t euery man you meete withal, teach you a sundry
cure for the same, and sweare by that meane either himselfe, or some of
his neerest kinsmen and friends was cured? And yet I hope no man is so
foolish as to beleue them. And al these toyes do only proceed from the
mistaking _Non causam pro causa_, as I haue already sayd, and so if a
man chance to recouer one of any disease, after he hath taken _Tobacco_,
that must haue the thankes of all. But by the contrary, if a man smoke
himselfe to death with it (and many haue done) O then some other disease
must beare the blame for that fault. So do olde harlots thanke their
harlotrie for their many yeeres, that custome being healthfull (say
they) _ad purgandos Renes_, but neuer haue minde how many die of the
Pockes in the flower of their youth. And so doe olde drunkards thinke
they prolong their dayes, by their swinelike diet, but neuer remember
howe many die drowned in drinke before they be halfe olde.

And what greater absurditie can there bee, then to say that one cure
shall serue for diuers, nay, contrarious sortes of diseases? It is an
vndoubted ground among all Physicians, that there is almost no sort
either of nourishment or medicine, that hath not some thing in it
disagreeable to some part of mans bodie, because, as I haue already
sayd, the nature of the temperature of euery part, is so different from
another, that according to the olde prouerbe, That which is good for the
head, is euill for the necke and the shoulders. For euen as a strong
enemie, that inuades a towne or fortresse, although in his siege
thereof, he do belaie and compasse it round about, yet he makes his
breach and entrie, at some one or few special parts thereof, which hee
hath tried and found to bee weakest and least able to resist; so
sicknesse doth make her particular assault, vpon such part or parts of
our bodie, as are weakest and easiest to be ouercome by that sort of
disease, which then doth assaile vs, although all the rest of the body
by Sympathie feele it selfe, to be as it were belaied, and besieged by
the affliction of that speciall part, the griefe and smart thereof being
by the sense of feeling dispersed through all the rest of our members.
And therefore the skilfull Physician presses by such cures, to purge and
strengthen that part which is afflicted, as are only fit for that sort
of disease, and doe best agree with the nature of that infirme part;
which being abused to a disease of another na