at lived by his
nourishment, and was so certainly persuaded of it, that for many years
afterwards he could not be rectified in his conceit: He studied physic
seven years together to cure himself, travelled into Italy, France and
Germany to confer with the best physicians about it, and A.D. 1609, asked
his counsel amongst the rest; he told him it was wind, his conceit, &c.,
but _mordicus contradicere, et ore, et scriptis probare nitebatur_: no
saying would serve, it was no wind, but real frogs: "and do you not hear
them croak?" Platerus would have deceived him, by putting live frog's into
his excrements; but he, being a physician himself, would not be deceived,
_vir prudens alias, et doctus_ a wise and learned man otherwise, a doctor
of physic, and after seven years' dotage in this kind, _a phantasia
liberatus est_, he was cured. Laurentius and Goulart have many such
examples, if you be desirous to read them. One commodity above the rest
which are melancholy, these windy flatuous have, _lucidia intervalla_,
their symptoms and pains are not usually so continuate as the rest, but
come by fits, fear and sorrow, and the rest: yet in another they exceed all
others; and that is, [2642]they are luxurious, incontinent, and prone to
venery, by reason of wind, _et facile amant, et quamlibet fere amant_.
(Jason Pratensis) [2643]Rhasis is of opinion, that Venus doth many of them
much good; the other symptoms of the mind be common with the rest.

SUBSECT. III.--_Symptoms of Melancholy abounding in the whole body_.

Their bodies that are affected with this universal melancholy are most part
black, [2644]"the melancholy juice is redundant all over," hirsute they
are, and lean, they have broad veins, their blood is gross and thick [2645]
"Their spleen is weak," and a liver apt to engender the humour; they have
kept bad diet, or have had some evacuation stopped, as haemorrhoids, or
months in women, which [2646]Trallianus, in the cure, would have carefully
to be inquired, and withal to observe of what complexion the party is of,
black or red. For as Forrestus and Hollerius contend, if [2647]they be
black, it proceeds from abundance of natural melancholy; if it proceed from
cares, agony, discontents, diet, exercise, &c., they may be as well of any
other colour: red, yellow, pale, as black, and yet their whole blood
corrupt: _praerubri colore saepe sunt tales, saepe flavi_, (saith [2648]
Montaltus _cap. 22._) The best way to discern this s