Tes iatrikes kartos, or, A treatise de morborum capitis essentiis & pronosticis adorned with above three hundred choice and rare observations ... / by Robert Bayfield ...

CAP. XXXVIII▪ De Catarrho.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, A Catarrh, is nothing else but a defluxion or flowing down of some ex∣crementitious humor (generated by reason of the concoction of the Brain its being hurt) from the

head, upon the parts that are situate underneath it, proceeding from a distemper therein; or else from an over-abundant repletion, irritating and stirring up the expulsive faculty. Vel si brevius definire velis: Catarrhus est humoris excrementi∣tii è capite in subjectas partes, praeternaturalis ef∣fluxus.

The Prognostick of this affect, is elegantly laid down by Cornelius Celsus in these words: Si ex capite in nares destillat humor, leve est ma∣lum; si in fauces, pejus; si verò in pulmonem, pes∣simum est: For the Lungs are in danger of be∣ing ulcereted, from whence cometh a Consump∣tion. Hippocrates saith, That a Catarrh is very hard to be concocted in those that are old: In such as are young if the Catarrh be more fre∣quent than ordinary, and withal more grievous, the cure is the more difficult; as also if it rush down with a kinde of impetuousness and vio∣lence; for it may cause suffocation, or some o∣ther grievous accident. A Catarrh accompa∣nied with a continual pain of the head, is hardly to be cured.

In the year 1510. there happened a famous Catarrh, with difficuly of breathing, which went almost over all the world, and raged over all the Cities and Towns of France, with great heavi∣ness of the head whereupon the French named it Cuculla) with streightness of the heart and lungs, and a Cough, a continual Fever, and sometimes raving.

A certain Gentlewoman, twenty five yeers old, was grievously troubled with a thin, sharp Rheum, which fell down upon her brest, with a dry, and almost continual cough, leanness, and a slow Fever. On the 15. day of May, in the year 1629. she took a purging potion, Ex senna, rha∣barbaro. manna, & syrupo rosaceo, cum decocto pe∣ctorali. The next day she was let blood; after which she used pectoral and cooling broths for twelve days together, purging between times with the infusion of half an ounce of Senna: Mean while she took every night one spoonful of a syrup, to stay her Rheum and Cough, which was compounded ex syrupo violaceo, jujubino, de rosis siccis, & de papavere, of each a like quanti∣ty: With these Remedies at last she grew per∣fectly well.

Domina Sugget, Norvicensis, aetatis 38. anno∣rum, gravissimo Catarrho correpta, juvata & cura∣ta fuit eo solo sequenti remedio.

℞ Calomelanos, gr. xx. Resinae benedict. gr. viii. Conservae rosarum rubrarum, ʒ i. misce. à quo re∣medio septies purgata est, & à fluxione omninò li∣berata, ità ut aliis remediis opus non fuerit.

Nothing does more stop a Catarrh or flux of Rheum, then this following Cataplasm of Rulan∣dus: ℞ Fermenti acrioris, ℥ ii. carabes pulveri∣zat. ʒ ii. fiat Cataplasma, and apply it to the crown of the head, after the hair is first shaven away.

Riverius cured himself of a Catarrh, to which he was most subject, with twice taking Laud. opi∣at. the first time three grains, the next time two. Vide etiam Centur. 3. observ. 15. & 44. In the 24. Observation of the same Century, He tells us, that he cured himself of a most grievous Ca∣tarrh, by taking twenty grains of Calomelanos, (qui est Mercur. dul. sexies praeparatus) cum decem jalappae granis; with which remedy he voided, by stool, much flegmatick and cholerick matter, per os autem multam pituitam ejecit, by coughing and spitting, which evacuation continuing two days, the Catarrh ceased, and his cough which accompanied it went quite away, sicque à gravi illo morbo (Dei beneficio) liberatus fuit.

These following Tros••hisques are much com∣mended by Soleander: ℞ Thuris masculi, succi liqui∣ritioe, ana, ʒ i. Opii, croci, myrrhae, ana, ℈ i. cum syrupo papav. forma trochiscos, vel pilulas, to be taken, now and then, two scruples, or half a drachm at a time.

Benedictus Faventinus, useth the following pills in a salt Catarrh, with good success.

℞ Succi glycyrrhizae, ʒ ii. aloes lotae, ʒ i. pillul. de cynoglosso, ʒ ss. cum syrupo violac. Fiat massae pilularum, de qua capiat, ℈ i. horâ somni. And thus much shall suffice to have been spoken touching the Symptoms of the brain: We shall now proceed to treat of the diseases of the Eyes; and first of the Affects of the Eye-lids.