Oriatrike or, physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified: being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine, for the destruction of diseases and prolongation of life / written by ... John Baptista Van Helmont ...; now faithfully rendered into English ... by J[ohn] C[handler]. Sometime of M.H. Oxon.

  • Helmont, Jean Baptiste van, 1577-1644.
Date:
[1662]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriatrike or, physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified: being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine, for the destruction of diseases and prolongation of life / written by ... John Baptista Van Helmont ...; now faithfully rendered into English ... by J[ohn] C[handler]. Sometime of M.H. Oxon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1181/1232 (page 1137)
    fhe Tligue-Gravel ^^^7 unto man herein.' Monftrous figns therefore, if they do not preferibea condition in deck- ring f unlefs Nlul'veh be converted J they by nature promife an unavoidable effeef. hath alfo pleafed others, to draw the births of Monfters into the fore-flic wing figns of the plague ; even as (^ornellns Gemma , concerning his Cofmocriticks or Divine Chara¬ cters, doth by trifling, patch them together without a fourtdation. But who is he, who fhall either know,or interpret the denoted fore-tokens of Monlfcrs? For the plague be» in*» prefent, then indeed, and too late, every one draws fignifications at his own pkafurco Andtherearefome who therefore abhor the coming of unwonted Birds: but chat fign either ceafeth to be natural, or that of the Quails fore-going the plague of Jfrael in the Wildcrnefs, ihill ceafe to be a Miracle : Andiet this be impious and blafphemous; ^ but the other impertinent to my purpofe. Others interpret this fign for flefli-devouring Birdsa for a future plague ; as if they were fcnc to devour the dead carkafles that were to be inhu¬ med ; QiCCOzdin^tothiL kyin^jpyhere the carl^ajfes arCy thither are the Eagles gathered to-^ aether* ^ But the Text is nor read to be for future dead carkalTes, neither to have fvvallowed them down feeing they are wont to be moft carefully buried before others: For the River Moan at fomedme carried away the dead carkalfes of the plague at Lyons • but it infedl- cd the Citizens beneath them : at leaftwife, the Clergy of Lyons declared hereby , that the burial of the dead was to be obferved, not fo much for the health of the foul, as for ^^Th^coming of Birds therefore, living by prey, denores rather a future defeaof their prey in their own Native Provinces, and they fhould rather denounce by a mon- flrous fign , a deftruaion of war, than an imminent plague. But others divine the plague to be from the meeting with unwonted fifhes; to wit, they fuppofe the waters tone in- fcaed with a corrupt defilement, and for this caufe, chat Sea-monflers do afeend inco the waves: furely a ridiculous thing: For if the Sea putrifieth through continuance in its faltnefs-, what water at length, fhall vvafii away the defilement of the Sea or wbyfhail one only Whale vvandring out of his road, feel the hurtful poyfon of the Sea? not all in a Shoal, or many together? Truly, 1 know chat the Sea is not fubjeft to a natural conta- oion of the Pefl, and chat the monftrous figns of the Heavcn,and Sea, are direaed by the lame finger, of whofe unfearchable judgement they are the Preachers , being declared unto his fervanits only : For the fame Lord is prefent, as well in the center of the earth, and in the bottom of the Sea, as in the higheft cop of heaven. Indeed all things doa- like equally obey him, except the moft ungraceful finner. But furely, I do rather fear the unwonted raines of blood,of fpots,or fparks, and likewife Funerals brought down through the Clouds,mournful founds heard in the air, as alfo noifes in burying places, dec. which things, fwcin? they the aduionitioos of Divinegoodnefs j therefore they 3.re to be re- ferrcd*out of Nature, that every one may feafonably look to^the Oyl in their own Limps: For neither therefore do I efteem thofe monftrous figns to be the works of the Evil Spi¬ rit, but againft his will. Truly they are freely given, and above Nature; neither there¬ fore do they belong to my purpofe. , . . u T . 'StMiTaracelfusy as be had known a fingulaf remedy of tne Plague to be in the Toady and Fio^s; fo alfo he writes, that this is prefaged as oft as a great heap of Frogs arKerh in¬ to a heap, which is to choak fome weak or infirm one ; which being killed, it afterwards alfaulceth another, until the number being thus diminiftied by degrees, every one at length particularly runs away : which things, if they thus naturally happen ; as they pre¬ pare a remedy for the plague to come, fo alfo they denote it: For out of a Gaul, even as alfo from an apple drawn out of O^ken leaves, they write , that for the moft part, three fmalUivin^» creatures are drawn; to wit, if it contain a Spider, they will have it portend the Peft • if a Fly> War r but if a creeping Animal, that it fore-.ftieweth Famine. But feein^^ one of the three at leaft,is found every year enelofed therein, if not two, or all of them^ and yet , ^one of thofe puniftiments doth not continually follow ; therefore Irc- fer fuch prediaions among old Wives Fables. I therefore judge^thac thefe kind of Infeas do denounce the difference of the Leflfas in theOak (Leffas is the nouriftiablc juice of plants) fo as that a worm denotes the aforefaid nourifhment to be putrified through con¬ tinuance- but a Spider, a poyfon to be moreover, ad joyned to that putrefaa^n; and therefore* as it were a connexed and co-touebing Spider is every where almoft in the whole compafs of the earth; the which being in the Oak,^ portends not any thing out ofc the tree ; efpecially becaufe in the neighbouring and co-planted trees, nor alfo feldom in the fruits of the fame Oak, thofe divers Infeas arc beheld at once, in the fame Sum¬ mer 1 Yet I do not remember that I have found a Spider and alfo a Fly, at once, the