against melancholy; but to him that is any way inclined to, or touched with
this malady, [1374]Nicholas Piso in his Practics, forbids all fruits, as
windy, or to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw. Amongst other
fruits, [1375]Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts grapes and figs, but I find
them likewise rejected.

_Pulse._] All pulse are naught, beans, peas, vetches, &c., they fill the
brain (saith Isaac) with gross fumes, breed black thick blood, and cause
troublesome dreams. And therefore, that which Pythagoras said to his
scholars of old, may be for ever applied to melancholy men, _A fabis
abstinete_, eat no peas, nor beans; yet to such as will needs eat them, I
would give this counsel, to prepare them according to those rules that
Arnoldus Villanovanus, and Frietagius prescribe, for eating, and dressing.
fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, &c.

_Spices._] Spices cause hot and head melancholy, and are for that cause
forbidden by our physicians to such men as are inclined to this malady, as
pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, dates, &c. honey and sugar. [1376]
Some except honey; to those that are cold, it may be tolerable, but [1377]
_Dulcia se in bilem vertunt_, (sweets turn into bile,) they are
obstructive. Crato therefore forbids all spice, in a consultation of his,
for a melancholy schoolmaster, _Omnia aromatica et quicquid sanguinem
adurit_: so doth Fernelius, _consil. 45._ Guianerius, _tract 15. cap. 2._
Mercurialis, _cons. 189._ To these I may add all sharp and sour things,
luscious and over-sweet, or fat, as oil, vinegar, verjuice, mustard, salt;
as sweet things are obstructive, so these are corrosive. Gomesius, in his
books, _de sale, l. 1. c. 21_, highly commends salt; so doth Codronchus in
his tract, _de sale Absynthii_, Lemn. _l. 3. c. 9. de occult, nat. mir._
yet common experience finds salt, and salt-meats, to be great procurers of
this disease. And for that cause belike those Egyptian priests abstained