Iason Pratensis subscribes to this counsel of the Poet, Excretio enim aut tollit prorsus aut lenit ægritudinem. As it did the raging lust of Assuerus, qui ad impatientiam amoris leniendam, per singulas fere noctes novas puellas devirginavit. And to be drunk too by fits; but this is mad Physick, if it be at all to be permitted.

If not, yet some pleasure is to be allowed, as that which Vives speaks of, lib. 3. de anima. A Lover that hath as it were lost himself through impotency, impatience, must be called home as a traveller by musick, feasting, good wine, if need be, to drunkenness it self, which many so much commend for the easing of the mind, all kind of sports and merriment, to see fair pictures, hangings, buildings, pleasant fields, Orchards, Gardens, Groves, ponds, pooles, Rivers, fishing, fowling, hawking, hunting, to hear merry tales, and pleasant discourse, reading, to use exercise till he sweat, that new spirits may succeed,

or by some vehement affection or contrary passion, to be diverted till he be fully weaned from anger, suspition, cares, fears, &c. and habituated into another course. Semper tecum sit, (as Sempronius adviseth Calisto his love-sick master) qui sermones joculares moveat, conciones ridiculas, dicteria falsa, suaves historias, fabulas venustas recenseat, coram ludat, &c. still have a pleasant companion to sing and tell merry tales, songs and facete histories, sweet discourse, &c.

And as the melody of Musick, merriment, singing, dancing, doth augment the passion of some Lovers, as Avicenna notes, so it expelleth it in others, and doth very much good. These things must be warily applyed, as the parties Symptomes vary, and as they shall stand variously affected.

If there be any need of Physick, that the humours be altered, or any new matter aggregated, they must be cured as melancholy men. Carolus à Lorme amongst other questions, discussed for his degree at Montpelier in France, hath this, An amantes & amentes iisdem remediis curentur? Whether Lovers and mad men be cured by the same remedies? he affirms it, for love extended is meer madness. Such Physick then as is prescribed, is either inward or outward, as hath been formerly handled in the precedent partition in the cure of Melancholy.

Consult with thy Valleriola observat. lib. 2. observ. 7. Lod. Mercatus lib. 2. cap. 4. de mulier. affect. Daniel Sennertus lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 10. Jacobus Ferrandus the Frenchman in his Tract de amore Erotique, Forestus lib. 10. observ. 29. & 30. Jason Pratensis and others for peculiar receipts. Amatus Lucitanus cured a yong Jew that was almost mad for love, with the syrop of Hellebor, and such other evacuations and purges, which are usually prescribed to black choler:

Avicenna confirms as much if need require, and blood-letting above the rest, which makes amantes ne sint amentes, Lovers to come to themselves, and keep in their right minds. ’Tis the same which Schola Salernitana, Jason Pratensis, Hildesheim, &c. prescribe blood-letting to be used as a principal remedy.

Those old Scythians had a trick to cure all appetite of burning lust, by letting themselves blood under the ears, and to make both men and women barren, as Sabellicus in his Æneades relates of them. Which Salmuth. Tit. 10. de Herol. comment. in Pancirol. de nov. repert. Mercurialis var. lec. lib. 3. cap. 7. out of Hippocrates and Benzo say still is in use amongst the Indians, a reason of which Langius gives lib. 1. epist. 10.

Huc faciunt medicamenta Venerem sopientia, ut Camphora pudendis alligata, & in brachâ gestata (quidam ait) membrum flaccidum reddit. Laboravit hoc morbo virgo nobilis, cui inter cætera præscripsit Medicus, ut laminam plumbeam multis foraminibus pertusam ad dies viginti portaret in dorso; ad exiccandum vero sperma jussit eam quam parcissimè cibari, & manducare frequenter coriandrum præparatum, et semen lactucæ et acetosæ, et sic eam à morbo liberavit.

Porro impediunt & remittunt coitum folia salicis trita & epota, & si frequentius usurpentur ipsa in totum auferunt. Idem præstat Topatius annulo gestatus, dextrum lupi testiculum attritum, & oleo vel aqua rosatâ exhibitum Veneris tædium inducere scribit Alexander Benedictus: lac butyri comestum & semen Canabis, & Camphora exhibita idem præstant.

Verbena herba gestata libidinem extinguit, pulvisque ranæ decollatæ & exiccatæ. Ad extinguendum coitum, ungantur membra genitalia, & renes & pecten aqua in qua opium Thebaicum sit dissolutum; libidini maxime contraria Camphora est, & coriandrum siccum frangit coitum, & erectionem virgæ impedit; idem efficit synapium ebibitum.

Da verbenam in potu et non erigetur virga sex diebus; utere menthâ siccâ cum aceto, genitalia illinita succo Hyoscyami aut cicutæ, coitus appetitum sedant, &c.

℞. seminis lactuc. portulac. coriandri an. ʒ j. menthæ siccæ ʒ ß. sacchari albiss. ℥ iij. pulverisentur omnia subtiliter, & post ea simul misce aqua Nenupharis, f. confec. solida in morsulis. Ex his sumat mane unum quum surgat.

Innumera fere his similia petas ab Hildeshemo loco prædicto, Mizaldo, Porta, cæterisque.