'Tis no great marvel the Aegyptians should worship Garlic and Onions for Gods, when we deify Christmas Day.

 

Kinds of Crises.

The kinds of crises are two; one in acute diseases, and they are to be judged by the Moon, the other in long and lasting, or chronic diseases, which are to be judged of by the Sun. For those crises which come from their own proper principle are from the internal cause depending only upon the motions of the Moon, and her configurations and aspects to the place she was in at the decumbiture.

But you must note in acute diseases the aspects or radiations of the Moon, to wit her quartile or opposition, are not taken from the conjunction of the Moon to the Sun as they are in almanacs or ephemerides, which is but the father of an almanac, but from the place in which the Moon was found at the decumbiture, as shall appear by a few examples hereafter.

There are acute and chronic diseases.

Of acute diseases, some are simply acute, others are per-acute, others are very acute, per-peracute, or exceeding acute.

Those which are simple acute are finished in 8, 10, 11, 14, 20, 21 days, and they are called monthly diseases by some and lunary by others, and they none of the greatest fools neither; they are terminated in the time the Moon traces the 12 celestial Signs of the Zodiac, which is in 27 days, some odd hours, and some odd minutes.

Those acute diseases which suffer changes, or degenerate, are to be judged of by an imperfect way, for sometimes they increase, sometimes they are remitted; they are as fickle as a weathercock, according as the Moon meets with the beams either of good or evil planets. And it is not all the trick they have neither, for sometimes they change out of acute diseases into chronic diseases; and so a continued fever may change into a hectic fever, or an intermitting fever into a continual fever. And these diseases terminate in forty days; very acute diseases, such as are concluded in 5, 6, 7, 8 days, among which is the disease the Greeks call pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs.

Exceeding acute diseases, they are such which end in three or four days at furthest, as pestilencies, apoplexies, &c.

Chronic diseases follow the motion of the Sun, and 'tis about ninety days before the first crisis appears, for in that time the Sun comes to the proper quartile of the place he was in at the decumbiture, as appears in hectic fevers, dropsies; but when it comes to his sextile or trine aspect of the place he was in at the decumbiture, some motion appears whereby a man, if he have any guts in his brains, may judge of the crisis to come. 

It falls out well if the Sun will be well aspected by good planets, and worse if to evil planets; and this holds true if you consider it from the nativity throughout all the whole course of a man's life, for diseases are particular attendants on a man's life, if Doctor Experience tell turth.

Moreover, of the crises some are perfect, some are imperfect.

A perfect crisis is when the disease appears entirely, and perfectly to be judged of, and this is sometimes hopeful, sometimes desperate; hopeful when there is great probability of health and recovery, desperate when there is palpable signs of death.

An imperfect crisis is when the disease is changed upon every light occasion, and if Mars be author of the disease and in a sign of a double body, upon my life you shall not fail, for the crisis happens as true as the weathercock.

Your safest way then to judge of the disease is by the aspects of the Moon to the planets. When the Moon meets with the inimical or hostile beams of Saturn or Mars, have a care of your patient, and if you know what hinders, by the same reason you may know what helps. Physicians in former times, when they were wise and minded the common good and not their own gain, they distinguished the crisis of diseases thus:

Some were safe, some doubtful; some fit to be judged, and some not fit to be judged.

That crisis is safe which comes without great and pernicious aspects.

It is doubtful, suspicious, I had almost said dangerous, which comes with great and pernicious aspects.

The disease is fit to be judged when signs of concoction come the fourth day, and then certainly the crisis will appear the ninth. The Moon moves not upon an equal motion; therefore, you had best trust to her motion rather than the days.

The Sun has dominion in chronic diseases, the Moon in acute. If you be a wise man, your judgement shall be as sure as the Sun, and that never fails without a miracle.

In times of yore, when knowledge was scant, men went a begging for it, and they that had gotten knowledge monopolised it. A few glimpses of Adam's happiness in Paradise, which happiness all the world have been reaching after ever since.

They knew well enough the Moon moved so many degrees in so many days. An evil angel (I had almost said the Devil), perceiving there was want of knowledge in the world, goes and transforms himself into an angel of light, and taught men to count the time by days. 'Tis no great marvel the Aegyptians should worship garlic and onions for gods, when we deify Christmas Day, though perhaps it may be cloudy.

What I have spoken, I have only spoken to show that it is the motion of Sun and Moon that produces the crisis in diseases, and not the number of days.

I must return to the place I intended. Of days, some are called by their own name, critical days; others are called judicial days, and they are so-called because upon them Dame Nature and her son Doctor Reason would make manifest what the disease is, and Doctor Experience tells me 'tis true.

Another time is called intercidental, which is a time falls out between the judicial days and critical. Upon these intercidental days, the disease is usually remitted; if so, then a good crisis is usually remitted, if not, an evil. I shall explain these terms before I go further: a man falls sick, there is the first crisis, let the cause of the disease be what it will; when the Moon comes to the same degree of the next sign she was at in the decumbiture, there is the judicial day, for in that time the disease shows itself in its colours, with bag and baggage. When the Moon comes to her sextile, it brings the intercidental day, and should mitigate the disease; if she do not, she is aspected to evil planets, and if she be aspected to ill planets, an ill crisis is to be expected, and so the contrary. And you shall never find this fail.