Subsect. 6. Parents a cause by propagation.

That other inward inbred cause of Melancholy, is our temperature, in whole or part, which we receive from our Parents, which Fernelius cals Præter naturam, or unnatural, it being an hereditary disease; for as he justifies, Quale parentum maxime patris semen obtigerit, tales evadunt similares spermaticæque partes, quocunque etiam morbo Pater quum generat tenetur, cum semine transfert in Prolem:

such as the temperature of the father is, such is the sons, and look what disease the father had when he begot him, his son will have after him, and is as well inheritour of his infirmities, as of his lands. And where the complexion and constitution of the father is corrupt, there (saith Roger Bacon) the complexion and constitution of the son must needs be corrupt, and so the corruption is derived from the father to the son.

Now this doth not so much appear in the composition of the Body, according to that of Hippocrates, in habit, proportion, scarres, and other lineaments; but in manners and conditions of the Minde,

Et patrum in natos abeunt cum semine mores.

Seleucus had an anchor on his thigh, so had his posterity, as Trogus records l. 15. Lepidus in Pliny l. 7. c. 17. was purblinde, so was his son. That famous family of Ænobarbi, were known of old and so surnamed from their red beards, the Austrian lip, and those Indians flat noses are propagated, the Bavarian chin, and goggle eyes amongst the Jews, as Buxtorfius observes;

their voyce, pace, gesture, lookes is likewise derived with all the rest of their conditions and infirmities; such a mother, such a daughter; their very affections Lemnius contends to follow their seed, and the malice & bad conditions of children are many times wholly to be imputed to their parents; I need not therefore make any doubt of Melancholy, but that it is an hereditary disease.

Paracelsus in express words affirmes it lib. de morb. amentium To. 4. Tr. 1. so doth Crato in an Epistle of his to Monavius. So doth Bruno Seidelius in his book de morbo incurab. Montaltus proves cap. 11. out of Hippocrates and Plutarch, that such hereditary dispositions are frequent, & hanc (inquit) fieri reor ob participatam melancholiam intemperantiam (speaking of a patient) I think he became so by participation of Melancholy.

Daniel Sennertus lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 9. will have his melancholy constitution derived not only from the father to the son, but to the whole familie sometimes; Quandoque totis familiis hereditativam. Forestus in his medicinal observations, illustrates this point, with an example of a merchant his Patient, that had this infirmity by inheritance; so doth Rodericus à Fonseca, Tom. 1. consult. 69. by an instance of a young man that was so affected ex matre melancholica, had a melancholy Mother, & victu melancholico, and bad diet together.

Lodovicus Mercatus, a Spanish Physitian, in that excellent Tract, which he hath lately written of hereditary diseases Tom. 2. oper. lib. 5. reckons up Leprosie, as those Gaibots in Gascony, hereditary Lepers, Pox, Stone, Gout, Epilepsie, &c. Amongst the rest, this and Madness after a set time comes to many, which he cals a miraculous thing in nature, and sticks for ever to them as an incurable habit.

And that which is more to be wondered at, it skips in some families the father, and goes to the son, or takes every other, and sometimes every third in a lineall descent, and doth not alwayes produce the same, but some like, and a symbolizing disease. These secundary causes hence derived, are commonly so powerful, that (as Wolphius holds) sæpe mutant decreta syderum, they do often alter the primary causes, and decrees of the heavens.

For these reasons belike the Church and common-wealth, humane and divine laws, have conspired to avoid hereditary diseases, forbidding such marriages as are any whit allyed; and as Mercatus adviseth all families, to take such, si fieri possit quæ maximè distant natura, and to make choice of those that are most differing in complexion from them; if they love their own, and respect the common good.

And sure, I think, it hath been ordered by Gods especial providence, that in all ages there should be (as usually there is) once in 600. years, a transmigration of Nations, to amend and purifie their blood, as we alter seed upon our land; and that there should be as it were an inundation of those Northern Goths and Vandals, and many such like people which came out of that Continent of Scandia, and Sarmatia (as some suppose) and over-ran as a deluge, most part of Europe & Africk,

to alter for our good, our complexions, which were much defaced with hereditary infirmities, which by our lust and intemperance we had contracted. A sound generation of strong and able men were sent amongst us, as those Northern men usually are, innocuous, free from riot, and free from diseases; to qualifie and make us as those poor naked Indians are generally at this day;

and those about Brasile as a late Writer observes; in the Isle of Maragnan, free from all hereditary diseases, or other contagion, whereas without help of Physick they live commonly 120 years or more; as in the orchades and many other places. Such are the common effects of temperance, and intemperance, but I will descend to particulars, and shew by what means, and by whom especially this Infirmity is derived unto us.

Filii ex senibus nati, raro sunt firmi temperamenti, old mens children are seldom of a good temperament, as Scoltzius supposeth, consult. 177, and therefore most apt to this disease; and as Levinus Lemnius farther addes, old men beget most part wayward, peevish, sad, melancholy sons, and seldom merry.

He that begets a childe on a full stomack, will either have a sick childe, or a crazed son (as Cardan thinks) contradict. med. lib. 1. contradict. 18. or if the parents be sick or have any great pain of the head, or megrim, headach, (Hieronimus Wolfius doth instance in a childe of Sebastian Castalio’s)