Callirhoe, the nymph of Aberdene, resuscitat by William Barclay M. of Art, and Doctor of Physicke. What diseases may be cured by drinking of the well at Aberdene, and what is the true vse thereof Barclay, William, 1570?-1630? 1615 Approx. 18 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A03922 STC 1403 ESTC S118242 99853450 99853450 18833 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A03922) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 18833) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 872:06) Callirhoe, the nymph of Aberdene, resuscitat by William Barclay M. of Art, and Doctor of Physicke. What diseases may be cured by drinking of the well at Aberdene, and what is the true vse thereof Barclay, William, 1570?-1630? [22] p. Printed by Andro Hart, [Edinburgh] : Anno Dom. 1615. Place of publication from STC. Signatures: A B⁴ (-B4). Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Mineral waters -- Early works to 1800. 2005-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-06 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-06 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CALLIRHOE , THE NYMPH OF ABERDENE , RESVSCITAT BY WILLIAM BARCLAY M. of Art , and Doctor of Physicke . What diseases may be cured by drinking of the Well at Aberdene , and what is the true vse thereof . Printed by ANDRO HART , ANNO DOM. 1615. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Sr. ROBERT KEITH of Benholme Rnight . WILLIAM BARCLAY DOCTOR OF PHYSICKE wisheth health . RIGHT Worshipfull , Demades , an Orator of Athens was wont to say to the people , that they neuer treated of peace , but in their mourning garments , when the enemie had killed their principall kinsemen . So the people of this Realme enter neuer in consideration of their health , but when they are ouerthrowen with diseases . I would haue your Worship to shunne this blame , being so ciuill , so circumspect , so carefull in all your other adoes : it were a blotte to the worth of your many vertues , to neglect the remembrance of your health , euen in the perfect possession of your health , that you may prevent the battell of diseases , when you are in the the other side . First then I diuided so much of the land as I choosed to consider , in High-land and Low-land : and I found the High-land to nourish strong , rude , cruell , long liuing , laborious , and lecherous men : and that by reason of their food : milke , cheese , butter , fleshes , oate bread , much exercise . ( I wil remit the matter of Aqua vitae to another place . ) And as I mused on these Highland men , I remembred that in our historie of Scotland it is reported , that no diseases were knowne to this holy Iland in time of our fathers , but the Grauell , the Cold , which Physicians call Catarrhus . For proofe of which was there neuer a man in Strethspey vexed with the Tertian ague , while the yeere 1613. yeeres : when that disease became in Murray and sundrie other parts of this Realme epidemicall or contagious . But leauing these High-land diseases to their impostors , and barbarous leeches . I returne to our low & ciuill pa●ts : where the inhabitants being more delicatly trained vp , as subject to greater diseases , the situation of the soyle being toward the North & lying open to the East : the ground which they labour , must be colde and moyst : the diseases of their bodies , Catarrhes , Grauels , Diarrhaees , Guts ▪ Colickes , Apoplexies , Paralysies , & such like : and because the winds are boysterous and colde , the maladies of their minds are much worse then the diseases of their bodies , Pride , Anger , Hatred , Enuie , Crueltie , Inhumanitie , Inconstancie : neither will I procede farder in this matter , reseruing without flatterie the true cōmendation of Aberdene , whose inhabitants beyond the nature of their soyle , & in spight of AEOLVS & all his winds , doe so ciuilize their burgh , with the continuall practise of vertue & learning , & so replenish their hearts with courteous behauiour , that if their soyle were not more barren and barbarous then their soules , euen a French man himselfe might judge Aberdene to be the Lutetiola , or litle Paris of this Septentrionall corner of North Britanne . The third thing which a Physician should consider , is the water , which within the limits that I haue chosen for to examine , is not so farre from the best waters of the world , as it is frō the worse : And in most parts of this North , it is wholsome and good , & needeth not to be ashamed to abide the triall of HIPPOCRATES rule . But leauing to treat more largely of this common suall vwater , I will lauell in my discourse , at the medicinall water which not only orneth the towne of Aberdene , but blesseth the territorie about it with a treasure of health , more worth thē the wealth of CRAESVS . I will not report the Antiquitie of such Physicke , neither shall I reckon the number of such famous fountaines as haue had vertue to cure innumerable diseases : but I will in few tearmes describe the nature and vertues of the Well which springeth at Aberdene . And before I enter to dye my lippes in that sacred liquour , I will make a sute to that more sauoury water then the poeticall Castalian● fountain : that as I wish all people to haunt & honour thy streams , so Dasecura tui , sit mihi sana suis. and I being preserued by thy vertue from such diseases , as I am perswaded thou canst cure , Tu fueris Musis Pegasus unda meis . Thus hauing premitted my protestation to that Aberdonian Nymphe , I will beginne to reueile the secretes of her birth , and digge vnder that hill , that I may discouer the originall of her spring . I will set downe ( that my discourse may carrie a method ) the true nature of that water , howe to know if that water haue such specificke and magneticall vertues as I alledge : and what are the effects of that water : and lastly , in what maner that water should bee vsed and drunken . I lay then as a ground , that of all liquours , there is none more apt then water to receiue the qualities and vertues of any simple : for which cause the Physicians most ordinarily make their infusions and decoctions in water : the reason of this is , because water of it selfe is voyde of taste , and so much the more fit to receiue both the taste ▪ and all other second qualities from all simples : yea , not onely second qualities , which are manifest and knowne by the senses , but also hidden and occult qualities , of which , some doe alter the taste : as the infusion of Rheubarbe : some doe not alter the taste , as the infusion of Antimonium , or the decoction of golde . Notwithstanding that water be a fitte subject to receiue the impression of diuerse tastes , yet doth it not receiue so commodiously the diuersitie of odours : and in that respect the perfumers doe not infuse their sweete odoriferous drogges in water , but in oyle , which we call oleum Balaninum , which oyle is as voyde it selfe of all odours , as water is of sapours : this is the reason also why the daintie , delicate & sawcie victuallers or cookes in their restoring and Venerian pasties put the roote called Petatos , which of it selfe is tastelesse and vnsauourie to receiue the temper and pickle of all the other spices & nourishing aliments . Hauing then settled as a principle in Physicke that water is a cōmodious matter to receiue the accidentall formes of all simples , I conclude that this water of the Wel of Aberdene hath receiued qualities & vertues frō such minerals as it floweth thorow : which are Iron and Vitriol : for the effects do argue the mixtiō of these two . In so much that I dare affirme this Aberdonian Nymphe to be sister Germane to the Well of Forges in Normandie , and may well worke as many worthy cures as it , if it were as wisely vsed , and as frequently . There is no dogmaticke Physician in Europe , which doth not allow the vse of Iron & Vitriol in the cures of many diseases : so that Nature her selfe in this water hauing intermingled so prudently the qualities of these two simples , it standeth with reason that this water beeing embrued with the moste thicke slimie humours , the passages of the liuer ditted with indigest chyle , it were a rash and carelesse boldnesse to hazarde our health , seeing this water runneth through the channell of our veines , with such impetuositie that it carrieth with it , whatsoeuer cruditie it encountreth in the way . — Non alius per pinguia culta , In mare purpureum violentior instuit amnis . No water naturall or artificiall can passe more swiftly through mans body to the bladder , where the sea of all our humidities are collected , than doeth this vitriolicall liquour . But hereafter shall be declared by what meanes the patient shal dispose and prepare his body , that is , to craue aide and reliefe at the handes of this courteous and cristaline Aberdonian Nymphe . For better vnderstanding of the following discourse , I will premit two things . First , that there is no dis●ase that chanceth to mans body , that can receiue any great detriment from the right vse of this water , except it be the diseases of the lights : because this water mooueth the cough , and increaseth the dolor to the pulmonickes . Secondly , this water is a present and sure remedy against all obstructions , which are the mothers and authors of most part of our diseases . Nowe I call obstruction a ditting or stopping of any passag● of the body , which obstruction commeth most ordinarily in the small veines of the mesentere and liuer , in the passages of the gall , in the vreters or passages of the bladder , in the veines which open towardes the matrix or mother , through which ditted and obstructed wayes this water pierceth without any harme or detriment by a detersiue and penetrant vertue , and taketh away the slimie , thicke , glewie , teugh matter , which sticketh to the banckes of the channels , while this water as another Nilus washeth away those corrupted excrements from this hidden interior Aegypt of our bowels . This water worketh not with euery one after one sort : for if the matter be in the neires , the vreters or bladder , it expelleth the humours by vrines : if the cause of the disease be in the melt , in the mesentere or the liuer , this water worketh by the passage of the stoole : if the matter be in the matrix , the water worketh by the ordinarie purgation of that parte . And yet albeit this water be such a justiciar , as executeth her sentence against the diseases of euery part , by banishing the materiall causes , through their owne passages , yet she disburdeneth the greatest parte of all the morbificke causes by the vrines . I haue seene sundrie men and women cured of great and tedious diseases by vomiting after the drinking of this water . This Nymphe beyond the custome of all her sexe , refresheth and augmenteth the wearie and dull spirits of any patient , she corroborateth and an arte . I sawe at London in the late Queene ELIZABETHS dayes an impostor hanged , because he auouched that hee was the sonne of God , and had sent his supposed prophets through the countrie , to vaunt of his comming . This Irlandish impostor doeth imitate that pseudochrist , and sendeth through the countrie , his prophets to abuse the people with a false rumor . I protest before God , I enuie not his estate , but I would wish that he could doe the thing that hee sayeth : but I cannot abide such abuse of that arte , wherein I haue spent many yeeres vnder the discipline of the most learned Physicians of France . Yet albeit this water cannot dissolue such a stone , it doeth much good to those that are vexed therewith : for it fortifieth the bladder , and washeth away the slime which is about the stone , the which slime maketh the stone greater then it is indeede , and riueth the wound too much at the cutting . The second question is , whether this water hath any vertue to cure the hydropsie or not . To which I answere , First that of all remedies this is the surest to preuent the dropsie , and to correct the disposition from whence the Dropsie proceedeth : which ordinarily is weaknes of the liuer , through exorbitant heate : I know that hydropsie floweth at times from a cold liuer also , but the most frequent cause is hote . Doctor MARTINE at Paris , one of the most learned men of Europe , not in Physicke onely , but in languages and all other sort of literature , finding himselfe inclined to hydropsie , postponing all other sort of medicament , hee tooke resolution to passe to the Well of Forges , not farre from Rouvan in Normandie , which Well is sister Germane to our Nymph , with hope to returne from thence in health , or then neuer to see Paris againe , and in this resolution he tooke leaue from threscore of Physicians his collegues , and went to Forges where he recouered his health , and liued many yeeres thereafter , I answere secondly , that a man beeing perfectly hydroped , his hydropsie being caused of an obstruction and hote intemperie of the liuer or melt : this water will cure him , or nothing els will cure him , because it correcteth the intemperie , it openeth the obstructions , and it voydeth water out of the bellie . The third question is , whether this water hath any force to helpe those that are subject to the Arthritis or generall or particular gout . For by this discourse it appeareth that this water openeth the passages , and giueth place to the serous and watrie humours , to goe to the joyntes and lithts , where the gout is formed : for it is called the gout , because the watrie humours guttatim cadunt in articulos . I answere that this water openeth the passages of the mesentere , the liuer , the melt , the reines , but I thinke that it taketh no leasure in the body , to goe to the joynts , because it passeth so suddainely through the first and second region of the body , that it stayeth not to goe to the third region , and albeit it did goe , it fortifieth the wayes : for it hath not onely an opening force , but a roborating vertue also , and besides that , draweth water out of the joynts , rather then filleth them with water , and because a hote intemperie of the liuer , is the originall cause of Arthritis , this water curing that intemperie , it must of force cut away the spring of that disease . At last now I thinke expedient to declare how the patients should behaue themselues towardes this Nymphe , to the effect they haue no just occasion to thinke euill , either of her or me : the meetest time to drinke of this water is , when the weather is hotest and driest , as it is in Iune , Iuly , and a parte of August , because then the water is lightest , and of easiest digestion , the superfluous vapours beeing drawen out of the earth by the heate of the sunne . Before wee enter to drinke of this medicinal water , it is meetest that our bodies bee prepared and purged by the aduise of some learned Physician , and when I say a learned Physician , I seclude barbarous apothecares , Highland leeches , impostors , and montbankes , Mercuriall medicines , that is to say , rubbers with quicke siluer , and all those which can giue no reason of their calling . Amongst the Lacedemonians he was accounted the most gallant man that could steale most , prouiding that he were not apprehended flagranti delicto . In Brittaine hee is esteemed the best Physician , who killeth most , prouiding that hee bee not accused . But if there were such search heere as is in France or Italie , the people would be better serued , and the King haue more subjects . I sawe a weighty matter pleaded before the court of Parliament at Paris . The historie was this , A Physician had prescribed to a noble man a certaine quantitie of confectio Alchermes , it chanceth that the patient died within a little space . This confectio Alchermes had coloured all the chyle in his stomacke like skarlet , which should be white . The Chirurgian which bowelled the man , alledged that the patient was poysoned , the Parents accused the Physician , so it went to the Barre . And at last both parties heard , and all alledgance ponderate and considered , the Physician was absolued , and the Chirurgian condemned as ignorant , and to pay a Fine , and to restore the Physician to his honour againe . But returning to our purpose againe : Whosoeuer disposeth himselfe to drink of this water , his body must be prepared by the counsel & aduise of some learned Physician ▪ by taking clysters & some purgatiue medicines : I will not here prescribe the formes , because I will not minister occasion to ignorant leeches to the abuse of mens health . In the meane space that they are drinking this water , it were meete to keepe a good dyet , and eate such meate as leaue no cruditie , and doeth resist melancholy : their drinke at their ordinare may be white wine , moderately drunken , mixed with water , and not with the water of this Well , as sundrie doe to their owne hinder and prejudice : because this water vsed with their meate , helpeth to carrie the meate to the neares and bladder before it be perfectly digested . After dinner and supper it shall not be amisse to vse a digestiue powder for to dissipate the winde , and close the stomacke . Also it is sufficient to drinke euery day once of this water , and that in the morning some two or three houres after the rising of the sunne . As concerning the quantitie which ought to be drunken , it should be according to the disease and nature of euery one : at the beginning they should vse moderately , and euery day ascend while they arriue at the highest of that which they may drinke , neither hath it bene found , that the drinking of foure or fiue pounds haue done any harme , albeit there be many men and women , that can not reach to that quantitie . Alwayes it is better to drinke longer and lesse , then to drinke a great quantitie in few dayes . This is the summe of that which may be saide concerning the nature and vse of that water , neither will I wearie the Lector with any longer discourse , beseeching him onely to heare mee patiently in few tearmes rander thankes to God , which for the benefite of our poore diseased persons in this I le hath reuealed this secrecie , and that in such a parte , that the ingine of man could not haue deuised it better : not in the Higlands and Wildernesse , not in some countrie beggerly village , as Spae and Forges are , but amongst the most ciuile , and courteous , and charitable people of this Realme , where the poore may bee assisted with almes , and with Physicians , where the rich may be harboured , according to their estates , and where all sort of ranckes may haue fit companie , honest recreation , good example , great pietie , and all kind of eases and commodities that any man or woman can desire , Blessed and honoured be that Omnipotent and beneficiall Father , Author of all health , and the first of all Physicians . FINIS .