And therefore, that which Pythagoras said to
his scholars of old, may be for ever applied to melancholy men, A fabis
abstinete, eat no peas, nor beans; yet to such as will needs eat them,
I would give this counsel, to prepare them according to those rules
that Arnoldus Villanovanus, and Frietagius prescribe, for eating, and
dressing. fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, &c.
_Spices._] Spices cause hot and head melancholy, and are for that cause
forbidden by our physicians to such men as are inclined to this malady,
as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, dates, &c. honey and sugar.
[1376] Some except honey; to those that are cold, it may be tolerable,
but [1377] Dulcia se in bilem vertunt, (sweets turn into bile,) they
are obstructive. Crato therefore forbids all spice, in a consultation
of his, for a melancholy schoolmaster, Omnia aromatica et quicquid
sanguinem adurit: so doth Fernelius, consil. 45. Guianerius, tract 15.
cap. 2. Mercurialis, cons. 189. To these I may add all sharp and sour
things, luscious and over-sweet, or fat, as oil, vinegar, verjuice,
mustard, salt; as sweet things are obstructive, so these are corrosive.
Gomesius, in his books, de sale, l. 1. c. 21, highly commends salt; so
doth Codronchus in his tract, de sale Absynthii, Lemn. l. 3. c. 9. de
occult. nat. mir. yet common experience finds salt, and salt-meats, to
be great procurers of this disease. And for that cause belike those
Egyptian priests abstained from salt, even so much, as in their bread,
ut sine perturbatione anima esset, saith mine author, that their souls
might be free from perturbations.
_Bread._] Bread that is made of baser grain, as peas, beans, oats, rye,
or [1378]over-hard baked, crusty, and black, is often spoken against,
as causing melancholy juice and wind. Joh. Mayor, in the first book of
his History of Scotland, contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten
bread: it was objected to him then living at Paris in France, that his
countrymen fed on oats, and base grain, as a disgrace; but he doth
ingenuously confess, Scotland, Wales, and a third part of England, did
most part use that kind of bread, that it was as wholesome as any
grain, and yielded as good nourishment. And yet Wecker out of Galen
calls it horsemeat, and fitter for juments than men to feed on. But
read Galen himself, Lib. 1. De cibis boni et mali succi, more largely
discoursing of corn and bread.
_Wine._] All black wines, over-hot, compound, strong thick drinks, as
Muscadine, Malmsey, Alicant, Rumney, Brownbastard, Metheglen, and the
like, of which they have thirty several kinds in Muscovy, all such made
drinks are hurtful in this case, to such as are hot, or of a sanguine
choleric complexion, young, or inclined to head-melancholy. For many
times the drinking of wine alone causeth it. Arculanus, c. 16. in 9.
Rhasis, puts in [1379]wine for a great cause, especially if it be
immoderately used. Guianerius, tract. 15. c. 2, tells a story of two
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