The Anatomy of Melancholy

Trincavelius, consultation 14, book 1, prefers the baths of Porretta to the others because of their mixture of brass, iron and alum. In consultation 35, book 3, for a melancholy lawyer, and consultation 36, for hypochondriacal illness, he prefers the baths of Aquaria; and in consultation 36, the drinking of their water.

Frisimelica, consulted along with others in Trincavelius, consultation 42, book 2, prefers the waters of Abano to all artificially prepared baths whatever for this disease. He would have someone afflicted for nine years with hypochondriacal complaints flee to them as to a sacred anchor. Trincavelius himself agrees in that passage; yet both identify a hot liver as a cause in this same patient, and send him to the waters of Saint Helen, which are much hotter.

Montanus, consultation 230, praises the baths of Caldiero, and in consultations 237 and 239 urges their use, with this caution: the region of the liver should be rubbed externally with cooling preparations so that it does not become overheated. But melancholy people must visit these baths cautiously; or, if the baths are used, they should be reserved for those who are themselves very cold. For, as Gabelius concludes concerning all German baths, especially those at Baden, they are good for all cold diseases, but bad for bilious, hot and dry conditions, and for all illnesses arising from choler, including inflammation of the spleen and liver.

Our English baths, being hot, must come under the same criticism; but Dr Turner in earlier times, and Dr Jones, have written extensively about them. I find little or no mention of cold baths in any physician, and some speak against them. Cardan alone, drawing on Agathinus, recommends bathing in fresh rivers and cold waters, and advises everyone who intends to live long to do so, because it suits all ages and constitutions and is especially beneficial for hot temperaments.

As for sweating, urination, bleeding through haemorrhoids or otherwise, I shall speak of them elsewhere at a more suitable point.

Just as sexual activity in excess, or its absence, can be a cause, so, when practised moderately, it can be the one thing that helps some people, an immediate remedy. Pieter van Foreest calls it “a most suitable remedy”—a most apposite remedy—relieving anger and freeing reason that was otherwise held captive.

Avicenna, fen 3, 20, and Oribasius, Medical Collections, book 6, chapter 37, maintain on the authority of Rufus and others that many people who were mad, melancholy or suffering from epilepsy have been cured by this alone. Montalto, chapter 27, On Melancholy, says that it drives away sorrow and all delusions of the brain, and clears the heart and brain of harmful fumes and vapours that trouble them. If it is omitted, as Valescus supposes, it makes the mind sad and the body sluggish and heavy.

Many other troubles are listed by Mercatus and Rodrigo de Castro in their treatments of melancholy in unmarried women and nuns: “because of the retention of seed, nuns and unmarried women often become frenzied”; but, as Plater adds, “if they marry, they are cured.” They rave while single and waste away in great discontent, but marriage puts everything right.