Erōtomania or A treatise discoursing of the essence, causes, symptomes, prognosticks, and cure of love, or erotique melancholy. Written by Iames Ferrand Dr. of Physick

CHAP. X. Whether Love-Melancholy be an Hereditary Disease, or no.

ARistotle is of opinion, that hee that not like his Parents, is in some sort Monster; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. For in such Cases Na¦ture seemes to have come short of he end, and hath begun to degenerate; and that sometimes of necessity, as in the bringing forth of women, for the Propa¦gation of the species; and sometimes also through some Defect in the Matter; o•• lastly by reason of some Externall Causes, amongst which, the Genethliacall Astro¦logers place the Influence of the Starre•• * 1.1

and Hippocrates, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the change of the Sea∣••••ns, and Nature of the Climat. But the ••rabian Physitians attribute the greatest ••ower in these matters to the Imaginati∣on, * 1.2 and indeavour to prove their Asserti∣on by many forcible Arguments, and also ••y particular instances, borrowed out of * 1.3 ••liny lib. 7. cap. 12. Franciscus Ʋallesius, ••lbertus, and diverse other authentique authors.

This similitude and resemblance that required in Children, consists in three ••ings, that is, either in the species, Sexe, or ••ccidents. The first of these depends on the Specificall Difference, & the Forma∣tive * 1.4 facultie; the second on the Complex∣ion & Temperature of the Seed, the Men∣••ruall Blood, and the Matrix, according to * 1.5 Galen: and the last beares a Proportion to be difference of the Formative faculty, ••ot Specificall, as the First, but Individu∣all; which residing in the Seed, and being ••estrained by the Matter which hath the ••mpression fixt on it, receaves from it the Vertue to produce Individuals, semblable •••• Properties, Qualities, and other Acci∣dents

to the Individuall from which they spring. Now these Corporeall Qualities which are derived from the Parents to the Children, are such onely as are in the parts Informed in such sort, as that they have already contracted a Habitude. So that those Properties and Qualities that depend of the Superior Faculties, and which are more noble then the Forma∣tive; as the Sensitive, Imaginative, & Ra∣tionall; cannot possibly bee Hereditary: Otherwise a Learned Physitian should ne∣cessarily beget a Sonne as learned in his Faculty as himselfe, without any study a•• all. Neither yet are those Diseases Here∣ditary, which are not Habituall, as Fevers, Pleurisies, Catarrhes, and those Intempe∣ratures which are not confirmed: But those only are Hereditary, that are Habi∣tuall in the Parents, and by continuance of time confirmed; whether they bee in the whole Body, or onely in the Principall parts of the same. And for this cause wee may observe, that Cholerick Men bege•• Cholerick Children; and weake infirms men, beget the like Children. So contra∣riwise,

Fortes creantur fortibus & Bonis, * 1.6

Men of courage, and of strong bodies, be∣set stout and valiant Children; & so those ••hat have their Generative parts of a hot and dry Temperature, beget Children of ••••e same constitution, and consequently, Galen saies, inclined to Lust. And there∣fore * 1.7 when Helen had no other meanes to excuse her Adulterous practises, she made ••se of this, and cries out,

Qui fieri, si sint vires in semine Amorum, Et Jovis, & Ledae filia, casta potes?

I Love's Powers in the Parent's seed is plac't: How can it be, That ever she That's borne of Iove, & Leda, should bee chast?

Notwithstanding Fernelius, in his first ••ook de Pathol. cap. 1. affirmes, that Chil∣dren doe not inherit those Diseases onely that are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Habit, but some other also: for that we often finde Children to be subject to Agues, Pleurisies, Catarrhes,

and the like, because their Mothers had the same Diseases, when they travailed with them.

So that hence we may conclude, that those Children that are begotten of such Parents as have been so besotted with Love, as that they have at length become Melancholy withall, are in danger of inhe∣riting the same disease; unlesse peradven∣ture the Seed of one of the Parents corre∣cted this fault in the other: or else it bee prevented by good Education, and Disci∣pline. And it is also probable that those that are Inclined to Love, through the Intem∣perature either of the whole Body, or else of the Principall parts; and not by the depravation of the Imaginative facultie, as the greatest part of Lovers are, will beget Children subject to the same Dis∣case.

Notes

• * 1.1

  L. de aëre, loc. & a{que}
• * 1.2

  Avicen. l. 9 anim.
• * 1.3

  Valles. l. 4. cont. med. & Pli. c. 6.
• * 1.4

  Il. à Veg. c. 49. art. Med.
• * 1.5

  Iernel. c. 12 l. 7. Phys.
• * 1.6

  Hor. Od. 4 l. 4.
• * 1.7

  Art. Med. c. 46.