of Sens in Bourgundie which went 28 years with a dead child in her womb this woman being dead and her belly opened there was found a stone having all the limbs and proportion of a child of 9 months old This was no miracle but an extraordinary work of nature for the child being dead and the slimie matter of its body having an aptitude by the extraordinary heat of the matrix to be hardned might retain the same lineaments which it had before If any wonder how within the soft and liquid humors of the matrix such a hard substance should be ingendred let him as well wonder at the generation of hard bones within soft flesh of hard stones within soft plums Peaches and other fruits of stones and hard thunder-bolts within watrish clouds CHAP. IV. 1. Some without Lungs 2. Impostumes voided in Vrine 3. Worms the cause of many diseases 4. No change of sexes 5. Giants 6. Some without livers 7. Fleshy bladders 8. Stones haires worms c. Begot in our Vrine 9. A woman without a matrix I Have read of divers bodies of men without lungs and I believe it for oftentimes the lungs are putrified and corroded with corrupt and acrimonious matter and wasted with burning heat but hence it will not follow that a man can live without lungs any time seeing the heart stands in need continually of refrigeration yet some do live a great while with half of the lungs after the other half is putrified and spit out II. I finde that when impostumations and corrupted matter in the breast cannot be evacuated by spitting or coughing or vomiting or by Phlebotomy or the stool it is notwithstanding purged out by urine naturally without the help of art by which we see how cunning and industrious nature is to help her self and that she is more carefull to thrust out noxious then to draw in profitable things hence sick mens expiration is stronger then their inspiration and hence also we see that there are many porous and pervious passages unknown to us which doubtless are in our bodies being alive which cannot be found being dead because shut by the cold III. I finde that many Physitians are mistaken in the causes of divers diseases and therefore their remedies prove oftentimes fruitless or hurtfull For I have known Apâ—plexies Convulsions Coughs Consumptions Feavers Cholicks and other Diseases proceed from Wormes which when they have beene voided either dead or alive the sick partys have recovered Nay I have read of some who have had worms crawle out at their navels and some whose organs of voice and speech having been assaulted and hurt by worms have become speechless how carefull then should we be of our diets not to delight so much as we do in sweet meats sauces and drinks or in such food as breeds slâ—my matter whereof worms are ingendred and Physitians should be as carefull to prescribe such things to their patients as may kill and evacuate these enemies of our health and life IV. That maids have become boyes I have read in divers Stories but I have shewed in the former Book that there is no such change in nature because the organs of generation in the two sexes differ both in number form and situation and that therefore such transformations are meant of Hermaphrodites or of such boyes in whom the vessels of generation have not at first appeared outwardly for want of heat and strength which afterwards have thrust them out Dr. Brown admits the change and yet shews that the vessels are different both in form and situation which is a contradiction V. That there have been Giants and men of stupendious stature in all ages is not to be doubted seeing there are so many witnesses extant and the reason of their bigness can be none else but the aboundance of seed and menstruous blood of which they are begot the quality and pliableness of the matter â—apt to be extended the strength also of the heat and formative power and that these men should have rapacious stomachs to devour incredible quantities of meat and drink is not to be wondred at if we consider the bulk of their bodies the capacity of their stomachs and rapacity of their heat VI. Nature is not deficient in necessaries nor abundant in superfluities there is not any one member in our bodies that can be spared for if there be any one defective our life proves short and miserable I have read of some who have been found without Livers but such had a fleshy lump in stead thereof which not being able to sanguifie or turn the Chylus into blood the parties lived but a short while and died of Tympanies or Hydropsies and others whose Livers have been found full of stones have died of the same disease and so have those whose spleen hath been found stony A woman who died of an Hydropsie I saw dissected whose spleen was full of stones of a blewish and green colour VII Not onely are stones of great bigness bred in the bladder by which the passage of the urine is intercepted and so death and many tortures are procured but also there have been found in some bladders great lumps of flesh yea all the internal side of the bladder filled up with fleshy excrescences that there could be no room for the urine but I doubt whether this were true flesh or not seeing no flesh is begot but of blood I think therefore that this was an excrementitious substance resâ—mbling flesh in colour and shape VIII It is manifest that some with their urine evacuate stones gravel matter hairs little crawling creatures of divers shapes which doubtless are begotten of putrifaction according to the disposition of the matter and heat of the bladder or kidneys if the matter be adust and bâ—rned hairs are begot sometimes as big as hogs brissles and sometimes the stones of the kidneys are so big that they stick in the yard and cannot be evacuated without incision upon the stoppage of the urine by these stones malignant vapours ascend from the corrupted urine into the noble parts that convulsions syncopes and other dangerous effects are procreated IX As a man can live without testicles so can a woman without the matrix these being members given by naturâ— not for conversation of the individuals but for continuation of the species Therefore Zacuâ—uâ— speaks of a woman who lived thirty years after her matrix was cut out which by a fall that she had from a high tree had slipt out of its place and could never be again replaced Obs. 76. l. 2. CHAP. V. 1. Strange but not miraculous births 2. Strange and strong imaginations 3. Poison inward and outward 4. Poison of mad Dogs 5. Câ—ntharides 6. Poison how it worketh 7. Why birds not poisoned as men 8. Amphiam Opium Mandrakes 9. The Plague no Hectick nor putrid Fever 10. Epidemical diseases THat a boy of nine years old should beget a child is rarâ— but much morâ— strange it is that a child should be
the tenth of any thing was not counted the greatest but the greatest of any things was called by the name of Tenth because that is the first perfect number as consisting of 1 2 3 and 4. It was also held a sacred number therefore the tenth of spoils was dedicated to Hercules and from him called Herculan the tenth of fruits was paid by the Corinthians to Cyphelus their King by Cyrus to Iupiter by the Arabians to Sabis and long before by Abraham and Iacob to the true God When there was yet no positive law but the law of Nature In the number then of Ten the Ancients conceived there was perfection and excellencie For Nature perfects man and brings him into the world the tenth moneth she hath parted his hands into ten fingers his feet into ten toes she hath given him ten passages for evacuation in three ten dayes the male child is formed in the womb in foure ten dayes the female there be ten Heavens they made up their musick of ten strings their year of ten moneths Apollo with the nine Muses made up the full consort they used to drink but ten times in their Feasts the womans Dowry anciently was ten Sestertia at least and the greatest ordinarily decies Sestertium that is ten hundred thousand pounds of our money 7812. l. 10. s. Many other observations may be made of this number therefore any thing that was greater then another was called Decumanum Porta decumana was the great gate of the Camp Limes decumanus in grounds was from East to West decumana pyra in Pliny are great Pears Decumatio was the calling forth of every tenth delinquent in an Army for punishment And Lipsius thinks that from them the great gate of the Camp out of which they went was called Decumana This number also of Ten is musical in Scripture as may be seen in divers passages thereof Now whereas he saith That the Greeks expresse the greatest wave by the number of three as their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewes This he hath from Erasm us in his Adagies but I think the word is not from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fear so this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the third wave but the most terrible greatest wave Hence the Latin Decumanus should be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XVI 1. Epicurus a wicked and wanton man impious in his opinions Seneca's judgement of him 2. Twelve of his impious and absurd opinions rehearsed THe Doctor is very prodigall of his pitie when he cries out Who can but pitie the vertuous Epicurus who is commonly conceived to place his chiefe felicity in pleasure and sensual delights c. But these pleasures were of the mind not of the body Gassendus indeed hath taken much needlesse pains to vindicate Epicurus from his errors and impiety but in this he washeth a Brick or Blackmore his chiefe supporter is Diogenes Laertius an obscure Authour in former times for no ancient Writer speaks of him and he cites more Philosophers then it's thought he ever read This Laertius lived 450. years after Epicurus that is in the time of Antonius pius about 150. years after Christ whereas Epicurus lived almost 300. years before our Saviour Now how he should come to know more of Epicurus then those Philosophers who were contemporary with him even his own disciples who writ the life and doctrine of that wanton garden Philosopher is a thing to be questioned and to indifferent men improbable For whatsoever Gassendus out of this Laertius writes of his commendations yet we find in the writings of ancient Philosophers among the Gentiles and primitive Doctors among the Christians that he was a man lewd in his conversation and monstrous in his opinions so that ever since he opened his Schoole till this day a wanton Atheist is called an Epicure Sine vano publica fama Sure there could not be so much smoke without some fire and to say that his contemporary Philosophers chiefly the Stoicks should out of malice write untruths of him is very improbable For to what end should they doe so And why more against him then any other Besides if he was innocent why did he not vindicate his own reputation by writing Why did not his Scholars stand up in his defence how came it that in almost five hundred years he was branded by the tongues and pens of all men and no man all that while stood up to cleare his reputation till Diogines Laertius produced three of his Epistles which wise men may think to be fictitious and the rather because they contradict what his own Scholars and ancient Philosophers have recorded of him For Timecrates his beloved Disciple and one whom he made one of the Executors of his last will writes that with excesse of eating and drinking he used to vomit twice a day And Laertius himself is forced to confesse that he killed himselfe in the Bath with drinking too much sweet wine and so he shewed himselfe to be Epicurus indeed He was so decrepid the later part of his life that for many yeares together he could not rise out of his chaire he had so enervated his body with pleasures wherein he placed his felicity Is this the Doctors vertuous Epicurus who spent every day a Mina vvhich was an hundred Drachma's that is 3. l. 2. s. 6. d. every Drachma being 7. d. ob I confesse onely Seneca among the Stoicks speaks favourably of Epicurus his opinion concerning pleasure as if he meant of mentall delights lib. 1. de vit beat yet withall checks him shewing that his commending of pleasure was pernitious because voluptuous men upon this took occasion to hide their luxury in the bosome of Philosophy and to cover their wantonnesse with the patrociny and mantle of pleasure Therefore elsewhere he calls him The Master of pleasure and one who too much yeelded to the delights of the body Seneca therefore by speaking favourably of Epicurus would keep off voluptuous men from making him their patron of sensual pleasures and was loath that the sacred name of Philosophy should be bespattered by such an impious professor His intention in this was good but yet truth should take place Neither doth the honour of a holy profession depend upon the quality of the professor though wicked Iudas vvas an execrable Apostle yet the Apostolicall function is sacred But perhaps it may be objected That Epicurus did oftentimes use to fast and content himself with bread and water I answer That there is a pleasure sometimes in fasting as well as in feasting the nature of man delights in change if it were not for abstinence sometimes we should not know the delight of fulnesse darknesse commends the pleasure of light and Winter adds to the delights of Summer There is a vvearisomnesse in continuall feasting which takes away pleasure therefore Epicurus to maintain an alternate vicissitude of delights would interchangeably
which did abound in him did not presently spend so long as they continued he lived when they failed he fell down dead IV. What Wierus records in his work of Impostures l. 4. ca. 16. concerning some stones found in the heart of Maximilian the second is not incredible for the same heat of the body that breeds stones in the bladder kidney and joynts can also produce stones in the heart if there be the same matter and disposition for such a production and this may be the work of nature alone without sorcery V. Nor is it incredible what is recorded by divers of worms found in the heart which cause consumptions and strange distempers in our bodies which oftentimes deceive Physitians For the heart is no more priviledged from worms then other members save onely that its substance is hard and solid and by reason of its spirits and heat it is not so much subject to putrifaction as parts more soft and loose and consequently not so often infested with worms and imposthumes as other members are yet it is not altogether exempted For I have read of one whose heart being opened there was found in it a white worm with a sharp beck which being placed on a table and a circle of the juice of Garlick made about it died being overcome with that strong smell by which it is plain that the use of Garlick is wholesome and needful for such as are subject to worms as being their destroyer VI. Fernelius is deceived when he saith that the heart doth not putrifie in us whilest we are alive because it is of a solid and hard substance and is the last that dieth in us but it is not more hard and solid then the bones which notwithstanding putrifie whilest we are alive and it is true that it is the last thing that dieth in us for it doth not totally putrifie till we be dead because all the heat motions and functions thereof cease not till then VII And not onely in the heart but in the braines also worms are ingendred as Avicenna Hollerius and others doe witnesse And I have read of black and round worms that by sneezing powder of Castoreum and Pepper have been voided by the nose and of ear-worms also CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange stone found in the matrix THe Epilepsie and malignant feavers oftentimes end in deafness and this is held a good signe of recovery the reason is because nature thrusts out the malignant humor from the brain into the next passages which are the ears II. Some take the night-mare or Incubus for a spirit but indeed it is a feculent humor adhering to the vitall parts and with its black or melancholy fume troubling the Diaphragma Lungs and Brain and distempering the imagination with horrid shapes III. Nature is very skilfull and provident in helping her self when art faileth for many diseases have been cured by nature which the Physitians have been forced to give off Zacutus Obs. 15. mentioneth one who being every month vexed with a terrible Vertigo which for a time made him stupid and senseless was cured by a flux of blood gushing out of his eyes without any inflammation at all or redness of the eyes by those veins that fed the eyes nature found out a way to ease her self which veines were opened by the violent motion of the spirits in the head and the aboundance of blood pressing into those veins which made an eruption IV. And it is no less strange what he records Obs. 72. of one upon the tip of whose tongue was found a stone as big as a filbert nut which grew there within a swelling caused by a great flux doubtless of slimy matter into that part and baked into that consistence by a preternatural heat for he was much subject to Catharrs V. That is not incredible which is recorded by Iaubert in his Vulgar Errors l. 2. c. 2. of young women who have been brought to bed at nine or ten years of age for nature is more pregnant and forward in some then in others this we see in some trees and other vegitables but these women give off child-bearing betimes to wit about one or two and twenty for quod cito sit cito perit and as we say soon ripe soon rotten for such hasty and precipitate works of nature are not permanent hence it is that women who sooner attain to their growth then men decay sooner then men VI. For stones to be bred in the Lungs which are oftentimes the causes of drie coughs is no great wonder for divers times such stones have been voided by coughing but for a mans body to be converted into a stone as is Recorded in the memorials of Lyons in France is more strange yet not impossible and therefore the conversion of Lots wife into a Salt Pillar is not incredible although this was the sole work of God Neither is that incredible which is written of the lake that turns the sticks cast into it into stones nor that Cave in Scotland where the water-drops are turned to stones I have kept an apple til it grew to that hardness that no wood could be harder for scarce could a knife cut it I wil not say this was a perfect stone into which this body was thus turned but it might be as hard and drie as a stone for the bodies that are found in the sands of Egypt are very dry and hard VII Horstius and others record divers examples of sleep-walkers who do strange things in their sleep but this is also the work of nature for I finde that they are most subject to this infirmity whose animal spirits are most active subtil and fiery and whose imagination is strong so that by the strength of their fantasie and agility of their spirits the muscles are moved though the Will doth not then concur to this motion nor reason make any opposition which it would do if they were naked and not suffer them to undergo such dangers VIII I have read divers Stories of women who have had seaven children and more at a birth and likewse of superfetation both which are credible and possible in nature as I have shewed in the former book c. 13. sect 5. 7. But that the infant should crie in the mothers womb as some have done is more strange seeing it doth not breath neither is there any air in the matrix without which there can be no sound therefore either this crie was imaginary in the party that heard it for sometimes we think we hear a sound when we hear none or else this sound might proceed from wind in the mothers womb which might resemble the crying of a child or else these mothers might be ventriloque IX That may seem a miracle which is recorded by Monsieur Iohn Alibaux a Physitian of a woman
born with all his teeth and another with a long beard yet such have been and these are but the effects of nature which though in her ordinary course â—he observes a timâ— for the growth perfection and decay of things yet sometimes she is furthered and hindred according as the matter is disposed the heat proportioned and her instruments fitted Why should not Nature have the same priviledge that Art hath but we see that hearbs and fruits can be produced and perfected before their time by the Art of man therefore such works are meerly natural not miraculous for sublunary bodies are not like the â—elestial which are not suâ—ject to alteration but â—till keep the same constant tenor II. What force the imagination hath in women to make impressions of the things imagined on the tender infant in the womb is known by many Stories and daily Examples Hence it is that so many children are born with such variety of strange shapes and marks Besides we know how forcible the phantasie is both in curing and procuring of diseases yea oftentimes of death Thus one having eat of a Rabbit pie imagining she had eat of a cat fel a vomiting and died Another having passed over a dangerous bridg in the dark and returning the next day to look upon the place was struck with such an horror that he went home and died A third being in jest made believe that he must lose his head swouned and fel down dead Multitudes of such Examples thâ—re are but the imaginatioâ—s which proceed from hypochondriacal melancholy are most strange whereby one supposeth himself to be dead therefore will not eat Another is perswaded that he hath never a head A third that his breech is made of glass therefore will not fit down for fear of breaking Anothâ—r thinks the heaven will fall upon him therefore must have a Target born over him Another wil not piss for fear he should drown the world And many more such strange conceits are some men troubled with by reason of their imaginations which are distorted by the black and malignant fumes that disturb the animal spirits subservient to the phantasie Such are the imaginations of those who think themselves wolves and therefore run into the woods and bite men and cattel they meet with I have read of one who thought himself to be a cock and therefore fel to crowing And doubtless the Lycanthropie so much spoken of is nothing else but the strength of a distemper'd imagination whatsoe'r Bodin writes to the contrary III. The cause of many extraordinary distempers in us is poyson whether inteâ—nal bred within our selves by the corruption or putrefaction of the seed blood or humors of our bodies by which pestilent and venemous fumes assault the heart and brains or external as the biting of mad dogs or cats or other creatures For I have read of some that never were bitten and yet have beene subject to the same kinde of raging and fury that they arâ— who are bit by mad dogâ— but their fits were milder because the constitution of dogs is more melancholy then that of mans therefore their venom more dangerous and who would think there were such poyson in a mad cock who being angred struck one in the hâ—nd with his beck upon which blow the man fell distracted and died neither could any physick cure him IV. The madness that is caused by the biting of mad dogs is not in all men alike buâ— upon some the poyson worketh sooner upon some later â—ccording to the degree of madness in the dog or the deepness of the wound or disposition of the body wounded for foul bodies melancholick and cholerick constitutions are aptest to receive the venom therefore in some the poyson appeareth quickly in others not in a long time to wit not in a year or more for the malignity doth not presently assault the sâ—irits heart and brains And Capivacceus observes that this poyson is of a fiery quality and hot in the fourth degree as he sheweth by one who was thus bit his body being opened there was found no water in his Pericardium but a part of it was burned up and being touched fell into ashes the ventricles also were dried up and had no blood at all V. It is strange that some do piss blood upon the applying of the Flyes called Cantharides to the neck hands or feet so remoâ—e from the bladder by this we see that the malignant vertue of these flies hath a particular influence upon that member This action of the bladder cannot be by the first or second qualities of the Caâ—tharides â—or then they should work first uâ—on the next members therefore this action must be performed by an occult quality of the specifical form of the flie And much more strange is it that the body of this â—lie should be poyson and the wings thereof a counterpoyson which in the living fly are aâ— concord by reason of the specifical form or soul of the fly ruling all the parts and keeping them in unity but when that is gon in the dead fly the one part destroys the other Who can give exact reasons of Natures secrets VI. And no less stranâ—e is it that Euphorbium and Mustard are equally hot to wit in the fourth degree and yet the one is poyson not the other and Treacle which is hot in the first degree heats more then Pepper which is hot in the fourth degree this shews that the form of the one is not so aâ—â—ive as the form of the other and therefore four times so much heat in the one is not so prevalent as one degree of heat in the other which shewes that poysons do not work by their temper which consist of elementary qualities but by their substance or form whose qualities are occult to us VII Why Napelius or Wolfe-bane Hyosciamus or Henbane and other hearbs which are poyson to man are nutriment to birds can have no other reason but that birds have a greater heat in their stomachs to subdue the malignity of these hearbs to send away the noxious and excrementitious part and to convert the rest into their own substance which substance notwithstanding is not poysonable to man because the poyson was consumed by the heat of the bird Now the heat of mans stomack is more temperate and therefore less able to master such malignant hearbs yet Scaliger Exerc. 175.1 speaks of a man who was fed with poyson from his infancy whose flesh at last became so venomous that the flies which sucked his blood swelled and died VIII That Amphiam or Opium should stir up venery and cause a tickling in the skin and yet stupifie the members and cast them into a dead sleep is not without admiration but doubtless either the Amphiam or Opium are different that being made of the white this of the black Poppies or else in the Opium there be different substances the one being very câ—ld which causeth stupidity the other very hot by causing a tickling in
absolutely necessary Strange operations of some stomachs The Ostrich eats and digests Iron 4. How Bees Gnats c. make a sound Of Glow-worms and Grains bit by Pismires the vegitable Lamb and other strange plants 5. The Tygers swiftnesse The Remora stays ships THAT divers animals even men and women can subsist without food is plain by these examples A certain maid in the Diocesse of Spire anno 1542. lived three years without meat or drink In the year 1582. in the Palatinat there lived a maid nine years together without food who afterward married and had children Rondeletius l. 1. de pis c. 13. writes of a maid in France and of another in Germany who lived divers years without food and of another whom hee saw that had no other food but air ten years together Ficinus saw a man who had no other food but what the air and Sun afforded him In the year 1595. a maid lived at Colen three years without food another at Bern lived eighteen years on the air alone anno 1604. Other examples I could alledge out of Citesius Physitian of Padua Lentulus of Bern Ioubertus and others but these may suffice to let us see that nutrition doth not consist meerly in meat and drink I will not here alledge examples of miraculous fasts or of Diabolical and Magical but such as are meerly natural as these which I have named for in them the natural heat was weak and not able to master the humidity with which they abounded So then where there is a weak heat and much sweet phlegm which is imperfect blood as Physitians call it there the life may bee prolonged without food I have read Mendoza in Flor. phil of a Venetian who fasted forty six years being of a cold constitution and abounding with thick phlegme we see this in the hearb Semper-vivum which many years together liveth and is green without earth or water having much natural humidity within it So the Camelion is onely fed by air as is said which appears to be true however Dr. Brown Book 3. c. 21. writes to the contrary by these reasons 1. The testimonies both of ancient and modern Writers except a few and the witnesses of some yet living who have kept Camelions a long time and never saw them feed but on air 2. To what end hath Nature given it such large Lungs beyond its proportion Sure not for refrigeration lesse Lungs would serve for this use seeing their heat is weak it must be then for nutrition 3. There is so little blood in it that we may easily see it doth not feed on solid meat The Doctor saith That Frogs and divers Fishes have little blood and yet their nutriment is solid But he doth not prove the nutriment to be solid Besides they have more blood then is in the Camelion 4. To what end should it contnually gape more then other animals but that it stands more in need of air then they towit for nutrition as well as refrigeration The Doctor imputeth this gaping to the largenesse of his Lungs This is but a shift for other animals whose Lungs doe exceed both the Lungs and whole bodies of many Camelions do not gape as this doth and yet they stand more in need of refrigeration as having more blood and heat then ten thousand Camelions 5. He that kept the Camelion which I saw never perceived it to void excrements backwards an argument it had no solid food and what wonder is it for the Camelion to live on air when Hay a beast of Brasil as big as a Dog was never seen to feed on any thing else as Lerius witnesseth The Doctor concludes That the Camelion is abstenious a long time but not still because divers other animals are so He may as well infer that the Camelion is cornuted because divers other animals are so Each species hath its property which is not communicable to other species otherwise it were no property II. That water is the aliment of divers creatures is plain 1. By the vegetables for hearbs trees and plants are nourished by it 2. By animals for it is the food of many fishes as was shewed by that fish which Rondeletius his wife kept three years in a glasse Grashoppers feed upon dew which is water I have read Mendoza Prob. 23. of Worms in Armenia which feed only on Snow and of some birds whose aliment is only water 3. By men for Albertus Magnus speaks of one who lived seven weeks together only upon water I know Aristotle l. 7. de anim Galen and Averroes are against this opinion But we must understand they speak of the pure element of water which is not nutritive not of that which is impure mixed or compounded for such may nourish Doctor Brown will not have water an aliment 1. Because some creatures drink not at all Answ. To such water indeed can be no aliment and so indeed his argument is good but to say that water is no creatures aliment because some creatures do not drink at all is as much as if he should infer that no man eats bread because some men never ate any 2. He saith That water serves for refrigeration and dilution therefore it is no aliment Answ. Why may not the same thing serve both Doe we not many times eat cooling hearbs which both refrigerate and feed us 3. If the ancients saith he had thought water nutritive they would not have commended the Limpid water for the best but rather turbid streams where there may be some nutriment Answ. If the Ancients had spoken of Waters fittest to feed Eels Frogs and such as live on mud they would have commended the turbid streams but they spake of such Waters as are fittest for our bodies and therefore they commended the Limpid for the best and yet he confesseth in the purest water there is much terreous residence and consequently some nutriment III. Chilification is an action of the stomach but not absolutely necessary because many creatures in the Winter live without it And this act is not to be ascribed to the heat of the stomach for though heat as heat doth concoct yet it doth not chilifie for neither fiery nor feverish nor any other heat of the body can perform this but that of the stomach therefore this action must proceed from the specifical form and proper quality of the stomach which turns all it receives into a white creamy substance but cannot produce several substances as the Liver doth because it is not so hot as the Liver or rather it hath not that specifical form which the Liver hath Besides that the stomachs work is to master the aliment to concoct it and to prepare it for the Liver But besides this quality of the stomach there is another more strange when som can eat and digest coals sand lime pitch ashes and such like trash This is called by Physitians a disease under the name of Pica Citta Malacia but I think it proceeds not only from a
no intentions nor remissions the form then being simple and indivisible cannot be made up of two so that two seeds cannot concurre as two efficient causes to make up a third entity For Ex ' duobus entibus per se non fit unum ens per se. Again wee see that trees and plants are generated of one seed without copulation for the earth concurres not by affording another seed to propagate but as the matrix to cherish and foment So in fishes which have no distinct sex there is generation notwithstanding because in them there is seed which is the onely active principle of generation Again that outward shape or form which the Mule hath was not induced by the formative faculty of the females seed for there is none as we have shewed much lesse of the blood for the plastick vertue resideth not in the blood but in the Males seed which of its own particular nature endeavours to form a Horse but finding the Asses blood being united now and coagulated with and by the Horses seed uncapable to receive that form of the Horse is retreated by the superior and generall formative faculty which aiming at the production of a new species for the perfection of the Universe generates a Mule Hence we may inferre that Mules were not the invention of Ana except we will conclude that the world was imperfect till that time which were an injury to God who made the world perfect but perfect it could not be till the production of this species for Perfectum est cui nihil deest The Doctors second Argument Exercit. 34 is taken from the production of the egge which Aristotle holds is generated by the Hen and which hath also vegitation from her Hence he inferres That according to Aristotles mind the Hen is an active principle in generation Answ. From hence it will not follow That the Hen is an active principle in the generation of the Chick because she furnisheth the Egge which is the materials of the chick for so in other animals the female furnisheth blood which is the matter of which the Embryo is made and yet she is not as we have said an efficient cause of generation but the male onely by his seed neither will it follow that vegitation doth still presuppose generation for in many individuals there is a vegitive soul and yet no generation so there is in some species as in Mules in adianthum or capillus veneris which we call Maiden-hair and divers other hearhs which generate not though they have vegitation But when Aristotle saith The egge is generated in the Hen or that the female generates in her self he takes generation in a large sense for any way of production so we say water is generated of air and worms of purrid matter and yet neither the one nor the other is the efficient but the materiall cause onely of generation And though we should yeeld that the Hen were the efficient cause of the egge yet it will not therefore follow that she is the efficient cause of the Chick for that is onely the Cock as Aristotle holds though in the woman there is a working faculty of her blood yet there is no working faculty in her of the child or Embryo that is meerly from the plastick power of the fathers seed II. Now let us see Fernelius his Arguments l. 6. de hom prâ—creat the first whereof is this The womans seed hath no other originall from the testicles and vessels then the males seed hath therefore in her seed there is a procreative faculty Answ. 1. We deny that there is seed in the woman properly so called 2. If it were so that she had seed yet it will not follow that it is prolificall for it must be concocted spirituous because the spirits are the prime instruments of Nature in generation but the the womans seed is crude because that Sex by nature is cold being compared to the man as both Aristotle and Galen affirm and experience doth evince for the woman is much weaker and slower then the man whereas strength and agility argues plenty of spirits and calidity The mans hairs also are more curled stiffe and strong then the womans which shews more heat The womans voyce is weaker and smaller which argues the narrownesse of the vessels and consequently defect of heat and because the woman is lesse hot and dry then the man Hence it is that she abounds much more in blood which in man is dried up Besides the woman is the more imperfect Sex her seed therefore must be imperfect and consequently not fit to be the principall or efficient cause of so noble an animall as man Aristotle observeth that boyes in the mothers womb are more lively and nimbler then maids that they are sooner formed in the matrix and that the woman sooner groweth to her height and sooner decayeth her strength quickly fails her and old age assaults her soonest Secondly he proves That the child drawes 〈◊〉 Gout Stone Epilepsie and other hereditary diseases from the mother who was subject to these her selfe Answ. This will not prove that the mother is an active cause in generation or that the formative faculty â—â— the cause of diseases which rather are to be attributed to the matter of which the similar parts are formed then to the active principle of generation whereas then the woman â—â—rnisâ—â—th blood of which our bodies are made up it is no marvell if with the blood she imparts to the child whatsoever infirmitie is in it and not onely doth the mother by her blood but the father also by his seed communicate diseases to the child for the same seed which is the efficient cause of generation is also the materiall cause of infirmities and diseases Hence many times gowry fathers beget gowty children His third Argument is The child oftentimes resembleth the mother therefore her seed must needs be active Answ. That the child for the most resembleth the mother proceedeth not from any agencie of her seed but from the strength of her imagination for otherwise the child would still resemble the father in whose seed alone resideth the formative faculty which because it is a naturall power depending from the generative and consequently inferior to the imagination which is an animall faculty that giveth place to this This force of the mothers imagination is plain by the divers impressions made on the tender Embryo upon her depraved imaginations by the stories of those women who have conceived children resembling the pictures hanging in their bed-chambers and by the practise of Iacob Gen. 30. in causing his Ewes to bring forth streaked Lambs according to the streaked rods put in their troughes when they drank II. There is no disease that more molests and tortures man then the Cholick which is so called from Colon the great intestine the torment of which hath made some to kil themselvs nor is there any malady that proceeds from more causes or hath more strange and
Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's Body discovered In an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the Parts thereof As also By a Discovery of the strange and marveilous Diseases Symptomes Accidents of MAN's BODY WITH A Refutation of Doctor Brown's VULGAR ERRORS The Lord BACON's NATURAL HISTORY And Doctor Harvy's Book DE GENERATIONE COMENIVS and Others Whereto is annexed a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author and his Answer thereto touching Doctor Harvy's Book de Genetatione By A. R. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to bee sold by Iohn Clark entring into Mercers-Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1652. TO THE WORSHIPFUL and my much honored FRIEND EDWARD WATSON ESQUIRE Son and Heir to the Right Honorable the Lord ROCKINGHAME SIR WHen I consider your proficiency in the Schoole of Wisdome your daily exercises in the Temple of Vertue for which you may in time deserve a Shrine in the Temple of Honor your hearty affection to true and solid Philosophy not that which the Apostle calls Vain and deceiving and lastly your sincere love to me I thought good not in way of retaliation but of a thankfull recognition of your favours to present this piece to you wherein you may perceive how many strange wonders and secrets are couched up within the Microcosme of our body and with what admirable artifice the base and infirm materials of this our earthly Tabernacle are united and composed Likewise you may see how much the Dictates and Opinions of the ancient Champions of Learning are sleighted and misconstrued by some modern Innovators whereas we are but children in understanding and ought to be directed by those Fathers of Knowledge we are but Dwarfs and Pigmies compared to those Giants of Wisdom on whose shoulders we stand yet we cannot see so far as they without them I deny not but we may and ought to strive for further knowledge which we shall hardly reach without their supportation I disswade no man from inventing new but I â—ould not have him therefore to forget the old nor to lose the substance whilst he catches the shadow Women and Children love new wine because pleasant to the palat but wise men chuse the old because wholsomer for the stomach As I abridge no man of his liberty to invent new wayes so I hope they will not debar me of the like liberty to keep the old paths so long as I find â—hem more easie and compendious for attaining the end of my journey Sir I will not trouble you with any larger Discourse on this subject I wish an accumulation of all vertueâ— and happinesse on you and withall the continuation of your love to him who professeth himself Your humble servant Alexander Ross. The Contents of each Chapter in these foure Books CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three â—entricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in â—the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form CHAP. III. 1 Why the heart the originall of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensitive spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concoâ—ted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felâ— the pith in the back bone hor. 11. Why the brain and heart at such aâ—d stance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or becausâ— they cause an alteration in the body from wheâ—ce is the distinctioâ— of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter weaker and colder Lib. II. CAP. I. 1. Mans Body fitted onely for mans Soul Tritons are not men 2. How Mans body is more excellent then all others 3. How the Soul is most in the Brain and Heart 4. A twofold heat in us 5. What Creatures nourish most 6. The Womans imagination cannot alter the form CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two lights and its colours Light gives the second act CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest
as Galen thinks CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2 The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud CHAP. IX 1. The Livers heat inferiour to that of the Stomachs 2. Of the natural Spirits in the Liver and how it is cherished by air 3. Of the Gall and how it is nourished How the Choler is conveyed to it of its two passages and one membrane CHAP. X. 1. The use of the Gall and Spleen its obstructions its Veins and Arteries without concavity 2. Vas venosum 3. How the Spleen purgeth it self 4. The Veins and its humours 5. Why the stone causeth vomiting and numbness in the thigh 6. The bladder its attraction and expulsion CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testieles how the noblest parts Generation without Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuaâ—ion 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membranes first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4 The similitudeâ— of the parents on the children 5. Twins how bâ—got and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Supersetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The Childs heart moveth in the matrix CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How caused CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutrimeâ—t 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye both watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eye is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eye proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus of the sympathy between the ear and the mouth CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell realâ— odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without tact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories LIB III. A Refutation of Doctor BROÌ„WNS Vulgar Errors CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5 Of one that lived some years without a brainâ— another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fought after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie while we are alive 6. Worms in the brain CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange
and menstruous bloud as Galen thought For 1. In Trees and Herbs there is this naturall héat yet no menstruous bloud in insects begot of putrified matter there is this heat but neither seed nor the foresaid bloud 2. This heat must diffuse it self through all the least parts of the body without which they cannot live but if it be a body there must be penetration of bodies if there bee this diffusion if there be only an agglutination of this heat to the parts of the body then these parts have not life in themselves and consequently neither nutrition or attraction which are the effects of life and by which it is preserved and so the Fibres which are given for attraction are in these parts in vain 3. If this body of our natural heat did live before it was articulated and distinguished into membeâ—s then the heart is not the first thing that liveth besides it will follow that the soul may be the act of an inorganical body which is against the definition of the soul. 4. Nor can the bloud in the veins be this body because this bloud is the effect of concoction and nutrition and it is bloud only but that body of Galens is the effect of generation and the mixture of seed and bloud 5. If this natural heat hath no life in it then it will follow that the chief part of the living creature is without life 6. This heat then is a quality in children more vigorous and intense then in men because its work in these is only to concoct and nourish but in those to extend the body also which is a greater work and therefore requires more heat Besides children cannot endure hunger so well as men because their heat being greater wastes the bodie sooner where it hath not food to work upon children then are more hot intensively but men extensively because their bodies are larger according to the dimension of which their heat is diffused And although they can eat harder and more solid meats then children it argues not that their heat is greater then that of childrens but that their instruments of mastication which is the first concoction are better and stronger V. That mans body might be a fit habitation for the Soul it was made of all bodies the most 1 temperate and 2 proportionable 3 the most copious of organs so that it may well be called a Microcosm containing as in an epitome the parts of the great world 4. It was also made naked as needing no other arms or defence then what man was by his reason tongue and hands able to furnish himself with 5. It was made not of an heavenly but of an elementary substance because man was made for knowledge this is got by the senses these are grounded on the proportion of the 4 prime qualities of which the Heavens are not capable 7. It was made strait that 1 man may be put in minde of his original that he came from heaven in respect of his soul 2 That he might affect and seek after the things above not here below 3. He abounds more in spirits and heat then other creatures and the heat and spirits raise the body upwards towards their own proper place 4. If man had not been of a strait body his hands which were made for many excellent uses must have been hindred and employed with the feet for motion and supporting of his body 6. Hee was made with long feet that his body might be the more steddy and strongly supported with feet forward because all his actions and motions tend that way 7. He was not made with wings to fly because he had hands to make him fly on the water in ships and he had knowledg to make him fly to Heaven in contemplation with the wings of Faith we can fly swifter farther then David could have don with the wings of a Dove VI. Mans head is of all parts in the body the noblest therefore it is placed in the highest Region and nearest Heaven which it resembleth both in figure and use it is almost round 1. That it may be the more capacious of spirits and of brain of which is more in man then in any other creature because in him is more variety and perfection of animal spirits then in other creatures 2. That it may bee the fitter for motion 3. That it might be the stronger and more able to resist injuries Again for use It is like Heaven for this is the seat of the Angels or Intelligences and that is the seat of the Intellect so far forth as it is the seat of the phantasie by which the intellect worketh and of the senses by which the phantasie is informed And as all sublunary bodies receive life sense or motion from the Heavens so do all our members from the Head so that if our brain be wounded sense and motion in the body presently cease The head is that by which man is Lord over the beasts therefore deserved to have the highest place in the body it is the Citadel of this little world in the safety of which consisteth the safety of the body therefore hands feet arms and all are ready to protect the head when it is in danger Hence anciently the head and brains were honored above the other members they used to swear by the head per caput hoc juro per quod pater ante solebat When any sneezed they were wont to blesse them with a prayer because the brain is affected in sneezing Men use to uncover their heads to their superiours intimating that they discover and present to their service the noblest part of their bodies and for honours sake the Priest abstained from eating of the brains CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot THE Animal and Vital Spirits are so called not only because we have sense and life by them but also because they first have life and animation in themselves for otherwise how could the soul give life and sense to the body by these which are not as some think capable of either 2. These spirits are parts of our bodies parts I say not solid and containing but fluxil and contained 3. They are one with the vessels members to which they do adhere one not specifically but quantitatively so the grisle is one with the bone that ends in the grisle 4. These spirits are not the same with the vapours that are in our bodies For the vapours are excrements and hurtful to us therefore nature strives to expel them but the spirits are parts helpful to us therfore nature labors to retain them 5. These spirits somtimes are extinguished by violence somtimes are wasted for defect of food and maintenance he that is
of Monsters of a woman whose milk did so abound that in the space of two or three days she voided a gallon and an half of which was made very savory Butter and Cheese Though this be rare yet it is no miracle for that woman abounding much in blood must also abound in milk And some Livers are of that constitution and temper that they sanguifie much more then others especially in constitutions that are inclined to cold and moisture for hot and dry bodies have but little blood and therefore little milk and where there is much sweet flegm or rhume it is easily converted into blood III. I read divers stories of women with child who have lusted after and have eat mens flesh and for that end have faln violently upon them and bit them This is also a disâ—ase proceeding of natural causes as that infirmity of eaâ—ing chalk coals dirt tar ashes in maids and some married women called by Physitians Pica or Malacia and is caused by the distemper of the phantasie and soure malignant melancholy humors in the mouth and concavity of the stomach and impacted in the runicles of the ventricle proceeding partly from the suppression of the flowers whereby the appetite is vitiated and the phantasie disturbed and partly from the malignity of the humor coveâ—ing after such things as are like to it in malignity yet contrary to it in some of the prime qualities heat cold humidity and siccity for Nature looks in the contrary quality to finde remedy IV. I read of divers maids one in Colen another in the Palatinate a third in the Diocesse of Spira divers more who have lived without meat and drink two or three years together This indeed may seem strange yet it is not against nature for naturally such bodies as have in them little heat and much humidity can subsist longer without food then hot and dry bodies can as we see in women and old people who can fast longer then men and youths And we know that divers creatures for many moneths together can subsist without food therefore these maids having much adventitious moisture and little heat to waste the radical humidity might continue a long time without food for where there is little deperdition there needs not much reparation besides the moisture of the air is no small help to them V. But that is more strange which Zacutus in his Praxis Admiranda lib. 1. obs 4. mentioneth of a Boy who lived 3 years without a brain if he had brought an example of one who had lived 3 years without an heart I should have subscribed to Galen against Aristotle that the heart in dignity is inferiour to the brain But I suppose that he was not altogether without a brain For that water which was found within the membrans of the skull when his head was dissected was doubtlesse his brain converted into water or else it had some analogy with the brain by which the heat of the heart was for a while â—empered and the animal spirits generated but weakly therefore life could not subsist long in him So I have read in Laurentius or Parry of one who lived many years without a spleen but there were found some kirnels in the place of the spleene which supplied its office As for that woman mentioned by Zacutus Ob. 5. who lived eight years together with the half of a knife in her head between the skull and Dura Mater doâ—btlesse that knife touched not the substance of the brain therefore could be no hindrance to the animal functions VI. It is strange that whereas Anacreon was choaked with a Resin stone yet some as Forestus in his observat recordeth l. 15. obs 24 25 c. have swallowed iron lead long sticks glasse points of knives and of swords and other incredible things without hurt and have voided them by the stool This â—partly impute to the widenesse and capacity of the passages and partly to witchcraft or juggling for the eye in such cases is often deluded although nature sometimes by imposthumes câ—sleth our such stufâ—e for points of knives and pins have been this way ejected and some have perished and have bâ—en choaked whilest they have in their madnesse attempted such things And provident nature hath in some without hurt sent away needles and pinnes by the urine aboâ—t which have been found hard crusty stuffe wâ—ich was the matter or glassy slime that was gathered about these pins and baked by the heat of â—he body VII I have read of a certain Soldier in the Wars of Savoy Anno Dom. â—589 who was shot in the forehead with a Musâ—ueâ— bâ—lleâ— he was cured of the wound but the bullâ—â— remained Afterward falling from a Ladder whilâ—st he was scaling the walls of a Town he was stiffled in the Ditch into which he fell his head being dissected the bullet was found in the hinder part thereof But I believe this removal was by the fall for otherwise it could not have been removed by the heat or spirits of the head CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fâ—ught after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie white we are alive 6. Worms in the brain COlumbus in his Anatomy l. 16. speaks of a young man in Rome whom he dissected and in this found that his heart had no Pericardium the want of which was doubtlâ—sse the cause of his death and for want of it he fell into divers swouning fiâ—s and was often troubled with the Syncope by reason the heart wanted refrigeration which it hath from the water in the Pericardium For some whose Pericardium hath bâ—â—ne but sleightly touched by the sword in the wound of the breast have fallen into swouning fits cold sweats with a cessation of the pulse so needful is this membran and its water for the heart Yea I have read of some hearts quite dried shrunk to nothing for want of this water such was the heart of Casimire Marquess of Brandenbourge of whom Melancthon speaketh l. 1. de anima II. I have read of divers hairy hearts besâ—des those of Leonidas Aristomenes and Hermogines which is also the work of nature for hairs are produced of â—uliginous and grâ—sser excrements of the humours where the skin is hottest and driest for hairs seldâ—me grow where the skin is cold and moist now if these causâ—s be found in the heart the same effect will be produced there but this is seldome seen and in such onely as are of a fiercâ— truculent and audacious disposition III. Ambrose Parry speaks l. 9. c. 23. of a Gentleman who in a duel being wounded dâ—eply in the very substance of the heart did notwithstanding for a good while lay about him with his sword and walked two hundred paces before he fâ—ll down this is likely enough for though the heart was wounded yet the vital blood and spirits and heat of the heart
but a natural antipathy and that Fascination is caused by a contagious breath infecting the aire is plain by the story of the Basilisk killing with his look or breath rather at a distance There is also a Fascination by words which the Poet mentions Ecl. 11. Qui ne ultra placitum laudarit Bacâ—â—are frontem Cingite ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro We know there is great efficacy in words to move the affections upon which the spirits and humours of the body are disturbed which causeth oftentimes diseases CHAP. IV. 1. Strange stones bred in mens bodies 2. Children nourished by Wolves and other Beasts 3. Poison taken without hurt Poison eaters may infect how How Grapes and other Plants may bee poisoned 4. Of strange Mola's Bears by lieking form their Cubs the Plastick faculty still working THERE is nothing more strange in mans body then the generation of stones whereof there be so many and diversly shaped in the joints stones are bred by the gout called therefore Lapidosa Chiragra stones are bred ordinarily in the kidneys and bladder of slimy matter by the heat of these parts some are ingendred in the Liver and Spleen some also in the heart Hollerius speaks Com. 1. in lib. 6. Sect. 2. Aphor. 4. of a woman which died of an imposthume in the heart wherein were found two stones in the heart of Maximilian the second Emperour were found three stones which afflicted him very much with a trembling of the heart as Wyerus witnesses l. 4. c. 16. In the intestins also sometimes stones have beene found Zacutus speaks lib. 3. de prax ad obs 124. of a young man disordered in his diet who used to void by the seed divers stones and at last died of a stone that was found in his Colon in form like a Chesnut and as big this could not bee voided whilest the party lived neither by Glysters nor Purges nor any other physick some have thought that these stones in the intestins are hardned by cold which cannot be for though intense cold doth harden as well as heat which we may see in frosts hardning water and dirt in the generation of chrystal and though we should yeild to Galen that the intestins being membranous and spermatical parts are colder then the sanguineal yet we cannot yeild that in a living body there is actual cold for all parts are hot yet some more some lesse therefore these stones are not ingendred by cold but by a preâ—ernatural heat in the body The same Zacutus Obs. 135. l. 3. speaks of a strange stone found in a mans bladder it was round like a Ball but had issuing from it divers pyramids and between each of them a sharp prickle like a needle l. 1. Obs. 96. I have read of some who with coughing have voided stoneâ— out of their Lungs One l. â— Obs. 95. by coughing voided a stone out of his Lungs hard and long like a Date stone so heavy that it weighed almost twenty one grains But no stone so much to be admired was ever known as that which was found in the matrix of a dead mother of which we spake before to wit a dead childe that had continued there twenty eight years and was turned to a stone II. That some children have been nourished by wild beasts many histories do assure us Plutarch Cicero and others tell us of Romulus and Remus who were nourished by a shee Wolf Iustin assures us that Cyrus suckt the duggs of a Bitch Pausanias in his Corinthiacks writes that AEsculapius was educated by a Hinde AElian in his various Histories speaks of a Bear which gave suck to Atalanta being exposed of a Mare that nursed Pelias of a she-goat whose duggs AEgystus sucked and of Telephus that sucked a Hinde Divers others I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see the cruelty of some parents and the kindnesse of some beasts far more merciful then man Besides the special care and providence of God towards tender and impotent infants Yet I know Livy contradicts the story of the Wolf that nursed Romulus and so doth Dr. Brown having no other inducement but that of Livies authority whereas the other Historians and Monuments of Rome affirm it Besides it is no more incredible for a Wolf to nurse a child then for a Raven every day to feed Elijah But besides ancient stories there be divers late Records of some children who have been nourished by Wolvs within these few years in our neighbour Countries In the Lantgrave of Hesse his Countrey was found a Boy who had been lost by his parents when he was a childe who was bred among Wolves and ran up and down with them upon all four for his prey This Boy was at last in Hunting taken and brought to the Landgrave who much wondring at the sight caused him to be bred among his servants who in time left his Wolvish conditions learned to walk upright like a man and to speak who confessed that the Wolves bred him and taught him to hunt for prey with them This story is rehearsed by Dresserus in his Book of new and ancient Discipline Hist. Med. part 1. c. 75. The like story hath Camerarius of two children which had been bred among Wolves and taken in the year 1544. I have read of a man bred among Wolves and presented to Charls the ninth of France And a strange story is extant written by Lewis Guyon Sieur de la Nauche l. 2. Divers Lection c. 34. of a childe that was carried away in the Forest of Ardenne by Wolves and nourished by them This child having conversed with them divers years was at last apprehended but could neither speak nor walk upright nor cat any thing except raw flesh till by a new education among other children his bestial nature was quite abolished We see then it is not incredible for children to be nursed by Wolves of which perhaps the old Irish were not ignorant when they prayed for Wolves used them kindly as if they had been their own sons as wee may read in Cambden Hist. Hiber out of Goade III. That some can take poison without hurt is plain by the story of Mithridates who could not be poisoned Profecit poto Mithridates saepe veneno Toxica nè possint saeva nocere sibi This story is confirmed by Pliny Gellius Caelius and others There is a story of the King of Cambaia's son who by constant eating of poison he had so invenomed his body that the Flies which suckt his blood swelled and died Solinus speaks of a people called Ophyophagi because they fed on serpents Avicenna speaks of one in his time whose body was so venomous that whatsoever touched it died I have read also in Aristotle of a Maid who was nourished with poison The like story is mentioned by Avicen Alb. Magnus speaks of a Maid who delighted to eat Spiders S. Augustine de morib Mon. S. 2. c. 8. speaks of a woman who drank poison without hurt
Many other examples there may be alledged but these may suffice to let us see that either by Art or by Nature mens constitutions may be fortified against the malignity of poison as well as other animals which feed upon poison as Vipers do upon Scorpions Stares on Hemplock Ducks on Toads Quails on Hellebor Poultry and Monkies on Spiders Not to speak of miraculous power by which many Martyrs have been preserved from poison as was foretold in S. Mark ch 16. If they drink any deadly poison it shall not hurt them Besides mens complexions according to their ages doe vary so that what hath been poisonable at one time is not at another Thus some that could not abide cheese in their youth have eaten it in their age We see also how custome becomes another nature for hot Climats to Northern men at first prove pernicious but afterward by custome become familiar and natural Therefore Dr. Brown Book 7. c. 17 hath no reason to reiect that story of the Indian King that sent unto Alexander a fair woman fed with poison purposely to destroy him by breath or copulation because saith he that poisons after carnal conversion are so refracted as not to make good their first and destructive malignity I answer They are not so refracted but that they leave behind them in the flesh a venomous impression and quality For if the ordinary food we take is not so mastered by the stomach but that by way of reaction â—or omne agens naturale in agendo repatitur it alters the body much more must poisons which are more active Hence hot bodies are cooled by Lettice Sorrel and other refrigerating meats and cool bodies are heated by the frequent use of Spices and Wines and other heating viands we see that neither our stomach nor liver can so master and reâ—ract garlick onions radishes and divers other things we feed on but that the urine will retain the smell thereof The flesh of the Thrush that feeds on Juniper berries retains the reâ—ish thereof The milk of the beast that feeds on Hellebor or Scammony will purge the body If an infectious breath or smell can destroy another body why may not the same bee effected by those who are accustomed to eat poison Galen tells us l. II. Simpl. that by long use the â—lesh may be infected by aliments And Capivaccius affirms that they are in danger to be poisoned who touch the dead bodies of those who have been poisoned Therefore Plato reports l. de veneno in Phaedra that their bodies who were condemned to die by poison were washed before they drank the poison not after left the Washers might be infected Cardan Se Subtil l. 9â— tells us that though all vipers be poisonable yet those are more venomous which feed on Toads And which is more strange Simon Gennensis assures us that Grapes will become poisonable if whilest the Vine is inoculating and graffing poison be put in it and the Wine will prove laxative if Scammony be inserted in the Vine which also Reynaldus de villa nova proves may be effected in other plants Lastly that which is poison in one Countrey is not poison being transported into another Climat as it is known of the Peach which in Persia is venomous but being transplanted loseth the deletorious quality IV. Levinus Lemnius tells us that the Belgick women are much subject to false conceptions l. 1. de occultis mir c. 8. chiefly that which is called Mola being as Laurentius writes Anato l. 8. a sleshy infirm lump withoâ—t motion begot in the matrix of the woman of imperfect seed These are most subject to those conceptions who are most addicted to disordered copulation not regarding the manner time or measure thereof Nature indeed aiming at the eternity and propagation of the species begins to elaborate a childe but being hindred by the abundance weaknesse and other vitiosities of the seed and menstruous blood besides the ill disposition of the matrix is forced to leave the work imperfect Hence this lump remains inarticulate and sometimes is cast our the ninth moneth sometimes sooner and in some it remains three or four years in some it is bred without the help of man only by the strength of imagination and mixture of the female seed with the blood But this is denied by Laurentius who also affirms the Mola to be without motion which Zacuta contradicts Prax. Mir. l. 2. Obs. 144. 140. 147. For hee speaks of one which being put into a vessel of water moved it self like an Hedgehog and lived two days It was bigger then a mans head and so hard that scarce could a knife cut it In the midst of it were three eyes beset round with long black hairs He speaks of another which being cut was like an Onion full of tunicles or menibrans within one another He writes also of a woman who in the space of fifteen days was delivered of 152 small Mola's or â—â—eshy lumps Now it is observable that no creature is subject to this faâ—se conception but women partly because of sin partly by reason of their humid constitutions idlenesse and moist food Yet we read that Bears cast forth their cubs unshapen and unformed which afterward they form by licking them Dr. Brown 3. Book c. 6 placeth this among his Vulgar Errors I confâ—sse in his Book he shews much reading and learning yet he might have spared many of those which he calls Errors and not fasten upon those ancient Sages from whom we have our knowledge more Errors then they were guilty of For this and many more which he calls Errors being brought to the Test will be found Truths But he is not guilty of this fault alone some have shewed the way before him It is then most certain that the Bears send forth their young ones deformed and unshaped to the sight by reason of the thick membran in which they are wrapt which also is covered over with so mucous and flegmatick matter which the Dam contracts in the Winter time lying in hollow caves without motion that to the eye it looks like an unformed lump This mucosity is licked away by the Dam and the membran broken and so that which before seemed to be informed appears now in its right shape This is all that the Ancients meant as appears by Aristotle Animal l. 6. c. 31. who says that in some manner the young Bear is for a while rude and without shape Now upon this to infer that the Ancients meant the young Bears were not at all formed or articulated till they be licked by their Dams is ridiculous For who will say those wise men were so ignorant as to think the outward action of the tongue could perform that which could not be effected by the plastick and formative power in the matrix Doubtlesse the Ancients were no lesse curious in searching into the natures of things then we are at this day but if I should yeild that the cub is not perfectly articulated or
formed till it be excluded no Error will arise hence for the plastick faculty which hath its original fâ—om the sperm ceaseth not to operate after the generation of the young animal but continueth working so long as it lives For what else is nutrition but a continual generation of the lost substance though not in whole yet in part and consequently it introduceth still a new form by changing the aliment into flesh As the same Mason can build an house and repair it when decayed so can the same plastick faculty produce the animal by generation and repair it by nutrition I confesse it is not called the Plastick but Omoiastick or assimilating faculty in nutrition yet it is the same still though under different names nay it doth not cease to produce those parts after generation out of the matrix which it could not doe within it as may be seen in the production of teeth in children even in the seventh year of their age which can be nothing else but the effect of the formative faculty We see also how new flesh is generated in wounds not to speak of the nails and hairs which are produced by the same faculty not being properly parts Besides the faculty cannot perish so long as the soul is in the body being an essential property which cannot be separated from the soul. Moreover we see in some creatures that this faculty doth not work at all in the matrix but without For the Chick is not formed of the Egg whilest it is within the Hen but when it is excluded Hence then it appears that if the Ancients had held the young Bears to bee ejected without form which afterward they received by the Plastick faculty had been no Error and though some young Bears have been found perfectly formed in the womb of the Dam it is a question whether all be formed and shaped so CHAP. V. 1 Divers priviledges of Eunuchs The Fibers Testicles 2. Diversities of Aliments and Medicaments the vertuâ— of Peaches Mandrakes the nature of our aliments 3. A strange story of a â—ick Maid discussed and of strange vomitings and Monsters and Imaginations 4. Men long lived the Deers long life asserted 5. That old men may become young again proved THE Testicles were made for propagation of the Species not for conservation of the Individuum for Eunuchs or such as are emasculate have divers priviledges which others want First they are longer lived because they have more radical moisture which is not wasted by Venery Secondly they have taller bodies for the same reason Thirdly they are not troubled with so much hair because they have not much siccity and consequently not so much heat which begets siccity Fourthly they are not subject to baldnesse because their brain is not dried with Venery as others Fifthly they are not afflicted with the Gout which is the daughter of Venus who begets crude humours weaknesse of joints and of them the Gout But Capons are more gouty then Cocks because they have lesse heat and are more voracious saith Scatiger Sixthly they are fitter for spiritual exercises therefore some saith Christ have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven which words were mis-construed by Origen such as emasculated themselves against whom are both the Canon and Civil Laws Seventhly they are fitter to be Councellors and Chamberlains to Princes for they are wise therefore Eunuchs is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they had care of the Princes bed-chamber Eightly the flesh of castrated animals is more delicate because there is in them more benigne juice neither is their flesh infected with the ungrateful and rankish relish of the Testicles Ninthly but the greatest priviledge of all is that they are not infected with the venomous vapours of that cave neer Alepo or Hierapolis which as Dio sheweth in the place of Trajan poisons all creatures except Eunuchs Scaliger gives no reason of this nor can I but that it is a secret in nature or else because the Eunuchs bodies have very few bad humours are the lesse apt to be infected with ill vapours Tenthly that as among men so among beasts there be some which castrate themselvs such is the Fibâ—r called Castor á castrandâ— and the Pontick Dog for thâ—re be store of them who makes himself an Eunuch saith Iuvenal Dr. Brown sect 12. checks the Ancients for this opinion but without cause for all agree that they bite off the two bags or bladders which hang from the groin in the same place where the Testicles of most animals are If these bee the true Testicles or not is doubtedâ— bâ—cause there is no passage from them to the yard and that the true Testicles are less and lâ—e inwards towards the back However this can bee no Error because they are a kinde of Testicles both in form and situation and so they are called Testicles by Dióscorides and the best Physitians if then this be an error it is nominal not real II. As our bodies are still decaying and subject to many infirmities so God hath provided for us all sorts of remedies partly by aliments partly by medicaments some whereof are hot some cold some moist some dry some restringent some laâ—ative some diuretick some hypnotick some spâ—rmatick some increasing or diminishing the â—oure humours of our bodies blood choler flegme and melancholy Now those aliments are called Spermatick which either increase blood for of this the Sperm is begot or which convey the Spermatick matter to the Seminal vessels or which adde vigour to the languishing Seminall Spirits such are sharp biting salt aromatick and â—â—atulent meats or lastly such as cause secundity by bringing the matrix and Seminall parts to a temperature by their contrary quality So cooling things correct the heat and hot things the coldnesse of those parts among such the Mandrakes are to be recâ—â—â—ed called by Plutarch Anthropomorphoi and Semihomines by Coluâ—ella because the forked root represents the lower parts of man the upper parts are commonly carved out by circumforaneous Medacasters These Mandrakes are of a narcotick quality therefore a dull heavy or melancholick man of old was said proverbially to have eaten Mandrakes These procure secundity by correcting the hot matrix with their frigidity Now if we say that Rachel finding her barrenneâ—â—e to proceed from excessive heat did coveâ— these Mandrakes to cool 〈◊〉 and make her â—râ—itful this can neither be thought immodesty in her nor an error in us to think so seeing the best and most Interpreters are of this opinion and the Text seems to intimate so much Dr. Browns reasons are not sufficient to prove this a vulgar error Book 7. c. 7. For 1. Though our Mandrakes have not so pleasant a smell as those of Iudea it will not follow they are not the same for plants according to the climat alter their qualities and yet Lemnius saith they have a pleasant smell in Belgium 2. Nor will it follow that Dudaim
is not Mandrakes because it is by the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreted in the Canticles Balsam for all Interpreters upon Genesis expound the word Mandrakes Nor 3 Is that sequel good the Mandrakes did not make Rachel fruitful in three years after therefore they did her no good at all in way of secuâ—dity for the best Physick doth not produce the wished effect always in a short space sometimes the contumacy of the disease somtimes the mis application sometimes the difusing of the remedy somtimes bad diet besides other things may hinder the operation Nor 4. Is this consequence valid Many Simples in Scripture are differently interpretâ—d Ergo the word Dudaim may not signifie Mandrakes I answer they may signifie as wel as they may not nay they do signifie Mandrakes as both the Hebrew Greek Latine Italian Spanish French English and other Texts have it besides the general consent of Expositors upon that place except the Genevans who would seem to be singular in this and therefore will have the word Dudaim to signifie any lovely or delightful fruit but then it may signifie Mandrakes which are every way lovely both in smell and colour and lovely they are in that they procure love for they have been used for Philters And what a weak reason is this Dudaim signifieth any pleasant fruit therefore it is a doubt whether it signifieth Mandrakes As if wee should say Pomum signifies any kind of fruits therefore it may be doubted whether it signifieth an Apple To be brief I would know whether it be a greater error in me to affirm that which is doubted by some or in him to deny that which is affirmed by all But to return to our aliments there are in them two things strange first that they are opposite to our natures both privately in that they have not our form and positively in that they have a contrary form as we see in marrow which is the aliment of the bones the one being soft and moist the other hard and dry and if it were not so there could be no action But this is to be understood before assimilation for afterward the same becomes both our aliment in repairing what is lost and a part of our bodies in assuming the form of our substance which is no lesse strange then the other III. Zacuta de Prax. mir l. 3. Obs. 139. reports a strange story of a Maid which fell into convulsion fits upon the pricking of her Image by Witches and their whispering of some magick words to it the Physitians were sent for they supposing these fits to proceed from some malignant vapour or humour in the Matrix gave her physick which made her worse then before hereupon they left her concluding that she was bewitched Afterward she fell to vomiting of black stuffe mingled with hairs thorns and pins and a lump like an egge which being cut was full of Emmets which stunk horribly at last she vomited out a black hairy creature as big as ones fist with a long tail and in shape like a Rat which ran up and down the room a while and then died Upon this a Wizard is called who by whispering some words in the maids ear and by shaving of her head on which she put a piece of white paper having these two letters written on it T.M. did withal lay on her head an Asâ—es hoof half burned and so the Maid recovered I observe here 1. That there might be much â—uggling in this business for there is no relation or sympathy in nature between a man and his effigies that upon the pricking of the one the other should grow sick no more then there is between the sword and the wound that the dressing of the one should be the curing of the other This is a fancy without ground and yet believed by som whose faith is too prodigall I think rather that after the Maid fell sick these Jugglers made her Image and then pricked it so that the wounding of the Image did not make the maid sick but her sicknesse made both the Image and the wounds therein 2. This vomiting also might be an illusion for I have seen in Holland the like forgery It was given out that a maid in Leyden did vomit buttons pins hairs peblestones and such stuffe and I went and saw the materials but it was found out that the parents had first made her swallow these things in meat and then presently forced her to vomit all up again 3. These convulsions and vomited stuffe might be meerly natural without any Witchcraft for we have seen what strange sorts of vermin are bred in mans body and voided by purging vomiting and boils what unshapen and monstrous creatures have been produced by some women Parry tells us l. 25. de monstris of a Monster with an horn on his head two wings a childes face one foot onely like a birds leg with one eye on the knee born at Ravenna 1512. Lemnius speaks of a woman that was his patient l. 1. de mir c. 8. who first was delivered of an unshapen masse of flesh having on both sides two hands like a childs arms and shortly after there fell from her a Monster with a crooked snout a long neck fiery eyes a sharp tail and mans feet which ran up and down the room making an horrible schrieching till it was killed by the women I could speak of that German childe in whose head grew a golden tooth and of many other strange effects of nature but these may suffice to let us see all is not Witchcraft which is so called 4. This imaginary cure of the Wizard was effected after the humours were spent and the malignity of this disease gone at that time a piece of paper or a straw may doâ— more then all the sons of AEsculapius but had the Wizard used this spell in the beginning of the disease it had done the maid no good at all when nature hath mastered a disease that which is last applied be it but a chip carrieth away the honour of the remedy 5. The maids imagination might be a great help towards her recovery the force whereof is powerful both for curing and procuring of diseases Montague in his Essays l. 1. ca. 21. tells us of one with whom the Clyster pipe applied to the fundament would work as well as if he had taken the Clyster it self And he speaks of a woman who imagining she had swallowed a pin as she was eating a piece of bread cried out of a great pain in her throat and a pricking when there was no such thing but her own imagination nor could shee have any rest till she had vomited up all in her stomach then searching the bason she found a pin which the Physitian had conveyed â—hither and so the same conceit that brought the pin removed it IV. In some Regions men live longer then in others because the aire is more temperate the influence of the stars more benigne and the food wholesomer by which
women oftentimes Nature is wiser in her productions then we are in our conceits and imaginations 2. It overthrowes saith he Gods benediction Be fruitfull and multiply Answ. Gods benediction of multiplication was not pronounced to the beasts and creeping things but the birds and fishes 2. It 's a question whether Vipers and some other poysonous creatures were created before the fall 3. The viper multiplieth fast enough when at one birth she bringeth forth twenty young ones as Aristotle and others affirm there is then no cause to complain when twenty are produced by the losse of one neither is it a greater curse in the Viper to die then in all otheâ— living creatures for all are morrall in their individuals though immortal in their species 4. If the viper had been created before the Fall yet this punishment was not inflicted on her till after for all creatures doe fare the worse by reason of Adams sin who hath made them all subject to vanity Rom. 8.3 To bring forth in sorrow saith he is proper to the woman therefore not to be translated on the Viper Answ. I deny that painfull births are proper to the woman for all animals have some pain more or lesse in their productions I have seen a Hen which with the pain of excluding her Egge fell down gasping for breath as if the pangs of death had bin on her and so she continued till the Egge was excluded Many Bitches and other females have died with pain at the time of their littering Painfull productions then is a punishment of the woman and yet no translation to the Viper for her pain is not thereby eased because the Viper in such a case is killed nor are all women alike tortured some are lesse pained then many other creatures 4. This overthrowes saith he Natures parentall provision for the Dam being destroyed the younglingâ— are left to their own protection Answ. No they are left to the protection of him who is by David called the Saviour both of man and beast and by the same is said to seed the young Ravens when they call upon him And God in Iob long before David sheweth That he fills the appetite of the young Lions and provideth food for the young Ravens when they cry unto God For the Naturalists tell us the old Ravens quite forsake their young ones but God feeds them with Flies and Wormes he sends into their nests The like improvidence and cruelty we find in Ostridges who exclude their Eggs in the sand and so leave them without further care to his providence in whom all things live and move and have their being Therefore God complains in Iob Chap. 39.14 15 16. of the Ostridges astorgie and cruelty in leaving her Eggs in the earth forgetting that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them shee is hardned saith he against her young ones as though they were none of hers The Câ—â—kow also wanteth parentall provision for she layeth her Egge in another birds nest and so leaves it to the mercy of a stranger And no lesse cruelty is there in this young nursling then in the viper for he both destroyeth his Foster-brothers and the mother that brought forth and fed him I read also in AElian of Scorpions begot sometimes in Crocodiles Egges which sting to death the Dam that gave them life The young Scorpions doe use to devour the old I have also read of women who have brought forth monsters to the destruction both of the mother and of the child in her womb therefore what the Ancients have written of the vipers cruelty is not a matter so incredible as the Doctor makes it As for the experiments of some Neotericks who have observed the young vipers excluded without hurt to the parent I answer 1. There is great odds between the Vipers of Africk or other hot Countries and those in cold Climats and so there is in poysonable herbs and Serpents which lose their venome upon transplantation in cold Countries the most fierce cruell and poysonable animals lose these hurtfull qualities 2. The works of Nature in sublunary things are not universally the same but as the â—Philosopher saith◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the most part there is no Ruleso generall but hath some exceptions ordinarily the child comes out with the head forward yet sometimes otherwise ordinarily the child is born at the end of the ninth moneth yet sometimes sooner sometimes later Therefore though ordinarily the young Vipers burst the belly of the Dam yet sometimes they may be excluded without that rupture 3. Education and food doe much alter the nature of creatures these vipers mentioned by Scaliger and others which excluded their young ones or viperels by the passage of generation were kept in bran within boxes or glasses and fed with milk bran and cheese which is not the food of those wild vipers in hot Countries It is no wonder then if the younglings staied out their time in the womb being well sed and tamed by the coldnesse of the climat 4. All the Ancients doe not write that the vipers burst the belly but only the membrans and matrix of the Dam which oftentimes causes theâ—losse of her life and they wanted not reason besides experience for this assertion to wit the fiercenesse of their nature the heat of the countrey and the numerousnesse of their young ones being twenty at a time besides the goodnesse of God who by this means doth not suffer so dangerous a creature to multiply too fast for which cause also he pinches them so in the Winter that they lie hid and benumbed within the earth besides he will let us see his justice in suffering the murther of the Sire to be revenged by his young ones upon the Dam. As for the Doctors exception against Nicanders word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not material for it is a Poeticall expression and what is it to the purpose whether the head be bit or cut off if so be the bite be mortall CHAP. X. 1. Moles see not and the contrary objections answered 2. The opinions of the Ancients concerning divers animals maintained 3. The right and left side defended 4. The true cause of the erection of mans body and the benefit we have thereby 5. Mice and other vermin bred of putrefaction even in mens bodies 6. How men swim naturally the Indian swimmers COncerning Moles the Doctor proves they are not blind Book 3. cap. 8. because they have eyes for we must not assigne the Organ and deny the Office Answ. Scaliger tells us they have not eyes but the form of eyes Pliny lib. 11. cap. 37. saith They have the effigies of eyes under the membrane but no sight being condemned to perpetuall darknesse Aristotle lib. 3. de Animal saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems they have eyes under a thin skin and a place for eyes The Prince of Poets calls them Oculis captos Geor. 1. Scaliger Exer. 243. saith They are
to Maximilian the Emperor These fishes were called anciently Tritons Nerâ—ides and Sirenes one of those Scaliger saw at Parma about the bignesse of a childe of two years old In some part of Scythia Pliny shewes that men did feed upon these fishes which some condemned for Canibals but injuriously for it is not the outward shape but the soul which makes the man neither doth the soul or essence of man admit degrees which it must needs do if those Tritons were imperfect men neither is it unlikely what is written of the River Colhan in the Kingdom of Cohin among the Indians That there are some human shaped fishes there called Cippe which feed upon other fishes these hide themselves in the water by day but in the night time they come out upon the banks and by striking one flint against another make such a light that the fishes in the water being delighted with the sparkles flock to the bank so that the Cippae fall upon them and devour them This I say is not improbable if we observe how many cunning ways nature hath given to the fox and other creatures to attain their prey Scaliger wonders why these Cippae do not rather catch their prey in the water then to take so much pains on the bank but the reason may be that either these Cippae are not so nimble and swift as those other fishes or else that these fishes will not come near them being afraid of their human shape which is formidable to all creatures V. That Fishes are not dull and stupid creatures as Cardan and some others do think is manifest by their sagacitie and cumming they have both to finde out their prey and to defend themselves from their enemies The fish called Uranioscopus deceives the other fishes by a membran which he thrusts our of his mouth like a worm which they supposing to be so lay hold on it and so are catch'd Herrings being conscious of their own infirmitie never swim alone but in great shoals and the whales who prey upon the herrings by a natural instinct frequent those seas most where there be most herrings and I have observed in the Northern seas for a mile or two in compasse the sea covered with herrings flying from their enemies the whales which were in pursuit of them tumbling like hills on the sea but by reason of their huge bodies and slow motion could not overtake them and when the herrings are in any danger they draw as near to the shore as they can that the whales pursuing them may run themselves on the sand where they stick as often times they do and so become a prey themselvs to man thus in one year 80 whales run on the Islâ—nds of Oâ—kney where I have been a whole year together so that the Bishop of those Islands had 8 whales for his Tithe that year There are also in the Northern seas fishes about the bigness of an oxe having short legs like a beaver and two great teeth sticking out of which they make handles for knives these fishes are called Morsse they sleep either on the ice or upon some high and sâ—eep place on the shore when they sleep they have their Ceâ—tinel to watch who in danger by a sound he makes awakes them they presently catch their hindmost feet in their mouth and so roule down the hill into the sea like round hoops or wheels The cunning also of the Cuttle fish or Sepia may be alledged here who to delude the fisherman thickneth the water with his black ink and so escapeth The Torpedo and other fishes may be produced for examples of their cunning and the Dolphins for their docilitie but these may suffice VI. Though God hath given to some fishes feet and wings as well as fins yet not in vain for these Amphibia that were to live on the land as well as in the water stood in need of feet for walking as well as of fins for swimming and those winged fishes being not such swift swimmers as to escape the dangers of their enemies the Ducades by their sins were to avoid them by their wings hence being pursued in the water they fly in the air till they be weary or far enough our of danger then they fall down into the water again 'T is commonly thought that they fly so long as their wings are moist and fall down when they are drie but I see no reason why moisture should help their flight when it hinders the flying of birds which fly swiftest when their wings are driest Swallows indeed and other birds do sometimes wet their wings not to help their flight but to cool and refresh their heat VII That there are many monstrous fishes in the sea is not to be denied in a grammatical sense nor in a Philosophical if we speak of individuals for in such both by land and sea there be divers aberrations of nature though there can be no specifical monsters except we will make the first cause to haye erred in his own work and first production of things yet in a grammatical sense even the species of some fishes may be called monsters à monstrando for their hidious and uncoth shapes demonstrate Gods greatnesse and power and his goodnesse also in that he makes them to serve our uses and they may also demonstrate what should be our dutie to God when we look on them even to praise and honour him who hath not made us like one of them The whale then to us is a monstrous creature when we look upon his huge bulk and strange shape and motion the quantity of water and manner of spouting it like flouds out of his head for each whale hath a prominent spout on his head and some have two though Dr. Brown denies it yet Olaus an eye-witnesse proves it by these pipes they breath and send out the water which they drink in and it is none of the least wonders that these vast creatures should be caught and subdued by the art of man In Norway they are taken by the smell of Castoreum which stupifieth their senses in the Indies they are taken by stopping their holes and vents by which they breath so that being stifled they submit to the poor naked conquering Indian who sits upon him as on horseback and with a cord drawes him to the shore Acosta tels us of a strange fish called Manati which ingenders her young ones alive hath tears and doth nourish them with milk it feeds on the grasse but lives in the water it is of a green colour and like a cow in the hinder parts the flesh is in colour and taste like veal The Shark or tiburon is a strange fish out of whose gullet he did see drawn a butchers great knife and great iron hook and a piece of an oxes head vvith one vvhole horn their teeth are as sharp as rasors for he savv Sharks leap out of the vvater and vvith a strange nimblenesse snap off both the flesh and bone of a horses