CENTURY I. 35 



a little fill the pores of the body, and stay sweat in 

 some degree : but the more cleanly way is, to have 

 the linen smeared lightly over with oil of sweet 

 almonds ; and not to forbear shifting as oft as is fit. 



56. The second means is, to send forth the nou 

 rishment into the parts more strongly ; for which the 

 working must be by strengthening of the stomach ; 

 and in this, because the stomach is chiefly comforted 

 by wine and hot things, which otherwise hurt, it is 

 good to resort to outward applications to the sto 

 mach : Wherein it hath been tried, that the quilts 

 of roses, spices, mastic, wormwood, mint, &c. are 

 nothing so helpful, as to take a cake of new bread, and 

 to bedew it with a litte sack, or Alicant, and to dry 

 it, and after it be dried a little before the fire, to 

 put it within a clean napkin, and to lay it to the 

 stomach; for it is certain, that all flour hath a 

 potent virtue of astriction ; in so much as it harden- 

 eth a piece of flesh, or a flower, that is laid in it : and 

 therefore a bag quilted with bran is likewise very 

 good ; but it drieth somewhat too much, and there 

 fore it must not lie long. 



57. The third means, which may be a branch of 

 the former, is to send forth the nourishment the 

 better by sleep. For we see, that bears, and other 

 creatures that sleep in the winter, wax exceeding 

 fat : and certain it is, as it is commonly believed, 

 that sleep doth nourish much, both for that the 

 spirits do less spend the nourishment in sleep, than 

 when living creatures are awake, and because, that 

 which is to the present purpose, it helpeth to thrust 



