SUBJECT MATTER.

THE seventh book of the  De Proprietatibus' treats of the human body and its ailments.  At first glance it might seem that such a subject would be repulsive, either in matter or handling, to the general reader of to-day, but it will, we think, be found that there are many points of interest in it for us, some of which we proceed to indicate.  Mankind has always felt a deep interest in certain diseases, to which we are even now subject,  and so parts of the chapters on leprosy and hydrophobia have been reproduced.  The accounts given of frenzy and madness interest us both as a picture of the change in manners, as an example of the methods of cure proposed, and as throwing light on many passages.  Thus Chaucer, speaking of Arcite, describes his passion as compounded of melancholy which deprives him of reason, overflowing into the foremost cell Of his brain, the cell fantastic, and causing him to act as if mad

Physicians recommend music as a cure in mental troubles, but that it is no new discovery is attested by Shakespeare and our author.  Compare what Bartholomew says of the voice, with Richard’s speech:

The origin of the brutality towards madmen warred against by  Charles Reade, and described in 'Romeo and Juliet '

is seen in our extracts, which recall too, in their insistence on bleeding the 'head vein,' Juvenal's remark on his friend about to marry: '0 Medic", mediam pertundite venam.'

Some space has already been devoted to the physiology of the human body, but this chapter would not be complete if we did not devote some space to the explanations given of the working of the heart, veins, and arteries, at a time when the circulation of the blood was unknown. It may not be amiss to remind the reader that arteries carry blood from the heart, to which it is returned by the veins, after passing through a fine network of tubes called the capillaries.

Turning to what may be called the popular physiology of the time, we may note the change, since medieval times, in the allocation of properties to the organs of the body. In our days, the heart and brain set aside, we find no organ mentionea in connection with the various faculties of the body, while up to Shakespeare's time each organ had its passion.  Some of these emotions have muck changed their seats.  True love, which now reigns over the heart, then took its rise in the liver.  The friar in 'Much Ado about Nothing' says of Claudio, 'If ever love had interest in his liver" and the Duke in 'Twelfth Night,' speaking of women's love, says:

The heart, on the other hand; was considered as the seat of wisdom.

The spleen is now almost a synonym for bitterness of spirit, but it used to be regarded as the source of laughter.  Isabella in 'Measure for Measure,' after the well-known quotation about man dressed in a little brief authority who plays such apish tricks as make the angels weep, says they would laugh instead if they had spleens:

The brain in medieval times was regarded only as the home of the ‘wits of feeling '-the senses.

Some other points of interest in medieval medicine are the strange remedies prescribed; and the way in which they were hit upon   The editor has not made many selections to illustrate this nor has he chosen the most strange.  And lastly, in this, as in most of the other chapters, much may be learnt of the customs of the time from the indications of the text.
 

OF FRENZY

THESE be the signs of frenzy, woodness and continual waking, moving and casting about the eyes, raging, stretching, and casting out of hands, moving and wagging of the head, grinding and gnashing together of the teeth; always they will arise out of their bed, now they sing, now they weep, and they bite gladly and rend their keeper and their leech : seldom be they still, but cry much. And these be most perilously sick, and yet they wot not then that they be sick. Then they must be soon holpen lest they perish, and that both in diet and in medicine.  The diet shall be full scarce, as crumbs of bread, which must many times be wet in water  The medicine is, that in the beginning the patient's head be shaven, and washed in lukewarm vinegar, and that he be well kept or bound in a dark place.  Diverse shapes of faces and semblance of painting shall not be shewed tofore him, lest he be tarred with woodness. All that be about him shall be commanded to be still and in silence; men shall not answer to his nice words.  In the beginning of medicine he shall be let blood in a vein of the forehead, and bled as much as will fill an egg-shell.  Afore all things (if virtue and age suffereth) he shall bleed in the head vein. Over all things, with ointments and balming men shall labour to bring him asleep. The head that is shaven shall be plastered with lungs of a swine, or of a wether, or of a sheep; the temples and forehead shall be anointed with the juice of lettuce, or of poppy.  If after these medicines are laid thus to, the woodness dureth three days without sleep, there is no hope of recovery.
 

OF MADNESS,

Madness is infection of the foremost cell of the head, with privation of imagination, like as melancholy is the infection of the middle cell of the head, with privation of reason.

Madness cometh sometime of passions of the soul, as of business and of great thoughts, of sorrow and of too great study, and of dread: sometime of the biting of a wood hound, or some other venemous beast: sometime of melancholy meats, and sometime of drink of strong wine. And as the causes be diverse, the tokens and signs be diverse.  For some cry and leap and hurt and wound themselves and other men, and darken and hide them-selves in privy and secret places.  The medicine of them is, that they be bound, that they hurt not themselves and other men. And namely, such shall be refreshed, and comforted, and withdrawn from cause and matter of dread and busy thoughts. And they must be gladded with instruments of music, and somedeal be occupied.
 

OF HEAD QUAKING,

Our Lord set a token in Cain, that was quaking of head, as Strabus saith in the gloss: 'Every man (saith Strabus) that findeth me, by quaking of head and moving of wood heart, shall know that I am guilty to die.'
 

OF BLINDNESS,

Among all the passions and evils of the wits of feeling,  blindness is most wretched.  For without any bond, blindness is a prison to the blind.  And blindness be-guileth the virtue imaginative in knowing; for in deeming of white the blind deem it is black, and ayenward. It letteth the virtue of avisement in deeming.  For he deemeth and aviseth, and casteth to go eastward, and is beguiled in his doom, and goeth westward. And blind-ness overturneth the virtue of affection and desire. For if men proffer the blind a silver penny and a copper to choose the better, he desireth to choose the silver penny, but he chooseth the copper.

The blind man's wretchedness is so much, that it maketh him not only subject to a child, or to a servant, for ruling and leading, but also to an hound. And the blind is oft brought to so great need, that to pass and scape the peril of a bridge or of a ford, he is compelled to trust in a hound more than to himself. Also oft in perils where all men doubt and dread, the blind man, for he seeth no peril, is secure.  And in like wise there as is no peril, the blind dreadeth most. He spurneth oft in plain way, and stumbleth oft; there he should heave up his foot, he boweth it downward. And in like wise there as he should set his foot to the ground, he heaveth it upward.  He putteth forth the hand all about groping and grasping, he seeketh all about his way with his hand and with his staff. Seldom he doth aught securely, well nigh always he doubteth and dreadeth. Also the blind man when he lieth or sitteth thereout, he weeneth that he is under covert; and ofttimes he thinketh him-self hid when everybody seeth him.

Also sometimes the blind beateth and smiteth and grieveth the child that leadeth him, and shall soon repent the beating by doing of the child.  For the child hath mind of the beating, and forsaketh him, and leaveth him alone in the middle of a bridge, or in some other peril, and teacheth him not the way to void the peril. Therefore the blind is wretched, for in house he dare nothing trustly do, and in the way he dreadeth lest his fellow will forsake him.
 

OF LEPROSY, OR MESELEY,

Universally this evil hath much tokens and signs.  In them the flesh is notably corrupt, the shape is changed, the eyen become round, the eyelids are revelled, the sight sparkleth, the nostrils are straited and revelled and shrunk. The voice is hoarse, swelling groweth in the body, and many small botches and whelks hard and round, in the legs and in the utter parts; feeling is some-deal taken away. The nails are boystous and bunchy, the fingers shrink and crook, the breath is corrupt, and oft whole men are infected with the stench thereof The flesh and skin is fatty, insomuch that they may throw water thereon, and it is not the more wet, but the water slides off; as it were off a wet hide.  Also in the body be diverse specks, now red, now black, now wan, now pale.  The tokens of leprosy be most seen in the utter parts, as in the feet, legs, and face; and namely in wasting and minishing of the brawns of the body.

To heal or to hide leprosy, best is a red adder with a white womb, if the venom be away, and the tail and the head smitten off; and the body sod with leeks, if it be oft taken and eaten. And this medicine helpeth in many evils; as appeareth by the blind man, to whom his wife gave an adder with garlick instead of an eel, that it might say him, and he ate it, and after that by much sweat, he recovered his sight again.
 

OF THE BITING OF A MAD DOG,

The biting of a wood hound is deadly and venemous. And such venom is perilous.  For it is long hidden and unknown, and increaseth and multiplieth itself and is sometimes unknown to the year's end, and then the same day and hour of the biting, it cometh to the head, and breedeth frenzy.  They that are bitten of a wood hound have in their sleep dreadful sights, and are fearful, astonied, and wroth without cause.  And they dread to be seen of other men, and bark as hounds, and they dread water most of all things, and are afeared thereof full sore, and squeamous also.  Against the biting of a wood hound wise men and ready used to make the wounds bleed with fire or with iron, that the venom may come out with blood, that cometh out of the wound.
 

OF A Physician,

Then consider thou shortly hereof; that a physician visiteth oft the houses and countries of sick men. And seeketh and searcheth the causes and circumstances of the sicknesses, and arrayeth and bringeth with him divers and contrary medicines.  And he refuseth not to grope and handle, and to wipe and cleanse wounds of sick men  And he behooteth to all men hope and trust of recovering of health; and saith that he will softly burn that which shall be burnt, and cut that which shall be cut.  And lest the whole part should corrupt, he spareth not to burn and to cut off the part that is rotted, and if a part in the right side acheth, he spareth not to smite in the left side.  A good leech leaveth not cutting or burning for weeping of the patient.  And he hideth and covereth the bitterness of the medicine with some manner of sweetness.  He drinketh and tasteth of the medicine, though it be bitter: that it be not against the sick man’s heart and refraineth the sick man of meat and drink and letteth him have his own will, of the whose health is neither hope nor trust of recovering.
 

OF THE VEINS,

The veins have that name for that they be the ways, conduits, and streams of the fleeting of the blood, and sheddeth it into all the body.  And Constantine saith,  that the veins spring out of the liver, as the arteries and wosen do out of the heart, and the sinews out of the brain  And veins are needful as vessels of the blood to bear and to bring blood from the liver, to feed and nourish the members of the body.  Also needly, the veins are more tender and nesh in kind than sinews.  Therefore that they be nigh to the liver, may somewhat change the blood that. cometh to them.  And all the veins are made of one curtel, and not of two, as the arteries and wosen.  For the arteries receive spirits, and they keep and save them.  And the veins coming out of the liver, suck thereof; as it were of their own mother, feeding of blood, and dealeth and departeth that feeding to every member as it needeth.  And so the veins spread into all the parts of the body, and by a wonder wit of kind, they do service each to other.

Also among other veins open and privy, there is a vein, and it is called Artery, which is needful in kind to bear and bring kindly heat from the heart to all the other members.  And these arteries are made and com-posed of two small clothings or skins, called curtels, and they be like in shape, and divers in substance.  The inner have wrinkles and folding overthwart, and their substance is hard, and more boystous than the utter be. And without they have wrinkles and folding in length: of whom the substance is hard for needfulness of moving, opening, and closing. For by opening, itself doth receive from the heart and that by the wrinklings and folding in length: by closing, itself doth put out superfluous fumosity, which is done by wrinkling and folding the curtels overthwart and in breadth, in the which the spirit is drawn from the heart.  Wherefore they be harder without than all the other veins, and that is needful lest they break lightly and soon.  Also these veins spring out of the left hollowness of the heart. And twain of that side are called Pulsative, of which one that is the innermost hath a nesh skin, and this vein is needful to bring great quantity of blood and spirits to the lungs, and to receive in air, and to medley it with blood, to temper the ferventness of the blood. This vein entereth into the lungs and is departed there in many manner wises.

The other artery is more than the first, and Aristotle calleth it Horren; this artery cometh up from the heart, and is departed in twain, and the one part cometh up-ward, and carrieth blood, that is purified and spirit of life to the brain; that so the spirit of feeling may be bred, nourished, kept, and saved. The other part goeth downward, and is departed in many manner wise toward the right side and toward the left.

Then mark well, that a vein is the bearer and carrier of blood, keeper and warden of the life of beasts. And containeth in itself the four bloody humours clean and pure which are ordained for feeding of all the parts of the body.  Moreover, a vein is hollow to receive blood the more easily, and as it needeth in kind, that one vein bring and give blood to another vein. Also a vein is messager of health and of sickness.  For by the pulse of the arteries and disposition of the veins, physicians deem of the feebleness and strength of the heart. Also if a vein be corrupt, and containeth corrupt blood, it cor-rupteth and infecteth all the body, as it fareth in lepers, whose blood is most corrupt in the veins, of the which 'the members are fed by sucking of blood, and seeketh thereby corruption and sickness incurable. Also the vein of the arm is oft grieved, constrained and wranged, opened and slit, and wounded, to relieve the sickness of all the body by hurting of that vein.
 

OF FASTING SPITTLE,

The spittle of a man fasting bath a manner strength of privy infection. For it grieveth and hurteth the blood of a beast, if it come into a bleeding wound, and is medlied with the blood. And that, peradventure, is, as saith Avicenna, by reason 'of rawness.  For raw humour medlied with blood that bath perfect diges-tion is contrary thereto in its quality, and disturbeth the temperance thereof, as authors say. And therefore it is that holy men tell that the spittle of a fasting man slayeth serpents and adders, and is venom to venemous beasts, as saith Basil.
 

OF THE VOICE,

A discording voice and an inordinate troubleth the accord of many voices.  But according voices sweet and ordinate, gladden and move to love, and show out the passions of the soul, and witness the strength and virtue of the spiritual members, and show pureness and good disposition of them, and relieve travail, and put off disease and sorrow.  And make to be known the male and the female, and get and win praising, and change the affection of the hearers ; as it is said in fables of one Orpheus, that pleased trees, woods, hills, and stones, with sweet melody of his voice. Also a fair voice is according and friendly to kind.  And pleaseth not only men but also brute beasts, as it fareth in oxen that are excited to travail more by sweet song of the herd, than, by strokes and pricks.

Also by sweet songs of. harmony and accord of music, sick men and frantic come oft to their wit again and health of body. Some men tell that Orpheus said, 'Emperors pray me to feasts, to have liking of me; but I have liking of them which would bend their hearts from wrath to mildness, from sorrow to gladness, from covetousness to largeness, from dread to boldness.' This is the ordinance of music, that is known above the sweetness of the soul.

Now it is known by these foresaid things, how profit-able is a merry voice and sweet. And contrariwise is of an unordinate voice and horrible, that gladdeth not, nother comforteth; but is noyful and discomforteth and grieveth the ears and the wit. Therefore Constantine saith that a philosopher was questioned, why an horrible man is more heavy than any burden or wit. And men say that he answered in this manner. An horrible man is burden to the soul and wit.
 

OF THE LUNGS,

The lungs be the bellows of the heart.  It beateth in opening of itself that it may take in breath, and thrusting together may put it out, and so it is in continual moving, in drawing in and out of breath.  The lungs be the proper instrument of the heart, for it keleth the heart, and by sublety of its substance, changeth the air that is drawn in, and maketh it more subtle. The lungs shapeth the voice, and ceaseth never of moving.  For it closeth itself and spreadeth, and keepeth the air to help the heat in its dens and holes. And therefore a beast may not live under the water without stifling, but as long as he may hold in the air that is gathered within. The lungs by continual moving putteth off air that is gathered within, cleanseth and purgeth it, and ministereth continual and convenable feeding to the vital spirit. And departeth the heart from the instruments of feeling, and breedeth foamy humours, and beclippeth aside half the substance of the heart.  And when the lungs be grieved by any occasion, it speedeth to death-ward.
 

OF THE LIVER,

The liver bath name for fire hath place therein, that passeth up anon to the brain, and cometh thence to the eyen, and to the other wits and limbs. And the liver by its heat, draweth woose and juice and turneth it into blood, and serveth the body and members therewith, to the use of feeding.  In the liver is the place of voluptuousness and liking of the flesh.  The ends of the liver bight fibra, for they are straight and passing as tongs, and beclip the stomach, and give heat to diges-tion of meat: and they hight fibra, because the necro-mancers brought them to the altars of their god Phoebus and offered them there, and then they had answers.

The liver is the chief fundament of kindly virtue, and greatest helper of the first digestion in the stomach, and the liver maketh perfectly the second digestion in the stomach, in the hollowness of its own substance, and departeth clean and pured, from unclean and un-pured, and sendeth feeding to all the members, and exciteth love or bodily lust, and receiveth divers passions.  Then the liver is a noble and precious member, by whose alteration the body is altered, and the liver sendeth feeding and virtues of feeding to the other members, to the nether without mean, and to the other, by mean of the heart.
 

OF THE SPLEEN,

Some men ween, that the milt is cause of laughing. For by the spleen we are moved to laugh, by the gall we are wroth, by the heart we are wise, by the brain we feel, by the liver we love.
 

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