SUBSECT. 2. Symptomes of windy Hypocondriacall Melancholy.

IN this Hypocondriacall or flatuous melancholy, the symptomes are so ambiguous saith Crato in a counsell of his for a Noblewoman, that the most exquisite Physicians cannot determine of the part affected. Matthew Flaccius consulted about a Noble matron, confessed as much, that in this malady he with Hollerius, Fracastorius, Falopius, and others, being to give their sentence of a party labouring of Hypocondriacall melancholy, could not find out by the symptomes, which part was most especially affected; some said the womb, some heart, some stomack, &c. and therefore Crato, consil. 24. lib. 1. boldly avers, that in this diversity of symptomes, which commonly accompany this disease, no physician can truely say what part is affected.

Galen lib. 3. de loc. affect. reckons up the ordinary symptomes, which all the Neotericks repeat of Diocles; only this fault he finds with him, that he puts not Fear and Sorrow amongst the other signs. Trincavellius excuseth Diocles, lib. 3. consil. 35. because that oftentimes in a strong head and constitution, a generous spirit, and a valiant, these symptomes appear not, by reason of his valour and courage. Hercules de Saxonia (to whom I subscribe) is of the same mind (which I have before touched) that Fear and Sorrow are not generall Symptomes; some fear and are not sad; some be sad and fear not; some neither fear nor grieve.

The rest are these, beside Fear and Sorrow, sharp belchings, fullsome crudities, heat in the bowels, wind and rumbling in the guts, vehement gripings, pain in the belly and stomack sometimes, after meat that is hard of concoction, much watering of the stomack, and moist spittle, cold sweat, importunus sudor, unseasonable sweat all over the body, as Octavius Horatianus lib. 2. cap. 5. cals it. cold joynts, indigestion,

they cannot endure their own fulsom belchings, continuall wind about their Hypocondries, heat and griping in their bowels, præcordia sursum convelluntur, midriffe and bowels are pulled up, the veins about their eyes look red, and swell from vapours and winde. Their ears sing now and then, Vertigo and giddiness come by fits, turbulent dreams, driness, leanness, apt they are to sweat upon all occasions, of all colours and complexions.

Many of them are high-coloured especially after meales, which symptome Cardinal Cæcius was much troubled with, & of which he complained to Prosper Calenus his physician, he could not eat, or drink a cup of wine, but he was as red in the face, as if he had been at a Maiors feast. That Symptom alone vexeth many. Some again are black, pale, ruddy, sometime their shoulders, and shoulder blades ake, there is a leaping all over their bodies, sudden trembling, a palpitation of the heart, and that cardiaca passio, grief in the mouth of the stomack, which maketh the patient think his hart it self aketh, and sometimes suffocation, difficultas anhelitus, short breath, hard wind, strong pulse, swooning.

Montanus consil. 55. Trincavelius li. 3. consil. 36. & 37. Fernelius cons. 43. Frambesarius consult. lib. 1. consil. 17. Hildesheim, Claudinus &c. give instance of every particular. The peculiar symptomes, which properly belong to each part, be these. If it proceed from the stomack, saith Savanarola, ’tis full of pain, wind. Guianerius addes, vertigo, nausea, much spitting, &c. If from the myrache, a swelling and wind in the Hypocondries, a lothing, and appetite to vomit, pulling upward.

If from the heart, aking and trembling of it, much heaviness. If from the liver, there is usually a pain in the right Hypocondrie. If from the spleen, hardness and grief in the left Hypocondrie, a rumbling, much appetite and small digestion, Avicenna. If from the Meseraicke veins and liver on the other side, little or no appetite, Herc. de Saxoniâ. If from the Hypocondries, a rumbling inflation, concoction is hindred, often belching, &c.

And from these crudities, windy vapors ascend up to the brain which trouble the imagination, and cause fear, sorrow, dulness, heaviness, many terrible conceipts and Chimæra’s, as Lemnius well observes, l. 1. c. 16. as a black and thick cloud covers the Sun, and intercepts his beams, and light, so doth this melancholy vapour obnubilate the minde, inforce it to many absurd thoughts and imaginations, and compell good, wise, honest, discreet men (arising to the Brain from the lower parts, as smoke out of a chimney) to dote, speak, and doe that which becomes them not, their persons, callings, wisdoms.

One by reason of those ascending vapours & gripings, rumbling beneath, will not be perswaded but that he hath a serpent in his guts, a viper, another frogs. Trallianus relates a storie of a woman, that imagined she had swallowed an Eele, or a Serpent; and Felix Platerus, observat. lib. 1. hath a most memorable example of a countreyman of his, that by chance falling into a pit where frogs & frogs-spawn was, and a little of that water swallowed, began to suspect that he had likewise swallowed frogs-spawn, and with that conceipt and fear, his phantasie wrought so far, that he verily thought he had young live frogs in his belly, qui vivebant ex alimento suo, that lived by his nourishment, and was so certainly perswaded of it, that for many years following, he could not be rectified in his conceipt:

He studied Physick seven years together to cure himself, travelled into Italy, France and Germany to confer with the best physicians about it, and A° 1609. asked his counsell amongst the rest, he told him it was wind, his conceipt, &c. but mordicus contradicere, & ore, & scriptis probare nitebatur: no saying would serve, it was no wind, but reall frogs: and doe you not heare them croake? Platerus would have deceived him, by putting live frogs into his excrements: but he being a physician himself, would not be deceived, vir prudens aliàs, & doctus, a wise and learned man otherwise, a Doctor of physick, and after seven years dotage in this kind, à phantasia liberatus est, he was cured. Laurentius and Goulart have many such examples, if you be desirous to read them.

One commoditie above the rest which are melancholy, these windy flatuous have, lucida intervalla, their symptomes and pains are not usually so continuate as the rest, but come by fits, fear and sorrow, and the rest: yet in another they exceed all others; and that is, they are luxurious, incontinent, and prone to Venerie, by reason of wind, & facile amant, & quamlibet ferè amant. (Jason Pratensis) Rhasis is of opinion, that Venus doth many of them much good; the other symptomes of the minde be common with the rest.