in quotum de aliis, tum de <20> hoc morbo disseratur. Verum, si præin- <20> diciis agendum est (quod tamen in nulla <20> re alia fieri oportere contendo) non existi- <20> mo illum meliora tuis adferre. De car- <20> bonibus mira narras. es tu quidem fide di- <20> gnissimus, sed profecto hoc est ex iis vnum, <20> quod meis oculis intueri cupio. D. Schol- <20> zius, nisi me fallit memoria, affirmat se non <20> reperisse. Illud quoque quod ad te de mu- <Auricula maris.> ris auricula scripsit auditione tantum acce- <20> pit, sed heustu: carbones illos, quoste mit- <Carbo in fructo salis purgans.> ereatis, non vidi. In salis frusto, ex imis illis <20> Vielscientib. ad Cracouiam fodinis effossu, <20> perlucido, vt glaciem referret, frustulum <20> atri carbonis innatum erat. Saporem sa- <20> lis habebat, albam lanuginem (liceat ita no- <20> minare) ennumebat, vt magnes suos illos, <20> quasi pilos quoddam. detentæ huic lanugi- <20> ni succedebat paulo post alia similis. ma- <20> gnam vim purgatrice in ille carbo habebat. <20> donauistustum illud D. Gergero, cum Cæ- <20> saris commissarius esset, præsidi hic Carne- <20> ra Austriaca, ne putes aliquando, vt fieri lo- <20> let, fossores ibi carbones ex lignis reliquisse, <20> qui postea temporis progettu sale circum- <20> gelascente coniectus fuerit: (idem enim & <20> ego suspicabar) affirmat mihi D. Morstern, <20> montium illorum Magister, vt egregius, <20> nunquam antehac vllis seculis quem quam <B 3>

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33 MEDICAL. 34 if danger from the disease itself were threatening, he liked to try this remedy on Polish women who were suffering greatly: which to me is truly a marvel, and the more so because I can find no cause for it, even when investigating. Warm water was poured into a tub, in which the children were washed; a handful of bread rubbed into crumbs, and a little ash, was added; after the children had been washed, the water was strained off, and that bread was kneaded into a mass. This mass, pulled apart by hand into different pieces, showed a great quantity of very fine hairs to the eyes on the first day; on the following days there were fewer hairs, and after they recovered, none appeared at all. They call these hairs “dog hairs,” “worms’ hairs,” and refer the cause of the disease to them. In addition, we anointed the hands and arms with fat mixed with vinegar. Hardly had the anointing been done, and immediately washed off, when from the skin in various places there stood out certain tiny tubercles, like poppy seeds, ash-colored (which they say are the heads of those worms), and these were at once scraped off with a knife. Unless this was done quickly, they were drawn back again and retreated beneath the skin. These too, whether they be called worms or by some other name, at first showed themselves in great number; later fewer; after the final anointing, none at all. The woman said that on the uppermost little heads of these worms there was some blackish matter, as though tiny specks; but I, to the point that I could almost compete with my own Lynceus, have never been able to see it. The whole matter seemed to me almost of the same kind; or at least not unlike those comedones that are impacted into the pores, especially in the outer corners of the nostrils, and are familiar from experience: they are a little firmer in consistency. When I inquired among your physicians, I found silence everywhere. In one Bacchanellus, I do not know which, on the diseases of children, I came upon the term Dracunculi, attributed to certain Arabs. For the book in which these things are written is not at hand, and I am too lazy to look for it, since I am writing this to you in haste. I ask you to investigate the cause of these matters and write me your opinion. I also forgot to add this: I observed all the same things in my remaining healthy children; and yet not even a hair in the bread mass, nor any dracunculi in the skin; and in those two sick children as well, after they recovered, they could not be seen by anyone. I thank you greatly for the medicines against epilepsy. Since that time the disease has not returned, and I always pray that it may depart. What you write about the “Abyssinian coal” surprised me, and even though others affirm it, I would scarcely believe that such things are found unless someone had deliberately buried them. The day of St. John also destroys confidence and has something superstitious about it. Farewell, my very best friend, and love me. Wroclaw, 6 November 1580. EPIST. XXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Your letter on the infantile disease, written accurately and learnedly, I thought should be sent to the court of Caesar. It seemed to me so worthy of being read by learned men. That was the reason why I have not yet replied. I have already long been grateful to you because, among your other occupations, you have devoted some effort to this contemplation on my behalf. You have examined everything, as I see, leaving nothing untouched. I remind you of one thing: I saw, some years ago, in a little book, I do not know whose, attached to Bacchanellus’ practice (the book is not now at hand), something about this disease which, if I remember correctly, he calls Dracunculus. You have not yet seen that passage; look it up, and if there is anything worthwhile, add it to this elegant treatise of yours. I was informed by Dr. Monauius from the court of Caesar that a book had been published by Johann Wier, that learned defender of witches, in which, among other matters, this disease is discussed. But if one is to proceed by prejudices (which in no other matter, however, do I maintain should be done), I do not think he will bring anything better than yours. You tell marvelous things about the coals. You are indeed most worthy of trust, but this is certainly one of those things I should like to see with my own eyes. Dr. Scholzius, unless memory deceives me, says that he did not find them. What Auricula wrote to you about the mouse, too, he received only by hearsay; but as for those coals which you sent, I have not seen them. In a lump of salt, dug out from among those very mines near Cracow, transparent as though it were ice, there was embedded a small fragment of black coal. It had the taste of salt, and it produced a white downiness (if I may so call it), as magnet draws to itself those little hairs of its own. After this down adhered for a while, another similar one would soon follow. That coal had a great purgative power. That old piece was given by D. Gergero, when he was imperial commissioner, to the governor there in Austrian Carinthia, so that you may not suppose at some time, as is often the case, that the miners had left coal there from wood, which later, as the salt came to freeze around it, was trapped there: for I myself had suspected the same. D. Morstern, master of those mountains, as eminent a man as any, assures me that never before, in any age, had anyone … B 3

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EPISTOLÆ 36 In illos mo[n]tes penetrasse, vbi tales carbones effodi solent: quia in malla salis abditi iacent. Massæ autem illæ sunt initar montium lapideorum solidæ: ex quibus illæ collumnæ excinduntur, quas baluanos nominant (a simulacris, vt opiuor aut statuis; sic enim Poloni & Deastrorum imagines vocant) quæ extra Poloniam, ad vos etiam, quotannis exporiantur. Hæc ideo tam copiose addidi, vt si luberrem inspicere; ab hoc ipso bono & humanissimo viro, quem nominaui, frustrum aliquod talepetas. Bone DEVS, quam multa sunt in naturæ thesauris condica, ad quæ hebetamentis nostræ acies penetrare nequi? < Cometa superlunam.> De Cometa quam multa, Aristotelis autoritatem secui, blateramus pallim; & tamen his debus didici ex proximo, & qui hunc antecessit, & Aristotelem & qui eum sequuntur, longe à scopo aberrasse. Supra lunam fuit vterque: prior ille proprio motu ab occidente in orieniem: hic contra signorum successionem, ab oriente in occidentem ferchatur. Si ex fumosis exhalationibus procreantur, quomodo ille lunam superant, & coelos penetrant? Si supra lunam generantur: quomodo verum illud erit, nihil ibi oriri, nihil interire? omnia esse æterna? & tamen hæc duo < Sydeo mirificum.> Quo vixi, & sidus illud mirificum, quod ante hos octo annos ostensum nobis ad Cassiopeam fuit; & orta fuerunt, cum antea nullis vnquam seculis visa fuitent, & interiuerunt: aut certe ex oculis nostris aliquo sublata sunt. Vbi antea in abysso thesaurorum DEI latuerunt? Non habeo quid dicam cum hæc considero, nisi illud? O excas hominum mentes, o pectora exca: Quallib. in tenebris vitæ, quantisque periclis degimus hoc xui quodeunque est. Vrau- < Gemma. Massiliano. Hagecio.> teme eum certo eredas hæc ita se habere, vt affirmo; scias demonstratum esse à Corn. Gemma, à Mæstlino, & aliis: inprimis autem ab amicissimo meo, & doctissimo viro Doctore Taddeo Hagecio, minorem habuisse quam ipsa luna. Miseras mihi, cum in vicinia tua habitatem, accuratam tabulam de horologiis, à te elaboratam: si id fieri posse putas, & illa carere ad tempus potes, rogo te, vt mihi eam communices, simulque alia adiicias ad pertinentia, quæ tu, dum his studios incumberes, collegisti. Peucerum, quem < Peucerum Optica collegii.> te audisse puto, optica collegisse dicitur. is liber nunquam editus fuit, sed manu descriptus circumferebatur illis temporibus. Si enim habes, & mihi item communicabis pergratum facies. Si quid ego quoque habebo, quod vsui tuo seruire queat im- pera amicitiæ nostræ inte. Feliciter vale, meque ama. Vratislau. 19. Ianuar. quod die lunæ eclipsis totalis, & ea quidem maxima conspicietur ab iis, quibus coelum non ita nubibus obducetur, vt hic nobis anno 1581. EPIST. XXIX. IDEM RIDEM. EXPECTABAM literas tuas, plenas doctrinæ & obseruationum, tum eorum, quæ in maiori, tum quæ in minori hoc mundo contingere solent. Sed video te occupatiorem fuisse, quam vt nobis vacare potueris. Rogo te tamen, vt primum aliquid otii nactus eris, vt mihi mirabiles illas fulminis effectiones describas tum vnguenti illius, quonates & tempora in peste illinebas, eiusque vsum & si quid huc pertinebit, amice mecum communices. Mitte mihi scriptorem illum de peste, quem laudabas, nomen mihi excidit. aueo etiam tuum iudicium cognoscere de Massaria < Massaria> quem inuitus patior à mea bibliotheca abesse; ita mihi visus est elegans esse, & bene rem examinare. Sed hoc tamen ego ad meum iudicium non reuoeo, ne forte abs re illud audiam, Ne tutor. si eum librum tuus librarius isthie habet, eme mihi quo- uis precio. animaduerto istum vestrum, quisquis est, bonos libros sæpe ad vos aduehere, quos hi nostri non apporrant. Nisi ribi molestum est, mone me de nouis aurioribus, quos post meum à vobis discessum, in elegantem illam, & sane exquisitam bibliothecam tuam intulisti. faciam ego idem, quum huc redibis. nihil te celabo, atque v- tinam multa haberem, quæ tibi grata esse possint. De Parzo quoq[ue] iudicium tuum ex- < Parzo.> pecto, tum de illo Porta: quem legendu[m] tibi de di: inprimis autem de nugis illis meis. Vt ex responso tuo discam aliquid, rogo te, in- < Quomodo vnguentæ entrem veneras partes.> dica mihi quomodo fieri posse putes, vt vnguenta in intimas corporis partes, ad loca affecta scilicet, penetrent, & morbum ibi oppuguent. Videntur esse ratione prædita, quæ intelligant latebras hostium, & recta illue rendant; nihil in irinere immorentur, nihil de suis viribus deteri sibi patiantur. Certe pauxillum est id, quod euti illinitur, & partim digitis vnguentium adhæret, partim à circumfuso aëre exiceatur antequam per tot anfractus in interiora perferatur. Vereor equidem, ne hoc quoque mediamenti genus simile sit amuletis; à vetutarum superstitionis persuasionibus natum. Idem propemodum quæri posse vide-

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EPISTLES 36 He has penetrated into those mountains where such coals are usually dug out: because they lie hidden in banks of salt. But those masses are like solid stone mountains, from which those columns are cut, which they call baluani (from images, I suppose, or statues; for thus the Poles call the images of the gods), which are exported annually beyond Poland, even to you. I have therefore added this so fully, that if I should wish to inspect anything, I might obtain some fragment from that same good and most humane man whom I named. Good God, how many things are stored in the treasures of nature, to which the blunted edge of our sight cannot penetrate! Comet above the moon. About the comet, how much we babble, following the authority of Aristotle; and yet from these matters I have learned at close hand that both he who preceded him and Aristotle and those who follow him have strayed far from the mark. Each was above the moon: the former moved by its own motion from west to east; this one, contrary to the succession of the signs, was carried from east to west. If they are produced from smoky exhalations, how do they rise above the moon and penetrate the heavens? If they are generated above the moon, how will that be true which says that nothing is born there, nothing perishes, that all things are eternal? And yet these two things the marvelous new star. As long as I have lived, that wondrous star which eight years ago was shown to us in Cassiopeia came forth, and it appeared when before it had never been seen in any age, and it perished—or certainly was taken from our eyes somehow. Where had it lain hidden before, in the abyss of God’s treasures? I have nothing to say when I consider these things, except this: O blind minds of men, O blind hearts! In whatever darkness of life, and amid what great dangers, we spend this brief life. Gemma. Mästlin. Hagecius. Believe me certainly that these things are so, as I affirm; know that it has been demonstrated by Corn. Gemma, by Mästlin, and by others: but especially by my dearest friend and most learned man, Doctor Taddeus Hagecius, that it was smaller than the moon itself. I was sorry, when I was living in your neighborhood, for the accurate table of clocks that you had prepared. If you think it possible to do so, and can spare it for a time, I ask that you share it with me, and at the same time add other related things which you collected while you were engaged in those studies. Peucer, whom I think you have heard mentioned, is said to have collected optics. That book was never published, but was circulated in manuscript in those days. If you have it and also share it with me, you will do me a great favor. If I too shall have anything that can serve your use, command the friendship that exists between us. Farewell happily, and love me. Breslau, 19 January, on which Monday a total eclipse of the moon will be visible, and indeed a very great one, to those for whom the sky will not be covered with clouds so much as it was for us here in 1581. EPIST. XXIX. SAME TO SAME. I was expecting your letters, full of learning and observations, both of the things that are accustomed to happen in the greater and in the lesser world. But I see that you have been more occupied than to have had time for us. Yet I ask you, as soon as you have found some leisure, to describe to me those marvelous effects of lightning, then that ointment with which you were anointing the nights and times in the plague, and its use, and if anything else pertains to this, kindly share it with me. Send me that writer on the plague whom you praised; the name has escaped me. I also desire to know your judgment of Massaria Massaria whom I reluctantly allow to be absent from my library; for he seemed to me elegant and to examine the matter well. But I do not bring this back to my own judgment, lest perhaps I hear something out of place: “Not a tutor.” If your bookseller there has that book, buy it for me at any price. I notice that yours, whoever he may be, often brings good books to you, which our people do not supply. Unless it is troublesome for you, remind me of the new authors which, after my departure from you, you have brought into that elegant and truly choice library of yours. I will do the same when you come back here. I will hide nothing from you, and would that I had many things that might be pleasing to you. I also await your judgment on Parzo, and on that Porta, whom I have urged you to read, especially on those trifles of mine. So that I may learn something from your reply, I ask you to tell me how you think it possible that ointments penetrate into the innermost parts of the body, namely to the affected places, and there attack the disease. They seem to be endowed with reason, as if they understood the hiding places of the enemy and went straight there; they do not linger on the way, they do not suffer any loss of their powers. Certainly what is applied is only a very small amount, and part of it sticks to the fingers applying the ointment, part is dried by the surrounding air before it can be carried through so many windings into the interior. Indeed, I fear that this kind of remedy may be similar to amulets, born from the superstitious beliefs of antiquity. The same question can almost be asked about-

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37 MEDICINALES. 38 videatur, de toto etiam tum vna agitansis genere, quæ certos humores spectare, & adoriri dicuntur qua obsecto, intelligentia id assequuntur? quomodo agunt? quæ ratione hunc potius, quam illum humorem aggrediuntur, loco mouent, extrudunt denique, cæteris partibus parcendo? ne illa iudicio, & rationatione non vulgati prædita sunt, siue in ventriculo consistant, & ad se noxia, quasi harpagonibus & vncis to quibutdam, attrahant: siue sline emissarios suos in hosticum ablege[n]t, qui cominus rem agant, & inimicos superent ac propulsent. Hac de re si ocium est, scribe mihi sententiam tuam. Vidi Puteanum, sinifallor, apud te, qui non in dissimili argumento versatur, & hunc, & si quem alium habes, siue etiam scriptas aliquas præceptorum tuorum lectiones, aut annotationes quorumcunque de hoc argumento, vt mihi < 20> mittas te rogo maiorem in modum. Poteris facere, commodo tuo, præsertim quum meos libros remittere lubebit. Nota mihi loca apud autores, quos me habere scis; in quibus hæc materia tractetur. Fuit hic nuper admodum Baro quidam Polonus, amicus meus, affirmat se veteri gallico morbo vexatum, nullo alio remedio, quam antimonio, curati potuisse. duos prope annos fuit liber & à morbo, & ab omnibus < 30> symptomatibus, nunc siue veteris morbi reliquæ alicubi delituerunt, siue ex noxa malitia, recruduit malum; & artus occupat, atque adeo coxendicu[m] dolores sæuos infert quid tu de antimonio dicis? & si reliquæ sunt; vbi tam diu latere tanti mali seminarium potuisse sine noxa existimas? Si < 30> habes Ioh. Bapt. Sufim. Suisum de peste adiunge quælo reliquis. De Massaria hæc ad me Crato. Non placet in Massaria quod suæ < 40> Allegrantiæ & Lucretiæ cassiam dedit. neque ego absquealoe & myrrha vlli in hoc morbo exhibere velim. Non enim exhaurimus putredinem pestilentem purgatione & missione sanguinis, etiam si materia minuatur, atque isto modo progressus putredinis impediatur. Sed vna vera & recta est curatio per antidota, quæ sudorem mouent & siccando putredinem inhibent. Hæc ille. Tu quid de his, & ad hæc? Vale, meque ama. Vratisl. 9. Augusti. Anno 1582. EPIST. XXX. IDEM EIDEM GRATIAM habeo de accurata epistola, quæ mihi multis nominibus perquam gratia accidit. Libros non necesse fuit tam citò remittere. poteras eis vti arbitratutuo; vt rebus aliis meis, si quarum tibi vsus veniet. Mirot te tantum in < Herbarum studium.> rem herbariam studium conferte; non sane ideo, quod non laudandam esse hanc diligentiam putem si non sit nania; sed quod inutilem operam ponà multis videam in nouis herbis repriendis; quarum vires ignorantur, neque sine longo tempore periculum fieri queat, ad quos potissimum morbos adhiberi recte possint. Equidem id iis inuestigandis, quas veteres describunt & rustici plerumque atque amiculæ non raro feliciter ad morbos profligandos admovent, nullam esse nimiam diligentiam censeo. In cæteris, propemodum Mathematicis similes sunt Medici. Vtri que enim suam potius voluptatem, quam vtilitatem communem sequuntur; dum ea subtilius tractant, quæ non facile ad vsum reuocantur. Sed hic ridebis credo, & exclamabis illud; ne sutor vltra crepidam fateor. Sed quid ad te dem statim abituro aurigæ nisi paginam his nugis compleam, non est in promptu. De fulminibus magna sunt, quæ scribis, & < Fulmina.> sane mihi multo terribiliora cometis ipsis videntur quorum ego euentus, & significationes nondum eos esse perspicio, qui in illo meo scripto confutantur. Vides proxime < Cometam humiditatem attinuisse.> lucentem, non siceitates attulisse, sed nimiam humiditatem potius. Pestem si eius sobolem esse dices: quæram exte, quo modo? ex aeris, in quis, putredine, aut potius ex putredine progenitis pueruor . Quid causæ est igitur, quod multis locis, vbi maiores fuerunt pluuæ, & aeris intemperies, quam in Bohemia; nulla tamen adhuc pestilentia sæut? Sed nolo hanc disputationem ingredi. Illud tantum dico, me prope in eam sententiam abisse, vt non in aerem, sed in contagium ex infectis corporib[us] pestis causam proximam referendam esse existimem. De quo si voles, alias vrbussus conferemus: præsertim si tu contrariam tibi tutandam partem sumseris. De medicamentis vera < vne nimio tribus.> sunt, quæ scribis: difficilis est quæstio, quæ causa fuit, vt ego eam ad te detulerim. Similium enim enodatio, à doctis & acutis, ac tui similibus quæri debet. De vnguentis, recte accepisti sententiam meam; & tua responsio à mea opinione non est aliena, nimium his tribui vulgo & nimio etiam plus, quam vsus & ratio (duo veritatis investigandæ instrumenta) comprobant. Idem de amuletis & filiptoru sentio: de quibus equidem perhibenter tuam sententiam audirem. Melior, ea de re ad te epistolam legere < ; sed Mercurialis.> B 4

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37. MEDICINALS. 38 whether, indeed, even in the whole genus, musing upon the then one, those things which are said to aim at and attack certain humors, by what perception do they attain this? How do they act? By what means do they assail this humor rather than that, moving it from its place, driving it out, while sparing the other parts? Are they not endowed with judgment and reasoning not of the common sort, whether they remain in the stomach and, like certain grappling-hooks and claws, draw to themselves whatever is harmful; or whether they send forth their emissaries into hostile territory, who engage the enemy at close quarters and overcome and repulse them? If you have leisure in this matter, write me your opinion. I saw Puteanus, if I am not mistaken, at your place, who deals with a not dissimilar subject; I beg you most earnestly to send me both him and any other you may have, as well as any written lectures of your teachers, or notes of anyone on this subject. You can do so at your convenience, especially when it pleases you to send back my books. Mark for me the passages in the authors, whom you know I possess, where this subject is treated. A certain Polish Baron, a friend of mine, was here quite recently; he declares that he was afflicted with the old French disease and could be cured by no other remedy than antimony. For nearly two years he was free both from the disease and from all 30 symptoms; now either the remnants of the old disease have somewhere lain hidden, or, from the malice of the injury, the evil has flared up again, and it attacks the limbs and even inflicts severe hip pains. What do you say about antimony? And if there are any remnants, where do you think the seed of so great an evil could have lain hidden so long without harm? If you have Johann Bapt. Suisum on the plague, please add that to the rest. Concerning Massaria, Crato writes this to me: what displeases me in Massaria is that he gave cassia to his Allegrantia and Lucretia. Nor would I myself wish to administer anything in this disease without aloe and myrrh. For we do not drive out pestilential putrefaction by purging and bleeding, even if the matter is diminished and the progress of the putrefaction is thereby impeded. But the one true and correct treatment is by antidotes, which promote sweating and, by drying, check putrefaction. That is what he says. What do you think about these matters, and in response to them? Farewell, and love me. Wroclaw, 9 August, 1582. EPIST. XXX. SAME TO SAME I am grateful for your careful letter, which was very pleasing to me in many respects. There was no need to return the books so quickly. You could have used them at your discretion, as with my other things, if you should have need of any of them. I am surprised that you devote so much study to herbs and the study of herbs; not because I do not think such diligence commendable, if it is not excessive, but because I see many people putting useless effort into seeking out new herbs, whose powers are unknown and which cannot be tested without a long period of time, to determine for which diseases they can properly be used. Indeed, in investigating those plants which the ancients describe, and which rustics and often even women not infrequently apply successfully for driving off diseases, I think no diligence is excessive. In other matters, the physicians are almost like mathematicians. Both indeed follow their own pleasure rather than the common good, while they treat more subtly things that cannot easily be brought back to use. But here, I think you will laugh and exclaim that the cobbler should not go beyond his last; I admit it. But what can I add for you, as I am about to depart at once for the coachman, unless I fill a page with these trifles? There is not much at hand. As for lightning, the things you write are great, and lightnings indeed seem to me far more terrible than comets themselves, whose events and meanings I do not yet see to be the ones refuted in that writing of mine. You see that the recent comet has touched moisture , bright though it was, did not bring dryness, but rather excessive moisture. If you say that plague is its offspring, I shall ask you how? From the corruption of the air, in what way? Or rather from corruption giving rise to children ? What then is the reason that in many places, where there have been greater rains and greater unseasonable weather than in Bohemia, no pestilence has yet appeared? But I do not wish to enter into this debate. I say only this: I have almost come to the opinion that the proximate cause of plague should be referred not to the air, but to contagion from infected bodies. If you wish, we shall discuss this elsewhere, especially if you take the opposing side to defend. About medicines for wounds and about excess in the use of them, there are things you write; it is a difficult question, and that was the reason I referred it to you. For the solution of such matters must be sought from the learned and acute, and from men like yourself. Concerning ointments, you correctly received my opinion; and your reply is not unlike my own view, that too much is commonly attributed to them, and even more than what use and reason, the two instruments for investigating truth, approve. I think the same about amulets and philiptoru ; and I would indeed gladly hear your opinion on them. Better to read a letter to you on that subject, ; but Mercurialis. B 4

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39 EPISTOLÆ 40 excidit è memoria. Dum tu mihi, per oculum, aliquid de iis rebus scribis, rogo te, mo- ne me de autore aliquo, in quo hæc pertra- dætur. De p[ro]blebotomia quæ scribis, si ecce memini, & bene & cum ratione resutantur à Massaria. Non solum quid sit autieula, < More Vefaliu> qua te notasse locum de morte Vesali in Paræo scribis, non intelligo: sed siustra, ibi locum illum, quem index quoque libri præ- termittit inquissiui, nec reperi. Sed vnde tu habes veram esse historiam? < nî D[omi]n[us] Hopper quid sit.> nî D[omi]n[us] Hippocratis acerem significare contendit Gale- nus, & eos repreheodit, qui aliud eo vocabulo notare illum voluisse videatur. quod hodie passim sit, in rebus & eueoris mirificis quarum causæ euidentes & manifestæ, quû non appareant, ad occultam & abdiram illam primam atque vniuersalem causarum causam confugimus. Sicubi notasti nî D[omi]n[us] hoc, quod tu, cum aliis aliquibus, quorum tamen non memini, significare, ostende mi- hi locum. Vale meque ama. Vratisl. 21. Aug. Anno 1582. EPIST. XXXI. IDEM EIDEM. GRATIAM tibi habeo de docta tua epi- stola. Nunc vero inspectis tuis anno- 30 tationibus non solum non dehortor, neque reprehendo studium tuum, sed vehementer laudandum esse censeo. & si qua ratione possem, currenti etiam calear admouerem, atque acriter vrgerem, vt tam bonam, tam vtilem, tam iucundam Medicis operam na- ues, ac lucubrationem istam tuam ad exi- rum perducas. Næ tu aliam ingressus es viâ, longe ab eorum instituto alienam quos ego improbabam, nî nî D[omi]n[us] pergrata mihi fuit annotatio tua: tum de φιλτρον. de quib[us] quæ Mercurialis tui fuerit sententia, non memini. Disceptationem tuam de n[ost]r[a] anide < 1 bio syncea. sia nequa. quam rei- cienda.> exspecto. Nam de n[ost]r[a] quidem probo sententiam tuam: nisi quod nî D[omi]n[us] φυσινιντον ar[um] ad o[mn]ias, n[ost]ri idias, n[ost]ras dura[m] er[um]s, è idoneo n[ost]ri- prætius ne nihile esse fatear, vera et mul- ta, quæ vsu comprobantur atque cuincun- tur. Nam vt multa alia præteream, quæ ob- < Opium.> secro manifesta vis esse taota in opio potest, vt hominem veltantilla eius particula ex- tinguat? quæ in nuce vomica, vt canibus ne- cem afferat? ac, quod nupet in vxore mea < Nunc vomi- ca.> experti sumus, præ focatione matricis gra- uiter laborantes, quæ vis in eastoreo est, vt e- < Castoreum.> potum tepente erucelatus omnes tollat, ia- ditationes reprimat, matricè in sedem suam retrahat, ibique sistat morbum denique o- mnem, cum acerbis, periculosiss[im]us, symptomatibus propellat? Cur alia medicamenta, in quibus exdem qualitates sunt, non idem profeererint, nisi vis illa à forma specifica ex- titit, quæ vel per ovum Vires forma quæ vel ovum Specifica. languenti præsentem & salutarem medicinam attulit: idque tam subito, vt merito n[ost]ro < Opium en frigidum.> nî n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro n[ost]ro 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Transcription: Translated (English)

39 EPISTOLA 40 has slipped from memory. While you write to me, through the letter, something about these matters, I ask you to remind me of some author in whom this is treated. About the phlebotomy that you write of, if I remember correctly, the matter is well and reasonably refuted by Massaria. I do not understand not only what that little note is, by which you mention the passage about Vesalius’ death in Paré; but, in vain, I looked for that passage there, which the index of the book itself also omits, and I did not find it. But where do you get the story that it is true? if Lord Hopper knows what it is. Galen contends that it signifies something sharp of Hippocrates, and rebukes those who seem to think he wished to mark something else by that word. This is what is now commonly done, in wondrous and remarkable matters, whose evident and manifest causes do not appear, when we take refuge in that hidden and remote first and universal cause of causes. If you have noted this anywhere, what you, along with certain others, though I do not remember whom, are said to mean, show me the passage. Farewell, and love me. Breslau, 21 Aug. In the year 1582. EPIST. XXXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I thank you for your learned letter. Now indeed, having examined your notes, I not only do not discourage, nor censure, your study, but I judge it to be greatly deserving of praise. And if I could in any way, I would even add spurs to the runner, and urge you sharply, so that you may carry through to completion that work of yours, so good, so useful, so pleasant to physicians, and bring that nocturnal labor of yours to an end. Truly you have entered upon another path, far removed from the plan of those whom I disapproved. Your note about φιλτρον was very pleasing to me; I do not remember what Mercurialis’ opinion was about them. I await your discussion of anide; I think your opinion about it is sound, except that I am willing to admit that there is true and much that is confirmed and proved by use. For, to pass over many other things, I ask you, how can there be such manifest force in opium that even a tiny part of it can extinguish a man? What force is there in the nux vomica, so that it brings death to dogs? And, as we recently experienced in my wife, who was suffering severely from strangulation of the womb, what force is there in castoreum, so that when drunk warm it removes all obstruction, represses the discharges, draws the womb back to its proper seat, and there stops the disease, finally driving away every ailment, even with bitter and most dangerous symptoms? Why should other medicines, in which the same qualities are found, not produce the same effect, unless that power proceeded from a specific form, which either by ovum Vires forma or by ovum Specifica. brought present and salutary medicine to the sufferer: and so suddenly, that rightly n[ost]ro < Opium in a cold state.>

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tribus studiis, & indulgens, ac minus quam opotreat, seuerus amicorum censor. Cætera in epistola tua valde me delectarunt t a- lios etiam quosdam doctos viros. Placuit inprimis quod de opio annotasti. Hoc etiam confirmat veterem opinionem meam: non esse temere vestris Medicis credendum, < Lapis fabulo fui. > qvantauis autoritate præditi sint. De fabulo so lapide Erastus; cui non facile fidem derogo; dubitare videtur. Si tu ipse < Vnguentorum constellari. > mirificam eins vim obseruasti, tum demum, vt etedam, adduci me patiar; etsi nulla ratio constat, vt ne de vnguento quidem illo constellato, vt quidam vocant; & de infinitis prope aliis admirandis medicamentorum effectionibus. Polanus commendatione tua mihi charus est, & erit posthac; tum tua, tum fratris, tum sui ipsius causa adolescens est modestus, &, vt videtur, eruditus; benenolentia valde dignus. < Num pessio sine febre. > Ne inanem epistolam remittas, (etsi nunquam hoc facis) quæso ex te, num esse possit pestis sine febre; & an in peste, quæ febte careat, tum in ipsa pestilenti febre, initio, quum vires adhuc constant, sanguis mittendus sit. Nam vitibus iam labefactatis nego prorsus mittendum esse. Pestem autem sine febre existere posse, autoritatibus & experientia enincere possum: ne rationes quidem accuratius cogitanti de esse queunt. sed ego te audire malo. Vale, meque, quod facere persuasum habeo, ama. Ex patria tua nobilissima, 16. Nouemb. Anno 1582. EPIST. XXXIII. IDEM EIDEM. NON oblinione tui factum est; quem profecto in oculis fero; quod responsum tamdiu extraxi. etsi non defuerunt occupationes quædam, & sunt etiamnum, quæ inuitum à litterarum tractatione, iam ab aliquo tempore abstrahunt; tamen hanc ego excusationem neque adferam, neque valete apud te volo. Negligentia igitur, (fatebor enim) & quædam ignauia, silentii tamen diuturni causam mihi attulit. Fieri fere sentio, in hac ingrauescente ætate mea, vt grauatim admodum scribam; & quû nullum responsum tabellarius vrger, qui se iamiam abiturum denunciet; perlibenter scriptionem procrastino. Ad te multa sunt, de quibus sæpe referre constitui, in medicis & philosophicis contemplationibus: quum & doctrina, & ingenio tuo plurimum delecter, atque etiam adiuvari me sentiam. Sed vides quantasit, quam ætas mihi adfert pigritia. De solicitndine tna, quatu à beneuolentia in nos proficisci sentio, & gratias ago; multum, atque adeo plurimum te amo. Filiola mea 46 die conualuit prorsus. hoc est febris eam illo die reliquit, nec postea rediit vnguam statim vt remedia omnia < Morbus sine moderana curatum. > abiecimus, & naturæ, quæ morborum medicatrix est, totum opus permissimus; non magnam de vita eius spem concipientes, indies rectius habuit, ac tandem plane restituta est. I nunc & Medicinam nobis salutarem esse contende. Pacer mihi tua hoc dicere liceat; quod si lubet, & ocium est, refutes licet. esse quidem ad contemplationem ars vestra iucundissima etiam mihi videtur, sed non ita vtilis, nedum necessaria, vt vulgo habetur. Qui eam contemnunt populi præter cæreros, & firmiore sunt valetudine, < Populi cærem sui Medicos firmissima valetudine. > & vitam longiorem viuunt. Exempla & vetera sunt in promptu, & recentia in oculis, si eos circumferas per terrarum orbem vniuersum. Quæ causa fortasse fuit Romanis, vt totius sexcentis annis, Medicis cartere voluerint, quibus ciues valentissimi fuerunt. Hic tu, fat scio, malos Medicos, & < Romani fini Medicis. > abusum artis causabete: ego autem ipsam incertam esse, ac proinde periculosam, minusque necessariam contendo, etiam si ab optimis & scientissimis Medicis exerceatur. Quanta enim obsecro temperatorum, & idoneo vanitas est in singulis bominibus, quin idem homo, ob perpetum substantiæ suæ effluxum, vt sic dicam, quam singulis à seipso momentis dissidet, atque à priore constitutione sua discedit? Deinde materiæ medicæ; quo veluti instrume[n]to quodâ ad sanitatem scilicet procurandâ vtrumini qui proprietates illas individuales, vt vocant, plene perspectas habet? Ac siquid etiam generatim, tum de naturis hominum, tum de pharmacis præcipitur, quis ram est felici ingenio, atque exquisito judicio præditus, vt illa recte & ad amussim inter se aptare, atque accommodare queat? Coniecturalis est ars vestra tota, &c < Ars tota cum sectur aliô. > per mortes hominum, vt ille inquit, experimenta facit. Vide autem quanto cum periculo coniunctum sit, si quis coniecturis fretus incertis, viram suam tam dubiæ subhiiciar: præsertim cum indies animad. < Merbi inam rabidem. > uertamus, magnos illos morbos, apoplexiam, epilepsiam, hydropem, articulorum morbos, nephritin, alios etiam, nunquam à Medicis percurari. nam si curantur alia. < ra. > Quando, id cesse non sit Medicorum petant quidem, quod inutilem esse videre. Finem faciam, si prius hoc vnum ad-

Transcription: Translated (English)

in your three studies, and indulging yourself, and a censor of friends less severe than perhaps is proper. The rest in your letter delighted me greatly, as did also certain learned men. I was especially pleased by what you noted about opium. This also confirms my old opinion: that credit should not rashly be given to your physicians, even though they be endowed with great authority. As to the fabled stone, Erastus seems to doubt it; and him I do not easily distrust. If you yourself have observed its marvelous power, then only would I allow myself to be persuaded, as they say; although no reason is established even for that ointment which some call “constellated,” and for almost countless other wondrous effects of medicines. Polanus, through your recommendation, is dear to me, and will be hereafter; for your sake, his brother’s, and his own, the young man is modest and, as it seems, learned; he is very worthy of goodwill. Do not send me an empty letter, though you never do this, I ask you whether plague can exist without fever; and whether in plague, when fever is absent, and also in the plague fever itself, at the beginning, while the powers are still strong, blood should be let. For when the powers are already weakened I absolutely deny that it ought to be let. That plague can exist without fever I can prove by authorities and experience; even reasons, to one who thinks carefully, cannot be wanting. But I prefer to hear you. Farewell, and love me, as I am persuaded you do. From your most noble country, 16 November, 1582. EPIST. XXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. It was not through forgetting you—whom I indeed keep before my eyes—that I delayed my reply so long. Although certain occupations were not lacking, and still are not lacking, which for some time now have drawn me unwillingly away from the handling of letters, I shall nevertheless neither bring forward this excuse nor wish to say “farewell” to you in that way. Negligence, then, I will confess, and a certain sluggishness, has nevertheless been the cause of my long silence. I almost feel that, in this aging of my years, I write very reluctantly; and when the messenger presses for no reply, declaring that he is about to depart at once, I most gladly put off writing. There are many things to be said to you, which I have often resolved to recount, in medical and philosophical observations; for I am greatly delighted by your learning and intellect, and even feel myself helped by them. But you see how great is the laziness that age brings me. I am grateful for your concern, which I feel arises from goodwill toward us, and I thank you; I love you much, indeed very greatly. My little daughter recovered completely on the 46th day. That is, the fever left her on that day, and afterward did not return at all, as soon as we abandoned all remedies and entrusted the whole task to nature, which is the physician of diseases; having little hope of her life, she improved day by day, and at last was fully restored. Go now, and keep insisting to us that medicine is salutary. May it be allowed me to say this to you; if you wish, and if you have leisure, you may refute it. Your art indeed seems to me most pleasant for contemplation, but not so useful, much less necessary, as is commonly held. The people who despise it, besides the rest, are in firmer health and live longer lives. Examples are ready at hand, both ancient and recent, if you were to carry them around through the whole world. Perhaps this was the reason why the Romans wished, for six hundred years, to be without physicians, among whom the citizens were most healthy. Here you will, I know, assign the blame to bad physicians and the abuse of the art; but I, on the other hand, maintain that the art itself is uncertain, and therefore dangerous and less necessary, even if practiced by the best and most learned physicians. For how great, I ask, is the instability in individual human beings, since the same man, because of the continual flux of his substance, so to speak, differs from himself at every moment and departs from his former constitution? Then there is the materia medica, as if it were a certain instrument for procuring health: who is there that fully understands those individual properties, as they call them? And if anything is laid down in general, both concerning the natures of men and concerning drugs, who is so gifted with a fortunate intellect and refined judgment as to be able rightly and exactly to fit and adapt those things to one another? Your art as a whole is conjectural, and by the deaths of men, as he says, it makes its experiments. Consider, moreover, how much danger is involved if someone, relying on uncertain conjectures, entrusts his life to something so doubtful, especially since we daily observe the great diseases—apoplexy, epilepsy, dropsy, diseases of the joints, nephritis, and others too—never to be cured by physicians. For if other illnesses are cured, when, I ask, will that not be enough for physicians? They indeed claim what appears useless. I shall end, unless first this one thing...

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didero, quod ipsum fortasse in Plinio est argumentum. Omnis morbus vel est lethalis, vel curabilis. Vtrum vis capias, non esse necessariam medicinam concludes, imo prorsus inutilem. Nam qui natura lethalis est, nulla arte eurari poterit. qui vicissim curabilis, non requiret Medici operam. Scio quid hic responderi possit, de mediis. quod in prædestinationis quoq[ue] controuersia adferri solet, sed illa videntur esse . Nam, ne quid aliud regetam, quid dicas de iis locis, in quibus nec Medici, nec media vlla alia ad manum sunt? erunt ne morbi omnes vel curabiles, vel lethales? necesse est enim vt vel in sanitatem omnes, vel in mortem desinant. Si dices, nullam esse gentem tam inculam, quæ remedi quibusda[m] suis non vtatus: hinc quoque id, quod volo effaciam; non esse illam, quæ vestris libris continetur medicinam, ideoq[ue] no[n] necessariam. sed longius, quam constitueram prouectus sum. Credo me alias quoque in hanc ad te sententiam scripsisse aliquid, vt acumen tuum excitarem, & robur virium tuarum irritarem, vt hos, quibus ars tua oppugnatur arietes repelleres. Venio ad quæstionem tuam: in qua equidem tuam audire, ei[us] subscribere, sententiam malo, cuius actimoniâ iudicii, & doctrinam, atque diligentiam nihil pene fugit. Quibus rationibus adducti Medici præceptum Gal. ad pestis præferuationem, & curationem transferant, non video: tusì forte eo respiciunt, quod in tamen acuto, & pernicioso morbo non satis relinquitur temporis ad contrahendu[m] quasi habitum quendam ab antidotis impressum, quo tanto resisti veneno possit. Itaque mutanda sæpe pharmaca censent, vt nouis semper subsidiis cordis vires tueantur, quum no[n] rantum in vno aliquo anidoto præsidii positum esse existiment, quantum satis sit ad tam potentis hostis copias debellandas. Illam ego causam, quam vulgo adferri video, ne scilicet natura assuefacat, &c. nullam esse puto. exemplum quoque de Mithridate inter ea repono, quæ veteres satis reliquerunt, in quibus donec nostra experientia fidem eorum faciat. Scio enim multa pro indubitatis circumferri, quæ sunt fabulis inaniora. Sed hæc, vt dixi, tuo iudicio permitto, & togo maiorem in modum, quod ante hac quoque feci (si recti memini) vt mihi quum etiam erit, certis quibusdam capitib[us] comprehensam pharmaca miscendi doctrinam describas. Nam ea pars medicinæ nescio quo modo mihi omnium videtur esse difficillima. Doses, quas vocatis, etiam, vnde sumendæ sine errore possint; tum quos in primis scrip[er]totes, qui hanc artem petie- cuti sint probes, non grauare mihi indices. Quos à me libros petiisti Eristi, crede mihi, non posse hic reperiri, nisi me ii fallur, quorum opera vsus sum. Vidistine Mercenarii philosophi Patauini librum contra Eristum de putredine? quo de argumento scripsit magnum opus contra eundem Eristum Simonius. Sed nondum in lucem emittit Ingolstadiensis typographus, ex eo, cum hic esset, ego raptim aliqua decerpsi, quæ tibi legenda mitto: vna cum Cratonis quibusdam, & eiusdem Simonii paradoxorum capitibus, & si quid aliud ad manum habeb[us]. de quibus tuum mihi postea iudicium patefacies, & hæc mihi remittes. Nunc, si nondum vidisti, ecce tibi Fernelii consilia, quæ attigi tantum, nun perlegi, vna cum Donzelino. O quam secuna Ferneliana mihi visa sunt, quum Montani consilia aspicio. Si Trincauella prodibit, qui nunc sub prælo gemit, non dubito, quin absolutiora omnia habituri sumus. quæuis vides, credo, meam audaciam, & illud fortasse tacite occinis, Ne sutor. Rogu te, quum hæc mihi remittas, aut etiam antequam remittas, si adhuc earere potes Peuceri algebra manuscripta, quam hic diu habui, nec describi potuit, adhuc mihi mittas, vna cum Mercurialis de compositione medicamentorum, aut quem maxime ex tuorum præceptorum dictatis probas; tum siquid vel manuscriptum, vel impressum Paterni de humorum purgatiune habes. Nescio antibi vnam de colicomeo dolore scripserim. Intra hoc biennium quater iam me male accepit. togo te si quid habes. quod propria experientia comprobauertis contra hunc morbum, vt mecum communicare non graue sit. Quæro ex te, vtrum febris superueniens acutis morbis, vt pesti, sit morbus, an symptoma. II. Vtrum pestis absque febri existere possit. Nam quum sani homines, nullu vilius caloris sensu percep[er]to repente examinati concidunt in ipsi compitis (quod fieri solet in pestilenti aetis constitutione) non video, quomodu febri laborasse dici queant. III. Vtrum in omni peste aere[m] insici necessarium sit. Opeta Fernelit omnia recuduntur Parisiis, cum mul- tarum rerum appendice, & 400. minimum consiliis Medicis. Vallesius quoque quem Crato emisit, suum opus multis partibus au- dum Plantino excudendum misit. Va- le feliciter, & rescribe . Bressæ. 19. Iunii, an- no 1583. EPIST.

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didero, which perhaps is also the argument in Pliny. Every disease is either fatal, or curable. Whichever way you take it, you conclude that medicine is not necessary, indeed utterly useless. For if a disease is by nature fatal, no art can cure it; if, on the other hand, it is curable, it will not require the physician’s help. I know what may be replied here, about intermediates, which is also commonly brought forward in the controversy about predestination; but those seem to be . For, to mention nothing else, what do you say about those places where there are neither physicians nor any other remedies at hand? Will all diseases then be either curable or fatal? For necessarily they must end either in health or in death. If you say that there is no people so uncivilized that they do not use some remedies of their own, then from this too I shall achieve what I want; namely, that that medicine, which is contained in your books, does not exist, and therefore is not necessary. But I have gone farther than I had intended. I believe I have also written something to you on this subject on another occasion, in order to stir up your sharpness and rouse the strength of your powers, so that you might repulse these rams with which your art is attacked. I come to your question, and in this I certainly prefer to hear your opinion and to subscribe to it, the opinion of one whose penetration and judgment, learning, and diligence scarcely let anything escape. By what reasons physicians are led to transfer Galen’s precept for the prevention and cure of pestilence, I do not see: unless perhaps they refer to this, that in so acute and dangerous a disease there is not enough time left to acquire, as it were, a certain habit impressed by antidotes, by which one may resist so great a poison. Therefore they often think medicines should be changed, so that with ever new aids they may protect the strength of the heart, since they think that not enough protection lies in any one antidote, but that enough is needed to overthrow the forces of so powerful an enemy. That cause, which I see commonly brought forward— namely, lest nature grow accustomed, etc.—I think to be nothing. I also place the example of Mithridates among those things which the ancients have left us sufficiently, until our own experience gives them credibility. For I know that many things are circulated as indisputable which are more empty than fables. But these things, as I said, I leave to your judgment, and I most earnestly ask, as I also did before, if I remember correctly, that when you can, you describe to me, arranged under certain headings, the doctrine of mixing medicines. For that part of medicine seems to me, I know not how, to be the most difficult of all. The doses, as you call them, too, whence they are to be taken without error; then which authors especially, who have pursued this art, you approve, do not burden me by pointing out. The books you asked me for, Eristi, believe me, cannot be found here, unless I am deceived by those whose help I have used. Have you seen the book of Mercenarius the Paduan philosopher against Eristus on putrefaction? On that subject Simonius wrote a great work against the same Eristus. But the Ingolstadt printer has not yet brought it into the light; from it, while he was here, I hastily copied out some things, which I send you to read: together with some of Crato’s writings, and some chapters of the same Simonius’ Paradoxa, and whatever else I may have at hand. About these you will later reveal to me your judgment, and you will send these things back to me. Now, if you have not yet seen them, here are Fernel’s counsels, which I have only touched on, not yet read through, together with Donzelino. O how much more restrained Fernelian things seemed to me, when I look at Montanus’ counsels. If Trincavella comes out, who now groans beneath the press, I doubt not that we shall have all things more complete. You see, I think, my boldness in all this, and perhaps silently you are singing to yourself, “Ne sutor.” I ask you, when you send these things back to me, or even before you send them back, if you can still spare Peucer’s manuscript algebra, which I have had here for a long time and could not have copied, send that to me as well, together with Mercurialis On the composition of medicines, or whichever of your teachers’ dicta you especially approve; then if you have anything either manuscript or printed of Paternius on the purgation of humors, I would like that too. I do not know whether I have previously written about colic pain. Within these two years it has already treated me badly four times. I ask you to send whatever you have, which you have confirmed by your own experience against this disease, so that it may not be burdensome to share it with me. I ask you whether a fever supervening on acute diseases, as in pestilence, is a disease or a symptom. II. Whether pestilence can exist without fever. For when healthy men, having perceived no slightest sensation of heat, suddenly collapse when examined in the very streets (as is wont to happen in a pestilential constitution of the air), I do not see how they can be said to have suffered from fever. III. Whether in every plague it is necessary that the air be infected. All the works of Fernel are being reprinted at Paris, with an appendix of many things, and at least 400 medical counsels. Valesius too, whom Crato published, has sent his own work, enlarged in many parts, to Plantin to be printed. Farewell happily, and write back. At Bresse, 19 June, in the year 1583. EPIST.

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45 MEDICINALIA. 46 EPIST. XXXIV. IDEM EIDEM. DOLEO tam esse me parum fortunatum, vt intempestiua fuerint mea munuscula, quæ tamen tibi grata accidisse, gratissimum est. De seminibus magnam humanitati tua gratiam habemus. nihil est, quo vos remunerari hoc tempore quacamus. Sententia tua de sistula illa hæmorrhoidali plane cum mea congruit, vt ex epistola mea colligere potuisti: quam ego nunc firmius tenebo, quum abs te, doctissimo viro, confirmari eam, & bonis constabilitationibus videam. Si vnum diem antenertisset epistola tua, poteram tibi mains scustum ex eo pisce mittere, quem petebas. hic quod ego sciam, nunquam his quinque annis, quibus hic viuo, huius generis 20 venum expositus fuit in piscario foro. In destillationibus capitis, tum tussi coniunctis, ptobasne vinum & laconicum, vel balneum in labro, sine sudatorio? Sin, vt puto, improbas, causas mihi explica breuiter sententiae tua. Gratias tibi ago de consilio, quot tamen vti non licet, nisi puellam enecare cogendo vellemus quæ alioquin iam, quod non siccis oculis scribo, ita est diuturno hoc morbo afflicta, & debilitata, vt nihil 30 pene causæ videam, quamobrem bonum eius exitum sperare debeam. emacata est mirifice, nihil tanguinis in facie apparet, ac ne in labellis quidem viuidus ille, & roseus color amplius visitur. nihil remittit rigor, ardor etiamnum quotidie misellum corpus excoquit. Cibum non appetit, nisi noxium; non alium potum in os sibi ingeri patitur, quam cereuissam secundariam, 22. iam diem sic affligitur. D. Crato suadet, vt 40 mane aquæ cuscutæ duo aut tria cochlearia ei inuiciamus. Verum hoc quoque inane studium nostrum erit, sat scio. Experiar tamen cras, Deo dante. etsi setibunt vestri; nisi fallor, calidam & siccam eius planæ vim esse, & hæc puella tatis per se exsiceatur, & vritur à perniciosa illa flamma, quæ ipsas tam medullasest. O quam timeo, ne morbus hic in hydropen delinat, quam non ita multo post mors excipiat. Quæ carpis 50 & arteriis manuum alligantur nescio an id præstare possint, vt incendium, quo epar, & interiora absumuntur, exstinguere queant. Vt primum nactus ero Fernelii consilia, & si quæ sunt alia genera eiusdem, quæ tibi grata fore intelligam, propere ad te violabunt. Amandus nullam mihi disputationem ostendit, quod obliuione factum puto. Libenter equidem legissem nihil enim est mihi optatius, quam vt noui semper aliquid, quod doctum sit, videre & examinare possim. hæc mea est voluptas, hæc delitiæ, quibus lanta amicorum conuiuia, & à multis expetitas magnatum familiaritates (quas ego cupidissime fingere soleo) longissime postpono. Si est adhuc ad manum, mitte rogo. oportet enim esse aliquid, quod tibi non displiecat, cuius ego doctrinam, & aeumen magnificiu. Vale feliciter, meque amare perge, & amicos tuos & meos saluta. Breslæ, 1. Martii anno, 1583. EPIST. XXXV. IDEM LAVENTIO SCHOLZIO Medico. PERGRATÆ mihi literæ tuæ acciderunt, ab optatissimo homine allatæ, cui propemodum plus debeo, quam tibi. Nam, vt tu ipse significas, nisi ille magnopere visisset, ne scripturus quidem ad me fueras. Sed vt vt est gratiam tibi habeo. Probo consilium tuum, quod propius ad nos accesseris. Id, & tua causa, & mea, lætor te fecisse: ria ob easdem, quas attigisti causas; mea vero, quod te in hac vicinia longe mei magis fore memorem confido, quam in illis locis fueris, ex quibus isthuc commigrasti. Gratias tibi ago de communicatis duobus tuis experimentis. Etsi non totam mihi rem explicasti. De Actire lapide sic opinantur mulieres, & ego in primo prioris vxoris meæ partu, qui & difficillimus & periculosissimus fuit, persuaderi mihi passus fui, vt vtriq[ue] eius femori alligandu[m] curarem, alter etiam graui dus erat, hoc est, inclusum in se alium lapilli habebat. Id quod ex strepitu, quid manu mula agnatus edebat, tatis perspiciebatur. Atq[ue] hoc quidem genus altero illo longe efficacius esse prædicant. Quid quæris? partus feliciter processit, idque exigua mora interposita. Neque id tamen ego lapidi potius, quam aliis medicamentis, quæ multa ab obstetricibus & circumeursantibus sceminis adhibebantur, tribnendum censo. adde quod tempus iam aderat, quod etiam nullo apposito remedio, naturam fantem extrusisset. Equidem non huusmodi medicinis fidem adiuntia 51 quæque, qui plenam huius generis fidem habent, eandem expedientia, respondeo. Si ab experientia adire. Vni enim alicui experimento, quod experimendam fallat.

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45 MEDICINALIA. 46 EPIST. XXXIV. TO THE SAME, THE SAME. I am sorry that I have been so unfortunate that my little gifts should have been untimely; yet it is most gratifying that they happened to be welcome to you. For the seeds we are greatly indebted to your kindness. There is nothing with which we can at this time repay you. Your opinion about that hemorrhoidal bladder agrees entirely with mine, as you could gather from my letter: I shall now hold it more firmly, since I see it confirmed by you, a most learned man, and established by good reasons. Had your letter arrived one day earlier, I could have sent you a larger piece of that fish which you were asking for. Here, so far as I know, during the five years I have lived here, no fish of that kind has ever been put up for sale in the fish market. In catarrhs of the head, when joined with cough, do you approve of wine and a little bread, or a bath in a tub without a sweat-room? If, as I think, you disapprove, explain briefly to me the reasons for your opinion. I thank you for the advice, though I may not be able to use it unless we wished to kill the girl by forcing her to submit; for otherwise she is already, and I write this not without tears, so afflicted by this long illness and so weakened that I see scarcely any reason at all why I should hope for a good outcome for her. She is wonderfully emaciated; no blood is visible in her face, and not even in her lips is that lively and rosy color any longer seen. The stiffness does not lessen; the fever still daily wastes the poor body. She has no appetite except for harmful things; she will suffer no other drink to be poured into her mouth than second-rate beer, 22. For twenty days now she has been tormented in this way. Dr. Crato advises that in the morning we should give her two or three spoonfuls of cuscuta water. But I know well that this too will be a futile effort of ours. Still I shall try it tomorrow, God willing. though your people will be thirsty; unless I am mistaken, the thing is wholly of a hot and dry nature, and this girl is being dried up by herself in this way, and is consumed by that pernicious flame, which is in her very marrow. O how I fear that this disease may pass into dropsy, which not long afterward death will follow. I do not know whether the plasters that are tied to the wrists and arteries of the hands can accomplish this, namely, to extinguish the fire by which the liver and the inner parts are being consumed. As soon as I have obtained Fernelius’s advice, and if there are any other remedies of the same kind which I understand will be acceptable to you, I shall promptly send them to you. Amandus has shown me no discussion of mine, which I think happened through forgetfulness. I should indeed have read it gladly; for nothing is more pleasing to me than to be able always to see and examine something new that is learned. This is my pleasure, these are my delights, to which I put far behind me both the great banquets of friends and the much sought-after intimacies of the great, which I am most eager to imagine. If it is still at hand, please send it. For there must be something that does not displease you, whose learning and sharpness of mind I greatly admire. Farewell happily, and continue to love me, and greet your friends and mine. Breslau, 1 March, 1583. EPIST. XXXV. TO THE SAME, LAVENTIUS SCHOLZIUS, Physician. Your letters have come to me most pleasantly, brought by the very man I most desired, to whom I owe almost more than to you. For, as you yourself indicate, unless he had pressed you greatly, you would not even have written to me. But however that may be, I thank you. I approve your plan, that you have come closer to us. For that, both for your sake and mine, I am glad you have done it: for the same reasons that you touched on; and mine, because I trust that in this neighborhood you will remember me much more than you did in those places from which you moved there. I thank you for communicating your two experiments. Although you did not explain the whole matter to me. About the Actrian stone, women think this way, and I too, in the first birth of my former wife, which was both very difficult and very dangerous, allowed myself to be persuaded to have one tied to each of her thighs; the other, too, was more serious, that is, it had another little stone enclosed within it. This was clearly evident from the sound which the mule-born child made with his hand. And indeed they say that this kind is far more effective than the other one. What more do you ask? The birth turned out happily, and that after only a short delay. Yet I do not think this should be attributed to the stone rather than to the other medicines, which were applied in great number by midwives and by women attending around her. Add to this that the time had already come when, even without any remedy applied, nature itself would have driven it out. Indeed, I do not place faith in remedies of this kind. And those who have full faith in this sort of thing, I answer that if they appeal to experience, I likewise appeal to experience. For one experience can fail another experience.

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47 EPISTOLÆ 48 ex illorum sententia forte cessit, mille alia Cor leporis. opponere possum, in quibus spe inani, nullo fructu consequente, superstitiosiuli homines eluduntur. De corde leporis idem fere indico, quod de multis, quæ ab occulta proprietate mirabilia quædam in certis motis efficere passim affirmantur; quæ ipsa quoq[ue] si qnis diligenter obseruet, maiore ex parte, commentitia esse experietur. Quod a[utem] addis de numero ternario, si quid effectum est, id equidem nulli numero, sed potius aliis illis, quib[us] præparasse te scribis, tribuendu[m] ceseo. < Numeroræ nulli a est efflagans. > Quid obsecro, in numetis viriu[m] inesse possit per se, quod efficacitatem habeat? ortum id est totum ex Pythagorica illa superstitione, & ad nostram vlcq[ue] ætatem propagatum. Sed de his malo tamen tuam sententiam audire, præsertim si bonis & firmus est rationib[us] munita, ex Philosophiæ & Medicinæ fontibus < Bassiani Laudan. > deriuatis. Bassiani Laudilectiones in Aphorismos Hippocratis si accepisti a[utem] medico illo, cuius mihi literas ostendisti, rogo, vt eas mecum communicare ne graueris. Quod si no[n]dum accepisti, da operam rogo, vt quam primum tibi mittantur. Crede mihi nihil illo homine fuit in Italia elegantius, siue methodum, siue doctrinam ipsam spectes, non te huins laboris poenitebit Cupio videre tuum < Araman. > Aramanium de vulnerib[us] capitis, ant quicquid eius habes, præter illum aureolum libellum, quem edidisti. Item pergratum mihi feceris, si mihi adhuc inspiciendi dabis < Capiuaq[ue] o[mn]es > Capiuaceit de venenis, & putredine scriptum. Vellem etiam scire, quomodo vnguenta exterius illita, possint penetrare ad partes eas affectas intinas per tot ambages, & anfractus. Si quid habes vel scriptum, vel impressum in hac materia, rogo vt mittas, mihi magnum restat dubium. Si quam quoque nactus es ab amicis tuis, pulchra de re aliqua, vel ad Philosophiam, vel medicinam pertunente, discepurationem, rogo mecum vt eam communicare ne grauere. Scio vndique multa ad te mitti, quæ quum nobiscum esses, humaniter mihi ostendebas. Non dubito doctorem Monauium etiam exaula sæpe ad te scribere solitum, & talia multa ad Iudicium tuum referre. Hoc nihil facere gratius potes. Ego vieissim, si quid causa tua possum, amico & beneuolo animo atq[ue] impigre faciam. Vale meque ama, & domino Bucholzero plurimam salutem dicit. Ex < Iulil, Anno Millestimo, quingentesimo octouagesimo testio. > extra nobilissima & elegantissima patria 24. EPISTOLÆ XXXVII. IDEM D. PETRO MONAVIO, Medico Casareo. S. DE Etymologiis tumma inter nos est co[n]sensio, & erit in aliis quæstionib[us] omnibus. Facio enim tuam istam elegantem doctrinam, iudiciet[ur] acrimoniam plurimi. De < 10 > aqua non fontana generatim. Verum de mea hac puteana, quæ siui; quam non sentio esse, vt tu suspicaris, frigidam; neque puto vlla metalla alluere, sed, ni fallor, ex Olaua percolari. non enim longe abest, & probabile est terram madefieri, ac, spongix instar, absorbere aquam; quæ, effosso puteo, confluat in scrobum, vt sic dicam Quod de manibus frigore rubentibus attulisti, nescio an propositæ rei conueniat. Caro enim mortua calore caret, interno illo; qui efficit, vt viua < Herbar sanguinem cunam fabulosa. > manus ruborem contrahat, dum frigus inimicum natura, contractis virib[us] magno impetu, propellere conatur. Etsi memini quid Galen. de beiba, sanguinem ex abrecto forte in gramen carnis frusto eliciente fabuletur. Verum h[oc] e[st], vt dixi, fabulæ ab omnibus atatibus exsibulatæ sunt. Legi etiam in Medico illo Indico Monarde (si recte nomen teneo) de Indo quodâ, pui pharmaco (quod ille tamen nominare no[n] potest) sanguinem vacuauerit. De vxore magnas ago gratias. < Indicia conceptionis. > Experti antea sumus omnia, quæ narras. Illud etiam ausus sum imperare, vt clanso ore, cohibitoq[ue] spiritu quam diutissime experiretur, num motus consequeretur. Frustra fuit hoc, & alia quædam. Illa quæ in commemoras absunt omnia. Nam nec dolorem vllum sentit, & vbera indurantur, & vterus intumescit, neque descendit, neque quicquâ in vllum latus voluitur. Nam ego quoque suspicabar molam esse; Verum indicio hos hoc metu liberant. Itaque persuasum mihi habeo, motus illos, quos ante mensem se percepisse dicit, non fuisse veros, sed suspiciones tanrummodo, & fortasse etiam ventositates, vt vestri practici vocant. Nam à cohibitis viva chic quartus mensis est, & non ante quintum mensem ante hac solitafur morum embryonis sentire. Vale 10. Decemb. Anno 1579. EPISTOLÆ XXXVII. MAGNIFICO D[OMINO] ANDREÆ Dvd dubi ab Horckowitz, &c. D. Petrus Monauus, Medicin Casareus. S. D. DE aquis sententiam meam, hoc est, à me ex probatis Autoribus, adeoq[ue] è rei

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47 LETTERS 48 from their opinion perhaps it came about, I can bring forward a thousand other examples Heart of a hare. in which superstitious people are mocked by vain hope, with no result following. About the heart of a hare I say nearly the same thing as about many things, which are said everywhere to produce certain marvels in certain objects by hidden property; and if anyone observes these things diligently, he will find that for the most part they are fictitious. What you add about the number three, if anything has been effected, I think it should be attributed not to any number at all, but rather to those other things which you write that you have prepared. < Number, to no one, it is demanded. > For what, I ask, could there be in numbers themselves that should have efficacy of its own? The whole thing arose from that Pythagorean superstition, and has been handed down even to our age. But on these matters I prefer, however, to hear your opinion, especially if it is supported by good and firm reasons, drawn from the fountains of Philosophy and Medicine. < Bassiani Laudan. > If you have received Bassiani Laudi’s lectures on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates from that physician whose letter you showed me, I ask that you not hesitate to share them with me. But if you have not yet received them, please take pains, I beg you, that they be sent to you as soon as possible. Believe me, there was nothing more polished than that man in Italy, whether you consider his method or the doctrine itself; you will not regret this labor. I desire to see your < Araman. > Aramanius on wounds of the head, or whatever you have of his, besides that little golden book which you published. Likewise you will do me a great favor if you will still let me examine < Capiuaq[ue] o[mn]es > the writing of Capiuaceus on poisons and putrefaction. I should also like to know how ointments, applied externally, can penetrate to those affected inner parts through so many detours and windings. If you have anything either written or printed on this subject, I ask that you send it; I have a great doubt remaining. If you have also found among your friends any pleasant matter, whether for Philosophy or for Medicine, concerning a disputation, I ask that you not hesitate to share it with me. I know that many things are sent to you from everywhere, which, when you were with us, you showed me kindly. I do not doubt that Doctor Monauius, too, often used to write to you from the court, and to refer many such things to your judgment. You can do nothing more welcome than this. I on my side, if I can do anything for your cause, will do it with friendly and benevolent spirit and with zeal. Farewell, and love me, and give many greetings to Lord Bucholzer. From < July, in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-three. > outside the most noble and most elegant fatherland, the 24th. LETTER XXXVII. THE SAME TO D[OCTOR] PETRUS MONAVIUS, Imperial physician. Greeting. We are in complete agreement about etymologies, and will be so in all other questions as well. For I value your elegant learning, and your sharp judgment very highly. About < 10 > water in general, not spring-water. But concerning my own well-water, which I draw up; I do not think it is, as you suspect, cold; nor do I think it washes away any metals, but rather, if I am not mistaken, it filters through the clay. For it is not far away, and it is probable that the earth becomes moist and, like a sponge, absorbs the water; and when the well is dug out, the water flows together into the hollow, so to speak. As for what you brought forward about hands reddening from cold, I do not know whether it fits the matter proposed. For dead flesh lacks heat, that inner heat which causes a living < Herbar sanguinem cunam fabulosa. > hand to take on redness, while nature, by gathering up its powers with great force, tries to drive away the enemy, cold. Although I remember what Galen fables about a herb that, perhaps from torn flesh, draws blood into a blade of grass. But this, as I said, is one of those fables hissed down by all ages. I also read in that Indian physician Monardes (if I remember the name correctly) about some Indian, whose drug (which he nevertheless cannot name) emptied the blood. For my wife I give many thanks. < Signs of conception. > We have already tried everything you mention. I even ventured to command that, with her mouth closed and her breath held, she should try as long as possible whether a movement would follow. This was in vain, as were certain other things. All the things you mention are absent. For she feels no pain at all, and the breasts harden, and the womb swells, yet there is no descent, nor is anything turned to either side. For I too suspected that it was a mole; but these signs free us from that fear. Therefore I am persuaded that those movements which she says she perceived a month ago were not true movements, but only suspicions, and perhaps also windiness, as your practitioners call it. For since the restraint of viva this is the fourth month, and before the fifth month one does not usually feel the movements of the embryo. Farewell, 10 December, 1579. LETTER XXXVII. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD ANDREAS Dvd dubi ab Horckowitz, etc. D. Petrus Monauus, Imperial physician. Greeting. Concerning waters my opinion, that is, from approved authors by me, and therefore from the

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49 MEDICINALES. 50 < Racini Medic.> rei natura, vt arbitror, deductam, tibi place- cere lætor Bacii & Modii libellos, quorum meministi, non legi, ac ne vidi quidem. Car- danus integrum de hoc argumento com- mentarium conscripsit, in quo mire varius est, vt solet. Vult omnibus pene morbis a- quam mederi, tam frigidis quam calidis: & nescio quibus non modo simplicem esse af- firmat composicionis mixtionisve exper- tem. Est vbi plane opposita ei tribuit. Inter- <10> tamen hinc inde multa vtilia admiscet; & quidem à se peculiariter obseruata. Quod Camarinam attinet, caue ita dictum acci- pias quasi ego laborem vllu aut molestiam tui causa suscipiendam defugiam. Non e- nim eo animo immotam esse volui: sed po- tius, quod temporis breuitas, qua tum con- stringebar longiorem disputationem de re no[m] omnium expeditissima haud ferret. Hæc tamen responsionis ad questiones illas meæ <10> summa esto: Aliter de bis controuerri posse Philosophice; aliter vero Medice. Philoso- phus enim seu Physicus exquisita ratione l- sta diiudicat, , Medicus contra, vt in scholis loquuntur, artifex sensatus & cum circa singularia operario eiustota ver- seretur, sensu porius, quam ratione nititur æ- <11> quæquo ad sensum vera esse Medico com- probandur. Ex quo fundamento mihi dissol- <30> luenda viderit operata illa co[n]trouersia; quo- modo particulares humores, bilis v.g. aut pi- ruita accendi, aut putrefieri possint seorsim, vt non tota simul massa sanguinis accenda- <40> tur, vel putrefiat. Intelligis nunc credo quæ subnectenda forent, reliqua. Bene vale. EPIST. XXXVIII. MAGNIFICVS D[OMINO] ANDREAS DV- dithius, Petro Monauio Medico Casareo, S. < Respon: vide infra Epist. 201.> N Ist me acumen & doctrina tua, quam ad quæstionum explicatione adferre soles, mirifice delectaret, non essem tibi tam sæpe molestus in hoc genere. Accedit quo- <50> que vtillitas, non vniusmodi. Nam & doces, & excitas, & materiam ad cogitandum sub- tilcis. Quærebam nuper ex te de amuletis & <1> philtris; Autorem etiam aliquem, vt mihi <2.> nominares, rogabam, qui de hoc argumen- <3.> to aliqvid docuisset. Auide responsum ex- <4.> pecto, quodiam paratum esse, non dubito, nisi tegruiores occupationes auocarunt. <1.> Adiiciam duo alia, si pareris, de quibos sen- <5.> tentiam tuam exquivo; ac, nisi memoria me <1.> fallit, antea quoque de iis re consului. Cupio <1.> scire, num perspicillorum, aut ocularum v- <50> sus conseruet, aut oculorum aclem hebetur. Ratio dubitationis est; quia vulgo sic pura- <10> rur, si quis semel eis assuecat, ita oculos de prauari, vt non, nisi hoc adiumento, officu[m] <10> postea facere possent. Vere tibi dico; non <10> possum videre quid verum sit, quid proba- <10> bile. In multam noctem de veterimea con- <10> suetudine, lucubrare soleo: ad multam ali- <10> quot horarum continentemque lectionem <10> caligant aliquando oculi, præsertim si in mi- <10> nutiores characteres incido. Vellem eis la- <10> borantibus subuenire, nisi plus inesse in re- <10> medio, quam malo ipso, periculi suspicaret. <10> Exime mihi hunc scrupulum. Si notior no- <10> bis esset visionis ratio tota, ac non in cortice <10> hæreremus: vt solemus in aliis quoque na- <10> ruræ arcant; sed ad nucleum ipsum pene- <10> traremus, ac peruideremus, no[n] ita du- <10> bitaremus. Si tibi digna inquisitiones res vi- <10> detur, & cum Domino Doctore Rungio, <11> qui de visus symptomatis multa contem- <11> platus est, philosophari lubet; gratum mihi <11> erit vtriusque sententiam cognoscere. Alte- <11> rum hoc est; Qui fiat, vt simul ac casum, <11> mel, aquam, & liquores alios deglutimus, <11> statim exseramus, & multum spurum eiuci- <11> mus. Hoc antem sit tam subito, vt tum de- <11> scendere tam subito siue ex capite, siue a- <11> linnde in os nequeat. Nec ibi quidem gene- <11> rari ita repente potest. Vbi hæret? Et totane <11> illa massa vno loco an in diuersis agglutina- <11> ta est? quomodo tam facile in vnum locum <11> coit, vt confertim expellatur? De melle, & <11> liquoribus fortasse non ita difficilior respo- <11> sio fuerit; sed de casco, minus me expedio. <11> Vnde quæso, in eo est attractrix illa, vt sic <11> dicam, & congregarix harum partium dis- <11> sipatarum vis; aut, si alicubi berer, vnde incl- <11> dendi facultatem nactus est? ne de veteri <11> excipias, qui calidior est, recens quoque id <11> efficit. Vale. 29. Septemb. Anno 1581. EPIST. XXXIX. IDEM RIDEM. DE Stribii præparatione faciam quod im- <1> peras. Sed longum iter in Daciam est, <1> nec latis scio, an adhuc in viuis sit Stribio- <1> phagus ille. si vera sunt, quæ ab iis memo- <1> rantur, qui perniciosum stibii vsum affir- <1> mant, iamdiu illum inuerisse oportunt. Ne- <1> gant enim vitales esse eos, qui hoc phar- <1> macum sumunt, vtut bene illis initio ce- <1> dat & à motus subleuari videantur. Quæ <1> ad Caroli nostri quæstiones respondebis, <1> legam perlibenter. Mittet aliquid Mar- <1> celli ad te, oppositum eleganti & doct[us] il- <1>

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49. MEDICINALS. 50 I rejoice that the little books of Baccius and Modius, which you mentioned, please you; as for me, I have neither read them nor even seen them. Cardanus wrote an entire commentary on this subject, in which, as is his custom, he is wonderfully varied. He wants water to cure almost all diseases, both cold and hot ones; and for certain ailments, he asserts that it is not only simple, but devoid of any composition or mixture. In some places he gives quite opposite properties to it. Meanwhile, he mixes in many useful things here and there, and indeed things observed by himself in particular. As for Camerina, do not understand what was said as though I were shrinking from undertaking any labor or inconvenience for your sake. For I did not wish it to remain unmoved in that sense; rather, because the brevity of the time by which I was then constrained would not permit a longer discussion of a matter not at all difficult. Still, let this be the sum of my reply to those questions: that these things may be disputed about philosophically in one way, and medically in another. For the philosopher, or physicist, judges these matters by a refined method of reasoning; the physician, on the other hand, as they say in the schools, is a sensible craftsman, and since his whole activity is concerned with individual cases, he relies more on the senses than on reason, and things are proved to the physician as true insofar as they accord with the senses. From this foundation, it seems to me that that debated matter must be resolved: how particular humors, for example bile or phlegm, can be inflamed or putrefy separately, so that the whole mass of blood is not at the same time inflamed or putrefied. You now, I believe, understand what would need to be added, the rest. Farewell well. EPIST. XXXVIII. THE NOBLE AND LEARNED ANDREAS DUDITHIUS TO PETER MONAUIUS, COURT PHYSICIAN, GREETING. Since your sharpness and learning, which you are accustomed to bring to the explanation of questions, delight me greatly, I would not be so troublesome to you so often in this matter. There is also usefulness of more than one kind. For you both teach and stimulate, and provide material for reflection. I was recently asking you about amulets and philtres; I was also asking you to name for me some author who had taught something about this subject. I eagerly await your reply, which I do not doubt is already prepared, unless heavier duties have kept you away. I shall add two other matters, if you are willing, about which I seek your opinion; and, unless my memory deceives me, I have consulted you on them before as well. I want to know whether the use of spectacles, or eyeglasses, preserves sight or weakens the sharpness of the eyes. The reason for my doubt is that people commonly think that if someone becomes accustomed to them, the eyes are so altered that afterward they cannot perform their office unless with this aid. Truly I tell you, I cannot see what is true and what is probable. As is my old habit, I am accustomed to work late into the night; after several hours of continuous reading, the eyes sometimes grow dim, especially if I come upon smaller characters. I should like to come to their aid, if I did not suspect that there is more danger in the remedy than in the evil itself. Remove this scruple for me. If we knew the whole nature of vision more clearly, and did not cling to the surface, as we do in other secrets of nature too, but penetrated to the very kernel and saw through it, we should not doubt so much. If the matter seems worthy of inquiry to you, and you wish to philosophize with Doctor Rungius, who has contemplated many symptoms of sight, it will be welcome to me to know the opinion of each of you. This is another matter: how does it happen that as soon as we swallow milk, water, and other liquids, we immediately spit, and eject much spittle? Yet this happens so suddenly that it cannot descend so quickly either from the head or from elsewhere into the mouth. Nor could it be generated there so suddenly. Where does it lie? And is that whole mass united in one place or in different places? How does it come together so easily in one spot that it is expelled in a compact mass? In the case of honey and liquids perhaps the answer is not so difficult; but in the case of cheese I am less at a loss. Whence, I ask, comes that, so to speak, attractive and gathering force of these scattered parts; or, if it lies hidden somewhere, whence does it acquire the capacity of descending? Do not object with the old cheese, which is warmer, for fresh cheese does this too. Farewell. 29 September 1581. EPIST. XXXIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I shall do what you command regarding the preparation of stibium. But the journey to Dacia is long, and I do not know for certain whether that stibium-devourer is still alive. If what is reported by those who affirm the harmful use of stibium is true, he ought long ago to have perished. For they deny that those who take this drug are vital, however well it may suit them at first and however much they may seem to be relieved by its motion. I shall read with much pleasure what you will reply concerning our Charles’s questions. Marcelius will send something to you, set against an elegant and learned il-

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EPISTOLÆ 31 < Marcelli paradoxorum teum esse calidum & sicum.> li epistolæ tuæ. Obitet legebam in eius scripto nonnulla de OLEO. Nam reliqua non fuit otium excutere. Nihil dici posse absurdius puto, quam olea esse calida & sicca. Vtus contrarium certe indicat. Atque vt à corporibus nostris discedam, vel ocreæ induratæ, & exiccatæ, & vires item siccitate contracti, si periculum faciat, errorem ei e- ripient. Verum hæc vestratia sunt, & altius otium ad refutationem postulant. Si re- spondere lubet, multam disputandi mate- riam habes. Nulla exercitatio fructuosior esse possit, neque sane optabilior. Nosti A- ristotelem etiam male Philosophanti- bus gratiam habendam esse dicere, quod causam afferant vera inueniendi. Quod ta- men ego minime ad Marcellum, hominem acutum pertinere volo, qui tamen si non semper scopum attingit (homo enim est) multa tamen sæpe afferet, quæ minime con- temnenda esse videantur. Et quid est, obse- cro in tota Philosophia, quid item in arte vestra adeo firmum, quod ab hominibus a- cutis insfirmati nequeat. Remoue paulisper antiquitatis præiudicium, & res non ex au- thoritate vetetum; sed ex veritate, & cuntu [con]stima, intelliges magno conaru, atque vn- animi assensione, magnasnugas nobis ob- trusas esse. Non liber exempla congerere, quæ tibi homini docto & eleganti ignora non esse possunt. Sed hæc non sunt huius loci. Vale. Pascouii 14. Ianuarii, Anno 79. EPIST. XL. IDEM EIDEM. < Nihil in id e. discuna at quo Philosophia adeo formit, quod infringit nô potest.> A MVLETA tua valde expecto. Scio e- nim te non vulgari modo res tractare, neque in sicco pede transcurre- re, sed vis , vt sic dicam, descendere; Quo sum ruarum lucubrationum semper cupidior. Sed meminite scribere, ocium ri- bi ad eam quæstionem excutiendam, & sa- ne etiam libros, quibus opus est. Quare duo ad eam rem, te comparas, en adfero tibi a- liud argumentum, si forte magis in prom- ptu habes, quod respondeas. Meditata tibi hæc iampridem esse, quæ huc pertinebunt, vel illinc inspicor, quod memini, nescio an non de hac ipsa re, certe non valde dissimili, te cumErasto, tum nobiscu[m] adhuc viueres, per litteras contulisse. Sed venio ad rem. < Medicamenta qua vt, & quomodo agant.> Magnam mihi semper dubitationem atru- lit, tota illa de medicamentis quæstio, qua vi & quomodo agant, an ad se humores tra- hant, an pellant, an naturam tantum occul- ta aliqua, aut manifesta vi prorirent ad id ex- cernendum, quod molestia afficit. an sine delectu bona, atq[ue] innocua cum noxiis ex- turbent. Est in Erasti aureolo illo libello hæc quæstio omnis excussa quidem, sed ego tua legere gestio, methodo aique ordine melio- re digesta, ipsius Erasti sententiam vel expli- cantia, vel confirmatia, vel etiam si ita lubet, confutantia. Vide quanti te faciam: facio e- quidem id magno merito tuo. Ista præterea mihi examina, An in medicamentis circa formam, materiam, & qualitates sit propor- rio, à qua vis eius proficiscatur? Et quid sic il- la, num ex genere n[ost]ri , n[ost]ri , n[ost]ri , n[ost]ri . An illam proportionem, dum , & qua- litates sit magna differentia, & quæ sit illa. < Problema a quædam du qualia & actorem modo cannonari.> An proprietas medicamenti, quo dicitur huic vel membro conuenire, vt sunt n[ost]ri , &c. an sit ipsa analogyia formæ, materiæ, & qualitatum. An in mate- ria tenui, aut vis aut qualitas maior, quam in crassa. Cur quædam recisa à sua sede, & e- mortua agant non minus quam si viua sint, aut etiam magis, præsertim longo tempore asscruata. Vbi vis illa hæret, quum iam in il- lis forma mixti videatur interiisse. Quomo- do medicamenta extrinseca agant, an calor cutis actuet ea, & quomodo, & an actio si at à forma illi medicamenti cadanerosa, vt sic dicam, mediante spirituosa aliqua substan- tia. An in odoriferis substantia aliqua agat, an accidens, & . , & num habeant suum certum & spirituosum vehe- hiculum, an vero commune, aerem exter- num. An causa motus in actione medicam[en]t ti sit forma, an materia, quæ per se non vide- tur actuosa, an forma simul & materia com- positi. sed hic videndum, num reci[us] e[st] hetbæ, radices lapides, &c. quæ noua[m] formam & ma- teriam alius genesis acquiret videntur, eas- dem qualitates habeant, quas p[er]tius, quam abscindcentur, & quare easdem, cum iam forma prior, à qua actio, abierit; sin diuersas, vn de eas acquirat; An formæ motu, & lumi- ne coeli excitentur, aut introducâtur in ma- teriam, an diuinitus demittantur immedi- te ab illa Cholcodea Accidentium, vel po- tius formarum omnium datore DEO. Vn- guentorum vis quomodo penetret in inti- rimas loci affecti partes, per tot anfractus. Non enim videtur vetisimile vites eius non evanescere antequâ altius descendant; præ- serrim cum non multum eius in cutem ef- fundatur, nec diu admodum digitis impri- matur, & maximam partem vnguenti digiti & actis calidras absumant; tum loca per quæ transit, suum quocq[ue] quasi vectigal exigunt, neque rotum ad destinatum locum petue- nire p[er]iantut. Adde quod, vt Erast. quocq[ue] a- licubi de scribit, intelligentis na- turæ est, n[on] aliqva, ad certam aliquam, eam- que in-

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EPISTLE 31 <Marcellus’ paradox, that it is hot and dry.> I was reading in your letter something about OIL. For I did not have leisure to examine the rest. I think nothing could be said more absurdly than that olive oil is hot and dry. Experience surely indicates the contrary. And to leave our own bodies aside, even hardened and dried boots, and likewise forces contracted by dryness, if one makes the experiment, will expose the error to him. But these are your affairs, and they require deeper leisure for refutation. If you care to reply, you have abundant matter for argument. No exercise could be more fruitful, nor indeed more desirable. You know that Aristotle says that even those who philosophize badly are to be thanked, because they provide a cause for finding the truth. Yet I by no means wish this to apply to Marcellus, a keen man, who nevertheless, if he does not always hit the target—for he is human—will still often produce many things that seem by no means to be despised. And what, I beg you, in all philosophy, and likewise in your art, is so firm that it cannot be shaken by sharp minds? Set aside for a moment the prejudice of antiquity, and judge not by the authority of the ancients, but by truth and careful comparison; you will understand that with great effort and unanimous assent, great trifles have been imposed upon us. I will not bother to heap up examples, which cannot be unknown to you, a learned and elegant man. But these are not for this place. Farewell. Pascovii, 14 January, in the year 79. EPIST. XL. SAME TO THE SAME. <Nothing in this subject of philosophy is so firm that it cannot be broken.> I am eagerly awaiting your answer. For I know that you do not deal with matters in a commonplace way, nor skim over them lightly, but, so to speak, go down into them; and for that reason I am always more eager for your learned notes. But remember to write, and to take enough leisure to sift out that question, and indeed also to have the books needed. Therefore, since you have already equipped yourself for that task, I bring you another argument, if perhaps you have at hand a better reply. I suspect that these things have long been considered by you as pertaining to this matter, or I recall, unless I am mistaken, that on this very subject, or at least on one not greatly different, you discussed by letter with Erastus and then with us, while you were still alive. But I come to the point. <Drugs: by what power and how they act.> The whole question of medicines has always caused me great doubt: by what force and in what way they act; whether they draw humors to themselves, or drive them out; or whether nature is only stirred by some hidden or manifest power to expel that which causes distress; or whether, without discrimination, they cast out the good and harmless along with the harmful. In Erastus’ little golden book this whole question is indeed discussed, but I am eager to read your treatment, arranged with better method and order, either explaining, confirming, or even, if you like, refuting Erastus’ own opinion. See how highly I value you: I do indeed value you greatly by your own merit. Examine for me, moreover, whether in medicines, as regards form, matter, and qualities, there is some proportion from which their power proceeds; and what that proportion is, whether it lies in our own kind, our own kind, our own kind, our own kind. Or whether there is a great difference in that proportion and in the qualities, and what that difference is. <A problem concerning certain kinds of things, their qualities, and the manner of the agent.> Whether the property of a medicine—by which it is said to suit this or that part, as are our own kind, etc.—is itself the analogy of form, matter, and qualities. Whether in subtle matter there is greater force or quality than in dense matter. Why some things cut off from their seat, and dead, act no less than if alive, or even more, especially when long preserved. Where that force lies hidden, when now the form of the mixture seems to have perished in them. How external medicines act: whether the heat of the skin activates them, and how; and whether the action, if it comes from the form of that medicine, is, so to speak, conveyed through some spirituous substance. Whether in fragrant things some substance acts, or an accident, and whether they have their own definite and spirituous vehicle, or rather a common one, the external air. Whether the cause of motion in the action of a medicine is the form or the matter, which by itself does not seem active, or the form and matter of the compound together. But here we must consider whether herbs cut, roots, stones, and the like, which seem to acquire a new form and matter of another generation, have the same qualities as before they were cut, and why the same qualities, when the former form, from which the action came, has already departed; or, if they are different, from where they acquire them. Whether the forms are stirred by the motion and light of heaven, or are introduced into matter, or are sent down immediately by God, the giver of all forms, rather than by that deity of accidents—or rather by God, the giver of all forms. How the power of ointments penetrates into the innermost parts of the affected area, through so many bends. For it does not seem likely that its power would not be lost before it descended more deeply; especially since not much of it is spread on the skin, nor is it pressed on for very long by the fingers, and the fingers and their warmth consume the greater part of the ointment; then the places through which it passes exact their own sort of toll, and do not allow it to reach the intended place intact. Add that, as Erastus also writes somewhere, it is the nature of an intelligent being not to...

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que intimam corporis partem pergere at- que in via alibi subsistere ad Medici arbitrium, atque imperium. Hæc & quæ huc pertinent alia capita, vt mihi, more tuo, e- leganter, docte, acute, copiosè, perspicue explices per octum, valde te per amicitiam nostram, iterum atque iterum rogo. Non sunt ista, vt mihi quidem videtur, leuita, sed eiusmodi tamen quæ tu, si ingenium il- lud tuum eleganti doctrina perpolitum in- tenderis, vns omnium optime dissolue- re poteris. Vale, Vratisl. 6. August. An- no 82. E P I S T. XLII. IDEM EIDEM. SERIVS fortasse, quam par sit, humanis- simis literis tuis persoluo. Multæ sunt 10 causæ, quarum commemoratione nolote obruere. Inualetudo etiam mea pigriorem me reddidit. Quos ego colicos esse dolores putabam, metuo ne nephriticis sint, aut con- iunctis viribus me afflictent. superioribus certe diebus, quibus N. N. in vestrum ordi- nem Æsculapius noster cooptauit, minu- tulum lapillum cum lotio excreui, sine do- lore tamen, magnitudine dimidii seminis Cannabis, eius pars vna concaua est, & al- ba, altera conuexa, nigricané colore, ad coeruleu[m] dec'inante, glabra, dieeres semen Cannabis diuisum. Antecesserat , & dolores sub vmbilico, è regione vesicæ, vt existimarem status inclusos vrinam intetcipere, & partes illas distendere, atque ita cruciatum adferre. Vnodie & nocte ad mi- nimum suptuagies matulam sumsi, semper aliquid, etsi parum admodum, excernens, nulla are nula in vitro, nulla calculi alia signa (si quæ tamen sunt) propter aliquanto tur- batam vrinam, vt eruditatem indicaret. Ea- dem fuit quæ mea, Medicorum aliquot N. N. promotorum (quos conuiuio excepe- ram) de hoc meo morbo sententia. Sed al- tera ab eo dies & illorum, & meam conie- cturam feseilit. Abeo tempore nihil sensi. Etsi ita difficile, vt prope esse censeam, pronunciare num hoc sit maio- ris alicuius lapidis in vesica vel ipsis renibus hærentis, & adhuc fixi fragmentum; tamen rogo te, vt coniecturam tuam mihi signifi- ces, magnum est ingenii tui acumen, vt fa- cile tu quo alii nequeunt penetrare queas mihi certe amicarum quasi quoddam vide- tur fuisse à maiore aliqua mole, quod mihi ita causitas indicat. Quid si etiam illa parte caua renum carni adhæsit? & totum illud postea auulsum est, vrinam id sit. Sed ob- secro te, es ne & tu in eorum hæresi qui me- dicamentis intra corpus assertunt concretos iam lapides atteri atque adeo confringi pos- se; mihi quidem id non sit verisimile. Quod tamen si tu affirmabis non facile à tua sen- tentia discedam, quem scio nihil temere af- firmare. Si quid habes, quod vel prohibere maiorem huius materiæ aggessionem que- at, vel præsentem morbum dispellere, rogo te, ne me id celare velis. De meo potu pla- cet mihi sententia tua, à quonon discedam, nec possum. Rationem autem a quæ huius nostratis ad meliorem temperiem coctione reducendi, vt me doceas, humanitatis tuæ erit. Vale Breslæ 20. Nouemb. An- no 84. E P I S T. XLII. IDEM EIDEM. DE dentibus nihil habeo, quod respon- deam amplius, nisi illud quærere ve- lim, quid fuisse tandem putes id, quod nu- per scribem, si neruulus non fuit meus il- le fuit dens, quem ob maximos cruciatus extrahi deinde dissecari iussi, vt inspicerem, num aliquid in eius substantia reperiri pos- set. Nam erant & inter Chirurgos, qui de- ierarent vermes in eo latere. Vermem equi- dem nullum vidi, verum tenuem quâdam, vt ita dicam, earunculam, pili instar nigti- cantem; quæ à summo adimam radicem dentis desinebat, eam eultello eradebam. Fieri posse existimo, vt ex aquis fortibus & olco victrioli, quod infundebam foramini ex stulturum consilio, dens diffusus fuerit, vt materia illa sensum delapsa, carunculæ, quam dixi aut netuali similem speciem de- sinit. Sed hæc leuia sunt, nec satis digna esse videntur, de quib[us] tot inter nos verba com- mutemus. Quæ de Stibio & prioribus, & his litteris memorias, vera esse non dubito. Le- gi quæ Greuinus de eo docte scribit, quæ i- tem Stenglius. Non desinotamen mirari, quæ Matthiolus & Gesnerus, & Anderna- eus, (vt alios quosdam præteream) tam ma- gnifice de viribus eius iactitant. Nescio an nupertibi significauetim de nobili quodam viro, qui mihi 18. annos operam nauauit. Is multis & grautoribus motus conflictatus fuit, per sex, & amplius annos. Scabie per- petua, sicca illa quæ perpetuo pruritu vexat, mirum in modu[m] vexabatur dies ac noctes. Somnum capere non poterat, cibum re- spuebat, vettigine tenabatur identidem. Ctacouienses quidam Medicis, aliquot an- nis hominem variis medicam macrum & siccum, & Melancholicum ex- tamificauerunt. Fuit qui in parilla, < In Scabio ab requa rela- quia nihil et ferendu[m] quodam Amri- mento curba>

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that the inward part of the body should be traversed, and that on the way one should stop elsewhere, at the physician’s discretion and command. These and other heads belonging here, I ask you again and again, out of our friendship, to explain to me elegantly, learnedly, sharply, copiously, and clearly, in your own way, for eight [hours?]. These things are not trifles, as it seems to me at least, but they are nevertheless matters which you, if you turn your mind to that talent of yours, polished by elegant learning, will be able to resolve best of all. Farewell. Breslau, 6 August, 82. EPIST. XLII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I am perhaps later than is fitting in repaying your most kindly letters. There are many reasons, with the recital of which I do not wish to overwhelm you. My ill health has also made me somewhat sluggish. The pains which I thought were colic, I fear may be nephritic, or that they afflict me by their combined force. Certainly on the preceding days, when our Asclepius admitted N. N. into your order, I passed a small stone with my urine, without pain, however; in size about half a hemp-seed. One part of it is hollow and white, the other convex, of a blackish color tending toward blue, smooth; one would say it was a hemp-seed split in two. There had preceded, too, pains below the navel, opposite the bladder, so that I supposed the plugs were intercepting the urine and distending those parts, and thus causing torment. In one day and night I used the chamber-pot at least seventy times, always excreting something, though very little; there was no sand, no sediment in the glass, no other signs of a stone, if there are any, on account of the urine being somewhat disturbed, so as to show a deposition. The same opinion concerning this illness of mine was held by several physicians whom N. N. had promoted and whom I had entertained at dinner. But from the next day onward both their conjecture and mine failed me. Up to that time I felt nothing. Although it is so difficult that I am almost inclined to judge it impossible to say whether this is a fragment of some larger stone fixed in the bladder or even in the kidneys, and still fast there; nevertheless I ask you to let me know your conjecture. So great is the sharpness of your mind that you can easily penetrate what others cannot. To me it certainly seems as though it had once been part of some larger mass, which my urine has now indicated. What if that hollow part also adhered to the flesh of the kidneys, and the whole thing was afterward torn away? But I beg you, are you also among those who hold the opinion that stones already formed within the body can be worn away and even broken up by medicines? To me that does not seem probable. Yet if you affirm it, I shall not easily depart from your opinion, since I know you affirm nothing rashly. If you have anything that can either prevent a further accumulation of this matter, or dispel the present illness, I beg you not to withhold it from me. About my drink your opinion pleases me, and I shall not depart from it, nor could I. As to the method of reducing our bodily condition by digestion to a better temperament, it will be your kindness to teach me. Farewell. Breslau, 20 November, 84. EPIST. XLII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. About the teeth I have nothing further to reply, except that I should like to ask what you think at last it was that I recently wrote about: if it was not a nerve of mine, then it was a tooth, which, because of the great torments, I ordered to be extracted and then cut open, so that I might inspect whether anything could be found in its substance. For there were also some surgeons who swore that worms were in it. I certainly saw no worm, but a certain thin little fleshy thing, so to speak, blackish like a hair, which extended from the top right down to the root of the tooth; I scraped it off with a knife. I think it possible that from the strong waters and oil of vitriol, which I poured into the cavity on the advice of a fool, the tooth may have been dissolved, so that that matter, having slipped away, turns into the little fleshy thing I mentioned, or into something resembling a wart. But these are trivial matters, and do not seem worthy enough for us to exchange so many words about. What I have mentioned in these letters about antimony and earlier matters, I do not doubt to be true. I have read what Grevinus writes about it learnedly, and also Stengelius. Still I do not cease to wonder at the boasts made by Matthiolus, Gesner, and Andernaeus (to pass over certain others) concerning its powers. I do not know whether I recently told you about a certain nobleman who had served me for eighteen years. He was afflicted for more than six years by many and severe spasms. He was terribly troubled day and night by a perpetual scabies, that dry kind which is tormented by continual itching. He could not sleep; he rejected food; he was repeatedly troubled by vomiting. Some croaking physicians had, over the course of several years, made the man, who was already lean and dry, more and more melancholy through various medicines. There was one who, in parilla, in scabio ab... [illegible] ...

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51 EPISTOLÆ deinde Cynæ radicem, alias Gnaiacum præ betet; denique hydrargyro vnctus fuit, sed hæc frustra omnia, non potuit morbus his armis propulsari. Tandem consilio Italieu- iusdam Iohannis Pedemontani, qui tum in Daeiaci, qui nune Polonorum Rex est, mi- nistrabat, ad Antimunii 4. grana deuentum est. Quid multa morbus iam diuturnus, ita pertinax, paucis mensibus depulius est. Iam sex anni abierunt. Etiam nunc bene babet. Addam hoc quoq[ue] quod mihi mirum ma- gis videtur, is, quem dixi Pedemontanus, Iohannes Pedemontanus assiduo Antimonium vsu firmam sibi comparans vale vident[ur]. 10 12.14. eum lubet, & necesse esse putat, gra- na ebitit. Morbosum se antea fuisse ait; post vsum Subii recte semper valuisse. Itaq[ue] ma- gis vt imminentibus morbis obuiam eat, quon vt præleniem aliquem euret, Stibio se tam frequenter vt affix mat. Hæc ideo adde- re libuit, vt videas, quæ quidem de Paraecel- sieis remediis dicunt non in omnibus cor- porib[us] euenire. Etsi quia chi adarix tac mihi. Va- le. Paseouia 26. Octub. anno 1578. EPIST. XLIII. IDEM EIDEM. DE Gryphibus, Phoenice, vt multa alia, < Phoenix & Gryphus Phoenicia. Lucorum re nata.> quæ antiquitas nobis credenda obtru- fabulosa esse puto. Vnicornu nisi species a- liqua certa animatis esset, vix à Pala te in eum modum nominaretur. Fuisse igitur tale ali- quod animal quod vno eoru atmatum suo rii, & si quæ ex Diuini varis verbis alia illius animantis propria eliei possunt, equidem negare non facile ausim. Iam veto extitisse aliquando tale animal, & postea aliquo tem- pore speciem eiusita totam è medio subla- tam esse, nihil vt eius iam vsquam superstit, 40 mihi religio est assitmare. Etenim si mun- dus perfectus est à sommo DEO conditus nil ei defuit, neque deesse potest. Perfectum e- nim id est, in quo nihil, ne cogitatione qui- dem vsurpare queas, quod desideretur, & ne fas est sapientissimum DEVM dicere hanc machiuam imperfectam eandidisse, nisi ea- de opera vel potestas ac vis, vel sapientia ei per summam impietate detrahatur. Quod si fuit illo vnquam tempore perfectus hie 50 orbis vniuersus, certe nulla relinquitur cau- sa cur nunc imperfectus esse dici debeat, ni- si quis optimum & potentem Recto- rem, moderatoremque DEVM ab illius pro- curatione remoueat, sed nolo in hanc dispu- tationem descendere, quæ maioris operæ est. Vale. 56 EPIST. XLIV. IDEM EIDEM. VT aliquod argumentum scribendi li- teras habeas, quod me oblectet ma- gis, & doceat, rogo te explica mihi duas has- ce quæstiones, quarum de altera fortasse iam antecaceum egi, verum responsum tu- um non teneo. I. Vestri in eduliis ea prius assumi iubent, quæ molliasunt, & coneo etu fæciliora. In quem vsum? An vt citius ex- eant? Quæro, num ante ex ventriculo ex- eant ingesta, quam in ehylum conuertan- tur? si non, sed dum demum, eum & ventri- culus, & alec[us] venx ex ehylo, exugunt id, quo opus habent, apparet certe omnia siue faci- lis, siue difficilis concoctionis sint, in ehy- lum confundi atque adeo a exoq[ue] n q[ui]nq[ue] n tia Pho- eha . Nihil igitur refert, quo ordine eibi de glutiantur. Si id verentur, atque aliquid in co positum est, ne in ventriculi fundum gra- uius, aut dura prius quam molliia, & liquidio- ra deieiantur, frustra conantur. Nam ta- merusi hæc sequantur, fundum tamen ipsum potent. Cedunt enim leuia grauibus, & pono- derosioribus, vt in aqua videre est, aut luto, cum lapis, lignum aut simile quid inieitur. < An in paroxysmo fabricantes cohanendi.> II. Vetant item ne infrebrium inultibus ci- bus egroto detur, ne, scilicet ealor distractus non latis virium habeat, ad vtrumque opus, ad cibum digerendum, & contra hostilis impetus depugnationem. Et tamennisi fal- lor iidem vestri mandant tum in paroxys- miscibandos febriticantes, cum periculum est, ne vires eos deficiant in ipsa lucta eum morbo. Quare hie illa ratio non valet. Si cum vires adhuc firmiores sunt, ante paro- xysmum alantur, quanto magis cauendum videtur, ne deiectisiam viribus in ipsis pa- roxismis naturæ robur distrahatur ac magis magisque labefactetur, situm eibus offer- tur? Vale. EPIST. XLV. IDEM EIDEM < Formam & sint differre> Si forma & finis rei idem est, superoaca- neum est alterutrum mebrum in eau- sarum diuisione apud Aristotelem. Dein- de forma rei ineit, atque adeo, vt tu quoque recte sentis, rem ipsam constituit, & dat esse rei, vt si hoc loquuntur. Finis externum quiddam est, & consequens formam. Mi- rum a[utem] etiamnum mihi videtur thabarba- rum, piper, zinziber, aliaque eius ge- neris à forma tua procedentes vires reti- nere

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51 LETTERS then he gave the root of Cynæ, otherwise Gnaiacum; finally he was anointed with mercury, but all this in vain: the disease could not be driven off by these weapons. At last, by the advice of a certain Italian, John of Piedmont, who was then serving Daciacus, who is now King of the Poles, they came to 4 grains of antimony. What more shall I say? The disease, now long-standing and so stubborn, was expelled in a few months. It is now six years since then. Even now he is well. I will add this too, which seems even more surprising to me: the man I mentioned, John of Piedmont, by constant use of antimony, appears to have gained for himself firm health. He often takes grains of it when he wishes and thinks it necessary. He says he was sick before; after using stibium he was always in good health. Therefore, in order to meet threatening illnesses more than to cure some disease already present, he applies himself to stibium so frequently. I was pleased to add this, so that you may see that what they say about Paracelsian remedies does not happen in all bodies. Though because chi adarix tac to me. Farewell. Paseouia, 26 October, in the year 1578. EPISTLE XLIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. About griffins, the phoenix, as well as many other things, which antiquity thrusts upon us to believe, I think them fabulous. Unless some definite species of unicorn had existed among animals, it could scarcely have been named in that way by Plato. Therefore, that there once was some such animal armed with one horn, and if anything else of that creature’s peculiar nature can be drawn from the divine words, I certainly should not easily dare to deny it. But that such an animal once existed, and that later at some time its whole species was so utterly removed from the earth that nothing of it now survives anywhere, I am reluctant to affirm. For if the world was made perfect by the supreme God, nothing was lacking in it, nor can anything be lacking. For that is perfect in which nothing, not even in thought, can be imagined as wanting; and it is not lawful to say that the wisest God made this machine imperfect, unless one takes away from Him either the same work, or power and force, or wisdom, by the greatest impiety. But if this whole universe was at one time perfect, certainly no reason remains why it should now be called imperfect, unless someone removes the good and powerful Ruler and Governor, God, from its administration. But I do not wish to descend into that dispute, for it requires greater labor. Farewell. EPISTLE XLIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. So that you may have some subject for writing letters, which both delights me more and teaches me, I ask you to explain to me these two questions. About one of them perhaps I have already asked before, but I do not have your answer in mind. I. Your people, in their foods, order that those things which are softer and easier to digest be taken first. For what purpose? Is it so that they may pass out sooner? I ask whether what is taken in leaves the stomach before it is changed into chyle; if not, but only when both the stomach and the vessels absorb from the chyle what they need, then it is clear that all things, whether of easy or difficult digestion, are turned into chyle, and so into nourishment. Therefore it makes no difference in what order foods are swallowed. If they fear that something is placed there so that heavier foods, or hard before soft and liquid, do not descend to the bottom of the stomach, they labor in vain. For even if these things follow one another, they still reach the bottom itself. For light things yield to heavy and more weighty ones, as can be seen in water or mud, when a stone, wood, or something similar is thrown in. II. They also forbid that in the attacks of fever food be given to the sick person, lest, namely, the heat, being diverted, should not have enough strength for both tasks, namely for digesting food and for fighting off the enemy’s assault. And yet, unless I am mistaken, your people themselves command that fever patients be fed during the paroxysms, when there is danger that their strength may fail them in the very struggle with the disease. Therefore the reason here does not hold. If, when their strength is still firmer, they are fed before the paroxysm, how much more should it seem necessary to beware lest, with strength already diminished in the paroxysms themselves, the vigor of nature be distracted and more and more weakened if food is offered to it? Farewell. EPISTLE XLV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. If the form and the end of a thing are the same, then one of the two members in Aristotle’s division of causes is superfluous. Next, the form of a thing is its beginning, and thus, as you too rightly think, it constitutes the thing itself and gives being to the thing, if one may so speak. The end is something external and consequent upon the form. Yet even now it seems strange to me that rhubarb, pepper, ginger, and other things of that sort preserve the powers proceeding from their form.

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nere forma ipsa iam abolita. Recisa enim & exsiccata formam suam, qua viuebat, amiserunt. Homo, equus, alia animantia, cum viuere desierunt, à forma procedentes actiones edere amplius nequeunt. Quare cum vituor, & post inteterunt, non eandem formam retineor, ac ne appellationem quidem, nisi ipsa viuor . Aurum, argentum, plumbum, ne omnia metalla commemo- rem, non videntur per additionem exter- nam augeri, sed plantæ animam obtioere, quo fit, vt aliqua minus, alia magis excocta, & matura repertantur. Sed hæc ad cinislo- nes, & argenti excoebronides, igniuos q[ui] Philosophos relegemus. Humanitas, leonitas & quæ alia sunt eius generis, nomina ipso penè tremenda sono, extra sua subiecta nihil sunt, nisi intellectus vniqua , vt sic dic- eam. Refert Laërtius, si recte memini, Dio- genem Platonis Ideas irridentem, in hunc fere modum; Equidem o Plato, mensam & cyathum video menscitatem & chyarheitatem, quæ non video. vi Sicco , 10 mutis non id tantum, quod Erastus affirmat; sed quidquid eiusmodi est, cuius ratio reddi non potest, & à Numine immittitur, ab Hippocrate dici probabile est, nec dubito me hoc alicubi legisse, sed piget quærere, præsertim quod noctuas Athenas. < Vid. S. Cic. quid.> Si sanguis putus ab aliis humorib[us] secretus, non nisi cogitatione, & ratione, io corporibus reperitur, quomodo sanguis solus & syncerus, qui nusquam est, nutriet? Bilis vtraque, pituita item, cum segregata sunt à sua massa, quæ tota sanguis est, excrementa cum sint fortasse non nutriunt. In quotameo aliqui vestrum pugnâria docent. Nam lienem humore melancholico nutriunt, & ex pituita sanguinem generant, & audiui qui diceret tum felle, cuius receptaculum est, nutriri. Sed tu de his docte disputasti. De Rubiæ viribus experientiæ testimonio standum est. De formicis Placet, quod scribis. Vale. < Humores an nutriant.> EPIST. XLVI. IDEM EIDEM POSITIONES tuas de dentibus relegi. < Responsoriæ Momani vnde 197.> Cuperem videre commentarium integrum. Non eoim dubito te vberius, quæ hic oude ad disputandum proposita leguntur, persecutum esse. Mihi quidem illa, quæ de eorum alueolis & radicibus scribis, atque appendicibus, oon improbantur; sed vereor, ne experientia refellantur: Sunt item qui affirment, se neruulos vidisse, qui ab imis radicibus ad summum vlcq[ue] per me- dium dentem extenderentur. Alii ex foramine suffimentis vermes educunt, quos tamen ego inginguius generati puto; si tameo vera sunt, quæ ab his narrâtur. De quo tu videris. Artificis enim est de arte iudicare, non nostrum; qui vestram, & alias artes, admiramur potius, quam intelligimus. Legi diligenter, quæ de Stibio accuratè disputas. Non abhorret ab opinione tua Greuinus, < Stibii Londin> Steglius, Erastus, & alii. Vcrû quid aduersus experimeota adferes: Matthiolus, Gesnerus Andernacus, Peletattus, multi alii, magni viri & à Paracelsi monstrosis paradoxis aliis in rebus pene omnibus abhortentes, magnas eius vires decantant. Ego ipse vidi incredibilem curationem domi meæ, in nobili famulomeo, tum à multis morbis complicato multos annos, tum ab ipsis medicis diuxexato, qui tamen non alio quâ hoc pharmaco per curari potuit. Is alios quoque in familia mea curauit, præsertim febre quæ tana, & colicis doloribus laborantes. Quæ, etsi ita se habent; Ego tamen, etiamsi Medicinam facerem, vestra autoritate deterritus, oon auderem ad hoc, quod vos venenum vocatis, coos fugere. Sed, amabo te, si radix Mechoaca tam mirifica est, vt vult Donatus Marcellus, & Lobelius, & Hispani medici, cur tanto beneficio tam diu patria vestra caret? Nihil in ea sumenda molestiæ est, oon odore, noo sapore, noo specie, nulla prorsus re egrotis horrorem incutit, Rapam siccam dices. Vale. EPIST. XLVII. IDEM EIDEM. RATIO medicamentorum componendorum mihi in arte vestra per difficilis semper visa est, præsertim vt error in dosibus vitetur. Rogo te, vt mihi nomines ex plurimis vnum aliquem, qui hanc omnium optime artem tuo iudicio, prosecutus esse videatur. Equidem nihil in tota medicina minus intelligere mihi videor, excepta tamen pulsum, & vrinarum doctrina, quam vel norunt Mediciporsus, & oobis imponunt, vt augures populo Romano faciebant, aut certe non ita explicant, vt intelligentia rem obseuram comprehende- re liceat. Galeoi certe immentas illas cogitationes, non vix mihi sit verisimile à quoquam vnquam ad vsum prædicium. vt vocant, reiocatas esse, aut etiam posse. Et sane bonus ille vir, non videatur tantus fuisse practicus, quam Theoricus. Ocio certe nisi abundasset (Quod fit, cum à paucis opera nostra adhibetur) nunquam < Difficultat doctrina de pulchrum & venis.>

Transcription: Translated (English)

For the very form itself is now abolished. For being cut and dried, they have lost their form, by which they lived. Man, horse, and other living creatures, when they have ceased to live, cannot continue to perform actions proceeding from form. Therefore, when I live, and after I die, I do not retain the same form, nor even the name, unless I am myself alive. Gold, silver, lead—to mention not all the metals—do not seem to increase by external addition, but to receive a plant-like soul, by which it comes about that some are found less, others more, well prepared and mature. But let us leave these matters to the cinders and the smelters of silver, those fiery philosophers. Humanity, leonine nature, and whatever else there is of that kind—names almost formidable in their very sound—outside their subjects are nothing except, if I may so speak, an act of the intellect. Laertius relates, if I remember rightly, that Diogenes, mocking Plato’s Ideas, spoke somewhat as follows: “Indeed, O Plato, I see a table and a cup; but I do not see tablehood and cuphood.” Likewise, to the mute it is not only that which Erastus affirms; but whatever is of that sort, the reason for which cannot be given and which is sent down from the Deity, may probably be said by Hippocrates. Nor do I doubt that I have read this somewhere, but I am reluctant to search for it, especially because I am carrying owls to Athens. < See S. Cic. quid.> If pure blood, separated from the other humors, is found only by thought and reason in bodies, how can blood alone and unmixed, which is nowhere, nourish? Both bile and phlegm, likewise, when separated from their mass—which is wholly blood—being excrements, perhaps do not nourish. In what conversation some of you teach pugilistic matters. For they nourish the spleen with melancholic humor, and from phlegm generate blood, and I have heard someone say that it is nourished by bile, whose receptacle it is. But you have argued learnedly about these things. Concerning the powers of madder, one must stand by the testimony of experience. I agree with what you write about ants. Farewell. < Whether humors nourish.> EPIST. XLVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME I have reread your positions concerning the teeth. < Responsive notes of Momanus, from 197.> I should like to see the whole commentary. For I do not doubt that you have pursued at greater length what here is read as having been proposed for discussion. Indeed, those things which you write about their sockets and roots, and their attachments, do not displease me; but I fear that experience may refute them. There are also some who affirm that they have seen little nerves extending from the lowest roots up to the top through the middle of the tooth. Others draw worms from the hole with fumes, though I think they are generated within it; if, however, what is told by them is true. You see to that. For it is the artisan’s business to judge his art, not ours; we, who admire your arts and others more than we understand them. I have carefully read what you discuss so accurately about stibium. Grevinus does not differ from your opinion, < Stibii Londin> Steglius, Erastus, and others. But what will you bring forward against the experiments? Matthiolus, Gesner, Andernacus, Peletattus, and many others, great men, and in nearly all other matters differing from Paracelsus’ monstrous paradoxes, praise its great powers. I myself have seen an incredible cure in my own house, in a noble servant of mine, long afflicted for many years with a number of diseases, and worn out by the physicians themselves, who nevertheless could be cured by no other medicine than this. He also cured others in my household, especially those suffering from tertian fever and colicky pains. Which things, though they be so; nevertheless I, even if I were practicing medicine, restrained by your authority, would not dare to resort to that which you call poison. But, I beg you, if Mechoacan root is so marvelous as Donatus Marcellus, Lobelius, and the Spanish physicians say, why does your country lack so great a benefit for so long? There is nothing troublesome in taking it: no smell, no taste, no appearance, nothing at all inspires horror in the sick. You would call it a dried turnip. Farewell. EPIST. XLVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. The method of compounding medicines has always seemed to me very difficult in your art, especially so that error in doses may be avoided. I ask you to name for me, out of many, some one who seems to you to have pursued this art best of all. Indeed, in the whole of medicine I seem to understand nothing less, except however the doctrine of the pulse and of urine, which the physicians either know thoroughly and impose upon us, as the augurs did upon the Roman people, or certainly do not explain so that understanding may grasp the matter, obscure as it is. Certainly Galileo’s immense reflections, < Not at all likely that anything has ever been brought back to practical use, as they say.> seem scarcely believable to me as ever having been reduced to practical use by anyone, or even being able to be so. And indeed that good man does not seem to have been so much a practitioner as a theorist. Surely, unless he had had leisure in abundance (which happens when our work is employed by only a few), never < The doctrine about beauty and veins is difficult.>

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tot libros scripsisset. Romæ non magni fie- banæ, & erant alii, qui ne artis vsum, longe anteserebantur. Id quod vel ex ipsius de- monstrari libris potest. sed hæc extra rem. Per specillis vti cæpi ante aliquot menses ad cædelæ lumen, quoties minutulæ litteræ le- gendæ essent. Nunc enâ magnos characte- res vix sine eis lego, ac quod dolentius est, iâ de die etiam sæpe adhibere ea cogor. Itaque de quo ante dubitabam, & ex te quærebam, nunc men periculo edoctus, didici rectius facere eos, qui nonnisi necessario ad eorum vsum descendunt. Tanta tam paruo tempo- ris interuallo mutatio miraculi instar mihi visa est. Proponit mihi amicus quidam di- gnum tum acumine : In ore est Medi- cis crebro permutan- da esse, ne vni medicamento diutius assueta natura eius vim deinceps respuat, sicque ex- iguum, aut nullum inde vtentes sentiant e- molumentum. De purgantibus hoc, vt vere à Galenn præceptum est 5. de tuenda valetudine 9. ita an recte ad antidota Pestis traductum sit, non liquet. Cum enim hæc ex alterantium sit classe, quæ corpus in eam, qua ipsa prædita sunt, naturam immutare possint, verisimile est quo diutius in eorum vsu perenlitur, eo maiorem virium ipsarum in corpus impressinnem fieri, vt corpus ita randem minuatur, atque obsismetur, vt et- iam sine bis deinceps qualitati veneficæ re- sistere, eamque à se propellere possit. Exem- plu sit Mithridates, qui sua antidom tam frequenter eo consilio vsus videtur, vt cor- poris sui naturam muniret ad cuiusuis ve- neni vim infringridam. Quo factum est, vt nullo deinceps veneno extingui potue- rit, Galenn teste. Ad hanc non occurrit, quid aliud respondeam, quam si dieam, me non videre, quibus adducti rationibus Me- dici præceptum Galeni ad pestis præserua- tionem & curatinnem transferant, nisi for- te en respiciunt, quod in tam acuto, & per- niciosu morbo non satis relinquitur tempo- ris ad contrahendum quasi habitum quen- dam ab antidotis impressum, quo tanto re- sisti veneno possit. Etsi venenum à peste re- mouent magni quidam Medici. Itaque i- mitanda sæpe pharmacac censent, vt nouis semper subsidii vires cordis tueantur, cum non tantum in vnn aliquin antidoto præsi- dii positum esse animaduertant, quantum satis sit ad tam potentis hostis copias debel- landas. Illam ego causam, quam vulgò af- ferri scio ne scilicet natura affluescat, & cetera. nullam esse putn. Exemplum quin- que de Mulbridate inter ea repono, quæ veteres satis multa reliquerunt, in quibus i- 10 donec nostra experientia fidem eoru[m] faciat. Reipsa enim comperi multa prn in- dubitatis circumferri, quæ anilibus sunt fa- bulis inaniora. Vale. EPIST. XLVIII INDEM EIDEM. 16 MAGNA tibi gratias habeo mi doctissime Monaui, quod ad quæstionem meam, tam eleganti, tam docta Epistola re- spondisti. Scin mutatinnas, repentinas præ- sertim, periculosas esse, tum vsu multarum rerum in vita edoctus, tum Hipp. præceptu mnnirus, neque ego eam ne causam iudi- dicium tuum de meo pntu exquireban. Quæsia aqua pro petem ex- quenda. Sed dubitationem tantum de aquæ coctione prnponebam, quam tu mihi ex animu[m] exemisti. Verum quod de fontana aqua scribis, vellem addidisses, quinrum suntium aquas præcipue laudes; eorum ne, qui in planis locis, per atenam, an per glareolas scaturiunt, an qui ex montibus promanant, locis opacis, & frigidis, in quæ solis radii nunquam pettingunt. Deinde cum ex ter- ræ visceribus effundantur, & varia metallin- rum generantur, eorumque qualitatibus sine dubin afficiantur; qui ex omnibus fon- tes ad meum pntum saluberrimi sint futuri. C Sed quoniam ad vos commigrandum mihi est, atque existo vestro fluuo haurienda a- qua, quærn id, quod magis ex vsu meo est, num istam aquam sine valetudinis pericu- lo, aut etiam cum aliquin commodo, ad co- quendum meum pntum adhibere possim. Ac cum duo sunt fluuii, vtrum magis pro- bes. Etsi vterque mihi lutulentus & nun- quam non turbidus esse videtur, multis feci bus, variis sordibus, cadaueribus etia[m] vario- ru[m] animantiu[m], vt verisimile est inquinatus. Tiberium mulieru[m] eae borumo caer- sum. Qua de causa Tiberim, Romæ multus mor- bos procreare, sunt qui affirment, etsi ea a- qua à multis seculis illa gens prn saluber- rima vfa fuit. Vale. EPIST. XLIX. INDEM EIDEM. 16 DE annuln gratiam habeo. Dedit mihi Rex Ptoloniæ Sigismundus Augustus integrum pedem posteriorem dextrum, a- nimatis illius, à se cæsi, eo ipso tempore, quin dextram aurem vngue pedis illius scalpe- rer; quid quidem tempus fuit inter duos Diuæ Virginis Mariæ festos dies, immedia- re sese consequentes, interiectum. Nam, hæc omnia religiose obseruanda dicunt, si vna-

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having written so many books. In Rome they were not greatly esteemed, and there were others who, without even practicing the art, were far ahead of him. This can be shown even from his own books. But this is beside the point. I began using spectacles a few months ago, by candlelight, whenever tiny letters had to be read. Now I can scarcely read large characters without them, and what is more troublesome, I am often compelled to use them even by day. Thus, on the matter about which I once hesitated and asked you, I have now learned from my own experience that those do better who resort to their use only when necessary. So great a change in so short an interval of time seemed to me almost miraculous. A certain friend of mine proposes something worthy of his ingenuity: it is in medicine, that medicines should be changed frequently, so that nature, having become accustomed to one remedy too long, may afterward reject its power, and those using it may feel little or no benefit from it. Concerning purgatives, this, as truly laid down by Galen in On the Preservation of Health 5, 9, is clear; but whether it has been rightly transferred to antidotes against the plague is not clear. For since these belong to the class of alteratives, which can change the body into the nature with which they themselves are endowed, it is likely that the longer they are used, the greater the impression of their power is made on the body, so that the body is gradually weakened and fortified, and can thereafter even without them resist the poisonous quality and repel it from itself. An example is Mithridates, who seems to have used his antidote so frequently for the purpose of strengthening his body's nature against the force of any poison. Thus it came about, as Galen testifies, that he could afterward be destroyed by no poison. As to this, I have no other reply than to say that I do not see by what reasons the physicians transfer Galen's precept to the prevention and treatment of the plague, unless perhaps they have in mind that in so acute and pernicious a disease there is not enough time allowed for acquiring, as it were, a certain habit impressed by antidotes, by which one may resist so great a poison. Even so, many distinguished physicians remove poison from the plague. Therefore they often think medicines should be alternated, so that by always new aids the powers of the heart may be protected, since they observe that not so much lies in any one antidote as is sufficient to overthrow the forces of so mighty an enemy. The reason commonly given—I know it well, namely, that nature may not become dulled, and the rest—I think is nothing. I place the example of Mithridates among those things which the ancients left in considerable number, and in which our own experience has not yet given them credibility. For in truth I have found many things commonly circulated, which are more empty than old wives’ tales. Farewell. EPIST. XLVIII TO THE SAME. I thank you very much, my most learned Monau, for answering my question with so elegant and so learned a letter. You know that sudden changes, especially, are dangerous, taught both by experience of many things in life and by the precept of Hippocrates, nor was I, for that reason, seeking your judgment about my opinion. I was only proposing a doubt about boiling water, which you removed from my mind. But what you write about spring water, I should have liked you to add: which springs are especially praised—those whose waters arise in level places, through sand, or through gravel, or those which flow from mountains, in shady and cold places to which the sun's rays never reach. Then, since they gush forth from the bowels of the earth and various minerals are generated there, and are doubtless affected by their qualities, which of all these springs will be the most healthful for my purpose. But since I must move to your place, and must draw water from your river, I ask whether, for what is more relevant to my use, I may use that water to cook my food without danger to health, or even with some benefit. And since there are two rivers, which would you more approve? Though each seems to me muddy and never not turbid, polluted in many ways with various filth and even with the corpses of various living creatures, as is likely. For this reason there are those who affirm that the Tiber produces many diseases in Rome, although that people has for many centuries used that water as very healthful. Farewell. EPIST. XLIX. TO THE SAME. I thank you for the ring. King Sigismund Augustus of Poland gave me the entire right hind foot of the animal he had killed, at the very time when I was scratching the right ear with the nail of that foot; indeed, that time fell between two feast days of the Blessed Virgin Mary, immediately following one another. For they say that all these things are to be observed religiously, if one...

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61 MEDICINALES. 62 si vnguis ille id, qvod creditur vulgo, efficere debeat. Totum in multa frustra concisum distribui amicis: nemo tamen vnguam adiutus est. Expertus ego sum in aliquot Comitialibus frustra, quæsui ex infinitis, etiam superstitionis oribus, fabulas esse comperi. Quæ ratio igitur est, vt tantum morbum, tam leuiusculo a muleto profligari, muliebriter credamus? Et putas tu, vt ab hoc, ad geous vniuersum transeamus; vel lum vsquam esse quod internos morbos, vel leuissimos coret? Ego certe, nisi tu firmas aliquas raiones afferas, non video causam, cur id affirmem. Qua vi id faciunt? occulta inquiunt. At idem sæpe, contraria natura præditis, dioersis morbis adhibetur. Potestne idem pharmacum & frigus & calorem efficere, exiccare item atque humectare. atque adeo alias, qvæ ab his oriuntur, passiones procurare? Deinde quomodo affecto membro vis illa morbi victrix ac triumphatia communicatur? Per qvoos meatus ad iotimas, atque abstrusas illas particulas penetrat? Spiritibus scilicet vnitur, & vna eo defertur. Cur eo potius, quam in diuersas partes? an ratione etiam præditum est, vt non nisi ad obsessum morbo locum, recta tendat, non alio se à spiritibus abduci patiatur? Mira profecto res est, neque explicabilis. Sensari, inquis, artifices sumus; subtilia ista non moramur. audio. Sed quid ego hic aliud, quam sensum quæro, atqne id mihi ostendi postulo, quod in sensus incurrat. Occulta ista vestra proprietas, & , nonoecum sensu pugnai? Sensarum iguor Philosophicum, ad sensum reuoco; sensilia mihi demostra ri cupio. Experientiam appellas. Ad hoc tribunal, nullo negotio vincam. Testes in medium, pro tuis decem, ego meos mille producam: qui iurati dicem senon esse ab istis vlla in parte adiutos. Quid igiur contra adferes? Cupio id scire, & valde te rogo, vt in eam rem incumbas aliquatum, aique acumen illud tuum, quod me mirifice delectat, iniendas. Reperies, fat scio, quod mihi dubitationes tollat. Cauè autem existimes inutiles huius generis esse quæstiones, & eiusmodi, quales tuus Galenus , oisi fallor, nominare solet. Multiplex inest vtilitas in harum rerum disquisitiooe. De quo; quia idem quod ego, sentire te puto; non ero longior. Illud tantum dicam, cupere me vehementer, vt cum hâc quæstionem discuties, de quoque aliquid adiungas; tum de eo qua ratione, quibus viis vnguenta quæ foris inunguntur; vim illam suam in remotas corporis partes, transmittant. Nam hæc quæ prioribus illis coniugi consideratio potest. Authores etiam, si qui forte hæc tractarunt, & veteres, & nouos nomina, locis notatis. Vix enim, hieri posse existimo, vt hæc omnes silentio præterierint. Vale. EPIST. L. IDEM EIDEM. HABEO Theses Erasti nostri, cuios mihi doctrina, & præter exteros, qui nunc docent, mirifice probatur. Credo eas te quoque habere, nondum typis maodatæ sunt. Verum in iis ille vim omnem ab amuletis abesse cooteodit. Ego esti ab eius opinione non abhorreo, tameo in eam aliquando menem venio, vt suspicer non esse prorsus nihil, quod omoes ætates, iam à longa seculorum serie constanter affirmant. Id multo etiam magis de , & falcino cogitio: quorunm esse vim magoam, ostendunt ii ferre omnes, qui de veneficis, lausis, & hoc genus aliis pestibus miranda scribunt. Ita sit nimirum vt experientia syllogismos, qui alioqui firmi videbantur, eneruet. Equidem à quo tempore carbones ad absinibii radices, in ipso Diui Iohan[n]is die vidi, quieo die præterito, non amplius reperti sunt; non tam temere superstitionis accuso eos, qui hæc talia, tam mira narrant. Non longe abieris; curationes illas ossium coofactorum per lapidem, quem Erastus Sabulosum vocat, quis non peoe fabulas esse iudices? mulio etiam magis, voguentum illud quo telorum inunctione vulnerari sanaotur, ridiculum videatur, & tamen fide digni amici nostri; vtrumque sancte affirmandi. Sunt alia sexcenta, quæ fidem omnem superant, non tamen ideo falsa sunt. Quare vehementer in iis & vbi ratio repugnat, experientiæ, cum admiratione subscribo; si non sit vana, si non imponat ille sed ego accuratam tuam de re tota disputationem auidissime exspecto: Vale. EPIST. LI. IDEM EIDEM. QVÆ de peste attulisti; & probô &c cum doctrina veterum consentanea esse iudico; neque tamen interea animaduerto, quomodo à Massariæ opinione prorsus abhorteant. Nam si febres, C

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61 MEDICINALS. 62 if that ointment should really accomplish what is commonly believed. The whole thing, cut into many pieces and distributed among friends, nevertheless no one was helped by the ointment. I myself have tried it in several cases of epilepsy to no avail; I have investigated the reports from countless sources, even from the mouths of the superstitious, and have found them to be tales. What reason then is there that we should womanishly believe that so grave an illness is driven off by so trifling a remedy? And do you think that, moving from this to the general question, there is anywhere something that cures internal diseases, even the slightest? For my part, unless you bring forward some firm reasons, I see no cause for affirming it. By what force do they do this? “By a hidden one,” they say. Yet the same remedy is often applied to diseases of opposite nature. Can the same drug produce both cold and heat, dry and moisten, and even bring about other conditions arising from these? Then how is that conquering and triumphant force of the disease communicated to the affected member? Through what passages does it penetrate to those intimate and hidden particles? It is joined, of course, with the spirits, and is carried with them to that place. Why there rather than in different directions? Is it endowed with reason too, so that it moves directly only to the place beset by disease, and does not allow itself to be drawn elsewhere by the spirits? It is truly a marvelous thing, and not explicable. “We are men of sense,” you say; “we do not trouble ourselves with such subtle matters.” I hear you. But what am I asking here, if not for sense, and what I demand to be shown is precisely what falls under the senses. Your hidden property clashes with common sense. I refer what is beyond sense back to philosophy; I want sensible things shown to me. You call it experience. On that tribunal I shall easily win. Bring witnesses forward: for your ten I shall produce a thousand of mine, men who, under oath, will say that they have in no way been helped by those things. What then will you bring against that? I wish to know it, and I strongly beg you to devote yourself somewhat to the matter, and to apply that acumen of yours, which delights me so greatly. I am sure you will discover something that will remove my doubts. But do not think such inquiries, and those of this kind, such as your Galen, if I am not mistaken, is accustomed to name, are useless. There is manifold usefulness in the investigation of these matters. Of which, since I think you feel the same as I do, I shall not be longer. I will say only this: I greatly desire that, when you discuss this question, you add something about that too; namely, by what reasoning, by what means, ointments which are applied externally transmit their force to the remote parts of the body. For this consideration may be joined with the former. Also, if any authors have treated these matters, both ancient and modern, please note the names and the places. For I can scarcely think it possible that all have passed over these things in silence. Farewell. EPIST. L. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I have our Erastus’s Theses, whose doctrine I greatly approve, apart from the others who are now teaching. I believe you have them too, though they have not yet been sent to the press. But in them he maintains that all force is absent from amulets. Although I do not entirely disagree with his opinion, still I sometimes come to think that there is not absolutely nothing in what all ages, through a long succession of centuries, have consistently affirmed. I think much more so about the stone and the falcine remedy: their great power is shown by those who write marvelous things about witches, spells, and other such plagues. So it may well be that experience overturns syllogisms which otherwise seemed solid. Indeed, since the time when I saw charcoal applied to the roots of wormwood on the very feast day of St. John, after which, when the day had passed, they were no longer found, I no longer so lightly accuse of superstition those who tell such astonishing things. You need not go far; who would not almost judge the cures of broken bones by means of the stone which Erastus calls the Sabulosus to be fables? And much more ridiculous would seem that ointment by which wounds are healed through the application of weapons; and yet our trustworthy friends firmly affirm both. There are six hundred other things that surpass all belief, and yet for that reason they are not false. Therefore, where reason is opposed, I most willingly subscribe to experience, with astonishment, if it is not vain, if it does not impose upon us. But I eagerly await your careful discussion of the whole matter: Farewell. EPIST. LI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. What you have brought forward concerning the plague I judge to be both good and in agreement with the teaching of the ancients; nor, meanwhile, do I see how it altogether departs from Massaria’s opinion. For if fevers,

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& cætera generis eiusdem, populariter in multos grassantia maliniis morbis nume- randa sunt, quos pestilentes vocas, quid prohibet, quin etiam pestem nominare pos- sis? Etenim, qui morbus pestilens est, ab eo pestis vix aberit, si quid locus à coniugatis valere debet. Verum hæc omnis dubita- tio, tum ex hac epistolatura, tum ex pestis definitione tolli potest. De qua tamen non inter omnes conuenit. Nam idem ille, & nescio quis alius negat, semper cum peste co[m]iunctam esse febrem, & legi superioribus mensibus breuem quendam libellum Ve- neti cuiusdam, qui experientiam testem ci- tat, multos ex peste mortuos esse, quibus te- sticuli intumescebant solum, nullo præter- ea symptomate ægrotos illos inuadente. Et sunt sane alii quoque morbi (id quod te v- sus docet) qui perimunt cor ipsum inua- dentes, nulla tamen febte inuestante. Ve- rum de his quicquid in buccam, vt vides. Quare non audeo affirmare me arti vestræ consentanea scribere. Sed si me posthac minus etrare voles in pestis natura cogno- scenda, rogo te vt exquisitam aliquam eius definitionem mihi describas, logicis præ- ceptis accommodatam, qualem non facile reperio apud eos, qui satis multa de hoc morbo tradunt. Quæ de Monocerote re petis, non abhorrent à mea sententia, præ- sertim illa, de specierum abolitione, & mun- di perfectione, quæ ego strictim arrigeram, tu copiosè & doctè explicasti. De amule- tis, & præcipue solicitus sum. Nam nondum animum inducere possum; vt cre- dam eorum esse vim aliquam, aur certe non tantam, vt vulgus exsillisimat, quod de amu- letis intelligi volo. Nam potiones es- senoxias non dubito. Sed quæ tamen ne- que odium, neque amorem sumenti inge- nerent. Vale. EPIST. LII. IDEM EIDEM. IN paresi quid Galbanum ad intempe- riem intestinorum extrinsecus applica- tum adferre adiumenti possit non video. Quæ est illa intèperies, nisi frigidior & hu- midior, quam oporteat. Ea autem, quo- modo aufertur, nisi intro assumantur in contrarium habitum reuocantia? quomo- do horum qualitates, vel potius facultates ad locum affectum tam alie descendunt, & penetrant per tot anfractus? De toto ap- plicandi exterius ratione, & vngendi, si curandi sint remotiones in corpore recon- diti affectus, eadem dubitatio obuersatur. In euraneis quidem morbis, qui non inti- mas partes occupant, non nego hæc talia iu- uare, &c. De his, cum voles, paucis me do- cebis. Tolle mihi hanc Galeni contradict. 2. detemp. & 1. de præsag. ex pulsnimiam so- licitudinem, iram, dolorem, metum, nostra corpora refrigerate & calefacere scribit, quæ contraria sunt. Et sane dolor & timor quibus duabus passionibus contrarie nos affici scribit, hoc est, & calefieri, & frigehe- ri) eandem inducere effectionem videntur. Nam interiora calefacere, exteriora contra refrigerare verisimilius est, eum calor ab extimis partibus ad internas reuocetur. De peste quæ disseris, placent omnia. Nihil e- nim occurrit, quod solide obiici posse vi- deatur: nisi forte exercitationis causa ali- quid adferatur, ad rem magis magisque ex- cutiendam, vt in scholis fieri assolet. Sed hæc talis dissertatio ad ociosos homines per- tinet. Mea de ortu portus fuit dubuatio, quam de pestis progressionibus, quem qui- dem ortum in contagio ponebam, siue illud ab humano, siue alio aliquo corpore ema- naret. Aëtem autem contagionis esse, vel e- uaporationis, aut halitus pestiferi, vehicu- lum quasi quoddam facile concedo. Ve- rum hanc siue labem, siue contagionem in corpora ab astris demirti (quod pietique af- firmant; quum pestem ad malignos quos- dam stellarum aspectus, atque influentias referunt) equidem cur negem, probabiles, quin, vt mihi videretur, veras atque immotas causas habeo. Aërem ipsum per se non cor- rumpi, sed esse veluti receptaculum conta- giosorum eiusmodi habituum, abunde illuc delatorum, vt existimem, vel ea me causa mouir; quod animaduersum est omnibus temporibus, non fere alios infici, quam qui ptopius ad eos accedant, qui iam hanc la- bem in visceribus habent: aut vasa, vestes, supellectilem, aliaque generis eiusmodi, vel alias, contrectant. Virus enim illud, quod ego co[n]tagium appello, corpusculum quod- dam vaporo sum esse puto, quod certis qui- busdam rebus adhærescens, fomitis loco est, & seminari quasi cuiusdam, ex quo in attingentem, atque adeo etiam in aërem tra- duci , siue labes, siue contagium pos- sit. Iam si quis sibi ab his, vel corporibus, vel locis caueat, vix pestem concipiat. Nonne videmus eos, in magnis quoque pestilentiis conseruari, qui intra suos se parietes conlu- dunt, & ab infectorum consuetudine re- mouentur, multo etiam magis eos, qui sub die habitant, in campis, vel alibi, quo non commeant ij, qui etsi ipsi (quod se fit) illæ- tunt,

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& the like of that kind, spreading widely among many by malignant diseases, ought to be numbered among those which you call pestilential; what prevents you, then, from also being able to call it a plague? For indeed, if a disease is pestilential, plague will scarcely be absent from it, if any weight is to be given to terms that are joined together. But all this doubt may be removed both from this letter and from the definition of plague. Yet on this point not everyone agrees. For that same man, and I know not who else, denies that fever is always joined with plague; and I read in recent months a short booklet of a certain Venetian, who cites experience as witness, that many have died of plague whose testicles alone swelled, with no other symptom attacking those sick men. And there are indeed other diseases as well, as experience teaches, which destroy by attacking the heart itself, yet without any fever attending. But as to these matters, whatever comes to mind, as you see. Therefore I do not dare to affirm that I am writing things in agreement with your art. But if hereafter you wish me to err less in the knowledge of the nature of plague, I ask you to describe for me some exact definition of it, suited to logical precepts, such as I do not easily find among those who hand down enough, and more than enough, on this disease. What you ask about the Monoceros does not differ from my opinion, especially that point about the abolition of species and the perfection of the world, which I had briefly touched on; you have explained it at length and learnedly. I am especially concerned about amulets. For I cannot yet bring myself to believe that they have any power, or at least not so much as the common people suppose, which is what I mean by amulets. For I do not doubt poisonous potions. But those which would engender neither hatred nor love in the one taking them. Farewell. EPIST. LII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. IN paresis I do not see what Galbanum applied externally might contribute as help against an intestinal disorder. What is that disorder, unless colder and more humid than is fitting? And how is that removed unless things restoring the contrary habit are taken inwardly? How do the qualities, or rather the powers, of these things descend so alien to the affected place, and penetrate through so many windings? Regarding the whole method of applying externally and anointing, if remote affections are to be cured in a hidden part of the body, the same doubt arises. In cutaneous diseases, indeed, which do not occupy the inner parts, I do not deny that such things help, and so forth. On these matters, when you wish, you will teach me briefly. Remove for me this contradiction of Galen: in the 2nd book On Temperaments and in the 1st On Prognostics from the pulse, he writes that excessive care, anger, grief, and fear refrigerate and heat our bodies, which are opposites. And indeed pain and fear, by which two passions he writes that we are affected in contrary ways—that is, both heated and chilled—seem to produce the same effect. For it is more likely that they heat the inner parts while cooling the outer, since heat is recalled from the outer parts to the inner. Regarding what you discuss about the plague, everything pleases me. For nothing occurs to me that seems able to be objected with solidity, unless perhaps something is brought forward for the sake of exercise, to examine the matter more and more thoroughly, as is customary in the schools. But such a discussion belongs to idle men. My doubt was about the origin of the port, which I held to be from the plague’s spread, namely that origin which I placed in contagion, whether it emanated from a human body or from some other body. Yet I readily grant that the air is a kind of vehicle of contagion, or of evaporation, or of pestiferous vapor. But why should I deny that this stain or contagion is brought into bodies from the stars, as many assert, when they refer plague to certain malignant aspects and influences of the stars? Indeed I have probable, nay, as it seems to me, true and unshakable reasons. I believe that the air itself is not corrupted in itself, but is as it were a receptacle of such contagious habits, abundantly brought there; and this moved me even for that reason: namely, because it has been observed in all times that scarcely any are infected except those who come near to those already having this stain in their inward parts; or who handle vessels, clothes, furnishings, and other things of that kind, or otherwise touch them. For that poison, which I call contagion, I think is a certain vapory little body, which, adhering to certain things, serves in place of tinder, and as it were a kind of seed, from which it may be conveyed to the person touching it, and indeed even into the air, whether stain or contagion may be. Now if someone guards himself against these bodies or places, he will scarcely contract plague. Do we not see that even in great plagues those are preserved who shut themselves within their own walls, and are removed from the company of the infected, and much more those who live in the open day, in fields, or elsewhere, where those do not come who, even if they themselves (as happens) infect,

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si sunt, tamen vestibus, vel aliis hærentem instrumentis contagium secum deferunt, q[ui]ni iidem, cum ad eorum se consuetudinem, conuictumque referunt, quos antea fugerant, corripiuntur, atque intereunt. Posset vel hoc ad probatione adduci, quod e[ss]e geni sceatq[ue] opifices, i[us]que, quos Aristot. χρημτικα , & vocat, hoc male affecti pereunt: Opulenti aurem pauci admodum. quid ita? quia illos egestas cum infectis versari cogit; his non deest facultas vitandi periculi. Hæc leuitet attingo, neque omnia, quæ i[us] mentem veniunt, commemoro, ne o[mn]ib[us] viro doctissimo nauseam moueam, quæ hæc talia obiter, & rarius tractantem, multa fugiunt, quæ tibi notissima, atq[ue] in promptu sunt. Hoc vnum abs te quæro, quid de eorum ratinne censeas, qui pestem venenum esse negar, quod nullum sit venenum, quod idem etiam contagiosum sit. Itaque male venenum in pestis definitione collocari, contagium optime. Pesti necessario febrem quoque adesse, non prius credam, quam tu affirmaris bonisationibus, illudque medocueris, an eos, qui subito correpti concidunt in mediis compitis ac triuils; quum antea incolumes domo egressi essent; febre etiam affectus fuisse tam subita, tam impronsa, tam incensibili dicendum sit. At Medici sensati sunt artifices, neque invisibiles, cum Paracelsicis, morbus admittunt. Vale. EPIST. LIII. IDEM RIDEM. REMITTO tibi elegantem Erasti epistolam de metallis, contra quam quod adferam nihil reperio. In Cardano de subtilitate sunt quædam, quibus luuari contemplario tua posset, nisi fallor. Scalliger quidem refutat Cardani dogma de Metallorum vita. Vtrumque inspice, etiam Agricolam, & alios, qui hoc argumentum peisecuti sunt. In Fallopio de thermis aut medicatis aquis, nisi memoria me decipit, nonnihil reperies. Mihi quidem non sit prorsus verisimile, metallam omni prorsus vita catere. Edunt enim quasdam operationes, quæ vitam indidicant. Vt alia taceam, illa efflorescentia (vt sic dicam) aut lanugo magnetis, & carbnnis in sale,) sic enim vocant salinatores Vrilienses Polnni) qua abstersis, statim iterum alia succrescit, & emittetur, nescio vnde existat. In Rhabarbaro quid neges, noo satis intelligo ex Erasto, & sane cupio tuam epistolam habere, cui Erastus responderet, alioquum hæreo io responso. Si Rhabarbari radicem, q[ui]na officinæ vtunter, Erastus cadauer tantum Rhabarbari scribit esse, no verum Rhabarbarum, potest ne cadauer vitales exerce re operationes? Quomodo e[ss]e Nam Rhabarbari nu bilem cum cum piculata educere? Quomodo e[ss]e Rhabarbarum nu bilem cum cum piculata educere? Vt Thcophrastici loquuntur, vt bilem cum pituita educat, & c. sed alium aliquem. Manus certe amputata & oculus vitiatus, nihil iam eorum faciunt, ad quæ formata sunt. Sed nimis multa blatero, & fort asse idem pi , cum non meminerim status controsix. Vale. EPIST. LIV. IDEM RIDEM. QVÆRO ex te quam causam habes, <Definitione> quid in epistola, quam de pestis definitione exarasti, o[mn]o apposueris, num hic morbus in intemperie; ao praua compositione; <1. Genus pestis.> an solu[ti]one vnitatis consistat. Ita enim vagatur animus, o[mn]eque vbi consistat, repetit, nisi tam late patens genns illud vno atque altero verbo contrahas, & angustioribus sinibus circumscribas. Præterea videris pestem <2. Num ab animo infectione & concreta.> ab aëris tantum infectione suspendere, & non nisi per coortagium communicari affirmare. Negabis ne etiam existere posse, aëre nondum p[er]i illis (quæ tamen qualia sint, atque vbi consistant, non satis perspicio) contamioato? Refer aoimum ad initia pestis, quæ non statim ad multos pertinent; sed ab imo aliquo oriuntur, vt fit in corpote malis succis scatente, & ad putredinem idoneo, vt fit in publica fame, cuius generis fuit illa apud Galenum, cum coorticibus arborum, si recte memini, plebs famem depellere cogeretur, ex quibus Initio pauci, vt verisimile est, postea temporis progressu molti interire coeperunt. Ac tum demum ex multorum agratorum putridis habitibus, ex cadauerum item euaporationibus aër seminariis illis pestilentribus inquinatus fuit. De quo ego tamen, vt paulo ante attigi, nonnihil dubitabo, dum cu mihi dubitatinnem omnem sustuleris. Non <3. Non> enim mihi sit probabile ex tantula humatorum, vel etiam inhumarorum corporum massa, & mole, quantam vna aliqua vbs capere potest, tantam aëris amplitudinem inscici. Ac utamen inscici, & labem imprimi contendas, vbi, quæso, locorum consistit? Aër certe sua oatura mobilis est, & nunquam non commouetur. Venti deinde cum petulant non raro. Quis vna tèpore nullos excitari ventos animaduetur?

Transcription: Translated (English)

Even if they are in good health, yet they carry contagion with them in their clothes or other things that cling to them, since they themselves, when they return to the habits and company of those whom they had previously fled, are seized and perish. This might also be brought as proof that there are craftsmen and workers of a certain kind, whom Aristotle calls χρημτικα , and such men, when affected in this way, die: the wealthy, however, are very few. Why so? Because poverty compels the former to associate with the infected; the latter do not lack the means of avoiding danger. I touch on these matters lightly and do not mention everything that comes to mind, lest I cause weariness to a very learned man, since many things escape one who treats such subjects only casually and rarely, though they are very familiar and ready to hand to you. This one thing I ask of you: what do you think of the reasoning of those who deny that pestilence is poison, because there is no poison which is also contagious? Thus poison is badly placed in the definition of pestilence, contagion very well. I shall not believe that fever must necessarily be present in pestilence, until you have affirmed it with good proofs and taught me whether those who are suddenly struck down and fall in the middle of crossroads and streets, though they had gone out from home in health, ought also to be said to have been afflicted with fever so sudden, so abrupt, so imperceptible. But sensible physicians are craftsmen, and do not admit invisible diseases, as the Paracelsians do. Farewell. EPISTLE LIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I am sending you Erastus’s elegant letter on metals, against which I find nothing to bring forward. In Cardano’s De Subtilitate there are certain things by which your contemplation might be helped, unless I am mistaken. Scaliger indeed refutes Cardano’s doctrine about the life of metals. Examine both of them, and also Agricola and others who have pursued this subject. In Fallopius on springs or medicinal waters, unless memory deceives me, you will find something worth noting. For my part, it does not seem entirely likely to me that metals are completely without life. For they produce certain operations that indicate life. To say nothing of other things, that efflorescence, if I may so call it, or down of the magnet and of coal in salt—so the salt-workers of Urbino in Poland call it—when this is wiped away, another immediately grows back and is emitted; I know not from where it arises. What you deny in rhubarb, I do not quite understand from Erastus; and indeed I would like to have your letter, to which Erastus might reply, otherwise I am at a loss in the reply. If, in the root of rhubarb used by apothecaries, Erastus writes that there is only the corpse of rhubarb, not true rhubarb, can a corpse perform vital operations? How can e[ss]e namely rhubarb nu bile cum with bile educere? How can e[ss]e rhubarb nu bile cum with bile educere? As Theophrastans speak, it draws out bile together with phlegm, and so on; but some other thing. A hand certainly when cut off, and an eye when impaired, no longer do any of those things for which they were formed. But I am babbling too much, and perhaps the same, since I do not remember the state of the controversy. Farewell. EPISTLE LIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I ask you what reason you had for what in the letter you wrote on the definition of pestilence you placed everywhere, whether this disease consists in intemperance, or in a corrupt composition, or in a dissolution of unity. For thus the mind wanders, and seeks where the whole matter may be fixed, unless you confine that genus, so wide-ranging, with one word or two, and mark it off with narrower limits. Moreover, you seem to suspend pestilence from the mere infection of the air, and to affirm that it is communicated only by contagion. Will you deny that it can arise even from air not yet p[er]i contaminated by those things—which, however, I do not clearly see what they are or where they are located? Turn your mind to the beginnings of pestilence, which do not at once affect many, but arise from some source within, as happens in a body teeming with bad humors and fit for putrefaction, as happens in public famine, such as that which occurred in Galen’s time, when, if I remember correctly, the common people were compelled to ward off hunger with tree bark; from these, at first only a few, as is likely, afterward, as time went on, many began to die. And then at last, from the putrid conditions of many sufferers and also from vapors of corpses, the air was infected by those pestilential seminaria. On this matter, however, as I mentioned a little before, I shall still doubt somewhat, until you have removed all my doubt for me. For it does not seem probable to me that from so small a mass and bulk of buried, or even unburied, bodies, as a single grave can contain, so great a mass of air should be infected. Yet if you insist that it is infected and the stain is impressed upon it, where, I ask, does it remain? Air by its nature is mobile, and is never not in motion. Then too, winds often burst forth and rage. Who has not noticed that no winds are stirred up at one and the same time?

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Si hoc verum est, vt est sane, quæ tanta erit huius in aëre luis compages, ac consistentia, tam eohærens, quam non venti vis dissoluat, ac dissipet? videmus densissimas & obscuras nubes frangi, ac dissici breuitem-pote. Seminarium illorum tam exigua & pusilla corpuscula, vt atomis persimilia singuntur, quæ oculorum aciem fugiant, vehemens venti impetus, tam diuiurno tempore non dispellet scilicet. Deinde si aër morbosus est, quem nemo non haurit, cur pau- peres maximam partem, & ii non omnes. neque ii tantummodo, qui dispositum ad morbum accipiendum corpus obtinent, sed passim bona habitudine prædini, sine discrimine intercidunt? Cur nun aliquam saltem omnes homines, si non maximam, ex communis aëris ineuirabili inspiratione noxam contrahunt? Sed ad propositum redeo. Dum pestis intra vnum corpus, aut paucos admodum homines continetur, aut etiam bestias, an pauciores obeant, id no[n] per se, sed ex accidenti, euenire videtur. Non mutat essentiam & naturam pestis multitudo, & occumbensium numerus, nec minus pestis dici debet, vbi decem, quam vbi centum homines moriuntur. Non minus est animans formica, quam Elephantus, neque infans minus est homo, etsi imbecillus, quâ adulius, & robnstus iuuenis, & bellicosus vir. sed tu hæc in eadem Epistola tua fusius & rectius, quod post relegens illam Epistolam animaduerti. Præterea, si nunquam febris abest à peste, eur eam ex definizione excludis? sed abesse eam oportet, vbi homines ex insperato, nulla nisi subita fortasse, præcedente alteratione, in ipsis compitis morsui concidunt. Potestne esse tam abdita, vt nullo se signo prodat? Si ita est occulta, quid Medicus, qui sensatus esse dicitur Artifex, de iis iudicet, quæ sensum fugiunt? Is qui solum testiculorum inflammationem in peste Veneta, Anno 1576. pro certa pestis nota adfert, ita libellum suum inscribit: Francisci Stabilis Potentini breuis quædam defensio contra nonnullos asserentes pudendorum inflammationem non esse pestis signum. Venetus apud Gratiosum Perchacinum. Anno 1576. EPIST. LV. ARRACOSEVS GALEVS IOHANNI Cratoni, Medico Cæsareo. S. Entrata. SINE vlla vetborum grauitate rei veri- statem ex vniuersali methodo sub plana serie, quantum potero, explicare cona- bor, vt extractum è sena sub quo in genere reliqua etiam simplicia comprehendi posse existimo, cui Theriacam subinngis, sub cuius explicatione alia quoque complectar, composita. Intelligo autem extractum esse nomen æquiuocum ac generale, significans quicquid à subiecto quousis extrahi potest. Est autem illud vel terreum, vel aëreum, vel igneum magis, vel ex iis inæqualiter compositum à symmetro. Ac quod terreum est, subiectum est tincturæ seu coloris. Color autem qualitas est, eius vero qualitatis subiectum est substantia. Hæc autem substantia, si omnino ab aqua separata fuerit (quod esse non potest, nisi insolida massa) in aqua posita fundum petit. Si vero ab aqua soluatur, vt facile sit, per omnes sui partes minimis aequæ partibus communicabitur, & fiet cum aqua vnum corpus, tinctum suo colore pro natura simplicis, quæ vt diuersa est, ita dinersos colores profert. Nam sena, rhabarbarum, citrinum, agaricum, & alia varia varios colores producunt. Aquea vero substantia est aliud extracti genus, quod variis modis extrahitur, pro ingeniorum, instrumentorum, & commixtorum modo. Hæc aqua substantia continet in se humidum spirituosum. Sunt aurem spiritus illi per vniuersam aquam disseminati, qui saporem in gustu effectum, vel salsum, amarum, acrem in calidis: vel acerbum, austerum, acidum in frigidis: & dulcem, qui medius est, quo animalia proprie aluntur, & sunt spiritus illi materia gustus propria, à Græcis appellata, quæ natura ipsa in omnibus plantis producit, vt in aqua vitæ, aceto, & succo limorum, & aliis multis manifeste percipitur. Tertium extracti genus est aërum igneum, quod oleum est, & olei naturam habet. Natum enim super aquam, si a sua terra exacte separatum fuerit, & pro natura, & rei facultate succat vel humectat. Ignea vero facultas per se alioqui non extrahitur. Nam proprius ipsius locus est aër, quo aliur, & à quo conseruatur. Habitat quoque facile in terra sua prædicta cum suo humido oleaginoso, etiam aqua separata. Hæc tria extractorum genera in omnium stirpium natura esse puto, & in omni animante, quatenus auctionem ex nutritione recipit. Sed aërum igneum in omnibus simplicibus ex æquo non apparet. Nam à frigidis vix extrahitur nisi sit ex semine, ex quo maxima vis ignea delitescit. In floribus vero maxime aërea, quæ per incrassationem in terra propria in igneam attenuando arte connertitur, & transmutatur, sicuti per natu- tam elementum aëris in ignem mutatur. Afo-

Transcription: Translated (English)

If this is true, as it certainly is, what a great and coherent structure will there be of this disease in the air, so closely joined together that the force of no wind may dissolve and scatter it? We see densest and dark clouds broken and dispersed in a short time. Their seedbed, those particles so tiny and small, is imagined to be like atoms, escaping the sight of the eyes; surely not even a violent blast of wind, for so long a time, will drive them away. Then, if the air is unhealthy, and everyone inhales it, why are the poor, for the most part, and not all of them, afflicted; and not only those who have bodies disposed to receive the disease, but even those in good health, without distinction, are cut down everywhere? Why do not all men, at least in some measure if not to the fullest extent, contract harm from the unavoidable inhalation of the common air? But I return to the subject. While the pestilence is confined within one body, or only a few human beings, or even beasts, whether fewer die seems to happen not of itself, but by accident. The multitude and number of the dying do not alter the essence and nature of the plague, nor should it be called less a plague where ten men die than where a hundred die. An ant is no less a living creature than an elephant, nor is an infant less a man, though weak, than an adult and robust young man, or a warlike man. But you discuss these matters more fully and more correctly in that same letter of yours, as I noticed when I read that letter again afterward. Moreover, if fever is never absent from the plague, why do you exclude it from the definition? Yet it must be absent when men suddenly, with no preceding alteration except perhaps some sudden one, fall dead in the very crossroads. Can it be so hidden that it reveals itself by no sign? If it is thus concealed, what can a physician, who is said to be a man of sense and an artificer, judge concerning those things that escape the senses? He who adduces only inflammation of the testicles in the Venetian plague of the year 1576 as a certain mark of the plague, thus entitles his booklet: “A brief defense by Francesco Stabili of Potenza against certain persons asserting that inflammation of the private parts is not a sign of the plague.” Venice, with Gratioso Perchacino, 1576. EPISTLE LV. ARRACOSEVS GALEVS TO JOHN CRATO, Imperial Physician. Greetings. Entry. WITHOUT any weightiness of words I shall endeavor, from the universal method, to explain the truth of the matter in a plain sequence, as far as I can, so that from the extract from senna, under which genus I think the other simples may also be comprehended, to which you join theriac, I may include under its explanation other compounds as well. But I understand extract to be an equivocal and general term, signifying whatever can be drawn from a subject in any way whatever. And this is either earthy, or airy, or more fiery, or composed of these unevenly rather than symmetrically. And what is earthy is the subject of tincture or color. Color, however, is a quality, and the subject of that quality is substance. Now if this substance is entirely separated from water (which cannot be, unless it be an incoherent mass), when placed in water it sinks to the bottom. But if it is dissolved by water so that it can easily be communicated through all its parts with the smallest equal particles, it becomes one body with the water, dyed with its own color according to the nature of the simple, which, as it is diverse, so brings forth diverse colors. For senna, rhubarb, citrine, agaric, and many other things produce various colors. But an aqueous substance is another kind of extract, which is drawn out in various ways, according to the character of the practitioners, the instruments, and the mixtures. This watery substance contains within itself a humid spirituous principle. Now those spirits are dispersed throughout the whole water, which produce taste in the act of tasting—salty, bitter, pungent in hot things; harsh, austere, sour in cold things; and sweet, which is intermediate, by which animals are properly nourished. And those spirits are the proper material of taste, so called by the Greeks, which nature itself produces in all plants, as is plainly perceived in aqua vitae, vinegar, and the juice of limes, and many other things. The third kind of extract is fiery air, which is oil and has the nature of oil. For being born above water, if it has been exactly separated from its earth, it dries or moistens according to its nature and capacity. But the fiery faculty by itself is not otherwise extracted. For its proper place is air, by which it is nourished and by which it is preserved. It also easily dwells in its aforesaid earth together with its oily moisture, even when separated from water. I think these three kinds of extracts are present in the nature of all plants, and in every living creature, insofar as it receives increase from nourishment. But fiery air does not appear equally in all simples. For from cold things it is scarcely extracted unless it be from seed, in which a great fiery force lies hidden. In flowers, however, the airy element is especially prominent, which by thickening is transformed and converted, by art, in its proper earth into a fiery state, just as by nature the element of air is changed into fire. Afo-

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A foliis vero calidorum, vt salvia, rorisma- rino, thymo, per belle extrahitur. Quia in illis calor sub cortice & totis fibris spermati- cis abunde delitescit. Atque hæc extracta singula homogenea esse intelligo, quæ cum extrahuntur à multis fuliginosis heteroge- niis implicata recte emundari necesse est. Hæc itaque contenta sunt in omni vegetan- te, qua nutritur & augetur, reliquum vero continens appello, quod est natura sperma- tica concreta, & in formam propitiam ad- aucta, quæ sola per nutrimentum augetur, ac in discretione conservatur, & manet. Quæ vero extrahuntur à materia, alimen- ti alterati & commutati sunt, & ideo auge- ri non dicuntur, sed vt ingressa sunt per compositionem, ita contrario modo egre- diuntur per resolutionem. Quam obtem vbi prægnans est forma sua materia, & de- bita coctione, ab elementis & Sole præ- matuta, (quæ maturitas perfectionis est ge- nus) tunc substantia illa triplex est inge- nuose extrahenda. Quomodo autem hæc singula extrahi debeant, tibi Philosopho, qui hæc optime nosti, non dico, sed si a- lium quempiam philosophantem instrue- re vellem, ad naturæ principia illum remit- tens, talia ei proponerem ex natura, quæ ad artem ipsum facile deducerent. Mate- ria prima cum qualitatibus quatuor, ac vi < Demonstra- tio extrallo- rum à præ- vis natura principia. Materia prima in- formata. > formatrice elementa quatuor constituunt, à quorum diuersa permixtione, diuersa temperamenta fiunt, à quibus virtutes, fa- cultates, proprietates, & affectiones tam à primis quam secundis qualitatibus, & fa- miliaritate substantiæ prodeunt. Fit au- tem hoc modo: Prima causa dum in infe- riora efficaces suæ lucis radios influnt, ma- teriam primam supra coelos per se communi- cat, ac demum in corporibus coelestibus alterata per elementis sese infi- nuat, in quibus terræ viscera permeando il- lic inclusa duplicem halitum exeat. Ac < Missa > frigido incrassato ac densato rerum omni- um germina pet minimas terræ & elemen- torum partes à mundi exordio dissemina- ta suo influxu à qualitatibus & vt formatri- ce mouet. Hæc autem singula per harmo- niam à triplici illa proportionum sympho- nia suam vitam trahentia ex simplici & in- sensibili paulatim tandem componuntur, corpora induunt, & sensibilia fiunt. Ac ta- < Ad infera. > ll in vniuersum otdine, vt primum ex ter- tæ resolutione lapides primo loco compa- rantur, sic ex quorum solutione metalla 70 generantur, ex quorum etiam dissipatio- ne vegetantia originem capiunt, à quorum corruptione animalia nutriuntur, & au- < Vegetabilia > gentur, quorum omninm finalis causa, vt præstantissima est homo, qui non à prædi- ctis, sed ab extrinseco, propriam formam capit, & à qua sumit motus principium ex prima causa, quia homo reliquorum à pri- ma causa est imago, & omnium formas ipse actu continet. Sunt enim eadem in homi- ne proportionum vincula, quibus colliga- tur, quæ in vniuerso reperiuntur. Nam < Hominis & maligna cum vniuersa. > mens ieu ratio ita se habet ad itascibilem in sesquitertia, vt irascibilis ad naturalem in sesqualteræ, & naturalis ad reliqua in- feriora in dupla proportione. Quibus in < Vegetabilia naturalia perfectio, & artificialia extrahio demonstran- tur. > summa consideraris reliqua genera non o- mnino prætermittens, de vegetantibus pri- mum & præcipue ago. In quibus, quo- < A mineralia bus vt diffu- rans. > modo facultas & proptix virtutes à natura genitæ & formatæ crescant, coquantur & perficiantur, & quomodo per artem extra- hi debeant, demonstrare conabor. Di- co itaque quod vegetabile non differt à la- pide, nec à metallo materia, sed sola alte- ratione seu commutatione, qua talem par- tium tenuitatem & subtilitatem recipit, vt materia ipsa disponatur & apta fiat, ad for- < Forma con- gerant. > mam vegetantem recipiendam. Est au- tem forma vegetans essentia quædam spi- ritus animati, qui calori agenti motus principium præbens ex insensibili per ac- cretionem formæ, & alterationem mate- riæ fit insensibilis. Spiritus enim ille in loco elemenrorum quatuor conuenienti inclusus, german dicitur, quod est veluti fermentum inter pastam ipsam eleuans, & veluri semen maris in sanguine men- struo, sed nec semen, nec fermentum ger- men est, sed vis contenta in materia ele- mentorum quatuor, qualem diximus esse vim formatricem in materia prima. Sunt autem germina principia, quæ ab ipsa ma- teria elementis quatuor fixa & fluente pendent, & ab illa formatrice è potentia in actum continuo educantur. Vnde ar- bores & omnis generis plantæ germinant & oriuntur. Ac facultate natutali attr- actrice humorem sibi familiarem trahunt, retineat, alterant, & per varias mutationes formæ proptix affigunt, & assimilant. Est autem assimilatum non id quod ali- tur, sedid quod est similerei, quæ alitur. Aliitur autem inter elementa solus ignis, reliqua tria sunt ignis materia, & pabu- lum. Ab igne vero forma, vt à propinquæ < Ad infera. > materia alitur, conseruatur, ac crecit Quæcunque igitur per nutrimentum for-

Transcription: Translated (English)

Indeed, from the leaves of the hot herbs, such as salvia, rosemary, and thyme, it is very well extracted. Because in them the heat lies abundantly hidden beneath the bark and throughout all the fibrous spermatic parts. And I understand these extracts to be single homogeneities, which, when extracted, are entangled with many sooty heterogeneous substances and must rightly be purified. These contents, therefore, are in every growing thing, by which it is nourished and increased; but I call the remainder the containing substance, which is the concrete spermatic nature, grown into a suitable form, and which alone is increased by nourishment, and in its separation is preserved and remains. But those things which are extracted from matter are altered and changed aliment, and therefore are not said to increase, but, just as they entered through composition, so in the opposite way they go out through resolution. Wherefore, when its matter is pregnant with form, and ripened by due digestion and matured by the elements and the Sun, (which maturity is the genus of perfection), then that threefold substance must be ingeniously extracted. How each of these should be extracted, I do not tell you, O Philosopher, who know these things best; but if I wished to instruct some other person in philosophy, leading him back to the principles of nature, I would propose to him such things from nature as would easily bring him to art. Matter first, with the four qualities and the formative power, constitutes the four elements; from their diverse mixture diverse temperaments are made, from which powers, faculties, properties, and affections arise, both from the primary and secondary qualities and from the familiarity of substance. And this happens in the following way: the First Cause, while it pours the effective rays of its light into the lower things, communicates the first matter above the heavens by itself, and finally, altered in the celestial bodies, infuses itself through the elements, in which, passing through the bowels of the earth, it there sends forth the enclosed double breath. Cold, thickened, and condensed, by its influx it moves the germs of all things, scattered from the beginning of the world through the smallest parts of the earth and the elements, by means of the qualities and as a formative power. But all these things, drawing their life by harmony from that threefold symphony of proportions, are gradually at length composed from the simple and insensible, put on bodies, and become sensible. And thus in universal order, just as first stones are acquired in the resolution of earth, so from their dissolution metals are generated; from whose dispersal also vegetative things take their origin, from whose corruption animals are nourished and increased; and of all these, man is the final cause, as the most excellent, who does not take his proper form from the aforesaid things, but from without, and from which he takes the principle of motion from the First Cause, because man is the image of the rest from the First Cause, and himself actually contains the forms of all things. For in man there are the same bonds of proportions by which he is bound as are found in the universe. For the mind, or reason, is related to the irascible in a sesquitertian ratio, as the irascible is to the natural in a sesquialter ratio, and the natural to the other lower parts in a double ratio. In considering these things in summary, not omitting the remaining genera altogether, I speak first and chiefly of vegetative things. In them, I shall try to demonstrate how the faculties and proper virtues, born and formed by nature, grow, are cooked, and brought to perfection, and how they should be extracted by art. I therefore say that a vegetable does not differ from a stone, nor from a metal in matter, but only by alteration or change, by which it receives such fineness and subtlety of parts that the matter itself is disposed and made fit to receive the vegetative form. Now the vegetative form is a certain essence of an animated spirit, which, by giving the principle of motion to acting heat, becomes insensible by the growth of form and the alteration of matter. For that spirit, enclosed in a suitable place of the four elements, is called the germ, which is like a ferment raising the dough itself, and like the seed of the sea in menstrual blood; but it is neither seed nor ferment, but a power contained in the matter of the four elements, such as we said the formative power to be in first matter. Now germs are principles which depend on matter itself, fixed in the four elements and flowing, and from that formative power are continually brought from potency into act. Hence trees and plants of every kind germinate and arise. And by a natural attractive faculty they draw to themselves a familiar moisture, retain it, alter it, and through various changes affix and assimilate it to the proper form. Now the assimilated is not that which is nourished, but that which is like the thing which is nourished. But among the elements fire alone is nourished; the other three are the matter and food of fire. From fire, however, form is nourished, as from its neighboring matter, is preserved, and grows. Whatever, therefore, through nourishment is formed...

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71 EPISTOLA 71 mam augent, & per hoc corpori assimilantur, hæc ipsius formæ naturam eum suis proprietatibus & virtutibus retinent. Diximus tria esse, quæ extrahuntur; Erunt igitur hæc tria, quæ assimilata per nutritionem fuerunt, diuerso tamen modo. Primum est terrea substantia, quæ subiecti facultatem in sui profundo, veluti in centro continet. Est autem illa facultas, siue purgatrix sit, siue à qualitatibus, aut à quauis proprietate pendens, sicuti flamma in ligno, aut calor in carbone incensus. Nam à profundo extenditur in superficiem, ac facultas, quæ est in superficie, ita differt ab ea, quæ est in profundo, vt flamma, aut caloris superficies ab ipso calore in carbonis candentis tactu. Ob id volunt quidam in sena & aliis multis esse duplicem facultatem, alteram in superficie, alteram in profundo, quamuis reuera non sit nisi vna, sed quoniam superficiales pars à quocunque dissoluente facile extinguitur & separatur. Ideo quæ est in profundo, sola remanet, quæ cum extrahitur, aliqua ex parte minuitur. Vnde sit, vt cum sena, aut aliud medicamentum in aqua infunditur, si leni calore soluatur, maior erit vis extracti per expressionem, quia vtraque pars in extractione conseruatur sine dissipatione; sed non aberunt etiam flatus, qui vt plurimum superficialem facultatis partem sequuntur. Non enim ea, quæ in circumferentia sunt adeo excoquuntur, vt quæ in centro. Illud in sena quotidie manifeste comprobatur. Nam in simplici infusione sine coctione tormina fiunt à flatibus, etiam si maior sit vis purgatoria. Vbi vero sufficienti feruore coquitur, nulla facit tormina, sed suauius ac tenuis; minus tamen purgat. Idem sit ex rhabatb. & scammonia, vt frequenter nouimus, & aliis quoque simplicibus pro natura rei diuerso temperamento, aut maiori aut minori coctione. Et hæc de terreo in simplicibus sufficiunt. Eadem quoque erit compositorum ratio, veluti in Theriaca, vbirecte fermentata fuerit. Nam vbi per feruorem caloris natiui & elementaris in suo humido conuenienti singulorum simplicium formæ à propria materia decidunt, sit omnium vna forma in vna materia confusa, ab ipso omnium calore ordinata, donec humidum & siccum patientia ab agente calore copulata, commixta, contemperata, & in vnam solam formam determinata fuerint, quod sine fermentatione fieri non potest. Est autem fermentatio partium terrearum à spiritu aëreo humido dissolutio, & huius spiritus cum partibus terreis concretio, quæ per feruorem fiunt. Vnde sit in Theriaca nouæ formæ generatio ex mukarum formarum corruptione, non secus ac in ventriculo animalis ex solutione partis nitrosæ & falsuginosæ cibi & potus varii generis à spiritibus humidis à calido innato ordinatis. Vnde sit noua generatio, cum extalli fernore in terræ substantiæ dissolutione spiritus concrescunt, & extrahitur humidum vtile aptum ad sangvinem generandum. Similis sit fermentatio in epate, vbi sit sanguinis generatio. Eadem quoque in continenti seu partibus solidis, vbi sit assimilatio, & eadem prorsus, vbi ex triplici illa symphonia coctionum sit harmonia ad seminis generationem, & hæc est Hippocratis & Platonis fermentatio, quam ab acuto & salso fieri volunt, quæ singula nihil aliud sunt, quam extractiones humidi vtilis actu iam assimilati ad formam corporis in singulis gradibus coctionis, & potentia ad relationem vltimæ formæ, quæ corpus ipsum perficit: & hæc omnia est extractio vnius materiæ & formæ in diuersis rebus in vnam per fermentationem concoportatis. Et quemadmodum natura has extractiones facit in omnibus corporibus: ita nos ipsam contemplando, eadem iam à natura concreta extrahere conamur, non ad generationem sibi similis, sed ad restauraionem corporum, quibus conuenit. Quanquam alia via in corporibus homogeneis ad generationem sibi similis multa his præstantiora fieri posse nouimus. Quæ eum alio pertineant, alio quoque transferenda melius esse putamus. Vbi itaque Theriaca recte fermentata fuerit, totum assimilatum æqualiter vnsforme commixtum æqualiter à docto artifice extrahetur, atque ab omni heterogeneo prorsus separabitur, manerque sex viebus exhausta, & Theriaca ab omni forde suam actionem impediente spoliata integram sui facultatem retinens, & citius, facilius & minori copia exactius corpori suas vires communicans. Quibus autem mediis hoc assimilatum extrahi debeat, philosophantem ad Aristotelem remitto. Quæ enim à calido concreta sunt, à frigido secundum naturam soluuntur. Erit ergo aqua huie artificio recte aecommodata, quæ quanto purior, & tennior fuerit, eo facilius dissoluer, calidiorque attrahet; qualis est aqua vini: sed ob spirituum caliditatem plus etiam de facultate extracti in separatione secum abducet. Aqua vero communis ob longam moram in igne lenxo, aut breuem moram in vehementi calore idem efficet. Ergo prudens Artifex primo loco in extractione finem ex sua intentione considerabit. Si enim à medi

Transcription: Translated (English)

71 EPISTLE 71 As they increase the humors, and by this are assimilated to the body, these retain the nature of its own form with their properties and powers. We said that there are three things that are extracted; these therefore will be the three that have been assimilated through nourishment, yet in different ways. The first is earthy substance, which holds the faculty of the subject in its depth, as it were in the center. That faculty, whether it be purgative, or depending on qualities or on any property whatever, is like flame in wood, or like heat kindled in coal. For it extends from the depth to the surface, and the faculty that is in the surface differs from that which is in the depth, as the flame, or the surface of heat, differs from the heat itself in the touch of glowing coal. For this reason some think that in senna and many other things there is a double faculty, one in the surface, the other in the depth, although in truth there is only one; but because the superficial part is easily extinguished and separated by any dissolving agent, the part that is in the depth alone remains, and when it is extracted it is diminished in some part. Hence it comes about that when senna or some other medicine is infused in water, if it be dissolved with gentle heat, the force of the extract will be greater by expression, because both parts are preserved in the extraction without dissipation; but there will not be lacking the vapors, which for the most part follow the superficial part of the faculty. For the things that are on the circumference are not so thoroughly cooked as those which are in the center. This is clearly proved daily in senna. For in simple infusion without decoction there are griping pains from vapors, even though the purgative force is greater. But when it is cooked with sufficient heat, it causes no griping, but is gentler and finer; yet it purges less. The same is true of rhubarb and scammony, as we have often observed, and also of other simples, according to the nature of the thing, with different tempering, or with greater or lesser cooking. And enough has been said about the earthy in simples. The same ratio will also apply to compound preparations, as in Theriaca, when it has been rightly fermented. For when, through the heat of innate and elemental warmth in its proper moisture, the forms of the individual simples fall away from their own matter, there comes to be one form of all in one confused matter, ordered by the very heat of all, until the moist and the dry, by the patient action of the heat that acts upon them, have been joined, mingled, tempered, and determined into one single form, which cannot happen without fermentation. Fermentation is a dissolution of earthy parts by an airy, moist spirit, and the concretion of this spirit with the earthy parts, which takes place through heat. Hence in Theriaca there is a generation of a new form from the corruption of many forms, no differently than in the stomach of an animal from the solution of the nitrous and saltish part of food and drink of various kinds by moist spirits ordered by the innate heat. Thus a new generation arises, when by strong heat in the dissolution of the earthy substance the spirits coagulate, and useful moisture is drawn out, fit for generating blood. A similar fermentation occurs in the liver, where there is generation of blood. The same also in the continuous parts or solid parts, where assimilation occurs, and likewise where from that threefold harmony of cookings there is harmony for the generation of seed; and this is the fermentation of Hippocrates and Plato, which they say is brought about by the sharp and the salty, each of which is nothing other than the extraction of useful moisture, already actually assimilated to the form of the body in the several degrees of cooking, and potentially in relation to the final form that perfects the body itself. And all these things are the extraction of one matter and form in different things, arranged into one by fermentation. And just as nature makes these extractions in all bodies, so we, contemplating nature, now try to extract from things already made concrete by nature itself, not for the generation of something like itself, but for the restoration of bodies to which it is fitting. Although we know that by another route, in homogeneous bodies, many things far more excellent could be done for the generation of something like itself. Since these belong to another matter, we think it better to transfer them elsewhere. Therefore, when Theriaca has been rightly fermented, the whole assimilated, equally uniform mixture will be extracted equally by a skilled artisan, and will be entirely separated from every heterogeneous thing, remaining exhausted after six weeks, and Theriaca, stripped of every filth hindering its action, retaining its full faculty, will more quickly, more easily, and with less quantity communicate its powers to the body more exactly. By what means this assimilated matter should be extracted, I refer the inquiring mind to Aristotle. For things made concrete by heat are by nature dissolved by cold. Therefore the water suited to this art will be that which, the purer and thinner it is, the more easily it will dissolve, and the hotter it will draw out; such is wine-water: but because of the heat of the spirits it will also carry away with it more of the faculty of the extract in the separation. Common water, however, by a long stay over a gentle fire, or a short stay in vehement heat, will produce the same effect. Therefore the prudent artisan, first of all in extraction, will consider the end from his intention. For if from the medi

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73 MEDICINALES. 74 à medicamento humorem melancholtcum purgante assimilatum extrahere velit, a- quam stillatitiam sclopendrix, capillorum veneris, bortaginis, aut his similem capiet, infundet igni lento continuo, eum dexte- ritate patientet teget, ae vasis & fornacibus accommodatis aquam (separato primo be- tetogeneo) leniter separabit, extrahum- que in loco apto & convenienti ad vsum seruabit. Eodem modo consideranda sunt reliqua terrea assimilata, quæ à quousis sim- plici aut composito extrahuntur. Aquea autem substantia quomodo in concreto curpore gignatur, non est exigua confide- ratio. Non est enim aqua, quæ in corpo- ris nutrimentum vertiur, quia nec elemen- tum simplex nutrit, nec aqua est vllo modo corpori assimilata; sed est vehiculum hu- moris falsuginos & nitrof, qui in aqua ad radices vegetantis soluitur, & per aquam ad omnes ramos deportatur, quibus diu inhæ- rens sole excoquente assimilatum, spiritus assimilati toti aquæ inspersi sunt, qui se arte & ingenio ab hac separentur, aqua re- maneri in sua natura rursus insipida, veluti in aqua ardente, & acero distillato frequen- ter vidimus. Ex vna enim aquæ libra, quan- tumuis rectificata, & tota ardente vix 3 fl. spirituum concretorum extrahis, reliquum vero aquæ insipidum est, vti simplex aqua in sua natura. Non est igitur aqua pluuia- lis, aut alia, cuius auxilio vegetantia cre- scunt, corpori assimilata, sed aqua est bu- motis terrei vehiculum, qui humor ab eie- mentis quatuor coëretis familiaritate qua- dam in nutrimentum transit, & hoc nutri- mentum in coctionis perfectione est affi- milatum vna cum suis spiritibus. Sed quo- niam hi spiritus sunt maxime aëret, aëris ve- ro locus est aqua, ideo ipsi aquam facile se- quuntur, eique insident, nisi in extractione ab igne violento eomburantur, & è va- sis non conuenientibus in aërem euolent. Vnde remanet aqua simplex sine spiritu, quo quoridie pharmacopolæ abutuntur. Præstaret vti simplici decocto in quo affi- milatum eum suis spiritibus propriam fa- cultatem retinens dissoluitur, & facile silen- to igne regatur, maxima vis simplicis reti- netur. Similis est error Medicorum in re- stauratino ex caponis destillato eum suis in- gredienribus, in quo nihil quod restauret dissoluitur, sola enim aquacum capon. nu- trimento suum præ ipsius spiritibus vicunque altera ascendit. Gemmæ non dissoluu- tur, minus aurum ex vegetantibus exiguum quid præstaret decoctum sumere, vel per se in balneo, vel cum aqua lento igne ad con- sumptionem. Sic enim assimilatum cum suis spiritibus extrahitur, in quibus duobus vis ret potissima consistit. & hæc de aqua substantia, quæ in vegetante & animante versatur, c[on]tius extrahendi modos non de- scribo, quod partim vulgat es sunt, partim experimento melius demonstrantur. De aërea vero & ignea substantia, quæ oleum est, nunc sermone concinnato hæc subiun- genda sunt. Primum, quomodo ipsum in vegetante generetur à natura, deinde quo- modo ab eodem per artem extrahi possit. Generatur oleum ex burmido aqueo & sic- co terreo, ex quibus fit aër humidus sicco temperatus, in quo burmido habitat, & vi- uit ignis calidus. Vnde omnia olea aërea sunt magis & minus de natura ignea teuen- tia pro rei natura, sitque omne oleum in plautis & animalibus à natura hoc modo. Terreum illud falsuginosum, quod æstate præcedente exassatum est, tota hyeme se- que uti per minimas calidi innati partes in centro corporis delitescit, ae vere tneunte, vbi radices humore terræ imprægnantur, solis calor per omnes platitæ particulas hûc humorem attrahit & mouet, quo iam plu- rimum excalefacto, spiritus aërei prædicti in eo humore dissemuati terreum illud sol- uunt, ae immediate dum soluitur, hoc solu- tum sua frigiditate & astrictione ipsos spiri- tus gelat, densat, retinet, firque ex iis duo- bus, nempe humore aqueo & terreo sicco de aërea substantia in oleum per generationem transmutata igueam naturam retinens in aërea reclusam. Illud autem vnicui- que etiam parum in extractio uibus exerei- tato facile patet. Nam si plantas quascun- que humidas accipiar. veluti quæ in locis maxime irriguis & vmbrosis crescût, & quæ per se valde humidæ & frigidæ sunt, & o- leum per artem abiis extrahere tentent, o- leum non inueniet. Parimodo uec à cali- dis, vt saluia, rorismartuo, & similibus hye- me colicetis, aut aere valde humido, & æsta- te humida, non præcedente calore, nisi pa- rim admodum olei extrahetur. Omnibus autem anni partibus secundum naturam se habentibus mense lunio & Iulio decupium olei inuenies. Nou enim generatur oleum donec aqueo superfluo à calore solis exha- lato spiritus aerei eum terrea substantia, in certa proportione conueniant, & hæc duo opposita passiua à calore Solis, & prupr to In oleum determinentur, simile oleum in omni animalium parte generati reperitur, sed diuerso modo, vt diuers sum est anima- lium planta. Nam vbi sanguis excocbus sibriis spermatleis agglutinatur & assimila- D

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73 MEDICINALS. 74 If one wishes to extract by a purgative medicine the melancholic humor assimilated to it, let him take distilled water of scolopendrium, maidenhair, borage, or something similar, pour it into a gentle, continuous fire, cover it with due care, and with vessels and furnaces suitably arranged he shall gently separate the water, first separating the betogenium, and preserve the extract in a fit and convenient place for use. In the same way the other earthy assimilates, which are extracted from any simple or compound, are to be considered. But how the aqueous substance is generated in a concrete body is no slight matter for consideration. For it is not water that is turned into the nourishment of the body, because neither does a simple element nourish, nor is water in any way assimilated to the body; rather, it is the vehicle of a false and nitrous humor, which in water is dissolved at the roots of the plant, and through the water is carried to all the branches; and after having long clung to them, is cooked by the drying heat of the sun and assimilated, together with the spirits of the assimilate sprinkled through the whole water, which, when they are separated by art and ingenuity, the water remains again in its own nature insipid, as we have often seen in burning water and distilled vinegar. For from one pound of water, however well rectified and wholly burning, you scarcely extract three ounces of concrete spirits; the remaining water, however, is insipid, like simple water in its nature. Therefore rainwater, or any other water by whose aid vegetables grow, is not assimilated to the body, but water is the vehicle of the earthy humor, which humor, through the familiarity of the four elements, is turned into nourishment, and this nourishment in the perfection of digestion is assimilated together with its spirits. But because these spirits are mostly airy, and the place of air is water, they easily follow the water and lodge in it, unless in the extraction they are burned away by violent fire and fly off into the air from vessels not suitable for the purpose. Hence simple water remains without spirit, which the apothecaries daily misuse. It would be better to use a simple decoction in which the assimilate, with its spirits retaining its proper faculty, is dissolved, and which can easily be managed with a gentle fire, so that the greatest force of the simple substance is retained. Similar is the error of physicians in the restorative distilled from capon with its ingredients, in which nothing restorative is dissolved; for only the water, together with the nourishment of the capon, ascends before its spirits. Gems are not dissolved, still less gold; from vegetables, however, a decoction would yield little enough, whether taken by itself in a bath or with water over a gentle fire until consumed. For thus the assimilate is extracted together with its spirits, in which two consists the chief power. And this is enough concerning the watery substance which is found in the vegetable and the animate; I do not describe the methods of extracting it further, since they are partly common knowledge and partly better demonstrated by experiment. Now, concerning the airy and fiery substance, which is oil, the following must be added in orderly discourse. First, how it is generated by nature in the plant, then how it may be extracted from the same by art. Oil is generated from the moist aqueous and dry earthy element, from which a humid air tempered with dryness is produced, in which the moist element dwells and the hot fire lives. Hence all oils are aerial and more or less of a fiery nature according to the nature of the thing; and thus every oil in plants and animals is by nature so. That earthy false humor, which was dried in the preceding summer, lies hidden all winter in the center of the body, as if through the tiniest parts of innate heat, and in the spring approaching, when the roots are impregnated with the moisture of the earth, the heat of the sun draws and moves this moisture through all the small parts of the plant; when it has now been much warmed, the airy spirits dispersed in that moisture dissolve that earthy matter, and immediately as it is dissolved, this dissolved matter by its coldness and astringency freezes, thickens, and retains those spirits; and thus from the two, namely the aqueous moisture and the dry earthy matter, transformed by generation into oil from airy substance, it retains a fiery nature enclosed in the airy. This is easily evident even to anyone at all experienced in extractions. For if you take any moist plants, such as those growing in the most irrigated and shaded places, and which are themselves very moist and cold, and attempt to extract oil from them by art, you will not find oil. Likewise from warm plants, such as sage, rosemary, and the like, gathered in winter, or from very humid air and a humid summer without prior heat, scarcely any oil will be extracted. But in all parts of the year, if they are in their natural state, in the months of June and July you will find the oil tenfold. For oil is not generated unless, after the superfluous aqueous matter has been evaporated by the heat of the sun, the airy spirits, together with the earthy substance, come together in a certain proportion, and these two passive opposites are determined into oil by the heat of the sun and their proper … In the same way oil is found generated in every part of animals, but in a different manner, as the structure of animals differs from that of plants. For where the blood, cooked and coagulated with spermatic juices, is assimilated and...

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75 EPISTOLA 76 tur, sit eadem olei generatio, & eodem modo ad calidum innatum per vniuersum corpus souertur, à quo vniuerso decidit vniuersus halitus, qui in propriis vasis veluti animales spiritus in plexu retiformi per suorum vasorum anstractus elaboratur, & excoquitur, ac in proprium locum delabitur, ad sibi similis procreationem. Est enim hoc humidum vtile ad propagationem ab humido vtili ad indiuidui conseruationem extractum & assimilatum, seu factum simile rei, quæ alitur & crescit, quæ est forma propria in natura spermatica concreta in fibras, in quibus calidum innatum (quod non est generationi animalis posterius) proprium situm haber, & cuius vi semen persistitur totius animantis naturam retinens. Nam si ab animantis forma informetur, absque dubio eius naturam & formam producet, neque existimandum puro, quod semen animalis immediate à sanguine generetur, & in eodem solo perticiatur, sed tum maxime eum sanguis calidi innati impressionem in centro propriæ formæ receperit. Tunc enim semen retinet impressionem superiorum & inferiorum, cum partes intimas totius formæ ordine naturæ subiecit, & tunc semen formæ perfectionem recepit, cuius ortus in sanguine ante fuit. Sic itaque patet, quod oleum in vitroque genere ab eisdem & eodem modo per prædictorum elementorum corruptionem generatur, differunt tamen in natura, quantum differt genus à genere in doctrina motus & mutationis, vt in summis quatuor generibus perspiciitur. Nam in generatione lapidis (vt à primo gradu incipiam) sola substantiæ mutatio ex forma terræ in formam lapidis percipitur. In generatione autem metalli eiusdem substantiæ, & præter hanc etiam qualuatis mutano reperitur. In ortu vero vegetantium præter duas prædictas mutationes motus magnitudinis inuenitur, ac similiter in animalium generatione tres superiores, & præter has motus etiam seu mutatio loci conuenit. Vnde sequitur, quod forma vltima formas præcedentium in se continet. Nam animalis forma continet formam vegetantis metalli, lapidis & elementorum ex materia & qualitates: ergo oleum ex animalibus subtilius est, & magis excoctum, sicut etiam plures alterationes recipit, vnde etiam maiorem temperaturam habet, & à similitudine substantiæ nostro corpori magis conueniens, magisque est anodynnon, vt frequenter experti sumus. Vnde axungiæ oleaginose fere omnes a- nodynæ. Pendent enim & exhalant à prædicto oleo, partibus solidis copiose in animalibus natura frigidis, in quibus facile concrescit, veluti in calidiotibus per intensibilem transpirationem euanescir, calefacit tamen magis & minus pro natura animalis. Hæc itaque duo genera omnia oleum producunt à calore solis & proprio. Alia vero duo genera lapis & metallum, quamuis in sua radice oleaginea sint: attamen iam formata oleum non gignunt, quia nutritumentum non accipiunt, & ideò non assimilatur illis quicquam, quia non crescunt. In radice autem vbi metallum à duplici halitu gignitur, oleum copiose resudat, si enim mineram ferri aut cupri in frustula conneras, & in vasculum conueniens cum aqua apud ignem calore mediocri coniectas, oleum viscidum aquæ statim supernatare videbis, quod oleum resultat & oritur ex lapidis rarefactione, & spiritum mineralium condensatione in aqua viscida cum ex duplici halitu in sulphure toto (hoc est, conuenienti loco ad metalli generationem) metallum in saxo gignitur, anequam exprimatur roris vel pruuæ modo. Existit enim vnumquodque metallum prius, quam exhalatio concieta & fixa facta est. Estque inquam in sua radice & tota substantia oleaginosum, quod metallum cum nutrimentum & augmentum non recipiat, calor mineralis, & radiosum solis ambientis per continuam alterationem crudum excoquendo oleumi deducir in perfectionem metallicam, cuius terminus est aurum. Imo auri propria materia est ipsum humidum sicco temperatum, in naturam metalliei olei concretum. Cum autem rerum omnium ortus sit in humido per minima totius vniuersi disseminato, ira vt nihil oritur nisi ex hoc, veluti ex subiecta materia a gente suo calido, quod est ei motus & mutationis principium. Præterea cum in omni corporum concretorum genere nullum sit in quo copiosus, diutius, & melius hoc humidum inueniatur & consernetur, quam in corporibus homogeneis solidis, & exquisiti temperamenti, dicimus in auro huius humidi excellentissimi maiorem copiam, quam in aliis conrineri. Nullum enim tam est homogeneum, quam hoc. Vnde ipsius temperamentum quali elementorum proportione constare dicitur, & quotiam rerum ortus est in ipso humido, quod ipsum est rotius essentiae sedes, dicimus huius humidi defectum esse in singulis rebus interitum. Itaque cum

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75 EPISTLE 76 is, whether it is the same generation of oil, and in the same way it is turned to the innate heat through the whole body, from which whole breath falls away, which in its proper vessels, like animal spirits in the retiform plexus, is worked and cooked out through the contraction of its vessels, and descends to its proper place for the production of its like. For this useful moisture, drawn out from useful moisture for the preservation of the individual and assimilated, or made similar to the thing that is nourished and grows, is the proper form in the spermatic nature, concreted into fibers, in which the innate heat (which is not later than the generation of the animal) has its proper seat, and by whose force the semen persists, retaining the nature of the whole living creature. For if it is informed by the form of the living creature, beyond doubt it will produce its nature and form; nor should one think, pure and simple, that the semen of an animal is generated immediately from blood and completed in that alone, but rather especially when the blood has received the impression of the innate heat in the center of its own form. Then indeed the semen retains the impression of the higher and lower parts, when it has subjected the innermost parts of the whole form to the order of nature, and then the semen has received the perfection of the form, whose origin was formerly in the blood. Thus it is clear that oil, in both kinds, is generated from the same things and in the same way through the corruption of the aforesaid elements; yet they differ in nature, just as genus differs from genus in the doctrine of motion and change, as is seen in the four highest genera. For in the generation of a stone (to begin from the first degree) only a change of substance is perceived, from the form of earth into the form of stone. But in the generation of metal there is found a change not only of substance, but also of quality. In the coming-to-be of plants, besides the two aforesaid changes, motion of quantity is found; and likewise in the generation of animals, the three higher motions, and besides these, motion or change of place also belongs. Whence it follows that the last form contains within itself the forms that precede it. For the form of an animal contains the form of the plant, of metal, of stone, and of the elements, in matter and qualities. Therefore oil from animals is subtler and more cooked, just as it also receives more alterations; whence it also has a greater tempering and, by similarity of substance, is more suitable to our body, and is more anodyne, as we have often experienced. Hence almost all oily fats are anodyne. For they depend on and exhale from the aforesaid oil, with solid parts abundantly in animals of a cold nature, in which it easily congeals, whereas in warmer ones it vanishes by insensible transpiration; yet it warms more or less according to the nature of the animal. These two kinds therefore produce all oil from the heat of the sun and from their own heat. But the other two kinds, stone and metal, although in their root they are oily, nevertheless once formed they do not engender oil, because they do not receive nourishment, and therefore nothing is assimilated to them, because they do not grow. But in the root, where metal is generated from a double vapor, oil sweats out abundantly; for if you crush iron or copper ore into small pieces and put it into a suitable vessel with water over a fire of moderate heat, you will immediately see a viscous oil floating on the water, which oil results and arises from the rarefaction of the stone and the condensation of the mineral spirit into viscous water, since from a double vapor in the whole sulfur—that is, in a suitable place for the generation of metal—metal is generated in the stone, before it is expressed in the manner of dew or rain. For each metal exists before the exhalation has become united and fixed. And I say that in its root and in its whole substance it is oily, because metal, since it does not receive nourishment and increase, is by mineral heat, and by the surrounding radiant sun, through continual alteration, cooked from crude oil and brought to metallic perfection, the end of which is gold. Indeed the proper matter of gold is itself that moisture tempered with dryness, concreted into the nature of a metallic oil. But since the origin of all things is in moisture dispersed through the smallest parts of the whole universe, so that nothing arises except from this, as from underlying matter by its own heat, which is for it the principle of motion and change. Moreover, since in every kind of concreted bodies there is none in which this moisture is found and preserved more abundantly, for a longer time, and better, than in solid homogeneous bodies and of exquisite temperament, we say that in gold there is contained a greater abundance of this most excellent moisture than in others. For there is nothing so homogeneous as this. Whence its temperament is said to consist, as it were, of a proportion of the elements; and since the origin of things is in that moisture, which is itself the seat of the whole essence, we say that the defect of this moisture is the destruction of each thing. Thus when

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77 MEDICINALES. 78 < Aurum Potabile sanitatis consveuatur.> cum ipsum humidum sit sedes vitæ, erit quoque sanitatis sedes, ergo hoc humi- dum ab auro extractum eoipoti humano recte exhibitum erit præstantissimum sani- tatis & vitæ conseruandæ, & morborum ex- pellendorum præsidium. Hoc enim in- tra corpus sibi simile inueniens ipsum am- plectitur, souet & auget. Augetur enim i- psius substantia à sibi conuenienti, & natu- ra omnino simili. < Præstantius cibo & poen.> Auctum vero calidum 50 innatum homogenea omnia in corpore congregat, heterogenea disgregat, & sepa- rat, morbos omnes curabiles expellens, & incurabiles moderando mollius. Ac in roborandis viribus præstantius est hoc hu- midum eo, quod ex cibo & potu elicitur, du- plici ratione; Primo, quia natura in cibo coquendo multum agendo patitur, ante- quam hoc humidum vtile extraxerit. De- inde, quia quod extrahitur, est tantum ad 10 reficiendum & restaurandum id quod de- perditum est, & illud adhuc non totum ex- coctum, nec inutile transmuratum, quia non constat homogeneis, & ideo semper a- liquid diminuitur & deperditur de proprio, & heterogenea per corpus vagantur actiones impedientia. In hoc autem de quo huc agimus res ita se habet. Non est enim hoc humidum corpori alimentum, nec sim- pliciter medicamentum, sed est de natura 30 primogenea suæ originis, quæ ipsam natu- ram reuocare cupiens eam auget & conser- uat, omniaque in eo vtilia amplectitur, inu- tilia vero reuicir ac dissipat, ac quemadmo- dum languido igni ignis fortior additus, hunc non solum excitat, sed maxime etiam roborat & accrescit, & magna fascis incensa exiguæ candelæ flammæ adiuncta multo præstantiorem lucem exhibet. Sie huius humidi calidum proprium calorem corpo- ris natuum non solum excitat, sed etiam i- psum fluentem & fixum in toto corpore au- get, cuius radii in singularum particularum fibris omnia inutilia ac superflua fugant, & partim per insensibilem transpirationem, partim qua naturæ commodius esse vide- tur, expellunt, fitque sangvis purior, & to- tum corpus pulcrius expulsis heterogeneis & sanguine renouato. Vnde sequitur ca- nitiem diutius retardari causa ipsius remo- 50 ta. Et hoc humidum esse puto, quod mul- ti Philosophi appellarunt Aurum Potabile, materiam primam, aurum Philosophorum, argentum viuum, chaos, & aliis infinitis nominibus. Quomodo autem illud per artem extrahi debeat, hic scribere desino. Neque enim vt tam diuini operis artifex ad te scripsi, sed vt rerum veritatis in natu- ræ principiis iuuestigator, argumentis & causis à primaria ipsarum rerum origine de- sumptis in summis compositorum generi- bus extractum quid sit, & quomodo natu- ra ipsum generet, & per artem etiam extra- li possit, fermone continuato demonstra- re conarer. In summa tamen dicam de singulis quid sentiam. < Extractio artificiale.> Ab animalibus & < A vegetabilium elixa- tione.> plantis oleum arte extrahitur per simplicem elixationem cum sublimatione in vale con- uenienti. Fit autem à calore humido, à quo humor rei elixatæ exprimitur, & cuius principium à proprio calore non sit, sed ab aduentitio. < Mineralibus effatio- ne.> A metallis autem extrahitur na- tura per affationem à calore crudo & alic- no, ac per affati in proprio humido solu- tionem, huiusque soluri crudi in naturalem coctionem, donec perfectionem humidi naturalis recipiat, in quo calor proprius nu- tritur, & hæc est naturalis extractio. Arte vero sit ad naturæ imitationem, affatur, sol- uitur, coquitur à calore proprio, qui est mo- tus principium, & iuuatur ab externo, do- nec humidum proprio calore temperatim perficiatur, naturam superans, à lapidibus extrahi à natura, & in eis gigni non puto, ni- si sit in sua radice metallo commixta, quia nec crescunt, nec assimilant, & horum na- tura est frigida sicca, sed arte extrahitur per affationem, affati solutionem in humido conuenienti, & huius humidi cum soluta concretione, fitque oleum sine elixatione & coctione præstantissimum, & hæc suffi- ciit de generatione, vi, ac facultate eorum, quæ ab omnicorpore, tam simplici, quam composito in genere extrahi possunt. Quar- rum de quo scribis est Ladanum, quod pu- tas Theophrastum nunquam à metallis ex- traxisse. < Ladanum proprium.> Ego vero Ladanum quid sit non noui, nisi illud quod à cysto, & hirci, ac ca- 40 prarum lanis extrahi dicitur. Theophrasti vero Ladanum puto nomen fuisse fictitium, cuius vires dum multum prædicat, non scri- bit tamen errores, quos in eo exhibendo commiserit. Fieri potest vt ex metallis, & re- bus aliis quamplurimis oleum per resolu- tionem, aut alio modo extrahiatur, quod cum morborum causas expugnat, dolores quoque tollit, & morbus curatum quibus si opium ad proportionem miscatur, fiet < Narcoticum operata vortibus infimiss & corpore ampuro periculoso exhibentur.> narcoticum, quod in dolor intolerabili a- liis auxiliis desperatis à prudenti Medico exhiberi potest. < Indicium de Theophrastus fortasse sit.> Sequantum sic pericu- lum, vbi vires ex- peditum sunt firnæ, corpus non est euacuari, & humores crassi sunt; nescio, an < Quicquid sit.> Theophrastici obseruent. Tale autem sic simile Theophrastus fortasse sit. Ladum appellare potuit.

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77 MEDICINALS. 78 < Potable Gold preserves health.> Since moisture itself is the seat of life, it will also be the seat of health; therefore this moisture extracted from gold, rightly administered to the human body, will be a most excellent safeguard for preserving health and life, and for driving away diseases. For this, finding within the body something like itself, embraces it, softens it, and increases it. For its own substance is increased by that which is suitable to it and wholly similar in nature. < Superior to food and drink.> And when thus increased, the innate heat gathers together all homogeneous things in the body, separates and parts asunder the heterogeneous, driving out all curable diseases and more gently moderating the incurable. And in strengthening the powers, this moisture is superior to that which is obtained from food and drink, for a twofold reason: first, because nature, in digesting food, suffers much labor before it has extracted this useful moisture. Then, because what is extracted is only enough to refresh and restore what has been lost, and that not yet fully digested, nor changed into something useless, since it does not consist of homogeneous parts; and therefore something is always diminished and lost from what is proper to it, while heterogeneous things wander through the body, impeding its actions. But in the matter we are now discussing, the case is otherwise. For this moisture is not nourishment for the body, nor simply a medicine, but is of the primary nature of its origin, which, desiring to call nature itself back, increases and preserves it, embracing everything useful in it, but casting out and dissipating what is useless. And just as a stronger fire added to a feeble flame not only rouses it but also greatly strengthens it and makes it grow, and as a large torch kindled beside the flame of a small candle gives a much more excellent light, so the proper heat of this moisture not only arouses the natural warmth of the body, but also increases the flowing and fixed heat throughout the whole body, whose rays in the fibers of each part drive away all useless and superfluous things, and expel them partly through insensible transpiration, partly in whatever way seems more agreeable to nature. Thus the blood is made purer, and the whole body more beautiful, after heterogeneous matter has been expelled and the blood renewed. Whence it follows that greying of the hair is delayed longer, the cause itself being remote. And I think this moisture is what many philosophers have called Potable Gold, the first matter, the philosophers’ gold, quicksilver, chaos, and by many other names without number. How this is to be extracted by art, I shall here cease to write. For I have not written to you as an artificer of so divine a work, but rather as a seeker after the truth of things in the principles of nature, attempting to demonstrate in continuous discourse, by arguments and causes drawn from the primary origin of the things themselves, what is extracted in the highest genera of compounds, and how nature produces it, and how it may also be extracted by art. In sum, however, I shall say briefly what I think about each. < Artificial extraction.> From animals < by decoction of plants.> From plants, oil is extracted by art through simple boiling with sublimation in a suitable vessel. This is done by moist heat, by which the moisture of the substance boiled is pressed out, and whose principle is not from its own heat, but from an adventitious one. < From minerals by affation.> From metals, however, nature extracts by affation through crude and alien heat, and through the solution of the affated substance in its own moisture, and the boiling of this crude solution into natural digestion, until it receives the perfection of natural moisture, in which the proper heat is nourished; and this is natural extraction. But by art, in imitation of nature, it is affated, dissolved, and cooked by its own heat, which is the principle of motion, and is aided by an external one, until the moisture is fittingly perfected by its own heat, surpassing nature. I do not think that from stones it is extracted by nature, or generated in them, unless it is mixed in its root with metal, because they neither grow nor assimilate, and their nature is cold and dry; but by art it is extracted through affation, through the solution of the affated matter in a suitable moisture, and through the concretion of this moisture with the dissolved substance; and thus an oil, without boiling and cooking, is produced in a most excellent way. And this is enough concerning the generation, power, and faculty of those things that can be extracted from every body, whether simple or composite, in general. Among these, what you write about is Ladanum, which you think Theophrastus never extracted from metals. < Proper Ladanum.> As for myself, I do not know what Ladanum is, except that which is said to be extracted from cistus, from the hair of goats and of she-goats. Theophrastus’ Ladanum, I think, was an invented name; while he praises its powers greatly, he does not write, however, of the errors he committed in presenting it. It may be that from metals, and from many other things, oil can be extracted by dissolution or in some other way, which, when it overcomes the causes of diseases, also removes pains, and heals the disease; and if opium is mixed with it in due proportion, a narcotic will be produced, which in intolerable pain, when other remedies are hopeless, may be administered by a prudent physician. < Indication whether Theophrastus perhaps meant it.> Therefore, where there is danger, if the powers are firm, the body is not to be evacuated and the humors are thick; I do not know whether the Theophrastics observe this. Such a thing, however, may perhaps have been what Theophrastus meant. He may have been able to call it Ladum.

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79 MEDICINALES. 80 <Propositio nos Itali cuividam.> ego hoc in autore explicando non multum laboro, cum necin Philosophorum, nec in Medicorum numero merito haberi possit. Et hæc de Ladano. Alia quatuor puncta ex Italo quodam desumpta, cuius nominequidem noui, etus vero librum non legi. <1. Proprietatem corson substantia nullam.> Primum est, quod hic proprietatem totius substantiæ omnino reuicit. Cui propositioni sic respondeo: Hæc verba sic absolutè proposita omnia naturæ principia, quæ in rerum ortu ab elementis & subtilitatis ex Aristotele esse dicuntur, & quæ Galenus in prima partium similiarum & organicarum constitutione demonstrat, iolentur. Vult enim Aristoteles omnium proprietatum & affectionum sontem ac principium esse taritatem & densitatem, quæ in cungregatione, dissipatione ortus & interitus in mutatione substantiæ cernitur. Vult Galenus <2. Febres vistum.> ex hac Aristotelis doctrina omnia morborum genera pendere ab illa raritate & densitate, quam bisatiâ diuidit, in eam, quæ est in corpore substantiam, & eam quæ est in potis, & morborum omnium differentias ac ipsorum proprietates habere hunc originem. Et quemadmodum hæ proprietates à tali principiu oriuntur, sic unnes familiaritates & repugnantiæ, quæ in rebus sunt, ab hac proprietate subtiliæ otris & <30> prouenire dicentur. Ergo quæcunque nostris corporibus accommodari possunt, siue ad ipsorum sanitatem conseruandam aut destuendam, siue ad morbos expugnandos, ab hoc solo principio deduci necesse est. Nam quæ ipsum corpus conseruant sanum, sunt omnia ei familiaria & amica. Quæ vero sanitati aduersantur, & ipsam destruunt, ea repugnant & sunt inimica, & lethalia. Nam quod familia re est expedire assimilatur, quod vero repugnat ad mortem deducit, & animalia & plantas; præterea medicamenta omnia purgantia eadem ratione humores sibi familiares trahunt, vaticertum est vnamquamque corporis particulam familiare nutrimentum attache. Sunt enim medicamenta purgantia familiaria humoribus detrahendis, quæ attractio & similitudine substantiæ, quæ est inter purgans & humorem, qui purgatur, <40> veluti Magnes ferrum trahit, quod ferri similitudinem ex primaria origine habeat. Nam & in uenesis ferri reperitur, & huic speciei est persvasis. Et hæc est doctrina Galeni ex Aristotelis principiis desumpta, quam Plato tamen aliu explicat. Tale enim per attractiuncem fieri non existimat, sed vult hæc omnia ita cuenire eo quod non sit vacuum, & quod singula quæ que dum congregantur & dissipantur mutuo se compellunt. Fit enim quemadmodum in vnuerso rei cuiuslibet latio, iuxta quam omne connatum fertur ad seipsum. Ego vero Platonem ab Aristotele non dissentite plane existimo, sed vttumque eadem principia, & eadem causas habere, veluti in motu lationis seu loci mutatione in omnium rerum ortu & interitu perspici potest. Sic itaque hic Italus, qui proprietatem subtiliæ reuicit, vel ipsam proprietatem quid sit, non nuius, vel non vt oportet eam explicauit. Et hæc de prima Itali propositione. Secunda eiusdem propositio: Febres omnes sunt per vstronem, non autem per putrefactionem. Si diceret febres Ephemeras & hecticas in ipsarum incendio, partim defendi, partim etiam impugnari posset; sed vbi asserit humores, qui febrem faciunt cangitibus tantum non , id quomodo intelligi possit non video. Nam certum est, quod omnis febris habet ortum & motus principium ab aliquo agente & patiente, vt mæria. Agens primario est calor ambiens nostrum superans. Vnde nostro proprio deuicto sit intemperies calida & sicca in partibus similaribus (omnis enim intemperies ad partes simulares reducitur) ex quæ sit incendium in toto corpore, ex coide primum inflammato, à quo incendio actiones læduntur, patiens vero in humoribus, & sanguis cum reliquis tribus. Sanguis autem solus incalescit calure alieno, vt diximus, aëre pestilentia, solis vstione, & febrisbus omnibus quæ unque ex causa. Incalescit autem sine cori upturne, vt patet in synocho nun putti, sed vbi sanguis in aliqua parte colectus est, vt in patris vasis, & ob defectum d' inflationis eius partis vis superatur, necessario sanguis coriumpitur. Vnde febris incendium, veluti etiam sit in omni inflammatione, in certu quodâ loco in quo focus incenditur, & in synocho putri, in vasiniam s, aut omnibus. Hinc non simpliciter intelligo nostri caloris corruptionem aut incendium, ex quo calor præter naturam nustrum, depascens actiones corporis tollit, & vires labefactat, sed intelligo putredinem cum fætore, quæ sit ab illo calore alieno agente in humidum, quæ putredo sit vincente natura aut omnino separata, aut imbecilla facta ab vtroque, veluti in abscessibus & inflammationibus manifeste appater. Est enim putredo in vasis ipsis omuino similis. Nam vt inæ tale sedimentum pro optimo monstrant, etassum, album, lensibi simile non fæc idum, qualepus in abscessibus demonstratur. A taliaue humuris putre-

Transcription: Translated (English)

79 MEDICINALS. 80 <Proposition from some Italian.> I do not labor much in explaining this author, since he can hardly be counted among either the philosophers or the physicians. And this is enough about Ladano. Four other points taken from some Italian, whose name I do know, but whose book I have not read. <1. The property of the whole substance of the corson.> The first is that he utterly denies the property of the whole substance. To this proposition I answer thus: if these words are stated absolutely, all the principles of nature, which are said by Aristotle to be in the origin of things from the elements and from subtlety, and which Galen demonstrates in the first constitution of the similar and organic parts, are overthrown. For Aristotle wishes the source and principle of all properties and affections to be rarity and density, which are seen in the congregation and dissipation, in the arising and passing away, in the change of substance. Galen wishes <2. Fevers victim.> from this doctrine of Aristotle that all kinds of diseases depend on that rarity and density, which he divides into two, the one which is in the substance of the body, and the one which is in the veins, and that the differences of all diseases and their properties have this origin. And just as these properties arise from such a principle, so all sympathies and repugnances which are in things are said to proceed from this subtle property of things. Therefore whatever can be applied to our bodies, whether for preserving or destroying their health, or for driving away diseases, must needs be deduced from this single principle. For the things that preserve the body in health are all familiar and friendly to it. But those that are opposed to health and destroy it are contrary, and are hostile and deadly. For what is useful by being familiar is assimilated; but what is contrary leads to death, both in animals and plants. Moreover, all purgative medicines in the same way draw out the humors that are familiar to them. It is certainly true that each particle of the body seeks familiar nourishment. For purgative medicines are familiar for drawing off humors, by that attraction and similarity of substance which exists between the purgative and the humor that is purged, just as a magnet draws iron, because it has a likeness to iron from its primary origin. For iron is also found in its veins, and it is persuaded of this species. And this is the doctrine of Galen taken from the principles of Aristotle, which Plato, however, explains otherwise. For he does not think that such things happen by attraction, but wants all these things to come about because there is no vacuum, and because each and every thing, when assembled and dispersed, mutually drives one another. For it happens as in the motion of the universe of any thing whatsoever, according to which everything born is carried toward itself. But I certainly think Plato does not differ from Aristotle, but that both have the same principles and the same causes, as can be seen in the motion of translation, or change of place, in the origin and destruction of all things. Thus this Italian, who denies the subtle property, either does not know what property itself is, or has not explained it as he ought. And this is enough about the Italian's first proposition. The second proposition of the same man: all fevers are by burning, not by putrefaction. If he were to say that ephemeral and hectic fevers are partly defended and partly attacked in their burning, this could be argued; but where he asserts that the humors that make a fever are only with burnings, I do not see how this can be understood. For it is certain that every fever has its origin and principle of motion from some agent and patient, as in disease. The primary agent is the surrounding heat overcoming our own. Hence, with our own heat conquered, there arises a hot and dry intemperament in the similar parts (for every intemperament is reduced to the similar parts), from which there is burning in the whole body, from the first part kindled, from which burning the functions are harmed. The patient, however, is in the humors, and the blood with the other three. Blood alone is heated by foreign heat, as we said, by pestilential air, by the burning of the sun, and by all fevers from whatever cause. It is heated without putrefaction, as is clear in synochus not putrid; but when the blood has gathered in some part, as in the vessels of the liver, and because of the lack of inflation of that part its force is overcome, the blood must necessarily become corrupted. Hence the fever's burning, as also in every inflammation, is in a certain place where the fire is kindled, and in putrid synochus, in the veins, or in all parts. Therefore I do not simply understand corruption or burning of our heat, from which heat against nature, feeding upon the body's functions, takes them away and weakens the powers; but I understand putrefaction with fetor, which comes from that foreign heat acting upon moisture, a putrefaction that is either conquering nature or altogether separated, or made weak by both, as clearly appears in abscesses and inflammations. For the putrefaction in the vessels themselves is altogether similar. For as in such matters the sediment shows the best signs, so too pus, white, like lentils, not fetid, as pus is shown in abscesses. And of such putrid humors...

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putredine febres incendi puto, ac augeri, quæ putredo, nisi cum diligentia tollatur, ægrum ipsum in perniciem deducit. Cæterum si tanguis supra modum assetur, pars quidem tenuior & pinguior omnino in fla- uam bilem vertitur, crassior vero in attam. ex illa flamma nauem , ex hac vt ex catho- nibus, quattanas intolerabiles ac conti- nuas perniciosas, & carbunculos maxime generari est verisimile. In quibus mani- festa sanguinis corruptio per bilis vtrius- que generationem, sed quod materia pu- trefeat ad talem corruptionem, vt in humi- do diximus, rationi illud consentire mini- me videtur. Putrefcit ramen pro natura cuiusque, sed magis à permistione calidi humidi vniuersi corporis, vt patet in biliosi temperamenti iuuenibus, in quibus acuto calore bilis humido vniuersi corporis per- missa sudores & deiectiones foetidissimas e- ducit. Ac quo iuinos, aut per accidens hu- midiores, vt frequenter esse soleor, eo foet- diores. Tertia ipsius propositio est: Focum o- mnium februm esse in corde, quæ etsi pro vora defendi potest, distinctione ramen e- gere videtur. Nam quatenus nulla febris propria esse dicitur, antequam cor primum inflammetur & ex cuius incendio rotum corpus incendatur, focus febris non potest intelligi alibi esse, quam in ipso corde. Et ita simpliciter, & in genere & ex propria fe- bris definitione omnis febris focum habet in corde. Sed si in particulari locus aliquis à calore præter natura incendatur, vt in inflammatione interna vel externa, & san- guis vel humor alius in vasis, vel extra ali- qua in parte putrefeat, vel ex fluxione ali- qua circa cor, aut in alias quascunque partes affecta pars incendium patiatur, vnde fe- bris excitetur, procul dubio focus ex prima- ria origine cit in parte affecta, cuius affe- ctio febrim facit, sed febris ipsa non proprie febris dicetur ab ea parte affecta, sed ab ipso cotde affecto, ex quo reliquæ omnes partes incenduotur. Et hæc ratio à principiis defumpta con- sentire videtur. Cum enim calor innatus duplex in nobis considetetur, alter fixus v- nicuique corporis parti per minima, alter vero fluens continuo à corde, & nulla sit pars corporis, quæ alteri parti suum calidum proprium communicare possit (singulæ e- nim habet quod pro se tantum sufficir, præ- ter cor, quod aliis partibus continuo vitam communicat, ratio vult vt calor præter na- tutam, qui in aliqua parte corporis est vni- uersum corpus per se non tantopere affice- re possit, vt ipsius actiones lædat, & febrem faciat corde non consentiente. Sed vbi cor à vapore maligno aut quocunq[ue] modo ab a- liqua parte affecta incenditur, illud quod vi- tam toti corpori distribuit, illud idem affe- ctum suam affectionem omnibus impertit. Et hoc modo dico cor focum esse omnium febrium, & alio modo esse alibi per prima- riam originem motus caloris præter natu- ram, à quo febris primum fuerit incensa. Si- mile exempli proponam de hydrope, quæ cum fiat ab intemperie epatis frigida, seu à frigidis humoribus in eo contentis, frequé- ter tamen alia pars corporis affecta prima- riam hydropis originem producit, quæ ta- men pars hydropem per se non gignet, nisi epate consentiente, quando ab eadem parte suo calore nativo, & facultate alteratrice fraudatur. Quarta propositio & vltima est: Perio- dorum causa, non in humoris natura, sed in virtute expulsiva collocatur. Hæc propositio videtur mihi vel male assignata, vel non posse facile ratione fulciri. Crediderim au- thorem periodo assignare, quod crisi con- tuenit. Galenus enim facultatem expul- tricem validam causam esse putat, quæ cri- sin efficiat, quod & ratio & experientia satis manifestat. Quam enim in acuus & peracu- tis crisis orduata fiat, in die 4. 7. 11. & 14. ac- cessiones vero in diebus imparibus facultas expultrix valida occasionem arripiens in accessione erisin die 4. futuram, die tertio arripit præuertendo. Sicuti contrario etiam modo, Natura dum in quarto lascata quiescit, nec vllio modo excitata, die quinto ad indicium commouetur. Id autem sit ex na- turæ prouidentia à facultate expultrice vali- da, & ab eadem debiliore ad pugnam. Sed in periodo cum ipsa sit tempus intensionum & remissionum in morbis, tam in particularis temporibus accessionu[m], quam in tem- pore totius morbi, causa periodo non vide- tur mihi magis pendere à facultate expultri- ce, quam à reliquis naturalib[us] facultatibus. Cum enim natura morbi expulsionem mo- litur, initio morbi ipsos humores crudos co- quit, in augmento eosdem retinet, & adhuc magis coquit, in statu iam ex cocta propelle- re tentat, vel per crisin, si omnia coueniant, vel aliis modis extra crisin. Iam initiu[m] & au- gmentum periodi ad facultatem retætricem & alteratricem magis pertinere videtur. Sta- tus finis vero magis ad expultricem. Sed ne- que hæc, neq[ue] illæ sunt per se causa periodi; verum humores ipsi, qui periodos constitu- unt longiores, breuiores, medias, vehementiores & mitiores, per se periodo causa esse videtur, quod & ratio ipsa satis demonstrat. Nam illud propria causa rei dicitur, à qua 3

Transcription: Translated (English)

Putrid fevers, I think, are kindled and increased by putrefaction, which, unless removed with diligence, brings the sick person himself to destruction. Moreover, if the blood is heated beyond measure, the thinner and the fattier part is entirely turned into yellow bile, but the thicker part into black bile. From the former flame, nauem , from the latter, as from storehouses, intermittent fevers, intolerable and continuous, and especially carbuncles, are likely to arise. In these there is manifest corruption of the blood through the generation of either kind of bile; but that the matter rots so as to produce such corruption, as we said in the case of the moist, seems by no means to agree with reason. Yet it putrefies according to the nature of each thing, but more by the mixture of the whole body’s warm moisture, as is evident in young men of bilious temperament, in whom the acute heat of the bile, mixed with the moisture of the whole body, produces sweats and most foul discharges. And the younger they are, or the more moist they happen to be by accident, as is often the case, the more foul they are. The third proposition is this: the seat of all fevers is in the heart, which, although it can be defended as stated, nevertheless seems to need a distinction. For insofar as no fever is said to be proper before the heart is first inflamed and the whole body burns from that conflagration, the seat of the fever can be understood to be nowhere else than in the heart itself. And thus, simply and in general, and from the proper definition of fever, every fever has its seat in the heart. But if in particular some place is inflamed by unnatural heat, as in internal or external inflammation, and blood or some other humor in the vessels, or something else in some part outside the vessels, putrefies, or if, from some flux near the heart or in any other parts, the affected part suffers inflammation, from which fever is stirred up, then beyond doubt the source lies at first in the affected part, whose affection produces the fever; yet the fever itself will not properly be called the fever of that affected part, but of the heart itself when affected, from which all the other parts are inflamed. And this reasoning, drawn from first principles, seems to agree. For since the innate heat in us is considered twofold, one fixed in each bodily part through the smallest particles, the other flowing continuously from the heart, and since there is no part of the body that can communicate its own proper heat to another part—for each has what suffices for itself alone, except the heart, which continuously communicates life to the other parts—the reasoning requires that unnatural heat, which is in some part of the body, cannot of itself so greatly affect the whole body as to injure its actions and cause fever without the heart’s consent. But when the heart is inflamed by a malignant vapor or in any way by some affected part, that which distributes life to the whole body likewise imparts its own affection to all. And in this way I say the heart is the seat of all fevers, and in another way that it is elsewhere by the primary origin of the motion of unnatural heat, from which the fever was first kindled. I shall give a similar example with dropsy, which, although it arises from a cold distemper of the liver, or from cold humors contained in it, nevertheless often some other part of the body, being affected, produces the primary origin of the dropsy; yet that part does not by itself generate the dropsy unless the liver consents, when it is deprived by that same part of its native heat and altering faculty. The fourth and last proposition is this: the cause of periods is placed not in the nature of the humor, but in the expulsive faculty. This proposition seems to me either badly assigned, or not easily supported by reason. I should think the author assigns to the period what belongs to crisis. For Galen thinks the expulsive faculty to be a powerful cause that produces crisis, which both reason and experience sufficiently show. For in acute and very acute cases, how ordered a crisis is made on the 4th, 7th, 11th, and 14th days; but in the odd days the expulsive faculty, seizing the occasion in the attack that crisis will occur on the 4th day, anticipates it on the third day. Likewise, by contrast, when Nature, having relaxed on the fourth day, rests and is in no way excited, on the fifth day she is moved to a sign. This happens by Nature’s providence, through a strong expulsive faculty, and through a weaker one to battle. But in a period, since it is itself a time of intensifications and remissions in diseases, both in the particular times of attacks and in the course of the whole illness, the cause of the period does not seem to me to depend more on the expulsive faculty than on the other natural faculties. For when the nature of the disease seeks expulsion, at the beginning of the disease it cooks the crude humors; in the increase it retains them and cooks them still more; in the state, from what is now cooked, it attempts to drive them out, either by crisis, if everything agrees, or by other means outside crisis. Now the beginning and increase of the period seem to pertain more to the retentive and alterative faculty. The end of the state, however, pertains more to the expulsive faculty. But neither these nor those are of themselves the cause of the period; rather the humors themselves, which constitute longer, shorter, moderate, more violent, and milder periods, seem of themselves to be the cause of the period, which reason itself sufficiently demonstrates. For that is properly called the cause of a thing from which

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83 EPISTOLÆ 84 res ipsa potissimum deducitur. Periodus autem (quæ tota in tempore veriatur) fit longior & vehementior ab humorum qualitate crassa, viscida, cruda maligna, & animia copia. Fit autem breuior & mitior à contrariis. Ergo periodi causa est it talis tantus humor. Boni hæc consule. Quæ de extractoru ratione scribo, hæc tibitanquam munus amicum lubenter offero, tuæ prudentiæ & fidei in certum amicitiæ signum, mearum lucubrationum patem con mittes. Quæ singula a nobis fusius & ordine naturæ alibi explicabuntur, & alius repetentur, vbi sum[m]am diuini operis perfectionem in circuli quadratura ex sole triplici demonstramus. Est enim homo reliquorum mistorum perfectio, ac certissimum solis triplicis vinculum sub quaternario denarium, seu vniuersi circulum ex triplici proportione harmonice constituens. Vale. Viennæ 12. Kal. Maij, 20 Anno 1575. EPIST. LVI. IOANNI AVRIFABRO, THEOL. celeberr. &c. Balthasar Shedder Vratisl. Med. S. D. 30 CONIVNX tua ad nos venit penultimo Septemb. ad quam vocams a fratredomino D. Heslo, amico meo charissimo, statim accepi. Cumq[ue] viderè in vniuerso corpore piuutam redundare, decoctum ordinarii, quo cum sub noctem visa esset, sequenti die tumulto mane sumpsit minoratuum: idq[ue] ideo exhibui, ne immundities contenta in vetriculo ad mesaraicas raperetur, & obstructiones faceret. Nam cum vrina esset pessima, nihil aliud sperare potui. Sublata autem materia eodem die vrina visa est melior, sed iam en cruda. Et quia vehementer 40 conquerebarur de planta alterius pedis, cui vix potuit insistere, mouere autem non sine ingenti dolore, ita vt ne quidem progredi posset ille, sed valde claudicaret; iuipexi locum siectu, & vidi tendines illius musculi, qua 1 quatuor pedis digitos deriuntur, nimium exiccatos esse, & propemodum scirrhosam affectionem contaxisse. Quæ si ui igitur quid applicasset pedi, & cuiu diceret de oleo iuniperi, & dequodam emplastronigro, quod pertinacissime adhæsistet, & non sine dolore detrahi potuisset, statim paraui vnguentum emolliens, quo cum locum affectum vespers & mane inunxisset, sensit se melius habere, & nunc libere progreditur, neq[ue] de villo dolore conqueriur. Accessit postea Dn. Craro, qui conugi tuæ vnicam portionem ordinarii, cum ad loachimum ducem Munsterbergentem profectus essem. Quotidie tamen conuenimus, & factum est vt paucissimis exhibitis medicamentis ipsam ad thermas ablegare decreuerimus, quæ sine dubio optime conuenient. Nam cum rore corpore sit refrigerata, meo iudicio nihil melius accommodari posset, nisi quod anni tempus aliquo modo est in incommodum. Miror autem Medicos vestros non poruisse pedi consulere. Et ex cura adhibita manifestu est, quod in chirurgia parum, aut potius nihil profecerint. Si fuissem apud vos, facile huic malo inuenissem remedium, & prætereá curassem, quominius istam profectionem suscipere coacta fuisset. Cum vero ad nos venerit, & thermis videatur delectari, eo magis suasi vt ad ipsas accederet, & nunc, postquam purgata est, sine dubio magno suo cominodo lauabit, si modo iuxta meum præscriptum vixerit. De quo nihil omnino dubito, præcipue cum viderim, quod hic in officio fuerit, & nihil prorsus negligerit. Bene vale, & certo crede, quod coniunx tua sine villo impedimento incedat, & quod sanis prospera truatur valetudine. Id quod sine dubio etiam ex literis ipsius intelliges. Iterum vale, & istam breuitatem, atq[ue] negligentiam in scribendis literis boni consule. Datæ Vratisl. pridie Non. Octob. Anno 62. EPIST. LVII. BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRYSÆVS Med. D. Abrahamo Settiero Medico, S. 50 CVM patricius iste Schemnizésis, amicus me, literas ad te expeteret, nec succurreret, quid potissimum scriberem, volui singularem exponere casum, qui ante paucas septimanas contigit, cuius considerationem tibi non foremucundâ existimo. Quædam ex Magnatibus, postquam feliciter peperisset, & per tres septimanas sufficienter purgata fuisset, suffocatione matricis laborare coepit, ita vehementer, vt nisi debitis remedius fuisset adiuta, vitam cum morte co[m]mutassit. Hoc esse contra Galeni doctrinam manifestum est. Nam conuenit inter omnes Medicos, prout Galenus asserit, 6. de loc. affect. hunc affectum magna ex patre viduis euenire, hisque maxime, quæ cum antea probe purgarentur ac parerent, atq[ue] virorum concubitu gauderent, iis omnibus priuantur. Ex quibus concicere possumus, quod ob retenta menstrua, vel ob temen cohibirum, mulieres vreri suffocatione cruciantur. Ex huc Galeni verbis elici potest, duos esse saltem strangulationis vreri causas vel mensiu, vel lemmus retentionem præter naturam. Vnde Suffocation post parium & copiosum lochiorum emacuationem. Causa suffocationes vetera.

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83 EPISTLES 84 the thing itself is chiefly inferred. But the period, which is wholly altered in time, becomes longer and more violent from the quality of the humors, when they are thick, viscid, crude, and malignant, and from a copious amount of blood. It becomes shorter and milder from the opposites. Therefore the cause of the period is such a humor, so great in amount. Take this kindly. What I write concerning the method of extraction, I offer to you gladly as a friendly gift, as a sure sign of friendship, to your prudence and faith; you will communicate the parts of my night studies. Each of these points will be explained more fully by us elsewhere, and in order of nature will be taken up again, where we demonstrate the complete perfection of the divine work in the squaring of the circle from the triple sun. For man is the perfection of the remaining mixed things, and the surest bond of the triple sun, with the ten under the quaternary, or the circle of the universe, harmonically constituted from triple proportion. Farewell. Vienna, 12th day before the Kalends of May, 20th year, 1575. EPIST. LVI. TO THE MOST CELEBRATED IOANNES AVRIFABER, THEOLOGIAN, ETC. Balthasar Shedder of Breslau, M.D., sends greetings. Your wife came to us on the penultimate day of September, concerning whom I immediately received a note from Brother Lord D. Heslo, my very dear friend. And when I saw that the whole body was overflowing with humors, I gave the ordinary decoction, by which, since she seemed to have been worse at night, she took a lesser dose the following morning in commotion; and I administered it for this reason, lest the foul matter contained in the stomach be drawn to the mesaraic veins and cause obstructions. For since the urine was very bad, I could hope for nothing else. But after the matter was removed, on the same day the urine seemed better, though now crude. And because she was complaining strongly of the sole of the other foot, on which she could scarcely stand, and could move it only with great pain, so that she could not even go forward, but limped badly, I examined the place and saw that the tendons of that muscle by which the four toes of the foot are drawn together were excessively dried out and had almost contracted a scirrhous condition. If anything had been applied to the foot, and if she had mentioned the oil of juniper and a certain black plaster, which had adhered most stubbornly and could not be removed without pain, I immediately prepared an emollient ointment, with which, when she anointed the affected place in the evening and morning, she felt herself to be better, and now she walks freely, nor does she complain of any pain whatever. Afterwards Dn. Craro came, who gave your wife the only portion of the ordinary medicine, while I had gone to Duke Joachim of Münsterberg. Yet we met daily, and it came about that, after a very few remedies had been given, we decided to send her away to the baths, which will certainly suit her very well. For since her body has been cooled by the dew, in my judgment nothing better could be adapted, except that the time of year is in some way inconvenient. I am surprised, however, that your physicians could not attend to the foot. And from the treatment applied it is evident that they have accomplished little, or rather nothing, in surgery. If I had been with you, I would easily have found a remedy for this ailment, and moreover I would have taken care that she would not have been forced to undertake that journey. But since she has come to us, and seems to delight in the baths, I have the more strongly advised her to go to them, and now, after she has been purged, she will undoubtedly wash to her great benefit, if only she has lived according to my prescription. Of this I have not the slightest doubt, especially since I have seen that she has been diligent here and has neglected nothing at all. Farewell well, and believe certainly that your wife goes forward without any hindrance and that she enjoys prosperous health. This you will no doubt also understand from her letters. Farewell again, and take this brevity and negligence in writing kindly. Given at Breslau, the day before the Nones of October, in the year 62. EPIST. LVII. BARTHOLOMÆVS CHRYSÆVS, M.D., to Abraham Settier, physician, sends greetings. When that patrician of Schœmnitz, my friend, was asking me for letters to you, and I could not immediately think what I should write most fittingly, I decided to relate a singular case that happened a few weeks ago, the consideration of which, I believe, will not be unpleasant to you. A certain woman of the nobility, after she had happily given birth and had been sufficiently purged for three weeks, began to suffer from suffocation of the womb, and that so violently that, unless she had been helped by proper remedies, she would have exchanged life for death. This is plainly contrary to Galen’s doctrine. For all physicians agree, as Galen states in 6 De locis affectis, that this affection occurs mostly among old widows and especially among those who previously used to be well purged and to give birth, and who enjoyed the intercourse of men, from all of which they are now deprived. From these things we may infer that women are tormented by suffocation of the womb either because the menses are retained or because the seed is restrained. From Galen’s words it can be gathered that there are at least two causes of strangulation of the womb: either the retention of the menses, or the retention of the seed contrary to nature. Suffocation after childbirth and abundant evacuation of the lochia. Cause of suffocation in older women.

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85 M E D I C I N A L E S. 86 Vnde igitur huic Magnificæ foeminæ strangulatio vteri prouenerit merito inquirendum, cum nec seminis, nec mensium abundantia fuerit in causa, vtpote quæ & peperit, & post partum optime purgata est. Ego statuebam non fuisse veram suffocationem; sed potius vteri à sua sede motionem, & ascensum ad superiora. Maritus enim non expectato tempore veræ & exactæ purificationis, quæ in lege DEI præcipitur, octauo die à 10 partu cum ea remhabuerat, qui cum alias sit Arthriticus, frigidum & morbosum habere sperma nemini dubium. Quare vterus antea ex partu debilitatus, laxaris ligamentis, vel loco motus fuit, vel ex frigido spermate intemperie frigida affectus. Vnde strangulationem illi superuenisse credibile est. Peto autem obnoxius, quid de hysterico isto symptomate sit sentiendum, mihi paucis declarari verbis, quod quidem mihi futurum est grauissimum. Bene vale. Datæ Schemnizii. Anno 1582. EPIST. LVIII. ABRAHAMVS SEYLLERVS D. Bartholomæo Chrysæo Medico Doctori, S. LITERATUR Clarissime Domine Doctor, 30 Lamice optime, per patrieium Sehemi- ceniem mihi allatæ gratissimæ fuerit, quod ex veteris ostras necessitudinis non obli- tus, data occasione, cum corpore leiuncti si- mus, literis mecum agas. Recenses casum mulieris Magnificæ, quæ etsi in puerperio saris purgata sit: tamen vteri suffocationem ineutr[it]it. Quod multis apud nos vsu venire solet, præsertim quæ genio indulgent, & vi- 40 ctu lautiori vtuntur. Et recte quidem Gale- nus tam ad seminis, quam menstrui corru- ptionem refert, quæ vteri vasa distendendo in longitudinem contrahunt, vt matrix ad superiores partes vergi deprehendatur. Va- por enim ille vitæ principiis, cordi & cere- bro aduersans, varia excitat symptomata. Nam sub sanguine menstruo omnis humor corruptus comprehenditur, vt Galenus t. de natura humana com. 28. attestatur. Cui 50 Auicenna & Auerthoes subscribunt. Quod autem ex semine retento viris non item ac mulieribus contingit, sit quod vterus sit sen- tina corporis ac excrementorum putrido- rum receptaculum, vt nihil mirum sit et- iam excrementa deleteriam acquiret qua- litatem, vt & in peste, morbo gallico, easu & venenis assumptis accidit, in quibus ab oc- cula vi noxa contrahatur. Eam qualitatem fuisse auctam inconuenienti congressu, co- rinui solutione, & dolore, quæ duo partum semper comitantur. Datur etiam ob imbe- cillitatem innati caloris in muliebri sexu putredine occasio. Quod autem talis quali- tas ex sanguine menstruo in grauidis, dum ad nouem menses saoguis menstruus reti- 10 netur, non resultet, neque quicquam vtero gerentem angat, fit forsan quod natura inhi- beat ne putretiat, quod negligit vbi præter naturam, & citra vsum detinetur. At meo iudiciopars abit in foetus alimentum, pars ad replenda vbeta detruditur, absumitur ali quid & coctione emendatur, minuiturque vomitu. Verum cum eiusmodi symptomata inenixis eueoiunt, matrice etiam optime purgata nihil vtilius semine Dauci Saecha- 20 ro incrustato deprehendi atque vsu confir- maui. Hæc quid de symptomate hysterico sentiam, nimirum esse vteri suffocationem, breuibus perscribere volui, vt animi mei promptitudo tibi constet. Bene vale. Vratis- lau. Anno 82. 26. Martii. EPIST. LIX. CAROLVS OSLEVIVS, MEDICVS Cæsareus, &c. Laurentio Scholzso Me- dico S. D. VEHEMENTER mihi placet fides tua qua mecum agis: eandem mihi quo- que præstabo. Demedicamentis mecum communicatis granias ago. D. Abrahamus tam ab aliquot septimanis peregre abest. I- taque eum alloqui de illis, quæ ab ipso cu- peremus impetrare hactenus non potui. Faciam id vbi redierit. Interea ea tibi de- scribam, quæ mihi Crato patefecit, à se vsu cognita. Me enim cunctantem, ac prope- 40 re fugientem Crato vltro in suam familia- ritatem pertraxit, mihique promisit, se mecum sua secreta medicamenta commu- nicaturum: quæ eadem à me tu quoque expectabis, si ab ipso abstulero. Interea dum familiariter mecum confabularetur, dixit magnum esse remedium oculorum male affectorum, si coniminuas & conte- 50 ras lapidem calaminarem in tenuem pul- uerem, & eum medulla ossis bubulilique- facta commisceas, forma linimenti quo o- culos clausos inungas, sed lauandum esse flexum cubiti lixiuo acti, vt ibi excitetur pruritus. [mercur]ij carduum beoedictum, asper- ge aquam cardui, & fac vt denuo destil- let. Hoc liquore linteolum imbutum Cra- 60 to surdastris immittit in anrem, si dolcant, vel non audiant. Nihil ex omnibus medi- camentis, quæ expertus est se conducibi- lius comperisse facetur. Oculos D.

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85 MEDICINALS. 86 Therefore, whence this strangulation of the womb has occurred in this Magnificent lady, it should rightly be inquired into, since neither abundance of seed nor of the menses was the cause, inasmuch as she both gave birth and after delivery was most properly purged. I was of the opinion that it was not a true suffocation, but rather a movement of the womb from its seat, and an ascent to the upper parts. For her husband, without waiting for the time of true and exact purification, which is prescribed in the law of GOD, had had intercourse with her on the eighth day after the birth; and since he is otherwise arthritic, there is no doubt that he has cold and diseased seed. Wherefore the womb, already weakened by childbirth, with its ligaments loosened, either was moved from its place, or, affected by the cold seed, was seized by cold intemperament. Hence it is credible that strangulation supervened upon it. But I ask, being obliged, that what should be thought about this hysteric symptom may be declared to me in a few words, which indeed will be most weighty for me. Farewell. Given at Schemnitz. In the year 1582. EPISTLE LVIII. ABRAHAM SEYLLERVS to Bartholomæus Chrysæus the Physician, Doctor, greetings. YOUR letter, most illustrious Doctor, was most welcome to me, brought by the very worthy patrician of Schemnitz, because, mindful of our old friendship, whenever opportunity is given, though separated in body, you deal with me by letters. You recount the case of a Magnificent woman, who, although she was sufficiently purged in the puerperium, nevertheless suffered suffocation of the womb. This happens often among us, especially in those who indulge themselves and use a more luxurious diet. And rightly indeed Galen refers it both to corruption of the seed and of the menses, which, by distending the vessels of the womb, contract them in length, so that the matrix is seen to incline toward the upper parts. For that vapor, opposing the principles of life, the heart and the brain, excites various symptoms. For under menstrual blood every corrupted humor is comprehended, as Galen attests in his 28th commentary on the Nature of Man. Avicenna and Auerthoes subscribe to this. But that this occurs from retained seed in men not likewise as in women, may be because the womb is the sink of the body and a receptacle for putrid excrements, so that it is no wonder that excrements also acquire a deleterious quality, as also happens in the plague, the French disease, fits, and poisons taken internally, in which harm is contracted by a hidden power. That quality was increased by inconvenient intercourse, rupture of the membranes, and pain, both of which always accompany childbirth. There is also, because of the weakness of the innate heat in the female sex, occasion for putrefaction. But that such a quality does not result from menstrual blood in pregnant women, while menstrual blood is retained for nine months, nor does anything distress the woman carrying the womb, perhaps happens because nature prevents it from putrefying, which it neglects when it is retained contrary to nature and outside its use. But in my judgment, part passes into the nourishment of the fetus, part is driven to fill the vessels; something is consumed and improved by digestion, and is reduced by vomiting. Yet when such symptoms occur in lying-in women, even when the womb has been most properly purged, I have found nothing more useful than the seed of Daucus covered with sugar, and I have confirmed it by use. This is what I wished to write briefly about what I think concerning the hysteric symptom, namely that it is suffocation of the womb, so that my readiness of mind may be clear to you. Farewell. Breslau, in the year 82, March 26. EPISTLE LIX. CAROLUS OSLEVIUS, Imperial Physician, etc., to Laurentius Scholz, Physician, greetings. YOUR good faith, with which you deal with me, is greatly pleasing to me; I shall show the same to you also. I thank you for the medicines communicated to me. Dr. Abraham has now been away on a journey for several weeks. Therefore I have so far not been able to speak with him about those matters which we desire to obtain from him. I shall do so when he returns. Meanwhile I shall describe to you what Crato disclosed to me, as known to him from use. For Crato, while I was hesitating and almost fleeing, drew me into his intimacy of his own accord, and promised me that he would share his secret medicines with me; and you too will expect the same from me, if I obtain them from him. Meanwhile, as he conversed familiarly with me, he said that a great remedy for badly affected eyes is if you grind calamine stone into a fine powder and mix it with melted beef marrow, forming an ointment with which you anoint the closed eyes, but that the bend of the elbow should be washed with lye, so that itching may be stirred up there. Mercurii carduum beonedictum: sprinkle water on the thistle, and let it distill again. With this liquid, a cloth soaked in it Crato puts into the ears of the hard of hearing, if they have pain, or cannot hear. Of all the medicines which he has tried, he says he has found none more beneficial. The eyes D.

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87 EPISTOLÆ 88 rum tritos & leuigatos in marmore plurimu[m] posse in sedandis doloribus immanissimis cancrorum ait, si ex vino, vel iusculo bibantur. Idem affitmat folia persicariæ, aqua fluviali madefacta, & imposita sanare fæda vlceræ. Cataplasmatis, quod in compescenda gangræna sæpe vidi cum exoptato euentu v sut pari a D. Bucella, hæc est descriptio: < Cataplasma pro gangræna.> 2. Farin. lupinor. fabarum 3 ij. Succi rutæ 3 ij. aut pul. rutæ 3 ij. Oxymell. simpl. 3 vj. Lixiuii q. s. Interdom addit puluerem scordii: nunnunquam etiam pauxillum victioli, si inua.luerat gangræna. Cataplasma in contusionibus, & plagis capitis potens. < Confusionibus & plagis capitis.> 2. Farin. hordei, fabarum. an. 3 ij. Pulu. betonic. chamemel. melior. rosar. an. 3 j. Calam. Aromatic. 3. β. Oxymell 3 j. Ol. rosar. hypericon an. 3 β. Viniboni q. s. Rationem parandi saccharum Saturni non plane intelligo. Nam si statim ab initio sit dulcissimum, quid causæ est, cur resoluatur in aqua calida, vt deponat acredine? Quod si tritum immittitur cucurbitæ, vt soluatur in balneo Mariæ: tandem liquidum, non autem aridum quid exorictur. Vnguentum ex succis atantii coepi bis diebus vsurpare, non absque vtilitate. Alias plura. Resalutat te Magnificus Dn. Dudithius. Vale cum familia tua, & me ama. Vratislauia 9. Martii, anno 1583. EPIST. LX. IDEM EIDEM. < In dislocatio de talis.> Ego vero mi optime Scholzi, non minus libenter respondi, quam tu ad me scripseris. Quos hic in casu vestri ciuis consulam non habeo. D. Weysselium de eo convenirem, etiam mea, hoc est, discendi causa, si me non gtauaretur audire, A tonsoribus 5 nostris nihil profecto expiscareris, quod animo tuo satisfaceret, neque eos puto Lignicensibus anteponendos. Meam itaque sententiam ad te libere perscribam, quam velim seculo iudicio examines. Dislocationem tali cognoscere is ab initio potuisset, qui certas eius factæ notas tenet. Existimo autem non adhibitum fuisse statim ho- minem intelligentem. Suspicor perfectam non fuisse luxationem. Hoc enim perit illius articuli motus, in quem ipsa incidit. narras autem virum illum iter fecisse neglecto malo: longo tempore post, oborto tumor, minus dignosci potuit luxatio. nec certum signum luxationis fuit, si commode inambulare non potuit. Hoc enim potuit contiugere propter dolorem partis mouendæ 10 ex alia causa, quam ex luxatione ortum. Venio in eam opinionem, solam distorsionem factam fuisse, qua tensa nimium fuerint vincula, quæ connexionem articuli continent, atque adeo omnia, quæ ad articulationem illam conveniunt: vt solet accedere, simembrum casu nimis vel extendatur vel flectatur in partem quampiam, præter eius naturam, inde extitit dolor, & propter hunc, aut etiam propter ligamenta iuncturæ 20 relaxata, nec firmuer iam amplius continentia, difficilior & laboriosior incessus, dolor præsertim exitineribus exactebatus, attraxit humores ex corpore ad partem debilem & ægram, ad quam tanquam imam, ex se defluere solent. Hæc vero laxior iam reddit, eos facilius admisit. Ex hoc affluxu humorum natus est tumor, & intemperie & distensione partium occupatarum molestus. Materia autem tumoris qualis potissimum fuerit, non obscurum puto cogitanti, naturam ad quodque membrum transmittere alimentum ipsi congruum & simile. Quod longiori tempore, & abundantius affluens, nec bene confectum à debili parte cessit in tumorem. Sunt autem extremæ partes nervosæ, membranosæ, osseæ, exangues. Huiusmodi autem humor, id est, cognitionem & similitudinem cum ipsis habens, nempe glutinosus, densus, tenax, frigidus & siccus, non est aptus, neque ad digestionem, vt conuersus in vaporem exhalet, quamuis enim partes quædam tenuiores, quas pro vehiculo fluxionis adiunctas esse oportet, discutiantur, reliquæ tamen magis impinguntur condensatæ: nec ad superationem: ad hanc enim caliditas, & humiditas requiritur. Si scire velis qualem mihi humorem imaginer, fingetemem branam aliquam, aut nerum adeo mace-rasse, vt quasi in mucillaginem redegeris. Non mirum igitur si facta apertione nihil humidi affluxit: discussus enim suit humor subtilior, & remansit crassior, magis coactus & quasi concretus ex fluido. Porro calor, qui in membris extremis & excarnibus infirmior est, non potuit & eas tueri, & illapsum atque penitus impactum humorum probe vincere ne quid mali-

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87 EPISTLES 88 rum tritos & leuigatos in marble, he says, can be of very great help in allaying the most violent pains of cancers, if drunk with wine or broth. The same man affirms that peach-leaf, moistened with river water and applied, heals foul ulcers. For the cataplasm which I have often seen, with a most desirable outcome, used in checking gangrene, and which was sent by Dr. Bucella, this is the description: < Cataplasm for gangrene.> 2. Flour of lupins of beans, 3 ij. Juice of rue, 3 ij., or powder of rue, 3 ij. Simple oxymel, 3 vj. Lye q. s. At times he adds powder of scordium; sometimes also a little victiol, if the gangrene has advanced. This cataplasm is potent in contusions and wounds of the head. < For contusions and wounds of the head.> 2. Flour of barley, of beans, of each 3 ij. Powder of betony, chamomile, melilot, of roses, of each 3 j. Calam. Aromatic. 3. β. Oxymel 3 j. Oil of roses, hypericon, of each 3 β. Wine of good quality q. s. I do not fully understand the method of preparing sugar of Saturn. For if it is at once very sweet from the beginning, what is the reason for dissolving it in warm water, so that it may lay aside its sharpness? But if it is ground and put into the cucurbite, so that it may be dissolved in a bain-marie: in the end something liquid, not dry, will come out. I have begun to use ointment made from the juices of atantium twice in these days, not without benefit. I shall write more another time. The Magnificent Lord Dudithius sends you greetings. Farewell, with your family, and love me. Breslau, 9 March, in the year 1583. EPIST. LX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < On the dislocation of the shoulder.> Indeed, my very good Scholzius, I responded no less willingly than you wrote to me. I have no one here whom I could consult in the matter of your fellow citizen. I would confer with Dr. Weysselius about it, even for my own sake, that is, for the sake of learning, if he would not be burdened by hearing me. From our barbers I should assuredly ask nothing that would satisfy your mind, and I do not think them to be preferred to those of Liegnitz. I shall therefore write you my own opinion freely, and I wish you to examine it with the judgment of a scholar. One who knew the sure signs of such a condition could have recognized a dislocation of the shoulder from the beginning. But I think a skilled man was not at once called in. I suspect that the dislocation was not complete. For then the movement of that joint into which it fell would be lost. You relate, however, that the man made a journey, neglecting the ailment; after a long time, when swelling had arisen, the dislocation could be recognized less clearly. Nor was it a certain sign of dislocation if he could not walk easily. For this might have happened because of the pain of the part to be moved, arising from some other cause than dislocation. I come to the opinion that there was only a twisting, by which the ligaments that hold the connection of the joint, and indeed everything that belongs to that articulation, were overly strained, as is wont to happen when a limb is by a fall excessively stretched or bent in some direction beyond its nature. Hence arose pain, and because of this, or also because the ligaments of the joint were loosened and no longer firmly holding it together, the gait became more difficult and laborious; pain especially during movement drew humors from the body to the weak and diseased part, toward which, as to a lower place, they are wont of themselves to flow. But since it was now more lax, it more easily admitted them. From this influx of humors a swelling arose, troublesome because of the disorder and distension of the affected parts. What sort of matter the swelling chiefly consisted of, I think is not obscure to one considering that nature sends to each member nourishment suitable and similar to it. This, flowing for a longer time and in greater abundance, and not properly elaborated by the weakened part, gave rise to a swelling. Now the extremities are nervous, membranous, bony, and bloodless. Such a humor, that is, one having agreement and likeness with them—namely sticky, dense, tenacious, cold, and dry—is not suited either for digestion, so that, being turned into vapor, it may exhale; for although certain thinner parts, which ought to be joined as a vehicle of the flux, are dispersed, the rest are rather driven in and condensed. Nor is it suited for resolution; for this heat and moisture are required. If you wish to know what sort of humor I imagine, picture for yourself some tendon or nerve so macerated that you have reduced it almost to mucus. It is therefore no wonder that when an opening was made, no moisture flowed out: the thinner humor had been dispersed, and the thicker remained, more compacted and as it were congealed from a fluid state. Moreover, the heat, which in the extremities and fleshless members is weaker, could neither protect them nor properly overcome the inflowing and deeply impacted humors, lest anything evil...

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mali inferret. Hinc euenit, vt humor, præter naturam ibi derentus, nec à calore naturali superatus aut gubernatus, coeperit & ipse corrumpi, & sanas partes corrumpere: ex quo tandem etiam ossiculo rum separatio, facto maiori foramine non miror excreuisse fungos. Hi autem non apparuerunt, quod ipsorum materiæ, hactenus conclusæ, non data fuit porta. Est autem istorum fungorum eadem ratio, quæ illorum, qui enascuntur ex læsa meninge in vulneribus capitis, de quibus loannes Langius in Epist. vi. In exca, inquit, & occulta cranii fractura raro vel fere nonquam fungi nascuntur. Quemadmodum sane in ipsissibus arborum humores protrudi, per corticem exuberantes, in fungos coalecunt, sic vulnera o cranio, humores cerebri afflunt, qui (teste Alexandro Aplitodisio) ossis frigote condensati, in speciem fungi concrescunt: qui in superiori parte ampli scalii, infra vero prætenues prorationeloci perficiuntur. Vnde Galenus libro Epid. tertio ait: , Densitate humorum, tales in vulneribus adnascentias efficiente quas multi fungos appellant, quos cum nostrates chiturgi in capitis vulneribus enatos vident, substantiam cerebri esse arbitrat, aut ægros tamquam deplotatos relinquunt: aut si forte fortuna eos curauerint, vulnera cerebri lete curasse, tantillumque de cerebro frustum exemisse gloriantur. Verba adscribere volui, quod dubitaui an librum haberes. Conser occultam craniæ fracturam cum arcto humoris foramine, illam apetam cum hoc patente, & videbis similitudinem in partibus natura similibus. Vtræque enim sunt membranosæ, exangues, osseæ, frigidæ. Causa autem cur in vulneribus & læsionibus neruorum, tendinum, membranarum, ossium succetescar copiosa caro flaccida, hæc videtur esse, quod hæc sint corpora densa, è quibus tenuor & serosior pars sanguinis effluit, retenta, & per calorem extraueum exiccata, crassiori. Adde etiam ex Langio, vel potius ex Alexandro Aphrodisco affluentes humores, partium excarnium frigore condensari. Affluit autem sanguis copiosus, & propter dolorem insignem, qui eo redditur maior, quo plus affluit, & quia natura mulium transmittit, ad seperandam partem corruptam & morituram, idque propter inumcretiam inter viuum & mortuum. Caro illa flaccida non tantum in substantiæ raritate, &, vt ita dicam, varietate cum fungis terrestribus conuenit: sed etiam in fu- bito ortu & augmento. Scis polypos resectos, neque ex arte post sectionem curatos, vno atque altero die in pristinam molem excrescere: quorum eadem prope est causa, quæ fungorum, de quibus agimus, & propterea vtorumque etiam curatio non dissimilis. Nemireris igitor tonfores medicamentis excruciantibus, quæ plus, concitato dolore, attrahunt, quam etosione absumant efficisse. Tu quaspe bonum virum curandum suscipias bene delibera. Cum malum in ipsa iunctura infederit, ibique corruptio facta fuerit, elaudicationem ille non effageret, etiam sanato vlcer, vt mea quidem fert opiniu. Nam calor præter naturam ex dolore & affluxu nimii humoris in parte excitatus mucillagine cartilaginu[m], quæ inter ossa articulata intercedunt, & crassiorem partem affluentis humoris serosi, quem vulgus tonforum, aquam articulorum, des Gletscht Wasser / appellant, exiccat & inducat. Hoc adeo verum est, vt eam obrem, omnia etiam vulnera iuncturum, vel optime & rectissime curata, articulationem destruant. Sed vehementer dubito an curari possit. Nosti vlcus non sanari nisi pars vlcerata recipiat suam natiuam temperem, & ab omnibus impedimentis carnis, qua explenda est, regenerandæ liberetur. Hic præterea adsunt fungi rebelles, sunt indicia corruptorum ossium. Ais naturam, quæ est curatrix morborum, in hoc ægro esse viribus afflictissimis & prostratis. Hæc igitur cum sit tam debilis, metuendum vt possit corruptioni ne serpat & inualeseat resistere. Et sunt alioquin pedes à fonte vitalis caloris remotissimi, hocque non nimio præditi. Nolim te docere curationem. Vnum hoc dicam, videtur mihi ante omnia hoc facien dum, vt æger reficiatur, & pats hactenus doloribus tracta demuleentibus, & amicum temperatumque calorem inducentib. atque roborantibus cataplasmatibus refocilletur. Interea fungis etiam pulueres sino cruciatu siccantes, absumentes, & adstringentes, vel huiusmodi aquæ asperi possent, quæ eadem ad putredinem cohibendam eôducent. Atque hæc habui, quæ in hoc casâ respöderem. D. Buccella primus me fungorum naturâ in experiundo docuit. Nemi ne verolegi vnquam, qui de ipsis scr. p[er]scrit, præter Langium. Satis mihi fuit de ipsa natura rei meam tibi sententiam explicare, quæ si falsa esset, falsam quoq[ue] esse oportet cura- tionem super ea extructam, quam facile colliges per te ipsum tanquam Medicus methodicus. Te rogo, si quid dubi in ea tibi reliquum est, mihi d liberet vt rescribas. Memini te habere effigiem instru-

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into it. Hence it happened that the humor, being retained there beyond nature and neither overcome nor governed by natural heat, began itself also to corrupt and to corrupt the healthy parts; from which at length, with the separation even of the little bones and the making of a larger opening, I do not wonder that fungi grew up. But these did not appear, because to their matter, hitherto enclosed, no passage had been given. Now the reason of these fungi is the same as that of those which arise from a wounded meninges in injuries of the head, concerning which Johannes Langius in Epist. vi. says: in a concealed and hidden fracture of the skull, fungi are seldom or almost never born. For just as in trees the humors are driven outward and, swelling through the bark, coalesce into fungi, so wounds of the skull draw in the humors of the brain, which, as Alexander Aphrodisius testifies, being condensed by the cold of the bone, harden into the shape of a fungus; in the upper part broad and expanded, but below very thin, according to the nature of the place. Hence Galen, in the third book of the Epidemics, says: by the density of humors causing such growths in wounds, which many call fungi, when our surgeons see them growing in wounds of the head, they think them to be the substance of the brain, and either leave the sick as if despoiled, or, if by chance they have treated them, boast that they have cured wounds of the brain and removed a tiny fragment of the brain. I wished to transcribe the words because I doubted whether you had the book. Compare an occult fracture of the skull with a narrow opening of humor, and a manifest one with an open one, and you will see the likeness in parts similar by nature. For both are membranous, bloodless, bony, and cold. The reason why in wounds and injuries of nerves, tendons, membranes, and bones there succeeds abundant flaccid flesh seems to be this: that these are dense bodies, from which the thinner and more serous part of the blood flows out while being retained, and is dried by external heat into a thicker substance. Add also, from Langius, or rather from Alexander Aphrodisius, that the humors flowing in are condensed by the cold of the fleshless parts. But a copious flow of blood is drawn in both because of the notable pain, which becomes greater the more blood flows in, and because nature sends much blood to separate the corrupt and dying part, and this because of the lack of distinction between the living and the dead. That flaccid flesh agrees with fungi not only in the rarity of its substance and, so to speak, its variety with earthly fungi, but also in its sudden arising and increase. You know that polyps, once cut away and not properly treated after the operation, grow back to their former size in a day or two: the cause of these is almost the same as that of the fungi of which we are speaking, and therefore the treatment of both is also not dissimilar. Do not therefore marvel if barbers have caused injury with corrosive medicines, which, by exciting greater pain, draw out more than they consume by erosion. You must carefully consider before undertaking the treatment of a good man. When the evil has settled in the joint itself and corruption has occurred there, he would not escape lameness, even if the ulcer were healed, as I indeed think. For the unnatural heat, stirred up by pain and the influx of excessive humor in the part, dries up and hardens the mucilage of the cartilages which lie between the articulated bones and the thicker part of the serous humor flowing in, which the common barber-surgeons call the water of the joints, des Gletscht Wasser, and so on. This is so true that for this reason all wounds of the joints, even if most excellently and correctly treated, destroy the articulation. But I greatly doubt whether it can be cured. You know that an ulcer is not healed unless the ulcerated part recovers its native temperament and is freed from all impediments of the flesh that must be supplied and regenerated. Here, moreover, rebellious fungi are present; these are signs of corrupted bones. You say that nature, which is the healer of diseases, in this patient is afflicted and overthrown in its powers. Since it is thus so weak, one must fear that it may be unable to resist the spreading and increasing corruption. And besides, the feet are farthest removed from the source of vital heat, and are not endowed with much of it. I would not wish to teach you the treatment. I will say this only: it seems to me that before all else this must be done, that the patient be refreshed, and that the part, hitherto worn out by pains, be soothed and revived by emollient, and by poultices inducing friendly and moderate heat and strengthening it. Meanwhile, against the fungi, also powders that dry without torment, consume, and astringe, or such rough waters could help, which likewise contribute to checking putrefaction. And these are the things I had to reply in this case. D. Buccella first taught me the nature of fungi in making experiments. I know of no one who has written about them except Langius. It was enough for me to explain to you my opinion concerning the nature of the thing itself, which, if it were false, the treatment built upon it must also be false; this you will easily gather for yourself, as a methodical physician. I ask you, if anything doubtful remains to you in it, to write back to me. I remember that you have an image of the instru-

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EPISTOLÆ 91 menti cuiusdam, quo Arantius vsus est ad polypum resecandum. Rogo te eam mitte. Bona side à me statim recipies. Secreta Cra- ronis, quæ D. Monauiustecum communi- cauit, nondum descripsi. Ignosce pigritiæ meæ. Vale cum charissima coniuge. Resa- lutant te amici, quos per me salutasti. D. Al- binus Helulgius, & D. Abrahamus. Iterum vale, & me ama. Vratislauia 23. Iulii, An- no 1583. EPIST. LXI. IDEM EIDEM VM sciam me tibi debere, ne fidem qua[m] tibi dedi incuses, exoluam; sed ita vt ve- lim porto tuis meritis obligari. Perchara est mihi amicitia tua, quam semel coeptam co- li, religiose, quo ad vixero, colam; & etiam magis, quod sperem nos aliquando in pa- tria coniuncto fore. Perspicio liberalem & apertum tuum animum erga me, cumdem- que minime ad communicandum diffici- lem, in quo N. N. vincis, qui sedulo premis, si quid singulare se habere putat, vt vix mul- ti precibus extorqueas, quod tamen sæpe tale est, vt vel idem publice extet, vel par, aut eo etiam præclarius facile reperiatur. Constitui plane apud me, nihil ab ipso pe- tere, nisi quod ipse facile ac libenter atque vltro largiturus sit. Quod enim morose da- tur ab eo, qui mei amans & studiosus habe- ri vult, tam mihi ingratum est, vt pernitent rogasse. Siscires quam bene & ex animo D. Abrahamus mihi voluerit, crederes me in- gentem dolorem ex ipsius obitu percepisse. Quædam præclara mecum communicauit, quæ volo, tibi quoque mecum esse commu- nia. Sed hoc pacto vt te mihi sancte obstrin- gas, nullite ipsorum copiam facturum, me inscio, Si rescuero illum, cuiea patefacere velis, esse virum bonum, quicque sua liberali pectore communicet, lubentissime permit- ram. Homini vero in gratificando difficili relinquam sua, mihi asseruabo mea. Se- quenti medicamento, quod miraculosum effectum haber, dixit mihi D. Abrahamus, vir longe optimus, se bonum sibi nomen in Morauia comparasse: 24. Spec. Diambræ 3 ij. Infundantur in vino destillato quatuor- decim dies, vt latum digitum superemineat, add. Opii 3 vi. Mumix 3. β. Succi Hioecyami 3 j. Corall. rub. Carabæ an. 3 ij. Croci 3 j. Mosci. gr. xvj. Ambræ gr. xij. Affuso rursus spiritu vini, vt superemi- neat latum digitum, digerantur post for- nacem per mensem, quoudie agitando. A- mbræ 3 β pro ægri constitutione. Maniacis, in vigiliis extremis, colicis in febribus arden- tibus, phrenesi, petipneumonia desperata exhibetur. Curatio cancri, qua quidam Pro cancri feliciter vsus est, à magno quodam vitro mihi communicata: 24. Radic. serpen- tatæ maioris collectæ mense lunio, trans- uersim incisæ, & filo linea traiectæ & ad vmbram exiccatæ, suspensæ ne patietem ar- tingat, in subtilem puluerem redactæ quan- tum volueris, cui adde Arsenici non splen- dentis tertiam partem, fuliginis carmini pa- rum, omnia bene commisceantur, & sub- tilissime puluerisentur, & seruentur in pixi- de lignea Si vlcus sit valde putridum, arun- dinaeo cultro scalpendum est, vt parum sanguinis exeat, & puluis subtiliter insper- gendus, atque gossipium salius madefa- ctum, superponendu[m], protestandum que est, quod per diem & noctem vnam, dolorem molestum excitabit, atque pars intumescet, sed quanto tumidior cuadet, eo melius. Non est remouendum medicamentum. Sed faciat escharam, quæ sponte per se post octauam diem cadet, si post escharam ela- psam immundum remanebit vlcus, mun- difica cum melle rosato, succo apii, & pa- rum farinæ hordei, vel vnguento Isidis, & superponatur vnguentum de Tutia. Si ve- ro aliqua radix remaneret: rursus appone prædictum puluerem; & pro remouenda eschara nihil addes, sed naturæ permittes. Sed antequam aggrediaris curam, purga corpus competenti purgatione, & rectam victus rationem præscribe. Ad Gonori hæc singulare D. Balocati, Medici Patauini, ex- perimentum: 25. Gummi arabic. Tragacanth. Carab. Mumix. Boli armen. Mandibul. lucii an. q. v. Pulu. & cum syr. de rosus succis, vel myr- tino f. pillulæ pondere 3 j. Capiat prima vice pillulastres, deinde pillulam vnam per plures dies. Hæc tria cum sint præcla- ra, & plane selecta, maximeque momenti velim instar multorum tibi sint. Quæ no- uarum accessione augebo: si pactum, quod tecum ineo, mihi confirmaueris. Sancte tibi affirmo, nihil esse apud me, aut vnquam fore

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EPISTLES 91 of a certain tendon, which Arantius used for cutting out a polypus. I ask you to send it to me. You will at once receive a good one from me. The secrets of Cra- ron, which D. Monavius communicated to me with you, I have not yet copied out. Forgive my laziness. Farewell with your dearest wife. Your friends send greetings, whom you greeted through me. D. Al- binus Helulgius, and D. Abrahamus. Farewell again, and love me. Wroclaw, 23 July, in the year 1583. EPIST. LXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME Since I know that I owe you, lest I should reproach the trust I gave you, I shall discharge it; yet so that I wish to remain bound by your merits. Your friendship is most dear to me, which, once begun, I shall cherish, religiously, as long as I live; and all the more because I hope that we shall at some time be united in our native land. I clearly discern your generous and open mind toward me, and also that it is by no means difficult for you to share things, in which you surpass N. N., whom you diligently press, if he thinks he has something uncommon, so that scarcely by many entreaties do you extort it, though often it is such that either the same thing is publicly already known, or a like one, or even one more excellent, is easily found. I have firmly resolved with myself to ask nothing from him, except what he himself would readily, gladly, and of his own accord give. For what is given reluctantly by one who wishes to be thought fond of me and devoted to me, is so disagreeable to me that I regret having asked. If you knew how well and from the heart D. Abrahamus wished me well, you would believe that I felt great grief at his death. He communicated to me certain distinguished things, which I wish to be common between us as well. But on this condition, that you bind yourself sacredly to me, that you will give no one access to them without my knowledge. If I learn that he to whom you wish to reveal them is a good man, who shares whatever he has from a generous breast, I will most willingly permit it. But with a man difficult to gratify I shall leave his own things to him, mine I shall keep for myself. The following medicine, which has a marvelous effect, D. Abrahamus told me, a very excellent man, had won for himself a good reputation in Moravia: 24. Spec. Diambræ 3 ij. Let them be infused in distilled wine for fourteen days, so that it rises a finger’s breadth above; add Opium 3 vi. Mumix 3. β. Juice of Hyoscyamus 3 j. Red coral, Carabe an. 3 ij. Saffron 3 j. Musk gr. xvj. Amber gr. xij. After again pouring on spirit of wine, so that it rises a finger’s breadth above, let them be digested after the furnace for a month, shaking daily. Amber 3 β according to the constitution of the sick person. It is administered in maniacs, in extreme wakefulness, in colics, in burning fevers, phrenzy, desperate pneumonia. The cure of cancer, which someone happily used, was communicated to me by a great man of glass: 24. Root of greater serpentary, gathered in the month of June, cut transversely, and passed through with linen thread and dried in the shade, hanging so that it does not touch the patient, reduced to a fine powder as much as you wish, to which add one third part of non-shining arsenic, a little soot from a chimney; let all things be well mixed, and very finely powdered, and kept in a wooden box. If the ulcer is very putrid, it must be scraped with a reed knife, so that a little blood comes out, and the powder sprinkled on very finely, and wet cotton wool placed over it; and it must be declared that for one day and one night it will excite troublesome pain, and the part will swell, but the more swollen it becomes, the better. The medicine is not to be removed. But let it make an eschar, which of itself will fall away after the eighth day. If after the eschar has fallen away the ulcer remains unclean, cleanse it with rose honey, juice of celery, and a little barley flour, or with the ointment of Isis, and let the ointment of Tutia be applied over it. But if any root should remain: again apply the aforesaid powder; and for removing the eschar add nothing, but leave it to nature. But before you begin the cure, purge the body with a suitable purgation, and prescribe a proper regimen of diet. Against gonorrhea this is the singular experiment of D. Balocati, physician of Padua: 25. Gum arabic, Tragacanth, Carabe, Mumix, Armenian bole, Mandibles of pike an. q. v. Powder and with syrup of roses or with myrtle, make pills of the weight of 3 j. Let him take three pills the first time, then one pill for several days. These three, since they are excellent and clearly selected, and of the greatest importance, I wish may be to you as much as many. I shall increase them with the addition of new ones, if you confirm for me the agreement I am making with you. I solemnly assure you that there is nothing with me, or ever will be

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93 MEDICINALES. 94 fore, quod te celare velim. Pulueris illius conficiendi rationem, quem vehementer expetiumus, D. Abrahamus me docuit. Illum dico puluerem, quo Bregæ, administrande curam D. Sebii hio, quidam sana- tus est, habens collum vlceribus eauerno- sis & contumacibus exesum. Bonus vir, vt perspicerem ipsius fidem non descripsit mihi parandi rationem: ex descriptione enim vix, ac ne vix quidem, potuissem discere: sed domi suæ parauit me spectante. Idem tibi promitto. Sed est quædam grauis causa, cur diligenter caueamus, ne puluis illo innotescat vulgo, quam te malo diuinare, quam exprimere. Vidi apud illum p[ro]xidem eo plenam, tibique inscriptam. Si quæ habes vel Langii, vel aliorum, præter ea, quæ à te petii, singularia inquam, & certa, nec passim extantia, togo ne me celes. Videor mihi hic esse in nundinis seu mercatu. Vnde bene onustus optimis mercibus redire in patriam cogito. Tunc mihi fidus eris Aehates, quamuis ego non sum Aeneas, Vale. D. Hieronymus Michael te peramanter cum coniuge & filiolo salutat, quibus ego quo- que plurimam salutem adscribo. Praga, 4. Decemb. Anno 1581. EPIST. LXII. IDEM ET DEM. AMICVS ille noster, nunc libenter ea communicat, in quibus antehac difficilem sese præstitit. Didicit ex familiari mea consuetudine mihi ea demum grata esse, quæ ingenuè & libenti animo communicantur; quæ vero iactantur & premuntur, præsertim inter amicos, contemnenda videri. Accessit obsequium meum, quo ita eum mihi deuineo, vt non possit me à familiari necessitudine excludere. Receipt etiam à me . Laudanum futpauit sæpius admodum feliciter, me teste. Descriptionem ignoro. Tu ab ipso pere. Si nullam habes, aut ille recusabit, quod non puto, me mone. à me accipies, variam quidem, sed in effectu principali consentientem. Nactus sum descriptionem Turbith Mineralis multiplicem. Qualem habeat Stromerus nondum rescui. Cum enim memoriter eam non teneat commode à me hactenus ad librum compelli non potuit. Extant descriptiones apud diuersos autores; è quibus pro ruo iudicio eliges, quæ maxime placeat. Modus applicandi ruptoria talis est: Præmissa purgatione corporis, circumdetur locus emplastro Diachilon gummato (hoc enim erasse iniunctum, tenaciter adhæret cuti) quod habeat tantum foramen aut spacium vacuum, quantum erodere, aut excedere cutem velis aut paulo minus. Cauterium enim liquefactum & diffuens, amplius reddit foramen, quam feceris. In illud foramen seu spacium impone cauterium; & superpone aliam petiameiusdem emplastri. Sed videndum ne dum fasciis partem obligas, emplastrum cum cauterio dimoueatur loco. Stromærus solet relinquere cauterium 24. horas. Sed potes etiam eitius remouere; si effectum eius prænoueris. Ablato cauterio disseca quicquid carnis aut eutis mortificatum, & nigrum a cauterio redditum videris, & impone peria digestuuo, quod vocant, inunctam, tantam, quæ escharam duntaxat bene regat, & super impone Diachylon simplex. Paucis diebus exibit eschara, qua sublata, si non tantu rum pere cutem, sed fontanellam parare cogitas, imprime globulum, ex eera viridi, cum præcipitato permixtum, qui eum ea bene subactus sit, quod potes facere digitis. Ita foramen profundius facies. Vide Capouacciu[m], euius tractatum de recta administratione cauterii te habere existimo. Ruptorium Gabrielis Beati cupio. Si ad manum est, ad me mitte. Venio ad easum illum, quem mihi proponis. Difficillima sanatu puto vleuseu-la ad talos, & propter confuerudinem tot annorum, quibus humores illue defluxut ut præ sua gravitate ad locu[m] decliuem, & quia locus est exanguis & debilis, quæ causa est eur facile gangrena ex aliqua intemperie, aut defluxu ibidem exeitetur, & quicquid vel pultularum vel vlcerum ibi exoriatur, difficulter sanetur. Expurgare bene & exquisite, atque exiceari oporteret corpus primum pharmacis, deinde Guaiaci vel sarza decocto, si consolidari illa deberent. Quod si consueta defluxio inhiberi non posset, paranda esset fontanella, palnium infra genu, ad illam intercipiendam. Corpore enim expurgato & intercepta defluxione, fæcle exhalaret, & resolveretur humor eirea talos, qui impactus intemperiem, rumorem, & vleuscula fouet. Si vero sanatio non succeederet, aut prorsus æger constitutum apud se haberet, vleuscula illa retinere, equidem in spergerem hunc puluerem: Pulmis rosina ad eandelam, vt ex ea guttæ eadam in aquam subiectam, eas collige, & in puluerem redige. Hic temperatus est, & concoquendi & mundificandi facultate dicitus. Et imponerem quondie folia he deræ viridia, & imponi solent si superuenirer, ex his duobus mis remedis vnum applicarem: pulpam seu catnem Remedia pro rubore & pruritem.

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93 MEDICINALS. 94 Therefore, there is something I would rather conceal from you. D. Abrahamus taught me the method of preparing that powder, which we greatly desire. I mean that powder with which, at Bregæ, under the care of D. Sebius, a certain man was cured, his neck having been eaten away with cavernous and obstinate ulcers. The good man, so that I might perceive his good faith, did not write down for me the method of preparation; for from a written description I could scarcely, or hardly at all, have learned it. But he prepared it at his house while I was watching. I promise the same to you. But there is a serious reason why we must be careful that that powder does not become known to the common people, which I prefer you to guess rather than have me state plainly. I saw at his place a large stock of it, and one inscribed with your name. If you have anything from Langius or from others, besides those things I asked you for, I mean singular and certain remedies, and not commonly available, do not hide them from me. I seem to myself to be here at a fair or market, from which I think of returning to my homeland well supplied with the best wares. Then you will be a faithful Aehates to me, though I am not Aeneas. Farewell. D. Hieronymus Michael sends his most affectionate greetings to you, together with your wife and little son, to whom I also send my warmest greetings. Prague, 4 December, in the year 1581. EPIST. LXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. THAT friend of ours now gladly shares those things in which previously he had shown himself difficult. He has learned, from my familiar way of dealing with him, that what is shared frankly and willingly is what is truly welcome to me, whereas what is flaunted and withheld, especially among friends, seems worthy of contempt. My own courtesy has also contributed, by which I so win him over that he cannot exclude me from familiar intimacy. He also received from me Laudanum, and has taken it very often with excellent success, as I can testify. I do not know the prescription. You should ask him for it. If you have none, or if he refuses, which I do not think likely, let me know. You will receive mine, indeed varied, but agreeing in the main effect. I have obtained a multipart prescription for Turbith Mineralis. What Stromerus has, I have not yet learned. For since he does not keep it comfortably in memory, so far he has not been able to commit it to writing for me. Prescriptions by different authors exist; from these, according to your judgment, choose whichever pleases you most. The method of applying a caustic is as follows: after the body has first been purged, surround the place with a Diachylon plaster mixed with gum, for this is what is commonly ordered, and it adheres firmly to the skin, leaving only a hole or empty space as large as you wish to erode or exceed the skin, or a little less. For the cautery, once melted and spread, makes the opening larger than you had made it. Into that hole or space apply the cautery; and place over it another piece of the same plaster. But care must be taken that, while you bind the part with bandages, the plaster and cautery are not displaced from their place. Stromerus usually leaves the cautery on for 24 hours. But you may also remove it sooner, if you foresee its effect. After the cautery has been removed, cut away whatever flesh or skin you see mortified and blackened by the cautery, and apply an ointment of the kind called digestive, in a quantity sufficient only to govern the eschar well, and place over it simple Diachylon. In a few days the eschar will come away; once it has been removed, if you think of making not only a sore but a fontanel there, press in a little ball made from green wax mixed with precipitate, which, when well worked together, you can do with your fingers. In this way you will make the opening deeper. See Capouaccius, whose treatise on the proper administration of cautery I think you have. I desire Gabriel Beatus’s caustic. If it is at hand, send it to me. I come to that case which you propose to me. I think the ulcer at the ankle is very difficult to cure, because of the habit of so many years, during which the humors have flowed there as to a low place because of its heaviness, and because the place is bloodless and weak; which is why gangrene is easily stirred up there by some disorder or inflow, and whatever boils or ulcers arise there are hard to heal. The body should first be thoroughly and carefully purged and dried by medicines, then by a decoction of Guaiac or sarsaparilla, if that ulcer were to be consolidated. But if the usual discharge could not be stopped, a fontanel should be made below the knee, to intercept it. For once the body has been purged and the discharge intercepted, the feculent matter would exhale away, and the humor around the ankles, which, being lodged there, nourishes the disorder, swelling, and little ulcers, would be dispersed. But if healing did not succeed, or if the patient were entirely set on keeping those little ulcers, I would sprinkle this powder: Powder of rosin over a candle, so that the drops from it fall into the water beneath; collect them and reduce them to powder. This is moderately warming, and has the faculty of both digesting and cleansing. And I would apply fresh leaves of ivy every day, and they are usually applied. If I were present, from these two remedies I would apply one: the pulp or flesh Remedies for redness and itching.

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95 EPISTOLÆ 96 n aqua tepida, deinde exprime, & rursus in alia aliqua macera, vt instar, eataplasmaris inter illini (quod ad crassitudinem digitis fieri debet, ne facile exicceatur) possit. Refrigerat, homecstat: non adstringit eum, ex qua adstrictione impedire possit perstatio & exupetatio mareriæ illap[er]æ; sed potius, non- nihil concoquit & resoluit. Posses fallendi causa permiscere puluerem foliorum malux. Irem macerare in lacte, & vitellum oui cum oleo rosaceo addere si anodynon parare velles. 2. Lixiuium acre feruefac, infunde pauxillum olei communis, & diligenter simul agitando commisce, madefactis linteis multiplicatis locum fomenta. Ad refrieanda vlculcula, omnia vtilia sunt, quæ habent facultatem exuleerandi & vesicandi, quæ tamen nolim simplicia, id est, citta aliorum commixtionem adhiberi, nisi moderata sint. Posses imponere ranuncuium leniter contusum, aut flammulam louis. Si nihil aliud in promptu sit, fac habeas emplastrum quodcumque, exempli graria, drachylon simplex, aut potius gummatum, quod maiorem vim attrahendi effluxum habet, & cum eo permisce aliquantum euphorbii, nasturcii, sinapi, & applica petiam tantam, quantam vis exulcerationem facere, inunctis circimcirca vicinis partibus, si opus sit, vnguento rosato, aut albo camphorato, vel simili ad probibendam inflammatonem. Monaulus noster nunquam occupatior fuit, quam nunc, itaque me rogauit vt tibi describerem, 1. puluerem contra podagram magno hic apud Principes viros in in precio & vsu 1. rationem repatandi nasi qui præfectus fuerit. 3. oleum quoddâ causieum: sed hæc duo posteriora partim leger, partim intelligere nequiui. Quare alio tempore à me babebis. Nunc accipe puluerem: Pulmæ pro podagm. 20 V. Chamæd. (quæ est tristago) Dictam. cretens. Chamæpith. siuæ iux artheticæ, Rad. centaur. maior. Herb. centaur. minor. Gentianæ. Rad. Aristol. rot. an. 3 ij. Putamin. nucleor. 1. partis interior. quæ est illius corticis spongiosi, qui est sub cortice duro, qui frangitur, id est, inter animam & corticem durum, ib j. & 3 viij. Misce & f. puluis subtilissimus. Æôris 3 si pet quadraginta dies. Sed quia amarus, potest inuoiuti hostia, & ex vino albo, vel brodio bibi tribus circiter horis ante prandiu[m]. Bene vale. D. Hieronymus Michael te plurimum & amicissime insit salutari. Praga 21. April. anno 1584. EPIST. LXIII. D. IOHANNI HERMANNO, PRINCIPI Bregensis Medico, &c. Casparus Hoffman nus Medicus Elect. Brandeburgensis, &c. S. D. Qvod ad humanissimas litteras tuas non illico respondi, non id accidit immi- nutione beneuolentia, aut remissione obseruantiæ mæx erga te, sed quia multis, iisque molestissimis occupationibus distraactus & impeditus fui, vt alia quoque necessaria officia deserere coactus fuerim. Quæris avem quid sentiam de medicamentis Paracelsicis. Quid sane aliud agunt isti, qui eiusmodi remediis vtuntur, quam quod humidum radicale violentis suis remediis depopulentur, ae pro eo mordaces & rodentes humores corpori inferunt, caloremque alienum in corpus inuehunt? Extollantali quantum velint oleum vitrioli & vitriolatas tincturas, quas pro margaritis, coraliiis, & lapidibus preciosis Principibus ad pauca respicientibos (placet enim color lucidus, & sapor acidus) isti cum magnificis præconiis exhibent. Ego rot documentis & exemplis edoctus, non facile autor ero cuiquam, mulro minus Principibus suafor esse velim, vt vsurpatione temeraria & crebra istarum retum rodentium, quisquam se disertim Iniohiberet. Vidi quia multo vsu vitriolatorum istorum corrotos pulmones colore vitrioli eiecerint. Alteri epar dissolutum frustulatim excretum putabatur. Audiui quosdam morti proximos lamentabiliter deplorate temeritatem suam, & magnis vociferationibus detestari seipsos præ dolorum immanitate, & interlora sibi vri & rodi subinde clamasse. Præter quidam egregius apud nos podagram se depulsum sperans, in vsurpando oleo vitrioli seduluserat. Verum ante obitum in poris omnibus per totam superficjem corporis, velut cuspides acuum pungentium tentire se miserabiliter conquerebatur. Porro Antimonii, & vitrioli nomine iam propemodum senescente, alia emergunt magnalia, videlicet, primum ens sulphuris, liquores margaritatum, corallorum, tinctura solis (quæ, nisi me lingua & nares decipiunt, ex camphora est) ac multa insupet alia sunt, quæ arrugans illa & ignata chymica rurba, (sed ad imponendum eruditissima) magnis præconiis & gloriis ortiar & vanissimis ætationibus celebrat. Talibus impostoribus ignotis, imo etiam aduerso rumore laboranibus nonnulli Principes, nunc sua committunt corpora, non adhibitis atque etiam

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95 EPISTLES 96 in warm water, then squeeze it out, and again steep it in some other liquid, so that it may, like a cataplasm, be able to be spread over the part (which should be done to the thickness of a finger, lest it dry out too easily). It cools, it soothes; it does not constrict in such a way as to hinder the dissipation and swelling of the injured matter; but rather it somewhat digests and resolves it. For deception’s sake you could mix in powder of mallow leaves. Likewise, steep it in milk, and add the yolk of an egg with rose oil if you would prepare an anodyn. 2. Boil strong lye, pour in a little common oil, and carefully shake and mix them together, and with folded linens moistened with it foment the place. For cooling ulcers, all things are useful which have the faculty of blistering and vesicating, though I would not wish such things to be used simply, that is, without mixture with others, unless they be moderate. You could apply gently bruised ranunculus, or flammula Jovis. If nothing else is at hand, see that you have some plaster, for example simple diachylon, or rather the gum-plaster, which has a greater power of drawing out the discharge, and mix with it some euphorbium, nasturtium, mustard, and apply a piece as large as you wish to make the ulceration, having first anointed the neighboring parts around with rose ointment, or white camphorated ointment, or something similar, if need be, to prevent inflammation. Our Monaulus has never been busier than now, and so he asked me to describe to you: 1. a powder against gout, held here among princes and noblemen in great esteem and use; 2. a method of repairing a nose that has been mutilated; 3. a certain caustic oil. But these last two I partly read, partly could not understand. Therefore you shall have them from me another time. Now receive the powder: Powder for gout. 20 V. Chamæd. (which is tristago) Dictam. cretens. Chamæpith. sive iux artheticæ, Rad. centaur. maior. Herb. centaur. minor. Gentianæ. Rad. Aristol. rot. an. 3 ij. Putamin. nucleor. 1. partis interior. quæ est illius corticis spongiosi, qui est sub cortice duro, qui frangitur, id est, inter animam & corticem durum, lb j. & 3 viij. Mix, and let it be a very fine powder. Aëris 3 si pet for forty days. But because it is bitter, it can be wrapped in a wafer, and taken in white wine, or broth, about three hours before dinner. Farewell well. Dr. Hieronymus Michael greets you very much and most affectionately. Prague, 21 April, 1584. EPIST. LXIII. To D. JOHANN HERMANN, physician to the Prince of Bregenz, etc. Caspar Hoffman, physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, etc. Sends greetings. That I did not immediately reply to your most courteous letter, did not happen from any lessening of goodwill, or any relaxation of my respect toward you, but because I was distracted and hindered by many, and indeed very troublesome, occupations, so that I was compelled to neglect even other necessary duties. You ask, however, what I think of Paracelsian remedies. What else, indeed, do those who use such remedies do, than by their violent medicines ravage the radical moisture, and in its place bring into the body biting and corrosive humors, and introduce into the body an alien heat? Let others praise as much as they wish oil of vitriol and vitriolized tinctures, which they present with magnificent proclamations to princes who look only at a few things at a glance—for bright color and acid taste are pleasing—like pearls, corals, and precious stones. I, taught by many proofs and examples, shall not easily be the author to anyone, much less would I wish to persuade princes, that by rash and frequent use of these corrosive things anyone should be openly injured. I have seen the lungs, corrupted by much use of those vitriolated things, cast out with the color of vitriol. In another, the liver was thought to have dissolved and been discharged in fragments. I have heard some, near death, lamentably bewail their own rashness, and with loud cries detest themselves because of the intolerability of the pains, and cry out that their innards were burning and being gnawed. Besides, a certain excellent man among us, hoping to drive away gout, was diligent in using oil of vitriol. Yet before his death he complained miserably that in all the pores throughout the whole surface of his body he felt, as it were, the points of prickling needles. Moreover, since the name of antimony and vitriol is now almost grown old, other great marvels are arising—namely, first ens sulphuris, pearl liquors, coral tinctures, the tincture of the sun (which, unless my tongue and nostrils deceive me, is from camphor), and many other things besides, which that garrulous and fiery chemical rabble (though most learned in imposing on others) celebrates with great praises and the most vain proclamations. Such impostors, unknown, indeed even suffering from ill report, some princes now entrust their bodies to, without applying and even ...

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etiam spreis teliquis Medicis. Sed faciunt id suo periculo, & breui exitus acta probabit. Verum de his nimis multa. Vale. Datæ. Francofurti 1. Iun. Anno 1575. EPIST. LXIV. IOHANNIS WEIDNERI MED. &c. Cassar Hofmannus, D. Electoris Brandeburgici Medicus ord. S.D. Eximie domine Doctor, ad binas literas 10 Et suas iampridem respondissem, sed mihi DEO teste desuit tempus. Ac iam Freist adii ita à mulieribus excruciatus sum, vt præ illarum importunitate, vaticinla ex vrinis quærentium vix respirare potuerim. Nunc quoque eurrum ascensutus & Custrinum profecturus hoc scribo stans pede in vno. De cedemate aliquid iam scribam, de reliquis alias. Talem tumorem habuit D. Zochius in eodem loco, nempe in genu, magnitudine 20 propemodu[m], caput puci ex quantumem. Cum diu à tosoribus excruciatus fuisset, ego post purgatione phlegma detrahentes ordinarii lotiones ex herbis verbasci, chamomillæ, anethi, lux artheticæ, herbæ paralysis, agrimonia, verbenæ, abrotano, absinthio, vt sic emollirem humorem, & aliquam eius partem discuterem. Postea feci eataplasma ex farina fabarum, lupinotum, radicibus altheæ, pul. lumbrieorum terræ, floribus chamomillæ, verbasci, anethi, abrotani, absinthii. Vltimo foueri iussi tumorem vino, affusa aqua agrimonia. Sive totus tumor euanuit, & diseussus est, quod primum videbatur impossibile. Sed iam plura non vacabat scribere. Bene vale. Datæ Francofurti 6. Septemb. Anno 1579. EPIST. LXV. REVERENDO Viro, D[omi]n[um] ABRABAMO Bucholcero, Theologo celeberr. &c. Cassar Hofmannus, Elect[or] Brandeburg. Med. S.D. ET si spero eiam pristinæ valetudini esse restitutum: tamen quia subinde se colligere sulet pituita ex imbecillitate coctionis & defectu caloris naturalis, vigilandum sane est, & tempore pacis eogitandum est de bello, aduersus hostem tam truculentum, ne prælum redintegret. Ego video cardinem totius rei verti in eo, vrea lor naturalis suapte natura debilis exuscitetur, ne sequatur cruditas, & ex hac pituitæ collectio: & vt pituitosi humores, collecti per interualla, absque nocumento interiorum membrorum è corpore educantur. Hæc si fierent, minus esset metuendum de morbi recursu. Quod igitur ad exusci- tationem caloris natui attinet, faciunt qui- dem intus rotulæ, morsuli, pulueres, condita, &c. aliquid; & foris vnguenta, sacculi, cerata, &c. sed minus tamen, quam fuit expectatum. Ratio est, qui humor pituitos insinuauit se in tunicas ventriculi, vnde hebetatur ealor, & cibus in ventriculo degenerat, & vertitur in crudum humorem & viscidum; qui postea intestinis adhærescit, & accedente obstructione status copiosus ex se gignit, à quibus tumor & dolor, eum exitus illis supra & infra sit interclusus. Quid igitur agendum? dices. Non quidem contemnenda illa, quæ paulo ante nominaui, hoc est rotulæ, sacculi, &c. Sed spero hæc, quæ dicturus sum non parum profutura. Multos, qui similiter affecti fuerunt, iussi in hebdomada bis de Mithridatii antidoto sumere quantitate pisi vnius aut duotum. Dictum irum, quam illis hoc profuerit, non prima statim vsurpatione, sed tempore sequente. Excitauit calorem, humiditatem superfluam absorpsit, &c. Nec metuendum quicquam de vehementia medicamenti, quia in parua quantitate sumitur. De p[ro]pere iuciso semel dixi antea: si deglutiantur septem grana instar pillularam. Sed cum plus ealefacere ventriculum volumus, contundimus grana crasso modo, in vno aut altero cochleari iuris gallinæ; aut alterius iuris carnis exhaurimus. Itaque quoque calefit ventriculum absque nocumento epatis. Zinziber quoque eonditum multum iuuat. Cum his domesticis (quæ sæpe plus iuuant, quam valde medicamento & operosa, corrigi porest ventriculi imbecillitas, & exicitari calor naturalis. Rogo Mithridatium experiri non omittas: Et si ventriculum tuus vsum eius sufferre poterit, (nocere non poterit) dabo operam, vt aliquid de præstatiore alicunde nanciscat, & tibi mittam. Quod subinde clysteribus intestina exoneras, bene facis. Passulæ laxatiæ quomodo eouuenerint scire cupio. Ego his sæpe vsus sum, & bene contulerunt. Nihil in se habent quod purget, præter folia senæ. Rhabarbari nihil inest. Si ventriculus respuet illorum vsus, tum potius vsurpentur rotulæ illæ ex diaphænicone. Video me oportere integro consilio tibi explicare rationem præseruationis à colico dolore, & quid in accessione agendum. Id (D[omi]no teste) iam illicofacerem non poteram, cum hac hebdomada Elector & Administrator sumpserint medicamenta, & hodie quoque, mequerarissime domi, semper au- tem in aula, esse oportuerit. Hæc scripsi no- du, cum alioqui multis ægris scribendum effet. Vitam profecto iam ago in quidam

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even to the scorned healers of weapons. But they do this at their own peril, and the outcome will soon prove the deed. But enough of this; farewell. Dated at Frankfurt, 1 June 1575. EPIST. LXIV. OF JOHANNES WEIDNER, MED. &c. Cassar Hofmannus, ordinary physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, sends greetings. Most excellent sir Doctor, I should already have answered your two letters and my own, but time was lacking to me, God is my witness. And now I have arrived at Freist; I have been so tormented by women that, because of their importunity in seeking prognostications from urine, I could scarcely breathe. Now too, as I mount the carriage and am about to go to Custrin, I write this standing on one foot. About the cedema I shall write something now; about the rest another time. D. Zochius had such a swelling in the same place, namely in the knee, almost the size of a head of a child. Since he had long been tormented by the surgeons, after purgation I drew off the phlegm with the ordinary lotions from herbs of verbascum, chamomile, dill, lux arthetica, herba paralysis, agrimony, vervain, abrotanum, and wormwood, so that I might soften the humor and discuss a part of it. Afterward I made a cataplasm from bean flour, lupine flour, roots of althaea, powdered earthworms, and the flowers of chamomile, verbascum, dill, abrotanum, and wormwood. Lastly I ordered the swelling to be fomented with wine, water of agrimony being poured on it. Thus the whole swelling vanished and was dispersed, which at first seemed impossible. But now there was no time to write more. Farewell well. Dated at Frankfurt, 6 September 1579. EPIST. LXV. To the reverend man, the most celebrated theologian, D. ABRAHAM Bucholcer, &c. Cassar Hofmannus, physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, sends greetings. And although I hope that he has been restored to his former health, yet because phlegm is accustomed to collect itself again from weakness of digestion and a lack of natural heat, one must certainly keep watch, and in time of peace one must think about war against so savage an enemy, lest he regain the field. I see that the whole hinge of the matter turns on this: that the natural heat, weak by its very nature, be stirred up, so that crudity does not follow, and from this a gathering of phlegm; and that the phlegmatic humors, collected at intervals, be drawn from the body without harm to the internal organs. If these things were done, there would be less to fear from a return of the disease. As for the stirring up of natural heat, those things certainly do something inwardly: pills, lozenges, powders, confected medicines, and the like; and outwardly ointments, sachets, plasters, and the like. But they do less than was expected. The reason is that the phlegmatic humor has insinuated itself into the tunics of the stomach, where heat is dulled and the food in the stomach degenerates and turns into crude and viscid humor; this later adheres to the intestines, and with obstruction added, plentiful matter is generated of itself, from which swelling and pain arise, since the way out above and below is blocked. What then is to be done, you will say? Certainly those remedies I mentioned just before are not to be despised, that is, pills, sachets, and the like. But I hope the things I am about to mention will be of no little help. I have ordered many who were similarly affected to take twice a week, in the quantity of one or two peas, Mithridates’ antidote. I have heard from them how much this helped, not immediately on the first use, but afterward. It stirred up heat and absorbed superfluous moisture, and so on. Nor need anything be feared from the strength of the medicine, since it is taken in a small quantity. Of piper I said before that if seven grains are swallowed like pills. But when we want to warm the stomach more, we pound the grains in a coarse manner into one or two spoonfuls of chicken broth or other meat broth. Thus the stomach is warmed without harm to the liver. Preserved ginger also helps a great deal. With these household remedies, which often help more than highly medicated and cumbersome ones, weakness of the stomach can be corrected and natural heat stirred up. I beg you not to omit trying Mithridates’ antidote; and if your stomach can bear its use, it cannot do harm, and I shall do my best to obtain some of a better kind from somewhere and send it to you. That you from time to time empty the intestines with clysters, you do well. I should like to know how the laxative raisins have agreed with you. I have often used these myself, and they have helped well. They contain nothing purgative except senna leaves; there is no rhubarb in them. If the stomach rejects their use, then rather let those pills from diaphenicon be used. I see that I ought, with a complete account, to explain to you the method of preserving against colic pain and what is to be done in an attack. I could not do that at once there, since this week the Elector and the Administrator had taken medicines, and today too, since I have had to be in attendance at court almost constantly, though most rarely at home. I wrote this at night, since otherwise I had to write to many sick people. I am indeed now living in a certain...

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99 EPISTOLÆ 100 Optime te valere opto, cuius precibus me commendo. Datæ festinanter Colonix ad Sueuum, 17. Febr. Anno 158t. EPIST. LXVI. IDEM EIDEM. ET si cum tuæ mihi redderentur literæ, in magnis eram ædificandi molestiis: tamen molestiam omnem tuæ discusserunt literæ, quod ex iis cognoui, te pristinæ valetudini aliquo modo restitutum esse. Deo sit laus & gloria. Quod per clysteres multum phlegmatis est eductum, id præeauebit ne tam facile fiat recidiua. Morsuli (fateor) sunt aliquanto fortiores, sed mirum quam prædicet eos noster Cancellarius. Sit tantum particulam inde sumit, sentir aluum aliquo- ries aperiri. sed sua est cuiqueremperatura. Fortasse rotulæ ex diaphoenico efficiunt apud te, quod apud illum morsuli. Mitto denuo conditum & Mithridatum. Modum vtendi non opus est, vt adscribam, cum id antea factum sit. Mitto & vnguentum ad impotentiam illam manus dextræ. Huius v- sus talis est: sumuntur herbæ hæ: betonica, origanum, salvia, rosmarinus & iua arthetica, singulorum manipuli duo, coquuntur in olla bene conecta, & effunduntur in vacculum, quod panno multiplicitegatur, ne eua- poret, inseritur manus, & fomentatur, per quartam horæ partem mane & vesperiante coenam. Post fomentationem vsurpetur vnguentum, quod mitto, præsertim circa iuncturas. Vt autem videri possis, quæ sint illa quæ accipis, mitto receptas vna, sicut scriptę & paratæ sunt in pharmacopolio. Salvia etiam valde commendatur, & vt lis est aduersus tremorem, si quis aqua destillata crebro manus vngat, aut potius si salvia imponatur aquæ, ex quamanns lauandæ sunt. Quidam hic similiter pene affectus mira de ea prædicat, quanropere sit adiutus. Sed hoc exile est, quanquam exilia etiam, interdum non parum faciunt in taræ texturæ hominibus. Spero breui manum facturum id quod debet. Hæc de morbotuo, qui vtnam ita euanescat, vt nunquam redeat. Optime valere te tuosque opto. Colonix ad Sueum, die Pentecost. An. 1583. Sequuntur medicamenta, quorum in hac e- pistola mensio fit. 2. Cörtie. eitri condit. Limonum conditor. an. 3 vj. Chebul. condit. Rad. bugloss. condit. an. 3 v. cichor. condit. 3 ij. calam. aromat. 3. lb. Lactucæ hispanic. 3 j. Geladinæ cydonior. 3 vj. Rob. de ribes 3 iij. Conser. rosar. damasc. 3 j. Macis incis. 3 j. Cinnam. incis. 3 lb. Incidentur condita, & aromata crassio modo, & misc. sig. conditum. 2. Mithridat. opt. 3 j. Detur laminea pixid. sig. Mithridat. 2. Ol. mastichin. 3 iij. vulpin. lumbricor. an. 3 v. ardex, taxi an. 3 ij. lb. Pul. vermium terrastr. 3 ij. Succi saluix. Vini Rhenani an. 3 ij. Pul. fl. de stoechad. arabic. rosmarini, lauendulæ, an. 3 lb. Coq. ad sueci & vini consumpt. excolentur species crassiores, adde ol. nucis conditæ per express. 3 ij. misc. & addita paucula cera f. vnguentum: sig. Salbe. EPIST. LXVII. IDEM EIDEM. PLVRIMVM lætor, ac tibi gratulor, quod Deus tibi prospexerit de commoda matrefamilias. Sic enim arbitror & tibi consultum fore & liberis. Si vllis vnguam nuptiis interesse cuplui, his certe interfuissem libentissime, si mihi ex ergastulo meo prouolare licuisset. Adfui aurem animo, votis & bene precando, quandoquidem aliter adesse non potui. Quod vero ad corporis tui statum, & medicamenta attinet, mitto ea, quæ tibi profutura existimo, nempe electuarium quoddam insigne capiti & ventriculo inprimis conferens, de quo interdum cum ventriculi imbecillitatem senties quanitate castaneæ ieiunus sumere poteris. Deinde conditum conditorum ad vires restaurandas. Mitto etiam, mithridaticam antidotum. Quod ad passulas attinet, mitto quoque illas. Guttas tres de oleo anisi in vino sumptas, non arbitrot tibi nocituras. Discentiunt flatus. sed vsus non sit nimis creber, & obseruetur quomodo vsum eius ferat ventriculus. Scribis me tibi scripsisse pinguedines ad pannum taceratum, fortasse ad lenitionem alui, sed miror te mirari cut in ea descriptione non addidetim quæ status discuriunt. Mea intecutio fuit lenire aluum. Lenitio alui sit per humectantia. Quo consilio igitur addidissem ea, quæ hanc intentionem inhibuissent, qualia sunt status discurentia, quæ omnia sicca sunt, & siccitatem inducunt. Quæ ex his mixtis, resultaret operatio? Scripta

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99 EPISTLES 100 I wish you to be in excellent health, and I commend myself to your prayers. Given hastily at Köln am Rhein, 17 Feb. in the year 158t. EPIST. LXVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. And if your letters had been returned to me when I was in great trouble about building, nevertheless your letters drove away all the trouble, because from them I learned that you had in some measure been restored to your former health. To God be praise and glory. That much phlegm has been brought away by clysters will help to prevent so easy a relapse. The little morsels, I confess, are somewhat stronger, but it is wonderful how much our Chancellor praises them. If only a small part of them is taken, he feels the bowels opened more than once. But each person has his own temperament. Perhaps the little lozenges from diaphœnicon have the same effect with you as the morsels do with him. I send again the condita and mithridate. There is no need for me to write down the manner of using them, since that was done before. I also send an ointment for that weakness of the right hand. Its use is as follows: take these herbs, betony, oregano, sage, rosemary, and iua arthetica, two handfuls of each; boil them in a vessel well closed, and pour them into a basin, which must be covered over with a cloth in several folds, lest it evaporate; put in the hand, and foment it for a quarter of an hour in the morning and evening before supper. After fomentation let the ointment which I send be used, especially around the joints. And that you may see what those things are which you receive, I send the prescriptions together, just as they were written and prepared in the apothecary’s shop. Sage is also highly recommended, and against tremor, if someone often anoints the hands with distilled water, or rather if sage is put into the water in which the hands are to be washed. A certain man here, afflicted almost in the same way, speaks wonderfully of it, how greatly he was helped. But this is a small matter, although small things also sometimes do not a little for men of a frail constitution. I hope that soon you will make the hand do what it ought. Thus much concerning your illness, which I pray may so vanish that it may never return. I wish that you and yours may be in the best of health. Köln am Rhein, on Pentecost Day, 1583. The following are the medicines mentioned in this letter. 2. Conserved citron peel. Confection of lemons, an. 3 vi. Conserved chebula. Conserved root of bugloss, an. 3 v. Conserved chicory, 3 ij. Aromatic calamus, 3 lb. Spanish lettuce, 3 j. Quince jelly, 3 vj. Rob of red currants, 3 iij. Conserve of Damask roses, 3 j. Sliced mace, 3 j. Sliced cinnamon, 3 lb. Cut the confections and the spices more coarsely, and mix; mark: condita. 2. Best mithridate, 3 j. Let it be given in a little tin box; mark: Mithridate. 2. Oil of mastic, 3 iij. of fox, of worms, an. 3 v. of oak, of yew, an. 3 ij. lb. Powder of earthworms, 3 ij. Juice of sage. Rhenish wine, an. 3 ij. Powder of flowers of Arabian stoechados, rosemary, lavender, an. 3 lb. Boil down to the consumption of the juice and wine; strain out the coarser ingredients; add oil of sweet nut by expression, 3 ij; mix, and with a little wax let an ointment be made: mark: Salbe. EPIST. LXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I rejoice greatly, and congratulate you, that God has provided for you a suitable mother of the family. For thus I think both you and the children will be provided for. If ever I wished to be present at any weddings, I certainly would have been present at these most gladly, if I had been allowed to fly out of my own prison. But I was present in spirit, with prayers and good wishes, since otherwise I could not be present. As for the state of your body and the medicines, I send those which I think will benefit you, namely a certain distinguished electuary, especially good for the head and the stomach, of which, when you sometimes feel weakness of the stomach, you may take the size of a chestnut while fasting. Then the confection of confections, to restore strength. I also send the mithridatic antidote. As for the raisins, I send those too. Three drops of oil of anise taken in wine, I do not think, will harm you. They disperse wind; but let the use not be too frequent, and observe how your stomach bears it. You write that I wrote to you about fats for a tarred cloth, perhaps for easing the bowels; but I wonder that you wonder why in that description I did not add the things that purge out the phlegm. My intention was to soften the bowels. Let softening of the bowels be done by moistening substances. With what purpose, then, should I have added those things which would have hindered this intention, such as things that purge out the phlegm, all of which are dry and produce dryness? What operation would result from these mixed together? Written

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Scripsi igitur intus assum[m]eda talia, quæ veu triculum frigidum calefacerent, & exieca- rent, ac simul confortarent. Extra autem vo- lui adhibere humectantia, quæ feces non si- nerent are fieri, & induvari, sed potius ad alui lubricitatem conferrent. Vale, Colonix ad Sueuum 9. Nou. anno 1583. EPIST. LXVIII. CASPAR HOFFMANNVS MEDICVS, &c. Lawr. Scholzio Med. S.D. GRATISSIMÆ mihi fuerunt & prio- res & hætux proximæ literæ. Depre- hendi enim ex iis non vulgarem sane tuam erga me bencuolentiam, quæ plurimum mi- hi voluptatis attulit. Sed rursus video te opi- nione falli, quam de me concepisti maiore nimirum, quam vt eam mea sustinere possit tenuitas. Ad priores equidem diu respondis- sem, & tarditatem meam in respondendo, ipsemet accuso, præsertim cum ad amici- tiam ineundam (quæ mihi potius expetenda fuisset) vitro & præter meritum meum inuitatus sum. Sed in eo iam vitæ genere versor, vt me vitam meam foris in perpetuis petergrinationibus & molestiis, domi in summa inquietudine transigere oporteat. Quo sit vt minus nunc in scribendo officio- sus esse possim, quam olim eram. Dabis igi- tur veniam non solum tarde, sed etiam ra- ptim & neglecte scribenti, culpamque o- mnem non voluntatem, sed vitæ inquietu- dinem sustinere patieris. Cæterum quod ad animi tui affectum erga me attinet, nisi te vicissim amore magno prosequeret, essem omnium inhumanissimus. Ae ab eo tem- pore quo libellum Arantii de foetu humano à te editu vidi, vere affirmare possum, me nomini tuo semper fauisse, & occasionem optasse, ac captasse etiam, vt noti inuicem esse possemus, quam nunc ex insperato mi- hi obtingisse gaudeo. Velim igitur tibi per- suadeas te à me magnifieri & amati. Quod si quid incidet, vbi amictiæ edenda sit decla- ratio, dabo operam vt amici animus appare- at. Sit igitur hoc amicitiæ initinm ita consi- tutum, literis & mutuis officiis posthac alen- dum. De cæteris cursum me agere oportet, cum otio destituar. De Dn. M. Abrahami valetudine vide sum solieitus, nec mihi quie quam tristius accidit, quam cum audio ipsum ægrotare, aut lecto affixum esse. Ex- petit subinde consilium meum & medica- menta sibi mitti petit. Mitto sane quæ pe- tit, & quæ haberi possunt. sed in consilio dando rectius collimare præsentem, quam absentem Medicum. Iaeobo genero ipsius indicaui vsum eorum, quæ mittuntur. O- ro te diligenter aduis hinc optimo & mihi charissimo viro de publicis studiis bene- merenti, & digno quem nullus motbus vn- qua[m] infestet. Studebo ipsemet eam ob cau- sam te demereri. Effec scribendum aliquid de thermis. sed mihi (DEVM testor) nunc nihil est otii, nec adhuc aduenisse arbitror rempus idoneum vsurandi. Vere appeten- te cum Dn. M. Abrahamus se recolligerit, & vires erunt validiores, tum inirl eôsilium hæc de re poterit. Aliis temporibus scio illu[m] non modo non thermas; sed ne quidem ia- ditationem in itinere perferre potuisse. Vt autem à thermis Hirschbergensibus aliquid interim memorem, mitto epistolam quan- dam meam ad D. Paulum Lutherum Ele- ctoris Saxonix Medicum ante aliquot an- nos, à me ex thermis illis reuersum scripta[m]. Cupiebat enim & ipse scillue conferre, si à me prius monitus esset de viribus illarum & vsu. Supplebit epistola illa breuitatem mea- rum literarum. Libellum de signo sassafras remitto. Non potui illum perlegere præ occii penuria, sed amanuensi meo negotium de- di; vt germanica conferret cum capite de sassafras, quod est in Monardi libello, edito opera Coroli Clusii. Ego hactenus eo vsus non sum, sed D. Schroterum & Brunnerum eo vti scio. Et malo in istis nouis & ratis ab aliis perieulum fieri, quam à me, qui non te- mere à veteribus ad uoua prosilio. Quomo- do Schroterus vtratur annotaueram. Sed non erat mihi nunc ad manum. Mitto etiam fa- raginem illam tumultuariam de Barbario, quam expetis, Dn. D. Baudisio vt scriberem non vacabat. Rogo itaq[ue] vt tu illi descriptionem morsularum purgantium mittas, quæ sequitur: Mannæ el. 3. iiij. Extract. solutiu. 3v. Dissoluta Manna in aqua aliqua f. morsuli nu. viij. Extractionis autem solutiuæ descri- ptio hæc est: Cinnamom. 3 xiij. Zinziberis 3 j. ss. Caryophyll. Galangæ, Cardamom. an. 3 viij. Nucis muscatæ, Macis. Lig. aloes an. 3 iiiij. Rosar. rubeat. 3 ij. Turbith 8. iij. f. f. a. extractio, addendo in fine scammonii extracti 3 j. ss. Mise. reseruetur vsui. Possunt inde fieri morsuli cum mâna, vt dic- aut rotulæ, si sum[m]atur extractionis 3 j. ij. Vides descriptionem quo ad purganda conuenire cum Diaphenico. Misit Baudisius ad me terram sigillatam olum. Cuperem scire an ejus apud E 2

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I therefore wrote down within that such things as would warm, dry, and at the same time strengthen the cold stomach. But outwardly I wished to apply humectants, which would not allow the feces to become dry and hardened, but rather would contribute to the lubricity of the bowel. Farewell, Cologne toward Swabia, 9 Nov., in the year 1583. EPISTLE LXVIII. CASPAR HOFFMANN, PHYSICIAN, etc., to Laur. Scholz, M.D., S.D. The letters both earlier and the most recent were most welcome to me. For from them I perceived, indeed, no ordinary goodwill on your part toward me, which brought me much pleasure. But again I see that you are deceived by the opinion you have formed of me, namely a greater one than my small ability can sustain. I would in truth have replied long ago to your earlier letters, and I myself accuse my delay in answering, especially since I was invited, and that undeservedly on my part, to enter into friendship, which rather I should have desired. But I am now engaged in such a way of life that I must spend my life abroad in continual journeys and troubles, and at home in the greatest unrest. Hence I can be less dutiful in writing now than I once was. You will therefore pardon me, not only for writing late, but also hastily and carelessly, and you will allow the fault to lie not in my will, but in the disquiet of my life. Moreover, as to your affection toward me, unless I in return were to follow you with great love, I should be the most inhuman of all men. And from the time when I saw the booklet of Arantius on the human fetus published by you, I can truly affirm that I have always favored your name, and have wished for, and even sought, the occasion by which we might be known to one another, which I now rejoice has come to me unexpectedly. I would therefore have you persuade yourself that you are greatly esteemed and loved by me. And if anything should arise in which a declaration of friendship must be made public, I shall take care that a friendly mind may appear. Let this beginning of friendship therefore be so established, to be nourished hereafter by letters and mutual services. For the rest, I must pursue my course, since I am deprived of leisure. I hear with concern about the health of Master Abraham, and nothing happens to me more sadly than when I hear that he is ill, or confined to bed. He repeatedly requests my counsel and asks that medicines be sent to him. I send what he asks, and what can be had. But in giving counsel it is more correct to aim at the present than at the absent physician. I informed Jacob, his son-in-law, of the use of the things that are sent. I beg you diligently to advise henceforth that excellent man, and most dear to me, who has deserved well of public studies, and is worthy that no disease should ever afflict him. I myself shall endeavor, for that reason, to oblige you. I am to write something about the baths. But for me, I call God to witness, there is now no leisure, nor do I yet think the proper time for undertaking it has come. When spring approaches, if Master Abraham has recovered, and his strength is more robust, then he may take counsel about this matter. At other times I know that he could not endure the baths, nor even travel without discomfort on the road. But to mention something for the present about the Hirschberg baths, I send a certain letter of mine to Dr. Paul Luther, physician to the Elector of Saxony, written by me some years ago after returning from those baths. For he himself also desired to compare views, if first advised by me about their powers and use. That letter will make up for the brevity of my present note. I return the booklet on the sign of sassafras. I was not able to read it through because of lack of leisure, but I assigned the task to my secretary, so that he might compare the German with the chapter on sassafras in Monardes’ booklet, published through the efforts of Carolus Clusius. I have not hitherto used it myself, but I know that Dr. Schroter and Brunner use it. And in such new and untested matters I prefer that others make the trial rather than I, who do not rashly leap from old remedies to new. I had noted how Schroter uses it, but it was not at hand for me now. I also send that rough mixture about Barbarium, which you request; Dr. Baudisius had no time to write it. I therefore ask that you send him the description of the purgative lozenges, which follows: Manna, 3 ounces, 4 drachms. Solutive extract, 3 ounces. Dissolve the manna in some water and make 8 lozenges. The description of the solutive extract is as follows: Cinnamon, 13 drachms. Ginger, 1 ounce, 1/2 ounce. Cloves, Galangal, Cardamom, of each 8 drachms. Nutmeg, Mace. Lignum aloes, of each 4 drachms. Red roses, 2 drachms. Turbith, 3 drachms. Let it be made into an extract, adding at the end 1 1/2 drachms of scammony extract. Let the mixture be kept for use. From this lozenges may be made with manna, as it were or pills, if 1 ounce 2 drachms of the extract be taken. You see that the description, in so far as the purgatives are concerned, agrees with the Diaphenicon. Baudisius sent me some sealed earth, too. I should like to know whether he has at his place of it. E 2

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103 EPISTOLÆ 104 esset magnus vsus. Sunt apud nos Gallici aliquot curati per turbith minerale. Idemque factum est Halæ. Vratislauia dicitur tonsor esse quæ mita præstet, & ab eo noster tonsor didicit hoc secretum. si quid tibi ea de re compertum est, quæso mihi significes. Habeo aliquot descriptiones turbith mineralis, sed cuperem si fieri posset tonsotis illius præparationem. Sed iam charta est expleta, & tempus deficit. Bene itaq[ue] te valere opto, < 10> & Dn. M Abrahami valetudinem tibi commendo. Datæ Colonie ad Sueum, die 15. Decemb. Anno 1583. EPIST. LXIX. IDEM EIDEM. < 10> PV DEBET me negligentiæ meæ & essent accusator mei ipsius, quod ad humanissimas, & eruditissimas literas tuas hactenus non rescripsi, nisi excusationem haberem nimis iustam. Nam ab ipsu huius anni exordio in hunc vsque diem ita circumactus sum, idque mandante Electote, vt nunquam domi subsistere potuerim, sed semper iter altud ex alio mihi inlunctum sit. Itaque spero te non solum excusationi meæ locum daturum, sed etiam miseram sortem meam, in quam detrusus sum, condolentia < 30> aliqua prosecuturum esse, cum non mea, sed aliena voluntate à scribendo retardatus sim. Æquum sane esset, vt tardicatem literarum prolixitate compendarem, sed hoc ipso pene momento reuersim sum cum Electore Dresda, cumque in ædibus meis inuenissetm Freistadienses quosdam cognatos meos, qui mihi à te, & Dn. M. Abrahamo literas reddiderunt, & illi vehementer properarent ad nundinas suas, non potui facere, quin hanc exiguam schedam interim ad te mitterem, quæ si nihil aliud, hoc tamen efficiet, vt intelligas, quid hactenus obstiterit, quo minus tibi rescripserim. Quod autem ad Dn. M. Abrahamum attinet, valde doleo illi iam rem esse cum tumoribus pedum. < 40> Sæpe illi dixi, & scripsi, omnium feremorborum causam esse defectum caloris natiui, qui cum exercitio suscitandus esset, ipse libris affixus magnam inde debilitatem < 50> membrorum contraxit, vt & ventriculus non bene coquat, avocato inde calore, & fumt caput repleuerint prouocati nimiis animi intentionibus, vnde postea fluxiones consecutæ sunt & alia mala, quæ subito tolli Dn. Abrahamus cuperet, cum causæ, ex quibus motbus pendet, & disposirio ad eas diu durauerint. Nam tumores pedum quibus ad collectionem sæpe multum spacii re- licum fuit, postea se tam facile abigi non patiuntur. Nunc libenter ei (teste DEO) scribere rema, quæ profutura ipsi ad tumorem pedum putarem, sed quid localibus proficitur, vbi vnnervalibus opus est? Scribam tamen in hac festinatione aliqua quæ occurrunt. Marchio Iohannes in tumote pedum vinu[m] in ollula calefieri sinebat, in eoq[ue] calido lintea madefacta pedi circumcirca imponebat & sæpe hæc ratione sibi tumores crurum discutiebat. Cardanus spongiam vel vineula madefaciebat ex lixiuio & aeceto eodem modo. D. Schiltelio contra tumores pedum vbi dolores aderant, hoc erat vistatissimum! 2. Farinæ fabar. lentium, Sem. lini, foenugræc. boli armeni an. 3j. Omnia puluerisabat, & coq[ue] cum aqua plantaginis (si color aderat) vel alia, & addebat olei alicuius ad hanc rem conuenientis < 3j.> 3j. vt fieret eataplasma. Plura mihi in aulam vocato scribere non licebat, & vrgebant hi Freistadienses, vt maturarem, qui valde ad nundinas abituriebant. Vnde etiam factum est, vt nec ea remedia, quæ mihi communicasti remittere potuerim, nec mea aliqua tibi mittere. Fiet autem id propediem. Cogito enim moram illam alia via compensare. D. Ioachimus Camerarius, vtis doctissimus & humanissimus, Dresdæiam fuit, vocatus ab Electore Saxonie, cuius valetudo ad cachexiam inclinare videtur. Singulis diebus vltro ad me venit, & sumus de variis rebus amanissime collocuti de quibus libenter aliquid scriberem, sed nihil (Deo teste) superest temporis. Fiet autem alias. Editurus est breui herbarium Matthioli germanicum, adiectis quibusdam experimentis , quem postea sequerur herbarius alter, qui herbari Gesneri, cuius ipse Bibliothecam emitt, veluti epitome erit. Ostendit mihi effigies sculptas, sed pulchriores me videre nô memini. Pollicitus est mihi, se missurum mihi semper aliquid, quæ tibi amico optimo sum ego quoque communicaturus. Neq[ue] illa solum, sed etiam quæ ab aliis Medicis hinc inde accipio. Vnum hoc oro, vt misertum meæ miseræ sortis me hactenus saltem excusatum habeas, quod impiger alias ad scribendum ad te nihil aut parum rescripserim, imo etiam non rescripserim, sed inopia temporis pronunciare saltem coactus sim. Te Deus opt. max. bene valere velit. Datæ Colon. ad Sueum, 1a. Maij, Anno 1584. EPIST:

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103 EPISTLES 104 there would have been great use. We have here some Frenchmen cured by mineral turpith. The same thing was done at Halle. At Breslau it is said there is a barber who provides a similar remedy, and our barber learned this secret from him. If you know anything about it, I beg you to let me know. I have several descriptions of mineral turpith, but I should like, if possible, the preparation used by that barber. But now the sheet is filled up, and time fails. So I wish you well, < 10> and I commend to you the health of Master Abraham. Given at Cologne on the Elbe, 15 December 1583. EPIST. LXIX. SAME TO THE SAME. < 10> I OWE it to my negligence and must accuse myself, that I have hitherto not replied to your most kind and learned letters, unless I had a very just excuse. For from the very beginning of this year until this day I have been so whirled about, and that by order of the Elector, that I have never been able to remain at home, but have always had one journey after another imposed on me. So I hope that you will not only make room for my excuse, but will also show some compassion for my miserable lot, into which I have been thrust, since I have been delayed from writing not by my own will, but by another’s. Truly it would be fair if I made up for the slowness of my letters by their length, but at this very moment I have just returned with the Elector from Dresden, and when I found in my house some kinsmen from Freistadt, who had delivered to me letters from you and Master Abraham, and since they were hurrying greatly to their fair, I could not do otherwise than send this little note meanwhile to you, which, if it does nothing else, will at least make you understand what has thus far hindered me, so that I have not replied to you. As for Master Abraham, I am much grieved that he is already afflicted with swellings of the feet. < 40> I have often told him and written to him that the cause of almost all diseases is a deficiency of the natural heat, which ought to be stirred up by exercise; but he, being attached to books, has contracted from that a great weakness < 50> of the limbs, so that his stomach does not digest well, the heat being drawn away from it, and his head has been filled with humors provoked by excessive strain of the mind, whence afterwards fluxes have followed, and other evils, which Master Abraham would like to be removed at once, although the causes from which the disease depends, and the disposition to it, have lasted for a long time. For swellings of the feet, in which much time is often needed for the gathering to pass off, are not afterwards so easily driven away. Now I would gladly write to him {God being my witness} about remedies which I thought would be helpful for the swelling of the feet, but what good are local remedies when universal ones are needed? Still, in this haste I shall write down some things that occur to me. Margrave John, for swelling of the feet, used to have wine warmed in a small pot, and in that warm wine he would apply cloths soaked in it all around the feet, and often by this method he would disperse swellings of the legs for himself. Cardanus would moisten a sponge or bandages with lye and vinegar in the same way. For Master Schiltelius, against swellings of the feet where pain was present, this was very usual! 2. Bean flour, lentils, linseed, fenugreek, Armenian bole, an. 3j. He powdered everything, and boiled it with plantain water (if there was redness) or some other, and added some oil suitable for this purpose < 3j.> 3j., so that a cataplasm was made. I was not allowed to write more while being summoned to the court, and these Freistadians were urging me to hurry, since they were about to leave for the fair. Hence also it came about that I was unable either to send back the remedies you had shared with me, or to send you any of mine. But this shall be done very soon. For I am thinking to make up for that delay in some other way. Master Joachim Camerarius, most learned and most humane, was in Dresden, summoned there by the Elector of Saxony, whose health seems to be inclining toward cachexia. Every day he comes to me of his own accord, and we have most pleasantly conversed about various matters, about which I should gladly write something, but there is (God is my witness) no time left. This will be done another time. He is soon to publish a German herbal of Matthiolus, with certain experiments added, after which another herbal will follow, which will be, as it were, an epitome of Gesner’s herbal, whose Library he is publishing. He showed me engraved figures, but I do not remember having seen more beautiful ones. He promised me that he would always send me something, which I too shall share with you, my best friend. Not only that, but also what I receive here and there from other physicians. I ask only this, that you may have pity on my miserable lot and at least thus far excuse me, since I have hitherto, being otherwise diligent in writing to you, replied nothing or very little, indeed even have not replied at all, but have been compelled at present to declare my lack of time. May God Almighty grant that you be well. Given at Cologne on the Elbe, 1 May, 1584. EPIST:

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105 MEDICINALES. 106 EPIST. LXX. CASPAR LINDNERVS, PHYSICVS Posnam, &c. Ioachimo Bandisio Vratislauensi, Principis Lignicensis Medico, &c. S. D. MVLTORVM sermonibus intellexi de trua singulari humanitate, ac insigni doctrina, quod etiam confirmauit magni- < 10> fici ac generosi Dn. Ossowij nostri dete iudicium, & D. Pauli eius filiorum præceptoristestimoniu[m]. Is enim demonstratis tuis ad Dn. Ossowium literis omnino fuit author, vt ego prior hac mea epistola te ad ineundam & colendam amicitiam prouocarem, tamen vt communicatis ex arte medica consiliis nobilissimo viro feramus suppetias si poterimus: sin minus vt saltem vel tis < 10> pugniorum rectam pronunciemus, atque vnam- mem sententiam. Et vt à prædictione incipiam, cette versatur hic generosus vit in grauissimo periculo non ob orthopneæ tantum hisperus, qui (vt tu recte iudicas) ad leuies, cordique vicinas arterias delabitur: sed ob celerem, crebram, ac (quod omnium est deterrimum) intermittentem pulsum motionem, quæ (vt ex decretis Galeni nosti) omnium inæqualitatum est perniciosissima. Legisti opinor historiam Galeni (lib. 4. cap. 30 vlt. de locis affectis) Antipatri Medici Romani, qui mirabatur, quod sine sonu ac strepitu respiraret grauius, huic respondebat Galenus, causam esse in fluxu humoris non ad asperas, sed in leues, cordique proximas arterias, quod etiam arguebat omnium generum pulsum inæqualitas. Tibi hæc viro erudito, vt in cæteris artis paribus, ita quoque in anatomicis exercitatissimo, puto esse recte nota. quæ de re ego posthac < 40> vberius perscribam, cum, Deo volente, versabor Posnauix, inde frequentius te meis salutabo. nunc enim occupatissimo cura istius magnifici mihi ignosci peto sicubi errorem deprehenderis. Difficultatem curandi auget perpetua vaporum ac humorum in icorec generatio, ex vitio aquaionum seu officinæ sanguificationis contracto, ob natuam & abscuriam epati calidi intemperiem cum febri coniunctam. Dum enim < 50> frigidis alterare epar nitimur, materiam morbi augeramus. Dum vero calidis aut intemperatis coctioni humorum attendimus epatis xstum augmentamus. Omnium optime illi successit ex succo Iridis cum ture galli decrepiti vacuatio. Scis enim iure illo (cui Discorides Irru tribuit) non humorum tantum, verum etiam iridis temperari acrimoniam. Sed quid obsecro te interea proficimus? Est mollis flamma iecur (vt dicebat ille, licet in alio argumento) quod quidem corrigi raro potest, præsertim si cum virium detrimento (ob vigilias & cõtinuas ob motum pulmonum resolutiones in recto (aquæ in spacia pectoris ac pulmonum influant. Adhibui ego, vt tu sentiebas vna cum doctissimis Vratislauiensibus Medicis, fere omnia remedia. Tum sex rerum non naturalium obseruatione, nil, (vt ego sentio) à me est prætermisum ad robur mebtrorum principalium, tamen ad corrigendas intemperies, occursum est grauissimis symptomatibus deriuando & auertedo fluxionum impetus, verum tanta est mali rabies ac tyrannis, vt ne placari quidem iam possit. Frustra hiera, & alta sana adhibentur medieamina, incassum & brassica marina, & alia plæraque à vestris excellentiis exco[n]gitata remedia. Vna salus fidere DEO, sunt cætera frustra. Victus ratio adhibentur morbo, & causæ conueniens, vngitur regio epatis roborantibus & alterantibus. Coquuntur humores, verum vrinæ rubræ crudæ tenues, cum malis sedimentis, ac duulsis nil pollicentur melius. Pulsum arteriarum, ac respirationis continua (de qua superius dixi) ac deprauxa inæqualitas terrent magis quâ cætera omnia indicia. Epari consentit pulmo ac ventriculus. Et nisi euacuentur leniter superflua, putrescunt facile intus. Postremo tentatis omnibus, ad auxilium Dei confugimus, non intermissis tamen singulis auxiliorum generibus. Hæc tibi viro amicissimo & eruditissimo significare volui, vt & candorem animi mei apud omnes testatum relinquerem, & de omnibus bene merendi studium declararem. Peto iterum mihi ignosci. Nam cum hæc scriberem, eram occupatissimus. Datæ Posnauix, 5. Iunij, Anno 1575. EPIST. LXXI IDEM EIDEM. LITERÆ tuæ vltimæ magna me affece- runt voluptate. Tu vero dabis oro veniam si breuius responsum dedero, quam fortassis postulares. Cum & occupationes meæ multiplices, & iter quod instituo ad thermas Hirschbergenses magno mihi fuerint impedimento. De mea profectione hoc tibi significare volui, quia per Glogouiam vestram mense Augusto mihi < erit trahendum,> vibit, DEO auxiliante, < visam & magnifici> alloquar, & vt in notitiam istius < inuita tua, &> Domini (cuius amplissimo præmio < Digamni> tusce) tu venias. Sita & præsentia voluntas patientur. Ad herbam E 3

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105 MEDICINALS. 106 EPIST. LXX. CASPAR LINDNER, PHYSICIAN To Ioachimus Bandisius of Wrocław, Physician to the Prince of Legnica, etc. Greetings. I have learned from many conversations of your singular humanity and outstanding learning, which was also confirmed by the judgment of our most magnificent and noble Lord Ossowski and by the testimony of Master Paul, tutor of his sons. For when your letters to Lord Ossowski were shown, he was entirely the one who urged that I, in this my earlier letter, should first invite you to friendship and cultivate it, so that by sharing the counsels of the medical art we may lend assistance to the most noble man, if we can; and if not, at least pronounce a correct judgment and agree in one and the same opinion. And to begin with the prognosis: this noble man here is in the gravest danger, not only because of orthopnea, which, as you rightly judge, is caused by the sliding of humors into the lighter arteries near the heart, but also because of a swift, frequent, and, worst of all, intermittent pulse, which, as you know from Galen’s decrees, is the most pernicious of all irregularities. I suppose you have read the history of Galen (Book 4, chapter 30, end, De locis affectis ) concerning Antipater, the Roman physician, who wondered that he breathed more heavily without sound or noise; Galen replied that the cause lay in the flow of humor not to the rough arteries, but to the light ones near the heart, which was also indicated by the irregularity of the pulse in all its forms. To you, a learned man, and in other equal parts of the art as well as most experienced in anatomy, I think this is well known. On this matter I shall write more fully hereafter, when, God willing, I am in Poznań, and from there I shall greet you more often in my letters. For now, being occupied with the care of that most distinguished man, I ask to be excused if you should detect any error. The difficulty of treatment is increased by the continual generation of vapors and humors in the liver, arising from a defect in the work of the blood-making organ, contracted because of a hot intemperance of the nature and obscurity of the liver, joined with fever. For while we strive to cool the liver with cold remedies, we increase the substance of the disease; but while with hot or overly heated remedies we attend to the concoction of the humors, we increase the heat of the liver. Best of all succeeded evacuation with the juice of iris and with old Gallic frankincense. For you know that by that remedy, to which Dioscorides attributed this virtue, not only the humors, but also the sharpness of the iris is tempered. But what, I ask you, do we gain meanwhile? The liver is a gentle flame, as that man used to say, though in another argument, and this can rarely be corrected, especially if, with loss of strength, through sleeplessness and continual movements of the lungs, the waters flow into the spaces of the chest and lungs. I, as you thought together with the most learned physicians of Wrocław, have applied nearly all remedies. Then, by observing the six non-natural things, nothing, as I believe, has been omitted by me for the strengthening of the principal organs; yet for correcting the intemperies, the most serious symptoms have been met by drawing off and turning aside the violence of the fluxes. But so great is the fury and tyranny of the evil that it can no longer even be appeased. In vain are hiera and other wholesome medicines employed; in vain also sea cabbage and most of the other remedies devised by your excellencies. The only salvation is to trust in God; the rest are in vain. Diet is applied to the disease and to its cause as is fitting; the region of the liver is anointed with strengthening and cooling remedies. The humors are being concocted, yet the red, crude, thin urine, with bad sediments and separated parts, promises nothing better. The continual irregularity of the pulse and of respiration, of which I spoke above, terrifies me more than all the other signs. The lungs and the stomach sympathize with the liver. And unless the excesses are gently evacuated, they easily putrefy within. Finally, having tried everything, we take refuge in God’s help, though not neglecting the individual kinds of remedies. I wished to make this known to you, my dearest and most learned friend, both so that I might leave the sincerity of my spirit attested before all, and so that I might declare my desire to deserve well of everyone. I ask again to be excused, for when I wrote this I was most occupied. Dated at Poznań, 5 June 1575. EPIST. LXXI THE SAME TO THE SAME. Your latest letters gave me great pleasure. But do, I beg, excuse me if I give a shorter reply than perhaps you would ask, since both my many occupations and the journey I am undertaking to the Hirschberg baths have been a great impediment to me. I wished to inform you of my departure because, through your Głogów in the month of August, I shall have to pass, and there, God helping, I shall also see and speak with the most distinguished gentleman, and so that you may come into the acquaintance of that man through your invitation and that of the Lord, whose most ample reward you may win. Presence and circumstance will allow it. To the point E 3

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108 EPISTOLÆ Ante mensem cum redirem à conuitulo cu- iusdam magnifici Castellani, correptus fui Duryeia Dysuria cum difficili spiratione, summa pul- suum paruitate, languore, raritate, & fere comitante a Qværia , vefit dolor renis dextri, coxendicis, & pubis cruciatus. Adhibui e- nema, balnea, vomitum cientia, tandem 3. ss. ol. vitrioli cum 3 v. aq. maluæ epoxæ, magnâ arenæ rubræ, grumorum, ac farinarum co- piam per vrinas deieci, & sic, DEI beneficio; ac trium medicoru[m] præsentium opera sum leuatus morbo grauissimo, qui me fere bi- dum male tractabar. Herbasolis (quam chrysanthemon Peruvianum vocat Dodo- næus) in vasibus meis hortensibus excreuit in altum, florem nondum vidi. Herba mo- lucca florem ostendit, & spem seminu[m] pol- licetur, herba omnium amantissima (nam & hanc inter herbas cælestes colloco.) Vxor mea proximo mense paritura filiolum ele- gantem spe in DEVM coniecta, & euidenti- bus Medicæ artis signis mihi obiectis pro- mittit. DEVS æternusq[ue] Medicus nobis præ- sto sit. Tu vale, & interdum aliquid troro scribe. Datæ Postnaniæ, Anno 1575. 15. Au- gusti. EPIST. LXXIII. IDEM EIDEM. MIRABOR clarissime simul & doctissime vir, quod his nundinis nullas ad me per mercatores vestrates dederis lite- ras, quibus de statu rerum, ac studiorum tuorum fierem certior. Præsertim cum id mihi ante annum sanctissime fueris polli- citus, cum affirmares nil tibi gratius fore nostra amicitia, quam mutuis literis ac col- loquiis te alturum recipisti. Ego vero es- si me deesse nolui officio (ne vicissim silentium meum puera inurbanum) tamen ar- gumentum vix aliud reperi, præter illud, quod quidam illam nobis quæstionem ob- uccerit: vtrum febris acuta (vuxta Galenum, ac reliquos) sit accidens inseparabile pleu- ritidis. Si quis affirmauerit remita se habere, obiiciam illi Hippocratem, qui in histo- ria Anaxionis febrem die 20. desisse asse- rit, cum tamen pleuritis durauerit ad 34. diem. Regula itaque Galeni fallit, quam si tu possis conciliare, meque his exoluere cuius, multum hercle tibi debebo. Hanc ego quæstionem ad te colloquij causa, vt- que abs te cruditer profero: cum ex r[ecipe]s Dodeias , tum ne alimentum veteris amicitiæ deficiat, quo sublato amor ille mu- tuus contabescit. Libros Medicos hic non vidi nouos, qui possent ad veterum inuenta aliquid addere. Ego veteres euoluto sedu- Io, &

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108 LETTERS A month ago, when I was returning from the banquet of a certain distinguished Castellan, I was seized with dysuria and difficulty of breathing, with extreme smallness of the pulse, weakness, languor, and a pain in the right kidney, hip, and groin, almost with … accompanying agony. I applied enemas, baths, and emetics; finally, with 3 ss. of oil of vitriol with 3 v. of distilled mallow-water, I passed a great quantity of red sand, clots, and sediment through the urine, and thus, by GOD’s grace, and through the assistance of three physicians present, I was relieved of a very severe illness, which had treated me badly for almost two days. Herbasolis (which Dodonaeus calls chrysanthemon Peruvianum) has grown tall in my garden pots, but I have not yet seen its flower. Herba molucca has shown a flower and promises seeds; it is the most beloved of all plants, for I also place it among the heavenly herbs. My wife, in the coming month, will give birth to an elegant little son, as I hope in GOD, and as the evident signs of the medical art show me and promise. May GOD, the eternal Physician, be with us. Farewell, and from time to time write something, please. Given at Poznań, 15 August 1575. EPISTLE LXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I SHALL WONDER, most illustrious and most learned sir, that at these fairs you have sent me no letters by our merchants, by which I might have become more certain of the state of affairs and of your studies. Especially since you most sacredly promised me this a year ago, when you affirmed that nothing would be more pleasing to you than our friendship, and you declared that you would cherish it by mutual letters and conversations. For my part, although I did not wish to fail in my duty—for fear that my silence in return might seem rude—I could scarcely find any other subject, except that someone has proposed this question to us: whether an acute fever (according to Galen and the rest) is an inseparable accident of pleurisy. If anyone should affirm that it is so, I shall object with Hippocrates, who in the history of Anaxion says that the fever ceased on the 20th day, although the pleurisy lasted until the 34th day. Therefore Galen’s rule fails; if you can reconcile this and free me from this difficulty, I shall owe you a great deal indeed. I bring this question up to you for the sake of conversation, and, as it were, I lay it before you in rough form; for I do not want the nourishment of an old friendship to fail, for once that is removed, that mutual love withers away. I have seen no new medical books here that could add anything to the discoveries of the ancients. I diligently turn over the old ones, and

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lo, & cum datur occasio ad vsus nostros reuoco. Si quid literarum à Theod. Zuingerolegeris, proximo etiam merceatu quadragesimæ per mercatores vestros mihi perscribes te oro & obtestor. Expecto enim tuas cupidissime. Interea rectissime vt valeas cura. Datæ Posnaniæ, Anno 1575. 15. Decembris. E P I S T. LXXIV. 1c CHRISTOPHORVS SCHILLINCVS, Med. Doctor, Magnifico Dn. Andrea Duduhæ, &c. S. D. < Ludicium de verum.> KOLREITERVM de Vrnis Erastus non reprehendit; nisi quod dum nimium inuelitur in abusum vrinæ, tollit fere om- nem vsum eius. Nam vt non omnem mor- bum, tia neque uulium significat. Fallit in- terdum, sicut & pulsus. Vt plurimum tamen certa est; quemadmodum alta naturalia, quæ non sunt perpetua & necessaria sicut coelestia; sed sunt. Sunt enim hiq[ue] aut idonea a hoc est, disparata, nec aliter, quam, vt ostendi, desinuntur. Non igitur contemnendum est iudicium, quod ex v- rina sumitur, etsi primo, ac per se tantum ad morbos venosi generis restringatur. Præ- terea iudicat Erastus, idque non dubiis ar- gumentis confirmat, vrinæ subsidientiam, Græce hypostasin dictam, esse extremem- tum nutratiouis valorum. Galenus enim & ali omnes contendunt, esse eam partem chyli, quæ interea, dum is in sanguinem in epate conuertitur, subterfugiat concoctionem. liene vale. Heidelbergæ 12. Ianuar. Anno 78. E P I S T. LXXV. 43 IDEM EIDEM < Rusticum per naves vides.> DOM. Mercuriali legi, quæ scripseras de rocho illo, & de Rustico, quem na- bus vidisse Carolus meus affirmauit. Ade- rant duo Monachi, cum idem attestarer, ne- mo sibi à risu temperare poterat. Rusticum ipsum nô vidi, sed audiui cum nobilissimus quidam à Cnipshausen Frisius; Palatini Ele- lectoris consiliarius, qui actioni intersuerat, commemoraret. Cum laboraret ille ex vl- cere oculi, Chirurgus esse adhibuit reme- dia, vt suprema parte ossa narium etrosa, o- culus prolongato nervo optico, in cautat- rem narium inciderit. Itaque staribus subla- latis, per oculum eundem, intersum, vt scri- bis, atque contortum vtcunque prospexit. Sed tandem accusauit Chirurgum illum de iniuria sibi illata. Hodie ad quendam Ele- lectoris Palatini Consiliarium, anitcum meum scripsi, vt totam historiam ad me per scriberet. Plura non possum nunc addere. Nam non tantum lectionibus, sed variis et- tam anatomiis hoc tempore incumbendum est. Nuper secabamus puerum ex variolis ac febre continoa extinctum, qui in venis per substantiam epatis distributis, habebat vermes viuos, similes lumbricis. Varie di- spuratum est, an puero viuente, an mortuo nati sint. Qua de re singulorum iudicia ali- quando aperiam. Nudius tertius secabant quidam Doctores ouem prægnantem vi- uam. In ventriculo agni reperiebant congu- lum, seu quiddam lacteum, & in intestinis rudimentum quoddam stercoris. Mirifice torquebant se iu reddenda causa, cum foet- us per venam vmbilicalem, non per gulam nutriatur. Sed, quia sæpe alias vidi, quasdam ex venis meseraicis in fundu ventriculi per cingere, per quas qui cibi liquidiores, ideo- que prius ingesti ac cocti sunt, præsentia in- dignentia tempore, à membris attrahuntur, autem quam reliqua pars chyli solidior confec- ta, atque os ventriculi inferius resecatum sit existimabatui ventriculum simulatque in corpore à natura formatus est, agere hoc, quod agere natus est, & quia per os nihil ac- cipiat, (quod etiam in adultis extra vterum contingit) à vicinis partibus, hoc est, à venis epatis, inuruari. Cum autem hæ abundene mareno sanguine, attrahere inde quale ac quantum pro natura possit, quod ratione substantiæ tuæ paulum in chylu, aut quid- dam simile chylo conuertat, quod postino- dum in intestinis distribuatur. Vale. Para- um Anterioris 12. Nouemb. Anno 1578. E P I S T. LXXVI. IDEM EIDEM. < Historia vides qui per naves vides.> DE rustico illo, qui in curia Chirurgia misso oculorum vsu per nares viderit, nuper mihi Consiliarius Palatini Electoris rescripsit in hanc sententiam, Rusticum in quendam palum incidisse, & cum operam batbitonoris implorasset, per imperitiam huius illi radios visionis in interiorem capi- tis portem conuersos esse, vt per caueam, quæ ad nares tendit, miser ille videre coepe- rit. Chirurgum inius vocatum, tandem ex lege Aquilia condemnatum esse. < Et adie- cit Consiliarios se hæc scriptisse, cum ex- liorum, tum ex Erasti sententia, perarius ille visus sit.> Vale. E 4

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And when the opportunity is given, I refer it to our own use. If you have read anything of letters from Theod. Zuinger, I beg and entreat you to write me about it by the next fair of Lent through your merchants. For I am most eagerly expecting yours. In the meantime, take care that you are most well. Given at Poznań, in the year 1575, on 15 December. EPIST. LXXIV. 1c CHRISTOPHORUS SCHILLINCUS, Doctor of Medicine, to the most illustrious Lord Andrea Duduhæ, etc., greeting. <Judgment on the truth.> Erastus does not criticize KOLREITERVM on the subject of urines, except that, while dwelling too much on the abuse of urine, he almost takes away all its use. For it does not signify every disease, nor every ailment. It sometimes deceives, just as the pulse does. Yet for the most part it is certain; just as are other natural signs, which are not perpetual and necessary like celestial things, but are. For they are these things, namely, disparate, and not otherwise, as I have shown, to be determined. Therefore the judgment taken from urine is not to be despised, even if at first, and of itself, it is restricted only to diseases of the venous kind. Moreover, Erastus judges, and confirms it with no doubtful arguments, that the sediment of urine, called in Greek hypostasis, is the extremity of the nutrients. For Galen and all the others contend that it is that part of the chyle which, while it is being converted into blood in the liver, escapes concoction. Farewell. Heidelberg, 12 January, year 78. EPIST. LXXV. 43 THE SAME TO THE SAME <You see Rustic by ships.> My lord Mercurialis, I have read what you wrote about that rock, and about the Rustic whom my Charles affirmed he had seen by ship. Two monks were present when I asserted the same, and no one could restrain himself from laughter. I myself did not see Rustic, but I heard it from a certain very noble Frisian from Cnipshausen, counselor to the Palatine Elector, who had been present at the event. While he was suffering from an ulcer of the eye, a surgeon was employed to apply remedies, so that the upper part of the bony part of the nose having been worn away, the eye, with the optic nerve lengthened, may have fallen into the cavity of the nose. So, the lids being lifted, through that same eye, as you write, he saw, and in some manner, though twisted, looked out. But in the end he accused that surgeon of an injury done to him. Today I wrote to a certain counselor of the Palatine Elector, a friend of mine, asking him to write back to me the whole story. I cannot add more now, for not only lectures, but also various anatomical dissections, must be attended to at this time. Recently we dissected a boy who had died of smallpox and a continuous fever, and in the veins distributed through the substance of the liver he had living worms, like earthworms. It was variously disputed whether they had been born while the boy was alive or after death. On this matter I shall one day reveal the judgment of each. Three days ago certain doctors were dissecting a pregnant sheep alive. In the stomach of the lamb they found a coagulum, or something milky, and in the intestines some rudiment of feces. They were wonderfully perplexed in giving the cause, since the fetus is nourished through the umbilical vein, not through the gullet. But because I have often elsewhere seen certain veins of the mesentery encircling the bottom of the stomach, through which the more liquid foods, and therefore those first ingested and digested, are drawn by the members at the present time, before the more solid part of the chyle is completed and the lower mouth of the stomach is cut off, it was thought that the stomach, as soon as it is formed by nature in the body, acts what it is born to act; and because it receives nothing through the mouth, which also happens in adults outside the womb, it is nourished from neighboring parts, that is, from the veins of the liver. And since these abound with abundant blood, it draws from there as much and what kind of nourishment it can according to nature, which by reason of its substance is turned a little into chyle, or something like chyle, which afterward is distributed in the intestines. Farewell. Peraum Anterioris, 12 November, year 1578. EPIST. LXXVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. <History, you see, who see by ships.> Concerning that Rustic who, in the surgeon’s court, is said to have seen through his nose after the use of his eyes had been lost, the counselor of the Palatine Elector recently wrote back to me to this effect: that Rustic had run into a certain stake, and when he had called for the help of a batbitonoris, through this man’s ignorance the rays of vision had been turned into the inner part of the head, so that through the cavity that leads to the nose the poor man began to see. The surgeon who had been called in had finally been condemned under the Lex Aquilia. <And the counselor added that he had written these things, both from their account and from Erastus’s opinion, since that man seemed to have seen more clearly.> Farewell. E 4

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113 MEDICINALIA. 114 non dubitas, tribuendo fortet ibi, vt coniicio, cum rellquis Galeni affeclis medicinæ intellectum: Theophrasti vero sequacibus præparandi industriam. Ex qua prærogatiua illi domini, hi serui co[n]stituuntur, qui fornam cælefacientes pyræillis assa comenden da proponant. Digna certe sententia quæ ad poteros propagetur. Sed ex pancis, vt multa colligas, sic habeto: honis semper meæ patent fores, nec quenquam eorum excludo, qui vel docendi vel discendi, vel etiam co[n]ferendi causa me conveniunt. Arrogantes, superbos, inflatos, cane peius & angue odinò satis apertis, aut mundi huius illecebris irretitis inulideo. Te non noui, licetio pueritia aliquoties mihi sis visus. Sed ex quadam Elegia tua Cyrenbergii libro de peste præfixa, ex mera ignorantia inuecheris in virum perpetua memoria dignissimum. Id quod boni & docti non est. Qua igitur ratione te excusem non inuenio. Memor tamen meæ quoq[ue] fragilitatis errata agnoscentibus coodono, & ignosco libenter. < Galeni Impius.> Præterea Medicinam profiteor non eam quidem quæ ex cerebro Galeni, hominis & in Moyien, & in Christu[m], ideoq[ue] in Deum ipsum blasphemi, radices egit; sed eam quæ fundata est in cognitione Dei, & naturæ, hanc ego arte spagyrica ex terræ pulueribus extrahere didici sumptibus magnis, laboribus & tempore longo. Quæ autem diuina mihi co[n]cessit miseticordia, cui soli id quod sum, habeo ac possum, acceptum fero, sciens non cuiuis communicanda naturæ mysteria, sed piis solummodo, humilibus & mantueris, ad hunc lapidem ceu lydium te examina, vt si es, qualè te cupio, me tu quoque vicissim qualem expectus habebis. Ex montanis Diux Annæ 1569. EPIST. LXXIX. MICHAELI BARTH, PROFESSORI in Academia Lipsiæa, &c. Christophr. Pithopams S. D. NON poterat te Barthi melius vel ipse depingere Apelles, atque te viuis coloribus tux depinxere ad me datæ literæ. O miserum te, ac vere miserum, qui veterum Magorum duce & via neglecta per somnia mendacium Græcorum atque Arabum ad veram Philosophiæ & Medicinæ metam, terminumque contendis. Inquisitiouem & amorem sapientiæ omnibus mortalibus ex astris concessum scimus, ac præuium constitutum veris sapientibus, æternamque possessionem, nec intelligentiis, nec genesi, ne educatione etiam præclarissimæ adscribimus. Multi enim beneficio prædicta- rum causarum eo deuenerum, vt viam conspexerint, & finem intellexerint, verum ideo non statim eum sunt contecui, propterea quod ante Pentecosten sunt mortui. Duce opus est, filo nempe Dedali, si labyrinthum opinionum vitare & exire laboras, stella nimitu[m], qua duce Magi otiensis Christum natum in Bethlehem inuenerunt. Hæc tibi si illuxerit eos videbis miseros sensus tuos, coramq[ue] plane tuam rationem, & intelliges me non Theophrasti affeclam, sed ab eodem à quo Paracelsus, edoctum, & ea habere principia, causas & elementa rerum, quæ vti sensibilia non sunt, ita nec sensibili- bus trahuntur in publicum literis. Neque enim margaritæ obiiciendæ porcis, nec sanctum danduni canibus. Quid autem præstiterimus iis nostris fundamentis nostru[m] non est glorari. Deus nonit, & ii quibus nostram opem non denegamus, qui si nondum ad vos peruenerint nostra laude nihil plane refert. Si enim gloriari licet, gloriamur in Domino gloria nostra, amen. Si mulii parum feliciter Theophrastum Magum à tempore Apostolorum maximum & absolutissimu[m] imitantur, quid ad me: Tu videris qua mente illum laudes simul & vituperes. Bonum vult laudari, malum vicuperari. Placeat ergo tibi vel diipliceat, Galeni cerebrum in medicina contemno, indignum commiscratione quod non præniterit. Nec mihi tecum TEPIDO in posterum quicquam erit commune, alius ni fueris. Hinc iudicium de Alexandri, deq[ue] tebus nullris, quas non intelligis, suspende, & bene vale. Ex montanis D. Annæ 12. Cal. Apr. 21. 69. EPIST. LXXX. CHRISTOPHORO PITHOPHO, Theophrasti sequaci, Annaberga dogemis, &c. Michael Barth Medicus S. D. LITTERAS tuas 16. Februas. ad me scriptas accepi Christophore, quas v[er]tad me mitteres ostendis causas præbuisse tibi Adamum fratrem meum. Non eo inficias multam sæpe mentionem tui hactenus esse inter nos factam, cum per alias occasione stibi non ignotas, tum quod non ita dudum hac iter faciens Alexander quidam à Sichten, de te apud me quæreret, & literas etiam ad te mittendas traderet, quas scio te accepisse, & quod tua etiam nuper epistola ad Neuium exarata ad manus meas mitteretur, quodque, vt scis, coemptione quo rundam medicamentorum tibi gratifica. factum est, vt de professione tua quærem & Theophrasti sequacem te cognoscem.

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113 MEDICINALIA. 114 You do not hesitate to assign it, as I conjecture, along with the rest of Galen’s adherents, an understanding of medicine; but to the followers of Theophrastus, the industry of preparation. By this prerogative, those become masters, these servants, who, heating the furnace, set forth the roasted morsels to be eaten. Surely a worthy sentiment, one to be passed on to posterity. But from few things, so that you may gather many, take this as certain: my doors are always open, and I exclude no one of those who come to me either to teach, or to learn, or even to confer. The arrogant, the proud, the puffed up, whom I hate worse than dog and serpent, or those entangled by the allurements of this world, I abominate as is enough and plain. I do not know you, though in your boyhood you may perhaps have been seen by me a few times. But from a certain elegy of yours prefixed to Cyrenberg’s book on the plague, you attack, out of sheer ignorance, a man most deserving of everlasting remembrance. That is not the mark of good men and learned men. By what reason, then, I should excuse you, I do not find. Yet mindful also of my own frailty, I readily pardon and forgive those who acknowledge their errors. < Galeni Impius.> Moreover, I profess medicine, not indeed that which had its roots in the brain of Galen, a man blasphemous against God Himself, against Moses, and against Christ; but that which is founded on the knowledge of God and of nature. This I have learned to extract by the spagyric art from the dust of the earth, at great expense, with labor, and over a long time. And whatever divine mercy has granted me, to which alone I owe what I am and can do, I attribute to it, knowing that the mysteries of nature are not to be communicated to everyone, but only to the pious, the humble, and the chaste. Test yourself by this stone, as by a Lydian touchstone, so that if you are what I desire, you too in turn will have me as I am in expectation. From the mountains of St. Anne, 1569. EPIST. LXXIX. TO MICHAEL BARTH, PROFESSOR in the Academy of Leipzig, etc. Christoph. Pithopams, greetings. No Apelles could have painted you better, Barth, than your letters written to me have depicted you in living colors. O unhappy man, and truly miserable, who, neglecting the guide and path of the ancient Magi, strives through the deceitful dreams of the Greeks and Arabs toward the true goal and end of Philosophy and Medicine. We know that the inquiry and love of wisdom are granted to all mortals from the stars, and appointed as the prelude for true sages and as an eternal possession; and we attribute neither to intelligences, nor to nativity, nor even to the most distinguished education. For many, by the favor of the aforesaid causes, have reached the point where they have seen the way and understood the end; yet they have not therefore immediately attained it, because they died before Pentecost. A guide is needed, namely the thread of Daedalus, if you are striving to avoid and escape the labyrinth of opinions; or rather that star by which the Magi from the East found Christ born in Bethlehem. If this shines upon you, you will see your miserable notions, and plainly understand your own reasoning, and you will perceive that I am not a follower of Theophrastus, but taught by the same source as Paracelsus, and that I possess those principles, causes, and elements of things which, since they are not sensible, are not brought into public by letters written to the senses. For pearls are not to be cast before swine, nor what is holy given to dogs. But what we have accomplished on our own foundations is not ours to boast of. God knows, and those to whom we do not deny our help; if they have not yet come to you, our praise matters not at all. For if it is permitted to glory, we glory in the Lord; our glory is in the Lord, amen. If many imitate Theophrastus the Magus, not very successfully, from the time of the Apostles as the greatest and most perfect, what is that to me? You can judge with what mind you both praise and blame him. The good man wishes to be praised, the bad man to be blamed. Therefore, whether it pleases you or displeases you, I despise Galen’s brain in medicine, unworthy of pity because it has not proved itself. Nor in future shall I have anything in common with you, unless you become another man. Hence suspend your judgment about Alexander and about our affairs, which you do not understand, and farewell well. From the mountains of St. Anne, 12 Cal. Apr. 21, 69. EPIST. LXXX. TO CHRISTOPHORUS PITHOPHUS, follower of Theophrastus, at Annaberg, etc. Michael Barth, physician, greetings. I have received your letter of the 16th of February, written to me, Christophorus, and you show that my brother Adam gave you reasons for sending it to me. I do not deny that much mention of you has often been made among us, both through other occasions not unknown to you, and because not long ago, while traveling this way, a certain Alexander from Sichten inquired of me about you and also handed over letters to be sent to you, which I know you received; and because your recent letter written to N. was also delivered into my hands, and because, as you know, by the purchase of certain medicines something was done to your advantage, I asked about your profession and came to know you as a follower of Theophrastus.

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Scripsi tum ad fratrem, quem tecum multum conuersari, & abs te amari intellexeram, meipsum si daretur oportunitas non faltidire tuam consuetudinem: sed potius optare, vt pernoscendæ veritatis studio perspicere possem præparationes quorundam medicamentorum, in quibus vobis aliquid certe tribuirur merito, vt rectius ac certius de ipsis & vobis iudicium facere possem: Hoc tu ita arripis, quasi vobis adimam vsurpandiea, quæ præparatis, scientiam, & coquos vos Galeni sequacium, quem tu superbe contemnis co[n]stituam, quod tantum abest, vt ego senserim, vt sciam vos à Gale. placitis atque inuentis, iudicione an quodam impetu, vos scitis, descuiisse, & quæ agitis, Galeno nec seruire, nec cognita pleraque aut vsurpata fuisse. Atque vtinam hac laude præclara profecto contentus, & Theophrastus coluisset, & velletis esse, qui ei estis addicti, quod superiorum hominum inuentis aliquid addidisset, qua sane modestia videmus Arabes fuisse, homines certe <Arabum de Orina folio da.> solide doctos, & magno retum vsu, atque inuentione instructos, quas nec Galenus, nec Hippocrates vquam somniarunt. Nun tamen illi propterea hos veritatis atque artis Medicæ parentes, & tam præclara naturæ à Deo Opt. Max. excitata atque accensa lumina impudenter & conumeliose abiecerunt. Ah errant sæpe quidam Medici: <30> quis hoc neget? maxime ob eam artis partem, quæ est Græcis, hæc enim est , & ex ea potissimum artifex præstat artifici. Sed vos quid extruatis aut doceatis de principiis & causis, & in ipsa Therapeutica, & partibus cæteri ab horum doctrina diuersum pariter & melius, peruidere ego non possum, qui sane & Theophrasti scripta & Theophrasteorum <40> legi non pauca, neque medicamentum, sed etiam Theologia. Missæ etiam sunt ante aliquot annos ad me propositiones Alexandri, amicitui, quas spat sit in Prussia numero 17. quibus sit Medicus, quid medicina demonstrare se profuetur, sed de quibus mihi desputare non placet. quid ex illis vtilitatis eceperim nondum animaduerno. sane si quid est in Theophrasto, quod à principio nouam folide artem extruere debeat, & tollere ex hominibus ratione præditis demonstrata doctissimorum Græcorum atque Arahum, apertius illud ostendatur atque probetur necesse est. Quis enim rectæ rationis inuenta, & sensui manifesta ita abhiciat, nisi cum ratione insanite velit? Vidi <41> quasdam præparationes, antimonii præcipue, multas legi, in quibus studium & diligentiam vestram probo, & oportune v- surpata vestra medicamenta, vt alia omnia, vtilitatem sæpe magnam afferre possunt, aliter acceptos ægrotos, quod sæpe experti sunt aliqui, præcipitare. Prædicatur studium, opera & diligentia vestra, ea nemo vobis inuidet. In Galeno si minus illa, quam in vllo alio eluxisse quis dicit, quam cum hoe dicat viderit, quem non ignoramus ardentissima eupiditate, vt videret ex ætatis ossium humanorum Alexandriam, vt terram sigillatam pernosceret, in Lemnum nauigasse, noctes atq[ue] dies doctissimis commendationibus atq[ue] ægrorum curationibus consumisse, eui quod tu nihil in sua profectio ne tribuendu[m] existimat, ideo quod in Moysen & Christum contumeliosus, &, vt tu ais, blasphemus fuerit: videndum ribi est, ne hæc ipsa sit in DEVM blasphemia, à quo certe illum singulariter excitatum ad propaganda Medicine studia, & ad alia genera ex gentilitate alios persuasum habemus. Quod vero gratia Christi in illum non fuit effusa, commiseratione fortasse dignus, quam exagitatione fuerit. Neque tamen illa mihi non ignota, quæ in Galeno de Moysis atque Christi mentione insunt probo, aut exenso. Absit hoc ab homine Christiano. Illud tamen ad Christiana aspirasse affirmari fortassis verè possit. Nam & audisse illum de <Galenum mercurium in nauigatio ne versus in deum.> Christi sequacium curationibus per verbum, & admirabundum, vt illas prouideret atque cognosceret, Iudæam versus nauigationem instituisse accepimus, in qua ita Deo disponente interierit. Scribis te summi boni veritatis ac perfectionis cultorem, scribis foras tuas patere bonis docendi, discendi, conferendi cupidis, arrogantes, superhos, inflatos, non satis apertos, aut mundi huius illecebris irretitos te odisse. hæc omnia mihi tecum sunt communia; sed eatenus vt sine iniuria aliorum veritatem colamus & perquiramus. Ob cuius studium plurimorum nebulonum & grandium factionum duersitates sæpe multumque experior. Non noui ego tuam personam, ac ne vidisse quidem vnam me puto aut seio, & vhitu me videris ignoro. Carmine Cyremhethgii libro præscripti, nihil adhuc me prænitet. Non enim quis populo sit, aut adhuc fuerit vsus maior libri Theophrasti de peste editi, an est qui p[er]sum per omnia loquentem intelligat vllus? Ego valde duhito, & hos ipsos, qui eius ediderunt libros iam aperto Marte congredi videmus, diuinare, conueere, intelligere, proficere nescio quid. Ego sane de ipso Theophrasto, præclare senio, singularia quædam de eo legi atque etiam audiui. Admiranda præstuit, sed qui cum perfecte intel-

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I then wrote to your brother, whom I had learned was spending much time in your company and was loved by you, that if an opportunity were given me I would not dislike your acquaintance; rather, I would wish, in my zeal for knowing the truth, to be able to examine the preparations of certain medicines, in which you are certainly given some credit, so that I might be able to form a more correct and more certain judgment both about them and about you. You take this as though I were taking from you the knowledge of how to use what you prepare, and were setting you up as cooks of those who follow Galen, whom you proudly despise; yet this is so far from what I have thought that I know you have departed from Galen’s doctrines and inventions, whether by judgment or by some impulse—you yourselves know—and that in what you do you neither serve Galen, nor have many things been known or used. And I wish that Theophrastus, content with this splendid praise, would have cultivated it, and that you too, who are devoted to him, would wish to be such as he was, since he added something to the inventions of earlier men; in that modesty indeed we see the Arabs to have been, men certainly thoroughly learned, and furnished with great experience of things and with invention, things which neither Galen nor Hippocrates ever dreamed of. Yet they did not therefore impudently and contemptuously cast aside these fathers of truth and of the medical art, and those splendid lights of nature kindled and raised by God Almighty. Ah, some physicians often err—who would deny it?—especially in that part of the art which belongs to the Greeks; for this indeed is theirs, and from it, above all, one craftsman excels another. But what you are constructing or teaching about principles and causes, and in Therapeutics itself, and in the other parts, different from and better than the doctrine of these men, I cannot perceive. For I have certainly read not a few writings of Theophrastus and of Theophrastians, and not only about medicines but also about theology. Also, some years ago, propositions were sent to me by Alexander, your friend, which I think are in Prussia, numbered 17, concerning who is a physician and what medicine professes to demonstrate; but I do not care to dispute about them. I have not yet noticed what benefit I have received from them. Certainly, if there is anything in Theophrastus that ought from the outset to establish a new and solid art, and to remove from rational men the demonstrated teaching of the most learned Greeks and Arabs, that must be shown and proved more openly. For who would reject the inventions of right reason and things manifest to the senses unless he wishes to be mad with reason? I have seen certain preparations, especially of antimony; I have read many, in which I commend your zeal and diligence, and your medicines, properly used, like all other things, can often bring great benefit, but improperly used they can hasten the ruin of patients, as some have often experienced. Your zeal, labor, and diligence are praised; no one envies you that. If in Galen there is less of that brilliance than some say is found in any other, let him consider what he says when he says this; we are not unaware that, driven by a most ardent desire to see the human bones of age, as far as Alexandria, and to learn about sealed earth, he sailed to Lemnos and spent nights and days in the recommendations of the most learned men and in the treatment of the sick, to whom you think nothing should be attributed in his advancement, because he was insulting toward Moses and Christ and, as you say, blasphemous. But you must take care lest this itself be blasphemy against God, from whom we certainly believe he was singularly stirred up to promote the study of medicine and, among the Gentiles, persuaded others to do the same. That the grace of Christ was not poured out upon him perhaps makes him more deserving of compassion than of reproach. Yet I do not approve, nor condemn as unknown to me, those things in Galen concerning the mention of Moses and Christ. Let this be far from a Christian man. Still, it may perhaps truly be affirmed that he inclined toward Christian things. For we have heard that he had heard of the healings of Christ’s followers through the word, and marveling at them, so that he might observe and learn them, he undertook a voyage toward Judaea, in which, as God ordained, he perished. You write that you are a cultivator of the highest good, truth and perfection; you write that your doors are open to those who are eager to teach, to learn, and to confer, and that you hate the arrogant, the proud, the inflated, those not sufficiently open, or those entangled in the allurements of this world. All these things are common to me with you, but only so far as we may cultivate and seek the truth without injury to others. On account of this zeal I often and greatly experience the differences of many rogues and great factions. I do not know your person, and I think I have not even seen, or know, one face; and I do not know whether by appearance you have seen me. Concerning the verse of the book prescribed for Cyremhethgii, nothing so far pleases me. For is there anyone who has had, or still has, greater use of the book of Theophrastus on the plague, published, who can understand him speaking throughout? I greatly doubt it; and we now see these very men, who have published his books, openly at war, divine it, chatter, understand, and I know not what progress. I certainly read, and also heard, some singular things about Theophrastus himself, a man splendidly aged. He accomplished admirable things, but those who fully understood him...

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117 MEDICINALES. 118 & te intelligat & qui ea, quæ ipse fecit, faciat, nondum auduii. Vtinam hoc pestis tempore in patta mulium proferuis per Theophrasteam medendi rationem. Apud nos & hinc inde sedula & diligenti Medicorum at tentione & præscriptione multos præseruatos, non paucos sanitati restitutos, Deo fauente, scimus. Hæc omnia quorsum, vt animum meum aperte tibi ostendam vicissim < 10> perspecto tuo non vt inimicitias, sed vt amicitiam ineamus, moneamus nos inuicem, & oblata opportunitate cotam congregiamur, & de rebus mutuo conferamus, quod rectum, quod verum est, quæramus sine inclinatione odii aut fauoris erga quenquam. Ego enim vel à puero discere, quod ignoro, quodque necessitatem habet, & vtilitatem cum honestate coniunctam non erubesco. Tu si animum habes similem, amicitia intra nos fundamenta lacta sunt. Neque enim < 20> decet Christianos propter nescio quas disputatiunculas, aut in medicina Monarchiam alienos inter se gerere animos, sed placide conferre rationes, & omnia conferre ad salutem proximi, ni fallor, pium est atq[ue] rectum. De me sane omnia tibi debes promittere beneuolentiæ studia & officia. Vale. Lipsiæ Idibus Martii, Anno 69. EPIST. LXXXI. CHRISTOPHORO PITHOPHRO SPAR- gyrico, &c. Michael Barth Med. S. D. NON poterat, Christophore, nec potuit, nec debet, vllus pictor melius me depingere, quam me præsentant literæ. Neque enim animi est ingenui aliud dicere, vel scribere, & aliud sentire. Nulli igitur in meis literis colores insunt, ipsa effigies sunt animi mei ipsissimus quam . Quod vero id circo miserum tume esse exclamas, atq[ue] ingeminas, doleo ego te esse multo miserrimum, qui Magorum penrecostes, & similiu[m] vocularum nemini vel leuiter literato ignotarum noua metamorphosi cum obsessum animum circumferas, perstringi etiam aliorum sensus atque iudica illarum obiectione illico oportete, atq[ue] in stuporem saxeum adduci, quasi viso Medusæ capite temere persuasum habes. Si alicui sunt mendaces Græci & Arabes, relinquantur, vel repudientur potius ipsorum mendacia. Imo & mendaces Germanos, vbi tales sunt, aversemur. Quid enim aliter faciatis, qui est veritatis studiosus, quin apud omnes quærat, nô quis loquatur, sed quid dicatur? Docuit Paulus Apostolus non esse ferendum in Ecclesia, vt aliquis se addicat velipsi, vel vlli aliter. Quod cum ita sit, in medicina, in philosopha quis ferat vt in alicuius iuretur verba magistri? Non valde absimile est huic, quod de intelligentiis, genesi, & educatione subiicis, de quib[us] quid sentiendum sit, tanto rectius prouidet quisq[ue], quanto præditus est maiore, & Philosophiæ veræ scientia, & rerum vsu atq[ue] experientia. Quid de stella aspergis, qua duce Magi orientis Christu[m] < stella Magorum.> natum in Bethlehe[m] inuenerunt? nihil amplius efficit, quam quod Magister tuus in libro de vita longa de illis trib. Sab[æ]cis (quorum tamne[m] numerus miror vbi in sacris legerit) scripsit, quod magica non naturali vi equorum ad Bethlehemitas venerint. Et ramen Scho- liastes illam ipsam stellam cometam facit & nomina. Scio & pie credo, mi Christophore & diuinitus illos fuisse adductos, & in omnibus actionib[us] nostris diuino nobis filo opus esse. Sed hoc ab vtrisque commemorato in specie quid extruimus? Spero vel scio potius, lucem DEI, quem quotidie inuoco mihi vndiq[ue] præducere, sed ratione, quæ haud dubie est diuinæ lucis radius, & nobilissimu[m] DEI donum, & tensibus adminiculis studiorum, quos ipse condidit, ideo me prua- bo? Absui. Theophrasti asseclâ miratus sum cur nun[n]e te esse quodammodo subpuduerit, cum antea sis professus. De margaritis < 30> non obiiciendis porcis, videre diuinis abuti prouerbiis, quib[us] multi multa palliâr. Quod porro videre me iubes qua mente Theophrastum laudem simul & vituperem, facile me possem expedire, quamquam neq[ue] effuse laudasse, vel vituperasse me scio. Sed tu laudationem vocas haud dubie ea, quæ nuper ad te perscripsi. Vituperationem intelligis, quod nugas Paracelsi nominauerim in versibus, quos mihi obiicis. Heustu non putas fieri posse, vt bona & mala laudanda < 40> & vituperanda sint in vno & eodem? Profecto nimis multa sunt exempla Homerus in odysssea inducit Musicum in conuiuio Al einoi, si recte recordor, regis Phænicum, cui Iupiter, vt ipse ait, dederat bonum & malum, in quo seipsum haud dubie poëta ad umbrauit, nam largius el erat, vt esset optimus cantor, & addiderat coecitatem. Simili profecto modo & bona & mala, & laudatio, & vituperabilia multis modis in hac humanæ naturæ mediocritate, vel fragilitate potius ausim pene dicere, inesse omnibus hominibus, vel plerisque saltem. Sed ad < 50> Theophrastum quod attinet, non debeo neque volo vituperare, quod quædam præclare inuenerit, atque operatus sit, quod ne ratione & vario atque irrito recte inuenta atque demonstrata quam subuertere stiuolis verbis pluri.

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117. MEDICINALS. 118 and he who understands them, and does what he himself has done, I have not yet heard. Would that in this time of pestilence you had brought forth much more in practice through the Theophrastian method of healing. Among us, through the diligent and careful attention and prescriptions of physicians here and there, we know that many have been preserved, and not a few restored to health, with God’s favor. All this, then, why? So that I may openly show you my mind in return, once yours has been understood, not that we should enter into enmities, but rather into friendship; that we should warn one another, and, when opportunity is given, gather together face to face, and confer mutually about matters, and seek what is right, what is true, without any leaning of hatred or favor toward anyone. For my part, from boyhood I do not blush to learn what I do not know, and what has need and usefulness joined with honesty. If you have a similar disposition, then the foundations of friendship are laid between us. For it does not befit Christians, because of I know not what little disputes, or a kind of monarchy in medicine, to bear alien minds against one another, but rather to discuss matters calmly and to bring everything to the health of our neighbor, which, unless I am mistaken, is pious and right. As for me, surely you owe me every token and act of goodwill. Farewell. Leipzig, the Ides of March, in the year 69. EPISTLE LXXXI. TO CHRISTOPHORO PITHOPHRO, THE PARACELSIAN, ETC. Michael Barth Sends Greeting in the Lord. No painter, Christopher, could, can, or ought to portray me better than my letters present me. For it is not the mark of an upright mind to speak or write one thing and feel another. Therefore there are no colors in my letters; they are the very image of my mind itself. But when you cry out and groan again and again that I am therefore miserable, I grieve that you are much more miserable, you who, with a new metamorphosis, go about possessed by the words of Magi, Pentecostes, and similar terms unknown even to anyone moderately learned, and by such an objection you immediately seek to startle the senses and judgment of others and bring them, as if they had seen the head of Medusa, into a stony stupor. If Greeks and Arabs are deceivers in some matter, let them be left aside, or rather let their deceptions be rejected. Indeed, even if Germans are deceivers, where they are such, let us avoid them. For what else should one do who is devoted to truth, except inquire among all not who speaks, but what is said? The Apostle Paul taught that in the Church one must not permit anyone to bind himself either to himself or to any other in such a way. Since this is so, in medicine, in philosophy, who could tolerate that one should swear by a master’s words? What you add about intelligences, generation, and education is not far removed from this; concerning these matters, the one who is better equipped, both with greater knowledge of true philosophy and with the use and experience of things, rightly provides a surer judgment. What do you smear over with that star by whose guidance the Magi from the East found Christ born in Bethlehem? It achieves nothing more than what your master wrote in the book On Long Life about those three Sabæans, whose number I wonder where he read it in the sacred writings: namely, that by magical, not natural, force they came to Bethlehem. And yet the scholiast makes that very star a comet and names it so. I know, and I piously believe, dear Christopher, that they were led there by divine means, and that in all our actions we need the divine thread. But what do we build in detail from this mention by both sides? I hope, or rather I know, that the light of God, whom I invoke daily, guides me everywhere; but reason, which is without doubt a ray of divine light and the noblest gift of God, and the supporting aids of studies, which He Himself established—shall I therefore be proved wrong? Certainly not. I wondered that as a follower of Theophrastus you were somehow ashamed to be that, since formerly you had professed it. As for not casting pearls before swine, I see that divine proverbs are being misused, with which many have concealed many things. But as to your asking me to show with what mind I both praise and blame Theophrastus, I could easily explain myself, although I know that I have neither praised nor blamed him excessively. But you surely call “praise” what I recently wrote to you, and you understand “blame” to mean that I called Paracelsus’ trifles by name in the verses you charge me with. But do you not think that good and bad can both be praised and blamed in one and the same thing? Indeed there are far too many examples. Homer in the Odyssey introduces the singer at the banquet of Alcinous, if I remember rightly, king of the Phæacians, to whom Jupiter, as he says, had given good and evil; in him the poet surely shadowed forth himself, for he was especially fit to be the best singer, and he had also added blindness. In a similar manner, both good and bad things, and matters worthy of praise and blame in many ways, are present in all men, or at least in most, in this mean condition of human nature, or rather, I would almost say, in its frailty. But as far as Theophrastus is concerned, I ought neither to blame nor to wish to blame what he has excellently discovered and accomplished, nor, by vain and unnecessary words, to overturn what has been rightly found and demonstrated.

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119 EPISTOLA 116 rit probare non possum, neque modestiore, quam nugarum vocabulo possum appella- re non solum ea, sed & spontaneam obfu- scationem, quam profitetur, arq[ue] vsurpat in iis, si quæ recte eruit. Neutiquam enim hoc decet cum, qui gloriati vult, quod fecit, hu- mano generi consulere velle, neque hic vos tuentur superius notaia prouerbia. Quæ vero sint talium involutionum consilia non libet tibi obiicere, et si facile est illa collige- re. Ita video me non aliter facere, quam vt laudem bonum & viuuperem malum. Ga- leni cerebrum quoniam co[n]temnere te pro- siteris, sed soli addictum non esse Theo- phraesto quem tu totum pene adoras, ego se- cundum mediastinum distinguens, & iuxta ea, quæ iam scripsi, vna parte tamquam sa- num amplector, altera sanum esse affirmate non possum. Quod me tepidum vocas, at- que ea voce, vt exaratio maiuscula indicat, < 20> pungere voluisti, non sum ita feruidus, vt me hoc inflammet, neque ita frigidus, vt v- rat. Scio quosdam qui nullas in rebus di- stinctiones adhibent, & omnia confunde- re, gloriosum enim autumant in contentio- nibus istud, neutralium nomen & similia tamquam probrosum obiicere aliis. Sed hoc quid ad me? Plerumque tamen tepidi illi & temperati quietiori animo, & iudicio omnia tectius dispicere deprehenduntur, < 30> quam vel frigidi, qui omnem sensum am- lerunt, vel nimis calidi, qui feruore nimio omnia deprauant atque corrumpunt. Si tibi non placet mecum communicare, fa- cile te, quoniam ita libet dimitto. Sed ego ita non incitor, vt ferre non possim, vt per omnia salues tuum Paracelsum, & tuum propositum. Laudabo te cum video. Ale- xandrum absentem nolo mordere, sed i- dem quod nuper scripsi affirmo, me ex il- < 40> lius positionibus nihil proficere, quas ta- men nemo iudicabit, vt opinor, ita abstrusa continere, vt intelligi non possint, connicia sanè deceret non esse ita manifesta. Igitur quod tibi videtur facito, vt vel rescribas, vel non rescribas. Ego de gloriosa & sempitern- na Hippocratis & Galeni & eorum, qui hos securi sunt in medicina, monarchia nihil sum solicitus, non vereor ne quis illis hunc principatum eripiat, nec dubito quin tem- < 50> poris progressu sano adhibito iudicio ea quæ Paracelsus, atque eius affectæ vtiliter & recte inuenerunt, atque prodiderunt, ad horum rationes accommodata, sint ac- cessoria futura in id potius, vt Arabum & Chemicum, atque, vt ita dicam, Quin- testentianorum alia. Inanis autem & friuo- la affectatio atque arrogancia euanescet in auras, sicut Asclepideorum, Erasistrario- rum, Diatricatorum, & Thesalicorum, te- meratia, & plane similis iactantia, quæ ali- quandiu quosdam fascinatos tenuit, du- dum prorsus euanuit. Bene vale. Lipsiæ Cal. Aprilis, Anno 1669. EPIST. LXXXII. ANDREÆ AVRITABRO MENICO; &c. Georgius Vberus S.D. < De ollis & vasculis quæ affiducuntur.> DE ollis Trebinzianis paucis, quæ ipse ego vidi, quibus denique interfui, ac- cipe. Est locus extra Trebinzium apprime arenosus, instar monticuli prope villam Massel, nostri vocant den Toppelberg / cu- iushæres est Dominus Maslovski, ab ea- dem villa nominatus, vt Polonorum nobi- les pleriq[ue] consueuere: huc sub seriis Pentecostes, si quando ciues tædium & satietas vrbis ceperit, animi recreandi gratia sese conferunt, agricolis nummos aliquot nu- merant, qui ligone & palo accinendi scro- bem in modum circuli effodiunt, ex qua tandem ollulam prope madidam, mollem & renerrimam cum arenosaterra, & variis instrumentis educunt, quæ si paululum in aerem sublata & detenta fuerit indurescit, & ex molli subdurior redditur. Vidi ego nonnunquam carbones, ligna, ossa, instru- menta ænea, & fterea, æragine subducta, quæ ego hinc inde aurifabris & serariis ex- hibui, vt si quitalium instrumentorum, vel potius fragmentorum vsum nouissent, re- ferrene, atqui nemo illorum repertus, qui saltem diunnare recte de eiusmodi fragmê- tis potuisset, adeo antiquitate & ferrugi- ne contrita. Puto ego isthic quandam se- pulturam gentilium suisse, qui cum vnnis caterent, ollas interim cum cinere, igne, sauilla, & reliquis instrumentis ex rogo re- lictis in signum pietatis collegerunt, con- dentes tumulo mediaque inhumarunt a- rena. Vnde longinquitate temporis fa- ctum, quod madente terra assiduo humote ollæ liquescant, & in naturam priorem, ex qua factæ, reuertuntur, & si parum cau- te exemptæ fuerint, lutum & argillam pro olla retinebis. Si eautius & diligentius rem agas in eximendis vnnis aeris siccitate in- durescunt, & naturam pristinam qua à si- gulo formatæ, retinent. Si quippiam in- de E. T. melius & rectius elicere poterit; non repugnabo, imo si gratum fore intel- lexero, operam dabo sedulo, vt ab incolis circa Trebinzium, si non hac hyeme, ees- te vernali tempore tale quippiam collectu & conseruatum ex sepultura gentilium, vel, vt nostri vocant, Toppelbergæ ad T. H. mittam. His optimè valere T. H. cum

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119 LETTER 116 I cannot prove that this irritates me, nor can I call it anything more moderate than “trifles” not only those things, but also the spontaneous obscuring, as he professes and practices in those matters, if he has discovered anything correctly. For it is by no means fitting for one who wishes to boast about what he has done to wish to care for the human race; nor do those earlier noted proverbs protect you here. What the designs of such involutions may be, I do not wish to throw at you, even though it is easy to gather them. Thus I see that I do nothing other than praise the good and censure the bad. Since you profess to despise Galen’s brain, yet not to be devoted solely to Theophrastus, whom you almost wholly adore, I, distinguishing the second as a middle term, and in accordance with what I have already written, embrace the one part as sound, while on the other I cannot affirm it to be sound. As for your calling me lukewarm, and wanting to prick me with that word, as your larger underlining indicates, I am not so hot that this should inflame me, nor so cold that it should burn me. I know certain people who apply no distinctions in things, but mix everything together; for in disputes they think it glorious to throw at others the name of “neutral” and the like as though it were disgraceful. But what is that to me? Yet those lukewarm and temperate men are generally found, with a calmer mind and judgment, to discern everything more carefully, than either the cold, who have lost all feeling, or the excessively hot, who by too much ardor distort and corrupt everything. If you do not like to communicate with me, I dismiss you easily, since that is your wish. But I am not so stirred that I cannot bear it if you in every respect preserve your Paracelsus and your position. I shall praise you when I see fit. I do not wish to bite Alexander in his absence, but I affirm the same thing I wrote recently: I gain nothing from his positions, which nevertheless no one will judge, I think, to contain things so abstruse that they cannot be understood; indeed, what is done should not be so manifest. Therefore do what seems good to you, whether you reply or do not reply. I am not at all concerned about the glorious and everlasting monarchy of Hippocrates and Galen and of those who are secure in medicine; I do not fear that anyone will wrest this principality from them, nor do I doubt that, as time goes on and sound judgment is applied, those things which Paracelsus and his followers have usefully and correctly discovered and set forth, accommodated to those principles, will become subsidiary, rather in relation to the teachings of the Arabs and the Chemists and, so to speak, the Quintessentians. But empty and frivolous affectation and arrogance will vanish into the air, just as the rashness and quite similar bragging of the Asclepiadeans, Erasistrateans, Diatricans, and Thessalians, which for a time held certain people spellbound, has long since completely disappeared. Farewell. Leipzig, the Calends of April, in the year 1669. EPISTLE LXXXII. TO ANDREAS AVRITABRO MENICO, etc. Georgius Vberus, greetings. <About pots and vessels that are dug up.> About the Trebinzian pots, of which I myself have seen a few and at whose finding I was present, accept this. There is a place outside Trebinzium, very sandy, like a small hill near the village of Massel; our people call it den Toppelberg. Its owner is Lord Maslovski, named from the same village, as most Polish nobles are accustomed to be. Here, after the feast of Pentecost, if ever the citizens are seized by boredom and satiety of the city, they go for the sake of refreshing their spirits; they pay the farmers a few coins, and these, with spade and stake, dig out a pit in the shape of a circle, from which at last they bring out a little pot, almost wet, soft and very tender, with sandy earth and various implements, which if left suspended a little in the air harden and from soft become somewhat harder. I have sometimes seen charcoal, wood, bones, bronze implements, and iron ones, stripped of rust, which I have exhibited here and there to goldsmiths and locksmiths, so that if they knew any use for such instruments, or rather fragments, they might report it; yet none of them was found who could at least speak correctly about such fragments, so worn down by antiquity and rust. I think that there was once a burial place of pagans there, who, when they lacked urns, gathered pots meanwhile with ashes, fire, grease, and the remaining implements left from the pyre as a sign of piety, placing them in a mound and burying them in the middle of the sand. Hence, through the length of time it has happened that, when the earth is moist from constant dampness, the pots liquefy and return to their former nature, from which they were made; and if they are removed carelessly, you will take mud and clay for a pot. If you handle the matter more cautiously and diligently, when the bronze urns are removed they harden from dryness and retain their original nature, by which the mold formed them. If E. T. can elicit something better and more correct from this, I shall not object; indeed, if I understand it will be welcome, I shall diligently see to it that from the inhabitants around Trebinzium, if not this winter, then in the springtime I shall send to T. H. something of this sort collected and preserved from the burial of the pagans, or, as our people call it, from the Toppelberg. Farewell, with my best wishes to T. H.

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 66 cum coniuge & tota familia cupio. Datæ Vratislauiæ, vltimo Ianuarii, Anno 1544. E P I S T. LXXXIII. HIERONYMVS CAPOVACCIVS Thema Erasto, S. D. 10 Ego sane, vir excellentiss. tuas doctissimas maxima cum voluptate legi literas, quibus nunquam mihi visum fuit respondere, cum illæ rationes à te contra sententiam meam adductæ parum concluderent. Nunc autem quia longa oratione, intro arrificio & omni diligentia mea confutare sententiam labores de contagio, & de putredine spiritus, & de aliis, quæ tibi lubenti animo per litteras significaui, breuiter meam mentem aperiam, vt hac aperta cognosces, quum Medicis hac nostra tempestate in diuinis abdiuisque artis Medicæ mysteriis debeant insudare. 10 Quantum igitur attinet ad morbos contagiosos hanc pono conclusionem negatiuam: Nullus morbus formaliter est contagiosus. Fundamentum huius conclusionis colligitur ex Auicen.1. Fen.l.1.cap. de subjecto Medicinæ; & ex Galeno lib. de diff. morb. Qui autores vnanimes affirmant, causam foriualem morbi esse malam constitutionem organi animati: hancque distribuunt in intemperiem, in malam compositionem, & in solutam vnitatem. Morbus ergo omnis formaliter non erit nisi mala constitutiu organi animari; ac proinde vel intemperies, vel mala compositio, vel soluta vnitas. Contagium autem neque est intemperies, neque mala compositio, neque soluta vnitas; sed vapor quidam fortiter commixtus à tota substantia dissimilis humano corpori. Quanuis aurem non sit hurum aliquid formaliter, aptum tamen est, habetque facultatem introducendi intemperiem, malam compositiunem, & solutam vnitatem. Sed quomodo soleat hanc in introducere, non volo nunc explicare, cum nullus morbus sit formaliter contagiosus. Pono etiam hanc aliam conclusione: Multi morbi sunt contagiosi causaliter & concomitanter, id est, illi, qui fiunt à co[n]tagio, quo 1 Morbi causa p[ro]fici concomitator. usque comitatur contagium: verbigratia, si quis p[ro]pter co[n]uersationem factam cum phthisico incidat in vlcus pulmonis, dici mus vlcus hoc contractum, esse vlcus contagiosum, non formaliter quidem, in quantum vlcus, propterea quod omnia vlcera essent contagiosa, sed causaliter & concomitanter, quia hoc vlcus fuit à contagio productum, quod vlcus comitatur contagium, veritatem hanc magis exemplo naturali declaro. Dixit Aristor.2. Phys. priuationem esse formam. At quis tam ineruditus, vt intelligerer hoc dictum furmaliter? Nam priuatio formaliter sumpta est negatio, & non forma, sed dicitur forma concomitanter, quia semper priuationem vnius rei comitatur forma, vt priuationem formæ hominis in semine humano comitatur forma seminis: vnde priuatio formæ humano in semine nô est nisi forma seminis concomitanter. Sic Medici dicunt, multos esse morbos contagiosos non formaliter, sed causaliter & concomitanter. Ex iis ego infero, quod in morbis contagiosis læditur functio dupliciter; V no modo, læsa facultate. Alio, ob errororem externum. Nam morbo existente læditur facultas, sed præsente contagio à rota substantia dissimili impeditur actio, nô læsa facultate. Tu obiiciebas facultatem nô lædi: quia cum ex Galeno, 1. de simpl. Med. facul. & in libro de plenit. sit effectus, causa functionum non realiter differt ab anima: vnde sicut anima nec intenditur, nec remittitur, ita nec facultas. Ego huic friuolæ obiectioni sic respondeo. Anima cum < Operatio vna & clementia anima.> sit substantia vna, & simplex ex se indiuisibilis, non habet plures facultates, sed vnam tantum, qua indifferens est ad omnes obeundas operationes. Hæc communis autem facultas ad hoc, vt siant determinatæ operationes debet limitari, contrahi, & restringi certo quodam modo. Restringitur autem, limitatur & contrahitur in partibus similaribus à proportione formarum elementorum, & à complexione ipsa verbi gratia, sanguificatio est functio determinata, quæ fit à facultate communi animæ, sed contracta in iecore à proportione formarum elementorum constituentium iecui, & ab eiusdem complexione. Vnde facultas sanguificatrix est facultas animæ < Specifica faciendatas vndas> certo modo contracta in iecore à determinata complexione iecoris, & statuta proportione formarum elementorum, quam solus DEVS cognoscit. In morbis igitur, quando Galenus & alii authores ajunt lædi facultatem, non intelligunt facultatem illam communem animæ, quæ est indifferens ad omnes operationes, sed determinatam à conditionibus partium, quatenus lælio fit in his conditionibus, quæ lædi possunt: vt læditur facultas sanguificatrix, < Facultas in morbis vna lædices> quando mutatur complexio & tunc fit, facultatem communem animæ non bene restringi, & limitari ad Canguificatimateria similità me cognitionem. Simili rem doceo. < In Canguificatoria & com- plicatoria> prima est potentia vna simplex munis, quæ est indifferens ad

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MEDICINALES. 66 with my wife and whole family I desire. Given at Vratislavia, on the last day of January, in the year 1544. EPIST. LXXXIII. HIERONYMUS CAPOVACCIUS To Erastus, S.D. I indeed, most excellent sir, read your most learned letters with the greatest pleasure, to which it never seemed to me necessary to reply, since the reasons which you brought forward against my opinion seemed to conclude very little. But now, because by a long discourse, with great effort and all my diligence, I have refuted your opinion about contagion and about the putrefaction of the spirit, and about other matters which I willingly signified to you by letter, I will briefly open my mind, so that, once this is made clear, you will know that physicians in this our age ought to toil in the divine and hidden mysteries of the medical art. As far therefore as contagious diseases are concerned, I set down this negative conclusion: No disease is formally contagious. The foundation of this conclusion is gathered from Avicenna, 1 Fen. l. 1 cap. de subjecto Medicinæ; and from Galen, book De diff. morb. These authors unanimously affirm that the formal cause of disease is the bad constitution of the animated organ; and they divide this into intemperament, bad composition, and dissolved unity. Therefore every disease formally will be nothing other than the bad constitution of the animated organ; and consequently either intemperament, or bad composition, or dissolved unity. Contagion, however, is neither intemperament, nor bad composition, nor dissolved unity; but some vapor strongly mixed, unlike the whole substance of the human body. Although it is not formally any of these things, it is nevertheless suited to it, and has the power of introducing intemperament, bad composition, and dissolved unity. But how it is accustomed to introduce this I do not wish now to explain, since no disease is formally contagious. I also set down this other conclusion: Many diseases are contagious causally and concomitantly, that is, those which arise from contagion, which continues to accompany the contagion: for example, if someone, because of association with a phthisic man, falls into an ulcer of the lung, we say that this ulcer contracted is a contagious ulcer, not formally indeed, insofar as it is an ulcer, because then all ulcers would be contagious, but causally and concomitantly, because this ulcer was produced by contagion, which ulcer accompanies contagion. I explain this truth more clearly by a natural example. Aristotle said, in Phys. 2, that privation is a form. But who is so unlearned as to understand this saying formally? For privation taken formally is negation, and not a form, but it is called a form concomitantly, because the form is always accompanied by the privation of one thing, as the form of man is accompanied in human seed by the privation of the form of man in the human seed; whence the privation of the form of man in the seed is nothing but the form of the seed concomitantly. So physicians say that many diseases are contagious not formally, but causally and concomitantly. From these things I infer that in contagious diseases function is harmed in two ways: in one way, by a harmed faculty. In another, because of an external error. For when disease is present, the faculty is harmed; but with contagion present, action is impeded by the whole substance unlike, not because the faculty is harmed. You objected that the faculty is not harmed: because, since from Galen, 1 De simpl. Med. facul. and in the book De plenit., it is the effect, the cause of functions does not really differ from the soul; whence, just as the soul is neither intensified nor relaxed, so neither is the faculty. To this frivolous objection I reply thus. The soul, since it is one and simple substance, by itself indivisible, does not have many faculties, but one only, by which it is indifferent to all operations to be performed. But this common faculty, in order that determinate operations may be produced, must be limited, contracted, and restricted in a certain way. It is restricted, limited and contracted in similar parts by the proportion of the forms of the elements, and by the complexion itself; for example, sanguification is a determinate function, which is performed by the common faculty of the soul, but contracted in the liver from the proportion of the forms of the elements constituting the liver, and from its complexion. Whence the blood-making faculty is the faculty of the soul in a certain way contracted in the liver by the determined complexion of the liver, and the fixed proportion of the forms of the elements, which alone GOD knows. In diseases therefore, when Galen and other authors say that the faculty is harmed, they do not mean that common faculty of the soul, which is indifferent to all operations, but that which is determined by the conditions of the parts, insofar as injury takes place in these conditions, which can be harmed: as the blood-making faculty is harmed, when the complexion is changed, and then it happens that the common faculty of the soul is not well restricted and limited to the matter of blood-making, by reason of cognition. I teach the same thing by a similar example. In the blood-making and complicated the first is one simple power, common, which is indifferent to

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125 MEDICINALES. 126 te putredine dissoluta est mixtio illius rei, vel incipit fieri, sed dicitur res putrida, quia oritur via putredinis, & quia habet vim putrefaciendi. Est enim contagium vapor fortitet commixtus, cum contagium sit va- por, habet vim calefaciendi, quia ex Aristotele in Meteor. vapor est halitus seu exhalatio calida & humida, & ipsius est calefacere. Quod concedo. At nego, quod agens in corpus semper de facto introducat mor- bum calidum: idque sic probo: sit aliquod corpus debile, & languens, occurratque inspiratione attractus vapor pestillens maxime venenosus. Dico quod vapor hic venenosus citius interficiet hominem illum, ranone venenositatis, quam introductus sit morb. calidus in solido corpore cordis. Ecce quod in contagio non est necessarium, vt lædatur facultas ob intemperiem calidam: sed concessio, quod contagium introducat semper morbum calidum, dico etiam quod semper lædatur actio dupliciter: vno modo, labefactata facultate ob intemperiem calidam introducatam. Alio modo, ob externum erratum, ob præsentiam co[n]tagii, quod ratione venenositatis, & à tota forma impedit, quu minus pars recte operetur, sicuti adamas qui iuxta positum magnetis ratione formalis antipathiæ impedit, quo minus serrum ad se alliciat. Quæris de morbis à tota forma, nunquid dentur: & si dantur, nunquid methodo possint curari? Ego constanter affirmo, hos non dari, quod probo sic: Si datur morbus à tota forma, vel in hoc corrumpitur forma, vel intenditur, vel remittitur: si dicatur corrumpi, vel corrumpitur secundum partem vel secundum totum. Primum est absurdum: quia ex se forma est induisisibilis, & tota simul momento temporis corrumpitur. Si secundum dicatur Ergo omnes morbi à tota forma essent incurabiles, quia alias daretur regressus à priuatione substantiali ad habitum contra philosophos: omnes enim hos esse incurabiles negant, qui eos de sustinent. Nec possumus dicere forma[m] intendi vel remitti, quia cum consistit in indiuisibili, nec intenditur nec remittitur, seu diminuitur. Ecce ex rei natura ostendi hos n[ost]ro dari. Assumo tamen dari, causam præter naturam agentem à tota forma propter dissimilitudinem formalem: sic ut pleraque venena mortifera, quæ cum nobis à tota forma sint dissimilia, dum ingrediuntur corpus, agunt in cor, & impediunt, quo minus cor genetet spiritum vitalem, & quatenus impediunt ob formam dissimilem, dicuniur agere à tota forma. Remotio talis causæ agentis à tota forma sit, inuentis auxiliis, & recta ratione admini- stratis. Non inueniuntur auxilia methodo, & indicationibus, quia latet forma illa, ratione cuius uritur illa dissimilitudo. Nam Galenus libro de opt. sect. ad Thrasibul. & 2. de ratione meden. Inquit, Indicationem desumi ex rei indicantis natura, & essentia, intellectui perspecta. Quare pro inueniendis auxiliis cogimur confugere, vel ad experientiam, vel ad analogismum. Postquam inuenta sunt auxilia, vel hac, vel illa via, concedo quod recta ratione, & ex methodo possint administrari. Sic in contagio Gallico inuenitur illud antipharmacum, quod appellatur lignum Indicum experientia. Guaico per experientiam inuenio, postea sit methodo recta administratio, quæ consistit in quanto, quando, quomodo, vbi, &c. Hæc sunt, quæ mihi visa fuere digna responsione & quæ, vt tibi morem gererem, volui in medium afterre. Immerim togo te, ne prius respondeas, quam sedulo à te lectum sit caput illud Galeni, & rei natura considerata. Vale. Patruii. Anno 1576. EPIST. LXXXIV. MAGNIFICO ET EXCELLENTISSIMO Medico & Philosopho D. Petro Monario, Domino obseruandiss. EXCELLENTISSIMÆ vir: litteras tuas libenter legi, tum quia his amorem erga me tuum facile perspexi, tum etiam, quia nonnullas dubitationes proposuisti, doctas sane, quæ te studiosissimum esse ostendunt. sed cum solutiones harum cupias à me audire, opinionem meam breuissima oratione tibi scribere non grauabor, cuius breuitatis in causa sunt, publicæ lectiones, & zgrotantium hominum frequentes visitationes, quibus tota fere die impedior. Dubitas primo de causa co[n]tentua à me proposita, quid sit, & quid hac seclusa morb. sit. Miraris valde, quod dixerim intemperiem, malam co[m]positionem, & solutam vnitatem esse causas morbi contentiua, cum omnis morbus sit vel intemperies, vel mala compositio, vel soluta vnitas. Dicis postremo, causam contentiuam realiter non differre ab antecedente, & idem esse cum coniuncta. Morbus vir præstantissime, est facultas læsa, vel, vt alia voce vlar, impotentia quædam potentia ad operandum cum sit quidam esse causam, à quia dependet in esse, & in conser quod quam con- F, quod sane

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125 MEDICINAL. 126 by putrefaction the mixture of that thing is dissolved, or begins to be so; but it is called a rotten thing because it arises by way of putrefaction, and because it has the power of putrefying. For it is a contagion a vapor strongly mixed, since contagion is vapor, it has the power of heating, because according to Aristotle in the Meteorologica, vapor is a breath or exhalation hot and moist, and its function is to heat. This I grant. But I deny that the agent in the body always in fact introduces a hot disease; and I prove this as follows: let there be some weak and languishing body, and let there occur, drawn in by inspiration, a pestilent vapor, most poisonous. I say that this poisonous vapor will kill that man more quickly, because of its poisonous nature, than a hot disease would be introduced into the solid body of the heart. Behold that in contagion it is not necessary that the faculty be harmed by a hot intemperies: but conceding that contagion always introduces a hot disease, I also say that action is always harmed in two ways: in one way, the faculty being weakened by the hot intemperies introduced. In another way, by external error, because of the presence of the contagion, which by reason of its poisonous nature, and by its whole form, impedes, so that the part operates less rightly, just as a magnet placed near iron, by reason of formal antipathy, impedes, so that it draws the iron to itself. You ask whether diseases arising from the whole form are given, and if they are, whether they can be cured by method? I firmly affirm that these do not exist, which I prove thus: if a disease from the whole form is given, either in this the form is corrupted, or intensified, or diminished: if it is said to be corrupted, either it is corrupted according to part or according to the whole. The first is absurd: because by its nature the form is indivisible, and is corrupted all at once in a moment of time. If the second is said, then all diseases from the whole form would be incurable, because otherwise there would be a return from substantial privation to habit, against the philosophers; for all these men deny them to be incurable, who support them. Nor can we say that the form is intensified or diminished, because since it consists in the indivisible, it is neither intensified nor diminished, nor lessened. Behold, from the nature of the thing I have shown that these are not given. Yet I assume that there is given a cause acting beyond nature from the whole form because of formal dissimilarity: such as most deadly poisons, which, since they are dissimilar to us in the whole form, when they enter the body, act on the heart and impede, so that the heart generates vital spirit less, and insofar as they impede by reason of their dissimilar form, they are said to act from the whole form. The removal of such a cause acting from the whole form is to be sought through discovered remedies, and rightly administered reasoning. Remedies are not found by method and indications, because that form lies hidden, by reason of which that dissimilarity is stirred up. For Galen, in the book On the Best Sect for Thrasybulus, and in book 2 On the Method of Healing, says: indication is to be taken from the nature and essence of the thing indicating, perceived by the intellect. Wherefore, for finding remedies, we are forced to have recourse either to experience or to analogy. After the remedies have been found, either by this or by that way, I grant that by right reasoning and from method they can be administered. Thus in French contagion that antidote is found, which is called Indian wood, by experience. Likewise I find by experience, then there is methodical right administration, which consists in how much, when, how, where, and the like. These are the things which seemed to me worthy of response and which, that I might oblige you, I wished to bring forward in public. I beg you, however, not to answer before you have diligently read that chapter of Galen, and considered the nature of the matter. Farewell. Patruii. Year 1576. EPISTLE LXXXIV. TO THE MOST MAGNIFICENT AND MOST EXCELLENT Doctor and Philosopher Mr. Peter Monarius, most worthy lord. MOST EXCELLENT sir: I read your letters gladly, both because in them I easily perceived your love toward me, and also because you proposed certain doubts, truly learned, which show that you are most studious. But since you desire to hear the solutions of these from me, I shall not be burdensome in writing to you my opinion in the briefest discourse, the cause of whose brevity is my public lectures, and the frequent visits of sick men, by which I am hindered almost the whole day. First you doubt about the contentive cause proposed by me, what it is, and what a disease is without it. You greatly wonder that I said intemperies, bad composition, and dissolved unity are the contentive causes of disease, whereas every disease is either intemperies, or bad composition, or dissolved unity. Finally you say that the contentive cause does not really differ from the antecedent, and is the same as the conjoined. A disease, most distinguished sir, is a harmed faculty, or, if I use another word, a certain impotence of power for acting, since it is a certain being as cause, from which it depends in being and in preserving, that which it is not able to do; for certainly that which...

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127 EPISTOLÆ 128 organum est pars vel similaris vel dissimilaris. Hæc autem vitiosa constitutio est, vel intemperies propria organi similatis, vel in mala composuo propria organi dissimilaris, vel soluta vnitas vtrique communis. Vnde sequitur, quod hoc ordine homo egrediatur extra latitudinem sanitatis. Causa primo occurrit præternaturam, quæ operatur in organum animatum: Hæc vitiat constitutionem, bac vitiata, ilico sequitur læsio facultatis, & impotentia ad operandum. Quare vitiosa constitutio siue sit intemperies, siue mala compositio, siue soluta vnitas, erit causa contentiua læsionis facultatis: Morbus ergo potest sumi bifariam. Vel sine causa contentiua, & hac ratione aliud non est quam impotentia ad operandum, & hoc modo sumptus, potest vocari morbus logicus: Nam ope solius intellectus abstrahitur læsio facultatis à vi- tiosa constitutione, cum realiter non potest esse sine vitiosa constitutione organi animati. < Morbum bifariam sumi possit.> Quando Galen ait, omnem morbum esse vel inremperiem, vel malam compositionem, vel solutam vnitatem, sumit malum vna cum causa contentiua, quæ est vitiosa constitutio, & vt sumitur à morbo luantis indicatio: In hoc sensu dicebat in libro de opt. secta. non sumi indicationem à morbo. In hoc sensu tursus dicebat in libris methodi, sumi indicationem à morbo. < Consiliario contra dubio nis Galeni> Quod hoc sit verum duo loca ostendunt. Vnus est Galeni, alter Auicennæ. Galenus in 2. libro de natura humana ait, plenitudinem non esse causam contentiuam morbi: & ita argumentatur Galenus: Morbus immediatæ lædit operationes. Plenitudo non lædit operationes immedias. Ergo plenitudo non est causa contentiua: Ecce quod confundit causam contentiuam cum morbo. Auicen. etiam in 2. Fen primi libri tractatu primo ait. : Esse tria genera gritudinum. Vnum dicit, sequi intemperiem. Aliud malam complexionem & tertium solutam vnitatem. Dicit etiam in prima Fen primi libri, causas formales morbi esse in remperiem, malam compositionem, & solutam vnitatem. Hinc colligo, causam contentiuam esse causam formalem, esse de esientia morbi, & ideo ab hac sumi indicationes curandi. Quod contentiua causa non differat realiter ab antecedente, & quod sit coniuncta, falsum est, quia causa antecedens & coniuncta sunt efficientes, & ab his non sumuntur, nisi indicationes præseruatoriæ, quæ interdum communi modo loquendi dicuntur curatiæ, quando < Contentiua differe à contenta.> selicet corpus actu ægrotat: Causa contentiua est formalis, & ab hac sumtur tem- per indicatio curatiua, & quia de nominib. parua est habenda sollicitudo, synonymas puto has voces, contentiuam, & continentem. Nec vnam legi partes continentes vocari obid causas continentes morbi, sed materiales potius & subiectiua: & hæc satis dicta sint de causa contentiua, &c. < Causa contentiua & contentiua > Dubitas secundo, cur à me fuerint omisæ in curatione doloris capitis indicationes curatiæ alias propositæ. Nam dolor est symptoma, symptoma morbum necessario sequitur, & a morbo sumuntur indicationes curatiæ. quare in curatione doloris capitis etunt hauriendæ indicationes curatiæ. Dolor potest sumi bifariam. Vno modo < Dolor.> formaliter, vt dolor est, alio modo causaliter. Indicationes, quæ sumuntur à dolore, vt dolor est, duæ sunt, sensus tactus obtusio, & eiusdem remotio: & ambæ sunt præseruatoriæ, quia non concurrit dolor ad indicandum, nisi vt habet rationem causa vrgentis vnde sequitur ex hoc, quod in curatione doloris, vt dolor est, non habeant locum nisi indicationes præseruatoriæ Si consideretur dolor causaliter, causa doloris, vel est morbus vel est causa solum, & non morbus. A morbo sumitur indicatio curatiua, à causa præseruatoria. Sed istæ indicationes, quæ præsente dolore sumuntur vel à morbo vel causa, non sint indicationes à dolore, vt dolor est, vt scilicet est sensus obiecti co[n]tristantis. Quare nullam adhuc video esse in meis dictis discordiam. Moneo te tamen, ne credas hanc propositionem, quæ dicit, symptoma necessario morbum sequi, esse vniuersalem affirmatiuam, vt plerique arbitrantur. Nam est propositio affirmatiua < Symptoma non semper necessario morbum sequitur.> indefinita, quæ particulari equipollet. Nam falsum est, & ridiculum, quod omne symptoma necessario morbum consequatur, quamuis aliquod symptoma necessario morbum consequatur, & hoc symptoma est actio læsa facultate. Nam actiones omnes hæsione facultatis morbum consequuntur, vt vmbra corpus. Et ego existimo, dolorem esse actionem læsam, non læsa facultate tactoria, sed ob externum errorem, & , quamuis morbus aliquando sis causa doloris, non ob id tamen ille morbus est morbus respectu doloris, sed respectu aliatum operationum. Quæris, cur di < Putrefactio venemus no.> xerim putrefactionem materiæ esse vitium ratione formæ, & venenationem esse vitium merito organi formæ principiis: Vit præstantissime: Mixta similiara habent in seformam, proprietatem, & complexionem: Forma est agens principale. Proprietas

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127 EPISTLES 128 the organ is either of similar or dissimilar parts. But this is a faulty constitution, either an inordinateness proper to a similar organ, or in a bad composition proper to a dissimilar organ, or a dissolved unity common to both. Whence it follows that in this order man passes beyond the limits of health. The cause first encountered is what is contrary to nature and operates in the animated organ: this vitiates the constitution; once this is vitiated, there immediately follows impairment of the faculty and inability to act. Therefore a faulty constitution, whether it be inordinateness, or bad composition, or dissolved unity, will be the containing cause of the impairment of the faculty. Disease therefore can be taken in two ways. Either without the containing cause, and in this sense it is nothing other than inability to act; and thus taken, it can be called a logical disease: for by the aid of the understanding alone the impairment of the faculty is abstracted from the faulty constitution, when in reality it cannot exist without the faulty constitution of the animated organ. < Disease can be taken in two ways.> When Galen says that every disease is either inordinateness, or bad composition, or dissolved unity, he takes the evil together with the containing cause, which is the faulty constitution, and as it is taken by the indication drawn from the disease. In this sense he said in the book On the Best Sect that indication is not taken from the disease. In this sense again he said in the books of the Method that indication is taken from the disease. < Against the doubts of Galen’s advisor> That this is true two passages show. One is from Galen, the other from Avicenna. Galen in the 2nd book On the Nature of Man says that fullness is not the containing cause of disease; and Galen argues thus: Disease directly harms the operations. Fullness does not directly harm the operations. Therefore fullness is not the containing cause. See how he confuses the containing cause with the disease. Avicenna also in the 2nd Fen of the first book, first tract, says that there are three kinds of illnesses. One, he says, follows inordinateness. Another, bad complexion, and a third dissolved unity. He also says in the first Fen of the first book that the formal causes of disease are inordinateness, bad composition, and dissolved unity. Hence I gather that the containing cause is the formal cause, belongs to the essence of disease, and therefore from it indications for treatment are drawn. That the containing cause does not differ really from the antecedent, and that it is conjoined, is false, because the antecedent and conjoined causes are efficient causes, and from these are drawn only preventive indications, which sometimes in common speech are called curative, when < The containing cause differs from the contained.> the body is actually ill. The containing cause is formal, and from this the curative indication is always drawn, and because little care should be taken about names, I consider these words, contentiva and continentem, to be synonymous. Nor have I read anywhere that the containing parts are for that reason called containing causes of disease, but rather material and subjective causes; and enough has now been said about the containing cause, etc. < Containing cause and containing cause > You ask second, why I omitted in the treatment of headache the curative indications that were proposed elsewhere. For pain is a symptom, and a symptom necessarily follows disease, and from disease the curative indications are drawn. Therefore in the treatment of headache the curative indications must be sought. Pain can be taken in two ways. In one way < Pain.> formally, as pain is; in another way causally. The indications drawn from pain, as pain is, are two: blunting of the sense of touch, and removal of the same; and both are preventive, because pain does not concur in indicating except insofar as it has the role of an urgent cause. Whence it follows that in the treatment of pain, as pain is, there can be no place except for preventive indications. If pain is considered causally, the cause of pain is either a disease or only a cause and not a disease. From the disease is taken the curative indication; from the cause, the preventive. But these indications, which in the presence of pain are drawn either from disease or from cause, are not indications drawn from pain, as pain is, namely as it is the sense of the disagreeable object. Therefore I still see no disagreement in what I have said. Yet I warn you not to believe this proposition, which says that a symptom necessarily follows disease, to be a universal affirmative, as most people suppose. For it is an indefinite affirmative proposition, which is equivalent to a particular. For it is false and ridiculous that every symptom necessarily follows disease, although some symptom necessarily does follow disease, and this symptom is an action impaired by the faculty. For all actions with impairment of the faculty follow disease, as a shadow follows the body. And I think that pain is an impaired action, not because the faculty of touch is impaired, but because of an external error, and although a disease may sometimes be the cause of pain, it is not therefore a disease with respect to pain, but with respect to other operations. You ask why I < Putrefaction venemus no.> said putrefaction of matter is a defect by reason of the form, and poisoning is a defect by right of the principles of the form of the organ: Most excellent sir: mixed things similar to each other have within themselves form, property, and complexion: Form is the principal agent. Property

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129 M E D I C I N A L E S. 130 < 1.> Proprietas & complexio sunt instrumenta. < 3.> Proprietas relata complexioni magis prin- cipaliter concurrit, & hoc colligi potest ex 1. cap. 3. de sympt. causis. Putredo, autore A- ristotele, est corruptio. Corruptio autem est mutatio ab esse simpliciter ad non esse sim- pliciter. Esse simpliciter habet materia à for- ma. Non esse simpliciter eontingit ex ab- sentia & interitu formæ, quæ forma cor- rumpitur à putredine per dissolutionem mi e[ss]e, < Prohibentia vt cognoscenda.> Venenatio consistit in occulta qua- dam proprietate aduersante cordi: Recte i- gitur putrefactio erit vitium metito formæ, & venenatio merito organi formæ princi- palis. Quantum attinet ad indicationem il- lam, an sit agendum, à quo scilicet desuma- tur. Hæc alia non est indicatio, quam agen- dorum indicatio, inuentionis iuuancium, & quid agendum. Nam quærere an sanguis c- uacuandus sit necne, est quærere, quid a- gendum. Et hæc indicatio sumitur ab essen- tia indicantis. Quantum attinet ad viam cognoscendi prohibentia. Ego sane puto nos arte aliqua venire posse in cognitionem prohibentium. Hæc autem est methodus resolutiua, & demonstratio signi, quæ non spectant ad artem curandi, sed ad partem medicinæ simioticem. Sit vena secanda, vir- tus vitalis prohibeat, pulsu cognoscitur vir- tutis vitalis infirmitas. Hæc sunt quæ pro < 30> angustia potui h[abe]re uiet scribere, vt tibi viro doctissimo, & inci amatissimo satisfacetem. Interim fac, vt me d[el]igas, & si quid alud a- nimum tuum perplexum reddit, protinus me certiorem facias, cum nihil mihi gratius possit in hac vita contingere, quam studio- sissimis viris & mei amantissimis morem ge- tere. Vale. Datum Patauii. Prid. Non. No- uemb. Anno. 1579. Hieronymus Capuaccius E P I S T. LXXXV. I D E M E I D E M < 40> Vt Magnifice & chatissime. Tardius ad te rescripsi, quam statueram occupa- tionibus impeditus. Nunc vero vt tuæ mo- rem geram voluntati, illud inprimis scias, velim, nihil mihi molestius futurum, quam vt methodus curatiua nobis in scientib. im- primatur, præsertim cum nondum extrema, manus imposita fuerit, & si quis adeo esset audax, vt imptumenda curaret, ne quaquam permitteremus, vt publice venderetur. Cu- rabimus tamen, si DEVM dabit, vt breui pu- blice vel legendo vel scribendo in commu- nem vtilitatem prodeat atque cum ea for- tasse doctrina de venenis erit coniuncta, in quibus vtrisq[ue] mula desiderari possunt. Sed accedamus ad dubitationes, quibus vt or- dine respondeamus, illud inprimis statuen- dum est verissimum, esse in omnibus mor- bis cautam contentiuam, & habere locum, si tamen morb. capiatur pro vitio proprie- tatis. Tum enim morbus est in fieri. Quod si capiatur pro cunstitutione præter natu- ram, proculdubio ab eo seiungitur causa contentiua, cum sit in facto esse. & quamuis eiusmodi morbus tenera sit causa efficiens, habet tamen apud medicos tationem for- mæ: Cum vero dicimus morbum fieri læsa facultate, non est credendum nos exclude- re morbos in mala compositione & soluta vnitate, quandoquidem & ipsi sunt læsa fa- cultate non labefactata, sed impedita. Nec duo tantum genera morborum constituere debemus, si partes similes à dissimilaribus per simplicitatem, & compositionem di- stinguantur: A dolore vero, vt dolor, non curatiuam, sed præseruatiuam indicationem desumi posse existimamus, vt anody- na quandoque sunt frigida, quandoque hu- mida, quandoque calida in primo. Neque symptomata perpetuo consequitur morbu[m], cum actio lædi possit non læsa, sed frustrata facultate ob errorem externum. Etsi Ga- < Dolor non fit ab humi dicere.> lenus quandoque dicat partes nostri cor- poris ab humiditate alterari, & eorumpi, non tamen debemus statim ioferre, ergo ab humiditate sit dolor, & si dicas, sententiam esse Hippocratis, dolorem fieri ex alteratio- ne & corruptione, nos fatcri debemus, do- lotes non fieri sine permutatione. Sed pro- positio Hippocratis intelligatur secundum subiectam materiam, hoc est, si fiat cum vio- lentia, quod de humiditate nequaquam est dicendum. Quare si Galenus videtur quan- < Galeni et Hippoc de dolores femeneria concilia- tur.> doque dolores referre in humiditatem, non est, vt existimemus, in solam humidita- tem esse referendos, sed quæ coniuncta sit, vel cum altera ex actiuis qualitatibus, vel cum materia. At fames sit ex priuatione sic- ci. Ergo & redundantia humidi: Non valet consequentia. Quod autem non agnoscis discrimine inter proprietatem & temperiem, mirum non est, quoniam & multi alii non agnoscunt, nihilominus si statuetis tempe- raturam in similarib. facere proprietatem, compositionem in dissimilaribus, vt voluit Galenus, non amplius admiraberis, cum si- ne huiusmodi proprietatib. actio nulla pos- sit fieri. Nec miramur, si non intelligis, quo- < Discursum inter rerum, rerum et præ> modo mixti forma temiputrefeat, < Quo. Semiputrefeo> niam id veritati repugnet: At nos cum di- < itura. Quomodo nisi forma femini pos. rejecat.> cimus materiam temiputrefecte mur illos, qui appellant homines F 3

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129 MEDICINAL. 130 < 1.> Property and temperament are instruments. < 3.> Property, considered in relation to temperament, contributes more principally, and this can be gathered from 1, cap. 3, de sympt. causis. Putrefaction, according to Aristotle, is corruption. Corruption, however, is a change from simple being to simple non-being. Simple being belongs to matter from form. Simple non-being arises from the absence and destruction of form, and that form is corrupted by putrefaction through the dissolution of mixture. < To be known as prohibitive.> Poisoning consists in a certain hidden property opposing the heart. Therefore, rightly, putrefaction will be a fault of the form itself, and poisoning a fault of the organ of the principal form. So far as that indication is concerned, whether action should be taken, from what, namely, it should be derived: this is no other indication than the indication of things to be done, of the discovery of aids, and of what should be done. For to ask whether blood should be let or not is to ask what should be done. And this indication is drawn from the essence of the thing indicating. So far as the way of knowing prohibitive causes is concerned, I certainly think that by some art we can come to the knowledge of things that prohibit. But this method is the resolutive method, and the demonstration of the sign, which do not belong to the art of curing, but to the semiotic part of medicine. If a vein is to be cut, and the vital force prohibits it, the weakness of the vital force is known by the pulse. These are the things, as far as the narrowness of time allowed me, that I could have and write, so as to satisfy you, a most learned and most beloved man. Meanwhile, do me the favor of choosing me, and if anything else troubles your mind, let me know at once; for nothing could happen to me in this life more pleasing than to comply with the wishes of most studious men and those most affectionate toward me. Farewell. Given at Padua, on the day before the Nones of November, in the year 1579. Hieronymus Capuaccius EPIST. LXXXV. TO THE SAME. < 40> To the most magnificent and dearest man. I replied to you later than I had intended, being hindered by occupations. Now, however, so that I may comply with your wish, let this first be known to you: nothing would be more troublesome to me than that the curative method should be printed among the learned, especially since the final hand has not yet been put to it; and if anyone were so bold as to take charge of printing it, we would by no means permit it to be sold publicly. Yet, if God grant, we shall see that it comes out soon for the common good, either by reading or by writing in public, and perhaps that teaching about poisons will be joined to it, in which both there may be many things still lacking. But let us come to the doubts, to which, in order to answer in due order, this must first be established as most true: that in all diseases there is a cautious retentive power, and that it has a place, provided disease is taken as a fault of the property itself. For then the disease is in the process of coming to be. But if it is taken as a constitution contrary to nature, without doubt the retentive cause is separated from it, since it is in a state of actual being. And although such a disease is a tenuous efficient cause, it still has, among physicians, the role of form. But when we say that disease comes to be through injury of faculty, it must not be believed that we are excluding diseases in bad composition and dissolved unity, since these too are injuries of faculty, not weakened but impeded. Nor must we establish only two kinds of diseases, if similar parts are distinguished from dissimilar ones by simplicity and composition. From pain, as pain, however, we think not a curative but a preservative indication can be derived, so that anodyne remedies are sometimes cold, sometimes moist, sometimes warm in the first degree. Nor does disease perpetually follow symptoms, since action may be injured not by an injured faculty, but by a frustrated faculty because of some external error. < Pain does not arise from humidity to say.> Although Galen sometimes says that parts of our body are altered and corrupted by humidity, we must not at once infer, therefore pain arises from humidity; and if you say that it is the view of Hippocrates that pain arises from alteration and corruption, we must admit that pains do not come about without a change. But let Hippocrates’ proposition be understood according to the subject matter, that is, if it occurs with violence, which cannot at all be said of humidity. Wherefore if Galen sometimes seems to refer pains to humidity, we should not think that they are to be referred to humidity alone, but to what is joined with it, either with one of the active qualities or with the matter. But hunger is from the privation of dryness. Therefore also from an excess of moisture? The consequence does not hold. As for your not recognizing the distinction between property and temperament, it is no wonder, since many others do not recognize it either. Nevertheless, if you establish that temperament in similar things produces property, and composition in dissimilar things, as Galen wished, you will no longer wonder, since without such properties no action can occur. Nor do we wonder if you do not understand how mixture putrefies semi-putrefaction, since that conflicts with the truth. But when we say that matter is semi-putrefied...

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131 EPISTOLÆ uos, & semimortuos, quorum tamen forma incorrupta manet. De permittentium vero & prohibentium natura, quod scribis, te in sententia nostra acquiescere non posse, non est mirandum, si plura permittentia, plura < Permittentia & prohibentia, tria. > prohibentia, quam tria quæris. Quod si statueris tria tantum esse permittentia & prohibentia, quemadmodum etiam tria indicantia tantumcætera tria hæc circumscribere, & definire, & specifica, imo singularia reddere, proculdubio non amplius dubitabis, nec opus erit methodo ad inueniendum id quod permittit vel prohibet, eum semper hæc tria sint spectanda & ab his declinare neqnaquam valeamus. < Morbus epidemicus Anno 80. > Postremo, quod quæris, quæ natura fuerit illius morbi epidemiei, qui superioribus diebus per vniuersam fere Europam grassatus est: si licet dicere quod sentimus, arbitramur merito causæ externam originem du- < 20 > xisse ab aeris constitutione: Sin internam, à materia catarrhali, quæ dum putrescebant nnec febrem ephemeram, nunc puttidam excitabat: quemadmodum in febribus quæ ex bubonibus fiunt, nec putamus, morbum fuisse contagiosum, præsertim apud nos, quoniam nec fuit perniciosus, imobteui aut nullo etiam auxilio restituebantur. Hæc sunt quæ horis succisuis rescribenda duximus. Interim vale, & nos, quod facis ama. 30 EPIST. LXXXVI. HIERON. MERCURIALIS IOH. Cratoni à Krafheim, &c. S. D. < Actio ab incamperio lædi à mala compositione impediri, si præprie loquendum est, etiam ipse existimo. Nam inuenio Galen. 2. de facult. natural. 8. & 5. cap. 40 > Actionem lædi ab intemperie, à mala compositione impediri, si præprie loquendum est, etiam ipse existimo. Nam inuenio Galen. 2. de facult. natural. 8. & 5. cap. 40 lib de diff. sympt. dicentem: actiones ab intemperie impediri. Verum hæc disceptatio quid hominum saluri prodest? In vniuersa fere Europa morbus quidam vehementissimus, sed salutaris vagatur, à quo num vestræ quoque regiones tenentur, lubenter exte cognoscerem. < Morbus Epidemicum. > Eius huiusmodi est natura. præcedit quædam saneium asperitas, tussicula, mox magno impetu ingruit febris cu[m] dolore capitis, dorsi, crurum, nonnullis veluti peccus stringitur & stomachus grauatur. Triduum ad summum omnia durant, tandem defuit febris vel cum sudore, compluribus eum sanguinis narium, profusione, aliquibus, sed rarissimis, malum vertitur aut in pleuritides, aut in exitiales peripneumonias, vbi febris & dolor capitis finis sunt. Omnes de summa vitium imbecillitate atq[ue] de tussi quæ runtur , aliqui de corrupto vel 132 ablato tam cibi, quam potus desiderio quæ interdum ad octiduum perdurant. Illud mirum est, totas eiuitates repente occupari, &c vbi vnsus corripitur aliqua domo, statim in singulis eius familiæ malum communicari. Ita vt sæpe domus omnibus auxiliis & seruitiis desertæ videantur. Febrem synoeham esse absque puttedine ex decrescentium genere non dubito, sicut certus sum à coeli viribus iam communem morbum necessario oriri. Vtrum contagiosus sit, libenter sententiam tuam intelligerem. Etsi Deus benedictus prauitatem non ademisset, salua non sa & cesset omnis caro. Vale, meque ama. Pataui, Anno 1580. EPIST. LXXXVIL IDEM EIDEM. CLARISSIMA Domine, quæ tua sit de præterita morborum epidemica constitutione sententia, ex literis copiosè ea de re ad me scriptis percepi. Omnia mihi perplacuisse si dixero, non mentiar. At forsan tibi nimis placere voluisse videbor, quare vt etiam me non assenari cognoscas, id non admodum me probare scito, quod cum co[n]tagioios morbos fuisse velis, in putredine contagii vim positam putas. Ego enim omnes febres quæ sine putredine extitisse comitabantur, synoebas sine putredine extitisse comitandi, quanquam interdum in putridas, siue corporum dispositione, siue erroribus mutatas esse non diffiteor. Iam verolicer plerumque sciam, semina contagii lenta viscidæ esse, & propterea à putredine non seiungi, non video tamen cur etiam vapores aridi, & acres ore ægrotantium manantes non possint à proximis halitu attrahi, atque vbi semel faucib. adhæserint, humescere quodammodo atque lentescere absque vlla putredine, simulque cerebrum & corpus vniuersum contaminare. Fracastorius forsan & alii quidam mallent omnium , quam contagium appellare: sed vnde hanc sibi autoritatem cu[m] vendicet ignoro. Vuiqus, quem linguæ magistrum vocauit interdum Plato, sic loqui consueuit. At de his satis. Vale. Pataui 22. Septemb. Anno 1580. Vulgus Vulgus Vulgus Lam Lam per. EPIST. LXXXVIII. REMBERTO DODONÆO MEDICO Casareo, Hieronymus Mercurialis Med. S. D. INTELLEXERANT, Charissime Dodonæo, à Cratone viro summo tuam de sacchari lapidifica in renibus facultate sententiarum Sacrilem non producere calcularem.

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131 EPISTLES you, and the half-dead, whose form nonetheless remains incorrupt. As to what you write concerning the nature of the permissive and the prohibitive, that you cannot assent to our opinion is not surprising, if you seek more than three permissive things and more than three prohibitive things. But if you determine that there are only three permissive and prohibitive things, just as there are also only three indicative things, these three will suffice to circumscribe, define, and even make specific, indeed singular, all the rest; and beyond doubt you will no longer doubt, nor will there be any need for a method of finding that which permits or forbids, since these three must always be considered and from them we can by no means depart. < On the epidemic illness of the year 80. > Finally, as for what you ask, what nature that epidemic disease had which in recent days has raged through nearly all Europe: if it is allowed to say what we think, we judge that it derived its external origin rightly from the constitution of the air. If its internal origin, from a catarrhal matter, which while it was putrefying now stirred up a quotidian fever, now a putrid one; just as in fevers that arise from buboes. Nor do we think the disease was contagious, especially among us, since it was neither pernicious, nor did they recover only with difficulty or not at all, even with no assistance. These are the things we thought it proper to write back in our spare hours. Meanwhile, farewell, and love us, as you do. 30 EPIST. LXXXVI. HIERON. MERCURIALIS TO JOH. CRATON OF KRAFHEIM, ETC. GREETING. < That action is harmed by intemperance and hindered by bad composition, if one is to speak properly, I too think so. For I find Galen, 2 De facult. natural. 8. & 5. cap. 40 > That action is harmed by intemperance and hindered by bad composition, if one is to speak properly, I too think so. For I find Galen, in the second book De facult. natural. 8. & 5. and in chapter 40 of the book De diff. sympt., saying that actions are hindered by intemperance. But what good does this dispute do for the salvation of mankind? Throughout nearly all Europe a certain most violent, yet salutary, disease is abroad; whether your regions also are affected by it, I should gladly learn. < On the epidemic disease. > Its nature is as follows. A certain roughness of the throat comes first, with a slight cough; then fever attacks with great force, with pain in the head, back, and legs; in some, the chest is as it were constricted and the stomach burdened. All things last at most three days; at last the fever ceases, either with sweating, or, in many, with a profuse flow of blood from the nose; in some, though very rarely, the illness turns either into pleurisy or into fatal peripneumonias, where the fever and headache are at an end. All complain of great weakness of the whole body and of cough; some also of a corrupted or lost desire both for food and for drink, which sometimes lasts as long as eight days. What is surprising is that whole cities are suddenly seized, and, when one house is attacked, the illness is immediately communicated to each member of that household. So much so that houses often seem deserted of all aid and service. I do not doubt that the fever is synochus without putrefaction, of the class of decreasing fevers, just as I am certain that by the powers of the heavens the common disease now necessarily arises. Whether it is contagious, I should gladly understand your opinion. Though blessed God had not taken away depravity, may all flesh be saved and let all flesh cease. Farewell, and love me. Padua, in the year 1580. EPIST. LXXXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Most distinguished Sir, I have understood from your letters, copiously written to me on this matter, what your opinion is about the previous epidemic constitution of diseases. If I should say that everything has pleased me, I would not lie. But perhaps I shall seem to have wanted to please you too much; wherefore, so that you may also know that I do not merely agree with you, know that I do not quite approve of this, namely, that since you wish diseases to have been contagious, you think the force of contagion lies in putrefaction. For I deny that all fevers which existed without putrefaction were accompanied by contagion without putrefaction, although I do not deny that at times they were changed into putrid fevers, either by the disposition of the body or by errors. Now although I usually know that the seeds of contagion are slow and viscous, and therefore are not separated from putrefaction, I nonetheless do not see why dry and acrid vapors issuing from the mouths of the sick may not be drawn in by nearby persons through the breath, and, once they have adhered to the throats, in some way moisten and thicken without any putrefaction, and at the same time infect the brain and the whole body. Fracastorius, perhaps, and some others would prefer to call this of all things , rather than contagion: but by what authority he claims this for himself I do not know. Vuiqus, whom Plato at times called the master of language, was accustomed to speak thus. But enough of these matters. Farewell. Padua, 22 Sept., 1580. Vulgus Vulgus Vulgus Lam Lam per. EPIST. LXXXVIII. TO REMBERT DODOENS, IMPERIAL PHYSICIAN, Jerome Mercurialis, Doctor of Medicine, greeting. I HAD UNDERSTOOD, dearest Dodoens, from the very great Crato, that you were not bringing forth your opinions concerning the stony-making faculty of sugar in the kidneys so as to produce a calculus.

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135 MEDICINALES. 134 tentiam, quam veluti nullis tunc rationibus confirmatam, an refutauerim non recordor. Cæterum illam à me non esse admodum probatam fateor. Nunc vero cum argumenta, quibus illud dogma adstruis, mihi copiose ac eleganter scripseris, simulque quid sentiam, vt libere significem petas, non potui & amici & viri doctissimi voluntatem defraudare, etsi me non eum esse cognoscam, qui tibi conceptas iamdudum & 10 obseruatione instructas opiniones diuidicare queam. < Causa rerum duplicata.> Rerum causæ, vt nosti, apud veteres Philosophiæ & Medicinæ scriptores in duas potissimum classes partim inueniuntur, quarum alias internas, alias externas vocatunt. Internam causam lapidis renum atq[ue] arenæ minime esse posse saccharum quius facile consentiet. Cum vero externæ idcirco ad effectus edendos conferant, quod internis 20 introducendis occasione aliquam præstent, propterea & saccharum si externa causa nephritidis eensenda est, id erit, vel quia materialem, vel effectricem causam producat. < Materia calculi.> Materiam calculi, cum ea debeat esse crassa atq[ue] tenax, vt omnium Medicorum est opinio, ipsaq[ue] attestatur ratio: saccharum quomodo tenui, friabili, minimeque tenaci substantia constans efficiat, sane non video; neque moueor quod experientia quotidiana 30 compertum sit, saccharum vbi magis excoquitur lentorem acquirere, ac refrigeratum deinde concretere, quandoquidem nec vsque adeo potest intus percoqui aliis rebus permixtum, sicuti ad ignem nunquam retetur, si ipsi sit aliquis humor immixtus. nec etiamsi excoqueretur, posset frigido sicco concretere, & materia lapidis fieri; nimirum quod frigus in nullo viuente, tanto minus in calculosis, qui alioqui sunt toto fere corporis habitu calidiores, vnquam reperiatur. < Efficiens.> Causam porro effectricem, nempe immoderatum renum calorem à saccharo, cuius calor apud me temperatus est, induci nequaquam posse, nemo non videt. Sane vel ea ratione cum calidius sit atque tenacius, æquum esset ad lapidem & arenas ignendas magis conducere, quod tamen nec à te, nec à quoquam alio fide digno authore mandatum memoris obseruavi. Experientiis quas proponis, fidem omnino adhiberem, si quæ ad inquitendam ipsis authoritatem exigantur, à te obseruata ac significata animaduertissem. Nam in quibus tu putas nephritidem ex sacchari usu obortam esse, quomodo quæso demonstrabis, non ab alia poruisse occasione oriri; si me clamante intonuit, quæ est consequentia, tonitru à Mercuriali esse factum. Imo vero, quando sola experientia inter nos decertandum sit, proferam tibi populos, regiones, regna, in quibus mensæ quotidianæ nil saccharo frequentius habent, ac vix renum calculorum nomen scitur, Neapolitanos, Siculos, Turcas, totumq[ue] fere Orientalis plagæ tractum saccharo magnopere delectari, ac copiosissimo vsu, accepimus. Eos tamen omnium gentium minime hoc malo vexari testatur, qui apud ipsos vixerunt, & medicinam factitarunt. Quod si huiusmodi cibus suapte natura in lapillos conuerteretur intra corpus, deberent illi homines passim lapidicinas in visceribus gestare. Quamobrem vt à te alioquin eruditissimo & consummato penitus Medico hac in re dissentiam tot rationes & exempla hortantur. Haud quaquam tamen Dulcis < ex.> inficior, sicut cætera dulcia à iecore auidissime attracta crudorum succorum co[n]gestioni magnam occasionem, dum secum incocti cibi rapiuntur, præbere, sic & saccharum facere, ac proinde materiæ arenarum cumulandæ aliquo pacto inseruire, at id agit, quia dulce, non autem quia saccharum. Hæc inter æstus, & plurimas quibus obruor occupationes quæ responderem habui. En etiam à te probati no[n] quæro, modo hac meæ sententia significatione voluntati saltem, si non intellectui tuo satisfactum sciam. Cortusius tibi salutem plurimam dicit, ac mecum sæpe de filio tuo locutus est: qui vbi Parauium venerit, ego quotq[ue] operam dabo, vt in filio cognoscas à me plurimum diligi atque coli Dodonæum. Vale, & tarditatem meam boni consule. Patauij 21. Iunij. Anno 1575. EPIST. LXXXIX. HIERON. MERCURIALIS D. Petro Monanto S.P. EXCELLENTISSIME Domine: Vt tardiatem tuam in respoendo meis literis adeo eloquenter excusares, nulla certe aut animi mei erga te suspicio, aut tui error exgebant: Sed quod id peraceuratè facere libuerit, insigni tuæ humanitati atque singulari erga me propensioni tribuo, eoque nomine, quas possum, ago gratias. Etenim de equis illis iam Cratonis prudentissimi senis consilium secutus sum, atque in eo tuine multo magis lætor, cum video te quoque summis rationibus eiuscemodè deliberationem commendare. Itaque silentio illorum tractationi imposito, ad ea qua ex me quæris venio: Verum contagium pu- F 4

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135 MEDICINALS. 134 I do not remember whether I refuted that opinion, which at the time, as though not yet confirmed by any arguments, I had not accepted. However, I confess that it did not seem to me very well proved. Now, since you have written to me at length and elegantly the arguments by which you support that doctrine, and since at the same time you ask that I freely state what I think, I could not deny the wish of both a friend and a most learned man, although I know that I am not the sort of person who can dispute opinions conceived long ago and fortified by observation. <Double cause of things.> The causes of things, as you know, are found among the ancient writers on Philosophy and Medicine to fall chiefly into two classes, some of which they called internal, others external. That sugar cannot be an internal cause of stone in the kidneys and sand, anyone will readily agree. But since external causes contribute to producing effects by offering some occasion for internal causes to be introduced, if sugar is to be regarded as an external cause of nephritis, it will be so either because it produces a material cause or an efficient cause. <Material of the stone.> As for the material of a stone, since it ought to be thick and tenacious, according to the opinion of all physicians, and reason itself bears witness to it, I truly do not see how sugar, consisting of a thin, friable, and by no means tenacious substance, can bring this about; nor am I moved by the fact that daily experience has shown that sugar acquires a certain viscidity when more thoroughly cooked and then hardens on cooling, since it cannot be so thoroughly cooked within when mixed with other substances, just as it is never kept on the fire if any moisture is mixed with it. Nor, even if it were cooked down, could it congeal in the cold and dry and become the material of a stone; namely, because cold is never found in any living body, much less in those with calculi, who otherwise are by bodily constitution almost entirely warmer than others. <Efficient cause.> Moreover, no one can see that the efficient cause, namely the excessive heat of the kidneys, can be induced by sugar, whose heat is, in my view, moderate. Indeed, even for that reason, since it is warmer and more tenacious, it would seem more suitable for kindling a stone and sand, yet I have observed neither from you nor from any other trustworthy author any record of this. I would certainly give full credence to the experiences you propose, if I had noticed that you had observed and reported those things which are required to confer authority upon them. For in those cases in which you think nephritis arose from the use of sugar, how, I ask, will you prove that it could not have arisen from some other occasion? If thunder sounded while I shouted, what follows? That the thunder was caused by Mercurialis. Indeed, if we are to contend by experience alone, I shall present to you peoples, regions, and kingdoms in which the daily table has nothing more frequent than sugar, and yet the name of kidney stones is scarcely known: the Neapolitans, Sicilians, Turks, and almost the whole region of the East are known to delight greatly in sugar and to use it very abundantly. Yet those peoples are testified by those who have lived among them and practiced medicine there to be least afflicted by this ailment of all nations. If such food by its own nature were to turn into little stones within the body, those men would everywhere be carrying quarries in their viscera. Wherefore, that I disagree with you in this matter, though otherwise a most learned and accomplished physician, so many reasons and examples urge me. I do not, however, wholly deny that, just as other sweet things, eagerly drawn to the liver, provide a great opportunity for the accumulation of crude humors while undigested food is carried along with them, so sugar does likewise, and thus may in some way serve to build up matter for sand; but it does this because it is sweet, not because it is sugar. Amid these heats and the many occupations by which I am overwhelmed, I have had what to reply. I do not ask anything more of you than that, by this expression of my opinion, I may at least satisfy your wish, if not your understanding. Cortusius sends you very many greetings, and he has often spoken with me about your son: and when he comes to Parauium, I shall also do my utmost so that through your son you may know how greatly I am devoted to and esteem Dodonaeus. Farewell, and kindly excuse my slowness. Padua, 21 June, 1575. EPIST. LXXXIX. HIERON. MERCURIALIS D. To Peter Monanto, greetings. MOST EXCELLENT Sir: That you should excuse your slowness in replying to my letters so eloquently, neither any suspicion on my part nor any error of yours certainly required: but that you were pleased to do so most carefully, I attribute to your remarkable kindness and singular goodwill toward me, and for that reason I give you thanks as well as I can. Indeed, I have now followed the counsel of that very prudent old man Craton concerning those horses, and I rejoice all the more in your agreement, since I see that you too commend such a deliberation with the highest reasoning. Therefore, since silence has been imposed on those discussions, I come to what you ask of me: the contagious con- F 4

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tredinis sobolem esse semper agnoui. Verum alterius non veri contagij, quod recentiores aliqui vocare vocare maluerunt, causam haud putredinem esse, nulla scriptorum autoritas, nullave ratio vetat: Sic enim, qui oscitantes vel sternuentes aspiciunt, eos pariter & oscitare & sternuere aduertimus, cui non admodum dissimilem existimo fuisse eam contagionem, quam in præterita epithemica synochorum imputridorum constitutione affuisse non dubito. Scis enim putredinem febrilem nunquam contagiosam euadere, nisi ingens admodum sit, alioqui febres quælibet ex putrescentibus humoribus ortæ, cur non omnes essent contagiosæ? Iam vero nemo est, qui non fateatur aoteactas febres aut omnis putredinis expertes extituisse, aut perexiguam habuisse. Quomodo vero sympathian aut contagij genus id existimaue- tim, potes in meis ad Cratonem literis facile cognoscere. Si Galenum nunquam errare potuisse, vt aliqui male conscij prædicant, existimas, iure quæris, quo pacto plumbum aërum simul & grauissimum sit: Sed si & Aristolelem & sensum, ac rationem, vt debes, sequi malueris, cum insigniter in plumbi natura indicanda lapsum esse fateberis. Nam metalla ex vaporibus tum aqueis, tum terreis vi caloris, ac frigoris confiliari tam aperte demonstrant Peripatetici, vt nihil certius sit, quam aurum, plumbu[m], hydrargyrum ideirco esse corpora grauissima, quod constent ex aqua, & terra optime percoctis, congelatis, & mixtis, sique hydrargyro motus ille perennis, & eximia tenuitas inest, non ob aliud esse, quam ob aërem, qui non multos ob egregiàm mixtionem aquæ congelatæ inclusus exitum quærens tantisper totum corpus ciet, donec veligno, vel quapiam alia externa causa dissoluto illo corpore aqueo & terreo abit, simulque & terram & aquam dissolutam abire facit. Hæc ignorasse grauissimum scriptorem Galenum valde miror, aut saltem dissimulare, cum scripsit, esse in plumbo multam substantiam humidam co[n]gelatam aëream, & paucam terream. Sed multo magis ipsius simplicitatem admiror, qui dixit, cauernosum esse plumbum, ac propterea pondus eius, vt statnarum vincula probandi, diuturnitate augeri, quod aëreu[m] sit. Etenim sane nescio an Grammaticorum liberi cum in modum philosopharentur: primum, valde dubito, falsum esse plumbi pondus, aut molem vllaratione augeri, cum pene contrarium exploretur in iis tegulis quibus culmina templorum coopertuntur: sed etiam si illud concellero, non quia ac- 136 reum augetur, sed quia superficie ipsius corrupta, terraque & aqua dissolutis, vtrarumque pondus magis atque magis sese exerit, corrupmia utere vitio actis & temporis plumbi superficiem ex eo facile conuincitur, quod si vetustum & vsu consumtum eliquetur, multo maior recrementorum, quam solidæ plumbi substantiæ copia extabit. Habes, mi Monaui, quæ inter varias visitationum & publicarum lectionum occupationes tuis grauissimis dubiis hoc tempore duxi respondenda. In tis, si quid tibi à me satis factum erit, pro luctro non exiguo putabo. Sin minus, spero, quæ tua est cunctis spectata probitas à te meas vires excusatum iri. Vale meque, vt facis, ama. Pataui 17. Febr. Anno 581. EPIST. XC. IDEM EIDEM. OPTASSEM Monaui mi, aut plus otij mihi superesse, aut curarum minus habere, quo præclare tuæ pro Galeni circa plumbi naturam suscepta dissensione disceptationi responderem: sed quia ea est omni tempore, & præsertim hæc nostri ordinis hominum conditio, vt vix tendendis vnguibus præ infirmorum visitationibus, publicis lectionibus, atque studiis facultas concedatur, me excusatum iri apud te spero, si ea disputaione iam meis literis inchoata, tuis aute[m] pene confecta, nunc dimissa ad ea, quæ proposuisti problemata explicanda conuertar. Vbi prius tamen illud addidero, quod non recte in aliis meis percepisse videtis, plumbi laminas sub dio, quemadmodum etiam peritissimus fatetur Agricola, idcirco auctas videri, quoniam ipsarum pondus erecit: atqui crescit, non ob aliud, nisi quia corrupta ab ambiente modo calido, modo frigido, superficie, partes aequæ, & subtiliores in cinerem vertuntur, vnde vis illa terreltris, & ponderosa plumbi, quæ prius ab aqueis partibus veluti subleuata quodammodo occultabatur, magis sese exerit, sicq[ue] iure pondus augeri videtur. Nam idem plumbum, si comburatur, decima atq[ue] etiam amplius parte, quam antea ponderare conspicitur, non ob aliud, quam quod partes aequæ in cinerem, & terram conuersæ pondus addunt, sicut aequæ velut subtollentes corpus plumbi Icuius reddebant. Nunc ad quæsita: Scribis enim videri tibi, non leuem in Aristoteles commentariis co[n]tradictionem, quod 4. Problema 15. tradat, rem nullam in aqua liquescere posse, quæ igniliquesceri apta sit, ceu plumbum, & ceram.

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I have always recognized putrefaction to be the source of offspring. But that the cause of another, not true contagion, which some more recent writers have preferred to call vocare vocare, is not putrefaction, no authority of writers, nor any reason, forbids: for thus, we observe that those who look at people yawning or sneezing are likewise moved both to yawn and to sneeze; and I think a contagion not very different from this was present in the past epidemic constitution of impure synochal fevers. For you know that febrile putrefaction never becomes contagious unless it be very great; otherwise, if any fevers whatever arise from putrescent humors, why would not all be contagious? Moreover, there is no one who does not admit that the fevers of earlier times either were altogether free of putrefaction or had but very little of it. How, however, you may think of that as a sympathy or as a kind of contagion, you can easily learn from my letters to Crato. If you think that Galen could never have erred, as some, aware of their own wrongdoing, proclaim, then you rightly ask by what means lead is both light and very heavy at the same time. But if you prefer to follow Aristotle and sense, as you ought, and reason too, you will confess that he erred notably in indicating the nature of lead. For the Peripatetics clearly demonstrate that metals are compounded from vapors, both watery and earthy, by the power of heat and cold, so clearly that nothing is more certain than that gold, lead, and mercury are therefore the heaviest bodies, because they consist of water and earth most thoroughly cooked, congealed, and mixed; and if in mercury there is that perpetual motion and extraordinary thinness, this is for no other reason than the air, which, because of the excellent mixture of congealed water enclosed within it, seeks an exit; and while doing so it moves the whole body, until that watery and earthy body is dissolved by some such means, whether by fire or by some other external cause, and with it causes both the earth and the dissolved water to depart. I greatly marvel that Galen, a most serious writer, was ignorant of this, or at least concealed it, when he wrote that in lead there is much humid, congealed, airy substance, and little earthy substance. But much more do I admire his simplicity, when he said that lead is hollow, and therefore its weight, like that of statues' chains, increases with time, because it is airy. For indeed I do not know whether the children of grammarians were philosophizing in this manner: first, I greatly doubt whether the weight of lead, or its mass, is increased for any reason at all, since the contrary is observed in those tiles with which the roofs of temples are covered; but even if I grant that, it is not because it is made more airy, but because its surface having been corrupted, and the earth and water dissolved, the weight of both more and more shows itself forth; and the corruption of lead’s surface through the action of time is easily proved from this, that if old lead, worn out by use, be melted down, a far greater amount of dross than of solid lead substance will remain. You have, my Monauius, what I have thought fit at this time to reply to your very serious doubts amid the various occupations of visits and public lectures. If in this I have sufficiently satisfied you in anything, I shall count it no small gain. If not, I hope that, such as is your proven integrity before all, you will excuse my powers. Farewell, and love me as you do. Padua, 17 February, Year 581. EPIST. XC. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I would have wished, my dear Monauius, either to have more leisure left to me, or to have fewer cares, so that I might splendidly answer your dispute undertaken on behalf of Galen concerning the nature of lead; but since such is at all times, and especially at this time, the condition of men of our order, that there is scarcely any opportunity allowed even to stretch out our nails amid visits to the sick, public lectures, and studies, I hope I shall be excused by you if, having already begun that discussion in my letters, and yours being nearly finished, I now turn, with it set aside, to explaining the problems you proposed. Yet before that I shall add this: what you see not to have been rightly understood in my other writings, namely that lead sheets under the open sky, as the most skilled Agricola also admits, seem to have increased because their weight rises; but it increases for no other reason than that, the surface having been corrupted by the surrounding air, now warm and now cold, the equal and finer parts are turned into ash, from which that earthly and weighty force of lead, which before was as it were somewhat lifted up and concealed by the watery parts, shows itself more plainly, and thus the weight is rightly seen to increase. For the same lead, if it be burned, is seen to weigh a tenth part and even more than before, for no other reason than that the equal parts, turned into ash and earth, add weight, just as the equal parts, as it were lifting up the body of lead, made it lighter. Now to your questions: you write that there seems to you to be no slight contradiction in Aristotle’s commentaries, because in Problem 4, 15, he states that no substance can melt in water if it is capable of being melted by fire, such as lead and wax.

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137 MEDICINALES. 138 ceram; de quo postremo etiam dubitas. In commentariolo vero de admirandis auscul- tationibus scribat, stannum Celticum mnstro citius plumbo liquescere, quia in a- qua etiam liqnesieri soleat. Ego autem nul- lam autilexico inesse, si vt par est, intelligatur vterq[ue] locus, puto. Nam suapre natura, & vt dicunt per se, nil potest in aqua liqnesieri, quod igne liquescat; quemadmodum locu- tus est in problematis. Atqui nil prohibet, id < Quod igne non Aqua liqneseri.> per accidens posse contingere, eo nimitum pacto, quod ipsemet Philosophus in admi- randis explicuit. Vbi ab extremo aquæ fri- gori intestinum stanni Celtici calorem pu- sillum cogi, coactum augeri, auctum lique- facere docet, haud secus atque grauissimus autor Theophrastus in lib. de igne metalla in Ponto intra terrâ liqnesieri indicant cal- lore scilicet terræ ob aeris frigus intro colle- cto & aucto. < Caldaria plumbea vehementissimo igne non difficit.> Quod secundo loco postulas, vt causam reddam, ob quam in Germaniæ metallis sa- les conficiantur in caldariis plumbeis, ne- que eiusmodi vasa etiam vehementissimo igne incandescentia dissoluantur, haud sa- ne explicatu facile est. Tentabo tamen in re admodum dubia & obscura, & à nullis forte proposita, aut saltem exacte explicita sententiam meam aperire. Quæ enim sum- mo frigido, siue humiditati sine siccitati < 30> coniuncto sunt concreta, tunc dissoluun- tur, cum humor congelatus soluitur, absu- miturve, cumque illa compages, & partium terrestrium vnio corrumpitur. Quas res ignem sua vi & calidissimum & tenuissi- < 40> mum efficere apud omnes exploratissimum est. Itaque si aliquod reperitur, cuius fa- cultate cotporum hunc in modum concre- torum humor congelatus seruetur, simul- que vnio partium ab ignis violentia prote- gatur, plane indissolubile etiam igne tenta- < 40> tum euadere, rationi consentaneum erit. Huiusmodi aute[m] est sal, nempe, qui sua pin- gui humiditate plumbi bumidum à con- sumptione & dissoluzione tueri, faculatè vero in signi, qua pollet, astrictoria compa- < 40> gem, & vnione partium eius in medio flam- marum conseruare, egregie valet, perinde ac experientia compertum est, si quis patel- lam chartaceam efficiat, eamq[ue] oleo semi- < 40> plenam supra prunas componat, minime chartam vi ignis consumi. Salem vero magnopere astringete, ita apud omnes co- < 40> pertum est, vt neminem sanum id negare posse existimem, quod etiam humiditate pingui, & oleosa pollear, præter Aristotelis < 40> id in meteorologicis, & Problematis asle- tentis auctoritatem, extat locupletissimùm Plintarchi testimonium in primo quæst. na- tural. nec non 1. conuiual. problem. 9. tibi & salem marinamque aquam oleosam esse, & propterea minus dulci pannis maculas elu- ere, minimeq[ue] plantas nutrire: imo vero eas necare disputat. < Cerano non aqua liqua- fari.> Cur autem dubites, cera ne liquescat in aqua? Occasionem certe nullam video, cu[m] quotidiana experientia doceat, ceram pan- nis adhærentem nulla aqua, sed solo ignis calore tolli: Habes nunc quæ protuis du- biis enodandis respondenda sum arbitratus. in iis si satisfecero, operam me non penitus perdidisse putabo. Sin minus, id & ingenii mei infirmitati, & rerum naturalium obscu- ritati, non autem voluntati, quæ semper in te propensa erit, triburum iri spero. Vale, meque vt facis, ama. Dab. Patauij, 20. De- cemb. Anno 83. EPIST. XCI. IDEM EIDEM < Meditavit de venenis & puerorum morbis Moræ curiosis ex- tamperantem.> BINAS vno die à te accepi epistolas, in quibus cum antiquis nouas iunxeris dis- putationes eo libentius inter multas quibus assi due premor occupationes, iis responde- re aggrediar, quod præclara illa ingenii vis quæ in cunctis tuis valde elucer, nec non singularis eruditio, atque eloquentia me ita acriter incendunt, vt tibi respondere in ma- ximis studiorum atque negoriorum meo- < 40> rum partibus esse putem. Illud autem inpri- misse haud nescire opto, quas nuperrime vidisti de venenis, & puerorum morbis edi- tas meditationes, ex iis esse, quæ è cathedra nobis velut cæstro quodam percitis e- missa celeri, ac non ita prudenti auditorum manu excipiùtur, vt si quandoq[ue] aliqua mi- nus elaborata & firma eructentur, candido < 40> & ingenuo lectori, nec auxilium illam ma- thematicâ expectandi, neq[ue] protinus obtre- stanti, aut acerbius contradicendi occasio- nem præbere debeant, cum plerunque mi- nime elimata, imo vero non reuifa ab ipsis profitentibus, exeant. Scribis in tractatione puerilium ægritudinum, me eam no[n] exigui momenti disputationem omisisse, vtrum i- < 40> psismet pueris, an nutricibus postulante ne- cessitate purgantia sint exhibenda medica- < 40> menta, tibiq[ue] videri potius, pueros ea sume- < 40> re debere, secusq[ue] à me constitutum, vel sup- < 40> positum videri. Ego vero impulsus eo Hip- < 40> pocratis oraculo, quo inv[er]t[er] de mor. vulg- < 40> tex. 35. dixit, Mulier, capra, elaterium, aut cucumerem syluestrem edentes, pueris pur- < 40> gatio. Semper existimaui, multo tutius, < 40> per nutrices puellulos purgari, quam si- < 40> pisis qnomodocunque parata exhibeantur < 40> medicamenta: Nam præterquam < 40>

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137 MEDICINALS. 138 ceram; about which last point you even have doubts. But in the little commentary on the marvelous observations, he writes that Celtic tin melts faster than lead, because it is also accustomed to liquefy in water. However, I think that there is no contradiction, if both passages are understood as they should be. For by its own nature, and, as they say, of itself, nothing can be liquefied in water that melts by fire; just as he spoke in the Problems. Yet nothing prevents it from happening incidentally, namely in that manner which the Philosopher himself explained in the Marvels. There he teaches that, at the extreme cold of water, the internal heat of Celtic tin is forced into a slight degree, when forced increased, and when increased it liquefies, no differently from the very serious author Theophrastus, who in the book On Fire indicates that metals in Pontus are liquefied within the earth, namely by the heat of the earth, gathered and increased through the cold of the air. < Lead kettles do not fail even under the fiercest fire.> As to the second point you ask, that I give the reason why in the metals of Germany salts are made in leaden kettles, and why vessels of that kind do not break apart even when made incandescent by the fiercest fire, this is by no means easy to explain. Nevertheless I shall try, in a matter very doubtful and obscure, and perhaps proposed by no one or at least not exactly explained, to set forth my opinion. For things that are solidified by extreme cold, whether joined to moisture or to dryness, then dissolve when the frozen moisture is released or consumed, and when that structure, and the union of the earthy parts, is destroyed. It is well known to everyone that fire by its force makes things both very hot and very subtle. Therefore, if something is found by whose power the frozen moisture of bodies solidified in this way is preserved, and at the same time the union of the parts is protected from the violence of fire, it will be entirely consistent with reason that it should prove indissoluble even when tested by fire. Of this kind is salt, which, by its fatty moisture, is able to protect the moistness of lead from consumption and dissolution; and by the strong astringency it possesses, it is excellently able to preserve the structure and union of its parts in the midst of the flames, just as experience has shown that if someone makes a paper dish and places it, half-filled with oil, above the coals, the paper is by no means consumed by the force of the fire. Moreover, that salt is highly astringent is so well established among all men that I think no sane person could deny it; and that it also possesses a fatty and oily moisture is attested, besides Aristotle’s authority in the Meteorologica and the Problems, by a very rich testimony of Plutarch in the first Question of the Natural Questions, and also in the first book of the Convivial Problems, question 9, where he argues that sea salt and sea water are oily, and for that reason wash stains from cloths less well and do not nourish plants; indeed, he even argues that they kill them. < Wax does not liquefy in water.> Why, however, do you doubt whether wax melts in water? I certainly see no occasion for it, since daily experience teaches that wax adhering to cloths is removed not by water at all, but by the heat of fire alone. You now have what I thought ought to be answered for the resolution of your doubts. If I satisfy them, I shall think that my effort has not been entirely wasted. If not, I hope that this will be attributed not to my willingness, which will always be inclined toward you, but to the weakness of my own talent and to the obscurity of natural things. Farewell, and love me as you do. Given at Padua, 20 December, in the year 83. EPISTLE XCI. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME < He reflected on poisons and children’s diseases, curiously tempering restraint.> I RECEIVED two letters from you on the same day, in which, having joined new discussions to old ones, I shall more willingly address them amid the many occupations with which I am burdened, because that splendid force of mind which shines so clearly in all your writings, as well as your singular learning and eloquence, so strongly inflame me that I think responding to you among the chief concerns of my studies and affairs. But first I wish you not to be unaware that those meditations on poisons and on children’s diseases which you recently saw published are among those things which, emitted from the chair as though by some spear-thrust, come out quickly and are received not so prudently by the audience, so that if at any time some things less worked out and less firm are uttered, they should not furnish the candid and ingenuous reader with occasion either to expect that mathematical precision, or straightway to object, or to contradict more sharply, since they usually come out scarcely polished at all, indeed not even revised by those who profess them. You write that in the treatment of children’s illnesses I omitted that discussion of no small importance, namely whether purgative medicines ought to be administered to the children themselves or to the nurses, as necessity requires, and that it seems to you rather that the children ought to take them, whereas the opposite appears to have been established or assumed by me. But I, moved by that oracle of Hippocrates in the book On Diseases of Women, text 35, where he said: “A woman, a she-goat, elaterium, or wild cucumber eaten by children is a purge,” have always thought it much safer for little boys and girls to be purged through the nurses than for medicines prepared in whatever manner to be given to them: for besides ...

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Transcription: ATR-1

Medicos ab Hippocrate doceri scribit eo loci Galenus, vt sic medeantur pueris, illa etiam ratio persuadere potest, quod etiamsi nutrices corpora sana habentes vtu purgantium offendi queant, attamen multo melius resistere iniuriis pharmacorum possint quâ infantes, nempe qui ob corporum inualiditatem multo minus medicamentorum naturæ humanæ aduersantium vim sustinere possunt, suceo vel substantia tota sumptorum, quam si eorundem vis sola castigata, atque vt ita dicam dulcorata, lacti alimento familiarissimo, & iucundissimo indita præbeatur. Velles quoque in tractatione lumbricorum à me commemoratum esse id genus vernium, quod in iumentis plerunque, in vestratibus antem pueris non raro fieri conspicitur, quodque ab Auenzoare, & à Nicola Florentino inter alia verminim genera fuisse propositum non ignoramus, cum scilicet in dorso vermis oritur, qui hunc atque illuc perreptus earesque exedens bruta & pueros macie consumit. Ego vero sicut eiuscemodi ægritudinem à dracunculo veteribus nuncupato, nostrisque in variis lectionibus tractato, non parum differre puto, sic de ipsis, eum rarissime, vel nunquam in homine videantur, vel si vnquam in homine apparent, inter lumbricorum genera non recenseantur, ad eum, qui ipsos docet, haud ita pertinere tractatio videtur, quin possit iure aliquo præteriri, quanquam nec ego profitear, me cuncta esse adeo complexum, vt aliis etiam eruditoribus aliquid addendi, aut magis excolendi locum non reliquerim. Transis post hæc ad librum de venenis, in quo te primum offendi scribis, quod constituerim venenum esse in substantiæ, non autem, vt eomplures credunt, in qualitatis prædicamento: addisc[us] me interdum vim veneficam in corpore positam, esse venenum asserere, interdum definire esse mistum, ac propterea pugnantia dico, quasi non idem sit, hominem esse animam in corpore positam, vel esse compositum ex animo & corpore. Sed quia hoc postremum luxuriantis ingenii argumentum est, ipso dimisso, ad id quod magis vrges conuertar, nimirum vt probem rationes quibus vteris ad probandum esse in prædicamento relationis venenum collocandum, aduersus meam sententiam non tantum habere momenti, quin facile dilui igneant: Num vt hinc primum exordiar. ea dicuntur ad aliquid ex Aristot. quorum esse aliorum est, aut aliqvid aliquo modo dicitur. Primo modo plane ad aliquid, nec alimentum nec venenum dicitur, sed secundum modo, prout scilicet aliqvid seu respectu alicuius, nempe hominis dicitur. Verum nec hoc pacto vere ad aliqvid sunt, siquidem maior pars venenorum æque alia bruta atq[ue] hominem interemit, & multa etiam alimenta sunt, non minus beluarum, quam hominis. Sed concedamus esse ad aliquid venenum, quid prohibet vnam & eandem rem diuersimode acceptâ sub diuersis prædicamentis collocari? Magnum & paruum in quantitatis & relationis. Morbus & sanitas in qualitatis & relationis prædicamentis ponuntur: haud secus etiam forma substantialis in duobus prædicamentis est, eum forma quælibet sit alicuius forma. Quare de veneno quoq[ue] dicere possumus, vt refertur ad hominem esse ad aliquid. Vt vero mistu[m] quoddam est esse propria forma, quæ est vis venefica. & subiecto, esse in prædicamento substantiæ. quemadmodum compositum ex materia & forma, neque ipse vnquam dicerem totum scorpionem aut totam viperam esse venenum, sed illius spirituolum corpus vi venefica formatum, quod totum communicatur: Huius autem corpus saliuosum similiter constatum & morsu communicabile. Nunc deinceps, quod quarto loco quæris, an venena sint contagiosa, mea sententia est, corpora quæ veneno interempta sint, minime alia inficere posse, quod vis illa non modo proprio subiecto iam exenta sit, verum etiam in eadauere extincta, ita vt si venenum integrum è corpore iam ab ipso ne- eato extrahatur, aique alteri cuidam præbeatur penitus inefficax, vlliq[ue] alteri lædendo sit factum ineptum, neque ab hac opinione me deflectit, quod in historiis Indicis habetur relatum, Cambaiae prouineiæ regem veneno nutritum ita euasisse venenosum, vt etiam muscæ ipsius cutem exugentes veneno tactæ perierint, siquidem proprie ide contagium, quod sit per eibi sumptionem, minime appellandum puto, & venenum id regis in corpore viuente, nec dum sua potentia perfunctum erat. Porro venenum pestiferæ tabis cur proprie & ipsum venenum, enm cor petat, & statim perimar, non sit vocandum, rationem nullam video, etsi inter hoc & alia, illud discrimen conspiciatur, quod pestilentia vbiaere infecto communicatur, vere contagiosa sit. Alia vero contagii veri sint expertia, etiamsi interdum medio aëris vitam eximant. Quod autem de Hippomane mugantur, iam dudum, qui raro fallitur, esse fabulam doeuit Aristoteles, sique philtra vilam nocendi humanis corporibus suapte natura

Transcription: Translated (English)

Galen writes in that passage that doctors are taught by Hippocrates to care for children in such a way that this reasoning can also persuade us: although nurses, even when they have healthy bodies, may be harmed by purgative medicines, nevertheless they are much better able to withstand the injuries of drugs than infants, namely those who, because of the weakness of their bodies, can much less endure the force of medicines contrary to human nature when they are taken in the juice or whole substance, than if the same force, moderated and, so to speak, sweetened, is administered in milk, the most familiar and most pleasing nourishment. You would also have liked me to mention, in my treatment of worms, that kind of vermin which is seen to occur mostly in beasts of burden, but not rarely in your own children, and which we know was proposed by Avenzoar and Nicolaus Florentinus, among other kinds of worms; namely, when a worm arises on the back, which, rushing this way and that and gnawing the ears, consumes both animals and children by wasting them away. But I think that such an illness differs not a little from the dracunculus so named by the ancients and discussed by us in various readings; and since, if they ever appear in man, they are seen very rarely or never, or if they do ever appear in man, they are not to be counted among the kinds of worms, it does not seem that the discussion belongs so much to the teacher of those matters that it may rightly be omitted. Although I do not claim to have embraced everything so fully that I have left no room for other scholars to add something or to refine matters further. After this you pass to the book on poisons, in which you say you first took offense at me because I had determined that poison belongs to the category of substance, not, as very many believe, to the category of quality. You learned from me that I sometimes assert poison to be a harmful power placed in the body, sometimes define it as a mixture, and therefore say contradictory things, as if it were not the same thing to say that a human being is a soul placed in a body, or that he is composed of soul and body. But because this latter objection is an argument of a luxuriant wit, I shall set it aside and turn to what you press more strongly, namely, that I should prove that the reasons you use to prove that poison must be placed in the category of relation do not have enough force against my opinion, so that they can easily be refuted. Shall I begin from here? Things are said to be “toward something” in Aristotle’s sense whose being is of others, or which are said in some way with reference to something else. In the first way, neither food nor poison is plainly “toward something”; but in the second way, insofar as something is said with respect to something else, namely man. Yet even in this way they are not truly “toward something,” since the greater part of poisons kills animals as well as man, and many foods are no less foods of beasts than of man. But let us grant that poison is “toward something”: what prevents one and the same thing, taken in different ways, from being placed under different categories? Big and small are placed in the categories of quantity and relation. Disease and health are placed in the categories of quality and relation. Likewise, substantial form is in two categories, since every form is someone’s form. Therefore, we can also say of poison that, as it refers to man, it is “toward something.” But as a certain mixture, it is the proper form which is the poisonous power; and as subject, it is in the category of substance, just as a composite of matter and form is. Nor would I ever say that the whole scorpion or the whole viper is poison, but rather the spirituous body of it, formed by poisonous power, which is wholly communicated; and likewise this body, composed of saliva, is communicated by the bite. Now in the next place, as to what you ask in the fourth place, whether poisons are contagious, my opinion is that bodies which have been destroyed by poison are by no means able to infect others, because that power is not only already removed from its proper subject, but also extinguished in the corpse; so that if the poison entire is extracted from the body of one already killed by it and given to another, it is utterly ineffective and made incapable of harming anyone else. Nor am I moved by what is reported in Indian histories, that the king of the province of Cambay, nourished by poison, escaped so poisonous that even flies sucking his skin died when touched by the poison, since I do not think this ought properly to be called contagion, which comes through ingestion, and in the king that poison was still in a living body and had not yet exhausted its power. Moreover, as to why the poison of pestilential plague should properly not itself be called poison, when it attacks the heart and kills at once, I see no reason; although between this and other things that distinction is observed, namely that pestilence, when communicated through infected air, is truly contagious, whereas other things are free from true contagion, even if at times they take life through the medium of the air. As for what is said about Hippomanes, Aristotle, who is rarely mistaken, long ago showed it to be a fable; and if love potions are able by their own nature to harm human bodies...

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natura, non à cacodæmone communicatam: habeant, eam minime veneficum dice- rem. quoniam cerebrum potius, quam cor lacessire, neque præsentaneam necem asser- re, sed vt cæteri praui humores, atque ægri- rudines paulatim videntur consumere. Re- dis posthæc ad plumbi natutam iampridem tractatam, in qua vix tibi persuadere potes, quomodo plumbi aqueis & subtilioribus partibus sub dio in cinerem conuersis, vis terrestris, & ponderosa magis sese (quod e- go dixi) exerat, quasi aqve partes magis debeant in halitus consumi, quam vllo pa- cto in terrestrem substantiam coeerti. Hoc autem facilius, ni fallor, discere poteris, si partes illas non prorsus aqueas, sed etiam a- lieuius, vt sic loquar, terrestreitatis partici- pes esse cogiter, vt quemadmodum humidi- tas viridium lignorum combusta multo plu- res cineres, quam sicca ligna deusta facit, quod illa terrestris humiditas in cinerem vertatur. Sic humiditas plumbi tenuior aliatum partium respectu sub dio cinis e- uadat, ac propterea diselufo aëre, qui le- uitatem addebat, pondus paulo maius appa- reat. De plumbeis caldariis, quoniam meam ad problema tuum responionem minime improbas: imo potius eam audiorem, il- lustriorem, ornarioremque facis, & ingenii tui candorem & eloquentiæ vbertatem, & eruditionis copiam etiam atque etiam lau- do & amplector, nec vbi tanta claritas ad- sit, philosophicum puto, alia verba inutili- rer adiungere. Itaque iis, quæ docte scri- psisti, omisis, ad posteriorem libenter tra- eo, in qua quoniam primum de liene dispu- tas, quasi & ipse in sanguine fa- bricando iecinori sit, meamq[ue] ea in re sen- tentiam audire optas libere dicam, vbi est tantus sapientum virdum ac tantorum se- culorum consensus, me non facile moueri, quod vns vel alter ingenu lasciua quadam dissentire videtur. Nam & ipse Galli cuiusdam atque alte- rius scripta vidi, meaque in bibliotheca ha- beo, quibus & à te propositis argumentis, & plerisque aliis docere nituntur hactenus & veteres & receotiores fefellisse, qui dixe- rint, lienis actionem esse sanguinem, & ie- cur à feculenta ac terrestri, melancholicaq[ue] substantia deputare, imo vero & ipsum non minus iecinore sanguinis perfectionem ab- soluere, præsertimq[ue] pro sinistro cordis ven- triculo eum parare. Sed speciosæ quidem sunt eorum rationes, quæ tamen paulo at- rentius examinatæ debita firmitate carete conspiciuntur. Vt enim verum est frequen- ter naturam communes corporis ministros vel geminos facere, vel in medlo aliquo lo- co collocare, sic non ita sese huic necessita- ti adstrinxit natura, quin aliquando ab hu- iuscemodi co[n]suetudine discesserit, tunc præ- ferum, cum melioris alicuius rei gratia id fecisse visa est. Quomodo enim natura po- tuisset duo ita vasta & toti corpori famu- laotia viscera in medio subtus cor dispone- re? Quomodo rursus non superuacanea fuisset, si plura sanguini efficiundu instru- menta condidisset? cui vnum sufficere po- terat, & debebat: Quam rem cognoscens Aristoteles, atque cordi cuncta præcipua tribuens, satius duxit illud solum veram sanguinis officinam statuere, quam id muneris plutibus impartiri: similitudinem aliquam genericam, aut etiam specieam habere posse structuram lienis cum iecinore non diffiteor, quoniam vero vnaquæque pecu- liatis actio à proprietate partis efficientis nulli alteri communi proficiscitur, vt mil- les dixit Galenus, tantum abest, cuiuscemodi proprietatem sanguificam eandem in vtro- que visere esse, vt non minus terra à coelo distet. Quæ, mi Monaui quæso est ratio ea, læsam sanguificationem atque vitia inde otta æque aliene, ac iecinore oriri & pro- pterea debere lienem esse partem sanguinis effectricem? Nam vt de hydrope loquar, quem scribit Galenus necessario produci refrigerato iecore, qui ignorat à liene tu- mente, & refrigerato insigniter quoque re- frigerari iecur, & subinde cachexias, hydro- pes, aliaque huiusmodi vitia succedere? De venenis, medicamentis, & cibis præclare vt cuncta soles, disseruisti. Veruntamen, quod proponis venena variis partibus insi- dari nec propterea vnum cor omnia pete- re, iam puto me explicasse lib. I. cap. II. vbi eadem argumenta, atque eandem difficul- tatem, quam tu, proposui, simulque infal- lor, enodavi. Quare iam tibi me aliqua tal- tem ex parte satisfecisse spero: sin minus, voluntatem saltem meam probatam tibi iri confido. Vale. Patauij, die vlumo Marui, Anno 1584. EPIST. XCII. HIERON. MERCURIALIS, &c. Wenceslas Raphano Med. S. D. Sed iam ad id deuendiendum est, quod 2a me postulare obnixe videris: vt tres illas dubitationes, quæ animum tuum an- cipitem reddunt, ex mea sententia expli- cem dissoluamque. In qua redabo ope ram, vt potius in me satisfaciendi

Transcription: Translated (English)

nature, not communicated by a cacodæmon: hold that, I should by no means call it poisonous. Since it attacks the brain rather than the heart, and does not bring about an immediate death, but seems, like other corrupt humors and diseases, to consume it little by little. After this you return to the nature of lead, which I had already discussed, in regard to which you can scarcely persuade yourself how, when the watery and more subtle parts of lead are turned under the open sky into ash, the earthy and heavier force should show itself more strongly, as I said; as though the watery parts ought rather to be consumed into vapors than in any way compacted into an earthy substance. But this, if I am not mistaken, you will more easily learn if you think of those parts not as wholly watery, but also as participating in some degree, so to speak, in earthiness, just as the moisture of green wood, when burned, produces far more ashes than dry wood does, because that earthy moisture is changed into ash. In the same way the thinner moisture of lead, in relation to the other parts, becomes ash under the open sky, and therefore, the air being dispersed, which had added lightness, a somewhat greater weight appears. As for leaden cauldrons, since you by no means disapprove my answer to your problem, but rather make it more learned, more distinguished, and more elegant, I praise and embrace again and again the candor of your mind, the richness of your eloquence, and the abundance of your learning; and where such clarity is present, I do not think it philosophical to add other unnecessary words. Therefore, omitting the things you have written so learnedly, I gladly pass to the later matter, in which, since you first discuss the spleen, as though it too were involved in the making of blood by the liver, and desire to hear my opinion on this point, I shall speak freely: where there is such great agreement among wise men and such great ages, I am not easily moved, though one or another bold fellow seems to dissent in some playful way. For I myself have seen and possess in my library the writings of a certain Frenchman and another, in which, from the arguments proposed by you and from many others as well, they seek to prove that the ancients and the more recent writers have been mistaken when they said that the function of the spleen is to make blood, and that the liver is assigned to the feculent and earthly, melancholic substance; indeed, that it is not less the liver that brings blood to perfection, especially preparing it for the left ventricle of the heart. But though their reasons are indeed plausible, when examined a little more closely they are seen to lack the proper firmness. For just as it is true that nature often makes the common ministers of the body either in pairs or places them in some middle position, so nature did not so bind itself to this necessity that it never departed from such a custom, especially when it seemed to have done so for the sake of something better. For how could nature have arranged two viscera so vast and serving the whole body in the middle beneath the heart? How again would it not have been superfluous if it had set up more instruments for making blood, when one could and should have sufficed? Recognizing this, Aristotle, and attributing everything chief to the heart, judged it better to establish that organ alone as the true workshop of blood than to divide this office among several. I do not deny that the structure of the spleen may have some generic or even specific similarity to the liver; yet since each peculiar action arises from the property of the part that produces it, and is shared by no other common part, as Galen said, it is so far from being the case that we should see the same blood-making property in both, that earth is no less distant from heaven. What, my Monauius, I ask, is the reason that impaired blood-making and the disorders arising from it should arise equally from the spleen as from the liver, and therefore that the spleen ought to be the blood-producing part? For to speak of dropsy, which Galen writes is necessarily produced by a cooled liver: who does not know that when the spleen is swollen and markedly cooled, the liver too is likewise cooled, and that afterward cachexias, dropsies, and other such disorders follow? On poisons, medicines, and foods you have discoursed excellently, as you always do. Yet what you propose, that poisons lay snares for various parts and therefore do not aim at the heart alone, I think I have already explained in Book I, chapter II, where I raised the same arguments and the same difficulty as you did, and, if I am not mistaken, solved them as well. Therefore I now hope that I have satisfied you at least in some part; if not, I trust that at least my good will will be approved by you. Farewell. Padua, on the last day of March, in the year 1584. EPIST. XCII. HIERON. MERCURIALIS, &c. To Wenceslas Raphanus, physician. S. D. But now I must proceed to that which you have urgently asked me to do: namely, to explain and resolve, according to my judgment, those three doubts which make your mind uncertain. In doing this I shall take care that rather in me the satisfaction of ...

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143 EPISTOLÆ 144 < An hæpacis spium magis vivum possis frustillatim almo reddi.> faculatrem, quam desiderium aut voluntatem defuisse perspicias. Primum itaque dubium, quod proponis est: A o icoris substantia io cruentis dysenteriis excerni possit. < Oculi quantis.> Cum tibi videatur, vt dicit vulgus medicorum, frusta interdum excreta conspici. Mihi certe res creditu dura est; sed quæ tamen & veterum & recentiorum medicorum clarissimis testimoniis confirmatur: < Philtrorum opinatorem & famam adveniabat alouas.> Quod natura res miras & nobis ignotas interdum operetur, facile qui medicinam faciunt, quotidie explorant. Ego sane à iecore non semel vidi per aluum magoam sanguinis educam copiam. Sic fieri potest, vt corrosa iecoris substantia, atque in fursurum formam redacta vna cum sanguine excludatur. < Philtrorum opinatorem & famam adveniabat alouas.> Frusta veromaiora oonnunquam videri, quam valorum per quæ transeunt amplitudo ferat, est sane præter naturam atque , perinde ac si camelum per < Quem memoratu dignum ob interius celeritatem iudicauit Galenus.> acus foramen pertranstire quis dicat. De philtris, quæ ad coëciliandum amorem mirifice conferre antiquitas credidit, mea sententia est, neq[ue] illa existere, nec medicorum prudensium contemplatione subiici. Amor amore coociliatur. Sit procul omne nefas, (sit Ouidius) vt ameris amabilis esto. Et quod docet Plato in Lysia: Similitudo morum, studiorum, ætatis est potissimum amoris philtrum, vt etiam actiones & vita honeste composita, de quib[us] loquens Lucretius in quarto scripsit: < Nec diuinitus interdum Veneri q[ui] sagittis, Deteriore fit vt forma muliercula ametur. Nam facit ipsa suis interdum fæmina factis Morigerisq[ue] modis, & mundo corporis cultu, Vt facile insuescat secum vir degere vitam. Quod superest, consuetudo concianas amorem.> < Pharmacis amorem possit forta conciliari.> Et quanquam ab Aristotele 8. de histor. animalium relatum sit, Hippomaoem putatum fuisse ad amorem comparâdum pertinere, id tamen ex insani vulgi sententia, noo sua protulit. Verba alterius, hoc vel illo modo prolata, scio grauissimos medicos, quod morbis tollendis prosint existimasse. Eadem quoque autoritate alios permotos, quod odium tollere & amorem conciliare queant putasse, verum nugas & superstitiones eas omnes Galenus opinatus est, cum nulla ratione nitâtur. Pocula vero aut pharmacæ esse quæ similiter vt morbos, odium auferant, ac amorem perinde atq[ue] sanitatem concilient asserere fortasse possemus, cum perspectum sit homines hilarios atque ad amandum propensores euadere quando calent, esseq[ue] medicamina no[n] pauca, & corpus & animum calefaciennia. At duo sunt, < Sed difficul. vas duplex> quæ ipsorum vanitatem & vitium produnt? Vnum quod nequaquam erga hunc magis, quam erga illum amorem inducere queâr, vt in amatoriis philtris ante alia requiritur, alterum, quod plerunque pro amore insaniam, atq[ue] etiam mortem, inferunt, quando in historiis legitur, multos ex epotis pharmacis amatoriis demeotatos atque extinctos. < Philteris demontat.> Veluti Lucretium, Lucullum, & Caligulam, eo quod pocula eiuscemodi caliditate eximia cerebri temperiem destruxeruot. < Pestilens diaria Hippocratica: estam viva in Eclipsa.> Quod postremo loco maxime omniu[m] cupere videris, vt quam putem ægritudine[m] illam apud vos vagantem, literis explicem; & in isto tibi morem gerere tentabo. Arbitror te non latete casum Critonis illius relatum ab Hippoc. 1. Epid. comm. 3. tex. 26. quem memoratu dignum ob interius celeritatem iudicauit Galenus. Is cum phlyctænis nigris & alui fluxu correptus fuisset præter februm, & alia scua accidentia, taodem secunda die occubuit. Galen. vero & magnam in ipso, & malignam excrementorum copiam abundasse collegit. < Sic mihi ex symptomatibus abs te relatis colligendum videtur, nimirum à magno excrementorum pestiferorum copia gigni, quæ tum proluiue illa alui atra, aique picea, tum sudoribus proditur. Quomodo vero ea excrementa in corporibus incolarum cumulentur, tu qui & ipsorum vitæ genus, & aëris plagam nouisti, melius scire potes. Ad quam autem febris speciem sit ægritudo refereuda, neque definire admodum arduum est. Quod enim ex pestilentium genere sit, neminem dubitare opinor. Cum vero neque humores neque solida cordis extreme putrescere ita cito < 40> posse constet, vt vna die iugulent: magis consentaneum est, in spiritibus eam febium locari, in quibus si non putrescant, quem admodum igneus calor vna die finitur, pariter iidem extreme putrefacti vna die, atque etiam celerius necem inferunt. Scio dubitatum esse, an spiritus putrescere queant. Sed < Spiritum si putrefere.> anno elapso in lectione, quam de peste habuimus, à nobis demonstratum fuit, & ipsos putrescere, tam suapte natura, cum sint calidi & humidi ex sententia Aristotelis, quam ex mixtione putridorum putrefactar ; & pestiferam febrem facere quæ saltem per similitudinem, siue subiecti communicationem diaria vacari mereatur. Modum generationis huiuscemodi febris hunc arbitror, quod facta in putridis humoribus summa prauitate, natura à copia & vitio illius stimulata, omni conatu atque per quaslibet vias expellere satagit, & ipsa expultione vapores

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143 EPISTLES 144 <An hæpacis spium magis vivum possis frustillatim almo reddi.> I see no lack of ability, but rather of desire or will. The first doubt, therefore, which you propose is: whether the substance of the liver can be discharged in bloody dysenteries. <Oculi quantis.> Since, as the common saying of physicians has it, pieces are sometimes seen to be brought up. For my part, I find the thing hard to believe; yet it is confirmed by the clearest testimony of both ancient and modern physicians. <Philtrorum opinatorem & famam adveniabat alouas.> That nature sometimes performs wonderful things unknown to us, those who practice medicine discover every day. I myself have often seen a large quantity of blood drawn from the liver through the bowels. Thus it may happen that the substance of the liver, being corroded and reduced into the form of fragments, is expelled together with the blood. <Philtrorum opinatorem & famam adveniabat alouas.> That pieces should sometimes seem larger than the openings through which they pass can allow is certainly contrary to nature, and is as if someone were to say that a camel passed through the eye of a needle. <Quem memoratu dignum ob interius celeritatem iudicauit Galenus.> As for love-potions, which antiquity believed to contribute wonderfully to the creating of love, my opinion is that they do not exist, and that they are not even worthy of the consideration of prudent physicians. Love is fostered by love. Let all wickedness be far away: “if you would be loved, be lovable,” says Ovid. And what Plato teaches in the Lysis: similarity of character, pursuits, and age is above all the love-philter; as also are honorable conduct and a well-ordered life, of which Lucretius, speaking in book four, wrote: <Nec diuinitus interdum Veneri q[ui] sagittis, Deteriore fit vt forma muliercula ametur. Nam facit ipsa suis interdum fæmina factis Morigerisq[ue] modis, & mundo corporis cultu, Vt facile insuescat secum vir degere vitam. Quod superest, consuetudo concianas amorem.> <Pharmacis amorem possit forta conciliari.> And although Aristotle, in book 8 of the Historia Animalium, reports that Hippomanes was thought to pertain to the acquiring of love, he nevertheless did not put this forward as his own view, but as the opinion of the insane multitude. I know that the words of another, spoken in this way or that, have been thought by the most serious physicians to help in removing diseases. By the same authority, others have also been moved to think that they can remove hatred and bring about love; but Galen judged all these to be mere trifles and superstitions, since they rest on no reason. Yet perhaps we could say that cups or philtres are things which, like diseases, remove hatred and likewise bring about love, just as they bring about health, since it is clear that men become cheerful and more inclined to love when they are warm, and that there are many remedies which warm both body and mind. But there are two things that expose their vanity and fault: <Sed difficul. vas duplex> first, that they cannot by any means induce love for this person rather than that, as is required above all in love-philtres; secondly, that they usually bring on madness, and even death, instead of love, since history records that many have been driven mad and destroyed by drinking such love-potions. <Philteris demontat.> Like Lucretius, Lucullus, and Caligula, because drinks of this sort, by their excessive heat, destroyed the tempering of the brain. <Pestilens diaria Hippocratica: estam viva in Eclipsa.> What you seem to desire most of all in the end is that I should explain in writing what illness I think is wandering among you; and I shall try to comply with you in this matter. I suppose you have not forgotten the case of that Criton related by Hippocrates, book 1 of the Epidemics, commentary 3, text 26, whom Galen judged worthy of mention because of the swiftness of its course. After being seized by black blisters and a flux of the bowels, in addition to fever and other severe symptoms, he died on the second day. Galen therefore concluded that in him there had been a great and malignant abundance of excrement. <Sic mihi ex symptomatibus abs te relatis colligendum videtur, nimirum à magno excrementorum pestiferorum copia gigni, quæ tum proluiue illa alui atra, aique picea, tum sudoribus proditur. Quomodo vero ea excrementa in corporibus incolarum cumulentur, tu qui & ipsorum vitæ genus, & aëris plagam nouisti, melius scire potes. Ad quam autem febris speciem sit ægritudo referenda, neque definire admodum arduum est. Quod enim ex pestilentium genere sit, neminem dubitare opinor. Cum vero neque humores neque solida cordis extreme putrescere ita cito posse constet, vt vna die iugulent: magis consentaneum est, in spiritibus eam febrem locari, in quibus si non putrescant, quem admodum igneus calor vna die finitur, pariter iidem extreme putrefacti vna die, atque etiam celerius necem inferunt. Scio dubitatum esse, an spiritus putrescere queant. Sed> <Spiritum si putrefere.> Last year, in the lecture we had on the plague, it was demonstrated by us that even spirits themselves can putrefy, both by their own nature, since by Aristotle’s opinion they are hot and moist, and by mixture with putrid substances; and that they produce a pestilential fever which deserves to be called quotidian, at least by similarity or by communication with the subject. I think the mode of generation of such a fever is this: when there has arisen the utmost corruption in putrid humors, nature, stimulated by the quantity and the corruption of it, strives with all its might and by whatever paths it can to expel it; and in that expulsion the vapors ...

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pores multi atque putridi in cor mittuntur, qui spiritus tanquam sibi magis proportio- natos necnon dispositos venenantes atque corrumpentes subinde calorem natium statim extingunt. Hæc sunt, quæ vt tibi ob- temperarem, ad dissoluendatua illa proble- mata mihi dicenda statui. Id modo à te ve- hementer peto, omnia æquo animo susci- pias, Mercurialisq[ue] tui nullo tempore obli- uisci studeas. Vale, Patauij nonis Ianuar. i o Anno 1571. EPIST. XCIII. WENCESLAO RAPHANO MED. &c. Hieron. Mercurialis, S.D. DE philtris amatoriis postquam adeo a- criter rem tueris, ac illustribus testimo- nis confirmare eniteris, & fide erga te mea, 20 & tua omnibus spectata probitate rem indi- gnam me facturum existimaui, si omnino inficiari rursus tentarem. Ea propter suppo- sita historiæ tuæ veritate suspicor: Cuncta huiusmodi pharmaca naturæ humanæ o- mnino aduersaria esse, hominesq[ue] dementa- re, & furoribus quibusdam exercere, non ob aliud, quam ob peculiarem ac minificam quandam ipsorum facultatem. Perinde ac de vino scriptum reliquit Aristoteles 30. 30 probl. sect. 1. quod animos hominum con- fundere ac perturbare dicebat propria sua facultate, no[n] autem quod calidum sit, quan- doquidem puer, vt est maiori, quam vinu[m], vi caleficiendi donatum, sic magis statum mentis destruere deberet, cui tamen rei ex- perientia plane refragatur. Ventriculum vero inprimis offendi, rationi valde consentaneum videtur. Quia venenatoto genere naturæ inimica, quamprimum incalescunt, 40 virus proprium diffundere incipiuit. Cum- que primo ipsis in corpore stomachus in- currat, in quo moram trahentia calefiunt, non est mitum, si ipsum valde lædant Male- ficiorum ligaturas & solutiones ex phanta- sis agente proficisci diceret Auicenna, qui hominis animum non modo in proprium verum etiam in aliena corpora vehementer agere vbiq[ue] professus est: sed hæc omnia probabili, non firma & certa demonstratio. 50 ne traduntur. Ex meis lucubrationibus va- riarum lectionum libri 4. cum Alexandræ Tralliani Græca & Latina de lumbricis E- pistola, nuperrime editi sunt. Tuvale; incq[ue] amate, vt ameris, perge, Pa- tauij, 17. Cal. lunij. An- no 1571: 55 EPIST. XCIV. HIERON. HEROLDT, MED. D. Ioachimo Camerario, Profess. Li- pensi S.D. SCRIPSERAM furtuiis horis priores li- sieras, cum mihi tuæ in vigiliis natalitiis redderentur, neque eam sententiam muto. Remitto iam ad vos Generum Schlusseck- feidij, quem sic in quartana cnaui intra ses- quimensem, Curaui sic filium Domini Barn- nabis, Beuer, qui quartana laborans ex Gal- lia, vbicum Dn. Baumgertneri filio studuit, scuocatus fuit. Habeo adhuc alios etiam, qui si obtemperabunt, etiam breui libera- buntur. Quod ad mumiam attinet, pro communibus viis euacuandis adhiberi qui- dem potest; sed non sine aliis. Nam ma- teriam morbi non educit; sed bilem euacuat leniter, & aliquo modo nutrit. Est a- pud nos fere nimium v[er]sitata, nec chare venditur. Ego in debilitate virum, vbi pro- pter imbecilitatem pituita in ventriculo, & primis venis colligitur, in hunc modum vti soleo. 24. Semen. Carthami 38. aut vj. Vrticæ 38. Zinzib. Galangran. 38. Contusa & incila ligentur in sindone, & infundatur per noctem in vini, aut iusculo gallinæ 3iiij. 8. Mane fiat ebullitio vna at- que altera, & cum expressione colatura, in qua dissolue; Mannæ Calbr. 3 vj. Bulliant parum. colentur, & addito vitello oui, cro- co paueo, & si lubet, pipere, fiat iusculum; cui si plusculum sacchari adiicere volueris, nihil nocebit. Hoc medicamine si commu- nes vix essent euacuatæ, medietatem, vel tertiam partem pararem, & de quarta die in quartam, vel de tertia in tertiam, prout vires concederent, adhibitis prius fomentis circa hypochordia, darem 3 ij. aut 3 ij. 8. per sex aut octo horas ante paroxysmum, & ita febrem expugnarem, donec aliqua concoctio appa- reret. Post facta aliquali euacuatione, ex- ploratis hypochondriis, ne aliqua tensio aut durities adesset, infunderem vel Theriacæ antiqva vel pulueris Caryophyllor. 3j. in a- quæ vitæ 3j. & per duas horas ante paro- xysmum bis aquæ vitæ fecibus inungcrem spinam & stomachum, & darem Theria- cæ illius recentioris 3ij. 8. cum duplo con- serue borraginis superhibendo haustum vini, sicur scripti, & nisi omnino calor fe- brilis esset magnus, admiscerem 3 ij. aquæ vitæ in qua vel Therlaca, vel caryophylli fuerint infusi. Hoc medicamento statui ligor sistitur proximoque impulsu hosti. Id. G

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...pores, numerous and rotten, are sent into the heart, those spirits, as being more proportioned to themselves and likewise disposed, by poisoning and corrupting them in turn, immediately extinguish the heat of the buttocks. These are the things which, that I might obey you, I have determined to set forth to dissolve those problems of yours. This much I urgently ask of you: receive everything with an even mind, and strive never at any time to forget your Mercurialis. Farewell, at Padua, the Nones of January, 1571. EPIST. XCIII. TO WENCESLAUS RAPHANUS, M.D., ETC. Hieron. Mercurialis, greeting. Since you defend the matter so strongly concerning love potions, and endeavor to confirm it with illustrious testimonies, and because, in view of my good faith toward you and your probity, acknowledged by all, I thought it would be an unworthy thing for me if I should try once more to deny it altogether, I therefore suppose, granting the truth of your history, that all such remedies are wholly contrary to human nature, and drive men mad and afflict them with certain kinds of frenzy, not for any other reason than because of a peculiar and wondrous power of their own. Just as Aristotle wrote concerning wine in the 30th problem, section 1, saying that it confounds and disturbs the minds of men by its own proper faculty, and not because it is hot; for since a child, having a greater power of heating than wine, would by that reason be even more capable of destroying the state of the mind, experience plainly contradicts this. But that the stomach is especially affected seems very consonant with reason. For poisons of every kind are hostile to nature, and as soon as they grow warm, they begin to spread their own venom. And since at first the stomach is attacked in the body, where they, lingering, are warmed, it is not surprising if they greatly harm it. Avicenna said that the bindings and releases of spells arise from the imagination acting; he professed everywhere that the human mind acts powerfully not only upon its own body but also upon other bodies; but all these things are handed down as probable, not as firm and certain demonstrations. Four books of various readings from my lucubrations, together with a Greek and Latin epistle of Alexander of Tralles On Worms, have very recently been published. Farewell; and continue to love, that you may be loved. At Padua, 17 days before the Calends of June, 1571. EPIST. XCIV. HIERON. HEROLDT, M.D. To Joachim Camerarius, professor at Leipzig, greeting. I had written the previous letters in stolen hours, when yours were handed to me on your birthday vigil, and I do not now change that opinion. I am now sending back to you the son-in-law of Schlusseckfeid, whom I thus cured of quartan fever within a month and a half; thus also I treated the son of Lord Barnnabis, Beuer, who, suffering from quartan fever, had been sent from France, where he studied with the son of Mr. Baumgertner. I still have others also, who, if they comply, will likewise soon be relieved. As for mummy, it can indeed be used for evacuating common passages; but not without other things. For it does not draw out the substance of the disease; rather, it gently evacuates bile and nourishes in some measure. It is almost too much in use among us, and it is not sold cheaply. In weakness of the man, where phlegm gathers in the stomach and in the first veins because of debility, I am accustomed to use it in this way. 24. Safflower seed 38, or six drachms. Nettle 38. Ginger. Galangal 38. Crush and cut them, bind them in linen, and infuse overnight in wine, or in chicken broth 3iv.8. In the morning let it boil once and again, and with the expressed colature dissolve in it: Calabrian manna 3vj. Let them boil a little; strain them, and with the addition of an egg yolk, a little saffron, and, if you wish, pepper, make a broth; and if you want to add a little sugar, it will do no harm. If by this medicine the common passages should have been evacuated, I would prepare half the dose, or a third part, and from the fourth day to the fourth, or from the third to the third, as strength allowed, having first applied fomentations around the hypochondria, I would give 3ij. or 3ij.8. for six or eight hours before the paroxysm, and so I would fight the fever until some concoction appeared. After some evacuation had been made, the hypochondria examined to ensure that no tension or hardness was present, I would infuse either of the old theriac or 3j. of powder of cloves in 3j. of aqua vitae, and for two hours before the paroxysm I would twice anoint the spine and stomach with the sediment of aqua vitae, and would give 3ij.8. of that newer theriac with twice as much conserve of borage, over which a draught of wine, as written, is to be taken; and unless the febrile heat were altogether great, I would mix in 3ij. of aqua vitae in which either theriac or cloves had been infused. By this remedy I determined that the chill is checked and the enemy repelled at the next onset. Id. G

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147 EPISTOLÆ 148 git. Sic ego procedo, post lauo, prius assumpta Theriaca. Hæc diligenter, & diligentius Galenot tractat Trallianus, quem cum ratione secutus, non sui falsus. Vellem ne rem tam diu differretis. Meticulosa cunctatio in morbis plurimum nocet. Cum bene consulueris maturato opus est. In senibus hæc febris difficilis est, nisi mature occurratur. Est morbus chronicus, qui si tantum dixta oppugnatur, & solinaturæ actio tota com- mittitur, durat per annum, vt air Hippoerates. Si vero natura medicamentis adiuetur, cedit citius. Ego aliquoties quattanam, De r auxilio, quarto mense, interdum sexto, interdum etiam octauo curani, hocque factum fuit ante annum, cum habete Ægrotum, intemperantem valde, qui erat senex, & veniebat in periculum hydropis, sed tamen octauo mense euadebat. Lili ego plus quam decies Theriacam porrexi sensim 20 purgando & fomentando, corpus sed absenti nihil certi præscribere licet. Præstantissimi medici præsentes sua prudentia omnia gubernabunt & mihi, vt amici, ignoscent, qui sine dubio mecum quotidie acriter cogitant, & se defatigant, in curanda vixore, ad quod DEVS pater Domininostri Iesu Christi successum tribuat. Optamus autem ex animo, vt hic annus felicior tibi euaniat & exeat, quam prior. Vale. Norin-30 bergæ die natali, Anno 1559. POST SCRIPTVM. Fiat. quod debet, si vires constant, ramen successiue, cum fomentis & aliis, alioqui vires concidunt, nec postea locus est medicamentis, præsertim si adsunt symptomata, quæ vires debilitant. Quamprimum aliquo modo corpus videbitur euacuatum, occurrite vigor & calori febrili, quod fiet per 40 Theriacam nouam. Lege quæ Trallianus in fine de febre quartana dicit. Quid effecerim, aliis prædicandum relinquo. Res ipsa declarat, sequor rationem, & methodum, & vtor expertis. Si â reliquis medicamentis abhorret, habeo medicamentum lene & delectabile, de quo dantur ij. Est decoctio de mirobal. de Helleb. ipsius Montani. Sed loco seri vtor aqua borragin. & buglossæ. Post facio quinquies infusionem violarum re- centium, & ita paraui syrupum, quo vsus sui centies cum laude. Loco violarum recentium possunt accipi coëscruæ. Doctor Meurerus nouit sine dubio illam descriptionem, est in consiliis de morbis melancholicis. Iterum vale. EPIST. XCV. IDEM EIOEM QVÆ de valetudine vxoris, & filix scribis, non sine dolore legi. Hac in re si consilium meum quid prodesse poterit impertiam. Quod ad vxorem, attinet, velim vt semel, aut bis vteretur Electuario vitæ, cuius descriptionem mitto. Et cum sciam causam morbi præcipue esse ab obstructione mesaraicarum, propter stomachum frigidum, & epar calidiusculum, & propter venarum angustiam; velim vt post euacuationem sumeret j. aut ij. Terebinthinæ opt. bis aut semel in septimana, vel cum oblata, vel cum medulla pomi affati. Ego plane non dubito malum, si non plane, tolli at multo melius fieri posse. Descriptio autem sit talis: Terebinthinæ opt. Chalybis vexacum obstructionibus mesaraicarum venarum singularem. 24. Terebinth. Cyprix ij. Lauetur aqua absinthii, & rutę ana per vices quatuor, deinde add. Puluer. Cinnamom. Nucis Moschatæ an ij. Ol. amygd. dulc. recent ij. Misce. Non reperi melius remedium. In difficillibus, & antiquis, tum mesaraicarum venarum; tum epatis atq[ue] renum obstructionibus. Interdum solemus addere puluerem chalybis præparati, quem an Medici Lipsenses in vsu habeât nescio. Hoc scio quod Epar & splenem egregie aperiat, si Terebinthinæ additur. Quod ad filiam attinet, scio ipsam laborare obstructionibus, & menses deficere, in hac recta soleo procedere. Obstructionis mensium. Primum omnium euacuo latas & communes vias, tali medicamento: Pectio purgans. 24. Radic. Rhabarb ij. Turpeth. veri ij. Agaric. Troch. ij. Zinziber. Galangæ. Calam. aromatic. an ij. Contusa infunde per noctem in aqua betonic. artomis. vino an. q. Colaturæ. 24. ij. cui add. Syrupi rosat. solu. ij. Diagryd. ij. Aq. cinnamonom. ij. Misce pro haustu. Sumatur bis vel ter, prout opus fuerit, iudicatum à Medico præsente. Primis venis euacuatis per nouem dies vtrum ista infusionem: Vinum medicinum 24. Herb. artemisiæ m. j. Saluiæ ij. Radic. rubiæ tinctor. ij. CONTVSA omnia ligentur in Sindone, & infundantur in vini absinthii, ij. ij. per noctem. Quod si vino absinthii addantur radices Helenij, & rosæ, eo efficacius

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147 EPISTLES 148 goes on. Thus I proceed, after washing, having first taken Theriaca. This Galen deals with carefully, and more carefully Trallianus, whom I have followed with reason, not mistakenly. I wish you would not delay the matter so long. Timid hesitation does the greatest harm in diseases. When you have well considered, prompt action is needed. In old people this fever is difficult, unless met in time. It is a chronic disease, which, if attacked only by diet and the action of nature alone is entrusted with the whole task, lasts for a year, as Hippocrates says. But if nature is aided by medicines, it yields sooner. I have several times, with God’s help, cured cases in the fourth month, sometimes in the sixth, sometimes even in the eighth, and this happened a year ago, when I had a patient, very intemperate, who was old and was in danger of dropsy, but nevertheless recovered in the eighth month. Indeed I have given Theriaca more than ten times, gradually purging and fomenting, but being absent from the body one may prescribe nothing certain. The most excellent physicians present will govern everything by their prudence, and, as friends, they will excuse me, who without doubt think with me daily and labor intensely in the cure of the wife, for which may GOD the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant success. But we earnestly wish that this year may turn out and pass more happily for you than the last. Farewell. Nuremberg, on the birthday, in the year 1559. POSTSCRIPT. Let what ought to be done be done, if strength holds out, however, successively, with fomentations and other things; otherwise the strength collapses, and afterward there is no place for medicines, especially if symptoms are present that weaken the strength. As soon as the body shall seem in some measure evacuated, meet the violent force and febrile heat, which will be done by the new Theriaca. Read what Trallianus says at the end concerning quartan fever. What I have accomplished I leave to others to proclaim. The thing itself shows it; I follow reason and method, and I use tried remedies. If the patient is averse to the other medicines, I have a mild and pleasant medicine, of which two doses are given. It is a decoction of mirobalans, of hellebore, of Montanus himself. But instead of the third ingredient I use borage water and bugloss. Afterwards I make an infusion five times of fresh violets, and thus I prepared a syrup, which I have used a hundred times with praise. In place of fresh violets, coëscruæ may be taken. Doctor Meurer undoubtedly knows that description; it is in the counsels on melancholy diseases. Farewell again. EPIST. XCV. THE SAME TO THE SAME What you write concerning the health of your wife and daughter I read not without pain. In this matter, if my advice can be of any use, I will offer it. As to the wife, I should wish her to use once or twice the Electuary of Life, the description of which I send. And since I know the cause of the disease to be chiefly from obstruction of the mesenteric veins, owing to a cold stomach and a somewhat warm liver, and because of the narrowness of the veins, I should wish that after evacuation she take one or two doses of the best Terebinthina twice or once a week, either with the food offered, or with the pulp of a roasted apple. I certainly do not doubt that the evil, if not wholly removed, can at least be made much better. The description is as follows: Terebinthina best for the obstruction of the mesenteric veins. 24. Best Cyprus turpentine, two parts. It is washed four times in equal parts of wormwood water and rue water; then add: Powder of cinnamon, of nutmeg, of each two parts, sweet almond oil, fresh, two parts. Mix. I have found no better remedy. In difficult and ancient obstructions, both of the mesenteric veins and of the liver and kidneys. Sometimes we are accustomed to add powder of prepared steel, which I do not know whether the physicians of Leipzig use. This I know: that it opens the liver and spleen excellently if added to Terebinthina. As for the daughter, I know that she suffers from obstructions and that her menses are failing; in this case I usually proceed in the following way. Obstruction of the menses. First of all I clear the broad and common passages by such a medicine: Purging powder. 24. Rhubarb root, two parts. True turpeth, two parts. Agaric in cakes, two parts. Ginger, galangal, aromatic calamus, of each two parts. Crush and infuse overnight in betony water, artomis, and wine, in equal measure, of the strained liquid two parts, to which add: Syrup of roses, dissolved, two parts. Diagridium, two parts. Cinnamon water, two parts. Mix for a draught. Let it be taken twice or three times, as may be needed, as judged by the physician present. After the first passages have been evacuated, for nine days take this infusion: Medicinal wine. 24. Herb of mugwort, one handful. Sage, two parts. Root of dyer’s madder, two parts. ALL things crushed are to be tied in a cloth and infused in wormwood wine, two parts, two parts, overnight. But if roots of elecampane and roses are added to the wormwood wine, it will be the more effective.

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cius erit medicamentum. De tali vino bibat mane ʒij. aut ij. Deinde si vrinæ incipiunt crassescere rursus purgetur. Sequentibus diebus, cum tempus mensium appropin- quat, ad fortiora aperitiua deueniatur, inter quæ est illud, quo ego liberaui duas virgines hoc anno, quarum altera Dn. vicini mei filia erat in via ad hydropem. Neq[ue] enim habuerat menses intra annum cum quadrante. Hoc autem est tale. Herbæ Sabinæ M.ß. Bulliant in vini sq. & coletur diligenter per filtrum, deinde: Terebinth. opt. Cypr. ʒj. Lauetur ter decocto suprascripto. deinde semel lauetur aceto scillitico, postea admi- sce: Puluer. Rubiæ tinctor. Caryophyllor. Macis. an. ʒj. Ol. amygd. amar ʒß. Misce cum saccharo ad pixidem. Deboc medicamine septem diebus ante tempus mensium, sumat quotidie ʒj. siue in oblata, siue in medulla pomi assati, & superhautiat haustum cicerum rubeor. cum pauco croci. Aduentantibus mensibus, vesperi & mane lauentur & fricentur pedes cum decocto artemisæ, pulcij, & huiusmodi, & si opus est fiat phlebotomia in saphenis. Ab hac cu- ra non erit desistendu[m] donec fluant. Possunt quidem aliquot dics interponi, quibus quiescar; sed illa erit veraratio, & melius babebit. Subuncio tamen omnia etiam censuræ D. Meureri, quem scio à mea sententia non dicessurum. Vale Norinb. 20. Decemb. Anno 557. EPIST. XCVI. IDEM EIDEM. IN proximis tuis literis inclusa erat sche- dule, qua petebas rationem curandi suffu- sionem Rallæ absque Chirurgia. Quia vero absenti consulere difficile est, cum nesciam, an sit illa cæcitas ex suffusione, an ex neruo- rum opticorum obstructione, nihil consu- lam, sed præsenti medico relinquam. sed ra- tionem dicam, qua curaui septuagenarium < Cura cæcuius ex obstructione neruorum opticorum.> senem cæcum ex obstructionibus neruo- rum, & puerum decem annorum. Septua- genarius recuperauit visum duobus men- tibus: Puer vero post quartum mensem. Primo ordinaui dixtam, prohibui lactici- nia, pisces, capas, raphanos, sinapi & omnia euaporantia. Pro potu seni vinum limpha- tum cum aqua seniculi & Euphrasiæ con- cessi. Pueru vero feci hydromel cum passu- lis, semine seniculi & Euphrasiæ. Postea ac- cessi ad curam, Primo totum corpus euacuaui Cassia, atque post exhibui syrup. de stæcbade, & de betonica, cum aq. seniculi & Euphrasiæ, & tandem feci infusionem Agarici. Corpore euacuato accessi ad v- sum pillulatum lucis, quarum exhibui ʒij. formando ex his pillulas num. iij. cum aq. seniculi & oleo seniculi. Exhibuiter à coe- no per quatuor horas. Hoc facto accessi ad particularem euacuationem capitis. Mane tussi per horam masticare qninq[ue] grana Ma- stichis cum Zinzibere. seni, qui masticatio- ne vti non poterat, ordinaui gargarismum, ex radice pyrethri, Agarico, Zinzibere, sem. staphysagoræ. Hoc facto per dies aliquot, cum oculi viderentur humidiores ob efflu- xum, reuulsione sum vsus, applicans ceruti- ci prope occipur sem. sinapi & nasturci cum fermento. Caputieiuno laui lixinio mixto cum vino, in quo bullire feci betoni- cam, euphrasiam, rutam, maioranam, folia senæ, & agaricum. Agarico sum loco sme- gmatis vsus. Hac lotione sum vsus alternis diebus. Et cum lotionem capitis incepi, ord- dinaui etiam fomentationem pro oculis à leuoribus incipiens primum feci hoc de- coctum; Herb. Melilot. Verbasci. Altheæ. Flor. chamomel. Rosar. an. M. j. Semin. Foenugr. ʒj. Fenicul. ʒß. Decoq. in aq. lib. v. ad tertias. colaturæ adde Mellis lb.ß. Misce. Hanc fomentationem decumbenti in le- cto adhibui cum spongia noua, mane post masticationem, non nimis calidam, per v- namboram. Post seq. Collyrio iussi vti. Aq. fenicul. Rosar. Euphrat. an. ʒj. Ol. myrrhæ ʒj. Tutix præparat. ʒj. Camphoræ ʒß. Misce pro Collyrio. Hoc sæpius in die iussi vit, non tamen statim à cibo. Post septem aut nouem dies ad fortio- ra accessi. Pro fomentatione sumpsi her- bas fortiores, nempe martubium, centau- rum minus, rutam, seniculum; & huius- remodo Collyrium etiam fortius feci, ad- dendo aliquot guttas ol. feniculi destill. & parum de iucco anagallidis. Tandem post mentem adhuc ad fortiora ascenda. G

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This shall be the medicine. Of such wine let her drink in the morning ʒij. or ij. Then, if the urine begins to thicken, let her be purged again. In the following days, when the time of the menses approaches, one should proceed to stronger opening medicines, among which is that one by which I saved two virgins this year, one of whom was the daughter of my neighbor, on the way to dropsy. For she had had no menses within a year and a quarter. But this is the remedy: Herbæ Sabinæ M.ß. Let them boil in white wine, and strain carefully through a filter; then: Terebinth. opt. Cypr. ʒj. Let her be washed three times with the aforesaid decoction. Then let her be washed once with squill vinegar; afterward mix in: Puluer. Rubiæ tinctor. Caryophyllor. Macis. an. ʒj. Ol. amygd. amar. ʒß. Mix with sugar in a box. Of this medicine, seven days before the time of the menses, let her take daily ʒj., either in a wafer or in the crumb of a roasted apple, and let her drink after it a draught of red peas with a little saffron. When the menses are approaching, let the feet be washed and rubbed morning and evening with a decoction of artemisia, pulegium, and the like, and, if necessary, let phlebotomy be performed in the saphenous veins. From this treatment one must not desist until they flow. Indeed, a few days may be interposed in which she rests; but that will be the true method, and she will be better. I submit all this, however, even to the judgment of Dr. Meurer, whom I know will not depart from my opinion. Farewell, Nuremberg, 20 December, in the year 557. EPIST. XCVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. In your previous letters there was enclosed a schedule in which you asked for the method of treating Rall’s cataract without surgery. But since it is difficult to advise one who is absent, because I do not know whether that blindness is from cataract or from obstruction of the optic nerves, I shall prescribe nothing, but leave it to the physician present. But I will state the method by which I cured a seventy-year-old blind man from obstruction of the nerves, and a boy of ten years. The seventy-year-old regained his sight in two months; the boy, after the fourth month. First I ordered a diet, and forbade dairy foods, fish, onions, radishes, mustard, and everything that generates vapors. For drink I allowed the old man wine diluted with water and an infusion of fennel and euphrasia. For the boy I made hydromel with raisins, fennel seed, and euphrasia. Then I proceeded to the treatment. First I evacuated the whole body with cassia, and then gave syrups of stæchados and betony, with fennel water and euphrasia, and finally I administered an infusion of agaric. After the body had been evacuated, I turned to the pill treatment for the sight, of which I gave ʒij., making three pills from these with fennel water and fennel oil. He was to take them at bedtime for four hours. After this I moved to the particular evacuation of the head. In the morning I had him chew for an hour five grains of mastich with ginger. For the old man, who could not use chewing, I prescribed a gargle made from pyrethrum root, agaric, ginger, and seeds of staphisagria. After doing this for a few days, when the eyes seemed moister because of the discharge, I used revulsion, applying to the nape near the occiput mustard seed and nasturtium with leaven. On an empty stomach I washed the head with lye mixed with wine in which I had boiled betony, euphrasia, rue, marjoram, senna leaves, and agaric. I used agaric in place of smectic. I used this washing on alternate days. And when I began the washing of the head, I also ordered a fomentation for the eyes, beginning with milder remedies; first I made this decoction: Herb. Melilot. Verbasci. Altheæ. Flor. chamomel. Rosar. an. M. j. Semin. Foenugr. ʒj. Fenicul. ʒß. Boil in water lib. v. down to a third. To the strained liquid add: Mellis lb.ß. Mix. I applied this fomentation to the patient lying in bed, with a fresh sponge, in the morning after the mastication, not too hot, for one hour. Afterward I ordered a collyrium to be used: Aq. fenicul. Rosar. Euphrat. an. ʒj. Ol. myrrhæ ʒj. Tutix præparat. ʒj. Camphoræ ʒß. Mix for a collyrium. I ordered this to be used several times a day, though not immediately after food. After seven or nine days I proceeded to stronger remedies. For the fomentation I took stronger herbs, namely horehound, lesser centaury, rue, and fennel; and I also made the collyrium stronger, adding a few drops of distilled fennel oil and a little juice of anagallis. Finally, after some time, I ascended to still stronger remedies.

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adiciendo prioribus herbis in fomento, cyclamen, Helleborum album. Et collyrium etiam fortius feci, addendo ad aquas succum ex parum cum melle. Nec veritus sum etiam expas ipsas sub cinere coctas cum optima Theriaca mixtas, pro emplastro per integram nostram apponere. Hæc fuit mea methodus, qua multum profeci. Sed tamen singulis septimanis semel 3 β. pillul. Lucis exhibui. Poros capiris apertos tenui, post 10 pectinationem adhibui futuris istam aquam: 27. Aq. vitæ simp. opt. 3 iii. In qua infund. Pulu. Cinamom. Caryophyllor. Anacard. an. 3j. Fiat colatura, seruetur in vitro. Et quia magna est sympathia pedum cum capite, semper cum herbis calidis exiccantibus, vesperi & ante cibum lotionem pedum institui. Habes meam curam, quæ nihil habet singulare, forte præfens Medicus mellora habere poterit, Sed ordinem hunc tamen seruabis. DEVS gubernet omnia ad gloriam nominis sui. salutato Rallam. Vale. EPIST. XCVII. D. MELCHIORI FENIO MERICO Wittebergensi, Hieronymus Schaller Physicus Noribergensis. S. D. Qvon nupet literis tuis, Vir ornatissime, non respondi, in causa fuit, quod tum multis negotiis, iisque molestissimis occupatus eram. Quare si inique tulisti meum silentium rogo vt ignoscas. Iudicaui enim ea, de quibus inter nos conferendum est, sine retum vtriusque nostrum discrimine motam posse pati. Pertisti à me prioribus tuis literiis, vt te certiorem reddam, quid in vniuersum de Theriaca quam superiori anno compositi sentiam. Sed ne videat tibi rem ignotam commendare, ecce subscribam obiter totam eius Theriaces meæ descriptionem, vt tu quoque inde certo constituere possis, quid boni ex eius vsu sperandum sit: tum etiam quam prope ad veterem illam Galeni accedat. Est autem descriptio hæc: Trochisci Hedychroi. 1/2. Ligni aloes loco radicis Aspalothi. 3j. β. Flor. schotenanti 3j. Calam. aromatic. Costi amari quem si non lieuisset ha- buisc, accepissem Enulam campanam. Phu. Romanl. Asari an. 3ij. [g]. v. Canellæ el. 3 vj. Tantum pondus canellæ loco &c cinam: & cassiæ positum est. Rad. acori aromatici loco amomi teste Auic. 3iij. Amarici, id est, maioranæ tenuifoliæ 3 iij. β. Rad. spicæ nardi 3ij. Macis loco Malobatri teste Auicena 3 ij. [ g]. v. Galenus loco folii ponit nardum. Myrrhæ elect. 3 iij. Mastich. 3ij. [g]. v. Rhabarbari loco pontici, Croci an. 3j. β. Cum vino albo stant trochisci. Sic quoque trochisci scillini tuxta Galeni mentem magna cum diligentia sunt præparati. Trochisci viperini omisi sunt, in quorum locum non suaserim, vt accipiantur absurdi illi pastilli dicti Trochisci loco trochiscorum de Tiro, à Venetianis Medicis olim substituti. Pæterea mihi penitus persuasi neq[ue] id sine ratione, imo cum autoritate Galemi, Antidotum hanc si ex rebus efficacibus debita præparetur, etiam absque carne viperæ omnia posse, quæ ab antiquis ei attribuuntur, hoc solum dempto, quod in mosibus viperarum non tatum auxilii præbeat. Sequitur tota compositio, sicut à me est cofecta. 27. Troch. scillinorum 3xxiiij. Hedichroi, quos Arabes Alindaraco- ron vocant. Piperis nigri. Lacrymæ papa. Thebaici an. 3xij. Canellæ loco & cassiæ & cinna 3 xv. Rosar. siccar. Scordii, non Cretici, sed quod horrus meus profert haud poenitendæ qualitatis. Sem. Napor. Irid. Illyricæ. Agaric. elect. Succi liquiritiz. Olei caryophyll. quod locum Balsami ad summum obtinet, in caliditatis tamen temperamento longe excedit balsamum. an. 3 vj. Myrrhæ. Croci. Zinzibet. Rhabarbari, loco pontici. Rad. pentaphyll. Nepe.

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adding to the former herbs in the fomentation cyclamen, white Hellebore. And I also made the collyrium stronger, by adding to the waters a juice from a little with honey. Nor did I even hesitate to apply the same boiled under ashes, mixed with the best Theriaca, as a plaster for the whole course of our treatment. This was my method, by which I made much progress. Yet every week once I administered 3 β. pillul. Lucis. I kept the pores of the head open, after the tenth combing I applied to the future this water: 27. Aq. vitæ simp. opt. 3 iii. In which infuse Pulu. Cinamom. Caryophyllor. Anacard. an. 3j. Let it be strained, and kept in a glass vessel. And because there is great sympathy between the feet and the head, I always, with warm drying herbs, in the evening and before meals, instituted a washing of the feet. You have my care, which has nothing singular; perhaps the present physician may have better remedies, but you will nevertheless preserve this order. May God govern all things to the glory of His name. Greetings to Ralla. Farewell. EPIST. XCVII. TO D. MELCHIOR FENIO MERICO of Wittenberg, Hieronymus Schaller Physician of Nuremberg. S. D. Since I did not answer your letters lately, most distinguished sir, the reason was that I was then occupied with many affairs, and very troublesome ones at that. Therefore, if you took my silence badly, I ask that you forgive me. For I judged that the matters about which we are to confer can be discussed without danger to either of us. You asked me in your earlier letters that I should inform you what in general I think about the Theriaca which I composed last year. But lest I seem to commend to you something unknown, I will here briefly set down the whole description of my Theriaca, so that you too may be able to determine with certainty from it what good is to be hoped for from its use; and also how closely it approaches the ancient Theriaca of Galen. The description is this: Trochisci Hedychroi. 1/2. Ligni aloes in place of the root of Aspalathus. 3j. β. Flor. schotenanti 3j. Calam. aromatic. Costi amari, which if it had not been possible to have, I would have taken Enula campana. Phu. Romanl. Asari an. 3ij. [g]. v. Canellæ el. 3 vj. So much weight of cinnamon is placed in the place of &c. cassia. Rad. acori aromatici in place of amomum, according to Avicenna 3iij. Amarici, that is, of narrow-leaved marjoram 3 iij. β. Rad. spicæ nardi 3ij. Mace in place of Malobathrum, according to Avicenna 3 ij. [g]. v. Galen places nard in the place of leaf. Myrrhæ elect. 3 iij. Mastich. 3ij. [g]. v. Rhabarbari in place of pontic, Croci an. 3j. β. The troches stand with white wine. Thus also the scilline troches, according to Galen’s intention, have been prepared with great care. The viperine troches were omitted, and in their place I would not advise that those absurd little cakes called Trochisci instead of trochisci de Tiro, formerly substituted by Venetian physicians, be taken. Moreover, I am thoroughly persuaded, and not without reason, indeed with Galen’s authority, that this antidote, if prepared from effective ingredients in due proportion, can achieve everything even without viper flesh that the ancients attributed to it, with this one thing excepted, that in the bites of vipers it does not furnish so much help. The whole composition follows, just as it was made by me. 27. Troch. scillinorum 3xxiiij. Hedichroi, which the Arabs call Alindaracoron. Black pepper. Tears of poppy from Thebes, an. 3xij. Cinnamon in place of cassia and cinnamon 3 xv. Dried roses. Scordium, not Cretan, but that which my garden yields, of not unworthy quality. Sem. Napor. Irid. Illyricæ. Fine agaric. Juice of licorice. Oil of cloves, which occupies at most the place of balsam, yet in the temperament of warmth far exceeds balsam. an. 3 vj. Myrrh. Saffron. Ginger. Rhubarb, in place of pontic. Root of cinquefoil. Nepeta.

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153 MEDICINALES. 154 Nepetæ. Prassi. Sem. petrosilini, non Macedonici, sed apud nos in locis syluestribus prouenit, semen est exigum, sed insignibus præditum qualita- tibus, sicut mihi ex dissolutione partium eius paret. Stoechad. Costi amari. Piper. albi, immaturi scilicet. longi. Dictamni Cretici veri, solium habentis acre, lanugine prorsus obductum. Schoenanthi. Thuris. Resinæ laricis, loco terebinthi. Nam ta- metsi resina terebinthina in promptu fuerit: ita tamen vetustate exoluerat, quod iam quodammodo sicca apparebat, resolutis scilicet aqueis & aëreis partibus. Nardi Indicæ an. 3 iij. Polii. Seseleos. Storac. calamit. Sem. Nasturtij loco Thlaspios. Nam ha- ctenus non vidi herbam quæ Thlaspi per omnia responderet. Amni. Chamaedr. flosculo purpureo. Cbamepith. siue aiugæ. Succi hypocystid. In hoc suceo vt verum fatear, satis & dubij & difficultatis est. Macis, loco Malobathi. Nardi Celticæ. Rad. gentianæ. Sem. anisi. Feniculi. Boli armenæ, summo ingenio ablutæ & præparatæ, loco terræ illius sigilatæ & albæ, & subcitrinæ, quæ hodie mera impostura sunt. Nam cum bolus Armena à Galeno ita extollatur, & nos eius vires insignes in- dies experiamur, cur ergo illam non sume- rem potius, quam incerium illud lutum? Chalanti torrefacti, iuxta Gal. mentem, sic vt colorare antidotum possit. Accepi au- tem chaleantum loco chalcitbeos illius fos- silis, cuius venæ, quod mihi constet, nul- libi hodie extant, ipsis tamen viribus non differt chalchanthum à chalcide, nisi maio- ris & minoris discrimine, tum etiam ratio- ne puritatis, & impuritatis. Phu Romani. Hyperici. Acaciæ. Hic coactus sum sumere succum illum agrestium prunorum. Gummi Arabici. Cardamom. an. 3 ij. Rad. acori aromatici 3 iii. Obamomum, & semen balsami, quibus semper carere cogimur, adau xi pondus a- cori aromatici. Sem. Dauci, non cretici, sed nostratis. Galbani. Sagapeni. Succi panacis Herculei. Asphalti. Castorei. Centaur. min. Aristoloch. longæ veræ a. 3j. Mellis despumati pot. lb. iij. Vini Cretici q. f. sellieet circiter lb. xv. f. secundum doctrinam Galeni com- mixtio. Veteres ratione earnis viperinæ & opii in opium. theriaca ætates maxime obseruarunt. Nos solummodo opinum obseruare conuenit, quod vbi crudum, vt ita loquar, & grauem odorem remiserit, statim incipio vti hac mea theriaca. Accelerat enim fermentationem ipsum oleum garyophillorum, ac stu- pefacientem opii qualitatem propediem reprimit sua intensa caliditate, & astringio- ne, & vi aromatica. Quare ab eius vsu non abstincas, hoc tamen inprimis obseruato, ne quis ipsam bene purgato corpore sumat. Potenter enim dissoluit humores. Sie e- nim cum laude indies illa apud meos vtor, quod iam cogar nouam moliri compositum, quæ in mulkos annos sufficiat. Por- ro non abs re me fecisse æstimes, quod o- leum caryophyllorum loco balsami anti- doto imposuerim. Video enim in the- riacis Arabum basin obtinere garyophyl- los, vt quibus procul dubio prospecta fuit vebemens, insignis, & nobilis ipsorum na- tura, quæ superare, excepto einnamomo, omnia reliqua aromata facile videntur. Hoc oleum etiam præstat vulneribus, vt illorum dolorem, si mox indatur, statim sedet, & absque inflammatione ad cicatrieem per- ducat. sordida mundat vlcera, fluxiones, & virus sistit adeo, quod nihil supra. So- leo quoque eo vti feliciter in quartana fe- bri, in chronica debilitate ventriculi, in Diarrhœa, & eiusmodi morbis, in quibus calefacere, astringere, & roborare conuenit. Vltra gurulas duas aut tres rato ex- hibeo in vino. Non innatat, sicut reliqua olea solent, liquoribus modo concutiatur, sed fundum petit, in modum lachrymæ bal- sami, ac subsidit. Tu eius specimen à me accipito beneuolo animo, & vtor cura discretione. De Muccharo rosarum, v- ter melius confecturus sit cernabimus ad futurum semestre, Deo concedente. In- terim felicissime cum coniuge honestiss- G 3

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153 MEDICINALS. 154 Nepeta. Prassi. Seed of parsley, not Macedonian, but here among us it grows in wild places; the seed is small, but endowed with remarkable qualities, as appears to me from the dissolution of its parts. Stoechas. Aromatic costus. White pepper, that is, unripe; long pepper. True Cretan dittany, having a sharp stalk, wholly covered with down. Schoenanthus. Frankincense. Resin of larch, in place of terebinth. For although terebinth resin was at hand, yet it had become so old that it now appeared somewhat dry, namely after the watery and airy parts had been resolved. Indian nard, 3 ij. Polium. Seseli. Storax, calamite. Seed of nasturtium in place of thlaspi. For thus far I have not seen any herb that answered to thlaspi in every respect. Ammi. Chamaedrys, with a purple flower. Chamaepitys, or ajuga. Juice of hypocystis. In this juice, to speak truthfully, there is quite a bit of uncertainty and difficulty. Mace, in place of malabathrum. Celtic nard. Gentian root. Anise seed. Fennel. Armenian bole, washed and prepared with the greatest skill, in place of that sealed and white earth, and the pale-yellow kind, which today are sheer imposture. For since Armenian bole is so highly praised by Galen, and we daily experience its remarkable powers, why then should I not prefer it to that uncertain clay? Roasted chalant, according to Galen’s intention, so that it may be able to color the antidote. But I have taken chalant in place of that fossil chalcitis, whose veins, so far as I know, no longer exist anywhere today; yet in its powers chalcanthum does not differ from chalcis, except in the difference between greater and lesser, and also in respect of purity and impurity. Roman phu. Hypericum. Acacia. Here I was forced to take that juice of wild plums. Arabic gum. Cardamom, 3 ij. Root of aromatic acorus, 3 iii. Obamomum, and balm seed, which we are always forced to do without; I increased the weight of aromatic acorus. Seed of daucus, not Cretan, but native. Galbanum. Sagapenum. Juice of panax heracleum. Asphalt. Beaver castoreum. Small centaury. True long aristolochia, 3j. Skimmed honey, lb. iij. Cretan wine, q.s., namely about lb. xv. Let the compound be made according to the teaching of Galen. The ancients, because of the viper flesh and opium in theriac, observed the age especially. We ought to observe only the opium, which, when it has lost, so to speak, its crude and heavy smell, I immediately begin to use in this theriac of mine. For the oil of cloves hastens fermentation, and soon suppresses the stupefying quality of the opium by its intense heat, astringency, and aromatic power. Therefore do not refrain from using it, but above all observe this: that no one take it with the body well purged. For it powerfully dissolves humors. Thus I use it every day with praise among my own patients, so much so that I am now compelled to prepare a new compound that may suffice for many years. Moreover, you should not think I have done this without good reason, in placing clove oil in the antidote instead of balsam. For I see that in the theriacs of the Arabs cloves hold the base, because their vehement, remarkable, and noble nature had undoubtedly been recognized, seeming easily to surpass all other aromatics except cinnamon. This oil is also excellent for wounds, for if applied at once it immediately relieves their pain and brings them to healing without inflammation. It cleans foul ulcers, stops discharges, and arrests poison so effectively that nothing more can be said. I also commonly use it successfully in quartan fever, in chronic weakness of the stomach, in diarrhea, and in similar diseases in which it is fitting to warm, astringe, and strengthen. I administer more than two or three drops, usually in wine. It does not float, as other oils usually do, in liquids, but only if stirred; rather it sinks to the bottom, like balsam tears, and settles there. Accept this sample from me with a kindly spirit, and use it with careful discretion. As for rose sugar, we shall see later, by next half-year, which will make it better, God granting. Meanwhile, most happily with my honorable spouse G 3

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159 EPISTOLÆ 158 ma vale, & omnes amicos diligentissime sa- luta. Norinbergæ. Martij die 24. Anno Christi 1538. EPIST. XCVIII. HIERONYMVS DONZELINVS Medicina Doctor, Iohanni Crato- ni Medico Casareo, S. D. Chymico- rum ex chro- nica vsum. DE chymicis tecum sentio, nec ego illis vtor, nisi in chthon: cis quibusdam, de quibus meam sententiam intelliges breui, cum leges libellum quendam à me nuper e- ditum contra quendam empiricum chyml- cum, qui librum edidit, cui tutulum fecit. Il flagello di Medici rationali, Italica ista sunt. Ego alieno nomine ita illum tractaui, vt il- lum suæ audaciæ pænituerit. Accipies cum Trincauelicis. Illic chymica exagito, ac mi- rum quantus internos sit consensus de his rebus, de quibus tamen nihil vnam con- tulimus. Ego mira parari scio à spargiricis, at vsum eorum minime tutum puto. Tu veto < Oleum Chal- canthi absque igne.> non credis chalcanti oleum fine igne parari posse; sed accipe rationem, qua ego paratu vidi; Teratur vitriolum subtilissime, illi su- perfundatur acetum aliquoties destillatum & exicctetur, tum siccum in loco subterra- neo ponatur in vase declui, prodibit oleum. Hoc spargiricus à me doctus parauit, & ego vidi. Non est quidem res tam valida, atq[ue] il- lud quod igne elicitur; sed tamen chalcan- ti oleum est, & vires aliquas haber, alterius tamen comparatione tenues. Sed accipe a- < Sulphur præparatæ.> liud spargiricum miraculum; Teratur sul- phur subtiliter, superfundatur illi oleum Tartari, decoquatur doneæ albescat, tum eoletur super aquam frigidam, in fundo re- sidebit sulphur, quod extractum soli expo- natur, & siccetur. Hoc tuto intra corpus ex- hiberi potest ad multa vtilissimum; in hy- drope: Idem si ponatur in loco humido sub- terraneo, oleum sulphuris reddet. Ego ali- quâdo libros omnes Paracelsi apud me ha- bui; sed cum ex eorum lectione nihil profi- cerem, pro aliis permutaui, nec in mea Bi- bliotheca tales libros hærere volui, quini- hil docerent. Ac puto, si quid dignum vn- < Andernstum Chymico-studiosus.> quam ab eo dictum aut scriptum est, id ab Andernaco in suos libros fuisse translatum cum censura, licet sæpe ipse etiam censen- dus sit. Cum bis literis accipies tres vncias optimi ladani. Siquid aliud cupis, mone, ac < Ladanum.> statim me habebis paratissimum. Marinel- lus dicit, se vti ladano per os sumpto, exigua quantitate ad ventriculi robur. Nam plane Melaucholicus est, ac nemini cedit tætus tæs Therlaca autem se tueter, qua vtitur, tamquam pane, iste amanter salutat. Scri- < Therlaca> bit Zuingerus se triginta tomos sui Theatri emissurum. Interim de Hippocrate nihil. Sed Sylburgius affirmat Parisiis quendam bene doctum totum Hippocratem elabora- re, cui ego meas emendariones graci exemplaris communicaui. Interim etiam Me- diolani alter Medicus eruditissimus idem < 16> molitur. Vale. Venetiis 10. Martij, Anno Millesimo, quingentesimo, octogesimo- quinto. EPIST. XCIX. IOHANNES CRATO A Krafsheim, &c. N. N. S. D. SUPERIORIBVS proximis diebus men- tionem fecisti de quatuor elementis ex chelidonia arte chimistica extrahendis. Re- spendi tunc me nescire in quam partem chelidoniæ vocabulum sit accipiendum. Nam & de herba, & metallica operatione chimistas vsumpare. De herba cum dictum < Qua sunt ea quatuor va appellata & docentata à Chelidonia chelidonia elementa.> intelligerem, non potui in temporis angu- stia meas cogitationes explicare. Eas igi- < 30> turnunc hoc scripto expono. Dum men- se Maio chelidonia flores, sub plenilunium in locis aridis tota herba nouem libtarum pondo colligitur, & huic libra vna salis tor- refacti apponitur, atque in vitrum distilla- < Aqua.> rorium capax conicitur, & per quindecim dies in fimo se pelitur dum putrefecat. De- inceps vitro alembicus imponitur, atque luto communitur, & primo in balneo de- stillatur herba cum radicibus. Quod per hanc destillationem extrahitur à Chimitis aqua appellatur. Idem deinceps vitrum < An.> cum herba cineribus imponitur & liquor, qui destillando exptimitur, aër dicitur. Ter- < Ignei> tio idem vitrum atenæ, aucto tamen igne, imponitur, & liquor crocei coloris, qui exit, ignis nominatur. Quod in fundo vitri vel < Terra.> ampullæ remanet, terram esse nemo igno- rat. Hæc de quatuor elementis chimistæ glotiosi, & tanquam de secreto loquuntur multis ignoto. Asseruant autem quemlibet liquorem seorsim, &, ne quid expiret, ca- < Ri quas vel reprimas co- labrem.> uent. Primi liquotis seu elementi aquei v- sus existimatur, quod intra corpus sumptus omnes humores corruptos & perniciosos corrigat & educat. Præ cordia autem ma- xime adiueret, & pulmones ab humoru in- fæctu liberet. Ac si pulmo in aliqua par- < 31> te sit læsus, substantiam pulmonis sanet. 2. Vulnera ab omni corruptione conseruet. 3. In omnibus ægritudinibus, si per nouem dies ex aqua buglossæ matuine bibatur, eas

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159 LETTERS 158 but farewell, and greet all my friends most affectionately. Nuremberg, the 24th day of March, in the year of Christ 1538. EPISTLE XCVIII. HIERONYMUS DONZELINUS Doctor of Medicine, to Johann Crato, Physician to the Emperor, Greetings. On the use of the Chymics from a chronicle. I agree with you about the chymics, and I myself do not use them, except in certain chthonic matters, concerning which you will understand my opinion shortly, when you read a little book recently published by me against a certain empiric chymist, who put out a book to which he gave the title Il flagello di Medici rationali ; these are Italian words. I treated him under another name in such a way that he repented of his boldness. You will receive it with the Trincavelian matters. There I attack chymical things, and it is amazing how much agreement there is between us on these matters, although we have contributed nothing together. I know that marvelous things are prepared by the spagyrics, but I consider their use by no means safe. But you do not believe that oil of chalcanthum can be prepared without fire; yet accept the method by which I saw it prepared: vitriol is ground very finely, distilled vinegar is poured over it several times, and it is dried; then, when dry, it is placed in a subterranean place in a luted vessel, and oil appears. A spagyric whom I taught prepared this, and I saw it myself. It is indeed not as strong a thing as that which is drawn out by fire; nevertheless it is oil of chalcanthum, and it has some powers, though slight in comparison with the other. But take another spagyric marvel: sulphur is ground finely, oil of tartar is poured over it, it is boiled until it becomes white, then it is strained over cold water; sulphur will remain in the bottom, and when extracted it is exposed to the sun and dried. This can safely be administered within the body and is very useful for many things, in dropsy. The same, if placed in a damp subterranean place, will yield oil of sulphur. I once had all Paracelsus’s books; but since I gained nothing from reading them, I exchanged them for others, and I did not want such books to remain in my library, since they taught nothing. And I think that if anything ever worthy was said or written by him, it was transferred by Andernach into his own books with criticism, although he himself must often also be criticized. With this letter you will receive three ounces of the best ladanum. If you desire anything else, let me know, and at once you will have me most ready. Marinellus says that he uses ladanum taken by mouth, in a small quantity, to strengthen the stomach. For he is thoroughly melancholy, and yields to no one tætus tæs . Therlaca, however, whom he uses as though it were bread, kindly sends greetings. Zuinger writes that he will publish thirty volumes of his Theatre. In the meantime, nothing about Hippocrates. But Sylburgius affirms that in Paris there is a certain well-trained man working on the whole of Hippocrates, to whom I communicated my emendations from the Greek exemplar. Meanwhile also in Milan another most learned physician is engaged in the same task. Farewell. Venice, 10 March, in the year 1585. EPISTLE XCIX. JOHANNES CRATO OF Krafsheim, etc. To N. N. Greetings. On the previous few days you mentioned the four elements to be extracted from chelidonia by the art of chemistry. I then replied that I did not know in what sense the word chelidonia should be taken. For chemists use it both of the herb and of the metallic operation. Since I understood it in the sense of the herb, I could not explain my thoughts in the shortness of time. I now set them forth in this letter. When in the month of May, under the full moon, the flowers of chelidonia are in bloom, the whole herb is gathered in dry places, weighing nine pounds, and one pound of roasted salt is added to this, and it is put into a glass distilling vessel of sufficient size, and left buried in dung for fifteen days while it putrefies. Then an alembic is placed on the glass, and it is luted, and first the herb with the roots is distilled in a bain-marie. What is extracted by this distillation is called water by the chemists. Then the same glass with the herb is placed upon ashes, and the liquid that is pressed out by distilling is called air. Third, the same glass is placed on the furnace, but with the fire increased, and the yellowish liquid that comes out is called fire. What remains in the bottom of the glass or flask, no one is ignorant, is earth. The boastful chemists speak of these four elements as though of a secret unknown to many. But let each liquid be kept separately, and, lest anything evaporate, let them be covered. The first liquid, or watery element, is thought to be used in this way: taken within the body, it corrects and expels all corrupt and harmful humors. It especially aids the vital parts, and frees the lungs from the infection of humors. And if the lung is in some part damaged, it heals the substance of the lung. 2. It preserves wounds from all corruption. 3. In all illnesses, if one drinks for nine days from the water of bugloss in the morning, it

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157 MEDICINALES. 158 eas v[er]tes natura addat, vt morbum superet. 4. Quotidianum v[er]sum sanum validumque corpas conseruare. Atq[ue] hæc de primo clementro isti homines, qui ex fumo aurum captant, & fumos vendunt, prædicant. Pulmonibus hanc aquam conferre fateor. Alterum liqvorum aerem dicunt. Eum v[er]sque adeo sanguinem augere censent, vt nisi quis vel maritus sit, vel crebro sanguinem mirat, ex plenitudine periculum sentiat. Nunquam seci periculum, neq[ue] facere velim. Experiatur q[ui]ni volet. Addunt hæc, ne debilitari quidem eos, qui isto liquore vtuntur. 3. Expurgare melancholiam, & omnem humorem superfluum. In perpetua iuuentute & vigore homines conseruare, atque formæ bonum stabile reddere. O rem pretio dignam. 5. Neruis robur addere, & venarum sanguinem ab omni vitio liberare. 6. Suffusiones & oculorum vitia non modo eorrigere, verum planetollere, si per vnum mensem liqvor ille singulis dieb[us] oculo imponatur. Itaque & cæcis visum restituere, si se in loco ab omni ventorum flatu & aeris iniuria libero, contineant. Prodesse visui hanc herbam omnes, qui de re herbaria scripserunt, docent, & hirundines visum ex hac herba recipere restantur. Itaque recte hunc liquorem oculis instillari posse existimo. Tertius liquor, seu elemenrum ignis, vt isti loquuntur, ad ista omnia, de quibus iam antea dictum est, cöferre existimant. Addunt autem hoc in paralysi linguæ, & vsu sermonis amisso conferre, ac iam anima deficienres spiritum recipere, si cum aliqua cordiali aqua, vel cinnamomi aqua ori iniiciatur. Spiritus ex hausto restituere. Senectutis incommoda, si ex vino quotidie sumatur, non modo tollere, verum è tenibus iuuenes reddere. Simili modo exhibitum peste infectis præstætissimum remedium esse. Habes arcana chimistica, & his plura si scire desideras, libenter & liberaliter ea communicaturus sum. Vale. Annot 580. die 26. Februarii. EPIST. C. Io. CRATO A KRAFTHEIM, &c. N. N. S. D. < Pro præfer. mutatione, si nas in primis non purgandos offe: sub Lancidâ in fu alium.> QVÆSTITVM fuit, Rectum ne esse videatur, hominem in declinante ætate constitutum, sanum vt nunc, occupationibus graubus distentum, in coniugio arque vicitum non satis temperantem, quotannis præcautionis causa medicamentis scam- moneatis & electiue, vt loquuntur, ducentibus purgare. Ad hanc quæstionem responsum, primum cacochymiam indicare vacuationem per medicamenta, atqueeam quæ cum plenitudine coniuncta sit, vt morbum factum, certis indiciis videatur. Certa indicia imminentis morbi non indicari in hoc corpore. Ergo me in ista ætate electiue purgantium medicamentorum; videlicet quæ ex scammonea, turbith, colocynthide componuntur, v[er]sum non posse probare. Secundo in declinante ætate absumi per se humidum radicale, & calorem innatum debilitari. Vtrumque vero adhibitis fortissimis medicamentis non frustra metui. Medicamenta enim ista valide siccare, & cum humores malos educunt, simul natium, cui calor insider, affligere. Deinde cum sint calida, suo calore, qui minime est temperatus (solo enim temperato calore innatus calor fouetur) nativo calori vim afferre. Tertio, in cruditaribus & vsu veneris, nulla ratione indicari purgantia medicamenta. De crudos enim nullum esse dubium quin coctionem indicent: venus vero cum spiritus exhauriat, & caput ac ventriculum inprimis afficiat, quo pacto simile nocens similibet nocenti, iuxta regulâ adhibemus? Quarto, Regula generali nos vti, in præcautione adhibenda medicamenta nam ne purga . Quid autem in catapotiis aureis & cochiis non maximum, si purgandi intentionem respicias? Quinto, Medicamenta electiue (vt loquuntur Medici) ducentia, non solum noxia esse ventriculo, quod calorem præter naturam excitent, verum etiam malignam qualitatem, qua vitiosi humores attrahantur, inducant. Itaque paulo post tales purgationes ventriculum p[er]tauis humoribus repleri. Sexto, rectam victus rationem, secundum Hippocratis sententiam tutissimam esse medicinam. Ad hæc quid respondeatur. Primum ait, se non ex euentu, qui opinione prosperior fuit, neq[ue] ex authoritate, quæ Achillis sit, sed natura rei & methodo contrarium velle ostendete. Neque initio de temperamento corporis vult constituere, cum ante annos propettrina ego luculentet de eo scripterim. Promittit deinceps sibi victoriam, si modo adhuc medicinam Hippocratis & Galeni profitear. Deinde de cura tione febris ephemeræ agit, & plenitudine, cuius index fuerit catarhus, se adductum, vt catapodia aurea atque cochia exliberer. R[es]prehendit cunctationem medicorum, & de sua animositate loquitur, atque de curatione methodica catarhi agit: Hæc nobis consideranda. Nihil propemodum 4

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157. MEDICINALS. 158 whether the green things of nature should add to it, so that it may overcome the disease. 4. To preserve the body in a sound and vigorous condition every day. And these things about the first element are proclaimed by those men who, out of smoke, capture gold and sell smoke. I confess that this water is beneficial to the lungs. The second they call the element of liquids, or air. They think that this too increases the blood to such a degree that, unless one is married, or often lets blood, he feels danger from fullness. I have never experienced such danger, nor would I wish to do so. Let whoever wishes try it. They add that those who use this liquid are not even weakened by it. 3. To purge melancholy and all superfluous humors. To preserve men in perpetual youth and vigor, and to make the good condition of the body stable. O a thing worthy of a price. 5. To add strength to the nerves, and to free the blood of the veins from every defect. 6. To correct not only cataracts and defects of the eyes, but even to remove them, if that liquid is applied to the eye every day for one month. And so it is said that even the blind may have their sight restored, if they keep themselves in a place free from every blast of wind and injury of the air. All who have written on herbs teach that this herb is useful for sight, and it is stated that swallows recover their vision from this herb. Therefore I think that this liquid may rightly be instilled into the eyes. The third liquid, or element of fire, as these men speak, they think contributes to all those things of which mention has already been made. Moreover, they add that it helps in paralysis of the tongue, and in loss of speech, and that those already failing in strength may recover their breath, if it be injected into the mouth with some cordial water, or water of cinnamon. To restore the exhausted spirit. To remove the inconveniences of old age, if taken daily from wine, not only to take them away, but even to make young men from the old. In the same way, when administered to those infected with plague, it is an excellent remedy. You have chemical secrets; and if you desire to know more than these, I shall gladly and freely communicate them. Farewell. Dated 580, on the 26th of February. EPISTLE C. Io. CRATO OF KRAFTHEIM, etc. N. N. S. D. <For the prefatory change, if you in the first place do not purge the offenders: under the Lamb in his other place.> THE QUESTION WAS RAISED whether it seems right for a man in declining age, healthy as he is now, burdened with heavy occupations, and in marriage and household life not sufficiently temperate, to be purged every year, as a precaution, with medicines of scammony and, as they say, selective purgatives. In answer to this question, it is first said that cacochymy indicates evacuation by medicines, and also that condition which is joined with fullness, as if the disease were already formed, appears by certain signs. There are no certain signs of an impending disease indicated in this body. Therefore, with regard to this age, I cannot approve of purgative medicines administered selectively, namely those compounded from scammony, turbith, and colocynth. Second, in declining age the radical moisture is consumed of itself, and the innate heat is weakened. Both indeed are not wrongly feared if the strongest medicines are employed. For these medicines dry powerfully, and while they draw out bad humors, at the same time they weaken the very source in which heat resides. Then, since they are hot, by their heat, which is by no means moderate—for it is only by moderate heat that innate heat is nourished—they do violence to the natural heat. Third, in cases of undigested humors and the use of Venus, purgative medicines are in no way indicated. For undigested humors undoubtedly indicate digestion; but Venus, since it exhausts the spirits and chiefly affects the head and stomach, how can we apply a like harmful remedy to a like harmful cause, according to the rule? Fourth, we use the general rule that in precaution the medicines to be employed are nam ne purga . But what is most, in golden pills and cochia, if you look to the intention of purging? Fifth, selective purgative medicines, as the physicians call them, are not only harmful to the stomach, because they excite an unnatural heat, but also introduce a malignant quality by which corrupt humors are drawn in. And so shortly after such purgations the stomach is filled with corrupt humors. Sixth, a proper regimen of diet, according to Hippocrates, is the safest medicine. To these things, what is replied? First, he says that he wishes to show the contrary not from the event, which was more favorable than expected, nor from authority, which belongs to Achilles, but from the nature of the thing and the method. Nor does he wish at the outset to establish anything about the temperament of the body, since years ago I wrote about this very clearly. He promises that in future victory will be his, provided that I still profess the medicine of Hippocrates and Galen. Then he speaks about the treatment of an ephemeral fever, and of fullness, of which a catarrh was the sign, saying that he was led to dispense with golden pills and cochia. He criticizes the hesitation of physicians, and speaks of his own boldness, and discusses the methodical treatment of catarrh: These things are to be considered by us. Hardly anything 4

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ad rem Medicum illum dicere apparet, & me nimis inclementer tractat, cum in illius facta nunquam inquisuerim, nec inquire- re voluerim. Mitificam autem suæ artis me- dicæ scientiam prodit. Totis viginti octo annis (tot enim sunt, cum ego Heinzelio consilium illud scripsi) temperamentum non mutari, cui obsecro verisimile videtur? Itaque cum ex rei natura & methodo vo- luerit sua demonstrare, certe fundamen- < 50> tum quasi hoc ponendum erat. Egregia ver- o illa considerari naturæ rei materiam bi- liosam in vninero corpore commotam ex animi quadam perturbatione isto modo causam febris ephemeræ statnere, vt expur- ganda etiam videatur. Nnnquam ab Hip- poeratis & Galeni doctrina discessi, nec discessurus sum, ephemerarum vero fe- brium ab ita & commotione animi orta- rum, spirituum immodicam calefactionem, < 20> non humorum esse ab illis didici. Hoc et- iam noui, cum vacuario humorum, non fiat absq[ue] motu, (non enim nunc dico quod Galenus affirmat, medicamenta omnia pur- gantia calida) & motus humores ac spiritus calefaciar, in ephemera febri purgationem non indicari. Methodicâ ne igitur & rati- onalem curationem, an euentum prosperio- rem sua opinione hic Medicus eômemoret, doctorum Medicorum esto iudicium. Ad < 30> catarrhi curam quod attinet, videamus i- psius analysin. Catarrhus est symptoma, recte. Morbi symptomatum causæ. est au- tem morbus intemperies frigida atq[ue] hu- mida cerebri cum materia. Materia ob mul- titudinem non potest coneoqui, ergo eua- cuanda. Nemo qui prima rationalis Me- dicinæ principi didicit, hæc negabit, sed Medico illud probandum fuerat, fuisse & multam materiam, vt non potuerit à natura < 40> euinci, & ne grauius malum asserret, peri- culi indicia proferre. Nam non nisi hoc prober, stat etiam nunc, materiam fuisse concoquendam, & eo ducendam, quonatura vergeret. Non enim vere turger pitui- ta, cum sit humor frigidus. Peccatum igi- < 50> tur esse in methodum retolntiuum apparet. videat autem quam ex natura rei agat, cum validam naturam & locum affectum vali- dus medicamentu[m] requirere affirmat. Va- < 60> lida enim natura & virtus expulsiva fortis etiam debiliori medicamento adiuvari po- test, & naturæ morborum Medici. Dein- de locus affectus purgationem non indicat. Nisi forte medicamenta ad partem affectâ proficisci hic Medicus opinatur. Est autem hæc purgatio reuullionis species, qua ma- teria catari hi à capite trahitur, & reuelle- re nos posse, (respicientes nec ) non expectare eoctione scimus, & benefi- cio Dei, priusquam Medicus ille Medicum libellum attigit, didicimus. Nihil igitur de sua audacia commemorabile narrat. Ne- que regulam, concocta medicari oportet, &c. euerit. Nec de sua confidentia tam glori- ose loqui debebar, cum perunl[ati]gatum sit, magnæ Medicinæ partem audacia constare, siue cunctâdum sit, siue accelerandum, sem per natnram & rationem ducem sequor, & tam mihi potentia medicamenta, & eorum vsus rectus, quam huic Medico nota sunt. In acutis morbis nullus vquam me cun- ctari vidit, nec in chronicis cessator fui, plures fortasse xgros, quam hic Medicus aspexit, beneficio Dei sanitati restitui. Cum D. Achille non est mihi negotium. Ne hunc igitur admisceat. Nunquam hic Medicus curationes meas, (quod sciam) inspexit. D. Achilles ante triginta annos apud xgros mi- hi additus fuit, si quid is babet, quod repre- hendat, proferat. Multa vsu artis interea di- dici. Neque tamen (vt falso ille putat) ad em- piricos plane me contuli. De eoctione ma- teriæ biliosæ & tenuis nimis longum esset a- gere, neque instituto nostro conveniens. Quod ad stimulum medicamentorum, vt vocant, attinet, non videndum quid quis di- cat, sed qua ratione dicat, existimo. Agimus de vacuariaione quæ præcautionis causa ad bibetur. De ea ego hoc affirmo, cum eam requirimus necesse esse, vt de morbo q[ui]nem formidamus, & eius causis constituamus, deinde posse de medicamento recte agi, cu[m] indicario, quæ collatio nocentis & conse- rensis est, methodice actioni prælucere de- beat. Cæterum quod huic Medico, exhibi- to purgante medicamento perinde est, siue per superiora, siue per inferiora purget, in Asclepiadis vel Etilistrati schola didicit, & nouum se Hippocratis interpretem facit, cum, FACILE ferunt, illi hoc videtur, si tri- bus boris post assumptum medicamentum æger vomat & indeliquium animi incidat. In Analysi etiam sua ostendit materiam pi- tuitosam, deinde huius oblitus biliosa vo- mitu reiecta scribit. Accedit deinceps ad se- cundam rationem, & me non primum ob- seruasle air, medicam[en]ta purgantia senibus obesse. Nunquam hoc mihi cogitare in me- tem venit. Colligi etiam plura excrementa in senibus calore debilitato, quam in iuu- enibus scimus. De eo autem quæritur, sintne id meo convenientiora, recta victus ratio & exercitia tempestiva, quam medi- camenta electine, vt loquimur, & cochiis atque aureis pillulis, quæ scammoneam, colocyn- < Num in semi bus poster præseruatio in diata & exercitus quam medi- cenis doctus purgantis.>

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To speak in relation to the medical matter, it appears that he treats me too harshly, since I have never inquired into his actions, nor have I wished to inquire. Yet he reveals the mildness of his medical skill. For twenty-eight full years — for that is the number since I wrote that advice to Heinzel — the temperament has not changed; who, I ask, would find that believable? Therefore, since he wished to prove his own view from the nature of the matter and the method, surely that was the very foundation that should have been laid. But that excellent consideration, namely that the bilious matter in the whole body, stirred up by some disturbance of the mind, is thus to be established as the cause of a quotidian fever, seems also to require purging. I have never departed from the doctrine of Hippocrates and Galen, nor shall I depart; and from them I learned that the intermittent fevers arising from such a disturbance of the mind are due to an excessive heating of the spirits, not of the humors. I also know this: when the humors are evacuated, it does not happen without motion — for I am not now speaking of what Galen affirms, that all purgative medicines are hot — and since motion heats the humors and spirits, in a quotidian fever purgation is not indicated. Whether, then, this physician here recommends a methodical and rational treatment, or a more favorable outcome according to his opinion, let the judgment of learned physicians decide. As for the treatment of catarrh, let us examine his analysis. Catarrh is a symptom, rightly so. The cause of the symptoms of the disease is, however, a cold and moist intemperament of the brain together with matter. Because of its abundance, the matter cannot be concocted; therefore it must be evacuated. No one who has learned the first principles of rational medicine will deny this; but the physician should have proved that there was indeed much matter, so that it could not be overcome by nature, and that signs of danger should be presented lest a graver evil be inflicted. For unless this is proved, it still stands that the matter was to be digested and led where nature was tending. For phlegm is not truly to be said to swell, since it is a cold humor. Therefore it is clear that the fault lies in the revulsive method. Let him also consider how he proceeds from the nature of the thing, when he asserts that a strong nature and an affected place require a strong medicine. For a strong nature and a strong expulsive power can also be aided by a weaker medicine, and the physician should know the nature of diseases. Moreover, the affected part does not indicate purgation. Unless perhaps this physician thinks that medicines are to go to the affected part. But this purgation is a species of revulsion, by which catarrhal matter is drawn from the head; and that we can revulse it — looking to nature and not waiting for concoction — we have known, by the grace of God, before that physician touched the medical booklet. He therefore tells us nothing worth mentioning about his boldness. Nor should he so proudly boast of not overturning the rule, “one must medicate what has been concocted,” etc. He ought not to speak so confidently, since it is plainly known that much of medicine consists in boldness, whether one must delay or hasten; I always follow nature and reason as my guide, and both the power of medicines and their proper use are as well known to me as to this physician. In acute diseases no one has ever seen me delay, nor have I been a laggard in chronic ones; by God’s help I have restored to health more patients perhaps than this physician has seen. I have no business with Dr. Achilles. Therefore let him not mix him into this. This physician, as far as I know, has never examined my cures. Dr. Achilles was assigned to me among the sick thirty years ago; if he has anything to object to, let him bring it forward. In the meantime I have learned much by the practice of the art. Nor, however, as he falsely thinks, have I turned wholly to the empirics. To discuss the concoction of bilious and overly thin matter would be too long and not in keeping with our purpose. As for the so-called stimulus of medicines, I think one must not consider what someone says, but by what reasoning he says it. We are dealing with evacuation that is administered as a precaution. About this I affirm that, when we require it, it is necessary that we determine the disease we fear and its causes; afterward one can speak rightly about the medicine, when the indication — which is the comparison of what harms and what is beneficial — ought methodically to precede the action. Moreover, that for this physician it makes no difference, once a purgative medicine has been given, whether it purges by the upper or the lower passage, he learned in the school of Asclepiades or of Erasistratus, and he makes himself a new interpreter of Hippocrates, since, as the word “FACILE” indicates, it seems to him that if three hours after taking the medicine the patient vomits and falls into faintness. In his own analysis he also shows phlegmatous matter, then, forgetting this, writes that bilious matter was cast out by vomiting. He next turns to a second argument and says that I did not first observe that purgative medicines are harmful to the elderly. It never entered my mind to think this. We also know that in the elderly, with diminished heat, more excrements accumulate than in the young. But the question is whether for them a proper regimen and timely exercise are more suitable than elective medicines, as we say, and those pills and golden pills which contain scammony, colocynthis, < Are not in the elderly, then, preservation in diet and exercise more suitable than medicines, as learned physicians say, and purgatives? >

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161 MEDICINÆLES. 161 colocynthidem, turbith accipiunt, purgantia, cum beneficio Dei nobis meliora & tutiora sint ostensa. In isto totius negotii cardo vertitur, concedere quidem nobis Medicus videtur, verum ne errasse videatur, statim ad ingenium redit, & illud affert, in hoc casu, vt loquitur, excrementa vltra rempus (sua illa verba propono) retenta, plus victus rationem incommodasse, quam profuisse. Sunt ista prorsus paradoxa. Nam r ex victus ratione recta vlum esse incommodum insania esse dicere. Naturam autem (id quod & constitutum) validam, & viis (vt loquitur Medicus) aptis vltratem pus excrementra coaceruata retinere, & permittere vt calorem strangulent, quam recte dicatur, Medici docti iudicent. Pueriliter autem ineptit, cum medicamenta voc , me docet. Sciui hoc fortasse prius, quam ille literas didicit. Et hoc a- <20>go, hoc vrgeo, vt eam corporis constitutionem, quæ postulet, vt quotannis talibus electiue purgantibus medicamentis, qualia sunt colocynthis, turbih, scammonea, vti D. Heinzelius debeat, demonstrer, & hoc recte atque cum vera ratione fieri ostendat. Hic illi ad primam, secundam, tertiam, & quartam rationem à me allaram respondendum erit. Ad quintam meam rationem hoc adfert. <30> A purgantibus plures congeri humores: absolute verum non est, sed cum sex rebus non naturalibus magis delinquitur, quærarione, qua humanitate ista dicantur, æqui & iniqui iudicent. Non ago simpliciter de purgatione, sed de purgatione per ea medicamenta, quæ commemorata sunt, loquor. Ea dico ventriculum qualitare quadam itahendi humores imbure, ita vt paulo post non minus humorum ad se attrahat, quam medicamento ipso præsente attractum fuit. Hoc vt affirmem, tam Græcorum, quam Arabum authoritate adducor. Veras & firmas rationes, quas & Galenus & Montanus euidenter monstrant, habeo, & experientia hoc edoctus sum. Neque tamen & simpliciter hæc medicamenta tencio, sed in loco, & cum meliora ad manum non habemus, laudo. Commendare vero glandes frugibus repertis inscitia est. Non iam <30> agimus de neglectu sex rerum non naturatium, de quo à Galeno nostro ita moneamur: Qui rectam victus rationem teneré nequeunt, iis optimam medicinam præscribere superuacaneum esse. Quod verò addit Medicus de refrigeratione caloris, si ex accidente hoc intelligit, largior illi: si simpliciter, physica principia eum ignora re existimo. Ac improprie dicitur, crudi- tatum proutentum augeri à medicamen- <40>ro. Neque declaratur quid sit illud, vrgens malum quo posthabito sit purgandum Profecto si doctrinæ Hippocraticæ & Galeni studiosus esset, & ex fontibus potius, quam lacunis Medicinam hausisset, aliter sentiret, & de re Medica scriberet. Postremam rationem Hippocraticam inuitam è prodat. Meum vero exemplum quod amico proposueram, qui in ista hæresi iuuenis fuerim, vt non putarem me à morbis turum, nisi crebris medicamentis purgantibus vterer, improbat. Quam ignarus vero si aulicorum morum apparet. Totis iam quatuordecim annis alieno modo mihi viuendum fuit, edendum, laborandum, somnus capiendus, non quando natura & voluntas hoc postulauit, sed eum dominis visum fuerit, vbigitur exacta illa mea dixtra? Ait me non catarrhis laborasse, cum nihil non mali ab illis sim passus. Viribus corporis denique D. Heinzelium superare. Quid? vel malis oculis v[er]sus est, vel me Medicus nunquam vidit. Roborantia deinceps medicamenta quæ suo calore paulatim materiam absumere possim, vel calorem narium fouere, velit, nolit, admittit. iis vero vti quid negotia, quid vita ciuilis impedit? Concludit ad extremum, non in controuersiam scilud vocare, quod in controuersia maxime est, videlicet, an in ista vita, in tali ærate. vel <41> rectè quotannis medicamenta ista, quæ nominata sunt, & D. Achilles (id quod nunc primo rescisco) sæpe surpauit, D. Heinzelius ad annuas purgationes adhibere debeat, an vero mitiora & benigniora illis præferenda. Nam de epicrasi hic agere ineprum esset, cum de præcautione sani vt nunc agatur. Neque catarrhi (de quo nihil prius sciui) materiam nunc reuelimus, neque temperiem cerebri curamus. Nihil etiam de medicamentosa victus raine (quod sciam) actum est. Nisi forte (quod non memini) p[ro]ptum medicamentosum, id est, vinum cum carduo benedicto vel betonica præscripsi. Exquisitam vero victus rarioem, quæ omni reprehensione vacaret, plane non attigi. Quid igitur de lanacaprina? Si medicus me hoc mihi sumere putat, vt ex præscripto meo præsentes Medicægrum curent, & posthabitis suis medicamentis, quæ recta ac conuenientia videntur, nostris vti debeant, magna me iniuria afficit, & de me nimis inconsideratè iudicat. Non addam plura. Moram tibi vit præstantissime gesti. Cum medico vero, qui <42> tam doctum se putat, vt Cratonem contemnere possit, ne verbulum quidem com-

Transcription: Translated (English)

161 MEDICINÆLES. 161 They take colocynth, turbith, purgatives, when by the grace of God better and safer remedies have been shown to us. In this the whole crux of the matter turns. The physician seems indeed to concede to us, but lest he appear to have been mistaken, he immediately reverts to his wit and brings forward this argument: in this case, as he says, retained excrements beyond the proper time (I quote his own words) have troubled the diet more than benefited it. These are utterly paradoxical statements. For to say that, from a proper regimen of diet, only harm arises is madness. Let learned physicians judge how it can rightly be said that nature, when sound and vigorous, and the ways open (as the physician says), retains accumulations of excrement beyond the proper time and allows them to strangle the heat. He speaks childishly and foolishly when he teaches me about medicines. I knew this perhaps before he learned his letters. And this is what I now urge and press: let him show that constitution of the body which requires that each year one should use such elective purgative medicines as colocynth, turbith, and scammony, as Dr. Heinzelius ought to do, and let him prove that this is done rightly and with true reasoning. Here he will have to answer my first, second, third, and fourth arguments. To my fifth argument he replies thus: that purgatives cause a greater accumulation of humors. This is not absolutely true, but the six non-natural things are more at fault; let fair and unfair judges decide how much humanity there is in such words. I am not speaking simply of purgation, but of purgation by the medicines already mentioned. I say that these medicines give the stomach a certain quality of drawing humors in, so that soon afterward it attracts no less humor to itself than it had drawn while the medicine itself was present. I am led to affirm this by the authority both of the Greeks and of the Arabs. I have true and solid reasons, which both Galen and Montanus plainly demonstrate, and I have been taught this by experience. Yet I do not recommend these medicines absolutely, but only in the proper place, and when we do not have better ones at hand. To commend acorns when grain has been found is ignorance. We are no longer speaking of neglect of the six non-natural things, concerning which Galen himself warns us thus: that for those who cannot keep a proper regimen of life, it is unnecessary to prescribe the best medicine. As for what the physician adds about cooling the heat, if he means this as something accidental, I grant it to him; if absolutely, I think he is ignorant of the principles of natural philosophy. And it is improperly said that the crudities present are increased by the medicine. Nor is it explained what that urgent evil is, after which purgation is to be postponed. Surely if he were a student of Hippocratic and Galenic doctrine, and had drawn medicine rather from the sources than from sinkholes, he would think and write differently about medical matters. He has put forward, unwillingly, the last Hippocratic argument. He disapproves of my own example, which I had proposed to a friend, that when I was young in that heresy I did not think I could be free from diseases unless I used purgative medicines frequently. How ignorant he shows himself of courtly customs! For now for fourteen whole years I have had to live, eat, labor, and take sleep in another man's way, not when nature and my will required it, but when it seemed good to my masters. Where then is that supposed exactness of mine? He says I have not suffered from catarrhs, when I have endured nothing but ill from them. Lastly, as to bodily strength, he says that I surpass Dr. Heinzelius. What? Either he has bad eyes, or he has never seen me as a physician. He further permits strengthening medicines, which by their own heat may gradually consume the material, or warm the nostrils, whether one likes it or not. But what business, what civic life, would allow the use of these? He concludes at the end not to bring into controversy what is most at issue in the controversy, namely whether, in this way of life, at such an age, those medicines that have been named ought rightly to be used each year by Dr. Heinzelius for annual purgations, or whether milder and gentler remedies should rather be preferred to them. For it would be foolish here to discuss epicrisis, since we are now concerned with prevention in a healthy man. Nor do we now reveal the matter of catarrh, about which I previously knew nothing, nor do we care for the temperament of the brain. Nothing has also been said, as far as I know, about medicinal regimen of diet. Unless perhaps I prescribed a medicinal drink, that is, wine with blessed thistle or betony, which I do not remember. But I have not touched at all upon an exact regimen of diet that would be free from every reproach. What then of lanacaprina? If the physician thinks that I am taking this so that, by my prescription, the present physicians may cure the sick man, and that, neglecting their own medicines, which seem right and appropriate, they ought to use mine, he does me a great injustice and judges me far too inconsiderately. I shall add no more. I have prolonged the delay for you, most excellent sir. But with the physician, who thinks himself so learned that he can despise Craton, not a word more...

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15) EPISTOLÆ 164 mutaturum me amplius profiteor. Subiicio autem ista non tuo, sed omnium Medico- rum rationalem medicinam amantium & intelligeotium iudicio, & me tua causa, non Medici, hæc scripsisse affirmo. Sic igitur co- cludo, hominem temperantem ista æta- te, ista constitutiooe corporis, qua tu es, ex medicamentis quæ cruditates in corporib. collectas paulatim absumunt, calorem in- natum roboraot, recta victus ratione & ex- ercitiis convenientibus adhibitis, plus ad- iumeoti, quam ex purgantib. medicameo- tis capere, Qui vero rectam victus rationem teoere nolunt, iis optimam medicinam (vt Galenus ooster ait) præscribere superuaca- neum esse. Bene vale, & me ama. EPIST. CL. Io. HENRICO HERVART PATRISIO Augustano, Io. Crato à Kraft- beum, &c. S. D. APVD Xenophootem est, Hippiam quendam Eleum, post longi temporis obseruatiooes, Athenas esse reuersum vt doctrinam Socratis iterum cognosceret. Qui cum animaduerteret, eadem Socratem docere, quæ multos iam aonos ex eo audi- uerat, admirarus primum virum, de cuius doctrina & sapientia tanta esset omnium o- pimo, veterem caotilenam canere. Eo de- inde processit audacia, vt Socratem, qui A- pollinis etiam oraculo sapientia laude ex- cellebat, contemneret, oecque hoc clam fer- ret, sed dictis quoque lacesseret. Huic vero respondit Socrates: O Hippia inquiens: i pó- ver ait tu auriæ λήγω, αἰθά μὴ ποίνὶ τῶν αυτῶν id est, into non tantum eadem dico, atque eadem < 30> forma sermoois vtor, sed eadem etiam per- petuo meis auditoribus inculco: Siqui- dem non nocet bis atque ter id dicere quod recte dieritur & disceotib. vtile est: ac potius laudi duceodum de rebus veris & vtilibus eadem sæpe multumque sermoem vsurpa- re, & certa explicaodi ratione perspicua pla- naque facere. Tales vero Hippias etiam nunc reperiri vbique non est dubium, qui cum iocidunt in hæc scripta. & præsettim in < 50> consultationibus à Montano dicta αν λάτρα illam, & quasi vniformem doceodi rationem respuunt, & nos qui ista edimus & tao- quam vtilia cum studiosis rei Medicæ com- municamus, suauiter derident. Huc autem vt άπερπτος τῶν ειδήτων, και δάλευτον τῶν αυτῶν, id est, contemprores viliatarum, & abur- darum opinionum seruos missos faciamus, & interim mirificis scriptus, quibus vetetum doctrina coeuellitur, & nescio quæ nouæ sub structiones ab eis sunt, quæ rixis & gladia- toriis libellis, io quibus noo multum firmitatis est, fulciunt: eos delectari patiamur, præsertim cum isti Hippia soli sibi sapere, & medicinæ attem teoere videantur. Præter hos vero duo sunt eorum quibus Montaio- ca non placeot, medicorum genera: quo- rum vnum quod videtur sibi Attica eloquê- tia præditum, nec tameo est, ista ridet quasi barbara verba. Alterum io maxima rerum omnium inficitia contemnit atque respuit, & fortunam atque experientiam suam ta- dicitat. His animi mei sensus est explicandus, vt optimi quique pietatem meam atque ob- seruantiam erga præceptorem meum Io. B. Montanum perspiciaot, & tyrooes in studio Medico aduersus peruersa judicia præmu- niantur. Ac ipse quidem in easum senten- tia, vt cum cogitationoes mentis oratione ex- plicandæ sint, atque rerum animo per- ceptarum verba sint iodices oratioois, ge- nus perspicuum, elegans & proprium ma- gnopere probem, & magnum ornamentum ac adiumentum in docendo statuam. Sed cum ius consuetudinis præualeat, cum tem- porib. iouquis hoc sæpe excludatur, & quasi auditorio seruiendum sit, ac mi monum nunum di- cenda, non puto merito in reprehensionem eos cadere, qui potius ita dicere malunt, vt intelligantur, quam vel elegantia affectata res obscurate, vel in verborum sollicita conquisitione eas amittere. Fuisse autem summam vim ingenii io Moorano, & sin- gularem eloquentiam, sciunt omnes, qui < monum laus.> cum oouertunt, & erat in vtraque lingua, e- legantioribusque litteris ita versarus, vt si quid vellet, splendide & ornate dicere pos- set 1 id quod ex scriptis eius, quæ iuueois composuit, manifestum est: sed cum ad do- cendam aitem medicam stipendio Illustrissimi Senatus Veneti amplissimo conductus esset, more scholæ dicere, quam eloquentiam ostentare maluit. Vt ebatur autem o- ratione perspicua, plana, ac auditoribus ac- commodata, & vere Socraticum tenebat, vt tu auriæ ποίνὶ τῶν αυτῶν diceret, id quod io methodica & vera doctrina fieri oponiet, & plaoe necesse est. Nam non ludendum o- pinionibus, neque conquisitas & male de- tortas authorum senteorias auditoribus ob- trudendas esse putabat: sed id quod Gale- < Requiesca præcipia Montano.> lenus moorer ostendeodum illis præcipue censebat, omne præceptum medicum de- bere esse αληθική, Χεροπιενη ἀκίλητην. Ac cum interdum cogitationes tuas, vel propter temporis angustiam, vel strepitu auditorum commotus, satis perspicue explicare non posset, expoliuit eas altera lectiooe, & tan- dem ter-

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15) EPISTLES 164 I declare that I will not change anything further. But I submit these things, not to your judgment, but to the judgment of all who love rational medicine and understand it, and I affirm that I have written this for your sake, not for the physician’s. Thus I conclude that a temperate man, at this age and in the bodily condition in which you are, can derive more benefit from medicines which gradually consume the crudities collected in the body, strengthen the innate heat, and with a proper regimen of diet and suitable exercise are applied, than from purgative medicines. But those who are unwilling to observe the proper regimen of diet, for them, as our Galen says, it would be superfluous to prescribe even the best medicine. Farewell well, and love me. EPIST. CL. To Io. HENRICUS HERVART, Patrician of Augsburg, Io. Crato of Krafftbeum, etc., sends greetings. In Xenophon there is Hippias of Elis, who, after long intervals of time, returned to Athens in order to become acquainted once more with Socrates’ teaching. When he noticed that Socrates was teaching the same things he had already heard from him for many years, he first wondered at a man whose doctrine and wisdom were held in such high esteem by everyone that he was singing the old song over again. Then he went so far in his audacity as to despise Socrates, who even by the oracle of Apollo excelled in the praise of wisdom, and he did not keep this to himself, but attacked him with words as well. To him Socrates replied: “O Hippias,” he said, “... that is, I do not only say the same things and use the same form of speech, but I continually impress the same things on my hearers. For it does no harm to say twice and three times what is rightly said and useful to learners; indeed it is a matter of praise to dwell on true and useful things, and to make them clear and plain by a definite method of explanation, by using the same language often and at length.” Such Hippiases, even now, are without doubt to be found everywhere: when they come upon these writings, and especially upon what Montanus says in his consultations, they reject that very plain and, as it were, uniform manner of teaching, and mock gently at us who publish these things and communicate them as useful to students of medicine. For this reason, let us set aside those who are, as it were, contemptors of worthless and absurd opinions, and meanwhile allow them to delight in marvelous writings, by which the doctrine of the ancients is overturned, and in I know not what new constructions of their own, which they support with quarrels and gladiatorial pamphlets, in which there is not much solidity. Let them be allowed their pleasure, especially since these Hippiases seem to think that they alone are wise and capable of understanding medicine. Besides these, however, there are two other kinds of physicians who do not like Montanus’ writings: one sort, which seems to itself endowed with Attic eloquence, though it is not, laughs at such things as if they were barbarous words; the other despises and rejects them in the greatest ignorance of all things, and boasts of its own luck and experience. My feelings must be explained in such a way that the best men may perceive my piety and reverence toward my teacher Io. B. Montanus, and that beginners in the study of medicine may be protected against perverse judgments. For my own part, I am of this opinion: since the thoughts of the mind must be expressed in speech, and the words are the signs of thoughts perceived by the mind, I greatly approve of a style that is clear, elegant, and proper, and I regard it as a great ornament and aid in teaching. But since the authority of custom prevails, and since in these times this is often excluded, and since one must serve the audience, and speak briefly, I do not think it just that those fall under blame who prefer to speak in such a way that they are understood, rather than lose their meaning either through affected elegance, with things obscured, or through anxious searching for words. That there was a supreme force of intellect in Muroanus, and singular eloquence, all who read him know; and he was so accomplished in both languages and in polished literature that, if he wished, he could speak splendidly and elegantly—something made clear by the writings he composed while still young. But when he was engaged, for the teaching of the medical art, by the very generous stipend of the Most Illustrious Senate of Venice, he preferred to speak in the manner of a schoolmaster rather than to display eloquence. He used language that was clear, plain, and suited to his hearers, and he truly kept the Socratic manner of saying the same things repeatedly, which in methodical and true doctrine ought to be done, and indeed must be done. For he thought that opinions should not be toyed with, nor should the collected and badly distorted judgments of authors be forced upon students; rather, what Galen most especially judged should be shown to them was that every medical precept ought to be truthful, simple, and steady. And when sometimes, because of the pressure of time or being moved by the noise of the audience, he was unable to explain your thoughts clearly enough, he polished them in a second reading, and at last—

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165 M E D I C I N A L E S: 166 dem tertia: sæpe dum Quæsion proposit, & quid tenendum esset, monuit. Id si quidam animaduertissent, qui Montanica edunt, vel lectiones integras & distinctas (id quod nuper in 1. Feni. Canonis Auicennæ fecit Franc. Degallottus Regiens.) dedissent, atque ita Montanus, vt ostendi, suam defensionem affectet ipse, vel omisis tot superuacaneis repetitionibus iustam copiam inimicam Montanicorum edidissent, in quib[us] si quid 10 esset viti, authori editionis non excellentissimo Montano adscribendum fuisset. Vt enim de medicam, si quis ista, quæ de methodo therapeutica à me sunt edita, in qua hoc vnum studui ostendere, primum esse debere in actione, quod in inuentione vltimum est, reprehendat, sateor, si quis forte responsionem requirat, eam illi à me debent. Cumque sint quidam qui uneà ista vocent, & quasi ingenioli nostri intraqua pu- 20 tent, iis hoc respondeo, nunquam mihi fuis se propositum comentarios de iis, quæ à Galeno & Montano copiosissime sunt explicata, edere: sed saltem indicationes quasdam, meque sic existimare, methodicos libellos ne debere quidem vagari longius, nec quæ ab aliis scripta sunt, fuse repetere. Verum, vt Galenus noster monet, significatione quadam parva ostendere ea, & in memoriam reuocare. Sed mittamus nunc 30 ista, & ad institutum reuertamur. Mihi quidem nullum est dubium, quin Excellentiss. Montanus, si videret libellos plerosque, qui eius nomine circumferuntur, in quibus inua In plurima co[n]spiciuntur pro fuis non esset habiturus, id quod de collatione istorum librorum, cum iis quæ sciente & approbante Excellentiss. Montano à Luca Stenglin Medico Augustino, primum quidem Pataui, deinde in Germania, opera & studio Casparis Peuceri viri doctissimi, mibique amicissimi edita sunt, facile intelligi poterit. Verum non nunc censoris iudicium de aliorum laboribus mihi sumam, nec vlliùs voluntatem improbabo, aut operam reprehendam, vel præconium aliquud istarum consultationum, quas nunc in publicum damus, faciam. Illud rei medicæ studiosos monebo, vt Montanum tanquam optimum & præstantissimum methodi artificem & doctorem ament & magnificiâr, nec eorum clamoribus qui fortunam & experientiam iactitant, se commoueri patiantur, quo minus artem methodice discant, & omnino alia via atq[ue] ratione se artifices fieri non posse arbitrentur. Ars enim sola curat, siue sciens hac, siue insciens vtatur: & sæpe quemadmodum Hippocrates inquit, euenti, vt qui medicis etiam non sunt vsi, dum [con]grotauerunt, facientes aliquid vel non facientes, connaluerunt: nec tamen alia re quam arte seruati sunt. Quæ enim pro- suerunt illis, siue inedia, siue quies, ob rectum vsum prosuerunt; quæ nocuerunt, propterea nocuerunt, quod male adhibita sunt. Hæc artis esse non casus manifestum est: si quis autem forte accepta fortunæ referat, cum illo nequaquam odiosè pugnabo, siquidem, vt Hippocrates ait, qui male curantur, incidunt in infortunium, qui bene, bona fortuna vtuntur. Frequenter namque hoc eucnire imperitis & audacibus videmus, vt præter opinionem arte vtantur, & natura adiuvante feliciter curent, DEO (vt in Teutonico prouerbio est) tutante humanam stultitiam. Etsi vero non solùm credulitate imperitæ multitudinis abutuntur; verum etiam apud magnos viros opinio veritati vim affert: tamen doctorum alia est sententia, quæ dum libere profertur, Dui boni, quam non tantum medici illi, qui cum Thessalo atque Olympico o[mn]is , vt Galenus inquit, euecti videntur, verum etiam horum patroni ostenduntur, qui quiduis potius quam cruditorum recta & libera iudicia ferre possunt. Hoc autem siue teculi miseriis sit annumerandum, siue moribus hominum, & puod vt prouerbio dicitur ( homines imperiti facilius imperitos bencuolentia complectantur; siue medicis ipsis, qui contra veterum præscriptum mancipiorum potius modo, quam medicorum, qui vt Galenus monet egris, is esse debebant, artem exercere malunt, sit imputandum non libet inquirere. Illud explicemus, sitne arti fortuna anteferenda, ac potius an sine arte aliquis fortunæ locus in medicina tribuendus, & quid de experientia tyronibus tenendum, vt & contra impostores sint munui, & non sequantur eorum temerariam audaciam, qui præmatura ostentatione scientiæ tument, & quicquid collibuit, vel exiguo tempore sese futuros somniant. Fortunam dominari in rebus multi omnibus x ataribus senserunt; & etiamnum quidâ Græci senaril votum vsurpant, . . Sed quid sit illud, quohominum actiones fortunantur, & à qua causa procedat, varie est controuersum. Alii enim statuerunt esse argumen quidam plane Incommodo: aliu fortunam ad DEVM monstrantem felices occasiones, gubernantem actiones & exitus, rectæ atque præclare resulerunt. Nihil enim fortunatum sine Deo, vt in tragædia dicitur: < Ars an fortunæ ne anteferenda> < Fortunæ quid>

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165 MEDICINALS: 166 in the third: often when Question was proposed, & what ought to be held, he warned. If some had noticed this, who publish Montanica, or had given complete and distinct readings (as recently Franc. Degallottus of Reggio did in the first book of the Canon of Avicenna), and thus Montanus, as I have shown, even if he himself should desire to defend his own cause, or if, omitting so many superfluous repetitions, they had issued a proper abundant hostile edition of the Montanists, in which if anything 10 should be faulty, it would have had to be ascribed not to the author of the edition but to the not-excellent Montanus. For, to speak of medicine, if anyone were to criticize those things which I have published on the therapeutic method, in which I have sought to show this one thing, that what is last in invention ought to be first in action, I confess that, if anyone should perhaps require a response, they are due to him from me. And since there are certain people who call uneà these things, and think them as it were within the reach of our little talent intraqua 20, I answer them thus: it was never my intention to publish commentaries on those matters which have been most fully explained by Galen and Montanus; but only certain indications, and I think that methodical little books ought not even to wander farther, nor to repeat at length what has been written by others. Rather, as our Galen advises, to show those things with some small indication, and to bring them back to memory. But let us set these matters aside for now, and return to our subject. For my part I have no doubt that the most excellent Montanus, if he were to see most of the little books that circulate under his name, in which inua many things are seen as his own, would not consider them his, which can easily be understood from a comparison of those books with those that, with the knowledge and approval of the most excellent Montanus, were published by Luca Stenglin, physician of Augsburg, first at Padua, then in Germany, through the labor and diligence of Caspar Peucer, a most learned man, and my dearest friend. But I shall not now take up the censor's judgment on the labors of others, nor shall I disapprove anyone's will, or criticize his work, or make any praise of those consultations which we now give to the public. I shall admonish students of medicine to love and esteem Montanus as the best and most outstanding master and teacher of method, and not to allow themselves to be moved by the cries of those who boast of luck and experience, so that they may not learn the art methodically, and imagine that in no other way and by no other method can they become practitioners. For art alone heals, whether one uses it knowingly or unknowingly: and often, as Hippocrates says, it happens that those who have not even used physicians, when they are ill, by doing something or by doing nothing, recover; yet they were saved by nothing other than art. For whatever benefited them, whether fasting or rest, benefited them through proper use; whatever harmed them, harmed them because it was badly applied. That these things belong to art, and not to chance, is manifest. But if anyone should perhaps attribute it to fortune, I shall by no means fight him bitterly, since, as Hippocrates says, those who are badly treated fall into misfortune, while those who are well treated make good use of fortune. For we frequently see this happen among the inexperienced and the bold, that contrary to expectation they use art, and with nature's help cure successfully, GOD (so the German proverb says) protecting human folly. And although they abuse not only the credulity of the ignorant multitude; yet even among great men opinion has force against truth: still, among the learned the judgment is different, and when that is freely expressed, good God, how not only those physicians, who with Thessalus and Olympius all , as Galen says, seem to have been carried away, but even the patrons of these men are shown to be such as can bear anything rather than the right and free judgments of the learned. Whether this should be counted among the miseries of the age, or among the morals of men, and because, as the proverb says, ( ignorant men more easily embrace the ignorant with goodwill; or whether it should be laid to the physicians themselves, who, against the precept of the ancients, prefer to exercise the art more in the manner of slaves than of physicians, who, as Galen warns, ought to be for the sick, I do not wish to inquire. Let us explain this: whether fortune should be preferred to art, or rather whether, without art, some place should be assigned to fortune in medicine, and what beginners ought to think about experience, so that they may be both protected against impostors and not follow their reckless audacity, who swell with premature display of knowledge and dream that whatever takes their fancy, even in a short time, will be theirs. Many have felt that fortune rules in all matters x of human affairs; and even now some Greeks use a Senarian saying, . . But what that is by which human actions are made fortunate, and from what cause it proceeds, has been variously disputed. For some have declared it to be argumen something utterly inconvenient; others point to fortune as God, showing favorable occasions, governing actions and outcomes, rightly and excellently. For nothing is fortunate without God, as is said in tragedy: < Should art or fortune not be preferred?> < What is fortune?>

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167 EPISTOLÆ 168 autem ideis estque hoc certissimum, lauationem, & naturæ conseruationem diuinæ benignitatis munus esse, & à DEn gubentari. Id cum ita sit, proculdubio ii soli, qui DEV M recte invocant, fortunati erunt, cum iis tantum adsit DEVS. Verum his & manus admouenda est, ac discenda sunt necessaria recto ordine, & illud quod pietati & iustitiæ conuenit, sequendum. Quam quisquis didieit artem eam exerceat. Qui enim sibi vel sumunt, vel somniant fortunam, sine arte vsuque rerum & vel inanes titulos, vel applausum vulgi fatis esse putant, hos profecto & conscientia recta, & DEV sipse deferet. Sunt & qui inclinationibus fortunatos effectus ascribunt, & quandam vim intemperamentis è constitutione coelesti ortam effec[ti]ricem felicium medicationum atbitrentur. Etsi autem illi non prorsus incommodo sentiant, & coeli vis, in qua singulari DEI prouidentia quiddam admirandum & humanæ intelligentiæ inexplicabile est, multum felicitari ingeniorum & actionum co[n]ferat: tamen doctrina vim promouet insitam, & vetum est illud Græcorum . Ac qui sine arte freni coeli elementia medicationes exercent, & senon modo paucis annis, verum mensibus sommos factos esse somniant, horum audaciam infeliciter cadere necesse est: sunt vero isti malis gubernatoribus, vt Hippocr. ait, similes, quorum errores in tranquillitate non facile deprehenduntur, sed cum tempestates insurgunt eorum inscitia atque temeritas manifeste conspicitur, siquidem eiusmodi medici cum homines curant, nihil graue patientes, aut morbos, qui hominibus familiares sunt, facile suos errores tegunt. Vbi vero magnus, grauis & periculosus morbus fuerit, tum & illorum delicta & artem manifeste demonstrant atque ipsa exitia hominum. Quare etiam mi magna pars hominum ferantur opinio nibus, tamen præstantissimæ artis studiosis illud Hippoc. vtraque manu tenendum: Qui medicam artem recte nouit, minime fortunam respicit, & cum hac & sine hac recte facit. Constans enim & firma est medicina, & doctrinæ optime constitutæ minime fortuna egere videntur. Sic & medicamenta non expectant sane fortunæ motum in medendo. Ita enim magis ea quæ non sunt medicamenta, cum fortunia adhibita prodescent. Sed patiamur sane cum Hippocr. rem sic se habere, vi bi soli fortunate facere videantur, qui sciunt, & contra iufortunate, qui ignorant. Fortuna vti est recte facere. Hoc vero hi, qui sciant, faciunt, non vti fortuna, neque quod velis, est id facere, minimeque recte, quod nescis. Inscius vero atque indoctus, quomodo quæso fortunate aliquid ad sine perducet? siquidem etiamsi aliquid progrediatur, laudabili tamen successu cærebit. Qui enim recta rarione in agendo non vti tur, nec fortunate quidem aliquid consequi poterit, cum multa recte facienda, minime faciat. Atque ex his, quæ sententia Hippocr. cuius authoritas tamquam parentis apud studiosos rei medicæ summa debet, retuli, constare arbitror, nec fortunam arti anteferendam esse, nec in medicatione locum, nisi arni coniuncta sit habe re & solos artifices fortunatos esse. Sole artificem fortunari. Qui igitur curationes suas felices esse volunt, ii artem sequaniur necesse est, & successus à DEO petant, secundum sapientissimi Siraci dæ præceptum, qui in curatione valetudinis precautionem cum medicatione coniungendam monet. Sed iam nunc quid experientiæ tribuendum, & quemlocum in medicina habere debeat . Tres sectas fuisse medicorum Galenus tradit, & ostendit firmis ac perspicuis rationibus, cur neglectis methodicis atque empiricis rationalis sit sequenda. Methodici breui temporis spacio se summos in arte esse, & alios quocq[ue] efficere posse sex adeo mensibus : eratque horum imprudens similis nostrorum quorundam, qui vix discipuli facti sunt, doctio artem inuadunt (Non enim res atque opiniones hominum, sed tempus atque homines mutantur.) Habebant autem quædam communia, quæ , id est, communitates, appellabant, de fluxu atque astridto, iis in omnium affectionum curatione locu[m] esse arbitrabantur. Docebant enim relaxata corpora astringenda, id est appellabaot: aut relaxandum, fluidumque redendum, quod densum, nimiumq[ue] obstrictum esset, idque vocabant. Denique interdum bis coniunctim vtendum, & nem & relaxationem commiscendam. Hæque tres vias in omni curatione compendiosas recta causarum notitia tanquam inutili ad curationem (more peruerso & reiecta sequebantur. Atque cum nimis compendiosam artem superbe & insolener facere vellent, totam destruebant. Hoc vero refutat Galenus copiosè cognoscere attis medicæ studiosos dece. Empirici. ab experientia dicti id eo sunt, quia hac sola artem niti & constare arbitrabantur. Est autem experientia eorum, quæ la pei

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167 EPISTLES 168 however it is an idea, and this is most certain: that recovery, and the preservation of nature, are gifts of divine benevolence, and to be governed by God. If this is so, there is no doubt that only those who rightly invoke God will be fortunate, since God alone is present with them. But in addition, the hand must be applied, and what is necessary must be learned in the proper order, and what is fitting for piety and justice must be followed. Let whoever has learned an art exercise it. For those who either assume for themselves, or dream of, fortune, without skill and practical experience of things, and who think that empty titles or the applause of the crowd are enough, these surely both right conscience and God himself will abandon. There are also those who ascribe fortunate results to inclinations, and who think that a certain power arising from temperaments and from the constitution of the heavens is the producer of successful remedies. And although they may not be entirely mistaken, and although the power of the heavens, in which under the singular providence of God there is something admirable and inexplicable to human understanding, contributes much to the success of talents and actions, nevertheless doctrine promotes the innate power, and the Greek saying is true. And those who, without the art of the reins, practice medical treatment according to the elements of the heavens, and dream not merely of a few years, but of months, having been made wise, their audacity must necessarily fall badly. Indeed, they are like bad pilots, as Hippocrates says, whose errors are not easily detected in calm weather; but when storms arise, their ignorance and rashness are clearly seen, since such physicians, when they treat people who are not suffering anything serious, or ordinary ailments familiar to men, easily conceal their mistakes. But when a great, serious, and dangerous disease occurs, then both their faults and their skill, and the actual destruction of men, are made manifest. Therefore, although many people are led by opinions, yet for those devoted to the most excellent art, this Hippocratic precept must be held with both hands: the one who truly knows the medical art pays no regard to fortune, and with it and without it does what is right. For medicine is constant and firm, and teachings that are best established seem by no means to need fortune. Likewise remedies do not await the motion of fortune in healing. For then rather those things that are not remedies would benefit when fortune is applied. But let us allow, with Hippocrates, that the matter stands thus: that only those seem to do well by fortune who know, and conversely those who are unfortunate are those who are ignorant. Fortune is to do what is right. But these who know do this, not by fortune; nor is it to do what you wish, and least of all to do what is right when you do not know. But how, I ask, can the ignorant and unlearned bring anything to a fortunate end? For even if something advances, it will still lack a praiseworthy outcome. For he who in action does not use right reason will not be able even to achieve anything fortunate, since he omits many things that ought to be done rightly. And from these things, which I have set out from the opinion of Hippocrates, whose authority among students of medicine ought to be held in the highest regard, I think it is clear that fortune is not to be preferred to art, nor has it any place in healing unless it is joined with skill, and that only the skilled are fortunate. Only the skilled man is made fortunate. Therefore, those who wish their treatments to be successful must follow art, and seek success from God, according to the precept of the wisest Sirach, who teaches that in the care of health precaution must be joined with treatment. But now, what is to be attributed to experience, and what place it ought to have in medicine? Galen reports that there were three sects of physicians, and shows by firm and clear reasons why, neglecting the Methodists and the Empiricists, the Rational school should be followed. The Methodists claimed within a short time to be the greatest in the art, and to be able to make others so in six months. They were similar to the imprudent among our own people, who, hardly having become students, invade the teaching of the art. (For not things and the opinions of men, but time and men, are changed.) They also had certain common notions, that is, what they called commonalities, concerning looseness and constriction, and they thought these had a place in the treatment of all diseases. For they taught that relaxed bodies should be tightened, that is what they called it; or that what was dense and too tightly bound should be loosened and restored to a fluid state, and that they called it. Finally, sometimes both should be used together, and tightening and relaxation should be mixed. These three methods they followed in every treatment as short cuts, with a right knowledge of causes rejected as useless for healing, in a perverse manner. And because they wanted to make the art too abbreviated and too self-confidently and insolently, they destroyed the whole thing. This Galen refutes at length, which it is fitting for students of medicine to know. Empiricists. So called from experience, because they thought that the art rested on this alone and consisted in it. But experience is that which is by the way

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169 MEDICINALES. 170 sæpe & eodem modo visa sunt, obseruatio, atque memoria, atq[ue] hinc & . & . . Nona emperio empirico sella sæ empirici dicti sunt. Nona vero em- piricorum secta à veterum laude multu di- cessit, & ii qui nunc empirici nominantur, atque se dici volunt, tantum hinc absunt, vt ne hoc nomine quidem digni, sed impostu- rum & nebulonum videantur. Etsi enim illi non minus quam methodici impudenter se iactitabant, & vt Galenus inquit, duriores lapidibus erant, ita vt ab illis omnes bonæ rationes subiectæ, resilirent: tamen eorum, qui nunc se experientiæ utulis in Rebus pub. venditant, quicque in rerum omnium inlicia, secreta atq[ue] perpaucis explorata se scire prædicant, audacia atque temeritas, præsertim si ætas & vulgi imperitia eis patrocinis atque suffragium ferat, longe intolerabilior est, vt nihil de profligatis huminibus ludus & similibus, quos magistratus haud scio quâ rectè fert, dicam. Porto vetetes empiricinô istis imposturis & populari aura sibi suam experientiam constabant. Verum tres vias, vt Galenus de sententia Teutæ refert, per- ueniendi ad ipse esse tradebant, videli- cet . , id est, propriam inspectionem seu obieuationem: Historiam, Id est, rerum circa eadem sæpius probatarum & obserua- tarum narrationem, & . , id est, de re simili ad similem coëuenientem transitum. Sed recitate ac refutare sectarum opiniones non est nostri instituti. Cæterum cum ipse Galenus experientiam alterum crus esse dicat, quo sit insistendum, si quis recto pede medicam artem ingredi velis, eosque hallucinari dicat, qui vel sola expe- rientia, vel ratione tantum nituntur, cum- que nun solum non reprehendat experien- tiam, sed se empiricæ doctrinæ ita studiosum fuisse fateatur, vt eam profiteri non dubieret: < Experientia nascimur.> magnum decus & ornamentum coniunctâ doctrinæ atq[ue] rationi experientiam adferre statuo, & eos approbatione dignos iudico qui maximarum rerum vsu & experientia præditi sunt, quiq[ue] non vmbras rerum, ve- rum ipsas res penitus cognoscere, & pericu- lum in aliis facere student, quod corporib. humanis ex vsu sit. Ea vero, quæ sine arte & doctrina est, cum Hippocrate . & perniciosam, ac cum Galeno nihilà vulgæ imperitia distare, & periculosam esse, nisi rectè tractetur, statuo. Nullo autem alio mo- do rectè tractati potest, quam arte adhibita, quæ non tantum sensui manifesta, iisdem vt experientia: verum rerum causas, sine qua- rum cognitione nihil scimus, inuestigat. Causæ vero cum . dicantur, sola ratione cognoscuntur, nihilque est aliud medi- tatio quam remediorum, quæ causis sym- ptomatum aduersantur, præeunte viamque monstrante indicatione, applicatio. Hic q[ui] nequaquam satis est scire, quid iuuet, sed cur & quando, quicq[ue] sit rectus & tempesti- uus vsus, idque sola indicatio præstat. Est e- nim indicatio, vt Galenus definit, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . id est comprehenso aduniens cum re indicante iuuans, vna cum nocente simul comprehe- dens, sine obseruatione aut ratione. Præce- pta enim eius natura per causas quod nos mouet ad agendum, simul etiam in men- tem venit, sine obseruatione & ratiocina- tione quid sit agendum, quidve fugit dum. Atque hæc mentis comprehensio, quæ to- tam actionem medici gubernat . dictur. Hanc fulam tenent artifices, qui res co- gnoscunt, vt sunt; non qui cur pendia me- dicorum, aut experientiam imperitorum sequuntur. Hanc qui non tenet, neque hæc tanquam duce vtritur, vel se non esse medi- cum, vel magno suo & xgrotantium malo artem, quâ ignorat, exercere fateatur. Cum vero hac via perueniendum ad artem, à qui- busdam prolixis disputationib[us] obruta, mul- ta etiam barbarie obscurata sit, atque excel- lentissimus. Montanus eam ostendere, ac planam & perspicuam doctrina sua teddere, & in curationibus ac consultationibus qua- simatu ad eam ducere discipulos suos stu- duerit, volui ego diutinos conatus Viri ex- cellentissimi, & ad docendam & illustran- dam medicinam nati, studiosis hæc quoque exempla proponere; non quod sciam, ea, quæ ipse tepe non præmeditatus interdum animo ab aliis curis patum vacuo dixit, quæque alii aliter scripserunt, magnopere nominis & existimationis laudem præstan- ssimi Viri & Præceptoris mihi charissimi augere atq[ue] amplificare posse, verum quod existimem rectè edi, quæ aliquibus, vel po- tius multis, futura sunt vtilia. Ea autem qua- libacunque sint, eum iis etiam aliquis noster extititit labor, nonnulla etiam nostra non modica diligentia, Amplissime D. Ioan. Henric. Hervarte, volui ubi dedicata, & inscripta à me publice apparere, vt tuæ erga me beneficentiæ, & meriturum summo- rum, & grati mei animi, ac obseruan- tæ & studi extaret testimonium perpetuum. Bene vale. Vratis- læxiæ 25. Octobr. An. no 1557. H

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169 MEDICINALS. 170 are often seen and in the same way, observation, and memory, and hence the Ninth empirical chair were called empirics. The ninth indeed, the empirical sect has greatly fallen short of the praise of the ancients, and those who are now called empirics, and wish to be so called, are so far removed from it that they seem not even worthy of this name, but rather impostors and knaves. For although those men, no less than the Methodists, shamelessly vaunted themselves, and, as Galen says, were harder than stones, so that all sound reasons, when advanced against them, rebounded from them; yet the audacity and temerity of those who now parade themselves in public affairs as useful through experience, and proclaim that they know whatever lies in the secrets of all things, unknown and explored by very few, is far more intolerable, especially if age and the ignorance of the common people support and favor them; so that I say nothing of depraved men, buffoons and the like, whom the magistrates, I know not on what grounds, allow to pass rightly. Yet the old empirics based their experience on these impostures and on popular favor. But they taught three ways, as Galen reports from the opinion of Teutas, of arriving at the same knowledge, namely . , that is, proper inspection or observation; History, that is, a narration of things often verified and observed in the same matters; and . , that is, a transition from a similar case to a similar one. But to enumerate and refute the opinions of the sects is not our purpose. Moreover, since Galen himself says that experience is the other leg by which one must walk if one wishes to enter the medical art with the right foot, and says that those go astray who rely either on experience alone or on reason alone, and since he not only does not condemn experience, but confesses that he was so devoted to empirical doctrine that he did not hesitate to profess it: < We are born of experience.> I hold that experience, when joined with doctrine and reason, brings great honor and ornament, and I judge worthy of approval those who are equipped with the use and experience of the greatest matters, and who strive to know not the shadows of things but the things themselves thoroughly, and to test in others what is useful for human bodies. But that which exists without art and doctrine I, with Hippocrates, judge to be . and harmful, and with Galen to differ in nothing from vulgar ignorance, and to be dangerous unless it is handled rightly. But it can be handled rightly in no other way than by using art, which investigates not only what is manifest to the senses, as does experience, but also the causes of things, without knowledge of which we know nothing. And since causes are called . , they are known by reason alone, and nothing else is meditation than the application of remedies, which oppose the causes of symptoms, with indication going before and showing the way. Here it is not at all enough to know what helps, but why and when, what is the right and timely use, and only indication provides this. For indication is, as Galen defines it, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . that is, a comprehending union with the indicating thing, joining what helps together with what harms, at the same time, without observation or reasoning. For by its very nature that which moves us to act also comes into the mind, without observation and reasoning, what is to be done and what is to be avoided. And this comprehension of the mind, which governs the whole action of the physician, is called . . This rule is held by the artificers, who know things as they are; not those who follow the entanglements of physicians, or the experience of the unskilled. Whoever does not hold to this, nor makes use of it as a guide, must confess either that he is not a physician, or, to his great own harm and that of the sick, that he exercises an art which he does not know. But since the path to the art has been obscured by some lengthy disputations, and also darkened by much barbarism, and since the most excellent Montanus strove to show it, and by his teaching to make it plain and clear, and in treatments and consultations to lead his disciples almost by the hand to it, I have wished to set before students also these examples of the long efforts of that most excellent man, born both to teach and to illuminate medicine; not because I know that those things which he himself sometimes, unpremeditatedly, and when his mind was somewhat free from other cares, said, and which others wrote differently, can greatly increase the praise of the very great name and reputation of that most excellent man and my dearest teacher; but because I think it right to publish what will be useful to some, or rather to many. Whatever they may be, since in them too there has been some labor of ours, and not a little diligence on our part, Most Illustrious Sir Johann Heinrich Hervart, I wished them, once dedicated and inscribed by me, to appear publicly, so that there might stand as a perpetual testimony to your kindness toward me, and to my gratitude for your great favors, and to my observance and devotion. Farewell well. Wrocław, 25 October, in the year 1557. H

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171 EPISTOLÆ 172 EPIST. CII. CLARISSIMO VIRO, DOMINO Quirino Schlafer, Nimca Domino, Iohan. Crato à Krafibergm, &c. S. D. < Potum Platonicu[m] pax & jamus.> PLATONEM dno à DEO Op. Max. preca- tum fuisse legimus, inclusu[m] p[ro]p[ter] eo ad præ- voces, ut p[ro]p[ter] eo iudiciori paceim inter homines, & laboribus ac curis confecto somn[u]i. Quid enim in rebus humanis pace & tranquillita- te melius? Quid in aduersis ad mentis & cor potis virium recreationem optabilibus & suauius somno? in meis vero infinitis mole- stiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc biennio sustinco, sepe mihi salutare hoc votum in mentem venit, semperque cordi fuit, & nunc quoq[ue] est Homeri illud in meis vero infinitis molestiis quas hoc

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173 MEDICINALES. 174 < Pestis non certi morbi nomen.> quoque in aere circumferri ac hominibus malam valerudinem, & mortem adferre. Scio ego pestis appellationem non esse certi morbi nomen, vt Galenus 3. Epid. com. 3. indicat, & multis morbis, qui co[n]tagiosi sunt, & plurimis interimunt, conuenite. Ac noca mihi est morborum communium distinctio, quæ est apud Galen. com. 1. De visitus ratione in acutis: cum in cadu[m]us, id est, vernaculos, im[m]ediu[m]us, quos Paulus ca adi[n]cus & vocat, & laqua[n]dus distinguit: & laqua[n]d quidem definit epidemiam contagiosam & perniciosam 1 ac discrimen ponit inter febres pestilentes orragidas , id est, sparsim priuatim que homines inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque hominis inuadentes, quas & priuatas vocat, & vere pestilentes. Id & videre est apud Hippocrat 3. lib. de præcoq. expuls. 4. vbi Galenus de pestilenti febre agens inquit: id est, sparsim priuatimque

Transcription: Translated (English)

173 MEDICINALS. 174 < Pestis is not the name of a certain disease.> It is also carried about in the air and brings ill health and death to men. I know that the term pestis is not the name of a certain disease, as Galen indicates in 3 Epid. com. 3, and that it applies to many diseases which are contagious and kill many people. And I know the distinction of common diseases, which is found in Galen, com. 1, De visitus ratione in acutis: when they are called endemic, that is, native, or immediate, as Paulus calls them, and distinguishes them; and indeed he defines an epidemic as contagious and pernicious, and sets a difference between pestilent fevers, that is, those which attack men separately and privately, which he also calls private, and truly pestilent. This also may be seen in Hippocrates, lib. 3 de præcoq. expuls. 4, where Galen, speaking of pestilential fever, says: that is, attacking men separately and privately, which he also calls private, and truly pestilential.

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Transcription: ATR-1

175 EPISTOLÆ 176 ponatur. Galenum vero non illam extremam corruptionem, sed eam quæ morbum inferre potest, ponere. Cum igitur Mon- ranus gradum putredinis seu formam putre dinalem, vt illius verbis vtar, causam febris pestilentialis constitueret, sciremque natu- ram rei, adeoque nomen in positiooe atque cognitione causæ consistere, sane multum de ea cogitau. Videbam in qualibet putredine humidi abundantiam ponitamquam materiale, & calidum non proportionatum tamquam a- gens & efficiens, nec quomodo hæc mor- bum pestiferum inducere atque contagio- nis vim afferre possent, perspiciebam. Fra- castorius quidem vir summi ingenii, con- taginnis principium agens (vt illius verbis vtar) in seminaria putredinis referebat, ac iode profundam ac largam putredinem fie- ri affirmabat. Etsi vero, vt ante ostendi, sententia de seminariis, authorem habeat Galen. 1. de differ. febrium 4. semen Mon- ranus hæc occulta & quasi inexplicabilia reliciebat, & ostendebat se non de quali- bet putredine, verum de ea, quæ sit talis & tanta, vt deueniat ad qualitatem veneno- sam; qualem Galenus descripsit 6. de loc. af- fect. quæ vt ipse Montanus lectione 33. in 2. Auicen. inquit, tota substantia & effemia homini contrariatur, in hac disputatione lo- qui. Hæc vero cum onibi dextre atque di- stinctæ explicaret Fernelius vir diuini in- genu & excellentiss. eruditionis, eius sen- tentiam tamquam veram, rectam & expli- cantem doctrinam veterum & Mootani ill- illustrantem, sum secitus: & sic post varias cogitationes, statuebam, pestiliales fe- bres alias esse cum lue, alias sine lue. Quæ cum lue sunt, quasdam esse vniuersales, hoc est, quæ serpant contagione in omnes mundi partes, habere causas coelestes vni- uersales, quæ efficiunt, vt aer qualitatem venenatam recipiat, & rursus hanc multi homines hautiant. Præsertim autem illi, quibus propter easdem causas coelestes in- est symbolum. Quasdam particulares, quæ certa loca affligant, atque easdem habere alias coelestes causas, vt Saturni vel Martis diametrum in illis signis, quæ familiari qua- dam locis dominantur, aut solius Saturni positum in Dodecatemorio, cui loca subiecta sunt, quas augent deliquia So- lis & Lunæ, & : alias ve- nenatam aeri quidiatem commuoicari propter halirus, qui vel exterra vt ex cada- uerum putrefactione insigni, vel sordium atque excrementorum halitu maligno, aut aquarum stagnantium putredine venena- ta oriuntur. Ab hoc autem veneo aereo, seu aeri misto, vel à celestibus causis sim- pliciter orto, vel à putrido & venenoso halitu affici corporatam puta quam impu- ra, sicut à scabie & lippitudine, vt Galenus inquit, & hanc luem tamquam bestiam ci- uitates deuastare, vt idem Galenus in li- bro de Theriaca ad Pisonem affirmat, ve- rum non eodem modo. Nam pura corpo- ra nisi propter coelestes causas ad suscipieo- dum sint disposita maxime lui seu veneno, quod disseminatur contagione, resistunt, impura mous. Denique in corporibus pu- ris febrem pestilentem Inducant, quæ pro- pter causam, id est, venenatam qualitatem morbus totius substantiæ dicitur. Io im- puris, hoc est, cacochymia vel plethora laborantibus ad febrem pestilentem ortam à venenata qualitate propter eundem ac- cendere putridam febrem, & in curatione tam ad luem, quæ veneoum, quam ad pu- tredinem respiciendum est, vt ostendam: licet vero certorum locorum sint hæ febres, tamendiseminari contagione, cum vel ve- nenum aetum ventorum vi propellitur, vel per vestes aut merces etiam animalia quædam locis nulla infectione laborantib. importatur. Febres vero pestileotiales sine lue, neque coelestes causas habere, neque valde contagiosas, oeque venenatæ quali- tatis, sed tanium insignis putredinis cor fe- rientis participes esse statuimus. Causas autem horum putredinem or- tam in corpore vel ob prauitatem humo- rum, vel propter cibos corruptos, vel ae- ris constitutionem putridam affirmamus. Quo vero hæc propius ad eam formam pu- tredinis, quæ ex veoenati aeris inspiratio- ne est, accedit, eo etiam istæ febres conta- giosæ magis magisque perniciosæ efficiun- tur: & vehementius sese efferunt, atque mortalitatis publicæ causa sunt. Ac ego quidem hoc sexennio, quo hic Vratislauæ fui, sine peste huiusmodi febres priuatas quotannis fere sub autumnum vidi & cu- raui; ac sæpe cum plurimi essent in vnis æ- dibus, vnum tantum laborantem, reliquis saluis animaduerti, nec contagione ma- lum se pere longius, imo sana & mediocri- ter pura corpora plane non affici, ac p[ro]to causarum & dispositionum corporum va- rietate, illorum vim frangi & attolli. Hanc sententiam de febre pestilente esse veram ex rei natura, signis euidentibus & ipsa cu- ratione perspicua demonstrabimus, & vt considere æquisiudiciis, & animis non præ- occupatis opioionibus probabimus. Nam

Transcription: Translated (English)

175 LETTERS 176 should be posited. But Galen did not posit that extreme corruption, but that which can bring on disease. Since therefore Monranus made the degree of putrefaction, or, to use his own words, the putridinal form, the cause of pestilential fever, and since I knew the nature of the thing, and therefore that the name depends on the positing and knowledge of the cause, I certainly thought much about it. I saw that in every putrefaction an abundance of moisture is posited as the material, and heat not proportioned as the agent and efficient cause, but I did not perceive how these could produce a pestiferous disease and impart the power of contagion. Fracastorius indeed, a man of the highest genius, referring the principle of contagion, to use his own words, to seeds of putrefaction, affirmed that a deep and widespread putrefaction arises. Although, as I showed before, the opinion about seeds has Galen as its author, in 1 De differentiis febrium 4, Monranus left these hidden and, as it were, inexplicable matters aside, and showed that he was speaking not of any putrefaction whatsoever, but of that which is such and so great that it passes into a poisonous quality; such as Galen described in 6 De locis affectis, which, as Montanus himself says in Lecture 33 on the second of Avicenna, is in its whole substance and essence contrary to man, and it is this that is under discussion here. But when Fernelius, a man of divine genius and outstanding erudition, explained this everywhere skillfully and distinctly, I followed his opinion as true, sound, and one that explains the doctrine of the ancients and illuminates Montanus. And so, after various reflections, I determined that pestilential fevers are of two kinds, some with plague, others without plague. Those with plague are of two sorts: some universal, that is, those which spread by contagion to all parts of the world, having universal celestial causes, which bring it about that the air receives a poisonous quality and in turn many people inhale it, especially those in whom, for the same celestial reasons, there is a corresponding disposition. Others are particular, which afflict certain places, and have other celestial causes, such as the square or opposition of Saturn or Mars in those signs which have a kind of special dominion over places, or the position of Saturn alone in the dodecatemorion to which places are subject; these are increased by eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and by other causes a poisonous quality is communicated to the air, either from vapors arising from the earth, as from notable putrefaction of corpses, or from a malignant vapor of filth and excrement, or from the putrefaction of stagnant waters. From this aerial poison, or mixed air, whether arising simply from celestial causes or from putrid and poisonous vapor, the body is affected, especially impure bodies, as from scabies and lippitudo, as Galen says; and this plague devastates cities like a beast, as the same Galen affirms in the book De Theriaca ad Pisonem, though not in the same manner. For pure bodies, unless they are disposed by celestial causes to receive the plague or poison that is spread by contagion, resist it; impure bodies do not. Finally, in pure bodies it produces pestilential fever, which, because of the cause, that is, the poisonous quality, is called a disease of the whole substance. In impure bodies, that is, those suffering from cacochymia or plethora, it produces pestilential fever arising from poisonous quality by the same putrid fever, and in treatment regard must be had both to the plague, which is poison, and to putrefaction, as I shall show. Although these fevers belong to certain places, they are nevertheless spread by contagion, either when poison is driven by the force of the winds, or when it is carried by clothes or merchandise, and even certain animals, into places that suffer no infection. But we have determined that pestilential fevers without plague have neither celestial causes nor are highly contagious, nor of poisonous quality, but are only participants in a notable putrefaction attacking the heart. The causes of these, however, we affirm to be putrefaction arising in the body either because of the corruption of the humors, or because of corrupted foods, or because of a putrid constitution of the air. The more closely this approaches that form of putrefaction which arises from inhalation of poisoned air, the more these contagious fevers become increasingly harmful; and they burst forth more violently and become a cause of public mortality. And indeed during these six years, while I have been here at Breslau, I have seen and treated, without plague, such private fevers almost every year around autumn; and often, when there were many people in one house, I observed only one person ill while the rest remained safe, and that the evil spread no farther by contagion, indeed that healthy and moderately pure bodies were not affected at all, and that by reason of the variety of causes and bodily dispositions their force was broken and moderated. We shall demonstrate that this opinion about pestilential fever is true from the nature of the matter, from evident signs, and from the treatment itself, and we shall prove it by careful judgment and minds not preoccupied by opinions. For

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177 MEDICINALES. 178 quid hic vel ille sentiat non refert: siquidem vt Montanus dicebat. Nec Hippocr. nec Galeno in arte credendum est, quia dixerunt, sed quia bonas ac firmas rationes dictorum habent, & turpissimum est, vt à Græcis dicitur æcænias , id est, opinionibus seruire, & ex authoritate rerum veritatem metiri. Naturarii ex causis dependet. Ostendimus autem causam febris pestilentis cum lue, venenatam qualitatem aerem coelo ortam esse, quæ non quia calida, frigida, humida vel sicca est, sed tota substantia cor lædit, & spiritus deuastat alias, alias humores cor röpit, alias totam eius substantiam inficit & depascit. Corruptio autem ea, quæ sit, hausto veneno isto aeteo longe vulgatis putredinis conditionem superat, id quod accidentia propria & curatio indicat: & proptecta formalia & materialia huius febris, quæ Ipsum < 10> constituunt, multo plus quam reliquarum febrium tam putridarum quam hecticarum malitiæ habent. Ac vt hæc plana & perspicua fiant, primum de remota causa nullam litem meam faciam, præsertim cum, vt Aristot. inquit, de coelestibus pancas habeamus nisi . Illud autem patiantur me, qui mediocriter in his studiis sum versatus, sic sentire. Cum nulla causarum sine patientis aptitudine agere possit, vt Galen. < 10> inquit, tùm , id est, aptitudinem corporum causas coelestes habere, etsi non omnibus obuiæ atque conspicuæ sint, & sidera in aere alrud etiam, quam calorem & frigus lumine motuque suo inducere, nec parum coelestes ad constitutionem entpotum confetre. Ac res & historiæ testantur, fuisse pestilentias graues, quas nulla admodum temporum mutatio, & manifesta aetis qualitas præcessit: imo interdum < 10> hyeme eas incepisse, quæ æstate desinerent; & contra immaniter suuiisse, etiamsi in calida & humida constitutione grauiorem esse, & calida atque humida corpora, quæ laxiores measus habent ad suscipiendum venenum, & putredinem potiora, libenter fateamur. Eam vero putredinô, quæ in corporibus prædispositis hausto veneno aeteo inducitur, vt longe perniciosiorem vulgari esse, & aetis qualitatem non putridam simpliciter sed venenosam statuamus, contagionis ratio requirit. Est enim contagium affectus destructiuus substantiæ, vt Montanus ait, cui putredo non possit subuenite, nisi sit talis & tanta, vt perueniat ad venenatam qualitatem certæ formæ. Discere certæ formæ, quia alioqui aet simpliciter venenatus omnibus viuentibus noxius effet. Ratione autem formæ sit, vt alias homines, alias boues, alias hæc vel illa loca afficiat, eaque sine vlla dubitatione coelestes causas haber, etsi nobis sint Inexploratæ. Porro dicere venenum aereum, tota substantia vix, eiusque fonti infestum, & morbum ipsum totius substantiæ morbum appellare, ac discrimen ponere inter pestilentes veras & , id est, quæ tantum sumrà veneno aeteo, & putridas, etsi fere perpetuo comiungantur, propter corporum putrorum paucitatem, quid obsecro incommodi habet? An quæso id contra Galenum, vel alterum Galenum Montanum est? Imo hoc modo sentire, est illustrare totam disputationem de contagione, quam si veteres perspicue proposuissent, minus fortasse nûe esset aberrationis. Affirmare autem solam putredinem causam feb[us] t[ame]n pestentialis, profecto non est declarare, cur & quomodo sint contagiosæ. Fateamur igitur suam veterum, suam posteriorum esse gloriam: atq[ue] illos fuisse itidem, vt nos, homines, nec supra captum humanum esse, quædam ignorare. Quin Galeni hæc est sententia à proprietate substantiæ non qualitatum intemperie fieri febres pestilentes cum lib. 2. de natura h[abe]t. 4. inquit, de pestilenti exhalatione id est, quæ proprietate magis totius substantiæ quam qualitate aliqua corporalue inficit. Atq[ue] eodem in loco manifeste dicit, communium morboru[m] imperfectam curationem scriptam ab Hippoc[ampus] & distinguit in terfebres pestiles, quæ à causa, proprietate substantiæ agente, quam nos venenam dicimus lædunt, & à causa qualitate sola afficiente excitantur. Atque hæc eo tecenseo, ne quis rem nouam nos amplecti, aut quæ in meniem venisset putet. Nee ego de nominib[us] pugno, quin Platonis sententiam, quam refert Galenus, teneo, non esse habendam de nominibus curam, quibus tantarum rerum inuestigatio proponitur. Rem igitur ipsam propius asperamus. Cum vis veneni, quam appellant, corpus ingressa est, totum id momento temporis immutat, idque vt Galenus 3. Epid. non copia sed tota substantia seu genere oppugnat. Oppressus itaque à venenum calor secundum Galen. 9. de simplic. Med. non vehementem est pulsus, parvus propter eandem causam, velox ob necessitatem. Vrinæ interdum Ianis similes. Certè si sola putredo in substantia cordis vel contentis esset, & ea quidem summa, calor in tanto cordis incendio vehementior quam in causa repetiretur & tanta suborta pu- H 3

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177 MEDICINALS. 178 whether this man or that thinks so does not matter; for, as Montanus used to say, neither Hippocrates nor Galen in the art are to be trusted because they said it, but because they have good and firm reasons for what they say; and it is most shameful, as the Greeks say, to serve opinions and to measure truth by authority. Natural things depend on causes. But we have shown that the cause of pestilent fever along with plague is a poisonous quality of the air arising from the heavens, which is not harmful because it is hot, cold, moist, or dry, but harms the heart in its whole substance and devastates the spirits; in other cases it destroys the humors, in others it corrupts and consumes the whole substance. And the corruption that arises after this poison has been taken in far surpasses the condition of ordinary putrefaction, as its proper symptoms and treatment indicate; and the formal and material properties of this fever, which constitute it, have much more malignity than the rest of fevers, both putrid and hectic. And that these things may be made plain and clear, I shall first make no dispute about the remote cause, especially since, as Aristotle says, we have only scant knowledge of heavenly things. But let those who are moderately versed in these studies allow me to think thus. Since no cause can act without the aptitude of the patient, as Galen says, that is, the bodies have an aptitude for heavenly causes, even if these are not obvious and conspicuous to all, and the stars bring into the air something besides heat and cold, through their light and motion, and contribute not a little to the constitution of diseases. And both things and histories testify that there have been severe pestilences, which were preceded by no very great change of seasons, and no manifest quality of the air; indeed sometimes they began in winter and ended in summer, and vice versa they raged terribly, even though in a hot and humid constitution, and we readily concede that hot and humid bodies, which have looser pores for receiving poison and are more prone to putrefaction, are more suitable. But the putrefaction which is induced in predisposed bodies by the poison of the air must be regarded as far more dangerous than the common kind, and the quality of the air must be established not simply as putrid but as poisonous, as the reason of contagion requires. For contagion is a destructive affection of substance, as Montanus says, which putrefaction cannot remedy unless it be such and so great as to reach a poisoned quality of a certain form. Of a certain form, because otherwise the air, simply poisoned, would be harmful to all living things. By reason of form, however, it affects men in one way, cattle in another, this place or that place in another, and beyond any doubt it has heavenly causes, though they are unknown to us. Further, to say that a poisonous air, whose whole substance is almost evil and hostile to its source, and to call the disease itself a disease of the whole substance, and to distinguish between true pestilential fevers, that is, those which are harmful only from the poison of the air, and putrid fevers, even though they are almost always joined together because of the scarcity of putrid bodies, what, I ask, is inconvenient in that? Is this, I ask, contrary to Galen, or to Montanus’s other Galen? Indeed, to think in this way is to clarify the whole dispute about contagion, which, if the ancients had clearly set it out, perhaps there would be less error now. But to affirm that putrefaction alone is the cause of pestilential fever does not certainly explain why and how such fevers are contagious. Let us therefore concede that the ancients have their glory and later writers theirs; and that they too were, as we are, human beings, and that some things lie beyond human understanding and are not known. Nay, this is Galen’s own opinion: that pestilential fevers arise from a property of substance, not from an intemperance of qualities. For in book 2 of De Natura Habet he says, chapter 4, concerning pestilential exhalation, that it infects more by a property of the whole substance than by any bodily quality. And in the same place he plainly says that the imperfect treatment of common diseases was written by Hippocrates, and he distinguishes between pestilential fevers, which arise from a cause acting through a property of substance, which we call poisonous because they harm, and those which are excited by a cause affecting only quality. And I have said these things so that no one may think that we are embracing something new, or something that first came into my mind. Nor do I quarrel about names; rather, I hold Plato’s opinion, which Galen reports, that no care should be taken about names, when the investigation of such great matters is proposed. Let us therefore examine the thing itself more closely. When the force of the poison, as they call it, has entered the body, it immediately changes the whole of it, and, as Galen says in book 3 of the Epidemics, it attacks not by quantity but by the whole substance or kind. Thus, when the heat oppressed by poison, according to Galen in book 9 of De Simplici Medicina, the pulse is not strong, but small for the same reason, quick by necessity. The urine sometimes resembles that of Janus. Certainly, if putrefaction alone were present in the substance of the heart or its contents, and that indeed in a high degree, the heat in so great an inflammation of the heart would be more violent than in the cause would be repeated, and so great a putrefaction arising... H 3

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179 EPISTOLA 180 < Prima febris putreda.> redine vix fieri posset, quin aliqua eius indicia in vrinis conspicerentur, sicut certe sunt plane confusæ, & iumenrorum similes vrinæ, cum haustum venenum in corporibus putridam febrem inducit. Illud quod paulo arre dixi, me libenter concedere fateor, in corporibus plethora vel cacochymia laborantibus à venenato aere affectus non solum febrem, quæ à veneno est, & morbus totius substantiæ dicitur, & comites, bubones & carbunculos haber, sed etiam foedam putridam febrem excitari, cum hæc veneni huius vis sit, vt primum cor & vitales omnes partes lædat, & infringat: deinde humores quoque inquinet, & labetæ &c. < Signa febris publica & comopoe & primaria.> Verum vt hæc conspectiora sint iam signa persequamur: In febve pestilenti sine putredine, quæ oritur, cum venenum acreum inspiratione pulmones & cor subit, < 30> calor nec mordetur, nec vehemens est: circa præcordia vero anxietas, animi deliquia crebra, vel syncope, pullus paruus, vrinæ interdum tales, vt sanis sint similes vomitiones etiam crebræ & difficiles sæpe adsunt, iactariones corporis, inquietudo, & vigilia, & tanta sine sensu doloris prostratio vitiu[m], vt priusquam febris putrida conseqnatur, hominem è vita tollere queat. Hæc autem signa omnia ad venenum non ad putredinem referenda, tum de iis, quæ antea diximus, tum quæ deinceps dicturi sumus, perspicuum erit. Porto hanc febrem siue pestilentem siue hædicam quis nominet, mea nihil refert, modo is mihi suam de putredine spirituum & substantiæ cordis in viuo animante sententiam declaret, nec medamnet, si ego febrem cum luc sine putredine appellem, vel nomine generis in appellatione speciei vtar, & pestilentiam dicam < 40> Febris vero pestilentis exitiosæ, atque publicæ, & cum his putridæ coniunctæ signa sunt bubones, & carbunculi seu pustulæ, item , id est, colliquatio, dolor, & grauitas capitis, sitis vehemens & appetentia postrata, in interioribus calor vehemens exterioribus vero frigus, foetorem halitus vrinarubida, alui interdum profluiuies, in interdum adstrictio. Deniq[ue] in corporibus, quæ hac extinguuntur, signa veneno infectis < 50> (vt Dioscorides ea recenset) communia atq[ue] familiaria conspicimus. Atq[ue] hæ febres putridæ cum sine peste sint, quas Galenus 3. Epid. vocat, id est, pestilentes propriè siue priuatim corripientes hominis abiq[ue] peste habent eadem fere symptomata sed umnia mitiora, nisi prauitas humorum collectorum in corpore ad malignitatem earum accedat. Non parum etiam malitiam earum adiuvant aeris constitutiones australes, subbidæ atque pluuiosæ, æstatis fervor & halitus è terra emissi, veneno affines: cumque hæc accedunt, animantia interdum luces prius quam homines afficit, & insectorum atque animalium ex putredine ortorum copia præter modum conspicitur: sed ista omnia explicare non est nostri instituti, & volente DEO. < 10> Plenius hæc nostra poterunt ostendere chartæ, Si modo visa super, sique erit vlla quies. Nunc de tertio, videlicet de curatione dicamus, quam morbotum naturam declaraere, aperte Hippocrates noster docet, inquiens: Indicat autem curatio, siue vero hanc siue præseruationem, quæ procedit, spectes manifestum erit, remedia, quibus vtimur in præseruatione atque curatione pestilentium febrium, etiam alexipharmacæ veneno aereo tota substantia non manifestis tantum qualitatib[us] contraria. Id vero venenum, vt ego existimo, Galenus præpoterem causam vocat: Montanus putredinem, quæ ad venenosam qualitatem peruenit. Hippocrates autem diuinum < 30> quiddam: Auicenna substantiam extraneam complexioni spiritus contrariam aeri permistam appellat. Ac Hippocrates inquit, id est, naturalia remedia non tollunt lucem pestilentis morbi. Galenus vero < 6.> 6. Epid. com. 6. (ita enim causam febris pestilentis vocat) medicationem per alexipharmacæ tradit, & manifeste inquit noxam per totam substantiam corporibus aduenire, & medicamenta id est, illi aduersari. Denique pussem hoc omnium medicamentorum exem plis manifestum facere, sed vnum saltem afferam. Est electuarium quod è nucibus vocant vbique in pestentialibus constitutionibus vitatissimum: & nonne Galenus in libro de bonitate & vitio succotum, inquit: Qui venenorum compositionem tractarunt, nonnulli harum omnium alexiterium esse affirmant, si quis caricas cum nucibus vna & rutam assumat. viderit nunc æquus lector, quantum à doctrina Galeni & Montani absim. Nam illud quidem non dico nec vnam dicturus tum, iuuamenta simplicium qualitatum medicamentorum nihil facienda, & putredinis nullam habendam ratiunem, aut ea quæ ad inhübendam putredinem à medicis doctis exsiccando, & refrigerandu atque aliis modis fiunt, < Elect. dunt>

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179 EPISTLE 180 < First fever of putrefaction.> it could hardly happen that some signs of it would not be seen in the urine, just as certainly they are altogether confused and like chamber-pot urine, when a draught of poison brings on putrid fever in the body. That which I said a little before I freely confess I am willing to concede: that in bodies laboring under plethora or cacochymy, an affection from poisoned air produces not only the fever which is from poison and is called a disease of the whole substance, and which has as companions buboes and carbuncles, but also a foul putrid fever is stirred up, since this is the force of that poison, that first it injures and breaks down the heart and all the vital parts; then it also corrupts the humors, and so on. < Signs of the public, common, and primary fever.> But so that these signs may be more evident, let us now follow them: in pestilential fever without putrefaction, which arises when acrid poison enters the lungs and heart by inhalation, <30> the heat is neither biting nor violent; around the precordia there is anxiety, frequent fainting of the mind, or syncope, a small pulse, urines sometimes such as resemble those of the healthy, vomitings also frequent and often difficult, tossing of the body, restlessness, and wakefulness, and such a prostration of strength without sense of pain, that before putrid fever follows it can carry a man off from life. Now all these signs are to be referred to poison, not to putrefaction; from what we have said before and what we shall say afterward, this will be clear. Moreover, whether anyone call this fever pestilential or hædic, it matters nothing to me, provided he declare to me his opinion concerning the putrefaction of the spirits and of the substance of the heart in a living animal, and not blame me if I call the fever with loathing without putrefaction, or if I use the name of the genus in the naming of the species, and call it pestilence. <40> The signs, however, of pestilent fever, destructive and public, and, joined with these, putrid, are buboes and carbuncles or pustules, also colliquation, pain, and heaviness of the head, violent thirst and a cast-down appetite, within the body violent heat, but outwardly cold, foulness of the breath, red urines, sometimes looseness of the belly, sometimes constriction. Finally, in bodies destroyed by this disease, we observe signs common and familiar to those infected by poison, as Dioscorides enumerates them. And these putrid fevers, when they are without plague, which Galen in the 3rd Epidemics calls pestilential, that is, properly or privately attacking a man without plague, have almost the same symptoms, but all milder, unless the corruption of the humors collected in the body adds malignity to them. Not a little also do southerly, cloudy, and rainy constitutions of the air, the heat of summer, and the exhalations emitted from the earth, akin to poison, help their malice; and when these are added, they sometimes attack living creatures before men, and an excessive abundance of insects and animals arising from putrefaction is seen. But to explain all these things is not our purpose, and, God willing, <10> our charts will be able to show these matters more fully, If only what is seen above remains, if there be any rest. Now let us speak of the third point, namely treatment, which the nature of the disease has declared; our Hippocrates plainly teaches this, saying: “But treatment indicates, or rather prevention, if you consider what follows, it will be evident that the remedies which we use in the prevention and treatment of pestilential fevers are also alexipharmacal, contrary to the poisonous air in the whole substance, not only in manifest qualities.” That poison, as I think, Galen calls the prevailing cause; Montanus, putrefaction, when it has reached a poisonous quality. Hippocrates, however, calls it something divine. Avicenna calls it a foreign substance mixed with the air, contrary to the spirit’s complexion. And Hippocrates says that natural remedies do not remove the danger of pestilential disease. Galen, however, <6.> in 6 Epid. com. 6. (for so he calls the cause of pestilential fever) gives treatment through alexipharmacal remedies, and plainly says that harm comes to bodies through the whole substance, and that medicines are opposed to it. Finally, I could make this clear by examples from all medicines, but I shall bring forward only one. There is an electuary which they call “of nuts,” very much used everywhere in pestilential constitutions; and does not Galen in the book On the Good and Bad Qualities of Juices say: “Those who have treated the composition of poisons, some of them affirm that among all these things there is an alexeterium, if one should take figs with nuts and rue”? Let the fair reader now see how far I am from the doctrine of Galen and Montanus. For I certainly do not say, nor shall I ever say, that the aids of simple medicinal qualities are to be regarded as nothing, and that no account is to be made of putrefaction, or that those things which skilled physicians do to inhibit putrefaction by drying, cooling, and other methods, <Elect. dunt>

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181 MEDICINALES. 181 dis sunt, superuacanea esse, cum sciam præsertim in pestilentialius constitutionibus, multos cacochymia, non paucos plethota laborare, atq[ue] his sanguinis missionem, illis purgationem necessarias esse. Venenum vero solam antidotum requirere, nec ad hoc collendum, putredinemq[ue] ab eo inductam remouendam solam exiccationem conferre, summa cum asseueratione profiteor. Sed de curatione atq[ue] hactora disputatione, quæ de putredine, contagione & pestilentibus mothis & febrihus est, meam sententiam perspicue explicatam edam. Hanc vero significationem propter quasdam meas cogitationes & aliorum subiectiones non potui differre, cum Montanica de febrihus in publicum darem, quæ vt tu optime, mi D. Quirine, & si qui forte hæc legent alij in bonam patrem recipiant, vel melioribus opellas ingeniol nostri ipsi obscurent oto. Certe candidi lectores perspicient, me non temere ponere discrimen inter febres pestilentiales à veneno aëreo, & à sola putredine ortas, & naturam rei, signa certa atq[ue] ipsam curationem, quæ fit per alexipharmaca, me vrgere, vt causam venenatam qualitatem aëream appellem, & putredinem quæ hanc sequitur, longe vulgaris putredinis eonditionem sua malignitate superare, statuam. Tidi quidem hæc tenuia atq[ue] exilia grata acceptaq[ue] futura pro summa tua humanitate & singulari erga me animo certo scio, & vt perpetuo atq[ue] omni hoc modo maiore culu & honore tuas præclatas virtutes & merita erga me prosequar, & grati animi memoriam declarem, & coniunctionem amicitiæ nostræ in aliqua etiam felicitatis meæ parte collocasse me testatum faciam, omnes ingenii nernos & industrix intendam. Christus te cum tuis beneualemtem conseruet. Vratisl. 25. Octob. 1557. EPIST. CIII. ANDREÆ DUDITHIO AB HO- rekouniza, &c. Iohan. Craso S. D. ADVERSVS pestem multa, quæ pro Certissimis habentur, fallacia sunt. Camphoram excellere omnia remedia, & vsum Ambtræ atque fungi illius, quem bolitum ceruinum appellant, te comperi. Nam Diaphoretica in hoc modo maxime prosint. Ad quartanam, cum sit longus morbus parum valent remedia experientia cognita. Auenzoat summus inter Medicos Arabes vsum nucleorum perficorum laudat. Et quidam Practicus Antonius Guai- < Pellis remedia fallacia. Camphora, ambra, & balneoos cor ammas excul. lum. Experemtia in quarzana parum valens. Perficorum mucor. > nerus decoctum raparum. Ego vtrumque remedium magno successu multis exhibui. Sed sis morbum habere sua tempora, & cum natura ante coctionem nô curet, quid nos spei in istis remediis collocabimus? Ad morbum serpentum ab aliis obseruata annotau. Ego quod sciam nullum exhibui: Diuns Ferdinandus prædicabat sanguinem anatis calidum, hoc remedium apud alios quoquereperi, sed quidam addunt stercus columbinum, nonnulli stercus caprinum, quod solum eniam cum acero dissolutum applicant. Rectissima sunt quæ venenatam materiam foras trahunt. In eo pellem capax mactatæ calentem landant. Vellem remedium aduersus sycophantæ morsum doceri. Medici ad humanum morbum, stereus humanum præscrihunt. Illud ego magno meo calumniatori apposui, & vt De v[er]s illi ignosceret precatus sum. Exciderat propemodum quod de dolore capitis quæris. Curationem esse ablationem causæ non ignotas. Multæ partes sunt capitis, causæ diuersæ, quæ dolorem faciunt. Quid igitur respondeam? Bene vale. 17. Decemb. EPIST. CIV. IDEM EIDEM. S. D. DE morbo filii tui elegantis, & prohæ in dolis pueri ihi . Remedia in hoc morbo, sicut in iis, ad quorum cognitionem plene non est peruentum, sunt plura. Quæ à me obseruata sunt, ea cum hac epistola accipies. Vt prosint filio, & consolentur Nobilissimam tuam coniugem ex animo precor. Meam epistolâ ad Mercurialem non possum mittere, nisi illius addam. Cur autem hoc facere nequeam vera causa est. Mitote contagium negare in remani festa. Non necesse est instar montis molem esse: Augentur & vites acquirunt eundo. Ac ex vno homine infecto tantu[m] inquinamenti exhalare potest, quantum p[er]to mille inficiendis sit satis. Nondum sum certus; Ex catarthone febrê (in qua sententia fui eum ad Meteorialem scriberem) an febrem ex catarthostatuam. Non omnes in fectos esse cum coniagii ratione nô pugnar. Quia agens in patiens prædispositum agit. Et prædispositio corporum diuersitatis symptomatum causa fuit. Itaq[ue] vix in decem corporibus morbus per omnia similis extitit. Per sudores autem in omnibus terminatur. Proinde sanguismitti, vel cathartica adhiberi, qui materiam ad < Vena Per > H 4

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181 MEDICINALS. 181 these things are so, I especially know that they would be superfluous, since in pestilential constitutions many are afflicted by cacochymy, not a few by plethora, and for these bloodletting is necessary, for those purgation. But I declare with the utmost assurance that poison requires only an antidote, and that for this purpose only drying is of use, to draw it out and remove the putrefaction induced by it. But concerning the treatment and the present discussion, which is about putrefaction, contagion, pestilential diseases, and fevers, I shall set forth my opinion clearly explained. Yet I could not defer this indication, because of certain thoughts of my own and the submissions of others, when I was putting forth my book On Fevers into the public light, which, as you very well know, my dear D. Quirinus, and if by chance others read this, may they receive it in good part, or with better things may they themselves eclipse the little essays of our slight talent. Certainly candid readers will perceive that I am not rashly establishing a distinction between pestilential fevers arising from aerial poison and those arising from mere putrefaction, and that the nature of the matter, the certain signs, and the treatment itself, which is carried out by alexipharmaca, compel me to call the poisonous cause an aerial quality, and to state that the putrefaction which follows this far surpasses, in its malignity, the condition of ordinary putrefaction. Indeed I know for certain that these thin and slight things will be welcome and acceptable to you, in your great humanity and your singular affection toward me; and so that I may continually, and in every way with greater zeal and honor, pursue your distinguished virtues and merits toward me, and declare the memory of my gratitude, and show that I have placed the bond of our friendship in some part even of my own happiness, I shall apply all the nerves of my mind and my industry. May Christ preserve you and yours in good health. Wrocław, 25 October 1557. EPISTLE CIII. TO ANDREW DUDITHIUS OF HO- rekouniza, etc., John Crasus greetings. Against the plague many things, which are held to be very certain, are deceptive. I have learned from you that camphor surpasses all remedies, and the use of amber and of that fungus which they call bolitum ceruinum. For diaphoretics are especially useful in this way. For quartan fever, since it is a long disease, remedies known by experience are of little value. Auenzoat, the foremost among the Arab physicians, praises the use of peach kernels. And a certain practitioner, Antonius Gua- nerus, [praises] a decoction of turnips. I have administered both remedies to many with great success. But if disease has its own seasons, and nature does not cure before digestion, what hope shall we place in those remedies? I have noted by others what has been observed about the disease of serpents. As far as I know I have administered none. Divus Ferdinandus praised warm duck blood; I have also found this remedy among others, but some add pigeon dung, others goat dung, which they apply only dissolved with vinegar. The best are those that draw the poisonous matter outward. In that respect they commend the warm skin of a slaughtered kid. I should like to be taught a remedy against the bite of a sycophant. Physicians prescribe human dung for a human disease. I applied that to my great slanderer, and I prayed that God would forgive him. I had almost forgotten what you ask about the pain of the head. The cure is the removal of the cause, not unknown. There are many parts of the head, and different causes that produce pain. What then shall I answer? Farewell well. 17 December. EPISTLE CIV. SAME TO THE SAME. Greetings. Concerning the disease of your son, the delicate child, and in the anoints of the boy there is... There are many remedies in this disease, as in those for the knowledge of which we have not yet fully arrived. Those which I have observed you will receive with this letter. I earnestly pray that they may benefit your son and comfort your most noble wife. I cannot send my letter to Mercurialis unless I add his own. But the true reason why I cannot do this is that you should not deny contagion in the matter. It is not necessary for a mass to be like a mountain: things increase and gain by going on. And from one infected person so much corruption can exhale as is enough to infect a thousand others. I am not yet certain whether it is from catarrhous fever (in which opinion I was when I wrote to the Meteorialis) or whether I should judge the fever to arise from catarrh. Not all the infected are so, if one does not contend on the basis of contagion. For the agent acts upon a predisposed patient. And predisposition of bodies was the cause of the variety of symptoms. Thus in hardly ten bodies has the disease ever been exactly alike in all respects. Yet it is ended in all cases by sweats. Therefore bloodletting, or cathartics applied in order to draw the matter to ...

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183 EPISTOLÆ 184 < Refura cor. nus corus.> riora reuocarent, non debuerunt. Lenientia tam e[st] enemata & cucurbitulas in capitis vehementi dolore scapulis adnotas nunquam improbaui. Scobem cornuceruini omnibus felici successu exhibui, & pauea Bethica. Non vacat plura scribere. Bene vale. Pragx 6. Octob. Anno Millefimo, quingen- tesimo, octuagesimo. POST SCRIPTVM. < Febris.> QVÆRO schedam in quam remedia pro filio conueceram; Nusquam reperio. Nosti quo sint ordine libri & chartæ meæ. Iraque iterum nouus sumendus labor. Est ea ætate puer vt nihil sit metuendum. Cum febris paroxysmum præcedat. Ne sit crudus cauendum. Nam cruditas haud dubie febris causa est. Exercitia & so- mnus post cibum, cum caput tepleant, ne- < Modulus ex scobe corum cerus, & visco quercano.> quaquam conueniunt. Vinum neque de- gustandum, neque odorandum. In potu sit nodulus ex scobe coru cerui, & lignu visei quereini. Is iteretur singulis quinque die- < Puluis iac. eru perdi- cum.> bus. Vtatur autem isto potu non solum ali- quot diebus, sed mensibus. Sæpe eomedat iecur perdicum, siccatum etiam in testa ad ignem, & in puluerem redactum, atque ex aqua millefolij in vase virreo destillata suum- < Ramarum Epar.> ptum, singularis est antidotus. Quidam ta- < Ruta.> narum Epar hoc modo vsurpatum com- mendâr. Sæpe odoret rutam, præsertim syl- ueltrem & succus rutæ nari imponatur. In felle tauri reperitur lapis, is in puluerem re- digitur, & naribus attrahitur, atque egregie cerebrum expurgat. Polytrichi decocto sæ- < Erchina 1 Lapide fallus tauræ.> peante coenam abluatur caput nec postea aëri se exponat. Ciconiarum & Pauonum stereus eum saecbaro mistum, atque sæpe pueris exhibitum valde commendatur. Ha- < Cicominarum & pænemurum flacens.> bes satis multa remedia, & plura in medium afferre possem, atque in ea charta, quam nusquam reperio, scripta puto. Purgare puerilla corpora, vel diuersiones per eaute- ria moliri ineptum puto. Victus ratio opti- < Vitius vatio epistoma medica> ma medicina. Deum oro vt hoc benigne fortunet, & me omnia tui atque Generosiss- imæ coniugis tuæ causa facturum polliceor. Iterum vale. EPIST. CV. IOHANNES CRATO A KRAFT- beim, &c. Hieronymo Mercurialis Medico S. D. < Catarrhus Epidemicus fibrilus.> PROBARI tibi sententiam meam de e- pidemico catarrho eum febre, qui supe- rioribus proximis mensibus lunge lateque peruagatus est Europam, & magnam par- tem humani generis attigit, lætor. Cui e- dim magis quam tibi, qui principem locum in arte nostra habes, & de rationum mo- mentis rectissime iudicas, probari velim? < Rella Crata catarrhum eum: si qui- dam contagiosus fusti: noce effusio cum putra- dine aliqua fusso con- tendit.> Sed patiaris me hoc à te exquirere, si con- tagionis ratio in putredinis gradu non est posita, qua in te sit? Existimas, quantum ex tuis literis intelligo, vapores aridos & a- < Omnis corporis entha- lasto noxia putrida> crees, qui ex ore xgrotantium emanant, ha- < Graduum putridæ effe- tuum.> bitu à proximis attrahi, atque vbi faucibus adhæserint, humescere atque abique vila putredine lentescere, simulque cerebrum, & vniuersum corpus contaminare. Sed hæc, vt probes, non video. An enim for- des illas adhærentes faucibus, lingux, gin- giuis, dentibus nullam putredinem redo- lere putas? An quicquam in aëre perdu- rare ventorum vide loco in locum impel- < Omnis corporis entha- lasto noxia putrida> li, late disseminari & perniciosum corpo- ribus prædispositis, quæ cum aëre inqui- namenta ista attrahunt, esse albitraris, quod non sit lentum, glutinosum, & putridum? Certe mea alia est sententia, neque vt arbi- tror, improbanda. Sic enim statuo. Quic- < Graduum putridæ effe- tuum.> quid è coporibus effluit & aeri communi- catum vicinis corporibus quæ attingit, vel quæ cum aëre illud attrahunt, noxium est, putridum esse. Sunt autem purredinis cer- < Magnam autem putratur, quæ è corpori- bus exhalant, varietatem, & miram vim eorum esse, res ostendit.> tigi gradus quos morbi alias , alias comitantur. perniciosissimam exhalasse, cum nemini hic morbus sua natura exitiosus fuerit, sed vel victus ratio vel medicatio xgros perdiderit, con- sentaneum est. Verum de hoc deinceps. < Conuersario vetularum quibundam noxia.> Magnam autem putratur, quæ è corpori- bus exhalant, varietatem, & miram vim eorum esse, res ostendit. Quædam enim è propinquo, & contactu solo lædunt, quæ- dam mediante aëre, cui quod lenta sunt & glutinosa, inhærent, lædunt. Quædam etiam vniuersum corpus, quædam partem, quemadmodum in phthisi afficiunt. Mor- < Conuersario vetularum quibundam noxia.> bus gallicus solo contactu, sicut conuersa- tio quarundam vetularum iuniotibus ma- < Oculis fa- scinatum.> ritis nocet. In mulieribus quibuidam, dum menstruis laborant, ab oculis sicut in oph- tbalmia, quædam foras exsiliunt, quæ ae- rem contaminant, atque imbecilliores affi- ciunt. Plinius visu effascinare multos at- que interficiete autor est. Narratur etiam in Apollonio Thyaneo apud Philoltratum fuisse quendam Saturnum in Epheto, qui intuitu homines necauit. In his omnibus cum vis malignaemanet, à putredine vel vene-

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183 EPISTLES 184 < Refura cor. nus corus.> things should have been recalled, they ought not to have been. Lencency such as enemata & clysters in cases of intense pain in the head and shoulders I have never disapproved. I have always used powder of horn and deer-horn with happy success for all, and also paeva Bethica. I have no time to write more. Farewell well. Prague, 6 October, in the year 1580. POSTSCRIPT. < Fever.> I AM LOOKING for the sheet on which I had copied the remedies for my son; I find it nowhere. You know in what order my books and papers are kept. And so the work must be undertaken anew. The boy is at such an age that nothing need be feared. Since the fever precedes the paroxysm. Care must be taken that he not be crude. For crudity is doubtless the cause of fever. Exercise & sleep after food, when they fill the head, by no means agree. < Modulus ex scobe corum cerus, & visco quercano.> Wine is neither to be tasted nor even smelled. In drink there should be a little ball of horn-shavings & oak mistletoe. This should be repeated every five days. < Puluis iac. eru perdi- cum.> But let him use that drink not only for some days, but for months. He should often eat the liver of partridges, dried also in a vessel over the fire, and reduced to powder, and taken with water of yarrow distilled in a glass vessel; < Ramarum Epar.> this is a singular antidote. Some recommend the liver of pheasants used in this way. < Ruta.> Let him often smell rue, especially wild rue, and let the juice of rue be applied to the nostrils. In the gall of a bull there is found a stone; this is reduced to powder and drawn in through the nostrils, and it cleanses the brain excellently. By the decoction of polytrichum, let the head be washed before supper, and afterwards let him not expose himself to the air. The dung of storks and peacocks mixed with sugar, and often given to boys, is highly recommended. < Erchina 1 Lapide fallus tauræ.> < Cicominarum & pænemurum flacens.> You have enough remedies, and I could bring forward more, and I think they were written on that sheet which I cannot find anywhere. To purge the bodies of little children, or to attempt derivations by cautery, I think foolish. The best medicine is the regulation of diet. < Vitius vatio epistoma medica> I pray God that He may kindly bring this to a good end, and I promise that I shall do everything for your sake and for the sake of your most noble spouse. Farewell again. EPIST. CV. JOHANNES CRATO OF KRAFT- beim, etc., to Hieronymus Mercurialis the physician, greeting. < Catarrhus Epidemicus fibrilus.> I AM GLAD that my opinion on the epidemic catarrh with fever, which during the past few months has spread far and wide throughout Europe and has touched a great part of the human race, is approved by you. Whom should I wish more than you, who hold the chief place in our art and judge most rightly about the force of reasons, to approve it? < Rella Crata catarrhum eum: si qui- dam contagiosus fusti: noce effusio cum putra- dine aliqua fusso con- tendit.> But allow me to ask this of you: if the cause of contagion does not lie in a degree of putrefaction, wherein does it lie? You think, as far as I understand from your letters, that dry and acrid vapors which emanate from the mouths of the sick are taken in habit by those nearby, and, once they have adhered to the throat, become moist and slowly pass into some kind of putrefaction, and at the same time contaminate the brain and the whole body. But I do not see how this can be proved. Do you really think that those filth-like things adhering to the throat, tongue, gums, and teeth exhale no putrefaction? Or do you think that anything carried through the air by winds, driven from place to place, widely spread and harmful to predisposed bodies, which draw in those impurities with the air, can be anything other than thick, glutinous, and putrid? < Omnis corporis entha- lasto noxia putrida> Certainly my own view is different, and, as I judge, not to be disapproved. For thus I maintain: whatever flows out of bodies and is communicated to the common air, and which it touches neighboring bodies, or which those bodies that draw it in with the air, is harmful, is putrid. There are, however, certain degrees of putrefaction which diseases sometimes accompany, sometimes do not. < Graduum putridæ effe- tuum.> It is consistent that the disease emitted its most pernicious exhalation, since in no one here was this disease destructive by its own nature, but either the regimen of life or the treatment destroyed the sick. But of this later. < Magnam autem putratur, quæ è corpori- bus exhalant, varietatem, & miram vim eorum esse, res ostendit.> Great variety, however, in the putrefactions that exhale from bodies, and their marvelous power, is shown by experience. For some harm by mere proximity and touch alone, some by means of the air, to which, because they are thick and sticky, they adhere. Some also affect the whole body, some only a part, as in phthisis. The French disease harms by mere contact, just as the conversation of certain old women harms young husbands. < Conuersario vetularum quibundam noxia.> In certain women, while they are suffering from menstruation, some things issue forth from the eyes, as in ophthalmia, which contaminate the air and afflict the weaker. Pliny says that many were bewitched by the sight and even killed. It is also said in Philostratus’s life of Apollonius of Tyana that there was in Ephesus a certain Saturninus who killed men by a glance. In all these cases, since a malignant force remains, it is from putrefaction or from vene-

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185 MEDICINALES. 186 venenata qualitate esse, oecesse est. Porro vt corpus à corpore, natura à natura (quemadmodum Hippocrates in libro de flatibus docet) differunt: ita & ea, quæ à corporibus effluunt. Quæ enim hominibus no- cent; alia animantia non lædunt: & econtra. Scribebat nuper ad me amicus quidam, si à seminario in aere, corpora infecta essent, instar summi montis hæc fuisse. Fateor, cootagij rationem nondum satis esse expli- 10 catam, sed hoc est mihi persuasum: constitutiones aëris intemeratas, sordes etiam quæ exterra, vel aquis, vel aliis locis exhalant, posse corpora ad morbos suscipiendum prædisponere. imo causam præbere, vt putredo istum gradum, qui habeat consequatur: sed nùi exhalent miæquæ è corporibus, & aëri communicentur, coutagiosos motbos, qui mediante aere de corporibus in corpora feruntur, non efficere. A primo vero, in quo putredo ad istum gradum peruenit, vt morbidam expiratioem exhalet corpus, tantum mali potest emanare, quod integram domum insiciar, & mille hominibus efficiendis satis sit, ita vt in progressu mali non tantum integræ vrbes, sed regiones aerem malignum & plenum inquinamentis habeant. Quemadmodum M. Antonij temporibus ex arcula in templo Apullonis primo emanarunt, & vniuersæ Græcix & Italix peroiciosa fuerunt. Ac sæpe ex vna veste, vel alia re exhalasse, historiæ docent. Hoc certe vidir Hippocrates cum pestem ex Æthiopia aduenientem à Græcia depulit. Fouentur autem & multiplicaotur inquinamenta illa in aere crassu & impuro, sic vt fervore nimio acuuntur, & aëris impulsione de loco in locum feruntur, ac purissimo etiam aere, dum perflatur, franguntur. Verum de contagionis rarione plenius meam sententiam explicabo, vbi quid in ea desideres, & quo pacto seminatia contagionis à corporibus nulla putredine infectis (ea præsertim seminaria, quæ aeri communicantur, & mediante aere de corpore in corpus feruntur) exhalare posse ostenderis. Nunc vero catarrhum per tot prouncias mediante aere, qui contioebat, disseminarom, propemodum in oculos incurrit. Dum enim mense Augusto nobis ad comitia esset eundem, & multæ vicinæ vrbes atque pagi hoc morbo laborassent, intra dies paucos nuo modo omnes aulici, verum huius amplissimæ vrbis iocolæ correpti sunt. Scribunt in Hispaniis, ac præsertim Mantux Carpentriæ intra biduum paucos in foro conspectos, vacua fuisse templa, multa ne aperta fidem. Causam igitur morbi communissimam videlicet aerem, qui inquinamenta continebat; & magna ex parte simile morbum in omnibus efficiebat, fuisse necesse est. Nam quod quædam symptumatum fuit diffimitudo: ad corporum varietatem referendum; Medico existimare facile est. Cum igitur illa à putredine orta esse demonstratum sit, qua ratione febrem quæ catarrhum comitabatur, putridam negabimus? Contendis esse non putridam, & omnes febres, quæ catarrhos comirantur, synoschas absq[ue] putredine esse existimas, vt credam adduci nequeo. Tuoc vero ad hanc tuam sententiam accessurus sum, cum rationes demonstrauerint. Nunc cur non possim, & quid obstet ostendam. Si vel potius nomen generalem accipis & synochiam febrem eam appellas, quæ vnicam babet accessionem, neq[ue] ad integratatem peruenit, prius quâ tota discedar, non repugno. Si inflamatum sanguine[m] citra putredinem, (hoc enim 11. Meth. Gal. synochâ appellat) putas, oportet vt ostendas, omnia corpora, quæ catarrho isto contagioso laborarunt, plethotica & plena sanguine fuisse: inflammaria etiam corpora exspirare. Cere aliud & res ipsa & curatio indi- cauit. Hipp. catarrhum excitari pariter à calido & frigido testatur: & consentit Gal. ac in lib. de flatibus manifeste febres à catarrho ortas, purridas esse ostendit. Hanc etiam febrem fuisse putridam, inditio fuit, Calor minime mordax, intus magis quam foris molestus, pulsus inæqualis cum systole accele- rante, vrinæ crudæ in iositio, & crassæ in progressu. Ac cum ij humores putrescant. qui redundant in corporibus, atque vel natura, vel arte vacuantur, consentaneum est, cum hic morbus in pleisque omnibus per fudores sit finitus, atque hic & alibi per excellentissimos Medicos diaphureticis medicamentis curatus, in ichoribus putredinem fuisse. De homine febris non contendo. Adeas quas Galeus , seu humidas appellat, (liquidem , cuius varia est interpræratio, idem quid , vt Thucydides auror est, signi- ficat) recte referri posse puto. Esse etiam spiritus & ichores omniu[m] morborum contagiosorum, quorum seminaria attractu ac- ris hactiuntur vehiculum, atque in iis mor- bis maxime elaborandum, vt suduriferis & hydroticis noxium foras depellatur, & principes partes in corpore, inprimis ve- rocor, muniautur: res ipsa satis declarat. Itaque nisi alia missiunem sanguinis atque vacuantia medicamenta suadeant, per- ciosa

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185 MEDICINALS. 186 if they are of a venomous nature, it is necessary. Moreover, just as body differs from body, nature from nature (as Hippocrates teaches in the book On Winds), so too do the things that flow out from bodies. For what harms human beings does not injure other animals; and conversely. A certain friend wrote to me recently that, if bodies in the air were infected from a seed-bed, these would have been like a high mountain. I confess that the matter of contagion has not yet been sufficiently explained, 10 but this is what I am persuaded of: that pure constitutions of the air, as well as filth which exhale from the earth, or waters, or other places, can predispose bodies to receive diseases, indeed provide the cause, so that corruption may attain that degree which it has; but unless they exhale miæquæ from bodies, and are communicated to the air, they do not produce contagious diseases, which are carried through the air from bodies into bodies. But from the first stage, in which corruption reaches that degree, so that the body exhales a morbid expiration, so much harm can arise that it infects an entire house, and is enough to affect a thousand men, so that in the further progress of the evil not only whole cities, but regions, have a malignant air and full of pollutions. Just as in the time of M. Antonius, from a little chest in the temple of Apollo, they first spread abroad, and were destructive to all Greece and Italy. And often histories show that they have exhaled from a single garment, or some other thing. Hippocrates certainly saw this when he turned away from Greece the plague coming from Ethiopia. Those pollutions are fostered and multiplied in thick and impure air, so that with excessive heat they are sharpened, and are driven by the movement of the air from place to place, and even in the purest air, when it is blown through, they are broken up. But concerning the nature of contagion I shall explain my opinion more fully when you show what is lacking in it, and how seedbeds of contagion can exhale from bodies infected by no corruption, especially those seedbeds which are communicated to the air, and carried through the air from body to body. But now the catarrh disseminated through so many provinces by means of the air, which contained it, almost strikes the eye. For when in the month of August we were to be at the assemblies with that same disease, and many neighboring cities and villages had been afflicted by this illness, within a few days not only all the courtiers, but also the inhabitants of this very great city, were attacked. They write from Spain, and especially from Mantua and Carpentras, that within two days few were seen in the marketplace, the temples were empty, and many were not even open, I believe. The most common cause of the disease, therefore, was clearly the air, which contained pollutions; and it was necessary that, to a large extent, a similar disease was produced in all. For the fact that some symptoms were different must be referred to the variety of bodies; it is easy for a physician to judge. Since, then, it has been shown that those things arose from corruption, by what reasoning shall we deny that the fever which accompanied the catarrh was putrid? You contend that it is not putrid, and you think that all fevers which accompany catarrhs are synochae without corruption; I cannot be persuaded to believe it. But I shall come over to your opinion when the arguments have demonstrated it. For now I shall show why I cannot, and what hinders me. If, or rather if you take the name generally and call synochic that fever which has a single accession, and does not come to completion, before it entirely departs, I do not object. If you think it is inflamed blood without corruption (for this is what Galen in 11 Meth. calls synocha), it is necessary that you show that all the bodies which suffered from this contagious catarrh were plethoric and full of blood: that inflamed bodies also exhale. Another matter, and the thing itself, and the treatment indicated it. Hippocrates testifies that catarrh is stirred up alike by hot and cold: and Galen agrees, and in the book On Winds plainly shows that fevers arising from catarrh are putrid. That this fever also was putrid, the sign was that the heat was by no means biting, more troublesome within than without, the pulse unequal with the systole accelerating, the urine crude at the beginning, and thick in the course of the illness. And since those humors putrefy which abound in bodies, and are emptied either by nature or by art, it is fitting that, since this disease in most cases ended by sweats, and here and elsewhere was treated by the most eminent physicians with diaphoretic medicines, there was putrefaction in the humors. I do not contend concerning the fever in man. You may approach those which Galen calls humid, provided that liquefaction, which has various interpretations, signifies the same thing, as Thucydides is the author, I think it can rightly be referred. That there are also spirits and ichors of all contagious diseases, whose seed-beds are carried by the drawing in of air, and that in these diseases especially one must work, so that by sudorific and hydrotic remedies the harmful matter is driven out, and the principal parts in the body, especially the heart, are protected: the thing itself sufficiently shows. Therefore, unless other circumstances advise bleeding and evacuating medicines, dangerous

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187 EPISTOLÆ 188 ciosa ea esse, cum intro reuocent hoc quod natura expellere per exhalationes atque sudores contendit, & virtutem expulsiuam debilitent, Medici experiuntut. Non dubito, quin in hæ quoque febri in multis bominibus atque locis putredo sanguinis massam attigerit, & in iis missio sanguinis profuerit. In plerisque omnibus autem babuisse ad icbores, &, vt dixi vel à natura, vel arte, sudore aut insensibilt perspiratione zgros sanatos constat. 10 Mantuæ Carpentariæ, Romæ, Bononis, Venetiis plerique omnes absque sanguinis detractione sunt sanati, paucis propter capitis dolorem adhibbitæ conentibusulæ, & quibus adstricta alius fuit, lenientia data. Necpoli & in Sicilia, in qua boe morbi genus fere est anniuersatium, quemadmodum de Mi- tylene, spirante Coto, Vitruuius refert, tu- to sanguinem missum affirmant. 20 Etiam de Gallia & Saxonia hoc quidam, fortasse vt suo errori parrocinentur, referunt. Euen- tus hic ostendit, grauiter illos periclitatos, & literis ex Hispania missis perscriptum est, supra duo millia hominum, quibus in vnicæ vrbæ Mantua Carpentaria, vbi regiret, sanguis fuit detractus, intra paucos dies obuisse. Rex ipse, nescio an isto communi morbo, ad Lusitania fines ægrotauit. Febrem au- rem ardentissimam cum summo capitis do- lote habuisse, & nihil factum morte ipsa propius, perscribunt. Medici xxi i. sanguinis vncias per cucurbitulas detraxerunt: xii i. incisa vena. Nosti Hispanorum Medicorum in hoc auxilii genere audaciam. Rex potentissimus beneficio Dei est seruatus & conualuit. Fortasse synochus putrida fuit, in qua Galenus etiam ad ani- mi deliquium sanguinem misit. Sed in hæc catarrhosa febri etiam Hispanis non profu- isse euentus Mantuæ docuit, & nos satis multa exempla erudierunt. Morbificas cer- te causas, dum mouentur, perniciosiores es- se, Galenus contendit. Et morbi breuitas, securitas, atque quod nulla internotum vi- scrum magna fuit inflammatio, quodque natura aliam viam, quam per sanguinis mis- sionem, & vacuantia medicamenta mon- strauit, eruditis persuasit. Multi in Ger- mania, & ij præsertim quibus mala cessit, de sanguinis missione pugnant. quidem per sanguinis fluxum è natibus sint curati obliciunt, Verum ego his non moueor, ne- que inficias eo, ad sanguineæ massæ putre- dinem malum pernisse: sicut etiam ca- tarrhus in quibuidam pleurum, in aliqui- bus peripneumoniam concitauit. Narum Hemorr quidem ja- nasse. atque in iis singus, propter alterius morbi vim re- pruuendam rectè est in ius. Sola vero su- dorifera & putredinem inhibentia, mor- bo huic auxilium tulisse, qui negat, ille te- rum omnium vel nimis imperitus est, vel admodum impudens. Lapis Bezoat plurimum profuit, eo quoque Im- perator, & alii quibus ad manum fuit, hic sunt vsi. Ego magno successu cornu cer- ui eum aqua stillarita cardui exhibuit, & o- mnibus diaphoretica medicamenta quæ occulæ malignitati & contagionis causæ aduersantur, profuisse animaduerti. Conclusio. Resi- stere autem hæc eadem putredini quis non videt? Coneludo igitur fuisse febrem continuam putridam ichoribus inhærentem, & Hippocraticæ sententia innitor. Indicaturatio. Putredinis gradus diuersi- tatis contagionis, & morborum, ac præsertim nouorum (licet hunc motbum nouum esse non ctedam) causam esse, alias plenius ostensurus sum. Non sunt enim illa sed accuratiorem cogitationem, & tempus à curis vacuum, (quo ego plane in his miseriis aulicis, vbi & corpore, & animo distrahor, egebam) requirunt. Vides ipse me hanc epistolam, vt exaraui, mittere. Ita- que si vel diligentiam, vel explanationem firmiorem atque dilucidiorem desiderabis, festinationi, qua vel vtendum est mihi, vel nihil agendum ignosces. Bene vale, 28. Octobr. Anno 1580. EPIST. CVI. IDEM EIDEM SCIO NON ex literario officio existimandam beneuolentiam. Itaque etiamsi in- terdum sileant tux, nihil de amicissimo a- nimo tuo diminutum puto. Febres catarrhalis æs putridas. Misi autem ad te plenissimas de epidemico morbo, & quid ad eas sis responsurus exspecto. Febres catarhalis, synochas non putridas esse, cum qui iis laborant, plenitudine interdum nul- la affectos videamus, vt existimé adduci ne- queo. Coriza contagiosa. Imo in catarrhosis pituitam putrefece- re, & putridum quiddam eos exspirate indi- cio sunt cor yxæ, habitu etiam contagiosæ. Id eum vulgus in Germania sciat, non facile ex endem poculo, è quo cor yza laborans po- rum hæsit, hibit. Ac affici quorum capita trahi ma & pituitosa sunt, res ostendit. Esse autem exhalationem putridam certi gradus contagit fomitem planissime mihi persua- deo, ac si erro, aliam mihi contagri causam ostendi cupio. Gradum putredinis explica- te tam non posse quenquam puto, quam naturales sympathias & antipathias amici- tæ & diffidii causas. Is qui instat montis esse oportere scripterat, hoc oppo- suiur, Cum seminaria illa tam multis diebus dura-

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187 LETTERS 188 harmful things are, because they draw back in what nature strives to expel by exhalations and sweat, and weaken the expulsive power, physicians know from experience. I do not doubt that in this fever too, in many men and places, putrefaction of the blood has affected the mass, and that bloodletting has been beneficial in those cases. In the majority of all cases, however, it has been observed that patients were cured by discharge, and, as I said, either by nature or by art, through sweat or insensible perspiration. At Mantua, Carpentaria, Rome, Bologna, and Venice, most were cured without bloodletting; in a few, because of headache, clysters were used, and to those in whom the bowels were bound, lenitive remedies were given. At Naples and in Sicily, where this kind of disease is almost annual, as Vitruvius reports of Mitylene with the Coto wind, they affirm that blood was safely let. Even from Gaul and Saxony some report this, perhaps to defend their own error. The outcome here showed that they were gravely endangered, and it was written in letters sent from Spain that more than two thousand people, from whom blood had been drawn in the single city of Mantua Carpentaria, where he was in charge, died within a few days. The king himself, I know not whether from that common disease, fell ill near the borders of Lusitania. They write that he had an exceedingly hot fever with the greatest headache, and that nothing was done that came closer to death itself. The physicians drew 21 ounces of blood by cupping-glasses, and 12 ounces by opening a vein. You know the boldness of Spanish physicians in this kind of help. That most powerful king has been preserved by the grace of God and recovered. Perhaps it was a putrid synochus, in which Galen also let blood until fainting. But in this catarrhal fever the outcome in Mantua showed that it had not even helped the Spaniards, and enough examples have instructed us. Surely Galen maintains that morbific causes are more dangerous while they are in motion. And the shortness of the disease, the safety of it, and the fact that there was no great inflammation of the internal viscera, and that nature showed another way than bloodletting and evacuating medicines, persuaded the learned. Many in Germany, especially those for whom matters turned out badly, argue against bloodletting. Some object that people have been cured by a flow of blood from the nostrils. But I am not moved by these things, nor do I deny that the evil has penetrated to the putrefaction of the blood mass: just as catarrh in some cases excited pleurisy, in others peripneumonia. Indeed, in these there was a hemorrhage, and in those some blood was properly drawn off, because of the force of the other disease to be repelled. But whoever denies that sudorifics and remedies inhibiting putrefaction brought help to this disease, is either too ignorant of all things, or very shameless. Bezoar stone helped very much; the Emperor too, and others who had it at hand, used it here. With great success I used unicorn horn with distilled water of thistle, and I observed that diaphoretic medicines, which oppose hidden malignity and the cause of contagion, were beneficial to all. Conclusion. Who does not see that these same things resist putrefaction? I therefore conclude that it was a continual putrid fever adhering to the ichors, and I rely on the Hippocratic opinion. Investigation. The differing grades of putrefaction, contagion, and diseases, and especially of new ones (though I shall not say this disease is new), I shall show more fully elsewhere as the cause. For these matters do not require me, but rather more careful thought, and time free from cares, which I was altogether lacking in these court miseries, where I am distracted both in body and mind. You see that I am sending this letter as I wrote it. Therefore, if you desire either greater diligence or a firmer and clearer explanation, you will pardon the haste, which either I must use, or do nothing at all. Farewell well, 28 October, the year 1580. LETTER 106. THE SAME TO THE SAME I KNOW that goodwill is not to be judged by literary duty. Therefore, even if your letters sometimes are silent, I think nothing has been diminished from your most friendly mind. Catarrhal fevers are putrid. I have sent to you the fullest account of the epidemic disease, and I await what you will reply to them. Catarrhal fevers cannot be synochal and not putrid, since we see that those who labor under them are sometimes affected by no fullness, so I cannot be persuaded to think so. Contagious coryza. Indeed, in catarrhs the phlegm has putrefied, and that they exhale something putrid, the symptoms show, also the contagious character of coryza. Since the common people in Germany know this, they will not easily drink from the same cup from which a man suffering from coryza has drunk. And the fact that those whose heads are drawn to and who are full of phlegm are affected, shows the matter. That a putrid exhalation of a certain degree is the source of contagion I am completely persuaded; and if I am in error, I desire another cause of contagion to be shown to me. I think one cannot explain degrees of putrefaction any more than the natural sympathies and antipathies that are causes of friendship and distrust. He who had written that it ought to be on the mountain, this was opposed to, since those seed-plots for so many days dur-

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189 MEDICINALES. 196 durauerint, & noua quotidie ex corporibus insectis exhalauerint, cumque qui semel ex morbo conualuerunt, & aerem continentem puæopala attrahere eos oportuerit, cur non iterum sæpius in morbum reciderint? Ad quod respondi, primum à consuetis nos minus affici. Esse autem agentium naturaliter eam vim, vt aliquomodo passum assimilent. Itaq[ue] naturam in conflictu illo consueuisse quasi, minusq[ue] seminaria forte hausta noxia iam etiam expurgatis corporibus fuisse. Contagi etiam & factoris magnam esse similitudinem. Sic multos in locis fordidis habitates, foetidis & impuriori aëri videmus assuescere, vt non afficiantur, cum lædantur sani, qui eos accedu[n]t. Ide[m] in peste fieri, in qu[æ] ex salubri aere aduenietes facilius afficiantur, quam ij, qui cum xgris sunt conuersati. Quosdam tamen secundo laborasse, sicut & in peste accidere videmus, ostendi. Est enim semper intet agens & patiens proportio quædam; si patiens fortiter resistit, non sit impressio, si debilius & languidius est, in pugna superatur, Ostendo hoc tum aliis exemplis, tum veneni. Multis autem modis patiens sæpe munitur, ne agens vim suam ex ferere possit. Sed de his nimis multa. Bene vale. EPIST. CVIL EXEMPLVM EPISTOLÆ MISSÆ AD D. Ioachimum Camerarium Physicum Nornbergensem, S. < Bolus Orientalis.> DE Bolo tecum sentio, in penuria Armenæ recte nos Orientali vti Galeni, colore est pallido, & orientalis cum lauatur pallecit. Lotione tamen nihil decedere illi satis apparet, eum aqua, quando subtiliores partes, quæ aquæ commiscentur subsident, sit pura, & nullo sapore p[er]tædita. Nec puto lotionem aliud præstare, quam vt impura & arenosa separentur à partibus tenuioribus. alia est ratio cum aloes vel metalla lauantur. Certe ea quæ Constantinopoli mihi missa est, etiam si non sit lota, instar butyri tamen in ore liquescit. E Capadocia importari Constantinopolin certum est. Itaque non pugnabo si Rubrica synopica appelletur, & si recte memini Plinius huius tres species ponit. Terra sigillata, quæ è Lemno affertur, semper est pallida, & Creta Anatolica vulgo dicitur. Galenus suum sigillum Lemnium colore rubescente describit. Itaque impostores sæpe bolum admiscent, sicut rubricæ synopicæ pinguedinem, quam vetustas prodit, Cum istæ terræ mihi suspectæ sunt, solo cornu cerui vtor. Meas The- ses nondum Latinas feci. Nec Teutonicas, nisi prius quæ volo corrigam, in meo nomine apparare volo. Qua sim sententia < Cratonis de peso semen. ita.> qvin publice scribas non obsto. I. Me pestem non ponere sub febre tanquam genere, etiamsi perpaucos ac nullos potius in peste absque febri mori putem. Seminarium inspiratione haustum noli exlu viri sicut cætera venena calida & putrefacienna veniuersi corporis vires, maxime cordis perniciosæ afficit. Aëris vero intemperies atque impuritas, sicut & eibl corrupti ad dispositionem saltem corporum faciunt: vel pestem (nisi seminaria vel ex corporibus infætis exhalent, & inspirationi noxia sint, vel aliunde importantur) priuatam, aut febrem pestilentem inferunt. II. Pestem enim aliam priuatam, aliam publicam esse statuo. Priuatam vel à prauis humoribus ob victus præuitatem ortam, vel ex aëris constitutione mala, inde enim oriuniur febres pestilentes varix, quæ dum non habent morbidam exspirationem, & paucis perniciosæ, neq[ue] contagiosæ sunt, nisi valde prædispositus. Publicam autem pestem non nisi ab aëre conti nente lethalia puæopala à morbida expiratione corporum humanorum, in quibus putredo ad istum gradum deuenit, vt contagiosam exhalent, tantum < 30> prouemere statuo. sæpe vero in priuata peste accidere, vt ad hunc gradum putredo perueniat, vt corpora puæopala exhalent. Sæpe etiam aliis ex locis vbi publica pestis gratatur deserri atque vno corpore infecto plurima deinceps infici & ex ægrotantium atque morientium multitudine puæopala exitialia, atque seminaria pestis in aere augeri. recepit enim sævius alias incerto loco orta exitiosa multis est, alias extrinsecus aduenit, < 40> atque ita non vni vrbis sed toti regioni pestis infesta est. III. Vt vero gradus ille putredinis ignotus est medicis; ita & verum remedium. Medicos autem coniectura rationali in xgris alias accedere propius ad cognitionem & felicius in curaione procedere, cu[m] ea, quæ putredini resistunt, adhibent, in aliis minus, verisimile est. Ratio tamen hoc dictat eum inspiratione malum sit haustum, solam Diaphoresin indicari, & veram curationem < 30> esse: ita tamen cum seminarium inspiratione haustum spiritus non aliter ac venenu[m] calidu[m] & putrefaciens afficiat; vt ea quæ ad Diaphoresin faciant, simul ea quæ cor aduersus vim venenatam muniant, & putredini imprimis aduersentur, conuncta habeant. IV. Antidorum veram pestilentis veneni in diuina manu esse neque Medicis exploratam. Videre nos camphoræ, ambra[m] uon cineritæ, sed cryseæ, quæ vt sulphur ardet,

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189 MEDICINALS. 196 if they should have lasted, and new ones daily breathed out from infected bodies, and since those who once recovered from the disease, and who ought to draw in the surrounding air, why did they not again and again fall back into the illness? To this I replied that we are less affected by what we are accustomed to. And that natural agents have this power: that they in some way assimilate the thing acted upon. Therefore, in that conflict, nature has so accustomed itself, as it were, that the noxious seeds perhaps inhaled are already less harmful in bodies that have been cleared. There is also a great resemblance between contagion and poisoning. Thus we see many who live in filthy places become accustomed to foul and impure air, so that they are not affected, while healthy people who approach them are harmed. The same happens in the plague, in which those coming from healthy air are more easily affected than those who have lived among the sick. I showed, however, that some have suffered a second time, just as we see happen in the plague. For there is always a certain proportion between agent and patient; if the patient resists strongly, there is no impression; if it is weaker and more languid, it is overcome in the struggle. I show this both by other examples and by poison. In many ways, moreover, the patient is often protected so that the agent cannot exert its power. But enough of these matters. Farewell well. EPIST. CVII. AN EXAMPLE OF A LETTER SENT TO D. Joachim Camerarius, physician of Nuremberg, greeting. < Eastern Bolus.> About bolus I agree with you: in the absence of Armenian, we may rightly use the Eastern, as Galen does; in color it is pale, and the Eastern one, when washed, becomes paler. Yet it is clear enough that washing takes nothing away from it, since the water, when the finer parts that mix with the water have settled, is pure and spoiled by no taste. Nor do I think washing does anything else than separate the impure and sandy parts from the finer ones. The case is different when aloes or metals are washed. Certainly the specimen that was sent to me from Constantinople, even if it is not washed, nevertheless melts in the mouth like butter. It is certain that it is imported to Constantinople from Cappadocia. Therefore I shall not object if it is called Rubrica synopica, and if I remember correctly Pliny gives three species of this. Terra sigillata, which is brought from Lemnos, is always pale, and is commonly called Cretan Anatolian. Galen describes his Lemnian seal as reddish in color. Therefore impostors often mix bolus in, just as with Rubrica synopica they add the fatness, which age reveals. When these earths seem suspect to me, I use only hart’s horn. I have not yet made my Theses into Latin. Nor into German, unless I first correct what I want; I wish them to appear under my own name. I am not opposed to your writing publicly whatever opinion you may hold. < Crato’s on the seed of plague. thus.> I. I do not place plague under fever as a genus, although I think that very few, indeed none at all, die in the plague without fever. The seed, drawn in by inspiration, just like other hot and putrefying poisons, harms the strength of the whole body, especially the heart. But the corruption and impurity of the air, as well as corrupted food, at least produce a disposition in bodies; or they bring on a private plague, unless the seeds either exhale from infected bodies and are harmful when inhaled, or are imported from elsewhere, or else a pestilential fever. II. For I hold that there is one private plague and another public one. A private plague either arises from bad humors because of improper diet, or from a bad constitution of the air; from this arise various pestilential fevers, which, since they do not have a morbid exhalation and are harmful to only a few, are neither contagious, except in those very predisposed. A public plague, however, I think arises only from air containing deadly things, from the morbid exhalation of human bodies, in which putrefaction has reached such a degree that they exhale contagion. 30 I often think that in a private plague it happens that putrefaction reaches this degree, so that bodies exhale infection. Often, too, it is brought from other places where a public plague is raging, and one infected body thereafter infects many, and from the multitude of the sick and dying the deadly exhalations and seeds of plague are increased in the air. For what has arisen elsewhere in an uncertain place and is destructive to many sometimes comes, and then the plague is hostile not to one city but to an entire region. 40 III. As that degree of putrefaction is unknown to physicians, so too is the true remedy. Yet it is likely that physicians, by rational conjecture, in the sick sometimes come closer to knowledge and proceed more successfully in treatment when they employ those things that resist putrefaction, though in others less so. Nevertheless, reason dictates this: since the evil is drawn in by inspiration, only diaphoresis is indicated, and this is the true treatment; yet in such a way that, since the seed inhaled by inspiration affects the spirit no otherwise than a hot and putrefying poison, those things that promote diaphoresis should be joined together with those that fortify the heart against poisonous force and above all oppose putrefaction. 30 IV. Antidotes against the true pestilential poison are in the hand of God and not known to physicians. We see camphor, amber, not the sooty kind, but the golden kind, which burns like sulfur,

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191 EPISTOLÆ 192 fectiones, eas tamen non perpetuas esse. Herbas quasdam vulgares, vt Tanacethum, quam Athanasiam appellant, calendulam, atque alias æque, imo multo magis si tem- petiue exhibeantur, prodesse. Occasiones exhibendorum remediorum atque euen- tuum prouidentiam diuinam moderari. Nunquam tamen vni remedio semel exhi- bito securum esse debere, sed quamdiu ma- lum esset præsens, cordi omnibus modis au- xilium ferre. V. Cum vero natura affecto etasto humore à sominario, efficiet, & bubo consequitur, vel ex adulto & te- nui atque acri humore vel & exitialia apparent, omnis in hoc Medicolabor esse debet, vt naturam per lo- ca conuenientia se exonerantem adiueret. Bene vale. EPIST. CVIII. CLARISSIMO VIRO DOMINO IOA- chimo Camerario, Physico Norinbergensi, &c. Iohannes Craso à Kraft- heim, &c. S. D. DEtuis Epistolis verissime possum illud, quod quidam de orationibus Demo- sthenis interrogatus respondit, vsurpare, longissimas mihi videri optimas. Nunc au- tem ipse non solum breuitate temporis pau- ca scribo, verumetiam quod & alterum me ad vos mitto, & ad multas partes literarum mearum ad te responsum expecto. De Bal- thasaro autem Neandro quid scribam, cum ru videris penitusque perspexeris, quam sit integer, quam iucundus, quam mi- hi fidus & syncerus Pylades, & si quid hoc vsquam est amicius. Quare tibi virum optimum & doctissimum non commendo, tantum hoc significo quicquid officiorum & beneuolentia nunc in eum contuleris quibuscunque rebus, dum consilium me- um, quod ericertis verisque de causis dodi, sequitur, amorem & studium ostenderis, id mihi sic futurum gratum, ac si summo beneficio ipse à te affectus essem. Ego ita me Deus amet hoc tempore infirmissima valetudine vtebar, & vsque adeo debilis e- ram, vt laborem profectendæ vocis moleste fetrem. Scribo tamen quibus possum. Facile patiar summa ingenia de calido innato, & iis rebus de quibus veterum sententiæ non satis explicatæ ad nos extant, verum e- go Hippocrati nostro assentior, & ipse sen- tio in meo corpusculo quantum istis inge- niosis disputationibus fidei sit adhibendum. In mea sagoge quædam de calido innato mutaui, & vt arbitror, commodius scripsi, nec tueor Fernelium, verum inter recen- tes haud scio an quisquam meliora scripse- rit Fernelio. Magna alacritate cum pri- mum venirem in Italiam etiam Montano contradicebam, & quidem tum melius in memoria habebam sententias Galeni, quam nunc habeo. Sed mitto ista. Consilium il- lud de profectione in Gallias etiamnum re- ctum esse statuo, & Senecæ illud teneo; Nulli rei prodesse moram nisi iracundæ. Sed de his cum tuvole, si modo ego vixero. Quam enim tenuis sit mea valetudo sentio, & in eo tamen, de quo dixit vir Del. Ipse est longitudo dierum vitæ nostræ, plus spei qua[m] in calore innato habeo. Delectione recen- tium dixi hæc: Interptetes cognoscendos esse: non disputatores istos de quibus verus est versus ille: Ac etsi Montanus & Fernelius disputant, plus tamen in illis est moderationis, quam in aliis Propositum de legendo Galeno val- de probo, & vtnam te in eo iuuare possem. Legi semel atque iterum multos libros, & quæ ratione nunc, si per valetudinem lice- ret, cupiam, puto me tibi ostendisse. Scis Galeno tria proposita esse. Primum vt o- mnes partes artis Methodice tractet. ses uo- do, vt doctrinam Hippocratis explicet. ter- tio, vt suas obseruationes docear. Hæc igitur vt ex lectione librorum Galeni conie- quamur, principio renendus is ordo, quem in suis prolegomenis in Galenum ostendit Montanus, id est, legendi libri ordine con- stitutionis artis, vt primum physiologici, &c. & ex singulis methodus vniuersalis con- stituenda. Ac si quid farte in istis libris, quod ad particularia spectar, reperimus, il- lud seorsim annotandum. Primum qui- dem ea, quæ ad morborum cognitionem & curationem spectant. Hic obseruanda sunt causæ, signa, curationis modus & re- media. Deinde axiomata vatica, tertio histo- ris, postremo enantiomata seu pugnantes sententias & dubia, quæ se in lectione esse- runt. De his quærendum Doctorum iudi- cium. Hæc pauca, mi loa, hime, si iu multa & vera duxeris non sine fructu in Galeni le- ctione, & veterum Medicorum versaberis. Interprete non velim te contemnere, sed vbi habere potes, adhibere. Maxime autem admissio. cos, qui argumenta quasi & summas libro- rum recitant. Id quod facit in præcipuis li- bris GESNERVS in editione latina Corna- rij. Nec prorsus contemnenda est Lacunæ Epitome, etiamsi, Habuit is ea exemplaria ad manus, quibus nos cauemus. De reliquis scribam altas

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191 EPISTLES 192 though these things are not perpetual. That certain common herbs, such as Tanacetum, which they call Athanasia, calendula, and others likewise, indeed much more if they are administered in time, are beneficial. That the providence of God regulates the occasions for administering remedies and the outcomes. Yet one should never be secure with a single remedy once administered, but as long as the evil is present, one should in every way bring aid to the heart. V. But when nature, being affected, has made the humors putrid, and a swelling follows, whether from a matured and thin and acrid humor, or when deadly symptoms appear, all effort in this matter of medicine must be directed toward assisting nature as it discharges itself through the proper channels. Farewell. EPIST. CVIII. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD, LORD IOACHIM CAMERARIUS, physician of Nuremberg, etc., Johannes Craso of Kraftheim, etc., sends greeting. In my letters I can most truly use that remark which someone, when asked about the speeches of Demosthenes, replied: that they seemed to him the longest to be the best. But now I myself write little, not only because of the brevity of the time, but also because I am sending you another letter, and because I await an answer to many parts of my letters to you. As for Balthasar Neander, what shall I write, since you have seen him and examined him thoroughly, how upright he is, how delightful, how faithful and sincere a Pylades to me, and if there is anywhere anything more friendly than this? Therefore I do not commend to you that very good and most learned man, but only this I signify: whatever services and goodwill you shall now have bestowed upon him in whatever matters, while he follows my advice, which I gave for certain and true reasons, you will have shown love and zeal, and this will be as grateful to me as if I myself had received the greatest favor from you. I, so may God love me, have recently been in very weak health, and was so debilitated that I bore the effort of producing my voice with difficulty. Yet I write as best I can. I shall readily allow that the highest minds dispute about innate heat, and about those matters concerning which the opinions of the ancients are not sufficiently explained for us; but I agree with our Hippocrates, and I myself sense in my little body how much confidence should be placed in those ingenious disputations. In my Sagoge I changed certain things about innate heat, and, as I think, wrote more suitably; nor do I defend Fernelius, though among modern writers I know not whether anyone has written better than Fernelius. With great eagerness, when I first came to Italy, I even contradicted Montanus, and indeed at that time I had the opinions of Galen better in memory than I do now. But I leave these things aside. I still judge that that plan concerning a journey into Gaul is sound, and I hold to Seneca’s saying: delay is useful for nothing except anger. But about these matters I shall speak with you, if only I live. For I perceive how slight my health is, and yet in that respect, of which the distinguished man said, “He himself is the length of our life’s days,” I have more hope than in innate heat. I said this in my selection of recent authors: that interpreters are to be recognized, not those disputers, concerning whom that verse is truly said: And although Montanus and Fernelius dispute, there is nevertheless more moderation in them than in others. I strongly approve the plan of reading Galen, and would that I could help you in it. I have read many books once and again, and what I now desire, if health permitted, I think I have shown you. You know that Galen has three aims: first, that he treats all parts of the art methodically; second, that he explains the teaching of Hippocrates; third, that he teaches his own observations. Therefore, that we may gather this from the reading of Galen’s books, at the outset that order must be observed which Montanus set forth in his prolegomena to Galen: namely, that the books be read in the order of the constitution of the art, so that first the physiological books, and so on, and from each a universal method be established. And if by chance in those books we find anything that pertains to particulars, that must be noted separately. First, indeed, those things which concern the recognition and cure of diseases. Here the causes, signs, method of cure, and remedies must be observed. Then the aphorisms, third the histories, and lastly the enantiomata, or opposing opinions, and the doubts which arise in reading. On these the judgment of the learned should be sought. These few things, my dear Ioachim, if you judge them many and true, will not be without fruit in the reading of Galen and in your dealings with the ancient physicians. I would not have you despise the interpreter, but where you can have one, use him. Above all, admit those who recite, as it were, the arguments and summaries of books. This Gesner does in the Latin edition of Cornarius in the principal books. Nor is Lacuna’s Epitome altogether to be despised, although he had at hand those exemplars which we avoid. I shall write of the rest at length.

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plura. Nec putabam me tam multa scripturum cum calamum sumerem. Etiam sacra neglexi nunc quod minime sæpe facere soleo, & longiores epistolas ad te non loquacitas mea, verum singularis beneuolentia facit. Balthasar vidit mihi ipsius destillationum esse in manibus. Non possum satis explicare cogitationes meas, & nunc desudo in differentiis odorum & saporum, quæ in aquis & oleis ratione destillationis sunt. Si < 10> haberem, qui me describendo saltem recte posset iuuare, malore alacritate omnia facerem. Bene vale. V ratisl. die laeobi. EPIST. CIX. IDEM EIDEM. INCIPIEBAMVS iam expectare Balthasarum nostrum, eum virum, quem tu mihi inuiolata amicitia fide e[ss]iunctum nosti, ac < 10> vero etiam vestras literas. Cum autem Iacobus tabellarius noster se ad vos iturum significaret, facere non potui, quin aliquid literarum ad te darem, etiam si ad scribendum minime essem aeco[m]modatus. Multis enim diebus pituita & grauedine laboro, quæ mihi & somnum adimit, & studia etiam in quibus libetissime aequiescere soleo, difficilia reddit. Itaq[ue] nullas propemodum serias cogitationes susepi, nec in ista destillatione de < 30> nostris destillationibus aliquid sum meditatus. Ioachimus Cureus multum disputauit eum Italis doctoribus de mea sententia, ac potius veterum, nam eam teneo & tueor de pestilentia, & mihi frigidissima eorum argumenta perseribit. Verum etiam nnm hoc < 30> firmum est, Pestilentia affiei corpora, & vt Græci dicunt, ob haustum seminarium putredinis, sed venenum aereum (vtrumq[ue] enim est apud Galenum) inspiratione, & morbum istum ratione causæ, id est, venenatæ qualitatis, quæ virtutem vitalem tota substantia oppugnat dici & esse morbû totius substantiæ etiam secûdum Galenum. Excitari autem à veneno inspiratione attracto in corporibus eacochymia, vel plenitudine affectis sæuam & perniciosam putredinem longe superantem vulgaris putredinis, quæ ab obstructione est, conditionem, & hanc consequi febrem, eamq[ue] dici pestilentem veram, quam ego eum hie appello, ab his distingui, quas Galenus Pestilentes priuatas idios portus non aliqua totas tus ac pium non chymis , . appellat. Porto in curatione nos non temerere vfitatas indicationes curationis febrium respicientes ad putredinem, aut febrem, sed alexipharmæa, quæ morbum totius substantiæ à tota substâtia, oppugnarr, adhibe- re, nec hæc prodesse tantum (vt Itali volunt) quia spiritus robotant, & exiceant humidum putredinale. Alias autem indicationes, & præsertim in summo morbo summâ virium conseruationem non negligendas, Quia symptomata illa, videlicet, febris, carbunculi, bubones, antraces, exanthemata, morbibus , &c. sæpe ad se curationem trahunt. Iussi illos respicere ad totam curationem veterum, in omnia exempla antidotorum, & in illud etiam, propter quod Hipocrates corona aurea ab Atheniensibus est donatus, de quibus illi manifeste poterût cognoscere alias intentiones, quam solius putredinis veteribus propositas fuisse, neq[ue] à veterum Græcorum sententia nostram quicquam diserepare. Illud durum illis quod spirituum putredinem non assero. Neque enim hoc < Spirituum putredo negatur.> apud Galenum vel Aristotelem est, vt vult meus collega, & dico vitalem virtutem à veneno iabefactari posse, etiam si non fiat putredo. Item quod quasi hesticum dieo. Haud dubie mihi paratæ erunt lites, sed ego satis munitus sum testimonio veterum, etiamsi Galenus affirmet Hippocratem de pestilentibus morbis nullum peculiarem librum scripsisse & ego Galeni librum de iis ad nos non extare dicam ae probare possim. Extant autem passim sententia, quas ego tueor, quia veteres plerunque rectissime loculos iudico, & Italorum non possum probare. Cognosco lubenter multorum opiniones, & etiam non optimorum scriptorum interdum sum studiosus. Quia secundum Plinium liberale esse existimo, hominem addictum optimis artibus cognoscere multa, credere non omnia. Verum de hoc puto me antea quoque te monuisse. Exemplaria nostrorum Montanicorum consiliorum nondum accepi, < Cognoscenda multa, Sed non credenda omnia.> fortasse Francofurtum citius, quam ad nos peruenient. Hoc anno quatuor præstantissimi Medici sunt extincti Rondeletius & Fernelius in Galliis, Oddas de Oddis, & Franciscus Frissmelica in Italia, & sunt pauci senes reliqui iuniores esse rixatores videmus. Itaq[ue] non velim te diu in Germania hærere. De lectione Galeni scripsi nuper, & si quid à me præterea deliderabis, libentissimè ium facturus. Nosti meam exiguatam & sterilitatem. Sed sic esse malo, quam producere noxia, aut numium luxuriantia. Bene & feliciter vale. Vratislauia 12. Augusti. Anno 1558. EPIST. CX. IDEM EIDEM 1

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I did not think I would write so much when I took up the pen. I have even neglected sacred matters now, which is what I least often do, and the longer letters to you are due not to my loquacity, but to my singular goodwill. Balthasar told me that the distillations are in my hands. I cannot explain my thoughts sufficiently, and now I am sweating over the differences of odors and flavors which, by the method of distillation, are in waters and oils. If I had someone who could at least help me by describing things correctly, I would do everything with greater eagerness. Farewell well. From Wrocław, on the day of James. EPISTLE CIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. We were already beginning to expect our Balthasar, that man whom you know to be bound to me by inviolate friendship and good faith, and also your letters. But since our messenger Jacob signified that he was going to you, I could not help giving you some letters, even though I was by no means suited for writing. For many days I have been suffering from catarrh and heaviness, which both deprives me of sleep and makes difficult even those studies in which I am most accustomed to rest most gladly. And so I have undertaken scarcely any serious thoughts, nor in this distillation have I meditated anything about our distillations. Joachim Cureus has disputed much with the Italian doctors concerning my view, or rather that of the ancients, for I hold and defend it regarding pestilence, and he sends me their very cold arguments. Yet even this is firm: that pestilence affects bodies, and, as the Greeks say, from a drawing in of a seed of putrefaction, but by aerial poison, for both are found in Galen; and that disease, by reason of its cause, that is, its poisonous quality, which attacks the vital power with its whole substance, is said to be and to be a disease of the whole substance, even according to Galen. Now from poison drawn in by inspiration there is aroused in bodies affected by bad humors or by fullness a savage and pernicious putrefaction, far surpassing the condition of ordinary putrefaction, which arises from obstruction, and there follows fever; and this is truly called pestilential fever, which I here name thus, to distinguish it from those which Galen calls particular pestilences, not whole, but of certain parts. In treatment I therefore urge that we not rashly follow the customary indications of treating fevers, looking only to putrefaction or fever, but rather administer alexipharmics, which attack a disease of the whole substance from the whole substance, and not only to help this, as the Italians think, because they strengthen the spirits and dry up the putrid moisture. Other indications also are not to be neglected, especially in the height of the disease, the preservation of strength to the utmost, because those symptoms—namely fever, carbuncles, buboes, anthrax, exanthems, and so forth—often draw the treatment to themselves. I ordered them to look to the whole treatment of the ancients, to all examples of antidotes, and also to that for which Hippocrates was awarded a golden crown by the Athenians, from which they could clearly recognize that other intentions than the mere putrefaction proposed by the ancients had been involved, and that our view does not differ in anything from the opinion of the ancient Greeks. What is hard for them is that I do not assert a putrefaction of the spirits. For this is not found either in Galen or in Aristotle, as my colleague wants; and I say that the vital power can be harmed by poison even if putrefaction does not occur. Likewise what I say almost daily. No doubt lawsuits will be prepared for me, but I am sufficiently fortified by the testimony of the ancients, even if Galen affirms that Hippocrates wrote no special book on pestilential diseases and I say that Galen’s book on these does not survive to us and can prove it. There are however everywhere statements which I defend, because I judge the ancients for the most part rightly, and I cannot approve the Italians. I gladly acknowledge the opinions of many, and I am sometimes eager even for writers who are not the best. For, according to Pliny, I think it liberal for a man devoted to the best studies to know many things, but to believe not everything. But I think I have warned you of this before as well. I have not yet received copies of our Montanic consultations; perhaps they will reach Frankfurt sooner than they reach us. This year four outstanding physicians have died: Rondeletius and Fernelius in France, Oddas de Oddis, and Franciscus Frissmelica in Italy; and since few old men remain, we see the younger ones being contentious. Therefore I would not wish you to stay long in Germany. I wrote recently about the reading of Galen, and if there is anything further you desire from me, I shall most gladly do it. You know my smallness and barrenness. But I prefer it to producing harmful things or things luxuriant beyond measure. Farewell well and happily. Wrocław, 12 August, 1558. EPISTLE CX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. 1

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195 EPISTOLÆ 196 GYM nuper abirem Glogouiam ad eos homines, quoriam bencuolentia, & ob- seruantia erga me tibi est perspecta, plenissimas literas ad se dedi, easq[ue] Lipsiam Patri tuo transmissi. Hue vero eum reuersus, necepi tuas à Balthasare nostro mihi exoptatissimas & gratissimas. D. Ioachimus Cureus de nostris disputationibus sic scribit, Ego ope- ra Cl. Trineaoellæ eluctatus sum ex disputationibus de peste & febre pestilentiali. Neque < Trineanella conspicuis Cravum en peste. > reipsa eius opinio, quæ firmissimis & vere philosophicis nitiùr rationibus à tua dissentit, nisi quod duumus astrorum parti- < Fallopiis de Fernelio inducuum. > culares, non facile admittunt Peripatetici. De Fernelio autem hoc dixisse Fallopium, Fernelio hoc tempore attribui palmam in remedica etiam illius xmuli nô negare posse, & Italos, qui suo more magnos viros ob- trectationibus volunt premere, necessario agnoscere Fernelium summum huius ætatis Philosophorum & medieum: velletamen, minus eum fuisse audacem in reprehendendis veteribus. Vide quam Fallopii iudicium cum tuo consentiat, ac si videbuiur hæc D. Casparo significes. Marthiuli mactix Gui- landinus in Thureiam abiit secutus legatu Veneti, suas chartas deposuit apud quædam < Guilandi- nus. > Parauii, eni mandauii, nisi redeat intra octo annos, vt omnia Vulcano tradat. Scri- < Alouisus errata hæc. vtris decem. > bir Cureus Aloisium plurima errata ipsis monstrare in Marthioli Dioscoride, & mo- < Opera Trin- cauella. > deste eum tractare. Curabo vt & tu ista vi- deas. De obitu Ron deletii scire me, potuisti ex proximis meis literis cognoscere. Vti- nam fallamur de Trincauella, admodum senex est, hunc mihi mirifice laudat Cureus, adeo vt doleat, quod eum non studuerim familiariter cognoscere. Præclara opera quantum intelligo relicturus est posternati & probelimata. Nihil eius vidi præter libellum < Opus Ferneliis practicum. > de reactione, qui ante annos 40. est editus. Hæc hora accepi literas à Woyelii filio, qui scribit Fernelium mortuum mense Aprili, & eius opus practicum exiurum, præesse editioni Gulielmum Plantinum. Dili- genter igiùr ad proximum mercatum in- quires. Ad reliquas partes epistolarum tuarum, ex quibus ego bene mutuis fidum peccus amoribus (vt Horatii versu vtar) peripicio, nihil respondeo. Sum is, qvi esse debeo. Vale fecissime. Vratislauiæ pridie Bartholomæi. Anno 1558. EPIST. CXL. IDEM EIDEM. rima eximia remedia ostendi. Hæc vero quanta sint faciendi cognosces, cum ea, quæ nunc discis, ad vsum transferes. Imere vt ista nostra sint facies, ac cauebis ne diuul- geniur. Vides me multa capita quasi intacta reliquisse, vel quod herbas non cognossemus, vel quia verus vsus satis ab illis est mostratus. In postrema parte valde probo iudicium, & diligentiam tuam, & delectabit te hic labor cum leges, certe in magnis etiam voluminibus, nihil reperies, vel melius vel rectius. Chymica no diu desideres ope- ram dabo diligenter. Medicationes nihil mihi concedunt otij, quod profecto ista re- < Danzellinus. Bechius. > quirunt, & vix porui Dioscoridem absoluere. In Galeno autem multis mensibus parum sum versatus. Habuimus in manibus Methodica nostra ptopter eam iniuriam qua non solum me, verumetiam Præceptorem meum Montanum Donzellinus affecit, < Danzellinus. Bechius. > siquidem ea quæ Beehins noster scripsit vera sunt, oro diligenter perquiras libros quos se mihi missurum promisit, & bis addas eos, qvi videbuntur nobis esse mittendi. Fortasse auriga, qui adducer M. Petrum vacuo eurru redibit lectiones Trincauellæ in has literas conuicam. Plures nondum accepi. Rixantur varie Itali, & hoc qnidem est exemplum eximia & diligentis disputationis. < Fallopium. > Fallopius studet conuellere multa: id mihi non placet: & Borussus ille, quem domi sux alit, quique ad Gesnerum quendam scripsit, nimis acerbe & inhumaniter, vt audio tractat Marthiolum, sed de his alias plura. Ea quæ de valetudine sororis tuæ scribis, meum quoque animum conurbant, sed spero & opio et fore melius. Recte sensis in istis morbis non ad solam intemperiem, id quod plerunque faciunt practici, sed ad obstructiones & cararthum respiciendum. < Cararthi cum obstru- tionibus. > Monui aliquid in capite de tussilagine, & frequenter vtor, vel aqua tussilaginis eum syrupo de succo Endiuiæ si manifesta febris, vel aqua cardui eum eodem syrupo aetrochiseis interdom ad tollendas obstructiones. Verum hoc videbit rectius D. Meurerus quem à me officiose salutabis. Bene vale. Vratislauiæ pridie Cal. Maij. Anno Millesimo, quingentesimo, quinquagesimo octauo. EPIST. CXII. IDEM EIDEM. MAGNA cum animi perturbatione & plane opera legi tuam epistolam, & quod potui Deum sum precatus, vt tuos benigne seruet. Quid autem rescribam non

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195 LETTERS 196 I had lately gone from Glogau to those men whose good will and regard toward me you know well, and I gave them very full letters, and sent them on to your father at Leipzig. But when I had returned here, I received yours from our Balthasar, most desired and most welcome to me. D. Joachim Cureus writes thus about our disputations: “I have extricated myself, by the labor of the distinguished Trineanella, from the disputations concerning the plague and pestilential fever. Trineanella on the plague. Indeed his opinion, which rests on very firm and truly philosophical reasons, differs from yours, except that the particular motions of the stars, which the Peripatetics do not readily admit. Fallopius on Fernelius. As for Fernelius, Fallopius said this: that at this time Fernelius could not be denied the palm even in medicine, notwithstanding the envy of that rival, and that the Italians, who in their fashion are always eager to belittle great men, must necessarily acknowledge Fernelius as the foremost philosopher and physician of this age; though he would have preferred him to have been less bold in criticizing the ancients. See how Fallopius’ judgment agrees with yours, and if it seems good, mention this to D. Caspar. Marthiuli? Mactix? Guilandinus went off into Thuringia, following the Venetian ambassador, and deposited his papers with certain people in Parrhavi? whom he instructed that, unless he should return within eight years, they should hand everything over to Vulcan. Cureus writes that Aloisius showed him very many errors in Marthioli’s Dioscorides, and treated him modestly. I shall take care that you also see these things. From my previous letters you could learn about the death of Ron deletius. Would that we be mistaken about Trincavella; he is quite old. Cureus praises him to me wonderfully, so much so that he regrets not having made his acquaintance more intimately. He is, as far as I understand, leaving behind splendid works and preliminaries. I have seen nothing of his except a little booklet on reaction, published 40 years ago. At this hour I received a letter from Woyelius’ son, who writes that Fernelius died in the month of April, and that his practical work is to be published, with William Plantin presiding over the edition. Therefore inquire diligently at the next market. To the remaining parts of your letters, from which I plainly perceive the mutual and faithful flock of love between us (to use Horace’s verse), I answer nothing. I am what I ought to be. Farewell most happily. In Wrocław, on the eve of Bartholomew, in the year 1558. EPIST. CXL. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I showed the finest remedies in great number. You will learn how great these are when you turn what you are now learning to practice. Keep this of ours to yourself, and take care that it not be divulged. You see that I have left many chapters as if untouched, either because we did not know the herbs, or because their true use had already been sufficiently shown by them. In the final part I greatly approve your judgment and diligence, and this labor will delight you when you read it; certainly even in large volumes you will find nothing either better or more correct. As for chemistry, do not give up hope; I shall devote diligent effort to it. My medical work leaves me no leisure, whereas these things require it, and I have scarcely been able to finish Dioscorides. As for Galen, I have spent but little time on him for many months. We have had our Methodica in hand because of the injury with which Donzellinus not only treated me, but also my teacher Montanus, Danzellinus. Bechius. if indeed what our Bechius has written is true. I beg you to inquire carefully for the books which he promised to send me, and to add to them those that seem to us ought to be sent. Perhaps the driver who brought Master Peter back in an empty carriage will fit the readings of Trincavella into these letters. I have not yet received more. The Italians quarrel in various ways, and this is certainly an example of excellent and diligent disputation. Fallopius. Fallopius is eager to overturn many things: that does not please me. And that Brunswicker? whom he supports at home, and who wrote to a certain Gesner, is, as I hear, treating Marthiolus far too harshly and inhumanely, but more on this another time. What you write about your sister’s health troubles my mind too, but I hope and suppose it will be better. You rightly judged that in such illnesses one must look not only to simple intemperance, as the practitioners mostly do, but to obstructions and catarrh. Catarrh with obstructions. I noted something in the head about coltsfoot, and I often use either coltsfoot water with syrup of endive juice if there is manifest fever, or water of carduus with the same syrup and at times a troche for removing obstructions. But D. Meurerus will judge this more correctly; you shall give him my respectful greetings. Farewell well. In Wrocław, on the eve of the Kalends of May, in the year 1558. EPIST. CXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. With great disturbance of mind, and plainly in anguish, I read your letter, and as best I could I prayed God kindly to preserve yours. But what shall I reply?

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no habeo, præsertim cum nihil admodum meis respondeas. Hoc equidem minime molestè feco, illud potius doleo studiorum ruotum cursum impediri atque remorari. Tuo optimo patri hoc tempore non volui scribere, propter eas causas quas cogitare potes. Non puro vobis consilia medicorum deesse, qui sciuit quartanam actius in principio tractatam fieri deteriorem & respueretiam eam ordinariam, vt vocamus < Quartana cura.> 10 medicationem. Ego meis ægris aliquandiu exhibeo singulis mensibus sub noctem decoctum raparum cum butyro. Profunt enim rapę à manifesta & specifica vi. Quia humectant humorem melancholicum suauiter, aperintur & leniunt. Deinde do succum cardui vel in forma pillularum, vel in syrupe. Et cum video materiam probe esse coctam expurgo primum infuso eum syrupe violaceo, vel de pomis, deinde agarico, postea exhibeo < Raparum desidium.> 20 extractionem ellebori ad 3j. vel 3ss. in debilioribus. Et hoc modo plurimos sanaui. Ratione consortationis nihil est melius conserua rosarum eum speciebus aromatici Rosati descriptione Gabrielis, sine spica, & media parte musci & ambræ. Fluxiones ventris, hac æstate Pulchuer malum fuerunt, & mihi quoq[ue] aliquoties mora est aluus, cu[m] fere semper sit astricha. In vicina Morauia < Doloris Melphorici.> aëre est pestilentiæ malum, & periculum est ne in hanc vrbem importent. Ad nephriticos dolores leniendos, & elidendos calculos, dices Patri, plutimum prodesse syrupu[m] factum è succo veronicæ, & vsum aquæ, quæ fit ex ea herba, quam Tragus arbitratur esse speciem Mercurialis, & tertio ordine ponit, ac springkrant appellat. De hoc monui in Dioscoride. Vtinam vos iuuare possim quatu[m] muis ipse infirmissime valeam. Ita vexatus sum superioribus diebus tinnitus autiu[m], vt metuerem grauiora. Sed beneficio Dei meliuscule nunc valeo. Consultationes Donzellini videre cupio. Nostra chymica propter meam & aliorum valetudinem his duobus mensibus non attigi, & requiro in multis certiorem experientiam. Sebaldus iam proficiscitur in officina[m], in qua vitrum conficitur, & afferet nobis conuenientia instrumenta, quæ profecto ad destillationes requiruntur. Quod promisi, si modo vita < 30> superet, bona fide præstabo. Bene & feliciter vale, & tuos omnes, inprimis parentes, à me officiosissime saluta: Vratislauiz die Marthiæ. Anno 1558. EPIST. CXIII. IDEM EIDEM. 198 HERI ad te literas dedi; nec hanc occasiouem quam mihi Balchasar noster ostendit, volui negligere. Venit nunc mihi quiddam in meiem de medicatione Quartanæ. D. Simon Pistoris ante triennium ea laboranit diu, dicebatq[ue] mihi se multis remediis vsum esse, sed vnum hoc profuisse. < Empiricum quartana veneriliam.> Accepisse vinum sublimatum diligenter, quod a quam vitæ appellant, & madeseceisse vt nos vocamus, petiam lineam, ac adueniente Quartana imposuisse ventriculo. Hoc modo se eam depulisse. Videtur mihi satis tuta esse medicatio, præsertim in frigido vetriculo. Verum tu de ea cum Medicis vestris deliberabis. Ego eam quam nuper perscripsi rectam & rationalem iudico. Sed his omissis ad alia transeo. Miror quomodo vi in peste Galenus aerem interpretatur, cu[m] Hippocrates de malis agat, non de morborum causis. Przereatum ex Hippocrate manifestatum sit præcipuas mutationes in aëre corporibus coelestibus esse ascribendas, deniq[ue] cum non quælibet exbalationes sint morbidae & pestilentes, seu forma ista prædita. Et vnde malum hoc cor, quod est maxime formale, in homine petit, nisi quia venenatu[m] ? Marsilius multa improprie scripsit, & fortasse non satis doctrinam Galeni cognouit, id quod testatur similitudo de dracone, quam ex Galeno affert. Rhasis in < Pulcaris marum Rhas fu Euder Anglicæ.> suo libello pulicarem morbum descripsisse videtur. Sudorem anglicum Epidemium magis motum (licet initio Eudemus fuerat) quam pestilentem fuisse atbitror. Herba quam Veneti sclauenam vocant, seu si liuonicam, & quidem Harmel seu rutam syluestrem putant[ur], constare dicitur tribus aut quatuor radicibus simul in textis, quarum quælibet sit veluti corda intorta, colore fusco, < Rura fylustriæ.> amara, herba foliis ruræ. Ego in morbo Gallico intra corpus oleum vitrioli exhibeo. Post calcinationem vitriolum redigo in puluerem, ex quo effusa aqua facio lxiuium, decoquo rurius ad spissitudinem, & in puluerem redigo. Ex hoc oleum elicere soleo, cui vinum affundo, idq[ue] per balneum detraho, & rursus bis aquam, quam itidem detraho, ita vt nulla aquositas permaneat. < Ol. sulphur.> Laurea nostræ scit optime modum faciendi sulphuris oleum per ascensum, non campanam vel descensum. Sed intra corpus non datut. Bene vale, & rescribe quamprimum poteris. Vratisl. 14. Septemb. Anno 58. EPIST. CXIV. IDEM EIDEM HERI mihi hic nunclus tuas attulit XII. Octobr. datas, quibus varie sum 1 3

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I do not have it, especially since you reply to me scarcely at all. This, indeed, I find not at all troublesome; rather, I grieve that the course of your studies is being hindered and delayed. At this time I did not wish to write to your excellent father, for the reasons which you can think of. I do not think your physicians lack advice, since he knows that a quartan fever, when treated too vigorously at the beginning, becomes worse and resists the ordinary remedy, as we call it, “Quartana cura.” 10 medicine. I give my patients for some time, each month toward nightfall, a decoction of turnips with butter. For turnips are useful by a manifest and specific power. Because they gently moisten the melancholic humor, they open and soothe it. Then I give the juice of carduus, either in the form of pills or in syrup. And when I see that the matter is thoroughly cooked, I first purge it with violet syrup, or with syrup of apples, then with agaric, afterward I administer “Raparum desidium.” 20 an extract of hellebore to 3j. or 3ss. in weaker patients. And in this way I have cured many. For nourishment and strengthening, nothing is better than conserve of roses with aromatic spices, according to Gabriel’s description of rosat, without spikenard, and with half the amount of musk and ambergris. Fluxes of the belly have been troublesome this summer; and to me also the bowels have sometimes been sluggish, though they are almost always bound. In neighboring Moravia the air is pestilential, and there is danger that it may be brought into this city. For easing and relieving nephritic pains and driving out stones, you will tell your father that a syrup made from the juice of veronica, and the use of the water made from that herb—which Tragus thinks is a kind of Mercurialis, and places in the third rank, calling it springkrant—are of great benefit. I mentioned this in Dioscorides. Would that I could help you, though I myself am in very weak health. For the last few days I have been so troubled by ringing in the ears that I feared something worse. But by God’s favor I am now somewhat better. I wish to see Donzellini’s consultations. I have not touched our chemistry these last two months, because of my own and others’ health, and I seek more certain experience in many things. Sebaldus is already going off to the workshop where glass is made, and will bring us suitable instruments, which are certainly required for distillations. What I promised, if life holds out, I shall faithfully perform. Farewell, and be well and happy; and greet all yours very dutifully, especially your parents, from me. Breslau, Tuesday. Year 1558. EPISTLE CXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. 198 Yesterday I sent you a letter; and I did not wish to neglect this opportunity which our Balchasar has shown me. Something has now occurred to me regarding the treatment of quartan fever. D. Simon Pistoris suffered from it for a long time three years ago, and he told me that he had used many remedies, but that only this one had helped. “Empiricum quartana veneriliam.” He took carefully prepared distilled wine, which they call aqua vitae, and moistened it, as we say, with a linen cloth, and when the quartan fever came on, he applied it to the stomach. In this way he said he drove it away. This treatment seems to me sufficiently safe, especially in a cold stomach. But you will discuss it with your physicians. I judge the treatment I recently described to be proper and rational. But leaving these matters aside, I pass to others. I wonder how Galen interprets the air in the plague by force, when Hippocrates speaks of harmful things, not of the causes of disease. From Hippocrates it is manifest that the principal changes in the air are to be attributed to heavenly bodies; and likewise that not every exhalation is morbid and pestilential, or endowed with such a form. And from where does this evil, which is most formal, attack the heart in man, unless because it is poisonous? Marsilius wrote many things improperly, and perhaps did not know Galen’s doctrine sufficiently, which is shown by the comparison with the dragon that he cites from Galen. Rhazes in his little book seems to have described the flea disease. I think the English sweat was a more agitated epidemic (though at the beginning it had been Eudemus) than a pestilential one. The herb which the Venetians call sclavena, or, if you will, Livonian, and which they indeed think is harmel or wild rue, is said to consist of three or four roots joined together in the stalk, each of which is like a twisted heart, of a dark color, “Rura fylustriæ.” bitter, with leaves like rue. In the French disease I administer oil of vitriol internally. After calcination I reduce the vitriol to powder, from which, after pouring on water, I make lye; I boil it again to thickness and reduce it to powder. From this I usually extract the oil; I pour wine upon it and draw it off by a bath, and then again twice the water, which I likewise draw off, so that no watery part remains. “Ol. sulphur.” Laurea, our colleague, knows very well the method of making sulfur oil by ascent, not by the bell-jar or by descent. But it is not given internally. Farewell, and reply as soon as you can. Breslau, 14 September, year 58. EPISTLE CXIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Yesterday a messenger here brought me your letter dated 12 October, in which I was variously

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139 EPISTOLA 209 affectus. Nam vestro dolori eerte . . Meerorem aute[m] diminutum iri spero, quando optimus & Doctissimus vir Pater tuus nunc occupatur Platonicis, atque tibi nup[er] tus nisi hymnica , quæ sunt in eius Timæo explicat. His antem te addere velim Galeni interpretationem, quæ extat in Platonis Timæum, atque ea quæ in libris de Hippoc. & Platonis decretis docet. Quidam existimant fragmentum illud Galeni in Timæum non esse Galeni, verum non video quibus rationibus adducantur, cum ipse Galenus huius mentionem faciat. Sed de his Magistrum domi habes. Ego meam Isagogen multis in locis correxi, & de calore innato sententiam meam mutaui. Video D. Meurerum sequi Galenum atque Montanum & tanto. Casparum autem nostrum habete bellas quidem cogitationes, sed parum firmas. Nam dicere ealorem innatum esse partem substantiæ humorum & spiritus vitalis eiusque ita inesse, sicut membris solidis, haud scio an veterum doctrinæ conueniat, & rationibus tueri possit. Item in febribus eum conuerti in igneum. Certe cum calor innatus in aliqua patte corrumpitur, gangrena fit aut sphacelus. In toto autem non corrumpitur nisi extincto calore viuifico, quem infusum appellamus, in corde, tum & cadauer mortuum putrescit. Et ille eius calor, qui fouet, affieitur in febribus, & lx dii , vt dixi in nostra Isagoge. Sed non mirum. Nam ego de his profecto multum cogitaui, & Montanus dixit se cum diu fuisset Doctor, tandem senem cognouisse quid sit calor innatus. Est locus in Galeno com. 4. Aph. 37. qui patrocinatur Casparo, sed is de spiritu naturali intelligendus, etsi eum calore naturalem, sicut & in aliis locis Galenus vocat. sed hac de rei proximis literis perscribam meam sententiam. Nam hac hora significavit mihi tabellarius sibi subito abeundum esse. Itaque sine literis meis dimitere nolui. Si Platonem Basiliensem Græcum mittes gratum facies, & statim prætium remittam. Cum essem iuuenis, satis mihi erat si in quadam auditate res prompte possem cognoscere. Ideoq[ue] versiones amabam, nec putabam me plus visurum in Græcis, quam vidisseat doctissimi viri interpretes. Nunc sepe hæreo in vocabulis, sepe deploro, quod in Græcis minus studiose sim versatus. Nunquam intellexi quid sibi vellet Plato cum Socrates recitat mirabilem istum sermone[m]: Multa vnum esse, & vnum multa. Iam primum Methodum compositiuum & resolutiuum perspicio, sed his nunc non vacat scribere. Chymica rursus in manibus habeo. Hisce diebns rotus fui in corrigenda Isagoge, & si modo haberem, qui scriberer correctum exemplar ad te mitterem. Bene & feliciter vale, & à me tuos omnes amanter atque reuerenter saluta. Vratisl. die 13. Octob. Anno 58. EPIST. CXV. IDEM EIDEM. ET hætor patrem tuum virum optimum ac doctissimum, & mihi amicum certissimum, magistratum qu[n]c semestre in multis publicis molestiis atque domettico luctu ac mærote gessit, deposuisse, & Deum precor, vt dolorem matris tux præstantissimæ fæminæ consoletur, morbumque depellat, ac vestram laudatissimam familiam conseruet, vere faciat. Patrem quidem tuum ea doctrina & vsu rerum instructum, ea sapientia, animique magnitudine & excellentia præditum scio, vt & modetari dolorem, molestitiæq[ue] resistete, & adueta, quæ humanæ vitæ incumbunt, recte ferendo superare possit. Hancque meam de illius virtute opinionem, seu persuasionem potius, confirmant literæ tux, quibus mihi significas, domi eum tibi Platonicis Timæum interpretari, atque hoc modo non solum aberrationem à dolore quærere, verum studia tua medica iuuare. Hæc cum legerem valde cupiebam explicantem Platonica audire, & quomodo iguem eius fouerer, quem Galenus noster tua aqua plane conatur extingnere. Nam Platonem Timæum suum, eum exactæ ætatis esset scripsisse affirmat, & errante iudicio vel indiligentia quædam non satis Hippocretis sensum assequutum. Est autem vt meminiisti, disputatio de respiratione & calido innato, de quocum alii aliter sentiant, & magna sit opinionum diuersitas, libet tibi meam, quam arbitror esse rectam, nec à doctrina veterum, eaque tententia, ad quam Montanus se ætate ingrauescuntur la tabatur traductum, alienam, exponere. Philosophi & medici duplici modo considerant, vel vt qualitatem, seu quemadmodu[m] in scholis loquitur, in abstracto, vel vt in subjecto: cumque agunt de calido innato, de substantia seu corpote calido loquuntur. Ac Galenus quidem sublectum eius aereum atque aequum statuit. Plato igneum, sed diuinus Hippocrates hanc litem, quæ etiamnum durat, Aphorismo 14. primæ particulæ dirimit, oraculum Illud edens: Qui crescunt, plurimu[m] calidi innati habent. Si nsus autum declarat in puoris calorem suauem, intem & gratum < Comm. in Timæum Platonis Galenum.> < Montanus in sensu calore innati effertiam demum aegnatis.> < Græca linguæ fluiuit.> < Di calido innato sensentia Græcanus.> < Subiectum cal. di sens.>

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139 EPISTLE 209 affection. For I hope your grief will certainly be diminished, since your excellent and most learned father is now occupied with Platonic matters, and for you he explains in his Timaeus the things that are in it, which have lately been explained. To these I would also have you add Galen’s interpretation, which is found in Plato’s Timaeus, and also what he teaches in the books On Hippocrates and Plato’s Decrees. Some think that that fragment of Galen on the Timaeus is not Galen’s, but I do not see by what reasoning they are led, since Galen himself makes mention of it. But on these matters you have the Master at home. I have corrected my Isagoge in many places, and I have changed my opinion about innate heat. I see that Dr. Meurer follows Galen and Montanus and so forth. But our Caspar has indeed fine ideas, yet they are not very firm. For to say that innate heat is a part of the substance of the humors and vital spirit, and that it is thus present in them as in solid members, I do not know whether this agrees with the doctrine of the ancients, or can be supported by reasons. Likewise, in fevers, to say that it is turned into fiery heat. Certainly when innate heat is corrupted in some part, gangrene or sphacelus results. But in the whole body it is not corrupted unless the life-giving heat has been extinguished, which we call infused, in the heart, and then the dead corpse also decays. And that heat of it, which sustains, is affected in fevers, and etc. , as I said in our Isagoge. But it is not surprising. For I have certainly thought much about these matters, and Montanus said that after he had long been a doctor, at last in old age he learned what innate heat is. There is a passage in Galen, Comm. 4, Aph. 37, which supports Caspar, but that must be understood of the natural spirit, although Galen elsewhere also calls it natural heat. But on this matter I shall write my opinion more fully in the next letters. For just now the messenger informed me that he must depart at once. So I did not want to send you off without my letter. If you send the Greek Plato of Basel, you will do me a favor, and I shall send the price back at once. When I was young, it was enough for me if I could quickly understand things in a lecture. Therefore I loved translations, and I did not think that I would see more in the Greeks than the most learned men’s interpreters had seen. Now I often get stuck over words; often I regret that I have not studied Greek more diligently. I never understood what Plato meant when Socrates recites that marvelous saying: “Many are one, and one is many.” Now at least I perceive the compositive and resolutive method, but there is no time now to write about these things. I have taken up chemistry again. These days I have been completely absorbed in correcting the Isagoge, and if I only had someone to write it out, I would send you the corrected copy. Farewell well and happily, and greet all yours lovingly and respectfully from me. Wroclaw, 13 October, in the year 58. EP. CXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. And I am glad that your father, a most excellent and most learned man, and my dearest friend, having held office for six months amid many public troubles and household grief and sorrow, has laid it down, and I pray God to comfort your mother’s grief, most excellent woman, and to drive away her illness, and to preserve your most praiseworthy family in truth. Your father, indeed, I know to be so instructed in learning and experience of things, so endowed with wisdom, greatness of soul, and excellence, that he can both moderate grief, resist troubles, and overcome the burdens that press upon human life by bearing them rightly. And this opinion of mine about his virtue, or rather this conviction, is confirmed by your letters, in which you tell me that at home he explains Plato’s Timaeus to you, and in this way seeks not only an escape from sorrow, but also to aid your medical studies. When I read this, I greatly desired to hear him expounding Plato, and to know how he fanned that fire of his, which our Galen is trying to extinguish with your water altogether. For Plato states that he wrote his Timaeus when he was of advanced age, and that by a mistaken judgment or negligence he did not sufficiently follow Hippocrates’ meaning in certain matters. There is, as you remember, a discussion about respiration and innate heat, about which others think differently, and there is a great diversity of opinions. I should like to set out for you my own view, which I believe to be correct, and not alien to the doctrine of the ancients, nor to that tendency to which Montanus, advancing in years, was said to have been led, or rather drawn, to the contrary. Philosophers and physicians consider this in a twofold way, either as a quality, or, as they say in the schools, in the abstract, or as it exists in a subject; and when they deal with innate heat, they speak of a substance or body that is hot. And Galen, indeed, sets its subject as airy and subtle. Plato, however, fiery; but divine Hippocrates settles this dispute, which still continues, in Aphorism 14 of the first section, uttering that oracle: “Those who are growing have the greatest amount of innate heat.” If use, however, shows in children a gentle, inward, and pleasant heat, < Comment on Plato’s Timaeus by Galen. > < Montanus in his sense of innate heat finally expressed the doctrine of old age. > < The Greek language flourished. > < Of innate heat the Greek opinion. > < Subject of the hot in sense. >

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201 MEDICINALES. 202 tum esse, & in subiecto aëreo atque aqveo maxime vigere. In adultis autem & iam ærate siccatis igneam vim obtinere, minus suauem esse, citiusque desflagrare. Sed de subiecti ratione deinceps agemus. Primum quæ sit caloris illius origo, & substantia, quæ temperatura, deniq[ue] quas in corpore actiones habeat videamus. < Origo & substantiam calidus.> Nam de nomine, siue , vel , vel naturalis calor dicatur, non arbitror pugnandum. Initia nostra procreationis esse iuncta semina, atq[ue] sanguinem maternum dubinm non est. Ac eisi de eorum congressu atque effectionibus alii aliet disputauerunt, tamen vim quandam caloris generationi conuenientem habet, nec prorsus mortua esse, atq[ue] à coelestibus etiam eausis calorem istum seminis augeri atq[ue] foucri dum semina in vtero ad conceptum tuendum idoneo conueniunt, consentaneum < Spiritus naturalis sub. stauria.> est. Hic igitur calor excitatus vi coelesti intus in semine agit, & per omnes partes sese ita diffundit, eisque ita arcte se insinuat, vt vita prius animans, quam hic calor deserat. Vnde etiam extinctis corporibus aliquantulum in membris solidis tunc remanere sentimus, cumque iis disc essit, subito corruptionem & puttedinem conseqvi. Hic igitur calor, qui è vi seminis virtute coelesti fultus, est expressus, & membris solidis insitus, ad extremum vscq[ue] spiritum durat, & spiritui naturali, de quo postea agemus, eius substantia est calidior, & humidior, ita inhæret, eoq[ue] commixtus est, vt nullo modo diuelli possit. < Temperamentis.> Proinde & veteres promiscue sæpe caloris innati & spiritus mentionem faciunt, quibus dictis non parum isti perturbantur, qui ignotant calorem, posteaquam simul insedit huic spiritui naturali, recte substantiam dici. Multi odiosè & inepte pugnant, quasi veteres de spiritu naturali nunquam cogitauerint, aut is nullius sit vsus. Verum de spiritu naturali subiecto proprio caloris innati deinceps agemus. Habes quæ sit calidi innati origo & substantia. Temperamentum eius in summa mediocritate consistit, quæ naturæ amicissima est (Galen. 8. de decretis, de salubri dixta, de eausis pulsuum. < Temperamentis.> com. 1. Aph. 14. ac potius is, vt medicis & philosophis placet, ipsa natura (Gal. de Marco. com. 5. Aph. 22.) & vis conseruatrix generandi, augendi, & nutriendi existit. Quia vero vt philosophi statunnt: Quod continetur conuenientiam habet eum eo quod continet. Itaq[ue] subiecti sui ratione calidus & humidus censetur. Inde Galenus affirmat constare eum aëre & aqua, respiciens ad naturam seminis, ex quo originè ducit, & spiritus naturalis, cui arctissima coniunctione est copulatus. Neq[ue] Hippocrates hæ discerneret videtur, dum & calorem & spiritum istum , 14. & 15. Aph. primæ particulæ appellat. Et Galenus manifeste quinto de simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus, innatum calore spiritum vocat, inquiens: Nihil prohibet si sanguineam substantiam, simulque aëream vna cum spiritu calidum innatum vocemus. Itaq[ue] cum Galenus aceriter subiectum caloris innati humidum statuat, non admittit istam Platonis ad ignem, eiusq[ue] substantiam hoc modo oppugnari, & actiones omnes turbari, denique sententiam Hippocratis euerti censet. < Plato reprehenditur à Galeno. Allumos calidus.> Nunc eius actiones consideremus. Calorem formam membrorum, seu partium solidarum esse constat, vt manifeste testatur Hippoc. & Galen. com. 4. Aph. 37. & com. sexto . substantia animæ dicitur. Hic enim omnia membra sua vi conseruat, & , vt philosophi loquuntur, disponit ad suscipiendu[m] calorem à curde influentem, qui vite singulis corporis partibus communicat, sicut manifeste Gangrænx, , n[on] membro, nec vnamquam est otiosus, sed omnibus coctionibus adest, donec nutrimentum deducatur ad formam conuenientem, & aptam nutritioni, & conseruationi totius corporis, & singularu[m] partium, ac nisi adhibeantur alimenta , vt Philotheus ait, . Ex hatum autem facultatum præstantia atq[ue] effectionibus, caloris quoq[ue] huius excellentia[m] merimur, ac recte Hippocratem nostru[m] dixisse statuimus , vt Philotheus ait, . Ex hatum autem facultatum præstantia atq[ue] effectionibus, caloris quoq[ue] huius excellentia[m] merimur, ac recte Hippocratem nostru[m] dixisse statuimus , vt Galen. 8. de decretis, de salubri dixta, de eausis pulsuum. < Num in fabribus paracerur calidum innamrum.> Nam et[iam] in iuuenib[us] siccitati iunctus igneam vim habet, & ardentior est. tamen quia in pueris consistit, in subiecto magis conuenienti, videlicet humido, præstantiores effectiones habet. Hic autem quæritur, patiatur ne hic calor in febtibus. Certe in illis, quæ & consistunt, valdeq[ue] acutæ sunt, vna cum spiritu vel proximus est extinctioni, vel omnino vita discedete extingulatur, vt testatur Gal. commentario 4. Aphorismo 37. Siquidem solidæ partes, quas vt Hippoc. ait, regit, vim morbi sustinent. Verum in iis febribus, quæ sunt, vel calefactis spiritibus, vel vapouribus putridis a[n]i[m]a 1 3

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201 MEDICINAL. 202 to be so, and to flourish most in an airy and watery subject. But in adults, and now dried by age, it has a fiery force, is less gentle, and burns out more quickly. But we shall discuss the nature of the subject afterward. First let us see what the origin and substance of that heat is, what its temperament is, and finally what actions it has in the body. <The origin and substance of innate heat.> For as for the name, whether it be called vital, or natural heat, I do not think one should contend about it. The beginnings of our procreation are the joined seeds and the maternal blood, there is no doubt. And although others have disputed about their union and effects, still it has a certain force of heat suitable for generation, and is not wholly dead; and that this heat of the seed is increased and nourished even by celestial causes while the seeds in the womb agree to preserve conception, is reasonable. <The natural spirit as subject.> This heat, then, stirred up by heavenly power, acts within the seed and spreads itself through all its parts, and insinuates itself so closely into them that life departs before this heat does. Hence also, when bodies have been extinguished, we feel that some remains still linger in the solid members, and when it leaves them, corruption and putrefaction quickly follow. This heat, then, which is expressed from the force of the seed, supported by celestial virtue, and implanted in the solid members, lasts until the last breath, and with regard to the natural spirit, of which we shall speak later, its substance is hotter and more moist; it adheres so closely to it and is so mixed with it that it can in no way be separated. <On temperament.> Accordingly the ancients often speak indifferently of innate heat and spirit, and these statements trouble not a few who do not know that heat, after it has settled in that natural spirit, is rightly called a substance. Many argue offensively and foolishly, as though the ancients had never thought about the natural spirit, or as though it were of no use. But we shall speak later of the natural spirit as the proper subject of innate heat. You have, then, what the origin and substance of innate heat are. Its temperament consists in a very moderate mean, which is most friendly to nature (Galen, 8 On Decrees, On a Healthy Diet, On the Causes of Pulses, com. 1, Aph. 14; and rather, as doctors and philosophers maintain, it is nature itself (Galen, On Marcus, com. 5, Aph. 22) and the conserving force of generation, growth, and nourishment. But because, as the philosophers state: what is contained has a correspondence with that which contains. Therefore, with regard to its subject, it is judged to be hot and moist. Hence Galen affirms that it is composed of air and water, looking to the nature of the seed, from which it takes its origin, and to the natural spirit, to which it is joined by the closest bond. Nor does Hippocrates seem to distinguish these, when he calls that heat and that spirit in the 14th and 15th Aphorisms of the first part. And Galen plainly, in the fifth book On the Faculties of Simple Medicines, calls spirit innate heat, saying: nothing prevents us from calling innate heat at once the sanguineous substance and the airy substance together with spirit. Therefore, when Galen firmly states that the subject of innate heat is moist, he does not admit Plato’s claim that it is tied to fire, and that its substance is attacked in this way, all its actions disturbed, and finally the opinion of Hippocrates overturned. <Plato is criticized by Galen. Innate heat of the humors.> Now let us consider its actions. It is clear that heat is the form of the members, or of the solid parts, as Hippocrates and Galen plainly testify, and in the commentary on Aphorism 37 and in the sixth commentary it is called the substance of the soul. For it preserves all its members by its power, and, as the philosophers say, it disposes them to receive the heat flowing from the heart, which communicates life to each part of the body, as is clearly seen in gangrene, ... in no member, nor in any one ... it is not idle, but is present in all digestions, until the nourishment is brought down to a form suitable and fit for nutrition and the preservation of the whole body and of the individual parts; and unless foods are applied, as Philotheus says, ... From the excellence and effects of these faculties we also measure the excellence of this heat, and rightly judge that Hippocrates our own said ... as Philotheus says, ... From the excellence and effects of these faculties we also measure the excellence of this heat, and rightly judge that Hippocrates our own said ... as Galen, 8 On Decrees, On a Healthy Diet, On the Causes of Pulses. <Whether innate heat decreases in children.> For even in youths, when joined to dryness, it has a fiery force and is more ardent. Yet because in children it exists in a more suitable subject, namely the moist, it has more excellent effects. Here the question is whether this heat suffers in fevers. Certainly in those that are persistent and very acute, together with the spirit it is either near extinction, or, when life departs entirely, is extinguished, as Galen testifies in Commentary 4 on Aphorism 37. For the solid parts, which, as Hippocrates says, it governs, sustain the force of the disease. But in those fevers which are either with heated spirits, or with putrid vapors, the soul ... 1 3

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103 EPISTOLA 104 ficientibus calorem cordis, quem infusum appellauimus, afficitur [n]o[n] [H]e , quam habet cum calore cordis, qui [n]o[n] negendem bono accenditur atq[ue] affligitur, nec corrumpi [mercur]ij consenianum est, id quod natu- ralis calor corporis, quando discessit febris, testatur. < Nunc calidior sit pars subl. hum. et Spiritum.> Porro an substantiæ humorum & spiritus pars sit [mercur]ij calor, dubitari posse video, neque libet de hoc odiosè tixari, cum videam vetentes tantum solidis partibus cum tribuere, & scia[m] varie multa posse excogita- ri, & dici in iis, quæ à veteribus non satis per- spicue, explica & distinctè tradita sunt. Putredo humorum absque hoc commento dextre explicari potest, modo Aristotelica cum medicis de putredine prorsus non con- fundantur. < Spirituum putrefactio.> De spirituum autem putre- factione fateor me id nescire, quod nescio, & de hac vera & firma doceri cupio, cum in veterum doctrina nihil, quantum ea mihi cognita atq[ue] explorata est, certi habeamus. Refutatæ sunt opiniones quorundam eru- dire à Vctore Trincauella, doctrina atque vsu excellenti medico, cui ego plus fidei adhibeo, quam substructionibus recenti- bus. Sed de his satis, & quæ sit spiritus naturalis origo, temperatura, & actiones consi- deremus. Ac primum non existimo odiosè cum illis pugnandum, qui præoccupati ne- scio quibus opinionibus spiritum naturalè in corpore humano esse negat, cum illi ma- nifeste declarent se non tantum in consid- eratione naturæ rerum, & veterum lectione versatos, quantum fortasse sibi fingunt. Ni- hil hic de Aristotele dicam. < Spiritus naturalis. 1. Origo. 2. Tempor. 3. Æternus.> Nonne Galen[us] exponens t[ame]s Aphor. primæ particulæ inquit: Membra solida à spiritu constare? Item in quinto de simpl. med. facult. per- spicue de eoloquitur. < A calido in maro sola ratione distinguntur.> Est aurem hic spir- itus, vt erudite & philosophice hoc probat < Aclaribus variis morbis.> Aclarius in libello vel , non mi- nus in nostro corpore illustratus, quam hic aëre circumfusus, quem lucem & claritatem à corporibus coelestibus accipere plane non est dubium. < Spiritus anomalis.> Nec propterea, quod vitalis eo sit lucidior, tenuior & agilitate caloreque maiori p[er]æditus, minusque spiret, huic ap- 50 pellatio spiritus deneganda est. Nam rene- ra ex semine atque sanguine quædam aërea, coelestisque vis spirat, quæ partium omni- um est. Vt autem membra, quo sunt perfectiora nobiliores & perfectiores actiones edunt, ita quo hoc spiritu pleniora, quove is est purior & firmior, operationes eius euidentiores & præstantiores sunt. Ac Galenus cum contra Platonem aëream po- tius atque aqveam vim & naturam calido innato tribuit quam igneam, nulla de re ma- gis, quam hoc spiritu pugnat. Siquidem mo- derato calore potentia, quam vegetariuam dicimus, cuins spiritus naturalis instrumen- tum est, ac sine quo animal neque genera- ri, neque augeri, vel nutriti potest, gaudet. Præest autem non tantum coctioni sangui- nis in epate, verum etiam chylosi in ventri- culo aliisque omnibus coctionibus, aug- mentationem & nutritionem solidaru[m] par- rium gubernat, denique nihil vitam habet, quod hoc spiritu non sit præditum. < A calido in maro sola ratione distinguntur> Distinguitur autem, vt dixi, sola ratione à calido innato. Nam cum concoquit, distribuit, ittahit, retinet, &c. calor naturalis, vel [mercur]ij [mercur]ij dicitur. Cum palpitat, mouet, &c. spiritus naturalis. Hinc Galen. 8. de Hipp. & Platonis decretis, artetiarum motum non tantum cordi & spiritui vitalis, sed insito ca- lido tribuit. < A flaribus variis morbis.> Hoc vero spiritu obruto, debi- litato & exhausto suborinnur status, vario- rum & maximorum morborum causæ. De quib[us] in præsentia non libet dicere. Illud ad- dam, licet spiritus naturalis non sit plane a- nima vitalis, tamen meliorem & præstan- tiorem partem eius esse magis elaboratam in corde & quasi igneam factam. < Spiritus anomalis.> Mediocritatem autem quandam obtinet is spiritus, quem animalem dicimus & quasi sum- mam perfectionem in cerebro conseqvitur. Vnde eius actiones intelligere, ratiocinari, &c præstantissimæ sunt. Sed de his nunc no[n] necesse est plura scribere. De calido vero innato & spiritu naturali, de quo proposi- tum suit disputare, metibi perspicue com- monitasse puto, non esse noua & inania hæc figmenta, sed è doctrina veterum & re- rum natura petita. < Autorit[at]em veterum.> Quid enim est in verbis Galeni, quæ sunt in libro de tretnore & ri- gore ambiguitatis aut obscuritatis, cum in- quit, Directur hæc rario de principiis Hip- pocratis, neque pro corporis nostri elemen- tis ponemus corpuscula quædam & poros, neque staruamus calorem è motu aut atti- tione quadam & collistione suscitari, sed cor- pus quidem totum confluxibile & conspi- table. Calurem vero no[n] ascitum, aut aliun- de quæsitu[m], neq[ue] genito iam animali ortum, sed insitum, & qui ab ipso statim principio extite-

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103 EPISTLE 104 the heart is affected by those things which produce heat, which we have called infused, not by that which it has with the heat of the heart, which is not kindled and afflicted by no [H]e , nor is it proper to the mercurial substance to be corrupted, as the natural heat of the body testifies when the fever has passed. < Now let the part of the sublunar humors and the spirit be warmer.> Furthermore, whether the substance of the humors and the part of the spirit may be the heat of mercury, I see that it can be doubted; nor do I care to contend about this vexatiously, since I see that only the solid parts are denied to be able to be attributed to it, and I know that many things can be devised and said in various ways about matters which have not been sufficiently clearly, explained, and distinctly handed down by the ancients. The putrefaction of humors can be explained skillfully without this contrivance, provided that the Aristotelian doctrine concerning putrefaction is not altogether confused with the medical one. < Putrefaction of spirits.> But as for the putrefaction of spirits, I confess that I do not know what I do not know, and I desire to be instructed in this true and firm doctrine, since in the teaching of the ancients we have nothing certain, so far as it has been known and examined by me. The opinions of certain learned men have been refuted by Doctor Trincavella, an excellent physician in learning and practice, to whose authority I give more trust than to recent constructions. But enough of these matters; let us consider what the origin, temperament, and actions of the natural spirit may be. And first I do not think one should fight vexatiously with those who, preoccupied by I know not what opinions, deny that there is a natural spirit in the human body, when they plainly show that they have not been occupied so much in considering the nature of things and reading the ancients as they perhaps imagine. I shall say nothing here about Aristotle. < Natural spirit. 1. Origin. 2. Temperature. 3. Eternal.> Did not Galen, explaining the Aphorisms of the first part, say that the solid members consist of spirit? Likewise, in the fifth book On the Faculties of Simple Medicines, he speaks of it plainly. < They are distinguished from heat only by reason.> But this spirit, as he eruditely and philosophically proves < From various clear diseases.> more clearly in the little treatise < vel >, is no less illuminated in our body than the air surrounding it here, which plainly and without doubt receives light and brightness from the heavenly bodies. < Irregular spirits.> Nor is the name of spirit to be denied to this one because the vital spirit is brighter, thinner, endowed with greater agility and heat, and breathes less. For from seed and blood there breathes forth a certain airy and heavenly force, common to all the parts. And just as the members, the more perfect they are, produce more noble and perfect actions, so the fuller they are of this spirit, and the purer and firmer it is, the more evident and excellent are its operations. And when Galen, against Plato, attributes to innate heat rather an airy and watery force and nature than a fiery one, he does not disagree more strongly about anything than about this spirit. For with moderate heat the power which we call the vegetative faculty, whose instrument the natural spirit is, is delighted; and without it an animal can neither be generated, nor grow, nor be nourished. Moreover, it presides not only over the digestion of blood in the liver, but also over chyli in the stomach and all other digestions; it governs growth and nourishment of the solid parts; in short, nothing has life that is not endowed with this spirit. < They are distinguished from heat only by reason.> But it is distinguished, as I said, only by reason from innate heat. For when natural heat cooks, distributes, draws, retains, etc., it is called mercurial. When it beats, moves, etc., it is called natural spirit. Hence Galen, in book 8 On the Decrees of Hippocrates and Plato, attributes the motion of the arteries not only to the heart and vital spirit, but also to innate heat. < From various clear diseases.> But when this spirit is overwhelmed, weakened, and exhausted, conditions arise, the causes of various and very great diseases. I do not wish to speak about these at present. I will add this: although the natural spirit is not wholly the vital soul, nevertheless it is its better and more excellent part, more elaborated in the heart and, as it were, made fiery. < Irregular spirits.> That spirit which we call animal occupies a certain middle position and attains, as it were, its highest perfection in the brain. Whence its actions—understanding, reasoning, and so forth—are most excellent. But it is not necessary to write more about these matters now. Yet concerning innate heat and the natural spirit, about which it was proposed to dispute, I think I have clearly reminded you that these are not new and empty fictions, but are drawn from the doctrine of the ancients and from the nature of things. < Authority of the ancients.> For what ambiguity or obscurity is there in Galen’s words, which are in the book On Tremor and Rigidity, when he says, “Let this doctrine be directed by the principles of Hippocrates, and we shall not posit for the elements of our body certain corpuscles and pores, nor shall we establish that heat is aroused from motion or some kind of friction and collision, but rather that the body as a whole is yielding and sensible. But heat is not acquired, or sought from elsewhere, nor does it arise in an animal already born, but it is innate, and exists from the very beginning itself…”

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 106 E P I S T. CXL IDEM EIDEM. Valetvdinem matris tuæ meliorem fieri lætamur, & Christo gratias agimus, ac vt indies magis magisq[ue] co[n]firmetur DEVM precamur. Id quidem ei, post salutem à nobis amantissime dictam, indicabis. Vix studiorumque tuorum rationes, atque de his deliberationes vestras à DEO fortunari & gubernari benigne precor. Profecto nunc plures vanitatis, quam veritatis sunt studiosi, & etiam atque etiam videndum, nec occasiones discendi, & bonos præceptores amittamus. Si quid à me fieri vis, aut posse speras, indica & factum puta. Casparo Scaligetum non probari nec miror, nec moror. Fortasse illud nec , quod Cicero Attico commemorat, verum est. Sed si nullam aliam haberent laudem eius scripta, hæc cum verissima & iustissima est, quod Latina & pura oratione philosophica ea, quæ multa barbarie obruta vix erui possunt, perspicue proponit, & explicat. Quod Galenum, quem ille satis ridicule Pontificem Maximum nostrum appellat, interdum asperius tractat non mirum. In Galeno enim quoque singulare carpendi studium fuit, & sequitur Scaliger tuum magistrum Auerrhoem, cui interdum non parcit Te Dioscoridem tuum illius quoque sententiis auxisse valde probo. Fortasse non paucis veris rationibus, quæ in Scaligero dicuntur, refutari possent, & non mirum est, si in tanta rerum & opinionum varietate interdum ea afferat, quæ non probantur omnibus. Sed scire velim quid præcipue reprehendat Caspar. Cum Fernelio etiam pugnat, & recte mihi contra eum hoc statuere videtur. Calorem non formam coelestem esse. Id quod contra Philippum affert, generationem non esse motum in substantia, fortasse ex ipso Aristotele posset refutari, in quarto de coelo, vbi tres recenset motus ad locum, quantitatem, & generationem, sed in quinto Physicorum, tantum mutationem esse dicit, & motû negat. Hæc autem non sunt epistolæ huius, quam scribo occupatus, & te poris egens. Disputationem nostram de calido innato, si iam legerè deberem; fortasse non minus multa, quam vos in eo desiderarem. In chymicis plane mihi ipsi non postum satisfacere, & venit aliud ex alio in mentem; de quibus rum sententias veterum inquiro; aut nihil scribo, qui scripta induco. Itaque quando expectationi tuæ & promisso meo; quæ 1 4

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MEDICINALS. 106 LETTER CXL SAME TO THE SAME. We rejoice that your mother’s health is improving, and we give thanks to Christ, and we pray to God that it may from day to day be confirmed more and more. You will indeed convey this to her, after you have lovingly conveyed to her our greetings for her recovery. I pray kindly that the plans of your studies, and your deliberations about them, may be prospered and governed by God. Truly, there are now more students of vanity than of truth, and one must also and again and again be on guard, lest we lose opportunities for learning and good teachers. If there is anything you wish me to do, or anything you hope I can do, let me know and consider it done. I am neither surprised nor troubled that Scaliger is not approved by Caspar. Perhaps that “not,” which Cicero mentions to Atticus, is true. But even if his writings had no other praise, this is a very true and very just one: that in a Latin and pure style of philosophy he clearly presents and explains those things which, buried under much barbarism, can scarcely be brought to light. That he sometimes treats Galen somewhat harshly is not surprising, for in Galen too there was a singular zeal for criticism, and Scaliger follows your master Averroes, whom he too sometimes does not spare. I greatly approve that you have supported your Dioscorides with his opinions as well. Perhaps not a few true reasons, which are stated in Scaliger, could be refuted, and it is not surprising if, amid so great a variety of things and opinions, he sometimes puts forward things that are not approved by all. But I should like to know what Caspar especially finds fault with. He also quarrels with Fernel, and in opposition to him he seems to me rightly to lay down this point, that heat is not a heavenly form. What he brings against Philip, namely that generation is not motion in substance, perhaps could be refuted from Aristotle himself, in the fourth book On the Heaven, where he enumerates three motions: to place, to quantity, and to generation; but in the fifth of the Physics he says that there is only change, and denies motion. But these things do not belong to this letter, which I am writing while occupied and in need of time. Our discussion about innate heat, if I were now to read it over, perhaps I would miss not fewer things than you do in it. In chemical matters I certainly cannot satisfy myself, and one thing comes into mind after another; on these I inquire into the opinions of the ancients; or I write nothing, as I bring writings in. And so, when to your expectation and to my promise; which 1 4

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EPISTOLÆ 208 teneri me fateor, satisfacturus sum sane ne- scio. Emendatio consultationum sæpe ita mihi mouet stomachu[m], vt vix me continere possim, quin interdum librum pedibus te- Alum astri- ram, ram, sed emendabo tamen. Si astricha est al- uus, pruna damascena macerentur in aqua, donec intu[m]nescant, deinde exempto un- cleo, ante coenam aliquot assumantur, & de- glutiantur cum illis grana quatuor, vel quin- que piperis integri. Balnea etiam ex aqua dulci, & inunctiones vmbdici cum butyro plurimu[m] proderunt. Vsum clysterum, præ- sertim frequentiorum, plane non probo. V- tatur etiam mane conserua rosarum recenti, cum pipere albo & speciebus atomatici rosati Gabriel. hoc modo: 2 Conser. rosar. recent. ij. Spec. Atom. rosat. Gabriel. ij. Piperis albi . Misce. Elet. ad cor that & alui lemendum. Est enim præsentissimum remedium in cardialgia & ad leniendam aluum. Si nau- seat ambram & Moschum in speciebus aro- matici rotati fiat sine Moscho. Plura alias. Bene vale. Vtranslauiz, 24. Ianuar. Anno 1559. EPIST. CXVII. IDEM EIDAM. QVÆ sint illæ tuæ. quas te superioribus diebus missæ, atque iis meis plenissi- me respondisse scribis, nescio. Ego post eas, quibus 14. dies Nouemb. ascripta est, vnas accepi, datas 12. Decemb. iis nunc rescribo. Sigonium amare tuum patrem, virum pro- pter antiquam virtutem, & sermonis Latini puritatem, Græcique facundiam omnibus bonis amabilem lætor. De Bassiano nihil noui. Rumpatur, vinet tamen, semperque celebrabitur memoria Montani in Germa- nia. Tabulæ Fallopii vel ad fallendum sunt compositæ, vel is nimium magnam insci- tiam suam de destillationum scientia pro- dit. Stille tibi ad eum modum oleum sul- phuris, quem præscribit, destillabit, Crato- nem dicas de chymicis nihil scire. Addat non modo vrinam pueri, verumetiam sal armoniacum, & vehementiora corrosiva: sulphur tamen manebit sulphur. Posset ad hunc modum, quem ille præscribit, id est, per talia instrumenta confici, addito aphro- nitro, quod contraria vi prædirum est, ve- rum an ille modum norit, & sine periculo conficere possit, haud scio. Similes ineptiæ sunt de oleo vitrioli. Mihi eiusmodi oleum, cuius destillationem docet, non det intra cotpus. Vtinam legerent adolescentes veterum, scripta minus admirarentur recentes nugas. Luuat tamen eas videre. Quæris ad quod genus morborum referatur mor- bus totius substantiæ? Respondeo, ad nul- lum eorum, quæ Galenus posuit, nisi veli- mus contra omnia principia philosophiæ, temperamentum cum forma confundere. Itaque dico: Galenus (Galenus quidem multis in locis virtutem seu diuaxur cum temperamento contungit, vt XI. Meth. & alibi. Item naturam vocat temperamentum.) prosequitur Metho- do eurum morborum curationem, qui tem- peramentum consequuntur, seu mutatio- nem materiæ. De mot bis in tota substantia nusquam agit methodice, quia curatio co- rum sub Methodum non cadit. Scis autem nos naturam, cuius administri sumus, non ratum materiæ, verumetiam formæ notio- ne comprehendit, & temperamentum mi- stionem & alterationem, quæ in materia est, consequi. Formam ne quaqnam, quæ non minus à sibi contrariis, quam materia lædi- tur, quemadmodum in multis rebus vide- mus. Si igitur morbum intemperie dici- mus, qui lædit temperaturam, quid obsta- bir, quo minns id, quod lædit formam, qua membrum non modo est viuens, sed cale, dicamus morbum totius substantiæ, atque auxilium à tota substantia valens medica- mentum. At dicis talia remedia tantum o- stendit experientia, & quid quærimus cum formarum naturam & rerum substantiam inuenire nemo possit: Existimemus pulch- rum esse, de iis panca scire, quæ plurimum adiumenti vitæ afferunt, etiamsi exacta ha- rum rerum explicatio in humanum inge- nium non cadat. Non frustra dixit diuinus Hippocrates. Naturalia remedia non soluuit affectionem pestilentem, cumque raro læ- datur forma in corporibus, quin simul tem- peries quoque afficiatur, operam demus, vt ad vtrumq[ue] artificiosæ respiciamus. Quæris etiam de Terebinthinæ oleo, cur eo vtar, cum potius, quam sit. Terebinthinæ per se quidem vim abster- gendi maximam habet, sicut & oleum. Id- eoque vlceribus for didis, & vulneribus vti- le. Sed cum adeo sit tenuissimaru[m] partium, atque calorem augeat, & ad penetrationem faciat, hic cum oleo nucis Moschæ, atque æno hircino misceo, & ad maiorem cale- factionem & penetrationem , videlicet oleum iuniperi addo. A oleum Terebinthinæ maxime lenit dolores à sta- tibus ortos. Bene vale. Vratislauiz 22. Ian- uarii. Anno 1561. EPIST. CXVIII. IDEM 2IDAM. EXSPECTANTI mihi dum Paulus no- ster advos redeat, significatis, obtineri se hic

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EPISTOLA 208 I confess that I am inclined to be vexed; whether I shall give a satisfactory answer, I do not know. The corrections of the consultations often stir my stomach so much that I can scarcely keep myself from sometimes throwing the book at the feet of the Alum astri- —well, I will amend it nevertheless. If the bowel is constipated, let Damask plums be soaked in water until they swell; then, after the stones have been removed, let several be taken before supper, and swallowed with them four or five whole peppercorns. Baths too, from fresh water, and inunctions of the navel with butter will be very beneficial. I do not at all approve the use of clysters, especially frequent ones. Let him also use in the morning conserve of fresh roses, with white pepper and the compound of Gabriel from the aromatic rose, in this way: 2 Conserve of fresh roses ij. Compound of Gabriel from the aromatic rose ij. White pepper. Mix. Electuary for the heart and for softening the bowels. For it is a most immediate remedy for cardialgia and for easing the bowels. If nausea is present, let amber and musk in the aromatic rose compound be made without musk. More elsewhere. Farewell. Wrocław, 24 January, 1559. EPIST. CXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I do not know what those letters of yours are, which you say were sent on the previous days, and to which you write that you answered mine very fully. After the one dated 14 November, I have received only one, sent on 12 December; to that I now reply. I am glad that Sigonius loves your father, a man lovable to all good men because of his ancient virtue, the purity of the Latin tongue, and Greek eloquence. I know nothing new about Bassianus. Let him burst if he wishes; nevertheless he will prevail, and the memory of Montanus will always be celebrated in Germany. Fallopius’ tables are either arranged to deceive, or he reveals his own great ignorance about the science of distillations. If, according to the way he prescribes, he distills oil of sulphur, you would say that Crato knows nothing about chemists. Let him add not only the urine of a boy, but also sal ammoniac and stronger corrosives: yet sulphur will remain sulphur. It could perhaps be prepared in the manner he prescribes, that is, by such instruments, with the addition of aphronitrum, which by contrary force is destructive; but whether he knows the method and can prepare it without danger, I do not know. Similar absurdities are found concerning oil of vitriol. I would not have such an oil, the distillation of which he teaches, enter the body. Would that young men would read the ancients and admire the writings of the moderns less and their trifles less. Yet it is useful to see them. You ask to what class of diseases the disease of the whole substance is to be referred. I answer: to none of those which Galen has posited, unless we wish, against all the principles of philosophy, to confuse temperament with form. Therefore I say: Galen indeed in many places joins power, or faculty, with temperament, as in Book XI of the Method, and elsewhere. He also calls nature temperament. He follows in his Method the treatment of those diseases which follow temperament, or a change of matter. But he nowhere treats methodically of diseases in the whole substance, because their cure does not fall under Method. You know that nature, whose servants we are, comprehends not only the notion of matter, but also of form, and that temperament follows mixture and alteration, which are in the matter. Not form, in any way, since form is harmed no less by things contrary to it than matter is, as we see in many things. If therefore we call that a disease by intemperance which harms the temperament, what prevents us from calling that which harms the form, by which a limb is not only living but hot, a disease of the whole substance, and a medicine that is effective against the whole substance a remedy? But you say that such remedies are shown only by experience, and what are we seeking when no one can discover the nature of forms and the substance of things? Let us think it beautiful to know a few things about those matters which bring the greatest help to life, even if an exact explanation of them does not fall within human intellect. Not without reason did the divine Hippocrates say: natural remedies do not remove the pestilential affection; and since form is seldom harmed in bodies without the temperament also being affected at the same time, let us apply ourselves so that we may skillfully attend to both. You also ask about oil of Terebinthina, why I use it, since rather it is ... Terebinthina by itself certainly has a very great power of cleansing, just as oil does. And therefore it is useful for foul ulcers and wounds. But since it is of very subtle particles, and increases heat, and promotes penetration, here I mix it with oil of nutmeg and with goat’s tallow, and for greater warming and penetration I add oil of juniper. Oil of Terebinthina especially soothes pains arising from stagnation. Farewell. Wrocław, 22 January, 1561. EPIST. CXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As I was waiting while our Paulus returned to you, you indicated that it was obtained here

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Transcription: ATR-1

se hic necessariis causas. Itaq[ue] cum modi literas Augustam mitterem, persoluendum putaui epistulæ tuæ quam cum Paulo ad me dederas. Primo autem non more, sed vere &c ex animo decursum instantis iam nou antibonum, faustum, & felicem precor, atque vt benignissimus Deus gubernet studia & vniuersum vitæ curriculum, teq[ue] firmum & incolumem conseruet oro. De causa continente, certe sic est, differre pi Galeni à causa, quam Auicenna coiunctam vocat. Ac vt mittamns Auicennam, certe Galenus quiter in secundo Methodi huius causæ meminit, manifeste eos etiam Rationales Medicos damnat qui hanc negligunt. Ex 6. autem capite apparet hanc causam ita coniungere cum morbo, vt idem prope modum statuat. Sublata igitur hac causa tollitur effectus vniuersæ, quia hæc causa est de essentia rei, & est quasi ipsa Coniuncta autem causa Auicennæ nam solummodo effectum tollit, vt sublata putredine cessat febris putrida. Calore autem præternaturali lædente cresyens sublato ex toto tollitur febris. Miror igitur cur dicat Trincauella non posse statui eam ex methodo Galeni. Nam illud quod assertur ex Galeno de discrimine inter nisi , nisi ad discrimen inter nisi ab eo ponitur, neque ad hanc disputationem pertinet, habetque semper locum in methodo theraphæc regula: Primum esse in actione, quod vltinum inuenitur in resolutione. Et jammi prima & princeps indicatio semper ad naturam morbi sit directa. Cum autem natura morbi per causas intelligatur, quo pacto prima indicatio seu eum Sinas firma erit in animo, nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione curabimus? Velim autem te tuum Trincauellam interrogare cum Linacer definitionem eò videlicet, esse eam nisi nisi nisi nisi ponamus? Et quonam modo methodice sine hac cognitione

Transcription: Translated (English)

Indeed, with the necessary causes. Therefore, since I was sending the letters to Augusta, I thought it should be paid for the letter of yours which you had given me together with Paul. First, however, I pray that the coming new year may be good, fortunate, and happy from the heart, and that the most gracious God may govern your studies and the whole course of life, and preserve you firm and in good health. On the matter of the cause as a whole, this is certainly so: Galen distinguishes the cause from what Avicenna calls the conjoint cause. And, to pass over Avicenna, Galen himself, as he clearly mentions this cause in the second book of the Method, plainly also condemns those rational physicians who neglect it. From chapter 6 it appears that this cause is so joined to the disease that he almost establishes them as the same thing. Therefore, once this cause is removed, the effect of the whole is removed, because this cause belongs to the essence of the thing and is, as it were, the thing itself. But Avicenna’s conjoint cause merely removes the effect, as when the putrefaction is removed, the putrid fever ceases. If the unnatural heat that is harming is removed entirely, the fever is altogether taken away. I therefore wonder why Trincavella says that this cannot be established from Galen’s method. For what is asserted from Galen concerning the distinction between these things is established by him for the distinction between these things, and does not pertain to this discussion; and this rule always has its place in the method of therapeutics: that what is first in action is last found in resolution. And now the first and chief indication is always directed to the nature of the disease. But since the nature of the disease is understood through the causes, in what way will the first indication, or sinus firma erit in animo , be secure, unless we posit it? And how in a methodical way shall we cure without this knowledge? I would like you to question your Trincavella, together with Linacer’s definition, namely, whether it is this, unless we posit it? And how in a methodical way shall we cure without this knowledge? I would like you to question your Trincavella, together with Linacer’s definition, namely, whether it is this, unless we posit it? And how in a methodical way shall we cure without this knowledge? ...

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EPISTOLÆ 212 tio in vnius vocabuli explicatione consistit. Mauhiolus ad me scripsit se alteram editionem Epistolarum suarum habere in mani- bus. Eum rogaui ne me Herbariorum ri- xis admisceret. Nam cum ipsi autorita- tibus præcipue pugnent, consequi necces- se est illa Inspirari alia , vt Galenus noster ait, laudosius scilicet nei mox luo . Cauteria ma- gis esse neque Epilepticis ipse statuo. < Cauteria neque > neque epilepsia . I Sed tanta est nostrorum chirurgorum ne- gligeotia, vt non possint nobis ad ista reme- dia præsto esse. Scriberem plura sed tabel- larius flagitat litteras. Bene vale. Prid. Ka- lend. Ian. EPIST. CXIX. IDEM EIDEM. < 10> VM superloribus proximis diebus rc- direm ex aula Episcopi oostri atq; Du- cis Georgii, obtulit mihi coniunx puerpera tuas datas, 4. Iunii arque Patris tni literas e- iusdem fere argumenti. Significat se acci- pere causam, quam adfers de reculata pro- fectione in Syria atque quod enenir opti- mum ducere. Cæterum æquo animolatu- rum fuisse si insciente se ista occasione vsus fusses. Mi loachime ooo magna res est vi- dere loca in quibus non sunt homines, & adire pericula curiosæ temeritatis est. Fro- benii nunc exprimont Galenum cum Indi- ce D. Aloysii Mundell[us] laudabili. Vidi pri- mam pagellam quam ad me misit Geine- rus, tanta diligenta factus est index, vt non solum vocabula singula, verum omnes res complectatur, & verc epirome Galeni atq; Hippocratis dici possit. Pero iam nostra e- laborat. In anatomicis Fallopii, quæ mihi scripta D. Paulus misit, plurima paradoxa < Index Aloy- si Mundella Galenum.> < 40> sunt. Quod monui de Hippocratis locctione cuplò tibi esse curæ. Trincauella in suo de piæ paratione & co[n]coctione humorum co- mentario videtur Aphor. vlt. 1. partic. Epid. 6. segniter tractare. Dum iis, qui cruenta ex- spuunt in pleuriude non dicit secandam ve- nam: affirmat Galenum ideo censere, quia non sit magnus morbus, cuius & exempla recitas. Si est à bile, vt idem tenset, maximus est. Ego ullam causam dicerem, videlicet, < Quando in piuere idem secundus sit vana.> < 30> quod iam materia amplius non fuit, eum cruenta reilciuntur, & vlcus est apertum. Ideo scopus missionis sanguinis amplius no[n] propositus. Nec detrahendæ tunc sunt vi- res natura occupata in expulsione. Neque materiæ quæ cuacuatur à natura motus impediendus. Fuchsius dicit, hæc ponenda in iis, quæ tolli Hippocrati nota fuerunt, nec quærendum amplius, orem miseram: De his antem allas. Quæ de P. Manutio scribis cognoui libenter. Sed librorum fortasse sa- tis est, cum studii sit parum. Quicquid mise- ris gratum erit. In Hippoc. non tam quicqua[m] ex peto mea causa, quam tua in primis & po- steritatis. Eum te ingenio tuo & liberali do- ctrina locupletaturum plane non dubito, atque vt prodesse possis plurimis, & meis et- iam opto. De quarto morborum genere vi- delicet à tota substantia videmus aliquid af- firmasse quoque vetces, vt apparet io com. Gale in lib. de nat. hum. & 6. Epid. com. 6. Quæ enim spiritum naturalem atque calo- rem innatum oppugnant, ea certe ad mor- bum in temperatura non possunt referri, sed videbimus rationes Trincauellæ. Vsus < Quare ana conuenientia.> garyophyllorum in quartana admodu[m] pro- dest, & magis quam piperis integri. Item hæ inunctio ventriculi: < 21.> 21. Olamygdal. dulc. 3j. Medulla crurium vituli 3ß. Mastich. pulu. 3j. Ol. garyophyllor. gr. vj. Misce. < Calor venti in fæbribus.> Renum intempertes calida non sine pericu- lo corrigitur in senib. Ego magno successu vsus sum succo Portulacæ cum succo gly- cyrrhizæ. Interdu[m] etiam potlooe aq[ui]æ fra- gorum, quæ est suauissima, atq[ue] in eunte ve- re vsu asparagorum. Non vitupero tamen emulsionem seminum frigidorum. Inter- dum ante coenam darem ius ex papauere al- bo. Videbis mtrifice prodesse, præsertim si loco sacchari syrup. è succo violarum addas. Expulsionem illam erysipelatodem nunc cessare non est mirum. Expurgaodi autem < Expulsio ery sipol. Serum odios cens.> erunt serosi humores atque acriores, inter- dum vsu Rhabarbari cum terebinthina, sae- charo & puluere glycyrrhizæ, atque modi- eo cinamomi. Ad emolliendam aluum plu- rimum valet, & sine molestia eam mouet se- queos medicamecetum: < Syrupus de frina cerni- na emolliens alium.> 22. Succi spinæ ceruinæ, Mellis ana lb j. Sacchar. 3. iij. Decoque ad spissitudinem mellis, datur ab 3ß v[er]sque ad 3j.ß. Ego adderem parum < Geferunt.> zinziberis vel cinamomi, Geferus scribit se vsum 3ß pul. gratiolæ cum syrupo ex aci- nis tambuci. Succut gratiolæ cum cina- momi & mastycis puluere multo rectius purgat, & munos ventriculum offendit. Iu- li inglandis per vomitum sine molestia pur- gans, hoc modo. 23. Seminis vrticæ. Raphani, ana 3jß. Iulorum inglandis 3ij. Hydromelis clari 3ij. Fiat potio, etiam si per se soli Iuli cum Hy- dromel. faciuet. Lapis calamitaris cum < Hamer. de lov.> aqua

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EPISTLE 212 this consists in the explanation of a single word. Mauhiolus wrote to me that he has another edition of his Epistles in hand. I asked him not to involve me in the quarrels of the Herbarii. For since they fight chiefly over authorities, it is necessary to conclude that those authorities are inspired differently, as our Galen says, namely, more gloriously. I myself hold that cauteries are better for epileptics. < Cauteries > neither epilepsy. I But so great is the negligence of our surgeons that they cannot be ready to provide us with such remedies. I would write more, but the messenger is demanding the letter. Farewell. The day before the Kalends of January. EPIST. CXIX. TO THE SAME, THE SAME. < 10> WHEN, on the preceding days, I was returning from the court of our Bishop and Duke George, my wife in childbed handed me your letter, dated 4 June, and a letter from your father on nearly the same subject. He says that he accepts the reason you give for the delayed journey to Syria, and that he thinks it best to do so. Yet he would have been more at ease if you had used that opportunity without his knowledge. My dear Joachim, it is no small matter to see places where there are no people, and to seek dangers is a matter of reckless curiosity. Frobenius is now printing Galen with the index of D. Aloysius Mundella, in a praiseworthy way. I saw the first page which Geiner sent me; the index has been made with such diligence that it includes not only individual words, but all topics, and may truly be called an epitome of Galen and Hippocrates. Pero is now working on ours. In the anatomical notes of Fallopius, which D. Paulus sent me in writing, there are many paradoxes. < Index of Aloy- sius Mundella on Galen.> < 40> What I mentioned about Hippocrates’ reading I want you to take great care over. Trincavella, in his commentary on the preparation and concoction of humors, seems to handle the last aphorism, first part of the sixth Epidemics, rather carelessly. While discussing those who spit blood in pleurisy, he does not say the vein should be cut; he affirms that Galen thought so for this reason, because it is not a great disease, of which you also cite examples. If it is from bile, as he thinks, it is the greatest. I would give another reason, namely, < When in pleurisy the same vein should be opened.> < 30> that by then there was no more matter, since the bloody discharges are rejected, and the ulcer is open. Therefore the goal of bloodletting is no longer proposed. Nor should the forces then be drawn away, since nature is occupied in expulsion. Nor should the material that is being evacuated by nature’s movement be hindered. Fuchsius says that these things should be placed among those matters that were known to Hippocrates and should not be sought further, poor soul. On these things, however, you may see others. I have gladly learned what you write about P. Manutius. But perhaps enough books, when there is too little study. Whatever you send will be welcome. In Hippocrates I seek not so much anything for my own sake, as for yours first and for posterity. I have no doubt at all that you will enrich him with your talent and liberal learning, and I also wish that you may be of benefit to many, including mine. On the fourth kind of disease, namely that arising from the whole substance, we see something affirmed too, as appears in the commentary on Galen, in the book On the Nature of Man and in the commentary on the sixth book of the Epidemics. For those things which attack natural spirit and inborn heat certainly cannot be referred to disease in temperament, but we shall examine Trincavella’s reasons. The use < Why the same is to be considered.> of garyophylls in quartan fever is quite helpful, and more so than whole pepper. Likewise this ointment for the stomach: < 21.> 21. Sweet almond oil, 3j. Calf’s marrow, 3ß. Mastic, powdered, 3j. Clove oil, 6 grains. Mix. < Heat of the kidneys in fevers.> An intemperate heat of the kidneys is corrected with danger in old men. I have used with great success juice of purslane with juice of licorice. Sometimes also a potion of strawberry water, which is very pleasant, and in spring a use of asparagus. Yet I do not criticize an emulsion of cold seeds. Sometimes before dinner I would give a broth made from white poppy. You will see it wonderfully beneficial, especially if in place of sugar you add syrup from the juice of violets. It is not surprising that that erysipelas-like eruption is now ceasing. But the serous and more acrid humors will need to be purged, sometimes by the use of rhubarb with turpentine, sugar, and licorice powder, and a moderate amount of cinnamon. < Eruption ery- sipela- Serous matters to be purged.> To soften the bowels, the following medicine is very effective and moves them without discomfort: < Syrup of stag’s- horn that softens the bowels.> 22. Juice of buck’s-thorn, honey, equally, 1 lb. Sugar, 3 iij. Boil down to the thickness of honey; it is given from 3ß up to 3j.ß. I would add a little < Geferus.> ginger or cinnamon. Geferus writes that he used 3ß of powdered gratiola with syrup made from elderberries. Juice of gratiola with cinnamon and powdered mastic purges much more properly and harms the stomach less. Meal of galls, purging by vomiting without discomfort, in this way: 23. Seeds of nettle. Radish, equally, 3jß. Meals of galls, 3ij. Clear hydromel, 3ij. Let a drink be made; even if the galls alone with hydromel would suffice. Loadstone with water < Hamer. de lov.>

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213 MEDICINALES. 214 aqua rosarum tritus, & butyro commixtus valde dolorem hæmorrhoidum sedat. V- ex oculare Rudingeri ex eodem lapide, sen cad- mia, atque axungia hitci nigri facit vnguentum oculare, addidit nescio quæ alia, vidi conferre lippientibus. Bene vale. Vratislau. 19.Iulii: Anno 1561. E P I S T. CXX. IDEM EIDEM. < 10> Legi hisce diebus commentariolum D. Trincauellæ de causa coniuncta, & nisi eum vehementer mihi placuisse vere affirmarem mentiar. Quid autem in eo desiderem, < Trincauella de causa coniuncta.> quae in parte mihi non satisfaciat, scribam ad te quantum in ista festinatione potero, plenissime. Primum mecum sentit cum hanc etam disceptionem, quæ inter plurimos est hæquaxias esse putat, ipse vero nimium eius Philosphorum leges < Coniunctus diffensus Cratonis de eadem causa> mihi viderit sequi, dum morbum sientem morbum dici non vult. Nam siquidem reuera sic se res habet, cur considerationem illam de temporib. morborum necessariam ducimus, vt reuera ducimus? Cur morbos < Schickius.> cogitior esse dicimus? An non cogitior morbus est etiam pugior quiddam. Recte autem existimat cum fundamentum huius disputationis hanc quæstionem esse statuit. Sed non satis recte neque stoicos, neque Arabes, vt pace tanri viri dicam, accipit. Nam Stoici cogitior cogitior longe alind, ac nos qui Montani doctrinani sequimur, non ponunt dum suam istam causarum concatenationem afferunt. Arabes vero inter causam continentem & coniunctam satis amplum discrimen statuunt. < Galenus po sint causam concatenentem.> Achaud scio an apud Gxcos cogitior cogitior , & cogitior idem sit, vt voluit Schickius. Sed mittamus nomina, ac rem spectemus. Primum qui Galenu[m] negat cogitatoriu[m] causam ponere, is librum de causis pulsum, doctrinam Aphorismorum, in primis autem comment. tertium libro 6. Epid. se nunquam aspexisse faterut. At Galenus 1. de causis pulsum manifeste cogitatoriu[m] cogitior ab alterantibus discernit, cum Auic. Fen. 2. Doct. 11. sui canonis perspicue inter alterantes numeret. Non igitur Galeni causa cogitatoriu[m] & Auic. coniuncta idem sunt. Cum autem medici sit considerare < 50> causam prout possit alterare, vel mutare corpora, largior hoc D. Trincauellæ ratione curationis morbi non obseruandam esse causam continentem seu cogitatoriu[m] , coniunctam autem seu cogitatorius , necessario respiciendum. Nam cogitatorius , seu continens de essentia rei est vt calor partim naturalis in febri, in vulnere figura. Sed coniunctæ inter alterantes sunt proximæ affe- ctui, vt vapor putridus in febre putrida. < 60> Quia inter hunc & affectum non est medium. Continens igitur remouet effectum vniuersaliter. Coniuncta non plane remouet effectum, sicut neque semper statuit. Non enim statim putrescentibus humoribus sequitur febris, neque semper remota putredine cessat febris, etiam si febris putrida esse desinat. Ac coniuncta causa, & cogitatoriu[m] reipsa non differunt, sed tempore atque ordine solum. Eadem enim res potest esse antecedens causa & coniuncta diuerso respectu, & in omnibus morbis, qui habent causas antecedentes, recte ponitur causa coniuncta, id est, proxima, seu inter quam & effectum non est medium, verum non cogitatoriu[m] seu continens. Hanc autem continentem causam Auic. vocat causam non vicariam, id est, quæ cum reipsa plane idem est, seu, vt ille inquit, quæ separata sequitur sanitas, vt remoto calore præternaturali, qui est in corde, consequitur ipsa temperatura cordis in qua sanitas consistit. De his autem agas cum præceptore rueo atque eius sententiam pet scribas. < Causa coniuncta est morbus quomodo different.> Dicet ita, causam continentem atq[ue] morbum idem esse. Fateor, sed quatenus est dispositio seu cogitatoriu[m] , quod ad illam cogitatoriu[m] peruenit, vt actionem naturalem lædat morbum dico; quatenus efficit hoc, seu, vt inepteloquuntur causat læsionem cogitatoriu[m] . Estque reuera inutilis verborum pugna, verum ad dijudicandum discrepantiam doctorum hominum non inutilis. Et si quis commode de hac re post Montanum docuit, certe Trinca uelladocuit. At quod non videt. Auic. in eodem cap. discernere causam continentem à coniuncta, quam inter alterantes collocat, nec in eo Montano præferenti facem accedere vult, miror. Scio autem plerosque concernere ea quæ extant Montanica. Recte, an secus, ad meum iudicium non reuoco. Magnos autem viros existimabam hoc decere, vt rebus veris monstratis, ipsi quantum possunt adiumenti sua doctrina adferant, & quæ nondum satis explicata sunt, aut infirmiora etiam, quam vt possint consistere, ea si vtilia sint illustrare, atq[ue] fulcire, sin minus placide mostratis meliorib[us] remouere studeant. Verum quid fiat videmus. Tantæ sunt aduersationes de morbo totius substantiæ, vt omnes pene veritati contradicant cum quosdam morbos vel sic dici & esse cerussimum sit. Ego quidem plane non dubito, sicut in febre pestilentiat oppugnantur vitales spiritus, ita in morbo Gallico insici naturales. Atque morbum < Talis morb. Gallicus.> Gallicum recte dici morbum totius substantiæ. Rationes meæ istæ sunt. Prima, inuadit

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213 MEDICINALES. 214 aqua rosarum ground up and mixed with butter greatly soothes the pain of hemorrhoids. V- eyewash of Rudinger from the same stone, or cad- mia, and the fat of the black htc make an eyewash ointment; he added, I know not what else; I saw it help those suffering from sore eyes. Farewell well. Wrocław. 19 July: Year 1561. E P I S T. CXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < 10> These past days I read the little commentary of D. Trincavella on the coniuncta cause, and unless I were to affirm very strongly that it pleased me, I would be lying. What then I miss in it, < Trincavella on the coniuncta cause.> what part of it does not satisfy me, I shall write to you as fully as I can in this haste. First, he agrees with me in this error, which is among many, that he thinks there is a difference of hæquaxias , but he himself seems to follow too closely the laws of the philosophers, < Coniunctus diffensus of Crato on the same cause> when he does not want a disease that is felt to be called a disease. For if indeed the matter stands thus, why do we judge that consideration of the times of diseases is necessary, if indeed we do so judge? Why do we say diseases are cogitior ? Is not cogitior disease also something pugior ? But he rightly thinks so when he lays down that the foundation of this dispute is this question. Yet he does not sufficiently, nor rightly, accept the Stoics or the Arabs, if I may say so with due respect to so great a man. For the Stoics do not place cogitior cogitior far differently from us who follow the doctrine of Montanus, when they bring forward that concatenation of causes. The Arabs, however, establish a sufficiently broad distinction between the cause containing and the coniunct cause. < Galen can place the concatenating cause.> I do not know whether among the Greeks cogitior cogitior and cogitior are the same, as Schickius wanted. But let us set aside the names and look to the matter. First, whoever denies that Galen posits a cogitatoriu[m] cause has never, as he confesses, looked at the book On the Causes of Pulse, the doctrine of the Aphorisms, and especially the third commentary on Book 6 of the Epidemics. But Galen in the first book On the Causes of Pulse plainly distinguishes the cogitatoriu[m] cogitior from altering causes, while Avicenna in Fen. 2, Doct. 11 of his Canon clearly counts it among the altering causes. Therefore Galen's cogitatoriu[m] cause and Avicenna's coniunct cause are not the same. And since it is the physician's task to consider < 50> the cause insofar as it can alter or change bodies, I concede, on D. Trincavella's reasoning, that in the cure of disease the containing cause, or cogitatoriu[m] , is not to be observed, but the coniunct cause, or cogitatorius , must necessarily be regarded. For the cogitatorius , or containing cause, belongs to the essence of a thing, as heat partly natural in fever, or form in a wound. But the coniunct causes among altering causes are closest to the affection, as putrid vapor in putrid fever. < 60> Because between this and the affection there is no middle term. The containing cause therefore removes the effect universally. The coniunct cause does not entirely remove the effect, just as it does not always establish it. For fever does not follow immediately once the humors have begun to rot, nor does fever always cease when the putrefaction is removed, even if the putrid fever ceases to be putrid fever. And the coniunct cause and the cogitatoriu[m] do not in reality differ, but only in time and order. For the same thing can be an antecedent cause and a coniunct cause in different respects, and in all diseases that have antecedent causes, the coniunct cause is rightly posited, that is, the proximate one, or that between which and the effect there is no middle term, but not the cogitatoriu[m] or containing cause. Avicenna calls this containing cause the non-vicarious cause, that is, the one which is in reality absolutely the same as the thing itself, or, as he says, that whose separation is followed by health, as when the unnatural heat that is in the heart is removed, the very temperature of the heart follows, in which health consists. But discuss these matters with your teacher and write to him asking for his opinion. < The coniunct cause is the disease how it differs.> He will say thus: the containing cause and the disease are the same. I agree, but insofar as it is a disposition or cogitatoriu[m] , and when that cogitatoriu[m] reaches it, I call it disease, insofar as it harms natural action; insofar as it brings this about, or, as the ineptly speak, causes the injury, cogitatoriu[m] . And truly it is a useless battle of words, yet for judging the disagreement of learned men it is not useless. And if anyone after Montanus has taught on this matter with propriety, certainly Trincavella has taught it. But what he does not see, I wonder, is that Avicenna in the same chapter distinguishes the containing cause from the coniunct one, which he places among the altering causes, nor does he wish in that to go along with Montanus, who prefers to carry the torch. I know, however, that most concern themselves with the Montanian works that exist. Whether rightly or otherwise, I do not bring it back to my judgment. But I used to think it fitting for great men that, once true things have been shown, they themselves should bring as much help as they can with their doctrine, and that things not yet sufficiently explained, or even weaker than that they may be able to stand, if they are useful, they should illuminate and support; but if not, they should, once better things are shown, quietly seek to remove them. Yet what happens, we see. So great are the disputes about disease of the whole substance that almost all contradict the truth, though certain diseases are indeed such by name and in fact, most certainly so. I, for my part, do not doubt at all that, just as in pestilential fever the vital spirits are attacked, so in French disease the natural spirits are infected. And that the French disease is rightly called a disease of the whole substance. These are my reasons. First, it invades

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principes partes, neque omnes simul, sed primum epar, sicut febris pestilentialis cor. Secunda, qvia non tollitur medicamentis methodo repertis, & contrariis qualitatibus pugnantibus, atque naturæ auxilium feren- tibus. Interea non nego à contagione con- seqvi intemperiem manifestam, sicut in pe- stilentia putredinem prauam superantem longe vulgaris putredinis co[n]ditionem. For- mam autem istius veneni dico habere cau- sam coelestem, & propter hanc alios aliis ci- tius affici. Sed de his scripsi nuper. Neque disputo, sed vera sic sentio, non discessurus ab hac sententia donec meliores rationes <Calor immat. Hip et herent.> viderim. Velim etiam te quærere à præce- pore, an non in libro de carnibus Hippocr. calorem congenitum coelestem affirmet. Certe Æthereum dicit, & discernit ab igneo elementari. Quæro vtrum in 6. Epid. par. 5. Hipp. opponat & . Et <20> an recte cibos imbecilliores interpretetur olera, atque fructus arbores, cum videa- mus, & historiæ nos doceant, iis vsos sæpe esse longæuos. In Hipp. lectione velim te in singulis dictis, maxime in aphorismis, dili- genter primum non solum rerum: verum etiam nominum etymologicas definitiones inuestigare. Id si fecisset Caluus, minus de- formitatis & perplexitatis haberent eius < Hippocræri. calculio quæ tui.> versiones. Deinde in dinisionibus studiosè, <30> an sint sufficientes, videre. Exempli loco sit, cum in part. 7. sexti Epid. , videlicet, an hac diuisione nihil sit omnium, singularu[m] mem- bra explicanda. Inprimis autem quid sit , <4> &c. In recitatione autem exemplo- rum diligenter symptomata ad suas causas deducenda sunt, resoluenda omnia, & an sententia Hippocratis in syllogismum de- <40> monstratium possit concludi, videndum. Qui hic Hippocratem legit, is hauddubie adjuutus à cognitione Græcæ linguæ, philo- sophia, & doctrina medicorum veterum, inprimis inter Latinos Celsi, in Hippucrate <Calvus.> ea videbit, quæ à multis nondum sunt ani- maduersa. Quæ nuper de dentitione & la- <50> ditatione scripsi velim tibi esse curæ: Vnde lacà semine istam malignitatem acquirit, vt <Las à semine no corruperi.> etiam epilepticos pueros medicis reddere videatur. Bene valè. Vratisl. 28. Iul. Anno 1561. EPIST. CXXI. IDEM EIDEM. ANTE dies octo plenissimas litteras ad te dedi meamque sententiam de cau- sa continente atque coniuncta tibi aperui. Scripsi etiam quædam 19. Iulii de nutritione & dentitione infantum. Nam sententia illa, quæ est in primo de tuenda sanitate, quæ præcipit, vt quæ mammam dant à Venere plane abstineant, ne lactis odor pereat, non satis munita rationibus videtur. Multo mi- minus illa Plinii lib. 18. c. 19. cum de Colostra- tis infantib. agit, & concipere nutrices pue- <Am granda Lactare de- beant.> ris exitiosum pronnociat. Moueor non tan- tum exemplis; verum etiam dictorum fir- miores rationes requiro. Illud vero quod afferu[n]t practici pueros fieri epilepticos nus- quam tatis declaratum animaduerto. Gale- no assentior quidem, qui dicit lac amittere odorem, & scio quid afferat com. 3. in pro- gnost. Quanque mutationi atq[ue] alterationi leuibus de causis lac obnoxium sit non igno- ro, veru[m] mo[ti]o, illud esse quod dicit 5. de simpl. med. fac. lac infinita lædunt sentio, sed ex- plicatam rem integre nusquam conspicio. Quæ de admissione mellis in 5. Method. & alibi dicit contra coagulazionem lactis nota sunt, Vnde autem hoc quod coagulum le- poris coagulatum dissoluat. Non dubito quin mihi propemodum in mentem omnia veniant, quæ possunt dici, sed libenter audia[m] sententias eruditorum, easq[ue] cur requiram facile ipse æstimare potes, cum nihil sit gra- uius homini Christiano & parenti, quam sustinere grauem conscientiam. Lectiones illas laudatas Fallopii de morbo Galli- co cuperem profecto videre. Quæso tra- <Curatio Gal lica consensuata.> eat ne curam per oleum vitrioli, & ea, quæ nunc præsertim inunctis prius, quicqueno- dos atque tumores in articulis habent, plu- rimum in vsu est per aquas mercuriales, quas vulgo die arben Wasser vocant. Fit in- fusio radicum pyrethri & aromatum in a- <40> qua vitæ, adduntur metallica quædam, alu- men, &c. Item cantharides & mercurius. Hoc solent inungere articulos maie affe- ctos, & exit post apertas vesicas materia cras- sa, & vtiliter datur decoctum Guaiaci, post- ea ante inunctionem istam faciunt fomen- tationes. Habent hanc curationem, quan- tum video, ex libello Germanico Francisci Renner Norinbergæ edito. De sentien- tia Trincatellæ sum. Est manife- <Serratum im peras. Epile- poticum.> sta distinctio apud Galen. inter , licet in 10. , tanquam nome[m] generis ad statuat. Si fo- cus est in musculis, ad in curatione est respiciendum. Vide lib. 11. Meth. 9. cap. vbi de expurganda putredine agit. Item in 4. cap. vbi de foco. Cæsar in epilepticis hoc remedium pro maximo secreto haber, & ait Doct. Petrum Cauizerum etiam homi- nes prouectæ ætatis, & qui diu hoc mor- bosue-

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the chief parts, and not all at once, but first the liver, as in pestilential fever the heart. Second, because it is not removed by medicines found by method, and by contrary qualities contending, and bringing aid to nature. Meanwhile I do not deny that a manifest distemper follows from contagion, as in pestilence a bad putrefaction greatly surpassing the condition of ordinary putrefaction. For the form, however, of this poison I say has a celestial cause, and because of this some are affected earlier than others. But I wrote about these matters recently. Nor do I argue, but thus I truly think, nor shall I depart from this opinion until I have seen better reasons <Calor immat. Hip et herent.> I should also like you to ask the professor whether, in the book On Flesh, Hippocrates affirms a congenital celestial heat. Certainly he calls it aetherial, and distinguishes it from elemental fiery heat. I ask whether in 6. Epid. par. 5. Hipp. sets against & . And <20> whether he correctly interprets weaker foods as vegetables and tree fruits, since we see, and history teaches us, that long-lived men have often used them. In reading Hippocrates I should like you, in each of his sayings, especially in the aphorisms, to investigate carefully first not only the things themselves, but also the etymological definitions of the names. If Calvus had done this, his < Hippocræri. calculio quæ tui.> translations would have had less deformity and perplexity. Then in the divisions, <30> see diligently whether they are sufficient. For example, when in part 7 of the sixth Epidemics, namely, whether by this division nothing should be explained of all the singular members. Above all, however, what it is, <4> etc. But in the recitation of examples the symptoms must be carefully referred to their causes, all things resolved, and whether the sentence of Hippocrates can be concluded into a demonstrative syllogism, <40> is to be considered. Whoever reads Hippocrates here is doubtless aided by knowledge of the Greek language, philosophy, and the doctrine of the ancient physicians, especially among the Latins Celsus; in Hippocrates he will see things that have not yet been observed by many. What I recently wrote about dentition and <50> lactation I should like to have you care for: whence that malignity is acquired from the seed, so that <Las à semine no corruperi.> it seems even to make epileptic children to be given back to physicians. Farewell well. Wroclaw, 28 July, year 1561. EPIST. CXXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Eight days ago I sent you a very full letter and opened to you my opinion about the cause, both the continuing and the joined one. I also wrote certain things on 19 July about the nourishment and dentition of infants. For that opinion, which is in the first book On the Preservation of Health, which orders that those who give the breast should abstain entirely from Venus, lest the smell of the milk be lost, does not seem sufficiently supported by reasons. Much less that of Pliny, book 18, chap. 19, when he deals with colostral infants, and pronounces it harmful for nurses to conceive while the child is nursing. <Am granda Lactare de- beant.> I am moved not only by examples; but I also seek firmer reasons for the statements. But I observe that what practitioners bring forward, namely that boys become epileptic, has nowhere been clearly established sufficiently. I do indeed agree with Galen, who says that milk loses its smell, and I know what he brings in comm. 3 in Prognostics. Although I am not ignorant of how milk is subject to every change and alteration from slight causes, nevertheless I am troubled by this, that what he says in 5. De simpl. med. fac. that innumerable things injure milk, I feel is so, but the matter as a whole is nowhere explained clearly. What he says in 5. Method., and elsewhere, about the admission of honey against the coagulation of milk is known. Whence this is, that the coagulum dissolves the coagulated milk. I do not doubt that almost everything that can be said comes to my mind, but I would gladly hear the opinions of learned men, and why I ask for them you can easily judge for yourself, since nothing is more grave for a Christian man and father than to bear a heavy conscience. The praised lectures of Fallopius on the French disease I should certainly like to see. I ask that one should not treat the cure by oil of vitriol, and those things which are now especially in common use among those first anointed, who have knots and swellings in the joints, through mercurial waters, which are commonly called die arben Wasser. An infusion is made of the roots of pyrethrum and aromatics in aqua vitae; certain metallic substances are added, alum, &c. Also cantharides and mercury. With these they usually anoint the badly affected joints, and after the blisters are opened there comes out thick matter, and decoction of guaiac is usefully given; afterward, before this anointing, they make fomentations. They have this treatment, as far as I can see, from a German booklet of Franz Renner, published at Nuremberg. As for the opinion of Trincatella, I am of the view. There is a manifest <Serratum im peras. Epile- poticum.> distinction in Galen between, although in 10., as though a generic name should establish it. If the focus is in the muscles, regard must be had to the treatment. See book 11 of the Method, chap. 9, where he deals with cleansing away putrefaction. Likewise in chap. 4, where he speaks of the focus. Caesar in epileptics holds this remedy for a great secret, and Dr. Peter Cauizer also says that men of advanced age, and those who for a long time have had this disease or morbid...

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 218 bo fuerint obnoxii, post purgationes curasse: 27. Cbrystalli præparati ʒj. Corall. rub. præpat. ʒij. Margarit. oriental. ʒj. Smaragd. oriental. præpar. ʒ.β. Misce f. puluis, cuius media pars est vna dosis in aqua taraxici. Bis feci periculum, x- gr[ati]liberati sunt ab epilepsia, sed postea tamé obierunt. Crystalli vsum non existimo es- seturum, & Smaragdus, quo vulgo vtuntur non est verus, sed iapis de Peru, nempe fra- gmenta magni lapidis Prasi. Orientalis, qui in arena reperitur nunc raro apparet, & nul- las fere gemmas habemus in Pharmacopo- lis veras, quam margaritas & hyacinthos. Rubini interdum habentur, Granati & A- metbisti Bobemici non sunt rar. Vide illius lapidis, quem Malachtem vocant qui Tur- cesiam refert, magnam esse vim in roboran- do ventriculo. Calculosi plurimum levan- tur discussis flatibus, & aucto calore visce- rum. Itaque postquam enemata ex solo o- leo arque decocto parietariz in vino inieci, inungo vmbilicum oleo è rerebinthina, è grans iuniperi, & nuce Moschata, adiecta modica cer. Istis oleis imbro lanam xyl- nam, atque calidam vmbilico adhibeo. Ventriculum etiam solo oleo nucis Moscha- tæ inungo. Si quid per superiora exhibere volo, decoctum veronicæ in vino vsurpo. Hac medicatione scio me plurimis in gra- uissimis doloribus profuisse. Habeo, vt nu- per scripsi, in manibus methodum Ther- apeuticam. In prima parte ago de cognitio- ne morborum, in secunda de curatione, in tertio de auxiliis, & recto auxiliorum vsu. Vtinam hunc librum possem absoluere. In tertia parte fortasse aliquid de destillationi- bus agam, de quibus alia methodo rectius scribi posse cogitaui, explicatis videlicet, primum causis concretionis, deinde disso- lunionis, postremo de effectionibus spiritus naturalis separati ab imp[er]nitare materiæ. Fernelius affirmat se sequentium pillula- rum rantam vim experiendo cognouisse, vt nullam cephalalgiam vel hemicraniam ostenderit, quam non curarit: 28. Aloes optimæ ʒβ. Pulcl. de gemmis. Tium santal. Rosar. rubear. a. gr. vj. Nadefæ pedo gra. Cum syruo absinth. & violar. f. massa. Datur ʒj. bis in hebdomada hora vna vel duab. ante coenam. Habeo iam xgrum, cui genu occupauit tumor laxus, & deprehenduntur etiam sentu quidam quasi nodi. Is iam supra annum est apes. Multis reme- diis vsus, etiam thermis & decocto ligni &c falsæ, verum nihil iuuatur. In digitis pe- dum & manum sunt nodi. Adhibui em- plastrum ex ammoniaco, vitriolo vsto & nitro cum diachylo composito. Exir gy- psea materia. Bene vale. Vratisl. 4. Augusti Anno 1561. EPIST. CXXII. IDEM EIDEM. 10 B Revem etiam epistolam tuam boni co- sulerem. Ita sum tuarum cupidus. Scri- psi Vienna aliquoties ante meum disces- sum. Subito posteaquam huc veni, meas per certum tabellarium ad te misi. Aueo co- gnoscere ea, quæ tu vel in Isagoge nostra a- nimaduertisti corrigenda vel in perioche e- mendasti, atque vt contra scripta mittas o- ro. Trincauellicis e quo animo catebo, dum illis vacare possis. Nihil me delectar Vega. 10 In Akomari libellis solidum quiddam re- perio, sed parum perpolitum. Vtinam dili- gêter cognosceremus veterum doctrinam. Fuit hic mecum sectaror quidam disciplinæ Theophrasti qui Ratisbonæ vt illæ narrar medicinam factitauit. Is mirifica somnia narrauit. De quibus ego melius, quam ex o- mnibus hbellis, atque Bacchi mendacilo- quentia de illorum vanitate sum edoctus. I- taq[ue] licet eum istis laruis luctari minime re- ctum purem, tamen nostra firmissima prin- cipia, quæ sunt in Idea Hipp. perspicue pro- posita, istis nugis studiosorum causa oppo- nerem, si typographum reperire possem. Futuræ fortasse essent pagellæ quatuor. Im- perator dicebat folia tiliæ regulare esse re- medium coëtra spasmum flatulentum in gra- uidis quem vulgo gramphum vocant. Ra- dix lili albi cocta cum butyro & adipe gal- linæ, addita farina feminis lini, valde do- lorem hemorrhoidum non fluentium se- dat. profuit vnguentum ex oleo a- mygdalarum, chrysomel nucleorum per- sicorum & momordicæ. Addam medi- camentum ad sanguinem concretum in ventriculo, vtiliter datur succus apii cum melle. Vbi aurem is per vomitum reiectus est, mentha cum vino cocta stomacho ap- plicanda. Delis, quæ sunt in Amato, & pe- stilente febre, quæ morbus Vngaricus di- citur, & cephalalgia exitiosa scribam Praga. Video sectionem venarum in pedibus inter initia plurimum prodesse, & decoctum scordei. Raphanum etiam capiti & pedi- bus appositum. Ad ruffim mirifice deco- ctu raparum cum saccharo candido & bu- tyro, vel oleo amygdalarum dulcium recé- ti prodesse animaduerto. Sed detrahen- dus est illis cortex, & primæ cocturæ aqua K Idea Hippo- crastica Cras- tonus. Spasmoni fla- tulentens. Hemorhoidum dolor. Sanguis con- cresca in ven- triculo. Morbus vngaricum. Calculus.

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MEDICINALES. 218 if they had been subject to it, after purgations I have treated them: 27. Prepared Crystals ʒj. Prepared red Coral ʒij. Oriental Pearls ʒj. Prepared Oriental Emerald ʒ.β. Mix, make a powder, of which the half part is one dose in water of taraxicum. I made the trial twice, and they were freed from epilepsy, but afterwards they nevertheless died. I do not think the use of crystals would be lasting, and the emerald, which is commonly used, is not genuine, but a stone from Peru, namely frag- ments of the great Prasian stone. The Oriental one, which is found in sand, now appears rarely, and we have almost no true gems in the apothecaries’ shops, except pearls and hyacinths. Rubies are sometimes available, garnets and Bohemian amethysts are not rare. See how much power there is in that stone which they call Malachite, which resembles turquoise, in strength- ening the stomach. Stone sufferers are very much relieved, the flatulence being dispersed and the heat of the viscera increased. Therefore, after I had injected enemas made from oil alone and a decoction of parietaria in wine, I anoint the navel with oil from turpentine, juniper berries, and nutmeg, with a moderate addition of wax. With these oils I soak cotton wool, and apply it warm to the navel. I also anoint the stomach with oil of nutmeg alone. If I wish to administer anything by the upper passages, I use a decoction of veronica in wine. By this treatment I know that I have helped very many in the severest pains. I have, as I recently wrote, in hand the Therapeutic Method. In the first part I deal with the recognition of diseases, in the second with treatment, in the third with remedies, and the proper use of remedies. Would that I could finish this book. In the third part perhaps I shall discuss something about distillations, concerning which I have thought that it could better be written in another method, namely, first explaining the causes of coagulation, then of dissolution, and lastly the effects of natural spirit separated from the impurity of matter. Fernelius affirms that by experience he has recognized such power in the following pills, that he did not show any headache or hemicrania which he did not cure: 28. Best aloes ʒβ. Powder of gems. Indian sandalwood. Red roses, aa. gr. vj. Nadæ pedo gra. With syrup of absinthe and violets, make a mass. Give ʒj. twice a week one or two hours before supper. I now have a patient whose knee has been occupied by a loose swelling, and there are also perceived certain nodes as it were. He has now been ill for more than a year. Having used many remedies, even baths and a decoction of wood, and so on, yet he is helped by nothing. In the fingers of the feet and hands there are nodes. I applied a plaster made from ammoniac, burned vitriol, and nitre with compound diachylon. A gypsum-like matter came out. Farewell. Breslau, 4 August Year 1561. EPIST. CXXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. 10 B I should also consider your latest letter to be welcome. So eager am I for yours. I wrote from Vienna several times before my departure. Soon after I came here, I sent my letters to you by a certain messenger. I am eager to learn what you have noted as needing correction in our Isagoge or what you have amended in the Perioche, and I ask that you send in return what you have written against it. I will keep myself away from the Trincavellic matters while you can devote yourself to them. Nothing delights me more than Vega. 10 In Akomari’s little books I find something solid, but not very polished. Would that we could diligently know the doctrine of the ancients. There was here with me a certain follower of the discipline of Theophrastus, who at Regensburg, as he tells it, practised medicine. He related marvelous dreams. From these I have been taught more clearly than from all the books, and by Bacchus’s lying eloquence about their emptiness. Therefore, although I judge it by no means right to struggle with those masks, still I would set our firmest principles, which are clearly set forth in the Idea Hipp. against these trifles for the sake of students, if I could find a printer. Perhaps it would amount to four sheets. The Emperor said that linden leaves are a regular remedy against flatulent spasm in pregnant women, which the common people call gramphum. The root of white lily, cooked with butter and chicken fat, with flaxseed flour added, greatly soothes the pain of non-bleeding hemorrhoids. An ointment from almond oil, kernels of peaches, and momordica was helpful. I will add a remedy for blood congealed in the stomach: juice of parsley is usefully given with honey. When that has been rejected by vomiting, mint boiled with wine should be applied to the stomach. I shall write from Prague about delays, which are in Amatus, and about the pestilential fever, which is called the Hungarian disease, and about destructive headache. I see that venesection in the feet is very useful at the beginning, and a decoction of scordium. Radish also applied to the head and feet. For redness I notice that a decoction of turnips with white sugar and butter, or fresh sweet almond oil, helps wonderfully. But the rind must be removed from them, and the water of the first cooking K Idea Hippo- crastic Cras- tonus. Flatulent spasm. Pain of hemorrhoids. Blood con- gealed in the stomach. Hungarian disease. Stone.

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219 EPISTOLA 210 abiiicienda. Nephtiticis etiam prodest. Be- ne vale & rescribe. 14. Septemb. Anno Chri- sti 1564. EPIST. CXXIII. IDEM EIDEM. Hic dies renouat mihi memoriam tui amicissimi facti, cum ante annum te comitem itineris in Pannoniam, Vestrisses a- nimi posses depellere curas, mihi adiunxit. < 10> D[omi]no autem benignissimo gratias ago, qui propitius in quod nobis adsuit, & res nostras opinione mea melius gubernauit, huncque oro, vt porro clementer iis interesse & præsesse velit. Sine illius enim gubernatione & con- stodia, nihil intum, nihil rectum. Me qui- dem cogitatio de prouidentia diuina, cui nos plane submittere debemus, magis in ad uersis, quam omnia sapiens i æ consilia sub- leuat. Peto à te si quod legisti bonum scri- ptum de peste, vt me moneas, quo inspicere possim. Nam ego tres meos libellos rursus in manus sumpsi. Quid antem dico de trib. li- bellis, cum vix tot pagellas de informatione eorum reperiam. Multa cum multis egi per epistolas, ac Trincauellica quoq[ue] diligenter inspexi, verum nihil reperio, in quo vel mihi vel sibi etie magnus illâ medicus satisfaciat. < 20> Cnm. n. suas cogitationes de febri hectica pestilente explicare conatur, & Montani sen- tentiam de putredine in substantia cordis refutare, valde & se & alios intricat. Cnpe- rem videre priuatas illius exercitationes de hoc argumento. Ad eas enim remittit audi- tores in hac doctrina, quam à te accepi. Ve- rum scire velim, si pestilentes priuatæ, quæ absque peste homines corripiunt, eandem formam & ideam cum pestilentibus exirio- sis habent cur nô sint ita contagiosæ? Dices quia in his maior putredo. A quia causa quæ < 40> ro? Nimirum quia istæ possunt vel à victu, vel ab aere in qualitatibus mutatis oriri, hæ vero nunquam, nisi aer à tota substâtia mu- tetur, vel semina pestilentiæ, id est, venena- tam qualitatem ab expiratione continent. Ad illam autem venenatam qualitatem pel- lendam, seu ad putredinem, quæ hausto ve- neno aereo in corporibus consequitur, non valent remedia, quibus vtimur in putridis febribus, sed necesse est alexipharmaca ad- < 50> hibere, vt curationes indicant. Ac cum se- minarium ipsum in substantiam cordis pe- nettat, pestilentem illam exitiosam & im- medicabilem, quam hecticam appellant, indueit. De his atque aliis tuas cogitatio- nes legere cupio. Nam meas in magna fe- stinatione explicare nunc non possum. De motto totius substantiæ minus puto esse concertandum. Etsi temperamenta quoq[ue] suas habere formas, diuersas à forma substâ- < 6> tix sciamus. Ad calculum vesicæ posses ex- periri lac ouium cum bolo. Inunctiones cum succo bursæ pastoris, & similium her- barum. Item inunctiones aquæ ex albu- < 7> mine ouorum destillatæ admodum com- mendant. Caro halicacabi condita cum sac- charo commendatur. Ad catarrhum valde < 8> bolum Tokiensis profuit. Longe eum ante- fero armenæ vt imperatori ex Turcia etiam < Catarrhous.> allata est. Instar bntyri in ore dilabitur, & o- < Bolum Toki stic.> mnes notas veræ boli armenæ habet. Stran- < 9> guriz sederur syrupsus ex succo portulacæ < Strangurca.> & millefolii herba. Existimarem profuru- < Hydrops.> rum vel succos istos inspissatos cum glycy- < Nux vomi-> rhizæ succo. Item frequentem vsum auella- < ta spungu.> narum. Hydropicis magno successu exhi- < 10> beo extrætum è radice iridis. Nucem vo- < 11> micam esse spongiam adnascentem frutici < Nux vomi-> & strangulantem res certa est. Tuas literas < 12> cupidissime expecto, vt eas mittas, & me a- < ta spungu.> mes peto. Bene vale. Vratislau. die 5. No- < 13> uemb. Anno 1564. EPIST. CXXIV. IDEM EIDEM. TVas literas 15. Octob. scriptas accepi < 1> plenas festinationis, quibus quid re- < 2> spôdeam propemodum non habeo. Orium < 3> tibi concedi opto, vt meis possis rescribere. < Questione> Hoc vero tempore nihil velim libentius le- < quadam de> gere, quam tuas obseruationes de peste. Et < 4> primum cur non possit dici morbus totius < 1.> substantiæ. Secundo, vnde aer corrúpatur, < 2.> eú à causis inferiorib. non corrumpitur, & < 4> cur non loquendum nobis sit de causis co- < 5> lestibus, cum de aliis causis procatarcticis < 6> prolixe agant Medici quas eq[ue] atque istas cu < 7> rare nequeunt. Tertio an expirationes mor- < 8> bidæ, quæ in aere continentur, item in vesti- < 9> bus, &c. & inspiratione attrahuntur à primis < 10> qualitatibus, sint noxiæ, & putredinem exi- < 11> tisalem inducant. Quarto, qnomodo semi- < 12> naria putredinis tam diu in rebus ficcis & < 13> porosis contineantur. Ita vt à literis & char- < 14> tis sibi Itali metuant. Si vulgaris est putredo, < 15> quomodo fouetur ibi, vbi nulla est humidi- < 16> tas. Si conditionem vulgaris putredinis ex- < 17> cedit, cur damnantur ij, qui venenum ap- < 18> pellant, qui discernunt pestilentes putridas, < 19> id est, ab intemperie aeris à primis qualitat- < 20> bus murati, vel ab humoribus prauis in cot- < 21> pote collectis dictas, vt sunt febres cum pe- < 22> techiis & papulis, à veris pestilentibus. Quin < 23> to, cupio scite, an aer secundum totam sub- < 24> stantiam corruptus, ea corruptio putredo < 25> rectè dicatur. Sexto, an non ea ex quibus < 26> constat

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219 EPISTLE 210 to be thrown away. It also helps in nephritic ailments. Farewell and write back. 14 September, in the year of Christ 1564. EPIST. CXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. This day renews for me the memory of your most friendly deed, when a year ago you, as companion of the journey into Pannonia, were able to drive away the cares of your mind and joined yourself to me. <10> But I give thanks to the most gracious Lord, who kindly was present with us, and governed our affairs better than I had expected; and I pray Him to continue mercifully to be present at and preside over them. For without His guidance and protection, nothing is sound, nothing right. Indeed, the thought of divine providence, to which we must wholly submit ourselves, strengthens me more in adversity than all the counsels of the wise. I ask you, if you have read anything good written about the plague, to let me know, so that I may look into it. For I have again taken up my three little books in hand. Yet why do I speak of three little books, when I can hardly find so many pages about their diagnosis? I have treated with many people by letters, and have carefully examined Trincavelli as well; but I find nothing in which that great physician satisfies either me or himself. <20> For when he tries to explain his thoughts about pestilential hectic fever, and to refute Montanus’ opinion about putrefaction in the substance of the heart, he greatly entangles both himself and others. I should like to see his private exercises on this subject, for to these he refers his readers in this doctrine which I received from you. But I should like to know, if the private pestilences that attack men without plague have the same form and idea as the deadly pestilences, why are they not equally contagious? You will say: because in these there is greater putrefaction. But why is that the cause? Surely because those can arise either from diet or from air altered in its qualities, whereas these never arise unless the air is changed in its whole substance, or contain the seeds of pestilence, that is, a poisonous quality from exhalation. <40> But to drive away that poisonous quality, or the putrefaction which follows in bodies after poisonous air has been breathed in, the remedies we use in putrid fevers are not effective; rather, alexipharmics must be employed, as the treatments show. And when the very seed penetrates into the substance of the heart, it produces that pestilential, destructive, and incurable condition which they call hectic. I desire to read your thoughts about these and other matters, for at present, in my great haste, I cannot explain mine. As for the whole issue of substance, I think there is less to be disputed. Although we also know that temperaments have their own forms, different from the form of substance. <6> For bladder stone, you could try sheep’s milk with bole. Inunctions with the juice of shepherd’s purse and similar herbs are recommended. Likewise, inunctions with water distilled from the albumen of eggs are strongly recommended. The flesh of halicacabos preserved with sugar is praised. For catarrh, the Tokian bole has helped greatly. I much prefer it to Armenian bole, such as was also brought from Turkey for the emperor. It melts in the mouth like butter, and it has all the marks of true Armenian bole. For strangury, a syrup made from the juice of purslane and yarrow is prepared. I would think that these thickened juices, together with the juice of licorice, would also be useful. Likewise, frequent use of hazelnuts. In dropsical patients I have had great success with an extract from the root of iris. It is certain that the nux vomica is a spongy growth attached to the shrub and strangling it. I await your letters most eagerly; send them, and I ask to be loved by you. Farewell. Wroclaw, 5 November 1564. EPIST. CXXIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received your letter written on 15 October, full of haste, and I scarcely have anything to reply. I wish you leisure so that you may write back to my questions. For the present, I would most gladly read your observations on the plague. And first, why it cannot be called a disease of the whole substance. Second, whence the air becomes corrupted, since it is not corrupted by inferior causes, and why we should not speak of celestial causes, when physicians discuss at length other procatarctic causes, which they are no more able to cure than these. Third, whether morbid exhalations, which are contained in the air and also in clothing, etc., and are drawn in by breathing, are harmful and produce deadly putrefaction. Fourth, how the seeds of putrefaction can remain so long in dry and porous things, so that the Italians even fear letters and papers. If putrefaction is common, how is it nourished there where there is no moisture? If it exceeds the condition of ordinary putrefaction, why are those condemned who call it poison, who distinguish pestilential putrid fevers, that is, those so called from an intemperate air altered in its primary qualities, or from bad humors collected in the body, such as fevers with petechiae and papules, from true pestilences? Fifth, I wish to know precisely whether air corrupted in its whole substance should correctly be called putrefaction. Sixth, whether the things from which it consists...

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 121 constat corpus humanum cohæreat per for mam substantialem quam expellat putredo venenata, ita vt sequatur dissolutio & mor- bus torius substantiæ. Materia certe omnis nisi à forma temperamenti vel substantiæ conseruatur ad nihilum tendit. Ea putredo quæ temperiem lædit, efficit morbum in temperie, quæ substantiam ipsam, morbum substantiæ. Septimo, an non calori naturali, qui sustinet forma[m] sit contrahius calor præternaturalis. Non simplex, sed is in quo pu- redo ad gradu[m] veneni accedit. Id eoq[ue] vt ex teræ venena cor maxime petit. Octauo, cum nulla materia sit absq[ue] forma qualis forma sit in putredine. Et an nimia humiditas recte dicatur forma, vt placuit D. Iulio. Nono, an non recte dicamus temperamentum atque qualitates in materia instruméta per quam forma est effieax. Decimo, An non diffe- rant disputationes philosophicæ & Medicæ de putredine, certe Arist. opponit putredi- nem primæ generationi. Medici cum de putredine humorum agunt de quadam e- bullitione quam fulgus putrida perens cor consequitur, seu corruptione e[st] Obsecro ad hæc responueas. De infuso pul. Antimonii in vino exhibendo hydropicis n[ecess]quam periculum seci, nec facturus sum. Scio quendam dedisse Viennæ: sed illi, qui- bus exhibuit, paulo post extincti sunt. Ela- terium nulli exhibere volui. Dedi acino- rum sanibuci infusum seu emulsionem ma- gno successu. De extracto gratiolæ dixi tibi meam sententiam. Puro etiam de hyoscya- mi foliis pedibus appositis me tibi dixisse. Decoctum cotulæ etiam mirifice prodest, & calami aromatici ex vino, sed alius potus illis, quam serum lactis non concedendus. Ad hydropem mirifice facit succus coch- leaticæ herbæ ad vnciam vnam quotidie sumtus. Præserunt quidam crdnum eo, qui faccharo eoquitur. Materiam aqueam soli- rus sum purgare aenis baccarum sambuci in iusculo coctis, sed longe melius hoc præ- stant folia florum persicorum siccata, atque in iusculo cocta. Copiosè enim aquas edu- cunt, & minime molesta sunt. Est hic quæ- dam venla admodum annosa, ea quotidia- no vsu abnunhii & foliorum persicorum se conseruatam affirmat. Venit nunc mihi in mentem de floribus perfici agenti, quod obseruarum est, folia violarum Marriarum licea ventrem mouere, cum humida, imo succus earum hoc parum præstet. In meo morbo paucissimis medicamentis sum v- sus. Initio cum catarrhus grauis esset, sac- charum cum ambræ in ouo forbili sumsi, sacculum etiam ex santalis, rosis atque am- bracapiti imposui: Nonnunquam in ma- gna debilitate, dilutum margaritarum cum aqua borraginis & cinnam. bibi. Ventricu- lo imposui emplastrum ex ladano, cera atq[ue] ambra. Nunc solam ceram cum succo illo, quem Ambram humidam vocant, inspersis pulueribus ambræ adhibeo. Bene vale. Die Martini, Anno. 1564. EPIST. CXXV. IDEM EIDEM. Kal. Maii ad me scripsisti, te breui vbe- riores ad me daturum, cum accinctus ad ister tunc plura scribere non posses. Ter- tius autem iam agitur mensis, ex quo tuas frustra expecto, & quid de te fiat ignoro. Quanto in iuctu sim propter extinctum sumnium virum D. Seldium existimare potes, cum singularis illius erga me bene- uolentia affectio tibi perspecta sit. Sed Rei- publicæ damno præcipue moueor. Legi Andernacus de peste. q[ui]næ Andernacus de peste scripsit. Quo- modo placeant quæris. Tam grauem me- dicum miror de re tanta ita pueriliter nu- gari. Definit morbum peraculum, & quos- dam pestilentes morbos sine febre esse as- serit. Neq[ue] ab febrem pestilentem sub alia- rum febrium genere comprehendi. Gale- nus certe manifeste 6. Epid. sub pestilentium genere ponit, cumque Hippoc. idem denuò dicit pestilentem febrem denotari ait. Fuchsius hecticam esse arbi- tratur. Libenter autem velim de pestilen- te hectica rationes explicatas legere, & quo- modo ab inspiratione venenata, cor inca- lescat ita hectica atque durabilis febris con- sequatur. Nam de putredine substantriæ cordis plane non assentior Gal. vel Monta- no. Imo de putredine humorum in ipso cor- de admodum dubito, atque rationes Trin- cauellieas, quas in priuatis exercitationibus proposuit videre cupio. In peste plus valet extractum veronicæ, quam cardui. In mor- bo Gallico carduus inprimis vtilis. Venio ad tuum x[il]grum, quem hydropicum furu- rum non dubito. Omnia igitur quæ ad præ- cautionem hydropis faciunt facienda sunt. De rhabarbaro crudo edat quantum po- test. In virium summitates, vel solia roris- marini imponat. In ferculis rorismarinus coquatur. Lici non minus, quam Epari in hoc x[il]gro prospiciendum videtur. Fo- ris adhibeatur ventri vnguentum de suc- cis. In ictero nihil præstantius cuscuta rea perit. Sed iam icteri cura negligenda videtur. Sal absinthii plurimum potest, sicut & suc- cus ex aenis sambuci excoctus. Extenuatis corporibus illud de vini spiritu cum K. 2

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M E D I C I N A L. 121 it is established that the human body coheres through a substantial form, which venomous putrefaction drives out, so that dissolution and the mortal disease of the substance follow. Certainly all matter, unless preserved by the form of temperament or substance, tends toward nothingness. That putrefaction which injures the temperament produces disease in the temperament; that which injures the substance itself, disease of the substance. Seventh, whether the heat contrary to natural heat, which sustains the form, is not that unnatural heat, not simple, but one in which putrefaction approaches the degree of poison. And therefore external poisons especially attack the heart. Eighth, since there is no matter without form, what kind of form there is in putrefaction, and whether excessive humidity may rightly be called a form, as D. Iulius thought. Ninth, whether we do not rightly say that temperament and qualities in matter are instruments through which the form is effective. Tenth, whether philosophical and medical disputes about putrefaction do not differ; certainly Aristotle opposes putrefaction to first generation. Physicians, when they speak of the putrefaction of the humors, speak of a kind of ebullition, whereby a putrid stench follows, or corruption. I beg you to reply to these points. Concerning the administration of an infusion of pulvis Antimonii in wine to dropsical patients, I never made, nor shall I make, any experiment with it. I know of someone who gave it in Vienna; but those to whom he administered it were shortly afterward dead. I was unwilling to administer elaterium to anyone. I gave an infusion, or emulsion, of elder berries with great success. About the extract of gratiola I have told you my own opinion. Also I have told you that I used pure hyoscyamus leaves placed about the feet. A decoction of cotula also helps wonderfully, and aromatic calamus in wine; but no other drink should be allowed them than whey. For dropsy, the juice of the herb cochleatica, taken daily to the amount of one ounce, works wonderfully. Some prefer crdnum with it, boiled with sugar. As for purging watery matter, I myself use only elder berries boiled in broth, but far better than this are dried peach leaves and flowers, boiled in broth. For they draw off much water and are by no means troublesome. There is here a certain very old woman; by daily use of elder and peach leaves she says that she has preserved herself. It now comes to mind, while dealing with the peach flowers, that it has been observed that the leaves of the violet, Marriarum licea, move the bowels when moist, whereas the juice of them produces this effect only slightly. In my illness I have used very few medicines. At the beginning, when the catarrh was severe, I took sugar with amber in a soft-boiled egg; I also placed a little bag of sandalwood, roses, and amber-capitium upon me. Sometimes, in great weakness, I drank diluted pearls with water of borage and cinnamon. On the stomach I applied a plaster made of ladanum, wax, and amber. Now I use only wax with that juice which they call moist amber, with powders of amber sprinkled in. Farewell. On St. Martin’s day, in the year 1564. EPIST. CXXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. On the Kalends of May you wrote to me that you would soon send me fuller letters, since, being occupied, you could not then write more. But now the third month is already passing, and I await your letters in vain, and I do not know what has become of you. How deeply I am grieved by the death of that most excellent man, D. Seldius, you can imagine, since his singular goodwill and affection toward me is well known to you. But I am chiefly moved by the loss to the commonwealth. I have read Andernacus on the plague. Andernacus on the plague. You ask how it seems to me. I wonder that so grave a physician should trifle so childishly about such a matter. He defines disease as an attack, and asserts that certain pestilent diseases are without fever; nor does he include pestilent fever under the class of other fevers. Galen clearly, in book 6 of the Epidemics, places it under the class of pestilent diseases, and Hippocrates likewise says that pestilent fever is thereby indicated. Fuchsius thinks it to be hectic fever. I should gladly read explanations of pestilent hectic fever, and how, from a venomous inspiration, the heart becomes heated so that a hectic and lasting fever follows. For I do not at all agree with Galen or Montanus concerning putrefaction of the substance of the heart. Indeed I greatly doubt putrefaction of the humors in the heart itself, and I wish to see the Trincavellian reasons which he set forth in private exercises. In plague, the extract of veronica is more effective than that of carduus. In the French disease, carduus is especially useful. I come to your patient, whom I do not doubt to be hydropic from the fumes. Therefore everything that serves to prevent dropsy must be done. Let him eat raw rhubarb as much as he can. Let rosemary tops, or leaves, be placed upon the powers. Let rosemary be cooked in the dishes. For this patient also, lici no less than Epari seems to require attention. Externally, a salve of juices should be applied to the belly. In jaundice nothing is better than cuscuta rea perit. But now the cure of jaundice seems to be neglected. Salt of wormwood can do much, as can the juice boiled from elder berries. In emaciated bodies, that remedy of spirit of wine with K. 2

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213 EPISTOLÆ 224 syrupo acetofo simplici commistum exhi- bendum non censeo. Grauter enim inam ostendit. . præcipuam suam originem ducere ab hypochondriaca affe- ctione pro certo statuo, eriamsi quosdam ni- mia copia singuinis grauatos, vel eos, quib. in pericardio aqua colligitur laborare mini- me negem. In præcautione podagæ dum < Praefatario podagra. > recens est morbus, nihil hydropies vtilius, siue sudores, siue vrinam moueant, cum soli 10 ichores in corpore aucti & retenti atq[ue] cor- rupti fluxionis & inflam mationis causa sint, < Suffras. > cum suppressio vrinæ & sudorum in iis qui sudare consueuerunt, malum præ fotibus esse indicat. Itaque si lignum sarsa- fras vrinas & sudores mouet, prodesse ad præcautionem necesse est. Sed morbo in- ueterato, & natura ita debilitata, vt conti- nuo excrementa ad membra insuma & ca- lore exhausta deponar, nihil vel parum hoc 20 lignum inuabit. Illud videndum, cum sudo- risera (id quod de ligno Guaiaci animad- uerti) crebro exhibira humidum radicale consumant, an nô idem hoc lignum faciat. Cardui quam bis infusis foliis in vitro de- stillatam obsun descentibus auribus pluri- mum prodesse reipsa conperi & meo no- mine posteritati prodes. Vc su[n]t tot meis scri- ptionibus nihil à te elicere me posse video. < Sudorifera humidum radicale ab sumans. > Tarde velle nolitis esse arbitror. Bene vale. Vratislaux. Iulii Vale An. Millesimo, quin- gentissimo, sexagesimo quinto. EPIST. CXXVI. IDEM EIDEM. TVÆ Epistolæ, quam nuper cum iis, quas Threcciùs attulerat misisti, persolui, & meas Clusio, qui attulerat dedi. Nunc cum 40 idem alias dic meo natali, id est, 12. Nouem- bris scriptas adferat, hæc exaraui. De vale- rudine vxoris D. Christophori video te esse solicitum. Fgo superiore anno prius quam hinc discederemus, Quæstoris nostri aulici coniugem curabam, ea erat grauida, & om- nia quæ tu in tua ægra esse scribis, æquippia vero summa. Conualuit ramen beneficio DEI, peperit, & iam nune recte valet. Pau- cissimis medicamenris vsus sum. Adhibui 50 epithemata epati. Valide atti ingentibus nunquam vsus. Nam cum adhiberentur, maximum dolorem capitis patiebatur. De renum affectione nuper scripsi. Si est ærasi- pæone, poterit attrahere per nares aquâ fra- gorum cum croeo matris, ita ferrum vel chalybem vstione præparatum vocari non ignoras. Santali rubri epati prosunt: sed si de scirrho certus, humida admiscenda. Renes semper emolliendi. Medicamentis multis intra corpus grauidæ non essem molestus. in eibo & recta victus ratione plurimum spei. Si non auersaretur, Rhabarbarum da- rem cum conserua florum eichori, vel ro- sarum addito cinnamomo vel santalis. E- mulso margaritarum cum aqua fragorum & cinnamomo mulrum prodest præsertim addita rasura Eboris. Suecus centaurii ma- ioris in grauida suspectus. Nec limaturam < Vnguentum viride. > chalybus probo. Quicquid potero tuæ & D. Christophori causa, quem saluto facturus sum. Vnguentum viride sit ex sclarea in hu- tyro cocta. Vror in hystericis inungendo ventrem inferiorem. Addidi interdum Ta- chan Mahacam, & animaduerti esse efficacius. vel post vsum vnguenti, adhibui em- plastrum vmbilico Memini me vsum Am- bræ, quam vere chyseam veteribus dictam Ambra Chrysa. puto, in consilio contra pestem probasse, & felici successu in morbis pestilentialibus vsum fuisse. Est ea dura admodum, nigri- cans & sulphureas maculas inspersas ha- bens. Hanc primum accepi à nostra Augu- sta. Alia quoque maioris nigredinis habetur, verum longemollior est. Eam vel in piscibus reperiri, vel fictitiam esse arbitror. illa, quam chyseam dixi, vt sulphur nati- uum ardet. Non facit hoc cineritia, quæ vul- go prostat, & optima esse existimatur. Ad ventriculum fouendum vtor nune inun- ctione ex Medulla vni nlica cum oleo nucis Muschatæ. Verum canicula adhibita magis dolorem sedat, & concoctionem qualis- cumque ea est, suo calore adiuanat. Bene va- le. 5. Decembris, Anno 75. EPIST. CXXVII. IDEM EIDEM. ABVI domo tredecim diebus apud Baronem N. N. qui male acceptus est a Paracelsillis. Si euaserit, est quod DEO gratias agat. Adeolicos dolores ac- cessit Epilepsia, atque ita vapores ex inte- stinis & stomacho sublasi cerebrum velli- cant, sicut in paralysi nervos lædun. Sed dolorum vi frangi & debilitari spiritus quo- que in paralysi existimo, atque ita loco mo- rium lædi sicut in furiosis videremus, qui maxima onera tollunt, deinde cum ad se redeunt manus attollere nequeunt. Verum de his scribere non vacat. Cogitationes mes de morbo coningis D. Christophori iam tibi exposui. Cum hydrops in con- spectu sit, iam de scirrho nullum dubium. Magnam igitur in debilissimo corpore cu- ratio

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213 EPISTLES 224 with simple syrup of vinegar mixed in I do not think should be given. For it shows its chief origin, as I firmly maintain, to arise from a hypochondriac affection, although I do not deny that some are burdened by too great an abundance of blood, or that others suffer from water collecting in the pericardium. In the prevention of gout, while the disease is recent, nothing is more useful than hydropic remedies, whether they move sweat or urine, since only ichors, increased and retained in the body and corrupted, are the cause of fluxion and inflammation, that suppression of urine and sweat in those who are accustomed to sweat indicates a grave evil. Therefore, if the wood sarsaparilla moves urine and sweat, it must necessarily be useful for prevention. But in an inveterate disease, and when nature is so weakened that it continually deposits excrements in the limbs, exhausted by dryness and heat, this wood will help nothing or very little. It must be observed, since sudorifics (which I noticed also in the wood of Guaiacum), when frequently administered, consume the radical moisture, whether this same wood does so as well. I have in fact found by experience that carduus, from the distilled juice of its twice-infused leaves in a glass, is very useful for descending ears, and on my own authority I leave it to posterity. Since you are so obstinate in all my writings, I see that I can get nothing from you. I think you are reluctant to be slow in willing. Farewell well. Wroclaw. July, year 1565. EPIST. CXXVI. TO THE SAME. I have repaid your letter, which you recently sent together with those which Threccius had brought, and I gave my letters to Clusius, who brought them. Now, since he has brought another letter dated on my birthday, that is, 12 November, I have written this. I see that you are anxious about the health of the wife of D. Christophorus. Last year, before we departed from here, I was treating the wife of our court treasurer; she was pregnant, and had everything, as you write your sick woman has, in very much the same degree. Yet by the grace of GOD she recovered, gave birth, and is now well. I used the fewest medicines. I applied poultices to the liver. I never used large venesection. For when they were applied, she suffered the greatest headache. I wrote recently about the affection of the kidneys. If it is an erysipelas, water of strawberries with saffron of the mother will be able to draw it out through the nostrils; thus you are not unaware that iron or steel prepared by burning is so called. Red sandalwood benefits the liver; but if there is certainty of scirrhus, moist remedies must be mixed in. The kidneys must always be softened. I would not be troublesome with many medicines inside the body for a pregnant woman. In food and in a proper regimen of diet lies much hope. If she does not object, I would give rhubarb with conserve of chicory flowers or roses, adding cinnamon or sandalwood. An emulsion of pearls with water of strawberries and cinnamon is very useful, especially with the addition of filings of ivory. The juice of greater centaury is suspect in a pregnant woman. Nor do I approve of steel filings. I shall do whatever I can for your sake and that of D. Christophorus, whom I salute. The green ointment should be made from sclarea cooked in butter. I use it in hysterical cases, anointing the lower abdomen. Sometimes I added Tachan Mahac, and I observed that it was more effective. Or, after using the ointment, I applied a plaster to the navel. I remember having used amber, which I think the ancients called chrysea, and having approved it in counsel against the plague, and having used it with happy success in pestilential diseases. It is very hard, blackish, and has sprinkled sulfurous spots. I first received it from our Augusta. Another, of greater blackness, is also found, but it is much softer. I think that either it is found in fish, or that it is artificial. That which I called chrysea burns like native sulfur. The ash-colored kind, which is commonly sold and is thought to be the best, does not do this. For warming the stomach I now use an ointment from marrow of veal with oil of nutmeg. But with a little dog applied, it relieves pain more and aids digestion, such as it is, by its own warmth. Farewell. 5 December, year 75. EPIST. CXXVII. TO THE SAME. I have been out of the house for thirteen days, staying with Baron N. N., who has been badly treated by the Paracelsians. If he escapes, he has reason to give thanks to GOD. To the violent pains epilepsy has been added, and thus the vapors, rising from the intestines and stomach, vex the brain, just as in paralysis they injure the nerves. But I think that the spirits are also broken and weakened by the force of the pains in paralysis, and thus the parts of motion are harmed, as in madmen we would see, who lift the heaviest burdens and then, when they come to themselves again, cannot raise their hands. But there is no time to write about these matters. I have already explained to you my thoughts about the illness of the wife of D. Christophorus. Since dropsy is in sight, there is now no doubt about scirrhus. Therefore, in a very weak body, the treatment...

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ratio difficultatem habet. Libenter mittere < Extra B. Gratiola.> extractum Gratiolæ, sed neque consu- lo, neq[ue] reperio nunc. De extractionib[us] quid scribam, nihil à me tibi denegabitur. Sed si siccam etiam gratiolam habes affuso spiritu vini optime extrahes, deinde addita aqua, in qua Rhabarbarum sit infusum, spiritum atque aquam per balneum Mariæ detrahes, succum ad modicam spissitudinem parum Mastiches asperso coques. De sambuco ve- < Experiorum Vng. in Ex bambus.> nit in mentem quoddam remedium, quod tibi reticere non debeo, præsertim cum sin- gulari modo aliud ages in scripto libro meo repererim, & certo experimento compro- barum legerim. Accipiendi sunt flores sambuci, & cum his contundenda eruca atq[ue] si- mus columbinus, vel piper. Si sambucus non sit recens, aliquid aquæ sambuci admis- cendum ac fingendum Cataplasma, idque buboni applicandum. Ab sciendum, post- 20 eaquam tribus horis iacuerit, in ignem, atq[ue] ter repetendum. Non ratione carere vide- tur remedium, & autor sancte affirmat ma- gno & manifesto successu se eo vsum. Plura alias. Bene vale. 1. Ianuarii. Anno 1576. EPIST. CXXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. < Dabia quædam in febre pestilentiali.> TVAS de febre pestilentiali expeto, ex 30 quibus hæc cognoscere cupio; An exi- stimes Galeno febrem illam, quæ comites habet bubones notam fuisse. An bubo co- mitetur febrem, vel econtra. Et cum focus huius statuatur in corde, quo pacto bubo- nes ad inguina, & parotides expellantur. V- trum hoc genus febrium aliter, quam con- tagione disseminetur. An morbida expira- tio, vt loquirur Hippocrates, vel , vt est in libru de flatibus, aut seminaria putre- 40 dinis, vt apud Galenem, aeres substantiam, quemadmodum voluit Altomarus corrumpant, & an vinum cui venenum commistum sit, rectè corruptum in substantia dicatur. Cum in contagione actio ascribatur formæ propter conuenientiam materiæ, sitq[ue] con- trarietas in substantia, id est, forma alia a- liam expellat, auxilio qualitatum, an non rectè morb. totius substantiæ offensa actionis, quæ consequitur, dicatur. Cum eodem 50 res redeat, si gradus putredinis dicatur ve- nenata qualitas, & venena non primis tan- tum qualitatibus mutent temperiem: sed à tota substantia aduersa sint calori innato. V- trú febris pestilens dicatur mitis, quia in ea magnabumditas & putredo, & an sola de- siccatione curetur. Cum Hippoc. pestilen- tes aeres constitutiones calidas & humidas describit 2. & 3. Epid. cur superior æstas ca- lida & sicca infamis maxime pestilentia fue- rit. Certe Gedani in maxima siccitate plur- mi sunt moitui. Scio vos non curare abdita. Mirut tamè quo ore nominetur venenum, & abdita causa negetur, cuius effectus sunt manifesti, videlicet, putredo insignis longe superans vulgaris conditionem, febris &c oppugnatio calotis atque arcis vitæ. Etsi for- mæ non habent causas coelestes, quæro vn- de sint? An progrediuntur è materia? Quid inquis? Non curamus formam. Medici sin- mus, & artifices sensitiui. Audio, Hoc ta- men teneo, de summis rebus parum etiam scire in primis esse vile & sapientiæ studio conueniens. Non tueor , & existimo remedium experientia inuentis cu[m] ratione secure nos posse vti, sed expectabo tuas literas, atque vt eas mittas oro. Bene va- le. Anno 64. M. Decemb. EPIST. CLXXIX. IDEM EIDEM < Febris curat vbala contagiosa necessario putrida.> DE febri Catarrhali te dubitare an sit pu- rida miror. Contagiosam fuisse non negas. Quomodo autem seminarium con- tagui absque putredine finges? Pestilens non fuit, sed cum seminarium contagionis me- diate aere de corporibus in corpora sit de- latum, sicut pestis seminaria contrahunt. Consequens est, vt per diaphoretica pellen- dum atque exhauriendum, eodem modo quo in peste, fuerit. Videmus si quis coryza atque grauedine laboret, & alium qui cere- brum prædispositum habeat, afflet, insicere, etiam halitu potum vt aliis sit noxius, cor- rumpere. Imo quotus quisque est, qui gra- uedine paulo vehementius laboret & non febriculam sentiat. Patior vt quidam syno- chum generatim nominet, cum vnica ac- cessione finita sit: sed in sanguine fuisse infla- mationem nego, neq[ue] omnem febrem in i- chorib. pestilentem statuo. Hispaniæ Rex ar- dente febre laborauit, XLII. vncias per phle- botomiâ, & plures per scarificationem atq[ue] cucurbitas Medici detraxerût. De foetore ni hil perscriptu sed hoc significatum, omnib. < Vena sistio periculosa.> quibus Mantuæ Carpentariæ sanguis in hac catarrhali febre est missus eos extinctos, & supra duo millia paucis diebus perisso. No[n] dubito, quin in quibusdam corporib. in qui- bus putredo massam sanguineam inuasit, sanguinis missio profuerit: sed vbi ichores infecti fuerunt, & natura per sudorem se ex- onerare voluit, iis minime recte, vel vacu- antia data, vel sanguis missus. Cucurbitulas multis, quibus caput vehementer dolebat, consului. Fratri tuo inunctionem ventri- K 3

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There is difficulty with the ratio. I am willing to send < Extra B. Gratiola.> an extract of gratiola, but I neither have any counsel nor do I now find it. As to extractions, what shall I write? Nothing will be denied you by me. But if you also have dry gratiola, you will best extract it by pouring on spirits of wine; then, with water added in which rhubarb has been infused, draw off the spirit and the water through a Maria’s bath, and boil the juice to a moderate thickness, sprinkling in a little mastic. About elder- < Experiorum Vng. in Ex bambus.> berry, there comes to mind a certain remedy which I ought not to keep from you, especially since, in a singular way, I have found another thing in a written book of mine and have read it confirmed by certain experiment. The flowers of elder should be taken, and with these cress and also pigeon dung, or pepper, should be pounded. If the elder is not fresh, a little elder-water should be mixed in and a poultice made, and that applied to the bubo. But note this: after it has lain on for three hours, put it to the fire, and repeat this three times. The remedy does not seem without reason, and the author solemnly affirms that he used it with great and manifest success. More another time. Farewell well. 1 January. In the year 1576. EPIST. CXXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < Certain doubts about pestilential fever.> I ask your views on pestilential fever, from which I should like to know the following: whether you think, with Galen, that that fever, which has buboes as companions, was known to him. Whether the bubo accompanies the fever, or vice versa. And since the seat of this is placed in the heart, by what means the buboes are driven to the groins and parotids. Whether this kind of fever is spread in any other way than by contagion. Whether the morbid exhalation, as Hippocrates says, or, as is in the book On Winds, or the breeding grounds of putrefaction, as in Galen, corrupt the substance of the air, as Altomarus wished, and whether wine into which poison has been mixed can rightly be said to be corrupted in substance. Since in contagion action is ascribed to form because of the fit of the matter, and since there is contrariety in substance, that is, one form expels another, with the help of qualities, whether it is not rightly said that a disease of the whole substance is an offense of action, which follows. Since the matter comes to the same thing if the degree of putrefaction is called a poisonous quality, and poisons do not alter the temperament only by the primary qualities, but are opposed to innate heat by their whole substance. Whether pestilential fever is called mild, because in it there is great abundance and putrefaction, and whether it is cured by drying alone. Since Hippocrates describes pestilential constitutions of the air as warm and moist in the second and third Epidemics, why was the preceding summer, hot and dry, most notorious for pestilence? Certainly at Danzig, in the greatest dryness, very many died. I know you do not care for hidden things. Yet I wonder with what face poison is named, and a hidden cause denied, when its effects are manifest, namely, notable putrefaction far surpassing the common condition, fever, etc., and an attack on the heat and fortress of life. And although forms do not have celestial causes, I ask whence they come. Do they proceed from matter? What do you say? We do not concern ourselves with form. We are physicians, and sensory practitioners. I hear you. Nevertheless, I hold this: that in the first place it is base and fitting to the study of wisdom to know a little even about the highest matters. I do not maintain, nor do I think that we can safely use remedies found by experience together with reason, but I shall await your letters, and I beg you to send them. Farewell. In the year 64, in December. EPIST. CLXXIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME < Catarrhal fever, if contagious, is necessarily putrid.> I wonder that you doubt whether catarrhal fever is putrid. You do not deny that it was contagious. But how will you imagine a breeding ground of contagion without putrefaction? It was not pestilential, but since the breeding ground of contagion was conveyed through the air from bodies into bodies in a mediated way, just as plagues contract breeding grounds. The consequence is that it had to be driven out and exhausted by diaphoretics, in the same way as in plague. We see that if someone suffers from coryza and heaviness of the head, and breathes on another who has a predisposed brain, he infects him; even the breath, if drunk in, is harmful to others, and corrupts them. Indeed, how few there are who, if they are somewhat more violently troubled by heaviness of the head, do not feel a little feverish. I allow that some generally call it a synochus, since a single attack has ended; but I deny that there was inflammation in the blood, nor do I establish every fever in pestilential ichors. The King of Spain suffered from a burning fever; doctors removed forty-two ounces by phlebotomy, and more by scarification and cupping. Nothing is written about the stench, but this was indicated: that all who in Mantua Carpentaria had blood let in this catarrhal fever were killed, and more than two thousand perished within a few days. I do not doubt that in some bodies, in which putrefaction had invaded the mass of blood, bloodletting was beneficial; but where the ichors were infected, and nature wished to relieve itself by sweat, in those cases it was by no means right either to give evacuants or to let blood. I advised cupping-glasses for many whose head was violently aching. To your brother an inunction of the belly-

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culicum medulla vitulina, additis roborantibus profuturam spero. Vide ne vires ventriculi potionibus obruat, Conserua rosacum cum speciebus aromatici rosati plurimum proderit. Possunt addi semina. non arbitrot verumesse Matasimum præter naturâ sed si est principiù simplicis nô difficilis erit curauo, recta victus ratione seruata. Si cöpo situs Matasinus cum febre, febris non latebit. Hecticam non puto. Neque illum, qui à Philippo ex morbo senium appellatur. Nam ea affectio est frigida. Vale Anno. 1580. EPIST. CXXX. IOEM EIDEM IN thesibus meis teutonice de peste admodum scriptis, ac potius cõtinuo sermone dictatis, me multis vocabulis minime p[ro]prio vsu animaduerto. Dixi di p[ræ]cipua expirationem, parum recte cum ne transpiratio quidem proprie appelletur. Itaque in thesi ni fallor 1. pro expiratione Diaphorissin scribes. Est quidem alia aliorum sententia, verum certo scio, neminem qui in curatione pestis cum iudicio versarus est mihi temerè contradicturum. <Bois armeni vsus. Camphora.> Quid tu inquis, Bolus armena ad diaphorissin facit? Non vtor terrista sola, adhibeo Camphoram, in qua vis diaphoretica summa est, & ambra quæ maxime corroborat. At de sententia Horatil Augenii non habemus terram Armenam veram, inquis? Fac esse non habere eam omnes notas, quas veteres illi tribnunt, neq[ue] lemnia habet. Nam aliquid purior, aliquando impurior ex scaturigine hauritur. Itaque quotannis fere aliam formam illius videmus. Et nonne aliæ quoque terræ mutantur. An vbiq[ue] eandem prorsus argillam & linum effodimus? At inquit de Galeni sententia Horatius, Bolus armena singulare habet priuilegium, vt pesti possit resistere. Non terra illa vngarica, &c. De Italicis, Gallicis, & Hispanicis terris, quarum mentionem facit, & adulteratis pro Bolo vendi affirmat, nescio. Hungarici Tocensem profuisse plurimis in peste Viennæ re comperi. <Bois Potatis sic. Terra Armona.> Ac teriam è Thracia armenam præparatam, id est, à sordib. liberam, & simplicem, prout effossa est, accepi, nullam animaduerti dissimilitudinem. Præparatam esse paulo pinguiorem non præparata deprehendi, ac in ea quam nostrates Pharmacopæi habent, fraudem gustu, cum raucorem pinguedinis perciperet, noster D. Woyselius affirmauit. Vt vt sit in superiori Epide- mico catatrho nihil magis profuisse, quam vsum boli armeni, & cornu ceruini vsti, quod ego eodem loco, quo bolum habet, certo scio. Ac si bolus suspectus sit, omnino suadeo, vt loco boli cornu cerui accipiatur. De viribus autem sic sentio. Esse in illis singularem faculciam cogendi in vnum locum malignitatem impressam humoribus. <Camphoræ.> Itaque vt camphora repurgat spiritus, & serosum humorem. Sic bolus vt cornu etiam cerui in vnum cogit malignitatem & naturam ad expulsionem adiuuat. Videmus hoc tiersi in cei euisia, ea vt maxime sit turbida & corrupta, tamen si iniiciatur creta, continuo sit pura, & saporem meliorem acquirit, atque omnis illa impuritas à creta q. ad se pertrahitur. Potes huius rei periculum facere quando voles. Resistere autem istas terras putredini satis vermium curatio ostendit & idem præstare in vermibus cornu cerui vstum experientia pro me loquitur. Ab lunntur autem terræ istæ, vt admista arena à reliqua terra leparetur, non alia & noua substantia efficitur. Neque si color mutatur, propere a vires pereunt, indifferenter in omnibus corporibus vno medicamento vtendum nemo tanus affirmabit. <Camphora quibus non danda.> Imo fateor Camphoram in illis, qui valde nauseât, vel quibus caput infirmum est, nô adhibendam, vires terræ Lemniz & boli non admodum discrepare concedo. De vomitu in vstu terræ Lemniz quod affirmem non habeo. <Turra Lini.> Hoc faus constat Turcos in cibo vti, nec ter teræ Lemniz, sicuti etiam lapidi Bezoat vilam vim contra pestem tribuet e. <Lapis Bezo.> Esse autem res diuersas bolum armenam, & terram ligillatam Turci atque Armeni affirmant. De mea valetudine se sollicite cogitare tibi gratiam habeo. Me iam multis annis nullo docidamento purgante vsum iam antea scripsi, estque in animo plane ista ætate non adhibere. Scio agaricum cum Oximellite in maximis ventriculi dolorib. plurimum prodesse, & nuper de hoc medicamento D. Hervartum monui. Terram istam Silesiacam Strigensem esse magam nemo dubitat. Habet autem easdem facultates, quas lapis calaminaris qui in Epiphoris & defluxionibus ad oculos cum pinguedine mistus singulare auxilium est. Theses in eas enodare cæpi. Tres sunt scopi in curatione. Vnus à natura moti sumitur, & cum sit maxima in eo malignitas indicatur alexipharmacum, quod vel extinguat venenatum vim illius, ne cor superet, vel in angustam redigat, nese esserat. Id quod bolus armena, cornu cerui, & similia, ita præstant, vt natura vere totam malignitatem ad emunetotia.

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vital calf marrow, with strengthening additions, I hope will be useful. See that it does not overwhelm the strength of the stomach with drinks. Conserved rose syrup with aromatic rose species will be very beneficial. Seeds may be added. I do not think it true that Matasimus is anything beyond nature; but if it is the beginning of a simple thing, treatment will not be difficult, if the right regimen of diet is observed. If the cough-like condition of Matasinus is accompanied by fever, the fever will not be concealed. I do not think it hectic fever. Nor that one which by Philip is called senium from disease. For that affection is cold. Farewell. Year 1580. EPIST. CXXX. TO THE SAME In my theses, written in German on the plague, and rather dictated in continuous discourse, I notice that I have used many words in a manner not at all proper. I said di principal expiration, which is not quite right, since even transpiration is not properly so called. Therefore in thesis no. 1, if I am not mistaken, you will write Diaphorissis instead of expiration. There is indeed another opinion among others, but I know for certain that no one who has acted with judgment in the treatment of the plague will rashly contradict me. <Use of Armenian bole. Camphor.> What do you mean, you ask, does Armenian bolus serve for diaphorissis? I do not use the earth alone; I add camphor, in which the diaphoretic power is greatest, and amber, which especially strengthens. But according to Horatius Augenius, do we not have the true Armenian earth, you ask? Suppose that it does not have all the marks which those ancients attribute to it, nor does it have its lymnia. For it is sometimes drawn from the spring more pure, sometimes more impure. And so almost every year we see a different form of it. And are not other earths changed as well? Do we everywhere dig up exactly the same clay and flax? But, says Horatius, following Galen’s view, Armenian bolus has a special privilege, namely that it can resist the plague. Not that Hungarian earth, etc. Of the Italian, French, and Spanish earths, of which he makes mention, and which he says are sold adulterated in place of bolus, I do not know. I have learned from experience that the Hungarian Tocense has done much good in the plague at Vienna. <Potatis earth, so called. Terra Armona.> And from Thrace I received Armenian earth prepared, that is, freed from dirt and simple, just as it was dug up, and I noticed no difference. I found the prepared one somewhat fattier than the unprepared, and in that which our pharmaceutical apothecaries have, our Dr. Woyselius affirmed there was fraud by taste, when he perceived the rancor of fatness. However it may be, in the above epidemic catarrh nothing has helped more than the use of Armenian bolus and burnt deer horn, which I know for certain has the same place as bolus. And if bolus is suspect, I strongly advise that deer horn be used in place of bolus. As for its powers, I think thus: that in them there is a special faculty of gathering into one place the malignity impressed upon the humors. <Camphor.> So as camphor cleanses the spirits and serous humor, so bolus, like deer horn also, draws malignity into one and aids nature toward expulsion. We see this in the tiersi in cei euisia, for although it is very turbid and corrupted, yet if chalk is thrown into it, it immediately becomes pure and acquires a better taste, and all that impurity is drawn to itself by the chalk. You may test this matter whenever you wish. That these earths resist putrefaction enough is shown by the treatment of worms, and the same is demonstrated in worms by burnt deer horn; experience speaks for me. But these earths are washed so that, with sand mixed in, the remaining earth may be separated from the rest, not because another and new substance is produced. Nor if the color is changed, do the powers quickly perish. No one would affirm that one medicine should be used indiscriminately in all bodies. <Camphor, not to be given to whom.> Indeed I admit that camphor is not to be used in those who are very nauseated, or whose head is weak; I concede that the powers of Lemnian earth and of bolus do not differ greatly. I have no affirmation regarding vomiting in the burning of Lemnian earth. <Turra Lini.> This much is certain: the Turks use it in food, and not the earth of Lemnos, just as the Bezoar stone will also by its life and power against the plague. <Bezoar stone.> But that Armenian bolus and sealed earth are different things, the Turks and Armenians affirm. I thank you for thinking anxiously about my health. I wrote before that I have now for many years used no purging medicine, and it is in my mind not to use any at all in this age. I know that agaric with oxymel is of great benefit in the greatest pains of the stomach, and I recently warned Dr. Hervart about this medicine. No one doubts that this Silesian earth from Striegau is a marvelous thing. It has the same properties as calamine stone, which, mixed with fat, is a singular help in epiphoras and fluxions to the eyes. I have begun to set out the theses on these matters. There are three aims in treatment. The first, taken from nature in motion, and since the malignity in it is greatest, an alexipharmic is indicated, which either extinguishes that poisoned force, so that it does not overcome the heart, or reduces it to a narrow compass, lest it spread. This Armenian bolus, deer horn, and the like accomplish in such a way that nature truly draws all the malignity to the excretories.

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219 MEDICINALES. 230 ætoria, vel ignobilia membra deponat. Al- ter à præpotenti æusa, videlicet, inspiratione, quæ diaphoresin indicat. Terrus, cum natura ad emunctoria pellir, vt in eo omni- bus modis iuuerur. Sed si potero mittam latinas Theses, & vestrorum Italorum scripta expectabo. Scio mecum non conue- nire. Vtrum autem mea vel illorum sit ve- rior sententia, indicat euratio. Non nego putredinem, sed vulgaris purredinis condi- tionem longe superare affirmo. Vale. An- no 82. EPIST. CXXXI. IDEM EIDEM. < Sulphur vino vina noxa.> SULPHVRATA vina ne putes salubria, Atque in eo vulgi opinionem sequaris, nec ibi persuaderi tinas, vsum sulphuris in- < Sulphur v. vini nihil ab Arsenico differe.> nocuuum esse. Certe vstum sulphur nihil ab Arsenico differi. Spiritus vini est anima vi- ni. Ac cum ego medicari vino studeo, vel vas spiritu vini aspergo, vel herbam aut aro- mata inbuta eo inúcio. Facior me cum < Sulphur exq. in peste, necq. implorific. hibendum. Agriculus. Boles Ori- mentalis.> multis in errore fuisse de sulphure in peste, & phthisi exhibendo. Nolimte in eo hære- re. Agarici vsus validissimum ventriculum reqvirit. De bolo tecum sentio in penuria Armenæ recte nos orientali vti. Galeni < Terra Lem- nia.> colore est pallido, & orientalis cum laua- tur pallescit. Lorione tamen nihil decede- re illi satis apparet, cum aqua quando sub- tiliotes partes, quæ aquæ commiscentur, subsidet, surpura, & nullo sapore prædita. Nec puto lotionem aliud præstare, quam vt impura & arenosa separentur à partibus te- nuioribus. Alia est ratio eum aloes, vel me- ralla lauantur. Certe ea, quæ Constanti- nopoli mihi missa est, etiamsi non sit lota, < Terra Lem- nia.> instar butyri tamen in ore liquescit. E Cappadocia importari Constantinopolim cer- < Crera Anatolica.> tum est. Itaque non pugno etiam si Ru- brica Synopica appellecur, & si recte memini, Plinius huius tres species ponit. Terra sigillata, quæ è Lemno affertur, semper est pallida, & Crera Anatolica vulgo dicitur. Galenus suum sigillum Lemnium colore rubescente describit. Itaque impostotes, < Sententia Crassus du peste. Nulli imp. suo obsq. fa- dos meritora.> sæpe bolum admiscent, sicut rubricæ syn- < 50> opicæ pinguedinem, quam vetustas prodit. Cum istæ terræ mihi suspectæ sunt solo cor- nus cerut vsti vtor. Meas theses nondum Latinas feci, nec Teutonicas, nisi prius quæ volo corrigam, in meo nomine apparere volo. Qua sim sententia quin publicè scri- bas non obsto. Primo, me pestem non ponere sub febre, tanquam genere, etiamsi perpaucos, ac nul- los potius in peste absq[ue] febre more putem. Seminarium inspiratione haustum n[on] vbi , sicut extera venena vniuersi cor- poris vires, maxime cordis perniciose affi- cit. Aëris vero intemperies, impuritas, sicut & cibi corrupti ad dispositionem corporum faciunt, & pestem, nisi seminaria vel ex cor- poribus infectis exhalent, & in inspiratione noxia sint, vel aliunde importantur, inferut. Secundo, pestem aliam priuatam, aliam publicam esse statuo. Priuatam vel à pranis humoribus ob victus prauitatem ortam, vel ex aëris constitutione mala, vt sunt febres pestilenres muliæ, quæ non habent morbi- dam exspirationem, & pancis perniciosæ, neque contagiosæ sunt, nisi valde prædispo- sitis. Publica non nisi ab aëre conueniente le- thalia maiorale à morbida expiratione cor- porum humanorum, in quibus putredo ad istum gradum deuenit, vt vomplei contagiosam exhalent, tum prouenire sta- tur. Sæ pe vero in priuata peste accidere, vt ad hunc gradum putredo perueniat, vt cor- pora maiorale exhalent; sæ pe etiam aliis ex locis vbi publica pestis, deforri, atq[ue] vno cor- poro infecto, plurima deinceps infici, & ex ægrotantium, atq[ue] morientium multitudine maiorale exitialia atq[ue] seminaria pestis in aë- re augeri. vomplei enim vomplei alia in certo loco orta, exiniosa multis est, alias extrinse- cus aduenit, atq[ue] ita non vni vbi, sed toti re- gioni pestis infecta est. < Gradus præ gradinis in peste Medic- um ignotus.> Terris, vt vero gradus ignotus est Medi- cis; ita & verum remedium. Medicos au- tem coniectura rationali in ægris alias acce- dere propius ad cognitionem, & felicius in curatione procedere, cum ea quæ putredi- ni tesistunt, adhibent, in aliis vero minus, verisimile est. Ratio tamen hoc dicta: Cum inspiratione malum sit haustum, solam dia- phorisin indicari, & veram curationem es- se. Ita tamen vt seminarium inspiratione haustum spiritus non aliter ac venennm af- ficiat, vt ea quæ ad diaphorisin faciut, simul cor aduersus vim venenatam muniant, con- tuncta habeant. Quarto, antidotum veram pestilentis ve- neni in diuina manu esse, neque Medicis exploratam, videmus nos camphoræ Am- bræ, non cineritæ, sed chryseæ, quæ vt sul- phur atdet, effectiones; ex tamen perpetuæ non sunt. Herbæ quædam vulgares, vt Tanacetum, quam Asharasiam appellant, atque aliæ æque prosunt. Occasiones at- que euentus prouidentia DIVINA moderat- ur. Nunquam tamen vni remedio semel exhibito Medicus securus esse debet, sed quandin malum est præsens cordi, omnibus modis auxilium ferat. Quinto, cum vero K 4

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219. MEDICINALS. 230 ...that he may lay aside the maternal, or ignoble limbs. Another, from the most powerful cause, namely inspiration, which indicates diaphoresis. Fear, when nature is driven to the emunctories, that in every way it may be helped. But if I can, I will send Latin theses, and I shall await the writings of your Italians. I know that I do not agree with myself. But whether my opinion or theirs is the truer, treatment shows. I do not deny putrefaction, but I affirm that it far surpasses the condition of ordinary putrefaction. Farewell. In the year 82. EPISTLE CXXXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < Sulphur in wine harm to wine.> Do not think sulphurated wines wholesome, And in this follow the opinion of the common people, nor allow yourself to be persuaded there that the use of sulphur is harmless in < Sulphur in wine differs not at all from arsenic.> wine. Certainly burnt sulphur differs not at all from arsenic. The spirit of wine is the soul of wine. And when I am intent on medicating wine, I either sprinkle the vessel with the spirit of wine, or soak the herb or aromatics with it. I have found myself, among many, to have been in error about sulphur to be exhibited in plague and phthisis. Do not cling to that. The use of agaric requires a very strong stomach. About bole I agree with you, that in the absence of Armenian, it is rightly for us to use the oriental. Galen’s is of a pale color, and the oriental, when washed, becomes pale. Yet it is sufficiently clear that it differs nothing from lorion, since with water, when the subtler parts that are mixed with the water settle, it is found to be light, and devoid of taste. Nor do I think washing does anything else than separate the impure and sandy parts from the more subtle parts. The case is different when aloe or metals are washed. Certainly that which was sent to me from Constantinople, although it has not been washed, nevertheless melts in the mouth like butter. < Terra Lem- nia.> It is certain that it is imported to Constantinople from Cappadocia. < Crera Anatolica.> Therefore I do not object even if it is called Rubrica Synopica; and if I remember correctly, Pliny gives three species of it. Terra sigillata, which is brought from Lemnos, is always pale, and is commonly called Crera Anatolica. Galen describes his Lemnian seal as reddish in color. Therefore impostors often mix bole with it, just as in Rubrica Synopica they mix fat, which age has exposed. < Sententia Crassus du peste. Nulli imp. suo obsq. fa- dos meritora.> < 50> When these lands are suspect to me, I use only burnt horn. I have not yet made my theses Latin, nor German, unless first I correct what I want; I want them to appear under my own name. I do not oppose your publicly writing whatever opinion I may hold. First, I do not place plague under fever, as though under a genus, although I think very few, and rather none at all, are accustomed to plague without fever. The seminarium drawn in by inspiration not where , like other poisons, perniciously affects the strength of the whole body, especially the heart. But the intemperance and impurity of the air, as well as corrupted foods, contribute to the disposition of bodies and bring on plague, unless the seminaria either exhale from infected bodies and are harmful in inspiration, or are imported from elsewhere. Second, I hold that one plague is private, another public. Private plague arises either from depraved humors due to vicious diet, or from a bad constitution of the air, such as pestilential fevers of women, which do not have a morbid exhalation and are harmful to few, nor are they contagious except to those very much predisposed. Public plague arises only from an air fitted to lethal mortal conditions, from the morbid exhalation of human bodies, in which the putrefaction has reached such a degree that they exhale contagion; then it comes about. Very often in private plague it happens that putrefaction advances to this degree, so that bodies mortal exhale; and often also, from other places where public plague is raging, it is carried thither, and from one infected body many are infected afterward, and from the multitude of the sick and dying mortal the deadly and plague-bearing seminaria are increased in the air. mortal indeed, when mortal another has arisen in a certain place, it is harmful to many; otherwise it comes from outside, and thus not one place alone, but the whole region is infected with plague. < The stages in plague unknown to the physician.> As truly as the stages are unknown to physicians, so also is the true remedy. Yet it is probable that physicians, by rational conjecture, in the sick sometimes approach more closely to knowledge, and proceed more successfully in treatment, when they employ those things that resist putrefaction. But the reason is this: since the evil lies in inspiration, only diaphoresis is indicated, and this is the true treatment. Yet so that the seminarium drawn in by inspiration does not affect the spirit otherwise than poison, but that those things which promote diaphoresis at the same time fortify the heart against the poisonous force, and keep them joined together. Fourth, we see that the antidote against the truly pestilent poison is in the hand of God, and not explored by physicians: camphor and amber, not the cinerary but the golden kind, whose effects, like sulphur burning, are not however perpetual. Certain common herbs, such as tanacetum, which they call Asharasia, and others, help equally well. Occasions and outcomes are governed by DIVINE providence. Yet a physician should never be secure in one remedy once administered, but when the evil is present in the heart, let him bring aid in every way. Fifth, when truly K 4

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natura affecto crasso humore . ef- ficit, & bubo consequitur, vel ex adulto & tenui atq[ue] acri humore . , vel . & . exitialia apparent. Omnis in hoc Medico labor esse debet, vt naturam per lo- ca conuenientia se exonerantem adiuet. Hæc de mea sententia, mi optime loaehi- me, publice scribere, meliori tamen modo quam ego lectulo affixus possum, recte po- teris, atq[ue] vt scribas oro. Si mihi Deus vitam concesserit, ipse etiam scripturus sum, atq[ue] vsum sulphuris Arsenici, Antimonij, etiam Boleti ceruini, quod spiritibus cerebri ad- uersissima sunt, improbaturus. Multa docet vns & ætas. Vale. Anno 1583. EPIST. CXXXII. IDEM EIDEM. DE Sulphure & Arsenico te in errore mi- nime libenter telinquo; sed eximere nunc tibi cum, vt volo, non possum. Paucis sic habeto; sulphur inchoatum esse arseni- cum, atque multiplici fusione dum albescit effici. Nisi enim inesset non fieret, satis est certum, etiam si vis venenata tanta non ei insit, quanta est in isto arsenico, quod ex au- ri pigmenti sublimatione conscitur, & vul- go omnibus est notum tanquam venenum. Sulphur in Aschmate. Noxium esset tamen, neq[ue] peritos Medicos de vulgari sulphure in Ashmate loqui arbi- tror, etiamsi imperiti ita intelligant. Nonne multi puluetem bombardicum haurinnt, & quia robustiora corpora ferunt, ideo inno- xium censebimus? Gesnerus multa ex alio- rum literis affirmauit, quæ experiundo non didicit. Suadeo ne cuilibet hac in parte cre- das. Metallica reuera periculo non carent. Metallica periculosa. Multa dicuntut de floribus sulphuris, & a- liis nugis, sed meræ sunt fallaciæ. Sulphur quo magis per ignem albescit, eo propius ad arsenicum, quo vero magis tubescit ad auripigmentum accedit. Vale. Anno 83. EPIST. CXXXIII. IDEM EIDEM. AD theses meas quod attinet. Ita sæpe, ne quid ambiguitatis in illis esse videa- tur, cogito, vt non tam de mutanda senten- tia, quam verbis sollicitus sim. Scio pe[n]tis appellationem alias de causa, alias de mor- bo, in tertum etiam de symptomate, præsertim à Germanis accipi. Ego potissimum ad causam respicio, cum inter hanc & mor- bum analogiam esse oporteat. Dico autem causam illam morbidam exspirationem, quæ à putredine oritur non vulgari, verum ca, quæ ad istum gradum peruenit, vt con- tagionis seminarium exspiret. Differentiam inter publicam & priuatam pestem sumptu ex Galeno, etiamsi Galenus aliud, ac ego priuatam pestem nominet. Sed de nomini- bus non puto esse contendendum. Priua- tas pestes à causis internis: Publicas vero ab expiratione contagiosa sola oriri, ita, vt in- quinamenta aëri, ac mediante aëre corporibus aërem attrahentibus, vel rebus susci- pientibus aërem, iisq[ue] ventilatis rursus . . dissipantibus communicentur, statuo. Definitionem colligere non est difficile, ve- rum non facile satisfacimus iis, qui tia tan- tum morborum genera admittunt. Statua- mus igitur pestem esse morbum commu- nem, ottum ab aëris infectione continen- tis . , quæ exhalent è corporibus hu- manis, in quibus putredo ad eum gradum deuenit, & morbidam & contagiosam ex- pirationem habeat, viribus & vitæ huma- næ totus substantia malignitate, hausta in- spiratione, perniciosam atque aduersam. Ad intemperiei morbos referre quidem li- cer: sed cum putredo omnia dissoluat, mi- nime contradictionem effugies. Gradus autem iste putredinis, secunda quædam qualitas est, cuius cognitio verâ indicationem, hoc est, nocentis & conferentis colla- tionem, cum sit ignota, impedit. Hinc o- mnis in curatione difficultas. In ea vero cum solam specto, venæ sectione[m] respectu plenitudinis, vel etiam magnitudi- nis morbi, sicut vacuationem respectu ea- cochymix non exeludo. Frustra tamen, & cum periculo iis intèrum esse neq[ue] ad mor- bum, neq[ue] ad præpotentem causam, videli- ceret, morbidam inspirationem Medicos tota- mente respicere, existimo. Sed de his ni- mium. Vale. Anno 38. EPIST. CXXXIV. THEODORO ZVENCERO, MEDI- co celeberrimo, Ioan. Crato Med. Cas. S. D. H A V D scio plus ne doloris, ad volnpta- tis ex iis literis, in quas Hippocratica conieceras, acceperim. Labor iste tuus suatissimus est. Quæ autem de morbis vul- garibus, & tua solicitudine scribis, magno mecore me afficiunt. Quod possum igi- tur DEV oro, vt te benigne conseruet. Humana sunt humana. Diuina bonitas faciat, vt dos minime boni ad diuina aspi- remus & perueniamus. Morbus iste quem Hungaricum appellant, meo iudicio, fy- nchius putrida est. Sanguinis missio post quartam diem noxia. Vacuationes pauci ferunt.

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it produces by thick moist matter of a natural kind, and a bubo follows; or from matured and thin, sharp humors, or deadly things appear. In this disease, all the physician’s effort should be to help nature as it discharges itself through suitable places. These things, in my opinion, my dearest Ioachime, you can write publicly, though in a better way than I, bound to my bed, can do; and I ask that you write it. If God grants me life, I myself will also write, and I will condemn the use of sulphur, arsenic, antimony, and even deer’s boletus, since these are most hostile to the spirits of the brain. Much is taught by use and by age. Farewell. Year 1583. EPIST. CXXXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Concerning sulphur and arsenic, I do not at all willingly leave you in error; but now I cannot remove you from it, as I would like. Take this briefly: sulphur is uncompleted arsenic, and by repeated fusion, as it whitens, it is brought about. For unless it were present, it would not be made; that is certain enough, even if the poisonous force in it is not so great as in that arsenic which is produced by the sublimation of auripigment, and is commonly known to everyone as poison. Sulphur in asthma. It would nevertheless be harmful, and I do not think that experienced physicians speak of common sulphur in asthma, even if the inexperienced understand it that way. Do not many people inhale gunpowder, and because stronger bodies endure it, shall we therefore judge it harmless? Gesner affirmed many things from other men’s letters which he did not learn by experience. I advise that you do not trust just anyone in this matter. Metallic substances are indeed not without danger. Metals are dangerous. Many things are said about flowers of sulphur and other trifles, but they are mere deceptions. The more sulphur whitens by fire, the nearer it approaches arsenic; the more it swells, the more it approaches auripigment. Farewell. Year 83. EPIST. CXXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As far as my theses are concerned, I often think, so that there may seem to be no ambiguity in them, that I am less concerned with changing the opinion than with the words. I know that the term “plague” is taken by some as meaning the cause, by others the disease, and by Germans especially even the symptom. I chiefly refer to the cause, since there ought to be an analogy between this and the disease. By this cause I mean that morbid exhalation which arises from putrefaction, not ordinary putrefaction, but that which has advanced to such a degree that it exudes the seed of contagion. I take the distinction between public and private plague from Galen, even if Galen uses the name differently from me for private plague. But I do not think one should quarrel about names. Private plagues arise from internal causes; public ones, however, from contagious exhalation alone, so that impurities are communicated to the air, and through the air to bodies drawing in the air, or to things receiving the air and then, once ventilated, again dispersing them. I maintain this. It is not difficult to assemble the definition; yet we do not easily satisfy those who admit only three kinds of disease. Let us therefore establish that plague is a common disease, arising from infection of the surrounding air, which exhalations from human bodies emit, in which putrefaction has reached such a degree that it has a morbid and contagious exhalation, and which, through its power and the malignity of its whole substance, is harmful and adverse to human life when inhaled. It is indeed allowable to refer it to diseases of intemperance; but since putrefaction dissolves everything, you will by no means escape contradiction. That degree of putrefaction is a second kind of quality, the knowledge of which hinders the true indication—that is, the weighing of what is harmful and what is helpful—since it is unknown. Hence all the difficulty in treatment. In that treatment, since I look only at the use of venesection with respect to fullness, or even to the magnitude of the disease, I do not exclude evacuation with respect to cacochymy. Yet I think physicians in vain, and with danger, consider only the morbid inspiration, if they regard neither the disease nor the prevailing cause. But enough of these matters. Farewell. Year 38. EPIST. CXXXIV. TO THE MOST CELEBRATED THEODORO ZVENCER, PHYSICIAN, JOHN CRATO, COURT PHYSICIAN, SENDS GREETING. I do not know whether I have received more grief than pleasure from those letters into which you had inserted Hippocratic material. That labor of yours is most sweet. But what you write about the common diseases and your concern greatly moves me. Therefore I ask GOD to preserve you kindly. Human things are human. May divine goodness bring it about that we may aspire to and attain divine things, not the least good. That disease which they call Hungarian, in my judgment, is a putrid synochus. Bloodletting after the fourth day is harmful. Few endure evacuations.

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233 MEDICINALES. 234 ferunt. Recte illis datur seminum napi & citrj emulsio. Interdum maculæ erumpunt. Nam semina illa ad cutim materiam pro- trudunt. Capiti & soleis etiam pedum, ma- gno successu Raphanus tenuiter concisus applicatur. Datur & succus raphani. Tuitis- simum est cum materia ad caput repit, sanguinem è saphena, sen poplitis vena mitre- re. Bibere emulsionem seminum citri aran- tuorum & acetotæ. In peste bubnia, vel cum carbunculis, nihil melius vsu camphoræ. Sed vni remedio non videndum. Initio singulis propemodum horis, deinceps suc- cessu temporis, singulis diebus remedia mu- tanda. Multum valent herbarum succi car- dui, veronicæ, scabiosæ, scurdij, &c. Verum confido diuinam benignitatem te huic di- nimo operi conseruaturam. Ego quod vnum absens possum, interea salutem tuam Præ- potenti Deo commendo. Hic beneficio DEI omnia sunt tuta, cum pauca reperian- tur loca Germaniæ, in quibus pestilentia malum non eruperit, & contagione set par. Alofingon vnicum atque verum ex ex piccor, vt à vobis hoc depellat, atque te conteruet. De Geinere quoq[ue] valdè solicite cogito, eiusque literas cupidissime expecto. Te oro vt scribas, quæ remedia efficacia co- gnoueris, & an sola desiccatione, vt volunt præceptores nostri, an vero antidoto curari existimes. Etiam cum formæ sese mutuo expellunt adminiculo primarum qualita- tum hoc sit. Proinde in errore illos versari existimo, qui quous anni tempore, & in quauis ætate & temperamento cerra de an- tidotis promiscue tibi atq[ue] aliis pollicentur. < Venerum acqvaque veneno peti> Illi vero, qui venena venenis pelli existimât. & antimonium vi specifica expellere ven- num arbitrantur, non satis rerum natnam considerant. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ 6. Dec. Anno 1564. EPIST. OXXXV. IDEM EIDEM. LITERAS tuas VIII. Kal. Martij datas, Nudiùs quintus accepi, atque ea, quæ de pestilentia scribis, libenter legi. Paucis autem nunc tuis respondebo. Primum, < to Dier formæ peti> 50 to Dier formam ipsam morbi mecum con- sentiente iudicio statuis, verum rationem non affers, coelo ne aëri imprimatur, an ab exhalationibus corporum inferiorum in < Vocatessi formas imprimis> quibus putredo est, oriatur. Existimo au- tem formas rebus à causis coelestibus im- primi, atque iisdem foueri, etiamsi vt agant in corpora requiratur subiecti . . I- taque siue sit pestilentia vniuersalis, in qua aër plenus est . (vt Hippocrates loquitur) aduersis, quæ cir- cumferuntur impulsu aëris de regione in regionem, siue putrida exhalatin ex terra, aquis, cadatteribus vim contagiosam at- que exitiosam concipiat atque spiret, siue propter victus rationem in vno aliquo tan- ta corruptio & putredo oritur, vt . consequatur, semper vi coelesti for- mam imprimi, qua . aerem, qui per se naturæ & amicus & ne- cessarius est, aduersus sit, ita vt maxime formale, videlicet calorem cordis, non sem- per augeat atque inflammet, ita vt conse- quatur febris: sed interdum malignitate sua opprimat atque extinguat. Hanc au- tem malignitatem non solum augeri, dum vel in primis qualitatibus aër mutatur, vel cum corruptis & putridis exhalationibus completur; verum corpora etiam ad susci- piendum iisdem causis, sicut à mala victus ratione præparari. Itaque cum in reci- pientis subiecti disposicione præcipue effe- ctus consultat, aëris in impuro aërem malum truit. Ac cum per se purus quoque aër vide- tur, tamen quando vel propter funerum at- que ægrotantium multitudinem morbidis exhalationibus repletur, multis quoque exi- tiosus est, præsertim si attrahatur ab iis, qui- bus cor debile, vel humores ad putredinem suscipiendam idonei sunt. Iruit autem semper hoc malum cum impetu, nisi à vi- ctus ratione deprausta oriatur, & febrem pestilentem, quam priuatam nominauir Galenus, in qua præcipue est exitio- sa, producet. Cæterum vere pestilens sem- per ab inspiratione oritur, atq[ue] seminarium pestilens, quod attrahitur cum aer est, (vt contagionis ratio perspicue mon- strat) siue putredinem inferat, siue ab- que manifesta nota putredinis hominem extinguat. Sæpe enim agentis summa po- tentia ita cito calorem innarum maligni- tate sua opprimit, & tanto impetu cor ar- cernque vitæ inuadit, vt citius vitam adli- mar, quam manifestam putredinem indu- cat. Intendi tamen etiam in ista oppressio- ne calorem arbitror, nèque vllum huiu- nem absque febre, quantumuis ea sit exi- gui temporis, vt depræhendi suis notis vix possit, mori. Recte igitur hic morbus fe- bris putrida censetur, etiamsi putredo longe vulgaris putredinis conditionem superet, nec methodus cnrationis eadem, quæ in re- liqnis putridis, ab obstructione ortis, sit. Na[m] cum hæc putredo sit venenata, venenum requirit suam antidotum. Putredo autem cum in eo nnnia saluta quasi compage sua diffuunt, exiccationem. Quantum igitur Nullus homo absque febre morbi sur.

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233 MEDICINALS. 234 They are reported. An emulsion of turnip seeds and of citri is rightly given to them. Sometimes spots break out. For those seeds drive the matter to the skin. For the head and also the soles of the feet, with great success, finely cut Radish is applied. Radish juice is also given. It is most useful, when the matter creeps toward the head, to draw blood from the saphenous vein or the popliteal vein. To drink an emulsion of the seeds of citrus oranges and of acetosa. In bubonic plague, or when there are carbuncles, nothing is better than the use of camphor. But one should not look to a single remedy. At the beginning, almost every hour; afterward, as time goes on, the remedies should be changed every day. The juices of herbs are very effective: of carduus, veronica, scabiosa, scordium, etc. Yet I trust that divine goodness will preserve you for this whole work. I, for my part, being absent and able to do only this one thing, commend your health meanwhile to Almighty God. Here, by the benefit of GOD, all things are safe, though there are few places in Germany in which the pestilential evil has not broken out, and contagion is at hand. Alofingon the one and only true ex ex piccor, that it may drive this away from you and preserve you. I am also greatly anxious about De Geinere, and I await his letters most eagerly. I beg you to write what effective remedies you have come to know, and whether you think it should be treated by drying alone, as our teachers wish, or rather by an antidote. Also, when forms mutually expel one another, let this be by the aid of the primary qualities. Therefore I think those are in error who promiscuously assure you and others that, in whatever season of the year and in whatever age and temperament, a cure by antidotes is to be expected. < Venena veneno peti > Those, however, who think that poisons are expelled by poisons, and suppose antimony to drive out poison by a specific power, do not sufficiently consider the nature of things. Farewell. Breslau, 6 December, 1564. EPIST. OXXXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received your letters, dated the 8th day before the Kalends of March, five days ago, and read with pleasure what you write about the pestilence. I will now briefly answer your points. First, < to Dier formæ peti > 50 you determine with me, by the judgment agreeing with mine, the very form of the disease; but you do not give the reason, whether it is impressed from the sky upon the air, or arises from exhalations of lower bodies in which there is putrefaction. < Vocatessi formas imprimis > I think, however, that forms are impressed upon things by celestial causes, and are nourished by the same, even though for them to act upon bodies the disposition of the subject is required. Therefore, whether it be a universal pestilence, in which the air is full of . (as Hippocrates says) of contrary things, which are carried around by the impulse of the air from region to region; or whether a putrid exhalation from earth, waters, or carcasses takes on and breathes forth a contagious and destructive power; or whether, because of the manner of life, such corruption and putrefaction arises in some one place that . follows, in every case a form is impressed by celestial power, by which . the air, which by nature is both friendly and necessary, becomes adverse, so that it most especially does not always increase and inflame the formal principle, namely the heat of the heart, so that fever follows; but sometimes it suppresses and extinguishes it by its malignity. This malignity is increased not only when the air is changed in its primary qualities or when it is filled with corrupt and putrid exhalations; rather, bodies are also prepared to receive it by the same causes, just as by a bad regimen of life. Therefore, since the effect depends especially on the disposition of the receiving subject, a bad air produces evil in impure air. And although the air in itself seems pure, yet when it is filled with morbid exhalations, whether because of the multitude of funerals and the sick, it is also destructive to many, especially if it is drawn in by those whose heart is weak, or whose humors are fit to receive putrefaction. Yet this evil always rushes on with violence, unless it arise from a corrupt regimen of life, and it produces a pestilent fever, which Galen called private, in which it is especially destructive. But a truly pestilential disease always arises from inhalation, and the pestilential seed that is drawn in with the air (as the nature of contagion clearly shows), whether it brings in putrefaction or destroys a person without any manifest sign of putrefaction. For often the supreme power of the agent so quickly oppresses the heat by its innate malignity, and with such force attacks the heart, the citadel of life, that it more quickly takes away life than introduces manifest putrefaction. Yet even in this oppression I think the heat is stirred, and no man dies without fever, however slight it may be and however brief the time that it can scarcely be recognized by its proper signs. Rightly, therefore, this disease is here judged a putrid fever, although its putrefaction far surpasses the condition of ordinary putrefaction; nor is the method of cure the same as in the other putrid diseases arising from obstruction. For since this putrefaction is poisonous, it requires its own antidote. Putrefaction, however, since in it all the vital things are, as it were, dissolved from their structure, requires drying. How much, then, No man is without fever of the disease,

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135 EPISTOLA 136 siccando putredini demimus, tantum mala quoque adiminus, etiamsi ei non exiccaturipla, sed forma medicamenti, quæ ad i n t i n i n i n i n veneno contraria est, adueretur. Cæterum sæpe quæ propter partium tenuitatem summam vim exsiccandi & dissipandi habent, vt oleum vitrioli, camphora, &c sola exiccatione ita auxilium ferunt, vt malum à natura superari possit. Sicut cum impetu quodam in robustioribus corporibus vsum Antimonii, Præeiplati, aut similibus vinientis medicamentis materia & fomes subtrahitur. Semper enim manet fir mumillud i d i v i n i v i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i n i

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135 EPISTOLA 136 By drying we remove putrefaction; in this way we also take away the evil itself, even if it is not dried up by it, but the form of a medicine, which is contrary to the venom, is applied. Moreover, there are often substances which, because of the fineness of their parts, have the highest power of drying and dispersing, such as oil of vitriol, camphor, etc.; by drying alone they bring help in such a way that the evil may be overcome by nature. Just as, with a certain force, in stronger bodies, the use of antimony, precipitated substances, or similar prevailing medicines takes away the matter and fuel. For there always remains that firm...

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tauit illi crebro cor, & ab aquæ humore suffocari visus est. Is cum superiori Autumno in ventrem delapsus esset, hydropitum fecit. Intumuerant enim illi vener & pedes, & tunc in pectore melius se habere visus est. Rursus autem humor aqueus auctus, cum extinxit. Nam copiosè in pectore repertus est, & cor simili modo pituita concerta affectum. < Singularem à partibus spermatibus.> Nacgidet[ur] illud communis amici nostri de singultu mihi non probatur. Non videt < Singularem nil est vera cum mulia.> enim aliud esse, cum Medici de singulru, tanquam morbosa affectione ventriculi agunt, aliud cum de eo, qui à partibus spiritualibus, qui sæpe stentibus pneris suboritur. De hoc quidem Aristoteles 33, probl. mentionem facit, & ex spiritu circa pulmones retento, & aceruatim erumpente fieri assetit. Itaqne nullum est dubium quin ab eo, quem Medici affectionem ventriculi conuulsioni similem dicunt diuersus < 20> fit. Quis autem vquam conuulsionem veram singultum dixit vt ille somniat? Similem faciunt, quia vterque affectus à repletione, vel in anitione, aut materia mordicante oritur. Dissimilis vero est, quia vera conuulsio tantù in partibus lacertosis, neruis & tendinibus contingit. Ridiculum est de maximis rebus in arte nostra, & tanta, atq[ue] inexplicabilia disputare, & cum ad rem ventum est, nescire quid admouere debeas. < Venena quædam anima libras morrisfora, homini bonu in posse saluesfora.> Plurimos mihi iratos reddidi, cum hæc illis dixi. Noster Erastus fortiter quædam conte[m]nit, verum vellem diceret: Cur quæ aliis animantibus mortem, hominibus veneno oppressis, aut pestilentia seminatis haustis auxilium adferunt, ita vt nullam noxam, quem admodum sit nuce vomicacum Mithridatica antidoto hausta adferant. Possem sexcêta recitare. Necq[ue] tam imperiti Philosophicarum & Medicarum rationum sunt, qui illa proferunt, quam quidam eos existimât. Tam ego videre in intima Hippocratis pectoris penetralia, quam vllus alius desidero. Tam multa, quæ ad summos principes tanquam arcana, & certa experientia comperta perferunrur, quam alius obseruaui. Hæc ad te amicissimo animo, cum nihil ad te pertineant, scribo, & me tibi quo ad vixero amicum futurum polliceor. Bene vale. 16. Febr. Anno 1577. EPIST. CXXXVII. IDEM EIDEM. < Parodia Paracelsi.> SACRA ais, non sunt prophananda. At profectenda certe sunt, & ad Dei laudem decantanda. Ne quid dissimulem, Paracelsum vel ignorasse, quæ spiritus mendacii illi prodidit, aut forte in antiquis libris legit, vel maligne aliis inuidisse videtur. Bonum esse < Bonum est communicatum.> reperire , ou qui ipse nosti, & oratio monstrosa mentis monstrosæ indicium, vel inuidet, vel fallere vult, qui obscure loquitur. Vtrumq[ue] vero viri mali. Sed mitto ista. < Repensbra. Zeininger.> Vidi quædam à Francofurtensi Pharmacopæo, cuius Laudanum tu dilaudas, præparata, neque dnbito, imo reipsa compertum habeo, summæ efficacitatis esse. Sed de eo < Turpethi und moralia vsum importamento.> ambigo, an illam summam efficacitatem & alterationem natura ferat, & an vtilis illa sit ptudenti Medico atque cum pietate artem tractanti. Nam quam sæpe Paracelsistatum audacia, & iactantia insolicititer cadat, quotidie considerantib[us] exempla in oculos incurrunt. Iurisconsulti vetant sine lege loqui: multo magis rationalis Medicus prohibetur sine indicatione aliquid facere. < Turpethi und moralia vsum importamento.> Quæ obsecro est ipse Paracelsis medicus cum præcipitato seu turpetho minerali in morbis gallicis, vtuntur. Cupio mihi eam à te, qui in Asclepidæa medicina summus es, & cum magna laude versaris, demonstrari. Quod humorem pituirosum & adustum expurgat, naturæ beneficio sit, insurgentis aduersus veoenatam medicamenti qualitatem, & simul etiam cum ea humores prauos reilcientis. Verum sic esse peculiari vi aduersus morbum gallicum pugnare. An quæso nulla alia sunt remedia quæ tutius hoc præstent? Fateor in Gallicis, qui semel Hermeticam medicinam experti sunt, frustra alia remedia adhiberi; Verum in recenti morbo vsurpare, nimiæ temeriratis esse videtur, & certe natura duce arte, non medicamento rum robore victoriam in morbis recte atq[ue] tute consequimur. Sed cum non licet agero vt volumus, illud vt quimus aliquam excusationem habet Foris adhibita in curatione vlcerum, cum rationi co[n]sentiar, in loco sublimatum & præcipitatum laudo. De in vlcerib[us] tonsillarum Gallicis adhibito; < Sulphur vefolius corpora.> quæ scribis, non intelligo. Sulphur magna vt diaphoretica præditum, ac propterea in pestilentib[us] morbis plurimum auxiliari scio. Interdum tamen ita resoluere corpora, vt statim concidant, non semel obseruaui. Rationes præparandi illud ita multæ & variæ sunt, vt quæ sit verissima & rectissima dini[n]nare nequeam. Hippocratem tale Sulphur in morbis pectoris adhibuisse, quale nostrum est, quod vel ex Polonia, vel Hungaria affertur, non facile mihi persuadeo. Neapolitanum, quod Brassauola commendar, neq[ue] in ipsa vt be Neapoli potui videre, neq[ue] in agro Puteolano & ad Auernu[m], quæ in loca plena Sulphuris & cineris sunt, reperti. < Sulphur Paracelsistorum.> Ac quis dicit sulphur, paracelsistæ parat,

Transcription: Translated (English)

It often caused a pain in his heart, and he seemed to be suffocating from the moisture of the water. When, in the previous autumn, it had fallen into his belly, it caused dropsy. For his veins and feet had swollen, and then he seemed to feel better in the chest. But then, when the watery humour increased again, it killed him. For it was found copiously in the chest, and the heart in like manner was affected with congealed phlegm. < A singular thing from the spermatic parts.> What our common friend says about hiccups does not please me. He does not see < A singular thing: nothing is true with many.> for there is one thing when physicians speak of hiccups as a morbid affection of the stomach, and another when they speak of it as arising from the spiritual parts, which often comes on in standing boys. Aristotle indeed mentions this in Problem 33, and says that it happens from air retained around the lungs and bursting forth in a sudden rush. Therefore there is no doubt that it is different from that which physicians call an affection of the stomach resembling a convulsion. < 20> Who ever called a true convulsion hiccup, as that man dreams? They make it similar, because both affections arise from repletion, or indigestion, or biting matter. But it is dissimilar, because a true convulsion occurs only in fleshy parts, nerves, and sinews. It is ridiculous to dispute about the greatest matters in our art, and about things so great and inexplicable, and then, when the case comes, not to know what you ought to apply. < Some poisons take away life; others, when taken by a good man, preserve life.> I made very many men angry when I said these things to them. Our Erastus despises certain things boldly, yet I wish he would say: why do things that bring death to other animals, and that, when drunk by men oppressed by poison or infected by pestilence, bring help, so that they cause no harm, just as the nut of vomica does when taken with a Mithridatic antidote? I could recite hundreds of examples. Nor are those who produce such things so ignorant of philosophical and medical principles as some suppose them to be. I desire to see as deeply into the inner recesses of Hippocrates’ heart as anyone else does. I have observed so many things that are carried to the highest princes as though they were secrets, and known by certain experience, as anyone else has. I write this to you with a most friendly spirit, since nothing of this concerns you, and I promise that I shall be your friend as long as I live. Farewell well. 16 Feb. In the year 1577. EPISTLE 137. TO THE SAME. < A parody of Paracelsus.> You say sacred things are not to be profaned. But they are certainly to be brought forth and sung in praise of God. To conceal nothing, Paracelsus either seems to have ignored the things which the spirit of falsehood delivered to him, or perhaps he read them in ancient books, or maliciously envied others. It is good < It is good to communicate.> to discover , or, as you yourself know, monstrous speech is a sign of a monstrous mind: either he envies, or he wants to deceive, the one who speaks obscurely. Both are, indeed, the marks of bad men. But I pass over these things. < Repensbra. Zeininger.> I saw certain preparations made by a Frankfurt pharmacist, whose Laudanum you praise, and I do not doubt — indeed I know from the fact itself — that they are of the highest efficacy. But about it < Turpeth and moral use of the importation.> I am in doubt whether such great efficacy and alteration is borne by nature, and whether it is useful for a prudent physician and one who practices the art with piety. For how often the boldness and boastfulness of Paracelsians unexpectedly fall, examples daily strike one’s eyes as one considers them. Jurists forbid speaking without law; much more is the rational physician forbidden to do anything without indication. < Turpeth and moral use of the importation.> What, I ask, is the physician doing when he uses precipitate, or mineral turpeth, in French diseases? I wish to have this demonstrated to me by you, who are supreme in Asclepiad medicine and practice it with great praise. That it purges phlegmy and burnt humours is due to nature’s help, rising against the poisonous quality of the drug, and at the same time also rejecting bad humours along with it. But to say that it thus fights against the French disease by a special power — are there, I ask, no other remedies that achieve this more safely? I confess that in French diseases, when once they have experienced Hermetic medicine, other remedies are applied in vain. Yet to use it in a recent illness seems to be too rash; and certainly, with nature as our guide, we rightly and safely attain victory in diseases by art, not by the strength of medicines. But when it is not permitted to act as we wish, that which we can do has some excuse. Applied externally in the treatment of ulcers, when it agrees with reason, I praise sublimated and precipitated substances in their place. What you write about its use in French ulcers of the tonsils, I do not understand. I know sulphur, endowed with great diaphoretic power, and therefore most helpful in pestilential diseases. Yet I have sometimes observed that it dissolves bodies so much that they collapse at once. The ways of preparing it are so many and so various that I cannot determine which is the truest and most correct. I do not easily persuade myself that Hippocrates used such sulphur in diseases of the chest as ours is, which is brought either from Poland or from Hungary. The Neapolitan kind, which Brassavola recommends, I was unable to see either in Naples itself or in the district of Puteoli and around Avernus, places full of sulphur and ash. < Sulphur of the Paracelsians.> And who says that sulphur, prepared by the Paracelsians,

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esle ἀπογω? Arsenicum, cum excoquitur eandidus reddijur, quam sulphur, quod e- go interdum illos exhibere animaduerto. Vtcunque certe, & quomodocunque tra- c ctetur sulphur, discedere ab eo omnem qua- litatem noxiam, nondum potui persuaderi, vel vt vterer adduci. Certe nulla corpo- ribus nostris cum istis medicamentis est fa- miliaritas, neque vllaratio, quæ cum per- iculo iis in morbis profligandis vtendum suadeat, cum tutiora in promptu sint. Ac ego veteres Ambra sulphurea, quam vere Chryseam appello, in morbis pectoris & a- liis vsos arborior, eamque plurimum iuua- re, ac vere huic nesle reipsa comperi. In chrysopea cuptur arcu sulphuris præparatio. In chrysopea sulphuris elabotationem ca- put attis esse facile cesserim. Scio enim in hac vrbæ fuisse quendam, qui in aquam illius rubeam, laminas argenti conficiebat, & intra non multos dies aurum extrahe- bat. De oleo sulphuris, quod nondum à quoquam exacte factu arborior, idem quod de Calchanti viribus statuo, & auxilian plu- rimum, cum a Mercurio damnum est cor- potibus illarum, scio. Possem de his multa adte scribere, & nihil facerem libentius, si valerudo permitteret. Hoc reticere non debeo, communem Amicum nostrum in- signem iniuriam mihi facere, cum metan- quam chymia hostem & oppugnatorum publicæ traducit, qui in multis Rebus pu- blicis & Aulis, cum nominis quadam mei iactura chymica medicamenta sum tuta- tus. Nihil ante quadraginta annos oleo- rum destillatorum, nullum extractum, nul- lus succushic in Pharmacopiis est reper- tus. A me autem ita & Pharmaceopæi & Medici, beneficio DEI, successu medica- tionis edocti, vt nunc vbique parent, atque iis vstantur. Idem & Viennæ, & in aula Cæ- sarea me factitassæ, & plurimum aduersa- tionis expertum verissimum est. Infaniam vero Paracelsicam, qui summos in arte Medica magistros, imo artem ipsam Me- dicam propter arcana sua, vt appellant, contemnit, & nouam nobis è fumis Me- dicinam fabricat, atque discentes à bonis auroribus ad fornaces ablegat, omnemque denique seculi nostri excellentiam deince- re studet, vt sua medicamenta extollar, nun- quam probaui. Artem enim ipsam Hip- pocratis, & doctrinæ Methodicæ Galeni acceptum ferre, vt eruditum Medicum o- portet; Ita Paracelsica somnia tot verbo- rum falsitatis inuolucris tecta, & tam mon- strosis nominibus variata fugere virum bo- num decet. Modo enim illis sulphur est o- leum, modo Antimonium, modo aliud, sed imposturas istas & fraudes, quibus in nomi- 240 nandis saltem rebus vtuntur, recensere lon- gum esset, admirari πινεργηλια αμφοῦ πις αμφοδεολια maxima amētia. Ladanum de quo scribis, ενωλοιον esse remedium, & in sum- mis doloribus necessario sæpe adhiberi, sie- ut Philonium & similia opiata, non ignoro. Quem morbum curet & vnde indicatio in curatione sumatur, non satis perspicio. Do- ceti à te cupio. Detuo vero Ostrutio, Thie- lzo, Orionio, quæ refers tenebræ mihi sunt. De vi magnetica aduersus Epilepsiam in na- tiua cinabari, quam minimum quidam appel- lant, valde dubito. Montanum præceptorem meum inter chymistas recēseri miror, cum vix rationem aquæ rosacæ conficiendæ il- lii perspectam fuisse ex eo cognouerim. Er- ror de libris destillationum illius vnde ema- narir, iam antea ostendi, & me vera scripsis- se, omnes discipuli Montanisciunt. Quid multis, cum ratione, non autoritate, est pu- gnandum. Si sal minerale vt principium re- bus omnibus inest, in eundem quoq[ue] omnia resolui necesse erit. Sed hæc mysteria de sa- le, tâ quam buic sectæ propria, relinquamus. Quæ de epilepsia Fersius disputauit non vi- di. Vtinam ante vitæ meæ exitum veram diagnosin huius morbi, atque verum reme- dium aliquis ostendat. Erastus obstructionem oppugnauit. Quid sit morbi, aut quid illa maligna qualitas nondu[m] declarauit. Sed nimius sum, & vires infirmas affligo. Ali- quot iam mensibus obambulare propter in- firmitatem nô potui. Dolorem pedum nul- lum, beneficio DEI sentio. Calculus inter- dum vehementer excruciat. Nondum Chy- mistæ remedium, quod tuto frangat exco- gitarunt. Ventriculus meus inprimis labo- rat, & cor in consensum trahit. Vtinam Ar- ragolius aliquid, quo iuuet, desuis arcanis subiicet. Sed aspectus illius lucis æternæ, verum erit omnium nostrorum malorum remedium, & immortalis vitæ perfruitio. Te autem oro, dum in his terris DEVS nos vulrviuere, vt sæ per literas mecum col- loqui studeas, meique memoriam amanrer tuis etiam literis & libris quos cum genium habeant, victuros spero, conserues. Bene va- le. Vratisl. die 19. Ianuarij, secundum nouos fastos. Anno 1585. EPIST. CXXXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. DE chymicis plane tecum sentio, ve- runtamen iis quibus μελαχιγνομενες est i- gnota, magnam cautionem adhibendam puto, dum magna illa medicamenta χρίσις obstituunt. DE SULPHVRÆ quæ scribis scio & fateor, cum valde exiccer, atque omnes Ladanum Zeinogen. Mimi vi- magnatica in epilepsia. Montanum chymica qua- res. Sal minera- lo. Diagnosis. pilopæa- gnora. Causa de chymica. Sulphuris vsum in vl- ceribus pe- teris.

Transcription: Translated (English)

What other solution? Arsenic, when it is calcined, becomes white, more so than sulfur, which I have sometimes observed them to show. However it may be, and however sulfur is treated, I have not yet been able to persuade myself that every harmful quality departs from it, nor to be led to use it. Certainly our bodies have no familiarity with those medicines, nor any reason that would advise using them with danger in diseases to be driven off, since safer remedies are at hand. And I have seen the ancient sulfurous amber, which I rightly call golden, used in diseases of the chest and others, and found that it helps greatly, and indeed I have learned this from experience. Preparation of sulfur for chrysopea. In chrysopea, the working up of sulfur, I would easily concede, deserves the chief place. For I know that in this city there was a certain man who made sheets of silver from its red water, and within a few days drew out gold. About sulfur oil, which no one has yet exactly made, I hold the same as I do about the powers of calcination, and I know that it helps greatly when harm has been done to bodies by Mercury. I could write many things to you about these matters, and I would do nothing more gladly if my health permitted. I must not keep this back: our common friend is doing me a grave wrong when he denounces me almost as a public enemy and opponent of chemistry, though in many commonwealths and courts I have defended chemical medicines, at some loss to my reputation. Before forty years ago, no distilled oils, no extracts, no juices were to be found in pharmacies. But by me both pharmacists and physicians, through God’s favor, were taught by the success of the treatments, so that now they obey everywhere and use them. The same is perfectly true of what I have done in Vienna and at the imperial court, and how much opposition I have experienced. But I have never approved the Paracelsian madness, which despises the highest masters of medical art, indeed even medicine itself, because of its so-called secrets, and forges for us a new medicine from fumes, sending students away from good authors to the furnaces, and finally striving to belittle every excellence of our age, so as to exalt its own medicines. For one should attribute value to the art of Hippocrates itself and to the Methodic doctrine of Galen, as becomes an educated physician. Thus it befits a good man to flee Paracelsian dreams, covered over with so many wrappings of false words and varied with such monstrous names. For now sulfur is oil, now antimony, now something else; but to recount these impostures and frauds, which they use at least in naming things, would be too long. To admire such great empty show would be sheer nonsense. As for the labdanum you write about, I know that it is a remedy of great force and must often be used in the most severe pains, just like Philonium and similar opiates. What disease it cures, and from what indication in treatment it is to be taken, I do not sufficiently see. I desire to be instructed by you. But your Ostrutius, Thielzo, and Orionius are darkness to me, as you relate them. I greatly doubt the magnetic power against epilepsy in native cinnabar, which some call the smallest particle. I wonder that my teacher Montanus is counted among chemists, since from that I have learned that he scarcely had a clear understanding of how rose water is made. I have already shown whence the error about his books of distillations arose, and all Montanus’ pupils know that I wrote truly. What more? We must fight with reason, not authority. If mineral salt is in all things as a principle, then everything must also be resolved into it. But let us leave these mysteries about salt, as proper to this sect. I have not seen what Fersius argued about epilepsy. Would that before the end of my life someone would show the true diagnosis of this disease and the true remedy. Erastus attacked the obstruction. What the disease itself is, or what that malignant quality is, he has not yet explained. But I am excessive, and I wear out my weak strength. For some months now I have not been able to walk about because of weakness. By God’s favor I feel no pain in my feet. The stone sometimes tortures me violently. The chemists have not yet devised a remedy that can safely break it up. My stomach suffers especially, and draws the heart into sympathy. Would that Arragolius might set down something from his secrets by which he might help. But the sight of that eternal light will truly be the remedy for all our ills and the enjoyment of immortal life. And I pray you, while God wills us to live in these lands, to strive to converse with me often by letters, and lovingly preserve my memory also through your letters and the books you have, which, I hope, will live on with their genius. Farewell. From Vratislavia, on 19 January, according to the new calendar. Year 1585. EPIST. CXXXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. On chemical matters I agree with you entirely; nevertheless, for those to whom the melanchigomenes is unknown, I think great caution should be used, when those great medicines krisis stand in the way. About sulfur, what you write, I know and admit, since it greatly dries out, and all... Ladanum Zeinogen. Magnetic power in epilepsy. Montanus’ chemistry. Mineral salt. Diagnosis. Pylopaea- ignorance. Cause of chemistry. Use of sulfur in ulcers of the chest.

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omnes partes corporis penetret, in vlcerib[us] pe[n]ctoris summam efficacitatem habere, catarrhos etiam exiceare, vetum cum insigni vi diaphoretica præditum sit, interdum vires plane exhaustire. exemplis edoctus sum. Possem tibi duos Medicos nominare, qui ex illius viu interierunt. Aliis etiam admodum nocuisse animaduerti. Itaque nunqua[m] exhibere, nisi robustioribus corporibus, in peste volui. Turpethum tibi probari, & te Q[ui]cruæ ista scribere atque recte & methodice exhiberi affirme miro. Nunquam illo vllum corpus feliciter expurgatum vidi, nisi prius vel fumo, vel inunctione Mercuriali corruptum esset. DE LAVDANO vel Napenthe iam antea meam leutentiam exp[er]tui. Impuris atque crudis corporibus noce re reipsa comperi. Sed, quid agimus de Ladano, cum, an nostrum OFIVM cum veterum congruat, ignoremus? Chymica magnificio, & pluris fortasse, quam illi qvi de chymicis plurima minime explorata scribunt. Vidi nuper libellum quendam chymicum, ex quo si philosophica tollas, pauca chymica repeties. Proponii ille nobis tres nouos destillandi modos. Quis autem qui chymica tractauit, non videt, ineptissimum esse spiritu nativo propemodum omni e[st] cinnamomodum aqua eliciur, exhausto velle ex insipidis fecibus oleu[m] destillare? & quantum olei ex semilibra poterit sibi polliceri. Credo istos homines omnes alios stolidos, atque rerum impertussimos existimare. Secundus, quo potabile aurum, quemadmodum loquuntur vulgo, conficere docet, fallus & conuictus est. Ac quotsum opus quæso istis putrefactionibus in spiritu vini, auro, gemmis, aut quis vnquam vidit spiritum vini aurum & gemmas penetrare. Certe quicquid spiritus vini peneirat, ex eo locum natuum spiritum rapit, & tam diu retinet, donec vi caloris separentur. Hinc apparet, quanto in errore versentur, qui aquas vix, vt appellant, & Elixir per multiplices destillationes præparant. De tertio modo nihil dicam. Verum oleum gummatum rectius appositis silicibus elicieri omnibus est exploratissimum. De familiaritate medicamentorum ad nostra corpora, quæ scribis, ingeniose cogitata sunt. Rectum tamen vsum medicamentorum solam propemodum experientiam monstrare, & eas qualitates, quas gustu & olfactu percipimus, nullu[m] est dubium. Sed de his plura nunc cogitare vel dictare non possum. Præterea[m] hoc quod de Epilepticorum curatione per Nepenihem scriptisti. Mulia, dum hic iacceo, de morbis affatibus & corruptis vaporibus cogitaui. Ladanum vulgare, Myrrham, Ladani vulgare v[er]suæ. spermaceti, quod vocant, insignem vsum habere comperi. In iuo vero Ladano [mercur]io. [Ph]æn[omen]is [mercur]ialis [mercur]ius nusquam apparet. Peto igitur à te, vt clariurem facem mihi accendas. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ 8. Maii secundum nouos factos, Anno 1585. EPIST. CXXXIX. Io. CRATO A KRAFTHEIM, &c. Thoma Iordano Med. S. N VDIVSTERTIVS cum ad te literas darem, Claudius Bibliopola libellum tuum de morbo, quo multi in balneis vestris correpti sunt, ad me misit. Non potui tunc legere, inspexi saltem pauca, & displi cere mihi magnificum istum ornatum ostendi. Paulum deinceps vacui temporis nactus, totum libellum perlegi, mihique illud quod seni in comedia accidit, vt incertior essem quamdudum. Ita quidem sententia concludis: Emerisse hoc malum è subiecto putri, & vi balnei in alia corpora transmissum. Vetum hoc non explicas. Nec video quid ad ista faciant tam multa, quæ de situ vrbis vestræ, de hominum conditione, & conuictu, de morbis nouis, de erroribus medicantium, de ægrorum temeritate & inscivia, nisi vt te vel autoritate ea, qua debebas, non esse; vel parum officio ium perfunctu esse ostenderes. Nam quæ de pharmacopi cuniuge narras, cura[ti]onem quam in ea instituisti parum habuisse firmitatis, res ostendit. Vnum autem mihi obseruatione & consideratione dignu[m] videur, quod non aliis, quam ii quibus sanguis per cucurbitulas est extractus, infecti sunt: & quod malum in eo loco vbi curis vulnerata, & cucurbita affixa fuerat, coepit, ac vniuersam massam sanguineam, id quod liuor corporum ostendit, perualit, & neruosas quoque partes grauiter afflixii. Huius vero malicas inqurenti, duæ præcipuæ offeruntur, vel scabellum infectum, vel puridus vapor qui per vulnus subit, atque sanguini communicatus est. De primadum inquiro, in memoriam mihi reuocas ea, quæ Diuus Ferdinandus S. M. Imper. de iucco, non, scribis, napelli, sed ellebori albi, quo venatores Hispani sagittas inficiunt, & feras, maxime autem ceruos, interficiunt, commemorabat. Ineunie æstate, inquit, luceum ex tota planta expruni, cumque æstuis bus in sole præparari, arque in bouino cornu asseruari. Cautionem autem summam ab iis, qui vti volunt, adhiberi, ne odot qui è cydoncis expirat, hunc succum attingat. Subito enim omnem excludi viam amittere. L

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It penetrates all parts of the body, has the greatest efficacy in ulcers of the breast, dries up catarrhs as well; yet since it is endowed with remarkable diaphoretic power, it sometimes utterly exhausts the strength. I have learned this from experience. I could name to you two physicians who died from the use of it. I have also observed that it was very harmful to others. Therefore I have never wished to administer it except to stronger constitutions, in the plague. I admire that you approve of turpethum, and that you write that it should be given rightly and methodically. I have never seen any body happily purged by it unless it had first been corrupted either by smoke or by mercurial inunction. I already before tested my opinion of laudanum, or nepenthe. I found by experience that it harms impure and crude bodies. But what are we doing about laudanum, when we do not know whether our opium agrees with that of the ancients? I value chemistry highly, and perhaps more than those who write many things about chemistry without having examined them at all. I lately saw a certain chemical booklet, from which, if you remove the philosophical matter, you will retain little that is chemical. In it he proposes three new methods of distilling. But who, if he has handled chemistry, does not see how absurd it is to extract by water almost everything from native spirit and cinnamon, and then from useless feces to want to distill oil? And how much oil can he promise himself from half a libra? I believe these men consider all others foolish and utterly unversed in things. The second method, by which he teaches how to make potable gold, as people commonly speak, is deceitful and refuted. And what need, I ask, is there for those putrefactions in wine spirit, gold, gems, or who has ever seen wine spirit penetrate gold and gems? Surely whatever wine spirit penetrates, from that it carries off the natural spirit of the place, and retains it so long until they are separated by the force of heat. Hence it is clear how much they are in error who prepare waters, as they call them, and elixir by manifold distillations. I shall say nothing of the third method. But that gummy oil is better extracted by applying stones, this is perfectly well known to everyone. What you write about the familiarity of remedies with our bodies is ingeniously thought out. Yet that the proper use of medicines is shown almost solely by experience, and by those qualities which we perceive by taste and smell, there is no doubt. But of these things I cannot now think or dictate more. Moreover, what you wrote about the treatment of epileptics by nepenthe—while I lie here I have thought much about foul diseases and corrupted vapors. I have found that common laudanum, myrrh, common ladanum, and spermaceti, as it is called, have remarkable use. In the pure ladanum, however, mercurial phenomena appear nowhere. I therefore ask you to kindle for me a clearer light. Farewell. From Vratislavia, 8 May, according to the new style, in the year 1585. EPIST. CXXXIX. Io. CRATO TO KRAFTHEIM, etc. To Thomas Jordan, physician, greetings. Only the day before yesterday, when I was writing to you, Claudius the bookseller sent me your little book about the disease with which many in your baths have been attacked. I was then unable to read it; I merely glanced at a few passages, and the splendid ornamentation displeased me. Later, having obtained some free time, I read through the entire booklet, and what happened to me was like the old man in the comedy, that I became more uncertain than before. For indeed you conclude with this opinion: that this evil arose from a rotten subject and was transmitted into other bodies by the force of the bath. But you do not explain this. Nor do I see what all those things contribute which you say about the situation of your city, the condition and mode of life of the people, about new diseases, the errors of physicians, and the rashness and ignorance of the sick, unless it is to show either that you do not possess the authority you ought to have, or that you have performed your office only poorly. For what you relate about the apothecary’s wife shows that the treatment you instituted in her case had little firmness. But one thing seems to me worthy of observation and consideration: that only those were infected from whom blood had been drawn by cupping-glasses; and that the evil began in the place where the wound had been made and the cup applied, and spread through the whole blood-mass, as the lividity of the body shows, and also grievously affected the nervous parts. When one inquires into the cause of this evil, two chief possibilities present themselves: either an infected scar, or a putrid vapor which entered through the wound and was communicated to the blood. As to the first, you bring to my mind what the divine Emperor Ferdinand, of holy memory, used to mention concerning the juice—not, as you write, of napellus, but of white hellebore, with which Spanish hunters infect their arrows and kill wild animals, especially deer. In early summer, he said, they press out the juice from the whole plant, prepare it in the heat of the sun, and preserve it in an ox horn. Those who wish to use it must take the greatest care that the odor which exudes from quinces does not touch this juice. For then it suddenly loses all power to exclude the way.

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243 EPISTOLÆ 244 < Hallibari succus sanguini venenum, carno non.> Cæterum si lingua degustetur, nulli noxium esse, sanguini vero communicatum, exitiosum. Addebat hoc, si quis acu saltem eo succo infecta punctim læderetur, & exigum vulnus acciperet, paecis horis post extingui. Ceruos vulneratos primum quasi obstupescere & perturbari, ita vt visus ereptus illis esse videatur, circumire in gynnm, concidere deinde, & summum intra dimidie horæ spatium extingui. Carnem innoxiam esse, ac tantum eam pattem, quæ vulnerata est, ablici. Eadem hæc generosissimus Palatii Imperatorii perfectus dominus Adamus Dietrichsteinius commemoravit, & confirmauit, arque hoc addidit: Asello, cui ex oneribus ferendis dorsum atrium arque fauciatum fuerat, impositum ceruum eo modo, vt dixi, vulneratum & interfectum, sanguinem qui ex vulnere manabat asini vulnus forte attigisse, acque isto modo asellum sic iofectum, & priuiquam impositum ceruum domum per ferret, iotinere mortuus concideret. Fuisse etiam quendam peruerse & feeleratc malum, qui dum coniunx nempeum haberet, pudet dicere quomodo succum istum ei admonuit, & mulierem extinxit. Imperatorem Rudolphum II. Augustum, vulnerasse sagitta cerui tenerum & lacteum cotnu, eumque statim fuga, tanquam nullum vulnus accepisset, elapsum. Post aliquot horas, cum ex venatione redirent, mortuum repertum. Lacteum enim humorem istum germanum esse sanguini, Hippocrates nos docuit. Hæc arque his plura dum accurate cogitarem, & quæ sit venenata qualitatis vis considerarem, sane ne scalpellum, nescio etiam eo, qui illo est vsus, vel ex homine cui adhibuit, vel ex alia re infectum sit, subuereri in mentem venit. Nam ego aliquot memini, quibus ex scarificatione cum scalpello impuro, carnes computruerunt & exciderunt. Scio quendam io maximo periculo fuisse, cum ei scalpello, quo vlcus tonsor aperuerat, vena scelta esset. Nec me mouent ista, quæ tu affers, vim illam noxiam io infinitum extendi noo posse, & dum vno istu absurni, quicquid impuri adhæsit, arbitraris. Potuit enim cum ab vno infecto ad alium noodum infectu balnei minister trans iret, & eum infecti etiam, vt est io tua narratione, iterum sibi sanguinem derrahendum curarent, de nouo quasi, & iterum atque iterum ferrum insicere, arque istibus deinceps multos lædere, deoique cum obtuso aciem in core vel loro addididit, his instrumentis affricate, & deinceps aliis quæ vel acuere, vel mundare voluit scalpellis, sordes communicare, vel etiam rursus corpora ra impura & infecta vulnerando, virus iterum contrahere. Nequaquam etiam viruleoria illa statim, vt tu arbitraris, absumitur. Sed video te fugitiuo velle subuenire. Quid autem, si hoc modo malum propagatum esset, inquis faceres? Iochoaoti malum occurrendum censerem, & vulneribus illis alexipharmacac, ne vniuersi corporis massæ sanguineæ malum communicaretur, adhibenda. Primum vero stigmatis dolentiibus animalium caroes calidas, quibus virus elici posset, admouerem. Deioceps vnguentis, quæ impuris vulneribus prosunt, mederer. Vsus ego ad hoc essem cardui vel veronicæ succo, aut destillato. Intra corpus exhibuissem, quæ progressum virulentæ materiæ prohiberent, & serosis humoribus adiumento essent. Ad eam rem inprimis lapides caocrorum cum acquis betonicæ, agrimoniae, verooicæ, vel cardui profuissent. Purgaodum deinceps fuisset corpus, primum per ea, quæ vniuersam massam sanguioeam vacuant, deinde per Animaduerto quidem te in eo fuisse, sed tatda auxilia interdum nulla sunt vel successu carent. Verum fac esse, in scalpello nullam fuisse noxam. Restabit igitur, vt in putridum vaporem causam referamus. Sed vnde is exhalauit? E corporibus, dices, infectis & seminarium exspiratoibus. Cur igitur solos scalpello vulneratos innasit? Cur primom in loco scarificato initium mali? Hic tibi aquam hærere puto. Mihi de analogia humorum & spirituum in contagiose cogitanti in mentem venit, exspirasse è sanguine, qui per cucurbitas eiicitur, , eaque solis vulneraris, & sanguinem mittenribus iolmica fuisse, imo per vulneratam eutem primum subuisse. Fortasse etiam contagium cucut bitulis adhærere potuit, cum in mundandis illis perexigua diligentia à balneatoribus adhibeatur. Miram esse vim sanguinis menstrui & leprosi non ignoras: & cum doctrinam de contagio veteres non tradierint, oos in nostra oscitantia multa ignorare & fugere oon est dubium. Vehiculum vero contagionis fuisse in hoc morbo sosos humores, torpor, tacici pollor & limor, arque euratio, cum tu sudore solo Polonum taoatum dicas, indicant. Cut igitur vacuato corpore adid e ungæ non deuentum? Po[ss]io illa pharmacopæi ooo placet. Carduum Indico ligno admiscere sarius fuisset. Sed de his plura cogitare & scribere non vacat. Quam multæ autem sint, vt Duditii verbo vtar, dubitationis fibræ, putore ex hac epistola, quâ, vt vides, subito exaravi, videre. Si alii quam scarificati infecti essent, facilior con-

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243 EPISTLES 244 < The juice of Hallibari is poison to blood, but not to flesh.> Moreover, if it is tasted with the tongue, it is harmful to no one; but communicated to the blood, it is destructive. He added that if anyone were at least pricked with a needle infected with that juice and received even a slight wound, he would die within a few hours. He said that deer, when wounded, first seem almost stunned and confused, so that their sight appears to have been taken from them; they run around in a circle, then fall, and die within the shortest space of half an hour. The flesh is harmless, and only that part which has been wounded is to be discarded. These same things the most noble Count Palatine, the perfect lord of the Imperial Palace, Adamus Dietrichsteinius, recalled, and confirmed, and he added this: a little donkey, whose back and shoulders had been badly chafed by carrying loads, had a deer placed upon it, which had been wounded and killed in the manner I said; the blood flowing from the wound had by chance touched the donkey’s wound, and in this way the little donkey, thus infected, before it could carry the placed deer home, fell dead on the road. There was also a certain man most perverse and wicked, who, while he had a wife— it is shameful to say how—applied that juice to her and killed the woman. Emperor Rudolf II, Augustus, had wounded with an arrow the tender and milk-white antler of a deer, and the animal immediately escaped in flight, as though it had received no wound. After a few hours, when they were returning from the hunt, it was found dead. For Hippocrates has taught us that this milk-white humor is the true blood. While I was carefully considering these matters and reflecting on what force there is in a poisonous quality, it certainly occurred to me to fear that even the scalpel itself, I know not whether also the one who used it, or the person from whom it had been used, or some other thing, might have been infected. For I remember several cases in which, after scarification with an impure scalpel, the flesh putrefied and fell away. I know of one man who was in great danger when a vein was opened for him with the scalpel with which the barber had opened an ulcer. Nor do those things move me which you bring forward, namely that that harmful force cannot extend to infinity, and that, while you suppose one thing, whatever impure matter adhered to it would be only so much. For the bath attendant, moving from one infected person to another, could have carried the infection; and those infected, too, as in your account, when they had blood drawn again perhaps had the iron used on them anew, and again and again infected it, and thereafter by means of it injure many, and finally, when he had added the blade to the leather or strap, by rubbing against these instruments, and thereafter to other scalpels which he wished either to sharpen or clean, communicate filth, or even again contract the virus by wounding impure and infected bodies. Nor is that virulence used up at once, as you suppose. But I see that you wish to come to the rescue of the fugitive. What, then, would you do if, you ask, the evil had been propagated in this way? I would think the evil must be met at once, and alexipharmic remedies applied to those wounds, lest the evil be communicated to the blood of the whole mass of the body. First, indeed, I would bring warm animal flesh to the painful stigmata, so that the poison might be drawn out. Next I would treat them with ointments that are useful for impure wounds. For this I would use juice, or a distilled preparation, of carduus or veronica. Inside the body I would administer what would prevent the advance of the virulent matter and help the serous humors. For that purpose, above all, the stones of the caocri with waters of betonica, agrimonia, veronica, or carduus would have been useful. Thereafter the body would have had to be purged, first by means of those things that empty the whole blood-mass, then by means of— I certainly observe that you were at that point, but late remedies are sometimes of no use or fail in success. Yet suppose that in the scalpel there was no harm. It will remain, then, that we refer the cause to putrid vapor. But whence did it exhale? From infected bodies and exhaled seeds, you say. Why then did it assail only those wounded with the scalpel? Why was the beginning of the evil first in the scarified place? Here I think you are at a loss. As I am reflecting on the analogy of humors and spirits in contagion, it occurred to me that it had exhaled from the blood that is drawn off with cupping-glasses, and that it was harmful only to the wounded and to those having blood let, indeed that it first entered through the wounded skin. Perhaps too the contagion could adhere to the cupping-glasses, since the bath attendants exercise very little care in cleaning them. You are not unaware how great is the power of menstrual blood and leprous blood; and since the ancients have not handed down a doctrine of contagion, there is no doubt that in our carelessness we ignore and overlook many things. The vehicle of contagion in this disease, however, was the serous humors, numbness, dark pallor, and fear, and the cure, since you say the Pole was affected by sweat alone, indicate. Why then, after the body had been emptied, were the ointments not applied? That pharmaceutical preparation of yours does not please me. It would have been better to mix carduus with the wood of India. But I have no leisure to think and write more about these things. How many threads of doubt there are, to use Duditii’s word, I can see from this letter, which, as you see, I have written out suddenly. If others besides those scarified were infected, the conclusion would be easier-

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145 MEDICINALES. 146 conuagii esset explanatio. Sed si solos vulneratos scalpello, lues ista attigit, quid reliquu[m] sit præter instrumentum, vel sanguinem, à quo inquinamenta exhalarunt, non video. Prædisposita autem corpora & cacochymia oppressa grauius affecta non mirum. Veram curationem nullam, tot autem ineptas & perniciosas te narrasse, & tempus perdidisse doleo. Contagii ratio cum lue venerea nihil habet commune. An ad Gallicum igitur referenda sit dubito. Iehores vehienlu[m] fuisse contagii & corruptionem totius massæ sanguineæ consecutam, res ostendit. Nihil habuisse veneni, nec facultatem vitalem læsam, exempla demonstrant. E tam multis ægris vero nullum tua opera vsum miror. Luem inspiratione baustum, & cucurbita in vnum locum pertractam, a medici instar tibi esse, facile patior. Mihi nuoquam hoc persuadebis. Bene vale, & rescribe. Pragæ, è Regia, 7. Martii Anno. 1580. EPIST. CXL. IDEM EIDEM V ICESIMATERTIA Ianuarii Cuii Prunensi ad te literas dedi, Nudius quartus vero suas accepi, perferente Italo, qui se Duci Florentiæ ait seruite, ex quibus & D. < Dolor intestinorum.> Baronis morbum & tuam quasi desperationem magno cum animi mei dolore cognoui. Reuero diligenter cogitata lapidem nequaquam esse possum existimare. Liber fuit a doloribus tribus fere mensibus, quomodo igitur materia tam crassa esse posset: Recurrunt dolores. Quia calor naturalis est imbecillus, oxi duriora etiam in sanis sæpe produnt. Ego a Canonico quodam Vratislauiei vidi pet aluum eiectos plurimos calculos instar castanearum nucum, verum symptomata habebat alia, quam colica & iliaca, & multis deinceps annis vixit. Recte fecisti quod exhibuisti apozema, nec abs re fuisset addere oxymel Gesneri cum Hellebore. Sed prius optime humectanda sunt Intestina decocto fænugræci cum helenii radice & buiyro vel oleo, item cum saturgia. Verum hæc atque alia multa fortasse prins scripsi. Insessus in oleo baud dubie < 50> plurimum quoque adiume[n]ti afferret. Bene ego spero, cum tot diebus prius malum remiserit. Itaque D. Baronem iubebis esse bono animo. Nam illius incestitia nihil morbo adimer, plantimum autem de viribus: destrahet, & aegyptian augebit. Si posset impetrari à Cæsare libenter aduenirem; verum si quid concesserit, vix erunt decem dies. Non mirum s[un]t sit languidior & animo abiectiore. Sed spero fore melius cum hic dies sit decimus, ex quo epistolam scripsisti. Opto ex animo, & quantum in me erit, omnia & amatissimi hominis officia exequar. Vale. POST SCRIPTVM. Interdum inliciatur clyster ex decocto ficum, radice ireos & ruta cum oleo lilioru[m] alborum. Conrundantur & vrantur in sartagine iuglandes & vmbilico imponantur; vacuetur si opus erit catapotiis: oleum in quo colocynthis decoquatur, recte etiam vmbilico imponitur, & admisceri potest zibethum. Spinæ dorsi diligenter prouidendum. Scis grauissimos dolores sedari imposita aqua frigida, sed non turum est, & sequuntur paralyses graues. Vnde vt obstructiones auferantur, plurimum potest calamus aromaticus, sed calori præternaturali quoque contulendum. Iterum vale. EPIST. CXL. IDEM EIDEM. COENANTI heri peruesperi mihi tuæ litere sunt redditæ, quæ somnum ademerunt. Multa enim sollicite cogitaui, non modo propter afflictam valetudinem Generosi Domini, sed quod te animo perculso, ac quasi abiecto esse video. Nullum vitæ genus est, quod non præmatur atq[ue] multiplicibus curis, & qui semper fortunatus, monstri simillis. Ex recta autem conscientia semper in aduersis maxima petenda est consolatio, verum de his satis. Catapotia non potuisse multum educere per alumipse optime sciuis oxymellitis vsum improbo. Coniunctionem lunæ vereri non debebas, cum vrgerent dolores. Rarum vsum Enematum esse volui, non omnino nulum, cum laborantibus intestinis dolore, nihil iis possit fieri melius. Manna est, eam no[n] probo in colicis: sed factum nequit infectum fieri. Melius fuisset factum, si electuarium Episcopi dedisset. Sed tamen paulo effieaciora enemata ingentibus doloribus magis probo, vt ex hiera cum decocto ehamomeli, florum sambuci, radice ireos, &c. Lixiuum etiam cum oleo oliuæ per clysterem recte iniecitur. Oleo lumbrico addas, & spinam dorsi inungas. Nam vermes terrestres plurimu[m] conferunt ad sedandos dolores & roborandos neruos. Accipiatur etiam Galbanu[m], & imponatur quiua[m] essentiæ, vel vino optimo destillato & imbuatur hoc vino castor cum atq[ue] colocynthis atque vmbilico imponatur. Fom[m]eteretur totus L 2

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145 MEDICINALS. 146 the explanation of the contagion would have been clear. But if that pest touched only those wounded by the scalpel, what remains besides the instrument, or the blood, from which the impurities exhaled, I do not see. But bodies predisposed and oppressed by bad humors are not surprisingly more severely affected. I grieve that you have related no true cure, but so many foolish and harmful ones, and that you have wasted time. The nature of the contagion has nothing in common with venereal disease. Whether therefore it should be referred to the French disease I doubt. That the contagion was received by inhalation and that corruption of the whole mass of blood followed, the facts show. That it had no poison, and that the vital faculty was not harmed, the examples demonstrate. From so many sick men, however, I wonder that no one obtained any benefit from your treatment. That the plague was drawn in by inspiration, and by cupping brought together to one place, seems to you, as by a physician’s art, easy enough; but you will never persuade me of this. Farewell, and write back. In Prague, from the Royal Palace, 7 March 1580. EPISTLE 140. THE SAME TO THE SAME On the twenty-third of January I gave you letters from Cuius Prunensis; four days ago, however, I received yours, brought by an Italian who says that he serves the Duke of Florence, and from them I learned, with great grief of mind, both of the illness of Lord Baron and of your own almost despair. Indeed, after careful thought, I cannot believe it is a stone. He was free from pain for almost three months; how then could the material have been so thick? The pains return. Because the natural heat is weak, even harder substances often produce effects even in the healthy. I myself saw, in Wrocław, a certain canon passing by stool many stones the size of chestnuts; yet he had symptoms other than colic and iliac pain, and afterward lived for many years. You did well to administer the apozema, and it would not have been out of place to add Gesner’s oxymel with hellebore. But first the intestines must be very well moistened with a decoction of fenugreek, elecampane root, and butter or oil, also with savory. Yet perhaps I wrote these things and many others before. Sitting in oil would no doubt bring much relief too. I hope well, since the ailment had already eased for so many days before. Therefore you will bid Lord Baron to be of good courage. For his abstinence takes nothing from the disease, but very much from the strength; it will rather lessen, and increase the disease. If it could be obtained from the Emperor, I would gladly come; but if anything should be granted, it will scarcely be for ten days. It is no wonder that he is rather languid and somewhat downcast in spirit. But I hope it will be better, since this is the tenth day since you wrote the letter. I wish this sincerely, and, as far as lies in me, I shall perform all the duties owed to a most beloved man. Farewell. POSTSCRIPT Sometimes a clyster may be administered from a decoction of figs, iris root, and rue, with oil of white lilies. Walnuts should be crushed and burned in a pan and applied to the navel; if necessary, let the bowels be emptied with pills; olive oil, in which colocynth has been boiled, is also properly applied to the navel, and zibethum may be mixed in. Care must be taken diligently for the spine. You know that the most severe pains are relieved by applying cold water, but this is not safe, and severe paralyses follow. Therefore, in order that obstructions may be removed, aromatic reed can help greatly, but the unnatural heat also must be attended to. Farewell again. EPISTLE 140. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Yesterday evening, when dinner was over, your letter was returned to me; it deprived me of sleep. For I thought much with anxiety, not only because of the afflicted health of the Noble Lord, but also because I see you cast down in spirit and, as it were, broken. There is no kind of life that is not pressed down by many cares, and he who is always fortunate is like a monster. But from a right conscience the greatest consolation must always be sought in adversity; but enough of this. You did not need to fear the taking of pills, since the pains were urgent; I very much disapprove of the use of oxymel. You should not have feared the conjunction of the moon, when the pains were pressing. I wanted the use of enemas to be rare, not altogether absent; when the intestines are suffering from pain, nothing better can be done for them. As for manna, I do not approve it in colic; but what has been done cannot be undone. It would have been better if you had given the electuary of the Bishop. But still I prefer somewhat more effective enemas for severe pains, such as from hiera with a decoction of chamomile, elder flowers, iris root, and so forth. Lixivium also with olive oil is rightly injected by clyster. Add oil of worms, and anoint the spine. For earthworms contribute greatly to relieving pain and strengthening the nerves. Let galbanum also be taken, and let it be applied to the navel, or let it be imbued with the essence, or with the best distilled wine; and let castor with this wine and colocynth be applied to the navel. The whole should be fomented. L 2

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147 EPISTOLE ventet lacte caprino vel vaccino cum mel- lecocto. Ius Galli decrepiti cum polypodio & carthamo etiam recte per elysterem ini- citur. Intra corpus ad sedandos dolores des Theriacæ 3β, extracti calami aromatici 9β. Apponas ventri emplastrum, quod mitto, ex matricaria & meliloro. Extendatur ad ventris magnitudinem. Per superiora des syrupum, si non sedatus est dolor. Descri- ptio ista est: 1/2. Summit. absinthii pontici. Camomill. a. p. j. Thuris albiss. 3j. 1 Decoq. in s. q. aquæ puræ. Colaturæ 1/2. gr. iiiij. Syrup. de succo chamomel. ve Matricariæ 3β. Misc. Habes hic duas doves. Ego maximos intestinorum & ventriculi dolores isto syrupo sedavi. Vbi conquieuerint dolores, tum poterimus de medicamentis purgantib. cogitare. Non semper purgandum laborantibus intestinis, etiamsi alius sit astricta. Maluaticum etiam cum oleo oliuarum, & alia ärb. 9. 1j. vel 3j. per elysterem iniici potest. Quæso ne des mannam, rhabarbarum, vel senam, præsertim in potionibus, nisi prius bene roboratis intestinis. Mitto alia eatapotia, quæ vt arbitror, melius subducent. Dabis primo 9ij. deinde ad drachmam peruncies. Lubrica vbi facta fuerit aluus, vns scrupulus sufficiet. Descriptio non erat ad manns, sed ego pillulas de ladano appello. Educunt pituitosum humorem & bilem. Si essem mei iuris, statim ad Generosum Dominum aduolarem, sed nosti mea vincula. Tum vxor heri primum lecto surrexit & mensæ assedit. Saris habes remediorum. Omnia perscribere non possum, sed prudentiæ commendo. Meum summum gratifi- candi studium Generoso Domino verissimum declarabo; viribus vt ratione victus consulatur necesse est, si febris non adest, ex maluatico, vitellis ovi, addita parum a- quæ rosaceæ, pulu. cinnamomi & sacchari hæc quasi pulmentum. Possunt & alia exco- gitari, quæ palarui sint grata. Bene vale. Po- sonii 16. Octob. Pillularum de Ladano quarum in hisce literis mentio sit; hæc est descriptio: 1/2. Ladani purissimi 3β. Trochile. alhandal 3 iii. Mastic. 3j. Mastix & Ladanum supra carbones In mortario calefiant, & dissoluantur; deinde Trochisel enm Electuarii de suceo rosarum 3β. incorporentur, & add. parum syr. rosac. tolurui f. massa. 148 EPIST. CXLII. IDEM EIDEM. Spero te recte & literas & equos meos accepisse. Deradice Mechoaea, quæ sic dicitur ab insula, 1524. à Ferrando Cortesio reperta, & à Monacho Franciscano, qui in ea coenobium habet. Inuenta est, libellus ex tat Hispanus Nicolai de Monardis. Dncit a- quositates ad duas drachmas exhibita. Genus est volubilis, & omnino species bryoniæ videtur. Nam refert quodammodo radi- cem eius. Vidi apud D. Kiuenhillerum, & habeo Viennæ Gustavi, admodum nauseabunda est visa. Scripsit quoque de ea qui- dam Italus Marcellus Donatus, sed venio ad ægrum tuum. Eiamsi absceus aliquis frigidus esset in Intestinis, tamen illa reme- dia essent recta, quæ monui. Maxime deco- ctum fænugræci cum faturgia & butyro addito croco. Helensii vsum valde commé- dant practici, & electuarii de baccis lauri. Polypodii decoctum in iure galli deer. In- terim diligenter ad visceru[m] obstructionem videndum. Nam inappetentia illa & fasti- dium eibi, item vrinæ crassæ plerumq; eam demonstrant. Quum tam diu duret malum non tantum ad pituitam, sed etiam melan- eholicum homorem respiciendum. Ad cum plurimum decoctum iuris galli decre- piti faereret. Ideo apozema ex isto iure da- bis. Significabis mihi an data sit terebinthi- na, si non est data Cypriam à vidua Hoffste- teriana petas, & scribam quomodo sit præ- paranda. Bene vale. EPIST. CXLIII. IDEM EIDEM. Modo accepi literarum fasciculum, qui à vobis Vratislauiam est missus. Quid vero aliud rescribam, quam me facturum Generosi Baronis causa quæ possum omnia? Non necesse est orare. Reiterent[ur] elyster. Practici nouem vncias vetant excedere nos debere. Ad libram vnam tuto olea damus, & aliquid medullæ addimus. Verum ea in frigidis intestinis conerescit. Memini me destillatum è Galbano D. Marschallero ad- hibere, sed alia fuit cauta. Potius ad vmbili- cum cum lana xylina applicarem. Olei spi- cæ, olei nucis muscae an. 3β. castorei ping- guedinis 9j. spiritus vini optimi destillati 3 β. illa in crure cösequitur humo- res corruptos, & dum gingiæ atq[ue] fauces la- borare incipiunt, morb. ille est, quem scor- butum quidam appellant. Proinde an ali- qvid mali in ote sit videas. Vinum nauseæ, neque

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147 LETTERS with goat's milk or cow's milk, with honey boiled in. A broth of old cock with polypody and safflower is also properly given by enema. To soothe the pains within the body, give 3 drachms of Theriac and 9 drachms of extract of aromatic reed. Apply to the belly the plaster I send, made of matricaria and melilote. Let it be extended to the size of the abdomen. Give syrup from above if the pain has not been eased. This is the prescription: 1/2 ounce of the tops of Pontic absinthe. Chamomile, of each 1 ounce. Finest frankincense, 3 drachms. Boil in a sufficient quantity of pure water. Of the colature, 1/2 ounce; 4 grains. Syrup of chamomile juice or of matricaria, 3 drachms. Mix. Here you have two doses. I myself have relieved the greatest pains of the intestines and stomach with this syrup. When the pains have subsided, then we may think about purgative medicines. One should not always purge those suffering from intestinal complaints, even if they are constipated. Malvaticum also, with olive oil and other herbs, 9 or 10 drams, or 3 drachms, can be injected by enema. I beg you not to give manna, rhubarb, or senna, especially in drinks, unless the intestines have first been well strengthened. I am sending other catapotia, which, as I think, will draw down better. Give first 9 drachms, then by ounces up to a drachm. When the bowels have become loose, a scruple will suffice. The prescription was not for manna, but I call them pills of ladanum. They bring out phlegmatic humor and bile. If I were my own master, I would at once fly to the Most Noble Lord, but you know my bonds. Then my wife yesterday first rose from bed and sat at table. You have enough remedies. I cannot write down everything, but I commend it to your prudence. I shall make clear to the Most Noble Lord my utmost desire to oblige him, most truly; it is necessary that strength be cared for by diet, if fever is not present, with malvaticum, egg yolks, adding a little rose water, cinnamon powder, and sugar, this as it were like a broth. Other things may also be contrived that may be pleasing to the palate. Farewell well. Pozsony, 16 October. The pills of ladanum, mention of which is made in these letters, are described as follows: 1/2 ounce of the purest ladanum, 3 drachms. Troches of alhandal, 3 drachms. Mastic, 1 drachm. Heat the mastic and ladanum together over coals in a mortar, and let them dissolve; then incorporate the troches with electuary of rose juice, 3 drachms, and add a little rose syrup; make a mass. 148 LETTER CXLII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I hope you have received both the letters and my horses safely. Concerning Mechoacan root, which is so called from the island, discovered in 1524 by Ferdinand Cortes, and by a Franciscan monk who has a monastery there. It was found, as the Spanish booklet of Nicholas de Monardis states. It draws off watery humors, given in doses of up to two drachms. It is a kind of bindweed, and seems altogether to be a species of bryony; for in a way it resembles its root. I saw it at Mr. Kiuenhiller's, and I have some in Vienna of Gustavus; it seemed very nauseating. An Italian, Marcellus Donatus, also wrote about it, but I come to your patient. Even if some cold abscess were in the intestines, still those remedies I mentioned would be appropriate. Especially a decoction of fenugreek with savory and butter added, with saffron. The use of helenium is much recommended by practitioners, and an electuary of laurel berries. A decoction of polypody in old cock-broth. Meanwhile, the obstruction of the viscera must be carefully observed. For that lack of appetite and distaste for food, as well as the thick urine, usually indicate it. Since the illness has lasted so long, one must look not only to phlegm but also to the melancholic humor. In that case, as much as possible, a decoction of old cock-broth would be effective. Therefore you will give an apozeme from that broth. Let me know whether terebinth has been given; if not, ask the widow Hoffsteterian for Cyprian, and I shall write how it is to be prepared. Farewell well. LETTER CXLIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I have just received the packet of letters that was sent to Breslau from you. What else should I write back, except that I shall do everything I can for the sake of the Most Noble Baron? There is no need to beg. Let the clysters be repeated. Practitioners forbid us to exceed nine ounces; we ought not to. Safely we give one pound of oil, and add a little marrow. But this hardens in cold intestines. I remember using a distillate of galbanum for Mr. Marschaller, but that was a different matter. I would rather apply it around the navel with cotton wool. Oil of spike, oil of nutmeg, each 3 drachms; castor, fat, 1 drachm; best distilled spirit of wine, 3 drachms. This follows corrupted humors in the leg, and when the gums and the throat begin to suffer, that is the disease which some call scurvy. Therefore see whether there is some evil in the mouth. Wine for nausea, neither...

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neq; etiam conuenit. A sero lactis quod ma- xime co[n]ueniens est, abhorret. Parum in a- qua coquatur zinziberis, & dum feruet in nodolo, vt vocant, imponoatur cinnamomi. Hæc vt vides, rescripsi subito, in hac a v[er]bo potest cum butyro in cereuissa exhiberi, siquidem oleum Generosus Baro nauseat. Me generosissimo Baroni commendabis diligentissime. De thermis postea agemus. Be- ne vale. Pragæ die 3. Martii Anno 70. EPIST. CXLIV. IDEM EIDEM. CREDE mihi, mi lordaeo, non mea vo- luntate, sed necessitate quadâ huc per- tractum Heoricum. Cur autem huc potius potius iter conuertetim, quam Posonium, me valetudo mea monuit. Generoso Baro- ni plurimum profuturum emplastrum ex radice altheæ cum butyro veotti inferiori adhibitum. Rationem ipse intelligis. Vbi in Carolo febris nimium est ardens, siant duo sacculi ex farina hordei ad magnitudinem dorsi, & apponatur vns toti dorso; vbi inca- lescit, exponatur aeri, & alter applicetur. Vermicularis etiam cum aceto & farina hordei contusa atque dextro hypochondrio adhibita plurimum prodest. Experto crede. Iussi hic vermicularem inquiri. De alterius ægri curatione hæc mea est senten- tia: Nihil ages, si ad ventriculi curationem solam respicias. Hydrops est præ foribus & epar corruptum. Sæpe appetitus cibi & po- tus cessat non tam ventriculo, quam epate labotante. Aqua cinnamomi, vitæ, &c. non vtaris. Des potus serum lactis cum cinn- momo & pipere infuso. Oxymel nihil pro- derit. Elleboratû nocebit. Masticæ in vino mious. Caue ab oleo masticchio intra cor- pus. Non dum est tempestiuum, vt extracto calami vtatur. Pillulæ de tribus prodescent, sed cum nequeat deglutire alia incunda ra- tio. Decoctum calami cum vino rubro hic non habet locum. Quia vides, si hydrops non superuenerit, hypochondriacæ passio- nis principia. Itaque neque oleum anisi, aut similia valde calida darem. Apage cum oleo Iuniperi & Naphthæ, ouum sorbile cum Thure catarrhosis prodest. In hoc ca- su quid prodesse possit non video. Vnguen- tis foris recte vteris. Trochisci de absinthio & aperitua quæ absque manifesta & mul- ta calefactione exiccaor plurimum prode- runt. Bene vale. Mea tuam salutat. Credo beoe omnia hoc difficilimo tempore tibi vi- deri difficilia. Si in aula esses, aliud seorires. Nobis non modo singulis annis, verum sin- gulis horis mea familia constituenda. Vi- cenuæ 11. April. Anno 70. EPIST. CXLV. IDEM EIDEM. Hert accepi tuas prid. Kal. Martii datas nescio quo perferente literas. Nullum vitæ genus maximis molestiis vacat, nec quicquam fortunatum sine DEO. Itaque miror, cum scias Medicos ferendis miseritis quasi destinatos, te tibi in hoc vitæ genere suauia imaginari. Ego ex Theologicis maxi- me remedium ærumarum in hac mea con- ditione capio. Sum autem admodum æger, & valetudinem meam vix sustento. Itaque, D. Baronis & mea etiam causa, vt defatiga- tiones saltem cotidianæ mihi minuantur, velim te hîc esse. Accum eruperint variolæ, variola cum fluen aleni. iam, nisi noua succedant symptomata, natu- ræ cætera poteris permittere. Quando na- tura duos contrarios motus in corporibus instituit, videndum qui maxime ad vires su- stinendas faciat. Sic fluor alui in variolis non quidem comprimendus. Mitigandus autem iis quæ malignitatem humorum co- temperant, & ad superficiem corporis ma- teriam pellant. Nihil hic rasura, sen p[er]nluce- re de cornue eerui, item margaritis cum auro conuenientius. Vbi pectus obsidet materia, decoctum raparum cum sicubus detur, vel decoctum lentium cum sicubus, vbi nimi- rum est humorum ebullitio. Ego in isto ca- su lapidi Bezoar non multum tribuo. Nescis quam meus filius fuerit æger. In pueris vbi expulsua virtus fortis, & mulieribus, in qui- bus natura sui conseruationem quasi tue- tur, non tamen desperandum. Gulielmo o- leum matricariæ, quod sit ex multiplici in- fusione florum, sicut camomeli cum ipsis floribus vmbilico imponerem. Poteris de- inde vti emplastro ex meliloto, sed ne nimis incalscant viscera, inungerem spinam dor- si oleo nennpharino recenti cum lacte & follium nennupharinum renib. applicarem. Saceulus aute[m] ex fufure tritici dorso. Qnid præterea sit faciendum non video. Ad sol- uendam aluum recte exhibebis meos orbiculos ex rhabarbaro, cum syr. de cichoreo cum rhabarbaro. Solos orbiculos absque syrupo nolim. Superbibat aquam cuscutæ vel agrimonia. Vale. Pragæ 7. Maii An. 71. EPIST. CXLVI. IDEM EIDEM. I AM supra horam literæ meæ expecta- bant tabellarium, nam reuersus diemua L 3

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Nothing else is fitting either. It recoils from the late milk, which is most suitable. Let a little ginger be boiled in water, and while it is boiling let cinnamon, as they call it, be put into a little bag. As you see, I have written this off at once; it can, with butter, be served in beer, since the noble Baron is nauseated by oil. You will commend me most diligently to the most noble Baron. We shall speak later about the baths. Farewell. At Prague, on the 3rd day of March, in the year 70. EPIST. CXLIV. SAME TO THE SAME. Believe me, my lord, Heoricus was brought here not by my will, but by some necessity. Why, however, I turned the journey here rather than to Posonium, my health warned me. For the noble Baron, a plaster made from the root of althea with butter applied to the lower back would be of great benefit. You yourself understand the reason. When, in Carolus, the fever is too ardent, let two little bags of barley flour be made to the size of the back, and let one be applied to the whole back; when it grows warm, let it be exposed to the air, and another applied. A poultice of crushed wormwood with vinegar and barley flour, applied to the right hypochondrium, also helps greatly. Trust one who has tried it. I have ordered that wormwood be sought here. As for the treatment of the other sick man, this is my opinion: you will accomplish nothing if you look only to the cure of the stomach. Dropsy is at the door, and the liver is corrupted. Often loss of appetite for food and drink ceases not so much because of the stomach as because the liver is failing. Do not use cinnamon water, vitae, and the like. Give as drink the whey of milk infused with cinnamon and pepper. Oxymel will help nothing. Hellebore will do harm. Mastic in wine is less useful. Beware of mastic oil taken internally. It is not yet seasonable to use an extract of calamus. Pills of the three things will help, but only because he cannot swallow another suitable remedy. A decoction of calamus with red wine has no place here. As you see, if dropsy has not supervened, these are the beginnings of a hypochondriacal affection. Therefore I would not give oil of anise, or anything similarly very hot. Away with oil of juniper and naphtha; a drinkable egg with incense helps those suffering from catarrh. In this case I do not see what can help. You use ointments rightly on the outside. Lozenges of wormwood and aperitives, which dry without manifest and great heating, are very useful. Farewell. Mine greets yours. I believe that in this difficult time everything seems difficult to you, too. If you were at court, you would think otherwise. For us, not only every year, but every hour, my household must be provided for. At Vicenæ, 11 April, in the year 70. EPIST. CXLV. SAME TO THE SAME. I received your letter of the day before the Kalends of March, delivered I know not by whom. No way of life is free from the greatest troubles, nor is anything fortunate without GOD. Therefore I wonder that, since you know physicians are almost appointed to endure miseries, you imagine pleasant things for yourself in this kind of life. I, from theological things especially, take the remedy for my troubles in this condition of mine. I am indeed very ill, and scarcely sustain my health. Therefore, for the sake of the Baron and also for my own, so that at least my daily fatigues may be lessened, I should like you to be here. When the smallpox has broken out, if no new symptoms follow, you will then be able to leave the rest to nature. When nature has established two contrary motions in bodies, one must see which best contributes to sustaining the strength. Thus the looseness of the bowels in smallpox is not indeed to be suppressed, but to be moderated by those things which temper the malignity of the humors and drive the matter to the surface of the body. Here there is nothing better than shaving, or shining through the horn of a deer, likewise pearls with gold. When matter has settled in the chest, let a decoction of turnips with figs be given, or a decoction of lentils with figs, when there is excessive boiling of the humors. In this case I do not value the stone Bezoar very highly. You do not know how ill my son was. In children, where the expulsive power is strong, and in women, in whom nature seems to guard its own preservation, one must not despair. For Gulielmus I would apply oil of matricaria, made from the repeated infusion of flowers, just as chamomile with the flowers themselves, to the navel. You can then use a plaster made of melilote, but lest the inward parts become too hot, I would anoint the spine with fresh water-lily oil mixed with milk, and would apply a water-lily leaf to the kidneys. A little bag of wheat bran on the back. What more is to be done I do not see. To loosen the bowels you will properly give my little pills made from rhubarb, with syrup of chicory with rhubarb. I would not want the pills alone without syrup. Let him drink more than enough water of cuscuta or agrimony. Farewell. At Prague, 7 May, in the year 71. EPIST. CXLVI. SAME TO THE SAME. I had already been waiting more than an hour for the letter bearer, for he had returned by day...

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EPISTOLÆ 251 eas in mensa reperi. De vacuatione nihil scripsi Quia te purgasse & sanguinem misisse indicas. Factum recte. Nam Galeous in libro de humoribus recte præcipit: Tenues & serosos humores initio euacuas; In crassis coctionem expectes. Reddit autem Oribasius rationem, ne superueniente febre acriores fiant. Scis autem Hippocratem 6. Epidemiorum malignas appellare tenues destillationes. In quibus de sententia Galeni < 10> tempus non est terendum in lenibus remedii. Nihil ignitur acphangioæ, decoctum raparum & similia. Est periculum ne decumbant in principale membrum & suffoceor. Necesse igitur est statim & potenter reuellere aique intercipere. Gulielmo spero & opto iam bene esse. D. Baronis edacitatem valde vereor. Tam aude ingerit cibum. Sed monuiatque interdixi satis. Nihil possum facere amplius. Tumor pedum cum < 10> ducederemus, exiguius vel nullus erat. Ille valde hilaris, sed valetudo filiolæ ipsum detude perturbauit. De balneo in formicis, < De balneo formicarum> teu, vt appellant, quis formicarum, res omnibus vetulis in Silesia oota. Et vntur etiam mulieres ad imptægnationem. Exiccat multum, si lubentur vtitur in sessionib[us] noo porerit nocere. Nescio an de Begelianæ remedio ex floribus prunelli recripserim. Ego aquam malux è papauere syluestri, & < 3c> cardui longe prætulerim. non contemnendæ tunt aqva drstillatæ, si probe distellentur. < Ol. vitrioli in socciis cæn.> Miror quid de oleo vitrioli fiat. Certe bene præparatum multum ad maximas purtredines inhibendas facit, sed siccoribus corporibus caute propinaodum. Io humonibus nihil prorsus periculi. Dolores in paroxismo Gulielmi non possunt ab aliare, quam a statibus oriri. Materia pituitosa est impacta, ea à calore febrili, scilicet præternaturali flatuatur, & effervescit quasi; inde tormina. Itaque vt vituita ista educatur opera danda. Videndus autem locus affectus, vtuum per clysteria, vel per superius assumpta possit educi. Nisi bene præparetur prius, nihil ages. Oxymellite meo cum cinnamomo, cui imponas calamentu nostrum quod Marthioli est clinopodinm. Extenuantur facile puerorum corpora, & cum calor innatus ad suam redit remperiem vires < 50> sumunt. Sed de his satis. Bene ac felioer vale. 10 Maii. An. 71. EPIST. CXLVII. IDEM EIDEM. ENECOR curis & curationibus aullicis. Ac qui mea opera vtuntur, sibi et- 252 iam aliquid pro ista benignitate deberi existimant. Itaque vix pauca possum rescribere tuis literis. De Gulielmo habes omoia. Succedet vt spero res ex tenteotia. Domine curatiooem, licet siccum sit corpus, in aloe rosata posuerim. Sed non fiat communi modo. Verum ista Aloes decies succo rosarum imbuatur, ad duas drachmas aloes addatur voa myrrhæ sumat 3j. ante coenam, vbi aluus fuerit fluida, raodem ad mouendam vnica pillula satis erit. Non est quod siccatatem aloes verearis, valde matrici quoque & spleni conferet, si voles poteris medicam drachmam bdellii admisce. Non arbitror eam eolicis doloribus infectari, & præsetuabit vsus istarum pillularam. Mitterem radices chamæleontis, sed nullam amplius reperio. Modo non sit humida, crederem in sicca alia etiam istas esse vires. Sed iam radices minime esse bonas, & profudisse quicquid inest virium non ignoras. Noo possum plura scribere. Vale, Pragæ 16. Maii. Anno 71. EPIST. CXLVIII. IDEM EIDEM Vester dolor meus est dolor, & cum tuas literas lego, optimi pueri crucianus videre mihi videor. Quid agam? Heri oportuit mihi exire ad N. N. qui recidiuam patitur. Mutatione aeris sperauit sibi fore melius, & in possessiooem suburbanam discessit. Verum deterius multo foris, quam in vrbe valer, & me defatigat. Et hesterna ætione ita meum malum est austum, vt nedum dolor desinat. Quem obsecro languorem largius iter attrulisset? Miror tot & < Verme.> tis remedii nihil mittigari grauissimos dolores pueri. In exhibitione myrrhæ spem bonam habeo, præsertim si adiunt vermes. De exhibitione lactis varia cogito; sed vtile eser coqui flores sambuci & lacti loco enematis iniici. Tanacetu valde graue est medicamentum. Iumentis datur, quando suspicio est vermium. Miror te non significa, quo loco præcipue dolor, & quotempo re dolores magis augeantur. Scis vt arbitror remedium, quo etiam veteres vlos legimus, qui io grauissimis doloribus frigidam adhibebant. Memini cum quidam dolorib[us] cholicis oppressus iaceret, D. Iulium ad frigidam tamquam sacram anchoram confugere. Linte amina triplicata madefaciebat frigidissima aqua & ventri apponebat. Sed abatur dolores, sed iste postea paralyticus est facto. At paralysis in puero facile posset curari. Scripsi nuper satisfata remedia. Neque du-

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EPISTOLÆ 251 I found them on the table. I wrote nothing about the evacuation, because you indicate that you had purged and sent blood. That was done rightly. For Galeous in his book on humors rightly prescribes: evacuate thin and serous humors at the beginning; in thick ones, await digestion. Oribasius gives the reason, lest, with fever supervening, they become more acrid. You know, moreover, that Hippocrates in the sixth book of the Epidemics calls thin catarrhs malignant. In such cases, according to Galen’s judgment, <10> there is no time to be wasted on mild remedies. Nothing, therefore, [should be done with] acphangium, a decoction of turnips, and the like. There is danger lest they settle upon a principal organ and choke me. It is necessary, therefore, to draw it off at once and vigorously and to intercept it. I hope and wish that Gulielmus is already well. I greatly fear the voraciousness of D. Baron. He dares to cram food in so much. But I warned him and forbade it sufficiently. I can do nothing more. The swelling of the feet, when <10> we reduced it, was slight or none. He is very cheerful, but his daughter’s illness has greatly troubled him. Concerning the bath in ants, <De balneo formicarum> or, as they call it, the ant bath, a thing praised by all the old women in Silesia. And women also use it for conception. It dries very much; if one is inclined to use it in sittings, it can do no harm. I do not know whether I wrote to you about Begelian’s remedy from the flowers of prunella. I should certainly have preferred water from wild poppy and <3c> thistle. Distilled waters are not to be despised, if they are properly distilled. <Ol. vitrioli in socciis cæn.> I wonder what is being done with oil of vitriol. Certainly, when properly prepared, it helps greatly to check the worst putrefactions, but it must be administered cautiously to drier bodies. In humors there is no danger at all. Gulielmus’ pains in the paroxysm cannot arise from anything other than obstructions. The pituitous matter is impacted there; this, by the feverish heat, is, as it were, unnaturally agitated and ferments; hence the colic pains. Therefore effort must be made so that that phlegm be drawn out. But the affected place must be considered, so that it may be evacuated either by clysters or by things taken internally. Unless it is well prepared beforehand, you will accomplish nothing. Use my oxymel with cinnamon, on which you should add our calament, which Matthiolus calls clinopodium. Children’s bodies are easily attenuated, and when the innate heat returns to its proper temper, they regain strength <50>. But enough of this. Farewell, and may you fare happily. 10 May, 71. EPIST. CXLVII. SAME TO THE SAME. I AM consumed by courtly cares and treatments. And those who make use of my services think that they too owe me something for that kindness. So I can scarcely write a few words in reply to your letter. You have everything about Gulielmus. I hope the matter will turn out well. I would have placed the treatment, though the body is dry, in rose-dosed aloe. But let it not be done in the common manner. Rather let that aloe be imbued ten times with rose juice; to two drachms of aloe add one scruple of myrrh; let him take 3j before supper. When the bowels have become loose, one pill at a time will be enough to move them. There is no reason to fear the dryness of aloe; it will greatly benefit the womb also and the spleen. If you wish, you can mix in a medicinal drachm of bdellium. I do not think it will be harmful in colic pains, and the use of those pills will be most suitable. I would send roots of chamæleon, but I can no longer find any. If they are not moist, I should think that in a dry state they also have those powers. But now you know well that the roots are by no means good and have given off whatever force was in them. I cannot write more. Farewell. Prague, 16 May, year 71. EPIST. CXLVIII. SAME TO THE SAME. Your sorrow is my sorrow, and when I read your letters I seem to see the torment of the excellent boy before my eyes. What am I to do? Yesterday I had to go out to N. N., who is suffering a relapse. He hoped that a change of air would make him better, and he withdrew to a suburban estate. But he is much worse outside the city than in it, and he exhausts me. And by yesterday’s action my ailment was so increased that the pain did not merely cease. What illness, I ask you, had brought this longer journey? I marvel that with so many <worms> remedies the boy’s most severe pains are not mitigated at all. In the administration of myrrh I have good hope, especially if worms are present. I am thinking various things about the use of milk; but it is useful to cook elder flowers and inject them by enema instead of milk. Tansy is a very strong medicine. It is given to animals when there is suspicion of worms. I wonder that you do not indicate in what place the pain is chiefly felt, and at what time the pains become greater. You know, I think, the remedy, which even the ancients record, who in the gravest pains used cold water. I remember that when someone was lying oppressed by colic pains, D. Iulius resorted to cold water as to a sacred anchor. He moistened triple linens with the coldest water and applied them to the belly. The pains subsided, but afterward that man became paralytic. Yet paralysis in a boy could easily be cured. I recently wrote in sufficient detail about remedies. Nor do-

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bito quin iam sint adhibita. Recta facias, nec cures sermones, vel admittas nebulones imperitos. Si tantum esset olei calidi, vellem eum imponi. Sin minus, rectè illud, vt appellant vulgo, oleo incoquatur & apponatur. Adeps anserinus certè bonus est, & vellem in isto remedio vos persecuerasse. Sed pannus non placet, lanam succidam eo imbuissem. A page sis cum plantagine. Oleum ansi nihil valet. Ego vidi datum puero, in quo sudor diaphoreticus conseqvebatur, & ad extremam debilitatem puerum adduxit. Facias quæ poteris. Cætera comittas Deo, & me excules diligenter. Obsecro vt de successu curæ statim scribas. Bene vale. Die 25. Maij. Anno 1571. EPIST. CXLIX. IDEM EIDEM. MIROR cur me eo voces, in ista itineris difficultate, & cum scias mihi ad circumstitiones non concedi tempus. Meus filiusheri correptus est febri. Arbitror tertianam fore. Ego cruditate & lassitudine molestor. De ægro tuo quid scribam? Satis mihi hic est molestiarum. Videndum quid ex purgato corpore per agaricum sit futurum. Hypochondria dura & tensa. Hypochondria dura & tensa esse minime bonu[m]. Ego inunctionibus solis ex oleo chamomelino vteret, vel parum anethini sinthi adderem. Si ex vsu agarici se meliucle haberet, repeterem. Non debebas statim in principio illa, quæ summa sunt in obstructionibus tollendis, vt cuscuta, exhibere. Incidentibus & detergentibus primo fuerat vtendum. Oxynellitis simplicis vsus tutissimus; deinceps radicum; post purgada materia, & ad aquam cuscutæ, si cætera parum iuuent, deueniendum. Puluis arantiorum cum zedoaria nimis est calidus. Nec consequitur, ructus adiunt, ergo calida adhibenda. Velim igitur temperatus corroborari ventriculum, & speciebus atomatici rosati aliquid galangæ addere, atq[ue] conseruam rosarum vel cichorij miscere. Sed de his videbis. Fluxum albus. Fluor albarum humiditatu siue rheuma: s[un]t nus vteri quod ego suspicor, siue gonorrhoea sit, nihil admodum proficetis farfa pariglia. Astringendum autem fluxum non esse, sed cum materia ad vterum feratur, cruditates, & corruptionis humoris pituitosi causas cauendas. Vsus aloes rosatæ cum decocto mastichis magis Nobili formina proderit, quam farfa pariglia, & quicquid est eiusmodi medicamentorum. Bene vale. Viennæ 7. Septembr. Anno 1571. 5 254 EPIST. CL. IDEM EIDEM. CVM tu curationem nolis aggredi, cur ad me ablegas? Præscripsi tamen consilia, & Dominum admonui, vt generosam Coniugem hortetur, quo nobis obtemperet. Si per consensum à ventriculo facta est ista conuulsio, proderunt hæc medicamenta; si à matrice, alia ineunda esset ratio. Nihil autem conveniensius vsu agarici, deinde Theriaca, & Thermis. Etiam pessario ex mithridate, &c. Addidi, ad tua cataporia ex aloë rosata & myrrha atque succino, quæ maxime ventriculum & matricem iuuant, & syrupum de succo cardui cum extracto calami aromatici, quæ mirifice prodesse Epilepticis cognoui. Iuuant etiam ventriculum & pectus. Habes & alia ad pectoris affectionem quæ tussim excitat. Nolim illam vti sena & similibus nugis: coniunx mea interdum articulorum doloribus afficitur: iis oppressos iacere præstantissimos nostros Barones ex animo doleo. Profecto quantum ego longa obseruatione & vsu didici. nihil sudoriferis medicamentis, & continuo limaturæ cornu ceruini in potu infusæ, conuenientius. Vtinam hoc medicamentum vestri non negligerent. Monuisse enim me de eo arbitror. Quæ sit causa curam immanerit hic morbus vestros tractet, limite considerare, & ad me, siquidem in viuis fuero, perscribere. Lignum sarsafras parum prodesse, ac sæua quædam sympromata in multis concitasse cognoui. Proinde quid consilij de eodem non habeo. Rectam victus rationem, tutissimam medicinam cum Hippocrate statuo: Eam si non persuademus, actum agimus. Plura alias. Hoc tempore enim ita cram infirmus, vt vix laborem proferendæ vocis ferrem, tam inclementer atq[ue] atrociter , in quauis vel animi, vel corporis leui commotiuncula me infestat. Deo itaq[ue] me conformet, ex animo precor. Mi Iordane non modote amo, verum ab omnibus, quime aman, te quoq[ue] amari exopto. Quam vero dubius & fallax adhuc quorundam, in extrema mea ætate sentio. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ die 4. Febr. Anno 1585. EPIST. CLI. IDEM EIDEM. HODIERNO die in Kalendario Romano ascriptum est nomen Cratonis martyris, quem sub Claudio, Impera- L 4

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As much of the fat as has been put on already. Apply it properly, and do not heed talk, or admit ignorant fools. If there were only warm oil, I would wish it to be applied. If not, let it be rightly, as they commonly call it, cooked in oil and applied. Goose grease is certainly good, and I would wish you to have persevered in that remedy. But I do not like the cloth; I would have soaked some shorn wool with it. A page, if you please, with plantain. Anise oil is of no use. I saw it given to a boy, in whom a diaphoretic sweat followed, and it brought the boy to extreme weakness. Do what you can. Commit the rest to God, and excuse me diligently. I beg you to write at once about the success of the treatment. Farewell. May 25, 1571. EPIST. CXLIX. SAME TO THE SAME. I wonder why you call me there, in these difficulties of travel, and since you know that I am allowed no time for consultations. My son was seized yesterday with fever. I think it will be a tertian. I am troubled by indigestion and fatigue. What shall I write about your sick man? I have troubles enough here. It remains to be seen what will come of the body being cleansed by agaric. The hypochondria are hard and tense. The hypochondria being hard and tense is by no means good. I would use only inunctions with chamomile oil, or add a little dill-seed oil. If he should improve from the use of agaric, I would repeat it. You ought not at the very beginning to have used those things which are chief in removing obstructions, such as dodder. Detergent and cutting remedies should first have been used. The use of simple oxymel is safest; afterward, of the roots; after the matter has been purged, and if the rest help little, one should proceed to dodder water. Orange powder with zedoary is too hot. Nor does it follow—since belching is present—that hot remedies must therefore be used. I would therefore wish the stomach to be moderately strengthened, and with the aromatic rose preparations to add something of galangal, and to mix in rose conserve or chicory conserve. But you will see about these things. White discharge. A discharge of whites, from moisture or rheum, is, as I suspect, from the womb; or if it be gonorrhea, farfara and parietaria are of little use. The discharge should not be astringed; but since the matter is borne toward the womb, one must avoid crudities and the causes of corruption of the phlegmatic humor. The use of rosated aloes with a decoction of mastic will benefit the noble woman more than farfara, parietaria, and whatever medicines of that kind there are. Farewell. Vienna, September 7, 1571. EPIST. CL. SAME TO THE SAME. Since you are unwilling to begin the treatment, why do you send me away? I have nevertheless prescribed advice, and admonished the Lord to urge the noble wife to comply with us. If this convulsion has arisen by agreement from the stomach, these medicines will help; if from the womb, another course must be taken. Nothing is more suitable than the use of agaric, then theriaca, and the baths. Also a pessary of mithridate, etc. I have added to your clysters rosated aloe and myrrh and succinum, which greatly help the stomach and womb, and a syrup made from juice of carduus with extract of calamus aromaticus, which I have learned to be wonderfully beneficial to epileptics. They also help the stomach and chest. You also have other remedies for a chest affection that excites cough. I would not wish her to use senna and similar trifles. My wife is sometimes afflicted with pains in the joints; I am deeply grieved that our best barons lie oppressed by them. Indeed, as much as I have learned by long observation and use, nothing is more appropriate than sudorific medicines, and the continual infusion of scraped hartshorn in drink. I wish your people would not neglect this medicine, for I think I have warned you about it. As to what the cause may be that this disease has remained and troubles yours, consider it carefully and write to me, if indeed I shall be among the living. I have learned that sarsaparilla wood helps little, and has stirred up certain severe symptoms in many. Therefore I have no advice concerning it. I hold with Hippocrates that the right regimen of diet is the safest medicine. If we cannot persuade them of that, we are doing nothing. More another time. For at this time I was so weak that I could scarcely bear the effort of producing my voice, so harshly and cruelly does this illness assail me with any slight disturbance, whether of mind or body. May God then conform me to His will; I pray from my heart. My dear Jordan, I not only love you, but I also wish you to be loved by all who love me. Yet how doubtful and treacherous I feel some people still are in my extreme old age. Farewell. Breslau, Feb. 4, 1585. EPIST. CLI. SAME TO THE SAME. In today’s Roman calendar the name of the martyr Craton is entered, whom under Claudius, the Emper-

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EPISTOLÆ 256 tore cruciatum pettulisse affirmant, ego me Martyribus non annumero, sed ad diuturnum meum morbum, quo plane confectus iaceo, duo accesserunt mala, quæ tormenti vim habere Medici censent. Nudius tertius enim materia ad denies defluxit, atque ingentes dolores concitauit, deinde auribus communicata omnia grauiora fuerunt, præsertim cum febris istas fluxiones comitetur, ea ne d[omi]n[us] sum liber. Itaq[ue] etsi laborem proferendæ vocis vix ferrem: tamen literis tuis < Sarsafras. > 5. Febr. datis persoluendum est. De ligno sarsafras significaui id quod est verissimum, me nunquam eo vsum esse, nec videre quo pacto inueteratarum morbum articularem curate possit. Fateor huius morbi præcipuum causam esse, serosum humorem in corpore supra modum auctum, & certo modo, siue putredine, siue alio corruptum. Is facit vt crassi & crudi humores sint fluxibiles, & ad articulos deferantur. In quibus & ipse inflammationis atque dolotis author est. Indicio nobis illud esse potest, quod ij, qui frequenter sudant, vel copiose vrinam emitunt, ab hoc morbo tum sunt. Simulac vero sudor, vel vrina supprimuntur, malum præ foribus sit. Itaque si, quod de ligno isto affirmant, potenter illud vrinam educit, ac sudores movet, consequens est magnopere iuuare posse. Cæterum cum calor natiuus in membris diuturnitate morbi exhaustus est, & natura paulatim atq[ue] continuo ad articulos humores deponere consueuit, sane non video, quid adiumenti afferre possit: sed cum laudatores huius ligni affirment, coctiones omnes & maxime ventriculi illius vsum inuare, caput roborare, cum etiam subducendo icheores, humores crassiores & quasi firmiores reddere necessè sit, non obsto quin Illustris Dominus eo < Arthritis. > 40 vtatur, modo rectam & exactam victus rationem teneat. Qui in his regionibus v[er]sunt, eos intemperantes esse constat. Proinde nihil mirum si non sint adiuti. Ego me eo vsum non esse ostendi, neq[ue] libenter ignotis & peregrinis medicamentis vti solete sæpe testatus sum. Minime vero pertinaciter meam sententiam tueor, sed libenter rationibus cedo, & Illustribus Baronibus vestris prodesse opto. Meam sententiam de poste < Pestis. > 50 ad D. loachimum Camerarium perscripsi. Vera veris consentiunt. Aliorum opiniones mihi non sunt ignotæ, cum supra quadraginta annos de his cogitauerim. Febris non est genspesitis. Quia neque morbus, neque causa, ergo symptoma: neque curationem ad febrem dirigimus, sed vt per spirationem attracta pestis seminaria, diaphoretici expellantur, & eor aduersus venenatam eius qualitatem muniatur & iuuetur. Missio sanguinis, purgationes ex accidenti adhibentur. Miror te tot verborum facere de imposteribus sceleratis. Nullum vidi, ne noni, neque vilius opeta in chymicis ab hinc triginta annis v[er]sus sum. Po- liatrum nostrum Wofelinum seniorem de treatasse colloquium, cum chymicorum sit peritissimus, non mihi sit verumile. Ac si fecit, indignos istos cauponantes & venditantes suas artes, cum quibus sine ratione ageret, putauit. Ac cum suæ imperitæ alia habeant, quam veri Medici, principia, demens esset, qui velit cum illis in contentionem venire. Tenent autem audacissimi homines illud: Eum qui verecundia fines semel transgressus est, hunc grauiter oportere esse impudentem. Hinc ante annos aliquot eiectos esse intelligo. In aulis reperite suos patronos nihil mirum. Baronem nostrum ita duriter afflictari doleo, & ei auxilium diuinum opto. Non poteram dictare plura. Bene vale. Vratislauæ 15. Februarij. Anno 1573. EPIST. CLIV IDEM EIDEM. < Vena sectio & cucurbitula intempestina. > Accipe à te tres epistolas, quibus 4. 8. & 10. dies Febr. est asscriptus. Illas quas ex Zenckonis arce te mississe scribis non vidi. Quæ de Baronis valetudine, credo te nô egere consilio. Ad Baronem vero scripseram me de morbo certum esse cupere, cum, effetne Arthritis, & te & illum dubitare animaduerterem. Nunc cum certo scias, nostri quæ curationis atq[ue] præcautionis via sit. Miror adhibere Baronem ineptum anabaptistam. Quid stultius quam in principio vti calidis. Quid ad augendum malum accomodatius, quam vel venæ sectionem, vel cucurbitulas adhiberent: verum quam facti sint miseri, memini. Inittum venam seca- re in brachio rectissimum est, sed tamen si sæpe redeat malum propter intemperatiam, minime rectum. Medulla ceruina recte adhibetur ad præcautionem cum sale, vt roboretur pars. Doloribus ingentibus non video quid prodesse possit. Aliqvid de eo quæso abstineas. Thermas nô improbarem, si scirem quibus vni velit. Commendantur Carolinæ. Ego in recta victus ratione & abstinentia; Ita lotionibus capitis & sudoribus totam ratione præcautionis positam existimo. Su-

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EPISTLES 256 they affirm that they have endured torture, I do not count myself among the Martyrs; but to my long-standing illness, by which I lie utterly exhausted, two further evils have been added, which the physicians judge to have the force of torment. Three days ago, for indeed on the third day, matter flowed to my teeth and roused great pains; then, being communicated to the ears, all things became more grievous, especially since fever accompanies those discharges, so that I am not free from that burden. Therefore, although I could scarcely bear the labor of uttering a voice, yet your letter < Sarsafras. > of 5 Feb. must be answered. Concerning the wood sarsafras, I have made clear what is most true: that I have never used it, nor do I see by what means it could cure an inveterate arthritic disease. I confess that the chief cause of this disease is a serous humor in the body increased beyond measure, and in some way corrupted, whether by putrefaction or otherwise. This causes thick and crude humors to become fluid and to be carried to the joints, in which it itself is the author of inflammation and pain. A sign to us of this may be that those who sweat frequently, or pass urine abundantly, are then free from this disease. But as soon as sweat or urine are suppressed, the evil is at the door. Therefore, if what they affirm about this wood is true, namely that it powerfully promotes urine and stirs up sweats, it follows that it may greatly help. Nevertheless, since the native heat in the limbs has been exhausted by the long duration of the disease, and nature has gradually and continually become accustomed to depositing humors in the joints, I truly do not see what assistance it can bring; but since the advocates of this wood assert that it helps all digestions, and especially the digestion of the stomach, strengthens the head, and also, by drawing down ichores, must render the humors thicker and as it were firmer, I do not object that the Illustrious Lord should use it < Arthritis. > 40 provided that he observe a correct and exact regimen of diet. Those who live in these regions are known to be intemperate; therefore it is no wonder if they have not been helped. I have shown that I have not used it, and I have often testified that I am not fond of using unknown and foreign medicines. Yet I by no means stubbornly defend my opinion, but gladly yield to reasons, and I wish to be useful to your Illustrious Barons. My opinion concerning the post < Plague. > 50 I wrote out to D. Joachim Camerarius. True things agree with true things. I am not ignorant of other opinions, since I have pondered these matters for more than forty years. Fever is not the plague itself. Because it is neither the disease nor its cause, but a symptom: and we do not direct the cure to the fever, but so that, through perspiration, the seeds of the plague drawn in may be expelled by diaphoretics, and so that the body may be fortified and assisted against its poisonous quality. Bloodletting and purgations are used incidentally. I wonder that you make so much of deceitful impostors. I have seen none, nor have I ever dealt in chemical matters more cheaply than for thirty years past. I do not find it credible that our Wofelinus the elder had a conversation with him, since he is most expert in chemical matters. And if he did, he judged those unworthy tavern-keepers and sellers of their arts, with whom he dealt without reason. And since they have other principles than true physicians, a man would be mad who wished to enter into contention with them. But most audacious men hold this maxim: that one who has once passed beyond the bounds of modesty ought to be shameless in a grave degree. Hence I understand that some were driven out a few years ago. It is no wonder that they find their patrons in courts. I grieve that our Baron is so harshly afflicted, and I pray divine aid for him. I could not dictate more. Farewell well. At Wrocław, 15 February, in the year 1573. EPIST. CLIV TO THE SAME, TO THE SAME. < Too-early venesection and cupping. > Accept three letters from you, in which the 4th, 8th, and 10th days of February are written. I did not see those which you write that were sent by you from Zencko’s castle. As for the Baron’s health, I believe you do not need advice. But I had written to the Baron that I wished to be informed about the disease, since I observed that both you and he were in doubt whether it were arthritis. Now that you know for certain, our course of treatment and precaution is clear. I wonder that you employ that foolish Anabaptist. What is more stupid than to use hot remedies at the beginning? What is more suited to increasing the evil than either venesection or cupping? Yet I remember how miserable they became. At the beginning, bleeding in the arm is the very best, but nevertheless if the evil often returns because of intemperance, it is by no means right. Deer marrow is rightly used for precaution with salt, so that the part may be strengthened. In great pains I do not see what it can help. I ask that you abstain from some things. I would not disapprove of baths if I knew which ones he wants to use. The Carlsbad waters are recommended. For my part, I think the whole matter of precaution lies in the proper regimen of diet and abstinence; likewise in head-washings and sweatings. Su-

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157 MEDICINALES. mo. Sudores necq[ue] cardui suceo, necq[ue] veronicæ elicebis. Alia ineunda est ratio. De qua aliis literis. Nam nunc perpaucæ scribere mihi concedebatur. Expedieuda erat D. Ludomilla, cuius venter & pedes detumuerunt. Epar nondum, vt velim se habet, sed quantum possumus. Vale. Viennæ, 16. Febr. Anno 1574. EPIST. CLIII. IDEM EIDEM. TVAS literas perfere te Godofrido accepi. A pueris illius curam habui. Nunc etiam me exercet. Venit & Baro præter meam opinionem. Is, cum domo non exeam, iu meis quoq[ue] est ædibus. Est cofluxus pituitosi humoris ad ventriculum, & post in flatus conuertitur. Paneis hic diebus hærebit, rutsus ad vos rediturus. Me nihil propemodum in omni vita delectat, & cædet rerum omnium. Caroli sanitas me angit, o potest corpus bene nutritæ. Mane lauare ex aqua dulci cum lecto surgit. Deinceps destillato ex epate vitulino extenso corpore fricari. In loco affecto & reliquum corpus potest oleo amygdalarum dulcium recenti < lignura.> fricari. Non poterit magis Incuruari, quam singulis diebus frictione tollatur. Ligarutæ comprimunt, & membris spiritallibus nocent. Sed ex rela aliquid facere quod contineat, illud rectum. Nolo te hanc curam Anabaptistæ eomittere. Scribam breui pluta, nuuc non poteram. Bene Vale. 4. Iunij, Anno 1574. EPIST. CLIV. IDEM EIDEM. QVID ad ie scribam, cum nihil respondeas? Et quid mihi sit animi existimare potes. Me absente (vndeclim diebus Ebersdorffij mihi apud Cæsatem fuit hæreudum) coniux in dysenteriam suam incidit. Hic dies septimus est, à quo laborare coept. Nulla vel exigua iudicia remittentis morbi. Vires autem valde debiles propter febrem, tenesmum, & alia symptomata. Itaq[ue] propemodum meus animus à spe bona aberrat: valetudo etiam Cæsatis non satis firma. Et < alii molestiis ouetor. Vix me sustento. Mitor Baronem, cum quam sit audax & temerarius N. N. suo malo didicerit, ei salutem coniugis credere. Maximæ haud dubie sunt obstructiones in mesenterio, & fomentis nihil agitur. Fiat igitur clystet primum ex solo decocto veronicæ cum mulio oleo & saccharo: deinceps huic addatur succus ceparum coctarum cum oleo. Foris appli-> 158 centur folia perfici cum oleo chamomelino cocta. Fiat deinceps clyster ex vini maluatici [uncia] x. olei amygdal. dulcium [uncia] iii. pulireo [uncia] s. succi rutæ [uncia] s. ebulliant & coleatur. Possût & baccæ lauri, vel electuariu[m] ex baccis lauri addi. Electuario ex baccis lauri inungatur ventet; vel oleo laurino. Per superna vt aliquid adhibeatur non possum suadere. Nisi velit ius Galli decrepiti cum polypodio & carthamo cocti. Vides? me quæ cupis ex animo communicare. Vellem cum consilium à me peris te medicamenta, quibus sis vsus, quæ iuuerint, quæ parum profuerint, perscribere. Nam ita rectius meam sententiam exponere possem. Nolui diutius tabellarium detinere. Bene vale. 23. Septemb. Anno 1574. EPIST. CLV. IDEM EIDEM. EAS literas, quas 8. Maij de valetudine Dn. Betckes scripsisti, hactora accepi. lubeor respondere, cum sim distentissimus, non modó valetudine Imperatoris, verum etiam aliorum. Tum & mea minime boua est. Si catarrhus tenuis, vt ego ex iis, quæ scribis, conicio, vides generalem scopum. Si materia mixta, indica[ti]ones sunt miscendæ. In tenui materia nihil, præsertim cum < caerthianus suffo.> suffocat, pillulis illis de cynoglossa conuenientius. Fiunt de [uncia] j. pillulæ nouem, dantur ttes horæ decubitus. Deinde vtilis bolus cû syrupo de papaueere, præsertim cum materia salsa in senibus, vel des lambendam gelatinam ex aqua violarû cum puluere dragacanthi. Si mixta materia, diacodiu[m] Montani maxime prodest. Vsus veronicæ in materia crassa, & quæ pulmoues obsidet, præcipue valet. In tenui & salso catarrho nolim adhibere. Diuersiones autem fiant per frictiones, ligaturas, cucurbitas, &c: A calidis abstineas, siue falsedo sit propter admistionem serosi humoris, siue propter putredinem. Iudico autem à setoso humore esse, cum scribas de tumore faciei, lactymis oculorum, & quod nulla sint febris iudicia. Ad caput nihil applices, quo incalefacat. Rosæ; myrri baccæ, coralli in puluerem redacti satis. Item santali rubri, oxymel cum ignomi ammouiaco dedi in materia crassa. Hic omnia tenuis catarrhi iudicia. Non possunt plura scribere. Vale. 12. Maij. Anno 1573. EPIST. CLVI. IDEM EIDEM. QVANTVM ex tuis literis intelligo; valde periclitatur tuus æger. Quattuor

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157 MEDICAL. ... You will not draw off sweat either with carduus juice or with veronica. Another method must be tried. Of this I shall write in other letters, for now I was permitted to write only very little. D. Ludomilla had to be treated, whose belly and feet had swollen. Her liver is not yet as I would wish, but as far as we can manage. Farewell. Vienna, 16 Feb. Year 1574. EPISTLE CLIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received your letter, brought by Godofrid. I have had charge of his children from boyhood. Now he also occupies me. The Baron came unexpectedly, contrary to my opinion. Since I do not go out of the house, he is staying in my lodgings too. There is a flux of phlegmatic moisture to the stomach, and afterwards it turns into wind. He will remain here for a few days, and then return to you. Hardly anything in my whole life gives me pleasure, and I am weary of all things. I am distressed by Charles’s health, though the body can be well nourished. In the morning, when he rises from bed, let him wash with fresh water. Then, after a decoction of veal liver, with the body stretched out, let him be rubbed. On the affected part, and also on the rest of the body, let him be rubbed with fresh sweet almond oil . He will not be able to bend more than is taken away each day by friction. Ligatures compress and harm the spiritual members. But from a thing of that sort do something to keep it in place, that is, the right course. I do not want you to entrust this care to the Anabaptist. I shall write more soon; now I could not. Farewell well. 4 June, Year 1574. EPISTLE CLIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. What am I to write to you, when you reply to nothing? And what I am to think of my state of mind, you can imagine. In my absence (for twelve days I had to stay with the Emperor at Ebersdorff) my wife fell into her dysentery. This is the seventh day since she began to suffer. There are no, or only slight, signs of the disease abating. Her strength is very weak because of the fever, tenesmus, and other symptoms. So my mind almost turns away from any good hope; the Emperor’s health is also not firm enough. And I am burdened with other troubles. I can scarcely hold myself up. I fear the Baron has learned to his cost how audacious and rash N. N. is, trusting to him with his wife’s health. There are no doubt great obstructions in the mesentery, and fomentations do nothing. Therefore let a clyster be made first from a simple decoction of veronica with plenty of oil and sugar; then add to this the juice of boiled onions with oil. Externally let boiled leaves of perfici be applied with chamomile oil. Then let a clyster be made from 10 ounces of Malmsey wine, 3 ounces of sweet almond oil, half an ounce of pulvereo, half an ounce of rue juice; let them boil and be strained. Bay berries may also be added, or an electuary made from bay berries. Let the belly be anointed with an electuary of bay berries, or with laurel oil. I cannot recommend that anything be applied above. Unless he wishes broth of an old cockerel boiled with polypody and safflower. You see? I share with you from the heart what you desire. I should like you, when you seek advice from me about the medicines you have used, which have helped, which have done little good, to write them down. For then I could express my opinion more correctly. I did not wish to detain the messenger any longer. Farewell well. 23 September, Year 1574. EPISTLE CLV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received today the letters which you wrote on 8 May about the health of Dn. Betcke. I am ordered to reply, though I am very much occupied, not only with the Emperor’s health, but also with that of others. Mine too is by no means good. If it is a thin catarrh, as I infer from what you write, you see the general aim. If the matter is mixed, the indications must be combined. In a thin matter nothing is better, especially when suffocates, than those pills of cynoglossa. From one ounce nine pills are made; they are given three hours before going to bed. Then a bolus with poppy syrup is useful, especially when the matter is salty in old people, or let the electuary be licked, made from violet water with powder of dragon’s blood. If the matter is mixed, diacodium of Montanus is most beneficial. The use of veronica in thick matter, and that which obstructs the lungs, is especially effective. In a thin and salty catarrh I would not wish it to be used. Derivations, however, should be made by frictions, ligatures, cupping glasses, etc. Avoid hot remedies, whether the saltness is due to admixture of serous moisture or to putrefaction. Yet I judge it to be from a fetid moisture, when you write of swelling of the face, tears from the eyes, and that there are no signs of fever. Apply nothing to the head that may warm it. Roses, myrtle berries, coral reduced to powder are enough. Likewise red sandalwood; oxymel with ammoniacum I have given in thick matter. Here are all the signs of a thin catarrh. I cannot write more. Farewell. 12 May, Year 1573. EPISTLE CLVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As far as I understand from your letters, your patient is in grave danger. Four

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EPISTOLÆ 160 < Doc. scum-grace. > do catarrhus tenuis crassescit, statim ad tè- petata deueniendum: sed factum infectum ficti non potest. Mitto oxymel compositum: dabis tuto in decocto scromgraci vel iusculo vnciam vnam. Putgabit pectus per sputa & lotium, eiam fortasse aluum mo- uebit. Habes etiam syrupum de carduo cum add tamento succi calami aromatici eum sac- charo vel melle, decocto scenugræci eum si- cubus & similibus vtaris, & inungas ventri- culum, vel apponas scutum. Hæc possunt moneri, & satis esse puto Medico rationali & præsenti, qui videre potest, vttum mandanti vel recipienti membro magis sit sub- ueniendum. Habes Galeni exemplum. Re- de facis quod alium Medicum tibi adiungis. < Syrup. de carduo cum succo calami arum. > De tuo libro multo ante hoc rescripsi, me cupere eum videre, ac deinceps meam sententiam tibi aperite. Multa fortasse in- terea mutasti. Certe pestis alia est priuata, id est, quæ ab interna causa oritur, nec morbidam exspirationem habet. Est tamen multis exitiosa: propterea quod multorum corpo- ramalis succis repleta, & eandem aëris in- temperiem ferunt. Alia vero publica, in qua ex corporibus infectis emanat morbida ex- spiratio, & reliquuntur semina huius in aë- re, quæ p[ro]to constitutione aëris augentur & minuuntur. Hæc etiam sanis corporibus, & in quibus nullum est symbolum, si ea actingaot, perniciosa. Licet ægens non agat nisi in patiens prædispositum. Quibus autem modis alia corpora magis, alia minus disponantur, videndum. Sed de his nunc non possum cogitare, cum hæc subito, & stans quasi pede in vno (abeundus enim est Cæsar) scriberem. Bene vale. 30. Maij, Anno 1575. EPIST. CLVII. IDEM RIDEM. BENE fecisti quod huc tua Zyrupula misisti. Respondi breuiter, Cur enim mul- <50> tis verbis agerem cum Medico. Multæ sunt causæ quæ me domum reuocant, ac potius detrahunt. Vtiam ante diem Veneris dis- cedere possem. Video Baronem in eo esse vt me detineat. Non dubito quin vsus aloë rosatæ plorimum sit profuturus, si ad 3j. β. ββ. myrrhæ addideris. Radicem prænix à Ioachimo Cameratio habere poteris. Vn- gulæ alcinae particulam adseram. Frictioni- bus matutinis vtais. Item lotionibus pedum mane ex decocto betbonicæ. Ab oleribus abstinendum. Vinum parcissime bibendum. De decocto te cogita e velim. Bene & feliciet vale 15. Aprilis, A[nn]o 1577. ZHTHMATA. QVORVM IN HISCE LITERIS MENTIO FACTA EST, HÆC SVNT, quæ sequuntur. 1 Moderatè insisti vt carnibus vescerer. Quid ex earum vsu periculi? Samme qua- dam alimenta ipsa idonea, quæ in noxia? 2 Sternutatoria an corferant, & qua acria? 3 Vomstum an noceat? leiuno ne vel repleto ven- triculo irritandus? 4 Omnibus ne prorsus odoratis abstinendum? 5 Fumus è succino in accessione an conducat? 6 Oleum succini an sumi possit cum fructu? 7 Ruta odorata, vel aceto tusa an carpio vel spi- na allegari debeat? 8 Vena sectio, an crebro, vel bis im anno, vt con- sueat, iterari possit? 9 Cucurbitula sæpe ne repetenda? 10 Luna mutationes an obseruanda, vel peri- mescenda? 11 Nunquam ne vehementioribus vtendum ca- tharticis, & quousq[ue] progredendum? vel chymata sufficiant acrora? 12 Quid de Thermus, sudatorio Laconico, vel la- bro sentiendum? 13 Suades me visum Ligni sancti? 14 Venus prorsus me abdicanda, vel quod semper noxum noxium? 15 Paonia radix & grana quid virium habent? 16 M. Antoni Cortusi remedium: Panem albis- <Epilepsia re- mend.> simum primum è furno exemptum parum fermentatum calceum vasi vitreo include. Aquam è vapore condensato collige. Eius 3 uti. accipe, Vnquis vel dentim maturi lapi puluerisati 3 j. β. iterumo detur. Sanabiles e- pilepticos (at ille) citissime curat. Quid vi- detur? 17 Vtor veteri syrupo de succo eardui, douec rect- tem conficere possumus. Potest me aqua mil- desolis permisceri, vel lambendo sumi? 18 Theriaca quando & quoties vtendum? 19 Quamdiu cura continuanda? 20 An sola spumæ sufficiens sit nota mea? in Epilepsia? 21 Ad alendum vlcus impede, si quid emplasti- cum adhibendum, cum hactenus sola lana carptasim vsus? Responsio ad Zyrupula præcedentia, D. Io. Cratonis a Kraft. heim, &c. 1 Carnibus moderate se vesci velui sicut omni- bus, qua plurimum alimente præbent. Aguina

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EPISTLES 160 < Doc. scum-grace. > If the thin catarrh thickens, one must at once proceed to tepetata; but what is done cannot be undone. I send the composed oxymel: you may safely give, in a decoction of scromgraci or in broth, one ounce. It will purge the chest through sputum and urine, and perhaps also move the bowels. You also have the syrup of carduus with an addition of the juice of calamus aromaticus, with sugar or honey; use a decoction of scenugræcus and such like, and anoint the stomach, or apply a scutum. These things may be advised, and I think it is enough for a rational and present physician, who can see whether aid should be given more to the organ that commands or to the one that receives. You have Galen’s example. You do well in adding another physician to yourself. < Syrup of carduus with juice of calamus aromaticus. > I wrote long before this about your book, that I desired to see it, and afterward to open my opinion to you. Perhaps you have meanwhile changed many things. Certainly the plague is of another kind, namely private, that is, what arises from an internal cause and does not have a morbid exhalation. Yet it is destructive to many, because it is filled with corrupt juices from many bodies, and they bear the same unhealthy condition of the air. There is also another, public plague, in which a morbid exhalation issues forth from infected bodies, and the seeds of this are left in the air, which increase and diminish according to the constitution of the air. These too are harmful even to healthy bodies, and to those in whom there is no common factor, if they come into contact with them. Though the disease acts only upon a patient already predisposed. By what means some bodies are more, others less, disposed, must be considered. But of these things I cannot think now, since I write this suddenly and, as it were, standing with one foot already on the road (for Caesar must be left). Farewell well. 30 May, in the year 1575. EPIST. CLVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. You did well in sending your syrups here. I replied briefly, for why should I deal with a physician in many words? There are many causes that call me back home, or rather draw me away. I wish I could depart before Friday. I see that the Baron is intent on detaining me. I do not doubt that the use of rosate aloes will be very beneficial, if you add 3j. β. ββ. of myrrh. You can obtain the prænix root from Joachim Camerarius. I shall procure a piece of alcinæ nail. Use morning frictions. Also foot-washes in the morning from a decoction of betbonica. Abstain from vegetables. Drink wine very sparingly. I would like you to think about the decoction. Farewell well and happily. 15 April, in the year 1577. ZHTHMATA. THE QUESTIONS MENTIONED IN THESE LETTERS ARE THE FOLLOWING. 1. Should I be advised moderately to eat meat? What danger is there in its use? Or are there some foods that are themselves suitable, and others harmful? 2. Do sternutatories help, and which pungent ones? 3. Is vomiting harmful? Should it be induced when fasting or when the stomach is full? 4. Must all scented things be wholly avoided? 5. Does smoke from amber in an attack help? 6. Can amber oil be taken with benefit? 7. Ought scented rue, or rue pounded with vinegar, to be applied with carbio or spinna? 8. Can bloodletting, if often repeated, or twice a year as is customary, be used again? 9. Must cupping glasses be repeated often? 10. Should lunar changes be observed, or feared? 11. Must one never use stronger cathartics, and how far should one go? Or are gentler purgatives enough? 12. What is to be thought of the bath, the Laconic sweating-room, or the hot room? 13. Do you advise me to consult the holy wood? 14. Is Venus altogether to be renounced by me, or what is always harmful harmful? 15. What powers do peony root and grains have? 16. The remedy of M. Antoni Cortusi: put the whitest bread, just taken from the oven and slightly fermented, into a glass vessel. Collect the water condensed from the vapor. Take of this 3 uti. Take also a mature piece of powdered stone, 3 j. β. Repeat the dose again. It cures epileptics who are curable, and very quickly, he says. What is your view? 17. I use the old syrup from carduus juice, until we can prepare the proper one. Can it be mixed with aqua mildesolis, or taken by licking? 18. When and how often should theriaca be used? 19. How long should the treatment be continued? 20. In epilepsy, is my sign of foam alone sufficient? 21. If something plaster-like is to be applied in order to nourish the ulcer, since so far I have used only teased wool? Response to the preceding syrups, of Dr. Io. Crato of Kraft. heim, etc. 1. To eat meat moderately, as with everything else that provides the greatest nourishment. Aguina

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 261 261 Agnima mala est, & præsertim epar cum capi paratum, sicut omnia qua caput re- plent. 2 Sieruus ateria non prosunt, nisi in accessioni- bus. Nam cerebrum quiete concoquit. 3 Vomitus coactus nocet. Spontaneus etiam ca- put pergratas. Sed cum per consensum à ventriculo cerebrum afficiatur, ex acciden- ti plurimum prodest. 4 Non omnibus odoratis abstinendum, sed qua capus replent. Odor ruta, anisi, carui, &c. bonus. 5 In accessione fumus succini adiunat. Quia dissipat vapores, & obstructa referat. Ex- tra paroxysimum lædit. < Orbiculis succano.> 6 Oleo succini abstinendum censeo. Cæterum si orbiculis ex gustu vna olei succini, & gusta anisi cum sacebaro fierem, non improba- rem. 7 Ruta odorata carpus, item spina adhibita, et- iam cum aceto conducit. 8 Venasectio ratione plentitudinis prodest. Per se non. Si in victu cauebis plentitudinem ita satis erit semel in anno venam secare. 9 Cucurbitula possunt singulis mensibus appli- cari. 10 Luna mutationes non quidem pertiniscenda sed in iis causus agendum. 11 Vehementioribus catharticis te vti nolimo. Clysmata sufficiens. 12 De Thermarum vsum longa ambager. Tuciam Itali probant, haud scito quam recte. 13 Nihil vel parum valet Guasaci lignum, nisi ad corporis habitum minuendum. Esset tamen illius vsum cum ligno visce quercentes condu- cibilis. 14 Venus modestissima. 15 Paonia maris radicibus multum tribuo. No- stra nihil. 16 Corruss experimentum nunquam sum exper- tus. Tuto vti poteris. 17 Syrupum cardui, & è succo violarum, aqua millefolii poteris admiscere. Aqua sonchi è pediculis (capus Monachæ appellant) destilla- ta plurimum in æstase prodest. 18 Theriacum Nonsulunio semel vtaris. 19 Curà semper tibi cura erit. 20 De notis noli solutæ cogitare. 21 De vicere agam in præsentia, volente Deo & in spiciam. Noli vti siccantibus, quia conso- lidant, vt lana carpta, sed mundificantibus. Iacui enim trimestre, oppressus catartho & febricula lenta, ac totus macie contabuit. Augetur nunc febris, & vires languidæ de- ficiunt. Itaque cogirare potes, quam ad scribendum sim idoneus. Viuo iam non ego, sed viuit in me CHRISTVS. Baroni au- tem optime de me merito, & tibi amico charissimo morem geto, atq[ue] hæc (cum vix sustineam laborem proferendæ vocis) di- < Petus ligni.> 10 o. Vere autem & ex animo affirmo, mihi propositum fuisse omnino de vsligni Ba- ronem monere, simulac eerti aliquid ad meas literas mihi rescriberet. Id cum nunc sit factum, omnibus modis suadeo, vt Ge- nerosissimus Baro inennete Aprili decocto ligni Guaiacini vstat, & quadraginta dio- bus ita, vt se abstineat ab aere, & iis rebus, quæ ventriculum lædunt, quas nunc non nomino. Victustratio non prorsus tenuis sit, sed boni succi, & in quantitate pauca. Passulas quotidie ante cibum assumat, et- iam priusquam lignum bibere incipiat. Vt vehementer purgetur, propter infirmita- tem intestinorum & ventriculi, vix possum esse author. Velim tamen ea medicamenta adhiberi, quibus me vsum non ignoras, cum in obstructionibus, & viis non patenribus, sed humoribus repletis, vsum ligni tutum esse minime, Medicorum omnium sit sen- < 30> tentia. Si non satis purgabunt, reiteretur, prout humoribus corpus redundare vide- bitur. Ad vniuersam curationem ligni xv. vel xvlij. lib. satis futuras arbitror. Infun- dantur autem xv. vel xvij. libræ in olla ma- gna, affusa aqua calida, & seruetur loco frigido, atque ita deinceps pro libra vna ligni macerati affusis aquæ libris xv. & ad rema- < 30> nentiam ix. vel viij. librarum decocti pro prima potione vstat. Ad sudores inter ini- tia non vrgeatur. Si tibi videbitur: feruens aqualigni, tranfundatur statim post coctionem in aliam ollam, & iniiciantur vel beto- nica, vel veronica. Pro secundo vero deco- cto, vnciæ duæ ligni ad istum libram iam de- coctam affundantur, & ad remanentiam quindecim lib. decoquantur, adiiciaturque in fine decocto aliquid passularum. Errant < Prima deco- cctione vli- res ligninom fatis extra- buntur.> longe, qui decoctione prima vites ligni ex- haurire se posse arbitratur. Itaque secun- < 30> dum decoctum primo interdum fortius est. Id si animadueteris, abstinere ab vstu recentis ligni in secundo decocto poteris. Primis decem diebus lente procedas, dein- ceps quindecim instes, & rursus quinde- cim vel etiam decem paulatim desinas. Vt aluus toto istius curationis tempore sit flui- da proeures. Mihi beneficio DEI hacten- < Alainus fui- da> nus tua pruna præstiterunt quod optaui. An deinceps prorsus vitibus iacentibus

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MEDICINALES. 261 261 Agneema is bad, and especially if the head be already prepared, as are all things that fill the head. 2 Strong purgatives do not help, except in attacks. For the brain digests in quiet. 3 Forced vomiting is harmful. Spontaneous vomiting also greatly relieves the head. But when, by sympathy from the stomach, the brain is affected, it is of very great benefit accidentally. 4 Not all odoriferous things are to be avoided, but only those that fill the head. The smell of rue, anise, caraway, etc., is good. 5 In an attack, amber smoke helps, because it disperses vapors and opens obstructions. Outside the paroxysm it harms. < Amber beads.> 6 I think amber oil should be avoided. Otherwise, if, for pleasure, one should occasionally take amber oil and anise with sugar, I would not disapprove. 7 The fragrance of rue, likewise sage used, even with vinegar, is beneficial. 8 Bloodletting helps by reason of fullness. By itself, no. If you are careful in diet to avoid fullness, once a year will be enough to open a vein. 9 Cupping-glasses may be applied each month. 10 The changes of the moon are not indeed to be regarded, but in them one must act according to the cause. 11 I do not wish you to use stronger cathartics. Clysters are sufficient. 12 On the use of baths there is a long digression. The Italians approve of Tucia, though I do not know how rightly. 13 The wood of Guaiacum is of little or no value, except for reducing the habit of the body. Yet its use with the wood of the viscequerens would be advantageous. 14 Venus is most moderate. 15 I greatly esteem peony roots of the sea. Our own nothing. 16 I have never tried the experiment of Corruss. You may safely use it. 17 You may mix syrup of carduus and the juice of violets with water of yarrow. Water of sonchus distilled from lice-peds (which the monks call head-lice) is very beneficial in summer. 18 Use Theriacum Nonsulunio once. 19 Care will always be your care. 20 Do not think about loose symptoms. 21 For the ulcer I shall speak at present, God willing, and I shall look into it. Do not use drying remedies, because they consolidate, like teased wool, but use cleansing ones. For I lay sick three months, oppressed with catarrh and a lingering fever, and wasted away into mere skin and bone. Now the fever is increasing, and my weak strength is failing. So you can imagine how fit I am for writing. I no longer live, but CHRIST lives in me. But Baron has deserved very well of me, and I comply with you, my dearest friend, and these things (since I can hardly endure the strain of speaking) di- < Pieces of wood.> 10 o. But truly and from my heart I affirm that it was altogether my intention to warn the Baron about the use of wood as soon as he should write back to me something certain in reply to my letters. Since this has now been done, I advise in every way that the Most Noble Baron in the month of April use the decoction of Guaiacum wood, and for forty days so conduct himself that he abstain from air and from those things which harm the stomach, which I do not now name. His diet should not be entirely sparing, but of good nourishment and in small quantity. Let him take raisins daily before meals, even before he begins to drink the wood. Since, because of the weakness of the intestines and stomach, I can hardly be an author for strong purgation, nevertheless I would wish those remedies to be used with which, as you know, I have myself been accustomed to use, since in obstructions and in passages not open, but filled with humors, the use of wood is by no means safe, which is the opinion of all physicians. If they do not purge sufficiently, let it be repeated, as the body shall seem to overflow with humors. For the whole cure I think 15 or 16 pounds of wood will be enough. Let 15 or 17 pounds be infused in a large pot, with hot water poured on, and kept in a cool place; and thus afterward, for one pound of the macerated wood, with 15 pounds of water poured on, and for the remainder, 9 or 8 pounds of decoction, let it be used for the first drinking. At the beginning, do not press for sweats. If it seems good to you: after boiling, the hot water of the wood should be poured at once into another pot, and either betony or veronica should be added. For the second decoction, two ounces of wood should be poured on to that pound already decocted, and cooked down to a remainder of fifteen pounds, and at the end something of raisins should be added to the decoction. Those are greatly mistaken who think that by the first decoction they can exhaust the virtues of the wood. Therefore the second decoction is sometimes stronger than the first. If you notice this, you may refrain from using fresh wood in the second decoction. For the first ten days proceed slowly, then continue for fifteen, and again for fifteen or even ten days gradually diminish. During the whole time of this treatment, take care that the bowels be loose. By the grace of GOD hitherto your prunes have given me what I wished. As to what comes next, of the vines lying down altogether

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263 EPISTOLÆ 264 efficacitatem aliquam sint habitura nescio. Post decoctum ligni venirem inungas cum vnguento nostro stomachali & adipe gallinacea. Applices emplastrum de ladano cum speciebus aromatici rosari completis, addita cera & oleo rosato. Exhibeas iam nunc in- terdum optimam myrrham. Quid præterea monerem nunc non erat. Si Epilepticus quoq[ue] tuus ligui decoctum cum ligno visci quercini præparatum biberet, certe pluri- mum illi profuturum existimarem. Cogites, & si quid possum illius causa facere, moneas. Cupio omnia. Plura non possum dictare. Si vires sinent, aliquid Baroni rescribam. Mar- tij die 6. 1578. è lecto. [Recipe] Passular. 3 vj. Flor. borræg. Violar. Cuscutæ an. p. j. F. horum decoctio in q. s. aquæ puræ. [Recipe] Colaturæ lb. ss. Infundatur: Rhabarb in aqua cinam. maccrati 3 j. Fol. senæ iclectorum 3 v. Stent per noctem in loco calido, & rursus mane ebulliant: [Recipe] Fortissimæ expressionis diligenter per- colatæ [uncia] iiij. Mannæ Calabrinæ [uncia] j. ss. Addatur aloes rosatæ ad reprimendam dulcedinem mannæ & propter vermium suspicionem [uncia] s. Misc. Prius tamen sumat præparantia, vt deco- ctum radicum cichorij, & vesperi, quæ diem purgationis præcedit, Enema ex iure galli- næ pingui, in quo decoquatur veronica ad- dito saccharo. EPIST. CLIX. IDEM EIDEM ÆGROTAT itetum Baro. Quid putas? Æst ne 1ania articulorum imbecillitas? Estnetam intemperans, vt vel subito tantam humorum copiam cumulet, vel quod ego puto, Fundumur ne humores vino, venere, vel iracundia? Ego cautam existimare non possum. Hippocratem puto te accepisse, et- iamsi non serthas. Cuperem meliorem ver- sionem. Eam an Aubrius daturus sit nescio. Quidam contra Fernelium scripsit, Musca in Elephantum. Putat pestem solis frigidis curandam. Profecto qui in peste, nihil præ- ter obstructionem, putredinem & febrem agnoscunt, multis modis errant & nocent. Præpotens illa causa, vt Galenus eam appel- lat, communem medendi rationem plane euerit. Occultam illam vim cælo ortam cum Fernelio non tueor. Morbidam exspi- rationem præcipuam causam statuo. Etsi scio sæpe pestes non solum totas ciuitates, sed regiones subito inuasisse. Sed hoc fit vel propter aëris vitium, exhalationes, aquas, vel cibum, vel communem causam corpora prædisponentem, Verum quomodo dilabor in istam disputationem? Quia libenter te- cum per literas colloquor. Romæ iam ma- gnis innumeribus propositis remedia contra pestem quærunt. In DEI & naturæ arcanis singulare & in in pereo latere puto. Nam ea quibus vtimur sæpe spem fallere apparet. Legisti ne aliquid apud veteres de viribus Monocerotis. Ego nihil memini. Et Turcos nunc non vti vel holo, vel tetra Lemnia au- dio, cum tantopere commendet Galenus. Bezoar in peste parum confere. Bezoar in peste parum confere. Deus & Immanuel noster lesus tibi & tuis hunc animum benigne fortunet, Pragæ, Kal. Ian. Anno 1580. EPIST. CLX. IDEM EIDEM. M I Iordane, quæ sint cauenda iis, qui Herculeo morbo affliguntur, nosti. Ægrum vero tuum no[n] eam adhibuisse cau- tionem, quam debebat, tuæ literæ 6. Febr. datæ testantur. Obiurgarem illum grauiter nisi ægrotaret. DEVM oro vt ipsum confer- uet, & ne ille si hi ipsi desit facitu. Puto me ti- bi scripsisse in isto morbo, epar perdicis in furno siccatum & puluerisatum commenda- ri ex aqua millefolij. Quidam ranarum epar hoc modo in noua olla præparatum laudat. Remedia naturalia in hoc morbo, sicut o- mnibus, in quibus diuinum est secundum seriam diuini auxilij implurationem, maxi- mi ab omnibus fere fieri animaduerto. De Thure recte æstimant, qui numiam arbi- trantur. Est enim verissima Mumia, & qui- demi ex humanis corporibus, conditis Thu- re, myrrha & aloë. Vnicornu non reperiri in nostris regionibus certissimus sum. Vna pars est è cornu putrefacto, altera ex osle. Pellùs autem ista ad extremas corporis par- tes, humores & sudores mouent. Ideo in af- fectionibus cordis (vt existimant quidam) conferre videntur. Hæc autem vis etiam in cornu cerui co[n]spicitur. Ac credas mihi pri- mas illas cuspides in cornubus ceruinis co[n] tra venena plus prodesse, quam vulgare v- nicornu, quod nihil aliud est, quam dens E- lephanti seu Ebur. Lapidem, quem misi- sti, adducet non possum vt sententiæ illorum, qui à serpentinibus constatum esse existimant accedam. Atte fabricatum esse, ac, ne quid dissimulem, verticillum seu spondilum pu- to, quem mulierculæ fila ducentes fusò ap- plicant. lacuit aliquandiu sub terra. Iaque cum

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263 LETTERS 264 I do not know whether they will have some efficacy. After the decoction of wood, you should anoint with our stomach ointment and chicken fat. Apply a plaster of labdanum with complete aromatic rosary spices, adding wax and rose oil. You should now from time to time administer the very best myrrh. What else I should now advise there was not. If your epileptic should also drink a decoction of wood prepared with oak mistletoe, I would certainly think it would be of the greatest benefit to him. Consider it, and if I can do anything on his behalf, let me know. I desire everything. I cannot dictate more. If my strength permits, I shall write something back to the Baron. March 6, 1578, from bed. [Recipe] Raisins 3 viij. Flowers of borage, Violets, Dodder, an. p. j. Make a decoction of these in a sufficient quantity of pure water. [Recipe] Of the strained liquor, lb. ss. Let be infused: Rhubarb macerated in cinnamon water, 3 j. Leaves of chosen senna, 3 v. Let them stand overnight in a warm place, and again in the morning let them boil: [Recipe] Of the very strong expression, carefully strained, [ounce] iiij. Manna of Calabria [ounce] j. ss. Add rose-colored aloes, to check the sweetness of the manna and because of suspicion of worms, [ounce] s. Mix. But first let him take preparatives, such as a decoction of chicory roots, and in the evening, which precedes the day of purgation, an enema from rich chicken broth, in which veronica shall be boiled, with sugar added. EPIST. CLIX. SAME TO THE SAME The Baron is ill again. What do you think? Is it perhaps a weakness of the joints? Is he so intemperate that he either suddenly accumulates so great a quantity of humors, or, as I think, do the humors arise from wine, lust, or anger? I cannot think otherwise. I believe you have received Hippocrates, even if you do not read it through. I should prefer a better translation. Whether Aubrius will provide one, I do not know. Someone has written against Fernel, “A fly against an elephant.” He thinks the plague should be treated only with cold remedies. Surely those who in the plague recognize nothing except obstruction, putrefaction, and fever, are mistaken in many ways and do harm. That very powerful cause, as Galen calls it, has utterly overturned the common method of treatment. I do not, with Fernel, defend that hidden force arising from the heavens. I hold the morbid exhalation to be the chief cause. Yet I know that plagues have often suddenly invaded not only whole cities but regions as well. But this happens either because of bad air, exhalations, waters, or food, or because of some common cause disposing bodies. But why am I wandering into that dispute? Because I like to converse with you by letter. In Rome, with great and countless proposals already made, they are seeking remedies against the plague. I think that in the secrets of God and nature there lies a singular and hidden matter. For it is evident that those things we use often fail our hope. Have you read anything among the ancients about the powers of the Unicorn? I remember nothing. And I hear that the Turks now do not use either the white or the black Lemnian earth, although Galen so highly recommends it. Bezoar in the plague gives little help. Bezoar in the plague gives little help. May our God and Emmanuel Jesus graciously prosper this disposition for you and yours, Prague, the Kalends of January, in the year 1580. EPIST. CLX. SAME TO THE SAME. My dear Jordan, you know what must be avoided by those afflicted with the Herculean disease. But your sick man’s letters of February 6 testify that he did not use that caution which he ought to have used. I would rebuke him severely if he were not ill. I pray God to preserve him, and that he not fail himself if he should lack strength. I think I wrote to you that in this disease the liver of a partridge, dried in an oven and reduced to powder, is recommended, taken with water of millefolium. Someone praises the liver of frogs prepared in this way in a new pot. Natural remedies in this disease, as in all those in which the divine element is present, after earnest invocation of divine help, I observe are almost universally held in the greatest esteem. Those who think of frankincense rightly judge it to be mummy. For it is a very true mummy, indeed from human bodies preserved with frankincense, myrrh, and aloe. I am certain that unicorn is not to be found in our regions. One part is from putrefied horn, the other from bone. But these things move humors and sweats toward the outer parts of the body. Therefore in diseases of the heart they seem to be useful, as some think. This power is also seen in deer horn. And believe me, those first tips on deer antlers against poisons are of greater benefit than the common unicorn, which is nothing else than an elephant’s tooth, that is, ivory. The stone you sent I cannot bring myself to agree with the opinion of those who think it is made of serpentine. It seems to me to be fabricated, and, not to conceal anything, I think it is a spindle or perhaps a whorl, such as women use when drawing thread with a distaff. It had lain for some time underground. And so, when

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cum sit testaceus, lapis videtur. Alter vero Lapis cordis earni. lapis, quem minister ostendit, qui in corde cerui repertus est, quiddam cum lapide Bezoar. eommne habet, licer neque forma, neque colore eum referat. Nam is quoque ad hunc modum incrustatus est, neq[ue] dubiro quin aduersus venena profit. De Saphiro nullam habeo experientiam, oculis Saphirus. prodesse scio, & admodum oculis puero- rum, qui variolis aut morbillis laborant, ne ab iis infestentur, facere. Recitantur alia ab iis, qui de gemmarum viribus scribunt, verum mihi non sunt explorata. Cardanus multa in libello de gemmis commemorat, eum nunc ad manus non habebam. De Chalcidonio quod scribam, non habeo. Sunt qui sanguinem calefactum in manibus Fungus omnium. sistere existiment. Fungo euruino ad venena quidam vtuntur, sed plus ad venerea valere, & propterea asseruari constat. Meum oleum vitrioli vobis non est defuturum, sed quantum voles, & quod satis est, vt à me accipias eurabo. Suhriam octodecim anni cum illud factum est, & nunc plurimis prodesse animaduerto. In humidioribus Ole vitrioli v[er]fuscatum en humidioribus masuris. corporibus vsus est tutissimus. Sed paulo sicciora minus crebro assumere debent. Tu singulis sepimanis bis vel ter recte, & magno, vt spero, commodo tuo eo vteris. Sed vide ne in parum recte factum incidas. Dolores Nephrosis Dolores calculus. Nam, vt promisi, prius mihi quam tibi defuturum est. Vsu decocti veronicæ nihil melius ad dolores à calculo ortos. Idem præstat succus inspissatus. Exprijitur ex herba contusa, & cum saccharo ad spissitudinem coquitur, & in pillulas redigitur. Dolor rem[us] Sumes ante cibum. Si dolor vtget in labro vel lecto calefactus, decoctum veronicæ bibes, & adhibebis emplastrum ex caneris. Quod fit cancris coctis & contusis & eorum Catapl. d canceris. sueco expresso, panis medulla imbuta, additis oleo violaceo & virello oii, applicetur hoc renibus. Hederæ eriam terrestris vsus in cibo, & iusculis commendatur, & somnum Hedera terrestris. atq[ue] vritam prouocar. Vrteres inungi poterunt oleo scorpionum, & soueri raphano vel rapi coctis eum adest dolor. Inscelliones in labrum non probo, propter dolores podagricos. Domino seniori iam meam sententiam sæpe de istis defatigationibus ostendi. Remedia frigida non sunt tura, licet ea catarrhus tenuis requirat. Calida prorsus non prosunt. Turissimum esset à nimio sermone abstinere. Sed plura hac dere alias: Bene vale. 15. Febr. Anno 1582. EPIST. CLXI. IDEM EIDEM. GRATISSIMVM mihi esse tumm lite- Grarum officium, omniaque grata mihi semper à re accidisse, verissimum est. Heri autem peruesperi tuas, quibus 28. diem Iunij ascriptisti, Glatio in Rucurianum me- num perlatas accepi. Veni huc nudius decimus tempestate horrida & valitudine minime firma. Quam vero firmiratem hac æstate sperare possimus, in qua vnum illud animo plane obfirmato nobis persuadere debemus, nos eo vitæ beatæ viciniores esse quoad exitum huius vitæ & sepulchrum accedimus propius? Vt quod superest zui absque molestia, quemadmodum mihi precaris, transigam, cum vel corpus tot morbis afflictum, vel seculi nostri miseras intueor, polliceri mihi non debeo. Veram enim illum querelam esse statuo, Ad meas autem miseras hæc accedit, quod in tanta virium imbecillitate propemodum perpetuo decumbendum, & si quid scribere volo dictandum est. Ægre pedes officium faciunt, & tremebunda mam, perpaucæ absque molestia exarare possum. Præscripseram nuper cuidam pnero emplastrum suturæ coronali apponendum. Is tentatis multis remediis, beneficio DEI, conualuit. Pharmacopæi coniunx emplastrum hoc aliis pueris epilepticis adhibebit. Itaquetam multis de eo sermo, vt etiam senes bono successu vterentur. Erat cum his descriptio, qua ante triginta annos in scemina Polona curanda sum vsus & diu sane oblitus, atque cum à me consilium pro puero peteretur, in illam incididi. Franciscus Vallesius Doctor Medicus in Academia Complutensi fuit. Mortuum ante multos annos puto. Leges de eo in proemio libri, quæ mihi comperra sunt. Admodum ingeniosum res ostendit. Neque dubito, si longior vita ei contigisset, quin multa in suo libro emendarurus fuisse. Ego in alterius labore hunc laborem sumere volui. Mitto typographicum. Spero ad mercatum autumnalem proditurum. Baronibus vestris bene precor. Ego podagricis nihil nisi rectam viætus rationem consulendum arbitror. Quæ enim medicina vel materiam istam exhaurire, vel calorem robôrate potest? Vsum fomentationis ex decocto myricæ euidam valde prosuisse scio. Sed alios iuuisse parum. Thermæ calorem natium adiuvant, verum sua humiditate membra relaxant. Vtinam Narnestius vester heros à me iuuari possit. Nihil est quod magis velim. Si paulo valetudo esset firmior, in suo Brunduisio, eum inuiscerem. Sed vereor ne è Bohemia pestis seipat. Valde magnæ & M

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Since it is stony, it seems to be a stone. The other stone of the heart flesh. stone, which the attendant showed, that was found in the heart of a deer, has something in common with the stone Bezoar, although it resembles it neither in shape nor in color. For it too is encrusted in this way, and I do not doubt that it is effective against poisons. Concerning Sapphire I have no experience; I know that it is useful for the eyes, and especially for the eyes of little boys who suffer from smallpox or measles, to keep them from being harmed by them. Other things are reported by those who write about the powers of gems, but they are not known to me from experience. Cardanus mentions many things in his little book on gems, but I did not have it at hand at present. I have nothing to write concerning Chalcidony. There are some who think it stops blood warmed in the hands. Mushroom of all. A certain kind of mushroom is used against poisons by some, but it is believed to have greater power against venereal disease, and therefore it is kept in store. My oil of vitriol will not fail you, but I will see to it that you receive as much as you wish, and enough. I was eighteen years old when that was made, and now I observe that it benefits very many. In more humid bodies the use of it is safest. But those that are a little drier ought to take it less often. You may use it twice or three times each week, and, as I hope, to your great benefit. But take care not to fall into something improperly made. Pains Nephrosis Pains stone. For, as I promised, it will fail me before it fails you. There is nothing better, for pains arising from stone, than the use of a decoction of veronica. The same is also provided by the thickened juice. It is pressed from the crushed herb, and with sugar is boiled to the consistency of a syrup, and formed into pills. Pain rem[us] You will take it before meals. If the pain grows intense in the loin or in the back heated by a bed, you will drink the decoction of veronica, and you will apply a plaster made from crawfish. This is made from crawfish boiled and crushed, and from their juice pressed out; bread crumb soaked in it, with violet oil and yolk of egg added, is applied to the kidneys. The use of ground ivy in food and in broths is also recommended, and it induces sleep and urine. The loins may be anointed with oil of scorpions, and boiled radish or turnip may be given when pain is present. I do not approve of poultices to the back, because of gouty pains. I have often already shown my opinion about these wearisome matters to the senior lord. Cold remedies are not safe, although a slight catarrh may require them. Hot remedies are by no means helpful. It would be safest to abstain from too much speaking. But more on this elsewhere: Farewell. 15 February, in the year 1582. EPISTLE CLXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. It is most pleasing to me that the duty of letters, and indeed everything pleasing, has always come to me from the matter itself, is most true. Yesterday, however, I received your recent letters, in which you dated the 28th day of June, delivered to me in Rucrianum by Glatius. I arrived here ten days ago in dreadful weather and with health not at all sound. But what firmness can we hope for this summer, in which we ought to persuade ourselves of one thing alone, with our minds fully resolute: that we are the nearer to blessed life as we approach the end of this life and the grave more closely? That I may spend what remains of life without trouble, as you pray for me, I ought not to promise myself, when I look either at a body afflicted by so many diseases, or at the miserable condition of our age. For I think that complaint to be true, But to my own miseries this is added: that in such great weakness of strength I must almost continually lie down, and if I wish to write anything, it must be dictated. My feet scarcely do their duty, and I, trembling, can write very few things without discomfort. I recently prescribed a plaster to be applied to the coronal suture for a certain boy. He, after many remedies had been tried, by the help of God, recovered. The apothecary’s wife will apply this plaster to other epileptic boys. And so much is said about it, that even old men would use it with good success. There was with this a description, which thirty years ago I used in treating a Polish woman, and had indeed long forgotten; and when counsel was asked of me for the boy, I came upon it. Franciscus Vallesius was a medical doctor at the University of Alcalá. I think he died many years ago. You will read about him in the preface of the book, as I have found. He shows himself to be a very ingenious man. Nor do I doubt that, if a longer life had been granted him, he would have corrected many things in his book. I wished to take this labor upon myself from another man’s work. I am sending the proof sheets. I hope they will appear at the autumn fair. I pray well for your barons. I think that for gouty patients nothing should be advised except the right regimen of life. For what medicine can either drain out that matter, or restore heat? I know that the use of fomentation from a decoction of myrica has greatly helped one man. But it has helped others little. Bath heat helps the loins, yet by its moisture it relaxes the limbs. Would that your hero Narnestius could be helped by me. Nothing is what I would more wish. If my health were a little firmer, I would visit him in his Brunduisio. But I fear lest the plague from Bohemia make its way out. Very great and M

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267 EPISTOLÆ 168 < Eluuiiones.> quentes in his quoque locis eluuiones nobis malum minantur, & transeunt sæpe, qui Praga veniunt, vbi fuire pestem multorum lireris nunciatur. De oleo Solis multos gloriosciloqui audiui, verum ita consici posse, vt vere oleum sit, & humanis corporibus conueniens, nunquam mihi persuaderi patiar. < Oleum Solis.> Lapis autem philosphorum multorum ingenia & opes attriuit. Nec præter vnum, qui de illius compositione scriptetur, quenquam lapidem istum parasse cognoui. Vero hoc est consentaneum, imperfectum ad quandam perfectionem posse deduci. Sed an lapis Philosphorum (id quod chymistæ de eo affirmant) imperfecta metalla perfecta reddere queat, haud scio. Sæpe in paruo opere quædam quasi perfectionis species ostendi potest. Idem si in magno tentes, somnium vid. bis. Imo vix vquam similia elaborantur propter caloris & materiæ dissimilirudinem. Quæ igitur est stulti titia in istis desudate. Antimonio albo, cum < Antimonium album.> rationem, quæ sudorem mouere possit, non videam, & mihi illa eum Theiæa commistio suspecta sit, nunquam vsus sum. Scio autem te ea pietate esse, vt non velis alteri noere. Proinde si iis profuir, quibus à te datum est, ipse periculum de eo facere poteris, vel quamprimum ad amicum illum tuum scribere, vt modum consciendi integretibi signifieet. Nô sunt mihi Theophrasti libri ad manus, nec si essent possem in illis quicquam legere. De spiritu animonij < Spiritus Animonæ.> quid rescribam non habeo. Nam de vtu illius nihil plane constar. Retinebo igitur apud me donec aliquid certi cognoscamus. Magna medicamenta esse oportet, quæ in exigua quantitate vim maximam exerceat. Ne igitur naturæ vim afferant videndum. Tamen nô video si antimonium album per < Extratum calami a. vsum.> se est antidotus, cur antidoto, videlicet Theiæac miscentur. Sed vteunq[ue] sit, ea fide a micum illum tuum esse scio, vt non velit tibi nocere, proinde semel facere periculum, atque de successu quamprunum ad me scribere poteris. De extracto calami aromatiei < Ole Chal. caustos.> arbitror me vos monuisse omnia. Vtor præcipue in affectionibus ventriculi & pectoris cum intemperies est frigida cum materia crassa & tenaci. Ac tunc quidem non difficultatem spirandi, & coctionem plurimum valere, & longe alia medicamenta superare cognoui. Chalchanti oleum totius corporis habitum permeat, putredinem tollit, & humiditates superfluas consumir. Hoc minus crebro vtaris, cum se extenuari aliquomodo scribas. Non defuturum tibi est, etiamsi ipse eo non abundem. Nam nihil mihi tam est charum in omnibus rebus meis, quod non libenter ad sustentandam valetudinem tuam velim impertiri. Bene vale, & literas tuas ad me mittere non intermittes. E Rucuriano, 16. Iulij. Anno 1581. < Empl. Ep.> 21. Succini albi, Thuris, Mastich. ana 3j.ß. Galbani, Opoponac. ana 3j. Visei quercin. 3ij. Ambræg. vj. Muscb. g. iij. Sem. præoniæ maris 3ß. Ladani 3j.ß. Olei nucis muscatæ parum, aspergatut puluer cubebarum, & extendatur in aluta. EPIST. CLXII. Io. CRATO A KRAFTHEIM, &c. Clarissimo vero, D. Petro Monauio, Med. Caf. S. D. QV ad reprehendum alios paratissimi sunt, plerunque in se parum animaduertunt. Scripsisti omnes omnia bona de meo libello Germanico dicere, laudare studium iuuandi plurimos; denique vt reeuderetur autor fuisti. Nunc posteaquam ego labo em iterum supra vires sumpsi, & huic alterum quasi, qui me ad languorem ita dedi, addidi, vt haud sciam an vnquam vires recuperaturus sim, nescio quem ordinem, & quæ alia in eo desiderare curiales nostros commemoras. Nisi aulam nossem, & quam multi sint, scirem, qui vere indicare possint, aut harum rerum, de quibus agitur, periti essent, sane animo perturbarer; sed cum quid in hoc Theatro fiat, & quam rerum omnium imperitissimi cupidissime alios reprehendant non ignorem; non valde commouecor. Te vero ista nunc scribere miror, posteaquam ipse libellum præconio tuo publice ornasti, & typis describendum Typographo dedisti. Ac exploratissimum tibi est, me hunc librum nunquam ita habuisse in manibus, vt quæ accurate perpolire solemus. Relegi, & cum quid mutandum videretur, dictaui. Fateor propter valetudinis imbecillitatem non potuisset scripta recognoscere; sed sperabâ, si quid forte emedandum esset, facile hoc præstare posse, qui curam editionis susciperent. < Methodica libellæ de po- st.> Legi tuas correctiones; verum ne quid dissimulem, à mea sententia alienas. sed de his nunc non agam. Qua deratione libelli Germanici, in prima parte præcauendi rationem monstro, duplicemque pono; vnam quæ ad Magistratum politicum pertineat, alteram proptiam Medici. In iis quid deside- tent

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267 EPISTLES 168 < Floods.> Frequent floods threaten us with harm in these places too, and those who come through Prague often pass on the report that a plague in many people’s houses has broken out. I have heard many boastful speakers about the Oil of the Sun; but that it could be made in such a way that it is truly oil and suitable for human bodies, I shall never allow myself to be persuaded. < Oil of the Sun.> The Philosopher’s Stone has consumed the talents and fortunes of many. And I have known no one to have prepared that stone except one who has written concerning its composition. Yet this much is true and fitting: what is imperfect can be led toward a certain perfection. But whether the Philosopher’s Stone (as chemists affirm of it) can render imperfect metals perfect, I do not know. In small works a certain appearance, as it were, of perfection can often be shown. If you attempt the same on a large scale, you see a dream. Nay, hardly ever are such things elaborated, because of the dissimilarity of heat and material. What folly, then, to sweat over these things. White antimony, since I see no reason that can produce sweat, and since that admixture of Theiæa seems suspicious to me, I have never used. But I know that you are of such piety that you do not wish to harm another. Therefore, if it has benefited those to whom it was given by you, you can make the experiment yourself, or write as soon as possible to that friend of yours, so that he may let you know the proper manner of preparing it. The books of Theophrastus are not at hand to me, nor, if they were, could I read anything in them. About the spirit of animony < Spirit of Animonæ.> I have nothing to reply. For nothing is yet clearly established concerning its use. I shall therefore keep it with me until we learn something certain. Remedies must be great which exert a very great force in a small quantity. Care must therefore be taken that they do not bring violence upon nature. Yet I do not see, if white antimony by itself is an antidote, why it is mixed with an antidote, namely Theiæa. But however that may be, I know your friend to be of such faith that he will not wish to harm you; therefore make the trial once, and as soon as possible write to me about the result. As for the extract of aromatic calamus < Chalcanth. oil.> I believe I have warned you about everything. I use it especially in affections of the stomach and chest when the temperament is cold with thick and tenacious matter. And then indeed I have found that it does not greatly hinder breathing and digestion, and surpasses far other medicines. The oil of chalcanth permeates the habit of the whole body, removes corruption, and consumes superfluous moistures. Use this less often, since you write that you are somehow being weakened. It will not fail you, even if I myself do not have it in abundance. For nothing in all my possessions is so dear to me that I would not gladly share it to support your health. Farewell well, and do not omit to send your letters to me. From Rucurianum, 16 July, in the year 1581. < Plaster for the chest.> White amber 3j.ß. Frankincense, Mastic, ana 3j.ß. Galbanum, Opopanax, ana 3j. Moss of the oak 3ij. Ambergris vj. Musk g. iij. Seeds of the male piony 3ß. Labdanum 3j.ß. A little oil of nutmeg; sprinkle with cubeb powder, and spread it on kid leather. EPIST. CLXII. Io. CRATO OF KRAFTHEIM, etc. To the most distinguished man, D. Petrus Monauius, Physician to the Emperor, greeting. Those who are most ready to criticize others usually pay little attention to themselves. You wrote that everyone says everything good about my German booklet, praises the effort to help many; finally, that you were the one who caused it to be reprinted. Now, after I have once again taken up labor beyond my strength, and have added to that another task, so that I have given myself over to weakness in such a way that I do not know whether I shall ever recover my strength, you mention some order and other things which our courtiers think lacking in it. If I did not know the court, and how many there are in it, I would know those who could truly judge, or who were experts in the matters under discussion, and indeed I should be troubled in mind; but since I know what is done in this Theater, and how the most ignorant of all things eagerly criticize others, I am not greatly moved. I am surprised that you now write such things, after you yourself publicly adorned the booklet with your commendation and gave it to the printer to be set in type. And it is very certain to you that I never had this book so much in hand as those writings which we are accustomed to polish carefully. I reread it, and when anything seemed to need changing, I dictated it. I confess that, because of the weakness of my health, I could not review the writings; but I had hoped that, if anything needed correction, those who undertook the editing could easily provide this. < Methodical booklet on post-> I have read your corrections; yet, to conceal nothing, they are contrary to my opinion. But I shall not now deal with these matters. In the way of the German booklet, in the first part I show the means of prevention, and I set out a twofold one: one which pertains to the political magistrate, the other proper to the physician. In these what is lacking

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269 M E D I C I N A L E S. 270 rent nescio. Ad extremum vt cupiditati hominum satisfaceretem, formulas remediorum, quibus summi Principes v[er]si sunt, cum multis communique. In altera parte cum de eurandi ratiune agam, primum Pestem nomen generis esse, atque sub eo contineri multos morbos plurimis exitiosos, quod ante annos quadraginta etiam scripsi, statuo. < Pestilens. priuata.> Deinde febres pestilentes duplices esse di- co, v[er]nas à putredine sola dependentes & à causis internis plerunque ortas, eas priuatas appellari, quod minime se efferrent, & contagiosæ essent, licet plurimis exitiosæ. Has febres interdum in vno vel plurimis ad eum putredinis gradum peruenire ostendo, quê < Publica.> morbida exspiratio consequatur. Itaque tum ex iis non tantum putridæ pestilentes, sed contagiosæ fiunt, id est, quæ morbida exspiratione similem affectum seu febrem pestilentem, bubonibus & carbunculis insignitam in aliis corporibus, quæ inspiratione morbidum illud, ex corporibus infectis exhalans, attrahant, inducunt. De his febribus pestilentibus me in meo libello age- re profiteor. Itaque cum inspiratio morbi- da exspirationem seu Diaphorisin ex lege contrariorum indicet præcipuam curatio- nem indicatiuam in eo consistere, vt seminarium haustum per insensibilem transpi- rationem vel sudorem, quo omnes ferè contagiosi morbi curantur, expellatur atq[ue] malignirati seminarii hausti resistatur, & cor contra illius malignitatem præmunia- tur. Primum medicamenta simplicia re- censeo, deinde pauca remedia, quibus hic & alibi vsus sum, & cum autoritate & expe- rientia moueri homines sciam, vsu atq[ue] ex- perientia comprobata in medium adfeto. De phlebetomia meam sententiam, recita- ta prius veterum, expono, ac ipse fateor, cum initio hanc partem non attingissem, me in emendanda quoque cornicum oculos noluisse configere. Admonitiones autem v[er]tiles, etiamsi fortasse ineptè itententur in medium affero, atque ista sententia conclu- do. Me nô videre quid in pestilentibus con- tagiolis, & à seminario hausto oris phlebo- tomia magnopere iuuare possit, cum ma- lum inspiratione haustum non exhauriat. < 30> Ad extremum de cura ægrorum non tam medicamentis, quam victus ratione haben- da panca subieci. Cæterum in postrema par- te, qua cum chirurgis prodesse studeam, ite- rum de ratione mittendi sanguinem iis ea- dem inculco, & quam cautionem adhibere debeant, monstro, cum quam incauti & te- mecarii sint reipsa compererim. Atque ad extremum de carbunculorum & bubonum cura, quæ profecto in hoc morbo cutatio- nis caput est, ago. Quæso quid habes, quod in isto ordine repræhendas? Si quæ- dam repetita sunt, eaq[ue] magnum vsum ha- bent, & digna quæ obseruentur doctis vi- deantur, quid obsecro illorum iudiciis, qui in verborum mirifico splendore atq[ue] appa- ratu omnia collocant, iniustins? Sed mitto ista. De tuis dubitationibus magis quomodo tibi in mentem venire potuerint, quam vlla de re miror. Primum quæ de homonymia vocabuli contagii & contagionis ex sententia Erastj scribis, ea nihil ad me atti- nent. Tueatur Erastus sua, Ego de vocabu- lis cum nemine pugnabo. Rem autem ita se habere statuo: Omnes morbos contagiosos oriri à morbida exspiratione, quam in- quinamentum seu seminarium appellamus, eamq[ue] morbidam exspirationem similem affectum & morbum in corporibus, inpri- mis vero prædispositis, etiamsi symptomata omnia non sint similia, inducere, puttedin- nem vero huius morbæ exspirationis cau- sam esse, verum non ex quauis putredine si- milia exhalare, aut etiam omnia eodem mudo contagiosa esse, multo minus pestilentia. Alia enim sunt quæ scabiem, alia quæ morbum gallicum, alia quæ lepram, pbthisin, &c. adferunt. illa vero quæ febrem pestilentem, (non dico putridam pesti- lentem*, sed contagiosam) inducunt, re- sipere non putredinem solam, sed saxuam corruptionem, quam hausta subito in cor- pus humanum, quod co[n]tingunt, inducunt[ur]. Itaq[ue] iam non putredinis, vt sit cum ex pesti- lentibus putridis (aliquando initio pestis) perueniente putredine in corporibus hu- manis ad istum gradum, vt morbidam ex- spirationem contagiosam emittant, soboles sunt, verum perniciosissimæ corruptionis; omnem putredinis co[n]ditionem superantis. Hinc sæpe subito, etiam sanis & mediocri- ter co[n]stitutis corporibus exitium adferunt. Ex nulla autem alia re exitiosa ista quâ è corpote humano, dum natura vapo- rosum illud excrementum expellere potest, prodeunt, atque ab iis inquinamentis, quæ vel præparent ad suscipiendam pestem, vel seminaria pestis non contagiosæ, verum pu- tridæ febris sunt, discernenda. Cæterum q[ui] putas, me in errore versari dum contagio- sas febres ab inspiratione, qua seminarium attrahitur, quæque carbunculis vel buboni- bus insignitæ sunt ortas; vt plerique omnes in pestilentis, quæ in nostris regionibus grassanur, esse apparet, ignotas veteribus statuo, minus accurate meam sententiam te considerasse, rationes tuæ ostendunt. Fateor cum Galeno non vacare periculo con- suetudinem cum putridis morbis laborant[ur] M 2

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269 MEDICINALS. 270 I do not know. Finally, to satisfy human curiosity, I have added the formulas of remedies used by the greatest princes, together with many others in common use. In the second part, where I deal with the method of cure, I first maintain that Plague is a genus-name, and that under it are included many diseases most destructive to many, which I also wrote forty years ago. <Pestilens. private.> Next I say that pestilential fevers are of two kinds: the seasonal ones, depending only on putrefaction and for the most part arising from internal causes, are called private, because they do not greatly declare themselves, and are contagious, though destructive to many. I show that these fevers sometimes, in one person or in many, reach that degree of putrefaction <Public.> after which morbific exhalation follows. Thus from them there arise not only putrid pestilential fevers, but also contagious ones, that is, those which, by morbific exhalation, induce in other bodies—those which, by inhalation, draw in that morbid vapor exhaling from infected bodies—a similar affection or pestilential fever, marked by buboes and carbuncles. Of these pestilential fevers I declare that I am treating in my little book. And since morbific inspiration indicates, according to the law of opposites, exhalation or diaphoresis as the chief curative indication, the indicated treatment consists in this: that the ingested seminarium be expelled by insensible perspiration or sweating, by which almost all contagious diseases are cured, and that resistance be made to the malignity of the ingested seminarium, while the heart is fortified against its malignity. First I set out the simple medicines, then a few remedies which I have used here and elsewhere; and since I know that people are moved by authority and experience, I bring forward into the open those confirmed by use and experience. I explain my opinion on phlebotomy, after first recounting the views of the ancients, and I myself confess that, since at the beginning I had not touched on this part, I did not wish, in correcting it, to poke out the crow’s eyes. But I bring forward various warnings too, even if perhaps they are tried rather awkwardly, and I conclude with this view: that I do not see what in pestilential contagions, and in the seminarium drawn in by inspiration, phlebotomy can greatly help, since it does not draw out the evil that has been taken in by inspiration. <30> Finally, concerning the care of the sick, I have added a few remarks, not so much about medicines as about the regimen to be followed. In the last part, where I strive to be useful to surgeons, I again impress upon them the same principles concerning the letting of blood, and I show what caution they ought to exercise, since I have found by experience how careless and rash they are. And finally I deal with the treatment of carbuncles and buboes, which certainly is the chief point of treatment in this disease. I ask, what do you have to object to in that order? If some things are repeated, and if they are of great use, and seem worthy of observation to the learned, why, I ask, should I be judged unfairly by those who place everything in a wondrous splendor and display of words? But I leave that aside. I am more amazed at how your doubts could have come to mind than at anything else. First, what you write, following Erastus, about the homonymy of the word contagium and contagion, does not concern me at all. Let Erastus defend his own; I will not quarrel with anyone over words. But I hold the matter to be thus: all contagious diseases arise from a morbific exhalation, which we call an impurity or seminarium, and this morbific exhalation induces a similar affection and disease in bodies, especially in those predisposed, even if all the symptoms are not similar; but the putrefaction of this morbific exhalation is the cause, though not every putrefaction exhales similar things, nor are all things contagious in the same way, still less pestilential. For some things bring scabies, others the French disease, others leprosy, phthisis, etc. But those which induce a pestilential fever, I do not say a putrid pestilential fever, but a contagious one, are not to be thought to arise from putrefaction alone, but from a certain malignant corruption, which, when suddenly taken in, they induce into the human body which they touch. Thus they are no longer offspring of putrefaction, as is the case with putrid pestilential fevers, when putrefaction in human bodies has at times progressed in pestilential diseases to that point that they emit a contagious morbific exhalation; rather, they are offspring of a most pernicious corruption, surpassing every condition of putrefaction. Hence they often bring destruction suddenly, even to healthy and moderately constituted bodies. But this deadly matter, which comes out of the human body while nature can expel that vaporous excrement, must be distinguished from those impurities which either prepare one to receive the plague, or are seeds of plague, not contagious, but rather of putrid fever. Moreover, if you think that I am in error in holding that contagious fevers arise from inspiration, by which the seminarium is drawn in, and which are marked by carbuncles or buboes, as almost all the fevers that rage in our regions appear to be, unknown to the ancients, your reasons show that you have considered my opinion less accurately. I confess with Galen that association with putrid diseases is not without danger. M 2

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271 EPISTOLÆ 272 bus, sed vbi Galenus scripserit, ex omni putredine exhalate morbidum, quod contagione similem affectum in corporibus quæ artingit, inducat, imo quod febres pestilentes contagiosas excitet, non reperio, in quies, meminit, & Hippocrates nobis ostendit? Quid hæc oblectro probant speciem hanc febrium pestilentialium contagiosaru[m], quæ nobis infesta est, & quam omnes Medici refugiunt, veterib[us] notam fuisse? Multa ex variis rebus purridis exbalant, quæ corpora humana ad suscipiendas potius febres pestilentes præparant, quam pestilentes contagiosas, de quib[us] nos agimus, inducûr: sic feruntur ex variis locis, & corpora plurima, vt variis febribus pestilenribus putridis laborent, de nea reddunt, verum vt subito quasi ad istum modum laborent, & morbidam exspirationem, quæ hausta inspiratione aliis contagiosa & exitiosa sit, & similem plane affectionem aliis corporibus inducat, habeant, non facile mihi persuadebis. Nihil dicam hic de diuersis quasi gradibus malignitatis, deque intentione, & remissione , & neque omnibus temporibus neque omnibus in locis eandem vim atque effectionem habere res ipsa loquitur. non intelligere de inquinamentis, quæ sunt contagionis seminaria, seu contagione contaminant, & subito vim vitalem in omnibus, qui per aerem ea attrahunt, oppugnant, verum vitium aeris ad pestilentem putredinem, corpora præparantibus, cum ait, aerem co[n]tinere minime dubito. In Thracia summa sæpe sunt pestes, etiam in aliis regionibus orienti magis vicinis quæ multa millia hominum è medio tollunt, contagiosas tamen febres pestilentes ab inspiratione ortas raro est obseruatum consequi. In castris ad laurinum innumerabiles propemodum pestilentibus febribus perierunt, contagione illas disseminatas atque ideo exitiosas fuisse, etiamsi quotidie cum ægrotantibus sæpe multumque fuerim, non animaduerti. Ac profecto ab istis summis Medicinæ autoribus non parum peccatum, si vim illam contagionis febrium pestilentialium verè cognouissent, neq[ue] vllum verbum de contagione posteritati scriptum reliquissent. Quod ad extremum addis (rue tibi verba propono) fortasse inter pestem & febrem pestilentialium contagiosam distinguis. Apagie cum illo fortassis, cum aperissimis verbis hoc vbiq[ue] agam, & an non genus à specie distinguetè? Te vero per quicquid possum oro, vt parcendum seni, & animam agenti, existimes, & modum in animaduertendo, atq[ue] studium aliorum dicta in bonam partem interpretandi iustitix conuenientem, pulcherrimam virtutem putes. De meis obseruarionibus cum toties scripserim non esse eas in mea potestate, verum discessissimis chartis, & variis libellis scriptas, quæ in potestate filii sunt, contineri, quid metories vrges? Ipse bonam earum partem, cum multa tibi recitauerim, in memoria habere deberes, & scis familiarius meis nô solitum reticere. D. loachimus Cameiarius & suas & aliorum se colligere nuper significauit, opto vt possit. Vnam insignem & mearum obseruationum præcipuam tibi modo proponâ, quæ in hoc meo morbo (non quod me summis Imperatori bus & Heroibus æquem) sæpe in mentem venit. Verissimum hoc est; Diuum Ferdinandum Imperatorum, priusquam lecto decumbetet (cui vix tot mensibus, quot ego attuis affixus fuit) catarrho & difficultate spirandi laborasse, & macie totius corporis contabuisse, magnum etiam acerum in re- nibus atque vesica calculorum collegisse: autem ranta laborasse, vt viribus omnibus exhaustus, inter loquendum placidissime exspirarer. Quid optimo Imperatori euenit, quod ego non sim passus, & etiam nunc patiar? Aote septennium Cæsare grauissime ægrotante, cum singulis fere noctibus tempestate horrida in palatiu[m] vocarer, catarrhum contraxi grauissimum, & magna difficultate spirandi laborare coepi. Cupiebam obstare principiis, sed totum trienniu[m] aliud ex alio malum. Itaq[ue] meam valetudinem posthabere & negligere coactus sum. Supra vires omnia me fecisse sciunt, qui me in Palatium perduxerunt, & quibus gestandus sæpe fui, cum per scalas ascendendum esset. Cum autem à catarrho ventriculus nô admodum afficeretur, vires mediocriter cibo & potu sunt sustentatæ. Eo vero die, quo ab aula discessi, cu[m] amici plura à me postulassent, quam præstare possem, ita me misere affluxi & defatigatus sum, vt simul ac flumen superassem & currum ascendissem, in profundum somnum inciderem. Post eum diem perpetuo cum aduerta valetudine constandum fuit. Catarrhus au[n]ctus est simulac domum redii Persuaserunt autem mihi mei, vt relicto Rucuriano irem. Meminerâ quæ valetudinis pericula in hoc aëre sustinuissem, morem tam[m]e gessi. Corpus, cum nôdum plane iacerem, macie co[n]tabescere coepit. Ventriculus ita difficulter cibum co[n]coxit, vt per cor mirifice in labore coctionis afficeretur. Medici existimarunt, veru[m] nunquam vere fuit, nec hoc malum his 4. annis à me discessit. Catarrhus alias mitius, alias atro-

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271 EPISTLES 272 ...but where Galen has written that what exhales from all putrefaction is morbid, and that by contagion it induces a similar affection in the bodies it touches, indeed that it excites contagious pestilential fevers, I do not find. In rest, has Hippocrates mentioned, and shown us? What do these things prove, I ask, except that this kind of contagious pestilential fevers, which is hostile to us and which all physicians shun, was known to the ancients? Many things exhale from various putrid substances, which prepare human bodies to receive pestilential fevers rather than the contagious pestilential fevers of which we are speaking; thus they are carried from various places, and bodies of many people, so that they suffer from various putrid pestilential fevers. But that they produce not this result, but rather that they suddenly, as it were, fall ill in that manner, and have a morbid exhalation which, drawn in by inspiration, is contagious and destructive to others, and produces in other bodies a like affection, you will not easily persuade me. I shall say nothing here of the various, as it were, degrees of malignity, and of intensification and remission; and the thing itself shows that it does not at all times nor in all places have the same force and effect. I do not understand him to speak of impurities, which are the seeds of contagion, or which contaminate by contagion and at once assault the vital force in all who draw them in through the air; rather, when he says that the air contains a defect tending toward pestilential putrefaction and preparing bodies, I by no means doubt it. In Thrace there are often severe plagues, and also in other regions nearer the East, which carry off many thousands of men; yet it has rarely been observed that contagious pestilential fevers arising from inhalation follow. In the camp at Laurinum innumerable men perished from pestilential fevers; that they were spread by contagion and therefore destructive, although I was often and much with the sick daily, I did not observe. And indeed those great authorities of medicine would have sinned not a little, if they had truly known that force of contagion in pestilential fevers, and had left no word written for posterity about contagion. As to what you add at the end — I quote your words — perhaps you distinguish between pest and contagious pestilential fever. Away with that perhaps, since I am dealing everywhere with the matter in the clearest words, and should not the genus be distinguished from the species? But I beg you by all I can, that you consider that an old man and one already on his deathbed is to be spared, and that you think moderation in reproving, and the habit of interpreting others’ words in the better sense, a very just and most beautiful virtue. As for my observations, since I have written so often that they are not in my power, but are contained in scattered papers and various little booklets, which are in my son’s possession, why do you press me for them? You yourself ought to have retained in memory a good part of them, since I have recited many things to you, and you know that I am not accustomed to keep my affairs more private. D. Joachimus Cameiarius recently indicated that he is gathering both his own and others’ writings together; I wish he may be able to do so. I shall now set before you one remarkable and principal observation of mine, which in this illness of mine — not that I compare myself with the greatest Emperors and Heroes — has often come into my mind. This is most true: the divine Emperor Ferdinand, before he lay down in bed (to which, with difficulty, he was fastened for as many months as I have been afflicted), suffered from catarrh and difficulty in breathing, and wasted away from the emaciation of the whole body; he also gathered a great and severe accumulation of stones in the kidneys and bladder. Yet he labored so greatly that, all strength exhausted, he most peacefully expired while speaking. What befell the best of Emperors, what have I not suffered, and do I not still suffer? About seven years ago, while Caesar was very gravely ill, when I was called almost every night in terrible weather to the palace, I contracted a severe catarrh and began to suffer great difficulty in breathing. I wished to resist the beginnings, but for a whole three years one evil followed another. Thus I was forced to put my health after everything else and neglect it. Those who brought me to the Palace know that I did everything beyond my strength, and that I often had to be carried, when I had to ascend the stairs. And since the stomach was not greatly affected by the catarrh, my strength was moderately sustained by food and drink. But on the very day on which I left the court, when my friends had demanded from me more than I could perform, I was so miserably weakened and fatigued that, as soon as I had crossed the river and climbed into the carriage, I fell into a deep sleep. After that day it became necessary to hold fast continually to my health. The catarrh increased as soon as I returned home. But mine persuaded me to leave Rucurium and go away. Remember the dangers to health I had endured in this air, yet I complied. My body, though I was not yet entirely down, began to waste away from emaciation. The stomach digested food so poorly that the heart itself was wonderfully affected in the labor of digestion. The physicians thought otherwise, but it was never truly so, and this evil has not departed from me for these four years. The catarrh, at one time more mild, at another more severe...

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atrocius mecum egit, & sæpissime ita spiritum eripuit, vt nihil morte sit factum propius. Posteaquam tabida membra, & omni succo natiuo exhausta moucre non potui, mihique lecto decumbendum fuit, renes calculos coxisse animaduerti. Quos dolotes & cruciatus dum eliderentur, accedente ingente mole flatuum, qui vniuersum corpus penetrarunt & affluxerunt, senserim, nequeo narrare, nec si queam propter acerbitatem recordationis velim. Certe hac in parte Diuo Ferdinando Imp. fui infelicio. Nam is magnos atq[ue] multos lapillos quotidie fere, sine omni tamen sensu doloris egisset, neq[ue] eos cruciatus, quos ego à flatibus perpessus sum, sensit. Ac haud dubie sacratiss. Imperator diutius morbum, quam ego ferte potuisset, cum & corpore paulo simiori esset, & minus annosns, nisi infelix illa medicatio, qua catarrhus est suppressus, accessisset. < Infolix cuvatio impervatoru. Carrichteri imperitia.> Carrichterus enim quotidie deoctum flurum prunellorum sylvestrium dabat, item alia in rustico corpore vix ferenda. Cum autem ex illius libellis appareat, quo artificio suis rebus fucum faciat, quam Medicinæ sit imperitus, miror amicum fratris tui, quem nuper donatum Physico libello mihi quoque conciliauit, illum iuuentuti commendare, & Turnheuseri conficta de herbis & earum destillarionibus mendacia tanquam rem admirandam pueris proponere. Sed sæpe fallimur specie recti, & facile admiramur, quæ non intelligimus. Ego vt materiam catarrhi in hoc tenuissimo corpore expectorarem, hactenus operam dedi. A medicamentis, præter quam iis, quæ ventriculi vires cöseruant, plane abstinui. Nunc cum & pectus & ventriculum parum medicamentis iuuari animaduertam, & nocturnis horis calorem præternaturalem atq[ue] dif difficultatem spirandi augeri sentiam, id quod Diuo Ferdinando Imp. euenit, & inprimis humanum est, quin sit consecuturum non dubito. Paro igitur me ad ea, quæ sunt superanda. In Diuo Ferdinando imper. pulmo fere totus gypseus erat, meus vt sit nescio. Renes an tantum calculis abundant haud scio. Calotem illum præternaturalem & incipiens vives valde, ita vt optimo Cæsari, frangore sentio. Itaq[ue] ne breui deficiant vereor. Hoc modo nos Dominus coelestis oberrantes in his terris inter falsa & fugacia ad se reuocat, & facit vt dierum, vt D. Petrus ait, commorationis nostræ satietas nos capiat. Bene vale. Vratislauæ sub Æquinoctium autunnale. Anno 1585. EPIST. CLXIII. IDEM BEDEM. LIBELLVM de Quinta essentia legi non tam mea causa, cui labor est hæc cognoscere, quam vt tibi gratificarer. Autor est ingeniosus, sed, vt ego iudico, iudicio parum confirmato præditus. In vniuersalibus ostendit se ratione & experimento non destitui. Ad particularia cum est ventum, friget. Obsecro inspicias definitionem, & videbis quam sibi constet. Quid quæso hoe est, posita definitione in dubium vocare, an res de qua quæritur sit? Destillationis finis est, separare purum ab impuro, seu spiritum naturalem, qui præbet vitam rebus, ab elementari materia segregare, quantum segregari potest. Solus enim sine subiecto consiliter nequit, sed vel in materia oleagenosa, vel in aqua pura, aut viscida residet. Hunc spiritum ego quintam essentiam duco, & si < Quinta Essentia.> quid aliud est, mihi demonstrat cupio. De nomine nullam item moueo. Scio spiritum vini, maxime à Chymicis ita appellari, & rectè quidem, cum ex omnibus rebus, quas penetrare potest, quintam corum essentiam, vel spiritum naturalè ad se pertrahat, & sibi iungat. In iis vbi spiritus naturalis aqueo vel oleagenoso humido insidet, destillatione per ascensum, vt vocant, cuo eatur, dum vapor vel in aquâ, vel in oleum resoluitur. Cæterum cum viscido inhæret, quemadmodum in radicibus & feminibus quibusdam, nulla re melius, quam affuso spiritu vini elicitur. Hinc facile illorum error apparet, qui aquas vitæ seu Elixæ affuso vino, variis speciebus, vt nominamus, additis, imo auro & preciosis gemmis, sæpius destillant, & præstantiores aquas se efficere arbitrantur, cum solus spiritus vini, iis quæ penetrare potest, affusus, intra paucas horas hoc præstet; in multiplici vero destillatione subtiliores partes exhalent. < Error com[m]unum chymicorum.> Quod autem Carolus de Petra alba sibi somniat spiritu vini posse autum, margaritas vel gemmas penetrare, in eo illum opinione falli certum est. At tres nouos destillandi modos quos ponit, vere nouos, id est, falsos & confictos ratio atque experientia monstrat. Primus plane ridiculus est, cum ex libramedia Cinnam. spiritum aqueo humori insidentem extrahit, ac deinde ex fecibus putrefactis, ac plane insipidis, in quibus vel paucus vel nullus spiritus remanit, oleum se elicere posse arbitratur. Alter vero modus, quo ratione conficiendæ quintæ essentiæ ostendit, erroribus manifestis plenus est. Nec ipse affirmare audeat, se isto quintam essentiam auri & preciosorum lapidum atque aromatum vnumquam præparasse, vel sibi pa-naceam hanc visam esse. Haud dubie si ea visus tuisset, exempla eorum, quibus pro- M

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He dealt with me most harshly, and very often snatched away my breath so that nothing seemed closer than death. After my wasted limbs, exhausted of all native moisture, were no longer able to move, and I had to lie down in bed, I noticed that my kidneys had bred stones. While these pains and torments were being allayed, with a great mass of flatulence coming on, which penetrated and flowed through my whole body, what I felt, I cannot relate, nor, if I could, would I wish to do so because of the bitterness of the recollection. Certainly in this respect I was more unfortunate than the divine Emperor Ferdinand. For he passed very many and very large little stones almost daily, yet without any sense of pain, and he did not feel the torments which I endured from the flatulence. And no doubt the most sacred Emperor would have borne the disease longer than I could, if only his body had been somewhat more similar to mine and he had been fewer years old, had not that unhappy treatment intervened by which the catarrh was suppressed. <Unfortunate treatment of the Emperor. Carrichter’s ignorance.> For Carrichter daily gave a decoction of flowers of wild prunelles, and likewise other things hardly bearable in a rustic body. But since from his little books it appears by what artifice he imposes upon his own affairs, how ignorant he is in medicine, I wonder that the friend of your brother, whom not long ago he also won over to me by presenting a little medical treatise, commends him to the young, and presents Turnheuser’s fabricated lies about herbs and their distillations to boys as something admirable. But often we are deceived by the appearance of what is right, and easily admire what we do not understand. I have thus far devoted myself to expelling the matter of the catarrh from this very delicate body. I have entirely abstained from medicines, except for those which preserve the strength of the stomach. Now, since I observe that both chest and stomach are little helped by medicines, and since at night I feel the unnatural heat and the difficulty of breathing increasing, as happened to the divine Emperor Ferdinand, and as is above all human, I do not doubt that the same will follow. I am therefore preparing myself for what must be endured. In the divine Emperor Ferdinand, the lung was almost entirely plaster-like; whether mine is so I do not know. Whether the kidneys abound only in stones I do not know. That unnatural heat and the <beginning> very strong chills, so that, like the best Caesar, I feel trembling. Therefore I fear that they may soon fail. In this way the heavenly Lord, while we wander in this world among false and fleeting things, recalls us to himself, and causes us to be seized by, as St. Peter says, a satiety of our sojourn on earth. Farewell well. At Breslau, near the autumnal equinox. In the year 1585. EPIST. CLXIII. THE SAME TO BEDEM. I have read the little book on the Fifth Essence, not so much for my own sake, for whom it is laborious to know these things, as in order to gratify you. The author is ingenious, but, as I judge, not possessed of sufficiently firm judgment. In general matters he shows that he is not lacking in reason and experience. When he comes to particulars, he falls flat. I beg you to examine the definition, and you will see how little consistent it is. What, I ask, is this: once the definition has been laid down, to call into doubt whether the thing in question exists? The end of distillation is to separate the pure from the impure, or rather to separate the natural spirit, which gives life to things, from elemental matter, as far as it can be separated. For it cannot exist independently without a subject, but resides either in oily matter, or in pure water, or in something viscous. I take this spirit to be the fifth essence, and if it means something else, I wish it to be shown to me. As for the name, I raise no objection either. I know that spirit of wine is especially so called by the chemists, and rightly so, since from all things it can penetrate, it draws to itself and joins to itself their fifth essence, or their natural spirit. In things where the natural spirit dwells in watery or oily moisture, it is extracted by distillation by ascent, as they call it, while the vapor is resolved either into water or into oil. But when it adheres to something viscous, as in certain roots and seeds, nothing draws it out better than spirit of wine poured over it. Hence the error of those is easily seen who distill aqua vitae or Elixirs repeatedly by adding wine poured over them, various spices, as we say, and even gold and precious gems, and think they are making more excellent waters, when the spirit of wine alone, poured over the things it can penetrate, accomplishes this within a few hours; whereas in repeated distillation the subtler parts evaporate. <Common error of the chemists.> But that Charles of White Rock imagines that by means of spirit of wine one can penetrate amber, pearls, or gems, it is certain that he is deceived in his opinion. And the three new methods of distillation he sets forth, truly new, that is to say false and contrived, are shown by reason and experience. The first is plainly ridiculous, when from a pound and a half of cinnamon he extracts a spirit dwelling in watery moisture, and then thinks he can elicit oil from putrefied and utterly tasteless dregs, in which little or no spirit remains. The second method, by which he demonstrates the way of preparing the fifth essence, is full of manifest errors. Nor would he himself dare affirm that by that method he ever prepared the fifth essence of gold and precious stones and aromatics, or that this panacea ever seemed so to him. No doubt if he had seen that, examples of those for whom it was pro-

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271 EPISTOLÆ 276 Spiritus sulphuris. fuisset non reticeret. Cur autem obsecro sulphur commune miscet spiritui vini, vt auru[m] attenuet, vel in cinerem redigat? Scio & fateor spiritum sulphuris aurum penetra- re, atque aliquo modo mutare; sed spiri- tum vini sulphuris spiritum ad se attrahere, nec ab illo perito chymico didici, multo minus re ipsa comperi. Confici flores sul- phuris, dum eo spiritus vini affunditur, & crebro inflammatur, atque deflagrat non ignoro. Sed hanc esse vera præparationem vix puto. Magis eam probo, cum vel oleo tartari, vel cera affusa sulphur præparatur. Sed de his nunc non est propositum scribe- re. Tertium destillandi modum gumma- tum, quem tradit, non improbo, cum ra- tione munitus videatur, sed rectius dum gummata destillamus, silices addi, reipsa comperi. De margaritarum dissolutione in communi errore versatur, si acetum destil- latum, vel alios succos acidos hoc præstate putat, nisi vt Chymici nominant, radicati sint. De succis quidem non contendo. De acetocertum est humorem, qui ascendit es- se insipidum, & dissoluendis margaritis mi- nime idoneum. Cæterum partem eam, quæ post destillationem a eti in fundo residet, & acetum radicatum a Chymicis appellatur, sua acrimonia, & vi cotrosua atq[ue] caustico, non modo margaritas, verum alia etiam dis- soluere, & in cinerem quasi redigere, atque quemadmodum Chymistæ loquuntur, cal- cinare posse nullum dubium. Hoc autem non est spiritum margaritarum elicere, sed totam earum substantiam corrumpere. D. Woyselius senior mihi narrauit episcopum Vratislauiensem Casparum Logum Magi- stetium hoc perlarum, persuarum à fratre, sæpe porrectum à Paracelsista quodam bi- bisse, atq[ue] demortuo tunicas ventriculi ni- gras & corruptas apparuisse. Eodem euentu vsam esse Marchionis loannis coniugem, in qua ventriculi tunicæ plane fuerint erosæ. Rato certe vllum vitrum, in quo asseruatur, tam est firmum, quin etodat, & in cinerem conuertat. Longum esset omnia ista perse- qui, quæ imperitissime de gemmarum atq[ue] auri dissolutione dicuntur. Certe artis im- peritia, atq[ue] inscitia potius se manifeste pro- dit, cum nondum periculum, quod in æreis vasis est, dum ea destillationib[us] adhibemus, animaduertit, & præcipuum gradum ignis, maximeq[ue] conuenientem, videlicet ex are- na, reticet. Possem alia, quasi puerilia errata demonstrare, sed sentio me nimium & le- gend[us] & dictando defatigatum esse. Si vera esse scit, quæ de Panacea affirmat, ægros suos & alios, qui illius opera vtuntur, iniuria affi- cit, dum illis medicamentum hoc non præ- bet. Verum vides quam in refutandis obie- ctionibus sit languidus, ne dicam ineptus. Nouam proposu[ti]one erudite tractat, & me- dicum rationalem ostendit. Quæ vero atte- xit, vt co[n]sentiant veris ipse viderit. Doctum esse iuuenem arbitror, & in Philosophia at- que Chymicis versatum, verum vsu, atque non instructum. Nam si esset, ni- hil firmitatis in autoritate Ferneliana, quæ refutata est à quodam edito scripto contra libru[m] de abditis rerum causis, multo minus incongrua Philosophia Cardani, esse anim- aduerteret. Quid multa? Magis memor es- set propositi, neq[ue] totam Philosophiam co- pendio proponere, quam de chymia insti- tutam scriptionem hoc modo abrumpere mallet. Nimir enim pauca de Chymia scri- bere, & vbi ad rem ventum esset, vela verte- re quis non videt? crebras, distin- ctiones imperitas, & alia plura non libet re- prehendere. Non enim me dele- ctat. At hæc tu faus esse, & misero atq[ue] ægro seni parcendum putabis. Valde enim hic la- bor, quem superiotibus mensibus facile fer- re potuissem, me ad languorem dedit. Benè vale. Vratislaviæ pridie Kal. Februar. An- no 1584. EPIST. CLXIV. IDEM EIDEM. Dix Ianuarij 15. literas ad te tuis, quas, vt spero, à Dn. Schonfeldio accipies. Benede te sentit. Itaque illius persuasioni satisfacere studebis. Non quæuis Gonor- thæa est Gallica, sed ea quæ cum viriu[m] lan- guore, vrina nigricante, & graueolente af- fligit. Tum insignem ardorem affert, & le- uibus remediis non cedit. Nihil tale in no- stro ægro animaduerti. Deinde dolor vl- cerosus circa vesperam cum non molestat. Sed hoc tu considerabis, & me admonebis. Obsecro mi Petre, vt quod sæpe de lectione veterum monui, memineris. Legi non omnino Medicæ artis imperitus Galenum prius, quam in Italiâ rem. De iis, quæ meam cognitionem effugiebant, Præceptorum sententias exquisui. Ex Italia reuersus Pe- riochen atq[ue] alia scripsi, necq[ue] tunc veterum scripta deposui. Cum in Aulam venissem, & D. Iulium Galenum in manibus perpe- tuo habere viderem, arque in omnibus col- loquiis medicis magis me autoritate Gale- ni, quam ratione vngeri, ipse totum Galen. iterum totis nouem annis ita mihi familla- rem reddidi, vt nulla dies abierit, quin non aliquot pag. singulari attentione perlegerê. Vbique in itineribus, castris, & c. mecum a- liquot libellos circumtuli. Nec minori stu- dio in

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271 EPISTLES 276 Spirit of sulphur. would not have kept silence. But why, I beg you, does he mix common sulphur with the spirit of wine, in order to attenuate gold, or reduce it to ashes? I know and confess that the spirit of sulphur penetrates gold, and in some way changes it; but that the spirit of wine draws the spirit of sulphur to itself, I have learned neither from that experienced chemist, nor have I discovered it in practice. I am not unaware that flowers of sulphur are produced when spirit of wine is poured upon it, and is often kindled and burns away. But I scarcely think this is the true preparation. I rather approve it when sulphur is prepared either with oil of tartar or with melted wax. But it is not my purpose now to write about these things. The third method of distilling the gummy substances, which he sets forth, I do not disapprove, since it seems armed with reason; but I have actually found that when we distil gummy substances, flints should be added. In the dissolution of pearls he is involved in a common error if he thinks that distilled vinegar, or other acidic juices, bring this about, unless, as chemists call it, they have been made “radicated.” I do not dispute the juices. But regarding vinegar it is certain that the liquid which rises is tasteless, and by no means suitable for dissolving pearls. Moreover, that part which remains behind in the vessel after distillation, and is called by chemists radicated vinegar, can, by its sharpness and corrosive, caustic force, not only dissolve pearls, but also other things, and, as it were, reduce them to ashes, and, as chemists say, calcine them. But this is not to draw forth the spirit of pearls, but to corrupt their whole substance. D. Woyselius the elder told me that Caspar, bishop of Breslau, Logum Magistetius, having often been given this pearl concoction by a Paracelsist brother, drank it, and after death the coats of the stomach appeared black and corrupted. By the same outcome, the wife of Margrave John used it, in whom the coats of the stomach had plainly been eroded. Certainly any glass in which it is kept is so strong that it does not corrode and turn it to ashes. It would take too long to pursue everything here that is said most ignorantly about the dissolution of gems and gold. Surely the ignorance of the art, and rather its lack of knowledge, is openly revealed when he still does not notice the danger that exists in copper vessels, when we use them for distillations, and conceals the chief grade of fire, and especially the fitting one, namely that from sand. I could point out other, as it were childish, errors, but I feel that I am too much worn out both by reading and by dictating. If what he affirms about Panacea is true, he wrongs his sick people and others who make use of it, when he does not provide them with this medicine. But you see how feeble he is in refuting objections, not to say inept. He treats the new proposition learnedly, and shows himself a rational physician. As to the things he has touched on, let him himself see whether they agree with the truth. I judge the young man to be learned, and versed in Philosophy and in chemistry, but not instructed by experience. For if he were, he would observe that there is no strength in the Fernelian authority, which has been refuted in a certain published writing against the book on the hidden causes of things, and much less in the incongruous philosophy of Cardano. What more can I say? He would rather be more mindful of his purpose, and would not prefer to break off a treatise on chemistry in this way, than to set forth the whole philosophy in a compressed summary. For who does not see that he is writing only a little about chemistry, and then, when he comes to the point, turns his sails about? I do not care to reprove the frequent, clumsy divisions, and many other things besides. For they do not delight me. But you will think these things foolish, and that pity should be shown to the poor and sick old man. For this labor here greatly afflicts me; what I could easily have borne in previous months has brought me to weakness. Farewell well. Breslau, the day before the Kalends of February, in the year 1584. EPIST. CLXIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Jan. 15. I have sent letters to you with yours, which, as I hope, you will receive from Mr. Schonfeldius. He has a good opinion of you. Therefore you will strive to satisfy his persuasion. Not every gonorrhea is French, but that one which afflicts men with weakness, blackish and foul-smelling urine. Then it brings a notable burning, and does not yield to slight remedies. I have observed nothing of the sort in our sick man. Next, the ulcerous pain does not trouble him toward evening. But you will consider this and remind me. I beg you, dear Peter, to remember what I have often advised concerning the reading of the ancients. I read Galen, though by no means ignorant of the medical art, before I went to Italy. Concerning those things that escaped my knowledge, I sought out the opinions of the Masters. Returning from Italy, I wrote the Periochen and other works, nor did I then lay aside the writings of the ancients. When I had come to the Court, and saw Mr. Julius constantly keeping Galen in his hands, and in all medical conversations being more supported by the authority of Galen than by reason, I myself read through Galen again, and over the course of nine whole years made him so familiar to me that no day has passed without my reading several pages with singular attention. Everywhere in journeys, camps, etc., I carried a few little books with me. Nor with less zeal in

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277 MEDICINALES. 278 Praxis opet. mum Hippoc. commentarii. dio in Hippocrate sum versatus, sed vt verisimè dicam, quod sentio, nulla commentaria tam me in lectione Hippoc. adiuvare potuerunt, quam ipsa praxis. Hæc cum iis, qui nunc Hippoc. nobis illustare student, desit, quam frigide sepe nos doceant, animaduero. Scribo ista, quia te amo, & amorem meu[m] perspicete cupio. Nemo multa simul agit, & eadem recte. Cura sit animulx, cura multorum corporum, quæ tu x fidei se committût. 10 Hoc si feceris, non dubites, quin cætera sit adiecturus Deus. Non dat omnia omnibus, neque omnia vult nos nobis sumere. Feras x quo animo si alii te fortunatiores sint. Te oro, si tibi de paralysi post dolorem colicum non satisfeci, vt furiosos spectes, qui in animi perturbatione magnas machinas, & majora viribus mouent, cum ad sanam mentem redierunt, & materia ad exteriota delata, nihil virium habent. Videas in illis vrgem pivus xnege , fatis apparebit causam non esse in neruorum principio. Quid igitur communem methodum curandi in paralysi sequimur? valde sum debilis, & hæc sumpto cibo scripsi, cum mihi paulo validior videret. Boni consulas, & vberrimas tuas gratissimas mihi futuras existimabis. Bene vale. II. Febr. Anno 1582. EPIST. CLXV. IDEM EIDEM. < Transmissio Materia morbusica in paralysin post vrbicam.> D VAS à te habeo epistolas, quibus Kal. & s. diem Martii adscripsisti. Non possum ad omnia rescribere, cum hæc affixus lecto, quo hoc octiduo raro surtexti, dictare cogar. Itaque breuitatem epistolę boni consules. De paralysi post colicam miror te dubitare, cum miser sententiae meæ suffragetur. Dubitationes tuas vnica illa sententia Hippocratica diluit: In corpore humano viuo omnia esse transfluxibilia & transpirabilia. 40 Quidni xque ab intestinis ac à neruis ipsis in totum corporis habitum hæc materia deferri posset? Non colligitur in musculis, & eorum neruis ac tendinibus, sed magno impetu, sicut alia multa ab interioribus corporis partibus deferri videmus, hæc quoq[ue] ad extriora defertur. Neque materia plane crassa est, sed ichorosa & biliosa, etiam si deinceps in extetioribus refrigeretur, & crassior euadar propter ptimam originem & caloris defectum. Absurdum quod tibi viderur; expellere intestina excrementa, quæ recipete apta & nata sint, mihi non videtur: Nam cum in intestinis sit obstructio in colico dolote, & ea materiam per suas vias depellere nequeant, expellit natura eo, quo maximè potest. Non autem est vera etis. Multa enim crassa materia remanet, ad quâ attenuandam calidis istis oleis vtimur. Non nego materiam ex capite & aliis locis affluere, necq[ue] hoc, vt arbitror, scripsi. De consiliis memotem admones: faciam quod potero. Sed ita marasmo conficior; vt vix ossib. hærem. Itaque raro lecto surgio, & cum paululum me commoueo, ita debilitor, vt cuncidam. Dn. Callopedius litetas ad me misit, quibus se iter velle ingredi, vt in aulam veniat, monet. Moestus & tristis est parens, ac valetudinis fuê, vt ego arbitror, non eam rationem habet, quam habere debebat. Mea consilia tibi ostendet. Caput hoc est; vt rectam victus rationem teneat, & potu illo ex satsa patiglia, glyzyrrhiza & passulis vratur toto hoc tempore veris. Si deinde serum laetis bibeter, & infuso tenæ atque epithymi eum syrupo violaceo purgaretur, recte mea sententia valetudini consuleret. Abundat adustis humoribus, atque eos victus ratione auget. Me hæc de valetudine illius ad te scripsisse indicabis. Dictarem plura, nisi hæc ipsa nimis multa essent, & nihil difficilius facerem. Te oro vt amicos salutes, & vberrimas literas quoties enique recte poteris, ad me mittas. Bene vale. Vratislau. 18. die Martii. Anno 1582. EPIST. CLXVI. IDEM EIDEM. E As literas, quas discessurus Praga ad me misisti, hic in Rucuriano, quo nudius quintus veni, accepi. Vberrimas autem Vratislauix ad te dedi, quas spero præfectum equis dispositis, tibi redditurum. Cum vero in tuis desiderium mearum litterarum mihi demonstres, gratum est de cessatione me appelari. Quis enim literas ab inimico expectet? Quis de eo quem non amat, & à quo amari desiderat, quætitur? Non libet in hanc sententiam scribere plura, eum mea manu nequeam, eâ quidem in firma est, vt nihil nisi vacillantibus literulis exarare possim. Ad Gratiam tua quod attinet, quid respondeam? De exhibito aliquibus decocto corticum frágulæ aliquid audui. Si alius nigræ est, vt Angliæ Herbarii existimant, nullum dubium, quin vi purgante sit prædita. Quis autem ægroti purgans medicamentum toties velut propinare? Pena quidem & Lobellius in suis stirpium aduersatis frangulam cortice negro, glaucis maculis dispersè, libro subtus flauo, vomitum ciere, & aquas secessu deturbare scribunt; & Tragus hoster huius arboris flauum & medium corticem cum aceto tritum & illitum, scabiemi intra paucos dics siccat & sanare, tanquam singulare experimentum recitat: Putredini etiam dentium decoctum corticis in M 4

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277 MEDICINALS. 278 Praxis opet. mum Hippoc. commentarii. I have indeed been much occupied with Hippocrates, but, to speak as truthfully as I feel, no commentaries have been able to help me in reading Hippocrates as much as practice itself. When I have observed that this is lacking in those who now strive to illuminate Hippocrates for us, how coldly they often teach us. I write these things because I love you, and I wish you to perceive my affection. No one can do many things at once, and do them all well. Care should be taken for the soul, care for many bodies, which you entrust to your faith. If you do this, do not doubt that God will add the rest. He does not give everything to everyone, nor does He wish us to take everything for ourselves. Bear it with what mind you can, if others are more fortunate than you. I beg you, if I have not satisfied you concerning paralysis after colic pain, to look at the madmen, who in the disturbance of the mind move great engines and greater things than their strength allows; but when they return to a sound mind, and the matter has been carried outward, they have no strength. In them you will see vrgem pivus xnege , and it will be clear enough that the cause is not in the beginning of the nerves. Why then do we follow the common method of treatment in paralysis? I am very weak, and I wrote this after taking food, when I seemed a little stronger. Please take it kindly, and you will judge that your most abundant letters will be most welcome to me. Farewell. 11 February, 1582. EPIST. CLXV. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME. <Transmission Morbid matter into paralysis after colic pain.> I have two letters from you, in which you added the Kalends and the 3rd day of March. I cannot reply to everything, since, confined to my bed, from which during this eight-day period I have rarely risen, I am compelled to dictate. Therefore you will take the brevity of this letter kindly. I am surprised that you doubt paralysis after colic, since your opinion agrees with mine. Your doubts are dispelled by that single Hippocratic statement: in the living human body everything is transfluxible and transpirable. Why should this matter not be carried from the intestines as well as from the nerves themselves into the whole habit of the body? It is not gathered in the muscles, and in their nerves and tendons, but with great force, just as we see many other things carried from the inner parts of the body, so too this is carried outward. Nor is the matter entirely thick, but ichorous and bilious, even if afterward it grows colder in the outer parts and becomes thicker because of its first origin and lack of heat. What seems absurd to you—that the intestines should expel the excrement, since they are fit and made to receive it—does not seem so to me. For when there is obstruction in the intestines in colic pain, and they cannot drive the matter through their own passages, nature expels it by the route where it can most. Nor is there true ethis. For much thick matter remains, and for thinning it we use those warm oils. I do not deny that matter flows down from the head and other places, nor, I think, did I write this. You remind me about the plans; I shall do what I can. But I am worn down by such a wasting disease that I can scarcely cling to my bones. Therefore I rarely rise from bed, and when I move myself a little, I become so weak that I collapse. Mr. Callopedius sent me a letter, in which he says that he wishes to set out so as to come to court. He is sad and gloomy, and, as I judge, he does not take care of his health as he ought. He will show you my advice. The main point is this: that he keep a proper regimen of diet, and use that drink made from satsa patiglia, glyzyrrhiza, and raisins throughout this whole springtime. Then, if afterward he were to drink serum with sweet herbs, and be purged with an infusion of tena and epithymum with violet syrup, in my opinion he would rightly care for his health. He abounds in scorched humors, and this regimen increases them. Tell him that I have written these things about his health to you. I would dictate more, were it not that these very matters are already too many, and I could do nothing more difficult. I beg you to greet our friends, and to send me as many letters as you can whenever you are able to do so properly. Farewell. Vratislav, 18 March, 1582. EPIST. CLXVI. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME. The letters which you sent to me from Prague when you were about to depart, I received here in Rucurian, where I came on the fifth day ago. I sent you very ample letters from Vratislava, which I hope the prefect, with the horses prepared, will deliver to you. But since you show me in your letter your desire for my letters, it is pleasant to be called upon for my silence. For who would expect letters from an enemy? Who asks after one whom he does not love, and by whom he desires to be loved? I do not wish to write more on this point, since I cannot do so with my own hand; indeed my hand is so weak that I can write nothing except in wavering little letters. As for your Gratiam , what shall I reply? I have heard something about a decoction prepared from the bark of frangula that was given to some people. If the other kind is the black one, as the English herbalists think, there is no doubt that it is endowed with purgative power. But who would repeatedly prescribe a purgative medicine to the sick person? Pena and Lobel, indeed, in their works on plants, write that the black bark of frangula, scattered with pale spots, yellow underneath, provokes vomiting and drives out water by the bowels; and Tragus records as a singular experiment that the yellow and middle bark of this tree, pounded and applied with vinegar, dries and heals scabies within a few days. A decoction of the bark is also useful for the putrefaction of the teeth in M 4

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279 EPISTOLÆ 280 Villebrochium. ceto mederi, dolorem mitigare, & dentes putgate asserit. Scio Villebrochium habere quædam peculiaria, verum me tuta amplecti nostri. Ad alteram tuam quæstionem, De coctione humorum in chronicis morbis, plorima possem respondere, si vacuo animo essem, scit coctionem naturæ opus esse, non medicamenti. Quæcumque igitur ad quandam æqualitatem calorem natuum perducunt, ea coctionem haud dubie adiuvant, eum concoctio, teste Galeno, nihil aliud sit quam maturatio quædam humorum, qui præter naturam adsunt. Sed de humorum præparatione quæ serapiis & similibus medicamentis sit, te scribere arbitor. Sunt autem in chronicis morbis duplices humores peccantes: vel adusti vel crassi & pituitosi. In vere adustis rectissima est præparatio per victus rationem humectantem & frigefacientem. Eare in quartanis teste decoctum raparum, succum pomorum & decoctum radicum borraginis, vel potius radicum eryngii exhibemus, quæ minus quam borraginis lentoris habent. In Biliosis nihil præstantius decocto radicum ciehorii, etiam obstructionibus ac etudis humoribus præsentibns. Semper enim in chronicis morbis ad obstructiones respiciendum. Cum vero redundantis pituitæ manifestæ sint notæ, quid oxymellite, & præferrim tenui Cinnamomisato, vt ita loquar, quid succo & decocto cardui præstantius? Cæterum eum de præparatione humorum agitur in chronicis morbis, de iis humoribus, qui ad naturalem statum redite possunt, & quos contrariis alterari oportet, vt crassum & viscosum incidere, & e[tc] loquimur. Nam qui nullo modo alterari, & ad naturalem statum redire possunt, iis epierasi, si purgarinequeant recte, neque hoc vires concedant, medendum. Vilanouani liber elegans de coctione humorum. Sed noctuas Athenas ferre prohibemur. Habes de his præstantem monitorem Michaelem Villanouanum, qui præstantissimum libellum de coctione humorum & vsu sytu- potum scripsit, vt de doctrina excellentissimorum duorum Medicorum Patauinorum Ioannis Baptiste Montani, & Bernhardini Paterni nihil dicam. Pagellas nostras Vallefianas acepi, in quibus quo plura lego, eo magis styli duritiem, & colasticâ quandam obscuritatem, Theologis quidem propriam, Philosophis barbarismis vlitatem, auersor. Sed cum laudatus sit à nobis, & res bonas esse, quas proponit, nemini dubium sit, duritatem orationis in iis, qui nullo vsu ea, quæ in animo sunt explanandi præditi videntur, ferre æquum est. Vtinam seculi nostri Doctores in iis, quæ ad salutem nostram spectant, cautius loquerentur, nec res diui- nas, per quas ad DEV[US], & veram lucem accedimus, obscuritati vetborum inuoluet[ur], ac tanquam noctuæ intenebitis latere perpetuo, quam lucem aspicere desiderarent. Certe oblatam lucem illos resugere, & vespertiliones eos, qui offusa sempiterna nocte euolate, neq[ue] in tenebras profundas scientes atque volenres sese coniicere student, nominare eos apparet. Sed mittenda sunt nomina vera vel salsa, & Deus orandus, vt in veritate atque luce nos conseruet. Bene vale. E Rucuriano x. Iulii, Anno 1582. EPIST. CLXVII. IDEM EIDEM. NONVM quod sciam Ribisehii aoriga aduenit, neque post eas literas, quibus v[ero] Decemb. d[ie] adscripseras, vllas à re habui. In fluxione Podag[us] num purgandum. De quæstione tua ne durantibus doloribus podagricis atque affluxu materiæ medicamentis putgantibus fluxus diuersione inhibendus, à multis est disputatum. Rationi vero atque experientiæ contrarium, vel leuioribus, vel fortioribus medicamentis hoc tentare videtur. Leuiora enim materiam commouent, & magis ad membra dolentia præcipitant. Fottiora in imprimis cor poribus non præparatam materiam, vim naturæ inferunt. Itaque rectissimum puto, sumpta indicatione à natura rei, cum podagra sub genere fluxionum & inflammationum, licet interdum non satis proprie, compræhendatur, enemate aluum, si astricha sit, mouere, & sanguinem è media cubiti vena, cæteris consentientibus, quæ ad missionem sanguinis requiruntur, mittete. A purgantibus vero medicamentis, nisi hoc euidens ratio suadear, & necessitas postulet, abstine- Purgatio posticulo sumptis humerib. re. Seio Practicos, & utet hos Bayrum mitifice medicamentum quoddam vehementissime putgansi commendare, ac memini non dissimile Duci Fertariensi à Medicis præscriptum fuisse, hancque audaciam multos imitatos. Verum naturæ vim facere, atq[ue] præscriptum artis negligere, minime medicum puto. Historiam, quam tu mihi narras, de quodam cacochymia laborante, qui articulari morbo oppressus neque purgatus, in Carum incideris, quo triduum laborans extinctus sit, veram esse credo. Iuuari Podagricum Caro extrin. ne purgante medicamento potuerit, vel malum hoc modo auerti, causas consideranti non est obscurum. Defluere plerunq[ue] materiam morbi articularis à capite consentaneum est, licet magna pars ex reliquo corpore vel deiciatur, vel ad membra affecta deponatur. In hoc ægro somnolenta affectione cerebri affecto caput laborasse, & ma-

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279 EPISTLES 280 Villebrochium. He asserts that ceto is useful for treating, mitigating pain, and the teeth putgate. I know that Villebrochium has certain peculiarities, yet I embrace what is safe for our own practice. To your other question, concerning the digestion of humors in chronic diseases, I could answer many things, if I were in a free mood. He knows that digestion is the work of nature, not of medicine. Whatever therefore brings the natural heat to a certain equality, those things undoubtedly aid digestion, since digestion, according to Galen, is nothing other than a certain ripening of humors that are present contrary to nature. But I think you are writing about the preparation of humors by serapiis and similar medicines. Now in chronic diseases there are two kinds of offending humors: either burned, or thick and pituitous. In truly burned humors the most correct preparation is by a regimen of moistening and cooling. For quartan fevers, according to experience, we use decoction of turnips, juice of apples, and decoction of roots of borrago, or rather roots of eryngium, which have less of the viscidness of borrago. In bilious conditions nothing is more excellent than decoction of roots of chicory, even when obstructions and adust humors are present. For in chronic diseases one must always have regard to obstructions. But when the signs of redundant phlegm are manifest, what is better than oxymel, and especially a thin cinnamonized one, if I may so speak, what better than the juice and decoction of carduus? Moreover, when the preparation of humors is under discussion in chronic diseases, we speak of those humors that can be brought back to the natural state, and those which must be altered by contraries, so as to cut into the thick and viscous, and so forth. For those which can in no way be altered and brought back to the natural state must be treated by epierasis, if they cannot be purged properly, nor should this be undertaken when the strength does not allow it. Villanouanus an elegant book on the digestion of humors. But we are forbidden to carry owls to Athens. You have in this matter an excellent adviser, Michael Villanouanus, who wrote a most excellent little book on the digestion of humors and the use of situ-potum, not to mention the doctrine of the two most excellent Paduan physicians, Giovanni Battista Montani and Bernardino Paterni. I have received our Vallefian pages, and the more I read in them, the more I am alienated by the harshness of the style and a certain scholastic obscurity, proper indeed to theologians, but among philosophers affected with barbarisms. Yet since he has been praised by us, and since it is no doubt true that the things he proposes are good, it is fair to bear with the harshness of expression in those who seem to have no practice in explaining what is in their mind. Would that the Doctors of our age would speak more cautiously in those things which pertain to our salvation, and would not wrap divine matters, through which we come to GOD and to the true light, in the obscurity of words, and, like owls, remain forever hidden in darkness, when they would desire to behold the light. Surely they can be called bats, who flee the light offered to them, and are borne away in perpetual night, and who, being aware of and willing it, strive to cast themselves into deep darkness. But true or false names must be set aside, and God must be prayed to, that He preserve us in truth and light. Farewell well. From Rucurianum, 10 July, in the year 1582. EPIST. CLXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. The carter from Ribisehii, as far as I know, has not arrived, nor since those letters which you had dated on the 10th of December have I received anything in return. On fluxion Whether the gout is to be purged or not. Concerning your question, whether during continuing gouty pains and the afflux of material, the flow should be checked by purgative medicines and diversion of the flux, many have argued about it. Yet it seems contrary to reason and experience to attempt this with either milder or stronger medicines. For milder medicines stir up the matter and drive it more toward the painful parts. Stronger ones, above all in bodies not prepared, inflict violence on nature. Therefore I think it most correct, taking the indication from the nature of the case, since gout is comprehended under the category of fluxions and inflammations, though sometimes not quite properly, to move the bowels by enema, if they are bound, and to take blood from the median vein of the elbow, with the other conditions agreed upon that are required for phlebotomy. But from purgative medicines one should abstain, unless evident reason suggests this and necessity requires it. Purgation after taking humors. I know that practitioners, and even this Bayrus, recommend a certain medicine very violently purging, and I remember that a similar thing was prescribed by physicians to the Duke of Fertaria, and many have imitated this boldness. But to force nature and to neglect the prescription of art, I do not consider the act of a physician. The story which you tell me, of a certain man suffering from cacochymy, who, oppressed by an articular disease and not purged, fell into Carus, from which after three days of suffering he died, I believe to be true. Whether the gouty man might have been helped by a purgative medicine, or whether this evil could have been averted in this way, is not obscure to one considering the causes. It is usually consistent that the matter of an articular disease should flow down from the head, although a large part is either thrown off from the rest of the body, or deposited in the affected limbs. In this sick man, affected by a sleepy affection of the brain, the head had been suffering, and ma-

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MATERIA OBRATUM FUISE, NON EST DUBIUM. Per Enemata autem diuertendam à capite materiam fuisse, quis non videt? Et quantum putas ea medicamenta, quæ humores omnes simul in toto corpore commouenti, è capite elicere posse, præsertim si humor sit crassius, frigidus, & humidus, qualem in Caro esse, quem Latini Veterum, Arabes Subeth appellant, necesse est; Non disputo de vocabulis, siue carum, siue coma appelles. Coma interdum febrem præcedere, sæpe eomitiari constat. Humorem frigidum & humidum esse, cum sit somnolenta affectio, nemini ambiguum. Transmissum vero, vel cum impetu ad partem principem delatum non arborior, sed potius tenacius in cerebro hæsisse, neq[ue] potuisse à natura ad partes subjectas ex pugnari puto. Itaq[ue] in calefaciendo capite tota curationis ratio, mea quidem sententia, consistebat. Deinde membroru[m] < 20> seu articulorum affectorum frictione, vt materia quasi ad fluxum concitatis doloribus irritata & repulsa à capite discederet. Mouenda autem sternutamenta deinceps in eiusmodi affectione, cum anteriori e partem cerebri affectam esse constet, idoneis medicam eis, ac sicut in catalepsi posteriori parti cerebri calorifica remedia ad mouere conveniens, ira in caro anteriori adhibenda. Habes breuiter quæ lecto affixus, libro < 30> rú ope destituius ad tuam quæstionem respondere potui. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ Kal. anuarii, Anno 1583. EPIST. CLXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. NV DIVS QUARTUS AD TE SCRIPTI, & LITERAS AD Wolzugium misi. Interea aduenit Ho- < 40> bergius qui tuas attulit. Cæsilium quod Comiti Gutcano dedi in febri Marasmodo, nihil de arthritide habet, neq[ue] is ea laborat. Ostendere igitur volui, mihi displicere noua ista medicam eia sine iudici adhiberi. Quid vero de ligno ad D. Iordanum scripterim addo, sunt autem hæc: De ligno sartefras significau id quod est verissimum, me nunc quâ eo vsum esse, nec videre quo pacto inueteratum morbu articularem curare possu. Fateor huius morbi præcipuam causam esse serosum humor e in corpore supra modum auctum, & certo modo siue putredine siue alio corruptum. Is enim facit vt crassi & crudi humores sint fluxibiles, & ad articulos deferantur, in quibus & ipse inflammationis & doloris auctor est. Huius rei illud indicio nobis esse potest, quod ii, qui frequeret sudant, vel copiose vrinam omittunt, ab < 50> hoc morbo tuti sunt. Simulac vero sudor & vrinæ supprimuntur, malum præfuit. sit. Itaque si quod de ligno affirmant, potenter vrinâ educit, ac sudores monet, consequens est magnopere muare posse. Cæterum cum cal. rarius in mèbris diuturnitate morbi exhaustus est, & natura paulatim, imo continuo ad articulos humores deponere consueit, sane non video quid adumenti adferre possit. Sed cum laudatores huius ligni affirment, coctiones omnes, & maxime vetriculi, illius vsum iuuare, capur roborare; cum etiam subducedo ichores, humores crassiores & quasi firmiores reddere necesset, non obsto, quin illustris Promarchio eo vlatur, modo rectam & exactam victus rationem teneat. Vides, mi Monaui, me cum ratione vsum ligni non improbare. In sacculis de Arsenico nullam ratione reperio, præter illam, vt cor veneno assuescat. Sacculus de Arsenico periculosus. Quam autem hæc infirma & periculosa sit, & hominem rectæ conscientiæ studiosum minime ea vti debeat, ipse intelligis. Etiamsi igitur sexcentos autores, qui idem fecerint, commemores, mihi non persuadebis. Ac cum taniopere me vrgeas, narro tibi vero Creakouium ita ex eo debilitatum, atque in pectore exulceratum fuisse, vt cum magna indignatione in arce Grauenstciniana sacculum abiecerit. Possem alios recensere. Thessalum illum feliciter vsurpasse no[n] redo, nisi minime dubito, quin ista sit audacia vt hæc atq[ue] alia exhibeat. Nam ante paucos dies puero cuidam puluerem epilepticum ex cinnabate viua confectum dedit. Non velim hoc facere si omnes homines mili autores essent, cum robusta etiam corpora vix illius vsum ferant, & quam grauieti ferant viderim. Sed cum audacia illi pro scientia sit, atq[ue] in arte sua medica Ficrouantium, nebulonem pessimum, qui Venetiis ejectus est, Magistrum habuerit, hæc alia alia ab eo designari minime nouum. Ea vero vt homines celet, nullum sibi in curatio he adiunctum esse patitur. Sed de his nimiùm. Braslicanus male tibi narrauit de foliis si hyoseyami esse dixit. Non satis commemini qualia fuerint. Iberidis vel Tabaci fuisse ab bittor. Certum no[n] scio, nec causam, quod in me memoriam tam longam & firmam requirere debeas puto. Dictarem plura si possem. Nam ad meum grauissimum morbum nudius tertius accessit dentis dolor, is deinceps autem & vniuerum caput occupauit, abscessus in ore est consecurus, itaque paululum quidem dolor remittit. Sed febris, quæ has fluxiones committatur, ita me debilitauit, vægre spiritum ducam, imo superiori nocte spiritum Deo.

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MATERIALITY HAD BEEN THE CAUSE, THERE IS NO DOUBT. But by enemata the matter was to be diverted from the head, who does not see that? And how much do you think those medicines, which move all humors together throughout the whole body, can draw out from the head, especially if the humor be thicker, cold, and moist, such as must be in Caro, which the Latins call Veterum, the Arabs Subeth? I do not dispute about words, whether you call it caro or coma. It is established that coma sometimes precedes fever, and is often joined with it. That the humor is cold and moist, since it is a somnolent affection, is doubtful to no one. But that it has been transmitted, or carried with violence to the chief part, I do not think; rather that it has stuck more tenaciously in the brain, nor could nature expel it to the lower parts. Therefore, in warming the head the whole rationale of the cure consisted, in my opinion. Then by friction of the affected members or joints, so that the matter, as it were stirred to flow by the pain, might be irritated and, repelled from the head, depart. Sneezing, too, must be provoked afterward in such an affection, since it is clear that the anterior part of the brain is affected, with suitable remedies; and just as in posterior catalepsy, calefactive remedies are fitting to move the back part of the brain, so in Caro the anterior part must be treated. You have briefly what, being fixed to my bed and deprived of the aid of books, I could reply to your question. Farewell well. Vratislavia, the Kalends of January, in the year 1583. EPISTLE CLXVIII. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME. I wrote the fourth day to you, and I sent letters to Wolzugius. Meanwhile Ho-bergius arrived, who brought yours. As for the Cæsilium which I gave to Count Gutcanus in Marasmus fever, it has nothing about arthritis, nor does he labor from that. I wished to show, therefore, that I disapprove of these new medicines being applied without judgment. But what I wrote about the wood to D. Iordanus I add here; these are the words: regarding the wood sarsaparilla I signified what is most true, that I now have used it, nor do I see by what means it could cure an inveterate articular disease. I confess the chief cause of this disease to be a serous humor in the body increased beyond measure, and in a certain way corrupted, whether by putrefaction or some other means. For this makes thick and crude humors become fluid and be carried to the joints, in which it is itself the author both of inflammation and pain. A sign of this may be to us that those who sweat frequently, or pass urine copiously, are safe from this disease. But as soon as sweat and urine are suppressed, the evil is increased. Therefore, if what they affirm of this wood is true, namely that it powerfully draws off by urine and promotes sweat, it follows that it can greatly help. Yet since the heat in the limbs is worn out by the long duration of the disease, and nature gradually, indeed continuously, is accustomed to deposit humors at the joints, I truly do not see what advantage it can bring. But since the admirers of this wood affirm that it assists all digestings, and especially those of the stomach, strengthens the head; since by drawing off ichors it must also make the humors thicker and, as it were, firmer, I do not object if the illustrious Promarchio uses it, provided he keeps to a right and exact regimen of life. You see, my Monavius, that I do not disapprove the use of the wood when there is reason. In the arsenic pouches I find no reason at all, except that the heart may become accustomed to poison. The arsenic pouch is dangerous. How weak and perilous this is, and how a man studious of right conscience ought by no means to use it, you yourself understand. Even if, therefore, you mention six hundred authors who have done the same, you will not persuade me. And since you press me so much, I tell you truly that Creakouius was so weakened and ulcerated in the chest from it that with great indignation he threw the pouch away in the Grauensteinian castle. I could mention others. I do not deny that that Thessalus used it successfully, unless I doubt least of all that this is the audacity by which he exhibits these and other things. For a few days ago he gave a certain boy an epileptic powder made from fresh cinnabar. I would not wish to do this if all men were my authors, since even robust bodies can scarcely bear its use, and I have seen how grievously they bear it. But since audacity is with him instead of knowledge, and since in his medical art he had Ficrouantius, a most worthless rogue who was expelled from Venice, as his teacher, it is by no means new that he should devise such things and others. And in order that he may conceal them from men, he allows himself no associate in treatment. But enough of these things. Braslicanus told you badly about the leaves if he said they were of hyoscyamus. I do not sufficiently remember what kind they were. I guess they were of Iberis or tobacco. I do not know for certain, nor do I think that the cause is that you should require in me so long and firm a memory. I would dictate more if I could. For to my very grievous illness, the day before yesterday, toothache also came; afterward it occupied the whole head, and an abscess has formed in the mouth, so that indeed the pain is somewhat relieved. But the fever, which promotes these fluxions, has so weakened me that I can hardly draw breath; indeed, the night before last I gave up my spirit to God.

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183 EPISTOLÆ 184 meo redditurum existimauerim. Bene vale. Vratislauiæ xv. qui dies Ctaioni Martyri in Calendario Romano est dicatus, Febr Anno 1583. EPIST. CLXIX. IDEM EIDEM. A Mo tuam in scribendo diligentiam: & tibi gratias ago, cum frequentes literas ad me mittis. Accepi autem eas quibus tu xxvtr. diem Ianuar. v. & vii. Febr. ad scripsisti. In iis vnum te agere video, vt me ad editionem consultationum meatum Medicarum excites. Ego vero, mi Monaui, semper fui eo animo, vt prodesse quâ plurimis studerem, ac nunc sum maxime. Sed quid possumus non valenties? Est Wendrichius noster eleganti doctrina & ingenio præditus, & posse illum aliquid præstare fateor, sed vbiq[ue] meum sensum ipsum callere atque tenere non posse ipse intelligis. Ac si me iacentem videres, profecto deterreres potius à labore, quâ ad eum suscipiendum mihi autor esses. Cum belle valere aliis videor, in eas angustias subito redigor, vt de reddendo spiritu Deo meo sit agitandum. Nolo narrare meas miseras, cum tuis epistolis sit persoluendum. Illud vnum affirmo & confirmabo, si vitam & vires Deus suppetet, me officio meo non defuturum. Itto modo iacens & lecto affixus, ac dum surgere nequeo, vel ad meos libros respicere possum, quid faciam vel polliceat non habeo. Ad Q[uæstiones] Medica tua nihil respondeo, satisfactet tibi, vt spero, exemplum epistolæ ad loachimum missæ, quod cum his erit. De Podagra vel articulorum morbo, cum præcipue indicationes à nocentibus & conferentibus sumantur, & omnibus qui veram corporis sui curam gerunt, pet spectu sit, tum minus à morbo periculum esse, cum vel sudant, vel multum vrinæ reddunt; Imminere autem malum quando serosa excrementa non expurgantur; satis euidens & magnum est indicium, serosorum humorum retentionem vel copiam in corpore auctam, huius moti præcipuam causam esse, & totam præcautionis rationem in eo consistere. Nec vel in corpore accumulentur, vel tempestue expurgentur. Deinde vt etassi quoq[ue] & crudibus humores non sint nimii, atq[ue] membra exteriora vel debilitentur, vel calor naturalis in illis deficiat. Id si cauebimus, crassi humores absq[ue] tenuioribus non fluent: neque membra laborantia eos suscipient, nisi longo morbo debilitata paulatim natura in ea deponat. Malo autem jam confirmato, præ- sertim in intemperantiorib[us] labor Medicus est irritus; sicut & in illis qui nimio vsu venereorum, vel commotionib[us] animi humores præcipitant, & calorem natuum exhauriunt, vel vino sese obruunt. Actu ægrotantes in tanta diuersitate humorum curare difficile est, præsertim cum vix vllus Medicus tam sit perspicax, vt tempora vera fluxio num pollit discernere. Sed de his scripsi nuper, & profecto non sine magno labore ista dicto. Tibitamen deesse, quando tanti facis nugas nostras, non debeo. Scribe nunc admonitiones quasdam de valetudine N. N. tuenda & recte curanda. Multa enim obseruaui, quæ fortasse aliorum cognitionem effugerunt. Alias etiam vias veræ curationis peruestigaui, & remedia tutiora & faciliora reperi. Illud de Antimonio in Hydropicis, non ex animi mei sente[n]tia, verum aliuru[m] scripsi, semel hydropico persuasus dedi. Nihil profuit. Ne nocuerim Deo gratias ago. Medicamentum è raparum succo atq[ue] camphiora fateor me præscriptisse mulus. Sine vlla noxa datur: sed ratio iuuat. Multo plus tribuo floribus perficis, qui siccari etiam & infusi mira facilitate humorem aqueum ex vniuerso corpore per ventrem educunt, necq[ue] vllam noxam inferunt. Ad exiccandum autem si quid intra abdominis musculos detinetur, Emplastrum è caprarum stercore cum cimino & aceto plurimum valet. De Thermis ac potius aquis frigidis Mandersdorffensibus cum multis erras. Perdunt articulorum doloribus oppressos, necq[ue] quicquam aliud, quam nitrum continent, parumque ab omnibus funtantis aquæ Viennæ, quæ omnes nitrosæ sunt, differunt. Sed apud multos opinio vim veritati afferet. N[ost]ru[m] quam his quatuor mensibus grauius & periculosius laboraui, quam superiorib[us] proximis diebus. Heri, eum incidia co[n]fectus, multas libras pituitæ toto morbitem pore eiecerim, vino i[m]peratissimè sim vsus ac aliquot diebus ab eo plane abstinuerim, carnes inodice attigerim, ac ne vnciam quidem toto hoc mense comederim tamen, vt dixi, heri, materia delia est ad dextrum pedem, & inflammatio consecuta, quæ tarios dolores fecit, vt etiam somnum mihi ademerit. Profecto hoc in corpore macie contrabescnse fici, monstri simile est. Paulatim cor quietius est, & minus grauis. Quid de me futurum sit, Deus nonit, ad quem omnia refero, & illius benignitati me committo & commendo. De Thracia adeunda, mitorib[us] ea quæ scribis in mentem venire. Quid à barbaris præter barbarum referimus? Et quæ stultitia est, tot periculis se obilicere, vt ea videas quorum recordatio per omnem ETARCI

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183 EPISTLES 184 I had thought that I would return it to me. Farewell. In Vratislauiæ, on the 15th day, which is dedicated to St. Ctaion Martyr in the Roman Calendar, February, Year 1583. EPIST. CLXIX. SAME TO THE SAME. I admire your diligence in writing, and I thank you, since you send frequent letters to me. But I have received those in which you wrote to me on the 25th day of January, and on the 5th and 7th of February. In them I see one thing: that you urge me to the publication of my Medical consultations. For my part, my Monaui, I have always been of such a mind that I should strive to benefit as many as possible, and now I am especially so. But what can we do when not well? Our Wendrichius is endowed with elegant learning and talent, and I admit that he is able to accomplish something; but you yourself understand that he cannot everywhere master and hold firmly my very own sense. And if you were to see me lying low, you would surely rather deter me from labor than be the one to encourage me to undertake it. When I seem to others to be in good health, I am suddenly reduced to such straits that I must think about giving back my spirit to my God. I do not wish to tell of my miseries, since they must be repaid with your letters. This one thing I affirm and shall confirm: if God grants life and strength, I shall not fail in my duty. When I lie thus and am fixed to my bed, and cannot rise, I can scarcely even look toward my books, and I have nothing to say or promise. To your Medica Questions I answer nothing; the example of the letter sent to Joachim, which will be with these, will, I hope, satisfy you. Concerning podagra, or disease of the joints, since the indications are especially to be taken from harmful and helpful things, and since it is a concern for all who truly care for their bodies, it is then less dangerous from the disease when they either sweat or pass much urine. But evil threatens when the serous excrements are not purged away; it is sufficiently evident and a great sign that the retention of serous humors, or an increased abundance of them in the body, is the chief cause of this motion, and that the whole method of precaution consists in this: that they neither accumulate in the body nor are purged away too late. Then also that the more thick and crude humors be not too abundant, and that the outer members either not be weakened, or that the natural heat in them not fail. If we guard against this, the thick humors will not flow without the thinner ones; nor will the suffering members receive them, unless after a long illness, when nature weakened by degrees deposits them into them. But when the evil has already become established, especially in the intemperate, medical labor is fruitless; likewise in those who, by excessive use of venery or by perturbations of the mind, drive the humors onward and exhaust the natural heat, or bury themselves in wine. To treat those who are actually sick in such a diversity of humors is difficult, especially since scarcely any physician is so discerning that he can distinguish the true times of the fluxions. But I wrote on these matters recently, and indeed not without great labor have I said these things. Yet I ought not to withhold from you, when you make such great account of our trifles. Write now some admonitions concerning the maintenance and proper care of N. N.’s health. For I have observed many things that perhaps escaped the knowledge of others. I have also traced out other ways of true treatment, and have found safer and easier remedies. What I wrote about Antimony in dropsical patients was not from my own judgment, but I wrote it from another’s; once, persuaded by a dropsical patient, I gave it. It did nothing. That I did no harm, I give thanks to God. I confess that I have prescribed a medicine made from turnip juice and camphora to many. It is given without any harm, but reason helps. I attribute much more to the flowers of persicis, which even when dried and infused draw the watery humor from the whole body through the belly with marvelous ease, and inflict no harm. But for drying out whatever is retained within the muscles of the abdomen, an ointment made from goat dung with cumin and vinegar is of great value. As for the baths, or rather the cold waters of Mandersdorff, you err greatly. They ruin those oppressed by joint pains, and contain nothing except nitre, differing very little from the sparkling waters of Vienna, which are all nitrous. But among many, opinion will prevail over truth. For our part, in these four months I have suffered more severely and dangerously than in the preceding recent days. Yesterday, when worn out by an attack, I had expelled many pounds of phlegm throughout my whole body of disease, and having used wine most excessively, and having abstained from it altogether for some days, and having touched meat sparingly, and not having eaten even an ounce throughout this whole month, nevertheless, as I said, yesterday the matter settled to the right foot, and inflammation followed, which caused such pains that it also deprived me of sleep. Truly, in this body wasting away and becoming emaciated, it is like a monster. Gradually the heart is quieter, and less heavy. What may happen to me, God knows, to whom I refer all things, and to whose kindness I commit and commend myself. Concerning going to Thrace, the things you write occur to me more slowly. What do we bring back from barbarians except something barbarous? And what folly it is to expose oneself to so many dangers, so that you may see those things whose recollection throughout the entire ETARCI

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285 M E D I C I N A L E S. 286 ætatem doloris sensum adferat? Mirifice ineptos esse, qui ex eiusmodi rebus laudem quærunt, vel scientiam, & magnarum rerum vsum se consequi arbitrantur, existimo. De Valesio certe comperi, esse in eo ali quot pagellas typis descriptas. Itaque cum Proxemium mutare non possem, epistolam tuo nomini inscriptam, qua meâ vehementiam corrigo, addidi. Medici Posnanienses me de valetudine Comitis Andreæ Gurcani consuluerunt. Non cessit feliciter vsus illi ligni Sarissias. Iterum Indica quædam ædita sunt Venetiis, vt ex insanis Ituli fiant. Sapientiæ tamen de Cotoneo ligno non accedo, & in decocto plura sunt insigni vi prædita, vt Zedoaria radix, Guaiacum, &c. quæ longe vires Cotonei superant. sed de his scripsi nuper. Non video quid præterea tuis literis respondendum sit, & dictando sum defatigatus. Bene vale, & amicos saluta. V- ratislau. 14. Febr. Anno 1583. E P I S T. CLXX. IDEM EIDEM. Eas tuas literas quibus Scutellarii addideras accepi. Nec habeo quid iis rescribam. Cum autem Scutellarii sit persoluendum, noluisine meis ad te peruenire, & ne quid me tibi denegare, & inuidentia mea occultare, vt falsissime acculor, arbirteris, peruulgata etiam recitabo. Non pauci Medici lignum sanctum, quod & Palu[m] sanctum appellant, atq[ue] Guaiacum, eiusdem esse arboris arbitram sunt, verum Conialius Ferrandus Hispanus, qui ipse in Indis fuit, diuersa esse ostendit. In Ferneliani libelli Cösilio 12. quod Dn. du Peræ secundo dedit, bis, ni fallor, Palmae sanctæ meminit. Illud vero consilium cum sit scriptum Anno 30. nec dum temporis ligni sancti frequens vsus fuerit, Guaiaci vero maximus, plane existimo Fernelium lignum Guaiacum & sanctum pro eodem habere. Possum in hoc errare. Certumest autem, postquam multis persuasum fuit, medullam illam nigram Guaiaci plurimum gallicis prodesse, raro deinceps lignum sanctum cum Guaiaco allatum. Cæterum quod in ea descriptione potus, quæ folio vigesimo primo est, Palmâ sanctam, & Guaiacum ponit, Typographii errore factum puto, qui sæpe pro cinnam omo Guaiacum in isto libello scripsit. Quid enim tres drachmæ Guaiaci ad libras aquæ sex facerent? Sed vt vt sit, Guaiacum à Ligno sancto differre, & sanctum lignum magis ventriculum roborare, atq[ue] in articulariibus morbis, & omnibus, quæ à fluxionibus oriuntur, prodesse, cum Guaiacum tantum in lue Venerea adiuet; exercitatis Medicis re perspectum est. Reperiri vero etiam nuc inter Guaiacum lignum sanctum animaduerti, & ipse satis magnum palum Ligni sanctante annos quindecim Venetia accepi. Pondere, grauitate, & duritieparum differunt. Sed sanctum nigram medullam don habet, & cortices cineritii sunt. Afferitur ex insula S. Ioannis, quemadmodum Consaluuus ostendit, & Indos in lue Venerea exiguis ramulis descisis vti atq[ue] singulari studio aerem & mulierum cösuetudinem fugere affirmat. Magis profuisse ad multos alios morbos quam Guaiacum idem autor affirmat, & inediam atq[ue] copiosum potum atque abstinentiam ab acidarum vsu in primis præcipit. Habes quæ de palma sancta scire voluisti. Vlmi v[er]sus. Vlmi decoctum nunquam propinaui. Corticum vero cum aqua salis decoctu[m] dolentib[us] articulis felici successu sæpe adhibui & contra defluium capillorum in lixiuio sum vsus. Camutius post reditum suum ex Hispania, cum febre corruptus esset, sibi ipsi sexagenario 27. vncias sanguinis detrahere est ausus. Nugatorem esse cum, quid de terra sigillata Anvvaldensi scripsit, ex literis loachumi, & aliorum intellexi. Verum bolum & veram terram sigillatam Turcas nobis inuidere satis est perpectum. Bene vale. Vratislauiz 27. Maii. Anno 1583. E P I S T. CLXXI. IDEM EIDEM. Crede mihi, mi Monaui, ipso morbo grauius esse hoc quod de fluxis & caducis bonis meo afflictissimo isto tempore cogitare cogor. Itaque & sæpe orari, ne quid de negotio meo disputares, vel ad me scriberes amplius. Verum tibi temperare non potes. sed mitto ista. De cura febrium pestilentium significaui antea me sententiam meam Magnifico do. Schonfeldio scripto exposuisse. Non video cur eam mutem. Sæpe dedi puluerem lapidis Bezoar. Nihil profuit. Diasulphure vtraur qui volet. Sulphur nostrum quomodocumque præparetur, etiamsi sudores propellat & succet valde, maxime humanis corporibus est noxium. Imo vina fumo saliem imbuta non sine periculo bibimus. Decoctum lentum laudo, sed tamen non est similis ratio in exanthematis & petechis vtendi. Vnguentum ex Nitro Aetii in Italiamiro successu semper est adhibitum. Post 9. vero diem elicere vellemaculas mane est. Sacrificationes & omnes cutis exulcerationes plurimum laudo. Virii cöseruatio præcipue nobis debet esse cutæ. Crede mihi potus continuus in quod sit cotnucerui, plus auxili, quæ omnia alia Corinthia.

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285 MEDICINALS. 286 Would he bring some sense of relief to the age of pain? I think those are remarkably foolish who from such matters seek praise, or believe they are acquiring knowledge and the use of great things. I have certainly learned concerning Valesius that there are in him several little pages printed. Therefore, since I could not change the Proxemium, I added the letter inscribed to your name, by which I correct my own vehemence. The physicians of Poznań consulted me about the health of Count Andreas Gurcani. The use of Sarisissa wood did not succeed favorably for him. Again some Indian remedies have been published at Venice, so that mad Italians may be made from them. Yet I do not agree with the wisdom attributed to the wood of Cotoneum; and in the decoction there are several substances endowed with notable power, such as the root Zedoaria, Guaiacum, etc., which far surpass the powers of Cotoneum. But I wrote about these matters recently. I do not see what further answer should be made to your letter, and I am weary from dictating. Farewell, and greet your friends. Vratislav. 14 February, in the year 1583. EPISTLE CLXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received those letters of yours to which you had added Scutellarius. Nor do I have anything to write back in reply. But since Scutellarius is to be paid, lest they not come to you through my hands, and lest you think that I am denying you anything, and concealing my envy, as I am most falsely accused, I shall also recount what is publicly known. Not a few physicians think that the holy wood, which they also call Palu[m] sanctum, and Guaiacum, are from the same tree; but Conialius Ferrandus, a Spaniard who himself was in the Indies, has shown that they are different. In Fernelius’s little book, in Counsel 12, which Lord du Peræ gave second, he mentions Palma sancta twice, if I am not mistaken. But since that counsel was written in the year 1530, and at that time the frequent use of holy wood had not yet begun, whereas the use of Guaiacum was very great, I clearly think that Fernelius regarded Guaiacum wood and holy wood as the same. I may be mistaken in this. It is certain, however, that after many had been persuaded that that black pith of Guaiacum was of great benefit for the French disease, holy wood thereafter was rarely brought together with Guaiacum. Moreover, as for the description of the drink, which is on the twenty-first leaf, where it places Palma sancta and Guaiacum, I think it was done by a printer’s error, since in that little book he often wrote Guaiacum in place of cinnamon. For what would three drachms of Guaiacum do to six pounds of water? But be that as it may, it is clear from the experience of skilled physicians that Guaiacum differs from holy wood, and that holy wood more strengthens the stomach, and is useful in joint diseases and in all disorders arising from fluxes, while Guaiacum helps only in the French disease. Indeed, I have observed that even now holy wood is found among Guaiacum, and I myself received, fifteen years ago in Venice, a fairly large log of holy wood. In weight, heaviness, and hardness they differ little. But holy wood does not have black pith, and its bark is ash-gray. It is brought from the island of St. John, as Gonzalvus shows, and he affirms that the Indians in the French disease use small cut branches and with particular care avoid the air and the company of women. The same author affirms that it has been more helpful for many other diseases than Guaiacum, and he especially prescribes fasting, abundant drinking, and abstinence from the use of sour things. There you have what you wished to know about the holy wood. Concerning elm: I have never administered a decoction of elm. But I have often used a decoction of the bark with water and salt, with happy success, for painful joints, and against falling of the hair I have used it in lye. Camutius, after his return from Spain, when he had been weakened by fever, dared to have twenty-seven ounces of blood drawn from himself at the age of sixty-seven. That he is a chatterer, as to what he wrote about the sigillated earth of Anvvaldensis, I learned from the letters of Joachim and others. But it is sufficiently clear that the Turks begrudge us bolus and the true sigillated earth. Farewell. Vratislavia, 27 May, 1583. EPISTLE CLXXI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Believe me, my Monauius, that this, which in my most wretched condition I am compelled to think about unsettled and perishing goods, is graver than the illness itself. Therefore I have often asked that you not debate anything about my business, nor write to me any more. Yet you cannot restrain yourself. But I dismiss those matters. Concerning the cure of malignant fevers, I had previously made known that I had изложено my opinion in writing to the Magnificent Lord Schonfeldius. I do not see why I should change it. I have often given the powder of Bezoar stone. It did nothing. Let whoever wishes use diasulphure. Our sulphur, however it may be prepared, even if it drives out sweat and acts strongly, is very harmful to human bodies. Indeed, we drink wines imbued with the smoke of saltpeter not without danger. I approve of a slow decoction, but still the same rule does not apply for use in exanthemata and petechiae. The ointment from Aetius’s nitre has always been used with great success in Italy. But after the ninth day to want to draw out the spots is too late. I highly approve of scarifications and all ulcerations of the skin. The preservation of strength ought especially to be our concern. Believe me, continuous drinking, in whatever way it may be called, brings more aid than all other Corinthian things.

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187 EPISTOLÆ 188 < Phil. tenuis.> medicamenta affert. Terræ Lemniæ, feminibus napi & acetosæ plurimum tribuo. Vinum fugiendum. A capite materia omnib[us] < Pluviationes Pestil.> modis diuertenda. Arnoldum multis annis non inspexi, sed ni fallor ille pilulas in iuuentutis Aloem rosatam vocat. Locum certe non possum significare, cum meos libros attingere nequeam. Tuas medicationes à Deo fortunari opto. Pestilentes fluxiones alni frequentes in Austria animaduerti. Ad præcautionem conseruam rosarum veterem cum Mithridato dedi. In curatio ne ad præpotentem causam respexi, statim papitum Mithridato illitum vel vmbilico, vel ventriculo apposui. Clysterem ex decocto hordei in iure carnis verueclinæ cum radicibus Tormentillæ & vitello oni semicocto per clysterem inieci. Pucris puluerem è Zedoaria, margaritis, & terra sigillata dedi, addidi interdum Tragacantham. Multos beneficio Dei seruaui. Ab istis magnis com- positionibus Enematum, lacte vitulato, & cæteris nugis abstinui. Facile læduntur in- testina, & ne lædantur adhibitis clysteriis caurio est. De turpetho minerali scripsi pu- blice Gallicos qui hermetica cura semel vsi sunt, eo iuuari interdum non diffiteor. Au- daciàm nostri N. N. & N. N. me nunquam probasse, non obscure illis ostendi. Nescio an ipsi eo sint vsi, sed vt perlerit vterque non ignotum est. Alios etiam commemorare possem, nisi animus meminisse abhorreret. Nuncius de domini Trautsonii morbo valde me sollicitat. Error est putare semina carminantia, vt vocamus, decocta, dolores à flatibus sedare. De vino & vsu myrrhæ puro me monuisse, & si quid volet plenius scribam. Melamocephalus abeat & valeat cum suo Alchermes. Suasi ne vtantur lapide Lazuli & serico tincto granis chermes, verasq[ue] rationes ostendi. Si sequentur consilium meum haud dubie gratam & salutarem co- positione præparabunt. Vellem Claudium & Aubrium Fallopii opera ad me mittere, cum Aubrii rogatu præfationem scripserim ægerrime valens, ac potius vno die dictaue- rim. Adegit me maledicentia N. N. vt quædam scriberem, quæ scripta nolim. Ego pe- riochen methodicam, vt pro D. Iulio Ar- genterio responderem, foras dedi. Mea cau- sa cum nihil amici faciant, dum viuo mihi i- psi deesse non debebo. Mallem autem alios pro me scribere & loqui. Sed dormit vetus gratia. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ 14. Octob. Anno 1584. EPIST. CLXXII. IDEM EIDEM. Hac propemodum hora, ca quæ tibi in libello meo tamquam parum expli- cata aut scribendo deprauata notare, me- que de his monere visum est, accepi. Vel- lem literas tuas paulo firmiorem me reperi- re; quam sum. Plane enim me tibi satisface- re posse considerem. Sed cum ea sim vale- tudine, vt nec ad libros, nec scriptum illud quod mihi, respicere nunc possim, quid sa- ciam? Satis autem certo scio, mihi nun- quam in mentem venisse scribere: Contagii vocem apud Galenum in Epidemiis reperi- ri. Priuatas sebres, seu idios perversus appellate pestilentes quasdam, è putredine ortas, ostendi. De contagiosis, quas ego publicas dixi, nihil scripsisse, sæpe repeto. Cæterum pestilentes à putredine ortas, siue sunt , siue plurimis perniciosæ, discernere ab ils quæ grauiter grassanter & vere pestilen- tes sunt, de illius sententia me colligere pos- se indicaui. Quod autem tu obiicis, si ex pu- blica causa oriuntur pestilentes; non rectè priuatas dici: ad iam antea à me responsum est, sateri me, priuatas pestilentes ex com- muni causa oriri, videlicet ex aere vel victus ratione; etiamsi non sint contagiosæ: de vo- ce, primata & publica, me nolle pugnare. Hoc vnum satis esse duco ostendere, eas fe- bres quæ contagione corpora contami- nant, longe alias esse quam istas, de quibus veterum scripta nos docent, imo veteribus fortasse ignotas. Febres enim, in quibus etiam est summa putredo, nisi ad illum gra- dum deueniant vt habeant, neque nobis neque veteribus fuisse con- tagiosas apparet. De morbida vero exspi- ratione seu natura, alia est dispu- tatio. Quod vero arbittaris ex mea sententia conicè qui, vt pestilentem contagiosam, pe- stilens non contagiosa semper præcedat, erras. Nam pestilens non contagiosa, nun- quam erit pestilentis contagiosæ causa: ni- si (vt dixi) putredo ad eum gradum perue- niat; vt habeat, seu vt seminarium contagii in corpore generetur, & similem affectum in alio corpore excitet. Vbi vcto contagiosa pestilens propagatur; nihil nisi contagiosam pestilentem excitat. Et contagium ad causas externas; putredo ad internas causas resertur. Miror tibi hæc obscuriora videri, cui nô modo verba mea, verum intimum etiam animi mei sensum perspectissimum putabam. Sed ætas nos ad omnia segniores facit. Itaque in senten- tiis quoque nostris explicandis difficiliores sumus: & in verbis etiam parci. Sed ad tem tedeo. In

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187 EPISTLES 188 < Phil. tenuis.> brings medicines. I attribute much to Lemnian earth, to seeds of turnip and sorrel. Wine is to be avoided. Matter from the head must in every way be diverted. < Rainfall Pestil.> I have not examined Arnold for many years, but unless I am mistaken he calls the pills in his youth “rose aloe.” I certainly cannot indicate the passage, since I cannot reach my books. I wish your treatments to be prospered by God. I have observed pestilential catarrhs of alder to be frequent in Austria. As a precaution I gave old conserve of roses with Mithridate. In treatment I looked to the overpowering cause, and immediately applied a paper smeared with Mithridate, either to the navel or to the stomach. I injected by clyster an enema made from a decoction of barley in broth of mutton with roots of tormentil and a half-cooked yolk of egg. To children I gave powder of zedoary, pearls, and terra sigillata, sometimes adding tragacanth. By God’s favor I saved many. I abstained from those great compositions of enemas, ass’s milk, and other trifles. The intestines are easily injured, and to prevent injury care is needed in applying clysters. I wrote publicly about mineral turpeth; I do not deny that the French, who have once used the Hermetic cure, are sometimes helped by it. I made clear to them, not obscurely, that the boldness of our N. N. and N. N. I have never approved. I do not know whether they themselves have used it, but that both have perished is not unknown. I could mention others too, unless I shrank from remembering them. A message about the illness of Lord Trautson greatly worries me. It is a mistake to think that decoctions of the so-called carminative seeds soothe pains from flatulence. About wine and the use of pure myrrh I have warned you, and if you wish I will write more fully. Let Melamocephalus depart and farewell with his Alchermes. I advised them not to use lapis lazuli and silk dyed with grains of kermes, and I showed the true reasons. If they follow my advice, they will no doubt prepare a grateful and salutary composition. I should like Claudius and Aubrius to send me the works of Fallopius, since at Aubrius’s request I wrote the preface while very ill, and rather dictated it in one day. The malice of N. N. compelled me to write certain things which I do not wish written. I published the methodological pericope in order to reply to Dr. Julius Argenterius. As my cause has friends who do nothing, while I live I shall not fail myself. Yet I would rather others write and speak for me. But old favor is asleep. Farewell well. Vratislavia, 14 October 1584. EPIST. CLXXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. At almost this very hour I received the things which you wish to note in my little book as if they were not sufficiently explained or were distorted in writing, and to warn me about them. I wish your letter had found me somewhat stronger than I am. For I clearly see that I cannot sufficiently satisfy you. But since I am in such a state of health that I can neither consult books nor that writing of mine, what am I to do? Yet I know for certain that it never occurred to me to write: “the word contagion is found in Galen in the Epidemics.” I stated that private fevers, or, as you perversely call them, certain pestilential ones arising from putrefaction, are shown. I often repeat that I have written nothing about contagious diseases, which I called public. Moreover, I indicated that I could, following Galen’s view, distinguish pestilential fevers arising from putrefaction, whether they are or are not harmful to many, from those which rage severely and are truly pestilential. But what you object—that if pestilential diseases arise from a public cause, they are not rightly called private—has already been answered by me: I confess that private pestilential diseases arise from a common cause, namely from the air or from regimen of life, even if they are not contagious; on the question of the words “private” and “public” I do not wish to contend. This one thing I consider enough to show: that those fevers which contaminate bodies by contagion are far different from those of which the writings of the ancients teach us, indeed perhaps unknown to the ancients. For fevers in which there is even the greatest putrefaction, unless they reach that degree so as to have it, do not appear to have been contagious either to us or to the ancients. But about morbific exhalation or nature, that is another discussion. But whereas you think, from my view, that a pestilential non-contagious disease always precedes a contagious pestilential one, you are mistaken. For a pestilential disease that is not contagious will never be the cause of a contagious pestilential disease—unless, as I said, putrefaction reaches that degree so that it has it, or so that a seedbed of contagion is generated in the body and excites a similar affection in another body. Where a contagious pestilential disease is propagated, it excites nothing except a contagious pestilence. And contagion is referred to external causes; putrefaction to internal causes. I wonder that these things seem more obscure to you, to whom I thought not only my words but also the innermost sense of my mind was perfectly clear. But age makes us sluggish in everything. Thus in explaining our opinions too we are more difficult, and even sparing in words. But I tire of this. In

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289 M E D I C I N A L E S. 290 In priuatis corruptionem humorum sanis corporib. aduersam esse, scio me scripsisse: verum quod inde colligi censes, priuatas pestilentes omnes contagiosas, nequaquam tibi concedo. Contagione autem contaminatis corporibus acerem per admissionem inquina- mentorum, quæ continuo exhalant, eius- modi concipere posse vitium, vt deleterius & inimicus naturæ euadat, ingenuè p[er]tinerit. Raro vero id accidere, nisi per se aer quoque mutetur, sen in substantia sua cor- rumpatur, quocumque nomine istam cor- ruptionem voces, existimo. Contagiosis au- rem pestilentibus vrbæ vel regione infestis; subinde nouis fomentis quasi aetis mali- tiam augeri dum plurima corpora laborant atque extinguuntur, tibi largior: & ante multos annos set ipsi, ex hac vna causa pesti- lentis constitutionis incrementa depen- dete. < Perechia.> De Perechiis seu maculosis febribus e- xigua significatione hoc ostendi: eas, in qui- bus initio statim maculæ apparent plerun- que contagiosas esse. Vbi vero quarto die primum erumpunt, minus contagionis pe- riculum. Statuo vero cum Aristotele & Ga- leno: omnes pestilentes, siue à summa pu- tredine oriantur, siue à contagione sola, pe- riculo non vacare. Ideoque conuersatio- nem teu conluetudinem eum illis minime tutam esse. Nam & corpora prædisposita à pestilentibus febribus, quæ à sola putredine ortum habent, posse affici, etiamsi similis morbus, vt in contagiosis non consequatur nulli dubium est. In voce contagii nolui superstitiose Græ- maticos imitati: qui contagium tamquam effectum: contagionem vero tanquam cau- sam exponunt. Ego quid de tebus ipsi sem- tiam, perspicue ostendere conatus sum. Si- ne hoc assequutus, nescio. Libennius ve- ro & liberius vocabulo latino contagionis, quam contagii me vsum, fateor. De putredine totam disputationem sci- ens & prudens non attigi. Omnia mutare in libello, dum eum ad te mitterem, quæ mutanda videbantur, cum in summa valetudinis infirmitate vix relegere possem, non potui. Veniam vt spero dabunt æquilecto- res: qui me ea valetudine esse sciunt: vt ne- que libros ipse adire, neq[ue] manibus diu su- stinere oblatos possint: & satis esse putabunt me de pestilentib. febribus à putredine or- tis: atq[ue] è contagione hausto inquinamen- to multis exiriosis, sententiam meam ostendisse. Ea quæ corpus reddunt genera- tim recensere facile est: verum ad indiuidua quasi accommodare, non mediocris inge- nii & iudicii præspicacitatis. Nihil dicam de prouidentia diuina verum iungens istas, imo quod quædam corpora plane non afficiuntur, habere peculiares atq[ue] abscon- ditas causas non est dubium. De formulis Medicamentorum adden- dis, iam antea quo sim animo exposui: nec mutor. Nihil doctis præstribere volo. Indo- ctis autem & audacibus illa tradere, quid est nisi inficitiam armare: Verum si tibi aliter vi- sum fuerit, morem getam, cum paulo fir- miorum, quam nunc est, valetudinem Deus co[n]cesserit. Hæc subito iis, quæ in schedatura annotauertas, mihiq[ue] inspicienda transmisse- ras, pellectis dictaui. Vt sanis faciam infinitæ iudiciorum multitudini, non laboro. Te ista in bonam partem accipere, operamque da- re ne meus libellus cum meo dedecore ex- eat: etiam atque etiam desidero. Bene vale. Vratislauæ vi. Septemb. Anno 1585. E P I S T. CLXXIII. I D E M E I D E M. AD nodos Medicos soluendos nunc no[n] sum idoneus, cum & libris caream & tempore egcam. Scis ipse tanguinem ex- tra venas in colorem nigricantem per se propter eorum substantiam magis nigrica- re, contra putiorem esse eum, qui ex col- lu vesicæ excernitur. itaque cum insto x- gro haud dubie renes affecti sint, non mi- rum si ates sanguis excernatur. Patertuus aliquot mensibus ante vitæ exitum sangui- nem atrum mingebat. Sed dubitauimus, vtum è tenibus, an ex vicinis locis pro- diret. Vena rupta erat ex onere, & scis di- cto illo Hippocratico: In corpore humano omnia esse confluxibilia, medicos mul- tos nodos soluere. De pingiuis difficilli- ma quæstio: Sunt quidem in æquumque Ginguarum verum non ex toto. Nam & carneas partes, & venulas insertas habent, & vulnera vuln sanari videmus. De remedio quæris? Si gingiux à defluxione è cerebrolaborant, nunquam restitui caro gingiarum pote- rit, nisi fluxione cessante. Nam dentis nu- ditas, est vel temperie ipsius dentis ita læ- sa, vt gingiux quoqueratione dentis absu- manrur, & minime adhærescant, vel ner- uosis partibus læsis, vel ipsa substantia gin- giarum deperdita. Haud dubie numis a- cribus epuloticis medicamentis chirurgi sunt vsi. Molliora igitur & suauiora bis cum sarcoticis adhiberi oportet, & reliquum naturæ, quæ sola carnem generat, committete. Habes meam sententiam. De Me- N

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289 MEDICINALS. 290 In private cases, I know I have written that corruption of the humors is contrary to healthy bodies; but what you think can be inferred from this, namely that all private pestilential diseases are contagious, I by no means grant you. But that diseased bodies, infected by contagion, can through the admission of corrupting agents, which continually exhale, contract such a condition that it becomes more harmful and hostile to nature, I freely allow. Yet I think it happens rarely unless the air itself also changes, or is corrupted in its substance, by whatever name you call that corruption. But in contagious pestilential illnesses that infest a city or region, I grant you that the evil is at times increased as if by new fuel, while many bodies are sickened and destroyed; and that even after many years the increase of a pestilential constitution depends on this one cause. <Perechia.> On perechiae, or spotted fevers, I have shown by a brief indication that those in which the spots appear at the very beginning are for the most part contagious. But where they first break out on the fourth day, there is less danger of contagion. Yet I hold with Aristotle and Galen that all pestilential diseases, whether they arise from gross corruption or from contagion alone, are not free from danger. Therefore living and associating with such patients is by no means safe. For even predisposed bodies can be affected by pestilential fevers that arise from corruption alone, although a similar disease, as in contagious ones, may not follow; this, no one doubts. In the word contagium I did not wish to imitate the grammarians superstitiously, who explain contagium as the effect and contagio as the cause. I tried to show clearly what I myself thought about these matters. Whether I succeeded or not, I do not know. I freely confess that I used the Latin word contagion rather than contagium. I knowingly and deliberately did not touch the whole discussion of putrefaction. Nor could I, while sending the booklet to you, change everything that seemed in need of change, since in my severe ill health I could scarcely read it over again. I hope my kindly readers will pardon this, since they know my state of health: that I am scarcely able either to go to my books myself or to hold them long in my hands when they are brought to me; and they will think it enough that I have indicated my opinion about pestilential fevers arising from putrefaction, and about the corruption taken in through contagion, which is pernicious to many. It is easy to enumerate in general the things that produce disease in the body; but to adapt them, as it were, to individual cases requires no ordinary brilliance of mind and sharpness of judgment. I shall say nothing about divine providence, but joining these together, indeed, the fact that certain bodies are not affected at all is beyond doubt to have particular and hidden causes. As for adding formulas for medicines, I have already explained how I feel about that: I do not change. I do not want to prescribe anything to the learned. But to hand these things over to the unlearned and the rash—what is this but to arm ignorance? Yet if it seems otherwise to you, I will comply, when God grants me somewhat firmer health than I now have. I dictated these things offhand, after reading through those points which you had noted on the draft and sent me to examine. I do not mind if I serve the healthy and the innumerable multitude of critics. I strongly desire that you accept these things in good part, and do your best to prevent my little book from going out to my disgrace. Farewell. Vratislavia, 6 September, in the year 1585. EPIST. CLXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I am not now fit to resolve medical difficulties, since I lack both books and time. You yourself know that blood, outside the veins, by its nature turns blackish in color, because of the substance of those parts; on the contrary, that is purer which is discharged from the bladder of the loins. Therefore, since in the present patient the kidneys are undoubtedly affected, it is no wonder if black blood is voided. Your uncle, a few months before the end of his life, was urinating black blood. But we doubted whether it came from the kidneys or from nearby parts. A vein had ruptured from the strain, and you know that Hippocrates said: In the human body all things flow together, and many knots are undone by physicians. As for the flesh of the gums, it is a very difficult question: indeed, they are not altogether gum-like; still, not entirely. For they have fleshy parts, and small vessels embedded in them, and we see wounds healed. Do you ask about the remedy? If the gums suffer from a discharge from the brain, the flesh of the gums will never be restored unless the discharge ceases. For the nakedness of the tooth is either because the condition of the tooth itself is so damaged that the gums are also, because of the tooth, consumed and do not adhere at all; or because the nervous parts are injured; or because the substance of the gums itself has been lost. No doubt surgeons have used sharp, cleansing cicatrizing remedies. Therefore milder and gentler ones ought to be used together with sarcotic remedies, and the rest must be entrusted to nature alone, which alone generates flesh. You have my opinion. Concerning Me-

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An melacholia & Apoplexia possint et se morbo haereditaru. EPISTOLÆ 292 in vase æneostetit, exhibe. Videbis quam grata sit ventriculo futura. Non quæ nobis apparent recta perpetuo recta sunt. Vale. EPIST. CLXXV. IDEM EIDEM. DE studiis recte ignota instituêis ostendi me no[n] posse multa monere. Ita de docti orem rediturum, si plurimum in Germania prius didiceris, & scripta Montani, Trincauellæ ac Donati Altomari legeris. Nam si peruulgata iâ scias, tanqua[m] quorundam com menta non admiraberis, & veteru[m] scripta cu[m] maiori iudicio leges. Methodus vna est nobis à Gal. monstrata. Itaq[ue] & mihi propositu[m] fuit eam perspicua breuitate illustrare. Re- cte facis, quod profectionem in autumnum differs, non propter æstuios calores qui Pa- rauii non sunt magni: verum quod æstate nemo prupemodum docet. Proposita ad disputandum à D. Erasto vidi. Galenus de terum vide disputationes refugisse videtur, & causas aique accidentia motborum quæ- siuit. Mouit hæc Fernelius & multos co[m]mo- uit. Ego Fernelio no[n] applaudo, prodesse pos- se discentibus eius scripta iudico. Nee tueor Valeriolam, etiam conatum illius laudem. De iis & cogito, & inquiro accurate in arre, quæ vsum in vita habet. Vellem tamen scire, cu[m] omnis actio fiat in rempore, nec te p[er]tra- mentum subito possit dissolui, cur venena & morbida expiratio in peste sæpe subito extinguant. Cur pulmo marinus solum pul- monem, cantharides solos renes, & vesicam exulcerent, illæ sis aliis partibus corporis. Sed de his cogitationes meas explicabo, vbi propositiones legero. Illas de contagione legi. Et si recte memini puttidum doroum rotam potensiam substantiæ putrefactæ co[n]tinere dicit. Concedit purredinis gradus; v- tinam esset ociosus. Vale. EPIST. CLXXVI. IDEM EIDEM. IN omni Melancholia n[on] æneostetit ce- rebrum esse statuendum. Sed eum ca- sa antecedens est in hypochondriis, hypo- choadriacam affectionem dicimus. Hoc vero nomine Arabes, non mesenterium tantum, & eius venas atque ventriculum: verum etiam Epar, lienem, & vterum mu- liebrem complectuuntur. Humor vero qui in istis partibus continetur, & fomes morbi est: etsi frigidus & siccus sit, plerumque ta- men vapores, qui ad cerebrum ascendunt, & illius

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Melancholy and Apoplexy can be hereditary. EPISTLES 292 in a bronze vessel stood, present it. You will see how pleasant it will be for the stomach. Not everything that appears straight to us is always straight. Farewell. EPIST. CLXXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. On studies, since I have shown that I cannot instruct you in what is rightly unknown, I can advise many things. Thus you will return more learned, if first of all you have learned much in Germany and have read the writings of Montanus, Trincavella, and Donatus Altomarus. For if you already know the common things, you will not admire, as though they were the inventions of certain men, and you will read the writings of the ancients with greater judgment. There is one method shown to us by Galen. And so it was also my intention to illustrate it with clear brevity. You do right in postponing the journey to autumn, not because of the summer heat, which at Paravius is not great; rather because in summer almost no one teaches. I saw the topics for disputation proposed by Dr. Erastus. Galen seems to have fled from disputes to some extent, and to have sought the causes and accidents of diseases. Fernelius was moved by this, and moved many others. I do not applaud Fernelius; I judge that his writings can be useful to students. Nor do I defend Valeriola, though I praise even his attempt. I think about these matters too, and inquire carefully into an art that has use in life. Yet I should like to know why, since every action takes place in time, and the structure cannot be dissolved at once by your instrument, poisons and pestilential exhalation in the plague often suddenly destroy. Why the sea lung afflicts only the lung, cantharides only the kidneys and bladder, though they are among the other parts of the body. But I shall explain my thoughts on these matters when I have read the propositions. I have read those on contagion. And if I remember correctly, it says that the putrid substance contains the whole power of corruption. It admits degrees of putrefaction; would that it were idle. Farewell. EPIST. CLXXVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. In every melancholy the brain must be considered to be involved. But if the cause preceding it is in the hypochondria, we call it a hypochondriac affection. By this name the Arabs include not only the mesentery and its veins and the stomach; but also the liver, spleen, and womb of women. The humor contained in those parts is the fuel of the disease; and although it is cold and dry, nevertheless the vapors that ascend to the brain, and its

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& illius spiritus alterant: atq[ue] imaginatricem turbant, corq[ue] terribilibus speciebus in con- sensum trahunt, non manifestis qualitatib[us] hoc facere imagines declarant. Hic hêrem[us] propter imaginum diuersitatem quæ vna[m] sibiq[ue] per petuo similem causam habere ne- queunt, & hæc explicanda, si veras curatio- nes indicatiuas elicere volumus, nobis sunt. Tum neq[ue] Gal. neque veteres semper vulnus putauerunt inflammari, & ipse Diocles hoc improbare videtur. Venas autem men- seriacas plerunq[ue] obstrui consentaneum est. Inde feruor quidam præternaturalis calo- rem naturalem imminuens. Hinc flatus, sa- pores acidi, vt Trallianus explicat. Locus i- ste in Hippocr[ate] de Leucophlegmatia corru- ptus est. Nam sequentia cum istis non erant coniungenda, de quo Mercurialis me mo- nuit. Mallem te artem, quam didicisti præ- clare, agendo, quam disputando confirma- re. Vale. EPIST. CLXXVII. IDEM EIDEM. VM nostro N. N. vereor ne actum aga- ris. Dictavi consolationem podagr- cam, quando consilia nihil iuuant, & de re- cta victus ratione imprimis egi, pauca re- media propositui, quibus non tam curentur, < flatus vi- vendi.> quam iuuentur ægri. Probo vsum olei vitri- oli, & cur probem veras causas habeo, eas scripto expositutus sum, & ad D. Scutell- arium, cum is omnia mea causa velit, atq[ue] fa- ciat, atque de his aliquid à me cognoscere desideret, missurus. Interea ne desim nostro N. N. pauca de vsu mellis acidi ad eum scri- bo. Compositio autem mellis acidi hæc est: Accipiatur mellis tosati, vel quod in hoc corpore conuenientius esse videretur, syru pi de betonica ʒii. His adiicientur nouem guttæ olei vitrioli. Accipiat primum de hoc vnum cohlearc matutine ieiuno ventricu- lo. Deinde duo cochlearia. Postea tria, atq[ue] sic eo vt pergit, ab vno denno incipiendo. Vns illius esturus ac suauis, & ventricu- lum h[omi]n[um]idum mirificè adiuiuat, atq[ue] pi- tuitam è corpore remouet. Non libenter in- terpono meum iudicium, cum vos curatio- nem inchoasse intelligam. Si aqua illa quam < Melacidum.> bibit, meatus vrinarios non transit, nequa- quam sudoribus fidendum. Tam enim vti- na, quam sudores prouocandi sunt, non su- dor solus. Vale. EPIST. CLXXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. NON ita dudum ad me scripsit Medicus < Nunc vomi- la.> quidam de Nuce vomica, & ego illi paulo ante meum discessum Vratisl. resp[on]di, esse spongiam, quæ adnascatur frutici. E- ius rei certa esse indicia, necare strangulan- do, non canes tantum; verum eriam ceruos. < Chalcitis quid.> Velim te mihi de chalcitide respondere; An sit chalcitis illud, quod vulgo Calitzenstein dicitur, & in Pharmacopoliis vitriolum al- < Melancho- lia hypochondriaca> bum nominatur? De Melancholia hypo- chondriaca hoc respondeo, Non in ea vnu[m] locum affici; sed epar, lienem, & mesaraicàs, ventriculum etiam, & cerebrum per con- sensum, neq[ue] vno & eodem modo illa sem- per affici. Inde illa symptomatum varietas. Sanguinem autem melancholicum, & fecu- lentum in corpore esse oportet. Is efficitur talis cum massa sanguinea vel aduritur, vel refrigeratur, vel proprio excremento non expurgatur. Aduritur ratione caliditatis e- patis, sicut ratione frigiditatis refrigeratur. Non repurgatur propter obstructiones, quæ à cruditate plæruncq[ue] proficiscuntur. Vtcun- que vero sic semper relinquitur aliquid in meseraicis crassu[m], quod vel efferuescit; hinc Phaenodium diatryon , vel propter debilitatem caloris flatuatur. Vnde & Phaenodium illa Me- lancholia appellatur. Ac nisi hoc fieret, vapo- res qui propriè melancholiam illam seu, te- nebras interiores in cerebro excitant, & me- tum atq[ue] tristitiam inuebunt, in cerebrum non ex hypochondriis ascenderent. Hinc i- gitur cum propter consensum hypochoni- driorum afficitur cerebru[m], melancholia hy- pochondriaca dicitur, & ab ea melâcholia, qua cerebrum, vel ex toto venenosogenero humore, vel vapore ad cerebrum delato, vel etiam in ipso cerebro collecto laborat, di- scernitur. Flatus autem & Boscoquypos citra hypochondriaca esse, atq[ue] hypochondriaca pumpea , vt Hippocrates inquit, non mirum. Cum autem materia non semper calida sit, ideo neque semper feruor & inflammatio in venis meseraicis, & ea symptomata atque melancholicæ species, quam Galen. ex sen- tentia Dioclis descripsit, apparent. Nam & pituita crassescens melancholia symptomata creat. Imo putrescens in pueris Quar- tanam efficit. Vapores autem delati per v- ninersum corpus, cum sunt crassi, nec facilis illis exitus, lassitudines, & segnitiem affe- runt. Sicut cum in cerebro ab illis obscurâ- tur spiritus, mortores, & tristitiam. Hinc in leucophlegmatia quoque præsagiendam melancholiam 6. Epidem. Hippocrat. scri- psit. Quando autem non melancholiei cru- ditatibus & flatibus laborant? Non possum nunc de his scribere plura. Sed illa fatis sunt præmeditata, quando cum hoc N 2

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& that spirit alters them; and disturbs the imaging faculty, and draws the heart into agreement with terrible forms; the images declare that this is done not by manifest qualities. Here we are halted because of the diversity of images, which cannot have one and the same cause always similar to itself; and these things must be explained if we wish to draw out true indicative cures. Then neither Galen nor the ancients always thought the wound inflamed, and Diocles himself seems to disapprove of this. But it is generally agreed that the mesenteric veins are obstructed. From this comes a certain unnatural heat, diminishing natural warmth. Hence flatulence and sour tastes, as Trallianus explains. This passage in Hippocrates, in the treatise on Leucophlegmatia, is corrupt. For the following words were not to be joined with these, as Mercurialis warned me. I would rather that you confirm, by practice, the art which you have learned excellently, than by disputation. Farewell. EPIST. CLXXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I fear that with our N. N. you are taking action after the fact. I dictated a gout consolation, since counsels help nothing, and I dealt chiefly with the proper regimen of diet, proposing a few remedies, by which the sick are not so much cured as helped. I approve the use of oil of vitriol, and I have real reasons why I approve it; these I have set out in writing, and I shall send them to Dr. Scutellarius, since he wishes to do everything for my sake, and asks to learn something from me about these matters. Meanwhile, lest I fail our N. N., I write to him a few words about the use of sour honey. The composition of sour honey is this: Let there be taken toasted honey, or what might seem more suitable in this body, syrup of betony, ʒii. To these are to be added nine drops of oil of vitriol. Let him take at first one spoonful of this in the morning on an empty stomach. Then two spoonfuls. Afterward three, and thus as it proceeds, beginning again from one. Its taste is good and pleasant, and it wonderfully aids a weak stomach, and removes phlegm from the body. I do not willingly insert my own judgment, since I understand that you have begun the treatment. If the water which he drinks does not pass through the urinary passages, no trust is to be placed in sweats. For both urine and sweat are to be provoked, not sweat alone. Farewell. EPIST. CLXXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Not long ago a certain physician wrote to me about nux vomica, and I, a little before my departure from Breslau, replied to him that it is a sponge which grows upon a shrub. There are clear signs of this thing: it kills not only dogs by strangling, but also deer. I should like you to answer me about chalcitis: is it the same as that which is commonly called Calitzenstein and is named in the apothecaries’ shops white vitriol? Concerning hypochondriacal melancholy I answer this: not one place is affected in it, but the liver, spleen, and mesaraic vessels, and also the stomach and the brain by sympathy; nor are those always affected in one and the same way. Hence the variety of symptoms. There must be in the body melancholic and feculent blood. This becomes such when the mass of blood is either burned, or cooled, or not purged of its own excrement. It is burned by reason of the heat of the liver, just as it is cooled by reason of coldness. It is not cleansed because of obstructions, which most often arise from crudity. Yet however it happens, something always remains there in the mesenteric vessels, thick material, which either boils up, or because of weakness of heat becomes full of wind. Hence too that melancholy is so called. And unless this happened, the vapours which properly excite that melancholy, or interior darkness, in the brain, and bring fear and sadness, would not ascend to the brain from the hypochondria. Hence therefore, when the brain is affected through sympathy with the hypochondria, it is called hypochondriacal melancholy, and it is distinguished from that melancholy in which the brain suffers, either from an entirely venomous kind of humor, or from vapour carried to the brain, or even collected in the brain itself. But flatulence and, as Hippocrates says, things outside the hypochondria and hypochondriac conditions are not surprising. Yet since the matter is not always hot, therefore neither is there always heat and inflammation in the mesenteric veins, nor do those symptoms and that kind of melancholy appear which Galen described on the authority of Diocles. For thickening phlegm also creates melancholic symptoms. Indeed, when it putrefies in children, it produces quartan fever. But vapours carried through the whole body, when they are thick and have no easy exit, bring weariness and sluggishness; just as when in the brain, through them, the spirit is darkened, they bring sadness and sorrow. Hence in leucophlegmatia Hippocrates wrote that melancholy should also be foreseen. But when do not melancholics suffer from crudities and flatulence? I cannot now write more about these things. But those matters are sufficiently considered, when with this N 2

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mihi graue est uergorum. Vtinam meas cogitationes cum doctis communicate, atque de iis, quæ me euta afficiunt, scribere lice- ret. Sed scis quid mihi interdicat. Bene va- le. EPIST. CLXXIX. IDEM EIDEM. VENIT nunc mihi in mentem, quod de preciosorum lapidum contusione in ære quæ siuisti. De quo breuitet hoc respon- deo, posse bene committi gemmas, sic ut a- lia multa, quæ in ære corrumpuntur, in lapi- ders instrumentis, etiam si hoc difficula- tem aliqnam habeat, & Pharmacopeis mo- lestum sit. Sed erde mihi, molestia illa vti- litate magna nou vacat. Amittunt enim gemmæ, plurima etiam setnin 1, contusione 20 in ære, vites suas, & abeo quod petperuo re- sudat ex ære, ab aere etiam adhæret, & in for des contrescit, malignitatem contrahunt. Id quod manifeste appatei ex iis, quæ in ære diutius remanent, atq[ue] post eximuntur. Ad- do hoc, quod in vasis æreis destillata cum a- liis medicamentis tuto non miscentur. Cu- tauithic Medicus quidam emulsionemar- garitarum cuidam ægto fieri. Ea in morta- rio æreo est facta, simul ac vero æger assum- sit, vomuit. Degultauit Medicus, idem ei- uenit. Possem multa exempla recitare. Vti- nam in obseruatione talium tei um diligen- tuotes ellemus, melius uobiscum, & cum æ- gitis agereiut. D[omi]n[us] N. N. de Laconico ad me scriptit. Nihil æger istis sudotibus, cum à ca- pite materiam defluere sentiat. Velim apert- ta cernice, vel vesicatorio, vel ruptorio, ext- tum materiæ parari. Plurimis hoc reme- dium prodesse ad præcautionem te ipsa co- peri. Ne hoc negligatur moneo. N. N. Vien- nam est missus. Ei de vino p[ro]ncino mandata dedi. Parcissime mihi vino est vtendum, Nam ventriculus multo difficilis coquit, dum vinum cibo misceo, quam cum certe- uisia vtot. Ac quod mirum est, quæuis cali- da calorem quendam præternaturalem in corpore augent, & me magis debilitant, quâ adiuuant, cum tamen insitum calorem di- minutum esse certissimum sit, Spititus luci- dos esse 1 sed pertenues & paucos animad- uerto. Itaque cogitationes etiam diu in nul- lam remintendere queo. Vale. EPIST. CLXXX. IDEM EIDEM. Væ tu de putredine scribis, teste cogi- tata sunt; sed cum res differre videa- mus, quomodo definitiones congruere di- cemus? Mutationem ad corruptionem, seu, vt rectius dicam, motum & naturalium re- rum interitum, an idem dicemus? Et quibus modis probabit Erastus; calorem innatum de quo agit Aristot. & totam substantiam, de qua Galenns, idem esse. Certe reclamat Ga- lenus in 8. de placitis Hipp. & Platonis, & 5, de simp[lici] medicam. facultatibus, cum calo- rem innatum sanguineam, simulque a- ream substantiam vna cum spiritu esse sta- tuit. Longe aliter autem calidum innatum Aristot. 2. de ortu animalium definit. Adhæc Aristot. causam efficientem putredinis po- nit calorem aeris, & aquæ, ac omnia putres- cere, quæ infra Lunam sunt, præsert ignem, affirmat Formam iuem eam ponit, vt putres- centia primum humidiora fiant, euocato scilicet humore ad superficiem, deinde ab- sumpto facciota, donec in simum & cine- rem redigantur. Quid horum ex Galeni de- finitione elicere poterimus. Quid quod Ga- len. tum ea putrescere existimat, in qui- est humor excrementinus, laxa substantia, aut perspitario impedita. Nihil hic addam de foetore, nihil de Auerthoidis sententia. Suntne obsecro Præceptotes tui in ea sen- tentia, vt putredinem in occulis proprieta- tibus, atq[ue] adeo in tota forma & substantia, qualis est pestilens, item ab istu venenato- rum, &c. eandem esse, cum illa, quæ in ma- nifestis qualitatibus est, existiment? Et quo- modo hoc probant? Mihi proportione qua- dam Galenia ad eam, quæ est ab occulta totius substantiæ proprietate accedere vi- deretur. Aristotelis vero definitionem illam repræsentate, qua tes externo circumfusi aeris calore depalcente calorem naturalem, seu innatum, in simum & cinerem redigun- tur, altercationibus mediis intercedentibus. Itaque quæ specie & causis differunt, vna definitione comprehendi nequeunt. Ac v- nam partem definitionis Aristotelicæ Ga- lenum amplecti, cum de sanguinis putredi- ne agit, ostendit. De his nimis multa. Scribo autem ista ad te vt Præceptorum tuorum sententiam cognoscam. Estras si me vel pro- lixissimis epistolis, vel meæ sententiæ repu- gnanribus offendi existimas. N. N. se Guesia- co vt significauit. Nunquam ego teste gu- staui, multo minus bibere volui, & miror, humines hæc instrumenta sanitatis tanti fa- cere. Erastus Phthisicum se curasse affir- mat. Vt pulmonis vleus sanate possit, scire velim. Nam & ego mihi male ab isto mor- bo meruo. Iam multis diebus purulenta ma- ne magno conaru, & cum tussi reiicio. Ca- put tamen in isto motu expurgari sentio. Bene vale. EPIST-

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It is grievous to me to be silent. Would that I could share my thoughts with the learned, and write about the things that affect me so deeply. But you know what forbids me. Farewell. EPISTLE CLXXIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. It has now come into my mind what you asked about the crushing of precious stones in bronze. On that point I briefly answer that gems can be safely ground, as can many other things that are corrupted in bronze vessels or instruments; although this may have some difficulty, and be troublesome to pharmacists. But believe me, that inconvenience is not without great usefulness. For gems lose their virtue, even with the slightest crushing in bronze, and from that which continually exhales from the bronze, and clings even from the bronze itself, and grows foul with rust, they contract malignity. This is plainly evident from those things which remain longer in bronze and are afterwards taken out. I add also that distilled preparations, mixed with other medicines in bronze vessels, do not combine safely. A certain physician ordered an emulsion of pearls to be made for a certain patient. It was made in a bronze mortar; as soon as the patient took it, he vomited. The physician swallowed it himself, and the same thing happened to him. I could recite many examples. Would that we were more diligent in observing such things, so that we might deal better with you and with patients. A certain Mr. N. N. from Laconia has written to me. The patient suffers nothing from those sweats, since he feels the matter flowing down from the head. I should like an opening to be made clear, either by a vesicatory or by a cautery, so that the matter may be evacuated. I have learned from myself that this remedy is of use to many as a precaution. I warn you that this should not be neglected. N. N. has been sent to Vienna. I gave him instructions about the Pannonian wine. I must use wine very sparingly, for the stomach digests much more poorly when I mix wine with food than when I drink beer. And what is surprising is that any hot drink increases a certain unnatural heat in the body and weakens me rather than helps me, although it is certain that the innate heat has been diminished. I observe that the spirits are bright, but very thin and few. And so I am unable even for a long time to direct my thoughts to any matter. Farewell. EPISTLE CLXXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. What you write about putrefaction has been considered in thought; but since we see that the things themselves differ, how shall we say that the definitions agree? Shall we say that change into corruption, or, more correctly, motion and the destruction of natural things, is the same? And by what means will Erastus prove that the innate heat of which Aristotle speaks, and the whole substance of which Galen speaks, are the same? Certainly Galen protests in the eighth book On the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato, and in the fifth book On the Faculties of Simples, when he establishes that the innate heat is a sanguine, and at the same time an airy substance together with spirit. Aristotle, however, defines the innate heat in a very different way in the second book On the Generation of Animals. Moreover, Aristotle places the efficient cause of putrefaction in the heat of air and water, and affirms that everything beneath the moon, except fire, grows putrid. He states its form to be such that things that are to rot first become more moist, namely by the moisture being drawn to the surface; then, after the substance is consumed, they are reduced to mucus and ashes. What of this can we draw from Galen’s definition? And what of the fact that Galen thinks that those things putrefy in which there is excrementitious moisture, a lax substance, or impeded perspiration? I shall add nothing here about foul odor, nothing about the opinion of Averroes. I ask you, are your teachers of the opinion that putrefaction in occult properties, and indeed in the whole form and substance, such as in plague and likewise in the poison of venomous things, is the same as that which is in manifest qualities? And how do they prove this? To me it would seem that Galen approaches it by some proportion to that which arises from the occult property of the whole substance. But represent Aristotle’s definition, by which things exposed to the external heat of the surrounding air, when their natural or innate heat is extinguished, are reduced to putrefaction and ashes, with intermediate disputations intervening. Thus things that differ in appearance and in causes cannot be comprehended in one definition. And Galen’s embracing of only one part of Aristotle’s definition, when he speaks of the putrefaction of blood, shows this. Enough of this. I write these things to you in order that I may learn the opinion of your teachers. Do not think me offensive, whether by very lengthy letters or by opinions contrary to mine. N. N. said he was at Guise. I have never tasted it, much less wished to drink it, and I marvel that men make such a great matter of these instruments of health. Erastus states that he has cured a consumptive man. I should like to know by what means a lung ulcer may be healed. For I myself have suffered badly from that disease. For many days now I have been bringing up purulent matter in the morning with great effort, and I cough it up. Yet I feel that the head is being cleared in that process. Farewell. EPISTLE-

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297 MEDICINALES. 298 EPIST. CLXXXI. M. MARTINO WEINRICHIO Vratisl. Io. Crato &c. S. D. GRATVLATIO de reditu meo tua, amoris in me, & humanitatis plenissima, tam mihi grata atque sucunda fuit, quam solent esse omnia optatissimæ mihiq[ue] charissimæ < 10> beneuolentiæ erga me bonorum virorum documenta, maximè cum sciam, ab animo mei per quam studio, eoque integerimo proficisci. Deus pro egregia hac tua voluntate tibi tuisque benefaciat, bonisque omnibus cumulet. Ego certe quidquid in me est, ita in tua potestate ero, vt me optime tibi velle facile possis intelligere. Delibro ad me misso magnam habeo gratiam, daboque operam, vt te avndè ipso aliquod remunerem. < 10> Ad quæstionem tuam quod attinet, malo, vbi ad me veneris, coram tibi sententiam meam de eo exponere. Nuper cum Seuatus idem rogasset pauca hæc scripsi Etsi maius malum esse videtur, quam vt naturalib[us] remediis tolli possit, tamen cum appareat i , vel potius puerisimus esse epilepsiæ, adhiberem ea remedia, quæ epilepticis conferunt; prognostico prius prulato, periculum esse ne vel cum morbo vitam simiant, < 10> vel omnium membrorum nupius co[n]sequatur. Purgarem initio copus, prius tamen exhibito syrupo de succo cardui, deinde rectam victus rationem præscriberem, ac ne quid præter decoctum ligni visci quercini, atque catdui biberent, ordinarem. Exhiberem tandem visitatos pulueres, qui dantur epilepticis, atque periculum etiam pulueris cum cinnabari natua facerem: si quid hæc remedia prodescent ad alia deinceps prouenirem. Preces etiam piorum huic curationi plurimum adiumenti afferrent. Hæc tum subito exaraui, sed cum easum ipsum te plenissime audiuisse ex iis, qui istic viderunt triste illud spectaculum, intelligatæ, coram, vt scripsi, colloquemur. Tu vt quam sæpissime mecum esse possis vide, neque id mihi modo gratum fore confidas, verum tibi etiam non in iucundum aut inutile. Synopsum febrium, quam tibi communicavi, quamprimùm retuleris, faciam, vt pleniorem habeas. Bene vale. EPIST. CLXXXII. IDEM EIDEM. EX Illustri Domino Dudithio, cui te innotuisse est quod læteris, intelliges, quo in loco hic res nostræ sint. Ego maxima co[n]tentione hoc egi, vt ex aula tandem dimitterer, Cæsar contra summa clementia me retinere, dum in Austriâ cat suauissimis & humanissimis verbis studes. Itaq[ue] cum ad Monauium nostrum scripserit, huc te venturum, si scires, an me offensurus sis, id tibi significare volui, satisfaciamq[ue] voluntati tuæ ex animo, modo ne vltra hunc me[m]sem protrahas. Valetudini fororis tuæ opera exos , sed nihil periculi est, nisi grauius quiddam subest, quod subticuisti. Fiunt dolores capitis < Dolor capitis per consensum vteri & ventriculis. NB.> plerunque per consensum, & in foeminis præsertim, ventriculi & vteri. Quando per consensum ventriculi, tum dolent fere pars anterior. Quando ab vtero est per consensum, non est curanda pars illa, quæ dolet, id est, caput, sed membrum, à quo ot. nis consensus: si à mattice, propter vaporum ascendentium copiam. Ergo matrici subueniendum, & si obstructio, illa tollenda & aperienda est: si vetus intemperies, tum etiam vetus malum esse coniicimus. In veteri porro morbo est remediis lenibus, diuturnis, & paulisper subtrahentibus & alterantibus vtendu[m]. Si à ventriculo dolor est, medetur vel vomitus, idque subito, sicut grauissimos dolores dentium videmus subito, simul ac eu[m] mitaliquis, tolli. Si à eruditate ventriculi est, imperanda est quies, somnus, abstinentia & roborandus ventriculus aut fotu, aut inunctione. Fotus potest fieri eiusmodi: 24. Rorismarin. Menthæ a.p.j. Rosar. p.ß. Decoq[ue] in vinosq[ue] & fomentetur ventriculus humectata spongia cum decocto, sed expressa inter duas quadras. Si caput per se dolet, non conque scet dolor, nisi materia ad aliquam partem deriuetur à natura, vel eadem euacuetur. Euacuationes capitis non tendandæ, nisi vel bene euacuato toto corpore; vel medicamentis paulatim educentibus; eaque sunt tutiora, ac recte dantur ante coenam, vel post coenam exiguam & parcam, quatuor horis ante, seu hora decubitus. Fuit hoc Fernelii secretum, quod multis profuisse aiunt: 24. Aloes rosat[us] Spec. Elect. de gemmis [mercur]ij. Misc. & reformentur pill. num. vij. Sumantur autem, vt dixi, semper diebus alternis. Deinde & caput recte expurgetur, & tuto per apophlegmatismata, inter quæ tutissimum est vti isto gargarismate: 24. Origan. Rutæ. Hyssopi. N 3

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297 MEDICALS. 298 EPISTLE CLXXXI. TO M. MARTIN WEINRICH Vratisl. Io. Crato, etc. Greetings. Your congratulations on my return, full as they were of affection toward me and of kindness, were as agreeable and pleasant to me as are all the tokens of goodwill toward me from good men, most especially since I know that they proceed from a mind that is very earnest and, moreover, most sincere. May God, for this excellent disposition of yours, deal kindly with you and yours, and load you with blessings along with all good men. As for me indeed, whatever is in me, I shall be so much at your disposal that you may readily understand that I wish you very well. I am much obliged for the book sent to me, and I shall do my best to repay you in some way. As to your question, I prefer, when you come to me, to set out my opinion on it to you in person. Recently, when the Senate asked the same thing, I wrote these few words: Although it seems to be a greater evil than can be removed by natural remedies, yet since it appears to be, or rather to be the most childish form of epilepsy, I would apply those remedies which are helpful in epilepsy; after first giving the prognosis, that there is danger lest he either die with the disease, or suffer a loss of all his limbs. I would first purge the body, however, after first administering syrup made from the juice of thistle; then I would prescribe the proper regimen of diet, and order that they drink nothing except a decoction of mistletoe wood and of thistle. Finally I would administer the tested powders that are given to epileptics, and I would also try the powder with cinnabar, naturally; if these remedies should do any good, I would proceed thereafter to others. The prayers also of godly people would bring much help to this treatment. These things I then wrote down hastily, but since he will have heard the case itself very fully from those who saw that sad spectacle there, let us speak together in person, as I wrote. See that you can be with me as often as possible, and be sure not only that this will be pleasant to me, but also not unwelcome or useless to you. As soon as you return the Synopsis of Fevers, which I communicated to you, I shall make it so that you have a fuller copy. Farewell. EPISTLE CLXXXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. From the distinguished Lord Dudithius, whom you will be glad to have become known to you, you will understand in what state our affairs here stand. I have labored with all my effort to be dismissed at last from the court; Caesar, on the other hand, with great kindness, seeks to retain me, while you are staying in Austria with the sweetest and most human words. Therefore, since he has written to our Monauius that you will be coming here, if you know whether you would be offending me, I wished to inform you of it, and I shall satisfy your wish from the heart, provided only that you do not put it off beyond this month. As for the health of your sister, there is no danger unless something more serious lies beneath, which you have kept back. Headaches are usually caused by sympathy, and especially in women, by the stomach and the womb. When the stomach is the cause by sympathy, the front part usually hurts. When it is from the womb by sympathy, the part that hurts is not the one to be treated, that is, the head, but the member from which the whole sympathy arises: if from the womb, because of the abundance of rising vapors. Therefore the womb must be relieved, and if there is obstruction, that must be removed and opened; if there is an old distemper, then we conclude that the disease is also old. In an old disease, moreover, one must use gentle, long-term remedies, and those which slightly draw out and alter. If the pain is from the stomach, it is treated either by vomiting, and that immediately, just as we see the very worst toothaches vanish suddenly, as soon as someone vomits; if it is from corruption of the stomach, rest, sleep, and abstinence must be prescribed, and the stomach strengthened either by fomentation or by inunction. The fomentation may be made in this way: 24. Rosemary. Mint a. p. j. Rose petals p. ß. Boil in wine and let the stomach be fomented with a sponge moistened with the decoction, but wrung out between two cloths. If the head hurts by itself, the pain will not cease unless the material is drawn by nature to some part, or evacuated. Evacuations of the head should not be attempted unless either the whole body has been well evacuated; or by medicines that draw it out little by little; and these are safer, and are properly given before supper, or after a light and modest supper, four hours before, or at bedtime. This was the secret of Fernelius, which they say has helped many: 24. Rosated aloes. Spec. Elect. of the gems of mercury. Mix and make pills no. vii. These are to be taken, as I said, always on alternate days. Then let the head also be properly cleansed, and safely by apophlegmatisms, among which the safest is to use this gargle: 24. Oregano. Rue. Hyssop. N 3

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199 EPISTOLÆ 300 Rosmarin. a.m.ß. Rosar. rubear. p.j. Pyrethri 5iii. Zinzibers 3j. Decoquantur in lib.11. aquæ puræ ad de coct consumptionem mediam. Colaturæ expressæ & de puratæ adde aceti acertimi q.1. & detur in vitro. Hæc iube vt diligenter vsurpet, additis iis cautionibus, quas addidi. Quod si grauioribus remediis deinceps o- pus fuerit, marure me moneto. Vale & soe- rum tuum ex me salura. Dab. Prag. Kal. No- uemb. Anno 1581. EPIST. CLXXXIII. IDEM EIDEM. M VLTVM diuque Beniuenium de ml- randis morborum eurationibus, quæ 20 siui in bibliotheca mea, neque vllis vestigiis reperire potui. Sed quia te eius lectionem expetere animaduerto, iterum atq[ue] iterum curabo inquiri, & nisi quis eum abstitui, quod in mulierut quoror, inuentum statim mir- ram. NUMMUNIO magni illius Philosophi contra grauissimum Germaniæ nostræ lhi- sophum disputationem, in quibus sane est aliquid, vt videbis, quod non prorsus consi- deratione indignum videur. Tu capita ac- 30 curare consignato, vi soles, & ad methodum tuam reuoca. Quod ad catarthos atinet, quorum in priorerua epistola mentionem faciebas, illud cogitare te volo, & in catar- bis, & sputo sanguinis, non satis mihi tu- tum videri nimum diu & sæpe eclegmatis vti, quia non tam illabuntur pectori, quam ventriculum & epar debilitant. Inde cru- ditatibus auctus caput magis repletur, & ob- structiones propter eclegmatum dulcedi. 40 nem, quæ facit vi simul erudi humores ar- trahamur, fiunt, ac non taro ita temperame[n] tum epatis corrumpitur, vt hydrops conse- quatur. Itaque tutius est in isto casu vti be- chicis, quæ in ore retinentur, & sumis, vt ex tussilagine sieca & similibus. In pauperum curatione, qui colicis doloribus infestan- tur, allium teratur cum sale, & vmbilico ap- plicetur. Si dolor est ex ventositaterantum, soluitur recondito milio in facculo & cali- 50 de adhibito. In fluxionibus obseruabis ma- teriam sæpe mixtam esse, & maxime ad te- nuem esse in curatione respiciendum. In crassis fluxionibus N. adhibuir decoctum hissopi & ruræ cum melle pro gargarismate. Id recte fir in crassa materia, quia valde ab- stergit. Vtarur autem isto decocto pro gar- garismate: 2. Furfur. tritici. m.1. Decoq[ue] in aqua pura, addito melle, & be- ne despumetur. vbi resederit, percoletur. Vulgo in principiis fluxionum vtuntur ta- li, quia semper in principiis fluxionum a- stringentia vel roborantia sunt adhiben- da: 21. Aquæ prunell. lib. j. Diamor. Dianucum a.3j.ß. Misc. Vbi graues sunt exuleerationes ad deter- gendum admiscetur mel, & interdum vna vel altera gutta olei vittoli. Oieum enim vittoli melli eum istum ita, vt ad vnicum vnam mellis rosari gutta vna vel altera adi- ciatur, plurimum in vlceribus oris & gingi- uarum valet. De Podagra nupertibi mulra communicaui. Dolotem podagricum se- dat, & cito ad maturitatem perducit, si vi- tellus oui misceatur vino, & tepide applie- tur. Visitatum remedium est applicare, pa- nem album imbutum lacte, cum vitello & croco commistum. Sed quia relaxat, & fluxioni quasi aditum parat, non tutum lu- dico. Omnia vero quæ in doloribus adhi- bentur, priusquam siecentur, detrahenda sunt. quia siccara eum poros obstruant, do- lorem augent. Tu vero super mon Mon- taniearum lectionum, quam adeo feliciter me Authore in manus sumpsisti, & bonâ ea- rum partem in optimum ordinem redegi- sti, ne deponas, etiam atque etiam oro. Mea opera si egebis, nullibi tibi deero. Bene & feliciter vale. Anno 1583. EPIST. CLXXXIV. IOHANNES CRATO MED. Cas &c. Laurentio Scholzio, Med. S. D. S I possem esse vt volo, nihil facerem lu- bentius, quam tibi ruisque similibus, quos vrparest, amo, & de illorum studiis præclare sentio. ad Syrupam Experimo Medica respon- derem, verum cum me aula durius, quam velim exercear, & curarum onus grauius, quam vires meæ patiantur premat, quæso exdiacua hoe boni consule. Medicamentu[m] Experimo illud non est Helidæi, sed Nicoli Florentini, qui si recte memini, ex continente Rhasis descripsit. Sanguinem ex illius vsu crassio- rem fieri constat. Sit ne autem hæc vera in- tento in curatione sputi sanguinis, siue ru- pta, siue exesa vena sanguis reticiatur, ipse existimare potes. Ego vsum diuturnu[m] cha- mædrios longe huic Electuario præfero, & ipsum Helidæum timidius illud exhibe- re, etsi vt sua omnia ex Nicolo desumpta magnifacet, & venditaret, animaduer- ti. Chamædrio in spumo sum- guinis proba- tur.

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199 EPISTOLÆ 300 Rosemary, a.m.ß. Roses, red, p.j. Pyrethrum, 5iii. Ginger, 3j. Let them be boiled in 11 lb. of pure water down to one half by evaporation. To the strained and expressed decoction add of the sharpest vinegar q.1., and let it be given in a glass. I order that this be used carefully, with the cautions which I have added. But if later more serious remedies should be needed, let me know again. Farewell, and greet your wife from me. Given at Prague, on the Kalends of November, in the year 1581. EPIST. CLXXXIII. SAME TO SAME. I have long and often been looking for the admirable cures of diseases, which I sought in my library, and I was not able to find any traces of them. But since I notice that you desire its reading, I will again and again endeavor to inquire after it, and unless someone has taken it away, what was found in the case of women I shall at once wonder at. The disputation of that great philosopher Num- munius against the most learned philosopher of our Germany contains, indeed, something which, as you will see, does not seem wholly unworthy of consideration. Be careful to note down the heads, as you are accustomed to do, and bring them back to your method. As for catarrhs, of which you made mention in your previous letter, I want you to consider this: in catarrhs and in spitting of blood it does not seem to me sufficiently safe to use eclegmas too long and too often, because they do not so much descend to the chest as weaken the stomach and liver. Thereby, with crudities increased, the head is more filled, and obstructions are caused through the sweetness of the eclegmata, which in turn draw the humors downward; and not rarely the temperament of the liver is so corrupted that dropsy follows. Therefore it is safer in such a case to use bechics, which are kept in the mouth and swallowed, as those made from dried coltsfoot and the like. In the treatment of the poor who are afflicted with colic pains, let garlic be pounded with salt and applied to the navel. If the pain is only from wind, it is relieved by millet enclosed in a little bag and applied warm. In fluxions you will observe that the matter is often mixed, and chiefly the thinness of it must be considered in treatment. In thick fluxions N. used a decoction of hyssop and rue with honey for a gargle. This works well in thick matter because it cleanses strongly. Let this decoction be used for a gargle: 2. Wheat bran, 1 handful. Boil in pure water, adding honey, and let it be well skimmed. When it has settled, strain it. Commonly, at the beginning of fluxions, they use such things, because in the beginnings of fluxions astringent or strengthening remedies must always be employed: 21. Prunell water, 1 lb. Diamor. Dianucum a.3j.ß. Mix. Where the ulcerations are severe, honey is added for cleansing, and sometimes one or two drops of vitriol oil. For vitriol oil mixed with honey in this way, so that to a single ounce of rose honey one or two drops are added, is of great value in ulcers of the mouth and gums. Concerning gout I recently communicated much to you. The gouty pain is eased, and brought quickly to maturation, if the yolk of an egg is mixed with wine and applied warm. A tried remedy is to apply white bread soaked in milk, mixed with yolk and saffron. But because it relaxes and as it were opens the way to the flux, I do not think it safe. Indeed, all things that are used in pains, before they are dried, must be drawn out, because dry things obstruct the pores and increase the pain. But you, I earnestly beg, do not lay aside the reading of the Mountainous writings, which through my authoring you have so happily taken into your hands and have already restored a good part of them to the best order. If you need my help, I shall be wanting to you nowhere. Fare well, and prosper. In the year 1583. EPIST. CLXXXIV. JOHANNES CRATO MED. To Laurentius Scholzius, Med. S. D. If I could be as I wish, I would do nothing more gladly than respond to you and those like you, whom I esteem, love, and of whose studies I think very highly. I would reply concerning the Syrup Experimo Medica; but since the court presses me more harshly than I wish, and the burden of cares weighs more heavily than my strength can bear, I beg you to take this in good part. That medicine Experimo is not by Helidaeus, but by Nicolo of Florence, who, if I remember correctly, copied it from the compendium of Rhasis. It is certain that through its use the blood becomes thicker. Whether this be true in the treatment of spitting of blood, whether the blood is stopped because a vein is broken or eroded, you yourself can judge. I greatly prefer the long use of chamædrys to this electuary, and I noticed that even Helidaeus himself administered that remedy more cautiously, although he vaunts and advertises all his things as taken from Nicolo. Chamædrys is approved in spitting of blood.

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301 MEDICINALES. 302 hi reddidit. Interea eas tuas literas, quibus 4 diem Augusti asscripseras, ex aula mihi missas accepi. DE BOLO ARMENA, afferatur ne ex Ar- Bolum Ar- menia, & an ex vicinis locis in Thraciam perlata adulteretur, multi ambigunt. Si quid explorati putes cognoscere, quæso vt per- scribas. Non pauci sunt in ea sententia, ter- ram Caphenem quæ non longe ab vrbe Constantinopolitana effoditur, adulterari & tingi, atque ita ad exteros pro bolo mitri. Non arhitur. Quæso de his cum aliquo Medico agas. Atthrant nonnulli terram Lemniam, seu sigillatam, vt vocant, esse bo- lum, qui ad nos aofertur. Hoc vt mihi per- suadeam adduci nequeo. Galenus cum in Lemnum cognoscendæ huius terræ desi- derio nauigasset, à sene quod quod scriptum se accepisse affirmat, in quo fuerit hoc, Vomi- tum terram sigillatam citre assumptam, pre- sertim si veneni sit suspicio. Turcas vero in cibis vti, à multis nobis significatum. Bolum autem Armenam cum peculiari quasi pri- uilegio adue: sus pestilentæ contagium do- natum Galenus affirmet, tamen Turcos in peste plane & bolum Armenam, & terram sigillatam negligere, neq[ue] etiam lapidi Be- zoardico aliquid tribuere, nostri homines, qui illhic fuerunt, persuadere conantur. I- terum oro, si potes, vt de his ex Medicis ali- quid explorari cognoscas, & ad me perscri- has. Multas terras in Hungaria, Silesia, & a- liis locis, similes bulo Armenæ reperiri cer- tum est. Verum deuehi eas in Thraciam non puto. Bene vale. Vratisl. 5. Decembr. 1582. EPIST. CLXXXVII. IDEM EIDEM. QVAM mihi officium tuum literatium gratum sit, mallem reipsa, quam ver- bis declarare, si in magnis locotum inter- uallis, & valetudine mea afflicta hoc recte fieri posset. Vix enim tantum est virium, vt dictare Epistolam, quatuis humanissimis persoluam, possim DEVM oro vt mihi occasionem concedat, qua animum meum, ita vt erga te est affectus, ostendere queam. Valde mihi gratum est, cum in literis tuis lego Illustrissimum tuum Dominum mi- sisse Pharmacopæum in Lemnum, vt de terra sigillata certi aliquid reserret. Mi- ror autem nostrorum hominum oscitan- tiam, qui tot & tantos viros in Aulis sum- morum Principum ista terra honorant, & quasi beneficio sibi deuincire student, ne- que explorati quicquam quid donent, co- gnoscere. Valde cuperem exiguam saltem particulam veræ terræ sigillatæ, atque boli N 4

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301 Medicinals. 302 he returned. Meanwhile I received those letters of yours, to which you had added the 4th day of August, sent to me from the court. Concerning Armenian bolus, many are in doubt whether it is brought from Armenia, and whether, if carried into Thrace from neighboring places, it is adulterated. If you think you can ascertain anything for certain, I beg that you will write to me at length. There are not a few who hold that the earth of Caphene, which is dug not far from the city of Constantinople, is adulterated and dyed, and thus sent to foreigners as bolus. I do not believe it. I ask that you discuss these matters with some physician. Some say that the Lemnian earth, or “sealed earth,” as it is called, is the bolus which is brought to us. I cannot be brought to persuade myself of this. Galen, when he had sailed to Lemnos in his desire to examine this earth, states that he received from an old man something written by “what what,” in which this was found: “Sealed earth taken with quince for vomiting, especially if there is suspicion of poison.” It has also been reported to us by many that the Turks use it in foods. Although Galen affirms that Armenian bolus, by a sort of special privilege, was granted for warding off the contagion of pestilence, nevertheless our men who have been there try to persuade us that in the plague the Turks altogether make no use of either Armenian bolus or sealed earth, nor do they attribute anything to the bezoar stone either. I beg you again, if you can, to learn something about these matters from the physicians and to write to me at length. It is certain that many earths in Hungary, Silesia, and other places are found similar to Armenian bolus. But I do not think they are brought into Thrace. Farewell. Breslau, 5 December 1582. EPISTLE CLXXXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. How pleasing your attention to letters is to me, I would rather declare by deeds than by words, if this could be done properly amid such great intervals of distance, and with my health afflicted as it is. For I scarcely have enough strength even to dictate a letter, though it be to a most humane correspondent. I pray God to grant me an opportunity by which I may show my mind as it is disposed toward you. It is very gratifying to me when I read in your letters that your Most Illustrious Lord has sent an apothecary to Lemnos so that he may report something certain about the sealed earth. But I marvel at the sluggishness of our men, who honor so many and such great men in the courts of the greatest princes with this earth, and strive as it were to bind them to themselves by a favor, yet do not take care to learn what they are giving, or whether anything certain is being presented. I would greatly desire at least a small particle of true sealed earth, and of bolus N 4

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inspicere. Ita quæ scripserint Medici & tu ex amicorum sermonibus refers, diu multorum literis sunt consignata. Rem ipsam nos habere vere, siue veterum, siue recentia judicia considererimus satis euidens est. Bene vale. Vratislaviæ 14. Maij Anno 1583. EPIST. CLXXXVIII. IOH. SCHROTERVS, MED. CELE- berr. &c. Iustino Petzoldo, Med. S.D. EGO cum videam hoc tempore febres populatiter grassantes eiusmodi conditionem habere, vt proinus omnes humani corporis actiones prosternant: primum equidem non caloris remissionem quærendam: sed maximo studio sine vlla cunctatione in hoc incumbendu esse iudico, quod antea sæpe similibus in casibus me facere memini, vt augmentum venenositatis prohibeatur, ne hoc longius serpar, membraq[ue] principalia corroborentur, vt ipsa se à venenositate rueri possint: non neglectis postea tamen, quæ moderate refrigerent. Nam hanc resolutionem, quam febres hæ affertunt, omnino statuo pestiferam, ipsamq[ue] venenosam malignitatem esse, inscientem omnes spiritus & horum virtutes. Vnde in his exquisite & copiose euacuare nullo modo tutum erit, maxime cum alui fluxus copiosus eas sæpissime comitetur, & si natura morbi, ægrique euacuationem patiuntur; illa quallicunque, vel per venæ sectionem, vel pharmacum instituitur, moderata & sine vlla violentia sit oportet: adhibeanturque semper, quæ venenositari resistunt. operæ pretium itaque est: semper partium principalium corroborantia; & horum spiritus recreantia exhibeamus ægris cum in cibo; tum potu & pharmacis. Quare recte aluo subducto sequentis pulueris in aquis scabiosæ, acetosæ, borraginis bis terve in die è 3j. ad 3j. & 3ij. pro narura indiuidui exhibemus: 2/2. Succini alb. 3ij. Sem. ocymi garyophil. 3j. & acetosæ, card. bened. citri a. 3ij. Rad. tormentill. diptami, gentianæ a. 3ij. & Boli armen. Terræ Lemniæ, Cinnamom. a. 3 & Margaris. Hyacinth. præpar. Ost. de corde cerui a. 3ij. Sandal. omnium a. 3j. & Misc. f. pulu. subtilis. EPIST. CCLXXXIX. IVL. CAESAR ARANTIVS, MED. Bononiensis, &c. Laurentio Schol- zio Med. S.D. CVM tabellarius Patauinus ad nos rediens, nullas mihi abs te literas tradiderit, id contigisse sum arbitratus, quod in iunere diutius fueris, Patauiumq[ue] nondum peruenisses. Eo igitur hinc discedente, nolui committere, quin has ad te literas deferret, vt quid post tuum discessum hic actum sit, innotescerer. Doleo primum maxime quod toro Martio mense apud nos non fueris. Nam cum hinc, vt arbitror, decima nona Casura. Martij recesseris, ecce quod vicesima quarta etiam grauida mulier expleus omnibus numeris in vtero foetum commens, ex syncope, quæ vexari non raro consueuerat, iam imminente partu, inter prandendum periit, paucoque interposito spacio accersitus, eas spe vt viuentem foetum secto ventre extraherem. Cum igitur eam omnino decessisse perspicuum esset, Deo adiuanante, foetum marem, adhuc motu cordis aliquo præditum, extraxi, sacramentoque Baptismatis insign tus est, sed, o bone Deus, quam cupiebant te meo latei tunc adhærere, quemadmodum ex tuis còdiscipulis aliqui interfuerunt facile enim, quæ in commentario meo scripsi, vnde quaque veritati respondere conspexisses. Ad hæc vicesima octaua eiusdem metis, facinorosus quidam Anatonicis præcipuus. suspendio mulctabatur, in quo præter cerebri, oculorum, & instrumenti auditus anatomem, pleraq[ue] alia obiter, quantum pro ætis tempore lituit, administrata in discipulorum gratiam sunt. Vide obsecro quanta acciderint. Quasdam etiam notatu dignas tutationes prætermitto. Interim me certiorem reddes, cui capsulam, in qua imago musculorum recòdita est, tuo nomine resignari velis. D. Franciscus ad S. Victorem salutem plurimam tibi dicit. Ipse vero tibi omnia, secunda cupio. Bene interim vale, & me, quod facis, ama. Bononiæ, quarto Nonas Aprilis, Anno 1579. EPIST. CXC. IVSTINVS PETZOLDVS PHYSICVS Gothanus, &c. Laurentio Scholzio Med. S.D. GRATISSIMÆ mihi literæ tuæ fuerunt, vel ob id inprimis, quod in fouendis

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inspect. Thus what the physicians have written, and what you report from the conversation of friends, has long been recorded in many writings. The matter itself, if we consider either the judgments of the ancients or those of recent times, is quite evident: that we truly possess it. Farewell. Breslau, 14 May 1583. EPIST. CLXXXVIII. JOH. SCHROTER, most celebrated physician, etc., to Justin Petzold, physician, sends greetings. SINCE I see that at this time fevers raging among the people have such a condition that they at once overthrow all the actions of the human body, I judge that one should first not seek a remission of heat, but with the greatest diligence and without any delay apply oneself to this, as I have often before remembered doing in similar cases, namely, that the increase of the poison be prevented, so that it does not spread farther, and that the principal parts be strengthened, so that they may themselves be able to resist the venom; meanwhile, however, not neglecting those remedies that moderately cool. For I hold that this exhaustion, which these fevers bring about, is altogether pestilential, and that it is itself a poisonous malignity, affecting all the spirits and their powers. Hence in such cases it will by no means be safe to evacuate abundantly and excessively, especially since a copious flux from the bowels very often accompanies them; and if the nature of the disease and of the patient permits evacuation, whatever is done, whether by venesection or by medicine, it must be moderate and without any violence; and remedies that resist poison should always be applied. It is therefore worth the effort always to give the sick strengthening remedies for the principal parts, and restoratives for their spirits, both in food and in drink and medicines. Wherefore, after the bowels have been opened, we rightly administer the following powder in waters of scabious, sorrel, and borage, two or three times a day, from 3j to 3j and 3ij, according to the nature of the individual: 2/2. White succinum, 3ij. Seeds of basil with clove, 3j. and sorrel, carduus benedictus, citron, a. 3ij. Roots of tormentil, dittany, gentian, a. 3ij. and Armenian bole, Lemnian earth, cinnamon, a. 3 and pearl, prepared hyacinth, bone from the stag’s heart, a. 3ij. all sandalwoods, a. 3j. and mix, make a fine powder. EPIST. CCLXXXIX. JUL. CAESAR ARANTIUS, physician of Bologna, etc., to Laurentius Scholz, physician, sends greetings. WHEN the Paduan courier, returning to us, handed over to me no letters from you, I assumed that it had happened because you had stayed longer in journeying and had not yet reached Padua. Therefore, as he was departing from here, I did not want to let him go without taking these letters to you, so that you might learn what has been done here since your departure. First, I am greatly grieved that you were not with us in the month of March. For since, as I think, you left here on the nineteenth of March, behold, on the twenty-fourth a pregnant woman, in the full term of pregnancy and carrying the fetus in her womb, with a syncope, which she had often been troubled by, now impending labor, perished while at dinner; and after a short interval, when I was summoned, with the hope that I might extract the living fetus by cutting open the abdomen. Since it was plainly evident that she had died completely, with God’s help I extracted a male fetus, still endowed with some movement of the heart, and it was marked with the sacrament of baptism. But, O good God, how much they wished that you could then have been present with me, as indeed some of your fellow students were; for you would easily have seen that the things I wrote in my commentary corresponded in every respect to the truth. Further, on the twenty-eighth of the same month, a certain criminal, notable for anatomy, was punished by hanging; in that case, besides the anatomy of the brain, the eyes, and the organ of hearing, many other things were also carried out incidentally, insofar as time allowed, for the benefit of the students. See, I beg you, what things have happened. I omit also certain observations worthy of note. Meanwhile you will tell me to whom you wish the small box, in which the image of the muscles has been enclosed, to be opened in your name. Master Francis from Saint-Victor sends you many greetings. As for myself, I wish you everything favorable. Farewell in the meantime, and love me, as you do. Bologna, the fourth day before the Nones of April, 1579. EPIST. CXC. JUSTIN PETZOLD, physician of Gotha, etc., to Laurentius Scholz, physician, sends greetings. YOUR letters were most welcome to me, especially because in nurturing

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 306 da angendaq[ue] amictitia nostra constantiam tuam animaduerti. De qua etsi nunquam dubitau, ea tameo animi tui significatione nihil mihi iucundius accidere potuit. De tuo vicissim tibi persuadebis velim, me sanctam & petennem nominis tui memoriam apud me culturum esse: Et mutuas laudo, quibus vis quædam inest, vt ea ratione scribendi officium continuetur, & amicitia confirmetur. Quæstiones proposuisti < Calculi causæ> duas. 1. Quid sit id planæ, quod Schroterus < Palma Christi> palmæ Christi nomine crebro in medicinæ exercitatione vsurpat. 2. An diuretica < Diuretica in calendo> in calculo conueniant. Ad priorem antequam respondeam: amanter te rogo, vt D. Schrotcrum, quod ad tuas literas nihil scripserit, excusatum habeas, nihilque sinistride ipsius ergate animo suspireris. Coburgi est infinitus negotiis aulicis quasi ob- rutus. In illust[issim]e principum Saxoniæ valetudinis instantatione Simonio successit. Et animaduerti illum principibus & à corporis cura, & à consilis esse, ita vt ob plurima negotia rarissime animum ad scribendum appellere possit. Palma Christi igitur ipsi est extrorchidum ordine: mucronata folia habes, porri similia, latiora, tamen, incurua, & humum reflexa, maculata: flores purpurascentes, odoratos, spicatos. Mense Maio < 30> folia & flores emittit. Digitos citrinos < 30> Auicennæ esse arbitratur. In melancholicis & pitnitosis affectibus etiam nos vsn ab ipso edocti vsurpamus. Syrupum enim è bulbulis illis confectum in officinis nostris habemus, cuius descriptionem apud te esse opinor. Ad alteram vero difficilius mihi est concinne respondere, propter multiplices fallaciarum tricas, quæ dicturo tensæ sunt: vt tamen < 40> quod sentio dicam, asciuero: Diuretica proprie ita vocata, etiam purgato corpore in calculo perfecto & absoluto non conuenire. Id vt prudem. 1. Diureticorum facultates, 1. calculi essentiales causas ostendam. < Diuretica jne.> Diuretica proprie sunt, quæ serum, aut crassum, aut viscidum, aut sanguini permixtum, (hæc enim vitia sunt, ob quæ vrina à tenib[us] attrahi nequeat) attenuant, incidu[n]t fundu[n]t & separa[n]t, & præterea vt alte subire possint, tenuium sunt partium, & eximie ac < 50> insigniter calida. Horum enim est aliquaxe, fundere, disiugere heterogenea, vt Dau- cus, petroselinum, Ammi. De improprie diureticis, vipote quæ ex accidenti, dum obstructiones tantum expedient, vrinæ e- missioni conducunt, eamque non per se provocant: nihil hic dicam. Nec de mediis, quæ frigida sunt, & abstergendi facultatem aliquam habent, vt sunt quatuor se- mina frigida, halicacâbus, radix graminis. Nam & hæc diuretica proprie dici non possunt, dum calorem alienum tantum teptimunt, & ad temperantiam ducunt, vt commodior deinde serosi humoris ad tenes fiat attractio. Sut igitur nobis proprie diuterica tantum illa, quæ sunt calida & sicca tertio ordine. Calculi causa effectrix, præter insitam < Calculi causa> dispositionem calculosam, & arenosam, est ignea rerum & partium circumstantium caliditas, vt Aëtius, Alexander, & Paulus vno ore asserunt. Materialis vero est non tenax, viscidus, & pituitosus humor. Hic enim nunquam, etiamsi intensissime vratur, lapidescet: sed crassum, ter- reum & sicca serum. Iam si calculus cura- ri debet, (singamus enim illum cum Ferne- lij & Argenterij venia morbum) requiruntur proprie medicamenta attenuantia inci- dentia, subtilium partium citra manifestum calorem. Quæ enim calida sunt, canas morbificas non auferunt, sed augent: ita vt magis calculus excoquatur & durescat. Efficitur igitur diuretica proprie vocata in calculi perfecti curatione neutiquam con- venire. Perfecti dico. Nam vbi calculus < Diuretica in calculo perfecto non obnominum.> leuiter concreuit, nec tenaciter compactus est, validu calore & exiccatione illud gluti- nis quo leuitur cohæret consumitur vt in puluerem is collabatur. Deinde vbi sunt multa calculorum fructula, quæ aut cauita- ti aut meatibus inhætent, vt ablutione & abstersione opus sit: diuterica conuenire possunt, vt violentia longi vrinæ profluvij calculi quasi eluantur. Atque hoc modo ad propositas quæstiones respondendum mihi esse iudicau: quæ si iudicio tuo satisfactum non est, etiam atq[ue] etiam rogo vt amice me monere velis. Senientiam enim tuam lu- benter audiam, nec doceri erubescam. Ve- < Translatio hydropis ex assimilium in podagram.> rum vt aliquid etiam vicissim tibi proponam, ex Arctzo verustissimo scripto- re sententiam excerpam, eius enodationem abs te peto. Multis (inquit lib. diutut n. e. 12. sub finem) in hydropicum morbum poda- gta coëssit, quibusdam in deprauatam spi- rationem seu asbma. Hæc vero successio immedicabills est atq[ue] ineuitabilis. Hoc pronunciatum Arctæ est de transmutatione & successione hydropis & asthmatts ad podagram seu doloræ coxendicis. Tu mihi data occasione, expone causam huins suc- cessionis & veritatis. Nam nuper in magno quodam vitobic obseruatum est, quod v- terque morbus & hydrops & asbma simul dolosi coxæ successerit: & hæc vitia omni- bus etiam dexterrime petactis fuerint in- sanabilia. II. Cur hydrops nonnunquam Asthma sequatur. Ego quæ de hortuli < cui>

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MEDICINALS. 306 I noticed from your writing the constancy of our friendship. Although I had never doubted it, nothing could have happened to me more pleasing than this token of your disposition. In return, I wish you to be convinced that I shall cherish with due reverence the holy and perpetual memory of your name: and I praise these mutual exchanges, in which there is a certain force, so that the duty of writing is continued and friendship is strengthened. You proposed two questions concerning the cause of the stone: 1. What exactly it is that Schroterus commonly uses in medical practice under the name Palma Christi . 2. Whether diuretics are suitable in the stone. Before I answer the first, I kindly ask you to excuse Dr. Schroter, since he has written nothing in reply to your letters, and not to be troubled in your mind against him. He is at Coburg, as it were overwhelmed by countless court affairs. In ministering to the health of the most illustrious princes of Saxony, he succeeded Simonius. And I observed that he is occupied with the princes both in matters of the body and in counsel, so that because of the many affairs he can very rarely bring himself to write. Therefore, his Palma Christi is the extrorchidum of the order: you have the pointed leaves, similar to leek leaves, broader, however, curved and bent back toward the ground, mottled; the flowers are purplish, fragrant, and spiked. In May it sends forth leaves and flowers. He thinks the citrini digiti of Avicenna are this same plant. In melancholy and pituitous disorders we also use it, having been taught by him. For in our apothecaries we have the syrup made from those little bulbs, whose description, I suppose, you have with you. As to the second question, it is more difficult for me to give an elegant answer, because of the many tangled snares of false opinions that are ready at hand for the speaker; yet, as far as I think, I shall say what I hold: that diuretics, strictly so called, even when the body has been purged, do not suit a perfect and fully developed stone. To prove this, I shall set out, first, the powers of diuretics; second, the essential causes of the stone. Diuretics in the strict sense are those which attenuate, cut, dissolve, and separate serum, or thick matter, or viscid matter, or matter mixed with blood—for these are the defects on account of which urine cannot be drawn from the channels—and, besides, since they must penetrate deeply, they are of fine parts and notably and eminently hot. For it is the nature of such things to cut, to dissolve, and to separate heterogeneous substances, as carrot, parsley, and ammi. I say nothing here of those improperly called diuretics, which only by accident, while they merely relieve obstructions, help the emission of urine, and do not provoke it of themselves. Nor do I speak of the middling remedies, which are cold and have some cleansing faculty, such as the four cold seeds, halicacabus, and the root of gramen. For these too cannot properly be called diuretics, since they only temper alien heat and bring it to moderation, so that thereafter there may be a more favorable drawing off of the serous humor. Therefore, strictly speaking, only those are diuretics for us which are hot and dry in the third degree. The efficient cause of the stone, apart from the innate calculous and sandy disposition, is the fiery heat of things and of the surrounding parts, as Aëtius, Alexander, and Paulus affirm with one voice. The material cause, however, is a humor that is not tenacious, viscid, and pituitous. For this never, even if burned most intensely, becomes stone; rather it is a thick, earthy, and dry serum. Now if the stone must be treated—for let us suppose, with FerneIius and Argenterius’s pardon, that it is a disease—there are properly required remedies that attenuate and cut, and that have subtle parts without manifest heat. For things that are hot do not remove the radical causes of the disease, but rather increase them; so that the stone is more cooked and hardened. It is therefore established that diuretics, strictly so called, are by no means suitable in the treatment of a perfect stone. I say “perfect.” For where the stone has only lightly congealed and is not compacted tenaciously, strong heat and drying consume that glue by which it lightly coheres, so that it falls apart into powder. Then, where there are many small fragments of stone, which are lodged either in cavities or in passages, so that washing and cleansing are needed, diuretics may be fitting, insofar as by the force of abundant urinary flow the stones are, as it were, washed away. And thus I have judged that I must answer the proposed questions; if this has not satisfied your judgment, I beg you again and again to instruct me kindly. For I shall gladly hear your opinion, and I shall not be ashamed to learn. But so that I may also in return propose something to you, I shall excerpt from Arczeus, a very ancient writer, a statement whose explanation I ask of you. “In many cases,” he says at the end of book 6, chapter 12, “the gout succeeds a dropsical disease, and in some cases a depraved respiration, or asthma. But this succession is incurable and inevitable.” This pronouncement of Arczeus concerns the transformation and succession of dropsy and asthma into gout, or pain of the hip. On an opportunity, explain to me the cause of this succession and its truth. For recently, in a certain great person, it was observed that both diseases, both dropsy and asthma, in turn gave way to pain of the hip; and these ailments, even after the most skillful treatment, proved incurable. II. Why dropsy sometimes is followed by asthma. I, as to what of the garden of the

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307 EPISTOLÆ 308 culturæ scripsisti, lubentissime legi. Habeo quidem elegantem & spaciosum horum, qui multa capit, verum tamen quia, DEI gratia, pater famitas sum, non tantum Me- dicinæ studiosus, nunc magis sapida pyra, & longæua poma requiro, quam speciosos rerum inutilium flores, & sumptuosa exo- ria. Studium tamen rei herbariæ non ab- licio, & voluptatis causa non nulla colo. Melianthemum ad maximam altitudinem assurrexit, & nunc perpulcre floret, semina vix puto ad maturitatem venrura. De tuis rebus si mihi quid nundinis hyemalibus Lipsenibus miseris, grato id animo accipitam. Nihil autem quod mihi magis place- ret donare posses, quam bulbum Tulipace- um. Nam è seminibus nihil mihi pullulat. Habemus hic sebes vulgates de quibus sententiam mihi suam D. Schroterus misit ex aula, cuius exemplum tibi pro aunitia omitto. Eius filius Philippus cum magna laude & felicitate lenæ attem medicam & publice docet & exercet. Disputaur ali- qnoties cum magna omnium admiratione. Habes etiam hic Theses duas, quas nuper proposuit. Iohannes Fridericus Schrote- rus Basiliæ etiam rem optime gessit, & ob eruditionem, cuius aliquot disputationi- bus insignia specimina edidit Doctoratus gradum adeptus. Rediit autem, vt Zuinge- rus mihi scripsit, in Italiam, qua cursim Lu- strata. Monspelium se conferet. Scbneppi- us Isnaci Medicinam exercet. Bene vale, mi amantissime Laurenti, & meo nomine officiosè & amanter saluta Dn. Schillin- gum, 3. Kal: O & ob. An. 1581. Gotbæ. EPIST. CXCI. IOHANNI CRATONE MED. CAB. 40 sæpè, &c. Mantius Constantinopoli- tanus. S.D. BRVM Lusitanum, medicorum hu- lius regionis facile principem, & Sulta- nicis aromatibus præfectum, de lapide Be- zoar, de terra Lemnia ac bolo Armenia, ali- isque id genus, iam aliquoties sum allocu- tus. Itaq[ue] quæ ille eopiose, sed tamen confu- sius, narrare solitus est, ea si meo more a- strictius, &, vt arbitror, ordine paulo meli- ore tibi vlro doctissimo referam, voluntat- em meam & studium boni consules. Rem autem iudicabis, vt voles. Aiebat lapidem hunc apud Indos in masculatum caprarum, non stomachis, aut cordibus, aut oculis, contra quam alii volunt, sed vesiculis sellis masci. Temperamento esse, iuxta suum qui- dema iudicium, frigidum primo gradu ver- sus secundum, siccum in medio secundi, & vltra, ita enim aiebat. Reuera autem de siccitate visus est mihi dubitare quum nunc in principio, nunc in fine secundi gradus eum siccum faceret. Perstitit tamen in me- dio secundi, & vltra, vt iam dixi. Roborate virtutem vitale[m], atq[ue] adeo adiuvando vim expultricem cordis, prolicere sudores, fa- cultatem eius alexipharmacum etiam con- tra ipsum Nappellum ab aliis sacis decantari. Se expertum præter hæc, in initio sebris pe- stilentialis magno cum ægrorum coramo- do exhiberi, in augmento vero datum, non tantum non luuare, sed nocere etiam. Lau- dari quoq[ue] ab aliis in epilepsia, palpitatione cordis, deliquio animi, adde & calculum renum atterere. Accepisse se à nonnullis si- de dignis, multum conferre plenriticis & peripneumonicis. Quam tamen illi experi- entiam iactarent, se nondum esse consecu- tum. Dosin esse à granis iij. ad grania xij. Plura ex homine iam sexaginta quinq[ue] an- nos nato, & variarum profectionum iactato periculis, & admodum, ne inis verbis, tan- quam per nasum, capiatur, vt vulgus loqui- tur, circumspecto, elicere non potui. Mox sciscitanti plura, Nicolai Monardi, medici Hispensis, de simplicis Indicis Hispanice conscriptam farragiaem, nimirum malum eibum in os samelicum obiecit. Sed cur, in- quam, tam parua quæritate medicamentum hoc corrobortans ac alexipharmacu[m], & quas- si trepidanter sumitur, omnibus suis facul- tatibus, vt putatur, innocuum? An vero Lusitano illi medico Abrahamo, qui in In- dia aliquot annis egit, accedendum putas, qui à Regulis ipsis ibi lapidis buius drach- ma vna ad expurgandam inserue bilem a- tram sumi asserit. Idem ego inquit ille, fre- quenter in Lusitania auduii. Quod vero ad reliquas facultates attinet, nimis sunt fabu- losi, & verborum prodigi authores in eo ex- ornado decantandoque Hactenus Brudas. De quo, si Chainu[m] audieris, mox tuo arbi- tratu statues eruditissime Crato, & litem hanc inter tot clarissimos medicos, clarif- simus medicus dirimes. Quid ergo Chai- nus? Lapidem hunc in cordibus caprarum syl- uestriu[m] in India reperiri, temperatura non frigidu[m] & siccu[m], non maxime calidum, non maxime frigidum q[uod] multi arbitrantur, sed symmetrum in calore & frigore, quu[m] neu- tra haru[m] qualitatum corpus afficiat, ac veno- nis resistat, eum calidis, tum frigidis, spiri- tus cordis maxime rescere, substantiamq[ue] ipsius corroborare proprietate occulta, seu faculata bezoartica, vt loquebatur. Et ad- uerius cordis palpitationem conducere, non tantum partium ratione, sed certa proprietate ipsum cor repiciente, quum nimi-

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307 LETTERS 308 You wrote about the cultivation of plants, which I read with great pleasure. I do indeed have an elegant and spacious one, which can hold many things; nevertheless, because, by God’s grace, I am a family man, I am not so much devoted to Medicine, but now rather seek tasty pears and long-lasting fruits than handsome flowers of useless things and costly exotics. Still, I do not reject the study of herbs, and for pleasure I cultivate some things. The Melianthemum has risen to a very great height and now blooms most beautifully; I scarcely think the seeds will come to maturity. If you send me anything about your affairs at the winter fair in Leipzig, I shall receive it with gratitude. But nothing could you give me that would please me more than a tulip bulb. For from seeds nothing sprouts for me. We have here the common sebes concerning which Dr. Schroterus sent me his opinion from court, a copy of which I omit for the sake of brevity. His son Philippus, with great praise and success, practices and publicly teaches the art of medicine. He has disputed several times to the admiration of all. You also have here two theses which he recently proposed. Johannes Fridericus Schroterus also conducted himself very well at Basel, and, on account of his learning, of which he produced notable specimens in several disputations, obtained the degree of Doctor. He has now, as Zwinger wrote to me, returned to Italy, and having hastily toured it will go on to Montpellier. Schneppius practices medicine at Isnac. Farewell well, my dearest Laurentius, and in my name greet Dr. Schilling respectfully and affectionately. 3rd day before the Kalends of October, 1581, at Gotha. LETTER CXCII. TO JOHANN CRATO, COURT PHYSICIAN 40 often, etc. Mantius of Constantinople. Greetings. I have already spoken several times with Brumus the Lusitanian, easily the leading physician of that region and in charge of the sultan’s aromatics, about the bezoar stone, the Lemnian earth and bole Armenian, and other things of that kind. Therefore, if I now report to you, a very learned man, what he used to tell copiously, though confusedly, in my own manner, more briefly and, as I judge, in somewhat better order, you will take my good will and effort kindly. You may judge the matter as you wish. He used to say that this stone is found among the caprine animals of India, not in the stomachs, or hearts, or eyes, contrary to what others think, but in the bladders and gall of goats. According to his own judgment, its temperament is cold in the first degree toward the second, and dry in the middle of the second degree and beyond; for so he used to say. In truth, however, he seemed to me doubtful about its dryness, since now he would make it dry at the beginning, now at the end of the second degree. Yet he remained with the middle of the second degree and beyond, as I have said. It strengthens the vital faculty and thus, by aiding the expulsive power of the heart, brings on sweating; on account of this power, too, it is praised by some as an alexipharmic even against Nappellus itself. He has also experienced that, at the beginning of a pestilential fever, it is administered with great benefit to the sick, but that in the height of the illness it not only fails to help, but even harms. It is also praised by others in epilepsy, palpitations of the heart, faintness of spirit, and, moreover, it is said to break up stone in the kidneys. He had received from some worthy persons that it is very useful for pleurisy and peripneumonia. Yet of all the experience they boasted of, he had not yet arrived at. The dose is from 3 grains to 12 grains. I could not draw more from the man, now sixty-five years old, tried by the dangers of various journeys, and very cautious—so that, as the common saying has it, he may not be taken, as it were, by the nose. When I next asked him for more, he threw in my face the Spanish compilation on Indian simples by Nicolaus Monardus, a physician of Hispania—namely, the apple that struck the dung-beetle in the mouth. But why, I said, with such small expense do they seek a medicine that strengthens and is alexipharmic, and which, as it is thought, is taken timidly, though harmless in all its properties? Or do you think one should rather listen to that Lusitanian physician Abraham, who spent some years in India and says that, by order of the rulers themselves there, one drachm of this stone should be taken to purge black bile? “I myself,” said he, “often heard this in Lusitania.” But as to the remaining powers, the authors who extol and celebrate it are too fabulous and too prodigal with words. So far Brudas. If you hear Chainus on this matter, you will soon, by your own judgment, most learned Crato, decide, and you will settle this dispute among so many illustrious physicians, being yourself the most illustrious physician. What then does Chainus say? That this stone is found in the hearts of wild goats in India; that in temperament it is not cold and dry, not extremely hot, not extremely cold, as many suppose, but moderate in heat and cold, since it affects neither quality in the body and resists poisons; that, both in warm and in cold conditions, it chiefly revives the spirits of the heart and strengthens its substance by an occult property, or bezoartic faculty, as he used to say; and that it is beneficial for palpitation of the heart, not only by reason of the parts, but by a certain property repelling the heart itself, when...

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309 MEDICINALES. nimirum in cordibus illarum captarum reperiatur, ac experientia conprobatum sit, quasdam brutorum partes similibus hominum partibus ratione similitudinis conferre. Nec exhibendum iu febribus non malignis, nisi post vniuersales evacuationes, ac exobstructiones, alioqui agitate humores peccantes, & fieri vehiculum ipsorum ad locum affectum. Tempore igitur opportuno propinandu esse tantummodo, ad ipsius cordis corroborationem. Cæterum in pestilentialibus febribus eandem cum Brudo distinctionem adhibebat. <Abrahami & susciam in ulceraum de vodato.> Quod si istis Abrahami illius Lusitani, mihi hic familiaris, sententiam tribus verbis expressam adiiciimus, nempe hunc lapidem in stomachis captarum sylvestrium, ex certa herba nostris regionibus insueta, in Persia tantum, & insula dellas vaccas, Indiam versus gigni, & ad pettem hoc ipso facere, quod cor, exacto inde humore melancholico, corroboret, nec expellere malum per sudorem, & Persas ac Indos bis in anno exigua eius quantitate assumpta putgari, hæc, inquam, si corollari vice superioribus addimus, ac cum his rursum ea conferantur, quæ à nobis alias ad te perscripta sunt, apparebit liquido, quam isti non vnuiersi tantum inter se, sed singuli etiam secum reipsa dissideant. Quid veto ego mecum, <30> dum ista audui? Discedo incertior, quam prior, vt Terentianus ille aiebat. Hic tu vit doctissime nodum istum Gordianum ense acuminis doctrinæ tuæ solue si videretur. Nam mihi certe quod de auibus Bernacis narrant, miracula semper longius fugere, & quod peregrinis recens Hierosolymis, aut e nouis insulis reuersis, accidere solet, vt cupiditate nouarum rerum audiendarum irruentis quasi populi concutso opprimantur, <30> quos postea appetitu illo extincto, vix quisquam salutare dignetur, idem in hoc lapide vsu venire apparet. Magnares est, clamant omnes, magna certe, sed certe nihil. Et tamen non est nihil, quod tum de hoc lapide, tum de terra Lemnia, aliisq[ue] nonnullis hic compertis, exiguo scripto, quod nunc est in manibus possim admonore, nisi tuam, tuique similium, omni exceptione maiorum virotum audire sententiam potius, quâ <30> meam proferre mallem. Bolum Armenam orientalem, ex Armenia, & non à Lemno huc asserri asserit Brudos, & cum illo idem asserunt omnes quoscunque hactenus audire potui. Nec possum non mirari illos doctissimi Matthioli Mercatores. Fatetur Brudos non esse illum Galenicum, sed tamen viribus illi non admodum dissimilem facit, Terra Lemnia frustula paucissima habeo <31> subrubentia, à Lemnio Episcopo huc allata, & ab amico eius milii data duno. Eius species tres recenset idem Brudos, quarum optimas, rubram & rubescentem, tanquam captuas septe Sultanico includit, tertiam albicanem scruulorum & coquorum, præsertim furacibus manibus in libertatem vindicari dicit. Terra Caffensis in balneo pauxillo <32> a quæ calidæ dissoluta, locis pilosis, ante Philothrum, ne id nimium vrat, inungitur. Mox vbi pili euelli incipiunt, calida totum abluitur, aut frigida, si nimium vssit ipsum Philothrum. Hæc igitur ad te excellentissime Crato, vt iussisti, quæ si nimium sunt tenuia, culpabis barbarismum hunc, in quo degimus, locum, præ quo Tomi Ouidiani Athenæ videri possint. Vale, & me ama. EPIST. CXCII. PAVLVS CLOSEVS, PHYSICVS Glacensis, &c. Laurentio Schol. Zio Medico S. D. SECVNAM partem p[er]tacticæ Melickil, <33> scum iis, quæ adhuc apud me restabant, tandem ubi remitto. Adiunxi his vt voluisti, duas ad me D. Abrahami epistolas, & formulas medicamentorum Mag. Domini Cratonis, quibus iuuenem quendam delirantem, & pisces viuos, excrementaq[ue] propria denotantem felici cum successu pristinæ sanitati restituit. Quas cum relegeris vt per Iohannem nostrum mihi remittas oro. <34> In pronocandis mensibus. In pronocandis mensibus D. Abrahamus vtitur aqua pulegii bis probe destillata. Exhibet illius post evacuationem vnluerialem singulis diebus mane, & sub lecti introitum pro vna dosi ij. & aquæ cinnamomi aliquâtulum admiscet. Eodem remedio & ego, Dei beneficio, ante mensem virginem nobilem, cognatam domini Capitanei nostri, à mensium suppressione, aliquot mensibus <35> dutante, liberaui. De semine, quo D. Abrahamus in terentione vrinæ à calculo vti solet, ad me scripsit ipse his verbis: Subsequës emulsio in suppressione vrinæ vltra septimú <36> diem ad miraculum exeq[ue]ruit suas vires in coniuge loachimi Panwitz, & est secretum Dui Maximiliani. Excreuit calculos vltra mille & quingentos, & aliquot mensuras vrinæ. V. Sem. violar. p[er]n[ecess]ur. 38. Cum aqua veronicæ sufficiente quantitate f. emulsio. Hæc ille. Pluta alias. Nam in-

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309. MEDICINALS. namely, since it is found in the hearts of those animals that have been captured, and since experience has proved that certain parts of brute animals correspond to similar parts of human beings by reason of similarity. Nor should it be administered in non-malignant fevers, except after general evacuations and removals of obstructions, lest otherwise it stir up the offending humors and become a vehicle for them to the affected place. Therefore it should be given only at the proper time, for the strengthening of the heart itself. Moreover, in pestilential fevers he used the same distinction with Brudo. <Abrahami & susciam in ulceraum de vodato.> But if to these we add in a few words the opinion of that Abraham the Lusitanian, who is here familiar to me, namely that this stone is found in the stomachs of captured wild animals, from a certain herb unknown in our regions, and grows only in Persia and on the Island of Cows, toward India, and that it does this for the chest as well, because it strengthens the heart by drawing out melancholic moisture from it, and does not expel the evil by sweat, and that the Persians and Indians are purified by taking a small quantity of it twice a year—if, I say, we add this in the manner of a corollary to what came before, and compare it again with those things which have elsewhere been written to you by me, it will clearly appear how those men not only disagree among themselves, but each also in fact disagrees with himself. What then was I to do with myself, when I heard these things? I depart more uncertain than before, as that Terentian man said. Here you, most learned sir, if it seems fit, untie that Gordian knot with the sword-edge of your learning. For certainly, as to what they tell about the Bernacian birds, that marvels always fly farther away, and what usually happens to travelers lately returned from Jerusalem or the new islands, that they are, as it were, overwhelmed by the rushing crowd stirred up by the desire to hear new things, whom later, when that appetite has died away, hardly anyone deigns to greet—so it seems that the same happens with this stone. “A great matter,” they all cry, “indeed a great one, but certainly nothing.” And yet it is not nothing that I am able to mention to you in this brief writing now in hand, both concerning this stone and concerning Lemnian earth and certain other things here discovered, unless I would rather hear the opinion of you and those like you, men of greater authority than any exception, than put forward my own. Brudo asserts that Armenian bole, the eastern kind, is brought here from Armenia and not from Lemnos, and with him all whom I have been able to hear so far say the same. Nor can I help wondering at those very learned merchants of Matthiolus. Brudo admits that it is not the Galenic kind, but nevertheless makes it not greatly different from it in power. I have a very few small reddish fragments of Lemnian earth, brought here by the Bishop of Lemnos and given to me by a friend of his long ago. Brudo lists three kinds of it: the best, the red and the reddish, he places as though enclosed in the Sept, Sultanic captives; the third, whitish kind, he says is freed by the hands of thieves and cooks, especially by hands skilled in theft. Caffian earth, dissolved in a little hot water in the bath, is applied to hairy places before the Philothrum, lest it burn too much. As soon as the hairs begin to be pulled out, it is washed off with hot water, or with cold if it has burned the Philothrum too much. These things then, most excellent Crato, I send to you as you ordered; if they are too slight, you will blame this barbarous place in which we live, compared with which the Ovidian Tomes might seem like Athens. Farewell, and love me. EPISTLE CXCII. PAUL CLOSEUS, PHYSICIAN of Glatz, etc., to Laurence Schol. Zio the physician. Greetings. I am finally sending back the second part of Melickil’s Tactics, together with those things which still remained with me. I have added to these, as you wished, two letters of Dr. Abraham and the formulas for medicines of Master Lord Crato, by which he restored to their former health, with happy success, a certain young man who was delirious and pointing to live fish and his own excrements. When you have read them, I ask that you send them back to me through our John. In promoting the menses. In promoting the menses, Dr. Abraham uses pennyroyal water distilled twice with care. He gives it, after a universal evacuation, each day in the morning and at bedtime, two ounces for one dose, and mixes in a little cinnamon water. By the same remedy, with God’s help, I restored, a month ago, a noble virgin, a relative of our lord captain, from suppression of the menses, which had lasted for some months. Concerning the seed which Dr. Abraham uses in retention of urine from stone, he himself wrote to me in these words: “The following emulsion, in suppression of urine beyond the seventh day, worked its powers to wonder in the wife of Joachim Panwitz, and it is the secret of Lord Maximilian. She passed more than fifteen hundred stones and several measures of urine. V. Seed of violet, as needed, 38. With enough water of Veronica, make an emulsion.” Thus he. More elsewhere. For in-

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311 EPISTOLÆ 313 firma valetudo, quæ me adhuc exerceret, & mæror, quem ex clarissimæ coniugis meæ periculosissima dysenteria, in qua grauida ante ochiduum incidit, capio, plura me scribere, aliaq[ue] his adiungere nunc non permittunt. Ignosces itaq[ue] & breuitati, & inconnitati literarum. Salutare D. Raphanus, communis amicus noster, hodie iter domum versus ingessus. Vale, teq[ue] à me amari certo tibi persuade. Datæ festinanti calamo Glazij, 14. Ianuar. Anno 1582. EPIST. CXCIII. D[omi]n[us] ANOREÆ DVDITHIO CONS. Cas. &c Petrus Monanus, Med. Cas. S. D. TVIS, quas primas accepi omnium, eas- que exoptaissimas, nuper adeo respon- di: interea aliæ ad fratrem meum allatæ sunt, in in quibus, vt denuo ad scriberem, mihi occasionem præbuisse. Rogas de stibio, siue antimonio, oum illius vsum ita perniciosum esse dicam, vt pleriq[ue] ? Hoc mihi videtur camarinam mouere velle, quam immoram telinquere melius esse adagium pronunciat Non enim te latet, quan- ra cum animorum contentione controuersia hæc à summis ingeniis nostro tempore agitaia & pertractata sit, aliis hoc; aliis aliud affirmantibus. Dicam tamen, quando ita vis, quantum eius in præsentia in mentem venit. In stibio igitur duplices facultates no[n] incommodè statuimus, Manifestam vnam, (liceat enim nûc ita appellare) occuliam al- teram. Quod ad priorem atinet, no[n] dissen- tinunt à veteribus moderni. Omnes enim fa- tentur vim ei inesse, v[erò] g[ene] refrigerandi, sic- candi, astringendi, reprimendi. Vnde etiam recte ad vlcerà à fordibus repurganda, eacq[ue] consolidanda, & ad cicatricem perducenda, adhiberi potest quæ quam recentiorum quidam præterea illi tri- buunt (cum veterum nullus, quantum con- stat, illius meminerit,) non item vna est o- mnium sentennia. Neq[ue] vero hictam quæri- mus, an omnino purget, hoc est, humores & corpore vi expellat (illud enim experientia satis superq[ue] testatur) quam qualinam facul- tate illud præstet, & an tuto assumi queat. Purgantium certe quæ proprie hoc nomi- ne donantur, non vna est difficetia & quan- quam omnia irritando & stimulando natu- ram (de quo & ipsolis nondum est compo- sita, obtrudeutibus plerisq[ue] etiam ex recen- tiotibus nescio quam electiuam humorum attractionem) hoc suum officium exsequan- tur: diuersitatem nihilominus in illis gra- dus reperiuntur, quos inter sese distingui necessum est. Itaque stibium magis mali- gna, & velut venenata qualitate, qua natu- ræ aduersum est, purgatorium cuadere cen- semus Indicio est vehemens illa, atque vio- lenta commotio, qua exigua etiam quan- titate, & paucorum granorum numero as- sumptum, tum per superiora, tum per infe- riora vacuat, & præterea symptomata, quæ sequuntur atrocissima, puta ventriculi sub- nervio, inappetentia, mali pulsus, virium dissolutio, syncope, & id genus alia. Vnde iam de altero quoque paulo ante proposito capite constat, nimirum, minus tuto illud intra corpus deglutiri posse. Etsi autem Ma- gistri scholæ Paracelsicæ pro sui defensione dicant modo enumerata incommoda à crudo tantum non autem à legitime corre- cto Antimonio peruenire, quærendum ta- men rursus videatur, num præparatio illa- qua ipsi vti consueuerunt, huius medica- menti malignitatem prorsus tollat, & an po- tius ignium vi illa acuatur, quam imminua- tur. De quo si placet alias plura conferre li- cebit. Nunc enim tempore excludor. Itaq[ue] abste peto, vt rudiora hæc, nec, ita vt decet, elaborata pro solita humanitate tua excipi- as. Plane enim silere ad tua interrogata ne- quaquam decuit. Vale. Vratislauæ 12. Iulij. Anno 1578. EPIST. CXCIV. IDEM IDEM. DVBETARE te de quibusdam in positionibus meis affirmatis significas, ne ab experiendi cuellantur, vtpote, quod alueolis eorum, & radicibus, atq[ue] etiam appendicibus inserui. Ego vero vel ad hanc ipsam prouocare ab iis, qui diuersum sentiunt, no[n] crubesco: præsertim cum testes, vt puto, si- de dignos habeam, Vefaliu[m] & Columbnum: quorum vterq[ue] idem mecum manifeste as- serit. Plane autem pernego neruulos ab imis radicibus ad basin vscq[ue] per medim dentem propagari. Hoc enim non tantum conira ra- tionem est, & naturæ prouidentiam, quæ nusquâ solet molliæ corpora (quales hi ner- uuli sunt, extertio pari neruorum cerebri deriuiati) durissimis copulare absque aliquo medio: verum etiam ipsa experientia con- tradicit. Nemo enim est, qui huius rei periculum facere non possit, videlicet, partem dennium superiorem, quæ nuda est & exer- ta, nequaquam sentire, sed illam duntaxat, quæ intra gingiunas later, potissimum tamen circa radicem, vbi neruus in membrana de- sinit. Quæ Mercurialis de compositione Me-

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311 EPISTLES 313 firm health, which has hitherto troubled me, and the sorrow which I feel because of the most dangerous dysentery of my most excellent wife, into which she fell a fortnight ago, do not now permit me to write more or add anything else to this. You will therefore pardon both the brevity and the carelessness of the letter. Our common friend D. Raphanus has today set out on the road homeward. Farewell, and be assured that you are certainly loved by me. Written in haste at Glasgow, 14 January 1582. EPISTLE CXCIII. To D. ANDREAS DUDITHIUS, Councillor, etc. Petrus Monanus, M.D. sends greeting. To your letter, which I received first of all others, and which was most welcome, I replied not long ago; in the meantime others were brought to my brother, in which I seemed to have been given occasion to write again. You ask about stibium, or antimony, whether I should say that its use is so pernicious that most people find it so? This seems to me like stirring up the Camarina, which, as the saying goes, it is better left undisturbed. For you are not unaware how much this controversy, with great conflict of minds, has in our time been handled and discussed by the greatest intellects, some affirming one thing, others another. Yet I shall say, since you wish it so, as much as comes to mind at present on the subject. In antimony, then, we may conveniently distinguish a double faculty: one manifest, if I may so call it now, the other hidden. As far as the former is concerned, modern writers do not disagree with the ancients. For all admit that it has a truly cooling, drying, astringent, and restraining power. Hence it can rightly be used for cleansing ulcers from corrupt matter, consolidating them, and bringing them to a scar; and some of the more recent writers also ascribe to it what none of the ancients, so far as is known, mention. Nor is the question here whether it purges at all, that is, whether it expels humors from the body by force (for experience sufficiently testifies to that), but rather by what sort of faculty it does this, and whether it can be safely taken. Surely of purgatives properly so called there is no small difference; and although they all perform this office by irritating and stimulating nature (about which even among themselves there is not yet complete agreement, since many of the more recent writers also posit I know not what elective attraction of humors), nevertheless among them degrees are found, and these must be distinguished from one another. Therefore we judge antimony to act as a purgative by a more malignant, and as it were venomous, quality, whereby it is hostile to nature. Proof of this is the violent and excessive disturbance which, even when taken in a small quantity and in a few grains, empties the body both upward and downward, and, moreover, the most dreadful symptoms that follow: namely, oppression of the stomach, loss of appetite, weak pulse, prostration of strength, fainting, and the like. From this it is already clear on the other point recently proposed, namely, that it cannot be swallowed within the body safely. And although the masters of the Paracelsian school, in their own defense, say that the inconveniences just listed come only from crude, not from properly corrected antimony, nevertheless it seems that we must ask again whether that preparation which they are accustomed to use truly removes the malignity of this medicament, or whether rather it is intensified by the force of fire, not diminished. If you wish, we can discuss this more at another time. For now I am pressed for time. Therefore I ask that you receive these rough remarks, not so elaborated as they ought to be, with your customary kindness. For it was by no means proper for me to keep silent in response to your questions. Farewell. At Breslau, 12 July 1578. EPISTLE CXCIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. You indicate that you doubt certain statements in my propositions, lest they be wrenched away from experience, namely because I inserted them into their sockets, roots, and also their attachments. But I do not blush to appeal even in this matter to those who think differently, especially since I have, as I believe, trustworthy witnesses, Vesalius and Columbus, each of whom clearly asserts the same thing with me. I plainly deny that the little nerves are propagated from the innermost roots all the way to the base through the middle of the tooth. For this is not only contrary to reason and to nature’s foresight, which nowhere is accustomed to bind soft bodies, such as these little nerves are, derived from the third pair of the brain nerves, to the hardest parts without some intermediate substance; but experience itself contradicts it. For there is no one who cannot test this matter: namely, the upper part of the tooth, which is bare and exposed, does not sense at all, but only that part which lies within the gums, especially around the root, where the nerve ends in the membrane. What Mercurialis says about the composition of Me-

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313 M E D I C I N A L E S. 314 Medicamentorum In medium protulit: nupet quoq[ue] penes me esse negaui. Credo tamen n[ost]ris, si opus sit, habere posse. Sententiam meam de stibio, quam puto multis, iisque firmis rationibus munitam, & subnixam, tibi oon plane improbari l[et]tor. De experientia mea nihil hac in parte magnifice prædicari queo: asseotior tamen facile iis, quæ temet obseruasse scribis, & quorum testis es cui . < Violenta remedia.> Interea tamen hoc mihi in mentem venit: Talia medicamenta, quæ tam magna vi agunt, sæpe symptomatis magis mederi, quam morbis, & plerunque aliquid malignitatis corpore imprimere, quæ paulo post sese demom prodit. < Galenicæ remedia curatora Paracelsica.> Nostra, fateor, remedia, sæpe minus cito opem ferunt, & plusculum molestiæ io assumendo adiuo Ætum habent: hoc tamen vere affirmare ausim, magis tuto semper administrari posse, quam Paracelsicorum illa in igne & fornacibus exusta pharmaca. Ac nisi fallor, quæ de militia laudatus Imperator crebro in ore habuit, etiam ad medicinam nostram accommodari possunt: . . < Aegri Paracelsi intra omnium mortem.> Naturam cette, vt dominam & magistram, in omnibus imitari studense oportet, cuius actioocs, vt vulgo dici solet, omnes si uot paularim. . < Mechoaca.> Nunc semel hoc etiam audiui, d[omi]n[u]m Batileæ fui, à fide dignis hominibus, qui publice idem proferiter non erubescunt; Quotquot Paracelsus ille magnis morbis, remediis suis vulcanis, aut, vt ipse vocat, spagiricis, liberauerit, eos ferme omnes intta anoum, aut saltem paulin post, interiisse: vt vt sese egregie sanitati restitutos existimauetunt. Sed de his quidem in præsentia satis. Non destituuntur officinæ ostræ radice Mechoacam, tantopere celebrata, vt tu putas, imo etiam extractum eius < 40> habent, cuius vsus minime rarus est. Est ita quemadmodum dicis: parum molestiæ fumentibus exhibet; sæpe tamen propter tantam locoru[m] intercapedinem minus integris viribus ad nos defertur. Vale. primo Cal. O. Octobr. Aooo 1578. E P I S T. CXCV. IDEM ETOEM. DESTITVS hactenus scribendi materia, nolui te inanibus meis legendis frustra occupatum reddere. At nunc suppeditato in proximis tuis ad fratrem argumento silentium rumpere placuit, præsertim cum tui id à me fieri pro lure tuo postules. < Aq. coeli viu loco.> Quæris vero ex me, Quidnam de potu illo sentiam aquæ enætæ, quem viu loco, quo, nisi fallor, natura abhorres, sub stituis? Ad quod problema summa meæ responsionis hæc esto: Non videri mihi ab ea consuetudine temere recedendum, cui tot iam annus continuo inhæres, & quam tibi insalubrem non fuisse reipsa huc vsque expertus es. Esi vero rationes quædam in econtrarium adductæ, te oon nihil perturbant, nisi tamen planè fallor, ex tanti momenti non sunt, vt propter illas tam longi temporis consuetudo subito immutati debeat. Ignem, ais, subtilioribus partibus resoluis, & in vaporem atque halitum conuersis, aquam crassiorem, imputiorem, & magis crudum reddere, ita vt ad penetrandum illa ioeptio multo fiat. Ego paulo alitet, < Callionis v. vitium.> nec fortasse sine ratione statuo. Dubium enim mihi noo est, per coctiooem ea incommoda maxima ex parte tolli, quæ aquæ simplici antea haud pauca & parua inetaot. Primum enim frigiditas natiua elixatioois ope impressum, multum retunditut, & corrigitur. < No subtiliores partes exhalens.> Deinde partes fæculeote & terrestres, si quæ sunt, vi ignis separatæ io fundum subsidunt, vt puriorem ac leuiorem, quam ab initio erat cuadere p[er]torsus sit necesse. Quinetiam per spumam in superficie post ebullitionem collectum aliquid impuritatis aëreæ seceruitur. Quod autem metuis oe subtiliores, & nobiliores partes peoitus exhalent, ei incommodo duplici remedio facile occurrj potest, si nimirum, primoloco fictilis olla, in qua aqua coquitur, operculo, vt fieri plerumq[ue] assolet, superne muoiatur, ac ipsa aqua læt e ita decoqui permittatur. Deinde si, vt te facere significas, mellis aliquid admisceas, quod propter suam visciditatem, & reoacitatem, vt de detergendi facultate sileam, aquam minus euaporare sinit, & substantiam illius vehementius resolui prohibet. Iam si præcerea etiam cinnamomi noonihil inicias, plane tibi affirmo talem putum multum facultatis & roboris ad tueoda viscera, quæ aqua bibita per se quodammodo detulitatet, acquirere, ac in alimentum medicamentolum transire. < Aq. incogn. varia.> quo de genete Hippocrates illud in scholis frequenter iactatur: . . Posiunt autem producens leopis, & alia quædam interdum hnn inutiliter admisceri, vt pote, caryophylli, corroborationis gratia, ita succus absinthij, buglossæ, lactuce, violatum, si ventriculum respiciamus, aut eor, vel somnum accetere, sitimque potenter sedare velimus. Sintussis molesta sit, aut pectoris alia vitia, glycyrrhiza illa

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313 Medicinales. 314 Medicamentorum In medium protulit: I have also denied that it was in my possession. Yet I believe our people, if need be, could have it. My opinion about stibium, which I think is fortified and supported by many, and strong, reasons, you, reader, do not altogether disapprove. As for my own experience in this matter, I can boast nothing magnificent; yet I readily agree with what you write that you yourself have observed, and of which you are a witness. <Violent remedies.> Meanwhile, however, this came into my mind: such medicines, which act with so great a force, often cure symptoms rather than diseases, and for the most part imprint some malignity upon the body, which soon afterward reveals itself. <Galenic remedies, curative Paracelsian.> I confess that our remedies often bring help more slowly, and in taking them there is a little more inconvenience; yet I would dare to affirm this truly, that they can always be administered more safely than those Paracelsian drugs burned up in fire and furnaces. And unless I am mistaken, those words which the celebrated Emperor often had on his lips concerning warfare may also be applied to our medicine: . . <The Paracelsian sick within the death of all.> Surely one ought to strive to imitate Nature as mistress and teacher in all things, whose operations, as the saying goes, all if not gradually. . <Mechoaca.> Now I have also once heard, while I was in Basel, from trustworthy men, who do not blush to declare the same publicly, that as many as that Paracelsus has cured of great diseases with his Vulcanian remedies, or, as he calls them, spagyric remedies, almost all of them have died within a year, or at least shortly afterward, even though they thought themselves admirably restored to health. But enough of these matters for the present. Our shops are not lacking in the root Mechoacan, so highly celebrated, as you think, indeed they even have its extract <40>, whose use is by no means rare. It is just as you say: it gives little inconvenience to those who take it; yet often, because of so great a distance of places, it is brought to us with less than its full strength. Farewell. First day of the Calends of October, 1578. EPIST. CXCVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Lacking until now matter for writing, I did not wish to make you needlessly occupied in reading my empty words. But now, since you supplied in your last letter to your brother material, I decided to break my silence, especially since you request that this be done by me of my own accord and rightly as your due. <Aq. coeli viu loco.> You ask me, then, what I think of that drink of boiled water, which you substitute in place of live water, which, unless I mistake, you naturally dislike? My brief reply to this problem is as follows: it does not seem to me that one should rashly depart from that habit, to which you have been continually attached for so many years, and which you have up to now proved in fact not to have been harmful to you. Indeed, certain reasons have been advanced to the contrary which disturb you not a little; unless, however, I am quite mistaken, they are not of such weight that, on account of them, a long-standing habit should suddenly be changed. You say that fire releases the subtler parts and, turning them into vapor and exhalation, makes the water thicker, less pure, and more crude, so that it becomes much more difficult to penetrate. I think somewhat otherwise, <Callionis v. vitium.> and perhaps not without reason. For I do not doubt that by boiling those greatest inconveniences are for the most part removed, which before then are found in no small and not insignificant number in simple water. First, the native coldness is much blunted and corrected by the process of boiling. <Not exhaling the subtler parts.> Then the slimy and earthy parts, if there are any, being separated by the force of the fire, sink to the bottom, so that it is necessary for it to become purer and lighter than it was at the beginning. Moreover, by the foam collected on the surface after boiling, some aerial impurity is removed. But as for your fear that the subtler and nobler parts altogether exhale, that inconvenience can easily be met by a twofold remedy, namely if, first of all, the earthen pot in which the water is boiled is covered above with a lid, as is usually done, and the water itself is allowed to boil gently. Then, if, as you indicate that you do, you add some honey, which by reason of its viscosity and tenacity, to say nothing of its cleansing power, does not allow the water to evaporate so much and prevents its substance from being more violently dissolved. And if in addition you also put in a little cinnamon, I plainly affirm to you that such a drink acquires much faculty and strength to preserve the viscera, which water drunk by itself in a certain way weakens, and passes into a medicinal nourishment. <Aq. incogn. varia.> Concerning which Hippocrates is frequently quoted in the schools: . . But then, sometimes licorice and some other things may be added not without advantage, such as cloves for strengthening, then juice of wormwood, bugloss, lettuce, violet syrup, if we regard the stomach, or cherry juice, if we wish to induce sleep and powerfully allay thirst. If the cough is troublesome, or there are other ailments of the chest, that licorice...

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315 EPISTOLÆ 316 cocta proderit, & ratione iconoris passulæ, & similia alia. Quorum omnium vires per decoctionem in aquam migrare, & non euanscere penitus, ipse sapor, si quicquam aliud, abunde sane declarat, & commonstrat. Cum enim ipsa ex sua natura omnis peregrinæ qualitatis ex p[er]ets sit, & substantiæ rennis atque liquidæ non difficulter rerum in ea aliquandiu maceratarum inco[n] tarumquè facultates in se recipit, & imbibitas < Qua aqua augenda.> per corporis molem deducit. In deligenda vero aqua, quod alterum quæstionis bipartitæ caput erat, fontana potillum probatur, quæ limpidissima sit puta & pellicida, nullumq[ue] saporem, aut odorem extraneum referat, atque quo ad substantiam, tenuissima & leuissima. Post hanc fluuiatilis proxime palmam meretur, eaque inprimis, quæ versus ortum, aut meridiem dimanar, & longe à ciuitatibus hauritur. Quidam pluuialem collaudant, eam nimirum, quæ cum tonitru è nubibus descendit vt pote satis percolatam, & purificatam. Sed huius copia hyberno tempore mini, me suppetit. Quæ porro ad præparationem coctionis, & quantitatem illius, miscendorumque proportionem spectant, non dubito, quin antea ex tam longo vlu, & exercitatione notis optime. De his itaque verbum in præsentia nullum dedita opera facio. Vale. Vratislau. Elysiorum. 24. Maij. Anno millesimo quinquagesimo nonagesimo septimo. EPIST. CXCVI. IDEM EIDEM. < Aqua fontana.> GAVDEO tibi sententiam meam de aq[ui]næ coctione non displicuisse, quam ego si non vetam, at verissimilem saltem esse puto. Quod autem fontanam martinet, omnes penè vnanimi calculo medici eam probant, quæ ad orientem decurrit, & ex alto dilabitur per petras, per arenas, aut etiam terram liberam, hoc est, nulla labe, quam peregrinus sapor aut odor facile arguit, infectam. Talis enim si sit, humiditate, tenuitate, ac leultate cæteris præstabit, cito tum calefiet, tum frigesiet, ac præcordia etiam celer- < Pluuiorum.> time pertransibit, & vetriculum quam minime molestia afficiet, quæ omnia aq[ui]æ salubris, & ad potum experendæ signa sunt optima. At quia nostratium etiam fluuiorum, qui hanc scilicet v[er]bè aut alluunt, aut perlabuntur, mentionem facis, dubium equidè non est, quin semper fluuiatiles pluuialibus, atque fontatis per se deterlores sint, sed tamen etiam huic rei sua non desunt reme- dia, nimirum, si in magnis fictilibus asseruentur, vt domum hoc modo clatescant, & < Tyberis.> perputgentur, quemadmodum de Tyberis aqua memoriæ produnt, eam claram factam ad eentum quoque annos incorruptam perdurare. Quid de Nilo dicemus, < Mili.> limoso illo quidem & turbido anni, quicque meridiem spectat, nihio tamen minus aq[ui]æ illius in potu[m] mirifice commendantur, non salubritatis tantum ratione, sed etiam ob sa poris dulcedinem & suauitatem? Vnde nescio quis Imperator milites suos increpasse legitur, quod vinum expeterent, cum Nilium haberent. Verum ne hoc quoque cura animum tuum nimiopere angat, affirmo tibi, posse in hac v[er]be facile impetrari aquam è viuis fontibus scaturientem optimam & potui aptissimam, etiamsi in paucis ædibus illa alioquin reperiatur, non tamen plane illa destituimur. Vale, Vratislauiz pridie . Anno millesimo quingentesimo septuagesimo nono. EPIST. CXCVII. IDEM EIDEM. < Vicentinum Montanum.> EDIDIT imperrime Italus quidam Vicentinus, qui se comitem Montanum nuncupar librum quendam, in quinque alios diuisum, de morbis ex Galeni sententia, in quo libro D. Iulium acerbissime perstringit, neque vero hunc tantum, sed etiam Fernelium, Fuehsum, Valeriolam, Argenterium, & Erastum, quos omnes veluti ineptos Nouatores in arte medica, à Galeni vistiata doctrina recedentes, aut saltem dum cum tueri conantur, turpius aberrantes acriter reprehendit, eorumque dogmata refurat. missus est liber ille, quam primum in lucem prodit, huc ad D. Iulium, qui eo lecto continuo paucas pagellas pro sui defensione exarauit, quæ fortasse cum aliis paulo post edentur. Non videtur deesse comiti illi Montano ingenii, & iudicii acrimonia, sed tamen optarim multis in locis modestius agere, & non secura censura, in viros senes, & alioquin bene emetitos, ac rude donandos, animaduerrere. Magis haud dubie & sibi consulisser, & apud alios autoritatis plus obrinuisset. Sed malo de hoc ipsum legete, & ad exquisiti iudicii tui trutinam expendere. Epistolam ruam, quæ libello D. Iordani, de noualue, ad calcem adnexa est, vidi. Satis apparet te illum valde probare, cum tantis laudibus, idque publice exornare non dubitatis. Sed nec mihi displicet dispositio illa accurata, & eru-

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315 EPISTLES 316 boiled, it will do good, and from the seasoning of raisins and the like. The strength of all these, by boiling, passes into the water and does not vanish utterly; indeed, the taste itself, if nothing else, clearly and abundantly shows and demonstrates this. For since water by its very nature is free from every foreign quality, and is a thin and fluid substance, it easily receives into itself the properties of things that have been soaked in it for some time, and carries within itself what it has imbibed through the bulk of its body. < On the water to be increased.> In choosing the water, however, which was the other head of the twofold question, spring water is preferred: that which is as clear as possible and pellucid, and which has no foreign taste or smell, and, as to substance, is very thin and light. After this, river water deserves the next place, especially that which flows toward the east or south, and is drawn from far away from cities. Some praise rainwater, namely that which descends from the clouds with thunder, as being sufficiently strained and purified. But I have little supply of this in wintertime. As for what concerns the preparation for boiling, and the quantity of it, and the proportion of things to be mixed, I do not doubt that from such long use and practice you know these matters very well already. Therefore, at present I purposely say nothing more about them. Farewell. Vratislau, Elysiorum, 24 May, in the year 1597. EPISTLE CXCVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < Spring water.> I AM glad that my opinion about the boiling of water did not displease you, an opinion which I think, if not the best, at least the truest. But as for spring water, almost all physicians agree with one voice in approving that which runs toward the east and falls from above over rocks, through sands, or even through open ground; that is, water untainted by any stain, which a foreign taste or smell easily betrays. For if it be such, it will surpass the rest in moisture, thinness, and lightness; it will quickly become warm, then cold, will pass through the heart even more swiftly, and will trouble the stomach as little as possible; and all these are the best signs of wholesome water and one fit to be drunk. But since you also mention our own rivers, which either wash this land or flow through it, there is certainly no doubt that river water is always worse than rainwater and spring water in itself; yet even for this there are remedies, namely if it be kept in large earthen jars, so that it may thus become clarified at home and purified through keeping, as is reported in memory concerning the water of the Tiber, that once it has been made clear it remains uncorrupted even for a hundred years. What shall we say of the Nile, that muddy and turbid river, especially in all regions looking toward the south? Yet nonetheless the waters of that river are wonderfully recommended for drinking, not only on account of wholesomeness, but also because of the sweetness and pleasantness of their taste. Hence I know not what Emperor is said to have rebuked his soldiers for asking for wine when they had the Nile. But lest this too trouble your mind too much, I assure you that in this city it is easy to obtain excellent water, well suited for drinking, flowing from living springs; and although it is otherwise found in only a few houses, we are not altogether deprived of it. Farewell. Vratislau, the day before . in the year 1579. EPISTLE CXCVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < Vicentinus Montanus.> A certain Italian from Vicenza, who calls himself Count Montanus, has shamelessly published a book, divided into five parts, on diseases according to Galen’s opinion, in which book he most bitterly attacks D. Julius; and not him alone, but also Fernelius, Fuchsus, Valeriola, Argenterius, and Erastus, all of whom he sharply reproaches as foolish innovators in the medical art, departing from Galen’s corrupted doctrine, or at least, while trying to defend it, more disgracefully straying from it; and he overturns their teachings. That book was sent here to D. Julius as soon as it appeared in print, and after reading it he immediately wrote a few pages in his own defense, which perhaps, together with others, will be published a little later. That Count Montanus does not seem to lack talent and acuteness of judgment; yet I would have wished him in many places to act more modestly, and not to bring forward, with careless censure, reproaches against old men and otherwise well-deserving men, and such as are to be granted their retirement. He would doubtless have consulted better for himself and won more authority among others. But I prefer that you yourself read this, and weigh it on the balance of your exquisite judgment. I saw your letter, which is appended at the end to the little book of D. Iordanus, De noualue. It is plain enough that you highly approve of him, since you do not hesitate to adorn him with such praises, and publicly at that. But the arrangement also does not displease me, which is accurate, and eru-

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& erudita, haud tamen scio, an in causæ inuestigazione à scopo non aberrauerit. Vide Epist. 141. D. Crato quidem in longe duersa est sententia, quam etiam ipsi autori per epistolam breuiter nuper communicauit. Iussit etiam me de re proposita amplius aliquid meditati: sed facile rationum momentis per fecit, vt in suam sententiam pedibus irem. Principio namque nouum morbum dici non vult, cum nihil peculiare habeat, quod in aliis contagionibus venenatis non accidat, etsi forte in paucis symptomatibus (quæ nouam speciem ob id non gignet) enariet. Quod ad causam propinquam attinet, non tam in circumsuso aëre, omnibus in balneo illo lauantibus communi, illud quærendum censet, nisi forte per accidens, quam in ferro illo, siue scapello, quod immediate curtem vulnerando insecit, & in massam sanguineam inquinamentum propagauit, ita vt veneni (etsi minus proprie, quod cor non starim petat, ita appellet) labes corpori per contactum communicato primario hæreat in ipsis sanguinis ichoribus, qui postea illud facile per ambitum eius dispargunt, aliaque symptomata ex ordine producunt. Rationes, quibus hanc opinionem probat, & confitmat, nimis longum foret vniuersas adducere, cum ex hac etia[m] breui enumeratione summa earum facile intelligi queat. Domini Erasti epistolam, quam nuper cum ordinario Basiliensi accepi, simul descriptam mitto. Perleges eam si placuerit, & num tibi etiam satisfaciat, significabis. De Rhabarbaro non ero ei molestus amplius. Etsi quidem mihi nondum plene persuadet: Formam & finem rei. Formam & finem rei idem esse. In artificialibus rebus fortasse concessero, in naturalibus non item. Certe enim forma altera pars est compositi, & ideo de essentia rei, imo hanc ipsam constituens. Finis autem hauddubie extra rem est, & accidens quoddam. Quomodo igitur forma, verbi gratia, Rhabarbari, & eiusdem finis idem erunt? Num finis rem excedicat, & essentiam eius complet? Non arbitror. Finis duplex. Placet tamen distinctio de duplici sine, qua aliquo modo priori dubitationi succurrit. Metallis, ipso inuito, vitam & animam non attribuero, multo minus cordata esse dicam, ne ipse vectors ex eo postea pronunciet. Ideoque sponte hic Paracelsicis, qui tanquam pro aris & sociis pro hac assertione pugnant, loco cedam. Humanitatem autem, & Iconitatem, & plantitatem, sicut & hæcceitatem, ad Scotistas, & Thomas stas ablegabo. Nolo mihi cum his nauicitatibus rem esse amplius, quarum & tædet & piget in præsentia. Nolo nimis arcte mihi explicate videtur, dum ad communes tantum, seu epidemicos morbos, qui ex aëre ortum habent, vocem illam restringit. Hippocrates quidem, nisi fallor, in latiore significatione verbo illo vius est, etiamsi exempla (quemadmodum Copernicus noster dicere solet) nunc non succurrant. In contrariorum contrarietate non ero illi in posterum contrarius, cum pene, quæ de his in prioribus dixerim, memoria nunc exciderint. Mathematicos, miror, cur mihi obiciat. Quasi vero nesciat, quomodo hoc nomen in Iureco[n]sultorum schoolis atque ad se vulgo etiam vsurpetur. Astrologos enim dicere volui, qui ex syderum aspectibus, & inclinationibus ad se mutuis futura se prædicturos profitentur. Horum scientia (si tamen ita appellari meretur) Ptolomæo etiam alicubi, quantum recordari possum, est, respectu nimirum Astronomiæ, in specie sic dictæ, quæ coelestia corpora, vel potius magnitudines, & motus eorum considerat, quamuis ne istud quidem posterius dici posse puto, cum motus sine corporum, quæ mouentur, comprehensione animo concipi & considerari non queat. Itaque sola quantitas tum continua, tum discreta, mente a corporibus, quibus inhæret, abstrahi poterit. Atque sic nimirum sola Arithmerica & Geometria, (excepta semper prima Philosophia) vere in scientiarum erunt numero. Reliquiæ, quæ ex his oriuntur, vtpote Logistica, Geodesia, Astrologia, medij generis erunt; ita tamen vt pene propius ad Physiocen accedant, quam ad Mathematicem. Sed de his quæso te, vt mihi quædam in mentem reuoces, quo in promptu sint; cum D. Erasto respondendum erit. Nullos hic habeo libros, in quibus talia inquiram, quamobrem ad te, velne ad bibliothecam meam confugio. Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina. Habeo quinetiam ad manum Copernicum nostrum, qui tanquam artifex & iudex de his pronunciare poterit. Curtamen cometam diuersimode tum à Theologo, tum etiam à Mathematico, seu Astrologo, tum deniq[ue] à Physico considerari, non prorsùs nullas habui causas, quas ille mihi hac refutatione, vel cauillatione potius nodum extorsit. Addidi de his aliquid in scripto meo commentario, de quo adhuc quæ sentias anxie expecto. A

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& erudite, yet I do not know whether in the investigation of the case he has not wandered from the proper aim. See Epist. 141. Dr. Crato, however, is of a very different opinion, which he also recently communicated briefly to the author himself by letter. He also instructed me to think further on the matter proposed; but he easily persuaded me, by the weight of his reasons, to go over to his view. For at the outset he does not wish it to be called a new disease, since it has nothing peculiar that does not also occur in other poisonous contagions, even if perhaps in a few symptoms it varies a little, which for that reason does not create a new species. As for the proximate cause, he thinks it should be sought not so much in the surrounding air, common to all who bathe in that bath, except perhaps by accident, as in that iron instrument, or scalpel, which directly wounded the skin and spread the contamination into the bloody mass, so that the taint of the poison, although he calls it so somewhat improperly, since it does not immediately seek the heart, primarily clings to the very ichors of the blood, which afterward easily spread it through the whole body and in due order produce other symptoms. It would be too long to set forth all the reasons by which he proves and confirms this opinion; from this brief enumeration alone the sum of them can easily be understood. I send, copied, Dr. Erastus’s letter, which I recently received together with the ordinary mail from Basel. Read it through if you please, and let me know whether it also satisfies you. I shall trouble him no further about rhubarb. Although, to be sure, he has not yet fully persuaded me: The form and the end of a thing. That the form and the end of a thing are the same. In artificial things I might perhaps grant this, but not in natural things. For certainly form is one part of the composite, and therefore of the essence of the thing, indeed constituting this very essence. But the end is undoubtedly outside the thing, and a certain accident. How then, for example, will the form of rhubarb and the end of the same be identical? Does the end go beyond the thing and complete its essence? I do not think so. A twofold end. Yet I like the distinction of a twofold end, by which in some way he helps the former doubt. To metals, against their will, I shall not attribute life and soul, much less shall I say that they are intelligent, lest he himself later declare it from this. Therefore I shall willingly yield here to the Paracelsians, who fight for this assertion as if for their altars and their companions. But humanity, iconity, plantity, as well as haecceity, I shall leave to the Scotists and the Thomists. I do not wish to have anything further to do with these trifles, of which I am both weary and sick at present. It does not seem to me too narrowly explained, when he restricts that word only to common, or epidemic, diseases, which arise from the air. Hippocrates, if I am not mistaken, did indeed use that word in a broader sense, although examples now do not occur to me, just as our Copernicus is wont to say. I shall not hereafter be contrary to him in the contrariety of opposites, since almost all that I formerly said about these matters has now slipped from memory. I wonder why he objects to mathematicians. As if he did not know how this name is also commonly used in the schools of the jurists and among others. I meant astrologers, namely those who profess that from the aspects of the stars and their mutual inclinations they will predict future events. Their science, if indeed it deserves to be called such, is somewhere also, as far as I can recall, in Ptolemy, with regard to Astronomy, so called in a special sense, which considers heavenly bodies, or rather their magnitudes and motions, although I think even this latter cannot properly be said, since motion cannot be conceived and considered in the mind without comprehension of the bodies that move. Thus only quantity, both continuous and discrete, can be abstracted by the mind from the bodies in which it inheres. And so only Arithmetic and Geometry, apart from First Philosophy, will truly be among the sciences. The disciplines derived from these, such as Logistics, Geodesy, and Astrology, will be of a middle kind; yet in such a way that they come almost closer to Physica than to Mathematics. But about these things, I ask you to bring certain things back to my mind, so that they may be readily at hand when Dr. Erastus must be answered. I have no books here in which to investigate such matters; therefore I take refuge with you, or rather with my library. Now I have forgotten so many poems. I even have at hand our Copernicus, who as an expert and judge will be able to pronounce on these matters. Concerning the comet, that it may be considered variously by the Theologian, by the Mathematician or Astrologer, and finally by the Physicus, I have not altogether lacked reasons; he has wrung this knot from me with this refutation, or rather quibble. I have added something on these matters in my written commentary, and I am anxiously awaiting what you think of it. A

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319 EPISTOLÆ 320 < Humores> < macrimestis> Quod vero Theses de nutritione humo- rum attinet, quæso te, num ex tibi post hâc, quam inserit epistolæ tuæ explicationem, clatiores videorut? Ego quidem nulla ta- tione assequor, quomodo non magis in vo- cibus & appellationibus, quam in reipsa sic diffensio. Facile hoc do & libenter; solum sanguinem propriè nutrire, non autem pi- tuitam, aut bilem alterutram, vel etiam v- tramq[ue]. Credo idem alios etiam seotire & dicete. Deinde quoq[ue] eoocedo: sanguinem eundem specie (hoc est, massam sanguine- am) in aliis atq[ue] aliis corporibus sanis tamen, mirifice ratione maioris, aut minoris impu- ritatis variate. Item sanguinem esse impou- q[ue], id est, habere portiones diuersas, sicut & lac, crassiores alias, alias tenuiores, &c. Quid ergo restat, quo mous maous iungamus & coocordes nos esse profiteamur? Hoc solum arbitror, quod de eadem re loquen- do diuersis appellationibus vtimur. Ille sanguinem solum vocat, qvam nos massam sanguineam: sed tamen etiam interdum vna cum ipso saoguinem, cum hoc nomi- nis sit quærirem . Deinde ille bilem, pitui- tam & melaocholiam excrementa dumta- xat esse affirmat. Nos illud vniuersaliter & simpliciter pro- nunciatum non largimur, sed differentiam facimus inter bilem, exempli gratia, alimentem, quam partem esse dicimus, massæ sanguineæ tenuiorem, atque ita calidiorem & sicciorem, quamuis improptie sic voce- tur. Et aliam supetuacaneam & excrementitiam, quæ dum corpora sana sunt, à cysti seu vesicula attrahitur, & fel cognomina- tur. Huius genetis, superuacaneæ nempe, est & altera, simplicitet & absolute præter na- turam, quæ oon nisi in ægris corporibus ge- nerari potest, aut si quando generatur, in æ- griuudinem perducit, vtpote, vitellina di- cta, portacea æruginosa, &c. Idem fere et- iam de reliqois duobus humoribos, quos il- lile iotet excrementa sine exceptione nu- mera, dici & affirmari potest. Quamuis ille in hoc ab hypothesi sua discedit, dum liene[m] à bile nigra seu atra nuttiri permittit. Cur igitur idem etiam in aliis non concedit: aut saltem diuersitatis causam affect? Cum qui- dem pituita multo mitior & blandior sui hu- mot, quam melaneholia, adeoque, vt Gale- nus sæpe inquit, sanguis semicoctus. Sola itaque bilis, flaua nempe, (siquidem pitui- tam, quod speramus, admittet) secundum hæc à nutritione excludit, id quod nos et- iam vtraq[ue], quod aiunt, minu amplectimut. Oto te, vt me, si in his alieubi erro, vt facile fieri potest, benigne eruditas. Depingue- dinis in corpore humano tum ortu, tum concretione Theses altetas & ipsas perlegis sed nihil in illis reperio adhuc quidem, quod non cum veritate congruete putem. Si quid tamen sese offeret, dum accuratius expendam, libenter ab illo explicationem petam. Præparatio chalybis, quam describit, pa- < Præparatio Chalybis.> rum differt à vulgo visitata præparatione li- maturæ ferri, quæ in dispersatoriis hinc in- de extrat. Fit inde electuarium de chalibe, quod multi vehementer in obstructionibus internorum viscerum, aut epatis, aut lienis schircho commendant. Lapidem fabu- < Lapis Sabu- losum.> losum se mittere dicit, sed nihil huius tabel- lio mihi tradidit. Puto in ista festinatione oblitum esse. Dabo tamen opetam vt adhuc accipiam. De Rubiæ viribus magis prope mihi ad < Rubia vera> rei veritatem Angli accedere videorur, qui tanquam arripi de lite inter veteres & Do- donzum nostro tempore mota pronunci- ant. Ita enim vtraq[ue] pars probabilitate niti- tur, quam ipsa experientia confirmat, vt dif- ficile sit in alteram tantum, reiecta altera, in- clinare. De Formicario balneo plane illi assen- < Formicarium balneum.> tior, & memini me etiam huius fructum a- quando opersensisse, cum ex leui quadam re- solutiooe ante 2000s plus minus decem la- borarem. Habes igitur, pattooe obseruandissime, . eorum, qvæ domino Erasto, vbi occasio dabitur, resposurus sum. Quæ sane noo ideo ad te mitto, quasi lectione magnopere digna esse putem: oon enim satis ela- borata sunt, sed iatum, vt in quibusdam abs te, vbi mihi aqua hæret, vbi & lueulentius iostruar. Quod vt facete non recuses abs te etiam atq[ue] etiam peto. Vale. Pragæ 23. Mar- tij, Anno 1586. EPIST. CXCVIII. IDEM EIDEM. RESPONDEO posterioribus tuis quæ- stiooribus primo loco ipsumus , quod de prioribus, quæ aliqua oio plus obscuri- tatis difficultatisque in se contiorent, cogi- tationes meas noodum satis in ordinem redigere lieuerit. Faciam tamen hoc, vt spero, cum Ribisehio oostro, vel posius, me id, volete DEO, factutum plane reci- pio. Etsi sane vt de his, quæ ipse melius, longe intelligis, meam senientiam exquire- res, minime opus fuerat. Quoiam tame[n] ex amoris

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319 EPISTLES 320 < Humores> < macrimestis> But as for the theses concerning the nourishment of the humors, I ask you whether, after that explanation which you inserted into your letter, they seem any clearer to you? For my part, I do not in any way see how there is not rather a disagreement in the words and terms than in the thing itself. This I readily and willingly grant: that only the blood is properly nourished, and not phlegm, nor either bile, nor even both together. I believe others also think and say the same. Then likewise I concede this: that the same blood in species (that is, the blood-mass) in different healthy bodies varies wonderfully according to greater or lesser impurity. Likewise, that blood is impure, that is, has different parts, just as milk has some thicker, some thinner, etc. What then remains, whereby we may join hands and profess ourselves to be in agreement? I think only this: that in speaking of the same thing we use different names. He calls blood alone what we call the blood-mass; yet he also sometimes calls it blood itself, since the name has quærirem . Then he asserts that bile, phlegm, and melancholy are nothing but excrements. We do not allow this to be stated universally and simply, but make a distinction between bile, for example, the alimentary kind, which we say is a part of the blood-mass, thinner and therefore hotter and drier, although it is improperly so called. And there is another superfluous and excrementitious kind, which, while healthy bodies are sound, is drawn off by the cyst or gall-bladder, and is called gall. Of this sort, namely superfluous, there is also another, simply and absolutely contrary to nature, which can only be generated in sick bodies, or if ever it is generated, it brings on sickness, such as that called vitelline, portaceous, corrosive, etc. The same can almost also be said and affirmed of the remaining two humors, which he numbers among the excrements without exception. Although in this he departs from his own hypothesis, in that he allows the spleen to be nourished by black or atrabilious bile. Why then does he not grant the same also in the others, or at least assign the cause of the difference? Since phlegm is much gentler and milder in its nature than melancholy, and indeed, as Galen often says, half-cooked blood. Therefore bile alone, namely yellow bile, excludes from nourishment according to these views (if indeed he will admit phlegm, as we hope), which we also, as they say, less fully accept. I ask you, if in these matters I err anywhere, as can easily happen, to instruct me kindly. Concerning the theses you have also read on the generation and coagulation in the human body, I have thus far found nothing in them which I do not think agrees with the truth. If anything, however, should present itself while I examine them more carefully, I shall gladly ask that person for an explanation. The preparation of chalybs, which he describes, differs little from the commonly used preparation of iron filings, which are here and there extracted in the dispensatories. From this an electuary of chalybs is made, which many strongly recommend in obstructions of the internal viscera, or of the liver, or of the scirrhous spleen. He says he will send the lapis sabulosus, < Præparatio Chalybis.> < Lapis Sabu- losum.> but he has given me nothing about this matter. I think he forgot it in that haste. Nevertheless I shall do my best to obtain it still. On the powers of rubia, the English seem to me to come closer to the truth of the matter, as if taking up the dispute between the ancients and our Dodonaeus, which has been stirred up in our time. For both sides rest on probability, which experience itself confirms, so that it is difficult to incline wholly to the one, rejecting the other. < Rubia vera> Of the ant-bath I entirely agree with him, and I also remember having once experienced its benefit, when I was suffering from a certain slight looseness, about ten years ago, more or less. < Formicarium balneum.> You therefore have, most observant patron, the points which I shall answer to Master Erastus when an opportunity is given. Certainly I send them to you not because I think them greatly worthy of reading; for they are not sufficiently worked out, but only so that in some matters, where I am at a loss, you may instruct me more clearly. Which, since you are so kind, I ask you again and again not to refuse. Farewell. Prague, 23 March, in the year 1586. EPIST. CXCVIII. TO THE SAME, FROM THE SAME. I answer, in the first place, your later questions; as for the earlier ones, I have not yet been able to bring my thoughts into sufficient order, since they contain somewhat more obscurity and difficulty. Yet I shall do this, as I hope, with our Ribisehio, or rather, please God, I plainly take it upon myself that I will do so. Although indeed, since you ask my opinion about those matters which you yourself understand much better and more fully, there was hardly any need. Since however from love

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321 MEDICINALE S. 312 < De vitreis speculis.> amoris quadam abundantia etiam nugas meas aliquo loco habere dignaris, non patiar, vt vlio modo operam & studium meum frustra requississe videare. Ad illud igitur problema de vitreis specillis seu conspici- lis quod attinet, respondeo, omnino existimate me illorum vsum convenientem oculis plurimum commodare, tantum abest, vt detrimenti, aut noxæ quid eisdem adferat. Et quidem hoc duplici de causa: Quoniam nimirum, < 10 > primo similitudine quadam substatia oculos resiciunt, & in itatu suo conseruant: & præterea quia radios, quibus visio perficitur, dispergi non ita subito sinunt. Oculius certe, quo ad primarium visionis organum humorem crystallinum, aquare naturæ est, (etiam si alia ratione ob radiorum nempe visilium tenuitatem atq[ue] fulgorem, igneus etiam censeri possit) atque ideo rebus aqueis & diaphanis, veiuti aqua clara & lucida, vitro, crystallo, speculis, & per eô sequens etiam conspiciiliis naturaliter gander. Vnde non immerito in decantatissimis scholæ Salernitanæ versiculis hic etiam legitur: Fons speculum, gramen, hæc dant oculis releuamen. Et Aristoteles, testante Mesueo, primariæ inter Mauritanos notæ medico, magno illi Alexandro consuluit, vt sæpe speculum tertum ditectum, ac diu intuererur. Hac enim ratione visum sese corboraturum, & oculi desatigationem remoturum esse. Quinimo tanta inter humorem crystallinum, & vitrea conspiciilia similitudo & cognatio intercedit, vt nonnulli illum quidem conspiciilium naturale, hæc vero humorem crystallinum artificialem vocitare nou sint veriti. Deinde, vt paulo ante innuebam. vitrea conspiciilia eam quoque ob causam visioni conferunt, quod oculis admotane radii visori tam late cito, vt absque bis fieri solet, dissipentur, prohibet, sed potius efficiunt, vt illi in superficiem leuem & retsam impellentes, tetroacti, seu, vt eum opticis loquar, refracti multiplicentur, & simul tectiori ductu deinceps ad obiectum, quod videndi sensum mouete aptum est, dirigantur. < Diversitas in oculum.> Est tamen in oculariis istis speciliis non parva cum materiæ ipsius, tum illius præpatandi modi diuersitas. Quædam enim vitrum crassius ac densius habent, alia tenuius & rarius: lila res, quam reueta fuit; minores quidem; tamen intensius coloratas referunt, & ob id à longiori spacio aspiciendis rebus accommodata sunt: per hæc omnia maiora, verum quodammodo obscuriora apparent. < Crassa & denisa.> Vnde in propinquæ tantum distantia his vti consueuimus: Il- la denique iuuenibus & vegetioribus: hæc senibus & prouectioris ætatis fere competunt. Cuius quidem varietatis, seu diuersitatis causas ex dictis colligere non ita est difficile. Tibi autem) vt ad id quod in specie quæris, descendam) ea quæ inter vtrumque hoc genus media sunt conspicilia apprime profutura considerem, tum præsertim, eum, vt scribis, oculi ob lectionis assiduitatem continuationemque fathiscere & caligare incipiunt. In quem sane vsum peculiaaria etiam conspiciilia ex vitro viridi, translucente parata magno cum commodo. < Conspiciilia & vitro viri. > Quod vetro metuis, ne adiumentis hisce assuetus postea sine illis, aut nihil aut imbecillius videas: timor, nisi fallor, prorsus inanis est. Non enim semper & vbiquete, alioquin per DEI gratiam satis lyneum, illis vti iubeo; sed tum duntaxat vbi vitra tempus & modum lectioni minorum characterum indulgere propositum est. Aut vbi iam fatigatis oculis recreatio aliqua debetur. Simile quid enim experientia magistra ductos artifices atque gemmarios sculptores, qui subtilissimis rebus contemplandis exercentur, factitare quotidie cernimus, quando nimirum vel conspiciiliis vtuntur, aut vitrum pellucidissimum aqua lympidissima plenum inter visum & candelam ardentem interponunt, quo oculorum lassirudini & obscuritati egregio certe inuento tempestiu occurrant. Et vt maxime frequentius, quam antea dictis conspiciiliis deinceps vti pergas. Quid tamen est obsecro, quod hæc in re tibi, vtpote iam prouectioris ætatis, vitio dari merito debeat: Puero fortasse, aut iuueni illud magis formidandum erat. Et tamen in laudatissima Venetiarum vrbe non senes duntaxat, & constantis ætatis viros; sed etiam adolescentes ita illis assuescere sæpenu- mero videas, vt pene nunquam, etiam inpublicum prodeuntes, ab oculis illa deponant; quod vt non omnino probauerim: ita te hoc subsidium quandoq[ue] assumere prorsus suaserim. DE VISIONIS MODO. QVÆSTIONEM famosissimam pluribus agitare nunc non vacat: ne. < Visionem fieri immissione & miscendi.> que etiam valde ad præsens negotium huiusmodi indagatio pertinet, in quo non tam vt Philosophus, quam vt medicus progredi in animum induxi. Etsi enim concedamus visionem visilium rerum imaginibus, seu, vt vocant, speciebus in oculum immissis fieri, negari tamen minime omnium potest, oculum ipsum ad res oblata. U 3

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321 MEDICINALE S. 312 < On glass spectacles.> If, out of a certain abundance of affection, you deign to regard even my trifles as worthy of some place, I shall not allow it to seem that I have sought your assistance and zeal in vain in any way. As for that problem concerning glass spectacles or eyeglasses, I reply that you should think absolutely that their use is most beneficial to the eyes, so far is it from bringing them any harm or injury. And indeed for a twofold reason: first, because by a certain likeness they refresh the eyes and preserve them in their condition; and secondly because they do not allow the rays by which vision is accomplished to disperse so quickly. For the eye, as regards the primary organ of sight, the crystalline humor, is of an aqueous nature, even if for another reason, namely because of the thinness and brightness of the visual rays, it may also be considered fiery; and therefore it naturally delights in aqueous and transparent things, such as clear and bright water, glass, crystal, mirrors, and consequently also spectacles. Hence in the most celebrated verses of the Salernitan School this is rightly read: The fountain, the mirror, the grass: these give the eyes relief. And Aristotle, as Mesue, the physician of the first rank among the Moors, testifies, advised Alexander the Great to look often and for a long time at a polished mirror. By this means, indeed, he would strengthen his sight and remove the fatigue of the eyes. Nay, such a similarity and kinship exists between the crystalline humor and glass spectacles that some have not hesitated to call the one a natural spectacle, and the other an artificial crystalline humor. Then, as I was hinting a little before, glass spectacles also help vision for this reason: when the visual rays are brought close to the eyes, they prevent them from being dispersed so widely and so quickly as usually happens without them; rather they cause them, striking against a smooth and even surface, to be turned back, or, to speak in the language of optics, refracted and multiplied, and at the same time to be directed with a steadier course afterward toward the object that is fit to move the sense of sight. < Difference in the eye.> Yet in these eyeglasses there is considerable diversity, both in the material itself and in the manner of preparing it. Some indeed have thicker and denser glass, others thinner and rarer; the latter, though smaller, are more strongly tinted, and for that reason are suited to objects viewed from a greater distance: by these all things appear larger, but in a certain way darker. < Thick and dense.> Hence we are accustomed to use the former only at close range; the latter suit the young and more vigorous, these the old and those of more advanced age. The causes of this variety or diversity are not difficult to gather from what has been said. But for you, to come down to what you ask in particular, I shall consider the spectacles that are midway between the two kinds and are especially beneficial, particularly since, as you write, the eyes are beginning to grow tired and dim from the constant and continuous act of reading. For such a use, spectacles made of green, translucent glass are also of great convenience. < Spectacles from green glass.> As for your fear that, once accustomed to these aids, you may afterwards see either nothing or less well without them: unless I am mistaken, that fear is entirely groundless. For I do not order that they be used always and everywhere, though by God’s grace your eyesight is still sufficiently sound; but only when it is proposed to allow the glass the time and measure needed for reading small characters. Or when some refreshment is due to eyes already wearied. For we daily see masters and craftsmen, engravers and gem-cutters, who are trained in contemplating the most delicate things, doing something similar when they either use spectacles or place between the sight and a burning candle the clearest glass filled with the clearest water, so that they may promptly and excellently relieve the fatigue and dimness of the eyes by this admirable invention. And if you continue to use the said spectacles more frequently than before, what is there, I ask, in this matter that should rightly be counted a fault in you, since you are already of more advanced age? Perhaps this would have been more to be feared in a boy or a young man. And yet in the most praised city of Venice you may often see not only old men and men of mature years, but even youths so accustomed to them that they almost never set them aside from their eyes, even when going out in public; which, though I would not wholly approve, I would nevertheless strongly advise you to take up this support at times. ON THE MANNER OF VISION. I have no time now to discuss at length that most famous question: < Vision takes place by emission and mingling.> nor does such an inquiry much concern the present matter, in which I have resolved to proceed not so much as a philosopher as as a physician. For even if we grant that vision occurs through the images, or, as they call them, species of visible things being admitted into the eye, nevertheless it can by no means be denied that the eye itself is disposed toward the objects presented to it. U 3

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323 EPISTOLÆ 324 tas comprehendendum de se quoque af- ferre aliqvid, nempe, ex oculo spiritus ani- males, tanquam radij quidam, ad extimam pupillæ superficiem emutuntur; qui deinceps cum extremo lumine coëntes, & oblatas imagines amplexantes, actum videnti complemt. De quo, si placet, multa apud Vallesium nostrum suo tempore legere poteris. Verum omissa, aut saliem tantisper seposita scrupulosiori disputationis illius late patentis tractatione, quæque ad Philosophi inquisitionem magis spectat, in id, quod medicam operationem proprie concernit, nunc potissimum intentum me esse fateor, quatenus nimirum à spiritus animalis, qui vbi ad occultum transmittitur, visorius appellati incipit, copia, vel defectu, crassitie item vel subtilitate, aut denique aliis similibus differentiis visio ipsa (quod nemo vnquam in dubium vocare ausus est) adiueretur, impediatur, aut etiam destruatur, quibus item mediis & præsidiis hæc in naturali suo statu conseruari, aut labefactata denuo instaurari possint & debeant. Nimis tamen longe foret ea omnia in præsentia sigillatim persequi, de quorum aliquibus, sinca res feret, in posterum vberius coferendi dabitur occasio. Post liquorem aliquorum vsum 100. Superest modo alterum : Qui fiat vt post casei, mellis, aquæ, & similium liquorum deglutitionem multum saliæ in ore colligatur, & per sputationem eiiciatur? De quo breuiter respondeo, saliæ sane siue sputi, (quod tenuioris pituitæ genus est) ordinaria, vt ita loquar, sedes in consiliis seu glandulis ad radicem linguæ sitis statuitur, atque illis à vulgo medicorum hic vns assignatur, vt inferiores saucium partes, quæ voci & respirationi seruiunt, humore fno perpetuo igit[ur], simul deglutionem, quam siccitas difficiliorem redderet, adiuenent. Quod si copiosior, quam sceundum naturnam solet, affluat, id vitium seu symptoma Græcis , quasi saliuationem dicas, appellari contueuit. Causa vero illius non vna est spetum namq[ue] sine saliua illa omnia prolectate apta sunt, quæ vel copiosiori humiditate sances & gulam imbuunt, aut quæ tenaci, & viscosa substantia prædita diutius ore tenentur, manducanturve, aut denique quæ caloris & acrimoniæ ratione è cerebro, interdum etiam è stomacho tenuiorem pituitam attrahunt. In primo genere aqua est, & aquosa omnia. In altero mel, caseus, mastiche item, & gummi tragacanthæ. In tertio ea, quæ proprie masticatoria vulgo appellantur, vtpote, radix pyrethri, cardamotum, cubebæ, zinziber & si- milia. Ex quibus iam responsionem ad geminam quæstionem, abs te propositam, patere arbitror. Eam vt benigne accipere & iudiciu[m] mihi de illatum vicissim communicare non dedigneris etiam atque etiam pero. Vale, Pragæ 14. Octobr. Anno 1581. EPIST. CXCIX. IDEM EIDEM. QV id in meis literis te delectare quæst plane non video. Ipse enim quam tenues, & magnarum rerum inopes sint agnosco. Quia tamen toties tibi eas non ingratas, vel potius snaues & iucundas accidere prosisteris, ego voluntari tuæ obseqvens illas frequentius in posterum ad te mittere constitui, sakem vt non sit aliquid in quo meum studium & diligentiam requiras, præsertim eum te ad ignoscendum lapsibus meis tam prompte & benigne offeras. Quod igitur ad interruptas de peste quæstiones (qua de vlto citroque disputare, quam eius vim experiri tutius est) attinet, certum aliquod genus morborum, cui illam assignemus, requiris. Etsi vero in tanta rei obscuritate hoc præstare difficile sit: si tamen ad vnum ex tribus illis, quæ in Medicorum scholis traduntur, generibus referri omnino debet, haud dubie sub intemperie rectiùs, quam sub compositione, aut soluta vnitate (carbunculos enim & bubones pro principali morbo non habeo) collocabitur. Verum non tam de intemperie ex primis illis & manifestis qualitatibus intelligi oportet: sed de ea, quæ ex occultis proprietatibus oritur, quæque veneni naturatn quodammodo subit. Non sane quod de tritis illis qualitatibus nihil paticipet (tale enim quid animis hominum exceptis in sublunari hoc coelo ne imaginari quidem possumus, siquidem ab his agendi principium est) sed quia si est siue certus gradus nobis est. Itaque & Galenus, & alij Medici talia totius substantiæ proprietate agere & pati dicunt, videlicet, vê non tantum nudam qualitatum tempe- riem, velut in abstracto confidetent, sed etiam ipsius missionis (quæ elementorum corporibus proprie tribuitur) proportione, quæ tot & talibus particulis ita inter se inuicem mistis & vnitis constar, expetidant. Sic multas reperire licet plantas, quæ v.g. in primo gradu calcfaciant aut frigefaciant, & hactenus inter se conueniunt, quorum tamen omnium nequaquam par est effectus, prout illa qualitas in aliud atq[ue] aliud subie-

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323 EPISTLES 324 ...so that for understanding it, something must also be brought forward concerning the eye itself, namely, that from the eye animal spirits, like certain rays, are sent forth to the outer surface of the pupil; these then, uniting with the external light and embracing the images presented to them, complete the act of seeing. On this subject, if you wish, you can read much more in due time in our Vallesius. But setting aside, or at least for the moment postponing, the more exact treatment of that widely extended discussion, which belongs more to philosophical inquiry, I confess that my present intention is directed chiefly to that which properly concerns medical operation; namely, insofar as vision itself is aided, hindered, or even destroyed by the abundance or deficiency of animal spirit, which, when it is conveyed to the optic faculty, begins to be called visive spirit, and by its thickness or subtlety, or finally by other similar differences; and likewise by what means and safeguards this faculty may be preserved in its natural state, or, if impaired, restored again and ought to be restored. Yet it would be far too long at present to go through all these things one by one, and concerning some of them, if the matter should allow, an opportunity will be given later for a fuller discussion. After the use of certain liquids 100. Only one matter remains: how is it that after swallowing cheese, honey, water, and similar liquids, a great deal of saliva gathers in the mouth and is expelled by spitting? To this I briefly reply that saliva, or spit, which is a kind of thinner phlegm, has its ordinary, so to speak, seat in the ducts or glands situated at the root of the tongue, and by the common opinion of physicians is assigned there for this purpose: that it may continually moisten the lower parts of the throat, which serve speech and breathing, and thus also assist swallowing, which dryness would make more difficult. But if it flows in greater abundance than is natural, that fault or symptom has been called by the Greeks salivation, as it were. The cause of this is not one only; for without saliva all those things are apt to produce it which either, by excessive moisture, soak the throat and gullet, or which, by their tenacious and viscous substance, are kept longer in the mouth or are chewed, or finally which, by reason of heat and acrimony, draw a thinner phlegm from the brain, and sometimes also from the stomach. Of the first kind are water and all watery things. Of the second, honey, cheese, also mastic, and gum tragacanth. Of the third, those things which are properly called masticatories by common usage, namely, the root of pyrethrum, cardamom, cubebs, ginger, and the like. From these I think the answer to the double question you proposed is now clear. I earnestly ask that you kindly receive it, and that you will not disdain to communicate in turn the judgment that has been delivered to me. Farewell. Prague, 14 October, 1581. EPIST. CXCIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I do not at all see what it is in my letters that delights you. For my part, I recognize how slight they are and how lacking in great matters. Yet since you so often declare that they are not unwelcome to you, or rather that they are pleasant and agreeable, I have resolved, in compliance with your wishes, to send them to you more frequently in future, at least so that there may be nothing in which you may require my zeal and diligence, especially since you so readily and kindly offer pardon for my slips. As to the interrupted questions about the plague, concerning which it is safer to argue to and fro than to experience its force, you ask to what certain class of diseases we ought to assign it. Although in so great an obscurity of the matter this is difficult to do, yet if it must absolutely be referred to one of the three kinds taught in the schools of the physicians, it will undoubtedly be placed more rightly under an intemperament than under composition or dissolved unity; for I do not regard carbuncles and buboes as the principal disease. But by intemperament one should understand not so much that which arises from those primary and manifest qualities, but rather that which arises from hidden properties and somehow assumes the nature of poison. Not indeed because it partakes of nothing of those ordinary qualities—for we can hardly even imagine such a thing in this sublunary heaven, except in the minds of men, since from these qualities comes the principle of acting—but because, if there is any such thing, it is by a certain degree. Thus both Galen and other physicians say that such things act and suffer by the property of the whole substance, namely, that they do not consider merely the bare temperament of qualities, as it were in the abstract, but also the proportion of the mixture itself, which belongs properly to elemental bodies, consisting of so many and such particles mixed and united with one another in this way. Thus many plants can be found which, for example, heat or cool in the first degree and agree with one another in this respect; yet the effect of them all is by no means equal, since that quality in one subject and in another ...

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subiectum diuerso modo dispositum incidunt, & non tam in abstracto, quam in concreto, cum ipso scilicet corpore, cui inhæret, consideratur. Ex quo fonte omnis illa occultarum proprietatum, tantopere decantararum series emanat. Cum pestem ab aere prouenire dico, de ea principaliter intelligo, quæ generalis est, & multa loca simul occupat, atque ideo à maxime generali causa necessario ortum trahit. Etsi interim non neq[ue] etiam in mistis sæpe corporibus tam corruptos humores gigni posse, vt alios inficiendi pestis naturam æmulentur, quæ quidem à nonnullis pestis priuata appellatur. Sed tamen vt hæc, aut illa vicinis corporib[us] communicetur lateque dispergatur, sine aeris interuentu fieri minime potest, ita vt hic interdum causa efficientis, interdum medii duntaxat rationem obtineat. Et existit seminarium illud pestis in aere nonnunquam actu, cum videlicet aer ipse in sese corruptus est & vitiatus, sæpe etiam potentia, quia scilicet ad seminarium suscipiendum pronus est & dispositus, neque tam scrupulose, quam oportet, Qua ratione per quidum illa contineat? Si quis intelligat quomodo co[n]tinuatione quadam aer ante frigidus calefiat, vicinumque aerem (partem post partem alterando, vt in scholis loquuntur) calefaciat, is etiam facile assequetur, quomodo aere in vno loco vitiato, & ad malignitatem mutato semper latius co[n]tagium illud setpat, donec aut ventorum flatibus discutiatur, aut per se, (neque enim in infinitum vis illius sese extendit) absorbeatur, aut etiam arte quadam, veluti sufficitibus factis corrigatur. Non inquam oportet nos imaginari quasi in certo tantum aeris loco seminarium illud contagionis immotum hæreat, & quasi in arce quadam resideat, sed potius perpendere malignitatis huius vira & efficaciam maximam, ita quidem, vt aptum sit breui tempore sese per longissimum spatium extendere; ac sese hac ratione per aerem propagare, ac multiplicare, sicuti Galenus de scorpionis veneno disputat, quomodo illud non sine summa admiratione paucissimis horis totum corpus celerrime peragret suæque labis vestigium post se relinquat, etiamsi mole sua vix, ac ne vix quidem in sensus cutrat. Quomodo quæso odores, seu grati, seu ingrati sese propagant, & subito maximum spacium occupant, cum qualenam illorum sit vehiculum, (esse tamen certum est quia accidenda sine subiecto non reperiunt) vix cognoscatur. Finge etiam vnam guttulam fellis totu[m] aliquem cadum magnæ capacitatis brevissimo tempore suo & colore & sapore indicere. Quod vero non omnes homines in suspectis locis simul versantes pariter corripiuntur, ipsa corporum non eodem modo sese habentium dispositio causa est, & quia vni sese magis, quam alteri mununt, omnes noxam aliquam communem ex acre illo prano percipere certum est: sed quo minus impressio æqualis fiat, iam dictum est. Non tantum causa agentis efficacia, sed corporis etiam patientis repugnantia simul consideranda est. Hi enim plus, alii minus resistunt, idq[ue] tum ob interna, tum etiam externa impedimenta. An vero tum etiam pestis censenda sit, < Pestis in pauca.> cum pauci quidam corripiuntur, iam ante respondi. Conditionem istam essentiam rei non immutare. Et pestem epidemium seu vulgarem morbum haberi, quod ex sua natura multos inficere aptus sit, etiam si actu adhuc pauci eo laborent, quid vis amplius species, inquiunt Philosophi, etiam in vno indiuiduo conseruari integra potest, vt videre licer in sole, luna, item mundo ipso, quæ actu vnum sunt. Sie Adam ille æcumen vere fuit, & mansisset homo, en ausit nullos vnam ex se propagasset posteros. Fiunt igitur plures homines indiuiduo, non specie. Febrem ideo excludo à pestis definitione, quod etiamsi inserabile illius accidens esse concedamus, (de quo suo loco amplius quæritur) non tamen ad ipsius essentia constitutionem pertinet: sed tantum ab illa depender. Si descriptionem minus accuratam, non constituerè placet, per me illam vt inseras licet Medicus porro ita artifex sensatus est, vt non huic solo, & semper inhæreat, ratione vero nunquam vratatur, sed quia illius beneficio in abstruaturum & latentum rerum cognitionem sæpe perueniat. Profecto enim cum vt artifex circa particularia versetur, sensu illa solum deprehendi certum est. Interim nihilominus ratiocinatione & discursu multa ex iis, quæ sensu iam apprehenduntur colligit, neque vsum suum perite & solerter vniuersalibus theorematis innixus accommodat. Subordinatur autem Theoria praxi, quod hæc vltimus finis sit, propter quam vniuersalia præcepta, & axiomata ipsa discuntur, Babones seu testium inflammationem pestis esse signum lubenter concedo: sed ucc solum, nec perpetuum. Multis enim etumpentibus extingui videas, & latentes illos adhuc incorpore quibus indiciis quis ea cognoscat animaduertat. Vale. Vien. 7. Iul. Anno 1583.

Transcription: Translated (English)

They fall under the subject considered in a different way, and it is regarded not so much in the abstract as in the concrete, namely together with the body itself in which it inheres. From this source springs forth that whole series of hidden properties so much celebrated. When I say that plague comes from the air, I mean primarily that general plague which occupies many places at once, and therefore necessarily derives its origin from the most general cause. Although meanwhile not even in mixed bodies can such corrupted humors often be generated that they imitate the nature of plague in infecting others, which indeed by some is called a private plague. Yet that this, or that, may be communicated to neighboring bodies and spread widely, it can by no means happen without the intervention of air, so that here the air sometimes has the role of efficient cause, sometimes only of the medium. And that seedbed of plague in the air exists sometimes in act, namely when the air itself is corrupted and vitiated in itself, and often also in potency, because it is prone and disposed to receive the seedbed; and it is not examined as scrupulously as it should be, by what means it contains that quidum . If one understands how by a certain continuous process air, once cold, becomes heated, and heats the neighboring air as well, altering part after part, as they say in the schools, he will also easily grasp how, when the air in one place has been corrupted and changed to malignity, that contagion always spreads farther and farther, until either it is dispersed by the blasts of winds, or is absorbed of itself—for its force does not extend itself into infinity—or even corrected by some art, as by the making of suffumigations. We ought not, I say, imagine as though that seedbed of contagion clung motionless in only one certain place of the air and as though it dwelt in some fortress, but rather consider the force and very great efficacy of this malignity, in such a way that it is fit in a short time to extend itself over a very long distance, and thus through the air to propagate and multiply itself, just as Galen argues concerning the poison of the scorpion, how it traverses the whole body with utmost speed in a very few hours, leaving behind the trace of its injury, though in bulk it scarcely, indeed hardly at all, comes within the senses. How, I ask, do odors, whether pleasant or unpleasant, spread themselves and suddenly occupy a vast space, when what their vehicle is is scarcely known, although it is certain that accidents are not found without a subject? Imagine also one single drop of bile imparting at once its color and taste to some whole large cask in the briefest time. But the reason why not all men present together in suspected places are seized alike is the disposition of bodies not being in the same condition, and because one defends himself more than another; yet it is certain that all receive some common harm from that unwholesome air. But why the impression is not equal has already been said. Not only the efficacy of the acting cause, but also the resistance of the patient body must be considered together. For some resist more, others less, and that both because of internal and also external impediments. But whether then plague is to be deemed present, when only a few are seized, I have already answered. That condition does not alter the essence of the thing. And plague is to be regarded as an epidemic or common disease because by its nature it is suited to infect many, even if in act only a few are still suffering from it. What more do you want from the species, say the philosophers, since it can remain entire even in one individual, as may be seen in the sun, the moon, and the world itself, which are actually one. Thus that Adam was truly one, and would have remained a man, if he had not dared to propagate no descendants from himself. Therefore more men are made from one individual, not from the species. I therefore exclude fever from the definition of plague, because although we grant that it is an inseparable accident of it (about which more inquiry will be made in its place), yet it does not belong to the constitution of its essence, but depends only on it. If a less exact description is preferred, not a constitutive one, by me you may add it if you wish. Moreover, the physician is such a discerning craftsman that he does not cling only to this single thing and always to what inheres in it, nor does he ever make use of reason in vain, but rather by its aid often arrives at the knowledge of abstruse and hidden things. For indeed, since as a craftsman he is concerned with particulars, it is certain that these are perceived only by sense. Nevertheless, by reasoning and discourse he gathers many things from those already apprehended by sense, and he skilfully and cleverly applies his practice on the basis of universal theorems. Theory, however, is subordinated to practice, because practice is the final end for the sake of which universal precepts and the axioms themselves are learned. I gladly concede that swellings, or inflammation of the testicles, are a sign of plague; but not only this, nor always. For you see many erupting swellings disappear, and those hidden ones are still in the body—by what signs one may recognize them, let him consider. Farewell. Vienna, 7 July, in the year 1583.

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327 EPISTOLÆ 328 EPIST. CC. IDEM EIDEM. VT quoquo modo negligentiam in scri- bendo hactenus vultpatam (quod enim de factu nescio quo suspicatis inane omnino est) compensem, quod disputationem de peste attinet, scio illam nondum inter nos compositam esse, in eo autem tibi nequaquam assenti possim, quod pestis ortum in contagio ponis. Neque enim contagium vllius certi & determinati motbi genus, aut noxen est, sed solum dicitur, & tum ita appellari incipit, cum qui in alio corpore, prius fuit morbus, ex eo postea in aliud migrat. Necessario itaq[ue] vt co[n]tagio fiat, morbum aliquem præsupponi oposset, qui per co[n]tactum lese vltetiùs propaget, non, vt tu statuis, contagium prius existere, & tum demum pestilenti inde morbum gigni. Summarei totius in hoc consistit; Contagium, hoc est, transitus morbi de corpore in corpus sit per contactum, vel immediate, vel mediate. Immediate cum duo corpora sese absque vllio medio contingunt, & labem mali inuicem communicant: sicut sit in scabie, morbo Gallico, per afflictionem. Mediate autem intercedente alio corpore, nempe, vel aete, vel somite. Per aetem contagium communicatur inspirando & exspirando, ita vt aer vehiculi rationem babeat. Fomes autem appellatur illud corpus, quod seminarium desert, etiam si eodem morbo laborare aptum non sit. Veluti si per insectos pannos, aut vestes aliquis peste, aut etiam scabie corripiatur. Sed vt pestis primam & veram originem indagemus, dicendum est illam pendere à causis, vel supernis, vel infernis, vel etiam vtrisque simul. Supernas causas appello, ptæter DEV M & Angelos (quæ Theologicæ considerationis proprie sunt) stellarum fixarum & errantium vires, tum acris dispositiones varias, itemque meteora, in eo apparentia, & alia huiusmodi. Excludi enim stellarum vires non posse inde satis constat, quod omnes Philosophi vnanimi consensu farentur: Inferiora hæc & sublunaria corpora à superioribus regi & immutari. Præterea ex Medieorum coryphæo Hippocr. discimus, Morbos epidemios, qui in totas regiones quandoque grassantur, ab aetis insignioribus mutationib. proficisci. Has autem ab astorum diuerso positu causari. Denique si stellatum mutui aspectus nihil operantur: nullam reddere pestimus cusam, cut æstas, vetri gratia, & hyems singulis annis non exquisite vnam & eandem tempetiem seruatent, quando certum est Solem, cui soli omnia accepta seruntur, non aliter moueri vno atque altero, atque ita etiam illius respectu nihil variatetur: nisi aliarum stellarum seu coniunctiones, seu oppositiones, aut denique alii positus accederent. Dum tamen hæc nequaquam Astrologicis vanitatibus patrocinor. Quia planetas & stellas cæteras in infetiora hæc vniuersali quadam, & indefinita ratione agere dico, non autem particuliari & derminata, vt scilicet in vnum quempiam hominem aliam impressionem faciat, quam in alterum, quod Astrologi sibi imaginantur, & alii etiam persuadere conantur. Sic enim omnibus causis contra naturæ ordinem particulares per se effectus tribuuntur, de quibus alio inter nos tempore differemus pluribus. Et nisi fallor, disputationem meam cum D[omino] D[omino] Rungio ad te ante mihi. Inferiores causas, quæ interdum pestu occasionem præbent, voco scedas ex ex lacubus, stagnis, paludibus, & cadaueribus, item hominum & bestiarum, ex antristerræ mephitide scantentibus, & similibus prodeuntes, quib[us] aer nos circumstans, à natura sua longius abductus, inquinatur & corruptitur, & in vno atq[ue] altero homine magis cæteris prædispositis primum labem mali excitat, quæ postea per contagium pluribus aliis communicari potest, non secus atque grex totus in agris vnius scabie cadit, & porrigine porci. Cibum & potum ideo omitto quod horum ratione, etsi incorporib[us] corrupantur, pestem causari vix posse videtur. Est tamen inde origo maiori ex parte morbis aliis populariter grassantibus, vtpote se bribus malignis, diati hæcis, dysenteriis, pleuritidibus, anginis, & aliis, quæ pestiferum quid obtinent, nôdum tamen voce pestis sunt. In bac enim aerem, tanquam communissimi morbi communissimam causam concurrere semper necesse est, siue in sua substantia cottuptum, siue vt vehiculum seminariorum duntaxat. An vero in pestis præcauione, imo etiam curatione ipsius remedia sæpe permutanda sint, putas ex Galil. 5. de tuenda sanitate, cap. 9. probari non posse, eo, quod locus ille de purgantibus loquatur, non de Alexipharmacorum exhibitione. Sed haud dubie communis vtrobique ratio est ea, quam Physici & Medici affectunt, dum in vniuersum dicunt: Ab assuetis passionem non fieri, id quod etiam exstessæ Aristoteles 1. probl. 46. attestatur: Consectudo siquidem altera natura est, quæ vt à similibus conseruatur, ita in contrariis < Scellaræ vix im informa vniversalia. > < Fomus. > < Superna causa pestis. > < Cibum & potus vix postea causæ. > < In postea an remedia non caneda. >

Transcription: Translated (English)

327 EPISTLES 328 EPIST. CC. THE SAME TO THE SAME. So that I may in some way make up for the negligence in writing hitherto that you complain of (for what you suspect about some deed is entirely groundless), and as regards the discussion about the plague, I know that it has not yet been settled between us; but in that matter I cannot at all agree with you, when you place the origin of the plague in contagion. For contagion is not the genus or cause of any certain and determinate disease, but is merely so called, and begins to be called that when what was previously a disease in one body later passes from it into another. Therefore, for contagion to occur, some disease must necessarily be presupposed, which by contact is propagated further; not, as you maintain, that contagion first exists, and then only afterward a pestilential disease is generated from it. The sum of the whole matter consists in this: contagion, that is, the passage of disease from body to body, takes place by contact, either immediate or mediate. Immediate, when two bodies touch each other without any intermediary, and mutually communicate the infection of the disease; as happens in scabies, the French disease, by infection. Mediate, however, when another body intervenes, namely either air or a fomites. By air, contagion is communicated by inhaling and exhaling, so that air serves as a vehicle. A fomites, however, is called that body which preserves the seed of the disease, even if it is not itself fit to suffer from the same disease. For example, if someone is infected by infected rags or clothes with the plague, or even with scabies. But if we are to investigate the first and true origin of the plague, it must be said that it depends on causes either above, or below, or even on both together. I call the higher causes, besides GOD and the Angels (which properly belong to theological consideration), the powers of the fixed and wandering stars, then the various dispositions of the air, as well as the meteors appearing in it, and other such things. For that the powers of the stars cannot be excluded is sufficiently clear from the fact that all philosophers with one voice agree that these lower and sublunary bodies are governed and altered by the higher. Moreover, from Hippocrates, the foremost of physicians, we learn that epidemic diseases, which at times spread through entire regions, arise from remarkable changes in the air. And these are caused by the different position of the stars. Finally, if the mutual aspects of the stars do nothing, they could not produce the cause of the plague, seeing that summer, for example, and winter do not each year preserve exactly one and the same weather, when it is certain that the Sun, to which alone all things are to be attributed, does not move otherwise at one time than at another, and thus in respect of it nothing would vary, unless the conjunctions or oppositions of the other stars, or finally other positions, were added. Yet by this I do not at all give support to astrological vanities. For I say that the planets and the other stars act upon these lower things in a universal and indefinite manner, not in a particular and determinate one, as if they made one impression upon one man and another upon another, as astrologers imagine and others also try to persuade us. For in this way particular effects contrary to the order of nature are attributed to all causes in themselves, about which we shall speak more at another time. And unless I am mistaken, I sent my discussion with Dr. Rungius to you before it reached me. I call the lower causes, which sometimes provide an occasion for the plague, those vapors coming forth from lakes, standing waters, marshes, and cadavers, likewise from the exhalations of men and beasts, from the mephitic vapors of underground places, and the like, by which the air surrounding us, drawn farther away from its nature, is polluted and corrupted, and in one man or another, who are more predisposed than others, first excites the infection of the disease, which afterward can be communicated by contagion to many others, just as the whole flock in the fields falls from the scab of one, and pigs from mange. I therefore omit food and drink, because on their account, although bodies are corrupted, the plague scarcely seems able to be caused. Yet from this there is for the most part the origin of other diseases that spread popularly, such as malignant fevers, diarrheas, dysenteries, pleurisies, quinsies, and others, which possess something pestilential, yet are not yet called plague by the name. In this case the air must always concur as the most common cause of the most common disease, whether corrupted in its own substance, or merely as a vehicle for the seeds. Whether, however, in the prevention of the plague, yes even in its cure, remedies ought often to be changed, you think cannot be proved from Galen 5, On Preserving Health, chapter 9, because that passage speaks of purgatives, not of the administration of alexipharmacs. But without doubt the common reason in both cases is that which physicians and doctors pursue, when they say in general: passion does not arise from accustomed things; this Aristotle also attests in Problemata 1.46. For habit is a second nature, which, just as it is preserved by like things, so in contraries < Scellaræ hardly informed universally. > < Fomus. > < Higher cause of the plague. > < Food and drink hardly later causes. > < Whether in the plague remedies ought not to be changed. >

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trariis tum alteratur, tum destruatur. At quibus diu affueuimus, ea cum facile toleremus, similia sere nobis euadunt. Vnde fit vt patum, aut nihil inde alteremur, aut immuiemur. Colicis doloribus te interdum vexari, antea nescieram. Mittam Cratonis nostri & methodum curandi, & remediorum formulas. Interim lege Erastum quar- ta parte Antiparacelsist. à pagina 236. vsque ad 258. Sed quia non vna species colici affectus est, significabis, num, quæ te affligir colica passio, flatuosa sit, an vero à frigido & crasso humore intestinis impacto orta. Illa magis mobilis & vagabunda esse solet; hæc representat ceu pali penitus visceribus infixi doloris speciem. In vtraque autem alius vere dura est & conclusa. Est & tertium quoddam genus à tenui, seroso & bilioso humore, cui te affinem esse vix equidem arbitror. Sed symptomata indicata rem totam patefacient. Narrauit mihi D. Carolus Ossleuius ex literis tuis catum plane mirabilem, de duabus puellis in vicinia vestra, quæ continuis saltrarioribus pene exanimentur. Credo id maliesse, quod vulgo choreas S. Viti appellant. Huc pertinet quod loban. Thomas Freygius in quæstionibus Phisicis libro 24. de natura populotum inter cætera scribit; In inferiori, inquit, Germani nulli t re ab atra bile furiosi, sed à sanguine, quod genus furoris, vulgus moibum Sancti Viti appellat. Si ad vllum morbi genus referendum est, non video, vbi alibi locum reperiat, quam inter melancholicorum delitia, quæ mirificam varietatem obtinent. Verum mentem hic oblaesam esse omnino oportet. At vestra, vt audio, puellæ etiam inter testes illas saltationes orant, & sobrias preces ad Deum fundunt: vt inde necessario colligam, causam huius insoliti symptomatisse non tam præternaturalem, seu morbosam, quam, vt ita appellem, supernaturalem & aut diuinam immediat, aut diabolicam; atque illud est fortasse, quod in hoc in morbis appellat Hippocr. etsi in intimam huius rei cognitionem non peruenerit. Auerroes quoque, acutissimus Philosophus ipse affirmat: In morbis, vt in aliis naturæ partibus sæpe monstrofitates (ita enim loquitur) accidere, sed exactius quid de his pronunciare potero, vbi historiam facti integram cum omnibus circumstantiis cognouero. Neque enim adhuc scio: An per certa & definita interualla hoc affectu corripiantur. Item an morbus aliquis corporis manifestus simul coniunctus sit? An diu malum istud durauerit? An ipsæ etiam infelices saltationes causam aliquam, aut sal- 330 rem occasionem referre norint: Fieri enim potest, vt ex patentum forte impressionibus huic infortunio subiectæ sint. Sed in q[uo]d nam [con]jici [con]jiciu[m] eor[um] n[ecess]ariu[m], vt verissime in celebratissimi Orphei versiculo dicitur. Aut etiam propria aliqua, & peculiari lasciua at que petulania poenam hanc delicto conformem attraxerunt. Vbi igitur de morbi qualitate & conditione confiterit, de remediis deinceps iniri poterit ratio tanto melius. Naturalibus enim morbis naturalia debentur remedia: & præternaturalibus præternaturalia, diuinis diuina. In præsensia plura non licet, imo hæc etiam, nisi humanitas tua mihi perspecta esset, ad te mittere vererer. Pragæ Kalend. Martii, Anno 1584. EPIST. CCL. IDEM EIDEM ERASTO ad mula capita respondendum fuit, & quærendum insuper de aliquibus. Inde igitur factum, vt quædam parcius attingerem, quam vellem, sed sat dictum sapienti. Quod Chalybem & ferrum attinet, non tantum de exinctione illorum, postquam ignita sunt, in potu loqui videtur (quamuis etiam nonnihil eorum intra corpus sumitur) sed multo magis de eorum substantia, quam aliqui in vehementibus viscerum obstructionibus exhibent. Huic sunt electuaria illa nobilia de scobe ferri, de limatura chalybis, quorum non vna descriptio extat. Quamobrem ex ipso Erasto scire desidero, quaratione ipse puluerem hunc chalybis præparet, & præparatum exhibeat. Vulgaris modus est per macerationem in forti aceto &c. Quemadmodu[m] etiam apud Cordum, & Augustanos videre est. Lapidis fabulosi commentariolum sæpe perlegi, sed malim ad manum habere ipsummet lapide[m], & eius efficaciam experiri, de quo tam multa prædicant: Maxima copia circa Francofurtum ad Mænum, non longe etiam ab Heydelberga nascitur. Dubito tamen adhuc an idem sit cum eo, quem Matthiolus, & Gesserus describunt, sed aliter nominant. In thesibus de humorum nutritione, quid sibi Erastus velit, ne nunc quidem plene assequor. Quis vnquam de hoc quæsi- uit: Num excrementa illud corpus, cuius excrementa sunt, alant & nutriant? Si igitur hoc solum refutare voluit Erastus, vt innuis, frustramili laborem hunc suscepisse videtur. Puto igitur illum aliquid aliud insinuare, nempe an sanguinis <Chalybis & forro vjus.> <Chalybis præparatio.> <Lapis fabulo sus.> <Humorum nucrisio.>

Transcription: Translated (English)

rare things are sometimes changed, sometimes destroyed. But those to which we have long been accustomed, since we easily endure them, become almost like ourselves. Hence it comes about that we are changed by them little or not at all, or are not disturbed. That you are sometimes vexed by colic pains, I had not known before. I shall send the method of treatment and the formulas of remedies from our Crato. Meanwhile read Erastus, fourth part of the Antiparacelsist, from page 236 to 258. But since there is not one kind of colic affection, you will indicate whether the colic suffering that afflicts you is flatulent, or rather has arisen from a cold and thick humor impacted in the intestines. The former is usually more mobile and wandering; the latter represents, as it were, the appearance of pain with stakes deeply fixed in the viscera. In either case, however, another kind is truly hard and constricted. There is also a third kind, arising from a thin, serous, and bilious humor, to which I scarcely think you are akin. But the symptoms indicated will make the whole matter clear. D. Carolus Ossleuius related to me from your letters the utterly remarkable matter of two girls in your neighborhood, who are almost exhausted by continual leaping dances. I believe this is the illness which the common people call the dances of St. Vitus. To this belongs what Joban. Thomas Freygius writes in the book on physical questions, book 24, On the nature of peoples, among other things: “In Lower Germany,” he says, “there are no men furious from black bile, but from blood; and this kind of fury the common people call the disease of Saint Vitus.” If it is to be referred to any kind of disease, I do not see where else it could find a place than among the delights of melancholics, which exhibit a marvelous variety. Yet the mind must absolutely here be harmed. But your girl, as I hear, even during those dances offers prayers, and pours forth sober prayers to God: from which I must necessarily conclude that the cause of this unusual symptom is not so much preternatural, or morbid, as, if I may so call it, supernatural, and either immediately divine or diabolic; and this perhaps is what Hippocrates calls an anomaly in these diseases, although he did not come to an intimate knowledge of the matter. Avicenna also, that sharpest of philosophers, himself affirms: in diseases, as in other parts of nature, monstrosities often occur (so indeed he speaks); but I shall be able to pronounce more exactly about these matters when I have come to know the full history of the event together with all the circumstances. For as yet I do not know whether they are seized by this affection at certain and definite intervals. Likewise whether some manifest bodily disease is joined with it at the same time. Whether that evil has lasted long. Whether the unfortunate girls themselves know of any cause, or at least any occasion for the dancing: for it may happen that through the impressions of parents perhaps they have been subjected to this misfortune. Sed in q[uo]d nam [con]jici [con]jiciu[m] eor[um] n[ecess]ariu[m], as is most truly said in the celebrated verse of Orpheus. Or perhaps by some peculiar and special wantonness and petulance they have drawn upon themselves this punishment corresponding to the offense. When, therefore, the nature and condition of the disease have been confessed, a plan for remedies can afterward be undertaken much better. For natural diseases natural remedies are due; and preternatural diseases require preternatural remedies, divine diseases divine ones. For the present I may say no more; indeed, I should even hesitate to send these things to you unless your courtesy had already been made known to me. Prague, the Kalends of March, in the year 1584. EPIST. CCL. THE SAME TO THE SAME ERASTUS had to be answered on many points, and questions were also to be asked about several things. Hence it came about that I touched on certain matters more sparingly than I wished, but enough has been said for a wise man. As for Chalybs and iron, he seems to speak not only of the quenching of them after they have become red-hot in a drink (though something of them is also taken into the body), but much more of their substance, which some administer in severe obstructions of the viscera. To this belong those noble electuaries made from iron filings and from filings of steel, of which there is more than one description. Wherefore I desire to know from Erastus himself how he prepares this steel powder and how he administers the prepared form. The common method is by maceration in strong vinegar, etc., as may also be seen in Cordus and the writers of Augsburg. I have often read the little treatise on the fabulous stone, but I should prefer to have the stone itself at hand and to test its efficacy, of which they proclaim so much: it grows in the greatest abundance around Frankfurt on the Main, and not far from Heidelberg as well. Yet I still doubt whether it is the same as that which Matthiolus and Gesner describe, but name otherwise. In the theses on the nourishment of humors, what Erastus means I do not yet fully grasp. Who has ever asked this: whether excrements nourish and feed that body of which they are the excrements? If therefore Erastus wished only to refute this, as you hint, he seems to have undertaken this labor in vain. I therefore think that he suggests something else, namely whether the blood <Use of Chalybs and iron.> <Preparation of Chalybs.> <The fabulous stone.> <Nourishment of humors.>

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331 EPISTOLÆ 332 massa illa quæ in venis continetur, vere hu- mores quatuor specie distinctos contineat? Item an potentiæ saltem, vel actu inibi hi in- sint? Cognoscemus de hoc plenius, vbi no- stris satisfaciet. Vale. EPIST. CCII. IOHANNI CRATONI MED. CAES. &c. Petrus Monauius Med. S.D. < Ratio duplex tempera- mentis. > Qvod duplex temperamentum asserue- rim, sicut & calorem duplicem, nempe, innatum seu congenitum vnum, & influen- teum alterum, hac præcipue causam habui, quod viderem corpus aliquod viuens, & a- ctiones seu operationes suas edens bifariam considerari posse, cum vt animal seu vivum quid, tum vt mistum. Quatenus vt mistum perpenditur, temperamentum ei certum ex primis elementorum qualitatibus resultans attribui necesse esse nemo non videt. Vt ve- ro actiones etiam edat, siue vitales, siue ani- males, aut etiam naturales, altera accedat præterea temperies oportet, quæ illam velu- ti in profundo latentem & ignauam excitet, inque actum ex potentia producat. Illa temperies, quæ præcipue in solidis partibus consistit, etiam extincto animali atque vita priuato superest. Hæc à spirituum & humo- rum cerra harmonia tantum in viuentibus reperitur, & huius ablatio illa est, quæ mors animalis, vt animal est, dicitur. De putedi- ne controuersia est haud illa quidem expe- ditissima. Galenum ab Aristotele in natura putredinis assignanda non dissentire illud ostendit, quod philosophum de hac recte locutum esse aliquoties affirmat. In illo ple- rique aberrare videntur, quod ea confun- dunt, quæ distinctè Aristoteles docuit. Du- plicis enim putredinis expresse meminit, quatum alteram simplici generationi misto- rum, vt contrarium maxime commune op- positam, & corruptionem secûdum totum, alteram corruptionem tantum secundum partem, & recessum à propria natura atque temperamento esse ait, illam naturalem vo- cat, seu naturalis interitus finem, quod mi- xto, vt mixtum est, comperat, & secundum habilitarem ipsius fiat. Hanc violentam in- nuit & morbidaui propter inclinationem passionum. Illa ab ambientis, hoc est, aëris, & aquæ solum calore sit: hæc etiam à calidis vaporibus, & fuliginibus in corpore reten- tis, impeditaque transpiratione. in illa mista in puluerem & terram, vt quæ ex vniuerso corrupta sint, rediguntur: in hac humores putrefacti, aut putrescentes potius sæpe ad benignam qualitatem, & naturalem statum reduci possunt, nempe, vom puer , vt Aristoteles loquitur, puerum . Ideo & ele- mentis igne excepto hanc tribuit, quorum putredo secundum eundem nihil aliud, quam alienæ caliditatis, aut malorum vapo- rum commixtio, quibus secretis suæ naturæ vicissim quodlibet restituitur. Illa denique proprie ad philosophorum scholas spectat, atq[ue] idcirco prolixius est ab Aristotele per- tractata. Hæc medicæ considerationis ma- gis est, vnde & à Galeno pluribus in locis fu- sius explicatur. Ex particula , quæ in 4. illo Meteororum ponitur, male intellecta, quidam contra mentem Aristotelis colli- gunt, putredinem illam priorem, quæ ipsi rigidus est, improprie sic dici: magis autem cum tamen diuersum potius statuendu[m] sit ex mente philosophi. Illam, nempe, proprie putredinem appellari, quia vera & propria putredo mixtorum perfectorum passio est, & contrarium causæ generationi mixto- rum. Hanc autem peculiari quodam modo duntaxat ita vocari. Quia scilicet nec gene- rationi opponitur, neque est passio mihi, vt mistum. Atque sic rectius per vocu- lam, peculiariter, exponitur, quam per pro- prie, vt doctissime in suis dilucidationibus Archangelus etiam noster admonuit. His in hunc modu[m] distinctis puto facile respo- deri posse ad illam quæstionem, in qua ex- plicanda multi varie se torquent, nempe quomodo humores in febribus, qui calidio res euadunt, putrescere dicantur, cum tam e[st] putrida omnia frigidiora fieri, ipso calore e- uocato, vel extincto necesse videatur, vt ha- bet definitio putredinis Aristotelica. Illud quinetiam indicat curatio. Hac ratione in- cussum manet, cum longe inter sese differe- rant simplex aliqua intemperies in qua hu- mores à sua natua qualitate nonnihil disces- serunt, & puredo, qualis est in pestilenti- bus, vt mirum non sit, si curatio etiam ea- dem non adhibeatur vtrobique. sed fortasse his recensendis tibi molestiam exhibeo. E- go tamen aliam ob causam à me allata esse velim cogies, quam vt tuam de his senten- tiam & iudicium eliciam. Vale, Pataudi 14. Ianuar. Anno 1576. EPIST. CCIII. IDEM EIDEM. QVONIAM te tot & occupationibus & molestiis districtum, adeo frequen- ter ad me scribere non piget: turpe omni- no mihi esse puto illam diligentiam non imitari, si minus superare queam, cum & pluscu-

Transcription: Translated (English)

331 EPISTLES 332 that mass which is contained in the veins truly contains the four humors distinct in species? Also whether these are present there at least potentially, or actually? We shall learn more fully about this when he satisfies our questions. Farewell. EPIST. CCII. TO JOHANN CRATO, PHYSICIAN TO THE EMPEROR, etc. Petrus Monauius, physician, greetings. < On the twofold temperament. > The reason why I have asserted a twofold temperament, just as also a twofold heat, namely one innate or congenial, and the other incoming, I have chiefly this: that I saw that some living body, and the actions or operations it produces, can be considered in two ways, both as an animal or living thing, and as a mixture. In so far as it is regarded as a mixture, no one does not see that it must be assigned a certain temperament resulting from the primary qualities of the elements. But in order that it may also produce actions, whether vital, animal, or even natural, another tempering must moreover be added, which may arouse that which lies, as it were, hidden in the depths and inactive, and bring it from potentiality into act. That tempering, which especially consists in the solid parts, remains even when the animal is extinguished and deprived of life. This, arising from a certain harmony of the spirits and humors, is found only in living beings, and the removal of it is that which is called the death of the animal, as animal. The controversy concerning putrefaction is not indeed the easiest one. That Galen did not disagree with Aristotle in assigning the nature of putrefaction is shown by the fact that he several times affirms that the philosopher spoke correctly on this matter. In this many seem to go wrong, because they confuse things which Aristotle distinctly taught. For he expressly mentions a twofold putrefaction, of which he says that the one is opposed to simple generation of mixtures, as its most common contrary, and is corruption according to the whole; the other is corruption only according to a part, and a departure from proper nature and temperament. The former he calls natural, or the end of natural decay, because it befalls a mixture as a mixture, and happens according to its capacity. The latter he indicates as violent and morbid, because of the inclination of the passions. The former arises from the surrounding medium, that is, from the heat of air and water alone; the latter also from hot vapors and soot retained in the body, and from impeded transpiration. In the former, mixtures are reduced to dust and earth, as those which have been corrupted from the whole; in the latter, putrid or rather rotting humors can often be brought back to a benign quality and natural state, namely, vom puer , as Aristotle says, puerum . Therefore he assigns this also to the elements except fire, whose putrefaction, according to him, is nothing other than a mixing in of alien heat or noxious vapors, which, when separated, in turn restore each thing to its own nature. The former belongs properly to the schools of philosophers, and for that reason is treated at greater length by Aristotle. The latter belongs more to medical consideration, and therefore is explained more fully by Galen in many places. From a phrase in the fourth book of the Meteorologica, misunderstood, some infer against the mind of Aristotle that that former putrefaction, which is in truth rigidus , is improperly so called; rather, however, a different meaning should be established according to the philosopher’s intention. Namely, that one is properly called putrefaction, because true and proper putrefaction is a passion of perfect mixtures, and the contrary to the cause of the generation of mixtures. But this is called so only in a particular sense, since it is neither opposed to generation, nor is it a passion of a mixture as mixture. And so it is more correctly explained by the word “peculiarly” than by “properly,” as our most learned Archangelus also noted in his elucidations. These matters having thus been distinguished, I think it can easily be answered to that question in explaining which many labor in various ways, namely, how humors in fevers, which become hotter, are said to putrefy, when in fact all putrid things seem to become colder, since, with the heat having been drawn out or extinguished, this is necessary, as the Aristotelian definition of putrefaction has it. The treatment also indicates this. For this reason I remain perplexed, since a simple intemperament, in which the humors have deviated somewhat from their natural quality, differs greatly from putrefaction, such as is found in pestilential diseases, so that it is no wonder if the same treatment is not applied in both cases. But perhaps I am causing you trouble by recounting these things. Yet I want you to think that I have brought them forward for another reason, namely in order to elicit your opinion and judgment on these matters. Farewell. Pataudi, 14 January, in the year 1576. EPIST. CCIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. SINCE you are burdened with so many occupations and troubles, and do not mind writing to me so frequently, I think it altogether shameful for me not to imitate that diligence, if I cannot surpass it, since even more...

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334 M E D I C I N A L E S. < Anatomici sanctorum Paternorum.> pluscum otil mihi concedatur, & tu meas qualescunquetibi non ingratus esse signifi- cas. Anatomicæ itaque nostræ in vigesimum vsque diem productæ heritandem finis fe- liciter impositus est. Sane diffiteri non pos- sum in ea administranda curam, & indus- triam accuratam adhibitam esse, nisi sectio- nis magistri, vt in longo itinere; ita etiam in isto operæ perficiendo, quo longius progre- diantur, eo magis defatigentur, & remissio- res fiant. Ad me quidem quod attinet, plu- rimum ex hac inspectione me profecisse a- nimo aduerto, ita vt nunc expeditius, & ma- iori cum structu commentarios hac de re scri- pros euoluere possim. In ipsa epatis historia explicanda, nobis ad oculum, vt loquuntur, demonstrare conabatur, ex iecore vena- rum ortum petendum esse, seu generationis principium spectes, siue distributionis, arc[us] idipsum plantarum exem plo perspicue illu- < 10> strabat, in quibus & radices, & rami, & cau- dex ipse, sen radicatio consideranda veniit, quæ omnia ad venarum ductum eleganter & dextre accommodari possunt. Minus ta- < 20> men interea argumentis quibusdam Aristo- telicis satisfactum videtur, quæ insignis in hac re artifex Vesalius contra Galenum ve- hementer vrget. Cum cordis structuram sub manibus haberet, simpliciter affirma- < 30> bat, ac si id controuersum non fuisset, è dex- tro ventriculo in sinistrum sanguinem per septum interpositum trassudare, ac forami- < 40> nula quædam adhibito specillo ostendebat, quæ interstitio illo medio apparent. De quo tamen à multis dubitatum video. Ac memi- ni cum ante biennium Pigafetia Italus, & i- < 50> pse olim Fallopii discupulus, Heydelbergæ dissectioni incumberet, manifeste negasse illum, fieri posse, vt per tam densum dia- phragma aliquid sanguinis deferri ex vno < 60> thalamo in alierum posset. Imo in eam sen- tentiam tandem deueniebat, vt diceret à se iam pluries venulas quasdam animadvers- < 70> sas esse mucronem cordis nô alitet ambien- tes, atque vena illa coronalis è cau a propa- gata basin complectitur, quarum beneficio sanguis ex dextro sinn in sinistrum transfe- < 80> ratur. Cum vero hoc etiam in proposito ca- dauere sese monstraturum pollicius esset, frustra id quod nusquam erat requisuit. < 90> Quare postridie in theatrum reversus pali- < 100> nodiam canere coactus est, illo adiecto epi- grammate: Ita accidere solere, vbi à vete- < 110> rum traditis temere recedentes semper no- ui aliqvid in medium adferre molimur. Se tamen nihilominus interea dum certius ali- < 120> quid ipse experiarut, Hispano cuidam se- < 130> ctionis perito, cuius nunc nomen non oc- < 140> currit, assentiri malle, à quo illud proditum < Columbi, pl. moo.> 335 sit, per longissimas ambages & circuitus sanguinem in dextro cordis ventriculo præpa- < 150> ratum in sinistrum per pulmones duci, vt quidem ego coniicio, venæ arterialis ramo- < 160> rum ope & ministerio. Noster anatomicus Hier. ab Aquapendente, post cætera omnia, aut saltem præcipua demonstrata, corollaril vice ad extremum, ouem grauidam viuam o < 170> secuit, in qua mulia non sine stupore intui- < de etio> tus sum, quam nunquam antea ex multis < Arabum de etima non reuecomum.> magistris assequi potui. Arabum doctrinam ex veteri instituto in scholis Italicis propo- < 180> ni facile assentior. Mihi in Græcorum libris aliquandiu desudandum proposui. In his si quid affecutus fuero, forte ad alteros illos diuersere nô fuerit superuacaneu[m], quorum < 190> quidem vniuersa dogmata, vt Fuchsius sæ- < 200> pissime inculcat, vno quasi impetu reiicere minime consultum arbitror. Vt enim maxi- < 210> me in quibusdam aberrent, & minus felici- < Arabum de etima non reuecomum.> ter in alienam linguam translati sint, quin < 220> tamen multa vtilia, à Græcis prætermissa, i- < 230> psi in medium adferant, nemo negate po- < 240> test. Et audiui iudicium cuiusdam, qui affir- < 250> mabat propter purgantium nomenclatu- < 260> ram, & exotericorum quorundam pharma- < 270> corum descriptionem, quorum nunc fre- < 280> quens admodum vsus, plurimi à nobis Ata- < 290> bes merito faciendos esse. Vale. Patruii, po- < 300> stidie conuersionis Pauli. Anno 1576. EPIST. CCIII. IDEM EIDEM. GAVDEO literas meas, quas sane multas < 1> breui interuallo exaraui, tibi recto < 2> traditas. Maiori autem mihi voluptati fuit < 3> cognoscere, quod eas tibi non ingratas esse < 4> passus es, id quod ex tuis superioribus die- < 5> bus ad me allatis, suauissimis & doctissimis, < 6> addo etiam longas, abs te accepi. Vnde ni- < 7> mirum animus mihi additur, quo in poste- < 8> rum etiam tanro audacius & liberius discê- < 9> di studio mea ad te cogitata exponam. De < 10> duplici itaque temperamento fieri potest, < 11> quemadmodum coniicis, vt in præcepto- < 12> rum sententia explicanda alicubi halluci- < 13> natus fuerim, minusque recte ea mente & < 14> verbis conceperim, quæ illi abique errore < 15> docuerunt. Illud tamen dixisse volui, calore < 16> duplici dato, ex necessitate duplex etiam te- < 17> petamentum statui, cum calor ille siue im- < 18> plantatus, siue influens non absolute, & vt < 19> ita dicam abstractiue consideretur, tanqua[m] < 20> nuda qualitas calida, sed veluti calor qui- < 21> dam ex certa mistione consurgens, certo < 22> & determinato subiecto competens, in qua < 23> mistione & contemplatione tamen < 24>

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334 MEDICALS. < Anatomists of the Holy Fathers.> the more it may be granted to me, and you show that, though such as they are, my efforts will not be ungratefully received by you. Thus at last a happy end was put to our anatomy, prolonged to the twentieth day. Truly I cannot deny that care and diligent attention were applied in conducting it, unless it be that the master of the section, as on a long journey, so also in bringing this work to completion, grows the more weary and the more relaxed the farther he advances. As for myself, I certainly observe that I have profited greatly from this inspection, so that now I can more readily, and with greater confidence, unfold the notes I have written on this matter. In explaining the history of the liver itself, he endeavored, as they say, to show us by direct sight that the origin of the veins must be sought in the liver; whether one regards the principle of generation or that of distribution, he clearly illustrated this same point by the example of plants, in which the roots, the branches, and the trunk itself, or the rooting, are to be considered, all of which can be elegantly and aptly fitted to the course of the veins. Yet in the meantime he seemed less to satisfy certain Aristotelian arguments, which that eminent master in this art, Vesalius, vigorously urges against Galen. When he had the structure of the heart under his hands, he simply asserted, as if the matter were uncontested, that blood passes from the right ventricle into the left through the intervening septum, and he showed with a probe certain small openings which appear in that middle partition. Yet I see that many have doubted this. And I remember that two years ago, when Pigafetta the Italian, once a pupil of Fallopius, was engaged in dissections at Heidelberg, he distinctly denied that it was possible for any blood to be conveyed through so dense a diaphragm from one cavity to the other. Indeed he was at last led to the opinion that he had already several times observed certain little veins encircling the point of the heart in no other way than the coronary vein, propagated from the cava, embraces the base, by whose aid blood is transferred from the right side into the left. But when he promised that he would show this too in the cadaver then in question, he sought in vain for what was nowhere there. Therefore on the following day, when he returned to the theatre, he was compelled to recant, with the added epigram: so it usually happens when, rashly departing from the teachings of the ancients, we always try to bring something new before the public. Nevertheless, in the meantime, until I myself test something more certain, he preferred to agree with a certain Spanish expert in dissection, whose name does not now occur to me, from whom it was reported, as I conjecture, that by very long detours and circuits the blood prepared in the right ventricle of the heart is led into the left through the lungs, indeed, as I think, by the agency and service of the branches of the venous artery. Our anatomist Hieronymus of Aquapendente, after all the rest, or at least after the chief things had been demonstrated, as a final corollary dissected a living pregnant ewe, in which I observed many things not without amazement, things I had never before been able to attain from many teachers. I readily agree that the doctrine of the Arabs is proposed in the Italian schools according to ancient custom. I have resolved to toil for some time in the books of the Greeks. If in these I shall have achieved something, perhaps then it will not be superfluous to turn to those others, whose whole doctrines, as Fuchs so often insists, I do not think should be rejected in one sweeping stroke. For even if they err greatly in some matters, and have been translated somewhat less happily into a foreign tongue, still no one can deny that they bring forward many useful things overlooked by the Greeks. And I have heard the judgment of a certain man who affirmed that, on account of the nomenclature of purgatives and the description of certain external drugs, of which there is now very frequent use, many by us ought rightly to be made from Ataby. Farewell. Patruii, the day after the conversion of Paul. Year 1576. EPISTLE CCIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I AM glad that my letters, which indeed I wrote in great number within a short interval, were delivered to you directly. But it was a greater pleasure to me to learn that you were not displeased with them, as I received from you the very sweet and learned, and also lengthy, letters you sent to me on the preceding days. Whence, of course, my spirit is encouraged, so that in the future also I may set forth to you my thoughts with even greater boldness and freedom, at the proper time. Regarding the double temperament, therefore, it may be that, as you conjecture, I have somewhere gone astray in explaining the opinion of the masters, and have conceived in mind and words, less correctly, what they taught without error. Yet what I wished to say was this: if a double heat is granted, then of necessity a double temperament is also established, since that heat, whether implanted or flowing in, is not to be considered absolutely and, so to speak, abstractly, as a bare hot quality, but rather as a certain heat arising from a definite mixture, belonging to a certain and determinate subject, in which mixture and contemplation however...

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336 EPISTOLÆ 337 litatis calidæ, vtpote, maxime actiux, primæ & potiores partes sint, à quo denominationem etiam illa acepiat, quæ ipsa fortasse opinio etiam à Galent mente nou prorsus aliena est, vt ex dictis quibusdam ab ipsa colligere licet. Verum vt maxime hoc statnam, quod modo protuli, minime tamen illud te qui videtur, quod addis duplicia hoc pacto principia & actioues quoque inter se diversas exorituras. Quoniam non opposito modo se isti calores gemini, aut temperamenta etiam duplicia habent. Sed quam maxime inter se conspirant, inque vnum finem ambo concorditer tendunt, vt non tam conttarii, aut oppositi, sed subordinati & simul concinnentes ad actionem eandem producendam nuncupandi sint, nempe, vt ab implantato seu congenito, tamquam magis principali operationis principium pendeat quidem, quoniam tamen ex se idem ille Ian guidior est, velutique semilepulti vrb affluent, euius vehiculum spiritus est vitalis, potentia in actum deducatur necesse est. Putredinis porro apud philosophos & medicos, an eadem causa efficiens assignanda sit, ex eo dubium videtur, quod Aristoteles illa, quæ ad naturalem putredinem (de qua philosophi loquuntur) tendunt, tantum ab externo seu ambiente aere, eoque calidiore, atque interdum etiam ab aqua (de interna enim frigiditate, quæ altera est causa efficiens, minime controuertitur) corrumpi affirmat: Medicorum autem putredo frequentissime ab obstructione originem ducit, cum videlicet calor intus existens propter fuliginum vapores concludus, & distillatione carens, corruptionis illius humorum qualis in putridis febribus cernitur, causa fit. Vnde etiam hæc putredo ad alterius differentiam violenta appellatur, non solum, quia præter inclinationem & habilitatem misti fit, quod ad eiusmodi corruptionem à natura non propendet, & disposita est. Verumetiam quia iustum & determinatum tempus curriculo suo quasi completu antecedit & præoccupat, in quo secundum communem naturæ ordinem res quæque corruptibilis tandem ad interitum tendit, quæ admodum etiam Aristoteles ait, putredinem illam simplici generationi mistorum oppositam finem esse vniuersorum à natura compositorum. Omnia enim mista per ventionem atque mistionem humidi cum sicco durante calore producta, apta sunt vicissim corrumpi per dissolutionem humidi à sicco, calore, qui illa souebat, deficiente. Sed de his ad tenimis multa. Quod vltimum mei exercendi causa attinet: Cur videlicet sæpe in vno brachio pulsus videatur interceptum cum in altero optime & integerzime percipiatur: cogitanti mihi ea de re accurate, illud vere accommodat edici posse videtur, non ab vna causa pulsus intermissionem fieri, sed vel propter debilitatem virtutis ipsius, atque sic dubium non est, in vtroque brachio æque apparitura: vel propter malam instrumentorum consumationem, quam causam ipse nunc remoues: vel ob angustiam, verbi graria, tumorem aliquem in vicinis partibus, à quo arteria veluti comprimarur, & pulsum infirmiorem reddat: vel denique propter obstructionem, quæ si detur, quæris quo in loco consistere quear, Respondeo materiam aliquam viscidam, aut crassam tunicis arteriæ impactam esse posse, non quidem vt ex toto eam obstruat, alioqui enim plane pulsus omnis abulererur, sed ex parte tantum, vt minus euidens, atque ceu interpolatus percipiatur. Vale, 16. Martii Anno 1576. EPIST. CCV. IDEM EIDEM. AD disputationes meas, in superioribus quibusdam inchoatas, quod spectat breuissime omninome exsoluam, imo planeverbum nullum facerem, si te hæc cum fastidio legere arbitrarer. Nondum assequor quomodu calor insitus, & influens pro eodem reipsa haberi possunt. Venit nunc in mentem mihi eos sic distingui posse, quod calor insitus misto insit, quoad mistum est, (quomodo enim alias ex quatuor elementis, seu, vt Hippocrates appellare consueuit, ex calido & frigido, & humido & sicco, constare dici posset?) Calor autem influens misto insit, (loquitur de iis, quæ vita animali viuunt) quoad mistum illud viuens est. Accedit quod calor insitus à principiis generationis inhæret, atque ex semine ipso, & sanguine menstruo orium du eit. Calor autem influens postea primum ex sanguine alimentari in corde generatur, eiusque vehiculum est ipse vitalis spiritus. Denique insitus ille, seu implanratus calor, partibus quibus inest, appropriatus est, nec alibi reperiri valet. Habet enim se (quemadmodum Aristot. loqui solet) Influens autem in corde quidem primario inest, vt qui inde originem suam trahat, ex illo vero tamquam perenni fonte arteriarum, ceu canalium ope in omnes corporis particulas deriatur, quibus quidem vitam & calorem, vt sic dicam, actuum impertir. Vnde etiam sit vt via ista præclusa partes sta-

Transcription: Translated (English)

336 EPISTLES 337 Indeed, since in hot conditions, as the principal active power, the first and more important parts are concerned, from which even that denomination is received, perhaps that opinion itself is not wholly alien from Galen’s mind, as may be gathered from certain things said by him. But although I most strongly maintain what I have now put forward, I am by no means satisfied with what you add, namely, that by this account two principles and also two diverse actions would arise among themselves. For these twin heats, or even the two temperaments, are not related to each other in an opposite way. Rather, they most strongly agree with each other and together tend harmoniously to one end, so that they should be called not so much contrary or opposed as subordinate and jointly fitted to produce the same action: namely, that it depends on the implanted, or innate, heat as upon the more principal principle of operation, yet since that same thing is in itself more sluggish, so to speak, like an almost buried city, whose vehicle is vital spirit, it is necessary that potency be brought into act. As for putrefaction, among philosophers and physicians, whether the same efficient cause is to be assigned, it seems doubtful from the fact that Aristotle states that those things which tend toward natural putrefaction (of which the philosophers speak) are corrupted only by external or surrounding air, especially if it is hot, and sometimes even by water, whereas he by no means disputes the internal coldness, which is the other efficient cause. But physicians’ putrefaction very often takes its origin from obstruction, namely when the heat existing within, because of smoky vapors, is shut in and deprived of distillation, and becomes the cause of that corruption of humors such as is seen in putrid fevers. Hence this putrefaction is also called violent, in distinction from the other, not only because it occurs contrary to the inclination and disposition of the mixture, which by nature does not tend toward, and is not prepared for, such corruption. But also because it anticipates and, as it were, forestalls the proper and determined time of its course, at which, according to the common order of nature, every corruptible thing at last tends toward destruction; as Aristotle likewise says, that putrefaction opposed to simple generation of mixtures is the end of all things composed by nature. For all mixtures, produced by the union and blending of moist with dry while heat lasts, are in turn fit to be corrupted by the separation of the moist from the dry, when the heat that nourished them fails. But enough on these matters. As to the last point, which concerns my exercise: why it is that the pulse is often seen to be interrupted in one arm while in the other it is perceived most perfectly and fully—when I have carefully considered this matter, it seems that the following can truly be said: that the interruption of the pulse does not arise from a single cause, but either from weakness of the power itself; and in that case there is no doubt it would appear equally in both arms; or from bad formation of the instruments, which cause you yourself now exclude; or from narrowness—for example, some swelling in the neighboring parts, by which the artery is, as it were, compressed and makes the pulse weaker; or finally from obstruction, which, if it exists, you ask in what place it may be located. I answer that some viscous or thick matter may be embedded in the coats of the artery, not indeed so as to block it completely—for then every pulse would plainly disappear altogether—but only in part, so that it is perceived less clearly and, as it were, intermittently. Farewell, 16 March, 1576. EPIST. CCV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As for my discussions, begun in certain earlier letters, I shall answer them very briefly indeed—or rather I would say nothing at all, if I thought you were reading these things with annoyance. I do not yet understand how innate heat and incoming heat can in reality be held to be the same thing. It now comes to my mind that they may be distinguished thus: innate heat exists in the composite insofar as it is a composite—for how else could it be said to consist of the four elements, or, as Hippocrates used to call them, of hot and cold, moist and dry? But incoming heat exists in the composite insofar as that composite is living (I speak of those things that live an animal life). Moreover, innate heat inheres in the principles of generation and arises from the seed itself and menstrual blood. Incoming heat, however, is first generated afterward from nutritive blood in the heart, and its vehicle is the vital spirit itself. Finally, the innate, or implanted, heat is appropriate to the parts in which it is present, and cannot be found elsewhere. It behaves, as Aristotle is wont to say... But the incoming heat is primarily in the heart, as the place from which it takes its origin; and from there, as from a perennial source, by means of the arteries, as channels, it is distributed to all the parts of the body, to which it imparts life and heat, so to speak, and the powers of action. Hence also it comes about that, if this passage is blocked, the parts...

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337 MEDICINALES. statim emoriantur, cum nihilominus mis- tionem & temperamentum suum natium obtineant. Quod putredinis virrisque cau- sa efficiens eadem sit, forfasse de efficiente pro pinquo concedi posset. Quæritur tamen vnde sit ille calor præternaturalis? Dixi in putredine vniuersali seu naturali esse tan- tum ab ambiente, hoc est, aere vel aqua. In particulari autem seu violenta & morbosa sæpissime ab obstructione, hoc est, causa in- terna, non externa. Fines tamen magis prin- cipales discrimen inter has duas putredines faciunt. In illa enim in cineres atque simum mista ipsa omnia rediguntur. In hac non- dum prorsus corrupuntur, aut in ipsa pri- ma elemcuta tedeunt, sed solummodo nam piæ - , secundum partem scilicet, non tam substantialem, aut quantitatiuam, quam, vt sic dicam, qualitatiuam. Frigiditas interna, de qua dixi, vnde sit quæritis? Respo- deo esseam, quæ natura misto cuilibet in- est. Cum enim antea à calore in generatione dominante vincetur, atq[ue] cohiberetur, nunc postquam calor ille internus patitur, & diminuistur, ipsa quoque paulatim vires suas prodete, & actiua fiet incipit, atque sic vna cum calore præternaturali foris agente corruptionis, seu e causa adæquata existit. De causa intermissionis pulsus in vno brachio illud solum adiiciam, quod, vt puto, alienum ab re non fuerit. De- prauatæ actionis in corpore humano, in- ter quas hæc recte eonnumeratur, certum est plures tribus causis assignari non posse. Aut enim facultas ipsa læsa est, aut instru- mentum, à quo editur, aut deniq[ue] externus aliquis error accidet. Virtus lædi, nisi ab in- temperie(quam remoues) vix potest. Orga- num vero tum vitiatum dicetur, vbi mala conformatio præter naturam parti inetit, quæ similiter à te excluditur. Relinquitur igitur exernum aliquod impedimentu[m] ac- cessisse, quo minus inculpabilis actio subse- quatur, quod quidem erit, aut tumor aliquis arterias foris coangustans, aut obstructio in tus cauitates ex parte opplens, aut vnitatis solutio, aut aliquid eiusmodi, quod sub his generibus ex necessitate comprehendatur. Peto abs te etiam atq[ue] etiam ne iniquiori a- nimo hasce meas feras. Etsi enim scio me de reb. maximi momenti, vel pro- pter ætatem nondum habere posse: tanto tamen lubensius eas in dubium reuoco, vt plenius de bis erudiar, cum et- iam Philosophus affirmet, de qualibet re dubitare non esse inutile. Minime vero me- um est propositum rebus necessariis omisis nugis quibusdam occupari. Ideoq[ue] regulam abs re præscriptam diligenter menti meq[ue] inte- 338 figo: Philosophandum esse paucis, meditan dum & cogitandum diu. Vale II. Man. An- no 1576. EPIST. CCVI. IDEM EIDEM. LÆTOR ex animo te pristinas vires non- nihil receptisse, & nunc valetudine pau- lo confirmatiore vti, quæ quidem vt diutur- na & stabilis sit, filium Dei precor. Quod quod nuper discendi causa pro- puii nolo odiosè disputando tibi mole- stiam exhibere. Fateor nec locum, nec gra- dum essentiam caloris constituere, sed illud volebam, vt in reliquis partibus, ita etiam in ipso corde duplicem calorem reperiri, im- plantatum quidem, qui in principiis gene- rationis insit, ac semper postea immaneat, sitque ant ipsum temperamentum cordis natiuum, aut certe temperamenti eius po- tissima qualitas. Influencem vero (ira enim ratione aliarum partium; ad quas ex hoc sonte deriuatur, dici consueuit) qui non ex semine aut sanguine menstruo oriatur, vt alter ille, sed potius ex sanguine illo alimentari, ab epate eo dilato, qui etiam postea cui spiritu vitali, tamquam vehiculo illius in o- mnia membra corporis propagatus, eis vi- tam impertiat. Violentæ vero putredinis A- stoteles & quarto illo sublimium, et to vivis , & in libro de respiratione expresse me- minisse videtur. Appellant enim tuis puerorum , quasi opponens tuj natæ . Frigi- dtalem autem illam internam quæ natura inest misto, certum est per se solam putredi- nis causam minime esse posse, cum à calore misti superetur & reprimatur. Quando ta- men euocato & debilitato calore illo, qui mistum continebat, mistum dissolui incipit, mirandum non est ipsam quoque frigidi- tatem, licet antea vernacula fuerit & pas- siva, nunc extraneam & actiuan euadere, ac cum calore ambientis simul calorem proprium misti oppugnare, & ita hæc duo causam adæquatam putredinis existe- re. Venetiis contagium, quod prorsus sopi- tum videbatur, paulatim nunc vires suas rutus exerit, adeo vt Illust. Domini quin- que præcipui nominis medicos ex hac vrbè ad se vocauerit, habedæ deliberationis cau- sa, quomodo bis malis idoneis præsidii oc- curri possit, qui quidem crastina die hinc discussuri sunt. Deum præcor ne cursus stu- diorum nostrorum tali aliquo impedimen- to interrumpatur. Erastum suas de conta- gione conclusiones, auctiores tamen & e- mendatores denuo prælo subiicere in anti- mo habere nuper admodum cogni- qui Fun-

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337 MEDICINALS. ... they die at once, although nonetheless they retain their mixture and temperament as native. Since the same efficient cause of putrefaction and of the powers may be, perhaps this might be conceded as near enough to the efficient cause. Yet the question is, whence is that unnatural heat? I said that in universal, or natural, putrefaction it is only from the surrounding medium, that is, from air or water. In particular, however, or violent and morbid putrefaction, it is most often from obstruction, that is, from an internal cause, not an external one. The more principal end-points, however, make the distinction between these two putrefactions. In the former, all things are reduced together into ashes and filth. In the latter they are not yet entirely corrupted, nor do they return to their first elements, but only partially, namely not so much substantially or quantitatively as, so to speak, qualitatively. You ask whence comes the internal coldness of which I spoke? I reply that it is that which is in the nature of any mixed body. For when formerly it was overcome and restrained by the heat prevailing in generation, now, after that internal heat has suffered and been diminished, it too gradually betrays its own forces and begins to become active, and so together with the unnatural heat acting from without as a cause of corruption, it exists as the adequate cause. Concerning the cause of the interruption of the pulse in one arm I shall add only this, which, as I think, will not be beside the point. Of the depraved action in the human body, among which this is rightly numbered, it is certain that it cannot be assigned to more than three causes. For either the faculty itself is injured, or the instrument by which it is produced, or finally some external error occurs. The power can scarcely be harmed, unless by intemperateness, which you remove. The organ, however, will be said to be corrupted when a bad conformation contrary to nature is present in the part, which likewise you exclude. There remains, therefore, that some external impediment has intervened, whereby an unblamable action does not follow; and this will be either some swelling narrowing the arteries from without, or an obstruction filling the cavities inside in part, or a dissolution of continuity, or something of that kind, which must necessarily be comprehended under these classes. I beg and beseech you not to take these my words in an unfair spirit. For although I know that I may not yet have the maturity to handle matters of the greatest importance, still I much more gladly call them into doubt, so that I may be more fully instructed about them, since the Philosopher also affirms that to doubt about any matter is not useless. By no means is it my purpose to occupy myself with trifles, having omitted necessary matters. And therefore I carefully impress on my mind the rule not wrongly prescribed: that one must philosophize briefly, but meditate and think at length. Farewell. II. Man. In the year 1576. EPIST. CCVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I rejoice from the heart that you have recovered some of your former strength, and that you are now enjoying somewhat firmer health, for which, that it may be lasting and stable, I pray the Son of God. What I recently set forth for the sake of learning, I do not wish to trouble you with by a tiresome dispute. I confess that neither place nor rank establishes the essence of heat, but what I meant was that, as in the other parts, so also in the very heart there is found a twofold heat: one implanted, which belongs to the principles of generation and afterward always remains, and is either the native temperament of the heart itself, or certainly the chief quality of that temperament; the other inflowing—for so, by comparison with the other parts from which it is derived, it is customary to call it—which does not arise from seed or menstrual blood, as the former does, but rather from that alimentary blood, spread out from the liver, which is then also propagated, together with the vital spirit, as it were as its vehicle, into all the members of the body, and grants them life. Aristotle seems expressly to have mentioned violent putrefaction both in that fourth book of the Sublunary Things and in the book On Respiration. For they call them the ... of boys, as if opposing the ... of the ... The internal coldness, however, which by nature is in a mixed body, is certain not to be able by itself alone to be the cause of putrefaction, since it is overcome and repressed by the heat of the mixture. Yet when that heat which contained the mixture is called away and weakened, and the mixture begins to dissolve, it is not surprising that coldness itself too, though formerly native and passive, now becomes foreign and active, and together with the heat of the surrounding medium attacks the proper heat of the mixture, and thus these two become the adequate cause of putrefaction. In Venice the contagion, which seemed to have been wholly checked, is now gradually showing its strength again, so much so that the most illustrious lord has summoned from this city five physicians of the highest reputation for the sake of deliberation, how suitable aid may be brought against these evils, who indeed are to depart hence tomorrow. I pray God that the course of our studies may not be interrupted by some such obstacle. Erastus intends recently to put under the press again his conclusions concerning contagion, though enlarged and corrected; but now, having become acquainted with Fun-

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339 EPISTOLÆ 340 damenta eius nostri nô improbant, et[ia]m quædam adhuc explicatius dici desiderent. Illud de substantia & qualitate, per quoru[m] vtrumq[ue] contagionem definit, ita intelligengendum censeo, vt seminarium seu vapor ille exiens à corpore infecto, & eundem specie morbû in alio subiecto procreans interdû à sua substantia vel forma, occulta quædam vi agat, interdum vero nota salé qualitate; sicut manifeste hoc discrimen in morbis contagiosis animadnerti potest. Exempli causasit pestis, lues venerea, scabies, & alia huiusmodi. Vale, Patauii. 8. Iunii, An. 1576. EPIST. CCVII. IDEM EIDEM. < Præ Nephriticis doloribus nausea & vomitum cure> CAVA cur vomitus & nausea consequi solaent, vbi calculus est in motu, referenda videtur, aut in oris oris ventriculi, quod sensu exquiticissimo præditum esse constat, ob partem nerueam, in substantia sibi similem, (canales nimiru[m] vrinarios) affectam, aut si propius causa indaganda est, ob eoli ipsius Iæsionem, aut irritationem à lapidis motione per contactum conciliata, præsettim cum ventriculus colo (sicut & ipsis renibus, quamuis obscurius) facilime consentiat, quemadmodum euidenter Galenus 2. de locis aff. 5. & 6. de locis aff. 1. demonstrauit. Contagii per DEI gratiam iis nunc status est, vrinos magis magisq[ue] securos esse iubeat, quamuis tantum incendium minime ita subito extingui potest, vt no[n] aliquæ saltem fauillæ remaneant, sensim tandem & ipsæ cuanescentes, id quod in huius etia[m] pestis reliquis Venetiis sieri videmus. DEVS no[n] bis clementer porro adsit. Ad putredinis essentiam quod attinet. Aristotelem & Galenum inter se maxime concordes, apud me nullum est dubium, quantumuis verbis non nihil inter se dissidere videantur, ob id inprimis, quoniam no[n] vnum scopum tractionis vterq[ue] sibi propositum habet. Hic namq[ue] vt Medicus actioni siue curationi intentus, non minus ea quæ sit, quam quæ iam facta est, complecti voluit, illi vero vt Philosopho sat fuit formam ipsam & perfectionem putredinis commonstrasse, cum eam, quæ no[n] dum finem & terminum suum assecuta est, 50 ceu contemplationi inutilem pro nulla ducat. Neque hæc, vt Galenum toties Aristotelis finitionem commendantem prætereâ, Erasti solius est sententia, verumetiam, quos nunc præceptores habeo, tum Capouacci, tum Mercutialis nostri, qui in publicis prælectionibus vnamini calculo huic opinioni Consensus Erist. Capouacci, Mercutialis. ambo adstipulati sunt. Quod si quis inde inferre velit, quemadmodum fortasse & Auer rhoes, & non pauci alii haud indocti sense-runt, hoc pacto Hecticam quoq[ue] necessario putridam vocandam, eo quod calor præternaturalis etiam in hac febre insolida agat, is videtur non firmissima ratione niti. Quandoquidem non animaduertit caloré extraneum duplici modo in mistum aliquod agere posse, vt videlicet illud aut alteret, aut corrumpat. Iam in Hectica solidarum partium calor, vt proprius duntaxat patitur, dum igneus, ac præter naturam euadit, quammutationem inter alterationis limites adhuc consistere liquet. At vero in putridis non alerationem tantum, verumetiam corruptionem calor ille extraneus in humiditaribus corporis molitur, vt vno ote & Aristoteles, & Galenus pronunciarunt: hæc cons ipsa corruptiorursus bipartita rectè statuitur, Naturalis nimirum vna, violenta altera, de quibus omnibus breuiter dici minimè potest, quin potius abs te peto, vt quæ modo in mediu[m] protruli (discendi certe studio adductus) ea sine fastidio legere non dedigneris. Vale, Patauii. Anno 77.14. Mattii. EPIST. CCVIII. IDEM EIDEM. LOCVM Galeni, qnem de vomitu in dolorecium nuper in tuis allegasti, nondum attente perlegere vacauit. Visus est tamen & mihi primo intuitu à scopo non aberrasse, sed expetiar de eo Hermetis quoque nostri iudicium. Nunc filum litterarum tuarum sequendo ad ea me conuerto, Putredo Galen. & Arist. quæ de Putredine controuersa esse ponis, teque auctore libere (hanc discendi occasionem minime negligendam ratus) cogitata mea qualiacunque profero, tuoque iudicio discutienda relinquo. Principio cum res ipsæ differant, inquis, definitiones earum nequaquam congruent. Atque ita neque mutatio, siue motus ad corruptionem, & rerum naturalium interlu pro eodem accipi poterunt. Dico ego duas istas definitiones Aristotelis nempe, atque Galeni, vt maxime verbis, atque etiam rebus ipsis quadamtenus (vt nuper posui, & nunc amplius declaraturus sum) discrepat, minime tamen sibi inuicem oppositas aut aduersas, sed potius velut subordinatas, mutuoq[ue] respondentes esse: idque ob eam rationem, quod prior illa generalior, omni putredini in quantum putredo, conueniens: hæc magis determinata est atq[ue] restricta. Illam, vt pote à Philosopho traditam, putredini tum VET

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339 EPISTLES 340 Its foundations are not disapproved by our people, and some things even desire to be explained more clearly. That point about substance and quality, by both of which contagion is defined, I judge should be understood thus: that the seminarium, or vapor, issuing from an infected body and producing in another subject the same kind of disease, sometimes acts by some hidden force from its substance or form, sometimes indeed by a known quality alone; as this distinction can plainly be observed in contagious diseases. For example, the plague, the venereal disease, scabies, and others of this kind. Farewell, at Padua, 8 June, 1576. EPIST. CCVII. SAME TO THE SAME. <On nausea and vomiting in nephritic pains> The reason why vomiting and nausea are wont to follow when a stone is in motion seems to be referable either to the belly of the stomach, which is known to be endowed with the most exquisite sense, because a nervous part, similar in substance to itself (namely the urinary canals), is affected, or, if the cause is to be investigated more closely, to an injury of that very organ, or an irritation produced by the movement of the stone through contact, especially since the stomach readily agrees with the colon, and likewise with the kidneys themselves, though more obscurely, as Galen clearly showed, 2 De locis affectis, 5, and 6 De locis affectis, 1. The state of the contagion is now, by God’s grace, such as to bid the urinary passages be more and more secure, although so great a fire cannot be extinguished so suddenly that no embers at least remain, which by degrees then themselves also go out; and we see that this is also happening in the remaining plague cases at Venice. May God graciously continue to stand by us. As for the essence of putrefaction: that Aristotle and Galen agree with one another most closely, there is for me no doubt, although in words they may seem to differ somewhat from one another, chiefly because they do not have the same aim in treatment. For the one, intent as a physician on action or cure, wished to include not only what it is, but also what has already been done; the other, as a philosopher, thought it sufficient to have shown the very form and perfection of putrefaction, since he considers as nothing whatever has not yet attained its end and limit, as being useless for contemplation. Nor is this, as well as Galen’s so often commending Aristotle’s definition, merely the opinion of Erastus, but also of those whom I now have as teachers, both Capouacci and our Mercutialis, who in public lectures gave unanimous assent to this opinion. If anyone should wish to infer from this that, as perhaps Averroes and not a few other learned men thought, hectic fever must also necessarily be called putrid, because unnatural heat also acts in this fever upon solids, he seems to rely on no very firm reasoning. For he does not observe that extraneous heat can act upon any mixed body in two ways, namely that it may alter it or corrupt it. Now in hectic fever the heat in the solid parts, insofar as it is proper heat only, while becoming fiery and contrary to nature, clearly still remains within the bounds of alteration. But in putrid fevers that extraneous heat effects not only alteration but also corruption in the moist parts of the body, as both Aristotle and Galen declared with one voice. Hence corruption itself is rightly posited as twofold, namely natural and violent. It would be impossible to speak briefly of all these matters; rather I ask you not to disdain to read without annoyance what I have now brought forward into the middle, driven certainly by the desire to learn. Farewell, at Padua, 14 March, 77. EPIST. CCVIII. SAME TO THE SAME. I have not yet had time to read attentively the passage of Galen which you recently cited in your letter concerning vomiting in pain of the kidneys. Yet at first sight it seemed to me not to have strayed from the point; but I shall await, too, our Hermes’ judgment on it. Now, following the thread of your letter, I turn to those matters which you set forth as controversial about putrefaction, and, taking the occasion to learn, as I do not wish to neglect it, I freely put forward my own thoughts, such as they are, and leave them to be examined by your judgment. First, since the things themselves differ, you say, their definitions by no means agree. And thus neither change, or motion toward corruption, nor the interval of natural things can be taken as the same. I reply that these two definitions, namely Aristotle’s and Galen’s, while they differ somewhat, both in words and even in the things themselves (as I recently stated, and now will explain more fully), are nevertheless by no means opposed or contrary to one another, but rather are subordinate, as it were, and mutually corresponding; and this for the reason that the former is more general, fitting all putrefaction insofar as it is putrefaction; the latter is more determinate and restricted. That former one, as handed down by the philosopher, belongs to putrefaction both

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vniuersall (quam ita vocant) tum ei quæ secundum partem est, itemque cum naturali, tum violentæ (ita enim distinguit Aristoteles) accommodare licet. Hæc à Medico allata, vt proposito eius inseruiat, ad putredinem in corporibus nostris sientem, factamue, pene solam directa est. Vnde non immerito cum hanc Galeno hunc in modum constituere placeret, alteram tamen, ceu huius parentem mirifice pluribus in locis commendat. Apparet hinc etiam, cur in causis effectricibus assignandus vterque ab altero nonnihil variet. Etenim Aristoteles putredini in vniuersum intentus satis habet dicere, eam ab externa caliditate orium ducere, non solicitus vtrum ea caliditas aeris sit, an aquæ, vtrum vaporum aut fuliginum ambientium, vtrum ab impedita per spiratione, aut quauis tædem alia occasione exstiterit. Galenus contra ex artis suæ præscripto, vnicam in humanis corporibus putredinem sibi ob oculos ponens, eius causas definitas, atque circumscriptas inuestigare tenetur, vnde quod Philosophus in genere dixerat: illud in suas quasdam species duducit, & limitat. Quo in loco vt firmior inter grauissimos hosce autores concordia coalescat, & plnirimarum obiectionum ansa simul præcidatur, illud adiicere libet. Non videri mihi absonum, aut à mente Aristotelis alienum, si vocem vi impexer , quam ambientem alii, alii co[n]tinentem verterunt, ita accipiamus, vt non solum acerem, vel acerem & aquam simul complectatur, sed omne omnino id quod corpus putrefactioni obnoxiuim proxime ambit, aut continet. Id quod Galenum quoque animaduertisse inde liquet, quod nulla aeris, aut aquæ expresta mentione facta externum calorem, qui nimirum foris subiecto putrefibili occurrat, duntaxat nominat, suoq[ue] scoopo exinde accommodat. De calore autem innato, quænam inter eosdem tanta sit discordia, nondum intelligo. Ais Galenum hunc statuere sanguineam simulque acream substantiam vna cum spiritu. Ego ex Aristotelis loco, quem tumet eius, 2. vide licet de ortu animal non mulio diuersum colligo. Inquit enim hic autor, calotem, qui facit, vt fœcunda sint semina, non ignea esse, non salem facultatem aliquam, sed spiritum, qui in semine, spumosoque copote continetur, naturamque quæ in eo spiritu est, propotione respondere elemento stellarum. Certe caloris huius congeniti essentiam spirituosam esse pronunciat, & quodammodo igneam, vt alibi sæpe appellat, non tamen adurentem sed blande fouentem & initem, omnesque operationes vitæ gubernantem, atque dirigentem. Quare etiam ob eandem causam calori cælesti, siue æthereo, qualis est solis, recte illum comparat, cum tamen alioqui reuera sit elementaris. Si quid inter vtriusque sententiam interest, illud fortasse solum fuerit, quod Aristoteles, ceu Philosophus (ad hoc enim subinde respiciendum) calorem hunc magis (vt scholæ loquuntur) in abstracto considerat, eius essentiam absolute & per se innuendo. At Galenus, tamquam artifex sensitiuus, materiam siue subiectum proprie ei copulat, in quo residet. Quod quidem aliud esse non potest, quam humidum illud primogenitum, ita medicis vulgo nuncupatum, hoc est, substantia quædam viscida, pinguis, & veluti oleosa, ex ptimis ortus nostri principlis, semine nimirum & sanguine menstruo conflata. Si itaque porro quæras, quonam modo Erastus probaturus sit calorem innatum, de quo agit Aristoteles, & totam substantiam, de qua Galenus, idem esse: Ex ipsius verbis (quæ in positionibus nuperrime editis habentur) respondebo, eum non tolum calorem natium, seorsim complectendo, à Galeno totam substantiam appellatam, sed secundum ipsummet Aristotelem) calorem natium cum suo humido coniunctim, hoc est, sua materia. Et quid mirum? Cum enim ad compositum aliquod constituendum, præter materiam & formam nihil concurrat aliud, cur non hæc duo simul sumpta totam substantiam complere affirmabimus: Atqui calor natiuus, vt per se apparet, formæ vice sustinet, humidum ipsum materiæ. Iure itaque (calotem natium cum suo humido) totam substantiam nuncupate licebit. Verum restat & alius scrupulus quem ex iisdem fundamentis aliquoties iam repetitis, dissolui posse consero. Aristoteles enim in sua illa definitione, cum putredinem corruptionem esse ait, proprii & natiui caloris in vno quoque humido, exquisitius loquitur, quam Galenus, qui eandem vocat mutationem ad intetium, seu corruptionem totius substantiæ putrescentis: Ille enim exacta ratione omnia pensitans, iamquam Philosophus, ea quæ , nei sunt contemplans, proximam immediatam que siue vt in scholis nominate consueuerunt, causam adæquatam tangete voluit, quæ semper cum suo effectu recurrir, (quemadmodum namq[ue] omnis putredo primo naturalis caloris corruptionem spectat, ita etia hoc incolumi permanente, vt putredo aliqua accidat, fieri nullo modo potest. Galenus autem cui, vt Medico circassingularia magis occupato,

Transcription: Translated (English)

Universal, so-called, and likewise what is according to part, and also with the natural and with the violent (for so Aristotle distinguishes them) may be accommodated. What the physician brings forward here, in order to serve his purpose, is directed almost solely to putrefaction in our bodies, whether already present or brought about. Hence it is not without reason that, when it pleased Galen to establish this in this way, he nevertheless commends the other, as it were the parent of this one, in many places in a remarkable manner. From this it also appears why, in assigning the efficient causes, each must in some measure vary from the other. For Aristotle, intent on putrefaction in general, is satisfied to say that it derives its origin from external heat, without troubling himself whether that heat be of the air or of water, whether of the surrounding vapors or fumes, whether it arose from impeded perspiration, or from any other such occasion. Galen, on the contrary, in accordance with the rule of his art, having before his eyes one single putrefaction in human bodies, is bound to investigate its definite and circumscribed causes; and so what the Philosopher had said in general he brings down into certain species of his own and limits it. At this point, that a firmer agreement may be formed between these most weighty authors, and at the same time the occasion for many objections be cut off, I should like to add the following. It does not seem to me absurd, or alien to Aristotle’s meaning, if we take the word vi impexer , which some have rendered “surrounding,” others “containing,” in such a way that it embraces not only air, or air and water together, but absolutely everything that closely surrounds or contains the body liable to putrefaction. That Galen also noticed this is clear from the fact that, without any express mention of air or water, he names only external heat, which of course meets the subject susceptible to putrefaction from outside, and accordingly adapts it to his own purpose. As for innate heat, I do not yet understand what such great disagreement there is between them. You say Galen establishes this as a sanguine and at the same time airy substance together with spirit. I, from the passage of Aristotle, which you cite, namely his second book On the Generation of Animals, infer nothing very different. For this author says that the heat which causes seeds to be fertile is not fiery, nor some special salty faculty, but spirit, which is contained in the seed and in the foamy compound, and that the nature which is in that spirit corresponds by proportion to the element of the stars. Certainly he declares the essence of this congenial heat to be spirituous, and in a sense fiery, as he often calls it elsewhere, yet not burning but gently warming and enlivening, and governing and directing all the operations of life. For this same reason he also rightly compares it to celestial, or aetherial, heat, such as that of the sun, although in itself it is truly elemental. If there is any difference between their opinions, it may perhaps only be this: Aristotle, as a philosopher—for to this one must often look back—considers this heat more, as the schools say, in the abstract, indicating its essence absolutely and in itself. But Galen, as a perceptive practitioner, properly joins to it the matter or subject in which it resides. And this can be nothing other than that primary moisture, so commonly so named by physicians, that is, a certain viscous, fatty, and as it were oily substance, compounded from the chief principles of our origin, namely seed and menstrual blood. If therefore you should further ask in what way Erastus will prove that the innate heat of which Aristotle speaks and the whole substance of which Galen speaks are the same, I shall reply from his own words (which are found in the positions recently published) that he does not understand the total substance to be called by Galen solely as the heat taken by itself, but, according to Aristotle himself, the innate heat together with its moisture conjointly, that is, with its matter. And what is remarkable in that? Since, in fact, for the constitution of any composite, apart from matter and form nothing else contributes, why should we not affirm that these two taken together make up the whole substance? Indeed, innate heat, as is evident, plays the part of form, the moisture itself that of matter. Therefore it will rightly be permitted to call the innate heat together with its moisture the whole substance. But there remains also another difficulty, which I think can be dissolved from the same foundations, repeatedly mentioned already. For Aristotle in that definition of his, when he says that putrefaction is the corruption of proper and innate heat in each moist thing, speaks more precisely than Galen, who calls the same thing a change into destruction, or corruption, of the whole substance putrefying. Aristotle, weighing everything with exact reasoning, as a philosopher considering the things that are, wished to touch the proximate and immediate cause, or, as they are accustomed to be called in the schools, the adequate cause, which always recurs with its effect; for just as all putrefaction first regards the corruption of natural heat, so too, while that remains unharmed, no putrefaction whatsoever can possibly occur. Galen, however, who, as a physician occupied more with particulars,

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curæ non est, quam jacturi rem explicare maluit. Vnde & popularius totam substantiam appellat, & præterea non tantum perfectionem, quam Philosophus in- tuetur, sed etiam viam ad perfectionem, seu < Forma & modus putre domi. > ad terminum sua definitione complectitur. De forma & modo putredinis similiter non leuem esse diffensionem inter vtrumque subiungis. Illo afferente putrescentia primu[m] humidiora fieri, euocato scilicet huncore ad superficiem, deinde assumpto sicciora, donec in simum redigantur, hoc nihil horum proponente, & quæ sequuntur: dico rebus distinctis facile hanc quoq[ue] Inter eos litem dirimi posse. Partitur enim Aristoteles statim ab initio putredinem, de qua verba facturus est, o[mn]is t[ame]n [con]jugia, neq[ue] t[ame]n [con]jugia p[er]n[an]gens quarum alteram simplici generationi, vt maxime commune opponit; alieri vero tribuit his propemodum contrarium. Erunt < Commenium verus, quo putredine. > igitur aliqua, in quibus hæ dux putredines inter se co[m]uenient; (cur enim alioquin vno nomine participarent?) nec pauciora, in qui bus vt plurimum dissidebunt. Forma genetica eadem videtur esse vtrobique, nempe, caloris natui in suo humido corruptio, tum perfecta, tum imperfecta, inchoataque, tametsi illic secundum naturæ cursum ex internis principiis (ambiente interim aere nequaquam excluso) ea misto adueniat, hic < Discrepancia in propinqui. > vero à principio aliquo violento & externo. Causæ efficientes temoræ & ipsæ coincidunt, quoniam corruptio isthæc in ambabus aliunde non prouenit, quam à caliditate extranea, quæ mixto occurrit. Propinque tamen nonnihil variant. In vniuersali enim putredine caloræris ambientis, aut aque etiam solus reperitur. At in particu- lari seu violenta, tum idem ille adest calor, tum vero etiam is, qui excitarus est in pe- netratibus corporis ab obstructione, à crassis fuliginibus emanantibus à succis excre- mentieiis, & similibus aliis. Si itaque con- cluderimus Philosophum in 4. illo sublimium potissimum de putrefactione natu- rali, ad quam mistum est propensum, & quidem vniuersim loqui (quamuis nec alteram prorsus releget;) Nostrum autem Galenum magis determinate de putredine violenta moi bidaue in nostris corporibus orta age- re: tum vero existimo hac ratione multis difficultatibus obuiam iste posse, & plera- que deinde dilucidiora, & minus intricata euausita. < Fretor non commerciis oro in putridine. > Ad fætorem, quod attinet, vnico ver- bo subiungo. Non conuenire eum omni putredini, quoad putredinem, multo mi- nus partem essentia eius constituere, sed talem accidere certæ putrefactioni, ob disposicionem aliquam singularem, quæ in passo reperitur, vt pote in quo magis hu- miditas, ita etiam minus olere ipsa testa- tur experientia, vt taceam Theophrastum clarissimum autorem, in 3. de caulis plantarum, afferentem: Omnem generationem illarum per putrefactionem fieri, in qua tamen insignem aliquem fætorem immi- nere vix vnguam à quoquam animaduersum fuit. Quibus omnibus hunc in modum constitutis postremo tuo quæsito satisfacere studens affirmo: Putredinem omnem, quælicumque ea tandem sit, aliud nihil esse posse ex propria sua natura, quam in- temperiem quandam calidam, calori nativo corporis nostri (loquimur enim nunc vt Medici) penitus aduersantem. Quod veto vna quam alia sæuior est & efficacior, < Putredine gradum. > ideo accidere arbitrandum est, quoniam non eundem perfectionis gradum vtraque obtinet. Quæ enim vix dum inchoata in possessionem missa, nisi prorsus è corpore tollatur, nulla ratione alia compesci potest. Er quidem (ne longe exempla petantur) hoc discrimen in febribus putridis pestiferis, ac non pestiferis manifestissime apparet. In his enim vapores è materia putrefec- te ad cor elati, (Agens enim magis feruefactum, quam putrefactum: patiens cum hu- midissimum sic comburi non potest, sed per violentiam putrefere) illud non tam pu- trefaciunt, quam calefaciunt, pro sua vi- delicet naturæ & subiecti conditione, cum feruefacti & adusti magis sint vere putridi redditi. Cerre enim, si quis hæc forte ne- gare præsumat, putredinem ita alte particulis suis infixam non habent, vt mordicus illam retinere diutius valeant. Diuersa est ratio pestiferarum, quas corruptionis hu- ius terminum omnibus numeris absolutum atrigisse constat. Accedit quod ob gradum illum perfectionis, eam malignitate[m] febres hæ pestilentes coniunctam habeant, vt venens putrefactiuis non iniuria ob agendi vim præsentissimâ assimilentur, p[er]tineoq[ue] à vulgarib[us] putridis longo Interiallo separentur. Quam obrem etiam recte tota substantia nobis aduersari dicuntur, hoc est, nô solùm simplici & nuda inimperie primatum qualitatem (est enim contagium à putredine deriuarum non prima, sed secunda qualitas, certam subiecti dispositionem requi- rens) verum quoq[ue] tota sua forma & essentia. Neque tamen inde sequitur, in censu pu- tridarum, & quidem continuarum amplius non habendam, cum forma ipsa sine instrumento (hoc dico, ne putetur esse potius morbus formæ, quam temperamenti; Cum forma non agat suo instrumento, & mor- bus sit

Transcription: Translated (English)

It is not his concern to explain the matter, which he was about to cast away he preferred. Hence he more popularly calls the whole substance, and besides he includes in his definition not only the perfection which the Philosopher has in view, but also the way to perfection, or the end. < Form and mode of pu- trefaction. > Likewise, with regard to the form and mode of putrefaction, you add that there is not a slight disagreement between the two. The one asserting that in putrefaction things first become more moist, namely by the humors being drawn out to the surface, then more dry as they are taken up, until they are reduced to a kind of mud; the other proposing none of these things and what follows: I say that, the matters being distinguished, this dispute too between them can easily be settled. For Aristotle immediately from the beginning divides the putrefaction of which he is about to speak, all, however, conjunctly, yet not passing through conjunct things into two kinds, the one of which he sets against simple generation as what is most general, while to the other he assigns almost the contrary of these. There will therefore be some points in which these two putrefactions agree with each other; (for why else would they share one name?) and no fewer in which, for the most part, they will differ. The generative form seems to be the same in both, namely the corruption of natural heat in its own moisture, both complete and incomplete, begun as it is; although there, according to the course of nature, it comes to the mixture from within principles, the surrounding air meanwhile by no means excluded, whereas here < Difference in the nearby. > it comes from some violent and external cause. The efficient causes also agree, since this corruption in both cases proceeds from nothing else than extraneous heat, which meets the mixture. Yet the proximate causes vary somewhat. For in universal putrefaction the heat of the surrounding air, or water alone, is found. But in particular or violent putrefaction, not only that same surrounding heat is present, but also that which has been stirred up within the recesses of the body by obstruction, from thick soot arising from superfluous humors, and similar things. If therefore we conclude that the Philosopher in that fourth book of the Sublimia speaks chiefly of natural rottenness, to which the mixture is inclined, and indeed speaks universally (although he does not wholly reject the other); but our Galen is speaking more specifically of violent putrefaction, or morbid putrefaction, arising in our bodies: then I think that by this reasoning many difficulties can be met, and much that follows will become clearer and less involved. < The stench is not a matter of putrefaction. > As for stench, I add in a single word: it does not belong to every putrefaction, insofar as it is putrefaction, much less does it constitute a part of its essence, but it occurs in certain putrefactions because of some special disposition found in the subject, as in one that has more moisture; and experience testifies that it smells less, to say nothing of Theophrastus, the very distinguished author, who in book 3, De causis plantarum , states: every generation of such things occurs through putrefaction, in which, however, a notable stench has scarcely ever been observed by anyone. Having established all these points in this way, I finally, seeking to satisfy your question, affirm this: all putrefaction, whatever it may be, can be nothing other by its own nature than a certain hot intemperateness, utterly contrary to the natural heat of our body (for we are now speaking as physicians). But that one is more severe and effective than another must be judged to happen because neither reaches the same degree of perfection. For whatever is scarcely begun, once introduced into possession, unless it is entirely removed from the body, cannot in any other way be checked. And indeed, not to seek examples far away, this difference is most clearly seen in putrid fevers, pestilential and non-pestilential. In these, the vapors raised from the putrefied material to the heart (for the acting thing has become more heated than putrefied, while the patient, being very moist, cannot be burned in this way, but is putrefied by violence) do not so much putrefy it as heat it, according to the force of nature and the condition of the subject; for when they are heated and burned they are made truly more putrid. Indeed, if anyone should perhaps presume to deny these things, they do not have putrefaction so deeply fixed in their particles that they can hold onto it tenaciously for long. The case of pestilential fevers is different, in which it is clear that this corruption has reached its fully complete limit in every respect. Moreover, because of that degree of perfection, these pestilential fevers have malignity joined with them, so that they are not unfairly likened to putrefactive poisons on account of their most present force of action, and are thereby separated by a long interval from ordinary putrid fevers. For this reason they are rightly said to oppose our whole substance, that is, not only by a simple and bare intemperateness as a primary quality (for contagion derived from putrefaction is not a first but a second quality, requiring a certain disposition of the subject), but also by their whole form and essence. Nor does it follow from this that they are no longer to be counted among putrid diseases, and indeed continuous ones, since the form itself without an instrument—this I say lest it be thought to be rather a disease of the form than of the temperament; since form does not act through its own instrument, and disease is

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bus sit affectio eius, quod primo adiuuat, vel impedit actionem) ap[er]te vel ineptè temperato nullam actione[m] edat: & ipse Galenus expresse affirmet plurib[us] in locis: Verum Characterem febrium pestiferatum esse largam putredinem. Quæ omnia si pluribus verbis, quam fieri decuit, apud te exposui, dabis opinor veniam loquacitati meæ, cu[m] in vt hanc arenam descenderem pene abs te prouocaturus sim. Tu si aduersum non est, quid tibi de < 10> his videatur respondere non grauaberis. Vale. Patauii, Kal. Augusti, Anno 1577. EPIST. CCIX. IDEM EIDEM. < Melancholia hypochondria ea num ab Hepatis frigendacet> Indoctissima tua disputatione de melancholia hypochondriaca illud mihi adhuc dubium videtur. Quomodo ea à frigiditate < 20> epatis oriri possit, cum non tantum alii recentiores, sed etiam ipse Galenus in plerisq[ue] locis affirmet hunc humorem digni , nec veteribus vnquam approbatum, ipse quoq[ue] plane sentio. Lubenter tamen vna tecum affero: serosos humores semper cum crassiorib[us] co[m]iunctos esse, quod hi sine illis vehiculi vicem præstent. Vnde serosiorib[us] humoribus tempestiue sublatis, siue per vrinam, siue per sudores, qui remanent crassi, alio auerti & expurgati, per aluum nimirum, minori cum noxa possunt facile. In victus ratione præscribenda paulo rigidior mihi esse videris, in eo præ < Diatapodagricæ rigidiæ> serum homine, qui in occupato vitæ genere degit, & ne potest quidem, si velit maxime, tâ accuratam diætam, no[n] in cibo solum & potu, sed in aliis etiam reb[us] non naturalibus dictis obseruare. Dum enim valetudini suæ impensius operam daret, vt officium sibi co[m]missum intertim in multis negligentiùs curaret, omnino necesse est. Itaque in mentem venit, quod de Laudatissimo Aragonum Rege Alfonso recitatur. Is enim cum à quodam < Contemptor Dicta Rex Alphonso.> audisset qua ratione ad xec annorum xatatem, vitibus sic satis constantibus peruenisset, subiecit: Mori se malie intra decem annos (nondum autem quinquaginta excesserat) quam ad centum tali vitæ genere peruenite. Habet certe hic etiam illud locum: Non nobis solum nos natos esse, & quæ sequuntur. Quot porrunt, qui in exquisitissima victus ratione sæpius tamen in articulares dolores incurrunt, & molestius iis fatigantur, quam qui nonnihil liberius viuunt? nempe, Hippocratis illud oraculum vetissimum esse, res ipsa indicat, Intenuis dictæ observatione plures errores committi solere, qui ægros deinceps grauius affligunt. Quoduis siquidem peccatum hic noxium magis, quam in paulo pleniore victu esse contueuit. atque eadem P 3

Transcription: Translated (English)

...but because its temperament, which first assists or hinders the action, being plainly or ineptly regulated, produces no action; and Galen himself expressly affirms this in several places: but the true mark of pestilential fevers is abundant putrefaction. If I have set all these things before you in more words than perhaps was fitting, I hope you will pardon my verbosity; for in a manner, when I descended into this arena, I seemed almost to have challenged you. If there is nothing against it, you will not refuse to say what you think of these matters. Farewell. Padua, on the Kalends of August, 1577. EPIST. CCIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. On your very unlearned disputation concerning hypochondriac melancholy, this still seems doubtful to me: how it can arise from coldness of the liver, since not only other recent writers, but also Galen himself in many places affirms that this humor is not worthy of consideration, and was never approved by the ancients; this also I plainly think. Yet I readily concede one point with you: that serous humors are always joined with thicker ones, because the latter serve as a vehicle without the former. Hence, when the more serous humors are timely removed, whether by urine or by sweats, the thicker humors that remain can be turned elsewhere and purged, namely through the bowels, with less harm and more easily. In prescribing the regimen of diet, you seem to me a little too severe for that serious man who lives in an occupied way of life, and who, even if he wished it most, cannot observe so exact a diet not only in food and drink, but also in the other things called non-natural. For while he should be applying himself more earnestly to his health, he would in many matters be forced to neglect, or attend to less carefully, the office entrusted to him. Thus there comes to mind what is related of the most praiseworthy King Alfonso of Aragon. For when he had heard from someone by what means he had reached the age of sixty years with his vital powers still sufficiently firm, he replied that he would rather die within ten years (he had not yet passed fifty) than reach a hundred by such a way of life. Surely here too that saying has its place: “We are not born for ourselves alone,” and what follows. How many there are who, even while following the most exact regimen of diet, nevertheless often fall into joint pains, and are tormented by them more severely than those who live somewhat more freely? Indeed, the ancient oracle of Hippocrates indicates as much, that through too strict observance of regimen many errors are commonly committed, which afterward afflict the sick more grievously. For any fault whatever is here judged more harmful than in a somewhat fuller diet. And the same...

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EPISTOLÆ 348 de causa sanis valde tenuem, & statam, ex- quisitamque victus rationem parum tutam esse, idem autem prudentissime affirmat. < Quamvisitas cibi ingen quam qualis sua respicienda,> quoniam si quid vel exiguum deliquerint, gratissime perferuot. Ego quidem, ne quid diffitear, in easum hæreu: In victus ratione præscribenda magis ad quantum, quam ad < Rapidum misitis> quale respiciendum esse, atque cibum, etiam ex sua natura minus salubrem, morboque ideireo accommodatum, si tamen cum auditate sumatur, minus ooxæ corpori affetre, quam alium, qui saluberrimus quidè iudicetur, sed appetitui nostro plane repugnat. Quod enim sapit, vt vulgo dicitur, id nutrit. Et quæ veoticulus inuitus assumit, nunquam arcte complectetur, (in quo plurimum situm ipse affirmas) in quo bonum & laudabilem succum conuerret. Aurea igitur regula illa valeat, quam tute diligenter inculcas: Vt ne quid nimis. Vnde apparet me nequaquam cupiditatibus frænum 10 iosiitum laxare, sed tantum hoc velle, vt ne iugum importabile miseris egris imponatur, appetitusque eorum prorsus prosteroatntr. Ideoque, quæ illis morbiratione profunt, aut obsunt, diligenter quidem indicanda censeo, vt scianr, à quibus potissimum cauere debeant; nihilominus vbi à propositis rebus naturaliter abhorre- re senserimus, aliquid indulgendum, vt illos in officio conseruerens, & paulatim ab insalubrioribus ad salubriora, hoc veluti obsequio, perducamus. Nam & ipsi sponte hac prudentia vtentur, vt de vetiis parcius degustent, inque reliquis medio se magis obedientes exhibebunt. In potu autem hoc præceptum vim suam vel maxime obtioet. Laudo itaque quod vinum booum & clarum, cuius viu alii etiam extra < Vinum conaudendum.> paroxysmum seuere inter dicunt moderate sumtum permittus, quia scilicet oon tantum bono sanguini efficiendo, idoneum est: sed etiam cruditatibus concoquendis absumen disue, quibus hoc eorpus plurimum seate, egregie confert. Sed nec cereuisiam huialem, ceu potum naturæ familiarem, & tenuitate sua cito hypochondria permeantem, improbauerim, vt tamen nodulum ex calamo aromatico inciso, galanga, se minibus anisi, foeniculi, vel baccis lauri, & similibus, ad corrigendam frigiditatem & cruditatem immitteret, sæpe suasi, neque 50 te, cum sapor haud insuauis sit, inde abhorrere existimo. In quarta parte seu capite consolationis tuæ circa medium commissum esse puto. Neque enim, quid sibi verba ista velint, quoue referenda sint, satis assequor. Cum spiritus pu- rioros in ipso morbo, &c. Ex tuis igitur aduersariis, nisi molestum est, errorem nobis demonstrabis, & corriges. Rectissime reprehendis plerosque medicos, qui cum in morbo articulari dno potissimum consideranda siot: causa fluxionis, & pars fluxionis recipiens: ad alterutrum duntaxat curationem totam conuertant, nempe, qui purgantibus pharmacis corpus frequenter nimis exagitant; ad causam seu materiam fluxionis. < Duis in enim formem semper confidenda.> Et quithermas, luta, & alia huiusmodi consulunr; ad partem affectam. At vera & rationalis methodus ita voi scopo attendendum satisfaciendumq[ue] moner, vt alter interim oon negligatur. Vt purgantibus per certa interualla plurimu[m] tribuo merito: Ita < Topica non pensuit velis, acenda.> nequaquam illis asseotiri quo, qui omnem topicorum visum veluti reliqione quadam ducti in solidum prohibent. Quorsum enim quæso dolorem, qui fluxiones auger, & vires corporis deicit, impune adeo grassari permittamus? Ita tamen salsa persuasione inducti serme omnes sunt, & medici & ægri: vt piaculum existimeo loco patieoti, quamdiu durat dolor, aliquid applicare, Cautioce magna, in materia præsertim mista, qualis plerumque est, vtendum censeo interim tamen non prorsus abstinendum, donec sensum pars pene omnem amittat, & atq[ue] stupida fiat. Si Galenum consulimus, < In topica non ostium Gal. liberalis.> quam ille liberalis est ex Archigenis & aliorum sententia, in iis admouendis, quæ opium, succum hioseyami, cortices mandragoræ, & alia narcotica recipiunt? Ego tameo tam audacter, & tali magistro prævio, ad extrema huiusmodi conscendere no lim. Illa potius admiserim, quæ temperiei suauitare, & vi anodina dolorem, qui in excessu positus est, blande demulcent, simulque leui attrictione partem à fluxione debilitatem roborant. Io hoc ceosu liquores idoneos seu destillatos, seu decoctos, quibus linteamina imbuuntur, & calide partibus sæpius permutaodo circumponuntur, magis laudauerim: quam oleosa illa & pingua, quibus pori cutis fere obstruuorur, & materia tenuior difflari prohibetur. Cauteris, si < Anodino quæ & quælicomuniantes.> dextre & artificiosè fiat, multos egregie adiutos esse coostat: & recitat exempla nonnulla dominus Eraftus, pie memoriæ, in Antiparacelsisis. Conuincit idem ratio, quæ ex tua hypothesi deducitur: quando nihil æque scrosos humores absumere aptum natum est, atque cauteria ista. Sumitur autem indicatio, quæ tamen 5. Methodi medicæ ex eo, quod contioub in corpore præter naturam gignuntur, ea etiam tale præsidium expostulabant, quod illa con- tinuit

Transcription: Translated (English)

EPISTLE 348 About the cause, a very thin and fixed regimen of diet is for healthy people rather unsafe and too exacting, and I affirm the same very prudently. Although the quantity and kind of food ought to be considered, since if they err even in something small, they bear it very gladly. I certainly, to confess the truth, lean toward this view: in prescribing the regimen of diet one should look more to quantity than to quality, and a food, even if by its own nature somewhat less wholesome and therefore suited to the illness, if nevertheless taken with moderation, causes less harm to the body than another which is judged most wholesome but is plainly repugnant to our appetite. For, as the saying goes, what tastes good nourishes. And what the unwilling stomach takes in will never cling closely to it, as you yourself affirm there is much at stake there, and it will turn into good and laudable nourishment. Therefore let that golden rule stand, which you yourself diligently impress: that nothing be done to excess. From this it appears that I am by no means relaxing the restraint on desires, but only wishing that an unbearable yoke not be imposed on wretched sick people, and that their appetites not be utterly crushed. Therefore I think that whatever in diet is useful or harmful to them should certainly be pointed out, so that they may know what they ought especially to avoid; nevertheless, when we observe that they naturally shrink from the proposed things, something should be granted, so that by this indulgence we keep them in duty and gradually lead them, from less wholesome things to more wholesome, by a kind of compliance. For even they themselves will of their own accord use this prudence, so that they may taste the remedies more sparingly, and in the rest they will show themselves more obedient to moderation. But in drink this precept is especially effective. I therefore approve that good and clear wine, which others also strictly forbid except during the paroxysm, be taken in moderation, because it is not only suitable for producing good blood, but also contributes greatly to digesting and removing crudities, to which this body is much prone. Nor would I disapprove of the common beer, as a drink familiar to nature and by its lightness quickly passing through the hypochondria, provided, however, that a little bundle made of an aromatic reed, galangal, seeds of anise, fennel, or berries of laurel and the like, were added to correct its coldness and crudity; I have often advised this, nor do I think that you would shrink from it, since the taste is not unpleasant. In the fourth part, or chapter, of your consolation, I think an error was committed near the middle. For I do not sufficiently understand what those words mean, or to what they are to be referred: “With the purer spirits in the disease itself,” and so on. Therefore, if it is no trouble, you will show me the error from your opponents and correct it. You rightly criticize most physicians, who, when in articular disease the two things chiefly to be considered are the cause of the flux and the part receiving the flux, turn the whole treatment to only one or the other: namely, those who, with purgative medicines, excessively agitate the body, to the cause or matter of the flux; and those who advise baths, poultices, and other such things, to the affected part. But the true and rational method teaches that regard and satisfaction must be given to both aims, so that one meanwhile is not neglected. Just as I fairly assign much to purgatives at fixed intervals, so I by no means agree with those who, as if led by some kind of religious scruple, prohibit all topical applications altogether. For why, I ask, should we permit the pain, which increases the fluxes and weakens the body’s strength, to rage on with impunity? Yet almost all, both physicians and sick people, are brought by a false persuasion to think it a kind of sacrilege to apply anything to a painful place as long as the pain lasts. I judge that great caution must be used, especially in a mixed matter, as is usually the case; yet one should not abstain altogether, until the part loses nearly all sensation and becomes numb. If we consult Galen, how liberal he is, following the opinion of Archigenes and others, in applying those things that contain opium, henbane juice, mandrake peel, and other narcotics! I would not, however, dare to climb so boldly to such extremes, even with such a master as guide. Rather would I admit those remedies which, by the sweetness of their temperament and by their anodyne power, gently soothe the pain that is present in excess, and at the same time, by light friction, strengthen the part weakened by flux. In this view I would more commend suitable liquids, whether distilled or decocted, with which linens are soaked and then repeatedly laid warm around the parts, than those oily and fatty substances, which almost block the pores of the skin and prevent the thinner matter from being dispersed. That cauteries have greatly helped many, if skillfully and artfully applied, is well known; and Lord Erastus, of pious memory, recounts several examples in the Antiparacelsica. The same is proved by reason, which is drawn from your hypothesis: since nothing is more naturally suited to consume serous humors than such cauteries. The indication is taken, however, from the fact that in the body things contrary to nature are produced, which also therefore demand such a remedy, because they are kept in being by it.

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 350 < Cerotium capicola.> tinno educat. Hoc nempe fonticuli isti, vt vulgo loquntur, præstant: & exitum iis humoribus è corpore innoxiè patefaciunt, qui alioquin intus detenti multum molestiæ naturæ affterre solent. De losione capitis frequente ipse quoque propter actualem illam humiditatem, quæ non potest nô incommodi aliquid adiunctum habere. Cerotum, quod substituis, magis placet. Velim tamen scire: Ao illud ra[ti]o vertici applicando dum sit, an vero sindone obductum octu duntaxat admouere co[m]ueniat? obtemperabo lubens, (idenim potestatis à patiente nostro, pro ipso nempe fideiubendi, accepi) quicquid hac in parte, & aliis fieri iusseris. Quantum ad vaporarium seu stu- fam siccam attinet: dum meotem tuam pe- nitius intospicio, nequaquam nos diffentire arbitror. Nam nec ego hic quicquam cum impetu agi, aut ab vno extremo ad alterum suo medio transire velim. Blandissimus ille vapor, qui è herbarum idooearum decocto feruente emanat, quid violenti habet? Caput quidem ne iusto plus repleatur exsertum manet. Reliquum corpus sudat tanto temporis spacio, quæotum absque villo incommodo perferre potest, modo per semihoram, modo per tres quadrantes, ad integram vsque horam idque siogulis sex aut octo diebus semel. Sudores matutini in lecto ægre in hoc corpore procedunt, & hominem occupatum iusto diutius detient: at illic vna vice faciliori cum tolerantia co[m]pensatur, quod hic vix multis obtinere fas est. < Pul. Craton. > A Calendis Ianuarii hoc vsque singulis diebus mane vsus est puluerere, ea fere forma, qua pro D. Quæstoris coniuge non ita pridem præscripsisti, incorporato scilicet cum rob. de baccis fambuci. None autem te autore eundem puluerem cum melle acido in electuarij mollioris formam redactum sumere coostituit. Alter ille Italicus < Allum Italicum > Mediolanensis nimis amarus est, vt propter caloris excessum vtilem quoque succum in corpore depascere, & cootrariam quandoque intemperiem inducere credibile sit. < Allum et > Ao inter oleum & spiritum vitrioli (quæ vulgo confunduntur) differentiam facias, incertus sum. Arbitror tamen te id intelligere, quod medio ioter destillandum tempore exit. Spiritus enim subtilissimus ante omnia exhalat, id olei oomine aliqui non dignaotur, quod flammam, cen cætera olea omnia, non concipiat: sed liquorem duntaxat generis voce nuncupant. Si de re ipsa edoctus fuero, de nomine cum nullo litigare volo. Atque hactenus quidem, quæ consolatioem tuam attoeius legenti & ponderanti in mentem venere, referre li- < Cerotium capicola.> boit: non tam mei exercendi causa, (quod tamen ipsum nô pernego) quam vt D. Wolzogij, id à me postulantis desiderio satisfacerem. Te etiam nobis optime velte minime omnium dubitamus, ita tamen respondere nolnmus, vt quicquam in nostri gratiam tux obsis infirmæ valetudini, quam firmam esse, atqve constaotem serio optamus precamurque. Vale. Prax. 17. Ianuar. Anno 1585. EPIST. CCXI. D. HIERONIMO CAPOVACCIO; Professor Patrimonio &c. Petrus Monanum Medicus, S.D. SCRIPSERAM superioribus mensibus ad < 20> stealiquid, verum quado illud ad manus tuas perueoisse, ob tam diuturnum silentium tuum non immerito dubitem, laborem hunc denuo subire, & epistolam certioribus hominibus committere placuit, idq[ue] tanto maiori cum audacia, quanto ad me instrueo dum, & benigne quæsitis respondendo in proximis temer offers. < Causas > Do causa contineo te, adeoq[ue] de morbi effectia, quam variæ sint, exq[ue] haud satis explicatæ disputationes, ad affectuum tamen curatio- < 40> nem parum admodum conducentes, haud equidem me fugit: verum ego plerisq[ue] illorum præteritis in præsentia pauca tantum, quæ ex tuis verbis excerpsi, dubia, discendi gratia propooere constitui. Principio igitur quæro: An causa contioens seu contentiua in morbis vere detur, & si datur, in omnibus ne, antantom in aliquibus? Prorsus non dari, illud idem ostraere videtur, quod morbi sunt constituuziones quædam, & res < 40> iam factæ, non adhuc sientes, quo nomiæ etiam à dispositionibus, affectionibus, seu passionibus præcipul medici illos differre recte ceosuerunt. Causæ vero continentes illis duntaxat rebus attribuis solêt, quæ (Gal. de pulsc. 1. 0.) tantisper dum fiunt, essentiam suam obtinent; pulsibus, v.g. & aliis motionibus, actiooibusque traoperatoriis. Dei de Galeni ipse, vbi ex professo de causis morbificis agit, nusquam, quod scio, contineorum, seu contentiarum meminit, quarum tamen cognitionem si vllô modo necessariam medico existimasset, eam silentio inhoulere voluisse haud credibile est. < Auricula > Auricula item fidelis Galeni interpres, contine < Auricula > nente & ipse omissa (nisi fortasse, quod aliquibus placere video, non vicariam paulo post eandem nominasse dicamus) < Comenius > comiuntâ causam loco illius substituit, & in morbis agitoseit, quæ tamen à priore illa P 4

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M E D I C I N A L. 350 < Cerotium capicola.> … This is what those little fountains, as they commonly speak, provide: and they allow those humors to find a harmless exit from the body, which otherwise, if retained within, are wont to bring much trouble to nature. As to the frequent shaving of the head, I too approve it, because of that actual humidity, which cannot but have something inconvenient connected with it. The cerate which you substitute pleases me more. Yet I should like to know whether that should be applied to the crown by rubbing it in, or whether it is fitting only to apply it over a cloth. I shall gladly comply, since I have received from our patient himself the authority to answer on his behalf, whatever you may order in this matter and in others. As for the vapor bath, or dry stove: when I look more closely into your intention, I think we do not differ at all. For neither do I wish anything here to be done with violence, or to pass from one extreme to the other by way of its opposite. What violence is there in that most gentle vapor which rises from the boiling decoction of suitable herbs? The head indeed remains exposed, so as not to be filled beyond measure. The rest of the body sweats for as long a time as it can bear without any inconvenience, sometimes for half an hour, sometimes for three quarters, up to a full hour, and that once every six or eight days. Morning sweatings in bed proceed badly in this body, and keep the man occupied longer than is proper; but there, in one instance, what is scarcely attainable in many is compensated for with easier tolerance. < Pul. Craton. > From the Calends of January up to this day he has used the powder every morning, in nearly the same form in which you not long ago prescribed it for the wife of the Treasurer, namely compounded with oak bark and elderberries. Now, by your advice, he has resolved to take the same powder with sour honey, reduced to the form of a softer electuary. That other Italian < Allum Italicum > from Milan is too bitter, so that, because of the excess of heat, it seems likely to consume the useful moisture in the body as well, and sometimes to induce the contrary intemperament. < Allum et > As to whether you make a distinction between oil and spirit of vitriol, I am uncertain. Yet I think you mean that which comes out in the middle of the distillation. For the most subtle spirit evaporates first of all, which some are unwilling to call by the name of oil, because, like other oils, it does not catch fire; but they name it only by the common term for that liquid. If I am instructed about the thing itself, I do not wish to dispute about the name with anyone. And thus far indeed I have thought fit to report whatever came into my mind while reading and considering your consolation with attention; not so much for the sake of exercising myself, though I do not deny that either, as to satisfy the wish of D. Wolzogius, who requested it of me. We do not in the least doubt that you are also very well disposed toward us, yet we do not wish to answer in such a way that anything should be to the injury of your weak health on our account, whereas we sincerely desire and pray that it may be firm and constant. Farewell. Prax. 17 January, in the year 1585. EPIST. CCXI. TO D. HIERONIMO CAPOVACCIO, Professor of Patrimonio, etc. Peter Monanum, Physician, sends greetings. I HAD WRITTEN in the previous months to < 20> you something, but since I doubt whether it has reached your hands, because of your so long a silence, it seemed best to take up this labor anew and entrust the letter to more reliable men; and that with so much greater boldness, since in instructing me, and in kindly answering the questions asked in the next letter, you readily offer yourself. < Causas > That I keep to the causes, and therefore that there are discussions about the effects of disease, how various they are, and how insufficiently explained, though not very helpful for the treatment of affections, has not escaped me; yet I have resolved for the present to pass over most of them and to propose only a few doubts, which I have excerpted from your words, for the sake of learning. First, then, I ask: whether a containing or continens cause is truly found in diseases, and if it is found, whether in all of them, or only in some? That it is not found at all seems to be shown by this same fact: diseases are certain constitutions and things already made, not yet feeling; for this reason physicians have rightly judged that they differ from dispositions, affections, or passions. But causes are usually attributed only to those things which, while they are taking place, retain their own essence (Gal. de pulsc. 1. 0.), for example pulses and other motions, and operative actions. And Galen himself, where he treats professedly of morbid causes, nowhere, as far as I know, mentions containing or contining causes; and if he had thought their knowledge in any way necessary for the physician, it is not credible that he would have wished to bury it in silence. < Auricula > Auricula, too, as a faithful interpreter of Galen, omits the containing cause and himself, unless perhaps, as I see some to prefer, we should say that he afterward named the same thing in another place as a substitute for it. < Comenius > Comenius set in its place the joint cause, and discusses in diseases what nevertheless from the earlier one P 4

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351 E P I S T O LÆ 352. vt mox explicabitur, diuersa est. Subit igitur haud immerito mirari ex cuiulnam autoritate illa causa continens seu contentiua in medicinam à recentioribus inuecta sit, & cur tanta animorum contentione hodie adhuc de eadem disceptetur. Vt enim maxime incensum causarum morbosarum admitti debere concedamus, quæri tamen secundo loco potest: < Num omni morbo conueniat.> Num omni morbo, an vero aliquibus tantum, & quibusnam inter hos conueniat? Sunt qui certis rationibus ducti concludant: Nullum morbum temperie continentem causam (qua scilicet ablata statim affectus perit) habere posse. Inter reliquos vero illos solummodo, qui in additione rei alicuius constituit, causam eandem possidere, cæteros non item. Nullam enim qualitatem, quæ per motum generatur, ex remissione contrarij, & factum quid habet, ex continente causa pendere posse. Ita igitur angustis admodum limitibus causæ huius vis circumscribetur: vt scilicet ad similiares morbos nullos, ad instrumentarios autem aliquot duntaxat, qui in additione nempe consistunt, extendatur. Te tamen cum his non facere, ex eo colligere in promptu est, quod aperte inquis, Causam contentiuan à coniuncta seu proxima diuersam nihil aliud esse, quam morbi ipsius causam formalem, quod, nisi valde fallor, à Galeni mente multum dissider. Hic enim primo de sympt. causis cap. 5. Causam continentem, contentiuan & proximam sine vllor prorsus discrimine vsurpat. < Causa contentua & proxima videbar.> Sicuti & 2. Method. 4. & fortasse etiam aphorismo 2. 7 particulæ, vbi item de pulsibus agit, tres illorum causas continentes enumerat: facultatem, instrumenta, & vsum. Quod si iam causæ continentes à formalibus nihil differunt, vt ipse affecris, sequetur omnino: Vnicam rem, qualis pulsus est, tres simul causas formales habere, quod mihi non potest non absurdam videri. Coniunctam sane causam (quam à contineure modo distinctam, proximam, immediatam & adæquatam etiam appellare licet) in morbis cum materia no[n] inuitus vna cum ipso Auicenna admiserim, imo sub antecedentis nomine illam à Galeno simul comprehensam existimo. Neque enim sirem vere existimare volumus, aliud est, quam antecedens, quatenus actum morbum efficit, eique coniungitur & copulatur, ita quidem vt nulla inter eam & affectu siue morbum causa alia intercedat media. Vnde nimirum Celsus etiam absq[ue] vllor rigore continentis causæ nomine, de quauis abdita & Interna, in quantum ab externa & procatar- etica dirimitur, vsus est, sicut & Medici ferme omnes hodie quando de tertio causaru[m] genere, à Galeno, vt putant, prætermisso, disputant. Post causarum porro contemplationem mox ipsi occurrunt morbi, quorum tu quidem essentiam in facultate læsa, aut impotentia quadam ad operandum collocas. Mihi nequid dissimulem de vtroq[ue] horum dubitationes in me[n]tem veniunt. Dum enim morbum facultatem læsam appellas, nimis angustu[m] genus illi attribuere, & certam tantum speciem, intemperiem scilicet, complecti videris. Ab hac enim proprie actio lædi atq[ue] labefactari dicitur: eo quod facultatis essentia secundum Galenum in ipsa partis temperie consistat. Quonam igitur instrumentarij morbi & vniuatis soluuo reliquæ duæ morbi primarix species pertinebunt? Cur etiam Galenus in morbi definitione læsæ facultatis non meminit? cum tamen hanc necesse sit operationis ipsius legensionem, vtpote, à qua immediate depender, præcedere? Appellas deinde morbu[m] impotentiam quandam ad operandum. Quod si impotentia erit, ergo priuatio, ergo nihil, ergo in nulla categoria, nisi per accidens tantum, collocabitur. Et sic frustra an qualitas, vel relatiuum sit inquiretur. Nullum enim priuationis certum genus est, neq[ue] species eius, nisi per contrarios actus distinguuntur, minime autem per se & tamen Galen[inum] in definiendo morbo positius vocabulis (no[n] priuatiuis) constitutionis scilicet, dispositionis, affectus, & aliis similibus vti non veretur? ista quomodo inter se concilianda sint coguoscere cupio. Deniq[ue] morbum dupliciter accipi & considerari affirmas, & cum, & sine causa sua contentiua, hoc quid quæso aliud est, quam dicere? Morbu[m] aliquando lummi cum sua forma, aliquando sine causa, siquidem te Autore, vt supra dictum est, causa contentiua à formali reuera nihil differt. Atqui morbus non curari tantum: sed ne intelligi quidem, aut mente concipi sine forma sua vllor modo potest, quandoquidem hæc sola est, quæ & essentiam, & nom[m]e rebus quibusuis impertit. Et quid tandem forma remota in morbo supererit, quod considerare atque contemplari, curare denique possimus? Accidentia cense & qualitates (quibus morbum ipsum iuuare, vropinor, adnumeramus) nudæ per se formæ tantum sunt, & materiam nullam, censessentia suæ parte alteram substratam babent. Quâ igitur distinctionis huius modo allatæ vititatem esse consebimus? Possem etiam de tribus summis morborum generibus, quæ ab omnibus prope medicis magnu côlensu tra-

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351 EPISTLES 352. which will soon be explained, is different. It is therefore not without reason that one is led to wonder from whose authority that cause, the containing or contenitive cause, was introduced into medicine by later writers, and why today there is still such a sharp contention of minds about it. For although we grant that an inciting cause of diseases ought to be admitted, it may nevertheless be asked in the second place: Does it suit every disease, or only some, and which among them? There are those who, led by certain reasons, conclude that no disease can have a contenitive cause (that is, one which being removed the affection immediately perishes). Among the rest, however, only those which consist in an addition of something are thought to possess the same cause; not the others. For no quality generated by motion, and having an actual effect from the remission of its contrary, can depend on a containing cause. Thus the force of this cause will be confined within very narrow limits: namely, it will extend to no similar diseases, but only to some instrumental ones, that is, those which consist in an addition. Yet that you do not agree with these men is easy to infer from this, that you plainly inquire whether the contenitive cause, distinct from the conjoined or proximate cause, is nothing else than the formal cause of the disease itself; a view which, unless I am much mistaken, differs greatly from Galen’s mind. For here, in the first chapter on the causes of symptoms, he uses “containing,” “contenitive,” and “proximate” cause without any distinction at all: “The contenitive and proximate cause seemed…” Likewise in Method of Healing 2.4, and perhaps also in aphorism 2 of the seventh section, where he also discusses the pulse, he enumerates three containing causes of it: faculty, instruments, and use. But if now containing causes differ in nothing from formal causes, as you state, it will necessarily follow that a single thing, such as the pulse, has three formal causes at once; which to me cannot but seem absurd. I should certainly admit the conjoined cause in diseases together with matter, not unwillingly, along with Avicenna himself; indeed, I think that Galen included it under the name of antecedent. For if we wish to speak truly and properly, it is nothing other than the antecedent, insofar as it produces the actual disease and is joined and coupled to it, so that no other cause intervenes between it and the affection or disease. Hence surely Celsus also, without any strict use of the name “containing cause,” used it of any hidden and internal cause, insofar as it is distinguished from the external and procatarctic cause, just as almost all physicians today do when they discuss the third kind of causes, omitted, as they think, by Galen. After the contemplation of causes, diseases themselves immediately present themselves. You, indeed, place their essence in a damaged faculty, or in some impotence for action. I must not conceal that doubts about both of these come to my mind. For when you call disease a damaged faculty, you seem to assign it too narrow a genus, and to include only one definite species, namely intemperie. For it is properly of this that action is said to be impaired and weakened, because, according to Galen, the essence of faculty consists in the very temperament of the part. To what then will the instrumental diseases and the universal diseases belong, if the remaining two primary species of disease are thereby dissolved? Why also does Galen, in the definition of disease, make no mention of a damaged faculty, when this very lesion of operation must precede it, since the latter depends immediately on it? Then you call disease a certain impotence for acting. But if it is impotence, then it is privation; therefore nothing; therefore it will be placed in no category, except incidentally. And so it will be pointless to ask whether it is a quality or a relation. For there is no definite genus of privation, nor species of it, unless they are distinguished by contrary acts, by no means by themselves; and yet is Galen not afraid, in defining disease, to use positive terms (not privative ones), namely constitution, disposition, affection, and others like them? How these things are to be reconciled with one another I should like to know. Lastly, you affirm that disease is taken and considered in two ways, both with and without its contenitive cause. But what else, I ask, is this than to say that disease sometimes with its form, sometimes without its cause—if indeed, according to your author, as was said above, the contenitive cause really differs in nothing from the formal cause? Yet disease cannot be cured, nor even understood or conceived in the mind, without its form in any way; for this alone imparts both essence and name to things of any kind. And what, then, remains in disease if the remote form is removed, that we may consider and contemplate it, and finally cure it? Accidents and qualities, by which, I suppose, we also count disease itself among them, are in themselves only naked forms, and have no matter, no underlying substrate as another part of their essence. In what way, then, shall we acknowledge the truth of this distinction just set forth? I could also speak about the three highest genera of diseases, which by almost all physicians with great agreement tra-

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traduntur, quærere, an nô cõmodins ad duo duntaxat reducerentur, ita vt continui solu- tio sub instrumentarûs morbis, tanquam compositionis, aut conformationis (ad qua[m] continuatas etiam haud dubie spectat) par- tium læsio, seu virium per se comprehende- retur. Atq[ue] ita etiam Auicenna ipse cum æ- gritudinem desinit, complexionem & com- positionem, quatenus vtraq[ue] non naturalis est, sub illa solum collocat, & pro veris at- que summis duobus morbi generibus agno- scit, vnitatis aut continui solutione fortasse non ex oscitantia prorsus præterita, secun- da primi, doctrina prima, cap. 1. sed veren- dum est ne iam tum nimis longe à scopo e- uagatus fuerim. Itaque ad reliqua capita, quæ in ma epistola restant, tempestruè con- tector. De dolore capitis facile assentior: a- liam ab eo indicationem desumi, quatenus simpliciter, vt dolor, hoc est, tristis quædam sentario consideratur, aliam rursus quate- nus à causa sua proxima, nempè morbo, vel hunc ipsum antecedente causa dependet & fouetur. Quod in vniuersaliter, & sine ex- ceptione affirmas, nunqua[m] à dolore indica- tionem curatiuam desumi, in eo ab Auicen. dissentire videris, quando loco paulo ante citaro expresse inquit: Dolorem capitis, qui ex febre sit, dum diu manet & figitur, transitc in ægritudinem. Si igitur in ægri- tudinem, siue morbum transit, quomodo non ab illo indicatio entraua haurietur? cum symptoma necessario morbum (non autem materiam, vel aliud symptoma) con- sequi asserui, nequaquam ad symptomata in generalissima sua significatione, qua res omnes præter naturam simul complecti- tur, acceptum respexi: sed potius ad alte- rum illud genus, quod in specie & priua- tim sic appellatur quodque Galen. Anyun- pa etiam, id est, succedens vocat, & morbos solos necessario sequi, ac tanquam vmbra corpus comitari ipse testatur. Ex intempe- rie humida nullum omnino dolorem oriri posse cum Auic. & ipso Gal. ex 2. de comp. medic. secundum locos simpliciter affir- mas. Et tamen idem Gal. in lib. de inæquali intemperie, cap. 3 inter causas doloris effe- ctrices humectationem quoque (etsi minus quam calor & frigus sunt, efficacem quali- tatem) enumerat, & exempli gratia esuriem seu famem producere videtur, in qua ob siccæ substantiæ defectum (& ita per conse- quens ob humidæ abundantiam) dolor & molestia non sane leuis in corpore nostro fuscitatur. Nisi igitur apertè ipsum sibi con- tradicere velimus: loca hæc inter se conci- lianda veniunt. Illud quin etiam dubitatio- nem complectitur, quando scribis mixtum similare in sese hæc tria habere. Forma[m], pro- prietatem & complexionem seu tempera- mentum. Quid enim aliud est proprietas, quam proprium cuiusq[ue] rei temperamen- tum, per qua[m] forma siue anima ipsa agit, seu efficax est? Aliud imaginari vix datur. Cur igitur hæc duotâquam diuersa dirimuntur? Imo vt maxime exquisita ratione ducti hæc inuicem differre concedamus; parum ta- men admodum medico vsui, de quo in pre- sentia sermo est, & quem sensu potissimum niti scimus, conducerent, atque ob id etiam nullam vtilem indicationem inde haurire nobis liceret. Proprietates porto materiæ, quas vocant vtpore crassitiæ, tenuitate[m], mol- lirem, duritiem, laxitatem, astrictionem, & similes, quonam refers? Num similaribus, quoad similes sunt, conuenire non existi- mas? Aliorum sane alia est sententia: eorum inprimis, qui totius substantiæ morbos, ve- teribus (vt putatur) ignotos introducunt, à quibus te non prorsus abhortere, mentio morborum à proprietate coarguit, quos quidem ex disproportione corporum ele- mentorum ortos similaribus duntaxat par- tibus tribuis, & à temperiei morbis differre aperte significas. Materiæ putrefactio, si vitium est in forma, adeoq[ue] corruptio, hoc est, mutatio abesse simpliciter, ad non esse simpliciter, quonam modo gradus certos recipere, aut intendi, ac remitti poterit: For- ma certe secundum Philosophos tanquam in puncto consistit, latitudine omni prorsus destituta, tu tamen materiam motbissi- cam interdum putrescere, interdum dun- taxat semiputrescere, ac priori quidem con- sideratione auxilium eradicans, posteriori vero suppurans indicare in metodo cu- randi vniuersali doces. Quod si putrefactio, secundum te est integra rei corruptio; & ita totius formæ, quæ antea composito in- erat, abolitio est, semiputrefactio igitur ex necessitate quoque semicorruptio quædam statuetur, hoc est, formæ media ex parte, no[n] autem ex toto ablatio seu remotio: quod quidem an peripareticæ Philosophorum scholæ admissuræ sunt, ipsæ viderint. Poteram pro assertione in superioribus literis à me posita, illud etiam non absq[ue] ratione, vt arbitror, vrgete. Putredinem, cum secun- da quædam qualitas sit, à primis (calore scil- licet atq[ue] humiditate orta) temperiæ primo destruere, non autem formam à tempera- mento multum diuersam. Venenum con- tra proprietate quadam occulta ita toti, aut illud conseruanti & fouenti formæ aduersum, vt nisi alexipbarmacis &c.

Transcription: Translated (English)

They are handed down to ask whether, more conveniently, they should be reduced to two only, so that the dissolution of continuity, under instrumental diseases, as in composition or conformation, and also the injury of parts, or of powers themselves, would be comprehended under that one head. And thus Avicenna himself, when he defines sickness, places complexion and composition, in so far as each is non-natural, under that alone, and recognizes them as the two true and highest genera of disease, perhaps not passed over entirely through negligence with regard to the solution of unity or continuity, the second of the first doctrine, book 1, chapter 1; but I fear I may already have strayed too far from the goal. Therefore I return promptly to the remaining chapters that are left in my letter. As to headache, I readily agree that one indication is drawn from it insofar as it is considered simply as pain, that is, as a certain sad sensation; another again insofar as it depends on its nearest cause, namely the disease, or the cause preceding that disease and fostering it. When you assert universally and without exception that a curative indication is never drawn from pain, you seem in this to differ from Avicenna, since in the passage I cited a little before he expressly says: “A headache that arises from fever, when it remains long and becomes fixed, passes into sickness.” If therefore it passes into sickness, or disease, how can a curative indication not be drawn from it? When I stated that a symptom necessarily follows disease, and not matter or some other symptom, I was by no means referring to symptoms taken in their most general meaning, by which all things contrary to nature are at once included; rather I meant that other kind which is so called in the special and proper sense, and which Galen also calls consequential, and testifies that it necessarily follows diseases alone, accompanying them as a shadow accompanies a body. From a humid intemperament no pain at all can arise, as you and Galen himself assert plainly from the second book, De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos . And yet the same Galen, in the book De inaequali intemperie , chapter 3, among the causes producing pain, also enumerates moistening, although it is less effective than heat and cold, and by way of example seems to produce hunger or famine, in which, because of the lack of dry substance (and thus consequently because of the abundance of moisture), no slight pain and distress is awakened in our body. Unless, then, we wish to make him openly contradict himself, these passages must be reconciled with one another. That too includes a difficulty, when you write that the mixed similar thing has these three in itself: form, property, and complexion or temperament. For what else is property than the proper temperament of each thing, by which the form or soul itself acts, or is effective? It is scarcely possible to imagine anything else. Why then are these two, as though different, separated? Nay, even if we grant, led by the most exact reasoning, that these differ from one another, they would still be of very little use for the physician, of whom we are speaking at present, and on whom we know that he relies chiefly on sense; and for that reason it would not be lawful for us to draw from them any useful indication. To which class do you refer the properties of matter, such as thickness, thinness, softness, hardness, looseness, constriction, and the like? Do you not think that they belong to similars insofar as they are similar? Others certainly think otherwise, especially those who introduce diseases of the whole substance, unknown, as is believed, to the ancients, from whom you do not altogether shrink back; the mention of diseases from property proves this. You assign these only to similar parts, as arising from a disproportion of the bodies of the elements, and you clearly indicate that they differ from diseases of temperament. Putrefaction of matter, if it is a defect in form, and therefore a corruption, that is, a simple change from being to not-being, how can it receive fixed degrees, or be intensified and remitted? Form, according to the philosophers, certainly consists as though in a point, wholly lacking breadth; yet you teach in the universal method of curing that the morbid matter is sometimes putrefying, sometimes only semi-putrefying, and that in the first case it indicates the removal of aid, while in the latter it indicates suppuration. But if putrefaction, according to you, is the complete corruption of a thing, and thus the abolition of the whole form that was previously in the composite, then semi-putrefaction must also of necessity be established as a kind of semi-corruption, that is, the removal of form in part, not in whole; whether the Peripatetic schools of philosophers will admit this, they themselves may consider. In support of the assertion I made in the earlier letters, I could also, I think, reasonably urge this: putrefaction, since it is a secondary quality arising from primary ones, namely heat and moisture, first destroys temperament, not form, which is very different from temperament. Poison, on the other hand, by a certain hidden property is so hostile to the whole form, or to the form preserving and maintaining it, that unless with alexipharmics, etc.

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355 EPISTOLÆ 356 Permissitia & prohibenda. dotis ex abdita proprietate itidem formam respicientibus oportune succurratur continuo illam misto excedere cogat. Verum nolo hæc nunc pluribus persequi. Quantum ad permittentium prohibentiumue ex arte inuentionem attinet, nondum omnino in sententia tua, quam protulisti, acq[ui]niescere possum. Etiamsi enim in methodo resoluriua, & parte simiotica, signum occurrere & ipse intelligam, nequaquam tamen sub hac notione, qua permittens, aut prohibens est, illud occurrit, sed tantum quatenus in certæ affectionis dignotionem nos adducere valet, quemadmodum, verbi q[ui] pulsus depulsus de bilis virtutis imbecillitatem denotar, quam quidem prohibentis vim in venæ sectione possidere, iam ante præsupponebatur. Postquam enim in virium debilitate à venæ sectione abstinendum esse scio, tum demum ex pulsu, ant aliis signis, quomodo ex sese habeant diligenter inquiro. Ego vero methodum postulaueram, cuius ope in permittentis aut prohibentis cognitionem directe penetrare possemus, ita vt ex indicantis natura, eo quod agendum est inuento, statim etiam scire liceret, num quid esset, cuius ratione auxilium illud adinuentum permitteretur, prohibereturve. Contrariorum quidem seu oppositorum eandem esse disciplinam vulgo etiam fertur. < Catarrhus epidemicus> Quamobrem hic quoque fortasse contrarias, seu oppositas causas inter se conferre, & effectus similes, aut oppositos inde elicere oportebat: sed ego de his ex te, quem Præceptorem lubens agnosco, audire malim. Atq[ue] hactenus quidem ad ea, quæ in literis tuis continentur respondi, nunc corollarij gratia hoc vnum insuper abste quæsierim, Quid de morbo illo, qui superioribus mensibus per totam fere Europam grassarus est, sentias? Quonempe genere illum concludas, & num vere contagiosum fuisse existimes? Catarrhum cum febre adiuncta fuisse negari nô potest, sed tamen in eo non omnes conueniunt, an febris illa synochus putris, vel imputris exstiterit: Si putrida & ichorosa statuatur (quemadmodum curatio per diaphoretica potissimum absoluta indicare videtur) quomodo malignitate carere potuit: cum etiam te ipso teste, Ichores omnes sint non tantum extremetum quiddam, sed etiam prorsus præter naturam, idq[ue] quando putrescunt multo magis. Quas etiam causas tum externas seu communes, tum internas, seu priuatas, ad mali huius adeo longe lateque diffusi generationem concurret dicemus? Quæ uem cura tionis lex erit atque methodus? De his igitur ex te solidi quid, cur us modi omnia tua esse præcla- re noul, audire vnicce desidero. Ego vicissim omnia mea studia, omnem obseruant[ur] cultum, ita vt debeo, promptissimo animo tibi offero, atq[ue] dedico. Vale, Pragæ, 9. Cal. Febr. Anno 1581. EPIST. CCXII. IDEM EIDEM. AD reliqua disputationis capita quod attinet: in us longius persequendis nequaquam tibi molestiam afferre volo. Exenim pleraq[ue] illorum logica sunt, hoc est, talia, vt nec vsum in artis exercitio magnum babeant, & de illis in vtramque partem differere sit facilimum. Quamobrem omisis de causa contentiua, de doloris essentia & causis, de symptomatum diuisione, de prohibentium inuentione, & similibus aliis vsum artis maiori ex parte transcendentibus disceptationibus, illud duntaxat attingam, cuius in calce epistolę tuæ meministi, quando scilicet morbum ante biennium circa hoc ipsum tempus per vniuersam ferme Europam grassantem contagiosum fuisse negas, eo quod perniciosus non exstiterit, & breui, ac pene nullo adhibito auxilio depulsus fuerit. Ego quidem quomodo, aut cur contagij notionem illi demere debeamus, non faris me assequi ingenue fateor. Siquidem illi morbi contagiosi recte perhibentur, qui de vno subiecto in aliud transmigrant, & per contactum mediatum aur immediatum acquiruntur. Atqui negari nullo modo potest, dum Epidemicus ille catarrhus, vt plerisq[ue] appellare placet, vagaretur, vel vno in vna domo aliqua, aut familia, correpto, continuo etiam ad reliquos malum transisse, & paucissimos, imo pene nullos prorsus intactos reliquisse. Hæc inuadendi ratio si contagium dici nô meretur, quidnam contagium sit, haud equidem scio. Neque mihi satis firma videtur ratio: cum contagiosum ob id fuisse negas, quod perniciosus non fuerit. Nam & alij plures morbi sunt, quos extra controuersiam omnes contagiosos esse fatentur, & tamen petniciosi & maligni non æque existimantur, vt pote scabies, jippitudines, phthisis, coryxæ, & similes alij, quorum & Aristoteles, & Galenus, cum de contagio loquuntur, meminere. Sicut autem de ratione epidemij seu vulgaris morbi non est, vt sit pestilens, vel perniciosus (sunt enim aliqui ex his etiam salutares) ita multo minus ad contagiosum eade[m] hæc conditio necessario requiritur: sed satis est de vno subiecto in aliud transeundi, & per contactum cuiuscunque generis lefe vionis

Transcription: Translated (English)

355 EPISTLE 356 Permitted & prohibited. from the hidden property of the dose, likewise, suitably and continuously to those who look to the form to be considered, relief may be given; that it forces it to exceed the mixture. But I do not wish to pursue these matters further now. As far as the discovery, by art, of what permits or prohibits is concerned, I cannot yet entirely assent to your opinion as you have put it forward. For even if in the resolutive method, and in the semiotic part, I myself understand that a sign occurs, nevertheless under this notion, as permitting or prohibiting, it by no means occurs, but only insofar as it can lead us to the recognition of a certain affection; as, for example, a pulse that is depressed denotes weakness of the bilious power, whose prohibiting force in venesection had already been presupposed. For after I know that, in weakness of the powers, one must abstain from venesection, only then do I diligently inquire from the pulse, or other signs, how matters stand of themselves. But I had asked for a method by which we might directly penetrate to the knowledge of what permits or prohibits, so that from the nature of the signifying thing, once what is to be done has been found out, it would at once also be permissible to know whether there were anything with respect to which that aid, once devised, should be permitted or prohibited. That contraries, or opposites, are governed by the same discipline is also commonly held. <Epidemic catarrh> For this reason perhaps here too it would have been necessary to compare contrary, or opposite, causes with one another, and to elicit similar, or opposite, effects from them: but I would rather hear these things from you, whom I gladly acknowledge as my teacher. And thus far indeed I have replied to what is contained in your letters; now, for the sake of a corollary, I would further ask you one thing: what do you think of that disease which, in the preceding months, has spread through almost all Europe? Namely, of what type do you judge it to be, and do you think that it was truly contagious? It cannot be denied that the catarrh was accompanied by fever, but still not all agree whether that fever was synochal and putrid, or non-putrid. If it is held to have been putrid and ichorous (as the cure accomplished chiefly by diaphoretics seems to indicate), how could it have lacked malignity? Since, as you yourself testify, all ichors are not only something utterly extreme, but also altogether contrary to nature, and when they putrefy, much more so. What causes, too, both external, or common, and internal, or private, shall we say contributed to the generation of this evil, spread so far and wide? What likewise will be the law and method of treatment? From you, therefore, I uniquely desire to hear something solid concerning these matters, since all these things are, as it were, splendidly known to you. I, in turn, offer and dedicate to you, with the most ready spirit, all my studies and all the respect due to you. Farewell, Prague, 9 days before the Kalends of February, in the year 1581. EPISTLE CCXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As regards the remaining heads of the discussion: I do not wish to trouble you by pursuing them further. For most of them are logical, that is, such that they have no great use in the practice of the art, and about them it is very easy to argue on either side. Wherefore, setting aside the discussion about the formative cause, about the essence and causes of pain, about the division of symptoms, about the discovery of prohibiting causes, and other similar matters that for the most part transcend the practical use of the art, I shall touch only on that which you mentioned at the end of your letter, namely, when you deny that the disease which, about two years ago and at this very season, was spreading through almost all Europe, was contagious, because it was not pernicious and was driven off quickly and with almost no aid having been applied. I confess frankly that I do not fully see how, or why, we ought to remove from it the notion of contagion. For those diseases are rightly called contagious which pass from one subject to another, and are acquired by mediate or immediate contact. Yet it cannot in any way be denied that, while that epidemic catarrh, as most people prefer to call it, was abroad, if even one person in one house or family was attacked, the disease immediately passed to the rest as well, leaving very few, indeed almost none, entirely untouched. If this mode of invasion does not deserve to be called contagion, I certainly do not know what contagion is. Nor does that reason seem sufficiently sound to me: namely, that you deny it was contagious because it was not pernicious. For there are also many other diseases which everyone admits without controversy to be contagious, and yet are not equally thought to be pernicious and malignant, such as scabies, ophthalmias, phthisis, coryzae, and similar others, which both Aristotle and Galen mention when speaking of contagion. And just as it is not part of the notion of an epidemic, or common disease, that it be pestilential or pernicious—for some of these are even salutary—so much less is this same condition necessarily required for a contagious disease: it is enough that it passes from one subject to another, and by contact of whatever kind causes injury.

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357 MEDICINALES. 358 vclinis corporibus insinuandi facultatem habere. Quotamen tanto vberiorem fructum extua responsione percipere queam; illud libenter ex re cognouerim, paralysis scu resolutio post colicam, quæ in his reris visitatissima est, quasnam indicationes habeat, & cui parti potissimum prospiciendum? per quas item vias materia peccans ex intestinis in extremos artus deponitur: Et num apud veteres etiam aliquid de illa traditum exstet? Incidit & aliud de vsu hydrargyri intra corpus exhibendi dubium, cui occasionem dedid tractatus quidam de morbo Gallico tuus, quem superiori anno ab amico acceptum diligenter, & cum magna vtilitate euolui. Nullus certe quotquot de eo scripserunt, qui tamen numero non pauci sunt, Viri clarissimi & doctissimi, ita essentiam eius peruestigauit, & ex rei natura indicationes eruit, artificiosèq[ue] deduxit, vt abs te in breui illo libello factum est, qui propterea vt à multis cognosceretur dignissimus esset. Mentionem autem ibi facis inter alia etiam Mercurij, & de eo assumendo, & admouêdo præcepta & regulas quadam tradis. Hîc quidem cognoscere cupiam, an turpetbum quoq[ue] minerale (quod nihil aliud est, quam Mercurius certa ratione præparatus, nimirum cum oleo vitrioli, non rubeo illo, sed albo siue phlegmatico) in vsu habere soleas. Quod si enim crudum seu visitato modo præcipitatum intra corpus exhibere non vereris, præmissis tamen præmittendis, puto te multo minus abhorriturum ab eo, qui magis artificiosâ ratione præparatus est, & cui ita comedes ineecti sunt, vt congenitam sibi ferociam impune vsurpare non queat. Multi sane sunt, qui in deploratis Gallicis post lignum sanctum ad hunc tanquam ad sacram anchoram confugiunt, & omnem malignitatem, quæ in corpore ab inunctionibus crebro repetitis relicta est, sese huius præsidio funditus exstirpare posse sperant, neque planè infelici successu, vt multis casibus ipse vidi, etiamsi nonnunquam, si non caute adhibeatur, deterrima & horrenda symptomata inducere soleat. Omnem noxam illius inhiberi quidam mihi retulit; si mox altero die post illius exhibitionem leniens aliquod pharmacum, puta, manna, dilurum senæ, cassia, aut similia, propinentur: ita enim imperitus eius, qui per se ad superiora vergit, & saluationem nuncuparam excitat, qua fauces læduntur, ad inferiores & ignobiliores partes quasi manu ducitur. Postremum est, num tibi satis tutum & rationabilè videatur in febribus, post vniuersalia præmissa & digesta nonnihil materia, in ipso die paroxysmi, medicamentum purgans exhibere: ita tamen vt illius operatio absoluiatur priusquam paroxysmus inuadat. Tali enim curandi methodo plures & longissimis febribus laborantes, multo cirns, quam alias liberatos animaduerti. Nec viderur repugnare ratio, quando medicus, vt minister & imitator naturæ, tum mouere deber, cum natura mouet, & illius conatum adiuuare. Mouet enim natura, vt Hipp. ipse inquir, 4. de morbis, in diebus imparibus, per quos intelligit non tam eos, qui numero impari definiuntur, quam criticos, aut eos quibus paroxysmi inuadunt; vt Gale- nus ipse in Aphorismis explicare videtur. Sed vereor ne tibi tam longa commemoratione molestiam creem. Quamobrem scribendi finem facio, & vt respondere non dederi gratis, etiam atq[ue] etiam abs te peto. Vale. Pragæ. EPIST. CCXIII. D. HIERONYMO MERCURIALT; Professori Patauino, &c. Petrus Mo- nautus Med. S.D. QVÆ de morbo epidemio, non ita pridem longe lateq[ue] per vniuersam pene 30 Europam grassaro, ad D. D. Cratoné semel atq[ue] iterum perscriptisti, ipse quoq[ue] legi, & rationibus suis subnixa esse animaduerto. Vt tamen probabiliorem esse Cratonis nostri sententiam (liceat id mihi pace sua dieere) iudicem, vna contagi) facit ratio, quod sane quomodo sine aliquo saltem 40 pontis: necessarium esse semper si contagium sieri debet, vt adsit putrefactio aliqua in corpore, præterquam, cum à calore præternaturali fiat, vapores attolluntur. Cur igitur febrem quoque illam synochum catarrho adiunctam, de qua sermo est, putridi quid habuisse negabimus? Certe prima etiam huius mali rudimenta, nisi plane fallor, idem omnino attestantur. Siquidem enim communis morbi causam communem assignari, necessario oportet, nulla haud dubiè aëre ipso nos ambiente erit accomodarior. Atqui hic cum multis dierum hebdomadibus ob pluuias pene continuas (adiuuantibus forte etiam, vt nonnullis placet, peculiaribus syderum aspectibus) permaduisset; mox sub æstatis finem subitis ingruentibus caloribus egregie feruefactis, ex humicola & calida intempericbus sese Inuicem 41 frequentibus, non pottit non putredinis femi-

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357 MEDICINALS. 358 the ability to be insinuated into living bodies. However, I would gladly learn from your answer whether I may receive from it a richer fruit; namely, I should like to know whether paralysis, or resolution after colic, which in these matters is very common, what indications it has, and to which part one must chiefly attend; by what routes also the offending matter is deposited from the intestines into the extremities; and whether among the ancients anything has also been handed down about this. There also came to mind another doubt concerning the use of mercury administered within the body, an occasion for which was given by a certain treatise of yours on the French disease, which I diligently read last year, after receiving it from a friend, and with great profit. Certainly none of those who have written on it, though they are not a few in number—men most famous and learned—has so thoroughly investigated its essence, and drawn out from the nature of the matter the indications, and ingeniously deduced them, as has been done by you in that short little book, which for that reason was most worthy to be known by many. There you mention, among other things, also Mercury, and you give certain precepts and rules about taking and applying it. Here indeed I should like to know whether you also make use of the so-called mineral turpethum (which is nothing other than Mercury prepared in a certain way, namely with oil of vitriol, not that red one, but the white or phlegmatic one). For if you do not shrink from administering raw mercury, or precipitated in the ordinary way, within the body—provided, however, the preliminaries that must be observed are first observed—I think you would be much less averse to that which is prepared by a more artful method, and to which such a tempering has been applied that it cannot use its natural ferocity with impunity. Many indeed, in desperate cases of the French disease, after the holy wood, flee to this as to a sacred anchor, and hope that by this protection they can utterly extirpate all the malignity left in the body by repeated inunctions; nor is the success altogether unfortunate, as I myself have seen in many cases, even though sometimes, if not cautiously employed, it is wont to bring on the worst and most dreadful symptoms. Someone told me that all harm from it is prevented if, immediately on the second day after its administration, some lenitive medicine is given to drink, such as manna, a diluted senna, cassia, or the like; for thus the crude matter, which by itself tends upward and excites what is called salvation, in which the throat is injured, is, as it were by hand, drawn down to the lower and baser parts. My final question is whether it seems to you sufficiently safe and reasonable, in fevers, after the universal remedies have first been given and some of the matter digested, to administer a purgative medicine on the very day of the paroxysm, but in such a way that its action may be completed before the paroxysm attacks. For by such a method of treatment I have observed many suffering from prolonged fevers to be liberated much more promptly than otherwise. Nor does reason seem to oppose it, since the physician, as minister and imitator of nature, ought then to move when nature moves, and to aid her effort. For nature moves, as Hippocrates himself inquires, in book 4 On Diseases, on the odd days; by which he understands not so much those that are defined by an odd number, as the critical days, or those on which the paroxysms attack; as Galen himself seems to explain in the Aphorisms. But I fear that by so long a recollection I may be causing you annoyance. For this reason I now bring my writing to an end, and I most earnestly ask you not to leave me without an answer. Farewell. Prague. EPISTLE CCXIII. TO D. HIERONYMUS MERCURIALIS, Professor at Padua, etc. Peter Monautus, physician, sends greetings. THE things which you have more than once written to D. Crato concerning the epidemic disease that not long ago spread far and wide through nearly all Europe, I myself have also read, and I note that they are supported by reasons. Yet in order that I may judge our Crato’s opinion to be the more probable—if I may say so without offense—I am led by the reason of contagion, namely that certainly, how can there be contagion without at least some bridge? It is always necessary, if contagion is to occur, that some putrefaction be present in the body, except when, as the result of excessive heat, vapors are raised up. Why then shall we deny that even that synochal fever, joined with catarrh, of which we are speaking, had something putrid in it? Certainly the very first beginnings of this disease, unless I am greatly mistaken, attest the same thing entirely. For if a common cause of a common disease must necessarily be assigned, there will surely be none more suitable than the very air surrounding us. But here, after the ground had been soaked for many days and weeks by almost continuous rains—perhaps also helped, as some like to think, by particular aspects of the stars—when toward the end of summer sudden heats set in and were greatly intensified, from humid and warm intemperaments interacting repeatedly with one another, it could not fail that putrefaction’s seed-

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359 EPISTOLÆ 360 naria concipere, quæ corporibus conuenenter prædispositis similem exiude qualitatis labem impressere. Quoniam tamen magis attenuaria, & minus lenta atque glutinosa inquinamenta illa forent, factum hinc est, vt malignitate & pestilenti contagio morbus careret, eo quod causa illum generans, & fouens, nec per se lenta esset, & viscida, & præteteaspiritus & icheores corporis nostri potissimum occuparet, ob eam que partium essentiæ tenuitatem per cutis poros dissiparetur promptissime. Non tamen negauerim catarrhos, qui cum in plerisque diutius remanserint, symptomata varia excitarunt, à crassiori materia pendisse. Sed hoc ex accidenti morbo ipsi epidemio acceptum ferendum est, quatenus scilicet, materiæ illi ante in corporibus existenti non genetationem quidem: sed motum duntaxat, siue impensum tenuitatis suæ, vt 20 modo dixi, ratione impertuiuit. Sed pene præuaricatorem ago, qui alienâ litem quodammodo meam facio, & sentientiam non rogatus dico, quod nisi discendi cupiditate, qua incredibiliter ardeo, fieret, næ tu mihi impudentiæ & tenacitatis dicam impingere iure posses. Vnum illud, quod in præsentia in mentem venit, si adhuc rogauro, scriptioni meæ finem statim imponam. <Plumbum cur graue & ponderosum.> Velim igitur seire causam, quamobem 30 plumbum ita graue sit & ponderosum, cum tamen, teste Galeno, plurimum haheataque & aërea substaniæ, terrestris vero perparum. Atqui ex physicorum principiis gtauias & pondus in rebus mixtis omnibus terre primum accepta feruntur, deinde aquæ, quæ vero acre, aut igni multo participat, leuia potius, & quam minimum ponderosa euadere solent. Sic lapides & ferrum ob terre materiæ copiam graua esse existimant, pluma contra, oleum & alia huiusmodi, ob causam contrariam leuia. Necq[ue] hic quod de partium densitate nunnulli afferunt, satis probabilitatis habet. Vix enim fieri posse eredam, vt corpora, quæ multo acre abundant, simul compacta sunt, & densa. Eo quod act necessario spacium aliquod, ac velut cauitatem requitat, in quo libere veniiletur: sicut in spongiis, pumicibus, & aliis ratis corporibus, multisque poris aëri 50 peruiis abundantibus apparet. Eadem dubitandi ratio eriam in hydrargyro, seu argento viuo locum obsinct, quod quidem & ipsium aqua & aërea substantia constare plerique asserunt, cum tamen ita ponderosum sit, & graue, & omnia metalla solo excepio auro (spectaculo sane admirabiliq[ue] in eo lupenatent. De his igitur neminem allium, præserte te differrem libentius audi- re velim. vt pote quem ad intimos & oculi torti naturæ recessus penetrasse minime dubitem, vel potius mihi certo persualum habeam. Vale. Pragæ, 9. Cal. Ianuar. Anno 1581. EPIST. CCXIV. IDEM EIDEM. QVon discrimen inter contagium & corporum attinet, & num is morbus, qui anie biennium totam peruolitauit. Europam, & forte vlterius eriam progressus est, hoc vel illo nomine rectius appellantus, actum agere nolo. Si tamen, qui de corpore in corpus migrat, & sese hac ratione pene in immensum propagat, affectus contagiosus dici metetur: non video eut epidemium illum morbum his conditionibus exacte præditum, ca nuncupatione priuare debemus. <Quale contagium catarrhus epidermis fuerit.> Mihi quidem verum omnino contagium resipuisse videatur: etsi illud in inferiori gradu constituium puiredinis minus malignæ, vel potius innoxiæ fuerit soboles, seminarium tamen haud dubie contagionis aliquod in ipso hæsitaëre, quod pluribus per inspirationem communicatum simili eos labe postea infecit, cum è diuerso in affectionibus illis, quæ per corporum propriè aceidere dicuntur, nihil resipsa de eorpore in corpus, tanquam inquinamentum quoddam transmittatur: sed duntaxat à forti imaginatione per sensum, & memoriam impressa ad idem patiendu[m] eieamur, vt ptæoscitanæ aliquo, aut (vt sic loquor) præmin gente, nobis diligenter attendentibus, contingere solet. Ilemq[ue] secundu[m] poetam: Cum <Affectus per corporum> vident oculi lases, laduntur & ipsi. Quamuis fortasse horum lippiensium, videlicet, sicut & tabidorum paulo diuersa est ratio. Verum missis his, ad alterum problema, de quo prolixius & acutate in tuis disseris, accedo. In plumbi igitur natura excutienda, cum <Plumbis natura.> de eius pondere & gravitate quæreietur, id vnum, vt Galenum & Aristotelem inter se committas, tibi propositum esse animaduerto: ita quidem vt pro hoc contra illum omnes tuas rationes & argumenta, eeu spicula quædam dirigas. Liceat autem mihi quæso mei excendi, & abs te discendi gratia, aliquid vicissim in medium afferre, quo Galenum respondendo ad rationes abs se allatas pro viribus defendam, ipsiq[ue] interim Aristotelei nullâ prorsus iniuriam inferam. Si <Galenum defendatur.> quid igitur iudicare queo, Galenum vere & probabiliter sensisse existimo, cum plumbu[m] in 9. simpl. medic. multum habere substantiæ, tum humidæ a frigote congelatæ, tum etiam

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359 EPISTLES 360 ...to conceive, which would impress upon bodies suitably predisposed a like stain of quality. However, since those impurities were more attenuated, and less sluggish and viscous, it came to pass that the disease lacked malignity and pestilential contagion, because the cause generating and fostering it was not in itself sluggish and viscous, and chiefly occupied the spirits and humors of our body; and for that reason, because of the subtlety of its parts, it was dissipated most readily through the pores of the skin. I would not, however, deny that the catarrhs which, in many people, remained for a longer time and excited various symptoms, depended on a coarser material. But this must be attributed, as an accidental circumstance, to the epidemic disease itself, insofar as that matter already existing in bodies supplied not generation indeed, but merely motion, or, as I said, an increased subtlety. But I am almost acting the interloper, making another man’s case in a way my own, and saying my opinion unasked; and unless it were from the desire to learn, with which I burn incredibly, you could rightly accuse me, I dare say, of shamelessness and persistence. One thing only, which now comes to mind: if you ask further, I shall immediately bring my writing to an end. "Why lead is heavy and weighty." I should therefore like to know the reason why lead is so heavy and weighty, when, according to Galen, it has much of an airy substance and very little earthly substance. Yet from the principles of the natural philosophers, heaviness and weight in all mixed things are said to come first from earth, then from water; but things which partake more of air or fire are wont to become light, and as little weighty as possible. Thus stones and iron are thought to be heavy because of their abundance of earthy matter; on the contrary, feathers, oil, and other such things are light for the opposite reason. Nor does what some allege here about the density of the parts have enough probability. For I can hardly believe it possible that bodies which abound in much air are at the same time compact and dense. For activity necessarily requires some space, as it were a cavity, in which it may move freely, as appears in sponges, pumice stones, and other porous bodies, abundant in many pores open to air. The same reason for doubt applies also to quicksilver, or living silver, which many assert to consist also of water and an airy substance, and yet it is so weighty and heavy, and outweighs all metals except gold alone, a truly marvelous and admirable sight in it. Therefore, on these matters I should very much prefer to hear no one else, especially you, whom I do not doubt at all to have penetrated into the most hidden and inward recesses of nature, or rather whom I firmly believe to have done so. Farewell. Prague, 9 days before the Kalends of January, 1581. EPIST. CCXIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. As for the distinction between contagion and [ of bodies ] and whether that disease which, two years ago, flew over all Europe, and perhaps even progressed farther, ought more rightly to be called by this name or that, I do not wish to debate at length. Yet if you judge that whatever passes from body to body, and in this way spreads almost to infinity, may be called a contagious affection, I do not see why that epidemic disease, being exactly endowed with these conditions, should be deprived of that appellation. "What kind of contagion the catarrh of the epidemic was." To me it seems to have been true contagion altogether, although it was constituted in a lower degree, as the offspring of a less malignant, or rather harmless, corruption; nevertheless, without doubt some seedbed of contagion had lodged in it, which, communicated to many by inspiration, later infected them with the same stain. But, on the other hand, in those affections which are properly said to occur through [ bodies ], nothing in reality is transmitted from body to body, as it were a kind of pollution: rather, by a strong imagination impressed through sense and memory, we are led to suffer the same thing, as, for example, by some premonition, or, as I put it, a forewarning, it is wont to happen to us when we attend carefully. And likewise, according to the poet: [ With ] "The eyes see the wounds, and they too are wounded." Although perhaps the account of these bleary-eyed people differs somewhat, as does that of the consumptive. But leaving these matters aside, I turn to the other problem, on which you argue more fully and sharply in your letter. "On the nature of lead." In examining the nature of lead, when inquiry is made into its weight and heaviness, I observe that one thing is proposed by you: to set Galen against Aristotle, so that you direct against the former, in favor of the latter, all your reasons and arguments, as it were certain missiles. But allow me, I pray, to exercise my own judgment, and, for the sake of learning from you, in turn to bring something into the discussion, whereby I may defend Galen as best I can in answering the reasons he himself has advanced, while in the meantime inflicting no injury whatsoever upon the Aristotelian position. If therefore I may judge, I think Galen spoke truly and plausibly when, in book 9 of De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis, he said that lead has much substance, both moist frozen by cold, and also ...

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etiam aeræ, pauceum vero terrex diceret. idque non solum rationibus & experientia, sed etiam auctoritate ipsius Aristotelis hunc in modum me verisimile facere posse confido. Principio quidam, vt à notione incipiam, argentum viuum (ex quo plumbu[m] potissimum constare sensus ipse patescit, quoque potiorem essentia eius partem absoluit, vt ita de vtroque & dubitandi, & decidendi par sit ratio) argentum inquam viuum hanc apud Græcos appellationem reperit, vt idq[ue] qvoq[ue] , quasi dicas, argentum quoddam aqueum, seu in quo aqueum elementum prædominium obtinet, obiter nuncupetur. Deinde vt ne in nominibus immorer, illud magnum est & indubitatum argumentum abundantis in plumbo aequæ & aeræ substantiæ, quod ita facile vix igni admotum loquatur, imo etsi igni- um vt in pulueres redactum, rursus tamen ab iisdem fluidum & liquidum reddatur, quemadmodum & Mercurius. Cum contra quæ terrestris materiæ copiam habent, non nisi vehementissimis subiectis ignibus colliquari & fundi videamus, vt inferro, ære, & aliis quibusdam metallis apparet. Affirmat autem Aristoteles: Ea colliquari facilius, quæ communia quidem sint aquæ & terræ, sed tamen plus aquæ habeant, & à frigido coagulata sint, atque concretæ. Tertio mollities, & quæ hanc sequitur tractabilitas, reliquorum scilicet metallorum respectu idem plane conuincit. Neque enim fieti potest, vt quotum compositionem multum siccissimæ terrenæ substantiæ ingreditur, ea molli euadant, & ad tractandum apta. Accedit & quarto loco tenuitas substantiæ illius, cum liquatum per subtiliores pannos transmitti queat. Sicut & argentum viuum. (quod cum hoc magnam habere cognarionem supra diximus) per densissimum corium ceruinum facillime transludat. Quæ certe tenuitas non interea mole, sed ab aeris potius, & aquæ subtilitate raritateque proficiscitur. Denique rubiginem, vt ferrum, æs, aut cuprum nequaquam bene situm; sed ceni squalorem & sorditiem quandam contrahit. Ex quo itectum colligitur humore multo, eoque frigido abundare, terrestis autem siccitatus perpatum habere, quandoquidem rubiginis causa philosophis non assignatur alia, quam corruptio sicci illius terrei in superficie corporis ab humore calido & extraneo, veluti adutente orta. Liceret & plures alias rationes in medium afferre, sed has ex rei natura ductas in præsentia sufficere arbitror. Quod vero in vsu medico (hoc iam ad experientiam facit) præ- tet refrigeratoriam humectandi etiam vim obtineat, multis exemplis per se comprobatis, Galenus loco præallegato declarat, quæ fortasse non ita simpliciter sine vlteriori inquisitione teiici merentur. Quin ipsum quoque Aristotelem haud dissimilitet sensisse, non obscure quis ex dicto, quod in 4. Meteor. affett collegerit. Quandoquidem ibi concretilium, & inconcretilium corporum naturam explicans, diserte argentum viuum (de cuius ponderositatis causam similiter in superioribus dubitabatur) ideo inconcretile existere, quod aqvasam quidem humiditatem: sed tamen aeris plus obtineat. Id quod de plumbo eodem modo affirmari recte posse existimo. Quamuis hoc eam ob causam facilius concrescat & coaguletur, quod tertæ substantiæ, siue, vt chymicorum voce vtar, impuri sulphuris plus ad innectum habeat, quam argentum viuum, multo vero minus quam ferrum, aurum quoque, & similia alia metallia, quæ sua se grauirate, & liquandi difficultate statim produnt. Quantum porro ad eiusdem Aristotelis & Peripateticorum de ortu & generatione metallorum dogma spectat, quamis illud nequaquam, tanquam falsum repudio, libentius tamen, ne quid dissimulem, Auicennæ, Alberti, & aliquot tecensiorum opinioni inhæreo; qui non tantum mentis aciem ad huiusmodi per- scrutationem intenderunt, verum & manuum mirificam adhibuerunt industriam, vt omnia sub terra latentia penitius rimarentur, exactioremque & vetiorem nobis de iis doctrinam ab Aristotele, & sequentibus solummodo inchoatam adumbratâque relinquerent. Neque tamen, si summam rei considereshos cum illis inter se vllio dicto discordare reperies. Sicuti enim philosophis cum Medicis belle conuenit, quantumuis illi corpus humanum ex quatuor elementis, igne, aere, aqua & terra. Hi vero ex quatuor humoribus, sanguine, phlegmate, & bile vtraque constare decernant: ita etiam non pugnant inter se Peripatetici, & quos chymicos, veluti in fundendorum metallorum arte ac peritia eximie versatos, recensiori vocabulo appellant, etiam si illi vna cum Aristotele, quem vni- cum ducem sequuntur, metallæ & fossilia à duplici exhalatione vaporosa & fumosa ortum trahere dicunt. Hi autem geminum illis principium, quæ sulfur & mercurium indigetant, assignant. Illi enim in rem otiosibus tantummodo causis, quas sola mentis acies apprehendit, demonstrandis occupantur. Hi propinquiua principia, & seusui magis obusta (relictis illis nihil Q

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Likewise, of air too, though he would say it is somewhat earthy. And I trust that I can make this plausible not only by reasons and experience, but also by the authority of Aristotle himself, in this way. First, then, to begin with the name, quicksilver (from which lead is plainly seen by the sense itself to consist in large part, and which also makes up the more eminent part of its essence, so that there is equal reason both to doubt and to decide about the one and the other), I say that quicksilver found this appellation among the Greeks, so that it is also, as one might say, called a kind of watery silver, or silver in which the watery element prevails, as it were, by the way. Next, so as not to dwell on names, this is a great and undeniable argument for an abundance in lead of watery and airy substance: that it so readily, scarcely brought near the fire, begins to speak, indeed even if, when it has been reduced to powder by fire, it is again rendered fluid and liquid by the same means, just as mercury is. By contrast, things that have a copious earthy material are seen to melt and flow only when subjected to the most intense fires, as appears in iron, bronze, and certain other metals. Aristotle also affirms that those are more easily melted which partake of both water and earth, but still have more of water, and have been coagulated and made dense by cold. Thirdly, softness, and the tractability that follows from it, clearly proves the same thing when compared with the rest of the metals. For it cannot happen that a substance whose composition includes a great deal of very dry earthy matter should become soft and suitable for handling. To this is added, in the fourth place, the tenuity of that substance, since when melted it can be passed through finer cloths. So too quicksilver, which, as we said above, has great kinship with this, slips very easily through the thickest deerskin. Certainly that tenuity does not arise from mass, but rather from the subtlety and rarity of air and water. Finally, it does not acquire rust in the way iron, bronze, or copper, when badly kept, do, but rather some dirtiness and filth of a sooty kind. From this it is rightly gathered that it abounds in much moisture, and that moisture is cold; whereas earthy dryness it possesses in very small measure, since, according to the philosophers, no other cause is assigned for rust than the corruption of that dry earthly matter on the surface of the body, arising from warm and foreign moisture, as from an inroad from outside. It would be possible to bring forward many other arguments, but these, drawn from the nature of the thing, I think sufficient for the present. But that in medical use too (and this now concerns experience) it has not only the power of cooling but also of moistening, Galen declares in the passage cited above, confirming it by many examples. These perhaps should not be accepted so simply without further inquiry. Indeed one may not obscurely gather that Aristotle himself thought similarly from what he has said in the fourth book of the Meteorologica. For there, explaining the nature of congealable and uncongealable bodies, he expressly states that quicksilver (the cause of whose weightiness was likewise doubted above) is of the uncongealable kind because it has indeed watery moisture, but still has more of air. The same, I think, can rightly be affirmed of lead. Although it more readily thickens and coagulates for this reason, that it has more earthy substance, or, as I may use the chemists’ term, impure sulphur, joined to it, than quicksilver does, though much less than iron, gold, and the like metals, which at once betray themselves by their heaviness and the difficulty of melting them. As for Aristotle’s and the Peripatetics’ doctrine concerning the origin and generation of metals, although I by no means reject it as false, I still prefer, if I may not conceal anything, to adhere to the opinion of Avicenna, Albertus, and some more recent writers; for they directed not only the mind’s eye to such an investigation, but also applied the marvelous industry of their hands, so that they might more closely examine everything hidden beneath the earth, and leave us a more exact and truer doctrine about these things, which had only been begun and sketched by Aristotle and his followers. Yet if you consider the matter as a whole, you will not find that these men differ from one another in any statement. For just as philosophers agree well with physicians, however much the former determine that the human body is composed of the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, while the latter decide that it is composed of the four humors, blood, phlegm, and both kinds of bile: so too the Peripatetics do not conflict with those whom, in the newer terminology, they call chemists, as men especially versed in the art and skill of smelting metals, even if those chemists, following Aristotle alone as their unique guide, say that metals and fossils derive their origin from a double vaporous and smoky exhalation. The latter, however, assign to them a twofold principle, which they call sulphur and mercury. For the former are occupied only with demonstrating remote causes, which the mind alone apprehends. The latter set down proximate principles, and those more obvious to the senses, leaving those others nothing...

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365 MEDICINALES. 366 inde contra me inferre velis, non satis assequor. Loquor enim de plumbi, quale in sua perfectione & vigore est, non quale tum visitur, cum ab externis atque violentis causis destructum à pristina sua natura degenerat. Neque ego vnquam aut quisquam alius, incorruptibile esse plumbum, aut in infinitum augeri, asserui. Atque hactenus quidem Galeni opinio de plumbi essentia & compositione adhuc immota pestare videtur, pro cuius defensione epistolæ tuæ ante biennium fere (otardam nimis festinationem) acceptæ respondens hæc proferre libuit. Te autem etiam atq[ue] etiam oro, vt hanc meam Philosophicam libertatem in optimâ partem interpretari, & doctrinæ tuæ luce ingenii mei obscuritate illustrare tenebrasq[ue] discutere digneris. Hoc q[uod] si impetrauero, & tibi gratias magnas agam, & me non inutiliter erralle profitebor. Coronidis vice cinnæ cinnæ illâ (à proposito non prorsus alienâ) mihi dissolui cupio. Inq[ui]nit Aristoteles sect. 4. Problem. 15. Rem nullam in aqua (scilicet feruida) liquescere posse, quæ ab igne liquesieri apta est, ceu plumbum & ceram, (quod tamen posterius haud scio an veritati sit co[n]sentaneum.) In commentariolo autem de admirandis condit. num. 48. idem ait: stannum Celticum plumbo multo ocyus liquescere, quia scilicet in aqua etiam liquesieri soleat. Atqui si prior regula valetet, cum stannum ignibus liquescat, in aqua nullo modo liquesier. Quibus illud quoque subiungi potest, cur magna illa caldaria plumbæa in quibus sal in multis Germaniæ fodinis (vt pote Lunæbutgi in Saxonia) excoquitur, non oolliquescant, etiamsi ignes quam vehementissimi subtus incendantur sed manum tandem de tabula: ne quem antea scriptionis raritate & infrequentia offendi, eum nunc solicitationis importunitate amplius irritem. Quod si tamen, quemadmodum mihi firmiter persuadeo, hisce meis nugis aliquid respondere placuerit, vt in excellentiæ. D[omi]n[us] Scantellarii manus deueniat, curabis. Abeo enim quouis tempore recte accepero. Vale, Viennæ Austriorum, ipso die Pentecostes secundum veteres Fastos. Anno 1583. EPIST. CCXV. IDEM EIDEM E VOCATVS fui ante aliquot hebdomadas ad cutam Generosi cuiusdam Baronis in vicinia, vbi cum opinione diurius mihi hærendum esset, geminæ interim tuæ huc allatæ sunt. Quoniam vero excellentissimus Scutellarius significabat desiderari adhuc alium fasciculum, in quem libellos non nullos nuper abs te isthic editos coniecisses, differendum putaui responsum, quo ad te ille quoque appellaret. Factum antem hoc est ante dies plus minus 8. vt nunc nihil amplius, quod scriptione remoretur meam susperit. Pro tua igitur tam benefica erga me voluntate, quam non tantum litterarum adeo frequenti missione sed etiam eruditissimarum tuarum lucubrationum communicatione satis abunde testatum facis, magnas tibi habeo & ago gratias, relaturus etia[m] si qua fese in posterum eius rei offerat occasio. Non possum autem quin impetrata, præsertim iamdudu[m] abs te licetia, de more exte rogem, sicubi forte inter legendum dubium mihi aliquid occurrit. In tractatu igitur de morbis puerorum tractam abs te peculiari- ter velim quæstionem illam, non tam logiam quam medicam: An rectum sit in fantium ægritudinibus purgatoria medicamenta nutricibus exhibere? Hæc siquidem aut valida erunt, aut debilia. Illa sanis, siue sanas carnes habentibus propinare vetat ipse Hippocrates, 2. Aph. 36. & 37. Hæc nihil prorsus auxilii infirmis infantibus, cum vires suas haud late extendant, præstabunt, vt taceam superioribus illis menstruas purgationes nutricibus intempestiue sane aliquando prouocari, in quo manifestum periculum non abesse satis constat. Quamobrem tutius erat opinor, & rationabilius de talibus præsidiis cogitare, quæ ipsi infanti, in parua tamen quantitate absque omni noxa, comportione materni lactis propinati, aut alioqni tenello eius osculo inseri queant. Eiusmodi sunt sueci quidam, pulueres, liquores, & alia huius generis. Præterea, quæ extrinsecus etiam ad citandum alum magno commodo applicantur. omissum etiam video in eodem tractatu suo morbum illum in nostris regionibus (haud scio, an etiam in vestris) sic satis visitatum, quem vulgari idiomate Mittesser / quasi dicas, commestores, nuncupamus. Eo quod pueri illo labotantes paulatim absuini, depatci, & emacari, absque vlla manifesta causa, deprehenduntur. In tergo ipsorum, quando solennis cura, frictioni mirum ex medulla panis triticei, aut farina huius melle subacta adhibetur, veluti capita vermiculorum quorundam hinc inde prominent, quib[us] nouacula semel atque iterum derasis ad pristinam sanitatem redeunt. Quidam hunc morbum eundem cum dracunculis Græcorum, aut cum vena Arabum Vena Medecinæ Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. 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Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. 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Transcription: Translated (English)

365 Medicinals. 366 indeed, what you wish to bring against me, I do not fully grasp. For I am speaking of lead as it is in its perfection and vigor, not as it appears then, when, destroyed by external and violent causes, it degenerates from its former nature. Nor have I ever asserted, nor has anyone else, that lead is incorruptible, or that it can be increased without limit. And thus so far Galen’s opinion concerning the essence and composition of lead still seems to stand unmoved; in defense of which, replying to your letter received nearly two years ago (with too tardy a haste), I was pleased to set forth these things. But I beg and beseech you again and again to interpret this my philosophical liberty in the best part, and to deign, by the light of your learning, to illuminate the obscurity of my mind and dispel its shadows. If I obtain this, I shall both give you great thanks, and confess that I have not erred uselessly. As a sort of coronis, I wish to be freed from that cinnæ cinnæ one, not altogether alien to the matter proposed. Aristotle says in sect. 4 of Problem 15 that no substance in water (namely, in hot water) can liquefy if it is fit to be liquefied by fire, such as lead and wax, (though I do not know whether the latter is truly in agreement with reality.) But in the little commentary On Wonderful Things, no. 48, the same author says: Celtic tin melts much more quickly than lead, because, namely, it is accustomed to liquefy even in water. Yet if the first rule held, then tin, since it melts by fire, would in no way liquefy in water. To these things one may also add why those great leaden boilers, in which salt is boiled in many mines of Germany (as in Lüneburg in Saxony), do not melt, even though the strongest fires are kindled beneath them. But enough: lest I offend someone whom I previously annoyed by the rarity and infrequency of my writing, I do not wish to irritate him further now by the importunity of solicitation. If, however, as I firmly persuade myself, you are pleased to respond to these trifles of mine, see that it comes into the hands of D[omi]n[u]s Scantellarius in your excellency’s place. For I depart at any time if I have received it properly. Farewell, at Vienna of Austria, on the very day of Pentecost according to the old Fasti. In the year 1583. EPIST. CCXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME I was summoned a few weeks ago to the chamber of a certain noble Baron in the neighborhood, where, since I had to stay there somewhat longer than expected, your two letters were meanwhile brought here. But since the excellent Scutellarius signified that another packet was still desired, into which you had thrown some little books lately published there by you, I thought it best to delay my reply, so that he too might address you thereon. This, however, happened about eight days ago, so that now nothing further remains to delay my writing. For your so kind a will toward me, which you show not only by such frequent sending of letters but also by the communication of your most learned studies, you have sufficiently and abundantly given proof; I owe you great thanks and give them, and shall repay them also if at any time occasion for this offers itself in the future. But I cannot refrain, especially now that permission has long since been granted by you, from asking in the usual way wherever in reading something doubtful may chance to occur to me. In the treatise therefore On the Diseases of Children, I would especially have you treat that question, not so much a logical as a medical one: whether it is right in the illnesses of infants to give purgative medicines to nurses? For these remedies will either be strong or weak. The former Hippocrates himself forbids to be given to those who are healthy, or who have healthy flesh, in Aph. 2. 36 and 37. The latter will bring no help at all to weak infants, since they do not extend their powers far enough, to say nothing of the monthly purgations which can sometimes be untimely provoked in nurses by those stronger remedies, in which it is sufficiently clear that no manifest danger is absent. Wherefore it was, I think, safer and more reasonable to consider such aids as might be applied to the infant himself, yet in small quantity and without harm, administered mixed with the mother’s milk, or otherwise introduced to his tender mouth. Such are certain juices, powders, liquids, and others of this kind. Besides, there are also external applications that are used with great advantage to hasten digestion. I also notice omitted in the same treatise that disease in our regions (which I know not whether also in yours) which is so commonly observed, that we call in the vulgar tongue Mittesser, as if you were to say, “eaters together.” For children suffering from it are observed gradually to become thin, to waste away, and to grow emaciated, without any manifest cause. On their backs, when the usual treatment is used, by friction with a paste made amazingly from the crumb of wheat bread, or flour worked up with honey, there appear, as it were, the heads of certain little worms here and there, which, after being shaved off once and again with a razor, return to their former health. Some think this disease the same as the Greek dracunculi, or as the vein of the Arabs Vena Medecinæ Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. Vena Ararum. V

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Transcription: ATR-1

367 EPISTOLA 368 dindis bouinæ, seu vermis sub cæte generati, cuius Nicolaus Florentinus ex Albocasi me minit, accedit Michael Sauonarola superiioris [con]tatis insignis Medicus in capite de Lumbricis sen vermibus se quoque tale ali- qvid fando inauduisse meminit. Verum cum nunquam videtit, fabulosum esse sta- tuit. Crederet autem haud dubie si vel paucis mensibus hodie apud nos ageret. In libello de venenis illustre præstantis ingeniis, & va- riæ literaturæ documentum edidisti, mul- tisque in ea palæstra ante hac versatis pal- mam præripuisti. Verutamen in eo (ignosce quæso) fidem meam tibi accommodare haud possum, quando argumentis nonnullis probare niteris: venenum esse non qualitatem aut accidens, sed potius substantiam. Et tamen paucis ante lineis ipse affirmas; Nihil aliud esse venenum, quam vim quan- dam effectricem veneficam in corpore alio- quo positam. At potest ne vis venefica in corpore aliquo posita recte substantia dici, & non potius accidens, quod certum & de- terminatu subiectum requirit? Si in substan- tia collocari meretur, cedo quod erit genus eius proximum, aut vbi in tabella prædica- menti substantiæ locum suum obtinebit, scorpionem quidem, Napellum, aconit, & alia huiusmodi, facile concedo in substan- viarum ordinem cooptanda: venenum au- rem non item, etiamsi venenata ista esse di- cantur, sicut (opinor) nec alimentum (in quo tamen causæ tux firmamentum potis- sumum consistit) nec medicamentum. Rectius mihi philosophari: Galenus no- siter videtur: qui & 3, de temperamentis 4. & 1. simpl. 1. expressis verbis tria hæc: alimentu[m] videlicet, medicamentum, & venenum, re- lata esse ad quid, diserte pronunciat: ad ho- minem nimirum, cuius respectu omnia (at- testante etiam ipso Philosopho 5. Metaphys. 15.) in medendi arte dicuntur. Nutrimen- tum igitur ad nutribile, siue id, quod inde nutritur, non secus atque calefactiuum ad calefactibile, seu sectiuum ad sectile, agens videlicet ad passum refertur. Argue ideo absolutis Categoriis, nedum substantiis i- psis haudquaquam accensetur, quando vt 5 idem Atistoreles vniuersaliter decernit, nec tota substantia, nec partes eius ad aliquid dici vere queunt. Superest igitur vt inter relata, quæ secun- dum dici apud Logicos nuncupantur, lo- cum obtineat. Vt enim triticum, v.g. & vi- num substantiæ sunt, & tes mere absolutæ quæ per se tum existunt, tum etiam intelli- guntur, ita vicissim cibi seu nutrimenti ap- pellationem eadem, non alia ratione acci- piunt, nisi quatenus ad hominem relata ci- bare illum & nutrire apta sunt. Quemad- modum versa vice veratrum & cicuta, pla- cet enim Galeni nostri exemplis vti homi- nis quidem respectu, medicamenti aut ve- neni etiam appellationem sortiuntur, sin ad coturnicem & sturnum referas, pro ali- mentis habentur. Vnde iam liqvido con- stat, veneni nomen, sicut & nutrimenti & medicamenti non ipsam primitus substantiam, quæ fundamenta loco eius subiacet, sed certam potius eius habitudinem, vt sic luquar, seu officium, & effectum eius re- spectu substantiæ alicui imponitur, denota- tare, vt his hoc modo concessis & probatis, ad reliqua duo argumenta, quæ pro veneni substantia asserenda pugnant, respondere minime sit opus. Vnde tamen sorer, vt arbitror, in com- mentariolo illo tuo hoc etiam præter alia in quæstionem vocari: An venena illa contagiosa sint, & non sint, quam ob canfam hoc accidat? Item num proprie pestilens mali- gnitas, quæ omnium maxime contagiosa est, venenum aut cum adiectione venenum pestilens appelletur? Denique an etiam Philtro, & præsertim celebratrum illud Hip- pomanes in venenorum naturam subeant? de quibus omnibus accurratam tuam sen- tentiam audire, quam inanes meas cogita- tiones in medium afferte malo. Venio nunc ad ea, de quibus in superioribus literis veli- tatio instituta est. Plumbi aut hydrargyri ortu[m], generationem, & proprietates, quæ q[uæ] eodem pertinent, nec mihi quidem in præ- sentia altius repetere libet, illud tamen non possum non attingere, in quo te male à me intellectum esse suspicaris. Inquis igitur: Plumbi laminas sub dio nequaquam vere, & quo ad substantiam ipsam, vt ego affir- mo, veram: sed pondus ipsarum duntaxat, ideo accrescere videri, quia corrupta ab ambiente, modo calida, modo frigida su- perficie partes aquare & subtiliores in cine- rem vertantur, vnde vis illa reerrestris se ma- gis atque magis deinceps exserat. Ego vero necdum hoc assequi possum, quod partes a- queq[ue] aut subtiles (quod, ne temere excidisse videatur, iterum repetis) vlllo modo in ci- nerem, terramue degenerent. Euocari fa- ne illas ab externa caliditate, & ita exhala- re, inque tenues abire auras facile credide- rim: at quomodo eædem hacten[us] resic- centur & crassefcent, vt in cinerem etiam & terram fathiscant, non video. Vt enim aer & aqua communi omnium calculo, humi- dissima sunt & subtiliss. ita vicissim cinere, & terra nihil est siccius, nihil corpulentius. Expi-

Transcription: Translated (English)

367 LETTER 368 from bovine dung, or a worm generated beneath the skin, which Nicolaus Florentinus, from Albocasus, mentions to me, and Michael Savonarola, an eminent physician of the upper county, in the chapter on worms or grubs, likewise remembers having heard something of the kind related. But since he never saw it, he judged it to be fabulous. Yet he would doubtless believe it if he were to spend even a few months among us today. In the little book on poisons, a splendid proof of outstanding talent and a document of varied learning, you have produced, and you have won the palm from many who had previously engaged in that arena. Nevertheless, in this matter forgive me, I cannot accommodate my belief to yours when you strive to prove by certain arguments that poison is not a quality or an accident, but rather a substance. And yet a few lines earlier you yourself affirm that poison is nothing other than a certain poisonous efficient force placed in some body. But can a poisonous force placed in some body rightly be called a substance, and not rather an accident, which requires a determinate and specific subject? If it deserves to be placed in the category of substance, tell me what its nearest genus will be, or where it will obtain its place in the table of the categories of substance. Scorpion, aconite, aconitum, and the like I readily grant must be classed among substances; poison, however, not so, even if those things are said to be poisonous, just as, I think, neither food, nor medicine either, although in the former your argument rests chiefly on that basis. Aristotle seems to me to philosophize more correctly: he, too, in Book 3, On Temperaments, chapter 4, and in Book 1, On Simple Drugs, chapter 1, expressly declares in plain words that these three things—namely food, medicine, and poison—are referred to what is relative, namely to man, in relation to whom all things are said in the art of healing, as the Philosopher himself also attests in Metaphysics 5, chapter 15. Nourishment, then, is related to the nourishable, or to that which is nourished by it, just as the heating thing is related to the thing capable of being heated, or the cutting thing to the thing capable of being cut; that is, the agent to the patient. Therefore argue from the absolute categories; much less is it counted among substances themselves, since, as the same Aristotle universally determines, neither the whole substance nor its parts can truly be said to be “something relative.” It remains, therefore, that it should have a place among relatives, which among logicians are called the categories of relation. For as wheat, for example, and wine are substances, and mere absolutes which both exist in themselves and are also understood in themselves, so in turn they receive the name of food or nourishment for no other reason than insofar as, being related to man, they are fit to feed and nourish him. Just as, by contrast, hellebore and hemlock— for it pleases me to use our Galen’s examples—obtain the name of medicine or poison with respect to man, but if you refer them to a quail and a starling, they are regarded as food. Hence it now clearly follows that the name of poison, like that of nourishment and medicine, indicates not the substance itself at first, which lies under it as its foundation, but rather a certain relation of it, so to speak, or its function and effect with respect to some substance; and if these things are granted and proven in this way, there is no need to answer the other two arguments that are brought forward to assert that poison is a substance. Whence, however, I wonder whether in that little commentary of yours this too is called into question, among other things: whether those poisons are contagious and whether they are not; and for what reason this happens. Likewise, whether properly speaking the malignity of plague, which is of all things the most contagious, should be called poison, or, with an added qualifier, pestilential poison. Finally, whether philtres, and especially that celebrated hippomanes, also fall under the nature of poisons? On all these matters I would rather hear your carefully considered opinion than bring forward my own empty reflections. I now come to the matters about which the exchange was begun in the previous letters. As for the origin, generation, and properties of lead or mercury, and the things that pertain to them, I do not wish at present to go back over them more fully; yet one point I cannot refrain from touching, in which you suspect that I have misunderstood you badly. You ask, therefore: do the sheets of lead under the open sky increase at all in the true sense, and as to the substance itself, as I affirm, or only in weight, because their surface, corrupted by the surrounding air, now warm, now cold, makes the parts equal and causes the subtler parts to turn into ash, whence that earthy force increasingly asserts itself? But I still cannot grasp this, namely that the equal or subtle parts, as you repeat once more lest it seem to have slipped out thoughtlessly, degenerate in any way into ash or earth. I can easily believe that they are drawn out by external heat and thus exhale, passing into thin vapors; but how the same parts are dried out and become coarse, so that they crumble even into ash and earth, I do not see. For air and water, by the common judgment of all, are the wettest and most subtle things, whereas by contrast nothing is drier, nothing more bulky, than ash and earth. Expi-

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369 MEDICINALES. 370 rius. Explicari igitur metamorphoseos boiis modum mihi adhuc cuperem, quo iis, quæ inde deducuntur, tanto promptius assentiret. In dissoluenda Aristotelis appa- rente antilogia mihi pene omnino abs te sa- tisfactum est. Sed relinquitur aliquid scrupuli in alterius problemis enodatione: < Caldaria plumbea falsa cum non colliqueant: secundum Mercuralem.> Cur scilicet plumbea caldaria, in quibus sal coquitur, vehementissimo etiam substra- to igne non colliqueant. Causam huius 10 euentus in vniuersum acceptam refers sal- sæ illi, quæ caldario infunditur, aquæ, quando hæc duplici facinitate prædita sit, pingui nimirum seu oleaginosa, & in super astrictoria. < Balle pinguendo.> Illa qvidem plumbi humidum à con- sumptione & dissolutione vindicare: hæc vero compagem, & vnionem partium in- uicem egregie contra ignis violentiam tu- ente & conseruante. De falsis & aquæ ma- tinæ potissimum pinguedine atque crassi- 20 tie semel atque iterum commeminit Ari- stotoles tum in meteorologicis, tum etiam iu problematum sectione tettia sup[er]ta vige- simam. < Auri Empyrumma.> Idem tamen alibi salem parum humoris in se continere sentit, quod cum priori vix consistere potest. Siquidem quæ pinguia sunt & glutinosa, ea necessario etiam multo humore, imo copiosiori, quam simpliiter humida abundant, & sapore pene subduti 35 prædita sunt, non autem velut amara, lin- guamque vellicante, vt falsis apparet. Nisi furtasse dicendum est: salem, vt & pleraque alia medicamenta, diuersas & quasi contra- rias à natura obtinuisse vites, quarum ta- men alias superant, & non vno tempore se- se produnt. Sic acetum quanrumuis mani- feste frigescere creditur, haud dubie ra- men aliquid etiam occulti quomodum à vini caliditate adhuc reliquu[m] possidet, quo 40 sese in ima corporis insinuare, illudq[ue] tacite ex calcfacere aptum est. Sic salis quoque vt ad propositum redeamus, tenuiores partes calfacere, siccare, linguam mordicare, at- que etiam penetrare & detergere versimi- le est, quia tamen multæ humidæ partes à calore nondum, vt in amaris rebus, pene ex- succis accidis, assumptæ supersunt: hinc sit vt illis cum his mistis pingue quiddam & o- leosum resultet, non impediente mole ter- rea, sed potius in id conspirante, & vim astri- ctoriam insuper suppeditante. 50 Detergere autem salem, & salsa nitrosa atque aluminosa omnia, non solum intra corpus sumpta, sed & extra admota præter experientiam quotidianam in eluendis for- dium strigmentis etiam vnamnis medicorum confensus testarut, & ipsi approbat scriptura S. quando apud lærem. cap. 21. citur: Etiamsi laueris te nitro, & multiplica- ueris ribiberbam Borith, siue saponariam: tamen signata esset iniquitas tna. & quæ se- quuntur. Vt ita Plutarchi testimonio, quod in oppositum adducis, per omnia cedere non liceat. Ex iis igitur, quæ huc vsq[ue] ne allata sunt, apparet, te caldarii plumbei ab ignis vio- lentia non dissoluti vnicam hanc & solam causam statuere, aquam falsam illo conten- tam. Quid vero si non salsa, sed dulcis aqua eidem infunderetur, an tum saltem colli- quatum iri existimas: Ego ne tum quidem hoc futurum crediderim. At etiamsi nul- lum in tam grandi vase periculum vnquam fecerim: videre tamen licet quotidie in me- sis catinos ex stanno aut plumbo candido, fabrefactos anhepsis seu fuculis, qui pru- nas continent, impositos non liquari, si mo- do iusculo aut aqua simplici imbniti fuerint, quantumuis muria nulla accedat. Vbi au- tem humore illo destituntur, confestim ab igne dissolui incipere, quod sane spectacu- lum intuens aliam necessario subesse cau- sam: quam vtrum aliquarenus assecutus sim, tuum esto iudicium: neque enim illud sponte subire vllio pacto recuso. Existimo i- gitur causam euentus illius, de quo iam sæ- pe dictum est, esse geminam. Primam quidem hanc, quoniam capacitas caldari illius plumbei humore quodam largiter in- fuso adimplerum, qui per porosi corporis meatus sese vndiquaque diffundens, ita i- gnis violentiæ resistit, vt impressionem, quam alias solet, facere nequear. Etiamsi i- taque quemnis liquorem actuali sua humi- ditate id præstare posse crediderim: non ta- men dubito, quin idem hoc multo lucu- lentius præstet aqua salsa, quoniam scilicet & pinguior est, quam simplex vt ante pro- batum fuit, aq[ue] idem uolentore magis magis pretenditur, & intima liberalius imbut, tum etiam coquendo non tam facile absumitur, sicut olea & adipes longissimam etiam co- ctionem, cum n[ost]ris exhalent, sustinere vi- demus: prætereà rarione subtrium partium altius penetrat, & vi adhæc astrictoria insi- gni pollet. Altera cautâ est, quod in omni coctiunc seu elixatione superia magis ca- lent, quam inferna. Ignis enim & ab hoc e- tiamaris ealot, ex sua natura sursum fertur, ideoq[ue] etiam superiores partes, nisi quid ob- ster, impensius, quam inferiores ealefacit, i- bique primum ebullitionem excitat. No- runt hoc egregie periti coqui ipso vltu co- cti, cum eas pisciu[m] portiones, quæ coctu- diliores sunt, vponite capita, in superi- cabi parte, non aute[m] inferiori seu fum docol- locant. Quod si evidentius huius rei argu- Q 3

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369. MEDICINALS. 370 I should still wish to have explained to me the way of the metamorphosis of oxen, so that he would more readily assent to the conclusions drawn from it. In resolving Aristotle’s apparent contradiction I have been almost entirely satisfied by you. But there remains something of a difficulty in the explanation of another problem: < Lead kettles do not melt when false water is contained in them: according to Mercurialis.> Why, namely, do lead kettles in which salt is boiled not melt even under the fiercest fire beneath them? You refer the cause of this occurrence, taken in general, to that salty water which is poured into the kettle, since this is endowed with a twofold property: namely, it is fat or oily, and besides it is astringent. < To fatten the scales.> The former, indeed, protects the moisture of the lead from consumption and dissolution; the latter, however, excellently guards and preserves the coherence and union of the parts against the violence of fire. Aristotle mentions the fatness and thickness of false waters, and especially of sea water, once and again, both in the Meteorologica and also in the third section of the Problems, question twenty-one above. < The golden pyrrhumma.> Yet elsewhere he feels that salt contains little moisture in itself, which can hardly agree with the former view. For things that are fatty and glutinous necessarily also abound in much moisture, indeed in more abundant moisture than things simply humid, and they possess a taste that is almost sweet, not bitter or tongue-pricking as salt is seen to be. Unless perhaps one must say that salt, like most other medicines, has received from nature diverse and, as it were, contrary powers, of which nevertheless some prevail over others and do not show themselves at one and the same time. Thus vinegar, however clearly it is believed to grow cold, undoubtedly still possesses something hidden of the heat of wine, by which it is able to insinuate itself into the innermost parts of the body and quietly warm them. So too with salt, returning to the matter in hand, it is likely that its finer parts heat, dry, bite the tongue, and also penetrate and cleanse; yet because many moist parts remain, not yet consumed by heat as in bitter things, there results from their mixture with these a certain fat and oily quality, the earthy mass not impeding this, but rather conspiring toward it and further supplying an astringent power. That salt, and all nitrous and aluminous salts, cleanse, not only when taken within the body but also when applied externally, is attested not merely by daily experience in washing away dirty crusts, but also by the unanimous agreement of physicians, and Holy Scripture itself approves it when, in Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 22, it says: “Though thou wash thee with nitre, and multiply unto thee the herb Borith, or soapwort, yet thine iniquity is marked before me,” and what follows. Thus it is not allowed that the testimony of Plutarch, which you bring in opposition, should prevail in every respect. From the things therefore which have thus far been brought forward, it appears that you establish this one and only cause of the lead kettle’s not being dissolved by the force of fire: the false water contained in it. But what if not salty, but sweet water were poured into it; do you think then at least it would melt? I for my part should not believe that this would happen even then. And although I have never tried the experiment in so large a vessel, one can nevertheless see daily on tables dishes made of pewter or white lead, fitted with handles or little fire-pans, containing coals, which do not melt if only they have been moistened with broth or plain water, however much salt water is not added. But when they are deprived of that moisture, they immediately begin to be dissolved by the fire; observing this spectacle, one must necessarily conclude that another cause lies beneath it, and whether I have in some measure reached it, let that be your judgment; for I do not in any way refuse to submit it freely to you. I therefore think that the cause of that occurrence, of which so much has already been said, is twofold. First, because the capacity of that leaden kettle is filled with some abundance of liquid poured into it, which, spreading everywhere through the passages of the porous body, resists the violence of the fire so that it cannot make the impression it otherwise usually does. And although I should think that any liquid whatever can accomplish this by its actual moisture, I nevertheless do not doubt that salty water does it much more clearly, since it is more oily than simple water, as has been proved above; the water is more strongly retained, and is more liberally imbued within, and likewise is not so easily consumed by boiling, just as we see oils and fats endure the longest boiling without exhaling away with ours. Moreover, by reason of the hidden particles it penetrates more deeply, and it is besides endowed with notable astringent force. The second cause is that in every boiling or elixation the upper parts are more heated than the lower. For fire and its heat, by its nature, rises upward; therefore it heats the upper parts more intensely than the lower, unless something stands in the way, and there it first excites ebullition. This is excellently known by skilled cooks themselves in the very act of cooking, when they place those portions of fish which are to be cooked longer at the head, in the upper part of the vessel, not in the lower, or at the bottom. If there were a more evident argument of this matter...

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371 EPISTOLÆ < Tripes &c. &c. ab excremento calci fundo capella.> mentum, & plane indubitatum quis habere cupit, tripodem æneum, in quo pisces elixantur, quamprimum ab igne remouetur, in fundo ipsius contingat, videbit pedes illos ternos, quib. innitur ahenu[m] pe[n]ne candescere & ignitos esse: nihilominus fundu[m], qui flammis immediate superpositus fuit, tantum non frigere. Sed hoc statim faciendum est, vbi ab igne tripes amoueuer, paulo enim post diffuto calore, & ipse fundus incalescere, atque adeo candescere incipit. Feci buius periculum non semel mea ipsius manu, cum aliis, quibus hoc recitabam, se in fraudem allici putarent. Et me prævio, & ipsi postmodum manum innoxie admouerunt. Eodem spectat tuu[m] exemplum, quod de patella chartacea super prunas imposita adducis. Etenim si reipsa illa paulo intensius incaluerit succenderetur haud dubie: itaq[ue] friger potius, aut saltem tepide capite. Quod si quis quærat: cum calor ignis (flamma flammam, ceu vnda vndam subinde propellente) semper sursum seratur, quomodo non tandem dispurgatur omnino, & ne superiores quidem partes calefaciat? dico ego hoc tueri n[on] arteme ignis . Circumstans quippe ambientis frigus prohibet, quo minus ignis calor p[er]torsus dissiperetur: imo potius illum retro cedere cogit, magis vnit, & hac ratione seipso fortiorum, inque agendo efficaciorem reddit, non secus atque frigidus è folibus cum imperu expressius sp[er]ititus in fabrorum fornacibus ignem luculentius succendit. Notandum tamen ad extremum hoc est, caldarium illud plumbeum, in quo sal excoquitories iam diximus, no[n] ab omni omnino ignium injuria, & impressione immune esse. Semper enim aliqua portio decedit adeo vt cum tettiam summum salis coctionem sustinuir, necessario resici, & liquatum de nouo fundi illuc oporteat. An autem cera in aqua (feruente scilicet) liquescat, vno verbo respondeo, mollescere illam magis, quam liquari, quando hoc duntaxat à calore ticco & igneo, non autem humido seu aqua patiatur. Cætera litetarnum tuarum capita, quibus mihi adhuc satisfaciendum video in aliud tempus referuo. Te autem etiam atq[ue] etiam oro, ne hanc meam præcipiens , quam diseundi ingens cupiditas, & iucundissima naturalium rerum contemplatio mihi exprimunt, in quo animo suscipias. Vere enim affirmo, me non rur, (quod absit) vellicandi, sed mei ipsius duntaxat erudiendi causa, hæc in medium afferre. Ac quidem si ad ea, quod spero, respondere dignatus fueris, præclare beneficium istud collocaris. Vale, Prag. 13. Ian. 84. 372 EPIST. CCXVI. IDEM EIDEM. ET si antea octiduum ad te bene longas dedetim, nondu[m] mihi tamen pet omnia tuis, quibus tenuis debebam, satis fecisse videor. Itaque quæ in prioribus intacta reliqui, ad eam præsentibus hisce breuiter respondebo. Censuræ tuæ de libris Hippocratis gemina exempla, quæ excellentissimus Dominus Scutellarius mihi communicauir, mox vni atq[ue] alteri amicorum meorum, in arte nostra peritissimoru[m] in diuersa Germaniæ loca transimis, vt videlicet illorum quoque de ea iudicia cognoscerem. Cur < Melancholicum suscui cur aq. Hippocr.> vero hie autor Melancholicum suceum aqvam, vel vt ipsissimam eius vocem vsum p[er]tum, videor nuncupauetit, non displicet ratio tua. Quandoquidem semper fete cum crasso isto & feculano rumore multum aqvæ seu feri, quod vehiculi vsum illi præstare verisimile est, coniunctum videmus. Neque ramen prorsus male illi etiam sentiunt, etsi quod , qui lienem nou minus, quâ epar sanguificationi dicatu[m] existimant. Memini autem medicumquendam, virum doctissimum, & anatomicum excellentem ad hoc persuadendum tribus potissimum hisce argumentis vti: I. Quod omnia viscera, quæ publicum aliquod munus in corpore humano gerunt, aut gemina sint, à prudenti natura efformara, aut saltem in medio corporis in rer[um] dextrum & sinistrum posita. Sic caput ille & cor, & ventriculum, & vrerum & vesicam, in externis etiam natum, & os v[er]nica singula esse affirmabat, ideoque in medio corporis locata: pulmones autem & renes & testes, item oculi, aures, manus, & pedes geminis cum sint, eam ob causam vtrum que etiam latus occupare. At vero epar, quæ & ipsum pars est nobilissima, & princeps, no[n] inmerito sane in alterutra corporis regione, dextra nimirum locum obtineret, nisi illi in opposito latere lien, in eodem munere collega, responderet. II. argumentum à cæformatione sumptum erat. Lienis nimirum & iecinoris constructionem, magnam inter se affinitatem & similitudine[m] babere, quando in illum non minorem venæ portæ ramum, arterias vero multo plures & insigniores, quam in hoc dispergi, & disseminari videas, vt plane binc appareat, visceri illi sanguinis elaborandi partes non secus, atq[ue] epari à natura moderatrice concessas & attributas esse. Postremo, experientia ipsa ostendit, morbos, qui sanguificationem lædunt, vt pote, cachexiam, hydropem, & similes, tam frequenter à alienis, quam iecinoris

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371 LETTERS < Tripes, etc. etc. from the excrement the bottom of the brazier the capella.> mentum, and plainly without doubt whoever wishes to have it, a bronze tripod, in which fish are boiled, as soon as it is removed from the fire, if one touches the bottom itself, will see those three feet, on which the vessel rests, almost glowing and red-hot: nevertheless the bottom, which had been placed immediately over the flames, is little short of cold. But this must be done at once, when the tripod has been moved from the fire; for a little later, once the heat has diffused, the bottom itself begins to grow warm, and indeed to glow. I have tried this more than once with my own hand, when others, to whom I recounted this, thought that they would be drawn into deception. And before me, and afterwards themselves, they innocently laid a hand upon it. Your own example, which you bring forward about a paper pan placed on the embers, points to the same thing. For if in fact it had grown a little too hot, it would undoubtedly have been ignited: so it should rather be cooled, or at least kept lukewarm. But if someone should ask: since the heat of fire (flame driving flame, as wave drives wave in turn) is always carried upward, how does it not at last become entirely exhausted, and even fail to warm the upper parts? I answer that this is held back by the surrounding cold, which prevents the heat of the fire from being dispersed through the mass: indeed rather it forces it to give way back, unites it more, and in this way makes it stronger in itself and more effective in action, just as a cold blast from bellows driven with force in the smiths’ furnaces kindles the fire more brilliantly. Yet one must note at the end that this leaden caldarium, in which we have said salt is boiled down, is not at all immune from every injury and pressure of fire. For always some portion gives way, so that when it has borne the third and highest cooking of the salt, it must necessarily be repaired, and the melted material poured in there anew. But whether wax melts in water (namely boiling water), I answer in one word: it softens rather than melts, since it suffers this only from dry and fiery heat, not from moist heat, that is, from water. The remaining points of your letter, with which I see I must still be satisfied, I reserve for another time. And I earnestly and repeatedly beg you not to take this my attempt, which the great desire to learn and the most delightful contemplation of natural things prompt from me, in such a spirit. For I truly affirm that I bring these matters forward not to vex (which God forbid), but solely for the purpose of educating myself. And indeed, if you deign to reply to them, as I hope, you will have placed that favor well. Farewell. Prague, 13. Jan. 84. 372 LETTER CCXVI. THE SAME TO THE SAME. AND although previously I sent you a full eight days’ worth of letters, still I do not yet seem to myself to have sufficiently met all your wishes, for which I owed you so much. Therefore I shall briefly answer in the present letter the matters I left untouched in the earlier ones. Your criticism of the books of Hippocrates, the two excellent copies which Lord Scutellarius communicated to me, I soon sent on to one and another of my friends, most skilled in our art, in different parts of Germany, so that I might learn their judgments on the matter as well. Why < Melancholic succus cur aq. Hippocr.> this author, however, called the melancholic juice water, or, to use his very own word, why he named it in this way, does not displease your explanation. For we always see it joined with that thick and muddy flux of much water, or of vapor, which, as seems likely, serves it as a vehicle. Nor are those entirely wrong either, who think the spleen no less than the liver is appointed for blood-making. I remember, moreover, a certain physician, a most learned man, and an excellent anatomist, using chiefly these three arguments to prove it: I. That all the viscera which perform some public function in the human body are either twin parts, formed by prudent nature, or at least placed in the middle of the body, on the right and left sides respectively. Thus he maintained that the head, and the heart, and the stomach, and the womb, and the bladder, and the genitalia, each are one, and therefore located in the middle of the body: whereas the lungs and kidneys and testicles, likewise the eyes, ears, hands, and feet, since they are paired, occupy both sides for that reason as well. But the liver, which is itself the noblest and chief part, would not unjustly, then, have its place in one of the two regions of the body, namely the right, were it not that on the opposite side the spleen, a colleague in the same office, answered to it. II. The second argument was taken from structure. For the spleen and the liver, in their construction, have a great affinity and resemblance, since you see in the former no smaller branch of the portal vein, but arteries far more numerous and conspicuous, than in the latter, spreading and disseminating themselves, so that it is clearly apparent from this that the office of working up the blood was granted and assigned by nature the moderating power to that organ no less than to the liver. Finally, experience itself shows that the diseases which injure blood-making, such as cachexia, dropsy, and the like, arise just as frequently from disorders of the spleen as of the liver.

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373 MEDICINALES. 374 ris obstructione, aliisque morbis otiti sole- re. Verissimum autem est axioma, quo Ga- lenus in loci affecti indagatione multum v- titur: Actionem aliquam lædi non posse, nisi simul pars, vnde illa emanat, lædatur. Et contra, cum in parte vitium inest, actionem inde prodeutem necessario lædi. Quid igitur de rationibus hisce sentias, petlubenter ex te cognoscerem. De venenis por- ro libellum tuum accuratius perlegenti, < Venera cur cor primo & principaliter posam.> hoc etiam insuper ex te quærere in mentem venit: Quamobrem illa omnia cot primo & principaliter petere affitmare sustinuetis. Certe enim in argumentorum adueræ par- tis dissolutione non leuis est difficultas, at- que haud scio, an satis solide adumnia obie- cta inibi responsum sit. Qvantum sane mihi ex artis medicæ fundamentis, atque adeo ipsius rei natura assequilicet, ita quæstio hea breuiter explicari videtur: Omnia ea, < Cibi.> quæ in corpus humanum intro assumpta a- gunt, aut ab eodem patiuntur, in triplici sunt differentia, nempe, vel cibi, vel medi- camenta, vel venena. Cibi seu alimenta dicuntur, quæ à natura nostra, tum secundum substantiam; tum secundum qualita- tes vincuntur, eo nutriendo, augendoque corpori cedunt. Medicamenta vero, quæ secundum substantiam quidem dissimilia, secundum qualitates tamen hactenus à ca- < Medicamenta.> lure nostro superantur, vt nihilominus cot- pus alterare, & immutare valeant. Ve- < Venena.> nena denique nuncupantur, quæ & secun- dum substantiam, & secundum qualitates suas corpus nostrum aut certas illius par- tes, nun tantum vincunt, sed etiam plane destruuit & corrumpunt. Sic igitur interea, quæ merecibi, & quæ mere medicamenta iunt, cibi medicamenti, & medicamen- < Mista.> ta, vt sic loquar, cibosa, tanquam vtinque participantia, intercedunt, ita etiam vicis- sim inter meta medicamenta, & mete seu simpliciter venena, medium quod ammu- do locum occupant, tum pharmaca ipsa purgatoria, tum alia, quæ deletetrix faculta- < Venena cur- tarem par- tium.> tis aliquid obtinent, imo vero enam, secun- dum Galeni sententiam, ipsa alexitetia, si non ista quantitatis moderatiunc exhibe- < antur.> Præterea, vt inter alimenta, & me- < dicamenta alia aliis partibus plus, aut mi- nus conueniunt (sic vinum magis reficit spiritus, caro partes solidas) ita non est du- bium venena quoque diuersa, diuersis par- < tibus peculiari quadam virtute magis esse noxia, (exempli gratia, cicutam & hyoscya- mum cerebro, leporem marinum pulmo- < nibus, fungos gulz & faucibus, napellum curdi, cantharides vesicæ & renibus, argen- tum viuum nervosis & offeis partibus, tor- < pedinem manibus, & similiter aliis alia) ne- que vilam nos necessitatem cogere, vt o- < mnia in vniuetum venena cordi ipsi prin- cipaliter insidiari concludamus. Quod si tamen firmines opinioni tuæ rationes in < medium attuleris, non equidem inuitus ab erronea sententia mea discessurus sum. De < Hippocratis editione, quam sub manibus te habere intelligo, scire velim, quam nobis spem facias, & an etiam Latinis Græca, < quod optarim, adiuncturus sis. Nulla certe < re nomen tuum, alioqui clarissimum, poste- < ritatis memoriæ præclarius commendare < pusses, quam si hunc, non dico librum, sed < thesaurum medicinæ, quam emendatissi- < mum & locupletatissimu[m] in lucem emittas. < Vere enim de hoc) si Galenum fidum Hipp- < ocratis interpretem coiungas) id quod est < in vulgato versiculo pronunciari potest; Ex < aliis pateas, ex istis collige grana. Sed ot iota pro- < lixitate tibi amplius molestus esse desino, < cum sic etiam facilitate tua pene abusus vi- < deri queam. Vale, Prag. 7. Februatij. Anno < 1584. EPIST. CCXVII. D. THOMÆ ERASTO, ELECT. Palat. Med. &c. Petrus Monautus Med. S. D. LITERAS tuas doctissime & humanis- < sime scriptas singulari eum voluptate, < & magna vtilitate multoties relegi. Pro re- < sponsione ad quæstiones meas, magnas gra- < tias habeo. Ac in prima quidem plane acquiesco. In < alia illud adhuc dubium remanet, vt si se- < bris est morbus cordis, & ita partialis affe- < ctus, cur omnes ferme medici tanto con- < sensu eum inter vniuersales morbos, seu no[n] < appropriatos retulerunt? Et qui fiat quid < non in omni febre ex necessitate pulsus vi- < tius, hoc est, insto vel debilior, vel vehe- < mentiur, vel alia quæq[ue] ratione deprauatus < reperiatur? teste etia[m] Gal. 3. prætag. cu[m] qui- < de[m] morbus actiones partis cui inhæret, pri- < mo lædere recte dicatur. Humores denique < an in febribus salub. vere putrescant, & non < potius accensi sint & feruentes? de eo quo- < que magnam esse controueritario video, & à < co[n]traria parte argumenta no[n] omnino lenia. < Quædam loubertus, medicus Gallus, in suis < paradoxis recèset. Sed de his in præsentiæ af- < ferenda no[n] sunt. Meæ vero imprudentiæ (dixe- < rim proprie impudentiæ) vt veni[n]des recur- < renter à te puto, qui te alioqui occu- < pantillum, interpellare tamen & molestia affi- < Q 4

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373 MEDICINALS. 374 to be obstructions and other diseases of the spleen. But the maxim is most true, which Galen uses much in investigating the affected part: that no function can be impaired unless at the same time the part from which it arises is impaired. And, conversely, when a defect is present in a part, the function proceeding from it is necessarily impaired. What, then, you may think of these reasons, I would very gladly learn from you. Furthermore, after reading your little book on poisons more carefully, it also occurred to me to ask you this: why you have maintained that all these things principally affect the heart. For certainly, in resolving the arguments of the opposing side, there is no slight difficulty, and I do not know whether the objections raised there have been answered with sufficient solidity. As far, indeed, as I can make out from the foundations of the medical art, and therefore from the nature of the matter itself, the question seems briefly explainable as follows: all things which, having been taken into the human body, act upon it or are acted upon by it, are of three kinds: namely, either foods, medicines, or poisons. Foods, or nutriments, are called those things which are overcome by our nature, both in substance and in qualities, and thus are used for nourishing and increasing the body. Medicines, however, are those which, although unlike in substance, are nevertheless so far overcome by our innate heat in qualities that they are nevertheless able to alter and change the body. Poisons, finally, are those which, both in substance and in their qualities, do not merely overcome our body or certain parts of it, but also entirely destroy and corrupt them. Thus, in the meantime, between those that are purely foods and those that are purely medicines, there intervene, if I may so speak, food-medicines and medicine-foods, as it were, partaking of both; and similarly, between medicine-medicines and poisons, whether so-called in the simple sense or merely poisonous, there occupies a middle place both purgative pharmaka and others which possess some destructive faculty; indeed, even alexipharmics, according to Galen’s opinion, if they are not given in a moderated quantity. Besides, just as among foods and medicines some suit some parts more, others less—for example, wine refreshes the spirits more, flesh the solid parts—so there is no doubt that different poisons are also more harmful, by some peculiar power, to different parts: for example, hemlock and hyoscyamus to the brain, sea-hare to the lungs, mushrooms to the throat and fauces, napellus to the heart, cantharides to the bladder and kidneys, quicksilver to the nervous and bony parts, the torpedo to the hands, and likewise others to other parts. Nor does necessity compel us to conclude that all poisons without distinction lie in ambush principally for the heart itself. Yet if you bring forward strong reasons for your opinion, I shall not be unwilling to depart from my mistaken view. As to the edition of Hippocrates, which I understand you have in hand, I should like to know what hope you hold out to us, and whether you will also add the Greek text to the Latin, as I would wish. Certainly you could commend your name, already illustrious, to the memory of posterity in no better way than by publishing this work—not, I say, a book, but a treasure of medicine—in the most emended and richest form. For truly of this work, if you join Galen as a faithful interpreter of Hippocrates, that saying from the common verse can be applied: “From others you pick up chaff; from these gather the grains.” But I cease to trouble you further with my lengthiness, since I may seem to be abusing your courtesy almost as much by this as by my words. Farewell. Prague, 7 February, 1584. EPIST. CCXVII. TO D. THOMAS ERASTUS, ELECT. PALAT. MED. &c. Peter Monautus, doctor, sends greetings. I have reread your letters, most learned and most kindly written, with singular pleasure and great profit, many times over. For your answer to my questions I give you many thanks. And in the first matter I am entirely satisfied. In the other, however, one doubt still remains: if fever is a disease of the heart, and thus a partial affection, why have almost all physicians with such agreement classed it among universal diseases, or rather among non-appropriated ones? And how is it that in almost every fever the pulse is necessarily vitiated—that is, either too rapid or too slow, or in some other way disordered? Galen also testifies to this in the third book De praesagiis, when he says that a disease rightly can be said to injure first the actions of the part in which it resides. Finally, whether the humors in fevers truly putrefy, and are not rather inflamed and heated, I see there is also much controversy about that, and the arguments on the opposite side are by no means weak. Some things are set forth by Loubertus, a French physician, in his Paradoxes. But these things should not be brought forward at present. My own imprudence—I should say properly, impudence—I think must be corrected by you in return, since you are otherwise busy, yet I still feel I am interrupting and troubling you. Q 4

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cete non desinam. Fieri sane potest, vt maxima ex parte eadem nostri hi docuerint, quoniam tamen non eodem modo, verum aude illa proposuerunt, nervosam suam & dialecticam breuitatem illorum prolixitati gartulæ merito antepono. De putredine lætor te publici commodi gratia quædam abs te laborata edere constituisse. Sunt quidem antehac à plurimis de hoc negotio scripta plurima fateor, verum tamen an in iis plene & solide ad hanc pertinentia tractata sint omnia, valde dubito. Vnum nunc modo adferam, quod scriptum tuum, cuius à vobis discedens exemplum mecum auexi, accutate legenti, mihi non mediocrem scrupulum mouit, videlicet quod naturalem illam putredinem, siue impropriè sic appellari alteris, magis autem proptie altetam, quæ violenta est: cum tamen Aristotelis diuersa esse videatur sententia. Etenim vera & propria putredo illi mixtorum perfectorum passio est, & contrarium causæ generationi mixtorum: interque se mutuo hæc duo opponuntur, tum quo ad terminum, quoniam generatio est ad esse formæ, putredo ad non esse: tum quo ad causas, quia illa sit actiùs qualitatibus dominantibus supra passiua: hæc contra: tum deniq[ue] quia generatio est terminatio, & vno humidi cum sicco, putredo vero est indeterminatio & dissolutio. Violenta autem putredo eidem est , hoc est, secundum partem, non tam substantialem, quam quantitatiuam, quam vt ita dicam, qualitatiuam, nimirum recessus à proprio & nativo temperamento. Quare etiam de hac re loquens ait: , id est, (vt nonnulli quoq[ue] legunt) peculiariter, seu quodam modo, non autem proprie & vere putredo nûcupatur. Vt sensus horum verborum hic sit: in omnibus, quæ corrumpuntur secundum partem, & recedunt à propria natura, & à proprio temperamento, reperitur quidam propriua & peculiaris modus putredinis diuersus à modo putredinis eorum, quæ corrumpuntur secundum totum, qui scilicet modus, neq[ue] generationi opponitur, neq[ue] passio mihi est, vt mistum. Hæc sententia cum ad mentem philosophi propius accedere videatur, etiam multis à doctissimo Archangelo in suis dilucidationibus, in plurima obscura loca Aristotelis, in tractat[ur] de generatione & putredine comprobata, & munita est. Iliud idem etiam asserit, calorem naturalem nô solum ob duas illas causas, quas in tuo scripto exprimis, diminui, nempe à contrario & ob defectum humidi, verum etiam à calore ambientis per exitum & evaporationem ipsius, vt in putredine. Quæ tamen omnia à me non ob aliam rationem adducta esse existimes velim, quam vt de quibus ambigo, de illis iudiciu tuum limatissimum cognoscere queam. Verum nunc de tertio quodam dubio quærere, quod in supra nominato scripto tuo, tanquam alibi declaratum & confirmatum posuisti, videlicet, dato duplici calote, etiam duplex temperamentum statui, cum hoc concesso, etiam duplicia principia, & actiones diuersas in corpore oriri necesse sit. Quod si tamen hoc tanquam cotollarium cæteris beneficiis tuis mihi exhibitis addere voles, nihil est quod abs te amplius petere ausim. Vale, & tue, qua cæpisti beneuolentia, complecti perge. Patauij Antenoris, 17. Martij. Anno 1578. EPIST. CCXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. VM te præceptoris loco & habuerim hactenus, & nunc habeam, audaciùs propono ea, de quibus interdum subdubito, vt de iis sententiam tuam, quam merito maximi facio, cognoscam. De metallis igitur num ea tecte & tuto assumi possint, quæ stio agitatur à plurimis hac nostra ætate medicis. Legi hac occasione, quæ pro decisione litis istius affers, tum in Antiparacelsicis, tum in nuper edito libello de auro poculento. Videor mihi ex illis hanc hypothesin excerplisse, metallica omnia in vniuersum, quouis modo parata, nec tuto, nec commode in ta corpus sumi. Perpendi etiam rationes doctissime excogitatas, quas in citatis locis affers, fateor tamen mihi nondum in omnibus satisfactum, & superesse scrupulos adhuc aliquos, quos & ipsos rationum momentis, quæ cum experientia non sunt dissensæ, mihi eximi cupio. Principio hoc facile do: Nulla metallica corpus nostrum alete & nuttite, vt iis pro cibis in victu quotidiano vtiliceat, neq[ue] tam fatum puto esse quænam saltem ex iis, qui communi consensu non destituuntur, qui contrarium afferrer. An vero etiam omnem cortoborandi, refociillandi, & quantantenus in statu suo partes principes conseruandi facultatem iis adimere debeamus, non est in ita proclivi. De auro, argento, & precio quibusdam lapidibus fortasse experientiam testem producere possemus, cu[m] constet in vsu medico illa sæpe quo ad has intèriones vtilitet adhiberi, maxime vero animi deliquiis, antalia imbecere

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I shall not cease. It can indeed be that our men here have taught the same things for the most part, since however they set them forth not in the same way, but dares rather in this manner, I rightly prefer their terse and dialectical brevity to the prolixity of the others. I am glad, for the sake of the public good, that you have resolved to publish certain things worked out by you on putrefaction. Indeed, many writings on this matter have already been composed by many before now, I admit; nevertheless I greatly doubt whether in all of them everything pertinent to this topic has been treated fully and soundly. I shall now mention only one point, which, when I read your letter carefully—I had brought a copy of it with me when I departed from you—moved me to no small scruple, namely that you call that natural putrefaction, or rather, if it is so called improperly by some, more properly another, which is violent: though Aristotle seems to have a different opinion. For true and proper putrefaction is, for him, an affection of perfected mixtures, and the contrary of generation in mixtures; and these two are opposed to one another in this respect: first, as to the end, since generation is toward the being of form, putrefaction toward non-being; second, as to the causes, because the one occurs through active qualities prevailing over the passive, the other the reverse; and finally because generation is a termination and a union of the moist with the dry, whereas putrefaction is an indetermination and dissolution. Violent putrefaction, however, is the same in a way, that is, in part, not so much substantial as quantitative, or, so to speak, qualitative, namely a departure from the proper and natural temperament. Wherefore, speaking of this matter also, he says: , that is, as some also read it, it is called particular, or in a certain way, but not properly and truly putrefaction. Thus the sense of these words is here: in all things which are corrupted in part and depart from their own nature and from their own temperament, there is found a certain proper and peculiar mode of putrefaction, different from the mode of putrefaction of those things which are corrupted wholly; this mode, namely, is opposed neither to generation nor is it to me an affection, as in a mixture. This opinion, since it seems to approach more closely to the mind of the philosopher, has also been confirmed and supported by many things from the very learned Archangelus in his elucidations upon many obscure places of Aristotle in the treatise On Generation and Putrefaction. He also affirms the same thing, namely that natural heat is diminished not only for the two causes which you express in your writing, namely by contraries and by lack of moisture, but also by the heat of the surrounding air through the escape and evaporation of the heat itself, as in putrefaction. Yet I wish you to understand that I have introduced all these matters for no other reason than that, concerning those things about which I am in doubt, I may be able to learn your very refined judgment. But now I ask about a third doubt, which you set down in the above-named writing of yours as though explained and confirmed elsewhere, namely that if a double heat be granted, a double temperament must also be established; and when this is granted, it is necessary that double principles and different actions arise in the body. If, however, you will also wish to add this as a corollary to the other benefits you have shown me, there is nothing more that I would dare ask of you. Farewell, and continue to embrace me with the goodwill with which you began. At Padua, at Antenor’s, 17 March, 1578. EPISTLE 218 THE SAME TO THE SAME. Since I have hitherto had you in the place of a teacher, and even now still have you so, I put forward more boldly those things about which I sometimes doubt, so that I may know your opinion on them, which I rightly value most highly. Concerning metals, then, whether those things can be safely and secretly taken in, a question debated by many physicians of our age. I have read on this occasion, in what you bring forward for the decision of that dispute, both in the Antiparacelsica and in the little book recently published On Drinkable Gold. It seems to me that from these I have drawn this hypothesis: that all metallic things in general, however prepared, can be taken into the body neither safely nor conveniently. I have also considered the arguments most learnedly devised, which you present in the cited places; nevertheless I confess that I am not yet satisfied in everything, and that some scruples still remain, which I also desire to have removed by the force of reasons that are not at odds with experience. In the first place, this I readily concede: no metallic substances nourish and support our body so as to serve as food in our daily diet, nor do I think it at all likely that anyone, at least among those not deprived of common consent, would bring forward the contrary. But whether we must also strip them of every power of strengthening, refreshing, and, as far as may be, preserving the principal parts in their condition, is not so readily apparent. Concerning gold, silver, and certain precious stones, perhaps we could produce experience as witness, since it is clear that in medical use they are often employed profitably for these internal affections, especially in fainting of the spirits, in weakness...

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377 MEDICINALES. 378 imbecillitatibus. Quod rationes attinet, non est ea nulla, quam aliqui afferunt, de perfectione misionis summa, quæ præcipue in auro incet, ob quam etiam causam pene interitus expers est. Gemmarum præstantiam lux & splendor ille præfulgidus, quem proliciunt satis parcfacit, cuius ratione spiritus nostris vitalibus in primis atque animalibus sua natura lucidissimis cognatos esse mihi plane persuadeo, adeoque facile adducor, vt credam, ob illam impuribus , & symbolicam conuenientiam spiritus & conseruare, augere, & velut ignauos & deperditos specifica proprietate restituere. Verum neque de huius generis viribus propositum est amplius agere. Quoniam itaque in medicamentorum, sic proprie dictorum classem ea collocas, hic sane consistamus. < Metallica purgans.> Purgandi vires pleraque obtinere satis notum est: etsi ex verustioribus, aut nulli aut pauci de hoc quicquam memoriæ prodiderunt. Imo assumpta adeo quidem naturam exagitant, vt illa stimulata sursum & deorsum quicquid excrementorum intra corpus continetur cum impetu exturbet. Hoc ipsum est, inquies, quod toties inculco, & cuius causa ego noxia esse, & plane d[e]natur[um] talia medicamenta constanter affirmo. Esto sane ita vt dicis, neque enim inficias iuerim, quin venenata & maligna aliqua qualitate participent. At si isthæc ratio sufficiens esset, tum nulla prorsus purgantia intra corpus quisquam medicorum propinaret, cum certum sit illa omnia corpori nostro aduersari, imo ob hanc penesolam causam no[n] censeri. Proinde istud tantum sequetur; Non cruda, & ita vt è terra eruuntur ingerenda esse; sed quemadmodum & reliqua purgatoria, præparata prius, & aliis additis correcta, vt minus nocere queant. Qua vero tandem via & ratione illa præparabis, vt mitiora euidant, num igne? Atqui hic magis vim ipsis insitam acuet, & penetrantiora reddet. Ablutio vero, quæ per aquam sit, dubio procul minoris efficaciæ æstimatur, quam vt tale quid præstare possit. Negarim ego ignem dextre adhibitum, & legitime administratum semper cum alia, tum etiam mettalla, ob ipsum polpa , quod in illis impressum relinquat, calidiora, acriora, nocentiora reddere. Quam enim multæ res sunt, quæ cum antea crudæ & ineptæ essent, ignis postea beneficio coctæ & aptæ efficiuntur, ad corpus alendum, & in suo statu conseruandum. Testantur id catnes, & plurima alia, quæ in culinis ad victum quotidie apparantur: inprimis vero affa, in quibus nemo ipsum polpa tefugit, quo minus illis sua uiter ve- scatur, cum tamen certum sit sicco calore torrefacta, & ita igneitatem illam, vt sic loquar, illis satis valide impressam esse, si digesto hoc genere differre, & ita nihil inde ad rem propositam concludi, tum demum vel vnam cerussam tibi proferam, quam & refrigerare, & ideo repellere, imo emplastieam esse, præter Diosc. & Galen. alij quoque confirmant, & experientia ipsa euidenter demonstrat. Cur vero hic ipsum polpa illud nô vrgeam, cum tamen à plumbo vsto, aut parum aut nihil differat? Itaque hoc restat vt dicamus, In igne non tantum vim calefactoriam considerandam esse, sed etiam nî Ipsum polpa , quæ ita in eo (ceu summe calido) pollet, vt ob id potius, quam illa calidi definitionem ingrediatur. Per hanc autem facili labore, dum metalla liquantur, partes puræ & impuræ à sese inuicem separari pollunt, vt hac ratione, vel olea, vel liquores, vel, quos vocant spiritus, prout libet, inde extrahantur, relictis itu fornacibus partibus illis terrestribus & crassioribus in[n]itioni nostræ minime quadrantibus. Quis vero est, qui in his omnibus, quæ modo nominauit ipsum polpa tale reseruari affirmare ausit, quod acredine & mordacirate sua partibus corporis nostri vim inserat: cum plurima clusmodi ad refrigerandum & humectandum intra & extra corpus vitiliter exhibeantur, vt pote, verbi gratia, oleum seu potius liquor vitrioli, item sulphuris, in quibus gustu etiam non admodum magna acredo deprehenditur. Tacco nunc de aliis aquis, quas destillatas vocant, ignis potentia elicitas inter quas multas refrigeratorias esse nemo prorsus dubitat. Sed neque illud simpliciter concedo: Quæ in dura & solida corpora szuiunt, mollibus & laxioribus < Aqua destit. refrigerant.> multo magis infesta esse. Quis enim aquam, vulgo fortem appellatam, ignorat? Hæc certe ferrem & chalybem, durissima cum sint, breui tempore absurmit, & tamen manu caua multis modis molliori sine noxa etiam excipi animaduersum est. Videmus similiter quid in obsidionibus vrbium fiat, vbi saccos ingentes lanarum floccis repletas suspendere solent, consta maximorum < Aqua fortis natura.> ormentorum iactus, quos mœnia fortissima atque mnnitionibus instructissima tuto excipere nequaquam poterant. Nempe quia istic minor sit resistentia, debilior etiam actio consequitur, hic vero animis vtrbique ad pugnam paratis, & neutro hostium alteticedere volente, naturæ quædam lege, acrior conflictus exoritur. Verum hæc ita in medium profero, nequaquam agytis illis, & insanis Paracelsæ

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377 MEDICINALS. 378 with imbecilities. As for the reasons, there is indeed some force in what some bring forward concerning the utmost perfection of the mission, which especially shines in gold, for which reason too it is almost immune from decay. The excellence of gems, that most radiant light and splendor which they emit, sufficiently bears witness; and for that reason I am fully persuaded that spirits are akin to our vital and, above all, animal spirits, which by nature are most lucid, and I am therefore easily led to believe that, by that impure and symbolic correspondence, spirits can preserve, increase, and, as it were, restore the sluggish and lost by a specific property. But it is not my purpose to speak further of the powers of this kind. Since, then, you place it in the class of medicines properly so called, let us here indeed stop. < Metallic purgative.> It is well known that most have purgative powers, though from the older writers, either none or very few have left anything of this in memory. Indeed, when taken, they so greatly excite nature that, being stimulated, it drives out by force, upward and downward, whatever excrement is contained within the body. “This,” you will say, “is precisely what I keep insisting on, and for whose sake I steadfastly affirm that such medicines are harmful and plainly unnatural.” Be it so, as you say; for I shall not deny that they partake of some poisonous and malicious quality. But if this reasoning were sufficient, then no physician whatever would administer any purgative within the body, since it is certain that all such things are hostile to our body, indeed for this very reason alone they are to be regarded as such. Therefore, only this will follow: they should not be given crude and as they are drawn from the earth, but rather, as with the other purgatives, first prepared and corrected by additions, so that they may be less harmful. By what method and means, then, will you prepare them so that they become milder? By fire? Yet that rather sharpens the force inherent in them and makes them more penetrating. Washing with water, however, is judged of far less efficacy than to be able to accomplish anything of the sort. I would deny that fire, skillfully applied and legitimately administered, always makes metals, as well as other things, warmer, sharper, and more harmful, because of the impression it leaves in them. For how many things are there which, though before crude and unfit, are afterward, by the benefit of fire, cooked and made fit for nourishing the body and preserving it in its condition. Meats bear witness to this, and many other things that are daily prepared in kitchens for food; especially roasted dishes, in which no one refuses to partake, so that he may not eat them, although it is certain that by dry heat they are scorched and thus, so to speak, that fiery quality is impressed on them quite strongly. If you differ on this point, and conclude that nothing follows from it for the matter in hand, then at last I shall produce one white lead preparation for you, which others besides Dioscorides and Galen confirm to be cooling, and therefore repelling, indeed also emollient, as experience itself clearly shows. Why, then, should I not press this point here, when it hardly differs at all from burnt lead? Thus it remains for us to say that in fire not only the heating power must be considered, but also the fire itself, which so prevails in it, as being supremely hot, that it rather enters into the definition of heat than that heat into its definition. By this means, with little effort, while the metals are melted, the pure and impure parts are separated from one another, so that by this method either oils, or liquids, or what they call spirits may be extracted at will, leaving in the furnaces those earthy and coarser parts, which are by no means suited to our nourishment. But who is there who would dare to affirm that in all these things just named such a thing is preserved, which by its sharpness and mordacity may impress force upon the parts of our body, when many things of this kind are beneficially used for cooling and moistening within and without the body, as, for example, oil, or rather vitriol liquor, and likewise sulfur, in which even the taste does not reveal any very great sharpness? I say nothing now of the other waters, which they call distilled, drawn out by the power of fire, among which no one at all doubts that many are cooling. But neither do I simply grant that those which attack hard and solid bodies are much more hostile to soft and more relaxed ones. For who does not know the water commonly called strong water? This certainly dissolves iron and steel, though they are very hard, in a short time, and yet it has been observed that it may also be received in many ways, without harm, by the hollow hand of a softer person. We see likewise what happens in sieges of cities, where they are accustomed to suspend huge sacks filled with woolly flocks against the shots of the largest artillery, which the strongest walls, even those most securely equipped with fortifications, could by no means safely withstand. Clearly, because resistance there is less, the action is also weaker; but here, with minds prepared for battle on both sides, and neither of the enemies wishing to give way, a certain law of nature brings forth a sharper conflict. Yet I bring these things forward in this way not at all for those rash and insane followers of Paracelsus

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asseclis patrocinari volo; quorum multo máxima pars per oeces hominum experi- meota agit, & artem hooestissimam, quam nunquam didicit, scelerate profitetur, pro- que medicina carnificinam potius exercet sed illud tantum in præsentia determinari cupio, < Metallorum usum totum.> Num metallica profus eorum, quæ iotta corpus sumuntur, oumero exitmenda fiot, si in corundem vsu, hæc tria caute ob- servantur, vt nimirum, ante recte præparentur, recte præparata aliis additis corriga- tur, & correcta demum debita quantitate, seu dosi exhibeantur. Quid sane in talibus fieri possit ac debeat à multis præstantibus Medicis, qui non taotum artis præcepta v- niuersalia nouetunt, verum etiam è , fese præclare exercuerunt, (inter quos non iniuria etiam Matthiolum oumerauerim) scriptis traditum est. Ego autem ad te, mi obseruandissime P[er]tæceptor, coofugio, tecq[ue] oro, vt rationum momentis, quod potes, ea- dem hæc mihi breuiter explices. Etsi enim in libris ruis de his extant non pauca: quid tamen prohibet, ad particulatia magis de- scendisse, adque auditoris captum sese ac- commodasse? Promitto vicissim debitam obseruantiam, & omnis generis studia, quæ à mea tenuitate io te proficisci poterunt. Va- le, & si me discipulum tuum agnoscis, primæ oblata occasioner escribe. V[ale]tislau. 30. Iul. Annor[um] 78. EPIST. CCIX. IDEM ET DEM. NON poteram nuper literis tuis ita satis facere vt volebam, cum Tabellatius nimis properaret: aliquid tamen omnino 40 scribebodum fuit, ne iuste neglecti officij ac- cusari possem præsertim cum satis sese com- moda occasio offerret. Cæterum vel ab eo tempore Epistolam tuam accuratius legi, & relegi, cumque iis locis libelli tui de auro poculento contuli, quos tu manifeste alle- gas, & ceu fundamenta huius disputationis poois. Placuerunt mihi pleraq[ue] vel potius omnia mirifice, quod & soleret excogitata, & suis tarioorum momentis suffulta essent: 50 quibus si fitmiotes opponere alias coner, a- ctum agam, haud dubie & frustra laborem. Recte ponis discrimen inter metallica & i- psa metalla, quod ab initio oon satis anim- aduerteram, postea tamen admonitus ob- seruare coepi. De gemmarum viribus et- iam alios multos, nec ideoctos addubitare video, qui tameo occultis illis causis, & pro- prietatibus alias tribuunt plurimum. Nolo aut haoc litem, quasi sepultam denuo reno- uare. Erudire postea perfectio missionis, quæ in auto reperitur, ab ea segregatur, qua corpora nostra omnia reliqua sublunaria præcellunt. Longe eoim absque dubio sublimiori gradu ob operationum præstan- tiam, hæc quam illa collocari merentur: vt si quis, quo ad hæc similitudinem inter v- traque statuat, plurimum mea sententia de- cipiatur. < Chalcantib liquor.> Chalcantib liquorem (quem o- leum salso nonnulli appellant, cum non ar- deat) non semel ipse gustaui, sed tamen si- ne magna noxa, aut acredinis sensu eiusmo- di, qui lioguam adureret. Imo pharmaco- pæus quidam erat superioribus anois Pata- uij, qui multos, propter vasis alicuius in pulmonibus erosionem, sine rupturem, sanguinem exspuentes, hoc medicamenti genere feliciter curabat, quo tamen si ra- tionem spectes, nihil fieri potest absurdius. Quamuis enim, quod ad siccandi vim a- liquid forte profuillet, maius tamen dam- num ab insigni eius mordificatione expe- dari poterat. Qui autem aquam fortem, quæ paulo aut breuissimo tempore fetrum absumpserat, causa manu iunoxie sustine- ret ipse vidi. An fucus mihi factus sit igno- ro. Nolim tamen in mea cute illud expe- riendo periclitari. De metallorum per i- gnem præparatione, inter sese transmura- tione, ac inita corpus assumptione, . Noo facile esse vi- deo rationibus ea cuetiete, quæ tuto ex om- nium vetustiorum Philosophorum consen- su & decretis elicis: idem tamen video in multis experientiam non obscurè cootradi- cere his, quæ rationibus firmissime conclusa putantur. Negare vero sensum propter ra- tionem, imbecillitatem esse iudicij, etiam Aristoteles alicubi proouociauit. Quare hoc mihi interim persuadeo: neminem de his recte atque sine etrore pronuociare pos- se, qui ipse manum operi noo admouerit. Fortasse enim hic quoque valet id, quod A- naxagoræ, oi fallor, tribuitur: . Nec frustra Galen[n]us toties coniungit. Quan- quam enim perpetux sint, & in- dubitatæ veritatis, fieri tamen potest, vt fit sæpissime, vt nos , siue in sum- ptionibus impiogamus, dum paticularia non omnibus, quæ illis vere accidunt ad vn- guem expensis perperam applicamus. Vn- de multi sæpe in voiuersalibus illis cocepti- bus, & in Theoria tota exercitatissimi vbi , siue ad actiones deu[n]ctum est, turpissime hallucinantur, & ioeptiunt. Quæ omnia eo taotum dieo, vt intelligas, cur plu- ra de his disputando mouere oolim, vt qui fateat

Transcription: Translated (English)

I wish to defend those who practice the uses of metals; for very many of them, through the experience of human cases, carry on their business, and, though they have never learned the art, shamelessly profess the most honorable profession, and practice rather butchery than medicine. But for the present I only wish this to be determined: Whether the excessive use of metallic medicines taken into the body ought to be rejected, if in their use these three things are carefully observed, namely, that they are first properly prepared, that when properly prepared they are corrected by the addition of other ingredients, and that when corrected they are at length administered in due quantity, or dose. What in such matters can and ought to be done has been set forth in writing by many eminent physicians, who not only knew the universal precepts of the art, but also exercised themselves in it most brilliantly, among whom I would not unjustly include Matthiolus. But I take refuge in you, my most worthy preceptor, and I beg you, as far as you are able, to explain these same things to me briefly by force of reasons. For although in your books there are not a few things on these subjects, what prevents a more particular descent into detail, and an accommodation to the understanding of the hearer? In return I promise due respect, and every kind of service that can proceed from my small ability to you. Farewell, and if you recognize me as your disciple, write at the first opportunity offered. Val. 30 July, in the year 78. EPIST. CCIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I could not recently do full justice to your letter as I wished, because the messenger was in too much haste; yet something had to be written at all events, lest I might rightly be accused of neglecting my duty, especially since a sufficiently convenient opportunity offered itself. Moreover, from that time onward I read and reread your letter more carefully, and compared it with those places in your little book on potable gold which you plainly cite, and put forward as the foundation of this discussion. I was wonderfully pleased with most, or rather with all of it, both because it was cleverly devised and because it was supported by its own weighty arguments; if I should attempt to oppose others to these more solid ones, I should be laboring in vain, and doubtless to no purpose. You rightly distinguish between metallic preparations and the metals themselves, something I had not sufficiently noticed at first, though later, once admonished, I began to observe it. I see many others too, and not ignorant men, doubting the powers of gems; yet they attribute much to those hidden causes and properties. I do not wish to reopen this dispute, as though it had already been buried. You then explain the perfection of the preparation found in gold, and distinguish it from that by which our bodies excel all other sublunary things. For without doubt it deserves to be placed on a far higher level, because of the excellence of its operations; so that if anyone were to establish a likeness between the two in this respect, in my judgment he would be greatly deceived. I myself have more than once tasted the liquor of chalcantum, which some call oil of vitriol, since it does not burn, yet I did so without any great harm or feeling of sharpness of that kind which would have scorched the tongue. Indeed, there was in earlier years at Padua a pharmacist who successfully treated many people, who, because of the erosion of some vessel in the lungs, or without rupture, were coughing up blood, with this kind of medicine; yet if one considers the reason for it, nothing could be more absurd. For although it might perhaps contribute something to drying power, a greater harm could still be expected from its marked corrosiveness. I myself saw a man patiently endure, with his hand, aqua fortis that had in a very short time consumed a metallic plate. Whether I was deceived by some trick I do not know. I would not, however, want to risk my own skin by trying it. As to the preparation of metals by fire, their mutual transmutation, and their assumed reception into the body, I do not easily see how those things can be established by reasons, which I safely draw from the consensus and decrees of all the older philosophers; yet I also see in many cases that experience plainly contradicts what is thought to have been most firmly concluded by reasoning. Aristotle himself somewhere declared that to deny sense in favor of reason is a weakness of judgment. Therefore I persuade myself of this in the meantime: that no one can rightly and without error pronounce on these matters unless he himself has applied his hand to the work. Perhaps here too holds true what is attributed, if I am not mistaken, to Anaxagoras: ... Nor does Galen join them together without reason so often. For although they are of perpetual and unquestioned truth, it can nevertheless happen, as it very often does, that we err in the applications, since in particular cases we do not fit them properly to all the circumstances that truly occur. Hence many, often most experienced in those universal conceptions and in the whole theory, when it comes to practice or action, blunder most disgracefully and behave foolishly. I say all this only so that you may understand why I wished to bring up more on these matters by disputing, as one who confesses ...

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 381 < 371> fatear me , quæ profecto arcana plurima prodit minus quam oportebat versatum esse. Itaque quando pro tua humanitate hoc liberaliter mihi permittis ad alia potius ascendo. In tractatu de occultis pharmacorum potestaribus tuo, < Protrinuit universum.> doctæ arque scite inter se discernis proprietates à forma dependentes ab iis, quæ materiam, ac temperamentum eius c[on]sequuntur ( enim, quæ in certis duntaxat indiurdis reperiuntur, tertij eiusdam ordinis esse libenter concesserim. ( Ac postea concludis prioris generis facultates vix vsum habere in medendo, quod rarissime vtamur pharmacis intra corpus sumendis, quæ formam suam adhuc retineant. Sequetur ergo iam forma sua priuata nos duntaxat vtupare. Ex quo ego alterutrum horum absurdorum colligo, aut nullis formis prædita esse medicamenta illa, aut id, quod esse ereduntur, reuera non esse. Quid enim? An non res singulæ à forma & essentiam & denominationem suam accipiunt? Quare Rhabarbarum, verbi gratia, (& item alia quæuis planta) tum solum Rhabarbarum, cum terræ adhuc infixum eius ad se succum, quo nutritur & viuit, attrahit. At vero (liceat Poetæ verbis eloqui) semel in sylvis, imo de stirpe rectissum Matre caret, posuitque comas & brachis ferro. Olim arbos nuc aliquid aliud appellantur erit: non minus ac animal quoduis anima sua & forma exspoliatum non animal amplius, sed cadave: duntaxat nuncupamus. Hoc si nunc detur, etiam de viribus nouis, quæ vna cum noua forma accesserunt, quæ remus. Quo loco istud etiam mihi explicari velim: An in rebus, quæ animatæ non sunt, temperies (Galeno suam hac in parte liberam relinquo sentenniam) formæ vicem suppleat, in viuentibus enim, quamdiu viuunt, nihil ambigo quin anima sit & perfectio illa, quam formam vocamus. Quid vero in his ipsis temperies, euinam annumerabimus? Formæne? ita duæ erunt formæ vnius simplicis rei, substantialis vna accidentalis altera. Ergo ne materiæ? Atqui de huius ratione est non agere, sed pati. Qualitates vero, ex quibus < Ad orbi coelum substantia.> temperies constat, omnes vno ore Philosophi fatetur, actionis esse causam proximam & per illas substantias efficaces esse. Sed & pro morborum totius substantiæ assertione hoc afferri posset. Reperiri in compositis præter materiam & formam tertium quiddam in quo fortasse fedem illorum autores tui ipsis constituunt. Est autem tertium illud forma (quam sic in scholis appellant) totius, alia non tantum ab ipso composito, sed etiam à forma partis, quæ vna cum materia compositum constituit. Sic exempli gratia, Homototum est compositum, constans ex forma, quæ partis nominatur, hoc est, anima, & materia, siue corpore, eiusq[ue] temperie. Forma totius erit ipsa (vt sic dicam) humanitas. Ita igitur morbos quosdam reperi ri opinari licet, qui nec materiæ, nec formæ per se, & seorsim competant, necq[ue] etiam materiæ, sed vtriq[ue]ne simul sumpto infensi sunt. Vt pote pestilentes, & venenato contagio insipientes. Quamuis enim forma, seu anima non pariatur, tamen vbi corpus grassatores illi inuadunt, amplius cum eo confistere, & ipsum informare nequit. Corpus vero primo & reuera læditur, non tantum secundum simplicem temperiem, sed ita vt prorsus destruatur. De his igitur, quæ discendi saltem causa propono, iudicium tuum cognoscere vehementer cupio. Scio non esse illa demonstratione, sed tamen in explicatione talium quoque argumentorum, quæ leuia & futilia habentur, nulla sæpe vtiliter in medium afferri possunt. Faciam autem finem vbi vnum istud quæ siero: Qua ratione contraria quædam dicuntur, quædam , cnm fieri nullo modo possit, vt extremum aliquod detur, quod medium non habeat? Dicuntur enim hæc Contraria autem extreme sibi opposita esse sub eodem genere nemo negat. Medium igitur habeatur necesse est, sine illud iam nomen e[ss]e tum obtineat, siue sit. Atque ad hunc modum nulla prorsus erunt contraria immediata, de quib[us] fatis multa in sebo- lis logicorum est disputatio. Vetum ignosces mihi, quod tam mulis meis interrogationibus tibi molestiam cteo. Dissoluere tamen illas ibit operosum haudquaquam esse plane statuo: mihi vero ex illis ipsis responsionibus plurimum vtilitatis accedit, nec delectationis quoq[ue] modicum. Vale 4. Nouemb. Anno 1578. EPIST. CCXX. IDEM EIDEM. < 50> MERITO tibi maximas ago gratias; qui viua voce olim præsentem, & nunc per literas etiam absentem me eru- dire non dedigneris. Lubemur enim fa- teor, me ex proximis tuis, docte, disertum etiam copiose & amanter scriptis profectis se plurimum. Ad quas in præsentia tardius, quam animo conceperam, deo. De chemia non habeo, quod damentis opponam amplius, uno gaudeo. < Pauli respon- tuum ob- stantia.>

Transcription: Translated (English)

M E D I C I N A L S. 381 < 371> make me suspect that you have certainly dealt with many secrets more openly than was proper. Since, therefore, in your kindness you generously allow me this, I shall rather ascend to other matters. In your treatise on the hidden powers of medicines, you wisely and skillfully distinguish among themselves the properties depending on form from those which follow their matter and its temperament (for those which are found only in certain individuals I should gladly concede to be of a third order). And afterward you conclude that the faculties of the first kind are of scarcely any use in healing, because we very rarely use drugs to be taken into the body that still retain their form. It will therefore follow that we use them only after their form has been lost. From this I infer one of two absurdities: either that those medicines are endowed with no forms at all, or that what they are believed to be is in truth not so. For what? Do not individual things receive both their essence and their name from form? Why, for example, rhubarb (and likewise any other plant) is then only rhubarb when, still fixed in the earth, it draws to itself the sap by which it is nourished and lives. But once it is, so to speak, in the woods, nay, cut from the very root, it lacks its mother, and has had its hair and arms removed by iron. Once a tree or something else is called by another name: just as any animal, stripped of its soul and form, is no longer an animal, but we call it merely a corpse. If this is granted now, then concerning the new powers too, which have come along with the new form, I ask what we are to say. In this place I should also like this explained to me: whether in things that are not animate, temperament (I leave Galen free his judgment in this matter) supplies the place of form; for in living things, so long as they live, I do not doubt that the soul is that perfection which we call form. But what in these things themselves shall we reckon temperament to be? A form? Then there will be two forms of one simple thing, one substantial and the other accidental. Or is it matter? Yet its nature is not to act, but to be acted upon. The qualities, however, from which temperament is composed, all philosophers with one voice admit to be the proximate cause of action, and through them substances to be efficacious. And this too could be brought forward in support of the assertion of diseases of the whole substance. In composites, besides matter and form, there is found a certain third thing, in which perhaps the authors of your doctrine place their foundation. But this third thing is the form of the whole, as they call it in the schools, something other not only from the composite itself, but also from the form of the part, which together with matter constitutes the composite. Thus, for example, a human being is a composite consisting of the form called that of the part, that is, the soul, and matter, or body, and its temperament. The form of the whole will be, so to speak, humanity itself. Thus, then, it is possible to think that certain diseases are found which belong neither to matter nor to form, separately and by themselves, nor even to matter alone, but are hostile to both taken together. Such are pestilential diseases and those springing from poisonous contagion. For although form, or soul, is not destroyed, still when these marauders invade the body, it can no longer remain with it, nor inform it. But the body is first and truly harmed, not only according to simple temperament, but so that it is utterly destroyed. Of these matters, then, which I propose at least for the sake of learning, I greatly desire to know your judgment. I know they are not demonstrative, yet in the explanation of such arguments too, which are thought trivial and futile, nothing often can be usefully brought into discussion. But I shall make an end when I ask this one thing: by what reasoning are certain things said to be contraries, since it can in no way happen that there be an extreme which has no middle? For these things are called contraries; yet that things directly opposed to one another under the same genus exist, no one denies. Therefore a middle must necessarily be admitted, whether it already possesses that name or whether it is simply so. And in this way there will be no immediate contraries at all, about which there is a great deal of dispute in the schools of the logicians. But you will pardon me for troubling you with so many questions. I nevertheless hold that it will by no means be burdensome to untie them; and from those very answers there accrues to me much benefit, and not a little pleasure as well. Farewell, 4 November 1578. EPIST. CCXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < 50> I thank you most heartily, since you do not disdain to instruct me, formerly in person when present, and now also by letter when absent. For I confess that from your recent writings, learned, eloquent, and also copious and kindly, I have profited greatly. To these I now reply more slowly than I had intended in my mind. Concerning chemistry, I have nothing more to set against your arguments; I rejoice in one thing only. < Paul’s reply against his objection.>

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illam non v[er]squequaq[ue] vt multis temere persuasum est, reticere. Certe enim quod ad medicamentorum multorum præparationes idoneas attinet, quomodo ea ex solido damnari & reiiei possit, nondum video. Metallorum autem transmutationem, vt maxime per naturam liceat, solius quæstus causa moliri velle, haud scio num homine Philosopho, nedum Christiano, satis dignum sit, vt taceam impensis hoc fieri maximis, & nô minori valetudinis cum damno, quiequid alii blarerent: deniq[ue] qui montes auti se reperturos frustra adhuc quidem sibi & aliis pollicentur. < Metallica num annua.> Idemq[ue] tettij cuiusdam generis esse, ideo pronunciaui, vt illas ab iis distinguerem proprietatibus quæ in omnibus indiuiduis certæ speciei ratione materiæ & temperamenti sine exceptione reperiuntur. Cum satis constet peculiatem subesse rationem oportere, eur magis vni, quam alteri singulari coeniant: et[ia]m interim à temperamento eas in vniuersum prodite, vt vox ipsa restantur, non pernegem. Recte ais: opere & potentia definienda, quæ eunq[ue] talia dici metito debent. Quæsierim tamen hic nihilominus, num tu à forma, an voto ab effectibus rem quamlibet denominandam definiendamve censeas. Quod si enim posterius hoc statuas, valde vereor ne tibi cum tixosis Philosophis res futura sit, qui tam constanter prius illud in decretis suis affirmat. Quamobtem vt hanc inuidiam declines, opinot te boe loco discessisse à Philosophica quidê & Physica consideratione, quæ secundum accuratam rationem instituitur, rebus quibusuis appellationes imponi à forma, vt pote, quæ illis esse etiam suum impetit, sed tamen in medica operatione minus ad hanc respici, imo potius negligi, nisi effectus tales quales illi tribuuntur, de se edant. Hæc si tua est sententia, à me diuersam non esse profiteor, sin aliter iudicas, me amplius de illa, eeu minus recte intellecta, informari cupio. Si in animatis temperies formę rationem subit, & alia insuper formæ aecedit, qua tes, id est, quod esse dicitur, adhuc affirmo, absurdu[m] mihi videri, vni rei simplici geminas formas tribuete, non quidem substantialem vnam, aecidentalem alteram, vt tu interpretaris, sed substantialem vtramq[ue]. Quid enim? An non Galenus animam temperiem esse quandam putat, & anima substantia est nisi fallor? Quomodo igitur non duplex sit forma substantialis: Vna, quam tumet ponis, & de qualis nulla est, altera, hæc ipsa quam nunc dico, anima nempe, hoc est, temperies? Quod si enim de hominis ipsius ani- ma Galenum, num ad temperiê referret, addubitasse scimus, quid de aliis inferioribus, vt pote, in brutis & vegetabilibus eum sensisse coniiciemus? Hoe pene concesso, etiam lapidibus, gemmis atque fossilibus aliis, quæ animata vulgo creduntur, animas suas assignabimus, cum temperamento illa certo constare nemini sit dubium. Atq[ue] profecto, vt de hoc posteriori, quod sentio, libere proferam, hand scio, num recte metallica omni ptorsus anima priuentur, cum ea crescere &c augeri liqvido constet. Quod enim de externa duntaxat accessione, & nescio qua accetione, & materiæ accumulatione garriunt, non satis mihi rem explicare videntur, qui ab interno principio motum quendam simul accedere plane statuam, & argumento sunt venæ ille, quas sic vocant in auro, argento, & aliis nobilioribus metallis. Humanitatem, quam formam totius scholasticorum mote appellaueram: ais non naturam esse aliquam per se subsistentem, sed tantum vigna , seu conceptum quendam in mente. Id si ita est, vt non repugnauero, aliquod tamen necessario extra mentem dari oportet illi correspodens. Vnde nempe hæc idea abstracta est, nisi illam plane nugax commentum, & cogitationem imanem affirmare velis. Illud igitur qualenam erit? Homo ne ipse? itaque homo prorsus erit extra mentem, id quod humanitas illa in mente. Hoc modo si controuersiam bane sopitam esse censes, nô molestus tibi ero, quo ad hoc in posterum. Motbos totius substantiæ, si omnino in vnotrium summorum generum reponi debeant, nullibi certe rectius & conuenientius, quam inter intemperiei motbos ipse collocauerim. Verumenimvero cum plane peculiari modo nobis aduersi sint, placuit ptimis horum inuentoribus facilioris doctrinæ & distinctionis gratia nouum illis sedem assignare, vt vel sola nomenclatura ipsorum inuestigatoribus statim in conspectum veniat. Neque tamen vel ipsi opinor negabunt aduersarij simul temperamentum necessario destrui. In quo tamen controuersiæ huius caput quantum assequi licet, co[n]stiantum minime est, sed potius, quid primo & potissimum lædatur. Hie illi aunt ipsi substantiæ partium similarium, hoc est, spiritui calori innato, facultatibus, formæ denique ipsi nocumentum afferri, quod tamen nihilominus in temperiem simul redundet. Tu contra, si hypothesintueri voles, temperiem violati & corrumpi primo statues, atq[ue] sic paruum inter simplicem intemperiem, atq[ue] hanc extreme damnosam pes-

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I do not wish to keep silent about this matter, as many have rashly persuaded themselves otherwise. Certainly, so far as the suitable preparation of many medicines is concerned, I do not yet see how it can be condemned and rejected as something derived from the solid. As for the transmutation of metals, even if it may be permitted by nature as far as possible, I do not know whether to desire to undertake it for the sake of gain alone is fitting enough for a philosopher, let alone a Christian; not to mention that it is done at great expense and with no less injury to health, whatever others may chatter. Lastly, those who promise themselves and others in vain that they will still discover mountains or something of that sort. <Metallica num annua.> I declared the same to be of a certain third kind, in order to distinguish them from those properties which, in all individuals of a definite species, are found without exception by reason of matter and temperament. Since it is sufficiently clear that a particular reason must underlie them, why they agree more with one singular thing than with another, I do not for my part deny that they are meanwhile produced universally from temperament, as the word itself indicates. You say rightly: they are to be defined by work and power, since such things may deservedly be so called. Nevertheless I should here ask whether you think that anything should be denominated or defined from its form, or rather from its effects. For if you adopt the latter, I greatly fear that you will have to deal with obstinate philosophers, who so consistently affirm the former in their decrees. Wherefore, if you would avoid this objection, I think that in this place you have departed from philosophical indeed and physical consideration, which is established according to exact reasoning, since names are imposed on things from form, as being that which gives them their being also; yet in medical operation less regard is paid to this, nay rather it is neglected, unless such effects as are attributed to them are in fact produced by them. If this is your opinion, I declare that it is not different from mine; but if you judge otherwise, I should wish to be further informed about that view, or at least about what has been less correctly understood. If in living things temperament falls under the notion of form, and another form besides comes to a thing, that is, to what is said to be, I still maintain that it seems absurd to me to assign two forms to one simple thing, not indeed one substantial and the other accidental, as you interpret it, but both substantial. For what? Does not Galen think that the soul is a certain temperament, and is not the soul, if I am not mistaken, a substance? How then is there not a double substantial form: one, which you now posit, and of which there is no quality, the other, this very one which I now mention, namely the soul, that is, temperament? For if we know that Galen doubted whether the soul of man himself referred to temperament, what shall we conjecture that he thought about the lower things, namely in beasts and plants? This being almost granted, we shall also assign souls to stones, gems, and other fossils, which are commonly believed to be animated, since it is no doubt to anyone that they consist of a certain temperament. And indeed, to speak freely about this latter point, I do not know whether metals are rightly deprived altogether of all soul, since it is clear that they grow and increase by fluid. For those who babble about external addition only, and I know not what accession and accumulation of matter, do not seem to me to explain the matter sufficiently, whereas I plainly hold that motion from an internal principle is also added, and the veins so called in gold, silver, and other nobler metals are evidence of this. You say that humanity, which I had called the form of the whole of the Scholastics’ way, is not some nature subsisting by itself, but only a vigna , or a certain concept in the mind. If that is so, I shall not contradict it; yet necessarily something corresponding to it must be given outside the mind. Whence indeed is this abstract idea, unless you wish to assert that it is a sheer vain invention and empty thought? What then will that be? Is it man himself? Thus man will be altogether outside the mind, just as that humanity is in the mind. If in this way you consider the controversy to be settled, I shall not trouble you about this in the future. If the diseases of the whole substance are to be placed at all under the two highest genera, I certainly should nowhere have assigned them more rightly and suitably than among the diseases of intemperament. Yet since they oppose us in a quite peculiar way, the foremost inventors of this doctrine thought fit, for the sake of easier teaching and distinction, to assign them a new seat, so that by the nomenclature alone they might immediately come into view for investigators. Nor, I think, will even the opponents deny that the temperament is at the same time necessarily destroyed. In this controversy, however, so far as its main point can be grasped, the issue is by no means what is chiefly affected, but rather what is first and foremost injured. Here they say that the substances of the similar parts, that is, the innate heat, the faculties, and lastly the form itself, suffer harm, which nevertheless also redounds upon the temperament. You, on the contrary, if you wish to maintain the hypothesis, will first posit the temperament as violated and corrupted, and thus a small difference between simple intemperament and this extremely harmful pes-

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385 M E D I C I N A L E S. 386 pessundantemq[ue] hominem, discrime[m] relin- quetur. Porest pro illorum defensione hoc quoq[ue] in medium afferri. Non valet[ur] hunc argumentandi modum: In substantiæ toti- us morbis necesse est temperamentum vi- tiari & destrui. Ergo temperamentum per se & primo leditur, & ita à morbis tempe- riei secerni non debent. Sicut enim in suffu- sione v.g. à ventriculi affectu (de qua Gal. 4. de loc. aff. 9.) fieri non potest, quin oculi si- mul lædantur, & tamen oculorum morbus hæc affectio proprie non dicitur, neque pri- mo ipsi læduntur, ita etiam consimilem in modum hic quoq[ue] se rem habere puta[n]dum est; de quo quid tu iudices, nimirum, ex tua reiposione cognoscam. Solutio difficulta- tis de contrariis immediatis plane accrata est, & haud scio an non nimis exquisita. Ne- quaquam tamen eam repreh[er]e deudam du- co, sed simpliciter, quæ mihi de ea cogitanti in menem venerunt, profero. Fortasse igi- tur in hunc quoq[ue] modum explicari res pos- ser, si dicamus Medium hic non significare formam aliquam mediam, inter duo extre- ma, sed potius subiectum medium, cui for- mæ illæ contrariæ inhærere aptæ sunt, vt ni- mirum contraria quædam ideo appellantur æquam , hoc est, sine medio, quod nullum ha- beant subiectum medium, seu naturæ me- dæ cui alterutrum horum non læsit, exem- pli graria, vita & mors. Cum enim hæc ani- mato corpori solum competant, nullum ta- le vnamque reperietur corpus ita medium, vt nec viuum sit, nec mortuum. Offendit me autem aliquantulum illa, vt ap- patet, quod cum superius dixisses, substan- tius & formis nihil esse contrarium, paulo tamen inferius subiicis hæc verba, contra- riorum quæ accidentia sunt. Sunt enim & substantiarum differentiæ, per quas genera diuiduntur, contrariæ, &c. Vnum colligo, in substantiis quoq[ue] ipsis contrarietatem re- periri, quod cu[m] dialecticorum pronunciato manifeste pugnat. Certe enim differentiæ illæ, per quas genera diuiduntur, si videam[ur] sunt, siue specificæ, & ipsæ erunt substantiæ. Quomodo igitur contrariæ? Confirma et- iam tuam sententiam Aristotelis autoritate, qui neget, omnibus in genere relatione co- tentis, quæ nimirum, extremo opposita sint, (de talibus enim nunc sermo nobis est) ac- cidere medium. Videtur autem hoc nec ap- chij nabitis . Nam cum hoc fieri non possit, aut debeat in præsentia quæritur. Sumitur igi- tur quæsitum pro confesso. Hoc ipsum nun- quam est quod quæro, quomodo extrema quædam, & inuicem sibi quam longissime opposita esse possint, quæ medium tamen nullum habeant? Sub finem epistolæ asso- ris: Inter habitus contrarios medium seu gradus nullos esse. At ego non de habitibus, neq[ue] contrariis, sed de habitu & priuatione extrema inuicem sibi oppositis. Attuli enim exemplum si recte recordor, de vita & mor- te. Et tu ipse quoq[ue] de sanitate & morbo hac occasione copiosè disputasti. Vide igitur n[ost]ri responsio tua sic quoq[ue] locu[m] habeat, vt quæ de habitibus dixisti, etiam de priuatione op- posita, quæ nihil reuca posituum est, veri- ficari possint. Scriptum de cometa tuum di- ligenter perlegi, ac reipsa comperi minus profanitatis habere, quam pleriq[ue] male fe- riati illi attribuant. Fundamentis tuis, quæ ex rationum momentis accuratè deduxisti, non inuitus assentior. Miror tamen te de al- tero quoq[ue] experio , experientia nempe, seu asseuendo, seu refutando nihil, nisi obiter alicubi, in medium attulisse. Et videtur ta- men illa locum in iis merito habere, quæ sub sensus cadunt, & obseruationibus multo- rum singularium constant. Etsi autem ple- runq[ue] imbecillis est eiusmodi probatio, quæ ab experientia nuda ducitur, nô tamen pror- sus repudianda est, cum quam varie illa im- pediri possit, aut turbari, prudentes norint. Sed nimis latus se campus aperit, si de hoc quoq[ue] argumento nunc tecum conferre ve- lim, quod fortasse commodius alio siet tem- pore. Vale. Postrid. Pentecost. An. 1579. EPIST. CCXXI. IDEM ETIEM. DE rubæ radice recens mihi cum quo- dam lis fuit, quibusnam ea scilicet viri- bus polleret, cum Diosc. Gal. Plinius, & alij veteres eam menses & vrinas ciere, sanguinem prolicete, & eundem collectum vali- de discutere, ob caliditatem haud dobie & substantiæ tenuitatem asserunt. Inter recentiores autem Dodonæus in putgantium hi- storia frigidam potius, sic camque statuat, ac quibusdam experimentis confirmet. Quamobrem quid tibi de eius facultatibus cognitum & exploratum sit valde licere cu- pio. Quin alterum etiam illud, si aduersum non est, adiicias, quid tibi de balneo, vt sic appellem, formiculari videatur. Eo enim a- pud nos frequenter vti solent, in resolutio- nibus, torpore, aliisve nectarum debilitati- bus, ita vt myrmeonium, id est, formicarum vinarum agmen sumant, in saccum con- dant, atq[ue] iis decoctis affusa aqua in suffici- enti copia balneum parent, in quo æger la- uet. Haud scio an apud vllum vetetum de hoc scriptum extet aliquid. Itaq[ue] tantolu- bentius ex te num cum ratione eiusmodi lo- R < In substantia rei quid contrariæ.> < Rubæa viris> < Nabruum formicarii>

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385 MEDICINALS. 386 ...and wasting the human being, a distinction will remain. It may also be brought forward in support of their defense. This mode of argument is not valid: In diseases of the whole substance, the temperament must necessarily be vitiated and destroyed. Therefore the temperament is itself and first injured, and thus it ought not to be distinguished from diseases of temperament. For just as in a suffusion, for example, arising from an affection of the stomach (concerning which Galen, 4 De loc. aff. 9), it cannot happen that the eyes are not injured at the same time, and yet this affection is not properly called a disease of the eyes, nor are the eyes first injured, so also here it must be thought that the matter is likewise. What you judge about this I shall know from your reply. The solution of the difficulty concerning immediate contraries seems quite accurate, and I do not know whether it is not too subtle. Yet I certainly do not think it should be blamed, but I simply set forth what occurred to me as I was thinking about it. Perhaps, then, the matter could also be explained in this way, if we say that “middle” here does not signify some intermediate form between two extremes, but rather a middle subject, in which those contrary forms are able to inhere; namely, contraries are therefore called certain things “without a middle,” that is, without an intermediate, because they have no middle subject, or nature midway between them, such that one or the other is not harmed by it—for example, life and death. Since these belong only to an animate body, no such single body will be found so intermediate that it is neither living nor dead. However, what offends me a little is that, as appears, whereas above you had said that among substances and forms there is nothing contrary, a little below you nevertheless add these words: “of contraries, which are accidents.” For there are also differences of substances, by which genera are divided, that are contrary, etc. I infer one thing: that contrariety is found in substances themselves, which plainly conflicts with the pronouncement of the dialecticians. Certainly those differences by which genera are divided, if they seem so, will either be specific, and they themselves will be substances. How then are they contrary? Also confirm your opinion with the authority of Aristotle, who denies that among all things contained in a genus by relation—which are, namely, opposed to an extreme (for of such things we are now speaking)—a middle occurs. But it seems that this is not ... For since this cannot happen, the matter at hand is being asked. The question, therefore, is taken as admitted. This is never what I ask: how can certain extremes, and in fact as far removed as possible from one another, nevertheless have no middle? At the end of the letter you say: “Among contrary habits there is no middle or degrees.” But I am not speaking of habits, nor of contraries, but of habit and privation, extremes opposed to one another. For I gave the example, if I remember correctly, of life and death. And you yourself also on this occasion discussed health and disease at length. See therefore whether your reply may also apply here, so that what you said about habits may also be verified concerning the opposed privation, which is nothing other than a lack of position, as it were. I read your treatise on the comet carefully, and in fact I found it to have less impiety than most of those idle fellows attribute to it. I willingly agree with your foundations, which you have carefully drawn from considerations of reason. Yet I wonder that you brought forward so little of the other point too—namely experience—either in asserting or in refuting, except incidentally here and there. And yet it seems that this has a proper place in matters that fall under the senses and consist of observations of many particulars. Although such proof, drawn from bare experience, is usually weak, it is not to be rejected altogether, since prudent men know how variously it can be impeded or disturbed. But the field opens too wide if I now wish to confer with you about this argument too, which perhaps may be more suitably done at another time. Farewell. The day after Pentecost, 1579. EPIST. CCXXI. THE SAME. Recently I had a dispute with someone about the root of rubia, namely, with what powers it is endowed, since Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, and other ancients state that it stirs the menses and urine, brings forth blood, and strongly disperses blood that has been collected, because of its undoubtedly hot nature and the thinness of its substance. Among the more recent writers, however, Dodonaeus, in the History of Purgatives, declares it rather cold, and supports this with certain experiments. For that reason I very much desire to know what is known and established by you concerning its faculties. And if it is not contrary, add also what you think about the so-called ant-hive bath. For among us they often use it in relaxations, numbness, and other debilities of the nerves, so that they take an anthill, that is, a swarm of ants, put it in a sack, and, after boiling them, pour water over them in sufficient quantity to prepare a bath in which the patient bathes. I do not know whether anything written about this exists among any of the ancients. Therefore I would gladly learn from you whether such a thing can be done with reason. R < Of the substance of a thing, what contraries.> < Rubæa viris> < Anthill bath>

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387 EPISTOLÆ 388 -tio administrari possit, perdiscere desidero. Vale. 18. Aug. Anno 1579. EPIST. CCXXII. IDEM EIDEM. IAM VNUM tuas illas, mense Septembri Idaras, accepi, sed respondere nolui, quo ad hîc præsens tabellarius, quem in dies singulos expectabam, rediret. Is alias etiam abs temihi atruit, quibus vtrilq[ue] nunc satisfacere conabor. De rhabarbaro quid conclusum velis denique, adhuc ambigo. Ponis sub inuum literarum tuarum hæc verba: Res quaslibet opere & potentia definiendas esse, & eorum veritatem multis in medium adductis Aristotelis & Galeni testimoniis comprobas. Sanenec ego temere contra illa, quæ suo loco recte conceduntur < Rhabarbaro quando legis riparum.> pugnauero, sed saltem mihi declarari interim rogarim, qualenam opus, & qualem potentiam intelligas. Vtenim in obiata hypothesi persistamus: Ecquando legitimum & verum esse rhabarbarum pronunciabis? Cum, inquies, opus suum ad quod à natura productum est, ager. At quodnam opus obsecro, virale ne, seu, vt sic appellem, formale, an naturale, & temperamentale; hoc est, an cum vira & anima præditum nutrietur, & augebitur? An vero cum vrraque spoliatum, & intra corpora assumptum, bilem expurgabit? Si prius affirmas, definitionem aut descriptionem huius radicis, quæ nimirum Lóγο est f , tibi opponam, in qua præcipuo loco ponitur, quod bilem, seu trahendi, seu euacuandi potestatem obtineat, id quod, nisi sallor, viuum & terræ matri insirum nunquam præstat: sin posterius asseris, vide ne tibi ipsi aduerseris, dum ita loqueris. Euidenter, vt arbittor, probavi cum Aristotele me locutum, quando tibi respondens scripsi rhabarbarum in officinis non esse verum rhabarbarum. Quia opus cuius causa à natura factum est, sacerere amplius non possit; sed rhabarbari veri cadauer, & quæ sequuntur. Valde ego hic dubiro, an non præcipuum opus, cuius causa à natura rhabarbarum factum est, sit biliosi humoris in corporibus humanis expurgatio: cum quidem liquido constet, Res omnes non tam per se, quam propter hominem, & ad huius vsum atque emolumentum à præpotenti DEO principio creatas. Deinde in mentem venit quærere cur, verbigratia, homo mortuus non amplius dicatur homo, nisi quæripus . Rhabarbarum autem mortuum, rum demum vere & propitie sic nuncupetur. Quæ hic est diuersi- tas, quæ dissimilitudo? Vtrobique certe forma, seu anima, qua viuebant, ablata est? Quid vero tandem philosophis etiam respondebimus, dum illud perpetuo esse volunt, vt à forma res quælibet tum essentiam, tum etiam nomen ipsum adipiscatur? Quin imo exempla, quæ præterea adducis, no[n] per omnia conuenire videntur. Manus enim & oculi partes duntaxat sunt, siue organa sui, vt ita appellem, principalis. Raud autem substantia est pet se subsistens, & consistens, quæque ad nullam aliam refertur, operum seu operationum appellatione potentiam ipsam, à qua emanant, includi debere lubenter assentior. Memor enim sum logicæ illius regulæ, quæ dicitur: verba in definitionibus non semper de actu, sed ex pe etiam de potentia esse intelligenda, vtpote, cum homini proprium esse aiunt, videre, non quidem semper, t[ame]n , sed duntaxat t[ame]n , quæ cæteris brutis nequaquam concessa est. Metallis & lapidibus vitam omnem denuo aufers. Neq[ue] ego banc tot inuitis philosophis, in solidum illis reponere ausim. Persuadent tamen multa indicia, vt obscuram vitæ imaginem ipsis inesse suspicer. Certe enim quodammodo crescere & augeri apparent, non vno in loco tantum, sicuti sit in accumulatio ne à materia extrinsecus accedente, agglutinataque, sed in omnibus vndique partibus. Habent item sua matura- tioni destinata tempora, excrementa ab se reiciunt, efflorescentias emittunt, & denique in intimo sui, metallica præsertim, ceu fontem huius nondum plane vitalis facultatis repositum habent, quod fortasse Arist[oteles] si diligentius considerasset cordi viva , quale in isto genere dari potest dixisset: Humanitatem a que vt genus, speciem, prædificabile, &c. vénua esse ais intellectus nostri, cui res nulla extra mentem respondear. Ego vero vt de vocabulis secundæ intentionis, ita enim in scholis nuncupantur, illud facile concessero, ita haud scio an etiam ad cætera, quæ primæ intentionis nominant, idem accommodari recte possit. Probandum igitur fuerit in censu illo humanitatis vocem similiter contineri. Quod ad rorius substan- tiæ morbos attinet, est in summam rerum plane sacio, nequaquam tamen displicet, peculiare nomen illis affectibus assignari, in quibus, secundum Hippocr[ates] animaduertitur, vt nimirum, simplicibus temperiei viris facilius discernantur, & maiori postea eura & diligentia depellantur. Hac intetione si quis illos totius substantiæ morbos appellare velit, no[n] opinor valde errauerit. De contrariis mediis, medioc[ris] carentib[us] non reprehensurum te significas explicatio- nem

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387 EPISTLES 388 I desire to learn how the -tio may be administered. Farewell. 18 Aug. Year 1579. EPIST. CCXXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I have now received your letter of September, but I was unwilling to reply until the messenger who is here and whom I was expecting day by day should return. He also brought me other letters, to which I shall now try to answer both at once. As to the rhubarb, I am still in doubt what conclusion you wish to draw at last. You place under the title of your letter these words: that all things are to be defined by operation and power, and you prove their truth with many testimonies of Aristotle and Galen brought forward into the discussion. Certainly I shall not rashly fight against what is rightly granted in its proper place; but at least I asked to have explained to me meanwhile what kind of operation and what kind of power you mean. For let us remain with the hypothesis proposed: when will you pronounce rhubarb to be genuine and true? “When,” you will say, “it performs the work for which nature produced it.” But what work, I ask, do you mean: the vital or, as I may call it, the formal work, or the natural and temperamental one; that is, does it act while endowed with life and soul, and so grow and increase? Or rather, when stripped of both and taken into the body, does it purge bile? If you affirm the former, I shall oppose to you the definition or description of this root, which is, as it were, the Logos f , in which the principal point is that it has the power either of attracting or evacuating bile, a power which, unless I am mistaken, it never exhibits when living and still in its mother earth; but if you assert the latter, see that you do not contradict yourself in speaking so. I think I have clearly shown that I was speaking with Aristotle when, replying to you, I wrote that the rhubarb in the apothecaries is not true rhubarb. For the work for whose sake it was made by nature can no longer act; but it is the corpse of true rhubarb, and what follows from that. Here I greatly doubt whether the chief work for whose sake rhubarb was made by nature may not be the expulsion of bilious humor from human bodies, since it is plainly established that all things were created by the all-powerful God not so much for themselves as for man, and for his use and benefit. Then it comes into my mind to ask why, for example, a dead man is no longer called a man, unless quæripus . But dead rhubarb should then truly and properly be so called. What difference is there here, what dissimilarity? In both cases, surely, the form, or soul, by which they lived, has been taken away. What at last shall we answer even to the philosophers, when they constantly maintain that every thing receives both its essence and even its very name from form? Nay, moreover, the examples you bring forward do not seem to agree in every respect. For hands and eyes are only parts, or organs of their principal, if I may so call it. But rhubarb is a substance existing and subsisting by itself, and related to no other. I readily admit that in the names of works or operations the power itself, from which they proceed, ought to be included. For I remember that logical rule which says that in definitions words are not always to be understood of act, but sometimes also of power; as when they say that it belongs to man to see, not indeed always, t[ame]n , but only t[ame]n , a thing by no means granted to other brutes. You take away all life again from metals and stones. Nor would I dare to restore this to them in full, despite so many unwilling philosophers. Yet many signs persuade me that I ought to suspect some obscure image of life in them. Certainly they seem in some manner to grow and increase, not only in one place, as happens when there is accumulation from matter added and adhering from outside, but in all parts everywhere. They also have times appointed for maturation, they cast off excrements, send out blossoms, and finally, especially metals, have in their inmost nature, as it were, a source of this not yet fully vital faculty stored up within them; if Aristotle had considered this more carefully, perhaps he would have said that a heart of some sort can be found in them, such as may exist in that class of things. You say that humanity, as a genus, species, predicable, and so forth, is an intention of our intellect, to which no thing outside the mind corresponds. I readily concede this as to terms of second intention, for so they are called in the schools; but I do not know whether the same can rightly be applied to other things, which are called first intentions. It would therefore have to be proved that the word is likewise contained in that class of humanity. As for the diseases of the whole substance, I am altogether satisfied; yet it is not displeasing to me that a special name should be assigned to those affections in which, according to Hippocrates, they are observed, so that they may be more easily distinguished in simple temperaments and afterwards driven away with greater care and diligence. If someone should wish, with that intention, to call them diseases of the whole substance, I do not think he would be greatly mistaken. As to opposite means, lacking a middle term, you indicate that you will not object to the explanation.

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389 M E D I C I N A L E S. 390 nem meam, si modo medium illud subiectum (de quo loquor) possit inueniri. Atquit idcirco, quod reperiri nullo modo queat, contraria æquem dari dixi & non alia de causa. Vnde in hac solutione difficultas amplius haud latet. In mediis enim contrariis facile inuenitur corpus subiectum, quod, exempli gratia, nec album sit, nec nigrum, sed si ita res ferat, viride aut purpureum. Nullum autem omnino corpus, sed potius animal datur vspiam, quod neq[ue] viuum sit, neq[ue] mortuum. Vides igitur meam sententiam hactenus euersam non esse, nisi tuam etiam nequaquam reiicio. < Erastus de Cometus.> Cometam tuum non contemnenda appendice adauctum & locupletatum denuo prodire lubenter cognoui, idque tanto magis, quod Marcelli Squarcilupi, ingenuosi hominis, sed non semper philosphica co[n]stantia præditi opiniones quasdam mirificas in eo refellere constituisti. Vnum hoc in multishuius farinæ scriptis desidero, quod rem tam amplam, & adeo late patentem suis finibus & limitibus non ita, vt æquum erat disterminant. Cum enim de cometarum ortu, ac potissimum significationibus tractare in animum inducant, meminisse debebant, ex diuersis fundamentis atque principiis diuersimode quoque de hoc toto negotio differi posse. < 30> Alter enim & effectus alios haud dubie ex crinitus istis cometis præfagiet theologus, alios physicus, alios denique mathematicus seu astrologus, quorum quicque ad suæ scientiæ præscripta de hoc seu meteoro, seu portento, disputabit & vaticinabitur. Quod si discrimen istud obseruatum non fuerit, non tantum transitum eum, quem Arist. in Analyticis vitiosum esse inquit, in scientiis committimus: vetum etiam & nos & alios < 30> erroribus atq[ue] confusionibus multiplicibus implicabimus. Præterea nunquam deerunt argumenta aduersariis, quibus nos & oppugnare & expugnare poterunt, dum quæ theologice, aut mathematice dicuntur, ex harum nempe scientiarum principiis propriis deducta ea physice interpretari volent, & contra. < Thebes de humoribus.> These tuas de nutritione per humores corporis nostris diligenter perlegi. Nescio tamen quomodo obcuriores viæ sunt, quod non diserte explicarent, de quibus humoribus, & quomodo affectis potissimum loquereris. Sanguine enim solum corporis nostri partes vere alere aliquoties affirmas. Bilis vero & succus melancholicus excrementa cibi dunraxat sunt. At vbi nam sanguis ille in corpore etiam integre sano repertur, qui ab vtraq[ue] bile & pituita exqualice separatus sita sola, vt puto, imaginatione datur, non autem reipsa. Quomodo igitur tui tui tibi nutriet? Sanguis certe, qui ex venis etiam perfecte sanorum effluit, humorum omnium indicia, & sign: manifeste commonstrat. Est enim in eo pars serosa & lenta, quæ piruitæ respondet, est alia crassior & terrestris, quæ melancholix, tenuior alia floris in mo- rem quæ bili, denique purissima harum omnium, & quo ad substantiam & qualitatem maxime temperata, quæ sanguinis denominationem nec non in exhibi iortitur. Quemadmodum anreatora hæc massa peruius peruius nuncupabatur. Videris vero tu etiam has omnes partes inter se quidem distinctas, vniuersim vero sanguini in venis commixtas admittere, nisi quod priscarum appellationum, tanquam minus exquisitatum, quæ tamen vulgo innotescunt, ipsismet adimis. Ita fortasse in vocibus maior lis erit, quam in rebus ipsis. Nemo enim putotam longe à recta ratione aberrabit, vt statuat bilem flauam illam, quæ in vesicula co[n]tinctur, ipsum nempe fel, aut succum atrum è sanguinis massa iam tum secretum, cum ea rursus commisceri, & ad nutriendum certas partes, seu sanas, seu ægras in corpus distribui. Hoc sane idem prorsus esset, ac si quis diceret, vel feces alui, vel strigmenta, & sordes cutis corpus alere debere. Sicut enim hæc primæ & vltimæ coctionis excrementa sunt inutilia: ita illa similiter medix, quæ in epate celebratur. Alia ratio est humorum quatuor quæ inseparabili modo in vnam massam coeunt, & in vasis, cum maioribus, tum minoribus, in omne corpus defetuntur. In quarta parte Antiparacels. disputat. pag. 212. Ais chalybem & ferrum lienes & alia viscera efficaciter deobstruere. Velim igitur scire, qua ratione & methodo illatum præparari, rum exhiberi solent. Vix enim arbitror re ignis opera eam ad rem vti, cum in eodem libro pag. 306. diserte affirmes, Metallorum pulueres, olea, aquas, spiritus, &c. hæc omnia vehementium ignium vi confecta, & intra corpus sumpta, vel non prodesse, vel maximopere obesse. Quem autem alibi lapidem fabulosum appellas, aut secundum Gesnerum , seu , quæso significes an tu ostrocolla; vulgo dicta, aut is iapis, cuius Matthiolus in capite de morochtho pluribus verbis meminit. Suspicor enim duni effectus inter se conferto, eundem esse. Ad nos sane quod sciam, non defertur. Quod si igitur eius copiam penes re haberes, rem mihi gratissimam faceres, si illius frusta aliquot ad me cum tabellione isto Basileam reverente transmitteres, & simulationem & modum R 2

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389 Medical Matters . 390 neither mine, if only that intermediate subject (of which I speak) can be found. But since it can in no way be found, I said that contraries are given for that reason and for no other. Whence in this solution the difficulty is no longer hidden. For in middle contraries a subject body is easily found, which, for example, is neither white nor black, but, if the case so require, green or purple. But no body at all, but rather an animal, is given anywhere which is neither alive nor dead. You see, then, that my opinion has thus far not been overturned, though I do not reject yours either. < Erastus on the Comet.> I gladly learned that your comet, enlarged and enriched with a not inconsiderable appendix, has again appeared in print; and this all the more because you have resolved to refute in it certain wondrous opinions of Marcello Squarcilupi, a talented man, though not always endowed with philosophical constancy. One thing I miss in many writings of this kind: that they do not delimit so great a matter, and one so widely extending, by its proper boundaries and limits as was fitting. For when they take up the origin of comets, and especially their significations, they ought to remember that from different foundations and principles the whole matter may also be disputed in different ways. < 30> For one outcome and effect the theologian will surely foretell from those hairy comets, another the physicist, another finally the mathematician or astrologer, each of whom will argue and prophesy about this meteor, or portent, according to the precepts of his own science. If this distinction is not observed, we not only commit that transition which Aristotle says in the Analytics is faulty in the sciences: but we shall also entangle both ourselves and others < 30> in manifold errors and confusions. Moreover, arguments will never be lacking to our opponents, by which they can both attack and overthrow us, while they wish to interpret physically what is said theologically or mathematically, namely what is derived from the proper principles of those sciences, and vice versa. < Thebes on the humors.> I have diligently read your writings to our people on the nourishment of the body through the humors. Yet I do not know why the ways are more obscure, since you do not clearly explain of what humors, and in what condition, you chiefly speak. For you state several times that only blood truly nourishes the parts of our body. But bile and melancholic juice are merely excrements of food. But where, pray, in the body even of one in perfect health is that blood found, which, separated from both bile and phlegm in equal measure, exists only in imagination, as I think, but not in reality? How then will it nourish your your you ? Certainly blood, which flows even from the veins of the perfectly healthy, clearly shows the marks and signs of all the humors. For in it there is a serous and viscous part, which corresponds to phlegm; there is another, thicker and earthy part, which corresponds to melancholy; another, thinner, in the manner of the flower, which corresponds to bile; finally the purest of them all, and most tempered both in substance and quality, which receives the name of blood. Just as this mass of blood was formerly called pervious pervious . But perhaps you also admit that all these parts, though distinct from one another, are nevertheless mixed together in the blood in the veins, except that you take away from them, as less exact, those ancient names which are nevertheless familiar in common speech. Thus perhaps there will be more dispute about words than about the things themselves. For no one will think so far removed from right reason as to hold that yellow bile, which is contained in the gallbladder, that is, bile itself, or black juice already separated from the mass of blood, and then mixed back in with it, is distributed through the body to nourish certain parts, whether healthy or diseased. This would indeed be exactly as if someone were to say that either the feces of the belly or the scrapings and dirt of the skin ought to nourish the body. For just as these are useless excrements of the first and last digestion, so likewise are those of the middle, celebrated in the liver. A different reason applies to the four humors, which in an inseparable way come together into one mass and are poured out through the vessels, both the larger and the smaller, into the whole body. In the fourth part of the disputation against Antiparacelsus, page 212, you say that steel and iron effectively open obstructions of the spleen and other viscera. I should therefore like to know by what means and method they are usually prepared and administered. For I scarcely think one ought to use the work of fire for that purpose, since in the same book, page 306, you clearly affirm that powders, oils, waters, spirits, etc. of metals, all these prepared by the force of violent fires, and taken into the body, either do no good or are most harmful. And that which elsewhere you call a fabulous stone, or, according to Gesner, I ask that you indicate whether you mean ostrocolla, as commonly called, or that stone of which Matthiolus speaks at length in the chapter on morochthus. For I suspect that the effects agree. So far as I know, none is brought to us. If therefore you have some quantity of it in your possession, you would do me a very great favor if you were to send me a few fragments of it with that courier returning to Basel, and the preparation and the method

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illius vtendi breuiter indicates. De precio portuonis facile transigetur, & conabor vt par pari referam. Vale. 17. Decembris. An- no 1579. excurrente. EPIST. CCXXIII. D. THEODORO ZVINGERO. Me- dico Basilensi, &c. Petrus Morauius Med. S. P. MERITO amo te, mi præstantissime Zuingere, quod de acopo nostro tam acurate, tamque fideliter mihi satisfeceris. Et si enim summam curatiunis nequaquam in eo positam esse scio, vt symptomata dum taxat depellantur: tanta tamen lapenumeto est ægrorum morositas & importunitas, in hisce locis præsertim, vt medicum vel inuitum, rationali illa, quæ ex methodi legibus instituitur, seposita palliatua, quam ita nuncupant, cura vti cogant. Eo namque ingenio sunt multi, vt nisi ab initio Itatim doloris, & aliarum molestiarum, dequib[us] potissimum quiritant, leuatio afferatur, postea auxilium aliud nullum admittant, aut saltem artifice dogmatico repudato, alios accersant medicastros & agyrtas, qui magnificis promissis omnia complet & velutifascino imperitorum animos sui furtis efficiunt. Præstans vetro tuum Nepenthes < Nepenthes præstans Narcoticæ.> in, nimis est, ad id quod: in prætentia quærimus conseqvendum, ita quidem vt vix vili hac in parte pharmaco cedat. Quapropter te autore illud libenter amplector, quamuis multis de causis illud mihi antea suspectum fuerit, nec fortasse immerito, quod tum variæ & inter se discrepantes præparationes illius passim existent, ex quibus probate fidei aliquam eligere difficile fuit. A D. Laurentio Scholizio, ciue meo, partieu lam illius me impetraturum confido, quam ille eo ipso in loco sibi comparauit, quem tu in superioribus literis mihi quoq[ue] nominaueras. Neque te dubitare volo, adhibiturum me cautionem & circumspectinnem illam in vsu eius, quam tute præscribis, & res ipsa per se exigit. De catholico etiam magna cura liberatus sum, post quam tu nebulas illas, quæ visui meo imbecilli offundebatur, responsionis tuæ luce tam aperte discussisti. Satis apparet mite esse & blandum: neque tanto impetu agere, vt humores ad partem aliquam corporis ex imo eius præcipitet. Itaque nec in catarrhis, aut in arthridite timendum venit. Puto eo præcipue directum esse, vt pharmaci blande purgantis penetratione adiueret, ac simul paulatim humore in membris, aut artub. collectam, siccado absumat. Vnde etiam cor- ticem ipsum potius, quam lignum sumere primo illius Autori placuit. Sed euidentissimum huic rei testimonium perhibere poterit ipsa experientia, à qua minus præsidii petere hactenus licuit. Vbi tamen sese occasio offeret, paratu exhibiturus sum. Mirum certe ingenium est naturæ, quædam ita occultantis, vt si in apertum proferantur, & sine discrimine quibusuis communicentur, & præsertim sic minus postea efficacix & virium habeant. Id igitur ne fiat à nobis quoq[ue] cauebitur in præsentia. De sueco abstinthiitdem profecto mihi etiam in mentem venit, accuratius rem perpendentis quod tu in medium affers, Sed hæc ratione eleuari mihi videbatur familiaritas illa, quam à tota substantia, cum ventriculo habere dicitur, si duntaxat à terrenis partibus, in quibus detergendi & astringendi vis inest, illa dependere diceretur. Secus, ni fallor, accidit in aliis simplicibus, quæ certis corporis nostræ partib[us] appropriata esse creduntur, vt pote in betonica, ratione capitis, incichoreo, ratione epatis, in artemisia ratione vteri, & in aliis similiter. De his igitur tu videris. illud interim valde placuit, quod animaliu[m] coctiones, & succos inde progenitos, ad plantas etiam, & analogia quadâ accommodas. Vnde rerum omnium in mundo mirifica inter se harmonia elucet, in qua apprehendenda plus nimio interdum cæcutmus, cum tame[n] mysteria in illa lateant omnino plurima, & vix humano ingenio axhaurienda. Illud mihi dubitatione[m] mouit cum inter cætera scriberes, viuum respetu terti penetrate & detergere. Posterius hoc tane libenter concedo, sed quo modo torrena moles penetrationem adjuuat, & non potius impedit? Ego quidem hoc magis igneis & aëreis partibus, aut aqueis, diuersa tamen ratione acceptum refertem nisi tu aliud in animo habueris, in cuius locum obtestinationem hoc verbi Iordani libellum denoua, vt ipse appellat, lue in Morauia nupet exorta te vidisse & legisse arbitror. Quæso igitur quid tibi de eo vidcatur, libere mecum communica. Satis ne cõmmodo autor dicit; Hoc veneni per inspirationem attractum, & ita infectos fuisse homines? cum tamen non omnes, qui balneum ingressi sunt, sed duntaxat phlebotomo vulneratos, ideo corruptos passim affirmet. Hæc an satis inter se conciliari poterunt? Etan non vicinior, & magis particularis causa, in particulari nempe infectione inquirenda est? sed nolo tibivlla in parte præiudicare, à quo potius pleniùs instrui omnibus modus cupio. Scio & noui

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the brief indication of its use. As for the price of the carriage, it will be easily settled, and I shall try to give as good as I receive. Farewell. 17 December, at the close of the year 1579. EPISTLE CCXXIII. TO D. THEODORUS ZWINGER, physician in Basel, etc. Petrus Morauius, greetings. I have good reason to love you, my most excellent Zwinger, because you have so accurately and faithfully satisfied me concerning our acopum. For although I know very well that the whole point of treatment is by no means to be placed in merely driving away the symptoms, nevertheless the obstinacy and importunity of patients is so great, especially in these places, that they compel the physician, even against his will, to use that rational treatment which is instituted according to the laws of method, setting aside the palliative cure, as they call it. For many are so minded that, unless at the very beginning relief is brought to the pain and other troubles of which they chiefly complain, they afterwards admit no other help at all; or, at least, rejecting the skilled physician, they summon other quacks and charlatans, who by magnificent promises fill everything, and, as though by a spell, steal the minds of the unlearned. But your excellent Nepenthes Nepenthes præstans Narcoticæ is, indeed, too good for what we are now seeking to achieve, so that in this respect it hardly yields to any ordinary medicine. Therefore I gladly accept it on your recommendation, although for many reasons I had previously been suspicious of it, and not perhaps without cause, since there are everywhere various and conflicting preparations of it, from among which it was difficult to choose one of proven reliability. From D. Laurentius Scholzius, my fellow citizen, I hope to obtain a portion of it, which he acquired from that very place which you also named to me in your earlier letters. Nor do I wish you to doubt that I shall exercise that caution and circumspection in its use which you prescribe, and which the matter itself requires. I have also been greatly relieved regarding the catholicon, after you so clearly dispelled by the light of your reply those mists that clouded my weak sight. It is plainly evident that it is mild and gentle, and does not act with such force as to drive the humors from the depths of the body into some particular part. Therefore there is nothing to fear from it in catarrhs or in arthritis. I think that it is directed especially to this end: that it may assist by the gentle penetration of a purgative medicine, and at the same time gradually dry up and remove the moisture gathered in the membranes or joints. Hence it also pleased the first author of it to use the bark itself rather than the wood. But the clearest testimony of this matter will be able to be given by experience itself, from which so far I have been allowed to expect little assistance. When opportunity, however, presents itself, I shall be ready to administer it. Certainly it is a wonderful device of nature, hiding certain things so that, if they are brought into the open and communicated indiscriminately to anyone at all, they afterwards have less efficacy and power, especially sic . We shall therefore take care that this not be done by us as well, for the present. Concerning the juice of absinthium, it also came into my mind, after considering the matter more carefully, what you bring forward in the middle, namely that it has a familiar relation to the whole substance, insofar as it is said to have to do with the stomach, if it were to depend only on the earthy parts, in which the cleansing and astringent power resides. Otherwise, unless I am mistaken, it is so with other simples which are believed to be appropriated to certain parts of our body, as, for instance, betonica in relation to the head, cicchoreum in relation to the liver, artemisia in relation to the womb, and similarly in others. On these matters, then, you will judge. Meanwhile, I greatly approved that you adapt the coctions of animals, and the juices produced from them, also to plants, by some analogy. Hence the marvelous harmony of all things in the world shines forth, in apprehending which we are sometimes excessively blind, although within it there lie very many mysteries, scarcely to be fathomed by human wit. One thing moved me to doubt when, among other things, you wrote of the living, with respect to the third, that it penetrates and cleanses. The latter I readily grant, but how does an earthy mass assist penetration, and not rather hinder it? I, for my part, would rather refer this to the fiery and airy parts, or to the watery, though understood in a different way, unless you have something else in mind. In place of this word, I call to witness Jordan’s little book, lately brought out again in Moravia, about the pestilence, as he calls it, which I think you have seen and read. I therefore ask that you freely share with me what you think of it. Does the author say this sufficiently appropriately: that the poison was drawn in by inhalation, and that the men were thus infected? Yet he asserts that not all who entered the bath were corrupted, but only those wounded by phlebotomy. Can these things be reconciled with each other sufficiently? Or should not rather a nearer and more particular cause be sought in a particular infection? But I do not wish to prejudice you in any respect; rather I desire to be more fully instructed by you in every matter. I know and I am aware...

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385 MEDICINALES. 386 noui solertiam tuam, quæ hæc quoq[ue] in parte si intendatur, euêtu suo ne quaquam frustrabiunt, præsertim cum dignus sit, vt ego quidem arbitror, hoc vindice modus. Cupio cognoscere, quid nunc in manibus habeas, & num Philosophicum vel potius medicum quid mediteris. Hippocrates quidem haud scio an non ægre laturus sit, si abs te seminudus relinquatur, & non ea veste, quam illi circumdare ecepisti, rotus induatur & exornetur. Vide igitur ne tantum hominem ribi inimicum facias, ac in nos etiam numen male æquum postmodum immitras. Vrinam Galenum Græcum ita nitidum & tersum nobis exhibeat Lalamantius, quale fuit specimen illud quod nuper publice ostendit, ita demum vererem & incorruptam medicinam vere reuicturam cum ipsis Autoribus putarem. Sed nimis garrulus sum, & tua patientia abutor. Finem itaque scribendi faciam. Pragæ è Regia, 8. Martij An. 1580. EPIST. CCXXIV. D. IOACHIMO CAMERARIO, Physico Nornbergensi, &c. Petrus Monanum Med. S. D. < Diffusum Medecinum in Peste Venosa.> QVOD statum scholæ & vrbis nostræ at- rinet, nescio quid nobis aduersi ex vicima lues ista infelicissima minetur. Quamuis enim, an vere pestis, nondum Medici nostri plane consenserint, dubita[ti]onum minime viderut, esse quid Epidemium, quod contagionem eiusmodi, quæ à pestis natura & condizione fortasse non adeo procul recedat. Professorum artis nostræ præcipui, Caponaccius nempe & Mercurialis hinc anie paucos dies cuocati sunt, vt quoniam < 30> pestem id mali esse negant, hoc discrimine summa side & diligenua adferant. Ex Venetis Medicis non pauci affirmant, ipsissimam esse pestem, morbum eum, qui iam diu vrbem æduatim infestat, idcirco à euratione studio sese subtrahunt. Alij ad nostrorum potius sententiam illis oppositam deflectur, idq[ue] his potissimam, sicuti assequor, inducti rationibus. Quod nempe, acuri isti, atq[ue] peracuti morbi febris malignis coiuncti ortum non ducant à causa communi, seu vniuersali quod non indifferenter multos inficiant, sed vulgus hominum inprimis, exque his foeminas & pueros, quod deniq[ue] magna ex parte ij, qui infecti sunt, (si modo medicari libere ipsis concedatur) ad sanitatem redeant, sed nec principiùs pestis esse, eo quod iam per integrum annum, eundem eursum hæc lues tenuerit. Signa vero illa vulgaria, maculas, vrinas turbidas, inflammationes inguinum, deliria, somnolentiam, tumores, carbones, & similia alia, minime necessario pestem sequi, & illam præsentem demonstrare, vt ita ægrotantes his symptomatibus obnoxios inuisitare nondum per Dei gratiam extremi periculi rem iudicare oporteat. Hæc vt vi sese habeant, (inquisitionem enim accuratiorem in præceptorum sententias mihi haudquaquam sumo) cautetamen omnino ambulandum statuo, ne vel grauis vmbra ipsius pestis nobis noceat, eoque magis quod cum plurimi ex Venetiarum Vrbe huc sese conferant, loitia quædam illius hic quoque gliscere inciperè nonnulli subuereantur. Deum æternum precor, vt bene meritam pænam, à ceruicibus nostris auertere, aiq[ue] exoptatam studiis clementer largiri requiem dignetur. De reliquis nihil aliud quod addam habeo, donec abste pluta scribendi materia mihi suppeditata fuerit. Vale, Patauij, 20. Iunij. Anno 1576. EPIST. CCXXV. D. IOHANNI HERMANNO, ILLVST. Breg. Princip. Med. &c. Petrus Monanum Med. S. D. < Sal absin. sim.> VALDæ gaudeo quod ex literis tuis proximis intelligo, contagionis malum, quod vltra semestre spacium hactenus in patria grassatum est, nunc quoridie mitegere, vt tandem spes sit, omnino euanitutum. Deus simul largiatur, vt poena ista admoniti de vitæ emendatione serio cogiemus; & nobis paternam hanc castigationem profuisse reipsa demonstremus. Gratissimum est quod de obseruationibus quibusdam tuis mecum communicas. Salem absinthij ipse etiam Craro noster, 6. m. valde commendat in libello suo, eius exempla Francofurto nondum accepi. Magnam haud dubie vim ad inhibendam omnis generis putredinem & corruptionem habet. Dosin non assignas. Sed credo ad scrupulum vnum nos recte ascendere posse, id maximum adiumenium simul adiunctum habet, quod modica afflictione, quæ tamen penetrationem non impedit, sed potius adiuvat, viscera ventriculum inprimis roborat. In euratione inter cætera plurimum considerem Electuario Cogeleri, eius descriptionem mihi D. Schepius Schwidnizij communicauir, hic valde multis vtiliter exhibita fuit, præsertim robustioribus. Cæteris enim Diascordium Fracastorij magis connenisse setisi. < Diascordiæ.> Amuletu de Arsenico pleriq[ue] aulicorum no- R 3

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385 MEDICINALS. 386 I have known your skill, which, if applied also in this matter, will by its outcome in no way be deceived, especially since, as I judge, a method is worthy of this vindication. I wish to know what you now have in hand, and whether you are pondering something philosophical or rather medical. Indeed Hippocrates, I know not whether he would not bear it ill if, stripped half-naked by you, he were not clothed and adorned in that garment which you began to throw around him. Take care, therefore, lest you make such a man your enemy, and afterward also send upon us an unfriendly deity. Would that Lalamantius might present to us Galen the Greek, so polished and refined as was that specimen which he recently showed publicly; then at last I should think that true and uncorrupted medicine would truly be restored, together with the Authors themselves. But I am too garrulous, and I abuse your patience. I shall therefore bring my letter to an end. From Prague, from the Royal Palace, 8 March 1580. LETTER CCXXIV. TO D. JOAQUIM CAMERARIUS, physician of Nuremberg, etc. Petrus Monanum wishes health. < Diffuse medicine in venous plague.> As to the condition of our school and city, I know not what adverse thing that most unfortunate plague from the neighboring area threatens us with. For although our physicians have not yet fully agreed whether it is truly plague, they have at least seen no reason for doubt that it is some epidemic disease, which perhaps does not recede very far from the nature and condition of plague and involves such contagion. The leading professors of our art, namely Caponacius and Mercurialis, were summoned here a few days ago, so that, since they deny that this evil is plague, they might apply themselves with the utmost faith and diligence to this distinction. Among the Venetian physicians, not a few affirm that it is the plague itself, the disease which has long been devastating the city daily; therefore they keep themselves away from its treatment. Others incline rather to the opinion of our men opposed to them, and to this view, as I gather, chiefly induced by these reasons: namely, that those acute and very acute diseases joined with malignant fever do not arise from a common or universal cause, since they do not infect many indiscriminately, but especially the common people, and among them women and children; and, finally, that by far the greater part of those infected recover their health, if only it be allowed them to be freely treated; nor is it plague from the beginning, because already for a whole year this pestilence has maintained the same course. And those common signs—spots, turbid urine, swellings of the groin, delirium, sleepiness, tumors, carbuncles, and other such things—do not necessarily follow plague or indicate its presence, so that it is not yet, by God’s grace, necessary to judge the matter to be one of extreme danger merely because sick persons afflicted with these symptoms are to be visited. However these things may stand, I am by no means undertaking a more exact inquiry into the opinions of the teachers; yet I nevertheless judge that one must proceed with all caution, lest even the mere shadow of plague harm us, and all the more because, since many are coming here from the city of Venice, some suspect that a certain contagion of that place is beginning to spread here as well. I pray the eternal God that He may deign to avert from our necks the punishment we deserve and graciously grant the repose desired by our studies. Of the rest I have nothing else to add, until you have supplied me with more matter for writing. Farewell, at Padua, 20 June 1576. LETTER CCXXV. TO D. JOHANN HERMANN, physician to the most illustrious prince of Bregenz, etc. Petrus Monanum wishes health. < Salt of wormwood, etc.> I am greatly rejoiced that from your recent letters I learn that the contagious evil, which has thus far been ravaging the fatherland for more than half a year, is now every day growing milder, so that there is hope that it will at last wholly disappear. May God likewise grant that, warned by this punishment, we may seriously think about the amendment of our lives; and that we may indeed show by our deeds that this paternal chastisement has profited us. It is most welcome that you share with me certain observations of yours. Our Crato also greatly recommends the salt of wormwood in his little book, though I have not yet received his copy from Frankfurt. It doubtless has great power to inhibit putrefaction and corruption of every kind. You do not assign a dose. But I believe we can rightly go up to one scruple; this also has the greatest assistance joined to it, namely that by a moderate irritation, which does not hinder penetration but rather aids it, it strengthens the viscera, especially the stomach. In treatment, among other things, I consider most highly the electuary of Cogelerus; Dr. Schepius communicated its description to me at Schweidnitz, and here it was very usefully employed by many, especially the stronger patients. For the others, Diascordium of Fracastorius seemed more suitable. < Of Diascordium.> An arsenic amulet most of the courtiers no- R 3

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397 M E D I C I N A L E S. 398 Vicit tamen fraternus animus, & illius importuna solicitario, vt tandem aliquid præscriberem, quo illi, tuo adhibuo consilio, v- tendum esse censerem: id tibino[n] displicuisse scribit, nisi quod paucula quædam pro iis indicationibus, quæ præsenti, quam absenti notiores sunt, immutasses, vtpote cum in confectione mea ad species Diambrae, & Diamusci, specierum Diarthodon aliquid adiecisti, haud dubie ad epatis calorem co- temperandum respiciens, cuius tamen ratione ego etiam, ni fallor, species supra nominatas, in aqua rosarum dissolui, & pulueris aromatici rosati nonnihil addidi. Ad Tra gæam quoque post pastum vsurpandam significat adiecisse carnes cydoniorum, corallos rubeos, & pelliculas stomachorum gallinaceorum. Recte quidem omnia, nisi quod nimis parua quantitas eorum esse videtur, & reliquis proportione vix respon- dens. Quomodo enim cuius libet horum scrupulus vnus cæterorum turbæ sit Iraque bonatua cum pace arbitror, descriptionem retexui, ac prout illi commodam futuram existimare potui ordinaui. Saponem etiam odoratum, & alia ad rem facientia præscribendo, quæ tamen vniuersa tuæ censuræ libenter & merito subiicio. Sed vix bene fraternum debitum exolueram, cum de sororis etiam valetudine non satis firma adme refertur, consiliumque ea in re meum expetitur. symptomata vt audio, præcipua sunt: Capitis dolor pene continuus, appetentia deiecta, sitis nulla, & alius minime laxa. Hemicraniam illam, quasi hæreditario à matre, quæ etiam periodico illo dolore laborare solebat, accepisse existimo. Fit autem haud dubie per consensum ventriculi, ab humore frigido & pituitoso isthic contento, accedente interdum stimuli loco bilioso humore, qui, cum ad inferiora ferri, excretionemque promouere debebat superiora petit, & vapores in caput deuehit. An vero vreti etiam intemperies & mala constututio morbum adaugeant, non habeo, quod certo affirmem: quandoquidem num tæ nemque solenter fluant, & an aliquid in iis defectus sit, ignoro. Tibi autem præsenti de his coniecturam facere perfacile fuerit. In victu plurima errata committi satis noui, intempestiuis præsertim iis intentionibus & merendis, quibus nostrates affluere. Deinde sine discrimine quos libet cibos, qui palato illius arridenr, ingererere solet, sæpe etiam cum natura ad deiectionem sollicitat, vi aluum comprimit, saltem ne etiam non magni momenti negotia intermittere cogatur. Quod quam sit noxium, optime nosti. Quamobrem ante omnia maxime necessarium esse duco, vt certa diæta, siue victus ratio ordineretur, illique intempestiua ista ientacula, & merendæ interdicantur, præterea non tantum illos cibos fugiat, qui pituitosum humorem, atque lenum & viscosum gignunt; sed etiam qui actimoniæ sunt participes, & in vetriculo facile corrumpuntur. Vnde postea halituum copia prouenit, qui sursum elati caput turbant. In potu malim vino albo tenni & Rhenano vteretur, quam ceteuisia nostrate, quæ crassos de sese fumos edit, & minime est diuretica. Quantum ad medicamenta attrinet, essicam ab his naturaliter abhorrere noui, fortasse tamen talis quædam ratio institui posset, vt quam minima cum molestia illis vteretur. Post lenitam itaque aluum ex infusione fol. senæ & rhabarbari cum syrupo rosaceo solutiuo, proximum esset dispicere: num venæ sectio in parua quantitate illi conueniret. Ego quidem an vquam illam admiserit nescio. Si non necessaria esse videbitur, ac illa etiam plane repugnet, proximum esserad præparationem humorum accedere, qui incisione & attenuatione egent. Suaderem igitur oxymel cum aqua cinnamomi eligendu[m], itemque syrupum de succo cardui & betonicæ, & in decoctione radicum cichorii, feniculi, herbarum betonicæ, capillor. Venens, borrag. cum drachmis duabus aut tribus calam. aromatici, aut illius loco semen anisi, & feniculi tantundem, syrpus illos dissoluendos, quod si ab iis, quæ in pharmacopolio parantur nauseam concipiat, species supra nominatæ concitæ illi dentur, vt ipsa eas in brodio aliquo gallinæ, aut carnis vitus linæ decoquat, & deinceps syruporum ad duo, aut summum tria cochlearia admisceat, sicque per triduum, aut quatriduum mane tribus ante prandium horis vtatus. Sice enim facilius assensuram spero, cum absque hoc, vt ante, dixi matutinis iusculis assueta sit. Finitis istis potionibus purgante aliquo pharmaco vatur, inter quæ, vt ego opinor, Catapodia lubentissime deglutiet, cum succo aliquo, quem ipsa appetet, aut melle rosato, quod domi parare solet. Vt ligni vsum admittat, vix puto adduci posse. Alioquin non dissuaderem illius potum, saltem secundarium, per dies quatuordecim aut quindecim. Cæterum ne materia denuo in ventriculo, aut primis illis viis colligatur, saluberrimum fore considerem singulis septimanis bis vel ter dimidiata hora ante coenam sumere sex, vel septem pillulas de aloe rosata, quæ & ventriculi sentinam expurgarent, & cæteris etiam partibus non molestæ esseut, neque vim illam, etiam crebro repetitæ, corpori ad- R 4

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397 MEDICINALS. 398 But brotherly affection, and his troublesome solicitude, prevailed, so that at last I prescribed something which, with your advice, I judged he ought to use: he writes that this did not displease you, except that you changed a few things in accordance with those indications which are better known to you when present than when absent; namely, that in my compound, alongside the species Diambra and Diamusci, you added something of the species Diarthodon, no doubt with an eye to moderating the heat of the liver, for which reason, if I am not mistaken, I also dissolved the above-mentioned species in rose water, and added a little aromatic rose powder. He also notes that for the Tragaea to be taken after meals you added quince flesh, red coral, and the skins of chicken stomachs. All this is certainly correct, except that the quantity seems too small, and hardly corresponds in proportion to the rest. For how can one scruple of any one of these equal the rest of the mixture? Therefore, my good man, with peace, I have revised the prescription and arranged it as I judged would be suitable for him. I have also prescribed fragrant soap and other things suitable to the purpose, all of which I freely and deservedly submit to your judgment. But scarcely had I paid my brotherly debt when I am also informed that my sister’s health is not sufficiently firm, and my advice in this matter is requested. The chief symptoms, as I hear, are: almost continual headache, diminished appetite, no thirst, and no loosening of the bowels. I think she has inherited this hemicrania from her mother, who also used to suffer from that periodic pain. It occurs, no doubt, by consent of the stomach, from a cold and phlegmatic humor contained there, with sometimes a bilious humor joined to it as a stimulant, which, when it ought to be carried downward and promote evacuation, tends upward instead and draws vapors into the head. Whether also some fault in the kidneys and a bad constitution increase the disease, I cannot state with certainty, since I do not know whether the urine flows properly, nor whether there is any defect in it. But for you, being present, it would be very easy to form a conjecture from these things. In diet, I know well that many errors are committed, especially with untimely breakfasts and snacks, to which our people are so addicted. Then, without distinction, she is accustomed to take any foods that please her palate; often, even when nature urges evacuation, she forcibly restrains the bowels, lest she be compelled to interrupt even matters of little importance. How harmful this is, you know best. Wherefore, above all, I think it most necessary that a fixed diet, or regimen, be established, and that those untimely breakfasts and snacks be forbidden her; moreover, she should not only avoid those foods which generate phlegmatic humors, thick and viscous, but also those that are flatulent and easily corrupt in the stomach. From this afterwards comes an abundance of vapors, which, rising upward, disturb the head. As for drink, I should prefer that she use thin white wine and Rhenish rather than our local beer, which gives off thick vapors and is by no means diuretic. As to medicines, I know she naturally abhors them, yet perhaps some such plan could be arranged so that she might use them with as little discomfort as possible. After the bowels have been gently opened by an infusion of senna leaves and rhubarb with soluble rose syrup, the next step would be to see whether a small bloodletting would be suitable for her. Indeed, I do not know whether she has ever tolerated it. If it seems unnecessary, and she also plainly resists it, the next step would be to proceed to the preparation of the humors, which need incision and attenuation. I would therefore advise choosing oxymel with cinnamon water, likewise syrup of succory juice and betony, and in a decoction of chicory roots, fennel, betony herbs, maidenhair fern, and borage, with two or three drachms of sweet calamus, or in its place an equal amount of aniseed and fennel, the syrups to be dissolved in them; but if she should develop nausea from those compounded in the apothecary’s shop, let the above-mentioned species be given to her in decoction, so that she herself may boil them in some broth of chicken or veal, and afterward mix in the syrups, two or at most three spoonfuls, and thus use them for three or four days in the morning, three hours before dinner. For in this way I hope she will more easily agree, since, as I said before, she is accustomed to morning broths. When these drinks are finished, she should use some purgative medicine, among which, as I think, she will most readily swallow Catapodia, with some juice she may desire, or with rose honey, which she is accustomed to make at home. As for allowing the use of wood, I hardly think she can be persuaded. Otherwise I would not discourage its drink, at least as a second dose, for fourteen or fifteen days. Moreover, lest matter again collect in the stomach or in those first passages, I consider it most salutary for her to take, twice or thrice each week, half an hour before supper, six or seven pills of rose aloe, which would both cleanse the stomach’s drain and not be troublesome to the other parts, nor, even if frequently repeated, would that force affect the body... R 4

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401 MEDICINALES. 402 ethi libellus qvalis sit nescio. Sed potes de hydrargyro ex collo appenso inspicere li- bellum doctissimum D. Iac. Theodori me- dici Wormatiensis de peste, vbi varia etiam experimenta affert. Arsenicum seu saccu- lum inde confectum appendi pluribus du- centis, aut trecentis, vix vnum aut altetum inde læsum memini, ex iis scilicet, quib. im- mediate cordis regioni applicuerunt, & su- dores copiuros non deterferunt. Sed tamen in his quoque pustulas duntaxat quasdam vi manifesta excitauit, quæ & ipse postea c- uanuerunt. Legas de hoc aliquid in asser- tione Dn. Cratonis 6. m. pag. 33. & 54. Mit- to exemplum libellis, qui superioribus die- bus primum appulit, & vt eum gratum ha- bere velis oro. De affine & for ore quomo- docura procedat ex te cognoscere mire de- sidero. Cætera in aliud tempus referuo. Va- le, Pragæ. 15. Februa. Anno 1586. EPIST. CCXXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. Mitto tibi epistolam viuam, fratrem meum, qui facile, quod scriptioni de- cedit, coram complere poterit. Sed tamen peculiariter affinis mei mentionem facere oportet, de quo iam sæpius apud me con- queritur foror nostra, & sympto mata illa ti- moris plena, augeri significar. Ad Thermas, quaste suadere audio, ita illotis manibus accedere haud iudicarim esse conveniens, præsertim cum a natura epatis constitutionem iusto calidiorem obtineat, & à biliosis & mordacibus humoribus sæpe infestetur. Ego ne meum officium neglexisse videar, medicamenta hic singulari cum diligentia parata transmitto quæ tamen tuo iudicio administrari, & exhiberi volo, verum vt an- te omnia hoc vernali tempore corpus ex- purgetur, & sanguis in mediocri copia emit- tatur. Inter cætera electuarium quoddam ex succis herbarum inspissatis, addinis pul- ueribus & speciebus accommodatis ordi- narii, de quo præseruationis grata, quoti- die, aut saltem alternis diebus lumere potest aliquid, mane ad drachmæ, aut sesquidra- chmæ pondus, vesperi cubitum iturus pau- lo minus. Sensi illud valde efficax in huius- modi capitis & neruorum affectionibus. Confectio in rotulis confat exoleo catul, anisi, foeniculi, nucis Muschatæ, maceris, cum extracto galangæ & xyloaloes admo- dum delicata, quæ eidem intentioni seruit. Postea est Tragæa quædam post cibum su- menda, ad prohibitionemm euaporationis ad caput, sicut te etiam in vsu habere me- mini. A qua illa articulari, quæ insignita est, manus & pedes tremulos pet- fricare potest. Est autem ea ipsa aqua, quam illustrissimi Electoris Augusti coniunx v- sutpare consueuit, & cuius descriptionem à Mag. Domino Eylenbeccio accepi. Nisi illam ante habes, haud inuitus tecum com- munem faciam. Passulæ laxatiuæ ad sub- ducendam blande aluum faciunt: ita vt duo ciciter cochlearia semihora ante prædium sumantur. Si cupis horum omnium fot- mulas, ad te lubenter missurus sum. In p[er]tæ- sentia habes theriacæ nostræ, quam Germa- norum vocare soleo, aliquid, & sinul, si qui- dem ita vis, descriptionem illius. Quam ea lege & conditione accipies, vt pro te ser- ues, & tuum mihi de illa iudicium signifi- ces. Iam plures libras de illa pharmacopæus vendidit. Plebei fere nihil aliud in ea, quam colorem minus atrum accusant. Sed hic etiam illi conciliari non difficulter po- test, siue cbalcistide, siue alio quodam arti- ficante admixto. Tuam vt mihi sententiam liberrime indices rogo & obtestor. Paulo post nouam, vt loquuntur, dispensabit phar- macopæus, vbi etiam ex tuo iudicio, quæ- dam adhincere, aut detrahere potero. Vn- guentum istud apoplecticum, quæso an cum vestro, quod isthic patari solet, conue- niat vide. Iussi hic patari ad vestra commo- dationem. An in omnibus assecutus sim ne- scio. In basi, quæ est oleum nucis muschatæ expressum, me non aberrasse existimo Re- liqua pro arbitrio ad ilici possunt. De ex- teris alias. Bene & feliciter vale cum ruis o- mnibus. Pragæ Bohemorum. 8. Aprilis, An- no salutiferi partus 1586. Descriptio Theriacæ Germanorum. V. Rad. angelicæ. Gentianæ. Zedoariæ. Tormentillæ. Diptami Cretici. Pimpinellæ. Valerianæ. Ostrucii. Morsus Diaboli. Aristolochiæ rotundæ. Rad. Afari. Serpentariæ. Leuistici. Cardopatiæ. Petasitid. Pentaphyll. an. 3 iisd. Herb. scordii.

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401 Medicinals. 402 this booklet is such, I do not know. But you can inspect, from the mercury hanging by a thread from the neck, the very learned booklet of Dr. Jacob Theodor, physician of Worms, on the plague, where he also adduces various experiments. I remember that arsenic, or a little bag made from it, was hung on several hundred, or three hundred, and scarcely one or two were harmed by it, namely those to whom they applied it immediately to the region of the heart and did not wipe away the copious sweat. Yet even in these cases it produced only certain pustules by manifest force, which also afterward disappeared. Read something about this in the assertion of Mr. Crato, 6th month, pages 33 and 54. I omit the example of the little booklet, which arrived only in the past few days, and I beg you to accept it kindly. I greatly desire to learn from you how the matter of the affine and the fororo progresses. I reserve the rest for another time. Farewell, Prague, 15 February, in the year 1586. Epist. CCXXVIII. The same to the same. I send you a living letter, my brother, who will easily be able to complete in person what is left out in writing. But nevertheless I ought especially to mention my affine, concerning whom our sister has now complained to me more than once, and those symptoms full of fear seem to be increasing. As for the baths, which I hear you recommend, I would not judge it proper to approach them with unwashed hands, especially since by nature he has a constitution of the liver somewhat too warm, and is often troubled by bilious and biting humors. Lest I seem to have neglected my duty, I send here medicines prepared with special diligence, which I nevertheless wish to be administered and given according to your judgment, but first and above all that the body be purged in this springtime, and that blood be let in moderate quantity. Among other things, there is a certain electuary made from thickened juices of herbs, with added powders and suitable common ingredients, of which, for preservation’s sake, one may take something daily, or at least every other day, in the morning to the weight of a drachm or a drachm and a half, and in the evening before going to bed a little less. I have found it very effective in such affections of the head and nerves. The confection in pills consists of oil of cat, anise, fennel, nutmeg, mace, with extract of galangal and lignum aloes, very delicate, and serves the same purpose. Afterward there is a certain Tragaea to be taken after meals, to prevent vapors from rising to the head, as I also remember you to have used. By that same articular water, which is distinguished, the trembling hands and feet can be rubbed. It is in fact the same water which the consort of the most illustrious Elector August used to employ, and whose description I received from Mag. Lord Eylenbeccius. If you do not already have it, I shall gladly share it with you. Raisins with a laxative effect gently move the bowels, so that about two spoonfuls should be taken half an hour before dinner. If you desire the formulas for all these things, I shall gladly send them to you. In the meantime you have something of our theriac, which I usually call the German one, and, if you so wish, the description of it as well. You will receive it on the condition that you keep it for yourself and inform me of your judgment about it. The pharmacist has already sold many pounds of it. The common people complain of almost nothing else in it than that the color is less black. But this too can easily be reconciled with them, whether by cbalcistide or by some other artificer added to it. I ask and beseech you to state your opinion to me most freely. A little later the pharmacist will dispense a new one, as they say, where also, according to your judgment, I shall be able to add or take away certain things. Please see whether that apoplectic ointment agrees with yours, which is customarily prepared there. I ordered it prepared here for your convenience. Whether I have succeeded in all things I do not know. In the basis, which is expressed oil of nutmeg, I think I have not erred. The rest may be added as desired. Of other matters another time. Farewell well and happily, with all yours. Prague in Bohemia, 8 April, in the year of the saving birth 1586. Description of the German theriac. Roots of angelica. Gentian. Zedoary. Tormentil. Dittany of Crete. Pimpernel. Valerian. Ostrucii. Morsus Diaboli. Round birthwort. Root of Asarum. Serpentary. Lovage. Cardopatia. Petasitid. Pentaphyll. an. 3 iisd. Herb scordii.

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403 EPISTOLÆ 404 Chamædrios. Betonicæ. Rutæ. Card. benedict. Galangæ. Centaurii an. ʒβ. Fl. calendulæ. Lauendulæ. Anthos. Sem. citri. Acetos. Napi. Ammi. Baccar. lauri. a. ʒ iij. Boli armen. præpar. Tetra sigillatæ. Cornu cerui vsti præpar. an. ʒj. Croci. Maceris. Macropipe. Mastich. Thuris. Santal. omnium an. ʒ ij.β. Myrrhæ elect. Fl. sulphuris. Camphoræ an. ʒ vj. Opii thebaici ʒiiij. Castorei. Euphorbii a. ʒj. Rhapontic. veri ʒj. Cinnam. el. Cortic. citri. Arantiorum an. ʒβ. Nucum iuglandium excorie. Ficuum per cribrum transmiss. an. ʒij. Succi card. bened. Veronicæ. Verbenæ. Scabiosæ. Scordii. Ruræ. Salviæ. Acetos. Borrag. Melillæ an. ʒij. Olei vitrioli ʒj. Spocier. Diamargarit. frigid. Calid. Degemmis frig. Calidis a ʒj.β. Cordial. temperator. ʒij. Diambræ. Diamusci dulcis. an. ʒj. Theriac. Andromachi ʒiiij. Mithrid. el. Elect. de ouo an. ʒij. Diascordii ʒjβ. Extracti Angelicæ ʒβ. Salis absinth. x ij. Vini odorari lb. ijβ. Mellis opt. de spumati lb. x. ij. Exquisite commisceantur omnia ad for- mam opiatæ. EPIST. CCXXIX. IDEM EIDEM. 10 QVONIAM proximis superioribus die- bus communis noster amicus Domi- nus Daniel Preussius, in suis ad me conque- stus est, coniugem suam grauissime à febre quartana isthic exerceri, & ea in re consi- lium & auxilium meum implorauit, non po- tui aut debui aliter facere, quin in ipsius gra- tiam meam qualemcumque sententiam ti- bi, qui valetudini illius præfectus es, aperi- 20 rem, non equidem tux doctrinæ, peritix, prudentix? aut fidei, vel tantillum diffidens, sed duntaxar, vt meum illi gratificandi stu- dium quoquod modo testatum facetem. Quam autem morbus hic diligentem & operosam curam, vtpote sua natura perlon- gus, & cuius breuissimus terminus trium mensium spacio circumscribitur, requirat, quo præserrim magis versus hyemem ver- git, ipse nosti melius. Forte etiam adhuc 30 primum tempus, siue principium, nondum superauit, id quod ex coctionis rudimento, si quod apparet, cognoscere licet. Venæ se- ctionem, etsi in ipsa ægra mulum pituitosi humoris abundet, non plane negligendam putarim, idque è sinistro brachio: nec de- sunt Practici, qui satius putant nonnihil procedente morbo, quam statim ab initio illam administrare. 40 De humorum præparatione & attenua- tione paulatim procuranda, non opus est, me quicquam memorem monere. Domi- nus Crato noster inter cætera valde deco- ctum radicum Eringii in tali casu appro- babat, sicuti vbi humor melancholicus ex adustione est, raparum decoctum. Euacuationes sæpe repetendas, & posterio- re quietis die, cum materia iam per se mo- ueri incipit, magis exhibendas, ipse nosti. Si horror aut frigus magnum est, theriæcæ v- 50 sum, suotempore datam, plurimum lau- darim. Verum cum vulgaria hæc, veluti arti- fex, per te memoriateneas, vnum solummo do subiicere libet, quod ab amico ceu secre- tum quid accepi, & in multis casibus non inutile deprehendi, sumatur cor leporis, & eo modo, quo pulmo vulpis solet, præ- paretur, postea in puluerem redactum, atque in tres æquales portiones diuisum, tribus Servatum est Leparum.

Transcription: Translated (English)

403 EPISTLES 404 Chamædrios. Betonica. Ruta. Card. benedict. Galangæ. Centaurii an. ʒβ. Fl. calendulæ. Lavendulæ. Anthos. Sem. citri. Acetos. Napi. Ammi. Baccar. lauri. a. ʒ iij. Boli armen. præpar. Tetra sigillatæ. Cornu cerui vsti præpar. an. ʒj. Croci. Maceris. Macropipe. Mastich. Thuris. Santal. omnium an. ʒ ij.β. Myrrhæ elect. Fl. sulphuris. Camphoræ an. ʒ vj. Opii thebaici ʒiiij. Castorei. Euphorbii a. ʒj. Rhapontic. veri ʒj. Cinnam. el. Cortic. citri. Arantiorum an. ʒβ. Nucum iuglandium excorie. Ficuum per cribrum transmiss. an. ʒij. Succi card. bened. Veronicæ. Verbenæ. Scabiosæ. Scordii. Ruræ. Salviæ. Acetos. Borrag. Melillæ an. ʒij. Olei vitrioli ʒj. Spocier. Diamargarit. frigid. Calid. Degemmis frig. Calidis a ʒj.β. Cordial. temperator. ʒij. Diambræ. Diamusci dulcis. an. ʒj. Theriac. Andromachi ʒiiij. Mithrid. el. Elect. de ouo an. ʒij. Diascordii ʒjβ. Extracti Angelicæ ʒβ. Salis absinth. x ij. Vini odorari lb. ijβ. Mellis opt. de spumati lb. x. ij. Let all these be exquisitely mixed into the form of an opiate. EPIST. CCXXIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. 10 Since on the last few preceding days our common friend, Master Daniel Preussius, complained to me in his letters that his wife was being most grievously afflicted there by a quartan fever, and implored my counsel and help in this matter, I could not and ought not to do otherwise than, for his sake, open to you, who are in charge of her health, my own opinion, such as it is; not that I distrust in the least your learning, skill, prudence, or fidelity, but only that I may somehow make evident my zeal to oblige him. How much diligent and laborious care this disease requires, since by its nature it is very long-lasting, and its shortest limit is bounded by a space of three months, especially as it turns more toward winter, you know better yourself. Perhaps it has not yet even passed through the first stage, or beginning, which may be recognized from the first rudiment of digestion, if any appears. Venesection, although there is in the sick woman herself a great abundance of phlegmatic humor, I should not think ought to be entirely neglected, and that from the left arm; and there are practitioners who think it better to perform it somewhat after the disease has advanced, rather than immediately from the beginning. As for the gradual preparation and attenuation of the humors, it is not necessary for me to remind you of anything. Our Master Crato, among other things, highly approved a decoction of eringo roots in such a case, just as, where melancholy humor arises from burning, a decoction of turnips. Evacuations are to be repeated often, and to be used more on the subsequent day of rest, when the matter now begins of itself to move; you know this yourself. If there is a great chill or coldness, I should greatly commend the use of theriac, given at the proper time. But since you, as a physician, hold these common matters in memory, I wish to add only one thing, which I received from a friend as if it were a secret, and found not without usefulness in many cases: let a hare’s heart be taken, and prepared in the manner usually employed for a fox’s lung; afterwards, reduced to powder and divided into three equal portions, the three It has been preserved of hares.

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tribus vicibus exhibeatur, lìora vna, aut cir- citer, ante inuasiunem, vino albo, aut alio conuenienti liquore dissolutum. Vidi e- go semel atque iterum post huius amuleti assumptioem, febrem deinceps non ma- gis apparuisse, aut saltem paulatim eoanu- isse. Verum hoc non statim ab initio morbi, sed vbi iam manifesta coctionis signa ap- parent, faciendum est. Volui hoc ipsum, quod hactenus in secretis habui, tecum < 10> communefacere, vt vterque pro viribus a- mico nostro, qui in valetudine coniugis plurimum afficitur, succurramus. Deus fa- xit, vt media ista non sine fructu abeant, & ægta quam primum melius habere inci- piat. Vale, Pragæ Boiemorum, 9. Nouemb. Anno 1586. EPIST. CCXXX. IDEM ETDEM. < 20> TVAM inscribendo raritatem & infre- quentiam si accusare velim: ipse me mulro accusem iustius, quando nec proue- dioris adhuc ætatis o[mn]ere premor, neque etiam fortetam multis, vt tu occupationi- bus distractus sum. Fit tameo nescio quo- modo, vt inuitus admodum ad hoc litera- rium officii genus accedam, atque vbi se- mel calamum in manus sumpsi, pene vt de < 3c> musicis suis Horatius ait, non minus ægre desinere queam. Debeo sane adhuc suis satis prolixis, quæ mense, ut sallor, Julio ex- arax sunt, si quæ tamen in illis capitare- sponsonem accelerari postulabant, de iis per fratrem dudum tecum egi, cuius vale- rudinem nunc meliore paulo loco esse, quam ante, ex te & illo intellexi lubentiss- < Exercitium> ime. Si pluculum interdum corpus exer- ceret, eque causa sua in publicum prodiret, < 40> multo minus haud dubie excrementicio- rum humorum, quæ materia catarrhi sunt proxima, colligeret. Hoc autem dum non fit, natura spoote sua illos per patentes vias, quas emunctoria nostri iodigent, expel- lere nititur. Pillulis siue de aloe rosata siue alephanginis, siue etiam vtrisque simul mi- xtis frequenter semihora ante coenam vti velim. Hac namque ratione crudorum hu- < 50> morum in primis viis copia paulatim ex- cluderetur, catarrhique causa potissima ab- scinderetur. Eadem intentione Tragæam quoque stomachalem suasi, tum scilicet, vt concoctio clauso ventriculo, & exacte con- nivente perficeretur melius, tum etiam vt superflua humiditas huius ope quasi absor- beretur; quæ præterea vsui esse videntur, tibi vt amico & medio optimo sidissimo- que diuidicanda, præscribendaque sclin- quo. Soror vsum garyophyllati sibi pluri- mum profuisse apertè nuper scriptis ad me literis testa est. D[ei]caluo dura & officium < Almes dura.> ium sponte non faciente, iterum conque- sta est, vnde capitis dolor periodicus post- ea subsequi solet. Habet hoc vitium, tum ab ipsa marre, quasi heredirario quodam ture, quæ semper sese hoc affectu labora- bat, tum etiam à praua consuetudine, quod naturæ stimulanti non paret, sed potius il- lam cobiber, qno ad negotiula quædam quæ in manibus habet, expedierit. Ego ne hoc faceret diligenter monui, & si- mul cumque , & vulgaria quædam propo- sui vtpote passulas laxatiuas, cum soliis se- nx, & syr. rosat. solut. præparatas. Senæ et- iam decoctum, quod apud nos visitatissi- mum est cum prunis. Item iuscula nonnul- la cum malus, mercuriali, quæ ante pran- dium absorberet. Denique quando illam ea delectari scio, cereuissa nostra calefacta cum copioso butyro. Hæc cibis præmissa aluum lenire, mullire & io genere rur in apos- p[er]paruim esse p[er]tæclare nosti. Ad deglusienda catapotia ex aloe vix ad- duci poterit, quæ tamen si menses quoque non responderent, magna cum vtilitate præscriberentur, ratione abstensionis & ventriculi & vteri. Verum cum te illam frequenter inuisere solere intelligam, plus verborum de his, quæ ubi ipsi magis no- ta sunt & explorata, facere superuacaneum arbitror. Filiolum eius quis nuper mor- bus abstulerit, & funere mersetit acerbo, ha ctenus assequi non licuit. Catarrbo tamen suffocante extinctum < Suffocat Catarrh cura.> suspicor. Solet hoc affectu correptos mul- tos, qui in extremo discrimine positi sunt & quasi semianimes liberare, & in vitam reuocare Dominus Stromerus noster, ex- hibitione Diatorbith suim mineralis, à gr. ij. vsque ad v. vel vj. Hoc enim facto mox na- tura irritata ingentem copiam pituitosi & lenti humoris, tum per vomirum, tum per deiectionem exiurbat, & maiori oneris par- te leuara ad se redit. Fortasse idem etiam Galenicis nostris medicamentis, puta, diagrydio, aut simi- libus, in debita copia assumptis, consequ- remur, nisi plus iustorimidi noonunquam essemus, aut illam Coi nostri sensi senten- riam nobis in mentem reuocaremus: Ex- tremis morbis extrema exquisite remedia optima esse. Verum alto, quam instiu- eram delabor. Ligno taffstras, quod non- < Sacræfrus in Archastium.> nulli semiculatum, odoris ratione indige- tant, iam aliquoties vsus sum in articulari, & aliis morbis, non sane infelici cum profe- ctu. Vsurparetur illud multo crebrius, nisi

Transcription: Translated (English)

It should be administered three times, one ounce, or thereabouts, before the attack, dissolved in white wine or some other suitable liquor. I myself have seen, once and again, that after taking this amulet the fever afterward did not appear any more, or at least gradually disappeared. But this is not to be done right from the beginning of the disease, but when signs of digestion are already clearly appearing. I wished to share with you this very thing, which until now I had kept among my secrets, so that each of us, according to our ability, may help our friend, who is greatly distressed by the health of his wife. God grant that these remedies may not pass without fruit, and that she may begin to be better as soon as possible. Farewell. From Prague of the Bohemians, 9 November, in the year 1586. EPIST. CCXXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. If I wished to accuse your rarity and infrequency in writing, I should accuse myself much more justly, since I am not yet weighed down by the burden of a more advanced age, nor perhaps am I distracted by as many occupations as you are. Yet somehow it happens that I come very unwillingly to this kind of literary duty, and once I have taken the pen in hand, I can scarcely stop, as Horace says of his own poems. I still owe answers to those rather lengthy letters, which, if I am not mistaken, were written in the month of July; but if there was anything in them that required a speedier reply, I have already spoken of it with your brother some time ago, and from you and from him I have learned, most gladly, that his health is now somewhat better than before. If he would exercise his body a little from time to time and go out into public for his own sake, without doubt he would accumulate much less of those excrementitious humors, which are the proximate material of catarrh. But since this is not done, nature of her own accord strives to expel them through the open passages which our emunctories require. I would wish him to use pills, either of roseated aloe or alephangine, or even both mixed together, frequently, half an hour before supper. For by this means the abundance of crude humors in the primary passages would gradually be excluded, and the chief cause of catarrh cut off. With the same intention I also recommended the tragaea stomachica, namely both so that digestion might be carried out better with the stomach closed and exactly shut, and also so that superfluous moisture might, as it were, be absorbed by its aid; and these things, moreover, seem useful for you to be prescribed and set apart as from a friend and most excellent, trustworthy, and faithful physician. His sister has recently written to me plainly by letter that the use of garyophyllata has profited her greatly. Since she has a hard scalp and does not perform her office of her own accord, she complained again, from which a periodic headache afterwards usually follows. She has this fault partly from her mother herself, as it were by a hereditary tendency, since she herself always suffered from this affection, and partly also from bad habit, because she does not obey the prompting of nature, but rather restrains it, since it suits her for certain small business matters which she has in hand. I diligently advised her not to do this, and at the same time proposed some common remedies, namely laxative raisins prepared with leaves of senna and syrup of roses; also a decoction of senna, which is very commonly used among us with prunes; likewise certain broths with mallows and mercury, which she should take before dinner. Finally, whenever I know that she is pleased by it, our warmed beer with plenty of butter. You know very well that these things, taken before meals, soften the bowels, make them gentle, and in general keep the body in a state of easy evacuation. She could scarcely be brought to swallow aloe pills, which however, if her menses also did not respond, would be prescribed with great advantage, on account of the suppression both of the stomach and of the uterus. But since I understand that you are accustomed to visit her frequently, I think it superfluous to say more about matters which are better known and more thoroughly explored by you yourself. I have not yet been able to learn who has recently taken her little son away by sickness and buried him in bitter funeral rites. Yet I suspect he died of suffocating catarrh. Our Dr. Stromer is accustomed to free and call back to life many who have been seized by this affection, when they are in the most extreme danger and, as it were, half dead, by administering Diatarth [?] of his mineral, from 2 grains up to 5 or 6. For when this has been done, nature, once irritated, suddenly expels a huge quantity of phlegmy and slimy humor, both by vomiting and by evacuation, and, the greater part of the burden having been relieved, returns to itself. Perhaps we might achieve the same thing with our Galenic medicines, such as diagrydium or similar ones, taken in due quantity, unless we were at times too much afraid, or recalled to mind that saying of our Coan: in extreme diseases, extreme and most effective remedies are best. But see, I am slipping into a subject I had intended to leave. I have already used more than once, with no small benefit, in articular complaints and other diseases, the bark wood of taffstras, which some have needed on account of its smell. It would be used much more often, unless...

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Mercatorum obstaret auaritia, qui precium nimis augent. Venditur enim hic libra vna pro 10. florentis, cum Antuerpiæ pro duobus coronatis summum venundari audiam. Cotoneum lignum, de quo libellum edirum legisti, illud ipsum est, quod vulgo ita appellatur, & de cuius pomis Diacitonia- rum parari consueuit. Constat hoc non tantum ex descriptione manifestissime, sed etiam ipse autor D. Cyriacus Lucius, Ingol- stadii mihi dixit, priusquam libellus publi- caretur. Radix chatbe, vel chahre qualis sit, plane ignoro: nec de ea vel fama nuncia, quicquam inauduisse memini. Non adeo libenter à certis ad incerta descendo. Facerem tane finem scribendi, quando tuis respondi, nisi Dn. Reussius, Keipublicæ vestræ scriba apud me vehementer instaret, vt suam quoque causam apud te agerem. Habet is, vt nosti, Coniugem non satis commode valentem, cuius curæ re & D. Abrahamum hactenus præfectum fuisse audio. His ego magistris & artificibus cur obsecro, velut anser inter olores, obstreperem? Quoniam tamen omninocupit Dn. Reussius, vt meum quoque consilium exponam, & in medium adferam, aliquid saltem dicam ne nihil dixisse videat. Symtoma, de quo præcipue conqueritur, tussis est, maturino illam tempore maxime affligens. Hæc cum tam diu duret, à cataribo haud dubio de pendet: ab initio quidem acri, salso, tenui & setoso, (vnde etiam spuium sanguinis consecutum) nunc vero misto magis, ex tenui scilicet & crasso humore constante, sicut fieri in inæquali intemperie solet, cuiusmodi in hoc corpo re esse apparet. In victus sane ratione accurata, vt in omnibus aliis morbis chronicis, ita etiam hic magnam spem collocauerim, quam vos ex Methodi legibus instituisse nequaquam dubito. De potu potissimum cogitandum, quo ægri magis, quam cibo resici & rectari consueuerunt. Placeret mihi vinum album, tenue, pauciferum, quod & ventriculo acceptum est, neque ad caput multum exhalat. Interdum etiam aqua mulsa, cui folia saluia, tussilaginis, capillorum veneris, aut similium herbarum incocta essent, sub vesperam præsertim, aut boram somni vti posset. An sæ decoctum illi præscriptum sit nescio. De venæ sectione, num ea & quomodo conueniat, præseniem medicum iudicare oportet. Quantum ad medicamenta, sunt ea in triplici ordine in hoc morbo: Euacuantia nempe, diuertentia, & corroborantia. Euacuantia. Euacuantia vel communes materies in corpore peccantes educunt, idq[ue] per secessum, vel eas, quæ in pectore continentur, per spurum & exscreationem. Horum materias cum vos ipsi me noritis melius, indicare super- uacaneum esse existimo. Illud tamen saltem monere liber, non videri mihi abs re, si interdum (premissis iam, quod dubio procul à vobis factum est, vniuersalibus) sub noctem assumeret pillularum assaiareth 31. circiter, quandnquidem & purgant simul blandissime, & præterea etiam impetum humorum in pectus ruentium prohibent, propter adiunctos mirobolanos. Diuersio matutinis frictionibus cum pannis calidis factis, obitur. Item cucurbitulis & non scarificatis, in spatulis, & supra nates appositis. Si etiam vehementiora præsidia requiruntur, vesicatoriis, & cauteriis, quorum tamen necessitatem adesse nondum arbitror. Roborantia tum ventriculum, tum caput, tum etiam pectus respiciunt. Huc refero confectionem aliquam magistralem, his membris dicatam. Item Tragam stomachalem post cibum sumptum, prohibentem cuaporationes in caput, præterea lorionem capitis ex idonearum herbarum decocto, in quo 3 ij. aut iij. agarici macerauerint, factam, quam etiam aspersio cum aqua frigida sub extremum consecuatur. Laudo quoque pulueres pro bregmate ex rosis, santalis, veronicæ, garyophyllis, thure, mastich, cum pulueribus betonicæ, mainranæ, florum stochados, anibos, & similibus. Vnde etiam caputia confici queût, quæ certis odoribus, & suffumigiis imbuia tum recreant caput, tum modice exsiccant, tum etiam superfluos humores absorbent, eorumque incitatum defluxum prohibent. Mane reüssime exhiberetur sacharum rosarum, cum pauculo holi, aut etiam floribus sulphuris petmistum. Repugato pectore, & abstersinne humorum facta, cennueniret aqua myrrillorum, quam aliqui in tali casu pro corroboratione pectoris mirifice commendant. Sed sat dictum sapienti & cur ego noctuas Athenas? Non certe, vt aliquid vobis, Præstantissimi artifices præscriberem, hæc recitaui, sed solummodo ne eius voluntati refragari viderer, qui hoc tam impense à me rogauit. Ideoque etiam Domino Reussio, me ipsius ad te non fuisse immemorem, liquido confirmare potes. Ista autem omnia, quæ currente calamo in mentem venerunt, vestro exquisito iudicio permitto, quod de re præsenti longe melius, quam à me absente factum est, statuere poterit. Domino Doctori Abrahamo

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The greed of merchants is an obstacle, because they raise the price too much. For here one libra is sold for 10 florins, whereas at Antwerp I hear that the highest price for two coronati is being asked. Cotoneum lignum, about which you read in the little published book, is that very thing which is so called in common speech, and from whose fruits Diacitonia are customarily prepared. This is made clear not only from the description most plainly, but the author himself, D. Cyriacus Lucius, told me so at Ingolstadt before the booklet was published. As for the root chatbe, or chahre, what sort it is, I am entirely ignorant: nor do I remember ever having heard anything about it, even by report. I am not so willing to descend from the certain to the uncertain. I would make this the end of my writing, since I have replied to yours, were it not that Dn. Reussius, secretary of your republic, pressed me vehemently to take up his cause with you as well. He has, as you know, a wife whose health is not very sound, for whose care, I hear, he has up to now had D. Abrahamus in charge. Why should I, among these masters and skilled practitioners, be begging pardon as a goose among swans, and oppose them? Yet since Dn. Reussius altogether wishes me to set out my own opinion also and bring it forward, I shall at least say something, lest I seem to have said nothing. The symptom of which he chiefly complains is a cough, which afflicts him especially in the morning. Since this has lasted so long, it surely depends on a catarrh: at first indeed acrid, salty, thin, and fibrous, from which also a spitting of blood followed; now however it is more mixed, consisting, namely, of thin and thick humor, as happens in an unequal intemperament, which seems to exist in this body. In truth, in the matter of diet, as in all other chronic diseases, I would place great hope here as well, and I do not doubt that you have proceeded according to the laws of Method. Above all, drinking must be considered, by which the sick are usually restored and strengthened more than by food. I would prefer white wine, light and not very rich, which is agreeable to the stomach and does not exhale much toward the head. At times he could also use hydromel, in which leaves of sage, coltsfoot, maidenhair, or similar herbs had been boiled, especially toward evening or at the hour of sleep. Whether a decoction of sene has been prescribed for him I do not know. As for bloodletting, whether it is suitable and how it should be done, the attending physician ought to judge. As for medicines, there are three orders in this disease: evacuants, namely; revulsives; and corroborants. Evacuants. Evacuants either draw off the common offending matter in the body, and that by stool, or else the matter contained in the chest, by sputum and expectoration. Since you yourselves know better than I the materials in question, I consider it unnecessary to specify them. This much at least I do not think out of place to mention: that it would not seem improper to me if, after the universal remedies have already been given, as no doubt has been done by you, he should sometimes take about 31 grains of asaiareth pills at night, since they both purge very gently and, moreover, prevent the rush of humors falling upon the chest, because of the added mirobolans. Revulsion is to be accomplished by morning frictions with cloths made warm. Likewise by cupping glasses, and not scarified ones, applied to the shoulder blades and above the buttocks. If stronger measures are also required, by vesicatories and cauteries, though I do not yet think that their necessity is present. Corroborants concern the stomach, the head, and also the chest. I refer here to some magistral confection dedicated to these parts. Likewise stomachic tragacanth taken after food, preventing vapors from rising to the head; besides, a lotion for the head made from a decoction of suitable herbs, in which 2 or 3 drachms of agaric have been macerated, which should also be followed at the end by sprinkling with cold water. I also commend powders for the cranium made from roses, sandalwood, veronica, cloves, incense, mastic, together with powders of betony, marjoram, flowers of stoechas, anise, and the like. From these, also, head coverings can be made, which, imbued with certain aromas and fumigations, both refresh the head, moderately dry it, and absorb superfluous humors, and prevent the incited flow of them downward. In the morning, rose sugar would be administered very well, mixed with a little holi, or even with flowers of sulphur. After the chest has been cleansed and the humors removed, myrrh water would be suitable, which some in such a case wonderfully recommend for strengthening the chest. But enough has been said to the wise, and why am I carrying owls to Athens? Certainly not in order to prescribe anything to you, most excellent practitioners, did I recite these things, but only so that I might not seem to oppose the wish of him who asked this so earnestly of me. Therefore you can also confirm to Dn. Reussius clearly that I was not unmindful of him in writing to you. But I leave all these matters, which have come into my mind as my pen ran on, to your refined judgment, which will be able to decide far better on the present matter than I, being absent, have done. To the Lord Doctor Abrahamus

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409 MEDICINALES. 410 hamo Seilerò officiosissimam salutem ad- scribo, cui etiam memoriam amicitiæ no- stræ commendo. De cæteris quæ tum pu- blice, tum priuatim aguntur, ex harum vt sic loquar, oblatore, nivum intelliges nivæ à nivorum Bene & feliciter vale cum vxore tua lectissima, & charissimis liberis, totaque ad- co familia, quam meo nomine amice talu- tare non intermittes. Vienæ Austriorum, 3. secundum veteres, aut 19. Octob. secundum nouos faltos, qui & ipsi nuper ex man- dato S. C. M. ad valvas templorum hic affixiunt, EPIST. CCXXXI. IOHANNI ACHOLZIO MEDICO Viennensi, Petrus Monamus S. D. ET libenter & merito tibi inseruo, quan- docunque occasio datur, quando tu quo que multis in rebus tuam erga me singula- rem beneuoleoriam declarasti perippe. Quod igitur casum abs te propositam attinet, etsi ad quid ille morbi genus referendus sit, nou latis assequar, quæ tamen à me hac in parte petere videtis, communicabo non inuitus. < Tabes & more à philtro dato.> Recordor autem me aliquando tibi narrasse historiam de Barone quo- dam Bohemo, cuius filius accepto philtro, totus contabuerit, tandemque mortuus sit. Cadauere vero secto, inuentum est in sto- macho eius quiddam durum cornu assimile, vnde pater in sibi memoriam cochlear sieri curauit, quo longe post tempore vsus est. < Nasturtium aquaticum contra vitultra præstans.> Tandem illud casu quodam in succo Nasturtii aquatici dissolutum fuit. Inde ex- derentia comprobatum, nasturtium illud magnam vim contra plustra habere. < Antidotus Moianus.> Eo pene præsidii genere alius quidam Nobilis a Selter vvis vius est, atque ex simili morbo restitutus. De Antidoto Moibani, quæ cum Saxonica fere per omnia conuenit, potes le- gere quæ Iacobus Aubertus Vindor refert in libro cuius titulus est, Progymnasmata in Iohannis Fernelii Medicis libro de abditis rerum naturalium & medicamentorum causis. < Iohannes Lingus de philtro.> Præsertim autem caput 12. aspicias, vbi præter Moibani antidotu[m], etiam plurimum < 50> visum Cynnglossi, non vulgaris illius, sed à Dioscoride descripti, commendat. Extat autem eiusdem antidoti descriptio etiam in Euporistis Dioscoridis ab eodem D. Mo- bano olim editis lib. 2. cap. 144. si placet, e- mul conteras quæ de talium morborum ratione tradit doctissimus Medicus Languis in suis medicinalibus Epist. tomo secundo Epist. 34. & 3. Q. autem euentum tua curatio habitura est, vt ad me scribere non graueris, oro. < Philtra M. Lancioluos efficiere.> Ego quidem hac in parte in eade[m] cum opt. D. Adamo Lehnero, p. m. sum sententia, qui aliquan- do ad me dicebat; Omnia philtro, etsi inter se varie differant, hoc tamen commune ha- bere, quod humorem efficiant Melancho- licum. < Elleborus n[ost]r[um] ger.> Quæ igitur medicamenta humorem illum clementer euacuant, & spiritus tristes < 10> recreant; Hauddubie in tali affectu prode- runt plurimum; Elleborum certe nigrum no[n] temere ab antiquis tantopere laudatum esse, si quis illo recte præparato vstat, res ipsa demonstrat. Et quidem huius rei non ita pridem experientam feci, cum ægrum quendam haberem, qui à morbo stolidus o- mnino & fatuus eualerat. Illi cum cæteris nihil efficerem, ad extremum decoctum Hellebori nigri, adiunctis herbis cordiali- < 11> bus, & aliis quæ humorem melancholicum demulcent, propinui satis felici cum suc- cessu. < Decoctum Helleborum gr.> Vix enim tribus, aut quatuor vicibus inde biberat, cum discussis imaginationib. illis, quibus antea infatuabatur, ad sese redi- re, & integramente frui cæpit. De aliis te, vt artificem, monere no[n] debeo, maxime quod historiam morbi, quo xget tuus laborat, non satis cognitam habeo. Neque enim an à philtro, aut fascino aliunde exhibito, an ve- < 30> ro à venenoso quodam humore intra cor- pus genito, aut à mentis perturbauione exi- stat noui. Tractantur à practicis, quæ ad hanc materiam spectant, multa sub titulo, de amore hereos. Ita enim ineptè & barba- re esserunt, quod Græci ignoscuo prævio aut et- iam ipsa simpliciter appellant. < Vide Phelota- xium.> Scripserunt & aliu de amantibus curandis, aut animi af- fectionibus, quæ corporis morbos inducût, tollendis, quæ fortasse tibi quam mihi no- tiora sunt. Vale, Pragæ Boiemorum 28. No- uembris Anno 1584. EPIST. CCXXXII. IOHANNI WEIDNERO MED. &c. Petrus Monamus, S. D. CLARISSIME domine Doctor, re- spondeo tibi per eundem, qui mihi hodie manet tuas sub prandiu tempus exhi- buit, sed & alias ante paucos dies ad remisi, vsus opera affinis tui, qui hic conditionem quærebat, eas autem ipsas te interea acce- pisse confido. De methodo nostri Bu- cepbali libenter ludicium tuum cogno- scam, postquam eam, vtte promissis me- ministi, euolueris. Nolim me amplius quid de illa prædicasse quam turcapse expecta- re. Recte profecto pronuncias, fallax esse S

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409 MEDICINALS. 410 I ascribe to Hamo Seiler my most dutiful greetings, and I commend to him also the remembrance of our friendship. As for the rest, both public and private matters, from these, if I may so speak, by the bearer of this you will learn, nivum nivæ nivorum . Fare well and happily with your most excellent wife and your most dear children, and with your whole household, which you will not fail to greet amicably in my name. At Vienna of the Austrians, the 3rd according to the old reckoning, or the 19th of October according to the new style, which even they themselves have lately posted here by order of S. C. M. on the doors of the churches. EPIST. CCXXXI. TO JOHANN ACHOLZIUS, PHYSICIAN of Vienna, Peter Monamus S. D. I both gladly and deservedly place myself at your service whenever occasion is given, since you also in many matters have repeatedly shown your singular goodwill toward me. As to the case you proposed, although I do not yet sufficiently grasp to what kind of disease it is to be referred, I shall nevertheless not be unwilling to communicate what you seem to ask of me in this matter. <Wasting and madness from a given love-potion.> But I recall that I once told you the story of a certain Bohemian baron, whose son, after taking a love-potion, had wasted away entirely and at last died. Yet when the corpse was opened, there was found in his stomach something hard, horn-like, from which the father had a spoon made in memory of him, and he used it long afterward. <Watercress excellent against that trouble.> At length, by some chance, that object was dissolved in the juice of watercress. Thence it was proved by experience that that cress has great power against such trouble. <Moibanus’s antidote.> With nearly this kind of remedy another certain nobleman was saved by Selter, and restored from a similar disease. Concerning the antidote of Moibanus, which agrees with the Saxon in almost everything, you may read what Jacob Aubertus Vindor relates in the book entitled Progymnasmata in Johannis Fernelii Medicis libro de abditis rerum naturalium & medicamentorum causis. <Johannes Lingus on the love-potion.> Especially examine chapter 12, where, besides the antidote of Moibanus, he also highly recommends the power of Cynoglossum, not that common kind, but that described by Dioscorides. The description of this same antidote also exists in the Euporists of Dioscorides, published long ago by the same Dr. Mobanus, book 2, chapter 144. If you please, compare also what the most learned physician Languis sets forth concerning the treatment of such diseases in his Medicinal Epistles, volume 2, Epistle 34, and 3. What outcome your treatment will have, do not hesitate, I pray, to write to me. <Love-potions produced by M. Lanciolus.> For my part, in this matter I am of the same opinion as the excellent Dr. Adam Lehner, of blessed memory, who once said to me: all love-potions, although they differ among themselves in various ways, have this in common, namely that they produce a melancholy humor. <Our hellebore for melancholy.> Therefore, whatever medicines gently evacuate that humor and refresh sad spirits will without doubt be of great benefit in such an affection. Black hellebore was certainly not praised so highly by the ancients without reason; if anyone uses it properly prepared, the thing itself shows it. Indeed, I not long ago had experience of this, when I had a certain sick man who had become wholly stupid and foolish from disease. When I could accomplish nothing with the other remedies, I finally gave him a decoction of black hellebore, with cordial herbs added and others that soothe the melancholy humor, and this with quite fortunate success. <Decoction of hellebore gr.> For scarcely had he drunk it three or four times when, the imaginations by which he had previously been befuddled having been dispelled, he began to return to himself and to enjoy a sound mind. As for the other matters, I need not instruct you, as you are a practitioner, especially since I do not know the history of the disease from which your patient suffers sufficiently well. For I do not know whether it arises from a love-potion or charm administered from elsewhere, or from some poisonous humor generated within the body, or from a disturbance of the mind. Practitioners treat many things relating to this matter under the title De amore hereos; for thus awkwardly and barbarously they have written what the Greeks call ignoscuo prævio or even simply ipsa . <See Phelotaxium.> They have also written on the curing of lovers, or on removing affections of the soul that induce bodily diseases, matters perhaps more familiar to you than to me. Farewell. Prague of the Bohemians, 28 November, in the year 1584. EPIST. CCXXXII. TO JOHANN WEIDNER, M.D., etc. Peter Monamus, S. D. Most illustrious Doctor, I reply to you by the same messenger who stayed with me today and delivered your letter around dinner time; but I also sent back others a few days ago, using the help of your kinsman, who was seeking a position here, and I trust that you have in the meantime received those very letters. I shall gladly learn your judgment concerning the method of our Bucephalus, after you have gone through it, as you promised. I would not wish to have spoken any more about it than you expect from a beginner. You certainly judge rightly that it is deceptive.

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omne experimentum; rationem autem ducem certiorem. Plerunq[ue] enim, qui hac relicta, vndique illa captant, & corr adunt, tandem spe sua frustrantur, etiamsi aliquandiu illis satis feliciter vbi videantur. Quod si enim casus aliquis incidat minus frequens, perturbatiotue, cuius similis ante illis non facile occurrerit, ibi vere boni isti experimentatores magis muti sunt quam piscis, & quo se vettant plane nesciunt. At neque in talibus at deserit, qui eius præscriptum sequuntur, sed ex symptomatib[us] cauas inuestigare iubet, ex quibus omnis recta dein & legitima petitur curatio. Quantum igitur Catholicu[m] illud, quod in mystetiis habes, at tinet, nolo tibi in posteru[m] eius postulatione molestus esse. Siue [e]n[im] mittas tuue non mittas sus q[ui] deque scram, etsi quidem scire cupia[m], amide[m] esset cum eo, quod mecum quoq[ue] secreto eômunicauit Theodorus ille noster. < Catholicum Vt eidem.> 20 Gratulor vero tibi ex animo, quod scribis, te conditionem no[n] incommodam nactum; ac simul Deum precot, vt conatibus tuis ita benedicat, vt multis sint salutates & vtiles. quod idem de se quoq[ue] tibi nunciari voluit D. Ioannes Hetmanuus, vir optimus & imo gerrimus, cuius hactenus co[n]uictu vsus sum. Mea pristino sunt loco, planeq[ue] confido pau lo post meliora fute. Sed satis de his in præsenna. Te b. & f. valere exopto. Vratisl. Ely- 30 siorum 17 Aplil. Anno 1579. EPIST. CCXXXIII IDEM EIDEM. CLARISSIME domine Doctor, amice plutimum colendé, malimæ tes quam verba ad purgandum, excusandumue parare. Quod li enim in posterum assiduitate scribendi compensabis id, quod hactenus neglectum est, facile veniam tat ditatis huius apud me impetrabis: sin minus, valde verendum est, ne hæc ita, quam nunc tacite in medullis foueo, in neruum erumpat denique. Hanc igitur vt caute de uices, tu- te videris Methodum tibi placuisse lætor, planeque gaudeo meas cogitationes cum tuis hac quoque in parte congruere. Ponto te initio propter phrasin semibarbaram, ac alicubi etiam nonnihil solæcizantem of- fensum, sed rei, quam tractat, bonitas facile hanc molestiam remouit. Intetim tamen tu magno me commodo priuasti, quo tanto tempore à lectione & inspectione huius libri me abstinere coegisti. Hâc igitur mulctâ vbi abste exigam, opportunitas erit. Pro ratione conficiendi olei gratias ago, captabo illius experiundi occasionem solicite. Etiam Zvvingerus cum Basilea discederem mihi de eo nonnihil communicabat, verum alio impensum est vniuersum, vt nondum scire potuerim, quem effectum habuerit administratum in cæcis, vt appellant, hæmorrhoidibus. Hippocatatem Theodori illius nostris te vidisse opinor. Donauit me ipse autor exemplo, quod diligenter evoluerere ccepi. Scribebam tamen nuper ad ipsum, non tam sedatam, quam irritatam duntaxat esse famem meam editione huius operis cum adhuc restant, simili industria & felicitate publicanda impense desiderem. Fac quæso intelligam, quid tu de eare iudices. Pro mysterio tuo communicato, en aliud accipe ex Zvvingeri authographo bona fide descriptum, sed non sine auctario, vt Hesiodem præceptum sequar. Ita autem habet illius Catholicon: parriglialij cortic. Guaiaci mundatorum Rad.chinæ j. Infunde per noctem in s. q. aqvæ in iij in iuere alectorio, si debilitas adsit in vino albo, si gallicus inucteratus, decoq[ue] ad dimidias, tettiasue s. a. Refrigerati permittito. Sumito decocti v. in iis infunde per noctem Euxiseos Russi vel sol. senæ vel circiter. Ecriseos scammon gr. vel citciter, iux potus. Innoxie purgat in omni genete morborum, nec vel per dies quadraginta aut plures defatigat, nec alium adstrictiorem reddit. Catarthis vnice conuenit, arthritidis item Gallico itidem mane purgans, vesperi simplex decoctum, quod syrupo rosato simplici, vel quouis alio ad rem facietem diluatur. Pharmacum Pyrapitum: Albinihil passi pugillos rubri pugillum nigri si q. s. Mis. simul omnia. Globulos formato. Eos orbiculatim perforato corio superligato, locis opportunis innoxie adhibebo. Hactenus Vbi igitur quid tuum secreti habeat disseto sermone exposueris, idem vicissim de his à me expectabis. Ego interim rerum ignarus, imagine gaudebo, vt ille de suo heroe ait. Caue autem litetam sequare, donec illius expositionem cabalisticam cognoueris. Litera enim occidit: Senus autem valetudinem deploratam restituit. Scammonæ præparationem Platherianam paulo pluribus verbis expositam, proximis superioribus diebus inter chartas meas reperi. Gratum tamen accidit, quod tua quoque sententia apptobata est. Scio illam magni fecisse Platherum, ac Scammonem præparare.

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every experiment; but reason is a more certain guide. For usually those who, leaving this aside, seize and gather that from every side, are at last frustrated in their hopes, even if for a while they seem to succeed rather well with those things. For if some less frequent accident occur, or a disturbance, such as had not easily before happened to them, there those good experimenters are truly more mute than a fish, and they plainly do not know where to turn. Nor does he abandon them in such cases who follows his prescription, but bids one investigate the causes from the symptoms, from which then all right and legitimate treatment is sought. As for that Catholicum, which you have in the mysteries, I do not wish to trouble you further in the future with asking for it. Whether you send it or do not send it, I shall not be angry, although I should indeed like to know what it is, just as with that other matter which Theodore, our man, also communicated to me in secret. < Catholicum for the same man.> 20 I congratulate you from my heart, however, on what you write, that you have obtained a not inconvenient position; and at the same time I pray God so to bless your undertakings that they may be salutary and useful to many. The same man, D. Ioannes Hetmanuus, an excellent and most upright man, with whom I have so far been living in close companionship, wished the same thing to be announced to you concerning himself. My affairs are as before, and I plainly trust that a little later they will be better. But enough of these things for the present. I wish you well, and I pray that you may continue in health and happiness. Vratisl., from the Elysian quarter, 17 April, 1579. EPIST. CCXXXIII THE SAME TO THE SAME. Most illustrious Doctor, most dear friend, I would rather have deeds than words to offer for clearing away and excusing myself. For if in the future you make up, by diligence in writing, for what has so far been neglected, you will easily obtain forgiveness from me for this tardiness; if not, there is strong reason to fear that what I now quietly cherish in my innermost heart will at last break out into anger. Therefore take care that this may be avoided. You have seen that the method pleased you; I am delighted, and I am plainly glad that my thoughts agree with yours in this too. At first I was offended by the semi-barbarous phrase, and in places also by a certain degree of solecism, but the excellence of the matter it treats readily removed this annoyance. Meanwhile, however, you deprived me of a great convenience, since you compelled me to abstain for so long from reading and examining this book. I shall therefore exact that penalty from you when opportunity arises. I thank you for the method of making the oil, and I shall eagerly seek an opportunity of trying it. Even Zwinger, when I was departing from Basel, communicated something of it to me; but the whole matter was devoted to something else, so that I have not yet been able to learn what effect it had when administered in the so-called blind hemorrhoids. You were, I think, aware that I have seen the Hippocrates of that Theodore of ours. The author himself gave me a copy, which I have begun to read carefully. I recently wrote to him, however, that my desire for the publication of this work was not so much calmed as merely stirred up, since I eagerly desire that the remaining works, which still remain, be published with similar industry and success. Please let me know what you judge about this matter. In return for the mystery you communicated, here receive another item, faithfully copied from Zwinger’s autograph, but not without an addition, so that I may follow Hesiod’s precept. This is how his Catholicon reads: parriglialij, purified guaiacum bark; root of china, one part. Infuse overnight in a sufficient quantity of water in a threefold vessel; if weakness is present, in white wine; if there is inveterate French disease, boil down to half or two-thirds. Let it cool. Take five ounces of the decoction and infuse in it overnight Euxises Rossi, or senna leaves, or about so much. Scammony, a few grains, as the drink requires. It purges harmlessly in every kind of disease, and does not wear one out even for forty days or more, nor does it cause further constipation. It is suitable only for catarrhs, likewise for arthritis and for the French disease as well: purging in the morning, in the evening a simple decoction, which should be diluted with simple rose syrup, or any other suitable thing. Pharmacum Pyrapitum: white alum, a handful; red powder, a handful; black powder, if sufficient. Mix all together. Form into globules. Having perforated leather in a circular fashion, fasten it over them; I shall apply it harmlessly in suitable places. So far. When therefore you have explained in plain speech what secret thing yours contains, you in turn will expect the same from me concerning these matters. Meanwhile, though ignorant of the facts, I shall rejoice in the image, as that man says of his hero. But beware of following the letter until you have learned its cabalistic explanation. For the letter kills; the sense, however, restores lost health. I found, among my papers in the last few days, a somewhat fuller exposition of the Platherian preparation of scammony. It was gratifying, however, that your opinion too was approved. I know that Plather greatly valued it, and that he prepared scammony.

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expissime etiam vsum, vt referebat, felici cum successu. Nunc ad difficultatem tam diluendam, quam proposuisti, accedo. Fateor mihi quoq[ue] primum legenti eam scrupulum mouisse, sed tamen postea visus sum illius sententiam affecutus, cuius quidem summam tali tabella inclusi: Triplex par sis similares secundum. Formosum substantia. In parte similis triplax coactur substantia, nempe. Solida A. In parte similis triplax coactur substantia, nempe. Hæc tabella ad vtrumque Fernelii locum eum in physiologia, tum in pathologia rectè intelligendum facit, nisi quod in altero < Substantia solida.> generalius & ex professo de hoc negorio agit, io altero specialius & magis restricte, prout nimirum tractationis materia & methodus vtrobique tulit. A. Substantiam solidam, eam vocat, quæ reliquis fulcri & basis loco sublernitur, partisque delineationem, & vt ita dicam omnepartium totam complectitur & absoluit. Cooltat autem ex seminis parte erassiore, magisque terrestri, ita tamen vt in aliis magis solida < Humiditas aqua.> reperiatur, veluti in ossibus, cartilaginibus, ligamentis, in aliis minus compacta & densa, quemadmodum in neruis, venis, arteriis, musculus & similibus. In hac solida substantia immediate sedem suam obtinet tum aqua humiditas (B,) quæ penitus terreis crassamenti partibus immersa & commixta, ceu viscum quoddam atque glumen illas inuicem copulat, & firmiter cohærere facit, tum humidum primogenium atque < Humiditas oleagineosa,> radicale vocatum (C,) quod nihil aliud est tevidetur, quam subtilior, tenuior, adeoque aerea seminis pars, caloris natui proprium domilium, & quodammodo pabulum: tum denique spirituosa substantia (E,) hoc est tenuissima, subtilissima, ac pane ætherea natura, igni seu flammæ potius respondent, quæ formæ vicem ob id non immerito gerit & præcipuarum actionum opifex est & admiuistraix. Carnosæ substantiæ (D,) < Substanti spiruosa.> quæ ab ipso sanguine ortum ducit, cauitatesque & spacia inter villorum ductus pri- < Carnosa.> mum relicta explet, magna est varietas. Quædam enim peculiariter & in specie caro(1) dicitur, qualis pulpa est musculorum, quædam coagulati sanguinis forma(2) viscerum < Musculorum.> præcipuorum exædificationem absoluit, vt pote iecinoris, cordis renum, pulmonu[m], &c. & ideo Græcis h. e. affusio ap- pellatur: quædam etiam (3) fibrarum ceu < Fibrarum.> silorum textura & multiplici complicatione constat. Erusmodi sunt ventriculus, v[er]terus, vesica, intestina, item venæ, arteriæ, nerui &c. Fortasse præter hæc & alia carnis < Alia carnis genera.> in genere sic nuncupatæ genera constitui poterunt. si ossa, attentius consideremus, si cartilagines, si medullas; quæ & ipsa in similiarum partium eensu venium. Sed Fer- < In Pathologica cur non enidem sequuntur differentias.> neliana interpretari propositum est in præsentia. Cur vero in pathologia non perlecutus sit omnes differentias, & eodem modo, causa est scopi diuersitas. Etenim superius absolute de his disputauit, & per se: nunc vero eatenus duntaxat, quatenus hecticæ febris speciebus declarandis sufficiunt, ea attingere voluit. Vnde solidam substantiam subduidere nimine necesse habuit, necq[ue] etiam in tribus illis hecticæ gradibus aquæ < Humorem alimentarium seu languinem (qui hic carnosæ substantiæ nomine venit) & oleaginosum seu prunigenium vitentium, & eorum quæ aluntur esse proprios: Aqueum autem & elementarem omnibus prorsus mistis competere. ad quæ in his respicitur. Hæc igitur sunt, quæ pro Fernelio eum ab inconstantia, tum a contradictione vindicando adducere placuit: in quibus an scopum attigerim, tuum nimirum est iudicare. Si quid præterea desiderabis, vt pro viribus tibi satis facere queam, enixe operam dabo. Bene & feliciter vale. Vranislauia Elsiorum, postridie eius diei, quotuas accepi, hoc est, 19. Iul. vt inde diligentiam meam in rescribendo animaduertas, ac tibi ad imitandum proponas. . Itetur vale. EPIST. CCXXXIII. IDEM ETIEM. RESPONDIT tandem rupitq[ue] silentia voce. Cur enim non verium hunc pro mei exculatione præmittam: , postquam ounc dulictum vtinque partis (quod certis quibusdam in tabibus concedunt (mutua compensatione lubrarum est, id lege deinceps inter nos cautum esto: ne responsum vltra mensem summum disseratur. Qui contra faxit, violati sacrosancti amicinæ turis reus habetor. Poenas aut mulcta, pro facti qualitate irroganda, arbitaria esto. Ego sane ne quid contra hanc legem in posterum peccem, diligenter operam dabo, & occasionibus abs te monstratis vtar. Tu vicissim, si quid ad me 2

Transcription: Translated (English)

I have also had, as he related, a very happy experience of its use. Now I come to the difficulty, which you proposed to be cleared up. I confess that at first, on reading it, it also moved a scruple in me, but afterward I seemed to have grasped that author’s meaning, the gist of which I have enclosed in this little table: Triplex par sis similares secundum. Formosum substantia. In parte similis triplax coactur substantia, nempe. Solida A. In parte similis triplax coactur substantia, nempe. This table makes it possible to understand Fernelius correctly in both places, both in physiology and in pathology, except that in the one he treats this matter more generally and expressly, in the other more specifically and more narrowly, just as the subject matter and method of the discussion required in each case. A. He calls “solid substance” that which is placed as support and foundation for the rest, and which, so to speak, includes and completes the outline of the parts and the whole of them. It is formed from the coarser and more earthy part of the seed, yet in such a way that in some things it is found more solid— Humiditas aqua. for example in bones, cartilages, and ligaments—while in others it is less compact and dense, as in nerves, veins, arteries, muscles, and the like. In this solid substance there immediately has its seat both aqueous humidity (B), which, deeply immersed and mixed with the earthy and gross parts, binds them together like a kind of glue and birdlime and causes them to cohere firmly, and the primitive and radical humid substance, called oily (C), which appears to be nothing other than the subtler, thinner, and therefore more airy part of the seed, the proper dwelling and, as it were, nourishment of the natural heat; and finally the spiritual substance (E), that is, the very finest, most subtle, and almost ethereal nature, which answers rather to fire or flame, and therefore not undeservedly plays the role of form and is the maker and minister of the principal actions. As for the fleshy substance (D), which takes its origin from the blood itself and first fills the cavities and spaces left between the courses of the fibers, there is a great variety. Some flesh is called so especially and in a strict sense, such as the flesh of the muscles; some completes the construction of the principal viscera in the form of coagulated blood, as in the liver, heart, kidneys, lungs, etc., and is therefore called by the Greeks an affusion; some again consists of the texture and manifold interweaving of fibers, or rather threads. Such are the stomach, uterus, bladder, intestines, and also the veins, arteries, nerves, etc. Perhaps besides these and other kinds of flesh so named in general, other genera may be established if we consider bones more closely, cartilages, and marrow; these too come into the class of similar parts. But the intention here is to interpret Fernelius. But why in pathology did he not examine all the differences in the same way? The reason is the diversity of purpose. For above he discussed these matters absolutely and in themselves; now, however, he wished to touch on them only insofar as they are sufficient for explaining the species of hectic fever. Hence he had no need to subdivide solid substance, nor in those three grades of hectic fever to refer to the aqueous— the alimentary humor or blood (which here comes under the name of fleshy substance) and the oily or primitive substance as proper to living things and to those that are nourished; but the aqueous and elemental, on the other hand, as belonging absolutely to all mixed things—for it is to these that reference is made here. These, then, are the points I have chosen to bring forward in Fernelius’s defense, both against inconsistency and against contradiction. Whether in these I have hit the mark, it is for you, of course, to judge. If you desire anything further, I shall diligently do my best to satisfy you as far as I can. Farewell, and fare well happily. Vranislauia Elsiorum, the day after the one on which I received yours, that is, 19 July, so that you may observe my diligence in replying from this, and set it before yourself as something to imitate. Farewell. EPIST. CCXXXIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. At last he answered and broke the silence with his voice. For why should I not put forward this, for my own excuse: after the mutual settlement of the fault on both sides—which, by certain terms, they allow through a mutual compensation of labors—let this law henceforth be established among us, that no response be delayed beyond the space of a single month. Whoever acts contrary to this shall be held guilty of violating the sacred law of friendship. The penalty, or fine to be imposed according to the nature of the act, shall be left to arbitration. For my part, in order that I may not in future commit anything against this law, I shall diligently take care and use the opportunities pointed out by you. You, in turn, if anything to me

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penetrarent: tumori frustra fotus, illitus & emplastra adhibuerunt. quinetiam balneis, & nescio quibus aliis pharmacis xgrum mi- sere satis diu torserunt. A me percuratum affitmare ooo queo. Præterquam coim quod medicamentorum iam pertæsus, dif- ficulter à nobis præscripta (quæ tamen ma- xima ex parte dixiam concernebant,) ad- mitteret: prius etiam, quam cura morbi chronici fiori posset illinc discessi, ab eo 10 tempore quid factum sit, nihil amplius co- gouui. cupio illi esse quam optime. Vt vo- mitoriis rarius vtar & cautius, exdem me ra[ti]ones impellunt, quas tu abducis. Olim quidem peruulgatas fuisse, & pæne familia- res, in Græcia inprimis, & Ægypto, Medi- eorum libri relicti satis superque testantur. qui naturæ sponte eo non feruntur, iis vix impetare soleo. Fortasse quæ alumn blan- de subducunt, & abstensionis vim habent, 20 tantundem præstant. Talis est aloe nostra, species hieræ, & alia huiusmodi. Do. Cra- to in frequenti vsu haber agaricum receo- ter trochiscatum, & cum oxymelite suba- ctum ad 3j. vel 3iij. plerumque vomitus sponse subsequitur, quem inhibendum & reprimendum non esse monet. sin mious: ne sic tamen spe nostra omninò frustramur. De succo absinthii quæ affers, in iis ne quid dissimulem, tibi non assentior, quin potius 3c ideo voentriculo minus gratum quam folia, comas aut semen esse arbitor: quod vi ab- stersoria & astringente, quæ in terreis parti- bus potissimum residet, fere destituatur. Vnde non possum noo Roodeletium de- mirari, quite assercote (non enim ipse legi) maiorem etiam adstrictionem succo, quam reliquis partibus tribuat, quis enim hoc il- licredat obsecro? Rei certè natuta contra- dicit, secundum cuius ordinem semper suc- cus plus aquositatis participat, sicut partes solidæ & sicca, vtpote folia, radices, semina plus (liceat in præsentia sic loqui) terrestreitatis. ab hac autem, & non ab illa omnium Medicorum consensu, stipticitas & astricho dependet. Sed etiamsi Galeno quoque de- mus succum longe calidiorum esse ipsa her- ba, nunquid propterea ventriculo plus ad- uersabitur? Non opinor. quamobrem quæ tux argumentationis hac in parte vis sit, pla- 40 ne non assequor. In curatioe hæmoptoi- ci, quam recenses, nihil erroris quod admis- sum sit, animaduerto. Si tanta copia sangui- nis simul effluxit, venam aliquam grandio- rem per anastomosin apertam quam ru- ptam, aut exesam verisimilius est. Consta- tibus viribus, & corpore plethorico existo- te, venæ sectionem potentis reuulsionis gra- tia oon improbo. Sed cur potioi sisse ori champhoram addis? An noo hæc ratione tenuitatis pattrium magis motum adiuvat, quam iohibet? Nisi abs te edocear, causam huius rei indigare noo queo. Emplastica in huiusmodi calibus valde prodesse sentio; qualia sunt bolus, terra lemoia, coralli & a- lia huius farinx. Puluerem Iulii Cæsaris Scaligeri, quem Valerius in exercitationi- bus Hollerianis adeo commendat, tibi no- tum esse opinor. Cerotum quoque faota- linum regioni ieoris applicatum magnam vtilitatem adfert. Sed cur magistri partes mihi sumo? Ad quæstionem: Num potus à vino vel cereuista inchoan dus sit, ex veteris verficii feotentia respondeo, Potio finalis sit semper ceruissalis. Et hunc morem ego quoque studiose seruare soleo, vt quando- cunque licet praudium vel coenam, & hanc quidem potissimum, cereuistæ potu clau- dam. Ratio ea est, vt halitus seu vapores mi- nus confertim à ventriculo ad cerebrum ferantur, & illud turbent. Frigiditate enim cereuistæ quodammodo reprimuntur. Si tamen somnum quis conciliare malit, ei vt vinum & quidem paulo liberalius vltimo loco bibat, plane suaserim. Ita vides, cum ad singularia seu deuenitur, ohih esse in arte nostro perpetuæ veritatis. Ad ex- tremum illud abs te rogauerim, vt de pro- gressu morbi epidemii nuper grassantis, quem apud vos tenuit, me certiorem facias, & si quid aliud peculiari in illius curatioe observasti. Item: nunquid vere contagio- sum fuisse putes, & vnde originem traxerit? Quid febris catarrho illi adiuncta, an ephe- mera fuit, an syoochus imputris, an vero de contiuarum genere aliqua? venæ sectio & expurgatio num vestris hominib, vtiles fue- re? Habeo noo pauca, quæ hoc loco referre possem, sed tua audire prius malo. in dia- phorericis summa curationis haud dubie reposita fuit. Dominus Crato puluere cor- nu cerui, bolo armena, terra sigillata cum a- qua cardui, vel acetosæ, & granis aliquot camphuræ præcipue vsus fuit. Alii electua- rium quoddam, Diasulphuris vocatum, ve- hementer prufuisse testati sunt: cuius de- scriptionem, artificiosam sane & minime vulgarem, alias tecum communicaturus suiu. Nunc bene & feliciter vale, & quam- primum tibi commodum visum fuerit, re- scribe. Pragæ Boiem. 28. Octob. An. 1580. EPIST. CCXXXV. IDEM EIDEM. Vitæ faris ex literis tuis collig- num meas, quas mense adhuc queo

Transcription: Translated (English)

They tried to force it through: the tumor they had in vain treated with fomentations, ointments, and plasters. Indeed, with baths and, I know not what other remedies, they tormented the sick man for quite a long time. I can assert that he was thoroughly treated by me. Besides, being already weary of medicines, he would with difficulty accept what had been prescribed by us, though for the most part those prescriptions concerned me; before a cure of the chronic disease could even be attempted, I left there, and from that time on I have known nothing further about what happened. I wish him to be as well as possible. That I use emetics more rarely and more cautiously, the same reasons move me as those you bring against them. It is true that they were once widely used, and almost familiar, especially in Greece and Egypt, as the books of the physicians left behind testify sufficiently. I rarely force them on those whom nature does not of itself incline to them. Perhaps those medicines that gently draw off the humors, and have the force of abstention, accomplish the same thing. Such are our aloe, the various kinds of hiera, and other remedies of that sort. Doctor Crato commonly used agaric, not prepared in trochisci, but worked up with oxymel, in the dose of 3j or 3iij; this usually brings on vomiting of itself, which he advises should not be prevented or suppressed. But if it does less, still let us not altogether lose hope. As for what you add about the juice of wormwood, I do not agree with you, if I am to conceal nothing: rather, I think it is less agreeable to the stomach than the leaves, tops, or seed; because it is almost devoid of that astringent and drying power which resides chiefly in the earthy parts. For this reason I cannot but admire Roodeletius, who asserts, as you write, that the juice has even greater astringency than the other parts (for I have not read him myself); for who would believe that, I ask? Nature itself certainly contradicts it, according to whose order the juice always has more watery substance, while the solid and dry parts, such as leaves, roots, and seeds, have more, if I may so speak, earthiness. And from this, and not from the other, in the unanimous judgment of physicians, dryness and astringency depend. But even if we grant, with Galen too, that the juice is much hotter than the herb itself, would it therefore be more offensive to the stomach? I think not. For which reason I do not at all understand what force there is in your argument on this point. In the treatment of the man with hemoptysis, which you recount, I observe no error that was committed. If so much blood flowed out at once, it is more likely that some larger vein was opened by anastomosis than that it was ruptured or eroded. Provided the strength remains and the body is plethoric, I do not disapprove of venesection for the sake of powerful revulsion. But why do you add camphor to the drink? Is it not rather by reason of its thinness that it assists the movement of the blood, more than it hinders it? Unless you instruct me otherwise, I cannot seek the cause of this matter. I think plasters are very useful in such cases; such are bolus, terra lemnia, coral, and other powders of this kind. I suppose you know the powder of Julius Caesar Scaliger, which Valerius so highly recommends in the Hollerian exercises. A cerate of faecal fat applied to the region of the liver also brings great benefit. But why am I taking on the role of teacher? To the question whether drink should begin with wine or beer, I answer according to the old verse: the final drink should always be beer. I too diligently keep this custom, so that whenever it is permitted I end the dinner or supper, and especially the latter, with beer. The reason is that the vapors or fumes are less densely carried from the stomach to the brain and disturb it less. For they are somehow checked by the coolness of beer. If, however, someone prefers to induce sleep, I would plainly advise him to drink wine, and indeed somewhat more freely, at the last. Thus you see that, when one comes to particulars, there is nothing in our art of perpetual truth. Finally, I would ask you to inform me about the progress of the epidemic disease that has recently been raging among you and has prevailed there, and whether you observed anything else peculiar in its treatment. Also: do you think it was truly contagious, and from where did it originate? What of the fever associated with that catarrh: was it ephemeral, a non-putrid synochus, or rather of the class of continuous fevers? Were venesection and purgation useful among your people? I have several things I could mention here, but I prefer to hear your account first. In diaphoretic remedies the whole success of the cure undoubtedly lay. Lord Crato made special use of powdered hartshorn, Armenian bolus, terra sigillata with water of thistle or sorrel, and a few grains of camphor. Others testified that a certain electuary, called Diasulphuris, had been very effective; the description of it, truly ingenious and by no means common, I shall share with you on another occasion. Now farewell, and be well and happy; and as soon as it seems convenient to you, write back. From Prague in Bohemia, October 28, 1580. EPISTLE CCXXXV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I gather my life’s fortunes from your letters, which I have still from the month...

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419 EPISTOLÆ 410 & obri ad te dedi, acceperis. Frater quidem eas recte ad te curatas esse in proximis scribit. < Oranedo anheliosa. Catarrhous Epidemicum. > Sed facile fieri potest, vt impedimentum aliquod in cideret, cuius gratia tardius ad te perlatæ sunt. Pro gratulatione tua magnas agogratis, & tibi vicissim omnia fausta æ felicia reprecor. Caue autem putes, me alio animo erga te futurum, quam hactenus fui temper. Colamus inter nos amicitas non fucatas, non aulicas: sed philosophicas, < Cranedo anheliosa. Catarrhous Epidemicum. > quæ cum firmo fundamento nitanur stabiles sunt & ipse atque firmæ, nec cuius impetui cedunt. De morbo epidemio in superioribus etiam attigi aliquid & responsum abs te expecto. Placet id quod ex Fernelio affers de grauedine anbelosa, & ipse etiam statuo, finitimos hosce morbos esse. Iohannis Wieri obseruationes ad manus non habeo. D. Balihafar Brumerus Medicus physicus reipublicæ Hallensis apud Saxones, < 10 > pecularem commentariolum nuper admodum edidit: in quo febris pestilentialis potius tradit, quam buius epidemici catasthi. Stengliana magis arrident, quamuis & ipsa aliquas patuntur. Nemo mihi facile persuaserit, in malignorum numero habendum qui tam paucos intereunt, & plerisque salubris fuit, imo etiam in futurum causas morbificas abstulit, vt non immerito de illata sibi ab eo inuria Medici conqueri possint. D. Crato febrem illam catastho adiunctâ inter referebat, contra Mercuialem, qui in tynochorum imputrium censu illam collicebat. Putredinem vero aliquam, saltem Icuem, assuisse ex contagiones nota mihi firmiter persuadeo. Refert similem morbum < similia morbum. > Rondeletius noster in lib. de cognoscendis morbis, & Iulius Palmarius in præstantiæ illo volumine de morbis In eui a tibi plane accedo. Parum enim felici successu potentia illa præsidia, venæ nempe, & expurgatio adhibita sunt. Bezoartica plurimum profuerunt. Ad Capouaccium, cuius tu præclaram, vt meretur, mentionem facis, superioribus diebus scripsi: & dubia quædam exposui, ad quæ, vt hactenus facere solitus est, cum benigne responsum confido. Velim me in eo, quod < 10 > petis tibi gratificari posse. At profecto ipse pleraque illius adhuc desidero: & doleo, mihi tantum otii non superesse, vt ipse ea descrihere mea manu possim: ægre enim in talibus librarii opera vtor. Indicauit tamen in proximis occasionem, quæ hac in parte vti non incommode posses. Promisit aliquando Capouaccius, se similmethodo etiam < Methodus tuenda, janu. 1411. > artem siue de tuenda sanitate complexurum, id quod ab eo petere, & cù- stantem vrgere non desino; quicquid alii de huius virilaboribus iudicent, ego illos minime vulgares, sed ex inima potius philosophiæ & medicinæ medulla de promptos esse puto. Gratæ mihi fuerunt binæ descriptiones, quas epistolæ tuæ inferere dignatus es. Priorem, quæ Helideum autorem habet, in meis adversariis consignarum reperi: alteram Platherianam non item. Dabo operam, mi charissime Weidnere, vt par pari referam, & quidem quamprimum. Disputationem Erafti de putredine nondum integre perlegi. Quæ tamen hactenus in illa obseruaui, de iis coram tecum agere mallem, quam per literas. Interim hoc tantum abs 10 quæro: An illud etiam pomorum vitium (ita enim sane appellem) pro putredine habeas, Mann sie beginnen teig werden. Verbum Latinum, quo hanc rem proprie exprimas, abs te scire cupio. Nisi fallo apud Plinium alieni exstat. Si dices putredinis esse: tum necessario quam- putredinem præcedet. Sed res non ita habet. Et præterea non corruptio quædam videtur esse (qualis omnis putredo est) sed potius maturatio seu perfectio. Etenim fructus serotini & pyra duriora hac ratione suaniorem saporem adipiscuntur, & maturiora esse iudicantur. Verum de his te cogitationem vberiorem suscipere malo. Cynoglossum, cur à nobis petas miror. Credo quemuis horrum tibi suppeditare posse. loqvor autem de illo quod humi sternitur, & cum Dioscoridis descriptione conuenit: non de altero quod caulem cubitalem aut altiorem etiam addit. Si tamen omnino ad eum casum expetis, in quo Aubertus conferre asseuerat: Moibani interim antidotum eius loco vsurpare potes. Sed non possum plura in præsentia. Vbi tuas vicissim accepero, in me scribendi diligentiam non desideraturus es. Bene & feliciter vale, Pragæ Boiemorum 22. Dec. An. 80. exeunte. EPIST. CCXXXVII IDEM EIDEM. MOR te nullas cum isthoc ad me dedisse literas, hæ sola contentum excusatione, quod vbinam loci nunc agerem, nescires. Quasi vero probabile sit te nescire: in iis me esse oportere, quæ sunt patris mei, hoc est, quæ muneris & officii mei ratio ex postulat. Si quidem enim aulæ m e Cæsareæ (quamuis indignum) Medicum esse nosti, qui ab illa me longius abesse tibi in mentem venire potuit, aut etiam debuit? Vides igitur mi Weid-

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419 LETTERS 410 I have given them to you by A. Obri, you will have received them. My brother writes in his recent letter that they were properly forwarded to you. < Oranedo anheliosa. Catarrhous Epidemicum. > But it is easily possible that some obstacle occurred, because of which they were delivered to you more slowly. In congratulating you, I offer you my hearty thanks, and in return I wish for you all good things and happiness. But be careful not to think that I shall have any other feeling toward you than I have hitherto always had. Let us cultivate between us friendships that are not counterfeit, not courtly, but philosophical, < Cranedo anheliosa. Catarrhous Epidemicum. > which, resting on a firm foundation, are stable and strong, and yield to no assault whatever. I have also said something above about the epidemic disease, and I await your reply. I approve what you cite from Fernelius concerning the wheezing heaviness of breathing, and I myself also hold that these are neighboring diseases. I do not have Johann Wier's observations at hand. D. Balihafar Brumerus, a physicist physician of the republic of Halle among the Saxons, 10 recently published a small treatise of his own, in which he treats rather of pestilential fever than of this epidemic condition. Stengl's views appeal to me more, although he too suffers from some difficulties. No one would easily persuade me that it is to be counted among the malignant diseases, since so few die from it, and it was salutary for most, indeed even removed the causes of illness for the future, so that the physicians may not undeservedly complain of the injury done them by it. D. Crato classed that fever among the condition, in opposition to Mercuriale, who enrolled it among the fevers of putrid type. Yet I am firmly persuaded, from the sign of contagion, that some putrefaction, at least slight, was present. He reports a similar disease, similar disease. > our Rondeletius in the book On Recognizing Diseases, and Julius Palmarius in that excellent volume On Diseases. In this I entirely agree with you. For those powerful remedies, namely venesection and purging, were employed with little success. Bezoar medicines were of great benefit. I wrote some days ago to Capouaccius, of whom you make such excellent mention as he deserves, and I raised certain doubts, to which I trust he will reply kindly, as he has been accustomed to do hitherto. I should like to be able to oblige you in the matter you ask. But in truth I still lack much of that work myself, and I regret that I do not have so much leisure that I could transcribe it with my own hand; for I am reluctant to use a scribe in such matters. In his recent letter, however, he indicated an opportunity which in this regard you might conveniently make use of. Capouaccius once promised that, in a similar method too, < Methodus tuenda, Janu. 1411. > he would compose the art, or rather the way, of preserving health, and I never cease to ask him for it and to urge him steadily. Whatever others may judge of this man's labors, I think them by no means commonplace, but rather drawn from the innermost marrow of philosophy and medicine. I was pleased by the two descriptions you were good enough to include in your letter. I found the first, whose author is Helideus, recorded among my notes; the other, the Platherian one, not so. I shall do my best, dearest Weidner, to render like for like, and as soon as possible. I have not yet read Erastus's disputation On Putrefaction in full. Yet what I have observed in it so far, I would rather discuss with you in person than by letter. Meanwhile I ask only this of you: do you also regard that defect of apples (for so I would indeed call it), Mann sie beginnen teig werden, as putrefaction? I wish to know from you the Latin word by which you properly express this thing. Unless I am mistaken, alieni occurs in Pliny. If you say it is putrefaction, then a preceding putrefaction must necessarily be assumed. But the matter is not so. And besides, it does not seem to be a corruption of some kind, as all putrefaction is, but rather a ripening or perfection. For late fruit and harder pears by this means acquire a more pleasant taste and are judged to be riper. But on these matters I prefer that you take up a fuller consideration. I wonder why you ask me for Cynoglossum. I believe anyone could supply you with that herb. I am speaking, however, of that which lies flat on the ground and agrees with Dioscorides' description, not of the other kind, which also adds a cubit-high stem or even taller. If, however, you absolutely seek it for that case in which Aubertus assured that it is to be used, you can meanwhile use Moibani's antidote in its place. But I cannot say more at present. When I in turn have received yours, you will not find me wanting in diligence to write back. Farewell, and may you fare well and happily, at Prague of the Bohemians, 22 December, at the end of the year 80. EPIST. CCXXXVII THE SAME TO THE SAME. I AM astonished that you have sent me no letters with that matter, excusing yourself only on the ground that you do not know where I am now staying. As if it were at all likely that you should not know that I must be in those places which belong to my father, that is, which the requirements of my office and duty demand. For if indeed you know that I am a physician of the Caesarean court, though unworthy, how could it have occurred to you, or even have been proper, to think that I was far away from it? You see then, my Weid-

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Weidnere, quam inane su hoc & nullius momenti upo , quod tibi is mollitur qu assumere, & silentio minime neces- tario prætexere placuit. Ideoq[ue] non magis tibi allaborandum, vt admissum erratum corrigas, & quibus potes modis cõtractam ne- gligentia maculam eluas, quod non alia via allequere promptius aut facilius, quam si id, quod nunc prætermisum est, in proximis tuis scriptionis prolixitate abunde compenses. Ego quidem non illas solum, sed forte etiam alias plures hoc in loco abs te expe- ctabo: ex quo quando digressuri simus, nô- dum satis constat. Negotiorum certe, quæ quotidie offerûnt & moles & varietas tam cito te se expedirimur patientur. <Arbitrio Patr. Men.> Posonio Panniorum (vbi sequimensem integrum conuentus durauit) cum Viennam redire- mus, paucis post diebus in arthridem, quæ omnes penè cotporis artus peruagata est, Incidi. Factus sum enim ex schiadico go- nagricus, inde podagricus, demum etiam chiragricus, quin & colli partes malum hoc infestare non prætermisit. Præcipuam mor- bi causam hæmorrhoidum: quæ secundum naturam singulis ferme mensibus mihi an- tea fluere iulebant, suppressionem fuisse statuo. Ea enim ratione materia collecta, cum iuxta consuetudinem non vacuaretur, vicinas partes occupauit. Accersit stimuli loco vinum Vngaricum forte & habitu- tum: quod me liberalius inter Pannones haussisse (ita enim in aulis plærumq[ue] & vni- tur & bibitur) non diffueor. Cum me satis diu morbus ille, stultitiæ meæ poenas per sol- uens, assi xisset, quadragesimo demum die (qui tunc primus Maij erat) ex Hippocrates vaticinio domo prodire coepi. Velim hic scire: quod tu consilij ad piouocandum de- nuo hæmorrhoidas præscribas? Debilibus mediis, quales sunt hieta s. aloë non lota, frt- tiones ani cum asperis pannis, & similia, frustra bactenus sum vsus: à fortiorib[us] etiam consucho abstineo, quod metuam ne vehe- mentius irritatæ hæmorrhoides illæ post- modum ægre & magno cum pericilo sisti queant, quando sponse queque sua fluentes antea, fete semper modum in effundendo sanguinem excesserunt, mecq[ue] sæpe decolo- rem reddiderunt. Sed & illud absce lubens quæsierim: Num mo:bum hunc in poste- rum per intertuala rediturum censeas, nec ne? Ego quidem ita mihi persuasi: Quugo esse rationem aliam podagræ, chiragræ aut gonagræ in specie ita dictarum: ab arthriti- de, quæ generali nomine sic nuncupatur. Il- læ enim periodos solênes seruare, ac per in- tertuala istata & certa redire solent: hanc cu[m] quasi critica quædam expulsio sit, & ideo o- mnes penè artus tempestatis in morem per- uoliter, vntea inuasione seu paroxysmo sinti existimo, nisi scilicet causæ externæ tam potentes accedant, vt nouum morbum pro- creandi & suscitandi potestatem habeant. Tibi an idem videatur, scire percupio. Gau- debo sane & in mea opiniove magis consit- mabor; situ assenseris. nolim tamen te ea propter celare, quæ mihi hac in parte metu- enda iudices. Vino fortasse omni in vniuer- sum interdices, & leges viuendi præscribes durissimas; quas vt in hoc vitæ genere ita strictè seruare possim, valde vereor. Audiam tamen nihilominus re libenter, & quantu o- mnino licet consilio & præceptis tuis obse- quar. Imo tibi malorem etiam quam mihi fidem adhibebo: quandoquidem sibi quisq[ue] pessimus vt magister ita etiam medicus est. Superioribus proximis diebus Episcopum quendam per Dei gratiam sanirati restituui- mus; qui ex vehementissimo intulru epile- ptico postea in comæ petuigil incidit. Velim torum medicationis cursum me tibi percé- sere debere. Paucis interiectis horis cum vires constarent, & corpus impura plethora esset refertissimum; non modo acres clyste- res iniecimus, sed ex venasecta large fluere sanguinem permisimus; exhibito præterea vel potius in os infuso cathartico, etiam ex- purgauimus. nec infeliciter consilium illud nostrum, etiamsi aliqui sedulo aduei saren- tur, processit. nempe extremis morbis ex- trema quoque exquisitæ remedia opponen- da esse præclare censuit Hippocrates no- ster. Ad Pragenses meas responsum abs te exspecto. Nihil mihi gratius est hoc in loco: quim cum 101 præstantibus viris amicitiam inire, qui vndiq[ue] huc aduolant. Te quoque inter illos esse valde optatem. quod tamen commode fieri non potest; interim æquo feramus animo. Petchas aliquando à me phi- lothrum. Nunc hoc capè; Sume lactis ca- prini q. ad de alumen puluerifatu, & inui- cem misce. postea stula per filtrum. Cum hoc inunge loca, ex quibus pilos auferri cu- pis, sudatu, prius, quam iterum abluas. Tu- ro huius experientiam facere, & mihi de e- uenu postmodum significare poteris Bene & feliciter vale, mi charissime Weidnere, &c mei memoriam cum beueuolentia conser- ua. Augustæ Vindelicorum è comitis, t7. Iulij, Anno 1582. EPIST. CCXXXVIL IDEM EIDEM Accipio excusationem prætermis- sionis literarum, quam præiendis; &c. S 4

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You say that this is a much more empty and worthless excuse, and that it pleased you to cover up, by silence that was quite unnecessary, the matter you had undertaken. Therefore you should labor all the more to correct the mistake committed, and by whatever means you can wash away the stain contracted through negligence; and this can be achieved more promptly and easily by no other way than if you abundantly make up, in your next writings, for what has now been omitted. For my part, I shall expect not only those passages, but perhaps even several others from you in this place, since it is not yet sufficiently clear when we shall be departing. Certainly the quantity and variety of business that presents itself daily will not permit you to get free of it so quickly. <By the judgment of Patriarch Men.> When we were returning from Pozsony in Pannonia to Vienna, after the assembly had lasted the full month of September, a few days later I fell into arthritis, which had spread through nearly all the joints of my body. For I became, from a sciatica sufferer, a sufferer of gout, then of chiagra, and finally the illness did not even spare the parts of the neck. I judge the chief cause of the disease to have been the suppression of the hemorrhoids, which formerly used to flow for me almost every month according to nature. For in that way, when the matter had accumulated and was not evacuated according to custom, it occupied neighboring parts. As an exciting cause there came the strong and habitual Hungarian wine, of which I do not deny that I drank rather freely among the Pannonians—for in courts it is generally both poured and drunk in that way. When that illness, paying the penalty for my folly, had held me fast for a sufficiently long time, only on the fortieth day, which then was the first of May, did I begin to go out of the house, according to Hippocrates’ prophecy. I should like to know here what advice you prescribe for bringing the hemorrhoids back again. I have hitherto used weak remedies, such as hieta or unwashed aloe, rubbing the anus with rough cloths, and the like, to no avail; from stronger remedies too I abstain, since I fear that those hemorrhoids, once excited more violently, may afterward be hard to stop and with great danger, since before, when they flowed of their own accord, they had always exceeded the proper measure in shedding blood and often made me pale. But I would gladly ask this as well: do you think that this illness hereafter will return at intervals, or not? For I have indeed persuaded myself that there is one kind of podagra, chiragra, or gonagra, so called in a special sense, and another of arthritis, which is designated by the general name. The former are accustomed to preserve regular periods and return at those fixed intervals; this one, since it is as it were a kind of critical evacuation, seems to me to sweep through nearly all the joints like a storm before the attack or paroxysm, unless indeed external causes intervene so powerfully that they have the power to generate and stir up a new disease. Whether the same seems true to you, I am most eager to know. I shall certainly rejoice, and shall confirm myself more in my own opinion, if you agree. Yet I should not wish to hide from you, on that account, what you judge to be to be feared in this matter. Perhaps you will forbid wine altogether and prescribe the harshest rules of life; but I greatly fear that I may be able to observe them so strictly in this way of living. Nevertheless I shall gladly hear, and as far as is altogether permitted, I shall obey your counsel and precepts. Indeed I shall trust you even more than myself, since each person is his own worst judge, and so also his own physician. On one of the preceding days, by the grace of God, we restored a certain bishop to health; he had afterward fallen into a comatose state following a most violent epileptic attack. I should like to present to you the whole course of the treatment. After only a few hours, when the strength held firm and the body was crammed full with impure plethora, we not only injected sharp enemas, but also allowed much blood to flow from venesection; and in addition, after administering—or rather pouring into his mouth—a cathartic, we purged him as well. Nor did that plan of ours proceed unhappily, even though some resisted it diligently. Indeed our Hippocrates wisely judged that in extreme diseases, extreme and carefully chosen remedies must also be applied. I await your reply to my letters at Prague. Nothing is more pleasant to me here than to make friends with the 101 distinguished men who flock hither from everywhere. I greatly wish that you too were among them; but since that cannot conveniently happen, let us bear it with an even temper. Sometimes I shall send you a philothrum. Now take this: take goat’s milk, add powdered alum, and mix them together. Then strain it through a filter. With this, anoint the places from which you wish the hairs to be removed, after sweating, before washing again. You can try this experiment and afterward let me know the outcome. Farewell well and happily, my dearest Weidner, and preserve my memory with goodwill. At Augsburg, the 17th of July, in the year 1582. LETTER CCXXXVII THE SAME TO THE SAME I accept your excuse for the omission of letters, which you have sent beforehand, etc.

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423 EPISTOLÆ 424 iam si non omni ex parte mihi satisfaciat. Vi- deris enim subesse culpæ si non latissimæ at saltem latæ, quam, nisi scriptionis frequen- ria, in posterum expiare nullo pacto potes. Neque tamen interea te plane liberum pro- nuncio ab eo debito, quod tibi pro iis per- soluendum est, quas amissas esse scribis. Forte enim cum occupatior esses, in eas ti- bi diligentiis inquirere non libuit. Noli pu- tare, mea mea tam vili pendere: vt ea sic ab- iici velim, quod minus postea denuo repe- riri queant. Vix credas quam magna & pæne intolerabili poenate affecturus tum: si deperditas illas meas non denuo in lucem produceris, & pristinam illis dignitatem re- stitueris. Sic soleo in eos, qui meo impe- rio subsunt. Sed tamen omisso quæramus serialudo. Gratiam habeo, quod te de re- cuperata valetudine mea lætari significas: cum quidem illi hominum generi, qui cum arthriticis doloribus confictantur pæne magis insultari soleat, ac secundum Apo- stolum afflictio afflictioni addi. T utamen, quod hoc facere intermittis, verum te esse amicum ostendis, & orumq[ue] istis profecto non plane ridiculis doloribus. Expertus af- firmo, & ne tu in similes incidas, opto pre- corque. In prouocandis hæmori hodi- bus tuo plane consilio obsequar. Non faci- le mihi persuaderi patiar, vt nimis vehem[en]tibus vtat. Fere enim maius periculum est in sistendis illis, quam prouocandis: maxi- me si secundum naturam, id quod mihi ac- cidit, vberius fluant. Etsi vero nondum o- mino pristinam confuetudinem seruant: repetito tamen vsu aloes ante coenam, sen- tio nonnihil sese illas rursus explicare, & ad fluendum comparare. nolo illas acerbius prouocare. Commendat Varignana pluri- mum oleum irinum, item radicem lilij, quo- cunque modo imponatur, cuius fortasse, cum periculum nullum adiunctum habeat, paulo post periculum faciam. Ad sectiones nunquam volens accedam: cum illud quo- que exemplum, quod tu commemoras, me deterreat. Quæ postea de repetitis arthri- tidis inuasionibus attexis: ea te aulicum non esse atque adulari atque blandiri non posse, plane arguunt. Eam enim ponissimum ob causam hanc disputationem moueram: vt me, qui vix hoc malum effugi, consola- reris, fore, vt nunquam, aut saltem perraro reuerteretur. Tu vero hæc controuersia neglecta, scapham scaphiam dixisti, & mihi nouam pene solicitudinem iniicis, vt magis quam antea mihi à molestiis illis metuam. Vt Cicero in epistola ad Luceium, etiam plusculum quam veritas concedit de se di- ci postulat: ita ego quoque putabam te o- pinionem meam confirmaturum, etiamsi non exquisitissime cum artis præceptis con- ueniet: quod quidem ad ægros facere sole- re Medicos vt illos in spem erigant, notum est. adeo etiam vt hoc respectu aliquando ad me, tum Patauij decumbentem, diceret Bucephalus: Medici nunquam veradicunt. Fortasse autem tu putasti: Medicum à me- dico decipi æquum non esse, & ab hoc fa- cilius quam ab aliis frandem deprehendi. Quicquid tamen sit: ne nunc quidem nbi plane assentior, quod ad arthriticas perio- dos attiner. Cum enim per modum criscos expulsio fiat, vix est vetosimile, omnes cor- poris artus ita debilitari, vt infirmitatis ra- tione deinceps semper similem fluxionem suscipient. quemadmodum in podagra sit, aut chiragra: vbi leui occasione inuasio re- petit, & pæne certas periodos seruar. An vero arboriticus morbus, hoc est, qui sine discrimine omnes artus corporis perreptar idem sit cum eo, quem Cardanus vagum appellat, & de quo peculiarem tractatum conscripsit, tu videris. Quod à vino abstine- re iubes: rem duram imperas. An vero soli- us aquæ potu contentum esse præcipis? Ni- mirum caute & prudenter vocem Tinepiæ- mus , quæ etiam apud Theognidem exitat, adlicis. Sed non licet nobis aulicis sæpe ita viuere, vt volumus: quando ad aliorum ar- bitrium nos comparare necesse est. Tecum qui tuo more domesticam rem instituis, be- ne agitur. A Basiliensibus iamdudum nihil habeo: quod contagionis ratione loca illa male tuta essent. Ad D. Zwingerum & Pla- therum paulo post scribam. D Simon Gry- neus Medicus diem suum peste extinctus obiit. Quid de reliquis fiat, aut factum sit, cupide scire desidero. Cur Hippocrates humorem melancholicum æquam, vel vt in Græco textu est, eopum appellar, ad Era- sti disputationes remittis. quas certe, si ad manum haberem, inspicere non intermit- terem. Sed qui in ista oberratione bonorum libroru[m] copia instructum esse licet? Est no- bis aulicis illud in ore, quod Bias ni fallor, de sedixit: Omnia mea mecum porto. Par- tem librorum meorum Pragæ habeo: parte[m] Vratislauiz in patria, partem eorum etiam hic Viennæ. Illos in vnum cogere ecquado licet? subinde enim aula mutatur, quam me sequi necesse est. Librorum vero supelle- talem instructam quomodo quis secu cir- cumferat? Quæ tua de hac re sit sententia scire desidero. Postea ad Erastum, velut su- premu[m] iudicem, si ita libet, prouocabimus. De paralysi post colicam non paruæ est con- trouersia. Non dubito te ea vidisse & legisse quæ Erastus de illa scribit in 4. parte Para- celsi- < Varignana remedia in prouocatione hæmori vulcium.> < Care pera- lysia in quæ se solus est.>

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423 EPISTLES 424 now, even if it does not satisfy me in every respect. For there seems to be some fault involved, if not a very broad one, at least a broad one, which, unless you make up for it by frequent writing, you can by no means expiate in the future. And yet I do not at the same time declare you wholly free from that debt which must be paid to you on account of those letters which you say have been lost. For perhaps, when you were more occupied, it did not suit you to inquire into them with diligence. Do not think that I value my letters so lightly as to want them thrown away in such a way that they may afterwards be found again with more difficulty. You can scarcely believe how greatly, and almost unbearably, you would make me suffer if you do not bring those lost letters of mine back into the light, and restore to them their former dignity. So I am accustomed to act toward those who are under my authority. But leaving that aside, let us discuss the matter seriously. I am grateful that you indicate you rejoice at my recovered health; since indeed among that class of men who are afflicted with arthritic pains, there is almost a tendency to be mocked rather than pitied, and, according to the Apostle, affliction is added to affliction. Yet by not omitting to do this, you show yourself truly a friend, and not at all ridiculous in those pains, which are certainly not entirely laughable. I speak from experience, and I wish and pray that you may not fall into similar troubles. In provoking the hemorrhoids I shall clearly follow your advice. I shall not easily allow myself to be persuaded to use anything too violent. For there is generally greater danger in stopping them than in provoking them, especially if, according to nature, as has happened in my case, they flow more abundantly. And although they do not yet wholly preserve their former habit, nevertheless, with the repeated use of aloe before supper, I feel them beginning once more to open up and prepare for flowing. I do not wish to provoke them more harshly. Varignana strongly recommends oil of iris, and also the root of lily, applied in whatever way; perhaps, since there is no danger attached to it, I shall try it a little later. I shall never willingly proceed to surgical incisions, since that example too, which you mention, deters me. What you add later about repeated attacks of arthritis plainly proves that you are not a courtier and cannot flatter or fawn. For it was principally for this reason that I had set forth this discussion: that you might console me, who have scarcely escaped this evil, with the hope that it would never, or at least very rarely, return. But you, setting this controversy aside, called a spade a spade, and have almost thrown me into a new anxiety, so that I fear those troubles more than before. As Cicero in the letter to Lucceius asks that more be said about him than truth allows, so I too thought that you would confirm my opinion, even if it did not correspond with the precepts of the art in the most exact way; and indeed it is known that physicians do this for the sick, in order to raise their hopes. Indeed, once Bucephalus said this to me when I was lying ill in Padua: “Physicians never speak the truth.” Perhaps, however, you thought that one physician ought not be deceived by another, and that fraud is more easily detected by him than by others. Whatever the case, I still do not fully agree with you concerning arthritic periods. For since the expulsion takes place by way of a crisis, it is scarcely likely that all the joints of the body are so weakened that, because of this weakness, they will thereafter always be subject to a similar flux, as happens in podagra or chiragra, where the attack returns on slight occasion and preserves almost fixed periods. But whether arthritic disease, that is, the one which indiscriminately ranges over all the joints of the body, is the same as that which Cardanus calls the wandering one, and about which he wrote a special treatise, you may judge. As for your ordering me to abstain from wine: you impose a harsh command. Do you require that I be content with drinking only water? Certainly you wisely and prudently invoke the saying, which also occurs in Theognis, though the text is corrupt. But we courtiers are not often allowed to live as we wish, since we must adapt ourselves to the judgment of others. Things go well with you, who arrange your household affairs in your own way. I have long had nothing from the Basilians, because those places were badly exposed in respect to contagion. I shall write shortly to D. Zwinger and Plater. Dr. Simon Gryneus died, carried off by the plague. What has happened to the others, or what has been done, I am eager to know. Why do you refer to the discussions of Erastus concerning why Hippocrates calls melancholic humor equal, or, as the Greek text has it, eopum . If I had that work at hand, I certainly would not fail to examine it. But who can be equipped with a supply of good books in this wandering life? We courtiers have that saying always in our mouths, which, if I am not mistaken, Bias said: “I carry all my belongings with me.” I have part of my books in Prague, part in Wrocław in my homeland, and part of them even here in Vienna. Am I ever able to gather them into one place? For the court is continually changing, and I must follow it. And how can anyone carry such a complete library around with him? I want to know your view on this matter. Afterwards we shall appeal to Erastus, as if to a supreme judge, if you wish it so. Concerning paralysis after colic there is no small controversy. I do not doubt that you have seen and read what Erastus writes about it in the 4th part of the Paracelsi- < Varignana remedies in the provoking of hemorrhoids.> < Care for pa- ralysis in what he alone is.>

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415 MEDICINALES. 416 cessicorum suorum. Sed vt ad rem propius perueniarus; peculiare exemplu[m] tibi pro- pono. Laborauit hoc morbo optimus Esro- mus noster, qui cum satis feliciter restitutus sit, eius curationis processum ad te transmitto. vt autem videas me Germana side tecum agere; ex eius omnia transipsi, quæ in schedula iniecta vides. Præcessit in eo colieus dolor satis acerbus; postea in tristem istam morbus incidit. Ne autem hoc no- uum esse putes; legere pores ea quæ apud Hippocratem exstant in 6. epidem. 4. com- ment. particula 3. Item Paulum lib. 3. cap. 18. & 43. Præsentem istam curam quomodo ad Widemanni tui, cui optime cupio, casum applicare debeas, tute videris. Nostro illi Esromo satis bene successisse scio. Et ascripsit ipse vb. 10, vt vi- des, non tantum remediorum formulas: ve- rum etiam quibus, & quo cum euentu vsus sit. Tu quoq[ue] fac simile. Habet præterea do- minus Crato in vsu oleum quoddam, cuius mirificam vim multis probauit. Illud hunc in modum conheitur; Gummi Galbani, Elemi, Hedra, ol. lauriniana q[ui] facit destilla- tum, & seruentur, scorsim primum aqua, deinde oleum clarum, tertio oleum crassum. Hoc emplastrum musculis epigastrii applicat, & reliquias morbi felicissime di- scutit. Credo vltra duo millia apud Mor- uos & Boëmos hoc vnguento iucratum es- se. quod tecum quoque pro amicitia nostra communicare volui. Vniu[m] salia quæ præ- mittenda, quæque intra corpus exhibenda sint, per te seriemelius. Crede mihi alteri non ita prompte communia ista facerem. In albo fluore pillulas de bdello laudas: eum tamen insistendis potius hæmorrhoidibus & mensibus, alii, & potissimum Varignana, commendent. De roremarino nulla apud me est dubitatio; vt pote cuius admir abilem efficaciam ipse etiam in muliebribus mor- bis expertus sum. Tux tamen constanti asse- uerationi fidem habeo. Pro transmisso abs te munere gratias ago maximas. Recte ob- tulit tabellarius, quæ illi credidisti. Ego verò quid referam? Cum ad manus aliud nihil sit, mitto ad te exemplum Valesii nostri, quod mea opera emendatum Crato noster nuper foris dedit. Cupio de illo intelligere iudiciu[m] tum. Pro psilothro, quod inefficax esse di- xisti, en tibi aliud: Lac canis mixtu[m] cum puluere auripigmenti in forma emplastri, si- ue linimenu, ad motum depilat immediatè. Silac canis habere nequeas, substituitur lac- efulæ maioris, & applica in balneo ad spaciu[m] recitationis trium orationum dominicatui, & iis salutationum angelicarum, & quando arescit, pili vna eum psilothro remouentur. Non puto habere minorem vim, quam vn- guetum illud Rusma appellatum, quo Tur- ce in balneo ad hanc rem vtuntur. Ligno Sassafras, quod ex Florida siue noua Francia hue importatur, an vnquam vsus sis nescio. Plane odorem & saporem fenieuli refert. In delicatis naturis multo præstantius est tum guaiaco, tum salsa. Ventrienlo etiam melius eonuenit. In Polonia ereberrime nunc v- surpatur contra podagram, & alios chroni- eos morbos. Si quid de eo cupies: lubem issime ad te transmittam, & modum vtendi, si nescis, significabo. Bene & feliciter vale, & festinatam scriptionem boni consule. 22. Nouemb. an. 1582. CRATONIS. In paralysi inchoata manuum post col- cam, qualis fuit mea, & hærente iam malo in musculis ibi etiam sugillatis, primum ad expellendam materiam è musculis per ex- halationes & sudores, vtrius sudorifico, fo- mentatione, & vnguento infra scripto. Sudorifica; Syr. de betonica, de succo cardui an ij. Theriac. præstantiss ij. Misc. (Hoc vsus sum, sed parum mihi tuit præfero syrupum sancti Ambrosij) Sumatur mane vnum cochlear, alternis diebus, & co- tineat se æger in lecto, vt somno & fomenta- tione lectuli sudor promoueatur. Fomentum. Saluiæ, origani, Rorismarin. lux arthetic, an. m. ij. Inciduntur, coquantur in abeno, & decoctu[m] cum herbis calenibus infundatur in vaecu- lum ad hanc rem præparatum, quod tega- tur superne panno quadruplici, & fomeu- tenuir manus per quartam horæ, mane &c vesperi ante coenam. Furam vaeculi non dubito tibi notam esse. A qualis breuioris in- star habet; & in lateribus fotamina per quæ maous inserantur. Vnguentum. Axungix gallinaceæ ij. Ardex, Taxi, an. j. Lambricor. terrest. vino loto- rum j. Coquantur iento igne, & addatut oleum nucis conditæ. Misc. f. limmentum post fomenta- tionem. Additur his omnibus & sapo certi gene- ris, quo post fomentationem & vngestionem æger manus abluat: qui ticeesc: t lua tem manibus, & postea abluatur calida

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415 MEDICINALS. 416 cessicorum suorum. But to come more closely to the matter; I propose to you a particular example. Our excellent Erasmus was afflicted with this disease, and since he has been restored quite successfully, I send you the course of that treatment. And so that you may see that I deal with you in a German spirit; I have copied everything from it, which you see inserted in the slip. There had preceded in him a fairly sharp pain in the side; afterward the disease fell into that sad state. But lest you think this a new thing; you can read what is found in Hippocrates, in the 6th Epidemics, 4th commentary, section 3. Likewise Paul, book 3, chapter 18 and 43. How you ought to apply that present treatment to the case of your Widemann, whom I wish all the best, you will see for yourself. I know that it turned out quite well for our Erasmus. And he himself wrote down, as you see, not only the formulas for remedies, but also by what means, and with what outcome, he used them. Do you also do likewise. Moreover, Master Crato has in use a certain oil, whose marvelous power he has proved in many cases. It is prepared in this manner; Galbanum gum, Elemi, ivy, laurel oil, which makes the distilled product, and let them be kept separately, first the water, then the clear oil, third the thick oil. This plaster is applied to the epigastric muscles, and most happily removes the remains of the disease. I believe that more than two thousand among the Moravians and Bohemians have been cured by this ointment. I wished to share it with you also on account of our friendship. You will better arrange for yourself which things are to be taken beforehand, and which are to be administered within the body. Believe me, I would not so readily communicate such common remedies to another. In white flux you praise pills of bdellium: yet others, and especially Varignana, recommend them rather for pressed hemorrhoids and menstruation. As for rosemary, I have no doubt about it; for I myself have experienced its admirable efficacy even in women’s diseases. Your constant assertion, however, I trust. I give the greatest thanks for the gift sent by you. The courier delivered rightly what you entrusted to him. But what shall I send in return? Since I have nothing else at hand, I send you an example from our Valesius, which our Crato recently published abroad, corrected by my efforts. I desire to hear your judgment about it. In place of psilothrum, which you said was ineffective, here is something else for you: milk of a dog mixed with the powder of orpiment, in the form of a plaster or liniment, removes the hair immediately by friction. If you cannot have dog’s milk, the milk of a larger she-goat is substituted, and apply it in the bath for the space of the recitation of three Lord’s prayers and the same number of Angelic salutations, and when it dries, the hairs are removed together with the psilothrum. I do not think it has less force than that ointment called Rusma, which the Turks use in the bath for this purpose. As for sassafras wood, which is brought here from Florida or New France, I do not know whether you have ever used it. It plainly has the smell and taste of fennel. In delicate constitutions it is much more excellent than both guaiac and salsa. It also agrees better with the stomach. In Poland it is now very frequently used against gout and other chronic diseases. If you wish anything about it: I shall most gladly send it to you, and if you do not know the manner of use, I shall explain it. Farewell, and may you be well and happy, and accept this hurried writing kindly. 22 November, 1582. CRATO’S. In an incipient paralysis of the hands after a stroke, such as mine was, and the ailment now remaining in the muscles there, which are also bruised, first, for expelling the matter from the muscles by exhalations and sweats, use a sudorific, fomentation, and the ointment written below. Sudorific: Syrup of betony, of juice of thistle an. 2. Theriac, the best an. 1. Mix. (I used this, but it helped me little; I prefer the syrup of Saint Ambrose.) Let one spoonful be taken in the morning, every other day, and let the patient remain in bed, so that sweat may be promoted by sleep and by warming of the bed. Fomentation. Sage, oregano, rosemary, of each 2 handfuls. They are cut up, cooked in an oven, and the decoction with the warming herbs is poured into a vessel prepared for this purpose, which is covered above with a quadruple cloth, and let the hands be fomented for a quarter of an hour, morning and evening before supper. The shape of the vessel, I do not doubt, is known to you. It has the form of a short barrel; and on the sides openings through which the hands are inserted. Ointment. Chicken fat 2. Ardex, of yew, an. 1. Earthworms washed in wine 1. Let them be cooked over a gentle fire, and add oil of preserved walnuts. Mix; let a liniment be made after the fomentation. To all these things is also added a certain kind of soap, with which after the fomentation and anointing the patient washes the hands: which dries the hands, and afterward let them be washed with warm water

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Huius saponis descriptio sequitur: Saponis veneti. Mucillag. alihex. an. ij. Sem. Eruez contus. ij. Ol. Iuniperi ex granis . Misc. Quod si superioribus illis nihil proficetur. pro fumento superiori, vsurpetur hoc: Rad. vrticæ m. iij. Cymin. pulu. ij. Salis iij. Misc. & coquantur vt supra. Pro vnguenio autem supra scripto vsurpetur tum hoc quod sequitur: Ol. antiqui . Sanguin. porei. iij. Caltorei . Ceræ parum, Misc. f. linimentum. Vtrisque vsus sum primis & secundis, & secundis in primis: quibus sensitoremem in manibus (nam pedes firmi semper fuere) euanescere. quod fuit confirmati membri certissimum argumentum. Sed temporis detrimena ferre nolui, cum essem tum totus in Psalmis, &c. His sequentibus non fui vsus. Quod si vero neque proxime supra scriptu[m] vnguentum satis fuerit efficax, sumatur quod sequitur. Concharum nigrarum (hæ conchæ non potuerunt reperiri in nostris of-30 ficinis) vrantur in fictili, & colligatur humid. pinguis ij. Axungiæ. Ardez. Taxi. Canis a. ij. Seui hircin. ceruini a. vj. Saponis veneti cum succo cardui & altheæ dissol. q. s. Misc. lento igne. Quod si adhuc etiam magis acuenda curatio, adhibeatur ad extremum vnguentum sequens: Pul. lumbricorum terrest. ij. Calami aromatie. vj. Galangæ iij. Mellis despumati q. s. Coquantur ad spissitudinem & extendantur in duabus alutis, quælibet sit facta ad formam hanc: Etiam vt digitos vlamos implicit. EPISTOLÆ 418 EPIST. CCXXXVIII. IDEM EIDEM. ALTERAM tuam epistolam cum hoc ipso tabellario accepi: priusquam ei, quam ante hac Seligerus noster mihi abs te attulit, persoluerem: quod enim cuiusdam meministi, ad quam nondum responderim, ea qualis sit nescio. Nolo sane tarditatem vel lenititatem potius in scribendo meam multis excusare: illud iam affirmo, me officium hoc neglecturum non fuisse: si quod sperabam, regquam iste ad nos Viennam redusser. interim dum exspecto, quoad reuertatur, totus delabuit annus. Sed ad rem. A Seligero non ita prideli eras Parauio babui: quibus adhuc responsum de beo. Miror autem quid tibi in mentem venerit, mi Weidnere, quod me dubitare scribis, arthritide nuper laborauerim, nec ne. Et eo nomine nescio quam ab ipsa arthritide poenam mihi infl gendam minaris. Immerito sane hoc abs re patior. Neq[ue] enim tamen sum , vt morbis satis immis turmina non tenerim: neque etiam Stoicorum delirio faneo, qui affectus & dolores meras esse opiniones credulis suis auditoribus pe siadere conati fuerunt. Imo & lensi non magna cum voluptate mea arthridis molestias grauissimas, & me sentire scripsi, & ad te a qualios conquestus sum. Sed de hoc cap. quæstio erat: Num arthritis etiam per certa interualla reperere soleat, vt chiragra, vel pudagra anvero, veluti critica quadam expulsione, semel ægrum inuasile satis habeat? Vt de hoc dubitarem, muliæ me causæ permouerunt: quæ furtale tibi quoq[ue] etiam si nullus moneam in memem veniunt, atq[ue] id ipsum expressè quidam in thesibus suis, de hoc motto nuper publicatis, affirmar. Bona igitur verba quæso, & hûc potius subibet nodum dissolue, quam vt me denuo cum motto molestissimo conflictari iubeas. De dolore vago legere potes, quæ Hieronymus Cardanus in Methodo sua medendi scribit sect. 4. capite quinto, item in Consilio quodam de hoc morbo peculia- ritur scripto, quod contradicentium Medicorum libris sub calcem adiantum est. Apparet ex eo scriptu: statuere illum morbi huius causam status ponsissimum hinc inde in corpore oberratæ: cum nihil sit, quod æque cino de loco in locu moueri possit. Dra Dracuncula cunculos Iohannes Wierus in doctissimo suo commentario de morbis nonnullis incognitis Germanice edito, purat esse, quos vulgo die Misseter appellam. Murbigenus in Austria satis familiare. Discernit autem ab

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This description of the soap follows: Venetian soap. Mucillag. alihex. an. ij. Crushed Sem. Eruez. ij. Oil of juniper from the berries. Mix. But if nothing is gained by those above, for the fomentation above, let this be used: Root of nettles, m. iij. Cumin powder, ij. Salt, iij. Mix and cook as above. But for the unguent written above, let the following also be used: Old oil. Pig’s blood, iij. Caltorei. A little wax. Mix; make a liniment. I used both the first and second preparations, and the second in the first case; by which the numbness in my hands—for my feet were always sound—was seen to disappear, which was the surest proof of the strengthened member. But I did not want to bear the loss of time, since I was then wholly engaged in the Psalms, etc. I did not use the following remedies. But if even the unguent written just above should not be sufficiently effective, let the following be taken. Black shells (these shells could not be found in our workshops) are to be burned in a clay vessel, and the greasy moisture collected: Fat of badger. Fat of fox. Fat of dog, a. ij. Goat suet. Deer suet, a. vj. Venetian soap, dissolved with the juice of thistle and althaea, q. s. Mix over a slow fire. But if the cure must be made even more vigorous, let the following unguent be applied at the end: Earthworms, powder, ij. Aromatic calamus, vj. Galangal, iij. Skimmed honey, q. s. Let them be boiled to a thickness and spread upon two pieces of dressed leather, each to be made in this form: Also so that it may envelop the fingers. EPISTOLA 418 EPIST. CCXXXVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I received your other letter with this same messenger, before I had replied to the one which our Seliger brought me from you before this. For the one you mentioned, to which I have not yet answered, I do not know what sort it is. Indeed I do not wish to excuse my slowness, or rather mildness, in writing to many; I now only affirm this: that I would not have neglected this duty, if the one I was hoping for had returned to us from Vienna. Meanwhile, while I wait for him to return, a whole year has slipped away. But to the matter. From Seliger I had not long ago something from Parauius: to this I still owe a reply. But I wonder what came into your mind, my Weidner, when you write that you doubt whether I lately suffered from arthritis or not. And on that account you threaten me, I know not what penalty, from the arthritis itself. Surely I endure this undeservedly and without cause. For I am not one of those so steeped in diseases that I feel no disturbances at all; nor am I indeed obsessed by the delirium of the Stoics, who tried to persuade their credulous listeners that passions and pains are mere opinions. On the contrary, I felt the most grievous pains of arthritis, and I wrote that I felt them, and complained to you in some detail about it. But the question was about this: whether arthritis is also accustomed to appear at certain intervals, as in chiragra or podagra, or whether, like some critical expulsion, it has once attacked the sick man sufficiently and that is enough? Many things moved me to doubt this, which perhaps also come to your mind if I say nothing, and indeed some have expressly affirmed the same in their theses, recently published on this topic. So, good words, I beg you, and rather solve this knot here than order me to struggle again with the most troublesome topic. About wandering pain you may read what Hieronymus Cardanus writes in his Method of Healing, section 4, chapter 5, and also in a certain Counsel written especially on this disease, which is appended at the end of the books of the opposing physicians. It appears from that writing that he considers the cause of this disease to be a spirit most powerful, wandering here and there through the body; since there is nothing that can be moved from place to place so easily. Dr. Dracuncula cunculos, Johannes Wierus, in his most learned commentary on certain unknown diseases, published in German, thinks are those whom they commonly call the Misseter. A disease familiar enough in Austria. But he distinguishes it from

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429 M E D I C I N A L E S. 430 ab his alteram illam ægritudinem, die Varen, oder lauffende Varen, & vtriusque cognitionem atque eurationem satis docte & accurate persequitur. Antidoton etiam proponit , & corum præparationem. quam eo haud dubie hausit D. Hoffmannnus noster. Ad quæstionem de loco Hippocratis hæc nuper ad me scribebat D. Mercurialis. Cur Hippoerares splenem < Expermodo sunt sic aqværam se- a.1.> aquare fontem esse dixerit in 4. de morbis, diu ipse quoque dubitaui nec, si authoris sententiam tueri volumus, alia ratio mihi occurrit, quam si dicamus, aquam Hippocrari eo in loco esse non succum melancholicum & crassum, qui per vniuersum corpus dissusus sæpe conficipitur: sed aqvousum & tenuem, qui in liene colligi consueuit. Nam certum est eiusmodi vitcus sæpenuero ob aquosi succi copiam intmescere. < Sanquis licuere tenuis & aquarem.> & sanguis, qui in anatome conspiciitur in splenis anfractibus, iccinosis sanguini comparatus, plane tenuis & aqvousus videtur: vt non immerito viri quidam eruditissimi, & anatomicæ doctrinæ peritissimi promulgare non erubuerint; minime verum esse lienem succum melancholicum attrahere. At hæc omnia ingeniorum lasciuentium exercitamenta sunt. In artis operibus atque in iuuanda humana vita si quis strenue versetur, multo solidiorem laudem eum merei iudico. hactenus ille. Etsi autem quam maxime opinioni illius accedam, quod certum sit cum melancholico humore semper multum seri; vehiculi loco, adiunctum esse: magna tamen in ipsa voce est cum appellat quod veto aut nonnullos lieni æque ac epati tibuere: in ea hæresi etiam Platerus noster est, vt sæpe ex eo eorum audiui, & etiam ex tabulis illius iam publicatis colligere licet. < Banquiducam eco lumen à quibus clam etiam attribuatur.> De quibus sane iudicium meum exquirere minime opus est, eum me in hac palæstra minus exercitatum agnoscam. artifices igitur de artibus iudicent. Statuo tamen nihilominus: multa eum monstrasse: quæ alii non obseruarunt. eum sciam quam ille & industrius & foelix, vt nomen eius attestatur, esse soleat. Diligentia certe sola maximam laudem meretur. Si, quæ sit Erasti de paresi < Erastus de paresi post colicam.> post colicam sententia, integre cognoscere est animus, cuolvas longam illius disputationem in quarta & vltima parte antiparcelsicorum illius à pag. 216. vsque ad 258. < Langius.> Meminit quoque affectus huius Ioh. Langus in epistolis suis medicinalibus parte 2. epist. 55. Quibus perfectis, si quod dubium amplius superest, de eo posterius inter nos < Vallesius.> per literas colloquemur. Fr. Vallesius quem dnum diem suum obiisse credidimus, ipse opus suum Controuersiarum medicarum ad recudendum Christoph. Plantino ex Hispaniis Antuerpiam misit. Verum eum ille videret Wechelum priori editioni denuo euulgandæ manus iam admouisse: ipse sponte abstinuit, & autorem de hac re admonuit. Haud dubie mala præclara his totis xx. & amplius annis a se obseruata, adiecit, vt illa etiam cum studiosis doctrinæ illius cupidis communicari æquum sit. Ingenio apparet esse maximo, iudicioque exquisito: sed prima editio iuueoile quid respicbat: hæc posterior omnia maturiora, & exquisitius cogirata & recogitata habebit. Si autorem adhuc viuere vel suspicari potuissemus: nemo nostrum tam audax fuisset, vt sine illius consensu quiem hac in parretentaret quæquam istam quoque molitionem sine fructu non abituram spero: si modo ille, quæ in præfatione Cratoniana sunt, legere & expendere dignabitur. Turbith minerale re ipsa nihil a liud est; quam artificiosa mercurii præparatio. De qua varii variorum conatus sunt in medio. Velim te illa legere, quæ de puluisculi aurei ex mercurii præparatione & diserte & erudite scribit Anton. Gallus medicus in lib. suo de Ligno sancto non permisscendo, pag. 33. & aliis in locis, inter cætera autem hæc quoque refert, quod non memini me alibilegere: crystalli argentei viui verum & vnicum alexipharmacum esse, & illius parandi & exhibendi modum adiungit. < Turbith minerale artificiosa Mercuria præparatione.> potes quoque considerare quæ in Ioh. Vigonis Chirurgia extant de pulueris rubel confectione & administrariorie eiusdem tam intra quam extra corpus. Item apud Marianum Barolinum discipulum eius, qui etiam peculiariter de hoc verba facit. Capouaccins, quod miror, eundem mercurium in antiquis gallicis doloribus exhibet: & quomodo symptomata nounulla, vsum eius fere consequentia anerrenda sint, monet Quercetani oracula aut ænigmata non intelligo; nec scrupulose inquiressino mortuos sepelire suos mortuos. Hæc, quæ sequitur, descriptio mihi à quodam insigni chymico, & optimo, (vt sic loquar) Galenista communicata est: quam germanam esse statuo: etiamsi nondum manibus meis parauerim; sed duntaxat ab eo tali methodo paratam possideam. < Turpethum mineralio Zumperis Bodenflunst.> Z. Mercurij aceto & tale ter quaterve abluti ij. ol. rubicundi de acetoisa minerali ij. salis eiusdem & 33.8. Coniuncta in geranio immergantur in arenam, & per diem naturalem coquantur. Materiam infrigidatam candidam to, terito, aqua calida affusa recoquito de,

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429 MEDICINALES. 430 from these he follows the other illness, die Varen , or running Varen, and the knowledge and treatment of both quite learnedly and accurately. He also proposes an antidoton, and their preparation, which our D. Hoffmann no doubt drew from him. To the question about a passage of Hippocrates, D. Mercurialis recently wrote to me as follows: Why Hippocrates said that the spleen was a source of water in book 4, De Morbis , I myself long doubted; and, if we wish to defend the author’s opinion, no other reason occurs to me than if we say that the water in Hippocrates in that place is not the melancholic and thick humor, which is diffused through the whole body and often collected; but the watery and thin humor, which is wont to gather in the spleen. For it is certain that such a tissue very often swells from an abundance of watery juice. And the blood which is seen in anatomy in the convolutions of the spleen, compared with the blood in the liver, appears plainly thin and watery; so that not without reason certain most learned men, and most skilled in anatomical doctrine, have not blushed to proclaim that it is by no means true that the spleen attracts melancholic juice. But all these things are exercises of lively wits. In the works of art and in helping human life, if one is active and energetic, I judge that he deserves much more solid praise. So far he. Although I agree as much as possible with his opinion, because it is certain that with melancholic humor there is always much serum, as a vehicle, attached to it; nevertheless there is much in the very word when he calls what is forbidden or attributes it to certain others as well as to the spleen and liver. In that heresy our Plater too is included, as I have often heard from them, and it can also be gathered from his tables already published. About these matters, indeed, there is no need to ask my judgment, since I acknowledge myself less practiced in this field. Let the experts therefore judge the arts. Nevertheless I maintain that he has shown many things which others did not observe, since I know how industrious and fortunate he is wont to be, as his name testifies. Diligence alone certainly deserves the highest praise. If it is your intention to know thoroughly what Erastus thinks about paresis after colic, turn over his long discussion in the fourth and last part of his Antiparacelsica , from page 216 to 258. Langius also mentions this affection in his medicinal letters, part 2, epistle 55. When these matters are finished, if any doubt still remains, we shall discuss it later between ourselves by letter. Fr. Vallesius, whom we believed had died, sent his work Controversiarum medicarum from Spain to Antwerp to be reprinted by Christoph. Plantin. But when he saw that Wechelus had already set his hand to republishing the earlier edition, he himself voluntarily refrained, and informed the author of this. No doubt he added the excellent observations noted by him over these whole twenty and more years, so that it is only right that they too should be shared with students eager for his learning. He appears to possess a very great intellect and exquisite judgment; but the first edition had something juvenile in view; this later one will have everything more mature, and more exquisitely thought out and reconsidered. If we could still have supposed the author to be alive, none of us would have been so bold as to undertake anything here without his consent. I hope that this attempt too will not be without fruit, provided he will deign to read and weigh what is in the Cratonian preface. Turbith mineral, in reality, is nothing other than an artificial preparation of mercury. There are various attempts by various people in the middle concerning this. I should like you to read what Anton. Gallus the physician writes, learnedly and clearly, about the gold powder prepared from mercury, in his book De Ligno sancto non permiscendo , page 33, and in other places; among other things he also states, which I do not remember ever having read: that the silver crystal of living mercury is the true and only alexipharmacon, and he adds the method of preparing and administering it. You may also consider what exists in John Vigo’s Chirurgia about the making of the red powder and its administration, both inwardly and outwardly. Likewise in Marianus Barolinus, his disciple, who also speaks of this in a special way. Capouaccius, surprisingly, gives the same mercury in ancient Gallic pains; and how certain symptoms, almost following its use, are to be removed, Quercetan’s oracles or riddles I do not understand; nor do I scrupulously inquire how to bury their dead with their dead. The following description was communicated to me by an outstanding chemist, and a very good one, if I may so speak, Galenist: I judge it to be genuine, although I have not yet prepared it with my own hands; but possess it only as prepared by him according to such a method. Turpeth mineral according to Z. Zumperis Bodenflunst. Mercury’s vinegar, and washed three or four times with that same, 2. red oil from mineral vinegar, 2. of the same salt and 33.8. When joined, let them be immersed in geranium, and let them cook for a natural day. After the material has cooled, to the white one, grind it, and, hot water having been poured over it, cook again,

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fundito, abluito tertio vel quarto, super carbones exsiccato, frigida iterum abluito, resiccato. Remanebit Proteus Pactolex instar scobis. Datur à gr. iiij. ad v. cum theriaca, vel aliquo purgante in gallicis doloribus & vliceribus: quibus etiam exterius adhibitum, in emplastris gummatum, certissime medetur. quod si auri calcinati 3j. adiiciatur, nô purgat: sed fit multo magis hidroticum. Habes integrum procerulum & velut huitus operationis: etiamsi propter concisam breuitatem quædam obscuriora videantur. Sed manus, vt ille inquit, causa est sapientiæ. Si quas voces studiose artificio quodam inuolutas & occultatas non satis assequeris: egot ibi Apollinis instar ero. Idq[ue] ex eius ore, qui mecum descriptionem communem fecit. alioquin enim chymicis istis operationibus exercendis non valde affluui. quod tamen, si qua occasio esset, libenter facere velim. Aula, quam sequi cogor, suis migrationibus hoc totum impedit. Aloe rosata nihil aliud est, quam aloe succo rosarum depurato bis terve infusa, & postea in massam, vnde catapodia furmantur, redacta. Habet hanc dominus Crato noster in valde frequenti v[er]sit, & hieræ loco vsurpat. Plerunque semihorula antecenam exhibet à 3j. ad 3j. Bläde & absque vlla molestia ventriculum & primas vias expurgat. Euentum curationis in nobili illa matrona, cuius casum mihi proponebas, scire desidero. Fortasse enim tu illam sanitati prius restituissi: quam responsum à me habere potuisti. Symptomata mitifica sunt & satis implicita, nec malignas aliqua, in visceribus delitescens, abest. In talibus igitur vulgissimum est præter ea, quæ manifesta qualitate prosunt, illa quoque admiscere quæ occulta quadam facultate retundere creduntur. Cadiaca scilicet, & his similia: quorum materias recensere ad te non est necesse. Cum etiam adstricta aluo sit: aloes ros. vsum illi plurimum conducere arbitrarer, etiam mensium prouocandorum gratia. Rite expurgato corpore electuarium quoddam co[n]ficerem extalibus, quæ præcipua viscera respiciunt: adderemque præter species nobilium confectionum etiam & mithridatii aliquid. Lignum aut farsam num illi propinaueris, nescio. Vix enim fassafras apud vos, nisi maximo pretio, haberi puto. Etiam hic eandem ob causam, exolefit. Gratiam habeo pro iis, quæ ex epistoletæwingeriana de accro stellarietio exterpisti. Ei ita vere res habet. Multa ex salta imaginatione potius quam vero iudicio imp[er]tunt unus, quod etiam in similibus alius non semel obseruaui. De chirurgia recte admones. Doleo certe, me in illa exercenda non plus insudasse: quando eius rei in Italia occasio ostertur satis commoda. Sed quo tempore ego ibi fuit fere semper pestilens contagium grasslabatur, vt ita minus tutum esset sine discrimine quibusuis manum admouete. Præterquam autem quod Mercurialis noster chirurgum crudelem esse vult, etiam immundum velit nolit eundem esse oportet. à quorum vtroque non parum abhorreo. Nihilominus Medicus Physicus in multis easibus si maxime manum ipse admouere nolit, consilio suo tamen prodesse, & chirurgum in sua operatione dirigere potest. Quod ego aliquoties feci hactenus non malocum successu, & etiam cum vtilitate aliqua. Tetram Anvvaldinam nondum videre contigit. Petii nuper à D. Camerario, vt particulam mihi illius transmitteret, non ausim credere tot illam vires habere, quot illi autor in tractatu suo de hac edito tribuit. Multos credulitas magis sanat & superstitio, quam vera ratio. Strigensi bolo non aliter v[er]sus sum, quam in dysenteriis & aliis alui fluxionibus cohibendis. D. Iac. Theodorus in libello de peste, terræ sigillatæ cam æquiparat. Sed multum adhuc sordium admixtum habet, quas melius elui vtile foret. Si bene aquis idoneis lauaretur, & rursus exicecatur, crederem plus opus allaturam. Etiam alia nunc circa Glogouiam repetitur, quæ Strigensi candidior est, & , vt ego puto, etiam efficacior. Si nondum habes, aliquid illius ad te mætam proxime. In prælentia cum nihil aliud suppetat, censuram de operibus Hippocratis ad te mitto: ealege atque conditione: vt tuam de hac censuram liberare atque aperte ad me perscribas. Pent à me hoc autor ipse D. Hieron. Mercurialis dum inter extera in proximis sic scribit: Ob Hippocratis censuram à nemine laudari cupio. Sed in eum finem tolim edita est, vt ingenia excellencia in ea censenda sese exerceant, mihique addendi, mutandi ac corrigendi occasionem præbeant. Itaque quod à te peto illud vnum est, vt vitorum apud vos excellentum iudicium explores, & quæcunq[ue] obiieiuntur, libere mihi significe. Hæc ille. Te autem mi Weidnere in eorum numerum, qui Hippocratica diligenter legunt, & de eius scriptus judicare nuntunt, libenter recipio. Expecto igitur q[ui]nq[ui]d responsurus sis cupide. Meas cogita tationes vicissim, fuita voles, libenter patefaciam. Velim te etiam hanc censuram etiam cum D. Laurentio Scholzio, viro et primo, & integerrimo, communem facere: quan-

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boiled down, washed a third or fourth time, dried over coals, washed again with cold water, and dried. It will remain Proteus Pactolex like powder. It is given from 4 to 5 grains with theriaca, or some purgative, in French pains and ulcers: and when applied externally as well, in plaster mixed with gums, it is certainly healing. But if 1 dram of calcined gold is added, it does not purge, but becomes much more sudorific. You have the whole procedure, and as it were the whole operation; although because of the concise brevity some things may seem obscure. But, as he says, the hand is the cause of wisdom. If you do not sufficiently grasp certain words deliberately wrapped up and hidden by some artifice, I shall stand there in the place of Apollo. And this from the mouth of him who made the common description with me. Otherwise, however, I was not very well supplied for carrying out these chemical operations. Yet, if there were any opportunity, I should gladly wish to do so. The court, which I am compelled to follow in its migrations, hinders all this. Rosated aloe is nothing other than aloe soaked two or three times in clarified rose juice, and then reduced into a mass, from which catapodia are made. Our lord Crato has this in very common use and employs it in place of hiera. In most cases he gives it about half an hour before supper, from 3 to 5 grains; it purges the stomach and the first passages gently and without any trouble. I wish to know the outcome of the treatment in that noble matron whose case you proposed to me. Perhaps you had already restored her to health before you could have received an answer from me. The symptoms are mild and rather complex, and there is no malignant one lurking in the viscera. In such cases it is most common, besides those remedies which help by manifest quality, to mix in also those which are believed to restrain by some hidden faculty—namely cadiaca and the like; it is not necessary for me to list their ingredients to you. Since she also has a constipated bowels, I would judge the use of rosated aloe to be very helpful to her, even for the purpose of provoking the menses. After the body has been duly purged, I would make some electuary from those things which are especially directed to the chief viscera; and I would add, besides the ingredients of noble confections, also some mithridate. I do not know whether you have given her wood or farsam. For I suppose that sassafras is scarcely to be had among you except at a very high price. Even here it has become uncommon for the same reason. I am grateful for those things which you extracted from the epistle of Winger concerning the accro stellarietio. The matter is indeed as it is there. Many things are imposed more by a vain imagination than by true judgment, which I have often observed in similar cases as well. You rightly advise me about surgery. I certainly regret not having devoted more effort to practicing it, since in Italy the opportunity for this was quite favorable. But at the time when I was there, pestilential contagion was almost always raging, so that it was less safe to lay hands on anyone without danger. Moreover, besides the fact that our Mercurialis wishes a surgeon to be harsh, he also wants him, whether he likes it or not, to be dirty; and I greatly shrink from both. Nevertheless, a physician can in many cases, even if he himself does not wish to lay hands on the patient, still be of service by his counsel and direct the surgeon in his operation. This I have done several times hitherto, with no bad success and even with some benefit. I have not yet had the chance to see Tetram Anvvaldinam. I recently asked Dr. Camerarius to send me a portion of it; I would not dare believe it has as much power as the author attributed to it in the treatise he published on it. Many people are cured more by credulity and superstition than by true reason. I have used Strigian bole in no other way than for checking dysenteries and other fluxes of the bowels. Dr. Jac. Theodorus in his little book on the plague compares it with terra sigillata. But it still has a great deal of dirt mixed with it, which it would be better to wash out. If it were well washed with suitable waters and then dried again, I should believe it would bring more benefit. Another kind is now also being used around Glogau, which is whiter than the Strigian, and, as I think, also more effective. If you do not yet have any, I shall send some of it to you soon. For the present, since nothing else is at hand, I send you the criticism of the works of Hippocrates, with this request and condition: that you release your own criticism of this and write it back to me openly. This was what the author himself, Dr. Hieron. Mercurialis, said, as among other things in the following he writes: “I do not wish to be praised by anyone for the criticism of Hippocrates. But it was published for this purpose, namely that excellent minds might exercise themselves in judging it and provide me with an opportunity for adding, changing, and correcting. Therefore the one thing I ask of you is that you examine the judgment of the excellent men among you, and freely inform me of whatever objections are raised.” Thus he. And you, my dear Weidner, I gladly receive among those who diligently read Hippocratic writings and are able to judge his works. I therefore eagerly await whatever reply you may send. Meanwhile, I shall gladly disclose my thoughts in return, if you wish. I should also like you to share this criticism with Dr. Laurentius Scholz, a most learned and most upright man: quan-

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quandu exempla, quæ singulis mitterem, in promptu non erant. Sed manum de tabula tandem. Vrget enim, qui modo astrar, tabellarius. Te bene feliciterque cum tuis valere opto. Pragæ Boiemorum 5 Decemb. anno 1583. EPIST. CCXXXIX. IDEM EIDEM. 10 M I R I quoque tam diuturna ordinarit nostri emansio, ne quid dissimile, molesta accidit: ac quidem ne inter vias sinistri quid passus esset, tubuerebar. Sed illius aduentus omnes facile suspiciones diluit. De nummis restintis amote, lectum est, conuenit numetus, & non neglexisse habeo gratiam. Veruntamen non eo sensu quo seruulus ille apud Comicum, qui de side debitoris sui nonnihil addubitare videbatur. Ego me officium istud recte collocasse lætor: etsi profecto in palestra hac minime sum exercitatus. Placet omen tuu[m] de arthritide: quam & ipse à me in perpetuu[m] exsulaturam promittis. Iam certe tertius annus agitut: cum post primum illum insultu[m] nihil mali ab illa per Dei gratiam perpessus sum. Vtinam etiam in polserum ab illa immunis sim, ita vt nunquam limen meum subintret. Nostris eueniat hostibus illa p[er] cor. In præcautione nullo allo remedio hactenus vsus sum, quam vt diligenter operam darem; ne superfluitares in corpore eatenus augerentur, vt nouum paroxysmium generare queant, Puluerem Italicum, qui contra podagram tantopere nunc decaniatur, & domini Cratonis de eo iudicium, à vicino tuu D. Laurentio Scholzio petere licet. Illi ego hæc submissi omnia, & poterimus de his alio intet nos conferre tempore. Vallesium vnatescum viuere & valere exopto, vt multa talia scripta subinde nobis ex diuite penu ingemis sui depromat. Proximam editionem opera Plantini etiam apud extremos liberos accepisse non dubito. Turbith illud, quod minerali vocant, ipse nunquam parauit, sed nec ob alio parato hactenus vsus sum. Etsi nequaquam reicio: tutiora tamen amplecti malo Et icleus esse iudico ad præsidiu[m] tam anceps accedere; vbi alia in promptu sum, quæ minus periculi adiunctum habet. Etiamen interdum In extremis moebis ad extrema huiusmodi remedia confugere necesse est. Descriptionem quam nusi, omnino genuinam esse confido. Mercurium, qui sumitur, viuum esse oportet. Sequenti enim præparatione satis corrigitur. Acetosam mineralem rectè suspicatos esse chalcanthu[m]. Autum, quemadmodum & alia metallæ calcinati, & in chymicum puluerem redigi potest. Coemissem tibi turpethi mineralis aliquid: si commode ab idoneo artifice imperare licuisset. Interim de meo tantum tecum communcio, quantum fortasse in præsentia satis est. Triplex vero huius est differentia. Primum illud sub litera A, auri ferme oolorem refert, vt vides: quod secundum eam descriptionem quam accepisti, paratum est. Alterum sub B, à ludæo quodam, præstanti artifice mihi communicatum est. Tertio illo sub C, frequenter vitur D. Stromerus noster, quod etiam cæteris præsert. Mihi primum illud magis arrider. Tibi vt vnius aut alterius periculum facias, in deploratis præsertim gallicis, liberum permitto. Ante paucas hebdomadas huius exhibitione per sanauit Italum quemdam D. Stromerus: quem gallica illa lues pessime defædauerat: & totum ferme nasum depasta fuerat. Tum demum ad ligni decoctum accessit: quod antehac frustra ab aliis Medicis misero ægro propinatum suerat. Libelli illius titulus, quem petis, hic est. Deligno sancto non permiscendo, Antonio Gallo Medico autore. Idem in imperitos sucatosque Medicos. Est autem hic liber opposius alteri cuidam Alsonsi Feru, qui inscribitur: De ligni sancti multiplici medicina, &c. Hic excusus est Ungduni in r6. ille Parisiis apud Sum. Colincum, anno 1540 in forma octaui. Pro excerptis ex Anancastæ nostri lueris magnas gratias ago. Iam diu nihil ab eo vidi. Cogito tamen ad intermissum scribendi officium redire. Quereeranus quid sibi velit, multo minus, quam Anancastes intelligo. Quod si ope- rosa illa, & non reuelanda præparatio displicer: eam eligere potes, quæ ex stat apud Aug. Fernerium de morbo gallico libro 1. in 7. curandi eundem morbum modo, vbi multanotatu digna inuenies. Vocat ipse autor pillulas incurtales, & quædam de duersa exhibendi illas ratione in medium affect. Excusus est hic libellus in eo culo qui inscribitur: Thesaurus sanitatis ratu tacilis, per Iuli. Læbaulium, &c. T

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when examples that I would send individually were not at hand. But I shall at last put my hand to the table. For the courier, who has just arrived, is urging me. I wish you well and happily with yours. Prague of the Bohemians, 5 December, 1583. EPIST. CCXXXIX. SAME TO SAME. Your long absence from us, too, was not without inconvenience, and in a way not unlike mine, which was troublesome: indeed I was afraid that something untoward might have happened to you on the road. But your arrival easily dispelled all suspicions. About the retained monies, I have read what was agreed, and I am grateful that you have not neglected it. Yet not in the sense of that servant in the comic writer, who seemed to doubt somewhat the faithfulness of his debtor. I am glad that I have placed that duty properly, though I have certainly not been trained in this school. I am pleased with your omen concerning the arthritis: you promise that it too will be banished from me forever. Certainly it has now been active for the third year; since after that first attack I have, by God’s grace, suffered no further harm from it. Would that I may also remain free of it in the future, so that it may never enter my threshold. May that happen to our enemies instead. As a precaution I have as yet used no other remedy than to take great care not to let superfluities in the body increase so far as to generate a new paroxysm. Concerning the Italian powder, which is now so highly praised against gout, and Dr. Crato’s judgment of it, you may ask your neighbor, Dr. Laurentius Scholzius. I have submitted all these matters to him, and we shall be able to discuss them further at another time. I wish that Vallesius may live and be well along with you, so that he may from time to time draw forth for us many such writings from his rich storehouse. I do not doubt that the next edition, by Plantin’s work, has also been received even among the most remote peoples. That turbith which they call mineral, I myself have never prepared, nor have I as yet used any that was prepared by someone else. Though I by no means reject it, I still prefer to embrace the safer remedies. And I judge that it is prudent, in so uncertain a matter, to seek protection only where other means are ready at hand and the risk is less. Yet even in extreme illnesses it is sometimes necessary to resort to such extreme remedies. I trust that the description I sent is entirely genuine. The mercury that is used ought to be living. In the following preparation it is sufficiently corrected. I have rightly suspected chalcanthum to be the mineral vinegar. It too, like other calcined metals, can be reduced to a chemical powder. I would have bought you some of the mineral turbith, if I could conveniently have obtained it from a suitable craftsman. Meanwhile I am communicating with you only so much of my own as may perhaps be enough for the present. There are, however, three varieties of it. The first, under the letter A, is of almost a golden color, as you see; it is prepared according to the description you received. The second, under B, was communicated to me by a certain Jew, an excellent craftsman. The third, under C, is frequently used by our Dr. Stromer, and it surpasses the others as well. The first pleases me more. I leave it to you to try one or another of them, especially in desperate French cases. A few weeks ago Dr. Stromer cured by this preparation a certain Italian, whom that French disease had grievously disfigured and had eaten away almost the whole nose. Only then did he resort to the decoction of wood, which earlier had been prescribed in vain to the poor patient by other physicians. The title of the little book you ask about is this: On the Holy Wood Not to Be Mixed, by the author Antonio Gallo, physician. The same against ignorant and presumptuous physicians. There is also another book opposed to this one by Alfonso Ferru, entitled: On the Manyfold Medicine of the Holy Wood, etc. This one was printed at Lyon in 1566; the other at Paris by Sum. Colincus, in 1540, in octavo format. I thank you greatly for the excerpts from our Anancastes’ work. For a long time now I have seen nothing from him. Yet I am thinking of returning to the neglected duty of writing. What Quereeranus means, I understand even less than Anancastes. If that elaborate and secret preparation displeases you, you may choose the one set out by Aug. Fernerius in Book 1, chapter 7 of his work On the French Disease, in the manner of curing the same disease, where you will find many noteworthy things. The author himself calls them “incurtales pills,” and he puts forward certain things about the different way of administering them. This little book was printed in the volume entitled Thesaurus sanitatis, etc., by Iuli. Læbaulius, etc.

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435 EPISTOLÆ 436 sis in 16. Licet etiam conferre cum iis quæ Massa Venetus, & Mattiolus, item noster quoq[ue] Capouaccius de medicamenti huius recta & methodica cum præparatione, tum exhibitione tradunt. Quanrum ad casum illum nobilis matrotix attinet: symptomatum quorundam mirigatio aur ablatio, non plane morbum illum incurabilem esse satis ostendunt. Dolorem capiris & tibix dextræ adhuc remanere significas. < Dolor capuis.> Neque tamen scio, an dolor ille capitis co[n]tinuo affligat: an vero per certa interualla redear, & periodicus sit: item an anterior pars, aur posterior, vel etiam circa tempora magis dolear. Etiâsi vero ab initio per consensium aliarum partium, v. g. ventriculi, aur vteri, originem suam habere potuit: postquam tamen tam diu durauit, eam impressionem fecisse verisimile est: vt nunc caput mutata temperie, per essentiam etiam laboret. Nihilominus multum ill: s remediis crebro repetitis efficitur: quæ inferiorum partium impuritatem auferunt, vnde ad eaput praux exspirationes subinde attolluntur. Habuit in frequenti viu Fernelius (vt à domino Cratone accepi) pillulas quasdam: quibus tantam vim in detergendo ventriculo & præcordiis offsetris tribuit, vt nullam se hemicraniam repetisse affirmauerit, quam non hac ratione curauerit. < Pill. cephalica Fernelius.> Descriptio hæc est: 2. Aloes optimæ [uncia] [sulphur] pulu. El. de gemmis, Diatrion saual. Rosal. rubear. an. g. iij. Redigantur omnia in puluerem, & cum syrupo de absinthio & violar. f. massa mollis. Seruetur vsui in vesica. Exhibuit alternis diebus, bis vel ter in hebdomada [uncia] ij. aur [uncia] j. hora vna ante cibum. Dominus Crato < 40> alias etiam commendat de succino in hanc formam: 2. Pul. succini, Mastiches an. ij. Aloes succocitrin. [uncia] v. Agaric. albiss [uncia] j [sulphur]. Aristolochiæ rotundæ veræ [sulphur] Cum syrupo de succo beronicæ [uncia] f. f. massa. Vtatur [uncia] j bis in mense, & sumat eas post primum somnum. In harum pillularum vsu persistendum. < 50> Nam cum morbus diuturnus sit: vt paularim & diu euretur oportet. Deinde ad particulares capitis euacuationes per nares, palatum, & fauces accedi posser: qnorum formulas ipso nosti melius. Ineunte autumno non prohibuerim venæ sectionem, saltem euenrationis gratia fieri: item purgationem aliquam, præmissa corporis præparatione, vniuersalem. Si qua malignitatis larentis suspitio est: plurimum conducunt Electuaria ex succis inspissatis herbarum, q[ui]dibus dein de pulueres idonei, ac denique theriacæ aut mitbridatii aliquid additur. Si voles vnam atq[ue] alteram descriptionem proxime ad te mittam. Tu modo significa, quæ interea mutatio accideris, & quantum vires suffere posse existimes. Fonticulum vt Itali appellant, in inferiori cruris parte cum vtilitate apetiri posse [uncia] [sulphur] quan-do scilicet natura ipsa in eo loco exitu quærit, & nonnihil inde leuarionis accessit. Malum autem vicissim auctum est, quamprimum matetiæ illi exirus præclusus est. Si delicata est foemina: rectius sit operatio illa potestali, quam actuali cauterio. habes pyrapyrum illud, quo me etiam non infeliciter vsum memini. Er hæc quidem mihi in præsentia de proposito casu in mentem veniunt. Risi cum item de substantia & accidente veneni cum Theologica illa controuersia, in qua similliter de essentia peccati quæritur, comparas. Volo autem adscribere ipsa D. Hier. Mercurialis verba: quibus ad illud caput Epistolæ meæ nuper ad me scriptæ respondet. Accedo, inquit, < Quod venenum v[er]sit ad aliquid.> ad id, vt probem rationes, quibus vteris ad probandum esse in prædicamento relationis venenum collocandum, aduersus meam sententiam non tantum habere momenti, quin facile dilui queant. Nam, vt hinc primum exordiar, ea dicuntur ad aliquid ex Aristotele, quorum esse aliorum est, aut aliquid aliquo modo dicitur. Primo modo plane ad aliquid nec alimentum nec venenum dicitur, sed secundo modo: pro- nt scilicet ad aliquid, seu respectu alicuius, nempe hominis dicitut. Verum nec hoc pacto vete ad aliquid sunt. Si quidem maior pars venenorum æque alia bruta atque hominem interimunt, & mulra etiam alimenta sunt non minus belluarum, quam hominis. Sed concedamus esse ad aliquid venenum: quid prohibet vnam & eandem rem diuersimode acceptam sub diuersis prædicamentis collocari? Magnu[m] & paru[m] in quantiratis & relationis prædicamentis ponuntur. haud secus etia[m] forma substantialis in duobus prædicamentis est: cum forma quælibet sit alicuius forma. Quare de veneno quoque dicere possumus, vt referri ad homine[m], esse ad aliquid: vt vero mistum quoddam est ex propria forma, quæ est vis venefica, & subiecto, esse in prædicamenso substantiæ. quemadmodum ex materia & forma, neque ipse vnquam dice- rem rotum scorpionem, aut totam viperam esse venenum: sed illius spirituosum corpus

Transcription: Translated (English)

435 LETTERS 436 …in 16. It is also worth comparing with what Massa Venetus, and Mattiolus, likewise our own Capouaccius too, report concerning the proper and methodical preparation of this medicine, and then its administration. As for that case of the noble matron: the removal or alleviation of certain symptoms clearly shows that that illness is not wholly incurable. You say that pain in the head and the right leg still remains. < Headache.> Nor do I know whether that pain in the head continually afflicts you, or whether it returns at certain intervals and is periodic; likewise whether the front part, or the back, or even around the temples hurts more. Even if at the beginning, through sympathy with other parts, for example the stomach or the womb, it could have had its origin, yet after lasting so long it is probable that it has made such an impression that now the head itself, with its altered temperament, also suffers in its essence. Nevertheless much is accomplished by frequently repeated remedies which remove the impurity of the lower parts, whence upright exhalations are in turn raised to the head. Fernelius had in frequent use (as I learned from Lord Crato) certain pills to which he attributed such power in cleansing the stomach and the precordia, that he affirmed he had never had a recurrence of hemicrania which he had not cured by this method. < Fernelius’s cephalic pills.> This is the prescription: 2. Of the best aloes [ounce] [sulphur] powder of jewels, Diatrion saual. Rosal. rubear. an. 3 drachms. Let all be reduced to powder, and with syrup of wormwood and violets let a soft mass be made. Keep for use in a bladder. He gave it on alternate days, two or three times a week, [ounce] 2 or [ounce] 1, one hour before food. Lord Crato < 40> also recommends another with amber in this form: 2. Powder of amber, mastic, an. 2. Succotrine aloes [ounce] 5. White agaric [ounce] 1 [sulphur]. True round aristolochia [sulphur] With syrup of the juice of veronica [ounce] let a mass be made. Use [ounce] 1 twice a month, and take them after the first sleep. One must persist in the use of these pills. < 50> For since the disease is long-lasting, it must be cured slowly and over a long time. Then one may proceed to particular evacuations of the head through the nostrils, palate, and throat; the formulas for these you know better than I do. At the beginning of autumn I would not forbid a venesection, at least to be done for evacuation; likewise some purgation, after prior preparation of the body, a general one. If there is any suspicion of lurking malignity, electuaries made from the inspissated juices of herbs are very helpful, to which suitable powders are then added, and finally some theriac or mithridate. If you wish, I shall send you one or two prescriptions soon. Only let me know what change has meanwhile occurred, and how much strength you think he can bear. A fonticulus, as the Italians call it, may be opened with advantage in the lower part of the leg [sulphur] when, that is, nature itself seeks an outlet in that place, and some relief has come from it. But the evil, on the other hand, increased as soon as that matter’s exit was blocked. If the woman is delicate, that operation is better done by a potential, rather than an actual, cautery. There you have that pyrapyrum, which I remember having also used not unsuccessfully myself. And these indeed are the things that presently occur to me about the case proposed. I smiled when you also compare the substance and accident of poison with that theological controversy, in which one likewise asks about the essence of sin. But I wish to transcribe the actual words of D. Hier. Mercurialis, with which he responds to that section of my letter recently written to me: “I agree,” he says, < That poison is directed to something.> “to this, namely, that I may prove that the reasons you use to show that poison must be placed in the category of relation against my opinion have not so much force that they cannot easily be refuted. For, to begin here first, those are called relatives from Aristotle, whose being is that of others, or which are said in some way in relation to something. In the first sense, neither food nor poison is plainly called relative, but in the second sense: namely insofar as it is relative, or with respect to something, that is, to man, it is called so. Yet even in this way they are not relatives. For the greater part of poisons kill other brute animals as well as man, and many foods are no less so for beasts than for man. But let us grant that poison is relative: what prevents one and the same thing, taken in different ways, from being placed under different predicaments? Great and small are placed in the predicaments of quantity and relation. Likewise also substantial form is in two predicaments, since every form is the form of something. Therefore we may also say of poison that, insofar as it refers to man, it is relative; but insofar as it is a certain compound, consisting of its own form, which is the venomous power, and its subject, it is in the predicament of substance, just as from matter and form. Nor would I ever say that the whole scorpion, or the whole viper, is poison, but rather its spirituous body…”

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437 M E D I C I N A L E S. 438 corpus vi venefica formatum, quod istu communicatur. Huius autem corpus saliuosum similiter constatum, & morfu communicabile, Hactenus ille. Quibus equidem quid vicissim opponam, meamq[ue] opinionem defendam, non ignoro. Velim tameo ex rescire, quid de lite ista sentias, præsertim oum credas, fieri posse vnum & idem dinerso respectu: modo sit substaotia, modo accidens? De terra Anwaldina pauxillum quid nuper mecum commuoicabat dominus loachimus Camerarius, quæ tamen an legitima sit, & cum tua conueniat ignoro. Si igitur quid suppetit, velim mecum partiare, saltem tantillum, vt eius periculum facere, & cum ea particula, quam ante habeo, comparare queam. Ero vicissim gratus in iis, quæ penes sunt. Sphaeellum ex gangraena profectum iam bis verve vidi, non magna certe cum voluptare mea. Vtinam plane hoc monstri è hominum natura tollatur. Sed astat charlarius, qui maoum de tabula amouere iubet, & præterea eriam alio vocor. Tu quæso hæc, quæ festinanti calamo, & animo non fuis libero scribo, booi consulas, meq[ue] amare pergas. Vale & salue chatissimem Weidnere. Datæ Prægæ Boiemorum die 2. Iulii. Anno Christi 1584. E P I S T. CCXL. I D E M E I D E M. N O N debeo etsi occupatus sum, scribendi ad te officium negligete: cum te in respondendo tam gnauum esse animaduertam. Ei præsertim hunc ordinarium nostrum sine meis dimittere nefas putauerim: cum nunquam antea id factinare soliti fuerimus. De turpeth mineralis præparatione quid Anancastes noster fennat, feire peroelim. Augeri quidem Ferneri libellum in tam instructa bibliotheca apud ipsum existare non dubito. Si tamen voles: libenter quæ de eo in medium ille adfert ad terranscripta mitam. Fieri potest vt Anancastes ipse sua manu arcanum illud elaborauerit. Ita non tantum aotitum, sed oculatum etia[m] testem habituri sumus. Scribebat ad me dominus Crato noo ita pridem in hanc sententiam: Multis annis cum D. Zwingero per literas sum collocutus. Nunquam de chymieis tam multa scripsit, quam ounc. Vt ad illius opinionem accedam, vix persuadebit: cum Arrogosio, qui sæpe multis horis de istis mecum egit, nunquam potuerim fidem adhibere, & illo sibi eum magistrum esse profiteatur. Ars est vna; quam si Hip- pocrates & Galenus vere nos non docent, & Montanus illustrat, eiusque fuodamenta ex intima philosophia monstrat; à quibus discenda sit, nescio. Materia medica ingens & omerosa. In ea principem locum tene- re medicamenta ex sulphure & Mercurio confecta, vix adducor vt credam Laudanum vero quid est aliud, quam Philonium: & quem morbum eo profligabimus absque periculo? Chymicis remediis propter singularem effieaciratem nihil dettaho: Chymia vero autorem Theophrastum minime statuo. hæc ille: cum ei occasio à me præbita esset in literis quibusdam: vbi iudicium illius de libello quodam chymico quæsieram. Casus nobilis illius matronæ præne memoria excidit, nec sunt modo ad manum literæ tuæ, quibus illum prolixe exponebas. An cauterium aliquod, quo exius materæ illi aut malignæ, aur malignitati proximæ præbeatur, molirus fueris, nescio. Scis autem Hippocraticum illud: Quos morbos medicamenta non sanaot, ferro & igni aggrediendos esse. Magnam tamen spem concipio, dum scribis: vsu & frequenti continuatione quorundam lenium medicamentorum multa symptomata remisisse, & morbum nunc mitiorem videri quam antea. Vrinam radicius tandem euellatur auerruncerurq[ue]. An electuarium è suceis pataueris, quale præscribebâ, nihii addis. Ego in morbis longis & pertinacibus, qui ab iotemperie quædam occulta dependent, multu præsidus huiusmodi tribuo. Petis vt purgans aliquod nominem, quod aut nullius saporis, aut certe non ingrati sit, & abominabilis. Inter simplicia nullum noui, quod hac in parte radici Mechoacan præferre possem. Iam sæpe illud exhibui delicatis personis, quæ à mëtione etiam Rhabarbari, agarici ani aliorum abborret. Dosis illius est 25 lb. ad drachmam integram, aut etia[m] scrupulos quaruor. In puluerem redigo, & admixto pauculo gingiberis stimuli gratia cum vno acq[ue] aliero eocbleari vini dulcis seu Pneuni seu maluatici propino. Blande expurgat, & fere agarici vires xmulatur: nisi quod ventriculo minus iofestum est. si degustaueris, ferme nullum odorem aur taporem percipies. Et tamen in enaeuando non tegne est. Inssi etiam aliquando, vt eadem radix pani, quam vocant, Martio incoqueretur. & sic xyro ignoranti, non sine fructu, exhibui. Quo plus candoris habet, eo melior est. Credo ad vos etiam deferri. In Galliis frequens est vsus illius, & Heidelbergæ. Erastus p.m. sibi valde familiarem reddiderat, quem aliide inceps Medici imitati sunt. Ecompositis blandæ & sine molestia corpus expurgaotibus T 2

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437 MEDICINALS. 438 corpus vi venefica formatum, which is communicated in this way. But his salivary body is similarly constituted, and communicable by bite. So far he. As to what I in turn should oppose to these arguments, and how I might defend my own opinion, I do not ignore. Yet I should like to know what you think about this dispute, especially since you believe that one and the same thing can be in different respects: at one time substance, at another accident? Of the Anwaldina earth Joachim Camerarius recently communicated to me a little, but whether it is genuine, and whether it agrees with yours, I do not know. If therefore you have anything at hand, I should like you to share it with me, at least a small portion, so that I may try it out and compare it with the piece I already have. In return I shall be grateful for what lies within my power. I have now twice seen a sphacelus arising from gangrene, certainly not to my great delight. Would that this monster were entirely removed from human nature. But the bookseller is standing there, who orders me to take my hand from the page, and moreover I am also called elsewhere. I beg you to consider these things, which I write with a hasty pen and not with a free mind, with kindness, and continue to love me. Farewell and greet the dearest Weidner. Written at Prague in Bohemia on the 2nd day of July, in the year of Christ 1584. E P I S T. CCXL. S A M E TO S A M E. I ought not, even though I am occupied, to neglect the duty of writing to you, since I observe how diligent you are in replying. Especially this ordinary messenger of ours I should have thought it wrong to let depart without my lines; since we have never before been accustomed to do that. Concerning the preparation of mineral turpeth, I should very much like to know what our Anancastes thinks. I do not doubt that Ferner’s little book exists in his well-stocked library. If, however, you wish, I shall gladly send to Leipzig what he brings forward there in the middle, from those things that are written down. It is possible that Anancastes himself prepared that secret with his own hand. Thus we shall have not only an attentive but also an eyewitness. The noble gentleman Crato wrote to me not long ago in this vein: For many years I have corresponded by letters with D. Zwinger. He has never written so much about chemical matters as now. That I should come round to his opinion he will scarcely persuade me: for with Arrogosius, who often spent many hours discussing such things with me, I could never place my faith, although he boasts that that man is his teacher. There is one art; if Hippocrates and Galen do not truly teach it to us, and Montanus illumines it and shows its foundations from the innermost philosophy, I do not know from whom it is to be learned. Medical material is vast and weighty. That medicines made from sulphur and Mercury hold the chief place in it I can hardly be brought to believe. Laudanum, however, what is it other than Philonium? And what disease shall we drive away by it without danger? I do not disparage chemical remedies because of their singular efficacy: but I by no means hold Theophrastus to be the author of chemistry. So he wrote, when occasion had been given him by me in certain letters, in which I had asked his judgment on a certain chemical little book. The case of that noble matron has almost slipped from memory, and your letters are not now at hand, in which you described it at length. Whether you were planning some cautery, by which matter of that sort or something akin to malignity should be applied to it, I do not know. But you know that Hippocrates says: diseases which medicines do not heal are to be attacked with iron and fire. Nevertheless I conceive great hope when you write that by use and frequent continuation of certain gentle medicines many symptoms have been relieved, and that the disease now seems milder than before. Would that it might at last be pulled out by the roots and averted. You add nothing as to whether you have tried an electuary from juices, such as I prescribed. In long and stubborn diseases, which depend on some hidden intemperament, I place much reliance on remedies of this kind. You ask me to name some purgative that is either tasteless, or at least not unpleasant and abominable. Among the simples I know none that I could prefer in this respect to the root of Mechoacan. I have often given it to delicate persons who are repelled even by the mention of rhubarb, agaric, and the others. The dose is from 2 1/2 drams up to a whole dram, or even four scruples. I reduce it to powder, and with a little ginger added for stimulation I administer it with one or two spoonfuls of sweet wine, whether new or old. It purges gently, and almost imitates the strength of agaric, except that it is less harmful to the stomach. If you taste it, you will scarcely perceive any smell or taste. And yet in evacuating it is not sluggish. I was also once instructed that the same root should be boiled in the broth called panis Martii. And thus I gave it, not without benefit, to one who knew nothing of it. The more whiteness it has, the better it is. I believe it is also brought to you. In France its use is common, and at Heidelberg. Erastus formerly made it very familiar to himself, which later other physicians also imitated. Of compound medicines that purge the body gently and without trouble T 2

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419 EPISTOLÆ 446 < Passula laxatina.> mum tribuo passulis laxatiuis vulgo dictis; quibus hic in aula nihil est frequentius. Constant autem ex infusione soliorum senæ, in qua passuæ, in sq. macerantur, & deinceps syrupus rosatus solutius affunditur. < Conf. Anisi laxane.> interdum etiam Rhabarbari aliquid adiicitur: sed in communi, ne nauseam pariat, omittitur. Laudo etiam confectionem anisi laxatiui, quæ pro cuiusuis arbittio parati potest. Denique electuarij cuiusdam lenientis descriptionem subiungo: quæ nuper me authore in officina suæ Maiest. &c. parata est: 2c. Folsenæ purgat. [uncia] iiij. [secun]d[u]s. Rhabarb. el [uncia] j. [secun]d[u]s. < Et lenitium.> Infunde in vim maluatici [uncia] iiij, succi cydonior. depurator. [uncia] ij. Mane bullianr s. a. exprimantur foriter. Expressioni adde pomorum redolentium dulcium (qualia sunt Misnensia nostra, Porsdothiana dicta) arte coctorum [uncia] vj. Brodij zinzibet. [uncia] j. Brodij cydoniorum, aut miuæ [uncia] v. & saccharis [uncia] ij, coquantur ad formam Diacydoniani. Ac sub finem decoctionis adde Mannæ Calabrinæ dissolutæ puræ in vino maluatico [uncia] vj. Distribuatur in capsulas. Non tantum sine molestia, sed etiam enim volupiate assumitur. Totam autem massam hanc in duas partes distribui: & alteri pro singulis vnciis grana aliquot diaclydij adieci, vt in paulo validioribus personis plusculum operaretur. A st muncia vsc; ad vnciam integram tuo exhiberi potest. Et ad exemplum horum plura alia fingere licet: quibus nostri homines, aliàs a purganibus natura abhorrentes, sallantur. Pertinent huc etiam vna medicata, quæ vim purgandi habent, & cibis etiam abique periculo misceri queunt. ita nodulos parare soleo ex herbis & seminibus, adiectis Rhabarbaro, solis senæ, vel etiam agarico pro diuersa intenrione. Hos in vnum immergi in eoque per noctem macerari tubeo: de quo singulis diebus vnum haustum in prandio, loco vini absinthitis, cui nostri allue- nerunt, assumunt nulla cum molestia, ac suauissime inde alius subducitur. Vt domini Mercurialis sententiam de veneni substantia rectius assequi possis: aurohoris illius librum ad te mitto, quem meo nomine gratum habere velis. Gratuito accepi, gratuito dono. Interim illius loco vtor aliena editione, quæ Francofurti ad Moenum superiori anno prodiit. Sed cum nondum à bibliopego receperim: hunc iam compactum librum rectius transmitti posse ludicui. Adhuc contendis, non absurdum esse: vt vnum idemque diuersa consideratione modo in categoria substantiæ, medo in cæterarum aliqua ponatur, & exemplum caloris innati urges. Sed ego hoc ipsum mihi explica- ri velim: qua consideratione calorem illum natiuum tum substantiam, rum accidens aut qualitatem esse asseras. Si partem aliquam substantiæ corporis nostri (neque enim vniuersum absoluit) esse vis, vbinam repones? Num inter continentia, aut contenta, aut imperium sacientia? Hæc enim tria vt scis, Hippocrates noster recentet: quibus omnia contineri vult, quæ in substantia corporis nostri spectantur. atque ipse nî , nî nî nî nî nî nî nî nî appellat. Calorem per se ex sua natura accidens esse, nemo vnequam dubitauit. Et Galenus ipse in explicarone 4. Aphorismi primæ lectionis inter calorem seu caliditatem & calidum discernit: Illud enim meram qualitatem significare affirmar; per hoc autem decoratari substantiam qualitate illa præditam. Ita ego quoque dixi: Calorem, substantiam admodum improprie dici, & non nisi nisi , quia scilicet calor iste cum suo subiecto proprio, cui perpetuo inhæret, sumitur, & ita propter aliud, cui iunctus est, substantiæ rationem habet. quid autem hæc, in quibus tanta est catachresis, ad arte pertinent? Non communem loquendi seu vsum, seu abusum considerari: sed quomodo propriè res quælibet appellari, & in qua classi ex artis præscripto ponimerearur. Dialecticos nunc agimus, quibus vnicè proprietas cordi est: non Rhetores, quibus longius euagari licer. Medicos porto non eo sensu logicos esse negaui, quo tu accipis; quasi videlicet aliqvas omnino esse, aut ratione nulla vti velim. Sed logicas tantum illas disputationes, quas ita etiam Galenus expe appellat, ab vsu artis tanquam inutiles, vel saliem superuacaneas remouendas censui. Cum enim Medici finis sit agere seu operari, cerrum est circa particularia illum versari debere, in quibus sensus dominatur, non ratio. Neque enim profecto hominem curat: sed Socratem, aut Platonem. Hi cum indiuidua sint: sensu percipiuntur, non ratione. Et vt rectius mentem meam intelligas, dico ratione finis principalis seu vltum Medicos magis esse artifices sensatos, quam rationales, nempe quia ratio sensui inseruit; non hic illi in Theoricis scientiis contra sensus rationi seruit. quia illarum vltimus finis est speculatio, quæ a sensu originem ducit. Sed in medicina ideo Theriacam partem discimus, non vrin ea tanquam vltimo sine acquiescamus: sed vt illa actionem seu operationem, propter quam omnia traduntur, dirigamus. Ita ratione finis principalis seu vltimi vna cum Galeno recte asserui: Medicinæ artifices sensuosum.

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419 LETTERS 446 < Laxative raisin-paste.> I devote myself to the so-called laxative raisins; of these there is nothing more common here in the court. They are made from an infusion of senna leaves, in which the raisins are macerated, and afterwards rose syrup is poured over them more thinly. < Laxative anise confection.> Sometimes also a little rhubarb is added; but in common use it is omitted, lest it cause nausea. I also commend the preparation of a laxative anise confection, which can be prepared according to anyone’s choice. Finally I add the description of a certain mild electuary, which was recently, at my suggestion, prepared in the workshop of Her Majesty, etc.: 2c. Purified senna [ounce] iiij. [according to]s. White rhubarb [ounce] j. [according to]s. < And the mild medicine.> Infuse in wine of malmsey [ounce] iiij, juice of clarified quinces [ounce] ij. Let them be boiled in the morning, and then pressed out strongly. To the expressed liquid add sweet-smelling apples (such as our Meissen apples, called Porsdothian) cooked by art [ounce] vj. Ginger broth [ounce] j. Quince broth, or quin broth [ounce] v. and sugar [ounce] ij; boil to the form of diacydonium. And toward the end of the boiling add Calabrian manna dissolved pure in wine of malmsey [ounce] vj. Let it be distributed into capsules. It is taken not only without discomfort, but also with pleasure. However, I divided the whole mass into two parts; and to one part, for each ounce, I added a few grains of diaclydium, so that in somewhat stronger persons it might have a little more effect. From a small dose up to a whole ounce it can be administered to you. And after the example of these, many other things may be devised, by which our people, who otherwise naturally shrink from purgatives, are enticed. There belong here also medicinal pills, which have the power of purging, and can even be mixed with food without danger. Thus I am accustomed to prepare little boluses from herbs and seeds, with rhubarb added, or senna leaves, or even agaric, according to the different purpose. I order these to be soaked together in one vessel and macerated there overnight; from this each day one draught at dinner, in place of the wormwood wine to which our people are accustomed, they take without any discomfort, and most pleasantly the other matter is then carried off. In order that you may more correctly grasp Master Mercurialis’ opinion about the substance of poison: I send you his book, which I ask you to receive kindly in my name. I received it gratis, and I give it gratis. Meanwhile I use another edition in its place, which appeared at Frankfurt am Main in the previous year. But since I have not yet received it back from the bookseller, it may be seen whether this already bound book can be sent more suitably. You still insist that it is not absurd: that one and the same thing, under different consideration, may sometimes be placed in the category of substance and sometimes in one of the others, and you press the example of innate heat. But I should like this very point explained to me: under what consideration you say that that native heat is both substance and accident or quality. If you want it to be some part of the substance of our body (for indeed it does not comprise the whole), where will you place it? Among things containing, or contained, or those satisfying the command? For these three, as you know, are what our Hippocrates lately calls the things by which all that is found in the substance of our body is contained. and he himself nî , nî nî nî nî nî nî nî nî calls them so. That heat, by its very nature, is an accident, no one has ever doubted. And Galen himself, in the explanation of Aphorism 4 of the first lecture, distinguishes between heat or hotness and the hot thing: for he affirms that the former signifies a mere quality, whereas by the latter he denotes a substance endowed with that quality. Thus I too said: heat is said to be substance in a very improper sense, and only because that heat is taken together with its proper subject, in which it continually inheres, and so, because of another thing to which it is joined, it has the character of substance. But what do such things, in which there is so much catachresis, have to do with art? Not the common way of speaking, whether use or abuse, is to be considered; but how each thing ought properly to be named, and under what class, according to the prescription of the art, it should be placed. We are now speaking as dialecticians, for whom propriety is alone dear: not as rhetoricians, who are allowed to wander farther. Moreover, I denied that physicians are logicians in that sense in which you take it; as though, namely, I wished them to be none at all, or to use reason not at all. But I considered only those logical disputations, which Galen himself also, if I remember, calls so, to be removed from the practice of the art as useless, or at least superfluous. For since the physician’s end is to act or operate, it is certain that he ought to be concerned with particulars, in which sense holds sway, not reason. For he does not, properly speaking, treat a man in general: but Socrates or Plato. Since these are individuals, they are perceived by sense, not by reason. And that you may understand my meaning more correctly, I say, by reason of the principal or ultimate end, physicians are more sensuous craftsmen than rational ones, namely because reason is subordinate to sense; not here, as in theoretical sciences, is sense subordinate to reason. For in those sciences the ultimate end is speculation, which takes its origin from sense. But in medicine we therefore learn the Theriac part, not that we may rest in it as the ultimate end: but so that we may direct that action or operation, for the sake of which all things are taught. Thus, by reason of the principal or ultimate end, together with Galen I rightly asserted: the craftsmen of medicine are sensuous.

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441 MEDICINALES. 442 Medicum esse artificem sensatum. Sic tamen ne rationem prorsus excluderem: sed potius, vt omnino faciendum est, necessario includerem. Tu tamen hoc velut absurdum reprehendis. Fortasse autem si rem recta reputabis via: ad opinionem, non tam meam, quam veritati ipsi consonam accedes. Cum calidum (rectius quam calorem) ignatum cogulandulis vidico appellas: arbistor te magis proprie loquuturum, si cogulandulis nuncupes. Siquidem naturalem spiritum, & calorem illum seu calidum innatum pro eodem Montanus, & alij plures accipiunt. Sed de his plura in præsentia non licet. Hæc ipsa prout in mentem, vel potius buccam venerunt, effudi, ac tibi ad corrigendum propono. In reipsa me non multum aberrare confido: in exponendo maiorem te elegantiam requitere arbistor. De terra sigillata nostra te quæ scribis, libenter cognoui. Fuit nuper p[ro]ct aliquot septimanas nobiscum autor illius, & mecum multa contulit. Molitur præparationem illius magis artificiotam, & quæ Anwaldinam proxime æmuletur: quam nihil aliud esse iudicai, quam extractum terræ sigillatæ certæ, & nequaquam simplex aliquod, sed potius compositum. Ego quibus in partibus possum illum promoueo. Cogitat hac ipsa in vrbe deinceps terram suam parare, tanquam in illustriori loco: vnde factius innove scere & in alias terras exportari possit. Misimus aliquid illius in italiam: & expetitur alibi etiam. In tremore manuum post vniuersalia exhibeo ea, quæ caput & neruosas partes roborare creduntur, quale est præcipue Diacorum, & extractum calami: extra autem tremulas manus foueo vino calido, in quo betonica, salvia, maiorana, rosmarinus, & similia incocta sunt, & penetrationis causa spiritus vini aliquid affundo ita multis tremor paulatim temsit, donec prorsus abolet etur, cætera quæ restant, in aliud tempus referuo: & te vna cum tuis bene feliciterq[ue] valere exopto, Prag[ati]o Boiemorum, pridie Kal. Febr. Anno 81. EPIST. CCXLII. IOEM EIDEM. FERIATVM iam diu est inter nns à literario officio: vt ad ordinarias scribendi operas redire p[ro]xene videatur tempestium. Etsi quidè haud satis memini, quis nostrum negligentia huic occasionem præbuerit: quontam tamen proximis tuis me iterum in acrem prouocas: breues basce & tumultuatas remittere placuit. Pro votis tuis, quibus nuptias & coniugium meum pu- me & amicissimæ prosequeris, magnas gratias ago: & tibi ac tuis vicissim omnia felicia & salutaria reprecor. Annus sane iam abiit, & vnus insuper mensis cum dimidio: uec tamen dum genialis lecti fructus apparet. nihilominus spem bonam fouere pergo, & me Homerico illo consolor: eius piora sicutor, eius eius eius eius . Tus fortasse hoc in certamine prioris abitulisti de quotibi, vt debeo, gratulor. In epidemico morbo magnum vium percipit ex Dioscordio Fracastorei cum idoneis exhibito aquis. Dominus doctor Hermannus, qui nunquam Verastislaus pedem mouit, quam diu ibi pestis regnauit, plurimum defert sali absinthiaco cum theriaca permisto, quod putredini potenter resistat, & naturales facultates astriatione sua roboret, & tamen ntiloseius insigniter penetret sudoresq[ue] cieat. Curaut eodem illo tempore hic parari theriacam, quam Germanorum indigetaui: de illa aliquid transmitto, vt vires eius explores, simulqne judicium tuum signifies. Crede mihi tam valentem atq[ue] Andromachi alteram expertus sum: immo ei plus fido, cum ex eis constet potissimum quæ in nostro orbe gignuntur, & à qua fraus omnis abest. Drachma huius tribus crucialibus constat, cum altera sæpequartaloachimici æstimetur. Negredinem aliqui desiderant: sed mangoniu[m] illud facile accessiri potest chal entide adiecta, aut succo prunellorum sylvestrium inspissato, quod aliis magis artidet, permisto. Plura in præsentia non licet. Dissecto igitur in occasiones alias. Bene & feliciter vale cum tuis omnibus, quibus felx inuntis anni noui auspicium ex animo comprecor. Prag[ati]o Boiemorum, pridie nataliciorum domini, inchoantis Annum 40 1; 67. EPIST. CCXLII. LAURENTIO SCHOLZIO MED. &c. Petrus Monanus Medicus Casireus S. D. Nisi ex aliis indicis, quo in te animo nellem, hactenus petipexisset: facile de illo ex tam drutorno & insolitato meo si- lo lentio dubitandi occasionem arripere posses. Verum vt ne illud facias, abs te amanter peto, charissime mi Laurenti: imo potius ta: ditanis aut negligentia culpam mihi imputes: quam vt de meo inte perpetuo studio, vel minimum suspicaris. Fuerunt certe non paucæ occupationes, quæ me in uuum quoq[ue] abstraxerunt, quo minus voluntati, & meo desiderio satisfacere. Sed tamen vt ante migrationem ex hocce. T;

Transcription: Translated (English)

441 MEDICINALS. 442 That the physician is a sensible craftsman. Yet I would not entirely exclude reason; rather, as must absolutely be done, I would necessarily include it. You, however, criticize this as if it were absurd. But perhaps, if you judge the matter aright, you will come to an opinion consonant not so much with mine as with truth itself. When you call the innate heat (more correctly than “heat”) the innatum, I think you would speak more properly if you were to call it cogulandulis vidico . For Montanus and many others take natural spirit and that heat, or innate warmth, to be the same. But more on these matters is not permitted at present. I have poured out these things just as they came into my mind, or rather to my mouth, and I lay them before you for correction. In the matter itself I trust I do not err much; in the explanation, I think, you will require greater elegance. What you write to me about our terra sigillata I was glad to learn. Its author was recently with us for some weeks, and discussed many things with me. He is working on a preparation of it that is more artful and that may closely rival Anwald’s; he judges it to be nothing else than an extract of a certain terra sigillata, and by no means something simple, but rather a compound. I support him in whatever ways I can. He is thinking of preparing his earth here in this very city hereafter, as in a more illustrious place, from which it could more easily be renewed and exported to other lands. We have sent some of it to Italy, and it is sought elsewhere as well. In trembling of the hands, after the general remedies I administer those things which are believed to strengthen the head and nervous parts, especially diacorum and extract of calamus; outwardly, however, I soothe the trembling hands with warm wine in which betony, sage, marjoram, rosemary, and the like have been boiled, and for the sake of penetration I add some spirit of wine. Thus, by many means, the tremor has gradually lessened until it is almost completely abolished. The rest that remains I reserve for another time. And I wish that you and yours may be well and happily. Prague of the Bohemians, the day before the Kalends of February, in the year 81. EPIST. CCXLII. TO THE SAME. It has now long been a holiday among us from literary duties, so that it scarcely seems the weather for returning to ordinary writing tasks. Although I do not quite remember which of us gave occasion to this through negligence, since your recent letters provoke me again to earnestness, I have decided to send these brief and hurried lines back. I give great thanks for your good wishes, with which you pursue my marriage and union with my dearest wife; and in return I pray for all things fortunate and beneficial for you and yours. Indeed, a year has now passed, and another month and a half besides, yet the fruit of the nuptial bed still does not appear. Nevertheless I continue to nourish a good hope, and I comfort myself with that Homeric saying: eius piora sicutor, eius eius eius eius . You perhaps have gained the advantage in this contest; for that I congratulate you, as I ought. In epidemic illness great strength is obtained from Fracastoro’s Dioscordium, administered with suitable waters. Doctor Hermann, who never set foot in Verastislaus while the plague ruled there, makes much of absinthiate salt mixed with theriac, because it powerfully resists putrefaction and, by its astringency, strengthens the natural faculties, and yet is notably useful because it penetrates well and provokes sweat. At that same time I had theriac prepared here, the German kind, as I had requested; of it I send you something, so that you may examine its strength and at the same time communicate your judgment. Believe me, I have found it as potent as another Andromachus; indeed I trust it more, since it is composed chiefly of those things produced in our own world, and from which all fraud is absent. A drachma of this consists of three cruciales, whereas the other is often valued at a quarter of an acharus. Some desire blackness; but that deception can easily be obtained by adding warmed honey, or thickened juice of wild sloe berries mixed in, which makes it more astringent. More at present is not permitted. I shall therefore defer the rest to another occasion. Farewell well and happily, you and all yours, for whom I sincerely invoke the fortunate auspices of the beginning of the new year. Prague of the Bohemians, the day before the birthday of the Lord, at the beginning of the year 401; 67. EPIST. CCXLII. TO LAURENTIUS SCHOLZIUS, M.D., ETC. Peter Monanus, physician of Cásireus, sends greetings. Unless from other indications you had known my disposition toward you, you could easily have taken occasion to doubt it from my very long and unusual silence. But lest you do that, I ask you kindly, dearest Laurentius: rather impute the fault to my diligence, or negligence, than that you should suspect even the least lack of my perpetual devotion to you. Certainly there have been many occupations which have drawn me aside, so that I could not satisfy either my desire or my willingness. But still, before I depart from this place.

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co nihil plane ad te scriberem, committendum non putavi. Imperator quidem nudiùs tertius iam tum hinc mouit: quem ego hæc Sæ intra biduum subseqvar. Cum domino D. Hieronymo Michaële hesterno die chartas tuas medicas remisi: pro quarum communicatione tibi magnas gratias ago. Pleraque descripsi: quæ etiam mihi non displi- cent. Capouaccianas pagellas de cauteriorum administratione diu habere concupi- ui. Ostédi illas, dum hic esset. Wofeho nostro: qui de quibusdam capitibus suas peculiares cogitationes mihi exposuit. Illud pene pro deridiculo habuit, quod dicitur: Medicamenta purgantia etiam foris imposita, & vnguentus, siue emplastus committa: tamen humorem proprium è corpore attrahere. Etiamsi hoc paradoxon plane videatur: falsum tamen & imaginarium non esse, & de aliorum experientia certus sum. Noui enim præstantem Medicum, qui id mihi hic confirnauit; sese plures id expertum: quâ do talia verbi gratia, elleborum, agaricum, scammoni, colocynthidem, externis quoque medicamentis adhibuit. Nam & sic applicita partem aliquam peccantis humoris extrahere, & vt vulnera atq[ue] tumores facilius percutentur efficere. D. Hoffmanni co[s]silia libenter legi: atq[ue] haud fecio an non nimiam accurationem præ te ferant. Multudo ista medicamentorum, etiam optimorum, tamen ægrum petturbat, & sæpe multum confusionis patit. Crato noster magno studio hanc copiam subterfugere videtur. Si Medicus ipse præsens adsit, ac pro variarum circumstantiarum considerat: one curationem immuet, longe alia est ratio. Absente illo ne hæc quidem suffecerunt. Consilia domini Cratonis quotquot babeo tibi describi curabo, atq[ue] iam tum busus rei initium feci. Dabo operam ne tu pauciora accipias, sed potius plura, & tuis non inferiora. Lectiones communis præceptas nostri de morbis mulierum apprime videre gestio: idq[ue] propret methodum tractationis inprimis. Vt ipse ista describas: abs te petere non ausim. Si tamen hoc oneris sponte in te suscipere voles: iam tibi a paratum esse noris. Accepi enim ex intimis scrinitis domini Cratonis breuem quendam tractatum de morbis mulierum, tum ante partum, tum in partu: tum etiam post partum: quem ipse in gratiam cuiusdam generosæ forminæ de suis obsecutionibus concessit. Habes in eo libello, licet breui, pulcerrima medicamenta in omnibus ferme affectionibus, quæ fæminineum genus infestant: & non nisi erusmodi remedia, quæ ipse pluries hinc inde expertus, & magnam inde laudem &c gloriam consecutus est. Descripsi ex ipsius autographo: & tibi vicissim, ea conditione, quam antea posui, mea mann describam. Fortasse etiam alia quædam subsequentur, quæ ex myrethecio Cratoniano accepta nemini hominum hactenus communia feci, si prius, quomodo illa placeant, sensero. A- quam tuam ex ovis formicarum destillatam cum nuper Hebtæo meo chymico ostenderem: dicebat se quoque illam non semel parasse, sed rutilam magis, quam tuam euasisse. Vnde maius ipse ipsa habere collegi. Venit nunc in mentem medicamentum quoddam: quo collega meus Neapolitanus magno cum successu vt solet in suspicione morbi gallici: aut in iis, qui ligni decoctu bibere recusant. item in gonorrhœa virulenta, & similibus casibus. descriptio hæc est: 20. Salsæ parigliæ ij. Cortic. ligni Guaiac. Cinnamom opt. j. Seux oriental. el. Epithymi. Rad. Ellebori an. ij. Sacchati albus. Misc. fiat puluis subtilissimus. Et diuidatur pro dosi. Potest etiam omitti Elleborus & Epithym. Idem meus collega felicissime vitiur in pellendo calculo Radice ononidis, quam vulgo rostam bouis vocant, superiore cortice ablato, (in recentibus cortex relinquitur, & potissimas vires habet) internam medullam conquassat, ac deinde in talcolos dislecat, & in idoneo liquore decoctas propinat. Potest tu quoq[ue] si libet, periculum facere. Mittebat nuper ad me dominus Camerarius specimen noui herbarij Theodoriani quod fortasse ist hic apud Cratenem vidisti. Si finis principio respondebit: nihil simile in hoc genere hactenus editum est. Sed manum tandem de tabula Bene & feliciter vale, mi charissime Laurenti, & in posterum frequentiores à me expecta. Pragæ Boiemorum 15. Decemb. Anno 1581. EPIST. CCXLIII. IDEM. EIDEM. DE noua conditione valde tibi gratuor, amantissime mi Laurenti, neque dum rationes consilij tui perpendo, cur illud improbare dobeam, video præsertim cum ea accedant commoda: quæ tulonga oratione recenses; & ego nequaquam vilipendenda iudico. Pro communicatione consiliorum domini Cratonis, tua manu descriptorum, magnastibi gratias ago: ac omni-

Transcription: Translated (English)

I thought it best not to commit anything further to you, since I had nothing at all to write. Indeed, the Emperor had already set out from here the day before yesterday; I shall follow him within two days. Yesterday I returned your medical papers to Master D. Hieronymus Michaëlis; I thank you greatly for sharing them with me. I have copied out most of them, and they do not displease me either. I have long wished to have Capouaccia’s pages on the administration of cauteries. I showed them to Wofeho while he was here, and he set before me his own particular thoughts on certain points. He almost treated as ridiculous the statement that purgative medicines, even when applied externally as ointments or plasters, draw the proper humors out of the body. Although this may seem a complete paradox, I am certain from others’ experience that it is neither false nor imaginary. For I know a distinguished physician who confirmed this to me here, saying that he himself had tested it many times; he applied such things as hellebore, agaric, scammony, and colocynth also in external medicines. For thus applied, they can draw out some portion of the offending humor and also make wounds and tumors easier to attack. I read Dr. Hoffmann’s advice gladly, though I am not sure whether it does not show too much refinement. That multitude of medicines, even the best of them, still troubles the sick person and often causes much confusion. Our Crato seems to avoid such abundance with great care. If the physician himself is present and takes account of the various circumstances, the treatment is much different; but when he is absent, even those remedies did not suffice. I shall take care to have as many of Master Crato’s counsels as I have copied out for you, and I have now already begun this task. I shall do my best that you receive not fewer, but rather more, and none inferior to your own. I am especially eager to see the lectures and common precepts of our teacher on women’s diseases, and chiefly the method of treatment. I would not dare ask you to write them out yourself. But if you are willing to take this burden upon yourself of your own accord, know that it is already prepared for you. For from the inmost cupboards of Master Crato I received a certain brief treatise on women’s diseases, both before childbirth, during childbirth, and after childbirth, which he granted in favor of a certain noble lady in return for her services. In that little book, though brief, you have the most excellent medicines for almost all afflictions that trouble the female sex, and only such remedies as he himself has many times tried here and there, and by which he has won great praise and glory. I copied it from his own autograph, and in return I shall write mine out for you by hand, on the condition I set down before. Perhaps too certain other things will follow, which I have hitherto not made common to any man, having taken them from Crato’s treasury, if first I see how they are received. When I recently showed your water distilled from ant eggs to my chemical friend Hebtaeus, he said that he too had prepared it more than once, but that his had turned out more reddish than yours. From this I gathered that yours possesses greater virtue. A certain medicine now comes to mind, which my Neapolitan colleague uses with great success, as is his custom, in suspected cases of the French disease, or in those who refuse to drink the wood decoction; likewise in virulent gonorrhea and similar cases. The prescription is as follows: 20. Salt of Pariagles, 2. Bark of guaiac wood. Best cinnamon, 1. Eastern sebesten. Epithymum. Hellebore root, of each 2. White sugar. Mix; let a very fine powder be made. And let it be divided according to the dose. Hellebore and epithymum may also be omitted. The same colleague of mine has most happily used the root of ononis, which people commonly call “ox rose,” in driving out stone; the outer bark being removed (in fresh roots the bark is left on, and has the chief strength), he crushes the inner pith and then cuts it into small pieces and gives it in an appropriate liquor after boiling. You too may, if you like, try the experiment. Master Camerarius recently sent me a specimen of the new Theodorian herbarium, which perhaps you saw here at Crato’s. If the end matches the beginning, nothing of the kind has hitherto been published. But I must at last take my hand from the board. Farewell well and happily, my dearest Laurentius, and expect more frequent letters from me in future. From Prague in Bohemia, 15 December 1581. EPIST. CCXLIII. SAME TO THE SAME. I greatly congratulate you on your new condition, most loving Laurentius; and while I weigh the reasons for your plan, I do not see why I should disapprove it, especially since the advantages you set forth at such length are joined to it, and I by no means judge them unworthy of consideration. I thank you greatly for communicating Master Crato’s counsels, written out in your own hand; and in every...

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445 M E D I C I N A L E S. 446 omnino conabor vt par pari referam. Ha- beo enim ego quoque non pauca: sed quæ Viennæ reliqui: & me tibi, cum eo venero, vicissim descriptum promitto, imo pro in- tima amicitia nostra hoc tibi sanctè affirmo, nihil esse quod in mea potestate est, quod non tecum etiam com[m]une esse velim, quan- doquidem tu quoque tuorum nihil à me ce- las aut abscendis. Est profecto aliquid pe- culiare, vt tu quoquere te iudicas, in Cra- 10 tonis nostri consiliis, quod in aliis similiter non apparet Nam & dexterrime affectuum causas venatur, & inde indicationes elicit: ac tandem medicamenta succincta ratione proponit. Non delectatur ita uperosis com- positionibus, vt multi, qui aut ignorantiam suam hac ratione patefaciunt, cum sine me- thodo temere plurima spe pe viribus: inter se pugnantia coagmentant, at certe ostenta- tionis gratia hoc faciunt, tum vt apud impe- 20 ritos gloriolam aliquam captent tum etiam vt pharmacopæorum lucrum adaugeant. Sed istos sinamus & meliores magistros no- bis ad imitandum proponamus, quos nun- quam hoc aguisse certum est. Quod de Cratonianorum medicamenorum, quo- rum descriptiones ad te interam dosi & fa- cultate quæris: scias ote non omnibus v- sum esse, sed plerasque ita vi in officinis re- peri describere satis habuisse. Electuario ta- 3 c men de Macis in corroboratione principu[m] partium, cerebri nempe & cordis vitur: sic- uri electuario caryophillato inuentriculi, post longos morbos, imbecilitate. Confe- ctionem de styrace, aut pillulas de laudano, in quibus calibus vsurpet, ignorare me fa- teor. Licer tamen facile aliquid colligere: si ingredientium vires & potestates expen- das. Diacodii idem est vsus, qui & aliorum compositionum, quæ hoc eodem nomine 40 inscribuntur, & in dispensatoriis passim ex- stant: nempe in tenuibus fluxionibus ad a- speram atteriam, & in polmones cum pri- mis, quæ huius exhibitione incrassantur, & sistuntur item ad somnum concillian- dum, & in similib. aliis casibus. Confectione de Rhabarbaro in biliosis corporibus, & epatis obstructione laborantibus vti con- sueuit. Rotulas inde mediocris magnitudi- nis parare iubet, de quibus singulis matuti- nis ad aliquot dies duas aut tres deuorare iubet. Est valde vile & suave medicamen- tum in delicatis: & qui fortiores euacuationes ægre scrunt. Mouet vnam atque alte- ram sedem præter consuetas & naturales: sed sine molestia. Capouaccii nostri lectiones de morbis mulierum tum exspectabo, quando tibi eas describere, & mihi trans- mittere commodum visum fuerit. Ego tibi interim amend[us] loco eâ quoque mittam, quæ pollicitus: Cratonis nempe nostri quæ- dam in simili argumento, quæ quinti tibi gra- ta futura sunt nequaquam dubito. Pulueris < Pul Galli. sus mutari potest.> quem colleg[us] meo familiarem esse duxi, de- scriptionem pro intentione occurrente tibi mutare, & proposito causi accommodare non erit difficile. Senæ plus minus sumere potes. Interdum etiam Elleborum prorsus omittere. Vsus erit illius vbi vel semina sunt morbi gallici, vel illius reliquæ quædam re- stant. Non opus est tam accurata victus ra- tione, vt in cæteris qui decoctum bibunt ex professo. Si mane horam vnam, aut paulo plus in lecto sudare potest, sufficit. Inde su- dor diligenter detergeatur. In publicum prodire, nisi aer valde austrinus aut horealis fuerit, licet. Cæteroquinin omnibus mé- diocritatem seruare vulgissimum est. Sed v- sus ipsi rationi coniunctus hæc rectissime docebit. Radieis ononidis cortex exsicca- < Dosser id de mondiu ca calcinio.> tu: exhibetur ad drachmam vnam plus mi- nus cum vino. quod si acrimoniam metuis, propinetur cum aqua maluarum. In deco- cto ad 3 iij, ad 3/3. assumere innoxium est. Præcedant tamen materiarum communu[m] diuersiones per enemata, aut per exhibitione- nem terebinthinæ cum Rhabarbaro, cuius assumptione etiam vix vrinariæ, ad commo- dius excludendum calculum, laxantur. Hi- storiolam de rubea nostra abs te confectam lætor. Rem gratissimam facies domino Ca- merario, & me simul hoc fæce lcaubis. Ex- quiram tamen ipse etiam domini Camera- ri de illa iudicium. Fortasse non male face- res, si etiam domino Cratoni legendam ex- luberes. Vbi Viennam, Deo volente, perue- nero, ea quæ vis apud D. Acholzium tuo no- mine efficiam. Spero autem nos iutra dies abhinc quindecim illuc appulsuros. Illinc in Austriam superiorem proficiscemur, & demum quod felix & salutare Deus esse iubet, Ecclesiæ & reipublicæ Christianæ ad Augustana comitia. De cæteris alio inter nos conferemus tempore. Tu bene & feli- citer cum tuis omnibus viue & vale. Poto- nii Pannoniorum, 4. Februar anno. 1582. Sequitur descriptio eorum medicamen- torum, quorum in hac epistola mentio fa- < 50> cta est: Electuarium de macis. 2. Macis in aceto per horas xx. p[er]tæpa- rat 3/3 j. Extracti ligni aloes 3/3. Theriacæ Augustan. 3/3 iij. Sem. citri ex cortic. 3/3 ij. Conser. è fl. borrag. Cortic. citri condit. an. 3/3 j. T 4

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445 MEDICINALS. 446 I shall try in every way to give you an equal return. For I too have not a few things, but I left them in Vienna; and when I come there, I promise in turn to send you a written account of them, indeed, in the close friendship between us, I solemnly affirm this to you: there is nothing in my power that I would not also wish to make common with you, since you likewise conceal or withhold nothing of yours from me. There is certainly something peculiar, as you too judge, in the counsels of our Craton, which does not appear in others in the same way. For he most skillfully hunts out the causes of affections, and from them elicits indications; and at length he proposes medicines in a concise manner. He does not delight in overlong compositions, as many do, who either reveal their ignorance in this way, because without method they rashly combine very many things, often with no more than hope of their powers, while conflicting with one another; or at least they do this for the sake of display, both to win some little glory among the unlearned and also to increase the gain of the apothecaries. But let us leave such men aside and set before us better teachers to imitate, of whom it is certain that they never acted thus. As for the Cratonian medicines, whose descriptions you ask from me with regard to dose and strength: know that he did not use all of them, but was content to have written out most of them as they are found in the shops. Yet he uses the electuary of mace in strengthening the chief parts, namely the brain and the heart; likewise the electuary of cloves for weakness of the stomach after long illnesses. I confess that I do not know in what cases he used the preparation with styrax or the pills with laudanum. Still, something may easily be gathered from considering the powers and properties of the ingredients. Diacodium has the same use as the other compositions that are inscribed under this same name and are commonly found in dispensatories: namely, in thin fluxions to the windpipe and especially to the lungs, which are thickened and checked by its administration; also to induce sleep, and in similar other cases. He is accustomed to use the confection of rhubarb in bilious bodies and in those suffering from obstruction of the liver. He orders lozenges of moderate size to be made from it, two or three of which he orders to be swallowed each morning for several days. It is a very mild and pleasant medicine for delicate persons and for those who bear stronger evacuations with difficulty. It moves one or another stool beyond the customary and natural ones, but without discomfort. I shall await the lessons of our Capouaccius on the diseases of women when it seems convenient to you to have them copied out and sent to me. Meanwhile I shall send you, in place of that other matter, what I promised: namely, certain writings of our Craton on a similar subject, which I am certain will be very pleasing to you. To alter the description of the powder, which I have thought familiar to my colleague, according to the intention that arises in the case, and to adapt it to the proposed cause, will not be difficult. You may take senna more or less. Sometimes you may omit hellebore altogether. It will be used where there are either seeds of the French disease or some remnants of it still remain. There is no need for such exact regulation of diet as in the others who drink the decoction as a regular course. If in the morning he can sweat in bed for an hour, or a little longer, that is enough. Then the sweat should be carefully wiped away. To go out into public is permitted unless the air has been very southerly or northerly. Otherwise, it is most usual to observe moderation in all things. But use joined with reason will teach these things most correctly. The bark of the root of ononis, dried, is given in a dose of one drachm more or less with wine; if you fear its acrimony, let it be taken with water of mallows. In decoction, up to 3 iij, up to 3/3, it is harmless to take. Yet first the common passages of the material should be cleared by enemas, or by the administration of turpentine with rhubarb; by taking these, even the urinary passages are relaxed, so that the stone may be expelled more easily. I am glad about the little history of our “rubea” that has been composed by you. You will do a very pleasing thing for Lord Camerarius, and at the same time for me by this little act of kindness. Nevertheless I shall myself also seek Lord Camerarius’s judgment on it. Perhaps you would not do badly if you were also to let Lord Craton read it. When, God willing, I arrive in Vienna, I shall accomplish in your name what you wish with Dr. Acholzius. I hope, however, that within fifteen days from now we shall arrive there. From there we shall proceed to Upper Austria, and finally to the Augsburg diet, whatever God decrees to be fortunate and salutary for the Church and the Christian commonwealth. We shall discuss the other matters with one another at another time. Farewell; live well and happily with all your household. Potonii Pannoniorum, 4 February 1582. What follows is the description of those medicines mentioned in this letter: Electuary of mace. Mace, prepared in vinegar for twenty hours, 1 ounce. Extract of lignum aloes, 3/3. Theriac of Augsburg, 3/3 iij. Seeds of citron with rind, 3/3 ij. Conserve of borage flowers. Candied citron peel, an. 3/3 j. T 4

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EPISTOLA 484 Misc. & cum syr. de cortieib. citri q. s. f. Electuarium. Electuarum caryophillatum. 2. Conser. rosar. rub. lb. β. Spec. aromatic. rosac. Gabriel. 3 ij. Caryophill. incis. 3 ij. Ambræ el. δβ. Misc. & cum syr. de cortie. citri q. s. f. Electuarium. Confectio de syrace. 2. Passular minor. 3 j. pulu. liquiritiæ 3 jβ. Ligni aloes. Nucis condit. Cinnamom. a δj. Siyrac. calamitæ 3 β. Boli armen. δij. Misc. & eum sacch. albiss. in aq. violæ. dissol. 3 v. f. conf. in morsulis. Pillula de Laudano: 2. Laudani puriss 3 β. Trochiscor. Alhandal. 3 iij. Mastic. 3 j. Mast. x & laudanum super carbones in mortario calefiant, & dissoluantur, deinde Trochisci cum Electuario de luceo rosarum 3 β. incorporentur, ac add. parum syrapi rosac. solut. f. massa. f. a. Diacodium: 2. Capit. papauer. alb. numero xx. Siliquar. pingu. & enucleat. 3 ij. β. Glycyrrhizæ, Myrtillor. an. 3 j. β. Rad. ruffitag 3 j. Decoq. in lib. x. aq. donoc tres remaneant, & adde sacchari penid. lb. j. Coquantur ad spissitudinem mellis currentis. Confectio de Rhabarbaro: 2. Rhabarbari el. pul 3 ij. Extracti Rhabarb. δj. Misc & cum sacch. albiss. in aq. simplici dissol. 3 vj. f. conf. in rotulis. EPIST. CCXLIV. IDEM ESDEM. ETuis & meis occupationibus sit, vt rarius scribamus inuicem. hoc tamen amicitiæ nostræ aliquid derogare minime decer. Quas itaque mésis lunii die vigesima ad me dedistitias vndecima sequentis mensis recte accepi Augusti Rheticorum in ipsis comitiis Protransmissis iis. quæ in lectionibus Bucephali nostræ mædæ re. liqua erant, tibi magnas gratias ago & referre etiam in simili officiorum genere studebo. Res quas tractat præclare sunt, & maxima doctrina refertæ, experientiaque diui- na satis superque comprobatæ: sed genus ipsum dicendi pæne horridum est: atque sæpe adeo obscurum, vt vix ab ipso autore intelligi credam. quo in genere quantum Italis Galli, & hos imitati Germani nonnulli Medici superiores sunt, cuiuis manifestum est. nec immerito sapientissimus autor Tbucidides hæc duo in viro politico coniungit, nimirum vivimus in diurno, neq[ue] ieiulivioras nemo viri politici requesita. id quod etiam in cæteris professionibus locum habet. Res eette ipse nominibus inuoluntur: Qvæ si ignota sunt & obscura, qvæ ratione petticue & clare percipi & tradi possunt? Verum de his satis. Communicaui tibi ex penu mea vicissim Cratoniana qua dam: quæ tibi non ingrata esse puto. haud dubie fratre meo curante iam dudum illa accepisti. In præsentia particulam epistolæ eiusdem Cratonis tibi transmitto, quatribus meis satisfacit. Quorum primum est de cortice frangulæ, cuius decoctum Pharmacopæus quidam Pragensis mihi retulit D. V Villebrochium solitum propinare patientibus suis: vt de euentu morbi certior esset. Macerabat autem corticem illum per quintiduum, postea de infusione propinabat 3 iij. eireiter: & sic explorabat num æger morbum esset cuasurus, nec ne. quibus tamen indiciis istud cognoscebar ignoro. Vides quid Crato noster ea de re sentiat. Alterum erat de præparatione humorum ante expurgationem: quamnam methodum ille vsurpare soleat, cum rarissime in illius evacuationibus eiusmodi decoctiones, aut syrupos, quibus vulgo Medici vtuntur, viderim. In responso illius quædam desidero, quæ per te animaduerte re potes. Ac nisi longiuscula esset, meam quoque epistolam, quam illius opposui, ad te mitterem. Sed audiam prius quid tibi in mentem veniat: vt vberior inter nos conferendi suppeditur materia. Tertium quæsitum erat de opere quodam Francisci Vallesii Medici Hispani, quod de controuersiis Medicis in scribit. Hic liber præstantissimus nunc opera Cratonis denuo reculus est in officina Andreæ V Ve: heli Hieredum, & per me quoque à multis mendis repurgatus, vt in præfatione præmilla vide licet. Adiunxi autem præter amendexa Craronianas etiam aliud quoddam scriptum de vtilitate Rhabarbari: quod à summo quodam viro Augustæ mihi communicarum est: cui D. Adolphus illud elam obtulit. Cupio scire quid tibi de eo videatur. Augustæ cum essem, cum multis præstantis. Medicis principum & ciuitatum notitiam contrahendi occasio data fuit: quæ me adhuc delectat: & in multis nô mediocriter profuit. Vellem

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EPISTLE 484 Misc. & with syrup of citron peel q.s. make Electuary. Electuary of cloves. 2. Conserve of red roses lb. β. Aromatic rose species of Gabriel. 3 ij. Chopped cloves 3 ij. Amber ἐλ. δβ. Mix & with syrup of citron peel q.s. make Electuary. Confection of Syrace. 2. Raisins, smaller sort. 3 j. Licorice powder 3 jβ. Aloes wood. Candied nut. Cinnamon a δj. Siyrac. calamitæ 3 β. Armenian bole. δij. Mix & with whitest sugar dissolved in violet water 3 v. make confection in lozenges. Pill of Laudanum: 2. Pure laudanum 3 β. Troches of alhandal 3 iij. Mastic 3 j. Mastic and laudanum are to be heated over coals in a mortar, and dissolved; then the Troches with Electuary of rose honey 3 β. are to be incorporated, and a little rose syrup solution added; make a mass, and form it. Diacodium: 2. Heads of white poppy, number twenty. Juicy, and pitted pods 3 ij. β. Licorice, Bilberries, of each 3 j. β. Root of ruffitag 3 j. Boil in lib. x. of water until three remain, and add lb. j. of penid sugar. Let them be cooked to the thickness of running honey. Confection of Rhubarb: 2. Choice powdered rhubarb 3 ij. Extract of rhubarb δj. Mix & with whitest sugar dissolved in simple water 3 vj. make confection in little rolls. EPIST. CCXLIV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. If my occupations and yours be such that we write to each other more rarely, this ought nevertheless in no way detract from our friendship. Those things, therefore, which you sent to me on the twentieth day of June, I duly received on the eleventh of the following month, August; and I return you great thanks for the matters transmitted in the very sessions of the Rhetians, in place of the remaining matters in the lectures of our Bucephalus. I am also eager to render thanks and to do likewise in a similar kind of service. The subjects which he treats are excellent, and full of the greatest learning, and sufficiently and abundantly proved by divine experience; but the manner itself of speaking is almost rough, and often so obscure that I believe it can scarcely be understood even by the author himself. In this genre it is manifest to anyone how far the Italians, the French, and some Germans, imitating these, are superior. Nor without reason does the most wise author Thucydides join these two things in a political man, namely the requirements of a political man. This also holds in the other professions. The very matters are wrapped up in names. If these are unknown and obscure, by what means can they be distinctly and clearly perceived and taught? But enough of this. In return I have communicated to you from my storehouse certain things of Crato, which I do not think will be unwelcome to you. No doubt, with my brother’s care, you received that long ago. At present I send you a portion of the same letter of Crato, which satisfies my inquiries. The first is about the bark of frangula, the decoction of which a certain apothecary of Prague told me that D. V. Villebrochius was accustomed to give to his patients, so that he might be more certain of the outcome of the disease. He used to steep that bark for five days, and then he gave the infusion, about 3 iij., and thus he tested whether the patient would recover from the disease or not. By what signs this was known I do not know. You see what Crato thinks about the matter. The second concerned the preparation of humors before purging: what method he used, since I have very rarely seen in his evacuations such decoctions or syrups as physicians commonly use. In his reply I miss certain things, which you can notice. And unless it were rather long, I would also send my own letter, which I set against his. But I should first hear what occurs to you, so that there may be supplied richer matter for conversation between us. The third question concerned a certain work of Francis Vallesius, a Spanish physician, in which he writes of medical controversies. This excellent book has now, by Crato’s effort, been newly published again in the shop of Andreas V. Ve: heli Hieredum, and also by me purged of many errors, as may be seen in the preface set before it. Besides the Cratonian pieces I have also appended another writing on the usefulness of rhubarb, which was communicated to me at Augsburg by a certain eminent man: and which D. Adolphus privately presented. I desire to know what you think of it. When I was at Augsburg, I had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of many eminent physicians of princes and cities; this still delights me and has been of no small profit in many things. I wish

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449 MEDICINALES. 458 te quoque interdum adfuisse cum co[n]sulta- tiones siue publice siue priuatim haberen- tur. Inter cæteras autem iucundissima mihi fuit consuetudo optimi Camerarii nostri, quem antea de facie non videram, & cum quototos sæpe dies continuo transegi. Ad- erat deinceps ibi quoque D. Paulus Luthe- rus, D. Kolreuterus, D. Postius, D. V. Vierus, & alii quam plurimi, quos longa referre mo- ra est. Taceo de Augustanis D. Luca Sten- glio, D. Adolpho Occano, D. Scheutlino, D. Zanlio, & aliis publice noris. Vno verbo dicam: poppupia arya diu arya diu iar- ra illic conuenerat. D. Frid. Sebiscium si quando ad illum scribes meo nomine amâ- ter salutes. Inter cæteros præclaros libellos Medicos, & diu à me desideratos, quos Au- gustæ æquissimo precio emi, etiam Herba- rium quoddam viuum est, magna & accu- rata diligentia collectum, quod etiam D. A- eholzio, cui nudius tertius ostendi, placuit. Velim tibi quoque inspiciendi facultatem dare, si fieri posset. Sed quod locorum inter- capedo prohibet: aliis rationibus compen- sandum est. < Electuarium d chalybo.> Corollatii loco electuarium quoddam transmitto, quod in obstructionibus viscerum maximo vsui est, & præsertim in morbo vlgineo ab Hippocrate vo- cato. Communicauit autem mihi illud du- cis Bauariæ Medicus præstantissimus, & se multa centena eo lucriscisse dicebat, & fere domi suæ, ne innotescat parare solere. Hæc autem est descriptio ex illius . : 2. Limaturæ ferri electi seu chalybis . Molatur super porphyrite subtilissime cum aceto, deinde siccetur ad solem aut ignem, & sic septies iteretur. 3. Limaturæ sic præparatæ vj. Cinnamomi. Nucis conditæ an. ij. Rhabarbar. el. ij. Spe. aromatic. rotat. vj. Mellis optimi, Sacch. albiif. el. an. j. Misc. cum lento igne, & f. Electuarium, Qui hoc Electuarium assumit exercitio v- tatur, sit instar castanæ, vel Præce- dat autem purgatio vnluersalis. Potest vti ad dies xxx. vel XL. Vidi libellos quosdam à D. Salomone Alberto nuper foras datos: qui mihi valde placent: ob rerum & verborum bonitatem. Soletne etiam tecum per literas communieare? Misisti ad me aliquando de- scriptiones quorundam medicamentorum Cratonianorum: cum mea in hoc genere ti- bi inlpicienda prius dedissem. Eam chattam amisi, aut saltem alicubi latitantem reperire non possum. Rogo igitur vt denuo ad me descripta mittas. Conabor par pari referre. De cæteris alias. Pestis in vicinia grassans, & totam fere Bohemiam depopulata nobis et- iam minari incipit. DEVM precor vt eam à nostris ceruicibus clementer auertere velit Bene & feliciter vale, & salute amice nteger t ime. Vienna Austtiorum, 20. Octob. an. 82. EPIST. CCXLV. IDEM ET DEM. BINE mihi lireris tuis satisfaciendum est: quarum alteras mense adhuc No- vembri anni proxime elapsi accepi: alteras ante dies plus minus quinque. Vt autem hanc meam tarditatem æquo animo feras, amanter oro: Et potius meam accuses negli- gentiam, quam vt illa me ex parte tui obli- tum esse suspiceris. A morbo meo arthriti- co, postquam semel repulsus discessit, im- munis fui per Deigratiam hactenus. quia tamen facile fieri posset, vt stato tempore re uerteretur, præsertim cum nobis in aula de- gentibus non semper temperatissimis esse liccat, omni cura in præcautionem incumbo, & intra paucos dies post venæ sectionem etiam corpus expurgare in animo habeo. Hæmorthoides vt denuo fluant, mitioribus pharmacis impetrare nequeo: fortiora au- tem exhibere aur applicare multis de causis vereor præsertim cum etiam sanitatis tem- pore alioquin immoderatius promanarint: ac sæpe maior labor sit in sistendis superflu- sis, quam in parcioribus irritandis & prono- candis. Electuario de hiera vtor frequenter sub ipsum cænæ tempus, & mihi multum conferre sentio, ipsæ tamen hæmorrhoides aloes permistione, vt antea fieri memini, se ad fluxum permoueri non pariuntur. Sup- 40 plent interim vicem cucurbitulæ scarifica- tæ, quas supra genu collocare soleo. Sympto ma illud meu, quod mihi molestum fuisse nosti, iâ à biennio fere integro, & amplius no[n] recurrit. Vtinam plane emaneat, & ad ex- tremos Garamantem relegetur. Consilium Cratonis in hoc casu ad me scriptum, vna cù aliis nonnullis proxime admussurus sum: non enim in præsentia describere vacabat significabo etiam quid in me ipsu expertus, ac quibus potissimum adiutus sum. Vere ra- men id vnsurpare possum, quod alicubi apud Gregorium Nassianzenum legitur: Fuisse hanc curationem potius vix . et si quidè remediis ex arte administratis si præ preces adiungâtur, ita sæpissime Deus benedicit, vt salutatem euentum sortiantur. Quæris de virib. terræ nostræ sigillatæ Silefia ex. Ego vero nullam hactenus peculia re[n]t in illa facultatem inesse, deprehendere potu,

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449 MEDICINALS. 458 you, too, were sometimes present when consultations were held, whether publicly or privately. Among others, however, the most pleasant to me was the company of our excellent Camerarius, whom I had not seen before in person, and with whom I spent many days in a row. There was there afterward also D. Paulus Lutherus, D. Kolreuterus, D. Postius, D. V. Vierus, and many others, whom it would take too long to list. I say nothing of the Augsburg men, D. Lucas Stenglius, D. Adolphus Occanus, D. Scheutlinus, D. Zanlius, and others known publicly. In a word I will say: poppupia arya diu arya diu iar-ra there had assembled. If at any time you write to D. Frid. Sebiscius, greet him kindly in my name. Among other excellent medical booklets, and long desired by me, which I bought at Augsburg at a very fair price, there is also a certain living herbarium, gathered with great and careful diligence, which also pleased D. Aeholzius, to whom I showed it the day before yesterday. I should like to give you, too, the opportunity of inspecting it, if that were possible. But since the distance of places prevents it, it must be compensated by other means. <Electuarium d chalybo.> In place of a return gift I send a certain electuary, which is of the greatest use in obstructions of the viscera, and especially in the disease called by Hippocrates the “vlgineo” disease. The most excellent physician of the Duke of Bavaria communicated it to me, and said that he had made many hundreds of profit from it, and that he was wont to prepare it almost at home, so that it may not become known. And this is the description from his [recipe]: 2. Filings of chosen iron or steel. Grind very finely on porphyry with vinegar, then dry in the sun or over the fire, and repeat this seven times. 3. Of the filings thus prepared, 6. Cinnamon. Candied nut, 2 parts. Choice rhubarb, 2 parts. Spice aromatic, ground, 6. Best honey, White sugar, choice, 1 part. Mix over a gentle fire, and make an electuary. Whoever takes this electuary should use exercise, let it be the size of a chestnut, or let a universal purge precede it. It can be used for 30 or 40 days. I have seen certain little books recently published by D. Salomon Albertus, which please me greatly because of the excellence of the matter and of the words. Does he also usually communicate with you by letter? You once sent me descriptions of certain Cratonian remedies, when I had first given you mine to examine in this field. I have lost that paper, or at least cannot find it lying hidden somewhere. I therefore ask that you send the descriptions to me again. I shall endeavor to repay like for like. Of the rest, another time. The plague spreading in the neighborhood, and having devastated almost all Bohemia, is beginning also to threaten us. I pray God that he may graciously turn it away from our necks. Farewell well and happily, and remember me kindly. Vienna of Austria, 20 Oct., year 82. EPIST. CCXLV. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I must answer your letters: one set I received still in the month of November of the year just past; the other about five days ago. But I earnestly ask you to bear my slowness with a calm mind, and rather accuse my negligence than suspect that I had forgotten you on that account. By God’s grace I have thus far been free from my arthritic illness, after it once retreated and withdrew. Yet since it could easily happen that it would return at the appointed time, especially since we who dwell at court are not always able to be in the most temperate conditions, I am applying every care to precaution, and within a few days after bloodletting I also intend to purge the body. I cannot obtain from the hemorrhoids that they flow again by milder medicines; but to use or apply stronger ones I fear for many reasons, especially since even in times of health they have otherwise flowed too excessively. And often there is greater difficulty in stopping superfluous discharges than in stirring up and provoking scantier ones. I frequently use the electuary of hiera just before supper time, and I feel that it helps me greatly; yet the hemorrhoids themselves do not allow themselves to be moved to flow by the admixture of aloe, as I remember used to happen before. Meanwhile, scarified cupping-glasses supply the place of it, which I am accustomed to place above the knee. That symptom of mine, which you know has been troublesome to me, has now for nearly two full years, and more, not recurred. Would that it may disappear entirely and be banished to the farthest Garamantes. I shall soon send you the advice of Crato written to me in this case, together with several other things; for at present there was no time to transcribe it. I shall also indicate what I have myself experienced, and by what means I have chiefly been helped. Yet truly I may appropriate that saying found somewhere in Gregory Nazianzen: that this cure was rather vix . and if in addition to remedies administered according to art, prayers are also added, God so often blesses the treatment that they obtain a salutary outcome. You ask about the powers of our native Silesian sealed earth. But I have so far been unable to discover any peculiar faculty in it,

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458 EPISTOLÆ 452 quæ de dolore oculorum & sistendo sanguine Camerararius refeit: ea à manifestis qualitatibus dependent. Ac non tantum hâc nostram, sed terram quamuis hoc præstare crediderim. Certe enim emplasticam vim, & adstrictoriam omnes in vniuersum obtinent: etiamsi ratione puritatis, aur compactionis seu densitatis certos gradus habeant. In dysenteria & aliis fluxionibus ea lubentius, quam holo aut sphragide lemnia vti malim: rursum in peste & aliis febribus malignis longe hanc illi præferre velim. Potes alpicere quæ Galenus in [aqu]a. simp[er] de terris omnibus in genere scribit; quæ item de hæmatoide peculianter refert. Cum in patriam nuper exspatiaturus es: scire velim an etiam Cratonem nostrum inuiseris. quod si neglectis 1, haud recte abs te factum aspero. Denuo se ad contultationum suarum medicatum editionem accingit, & Weindrichio nostro munus illas colligendi, & describendo in ordinem redigendi assignauit. Ego officio fungor. Et currenti, quantum licet, calcar addo. Herbarium illud viuum, quod Augustæ comparaui, vulgares maxima ex parte plantas continet, raras valde paucas. Imperabam nuper à Clusio nostro: vt si quæ falsæ nomæclaturæ apposuit essent, eas corrigeret, & pro suo judicio veras substitueret. quod etiam in me gratiam fecit haud inultus. Electuarium de chalybe tibi placere lætor. Extant & aliæ descriptiones passim in antidotariis, & prætertum vna quæ Rhasi attribuitur: sed hanc cæteris selectiorem esse apparet. In vnscerum, lienis maxime obstructionibus magnam vim possider. Etiam femlnis & virginibus decolorib[us] recte datur. Feci & ego in vna atque altera periculum. Epistolam tuam ad Dominum Willebrochium mox altero die curam: & ipsi equis dispositis summo præfecto in manus dedi Si quid responsi accepero, cont nuo ad te missurus sum. Additimeas quoque litteras, cum hæc scribendi occasio offerretur: & de nonnullis ex eo quæsui. Responsum tecum itidem communicamus sum. Vnguentum viride cùm mihi spem facis, videre cupio. Quæ de viribus Rhabarbari transcripta miritis: significes velim à quo habeas, aut vnde aceperis Cratonicum quid redolent: qui & ipse huiusmodi confectionem è Rhabarbaro in vsu habet. Venio nunc ad ea quæ cum hisce literis sunt. Habes in primis consilium Cratonis nostri de præcautione in peste Latine conscriptum, cuius in superioribus meis ad te memini. Conuertit autem illud ipse in vulgarem linguam, & quædam suis locis immutauit, correxitque: quod & ipse psum tecum commune facere placuit. Sunt deinceps theses de peste, quas in domini Camerarii gratiam confecit; & denuo emendauit. itaque vt hoc modo ad ipsum Camerarium descriptu[m] mitterem rogauit. Præter alia hoc nouum in illis est, quod p[er]fectem duplicem, publicam nimirum & priuatam facit, & quod in curatione suam quandam peculiarem methodum sequitur. <Ambragir sua rara.> Quid per ambram griseam quæ sulphnris colorem referat, intelligat: non assequor. Quæ apud nos in precio habetur, cinereum colorem habet, aureis quibusdam punctis micantibus interstinctum. Vnde & chrysea seu vt vulgo loquuntur, grisea appellatur. Responsonem illam ad quæstionem meam: An durantibus doloribus arthriticis eucuatio molienda sit: tibi non ingratam fore confido. Adieci aliam ex iis literis, quas ante triduum modo accepi. Tuum de his iudicium expecto. Dum serosum humote[m] principem causam istius affectus facit, Fernelio plane adstipulatur. Ad quam sententiam etiam accedit Ioh. Siluius Insulensis: qui de hac re peculiarem commentarium edidit. Cuius inscriptio est: De articulari morbi curatione traditus 4. Propositum eius est, advsum practicum accommodare ea, quæ in Theoria Fernelius de istis fluxionibus tradidit. Ego quodq[ue] sæpe expertus sum: incho antibus istis defluxionibus, valde vtile esse exhibere syntupos illos modice increassantes, vtpote sunt de liquiritia, de rosis siceis, de iuiubis, & similes, cum aquis accommodaris: præsertim antem in biliosis naturis: in quibus humores actiores sit & subtiliores, & ideo ad fluxionem magis apti. Præmitto tamen bolum aliquem ex cassis, Tamarindis cum scrupulo vno vel semidrachma Rhabarbari pulueritari: quibusdam valde multum profuit. Hytronica in præcausione in curatione. Sic enim magis ad articulos humor subtilis deturbatur: nisi fortasse in declinatione morbi, corpore iam à crassis humoribus repurgato. Ad extremum addidi integram curam, qua feliciter v[er]sus est Esromus noster in paralysi post colicam: qui morbus in istis terris, Austria nimirum & Moraula, valde frequens est, adeo vrfere nulli colici fiant, quin paralytici euadanr. Modum præcauendi hoc malum in 4. parte Antiparacels. D. Erafstlegere potes. Ascripsit Esromus ferme vbiq[ue] quo cum successu singula vsurparit, & ego ex eius autographo hæc consignaui. Vt autem vberius tibi gratum ostendam pro tot communicatis remedii, en quoddam singulare in producendis capillis vbi illi deciderint. Sume

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458 EPISTLE 452 the things which Camerarius relates concerning pains of the eyes and stopping of blood depend on manifest qualities. And I believe that not only our earth, but any soil whatsoever can do this. For certainly all of them possess an emplastic and astringent power, even if, by reason of purity or compactness, or density, they have certain degrees of difference. In dysentery and other fluxes I should rather use these than either holo or sphragis Lemnian earth; and again in the plague and other malignant fevers I would far prefer this to that. You may look at what Galen writes in Aqua simplici about all earths in general, and also what he especially records about hæmatoides. Since you are shortly about to travel into your homeland, I should like to know whether you will also visit our Crato. If you neglect him, I shall consider it not rightly done by you. He is once more setting himself to the publication of his medical consultations, and has assigned to our Weindrich the task of collecting them and putting them in order by transcription. I am carrying out the duty, and, as far as I may, I spur the work on. That living herbarium which I acquired at Augsburg contains for the most part common plants, and very few rare ones. I recently instructed our Clusius that, if he had attached any false names, he should correct them and substitute the true ones according to his judgment; and he did this to my satisfaction, and not without reward. I am glad that the electuary of steel pleases you. There are also other descriptions scattered through antidotaries, and especially one attributed to Rhazes; but this one seems to be more select than the others. It has great power in obstructions of the uterus and especially of the spleen. It is also rightly given to women and pale maidens. I have myself tried it in one case and another. I shall soon, on the next day, send your letter to Lord Willebrochium; and having horses prepared for him, I handed it over to the supreme commander himself. If I receive any answer, I shall at once send it on to you. Add those letters too, since this opportunity of writing presented itself; and from them I enquired about several things. I shall likewise communicate the reply to you. I should like to see the green ointment, since you give me hope of it. Concerning the powers of rhubarb which you transcribed at my request: I should like you to say from whom you have it, or from where you obtained it. They smell somewhat of something Cratonic; he himself also uses a preparation of this kind from rhubarb. I now come to what accompanies these letters. First of all you have the advice of our Crato concerning precaution in the plague, written in Latin, of which I reminded you in my previous letters. He himself has translated it into the common tongue, and has altered and corrected certain things in their proper places; and he thought fit to make this same matter known to you as well. Next are the theses on the plague which he composed for the sake of Lord Camerarius, and then revised again. Therefore he asked that I send this copy to Camerarius himself. Besides other things, this is new in them: that he makes a double caution, namely public and private, and that in treatment he follows a certain special method of his own. <Ambragir sua rara.> What he means by grey amber, which has the color of sulphur, I do not understand. What is held in price among us has an ashen color, speckled with certain shining golden points. Hence it is called chrysea, or, as people commonly say, grey amber. I trust that the reply to my question, whether in ongoing arthritic pains evacuation should be promoted, will not be unwelcome to you. I have added another from letters I received only three days ago. I await your judgment on these things. In making serous moisture the principal cause of that affection, he agrees entirely with Fernel. To this opinion also agrees Joh. Sylvius of Lille, who published a special commentary on the matter. Its title is: De articulari morbi curatione traditus 4. His aim is to adapt to practical use those things which Fernel set forth in theory concerning such fluxes. I too have often found by experience that, at the beginning of these defluxions, it is very useful to administer mildly thickening remedies, such as those of liquorice, dried roses, jujubes, and the like, prepared with waters, especially in bilious constitutions, in which the humors are more active and subtler, and therefore more apt to flux. However, I usually first prescribe a bolus of cassia and tamarinds with one scruple or half a drachm of powdered rhubarb; this has helped some very much. This is useful in precaution and in treatment. For then the subtle humor is more driven toward the joints, unless perhaps in the decline of the disease, when the body has already been cleansed of thick humors. At the end I added the complete cure, by which our Esrom successfully recovered from paralysis after colic. This disease is very frequent in those lands, namely Austria and Moravia, so much so that almost no one has colic without becoming paralytic. You may read in the 4th part of D. Erafstlegere how to prevent this evil. Esrom noted almost everywhere with what success he applied each remedy, and I have recorded these things from his autograph. But to show you more fully my gratitude for so many remedies communicated, here is a singular one for producing hair where it has fallen out. Take

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451 MEDICINALES. 454 Sume spumam carnis bubulæ nô valde pinguis, vel potius macræ in aqua decoctæ & illam collige in ollulam mundam, postea loco depili reddito, inunge. Potest etiam aliquid mellis addi, vt crassiorem consistentiam adipiscatur. Sed mihi magis placet priori modo administrari: ne propter lento- rem poti curis, vnde pili crumpere debent obstruantur. Ego nuper admodum in quo- dam cui superciliorum pili ex morbo omni- no decluderant feliciter vsus sum. Accept autem à D. Stromero, qui mihi hoc quoque psilotorum communicauit: Psiloru[m]. 22. Calcis viuæ ʒiii. Auripigment. ʒi. Cum lixiuio commisceantur in formam vnguenti, vtatur eo æger in halneo cum su- date inceperit, & vltra octauam horæ par- tem illitum non relinquat, tantisper scili- cet, donec etines euelli incipiant. Postea a- quattrepida locum abluat:aut, quod satius est, lacte calido, ne qvid exulcetationis in cute relinquatur. Aiebat etiam se sinco hy- oicyami in eundem finem vsurpare. Vnum si in præsentia addidero, finem scribendi faciam. Communicauit mihi quidam a- micus meus, medicinæ Doctor, singulare quoddam experimentum in quariana, quo se quam plurimos restituisse gloriabatur. Estque hoc: Accipe cor leporis ita præpa- < Secretum pro quar- tana.> ratum, vt pulmo vulpis præparari solet, po- stea diuidatur in tres partes æquales, & pa- tienti paulo ante paroxysmum, aut etiam in ipso paroxysmo cum vino detur. Continu- etur hoc tribus vicibus, vt dictum est. Et 4. paroxysmus prorsus emanebit. Tu si libet, huius rei periculum facere poteris: ego ab eo tempore nullum quarnanarium habui. Vidi nuper libellum Medici Galli Christo- phori Landrini, Germanice conuersum per Hicremiam Martium Medicum Augusta < E venura ab excreme- tu anima- lum.> num: in quo plurima remedia ex v- tilissimis rebus, in primis vero ab excreme- ris animalium petita, traduntur contra morbos grauissimos & periculosissimos. Statim emi & auide percurri: ac quidem eum ipsum esse puto, quem te olim apud D. Salomonem Witebergæ vidisse, sæpe dicce- re memini. Ita enim excrementorum vium extollit, vt fere ab his solis aduersus præci- puos motbos remedia sumat. Nisi antea ha- hes: non dubito quin illum pro te compara- turus sis. Chartas paucissimas habet, & adie- tus est ad librum secretorum Gabrielis Fallopii, qui inscribitur Kunstbuch. Hæc volui nescius ne esses. Cætera quæ restant, in aliud tempus reseruo. Bene & feliciter vale, charissime mi Scholzi. Resalutant te Dom. Clusius & Aicholzius. Viennæ Au- striorum, 11. Martii: ipso nempe æquinoctii verni die, Anno 1583. EPIST. CCXLVI. IOEM EIDEM. INSTITVERAM ad te bene longam e- pistolam, charissime mi Laurenti, cum i- doneos homines, qui eam ad te perferrent, nactus essem sed crede mihi, ita nunc oc- cupatus sum vt totam diem circumcursi- tando, & ægros visitado insumam, nec quic- quam vacui temporis ad scribendum mihi relinquatur. Ad posteriores tamen tuas, quas ante paucos dies accept, vno atque altero verbo respondere placet. Quod ad eum casum attinet, in quo D. Achozzi consilium expetis: sententiam is suam mis- sa schedula in hæc verba exposuit. Procul- dubio caro illa spongiosa per orificium pro- minens, pinguedo quædam fuit, glandosa & durior facta à collecto erasso quodam hu- more articulo tam diu distorto. Cum vero illa non cedat asperis medicamentis im- positis: suspicor ne cancerosum quiddam contrahat. Proinde mittus vlcus tractandu[m] existimo: ne aliena intemperies vehementium vsu parii illi concilietur. Quiescendum < Præcipitato acremina auseratur.> vero semper: aut crure eleuato sedendum illi, dum curatur. Ambulandum certe nun- quam. Hactenus ille. Quamuis autem in specie medicamentum nullum proponit: à præcipitati tamen vsu abhorrere non sensu modo is ita administretur, vt nimia acri- monia auseratur: id quod fiet si aliquoties in aq. rosar. plantag. & demum cardui be- ned. lauetur. Possunt etiam circumponit defensiua, vt vocant: ne malignitas longi- us serpat, & sanas partes occupet, alioqui mitiora adlubenda, quæ natiuam parii tem- periem, quantum fieri potest, restituunt. Cætera tu pro iudicio tuo gubernare scies. In primo casu, quem mihi proponis, omni- no Guaiacti decoctum, cui sub finem radi- ces cichorii, herba agrimonia, & iua adiun- cta sint, convenire existimatem. Sassafras vix apud vos haberi puto. Vsus tamen sum eo hactenus non semel, etiam in arthri- ticis affectibus. De quo plura in præsen- tia non licet. De Christophori Landrini li- bello idem præsentio, quod tu. Et scis quid Galenus ipse in hanc sententiam sæpius scri- bat. Ad rusticos & muliones, item veterina- rios medicos illa relegemus: quoties melioru[m] & his non insimiorum copia suppetit. Non enim, vt rectè Diocles ait, tantum ei- to & tuto, sed iucunde etiam curandu[m] est. Ac quid in his est iucunditatis obsecto: Nisi nos scabacos esse velis, qui fimo delectantur,

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451. MEDICINALS. 454 Take the froth of beef that is not very fatty, or rather of lean beef boiled in water, and collect it in a clean little pot; afterward, when the hairless place has been prepared, apply it. Some honey may also be added, so that it acquires a thicker consistency. But I prefer it to be administered in the former way, lest, because of the slowness of the remedy, the pores from which the hairs ought to spring out be obstructed. I have quite recently used it successfully on someone whose eyebrow hairs had completely fallen out through disease. I received this also from Dr. Stromer, who communicated to me this other depilatory: A depilatory. 22. Quicklime, 3 drachms. Orpiment, 1 drachm. Let these be mixed with lye into the form of an ointment; let the patient use it in the bath when he has begun to sweat, and let him not leave it on beyond the eighth part of an hour, that is, only so long as the hairs begin to come out. Afterward let him wash the place with lukewarm water, or, which is better, with warm milk, lest anything of the excoriation remain on the skin. He said also that he used smoke of hyoscyamus for the same purpose. If I add one thing more now, I shall end my writing. A certain friend of mine, a Doctor of Medicine, communicated to me a singular experiment in quartan fever, by which he boasted that he had restored very many. It is this: Take a hare’s heart prepared in the way in which a fox’s lung is usually prepared, then divide it into three equal parts, and give one part to the patient with wine a little before the paroxysm, or even during the paroxysm itself. Let this be continued three times, as has been said. And the fourth paroxysm will completely disappear. If you wish, you may try this matter yourself: I have had no quartan fever since that time. I recently saw a little book by the French physician Christophorus Landrin, translated into German by Hieremias Martius, physician at Augsburg, in which many remedies drawn from very useful things, and especially from the excrements of animals, are set forth against the most grievous and dangerous diseases. I immediately bought it and eagerly read through it; and indeed I think it is the very same book which I remember often hearing you say you once saw at Dr. Salomon’s in Wittenberg. For he so extols the power of excrements that he takes remedies against the principal diseases almost from these alone. Unless you already have it, I do not doubt that you will procure it for yourself. It has very few pages, and is appended to the book of secrets of Gabriel Fallopius, which is entitled Kunstbuch. I wished this so that you would not be unaware. The rest that remains I reserve for another time. Farewell well and happily, my dearest Scholz. Dr. Clusius and Aicholzius send greetings to you. At Vienna of the Austrians, 11 March, namely on the very day of the vernal equinox, in the year 1583. EPISTLE CCXLVI. TO THE SAME. I had planned a rather long letter to you, my dearest Laurentius, when I had found suitable men who would carry it to you; but believe me, I am now so occupied that I spend the whole day running about and visiting the sick, and I have no free time left for writing. Yet to your later letters, which I received a few days ago, I wish to reply in one or two words. As to that case in which you ask Dr. Achozzi for advice, he set forth his opinion in a note sent in these words. Without doubt that spongy flesh projecting through the opening was some fatty substance, which had become glandular and harder from a certain thick humor gathered there, since the joint had long been distorted. But since it does not yield to rough medicines applied to it, I suspect that something cancerous may be forming. Therefore I think that the ulcer should be treated cautiously, lest by the use of violent remedies an alien disorder be brought upon it. Rest, however, must always be kept; or he should sit with the leg raised while it is being treated. He must certainly never walk. So far he. Although he proposes no medicine in particular, I nevertheless do not feel opposed to the use of precipitate, provided it is administered in such a way that its excessive sharpness is removed: which will be done if it is washed several times in rose water, plantain water, and finally water of blessed thistle. Defensive applications, as they are called, may also be laid around it, so that the malignity may not spread farther and occupy the healthy parts; otherwise, milder remedies should be applied, which restore the native temperament of the part as much as possible. The rest you will know how to direct according to your judgment. In the first case which you propose to me, I think absolutely that a decoction of guaiacum is suitable, to which, toward the end, the roots of chicory, herb agrimony, and iva should be added. I think sassafras is scarcely obtainable among you. I have nevertheless used it more than once up to now, even in arthritic complaints. More on this is not allowed at present. About Christophorus Landrin’s little book I think the same as you do. And you know what Galen himself has often written to this effect. Let us assign those things to rustics and muleteers, and likewise to veterinarians, whenever a better supply of remedies, not inferior to them, is available. For it is not enough, as Diocles rightly says, to cure quickly and safely, but also pleasantly. And what is there pleasant in these things, I ask, unless you want us to be like scavengers who delight in dung,

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455 EPISTOLÆ 456 aut cu[m] veteri comico exarctæq[ue] vos q[uæ] superbroes, in conulicio appelles. Cæterum in præsentia vnum ex libris abs te mihi communicatis remitto: quem mox consequetur alter intra dies non multos. Curaui mihi describi, quæ in eo desiderabam: superest duntaxat, vt telegam, & lacunas alicubi, ob librarii imperitiam relictas, expleam. Oro vt tarditati meæ veniam des. Pro more vero nostro consiliu[m] quoddam a domino Cratone nuperrime conscriptum adieci. item alterius cuiusdam medicamenti descriptione[m]: quose miristicas curationes obuisse dominus D. Stromerus testatur. Air plus quingentis florenis sibi constitisse. Ego vix magnis precibus extorquere potu. Habes etiam medicamenta duo excellentia in paralysi, vel co[n]tractu post colicam: 2/3 Rad. Vrucæ m. iij. Iuæ athetic. m. ij. Baccar lauti, Salmiæ, Ruræ, Rorismarin. anam. j. Gran. Juniper. m. j. β. Incid. & dentur ad chartam pro balneo. 2/3 Pingued. taxi. vulpis, gallinæ, anatis, anseris, ciconiæ, ana ʒj. Succi saluiæ, absim hii inspillat. ana ʒβ. Oli. laurin. ʒij. Misc. f. vnguetum, quo inungatur post balneum: sunt & hæc Æsculapii nostri. Cætera in aliud tempus referuo, & te cum tuis ex animi sententia valere cupio & opto. Vienę Austriæ in summa festinatione, die 8. Augusti, anno 1583. EPIST. CCXLVII. IDEM EIDEM. RECTE accepi, quæ vestatas isti mihi abs te attulerum omnia: tibique pro eorum communicatione magnas ago gratias. Ignosces tamen quod eadem, vt voluisti, nunc non remitru. Crede mihi, tantum vacuit réporis, vt attente illa saltem relegere possem, mihi concessum non est. Vrgent me ægri haud pauci; quos deferere, aut negligentius tractare minime co[n]uenit. Dysenteriæ epidemicæ hic multos affligunt. de quibus hæc verba heri ad me scribebat Æsculapius noster: pestilenres alui fluxiones frequentes in Austria aoimaduerti. Ad præcautionem conseruam rosarum vete- rem cum mithridato dedi. In curatione, ad præpotentem caussam respexi. Statim papyrum mithridato illitam vel vmbilico, vel ventriculo apposui. Clysterem ex decocto hordei in iure carnis veruecine[m] cum radicibus tormentillæ, & virello oui semi cocto per clysterem inieci. Pueris puluerem e[st] zedoaria, margaritis & terra sigillata dedi. addidi interdum tragacam ham. Multos beneficio Dei seruaui. Ab istis magnis compositionibus enematum, lacte vltulato, & cæteris nugis abstinui Facile læduntur in testina: & ne lædantur adhibitis clysteriis cautio est. Vides illu[m] studiose insistere Mótanicæ methodo, & ab omnibus adstringê ubus in hoc morbo abstinere, vixq[ue] admittere emplastica. haud tamen scio an auctam fluxionem hac ratione abigere liceat. Itaq[ue] vel inuiti ad adstringentium vsum interdu[m] cogimur. Tibi, quid hac in parre videatur, scire velim. Nostram Silesiacam bolum facile sigillo lemnio, quale quidem ad nos adfertur, in hoc casu prætulerim. Multo enim vim emplasticam maiorem habet. D. Carolus Oslerius iam duodecimum diem hic agit. Vocatus est in aulam: vt operam suam ei collocet. Credo in collegium nostrum ascitum iri. Mecum interim habitat, & communi conuictu vitur. Libros tuos manuscriptos dabo operam vt quamprimum recipias. Male facio: quod illorum fructu teram diu priuera. Noo habui quoru[m] opera in describendo vterer: & ego hac in re paullo sum negligentior. Sed de his & aliis plura proximè. Nunc ne præsentem occasionem negligam cautio est. Beoe & feliciter vale, charissimemi Laurenti. Viennæ Austrioru[m] 22. Augusti, anno 1583. EPIST. CCXLVIII. IDEM EIDEM. SCRIPSI nuper ad te cum legatis reipub. vestræ: verum breuius & tuccinætius multo, quam vel tu a me deliderabas; vel ego etiam sponre mea cupiebam. Accidit illud propter eorundem legatorum vestrorum, non quidem festinationem sed, tamen abitum opiniove mea celeriorem, quando alias in autis, peregrinos cito expedire, & ad suossem pectiue remittere (quod illi vnice optaet) non adeo vstitatum est. Librum vnum Capouaccianarum commentationum de venenis, quem illis perferendum dederam, te recte accepisse confido, vna cum aliis quibusdam, quæ tum ad manum erant, chartis medicinalibus. In præsentia à fratre meo alterum recipies: in qu

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455 EPISTLES 456 or, with the old comic poet, “you who are stretched out and what is above, in a conulicium you call.” However, for the present I return to you one of the books you had communicated to me; another will shortly follow it within a few days. I have taken care to have copied for myself what I desired from it; there remains only that I should tell you, and fill in the gaps left here and there through the copyist’s ignorance. I beg that you pardon my delay. As is our custom, I have added a certain counsel recently written up by Lord Crato. Likewise a description of another remedy, which Lord D. Stromer testifies to have used for marvelous cures. It is said to have cost him more than five hundred florins. I myself could scarcely extort it with great entreaties. You also have two excellent medicines for paralysis, or contraction after colic: 2/3 Rad. Vrucæ m. iij. Iuæ athetic. m. ij. Baccar lauti, Salmiæ, Ruræ, Rorismarin. ana m. j. Gran. Juniper. m. j. β. Cut up and let them be given on paper for a bath. 2/3 Pingued. taxi. vulpis, gallinæ, anatis, anseris, ciconiæ, ana ʒj. Succi saluiæ, absim hii inspillat. ana ʒβ. Oli. laurin. ʒij. Mix; make an ointment, with which the patient is to be anointed after the bath: these too are among our Aesculapius’s remedies. I reserve the rest for another time, and from the bottom of my heart I wish and desire that you, with yours, may be well. Vienna in Austria, in great haste, 8 August, 1583. EP. CCXLVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I HAVE duly received all those things which your friend brought me from you; and I give you many thanks for their communication. Yet you will pardon me that, as you wished, I do not now return the same. Believe me, I have been granted so little leisure that I could not even reread them carefully. A number of sick people press upon me; and these one ought by no means to neglect, or treat carelessly. Epidemic dysenteries are afflicting many here. About these, our Aesculapius wrote to me yesterday as follows: “I have observed frequent pestilential fluxes in Austria. As a precaution I gave preserved roses with theriac. In treatment, I had regard to the primary cause. At once I applied paper smeared with theriac, either to the navel or to the stomach. I injected by clyster a decoction of barley in mutton broth with roots of tormentil and the yolk of a half-cooked egg. To children I gave powder of zedoary, pearls, and terra sigillata; sometimes I added tragacanth gum. Many I have preserved by God’s favor. From those great compound remedies I have abstained, as well as from clysters, milk with egg, and other trifles. The intestines are easily injured; and to prevent injury, caution is required in using clysters.” You see him zealously adhering to the botanical method, and in this disease abstaining from all astringents, and scarcely admitting plasters. Yet I do not know whether, by this method, it is possible to drive out the increased flux. Therefore even unwillingly we are sometimes compelled to use astringents. I should like to know what you think about this matter. I would readily prefer our Silesian bolus, especially if it is the Lemnian seal, such as is brought to us in this case. For it has much greater plasters-power. Mr. Carolus Oslerius has now been here twelve days. He has been summoned to court, that he may place his services there. I believe he will be admitted into our college. Meanwhile he is lodging with me and sharing our common table. I shall do my best to have your manuscript books returned to you as soon as possible. I am in the wrong to have kept you long deprived of their benefit. I have not had anyone whose help I could use in copying, and in this matter I am somewhat negligent. But more of these and other matters later. For now I must not neglect the present opportunity. Farewell, and prosper, dearest Laurentius. Vienna in Austria, 22 August 1583. EP. CCXLVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I recently wrote to you with the envoys of your commonwealth; but much more briefly and more concisely than either you would have desired from me, or I would even of my own accord have wished. This happened because of the departure of those same envoys of yours, not indeed with undue haste, but, as I think, somewhat sooner than expected; for otherwise, in courts, to dismiss foreigners quickly and send them back to their own people with all due respect—which alone they especially desire—is not so customary. You will rightly have received one book, namely Capovaccius’s commentaries on poisons, which I had given them to carry, together with certain other medicinal papers which happened then to be at hand. For the present you will receive another from my brother: in wh

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457 MEDICINALE S. 458 in quo lectiones de lue venerea, de vitiis tanguiificationis, de morbis seu affectibus capitis potissimum, continentur. Oro te autem, optime mi Laureoti, vt huic meæ tarditati, quæ etiam merito in reprehensionem incurrit ignoscas; & pro tuo libitu poenam quam libenter sufferam, imponas. Nihil aliud est, quod æque inuius faciam: quam si in transcribendo occupatus esse debeo. Postea tamen nactus studiosum quendam medicinæ, popularem nostrum, cum se proceribus quibusdam per me commendari superet: ei interim in hospitium meum receptu hoc laboris dedi; vt quicquid reliquum fuerat, in lectionibus illis capitalibus, describeret. quibus corrigeodis meam deinceps manum admouerem, necesse fuit. Commentarium de venenis perlegi tantum; non quoque descripsi. Iam eum Lapius ipse dominus Capouaccius, se illum correctum & augmentatum in lucem editutum promisit. Prælectiones de morbis oculorum & aurium eiusdem adhuc me cum habeo: omninoque operam dabo; vt cum primum volente Deo, Pragam peruenero, tibi illarum vsu diutius carendum non sit. De reliquis, quæ in myrothecio tuo ex Capouaccianis possides, postetius agemus: ne me nimium procacem appelles: aut illud in me torqueti possit, quod apud Epigrammatarium est: nam turpe est semper sumere, nilque dare. Ego sane quid hoc in generetecum communicem non reperio. Pagellas tamen nonnullas libro tuo addidi, quarum fortasse lectio & meditatio tibi non ingrata erit. Iam ad capita Epistolarum tuarum accedo: quibus tennis, ni fallor, mihi adhuc persoluendum est, si illud demas, quod cum legatis vestris quasi cursum ad te ante perscripti. Morbus arthriticus ex quo me lemel absoluit, nunquam hactenus per DEI gratiam redit. Vtinam etiam in posterum emaneat, & ad extremos Garamantes æternum reletetur. Monestu recte, prudenter, atque etiam pie, vt exquisitissimam victus rationem ferrem, nec recidiæ, intemperantia mea, occasionem præbeam. Puto ego quoque id faciendum esse, & facerem omnino, si meo arbitratures ageretur. Sed memineris me in aula versari: præterea inconiugatum esse: vt velim nolim limites Medicæ interdum translite cogar. Multa certe, vt Cicero venuste inquit: Dantur amicis, multa temporibus, multa etiam locis. In hac igitur iterutute, dum multotum me ingeniis accommodare oportet, (nisi extremæ atque inciuilis esse, & haberi velim) dum aula modo huc, modo illuc migrat, dum convictum eertum nullum habeo, conuictores autem omnino varios: quomodo, obsecro, quisquam ita rationes suas instituere potest: vt ex Medicorum præscripto perpetuo viuat? Sed tamen sic quoque pro viribus caueo: vt vel minimum in victu committam, vel certa commissa errata tempestiue corrigam, ne in neruum res erumpat denique. Sic ut semel atque iterum minitari mihi morbus visus est, suis iam tum præmissis. Cum igitur primum cursum, qui maxime appetitur, obtinere nequeam: saltem mutata velificatione, vt non amittam, operam do. Quanquam ne quid dissimulem, hac quoque in parte non eum omnibus sentio. Videas enim quotidie nonnullos rigidissime medicorum præcepta seruaotes, & ne latum quidem, quod dicitur, vnguem ab iis recedentes: qui nihilominus pluries in podagram incidunt, & diutius ab ea dentinentur quam qui liberiorem, non tamen prorsus licentiosam vitæ rationem tenent. hoc vndenam cuenire putas? Non vnam sane ob causam. Quibusdam enim hoc accidit, quod nimis subito à consueta victus ratione, ad aliam plane oppositam (et morbo per se idoneam) transiliunt. Cum natura subitas mutationes nequaquam ferat: quantumuis ad melius fiant: & consectudo, vt dici solet, altera seu acquisititia natura sit. deinde cibi qui præscribuntur, plerunque ab inuito ventriculo, & aliud appetente, aliisque assueto, recipiuntur. Vode fieri vix potest: vt ab eo recte alterentur & concoquantur. Præsertim quia fere semper vini etiam non potentis, & extra paroxysmum vsu interdicitur. Hanc ob causam humores crudi gignuntur; qui postea in totum corpus, atque in articulos, ceu partem læsam præcipue distribuuntur. Ægri quoque emaciantur, decolores fiunt, & fetme nunquam veram appetentum habent. His igitur malis quouam modo occurrendum? Aio ego: licut in pharmacia: ita etiam in diæta nun tantum ad morbum: sed etiam ad naturam & consuetudinem ægri respiciendum, atque ita vni dandum operam, ue alterum prorsus neglexisse videare. Quæ morbi ratione obsunt, indicanda quidem non tamen si æger impensis illis inhibet, aut alioquin illoru[m] vsui assueueri, ita prohibenda: vt nihil prorsus de iis de gustare liceat. hoc si præstas, vere accidit illud, quod in Hippocrateo oraculo dicitur, vt videlicet cibus & potus paullo deterior, sed suauior, (& in minori quantitate assumptus) V

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457 MEDICINALE S. 458 in which lectures on venereal disease, defects of impregnation, and especially on diseases or affections of the head, are contained. I ask you, however, my best Laureoti, to forgive this slowness of mine, which even deserves blame; and to impose on me, at your pleasure, whatever penalty I shall gladly endure. Nothing else is more unwelcome to me than this, save to be occupied in transcribing. Later, however, having found a certain student of medicine, our countryman, who was eager to be recommended by me to some of the nobles, I gave him temporary lodging in my house for this labor, so that he might copy out whatever remained in those chief lectures. In correcting them I had afterward to apply my own hand. I merely read the treatise on poisons; I did not copy it out as well. Indeed, Master Lapius himself, the lord of Capouaccio, has promised to bring it forth corrected and enlarged. The lectures on diseases of the eyes and ears by the same author I still have with me; and I shall do everything possible so that, when I come to Prague, God willing, you may not have to do without the use of them for long. As for the rest that you possess in your myrothecium from Capouaccio’s works, we shall deal with it later; do not call me too importunate, lest that saying from the epigrammatist be turned against me: for it is shameful always to take and give nothing. Truly I find nothing by which I can communicate this to you. Yet I have added several pages to your book, the reading and meditation of which will perhaps not be unwelcome to you. Now I come to the main points of your letters, by which, unless I am mistaken, I still owe you some payment, if you subtract what I dispatched to you, as it were, on my way, before writing, along with your envoys. The arthritic illness from which the Lord once freed me has so far, by God’s grace, never returned. Would that it might also remain absent in future, and be banished forever to the farthest Garamantes. You advise me rightly, prudently, and even piously, that I should observe the strictest regimen of diet and not, through my own intemperance, give occasion for a relapse. I too think this ought to be done, and I would do it altogether if the matter were under my own control. But remember that I live at court; besides, I am unmarried: so that, whether I wish it or not, I am sometimes compelled to overstep the boundaries of medicine. Many things, as Cicero wittily says, are given to friends, many to circumstances, many also to places. In this state of things, while I must adapt myself to many minds and dispositions—unless I wish to be regarded and held as utterly uncivilized—while the court now moves here, now there, while I have no fixed table fellowship, but companions altogether various: how, I ask, can anyone so arrange his affairs that he may live continually according to a physician’s prescription? Yet even so I take care as far as my strength allows, lest I commit even the least fault in diet, or, if I have certainly committed errors, correct them in time, so that the matter may not finally break out into a nerve affliction. Thus the disease seemed once and again to threaten me, with its warnings already foregone. Since, therefore, I cannot secure the first course, which is most desired, I at least take care, by altering my sail, not to lose it. Although, not to conceal anything, I do not in this matter agree with everyone. For you can see daily certain people who most rigidly observe the physician’s prescriptions and do not depart a hair’s breadth, as they say, from them; yet nevertheless they suffer from gout more often, and are detained by it longer, than those who keep a freer, though not altogether licentious, rule of life. Whence, do you think, does this come? Surely not from one cause only. For some this happens because they suddenly leap from their accustomed regimen to another quite opposite one, though suited to the disease itself. Since nature by no means bears sudden changes, however much they may be for the better; and habit, as they say, is a second or acquired nature. Then, too, the foods prescribed are generally received by a stomach that is unwilling, and accustomed to something else and desiring something else. Hence it is scarcely possible for them to be properly altered and digested. Especially since almost always even wine, if not strong, and outside the paroxysm, is forbidden for use. For this reason raw humors are generated, which afterward are distributed through the whole body, and especially into the joints, as the part chiefly affected. The sick also become emaciated, lose color, and almost never have a true appetite. How then are these evils to be met? I answer: just as in pharmacy, so also in diet one must attend not only to the disease, but also to the nature and habit of the patient, and give attention to one in such a way that you do not seem to have wholly neglected the other. Those things which are harmful in respect of the disease should indeed be pointed out; yet if the patient strongly resists them, or is otherwise accustomed to their use, they should not be prohibited in such a way that he may not taste any of them at all. If you do this, there truly happens what is said in the Hippocratic oracle: namely, that the food and drink, though somewhat worse, are sweeter, and taken in smaller quantity. V

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459 EPISTOLA 460 meliori quidem; at ingrato præferendus sit. huc quoque altera illa in eodem libro a- phoristica sententia pertinet: consueta lon- go tempore, etiamsi deteriora sint, insuetis minis molesta esse solent. Consequuntur etiam inde hoc lucri Medici: vt ægros in multis obsequenti res habeant, eum illi a- liquibus nonnihil sibi indulgeri animad- uerrerunt, multorum quoque multas ca- lumnias effugiunt: quæ ob hoc vnicum er- ratum illis certatim impinguntur. Sed a- liud præcipere est, aliud permittere. Non hoc dico: vt Medicus iis cibis ægrum vescl iubeat, quos scit illi noxios esse, & insalu- bres: sed tantum, vt cum morbi ratione dixtam ordinauerit, etiam accurate per- pendat, quid natura, vel consuerudo com- mode perferre possit aut non possit. hic si videt, ventriculum quosdam cibos auide expetere, & cum delectatione assumere, < 20> quinetiam probe concoquere, qui illi a- lias, morbi ratione, interdicti fuerant: mo- neat ægrum, vt pareius illis vlatur, & quan- tum licet, nonnihil correctis. Sic vtr.que in- tentioni satis sit, tum quo ad morbum, tum etiam quo ad particularem naturam, seu consuetudinem ægri. Verissima certe sunt illa, quæ vulgo lactantur, etiam ab im- petitis rei Medicæ: Quod sapit. nutrit. 1- tem quod parum est, parum nocet. Infero < 30> hoc quoque consentientibus multis doctis- simis Medicis: In victus ratione plus & per- niciosius peccari in quanto, quam in qua- li. ita vt si quantitas moderata constituatur: <Cibum in quid to pernitiosi- or quam in quali.> qualitas cibi (neque enim venenum est) non sit tantopere pertinescenda hoc autem præsertim apud Germanos nostros per se ingluuiiei deditos locum habet: qui regu- lis Medicorum multo minus, quam vlla a- liam natio, parere solent. Vnde etiam in ve- < 40> titum tanco vehementius nituntur, ex- pluntque negata: cum si aliquid largiremur, facerent hoc multo minus cupide. Quod (enim, secundum Poetam) licet ingratum est, quod non licet aerins vrit: hac fallacia multos à veritis cibis abduces facilius, quâ si seuerissime illos in solidum prohibe- res. Præbuit de his mihi cogitandi occasio- nem quod nonnullos iis misere macerari viderem, dum Medicorum edictis contra naturam & contuetndinem suam siue mi- < 50> hus paree victitando, siue à cettis cibis ab- stinendo, obtemperare nituntur: quando Interim alii, qui aliquid genio, & consuetu- dini indulgent, & suauulus vlunt, & mor- bi accessiones multo rariores quandoque etiam mikiotes habent. Curlgitur tam ri- gidi esse pergitimus, & per se afflictis nouam afflictionem addimus? Præstaret certe, se- cundum Hippocratem aliquid dare tem- pori, aliquid regioni, aliquid ætati, aliquid denique consuetudini: cum præsertim hic morbus chronicus sit, partesque ignobilio- res occuper, & non perpetuo duret, sed per intervallo recutrat. hæ tamen cautelæ ad- dantur. Primum, vt quæ morbo non conueni- < 10> unt, sed tamen auide à ventriculo arripiun- tur, iis æger parcius vtatus. Deinde vt ipsi quoque ægri obseruenti à quibus cibis potibusve iunati illos aut lx- di maxime contingat. hoc aotem sæpe fit ab occolta magis proprietate, quam idoneo- negavias Medici vocant: quam à manife- sta. Denique si modum se excessisse ægri sen- tiant, vt continuo, aut vomitu, aut euacua- tione succurratur, priusquam noxa per to- tum corpus distribuatur, inque laborantes partes detrudatur. qvi sunt ad vomendum faciles: iis non Incommodum est, quolibet mense semel aut bis per vomitum ventri- culum & primas vias à crudis humoribus repurgare. Reliqui medicamentum ali- quod conuen conuen parvius seu benedictum in familiari vsu habeant: quo eundem finem con- sequentur. In hoc eensu erit hiera sim- plex, pill. de aloe rosata. pill. alephan- < 30> ginæ, infusio foliorum senæ, passulæ la- xatiæ, & similia. Quibus profecto læ- pius repetius tantum efficimus, quantum fortissimo aliquo pharmaco purgatorio se- mel assumpto, & multo minus vires aut na- tura indelæduntur. Immo nonnulla ex his talia sunt vt & cibis tuto immiscere liceat, & singulis etiam diebus per integri anni spa- cium sumpta nihil prorsus detrimenti affe- rant quod & de mea, & aliorum experien- tia liquide affirmare possum. Verum de his in præsentia satis. In quid tibi de hac hæresi mea videa- tur, aperte & conspicue referias, obse- cro. Hæmorthoidum apertionem, eru- rum scarificationi in meo morbo te præfer- re video. Sed quibusnam medicamentis me id rectè consequi posse existimas? Mitie- ra, cuiusmodi sunt vsus aloes non lotæ, item frictiones cum pannis asperis, & c. tentari a- liquoties; sed absque vllô fructu. Ad veha- mentiora autem, colocynthidem nempe, glandis forma anno intusam, aut similia, ac- cedere non ausim. quod antea, etia[m] secundu[m] naturam fluentes persæpe modum exces- serunt, vt ita deinceps maior difficultas sit in sistendis illis, quam prouocandis. quo addis, eucurbitulis scarificatis supra genu collocatis materias in corpore redundan- tes ad

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459 EPISTLE 460 the better indeed; but he should be preferred to the ungrateful. To this also belongs that other aphoristic saying in the same book: things long accustomed, even if worse, are usually less troublesome than things unfamiliar. Doctors also derive this advantage from it: that, in many matters, they keep the sick compliant when they have noticed that they have allowed them some indulgence in certain things; and they likewise escape many calumnies, which are eagerly imputed to them on account of this single error. But to prescribe one thing is not the same as to permit another. I do not mean this: that the physician should order the patient to eat foods which he knows are harmful and unhealthy to him; but only that, once he has arranged the diet according to the nature of the disease, he should also carefully weigh what nature, or custom, can conveniently bear and what it cannot. If here he sees that the stomach eagerly desires certain foods and takes them with pleasure, and indeed digests them well, although they had otherwise been forbidden on account of the disease, let him advise the patient to use them more sparingly, and as far as possible with some correction. Thus both aims will be satisfied, both with regard to the disease and also with regard to the patient’s particular nature or habit. Those things are certainly most true which are commonly said, even by those unskilled in medicine: what is wholesome nourishes; what is little is little harmful. I add this too, in agreement with many very learned physicians: in matters of diet, one sins more and more harmfully in quantity than in quality. So that if a moderate quantity is established, the quality of the food—since it is not poison—need not be so greatly feared. This applies especially among our Germans, who are by nature inclined to gluttony and are much less obedient to physicians’ rules than any other nation. Hence too they press all the more vehemently toward what is forbidden, and eagerly seek what is denied; whereas if we granted something, they would do it much less eagerly. For what is permitted, as the poet says, is unpleasant; what is not permitted burns more fiercely. By this stratagem you will more easily draw many away from harmful foods than if you were to forbid them altogether with the greatest severity. I was prompted to think about these matters because I saw some miserably worn down by them, while they try to obey physicians’ orders against their own nature and habit, either by eating too sparingly or by abstaining from certain foods; whereas meanwhile others, who indulge something of their appetite and custom and use things more pleasantly, both fare better and sometimes have much fewer, even milder, attacks of the disease. Why are we so rigid, and why do we add new affliction to those already afflicted? It would surely be better, according to Hippocrates, to give something to the time, something to the region, something to age, and finally something to custom, especially since this disease is chronic, affects the less noble parts, and does not last continuously, but recurs at intervals. These cautions, however, are added: First, that whatever does not suit the disease, but is nevertheless eagerly seized by the stomach, the patient should use more sparingly. Next, that the patients themselves should also observe from which foods or drinks they are especially helped or harmed. This often happens from some hidden property, rather than from one that the doctors call obvious. Finally, if they feel that they have exceeded moderation, help should be given at once, either by vomiting or by evacuation, before the harm is distributed through the whole body and driven into the affected parts. Those who are easily induced to vomit are not inconvenienced if once or twice a month they cleanse the stomach and the first passages from crude humors by vomiting. The rest should keep some medicine, or a household remedy, for regular use, by which they will achieve the same end. In this sense there will be simple hiera, aloe pills, rose-colored pills, pills of alephangina, infusion of senna leaves, laxative raisins, and the like. By these, repeated often, we certainly accomplish as much as by some very strong purgative taken once, and the strength and nature suffer much less harm. Indeed, some of these are such that they may safely be mixed even with food, and taken every day for an entire year they cause absolutely no damage, as I can clearly affirm from my own and others’ experience. But enough of these matters for now. I beg you to tell me openly and clearly what you think of this heresy of mine. I see that you prefer opening the hemorrhoids to scarification of the veins in my disease. But by what medicines do you think I could achieve that properly? Milder means, such as the use of unwashed aloe and also frictions with rough cloths, etc., have been tried several times, but without any result. As for stronger remedies—namely colocynth, inserted in the form of an acorn inside, or similar things—I do not dare to proceed. For before this, those that flowed even according to nature very often exceeded the proper measure, so that thereafter there is greater difficulty in stopping them than in provoking them. As to what you add, that by cupping glasses with scarification placed above the knee the superfluous materials in the body are being brought down to...

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tes ad locum affectum attrahi: me parum mouet. fere enim leuem aliquam euacuationem præmittere soleo, deinde quantum attrahitur, tantum etiam simul euacuatur, per aperta illa foramina, vt hunc quoque metum inanem esse appareat. Quantum ad symptoma illud attinet; quo amicum nostrum quandoque sub primam quietem corripi vidisti: quatuor his proximis annis, immensa Dei benignitate, vix bis illud per- pessus est. Mitro tibi Cratonis nostri consilium in hoc casu mea manu descriptum: prius quidem generalius: alterum autem, post interlocutoriam ab amico illo nostro interpositam, particularius. Quantum ex eo intelligo: ait vsum Electuarii illius sibi plurimum profuisse. Itaque ali quoties reparari iussit; & succum cichorii, ra[ti]one caliditatis eparis, & ne- scio quæ alta adiecit. Vernu tempore ple- rumque venam secat: & hoc ipso etiam an- no vtramque sapheam. Aliqui curubi- tulis scarificatis supra scapulas & genu ap- positis, duobus quibusque mensibus elapsis, vti solet. Pro euacuatione ventriculi, ac cru- dorum humorum in illo contentorum, ex- pissime semibora ante coenam aliquid Ele- ctuarii Hieræ simplicis, aut pillularum de aloe rosata deglutit. Lotiones quoque capi- tis ex hoc bis præscriptis & agarici ij. aut iij. administrat frequenter. Frictiones matuti- nas alternis diebus non negligit, & aliquid etiam præsidii in vngula alcis, quam amu- leti loco, de nocte præsertim collo suspen- sam, annuloque inclusam digitis gestat, col- lucatum habet. Liberartillum nô morbo so- lum; sed omni etiam metu moti illius, ve- hemeniet optarim. Quæ de peste ex colloquio tuo cum D. Cratone, & D. V Voyelio leniore habito prolixe commemoratas libentissime legi, & pro eorum communicatione gratiam ha- beo. Latissimus campus est de his disputan- di, si circa omnia discurrere velimus. Ele- ctuarium Dioscordion ego, præ reliquis (excepta theriaca & mirbridaria antidoto. tanquam iam olim decantatis, & nunc quo- que laudem & vires suas obtinentibus) ma- gnificio. Est hic in frequenti vsu Electuarium quod- dam, quod facultatis indigentant (commu- ni enim Medicæ facultatis consentu ordi- natum est) cuius descriptionem, si monue- ris proxime mittam. Cum reliqua namque supellectile mea Pragam præmissi. Pluri- mum etiam commendatur confectio ma- nus Christi perlati cum extracto angelicæ, qua ipse etiam Imperator vtitur. Valde e- nim delicata est, & colorem omnino can- didum obtinet. Ego sacculos ex Arsenico, quales Patauil, vt scis, solemnes etant, hic pro multis ordinaui. etiamsi Crato noster valde repugnet. Multi proceres in aula cor- dis regioni applicatos continuo absque vlla noxa circumferunt. Retulit mihi quoque nuper chirurgus au- læ nostræ iam senior: se in multis pestilenti- bus constitutionibus fuisse, & sua manu in- fectos plurimos tractasse, semper tamen à contagione immunem permanisse, quod secum gestauerit radicem plantaginis ma- ioris sacculo inclusam, & cu[m] filo regioni cor dis adaptatam. vt res celetur: pulueris la- uendulæ aliquid admiscere solet, & hinc in- de distribuere. Ait se nemini concredidis- se, nisi mihi. Quicquid sit, sæ pe etiam paruis gratia rebus inest Item: Quæ neglecta ia- cent, pondus habere solent. Plerique ex ci- uibus præcautionis nomine campboræ mo- mentum vino iniiciunt, & inde mane bo- num haustum bibunt. Vtrum ea calida vel frigida sit; in medio relinquo. Argumenta vtrinque alteruntur non leuia: quibus Cra- to noster adductus, vtriusque excessus me- diam temperaturam habere affirmat; sed ratione tenuitatis substantiæ caliditatis φανο obiicere. Prudenter V Voyselius senior λογικὴ φίλητικὴ in duplicem classem, absorbendum nimirum καὶ ἰδερλαυῶν distinguit. quod nisi fiat multiplex oriri solet ambiguitas & con- trouersia. Vnguentu[m] viride, a bste commu- nicatum, illud ipsum esse arbitrot, quod ver- nacule apud nos eodem nomine die grune salte appellatur. Seis nostris hominibus pa- naceæ loco esse solere. ac præsertim eo v- tuntur in rupris, connulis & luxatis. hoc- nim vnica voce (Verbrech[en] oder das Be- hethum) nostri, ni fallor, esserunt. Si diuer- sum iudicas, significa. Germanicam descriptione ex vetusto quo dâ[m] manuscripto codice nuper mihi designa ui haud scio an omnia inter se conneniant. Mihi nimis magna miscella videtur: quâ vbi possum, studiosè refugio. Sub artem enim ista non cadunt: cum quæ secunda tempe- ris, futura, aut proprietas inde post fer- mentationem tot inuicem commistis emer- git, artificiosè coniectando assequi nemo posuit. Hoffmannica accuratè cogitata sunt: remedia quoque præclata. Sed ægri facile terrentur, cum tantam medicamentorum copiam ob oculo: positam aspiciunt, & post ea nullis fere vntuntur, sequè & Medicum decipiunt. Hoc nomine etiam consilia Montagnanæ, & aliorum quorundam Ita- lorum approbare non possum: cum nimis scilicet ulcse omnia persequantur, & in diu V

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to draw it to the affected part: that troubles me little. For I usually first let a slight evacuation precede, then, whatever is drawn toward it is at the same time also evacuated, through those open pores, so that this fear too appears to be empty. As for that symptom by which you once saw our friend seized at the first sleep: in these past four years, by God’s immense kindness, he has scarcely suffered it twice. I send you Crato’s counsel in this case, written by my own hand: the first, indeed, more general; the other, however, after the interlocutory one inserted by that same friend of ours, more particular. From what I understand of it: he says that the use of that electuary has been of the greatest benefit to him. And so he has ordered it to be renewed several times; and he has added chicory juice, because of the heat of the liver, and I know not what else beside. In springtime he usually lets blood: and even in this very year, both saphenous veins. Some, with cupping glasses and scarifications applied above the shoulder blades and the knee, do so every two months. For emptying the stomach, and the crude humors contained in it, he very often swallows, half an hour before supper, some of the Electuarium Hieræ simplex, or of the pills of aloes with rose-water. He also frequently administers head-washings prescribed with this twice, and two or three grains of agaric. Morning rubbings every other day he does not neglect, and he also has some safeguard in the elk’s hoof, which, as a charm, especially at night, he wears suspended from the neck and enclosed in a ring on the fingers. I should greatly wish to free him not only from the disease, but also from every fear of that stirring of it. What you wrote about the plague from your conversation with Dr. Crato and Dr. V. Voyelius, held more privately, I read most gladly, and I thank you for sharing it. It is a very broad field for discussion, if we were to range over everything. As for the Electuarium Dioscordion, I set it above the rest (with the exception of theriaca and the antidotal mirbriarium, as long since famed and still now retaining both its praise and its power). There is here in frequent use a certain electuary which the faculty requires (for it was established with the common assent of the medical faculty), and I shall send you its description shortly if you remind me. For I have sent the rest of my equipment ahead to Prague. Much is also recommended of the confection known as manus Christi with extract of angelica, which even the Emperor himself uses. For it is very delicate and has an altogether white color. I have here ordered sachets of arsenic, such as, as you know, are customary at Padua, for many people, although our Crato strongly objects. Many nobles at court continuously carry them about applied to the region of the heart, with no harm whatsoever. A senior surgeon of our court also recently told me that he had been in many pestilential constitutions, and had with his own hand treated many infected persons, yet had always remained immune from contagion, because he carried the root of greater plantain enclosed in a little bag and fastened by a thread to the region of the heart. To keep the matter concealed, he usually mixes in a little lavender powder and gives it out from time to time. He says he has entrusted this to no one except me. Be that as it may, small things often have great worth. Likewise, things neglected are wont to carry weight. Most citizens, by way of precaution, pour a drop of camphor into wine and then drink a good draught of it in the morning. Whether it is hot or cold I leave undecided. Arguments on both sides are not slight; and our Crato, persuaded by them, affirms that it has a middle temperature between the excess of both; yet because of the thinness of its substance, one can oppose to it the heat of the phæno. Senior V. Voyselius prudently distinguishes logical friendship into a twofold class, namely, to be swallowed and to be digested. For if this is not done, manifold ambiguity and controversy usually arise. The green ointment, which you communicated, I think is the very same thing as what in our vernacular is called by the same name, die grüne Salbe. Our people seem to use it in place of a panacea, and especially employ it in bruises, sprains, and dislocations. This, in a single word, our people, if I am not mistaken, call Verbrechen oder das Behethum. If you judge it different, let me know. I have recently found that the German description from an old manuscript codex does not, I know not whether, all agree among themselves. It seems to me too great a miscellany, and wherever I can I carefully avoid such things. For these do not fall under the art: since what in the course of time, what will happen, or what property emerges afterward from many things mixed together by fermentation in turn, no one can grasp by artful conjecture. Hoffmann’s remedies are thought out with precision: the medicines too are excellent. But the sick are easily frightened, when they see such a multitude of drugs laid out before their eyes, and afterwards they use almost none of them, and thereby deceive both themselves and the physician. On this account I also cannot approve the counsels of Montagna and of certain other Italians: since they pursue everything too much by way of ulceration, and in the long way

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463 EPISTOLÆ 464 sola ordinanda multas paginas & chartas consumant. Vt Italos talia expetere concedamus: apud Germanos certe nostros parum vtilitatis obtinent, in quam sententiam antea etiam nonnihil differui. Non est docentis omnia semel docere velle: nec Medici omnia medicamenta semel proponere. quandoquidem multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra, hoc est, morbus in eodem statu nunquam permanet; sed subinde symptomata euariantur, quæ deinde ooua etiam pharmaca desiderant, ita res in iohnitum sese extendet. Quantum ad < De Guaiacum præbendo pro restaurandæ calido natus no correcto.> ægrum illum tnum, cui Guaiacum propinare in animo habes, spectat, breuiter etiam consilium & mentem meam nuper aperui, videlicet non improbare me vllo modo hoc decoctum: immo potius præmissis præmittendis etiam aique etiam suadere. Sed caliditatem eius exborres, & corpus magis attenuatum iti arbittaris. Non est difficile, mi Laurenu, caliditatem hanc contemperare, additis sub finem decoctionis radicibus eichorii, & fol. botraginis, seminibus melonum, item passulis excorticatis. Verum illud me magis hæsitantem reddit: num intemperies, quæ iam in habitu est & partibus penitus infixa, non ob externum duntaxat errorem, sed facultate ipsa læta tam citò & facile tolli queat? An etiam satis tutum sit, hac ætate illud tentare? Præterea cum natium calorem, qui omnium naturalium operationum in corpore summus opifex est, admodum debilitatum est significes: miror te de iistantum remediis cogitare, quæ qualitati illius subueninnt frigiditatemque ipsi contrariam corrigunt, imo etiam, quæ hoc cum excessu aliquo faciunt, suspecta habere, & non aliud potius considerare quod in arte nostra æquipa est: Calorem natium substantiam quandam esse aeream & aqueam, seu aere & aqua participantem; nec vllo excessu caloris quæ qualitas sit, præditum. Hæc autem substantia, in pueris potissimum abundat: mox vbi homo ad auxilium peruenerit, decrecit; donec in extremum senibus secundum naturam prorsus exstinguitur. Cum autem æger hic anno quadragesimo quarto superato, ad decliuem ætatem tendat: quonam modo defectum substantiæ caloris ingeniti refarcies? quid repones? vt rursus vegetum efficias, quicque operationes pristinas exerceat? Natura autem vt domina, debili existente, quid Medici, ministri huius, laudabile efficient? Vides igitur istud prognostico scruire: netemere illi ægro, cui natura subsidia necessaria desunt, salutem, aut in inte- grum restitutionem promittas. Sed tamen nihilominus hoc artis præsidio consequi licet: vt si non melius, saltem minus male habeat. Vt itaque excrementiciorum humorum minus in corpore colligatur, sed ille intempestiue benedictis nuncupatis pharmacis expellantur, operam dabimus. Partem quoque affectam pro virili roborabimus: & fluxionis impetum, ne nos præueunt, inhibebimus. Materias horum non recenseo, cum alias inter nos de his actum sit & tu fortasse melius scias ipsa. Quid Dryoxylus de altero casu responderit iam tenes. Mihi quidem non omnino satisfacit Neque enim prorsus assentior: à crasso quodam humore collecto spongiosam illam car nem ortam fuisse, alioquin tumorem potius excitasset: seu cædematosum, seu scirrhosum. Serosum ego humorem, & tenuem atque spumosum subesse dicere malim: qui earnes vicinas, veluti fermentatione quædam facta, instarit, & ita rationes, maiusque spacium occupantes, effecerit hic, cum iam eo malignitatis peruenerit, vt à natura concoqui & superari nequeat: nimirum omnino è corpore exturbandus est, tum sumptis tum admotis. Inter assumenda, ea probarem, quæ melancholicum humorem (huius mineram, vt loquuntur,) respi- ciunt, simulque admistos serosos humores siue per vrinam, siue per sudores (quo in genere sarsa excellit) euacuant. Extra ad- moueantur, & loco imponantur præcipitant, inter quæ mercurius præcipitatus lotus aut non lotus principatum obtinet. Eluatur locus luxiuo ex calcfacto, etiam oleum virrioli seu spiritus eius admoueatur, aut vnguentum Ægyptiacum, & similia superponatur. ita tamen vt semper sanæ partes de sensuo vocato muniantur: ne & ipsi ob vim mali serpentem contagio lædantur. Vbi hæc omnia rite peracta fuerint: tum demum de temperie natua parti restitua- enda serio cogitandum. cum non remotis impedimentis, hoc frustra tentetur ab initio. Vt autem desiderio tuo plenius satisfaciam: mitto casum pueri cuiusdam sane mirificum, cum adiuncto consilio Cratonis nostri, cuius te omnia magnificere video, nec immerito. Aliquo modo cum tuo conuenit: in multis etiam discrepat. Reperies hunc adiunctum lectionum Capouaccianarum volumini. Historiam curationis ruræ præsentaneæ eo t[ame]n ducenda libentissime legi. Illud medicamentum de borrace ante sæpe commendari audivi: nondum tamen ipse vsus sum. Quam vero tu vim Æti- tis tribuis, eam etiam magneri lapidi inesse putarim. Siquidem practicis nostris fides adhis-

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463 EPISTLES 464 if we were to discuss only what must be arranged, many pages and sheets would be consumed. If we grant that such things are sought after by Italians: among our Germans certainly they have little usefulness, on which point I also previously lingered a little. It is not the teaching man’s wish to teach everything at once; nor is it the physician’s to set forth all remedies at once. since many things fall between the cup and the upper lip, that is, the disease never remains in the same state; but from time to time the symptoms vary, and then new remedies are also required, so that the matter extends itself further and further. As regards the sick man whom you intend to give Guaiacum to, I also recently briefly revealed my advice and opinion, namely that I by no means disapprove this decoction; indeed rather, with the preliminaries having first been set forth, I would even and again recommend it. But you fear its heat, and think the body more attenuated. It is not difficult, dear Laurens, to temper this heat, by adding toward the end of the decoction roots of chicory and leaves of borage, melon seeds, and also peeled raisins. Yet this makes me hesitate more: whether an intemperie, which is already established in the habit and deeply fixed in the parts, not merely through an external error but by the faculty itself, can be removed so quickly and easily. And whether it is also sufficiently safe, at this age, to attempt that. Besides, since you indicate that the heat of the native condition, which is the chief craftsman of all natural operations in the body, is greatly weakened: I marvel that you think only of such remedies as assist that quality and correct the coldness contrary to it, indeed even regard with suspicion those which do this with some excess, and do not rather consider another thing which in our art is of equal importance: that the native heat is a certain airy and watery substance, partaking of air and water, and not endowed with any excessive quality of heat. But this substance especially abounds in children: as soon as a man has passed into maturity, it diminishes; until finally in the aged, according to nature, it is altogether extinguished. But since this patient, having passed the forty-fourth year, is tending toward declining age: in what way will you make good the defect of the substance of innate heat? what will you put back? how will you make him vigorous again, so that he may exercise his former operations? But when nature, as mistress, is weak, what will her minister the physician accomplish that is praiseworthy? You see, then, that this serves prognosis: do not rashly promise health, or complete restoration, to that sick man who lacks the necessary supports of nature. Yet nevertheless by this aid of art something can be achieved: so that, if not better, at least less badly he may fare. Therefore we shall take care that less of the excrementitious humors accumulate in the body, but those which are now, as they say, to be expelled by blessed remedies, shall be driven out. We shall also strengthen the affected part as far as we can; and we shall check the force of the flux, so that they do not outrun us. I do not list the means for these things, since elsewhere among ourselves these matters have been discussed and perhaps you know them better yourself. What Dryoxylus replied in the other case you already have. For my part it does not entirely satisfy me. Nor do I wholly agree: that from some thick collected humor that spongy flesh arose; otherwise it would rather have produced a swelling, either oedematous or scirrhous. I would rather say that a serous, thin, and frothy humor lay beneath: this, as though some fermentation had taken place, pressed upon the neighboring flesh and thus produced the parts, occupying greater space here, when it had already reached such malignity that it could not be concocted and overcome by nature: plainly it must be entirely driven out of the body, both by internal remedies and by external applications. Among things to be taken, I would approve those which regard the melancholic humor (its mine, as they say), and at the same time evacuate the serous humors mixed with it, either by urine or by sweat, in which class sarsa excels. Let external applications be applied, and placed on the site: among these precipitated mercury, washed or unwashened, holds the first place. Let the ulcerous place be washed with warm water; let oil of vitriol or its spirit also be applied, or Egyptian ointment, and similar things placed over it; but in such a way that the healthy parts are always protected by a so-called fence, lest they also be harmed by contagion through the force of the creeping evil. When all these things have been duly carried out, only then should serious thought be given to restoring the natural temperament of the part, when removal of the impediments has not been attempted in vain from the beginning. But that I may satisfy your desire more fully: I send the remarkable case of a certain boy, together with the accompanying advice of our Craton, whose judgment I see that you greatly value, and not without reason. In some way it agrees with yours; in many points it differs as well. You will find this attached to the volume of the Capouaccian readings. I was very glad to read the history of the cure of the present illness. That medicine of borrace I have often heard recommended before; as yet however I have not used it myself. And the power which you attribute to ætitis, I should also think to reside in the magnes stone. If indeed our practical men are to be trusted, I have adhis-

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adhibenda est: qui tamen non raro audi- ta potius & lecta, quam visa & ab se exper- ta, in medium magno hiatu afterunt. Dn. Woifelius iunior mirificas facultates ma- gneti, lapidi tribuit: & eum semper secum quo nusquam illo careat, gestare solet. Li- teras tuas ad Copissum recte curaui: en ha- bes alias à D. Sibenbergero nostro, qui ea- dem occasione ad me etiam scripsit. AD. Willebrochio nihil vidi hactenus; nisi for- te tibi alia via satisfecit. hæc scribo cogita- tionibus circa iter distractis: quod me cra- stino die ingressurum spero. Cæsar iam ante decendum abiuit: verum cum non recta via Pragam tendat, aulici paulla- rum subsequntur D. Catulum Osluium, collegam meum, Pragæ me reperturum confido. Num has recte acceperis, vt me quamprimum, saltem per fratrem certio- rem facias, rogo. Bene & feliciter vale, cha- 20 rissimemi Laurenti, & ternis tuis hanc v- nam epistolam, illis iunctis non multo bre- uiorem æquo animo accipe, literisque cun- ctante tabellione hinc inde insertis ignosce. Viennæ Austriurom 13. Octobris secundum veteres Faltos, Anno 1583. POST SCRIPTA. 30 VM Dominus Crato de Domino præ- fecto æquis dispositis quæretetur, num illi caueria, quæ D. Acholzius suadebat, conuenirent ratione podagræ, quæ illum iam quinquagenarium à multis iam annis affligit, cum nuper etiam ligno sassafras v[er]sis fuerit, in hæc verba ad me respondit: De valetudine præfecti equis dispositis quid scribam? Meas opinationes de ligno mini- me falsas fuisse animaduerti. Si cauteria ichores perniciosos in vniuersum exhau- rire possent, fortasse aliquid prodessent. Sed quum non possint, & quanto enim pericu- lo claudantur: satis multa exempla me e- rudierunt. Præcepra etiam medica vetant trahere materiam ad partem debilem, & loca affecta euacuare. Nolo recitare quid aliis contigerit. Itaque quid consili de cauterio dem, non reperio: nec præsenti- bus Medicis quicquam præscribo. ha- bes satis meam sententiam de morbis articularibus, tum ex allis meis scriptis; tum iis, quas ad Schonfeldium misi, explora- tani. Nullam causam reperio, cur eam mu- tem. Vsum frequentem pillularum mea- rum dextribus, vt appello, conuenientio- rem illi futurum, quam cauteria arbitror, præsertim si limatura cornu certi in potu infusa vtratur, & se ad matutinos sudores afflu faciat. denique nunc sub vincemiam 50 Pill. dextribus Ostilones verum in Po- lapra confis- cata. vinaceis profomento articulos corroboret. Vnum hoc loco addo: si in fe- bribus purridis intermittentibus quibus- cunque apparente aliqua, etiamsi non per- fecta, in vrinis coctione, ægro ipso die par- oxysmi medicamentum putgans dederis, ita vt effectum suum ante paroxysmi inua- sionem compleat (horis scilicet 4. aut 5. an- tequam paroxysmum aduenturum putas) videbis febrim post illum paroxysmum non amplius reuerti sed prorsus tolli quasi in- cantatione quadam. Probant iam sæpius & in pluribus semper euentus respondit. In tertianis post tertium aut quartum par- oxysmum hoc facio. In quotidianis tar- dius: in quartanis tardissime ac vix ante tricesimum diem. Proposui nuper hoc pro- blema etiam ipsi Bucephalo, & ex Hippo- cratis autoritate deducere conatus sum. Nondum respondit. Tn, si placet, idem ex- perire. Iterum vale. EPIST. CCXLIX. IDEM EIDEM. ITa diligens es in scribendo & affiduus: vt me longo post te interuallo relinquas, charissime mi Laurenti. Neglexi sane hoc officium cum paulo plus otii haberem: in præsentia ob ægrorum multitudinem mi- hi hoc facere vix licet. Sed tamen reipsa experieris me tui non oblitum: & quod tat ditate peccaui, alia ratione compenta- turum. Literas ad D. Carolin Osluium, collegam olim meum, aperui: casque ad- huc penes me asseruo. Obiit is febri pesti- lenti & lenticulari extinctus ipso die solsti- riæstuii, morbi autem decimo septimo, statim ab initio morbi malignitas scie pro- didit, deliriumque subsecutum est, quod ad mortem vsque perdurauit. Exanthe- mata admodum tarde prodierunt: dieni fallor, decima aut vndecima. Generosa medicamenta multa, sed absque omni fru- ctu adhibita: cum præsertum æger mente non conitarer. Vt aliquid per os assume- ret difficilime adduci potuit, imo sudorifi- cam potionem recusauit prorsus. Illitus Ætii ex oleo chamomælinocum nitro po- tenter quidem, sed nimis sero, maculas e- tto canit. Quam viri & collegæ optimi mor- tem acerbissimam & tristissimam dolener tulerim, credere vix potes. Iam tum messis in herba erat: & ille fructus soos explicare coeperat. Si Deo ita visum fuisset: longio- rem vitâ illi exoprassem examino. Cum D. Iohanne Weidnero te constanter amici- tiam colere arbitrer. Meminit is nuper V 3

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to be applied: yet they not infrequently put forward in public what they have rather heard and read than seen and experienced themselves, with a great gap in understanding. Master Woifelius the younger attributes marvelous powers to the magnet, the stone: and he is accustomed always to carry it with him, so that he may never be without it. I have properly arranged your letters to Copissum; here you have others from our D. Sibenberger, who on the same occasion also wrote to me. As for D. Willebroch, I have seen nothing so far; unless perhaps he satisfied you by some other route. I am writing this with my thoughts distracted by preparations for the journey, which I hope to begin tomorrow. Caesar left already before the tenth; but since he is not heading straight for Prague, the courtiers will, after a while, follow D. Catulus Osluius, my colleague, whom I trust to find me at Prague. Whether you have received these correctly, I ask that you let me know as soon as possible, at least through your brother. Farewell well and happily, most dear Laurentius, and receive this one letter in place of your three; not much shorter than them, take it calmly, and excuse the letters inserted here and there by the slow messenger. Vienna in Austria, 13 October according to the old style, in the year 1583. POSTSCRIPT. When Lord Crato, speaking with the lord prefect, asked, with the matters arranged in a suitable way, whether the cauteries which D. Acholzius was recommending would suit him in view of his podagra, which has afflicted him now for many years, since he is already over fifty, and had recently also resorted to sassafras wood, he replied to me in these words: “What shall I write about the prefect’s health, with the matters arranged in a suitable way? I have noticed that my opinions about the wood were by no means false. If cauteries could drain off harmful humors in general, perhaps they might be of some use. But since they cannot, and how much danger they involve is enough taught me by many examples. Medical precepts also forbid drawing matter to a weak part and evacuating affected places. I do not wish to recount what has happened to others. Therefore I find no advice to give about the cautery; nor do I prescribe anything to the present physicians. You have enough of my opinion about joint diseases, both from my other writings and from those which I sent to Schonfeldius, tested. I find no reason why I should change it. Frequent use of my pills, which I call dextribus, I think would be more suitable for him than cauteries, especially if he uses a certain horn-shavings infused in drink, and makes himself flow into morning sweats. Finally, now at vintage time, let him strengthen the joints with a fomentation of grape husks.” One thing I add here: if, in putrid intermittent fevers of any kind, when some degree of, even if not complete, concoction appears in the urine, you give the sick person, on the very day of the paroxysm, a purgative medicine, so that it may complete its effect before the onset of the paroxysm—namely about 4 or 5 hours before you think the paroxysm will come—you will see the fever after that paroxysm no longer return, but be wholly removed, as if by some incantation. It has already been tried many times, and in more cases the result has always responded. In tertians I do this after the third or fourth paroxysm. In quotidians later; in quartans latest, and scarcely before the thirtieth day. I recently proposed this problem even to Bucephalus, and tried to derive it from the authority of Hippocrates. He has not yet replied. If you wish, try the same. Farewell again. EPIST. CCXLIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. You are so diligent in writing, and so constant, that you leave me far behind after you, most dear Laurentius. I certainly neglected this duty when I had a little more leisure; at present, because of the multitude of the sick, I can scarcely do it. But in reality you will experience that I have not forgotten you; and that what I have failed in through tardiness, I shall make up in some other way. I opened the letters to D. Carolin Osluius, once my colleague, and still keep them with me. He died, extinguished by a pestilential and lenticular fever, on the very day of the summer solstice, on the seventeenth day of the disease; from the very beginning the malignity of the illness showed itself, and delirium followed, which lasted until death. The eruptions appeared very late: if I am not mistaken, on the tenth or eleventh day. Many noble remedies were used, but without any result, especially since the patient was not in his right mind. He could hardly be brought to take anything by mouth; indeed he refused the sudorific drink altogether. An anointing in the manner of Aëtius, from chamomile oil with nitre, certainly powerfully, but too late, removed the spots. How bitterly and sorrowfully I endured the death of such a man and excellent colleague, you can scarcely believe. Then the grain was still in the blade; and he had begun to unfold his fruits. If it had so pleased God, I would have wished him a longer life. I think you maintain a steadfast friendship with D. Iohannes Weidner. He recently remembered...

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467 tui in suis honorifice. Aphorismos Archiatri nostri miror sane qua ratione na[tur]tus sis. Vere tibi confirmo, me illos non vidisse: ne si quidem tua opera & diligentia, qua me lo[n]ge superas, descriptas accepero, gratissimos habiturum. Ipse autor sua occultat pertinacius. Capouacciana de sensoriorum morbis remitto. placent sane: sed describere tædet. Interim aliud exemplum etiam à D. Scutellario nostro muruo accepi. Dixit mihi quidam < Præludia anaromata & cauteria tum in Genussis adua.> nuper ex Italia reuersus, dominus Capouaccium nunc in lucem edidisse libellus in scriptum Præludia anatomica: quib[us] Galenum contra Vesaliu[m] tueri conatur. Adiecit in fine tractatum suu[m] de cauteriis, multis egregiis additionibus locupletatum. Sed librum < Puerilo fale.> ipsum nondum vidi. Spero nunc ex nundinis Francofortensibus affore. Quid tibi videtur de saltatricibus illis puellis? quarum historiam, & de iis medicorum nostrorum iudicium hand dubie Dominus Dn. Dithius ad te dudum transmisit? Meam illi sententiam libere exposui. An cum tua congruat scire velim. Sed de his & aliis plura proxime. Bene & fæliciter vale, & præparatam hanc scriptionem boni consule, meque amare perge. Pragæ Boiemorum, 4. August. currente calamo, anno 1584. EPIST. CCL. PAVLO HESSO MED. &C. Theodorus Zwingerus S.D. MAXIMI facio ministram medicinæ chi miam, eandem si dominæ suæ tese anteponere audeat, flagris etiam dignam censeo. < Paracelsi encomium et vituperorum.> Theophrasto expetientiæ nomine multum tribuo, quandoquidem multa præclara medicamenta, in nescio quibus antns Ceylo pum delitescentia, si non a se inuenta. Saltem exculta in lucem protulerit, eandem vero arcem medicinæ deiectis veteribus inuadentem non æquiori animo sustineo, quâ tyrannidem affectantem Cylonem Athenienses. Atque vt illi, tanquam empirico & methodico Medicinæ elegantis imperito, quando dogmata artis tot seculorum consensu confirmata conuellere nititur metem meliorem dari precor: ita nostris quoque hominibus, qui methodi inepto studio noua damnant omnia, & de iis, quæ nunquam manibus suis tractarunt, sesquipedalib[us] verbis fanda atque nefanda proferre audent, sensum accuratiorem opto. Et hæc mea de empiria noua (si modo Chimia noua est) & vetere medicinæ methodo sententia est, ab Hippocratis, coryphæi nostri, præceptis neutiquam aliena. Recte tu vero, qui velut 468 obsignatis tabulls mecum agas, & ex iis quæ ante viginti annos scripseram vel fuitum ad damnandam chimiam in vniuersum cogas. Cæterum & tritum illud nosti: & delicta Oparidus , & delicta iuuentis vtnam crebra lacrymarum repetitione delere possem si methodum spectum, eius loci quæ adser me neutiquam pudet, si remedioru[m] præparationem, etiam dispuget, qui iuuenili precipitantia mihi vix dum à primis labris cognita damnarim. Hæc sunt, quæ non tam mei excusandi, quam tui eô firmandi gratia adferre volui. Vale, Basileæ, 15. Aprill. Anno 1585. THEODORVS ZVINGERVS D. Petro Monamio S.P.D. < Nepenthe viva.> DE Nepenthe quod quæris, certe quo recentius, eo efficacius, propter opium & hyoscyamum quem recipit, sed & propter recentes vires eorum, quæ correctionis causa adduntur, oleum garyophyllorum, anisi, cinnamomi, subtilium te licet partium, tam tutum videtur recens, quam antiquum. Ne que vero fermentatio tam hic necessaria, quando purior tantum sucus sumitur, atq[ue] in Thertaca cui crassa omnia & corpulenta induntur. In senibus & debilitatis vtor ad gr. iiij. vel iiii. In pueris ad gr. j. vel ij. In iuuenibus & morbis calidis ad gr. vj. eum iulepo rosaceo. Somnum mitem inducit dolores lenit, æstum extinguit. Epilepticum spasmu[m] cohibet, no[n] tam facultatem partium, quam vapores & spiritus morbicos congelando. Hæc experientia tale affirmare possum, vel hæsterno die, absque sopore dolorem & agitationem sublatâ suisse in filia Episcopi mula trium horarum conuulsione laborante. Margaritæ cum æquali pondere vitri in furo anitypo calcinantur, salstudine abstra cta extrahitur subtilior pars enem aceto destillate, quo euaporante subditor calx purissima aqua rosarum erebris affusionib[us] abluenda. Aliter in aceto destillato, & spiritu vini generosissimi ana, in simo contusæ dissoluu[m] tur. Defusione facta nouu[m] menstruu[m] affunditur, donec penitus sint dissolutæ. In fundo subditor essentia abstracto phlegmate. Et hoc rectius atq[ue] cautius. Alii alias habent præparandi rationes. sed in similib. Nepenthis vius Methodicus tutus: sed & qui prudentia Medici requirat, vt raritate ipsa magis magisque co[m]mederet, & prostituito ipsa si non vires medicamenti, saltem autoritatæ & per co[m]sequens efficaciam extenuat. Auru[m] inter metalla principarum obtinere, sed &c Inter

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467 you, in your honor. I truly wonder by what method you have come by the Aphorisms of our Chief Physician. I sincerely assure you that I have not seen them: but if, through your labor and diligence, in which you far surpass me, I receive them in a copy, I shall be most grateful. The author himself keeps his writings hidden all the more stubbornly. I send back Capouacciana on diseases of the senses. They are certainly pleasing; but I am tired of copying them. Meanwhile I have received another example also from our Dr. Scutellarius, who is much like a mule. A certain man who had recently returned from Italy told me that Master Capouaccium has now published a little book in print, Præludia anatomica , in which he tries to defend Galen against Vesalius. He added at the end his own treatise on cauteries, enriched with many excellent additions. But I have not yet seen the book itself. I hope it will now be available from the Frankfurt fair. What do you think of those dancing girls, whose story, and the judgment of our physicians about them, no doubt Master Dithius long ago sent to you? I have freely expressed my own opinion to him. I should like to know whether yours agrees with it. But more about these matters and others soon. Farewell, and may you be well and fortunate; and please take this hastily written note kindly, and continue to love me. At Prague in Bohemia, 4 August, with pen running on, in the year 1584. EPIST. CCL. TO PAUL HESS, M.D., ETC. Theodorus Zwinger, greetings. I esteem highly the handmaid of medicine, chemistry, if she dares to put herself above her mistress; indeed I deem her worthy of the whip. Paracelsus, praise and blame. I grant much to Theophrastus by way of commendation, inasmuch as he has brought to light many excellent medicines, hidden as they were in I know not what caves of Ceylon, whether invented by himself or at least cultivated by him. But I do not endure with an equal mind that the same man should assault the stronghold of medicine, overthrowing the old masters, as if the Athenians had borne Cylon’s attempt at tyranny. And as I pray that he, like an empiric and an unskilled practitioner of elegant medicine, when he strives to overturn the doctrines of the art confirmed by the consent of so many centuries, may be given a better mind; so I also wish our own men, who with foolish zeal condemn everything new in method, and dare to utter in long-winded words both what may and may not be said about things they have never handled with their own hands, a more exact sense. This is my opinion concerning the new empiricism, if indeed chemistry is new, and the old method of medicine; it is by no means alien to the precepts of Hippocrates, our chief authority. But you do rightly, if you deal with me as though with sealed tablets, and from what I wrote twenty years ago force me either to defend or to condemn chemistry altogether. Moreover, you know the old saying: I wish I could erase with repeated tears the sins of Oparidus and the sins of youth, if only I could. If we are to judge by method, I am by no means ashamed of that passage; if by the preparation of remedies, even so I disapprove it, since I condemned in youthful haste what I then scarcely knew from first principles. These things I have brought forward not so much to excuse myself as to confirm you in your own view. Farewell. Basel, 15 April 1585. THEODORUS ZWINGER to Dr. Peter Monamius greetings. Living nepenthe. As for the nepenthe you ask about, certainly the fresher it is, the more effective, because of the opium and henbane it contains, but also because of the fresh powers of the things added for correction, namely oil of cloves, anise, and cinnamon, if you will, in fine parts; the fresh preparation seems as safe as the old. Nor is fermentation so necessary here, since only the purer juice is taken, whereas in theriac all coarse and bulky ingredients are put in. In old men and the debilitated I use 4 or 3 grains. In children, 1 or 2 grains. In youths and in hot diseases, 6 grains, with rose julep. It induces gentle sleep, relieves pain, extinguishes heat. It checks epileptic spasm, not so much by strengthening the parts as by freezing the vapors and morbid spirits. I can confirm this from experience, even from yesterday, when without sleep the pain and agitation were removed in the daughter of the Bishop’s mule-driver, who had suffered from convulsions for three hours. When pearls, with an equal weight of glass, are calcined in a fireproof vessel, the saline matter being drawn off, the subtler part is extracted, as well as with distilled vinegar; when that evaporates, the remaining purest lime is to be washed with repeated affusions of rose water. Or else, in distilled vinegar and the spirit of the most excellent wine, in a sealed vessel they are dissolved. After decantation, a new menstruum is poured on until they are completely dissolved. At the bottom lies the essence, from which the phlegm has been abstracted. And this is the better and safer method. Others have different ways of preparing it. But in similar nepenthes, the Methodical way is safe; yet it also requires the physician’s prudence, lest by its very rarity and by being displayed too much, if not the powers of the medicine itself, at least its authority—and consequently its efficacy—be diminished. Gold holds first place among metals, but so forth. Inter

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inter res naturales solu immortalitate quædam præditu esse, qua de causa tacito sensu ab omnibus, licet ignorantibus appetitur, ( ( ) constat. At illud idem nisi vegetabile primum, subinde animale fiat, adeoque corpori humano simile, nullam nec corroborandi, nec curandi vim habere poterit. Proinde vulgatis quorundam solutionibus non plus tribuendum censeo, quam auro foliato aurive ramentis. Bibitur & de 10 poratur aurum, aurum excernitur. Compa- ges illæ adamantinæ ab igne inuictæ aliquid igne poterius quærunt à quo soluantur. De- scriptiones aliquot habeo, tam e nullam ad- huc examini subici. Pro tua gratias tibi a- go, sunt in ea quædam propter admissio su- specta. Nam in huiuscemodi inter dum vel minima maximum secum [mercur]ij. Turpeti, Mastiches an. 38. Zinz. 3 iij. spe. el. de gem. Diamarg. frig. an. 3 ij. Coq. Saccharo q. s. Eius dimidia parte exci- pe pulueres & anisum obducito, reliqua di- midia incrustato. Datur ad 3 ij. & tres. Gua- laci corticum decoctum sicim quoq[ue] restin- guere, & qnidem potenter, sæpe depræhend- di. Eiusdem in calefaciendo non magnam esse vim, catholici vsus multorum dierum innoxius satis conuineit. Ego [mercur]j. affundo lb. vj aq. Coquo ad medietatem. Inest vis pur- gandi & apetiendi multo efficacior, quam ligno, propter salis copiam. Itaq[ue] 4. doves ha- bebis. Vinum senex noster, à quo accept, in inueterato tantum adhibebat. Dum sudor mouetnt, vinum non adeo couenire, vti et- iam ventum seu potius aërem liberiorem, rationi consentaneum. Sed dum p[er]n[us]amus & vino & victu liberalius vti nihil prohibet. 30. & 40. diebus in iis, qui bibere possunt, continuis vti nil vetat. Corporis moles atte- nuatur, vires interim constant. Victus ratio proba, libera tamen, à sole tantum & ventro & crapula caueant. Hoc ipso commendabi- le medicamentum, quod eius vsus à suspi- cione etiam liber est. Pyrapyrum saponem nigrum requirit, de altero illo, facticium intelligo minium. Relinquendum per horas ad minimu[m] 12. & cum cutis plane nigra est, tunc impressionem à medicamento factam esse cognoscitur. Orbicularia vlcera requi- tuntur, quando globulos cereos, vel pisa im- ponere volumus, vt diu aperta maneant, Plumbi grauitas, etsi aqueæ naturæ sit, ex partium densitate pronenire videtur Chy- tenistis ab hydrargyro, & sulphure combusti- li, hoc est, impuro. Sic autem appellant hal- tum duplicem. Nepenthe præterea, de qui- bus ante, recipit corallioru[m], margaritarum, croci & succini essentiam, hoc est, partes purissimas, arte elicitas, vt quantum ab opio & alterco periculi est, tantum præsidij à po- steriotibus istis. Congelantur itaq[ue] spiritus maligni, sed natui corroborantur. Hac de causa per accidens ab ipsius haustu sudor in quibusdam subsequitur: in pueris efflores- centia saciei, propulsis à centro ad extima vaporibus malignis. In sistenda aluo medi- camentum præsentaneum. Fratri tuo, & ge- neroso Duditio officiosam ex me salutem. Salutant te nostromnes. Vale, Basilea, 16. Iulij, Anno Salutis LXXX. EPIST. CCLII. IDEM EIDEM T e vinere & valere ex animolætor. Cor- pus aspiret ille, sine cuius nomine, nihil est in homine. Hippocratis mediam partem Labor pocratum. iam absoluimus, nostri scilicet in illum la- boris, vel saltem conarus. cuius quo maior est expectatio, eo mihi ingratior, mihi cre- de, qui tenuitatem meam agnoscam, & cum latere maxime cupiam, nescio tamen quo Reipublicæ lunandæ studio in mediam ho- minum lucem vel latuatus inter dum præter institutum efferat. Neq[ue] vero & imperitiæ & ignorantiæ crimen refugio, dum mea hac audacia studiosi incitentur. Hocq[ue] ipsum clarissimo viro D. Hermanno tenunciari cupio, me tales exo- ptare. Rungius discedens in summa festina- tione, nihil ad te reliquit. Callide nimirum vestra vos nomina honoratio inscriptistis pocolo, ne remittendi occasio relinquare- tur. Prodigalitate ego vestram minime lau- do, sed amicæ interim voluntatis testifica- tionem, cum vobis ita visum est, amplector Tibi, mi Monaui, vitam & incolumitatem precor. Salutant te nostri inter eos, qui Aca- demiæ nunc præest D. Stupanus. Vale, & D. Hermanno, fratri tuo, & item Hesso pluri- mam ex me salutem. Basilea, 18. Aug. Anno 1578. EPIST. CCLII. IDEM EIDEM. DE Theophrasteis quærit, qua legenda methodo, canimirum, qua verum à falso discernitur. Quo ordine? Vr ingenuè V 4

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Among natural things, only some are endowed with immortality, for which reason it is sought by all, though unknowingly, by a tacit impulse, it is agreed. But the same thing, unless it first becomes vegetable, then animal, and thus similar to the human body, will be able to have no power either to strengthen or to cure. Therefore I think that no more should be attributed to the common solutions of certain men than to leaf-gold or filings of gold. Gold is drunk and gold is expelled. Those adamantine structures, unconquered by fire, seek some substance more powerful than fire by which they may be dissolved. I have several descriptions, but none has yet been submitted to examination. I thank you for your favor; there are in it certain things that seem suspect because of admissio . For in matters of this kind even the least thing sometimes brings the greatest with it [mercur]. Turpeti, Mastiches an. 38. Zinz. 3 iij. spe. el. de gem. Diamarg. frig. an. 3 ij. Coq. Saccharo q. s. Eius dimidia parte excipe pulueres & anisum obducito, reliqua dimidia incrustato. Datur ad 3 ij. & tres. Gualaci corticum decoctum sicim quoq[ue] restinguere, & qnidem potenter, sæpe depræhendi. That its power in warming is not great is sufficiently shown by the harmless use of it for many days in the catholics. I pour lb. vi. aq. [mercur]j. I boil it down to half. There is in it a much more effective power of purging and appetizing than in wood, because of the abundance of salt. And so you will have four doses. Our old man, from whom I received it, used wine only in the case of those who had grown old. While sweating is being induced, wine does not suit so well, as also freer air, or rather wind, is agreeable to reason. But while we are in use of it, there is nothing to prevent both wine and a more liberal diet. For 30 and 40 days, in those who are able to drink, there is nothing to forbid continuous use. The bulk of the body is reduced, while the strength remains constant. The regimen of food should be sound, yet free; let them guard only against sun, and against the belly, and against excess. This medicine is commendable precisely because its use is free even from suspicion. Pyrapyrum requires black soap; of the other I mean the artificial vermilion. It should be left for at least 12 hours, and when the skin is completely black, then it is known that the impression has been made by the medicine. Circular ulcers are required when we wish to apply waxen globules or peas, so that they may remain open for a long time. The heaviness of lead, although it is of aqueous nature, seems to arise from the density of its parts. Chymists use for it mercury and combustible sulfur, that is, impure sulfur. Thus they call it a double salt. Nepenthe, moreover, of which I wrote before, receives the essence of corals, pearls, saffron, and amber, that is, the purest parts, extracted by art, so that, just as there is danger from opium and the other ingredient, so there is protection from those later ones. Malignant spirits are thus congealed, but are strengthened by nature. For this reason, by accident, sweat follows in some after taking it: in children a flushing of the face appears, the malignant vapors being driven from the center to the extremities. In stopping the bowels it is a ready remedy. Give my dutiful greetings to your brother and to the noble Duditio. Our people all greet you. Farewell, Basel, 16 July, in the Year of Salvation 80. EPIST. CCLII. THE SAME TO THE SAME I rejoice that you are well and alive. May he breathe over the body, without whose name there is nothing in man. We have already completed the middle part of Hippocrates, that is, of our labor upon him, or at least our attempt. The greater our expectation of this, the more unwelcome it is to me, believe me, who acknowledge my own slenderness, and although I desire most of all to remain hidden, yet I know not by what zeal for strengthening the commonwealth I am sometimes carried out into the midst of men’s light, even contrary to my purpose. Nor do I shrink from the charge of inexperience and ignorance, provided that by this boldness of mine the studious may be encouraged. And I wish this very thing to be reported to the most illustrious man, D. Hermann, that I desire such things. Rungius, departing in great haste, left nothing for you. Clearly you cleverly inscribed your names on the cup in a ceremonious way, lest there should be no occasion for returning it. I do not commend your prodigality at all, but I embrace meanwhile the sign of friendly will, since it seemed good to you to act thus. To you, my Monau, I pray for life and safety. Our people greet you, among them D. Stupanus, who now presides over the Academy. Farewell, and convey to D. Hermann, your brother, and likewise to Hesso, my very best greetings. Basel, 18 August, 1578. EPIST. CCLII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. He asks about the Theophrasteans, by what method they are to be read, namely, by what truth is distinguished from falsehood. In what order? Now, frankly,

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Transcription: ATR-1

fatear, vel tantus Doctor (vt tibi & nescio quibus aliis amicis videor tantillum ignoro. An qua data porta ruunt? an nì semper nè an poëtica etiam imitatione à medius incipiendum? Ergo nè quid elabatur, perpetua indagine tota sylua concludenda, & Enniano more optima quæq[ue] retinenda. Nam vt nihil aliud, quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ

Transcription: Translated (English)

I confess, or rather I know not whether I seem to you, so great a Doctor, and to certain other friends, somewhat insignificant. Do they rush through whatever gate is opened to them? Or must one always begin in the middle, even in poetic imitation? Therefore, lest anything slip away, the whole forest must be enclosed by a continual search, and in the manner of Ennius the best things must be retained. For, if nothing else, quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ quæ

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Transcription: ATR-1

473 MEDICINALES. 474 eriam, qui immateriales penitus censentur, materiam hanc dari verisimile est, eo solo differentem, quod in his subtilissima, & sensui obscurior, in illis manifestior & erassior deprehendatur. Hinc duo morborum principia < Duo morborum principia Hippo Vræ. > materialia, primæta & primæta, non vno loco ponit. Neq[ue] vero octosæ eruut primæ qualitates, sed vt per se parum efficiunt, sic cum materia sua iunctæ, plurimum mometi afferunt: cum quod lib. de dixtra docet [præ]cipuæ. Duditio viro summo faultam felicemq[ue] migrationem hanc opto. Te veto beatum, qui tanto viro tam familiariter deinceps sis vsurus. Ei plurimam ex me salutem. Sed & fratri tuo novusæ . Salutant te collegæ omnes vino ore, in examine lustini Gorhaui, viri doctissimi. Basileæ, 8. Nou. Anno 79. EPIST. CCLVII. IDEM EIDEM. < Nepenthe. > Noli tu vero, mi Monaui, in senem nostrum iniutius esse, quasi Zuingeri in ex aliqvid ei splendoris, obsetuantiæ saltem aliquid, accesserit. Nepenthis gran. iij. ad v. in adultis, cum colici, cum nephriticis dolores vrgent, saccharo rosaceo subactis, vel cum iulepo rosarum dilutis vtor. In pueris ad granum j cum syrupo prænix, vel simili alio, ad motus epilepticos sistendos. In febrium inquitudine medicamentum præstans. Vino vel aqua oportuna dilutum de utrum dolorem mirifice sedat. Alui fluorem egregie sistit. Medicamentorum purgantium vim compescit. In senibus & debilibus caute exhibendum, non quod periculi aliquid subsit, sed ne lucus detur inuidorum calumuiæ. Theriacæ specie, vel extra- cti alicuius ad præsentem morbum oportuni, exhibere soleo. Somnum lenem conciliat, neque vigilia subsequens vestigium narcotici vilius relinquit. Illud vero sedulo cogita, medicamenta ipsa prostitutione vilescere: non quod communicatio boni vires ipsius boni eneruet, sed quod familiaritas nimia contempiu[m] patit, quando id quod serui studio perfici poterat, in eo herilis opera impenditur. < Medicamenta veliscunt prostitutione. > Catholicon si est, quod nomen præfert, etiam in arthritide. Neque verearis inuentiuum ad fluxionem, quandoquidem è diuerso adest quod retrahat. Itaque penetratio eo vsque vslui est, donec purgautis medicamenti vis ad articulos etiam pettingat, & iude humores alliciat: cum vis purgatrix sudoriferam superet. Nisi hoc effict, rationi Rondelerij acquiescerem. Hæc causa cur tam lente, & tarde & inuoxie a- gat. Id quod vsus te docebit. Sed medicamentum tale est, quod Medici manu parari debeat: ipso alioqui vsu vilescet, & abusu pharmacopæorum importune adhibitu[m] suspectum reddetur. Nullum ego illi ex purgantibus eis [præ]cipuæ eis [præ]cipuæ prætulerim. < De succis ab sintibit. > De succo absinthii quod quæritis, sic mihi videtur: quatenus absinthium stomacho prodest, id deterione & astrictione sua præstare, quorum vtraq[ue] interrea parte sita est. < Effectum præplicu concionis. > De præ mixtorum præclare Galenus exemplo rosæ. Videtur certe vt in animalibus, sic in plantis, triplicis concoctionis, velut effectus quidâ, vulgæ , vulgæ : etsi in aliis alius magis apparet. quorum singulis suus inest spiritus, singuli veto solidæ paritanquam carnivus & ossibus inhærent. Vinum ratione spirituosæ partis spiritus reficit: respectu inæ terrei sic penetrat & detergit, respectu vulgæ & vulgæ sui sic nutris. Orta à principiis non attestantur suorum principiorum. Sic ex tribus illis humotibus quidâ terræ alius aquæ, tertius aeri proportione respondet. Etsi horum ipsum rursus singuli à reliquis separati in partes alias iisdem principiis respondetes separari à natura possint, vel chymicæ analyseos argumento, quantum quidem ex artis huius tyrocinio huc vsq[ue] deprehendere licuit. De situ vrbium idem iudiciu[m], quod de situ domorum, quas ad orientem vel septentrionem ipsas dicimus, quatenus solem & ventos ex ea parte suscipiunt. Hinc crebro apud Hipp. Si vrbs ad austrum sita, à septentrione vero onem habeat, hoc est, vel montium vel syluarum beneficio à Botææ impetu defendatur. Idem de fontibus ad orientem erumpentibus iudicandum censeo. Vale: salutat te Platerus. Tu ex me D. Hessum & Hermannum, inprimis vero Rhedingerum nostrum. Basilea, Cal. Febr. Anno 80. EPIST. CCLVIII. IDEM EIDEM PERSOLVI superioribus tuis, missis ad Camerarium literis. Rungio re familiariter vti gaudeo. Ad ternas meas nihil ille hactenus: nec an Hippocrateum exemplum habuerit, scio. Oleum ceræ præclaru[m] nisi odore suo caput infestaret. Turpethi < Mineralis tot præparationes, quot artifices. > o mineralis tot præparationes, quot artifices. Rectetu, qui nondum exploratis eaute vitaris. Vteris illis deinceps & audacius & felicius. Ienim, qui odio sectæ Theophrastæ hæc & rident, & insectantur, no[n] tam in chymistas, quam in chymiam medicinæ famulam multo antiquissimam, iniuri sunt; & de ignoris iudicium interponunt. Et vero hos talia sunt, vt autem requirant. Platerita- bulæ ad mercatum primum exponuntur.

Transcription: Translated (English)

473. MEDICINALS. 474 ...material, which is thought to be entirely immaterial, it is likely that this matter is given, differing only in this, that in the former the subtlest, and more obscure to the senses, is found, while in the latter it is more manifest and coarser. Hence Hippocrates places the two material principles of diseases in one and the same place, and not in two. Nor indeed are the first qualities eightfold, but, although by themselves they accomplish little, when joined with their matter they bring very great force; as the same great man teaches elsewhere. To that most excellent man I wish a happy and fortunate removal. And I count you blessed, who shall hereafter make such familiar use of so great a man. Give him very many greetings from me. And also to your brother novusæ . All the colleagues greet you warmly, in the examination of Justin Gorhauius, a most learned man. Basel, 8 Nov., in the year 79. EPISTLE CCLVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. Nepenthe. Do not, indeed, my Monavius, behave too harshly toward our old man, as though some splendor from Zuinger had been added to him, or at least something of reverence. I use Nepenthe, three grains to the dose in adults, when colic pains or nephritic pains press hard, mixed with sugar of roses, or diluted with rose julep. In children, up to one grain, with syrup of prunes, or some similar thing, to stop epileptic movements. It is an excellent medicine in the disturbance of fevers. Diluted appropriately with wine or water, it wonderfully soothes pain of either kind. It remarkably checks looseness of the bowels. It restrains the force of purgative medicines. In the elderly and the weak it must be administered cautiously, not because any danger lies in it, but lest occasion be given to the calumny of the envious. I usually administer it in the form of theriac, or of some extract suitable to the present illness. It induces gentle sleep, and the waking that follows leaves no worse trace than a narcotic. But consider carefully that medicines themselves lose value through being prostituted: not because the sharing of a good weakens the powers of that good, but because excessive familiarity suffers contempt, when what could be accomplished by the diligence of a servant is instead carried out by the master's own hand. Medications are cheapened by promiscuous use. If there is any Catholicon, as the name suggests, it is also for arthritis. Nor need you fear its inward use in a flux, since on the contrary there is that which draws it back. Therefore penetration should be carried so far, until the force of the purgative medicine reaches the joints too, and from there attracts the humors; for the purgative force surpasses the sudorific. Unless this is done, I would agree with the judgment of Rondelet. This is the reason why it acts so slowly, so late, and so innocently. Experience will teach you this. But the medicine is such that it ought to be prepared by the physician’s own hand; otherwise, through ordinary use it will lose value, and through the abuse of apothecaries, being improperly administered, it will become suspect. Of all purgatives I would prefer none to it. On the juice of absinthe. As to the juice of wormwood, which you ask about, it seems to me thus: insofar as wormwood is useful to the stomach, it does so by its bitterness and astringency, both of which are present there within it. Effect of the triple concoction. Concerning mixtures, Galen gives a splendid example in the rose. Certainly it seems that, as in animals, so in plants, there are three kinds of concoction, as it were effects, although in some one kind appears more than another. In each there is its own spirit, and each of them adheres to the solid parts, as it were to flesh and bones. Wine, by reason of the spirituous part, refreshes the spirit; with respect to the earthy part, it so penetrates and cleanses; with respect to the watery and airy part, it nourishes in this way. Things born from principles do not testify against their own principles. Thus from those three humors, one corresponds proportionately to earth, another to water, the third to air. Although each of these, once separated from the others, may by nature be separated into other parts answering to the same principles, as far as has been possible thus far to discover from the beginner’s training in this art, whether by the argument of chemical analysis. Concerning the situation of cities, the same judgment applies as concerning the situation of houses, which we say are turned toward the east or north, insofar as they receive the sun and winds from that quarter. Hence Hippocrates often says: if a city is situated to the south, but has protection from the north, that is, is defended from the blast by the aid of mountains or forests. The same, I think, should be judged of springs bursting forth toward the east. Farewell: Platerus greets you. Convey my greetings to Dr. Hess and Hermann, and above all to our Rhedinger. Basel, Calends of February, year 80. EPISTLE CCLVIII. THE SAME TO THE SAME I have paid the earlier of your letters, sent to Camerarius. I am glad to make familiar use of Rungius. To my three letters he has so far given nothing back; nor do I know whether he had a Hippocratic example. Oil of wax was excellent, unless by its smell it troubled the head. Turpeth of mineral, so many preparations, as there are artificers. You act rightly, since you have carefully avoided them before thoroughly testing them. You will use them hereafter both more boldly and more successfully. For those who, out of hatred of the sect of Theophrastus, both laugh at and attack these things, do injury not so much to the chemists as to chemistry, the handmaid of medicine, most ancient of all; and they pronounce judgment in ignorance. And truly these are such things as require ... Plater’s tablets are first displayed at the market.

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Rungium ex me officiosè salutabis: & quia certius à vobis quam à Francofurdensibus literas accipere soleo, vti hanc ceu regiam viam sequatur monebis. Vale, mi Monaui. Basilea 15. Kal. Iunij, anno 1581. EPIST. CCLIX. IDEM EIDEM. ACCEPI tuas. Neque vero Nepenthes congelando tantum, sed & dissipando & propellendo, confortatis visceribus præstat in Epilepticis. In pueris ex exhibito animadueries faciem robore suffundi. Congelari vero spiritus nihil miru[m] videatur, si momento etiam & à calidis frigida, & à frigidis calida, mediantibus spiritibus, h[oc] e[st] corporibus subtilissimis & agilissimis, coagulari animaduertetis. Sic oleum Camphoræ ab aceto non tantum sed & ab aqua simplici. Oleum Saturni à momento aquæ, oleum Sulphuris crassius ab vrinæ spiritu. Iucunda profecto Empria, &c, vt ingue dicam, multis otiosis theoriis anteferenda. Recte tu de moscho in vterinis remouenda. De mumia no[n] multum laboro. Nam basi medicamenti, & iis, quæ adduntur oleis, vtramq[ue] e[ss]e vim tribuendam censeo. Neq[ue] vero margaritarum acredo te offendat, nisi etiam salium, quitamen non modo innoxie, sed & magno cum commodo exhibentur. Magna sunt hæc omnia, & præclara, sed nisi ad interim 21q[ue] nihil ea est, quæ Medicum facit nisi . In aniso purgante scammonij molem ego neutiquam perborresco. Fac periculum. Descriptio genuina, quam nisi, nisi quod in scheda tua pro Turpeti, Masticbis an. 3b. substitues an. 3b. Nostri non conficiunt, sed alibi confecto vtimur. Catholici decocti 3iij. infunde 3b. caryophillorum cum 3b. syruri rosati solutiui. Nihil eo mitius. Nunc adeo quinquagenariu[m] ex infectione Hepatis calidioris, toto corpore scabiosum, per dies 40. feliciter eo purgani. Loco vini decocto leniore vtemen, victus reliqua ratione liberiore. Purgat tantum non prolicit sudorem. Neq[ue] est quod id vim quodammodo afferri putes, si nisi reddatur. Vis illi aperiens tanta est, vt purgans ad intima deducere queat: neq[ue] verotanta, vt per sudorem purgare queat. Indicat curatio ipsa, nec tu nisi experiare credas. Vino non interdico, nisi penetrationis maioris causa loco vini substituendum videatur lenius decoctum. Guaiacone vero vinum venenum? A1 & Matthiolus, & Massa vino Guaiacano feliciter vltur. Cratomis formulam probo. Multas co[n]similes Massæ libellus de morbo Gallico continet. Turpeti mineralis tot fere descriptiones, quot capita. Neq[ue] ego de effe- 476 EPISTOLÆ [con]tu quicquam asserere possum, qui præparationem ignoto. Vnam habeo, partem diaphoreticam partim vomitoriam: sed vehemente vtramq[ue]. Itaq[ue] blandioribus & tutioribus vii malo. Diasulphuris descriptio non placet. Congeries illa medicamentoru[m] mihi no[n] placet. Si Theriaca sulphur præparatum excipias, cu[m] castoreo, hure, camphora (quid enim crassa illa, & per secessum abitura moramur, margaritas, lapides) idem facturum putarim. Scilicet & pharmacopoeorum lucro consulitur, & copia ingredientium medicæ singularis memoriz auctoritati, si Diis placet co[n]sulitur. Etsi & illud verum est, Regem absq[ue] satellicio in publico conspici non debere. Sic mores nostri At Agesilaus etiam solus inter suos probabatur. Hæc ego ad epistolam tuam raptim. Vale, mi Monaui, & me amare perge. Basileæ Calend. Maij. Anno XXCI. EPIST. CCLX. IDEM EIDEM DE cometis iudicium tuum magnificio. Etsi in hoc genere, vt & in compluribus aliis non magis Platonica, quam Christiana mihi probatur, in Academia cælesti aliquando explicanda. Quod de stibio hyalino quæris, vt vehementissimum, siccificacissimum medicamentum esse in vtramuis partem, ipsa docet experientia, & propterea pharmaci nomine dignissimu[m], quod recto vsu a[n]i , sinistro a[n]i soleat. Nauem agere ignarus nauis iimet: & stibiu[m] ægro, non nisi, qui didicit propiner. Cum procliue sit in vtramq[ue] partem peccare, & improuido vsu infamia Medico, pernicies ægro accedat. Quod ipsum Arragosius de metallicis plerisq[ue] lenit, vt non plus gladio Scandei becci, quam dextræ eiusdem sui tribuendum. adeoq[ue] insaniæ notam mereantur, quoiquor vel methodum nouorum medicamentorum supellectile exarment, vel eorundem fortuito successu antiquam artis viam damnant. Vale, Basileæ 10. Iulij, anno 1579. EPIST. CCLXI. IOHANNI WEIDNERO MED. &C. Theodorus Zuungerus S D. TE viuere & valere opto. Successibus tuis gratulor, Weidnere doctissime. Ego manipulum vnum corticis ligni Guaiaci comussi in libris sex aquæ coquo ad dimidias pro potu. Ad iertiam vnam pro infusione. In pertinax e gallico repetito opus est, vere & aurumno. Vino hactenus vsus non sum, etsi bonus ille senex eo in gallico inueterato vteretur. Cæterum vsus hunus phar-

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Give my respectful greetings to Rungius; and because I usually receive letters from you more certainly than from the people of Frankfurt, you will advise him to follow this as the royal road. Farewell, my Monavius. Basel, 15th day before the Kalends of June, in the year 1581. EPISTLE CCLIX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I have received yours. And indeed Nepenthes is beneficial not only by cooling, but also by dissipating and driving out, and by strengthening the viscera it is effective in epileptics. In children, from its use, you will notice the face suffused with vigor. That spirits can indeed be frozen should seem nothing surprising, if you observe that in a moment even things cold become hot, and hot things become cold, through the mediation of spirits, that is, of the most subtle and swift bodies, are congealed. Thus camphor oil by vinegar, and not only by vinegar but also by plain water. Oil of Saturn is affected in a moment by water; thicker oil of sulphur by the spirit of urine. Delightful remedies indeed, etc., as I may say, to be preferred to many idle theories. You are right about musk being removed in uterine cases. I do not greatly concern myself about mumia. For I think that both the base of the medicine and the things added to oils must be granted efficacy to both. Nor should the acidity of pearls offend you, unless that of salts does also, though they are administered not only harmlessly but also with great benefit. Great are all these things and excellent, but meanwhile it is that which makes the physician. In purging anise with scammony I am by no means alarmed. Make the trial. The genuine description, unless only in your note you substitute 3b. of mastic in place of turpeth, with 3b. Our people do not prepare it, but we use that made elsewhere. Of the Catholic decoction: infuse 3iij. in 3b. of cloves with 3b. of soluble rose syrup. Nothing is milder than this. And now, indeed, I successfully purged a fifty-year-old man, made scabby over the whole body from an infection of the warmer liver, for forty days with it. Instead of wine, use a milder decoction, with the rest of the regimen more free. It purges and at the same time induces perspiration. Nor should you think that some force is thereby applied, if it is returned. Its opening power is so great that, as a purgative, it can carry to the innermost parts; and yet not so great that it can purge by sweat. The cure itself shows this, nor would you believe it unless you tried it. I do not forbid wine, unless for the sake of greater penetration a milder decoction should seem preferable in place of wine. But is wine poison for guaiacum? A1 and Matthiolus, and Massa, use guaiacum wine successfully. I approve of Crato’s formula. Massa’s little book on the French disease contains many similar prescriptions. There are almost as many descriptions of mineral turpeth as there are chapters. Nor can I myself assert anything about the effect, since I do not know the preparation. I have one, partly diaphoretic, partly emetic: but both are violent. Therefore I prefer gentler and safer ways. I do not like the description of diasulphur. That heap of medicines does not please me. If you except prepared sulphur in theriaca, with castoreum, hure, camphor—what indeed are we waiting for in that coarse matter that is to go off by the bowels, pearls, stones?—I should think it would do the same. Clearly, the profit of the apothecaries is also consulted, and the abundance of ingredients, singularly, as if medicine’s memory and authority are being consulted, if the gods please. And yet it is also true that a king ought not to be seen in public without his retinue. Such are our customs. But Agesilaus was approved even when alone among his own people. I have written these things in haste in reply to your letter. Farewell, my Monavius, and continue to love me. Basel, the Calends of May. Year 21. EPISTLE CCLX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I greatly approve your judgment about comets. Although in this field, as in many others, what pleases me is not so much the Platonic as the Christian view, to be explained at some time in the heavenly academy. As for what you ask about transparent antimony, experience itself teaches that, as a most powerful and most desiccating medicine, it may act in either direction, and therefore is most worthy of the name of drug, since with right use it is usually beneficial, with wrong use harmful. One who is ignorant of handling a ship may steer the ship; and antimony should be offered to the sick only by one who has learned how. Since it is easy to err in either direction, and through imprudent use disgrace comes to the physician and ruin to the patient. This same point Arragosius moderates in most metallic preparations, so that no more credit should be given to Scandei Becci’s sword than to the same man’s right hand. Indeed, they deserve the mark of madness, whoever either arm themselves with the equipment of novel medicines and methods, or condemn the ancient path of the art because of the accidental success of these same remedies. Farewell. Basel, 10 July, 1579. EPISTLE CCLXI. TO JOHANN WEIDNER, PHYSICIAN, ETC. Theodorus Zwinger sends greeting. I wish you to live and be well. I congratulate you on your successes, most learned Weidner. I boil one handful of guaiac wood bark, crushed, in six pounds of water down to half for drinking. For infusion, one to the third. In obstinate cases of repeated French disease, it is needed in spring and autumn. So far I have not used wine, though that good old man used it in old French disease. Moreover, the use of this phar-

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477 MEDICINALES. 478 pharmacis, vt omnium aliorum, non sem- per succedit, propter analogiam scilicet di- spatem, & idiosyncrasiam corporum. Anti- dotis parum tribuo in hoc genete, quando veneni gratus ignoratur, et si quo modo an- tidotus illa ex Gualaco ipsa petenda, quæ nô tam manifesta quam occulta qualitate con- tra morbum pugnat. Sed vt purgationes i- psas maximi facio; sic intermistos sudores ex mercurio præcipitato flauo, vulgo turpe- tum appellant minerale, dum ab i[us] corro- dentibus præparetur, aut certe acrimonia o- mnis eluatur. Sed de hoc alias. Peregre et- iam Catholici vsus esse potest talis: [mercur]ij. xero- xerotati minutiss. puluerisati [sulphur] ij. satis pari- glia [sulphur] j. liquiritiz [sulphur] B. [mercur] pulueris huius [sulphur] j. B. Macerentur primo, inde bulliant in iutis pulli, vel aquæ communis mensura vna ad medietatem. Setuetur postea. [mercur] foliorum senæ [mercur] ij. melissæ, rosarum pallidarum, cin- namomi ana [sulphur] ij. sacchari [sulphur] B. Misc. Exinde euro singulis noctibus in [sulphur] vj. decocti sup[er]ta- dicti frigidi macerati pulueris posterioris [mercur] vij. Mane per paruum laneum linteo sub- tili tectum colo, syrapi rosati momentum addo. Hoc ambari loco addere volui. Mi- scentur pulueres varij mangonti causa, vti non quidem nasuti dignoscere queât. Hip- pocrates nunc cessat, quando in theatro to- tus sum. Tabulas nostras in Aristotelis Rhe- torica iuuenilium studiorum nostrorum ty- rocinia edere nec licet nec placet. Doler mihi multa irreuocabilia emissa, ac non do- ler, si ansam hæc ipsa aliorum melioribus cogitationibus præbeant. In medicinæ ve- teris constitutione & deductione methodi- ca, si Deus inter tot pestilentis luis funera pro sua clementia vitam dederit, occasione professionis meæ deinceps totus ero. Vale V.D. & me amare perge. Basileæ 9. Octobr. 40 anno 84. Ignoisce festinationi. EPIST. CCLXII. IDEM EIDEM. < T van Sipil Amvaldo- nal > ACCEPTURS, V.D. & vt Homerico mo- re ab vltimis ordiar, quam misisti sigil- latam Amvaldinam neque vidi, neque de ea iudicare possum, ne mihi de peregrinis & incognitis iudicium sumere videat. Odor spicæ genuinus non est, an propter oleum spicæ admixtum ad candelam adet. Ex fa- cultatibus cerius quid vos ipsi coniectabi- tis. Neq[ue] vero ego, quod in epistola tua pri- mum suit, antidotis derogo, sed non omnes, quæ antidotorum nomine circumferuntur, cuiuis morbo venenato, aut veneno quid simile habenti conuenire, & vt quam ma- xime nihil obsit, nihil tamen prodesse non < Antidotis non Harum adhibendum. > magis ratione, quam sensu iudice simul iu- dico & censeo. Etsi vero gradus veneni æ- que atq[ue] antidoti inserdum penitus ignora- tur, ac nihil prohibet fortuito antipathie na- turalis n utiam à plebeiis deprehendi, cum n ne summi quidem retum naturalium scrutatores aliquantur. Turpetum min- tale Quercetani quale sit ignoro, & quan- do arcanum illud esse vult, per me tale ma- neat. Eius quo Bodenstenius vtebatur for- mulam haber, si modo legitima est, cum S. & oleo vitrioli, colore aureo, sed quod non per sudorem tantum, sed & per vomitum & scecessam granorum iij. pondere purgarei. Coralliorum sal, cum prius per se soli in clanso vitro calcinari fuerint, aceto stillari- cio extrahitur, quod aceto adhuc iunctum ruborem egregie seruat, eodem rursus ab- stracto albedinem recipit. Eo sale incor- roborando, & sistendis fluxibus præclare vtor. Sunt qui cum nitro prius calcinent, sed multiplici ablutione salis opus est, & nitrum ipsum tincturæ videtur insidiari. Mutatio vero ista coloris tum in coralliis, tum in tar- tati sale superinfuso aceto, inde abstracto, < Aceti scilla- teri acrimo- nisa non ad- eo verraficiat > qui fiat, nondum assequor. Cæterum quod Fernelius erosionem aceti veretur, ex Ga- leno ipso discere debuit, multa eiuscemodi intra corpus tuto propinari, quæ foris cor- pori admota & rubificat & erodunt, & cru- stas inducût. An vero acetum crudâ acetri- mum, quo coqui passint vtruntur, minoris a- crimonix erit stillaticio? maiotis ideo effi- caciæ propter crassitium suam, qua magis adhæret, & diutius infestare potest. No- lim interim tanti viri iudicium reprehen- dere, sed hoc asserere possum, vt quam ma- xime aceto ista extrahantur vel acerrimo, vel S. oleove vitrioli, at crebris ablutioni- bus eadem rursus elui, aut saltem ita attem- perati, vrin tantula quantitate qua exhi- bentur, vix centesima pars sit eius acrimo- nix, quam nos quotidie de manu coqui in pulmentariis, & acetariis innoxie sumimus. Turpeti, vt supra morui cum oleo & S. vi- trioli præparati dulcoratio repetitis sit ab- lutionibus cum aqua calida, vbi illud mi- rum accidit; massam mercurialem, quæ alba fuerat, affusa primum aqua flauam reddi, tonisque ablui, donec nulla ampli- us velsalfedinis, vel acoris vestigia super- sint, tum demum aqua frigida ablui & exic- cari. Corallii similiter subtilissime contusi in cucurbitam iniiciuntur, per alembicum aqua abstrahitur flaua (si dextre negotium obeas, forte etiam in veram tincturam, o- lei rubicundissimi instar, incides, quam mi- hi semel tantum videre & excipere con- tigit) post aucto igne calcinantur ad albu- < Corall. viniæ calcemacie. >

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477 MEDICINALES. 478 pharmacies, like all the others, do not always succeed, namely because of the disparity of analogies and the idiosyncrasy of bodies. I place little trust in antidotes in this kind of case, since the character of the poison is unknown, and if in any way an antidote is to be sought from Gualaco itself, it is one that combats the disease not so much by an evident as by an occult quality. But just as I value purgations highly, so too I value the mixed sweats from precipitated yellow mercury, commonly called turpetum minerale, provided it is prepared from corrosive substances, or at least all acrimony is washed away. But of this another time. Abroad, too, such a Catholic use may be had: [mercur]ij. xero- xerotati minutiss. puluerisati [sulphur] ij. satis pari- glia [sulphur] j. liquiritiz [sulphur] B. [mercur] pulueris huius [sulphur] j. B. Let them first macerate, then boil in the broth of a chicken, or in one measure of common water, down to half. Let it be strained afterward. [mercur] of senna leaves [mercur] ij. melissa, pale roses, cinnamon ana [sulphur] ij. sugar [sulphur] B. Mix. Thereafter I cure myself every night with [sulphur] vj. of the aforesaid decoction, after the cold-macerated later powder [mercur] vij. In the morning, through a small woollen cloth covered with fine linen, I add a measure of rose syrup. This I wished to add in place of amber. Various powders are mixed for the sake of fraud, so that even the sharp-nosed may not be able to recognize them. Hippocrates now keeps silent, since I am wholly in the theatre. To publish our little tables in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, the first exercises of our youthful studies, is neither allowed nor pleasing. I grieve over many things sent out irretrievably, and yet do not grieve, if these very things offer occasion for the better thoughts of others. In the old constitution of medicine and in the methodical derivation of it, if God, amid so many deaths from pestilential contagion, grants me life in his mercy, I shall henceforth be wholly occupied in the occasion of my profession. Farewell, most distinguished sir, and continue to love me. Basel, 9 Oct. 40, year 84. Pardon the haste. EPIST. CCLXII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. < T van Sipil Amvaldo- nal > I ACCEPT, most distinguished sir, and, to begin from the end in Homeric fashion, I have neither seen the sealed Amvaldinian thing you sent, nor can I judge it, lest I seem to be passing judgment on what is foreign and unknown to me. The genuine smell of spikenard is not there, unless perhaps by the oil of spikenard mixed with the candle. From the faculties you yourselves will more surely conjecture. Nor indeed do I, as was first in your letter, disparage antidotes; but I judge and hold that not all things which are circulated under the name of antidotes are suitable for every poisoned disease, or for anything akin to poison, and that, as far as possible, they ought to do no harm, though they may still do no good, not by the senses so much as by reason as judge. And although the degree of the poison and likewise of the antidote is sometimes wholly unknown, and nothing prevents some natural antipathy being discovered by chance among common people, since not even the highest investigators of natural things always succeed. The mineral turpetum of Quercetanus, what sort it is I do not know, and if he wishes that secret to remain such, let it remain so for me. I have the formula that Bodenstenius used, if it is legitimate, with S. and oil of vitriol, of a golden color, but such that it purged not only by sweat, but also by vomiting and stool, three grains in weight. The salt of corals, after they have first been calcined by themselves in a closed vessel, is extracted by distilled vinegar, which, when vinegar is still joined to it, wonderfully preserves the redness, and when the same is again removed, it regains whiteness. I use that salt excellently for strengthening and for stopping fluxes. There are some who first calcine it with nitre, but a multiple washing of the salt is necessary, and the nitre itself seems to lie in ambush for the tincture. This change of color, however, both in corals and in tartaric salt on which vinegar has been poured and then removed, < Aceti scilla- teri acrimo- nisa non ad- eo verraficiat > how it comes about, I have not yet understood. Moreover, Fernelius, in fearing the erosion of vinegar, ought to have learned from Galen himself that many such things may safely be given within the body, which when applied externally to the body both redden and corrode and induce scabs. But whether crude vinegar, which cooks use, would be of less acrimony than distilled vinegar? Rather of greater efficacy, because of its thickness, by which it adheres more and can offend for a longer time. Meanwhile I do not wish to criticize the judgment of so great a man, but this I can assert: that these substances are extracted as fully as possible by vinegar, even the sharpest, or by spirit of vitriol, but that by frequent washings they are again washed away, or at least so tempered that, in the tiny quantity in which they are administered, scarcely the hundredth part remains of that acrimony which we daily take harmlessly from the cook’s hand in dishes and salads. The sweetening of turpetum, prepared as above with oil and spirit of vitriol, is repeated by means of repeated washings with hot water, where this strange thing happens: the mercurial mass, which had been white, is first turned yellow by the water poured over it, and is washed again and again until no traces of saltness or sourness remain; then at last it is washed with cold water and dried. Corals similarly, crushed very finely, are put into the cucurbit; the yellow water is drawn off by the alembic (if you manage the business well, perhaps you will even come upon a true tincture, like the reddest oil, which I once succeeded only in seeing and receiving), then with the fire increased they are calcined to a whitish ash. < Corall. viniæ calcemacie. >

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acam, electuarium oui, Antidotum præsertim Matthioli, additis granis xv. vel xx. olei sulphuris, reliquis præfero, cuius ipsius se- munciam cum superpendio à Gallo emtam duobus solaribus siue baziis nostratibus 54. pixidi inclusam tibi mitto. Calorem nati- uum efficaciter roborat, patenter sudorem monet. Vale V.D. Basilia ix. Iunii. An. 1586. EPIST. CCLXVII. IDEM EIDEM. < Aurum per lanceum sophi stimum.> ACCEPTUAS, Weidnere doctissime, cù duobus aureis, qui e[ss]equiualent gallicis, quod Gallo Chymistæ dedi. Aurum ille nec parat, nec vendit, nisi parandirationes varias nouit, sed vt ait sophisticas omnes. Quam misisti formulam Beatianam, à Monauio iam pridem acceperam. Eam certe neque ausim, neque velim tentare, ne opera & oleum labore longo peritet, neque credidetim hoc præstari posse, nisi oculata side edoceret. Multa in huiusmodi arcanis eòdiosææ venduntur, multa quin etiam ætæxhææææ & ænæxhææææ co[n]tingere possunt. Ego generoso spiritu vini ex vino extracto, agallochi optimi succo prægnante in restaurandis viribus feliciter vtor. Oleum sulphuris sudores prolicit, eoque nomine gallicis quoque cum decucto ligni vel salsæ proplinarur efficaciter, sic dosis decocti mole parcior, viribus maiur est. In æstmate certe cum aqua iridis, helenii, scabiosæ & similibus ad grana sex mane viliuer sumitur, aut certe cù iusculo, iridem velperi trib. ante cibum hæris. Materiam namque ineidit, digerit, & catairhum defluente, n[on] quoq[ue] sistit. Cum vino etiam prupinare soleu, admixto saccharo, in stomacho languente, in obstructinnibus, in doloribus Intestinorum à flatu excitatis. < Extractum Zedoar.> Spiritu auri generoso extrahe ceduariæ succum promore, vehiculo ad medietatem abstracto, succi huius 9i. cum 5 ij. lulepi rns. limpidi misc. pro paralyticorum vsu Decem gutæ efficaciores, quam multa alia antiduta. Eodem iulepo prophylactici locu apud ægros vtor, vasculo exili, quod enchiindii loco esse possit, incluso, cum siphone paruo. Sed auocor. Tu vale V. cl. Basilea, 19. No- uemb. Anno 1586. EPIST. CCLXVIII. MAGNIFICO D[omi]N[US] ANDREÆ D[OMI]NUS ab Horckom[an]za, &c. Th. Eras- stus Med. S. D. Hoc ipsodie, cum inter libros chartas aliud quærerem literas tuas, quas supe- rioribus septimanis frustra sæpius quæsieram, repeti. Itaque gaudio affectus sit simiis relictis ad respondendum me accinxi. Pri- mum tibi gratias ago summas pro tua bene- uolentissima erga me pluntate Quod tibi, vir summe, aliquid esse vident, totum hoc tuo erga me amori tribuo, mihi nihil eorum arrogo. Paradoxa quoq[ue] non constetur, & quæ à plerisque probari video, non ante da- mno, aut reprehendo, quam sæpe diligen- terque apud me examinaui, & excussi, alio- rumque de mea opinione cogitationes atq[ue] argumenta expendi. In eo ferme sum totus, vt quæ amicis recte tradita, & à posteriori- bus negligentius exculta deprehendi, ad exa- men reuocem, & diiudicanda aliis propo- nam. Scripsi theses de contagio, putredine, morbis totius substantiæ, quas te iam habe- re suspicor. sunt enim editæ. Consectipsi et- iam de somno, melancholia & conuulsione, quæ vulgatæ nondum sunt. Et in posti emis confuso sententiam omnium certissimis de monstrationibus, at non pruinde certis for- tasse, quid sentiendum sit doceo. Fotes ni- hilominus patefacio aliis, aut viam indico, rectius cogitandi. Statui otium nactus fusio rem omnium declarationem proponere, & oblecta, quæ velipse finxi, vel ab aliis claris simis medicis & philosophis excogitata ac- cepi, dilucide explanabo: vt vnicuiq[ue] liceat de tota causa sententiam dicere. De epile- psia præter illa, quæ in quarta parte Antipa- raceis. disput. habebunt, nihil scripsi. Com- pendium artis nostræ anno 1563, in ferlis ca- nicularibus extra ordinem auditoribus ex- posui, neq[ue] id scripto comprehendi, post an- nos decem, aut bis amplius ex[em]plum à quo- dam accepi, vt auditors exceperant, quod ego factum fuisse prorsus nesciueram. Ve- lim certe tantu mihi otii dari, vt recognos- cere liceret. Fortasse prodesse aliquib[us] pos- set. Interpretatus sum annis superioribus a- phorismos Hippocratis & prognostica, sed pro more meo, ne verbum quidem habeo notatum. Fuere tamen ex discipulis aliqui, qui quam potuerunt diligenter exceperit. Misi nunc Basileam libellum de irrigibus, quem inuitus sane scripsi, ac respondecui, dam enactus effudi verius, quam scripsi. Spe- ro tamen nec aduersarium, nec quenquam alium porro litem mihi de hac re moturu[m]. Bene vale, die 14. Sept. anno 1577. EPIST. CCLXIX. THOMAS ERASTVS HIERONYMO Capuaceti, S. D. A Dea, quæ examicil cuiusdam medli- ci excellenter docti, excerpsisse lite- X

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acam, I prefer electuarium oui, especially Antidotum Matthioli, with the addition of xv or xx grains of oil of sulphur. I send you in a small box, with its own weight, half an ounce of it bought from Gallo, equal to two solaris or, as we say here, 54 baziis. It powerfully strengthens the natural heat and plainly promotes sweating. Farewell. From Basel, 9 June 1586. EPIST. CCLXVII. THE SAME TO THE SAME. <Gold by the sophistic lance.> Most learned Weidner, I received two gold pieces, which are equal to French ones, which I gave to the French chemist. He neither prepares nor sells gold, though he knows various ways of preparing it, but, as he says, all sophistical ones. The Beatian formula you sent, I had already received long ago from Monau. Certainly I would neither dare nor wish to try it, lest the work and oil, after long labor, be wasted, nor do I believe that this can be achieved unless an eyewitness taught it. Many things are sold in such secrets; many things can even happen. I use with good success a generous spirit of wine extracted from wine, impregnated with the juice of the best agallochum, in restoring strength. Oil of sulphur provokes sweating, and for that reason it is effectively prescribed also to the French, together with a decoction of lignum or salsæ; thus the dose of the decoction is smaller in quantity, but greater in strength. In summer, certainly, with water of iris, elecampane, scabious, and similar herbs, it is taken in the morning, six grains, or certainly with broth, three hours before eating in the afternoon. For it thins the matter, digests it, and, when the catarrh is flowing, it does not stop it either. It is also usually given with wine, with sugar mixed in, for a languishing stomach, in obstructions, and in pains of the intestines caused by wind. <Extract of zedoary.> With generous spirit of gold, extract the juice of zedoary in the common manner, the vehicle being drawn off to half; mix nine drachms of this juice with two ounces of clear julep. For the use of paralytics, ten drops are more effective than many other antidotes. I use the same julep prophylactically among the sick, enclosed in a small vessel that can serve in place of an enchiindium, with a small siphon. But I am called away. Farewell, excellent sir, from Basel, 19 November 1586. EPIST. CCLXVIII. TO THE MOST NOBLE LORD ANDREAS, LORD ab Horckomanza, etc. Th. Erastus, M.D., sends greetings. Today, while among books and papers I was looking for something else, I found your letters, which I had repeatedly and in vain sought during the preceding weeks. Accordingly, affected with joy, after leaving aside all other things, I set myself to reply. First, I give you my deepest thanks for your most benevolent goodwill toward me. Whatever seems to you, most excellent sir, to be of some value, I attribute wholly to your love toward me; I claim none of it for myself. Nor do I reject paradoxes, and those things which I see approved by many I do not condemn or criticize until I have often and carefully examined and weighed them with myself, and considered the thoughts and arguments of others concerning my opinion. My whole endeavor is almost this: that what I have found to have been rightly handed down by friends, and more carelessly cultivated by later writers, I may recall to examination and propose for others to judge. I have written theses on contagion, putrefaction, and diseases of the whole substance, which I suspect you already have; for they have been published. I have also written on sleep, melancholy, and convulsion, which are not yet published. And in a confused manner I set forth, by the surest demonstrations of all, though perhaps not by demonstrations equally certain, what should be thought. Nevertheless I make things clear to others, or show the way to think more correctly. I have resolved, when leisure is granted me, to propose a fuller explanation of everything, and I shall plainly explain the observations, whether those I myself have devised or those I have received from other very illustrious physicians and philosophers, so that it may be permitted to everyone to state an opinion on the whole matter. Concerning epilepsy, apart from what will be discussed in the fourth part of the Antiparaceis, I have written nothing. I presented a compendium of our art in the year 1563, during the dog days, to the auditors outside the regular course, and I did not put it in writing. After ten years, or even more, I received from someone a copy such as the listeners had taken down, of which I had been completely unaware. I would certainly wish that so much leisure might be given me that I could review it; perhaps it could be useful to some. In earlier years I interpreted the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and the Prognostics, but, as is my custom, I have not noted a single word. Yet there were some among the students who took them down as diligently as they could. I have now sent to Basel a little book on irrigations, which I wrote unwillingly indeed, and to which, driven by necessity, I poured myself out rather than wrote. I still hope that neither my opponent nor anyone else will hereafter raise a lawsuit against me on this matter. Farewell well, 14 September 1577. EPIST. CCLXIX. THOMAS ERASTUS TO HIERONYMUS Capuaceti, greetings. From a goddess, who examined the writings of a certain exceptionally learned physician, I have excerpted ...

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48) EPISTOLÆ 48) <Morb. totius substantiæ negatur.> ris te affirmas, scripto respondere placuit propterea quod inter illa sunt, quæ verbo- sius, & dilucidius exposuisse valde sit vtile, & necessarium. Principium disputationis hoc est: Verissimum est, siue genus, siue dif- ferentias morborum spectemus, non sta- rui in doctrina methodica posse morbum totius substantiæ. Optime illud à te dictum affirmo, propterea quod in doctrina me- thodica locum habere non potest, quod < 10> nullibi est aut fuit. Tibi vero, qui tales mor- bos existere credere videns, vt consentaneum dicas, veteor. An enim, quod me- thodo nulla, sed experientia solum cogno- scitur, & inuenitur, cognitum & inuentum methodo tractari non potest? Fernelius cer- te & Argenterius facilius, quem in metho- do locum habituri sint tales morbi, ostendetent, quam eosdem extare demonstra- uer nit: purgantia proprie totius substantiæ < 10> vitibus humores detrahere magno consensu omnes affirmant. At in methodica do- ctrina de medicamentis locum non inue- nisse, quæcunque vsu iam cognita fuerunt, non ausim dicere. Par ratio alimentorum. Et quod propius ad causam pertinet, cura- tionis pestis methodum tradi posse certum est, licet totius substantiæ morbus esse cre- datur: cur ergo à methodica doctrina qui vsu cogniti iam ponuntur, excludentur. < 30> Quia, inquis, dissimilis est ratio, cum tem- peramentum læditur, & cum vocem doctrinæ extra suum subiectum lese effundens alia corpora similiter afficit, ac in pestilenti- bus subito spiritum & calorem insitum ex- tinguit. Nego morbum aliquem seminarium ex se effundere, quo alia corpora si- militer inquinet, vel spiritum natiumque calorem perimat, siue læsione tempera- menti. < Contagium non enduret si me temperies læsione.> Nam omnes morbi, qui per seminarium aliena corpora contaminant, necessario temperationem eorum primo offendunt, quod in thesibus de contagio sic est demo- strarum, vt probabiliter contra disputari non possit. Nec diuersum tua probar ratio. Non enim non destruunt temperamentum partium morbi contagiosi & pestilentes, quia seminaria diffundunt, quæ arcem vi- tæ recta fere inuadunt, & congenitum cor- < 50> dis ealorem, sicut venena corrumpunt, vel alioqui morbum, cuius seminaria sunt tras- portant. Planius ex eo veritas cognosci po- test, quod te quoque consentiente, semina illa corpora sunt putredinem in se con- tinentia, cuius vicorpora, ad quæ forte irrepserunt, coniquinant. Impossibile au- tem est, vt res putrida, quatenus putrida est, corpus aliud maculet, absque tempera- menti corruptione, quia natura nihil est < Putredo nihil o[mn]ia tempera- tio calida.> aliud putredo, quam vitiosa temperatio: nisi forte temperatum statuatur, quod insi- to calore suo spoliatum ab alieno tenetur & regitur. Gradus quoque neutiquam mutant speciem. Quemcunque igitur pu- tredinis gradum ponamus, semper ei con- ueniet definitio, quod videlicet sit natini caloris ab alieno introducta corruptio. In hoc solum discrimen reperitur, quod vna quam alia sæuior, efficacior, mitior, igna- uior existat. Quocirca vna eademque specie operationis cum hæc, cum illa agit. Confirmarem hanc meam affirmarionem pluribus argumentis, si non per se esset ma- nifesta & tuo suffragio comprobares, dum sic scribis: Neque ego inficior, sicut à ve- nenis, sic etiam à morbida inspiratione af- fici atque lædi temperiem. Sed tamen pu- tredo quæ inducitur alia est à vulgari pu- tredine simplici, & alia ratione inerimit, & curatur. Morbida inspiratio, quam pesti- lente contagiosoque motbo laborantes ef- flant, putrida est, proinde tota sua natu- ra & substantia vitæ calori que nostro con- traria est. Quocirca recte colligis diurnam conta- gii vt seminarii perseverationem, primis re- clamare qualitatibus, quæ facile admodum heberantur, & corrumpuntur. Contagium certe prima qualitas non est, sed secunda, quæ non perit subiecto incolumi persisten- te. Iam certum habetur etiam apud Ferne- lium & Argenterium, putredinem rota sub- stantia nobis aduersari. Agunt igitur in nos putridi halitus ratione & vi putredinis, quâ in se habent. Putredo vero omnis quem- cunque tandem gradum nacta sit, est ca- lida quædam intemperies. < 40> Quamobrem non agunt in nos putridæ exhalationes virtute simplicis caloris, sed potestate putridi caluris, nec altanus vi, aut potentia alierant. At diuersa est simplicis & putridæ intemperiei curatio. Conce- do. Nam in putredine & facta intemperies, in simplici adhuc sit. In illa non habet lo- cum alteratio, propterea quod corruptum In integrum restitui non possit. In hac quod corruptum est, per oppositam quali- tatem corrigitur. Quosit, vt à putrido ca- lore alterata sui ablationem, simplici ca- lore affecta, sui emendationem postulent. An ex hoc effici quispiam opinabitur, pu- tridas exhalationes alia vi quam intempe- rie aliena corpora contaminare, quibus forte adhæseruor? Interimunt igitur pu- trefaciendo: (nam per se vt aliter agant, impossibile est, quod nihil aliud est, quam temperamentum seu natium calorem diuol-

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48) EPISTLES 48) <That a disease of the whole substance is denied.> Since you affirm these things, I have chosen to reply in writing, because among them there are some which it is very useful and necessary to explain more fully and clearly. The beginning of the dispute is this: it is most true that, whether we consider the genus or the differences of diseases, in the methodical doctrine there can be no disease of the whole substance. I affirm that what you have said is excellent, because in methodical doctrine there can be no place for what is nowhere or has nowhere been. But as for you, who seem to believe that such diseases exist, I think you should agree. For can what is known and found not by method but only by experience not be treated by method once it has been known and found? Fernelius and Argenterius, certainly, will more easily show what place such diseases are to have in method than demonstrate that they exist. Purgatives properly draw humors from the vitals of the whole substance, as all agree. Yet in methodical doctrine I would not dare say that medicines, whatever has already been known by use, have found no place. The same holds for foods. And what more nearly concerns the matter, it is certain that a method of treating pestilence can be handed down, even if it is believed to be a disease of the whole substance; why then should those things already recognized by use be excluded from methodical doctrine? <30> You say: because the reasoning is different when temperament is harmed, and when something, pouring itself forth beyond its own subject, likewise affects other bodies, as in pestilences it suddenly extinguishes the innate spirit and heat. I deny that any disease pours out a seminary from itself by which it may likewise infect other bodies or destroy the spirit and native heat, whether by injury to temperament or not. <Contagion does not endure if it is by injury to temperament.> For all diseases that by a seminary contaminate other bodies necessarily first offend their temperament, which in the theses on contagion is so demonstrated that no probable argument can be made against it. Nor does your reasoning prove otherwise. For contagious and pestilential diseases do not fail to destroy the temperament of the parts because they spread seminaria, which directly assault the fortress of life and the congenital heat of the heart, just as poisons corrupt, or otherwise carry along the disease whose seminaria they are. The truth can be known more clearly from this, that, with you also agreeing, those seminaria are bodies containing putrefaction in themselves, by whose activity the bodies to which they have perhaps crept contaminate. But it is impossible for a putrid thing, insofar as it is putrid, to stain another body without corruption of temperament, because by nature nothing else is putrefaction than a faulty temperament: <Putrefaction is nothing other than a hot temperament.> unless perhaps that is called tempered which, deprived of its inborn heat, is held and governed by another. Degrees also by no means change the species. Therefore, whatever degree of putrefaction we posit, the definition will always suit it: namely, that it is a corruption of native heat introduced by something alien. In this alone is the difference found, that one is more severe, more efficacious, milder, or more sluggish than another. Therefore the same species of operation acts now with this, now with that. I would confirm this assertion of mine with more arguments, if it were not self-evident and if your own support did not confirm it, when you write thus: “Nor do I deny that, just as by poisons, so also by morbific inspiration, the temperament is affected and harmed. But putrefaction that is induced is different from ordinary simple putrefaction, and it destroys and cures in a different way. The morbific inspiration which those laboring under pestilential and contagious disease exhale is putrid, and therefore by its whole nature and substance it is contrary to the heat of life and to ours. Accordingly you rightly infer the daily persistence of contagion as a seminary, the primary qualities first to be opposed, since they are very easily weakened and corrupted. Contagion certainly is not a primary quality, but a secondary one, which does not perish while the subject remains intact. It is now also established, even with Fernelius and Argenterius, that putrefaction is opposed to us in its whole substance. Therefore putrid vapors act upon us by the reason and force of the putrefaction which they have in themselves. But all putrefaction, whatever degree it has attained, is a certain hot intemperament. <40> Wherefore putrid exhalations do not act upon us by the virtue of simple heat, but by the power of putrid heat, nor does alteration by force or power differ. But the cure of simple and of putrid intemperament is different. I grant it. For in putrefaction an intemperament has already been made, while in the simple sort it is still present. In the former alteration has no place, because what is corrupted cannot be restored to wholeness. In the latter, what is corrupted is corrected by the opposite quality. Thus those affected by putrid heat require removal of what has been altered, while those affected by simple heat require amendment of what is theirs. Will someone think from this that putrid exhalations contaminate other bodies by some force other than an intemperament foreign to them, to which perhaps they have adhered? They therefore kill by putrefying; for that they should act otherwise by themselves is impossible, since it is nothing other than temperament, or native heat, de-

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dissoluendo. Quod dum sit, ad factum nondum est, alteratione contraria prohiberi quis non videt? De putredine cuius plures in his literis mentionem facis, dicendum aliquid videtur, præsertim cum valde multos, ne dicam omnes huc turpiter impingere animaduertam. Putredinem corruptionem esse e co [con]nasci [con]v[er]gi e[ss]e[n]tias; neq[ue] [con]n[on]ti [con]v[er]t[ati]o profectam ab omnib[us] receptum est Philosophus, & Medicis. Aque certum est Aristolelem in 4. Meteor cap.1. duplicem statuere putredinem, alteram simplici & nanaturali generationi vt maxime commune contrarium opponit, & corruptionis rerum naturalium, quæcunque secundum naturam intereunt, finem & terminum co[m]munem statuit. Eandem hanc e [con]d[er]at[ur] seu vniuersalem & naturalem appellari, eandemque improprie putredinem nominari ostendit. Alien nihil horum tribuit, sed co[m] traria ascribit. Nam & proprie putredinem dici, ac violentam & morbidam affectionem esse & [con]n[on]ti ius corruptionem vocari ait, & nec interitus naturalis terminum, nec naturalis ac simplicis generationis co[m]munissimum contrarium facit. Est igitur hæc illi contraposita. Sane dum hanc proprie putredine vocari scribit. Illam improprie sic vocari indicat: & dum illam finem naturalis dissolutionis facit, hanc violentæ < Res salua de calor salum.> & morbida corruptionis cuiusdam terminum esse monet. Hanc ab eo particularem, illam contra vniuersalem nominari ex textu manifestum est. Differentia in eo est, quod in naturali putredine tum demu[m] ambientis calor insitum exigit, cum [con]ratis longo tractu seipsum ita debilitauit, ac fregit, vt a leuissimo circumstantis aeris calore dispergi queat. In propria putredine violenta est hæc corruptio insiti caloris, vtq[ue] tunc euemat, cum calor adhuc robustus ac copiosus adest. Ideo aduenritum calorem valde potentem esse oportet. Præterea in naturali putredine totum [con]qualiter seruata partium proportione contabescit. In morbida pars vna aliqua præ cæteris corrupta est, reliquis naturam suam co[n]seruantibus. Non enim necessum est, vt sanguine putrefacto etiam carnes putrefactæ sint, aut carne in manibus corrupta, etiam quæ in pedib[us] est, putrida sit reddita. Sæpenumero putrefcuntur pulmones cæteris partibus illæsis aliquandiu permanentibus. Præterea naturalis putredo plutimum ab ambiente aere inducitur. Morbida à peregrino quouis suscitur, frequentissime ab obstructionibus efficitur. Item naturalis putredo est affectio mixtorum, quo ad mixta sunt, ac solis mixtis seu inanimatis accidit. Morbida tum a- nimatorum, tum inanimatorum communis est. Illa enim generationi simplici mixtorum tanquam communissimum contrarium opposita est, hæc mixtione cuilibet contraria est. In illa res in cineres & lurum atq[ue] elementa soluuntur. In hac raro aliquid tale v[er]su venit. Denique naturalis putredo finis est interitus secundum naturam, at putredo proprie nominata impedit, quo minus naturaliter res corrum- pantur. Modo dictas corruptionis species vocavit Aristoteles putredines, licet alteram inusitate sic nominari sciret, & moneret. Facti hanc videtur causam habuisse, quod terminus ille corruptionis naturalis nomine proprio careret, atque eandem vtrique definitionem competere videret. Omnis enim putredo, siue natuta eueniar, siue à morbo, aut violenta causa inducta sit, corruptio est insiti in re qualibet caloris ab aduentitio profecta calore. Quod primo loco positum nunc volo. Deinde pone- re alterum hoc oportet. Rem quamcunque tantisper saluam esse, quantisper proprium suum calorem retinet. Perire autem, cum eodem illo priuatur, vt Aristoteles tum alibi, tum de iuuent. & senect. 4. De respiratione 8. De breuit. & long. vitæ 5. cap. docuit. Cum de animæ exper- ribus rebus sermo est, controuertia catet, quod dicimus. Quid enim aliud in his temperamentum conseruar, quam congenitus calor, qui idem etiam ab initio induxit? Ipso incolumi persistit mixtio, eo corrupto necessarium est, temperamentum dissoluui. De interitu animatorum, quo ad animata sunt, dubitare quidam ausi sunt, an is interitus caloris quoque extinctio seu corruptio rectè diceretur. At expresse hoc affirmat Aristoteles de iuuent. & senect. cap. 4. 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Transcription: Translated (English)

…dissolving. And since this is so, that it has not yet come to the deed, who does not see that it may be prevented by a contrary alteration? With regard to putrefaction, of which you make mention many times in these letters, something ought, it seems, to be said, especially since I perceive that very many, not to say all, have here stumbled in a shameful way. Putrefaction, the philosophers and physicians have received as being the corruption arising from the coming together of contrary essences; and the coming-to-be of corruption has not been received from all. And it is certain that Aristotle, in Meteor. 4, chap. 1, establishes a twofold putrefaction: one, in simple and natural generation, opposed as the most common contrary; and as the end and common limit of corruption in natural things, whatever perish according to nature. He shows that this same thing is called [con]d[er]at[ur], that is, universal and natural, and that the same is improperly named putrefaction. Alien attributes none of these things, but assigns the opposite. For he says that putrefaction is properly so called, and that it is a violent and morbid affection, and the corruption of [con]n[on]ti he calls it; and he makes neither the term of natural destruction nor the most common contrary of natural and simple generation. Therefore this is contrary to that. Indeed, when he writes that this is properly called putrefaction, he indicates that that one is so called improperly; and when he makes that the end of natural dissolution, he warns that this one is the limit of a certain violent and morbid corruption. It is clear from the text that this is called by him particular, while that one is called universal. The difference lies in this: in natural putrefaction, only then does the heat of the surrounding medium require the implanted heat, when the latter has, over a long stretch, weakened and broken itself so much that it can be dispersed by the slightest heat of the surrounding air. In proper putrefaction, this corruption of the implanted heat is violent, and it breaks out when the heat is still robust and abundant. Therefore the adventitious heat must be very powerful. Moreover, in natural putrefaction the whole thing decays evenly, the proportion of the parts being preserved. In the morbid kind, one part is corrupted more than the rest, while the others preserve their nature. For it is not necessary that if the blood has putrefied, the flesh also has putrefied, or that if the flesh in the hands is corrupted, that also which is in the feet has been rendered putrid. The lungs are often putrefied while the other parts remain uninjured for some time. Moreover, natural putrefaction is brought about mostly by the surrounding air. The morbid kind arises from whatever is foreign, and most often is caused by obstructions. Likewise, natural putrefaction is an affection of mixed things, insofar as they are mixed, and occurs only in mixed or inanimate things. The morbid kind is common both to animate and inanimate things. For the former is opposed to simple generation of mixed things as the most common contrary; the latter is contrary to mixture in general. In the former, things are dissolved into ashes and mud and the elements. In the latter, such a thing seldom happens. Finally, natural putrefaction is the end of destruction according to nature, but putrefaction properly so called prevents things from being corrupted naturally. Aristotle called these species of corruption putrefactions, although he knew, and noted, that one of them is called so in an unusual sense. He seems to have had this reason, that that term of natural corruption lacked a proper name, and that he saw the same definition fitting both. For every putrefaction, whether it occurs by nature, or is induced by disease or by a violent cause, is a corruption of the heat inherent in a thing, brought about by adventitious heat. This is what I want to set down first. Next, this other point must be posited: that any thing is preserved so long as it retains its own proper heat. But it perishes when it is deprived of that same heat, as Aristotle taught, both elsewhere and in De iuvent. et senect. 4, De respiratione 8, and De breuit. & long. vitæ 5, chap. When discourse is about things without soul, there is no controversy about what we say. For what else preserves the temperament in these things than the innate heat, which also introduced it from the beginning? While that remains intact, the mixture persists; when it is corrupted, the temperament must necessarily be dissolved. Concerning the destruction of animate beings, insofar as they are animate, some have dared to doubt whether that destruction should also rightly be called the extinction or corruption of heat. But Aristotle explicitly affirms this in De iuvent. et senect. chap. 4. 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Transcription: ATR-1

489 MEDICINALES. tione & omni caloris ac spirituum celeri dissipatione: summatim repetam v[er]tclariora sint omnia, & sic ad vlteriora petgamus. Calor perit vel à seipso vel à contrario. Seipsum corrupit vel naturaliter ad quam corruptionem via est senectus: vel violenter. Vtraque corruptionis species vocatur puægræus . <Tabis violens ea plures species.> Quæ natura ordine sit, vna est, licet nominibus pluribus exprimatur ab Aristot. Nam & senectus & marcor natura & putredo imptoprie appellatur. At violenta species t[ame]ns puægræus habet plures, stragulationem, exultatione[m] quæque enim maior minorem calore perdit puægræus vocatur Aristot.) putredinem proprie dictam febrem tabefacientem. Extincto etiam quæ contrario afficitur pro causarum refrigerantium diuersitate distinguitur. Patet ex his omnibus putredinem priuatim sic nuneupatam, non aliam esse à putredine medico. <20> tum, tamen illa quæ inusitare sic est ab Aristot. nominata, toto coelo alio sit. Hæc enim morbus non est: illa autem morbus. Patet etiam quomodo accipi debeant verba Aristotelis, utile id id uoq[ue] λόγους στὴν i[m]m[.] τῶν γαμί μύρον Φινομύνων. In naturali enim putredine prorsus necessarium est, vt partes omnes æque resiceuntur, pro suæ naturæ modo tamen singulæ. In violenta, pars vna eorrumpitur, exteris incorruptis manentibus: obniciat fortasse aliquis, non consentaneè ista dici. Nam si seipsum ealot deterit in putredine tum naturali tum violenta, non rectè in definitione ponitur cum ab alieno comuni. Respondeo: in naturali rerum oceasu, dum per senectutem seipsum paulatim exdir, res nondum putridas esse, sed ad putredinem sensim accedere, calotemque tum sibi ad naturalem putredinem vlam sternere. Cum enim ferme totum se attriuit, & aboleuit à calore ambientis, tandem prorsus dissoluitur, cumque humido natino euocatur. Hanc ob causam dixit Aristot. senectutem esse viam ad hanc putredinem. In morbida putredine <Semelius vna ad putredinem.> res minus habet ubscuritatis. Nullus enim nescit in febribus natium & proprium calorem ab igneo & petegino pati. Non enim quia natuo permittus est aduentitius, naturalis etiam factus est. Pat est <50> ratio, si militum calorem auctum dum taxat contendas, si modo huc v[er]isque auctum ponas, vt actiones ledat. Etenim pars illa caloris, vt sic loquar, quæ subiecti naturæ non competit, sed oneri & impedimento est, naturalis esse aur cogitari non potest. Talis enim si esset, actiones meliores appareret non deterriores. Hæc de putredine dicta nobis lint. Ad tuam nos iterum vertimus. Facilime iam perspicis, minime nos tibi concessuros, quod dicis, Aristotelem eensuisse, omnem putredinem generationi oppositam naturalis corruptionis finem esse. Eudenter sane ostendimus, quandam solummodo putredinem non omnem ab Aristotele naturali simplici generationi tanquam contrarium commuosisimum oppositam fuisse, eam scilicet per quam ad senectutem & naturalem [con]tatis decursum sensim peruenitur, quæque imptoprie purredo sit nominata. In altera putredine tam consentit cum medieis Aristoteles, quam consentimus nos cum Arithmeticis bis duo esse quatuor affirmantibus. Quocirca non est alia disceptatio de hac, & de illa, quam intuentur medici, nec quadrat ad causam nostram similitudo de eo qui mader solum, & altero qui totus est madidus: cum Aristoteles non sic distinguat duas putredines, quomodo madecens à mado differt, quoniam totis naturis discrepant cum altera naturalis, altera violenta & naturæ aduetissima sit. Cum morbum pestilentem longe ab intemperie simplici distare serbis, non impugnas. Idem enim nos quoque sentimus & seribimus. Pars simplici intemperie laborans non amisit naturam suam, nec nomen nec definitionem perdidit. At putrefacta neutrum seruat, & proinde corrigi nequit, Aristoteles eerte in putredine proprie dicta hoc requirit, vt res cui insederit, corrupta sit. Nam de solis nam μύρον Φινομύνων, cum χωρον ἐν τ[em]p[er]is Φυνομένει, rectè esterni putredinem, quæ proprie ira vocatur, statuit. Quam obrem non alterari, quod putridum est, sed tolli postulat: plurimum ergo differt huius & illius euratio. Nec discrepant nostræ sententia in illa parte. Tantum igitur abest, vt vel tibi vel aliis eripere hoc teneamus, vt nihil attentus obsecuari velimus, quam hoc. Curatio indicat. Duplex est intemperies facta, & fiens. In priore, substantia non interiit, sed naturam suam seruat, ac proinde alterationem solam postulat. In altera, substantia quam occupauit, corrupta est, quod sit, vel alterazione reuocare nunquam possit. Quate non indicant alterationem sui partes hac intemperie obsolæ, sed ablationem sui petunt. In putredine igitur quæ ad factam intemperiem pertiner, non alteramus partes rarum putrefactas, quia corrigi non possum: at illas, quæ sic intemperatæ redditæ sunt, vt naturam & substantiam adhuc retineant, oppositione contra ratæ qualitans (quia unum in qualitate tantum est) pristinæ conditioni reddere studemus. Mirum igitur videri non debet, X 3

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489. MEDICINALS. …by degeneration and by the speedy dissipation of all heat and spirits: I shall briefly repeat the clearer points, so that everything may be clearer, and thus let us pass on to the further matters. Heat perishes either of itself or by an opposite. It destroys itself either naturally, to which corruption old age is the way; or violently. Both kinds of corruption are called puegreus . <Violent decay has several species.> That which is according to nature and order is one, though it is expressed by Aristotle with several names. For both old age and natural wasting and putrefaction are improperly so called. But the violent species t[ame]ns puægræus has several kinds: strangulation, and excitement; for whatever greater heat destroys the lesser is called puegreus (Aristotle), and putrefaction properly so called, and the fever that consumes. That also which is extinguished by an opposite is distinguished according to the diversity of the refrigerating causes. From all this it is clear that the putrefaction here specially so named is not different from medical putrefaction. <20> Yet that which is thus unusually named by Aristotle is altogether something else. For this is not a disease; but that is a disease. It is also clear how the words of Aristotle are to be understood, utile id id uoq[ue] λόγους στὴν i[m]m[.] τῶν γαμί μύρον Φινομύνων. For in natural putrefaction it is altogether necessary that all the parts be likewise affected, though each according to the mode of its own nature. In violent putrefaction one part is corrupted, while the others remain uncorrupted. Someone may perhaps object that these things are not said consistently. For if heat destroys itself in putrefaction, both natural and violent, it is not rightly placed in the definition as coming from something alien and common. I reply: in the natural course of things, while through old age it gradually wastes itself away, things are not yet putrid, but are slowly approaching putrefaction, and heat then prepares for itself the way to natural putrefaction. For when it has consumed nearly the whole of itself and been abolished by the heat surrounding it, at last it is wholly dissolved, and is called forth together with its native moisture. For this cause Aristotle said that old age is the way to this putrefaction. In morbid putrefaction <Semelius vna ad putredinem.> the matter is less obscure. For no one is unaware that in fevers the native and proper heat suffers from the fiery and putrid heat. For because something native is permitted an adventitious quality, it does not therefore become natural. The reasoning is clear, if you insist only on an increased heat of soldiers, provided that you truly and rightly set it down as increased so as to injure its functions. For that part of heat, so to speak, which does not belong to the nature of the subject, but is a burden and impediment, cannot be thought of as natural. If it were natural, it would appear to improve actions, not worsen them. Let these things be said by us concerning putrefaction. We now turn back to your argument. You can now easily see that we shall by no means grant you what you say, namely, that Aristotle thought every putrefaction, opposed to generation, to be the end of natural corruption. Indeed we have clearly shown that Aristotle opposed only one kind of putrefaction, not all, to simple natural generation, as to the most common contrary; namely, that by which one gradually arrives at old age and the natural course of life, and which has been improperly called putrefaction. In the other putrefaction Aristotle agrees with the physicians as much as we agree with the arithmeticians who assert that two times two make four. Therefore there is no other dispute about this and that which the physicians regard, and the comparison with the person who is merely moist and the other who is completely drenched does not fit our case: since Aristotle does not distinguish the two putrefactions as one who is moist differs from one who is soaked, because they differ in their whole nature, since one is natural and the other violent and most alien to nature. When you say that pestilential disease differs greatly from simple intemperance, you do not oppose us. For we too think and write the same. A part suffering from simple intemperance has not lost its nature, nor has it lost its name or definition. But that which is putrefied preserves neither, and therefore cannot be corrected. Aristotle certainly requires this in proper putrefaction: that the thing in which it has lodged be corrupted. For he establishes putrefaction, properly so called, only of those things in which corruption has arisen. Wherefore he requires that what is putrid should not be altered, but removed: therefore the treatment of this and that differs greatly. Nor do our opinions disagree in that part. So far, then, are we from wishing to deprive either you or others of this, that we are not even willing to grant anything except this. The treatment indicates it. There are two kinds of intemperance, completed and becoming. In the former, the substance has not perished, but preserves its nature, and therefore requires only alteration. In the latter, the substance it has occupied is corrupted, so that it can never be restored by alteration. Therefore the parts made obsolete by this intemperance do not indicate alteration of themselves, but ask for their removal. In putrefaction, then, which belongs to completed intemperance, we do not alter the parts already putrefied, because they cannot be corrected; but those which have been made so intemperate that they still retain nature and substance, we strive to restore to their former condition by removing the opposing quality, since in quality there is only one contrary. It should therefore not seem surprising, X 3

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 894 est Medicis, nec animalia, necceorum partes interire ingentio calore incolumi permanente. Mors enim nihil est aliud, quam natiui caloris extinctio. Denique meminisse decer, pronunciati physici: Nihil supra & ultra naturam seu speciem suam age- < Responsio.> re. His positis ad interrogationem tuam sic respondeo: subitus interitus in peste oritur ab intemperie cordis: ratio est, quod putrida inspiratio interimere non aliter potest, quam si cordis temperationem dissoluat. In causa duo sunt: Primum quod interire res nulla potest, nisi calor eius natius par ear. Putrida igitur inspiratio non ante perimit, quam cordis calorem corrumpat. At cor- rumpere aliter non potest quam putrefaci- endo. Alterum est, quod nihil ultra suam spe- ciem agit. Calor enim non agit aliud per se & primo quam calefacere (eadem ratio in 10 cæteris omnibus valet) si quid amplius fiat, hoc vel per accidens se quitur, vel quatenus ralis quidam calor euenit; hoc est, sine ca- liditate non contingit. At omnis putredo est calida quædam intemperies. Quareo- mnis res putrida calefaciendo purrefacit, & putrefaciendo calefacit. Etenim putredi- nem omnem à calore peregrino procreari certum est. Quare necessarium est prorsus, vt putrida inspiratio non prius oecidar, 30 quam crdis calorem ceu fundamentum la- befactarit. His quomodo contrauenire ve- < Difficultes.> lis aut possis non video. Difficultas autem in hoc sita est, quod intemperiem cordis duntaxat tollere putantur, quæ natium e- ius temperamentum, quo ad ex suis certis partibus coagmetatum ac temperatum est, nulla spirituum ratione habita, eo perdu- cit. Verum hoc forte sit, si seorsim quo ad solida substantia est contra spiritus & hu- mores distincta, consideretur, quomodo lanii considerant: sed Medici non absque sanguine & spiritibus, quibus orbatum, nec videre, nec officium suum exequi villo pacto valet, intuentur. Quippevt naturæ conuenienter affectum sit, vt vitæ munera obeat, vt temperamentum suum custodi- at, omnibus iam dictis opus habet, ac sine his nec nomen, necnaturam, nec officium cordis tueri potuit vnquam. Quo sit, vt 30 recte iudicent Medici diligentiores, cor- dis temperationem viiare, caloremque eius corrumpere, quæcunque vel spiritum, vel sanguinem ei eripiunt, vel eadem hæc Intemperata reddunt, etsi alteratio hæc ad solidum eius corpus nondum pertingat. Quia vero tu nobis vltro concedis semina- rium pestis propter certum putredinis gra- dum pestiferum esse, probationis labore nos subleuas: quanquam difficile non erar ex supra demonstraris conficere. Nam ex- halariones peste affectorum nihil trans- portant ad alios; præter affectionem eius corporis, aur partis, ex qua effunduntur. At non alia hæc affectio esse potuit, quam putredo. Naturalis autem non fuit. Ergo morbida & violenta. Inter violentæ au- tem corruptionis species extra putredinem nullam reperies, cuius natura in seminario retineri & propagari possit. Huius signa < Signa putredini occui.> etsi non semper conspiciuntur in xgrotis, nontamen ob id non adest. Ergo cum pu- tredo omnis, quæ proprie sic nominatur, nihil aliud sit quam iuremperies quædam, ac putredinis propria & per se actio fingi nequeat alia, quam putrefacere, non est im- maginabile, quomodo seminaria hæc ali- ter vires cordis deiciant, quam tempera- tionem eius corrumpendo. Corrumpunt autem quatenus similem putredinem illi, è quali ipsa exhalarunt, & qualem in se con- tinent, imprimunt. Quod quia sine calo- re peregrino & putredo fieri nequit, prorsus efficitur, temperiem cordis aut aliam par- tium à malibus haliubus per se & proprie op- pugnari. Cum cordico, & ipsum cordis corpus, & spiritus, & sanguinem in eo con- tentes simul intelligo. Cum ad omnia tua respicio, & singula diligenter excutio, vi- < 40> deris mihi esse in ea opinione, ac, si qui certum putredinis gradum duntaxat pesti- ferum concedit, morbum totius substantiæ obscure pariter concedat. Vtraque enim sententia æque inexplicabilis tibi videtur. Ego sane longe aliter iudico, cumque de tota substantia horum morborum quid fabri senserunt examino, si de tota substantia sic loquerentur, aut sentirent, quomo- do veteres sensisse certum est, frustra fateor & damnarent ipsi hac in parte veterem, & eosdem nos defenderemus. Nunquam < Morbi et substantia veterum a ut ab intem- perio.> censuerunt illi vel rotius substantiæ mor- bum ab intemperie eiusdem alium esse, vel remedia à rota substantia agentia per temperationem suam non agere, quem- admodum nec alimenta ratione totius substantiæ suæ à nobis patientia sine calo- ris nostri opera transmutari, opinati sunt. Ergo putredinis gradus vnus perniciosior est alio, sicur in pyris, mespilis, forbis, re- busque aliis plurimis apparet, quæ sub initium & veluti in primo gradu putredinis e- fui aprasunt, vlterius progressa putredine comedi amplius nequeunt, sed ob id mi- nime concluseris putredinem sub quocuni- que gradu absque intemperie aur fieri aut subsistere. Quare non potest vlla putredo morbi X 4

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M E D I C I N A L S. 894 it is the case with physicians, that neither animals nor their parts perish while the natural heat remains intact. For death is nothing else than the extinction of natural heat. Finally, one must remember the statement of the physician: Nothing acts beyond and outside its own nature or species. <Response.> With these points established, I answer your question thus: the sudden destruction in plague arises from intemperance of the heart. The reason is that putrid inhalation cannot kill except by dissolving the heart’s tempering. There are two considerations in the case. First, no thing can perish unless its natural heat be destroyed. Therefore putrid inhalation does not kill before it corrupts the heart’s heat. But it cannot corrupt otherwise than by putrefying. The second is that nothing acts beyond its own species. For heat, of itself and primarily, does nothing other than warm; the same reason holds in all other things. If anything more is done, this follows either accidentally, or insofar as some such heat occurs; that is, it does not happen without warmth. But all putrefaction is a certain kind of warm intemperance. Therefore every putrid thing, by warming, putrefies, and by putrefying, warms. Indeed, it is certain that all putrefaction is generated by a foreign heat. Wherefore it is altogether necessary that putrid inhalation does not kill before it has undermined the heart’s heat as its foundation. How this can be contrary, I do not see. <Difficulties.> The difficulty lies in this, that it is thought to remove only the intemperance of the heart, which leads only to its natural temperament, composed and tempered from its fixed parts, without regard to the spirits. But this may perhaps be so if the heart be considered separately, as a solid substance distinct from spirits and humors, as butchers consider it; but physicians do not regard it without blood and spirits, without which it can neither see nor perform its office in any way. For it is necessary, in order that it may be affected in accordance with nature, that it may discharge the functions of life and preserve its own temperament, that it have all the things already mentioned; and without these it could never preserve either the name, the nature, or the office of the heart. Hence the more careful physicians rightly judge that the heart’s tempering is ruined and its heat corrupted by whatever deprives it either of spirit or of blood, or renders these same things intemperate, even though this alteration has not yet reached its solid body. But because you freely grant us that the seed-bed of plague is pestiferous by reason of a certain degree of putrefaction, you relieve us of the labor of proof, although it would not have been difficult to establish it from what has already been demonstrated above. For the exhalations of those affected by plague carry nothing to others except the affection of that body, or of that part, from which they are emitted. But this affection could not have been anything other than putrefaction. It was not natural. Therefore it was morbid and violent. Among the kinds of violent corruption you will find none outside putrefaction, whose nature can be retained and propagated in the seed-bed. The signs of this, though not always visible in the sick, are none the less present on that account. Therefore, since all putrefaction, which is properly so called, is nothing other than a certain intemperance, and no proper and per se action of putrefaction can be imagined other than to putrefy, it is not imaginable how these seed-beds could otherwise destroy the powers of the heart than by corrupting its tempering. They corrupt it insofar as they imprint upon it a similar putrefaction to that from which they themselves exhaled, and which they contain in themselves. And because this cannot be done without foreign heat and putrefaction, it is altogether established that the temperament of the heart, or of other parts, is attacked by bad airs per se and properly. By “heart,” I also mean the heart’s body itself, together with the spirits and blood contained in it. When I consider all your points and examine each one carefully, you seem to me to be of the opinion that if someone grants only a certain degree of putrefaction to be pestiferous, he thereby obscurely grants also a disease of the whole substance. For both opinions seem equally inexplicable to you. I certainly judge far otherwise, and when I examine what the ancients thought concerning the whole substance of these diseases, if they spoke or thought about the whole substance in the way the ancients are known to have thought, then, I confess, they would in this respect condemn the ancients in vain, and we would defend the same. Never did they think either that a disease of the whole substance was something other than intemperance of the same, or that remedies acting upon the whole substance do not act through their own tempering, just as they did not think that foods, insofar as they are subject to us in respect of their whole substance, are transformed without the operation of our heat. Therefore one degree of putrefaction is more harmful than another, as appears in pears, medlars, figs, and many other things, which at the beginning and as it were in the first degree of putrefaction are still useful, but when putrefaction advances further they can no longer be eaten; yet from this you must by no means conclude that putrefaction, at whatever degree, can occur or persist without intemperance. Wherefore no putrefaction can be a disease X 4

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495 EPISTOLÆ 496 totius substantiæ nomine contineri, quantisper ab omni intemperie tota substantia sic distinguitur, quomodo iuniores illi leparant. At non potest, inquis, tam sobito intemperies & pueredo induci. Ego vero non concedo, vel corpus cordis putrescere, nec est, aliquis vnumquam statim ab hacto seminario mortuus, etsi alii breuiore, alii lougiore tempore, postquam apud infectum fuerunt, senserunt vim contagij. < 10> Saxpe multis ante diebus contagium intra vellas laruit, quam sese proderet. Negotiisum tamen intetim fuit; sed latenter humores corrumpendo sensim ad cor vsque penetrauit. Vsuuenire hoc maxime solet, eum per alias corporis pattes subit, non per inspirationem ad cor adducere. Hinc est, quod in quibusdam ante febris exortum, hoc est, antequam putrida lues ad cor pervenecit, tum authraces, tum pestiferi tumores pronatisint. Non minus profecto incertum est, quando humores & spiritus inquinare coepit contagium, quam obscurum nobis est, quomodu in aliis febribus humores incipiant corrumpi. Ad huius rei declatationem præclare faciunt, quæ Galenus in 3. Epid. comm. 3. Aphor. 4. & In 1. proheret. eom. 2. sect. 17. scripsit: quæ qui examinauerit, clare perspiciet causam, vt aliqui, cum non admodum male affecti pauluante viderentur, repetesete extincti sunt. Vides igitur nos optima niti ratione, cum à corpo re vel habitu contagium deferente mortem sine intemperie apporiati negamus. Et enimi siue per cutem subeat, siue cum arte inspirato ingrediatur, non ptius ægrum interficit, quam vel spkitus, vel humores, vel ipsum corpus cordis putredine contamineatur, hoc est, horum calurem ac temperationem corruptrit. Prodit autem se venenum per spiritum attractum, quia recta ad cor tendit, ad quod à renotioribus partibus artepit serius. Summa est, nulla vel ratione, vel experientia probabitur, contagium pestiferum tum demum esse receptum, cum iam se manifestum facit. Quam facile porro ac cito cordis temperium mutari cuminat, animi defectio & syncope commonefaciunt vtraque subito nonnunquam illos etiam inuadit, qui de nulla te querebantur, & tum sibi tum aliis saui videbantur. An in hilce cordis temperiem non mutatam potabimus? Refellit opinionem vestram quod in syncope po istimum totum eurpus refrigeratur, & quod aliquando vix sensibilis permanet respiratio, quodip[ublic] spiritus exiens frigidus semitur: & accidit hoc non solu[m] à frigida, sed etiam à calida causa. Sicut ergo nullus recte iudicet cordis calorem & temperamentum nihil passum esse, quia in momento fere ista fiunt, ita nullus quoque bene affirmauerit, idem non fuisse mutatum ab eo, qui forte repente mortuus sit. Nam vt certo dissipantur cordis spiritus propter mobilitatem & tenuitatem, ita subito etiam frigefieri & inflammari solent: ac quicquid horum perpessi fuerint, cordi accidisse fere dicimus, dum ita de corde, vt de instrumento vitæ, seu officina caloris vitalis loquimur. Hoc ergo probauerit fortasse, qui pestis seminarium mortem inferre citra putredinem partium cordis demonstret instar contagij non accidisse (tum enim similem mortum ingenerauisset) sed absque interuemente intemperie necauisse, nunquam probabit. Impossibile enim est animal incire cordis calore non extincto aut viuere eodem labefactato. Celeris illius mutationis causa est, quod sine conueniente copia & qualitate spirituum cordis viui temperamentum nec subsistere, nec definiri, nec intelligentia comprehendi potest. In aliis partibus minor noxa ex spirituum dissolutione & refrigeratione otitur, proptec continuum enru[m] ex corde influxum. Cum influxus iste prorsus impeditur, statim illa quoque calore naitio in eis extincto emoriumur. < 30> Quod si vlterius quæratur, cur non & aliarum putridarum febrium vapores cordis partem aliquam putrefaciant. Respondeo ideo accidere, quod leviter & semipurtidi sint, siue quod putrescant potius, quam putrefacti sint. Quosit, vi magis calfaciant quam putredine inficiant, cum magis calidi sint, quam putridi. Purreditum certe non sic habent impressam, vt pertinaciter retincte queant. Galen. 2. Aphor. 17. hanerem declarat exemplo vini, quod acescere seu corrumpi incipiat quidem, at in acetum nondum sit adeo permutatum, vt restimini in integrum non valeat. Quod enim iam acetum est, aut alio modo corruptum, redire ad pristinam vini natutam amplius neque. propterea quod regresius ad habitum priuatione non habet lucum in natura. Inter elementa autem folummodo non intet perf. et mixta proca reperitur generatio. < 40> Quod joros feresimiliter habeant res in humoribus febru[m] putridarum vulgarum, ex eo manisellum est, quod concoctionem promouere studemus, in posse nullas spes est concoctionis sed in sola putrefacti humoris expulsione, & virum conseruatione ac reparatione tota curandi ratio posita est. Legi nuper epistolum eruditi Medici, qui comendebat febres putridas illas vulgares fere contagiosas etie.

Transcription: Translated (English)

495 EPISTLES 496 to be contained under the name of the whole substance, as long as the whole substance is distinguished from every intemperie in this way, as those younger men have learned. But, you say, so sudden an intemperie and corruption cannot be introduced. I do not grant this; nor is it that the body of the heart rots, nor is anyone at once dead from that infected seedbed, although some, in a shorter, others in a longer time, after they had been among the infected, felt the force of the contagion. <10> Often for many days the contagion had lain hidden within the garments before it showed itself. In the meantime, however, it was active; but, by corrupting the humors secretly, it gradually penetrated even to the heart. This usually happens especially when it enters through other parts of the body, not by inspiration to be brought to the heart. Hence it is that in some cases, before the fever breaks out, that is, before the putrid plague has reached the heart, both anthraces and pestilential tumors have appeared. No less uncertain, indeed, is it when the contagion begins to defile the humors and spirits than it is obscure to us how in other fevers the humors begin to corrupt. For the explanation of this matter, what Galen wrote in 3. Epid. comm. 3. Aphor. 4. and in 1. proheret. com. 2. sect. 17 is excellent; whoever examines these will clearly perceive the reason why some, when they seemed not at all seriously affected, were suddenly found dead. You see, then, that we rely on the best reasoning when we deny that death, without intemperie, is brought about by contagion from the body or the habitus carrying the contagion. For whether it enters through the skin or comes in with the air inhaled, it does not kill the sick man before either the spirits, or the humors, or the body of the heart itself is contaminated by putrefaction, that is, before it has corrupted the heat and temperament of these. The poison shows itself through the spirit drawn in, because it tends straight to the heart, which it reaches more slowly from the more remote parts. The sum is this: no reasoning, no experience will prove that a pestiferous contagion is received only when it has already made itself manifest. How easily and how quickly the temperament of the heart is changed is made known by fainting and syncope, either of which sometimes suddenly attacks even those who had complained of nothing and seemed sound both to themselves and to others. Shall we say, in these cases, that the temperament of the heart is not changed? Your opinion is refuted by the fact that in syncope the whole body is at last cooled, and that at times respiration remains scarcely perceptible, and that the spirit issuing forth is perceived to be cold; and this happens not only from a cold cause but also from a hot one. Therefore, just as no one would rightly judge that the heart’s heat and temperament have suffered nothing merely because these things happen almost in an instant, so no one would rightly affirm that the same has not been altered in the man who perhaps suddenly died. For just as the spirits of the heart are certainly dissipated because of their mobility and subtlety, so too they are suddenly accustomed to become cold and to be inflamed; and whatever they have suffered, we say has happened to the heart, when we speak of the heart as the instrument of life, or the workshop of vital heat. Thus perhaps he would prove this: let him show that the seedbed of the plague brings death without putrefaction of the parts of the heart, as if contagion had not occurred in the same way—for then it would have produced a similar death—but that it killed without intervening intemperie; he will never prove it. For it is impossible for an animal not to be extinguished when the heat of the heart has not been extinguished, or to live when that heat has been impaired. The cause of that swift change is that without a suitable abundance and quality of spirits the temperament of the living heart can neither subsist nor be defined nor be comprehended by understanding. In other parts, a lesser injury arises from the dissolution and cooling of the spirits, because of the continuous influx from the heart. When this influx is wholly blocked, that native heat in them is immediately extinguished, and we die. <30> If one asks further why the vapors of other putrid fevers do not also putrefy some part of the heart, I answer that it occurs because they are only lightly and half-putrid, or rather because they are in the process of rotting rather than already rotten. They are, as it were, more warm than putrid; they are not so strongly imbued with putrefaction that they can retain it obstinately. Galen, Aphor. 2.17, explains this by the example of wine, which may begin indeed to sour or spoil, yet has not so far been turned into vinegar that it cannot be restored to its integrity. But that which is already vinegar, or corrupted in another way, can no longer return to the former nature of wine, because return to a former state has no place in nature after privation. Among the elements, however, generation is found only in perfect and mixed things. <40> That matters are much the same in the humors of common putrid fevers is clear from this, that we strive to promote concoction, since there is no hope of concoction in the present condition, but the whole method of treatment is placed in the mere expulsion of the putrid humor and in the preservation and restoration of the patient’s strength. I recently read a letter of a learned physician, who was recommending those common putrid fevers as almost contagious even...

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Transcription: ATR-1

497 MEDICINÆLES. 498 esse. Etsi enim non quosuis obuios inficerent, lactantes tamen infantes à matribus & nutricibus coinquinari. Pueros etiam tenetiores, qui cum febricitantibus cubant prompte iisdem corrumpi. Quæ omnia experientia, & animaduersione cognita asseverabit. Ego quia tale nihil à me obseruatur meminetam, contradicere non debui: hoc solum respondi, si contagiosæ inueniantur, ita leuiter contagiosas videri, vt 10 cum aliis collatæ, naturales existere iudicata fuerint. Vbi Galenus aduersus Erastistratum disputauerit, num actio aliqua lædi possit, instrumento eius non læso, recordari non possum. Memini eum in lib.1. de loc. aff. Archigenem hoc nomine taxare: sed cum is principium methodi, qua loci affecti inueniuntur ponat, nò perduccere perduccere nondumque nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc nondum nonnùc 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Transcription: Translated (English)

497 MEDICINALS. 498 to be. For although they did not infect all those who came near them, still nursing infants were contaminated by their mothers and by wet nurses. Even younger children, who lie in bed with those who have fevers, are readily corrupted by them. All these things he will affirm as known by experience and observation. Because I had observed nothing of the kind in myself, I ought not to have contradicted it; I answered only this: if they are found to be contagious, they seem to be so only very slightly, so that, when compared with others, they would have been judged to be natural conditions. I do not recall where Galen, in disputing against Erasistratus, argued whether some action could be impaired without its instrument being impaired. I remember that in book 1 of De locis affectis he censures Archigenes on this account: but since Archigenes sets down the principle of the method by which affected places are found, to carry it through ...

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Transcription: ATR-1

499 EPISTOLÆ 500 ciei singularia. Vere igitur existunt Pettus, Paulus & cæteri singuli homines, ipsa species seorsim subsistens non existit. Nam species & genera non sunt res à seipsis subsistentes extra odiuidua, sed quod seorsim considerantur, veniata sunt duntaxat animorum nostrorum. Simillis ratio est actionis generatim acceptæ, actionis specialis, & actionis singulorum. Etenim actio vniuersè sumpta, reipsa extra mentem nostram non inuenitur, sic inquam, vt simpliciter actio sit, ac non simul certa quædam actio sit, vt visio, concoctio, progressio. Eodem modo res habet in actionibus specialibus. Nulla enim inuenitur concoctio, exempli gratia, præter singularem hanc, vel illam certam concoctionem. Quam enim rationem habet homo ad Pettum, eandem concoctio obtinet cum singularibus coctionibus collata. Habet enim & ipsa speciei rationem. Ergo sicut in animalium genere particularia tantum vere existunt, ita etiam particulares tantum actiones reuera existere oportet. Atqui impossibile est actionem aliquam singularem edi, quæ neque conuenenter naturæ, neque inconuenienter edatur, hoc est, quæ neque sana, neque ægri sit. Iam inter morbum & sanitatem nihil interedere medium ponimus, etsi eadem præeiseratio sit, si interponere medium seu neutrum affectum velis, quod in præsentia sic monstro: Animam principalem causam opetationum humanarum omnium esse, certum est. At per se absque corpore considerata, si actionis causa poni statueretur, multa absurda consequentur. <Anima aeternæ causa non absq[ue] corporo.> Ptimum salsum foret pronúciatum physicum, actiones non esse componentium partium, sed compositatum ex materia & forma. Deinde daretur actio, quæ ad speciem eettam nullam referri posset, hoc est, quæ nec visio, nec auditio, nec concoctio, nec progressio, nec alia talis operatio esset. Impossibile autem est passionem aliquam actu producit, quæ in certa specie nulla contineatur, cum geneta sine speciebus veniata solúmodo sint, reipsa extra indiuidua non subsistant. Præterea vna & simplex substantia per se, & primo soter causa multarum & disparium, imo co[n]trariarum quoq[ue] actionum, easq[ue] vno semel temporis momento producere posset. Quæ omnia cum fieri nullo pacto possint, falsitas hypotheseos manifesta est. Equidem anima discrepantes edit actiones, quia diuerso instrumentorum apparatu vtritur, ac definitionem, speciem & determinationem ab instrumentis adipiscitur. De- nique frustra factæ fuissent partes, quarum operationes sola posset edere. Anima igitur quo ad forma est corporis, duntaxat generatim acceptæ actionis principium existit. Eadem cum instrumento certo vnitæ effærix certæ actionis est. Nam per oculos visionem, per aures auditionem, per ventriculum ciborum concoctionem exercet. Quod vero tales actiones omnes necessarium sit esse vel laudabiles, vel vituperabiles, hinc est perspicuum, quod fieri nulla vi naturali potest, vt instrumenta, per quæ animaeas producit non sint, vel secundum naturam affecta, vel præter naturam disposita. Etenim ex genere totus advenatur est, vt contrarium, quæ medio carent, alterutrum subiecto eui accidunt, non insit: sed accidere partibus omnibus corporis, vt vel apte vel inepte pro naturæ viribus affectæ sint, controuertia omni catuit semper & cæredit. Nec minus certum, confessumque est, aptam instrumenti dispositionem bonæ operationis, ineptam vitiosæ causam proximam esse. Et quod idem non sint co[n]coctio, & bona seu laudabilis concoctio probatione non eget, quoniam reperitur costio damnabilis. Ergo cum actio simpliciter & generaliter intellecta ab anima manet, certæ speciei actio ab eadem cum instrumento eius copulata proficiscatur, bonitas & maliitia actionis indiuidua in qualibet specie ab instrumenti conveniente vel inconueniente dispositione proueniat: ipsa veritate verius est, si verius esse aliquid potest, omnem actionem reipsa & actu ab agente proficiscentem, vel bonam siue sanam, vel malam siue ægram ac læsam esse. Omnis enim actio talis indiuidua & singulatis est, cum genera & species seorsim non existant. At dispositionem natutæ consentaneam omnes homines vocarunt sanitatem, & contrarium, à quo actiones offenduntur, morbum nominarunt. Quocirca necessario efficitur, actionis omnis, quæ actu sit, causam proximam esse, vel sanitatem, vel morbum. Quid ex his sequatur vides. Si enim morbus aliquis datur totius substantiæ, & cum tota substantia nihil aliud sit, quam forma & sua cuique natura apte temperata, forma autem sine instrumento apte vel inepte temperato actionem nullam edat, prorsus necessarium est, vt tota substantia dispositionem in se habeat à temperamento aliam (de instrumenti dispositione nihil dico, quia totius substantiæ morbum instrumentalem esse negant) quæ actionum proxima sit causa. At nulla imaginabilis est. Quate figmenta sunt, quæ horum morborum architectus Fernelius, & Argen-

Transcription: Translated (English)

499 EPISTLES 500 particulars. Thus, then, Peter, Paul, and the other individual men truly exist; the species itself, existing separately, does not exist. For species and genera are not things subsisting of themselves apart from individuals, but, when considered separately, they are only inventions of our minds. The same reasoning applies to action taken in general, to special action, and to the actions of individuals. For action taken universally is in reality not found outside our mind, in the sense that it is simply action and not at the same time some determinate action, such as seeing, digestion, walking. The same is true in the case of special actions. For no digestion is found, for example, apart from this or that particular and determinate digestion. For the relation which man has to Peter, the same digestion has when compared with singular digestions. For it too has the character of a species. Therefore, just as in the genus of animals only particulars truly exist, so also only particular actions must really exist. Yet it is impossible for any singular action to be brought forth which is neither suitably nor unsuitably brought forth according to nature; that is, which is neither healthy nor diseased. Now between disease and health we place no middle term, although the same prior consideration holds if you wish to introduce a middle or neutral state, which in the present discussion I thus point out: that the soul is the principal cause of all human operations is certain. But if, considered by itself apart from the body, it were taken as the cause of action, many absurdities would follow. <The soul is not the cause of eternal things without the body.> First, a false physical statement would be made, namely that actions are not of the component parts, but of things composed of matter and form. Then there would be given an action which could be referred to no certain species, that is, which would be neither sight, nor hearing, nor digestion, nor walking, nor any such operation. But it is impossible for any passion actually to be produced which is contained in no definite species, since genera without species are only inventions and do not really subsist outside individuals. Moreover, one and simple substance by itself, and first of itself, could be the cause of many diverse, indeed even contrary, actions, and could produce them all at one and the same moment of time. Since all these things cannot in any way happen, the falsity of the hypothesis is evident. Indeed, the soul produces different actions because it is used through different equipment of instruments and receives definition, species, and determination from the instruments. Finally, the parts would have been made in vain, if the soul alone could produce their operations. Therefore the soul, as it is the form of the body, exists only as the principle of action taken in general. United with a particular instrument, it is the producer of a definite action. For through the eyes it exercises sight, through the ears hearing, through the stomach the digestion of food. Now that such actions must all be either praiseworthy or blameworthy is clear from this, namely that by no natural force can it happen that the instruments through which the soul produces them are not either disposed according to nature or arranged contrary to nature. For in general it is true, as the contrary shows, that what lacks a middle term, in the subject to which it happens, does not exist; but it is constantly and undeniably the case that it can happen to all the parts of the body that they be either suitably or unsuitably affected according to the powers of nature. Nor is it less certain and admitted that a suitable disposition of the instrument is the proximate cause of good operation, and an unsuitable one the proximate cause of faulty operation. And that digestion and good, or praiseworthy, digestion are not the same needs no proof, since a blameworthy digestion is found. Therefore, since action, understood simply and generally, remains from the soul, while action of a certain species proceeds from the same soul united with its instrument, and since the goodness and badness of individual action in each species arise from the suitable or unsuitable disposition of the instrument, it is truer than truth itself—if anything can be truer—that every action in reality and in act proceeding from the agent is either good or healthy, or bad or sick and damaged. For every such action is individual and singular, since genera and species do not exist separately. But all men have called a disposition in accordance with nature health, and the opposite state, from which actions are impaired, disease. Wherefore it necessarily follows that the proximate cause of every action, insofar as it is actual, is either health or disease. You see what follows from these things. For if some disease belongs to the whole substance, and if the whole substance is nothing other than a form and its own nature suitably tempered for each thing, but form without an instrument suitably or unsuitably tempered produces no action, it is absolutely necessary that the whole substance have within itself a disposition different from tempering (I say nothing of the disposition of the instrument, because they deny that the disease of the whole substance is instrumental) which is the proximate cause of actions. But none is imaginable. Therefore these are fictions, which the architect of these diseases, Fernelius, and Argen-

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M E D I C I N A L E S. 301 Argenterius faber commenti sunt. Ratio quia præter formam & temperamentum (materiæ sine temperatione sua considera- ratæ qualitates instrumentali actioni inter- dum conueniunt, nunquam similari) in par- tibus similaribus nihil excogitabile fuit aut erit, actiones earum vel promouens & adiu- vans, vel impediens & reiardans. < Error Nus- seriorum à confusione hominum qvæso.> In hunc errorem incidisse videntur, qui non distinxerunt temperamenti significa- 10 tiones apud Galenum: Equidem Fernelius tum alibi tum in fine 2. lib. 4. capite de abdi- tis rerum causis, singulare temperamentum (quod à nonnullis temperamenti proprietatem vocatum ait,) clare satis dillinguit à temperamento absolute appellato. Quod si veteribus etiam nomen hoc modo in v- na, modo in altera significatione usurpatum animaduertissent, nequaquam nouos hosce morbos intoduxissent. Profecto non 20 Galenus modo duplex temperamentum agnouit, verum & ante ipsum (Aristoteles vivi piacivu[m] qui [con]stare , & vivi d[e]sciver vivere nominans. 2. de partib. anim. cap. 1.) & post ipsum Auicenna idem docuit. Hic enim co- plexionem primam & secundam expresse distinctèq[ue] vocat. Obiicias fortasse hoc ipso stabiliri recentiorum de his morbis placitû. < Tempera- mentum Veneribus proprium. Neuteriæ vota substantia.> Nam in nominibus tantum, non in rebus disputatione videri consistere, dum illi tem- 30 peramentum singulate & proprium vocant, quod iuniores totam substantiam nomina- re maluerunt. At frustra obieceris. Si enim viderunt vet- teres duplex nominis significatum, nec ta- men plures morbos v[er]siam constituerunt, satis patet, eos plures non inuenisse. Deinde cum temperamentum quouis modo sum- ptum corrumpi aliter non possit, quam qua- litatum primarum mutarione, neutiquam 40 iudicarunt vile morbos absque necessitate multiplicare. < Tempera- menti mor- bos distinguendos esse. 1. in qualita- rum excessum. 2. in corru- perumum.> Quanto ffeissent rectius horum mor- borum genitores, si temperamenti mor- bos distinxissent in eos, in quibus qualitas aliqua vna vel duæ hactenus aucta sulum est, vt citra subiecti interitum actionem læ- dant? Et in eos, qui subiecti naturam cor- rumpunt. Sic enim causam clariorem red- didissent, & errandi ansam aliis nullis præ- butissent. Argenterium non miror, qui ve- terum næuis amplificandis saginatur. Ar Fernelium quid huc impulerit, nondum scio. Quorsum vero hæc? Nolim tamen illa, quæ a totius substantiæ proprietate vel læ- dunt vel iuuant, tantopere oppugnari. Ego cere nunquam aut dixi aut fenu, nullas res extare, quæ tota substantia nobis vel amicæ 302 sint, vel inimicæ. Quate si à me huius ali- quid factum, tentatumve suspicaris, falli re scias. Exponere studui, quid veteres per totam substantiam intellexerint, vt rectius intelli- geretur, quid sibi vulnerint, cum totius sub- stantiæ proprietate nobis aduersa quædam esse, vel familiaria scripserunt. Qui vero o- pinatur morbum aliquem totius substantiæ inueniri, veteribus incognitum, aut perpe- ram explicatum, is se in errore versari sciat. Et enim Galenus passim hanc totarum sub- stantiarum proprietatem inculcat, nùquam tamen ob id morbû extare totius substantiæ credidit, qui scilicet vitium alius rei esset in similari parte, quam temperamenti: nec ad- eo rudis fuit, vt non intelligeret, actionem inter contraria omnem fieri, qui nec inge- nio, nec iudicio, nec differentia, nec vsu cef- serit, Fernelio: sed quia hac de re abunde e- gi in thesibus de morbis totius substantiæ, nihil addam. < Experiem viti venum & cantharides non solium pulmonem, venes & vesicam læderæ.> Hoc solum te monebo, nunquam te pro- baturum esse, quæ à Galen. lib. 1. cap. 1. de compos. med. secundum genera: & author ad Pisonem cap. 4. de lepore marino & can- tharidibus scribit. Has solos renes, & vesi- cam; illum solum pulmonem exulcerare, illæsis partibus aliis corporib. Galenus pri- mum dicit, solam vesicam à cantharidibus lædi, nulla renum mentione facta: sed rogo te, an non exulcerent cutem & carnes ipsis admotæ cantharides? legito Nicand. Dio- scor. lib. 6. c. 1. vt alios iuniores præteream, & intelliges: quantu[m] in hac parte cum experie[n]tia pugnet, & cum Galeni tententia. Quod si non est tantu[m] otii, vel vna historia, quâ Bras- sau. in comm. Aph. t7. lib. 2. recitat, satisfacit: sed quid est opus testimonis aliorum, quando nostri sensus & experientia quou- diana docere possunt, quid de re aliqua co- trouersa sentiendum sit? leporem marinu[m] non vidi, nec expertus sum, quas habeat vi- res: si autem vera sunt, quæ de hoc authores prodiderunt, non minus fallum est, quod solos pulmones offendat aut exulceret, quâ quod de cantharidibus Galenus prodidit. Dioscorid. certe post Nicandrum scribit, v- tinas eum purpureas, id est, cruentes, ciere, ne solas cantharides hoc efficere cogite- mus. < Cantharides manifesta est exulcerans vesicam.> Exulcerant partes omnes, quas attingunt, & ex renibus maxime educiunt tan- guis cum v[er]na profluens, non occulta, sed prorsus cognita nobis virtute. Et si maxime solas nominatas partes illa animalcula exul- cerarent substantiarum proprietate, an ideo sine temperamenti lætione, id agerent? aut sententia nostra de contagio vacillaret? < Tota subtilia læderina & iuventudini.>

Transcription: Translated (English)

MEDICINAL. 301 Argenterius and Fabry invented them. The reason is this: besides form and temperament, qualities considered apart from the materia and its proper tempering sometimes belong to instrumental action, never to similarity; in the similar parts there was, and there will be, nothing conceivable either promoting and aiding their actions, or hindering and retarding them. <Error of the newer writers, I ask, from the confusion of men.> Into this error, it seems, fell those who did not distinguish the meanings of “temperament” in Galen. Indeed Fernelius, both elsewhere and at the end of book 2, chapter 4, on the hidden causes of things, clearly enough distinguishes a singular temperament, which he says was called by some the property of temperament, from temperament taken absolutely. Had they noticed that the ancients used this name now in one, now in another sense, they would by no means have introduced these new diseases. Certainly Galen not only acknowledged a twofold temperament, but before him Aristotle too (2 De partibus animalium, chapter 1) and after him Avicenna taught the same. For he expressly and distinctly calls it first and second complexion. You may perhaps object that by this very thing the doctrine of the moderns about these diseases is established. <Temperament proper to women. The substance of the neuter desire.> For it seems that the dispute consists only in names, not in things, since they call that a singular and proper temperament which the younger writers preferred to call the whole substance. But you object in vain. For if the ancients saw a twofold meaning of the term, and yet did not establish more diseases, it is clear enough that they found no more. Then, since temperament, taken in any sense, cannot be corrupted except by a change in the primary qualities, they by no means judged it worthwhile to multiply diseases without necessity. <The diseases of temperament must be distinguished: 1. in excess of qualities. 2. in corruption of substance.> How much more rightly would the authors of these diseases have acted if they had distinguished the diseases of temperament into those in which some one or two qualities have so far increased that, without destruction of the subject, they injure its action; and those which corrupt the nature of the subject. In this way they would have made the cause clearer and would have given others no occasion for error. I am not surprised at Argenterius, who fattens himself on magnifying the defects of the ancients. What has driven Fernelius to this, I do not yet know. But to what end is all this? I would not, however, have those things so fiercely attacked which either harm or help by the property of the whole substance. I have never said, nor felt, that there are no things which are to us either friendly or hostile in their whole substance. So if you suspect that I have done or attempted anything of this kind, know that you are mistaken. I have tried to explain what the ancients understood by the whole substance, so that it might be better understood what they meant when they wrote that some things are contrary to us, or familiar to us, by the property of the whole substance. Whoever thinks that some disease of the whole substance is found which was unknown to the ancients, or wrongly explained, should know that he is at fault. For Galen everywhere insists on this property of the whole substances, yet never therefore believed that there existed a disease of the whole substance; rather, that the fault of another thing in the similar part would be a temperament. Nor was he so crude as not to understand that every action occurs between contraries, something in which he has not yielded to Fernelius either in talent, or judgment, or precision, or practice. But because I have treated this matter sufficiently in the theses on diseases of the whole substance, I shall add nothing. <Experiments show that poison and cantharides injure not only the lung, veins, and bladder.> This only I shall warn you: you will never prove what Galen writes in book 1, chapter 1, On the composition of medicines according to kinds; and the author to Piso, chapter 4, on the sea-hare and cantharides. Galen first says that only the bladder is harmed by cantharides, with no mention made of the kidneys. But I ask you: do not cantharides, applied to the skin and flesh, ulcerate them? Read Nicander, Dioscorides, book 6, chapter 1, leaving aside the later writers, and you will understand how much experience here conflicts with Galen’s attempt. And if you have not so much leisure, even one story, such as Brassavolus recounts in his commentary on Aphorisms 17, book 2, is enough. But what need is there for the testimony of others, when our senses and everyday experience can teach us what should be thought about a disputed matter? I have not seen the sea-hare, nor have I tested what powers it has; but if what the authors have handed down about it is true, it is no less false that it affects or ulcerates only the lungs than what Galen has handed down about cantharides. Dioscorides, certainly after Nicander, writes that it causes livid, that is, bloody, urine, so that we should not think that cantharides alone produce this effect. <Cantharides manifestly ulcerate the bladder.> They ulcerate all parts they touch, and especially draw blood from the kidneys, with their clearly known, not hidden, but altogether evident power. And even if those little animals, by the property of their substance, should ulcerate only the parts named, would they therefore do so without injury to temperament? Or would our opinion about contagion waver? <All subtle things injure children and youth.>

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Haud puto? Quæ præterea in scripto tuo continebantur, vel non opus habent re- sponsione, vel in antedictis comprehen- duntur. Quare finem hic faciam, eum a- lias longior fuerim, quam de principio pro- positum haberem. Vale 8. Septembr. Anno 1575. EPIST. CCLXX. IDEM EIDEM. MAGNA vero me voluptate affecerunt Inter tux, vir doctissime & clarissi- me, partim quod me à te amari perspexis partim quod in plerisque disputationis no- stræ capitibus idem nos sentire, tametsi non eisdem verbis vtamur, cognoui. Quant[us] prius æstimem, non facile dixerim, eum mi- nime ignorem, quantum sit bonum viri principibus placuisse. Cæterum inter prin- cipes Academix vestræ te partes nequa- quam postremas tenere, iam olim sciui, nec minus amorem tuum erga me tum ex ado- lescentum, quos tibi commendaram lite- ris, tum ex tua ipsius epistola didici. Postre- mo illud mihi veritatis cupido non potest non esse gratissimum. Quid enim magis optem, quam tanti vii iudicio recte statue- re de rebus controuersis? Equidem si quid est inter nos dissensionis, id in eo potiss- imum consistere arbitror, quod non eodem modo loquimur, lisdemque verbis animi eogitationes non exprimimus. Equidem quod morbu nullu[m] formaliter, vt tu loque- ris, vel quo ad morbus est, sicur ego dicere soleo, contagium, aut contagiosum esse di- cis, omnino probo, nec ego diuersum vn- quam aut dixi, aut scripsi: semper enim contagium affitmaui, accidens esse certo- rum morborum, ad essentiam morhi, quo- ad morbus est, non pertinere. Quinimo nec breuitas, nec acuties & tarditas, 1cu diu- turnitas ad morbos, quo ad morbi sunt, spe- ctant, sed accidunt hæc & alia plura, certis quibusdam morbis. Ergo, quod tu cau- saliter & concomitanter adesse nonnullis asseris, hoc ego iisdem aio acidere. Quod etiam contagium tu vocas seminarium; e- go autem qualitatem quæ à seminario vna cum morbo in corpus inducitur, nomino, discrepantes sententias non defendimus. In eo arbitrat inter nos alliquid esse diffe- renxiæ (si tamen scio mecum hac in parte agis, & potius meam sententiam expiscari studes, quid & nuper me suspicari ostendi) quod actionem lædi affirmas instrumento non læso. Idem namque in hoc loco Gale- nus quem citas, quemque bis repetita peti- tione diligenter, vt legam, rogas, significat, nomen duvæusæ , seu facultatis, quod instru- menti dispositio denotat. Quippe facul- tatem lædi aperte ait, quoties vel temperies ventriculi, vel organica eius dispositio (sub his etiam vnionem complectitur) vitiatur. Ego certe locum hunc sæpe & in natua Ga- lenti lingua & in Latinum sermonem con- uersum minime oscitanter perlegi; sed quod mecum pugnaret, intelligere nun- quam potul. Fateor si quis verba potius, quam mentem spectet: videri tale quid as- serere; nempe actionem aliquam sine vitio facultatis sen instrumenti aliquando lædi; sed aliter rem habere firmissime demon- strabo. Demonstrationis nostræ fundamentum & propositiones hæ sunt. Corporis nostræ action non est, quæ à nulla eius parte effici- tur. Corpus nostrum suas omnes actiones bonas pariter, & malas per partium disposi- tiones conuenientes & inconuenientes ex- ectet. Dispositio naturæ congruens sani- tas; incongruens, morbus nominatur. Sani- nitas porro est affectus naturalis actiones primo producens bonas, & laudabiles. At morbus huic contrarius est affectus, actiones primo lædens; seu malas & culpabiles proferens. Quocirca eum corporis nostri actiones omnes, vel sint bonæ vel vitiosæ, (de neutro non est, quod litigemus) necessar- ium est, vt illæ à sanitate, hæc à morbo per se, & primo proficiscantur: & hactenus o- mnia sunt ita certa, vt à nullo Medico & Philosopho in dubium sint vocata. His Stan- tibus impossibile esse aio, vt actio aliqua no- stra (de illis agimus, quas anima non absque instrumento corporis exercet) lædatur, il- læso permanente instrumento, à quo illa primo & per se editur. Quippe actiones omnes primo eduntur à sanitate & a mor- bo; à sanitate sanæ, à morbo vitiosæ tan- quam à causis proximis. Sanitas autem & morbus sunt affectiones corporis animati. Quamobrem necessarium est, vt omnis a- diti læsa vel à sanitate, vel à morbo primo pendeat. Non à sanitate. Nunquam enim sanitas comitantem affectum morbi actionem producit, id est, morbi propriam. Di- ctum vero est, culpabilem actionem, mor- bi proprium esse effectum. Quocirca vel nun erit actio depravata, corporis nostri a- ctio, vel à morbo, vt à prima & proxima cau- sa ortum habet: si actio corporis nostri non sit, nihil ad nos pertinet: si esse concedatur, necessariu[m] est, vt vel causa careat, vel à mor- bo primo sit edita: sine causa actione[m] ahquâ dari, non est imaginabile. Quare morbum habet causam. Instrumentum igitur, à quo editur,

Transcription: Translated (English)

Do I think not? Whatever besides was contained in your letter either has no need of reply, or is included in the foregoing. Therefore I shall make an end here, since I have already been longer than I had first intended. Farewell, 8 September 1575. EPISTLE CCLXX. THE SAME TO THE SAME. I was truly greatly delighted by your letter, most learned and distinguished man, partly because I saw that I am loved by you, and partly because I learned that in most of the heads of our discussion we think the same, although we do not use the same words. Which of these pleasures I should rate higher I could not easily say, since I am by no means unaware how great a good it is to have pleased men in authority. Moreover, I have long since known that among the leading men of your Academy you hold no mean place, and I have learned no less of your affection toward me both from the young men whom I had commended to you in my letters and from your own letter. Finally, this can but be most welcome to me because of my desire for the truth. For what could I more wish than to determine rightly, by the judgment of so great a man, matters in controversy? Indeed, if there is any disagreement between us, I think it consists chiefly in this: that we do not speak in the same way, nor express the thoughts of the mind in the same words. Truly, what you say, that no disease formally, as you speak, or insofar as it is disease, as I am accustomed to say, is contagious or contagious in character, I entirely approve, nor have I ever said or written anything different; for I have always maintained that contagion is an accident of certain diseases, and does not belong to the essence of disease, insofar as it is disease. Indeed, neither brevity nor sharpness and slowness, nor duration, belong to diseases insofar as they are diseases, but these and many other things occur accidentally in certain diseases. Therefore, what you assert to be present causally and concomitantly in some cases, I say is an accident in the same. That which you also call contagion I call a seminarium; but I name as such the quality that is introduced into the body from the seminarium together with the disease. We do not defend opposing opinions. I think there is some difference between us in this matter, if indeed I understand that you are dealing with me here and are rather trying to draw out my own opinion, as I recently showed by my suspicions. The point is that you affirm that an action is impaired while the instrument is not impaired. For in this passage Galen, whom you cite and whom you ask me twice over to read carefully, means by the term duvæusæ , or faculty, the disposition of the instrument. For he plainly says that the faculty is harmed whenever either the temper of the stomach or its organic disposition is corrupted, under which he also includes its union. I have certainly read this passage many times, both in the original Galenic language and rendered into Latin, and not carelessly; yet I never could understand what conflicted with my view. I confess that if one looks more to the words than to the meaning, it may seem to assert something like this: namely, that some action may sometimes be impaired without any defect of the faculty or of the instrument; but I shall most firmly demonstrate that the matter is otherwise. The basis and propositions of our demonstration are these. No action of our body is produced by no part of it. Our body produces all its actions, good as well as bad, through the suitable and unsuitable dispositions of its parts. A disposition in harmony with nature is called health; one at variance with nature, disease. Health, moreover, is a natural state first producing good and laudable actions. Disease, on the other hand, is a contrary state, first impairing actions, or producing bad and blameworthy ones. Wherefore, since all the actions of our body, whether good or faulty, are such that there is no room for dispute about the matter, it is necessary that the former proceed from health and the latter from disease, by themselves and primarily; and up to this point all things are so certain that no physician or philosopher has called them into doubt. These things standing, I say it is impossible that any action of ours—speaking of those which the soul exercises not without the instrument of the body—should be impaired while the instrument from which it is first and per se brought forth remains unharmed. For all actions are first produced by health and disease; healthy actions from health, faulty ones from disease, as from proximate causes. But health and disease are affections of the animate body. Therefore it is necessary that every impaired action depend first either on health or on disease. Not on health; for health never produces the accompanying affection of disease in action, that is, the proper effect of disease. But it has been said that a culpable action is the proper effect of disease. Therefore either there will be no depraved action, an action of our body, or it will arise from disease as from its first and proximate cause. If an action is not an action of our body, it does not concern us; if it is granted to be such, it is necessary either that it lack a cause, or that it has been produced primarily by disease; for an action without some cause is not imaginable. Therefore disease has a cause. The instrument, then, from which it is produced,

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305 M E D I C I N A L E S. 306 editur, morbo affectum est tunc, cum non agit laudabilisier. Repeto breuius: Omnis actio corporis nostri prana & incongrua procedit à morbo per se & primo, quod morbi definitio ab omnibus omnium æstatum Medicis & Philosophis probata demonstrat. Ergo omnis actio praua & incongrua corporis nostri ab instrumento præter naturam affecto procedit. Quippe morbus nihil aliud est, quam talis affectus animati corporis. Quod porro præter naturam affectum est, læsum est. Nulla igitur actio læsa fingi potest ab instrumento secundum naturam habente processisse. Co[m]uertitur bona definitio cum definito. Si ergo morbus est, id est, quod solum & primo lædit corporis nostri opetationes, certum est, læsam actionem omnem primo à morbo effectam esse. Sanitas eerte sic se ad morbum habet, vt actio bona ad malam. Ergo sicut non potest actio bona esse mala, nec mala esse bona: ita nec sanitas potest esse morbus, nec morbus sanitas. Si ergo sanitas poneretur producere actione[m] malam, concedi etiam oporteret sanitatem esse morbum. Quoniam opere & potentia definitiuntur hi affectus, nec alia est illorum substantia, quæ propter operationem & finem certum facta sunt, quam eorum operatio, vt sæpe docuere, tum Galenus tum Aristoteles. Idcirco cum non possit sanitas esse morbus, nec opus morbi proprium efficere potest. Hic addo hoc etiam, si sua hypothesis valeat, vel saltem Galeni verba sic accipiantur, vt tu exponis, totam methodi medendi, maxime autem eam, qua inuenire docemur locum affectum, cuerti. < 301. testim.> Nam Galenus in libro de loc. affect. in fine secundi asseueranter hoc huius methodi principium statuit. Nullam actionem lædi, instrumento eius non læso. Hoc inquit, principiu[m] est [n]o[n] [con]ducere co[m]p[ro]p[er]a[ti]o[n]e ut ad [n]o[n] [con]ducere [n]o[n] [con]ducere [con]texere Satus, opinor multiis demonstraui propositum. Si hoc loco ex me quæras aliquis: Num secum pugnet Galenus: dum expresse contraria videtur affirmare? A se dissentire negabo: & neque difficilem, neque obscuram esse co[n]ciliationis rationem affirmabo. Quæ igitur est conciliatio? Etsi dicere vel existimare aliquis posser, Galenum hoc in loco nempe cap. 1. libro tertio de sympt. causis, dispositionem, quæ à causa vel re externa tota adhuc pender, nondum pro morbo censere, acq[ui] ob id eas solum dispositiones morbos appellare, quæ impressæ iam sunt memb[us] : non tamen ea mihi satisfacit responsio, tametsi ex ipsis textus verbis argumenta aliqua construi valeant idipsum confirmantia. Verior est illa responsio, quam in superiori epistola attigit: Eum hic nos voluisse docere, discernere actione[m] ab operæ, quarum differentiam no[n] vno in loco docuit. Intelligit ergo per symptoma non ipsam tansu[m] actione[m], sed etiam opus, ac si isto modo dixisset. Frustratæ coctionis causæ duæ sunt: vna, vitium facultatis, seu instrumenti: altera, obiectum incōueniens: quando instrumentu[m] vino laborat, coctio non sit, tametsi obiectu[m] culpa vacet, quia actio ipsa tunc est læsa (causa non est in obiecto) cum autem actio integra est, ac nihilominus finem non assequiur, causa est in obiecto. Notandum est quod no[n] idem sunt , i.e. coctionis frustratio, & i.e. coctionis vitiu[m] Multi enim recte & secundu[m] naturam agêtes fine tamen frustrâtur. Sic & ventriculus, cum obiectum habet incôgruum, licet pro virib[us] suis agat in ipsum, frustratur tamen sine suo, & generatur opus præter naturâ, quamuis actio eins non sit læsa: sic ignis non propterea virtutem inflammandi no[n] habet illæsam, saxa & aquâ in flammâ non vertiri nec ideo magnes non agit pro naturæ suæ modo, quia ferre nimium pondus, aut alia metalla ad se non pertrahit. Non actiones horum corporum sunt deprauatæ, aut vitiatæ, cum ista sic eueniunt, sed obiecta no[n] sint idonea sic pari. Ex his pacto, quomodo symptomata seu frustratæ actiones fiant (id est, quando vel crudi vel praui humores nonnunquam in ventriculo generantur) actiona verriculi secundu[m] naturâ habente. Hnies autem nullo pacto efficitur actione[m] partis alieuius esse læsam parte ipsa nullo morbo laborante. Aliud enim est actionem lædi, & aliud opus aliquod præter naturam omni. Non enim semper est læsa actio, quæ sine & scopum no[n] asseqnirur. Hæc < 302> veta est huius rei declaratio vt ex lib. 1. de loc. aff. c. 2. 3. 4. constat: (Cap. 3. inter ealumniatores numerat docentes, act onem interdum lædi instrumento non læso. Deinde 4. cap. palam asserit, cibos in aliquib[us] non esse co[m]o[n] octo, tametsi ventriculus haud quaquâ fuerit affectus, neq[ue] etiam id, quod ad ipsius ratione[m] pertinet, circa actionem etiauit, & quæ sequitur:) perspicere licet, vt alia testimonia præteream Quare etia[m] ratione[m] tuam < 303> ex hoc loco exortam, necessitatu[m] est corruret. Nisi enim aliter quâ verba sonare videntur, interpretentur, a nullo mortaliu[m] vindicata contractione poterit Galenus quin & grauissimi erroris reus conuincetur, nisi arsis nostræ principia labefactare quis velit. Quod de magnete affers, eú propter præsentiam adamantis ferruum non attrahere, ego periculo & in opum & in medio crebris facto, falsum repenti. Vt experter < 304> < Adamantis modest magnis accra- tionem.>

Transcription: Translated (English)

305 MEDICINALS. 306 is produced, it is affected by disease at that time when it does not act laudably. I repeat it more briefly: every action of our body that is bad and incongruous proceeds from disease of itself and primarily, which the definition of disease, approved by all physicians and philosophers of every age, demonstrates. Therefore every bad and incongruous action of our body proceeds from an instrument affected beyond nature. For disease is nothing else than such an affection of an animate body. But whatever is affected beyond nature is injured. No injured action, therefore, can be imagined to have proceeded from an instrument having nature in due order. A good definition is reversed by the thing defined. If therefore disease is that which alone and primarily injures the operations of our body, it is certain that every injured action was first produced by disease. Health certainly stands to disease thus, as a good action to a bad one. Therefore just as a good action cannot be bad, nor a bad one good: so neither can health be disease, nor disease health. If therefore health were supposed to produce a bad action, it would also have to be granted that health is disease. Since these affections are defined by their work and power, and since their substance is no other than that which has been made for a definite operation and end, namely their operation, as both Galen and Aristotle have often taught. Therefore, since health cannot be disease, it also cannot produce the proper work of disease. Here I add this also: if your hypothesis holds good, or at least if Galen's words are taken in this way, as you explain them, the whole method of treatment, and especially that by which we are taught to find the affected place, is overturned. < 301. testimony > For Galen, in the book On the Affected Part , at the end of the second book, earnestly lays down this principle of this method: that no action is injured when its instrument is not injured. This, he says, is the principle... I think I have shown the purpose many times. If here you were to ask me: Does Galen contradict himself, when he seems expressly to affirm the opposite? I shall deny that he disagrees with himself, and I shall affirm that the means of reconciliation is neither difficult nor obscure. What then is the reconciliation? Although someone might say or think that Galen in this place, namely chapter 1 of the third book On the Causes of Symptoms , does not yet judge as a disease a disposition that still wholly depends on an external cause or thing, and therefore calls diseases only those dispositions which are already impressed on the members; that answer does not satisfy me, although from the very words of the text some arguments can be framed to confirm the same thing. The truer answer is the one he touched on in the previous letter: that he here wished to teach us to distinguish action from work, whose difference he taught in more than one place. He therefore understands by symptom not only the action itself, but also the work, as if he had said in this way: The causes of frustrated digestion are two: one, defect of the faculty, or of the instrument; the other, an unsuitable object: when the instrument labours under wine, digestion does not occur, although the object is free from fault, because the action itself is then injured (the cause is not in the object); but when the action is sound, and nevertheless does not attain its end, the cause is in the object. It must be noted that the frustration of digestion and the defect of digestion are not the same thing. For many act rightly and according to nature, yet are frustrated in the end. So also the stomach, when it has an unsuitable object, although it acts upon it according to its strength, is nevertheless frustrated in its end, and a work beyond nature is produced, although its action is not injured: thus fire does not thereby lack the power of setting alight, nor are stones and water turned into flame; nor therefore does the magnet fail to act according to its nature, because it does not draw to itself an excessive weight of iron, or other metals. The actions of these bodies are not depraved or vitiated when these things happen, but the objects are not suitable for such production. From this we learn how symptoms, or frustrated actions, occur (that is, when raw or corrupt humours are sometimes generated in the stomach) when the stomach acts according to nature. But in no way is it thereby proved that the action of some part is injured when the part itself is troubled by no disease. For it is one thing for an action to be injured, and another for some work contrary to nature to occur. For the action is not always injured which fails and does not attain its aim. This < 302 > is the true explanation of this matter, as is clear from book 1 On the Affected Part , chs. 2, 3, 4: (in chapter 3 he counts among the calumniators those who teach that an action is sometimes injured although the instrument is not injured. Then in chapter 4 he openly asserts that food in some cases is not properly cooked, although the stomach has in no way been affected, nor even that which pertains to its function, insofar as action is concerned, and what follows): this can be seen, to pass over other testimonies. Therefore your argument also < 303 > arising from this passage must necessarily fall. Unless, indeed, the words are interpreted otherwise than they seem to sound, Galen cannot be defended by any mortal man, and he will be convicted of the gravest error, unless someone wishes to shake the principles of our art. What you adduce concerning the magnet, namely that because of the presence of the loadstone it does not attract iron, I have found by experiment, both in the presence and in the middle of many trials, to be false. As I learned by experience < 304 > < of the loadstone the modest magnification >

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307 EPISTOLA 308 uit me Conciliator, qui tot retro annis, imo seculis huius rei veritatem apperuit. Clarius item hoc demo[n]strauit Dominus Gartias ab Horto Indiaru[m] proregis Med[in]i[us] libr[atus] de aro- matis & simplicib[us] aliquot medicamentis in India naseentibus. Astipulatur experientiæ ratio. Nam affectus naturales per occulam alterius dissensionem non tolluntur, teste v- niuersitate tota rerum, alteratione & muta- tione inducuntur & auferutur naturales di- positiones, cu[m] ex certa mixtione corriga[n]tur & ea non mutata minime abeant. De putre- dine panca dico, quia decreui hanc rem ac- curate & fuit tractare. Haud scio interim an satis recte putredinem, quam Aristot[le] pro- prie sic nominari scribit, impropriè sic no- mines, & in ea mixtione dissolu aperte ne- ges. Equidem verba hæc Aristotelis, quæ s- et quæ s quæs[us] non significant solum à na- ura sua dicessum, qui per alterationem, aut a- < Putrefacta mystica de- struat.> 20 lienæ rei admistionu[m] duntaxat fiat, sed ipsius naturæ destructionem. Putrescentia quoq[ue] cur nunc teipsis calidiora effici neges, no[n] in- telligo, cum nuper hoc argumento conatus fueris probare, spiritus non putrescere, quia calidiora oporteat fieri, quæ putrefeunt. E- go rum respondi, distinguendum esse inter participatum calorem, & quem res quæque ex suo temperam[m]eto proprio obtinuit; Scio enim & totam naturam probate, calidiora < Putrefacta calidiora.> 30 seipsis effici putrescentia, ab aduentitio ca- lore & Arist[otelis] esse verba hæc: quæquæper quæres quæquæper æquæ. i.e. ealidius sit quicquid putre- scit. An non idem hoc definitio putredinis efficit? Frigidiora quoq[ue] fieri non inficior, si de sanato calore inelligamus dici, sed & putrefacta calore putrido dissipato frigidio- ra esse, quam ante putredinem fuissent, ni- hil forte prohibet. Probo & laudo quod co- tagii seminarium putridum vocari ais, quia & à putredine ortum sit, & putrefacti co[n]di po- tentiam in te eor[um] neat. Morbum totius sub- stantiæ d[icitu]r inficiaris vna mecum, & ratione probus, quæ aduersus illos plurimum valet, qui totius substantiæ morbum dicunt esse morbum formę. At neq[ue] omnes eodem mo- do de tota substantia loquuntur, nec iisdem eadem semper hac de re proferunt. Quid A- rist[otelis] & Gal[ilæus] totam substantiam censuerint es- se, tibi viro doctissimo compertum esse ar- < Corroborat. ita necessa- rum nuncuit.> 30 bitror. Quare nihil hìc amplius addo. Ad ex- tremum te vir clariss[imus] mihiq[ue] summa obser- uantia colende, etiam atque etiam rogo, ne putes me vllius rei gratia recum differere de istis rebus, quam vt abs te sicubi forte exor- bitem in viam redneat, & magis exerceat. < Quinqua op- puntia misi a- lant ut cor- roborant.> Quamobrem ratum abest, vt mea refelli nolim, aut reprehendi animo iniquo patiar, vt summum in reprehendendo conatu[m] ma- ximi beneficu[m] loco & habeam semper & ha- biturus sim. Si enim iuste accusor, rectius instituor & doctior sic: sin iniuste, tame[n] ex- erceor & res plenius comprehendo, in qua sententia magis confirmor: & quia sentio me ex mutua collatione plurimu[m] profecisse, & ago & habeo tuæ humanitati gratias, dum referendi facultas detur, &c. Vale. EPIST. CCIXXI. Thomas Erastus D. Petro Monario Medici co Casareo S. D. TV vero Petre doctissime, & charissime, sic flagitas responsum ad literas, quæ 26. Aug[ust] inter ecenandum mihi sunt redditæ, ac si de mea erga te optima voluntate tibi non constaret. Qui ante fui, nunc etiam sum, tui amantissimus, & tibi gratificandi cupidissi- mus. Quocirca non debes à me precib[us] con- tendere, q[uæ] à me tibi curari præstare posse arbitratis. Satis erit mihi, si te eupere intelli- gam. Itaq[ue] vt petis, scrupulos tibi eximam, qui te vexant. Facilius erit hoc mihi, cum tu ipse rationem viamq[ue] aperias. Ex libellis no- stris hanc te hypothesin exerpsisse ais, Me- tallica omnia in vniuersum, quouis modo parata nec tuto nec commode intra corpus tum. No[n] dixi ego, metallica omnia noxia es- se. An enim & talè inter metallica numerari non nouimus? Sed & calchanthum non ad- eo noxium esse affirmaui lib[er] de auro potu- lento. Monu[n]sertiam plurimum, malitia dif- ferre inter se, tum metalla, tum metallica. < Metalla non temora addi- banda.> Hæc hypothesis nostra est, metall & his co- gnata, Mysi, Sery, Hydrargyrum, Stimmi, te- mere no[n] esse deuoranda, quouis modo sint præparata, præsertim vero si ignis vi sint co- cinnata. Si libelli principium attente consi- derasses, de metallis præcipue me agere ani- mæ aduertisses. Nec ignoras, puto authores à metallis metallica distinguere. Cum deinde nobis das, non ita nos alere metallica, vt pro cibo quotidiano vni liceat, idem mox nobis tursus eripis. An enim quod alere non po- test, corroborare, re foellare, in statu suo partes principes conseruare potest? Dico ti- bi hoc esse vnum . Quot mo- dis cotroborari, & instaurari vires possint latius à me expositum inuenes: Quæ si ex- pendere voles, vltro in partes nostras de- scendes. Iterum repeto, impossibile est, sinc- alitione talia effici, qualia quintis metalloru[m] essentiis, ac similibus adscribi audis ab ho- rum pharmacorum fabris. Quare non re- recte credis experientiam te producere pos- se testem: Sed inquies forte, non alere quidem eiborum instar, at non nihil tamen alc- re. Ego vero nullo pacto alere demonstraui, sed sincera esse pharmaca probaui. Qui ig- < Nulla ma- teria nunc- unt.> rur

Transcription: Translated (English)

307 EPISTLE 308 was with me the Conciliator, who has, after so many years, indeed after centuries, disclosed the truth of this matter. This was also more clearly demonstrated by the Lord Gartias ab Horto, viceroy of India, in his book on aromatics and certain simple medicines born in India. Experience confirms the reasoning. For natural properties are not removed through the dissension of another eye, as the whole universe bears witness; they are brought about and taken away by alteration and change, while natural dispositions are preserved, since they are corrected from a certain mixture and do not depart at all unless that is changed. I say little about putrefaction, because I have decided to treat this matter carefully and fully. Meanwhile I scarcely know whether one should say, correctly enough, that putrefaction, which Aristotle writes is properly so called, you improperly name thus, and openly deny dissolution in that mixture. Indeed, these words of Aristotle, which s- and which s do not signify only a departure from its nature, which occurs through alteration, or merely through admixture of something alien, but the destruction of nature itself. As for putrefying things, why you now deny that they become warmer in themselves, I do not understand, since lately you had tried on this very argument to prove that spirits do not putrefy because things that rot must become warmer. I answered that a distinction must be made between communicated heat and that which each thing has obtained from its own proper temperament. For I know, and the whole of nature proves, that things putrefying become warmer in themselves, apart from external heat; and these are Aristotle’s words: quæquæper quæres quæquæper æquæ. that is, whatever rots becomes warmer. Does not the definition of putrefaction itself imply this? I do not deny that colder things also become so, if by this we understand heat that has been spoiled, but that putrefied things, with putrid heat dissipated, are colder than they had been before putrefaction, perhaps nothing prevents. I approve and praise the fact that you say the seed-bed of contagion is called putrid, because it both arises from putrefaction and has in it the power of generating the putrefied. That disease of the whole substance is said to infect it, you deny together with me, and rightly so, which counts strongly against those who say that the disease of the whole substance is a disease of form. But not all speak of the whole substance in the same way, nor do they always present the same things on this matter. What Aristotle and Galen judged the whole substance to be is, I think, known to you, a most learned man. Therefore I add nothing further here. Finally, most illustrious sir, whom I honor with the deepest respect, I beg and again beg you not to think that I delay with you about these matters for any reason other than that, if I should perhaps wander from the path, you may bring me back to it and exercise me further. Quinqua op- puntia misi a- lant ut cor- roborant. For this reason I am far from unwilling that my views be refuted, or that I endure criticism with an unwilling spirit; rather I shall always consider and shall continue to consider the greatest benefit to consist in censure of the utmost kind. For if I am justly accused, I am more rightly instructed and thus made wiser; if unjustly, I am still exercised and come to grasp the matter more fully, and I am confirmed more in that opinion. And because I feel that I have profited very much from our mutual discussion, I both give and owe thanks to your kindness, as soon as the opportunity to return them is given, etc. Farewell. EPIST. CCIXXI. Thomas Erastus to Dr. Peter Monard, Physician to the Emperor, greeting. But you, most learned and dearest Peter, so press for a reply to the letters which were delivered to me on the 26th of August during supper, as if you were not convinced of my excellent will toward you. I am what I was before, and now too: most devoted to you, and most eager to do you a favor. Therefore you ought not to insist upon me with requests, which you think I am able to take care of for you. It will be enough for me if I understand that you desire it. So, as you ask, I shall remove the scruples that trouble you. This will be easier for me, since you yourself open up the reason and the path. From our little books you say you have extracted this hypothesis: that all metallic things in general, however prepared, are neither safe nor suitable within the body. I did not say that all metallic things are harmful. For do we not know that talc, too, is numbered among metallic substances? And I also affirmed in the book On Drunken Gold that vitriol is not especially harmful. We must certainly note that metals and metallic substances differ greatly in their harmfulness. Metalla non temora addi- banda. This is our hypothesis: that metals and things akin to them, such as misy, ceruse, mercury, and stibium, are not to be swallowed rashly, however they may be prepared, especially if they have been compounded by the power of fire. If you had carefully considered the beginning of the little book, you would have noticed that I am speaking chiefly of metals. Nor, I think, are you unaware that authors distinguish metallic substances from metals. When afterwards you grant us that metallic substances do not nourish us in such a way that one may use them as everyday food, you immediately take that back from us again. For can that which cannot nourish, strengthen, restore, and preserve the chief parts in their condition? I tell you this is one and the same thing. You will find that in how many ways strength may be strengthened and restored I have explained more fully elsewhere; if you wish to weigh these matters, you will of your own accord come over to our side. I repeat once more, it is impossible, without nourishment, for such things to be made as you hear ascribed by the makers of these medicines to the quintessences of metals and the like. Therefore you do not rightly believe that experience can produce you as witness. But perhaps you will say: they do not nourish like food, true, but they nevertheless nourish something. I, however, have demonstrated in no way that they nourish, but have proved that the medicines are pure. Who Nulla ma- teria nunc- unt.

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509 MEDICINALES. 510 < In animi deficiens quo[n]sando hominem.> tur constare ostendes, in vsu medico illa sæpe, quo ad lias iuentiones, vtiliter adhiberi, maxime in animi deliquis? Quid enim: an quæ animo defectos reuocant, alere omnia possit, Ergo & frigidæ aspersio, & nasi com- pressio, & piloru[m] euulsio, & auricularii velli- catio, & oris ventriculi confricatio, & artuu[m] contortio, ligaturæq[ue] alunt. Alud est spiritus euocare, qui ad cor confugerunt, atq[ue] alud eosdem nuntire, Infundimus eis etia[m] vinum ad celerem spirituu[m] perditoru[m] instauratione[m], sed id nutrit: At metallica non nutrunt. Non igitur, vini modo, iuuant. Vis te tuomet gladio fuguem: Haud multo post ita scribis Purgandi vires pleraq[ue] obtinere, satis notum est. Item neq[ue] enim inficias inerim, quin ve- nenata & maligna aliqua qualitate partici- pent: Si vera hæc sunt, vt certe sunt, quomodo alere, corroborare, refocillare dicis? aut qui credemus animo defectis per se prodes- sic? Per accidens aliquando lunare, nil forte vetat: Sed rationes expendamus, summâ mi- stionis perfectione[m], in anrop[er]sertim, elucen- ticm, ac gemmatu[m] præstantia lux & splendor ille præfulgidus satis patefactu[m], spiritibusq[ue] nostris Incidissimis maximeq[ue] teperatis co- gnatas esse. Horu[m] ratione facile adducat, vt credam ob illam sympathiam & symboloru[m] conuenientia[m] spiritus etiam conseruare, au- gere, ac velut ignauos ac deperditos specifi- ca proprietate restituere. Auru[m] perfecte mi- stum concedo, quando perfecte mistu[m] vo- cas, cuius partes humidæ ita sunt cum sic cis teperatæ, vt alteræ ab alteris sciungi neque- ant: Hæc perfectio quid ad temperamentem corporum nostrum attinet? Mistio per- fecta alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr. Quare verba sunt i- nania: Specifica proprietas, per qua[m] instau- rantur spiritus, est proprietas temperamenti talis, cuius ratione alimentum aliquid est, ac fieri id potest, q[ui] nos sum? Quod cu[m] negatu[m] sit metallis, nullu[m] h[uius] locu[m] habet de occulta alia proprietate commentum vllum. Quid vero lux & fulgor gemmarum non aliis p[ro]parum. alio modo dicitur quæ ad plurimarum & præstantissimarum actionu[m] vsum requiri- tur. Hæc perfectione metallis nihil imperfe- ctius, hominis corpore nihil perfectius in tota rerum natura inuenitur, de qua re in su- periotibus plurima differui. Repeti superio- ra etiam hic possunt. Est enim impossibile, vt quæ alere non possunt, spiritus augeant ac deperditos restituâr

Transcription: Translated (English)

509 MEDICINALS. 510 < If you show that a man collapsing in mind cannot be restored, that those things are often used in medical practice, to good effect, especially in mental faintings? For what indeed: do not all things that recall those deficient in mind nourish? Therefore sprinkling with cold water, compressing the nose, plucking the hair, pulling the earlobes, rubbing the stomach, contortion of the limbs, and bandaging all nourish. One thing is to evoke the spirits that have fled to the heart; another is to nourish them. We also pour wine into them for the swift restoration of lost spirits, but that nourishes them. Yet metallic things do not nourish. Therefore they help, but not in the manner of wine. You wish to drive off your pursuer with your own sword: soon after you write thus, “The powers of purging are known to be possessed by most things.” Likewise, I do not deny that they partake of some poisonous and malignant quality: if these things are true, as they certainly are, how do you say they nourish, strengthen, and revive? Or why shall we believe that they are of use to those deficient in mind by themselves? Perhaps by accident at times, nothing forbids it. But let us weigh the reasons: the perfection of the mixture, especially in gold, the brightness of the shining stone and that splendid radiance, and the excellence of gems, have been sufficiently made clear, and are known to our spirits, especially the most subtle and warm. For this reason it is easy to be persuaded that, by that sympathy and the agreement of symbols, they also preserve spirits, increase them, and, as it were, restore the sluggish and diminished by a specific property. I grant that gold is perfectly mixed, when you call perfectly mixed that whose moist parts are so tempered with the dry that the one cannot be separated from the other. What has this perfection to do with the temperament of our bodies? Perfect mixture is also said in another sense, namely that which is required for the use of the most numerous and most excellent actions. In this perfection nothing is more imperfect than metals, and nothing more perfect than the human body is found in the whole of nature, concerning which matter I have spoken at length above. The earlier points can also be recalled here. For it is impossible that things which cannot nourish should increase spirits and restore those that are lost. Therefore these are empty words: the specific property by which spirits are restored is the property of such a temperament, by virtue of which something is nourishment, and this can happen to us? Since this is denied of metals, no room is left here for any invented occult property. And what, truly, of the light and brilliance of gems, which are not at all comparable to others.

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Transcription: ATR-1

< Non commens ab igne co lita vel esse Exemplo non habens. > EPISTOLÆ 311 tus, quæ ad refrigetâdum & humectandum intra & extra corpus vtiliter exhibentur, vt liquor vitreoli: & oleu[m] sulph. in quib[us] gestu etiam ipso nulla acredo deprehenditur. Taceo nunc aquas destillatas. At hæc ita respondeo. Nunquam ego dixi, omnia ab igne co lita vel vsta igne noxiu[m] acquirere. Imo ex Galeni & Diosc[on] autoritate, vt ipsam rerum inspectionem mittam, tem aliuer habe re ostedi pagina alia. Recte igitur tu toto genere differre dicis cibos, & metalla. Cæteru[m] cur metalla igne noxium retineant, alibi abunde ex poui. Cerussæ exemplum, quæ res est sacticia, & absq[ue] igni omni paratur, âtundem ad rem facit. Si te sandycem intellexisse dicas, hæc ex cerussa leuiter vsta fieri respondeo. Differt autem â plumbo vsto plurimum cerussa, cum illud manifeste calidu[m], hæc frigida sit. Sed cui tu persuadebis, liquore[m] seu oleu[m] calchathi ac sulphuris igne[m] nullum obtinere? Gustus, inquis, acredinem non sentit: Ferteus est ergo gustatus tuus, si mordicationem non deprehendi. Ad moue guttam integrâ linguæ aut gingiuis, aut carni cute nudatæ, & vtrum erodant videbis. Non omnia, quæ gustus non percipit calida, vel frigida, talia non sunt: Sæpe enim tapor vnus obfuscat alium, vt nô sentiatur, tametsi plurimis adsit, vt in opio amatitas saporem tegit refrigerantium partium. Ita parum vi- ni rubri vini albi multo eo opiosioris colorem obtundit, vt non videatur. Quoties operatio seu effectus adest caloris, nemo calorem adesse dubitabit, modo ab accidente pullo fallamur. Deinde lingua laxa cum sit, cito penetrant per ea tâtopere extenuata, vt minus eorum actio hic, quam in densiori parte animaduertatur. Miror vero, quorsum dicas, te non concedere, quæ in dura corpora scuiunt, mollioribus magis esse infelta. Ego namq[ue] fuse docui satis, maxime calida, si exquisite sint extenuata propter celerè penetrationem minus laxis, quam densis corporibus nocere. Sed & Gal: hac de re multa cu[m] alibi, tum vbi rubificantia, vesicatoria & escharotica distinguit: per accidens hoc sit, quia non inhærent. Si aquæ diu in his atq[ue] in illis inhærerent, dubio procul plus nocerent mollib. quam duris. Quæ igitur de lanarum saccis contra tormentorum ictus protensis affers, contra nos non faciunt: Aquam fortem ferrum corrodeste dicis sine noxa manu caua excipi. Si vel tertia temporis parte, quo ferrum erodit, in manu serues, senties quid possit: Vidi inseri in dentem cauum, vt leniter saltem gingiua attingeretur, quosq[ue] mox etuciatus cu[m] carnis exesione gigneret, itidem vidi, ac memini. Hoc exemplu[m] alias magis quadrat, quam id quod de lanarum < Calida re nunum par vium minus nocens lacus quem densis > < Aquam for to & manu corrodere. > 312 saccis adfers, quia non de impulsu violento, sed alteratione violenta disputamus. Quod ad extremum metallica (de aliquibus non pugno, sed de metallis & cognatis quibusda[m] disputo) scribis, nô prorsus numero eorum, quæ intra corpus assumuntur, eximenda esse. si in eorum vstu tria hæc obseruëtur, vt recte præparentur, aliis additis apte corrigantur. denique debita quantitate exhibeantur, satis est declaratum. Metalla enim sic præparari non possunt ignibus, vt non semper noceant. Quia vero & nocentib[us] aliquando vti cogimur, non dico, ea nunquam vsurpanda, sed cum aliter ægrum sanitati restituere non possumus, minus malum maiore permutandum aliquando fuerit. De hac re paginis aliquot egi. Habes responsum ad omnia tua breue & longum simul. Breue est si hanc chartam in- tueraris. Longum satis erit, si loca citata exa- minare attenteq[ue] relegere velis. Citaui ob id ipsum, vt labore te leuarem Inquirendi, & ipse mihi consulerem, cum præsertim occupationes fusiorem responsionem instituere non paterentur: Dominus Iesu tibi benedicat, Amen. Die 27. Aug. Anno 1578. EPIST. CCXCII. IDEM EIDEM Iteras tuas, quas 4. Decemb. dedisti eius- de[m] mensis die 17. hic accepi, & diliget[ur] perlegi: Probo autem mirifice studiu[m] tuu[m] in inquire[n]da veritate, qua sane charius esse nobis nihil debet: Vt enim vsum nullu[m] habe- ret, quem habet in cunctis reb[us] summum, tame[n] seipsa dignum foret, cuius causa omnia to- leraremus. Recte igitur facistu, q[uod] non statim assensum præbes omnib[us]. sed prius apud te exp[er]edis ne incogitate aliquid probes. Ac illa quæ in his literis obticis, breuiter quidem, attamen perspicue, respondere tentabo. De Gemmarum viribus non indoctos dubitare inquis, magnas & admirabiles inesse gemis vires existimasse, qui tamen alias ab diris illis proprietatibus tribuunt plurimum: idem ipse quoq[ue] omnibus temporib[us] animadueti, illos solos (de doctis loquor) ita statuisse, qui perpetuo latentes potestates reparent: Sed satis non est, doctum esse nisi quis hac ipsa in re, de qua quæstio est, doctus sit. Fieri certe potest, vt excell[enti]arib[us] viris & præcipuis in partib[us] artis nostræ exercitatissimis nunquam in mentem venerit, de huius rei veritate inquirere. Solè enim pleriq[ue] fidem habere illis, qui se periculum fecisse affirmant, quasi non & se & alios fallere potuerint: In horum ordine ipse qnoq[ue] permansissem, si nô obseruauissem omnes fere, qui talia præcipue nobis commedarunt superstitiosissimos,

Transcription: Translated (English)

< Not always from fire co- cooked or being An example not having. > EPISTLES 311 substances, which are usefully administered to cool and moisten within and without the body, such as vitriolated liquor, and oil of sulphur, in which even by touch no sharpness at all is perceived. I say nothing now of distilled waters. But to this I answer as follows. I never said that everything cooked by fire, or burnt by fire, acquires something harmful. Indeed, from the authority of Galen and Dioscorides, leaving aside the inspection of things themselves, I have shown elsewhere that they must be differently treated. You therefore rightly say that foods and metals differ in the whole kind. For the rest, why metals retain a harmful quality from fire, I have abundantly set forth elsewhere. The example of ceruse, which is a factitious thing and prepared without fire at all, serves the point equally well. If you say you understood sandyx, I reply that this is made from ceruse lightly burnt. Ceruse differs greatly, however, from burnt lead, since that is manifestly hot, while this is cold. But whom will you persuade that the liquor or oil of calx and sulphur does not have any sharpness? The taste, you say, does not perceive any acridity: then your sense of taste is iron, if it does not detect biting quality. Apply a drop to the whole tongue, or to the gums, or to bare flesh, and you will see whether they corrode. Not everything which the taste does not perceive as hot or cold is therefore not such: for often one quality obscures another, so that it is not felt, though it is present in many things, as in opium its sweetness covers the taste of the cooling parts. Thus a little red wine dulls the color of a much whiter wine, more opiate than it, so that it is not seen. Whenever the operation or effect of heat is present, no one will doubt that heat is present, provided we are not deceived by some accidental quality. Then, since the tongue is loose, they penetrate quickly through things so attenuated that their action is noticed less here than in a denser part. I am surprised, moreover, why you say that you do not grant that things which act upon hard bodies are more harmful to softer ones. For I have abundantly taught that the hottest things, if they are exquisitely attenuated, because of their rapid penetration harm loose bodies less than dense ones. Galen also says much about this elsewhere, and especially where he distinguishes rubefacients, vesicatories, and escharotics: this happens accidentally, because they do not adhere. If waters were to remain long in these and in those, they would doubtless harm the soft more than the hard. Therefore what you bring forward about sacks of wool stretched out against blows from engines does not tell against us: you say that strong water corrodes iron and can be received without harm into the hollow hand. If you preserve it in the hand for even a third part of the time during which it corrodes iron, you will feel what it can do. I have seen it inserted into a hollow tooth so that it might at least gently touch the gum, and I have likewise seen and remember that it soon produced ulceration with erosion of the flesh. This example fits better in another context than what you bring forward about woolen < Hot things do not harm loosened bodies as much as dense ones. > < Strong water corrodes iron and the hand. > 312 sacks, because we are disputing not about violent impact, but about violent alteration. As to your final point about metallic substances (I do not dispute about some, but I am speaking of metals and certain related things), you write that I absolutely do not count them among the things to be taken internally. If in the burning of them these three things are observed, namely that they be properly prepared, suitably corrected with other additions, and finally administered in the proper quantity, enough has been shown. For metals cannot be so prepared by fires that they do not always do harm. And because we are sometimes compelled to use even harmful things, I do not say that these should never be employed, but when otherwise we cannot restore the sick person to health, the lesser evil must sometimes be exchanged for the greater. I have dealt with this matter in several pages. You have a reply to everything of yours, brief and long at once. It is brief if you look at this sheet. It will be long enough if you wish to examine and carefully reread the cited places. I cited them for that very reason, to save you the labor of inquiry, and also to consider my own convenience, since especially my occupations did not allow a fuller response: May the Lord Jesus bless you, Amen. 27 August, 1578. EPIST. CCXCII. THE SAME TO THE SAME Your letters, which you gave on 4 December, I received here on the 17th of the same month, and read through carefully: and I greatly approve your zeal in seeking the truth, than which indeed nothing ought to be dearer to us. For even if it had no use, which it has in all things in the highest degree, it would still be worthy in itself, for whose sake we should endure everything. You therefore do well in not immediately giving assent to everything, but first testing matters with yourself lest you approve something inconsiderately. And the points you raise in these letters, I shall try to answer briefly, though clearly. You say that learned men doubt the powers of gems, believing that gems have great and wonderful powers, though they attribute very much to those dire properties elsewhere: I myself have observed the same in all ages, that only those (I speak of the learned) have thus held who continually uncover hidden powers: but it is not enough to be learned unless one is learned in the very matter in question. Certainly it can happen that men of outstanding excellence and foremost among those most practiced in the parts of our art never even thought to inquire into the truth of this matter. For most are accustomed to place their trust in those who affirm that they have made the trial, as though they could not deceive both themselves and others: I too would have remained in this number, had I not observed that almost all who especially recommended such things to us were most superstitious,

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Transcription: ATR-1

M E D I C I N A L E S. 514 513 mos, aliisq[ue] vanis artib[us] deditos fuisse: Credat, qui vult, gemmas mirabilia efficere, mihi qui, & ratio eo & experieotia didici aliter re habere, oullus facile persuadebit, falsum < Calchancini olim vsum par posse.> esse veru[m]. Chalcanthi liquorem, vt & ipsum Calchathum minore periculo vsumpari posse io ipso libello fassus sum. Nec ego iocertis calib[us] vbi nihil videat[ur] obstare posse, vereor eo, reb[us] aliis coouenienter tèperato vti. Quid vero de pharmacopæo dicam, equidem non habeo aliud, quam nescire me vtrum cootulerit ægris, an non cootulerit. Suspicor enim. si vtilitatem attulit aliis rebus, distributionis, aut deductiois aliorum gratia potius miscuisse, quam sanationis. Vix enim arbitror < Priuifici vsum Calchancini omnium.> quenquam crediturum, iosita sua natura vas ruptum sanare ipsum posse. Hoc certe comperi omnes pulmonis vlcete quamuis obscuro laborantes (sunt enim aliqui ad eas aqua[m] ablegatia medicis, de quib[us] dubitabatur, ao vlceratos pulmones haberent) qui aquas calchathum continentes biberunt, celerem sibi mortem accersuisse. Quod nisi in diuersis sæpe euenisse videtem, asseuerare apud te non vellum. Venerunt enim deinde at me consilium petentes (& bocipio anno adhuc duo robusti iuuoies) cum coosilio locus non superesset. Quæ ideo refero, vt me diligenter omoes circumstantias examinaisse intelligas, Ego pharmacopœu[m] facultate huius liquoris, vlcera hæc tum saouisse credam, vbi rem certius cognouero & quib[us] præterea sit vsus voa com circustantus: Qui lapit temere non credit illis iactatorib[us] quoties ea exhibet, quæ nocere possunt. Audiui sexcenties medicameorum quoddam Elidæi < Experimenter Bolundæi in spero sum quomodo faciat.> Medici Bonoiensis ad coelum tollere. quasi sputus sanguinis admirabili efficacia curaret. Sed multis ab ipso frustra exhibitum partim vidi, partim scio, sic cor ne ipse quidem fructum ex eo deprehendi. Vt suis enim sæpius sum quod periculosum non sit, & rationem habeat suffragaorem, sæpeoumero vbi multa sunt adhibita, quæ simul affectum percurarunt, laus tota vni perperam adscribitur. De aqua forti nihil dicam, cum nemine sperem adeo insanire, qui eam bibendam, aut deglotiendam consulat. < Ad et alterum transmutatio negatur.> De metallorum traosmutatione si disputare hic velim, actu[m] egero. Priusquâ enim mihi persuadeatur, hanc arte[m] esse veram consuatri oportet omnes rationes meas, vel aliis meliorib[us]. vel ipso facto. Hoc autem aliquot iam seculis à multis millib[us] frustra tentatum est nec cuiquam impuore fuit. Omnes enim si no[n] sanitatis, auti tamen iacturam fecerunt, pats maxima ad egestatem est redacta. Noli putare mi D. Petre non posse me veris rario- nibus refellere falsam artem, quam oon ex- 514 ercuerim. Quid enim, an & magiam me ex- ercuisse & dedicisse oportet, sic refutare eam recte velim? Non arbitror: At ratio similis est artium omnium. Quomodo etiam â me postules, vt præstem quod ratio fieri no[n] pos- se docet, ac nullus voquam præstate potuit? < Chimica quatenus reprehenda danda.> No[n] versatus es, inquis eo in [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij, q[uæ] arcana plurima prodit. Fateor: Sed nec re- prehendi ego voquam chimiam, quatenus in diuam perseq[ui]tur, sed laudo eâ & celebro. Quatenus traosmutationem villoru[m] metal- loru[m] in auru[m] arg[umen]tumq[ue] promitit, & tentat, hactenus eaodem damno. Nec oportet me arbitror prius impossibilia conari fa- cere, quam conantè bonis & veris argumentis deterream. Possimus enim scire de mul- tis rebus, quod effici humanis virib[us] nequeant, licet ipsi nunquam facere aggressi fueri- mus. Cur igitur non possum icere vtrum concessa hominibus sit facolras, species re- rum transmutandi. Ars ajunt, non habet ho- stem, nisi ignorantem. Hoc cum de veris & vtilibus artib[us] dicitur, probrosum est, cumde falsis, impils, superstitionis noxis, laudem meretur, qui eas damnar & confurat, prius- quam didicerit. Idemq[ue] quod in quæ in certis < Specifica proprietas> duntaxat indiuiduis reperi[n]tur, terti cuius- da[m] ordinis esse cum dicis, vix quid velis in- telligo. Cum enim tales proprietates formæ 30 tribui acqueant, (quippe in omnibus speciei indiuiduis inueniretur, si p[ro]pter for- mam substanciale[m] inessent) cui aln rei seu ma- teriæ qualitatib[us] acceptas feremus. Proprie- tates formæ invidere vsum vix habere in me- dico cogitate scripsi, nec video, cur me præ- mittere debeat. Ex hoc, Inquis, sequetur, fere nos sola vsumpare, quæ formis suis orbara suot: Quo coocesso alterutru[m] hotum absur- doru[m] colligis, aut nullis formis medicamen- ta illa prædita esse, aut, quod esse creduntur, non esse reuera. Respondeo: Prius nullo mo- do sequi. An. n. quod hac certa forma priuatum est, omni forma spoliatum esse oportet: Alterum recte sequi dicis, si modo recte io- telligis. Etsi. n. Rhabarbarum nomi[n]o[n]atur ra- dix , habarbarum tamen vere non est, sed rhabarbari cadauer. Tum vere est rha- barbarum, cum terræ adhuc infixum, eius < Cadauer rhabarbari> ad te succum quo nutritur, & vluit, attrahit. 50 quod tibi absurdu[m] viderut. An tu es oblitus opere & potentia talia omnia definiri. Arist. 4. Mele. [e]n[im] ultim[us] hæc habet: in [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [ sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij [sulphur]ij [mercur]ij 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Transcription: Translated (English)

MEDICAL MATTERS. 514 513 ...to have been devoted to various and other vain arts: let him who will believe that gems work wonders; he will not easily persuade me, who by reason and experience have learned otherwise, that it is true. The liquid of chalcanthum, and chalcanthum itself, I have confessed in this very little book can be used with less danger. Nor do I fear to use it in certain cases where nothing seems to stand in the way, if it be suitably tempered with other remedies. What, indeed, shall I say of the apothecary? I truly have nothing else to say except that I do not know whether he has helped the sick or not. For I suspect that, if he has brought usefulness in other respects, he has mixed it rather for the sake of distribution, or of the preparation of other things, than for curing. For I scarcely think anyone will believe that a vessel ruptured by its own nature can itself be healed by the thing administered. This at least I have found: all who suffer from ulcers of the lungs, however obscurely (for there are some sent away from physicians with water, concerning whom it was doubtful whether they had ulcerated lungs), who drank waters containing chalcanthum, brought death upon themselves quickly. Unless I had seen this happen often in different cases, I would not want to state it to you with certainty. For they later came to me asking for advice, and at the beginning of this year still there were two strong young men, when there was no longer any room for counsel. I therefore relate these things so that you may understand that I have carefully examined all the circumstances. I shall believe the apothecary has cured these ulcers by the virtue of this liquid when I have known the matter more certainly and what other uses it has besides its circumstances. He who accepts things rashly does not believe those boastful men whenever they give out things that can do harm. I have heard countless times a certain medicine of Elidæus to be extolled to the heavens by a physician of Bologna, as though it cured spitting of blood with marvelous efficacy. But I have seen it, and know, that it has often been administered in vain; and I myself have not discovered any benefit from it. For, inasmuch as what is used is often not dangerous and has a supporting rationale, it often happens that when many remedies are applied and all together have checked the affection, the entire praise is wrongly assigned to one alone. I shall say nothing about aqua fortis, since I hope no one is so mad as to consult about drinking it or swallowing it. As for the transmutation of metals, if I wished to dispute it here, I should be carrying coals to Newcastle. For before I am persuaded that this art is true, all my reasons must be met, either by better reasons or by the fact itself. Yet this has now for several centuries been attempted in vain by many thousands, and has brought no one harmlessly through it. For all have suffered loss, if not of health, then at least of property, and many have been reduced to poverty. Do not think, my dear Mr. Peter, that I cannot by true reasons refute a false art which I have not practiced. For what, must I also have practiced and learned magic, so that I may rightly wish to refute it? I do not think so; yet the reasoning of all arts is similar. How, moreover, do you require from me that I should prove what reason teaches cannot be done, and what no one has ever proved possible? You say that I have not dealt with mercury and sulphur, which reveal many secrets. I admit it. Yet I have never reproached chemistry, insofar as it pursues them; on the contrary I praise and celebrate it. But insofar as it promises and attempts the transmutation of base metals into gold, I judge it by the same measure. Nor ought I, I think, first try to do impossibilities before I am deterred by good and true arguments. For we can know about many things that they cannot be effected by human power, although we ourselves have never attempted to do them. Why then may I not know whether man has been granted the faculty of transmuting the forms of things? They say that art has no enemy except the ignorant. When this is said of true and useful arts, it is a reproach; when of false arts, impious, and harmful superstitions, it is praise for the one who condemns and rejects them before he has learned them. In what you say, that qualities found only in certain individual things belong to a third order, I scarcely understand what you mean. For since such properties can be attributed to form—for they would be found in all individuals of the species, if they were inherent by reason of substantial form—we shall refer them to some other thing, namely the qualities of matter. I wrote, considering the properties of form, that they scarcely have use in medicine, nor do I see why this should be set against me. From this, you say, it will follow that we use only what are deprived of their forms. Once that is granted, you infer one or the other of these absurdities: either those medicines are endowed with no forms, or, what they are believed to be, they are not really. I reply: the first by no means follows. For does it follow that whatever is deprived of this definite form must be stripped of all form? The second follows rightly, if only you understand it rightly. Even if root is called rhabarbarum, yet it is not truly rhabarbarum, but the corpse of rhabarbarum. Then it is truly rhabarbarum when, still fixed in the earth, it draws to itself the juice by which it is nourished and lives, which seemed absurd to you. Or have you forgotten that all such things are defined by act and power. Aristotle in the fourth book of the Metaphysics says this last: ...

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sententia non diffentit Gal. Nam [e]n[im] de Pla. Hipp. de Plat. 8. de Arist. loqu[es] ait: Ipse est, qui nos docuit, vt ad operatione[m] & vsum v- niuscuiusq[ue] instrumenti, non ad fabricâ de- spiciamus. Cum qu[æ] n[on] sit eius essentia, scire volumus. Id e[st] repetiuit in fine lib. 1. i[n]a dicta repetens, in auro e[st] isti [n]o[n] t[ame]n A εγκυτίλης λημμα, περί [n]o[n] t[ame]n πιν παλαινλευ ο παρα βελαιν δημλευ: Addo hæc, vt quæ de 1. lib. Latine extant, ge- nuina esse videas. Quod n[on]a hoc est, λημμα: < Vix purgatrices materia quæ sunt inclusas non juxta autem manda.> πις αγκυτιλης πιν [n]o[n] t[ame]n εγκυντιλης ταυτοθέλη τας εγκυντις, [ n]o[n] πις χειμινις αυτον. Si ergo non amplius nutritut ac viuit arida ra- dix quaropus Rhab. dici quis inficiabitur? Ac de virb. nouis, quæ vna cum forma noua ac- cessetur ide[m] qua remus? Frustra hic quæres. Non [e]n[im] accessit vis purgandi à forma cada- ueris, vt sic non in e[st], sed prius inerat vt in lib. de occultis pharmaci potestatibus ostendi. < Temperis unus loco forma.> Hunc insolubili argumento probaui, purga- tricem eius vim ad materiæ qualitates perti- nere, non ad formam. Quæ namq[ue] virtus in aliqua materia inhæret, q[ui]oq[ue] multas diuersas formas sibi inuicè succedêres recepit, n[on]o potest vllius esse ex his propria qualitas. Si [e]n[im] vnius esset, ea abolita, ipsa quoq[ue] extincta fuisset. Video te non obseruasse hæc, quæ tame[n] verbose ibi tractavi. Quæris, n[on] in anima ca- rentibus temperies formę vicè suppleat, Re- spondeo non supplere, si de forma substantiali intelligas. Quid vero in animatis, inqui- es, tèperies: Cui annumeranda? Formæ ne? Ita duæ erunt formæ vnius rei simplicis, sub- st[anti]tialis vna, accid[enti]talis altera. Ergo ne ma- teriæ? Atqui de hui[us] ratione est n[on]o agere sed pati: hæc tua sunt: Ego non tantu[m] non iudico absurdum esse in reb. physicis seu materiatis duas formas ponere, substantiale[m] vna[m] & ac- cidentale[m] alteram, sed necessariu[m] esse aio, n[on]o vnam tantu[m], sed plures accidentales ponere. Quippe formæ in idem: Physicæ nihil aiunt sine instrum[en]to corporeo, & ad [n]o[n] [con]trariem. quia non sunt actu efficaces, sed potestia, re- spectu actus secudi. Pro diuersitate ergo te- peramentoru[m] diuersas edit forma subst[anti]tialis actiones. Idem hoc ipse tu cum affirmes his verbis (qualitates vero, ex quib. tèperies co- stat, omnes vno ore philosophi facientur, a- ctionum esse causam proximam & per illas subst[anti]tias efficaces esse) nihil opus est, vt plu- < Morbos sub. substantia[m] dari.> ra dicam. Posthæc pro morboru[m] totius sub- stantiæ assertione hoc affers argumentum: reperitur in compositis tertiu[m] quiddâ præter materiam & forma[m], scil. forma totius, in quo fortasse horum morborum autores sedem i- psis co[n]stituunt: Est autem forma hæc totius alia, non tamen ab ipsomet composito, sed à forma partis, quæ vna cum materia co[n]posi- tum constituit. Compositu[m] sit homo. Forma partis hic erit anima, cum corporis tempero totum constituens: ac totius forma, erit ipsa humanitas: Ad hæc ita respondeo: certu[m] est per materiam & forma[m] tertiu[m] esse in toto na- turali, seu in co[n]posito. De subst[anti]tiis si loqua- mur, dubitabit nemo eoru[m], qui principium lib. 2. de anima attêre perlegerit & intellexe- rit. Manifeste ibi distinguit co[n]positum à ma- teria, & forma. In composito, seu vno acci- dentali æque clarum est. Habes igitur me ti- bi co[n]sentientem hac quidem in parte. Cum deinde exemplo hominis declaras tuis fen- tentiam, quatuor videris res ponere, co[n]posi- tum, hominem, animam seu formam partis. Tertio materiam congruêter temperatam. Postremo forma[m] totius, nempe humanita- tem. Quæro primu[m] quid differat ab homine humanitas? Deinde cur à co[n]posito nimirum homine, tanquam parte[m] quartam ponas, cu[m] Arist. tria tantum in substantia tali agnoscat? Materia [e]n[im] cuiusq[ue] rei propria , & vl- rima non potest sine peculiari temperatione materiæ nomen retinere. Haud dices, puto, quartum hoc, materiam cum forma vniere, atq[ue] vnitis iam idem ipsi co[n]posito superue- nire, tanqua[m] vltima & perfecta forma. Quip- pe, quod ex materia & forma coaguit, & coagcu & n[on]de Græci vocant, Latini barbari suppositum, aliquando indiuidu- um & subsistens nominant. nec alio aliquo egere putant: Sunt enim hoc modo compo- sita primæ substantiæ seipsis subsistêres. Huc Arist. verba pertinent 1. De anima 1. N[on] n[on] ei δοξητοιο, επιν [n]o[n] ηυξη, [n]o[n] τοπιμα υποτροπιν τοι[us] πηρον παν τοιχια μελον ολοκας τοι[us] τοιχον υπολευ, n[on] ei τοι[us] υλε. Nulla ergo natura seu substantia in homine præter materiam, formam, & compositum, quod est homo. Quid ergo inquies, de hu- manitate dicemus? Num ab homine non < Humanitas ab homine differo.> differt? Differt certe, sed n[on] tanquam natu- ra, seu substantia, quædam quarta: sic ergo differu[n]t, vt earo & to[n]o hominis, h[oc] e[st] perfe- cta hominis definitio ab omni concretione materiæ, & patibilitatis secreta in mente no- stra consistens. Homo [e]n[im] motralis & patibi- lis est, n[on] humano, omnis materiæ contagionis & mu- tabilitatis expers, ac velut idea quædam ho- minis. In ipso autem homine non est ab ho- mine alia natura distincta, per quam homo vel agat, vel paxiatur aliquid aliud, quam a- gere ac pati possit, quatenus homo est: Sed ponamus respta aliud esse aliquid ab homi- ne, formam scilicet totius, vt appellas: Quid hinc co[n]cludes? Morbos, ais, totius subst[anti]tæ vide[n]t horu[m] inuêtores in hac natura posuisse. Quæso igitur, vtru[m] natura hæc quarta, sub- st[anti]a sit an accidens: Si accidens statuatur, vel erit totu[m] secu[n]du[m] ipsu[m] per se alterabile, vel n[on]o

Transcription: Translated (English)

the statement does not differ from Galen. For indeed in the work on Plants, on Hippocrates, on Plato, on Aristotle, he says: “He is the one who taught us not to look down on the use and function of each and every instrument, but not on the making.” Since we wish to know what its essence is, that is repeated at the end of book 1, repeating the things said there. in in gold there is this not, however, A εγκυτίλης λημμα, περί not however πιν παλαινλευ ο παρα βελαιν δημλευ: I add these things, so that you may see that those things which are extant in Latin in book 1 are genuine. What this is, the lemma: < Vix purgatrices materia quæ sunt inclusas non juxta autem manda.> πις αγκυτιλης πιν not however εγκυντιλης ταυτοθέλη τας εγκυντις, not πις χειμινις αυτον. If therefore an arid root no longer nourishes and lives, who will deny that it should be called quaropus Rhab.? And concerning new powers, which are acquired together with a new form, what do we do? You will look for that here in vain. For the purgative force has not attached itself from the form of the corpse, so that it is not there, but was present beforehand, as I showed in the book On the Hidden Powers of Medicines. < Temperis unus loco forma.> I proved this by an insoluble argument: that its purgative force belongs to the qualities of the material, not to the form. For whatever power inheres in some matter, and has received many different forms succeeding one another, cannot be the proper quality of any one of these. For if it belonged to one, when that one was abolished, it would likewise have been extinguished. I see that you have not observed these things, though I treated them at length there. You ask whether in things lacking soul, temperament supplies the place of form. I answer that it does not supply it, if you understand substantial form. But in animate things, you will say, temperament: to what is it to be reckoned? To form? Then there will be two forms of one simple thing, one substantial, the other accidental. Or to matter? Yet its nature is not to act but to undergo; these are your own words. I not only do not judge it absurd in physical or material things to posit two forms, one substantial and another accidental, but I say it is necessary, and not merely one accidental form but several. Indeed the forms are the same: physical things say nothing without a bodily instrument, and not the contrary. For they are not actually effective, but potentially, with respect to the second act. Therefore, according to the diversity of temperaments, the substantial form produces diverse actions. You yourself affirm this in these words: “Since the qualities from which temperament is composed are all, with one voice, declared by philosophers to be the proximate cause of actions, and through them substances are effective,” there is no need for me to say more. After this, in support of your assertion concerning diseases of the whole substance, you bring forward this argument: “in composites there is found a third thing besides matter and form, namely the form of the whole, in which perhaps the authors of these diseases place their seat: but this form of the whole is something different, though not from the composite itself, but from the form of the part, which together with the matter constitutes the composite. Let the composite be man. The form of the part here will be the soul, constituting the whole together with the temperament of the body; and the form of the whole will be humanity itself.” To this I answer thus: it is certain that through matter and form there is a third thing in the natural whole, or in the composite. If we speak of substances, no one who has carefully read and understood the beginning of book 2 of On the Soul will doubt it. There Aristotle plainly distinguishes the composite from matter and form. In the composite, or in one accidental thing, it is equally clear. So you have me agreeing with you in this part. When you then explain your opinion by the example of man, you seem to posit four things: the composite, man, the soul or form of the part, thirdly the matter suitably tempered, and lastly the form of the whole, namely humanity. I ask first, what difference there is between humanity and man? Then why, besides the composite, namely man, do you set down a fourth part, when Aristotle recognizes only three in such a substance? For the matter of each thing, being proper and ultimate, cannot retain the name of matter without a special tempering of the matter. I do not think you will say this fourth thing unites matter with form, and that once united it supervenes upon the composite itself as its ultimate and perfect form. For what has grown together from matter and form, & coagcu and n[on]de the Greeks call, the Latins the barbarians call suppositum, sometimes individual and subsisting. Nor do they think it needs anything else: for in this way composites are primary substances subsisting by themselves. Aristotle’s words in book 1 of On the Soul apply here. N[on] n[on] ei δοξητοιο, επιν not ηυξη, not τοπιμα υποτροπιν τοι[us] πηρον παν τοιχια μελον ολοκας τοι[us] τοιχον υπολευ, not ei τοι[us] υλε. Therefore there is no nature or substance in man besides matter, form, and the composite, which is man. What then, you ask, are we to say about humanity? Does it not differ from man? It certainly differs, but not as some fourth nature or substance: thus they differ as the essence and definition of man, that is, the perfect definition of man, separated from all admixture of matter and passibility, and existing in our mind. For man is mortal and passible; humanity is not human in that sense, free from all contagion of matter and mutability, and as it were a certain idea of man. But in the man himself there is no other nature distinct from man, by which man might either do or suffer something other than what he can do and suffer insofar as he is man. But let us suppose that there is something besides man, namely the form of the whole, as you call it. What will you conclude from this? “Diseases,” you say, “of the whole substance show that their inventors have placed them in this nature.” I ask therefore whether this fourth nature is a substance or an accident: if it is posited as an accident, then either the whole will be changeable of itself according to itself, or not

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317 MEDICINALES. Si prius detur, nô fuerit forma seu terminus generationis, sed indefinita qualitas, nempe patibilis, quod est absurdissimu[m]. Si secundum ipsum mutabile corpus esse negetur, non poterit morbos sescipere, nisi qualitatib[us] mutatis ipsum quoq[ue] mutetur. Redibimus igitur ad principium: sed frustra bie hæreo, e[ss]e fieri non potest vt substantia forma sit accidens. Quod si ergo substantia est, nihil habet contrarium. Ergo noli invi animæ instar nihil patitur: Nullum ergo per se morborum est subiectum. Corpus ergo primo læditur, quod tu quoq[ue] concedis. Ergo morb[us] quilibet primo & per se corporis affectus est. Secundo & per accidens vel animæ, vel humanitatis, quare- nus scilicet cùm corpore ita male affecto amplius consistere, ipsumq[ue] informare nô possunt. Id e[st] nos dieimus. Nihil igitur inter nos relinquitur cõtroversum. Imo vero plurimu[m] sis: Quoniam pestilentes & cõtagio venenato inscientes humores aut vapores, et[ia]m in corpus primu[m] inuadunt, non tamen secundu[m] simplicem duntaxat temperiè, sed ita, vt totum destruat: Concedo hæc omnia, sed quid eis efficias, nondu[m] certo video. Pestilentes humores vel corporis temperiem lēdût, vel vnitarem, vel instrumentorum cõformationem. Nisi horum aliquid lædât, morbos nullos ereabunt. sed de 1. genere, intèperie scilicet (reliqua duo morboru[m] genera hue nô per tinent) agamus. An possit corporis natura destrui temperamentum integro remanente? Tu affirmabis, si propositum tueri voles, ego negabo. Vt forma aliqua sit a materia, necessariu[m] est, vt materia perfectâ habeat duabus , seu perfecte sit disposita. Non enim forma quilibet in subiecto e[ss]e materia qualibet, seu in propria tantum riteq[ue] disposita in est, nisi eorum terræ misere velimus, & humanâ animam in materia asini, sube, mihi, inhabitare posse opinemur? Quæ vero ista dispositio materia alia, quam conueniens tèperamentum? Hoc dum adeo, cõgruenter, dum abest incongruenter disposita est, & dicitur materia. At impossibile est materia perfecte dispositam, non informari à forma, pro qua suscipienda & retine[n]da apte, suffici[n]ter præparata est. Neq[ue] suam etia[m] deserere materiam forma vlla potest, quantisper pro eius permansione recte tèperata est materia. Ergo cum substantiis, & formis per se, & primo nihil sit cõtrarium, & actio omnis fiat à contrario, à nullis morbis primo & per se lædi, vel destrui possunt. Quare temperationem primo corrumpunt necessario, quæ corpus destruunt: sed nec tèperationi quando consideratur vt habitus, seu motionis terminus, aliquid per se & primo contrariu[m] est. Corpora enim ratione habituum quiescunt, non mouentur, aut 318 mobilia sunt, vt demonstratur 7. Physi. 3. Tunc igitur solum mutatur corpus, quando qualitates patibiles primæ scilicet monentur, seu patiuntur. Quocirca corporis tèperationem per se sola illa corrumpunt, quæ calefacere, frigesacere possunt: pestilentes igitur humores aut habitus, nisi diuidendo continuu[m] corpus destruant, calefaciendo aut frigesaciendo corrumpunt. Quod [e]n[im] primo & per se non inuebunt morbos instrumentales, confessu[m] esse arbitror. Aliter enim temperamenti labefactare per se nequeunt. At hoc integro perdurante corpus interire aut dissolui non posse, certum est. Frustra igitur in quarta illa natura, si ponatur. substantiæ aliqvid esse, singutur morbi primo inhætere. Hic non inco[m]mode reperiuero, quod antea dixi, formas substantiales physicas absq[ue] instrume[n]to corporeo nihil agere. Est ergo proxima actionis causa organu[m], seu pars corporea. Quare vel < Proximè di Quod causa organum.> morb[us] non per se primo seu proxime læditi actiones, vel est huius partis seu instrumenti proprius affectus. Quod si organi propria est dispositio, nô poterit proprius formæ affectæ censeti. Quid igitur profit eômentum de totius forma, si quam maxime verum esset: Nô enim humanitas, sed homo morbis afflicitur, ne e[st] patitur à morbis anima, sed corpus. < Adhibita rum substantia etiam etiam pullularent> Pater igitur frustra huinmodi singi ad stabili- dos morbos substantiæ totius, quos naturâ prorsus nescit cum tota vetustate. Est enim < An medicinæ ener morbæ & sanita- tum.> recens figmentum, à Fernelio primu[m], vt arbitror, exogitatum. Videtur autem è chimia pullulare primum coepisse. < Contrariabit cum alia vulgaria alii> Quod vltimo loco quæris nequaquâ facile est explicatu. Multos [e]n[im] tor sit quæstio hæc Medicos, dum alii mediù inter sanitatem & morbum dari concesserunt, alii cùm Aristotele negarunt, vt se facilius extricarent pleriq[ue], dari dixerunt, si sensus arbitri ponantur, non dari, si rationi iudiciu[m] permittatur. Quod vt in hac sola quæstione tolerari possit, non tamen tux interrogationi satisfacit, qui generaliter quæris, Cur cõtrarioru[m] alia diximus , alia diximus statuantur. Eadem quæstio mota olim & ab aliis fuit: Mouir eos hæc potissu[m] ratio, quod viderent ab extremo vno ad alteru[m] trahitum fieri non posse, nisi per medium eatur: Ergo, inquiunt, eum motus omnis ex cõtratio frat in cõtraru[m], qui poterit inter allquam comparitatem mediù negari: Omnia igitur sunt diximus . Tua ratio, est eum hac eoincidit, tamen alia est. Sic enim colligis, Contraria sunt neq[ue] . quæ cum sunt sub eodem genere extreme sibi opposita medium habeant necesse est, siue nomen habeat, siue diximus sit. Distinguunt alii meditum in id quod transitus vocant. & id quod Y

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317 MEDICAL. If it is first given, it will not be a form or term of generation, but an indeterminate quality, namely a passive one, which is most absurd. If, according to him, the mutable body is denied, it will not be able to receive diseases unless, when its qualities are changed, it too is changed. We shall therefore return to the beginning; but in vain do I linger here: it cannot be that substance is a form, an accident. But if therefore it is substance, it has nothing contrary to it. Therefore not invi like the soul it suffers nothing. Therefore there is no subject of diseases in itself. The body therefore is first harmed, which you also concede. Therefore any disease is first and per se an affection of the body. Secondarily and by accident, of the soul or of human nature, insofar as, namely, when the body has been so badly affected, they can no longer remain together with it and inform it. This is what we say. Therefore nothing remains in controversy between us. Nay rather, much does remain: since pestilential and contagious poisonous humors or vapors also first invade the body, yet not merely according to simple temperament, but in such a way that they destroy the whole. I concede all this, but what you accomplish by it I do not yet clearly see. Pestilential humors either harm the body's temperament, or its unity, or the structure of the instruments. Unless they harm something of these, they will produce no diseases. But let us speak of the first kind, namely intemperies (the other two kinds of disease do not belong here). Can the nature of the body be destroyed while the temperament remains intact? You will affirm it, if you wish to uphold your thesis; I shall deny it. For any form to be in matter, it is necessary that the matter be fully complete, or perfectly disposed. For no form is in any subject in any matter whatsoever, or in its own proper and rightly disposed matter, unless we wish to have the miserable earth mixed with them, and imagine the human soul could dwell in the matter of an ass, a sow, or something else. But what is that disposition of matter other than a suitable temperament? When this is so, it is suitably disposed; when it is absent, it is incongruently disposed, and it is called matter. But it is impossible for matter, once perfectly disposed, not to be informed by the form for whose reception and retention it is suitably and sufficiently prepared. Nor can any form abandon its matter, so long as the matter is rightly tempered for its continuance. Therefore, since in substances and forms as such and first there is nothing contrary, and since all action comes from a contrary, they cannot be first and per se harmed or destroyed by any diseases. For this reason they necessarily corrupt the temperament first, which destroy the body; but neither is there, when temperament is considered as a habit or as the term of motion, anything contrary to it per se and first. For bodies are at rest, not moving, or are mobile, with respect to habits, as is demonstrated in Physics 7.3. Then therefore the body is changed only when the primary passive qualities are altered, or undergo passion. Wherefore only those things corrupt the body's temperament per se which can heat or cool; pestilential humors therefore or habits, unless by dividing the continuous body they destroy it, corrupt it by heating or by cooling. That diseases of instruments are not first and per se inflicted, I think must be admitted. Otherwise they cannot per se undermine temperament. But it is certain that while this remains intact, the body cannot perish or dissolve. Therefore it is in vain, if that fourth nature is posited, to think that something of substance adheres first to individual diseases. Here I might well note what I said before, that physical substantial forms without a corporeal instrument do nothing. The proximate cause of action is therefore the organ, or corporeal part. Wherefore either < Proximate di What cause the organ.> the disease is not first or proximately an affection of actions, or it is the proper affection of this part or instrument. But if the organ has its own proper disposition, it cannot be judged to be the proper affection of the form. What then is gained by that ornament concerning the form of the whole, if it were ever so true? For it is not humanity, but man, that is afflicted by diseases; nor does the soul suffer from diseases, but the body. < If substances also had been added, they too would sprout forth> He therefore vainly forges such things to establish diseases of the substance of the whole, which nature altogether does not know along with all antiquity. It is indeed a recent fiction, first, I believe, devised by Fernel. It seems, however, to have begun to sprout from chemistry. < It will conflict with other common opinions> What you ask lastly is by no means easy to explain. This question has tormented many physicians, since some conceded that a middle state exists between health and disease, while others, with Aristotle, denied it; and, so as to extricate themselves more easily, most said that it exists if the senses are made judges, but does not exist if judgment is entrusted to reason. Even if this may be tolerated in this single question, it nevertheless does not satisfy your inquiry, in which you ask generally why some things contrary to one another are posited, and others are not. The same question was formerly raised by others as well. They were moved especially by this reason: they saw that motion from one extreme to the other cannot be made unless one proceeds through a middle. Therefore, they say, since every motion is from a contrary into a contrary, how can there fail to be some middle between them? Therefore, all things are said . Your reason coincides with this one, yet is different. For thus you infer: contraries are and not . Since, when they are under the same genus, they are necessarily opposed to one another as extremes, they must have a middle, whether it have a name or whether it be said . Others distinguish the middle into that which they call the passage, and that which Y

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formæ nominant. Illud esse dicunt, quod magis & minus infinita serie recipiatur, vt est mediu[m] inter calidum & frigidum. Hoc esse affirmant, quod certam speciem vnâ vel plures habet interiectas, vt inter album & nigru[m], interponuntur rubrum, pallidum, liuidum, cæruleum. Hæc species non secundu[m] magis & minus tantu[m] differunt, sicut maior vel minor caliditas, sed definit[us] sunt species: Huius generis contraria non habent mediu[m] transi- rus, inquiunt: Non enim necessarium est, vt quâdo nigrum album sit, per omnes species transeat: Alterius generis ap[er]am vocari aiunt, quod definito medio careant: quæ cu[m] di-midium tantum quæstionis soluant, & non re- [con]c[ern]e tamen soluant, pro nulla resposione iure optimo habebimus. Aliter igitur explicabimus: Contrarium, quæ accidentia sunt, (funt enim & substantiarum differentia, per quas genera diuiduntur, contrarix, & quod eiutmodi contraria sint ap[er]am , caret omni cu[m] trouersia, vt arbitror) duo sunt modi, seu ge- nera, quoniam corpus subiectum propter a- liqua est per se mobile seu mutabile, propter aliqua quiescit. Et quæ extrema sunt, vel si- nes motionum, id est, secudum quæ corpus non mutatur, sed à motu quiescit, magis & minus respuunt, nec motui obnoxia per se sunt. Ad hoc genus pertinet omnes habitus, relationes & figuræ. ad ea quorum causa sub- iectum est mobile magis & minus recipiunt & obid ap[er]era sunt & dicu[n]tur, sicut altera pro pter causam contrariâ ap[er]era noscuntur: Quo modo enim fieri potest, & quæ magis & mi- nus non recipiunt, hæc & dimidio sunt talia vel talia! Non recipere antem habitus & terminos motuum magis & minus, & per se no- rum est, & 7. Phys. 3. demonstratur. Non e- nim habitus causa fieri aut perfici, sed facta vel perfecta res queuis dicitur. Sanitas igitur & morbus contraria sunt ap[er]ari eum secundum hos habitus non moueatur sed motum sit: Terminant enim motum. At calidum & frigidum contraria sunt ap[er]era , quia secundum ipsâ mouetur corpus, non autem motu[m] est: Recipiunt hæc magis & minus, cum ca- lidum possit fieri minus calidum, & similiter frigidum. Quare poterit idem medio modo habere. In talibus medium est cum extremis ap[er]oyvis , & consistit in qualitatibus patibilib. secundum quas corpus primo & per se est al- terabile. In habitibus contrariis medium est ap[er]i ap[er]oyvis , quod omnes intelligunt, qui inter motum & formâ per eam acquisitam distin- guere norunt: Nullum enim genus idem est motus & habitus per eundem acquisiti. Nec possunt extremi habitus componi aut misceri, vt ex illis medium quiddam geret- tur vtri sque extremi particeps. In his igitur medium transitus genere differt ab extre- mis, & proinde mediu[m] ap[er]oyvis non est: Qua- renon est necessarium, vt quando contra- rium permutatur in contrariu[m] transitus per- petuo fiat per medium eiusdem generis. Ita prior soluistur ratio. De tua non est cum multa dicam. Contraria, inquis, sunt ap[er]is n. scios sed & hoc alterum scio. Aristotelem negare omnibus in genere relationis contentis ac- cidere medium. Nec contraria sunt omnia nec recipiunt magis & minus relationes, vt in prædicamentis & loco supra eitato docuit Philosophus. Non ergo sequitur. Contraria referuntur, ergo habent medium, cum sint extrema quædam. Hoc enim solis illis acci- dit, quæ magis & minus recipiunt. Contra- rium sufficit contrario suo contrarium esse, non oportet medio contrarium esse. Satis de hac re dictum, si Medicos inter sanitatem & morbum medium ponentes duobus ver- bis excusauero. Medici artifices sunt, & ob- id circa singularia versanur, qui cum cer- tam in materiam introducere formam ve- lint, necessario materiæ nobilitatem, seu ha- bilitatem præcipue considerant: Hæc habili- tas corporum cum gradus siue magis & mi- nus suscipiat (est enim per se indefinita) qui sine habitibus definiri non possunt, morbu[m] & sanitatem non contemplantur, vt formas à materia secretas, aut motionum fines con- siderant eas, quatenus in materia inhærent, & cum habilitate iunctæ sunt: Per accidens igitur recipiunt magis & minus, itaque me- dium habere dicuntur, quatenus scilicet in corpore insunt, quod sanitatis habitu am- plius perfici, aut habitu morbi grauius lædi potest. Non nesciunt alias corpus nostrum non perfici, quatenus perfectum iam est, sed quatenus perfici amplius potest. At habitus ratione res nulla perfici potest, sed perfecta iam est: non igitur habitus ratione mouetur res vlla. Inter habitus ergo contrarios me- dium sen gradus nulli sunt: Quoniam vero accidit habitui, vt subiectum habile sit am- plius perfici eatenus habitibus gradus, qui ets tamen accidunt, ascribunt artifices, qui halce res tanta accuratione minime distin- guunt. Si non clare satis exposui, admonero sine, & si potero, dilucidius & fusius declara- bo. Vale. Dab. circa initium Ianuarii anni huius 79. quem tibi tuisque omnibus quam felicissimum ex toto corde precor. Salu- ta dominum Doctorem Iohann. Herman- num, & si quid Pandora illa recens fabri- cata agat nosti, de eo me cattiorem faci- to. Epistola

Transcription: Translated (English)

They call these “forms.” They say that one kind is that which is received through an infinite series of more and less, as in the intermediate between hot and cold. Another kind they affirm to be that which has a definite species with one or more intermediates inserted between, as between white and black there are placed red, pale, livid, and blue. These species differ not only according to more and less, like greater or lesser heat, but are definite species. They say that contraries of this kind have no intermediate transition: for it is not necessary, they say, that when black becomes white it pass through all the species. Another kind, they say, is called such because it lacks a defined middle; since, if these things merely solve half the question and do not truly resolve it, we shall rightly count them as no answer at all. We shall therefore explain it otherwise. Contraries, as accidents, are of two kinds, or two genera, since the subject body is by some things of itself movable or changeable, and by others at rest. Those extremes, or privations of motion—that is, according to which the body is not changed, but rests from motion—reject more and less, and are not of themselves subject to motion. To this genus belong all habits, relations, and figures. But those things in regard to which the subject is movable receive more and less, and therefore are called and are contraries, just as other things are known as contraries on account of their cause. For how can it be that things which do not receive more and less are nevertheless such and such by half? That habits and limits of motions do not receive more and less is clear in itself and is shown in Physics 7, chapter 3. For a habit is not something that comes to be or is perfected by becoming, but rather whatever thing has been made or perfected is called such. Thus health and disease are contraries because the subject is not moved according to these habits, but is rather in motion; for they terminate motion. But hot and cold are contraries because the body is moved according to them, not at rest from motion; and these receive more and less, since what is hot can become less hot, and likewise cold. Therefore the same thing can have a middle condition. In such cases the middle is with the extremes in a transition of the same genus, and it consists in passible qualities, according to which the body is first and of itself alterable. In contrary habits the middle is, as everyone understands who knows how to distinguish between motion and the form acquired through it, something in transition of a different kind; for no genus is the same as both the motion and the habit acquired through the same. Nor can the extreme habits be combined or mixed so that something intermediate is produced that shares in both extremes. In such cases, then, the middle in transition differs in genus from the extremes, and therefore is not a middle in the strict sense. Hence it is not necessary that, when one contrary is changed into another, the transition always pass through a middle of the same genus. Thus the first argument is solved. As for your argument, I shall not say much. You say that contraries are relatives; but I too know this. Aristotle denies that a middle belongs to everything contained in the genus of relation. Nor are all contraries relatives, nor do all relations receive more and less, as the Philosopher taught in the Categories and in the place cited above. Therefore it does not follow: contraries are related, therefore they have a middle, since they are in a way extremes. For this happens only to those things which receive more and less. A contrary need only be contrary to its contrary; it need not be contrary to a middle term. Enough has been said on this matter, if I have excused the physicians with two words for placing a middle between health and disease. Physicians are craftsmen, and therefore they deal with particulars; and when they wish to introduce a certain form into matter, they necessarily consider chiefly the nobility, or capability, of the matter. This capability of bodies, since it admits degrees or more and less—for it is in itself indefinite—cannot be defined apart from habits. They do not contemplate disease and health as forms separated from matter, or as limits of motions, but consider them insofar as they inhere in matter and are joined with capability. Thus they receive more and less by accident, and so are said to have a middle insofar as they exist in a body, which can be further perfected by the habit of health or more gravely harmed by the habit of disease. They are not unaware that our body is not perfected insofar as it is already perfect, but insofar as it can be perfected further. But by the notion of habit nothing can be perfected, since it is already perfect; therefore nothing is moved by reason of habit. Between contrary habits, then, there are no middle terms or degrees. Yet because it happens to habit that the subject is capable of being perfected further, the craftsmen attribute degrees to habits, although these are merely accidental, since they do not distinguish these matters with sufficient care. If I have not explained this clearly enough, let me know, and if I can, I shall set it out more clearly and more fully. Farewell. Given around the beginning of January of this present year 79, which I pray from my whole heart may be most happy for you and all yours. Greet Master Doctor Johann Hermann, and if you know anything about that recently fabricated Pandora, let me know more certainly about it. Epistle

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121 MEDICINALES. 522 Epist. 273. Idem eidem, Literas tuas postremas, vir ornarissime, ante menses fere duos accepi, sed ad eas nondum respondi, partim negotiis impeditus, partim tabellariorum inopia prohibitus. Abfui enim per mensem in thermis. quem ad locu[m] nullus venit: iam igitur respondebo. Chemiam me non simpliciter damnare, sed magnis laudibus tollere, si vtilia & quæ fieri possunt, conetur facere; satis intellexisti. Id eor[um] negotia à peculiari tempera[n]to prouenire, ut idem perspexisti. Itaque hoc solum addam. non esse temperamenta hæc extra humanæ temperamentis latitudinem posita. Plane sunt infinita hæc indiuiduorum temperamenta, vnde sit, vt tanta sit ingeniorum, naturaru[m] & morum diuersitas. Singuli enim fere aliquid proprii habent, ac raro sit, vt duo aliqui eisdem reb. delectentur, quippe quib[us] alius gaudet, alius auersatur. Verum nos illas notare duntaxat solemus, quæ in frequentiis accidunt, & à communi natura plurimu[m] cesserunt. A philosophorum sententia me discensionem facere, & ad medicos transire, non bene opinaris, quando res quaslibet opere & potentia definiendas esse scripsi. An non enim testimoniis apertis Aristotelis hoc ipsum comprobau? Quæ si non satis clara videntur tibi, lege principium in lib. Oeconomici. vbi hæc verba reperies: ~~n[on] [n]o[n] magis est verum R[espondeo] R[espondeo] habbarum, quæ in gemmis tales appare[n]t, vitio eis datur, alienique aliquid interuenisse significant. Quas in nobiliorib[us] metallis venas voc[at]at, ven[us] no[n] sunt, sed vel meatus terræ, vel tractus, in qui bus ap[er]ta continetur materia, ex qua generari possit, si genitum non sit metallii, &c. Humanitas, vt genus, species, prædicabile, est ~~ven[us] intellectus, quib[us] res extra mentem nulla reiponderet. Vniuersale, inquit, Aristoteles, vel nihil est, vel post res est, post qua scilicet animo à reb[us] abstraxerimus. Talia autem non agunt, aut patiuntur. Nec ob id inane co[m]mentum. Scruit[ur] [e]n[im] cognitioni nostræ plurimum dum quæ natura in multis vna est & à singulis est inseparabilis, & nec agit, ne parit in singulis, vt vniuersalis, sed vt est res singularis, ita quoque agit) quod ne tu quidem ignoras: 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 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Transcription: Translated (English)

121. MEDICAL MATTERS. 522 Epistle 273. The same to the same, I received your last letter, most distinguished sir, nearly two months ago, but I have not yet replied to it, being partly hindered by business, partly prevented by the lack of messengers. For I was away for a month at the baths, to which place no one came; I shall therefore answer now. That I do not simply condemn chemistry, but praise it highly, if it tries to do useful things and those that can be done, you have understood well enough. That this arises from a particular temperament, as you have likewise perceived, is clear. I shall add only this: that these temperaments are not placed outside the range of human temperaments. These individual temperaments are plainly infinite, and from this there comes such great diversity of talents, natures, and manners. For almost every person has something peculiar to himself, and it is rare that any two delight in the same things, since what one enjoys, another dislikes. Yet we are accustomed to mark only those differences that occur frequently and have departed most from common nature. You think that I am making a departure from the opinion of the philosophers and turning to the physicians not well, since I wrote that all things whatever must be defined by their operation and power. Have I not indeed confirmed this very point by the clear testimony of Aristotle? If these passages seem not clear enough to you, read the beginning of the book Oeconomica , where you will find these words: “... not more truly ...” In the case of those bubbles which appear in gems, the fault is attributed to them, and this indicates that something foreign has intervened. What he calls veins in the nobler metals are not veins, but either passages of the earth, or channels in which the matter is contained open so that it may be generated, if it has not yet been generated into metal, etc. Humanity, as genus, species, predicate, is a vein of the intellect, to which no thing outside the mind corresponds. The universal, Aristotle says, is either nothing, or it is after things, namely after we have abstracted them in the mind from the things themselves. Such things neither act nor are acted upon. Nor is it therefore an empty invention. For it contributes greatly to our knowledge that what nature is as one thing in many and inseparable from individuals neither acts nor is produced in individuals as universal, but acts as it is a singular thing; which even you do not ignore:

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Humanitas igitur est homo seu hominis natu ramente per modum ideo co[n]sidetata: Arque ideas quodq[ue] partem substantiæ non esse rerum, quarum luor specis, certum est apud omnes. Qui posset igitur hac forma extra res siue in animis duntaxi nostris inhærens morbus totius substantiæ nobis pare re? Non etiam sic est in mente hominis humanitas, vt ei homo respondeat extra subsistens, sed quæ in homine est singularis, in < Morbi cert. in substantia fuiti.> < 10> mente est inuersalis. Quid in meutem venerit noui morbi inuentoribus nec suo. Hoc interim probè scio, morbos omnes (de corporeis loquor) accidere primo corpori, non animæ seu formæ: Item, quod morbi omnes necessario (cum lædant actionem primo) in illis reb. insint, siue illis hoccant, quib[us] primo operationes animæ efficit. Si enim in re aliqua affectus ali- quistit, qui nihil istorum lædit, duto hoc fa- cit, morbus n[on] erit nominandus. Ergo cum præter itia non possunt ostendi, à quib[us] pri- mo eduotur operationes, quid est opus alia quærere? Hoc ais quæritur potissimu[m]: quod primo lædatur. Non enim iusiciari quenqua[m] quam temperamentum simul lædatur. Quæ- ro ego rursum, an ætio lædi possit, antequam temperamentum vitiauerit. Si potest, non erit temperamentum primum instrumentu[m] animæ, & ex cuiteretur in re tanta omnium < Temperamet di lapso.> < 30> seculorum Philosophi & Medici. Cum tem peramentum ob læditi asserimus, non de sola partium 101sidiorum temperie loqvimur. sed etiam spiritum. & volumus intelligi de te- pere actu, quæ coustat ex calore su implantatu, cum influente. Falleris cum putas ipsos quoque autores confessuros simul cum tota substantia temporamentum necessario destrui. Contrarium assistant & scribunt, ali- quando morbum totius substantiæ actiones lædere, temperamento nulla in parte adhuc offenso. Spiritui & calori cum nocumetum afferri aiunt, bene dieunt arte temperamentu[m] tunc non lædi non ostendunt. Cum vero a- nimam primo offeudiaiunt, quid dicant, nesciunt. Ego etiam sic nunquam sum argu- mentarus. In substantiæ totius morbis neces- se est temperamentum destrui. Ergo tem- peramentum per se & primo læditur sic ego colligo. Si actio à temperamento proueni- ens, vel si actio nulla læditur à morbo nisi te- peramentum aut fabrica, auro co[n]tinuitas par- tus vitiata sit, certum est ab his primo actio- nes produci, & in his omnes morbos inesse, neq[ue] pro morbo centeri posse affectum, qui < Morbi pro ceujem jam.> liatum nihil lædit. Cum in accidentib[us] suffu- sioni similib[us] viti[us] ventriculi ortis scribis, af- fectionem eam oculorum non propriè dici morbu, neq[ue] ab ea oculos primo lædi, rursus falleris. Vt de primo nihil dicâ, quomodo di- cis tu affectu[m] oculi primo nô lędere oculos? Quo in loco pri[us] est dispositio illa oculi, quâ in ipso oculo? Veru[m] est, quod causa affectio- nis in ventriculo prius colligitur, & inde in cerebrum oculosq[ue] ascendit. Quo curæ per- uenus, oculum lædit, quæ læsio alibi p[er]tius nô fuit: Solet hic vapor aliquando prius mor- dere eos ventriculi: Consentire tum oculi solem. at non eodem ipsi posterius morbo laborare solent, quo ventriculus. Vt enim ventriculi, visio lædi non potest, ita nec oculi concoctio ea, quæ panem, vinum, carnes, vertit in chylum, &c. < Medium cum trariorum.> De co[n]traris mediis, & medio carentib[us] nô reprehenderem tuam explicationem, si me- dium illud subiectu[m] posset inueniri. Cum in < 11> quibus, Naturæ non posset de vno extremo transire ad alteru[m], nisi prius transeat ad me- diu[m], videtur, nulla dari medio carentia con- traria. < Medus & v[er]a in non co[n]traria sed præva tum opposi- ta.> Mors & vita nô sunt co[n]traria proprie dicta, sed primario & forma, seu priuatiue op- posita. Nos de proprie sic vocatis disserba- muis. Ita simul ad altera[m] obiectionem resp[ect]o sum habes. Quoniam neq[ue] formas co[n]trarias < Substantia- les differentia impropriæ co[n] traria.> inter se dicimus, qui non sunt accidensia, & nihilominus differentias, quib[us] genera diui- duntur, contrarias esse fatemur, at non pro- prie. Co[n]traria naturalia, quæ proprie ita vo- cantur, hæc se de vno subiecto loulcem, pel- lunt, in eoq[ue] sibi succedunt, quod substai- les differentiæ nullæ facere possunt. Quomo- do & cur aliqua extrema opposita medio ca- reant, satis supra expolui, quia scilicet talia sunt habitus, termini, fines, dispositiones, quæ magis & minus non recipiunt. Recte scribis, me de co[n]trariis habitib[us]. vt sanitate & morbo dispurare, te vero de habitu & priua- none disserere, vt vita & morte. De his quia < 40> vere proprie co[n]traria non sunt, non eadem dici possunt, quæ contrariis recte co[n]petunt. Vale felicissime vir Ornatissime & doctissi- me. Dat. 4. septemb. an. 1579. Post scriptum; Quia propere nimis scripsi, veritus sum ne non commode legeres. Itaq[ue] puero dedi, vt transcribat, & qui fortasse non potero rele- gere, libet interim te eius admonere, dum i- pse exscribi: Rogo te quanto possum studio < 50> vt D. Iacobo fratri tuo ex me salutem quam officiosissime dicas: Scribere ei decreuerâ, sed præter opinione[m] obrutus sum ogetiis, vt iam nunc licueris. Accedir quod nihil ha- bui, quod præcipue scriberem. Quod si ta- le quid fuisset, certe somoum non ce pissem, priusqua[m] ei scripsissem. Hoc sciat me ipsum in pectore meo gerere semper, propter præ- claram pietatem, aliasque animi præstantes virtutes, propter quas ab omnibus bonis & prudentib[us] eum diligi & amari sentio. Scri- bam

Transcription: Translated (English)

Therefore humanitas is man, or the nature of man, considered in that way. And it is certain to everyone that an idea is not a part of substance, among whose species it is included. How then could this disease of the whole substance, existing outside things, or only in our minds, appear to us in this form? It is not so either: humanitas is in the mind of man, so that man corresponds to it as existing outside; but what is in man is singular, in the mind it is universal. What may have occurred to the discoverers of the new disease, I do not know. For the present, this much I know well: all diseases (I speak of bodily ones) happen first to the body, not to the soul or the form. Likewise, that all diseases necessarily, since they first impair action, are in those things, or affect those things, by which the operations of the soul are first produced. For if in some thing there is an affection which harms none of these, though it does this and that, it is not to be called a disease. Therefore, since beyond these one cannot show what first gives rise to the operations, what need is there to seek anything else? This, you say, is chiefly asked: what is first harmed. For no one judges that the temperament is harmed at the same time. I ask in turn whether the body can be harmed before the temperament is corrupted. If it can, then temperament will not be the first instrument of the soul, and in so great a matter all the philosophers and physicians of the ages would have been deceived. When we assert that temperament is harmed, we do not speak only of the tempering of the parts themselves, but also of the spirit, and we intend it to mean the actual state of warmth, which consists of implanted heat with inflowing heat. You are mistaken when you think that the authors themselves will admit that with the whole substance the temperament is necessarily destroyed. On the contrary, they maintain and write that sometimes the disease of the whole substance harms the actions while the temperament has not yet been offended in any part. They say that damage is inflicted on spirit and heat; they speak well in that. But they do not show that temperament is then not harmed. When, however, they say that the soul is first offended, they do not know what they are saying. I too have never argued in that way. In diseases of the whole substance, temperament must necessarily be destroyed. Therefore temperament is harmed by itself and first: thus I infer. If an action arises from temperament, or if no action is harmed by disease unless the temperament or structure, or the continuity of the parts, has been corrupted, it is certain that actions are produced first from these, and that in these all diseases inhere, nor can that affection be counted as a disease which harms nothing. When you write, in accidents similar to a suffusion, arising from disorders of the stomach, that such an affection of the eyes is not properly called a disease, nor are the eyes first harmed by it, you are again mistaken. To say nothing of the first point, how can you say that the affection of the eye does not first harm the eyes? In what place is that disposition of the eye found before it is in the eye itself? It is true that the cause of the affection is first gathered in the stomach and from there ascends into the brain and eyes. Where it reaches, it harms the eye, though this injury was not previously elsewhere. At times this vapor first irritates the stomach: then the eyes usually consent; but they do not afterward labor under the same disease as the stomach. For just as the stomach’s vision cannot be harmed, so neither can the eye’s digestion, that which turns bread, wine, and meat into chyle, and so on. As for contraries with an intermediate, and contraries without one, I would not criticize your explanation, if that intermediate subject could be found. Since in some cases nature cannot pass from one extreme to another unless it first pass through a middle, it seems that no contraries lacking a middle can be given. Death and life are not contraries in the proper sense, but are primarily and formally, or privatively, opposed. We were speaking of those properly so called. Thus you have an answer also to the other objection. For we do not say that forms are contrary to one another, since they are not accidents; and nevertheless we admit that the differences by which genera are divided are contraries, though not properly so called. Natural contraries, which are so called in the proper sense, drive one another away from the same subject and succeed one another in it, something which substantial differences cannot do. How and why some opposed extremes lack a middle, I have sufficiently explained above, namely because such things are habits, limits, ends, dispositions, which do not admit of more and less. You rightly write that I am disputing about contrary habits, as health and disease, whereas you are arguing about habit and privation, as life and death. Since these are not truly and properly contraries, the same things cannot be said of them as rightly belong to contraries. Farewell, most happy, most distinguished, and most learned man. Given on 4 September 1579. Postscript: Because I wrote too hastily, I feared that you might not read it conveniently. So I gave it to a boy to copy, and since perhaps I shall not be able to reread it, I wish meanwhile to remind you of this while it is being transcribed: I beg you, with all the diligence I can, to give my most respectful greetings from me to D. Jacob, your brother. I had decided to write to him, but contrary to expectation I was overwhelmed with business, so that I was not able to do so now. Add to this that I had nothing of special importance to write. But if I had had such a thing, I certainly would not have gone to sleep before writing to him. Let him know that I always carry him in my heart, on account of his excellent piety and the other outstanding virtues of his mind, on account of which I feel that he is loved and cherished by all good and prudent men. I shall write.

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Transcription: ATR-1

M E D I C I N A L E S. 514 bam ei aliquando aliquid, quod ei gratu fore putem. studio nuptias cum meditari, quâ rem ei Dominus Iesus æterni Patris æternus filius, verus & vnicus cu[m] patre & spiritu sancto Deus, & Dominus & servator noster vt bene vertat, ictio precor & precabor. Die 9. Sept. 79. Epistola 174. Idem eidem. Q VIA heri vesperi præter opinionem rediit Basilea vester tabellarius, tempore quo rum propter disputatione[m], & electionem, tum alias occupationes plurimum fui distractus, nô mihi, licet maxime volenti, plura licuit. Velim scire num & tu meas acceperis, & generoso D. Dudithio suæ redditæ sint. Ei meis verbis plurimâ (vna cum fratre tuo domino Iacobo, quem propter egregiam pietatem in oculis & corde fero) salutæ dicas te etiam atq[ue] etiam oro. Refet præterea Pernâ iterum impressurum eius iudicium de come tis, eiq[ue] adiuncturum meum nonnihil auctu & correctum monitu tuo, & Squareilupi disputationem, vna cum responsione mea. Aliud iam addere non possum. Mitto tibi, domino Dudithio, & fratri tuo, si his reb[us] forte delectatur, exemplu[m] disputationis de humorum nutritione, quæ vox per negligentiâ in titulo est posit a, cum in actiua significatione posita sit, & in passiua magis v surperur. Præterea in thesi 31. nihil quidem dixi falsi, sed non probaui, quod debui. Sola verba ex Galeno citata ad rem faciuit. Quid dicam aliud, quam me dormiuisset? Non animaduerti, nisi cum iam excusæ essent. Probatio magis co[n]tinetur in 32. Hæc vos monere placuit, ne putetis me pudere erratoru[m] meorum. Vale seliciter, & me ama. Dat. 16. Nouemb. an. 1579. Epistola 275. Idem eidem; LITERAS tuas, vir clarissime, à te istic 17. Decem. scriptas, hic mihi reddidit tabel larius vester, ante dies plus minus 14. Responsum quia exspectas, breuiter sic habeto. Dixi omnia illa, quæ certi vsus gratia à natura pro ducta sunt, potetia & operatione eius vsus de finiri: quod apertis Aristot & Galeni testimoniis probaui. (licer opus non sit probatione apud illos, qui rem ipsam æstimant) & riverum esse non inficiaris. Hoc dubitas, qualemq[ue] potetiam intelligam? Respondeo, illâ me intelligere potestiam, & operationâ, cuius causa facta est res quælibet Pater hoc ex sententia quam ex 1. Politic. citaui, quæ sic habet: 2) Quod tibi, 3) Quod tibi, 4) Quod tibi, 5) Quod tibi, 6) Quod tibi, 7) Quod tibi, 8) Quod tibi, 9) Quod tibi, 10) Quod tibi, 11) Quod tibi, 12) Quod tibi, 13) Quod tibi, 14) Quod tibi, 15) Quod tibi, 16) Quod tibi, 17) Quod tibi, 18) Quod tibi, 19) Quod tibi, 20) Quod tibi, 21) Quod tibi, 22) Quod tibi, 23) Quod tibi, 24) Quod tibi, 25) Quod tibi, 26) Quod tibi, 27) Quod tibi, 28) Quod tibi, 29) Quod tibi, 30) Quod tibi, 31) Quod tibi, 32) Quod tibi, 33) Quod tibi, 34) Quod tibi, 35) Quod tibi, 36) Quod tibi, 37) Quod tibi, 38) Quod tibi, 39) Quod tibi, 40) Quod tibi, 41) Quod tibi, 42) Quod tibi, 43) Quod tibi, 44) Quod tibi, 45) Quod tibi, 46) Quod tibi, 47) Quod tibi, 48) Quod tibi, 49) Quod tibi, 50) Quod tibi, 51) Quod tibi, 52) Quod tibi, 53) Quod tibi, 54) Quod tibi, 55) Quod tibi, 56) Quod tibi, 57) Quod tibi, 58) Quod tibi, 59) Quod tibi, 60) Quod tibi, 61) Quod tibi, 62) Quod tibi, 63) Quod tibi, 64) Quod tibi, 65) Quod tibi, 66) Quod tibi, 67) Quod tibi, 68) Quod tibi, 69) Quod tibi, 70) Quod tibi, 71) Quod tibi, 72) Quod tibi, 73) Quod tibi, 74) Quod tibi, 75) Quod tibi, 76) Quod tibi, 77) Quod tibi, 78) Quod tibi, 79) Quod tibi, 80) Quod tibi, 81) Quod tibi, 82) Quod tibi, 83) Quod tibi, 84) Quod tibi, 85) Quod tibi, 86) Quod tibi, 87) Quod tibi, 88) Quod tibi, 89) Quod tibi, 90) Quod tibi, 91) Quod tibi, 92) Quod tibi, 93) Quod tibi, 94) Quod tibi, 95) Quod tibi, 96) Quod tibi, 97) Quod tibi, 98) Quod tibi, 99) Quod tibi, 100) Quod tibi, 101) Quod tibi, 102) Quod tibi, 103) Quod tibi, 104) Quod tibi, 105) Quod tibi, 106) Quod tibi, 107) Quod tibi, 108) Quod tibi, 109) Quod tibi, 110) Quod tibi, 111) Quod tibi, 112) Quod tibi, 113) Quod tibi, 114) Quod tibi, 115) Quod tibi, 116) Quod tibi, 117) Quod tibi, 118) Quod tibi, 119) Quod tibi, 120) Quod tibi, 121) Quod tibi, 122) Quod tibi, 123) Quod tibi, 124) Quod tibi, 125) Quod tibi, 126) Quod tibi, 127) Quod tibi, 128) Quod tibi, 129) Quod tibi, 130) Quod tibi, 131) Quod tibi, 132) Quod tibi, 133) Quod tibi, 134) Quod tibi, 135) Quod tibi, 136) Quod tibi, 137) Quod tibi, 138) Quod tibi, 139) Quod tibi, 140) Quod tibi, 141) Quod tibi, 142) Quod tibi, 143) Quod tibi, 144) Quod tibi, 145) Quod tibi, 146) Quod tibi, 147) Quod tibi, 148) Quod tibi, 149) Quod tibi, 150) Quod tibi, 151) Quod tibi, 152) Quod tibi, 153) Quod tibi, 154) Quod tibi, 155) Quod tibi, 156) Quod tibi, 157) Quod tibi, 158) Quod tibi, 159) Quod tibi, 160) Quod tibi, 161) Quod tibi, 162) Quod tibi, 163) Quod tibi, 164) Quod tibi, 165) Quod tibi, 166) Quod tibi, 167) Quod tibi, 168) Quod tibi, 169) Quod tibi, 170) Quod tibi, 171) Quod tibi, 172) Quod tibi, 173) Quod tibi, 174) Quod tibi, 175) Quod tibi, 176) Quod tibi, 177) Quod tibi, 178) Quod tibi, 179) Quod tibi, 180) Quod tibi, 181) Quod tibi, 182) Quod tibi, 183) Quod tibi, 184) Quod tibi, 185) Quod tibi, 186) Quod tibi, 187) Quod tibi, 188) Quod tibi, 189) Quod tibi, 190) Quod tibi, 191) Quod tibi, 192) Quod tibi, 193) Quod tibi, 194) Quod tibi, 195) Quod tibi, 196) Quod tibi, 197) Quod tibi, 198) Quod tibi, 199) Quod tibi, 200) Quod tibi, 201) Quod tibi, 202) Quod tibi, 203) Quod tibi, 204) Quod tibi, 205) Quod tibi, 206) Quod tibi, 207) Quod tibi, 208) Quod tibi, 209) Quod tibi, 210) Quod tibi, 211) Quod tibi, 212) Quod tibi, 213) Quod tibi, 214) Quod tibi, 215) Quod tibi, 216) Quod tibi, 217) Quod tibi, 218) Quod tibi, 219) Quod tibi, 220) Quod tibi, 221) Quod tibi, 222) Quod tibi, 223) Quod tibi, 224) Quod tibi, 225) Quod tibi, 226) Quod tibi, 227) Quod tibi, 228) Quod tibi, 229) Quod tibi, 230) Quod tibi, 231) Quod tibi, 232) Quod tibi, 233) Quod tibi, 234) Quod tibi, 235) Quod tibi, 236) Quod tibi, 237) Quod tibi, 238) Quod tibi, 239) Quod tibi, 240) Quod tibi, 241) Quod tibi, 242) Quod tibi, 243) Quod tibi, 244) Quod tibi, 245) Quod tibi, 246) Quod tibi, 247) Quod tibi, 248) Quod tibi, 249) Quod tibi, 250) Quod tibi, 251) Quod tibi, 252) Quod tibi, 253) Quod tibi, 254) Quod tibi, 255) Quod tibi, 256) Quod tibi, 257) Quod tibi, 258) Quod tibi, 259) Quod tibi, 260) Quod tibi, 261) Quod tibi, 262) Quod tibi, 263) Quod tibi, 264) Quod tibi, 265) Quod tibi, 266) Quod tibi, 267) Quod tibi, 268) Quod tibi, 269) Quod tibi, 270) Quod tibi, 271) Quod tibi, 272) Quod tibi, 273) Quod tibi, 274) Quod tibi, 275) Quod tibi, 276) Quod tibi, 277) Quod tibi, 278) Quod tibi, 279) Quod tibi, 280) Quod tibi, 281) Quod tibi, 282) Quod tibi, 283) Quod tibi, 284) Quod tibi, 285) Quod tibi, 286) Quod tibi, 287) Quod tibi, 288) Quod tibi, 289) Quod tibi, 290) Quod tibi, 291) Quod tibi, 292) Quod tibi, 293) Quod tibi, 294) Quod tibi, 295) Quod tibi, 296) Quod tibi, 297) Quod tibi, 298) Quod tibi, 299) Quod tibi, 300) Quod tibi, 301) Quod tibi, 302) Quod tibi, 303) Quod tibi, 304) Quod tibi, 305) Quod tibi, 306) Quod tibi, 307) Quod tibi, 308) Quod tibi, 309) Quod tibi, 310) Quod tibi, 311) Quod tibi, 312) Quod tibi, 313) Quod tibi, 314) Quod tibi, 315) Quod tibi, 316) Quod tibi, 317) Quod tibi, 318) Quod tibi, 319) Quod tibi, 320) Quod tibi, 321) Quod tibi, 322) Quod tibi, 323) Quod tibi, 324) Quod tibi, 325) Quod tibi, 326) Quod tibi, 327) Quod tibi, 328) Quod tibi, 329) Quod tibi, 330) Quod tibi, 331) Quod tibi, 332) Quod tibi, 333) Quod tibi, 334) Quod tibi, 335) Quod tibi, 336) Quod tibi, 337) Quod tibi, 338) Quod tibi, 339) Quod tibi, 340) Quod tibi, 341) Quod tibi, 342) Quod tibi, 343) Quod tibi, 344) Quod tibi, 345) Quod tibi, 346) Quod tibi, 347) Quod tibi, 348) Quod tibi, 349) Quod tibi, 350) Quod tibi, 351) Quod tibi, 352) Quod tibi, 353) Quod tibi, 354) Quod tibi, 355) Quod tibi, 356) Quod tibi, 357) Quod tibi, 358) Quod tibi, 359) Quod tibi, 360) Quod tibi, 361) Quod tibi, 362) Quod tibi, 363) Quod tibi, 364) Quod tibi, 365) Quod tibi, 366) Quod tibi, 367) Quod tibi, 368) Quod tibi, 369) Quod tibi, 370) Quod tibi, 371) Quod tibi, 372) Quod tibi, 373) Quod tibi, 374) Quod tibi, 375) Quod tibi, 376) Quod tibi, 377) Quod tibi, 378) Quod tibi, 379) Quod tibi, 380) Quod tibi, 381) Quod tibi, 382) Quod tibi, 383) Quod tibi, 384) Quod tibi, 385) Quod tibi, 386) Quod tibi, 387) Quod tibi, 388) Quod tibi, 389) Quod tibi, 390) Quod tibi, 391) Quod tibi, 392) Quod tibi, 393) Quod tibi, 394) Quod tibi, 395) Quod tibi, 396) Quod tibi, 397) Quod tibi, 398) Quod tibi, 399) Quod tibi, 400) Quod tibi, 401) Quod tibi, 402) Quod tibi, 403) Quod tibi, 404) Quod tibi, 405) Quod tibi, 406) Quod tibi, 407) Quod tibi, 408) Quod tibi, 409) Quod tibi, 410) Quod tibi, 411) Quod tibi, 412) Quod tibi, 413) Quod tibi, 414) Quod tibi, 415) Quod tibi, 416) Quod tibi, 417) Quod tibi, 418) Quod tibi, 419) Quod tibi, 420) Quod tibi, 421) Quod tibi, 422) Quod tibi, 423) Quod tibi, 424) Quod tibi, 425) Quod tibi, 426) Quod tibi, 427) Quod tibi, 428) Quod tibi, 429) Quod tibi, 430) Quod tibi, 431) Quod tibi, 432) Quod tibi, 433) Quod tibi, 434) Quod tibi, 435) Quod tibi, 436) Quod tibi, 437) Quod tibi, 438) Quod tibi, 439) Quod tibi, 440) Quod tibi, 441) Quod tibi, 442) Quod tibi, 443) 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tibi, 506) Quod tibi, 507) Quod tibi, 508) Quod tibi, 509) Quod tibi, 510) Quod tibi, 511) Quod tibi, 512) Quod tibi, 513) Quod tibi, 514) Quod tibi, 515) Quod tibi, 516) Quod tibi, 517) Quod tibi, 518) Quod tibi, 519) Quod tibi, 520) Quod tibi, 521) Quod tibi, 522) Quod tibi, 523) Quod tibi, 524) Quod tibi, 525) Quod tibi, 526) Quod tibi, 527) Quod tibi, 528) Quod tibi, 529) Quod tibi, 530) Quod tibi, 531) Quod tibi, 532) Quod tibi, 533) Quod tibi, 534) Quod tibi, 535) Quod tibi, 536) Quod tibi, 537) Quod tibi, 538) Quod tibi, 539) Quod tibi, 540) Quod tibi, 541) Quod tibi, 542) Quod tibi, 543) Quod tibi, 544) Quod tibi, 545) Quod tibi, 546) Quod tibi, 547) Quod tibi, 548) Quod tibi, 549) Quod tibi, 550) Quod tibi, 551) Quod tibi, 552) Quod tibi, 553) Quod tibi, 554) Quod tibi, 555) Quod tibi, 556) Quod tibi, 557) Quod tibi, 558) Quod tibi, 559) Quod tibi, 560) Quod tibi, 561) Quod tibi, 562) Quod tibi, 563) Quod tibi, 564) Quod tibi, 565) Quod tibi, 566) Quod tibi, 567) Quod tibi, 568) Quod tibi, 569) Quod tibi, 570) Quod tibi, 571) Quod tibi, 572) Quod tibi, 573) Quod tibi, 574) Quod tibi, 575) Quod tibi, 576) Quod tibi, 577) Quod tibi, 578) Quod tibi, 579) Quod tibi, 580) Quod tibi, 581) Quod tibi, 582) Quod tibi, 583) Quod tibi, 584) Quod tibi, 585) Quod tibi

Transcription: Translated (English)

MEDICINALS. 514 I pray and will pray that the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the eternal Father, true and only God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and our Lord and Savior, may graciously direct this matter. Die 9. Sept. 79. Letter 174. The same to the same. Because yesterday evening your messenger unexpectedly returned from Basel, at a time when, on account of the dispute and the election, as well as many other occupations, I was greatly distracted, I was not able, though most willing, to write at greater length. I should like to know whether you have also received my letters, and whether they have been returned to the noble D. Dudithius. Please give him my very many greetings, together with your brother, Master Jacob, whom I hold before my eyes and in my heart because of his outstanding piety; I beg this again and again. Moreover, Reft says that Pernâ will print again his judgment on the comets, and will add to it something of mine, enlarged and corrected on your advice, as well as Squarelupi’s disputation, together with my response. I can add nothing further now. I am sending you, to Master Dudithius, and to your brother, if he happens to take delight in such matters, a copy of the disputation on the nourishment of humors, in which word, through negligence, in the title it is placed, though it should be used in the active sense, and is more often used in the passive. Moreover, in thesis 31 I said nothing false, but I did not prove what I ought to have proved. The words cited from Galen alone were relevant to the matter. What shall I say except that I must have been asleep? I did not notice it until the copies were already printed. The proof is contained more in 32. I was pleased to warn you of this, lest you think I am ashamed of my mistakes. Farewell happily, and love me. Written 16 Nov. in the year 1579. Letter 275. The same to the same. Your letter, most illustrious sir, written by you there on 17 Dec., your messenger delivered to me here about 14 days ago. Since you are expecting an answer, here it is briefly. I said that all those things which, for the sake of a definite use, are produced by nature, are defined by their power and operation in that use: this I proved by the clear testimonies of Aristotle and Galen. (Although proof is unnecessary for those who judge the matter itself) and you do not deny that it is true. You ask what sort of power I mean? I answer that I mean that power and operation for the sake of which each thing was made. I cited this from the statement in the first Politics, which reads as follows: [repeated citation fragment omitted in source after no. 1] ... 585) Quod tibi

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dimus mortuum, vt eqnus, vel homo mortuus. Quæ autem mortua egregiam vtilitatem exhibent, frequenter eodem nomine donamus, viuenna & mortua. In plantis, hoc est vitatissimum, itemque in alimentis. Dicimus enim nos edere gallinas, turdos, pisces, non autem horum cadauera. Tunc enim cadauera fere vocamus, cum non amplius edi possent. Quod aliam esse tototum aliam rursus partium rationem, vt oculi & manus, omni caret ratione. An enim mor- mus homo, equus, bos, arbor, &c. minus dicitur equus homo, equus, bos, arbor, quam morrua manus, pes, oculus, ramus? Aristotel. verba non legisti, 9. de anima 1. cum sic ait: Quæ eò [con]firma[ti]o[n]es [secun]d[u]m, [con]vixi [con]a[utem] [con]v[er]tio[n]e [n]o[n] [con]v[er]tio[n]is. Quæ de metallorum vita disputas, indigna certe sunt, de quibus verba inter nos tot co[m]mutemus. Nulla gens, nulla lingua, nulli do- di, ne sacra quidem literæ vitam eis adseri- bunt, qualis inest animalib[us] vel plantis. Cu[m] eis analogum cordi tribuis, non animaduet tisse videris, ea sic frequenter eum sua gleba permista nasci, vt oculis separari nequeant. In istis minutioribus particulis, quam sint pulices: quid tu corculi singis? si quæ in ipsis est facultas, vis aut forma, tibi animam appellare ant vitam lubet, te aut salium credere, aut nimis audacter nominib[us] abuti noris. Ad me quod attinet, no[n] facile porro ad hæc tibi respondere: cum nec vtilitatis, nec probabilitatis aliquid habeat ea disputatiu. Qui per additamenta concrescere negat matri- ces eorum, (vt vocant) paucas aut negligen- ter inspexit. De humanitate quoque plura non addam. si quæ res est, quæ conceptrui huic extra intellectum respondeat alio mo- do, quam nuper scripsi, etiam animaliras, & leonitas & plantitas, &c. ex stare perhibebi- tur. Quid [secun]d[u]m in morbis significet Hippo- crati, expositum à me est alibi, & à Galeno satis fuit de claratum. Vocat ita temperiem aeris peculiari & latente modo corpora l[ing]dentem: Hanc si à temperie morbida nota seiungere ac discernere libet, modo certum & nobis non incognitum gradum intem- periei fateatis, nominare tibi vt libet potestatem concedimus: at ab autoribus horum morborum non te receptum iri, si ab hypo- thesis sua recedere nolint, tibi affirmo. De 5o quare, quia itidem satisf Dixi in proximis li- teris, plura hic non addam. Non est opus vt repetam superiora de contrariis, dummodo minisse possis, me de contrariis proprie si enom natis locutum semper fusse, non de priuatiue oppositis, qualia sunt mors & vita. Longe alia est illorum, quam horum radio: licet in aliquibus conueniant. Vehe- EPISTOLÆ 516 menter miratus ea sum, quæ de vaticinio ex cometis sumpto afferis. Quis hominum af- firmare audebit, Mathematicum ex suæ sci- entia principiis de rebns contingentib[us] fu- turis præsagire posse, aut conari vnquam vo- luisse? An Mathematicos nescis solius quan- titatis passiones in abstracto considerare, & circa motum & quantitatem duntaxat ver- sari? Non contemplantur motum, sicut Phy- sici, sed modo eis proprio. Effectiones auie[n]t si derum & coelorum particulares, quæ in hoc mundo naturaliter fiunt, tam non con- siderat ex scientia suæ principiis Mathema- ticus, vel Astronomus, quam non æstimat aut speculatur eas ex artis suæ principiis fa- tor, aut tutor, aut textor, &c. Mathematicæ scientia versatur circa ra[ti]o[n]em [con]c[us]iones. Physicus [con]c[us]iones [n]o[n] rimatur. Sed quid verbis opus? Euentus Physici rationib[us] & principiis Physicis iudicantur, no[n] ma- thematicis. Quod si iam ex sacris literis mon- strari possit, Deum voluisse, vt cometa qui- libet aliquid præsagiat, non iam negabimus, eum illud ipsum prænunciare, licet ex sua na- tura hoc præiudicare nequeat. Exemplum producidi iride. Dum non ostenditur, par- ticulari nihil certi præmonstrare dictimus. i- mo naturaliter eos non præsagire, quæ A- strologi inscitissime præfigurare aiunt de- monstramus. De iridi quoque tecte proba- re possumus, eum naturaliter tam non indi- care hoc, quod scimus eum nobis in memo- riam revocare, quam no[n] differiminar agros ex sua natura lapis, qui ad hoc non est ex pa- [con]to destinatus. Falleris igitur, cum non facis diserte me de his differere opinaris. Video te vel natura, vel quod magis credo, institu- tione ad astrologos, & chemicos m[anu]rabilia pollientes inclinare. At rectius & vtilius fa- cies, si solam rationem ducem sequeris, iria- nibus pollieitationib[us] te à via abduci non pa- tieris. Venio ad nouas obiectiones. Theses tibi obscuriores visas ais, quia no[n] diserte ex- plicent, de quibus, & quomodo affectis hu- morib[us] potissimum loquar. Ego veror nihil in eis puto disertius & explicatius dictu[m]. Dico enim solum sanguinem nutrire, bilem rum flauam omnem, tum atram siue nigram (ex- cepta ea, quæ lienem alii) tum pituitim non nutrire, sed excrementa esse dico. Vbi au- tem, inquis, sanguis ille in eotpore in regre- sano reperitur? Vbique, respondeo. Sed vt sanus a sano differt: ita vnius sanguis ab alre- rius sanguine distat puritate & impuritate. Negro tibi in corpore integre sano cum sanguine inueniri bilem alterua[m], vel priuaram mistam. Et si permixti sint iam nominari hu- mores, nuirire eos negro, sed excrementa a- limenti

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We call something dead, as a dead horse or a dead man. But those things which, though dead, show excellent utility, we often give the same name to: living and dead. In plants, this is most common, and likewise in foods. For we say that we eat chickens, thrushes, fish, but not their carcasses. Then indeed we almost always call them carcasses, when they can no longer be eaten. That it is one thing, and again a totally different reckoning of parts, like eyes and hands, is altogether without reason. For is a dead man, horse, ox, tree, etc., called any less a man, horse, ox, tree, than a dead hand, foot, eye, branch? Have you not read the words of Aristotle, 9 De Anima, 1, where he says thus: Quæ according to the confirmations, with the conversion, not conversion. What you argue about the life of metals is certainly unworthy of which we should exchange so many words between us. No nation, no language, no doctors, not even the sacred letters, will ascribe to them a life such as exists in animals or plants. Since you attribute to them an analogous heart, you seem not to have noticed that they are often born so mixed together with their own earth that they cannot be separated by the eyes. In these smaller particles, smaller than fleas, what little heart do you imagine? If whatever faculty, power, or form is in them, you are pleased to call it a soul or even life, you will know that you either believe too much, or else abuse names too boldly. As for me, I shall not easily answer you further on these matters, since that disputation has neither utility nor probability. Whoever denies that matrices, as they call them, thicken by additions has examined a few of them, or examined them carelessly. Nor shall I add more concerning humanity. If there is any thing which, in this conception, corresponds outside the intellect in another way than I recently wrote, then even animality, and lion-ness, and plant-ness, etc., are said to exist. What Hippocrates means by secundum in diseases has been explained by me elsewhere, and by Galen sufficiently clarified. He thus calls a certain temperature of the air, which in a peculiar and hidden way harms bodies. If you wish to separate and distinguish this from morbid temperament, provided you acknowledge a certain and not unknown degree of intemperance, we grant you the power to name it as you please; but I affirm to you that you will not be accepted by the authors of these diseases if they are unwilling to depart from their own hypothesis. Concerning the fifth point, since I have likewise said enough in the previous letter, I shall add nothing further here. There is no need to repeat what was said above about contraries, as long as you can remember that I have always spoken properly of contraries so named, not of privatively opposed things, such as death and life. Their relation is far different from that of these, although in some respects they agree. EPISTLE 516 I was greatly astonished at what you bring forward about divination taken from comets. What man will dare to affirm that a mathematician, from the principles of his science, can foretell future contingent things, or ever wished to try? Do you not know that mathematicians consider only the passions of quantity in the abstract, and are concerned only with motion and quantity? They do not contemplate motion as physicists do, but in their own proper way. Moreover, the particular effects of the stars and heavens, which occur naturally in this world, the mathematician or astronomer considers no more from the principles of his science than a painter, tailor, or weaver, etc., judges or speculates on them from the principles of his art. Mathematical science is concerned with ra[ti]o[n]em conclusions. The physicist does not examine [con]c[us]iones . But what need is there for words? Physical events are judged by physical reasons and principles, not mathematical ones. But if it can now be shown from the sacred writings that God wished every comet to foretell something, we shall no longer deny that it announces that very thing, although by its own nature it cannot presage it. I produced the rainbow as an example. While it is not shown, we said that it certainly foretells nothing in particular; indeed, we demonstrate that it does not naturally presage the things which astrologers most foolishly claim it prefigures. We can likewise plainly prove concerning the rainbow that it does not naturally indicate this, though we know that it recalls it to our memory, any more than a stone, which is not assigned to this end by its nature, distinguishes fields from one another. You are therefore mistaken when you think that I do not clearly differ on these matters. I see that either by nature, or, what I more readily believe, by training, you are inclined toward astrologers and chemists who promise marvelous things. But you will act more rightly and more usefully if you follow reason alone as your guide and do not allow yourself to be led astray from the path by the enticements of the stars. I come now to the new objections. You say the theses seemed more obscure to you, because they do not clearly explain of which humors, and in what state, I am speaking chiefly. Yet I think nothing in them is more clearly or plainly said. For I say only that blood nourishes, the yellow bile, then the black or dark bile (except that which others assign to the spleen), and also phlegm do not nourish, but are excrements. But where, you ask, is that blood found in the body of a healthy person? Everywhere, I reply. But as the healthy differs from the healthy, so one man's blood differs from another's blood in purity and impurity. I do not deny that in a body perfectly healthy there is found together with the blood some other bile, or an alien mixed substance. And if they are now mixed, they are to be called humors; yet I do not deny that they are excrement of nourishment.

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M E D I C I N A L E S 528 < Sanguis purus imaginem.> menti veri esse constanter asseuero. Sanguis purus ex Galeni opinione, imaginatio- ne Iola datur, reipsa no reperitur: quam ego imaginationem toti naturæ aduersari opti- me noui. Ex cum aliquid ei humorum per- mistum est aliorum, alere eos non posse, ite- rum dico, sed nisi vacuentur, morbos crea- re affirmo. At, qui perfecte etiam sanorum venis emittitur sanguis, indicia omniu[m] humorum commonstrat. Negro tibi verum hoc esse. Non enim sanguis lentus & aqueus pituita est: nec crassiusculus continuo me- lancholicus est: sed toto genere differunt, vt aquosus sanguis & pituita, ita etiam crassus & melancholia. Nullam ne pones in sangu- ne latitudinem, qui in cunctis eam rebus in- siciari no audes? An idem sunt pituita & ca- ro frigidiuscula & lenta? Idem ne dices car- nem crassam & nigram cum melancholica? Non atbiuor: nisi aburi omnino velis & no- minibus, & rebus, quæque discreta & distin- cta sunt naturis confundere statutu[m] habeas. < Sanguis sanguine lactando.> Sanguis, sanguine crassior, tenuior, humi- dior, succior, cædidior, nigrior aut flauior est, vt tam e intra sanguinis latitudinem omnes adhiuc co[n]tineantur, nec alieni humoris no- men & destuitio eis competat. Itaq[ue] no adi- mo libertatem cuiquam nominandi humo- res, vt ei libet, sed ne simile idem esse iudicet, moneo. Aliud est re, & definitione san- guis crassus & niger à succo melancholicu[m]: aliud item sanguis flauescens, tenuis & cali- dus à bile flaua. Discrimen ob id no[n] in vo- cibus, sed in ipsis rebus hæret. Nec satis est, quod neminem putas tam longe à recta ra- tione aberrauisse, vt statuerit bilem flauam illam, quæ in vesicula continetur, cum san- guinis massa rursus co[m]misceri, atq[ue] nutrien- du[m] certas partes distribui. Qui enim in san- guinis generatione ortam bilem no[n] omnem à vesicula secerni; sed partem eius aliquam re & substantia non differentem ab ea, quæ ab ea attracta fuit, relinqui cu[m] sanguisso eô- mistam asserunt, certasq[ue] ab eadem illa par- res nutriti tradunt, quid quæso alind docet? Quod de bile dico, de aliis intelligere te pa- riter iubeo. Negro tibi, negaboq[ue] semper o- mnibus, dum probatum no[n] videro, ex qua- tuor humoribus vnum, sic fieri, vt insepara- bili modo in vnam massam coeant. No[n] ma- < Humorum massura.> gis in vnum corpus co[n]crescunt, quam si vi- num, aquam, cereuisam &c. misceas, & ex eis vnum aliquid substantia factum pures. Si ergo priores à recta abstrant ratione, po- steriores exorbitare non grauate concedes, vbi tenui expeditis. Præparatio ferri aut cha- lybis, vt lienem deobstruant, non est opero- sa aut difficilis. Ablui iubeo in aceto, vino, a- qua, prout res poscere videtur, tam diu vt a- quam non amplius inscliant, deinde trita misceo cum pharmacis aliis ad rem pertine[n]tibus, & hoc modo exhibeo; non metuens, vt in venas rapiatur. Item igniri iubeo, & in vino aut aqua extingui aliquocies præcipio, vinumq[ue] bibendo propino. Item in vino li- matum chalybem cum aliis macerandum præbeo, & vinum potandum affero. Lapis < Ostrocolla. Lapis fabri-lesum.> sabulosus vulgo apud nos dicitur Steinbruch nomine contratio, quod scilicet fracturas < Steinbruch. Steinbruch.> curet Dicitur etiam Steinbruch ab aliquibus, osteocolla scilicet. Morochtus esse non po- test, vt qui in succum solubil non sit, instar morochti veri, qualem ipse habeo. Semper enim seruat sabulosi & terreni quippiam noster: nec alibi, quam in arenis nascitur: quæ eius est materia. Mitto eius tibi frusta a- liquot. Vrendi modu[m] in Antiparacelscis tibi & aliis forte satis descripsi. Mitto tibi ma- teriam nouarum cogitationum de pingue- dlnis tum generatione, tum concretione. Oblitus eram scribere de viribus rubix, & balneo formicario, de quibus superioribus mensibus interrogaueras: arq[ue] ego nunc ca- su spectis literis illis in mentem reuocaui. < Vt sui in Antiparacelscis.> De rubia ita mihi satisfecit Dodonæus, vt magis non possit. Me certe, cum in eo legi, excitauit, vt inquirerem. Itaq[ue] rem habere deprehendent omnes, qui periculum fecer- < Rubra v[er]a. res. secum. dum Dodonæum vera.> re quouis modo volent. Sed recentem gu- stare oportet. Arida namq[ue] propemodum saporis expers est, instar ligni. Pacet hinc, quam sæpe fallillos oporteat, qui aliis sta- tim credunt, re non examinata. Formica a- nimalculum est valde calidum, & humoré in se tenuissimum habet igneu[m] fere. Lignet hoc ex earum morsu & perfusione. Perfun- dunt enim humor eundam cutem iratæ cum sunt, tenuissimo, at egregie mordaci & calido pueri nos dicebamus: Mich[ael] haberi die < Balneum formicariæ.> D[omi]nus Mussen bestrich[en] minxerunt me formicæ. Quid igitur miri, si in frigidis affi ctibus præ- settim cum in profundo vitium hæret, vtili- tatem balneum tale præstat? Bene & fælici- ter vale, die 23. Feb. an. 1580: E P I S T. C C L X X V I. Idem eidem AN t 1 dies octo reuersus sum ex ther- < Amis, quo vxoris causa profectus fui, &> domum eum redissem, in relexi D. Augu- stinum Donium Medicinæ Doctorm, Ca- labrum, iter instituisse in Poloniam, & hinc Pragam recta iturum esse, Quare non potui eum sine meis ad te literis dimittere: cum præsertim ille hoc officium à me pesteret. Ex illis, quæ videre & iudicare potui, dum hic fui, cognoui eum virum pium sane & do- ctum, & quod summum est, inculpati ho- < Z>

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MEDICINALS 528 < Pure blood, a likeness.> I will constantly assert that this is true for the mind. Pure blood, according to Galen’s opinion, is given by imagination alone; in reality it is not found. I know very well that this imagination is opposed to the whole of nature. For if some admixture of other humors is added to it, I say again that it cannot nourish them, but unless they are evacuated, I affirm that they create diseases. But blood that is also completely drawn from healthy veins shows the signs of all humors. Do not deny to yourself that this is true. For thin and watery blood is not phlegm; nor is rather thick blood at once melancholic: but they differ entirely in kind, just as watery blood and phlegm differ, so also do thick blood and melancholy. Will you place no breadth in blood, though in all other things you do not dare to deny it? Or are phlegm and somewhat cold, sluggish flesh the same? Will you say that thick and black flesh is the same as melancholy? I would not advise it, unless you wish utterly to abuse both words and things, and make it your principle to confuse what are distinct and different by nature. < Blood from nourishing blood.> Blood is thicker, thinner, moister, juicier, more viscous, blacker, or yellower than blood, so that all these still remain within the breadth of blood, and the name and designation of another humor does not apply to them. Therefore I do not take away anyone’s freedom to name humors as he pleases, but I warn him not to judge that the same is similar. It is one thing in reality and definition for blood to be thick and black, and for it to be melancholic juice; it is another for blood to be yellowish, thin, and warm, and for it to be yellow bile. The distinction therefore lies not in words, but in the things themselves. Nor is it enough that you think no one has strayed so far from right reason as to hold that yellow bile, the one contained in the gallbladder, is again mixed with the mass of blood, and distributed to nourish certain parts. For those who assert that in the generation of blood not all bile is separated from the gallbladder, but that some part of it, not differing in nature and substance from what was drawn from it, remains mixed with the blood, and that certain parts are nourished by that same substance, what else, I ask, do they teach? What I say of bile, I bid you understand likewise of the others. I shall always deny to you, and to all men, until I see it proved, that one of the four humors can be made to merge in such an inseparable way into one mass. < The massing of humors.> They do not coalesce into one body more than if you mix wine, water, beer, etc., and then purify from them something made into one substance. If therefore those earlier ones deviate from right reason, you will readily concede that the later ones also go beyond bounds, where they are handled in a more subtle way. The preparation of iron or steel, in order to open the spleen, is not laborious or difficult. I order it to be washed in vinegar, wine, water, as the matter seems to require, for so long that it no longer stains the water; then, when powdered, I mix it with other medicines pertaining to the purpose, and administer it in this way, not fearing that it will be carried into the veins. Likewise I order it to be heated, and I direct that it be quenched several times in wine or water, and I offer it to be drunk in wine. Likewise I provide steel filed in wine to be macerated with other things, and I give the wine to be drunk. The stone < Osteocolla. Smith’s stone.> is commonly called among us Steinbruch by contrast in name, because, namely, it cures fractures. < Steinbruch. Steinbruch.> It is also called Steinbruch by some, namely osteocolla. It cannot be morochtus, since it is not soluble into juice, like true morochtus, such as I myself have. For ours always retains something sandy and earthy: nor does it grow anywhere except in sands, which is its material. I send you some pieces of it. I may have described to you sufficiently, in the Antiparacelsics, the way of burning it and other matters. I send you material for new thoughts about fats, both their generation and their coagulation. I had forgotten to write about the virtues of madder and the ant hill bath, about which you had asked in previous months; and now, by chance seeing those letters, I recalled them to mind. < As in the Antiparacelsics.> Dodonæus satisfied me so fully concerning madder that it could not be more so. Certainly, when I read what he wrote, it excited me to investigate. Thus all who wish to test it in any way will find the matter to be so. But it ought to be tasted fresh. For when dried it is almost devoid of taste, like wood. From this learn how often deceivers must be mistaken, who immediately believe others without the matter being examined. The ant is a very hot little creature, and has in itself a most subtle moisture, almost fiery. This is proved by their bite and by bathing in them. For when they are angry they soak the same skin with a very subtle but exceedingly biting and hot moisture; we used to say as boys: Michael was handled that day by Mr. Mussen; the ants urinated on me. < The ant bath.> What wonder, then, if in cold afflictions, especially when the fault lies deep, such a bath proves useful? Farewell well and happily, 23 Feb. 1580: E P I S T L E 2 7 6 The same to the same Eight days ago I returned from the ther- < Amis, where I had gone for my wife’s sake, and> and when I came home, I learned that Dr. Augustinus Donius, a physician from Calabria, had set out for Poland, and was from there to go straight to Prague. Therefore I could not let him depart without my letter to you, especially since he requested this service of me. From what I was able to see and judge while I was here, I came to know him as a man truly pious and learned, and what is most important, of blameless cha- < Z>

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529 EPISTOLÆ 530 necessissimæq[ue] vitæ esse. Dignum ob id iudicatu, qui à te, bonisq[ue] omnibus, iuuetur. Oro igitur te pro tua humanitate & pietate, vt virum optimum commendatum habeas, & vel perte, vel per alios tuos cum commends aliquibus in aula Polonica degentibus, vel certe aliis, quorura opera possit vt in aula. Quiequid hac in parte feceris, præterquâ quod id Deo gratum erit, mihi à te præstitu[m] semper putabo: & pro viribus gratiam age- re, si referre non potero, studebo. Audisse te nihil dubito, doctissime & clarissime D. Petre, nos Heidelberg huc Basileam commigrauissæ vbi, Deo opt. max. sit gratia, quicte viuo extra strepitum & sine conditione. Videtur enim ætas id mea postulare, vt non de negotio, sed de ocio cogitem. Viuo ergo mihi, & de meo thesauro. Nec habeo causam quærêdi occupationes, cum liberis cædam. Inrerim ne plane nihil facia[m], coepianre pau- <20> cos dies responde[m] publico cuidam Doctorum censori, Comiti Montano Vicentino. Edidit is libros v. de morbis anno superiore grauiibus, crassis, & multis erroribus plenos, quos nunquam notauissem, si non coactus fuissem attentius & sæpius perlegere Spero autem me operæ precium, & rem gratissima[m] atq[ue] vtilissimam studiosis facturum. Quippe docebo eos, quæ à paucis adhuc animaduersa sunt & cognita. Hæc habui, quæ occasione huius tabellarii data ad rescriberem. Te oro, vt D. Cratonem officiosè salutes. Dominus Iesus tibi vna nobiscum semper vt adit oro, Amen. Datæ Basil. dic 18. Ap[osto]l. anno 81. EPIST. CCLXXVIL PETRO MONAVIO, MEDICO Cæsareo, &c. Th. Mouserus Anglus Med. S. D. <40> AD magisteriu[m] perlarum, cuius promis- <Magisteriu[m] perlarum> sam tibi descriptionem antea mittere non porui, extrahendum, hac via omnium dubio procul certissima procedendum est. Contusas illas & in puluerem (quod tectum attinet) moxq[ue] qvæ pertritas, affuso vini spiritu nobilissimo (vt hic quinq[ue] latos digitos superemineat) imbibito, & equino simo vel æquabili B. calore digerito per mensem integrum, quo tempore trâfacto spiritu[m] instar <50> vini maluatici fuluum esse comperies: eo effusu[m] & reseruato, alterum vicissim affunde, totiesq[ue] digere, donec colorari desinit. Coloratis spiritibus continetur magisterium tuum: quos in B. M. in siccitatem euolare permittito. Postmodum aqua coelesti destillata bis vel rer[um] abluito, & rursus euaporato, <51> vt in spiritu. Sic habes essentiam siue magisterium perlarum, in forma pulueris fari- nacei, quem marmori Insperum in liquorem (si placei) rediges. Legi Paracelsum in <11 acrimonia[m] rolla vix per. ess. Accidum va- dicabo esse quod rema- mot en fun. do. posti necu[m] distillatam.> suis Archidoxis, quod ego spiritus, id aceti radicati beneficio fieri posse asseretem. Cæterum mihi crede (in huiusmodi negotiis neutiquam inexperto (testabit tanta acrimonia, vt huic eluendæ vix trecenti aquæ congii sufficerent. Vsum huius magisterit in affectibus stomachi & cordis singularem esse, rum doctissimi nostri Florini, tum alioru[m] nominum (vt nihil de me ipso dicam) abunde coofirmatum est. Tu igitur tibi habeas, nec cuiquam temere communices. Norinbergam cum Cæsare si adueneris, forte me inueneris præsentem. Interim Francofurti viuam, & recolam intermissam praxin, qua hactenus, Dei beneficio, maxima cum felicitate, & lucro non minori sum vsus. Nun- <22> quid te chemic accingis? Anne fornaces extruxist? Quid Florinus? ecquid medicinam facit? Laurentius Scholzius nihil literarum ad te mea causa misit? Ad hæc, quanta cum celeritate poteris, ad me rescribe, & ex me peram[m]ater vale. Datæ Norinbergæ, 4. Non. Quintil. anno 80. EPIST. CCLXXVIII. Idem eidem <23> Si keckius, quod secisse debuit; aqua plu- <Viola mar- tea> uiali destillata magisterium perlarum sæpius dibuisset, nec ille indiligentis nomen, nec tu conquerendi materiam habuisses. Acrimoniam seruari aliquam, etiam post o <24> ptimam præparationem, certum est: sed an propterea cordi ingrata, quia linguæ parit molestia? Quid viola maria linguâ violentiùs vrit, [n]o[n] optimè? quâ tam e[m] cordi familiar e[m] esse, salua p[ræ]ceptoru[m] au[n]storitare, haud nena ueris. Succo limonu[m] dissolui margaritas vel vetulis fere norum est omnib. tincturam <25> vero sic extrahi, nedum Cratoni nostro probatum. Zuingeri præparationes nô improbo. Variè enim sunt ad syluam viç, quæ tamen compendiosior & melior fuerit, sola <Amicum pur gans Zueng- geri.> experientia dignoueris. Cur ab elus anifo purgante scammoncæ exuperantis causa tantopere verearis, argumentum nullum, præter imaginarias quasdam delicias, & for- mirationes perspicio. Etenim, facta compu <26> tatione, in vnica dosi (nempezij) scammoncæ grana ad summum quinq[ue], corrigentiu[m] vero centum plane, & adhuc quindecim inueneris. Tota enim compositio granorum <27> 26640. pondus accedit. Sed ignosco tui lto- machi deliciis, tanquam in aula degenti: nos vero rustici Medici fortioribus vtrum re- <28> medinis, & (si verum quæratur) non incom- modo successu. Si ladano cum illis, quas co- <29>

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529 EPISTLES 530 to be most necessary for life. For that reason it was judged worthy to be aided by you and by all good men. I therefore ask you, by your humanity and piety, to have this excellent man recommended, and either through yourself, or through your others together with certain commendations dwelling at the Polish court, or certainly through others, by whose aid he may be able to do so at court. Whatever you do in this matter, besides the fact that it will be pleasing to God, I shall always think it has been done to me by you; and if I cannot repay it, I shall strive to show gratitude as far as I can. I do not doubt that you have heard, most learned and most distinguished Sir Peter, that we have moved from Heidelberg here to Basel, where, thanks be to God Most High, I live quietly, away from the noise and without constraint. For my age, it seems, demands that I think not of business, but of leisure. So I live for myself, and from my own store. Nor do I have cause to seek occupations, since I cut wood for the children. Meanwhile, so that I do not do absolutely nothing, I have begun, after a few days, to answer a certain public censor of the learned, Count Montano of Vicenza. He published last year five books on diseases, full of grave, gross, and many errors, which I should never have noticed if I had not been compelled to read them more carefully and repeatedly. I hope, however, that I shall do a service worth the effort, and a thing most welcome and useful to students. For I shall teach them things that have so far been observed and known by few. This is what I had to write in reply, on occasion of this messenger having been sent. I ask you to greet Dr. Crato kindly on my behalf. May the Lord Jesus, together with us, always grant you access, I pray. Amen. Dated at Basel, the 18th day of April, in the year 81. EPIST. CCLXXVII. TO PETER MONAU, ROYAL Physician, etc. Th. Mouserus, an Englishman, M.D. sends greetings. To extract the magisterium of pearls, a description of which I could not send you earlier, the surest procedure beyond doubt is by this method. The crushed pearls, ground to powder (as far as the shell is concerned), after first being and then what thoroughly triturated, having had the noblest spirit of wine poured over them (so that it rises five broad fingers above them), and imbibed, digest them with horse dung or with an equal B. heat for a full month, after which time, the spirit having been transferred, you will find it like yellowish malmsey wine; pour that off and reserve it, and then pour on another in its place, and digest it repeatedly until it ceases to take on color. In the colored spirits your magisterium is contained; allow them to evaporate to dryness in a B. M. Afterward wash them twice with distilled celestial water, and again evaporate, as in spirit. Thus you have the essence or magisterium of pearls, in the form of a flour-like powder, which, if you wish, you may reduce into a liquid on marble. I have read Paracelsus in his Archidoxis, where he says that what I call spirit can be done by means of radicated vinegar. Moreover, believe me (for I am by no means inexperienced in such matters), it will be so acrid that three hundred jugs of water would scarcely suffice to wash it away. The use of this magisterium in affections of the stomach and heart has been singularly confirmed both by our most learned Florinus and by others names (to say nothing of myself). Therefore keep this for yourself, and do not communicate it lightly to anyone. If you come to Nuremberg with the Emperor, perhaps you will find me present there. Meanwhile I shall live at Frankfurt, and resume the practice I have interrupted, by which hitherto, by God’s blessing, I have made use with the greatest happiness and no small profit. Are you not then setting yourself to chemistry? Have you built furnaces? What of Florinus? Is he by chance practicing medicine? Has Laurentius Scholzius sent you no letters on my account? To these things, write back to me as quickly as you can, and fare you well, most dear one, from me. Dated at Nuremberg, the 4th day before the Nones of Quintilis, in the year 80. EPIST. CCLXXVIII. The same to the same If he had been more careful, as he ought to have been, and had several times distilled the magisterium of pearls with rainwater, he would have had no name for negligence, nor would you have had cause for complaint. That some acrimony is preserved, even after the best preparation, is certain; but is it therefore unpleasant to the heart, because it causes trouble to the tongue? What is more sharply burning to the tongue than viola maris, if not very well? Yet by what means it is familiar to the heart, without injury to the authority of the teachers, you would hardly deny. That pearls can be dissolved with lemon juice is known to almost everyone, even the old; but that the tincture is extracted in this way, not to mention that it is approved by our Crato. I do not disapprove of Zuinger’s preparations. For there are many ways to the wood, yet which is the shorter and better you will know only by experience. Why you so greatly fear its anifo-purgative over against scammony, I see no argument, except certain fanciful delicacies and amazements. For, when the calculation is made, in a single dose (namely in a scruple), you will find at most five grains of scammony, but of the correctives altogether a full one hundred and still fifteen. For the whole composition amounts to 26,640 grains by weight. But I pardon your stomach’s delicacies, as though one living at court: we rustic physicians, however, use stronger remedies, and, if the truth be sought, with no unsuccessful result. If I have harmed those with which the

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331 MEDICINALES ram commemoraui, cautionibus vsus fue- ris, admirabiles narras eu[n]ctus: qualesq[ue] huc- usq[ue] nobis, nescio an medicamenti, an Dei potius bonitate, nunquam acciderunt. De myrrha substitu[n]da in Nepenthe loco mu- miae, non statim assentior. vt eo perducar a- nimi, & longiore tempore, & forribus ar- gum[m]etis est opus. Domino Craroni nostras non ingratas accidisse lætne: mallem tamen plane gratas fuisse. Humanitatis suæ erit, quamprimum otium conceditur, respon- dere aliquid ad me: qui sic colo diuinas i- psius ingenit dotes, vt cuilibet co[n]ferendum, plurimis vero Medicis esse præferendum cogitem. Cbymiam quod non possis exer- cere, illud ipsum incidar, quod vellet viæ illis negotiis, quæ tantum Medicum à stu- dio ram necessario diuellunt: male enim il- lis precari inhumanum est. Siquid in discri- ptione anisi purgantis depranarum aut ma- cum fuit, haud culpa factum est mea: nam eodem exemplo tibi communicabatur, quo mihi. Falsas descriptiones date, n[ost]ro est meu, non est tuum, n[ost]ro est cuiusuis Medici, præ- sertim Christiani institutum. Vale, mi Pe- tre, Moufeti tui memor: qui tui memoriam secu[m], etiam nunc, in Angllam postabit. Si quid mea causa literarum dederis, Camera- rius noster fecerit perferri. Datæ Francof. ad Mænum, 15. Kal. Oct. anno 1580. EPIST. CCLXXXIX. Idem eidem; QVALIS ad vos Mumia defertur, equi- dem nescio: sclo tamen eam, quæ no- strum Nepenthes ingrediebatur intus absq[ue] omni religione exhiberi posse. At inquis, Ob humani cadaueris contagionem tetru[m] & virosum odorem de se exp[er]iat. Fateor, si de vestra intelligas: si nostram dicas, repu- gno. Nam chymice parata, quod etiam opio conringit, amitrit graueolentiam, quiddam- que odoraris speciebus sinitimum (quales inesse illi credimus) repræserrat. Adde por- ro aloen, myrrham, gummi, sarcocollam, opobalsamum (hui: quam coeleste medica- menrum) & crocum aliaque preciosissima medicamenta mumiam nostram efficere. Est enim ex bis omnibus de mortuorum se- pulchris per efficaciam solis exudas liqvor, qui ad arcendam putredinem peridoneus, ad suscipiendam vero longe ineprissimus existit. Quare vt myrrham, eius loco substituas non suadeo, neq[ue] video cur tanta cum religione, ne dicam superstirione ipsius in bominibus vsum pertimescas. Noui aliquos qui abstinendum ab ea iudicant, quia hu- manas carnes humano viscere condi non solum non humanum, sed etiam plane im- pium videtur, audent tamen curinsuli isti censores album græcum hydropicis, etaniu[m] hominis epilepticis, nescio quam audacter, scio quam frequenter præbibere. Sed o lani à tergn queis nulla ciconia pinsir: vrtum re- liginsius existimatis, carnes comedanrur, an olla: mihi quidem vix pluma ineresse vide- tur: & licet nentrum probo, esse ramen o- leosum quiddam substantificum in imma- ture mortuis, immottale, Incorruptibile, ter- ram igni, aquam aeri conglutinans, partibus stabilirem, duritiem verumq[ue] alimentum præbens, non dubito affirmare, id vix solis externi aromaris immixtum, aut suani in temperato calne digestion cum oleis aro- maticis extractum (vt Theophrastus docet) nunquid conducibilius existimas? Id autem in nostræ mumia extractione factum est, quia ingreditur tincturam, & oleosam, mihi crede, & gratam. Hæc hactenus. Nihilissimi doctissimiq[ue] Crarunis literas indies ceu am- plissimam theusaurum ædiculas meas inui- surum expectu. Facto vt promissa compa- reant. In vteri strangulatu habeas singulare remedium: Iulos siue catulos tuglandis in puluerem exiccatos co[m]mnde: datur ad [sulphu]ti. cum guttulis duabus olei succedni in eo affe- ctu nihil vnquam noui præstantius. Balsa- mum mumia Theophrasti in vlceribus & apostematibus, vel sola illinitione vsu com- peri diuinum esse arcanum, sed guttulas ali- quot adilicio olei camphoræ, & ex seminibus ebuli parati. Cuius virtutes vix audeo sacra- mento silentium pollicitus, edicere. Bene & feliciter vale: Craroni, Scholzto, Rungio (ceu ignoto, vel potius non viso) obsecro ex me s.p.d.1. April. anno 1581. EPIST. CCLXXX. Idem eidem; AGE do tibi manus, mecq[ue] vinci patior, Annanissime Monaul: nun quia defen- dere mumia causam non potetam aduersus: sed quod vix operæ aut chartæ preciu[m] videretur, si tu illam pro toto tuo muscam, ego pro meo facerem elephantem. Cæteru[m], ne nihil videar dixisse, illud obsecro atten- das: an stercus asini, muris, muli, canis, nec non: putridi catnu[m] vermes (quos Hipp. w[hi]ch vocat) carniu[m] hominis, testes etiam equoru[m], castoris, lupturum, nec non pulmones vul- pium, quibus & Hipp. & recentiores etiam intra corpus sumptis vruntur: perpendas (in- quam) an his deteriur mumia, an porius no[n] præferenda sit. Nihil illis putrilagin osum, nihil graueolens, nihil inest atratum? nihil (ne dum stercoris mentio) quod solo nomi- ne nauseam prouocet? sane nullum huic im- pinger vitium, quid in illis non comperia- tur. Nam & illa quinq[ue] animantia tabe sanie- que fluunt, morbosq[ue] patiuntur fere vniuer- Z 2

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331 MEDICINALS I have commemorated it; if you have used precautions, you tell marvelous outcomes, such as have never yet happened to us, whether, I know not, by virtue of the medicine or rather by the goodness of God. As for substituting myrrh in the place of mummy in Nepenthe, I do not assent at once. To bring me to that, a longer time and stronger arguments are required. I am glad that our letter to Master Craron has not been unwelcome; yet I would rather it had been wholly agreeable. It will be an act of his courtesy, as soon as leisure is granted him, to answer me something: for I so esteem the divine gifts of his genius that I think him to be compared with anyone, and indeed to be preferred to very many physicians. Since you cannot practice chemistry, I lament that very thing, as it would wish for him in those matters which so greatly draw a physician away from his studies; for to wish him ill is inhumane. If anything in the description of purgative anise or macca was miswritten, the fault is not mine; for it was communicated to you from the same exemplar as to me. To give false descriptions is not mine, not yours, but ours is the duty of every physician, especially a Christian. Farewell, my Peter, mindful of your Moufet: he who keeps your memory with him will even now carry it into England. If you have given any letters on my behalf, our Camerarius will have them delivered. Written at Frankfurt on the Main, 15 days before the Kalends of October, in the year 1580. EPIST. CCLXXXIX. The same to the same; I know not at all what sort of mummy is brought to you; I do know, however, that the one which entered our Nepenthes may be used internally without any scruple. But you say, because of the contagion of a human corpse it gives off a foul and poisonous smell. I grant it, if you mean yours; if you speak of ours, I disagree. For when prepared by chemistry, which also happens with opium, it loses its offensive smell, and reveals something akin to fragrant substances, such as we believe to be present in it. Add further aloes, myrrh, gum, sarcocolla, opobalsamum—ah, what a heavenly medicine!—and saffron and other most precious medicaments make up our mummy. For from all these, as from the graves of the dead, there issues by the power of the sun a liquid, most fit to prevent putrefaction, but quite unfit to receive it. Wherefore I do not advise that you substitute myrrh in its place, nor do I see why you should fear its use among men with such scruple, not to say superstition. I know some who judge that one must abstain from it because to season human flesh with human viscera seems not only inhuman but downright impious; yet these severe critics dare to prescribe white hellebore for dropsical patients, and human oneanthium, I know not how boldly, though certainly how frequently, for epileptics. But, O butchers, at whose backs no stork may peck, do you think it more religious that meat be eaten than that it be boiled? For my part I can scarcely believe any feather is involved. And although I approve neither, I do think there is in unripe dead bodies something oily and substantial, immortal, incorruptible, binding earth to fire and water to air, stabilizing the parts, and providing hardness and true nourishment. I do not hesitate to affirm that this, mingled only with external aromatics, or extracted in a moderate heat with aromatic oils, as Theophrastus teaches, is scarcely more beneficial. That, however, was done in the extraction of our mummy, because it enters as a tincture and as an oily substance, believe me, and a pleasant one. Enough of this. I daily await the letters of the excellent and most learned Craron as though they were to enter my little house as a great treasure. Let promises become deeds. For strangulation of the womb you have a singular remedy: pound dried yolks or young puppies of walnuts into powder; it is given with two drops of oil of succory, in this condition I have never known anything more effective. The balsam mummy of Theophrastus, in ulcers and abscesses, I have found by simple smearing alone to be a divine secret; but I add a few drops of camphor oil and that prepared from the seeds of elder. Its virtues I scarcely dare to proclaim, having promised silence under oath. Fare well and happily; from me, I beg you, give my respects to Craron, Scholz, and Rungius, as to one unknown, or rather unseen. 1 April, 1581. EPIST. CCLXXX. The same to the same; Come, I give you my hands and allow myself to be conquered, most dear Monaul; not because I was unable to defend the cause of mummy against you, but because it would seem scarcely worth the labor or the paper if you made a fly of it, while I, for my part, made an elephant. Nevertheless, lest I seem to have said nothing, I beg you to consider this: whether the dung of the ass, mouse, mule, dog, and likewise the worms of putrid flesh, which Hippocrates calls “whicht,” the testicles of men, horses, beaver, wolves, and also the lungs of foxes, which both Hippocrates and the more recent writers say are burned when taken internally—consider, I say, whether mummy is worse than these, or rather ought not to be preferred. Is there in them nothing putrid, nothing foul-smelling, nothing black, nothing that, not to mention dung, provokes nausea by the mere name? Surely no fault can be found with this which is not found in those things. For those five animals also drip with corruption and ichor, and suffer diseases almost universally...

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133 EPISTOLÆ sos, qui contingere homini possunt, Quot etiam pulmones vulpium, testesq[ue] equoru[m], etiamsi oprime siccatos vermibus non re- fertos vidisti; quor stercora sine fætore? quot culas non putredine & grauissima corru- ptione generatas? quid deniq[ue] fumo exiccata- tum vnuquam animaduertisti, in quo nihil inerat atratu: aut quale tu propinas casto- rium, quod gustum plane abominabilem non participat Habes igitur quæ in mumia reprehendisti vitia vniuersa in tuis: eaque tanto maiota, quanto hæc (de vulgari enim mumia non disputo) croci, myrrhæ, gummi sarcocollæ, aloes, ipsiusq[ue] opobalsami con- ditura sanior ipsis euadit atque melior: nisi tu forte erudum carnium, condusissimis car- nibus prætuleris: id quod forte audacter, cum laude tamen & ratione nunquam asse- uerabis. Hæc mihi quasi leuis armaturæ tela de promere placuit: eui grauiota in procin- du senseris adesse, si repugnaris. Sed cedam nunc hæc arena, & quæ petiisti reliqua at- tingam. Ballamo tuo sulphureo vsus sum, cum felici & mirifico successu in sistulis ex- tirpandis: quas vero illi contra pestem, & asthma partes attribuisti, equidem non in- uenio. Quinertiâ quomodo ipsum sine pia- culo intus exhibes, quum fætore suo teter- rimo non mumiam duntaxat, sed cadaner quoque ipsum, sed lacum palæstinum supe- rat? eum autem myrrhæ & aloes adiectione minui scribis: neq[ue] ego admodum repugno, iis legibus, vt tu idem in mumia fieri consi- tearis. Olei picis in fistulosis vlceribus miri- ficam virtutem prædicas: plus autem valere scias contra herpetas, formicas, aliaque eius generis tuberculæ. Olei ebulini descriptio Aragosiana mihi, cum re aggrediter, frandi fuit: tantum abest vt eam tibi, etiamsi velim maxime, transmittam. Quod ludæi operam conducis ad chemiam, vitupero institutum tuum: faxit Deus opt. max. ne illius impos- turæ tuam artis tam nobilis situm præpro- pere extinguant. Pondorositas plumbi neq[ue] propter aquam sit, neq[ue] ob aerem. Sed quia multum obtinet Mercurii hic autem in ae- rem expositus non augetur sed in locis sub- terraneis humidis: idq[ue] non aeris accessione, vt suadere nobis voluit Gal. sed potius a- que viscosioris (nam in loco sicco minui- tur) vel potius alterius Mercurii coniunctio ne, qui ad maiorem quætitatem ceu ad ma- re rului se contulit. Nosti enim (ni fallor) humidum quemque locum mineralem (de palude enim non loquimur) at gento viuo plurimo scatere, quod alii fæno madido, alii stercore bouino recenti in factam foueam coniecto & sepulto, tum dextre, tum vtiluer cliciùt. quod vero philosophi secundas qua- 134 litates à primis procreatas scribunt, nil mo- ror. ad tales enim absurditates iam diu oc- calluerunt aures meæ. Etenim si punctum nullius est ponderis, nec lineæ etiam erunt: si hæc non sunt, neque extremitates, neque corpus: vt non ineptè cõtra Platonem olim Aristotel disputauit. Perinde ego mutata tantum hypothesi. Nullum graue ex no[n] gra- ni, nullum leue ex non leui: sed primæ qua- litates, neque leues sunt, nec graues: ergo ta- le aliquid non procreant. Mallem ego eius pôderositatem corporis densitati atq[ue] com- pactioni ascribere: nam iuxta Hipp. si quis in aqua per biduum molles lanas maceret, & vestem quoque lancam, æqualis ponderis ad lanas: has multo leuiores compe[n]sset, quâ lanam. Quinetiam guaiaci lignum cæteris ponderosius, quia densius: imotam grauo est, vt præter lignorum morem iniectum a- quæ se mergat Ita etiam Mercurius vigefies sublimatus, præcipitatus, coagulatus, & pe- nefixus, iterum recrudescet in argentum viuum, cum exigua aut ponderis aut substâ- tiæ suæ iactura. id quod ipsius densitatis ar- gumentum mihi videtur. Vlterius excurrene nec charta sinit, neq[ue] otium. His igitur contentus, festinantissime scriptis, va- leio: neq[ue] vti facis, diligito. Magnif. D. Cta- toni s. p. ex me dicitio 3. Maii, anno 1582. EPIST. CCLXXXI. ANDREÆ AVRIFABRO ME- duco celeberr. &c. Valerius Corpus S. D. POSTREMIS literis petis, vt tibi trochis- cos etiam de vipera, volui pecuniam a- pud me retinere, quoniam magno emuntur precio, vt mihi ipsi ante vnum atq[ue] alterum annum missæ sint in Germaniam vneiæ sex pro sex aureis ducatis, vt D. Casparus probè nouit, cui eas vendidi eodem precio ad the- riacæ cõfectionem. qua in re dabo opetam vt recentes mittam, & vt me præsente fiant, vt ipse videam num è veris patentur viperis. Nam magna est in hæc re impostura. Fieri autem debent circa veris exitum ante initiu[m] æstatis. Itaque iam non mittam ante annum compositos, quamuis facile habere possem. Præterii nuper in Baechanalibus pharma- copolium quoddam Venetiis, vbi ad solem exiccabantur trochisci de vipera dictis au- reis literis, iisq[ue] maiusculis adscripto nomi- ne, & ante tabernæ fenestram suspenso. Co- lor illis etat niger propter combustum pa- nem, quem viperæ carnibus miscent. Ego insolitum eos faciendi tempus considerans, ex patrono quæsui, cur hyeme illos faceret, respondit, se omnibus anni temporibus fa- cere posse, ostèditque nigros quosdam ser- pentes,

Transcription: Translated (English)

133 EPISTLES so many things that can befall a man. How many also have you seen of foxes’ lungs and horses’ testes, even though dried as thoroughly as possible and not infected with worms; whose dung is without stench? how many sores not generated by corruption and most grievous putrefaction? what, finally, have you ever noticed dried by smoke in which there was nothing darkened? or what castoreum do you offer that does not partake of a plainly abominable taste? You therefore have in your own remedies all the faults you found fault with in mummy; and those to a greater degree, inasmuch as this kind— for I am not disputing the vulgar mummy— seasoned with saffron, myrrh, gum sarcocolla, aloes, and even opobalsam itself, proves healthier and better: unless perhaps you have preferred raw flesh to the most carefully seasoned flesh; which perhaps you may boldly assert, but never with praise and reason. I have chosen to produce these things to me as it were weapons of light armament: if you resist, you will feel greater ones to be at hand in the front line. But I shall now yield this field, and touch the rest you asked about. I used your sulphureous balsam with happy and marvelous success in extirpating fistulas; but I do not find the parts you assigned to it against pestilence and asthma. Indeed, how do you administer it inwardly without a serious penalty, when by its most horrible stench it surpasses not only mummy, but the corpse itself, yes even a Palestinian cesspit? You write moreover that it is diminished by the addition of myrrh and aloes: nor do I greatly object, provided you admit that the same should be done in mummy. You extol the wondrous virtue of pitch oil in fistulous ulcers: but know that it is more powerful against herpes, ringworms, and other tumors of that kind. The description of ebulline oil by Aragosius was, when I took up the matter, an imposture for me: so far am I from transmitting it to you, even if I most wished. That you employ Jews to work at chemistry, I blame your course: may God most good and greatest grant that the fraud of that man may not too hastily extinguish the standing of your most noble art. The heaviness of lead is neither because of water nor because of air. Rather because it contains much Mercury, and this, when exposed to air, is not increased but in subterranean humid places; and that not by addition of air, as Galen wished to persuade us, but rather by a more viscous water (for in a dry place it is diminished), or rather by the conjunction of another Mercury, which has converged to a greater quantity as to the sea of the ruby. For you know, if I am not mistaken, that every humid mineral place (for we are not speaking of a marsh) swarms with much quicksilver, which others excite by moistened hay, others by fresh cow dung thrown into a dug pit and buried, sometimes dexterously, sometimes usefully. But what the philosophers write about secondary qualities generated from primary ones, I do not care at all for. For my ears have long since grown hardened to such absurdities. For if a point has no weight, then neither will lines; if these do not exist, neither will extremities nor body: as Aristotle once argued not ineptly against Plato. So too I, with only the hypothesis changed. No heavy thing comes from the non-heavy, no light thing from the non-light: but primary qualities are neither light nor heavy; therefore they produce nothing of the kind. I would rather ascribe the weight of a body to density and compactness; for according to Hippocrates, if one soaks soft wool in water for two days, and also a woolen garment, of equal weight to the wool: these would outweigh wool by far less than the wool. Likewise guaiac wood, heavier than other woods because denser; indeed it is so heavy that, contrary to the custom of woods, if cast into water it sinks. So too Mercury, twenty times sublimed, precipitated, coagulated, and almost fixed, will again return to quicksilver, with little loss either of weight or of its substance. This seems to me an argument of its density. I cannot go further, neither does the paper allow it, nor leisure. Content with these things then, written in great haste, I bid you farewell; and, as you do, remember me kindly. Magnif. D. Cta- toni, etc., from me, on the 3rd of May, in the year 1582. EPIST. CCLXXXI. TO ANDREAS AVRIFABER, the celebrated physician, etc. Valerius Corpus, greetings. IN your latest letters you ask that I also send you troches from viper; I wished to retain the money with me, because they are bought at high price, since some time ago six ounces were sent to me into Germany for six gold ducats, as D. Caspar knows well, to whom I sold them at the same price for the making of theriac. In this matter I shall do my best to send fresh ones, and to have them made in my presence, so that I may myself see whether they come from true vipers. For there is great fraud in this matter. And they ought to be made about the end of spring before the beginning of summer. Therefore I shall not now send any made earlier than a year, although I could easily obtain them. Recently, during the Bacchanalia, I passed a certain apothecary’s shop in Venice, where the troches called de viper were drying in the sun, with the name written in golden letters, and in larger capitals, and hanging before the shop window. Their color was black because of the burnt bread mixed with the flesh of vipers. I, considering the unusual time at which they were made, asked the proprietor why he made them in winter; he replied that he could make them in all seasons of the year, and he showed some black serpents,

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335 M E D I C I N A L E S 336 pentes, quos aiebat sibi ex Ægypti Alexandria esse missos, ego subridens abij, asino suos trochiscos & serpentes relinquens. Sim plicia hie habentur multa, quæ in Germaniam non asseruntur, egregiæ in medicina facultatis; vt sunt, organum candidum, organum nigrum, vtrumque ereticum, Aristolochia rorunda vera &c. cum ad vos rediero in columnis, Christo fauente, singulorum magnam copiam metum feram, quæ 10 multos in annos sufficere possint: non enim facile deteriora fiunt, quemadmodum nostræ herbæ in Germania natæ, sed multos annos incorruptæ durant. Bishoc anno ad montes Patauinos sum exspæciatus, & plurima imuent, quæ omnia recensere longum foret. His vale amicissime D. Andrea. Igno- sce quæso properanti. Datum Venetiis, post natum Saluatorem 1544. 14 Aprilis. F I N I S.

Transcription: Translated (English)

335 MEDICINALS 336 snakes, which he said had been sent to him from Alexandria in Egypt; smiling, I went away, leaving his little trochisci and snakes behind. Many simples are found here, which are not brought into Germany, of excellent medicinal virtue; such as the white organum, the black organum, both heretical, true Aristolochia rotunda, etc. When I return to you in the columns, with Christ’s favor, I shall bring a great abundance of each of them, which may suffice for many years; for they do not easily spoil, as our herbs born in Germany do, but remain uncorrupted for many years. This year I have been waiting by the Paduan mountains, and have found very many things, which it would be too long to enumerate. Farewell, most friendly Dr. Andrea. I pray you forgive my haste. Given at Venice, after the birth of the Savior 1544, 14 April. THE END.

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INTERPRETATIO GRÆCORVM OCCVRENTIVM PASSIM IN HIS EPISTOLIS NE QVID LECTOREM forte remoretur; Prior numerus columnam cuiusq; paginæ, posterior lineam denotans. Col. 1. lin. 26. omnium æmno, i.e. concansam causam. 20. 50. , i.e. ad caput perinensia. ibid. , i.e. ad oper. ibid. , i.e. ad cor pertinentia. 24. 47. machinis , àm. ibid. , i.e. Instrumentum eruditionis non possest, sed visus liberorum est. 26. 44. , i.e. perfugium. 27. 19. , i.e. naturaliter. ibid. 20. , i.e. præter naturam. ibid. 21. , i.e. secundum naturam. ibid. 26. , i.e. contradictionem. ibid. 27. , i.e. accuratiora. ibid. 46. , i.e. instantes. 28. 51. , i.e. cogitatione, sinceratione. 29. 26. , i.e. tumorum magnum & rotundum in gutture. 31. 29. , i.e. nihil ad farinam. 35. 7. , i.e. simulacra. ibid. 30. , i.e. apparentia. ibid. 52. , i.e. certo, demonstratiue probatum. ibid. 46. , i.e. visus aberrationem. 37. 1. , i.e. purgantium medicamentorum. 38. 35. , i.e. inquinamentis. ibid. 56. , i.e. amatorius poculis. 39. 12. , i.e. . ibid. 43. , i.e. amuletis, qua de collo suspenduntur. ibid. 44. , i.e. , i.e. . ibid. 56. , i.e. . ibid. 57. , i.e. contemperandi . ibid. 58. , i.e. . ibid. 59. , i.e. . ibid. 60. , i.e. . ibid. 61. , i.e. . ibid. 62. , i.e. . ibid. 63. , i.e. . ibid. 64. , i.e. . ibid. 65. , i.e. . ibid. 66. , i.e. . ibid. 67. , i.e. . ibid. 68. , i.e. . ibid. 69. , i.e. . ibid. 70. , i.e. . ibid. 71. , i.e. . ibid. 72. , i.e. . ibid. 73. , i.e. . ibid. 74. , i.e. . ibid. 75. , i.e. . ibid. 76. , i.e. . ibid. 77. , i.e. . ibid. 78. , i.e. . ibid. 79. , i.e. . ibid. 80. , i.e. . ibid. 81. , i.e. . ibid. 82. , i.e. . ibid. 83. , i.e. . ibid. 84. , i.e. . ibid. 85. , i.e. . ibid. 86. , i.e. . ibid. 87. , i.e. . ibid. 88. , i.e. . ibid. 89. , i.e. . ibid. 90. , i.e. . ibid. 91. , i.e. . ibid. 92. , i.e. . ibid. 93. , i.e. . ibid. 94. , i.e. . ibid. 95. , i.e. . ibid. 96. , i.e. . ibid. 97. , i.e. . ibid. 98. , i.e. . ibid. 99. , i.e. . ibid. 100. , i.e. . ibid. 101. , i.e. . ibid. 102. , i.e. . ibid. 103. , i.e. . ibid. 104. , i.e. . ibid. 105. , i.e. . ibid. 106. , i.e. . ibid. 107. , i.e. . ibid. 108. , i.e. . ibid. 109. , i.e. . ibid. 110. , i.e. . ibid. 111. , i.e. . ibid. 112. , i.e. . ibid. 113. , i.e. . ibid. 114. , i.e. . ibid. 115. , i.e. . ibid. 116. , i.e. . ibid. 117. , i.e. . ibid. 118. , i.e. . ibid. 119. , i.e. . ibid. 120. , i.e. . ibid. 121. , i.e. . ibid. 122. , i.e. . ibid. 123. , i.e. . ibid. 124. , i.e. . ibid. 125. , i.e. . ibid. 126. , i.e. . ibid. 127. , i.e. . ibid. 128. , i.e. . ibid. 129. , i.e. . ibid. 130. , i.e. . ibid. 131. , i.e. . ibid. 132. , i.e. . ibid. 133. , i.e. . ibid. 134. , i.e. . ibid. 135. , i.e. . ibid. 136. , i.e. . ibid. 137. , i.e. . ibid. 138. , i.e. . ibid. 139. , i.e. . ibid. 140. , i.e. . ibid. 141. , i.e. . ibid. 142. , i.e. . ibid. 143. , i.e. . ibid. 144. , i.e. . ibid. 145. , i.e. . ibid. 146. , i.e. . ibid. 147. , i.e. . ibid. 148. , i.e. . ibid. 149. , i.e. . ibid. 150. , i.e. . ibid. 151. , i.e. . ibid. 152. , i.e. . ibid. 153. , i.e. . ibid. 154. , i.e. . ibid. 155. , i.e. . ibid. 156. , i.e. . ibid. 157. , i.e. . ibid. 158. , i.e. . ibid. 159. , i.e. . ibid. 160. , i.e. . ibid. 161. , i.e. . ibid. 162. , i.e. . ibid. 163. , i.e. . ibid. 164. , i.e. . ibid. 165. , i.e. . ibid. 166. , i.e. . ibid. 167. , i.e. . ibid. 168. , i.e. . ibid. 169. , i.e. . ibid. 170. , i.e. . ibid. 171. , i.e. . ibid. 172. , i.e. . ibid. 173. , i.e. . ibid. 174. , i.e. . ibid. 175. , i.e. . ibid. 176. , i.e. . ibid. 177. , i.e. . ibid. 178. , i.e. . ibid. 179. , i.e. . ibid. 180. , i.e. . ibid. 181. , i.e. . ibid. 182. , i.e. . ibid. 183. , i.e. . ibid. 184. , i.e. . ibid. 185. , i.e. . ibid. 186. , i.e. . ibid. 187. , i.e. .

Transcription: Translated (English)

Interpretation of the Greek words occurring throughout these epistles, lest anything should perhaps delay the reader; The first number denotes the column of each page, the second the line. Col. 1. line 26. omnium æmno, i.e. the common cause. 20. 50. , i.e. pertaining to the head. ibid. , i.e. pertaining to the works. ibid. , i.e. pertaining to the heart. 24. 47. machinis , àm. ibid. , i.e. the instrument of learning is not possessed, but it is the sight of the freeborn. 26. 44. , i.e. refuge. 27. 19. , i.e. naturally. ibid. 20. , i.e. contrary to nature. ibid. 21. , i.e. according to nature. ibid. 26. , i.e. contradiction. ibid. 27. , i.e. more exact. ibid. 46. , i.e. those present. 28. 51. , i.e. by thought, by purification. 29. 26. , i.e. a great and round swelling in the throat. 31. 29. , i.e. nothing to do with flour. 35. 7. , i.e. images. ibid. 30. , i.e. appearances. ibid. 52. , i.e. proved with certainty, demonstratively. ibid. 46. , i.e. an aberration of sight. 37. 1. , i.e. of purging medicines. 38. 35. , i.e. with impurities. ibid. 56. , i.e. love potions. 39. 12. , i.e. . ibid. 43. , i.e. amulets, which are suspended from the neck. ibid. 44. , i.e. , i.e. . ibid. 56. , i.e. . ibid. 57. , i.e. of tempering . ibid. 58. , i.e. . ibid. 59. , i.e. . ibid. 60. , i.e. . ibid. 61. , i.e. . ibid. 62. , i.e. . ibid. 63. , i.e. . ibid. 64. , i.e. . ibid. 65. , i.e. . ibid. 66. , i.e. . ibid. 67. , i.e. . ibid. 68. , i.e. . ibid. 69. , i.e. . ibid. 70. , i.e. . ibid. 71. , i.e. . ibid. 72. , i.e. . ibid. 73. , i.e. . ibid. 74. , i.e. . ibid. 75. , i.e. . ibid. 76. , i.e. . ibid. 77. , i.e. . ibid. 78. , i.e. . ibid. 79. , i.e. . ibid. 80. , i.e. . ibid. 81. , i.e. . ibid. 82. , i.e. . ibid. 83. , i.e. . ibid. 84. , i.e. . ibid. 85. , i.e. . ibid. 86. , i.e. . ibid. 87. , i.e. . ibid. 88. , i.e. . ibid. 89. , i.e. . ibid. 90. , i.e. . ibid. 91. , i.e. . ibid. 92. , i.e. . ibid. 93. , i.e. . ibid. 94. , i.e. . ibid. 95. , i.e. . ibid. 96. , i.e. . ibid. 97. , i.e. . ibid. 98. , i.e. . ibid. 99. , i.e. . ibid. 100. , i.e. . ibid. 101. , i.e. . ibid. 102. , i.e. . ibid. 103. , i.e. . ibid. 104. , i.e. . ibid. 105. , i.e. . ibid. 106. , i.e. . ibid. 107. , i.e. . ibid. 108. , i.e. . ibid. 109. , i.e. . ibid. 110. , i.e. . ibid. 111. , i.e. . ibid. 112. , i.e. . ibid. 113. , i.e. . ibid. 114. , i.e. . ibid. 115. , i.e. . ibid. 116. , i.e. . ibid. 117. , i.e. . ibid. 118. , i.e. . ibid. 119. , i.e. . ibid. 120. , i.e. . ibid. 121. , i.e. . ibid. 122. , i.e. . ibid. 123. , i.e. . ibid. 124. , i.e. . ibid. 125. , i.e. . ibid. 126. , i.e. . ibid. 127. , i.e. . ibid. 128. , i.e. . ibid. 129. , i.e. . ibid. 130. , i.e. . ibid. 131. , i.e. . ibid. 132. , i.e. . ibid. 133. , i.e. . ibid. 134. , i.e. . ibid. 135. , i.e. . ibid. 136. , i.e. . ibid. 137. , i.e. . ibid. 138. , i.e. . ibid. 139. , i.e. . ibid. 140. , i.e. . ibid. 141. , i.e. . ibid. 142. , i.e. . ibid. 143. , i.e. . ibid. 144. , i.e. . ibid. 145. , i.e. . ibid. 146. , i.e. . ibid. 147. , i.e. . ibid. 148. , i.e. . ibid. 149. , i.e. . ibid. 150. , i.e. . ibid. 151. , i.e. . ibid. 152. , i.e. . ibid. 153. , i.e. . ibid. 154. , i.e. . ibid. 155. , i.e. . ibid. 156. , i.e. . ibid. 157. , i.e. . ibid. 158. , i.e. . ibid. 159. , i.e. . ibid. 160. , i.e. . ibid. 161. , i.e. . ibid. 162. , i.e. . ibid. 163. , i.e. . ibid. 164. , i.e. . ibid. 165. , i.e. . ibid. 166. , i.e. . ibid. 167. , i.e. . ibid. 168. , i.e. . ibid. 169. , i.e. . ibid. 170. , i.e. . ibid. 171. , i.e. . ibid. 172. , i.e. . ibid. 173. , i.e. . ibid. 174. , i.e. . ibid. 175. , i.e. . ibid. 176. , i.e. . ibid. 177. , i.e. . ibid. 178. , i.e. . ibid. 179. , i.e. . ibid. 180. , i.e. . ibid. 181. , i.e. . ibid. 182. , i.e. . ibid. 183. , i.e. . ibid. 184. , i.e. . ibid. 185. , i.e. . ibid. 186. , i.e. . ibid. 187. , i.e. .

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Transcription: ATR-1

18, 9. , i.e. proportiones. 190, 8. , i.e. per totam substantiam. 19, 11. , i.e. . 191, 1. i.e. . 192, 1. i.e. . 193, 1. i.e. . 194, 1. i.e. . 195, 1. i.e. . 196, 1. i.e. . 197, 28. i.e. . 199, 1. i.e. . 199, 4. i.e. . 199, 12. i.e. . 199, 14. i.e. . 199, 16. i.e. . 199, 18. i.e. . 199, 21. i.e. . 199, 22. i.e. . 199, 24. i.e. . 199, 26. i.e. . 199, 28. i.e. . 199, 30. i.e. . 199, 31. i.e. . 199, 33. i.e. . 199, 34. i.e. . 199, 35. i.e. . 199, 36. i.e. . 199, 37. i.e. . 199, 38. i.e. . 199, 40. i.e. . 199, 41. i.e. . 199, 42. i.e. . 199, 43. i.e. . 199, 44. i.e. . 199, 45. i.e. . 199, 46. i.e. . 199, 47. i.e. . 199, 48. i.e. . 199, 49. i.e. . 199, 50. i.e. . 199, 51. i.e. . 199, 52. i.e. . 199, 53. i.e. . 199, 54. i.e. . 199, 55. i.e. . 199, 56. i.e. . 199, 57. i.e. . 199, 58. i.e. . 199, 59. i.e. . 199, 60. i.e. . 199, 61. i.e. . 199, 62. i.e. . 199, 63. i.e. . 199, 64. i.e. . 199, 65. i.e. . 199, 66. i.e. . 199, 67. i.e. . 199, 68. i.e. . 199, 69. i.e. . 199, 70. i.e. . 199, 71. i.e. . 199, 72. i.e. . 199, 73. i.e. . 199, 74. i.e. . 199, 75. i.e. . 199, 76. i.e. . 199, 77. i.e. . 199, 78. i.e. . 199, 79. i.e. . 199, 80. i.e. . 199, 81. i.e. . 199, 82. i.e. . 199, 83. i.e. . 199, 84. i.e. . 199, 85. i.e. . 199, 86. i.e. . 199, 87. i.e. . 199, 88. i.e. . 199, 89. i.e. . 199, 90. i.e. . 199, 91. i.e. . 199, 92. i.e. . 199, 93. i.e. . 199, 94. i.e. . 199, 95. i.e. . 199, 96. i.e. . 199, 97. i.e. . 199, 98. i.e. . 199, 99. i.e. . 199, 100. i.e. . 199, 101. i.e. . 199, 102. i.e. . 199, 103. i.e. . 199, 104. i.e. . 199, 105. i.e. . 199, 106. i.e. . 199, 107. i.e. . 199, 108. i.e. . 199, 109. i.e. . 199, 110. i.e. . 199, 111. i.e. . 199, 112. i.e. . 199, 113. i.e. . 199, 114. i.e. . 199, 115. i.e. . 199, 116. i.e. . 199, 117. i.e. . 199, 118. i.e. . 199, 119. i.e. . 199, 120. i.e. . 199, 121. i.e. . 199, 122. i.e. . 199, 123. i.e. . 199, 124. i.e. . 199, 125. i.e. . 199, 126. i.e. . 199, 127. i.e. . 199, 128. i.e. . 199, 129. i.e. . 199, 130. i.e. . 199, 131. i.e. . 199, 132. i.e. . 199, 133. i.e. . 199, 134. i.e. . 199, 135. i.e. . 199, 136. i.e. . 199, 137. i.e. . 199, 138. i.e. . 199, 139. i.e. . 199, 140. i.e. . 199, 141. i.e. . 199, 142. i.e. . 199, 143. i.e. . 199, 144. i.e. . 199, 145. i.e. . 199, 146. i.e. . 199, 147. i.e. . 199, 148. i.e. . 199, 149. i.e. . 199, 150. i.e. . 199, 151. i.e. . 199, 152. i.e. . 199, 153. i.e. . 199, 154. i.e. . 199, 155. i.e. . 199, 156. i.e. . 199, 157. i.e. . 199, 158. i.e. . 199, 159. i.e. . 199, 160. i.e. . 199, 161. i.e. . 199, 162. i.e. . 199, 163. i.e. . 199, 164. i.e. . 199, 165. i.e. . 199, 166. i.e. . 199, 167. i.e. . 199, 168. i.e. . 199, 169. i.e. . 199, 170. i.e. . 199, 171. i.e. . 199, 172. i.e. . 199, 173. i.e. . 199, 174. i.e. . 199, 175. i.e. . 199, 176. i.e. . 199, 177. i.e. . 199, 178. i.e. . 199, 179. i.e. . 199, 180. i.e. . 199, 181. i.e. . 199, 182. i.e. . 199, 183. i.e. . 199, 184. i.e. . 199, 185. i.e. . 199, 186. i.e. . 199, 187. i.e. . 199, 188. i.e. . 199, 189. i.e. . 199, 190. i.e. . 199, 191. i.e. . 199, 192. i.e. . 199, 193. i.e. . 199, 194. i.e. . 199, 195. i.e. . 199, 196. i.e. . 199, 197. i.e. . 199, 198. i.e. . 199, 199. i.e. . 199, 200. i.e. . 199, 201. i.e. . 199, 202. i.e. . 199, 203. i.e. . 199, 204. i.e. . 199, 205. i.e. . 199, 206. i.e. . 199, 207. i.e. . 199, 208. i.e. . 199, 209. i.e. . 199, 210. i.e. . 199, 211. i.e. . 199, 212. i.e. . 199, 213. i.e. . 199, 214. i.e. . 199, 215. i.e. . 199, 216. i.e. . 199, 217. i.e. . 199, 218. i.e. . 199, 219. i.e. . 199, 220. i.e. . 199, 221. i.e. . 199, 222. i.e. . 199, 223. i.e. . 199, 224. i.e. . 199, 225. i.e. . 199, 226. i.e. . 199, 227. i.e. . 199, 228. i.e. . 199, 229. i.e. . 199, 230. i.e. . 199, 231. i.e. . 199, 232. i.e. . 199, 233. i.e. . 199, 234. i.e. . 199, 235. i.e. . 199, 236. i.e. . 199, 237. i.e. . 199, 238. i.e. . 199, 239. i.e. . 199, 240. i.e. . 199, 241. i.e. . 199, 242. i.e. . 199, 243. i.e. . 199, 244. i.e. . 199, 245. i.e. . 199, 246. i.e. . 199, 247. i.e. . 199, 248. i.e. . 199, 249. i.e. . 199, 250. i.e. . 199, 251. i.e. . 199, 252. i.e. . 199, 253. i.e. . 199, 254. i.e. . 199, 255. i.e. . 199, 256. i.e. . 199, 257. i.e. . 199, 258. i.e. . 199, 259. i.e. . 199, 260. i.e. . 199, 261. i.e. . 199, 262. i.e. . 199, 263. i.e. . 199, 264. i.e. . 199, 265. i.e. . 199, 266. i.e. . 199, 267. i.e. . 199, 268. i.e. . 199, 269. i.e. . 199, 270. i.e. . 199, 271. i.e. . 199, 272. i.e. . 199, 273. i.e. . 199, 274. i.e. . 199, 275. i.e. . 199, 276. i.e. . 199, 277. i.e. . 199, 278. i.e. . 199, 279. i.e. . 199, 280. i.e. . 199, 281. i.e. . 199, 282. i.e. . 199, 283. i.e. . 199, 284. i.e. . 199, 285. i.e. . 199, 286. i.e. . 199, 287. i.e. . 199, 288. i.e. . 199, 289. i.e. . 199, 290. i.e. . 199, 291. i.e. . 199, 292. i.e. . 199, 293. i.e. . 199, 294. i.e. . 199, 295. i.e. . 199, 296. i.e. . 199, 297. i.e. . 199, 298. i.e. . 199, 299. i.e. . 199, 300. i.e. . 199, 301. i.e. . 199, 302. i.e. . 199, 303. i.e. . 199, 304. i.e. . 199, 305. i.e. . 199, 306. i.e. . 199, 307. i.e. . 199, 308. i.e. . 199, 309. i.e. . 199, 310. i.e. . 199, 311. i.e. . 199, 312. i.e. . 199, 313. i.e. . 199, 314. i.e. . 199, 315. i.e. . 199, 316. i.e. . 199, 317. i.e. . 199, 318. i.e. . 199, 319. i.e. . 199, 320. i.e. . 199, 321. i.e. . 199, 322. i.e. . 199, 323. i.e. . 199, 324. i.e. . 199, 325. i.e. . 199, 326. i.e. . 199, 327. i.e. . 199, 328. i.e. . 199, 329. i.e. . 199, 330. i.e. . 199, 331. i.e. . 199, 332. i.e. . 199, 333. i.e. . 199, 334. i.e. . 199, 335. i.e. . 199, 336. i.e. . 199, 337. i.e. . 199, 338. i.e. . 199, 339. i.e. . 199, 340. i.e. . 199, 341. i.e. . 199, 342. i.e. . 199, 343. i.e. . 199, 344. i.e. . 199, 345. i.e. . 199, 346. i.e. . 199, 347. i.e. . 199, 348. i.e. . 199, 349. i.e. . 199, 350. i.e. . 199, 351. i.e. . 199, 352. i.e. . 199, 353. i.e. . 199, 354. i.e. . 199, 355. i.e. . 199, 356. i.e. . 199, 357. i.e. . 199, 358. i.e. . 199, 359. i.e. . 199, 360. i.e. . 199, 361. i.e. . 199, 362. i.e. . 199, 363. i.e. . 199, 364. i.e. . 199, 365. i.e. . 199, 366. i.e. . 199, 367. i.e. . 199, 368. i.e. . 199, 369. i.e. . 199, 370. i.e. . 199, 371. i.e. . 199, 372. i.e. . 199, 373. i.e. . 199, 374. i.e. . 199, 375. i.e. . 199, 376. i.e. . 199, 377. i.e. . 199, 378. i.e. . 199, 379. i.e. . 199, 380. i.e. . 199, 381. i.e. . 199, 382. i.e. . 199, 383. i.e. . 199, 384. i.e. . 199, 385. i.e. . 199, 386. i.e. . 199, 387. i.e. . 199, 388. i.e. . 199, 389. i.e. . 199, 390. i.e. . 199, 391. i.e. . 199, 392. i.e. . 199, 393. i.e. . 199, 394. i.e. . 199, 395. i.e. . 199, 396. i.e. . 199, 397. i.e. . 199, 398. i.e. . 199, 399. i.e. . 199, 400. i.e. . 199, 401. i.e. . 199, 402. i.e. . 199, 403. i.e. . 199, 404. i.e. . 199, 405. i.e. . 199, 406. i.e. . 199, 407. i.e. . 199, 408. i.e. . 199, 409. i.e. . 199, 410. i.e. . 199, 411. i.e. . 199, 412. i.e. . 199, 413. i.e. . 199, 414. i.e. . 199, 415. i.e. . 199, 416. i.e. . 199, 417. i.e. . 199, 418. i.e. . 199, 419. i.e. . 199, 420. i.e. . 199, 421. i.e. . 199, 422. i.e. . 199, 423. i.e. . 199, 424. i.e. . 199, 425. i.e. . 199, 426. i.e. . 199, 427. i.e. . 199, 428. i.e. . 199, 429. i.e. . 199, 430. i.e. . 199, 431. i.e. . 199, 432. i.e. . 199, 433. i.e. . 199, 434. i.e. . 199, 435. i.e. . 199, 436. i.e. . 199, 437. i.e. . 199, 438. i.e. . 199, 439. i.e. . 199, 440. i.e. . 199, 441. i.e. . 199, 442. i.e. . 199, 443. i.e. . 199, 444. i.e. . 199, 445. i.e. . 199, 446. i.e. . 199, 447. i.e. . 199, 448. i.e. . 199, 449. i.e. . 199, 450. i.e. . 199, 451. i.e. . 199, 452. i.e. . 199, 453. i.e. . 199, 454. i.e. . 199, 455. i.e. . 199, 456. i.e. . 199, 457. i.e. . 199, 458. i.e. . 199, 459. i.e. . 199, 460. i.e. . 199, 461. i.e. . 199, 462. i.e. . 199, 463. i.e. . 199, 464. i.e. . 199, 465. i.e. . 199, 466. i.e. . 199, 467. i.e. . 199, 468. i.e. . 199, 469. i.e. . 199, 470. i.e. . 199, 471. i.e. . 199, 472. i.e. . 199, 473. i.e. . 199, 474. i.e. . 199, 475. i.e. . 199, 476. i.e. . 199, 477. i.e. . 199, 478. i.e. . 199, 479. i.e. . 199, 480. i.e. . 199, 481. i.e. . 199, 482. i.e. . 199, 483. i.e. . 199, 484. i.e. . 199, 485. i.e. . 199, 486. i.e. . 199, 487. i.e

Transcription: Translated (English)

18, 9. , i.e. proportions. 190, 8. , i.e. through the whole substance. 19, 11. , i.e. . 191, 1. i.e. . 192, 1. i.e. . 193, 1. i.e. . 194, 1. i.e. . 195, 1. i.e. . 196, 1. i.e. . 197, 28. i.e. . 199, 1. i.e. . 199, 4. i.e. . 199, 12. i.e. . 199, 14. i.e. . 199, 16. i.e. . 199, 18. i.e. . 199, 21. i.e. . 199, 22. i.e. . 199, 24. i.e. . 199, 26. i.e. . 199, 28. i.e. . 199, 30. i.e. . 199, 31. i.e. . 199, 33. i.e. . 199, 34. i.e. . 199, 35. i.e. . 199, 36. i.e. . 199, 37. i.e. . 199, 38. i.e. . 199, 40. i.e. . 199, 41. i.e. . 199, 42. i.e. . 199, 43. i.e. . 199, 44. i.e. . 199, 45. i.e. . 199, 46. i.e. . 199, 47. i.e. . 199, 48. i.e. . 199, 49. i.e. . 199, 50. i.e. . 199, 51. i.e. . 199, 52. i.e. . 199, 53. i.e. . 199, 54. i.e. . 199, 55. i.e. . 199, 56. i.e. . 199, 57. i.e. . 199, 58. i.e. . 199, 59. i.e. . 199, 60. i.e. . 199, 61. i.e. . 199, 62. i.e. . 199, 63. i.e. . 199, 64. i.e. . 199, 65. i.e. . 199, 66. i.e. . 199, 67. i.e. . 199, 68. i.e. . 199, 69. i.e. . 199, 70. i.e. . 199, 71. i.e. . 199, 72. i.e. . 199, 73. i.e. . 199, 74. i.e. . 199, 75. i.e. . 199, 76. i.e. . 199, 77. i.e. . 199, 78. i.e. . 199, 79. i.e. . 199, 80. i.e. . 199, 81. i.e. . 199, 82. i.e. . 199, 83. i.e. . 199, 84. i.e. . 199, 85. i.e. . 199, 86. i.e. . 199, 87. i.e. . 199, 88. i.e. . 199, 89. i.e. . 199, 90. i.e. . 199, 91. i.e. . 199, 92. i.e. . 199, 93. i.e. . 199, 94. i.e. . 199, 95. i.e. . 199, 96. i.e. . 199, 97. i.e. . 199, 98. i.e. . 199, 99. i.e. . 199, 100. i.e. . 199, 101. i.e. . 199, 102. i.e. . 199, 103. i.e. . 199, 104. i.e. . 199, 105. i.e. . 199, 106. i.e. . 199, 107. i.e. . 199, 108. i.e. . 199, 109. i.e. . 199, 110. i.e. . 199, 111. i.e. . 199, 112. i.e. . 199, 113. i.e. . 199, 114. i.e. . 199, 115. i.e. . 199, 116. i.e. . 199, 117. i.e. . 199, 118. i.e. . 199, 119. i.e. . 199, 120. i.e. . 199, 121. i.e. . 199, 122. i.e. . 199, 123. i.e. . 199, 124. i.e. . 199, 125. i.e. . 199, 126. i.e. . 199, 127. i.e. . 199, 128. i.e. . 199, 129. i.e. . 199, 130. i.e. . 199, 131. i.e. . 199, 132. i.e. . 199, 133. i.e. . 199, 134. i.e. . 199, 135. i.e. . 199, 136. i.e. . 199, 137. i.e. . 199, 138. i.e. . 199, 139. i.e. . 199, 140. i.e. . 199, 141. i.e. . 199, 142. i.e. . 199, 143. i.e. . 199, 144. i.e. . 199, 145. i.e. . 199, 146. i.e. . 199, 147. i.e. . 199, 148. i.e. . 199, 149. i.e. . 199, 150. i.e. . 199, 151. i.e. . 199, 152. i.e. . 199, 153. i.e. . 199, 154. i.e. . 199, 155. i.e. . 199, 156. i.e. . 199, 157. i.e. . 199, 158. i.e. . 199, 159. i.e. . 199, 160. i.e. . 199, 161. i.e. . 199, 162. i.e. . 199, 163. i.e. . 199, 164. i.e. . 199, 165. i.e. . 199, 166. i.e. . 199, 167. i.e. . 199, 168. i.e. . 199, 169. i.e. . 199, 170. i.e. . 199, 171. i.e. . 199, 172. i.e. . 199, 173. i.e. . 199, 174. i.e. . 199, 175. i.e. . 199, 176. i.e. . 199, 177. i.e. . 199, 178. i.e. . 199, 179. i.e. . 199, 180. i.e. . 199, 181. i.e. . 199, 182. i.e. . 199, 183. i.e. . 199, 184. i.e. . 199, 185. i.e. . 199, 186. i.e. . 199, 187. i.e. . 199, 188. i.e. . 199, 189. i.e. . 199, 190. i.e. . 199, 191. i.e. . 199, 192. i.e. . 199, 193. i.e. . 199, 194. i.e. . 199, 195. i.e. . 199, 196. i.e. . 199, 197. i.e. . 199, 198. i.e. . 199, 199. i.e. . 199, 200. i.e. . 199, 201. i.e. . 199, 202. i.e. . 199, 203. i.e. . 199, 204. i.e. . 199, 205. i.e. . 199, 206. i.e. . 199, 207. i.e. . 199, 208. i.e. . 199, 209. i.e. . 199, 210. i.e. . 199, 211. i.e. . 199, 212. i.e. . 199, 213. i.e. . 199, 214. i.e. . 199, 215. i.e. . 199, 216. i.e. . 199, 217. i.e. . 199, 218. i.e. . 199, 219. i.e. . 199, 220. i.e. . 199, 221. i.e. . 199, 222. i.e. . 199, 223. i.e. . 199, 224. i.e. . 199, 225. i.e. . 199, 226. i.e. . 199, 227. i.e. . 199, 228. i.e. . 199, 229. i.e. . 199, 230. i.e. . 199, 231. i.e. . 199, 232. i.e. . 199, 233. i.e. . 199, 234. i.e. . 199, 235. i.e. . 199, 236. i.e. . 199, 237. i.e. . 199, 238. i.e. . 199, 239. i.e. . 199, 240. i.e. . 199, 241. i.e. . 199, 242. i.e. . 199, 243. i.e. . 199, 244. i.e. . 199, 245. i.e. . 199, 246. i.e. . 199, 247. i.e. . 199, 248. i.e. . 199, 249. i.e. . 199, 250. i.e. . 199, 251. i.e. . 199, 252. i.e. . 199, 253. i.e. . 199, 254. i.e. . 199, 255. i.e. . 199, 256. i.e. . 199, 257. i.e. . 199, 258. i.e. . 199, 259. i.e. . 199, 260. i.e. . 199, 261. i.e. . 199, 262. i.e. . 199, 263. i.e. . 199, 264. i.e. . 199, 265. i.e. . 199, 266. i.e. . 199, 267. i.e. . 199, 268. i.e. . 199, 269. i.e. . 199, 270. i.e. . 199, 271. i.e. . 199, 272. i.e. . 199, 273. i.e. . 199, 274. i.e. . 199, 275. i.e. . 199, 276. i.e. . 199, 277. i.e. . 199, 278. i.e. . 199, 279. i.e. . 199, 280. i.e. . 199, 281. i.e. . 199, 282. i.e. . 199, 283. i.e. . 199, 284. i.e. . 199, 285. i.e. . 199, 286. i.e. . 199, 287. i.e. . 199, 288. i.e. . 199, 289. i.e. . 199, 290. i.e. . 199, 291. i.e. . 199, 292. i.e. . 199, 293. i.e. . 199, 294. i.e. . 199, 295. i.e. . 199, 296. i.e. . 199, 297. i.e. . 199, 298. i.e. . 199, 299. i.e. . 199, 300. i.e. . 199, 301. i.e. . 199, 302. i.e. . 199, 303. i.e. . 199, 304. i.e. . 199, 305. i.e. . 199, 306. i.e. . 199, 307. i.e. . 199, 308. i.e. . 199, 309. i.e. . 199, 310. i.e. . 199, 311. i.e. . 199, 312. i.e. . 199, 313. i.e. . 199, 314. i.e. . 199, 315. i.e. . 199, 316. i.e. . 199, 317. i.e. . 199, 318. i.e. . 199, 319. i.e. . 199, 320. i.e. . 199, 321. i.e. . 199, 322. i.e. . 199, 323. i.e. . 199, 324. i.e. . 199, 325. i.e. . 199, 326. i.e. . 199, 327. i.e. . 199, 328. i.e. . 199, 329. i.e. . 199, 330. i.e. . 199, 331. i.e. . 199, 332. i.e. . 199, 333. i.e. . 199, 334. i.e. . 199, 335. i.e. . 199, 336. i.e. . 199, 337. i.e. . 199, 338. i.e. . 199, 339. i.e. . 199, 340. i.e. . 199, 341. i.e. . 199, 342. i.e. . 199, 343. i.e. . 199, 344. i.e. . 199, 345. i.e. . 199, 346. i.e. . 199, 347. i.e. . 199, 348. i.e. . 199, 349. i.e. . 199, 350. i.e. . 199, 351. i.e. . 199, 352. i.e. . 199, 353. i.e. . 199, 354. i.e. . 199, 355. i.e. . 199, 356. i.e. . 199, 357. i.e. . 199, 358. i.e. . 199, 359. i.e. . 199, 360. i.e. . 199, 361. i.e. . 199, 362. i.e. . 199, 363. i.e. . 199, 364. i.e. . 199, 365. i.e. . 199, 366. i.e. . 199, 367. i.e. . 199, 368. i.e. . 199, 369. i.e. . 199, 370. i.e. . 199, 371. i.e. . 199, 372. i.e. . 199, 373. i.e. . 199, 374. i.e. . 199, 375. i.e. . 199, 376. i.e. . 199, 377. i.e. . 199, 378. i.e. . 199, 379. i.e. . 199, 380. i.e. . 199, 381. i.e. . 199, 382. i.e. . 199, 383. i.e. . 199, 384. i.e. . 199, 385. i.e. . 199, 386. i.e. . 199, 387. i.e. . 199, 388. i.e. . 199, 389. i.e. . 199, 390. i.e. . 199, 391. i.e. . 199, 392. i.e. . 199, 393. i.e. . 199, 394. i.e. . 199, 395. i.e. . 199, 396. i.e. . 199, 397. i.e. . 199, 398. i.e. . 199, 399. i.e. . 199, 400. i.e. . 199, 401. i.e. . 199, 402. i.e. . 199, 403. i.e. . 199, 404. i.e. . 199, 405. i.e. . 199, 406. i.e. . 199, 407. i.e. . 199, 408. i.e. . 199, 409. i.e. . 199, 410. i.e. . 199, 411. i.e. . 199, 412. i.e. . 199, 413. i.e. . 199, 414. i.e. . 199, 415. i.e. . 199, 416. i.e. . 199, 417. i.e. . 199, 418. i.e. . 199, 419. i.e. . 199, 420. i.e. . 199, 421. i.e. . 199, 422. i.e. . 199, 423. i.e. . 199, 424. i.e. . 199, 425. i.e. 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Transcription: ATR-1

ibid. 13. idem, i.e. proprie. 397.48. in natura, i.e. menses. ibid. 17. adhuc, i.e. Vniversale quiddam. 406.14. i.e. facie parabilia. 336, 32. in in diu in di, i.e. vt locum isto. Ibid. 23. idem, i.e. eorum medicamentorum. 337, 37. in à pueri et , i.e. eius, quæ secundum na- que simum descunt. tur. 407.15. Nunc (id) in in quia summi auri qua diuam i.e. ibid. 28. in à pueri, i.e. eius, quæ secundum na- 411.16. qui par ea relinquoendo, imparata turam est, putredimus. persequitur. ibid. 51. , i.e. dissentiones. Ibid. 17. eor[um] in , i.e. eadem mensuras, & ibid. 53. , i.e. exploratam fidem. molius. 338, 31. in , i.e. ex contrario. 409.5. in omnia de omnibus. ibid. 33. , i.e. violentam tabem. 412.14. , i.e. arcane, vel secreto. ibid. 34. in , i.e. , quæ est secundum naturam. Ibid. 11. in , i.e. plus cumm. 341, 46. , & nat in , i.e. Vniversalter, & per se. ibid. 34. & precautions. ibid. 39. , i.e. accurata diligencia ad Phy- ibid. 38. in , e[ss]e reuera domesticum? sicamperiternos. Ibid. 40. in , i.e. abundansia. 343. , i.e. planim. ibid. 40. i.e. Zimbergem coacte. ibid. 17. in , & in , i.e. in universalem & 414.40. , i.e. Bensa vero contrà particularem. 414.27. & . 345, 24. in , i.e. confidem generis. 423.7. , i.e. en eo manuscripto. ibid. 52. , i.e. proportionaliter. Ibid. 10. idem in , i.e. præterea; 363, 21. , i.e. contraddictionem. quæ reticula fuerunt in morbo. 369, 39. , i.e. ignarii. Ibid. 14. in , i.e. cui intestinu[m] in dextro parte. 426, 19. idem in , i.e. sudorem monens. 371, 27. in , i.e. secundum circumsistenti- 419.1. in , i.e. terra inestina. am contraria qualitatis. ibid. 35. & eam proprietas. ibid. 51. , i.e. libertatem loquendi. ibid. 37. in , i.e. sangvificationem. 372, 23. , i.e. præter opinionem. ibid. 42. idem in , i.e. tractationum & 373, 4. , i.e. minus methodicè, ana emicarum. ibid. 11. , i.e. tractationem. 433, 2. in , i.e. pala est alca. ibid. 18. in , & , i.e. Vniversalem & naturalem. 436, 10. & e[ss]e ostendu[m] curatio. ibid. 33. , i.e. libertatem loquendi. 440, 1. in , i.e. impiuera, nisi in , & comi ibid. 52. , i.e. proportionaliter, i.e. minus methodicè, mentia, conscientia, & impetum faucia. ibid. 11. , i.e. tractationem. ibid. 22. in , i.e. secundum aliud. ibid. 31. , i.e. , i.e. manus causa est sa- 441, 10. & eorum substaniam. piensia. ibid. 12. , i.e. spiritualem. ibid. 46. in , i.e. extrextatione[m] 442, 0. in , i.e. serum, mebodo & ratione. quod ita de perficietur, cum gloria nunquam p[er]tinet. ibid. 47. in , i.e. Vniversalia. 447, 14. in , i.e. de affectibus muto. ibid. 55. , i.e. in , i.e. ad particularia. 448, 8. in , i.e. nesse, qua 382, 27. , i.e. mediata. operet, & hac oratione exponere. ibid. 28. , i.e. immediata. ibid. 50. & e partes excerptas. ibid. 31. , i.e. ad aliquid conuertibi- 449, 14. in , i.e. remedia contra postem. liter. 451, 23. & e[ss]e virgulis opus, siue monitari. ibid. 35. , i.e. notionum. 452, 19. & e[ss]e medecinum. ibid. 26. , i.e. subsistens. ibid. 29. in , i.e. remedia contra postem. 385, 34. in , i.e. petere. 462, 28. & e[ss]e medecinum. ibid. 37. , i.e. potentiæ. ibid. 29. in , i.e. remedia contra postem. ibid. 30. , i.e. potentiæ. 464, 5. in , i.e. difficili sp[eci]ariu[m]. ibid. 10. , i.e. , i.e. eius, qui non memores sunt. 466, 2. in , i.e. , quæ præter legitimu[m] eum 395, 16. , i.e. discursus, i.e. discursus. impenditur. 396, 9. , i.e. sigillæ. 468, 5. , i.e. secunda cura sæpi- ibid. 48. , i.e. antempostium. ensores. ibid. 51. in , i.e. experientia est optima munibus schola.

Transcription: Translated (English)

ibid. 13. idem, i.e. properly. 397.48. in natura, i.e. months. ibid. 17. adhuc, i.e. a universal something. 406.14. i.e. things ready at hand. 336, 32. in in diu in di, i.e. so that this place. Ibid. 23. idem, i.e. of those medicines. 337, 37. in à pueri et, i.e. that which is according to na- que simum descunt. tur. 407.15. Now (id) in in because of the highest gold qua diuam i.e. ibid. 28. in à pueri, i.e. that which is according to na- 411.16. which, leaving par ea, pursues the unprepared. ture, we rot. Ibid. 17. eor[um] in , i.e. the same measures, & ibid. 51. , i.e. disagreements. molius. ibid. 53. , i.e. tested faith. 409.5. in omnia de omnibus. 338, 31. in , i.e. from the opposite. 412.14. , i.e. secretly, or in private. ibid. 33. , i.e. violent corruption. Ibid. 11. in , i.e. more cumm. ibid. 34. in , i.e. , which is according to nature. ibid. 34. & precautions. 341, 46. , & nat in , i.e. universal, & per se. ibid. 38. in , e[ss]e truly domestic? ibid. 39. , i.e. careful diligence toward phy- Ibid. 40. in , i.e. abundance. sicamperiternos. ibid. 40. i.e. by force to Zimbergem. 343. , i.e. plainly. 414.40. , i.e. Bensa indeed against ibid. 17. in , & in , i.e. into the universal & 414.27. & . particular. 423.7. , i.e. in that manuscript. 345, 24. in , i.e. confidence of the genus. Ibid. 10. idem in , i.e. moreover; ibid. 52. , i.e. proportionally. which were little nets in the illness. 363, 21. , i.e. contradiction. Ibid. 14. in , i.e. whose intestine in the right 369, 39. , i.e. ignorant persons. side. 371, 27. in , i.e. according to the circum- 426, 19. idem in , i.e. warning of sweat. stances of the opposite quality. 419.1. in , i.e. internal earth. ibid. 51. , i.e. freedom of speech. ibid. 35. & the property. 372, 23. , i.e. beyond opinion. ibid. 37. in , i.e. sanguification. 373, 4. , i.e. less methodically, ibid. 42. idem in , i.e. of treatises & ibid. 11. , i.e. treatment. ana emicarum. ibid. 18. in , & , i.e. universal and natural. 433, 2. in , i.e. pala is alca. ibid. 33. , i.e. freedom of speech. 436, 10. & the cure is shown to be. ibid. 52. , i.e. proportionally, i.e. less methodically, 440, 1. in , i.e. impiuera, unless in , & courtesy, ibid. 11. , i.e. treatment. conscience, & urging impulse. ibid. 31. , i.e. , i.e. the hand is the cause of wisdom. ibid. 22. in , i.e. according to another. ibid. 46. in , i.e. extrication 441, 10. & their substance. mebodo & ratione. ibid. 12. , i.e. spiritual. ibid. 47. in , i.e. universalia. 442, 0. in , i.e. serum, ibid. 55. , i.e. in , i.e. to particulars. which thus is completed, when glory never pertains. 382, 27. , i.e. mediated. 447, 14. in , i.e. I speak about the affections. ibid. 28. , i.e. immediate. 448, 8. in , i.e. to know, which ibid. 31. , i.e. convertible to something. works, & to explain by this speech. liter. ibid. 50. & the excerpted parts. ibid. 35. , i.e. notions. 449, 14. in , i.e. remedies against the pest. ibid. 26. , i.e. subsisting. 451, 23. & there should be virgules, or notes. 385, 34. in , i.e. to seek. 452, 19. & to be a physician. ibid. 37. , i.e. powers. ibid. 29. in , i.e. remedies against the pest. ibid. 30. , i.e. powers. 462, 28. & to be a physician. ibid. 10. , i.e. , i.e. those who are not mindful. ibid. 29. in , i.e. remedies against the pest. 395, 16. , i.e. discourse, i.e. discourse. 464, 5. in , i.e. of difficult species. 396, 9. , i.e. seals. 466, 2. in , i.e. , what is expended beyond what is lawful. ibid. 48. , i.e. antempostium. 468, 5. , i.e. second care of the se- nsors. ibid. 51. in , i.e. experience is the best school for the hands.

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Transcription: ATR-1

ibid. 56. omniuo & , i.e. Quod bonum est, rarum est. 469,4. iuviu: & , i.e. Æqualitas enim est æmicitia. ibid. 16. omniuq[ue] i.e. obscuritatis. ibid. 18. & , i.e. eangendi scopum, vel ab eo aberrandi. 470,40. i.e. , i.e. posteriora priora. ibid. 8. , i.e. dubitatione, seu assensione retentione. ibid. 18. , i.e. studium laboris. ibid. 19. , i.e. diminutionis ex vima. ibid. 21. , i.e. dubitatione, seu assensione retentione. ibid. 25. , i.e. defensione. 472,5. , i.e. excrementionem. ibid. 38. , i.e. exercitationem. 473,6. , i.e. statas & fluxus. ibid. 11. , i.e. , i.e. , i.e. , id est, ignis omnia mouere, aqua omnia nutris eposit. ibid. 16. , i.e. recenti sponso. ibid. 25. , i.e. defensione. 474,5. , i.e. , qui manum ipse admonet. ibid. 19. , i.e. quid est. ibid. 6. , i.e. propter quid, sine qua est. 480,9. , i.e. vitam minimè vitalem. ibid. 17. , i.e. ex tempore. ibid. 19. , i.e. artificium, quod alterum vicem præstet. ibid. 19. , i.e. experientia. 481,16. , i.e. potabile. ibid. 24. , i.e. fallacia, argutia. ibid. 25. , i.e. frustratione & errata. 483,1. , i.e. morbida excretio, sine exhalatio. 484,1. , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , i.e. , i.e. , , 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Transcription: Translated (English)

ibid. 56. What is good is rare. 469,4. Equality, indeed, is friendship. ibid. 16. of obscurity. ibid. 18. of hitting the target, or of missing it. 470,40. later things first. ibid. 8. in doubt, or in retaining assent. ibid. 18. zeal for labor. ibid. 19. of diminution in force. ibid. 21. in doubt, or in retaining assent. ibid. 25. of defense. 472,5. of excretion. ibid. 38. of exercise. 473,6. of states and fluxes. ibid. 11. id est, fire moves all things, water nourishes all things. ibid. 16. of a recent bridegroom. ibid. 25. of defense. 474,5. he who himself reminds the hand. ibid. 19. what is it. ibid. 6. the reason why, without which it is. 480,9. a life least vital. ibid. 17. extemporaneously. ibid. 19. an artifice which serves in the place of the other. ibid. 19. experience. 481,16. drinkable. ibid. 24. fallacy, cunning. ibid. 25. frustration and errors. 483,1. morbid excretion, without exhalation. 484,1.

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Transcription: ATR-1

Zæritus pæpas tuis fuius [est] inaru, acut adhærum, irru. 129.16. in ido hæc e[st] et hæc post habo, dixi, at cum tu[m] nolim id est, si enim oculus esset animal, et anima ipsi esset visio. i.e. Natura vero finis. Quale enim vnum quodque 126.17. valbra illi, à capiunc, i.e. abitralla. est generasionis perfecta, hanc vnumscensque naturam ibid. 18. in ea vix, hanc irra, i.e. infixa. esse ducimus, velut hominis, equi. 122,4. n[on] [est] [n]o[n] irru, i.e. esse [est] finis. INDEX

Transcription: Translated (English)

Zæritus pæpas tuis fuius [est] inaru, acut adhærum, irru. i.e. Nature indeed is the end. For whatever each thing is, the perfect form of generation, we consider this one nature, as of man, horse. 129.16. in ido hæc est et hæc post habo, dixi, at cum tum nolim id est, if indeed the eye were an animal, and the soul in it were vision. 126.17. valbra illi, à capiunc, i.e. arbitrary. ibid. 18. in ea vix, hanc irra, i.e. fixed. 122,4. n[on] [est] [n]o[n] irru, i.e. to be [is] the end. INDEX

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Transcription: ATR-1

INDEX RERVM ET VERBORVM IN HIS EPISTOLIS MEDICINALIBVS MEMORABILIVM: Cuius prior numerus cuiusq[ue] paginæ columnam, posterior lineam demonstrat. Ceto quomodo la- datur & imped- atur 131. 57 Actione[m] ladi du- pliciter 121, 23 Accoempyreu- ma 369. 37 Aceti radicatæ margaritas dissoluere 275, 28 Adamantem magneticis attractivem non impedere 106, 56 Aerem a muliere menstruata contem- nari 184, 51 Æger Paracelsi intra annum morbus 313, 32 Ægritudendum genera tria 127, 42 Æliberum calorem extra suum subie- tum corrumpo 498, 40 Aeis vngula in epilepsia inulaeda 61, 3 Alumenis defectus causa extenuet[ur] calo- ris proxima 487, 30 Alphonsus rex diata coëptor 146, 41 Alus fuer in vauolis quemodo sistendum 250. 18 Ambiens Aristoteli quid 341, 30 Ambra pro peste 181, 52 Ambra chrysea in morbis pestilentia- bus successus felix 114, 30 Ambra sulphurea in morbis pestilent- bus vsus 219, 12 Amnicum de arsenico pro infusione 394, 59, 401. 5 Amuletorum vis parma 61, 27 Andernacus chymea studiosus 158, 94 Andernacus de pestes sententia 214, 24 Animalis perfectio in quo 116, 20 Animi affectuare frugeraro & calefa- re 64, 6 Animi in deliquiis quomodo metalla conueniant 309, 3 Auisum purgans 469, 26 Anodyna quæ & qualia conveniant po- dagra 348, 39 Anodynem in dolore podagrico 309, 19 Antidotii præferuatio a peste cum legg. 461, 47 Antidotis parum tribuendum, vbi ve- nemi gradus spueratur 477, 4 Antidotus Moibani 469, 42 Antidotus vera veneni pestilentis soli Deenota 230, 46 Antimonio inscambio antiqua, reliquis nihil conferentibus, quidam curatas 34, 32 Aperientia nimia novia 391, Apoplexia animorbus herodotarins 291 Apoplexia causa 7, 40 Apoplexiam anse quadragesimum an- num non innadere, selle Hippocrate 7, 23 Apoplexiano raro a nudâ intemperie o- riri 2, 10 Aqua colla au recte in potum vjsurpe- tur 28, 23 Aqua in althmato 481, 33 Aqua pro oculus 111, 13 Aqua futuris in suffusione adhibita 111, 11 Aqua pulgii in promocandis mensibus 310, 38 Aqua vitam apoplexia 9, 17 Aqua colla veni loco sumenda præpara- tio 314, 20 Aqua coquenda optima ratio qua 28, 29 Aqua fortis natura 378, 41 Aqua Vennenses omnes nitrosa 184, 36 Aquam cinamomi anco vasi infusam venicum monere 191, 59, 195, 27 Aquam frigidam dolores colicos sedere 252, 52 Aquam Tyberis ad centum annos in- corruptam perdurare 316, 1 Arabum doctrina solida 119, 22 Arabum doctrina non reuienda 334 12 Arcula in templo Apollinio Antagiosa 181, 30 Arsenicum cordi appensum periculo- sum 282, 10 Arbitris an critica sic eque periodica, 418, 34 Arboris Petri Menaus 421, 20 Arbitrides diuerse 431, 16, 434, 20 Arthruidicca causa 346, 2 Arthritus curationis scopi 348, 5 Aaenzoar inter Arabu[m] medicos sum- mus 181, 17 Aure & gemmarum vis varia 309, 33 Aure & maecia propria qua 76, 37 Aurum pot abole jamtatis conformatrix 77, 2 Aurum potulentum sophisticum 481, 11 Autumnus tabidis infestus 12, 8 Axungia oleaginosa venes anodyna 78, 19 B Alnemum aqua dulcis somnum con- clusare 10, 52 Alnemum formicarum ad quid 251, 13 Beechecarum vsus in cholosis doloribus 299, 45 Bezoar in peste perum conferre 264, 13 Bezoar cæclico lapidis in alus fluxa Cra- tonem perum tribuere 250, 35 Boleum cum pumita educe e num sit ra- barbari fiant 66, 7 Boletus cum minus pro peste 181, 33 Boti Armeni succedaneum 218, 3 Boti Armeni vsus in diaphorisi 227, 29 Boti Armeni terra sigillata substitut- tur 151, 37 Boti in hypochondriaca passione 153, 27 Boti orientalis 189, 34 Boti Tocaensis in posse laudatur 187, 48 Boti Tokuensis ad casarrium 220, 9 221, 58 Botum armenum ad pestem conferre 302, 23 Bonum esse communnicatium 218, 2 Brudi Lusitani de lapide Bezoar. indo- cium 307, 42 Chaine 1 308, 46 C Calculis causa 308, 8 Calculis materia 193, 24 Calculis per alium revecto 245, 39 Calculosicura 217, 22 Caldarus plumbea salis vehementissi- mosone non dissolus 137, 23 ratio ibid. 29, 351, 15, 369, 8 Calida corporibus laxus minus quam- densis nocero 511, 41 Calidi actiones 202, 16 Calidi innari famula 34, ibid Calidi urrgo substansia 301, 10 Calidi temperamentum 46, ibid. Calidum innatum numen febribus pa- tatur 202, 51 Calor an cælestis forma 206, 41 Calor innatus quid Aristo. & Gal. 341 43 Caloris corruptio duplex 486, 51a Caloris insitis & influentis differentia 336, 35 Calorem exuscantia 98, 2 Camphora pro peste 181, 51 Camphoræ aquibus non danda 228, 38 Capitis lotiones frequentes improbari 349, 5 Capinaccis methodus medendo 419, 28 cuius diligentia in lectionibus de ve- nenis 35, ibid. Caput & nervos roberantia 395, 38 408. 11. Carbo in frusto salis purgans 34, 42 Carriebteri imperitia quales 273, 21 Carols de Petra alba somnium de speratio vini 274, 48 Carols Ostendii more 466, 37 Carpo qualligantur, ancor & epar- intrenti 45, 49 Carnecula quadam fibrosa in deme- meditatio repera 14, 30 Casæ nos liquoris post deglutitionem cur excreatio fiat, maliumque licenciatur 10, 25 Z 6

Transcription: Translated (English)

INDEX OF MATTERS AND WORDS IN THESE MEDICINAL LETTERS MEMORABLE: The former number indicates the page column, the latter the line. How the whale is praised and hindered 131, 57 The disease called ladi doubly by action 121, 23 Accoempyreu- ma 369, 37 The radicated acid to dissolve pearls 275, 28 A magnetically attractive diamond not to be impeded 106, 56 The air to be contemned by a menstruating woman 184, 51 Paracelsus’ patient, disease within a year 313, 32 Three kinds of affliction 127, 42 I have ruined the free heat outside its subject 498, 40 The hoof of Aeis in epilepsy 61, 3 The defect of alum, cause of the proximate heat to be lessened 487, 30 King Alphonsus, initiator of the diet 146, 41 How to stop a flux in vauolis 250, 18 What is the surrounding, according to Aristotle 341, 30 Amber against plague 181, 52 Golden amber, happy success in pestilential diseases 114, 30 Sulfurous amber, use in pestilential diseases 219, 12 Amnicum of arsenic for infusion 394, 59, 401, 5 The force of amulets 61, 27 Andernacus, a student of alchemy 158, 94 Andernacus’ opinion about plagues 214, 24 The perfection of an animal: in what it consists 116, 20 To warm and heat the feelings of the mind 64, 6 How in fainting fits the metals agree with the mind 309, 3 A purgative bird 469, 26 What anodynes are suitable for gout 348, 39 Anodyne in gouty pain 309, 19 Preservation of antidote from plague with legal authorities 461, 47 Little is to be attributed to antidotes, where the degree of poison is suspected 477, 4 Moibani’s antidote 469, 42 The true antidote of pestilent poison alone Deenota 230, 46 Antimony exchanged for old things, while the rest contribute nothing: what some have cured by 34, 32 Too many opening remedies, novel 391, Apoplexy, a disease of the mind, Herodotus’ 291 Cause of apoplexy 7, 40 That apoplexy does not attack before the fortieth year, according to Hippocrates 7, 23 That apoplexy rarely arises from naked intemperance 2, 10 Whether water and colla are rightly used as a drink 28, 23 Water in althmato 481, 33 Water for the eyes 111, 13 Water applied in future suffusion 111, 11 Water of pulgii in bringing on the menses 310, 38 Water against apoplexy 9, 17 Preparation of water and colla to be taken in place of wine 314, 20 The best way to boil water 28, 29 Nature of aqua fortis 378, 41 All the waters of Vennenses are nitrous 184, 36 Water infused with cinnamon in a vessel to drive away poison 191, 59, 195, 27 Cold water to relieve colic pains 252, 52 The water of the Tiber to remain uncorrupted for a hundred years 316, 1 The doctrine of the Arabs is solid 119, 22 The doctrine of the Arabs is not to be revived 334, 12 A chest in the temple of Apollo, hostile 181, 30 Arsenic hung at the heart is dangerous 282, 10 Whether judges or critics are thus equally periodic 418, 34 The tree of Peter Menaus 421, 20 Various opinions of arbitrators 431, 16, 434, 20 Cause of arthritis 346, 2 Aim of the treatment of arthritis 348, 5 Aenzoar, the greatest among Arab physicians 181, 17 The varied power of gold and gems 309, 33 Gold and maecia, what is proper 76, 37 Drinking gold, an old conformer of ailments 77, 2 Potable gold, sophistic 481, 11 Autumn hostile to the wasting 12, 8 Oily axungia, anodyne for the veins 78, 19 B Sweet water of the bladder to induce sleep 10, 52 The bladder of ants, for what 251, 13 Use of leeches in colicky pains 299, 45 Bezoar contributes much in plague 264, 13 Bezoar stone, in other fluxes, to be greatly attributed to Craton 250, 35 Whether the bowl with pumice is to be drawn out, or whether rhubarb is to be used 66, 7 Boletus with less against plague 181, 33 Armenian boue as a substitute 218, 3 Use of Armenian boue in diaphoresis 227, 29 Armenian boue substituted for terra sigillata 151, 37 Boue in hypochondriac passion 153, 27 Oriental boue 189, 34 Boue of Tocaensis praised in power 187, 48 Boue of Tokuensis for cæsarrium 220, 9 221, 58 Armenian boue contributes to plague 302, 23 The common good communicated 218, 2 Brudi Lusitani on the stone Bezoar: ignorant 307, 42 Chain 1 308, 46 C Cause of calculi 308, 8 Material of calculi 193, 24 Calculi carried back by another 245, 39 Cure of calculi 217, 22 A lead cauldron is not dissolved by the strongest salts 137, 23; the reason thereof 29, 351, 15, 369, 8 Heat less harmful to lax bodies than to dense ones 511, 41 Actions of the hot 202, 16 The hot in the nurse 34, ibid. The hot, urge substance 301, 10 Temperament of the hot 46, ibid. The innate hot power suffers in fevers 202, 51 Whether heat is a heavenly form 206, 41 What is innate heat, according to Aristotle and Galen 341, 43 Twofold corruption of heat 486, 51a Difference between inborn and inflowing heat 336, 35 Things that stir up heat 98, 2 Camphor against plague 181, 51 Camphor should not be given with waters 228, 38 Frequent washings of the head disapproved 349, 5 Method of healing according to Capinaccis 419, 28 whose diligence in readings on poisons 35, ibid. Things strengthening the head and nerves 395, 38 408, 11. Coal in a piece of salt, purgative 34, 42 What kinds of ignorance there are in carriers 273, 21 Carols de Petra alba, dream of the despair of wine 274, 48 Carols after the manner of Ostend 466, 37 Whether the carpo are bound, and whether the liver enters 45, 49 A certain fibrous little flesh found in the deformed body 14, 30 Why, after swallowing, secretion occurs, and medicine is discharged 10, 25 Z 6

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INDEX Cafus vbi dup[er] millia dominum venesectione perierint 182. 24 Cataplasma in comfusionibus & plagiocapsus 87. 18 Cataplasma pro gangrana compescenda 87. 9 Catarrhi epidemici quale contagium 360. 21 Catarrh us epidemicus contagiosus 396. 26 Catbalici vsus in lue venera 477. 13 Causa comunita & quomodo differant 214. 10 Causa co[n]tensiona quomodo in omni morbo 130. 4 Causa contineus, & morbus an idem 214. 26 Causa consentina quid 460. 33 Causam contensionum s[un]t coniunctina differre 127. 51 Causas continentes in morbus non dari 310. 39 Causa in liberrori diata 460. 33 Cantela pro colica laborantibus 247. 22 Cantera consolidata herbalia 291. 39 Cantera m[er]goquartio epilepsia 311. 8 Canterium impodagra viso 11. 58 Cera in aqua an liquosas 138. 6 Cerenissam creta inculta depurari 248 14 Cerussam a plumbo vsto differre 111. 17 Chalcanebo & Chalcatalis differreta 133. 36 Chalcantiliquor ad quid 38. 0. 10 Chalcinus quid 294. 6 Chalybeo præparatio 320. 10. 330. 39 Chamadryi in sp[irit]uo sanguinis probatur 300. 55 Chelidonia elementa quatuor a chymistis decantata qua 116. 20 Chelidonia præsens liquoris vires ibid. 50. secundi, 157. E. ter[us] 35. ibid. Chymia quatenus reprehendendo 314. 9 Chymiam Paracelso falso adscribe 6. 32 Chymicorum cum Aristotele in metallorum principiis consensus 362. 47. Chymicorum in chironcetis vsus 135. 10 Chymicorum vsus in chironcis morbis probatur ibid. Chymicorum vistitas & cantela 115. 56 Cib[us] quantuam magis quam qualitas respicenda 347. 7 Civum capere refrigeratis & madenibus pedibus, cerebro noxium 7. 6 Cib[us] in quanto perniciosus, quam in quals 419. 38 Clyster pro almo 10. 44 Clysterum dosis 248. 45 Cotla ab igne an omnia empyreuma habeans 111. 6. Cottrione frustratione & Astium differre 306. 14 Copereri electuarium in p[er]esto molusus vistiter exhibitum, 394. 53. eius dexter vsus 408. 57 Cochlearia succum ad hydropeno muri fice conducere 221. 40 Colicicura 246. 41 Collyrium in suffusione oculorum 150. 44 Cometa supra luctam 35. 20 Cometam humiditatem asculisse 38. 11 Concollatio contradictionis Galent 127. 23 23 Confectio de Rhubarbaro ineptis obstructione 447. 36 Coniunctionem lune non impedire remedia 246. 38 Contagis natura 327. 23 Contagis v[er]s in putredino 132. 36 Contagium Montano quid 174. 21 Contagium quid 64. 49 Contagium sine temperie lafione non induci 48. 1. 43 Contagium verum putredinis Jobulem 135. 1 Contrariorum cur alia a[n]nava, alia a[n]navaea 518. 44 Conuersatio vetularum quibusdam noxia 184. 48 Conu[er]sio Epileptica ex consensu viro 254. 2 Cor februm focus 81. 24 Cordis temp[er]etem subito mutari 491. 47 47 Corporis omnis exhalatione noxia putricia 184. 21 Corroberantia necessario nutrire 508 44 44 Cortex frangula ad quid 278. 43 Coryze contagiosa 182. 48 Cratonis de calido innato sententia 200. 43 43 Cratonis de catarrbo opinio 184. 6 Cratonis de catarrbo epidemico probabitur quam Mercurialis sententia 112. 35 E. 2. 2 Cratonis de luc Moranica hypotheses 242. 33 Cratonis de pete sententia 190. 4. 191. 37 439. 58 Cratonis de peste & contagio sententia qualiter a[utem] Monian discrepi 174. 36 Crato defensor chymica 239. 30 Cratonis destillatam 424. 26 Cratonis inducium de camphora tempestra 462. 21 Cratonis tractatus de morbis mulierum 443. 51 Crisa ex pulsio non causa fluxionum periodicarum 414. 13 Crystalli vsus non tatus in epilepsia 217. 10 Crystallus verum argenti vini alexipharmacum 430. 32 Cura excitatus ex obstructione nervorum opticorum 149. 30 Cura ædematis in tibia 97. 18. Curatio Gallica inconsueta 216. 14 Cuscuta suittero nihil præstamus 112. 15 Cuspides corum corum contra venena 264. 50 D Decollum ad calculi adors 265 13 Decollum ad tussum 218. 33 Decollum corticum quatuor formi restinquere 469. 32 Decollum ellebori migri ad humori melancholicum de mulcudam 410. 18 Decollum radicum eryngi in febre quariana 404. 43 Decollum incrasse fluxionibus 300. 55. Decollum leniente, in catarrbo mane, noctu vero gargarismo repellente vendum 4. 17 Decollum ligni pro epileptico 263. 9. Decollum pro mesenteri obstructionibus 217. 51 Decollum raparum pro tussi 218. 11 Decollum raparum pro peste 182. 1 Decollum Sarca in apoplexia præparatione remedium diuimum 8. 18 Deusi partem gigniuis sectam saltem sensiro 312. 54 Destillatum caponii restaurant falsum 73 51 Destillationum modi confecti 274. 44 Diacodiori in fluxionibus ad afferam arteriam 447. 30 Diascordium Fracastorei in peste laudatur, 394. 57. facili præparationis 408. 42 Diæa apodagricis optima 266. 47 Differentia substancialis improprie contraria 514. 2 Difficultas doctrina de pulsibus & venis 58. 47 Discr[imin]em inter temperiemo & propriotatem 130. 47 Discr[imin]era præfornatio 455. 59 Dissentatio de calido innato intricata, 191. 52. eius vistitas 203. 35 Diuretica an in calculo conveniant 303 13 Diuretica in calculo perfe[ct]o non conuenire 306. 16 Diuretica proprie qua ibid. 44 Dolor num ab humido 353. 45 Dubia in febri pestilentiali 221. 30 Dulcianoxia 134. 20 B E Cleymata n[ota]tura in catarrbis 299 40 Electuarium ad cardinaliano, & alium lenendam 107. 17 Electuarium caryophyllatum in ventriculi imbecillitate 447. 4 Electuarium de chalybe in obstructionibus viscorum 310. 13. 449. 36 Electuarium leucitium 439. 14 Electuarium Macis in correboratione cerebri & cordis 446. 11 Electuarium pro v[er]osisi humoribus euacuandis 171. 21 Elemensa quatuor Chymistis dicta ex Chelidonia v[er]separanda 116. 28 Empericum quariana remedium 198. 8 Emplastrum epilepticum 266. 26 268. 6 Emplastrum in suffusione 111. 1 Emuisio in retentione vena à calcinio 310. 57 Epar

Transcription: Translated (English)

INDEX Cause in which over two thousand people perished by venesection 182. 24 Cataplasm in contusions and plagiocapsus 87. 18 Cataplasm to check gangrene 87. 9 Epidemic catarrhs, what contagion 360. 21 Catarrhus epidemicus contagious 396. 26 Use of cathartics in venereal disease 477. 13 Common cause and how they differ 214. 10 How the cause of tension in every disease 130. 4 Whether the cause and the disease are the same 214. 26 What the cause of consentaneity is 460. 33 That the causes of tensions differ from the conjunctive 127. 51 That there are no continuing causes in disease 310. 39 Cause in liberorria diata 460. 33 Cantele for those suffering from colic 247. 22 Consolidated herbal cantera 291. 39 Cantera in epilepsy of the margo quartio 311. 8 Canterium in gout seen 11. 58 Whether wax in water is liquid 138. 6 Purified ceruss with unworked chalk 248. 14 Cerussa differs from burned lead 111. 17 Chalcanebo and Chalcatalis differ 133. 36 Chalcantiliquor, for what purpose 38. 0. 10 What chalcinus is 294. 6 Preparation of steel 320. 10. 330. 39 Chamadry in the spirit of the blood is proved 300. 55 The four elements of chelidonia, as praised by the chemists, how 116. 20 Chelidonia, the present force of the liquid, second, 157. third 35. ibid. How far alchemy is to be criticized 314. 9 That alchemy was falsely attributed to Paracelsus 6. 32 The agreement of the chemists with Aristotle on the principles of metals 362. 47. Use of the chemists in chironetics 135. 10 The use of the chemists in chironic diseases is proved, ibid. The caution and skill of the chemists 115. 56 That food is to be considered more in quantity than in quality 347. 7 To take food with chilled and wet feet is harmful to the brain 7. 6 Food is more harmful in quantity than in quality 419. 38 Clyster for the bladder 10. 44 Dose of clyster 248. 45 Whether coal from fire has all empyreuma 111. 6. That cottrione differs from frustration and astium 306. 14 Electuary preserved with coperi in a very leisurely manner, displayed, 394. 53. its proper use 408. 57 Cochlearia juice helps against salt water in dropsy 221. 40 Colic cure 246. 41 Collyrium in suffusion of the eyes 150. 44 Comet above the battle 35. 20 That the comet caused moisture 38. 11 Concollation of Galen’s contradiction 127. 23 23 Preparation of rhubarb for inept obstruction 447. 36 That remedies do not prevent the conjunction of the moon 246. 38 Nature of contagion 327. 23 Contagis v[er]s in putrefaction 132. 36 What contagion is according to Montanus 174. 21 What contagion is 64. 49 That contagion is not induced without a corruption of temperament 48. 1. 43 True contagion, the bulb of putrefaction 135. 1 Why of contraries some are annual, others not annual 518. 44 That the conversation of old women is harmful to some 184. 48 Epileptic conversion by consent in men 254. 2 The heart, focus of fevers 81. 24 That the temperament of the heart is suddenly changed 491. 47 47 The whole body’s exhalation, harmful and putrid 184. 21 Corroborants necessarily nourish 508. 44 44 Frangula bark, for what purpose 278. 43 Contagious coryza 182. 48 Craton’s opinion on innate heat 200. 43 43 Craton’s opinion on catarrh 184. 6 Craton’s opinion on epidemic catarrh will be proved more than Mercurialis’ opinion 112. 35 E. 2. 2 Craton’s hypothesis on Moranic plague 242. 33 Craton’s opinion on plague 190. 4. 191. 37 439. 58 How Crato’s opinion on plague and contagion differs from Monian’s 174. 36 Crato, defender of alchemy 239. 30 Craton’s destillata 424. 26 Craton’s campaign against camphor in pestilence 462. 21 Craton’s treatise on diseases of women 443. 51 The crisis from pulse is not the cause of periodic fluxions 414. 13 The use of crystals in epilepsy is not so certain 217. 10 Crystallus, a true alexipharmic of argent-vinum 430. 32 Cure aroused from obstruction of the optic nerves 149. 30 Treatment of edema in the leg 97. 18. Unusual French treatment 216. 14 With cuscuta we accomplish nothing 112. 15 Cusps of corum corum against poisons 264. 50 D Decoctum for stones in the kidneys 265. 13 Decoctum for cough 218. 33 Decoctum of four barks to remove 469. 32 Decoctum of black hellebore to soften melancholic humor 410. 18 Decoctum of eryngo roots in quartan fever 404. 43 Decoctum thickening fluxions 300. 55. Decoctum, lenient in catarrh by day, but at night to be expelled with gargle 4. 17 Decoctum of lignum for epilepsy 263. 9. Decoctum for mesenteric obstructions 217. 51 Decoctum of turnips for cough 218. 11 Decoctum of turnips for plague 182. 1 Decoctum of Sarca in apoplexy, a divine prepared remedy 8. 18 Only the severed part of the genitalia seems to be felt 312. 54 Capon distillate, restorative, false 73. 51 Modes of distillation, composed 274. 44 Diacodion in fluxions toward the aorta 447. 30 Diascordium Fracastoro’s in plague is praised, 394. 57. of easy preparation 408. 42 Best diet for gout sufferers 266. 47 Substantial difference, improperly, opposite 514. 2 Difficulty of the doctrine of pulses and veins 58. 47 Difference between temperament and property 130. 47 Preformation of the difference 455. 59 Disputation about innate heat, intricate, 191. 52. its skill 203. 35 Whether diuretics are suitable in stone 303. 13 Diuretics not to be used in complete stone 306. 16 What diuretics properly are, ibid. 44 Whether pain is from moisture 353. 45 Doubts in pestilential fever 221. 30 Dulcia noxia 134. 20 B Notable remedies in catarrhs 299. 40 Electuary for the cardialgia and to relieve another 107. 17 Caryophyllate electuary in weakness of the stomach 447. 4 Electuary of steel in obstructions of the viscera 310. 13. 449. 36 Leucitian electuary 439. 14 Mace electuary in strengthening the brain and heart 446. 11 Electuary for evacuating v[er]osisi humors 171. 21 The four elements, as the chemists say, to be separated from Chelidonia 116. 28 An empirical remedy for quartan fever 198. 8 Epileptic plaster 266. 26 268. 6 Plaster in suffusion 111. 1 Emission in retention of blood by calcination 310. 57 Epar

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REPIST. MEDICINAL. Epar venarum principium & origo 111. 8.123.17 Epilepsia diagnostica ignota 240.27 Epilepsia emelium 260.36 Epilepsia remedia 264.30 Epilepticum Imperat. secretum 218.56 Epileboma in dolore capitis 36 Epithema pro sudore 11.16 Eraftide paresipost colicam sententia 129.50 Erafti sententia de medicamentorum facultatibus 20.45 Errbina cerebrum concutere 9.49 Error a nelsoniis in plumbo vnde 13.6 37. Error in destillatio aqua vita 245.43 Error Nestoriorum a confusione homonymia 301.9 Emporstum producendo capillis singulare 453.1.34 Experimenta in quartana parum valero 181.55 Experimentum epilepsia in quadratura exhibendum 131 Experimentum Helidas in spato sanguineofallax 313.36 Experimentum in apoplexia preservaciono 6.9.56 Experimentum in febri tertiana 1.11 Experimentum nonum de radice plantaginea 462.12 Extractum agalechis ad corroboratione ventriculis 17.31 Extractum è radico iridis pro hydrophisis 226.18 Extractum hydropicis exhibendum 220 8 Extractum Rhabarbari in melancholica hrochonodriaca 17.8 Extractum solutinum 102.43 Extractum veronica pro peste 222.44 Extractiu zedoaria pro paralyticus 481.42 F Fallopii de Fernelio indicium 195. 19 Fabricantes in paroxysmo an eibando 16.30 Febris a defusione pestis cur excludatur 226.32 Febris acuta an accidente pleurisidis perpetuum 108.44 Febris catarrhalis contagiosa necessario putrida 173.50 Febris qualis morb 374.39 Febris recidua an contagiosa 186.3 Febris signa 179.18 Febris a catarrho putrida 186.32 188.40 Febrisfari vitione 80.15 Febrinum putridarum vapores cur nem aliquam cordis partem putrefacant 496.30 Infebribus num ipso die paroxysmi purgandum 358.2 Fernolus secretum in dolore capitis a ventriculo 298.50 Flores persicorum ad hydropem codacore 221.46 Fluxionum in principio adstringentia adhibenda 300.4 Fluxionum pestilentialium præcautio 287.10 Fætorem omni putredinis non conuenire 343.56 Fomentatio in suffusione 150.28 Fomentatio praeculis 150.29 Fomentum in febri ardento 249.23 Fomes quid 227.13 Fomentum in paralysi 416.35 Forma vegetabilis in medicamentis amissa, vires remanere 56.19 Fosis ventriculi in cruditato 298.34 Frumenta, nisi orbata viva, non alero 126.14 G G albani destillatum in colica 246 47 Galenum in parasi quid conferat 6.1 Galenica remedia Paracelsica tutiora 315.19 Galeni sententia de plumbo refutatur 411.44 Galens inter calorem & calidum discreto 440.17 Galenum in navigatione versus Iudeam morumus 116.50 Gallico morbo laborant antimonio curatus 37.18 Gargarisma in dolore capitis è ventriculo 288.57 Gargarismus in apoplexia 9.11 Gargarismus in catarrho 4.43 Gemma vera qua 217.16 Gemmatum fulger an spiritus alat 509 52 Gimmas, aurum, & argentum vultiter adhiberi 376.54 Generatio an motum in substantia 206.43 Geranium matracium 434.4 Ginginarium exulceratio 290.43 Gonorrhæa gallica symptomata 276.36 Granida an lactare debeant 216.7 Guaacum gallicum tantum Sanctum vero etiam alius prodesse 285.55 H Haustus china in febri tertiana 2.45 Hamorrhoides qualiter prouocandi 421.41 Hemorrhoidum dolorem sedansia 212.59.118.41 Hippocratis primæ qualitates cur reiuetat 472.48 Hippocratem totum Paræsis quendam elaborasse 316.5 Historia agrapella 23.17 Humanitas ab homine qualiter differat 516.40 Humores an nutriant 57.31 Humores in febribus quomodo purificant 332.34 Humores scorsim puressero medico, non philosophice 49.34 Humores scorsos seducentia 212.14 Humorum & spirituum substantia pars an calidior 203.7 Hydrargyri motus ab aero 135.16 Hydrargyrisus 357.18 Hydrargyrum collo appensum in pestilentialis contagio 401.2. Hydrops pulmonis vnde 246.38 Hydropis & adjikmatis in podagram, translatio 306.45 Hydropus præseruatio 221.49.249.57. Hydropicus rhabarbari frequens vsum sanatus 18.46 Hymen virginitatissimus 30.58 I Idea Hippocratica Cratonis 218.32 Indicatio quid 170.10 infectio an è vaporo putrido 244.21 Inunctio in dolore infectiorum 248.56 Inunctio spina in alusfluxu 210.43 Insania paracelsica deploranda 239.45 Intemperies duplex 490.41 Io annes Langues de phltris 409.57 Ioannes Pedimentanus assiduo antimonis vsum firmam sibi comparant valetudinem 55.13 Iudicium de vrinis 109.15 Iudicium Dudushis de comitis 525.26. K Lalliscorrupti è comi causa 210 37 Ladanum ad ventriculi robur 155.55 Lapu an medicamentis vnfrequi possit 54.1 Lapis Bezoar 228.35 Lapis calaminaris pro ecculis 86.48 Lapis de Perupro epilepsia 212.12 Lapis sabulosus vulgo Beynbruch 518. 9 Lapidis rerum causadulices 133.16. Lapidem Bezoar in febri catarrhosa plurimum in Hessania profusio 138. 6 Loperem marimum pulmonem exulcerare 502.28 Liber de cognitione pulsum ad Posthumum legissumus 107.10. Lienem sangvium conficere 372.24. Lignum guasaei an in arbritide connoisit 435.10 Lignum sanctum & Guasacum douersum 285.32 Liquor pro surdastris 86.55 Lobelia verbaderadico Mechoaca 23. 51 Lono discutiens & insollicus 97.24 M Agisterium perlarum ventriculium corrupisse 275.38

Transcription: Translated (English)

MEDICAL INDEX. Epar venarum principium & origo 111. 8.123.17 Epilepsia diagnostica ignota 240.27 Epilepsia emelium 260.36 Epilepsia remedia 264.30 Epilepticum Imperat. secretum 218.56 Epileboma in headache 36 Epithema for sweat 11.16 Eraftide paresipost colic, opinion 129.50 Erafti opinion on the faculties of medicines 20.45 Errbina shake the brain 9.49 Error from the Nelsonians in lead, whence 13.6 37. Error in the distillation of aqua vitae 245.43 Error of the Nestorians from homonymic confusion 301.9 Emporstum, singular for producing hair 453.1.34 Experiments in quartan fever of little value 181.55 Experiment epilepsia to be shown in quadrature 131 Experiment Helidas in spato sanguineofallax 313.36 Experiment in apoplexy, preservation 6.9.56 Experiment in tertian fever 1.11 Ninth experiment on plantain root 462.12 Extract of agalechis for strengthening the stomach 17.31 Extract from the root of iris for dropsy 226.18 Extract to be given to dropsical patients 220 8 Extract of rhubarb in melancholic hrochonodriaca 17.8 Extract solutinum 102.43 Extract of veronica for pestilence 222.44 Extract of zedoaria for paralysis 481.42 F Fallopius on Fernelius, judgment 195. 19 Manufacturers in paroxysm, whether to be eibando 16.30 Why fever from the diffusion of pestilence should be excluded 226.32 Whether acute fever from an incident of pleurisy is perpetual 108.44 Catarrhal fever is necessarily putrid and contagious 173.50 What kind of disease 374.39 Whether relapsing fever is contagious 186.3 Signs of fever 179.18 Fever from catarrh putrid 186.32 188.40 Febrisfari vitione 80.15 Why the vapors of putrid fevers do not corrupt any part of the heart 496.30 Whether on the very day of the paroxysm one should purge in fevers 358.2 Fernel's secret in headache from the stomach 298.50 Peach blossoms for dropsy 221.46 Astringents to be applied at the beginning of fluxions 300.4 Precaution against pestilential fluxions 287.10 That a stench of all putrefaction is not fitting 343.56 Fomentation in suffusion 150.28 Fomentation for the eyes 150.29 Fomentation in ardent fever 249.23 What fuel is 227.13 Fomentation in paralysis 416.35 Though the vegetative form in medicines be lost, the powers remain 56.19 Loss of the stomach in crudity 298.34 Grains, unless deprived of life, do not nourish 126.14 G Distilled Galbanum in colic 246 47 What Galen contributes in paralysis 6.1 Galenic remedies safer than Paracelsian ones 315.19 Galen's opinion on lead refuted 411.44 Galen distinguished between heat and the hot 440.17 Galen on a voyage toward Judea 116.50 Afflicted with the French disease, cured by antimony 37.18 Gargle in headache from the stomach 288.57 Gargle in apoplexy 9.11 Gargle in catarrh 4.43 What is true gem 217.16 Does gemmed splendor nourish the spirit? 509 52 Gems, gold, and silver to be used variously 376.54 Whether generation is a movement in substance 206.43 Geranium matracium 434.4 Ulceration of the gums 290.43 Symptoms of the French gonorrhea 276.36 Whether children should be nursed 216.7 That guaacum helps not only the French, but also others, is true 285.55 H China draught in tertian fever 2.45 How hemorrhoids are to be provoked 421.41 A soothing for hemorrhoidal pain 212.59.118.41 Why Hippocrates' first qualities are to be reexamined 472.48 That Hippocrates worked out the whole Paræsis in a certain way 316.5 Historia agrapella 23.17 How humanity differs from man 516.40 Whether humors nourish 57.31 How humors are purified in fevers 332.34 That humors are purged separately, medically, not philosophically 49.34 That humors are drawn apart 212.14 Whether the substance of humors and spirits is the hotter part 203.7 Motion of mercury from air 135.16 Hydrargyrisus 357.18 Mercury hung around the neck in pestilential contagion 401.2. Dropsy of the lungs, whence 246.38 Translation of dropsy & adjikmatis into gout 306.45 Preservation from dropsy 221.49.249.57. A dropsical patient cured by frequent use of rhubarb 18.46 Virgin Hymen most chaste 30.58 I Hippocratic idea of Craton 218.32 What indication is 170.10 Whether infection is from putrid vapor 244.21 Anointing in pain of infectious diseases 248.56 Anointing the spine in alusfluxu 210.43 Paracelsian madness to be deplored 239.45 Double intemperance 490.41 Io annes Langues de phltris 409.57 Ioannes Pedimentanus, by the constant use of antimony, acquired for himself firm health 55.13 Judgment of urine 109.15 Judgment of Dudushis on comitis 525.26. K Lalliscorrupti from comi, cause 210 37 Ladanum for strengthening the stomach 155.55 Whether lapu can be used in medicines 54.1 Bezoar stone 228.35 Calamine stone for the eyes 86.48 Stone from Peru for epilepsy 212.12 Sandy stone, commonly Beynbruch 518. 9 Cause of the thing's sweetness of the stone 133.16. Bezoar stone in catarrhal fever, very much a profusion in Hessania 138. 6 Whether loperem marimum ulcerates the lungs 502.28 We have read the book on the cognition of the pulse to Posthumus 107.10. That the spleen makes blood 372.24. Whether lignum guasaei is of use in arthritis 435.10 Holy wood and Guasacum diversely 285.32 Liquid for the hard of hearing 86.55 Verbaderadico Lobelia, of Mechoaca 23. 51 Lono, dispersing and insollicus 97.24 M The pearl magistery has corrupted the stomachs 275.38

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Transcription: ATR-1

INDEX Mala batem Tarcesiam venerticulum plurimum roborare 217, 19 nugere duplex 48, 18 Morgastaria solutio 275, 20, 408, 40 Mersia putrefactio num forma vustum 314, 29 Mersiam collam etiam die par oxymi in febribus relictipurgari 466, 1 Mersiæus in rebus una forma necessario ponenda 515, 17 Mechoacapraratio cum pane Mero rio 438, 51 Mechoacaraduis descripto 248, 1 Mechoaco vultus 58, 18 Medicamenta philophilica an scions municanda 59, 18 Medicamenta prostitutione vili scire 434, 44 Medicamenta qua vi, & quomodo agane 51, 54 Medicamentorum compositio difficul- tia 43, 17 Medicamentum ad sanguinem concre- tum in venriculo 418, 43 Medici præcepta qualis secundum Galenum 164, 14 Medicorum cum philosophus de pu- tredine consensus 490, 13 Medicorum diffusius in pesto Veneta 191, 31 Medici artifex seassives 440 48 Medium an inter morbum & seniatem 518, 36 Melancholia an morbus barediarius 291, 3 Melancholia hypochondriaca unum ab Hepatofrigidiate 345 Melancholicum succum cur aquam Hippocrates nominavit 372, 15 Membraduo, in quibus venenum ge- gnoscesse esse Galeno 513 Measium alborum cura 429, 38 Mensibus ciendes probatissimum reme- dium 149, 18 Mercurialis de auctiones plumbe causa 36, 31 30 Metalla non temere adhibenda 508, 36 Metalla & metallica differre ibid. 41. Metallum num vegetabilia 523, 40 Metalla non prorsim omni vita earare 63, 48 Metalla omnia è vaporebus aqueis & terros cessare 118, 29 Metalla num recti & tuo intro assim- manetur 476, 30 Metallica Aristotele vix cognita 362, 25 Metallica igne acriora fieri negatur 377, 49 Metallica igne vix temperari 510, 36 Metallica automanexia 508, 28 Metallica anlla ammire 376, 45 Metallica anua animata 584, 11 Metallica purgare 377, 16 Metaliorum transmutationem negare 513, 49 Metaliorum vix reclus 379, 7 Methodus distillatoria 317, 40 Methodus legendi Galenum 191 Methodus janitatorumenda 419, 58 Methodus Therapeutica Cratonis 217, 31 parvitas varietas 184, 40 Minus vis magnetica in Epilepsia 240 11 Mista simultariatria in febrobere 128 Matriadacus vix 98, 19 Modus applicando ruptoria 83, 5 Mollatur primo sumenda 56, 10 Mentanialus 164, 34 Mentani opinio de febre pestilentiali 174, 31 Mentanum insenso acuti innati colo- rus essentiam demum agnominis 199, 18 Morbicantagiosicanscqua 270, 15 Morbicantagosi qui 256, 31 Morbicantagosi non omnes maligni 316, 47 Morbi duplex consideratio 351, 37 Morbi effensia num in facultate lefa 351, 5 Morbincurabiles qui 413, 2 Morbum sumbifariam 127. Morbum totius substantia extra in- temperiem non dare 500, 45 Moriorum contagiosorum vehiculum sperum & ebores 186, 54 Morbis substantio totius dare 315, 51 Morbis totius substantia intemperie re- tibus 384, 35, 88, 480 Morbis epidemicus an. 80. in Germania magnatus 131, 48, 132, 30 Morbis puerorum morficum 136 Morbis quid 136, 56 Morbis quomodo per se corporis & per accidens anima affictum 117, 13 Morbis sine medicis accuratus 41, 6 Morbis subitantiar non idem cum in- temperie 209, 56 Morbis totius substantia negatur 439. 7 Morsulipurgantes 102, 38 Morsim & mutationum differentia 75 31 N Narcotica opiata viribus infirmis Periculosæ exhiberi 78, 50 Narium hamorrhagia quidam sanari 182, 32 Nasturcium aquaticum contra phtilra prastans 409, 57 Natura corporis ellesa temperie an de- stumatur 517, 30 Naturam sanguine impuro interdum suscatari 16, 1 Nanjia & venitus cur in nephruscus doloresbus 339, 20 Nepenthes narcoticum prastans 391, 31 Nepenthes praparatio operoja 472, 25 Nephrusce delores quomodo lenendi 197, 32 Nervulis in medio dentium nequaquam 41, 45 Nodulus carpo applicandus in febre tor- tiana 4, 54 Nodulus ex scobe cornu cornis & vixeo quercino pro febre 184, 22 Numerorum nullam efficaciam 47, 14 Nux vomica ad cana necandis 14, 18 O Oculariorum specellorum diuersi- tas 315, 49 Oculus fascinatum 184, 17 Ol. Chalcanilis absq[ue] igne 155, 34 Olei Terebinthinæ vix 208, 41 Olei vitrioli in humidioribus naturæ vistuum 255, 16 Oleum calcanthi qualiter absq[ue] igne paretur 155, 16 Oleum carophyllorum balsamilocur substitutat Schallarm in ebriusca compos[.] 154, 11 Oleum carophillorum fermentan- nem accellerare 214, 11 Oleum ex animalibus perfectum 73, 53 Oleum matricaria in alut fluxum 150 39 Oleum sulphuris gallico morbo laboran- tibus salutiferum 481, 19 Oleum sulphuretis vix recte preparari 139, 21 Oleum vitrioli ad putredinet inibibendus - 281, 31 Oleum vitrioli in marbo gallico 158 41 Operis disimi perfectionem in circuitu quadratura ex sole tripici demen- strare 83, 14 Opium aafrigidum 40, 7 Opium nostrum an cuno illo veterum congruat dubitatur 241, 19 Opponacum nerum maximum 9, 14 Orbiculi ad alum soluendum 250. 49 Ore ventriculo effulta remedia de for- plicanda 111, 11 Organum causa allionum proxima 518, 20 Oxymel ad præparatione humorum 398 27, 499, 57 P Palsitationis cordis causa quo 213, 3 Paracelsi encomium 467, 36. eiui vituperum 40, 11. Paralysis cura 424, 17 Paralysis post Colicano 477, 16 Parosis intemperies frigida & humida 63, 50 Passulaxatina 401, 10 Periodorum causam vix expulsinum 82, 19 Perspicilla anum conferunt oculis 311, 7 Perspicillorum vixi, acerno oculorum, an bebetet 49, 59, 39, 5 Persicorum nucleorum vixis pro pesto 181, 51 Pestis od quod morbi genus referenda 324, 25 Pestis an sine febre 41, 23, 63, 11, 65. 22 Pestis an venenum, an relictus, contagi- um 61, 18 Pestis appellationem varie sumi 151, 12. Pestis causa 263, 57, 331, 7 Pestis ca[us]a 263, 50 Pestis defim[.] vix 251, 17 Pestis anplex 250, 9 251, 6 Pestis effugium 645, 1 P. 4, 1

Transcription: Translated (English)

INDEX Mala batem Tarcesiam venerticulum greatly to strengthen 217, 19 nugere duplex 48, 18 Morgastaria solutio 275, 20, 408, 40 Mersia putrefactio num form a vustum 314, 29 Mersiam collam also, in a day, by oxymi in fevers to be purified when left 466, 1 Mersiæus in things one form necessarily to be set down 515, 17 Mechoacapraratio with bread Mero rio 438, 51 Mechoacaraduis described 248, 1 Mechoaco countenance 58, 18 Medicamenta philophilica whether they should be provided by science 59, 18 Medicamenta prostitutione vili to know 434, 44 Medicamenta by what force, & how they act 51, 54 Composition of medicines, difficult ty 43, 17 Medicamentum for blood congealed in the stomach 418, 43 Physicians' precepts, what kind according to Galen 164, 14 Agreement of physicians with the philosopher about putrefaction 490, 13 Physicians more fully in the Venetian plague 191, 31 Medici artifex seassives 440, 48 Medium whether between disease & old age 518, 36 Melancholia whether a hereditary disease 291, 3 Melancholia hypochondriaca one from Hepatofrigidiate 345 Why Hippocrates named the melancholic juice water 372, 15 Members, in which poison is recognized to exist according to Galen 513 Measium alborum cure 429, 38 In the months, the best proven reme dy 149, 18 Mercurialis on the cause of leaden auctions 36, 31 30 Metals are not to be used rashly 508, 36 Metals and metallic things differ, ibid. 41. Metal whether vegetables 523, 40 Metals not wholly to be treated in life 63, 48 All metals arise from aqueous and earthy vapors 118, 29 Whether metals are rightly and by their own nature assim- ilated within 476, 30 Metallic things scarcely known to Aristotle 362, 25 Metallic things are denied to become sharper by fire 377, 49 Metallic things scarcely tempered by fire 510, 36 Metallica automanexia 508, 28 Metallica anlla ammire 376, 45 Metallica anua animata 584, 11 Purifying metallic things 377, 16 To deny the transmutation of metals 513, 49 The metals scarcely reclused 379, 7 Distilling method 317, 40 Method of reading Galen 191 Method of janitatorumenda 419, 58 Therapeutic method of Crato 217, 31 smallness, variety 184, 40 Less magnetic force in epilepsy 240 11 Mixta simultariatria in febrobere 128 Matriadacus scarcely 98, 19 Mode of applying ruptoria 83, 5 Mollatur first to be taken 56, 10 Mentanialus 164, 34 Mentan's opinion on pestilential fever 174, 31 Mentanum in the sense of innate sharpness, color the essence finally to be acknowledged by the name 199, 18 Morbicantagiosicanscqua 270, 15 Morbicantagosi who 256, 31 Morbicantagosi not all malignant 316, 47 Double consideration of disease 351, 37 Whether the essence of disease is in the faculty of harm 351, 5 Incurable diseases, which 413, 2 Disease in two ways 127. Disease of the whole substance outside intemperature does not arise 500, 45 Vehicle of contagious diseases: spears & ebores 186, 54 To the diseases of the whole substance 315, 51 Diseases of the whole substance by intemperies 384, 35, 88, 480 Epidemic disease, whether in the year 80, in Germany reported 131, 48, 132, 30 Childhood diseases, morficum 136 What diseases are 136, 56 Diseases, how by themselves of the body & by accident of the soul affected 117, 13 Diseases without physicians, accurately 41, 6 Diseases of substance not the same as intemperies 209, 56 Diseases of the whole substance are denied 439. 7 Purging morsuli 102, 38 Difference between morsim & mutations 75 31 N Narcotic opiates, for weak powers to be given dangerously 78, 50 Nosebleed, some cured 182, 32 Watercress, excellent against lice 409, 57 Whether the nature of the body, if its temper is injured, is to be destroyed 517, 30 Sometimes nature is made worse by impure blood 16, 1 Nanjia & venitus, why in nephruscus pains 339, 20 Nepenthes, an excellent narcotic 391, 31 Preparation of Nepenthes, laborious 472, 25 How nephrusca pains are to be eased 197, 32 Nervulis in the middle of the teeth by no means 41, 45 A knot to be applied to the wrist in quartan fever 4, 54 A knot from horn shavings & oak bark for fever 184, 22 No efficacy of numbers 47, 14 Nux vomica for killing dogs 14, 18 O The diversity of eyeglass lenses 315, 49 The eye bewitched 184, 17 Ol. Chalcanilis without fire 155, 34 Of oil of turpentine scarcely 208, 41 Oil of vitriol in more humid natures, vustum 255, 16 How oil of calcanth is prepared without fire 155, 16 Oil of cloves why Schallarm substitutes it in ebriusca compos[.] 154, 11 Oil of cloves to accelerate fermentation 214, 11 Oil from animals, perfect 73, 53 Oil of matricaria in fluid flux 150 39 Oil of sulphur beneficial to those laboring with the French disease 481, 19 Oil of sulphuretis scarcely properly prepared 139, 21 Oil of vitriol to be imbibed against putrefaction - 281, 31 Oil of vitriol in the French disease 158 41 To demonstrate the perfection of a dissimilar work in the circular quadrature from the triple sun 83, 14 Opium aafrigidum 40, 7 Our opium whether it agrees with that of the ancients is doubted 241, 19 Maximum nerve opponent 9, 14 Little wheels for dissolving alum 250. 49 Remedies supported to the mouth-stomach to be dispensed 111, 11 Organum, the proximate cause of afflictions 518, 20 Oxymel for the preparation of humors 398 27, 499, 57 P Cause of palpitation of the heart 213, 3 Praise of Paracelsus 467, 36. his blame 40, 11. Cure of paralysis 424, 17 Paralysis after colic 477, 16 Parosis, cold & moist intemperies 63, 50 Passulaxatina 401, 10 The cause of periods, scarcely to be expelled 82, 19 Spectacles help the eyes 311, 7 Whether spectacles, and the acuteness of vision, make the eyes dull 49, 59, 39, 5 Useful peach kernels against the plague 181, 51 Plague, to what kind of disease it is to be referred 324, 25 Plague whether without fever 41, 23, 63, 11, 65. 22 Plague whether poison, or residue, contagion 61, 18 The term plague to be taken in various ways 151, 12. Cause of plague 263, 57, 331, 7 Cause of plague 263, 50 Definition of plague, scarcely 251, 17 Plague, complex 250, 9 251, 6 Escape from plague 645, 1 P. 4, 1

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Transcription: ATR-1

EPIST. MEDICINAL. Pestis forma vitia 233. 50 Pestu non exstimorib nomen 17 1. 3 Pestis num venenum, 368. 26 num philtera 27. ibid. Pestis eritis non primum in centagio 317. 11 Pestis proxima eansacumagium 38. 41. 64. 11 in Peste absque febre nullo mori 219. 58. 294. 49 Philenis ante paroxysmum vsus 1. 11 Philtera melancholicos efficere 410, 5 Philterorum natura 63. 39 Phthisic ebaculantis vsu extinctis 313 12 Phthisicus ab Erastosanatus 296. 55 Pegofetta de sanguinis, ex vno ibalmo in alterum, delatione opinio falsa 333. 37 Pillula ad ventriculi sentinam expurgandam 198. 57, 400. 3 Pillula Alexandri in apoplexia 8. 41 Pillula cephalica Ferusti, 433. 2 Cratonis ibid. 43 Pillula pro catarrho tenui 218. 30. 239. 14 Pillularum de Ladano descriptio 247. 10 Platonicum vatum, pax et semina 171 7 Plumbi natura 360. 43 Plumbum an aerum et granissimum 133. 25 Plumbum combustum grauis 136, 48 Plumbum sub duo vt grauis fiat, collocari 365. 22 Podagra præservatio 223. 10 Podagra vera præcautio 216. 40 Podagra diata rigidior 346. 30 Podagries num purganda initio 180. 20 Podagriens Caro extinctus 280. 50 Pomerum vutum num purredo 420. 18 Pondus tempore non augeri 133. 41 Populi medicina carentes, valetudine ferrissima 41. 18 Potto digerens in passione hypochondriaca 14. 37 potio purgani ibid. 50 Potes pro infusum sanguinis sputo 407. 46 Præservatio à phthisi 12. 18 Præservationum inservibus potior in diata et exercitio, quam medicinis electivo purgantibus 160. 56 Præstosi lapides non in arte contundendi 295. 10 Problemata de qualitate et attione medicamentorum 12, 13 Problema medica tria de peste 44. 42 Prohibentia quomodo cognoscenda 129. 23 Proprietas numo temperamentum 314. 4 Proprietas specifica instaurationis purium qua 109. 48 Pillocrum 412. 44 Pueri quartana laborantes 343. 41 Pulsus eur in vno brachio intercepimus, in altero integer 357. 2 Pulsus intermissione causa 316. 7 Pulsuum theoria 107. 23 Pulvis alexipharmacus pro aluo sub ducta 303. 41 Pulvis contra aluem veneris 444. 21 Pulvis uecorii perducum pro febro 436. 26 Pulvis sena Montaguana ad aluem civendum 399. 6 et 47 ibid. Pulvis somnum inducens et corroboreans 11. 3 Pulvis sternuatorius 4. 37 Pulvis stomachales 17. 40 Pulvis Zedoaria in febrenteriana 2. 47 Purgantia etiam feres usurpata an electino purgenti 443. 16 Purgantia num in infantum ægritudinis bus nutrici danda 366. 21 Purgatio infantum 138. 59 Purgatio periculosa moti humeribus 280. 37 Purgarix materia vni qualitatibus, non forma attribuenda 135. 19 Purredo ad referent violentiam 488. 43. Purredo duplex secundum Aristotelem 336. 41 cum causa efficiens 336. 26 essentia 339. 40 Purredo substantia cordis resistent 222. 38 Purredinis definitio et Aristotel. eius forma et modus, 343. 6 comensentia 10 discrepantia 31, ibid. gradum 344. 17 Purredinis graduum effectum 184. 19 Purredinis in postegradus medici ignotus 230, 32 Purredinis signa occulta 494. 12 Purredinis vniversalis et particularis differentia 485. 33 Purredinem certam generatione oppem 490. 6 Purredinum occasio major in monilierebus ob caloris imbecillitatem 86, 1 2 Qvaritana conuenientia 211. 16 Quartana cura 197, 18, 404, 33 Quæstiones de peste 224, 34 cum seqq. Quintas essentias, nisi aliant, non corroborare 508, 32 R Ranarum epar pro sebro 181, 10 Rapas humorem melancholicum aperare 197. 13 128. 47 Remedia an montanda in peste 19. 52 128. 47 Remedia febris tertiana 2. 42 Remedia pro grandis 214. 3 Remedium ad morbum serpentum 184 9 Remedium pro aluo astrilla 207. 6 Remediis pro calculo optimum 444. 31 Remedum pro intemperio renum calda 211, 25 Remediis pro paralysi, salutare 455. 19 Retopere et potentia definenda 521, 25 Rhabarbari elogium 18, 21 Rhabarbari Rhabarbari Rhabarbarum quando logicum 487. 23 Romani cur sine medicis 42, 23 Rorismarinis 425, 41 Ratula ad opitis calorem contemperandum 397. 9 Rotula caput et ventriculum corroborantes 14, 21 Rotula ex succino in apoplexia 67. Roule pro spasmo 401. 54 Rubra vires 386, 46 Rubrica Synopica specios tres 189, 50 Rusina Turcarum 416, 4 Rufficum per naves vidisse 109, 43, 39 11, 44 S Saccarum calculum producere 132. 19 Sal absinthii ad purredinem interbendam 394. 44 Sal absinthii in iltero plurimum prodisso 212, 57 Sal abstringere 157, 54 Salis pinguedo, 369, 20, dimerso parti 42, ibid. Salvia pro tremore 99, 37 Sanguificationem à quibusdam etiam liceri attribus 419, 36 Sanguinis nigri millio vnde 190, 30 Sassafras arbritidem non enraro 281, 47 Sassafras ligni noxa 214, 34 Sassafras pro arbritticis 406, 54 Sassafras vrinam mouozo 213, 16 Secretum pro febre 404, 56 Secretum pro quartana 453, 30 Semen an immediate a sanguine generetur 251, 21 Semen danci saccharo obductum in suffocatione vteri 16, 17 Semen in balneo a virginis matrice absorptum 30, 36 Semen Petroselini sylvestris et Macedonico substituatur 153, 4 Sensilus via ad purredinem 489, 44 Senee ad non esse valentiorib, pharmacis purgandis 157, et seqq. Sententia Galeni et Hippocratis de dolore conciliatio 130. 40 Secca eur sudorum proliciant 416, 41 Simularis partem triplex secundum Fenelium substantia 413, 10 Singularis a partibus spiritualibus 287 14 Singularis non vera consulsio ibid. 11 Somni pronocatio 17, 17 Somni meridianus eur neceat 26, 36 Spasmi præservatio 401. 18 Splen quomodo aquarum sedes 425, 9 Spiritus in gustu saporem officior 68, 10 Sputatione causa 313, 47 Scollarum vni in inferiora vniversalis 318, 10 Scibus facultas duplex 311, 33 Scibus laudes 56, 11 Scibus malignitas an preparatione prorsus derivatur 312, 20 Scillatura ex ovis formicarum 444, 8 Summi vnsu in infantibus 6, 15 Stranguria qualiter medendum 230, 8 Substantias numo quide contrarium 381. 38 Succum ex acrinis sambuci in iltero prastaro 222, 58 Succum cochlearia berba ad hydropem 311, 49

Transcription: Translated (English)

MEDICINAL INDEX. Disease shape, defects 233. 50 Disease, whether an origin of symptoms 17. 1. 3 Disease, whether poison 368. 26, whether philters 27. ibid. Disease: you will not be first in the centage 317. 11 Nearest disease, a caussacumagium 38. 41. 64. 11 In disease without fever, no one dies 219. 58. 294. 49 Philenis used before the paroxysm 1. 11 Philters make melancholics 410. 5 Nature of philters 63. 39 Consumption extinguished by the use of ebaculant phthisics 313 12 A phthisic cured by Erastus 296. 55 False opinion of the transfer of blood from one vessel to another, Pegofetta 333. 37 Pills for cleansing the stomach pump 198. 57, 400. 3 Alexander’s pill in apoplexy 8. 41 Cephalic pill of Ferustus, 433. 2, of Crato ibid. 43 Pill for a thin catarrh 218. 30. 239. 14 Description of pills of Ladanum 247. 10 Platonic peace and seeds of the poets 171 7 Nature of lead 360. 43 Lead, whether heavy and very dense 133. 25 Burnt lead is heavy 136. 48 Lead, to become heavy, is to be placed under two 365. 22 Prevention of podagra 223. 10 True precaution against podagra 216. 40 More rigid diet for podagric patients 346. 30 Whether podagric patients should be purged at the beginning 180. 20 Podagric Caro extinctus 280. 50 Whether an orchard in use becomes rotten 420. 18 Weight not increased with time 133. 41 The people, lacking medicine, are of very harsh health 41. 18 Digestive potion in hypochondriac passion 14. 37; purging drink ibid. 50 A drink for infusions of blood in sputum 407. 46 Prevention from phthisis 12. 18 Among preservative methods, diet and exercise are better than elective purging medicines 160. 56 Stony bodies are not to be crushed in the art 295. 10 Problems on the quality and action of medicines 12, 13 Three medical problems about the plague 44. 42 How to recognize things that inhibit 129. 23 Whether property is temperament 314. 4 Specific property of restoring the purest things 109. 48 Pillocrum 412. 44 Children suffering from quartan fever 343. 41 Why the pulse is interrupted in one arm, yet complete in the other 357. 2 Cause of pulse intermittence 316. 7 Theory of the pulse 107. 23 Alexipharmic powder for loosened bowels 303. 41 Powder against venereal looseness 444. 21 Vecorius’s powder for fever 436. 26 Montaguana senna powder for moving the bowels 399. 6 and 47 ibid. Powder inducing sleep and strengthening 11. 3 Sneezing powder 4. 37 Stomach powder 17. 40 Zedoary powder in febrenteriana 2. 47 Whether purgatives should also be used when other methods are employed, or rather selective purgatives 443. 16 Whether purgatives should be given by nurses in infants’ illnesses 366. 21 Purging of infants 138. 59 Dangerous purgation moved by the shoulders 280. 37 Purgative matter should be attributed to qualities, not to form 135. 19 Rottenness refers to violence 488. 43. Double rottenness according to Aristotle 336. 41, with efficient cause 336. 26, essence 339. 40 Rottenness as a substance resistant to the heart 222. 38 Definition of rottenness and its Aristotelian form and mode, 343. 6; agreement 10 discrepancy 31, ibid. degree 344. 17 Effect of degrees of rottenness 184. 19 Degree of rottenness in the post, unknown to physicians 230. 32 Hidden signs of rottenness 494. 12 Difference between universal and particular rottenness 485. 33 Certain generation of rottenness 490. 6 Greater occasion for rottenness in women because of weakness of heat 86. 1 2 Quartan agreement 211. 16 Treatment of quartan fever 197. 18, 404. 33 Questions about the plague 224. 34 and following Quintessences, unless otherwise noted, do not strengthen 508. 32 R Liver of frogs for fever 181. 10 Turnips open melancholic humor 197. 13 128. 47 Whether remedies should be applied in the plague 19. 52 128. 47 Remedies for tertian fever 2. 42 Remedies for large swelling 214. 3 Remedy for serpent disease 184 9 Remedy for constipation of the bowels 207. 6 The best remedies for stone 444. 31 Remedy for a hot disorder of the kidneys 211. 25 Salutary remedies for paralysis 455. 19 Retopere and power to be defined 521. 25 Elogium of rhubarb 18. 21 Rhubarb Rhubarb When rhubarb is logical 487. 23 Why Romans lived without physicians 42. 23 Rosemary 425. 41 Tablet for tempering the heat of the head 397. 9 Small round cake strengthening the head and stomach 14. 21 Small round cake of amber in apoplexy 67. Roll for spasm 401. 54 Red powers 386. 46 Synoptic rubric, three species 189. 50 Rusina of the Turks 416. 4 To have seen Rufi[c]um by ships 109. 43, 39 11, 44 S Sugar produces stones 132. 19 Wormwood salt for preventing rottenness 394. 44 Wormwood salt is greatly useful in jaundice 212. 57 Salt astringes 157. 54 Fatness of salt 369. 20, immersed part 42. ibid. Sage for tremor 99. 37 Sanguification attributed by some also to licerb attributes 419. 36 Origin of black blood 190. 30 Sassafras does not rarely cause arthritis 281. 47 Harm of sassafras wood 214. 34 Sassafras for arthritics 406. 54 Sassafras moves urine 213. 16 Secret for fever 404. 56 Secret for quartan fever 453. 30 Whether semen is generated immediately from blood 251. 21 Seed of dancy covered with sugar in suffocation of the womb 16. 17 Seed in a bath absorbed by a virgin’s womb 30. 36 Wild parsley seed to be substituted for Macedonian 153. 4 Sense, a way to rottenness 489. 44 Senna, more powerful than other purgative medicines for those not in robust health 157. and following Reconciling Galen’s and Hippocrates’ opinion on pain 130. 40 Why dry things provoke sweat 416. 41 A triple part of the simularis according to Fernel, substance 413. 10 The singular from spiritual parts 287 14 A singular thing, not a true convulsion ibid. 11 Induction of sleep 17. 17 Why midday sleep is harmful 26. 36 Prevention of spasm 401. 18 How the spleen is the seat of waters 425. 9 Spirit in taste gives flavor 68. 10 Cause of spitting 313. 47 Scollarum to one in lower parts universal 318. 10 Two faculties of scibus 311. 33 Praise of scibus 56. 11 Whether the malignity of scibus is wholly derived from preparation 312. 20 Scillatura from ant eggs 444. 8 Use of sleep in infants 6. 15 How strangury is to be treated 230. 8 Whether substances are anything contrary 381. 38 Juice from the bark of elder in jaundice preferable 222. 58 Juice of horsetail herb for dropsy 311. 49

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INDEX Succus plantagrum in febro tertiana 3. 46 n Sæor diaphoreticus vnde 19. 33 Sudorifera humidum radicale absa- mere. 203. 32 Sudorifera pestes tempore 395. 30 Sudorificum in paralysi 416. 41 Sulphur corporare foliare 238. 44 Sulphur neq[ue] vesie, neq[ue] in phthisi ex hi- bendum 218. 34 Sulphur praparatum in hydrop 155. 35 Sulphur quid 163. 2 Sulphur vistum nihil ab arsenico differ- ire 219. 19 Sulphuris noxa 286. 46 Sulphuris praparatio in chrysopera artis caput 239. 16 Sulphuris spiritum aurum penetrare 279. 4 Sulphuris vistis in vlceribus pectoris 2. 9 38 Suprema cir magis quam inferna ino- municatione calcant 370. 48 Surdastis quomodo succurrenium 423. 25 Syderum effectiones quales 528. 10 Symptomata febru tertiana 1. 34 Symptomata non semper necessario mor- bum conseqvi 128. 41 Syrupus necessarines initio fluxionum prodesse 452. 31 Syrupus ad humorum præparationem 398. 39 Syrup. ad intestinorum dolorem 24. 51 Syrup. de carduo pro ventriculo 254. 16 Syrupus de spina veruma alium emol- lient 211. 48 T Tabes & mors à philtero dato 409 30 Tabes violenta species 489. 11 Tabula Pallopis chymica 107. 40 Tals dislocatio 62. 55 Temperamenti significatio duplex 504 14 Temperamenti duplicis ratio 331. 11. 334. 33 Temperamentum veteribus proprium, Novericus vero tota substata 301. 31 Temperici num loco forma 315. 24 Tempora expectare in morbus supersto- tusum 31. 7 Terra Lemnia 278. 31 Terra sigillata viret qua 450. 58 Terra Sirigenisi eadem cum lapide ca- laminari facultas 239. 49 Terram sigillatam verustum cire 302 20 Theriaca Schallero 152. 37 T V Viper quid 125. 7 Vasignana remedia inq[ue] hemorho- dium provocatione 421. 39 Vegetabilia non aquased spiritibus cre- stero 73. 32 Venena an contagiosa 140. 29 Venena cir primo & principaliter cor- prium 373. 13 Venam postea in secanda 41. 23 Vena in plenisside quando secanda 211. 44 Vena porta & causa distributio 111. 15 Vena porta & canaper substantiam e- patis vbiq[ue] dispersa ibid. 44 Venam vmbulicalem in factia officio por- te fungo 113. ibid. Venenatio in quo confictat 119. 11 Venenum incorpore generum 3. 45 Venenum. In quo prædicamento 259. 39 Venenum non qualitas; sed potius sub- stantia 367. 10 Venenum veneno nequaquam pelli 233 47 Ventriculum corroberantia 253. 44 Vermes in gingham generari, non in dentibus 18. 2 Vermes pueroru qualiter necandi 252. 40 Vermes terrestres nernos roborari 246. 51 Vermes vini in substantia epatis 110. 8 V Vesali iter in Palastinam non est exi- lum, sed vacuum rebrosum 40. 27 Vescam jolam a cantharidis lads, secundum Galenum 504. 30 Villanonani liber de humorum collio- ne 279. 43 Vina medicata purgandi vino habere 419. 17 Vinum & balnea in encharbo an pro- fins 41. 20 Vinum mochoaca efficitum impedere 15. 10 Vinum podagricis concedendum 347 39 Violarum folia sicca ventram monere 221. 34 Virgo ex primo concubitus an naturall- iter concipiat 19. 45 Visionem fieri & immissione & emissio- ne 312. 16 Vomitatorium Cratone 417. 11 Vlenscula ad tales sanatu difficilima 94. 27 Vimas vistis 286. 17 Vnguentu ad internas partes quomodo penetrent 36. 45 Vnguentu in malis cutaneis praxinus valero 64. 8 Vnguentu qua foris inunguntur, quo- modo vim suam in partes remotiores transmutans 61. 58 Vnguentorum vis in intimas loci afflic- tis partes quomodo penetrat 52. 47 Vnguentum ad spinam 11. 24 Vnguentum empiricum in bubonismi 121. 11 Vnguentum empiricum quatriodos ca- bitem curans 21. 14 Vnguentum ex miro in petechiis 286 11 V Vnguentum in paralysi 426. 46 Vnguentum oculare 213. 4 Vnguentum pro calculo 11. 30 Vngarneum pro dextra manus impo- lentia 59. 14 Vnguentum pro paralysi 451. 27 Vnguentum stomachale 14. 18 Vniam solatio ad instrum[m]itaridi mor- bos an possis resorri 311. 1 Vieri suffocationes causæ 84. 57 Vieris excrementorum fontina 11. 52 Vulpes lingua magister 132. 49 Vinum capitis lactale vsum rhabarbari curatum 19. 45 Vulnus in lingua ex casu 22. 19 Z Z Vnigeri catholicon 391. 48. 412. 18 Zuiningeri cura in Gallicana lue 470 34. P I N I B:

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INDEX Succus plantagrum in tertian fever 3. 46 A diaphoretic sweat whence 19. 33 Sudorifics: to take away the radical moisture 203. 32 Sudorifics in pestilential time 395. 30 A sudorific in paralysis 416. 41 Sulphur corporal and foliar 238. 44 Sulphur, neither in vesical disease nor in phthisis to be given 218. 34 Prepared sulphur in dropsy 155. 35 What sulphur is 163. 2 Subtle sulphur differs in nothing from arsenic 219. 19 The harm of sulphur 286. 46 The preparation of sulphur is the chief point of the chymical art 239. 16 The spirit of sulphur penetrates gold 279. 4 Subtle sulphur in ulcers of the breast 2. 9 The highest things more than the lowest are weakened by decommunication 370. 48 How deafness is to be relieved 423. 25 What the effects of the stars are 528. 10 Symptoms of tertian fever 1. 34 Symptoms do not always necessarily follow the disease 128. 41 A syrup necessary at the beginning of fluxions may be useful 452. 31 Syrup for preparing the humors 398. 39 Syrup for pain of the intestines 24. 51 Syrup of carduus for the stomach 254. 16 Syrup of spike to soften another substance 211. 48 T Emaciation and death from poison given 409. 30 Violent emaciation, a species 489. 11 The chymical table of Pallopius 107. 40 Dislocation of the tarsus 62. 55 The double signification of temperament 504. 14 The reason of the double temperament 331. 11. 334. 33 Temperament proper to the ancients, but with Novericus the whole substance 301. 31 Whether temperament is in the place of form 315. 24 To await the times in a disease superstitiously 31. 7 Terra Lemnia 278. 31 Where terra sigillata is green 450. 58 That Terra Sirigenisi is the same faculty as calamine stone 239. 49 To drink terra sigillata roasted 302. 20 Theriaca of Schaller 152. 37 T V What a viper is 125. 7 Cures for Varignana and in provoking hemorrhoids 421. 39 Vegetables grow not from water but from spirits 73. 32 Whether poisons are contagious 140. 29 Poison first and principally affects the body 373. 13 The vein to be opened afterward in bleeding 41. 23 When a vein is to be opened in plethoric fullness 211. 44 The portal vein and the distribution of its cause 111. 15 The portal vein and the cana, the substance of the liver dispersed everywhere 111. 44 The umbilical vein in the fetus performs the office of the porta 113. ibid. In what poisoning consists 119. 11 Poison in what category 3. 45 Poison in what predicament 259. 39 Poison is not a quality but rather a substance 367. 10 Poison cannot by any means be driven out by poison 233. 47 Strengthening remedies for the stomach 253. 44 Worms are generated in the gums, not in the teeth 18. 2 How children’s worms are to be killed 252. 40 Earthworms strengthen the nerves 246. 51 Worms of wine in the substance of the liver 110. 8 V Vesalius’s journey to Palestine is not exilium, but a barren waste 40. 27 A bladder sore from cantharides, according to Galen 504. 30 Villanonani’s book on the collection of humors 279. 43 Medicinal wines having purgation in wine 419. 17 Wine and baths in encharbo, whether beneficial 41. 20 Mochoacan wine, how it is made 15. 10 Wine to be allowed for the gouty 347. 39 Dried violet leaves move the belly 221. 34 Whether a virgin conceives naturally from the first intercourse 19. 45 Vision is made both by sending in and by sending out 312. 16 A vomitory by Craton 417. 11 Small ulcers very difficult to heal 94. 27 The efficacy of subtle things 286. 17 How ointments penetrate to internal parts 36. 45 An ointment in skin diseases is often useful 64. 8 Ointments which are applied externally, how they transfer their force to more remote parts 61. 58 The power of ointments into the deepest parts of the afflicted region, how it penetrates 52. 47 Ointment for the spine 11. 24 An empirical ointment in buboes 121. 11 An empirical ointment curing quartan headache 21. 14 Ointment from myrrh in petechiae 286. 11 V Ointment in paralysis 426. 46 Eye ointment 213. 4 Ointment for the stone 11. 30 An ointment for impotency of the right hand 59. 14 Ointment for paralysis 451. 27 Stomach ointment 14. 18 Whether a man may be restored by consolation to an instrument-bearing disease 311. 1 Causes of suffocation in the uterus 84. 57 The fountain of excrements in the uterus 11. 52 Foxes, a teacher’s tongue 132. 49 Wine of the head, milk used with rhubarb, cured 19. 45 A wound in the tongue from a fall 22. 19 Z Zuniger’s catholicon 391. 48. 412. 18 Zuininger’s cure in the French disease 470. 34. P I N I B:

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