Enchiridion medicum: containing the causes, signs, and cures of all those diseases, that do chiefly affect the body of man: divided into three books. With alphabetical tables of such matters as are therein contained. Whereunto is added a treatise, De facultatibus medicamentorum compositorum, & dosibus. / By Robert Bayfield.

CHAP. I. LIB. I.

APOPLEXIA is a disease that, * 1.1 in the strength of it, is mortal, and admits no cure but by Di∣vines: but in a small Apoplexie there may be some small hope, and the cure is not altoge∣ther impossible.

The cause is a dull, slow, grosse, flegme, * 1.2 filling the ventricles of the brain, and the Ar∣teries of the Rete mirabile, that the spirits cannot passe from the heart, into the ventricles of the brain, which is called by Hippocr: * 1.3 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Metropolis or chief seat of cold and glutinous moystures.

The signe is, * 1.4 when there is a sharp pain in the head: brightnesse before the eyes: the veins in the neck swell: and a gnawing of the teeth while they sleep: their urine is little in quan∣tity,

black like rust, and canker in mettal, and a residence like Meale, they lack sense altoge∣ther, they lye as they were asleep with their eyes shut, and do snort. A strong Apoplexie is, when the breathing is so diminished, that it can hardly be perceived; and that is almost evill, when the breath is stopped for a while, and then fetched out with great violence.

Hippocrates saith, * 1.5 it is impossible to cure a ve∣hement Apoplexie, and not easie to cure a weak one, for it threatneth speedy death; be∣sides, if it chance by medicines to be taken away, for the most part it leaves a palsie behind it, either in the whole body, or in some part thereof: but if it be a weak one, it may perhaps be cured, as experience hath proved in some.

If you perceive plenitude, * 1.6 open a veine, but not without the counsel of other Physitians, for it either kills or delivers, if they do joyn in it, open the Cephalica vein, and then this clyster following.

℞. * 1.7 Betonicae, Salviae, hyssopi, centaurii, Aristo∣lochiae, florum stoecados, arab-Mercurialis. ana. M.j. florum camomelae. Anisi, ana. M. ss. Agarici, pulpae colocynthidis, in petia ligat. ana. ʒ. ij. Bulliant in sufficienti quantitate a∣quae, usque ad consumptionem medietatis, & de colatura ℞. ℥10. hierae logodii, hierae com∣positae, ana. ℥.ss. Mellis rosati ℥.ij. olei Rutae ℥.iij. Sachrari Rubei ℥.i.ss. Salis communis ʒ.iij. vitellum ovi N^oj. fiat Enema.

Then without any further expectation, to di∣gest the matter (for if it be not looked unto the same day, the patient dieth) we give these

pills following: or if the patient be so stupid, that he cannot swallow them, they may be dissolved in a sufficient quantity of Sage-water, and so give it him in the form of a potion.

℞. Pilularum Cochiarum, Pilul. foetidarum, * 1.8 ana ʒ.ss. Pil. aurearum, ℈.j. misce cum syrupo de Stoecade. f. pil. No. 5.

Then it is good to apply cupping glasses on the calfes of the legges, * 1.9 and afterwards below the buttocks, and ascending upwards till we come to the shoulders, let his drink be oximel compos. If he cannot swallow syrups, put into his mouth a dram or two of the best Methri∣date, for it is very profitable in this disease: * 1.10 both before and after evacuations, keep his body loose, and he may drink of the palsie drink, which you shall find in the following Chapter; Lastly

℞. Succini albi ℥.ss. pulp. elect. diarrhod. * 1.11 abba∣tis ʒ.ij. radic. poeniae ʒ.i.ss. fiat pulvis, de quo capiat ʒ.j. in aqua convenien••e ante no∣vi-lunium. River. * 1.12

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.2

  Causa.
• * 1.3

  Hippocrates
• * 1.4

  Signa.
• * 1.5

  Hippocrates
• * 1.6

  Curatio. Venae-sectio
• * 1.7

  Clyster.
• * 1.8

  Pilulae.
• * 1.9

  Cucurbitu∣lae.
• * 1.10

  Methrida∣tum.
• * 1.11

  Pulvis.
• * 1.12

  Riverius.