Page images
PDF
EPUB

ping-knife mince the two capons, bones and all, as small as ordinary minced meat; put them into a large neat boulter; then take a kilderkin, sweet and well seasoned, of four gallons of beer, of 8s. strength, new as it cometh from the tunning; make in the kilderkin a great bung-hole of purpose: then thrust into it the boulter, in which the capons are, drawn out in length; let it steep in it three days and three nights, the bung-hole open, to work; then close the bunghole, and so let it continue a day and a half; then draw it into bottles, and you may drink it well after three days bottling; and it will last six weeks: approved. It drinketh fresh, flowereth and mantleth exceedingly; it drinketh not newish at all; it is an excellent drink for a consumption, to be drunk either alone, or carded with some other beer. It quencheth thirst, and hath no whit of windiness. Note, that it is not possible, that meat and bread, either in broths, or taken with drink, as is used, should get forth into the veins and outward parts, so finely and easily, as when it is thus incorporate, and made almost a chylus aforehand.

47. TRIAL Would be made of the like brew with potatoe roots, or burr roots, or the pith of artichokes, which are nourishing meats: it may be tried also with other flesh; as pheasant, partridge, young pork, pig, venison, especially of young deer, etc.

48. A MORTRESS made with the brawn of capons, stamped, and strained, and mingled, after it is made, with like quantity, at the least, of almond butter, is an excellent meat to nourish those that are weak; better than blackmanger, or jelly and so is the cullice of cocks, boiled thick with the like mixture of almond butter; for the mortress or cullice, of itself, is more savoury and strong, and not so fit for nourishing of weak bodies; but the almonds, that are not of so high a taste as flesh, do excellently qualify it.

49. INDIAN maiz hath, of certain, an excellent spirit of nourishment; but it must be throughly boiled, and made into a maiz-cream like a barley-cream. I judge the same of rice, made into a cream; for rice is in

Turkey, and other countries of the east, most fed upon; but it must be throughly boiled in respect of the hardness of it, and also because otherwise it bindeth the body too much.

50. PISTACHOES, so they be good, and not musty, joined with almonds in almond milk; or made into a milk of themselves, like unto almond milk, but more green, are an excellent nourisher: but you shall do well, to add a little ginger, scraped, because they are not without some subtile windiness.

51. MILK warm from the cow, is found to be a great nourisher, and a good remedy in consumptions: but then you must put into it, when you milk the cow, two little bags; the one of powder of mint, the other of powder of red roses; for they keep the milk somewhat from turning or curdling in the stomach; and put in sugar also, for the same cause, and partly for the taste's sake; but you must drink a good draught, that it may stay less time in the stomach, lest it curdle: and let the cup into which you milk the cow, be set in a greater cup of hot water, that you may take it warm. And cow milk thus prepared, I judge to be better for a consumption, than ass milk, which, it is true, turneth not so easily, but it is a little harsh; marry it is more proper for sharpness of urine, and exulceration of the bladder, and all manner of lenifyings. Woman's milk likewise is prescribed, when all fail; but I commend it not, as being a little too near the juice of man's body, to be a good nourisher; except it be in infants, to whom it is natural.

52. OIL of sweet almonds, newly drawn, with sugar, and a little spice, spread upon bread toasted, is an excellent nourisher: but then to keep the oil from frying in the stomach, you must drink a good draught of mild beer after it; and to keep it from relaxing the stomach too much, you must put in a little powder of cinnamon,

53. THE yolks of eggs are of themselves so well prepared by nature for nourishment, as, so they be poached, or rare boiled, they need no other prepara tion or mixture; yet they may be taken also raw,

when they are new laid, with Malmsey, or sweet wine; you shall do well to put in some few slices of eryngium roots, and a little ambergrice; for by this means, besides the immediate faculty of nourishment, such drink will strengthen the back, so that it will not draw down the urine too fast; for too much urine doth always hinder nourishment.

54. MINCING of meat, as in pies, and buttered minced meat, saveth the grinding of the teeth; and therefore, no doubt, it is more nourishing, especially in age, or to them that have weak teeth; but the butter is not so proper for weak bodies; and therefore it were good to moisten it with a little claret wine, pill of lemon or orange, cut small, sugar, and a very little cinnamon or nutmeg. As for chuets, which are likewise minced meat, instead of butter and fat, it were good to moisten them, partly with cream, or almond, or pistacho milk; or barley, or maiz-cream; adding a little coriander seed and caraway seed, and a very little saffron. The more full handling of alimentation we reserve to the due place.

We have hitherto handled the particulars which yield best, and easiest, and plentifullest nourishment; and now we will speak of the best means of conveying and converting the nourishment.

55. THE first means is to procure that the nourishment may not be robbed and drawn away; wherein that which we have already said is very material; to provide that the reins draw not too strongly an over great part of the blood into urine. To this add

that precept of Aristotle, that wine be forborn in all consumptions; for that the spirits of the wine do prey upon the roscid juice of the body, and inter-common with the spirits of the body, and so deceive and rob them of their nourishment. And therefore if the consumption, growing from the weakness of the stomach, do force you to use wine, let it always be burnt, that the quicker spirits may evaporate; or, at the least, quenched with two little wedges of gold, six or seven times repeated. Add also this provision, that there be not too much expence of the nourishment, by ex

But

haling and sweating; and therefore if the patient be apt to sweat, it must be gently restrained. chiefly Hippocrates's rule is to be followed, who adviseth quite contrary to that which is in use: namely, that the linen or garment next the flesh be, in winter, dry and oft changed; and in summer seldom changed, and smeared over with oil; for certain it is, that any substance that is fat, doth a little fill the pores of the body, and stay sweat in some degree: but the more cleanly way is, to have the linen smeared lightly over with oil of sweet almonds; and not to forbear shifting as oft as is fit.

56. THE second means is, to send forth the nourishment into the parts more strongly; for which the working must be by strengthening of the stomach; and in this, because the stomach is chiefly comforted by wine and hot things, which otherwise hurt; it is good to resort to outward applications to the stomach: Wherein it hath been tried, that the quilts of roses, spices, mastic, wormwood, mint, etc. are nothing so helpful, as to take a cake of new bread, and to bedew it with a little sack, or Alicant; and to dry it; and after it be dried a little before the fire, to put it within a clean napkin, and to lay it to the stomach; for it is certain, that all flour hath a potent virtue of astriction; in so much as it hardeneth a piece of flesh, or a flower, that is laid in it: and therefore a bag quilted with bran is likewise very good; but it drieth somewhat too much, and therefore it must not lie long.

57. THE third means, which may be a branch of the former, is to send forth the nourishment the better by sleep. For we see, that bears, and other creatures that sleep in the winter, wax exceeding fat: and certain it is, as it is commonly believed, that sleep doth nourish much; both for that the spirits do less spend the nourishment in sleep, than when living creatures are awake; and because, that which is to the present purpose, it helpeth to thrust out the nourishment into the parts. Therefore in aged men, and weak bodies, and such as abound not with choler, a short

sleep after dinner doth help to nourish; for in such bodies there is no fear of an over-hasty digestion, which is the inconvenience of postmeridian sleeps. Sleep also in the morning, after the taking of somewhat of easy digestion, as milk from the cow, nourishing broth, or the like, doth further nourishment: but this would be done sitting upright, that the milk or broth may pass the more speedily to the bottom of the stomach.

58. THE fourth means is, to provide that the parts themselves may draw to them the nourishment strongly. There is an excellent observation of Aristotle; that a great reason, why plants, some of them, are of greater age than living creatures, is, for that they yearly put forth new leaves and boughs: whereas living creatures put forth, after their period of growth, nothing that is young, but hair and nails, which are excrements, and no parts. And it is most certain, that whatsoever is young, doth draw nourishment better than that which is old; and then, that which is the mystery of that observation, young boughs, and leaves, calling the sap up to them, the same nourisheth the body in the passage. And this

we see notably proved also, in that the oft cutting, or polling of hedges, trees, and herbs, doth conduce much to their lasting. Transfer therefore this observation to the helping of nourishment in living creatures: the noblest and principal use whereof is, for the prolongation of life; restoration of some degree of youth; and inteneration of the parts: for certain it is, that there are in living creatures parts that nourish and repair easily, and parts that nourish and repair hardly: and you must refresh and renew those that are easy to nourish,that the other may be refreshed, and, as it were, drink in nourishment in the passage. Now we see that draught oxen, put into good pasture, recover the flesh of young beef; and men after long emaciating diets wax plump and fat, and alınost new: so that you may surely conclude, that the frequent and wise use of those emaciating diets, and of purgings, and perhaps of some kind of bleeding, is a prin

« PreviousContinue »