produce Monsters by another way then that which we spake of before for even after they are brought forth we may fashion them into a monstrous shape even as we list for as we may shape young fruits as they grow into the fashion of any vessel or case that we make for them to grow into as we may make a Quince like a mans head a Cucumber like a Snake by making a case of that fashion for them to grow in so also we may do by the births of living Creatures Hippocrates in his book of Air and Water and Places doth precisely set down the manner hereof and sheweth how they do it that dwell by the River Phasis all of them being very long-headed whereas no other Nation is so besides And surely Custom was the first cause that they had such heads but afterward Nature framed her self to that Custome insomuch that they esteemed it an honourable thing to have a very long head The beginning of that Custome was thus As soon as the child was new born whiles his head was yet soft and tender they would presently crush it in their hands and so cause it to grow out in length yea they would bind it up with swathing bands that it might not grow round but all in length and by this custom it came to passe that their heads afterward grew such by nature And in process of time they were born with such heads so that they needed not to be so framed by handling for whereas the generative seed is derived from all the parts of the body sound bodies yielding good seed but crazie bodies unsound seed and oftentimes bald fathers beget bald children and blear-eyed fathers blear-eyed children and a deformed father for the most part a deformed childe and the like also cometh to passe concerning other shapes why should not also long-headed fathers generate long-headed children But now they are not born with such heads because that practise is quite out of use and so nature which was upheld by that custom ceaseth together with the custom So if we would produce a two-legged Dog such as some are carried about to be seen we must take very young whelps and cut off their feet but heal them up very carefully and when they be grow to strength join them in copulation with other dogs that have but two legs left and if their whelps be not two-legged cut off their legs still by succession and at the last nature will be overcome to yield their two-legged dogs by generation By some such practise as you heard before namely by handling and often framing the members of young children Mid-wives are wont to amend imperfections in them as the crookednesse or sharpnesse of their noses or such like CHAP. XIX Of the wonderful force of imagination and how to produce party-coloured births PLutark in his rehearsal of the opinions of Philosophers writes that Empedocles held that an infant is formed according to that which the mother looks upon at the time of conception for saith he women were wont to have commonly pictures and images in great request and to bring forth children resembling the same Hippocrates to clear a certain womans honesty that had brought forth children very unlike their parents ascribed the cause of it to a certain picture which she had in her chamber And the same defence Quintilian useth on the behalf of a woman who being her self fair had brought forth a Black-moor which was supposed by all men to be her slaves son Damascen reports that a certain young woman brought forth a child that was all hairy and searching out the reason thereof he found the hiary image of Iohn Baptist in her chamber which she was wont to look upon Heliodorus begins that excellent history which he wrote with the Queen of Aethiopia who brought forth Chariclea a fair daughter the cause whereof was the fable of Andromeda pictured in that chamber wherein she lay with the King We read of some others that they brought forth horned children because in the time of their coition they looked upon the fable of Actaeon painted before them Many children have hare-lips and all because their mothers being with child did look upon a Hare The conceit of the mind and the force of Imagination is great but it is then most operative when it is excessively bent upon any such thing as it cannot attain unto Women with child when they long most vehemently and have their minds earnestly set upon any thing do thereby alter their inward spirits the spirits move the blood and so imprint the likenesse of the thing mused upon in the tender substance of the child And surely all children would have some such marks or other by reason of their mothers longing if this longing were not in some sort satisfied Wherefore the searchers out of secrets have justly ascribed the marks and signes in the young ones to the imagination of the mother especially that imagination which prevails with her in the chiefest actions as in coition in letting go her seed and such like and as man of all other living creatures is most swift and fleeting in his thoughts and fullest of conceits so the variety of his wit affords much variety of such effects and therefore they are more in mankind then in other living creatures for other creatures are not so divers minded so that they may the better bring forth every one his like in his own kind Iacob was well acquainted with this force of imagination as the Scriptures witnesse for endeavouring To bring forth party-coloured Sheep he took that course which I would wish every man to take that attempts any such enterprize He took certain Rods and Poles of Popler and Almond-tree and such as might be easily barked and cut off half the rine pilling them by white strakes so that the Rods were white and black in several circles like a Snakes colour Then he put the Rods which he had pilled into the gutters and watering-troughs when the Sheep came to drink and were in heat of conception that they might look upon the Rods. And the Sheep conceived before the Rods and brought forth young of party-colours and with small and great spots A delightful sight it was Now afterward Iacob parted these Lambes by themselves and turned the faces of the other Sheep towards these party-coloured ones about the time of conception whereby it came to passe that the other Sheep in their heat beholding those that were party-coloured brought forth Lambs of the like colour And such experiments might be practised upon all living Creatures that bear wool and would take place in all kinds of beasts for this course will prevail even in Generating party-coloured Horses A matter which Horse-keepers and Horse-breeders do practise much for they are wont to hang and adorn with tapestry and painted clothes of sundry colours the houses and rooms where they put their Mares to take Horse whereby they procure Colts of a bright Bay colour or of
wouldst bring forth any monsters by art thou must learn by examples and by such principles be directed as here thou mayest find First thou must consider with thy self what thing are likely and possible to be brought to passe for if you attempt likely matters Nature will assist you and make good your endeavours and the work will much delight you for you shall see such things effected as you would not think of whereby also you may find the means to procure more admirable effects There be many reasons and wayes whereby may be generated Monsters in Man First this may come by reason of inordinate or unkindly copulations when the seed is not conveyed into the due and right places again it may come by the narrownesse of the wombe when there are two young ones in it and for want of room are pressed and grow together again it may come by the marring of those thin skinnes of partition which nature hath framed in a womans wombe to distinguish and keep asunder the young ones Pliny writes that in the year of Caius Laelius and Lucius Domitius Consulship there was born a maid-child that had two heads four hands and was of double nature in all respects and a little before that a woman-servant brought forth a child that had sour feet and four hands and four eyes and as many ears and double natured every way Philostratus in the life of Apollonius writes that there was born in Sicily a boy having two heads I my self saw at Naples a boy alive out of whose breast came forth another boy having all his parts but that his head only stuck behind in the other boyes breast and thus they had sticken together in their mothers wombe and their navils also did cling each to other I have also seen divers children having four hands and four feet with six fingers upon one hand and six toes upon one foot and monstrous divers other wayes which here were too long to rehearse By the like causes may Monsters be generated in Beasts We shewed before that such beasts as bring forth many young ones at one burthen especially such as have many cells or receits in their wombe for seed do oftenest produce Monsters Nicocreon the Tyrant of Cyprus had a Hart with four horns Aelianus saw an Oxe that had five feet one of them in his shoulder so absolutely made and so conveniently placed as it was a great help to him in his going Livy saith that at Sessa-Arunca a City in Italy there was eaned a Lambe that had two heads and at Apolis another Lambe having five feet and there was a kitling with but three feet Rhases reports that he saw a Dog having three heads And there be many other like matters which I have no pleasure to speak of But it may seem that Monsters in Birds may be more easily produced both in respect that they are more given to lust and because also they bear in their bodies many egges at once whereby they may stick together and easily cleave each to other and besides this those birds that are by nature very fruitfull are wont to lay egges that have two yelkes For these causes Columella and Leontinus the Greek give counsel to air and purge the houses where Hennes are and their nests yea and the very Hennes themselves with Brimstone and pitch and torches and many do lay a plate of iron or some nailes heads and some Bay-Tree boughs upon their nests for all these are supposed to be very good preservatives against monstrous and prodigious births And Columella reports farther that many do strew grasse and Bay-Tree boughs and heads of Garlick and iron nails in the Hens nests all which are supposed to be good remedies against thunder that it may not marre their egges and these also do spoil all the imperfect chickens if there be any before ever they grow to any ripenesse Aelianus reporteth out of Apion that in the time of Oeneus King of the South there was seen a Crane that had two heads and in another Kings daies another bird was seen that had four heads We will shew also how to hatch A chicken with four wings and four feet which we learn out Aristotle Amongst egges some there are oft-times that have two yelkes if the Hennes be fruitful for two conceptions cling and grow together as being very near each to other the like whereof we may see in the fruits of Trees many of them being twins and growing into each other Now if the two yelks be distinguished by a small skinne then they yield two perfect chickens without any blemish but if the yelks be meddled one with another without any skinne to part them then that which is produced thereof is a Monster Seek out therefore some fruitful Hennes and procure some of the perfectest egges that they lay you may know which are for your purpose by the bignesse of them if not then hold them against the Sun and you shall discern both whether there be in them two yelks and also whether they be distinguished or no and if you finde in them such plenty of matter that you see they are for your turn let them be sitten upon their due time and the chickens will have four wings and four legges but you must have a special care in bringing them up And as some egges have two yelkes so there are some that have three but these are not so common and if they could be gotten they would yield chickens with six wings and sixs legges which be more wonderful There hath been seen a small Duck with four feet having a broad thin bill her fore-parts black her hinder-parts yellow a black head whitish eyes black wings and a black circle about her neck and her back and tail black yellow feet and not standing far asunder and she is at this day kept to be seen at Torga No question but she was generated after the same manner as we spake even now of chickens So they report of a Pigeon that was seen which had four feet And many such monsters we have oft-times hatcht at home for pleasure sake So also are Serpents generated having many heads and many tailes Aristotle writes of certain Serpents that they may be generated after the same manner to have many heads The Poets and the ancient devisers of Fables do speak much of that Hydra Lâ—rnaea which was one of Hercules labours to overcome which Fiction was without all question occasioned by these kinds of Monsters And whilst I was imployed about the writing of this present work there was in Naples a Viper seen alive which had two heads and three cloven tongues and moved every one of them up and down I my self have seen many Lizards that had two or three tails which the common people most foolishly esteem to be a jest and it cannot be but these were generated of such egges as had two yelks CHAP. XVIII Of certain other waies how to produce monstrous births WE may also
white Mulberries and likewise the Chestnut-tree into a Hasel and an Oak and likewise the Pomegranate-tree into all Trees for that it is like to a common whore ready and willing for all Comers and likewise the Cherry-tree into a Turpentine-tree and to conclude that every Tree may be mutually incorporated into each other as Columella supposeth And this is the cause of every composition of many fruits into one of every adopted fruit which is not the natural child as it were of the Tree that bare it and this is the cause of all strange and new kinds of fruits that grow Virgil makes mention of such a matter when he saith that Dido admired certain Trees which she saw that bare new kinds of leaves and apples that naturally were not their own And Palladius saith that Trees are joined together as it were by carnal copulation to the end that the fruit thereof might contain in it all the excellencies of both the parents and the same Trees were garnished with two sorts of leaves and nourished with two sorts of juices and the fruit had a double relish according to both the kinds whence it was compounded But now as we did in our tract of the commixtion of divers kinds of living Creatures so here also it is meet to prescribe certain rules whereby we may cause those divers plants which we would intermingle to join more easily and to agree better together for the producing of new and compounded fruits First therefore we must see that either of the Trees have their bark of one and the same nature and both of them must have the same time of growing and shooting out of their sprigs as was required in living creatures that both of them should have the same time of breeding their young ones for if the graffe have a dry or a hard bark and the stock have a moist or soft bark or that they be any way contrary each to other we shall labour in vain Then we must see that the ingraffing be made in the purest and soundest place of the stock so that it neither have any tumors or knobs or any scars neither yet hath been blasted Again it is very material that the young graffes or shoots be fetcht from the most convenient place or part of the Trees namely from those boughs that grow toward the East where the Sun is wont to rise in the Summer-time Again they must be of a fruitful kind and be taken off from young plants such as never bare fruit before They must also be taken in their prime when they are beginning first to bud and such as are of two years growth and likely to bear fruit in their second year And the stocks into which they are to be engraffed must likewise be as young as may be graffed into for if they be old their hardnesse will scarce give any entertainment to strange shoots to be planted upon them And many such observations must be diligently looked into as we have shewed in our book of Husbandry But we must not here omit to speak of the lome or that clammy morter which makes The Graffe and the stock to close more easily together for it is very helpful to glew or fasten the skins of both the barks one into the other and if the barks be of a divers nature yet by this lome they may be so bound into one that they will easily grow together And surely it is commodious in many respects First because as in mans body the flesh being wounded or pierced into is soon closed up again with stiffe and clammy plaisters applyed thereunto so the bark or the boughs of Trees being cut or rent will close together again very speedily by the applying of this morter For if you pill the bark off from a Tree or slip off a little sprig from a bough unlesse you close it up so cunningly that it may stick as fitly every way in the graffing as whilst it grew it will soon wither and fade and lose the natural juice and moisture which inconvenience this lome will prevent and fit them one into another Moreover if there be any open chink betwixt the bark and the Tree presently the air getteth in and will not suffer them to close therefore to make it sure that they may close without fail this lome is needful And whereas there are some Trees which cannot away to be harboured in any of another kind this lome knit them so strongly into the stock that they cannot but bud and blossom But here we must observe that this glue or morter must be as neer of the nature of the thing engraffed as may be for then it will perform this duty more kindly If you be diligent herein you may do many matters We will give you a taste of some that by these you may learn to do the like Pill off the bark of Holly and make a pit in some moist ground and there bury your Holly rines and let them there putrifie which will be done in twelve daies then take them forth and stamp them till you see they are become a clammy slime This is also made of the fruit Sebesten in Syria and likewise it may be made of ordinary birdlime but the best of all is made of the rines of Elm-roots stamped together for this hath a special quality both to fasten and also to cherish But let us return to graffing which is of such great force that it hath caused a new kind of a bastard fruit that was never heard of before namely An Apple compounded of a Peach-apple and a Nut-peach which kind of compound generation was never seen nor heard of nor yet thought upon by the Ancient This is to be done by a kind of graffing which they call emplastering Take off two young fruitful sprigges one from a Peach-apple Tree and the other from the Nut-peach Tree but they must be well growen and such as are ready to budde forth Then pare off the bark of them about two fingers breadth in compasse so that the budde to be graffed may stand fitly in the midst betwixt them both but you must do it charily lest you perish the wood Then cleave them thorough the middle a little way that they may be let one into another and yet the cleft not seen but covered with the bud Then take off a bud from one of those Trees with the bark round about the bud and set it into the midst of the boughs which we spake of before and so engraffe them together into the other Tree having first cut out a round fit place for them therein They must be engraffed in that part of the Tree which is most neat and fresh-coloured the sprigs that grow about that place must be cut off lest they withdraw the nourishment from the graffe which requires it all for it self And when you have so done binde it about gently that you hurt it not and cover it with somewhat lest the rain fall down upon it
a wonderful Oyl which helpeth concoction and taketh away the inclinations to vomit it is thus made Pour half a Pint of the best Oyl into a brass Pot tinned within and of a wide mouth then take fifteen pound of Romane-Mint and beat it in a Marble-Morter with a VVooden-Pestle until it come to the form of an Oyntment add as much more Mint and VVormwood and put them into the Oâ—l mingle them and stir them well but cover the Pot lest any durt should fall in and let them stand three dayes and infuse then set them on a gentle fire and boyl them five hours for fifteen dayes together until the Oyl have extracted all the vertue of the infused Herbs then strain them through a Linen-cloth in a press or with your hands till the Oyl be run cleer out then take new Herbs beat them and put them into the strained Oyl boyl it again and strain it again do the same the third time and as often as you renew it observe the same course until the Oyl have contracted a green colour but you must separate the juice from the Oyl very carefully for if the least drop do remain in it the Oyl will have but small operation and the whole intent is lost A certain sign of perfect decoction and of the juice being consumed will be if a drop of it being cast upon a plate of iron red-hot do not hiss At last Take a pound of Cinnamon half a pound of Nutmegs as much Mastick and Spikenard and a third part of Cloves poun them severally and being well seirced put them into the Oyl and mix them with a VVooden-stick Then pour it all into an Earthen Vessel glazed within with a long Neck that it may easily be shut and stoot close but let it be of so great a capacity that the third part of it may remain empty Let it stand fifteen days in the Sun alwayes moving and shaking it three or four times in a day So set it up for your use CHAP. VII That a Woman may conceive THere are many Medicines to cause Conception spread abroad because they are much desired by Great Persons The Ancients did applaud Sage very much for this purpose And in Coptus after great Plagues the Egyptians that survived forced the Women to drink the juice of it to make them conceive and bring forth often Salt also helpeth Generation for it doth not only heighten the Pleasures of Venus but also causeth Fruitfulness The Egyptians when their Dogs are backward in Copulation make them more eager by giving them Salt-meats It is an Argument also of it That Ships in the Sea as Plutarch witnesseth are alwayes full of an innumerable company of Mice And some affirm That Female-Mice will conceive without a Male onely by licking Salt And Fish-wives are insatiably leacherous and alwayes full of Children Hence the Poets feigned venus to be born of Salt or the Sea The Egyptian Priests saith the same Author did most Religiously abstain from Salt and Salt-meats because they did excite to lust and cause erection A remedy to procure conception This I have tryed and found the best when a womans courses are just past let her take a new-laid egge boil it and mix a grain of musk with it and sup it up when she goes to bed Next morning take some old beans at least five years old and boil them for a good space in a new pipkin and let the woman when she ariseth out of her bed receive the fume into her privities as it were through a tunnel for the space of an hour then let her sup up two eggs and go to bed again and wipe off the moisture with warm clothes then let her enjoy her husband and rest a while afterwards take the whites of two eggs and mix them with Bole-armenick and Sanguisâ—draconis and dip some flax into it and apply it to the reins but because it will hardly stick on swathe it on from falling a while after let her arise and at night renew the plaister But when she goeth to sleep let her hold ginger in her mouth This she must do nine days CHAP. VIII Remedies against the Pox. SInce this disease hath raged so cruelly amongst men there have been invented a multitude of most excellent remedies to oppose it And although many have set out several of them yet I will be contented with this one only which we may use not onely in this disease but almost in all other and I have seen many experiences of it It is easily made and as easily taken Take a pound of lingnum Guaiacum half a pound of Sarsaperilla beaten small five ounces of the stalks and leaves of Sena one handful of Agrimony and Horse-tail a drachm of Cinnamon and as much cloves and one nutmeg Poun them all and put them into a vessel which containeth twenty gallons of Greek wine let it stand a day and then let the patient drink it at meals and at his pleasure for it purgeth away by degrees all maladies beside the French-pox If the patient groweth weak with purging let him intermit some days In the summer time leave out the cinnamon and the nutmeg I have used it against continual head-aches deafness hoarsness and many other diseases A preservation against the Pox which a man may use after unclean women Take a drachm of hartwort and gentian two scruples of sanders and lignum-aloes half a drachm of powder of coral spodium and harts horn burnt a handful of sowthistle scordium betony scabious and tormentil as much of roses two pieces of Guaiacum two scales of copper a drachm and a half of Mercury precipitate a pint of malmesey a quart of the waters of sowthistle and scabious mix the wine and waters and lay the Guaiacum in it a day and then the rest then boil them till half be consumed strain them and lay a linnen-cloth soaking in the expression a whole night then dry it in the shade do this thrice and after copulation wash your yard in it and lay some of the linnen on and keep it close CHAP. IX Antidotes against Poyson IT is the common opinion of all Physitians that those herbs stones or any other thing which being put into a Serpents mouth doth kill him is an Antidote against his poyson We read in Dioscorides of the herb Alkanet which is very efficacious against the poyson of Serpents and being chewed and spit out upon a Serpent killeth him Upon this I thrust half a drachm of treacle or mithridate mixt with Aqua vitae into a vipers mouth and she died within half an hour I made a water-serpent swallow the same but she received no hurt by it onely lay a small time â—â—upified wherefore I pressed some oyl out of the seeds of citron and orange or lemons and dropt it into the serpents mouth and she died presently Moreover a drachm of the juice of Angelica-roots will kill a serpent The Balsame as they call it which is brought from
this the onely bawd to procure him an executorship They smoke themselves with Cumine who disfigure their faces to counterfeit holiness and mortification of their body There is an experiment also whereby any one may know how To cause Sores to arise Take Perwinckle an herb of an intolerable sharpness that is worthily named Flammula bruise it and make it into a plaister and it will in a short space ulcerate and make blisters arise Cantharides beaten with strong water do also raise watry blisters and cause ruptures CHAP. XIV Of Fascination and Preservatives against inchantments NOw I will discourse of inchantment neither will I pass over in silence who they are whom we call Inchanters For if we please to look over the Monuments of Antiquity we shall finde a great many things of that kind delivered down to posterity And the tryal of later ages doth not altogether explode the fame of them neither do I think that it derogateth from the truth of the stories that we cannot draw the true causes of the things into the streight bonds of our reasons because there are many things that altogether impede the enquiry but what I my self judge of others opinions I thought fit here to explicate You may find many things in Theocritus and Virgil of this kind whence that verse arose There 's same I know not whose unlucky eye Bewitcheth my yong Lambs and makes them die Isigonus and Memphodorus say There are some families in Africa that bewitch with their tongue the very Woods which if they do but admire somewhat earnestly or if they praise fair trees growing corn lusty children good horses or fat sheep they presently wither and die of a suddain from no other cause or harm which thing also Solinus affirmeth The same Isigonus saith there are amongst the â—riballians and Illyrians certain men who have two pupils in each eye and do bewitch most deadly with them and kill whatever they look earnestly on especially with angry eyes so pernicious are they and yong children are most subject to their mischief There are such women in Scythia called Bichiae saith Apollonides Philarchus reporteth of another kind called Thibians in Pontus who had two pupils in one eye and in the other the picture of a horse of which Didymus also maketh mention Damon relateth of a poyson in Ethiopia whose sweat would bring a consumption in all bodies it touched and it is manifest that all women which have two pupils in one eye can bewitch with it Cicero writeth of them so Plutarch and Philarchus mention the Paletheobri a Nation inhabiting in part of the Pontick Sea where are Inchanters who are hurtful not onely to children that are tender and weak but to men of full growth who are of a strong and firm body and that they kill with their looks making the persons languish and consume away as in a consumption Neither do they infect those onely who live among them but strangers and those who have the least commerce with them so great is the power and witchcraft of their eyes for though the mischief be often caught in copulation with them yet it is the eyes that work for they send forth spirits which are presently conveyed to the heart of the bewitched and so infect him Thus it cometh to pass That a yong man being full of thin clear hot and sweet blood sendeth forth spirits of the same nature for they are made of the purest blood by the heat of the heart and being light get into the uppermost parts of the body and flye out by the eyes and wound those who are most porous which are fair persons and the most soft bodies With the spirits there is sent out also a certain fiery quality as red and blear-eyes do who make those that look on them fall into the same disease I suffered by such an accident my self for the eye infecteth the air which being infected infecteth another carrying along with it self the vapors of the corrupted blood by the contagion of which the eyes of the beholders are overcast with the like redness So the Wolf maketh a man dumb so the Cockatrice killeth who poysoneth with looking on and giveth venimous wounds with the beams of his eyes which being reflexed upon himself by a looking-glass kill the Author of them So a bright Mirror dreadeth the eyes of an unclean women saith Aristotle and groweth cloudy and dull when she looketh on it by reason that the sanguine vapour is contracted by the smoothness of the glass into one place so that it is spotted with a kind of little mist which is plainly seen and if it be newly gathered there will be hardly wip'd off Which thing never happeneth on a cloth or stone because it penetrateth and sinketh into the one and is dispersed by the inequality of parts in the other But a Mirror being hard and smooth collecteth them entire and being cold condenseth them into a dew In like manner almost if you breath upon a clear glass it will wax moist as it were with a sprinkling of spettle which condensing will drop down so this efflux of beams out of the eyes being the conveyers of spirits strike through the eyes of those they meet and flye to the heart their proper region from whence they rise and there being condensed into blood infect all his inward parts This stranger blood being quite repugnant to the nature of the man infects the rest of him and maketh him sick and there this contagion will continue as long as he hath any warm blood in his body For being a distemper in the blood it will cast him into a continual feaver whereas if it had been a distemper of choler or flegme it would have afflicted him by intervalls But that all things may be more distinctly explained you must know first that there are two kind of Fascinations mentioned by Authors One of Love the other of Envy or Malice If a person be ensnared with the desire of a fair and beautiful woman although he be caught at a distance yet he taketh the poyson in at his eyes and the Image of her beauty settleth in the heart of this Lover kindleth a flame there which will never cease to torment him For the soft blood of the beloved being strayed thither maketh continual representations of her she is present there in her own blood but it cannot settle or rest there for it continually endeavoureth to flye homeward as the blood of a wounded person spirts out on him that giveth the blow Lucretius describeth this excellenty He seeks that body whence his grief he found For humors always flow unto a wound As bruised blood still runs unto the part That 's struck and gathers where it feels the smart So when the murtheress of his heart 's in place Blushes arise and red orespreads his facee But if it be a Fascination of Envy or Malice that hath infected any person it is very dangerous and is found most often in old women