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A77798	Anthropometamorphosis: = man transform'd: or, the artificiall changling historically presented, in the mad and cruell gallantry, foolish bravery, ridiculous beauty, filthy finenesse, and loathsome loveliness of most nations, fashioning and altering their bodies from the mould intended by nature; with figures of those transfigurations. To which artificiall and affected deformations are added, all the native and nationall monstrosities that have appeared to disfigure the humane fabrick. With a vindication of the regular beauty and honesty of nature. And an appendix of the pedigree of the English gallant. Scripsit J.B. cognomento chirosophus. M.D.	J. B. (John Bulwer), fl. 1648-1654.; Fathorn, William, 1616-1691, engraver.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682.	1653 (1653)	Wing B5461; Thomason E700_1; ESTC R202040	309,892	550

forth the differences and severall sorts of Hermophradites in these words Differentiae quatuor Leonide Auctore existunt tres quidem in viris una in mulieribus In viris siquidem alias juxta regionem inter scrotum anum alias in medio scroto forma muliebris pudendi pilis obsiti apparet Tertia verò ad haec accedit in qua nonnulli veluti ex pudendo quod in scroto est urinam profundunt In mulieribus supra pudendum juxta pubem virile genitale frequenter reperitur quibusdam Corporibus extantibus uno tanquam Cole duobus autem veluti testiculis Sic mero Isaac Israelita Solomonis Arabiae regis filius adoptivus Hoc licet tempore sit naturale in viro tamen turpius In viro muliere fit quatuor modis tribus in viro uno in foemina Viris fit in pectine in testiculis velut vulna vera mulieris pilosa ut in foeminis Tertius modus est gravior quia per virgam vulvam mingunt Mulieribus vulva sit in pectine sub vulva post veretrum maximi testiculi Ei licet in his utriusque sexus genitalia sint eorum unum tamen altero sit luxuriosius potentius etsi sunt alii Hermophroditi qui in utroque sexu omnino impotentes sint Those who are curious to know more of this ugly representation may find satisfaction in the Chapter of Differences of Hermophradites written by the same Author And what Cure this vile deformity admits The causes of Hermophiadites the same Author affords in this place There is a Booke written in French called the Hermophradite Vide licet lib. 1. Hermoph cap. 38. which doth notably set forth the effeminacy and prodigious tendernesse of this Nation But let us a little examine the Causes of their Generation De medicin Com. 1. Dial. 5. Andernacus to Mathetis enquiring why Nature in Humane Bodies doth so mock and laugh man to scorne Answers saies he knows no other cause besides the influx of the stars intempestive copulation and evill diet since at this day there is such corruption of life and manners and so great Lust that it is no wonder if men altogether degenerate into Beasts And although Naturall Philosophers and Physicians partly impute this conjunction of Sexes to the material and efficient Cause and partly to the Cells of the Wombe Yet those causes sound to me most probable which are alleaged à Decubitu and the time of Conception Sunt enim qui velint horum generationem causari à decubituminùs convenienti vel in congressu vel post congressum In congressu quidem monente Lemnino indecenti non nunquam ait vitiosus hic infamisque conceptus ex indecoro concubitu conflatur cùm praeter usum ac comoditatem exercendae veneris virsupinus mulier prona decumbit magno plerunque valetudinis dispendio ut qui ex inverso illo decubitu herniosi efficiuntur praesertim cum distento oppletoque cibis corpore inusitata hac inconcessáve venere utuntur A decubitu supino post congressum sic enim Dominicus Terellius in muliere posteaquam virile semen receperit in utero positura corporis observanda Semper vitanda est quae modo supino fit The reasons are here alleadged Androgyni In Bauhin li. 1. cap. 30. Hormoph Pierius Fenestella Annal. Tertul. advers Valent. c. 33. which appeares by your Lunensian women who taking no care to this supine positure after conception bring forth more Hermophradites many Authors taking notice of store of Hermophradites among the Lunensians By which discourse you may see what a hand the lust and folly of a man hath in this Hemophraditicall Transformation or Androginall mixture Those who in old time were called by the name of Androgyni were reputed then for prodigious wonders Howbeit as Pliny notes Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 7. cap. 3. Aul. Gel. l 9. c. 4 Isidor lib. 11. cap. 3. Jul. Obseq lib. prodig in his time men tooke delight and pleasure in them M. Messala C. Livius Consuls in Umbria there was a Semi-man almost twelve yeares old by the command of the Aruspices slaine L. Meteblus and Q. Fabius Maximus Consuls there was an Hermophradite borne at Luna Idem by command of the Southsayers cast into the sea P. Africanus C. Fulvius Consuls Idem in the Country of Ferretinnum there was an Hermophradite borne and carried unto the River Gn. Domitius Cajus Fannius Consuls Idem in Foro Vessonum another borne and cast into the Sea L. Aurelius and L. Caecili'us Consuls Idem about Rome there was another Hermophradite some eight yeares old found and carried unto the sea L. Caecilius L. Aurelius Consuls Idem there was another about ten yeares old found at Saturnia and drowned in the Sea Q. Metellus Tullius Didius Consuls Idem another was carried from Rome and drowned in the Sea A course taken to prevent Courses Cn. Cornelius Lentulus P. Licinius Consuls there was an Androgynus found Idem and carried to the Sea Beyond the Nasamones and their neighbours confining upon them the Matchlies there be found ordinarily Hermophradites called Androgyni of a double nature and resembling both Sexes Male and Female who have carnall knowledge one of another interchangeably by turnes as Caliphanes doth report Cited by Pliny Nat. Hist lib. 7. Aristotle saith moreover that on the right side of their breast they have a little teat or nipple like a man but on the left side they have a full pap or dug like a woman Montuus de Med. Thoresi lib. 1. cap. 6. I knew saith Montuus an Hermophradite who was accounted for a woman and was married to a man to whom she bore some sons and daughters notwithstanding he was wont to lye with his maids and get them with child This is remarkable Anno 1461. in a certaine City of Scotland there was an Hermophrodite maid got her Masters Daughter with child who lay in the same bed with her Veinrichius Com. de Monstris pag. 7. facie aversa being accused of the Fact before the Judges she dyed being put into the ground alive The Tovopinambaultian women of Brasill in in America Purch Pilgr 4. lib. 7. never have their Flowers not liking that purgation it is thought they divert that flux by some meanes unknown to us for the Maids of twelve yeares old have their sides cut by their mothers from the armehole down unto the knee with the very sharpe tuske of a certaine beast the young Girles gnashing with their Teeth through the extremity of the paine some conjecture they prevent their monthly flux by this remedy Women affecting streightnesse Concerning the nature of the Menstruall bloud there hath been and yet is hard hold and many opinions among Physicians All agree that this bloud is an excrement for like a superfluity it is every month driven forth the Wombe but many would have it an unprofitable

mankind to a corporall Apostacy from himself as if in an Apish despight of the glory of mans Creation that divine consultation Eaciamus hominem Let us make man according to our Image He would have his Defaciamus hominem Let us deface man according to our likenesse insomuch as that of the Psalmist I am fearfully and wonderfully made might be ironically applyed to man in this his abusive Transformation Besides what in the Inditement I have charged upon the score of mans pragmaticall invention which is the maine Designe upon strict Disquisition after the causes and original of these Monstrosities which I had rather call Native then Naturall I lay them to the charge of man discharging Nature from having any hand or the least intention therin And concerning National Monstrosities I account it a high slander raised against the Honesty of Nature that she should be delighted to disport her selfe with such Antick varieties of formes as appeare in the world or should sometimes set her selfe to mock any Person much lesse whole Nations out of their right shape and feature so that you will clearely see here as in the mirrour of Alitophilus the true causes and effects of all the Artificiall Retortions Native Alienations and Absurd Transfigurations of the Humane forme Why I dedicate this to you is not solemnly to engage you to a Polemicall Defence of it but only if need be to witnesse my good intention and zeale to Nature whether it be according to knowledge let others judge and that this may remaine as a Pledge of our contracted Friendship and Amity and that Posterity and Future Ages may know in the Religion thereof the affection of your most Devoted Friend JOHN BULWER To the learned Author on his Book VVHile frantick we steere our Phantastike wit To what is Forraign only not what 's Fit And our Exoticke Wardrobe only prize Not for the Garments sake but the Disguise Shifting still round till we our selves restore To weare what Misbecame ten yeares before Your Prudence all that while forbore our cure And though you Disallow'd you could Endure Because it oft growes lesse injurious far To side with small faults then be Singular Untill this leprous folly practise had On Natures selfe to Mend it into Bad. And would unlearne Creations antient rode And change her genuine Births to Birth'th ' Mode While the hagge Midwife models every Part Not by the Guide but Wandrings of her Art Wreathing the waxen limbs till they confesse A shape not meant by Nature but the Dresse Temp'ring that yielding skull till shee be known To spoile the child's braine to delight her own And the Arch'd Breast to grasping Swaths betrai'd Doth prove confinement which was Mansion made Where the pent heart and lungs close ribs invest Not to be Guarded but to be Opprest The narrow'd loines their single span allow'd Gra●e parts 'gainst parts and bowels bowels crowd Till all their streightned functions faile and ly Lost in Imaginary Decency When all th' advantage purchas'd by the feat Is that they Slender dye and perish Neat. These and their like are thy judicious hate Yet are they not thy Satyr but Debate To combate which thou dost tame weapons chuse Designing to Convince more then Accuse All thy Artillery is sober Art To heale the Wound and not offend the Part. If any have embosom'd errour so To hatch it still though thou the danger shew At their owne perill bee 't they pitty find Who Lose their eyes but not who will be Blind Phisiophilus M. D. Ad Authorem Philocosmum BArbaries adeone ferax tot monstra stupenda Protulit ingentis curae vix exitus alter Híc stupet à morbo proprium spectâsse nitorem Squalori immersum aeterno Formam illaque Luget Deflorata Cavo Morbilli stigmate faedam Detestata Lepram gens tota humana precantur Prolis Apollineae auxilium repetant simul ipsi Artis Phaebeae culmen Legesque decoris Dum nocuasque manus moresque redarguis alter Ut MEDICEUS erat medicus sis tu quoque Cosmus Amititiae ergo AE M. M.D. On my honoured Friend Dr Bulwer his Apologeticall Disquisition and ingenious Anatomy of Nature HE whose first Lecture was on * Chi●ologia Natures hand Now all her Features hath exactly scan'd So did Eliah's little Cloud arise Like a mans hand till it had fill'd the skies A little sparke kindles a mighty flame Greater and Brighter still Friend grows thy Fame Pliny but Natures History us gave Thou her Great Champion dost her honour save And having all her Works well understood Dost with her Maker find them to be good The Pray'rs of Saints ascend like Frankincense May Heaven be so pleas'd with thy Defence And men who shall the bounds of Nature passe Mend their deformities by this thy Glasse So cleare and wonderfull a mirrour where All the Monstrosities of Art appeare Man's Forme-Transforming Garbes whose cruell Pride Hath strange Conclusions on his Body tride Endeavouring for to translate himselfe Into a Changling or some ougly Elfe Mad Gallantry which by a fond Designe Makes it selfe loathsome to be filthy fine Nay we may see how high their Foilies rave They will be Monsters but they will be brave And in despight of Nature too proclame That they delight to glory in their shame Thy Glasse discovers where man trips or haults Downright into his close contrived faults And in prevaricating Moods affects New fangled shapes and his true forme rejects It holds forth in each Part the foule Abuse And regulates it to the native Use Him then the Body and the Mind who can Set right thus Honour the Physitian FRANCIS GOLDSMITH D no Bulwero Temporum nostrorum Plinio Tertio nemini Secundo Herculi Anglo Monstrorumque Domitori Facetissimo QUod Facit Alcides clavâ quod Theseus ense Tu calamo pingis monstra domasque nova Africa quantùmvis jactet miracula quondam Orbis perlecto Te Africa totus erit Non quae Nilus alit sed quae nos fecimus ipsi Monstra Animi gestûs Sola ea nostra vocas Ad speculum tonso rerum potiente Tyranno Nil Monstrum vano majus Othone fuit Pinge Agrippinam Romanae Tigrida gentis Et quotuplex uno quaeso Nerone Leo Terroris parilis risusque Cacacicus unus Claudius Crepitûs rite patronus erat Seu mage ridendus fessus qui caede virorum Domitianus Imperator A Domitis Muscis nomen inane tulit Quid servi facient audent cum talia Reges Ad quorum exemplum quilibet ire solet Non homo tantum homini Lupus efferus induit Omnem Quippe feram totus Simius ipse sibi est Et Caper Porcus nam sic alterna voluptas Efficit Circes pocula sponte bibit Ne culpate Deos nihil heu Natura sinistrè Effundit Monstrum stat sibi quisque suum Ad eundem NAture I challenge thee to take a part And stand a Second to this piece of Art Which as no Fucus on thy Reverend

Carthai Tartano weare their Beards also thin Some of the Broad-faced Tartars are Beardlesse except that in the upper Lip Munst Cosmog Jo. Bohem. de rit gent. lib. 2. and on the Chin they have a few volatile haires In Sumatra the men Diario nautico Ba●tavorum although they have great Eyebrows have but little Beard insomuch that the haires under their mouth may be numbred In Elizabeths Island Capt. Smiths Hist of Virginia toward the North of Virginia the men have no Beards but counterfeits as they did think our mens also were for which they would have changed with some of our men that had great Beards What a Generation of scoffers of Nature have we here who with their Pincers fight against her fit Companions for the Apostate Iulian who stiled himselfe Mysogopon as much as to say as the hater of a Beard Sure the Beard was form'd and given to man for some end the place The Dignity of the Beard maintained and dignity of the place the time it appeares and the species of it shews an ornament For the place no man can deny the face to be one of the outward parts of the body which hath an honest appearance if the Face have dignity and a degree superlative as it were of dignity and there are some Orders This may justly be accounted the most honest of the honest parts and worthiest since there are the chiefest Organs of the Senses the Instruments of the reasonable soule and that in the face as in a Glasse the ineffable majesty of the whole man doth shine In which the Beard hath the chiefest place being planted in the part thereof which the Ancients stiled the Temple of Goodnesse and Honesty The time of its appearance denotes its use it is inchoate and begins to come forth at a certaine definite and specifique time for man is not at once an Individuum and a specifique Individuum the libration of which moments of time is chiefly conspicuous to God and confirmed by his Counsell which dispensation of time is not without a mystery to which all things created are subjected I would we could understand the fulnesse thereof but certainly for some specifiqe end From the species or the kind of haire may another Argument be taken of their reall worth All other haires we see have their use and end and can Nature be so forgetful of her own institutions as to faile in this particular Superficiall Philosophers do much please themselves with this Division saying that of those which are in the body some are the true parts of it and others are not to wit such as proceed from the necessity of matter of which kind are the haires an excrement and not a part and if a part altogether an excrementitious materiarie and of no use The use of the Beard to which account the Beard must be reduced which is all haire a Doctrine popular and altogether erronious for the Beard is an existent part of the body and most necessary and its necessity is from its use and office it hath in the body not from the matter or as they say necessity Nature which is the ordinary power of God and the lively image of his wisdome workes alwaies for an end more especially and most nobly doth she do it in the body of man the most noble of all Creatures Some say the Beard was intended for a manly ornament for man shews more venerable especially if by age his haires be every where fairely and super abundantly circumfused which Nature usually doth leaving no part unpolished or unlaboured or without Rythme and elegancy as worke enchased in the hil●s of Swords which sometimes appeares but is sometimes obscured by the very splendor of utility Which conceit doth not well please Platerus for saith he Plat. in quaest Phys quaest 8. if it was produced for an Elegancy why do women then want it in adorning whom Nature seemes to have been most studious and yet she would have them beardlesse which if it sometimes but lightly manifest it selfe in them makes them most ugly others conceive one use of the Beard was for a muniment and to cover the Barball parts on which they grow but why the mans Chin rather than the womans should be covered Hofman confesseth he seeth not Yet Zonardus is of opinion that the Beard was not only intended for an ornament but for an operiment and Adjutor to the Maxillae because with their villosity they defend the Maxillary Nerves from being hurt by the too great frigidity of the aire which granted would much aggravate their Crime who shave these parts The Beard the sign of a man But Ulmus who hath sufficiently vindicated the honesty of Nature in this matter in his learned book intituled De fine Barbae Humanae I would he had gone through the worke or that I had seene his Tract De recta Hominis figura if he liv'd to write it He I say is of opinion that the proper end of the Beard is differing from those above-named and that it serves not for ornament nor age nor Sex nor for a covering nor for purgament but for another end to wit serve to the Office of the Humane soule And that Nature gave to mankind a Beard that it might remaine as an Index in the Face of the Masculine generative faculty and of that either crumpent and progredient or consumed at least next to consumption Plater in quaest Phys quaest 8. Of the same judgement is Platerus who hath a little dilated his thoughts upon this Subject For men then to labour to extirpate so honest and necessary a work as the Beard is is a practicall blasphemy most inexpiable against Nature and God the Author of Nature whose worke the Beard is The Beard being the signe of a man by which he appeares a man for it is more ancient than Eve and the sign of a better Nature to violate then that which is a sign of virile Nature is an impiety against the Law of Nature And since it is confessed that man is the Image of God and the Beard the forme of a man certainly so many of us as acknowledge and profess to represent this Image of the Protoplastes God without the high crime of impiety cannot leave off or eradicate our Beard or with Depilatories burn up and depopulate the Genitall matter thereof but we must renounce that and account it for a sport so fondly to evirate our selves An act not only done against the reclamation of the Law of Nature but repugnant to the consent of the Learned of all Nations who with one mouth pronounce a Beard comly for a grave constant just and honest man Nay Lovers of a Beard even the Turkes whom we account even but Barbarians herein do more homage to Nature who if a man have a faire long Beard they reverence him and only he is a wise man and an honourable Personage but if they have no Beard at all if they

Teeth as a Son of Prusias King of Bythinians who had such a bone in his upper Iaw Pyrrhus King of the Epirotans had such a continued bone marked as it were with certain lines wherby the interpunction of Teeth were designed out Many more examples might be added but these may suffice Double-tongued Nations SCENE XIV Devices of certaine Nations practised upon their Tongues Purchas Pilgr 1. lib. 2. Geor. Graudius Comment in Solinum Joh. Bohem. de moribus Gent. lib. 3. Kornman lib. de mirac viv Schenckius observat lib. 1. Gemma lib. 1. cap. 7. Cosmogr IN the Island of Jambuli the Inhabitants who exceed us foure Cubits in stature their Tongue hath somewhat peculiar by Nature or Art for they have a cloven Tongue and which is divided in the bottom so that it seemes double from the root so they use divers speeches and do not only speake with the voice of men but imitate the singing of Birds But that which seemes most notable they speak at one time perfectly to two men both answering and discoursing The Tongue double by Nature for with one part of their tongue they speake to one and with the other part to the other The Tongue of man is not indeed double tri-sulke or bisulke as in some Creatures but simple and one only and that verily according to a morall intention of Nature Yet some may wonder how since all the Organs of the Senses are framed double by Nature in the Taste she should order but one only and a simple Instrument and that to good purpose but although to sence it seeme one and a simple Instrument yet to a diligent Anatomist it will appear to be double Galen said the Tongue is double which he proves by this Argument that it hath double Vessels for neither the Veins nor Arteries nor Nerves of the right side go into the left side of it and so è contrario And we see that one side of the Tongue is struck with the Palsie sometimes the other side being unhurt The same disposition also there is of the Muscles to which we may add the white Median or middle line of separation which intersects the Tongue throughout or if you had rather scores it out so that the Tongue as all other Senses is double The cause why it was better for men that the Tongue should be such he saith to be for that by this means it proves more commodious for mastication and speech Which if it be true as Hofman thinks it to be most true without all peradventure saith he we must encourage those Fables which Diodorus Siculus makes Narration of Diod. Siculus lib. 3. that there are men somewhere who have really a double Tongue with which they better performe the linguall offices than we do with one which is the lesse incredible Jo. Franci Hildesii Med Camenicenj obser since we read of the Infant of a certaine Nobleman which had a double tongue divided according to latitude and of another who had eleven tongues One with eleven Tongues eleven mouths Albert. Mag. Comment ad li. 2. Phys 1. Arist and two and twenty incompleat lips Whether this Duplicity of Tongue be in them Lusus Naturae or a meere device of Art you may see my Authors doubts They that shall seriously ponder the strange Inventions mentioned in this Booke may perchance incline to the latter as most probable at leastwise if Anatomists will allow of the possibility of the thing and then it may passe for an audacious improvement of the Body Such a stratagem of improvement the pragmaticall invention of man hath proved effectuall in the Tongues of other Creatures it being a common practice to slit the Tongues of Pies Stares Jayes and Daws whom we would teach to speake to inable them the better to imitate the articulation of our speech Yet for the honour of Nature we must question whether this device be not somewhat destructive to the numericall perfection of the Body since that praesupposition in Philosophy is most true That Nature neither abounds in superfluous things nor is defective in necessaries for she doth nothing in vaine nor creates any thing diminished unlesse she be hindred by matter Now since this device pretends to double the provision of Nature by addition of a supernumerary particle although it be quid naturale the Instrument is probably hurt in its operations the number of parts requisite to the composition of the Instrument is depraved either as wee speake by minoration or majoration And if this multiplication of Tongues out of the substance of the Body there should be added to the number of the parts it must prove superfluous and how shall such an attempt be answered to Him who made all things in number measure and in weight Hofman The cutting of the Bridle of childrens Tongues condemned saith he hath heard of Dr Aquapendent that in certaine places of Italy the Midwives were perswaded that the bridle of the Tongue had need of cutting in all Infants therefore they wore the Naile of their right Thumbe long but conform'd into the rising edge of a pen-knife wherewith suddenly as soone as the Infants are borne they breake that ligament or bond Most of them all so served have become Stutterers and many have dyed inflamation arising from that Action Kypler Kyplerus condemns this tearing of it thus with the fingers as certaine rash women are wont to do since through the paine there follows a flux of humours inflamation and other mischiefes and when it is necessary to be cut he would have it done by Chirurgicall operation with a paire of Sizers Casserius also takes notice of this custome of unskilfull Midwives foolishly beleeving that unlesse they should do so the Infant would remaine mute Bauhinus inveighs against this pernicious custome of ignorant Midwives that they indifferently cut that which they call the bridle-string of the Tongue to wit that strong and membranous Ligament which was ordained for the strength and stability of the Tongue and the insertion of its proper Muscles Camerarius saith this opinion is pernicious and not to bee endured And Fabricius Hildanus Columbus and others cry out against it There is indeed a most strong Ligament membranous and broad placed under the middle of the body of the lower part of the Tongue by whose aide the softnesse of the Tongue under-propped it is more easily rolled about and produced to the end of this about the tip of the Tongue there is a little cord or Ligament groweth The use of the Tongues bridle which they call the Bridle of the Tongue and the Tongue hath a Ligament for two causes First for the firmament of its Basis for if it had been without this the Muscles in their action or their contraction to their principle had had nothing to rely upon and so it would have come to passe that the Tongue would be convolved as it were into a Globe secondly that the tip of it

many inches this is confirmed by Solinus who writes that the Syrbotae of Aethiopia grew to the height of twelve feet and in another place that there was certaine people of India so great that they easily ascended Elephants Onosicrit c. 5. Onosicritus reports that in certaine places of India where there are no shadows there are men of five Cubits and two Palmes high Olaus Mag. lib. 5. cap. 2. Olaus Magnus placeth such men also in the Northerne parts and especially in the Kingdome of Helsingori which is under the command of the King of Swethland he makes mension of a Giant that was nine Cubits high Isidore confesseth that there are men to be found of twelve foot high Isidorus Etymolog l 11. c. 3. Isid lib. de rerum natur but in another Tract he delivers a strange report of an admirable procerity in these words In the Westerne parts saith he there was found a maid whom the raging waves of the sea had cast up from the Ocean unknown and wounded in the head and dead who was fifty Cubits long and between the shoulders foure Cubits broad cloathed in a purple garment which thing seemes incredible Vincent hist Nat. l. 31. c. 125. Korn ex Odoric yet some Historians of credit subscribe unto it Odoricus reports that he saw with the Great Cham a Giant of twenty foot high In former Ages to wit She-Giants Zonaras in Iustino under Iustin the Thracian a certaine woman of Cilicia appeared Giant-like both in tallnesse of body as also in proportion of the other members for she exceeded the height of the tallest men a Cubit with breasts and shoulders above the usuall manner broad all the rest as the Voice and Face and firmenesse and magnitude of her Armes and Cubits and the thicknesse of her fingers and other parts answering to her Longitude and Latitude Saint Austin hath left upon record the memoriall of a Giant-like woman St Aug. de Civitat dei c. 23. which to the great admiration of all men was seen at Rome before the City was sacked by the Goths The Author of the Book entitled De natura rerum makes mention of a remarkable stature found in the Westerne Regions such tall Viragoes were the Bradamantes Marfisa and our long Meg of Westminster but of many of these we may say they are rather mountaines of flesh than men The Question is why such men of such vast bodies and strength are not found in our daies many reasons are alleadged for it but the most rationall is the luxury and lasciviousnesse of the times which hardly suffers Nature to get any thing perfect not that there is any decay in Nature but it may well be that in these parts of the world where Luxury hath crept in with Civility there may be some diminution of strength and stature in regard of our Ancestours And here I cannot but take occasion to condole the injury done to Nature in the generative procacity to Rathe marriage used in England and elsewhere which is the cause why men be now of lesse stature than they have been before time The cause of small stature Arist polit lib. 7. cap. 16. for we observe not the rule of Aristotle in his Politiques who would have men so marry that both the man and the woman might leave procreation at one time the one to get Children the other to bring forth which would easily come to passe if the man were about eight and thirty yeares of age when he married and the woman about eighteen for the ability of getting Children in the most part of men ceaseth at seventy yeares and the possibility of conception in women commonly ceaseth about fifty so the man and the woman should have like time for generation and conception But this wholsome rule is not followed but rather the liberty of the Civill Law put in practice that the woman at twelve yeares of age and the man at fourteen are marriageable Which thing is the cause that men and women in these daies are both weake of body and small of stature yea in respect of those that lived but forty yeares ago in this Land much more then in comparison of the ancient Inhabitants of Brittaine who for their talenesse of stature were called Giants so dwarfed are we in our stature and fall short of them that that of the Poet is verified on us Terra malos homines nunc educit atque pusillos Which thing is also noted by Aristotle in the same place Est adolescentium conjunctio improba ad filiorum procreationem In cunctis enim animalibus juveniles partus imperfecti sunt Et feminae crebrius quam mares parva corporis forma gignuntur The cause of tallnesse of stature quocirca necesse est hoc idem in hominibus evenire Hujus autem conjectura fuerit quod in quibuscunque civitatibus consuetudo est adolescentes mares puellasque Conjugari in iisdem inutilia pusilla hominum corpora existunt In Florida they are not joyned in marriage untill forty yeares old Hier. Giran Cosmogr and they suckle their Children untill twelve yeares or untill they can provide for their own sustentation But if we cast our eyes abroad upon those Nations which still live according to Nature though in fashions more rude and barbarous we shall find by the relation of those that have lived among them that they much exceed us in stature still retaining as it seemes the vigorous constitution of their Predecessors which should argue that if any decay be it is not universall and consequently not naturall but rather adventitious and accidentall For proofe hereof to let passe other stories of Giants of late yeares as that which Amatus Lusitanus speakes of Amat Lusitan Curat 95. borne in Senogallia Parsons Evans the late Kings Porter c. We will content our selves with the Indies Melchior Nunnez in his Letters where he discourseth of the affaires of China reports that in the chiefe City called Paguin the Porters are fifteene foot high and in other letters written the same yeare 1555 he doth averre that the King entertaines and feeds five hundred such men for Archers of his Guard In the West Indies in the Region of Chica neare the mouth of the Streights Ortelius describes a people whom he termes Pentagones from their huge stature Nations of Giants being ordinarily of five Cubits long which make seven foot and an halfe whence their Country is known by the name of the Land of Giants Americus Vesputius who searched into the unknown parts of the world found out an Island at this day called the Island of Giants it may be them which Ortelius describes Sir Francis Drake his voyage about the world Magellane as the great Encompasser of the World observes was not altogether deceived in naming of them Giants for they generally differ from the common sort of men both in stature bignesse and strength of body as also in the