91]
"I saw" (saith he) "a melancholy man at Rome, that by no remedies could be
healed, but when by chance he was wounded in the head, and the skull
broken, he was excellently cured." Another, to the admiration of the
beholders, [4292]"breaking his head with a fall from on high, was instantly
recovered of his dotage." Gordonius _cap. 13. part. 2._ would have these
cauteries tried last, when no other physic will serve. [4293] "The head to
be shaved and bored to let out fumes, which without doubt will do much
good. I saw a melancholy man wounded in the head with a sword, his brainpan
broken; so long as the wound was open he was well, but when his wound was
healed, his dotage returned again." But Alexander Messaria a professor in
Padua, _lib. 1. pract. med. cap. 21. de melanchol_. will allow no cauteries
at all, 'tis too stiff a humour and too thick as he holds, to be so
evaporated.

Guianerius _c. 8. Tract. 15._ cured a nobleman in Savoy, by boring alone,
[4294]"leaving the hole open a month together," by means of which, after
two years' melancholy and madness, he was delivered. All approve of this
remedy in the suture of the crown; but Arculanus would have the cautery to
be made with gold. In many other parts, these cauteries are prescribed for
melancholy men, as in the thighs, (_Mercurialis consil. 86._) arms, legs.
_Idem consil. 6. & 19. & 25._ Montanus 86. Rodericus a Fonseca _tom. 2.
cousult. 84. pro hypochond. coxa dextra_, &c., but most in the head, "if
other physic will do no good."

SUBSECT. V.--_Alteratives and Cordials, corroborating, resolving the
Reliques, and mending the Temperament_.

Because this humour is so malign of itself, and so hard to be removed, the
reliques are to be cleansed, by alteratives, cordials, and such means: the
temper is to be altered and amended, with such things as fortify and
strengthen the heart and brain, [4295]"which are commonly both affected in
this malady, and do mutually misaffect one another:" which are still to be
given every other day, or some few days inserted after a purge, or like
physic, as occasion serves, and are of such force, that many times they
help alone, and as [4296]Arnoldus holds in his Aphorisms, are to be
"preferred before all other medicines, in what kind soever."

Amongst this number of cordials and alteratives, I do not find a more
present remedy, than a cup of wine or strong drink, if it be soberly and
opportunely used. It makes a man bold, hardy, co