CENTURY I. 41 



their breast with one hand, and pat upon their fore 

 head with another ; and straightways they shall 

 sometimes rub with both hands, or pat with both 

 hands. We see, that when the spirits that come to 

 the nostrils expel a bad scent, the stomach is ready 

 to expel by vomit. We find that in consumptions 

 of the lungs, when nature cannot expel by cough, 

 men fall into fluxes of the belly, and then they die. 

 So in pestilent diseases, if they cannot be expelled 

 by sweat, they fall likewise into looseness ; and that 

 is commonly mortal. Therefore physicians should 

 ingeniously contrive, how by emotions that are in 

 their power, they may excite inward motions that 

 are not in their power, by consent : as by the stench 

 of feathers, or the like, they cure the rising of the 

 mother. 



Experiment solitary touching cure of diseases which are 

 contrary to predisposition. 



64. Hippocrates aphorism, &quot; in morbis minus/ 

 is a good profound aphorism. It importeth, that 

 diseases, contrary to the complexion, age, sex, season 

 of the year, diet, c. are more dangerous than 

 those that are concurrent. A man would think it 

 should be otherwise ; for that, when the accident of 

 sickness, and the natural disposition, do second the 

 one the other, the disease should be more forcible : 

 and so, no doubt, it is, if you suppose like quantity 

 of matter. But that which maketh good the apho 

 rism is, because such diseases do shew a greater col 

 lection of matter, by that they are able to overcome 



