CHAP. IX.

Of the Preparation of the Body of such as are to take the
Water.

be

I HAVE set down, before, the chiefest diseases, which may cured by the help of this water; but I am not so to be understood, as though I meant, that the water alone were sufficient for the same in all of them, without any other helps. For, though this be an empirical remedy, yet must it not be used altogether empi rically, but with reason, discretion, and circumspection; otherwise hurt, rather than good, will follow the use of it. Many have fallen into diseases, as fevers and agues, by coming unadvisedly and unprepared to those waters, although, as we said before, there is nothing better for agues, than they are, if they be rightly and advisedly used, the body being first prepared and purged. For, although blood, by a sole distemper of heat, may cause a fever, yet cannot the other humours do it, as Galen, lib. ii. de diff. febrium, well observeth, unless they putrefy, which they will not do, if the body be free from obstructions, and perspirable; and, therefore, that body, which is to be taken with an ague, must first be obstructed. Now, these waters being very diuretical, when they meet with a foul body, having a repletion of gross humours, they easily and speedily carry the same with them into the veins, which not being able to give passage to such a quantity of humours, they are thereby obstructed and stopped, and those humours being there retained and wedged in, and not perflated or ventilated, they inflame and putrefy, and so produce a putrid fever or ague.→→ Wherefore those, that love their health and life, must, before they use the water, if they have not a very pure body, prepare and purge the same to prevent all inconveniencies.

Now, according as bodies do differ in sex, age, temperature, qualities of the peccant humour, and other circumstances, so must they accordingly diversly be prepared and purged. And, in that regard, we have not thought it good to set down here any forms thereof, but refer those that shall come to the water, to the advice and counsel of learned and skilful physicians; and such as are withal well acquainted with those kinds of waters, which is the main point. And, as for those, that come far off, they may take physick at Tunbridge, and it will be best for them so to do, because, if they take physick before, and presently travel upon the same, it may produce some danger.

If the resort to the water continue, and that there be competent company at the same, I do purpose, by the grace of God, to be there, every summer, for it is a place I like; and, if any be pleased to confer with me, I will be ready to afford them my best counsel; and they shall find there variety of physick, appropri ated to their several discases, which the water is to be used for. Neither is it enough to prepare the body, and take physick, be

fore coming to the water; but it is requisite also, in some diseases, to take something now and then during the time they use the water, to help the working of it, and to cause a happy and prosperous effect by the same; and so much the more, because some are not able, either by reason of business, or otherwise, to stay there a competent time, and, therefore, have need of some other help. For some diseases are so stubborn and difficult to be eradicated, that we must fight at all weapons against the same, and yet all little enough too. Some unlooked for accidents, also, happen there sometimes, which have need to be redressed and helped by other means. But, of these things, neither myself, nor any man else, can speak but in general terms, and therefore I will conclude, and pass to the diet requisite to be observed there.

CHAP. X.

Of the Diet to be observed by those that use Tunbridge Water.

DIET, amongst physicians, is taken in a larger signification, than it is with the vulgar, for, besides meat and drink, it comprehendeth air, motion, and quiet, things retained and voided, sleeping and watching, and the passions of the mind. All these must be rightly ordered, both to preserve, and to restore health. As for air, it must be taken, such as it is found there, and I think there is no great exception to be taken against it, being thereabout pure and wholesome enough. Of motion and quiet, we have said something before, when we spoke of exercise, as also of the passions of the mind, when we wished all such, as come to the water, to compose, and frame themselves to mirth, and to leave all cares and melancholy at home. Concerning sleeping and watching, a moderation must be observed therein, though it be better to sleep something too much, than to watch too long; and therefore you shall do well to sup betimes, and to go to bed betimes, animo securo, quieto, & libero, that the first, second, and third concoction may be ended, before you take the water. And, as for things voided and retained, you must endeavour to have the be nefit of nature, by all manner of ordinary evacuations, as by stool and urine, and the private excrements of the brain, at the mouth and nose. And thus much in brief, concerning those things; we will now come to meat and drink. Bread is commonly, and with most men, the chiefest part of food, and therefore though always, yet here more especially, you must have a care to have bread of good pure wheat, well handled and seasoned in the making, and well baked; for the excrements and ill humours, which are heaped by the use of ill bread, are worse than those which proceed from meat. Ravel bread, generally, is wholesomer than manchet, and not so apt to breed obstructions, having some of the bran left in it, which is detergent, and maketh it pass the better. As for meat, let every one feed upon that which he hath been most used to, so it be good meat, yielding good nourishment, and of casy digestion ;

and let him shun the use of sauces, which have much butter and spices in them. For it was a good admonition of Disarius, a learned physician, in Macrobius, Saturn. 7, c. 4: Vitandos esse cibos, qui ultra sitim & fumem appetentiam producerent, that those meats were to be avoided, which did lengthen appetite, beyond hunger and thirst. If you can, be contented with one dish at a meal, for, multa fercula multos morbos ferunt, many dishes bring many diseases, and perniciosa sentina est abdomen insaturabile, an unsatiable belly is a pernicious sink. In foul bodies especially, over-feeding doth a great deal of hurt, according to that aphorism of Hippocrates, lib. ii, Aphor. 9. Τὰ μὴ καθαρὰ τῶν σωμάτων, ὁκόσον ἂν θρέψης, μᾶλλον βλάψεις. The more you nourish foul bodies, the more you hurt them. In a word, a inoderate sober diet is always best, but especially here. As for the kinds of meats, though, amongst the flesh of four-footed beasts, pork and veal be chiefly commended in our books, yet here, in regard of their moisture, I prefer mutton before them. And if pork be to be avoided, much more pig, lamb, and such like flashy meat. As for beef, though it be discommended by most authors, yet good beef, well fed, and of an indifferent age, may be used without scruple, especially, by such, as have been accustomed to it, for those authors were never acquainted with our English beef. If oxen, indeed, be killed, when they are so old, that they be past labour, their flesh cannot be wholesome, nor is it to be commended. But, for our good succulent beef here, I verily think, that if those authors were alive again, and should taste of it, they would be so far from forbidding it, that, on the contrary, they would commend it. For, if they do so much commend veal, I see no reason they can have to discommend good succulent beef.

Besides mutton and beef, you may sometimes have capons, hens, pullets, chickens, pigeons, partridges, pheasants, black-birds, and other small birds, rabbets, and the like. And, because some hares are sometimes caught about Tunbridge, it is a question which some ask, whether those, who are there at the waters, may feed upon them? They are grown infamous and banished from most tables undeservedly, out of a conceit, that they are melancholy meat. But I will now take their cause in hand, and vindicate them from that imputation, if I can, saying with Martial:

Inter aves turdus, si quis, me judice, certet,
Inter quadrupedes gloria prima lepus.

And, lest I seem to give too easy an assent to the poet, though he was not a mere poet, but well grounded in natural philosophy, I will strive to prove, that it is not melancholy meat, but meat for melancholy men.

First, I will bring in Galen, lib. iii, de alim. to patrocinate unto him, who prefers the blood of a hare, before that of hens, pigeons, and all other birds, and saith, that it is most sweet and dainty. Now, if hare's blood be so good, how can the flesh

thereof be naught, which is made and produced by it; flesh being nothing else but blood coagulated and converted into the same?

The same author, ibidem initio libri, saith also, that hare's flesh breedeth better blood, than mutton or beef. And, if these two come every day to the tables, even of the noblest and richest persons, why should the poor hare, which is better, and yieldeth better nourishment than they, be banished from the same?

After Galen, learned Heurnicus reckoneth hare's flesh in the first place, amongst those meats, which alter melancholy in the kidnies; but to alter and free from melancholy, and to breed me. lancholy, cannot both be done by one kind of meat. For, if any man would fly here to similitude of substance, or to an hidden property, he should deserve to be hissed at; but they say, it is a melancholy fearful creature. What reason they have to call him 80, unless it be, because he shunneth and runneth away from the dogs, which pursue him, I do not know; but, if that be all, do not wolves, bulls, bears, yea and lions also, the like? If we may believe those, who have been in Africa, an old woman there, or a child, with a stick in their hands, do drive away lions, as we do dogs here. And a hare is not so fearful, but that you shall see some of them turn about, and look upon the dogs, after a daring manner. They do not lie in holes and burrows, as conies do, which, in that regard, should be more melancholy; and yet they are in most common use amongst us, and accounted the best meat. And, as for their food, it is the same with that of partridges, the excellency whereof is no where controverted; and with the use of them only the pox may be cured, as Cardan holdeth, who could speak of it, by experience, as having had that disease seven times, as himself witnesseth, in that book of his, which he intitleth, De utilitate ex adversis capienda; and sure his witness is not to he rejected. Let the hare then return in use, and be re-admitted to his former pre-eminence, so he be not too old, but of a competent age, as of a year or less. But, as for water-fowl, you shall do well to abstain from the same.

Concerning fish, though it be for the most part unwholesome, and apt to breed excrementitious and slimy humours, yet for a change you may sometimes eat some river-fish, that are firm and not slimy; as, trouts, gudgeons, pikes, perches, and the like, either broiled, or boiled in wine (if you will go to the charges) rather than in water, and corrected with fennel, spearmint, thyme, rosemary, parsly, or the like. But, for mints in particular, let those women, that come to the water for fruitfulness, refrain the same, because it is thought it hindereth conception. At your fruit, you may use some raisins of the sun, a bit of marmalade, a roasted wardon, or pippin with carroways, or the like; but in all this you must be sparing.

Now, for an end of all, I must repeat what I have touched be fore, namely, that you avoid variety of dishes: For, the nature of several meats being diverse, and sometimes clean opposite and

contrary one to another, and some sooner concocted, and others later, from hence those evils will arise, against which you come to seek help from the water; as, crudities, wind-gripings, pain of the reins, obstructions of the mesaraical veins, rawness of the chylus, and consequently of the blood which shall be made of the same, and such like inconveniences, which by a sober and moderate diet may be avoided..

Thus much concerning meat. As for drink, good ordinary clear beer, and of an indifferent strength and age, is best, and it is the ordinary drink of this island, which agreeth best with the nature of those who are bred in it. Yet, if any, having been used to drink wine at meals, desire to continue the same, I am not against it, if so be they be not of too hot a constitution, and have no principal part offended through excess of heat; for a cup of wine, or two, at meals, doth but help to make the better digestion. And for that purpose sack or claret better than white wine; because white wine, by the diuretical faculty it hath, passeth too soon away, and before the chylus be thoroughly perfected, and so it may carry some of the chylus raw and unconcocted with it, and consequently breed crudities and obstructions. And thus much concerning diet.

The Conclusion of this Treatise.

HAVING briefly run through the chiefest things needful to be known and practised by such as shall desire to use this water, I will here end with an exhortation unto them to be well advised concerning the nature of their diseases, before they come; and, when they are come, to observe the rules and directions contained in this treatise, as also to be constant in the use of the water. And, although, perhaps, some of them perceive little or no benefit at first by the same, yet let them not be discouraged, but persevere in the use of it; for some, having been there once with small or no profit at all, the next year after, upon a second trial, have returned home perfectly cured. It is the ordinary reward of constancy and perseverance, in the end, to hit the mark they aim at. Every thing in this world hath a certain period, before which it cannot come to a full perfection; and so, herewith, I wish all happy and prosperous success to all such as shall come to these springs, and will be ready at all times to afford them my best help and counsel.

Now, as for this treatise, I do not look it should have a privilege, above all other writings, to be exempted from controulment and carping; for it were better luck, than any man ever had, that exposed himself to the censure of the world. There are far more fools than wise men in the world; and, as the Spaniard well observeth, Un loco haze cientio, one fool maketh an hundred more such (most men having their wits pinned to another man's sleeve) and the greater fool commonly is the bolder censurer;