SECT. 4. MEMB. 1. Prognosticks of Melancholy.

Prognosticks, or signs of things to come, are either good or bad. If this malady be not hereditary, and taken at the beginning, there is good hope of cure, recens curationem non habet difficilem, saith Avicenna, l. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. c. 18. That which is with laughter, of all others is most secure, gentle, and remiss, Hercules de Saxoniâ. If that evacuation of hæmrods, or varices which they call the water between the skin, shall happen to a melancholy man, his misery is ended, Hippocrates. Aphor. 6. 11. Galen. l. 6. de morbis vulgar. com. 8. confirmes the same; and to this Aphorisme of Hippocrates all the Arabians, new and old Latines subscribe; Montaltus. c. 25. Hercules de Saxonia, Mercurialis, Vittorius Faventinus, &c.

Skenkius l. 1. observat. med. c. de Maniâ, illustrates this Aphorisme, with an example of one Daniel Federer a Coppersmith that was long melancholy, and in the end mad about the 27 yeare of his age, these varices or water began to arise in his thighs, and he was freed from his madness. Marius the Roman was so cured, some say, though with great pain. Skenkius hath some other instances of women that have been helped by flowing of their moneths, which before were stopped. That the opening of the hæmrods will do as much for men, all physicians joyntly signifie, so they be voluntary, some say, and not by compulsion.

All melancholy are better after a quartane; Joubertus saith, scarce any man hath that ague twice: But whether it free him from this malady, ’tis a question; for many physicians ascribe all long agues for especiall causes, and a quartane ague amongst the rest. Rhasis cont. lib. 1. tract. 9. When melancholy gets out at the superficies of the skin, or settles breaking out in scabs, leprosie, morphew, or is purged by stooles, or by the urine, or that the spleen is inlarged, and those varices appeare, the disease is dissolved. Guianerius, cap. 5. tract. 15. addes dropsie, jaundise, dysentery, leprosie, as good signes, to these scabs, morphews, and breaking out, and proves it, out of the 6. of Hippocrates Aphorismes.

Evil prognosticks on the other part. Inveterata melancholia incurabilis, of it be inveterate, it is incurable, a common axiome, aut difficulter curabilis as they say that make the best, hardly cured. This Galen witnesseth, l. 3. de loc. affect. cap. 6. be it in whom it will, or from what cause soever, it is ever long, wayward, tedious, and hard to be cured, if once it be habituated. As Lucian said of the gout, she was the queen of diseases, and inexorable, may we say of melancholy. Yet Paracelsus will have all diseases whatsoever curable, & laughs at them which think otherwise, as T. Erastus part. 3. objects to him; although in another place hereditary diseases he accounts incurable, & by no art to be removed.

Hildesheim spicel. 2. de mel. holds it less dangerous if only imagination be hurt, and not reason, the gentlest is from bloud. Worse from choler adust, but the worst of all from melancholy putrefied. Bruel esteems hypochondriacall least dangerous, and the other two species opposite to Galen, hardest to be cured. The cure is hard in man, but much more difficult in women. And both men and women must take notice of that saying of Montanus consil. 230. pro Abbate Italo, This malady doth commonly accompany them to their grave; Physicians may ease, and it may lye hid for a time, but they cannot quite cure it, but it will return again more violent & sharp then at first, and that upon every small occasion or errour:

as in Mercuries weather-beaten statue, that was once all over gilt, the open parts were clean, yet there was in fimbriis aurum, in the chinks a remnant of gold; there will be some reliques of melancholy left in the purest bodies (if once tainted) not so easily to be rooted out. Oftentimes it degenerates into Epilepsy, Apoplexy, Convulsions, and blindness: by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen, all averre, if once it possesse the ventricles of the brain, Frambesarius, & Salust. Salvianus adds, if it get into the optick nerves, blindness. Mercurialis consil. 20. had a woman to his patient, that from melancholy became Epileptick and blinde.

If it come from a cold cause or so continue cold, or increase, Epilepsie, Convulsions follow, and blindness, or else in the end they are moped, sottish, and in all their actions, speeches, gestures, ridiculous. If it come from an hot cause, they are more furious, & boisterous, & in conclusion mad. Calescentem melancholiam sæpius sequitur mania. If it heat & increase, that is the common event, per circuitus, aut semper insanit, he is mad by fits, or altogether. For as Sennertus contends out of Crato, there is seminarius ignis in this humour, the very seeds of fire. If it come from melancholy naturall adust, and in excess, they are often dæmoniacall, Montanus.

Seldome this malady procures death, except (which is the greatest, most grievous calamity, and the misery of all miseries) they make away themselves, which is a frequent thing, & familiar amongst them. ’Tis Hippocrates observation, Galens sentence, Etsi mortem timent, tamen plerumque sibi ipsis mortem consciscunt, l. 3. de locis affect. cap. 7. The doom of all physicians. ’Tis Rabbi Moses Aphorisme, the prognosticon of Avicenna, Rhasis, Ætius, Gordonius, Valescus, Altomarus, Salust. Salvianus, Capivaccius, Mercatus, Hercules de Saxonia, Piso, Bruel, Fuchsius, all, &c.

Et sæpe usque, adeo mortis formidine vitæ Percipit infelix odium lucisque videndæ, Ut sibi consciscat mærenti pectore lethum.

And so far forth deaths terror doth affright. He makes away himself, and hates the light: To make an end of fear and grief of heart, He voluntary dies to ease his smart.