Lions gentle to those that submit themselues 201. d Lions spare women and babes ibid. Lions entreated with faire language 201. e. their disposition knowne by their tailes ibid. f. their generosâ—…tie and magnanimitie 202. g. whereat they be affrighted 202. i their diseases and remedies ibid. Lions first shewed at Rome in the cirque 202. k. how they be taken ibid. l Lions yoked and put to draw at Rome 202 m a Lions thankefulnesse 203. d Lions die with tasting Leontophonus ibid. or drenched with the vrine 217. f of Lips 336. l Liquor falling from heauen 316. m. how good ibid. Lisards their nature 218. k Lisimachus strangled a Lion 202. m Liuer lieth on the right side 341. b Liuers found in sacrifice without the head or fibres ibid. seene with twaine ibid. what they foreshewed ibid. Liuers insacrifice found inward to the number of six 341 b Liuer found cut presageth ill hap ibid. c Liuer receiueth bloud from the heart ibid. d Liuer of Mice and Rats groweth at mid Winter 342. g hath so many fibres as the Moone is daies old ibid. Liuers continued in salt a hundred yeares 342 h who Liued a long time 180. l Liuia Augusta made triall by an egge whether shee went with a boy or a girle 299. d Liuia Drusilla August a presented with a bâ—…y branch in a Hens bill falling into her lap 453. c Lizards tender skinned and foure-footed 336. h Lizards how they engender 302. m. they deliuer their eggs at their mouth 305. 〈◊〉 L O Lobae the stalkes of Millet 558. i. Lobstars want bloud 252. i. they cast their coats in Spring ibid. dieth for woe 270. g Lobstars their nature 252. i Locry a free state with the description of their country 73. c. Locupletes i. Rich men why so called 550. i Locusts how they vtter their voice 353. a Locusts and Grashoppers haue no eies 334. g Locusts lay egges in Autumne 327. b. their young creep on their wings ibid. c. the mother of them dieth at the bringing forth of her young ibid. c. they can kill serpents ib. d Locusts in Indaea three foot long ibid. they are caried away with wind 327. d. they flie many daies without rest ib. foresee a famine ib. e. darken the sunne with their flight ibid. burne corne with their blast ibid. Lollia Paulina how shee was adorned with pearles 256. k the price of them ibid. Lomentum 568. m Lora what it is 417. e Loretum a place 454. g Lote tree Capillata and why so called 495. a Lote trees of long continuance 494. m. 495. a Lotophagi people 397. b Lots taken for a god 4. k Lotus tree in Affrick 397. a. the description thereof ibid. the fruit ibid. b. it serueth for meat and drinke 397. c Lotus the hearbe ibid. Lotus tree wood ibid. Lotus of Aegypt 397. c. d. the strange nature of the head and floure ibid. e. the root feedeth hogs ibid. f Lotus tree why it is regarded much at Rome 476. k. the description thereof and the vses ibid. of the Lousie disease Pherecides died 184. g L V Luceia acted on the stage a hundred yeares 181. c Lucentum a towne of the Latines 53. d Lucerna a shining fish 249. d Lucifer why so called 6. i Lucina the name of Diana and whereupon 494. m Lucini men so called 335. e. why so called ibid. Lucius Martius 48. h Lucius Cossitius turned from a woman to a man on the very mariage day 158. h Lucius Sylla vnworthily named Foelix 177. d Lucius Metellus onely suffered to ride in his coach vnto the Senat. 138. h. thought most happie ibid. g Lucius Apronius his sonne how fat he was 334. l Lucius Opimius and Quintius Fabius when they were Consuls an arch seen about the Sunne 17. e Lucius Portius and Marcus Acilius when they were Consuls a round circle about the Sunne ibid. Lucullus resisted by the muddie slime Maltha at Samosatis 46. m Lungs are but in few fishes 335. e Lungs that are little cause the body to be swift 341. a Lupi a sort of spiders 323. d. they spin not ibid. Lupine a direction to the husbandman 594. g Lupine meat medicinable 272. g Lupines not easily mowed downe 571. c simpathie betwixt Lupines and the Sunne ibid. d. wonderfully affectionat to the earth ibid. Lupines sow themselues ibid. e Lupines sowing is as good as soile or compost 571. f. 572. g Lupines steeped mens meat ibid. Lupines how to be kept ibid. Lupines profitable to be set in ground 508. g Lucae-bones what they be 195. b Lusitania whence it hath the name 51. f Lusitania the description thereof 88. i Lutarius a kinde of Barble 246. h Lutense a kinde of Pelagiae purples 259. a L Y Lyncurium what it is 217. f Lycus riuer 268. b Lyrare what it is 579. f Laestrigones monsters of men 154. g. Lycion what composition it is 362. h M A MAcrobij and other people liuing long 156. l. m Macedonia the description thereof 77. a Macer 362. the medicinable vertue of the rind ibid. Machlis what manner of beast 200. g Macius Island sometime ioined to Euboea 4. i Macrinus Vistus how he vsed to bleed 346. g Maeander riuer where it now runneth by goodly medowes in times past was all sea 39. e. the description thereof 108. h. Maenander how he loued his studie 172. m Magnesiae the description thereof 36. m Magnesia Island 40. k Magna what it is 383. c Maid child in Rome became a boy 158. h Males in all beasts stronger than females 352. k. some are excepted ibid. Males haue more teeth than females 338. g Maladies and death consumes bloud 346. i Maldacon See Brochos Malacha See Brochos Maleus a mountaine 36. g Maladies of trees what it is 541. c Malis bonis what it meaneth 555. d Malobathron a plant 378. l. the description thereof ibid. and the kindes ibid. m Malobathrum the leafe 379. a Malt made stronger drinke in old time 428. h. i Maltha a slimie mud so called 46. m Maltha a kinde of mud in a pond of the citie Samosatis ibid. the strange nature of it ibid. Man how long he groweth 345. b Mans brest onely broad and square 343. e Man onely bleedeth at the nose 346. g Man onely two footed 349. b Man onely hath a cannell bone and shoulders ibid. Man onely hath palmes on his hands 350. l Man in Aegypt hath foure eies 354. h Man for his proportion hath most braine 352. b. hath more braines than woman ibid. Man his braines onely panteth and breatheth 333. a. they are not setled before he speaketh ibid. Man onely wanteth power to shake his eares 333. b Man onely hath face and visage 333. d. his forehead declareth his nature ibid. Man onely borne without teeth 337. e Man than whom nothing more proud and wretched 4. m Man the best gift he hath bestowed vpon him that he can rid himselfe by death out of his miseries 5. a Mans flesh sacrificed and eaten 154. g
Smarides applied vnto the pushes of the sayd priuy parts in the forme of a liniment do much good As also the ashes of Burrets or Purples shells incorporate with honey and the same would be more effectuall in case that the Fishes bee burned whole shell fish and all Salt fish sodden in honey and applied serueth particularly to extinguish the heat of carbuncles botches in the said secret parts If one of the cods hang down flagging vnseemely lower than his fellow some would haue it annointed with the froth that commeth from shell-snails or periwinckles The flesh of the sea horse rosted helpeth them that cannot hold their vrin in case they vse ordinarily to eat therof likewise the little fish called Ophidion so like vnto a Congre if it be taken with a Lillie root The small fishes found in the bellies of the greater who haue deuoured and swallowed them down taken forth burned to ashes are good in this infirmity to be drunk in water The ashes of shel-snailes meat and all burnt are prescribed by some physitians to be giuen in Signine wine against incontinency of vrin but principally of Barbary snails For the gout in the feet the diseases of other ioints the oile wherein a frog was boiled is soueraigne so are the guts of the said frog and the ashes of a toad incorporat with old oile some put thereto the ashes of all the three kinds of barly of ech an equal weight And they giue direction to rub also the goutie feet with a Sea-hare also to be shod with the skins of Beuers especially those which are bred in Pontus like as to weare shoos made of Seals skin the fat of which fish is likewise very good Also the sea-mosse or reits called Bryon like to lettuce but that the leaues be more riueled and grow to no stalke whereof I haue written heretofore of a styptick and astringent nature it is no maruell therfore if being applied vnto the gout it mitigat the fury and violence thereof Moreouer the common sea-weeds named Alga of which also I haue treated already but this caution there would be in the application thereof That it be not dry The sea-fish called Pulmo-Marinus cureth the kibes in the heels the ashes also of the sea-crab tempered with oile yea and the riuer-crabs or Creifishes burnt and calcined to ashes if the same be incorporat with oile like as the fat of the fish Silurus Moreouer if other joints be diseased it were very good for the easement of their griefe eftsoons to lay thereto frogs fresh and new taken mary the best way by the direction of Physitians is to split them through and so to apply them warme The broth of Limpins Muscles cockles and Wilkes is very nutritiue and maketh them fat that vse it Those that be subject to the falling sicknesse vse ordinarily as hath bin said before to drink the rennet of the Seale or Sea-calfe either with mares milke or asses milk or els with the juice of the pomgranat and some are woont to take it in oxymell or honied vineger and yet there be others that swallow the same downe by it selfe in forme of pils And for the same purpose Castoreum is vsually giue vnto such patients fasting to be drunke in 3 cyaths of honied vineger or oxymell aforesaid but those that eftsoons be surprized with the fits and oftentimes fall thereof find wonderfull much good by this clvstre following Take of Castoreum two drams of honey and oile one sextar and of water as much But say that one be presently in a fit the ready meanes to raise him and set him vpright vpon his feet again is to present vnto his nosthrils Castoreum with vineger for to smel vnto The liuer also of the fish named the Sea-cat or Weazill is giuen in like case euen as the bloud either of Sea-mice or Tortoises CHAP. X. ¶ Remedies for feuers of all sorts also for diuers other infirmities THe liuer of a Dolphin eaten before the accesse cureth all those agues which be not continuall but returne by fits and keep their course Oile rosat wherein the fishes called Sea-horses were suffocated and killed is singular good to annoint those that be sicke of such agues as come with a cold fit and the very fish it selfe is most effectuall to rid away the same in case it be hanged about the necke or to the arme of the patient Semblably the little stones which are found in a Haddocks head at the full of the moone if they be taken forth and hung about the patient lapped handsomly in a little linnen bag serue to driue away such feuers Moreouer it is said that the longest tooth in the head of a riuer Fish called Pagrus tied to one of the hairs of the patients head so as he do not see the party who fastened or hung it therto in 5 daies space will doe the deed as also the oile wherein a frog hath beene boyled in some carrefour or crosse street turning three waies cureth those who are sicke of a quartane ague if they be all ouer annointed therewith prouided alwaies that the flesh be first throwne away And yet some ordaine that they should be strangled or stifled in oile and then the bodies hung priuily about some part of the patient without his knowledge and that he be afterwards well rubbed and annointed with the foresaid oile If one carry about him the heart of a frog either hanging by his necke or tied to his arme surely it will diminish and shorten the cold fit of an ague like as the oile will do no lesse wherein the entrails of the said frog were boiled in case he be annointed therewith But aboue all either frog or toad the nailes wherof haue been clipped hanged about one that is sicke of a quartan ague riddeth away the disease for euer also whosoeuer haue about him hanging to any part of his body the heart of a toad infolded within a piece of cloth of a white russet colour he shall be deliuered from the quartan ague Stampe riuer crabs or creifishes concorporat them with oile and water and herewith annoint the patient all ouer before the fit of any ague you shall find it to do very much good but some put pepper thereto other for the quartan particularly boile the same in wine vntill a fourth part be sodden away then giue counsell vnto the sicke parties to drinke of that broth presently after they be come out of the baine You shall haue some aduise for to swallow downe whole the lefteie of a creifish in this case Moreouer the Magitians seem to assure vs that whosoeuer be sicke of a tertian ague shal be rid of it in case the eies of the said creifishes be tied or hanged about them one morning before the Sun be vp so as withall they that haue the doing hereof let them go again blinde as they are into the water and they would beare vs in hand That if the said eies plucked out of the
Equinoctiall line the second to the Meridian line or the South the third to the Sun-setting in the Equinoctiall and the fourth taketh vp all the rest from the said West to the North star These quarters againe they haue parted into foure regions a piece of which eight from the Sun-rising they called the Left as many again from the contrary part the Right Which considered most dreadfull and terrible are those lightnings which from the Sun-setting reach into the North and therefore it skilleth very much from whence lightnings come and whither they go the best thing obserued in them is when they return into the Easterly parts And therefore when they come from that first and principall part of the skie and haue recourse again into the same it is holden for passing good hap such was the signe and token of victories giuen by report to Sylla the Dictatour In all other parts of the element they be lesse fortunate or fearful They that haue written of these matters haue deliuered in writing that there be lightnings which to vtter abroad is held vnlawful as also to giue eare vnto them if they be disclosed vnlesse they be declared either to parents or to a friend and guest How great the vanity is of this obseruation was at Rome vpon the blasting of Iunoes temple found by Scaurus the Consull who soone after was President of the Senate It lightneth without thunder more in the night than day time Of all creatures that haue life and breath man only it doth not alwaies kill the rest it dispatcheth presently This priuiledge honour we see Nature hath giuen to him whereas otherwise so many great beasts surpasse him in strength All other creatures smitten with lightning fall downe vpon the contrary side man onely vnlesse he turne vpon the parts stricken dyeth not Those that are smitten from aboue vpon the head lie downe and sinke directly He that is stricken watching is found dead with his eies winking and close shut but whosoeuer is smitten sleeping is found open eied A man thus comming by his death may not by law be burned Religion hath taught that he ought to be enterred and buried in the earth No liuing creature is set a fire by lightning but it is breathlesse first The wounds of them that be smitten with thunderbolts are colder than all the body besides CHAP. LV. ¶ What things are not smitten with Lightning OF all those things which grow out of the earth Lightning blasteth not the Laurell tree nor entreth at any time aboue fiue foot deep into the ground and therefore men fearfull of lightning suppose the deeper caues to be the surest and most safe or els booths made of skins of sea-beasts which they call Seales or Sea-calues for of all creatures in the sea this alone is not subiect to the stroke of lightning like as of all flying foules the Eagle which for this cause is imagined to be the armour-bearer of Iupiter for this kinde of weapon In Italie betweene Tarracina and the temple of Feronia they gaue ouer in time of warre to make towers and forts for not one of them escaped but was ouerthrowne with lightning CHAP. LVI ¶ Of strange and prodigious raine to wit of Milke Bloud Flesh Iron Wooll Tyles and Brickes BEsides these things aboue in this lower region vnder heauen we finde recorded in monuments that it rained milke and bloud when M. Acilius and C. Porcius were Consuls And many times else besides it rained flesh as namely whiles L. Volumnius and Serv. Sulpitius were Consuls and look what of it the foules of the aire caught not vp nor carried away it neuer putrified In like manner it rained yron in the Lucanes countrey the yere before that M. Crassus was slaine by the Parthians and together with him all the Lucanes his souldiers of whom there were many in his army That which came downe in this raine resembled in some sort Sponges and the Wisards and South sayers being sought vnto gaue warning to take heed of wounds from aboue But in the yere that L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were Consuls it rained wooll about the Castle Carissa neare to which a yeare after T. Annius Milo was slaine At the time that the same Milo pleaded his owne cause at the bar there fell a raine of tyles and bricks as it is to be seen in the Records of that yeare CHAP. LVII ¶ Of the rustling of Armour and sound of Trumpets heard from Heauen IN the time of the Cimbrian warres we haue bin told that Armour was heard to rustle and the trumpet to sound out of heauen And this happened very often both before and after those wars But in the third Consulship of Marius the Amerines and Tudertes saw men in armes in the skie rushing and running one against another from the East and West and might behold those of the West discomfited That the very firmament it selfe should be of a light fire it is no maruel at all for oftentimes it hath been seene when clouds haue caught any greater deale of fire CHAP. LVIII ¶ Of Stones falling downe from the Skie AMong the Greeks there is much talke of Anaxagoras Clazomenius who by his learning and skill that he had in Astronomie foretold in the second yeare of the 78 Olympias what time a stone should fall from out of the Sun and the same happened accordingly in the day time in a part of Thracia neere the riuer Aegos which stone is shewed at this day as big as a waine load carrying a burnt and adust colour at what time as a comet or blazing starre also burned in those nights Which if any man beleeue that it was fore-signified must needs also confesse that this diuinitie or fore-telling of Anaxagoras was more miraculous and wonderfull than the thing it selfe and then farewell the knowledge of Natures workes and welcome confusion of al in case we should beleeue that either the Sun were a stone or that euer any stone were in it But that stones fall oftentimes downe no man will make any doubt In the publicke place of Exercise in Abydos there is one at this day vpon the same cause preserued and kept for to be seene and held in great reuerence it is but of a meane and small quantity yet it is that which the selfe-same Anaxagoras by report fore-signified that it should fal in the mids of the earth There is one also at Cassandria which was in old time vsually called Potidaea a colony from thence deducted I my selfe haue seene another in the territorie of the Vocantians which was brought thither but a little before CHAP. LIX ¶ Of the Rainebow THose which we call Rain-bowes are seene often without any wonder at all or betokening any great matter for they portend not so much as rainy or faire daies to trust vpon But manifest it is that the Sun beames striking vpon an hollow cloud when their edge is repelled are beaten backe against the Sun and thus ariseth varietie
we are vnthankfull as though shee serued not mans turne for all dainties not for contumely and reproch to be misused Cast she is into the sea or else to let in peeres and frithes eaten away with water With yron tooles with wood fire stone burdens of corne tormented she is euery houre and all this much more to content our pleasures and wanton delights than to serue vs with naturall food and necessary nourishment And yet these misusages which she abideth aboue and in her outward skin may seeme in some sort tolerable But we not satisfied therewith pierce deeper and enter into her very bowels we search into the veines of gold and siluer we mine and dig for copper and lead mettals And for to seek out gemmes and some little stones we sinke pits deep within the ground Thus we plucke the very heart-strings out of her and all to weare on our finger one gemme or precious stone to fulfill our pleasure and desire How many hands are worne with digging and deluing that one ioynt of our finger might shine again Surely if there were any diuels or infernall spirits beneath ere this time verily these mines for to feed couetousnes and riot would haue brought them vp aboue ground Maruell we then if she hath brought forth some things hurtfull and noisome But sauage beasts I well thinke ward and saue her they keepe sacrilegious hands from doing her iniurie Nay ywis it is nothing so Dig we not amongst dragons and serpents and togethet with veines of gold handle we not the roots of poisoned and venomous herbes howbeit this goddesse we finde the better appaied and lesse discontented for all this misusage for that the end and issue of all this wealth tends to wickednesse to murder and wars and her whom we drench with our bloud we couer also with vnburied bones Which neuerthelesse as if she did reprooue and reproch vs for this rage and furie of ours she her selfe couereth in the end and hideth close euen the wicked parts of mortall men Among other imputions of an vnthankfull minde I may well count this also That we be ignorant of her nature CHAP. LXIIII. ¶ Of the forme of the earth THe first and principall thing that offereth it selfe to be considered is her figure in which by a generall consent we doe all agree For surely we speake and say nothing more commonly than the round ball of the earth and confesse that it is a globe enclosed within 2 poles But yet the forme is not of a perfect and absolute roundle considering so great heigth of hills and such plaines of downs howbeit if the compasse therof might be taken by lines the ends of those lines would meet iust in circuit and proue the figure of a iust circle And this the very consideration of naturall reason doth force and conuince although there were not those causes which we alledged about the heauen For in it the hollow bending conuexitie boweth and beareth vpon it selfe and euery way resteth vpon the centre thereof which is that of the earth But this being solid and close compact ariseth still like as if it swelled stretching and growing forth The heauen bendeth and inclineth toward the centre but the earth goeth from the centre whiles the world with continnall volubilitie and turning about it driueth the huge and excessiue globe thereof into the forme of a round ball CHAP. LXV ¶ Of the Antipodes whether there be any such Also of the roundnesse of water MVch adoe there is here and great debate betweene learned men and contrariwise those of the leaud and ignorant multitude for they hold that men are ouerspread on all parts vpon the earth and stand one against another foot to foot also that the Zenith or point of the heauen is euen and alike vnto all and in what part soeuer men be they go still and tread after the same manner in the middest But the common sort aske the question and demand How it happeneth that they opposite iust against vs fall not into Heauen as if there were not a reason also ready That the Antipodes againe shall maruell why we fell not downe Now there is reason that commeth betweene carrying a probabilitie with it euen to the multitude were it neuer so blockish and vnapt to learne That in an vneuen and vnequall Globe of the Earth with many ascents and degrees as if the figure thereof resembled a Pine-apple yet neuerthelesse it may be well enough inhabited all ouer in euery place But what good doth all this when another wonder as great as it ariseth namely That it selfe hangeth and yet falleth not together with vs as if the power of that Spirit especially which is enclosed in the World were doubted or that any thing could fall especially when nature is repugnant thereto and affordeth no place whither to fall for like as there is no seat of Fire but in fire of Water but in water of Aire and Spirit but in aire euen so there is no roome for Earth but in earth seeing all the Elements besides are ready to put it backe from them Howbeit wonderfull it remaineth still How it should become a Globe considering so great flatnesse of Plaines and Seas Of which doubtfull opinion Dicaearchus a right learned man as any other is a fauourer who to satisfie the curious endeauours of Kings and Princes had a charge and commission to leuell and take measure of mountaines of which he said that Pelion the highest was a mile and a halfe high by the plumbe rule and collected thereby that it was nothing at all to speake of in comparison of the vniuersall rotunditie of the whole But surely in my conceit this was but an vncertaine guesse of his since that I am not ignorant that certaine tops of the Alpes for a long tract together arise not vnder fiftie miles in heigth But this is it that troubles the vulgar sort most of all if they should be forced to beleeue that the forme of water also gathers round in the top And yet there is nothing in the whole world more euident to the sight for the drops euery where not onely as they hang appeare like little round bals but also if the light vpon dust or rest vpon the hairy downe of leaues we see they keep a perfect and exquisite roundnes Also in cups that are filled brim full the middle part in the top swell most Which thing considering the thinnes of the humour and the softnes thereof setling flat vpon it selfe are sooner found out by reason than by the eie Nay this is a thing more wonderfull that when cups are filled to the ful put neuer so little more liquor thereto the ouerplus will run ouer all about but contrariwise it falleth out if you put in any solid weights yea and it were to the weight of twenty deniers or French crowns in a cup. Forsooth the reason is this for that these things receiued within lift vp the liquor aloft to the top but poured
XXXIIII ¶ Of the Buffe or Tarandus the Lycaon and the Thos IN Scythia there is a beast called Tarandus which changeth likewise colour as the Chamaeleon and no other creature bearing haire doth the same vnlesse it be the Lycaon of India which by report hath a maned necke As for the Thoes which are a kinde of wolues somewhat longer than the other common wolues and shorter legged quicke and swift in leaping liuing altogether of the venison that they hunt take without doing any harme at all to men they may be said not so much to change their hew as their habit and apparell for all winter time they be shag-haired but in summer bare and naked The Tarandus is as big as an oxe with an head not vnlike to a stags but that it is greater namely carrying branched hornes clouen hoofed and his haire as deep as is the Beares The hide of his backe is so tough and hard that thereof they make brest-plates He taketh the colour of all trees shrubs plants floures and places wherein he lieth when he retireth for feare and therefore seldome is he caught But when he list to looke like himselfe and be in his owne colour he resembleth an Asse To conclude strange it is that the bare body of a beast should alter into so many colours but much more strange it is and wonderfull that the haire also should so change CHAP. XXXV ¶ Of the Pork-pen THe Porkpens come out of India and Africke a kind of Vrchin or hedge-hog they be armed with pricks they be both but the Porkpen hath the longer sharp pointed quilles and those when he stretcheth his skin he sendeth and shooteth from him when the hounds presseth hard vpon him he flieth from their mouthes and then takes vantage to launce at them somwhat farther off In the Winter he lieth hidden as the nature is of many beasts to doe and the Beares aboue the rest CHAP. XXXVI ¶ Of the Beares and how they breed and bring forth their young THey ingender in the beginning of winter not after the common manner of other foure-footed beasts but lying both along clasping and embracing one another then they goe apart into their dennes and caues where the she beare thirtie daies after is discharged of her burden and bringeth forth commonly fiue whelps at a time At the first they seem to be a lump of white flesh without all form little bigger than rattons without eies wanting haire only there is some shew and apparance of claws that put forth This rude lumpe with licking they fashion by little little into some shape nothing is more rare to be seen in the world than a she beare bringing forth her yong and this is one cause that the male beares are not to be seen in 40 daies nor the femall for 4 moneths If they haue no holes and dens for the purpose they build themselues cabbins of wood gathering together a deale of boughes bushes which they couch and lay artificially together to beare off any shower so as no raine is able to enter and those they strew vpon the floore with as soft leaues as they can meet withall For the first 14 daies after they haue taken vp their lodging in this manner they sleep so soundly that they cannot possibly be wakened if a man should lay on and wound them In this drowsinesse of theirs they grow wondrous fat This their grease and fat thus gotten is it that is so medicineable and good for those that shed their haire These 14 days once past they sit vpon their rump or buttocks and fall to sucking of their fore-feet and this is all their food wherof they liue for the time Their yong whelpes when they are starke and stiffe for cold they huggle in their bosom and keep close to their warm breast much like to birds that sit vpon their egs A strange and wonderful thing it is to be told and yet Theophrastus beleeueth it That if a man take bears flesh during those daies and seeth or bake the same if it be set vp and kept safe it will grow neuerthelesse All this time they dung not neither doth there appeare any token or excrement of meat that they haue eaten and very little water or aquositie it found within their belly As for bloud some few small drops lie about the heart only and none at all in the whole body besides Now when spring is come forth they go out of their den but by that time the males are exceeding ouergrown with fat and the reason therof cannot be readily rendred for as we said before they had no more but that fortnights sleep to fat them withall Being now gotten abroad the first thing that they do is to deuoure a certain herbe named Aron i. Wake-robin and that they do to open their guts which otherwise were clunged and grown together and for to prepare their mouths and teeth again to eat they whet and set the edge of them with the yong shoots and tendrons of the briers and brambles Subiect they are many times to dimnesse of sight for which cause especially they seek after hony combs that the bees might settle vpon them and with their stings make them bleed about the head and by that means discharge them of that heauinesse which troubleth their eies The Lions are not so strong in the head but beares bee as weak and tender there and therfore when they be chased hard by hunters put to a plunge ready to cast themselues headlong from a rocke they couer and arme their heads with their fore-feet and pawes as it were with hands and so jump downe yea and many times when they are baited in the open shew-place we haue known them laid streaking for dead with one cuffe or box of the eare giuen them with a mans fist In Spain it is held for certain that in their brain there is a venomous qualitie and if it be taken in drinke driueth men into a kind of madnesse so as they will rage as if they were bears in token whereof whensoeuer any of them be killed with baiting they make sure work and burn their heads all whole When they list they wil go on their two hinder feet vpright they creep down from trees backward when they fight with buls their manner is to hang with all their foure feet about their head and hornes and so with the very weight of their bodies wearie them There is not a liuing creature more craftie and foolish withall when it doth a shrewd turne We finde it recorded in the Annales of the Romans that when M. Piso and M. Messala were Consuls Domitius Aenobarbus and Aedile Curule vpon the 14 day before the Calends of October exhibited 100 Numidian beares to be baited chased in the great Cirque and as many Aethiopian hunters And I maruell much that the Chronicle nameth Numidian since it is certain that no bâ—…rs come out of Africke CHAP. XXXVII ¶ Of the Rats of
his heeles and biting withall that he made an end of the conquerour champion There was another great horse hoodwinked because he should couer a mare but perceiuing after that he was vnhooded that he serued as a stalion to his own dam that foled him ran vp to a steep rock with a downfall and there for griefe cast himselfe down and died We find also in record That in the territorie of Reate there was a mare killed all to rent an horsekeeper vpon the same occasion For surely these beasts know their parentage those that are next to them in bloud And therefore we see that the colts will in the flocke more willingly keep company and sort with their sisters of the former yere than with the mare their mother Horses are so docile and apt to learne what we find in histories how in the army of Sibaritanes the whole troup of horsemen had their horses vnder them and vsed to leap and daunce to certaine musicke that they were wonted and accustomed vnto They haue a fore-knowledge when battell is toward they will mourne for the losse of their maisters yea and other whiles shed teares and weep pitiously for loue of them When king Nicomedes was slaine the horse for his owne saddle would neuer eat meat after but for very anguish died with famine Philarchus reporteth That king Antiochus hauing in battaile slaine one Centaretus a brave horsman of the Gallogreeks or Galatians became maister of his horse and mounted vpon him in triumphant wise But the horse of him that lay dead in the place and vpon whom Antiochus was mounted for very anger and indignation at this indignitie passed neither for bit nor bridle so as he could not be ruled and so ran furiously among the cragges and rocks where both horse and man came downe head long and perished both together Philistus writeth That Dyonisius was forced to leaue his horse sticking fast in a quaue-mire and got away but the horse after he had recouered himselfe and was gotten forth followed the tracts of his master with a swarm or cast of bees setling in his mane and this was the first presage of good fortune that induced Denis to vsurp the kingdome of Sicilie Of what perceiuance and vnderstanding they be it cannot be exprest that know those light horsmen full well that vse to launce darts and iauelines from horseback by the hard seruice that they put their horses to which they doe with great dexteritie resolution in straining winding and turning their bodies nimbly euery way Nay ye shall haue of them togather vp darts and iauelines from the ground and reach them againe to the horsman And commonly we see it to be an ordinary matter with them in the great race or shew place when they are set in their geirs to draw the chariots how they ioy when they are encouraged and praised giuing no doubt a great proofe and confessing that they are desirous of glorie At the secular solemnities exhibited by Claudius Caesar in the Circensian games the horses with the white liuery notwithstanding their driuer and gouernour the charioter was cast and flung to the ground euen within the bars wan the best prize went away with the honour of that day For of themselues they brake and bare down whatsoeuer might impeach them of running the race thoroughout they did all that euer was to be done against their concurrents and aduersaries of the contrarie side as well as if a most expert chariot-man had been ouer their backes to direct and instruct them At the sight wherof men were ashamed ta see their skill art to be ouermatched surmounted by horses And to conclude when they had performed their race as much as by law of the game was required they stood stil at the very goale and would no farther A greater wonder and presage was this in old time that in the Circensian games exhibited by the people the horses after they had flung and cast their gouernour ran directly vp to the Capitol as well as if he had stood still in his place and conducted them and there fetcht three turnes round about the temple of Iupiter But the greatest of all was this which I shall now tell That the horses of Ratumenus who had woon the price in the horse-running at Veij threw their Mr. down and came from thence euen out of Tuscane as far as to the foresaid Capitoll carrying thither the Palme branch and chaplet of Victory woon by Ratumenas their Mr. of whom the gate Ratumena took afterwards the name at Rome The Sarmatians minding to take a great iournie prepare their horses two daies before and giue them no meat at all only a little drinke they allow them and thus they will ride them gallop 150 miles an end and neuer draw bridle Horses liue many of them 50 yeres but the mares not so long In fiue yeres they come to their full growth whereas stone horses grow one yere longer The making of good horses indeed and their beautie such as a man will chuse for the best hath bin most elegantly and absolutely described by the Poet Virgill And somewhat also haue I written of that argument in my booke which I lately put forth as touching Tournois and shooting from horsebacke and in those points required and there set downe I see all writers in manner to agree But for horses that must be trained to run the race some considerations are to be had and obserued different from horses of other vse and seruice For whereas to other affaires and imploiments they may be brought when they are two yeeres old colts and not vpward to the Lists they must not be brought to enter into any mastries there before they be full fiue yeres of age The female in this kind go eleuen months compleat with young and in the twelfth they fole commonly the stalion and the mare are put together when both of of them are full two yeeres old and that about the Spring Equinoctiall that is to say in mid-March but if they be kept asunder vntill they are full 3 yeeres of age they breed stronger colts The Stalion is able to get colts vntil he be three and thirtie yers old for commonly when they haue serued in the race and run ful twenty yeres they are discharged from thence let go abroad for to serue mares And men say that they will hold to 40 yeeres with a little helpe put to the forepart of his body that he may be lifted vp handsomly to couer the mare Few beasts besides are lesse able to ingender and leape the female often nor sooner haue enough of them For which cause they be allowed some space between euery time that they do their kind And in one yeere the most that the Stallion is able to do that way is to couer 15 mares and that is somewhat with the oftenest If ye would coole the courage quench the lust of a mare share and clipher mane
lies in ambush to wait when any man for his pleasure would swim and bath himselfe that so he might surprise them otherwhiles he puts out his nose aboue the water to spie any small fisher boats comming and then he swimmeth close to them ouerturneth and sinketh them CHAP. XLV ¶ Of those that haue a third or middle nature and are neither liuing creatures nor yet Plants also of the sea-Nettle-fishes and Spunges I Verily for my part am of opinion that those which properly are neither beasts nor plants but of a third nature between or compounded of both the sea-Nettles I mean and Sponges haue yet a kinde of sense with them As for those Nettles there be of them that in the night raunge too and fro and likewise change their colour Leaues they carry of a fleshie substance and of flesh they feed Their qualitie is to raise an itching smart like for all the world to the weed on the land so called His manner is when he would prey to gather in his body as close streight and stiffe as possibly may be He spieth not so soon a silly little fish swimming before him but he spratdeth and displaieth those leaues of his like wings with them he claspeth the poore fish and so deuoures it At other times he lies as if he had no life at all in him suffering himselfe to be tossed and cast too and fro among the weeds with the waues of the sea and look what fish soeuer he toucheth as he is thus floting hee sets a smart itch vpon them and whiles they scratch and rub themselues against the rockes for this itch hee sets vpon them and eates them In the night season he lieth for sea-Vrchens and Scalops When he feeleth ones hand to touch him he changeth colour and draweth himselfe in close together on a heape and no sooner toucheth he one but the place will itch sting and be ready to blister make not good hast to catch him quickly he is hidden out of hand and gone It is thought verily that his mouth lyeth in his root and that he voideth his excrements at a small pipe or issue aboue where those fleshie leaues are Of Spunges we find three sorts the first thicke exceeding hard and rough and this is called Tragos a second not all so thicke and somewhat softer and that is named Manon the third is fine and yet compact wherewith they make sponges to cleanse and scoure withall and this is tearmed Achilleum They grow al vpon rocks and are fed with wilkes or shel-fish with naked fish and mud That they are not senslesse appeares hereby for that when they feele that one would pluck them away they draw in and retire back hard so as with greater difficulty they are pulled from the rocke The like doe they when they be beaten vpon with waues That they liue vpon some food it is manifest by the little coquill muscle shels that be found within them And some say that about Torone they continue still aliue after they be pulcked frow the rocks and that of the roots which are left behind they grow againe Moreouer vpon those rocks from whence they be pulled there is to be seen as it were some bloud sticking especially in those of Africke which breed among the Syrtes The Manae which otherwise be the least become very great most soft withall about Lycia But they be more delicate which are nourished in the deep gulfes where least wind or none is stirring The rough kind are in Hellespont and the fine and ma ssie about the cape Malea In sun-shine places they will corrupt and putrifie and therefore the best are in the deep gulfs and creeks not exposed to the Sun They be of the same dusk and blackish colour when they liue as they are afterwards being soked full of moisture They cleaue to rocks neither by any one part nor yet entire and whole all ouer for there are between certain void pipes 4 or 5 commonly by which they are supposed to receiue their food and nourishment There be more of these pipes and concauities but aboue they are grown together hard and not hollow A certain pellicle or thin skin a man may perceiue them to haue at their roots For certain it is knowne that they liue long The worst kind of them all be those that are called Aplysiae because vnneth they may bee separated nor clensed and made cleane they are so foule for great pipes they haue thicke they are besides throughout and very massie CHAP. XLVI ¶ Of Hound-fishes or Sea-dogs THe dyuers that vse to plunge into the sea are annoied very much with a number of Sea-hounds that come about them and put them in great jeopardie And they say that these fishes haue a certain dim cloud or thin web growing hanging ouer their heads resembling broad flat and gristly fishes which clingeth them hard and hindreth them from retiring backe and giuing way For which cause the said dyuers as themselues say carry downe with them certaine sharp pricks or goads fastened to long poles for vnlesse they be proked at and pricked with them they will not turn their backe by reason as I suppose of a mist before their eies or rather of some feare amazednesse that they be in For I neuer heard of any man that found the like cloud or mist for this term they giue vnto that vnhappie thing what-euer it be in the range of liuing creatures But yet much ado they haue and hard hold with these Hound-fishes notwithstanding for they lay at their bellies and groines at their heeles and snap at euery part of their bodies that they can perceiue to be white The onely way and remedy is to make head directly affront them and to begin with them first and so to terrifie them for they are not so terrible to a man but they are as fraid of him againe Thus within the deepe they are indifferently euen matched but when the dyuers mount vp and rise againe aboue water then there is some ods betweene and the man hath the disaduantage and is in more danger by reason that whiles he laboureth to get out of the water he faileth of means to encounter with the beast against the streame and sourges of the water And therefore his only recourse is to haue help and aid from his fellowes in the ship for hauing a cord tied at one end about his shoulders he shaketh it with his left hand to giue signe what danger hee is whiles hee maintaineth fight with the right by taking into it the puncheon with the sharpe point before said and so at the other end they draw him to them and they need otherwise to pull and hale him but softly mary when he is neere once to the ship vnlesse they giue him a sudden jerke and snatch him vp quickly they may be sure to see him worried and deuoured before their face yea and when they are at the point to be plucked vp
other by these incisures cuts and wrinckles but they appeare only either vnder the belly or vpon the backe aboue and go no deeper neither yet round the whole compasse of the body But a man shall perceiue in them certaine rings or circles apt to bend and wind to and fro and those so plated and plaited one ouer another that in nothing elswhere is more seen the workmanship of Nature than in the artificiall composition of these little bodies CHAP. II. ¶ The industrie and subtiltie of Nature inframing these Insects IN bodies of any bignes or at least-wise in those of the greater sort Nature hadno hard pieâ—…e of work to procreate forme and bring all parts to perfection by reason that the matter wherof they be wrought is pliable and will follow as she would haue it But in these so little bodies nay pricks and specks rather than bodies indeed how can one comprehend the reason the power and the inexplicable perfection that Nature hath therin shewed How hath she bestowed all the fiue senses in a Gnat and yet some therebe lesse creatures than they But I say where hath she made the seat of her eies to see before it where hath she set disposed the tast where hath she placed and inserted the instrument and organ of smelling and aboue all where hath she disposed that dreadful and terrible noise that it maketh that wonderfull great sound I say in proportion of so little a body can there be deuised a thing more finely cunningly wrought than the wings set to her body Marke what long-shanked legs aboue ordinary she hath giuen vnto them See how she hath set that hungry hollow concauitie in stead of a belly hath made the same so thirstie and greedy after bloud and mans especially Come to the weapon that it hath to pricke pierce and enter through the skinne how artificially hath shee pointed and sharpened it and being so little as it is as hardly the finenesse thereof cannot be seen yet as if it were of bignesse capacity answerable fâ—…amed it she hath most cunningly for a twofold vse to wit most sharpe pointed to pricke and enter and withall hollow like a pipe for to sucke in and conuey the bloud through it Come to the Wood-worme what manner of teeth hath Nature giuen it to bore holes and eat into the very heart of hard Oke who heareth not the sound that she makes whiles she is at her work For in wood and timber is in manner all her feeding We make a wonder at the monstrous and mighty shoulders of Elephants able to carry turrets vpon them We maruell at the strong and stiffe necks of buls and to see how terribly they will take vp things and tosse them aloft into the aire with their hornes We keepe a wondering at the rauening of Tygres and in the shag manes of Lions and yet in comparison of these Insects there is nothing wherein Nature and her whole power is more seene neither sheweth she her might more than in the least creatures of all I would request therfore the Readers that in perusing this treatise they will not come with a preiudicate opinion nor because many of these silly flies and wormes be contemptible in their eies disdaine loath and contemne the reports that I shall make thereof seeing there is nothing either in Natures workes that may seeme superfluous or in her order vnworthy our speculation CHAP. III. ¶ Whether Insects do breath and whether they haue bloud or no DIuers haue denied that they breath at al and vpon this reason they ground their position Because they haue no arterie or wind-pipe annexed or reaching to any instrument within of respiration And they be of opinion that they liue indeed as plants herbes and trees howbeit say they there is a great difference betweene hauing life and drawing wind or vitall breath And by the same rule they affirme that they haue no bloud which is in none that bee without heart and liuer Neither do any things breath which want lungs And from hence ariseth a world of other questions thereupon depending For the same men deny statly that these creatures haue any voice notwithstanding so great humming of bees singing sound of grashoppers and such other whereof we will consider in due time place accordingly Verily for mine owne part the more I looke into Natures workes the sooner am I induced to beleeue of her euen those things that seem incredible Neither do I see any inconvenience to thinke that these Insects may as well draw wind and breath without lungs as liue without such noble and principall parts as are requisite for life in other creatures according as we haue already shewed in the discourse of fishes and such like that liue in the sea how soeuer the quantitie depth and heights of the water may seeme to impeach and stop their breath For who would easily beleeue that some creatures should flie at libertie and liuing as they do in the mids of wind and aire yet want wind and breath themselues that they should haue a sense and care to seek their liuing to engender to worke and to forecast for the time to come and howbeit they haue no distinct members to carry as it were in a ship their seuerall sences yet that they should heare smell and taste yea and be indued with other singular gifts besides of Nature to wit wisdome courage skill and industrie Indeed confesse I must that bloud they haue none no more haue all creatures that liue vpon the land howbeit a moist humor they haue somewhat like vnto bloud which serues them in stead thereof Like as in Cuttels of the sea there is found a certain blacke liquor in stead of bloud and in all the sort of Purples and such shel fishes that excellent iuice which staineth dieth so as it doth Semblably in these Insects whatsoeuer humor it is whereby they liue the same may well enough go for bloud and so be called all the while that euery man hath liberty to giue it what name he thinketh fittest As for me my purpose is not to judge and determine of these doubtfull quillets and their causes but to set down and shew the nature of such things as be cleare and apparent CHAP. IIII. ¶ The substance of the body in these Insects THese Insects so far as a man may perceiue seeme not to haue either sinewes or bones no chine nor gristle no fat no flesh ne yet so much as a tender and brittle shell as some Sea-fishes haue nor that which may be truly called a skin but a certain corporal substance of a middle nature between all these for their body without is like a dry thing and yet more tender and soft than a sinew whereas in all other parts the matter is to be accounted rather drie than hard This is the very substance whereof they consist and nothing haue they besides For within there is nought vnlesse it be in some
is some water will ingender this vermin if we do but wash therein For euen in wax there will breed mites which are thought to be of all creatures that haue life the very least Also ye shall haue others again ingender of filthy dry dust namely fleas which vse to skip and hop with their hinder feet lustily like these tumblers and vautors Last of all there be that come of a certaine moist pouder in câ—…anies of the ground and those be our ordinary little flies CHAP. XXXIV ¶ Of one kind of creature that hath no passage to void excrements THere is a creature as foule and ill-fauoured as the rest which hath euermore the head fast sticking within the skin of a beast and so by sucking of bloud liueth and swells withall the only liuing creature of all other that hath no way at all to rid excrements out of the body by reason whereof when it is too full the skin doth crack and burst and so his very food is cause of his death In Horses Asses and Mules these do neuer breed in Kine and oxen they be common and otherwhiles in dogs who are pestered not only with these ticks but also with all other vermine aboue named And in Sheepe and Goats a man shall finde none other but ticks It is as strange a thing also to see how the horse-leeches which be nourished in standing waters of fens are thirsty after bloud for these will thrust their whole head into the flesh for to draw and suck out bloud Finally there is a kind of flies that plagueth dogs and none else they are busie commonly about their eares where they will bite and sting them shrewdly for there they cannot come by them with their teeth to snap and kill them CHAP. XXXV ¶ Of Moths and Gnats WOoll and cloth when they be dusty breed moths especially if a spider also be gotten within them For the Spider is very thirsty and by reason that he drinketh vp all the moisture of the cloth or wool he increaseth the drinesse much more In paper also they will ingender A kind of them there is which carry their coats and cases with them as cockles and snailes do but they haue feet to be seen If they be turned out of their coats or husks they presently die If they grow still they wil proue to be Chrysalides The wild fig tree breeds certaine Gnats called Ficarij As for the Cantharides or French greene Flies they be bred of little wormes in Fig trees Peare trees wilde Pines or Pitch trees the Eglantine Brier and Roses A venomous vermin this is howbeit medicinable in some sort The wings be they that are good in physick cast them away the rest is deadly Moreouer there be other gnats that soure things will ingender And no maruell seeing there be some wormes found in snow which are white if the snow be but thin and new fallen But in case it haue lien long and bee deep a man shall find in the mids within those which are red for snow also if it be old waxeth red rough and hairy greater also than the rest and dull of motion CHAP. XXXVI ¶ Of the fire-Fly called Pyralis or Pyrausta THe fire also a contrary element to generation is not without some liuing creatures ingendred therein For in Cypres among the forges and furnaces of copper there is to be seen a kind of four-footed creature and yet winged as big as the greater kind of flies to flie out of the very midst of the fire and called it is of some Pyralis of others Pyrausta The nature oâ—… it is this so long as it remaines in the fire it liues but if it chance to leap forth of the Furnace and fly any thing farre into the aire it dieth There is a riuer in the kingdome of Pontus called Hypanis which about the summer Sunstead vseth to bring down the streame thin pellicles or bladders like to grape kernels out of which there breaks forth and issueth a foure footed flie like vnto those aboue named and it liueth not aboue one day whereupon it is called Hemerobion i. a day-fly All other Insects of like sort may continue and liue a seuen-night The Gnat and the little wormes three weeks but such as bring forth their yong aliue may endure a full moneth As for the metamorphosis of these creatures from one forme to another it is most commonly performed in three daies or foure at the most All the rest of the winged kind lightly die in Autumne among which the brees and horse-flies are ordinarily blind first To be short those flies which haue bin drowned and so come to their death if they be laid and kept in hot cinders or ashes will come again to themselues and reuiue CHAP. XXXVII ¶ A discourse Anatomicall of the nature of liuing creatures part by part according to their particular members IT remaines now to treat of the seuerall parts of the body and ouer and aboue the former descriâ—…ion to particularize and set down the story of one member after another First therefore this is generall that all liuing creatures whatsoeuer hauing bloud haue also heads and few of them haue cops or crested tufts vpon their heads vnlesse it be birds and those be of diuers forms and fashions The Phoenix is adorned with a round plume of feathers out of the midst of which growes another little pennache Peacockes carry vpon their heads a tuft as it were of little hairy trees and the Stymphalides a lock of crisped and curled haires Feasants haue feathers standing vp like hornes The pretty Titmouse or Nonett is filletted or coifed vpon the head and in lieu thereof the Lark hath a little peruke of feathers whereupon at first it was called Galerita but afterwards after the French word Alanda and of it one of the Roman legions tooke the name because of their pointed Morions We haue written alreadie of the Ginny or Turky cocks and hens vpon whom Nature hath bestowed a folding crest lying from the very bill ouer the midst of the head vnto the nape of the necke She hath giuen also vnto all the sort of Seamewes Fen ducks and Moore-hens certain cops and crisped tufs to the Woodpeck also and Baleare crane But aboue all others the house dunghill cocks carry vpon their heads the goodliest ornament of their combe and the same consisting of a massie and fleshie substance indented besides like a saw And yet we may not properly say it is either flesh gristle or callositie but composed of some particular matter by it selfe which canot well be named As for the crests of dragons I could meet with no man hitherto that euer saw them To come now to Horns there be many fishes as well of the sea as fresh waters and also Serpents that haue horns in diuers and sundry sorts But to speak a truth and properly they be no hornes indeed for those pertain only to four-footed heasts As for Actaeon and 〈◊〉 of whom we read
much adoe to discharge it and lightly they doe not skummer but with great paine and difficultie Those creatures of all others be counted most vnsatiable whose meat passes immediatly out of their bellie into the straight gut Longaon or the Tiwill as among foure-footed beasts the Wolfe engendred betweene the Hind and a hee-Wolfe and in foules the Cormorant An Elephant hath foure bellies or paunches all other parts within be answerable to those in Swine Their lungs be foure times as big as those in an Oxe The gorge or craw and the stomacke or gizier in birds is the thicke and fleshie In the maw or stomack of Swallows young birds there be some certaine little white stones or else of a reddish colour called thereupon Chelidonij and they be in great request in Art-Magicke namely for charmes and enchantments Likewise in the second bellie or paunch of yong Heifers there is found a small black and grauelly stone round as a bal and light withall a singular remedie as it is thought for women that haue hard labour and be deliuered with much paine difficultie so it be taken before that euer it touch the ground The Stomacke and the Guts are kept within a fat and thin cawle in all creatures but those that lay egs Vnto this Cawle is fastened the Spleene on the left side of the belly just against the liuer And otherwhiles these two shift their places and one lies where the other should but that is euer held as a prodigious token Some are of opinon that those creatures which lay egs haue a Splene but it is very smal as also the Serpents And surely such an one appeares plainely in the Tortoise Crocodile Lizards and Frogs Certaine it is that the bird Aegocephalus hath none at all no more than others that want bloud This member hath a propertie by it self somtimes To hinder a mans running whereupon professed runners in the race that be troubled with the splene haue a deuise to burne and wast it with an hot yron And no maruell for why they say that the Splene may be taken out of the bodie by way of incision and yet the creature liue neuer thelesse but if it be man or woman that is thus cut for the Splene hee or shee loseth their laughing by the means For sure it is that vntemperate laughers haue alwaies great Splenes In Scepsis a countrey of Asia the sheep haue very small Splenes and from them were deuised the remedies to cure the disease thereof and to wast their excessiue greatnesse But about Briletum and Tharne the hils abouenamed the Deer haue foure Kidnies apeece whereas on the contrarie side neither feathered fowle nor skalie fish haue any Moreouer the Kidnies sticke close vnto the bones The right Kidney in all creatures is the bigger lesse fat dryer of the twaine how beit in both of them there is a fat issueth out of the mids saue only in Seales All liuing creatures are fattest about the raines of the backe and sheepe may be so far ouergrowne with fat that they will die thereof Somtime there be little stones found within them Al four-footed beasts that bring forth their yong quick haue kidnies And of such as lay egs the Tortoise alone which also hath all other entrails The Kidnies of a man be like to those of Kine and Oxen as if they were composed of many together Nature hath embarred the Breast-parr wherin lie the vitall members with ribs round about but toward the belly which needs must grow and stretch she hath not so done but hath giuen it libertie for no liuing creature hath bones to compasse the panch Mans Breast only is broad and square in all others it is framed otherwise like the keele of a ship which is more euidently to be seene in birds and in water-fowles most of all others As for Ribs man only hath eight that be full and whole Swine haue ten horned beasts thirtene Serpents thirtie Vnder the belly and paunch in the fore-part of the bodie hangeth the bladder which no creature laying egs hath saue only the Tortoise It is found in none but such as haue a paire of lungs and the same with bloud neither in any creeping creature without feet Betweene it and the belly be certaine canals or arteries reachiug to the groine which by the Greeks are named Ilia i. the Flanks In the bladder of a Wolfe is found a little stone called Syrites But in some mens bladders ye shall see otherwhiles certaine grosse haires to engender like to bristles also grauell and stones which put them to intollerable paine This bladder consisteth of a certaine tunicle or skin which if it be once wounded cannot again be consolidated no more than those fine pellicles or rinds that enwrap the braine and the heart For you must thinke that there be many sorts of these membranes or filmes seruing to sundrie vses As for women their inward parts are answerable to mens in all these respects abouesaid and besides they haue by themselues adjoyning close vnto the bladder another little bag or purse whereupon it is called in Latine Vterus and it hath another name beside to wit Loci which we call the Matrice the Mother or the Wombe and in other creatures it is tearmed Vulua In Vipers and such as hatch their egs within them it is double In those that lay eggs it lyeth fast to the Midriffe In women it hath of either side two chombers or concauities If at any time it chance to be peruerted and turned the wrong way or take aire into it it is deadly and riseth vp to stop the wind If Kine be with Calfe men say they carrie not their yong but in the right cell or receptacle thereof yea although they goe with two Calues at once Our fine-toothed gluttons do find a better tast in a Sows wombe that slips and casts her Pigs and it together or is cut out of her belly than if the dam bringeth forth her fruit at ful time The one forsooth is called Ejecticia the other Porcaria And the best is that of a yong Sow that neuer farrowed before and contrariwise of old Sows and such as haue giuen ouer to farrow After she hath pigged vnlesse she be killed the same day the same hath a dead color and is but leane And yet that of a young Swine is not greatly commended vnlesse it be of her first Pigs Howbeit those of old Sowes also be in request so they haue not giuen ouer breeding and namely if they be taken either within two daies before they should pig or within two daies after they haue pigged or at leastwise the very same day The next to the cast-wombe abouesaid is that of a Sow killed a day after she hath pigged The paps and teats of such a Sow newly hauing farrowed is counted excellent good meat so that it be taken before euer the Pigs sucked them drie but those of a Sow which hath cast her
In Italy men hold the Elmes about Atinum to be the tallest and of those they prefer them which grow in dry grounds and haue no water comming to them before those by riuers sides A second sort of them which are not all out so great they call the French Elmes The third kinde be the Italian Elmes thicker growne with leaues than the rest and those proceeding in greater number from one stem In the fourth place be ranged the wilde Elmes The Atinian Elmes aboue said beare no Samara for so they cal the seed or grain of the Elme All the kind of them are planted of sets taken from the roots whereas others come of seeds CHAP. XVIII ¶ The nature of trees as touching the place where they grow HAuing thus discoursed in particular of the most famous and noble trees that are I think it not amisse to say somewhat of their natures in generall And first to beginne with the mountain high countries the Cedar the Larch and the Torch-tree loue to grow among the hills like as all the rest that ingender rosin semblably the Holly the Box tree the Mast-Holme the Iuniper the Terebinth the Poplar the wilde Ash Ornus the Cornell tree and the Carpin Vpon the great hill Apennine there is a shrub named Cotinus with a red or purple wood most excellent for in-laid works in Marquetry As for Firs the wild hard okes Robora Chestnut trees Lindens Mast-holmes and Cornell trees they can away with hills and vallies indifferently The Maple the Ash the Seruis tree the Linden and the cherry tree delight in the mountains neere to waters Lightly a man shall not see vpon any hills Plum trees Pomegranat trees wild Oliues Walnut trees Mulberry trees and Elders And yet the Cornel tree the Hasel the common Oke the wild Ash the Maple the ordinary Ash the Beech and the Carpin are many times found to come downe into the plaines like as the Elme the Apple tree the Peare tree the Bay tree the Myrtle the Bloud shrubs the Holme and the Broome which naturally is so good for to dry clothes do as often climbe vp the mountains The Servis tree gladly groweth in cold places so doth the Birch and more willingly of the twaine This is a tree which is meere French and came first out of France it sheweth wonderfull white and hath as fine and small branches or twigs which are so terrible to the offenders as wherewith the Magistrates rods are made for to execute justice And yet the wood of this tree is passing good for hoopes so pliable it is and easie to bend the twigs thereof serue also for to make paniers and baskets In France they vse to boile the wood and thereof draw a glutinous and clammy slime in maner of Bitumen In the same quarters there loueth to grow for company the white thorn which in old time they were wont to burne for torches at weddings and it was thought to be the most fortunate and lucky light that could be deuised because as Massurius reporteth the Romane shepheards and heardmen who rauished the Sabine maidens were furnished euery one with a branch thereof to make them torches But now adaies the Carpine and Hazel are commonly vsed for such nuptial lights The Cypres walnut Chestnut trees and the Laburnum cannot in any wise abide waters This last named is a tree proper to the Alps not commonly known the wood thereof is hard and white it beares a blossom of a cubit long but Bees will not settle vpon it The plant likewise called Iovis Barba so handsom to be cut in arbors and garden works which groweth so thicke and round withall full of leaues and those of a siluer colour hates waterie places Contrariwise Willows Alders Poplars and Osiars the Privet which is so good for to make dice will not grow well and prosper but in moist grounds Also the Vacinia or Whortles set and sowed in Italy for the Fowlers to catch birds withall but in France for the purple colour wherewith they vse to die clothes for their seruants and slaues To conclude this is a generall rule What trees soeuer will grow indifferently as well vpon hills as plaines arise to be taller bigger and carry a fairer head to see to in the low champion grounds but timber is better and caries a more beautifull grain vpon the mountaines except only Apple trees and Pyrries CHAP. XIX ¶ A diuision of Trees according to their generall kinds MOreouer some trees lose their leaues others continue alwaies green And yet there is another difference of trees before this and whereupon this dependeth For trees there be which are altogether wild and sauage there be again which are more gentle and ciuil and these names me thinks are very apt to distinguish them Those trees therefore which are so kind and familiar vnto vs as to serue our turns either with their fruit which they bear or shade which they yeeld or any other vertue or property that they haue may be very aptly and fitly be called ciuill and domesticall CHAP. XX. ¶ Of Trees that neuer shed their leaues also of Rhododendron AMong these trees and plants which are of the gentle kind the Olive the Lawrel the Date tree Myrtle Cypres Pines Ivy and the Oleander lose not their leaues As for the Oleander although it be called the Sabine herb yet it commeth from the Greeks as may appeare by the name Rhododendron Some haue called it Nerion others Rhododaphne it continueth alwaies green leafed beareth floures like roses and brancheth very thicke Hurtfull it is and no better than poison to Horses Asses Mules Goats and Sheepe and yet vnto man it serueth for a countrepoyson and cureth the venom of serpents CHAP. XXI ¶ What trees shed not their leaues at all which they be that lose them but in part and in what countries all trees are euer greene OF the wild sort the Fir the Larch the wilde Pine the Iuniper the Cedar the Terebinth the Box tree the Mast-holme the Holly the Cork tree the Yew and the Tamariske be green all the yeare long Of a middle nature between these two kinds aboue named are the Adrachne in Greece and the Arbut or Strawberry tree in all countries for these lose the leaues of their waterboughs but are euer green in the head Among the shrubs kind also there is a certain bramble and Cane or Reed which is neuer without leaues In the territorie of Thurium in Calabria where somtime stood the city Sybaris within the prospect from the said Citie there was an Oke aboue the rest to be seen alwaies green and ful of leaues and neuer began to bud new before Midsummer where by the way I maruel not a little that the Greek writers deliuered thus much of that tree in writing and our countrymen afterwards haue not written a word thereof But true it is that great power there is in the clymat insomuch as about Memphis in Egypt and Elephantine in the territorie of Thebais
againe will be but the worse for it and such are the Almond trees for where before they did beare sweet Almonds they will euer after bring bitter Moreouer you shall haue some trees that wil thriue do the better after this hard dealing namely a kind of peare tree called Phocis in the Island Chios for you haue heard by me already which trees they be that lopping and shredding is good for Most trees and in manner all except the Vine Apple tree Fig tree and Pomegranate tree will die if their stocke or bodie be clouen and some be so tender that vpon euery little wound or race that is giuen them yee shall see them to die howbeit the Figge tree and generally all such trees as breed Rosin defie all such wrongs and injuries and will abide any wound or bruse whatsoeuer That trees should die when their roots are cut away it is no maruell and yet many there bee of them that wi liue and prosper well neuerthelesse in case they be not all cut off nor the greatest master roots ne yet any of the heart or vitall roots among the rest Moreouer it is often seene that trees kill one another when they grow too thicke and that either by ouershadowing or else by robbing one another of their food and nourishment The Iuie also that with clipping and clasping bindeth trees too hard hastneth their death Misselto likewise doth them no good no more than Cytisus or the hearbe Auro which the Greekes name Alimus growing about them The nature of some plants is not to kill and destroy trees out of hand but to hurt and offend them only either with their smell or else with the mixture and intermingling of their owne iuice with their sap Thus the Radish and the Lawrell doe harme to the Vine if they grow neare vnto it for surely the Vine is thought to haue the sense of smelling and wonderfully to sent any odours and therefore it is obserued in her by experience That if shee be neare vnto Radish or Lawrell shee will turne away and withdraw her selfe backeward from them as if shee could not abide their strong breath but vtterly abhorred it as her very enemie And vpon the obseruation of this secret in Nature Androcides the Physitian deuised a medicine against drunkennesse and prescribed his patients to eat Radish if they would not be ouercome with wine Neither can the Vine away with Coleworts or the Cabbage nay it hateth generally all worts or pot-hearbs it abhorreth also the Hazell and Filberd tree in such sort as a man shal sensibly perceiue it to looke heauily and mislike if those plants aforesaid grow not farther off from it And now to conclude and knit vp this discourse would you kill a Vine out of hand lay to the root thereof nitre or salt-petre and alumne drench it with hote sea-water or doe but apply vnto it Bean cods or the shales or husks of the pulse Eruile and you shall soone see the operation and effect of a most ranke and deadly poison CHAP. XXV ¶ Of many and sundry prodigies or strange tokens and accidents about trees Also of an Oliue plot which in times past was transported all and whole from one side of an high port way to another IN this Treatise of the faults and imperfections incident to Trees me thinks I should do wel to say somwhat of the supernatural occurrences in them obserued for we haue known some of them to grow vp and prosper without any leaues at all And as there haue bin Vines and Pomegranats seen to beare fruit springing immediately from the trunke and not from branch or boughs so there haue bin vines charged with grapes and not clad with leaues and Oliues likewise had their berries hanging vpon them whole and sound notwithstanding all their leaues were shed and gon Moreouer strange wonders and miracles haue hapned about trees by meere chance and fortune for there was an Oliue once which being burnt to the very stump reuiued came again and in Boeotia certain Fig Trees notwithstanding they were eaten and gnawn most piteously with Locusts yet budded anew and put forth a fresh spring Also it hath bin marked that trees haue changed their colour from black to white And yet this is not alwayes a monstrous thing beyond naturall reason and specially in such as come of seed as wee may obserue in the Aspe which eftsoones turneth to be a Poplar Some are of opinion That the Servise Tree if it bee transplanted and come into a hoter ground than is agreeable to the nature thereof will leaue bearing and be barren But it is taken for no lesse than a monster out of kind that sweet Apples and such like fruits should proue sowre or sowre fruit turne to be sweet as also that a wilde Fig Tree should become tame or contrariwise And it is counted for an vnluckie sign if any Tree change from the better to the worse to wit if a gentle garden Oliue degenerate into the wilde and sauage if a Vine that was wont to beare white grapes haue now black vpon it and so likewise if a Fig Tree which vsed to haue white Figs chaunce afterwards to beare black And here by the way I canot forget the strange accident that befell in Laodicea where vpon the arriuall of King Xerxes a Plane tree was turned into an Oliue But if any man be desirous to know more of these and such like miracles for as much as I loue not to runne on still and make no end I refer him ouer to Aristander a Greek writer who hath compiled a whole volume and stuffed it full of such like wonders let him haue recourse also to C. Epidius a Countryman of ours whose Commentaries are full of such stuffe where he shall find also that trees sometimes spake A little before the ciuil war brake out between Iulius Caesar and Pompey the Great there was reported an ominous and fearfull sight presaging no good from out of the territory of Cumes namely That a great Tree there sunke down into the earth so deep that a very little of the top boughs was to be seen Hereupon were the propheticall books of Sibylla perused wherin it was found that this prodegie portended some great carnage of men and that the neerer that this slaughter and execution should be to Rome the greater should the bloud shed be A prodigious signe and wonder it is reputed also when trees seem to grow in places where they were not wont to be and which are not agreeable to their natures as namely on the chapâ—…ers of pillars the heads of statues or vpon altars like as to see one tree of a diuers and contrary kinde growing vpon the top of another as it befell about the city Cyzicum hard before the streit siege that was laid vnto it by Mithridates both by sea and land where a Fig tree was seen to grow vpon a Lawrel Likewise at Tralleis about the time of the foresaid ciuill war a
320. g. bees after they haue stung be no better than drones ibid. k. drone bees are biggest 315. a. they take vp least lodgings ibid. Of bees worke three foundations 313. b. whom they will sting 320. k. bees are often sicke 320. m. bees sorrow for their dead king 321. a. bees performe a solemnitie of exercise ibid. e. they liue not aboue seuen yeares ibid. how they ere repaired 322. g. bees will not touch a dead carkasse ibid. i. bees onely make their owne meat 328. i Beetles haue no sting 326. k. they are remedies for children ibid. they are delighted in roses 355. e Bellerophon his letters in tables 394. l of the Belly 342. k Bellies that be fattest cause grossenesse of capacitie ibid. l Belus inuentor of Astronomie 136 h Ben or Behen 374. f. a nut onely for sweet ointments ib. Benacus a lake in Italy 248. g Beotia riuer 51. f Berenice haire a starre 34. l Berries different 447. f Besbicus Island sometimes ioined to Bithinia 40. i B I Bills giuen to birds in stead of mouthes and their vse 336. l. m. Biaeon a kinde of wine medicinable 416. i Bieuers gueld themselues 212. m. where they breed their nature 213 a Birch tree described and how it is emploied 468. i Bird-gaâ—…ders 281. b Birdâ—…me how it was made 497. a Birds singing when they ordinarily doe breed 287. c. birds very few haue gawles in the liuers 341. f. birds hatched with their taâ—…les forward 272. e. birds hauing neither veâ—…es nor arâ—…es 345. c. birds with hooked talons prey all 278. k. birds how they translate their egges from place to place hauing no hooked tallons 289. a. birds differ 〈◊〉 from another in flight and gate 291. f. birds how they drinke 295. c. birds of diuers feedings ibid. 〈◊〉 birds singing alter their notes 285. e. new birds 296. k. birds there be none without feet 351. d. birds language how to be vnderstood 296. l. birds of prey least fruitfull 297. f. birds that lay most ibid. birds how they engender 298. g. birds how they differ in laying and couving ibid. i. 300. k. birds small be fruitfull 301. d. blackbirds counterfeiting mans speech 293. d. blackebirds are gone for a time 284. g. blackebirds change both hew and tune ibid. Births strange for number for defects and superfluitie 164. h. i. Births of children vncertaine 158. k Birth at seuen months liue also at the eleuenth ib. A child legitimat borne within thirteene months after the supposed father deceased 159. a Bisontus or Boeufos of Germanie 199. f Bissextile yeare 585. b Bitches differ in their litters 303. c. bitches engender with Tigres 219. e. with wolues ib. how long they goe with young 220. h. their whelpes blind ibid. h. i Bithyae Women witches who haue a double sight in their eie 155. a Biting if a mad dog cured by Eglantine 220. k Bitumen comparable to the water of Styx 47. d Bitumen a strange slime 163. e B L Bladder where it is placed 343. f. bladder nut tree 467. c. bladder onely there found where is lungs and bloud 343. f. of the bladder in man and beast 343. f. bladder being wounded cannot be cured 344. g Blasted corne 574. i Blasts how they be occasioned 574. l m. blasts suddaine their names and nature 24. k Blattae flies are nourished in darkenesse 326. m Blazing starres See comets Volusius Saturnius how hee vsed to bleed 346. h Blossoming time of trees how long it lasteth 473. b Bloud apples 438. l. bloud ained See Raine bloud fat and grosse breedeth anger and choller 345. f. of bloud a discourse ibid. bloud of males blacker than of females ib. bloud containeth a great portion and treasure of life 346. g. it is without sence and feeling ibid. bloud that is thinnest causeth strength in creatures ibid. bloud that is thinnest maketh men wise ibid where it is but little maketh men fearefull ib. bloud of bulls soonest congealeth ib. it is poison to be drunke ibid. bloud of Asses most fattie and grosse ib. bloud of man thinnest and best ibid. bloud is but little in those that be fat ib. bloud cast vp by many at the mouth ib. h. bloud quicliest encreaseth of all parts of the body ib. bloud changeth with anger and furie ibid. in Blouming time raine hurtfull to corne 574. k B O Boae mightie great serpents 199. e. why so called ib. Bodies of men and women different beside the distinct parts of sex 165. e Boats of one entire piece of wood 490. g Boetica so called of Boetis 51. c Boeufes of India 224. k. bred by king Pyrrhus ibid. l. their manner of engendring and breeding ibid. of feeding 224. a. when they are to bee drawne and yoked ibid. b. sufficient for sacrifice ibid. e. knowne to speake ibid. Bolides flaming launces in the skie 17. b Bombyceae reeds or canes 484. g Bombycina garments of silke 322. m Bombyly the greater kinde of Bombyces 322. l Bombyx a flie breeding in Assyria ibid their hard neasts ibid. how they engender ibid. of Bones 345. a Bonasus what manner of beast and his properties 200. h Bondwoman brought forth a serpent 157. f Bones of Asses legs sound shrill 345 a. bones in some men without marrow 165. f. bones sometime found in the hearts of beasts 340. i Bore his owne Physitian 210. m. bore serued whole vnto the bourd 230. l Bore as wind 23. a Borystenes riuer 154. i Bosphori the streights Thracius and Cimmerius 117. f. why so called 115. a. Bosphori sometime land 40. l Botanismos what it is 577. a Boulters and Raungers 567. c Box tree wood commended in the root most 467. c. box tree serueth for arbours ibid. of box tree three kindes ibid. c. where it delighteth to grow ibid. d. the nature of the floure and wood ibid. box tree beareth varietie of fruits 476. g B R Brake see Ferne. Braine of a Date tree 386. m Brambles of three sorts 485. e. with a blacke berry with a rose and a red berry ibid. f. the bramble Idaea which is Raspis ibid. Brance what corne 559. d people Branded with hot yrons 116. h Brasse where first found 80. m. brasse-founders the first 188. k. brasse forges and furnaces who deuised ibid. k. Brawne of wilde bores in great request 230. l Braines the coldest part of mans body 332. m. they are without bloud or veines ibid. by seething they waxe hard 333. a. without flesh bloud filth or ordure ibid. braines the fort and castle of the sences ibid. braines and eies die first 340. g. of braines and the braine-pan 332. l. m. Bread of sundry sorts according to the meat eaten therewith 566. l. bread Parthicke or water-bread 567. a Breadth of the earth 48. i Breath of Lions stinketh 255. a. breath of beares pestilen 〈◊〉 and deadly ibid. breath of men by what meanes it is insected ibid. b. breath of man shall returne into the aire ibid. it is corrupted by much drinking of wine ib. breath of Elephants
it soone loseth the heart and force if it be not kept in a place well enclosed by the said burning it commeth to be much more stronger in operation Sodden with figgs it yeeldeth an excellent decoction to reâ—â—â—s tettars shingles and such like wildfires to scoure away also scurfe and dandruffe in that soft either applied as a cataplasme or fomentation it cureth the leprie and running skals of the head Being taken in drinke especially raw it is a soueraign countrepoison for such as haue eaten venomous mushromes Boiled and washed it is mingled with collyries which serue for the eyes A liniment thereof cureth the accidents that befall to the cods and genetoirs Taken in wine it helpeth the strangury and giueth them ease who otherwise could not pisse but by drop-meale Les of wine after it hath lost the caustick operation and life that it had wil serue very wel for a good lie or water to clense the skin of our bodies and to wash or scoure clothes and then verily it hath the astrictiue power of Acacia and serueth for the same vse The dregs of vinegre must of necessitie be much more sharpe biting and vlceratiue than wine lees in regard of the matter whereof it commeth it driueth backe impostumes or biles and keepeth them from suppuration A liniment of it helpeth the stomack belly and entrails it staieth the flux of those parts and the ouerflow of womens months it discusseth pushes and small biles and squinances if they be taken betimes before they fester and impostumat and a cerot made with it and wax together is good against S. Anthonies fire The same drieth vp the milke in womens breast who would not be nources or bee troubled with ouermuch milke It taketh away with ease the ilfauoured rugged nails and giueth roum for new to come vp in their place Applied with grosse barley meale or groats it is singular and most effectuall against the venome of the horned serpents called in Greeke Cerastae and with Gith or Nigella Romana it is vsed for the biting both of crocodile and mad dog The burning also of these dregs quickeneth fortifieth the strength therof being thus burnt and incorporat with the oile of Lentiske it coloureth the haires of the head in one night red if they bee annointed withall The same lapped in a fine linnen cloth and put vp in forme of a pessarie cleanseth and mundifieth the secret parts of women To conclude with the grounds or lees of the cuit Sapa vinegre dregs are knowne to be very good for to heale burnes and the cure proceedeth better in case they be mixed with the furry cotton or downe of reeds the same being sodden and the decoction thereof taken as drinke cureth inueterat coughs Sast of all they vse to seeth or stew it betweene two platters with salt and grease wherwith they make a liniment or ointment to take down the swelling of the chaws and the nape of the necke CHAP. III. ¶ Of Oliuetrees of the leaues of Oliues their floures and their ashes Of the white and blacke Oliue berries and of the mother or lees of Oile-oliue NExt after the Vine there is not a tree bearing fruit of so great authority and account as the Oliue The oliue leaues are exceeding restringent good to cleanse good also to restraine or stop any flux being chewed and applied to vlcers they heale them and reduced with oile into a liniment they assuage the pain of the head A decoction of their leaues together with honey is singular to bath and foment the parts cauterized by the Chirurgian according to the direction of the learned Physician the same vsed by way of a collution cureth the inflammation of the gumbs whitflaws and excrescenses of ranke flesh in filthy vlcers with honey also it stauncheth the flux of bloud proceeding from any neruous parts The juice of oliue leaues is singular for the little vlcers in manner of carbuncles with a crust or roufe vpon them rising about the eies and all other small wheals or blisters as also in case the bal or apple of the eye be readie to start forth and therefore it is vsed in collyries or eye-salues for it healeth weeping eies that haue run with water a long time and the excoriations or frettings of the eie-lids Now this juice is drawn out of the leaues first stamped and then well sprinckled and wet with wine rain water so pressed forth which being afterwards dried is reduced into trochiskes The same rolled in wooll or bombast to the forme of a pessarie and so put vp into the naturall parts of women staies the immoderat flux of their fleurs Good it is also for those who rid corrupt bloud by the inferiour parts Moreouer it easeth the swelling piles or bigs sticking out in the fundament killeth the cholerique exulcerations called S. Anthonies fire healeth corrosiue and eating sores and allaieth the paine of night-foes or childblanes called by the Greeks Epinyctides The same effects haue their floures The tendrons or young twigs of Oliues being in floure if they be burnt yeeld a kind of ashes that may serue as a succedan in stead of Spodium but the same must be burnt a second time after they haue beene well drenched and soked with wine These ashes applied as a liniment or the very leaues only stamped and tempred with honey are good for impostumes growne to suppuration and for the pushes or biles named Pani but if they be mixed with grosse barly meal or groats they are in a liniment comfortable to the eyes Take the green branches of an Oliue and burne them there will destill and drop from the wood a certaine juice or liquor which healeth ringwormes tettars and shingles scoureth away the skales of the skin and dandruffe and cureth the running skalls of the head Touching the gum that issueth from the oliue tree it self and namely that wild oliue which is called Aethiopica I cannot wonder enough at some who giue counsell therwith to annoint the teeth which ake considering that they themselues giue out That it is a poison and to be found as wel in wild oliues as others The rind or bark pared from the root of a most tender and yong oliue reduced into an electuary and often licked and let downe by leisure into the throat after the manner of a lohoch cureth those who reach vp bloud and cough out filthy and rotten matter The ashes of the very oliue it self mixed with swines grease cure all tumors draw forth corruption of fistulous vlcers and when they are thus mundified heale them vp cleane White oliues agree very well with the stomack but they are not so good for the belly A singular commoditie they yeeld before they be put vp in their compost or pickle for to be eaten greene by themselues as meat for they scoure away grauel with vrine good they are for the teeth whether they be worne rotten worme eaten or loose in the head
Euphorbium The same being grown thick and hard if a man break it resembleth gum Ammoniacke Tast it neuer so little at the tongues end it setteth all the mouth on a fire and so continueth it a long time hot but more by fits vntill in the end it parcheth and drieth the chaws and throat also far within CHAP. VIII ¶ Of Plantain Buglosse and Borrage Of Cynoglossa or Hounds tongue Of Buphthalmus i. Oxe eie or Many-weed Of Scythica Hippice and Ischaemon Of Vettonica and Cantabrica Of * Consiligo and Hiberis Of Celendine the great Canaria and Elaphoboscos Of Dictamnum Aristolochie or Hertwort That fish are delighted so much therwith that they will make hast vnto it and be soon taken Also the medicinable vertues of those herbs aboue named THemison a famous Physitian set forth a whole booke of the herbe Way-bred or Plantaine wherein he highly praiseth it and challengeth to himselfe the honor of first finding it out notwithstanding it be a triuiall and common herb trodden vnder euery mans foot Two kinds of it be found the one which is the lesser hath also narrower leaues and inclining more to a blackish green resembling for all the world sheepe * or lambs tongues the stalke is cornered bending downward to the ground it growes ordinarily in medows The other is greater with leaues enclosed as it were within certain ribs resembling the sides of our body which being in number seuen gaue occasion to some herbarists for to call it Heptapleuron as a man would say the seuen ribbed herb The stem of this Plantain riseth to a cubit in height much like to that of the Naphew That which groweth in moist and waterie places is of greater vertue than the other Of wonderfull power and efficacy it is by the astringent quality that it hath for to dry and condensate any part of the body and serueth many times in stead of a cautery or searing yron And there is nothing in the world comparable vnto it in staying of fluxes and destillations which the Creeks call Rheumatismes To Plantain may be ioined the herb * Buglossos so called for that the leafe is like an Oxe tongue This herb hath one speciall property aboue the rest that if it be put into a cup of wine it cheareth the heart and maketh them that drink it pleasant and merry whereupon it is called Euphrosynon Vnto this for affinity of name it were good to annex Cynoglossos i. Hounds tongue for the resemblance that the leaues haue to a dogs tongue a proper herb for vinet-works and knots in gardens It is commonly said That the root of that Cynoglossos which putteth forth 3 stems or stalks and those bearing seed if it be giuen to drink cureth tertian agues but the root of that which hath foure is as good for the Quartains Another * Cynoglossos there is like to it which carrieth small burs the root whereof being drunke in water is a singular counterpoison against the venome of toads and serpents An herb there is with flours like vnto oxe eies wherupon it took the name in Greek * Buphthalmos the leaues resemble Fennel it groweth about town sides it shutteth forth stalkes from the root plentifully which being boiled are good to be eaten Some there be who call it Cachla This herb made into a salue with wax resolueth all * schirrous and hard swellings Other plants there be which beare the names not of men but of whole nations which first found them and their vertues out And to begin withall beholden we are to Scythia for that which is called Scythica It groweth notwitstanding in Boeotia and is exceeding sweet in tast Also there is another of that name singular good for the cramps called by the Greeks Spasmata An excellent property it hath besides for that whosoeuer holds it in their mouth shall for the time be neither hungry nor thirsty Of the same operation there is another herb among the Scythians or Tartars called Hippice because it workes the like effect in horses keeping them from hunger and thirst And if it be true that is reported the Scythians with these herbs wil endure without meat or drink for twelue daies together Touching the herbe Ischaemon the Thracians first found out the rare vertue that it hath in stanching bloud according as the very name implies For say they it wil stop the flux of bloud running and gushing out of a veine not only opened but also if it were â—…ut through It coucheth and creepeth low by the ground and is like vnto Millet but that the leaues be rough and hairy The manner is to stuffe the nosthrils therewith for to stay the bleeding at nose And that which groweth in Italy stancheth bloud if it be but hanged about the neck or tied to any part of the body The people in Spaine named Vettones were the first authors of that herb which is called in France * Vettonica in Italy Serratula and by the Greeks Cestron or Psychotrophon Surely an excellent herb this is and aboue all other simples most worthy of praise It commeth forth of the ground and riseth vp with a cornered stalke to the heigh of two cubits spreading from the very root leaues of the bignesse of Sorrell cut in the edges or toothed in manner of a saw with floures of a purple color growing in a spike seed correspondent therto The leaues dried and brought into pouder be good for very many vses There is a wine and vineger made or condite rather with Betony soueraign for to strengthen the stomack and clarifie the eiesight This glorious prerogatiue hath Betony that look about what house soeuer it is set or sowed the same is thought to be in the protection of the gods and safe enough for committing any offence which may deserue their vengeance and need any expiation or propitiatory sacrifice In the same Spain groweth * Cantabrica lately found by the people Cantabri and no longer since than in the daies of Augustus Caesar. This herb is to be seen euery where rising vp with a benty or rushy stalk a foot high vpon which you may behold small long floures like to cups or beakers wherein lie enclosed very small seeds Certes to speak the truth of Spain it hath bin alwaies a nation curious in seeking after simples And euen at this day in their great feasts where they meet to make merry Sans-nombre they haue a certain wassell or Bragat which goeth round about the table made of honied wine or sweet mead with a hundred distinct herbs in it and they are persuaded that it is the most pleasant and wholsomest drinke that can be deuised yet there is not one amongst them all who knoweth precisely what speciall herbs there be in all that number in this only they be all perfect that there go a hundred seuerall kinds therto according as the name doth import In our age we remember well that there was an hero discouered
Anthonies fire In agues it procureth sweat so that the patient drink the juice thereof mingled with hot water But of all herbes that be there is none more wonderful then Greimile some call it in Greek Lithospermon others Aegonychon some Diospyron and other Heracleos It groweth ordinarily fiue inches high and the leaues be twice as big as those of Rue The foresaid stalks or stems be no thicker than bents or rushes and the same garnished with small and slender branches It bringeth forth close ioining to the leaues certain little beards one by one in the top of them little stones white and round in manner of pearls as big as cich pease but as hard as very stones Toward that side where they hang to their steles or tailes they haue certain holes or concauities containing seed within This herb groweth in Italy but the best in the Island Candy And verily of all the plants that euer I saw I neuer wondred at any more so sightly it groweth as if some artificiall goldsmith had set in an alternatiue course and order these prety beads like orient pearls among the leaues so rare a thing it is difficult to be conceiued that a very hard stone should grow out of an herb The Herbarists who haue written thereof do say that it lieth along and creepeth by the ground for mine owne patt I neuer saw it growing in the plant but shewed it was vnto me plucked out of the ground This is for certaine knowne that these little stones called Greimile seed drunke to the weight of one dram in white wine breake the stone expell the same by grauell and dispatch those causes that be occasions of strangurie Certes a man no sooner seth this hearb but he may presently know the vertues thereof and for what it serueth in Physicke a thing that he shall not obserue again in any other whatsoeuer for at the very first sight of these little stones his eie will tell him what it is good for without information from any person at all There be common stones found about riuers bearing a certain drie hoary mosse vpon them Rub one of these stones against another hauing spit first therupon and then therewith touch the tettar or ringworme in any part of the body it will kill the same but the party must as he toucheth it vtter this charme following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Cantharides flie apace for a wilde Wolfe followeth in chase The French-men haue a certaine herbe which they call Limeum out of which they draw a venomous juice named by them Stags-poison wherewith they vse to envenome their Arrow heads when they go to hunt their red Deere Take of this as much as goeth to the poysoning of one arrow and put it in three measures or Modij of a mash wherewith they vse to drench cattel and make sops thereof and conuey them down the throat of sick oxen or kine it will recouer them But presently after the receit of this medicine they must be tied vp sure vnto their bousies vntill the medicine haue done purging for the beasts commonly fare all the while that it is in working as if they were wood In case they fall a sweating vpon it they must be washed all ouer with cold water Leuce is an herbe like vnto Mercury but it tooke that name by reason of a certaine white strake or line that runneth crosse through the mids of the leafe for which cause some cal it Mesoleucas The iuice of this herbe healeth fistuloes and the substance of the herbe it selfe stamped cureth cancerous sores It may be peraduenture the same herb which is named Leucas that is so effectuall against all venomous stings proceeding from any sea-fishes The herbarists haue not described this herb otherwise than thus That the wild kind thereof with the broader leafe is more effectual in the leaues and that the seed of the garden kind hath more acrimony than the other Touching Leucographis what manner of herbe it should be I haue not found in any writer and I wonder thereat the rather because it is reported to be so good for them that void reach bloud vpward namely if it be taken to the weight of three oboli with Safron likewise stamped with water and so applied it is singular good against those fluxes that proceed from the imbecility of the stomacke soueraigne also for to stav the immoderat flux of womens termes And it entereth into those medicines which are appropriate for the eies yea and into incarnatiues such especially as be fit to incarnat those vlcers which are in the most tender and delicat parts of the body CHAP. XII ¶ Of Medium Myosota Myagros Nigina Natrix Odontitis Othonne Omosma Onopordos Osyris Oxys Batrachion Polygonon Pancration Peplos Periclymenos Laucanthemon Phyteuma Phyllon Phellandrion Phalaris Polyrrhizon and Proserpinaca of Rhacoma Reseda and Stoechas MEdion hath leaues like vnto garden Floure-de-lis A stem three foot high garnished with faire large floures of purple colour and round in forme the seed is small and the root halfe a foot long it groweth willingly vpon stony grounds lying in the shade The root taken in a liquid electuary or lohoch made with hony to the quantity of 2 drams for cerdaies together staieth the immoderat flux of womens monethly termes The seed also reduced into pouder and drunke in wine represseth their extraordinary shifts Myosota otherwise called Myosotis is a smooth herbe shooting forth many stems from one single root and those in some sort of a reddish colour and hollow garnished with leaues which toward the root be narrow long and blackish hauing their backe part sharpe and edged which leaues grow along the stems two by two together and out of the concauities or armpits between the stalk and them there put forth other small branches with a blew floure The root is of the thicknesse of a mans finger bearded with many small strings resembling hairs This root is of a corrosiue nature fretting and exulcerating any place wherunto it is applied in which regard it healeth vp the fistulous vlcers called Aegilops growing between the nose and angles of the eies The Aegyptians are of opinion that if vpon the 27 day of that moneth which they call Thiatis and which answereth very neare to our moneth August a man or woman do annoint themselues with the juice of this herb in a morning before they haue spoken one word he or she shall not be troubled with bleared eies all that yeare long Myagros is an herb growing vp with stems in manner of Fenell geant in leaues resembling Madder and riseth to the height of 3 foot The seed which it beareth is oleous out of it there is an oile drawne which is good for the sores in the mouth if they be annointed therewith The herbe called Nigina hath three long leaues like vnto those of Succorie wherewith if scars remaining after vlcers and wounds be rubbed it will
liuing creature whatsoeuer will touch the roots vnlesse it be Spondylis and that is a kind of serpent which indeed spareth none As for this one point namely that the roots of herbs be lesse in force and of weaker operation in case the seed bee suffered to ripen vpon the plant no man maketh any doubt as also that their seeds be nothing so effectuall if incision were made in the roots for to draw juice out of them before the said seed is fully ripe Furthermore this is known found by experience that the ordinary vse of all simples doth alter their properties and diminish their strength insomuch as whosoeuer is daily accustomed vnto them shall not find when need requires their vertue powerfull at all either to do good or to work harme as others shall who seldome or neuer were acquainted with them Ouer and besides all herbs be more forcible in their operations which grow in cold parts exposed to the Northeast winds likewise in dry places than in the contrary Also there is no small difference to be considered betweene nation and nation for as I haue heard them say who are of good credit as touching worms and such like vermin the people of Egypt Arabia Syria and Cilicia be troubled infested with them wheras contrariwise some Graecians Phrygians haue none at all breeding among them But lesse maruel there is of that considering how among the Thebans and Boeotians who confine vpon Attica such vermine is rife and common and yet the Athenians are not giuen at all to ingender and breed them the speculation whereof carrieth me away again vnto a new discourse of liuing creatures and their natures and namely to fetch from thence the medicins which Nature hath imprinted in them of greater proofe and certainty than any other for the remedy of all diseases Certes this great Mother of all things entended not that any liuing creature should serue either to feed it selfe only or to be food for to satisfie others but her will was and she thought it good to insert and ingraffe in their inward bowels wholsom medicines for mans health to counterpoise those medicinable vertues which she had ingrauen and bestowed vpon those surd and sencelesse herbes nay her prouidence was such that the soueraigne and excellent means for maintenance of our life should be had from those creatures which are indued with life the contemplation of which divine mysterie surpasseth all others and is most admirable THE TVVENTY EIGHTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ The medicinable vertues of liuing creatures HAuing discouered as well all those things which are ingendred between Heauen and Earth as also their natures there remained nothing for me to discourse of saue only the Minerals digged out of the ground but that this late Treatise of mine as touching the medicinable properties of Herbs Trees and other plants draweth me quite a side from my purpose and haleth me back againe to consider the foresaid liuing creatures themselues euen the subject matter of Physicke in regard of greater meanes found out euen in them to aduance Physicke and cure diseases For to say a truth since I haue described and pourtraied both Herbes and Floures since I haue discouered many other things rare and difficult to be found out should I conceale such meanes for the health of man as are to be found in man himselfe or should I suppresse other kind of remedies which are to be had from creatures liuing amongst vs as wee doe if they may benefit vs especially seeing that our very life is no better than torment and miserie vnlesse we be free from paine and sicknesse No verily and far be it from me that I should so do But on the contrary side I will do my best indeuor to performe and finish this task also how long and tedious soeuer it may seem to be for my full intent and resolution is so I may benefit posteritie and doe good to the common life of man the lesse to respect the pleasing of fine eares or to expect thanks from any person And to bring this my purpose about I mean to search into the customes of forre in countries yea and to lay abroad the rites and fashions of barbarous nations referring the readers who shal make scruple to beleeue my words vnto those Authors whom I alledge for my warrant And yet herein this care I haue euer had To make choice in my reports of such things as haue bin held and in manner adjudged true by a generall consent approbation of all writers as coueting to stand more vpon the choice of substance than the variety and plenty of matter But before I enter into this argument I thinke it very necessary to aduertise the Reader thus much That whatsoeuer I haue heretofore written of liuing creatures concerneth the instinct of Nature wherewith they be indued and certain simples whereof they haue giuen vs the knowledge for surely as much good haue they done vnto vs by the medicinable herbs by them found out as possibly they can by the remedies which themselues do affoord from their own bodies But now it remaineth to shew simply the medicinable helpful properties in themselues which notwithstanding in the former treatise were not altogether left out and passed ouer And therefore this my present discourse of those creatures howsoeuer it is in nature different yet it dependeth of the other Begin then I will at Man himselfe to see what Physick there may be found in him to help his neighbor In which first entrance of mine there presenteth it selfe vnto mine eie one object that troubleth and offendeth my mind exceeding much for now adaies you shal see them that are subiect to the falling euil for to drink the very bloud of fencers and sword-plaiers as out of liuing cups a thing that when we behold within the same shew-place euen the tygres lyons and other wild beasts to do we haue it in horrour as a most fearfull and odious spectacle And these monstrous minded persons are of opinion That the said bloud forsooth is most effectuall for the cure of that disease if they may sucke it breathing warme out of the man himselfe if they may set their mouth I say close to the veine to draw thereby the very heart bloud life and all how vnnaturall soeuer otherwise it be holden for a man to put his lips so much as to the wounds of wild beasts for to drinke their bloud nay there be others that lay for the marow bones the very braine also of young infants and neuer make strange to find some good meat and medicine therein Ye shall find moreouer among the Greeke writers not a few who haue deciphered distinctly the seuerall tastes as well of euery inward part as outward member of mans body and so neare they haue gone that they left not out the paring of the very nailes but they could pick out of them some fine Physicke as
body If it look red the bloud be sure is predominant and distempered The vrin is not to be liked but presageth danger wherin there appeare certain contents like brans blackish clouds also a white thin and waterish vrine is neuer good but in case it be thick and of a stinking smell withall it is a deadly signe and there is no way but one with the Patient As for children if their water be thin and waterish it is but ordinary and naturall The Magitians expressely forbid in making water to lay bare the nakednesse of that part against Sun and Moon or to pisse vpon the shadow of any person And therefore Hesiodus giueth a precept to make water against a wall or something standing full before vs for feare least our nakednesse being discouered might offend some god or Angell To conclude Hosthaues doth vpon his warrant assure vs That whosoeuer droppeth some of his owne vrine euerie morning vpon his feet he shal be secured against all charms sorceries and deadly poisons whatsoeuer CHAP. VII ¶ The remedies that womens bodies do minister THe medicines which are said to proceed from the bodies of women be such and the operations so miraculous that they come nearer to the nature of monstrous wonders than true reports of natural works to say nothing of much mischiefe and many wicked parts committed by the means of their vntimely births and infants stil born which haue bin dismembred and cut in pieces for some abhominable practises to let passe the strange expiations wrought by their monthly terms and a thousand more deuises which haue bin deliuered and set abroad not only by midwiues but also by secret harlots that haue slipt their conceptions and bin deliuered in corners But to speak of the foresaid remedies which are in vre and commonly known The perfume that the hairs of a womans head make whiles they burn chaseth away Serpents The smell thereof also raiseth and reuiueth women who in a fit of the mother lie speechlesse and breathlesse The ashes verily of the said hairs burnt in some earthen pan or fish-shell being applied alone or with litharge of siluer is a singular medicine for the asperity of the eies the itch Item It taketh warts away and cureth the red gum and sores that infants be subiect vnto if it be vsed with hony The same ashes mingled with Hony and Frankincense healeth wounds in the head and doth incarnat or fil vp with good flesh hollow vlcers whatsoeuer they be And incorporat with swines lard it is good for the broad biles called Pani for the gout and S. Anthonies fire it staieth also any bleeding presently and stoppeth the running of ring-wormes and such like Touching womens milke it is holden by a generall accord of all other to be sweetest most delicat whereupon it is prescribed by Physitians vnto those that haue lien of a long languishing feuer as also to such as be troubled with a fluxe occasioned by a feeble stomacke but in these cases that milk is reputed most wholsom which a nurce giueth that hath newly weaned her child besides when the appetite of women is giuen to an inordinate longing after strange things in agues also in gnawings and frettings of the stomacke it is found by experience to be most effectuall Likewise being incorporat with Frankincense it is singular good for the impostumes breeding in womens brests If the eies be bloudshotten vpon any stripe if they be in pain or troubled with a violent rheum falling into them let a nource milk it in them they shall find very much ease thereby howbeit for the accidents abouenamed it is held to be more soueraign in case it be applied to the place together with hony the juice of the daffodil or els with the pouder of frank incense where by the way this would be obserued that for what vse soeuer milk is imploied that is ordinarily of more force which a woman giueth that bare a man child but if she was brought to bed of two twins both boies then it is best and most effectuall prouided alwaies that the mother her selfe do forbeare drinking of wine eat no meat or sauces that be sharp Moreouer this is knowne for certaine that if womans milk be incorporat with the liquid white of an egge and so applied to the forehead with wooll wet in the said liquor it staieth the flux of humors into the eies Moreouer a soueraign remedy is milk against the venomous slime or spittle of roads in case they pisse or spurt into our eies Also if they haue bitten one there is not a better thing either to be drunk or dropped vpon the sore than brest milk It is a common saying That whosoeuer can meet at one time together with the milk of mother and daughter both shall neuer need to feare all their life long any infirmities of the eies so they be annointed or bathed therewith Semblably womens milk is singular for to cure the accidents befalling to the eares if it be dropped in with a little Opium put thereto but if so be the eares are pained by reason of some stripe that they haue receiued the said milke would haue some Goose grease mixed with it and so be instilled warme And say that they haue a strong and stinking smell with them as commonly it falleth out in all long diseases there is nothing better than to put wooll into them which is soked in brest milk and hony together If it happen that the eies look still yellow after the jaundise it is good to drop milk into them with the juice of the wild Cucumber This peculiar vertue it hath ouer and besides those abouenamed if it be taken in drink to help those that haue bin poisoned with the sea-Hare the worme Buprestis and as Arâ—…stotle saith with the deadly Dwale called Dorycnion In this maner also it cureth those whose brains be troubled and intoxicat with drinking Henbane Physitians likewise haue prescribed to make a liniment with milk and Hemlock for to be applied vnto the gout And some there be who vse it in that case together with Oesype i the sweat or fattinesse of vnwashed wooll and Goose-grease in which manner it serueth in a pessary to be put vp in the naturall parts of women to assuage the pain of the matrice To drink brest milk is a good meane to stop a laske as Rabirius writeth yet the same doth prouoke the monthly course of womens fleurs what is to be sayd now or a womans milk who hath born a maid child surely it is better than the other in these cases only to wit in scouring the skin of the face and taking away the pimples spots and freckles which be therein But I must not forget that any breast-milke whatsoeuer cureth the maladies incident to the lights and if there be tempered therewith the vrine of a yong lad not ful fourteen yeares old and Attick honey so there be of each one spoonfull I find
soles doth corrode in which respect it is good to eat away scurfe about the brims of sores and vlcers and verily Buls bloud fresh running out of the body is reckoned no better than venom and yet I must except Aegira a city in Achaia where the priestresse of the goddesse * Ops at what time as she is to prophesie and foretel things to come vseth by drinking buls bloud to prepare her self before she goeth down into the vault or shrouds out of which she deliuereth her prophesies so forcible is that sympathy wherof we speak so much that otherwhiles it is occasioned either by a religious opinion deuotion in mens mindes or els by the nature of some place Drusus somtimes a Tribune of the commons in Rome drank as it is reported Goats bloud to make himselfe look pale * wan in the face at what time as he meant to charge Q. Caepio his enemy with giuing him poison And verily the bloud of a buck goat is so strong that there is not any thing in the world wil either sharpen the edg of any yron tools sooner or harden the same when it is keen than it And as for the ruggednes of any blade it wil take it away more effectually and polish it better than the very file Considering then this diuersity which is seen in the bloud of beasts I cannot write thereof in such generall termes as of a thing indifferently common to euery one of them but I must be forced to speak particularly of their seuerall effects In which regard I will treat respectiuely of beasts according as they do yeeld remedies against this or that malady and first as touching those which are aduerse vnto Serpents To begin then with Stags and Hinds no man there is so ignorant but he knoweth that they plague serpents to the very death for they pluck them forth of their holes and eat them when they haue don And not only whiles they be aliue do they war against serpents with the breath of their nosthrils but also when they be dead euery member and piece of their body is contrary vnto them Burn a piece of an Harts horne you shall see how the smoke and smell thereof will chase away serpents as I haue obserued hertofore yet they say that the perfume of the bones which are about the throat of a Stag hath a contrary property to gather them together Let a man lay vnder him Stags skins in stead of a mattrace he shall sleep securely without any feare that serpents will approch to do him harm The rennet in their maw or the rede it selfe if it bee drunk with vineger is a soueraigne antidot against their venomous sting and look what day one do but handle it he shall be sure and safe from any danger by them The genetoirs of a Stagge kept vntill they be dry like as the pizzle also made into pouder and taken in wine is a singular counterpoison resisting the venome of Serpents Euen as the rim of the paunch which is called in Latine Centipellio Whosoeuer haue about them so much as the tooth of an Hart or be annointed with the marrow or suet of a Stag Buck or Hind-calfe need not to fear any serpents for they will flie from them But aboue all remedies there is none like to the rennet of a Fawne or Hind-calfe such a one especially as was ripped out of the dams belly as I haue shewed heretofore If together with Deeres bloud there be burned the herbe Dragon bastard Mariaram and Orchanet in a fire made with Lentisk wood Serpents by report will gather round together into an heap take away the same bloud and put into the fire the root of Pyrethrum they will scatter asunder againe I read in Greek writers of a certain beast lesse than a Stag but like in haire called Ophion which folk say is wont to be found only in the Isle Sardinia but I suppose that the race of them is vtterly extinct and gone Wherefore I will forbeare to write of the medicinable properties reported by that beast CHAP. X. ¶ The medicines against Serpents found in the wild Bore in Goats and wild horses Also of other remedies which diuers beasts do yeeld against all diseases THe brains of a wild Bore is highly commended against the sting and venome of serpents So is the bloud likewise Semblably is the liuer kept and preserued long with Rue if the same be drunk in wine In like maner the fat of the wild bore incorporat with hony rosin Also the liuer of a tame bore being clensed from the filaments and strings therein taken to the weight of foure oboli or the very brains drunke in wine If a man burn the horn or haire of goats the fume therof driueth away serpents as it is commonly said and the ashes that come thereof either drunke inwardly or applied in a liniment without are of great force against their stings Moreouer a draught of Goats milke taken with the grape of the vine Taminia or of their vrine drunk with squilliticke vineger Furthermore it is said that cheese made of Goats milk together with Origan vsed in a cataplasme or their tallow incorporat with wax worketh the like effect A thousand medicines besides are reported to be drawn from this beast as shall hereafter appeare whereat for mine own part I much maruel considering it is commonly said that he is neuer out of a feuer The wilde of this kinde doe affoord medicines more effectuall than the tame and those as I haue said multiplie exceedingly As for the Bucks or male Goats they haue medicinable properties apart by themselues And Democritus saith That the Buck which the dam bare alone is of greater efficacy than any other who affirmeth moreouer that it is very good to anoint the place stung with serpents with Goats dung sodden in vineger also with the ashes of the said dung fresh made and tempered with wine into a liniment In sum as many as hardly are cured of serpents stings recouer therof passing wel if they ordinarily haunt Goat-pens and stals where they be kept But such as would haue a more speedy assured cure take the panch cut out of a Goat newly killed together with the dung found therein presently bind the same fast to the place affected so soone as they be stung Others perfume the flesh newly hurt with kids hair burnt with the same smoke chase away serpents they vse also to apply their skin newly flaied to the wound like as the flesh and dung of a horse that lieth out and feedeth abroad in the field the rennet likewise of an Hare in vineger against the prick of a scorpion and the venomous tooth of an hardishrew Moreouer it is said that as many as rub and anoint their bodies with hares rennet need not feare their stinging If any be hurt by a scorpion Goats dung helpeth them but the better if it be boiled in vineger and in case
one be poisoned with swallowing down those venomous flies called Buprestes he shall find great help by eating lard and drinking the broth or decoction thereof Furthermore if a man round an asse in the eare and say closely That he is wounded by a scorpion the pain and grieuance thereof will immediatly passe away yea and any venomous thing whatsoeuer will flie from the fume of his lungs as it burneth also it is good for those who are stung by scorpions to be perfumed with the smoke of calues dung If a man be wounded by the biting of a mad dog some there be who cut round about the place to the very quick laying therto the raw flesh of a calfe and then giue the patient to drink the broth of the said flesh boiled or els hogs grease stamped with quick-lime Others highly praise the liuer of a buck Goat affirming that if it be once applied he shall not fall into that symptome of hydrophobie or fearing water incident to those that be bitten with a mad dog They commend also a liniment made of goats dung and wine or hony tempered together like as the decoction of a grey or badger of a cuckow and a swallow taken in drink For the biting of other beasts it is an ordinary practise to lay vnto the sore dry cheese made of goats milk together with origan but they giue direction to drink the same in some conuenient liquor in case one be bitten by a mans tooth they prescribe boeuse sodden and applied howbeit the flesh of a calf is more effectual with this charge that this cataplasm be not remoued before the fift day It is a common saying that the muffle or snout of a Wolfe kept long dried is a countercharm against all witchcraft and sorcery which is the reason that they vsually set it vpon gates of countrey ferms The same force the very skin is thought to haue which is flaied whole of it self without any flesh from the nape of the neck And in truth ouer and aboue the properties which I haue reported already of this beast of such power and vertue it is that if horses chance to tread in the tracts of a Wolfe their feet will be immediatly benummed and astonied Also their lard is a remedy for those who are empoisoned by drinking quick-siluer Asses milke if it be drunke doth dull and mortifie the force of any poison but more particularly if any haue taken Henbane the viscous gum of the herb Chamaeleon Hemlock the sea-Hare the iuice of Carpathum the poison Pharicum or Dorycnium also in case that crudled milk haue done harm to any for surely it is no better than poison especially the first beestings if it quaile and cruddle in the stomacke To conclude Asses milke hath many other medicinable properties which we will speake of hereafter But remember alwaies to vse this milke whiles it is fresh and new drawne out of the vdder or els not long after then it must be warmed for there is not any milk that sooner loseth the vertue Moreouer the bones of an Asse well broken bruised and sodden are giuen for a counterpoison against the venome of the sea-Hare And for all these purposes before said the milke and bones of the wild Asses be thought more effectuall As touching wild horses the Greeks haue written nothing because throughout all Greece there are none of them to be seene Howbeit whatsoeuer medicinable vertues be attributed to horses the same we must think more forcible in the wild than in others Neither had the Greeks any experience of those Neat or Buffles called Vri and Bisontes yet the forest of India be ful of wild buls kine Now by good reason and proportion we are to think that whatsoeuer commeth from them is more auaileable in Physicke than from the tame of that kind And verily Cow milk is said to be a generall counterpoison able to kill any of those venoms abouenamed Ouer and besides if the dangerous Lilly called Ephemerum Colchicum be taken inwardly and setled in the stomack or if the greene flies Cantharides haue bin giuen in drink the said milke will send vp all againe by vomit And as for the Cantharides the broth of Goats flesh will doe the like Against those corrosiue poisons which kill by exulceration the tallow of a calfe or any Boeufe is a soueraigne medicine As for the danger that commeth by drinking Horse-leaches Butyr made of Cows milk is a singular remedy if it be taken with vineger heat with a gad of steele The same alone without any other thing is a good counterpoison for if oile be wanting butter may serue the turn as well Being ioined with hony it healeth the sores occasioned by the biting of the Porcelets called Multipedae The broth made of their tripes if it be drunke is thought to kil any poison abouenamed and besides the Aconite and Hemlock so doth the suet of a Calfe Greene cheese made of Goats milk is good for them that haue drunk the venomous viscositie issuing out of the herb Chamaeleon called Ixias but their milke is a remedy against the flies Cantharides and the venomous hearbe Ephemerum if it bee drunke with the grape Taminia Goats bloud sodden together with the marrow is taken against the poisons called Toxica and kids bloud against the rest The rennet found in the maw of a kid hath a peculiar vertue to mortifie the venom of the foresaid viscous gum Ixia as also of the herb it self Chamaeleon the white yea and Buls bloud for which the rennet of an Hare with vineger is a singular defensatiue Against the venomous Raie or Puffen called Pastinaca Marina the pricke or sting also of any sea-fish the said rendles of an Hare Kid or Lamb is a singular antidot taken to the weight of one dram in wine As for the rennet of an Hare it is one of the ordinary ingredients that go to the composition of all preseruatiues and counterpoisons There is a kind of Butterflie that vseth to fly about candles as they are burning which is reckoned among poisons The aduersatiue remedy against it is a Goats liuer like as their gal is soueraigne against any venomous drinkes made of the rusticke weazill CHAP. XI ¶ Receits and remedies for many kinds of maladies taken from sundry beasts BVt now will I returne to the remedies appropriate to diseases respectiue to the particular members of the body and first to begin at the head Bears grease mixed with Ladanum and that kind of Maidenhaire which is called Adiantum retaineth the haire of the head which is giuen to fall off also the places that be already bare it replenisheth again with new haire the same being incorporat with the fnngous excrescence growing about the candle-snuffe as also with the soot found sticking to the sockets of lamps and candlestickes causeth the haire of the eie-lids to come thick Mixed with wine it is good against the skurfe and dandruffe among the hairs for which purpose serueth the ashes
of white Ellebore for the pin and web others againe with wine against cicatrices pearles obscurity of sight filmes and spots But for the eie-lids after the haire which pricked and offended the eie is pulled out they applie it with the iuice of Beets suffering the said liniment to dry vpon the eie-lids If any tunicles of the eie be broken they take womans milk to apply vnto it In sum for al infirmities of the eies whatsoeuer they hold a goats gall which is old and hath bin long kept to be more soueraigne and effectuall in operation than any other Neither doe they reiect the dung of this beast but repute a liniment made of it and honey to be as good for waterie eyes as the marrow for the paine thereof likewise the lungs of an hare And verily the gall of an hare as it is commonly reported incorporat with câ—…it or honey and so applied helpeth those that be dim-sighted Furthermore they ordaine to rub and annoint the eies against their inflammation and bleerednesse either with woolues greace or else with swines marrow And no maruell for they say That whosoeuer vse to carry about them in a bracelet a foxes tongue shall neuer be troubled with sore eies For the pain infirmities incident to the ears there is not a better nor more excellent thing than the vrin of a wild bore saued and kept in a glasse the gall likewise of a wild bore or sow as also of a boeufe mixt with Cicinie oile and oile Rosat in equall quantity is a singular remedy but especially buls gall dropped into the ears warm with the iuice of Porret or els with hony in case they be impostumat within and run with water The same alone by it selfe warmed in the rind of a pomegranate is excellent to take away the ranke and strong sauour of the eares and if any part within be broken the said gall instilled with womans milke healeth it effectually Some there be who ordaine the eares to be well washed with it so prepared for to remedy the difficulty and hardnesse of hearing others vse to put into the eares wooll washed before in hot water and inclose therewith a peece of a serpents slough with vineger but if the deafenesse be the greater they infuse the said gall into the eares tempered with Myrrhe and Rue and so made hot all together in the pill of a Pomegranate Fat lard also is good for this purpose and the greene dung of an Asse instilled with oile Rosat prouided alwaies that all these medicines be warme when they be dropped into the eares But the fome that a horse doth froth is better than all these or the ashes of horse dung fresh made and burned mixed with oile of Roses In this case likewise are commended boeufe suet goose grease and fresh butter The vrine of a Goat or bull yea and stale chamber-lie which fullers vse made hot and the vapour thereof receiued into the eare at the narrow mouth or necke of a bottle cureth the deafenesse thereof Some put thereto a third part of vineger and a quantitie of the pisse of a calfe which is yet a suckling and neuer tasted grasse yea and others there be which put thereto the dung mixed with the gall of the said calfe The skin or slough also which snakes cast off is very good to be applied vnto the ears but they ought to be well chaufed and set into an heat before Now are these medicines to be inclosed within wooll and so applied Moreouer calues tallow with Goose grease and the juice of Basill is good for the hearing also calues marrow incorporat together with the pouder of cumin and so powred into the ears The slimy sperme of a bore which passeth from the shap of a sow after she is brimmed if it may be gotten before it touch the ground is singular for the pain of the ears If the ears be crackt and hang flagging down there is nothing better than glue made of calues pizzles if the same be dissolued in water For other impediments of the ears the fat of foxes is very good In like manner Goats gall with oile of Roses warme or the juice of leeks or if there be any rupture within the ears the said gall must be applied with brest-milke For those who be hard of hearing or haue their eares running and suppurate within it is not amisse to drop into them a beasts gall with the vrine of a shee-goat or of the male it makes no matter But these medicines howsoeuer they are to be vsed are thought to be more effectual by far in case they were put into a goats horne and so hung in the smoke for the space of 20 dayes together Also there is great commendation of the rennet of an hare if there be one third part of a Roman denarius thereof and halfe a denare weight of gum Sagapene concorporat in Aminean wine As for the swelling impostumes behind the ears bears grease represseth and keepeth them downe if there be a cerot made thereof together with the equall weight of wax and bulls tallow some there be who put Hypoquist is thereto and butter alone is good to annoint them with so that they were fomented before with the decoction of Fenigreeke Howbeit of much better opperation it would be in case Nightshade were added thereto The stones of a fox buls bloud also dried and reduced to powder be commended in this case Moreouer the vrin of a she goat made warm and so dropped into the ears the dung likewise brought into a liniment with hogs grease is very good To come now to the infirmities of the teeth if they be loose and shake in their sockets the ashes of harts horn will settle them firme and fast again if they ake the same ashes are verie good to ease the paine whether the teeth be rubbed or washed therewith But some are of opinion that the pouder of the said horne not burnt at all is far better than the ashes in these cases howbeit there be dentifrices made both of the powder and also of the ashes Moreouer the ashes of a wolues head is thought to be a soueraigne remedy for the pains incident to the teeth Now it is well knowne that among the excrements of a wolfe there be many times bones found which if they be hanged about the necke arme or other parts of the body haue the same effect Likewise the crudled rendles of an hare infused into the eare are singular for the tooth-ache the ashes also which come of the head burnt is a pretty dentifrice for to rub the teeth withall but if you put Nard thereto it doth correct and palliat a stinking breath But some there be who chuse rather to mingle therewith the ashes of mice and rats heads There is found in the side of a hares head a certaine sharpe bone like vnto a needle herewith Physitians giue counsel to scarrifie the teeth and let the gums bloud for the tooth-ache Take
stop a lask and knit the belly for the flux proceeding from the imbecilitie of the stomacke for the dysenterie or bloudy flix for the ventosities and inflation of the belly for ruptures the straining vpon the seege without doing any thing for the wormes in the guts and for the cholique TO stay the running out and extraordinary loosnesse of the belly these medicines following be conuenient Imprimis the bloud of a stag Item the ashes of an harts horne the liuer of a bore fresh and without any salt at all taken in wine likewise the liuer of a sow rosted or of a male goat sodden in one hemine of water the crudled rennet in a hares maw drunk in wine to the quantity of a cich-pease or in water in case the patient haue an ague Some there be who put gall nuts thereto others content themselues with Hares bloud alone sodden with milke Also the ashes comming of horse dung drunke in water the ashes of that part of an old bulls horne which groweth next to the head strewed into a draught of water In like manner Goats bloud sodden vpon coles A Goats skin or fell haire and all boiled together yeeldeth a decoction which is good in this case to be drunke Contrariwise to loose the belly the runnet found in a Colts maw the bloud of a femal goat or els hermarrow or liuer are thought conuenient laxatiues Item a plaster made with a wolues gal together with the juice of a wild Cucumber and applied to the nauil Also a draught either of Mares or Goats milke taken with salt and hony The gall of a she-Goat is good for this purpose if it be taken with the iuice of Sowbread and a little Allum But some there be who think it better to put thereto salnitre and water Buls gall stamped and incorporat with Wormwood made into a round ball and so put vp in stead of a suppositorie will giue a stoole and make the body soluble Butter eaten in any great quantity is good for those who haue a flux occasioned by the weaknesse of the stomack and a dysenterie or bloudy flix so is a Cowes liuer the ashes of an Harts-horn taken to the quantity of as much as three fingers will comprehend in a draught of water likewise the rennet of an Hare wrought in dough for to make bread or if the patient do voyd bloud withall the same ought to be incorporat in parched Barley meale The ashes of a Bores Sowes or hares dung is good to spice a warme potion of wine in these infirmities Moreouer an ordinary Veale broth as it is commonly giuen is counted one of the remedies for these kind of fluxes abouenamed whether they come of feeble stomacke or exulcerat guts But if the patient drink Asses milk for this purpose it will be the better if hony be put thereto Furthermore the ashes of an Asse dung taken in wine is as effectual in operation as the rest for both diseases As also the first ordure of the Asse fole which we termed Polea in the former chapter The cruds or rennet of an horse fole maw called by some Hippace is soueraign for such lasks yea though the patient did shere bloud vpon the stoole The ashes also of horse dung and the pouder of Horse teeth is said to be singular yea and Calues milk sodden and so drunke But if the flux do proue to be a dysentery Physitians giue aduise to put therto a little hony if gripes come thick they prescribe the ashes of Harts horn or buls gall tempered with Cumin seed and the fleshy substance of a Gourd to be laid in maner of a cataplasme to the nauill The tender cheese curd of Cowes milke clysterized is passing good both for the stomack flux and also for the bloudie flix In like fort the butter made of Cows milk taken to the quantity of foure hemins with two ounces of right Terpentine either in the decoction of Mallowes or oile of Roses The suet of a Calfe or beasts tallow is likewise an ordinary remedy in these cases But diuers there be who seeth the marrow forth as well of the one as the other with meale wax and a little oile yet so as the broth be clear that it may be supped off Their marrow also is vsually incorporat in the past whereof bread is made and so taken with great successe Goats milke sodden vntill the halfe be consumed is reputed also a proper medicine And in case the guts besides be wrung griped there would be put thereto a little vnpressed wine of the first running called Mere-goutte howbeit some there be who think it sufficient for to appease the torments of the wombe to drinke Hares rennet but once in a draught of wine warm but the wiser sort and those that deale more warily think it good withall to make a liniment of goats bloud incorporat with barley meale and rosin therewith to anoint the belly And they also aduise their patients for any violent flux of the belly whatsoeuer to apply thereto soft cheese but if the flux be from the stomack or dysentericall they prescribe old cheese to be grated and giuen to the patient in wine with this proportion that in 3 cyaths of wine there be a third part of cheese Goats bloud boiled with this marrow is singular good for the dysentery or bloudy flix The liuer of a female goat rosted is a soueraign medicine for the fluxions of the stomack but it were better if the male Goats liuer were taken in drinke after it hath bin sodden in some green and austere wine or with oile of Myrtles reduced into a cataplasme and so laid to the nauill some seeth the same in water from six sextars to one hemine and put Rue thereto Others rost the milt of a goat male or female it skilleth not and vse it for the same purpose or else they take the suet of a buck goat with bread that hath bin baked on the harth vnder the embers But aboue all they hold that the suet taken from the kidnies of a she goat so drunk alone by it selfe is a singular remedy for these infirmities but they inioin the patient presently therupon to drink a little cold water Yet there be others who ordain the same suet to be boiled in water with fried barly groats Cumin Dill and vineger mixt all together And they giue order to such as haue the stomack flux to anoint their bellies with Goats dung sodden with honey And for both these fluxions as well from the stomack as the vlcer of the guts they prescribe the rennet of a Kid to the quantity of a Beane for to be drunk in Myrtle wine also a pudding made of the bloud thereof which kind of meat we call in Latine Sanguiculus Moreouer for the dysenterie they ordaine to iniect into the guts by a clystre Buls glue resolued in hot water For any ventosities Calues dung is holden to be singular good for to resolue them if
for carbuncles take the brains of a tame sow rost the same and apply it vnto the sores it is a soueraigne remedy Touching the scabs that men be subject vnto there is not the like medicine for killing the same to the marow of an asse a liniment made with the vrin of the said beast together with the earth vpon which he hath staled Butâ—…r likewise is very good in that case as also for the farcins sullanders and mallanders in horses if it be applied therto with rosin made hot so is strong buls gluedissolued in vineger with quick lime put thereto also goats gall tempered with the ashes of alume calcined For the red blisters and meazils likewise there is not a better medicine than the dung of a cow or oxe and therupon they tooke the name of Boae The mange in dogs is healed with beasts bloud so they be bathed therewith whiles it is fresh and warm and after the same is dried vpon the body to follow it a second time the same day the morrow after to wash them throughly with lie made of strong ashes If thorns spills bones and such like things haue gotten into the flesh and there sticke cars durg is very good to draw the same forth likewise the treddles of a goat with wine Any rendles also but especially that which is found in an hares maw serue in that case reduced into a salue with the pouder of frankincense and oile or else with the like quantity of birdlime or the cereous matter in the Bee-hiue called Propolis Furthermore the grease of an asse is singular to reduce any swe rt sploches and black skars to a fresh and natiue colour which if they ouergrow the skin about them are brought downe and made more euen and subtill by an inunction of calues gall but the Physitians prepare the sayd gall with an addition of myrrh hony and safron and then put it vp in a brasen box for their vse yet some there be who mingle with the rest verdegris or the rust of brasse CHAP. XIX ¶ Receits appropriat to the maladies of women and the diseases of sucking babes also remedies for them that are vnable to performe the act of generation TO begin with the naturall course of womens purgation the gall of a bul or oxe applied to their secâ—…et parts in vnwashed greasie wooll is very effectuall to bring the same down The skilfull midwife of Thebes Olympias vsed to put thereto hyssope and sal-nitre For this purpose harts horne burnt to ashes is very good to be taken in drinke But if the matrice be out of order and vnsetled it is not amisse to apply the same ashes vnto the naturall parts yea and buls gall together with Opium to the weigh of two oboli or else perfume their secret parts with a suffumigation of deers hair Moreouer it is said that the hinds when they perceiuethemselues to be in calf swallow down a little stone which is singular good for women with child to carry about them that they may go out their full time and therefore much seeking there is after this stone which is commonly found among their excrements at such a time or else in their womb if haply they be killed with calfe for then it is to be had there also Moreouer there are found certain little bones in the heart and matrice of an hinde and those bee passing good for great bellied women and such as be in â—…auel of child-birth As for that stony substance resembling a pumish which in like manner is found in the wombe of kine I haue spoken already in my discourse or Kine and their nature If the matrice of a woman be growne hard and haue a scirrhe in it the fat of a wolfe will mollifie it if it be grieued with paine the liuer of a wolfe assuageth the same When women be neare their time and ready to cry out it is good for them to eat wolues flesh or if when they fall first to trauell there be but one by them who hath eaten therof this is such an effectuall thing that if they were forespoken or indirectly dealt withall by sorcery witchcraft this is thought to ease them of paine and procure them speedy deliuerance But in case such a one as hath eaten wolues flesh chance to come into the chamber when a woman is in the mids of their trauell she shall surely haue a hard bargaine and die of it Moreouer great vse there is of the hare in all womens infirmities for the lungs of an hare dried made into pouder and taken in drinke is comfortable to the matrice and helpeth it in many accidents thereof the liuer drunk with Samian earth in water staieth the excessiue flux of their fleurs the rennet of their maw fetcheth away the after-birth when it staieth behind but then in any wise the woman must not bathe or sweat in bain theday before the same rennet appliedas a cataplasme vpon a quilt of wooll with Safron the juice of porret forceth the dead infant within the mothers wombe to come forth Many are of opinion that if a woman eat with her meat the matrice of an hare she shall thereupon conceiue a man child if she company with her husband And some say that the genetoirs of the male hare yea the rendles are good for that purpose And it is thought that if a woman who hath giuen ouer bearing children doe eat the young leueret taken forth of the dams belly when she is newly bagd she wil find the way again to conceiue breed freshly as before but the magitians do prescribe the husband also to drink the bloud of an hare for so say they he shall sooner get his wife with child And they affirme moreouer that if a maiden be desirous her brests or paps should not grow any more but stand alwaies at one stay knit vp round and small she is to drink 9 treddles or grains of hares dung and for the same intent they aduise a virgin to rub her bosom with a hares rennet hony together also to anoint the place with hares bloud where the haire is plucked off if they be desirous that it should not grow again As touching the ventosities and inflation of the matrice it is good to vse thereto a liniment made of bores or swines dung incorporat with oile but in this disease it were better for to represse the said windines flatuosity to spice a cup with the pouder of the same dung dried giue it to the woman to drink for whether she be vexed with wrings whiles she is with child or pained with afterthrows in childbed she shall find much ease by that potion Furthermore it is said that sows milk giuen with honied wine to a woman that is in labour helps her to speedy deliuerance Let a woman newly brought to bed drink the same milk alone she will proue a good milch nource and haue her brests strut with milke but
it helpeth them when they breed teeth or haue their gums sore or mouth exulcerat If there be hung about the neck of a little infant the tooth of a wolfe it keepeth them from starting or skriching in their sleep for feare and allaieth the pain which they feele in toothing the same doth also a wolues skin And verily the great master teeth and grinders of a wolfe beeing hanged about an horse necke cause him that he shall neuer tire and be weary be he put to neuer so much running in any race whatsoeuer Let a nurce anoint her brest with the rennet of an hare the babe that she giueth sucke vnto shall by that means be knit in the belly and not be troubled with the laske The liuer of an Asse with a little of the herb Panax mingled withal dropped into the mouth of an infant preserueth it from the falling sicknes and other dangerous diseases but this they say must be don for forty daies together If a child be lapped in a mantle or bearing-cloth made of an asse skin it shall not be affrighted at any thing The colts teeth that first fall from an horse-fole if they be hung about yong childrens necks ease them much of the pain that they haue in breeding teeth but more effectuall they be in case they neuer touched the ground The milt of a boeufe eaten with honey and the same reduced to a liniment and applied accordingly is good for the pain of the spleen put hony thereto it healeth the running skals that trouble children The milt of a calfe sodden in wine stamped and brought into a liniment healeth the cankers or little sores in the mouth that yong infants be subiect vnto The Magitians haue a deuise to take the brains of a female goat let it passe through a gold ring to drop the same into the mouth of infants new born before the teat be giuen vnto them which they say is singular good against the falling sicknes and other infirmities that to such babes are incident Goats dung wrapt within a piece of cloth and so hanged about a yong child stilleth it being neuer so froward or vnquiet and a girl especially The gums of yong babes washed with goats milk or annointed with hares braines cause them to haue great ease in toothing Cato is of opinion that whosoeuer vseth to eat hares flesh shall sleep well And the common sort of people are persuaded that the meat of this kind of venison causeth them that feed vpon it to look fair louely gracious for a week together afterwards For mine own part I think verily it is but a toy and meere mockery howbeit there must needs be some cause reason of this setled opinion which hath thus generally caried the world away to think so the magitians affirm for certain that if the eies be anointed with the gal of a female goat such only as had bin offred in sacrifice or laid vnder the pillow in bed it wil procure them to take their repose who were far out of sleep the ashes of a goats horn incorporat into an vnguent with oile of myrtles keeps those from diaphoretical sweats who are anointed therwith A liniment made of bores gall prouoketh vnto carnal lust the same effect there is of that virulent slime which Virgil the Poet describeth to drop from a mares shap against the time that she is to be couered also the stones of an horse so dried that they may be reduced into pouder for to be put in drink moreouer the right genetoir of an asse drunk in wine as need requireth or tied in a bracelet fast to the arme inciteth to venerie furthermore the frothie sperme that an asse sheddeth after he hath couered the female gathered vp in a peece of red cloth and inclosed within siluer so caried about one is of great power in this case as Osthanes mine author saith But Salpe a famous courtizan giueth direction to plunge the genitall member of this beast seuen times together in hot oile and with the said oile to anoint the share and parts therabout Bialcon aduiseth to drink the ashes of the said member or the stale of a bull presently after hee hath done his kind to a cow and with the earth that is moistened and made mire with the said stale to anoint the priuy parts Contrariwise there is not a thing that cooleth the lust of a man more than to annoint the said parts with the dung of myce and rats To conclude for to auoid drunkennesse take the lungs of an hog be it bore or sow it matters not in like manner of a kid and rost it whosoeuer eateth thereof fasting shall not be drunke that day how liberally soeuer he take his drinke CHAP. XX. ¶ Strange and wonderfull things obserued in beasts THere be other admirable properties and vertues reported of the same beast ouer besides those before rehearsed for it is said that whosoeuer do find and take vp an horse shoe shaken from the houfe an ordinary thing that happeneth vpon the way when a horse casteth his shooe and lay the same vp they shall find a remedy for the yox if they do but call to mind and thinke vpon the place where they bestowed the same Also that the liuer of an Hare is in this regard for curing of the hicket like to an horse shooe Moreouer if an horse doe follow in chase after a wolfe and chance to tread vpon the tracts where the wolfe hath run he will be broken winded and burst euen vnder the man vpon his backe It is thought moreouer that the ankle-bones of swine haue a property to make debate and quarrels Also when any sheep-pens or oxe-stals be on a fire if some of the dung be cast forth the sheepe and oxen that be within will sooner be gotten and drawne forth and neuer come thither again Furthermore that goats flesh will haue no ranke smell or taste if so be the same day that they were killed they did eat barley bread or drinke water wherein Laser was infused Besides that no flesh which is powdred well with salt in the wane of the moone shall euer corrupt and be subiect to worme or maggot But see how diligent and curious our ancestors haue bin in searching out the secrets of euery thing insomuch as we find obserued by them That a deafe Hare will sooner feed and grow fat than another that heareth And to come vnto leechcraft belonging to beasts it is said that if an horse void bloud excessiuely it is good to poure or iniect into the body hogs dung with wine As for the maladies of kine and oxen tallow sulphur-vif crow garlick a sodden hens egge are singular good medicines to be giuen euery one of them beaten together in wine the fat also of a fox is good in that case If swine be diseased the broth made of horse-flesh sodden is very good to be giuen them in their wash to drinke And in what disease soeuer
the said wal-lice and the bloud of a Tortoise together also to chase away serpents with the smoak or perfume of them likewise if any beast which hath swallowed down horse-leeches do take them in drink they will either kill them or driue them out yea and in what part soeuer they are settled and sticke fast they will remoue them and make them to fall off And yet some there be who vse this nastie and stinking creature in eie-salues for they incorporat them in salt womans milk and therwith annoint their eies yea and drop them into the eares with honey and oile rosat mingled together Others there be who vse to burne these punaises or wal-lice such especially as be of a wild kind and breed vpon Mallowes and incorporat their ashes in oile of Roses and instill them into the eares Touching other medicinable properties which they attribute vnto them namely for impostumes and botches that are broken and run for the Quartan agne and many more maladies although they giue direction to swallow them down in an egge or else enclosed within wax or a beane I hold them for lies and therefore not worthy to be related in sadnesse Marie I will not say but there is some probabilitie and apparence of reason why they should put them in those medicines which are ordained for the lethargie for surely they are knowne to be very proper against that drow sines which is occasioned by the venome of the Aspis to which effect seuen of them be ordinarily giuen in a cyath of water or but foure if the patient be a child In case of strangurie also when a man pisseth dropmeale they vse to put wall-lice into a syring and so conueigh them into the passage of the yard See the goodnesse and industrie of dame Nature the mother of all how she hath produced nothing in the world but to good purpose and with great reason And yet here is not all that they report of these lice called punaises For they say that whosoeuer carie two of them in a bracelet about his left arme within a lock of wooll but the same forsooth must be stollen from some shepheard he shall be secured against those agues that come ordinarily in the night season but say their fits vse to returne by day time then the said punices ought to be lapped in a reddish clout of a carnation colour Contrariwise the worme called Scolopendra is an enemie vnto these wall-lice and killeth them As for the Aspides look whomsoeuer they haue stung they die vpon it with a kind of deadly sleepinesse and benummednesse in all their lims and to say a truth of all serpents that creep vpon the ground they are most mortall and their wounds least curable Their venome if it enter once so farre that it come to bloud or doe but touch a greene wound there is no remedie but present death marie if it light vpon an old sore the danger is not so speedie nor the force so quick Otherwise let the same be taken in drinke to what quantitie soeuer it is harmelesse and doth no hurt at all for setting aside that sencelesse drowsinesse wich it inflicteth putrifaction and infection it causeth none which is the reason that the flesh of those beasts which die of their sting is meat good enough I would pause and make some stay in reporting a remedie that these Aspides do yeeld but that I haue my warrant from M. Varro whom I know to haue deliuered the same euen when he was fourescore yeeres old and eight namely That there is not in the world so good a thing to cure the bitings of the Aspides as to giue the party who is wounded thereby some of their vrine to drinke To come now vnto the Basiliske whom all other serpents do flie from and are affraid of albeit he killeth them with his very breath and smel that passeth from him yea and by report if he do but set his eie on a man it is enough to take away his life yet the Magicians set great store by his bloud and tell wonders thereof and namely that being of it selfe as blacke and as thick congealed as pitch yet when it is washed and dissolued it looketh more cleare and pure than Cinnabaris Vnto it they attribute strange and admirable effects For whosoeuer say they carie it about them shall gratious with princes or great potentats yea and at their hands obtaine a grant of all their petitions they shall find fauour with the gods aboue and speed in all their praiers remedie they shall haue of all diseases and no sorcerie or witchcraft shall take hold of them And some of them there be who call it the bloud of Saturne As for Dragons they haue no venome in them And if it be true that our Magicians say if a Dragons head be laid vnder the threshold of a dore after due worship and adoration of the gods with praiers supplications vnto them for their fauourable grace that house shall surely be fortunat The eies of a Dragon preserued drie pulverised and incorporat with hony into a liniment cause by their saying those who be annointed all ouer therewith to sleepe securely without any dread of night-spirits though otherwise they were fearfull timerous by nature Moreouer if we may beleeue them the fat growing about the heart of a Dragon lapped within a peece of a Buckes or Does skin and so tied fast to the arme with the nerues or sinues of a red Deere is very auaileable and assurerh a man good successe in all sutes of law The first spondyle or turning joint in the chine of a Dragon doth promise an easie and fauourable accesse vnto the presence of princes great states The teeth of a Dragon lapped within the skin of a roe buck or wild Goat and so bound fast with the sinewes of a Stag or Hind do mitigat the rigor of great lords and potentats causing them to incline to their petitions and requests who present themselues before them But aboue all other receits one composition there is which bewraieth the impudent and lying humor of these Magicians who promise vndoubted and infallible victory to those that haue it about them and this it is Take say they the taile and head both of a Dragon the haire growing vpon the forehead of a Lion with a little also of his marrow the froth moreouer that an Horse fometh at the mouth who hath woon the victory and prise in running a race and the nailes besides of a dogs feet bind all these together with a piece of leather made of a red Deere skin with the sinues partly of a Stag and partly of a fallow Deere one with another in alternatiue course carrie this about you and it will worke wonders Impostures all and loud lies And verily it is as gratious a deed to discouer and lay abroad these impudencies of theirs as to shew the remedies for the sting of serpents considering how these deuices
for this purpose are those of Barbarie It is not long agoe that this experiment was found but since it was once known many haue done themselues much good thereby But that which I had well neare forgotten many obserue to take them in some od number Howbeit as holesome as they are supposed to be otherwise this discommoditie is found by them That they cause those to haue a strong and stinking breath that vse to eat them Being stamped without their shels and so drunk in water they helpe them that reach bloud vpward But that you may know that there be degrees of them in goodnes The best snailes simply are they of Barbary and namely those about the quarter neere Soli Next to them are much esteemed such as are gathered in the Islands Astypelaea and Sicilia for they are of a meane bignesse for such as be grown very great haue their flesh hard and bevoid of humidity Then are ranged in a third place those that come from the Baleare Islands called Cavaticae because they breed in caues and holes There be good also brought from the Islands Capreae Holesom these shel-snailes may be well ynough but toothsome surely they are not whether they be old kept or new taken Those that be found in riuers which haue white shels cary a rank and strong sauour with them so do the wild sort that are not kept vp and fed in stewes pits and be hurtfull to the stomack but good to loosen the bellie euen so are all the sort of the little ones But contrariwise those that breed in the sea are better for the stomack than others and most effectuall to allay the pains therof Moreouer it is said that they do most good of what kind soeuer if they be swallowed downe aliue all whole with vinegre Moreouer there be of these snailes called Aceratae of a broad making and growing in many and sundry formes of whose properties and how they are to be vsed I wil write elswhere in place conuenient The inner skin of a Hen or Capons gesier preserued till it be drie and reduced into pouder and so put into a cup of drinke like spice the same also eaten fresh newly rosted or broiled is singular for the catarrhes that fall into the breast and for a moist cough Shel-snails punned raw giuen in a supping with three cyaths of warm water serue wel to appease stay the cough Take a piece of a dogs skin and tie the same about any one of your fingers which you will it staies all rheumes and distillations The broth made of Patridges is soueraigne to comfort and refresh the stomack As touching the griefe oâ—… pain of the liuer it is said That the flesh of a wild Weazill or her liuer eaten is a singular meat therfore so be Ferrets rosted in manner of little pigs The worms with many feet called sowes or cheselips are very proper for them that draw their wind short but there must be one and twentie of them neither more nor lesse dissolued in the best Atticke hony and so giuen in drink and swallowed down by a pipe or tunill the reason why they must be thus conueied through such a cane or tunill is this because looke what cup or boule they so touch they staine the same black Some take of them to the quantitie of one sextar and torrifie them vpon a pan or platter vntill they looke white and be calcined and then incorporat them in hony there be Latine writers who call this worme Centipeda as if it had an hundred feet and then giue direction that they should be taken in hot water Furthermore it is said That if the patient do either eat or drinke for the space of nine daies together one snaile hot stamped shell and all in three cyaths of wine cuit he shall find helpe if he were giuen either to faint and swoune or to be lunatick and to go beside himselfe or else be subject to the dizzinesse of the head Others giue order to take them after another maner namely one the first day the morrow twain the third day three the fourth two and the fift one again and in this wise they cure those who are shortwinded or haue an impostume broken within their bodie There is a kinde of Insect resembling a Locust but that it hath no wings which in Greek is called Tryxalis a Latine name it hath not found yet as some do thinke and writers there be not a few who are of opinion That it is the same that our Gryllus or criquet Call it what you will let there be twenty of them torrified and drunk in honied wine it is reported for to be a singular medicine for those that cannot take their breath but sitting vpright and for such as spit bloud There is one writer who ordaineth to take snailes vnwashed and to poure vpon them either the Mere-gout of the grape that runneth on t first without pressing or else sea-water and so to boile them therein and afterwards to eat them for a cough And the same Authour giueth counsell to pun them shels and all and to take them with the foresaid Mere-gout to the same effect Touching inward impostumes broken the hony wherein a number of Bees haue bin drowned to death hath a peculiar vertue to heale them The lungs of a Vulture burned to pouder in a fire made of Vine-cuttings giuen in wine morning euening if the patient be free from the ague so there be put thereto one moitie of Pomegranat floures and the floures of Quinces and Lillies as much of each is a very soueraign remedie for those that cast vp bloud out of their bodie but if he be in a feauer the same medicine would be taken in the decoction of Quinces As for the paine of the spleene if we may beleeue the receits and prescriptions of the Magicians the patient ought to haue the milt or spleen of a sheep spread and laid ouer the place but the patient that hath the application thereof must say these words withall This I do to cure the spleene Which done and said the same milt of the sheep must be laid vp close and hidden within the wall or behind the seeling of the bed chamber where the sick body lieth and sealed vp with a signet for feare it should be taken away with this charge that he or she that hath the bestowing of it repeat the foresaid charme nine times thrice ouer If a dogs bellie be ripped aliue and the spleen taken forth whosoeuer eateth thereof shall find it very good to ease them of the said maladie But some content themselues with laying it fresh and warme to the region of the spleen Others giue the spleen of a young whelpe but two daies old in squillitick vinegre to the patient but they make not the patient acquainted with the medicine what it is or else they minister the spleen of an Hedgehog in the same manner Likewise they giue the
taught That Aphro-nitrum is gathered in Asia and found within certain soft and gritty caues distilling out of rocks These causes because they be vaulted and arched ouer head the inhabitants call Cochlacas which afterwards they doe drie in the Sun and the best is thought that of Lydia The true marke to know good sal-petre is to be very light in hand exceeding brittle easie to crumble inclining also much to the colour of purple this is brought from thence to vs in trochischs As for the Aegyptian Aphro-nitre or Salt-petre it comes in vessels wel pitched because it should not melt and resolue into water Those vessels also beforenamed ought to be throughly dried dressed in the Sun As for nitre the best is chosen by these marks namely if it bee passing fine cleare but withal spongious very ful as it were of pipes and holes Many do sophisticat it in Aegypt with quicklime but this deceit may be easily found by the tast for the good and true sal-nitre will soone melt and dissolue at the tongues end whereas the other that is not right pricketh and biteth in the mouth moreouer if it haue a sprinckling of lime among it carrieth a strong smell with it When it is calcined in some earthen pot it ought to be well couered with a lid lest it leap or fly out otherwise in the fire it selfe it sparkleth not nor leapeth forth neither groweth any thing els in those places where sal-nitre is ingendred wheras in salt-pits grasse commeth vp As for the Sea what a number of liuing creatures breedeth it and what plenty of reike and weeds besides And not only by this argument appeareth it that there is more acrimonie and sharpnesse in sal-nitre than in salt but also herein That no shooes will abide the nitre pits but presently fret and weare for otherwise wholsome they be and soueraign for the eies neither was it euer seen that any men who handled these pits of nitre and wrought therein were euer blind Moreouer this commodity they haue That if a man come thither hauing a sore or vlcer vpon him the same will soone be healed vp and skinned cleane but if one chance to bee wounded or hurt there long it will be ere he be cured thereof Salnitre prouoketh sweat if the body be annointed with it and oile together and it maketh the skin soft and tender That which is called Chalastraeum serueth in lieu of salt in making bread whereas the Aegyptian nitre is vsed with radishes for it maketh them more tender As for cates and meats if they bee powdred withall they will look white and be worse for it whereas all woorts either for pot or sallad will seeme the greener To come now vnto physick and the medicinable vertues of salnitre hot it is of temperature and doth extenuat biting besides and astringent a great drier it is doth exulcerat In regard of which qualities imployed it is in those accidents which require either drawing to the extetior parts or to be discussed and resolued such also as need some gentle mordication or would be lightly extenuated as meazils small pocks wheals and pimples Some for this purpose first make it red hot in the fire and then quench it with some astringent wine which done they beat and reduce it to pouder and therewith rub and chaufe the body in the bains without any addition of oyle to it mixt with the pouder of dried flour-de-lis incorporat in green oile oliue it represseth immoderat swets a liniment made therwith figs together doth extenuat the films in the eies and the asperity of the eie-lids it doth subtiliat the same operation hath it besides if it be sodden in wine cuit to the consumption of the one halfe and so is it good for the spots that arise in the eies The decoction of nitre boiled within the rind of a pomegranat in wine cuit cure the sore nails and the raggednesse thereof and reduced into an ointment with honey it cleareth the eie-sight a collution made therof sodden in wine with pepper easeth the tooth-ach if the mouth and gums be washed therewith so doth the decoction thereof with leeks Burn or calcine nitre into pouder it maketh an excellent dentifrice for blacke teeth and reduceth them again to their naturall whitenesse annoint the head with nitre Terra Samia incorporat together in oile it killeth the lice and nits that breed therein dissolued in wine and poured into the ears that run attyr it cureth them dropt into them with vineger it eateth and consumeth the filthy excrements of that part conueied dry into the said ears it discusseth the singing ringing therein A liniment made of nitre and fullers earth of each a like weight incorporat with vineger taketh away the foule morphew if the skin be annointed therwith mixed with rosin or with raisons of white grapes stamped stones and all it draweth vncoms and fellons to an head and breaks them reduced into an ointment with swines grease it preserueth the genitoirs from inflammation cureth them good likewise for the measils and small pocks which break out in all parts of the body put rosin thereto and incorporat them both in a liniment with vineger it healeth the biting of a mad dog so it be taken betimes at the beginning and in this manner it cureth also the sores occasioned by the sting of serpents eating vlcers which consume to the bone such likewise as be corrosiue and apt for putrefaction so it be mixed with quick-lime and tempered with vineger Stamp nitre with figs and bring it into the form of a cataplasme or liniment it doth much good for the dropsie the ventosities causing wringings and painful gripes of the belly it discusseth if the decoction thereof be drunk namely when to the weight of one dram it is sodden with rue dill or cumin Annoint their bodies all ouer who are weary with nitre oile and vineger you shal see how effectuall it is to refresh them and driue away their lassitude Rub and chaufe both hands and feet with nitre oile wrought together is singular good against quaking and shiuering cold giuen with vineger especially in a swet to those who are painted with the jaundise it represseth the itch that troubleth them if a man be poisoned with taking venomous mushroms he shall find means to auoid the danger thereof by drinking nitre in oxycrat or vineger water mingled together Hath one swallowed down the hurtfull fly Buprestis let him take a draught of sal-nitre in water it wil saue him for it causes vomit to those that haue drunk buls bloud it is vsually giuen with the spice Laser incorporat with honey and cow milk it healeth the breaking out and the exulcerations in the face Torrifie nitre vntill it begin to look blacke beat it then to pouder and cast the same vpon a raw place that is burnt it wil take out the fire and skin it vp again for the
pain of the belly and the kidnies for the stiffenesse and starknesse of the lims the grieuance also of the sinews it serueth well in a clystre lay it to the tongue with bread it is soueraigne for the palsie or resolution of the sinews it helpes those that be short-winded if they take it in a Ptisan or with husked barly The floure of nitre incorporat in Galbanum and the rosin called terpentine of each an equall weight and reduced into a lohoch so as the patient swallow down the quantity of a Bean at once cures an old cough Burn or calcine nitre temper it afterwards with liquid pitch or tar and giue it to drink it cureth the squinancy The floure of nitre incorporat with the oile Cyprinum makes a pleasant liniment to annoint the body withal in the Sun for the gout or any paine of joints drunk in wine it doth exterminat and driue away for euer the jaundise it scattereth and discusseth ventosities it stoppeth bleeding at the nose if the patient receiue into the nosthrils the vapour of it out of boiling water mixed well with alume it riddeth away an itch foment or bath the arme pits duly euery day therewith in water it correcteth the ranke smell thereof Make a liniment or cerot of nitre and wax tempered together it healeth the vlcers occasioned by fleam after which maner it is good also for the sinews Being injected by a clystre it helpeth the flux of the belly proceeding from a feeble stomack Many Physitians haue giuen direction to annoint the body all ouer with sal-nitre and oile before the cold fits of agues which ointment serueth likewise for the leprosie and the vnseemly spots or freckles that blemish the skin To sit in a tub of nitre within the bains therwith to bath the body is a soueraigne thing for those that haue the gout be in consumption and either draw backward with the crampe or stretched and plucked so strait and stiffe therewith that they seem all of one entire piece Sal-nitre if it bee boiled together with sulphur turneth to be as hard as a stone CHAP. XI ¶ The nature of Spunges MAny sorts there be of Spunges according as I haue shewed already more amply in my treatise of water-beasts and those especially of the Sea and their seuerall natures howbeit some writers distinguish them after another manner into male and female for some of them they haue thought to be of the male sex to wit those which haue smaller pipes or concauities and those growing thicker and more compact whereby they sucke vp more moisture and these our delicat and dainty people die in colours and otherwhile giue them a purple tincture Others they count of the femal sex namely such as haue bigger pipes the same running throughout one continuity without interruption Of the male kind some be harder than others which they call Tragos the pipes whereof are the finest and stand thickest together There is an artificiall deuise to make spunges look white to wit if the softest and tendrest of them be taken whiles they be fresh in summer time and so bathed soked wel in the some of salt after which they ought to be laid abroad in the moon-shine to receiue the thick dew or hoary frosts if any fall with their bellies vpward into the aire I meane that part whereby they cleaue fast to rocke or sand where they grew that therby they may take their whitening That spunges haue life yea and a sensible life I haue proued heretofore for there is found of their bloud settled within them Some writers report that they haue the sense of hearing which directs them to draw in their bodies at any sound or noisemade and therwith to squize out plenty of water which they contained within neither can they easily be pulled from their rocks and therefore must be cut away wherby they are seen to shed a deale of bloud or that which resembleth bloud very neer Many do prefer the Spunges growing in places exposed to the North-wind before any other neither doe any hold and maintaine longer in any place their owne breath as Physicians doe hold who affirme that for this regard they be good for our bodies namely if wee entermingle their breath with ours by application for which purpose the fresher taken and the moister they be the better they are thought but this their operation is lesse perceiued in case they be wet in hot water and so applied likewise if they be soked in any vnctuous liquor or bee laid vpon any part of the body anointed This also is obserued by them that the thickest of them to wit such as haue the least pipes sticke not so hard to a place as others As touching the softest and finest spunges called Penicilli if they be applied vnto the eies after they haue beene soked in honyed wine they do allay and bring down any swelling in them The same are abstersiue and singular good to clarifie and cleanse the eies that be giuen to bleerednesse but those I say ought to be of the finest and softest kind For to stay the violent flux of rheumaticke humors into the eies there is nothing better than to apply spunges of any sort with oxycrat that is to say vinegre and water but with vinegre alone actually hot they be singular for the head-ach and otherwise any spunge that is fresh gotten doth discusse mollifie mitigat Old spunges do conglutinat and souder any wounds There is a generall vse of all spunges to wipe and mundifie any place to foment and bath withall to keep off the aire also and to couer it after fomentation vntill another medicine be made ready for to be laid on fresh Moreouer they be desiccatiue therfore if they be applied to rheumatick and moist vlcers and namely in old folke they dry vp the superfluous humors that find a way thither neither is there any thing so fit for to foment a fracture or green wound as spunges Also when any part of the body is cut off or dismembred what is so handsome to suck and soke away the bloud quickly that the cure may be throughly seen the order thereof as a spunge Furthermore spunges themselues serue to be laid to wounds somtime drie and somtime dewed or sprinkled with vinegre one while wet in wine anotherwhile moistened with cold water and all to defend them from inflammation but if they be bathed in raine water and so applied to members new cut they will not suffer them to swell and impostumat They are besides laid vsually to the sound parts where no skin is broken if there be any hidden and secret humor that runs vnder the place and puts it to paine and trouble such as needeth to be discussed or resolued also to impostumes if they be first annointed with boiled hony In like manner for the paine of the joints they are proper to be applied one while wet in vinegre with salt another while dipped in vinegre
the said Tortoise a long while in wine Moreouer the gall of Tortoises mixed with hony amendeth all the imperfections incident to the eies if they bee annointed therewith yea if it were a cataract the gall of a sea Tortoise tempered with the bloud of a riuer Torroise and womans milk riddeth and scoureth it away The said gall is very proper to giue a yellow die or colour to womens haire Against the poison of Salamanders sufficient it is to drinke the broth or decoction of a Tortoise As touching those kind of Tortoises that liue and breed in mud and moorie waters which I reckoned to be the third kind broad they be and flat in the backe as well as vpon the brest neither doth their shell arise arch-wise in manner of a vault these are il favored to see to and yet as louelesse as they be they are not without some medicinable vertues and remedies for take 3 of them and throw them into a fire made of Vine twigs or their cuttings when their shels or couers begin to diuide in sunder and part one from another pull them hastily out of the fire pluck the flesh out of their shels seeth them in a gallon of water with a little quantity of salt put thereto thus let them boyle vntill a third part of the liquor be consumed This broth or decoction if it be drunken is thought to be soueraign for those that be troubled either with the palsie gout or paine of joints The gall of these Tortoises purgeth also phlegmaticke humours and corrupt bloud out of the body And after that this medicine hath don his part and set the belly in a loosenesse a draught of cold water knitteth it againe and staieth all To come now vnto the fourth kind of Tortoises which keepe in fresh riuers they affoord an excellent remedy for to rid away a quartane ague in this manner prepared and vsed first take certain tortoises diuide one piece from another take out the fat within stamp the same with the herb called housleek and Lineseed incorporate all into an ointment let the patients be annointed therewith before the fit commeth all ouer the body saue the head only and when they be well lapped with cloathes about them giue them some hot drink This I say is thought to be a soueraigne medicine against the said ague But a tortoise to be applied for this purpose ought to be taken at the full of the moone because there may be more fat found in her Mary the sick body must not be anointed men say at any time but two daies after The bloud of tortoises which are of this fourth kinde if it be dropped on the head by way of embrochation appeaseth the head-ach that vseth to return and come often by fits the same also applied vnto the kings euill cureth it Some are of opinion that the better to let tortoises bloud and according to art as requisit it is in such cases of physick they ought to be laid along with their bellies vpward and so their heads to be cut off with a brasen knife and then they giue order to receiue the bloud in a new earthen vessel neuer occupied before which bloud is excellent to anoint the shingles or any kind of S. Anthonies fire likewise the running scalls of the head and also werts The same Authors doe promise and warrant That with the dung of all sorts of Tortoises the biles called Pani may be discussed and resolued And although it be incredible and not to be spoken yet some there be who haue written That any ship maketh way more slowly at Sea that carrieth within it the right foot of a Tortoise And thus much shall suffice as touching Tortoises And now from henceforth as touching the fishes and other water creatures I meane to discourse of them and their medicinable properties according to euerie disease which they serue for And yet I am not ignorant that many a one will be desirous to know all at once the vertues of each liuing creature which indeed maketh them to seem more admirable a great deal Howbeit this course that I meane to take I hold to be more expedient and profitable to this life namely to set downe receits and remedies digested by order of each disease and malady considering that one thing may be good for this Patient and another for that and some medicines are sooner found and gotten than others CHAP. V. ¶ Sundry medicines and receits taken from those liuing creatures which conuerse in waters and the same digested orderly into diseases And in the first place such as be appropriat to poysons and venomous beasts HEretofore haue I written of venomous honey and the countties wherein such is gathered and made now if any be poisoned therewith good it is to eat the fish called Arata i. a Guilt-head Or say one be glutted with pure hony or haue taken a surfet thereof being of all other most dangerous wherby the appetite is clean gon and the stomack oppressed with crudities for to preuent farther danger Pelops ordained for a special antidote or defenfatiue the meat of tortoises boiled after the head feet and taile were cut away But Apelles in this case attributeth as much to Scincus Now what this Scincus is I haue declared heretofore Shewed also I haue oftentimes in many places how venomous the monthly fleurs of women are but yet as hath bin said already the fish called a Barble is a singular remedy against the poison therof like as both applied outwardly in a liniment and taken inwardly as meat it is a soueraigne thing for the prick of the Puffin or Forkfish of Scorpions as well of the land as the sea and of the malicious spiders Phalangia The ashes of a Barble fresh taken and calcined is a generall counterpoison but more particularly it helpeth those who haue eaten deadly Mushroms Also it is said That if the fish called a Sea-star wel besmeared and anointed all ouer with the bloud of a Fox be fastned to the lintell or hanged to the brasen naile or ring of a dore it will put by all charmes forceries and witchcrafts that none shall come into the house or if any doe yet they shall not worke any harme As for the pricke or sting of sea-dragons and scorpions a cataplasme of Sea-stars flesh applied thereto healeth them so it doth also the venomous bit of spiders In sum the broth of their decoction is thought to be a soueraigne remedie against all manner of poisons whether it be that a man haue taken it by the mouth or be stung and bitten by any venomous beast As touching fishes kept in salt they are not without their medicinable vertues for to eat salt fish is very good for them who are strucken with serpents or otherwise bitten or stung by any venomous beast so they drink to it eftsoons pure wine of the grape and withal be sure to cast vp again by vomit toward euening their foresaid meat which they did
Roset The rest be sad or duskish and as wel the one as the other be all either naturall or artificiall Among the naturall of this sort to wit the sad colours I reckon the common bole Armin Ruddel or red stone Paretonium Melinum Eretria and Orpin The rest of these kinds be artificial principally those which I haue already spoken of in the treatise of mines Moreouer of the baser sort are Ocre and Ruddel burnt Cerusse or Spanish white Sandix mineral and Scyricum Sandaracha Vitriol or Black As for Sinopis or common bole Armin found out first it was at Sinope a maritine town in the kingdom of Pontus wherof it took that name it groweth also in Egypt the Baleare Islands and Africk but the best is found in the Isle Lemnos and in Cappadocia digged out of certain caues and holes That which stucke fast vnto the rocks excelleth all the rest The pieces of this earth if a man do breake shew the owne natural colour which is not mixed without-forth they be spotted And this earth in old time was vsed for to giue a lustre vnto other colours Of this Sinopis or Bole Armin common there be three kindes the deepe red the pale or weake red and the meane between both The best Sinopis is esteemed worth thirteene denarij Roman by the pound this may serue the painters pensill yea or in grosser work if a man list to colour posts beams or wood as for that which commeth out of Africk it is worth eight asses euery pound and this they call Cicirculum that which is redder than the rest serueth better for painting of tablements as for that which is most brown and duskish called in Latine Pressior it is of the same price that the other and employed in the bases and feet of such tablements And thus much for the vse in painting Touching Physicke and the medicinable properties thereof milde it is of nature and in that regard of gentle operation whether it enter into hard emplaistres of a dry composition or into immolitiue plaisters that are more liquid and principally such as are deuised for vlcers in any moist part as the mouth or fundament This earth if it be injected by a clistre stoppeth a laske and being giuen to women in drinke to the weight of one denarius i. a dram it stayeth their immoderate fluxes of the matrice The same burnt or calcined drieth vp the fretting roughnesse of the eies principally if it be applied with vineger This kinde of red earth some would haue to be counted in a second degree of Rubrica for goodnesse for they alwaies reckoned that of Leâ—…nos to be the chiefe simply best as comming next in price to Minium i. Vermilion And in truth this Terra Sigillata or Lemnia was highly accounted of in old time like as the Island Lemnos from whence it comes neither was it lawfull to sel any of it before it was marked or sealed therupon they vsed to cal it Sphragis The painters ordinarily lay a ground of this vnder their vermillion and sophisticate it many waies In physick it is holden to be a soueraigne thing for if the eies be annointed round about therewith in manner of a liniment it represseth the flux of rheumatick humors and doth mitigat the pains incident to them the fistulous sores likewise about the angles or corners of the eies it drieth vp that they shall not run as they vse to doe Inwardly also it is commonly giuen in vineger to such as cast vp bloud at the mouth It is taken also in drink for the opilations and other accidents as wel of the spleen as kidnies and besides to stop the excessiue fluxes that be incident to women Singular it is against any poison or venomous sting of serpents either vpon land or sea and therefore is a familiar ingredient into all antidots or counterpoisons Of all other sorts of red earth the ruddle of Egypt and Africke is fittest for Carpenters for if they strike their line vpon timber with it they shall be sure that it wil take colour and be marked very well Moreouer another sort there is of this red earth minerall found with yron ore and the same is good also for painters There is a kind of ruddle also made of ochre burnt and calcined in new earthen pots well luted all ouer and the greater fire that it meeteth withall in the furnace the better it is In generall any ruddle whatsoeuer is exiccatiue in which regard it agreeth wel with salues and healing plasters and is very proper for to represse shingles such cutanean wild-fires that wil stand in drops Take of Sinopis or Bolearmin common that commeth out of Pontus halfe a pound of bright Sil or ochre 10 pound of the Greek white earth Melinum 2 pound pun them al together and mix them wel so as they may ferment 12 daies together and hereof is made Leucophorum i. a kind of gum or size to lay vnder goldfoile for to guild timber Touching the white earth Paraetonium it carieth the name of a place in Egypt from whence it commeth and many say that it is nothing but the some of the sea incorporat and hardened together with the slime mud of the shore and therfore there be winkles and such shell-fishes found therwith It is ingendred also in the Isle Candy and the country of Cyrenae At Rome they haue a deuise to sophisticat it namely by boiling fullers earth vntil it be of a fast massie consistence the price of the best is after 6 denier the pound Of al white colors it is the fattest and for that it runs out smooth in the working it is the fastest parget to ouercast walls withall As for the earth Melinum white it is likewise but the best is that which the Isle Melos doth yeeld whereupon it took that name In Samos also it is to be found but painters vse it not because it is ouer clammy and vnctuous The Islanders are wont to creep on all foure and to lie along at their work when they dig it forth of the rocks for search it they must among the veines that run therein The same operation it hath in physicke that the earth Eretria also if a man touch it with the tongue he shal find it a stringent and drying howbeit a depilatory it is in some sort and fetcheth away haire or els causeth it to grow thin A pound of it is worth a Sesterce There is of white colors a third kind and that is Cerussa or white lead the reason making whereof I haue shewed in my discourse of minerals and yet there was found of it in the nature of a very earth by it selfe at Smyrna within the land belonging to one Theodotus wherewith in old time they vsed to color and paint ships But in these daies we haue no other cerusse or Spanish white but that which is artificial made of lead
this In the ranke of these most memorable workes of man I may well raunge the mountaine that was digged through by the same Claudius Caesar for to void away the water out of the lough or meere Fucinus although this work was left vnfinished for hatred of his successour which I assure you cost an incredible and inenarrable sum of mony besides the infinit toil and labour of a multitude of workemen and labourers so many yeres together as well to force the water which came vpon the pioners from vnder the ground with deuise of engines and windles vp to the top of the hill whereas it stood vpon meere earth as to cut and hâ—…w through hard regs and rockes of flint and all this by candlelight within the earth in such sort that vnlesse a man had bin there to haue seene the manner of it vnpossible it is either to conceiue in mind or expresse with tongue the difficultie of the enterprise As for the peere and hauen at Ostia because I would make an end once of these matters I will not say a word thereof nor of the waies and passages cut through the mountaines ne yet of the mighty piles and damns to exclude the Tuscane sea for the Lucrine lake with so many rampiers and bridges made of such infinit cost Howbeit among many other miraculous things in Aegypt one thing more I will relate out of mine author Papyrius Fabianus a great learned Naturalist namely That marble doth grow daily in the quarries and in very truth the farmers of those quarries and such as ordinarily do labour and dig out stone do affirme no lesse who vpon their experience doe assure vs that looke what holes and caues be made in those rockes and mountaines the same will gather againe and fill vp in time which if it be true good hope there is that so long as marbles do liue excesse in building will neuer die CHAP. XVI ¶ The sundry kinds of the Load-stone and the medicines thereto depending NOw that I am to passe from marbles to the singular admirable natures of other stones who doubts but the Magnet or Loadstone will present it self in the first place for is there any thing more wonderfull and wherein Nature hath more trauelled to shew her power than in it True it is that to rockes and stones she had giuen voice as I haue already shewed whereby they are able to answer a man nay they are ready to gainsay and multiply words vpon him But is that all what is there to our seeming more dull than the stiffe and hard stone And yet behold Nature hath bestowed vpon it sence yea hands also with the vse thereof What can we deuise more stubborne and rebellious in the own kind than the hard yron yet it yeelds and will abide to be ordered for loe it is willing to be drawne by the load stone a maruellous matter that this mettall which tameth and conquereth all things els should run toward I wot not what and the nearer that it approcheth standeth still as if it were arrested and suffereth it selfe to be held therwith nay it claspeth and clungeth to it and will not away And hereupon it is that some call the load-stone Sideritis others Heracleos As for the name Magnes that it hath it tooke it as Nicander saith of the first inuentor and deuiser thereof who found it by his saying vpon the mountaine Ida for now it is to be had in all other countries like as in Spaine also and by report a neat-heard he was who as he kept his beasts vpon the foresaid mountaine might perceiue as he went vp and downe both the hob nailes which were in his shooes and also the yron picke or graine of his staffe to sticke vnto the said stone Moreouer Sotacus ascribeth and setteth downe fiue sundry kinds of the load-stone the first which commeth out of Aethyopia the second from that Magnesia which confineth vpon Macedonie and namely on the right hand as you go from thence toward the lake Boebeis the third is found in Echium a town of Boeotia the fourth about Alexandria in the region of Troas and the fift in Magnesia a country in Asia Minor The principall difference obserued in these stones consists in the sex for some be male others female the next lieth in the colour As for those which are brought out of Macedonie and Magnesia they be partly red and partly blacke The Boeotian loadstone standeth more vpon red than black contrariwise that of Troas is black and of the female sex in which regard it is not of that vertue that others be But the worst of all comes from Magnesia in Natolia and the same is white neither doth it draw yron as the rest but resembles the pumish stone In sum this is found by experience That the blewer any of these loadstones be the better they are and more powerful And the Ethyopian is simply the best insomuch as it is worth the weight in siluer found it is in Zimiri for so they cal the sandy region of Ethyopia which country yeeldeth also the sanguine load-stone called Haematites which both in color resembleth bloud and also if it be bruised yeeldeth a bloudy humour yea and otherwhiles that which is like to saffron As for the property of drawing yron this bloud-stone Haematides is nothing like to the loadstone indeed But if you would know and try the true Ethyopian Magnet it is of power to draw to it any of the other sorts of loadstones This is a generall vertue in them all more or lesse according to that portion of strength which Nature hath indued them withal That they are very good to put into those medicines which are prepared for the eies but principally they do represse the vehement flux of humors that fall into them beeing calcined and beaten into pouder they do heale any burne or scald To conclude there is another mountaine in the same Ehyopia and not far from the said Zimiris which breedeth the stone Theamedes that will abide no yron but rejecteth and driueth the same from it But of both these natures as well the one as the other I haue written oftentimes already CHAP. XVII ¶ Of certaine stones which will quickly consume the bodies that be laid therein Of others againe that preserue them a long time Of the stone called Assius and the medicinable properties thereof WIthin the Isle Scyros there is a stone by report which so long as it is whole sound will swim and flote vpon the water breake the same into small pieces it will sink Near vnto Assos a city in Troas there is found in the quarries a certaine stone called Sarcophagus which runneth in a direct veine and is apt to be clouen and so cut out of the rocke by flakes The reason of that name is this because that within the space of forty daies it is knowne for certaine to consume the bodies of the dead which are bestowed therein skin
by visions and dreams in the night all that hee is desirous to know euen as well as an oracle As for Eumetres the Assyrians call it the stone or gem of Belus the most sacred god among them whom they honor with greatest deuotion as green it is as a leeke and serueth very much in their superstitious inuocations sacrifices and exorcisms Eupetalos hath foure colors to wit of azur fire vermilion and an apple Eureos is like the stone of an oliue chamfered in manner of winkle shels but very white it is not Eurotias seemeth to haue a certain mouldines that couers the black vnderneath Eusebes seemeth to be that kind of stone whereof by report was made the feat in Hercules temple at Tyros where the gods were wont to appear and shew themselues Mereouer any precious stone is called Epimelas when being of it selfe white it is ouercast with a blacke colour aloft The gem Galaxias some call Galactites like vnto those last before-named but that it hath certain veins either white or of a bloud color running between As for Galactites indeed it is as white as milk and therupon it took that name Many there be who call the same stone Leucas Leucographias Synnephites which if it be bruised yeeldeth a liquor resembling milk both in color and tast in truth it is said that it breeds store of milke in nources that giue suck also that if it be hung about the necks of infants it causeth saliuation but being held in the mouth it melteth presently Moreouer they say that it hurteth memory and causeth obliuion this stone commeth from the riuer Achelous Some there be who call that Emeraud Galactires which seemeth as it were to be bound about with white veins Galaicos is much like to Argyrodamus but that it is somewhat souler commonly they are found by two or three together As for Gasidanes we haue it from the Medians in colour it resembleth blades of corne and seemes beset here and there with floures it groweth also about Arbelae this gem is said likewise to be conceiued with young and by shaking to bewray and confesse a child within the wombe and it doth conceiue euery three moneths Glossi-petra resembleth a mans tongue and groweth not vpon the ground but in the eclipse of the Moone falleth from heauen and is thought by the magitians to be very necessary for pandors and those that court faire women but we haue no reason to beleeue it considering what vaine promises they haue made otherwaies of it for they beare vs in hand that it doth appease winds Gorgonia is nothing els but Coral the name Gorgonia groweth vpon this occasion That it turneth to be as hard as a stone it assuageth the trouble of the sea and maketh it calme the magitians also affirme that it preserueth from lightning and terrible whirlewinds As vaine they be also in warranting so much of the hearbe Guniane namely that it will worke reuenge and punishment vpon our enemies The pretious stone Heliotropium is found in Aethiopia Affricke and Cyprus the ground thereof is a deepe green in maner of a leeke but the same is garnished with veins of bloud the reason of the name Heliotropium is this For that if it be throwne into a pale of water it changeth the raies of the Sun by way of reuerberation into a bloudie colour especially that which commeth out of Aethiopia the same being without the water doth represent the body of the Sun like vnto a mirroir and if there be an eclipse of the Sun a man may perceiue easily in this stone how the moone goeth vnder it and obscureth the light but most impudent and palpable is the vanity of magitians in their reports of this stone for they let not to say that if a man carrie it about him together with the herbe Heliotropium and besides mumble certaine charmes or prayers he shall goe inuisible Semblably Hephaestites is of the nature of a looking-glasse for although it be reddish or of an orenge colour yet it sheweth ones face in it the meanes to know this stone whether it be right or no is this in case being but into scalding water it presently cooleth it or if in the Sun it wil set on fire any dry wood or such like fewel this stone is found growing vpon the hill Corycus Horminodes is a stone so called in regard of the greene colour that it hath resembling the herbe Clarie for otherwhiles it is white and sometime againe blacke yea and pale now and then howbeit hooped about it is with a circle of golden colour Hexecontalithos for bignesse is but small and yet for the number of colours that it hath it got this name found it is in the region of the Troglodytes Hieracites changeth colour all whole alternatiuely by turns it seemeth to be blackish among kites feathers Hamnites resembleth the spawne of fishes and yet some of them be found as it were composed of nitre and otherwise it is exceeding hard The pretious stone called Hammons-horne is reckoned among the most sacred gems of Aethyopia of a gold colour it is and sheweth the forme of a rams horne the magicians promise that by the vertue of this stone there will appeare dreames in the night which represent things to come Hormesion is thought to be one of the loueliest gems that a man can see for a certaine fiery colour it hath and the same spreadeth forth beams of gold and alwaies carrieth with it in the edges a white and pleasant light Hyenia tooke the name of the Hyens eie sound they are in them when they be assailed and killed and if we may giue credit to Magitians words if these stones be put vnder a mans tongue hee shall presently prophesie of things to come The bloud-stone Haematites is found in Aethiopia principally those be simply the best of al others howbeit there are of them likewise in Arabia and Affrick in colour it is like vnto bloud and so called a stone that I must not ouerpasse in silence in regard of my promise that I made to reproue the vanities and illusions of these impudent barbarous magicians who deceiue the world with their impostures for Zachalias the Babylonian in those books which he wrote to king Mithridates attributeth vnto gems all the destinies and fortunes that be incident vnto man and particularly touching these bloud-stones not contented to haue graced them with medicinable vertues respectiue to the eies and the liuer he ordained it to be giuen vnto those for to haue about them who carry any Petition to a king or great prince for it would speed and further the suit also in case of law matters it giueth good issue and sentence on their side yea and in wars victory ouer enemies There is another of that kinde called by the Indians Henui but the Greekes name it Xanthos of a whitish colour it is vpon a ground of a yellow tawnie The stones called Idaei Dactyli be found