SECT. 3. MEMB. 1. SUBSECT. 1. Symptomes, or signs of Melancholy in the Body.

Parrhasius a painter of Athens, amongst those Olynthian captives Philip of Macedon brought home to sell, bought one very old man; and when he had him at Athens, put him to extreme torture and torment, the better by his example, to express the pains and passions of his Prometheus, whom he was then about to paint.

I need not be so barbarous, inhumane, curious or cruell for this purpose to torture any poor melancholy man, their symptomes are plain, obvious and familiar, there needs no such accurate observation or far fetcht object, they delineate themselves, they voluntarily betray themselves, they are too frequent in all places, I meet them still as I go, they cannot conceal it, their grievances are too well known, I need not seek far to describe them.

Symptomes therefore are either universall or particular, saith Gordonius, lib. med. cap. 19. part. 2. to persons, to species; some signes are secret, some manifest, some in the Body, some in the minde, and diversly vary, according to the inward or outward causes, Capivaccius; or from stars according to Jovianus Pontanus, de reb. cœlest. lib. 10. cap. 13. and cœlestiall influences, or from the humours diversly mixt, Ficinus li. 1. cap. 4. de sanit. tuendâ:

as they are hot, cold, naturall, unnaturall, intended or remitted, so will Aëtius have melancholica deliria multiformia, diversity of melancholy signs. Laurentius ascribes them to their severall temperatures, delights, natures, inclinations, continuance of time, as they are simple or mixt with other diseases, as the causes are divers, so must the signs be, almost infinite, Altomarus cap. 7. art. med.

And as wine produceth divers effects, or that herb Tortocolla in Laurentius, which makes some laugh, some weep, some sleep, some dance, some sing, some howle, some drinke, &c. so doth this our melancholy humour, work severall signes in severall parties.

But to confine them, these generall Symptomes may be reduced to those of the Body or the Minde. Those usuall signs appearing in the Bodies of such as are melancholy be these, cold and dry, or they are hot and dry, as the humor is more or lesse adust. From these first qualities arise many other second, as that of colour, black, swarty, pale, ruddy, &c. some are impensè rubri, as Montaltus cap. 16. observes out of Galen li. 3. de locis affectis, very red and high coloured.

Hippocrates in his book de insania & melan. reckons up these signes, that they are lean, withered, hollow-eyed, looke old, wrinkled, harsh, much troubled with winde, and a griping in their bellies, or belly-ake, belch often, dry bellies and hard, dejected lookes, shaggy beards, singing of the ears, vertigo, light headed, little or no sleep, and that interrupt, terrible and fearfull dreames, Anna soror, quæ me suspensam insomnia terrent?

These same Symptomes are repeated by Melanelius in his booke of Melancholy collected out of Galen, Ruffus, Aëtius, by Rhasis, Gordonius, & all the Juniors, continuall, sharp, & stinking belchings, as if their meat in their stomack were putrefied, or that they had eaten fish, dry bellies, absurd & interrupt dreames, & many phantasticall visions about their eys, vertiginous, apt to tremble, & prone to Venery.

Some adde palpitation of the heart, cold sweat, as usuall Symptomes, and a leaping in many parts of the body, saltum in multis corporis partibus, a kinde of itching, saith Laurentius, on the superficies of the skin, like a flea-biting sometimes.

Montaltus cap. 21. puts fixed eyes and much twinkling of their eyes for a sign, and so doth Avicenna, oculos habentes palpitantes, trauli, vehementer rubicundi, &c. lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 18. They stut most part, which he took out of Hippocrates Aphorisms.

Rhasis makes head-ach and a binding heavinesse for a principall token, much leaping of winde about the skinne, as well as stutting, or tripping in speech, &c. hollow eys, grosse veines, & broad lips. To some too, if they be far gone mimicall gestures are too familiar, laughing, grinning, fleering, murmuring, talking to themselves, with strange mouthes & faces, inarticulate voices, exclamations, &c.

And although they be commonly leane, hirsute, unchearfull in countenance, withered, and not so pleasant to behold, by reason of those continuall fears, griefs, and vexations, dull, heavie, lazie, restlesse, unapt to go about any businesse; yet their memories are most part good, they have happy wits, and excellent apprehensions.

Their hot and dry brains make them they cannot sleep, Ingentes habent & crebras vigilias (Areteus) Mighty and often watchings, sometimes waking for a month, a year together. Hercules de Saxoniâ faithfully averreth, that he hath heard his mother swear, she slept not for seven moneths together: Trincavelius Tom. 2. cons. 16. speaks of one that waked 50. dayes, and Skenkius hath examples of two years, and all without offence.

In naturall actions their appetite is greater then their concoction, multa appetunt, pauca digerunt, as Rhasis hath it, they covet to eat, but cannot digest. And although they do eat much, yet they are lean, ill liking, saith Areteus, withered and hard, much troubled with costivenesse, crudities, oppilations, spitting, belching, &c.

Their pulse is rare & slow, except it be of the Carotides which is very strong; but that varies according to their intended passions or perturbations, as Struthius hath proved at large, Spigmaticæ artis l. 4. c. 13.

To say truth, in such Chronick diseases the pulse is not much to be respected, there being so much superstition in it, as Crato notes, and so many differences in Galen, that he dares say they may not be observed, or understood of any man.