Marius The Leprosie called Elephantiasis appeaâ—ed first in Italy in the time of Pompey He speaks also of other diseases which not long before his time sprung up in Italy A kind of Fever called Coqueluche by the French invaded their country anno 1510. England was plagued with a new sweating sicknesse anno 1529 The French malady appeared first at Naples anno 1492. The Scorbutus is but a new disease in those parts Many strange kinds of vermin have been bred in mens bodies in this last Age not known before in this part of the world Of these and many more new diseases Fernelius Fracostorius Sebizius and others do write Now it is no wonder that there are new diseases seeing there are new sins 2. New sorts of foods and gluttony devised 3. New influences of the Stars 4. New Earthquakes and pestiferous exhalations out of the Earth 5. New temperaments of mens bodies 6 Infections of waters malignant meteors and divers other causes may be alledged for new diseases but none more prevalent then the food which is converted into our substance therefore in eating and drinking wee should regard the quantity quality and seasons II. It is strange to consider the diversitie of colours caused in the same Individual body of man by the same heat the chylus milk sperm and bones are white the blood and liver red the choler yellow the melancholy green the spleen blew a part of the eye black the hairs of divers colours and yet none blew or green And as strange it is that in some the skin is tauny in others white and in others black all which is effected by one and the same Sun which as it produceth all things by its heat so it giveth colour to all things for what giveth the essence giveth also the consequences yet Dr. Brown Book 6. c. 10. will not have the Sun to be the caus of the Negro's blacknesse 1. Because the people on the South-side of the River Senaga are black on the other only tauny 2. Other animals retain their own colours in that clime 3. In Asia and America men are not so black I answer that it will not follow that the Sun is not the cause of blacknesse for he doth work upon each Subject according as it is disposed to receive his impression and accordingly produceth diversity of colours Hence in the same hot climat men are black Parrets and leaves of trees are green the Emmets as some report are white the Gold is yellow and every thing there hath its own peculiar colour and yet all are produced by the same Sun nay the same man that hath a black skin hath white teeth the same Sun at the same time in the same Garden doth cloath the Lily in white the Rose and Cherry in red and divers fruits in black it is observed that the Sun whiteneth those things which are inclined to be hard and blackneth soft things so he makes the Ethiopians teeth white the skin black he makes the green corn turn white and hard with his heat and at the same time makes the plumb black and soft women that blanch or whiten their linnen in the Sun know that he can â—an their skins but whiten their cloth â—gain the air may be more temperate and greater store of refreshing windes and exhalations on the one side of the river Niger then on the other and so the Suns operation may bee hindred which is the cause that in America and Asia under the same parallel men are not so black as in Africk where there is more heat and greater drought For it wants those fresh Winds and great Lakes and Rivers which are in Asia and America The Suns heat then is the cause of blacknesse in such as are capable of it whether the clime be torrid or frigid Hence in cold countries we finde black crowes and in hot white Swans Besides this narration is suspicious for on both sides of the River men have been seâ—n equally black and there be some in Asia as black as in Affrica He objects again That Nigro's transplanted into cold countries continue their hue therefore the Sun is not the sole cause of this blacknesse Ans. The question is not if the Sun be the sole cause but whether a cause at all which the Doctor in his former objections seemed to deny 2. I say that the Sun is the sole primary cause if there be any other causes they are secâ—ndary and subordinate to the Suns heat and influence 3. Hee may as well infer the Sun is not the cause of greennâ—sse in leaves grasse or plants in the Torrid Zone because these being transplanted into cold climats retain their hues Book 6. c. 12 And indeed he seems to make the spirit of Salt peter in the Earth the cause of viridity because in a glasse these spirits project orient greens I should like his reasons well if the verdure of the plant were not more real then that of Salt-peter in the glasse but what will he say to that Earth where is no Salt-peter at all and yet the â—earbs are green Or is there Salt-peter in a glasse of pure water where I have seen green leaves bud out of the stem of an hearb Besides I finde urine out of which Salt-peter is made to spoil the greennesse of the hearbs 4. If the impression of black which the Sun causeth in a hot clime must alter in a cold then may the other qualities also which the Sun by his heat procureth be lost in a cold countrey and so what is hard in Ethiopia must bee soft in England and the heat of Indian spices must here grow cold He objects again that there are Negroes under the Southern Tropick and beyond which are colder countries I answer that these Negroes were colonies out of hotter countries and not Aborigines or Natives at first And he confesseth there be Plantations of Negroes in Asia all which retain their original blacknesse Lastly he objecteth That in the parts where the Negroes possesse there be rivers to moisten the air and in Lybia there are such dry and sandy desarts as there is no water at all but what is brought on camels backs and yet there are no Negroes therefore drinesse cannot cause blacknesse I answer 1. It cannot be proved that the Neâ— groes who dwell neere rivers had their originall there 2. Though there may be some moist exhalations yet it seems they are not so abundant as to qualifie the Suns heat 3. Though the desarts of Lybia be dry yet they are not so hot as under the Line It is the excesse of heat and siccity together that causeth blacknesse and not one of these alone 4. We see men grow tauny here by conversing much in the Sun And further South more tauny and still as the heat increases the degrees of blacknesse increase also to deny this were to deny our senses and we see dead bodies hung in the Sun grow black the same would befall to living bodies if they continued
not speak of this airy food yet Pliny and others do 2. Scaliger writes that Claudius saw a Camelion lick up a fly from his breast And Bellonius upon exenteration found flies in the Camelions belly Answ. So I have seen Dogs and Cats eat Flies Monkies and Turkies eat Spiders and Dogs eat grasse yet it will not follow that they feed on these but rather eat them out of wantonnesse or for physick so doth the Camelion sometimes eat flies and so doth the Ostridge eat Iron and divers birds swallow stones 3. There are found in this animal the guâ—s the stomach and other parts for nutrition which had been superfluous if it feed on aire only Answ. These parts are not superfluous though they feed on air but necessary because the air on which they feed is not pure but mixed and therefore nutritive Again they vvere to eat sometimes flies for pleasure or physick therefore the stomach was necessary Moreover we must not think every thing in nature superfluous whereof vvee can give no reason for so wee may accuse her for giving eyes to Wonts tears to Men Goats and Dogs whereof they make no use And why she is so bountiful to the Fox and so niggardly to the Ape in giving the one too great a tail the other none at all 4. He reasons From the bignesse of the Camelions tongue and the slimy matter in it that air cannot be its nutriment Answ. Its tongue vvas made to catch flies but not for nutriment as is said and that slimy matter is given as well for its prey as for the destruction of Serpents its enemies for it useth upon the sight of a Serpent to let fall that slimy matter on his head vvith which he is presently killed 5. The air cannot nourish because it hath no taste Ans. Tast belongs not to nourishment for they who have lost their tast are not therefore the lesse nourished Again though the pure air be tastlesse yet air thickned and moistned is not so as we may perceive by the divers tasts in waters Besides though the air be tastlesse to us it may be otherwise to the Camelion 6. There can be no transmutation of air into the body nourished because there is no familiarity of matter between air and a living body Ans. This may be true of pure air but not of mixed and of our bodies not of the Camelions Besides divers creatures live on dew which is but watrish air and how many in Arabia are fed with Manna vvhich is both begot of and in the air 7. Nutriment is condensated by the natural heat but air by the bodies heat is rarified Ans. The contrary of this is seen continually by the air vve breath out which is still thicker then that we take in For though the heat doth rarifie the air yet by the moisture of our bodies it is thickned 8. All aliment must remain some time in the body but air is presently expelled Answ. The air which is attracted by the Lungs and serves for refrigeration of the heart is quickly again expelled because it is to stay no longer then it performs its office vvhich is to refrigerate but that air on which the Camelion and other creatures feed must and doth stay longer 9. Air in regard of our natural heat is cold and so contrary but aliment is potentially the same Ans. All aliment is contrary at first or else there could bee no action and so no nutrition Again vvhat is cold is potentially the same vvith our bodies in respect of the substance not of the quality Besides how many sorts of cold meats fish fruits hearbs sallets do men eat in Summer vvhich notwithstanding are the same potentially with their bodies 10. Some deny air to be an aliment or that it entreth into mixt bodies and it s not easie to demonstrate that it is convertible into water and we doubt that air is the pabulous supply of fire much lesse that flame is properly air kindled Ans. Some have denyed Snow to be white or fire hot therefore no wonder if some fantastical heads deny air to be an element or that it entreth into mixt bodies Danaeus indeed thinks air and water to be all one because water is quickly turned into air and because they have great affinity but this is against himself for what can be turned into another substance is not the same nothing is convertible into it self and if air be vvater because this can be turned into that then vvater is earth for in many caves vvater drops turn to stones and so we shall make but one element Again if air enter not into mixt bodies what is that unctuous humidity or oyl which we finde in all perfect mixt bodies It cannot be fire nor earth for these are neither unctuous nor humid nor can it be water for though that be humid it is not unctuous it must needs then be air Again when the Doctor saith It is not easie to demonstrate the conversion of air into water he denieth both sense and reason for this conversion is as demonstrable as our respiration in winter when the air which a man attracteth is turned into water drops on his beard sheets rugs and blankets reason also shews this for if water can be turned into air why cannot air be turned into water both communicating in the symbolical quality of humidity Lastly his doubting and the Lord Verulams denying air to be the pabulous supply of fire is causless For I ask what is it that substantially maintains the fire They answer It is combustible matter in the kindled body But in this they trisle for I ask what this combustible matter is Earth it cannot be for earth 1. as earth is not combustible and we see that after the fire is spent earth remains in ashes Nor can it be water for that maintains not the fire but extinguisheth it It must then necessarily be air for we see by daily experience that the more of this unctuous or aereal humidity is in the fewel the more apt it is to burn And when this is spent the fire dieth as we see in candles lamps torches links and whatsoever hath pinguedinous matter in it Fernelius indeed gives a threefold food to the fire to wit combustible stuffe smoak and air but all this may be reduced to air For nothing is combustible which hath not in it aereal humidity and smoak is nothing else but air cloathed with the fiery quality of siccity and calidity wanting nothing but light to make it fire Therefore we see how quickly smoak is turned into flame and this into smoak again To conclude air is the very life of fire which would quickly die if it received not animation by ventilation This we see in cupping-glasses how nimbly the fire when almost extinguished will upon a little vent suck the air to it CHAP. VIII 1. Divers animals long-lived without food The Camelion live on air only 2. Divers creatures fed only by water 3. Chilification not
from their chiefe Citie Samaria but I understand that table of Nations which Salmanasser brought in to possesse the Israelites lands These with so many of the ancient Samaritans or Israelites as remained in the land retained the ancient Hebrew characters in which the Law was given by Moses and these letters for distinctions sake were named Samaritan and those of Esdras called Hebrew and square from their form Some ancient coins as Sicles have been found with Samaritan characters on them which shew this difference The form of these letters may be seen in the Samaritan Alphabets As these Samaritan retained the ancient characters so they did the ancient Pentateuch of Moses and no more Now that Hebers posterity retained their language without mixture after the Flood is proved by Austin and Ierome out of the Hebrew Names given to the creatures before the Flood It stood also with reason that Hebers family should not be partakers of the worlds punishment in this confusion of tongues seeing they were not guilty of their sins CHAP. XIII 1. There is not heat in the body of the Sun 2. Islands before the Flood proved 3. The seven Ostiaries of Nilus and its greatness The greatness of old Rome divers ways proved Nilus over-flowing how proper to it the Crocodiles of Nilus its inundation regular THe Doctor in his subsequent discourses 6 Book c. 1 2 3 4 5 6 hath many learned Cosmographicall passages collected dextrously out of many approved Authours against which I have nothing to say onely he must give me leave to dissentfrom him in his opinion concerning the Suns heat when he sayes that if the Sunne had been placed in the lowest spheare where the Moon is by this vicinity to the earth its heat had been intollerable What will he say then to that world lately discovered in the Moon by glasses as fallacious as the opinion is erroneous Surely these people must live uncomfortably where the heat is so intollerable or else they must have the bodies of Salamanders or else of those Pyrusâ—ae in the Furnaces of Sicily but indeed though the Sunne work by the Moon upon sublunary bodies yet the Moon is not hot nor capable of it no more then the line is capable of that stupidity which from the Torpedo is conveyed by the line to the Fishers hands No celestiall body is capable of heat because not passive except we will deny that quintessence and put no difference between Celestial and Elementary bodies The Sun then is not the subject but the efficient cause of heat the prime subject of heat is the element of fire the prime efficient cause is the Sun which can produce heat though he be not hot himself And this is no more strange then for him to produce life sense vegetation colours odors and other qualities in sublunary bodies which notwithstanding are not in him though from him Again if the Sun be the subject of heat because he is the original and effector of it then Saturn is the subject of cold the Moon of moisture and Mars of drinesse and so we shall place action and passion and all elementary qualities in the heavens making a Chaos and confusion of celestial and sublunary bodies Moreover if the Suns vicinity causeth the greatest heat why are the tops of the highest mountains perpetually cold and snowy Why doe there blow such cold windes under the Line as Acosta sheweth We conclude then that the Sun is the cause of heat though he be not hot as he is the cause of generation and corruption though he be neither generable nor corruptible Ovid then played the Poet not the Philosopher when he causeth the Suns vicinity to melt Icarus his waxen wings II. He sayes That Islands before the Flood are with probability denied by very learned authors Answ. He doth not alledge any one probable reason out of these Authors in maintenance of this opinion I can give more then probable reasons that there were Islands before the Flood First the whole earth it selfe was made an Island therefore the Sea is rightly called Amphitrite from encompassing the earth For this cause David saith That God hath founded the Earth upon the Waters And though Earth and Sea make but one Globe yet the Earth onely is the Center of the world as Clavius demonstrates 2. The world was in its perfect beauty before the Flood but Islands in the Sea tend no lesse to the beauty and perfection of the world then Lakes upon the Land 3. All the causes of Islands were as well before the Flood as since for there were great Rivers running into the Sea carrying with them mud gravell and weeds which in time become Islands There were also Earthquakes by which divers Islands have been made the vapour or spirit under the bottome of the Sea thrusting up the ground above the superficies of the water and who will say that in the space of 16. hundred years before the Flood there should be no Earth-quakes Again in that time the Sea had the same power over the neighbouring lands which it hath since the Flood But we find that Islands were made by the Sea washing away the soft and lower ground in peninsules at this day there doubtless the Sea wanted not the same force and quality before the Flood for there were as forcible winds and as impetuous waves Lastly Islands are made when the Sea forsakes some Land which it useth to over-flow and this property also we cannot deny to have been in the Sea before the Flood for there were windes to beat off the Sea to drive together heaps of sand into some altitude whereby the water is forced to forsake the land whence hath proceeded divers Isles III. He saith Book 6. c. 4. there were more then seven Ostiaries of Nilus Answ. There were but seven of note the other four were of no account but passed by as inconsiderable Hence they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therfore the stream of all waters run upon seven so Virgil septem discurrit in ora And AEn 6. septem gemini turbant trepida ostia Nili Ovid calls the Riâ—er Septemfluus by others it is named Septemplex by Valerius septem amnes Claudius gives it septem cornu Manilius septem fauces Ovid septem portus Statius septem hiemes Dionysius Afer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These seven mouthes have their particular names given them by Mela and other Geographers and so the Scripture gives it seven streams Isaiah 11.15 at this day there are but foure left two of which are of little use therefore the Doctor needed not to have troubled himselfe so much as he doth because so frequenely this is called the seven-mouthed river for it is usuall to give denominations not from the exact number but from the most eminent and major part of the number He may as wel except against Moses who indivers places reckons but seventy souls which went down into AEgypt and yet Saint Steven in the Acts mentions 75 souls Again he
never comes nor heat converteth water-drops into stones and the cold of some waters metamorphise stickes leaves and trees pieces of lether nut-shels and such like stuffe into stones why then may not cold convert Ice into a higher degree of hardnesse and prepare it for reception of a new forme which gives it the essence and name of Crystall 2. A liquation in Crystal may be effected but not without some difficulty but Ice may dissolve in any way of heat Answ. The difficult melting of the one and easie liquation of the other wil not prove that Crystal was not Ice but that it is notice For as Scaliger saith Valde à seipso differt quod fit dum sit cum est Ice before it attains the hardnesse of a stone or Crystall is yet water formally and Crystal onely materially or in the way of preparation But when it ceaseth to be ice it assumes the form of crystal and wil not deny its original that it was once Ice which now is a stone The matter then of crystal is water and it is made of Ice because it was water by which â—â—e it hath stept up to the forme of a stone 3. They are differenced by supernatation or floating upon water for crystal will sink but ice will swim in water Answ. It s no wonder to see a stone sink and ice swim for crystal when it was ice swimmed being now a stone sinks as being a body more compact hard solid and ponderous so a stick will swim but when it is converted to a stone it sinks The argument therefore is good thus Crystal sinks Ice swims therefore crystal is not ice but it will not follow therfore crystal was not ice 4. They are distinguished in substance of parts and the accidents thereof that is in colour and figure for ice is a fimilary body but the body of crystal is mixed and containeth in it sulphure for being struck with steel it sends forth sparks which are not caused by collision of two hard bodies but they are inflamable effluences discharged from the bodies collided for a steel and flint being both met will not readily strike fire Answ. Crystal is not so much distinguished either in substance or accidents from ice as a chick is from an egge and yet the chick was an egg What wonder is it if crystal having received a new form be distinguished from ice whereas we see greater distinctions daily in our own nutrition our bloud flesh and bones have neither the colour figure or substance of corn fruits hearbs roots and other meats we feed upon In the same rose-leaf there be distinct qualities and operations one part being restringent the other laxative the same Rhubarb as it is differently prepared differently worketh one way by loosning another way by binding the belly Let us not deny that distinction to a natural which we give to an artificial preparation there are distinct colours in one and the same leaf of a gillyflower or tulip Again when he saith That Ice is a similary body but Crystal is mixed Here is no opposition for similary and dissimilary are opposite not similary and mixed for a similary body may be mixed so is flesh so is bloud so is ice except he will make it a pure element And when he saith Crystal containeth sulphure in it This is very unlikely for sulphure is hot and inflamable it is also viscous and fat it is of a piercing quality and of an ungrateful smel none of which qualities we finde in crystal In fiery mountains there is most sulphure in snowy mountains most crystal but his reason to prove there is sulphure in crystal is invalid because saith he being struck with steel it sends forth sparks by this reason he may prove there is sulphure in every hard thing even in wood and sticks for by attrition or any other violent motion they are inslamable as the Americans know who use no other way to kindle their fires but the attrition of sticks Arrows will burn in the air their Lead will melt bels mil-stones and cart-wheels will grow extream hot with motion and so wil water is there sulphure in all these And here he contradicts himself when he saith That the sparks are not sent forth by collision of two hard bodies but they are inflamable effluences discharged from the bodies collided I would know how these effluences can be discharged if the bodies be not collided and how they can bee collided without collision These sparks then are doubtlesse the accension of the aire and aerial parts of these hard bodies by motion and collision being no way hindered by wetting the Steele and Flint for I have tried the contrary by wetting both and yet the Sparks fly out as readily as if both had been dried so they will out of Flints taken out of Rivers where they have been perpetually moist so that the sparks are not quenched at their eruption because the air is not wet though the Steel and Flint be 5. They are saith he differenced in the places of their generation For Crystall is found in Regions where Ice is seldom seen Answ. It is sufficient that in those Regions where Crystall is found Ice is sometimes seen and as Ice is there but seldome seen so Crystal is there but seldome found The best and greatest quantities are found in cold and snowy Countries Again though in those hotter Countries the air above is warm yet in the bowels of the earth it is as cold or rather colder then elsewhere by antiperistasis and that is sufficient to prove Crystal may be there generated 6. They have contrary qualities elementall and uses medicinall Answ. It is true Ice is moist and Crystall dry so water is moist and salt is dry will it therefore follow that salt is not generated of water Allum Salt-peter Vitriol are all hard and dry so are the bones in our flesh the teeth in our gums the stones in fruits yet all are begot of soft and moist materials As for their contrary medicinall uses I question not whereas there are in one and the same simple as I shewed but now contrary effects II. In the 2 3 and 4 Chapters of the second book the Doctor hath divers pretty and pleasant Discourses of the Loadstone and Amber yet to some passages I cannot assent as 1. when he saith There is coition syndrome and concourse of the Load-stone and Iron to each other For I doe not think that the stone is moved at all to the Iron for every naturall motion hath its reason and end the end of attraction in animals and vegitables is for aliment the motion oâ— stones and other heavy bodies downward is to enjoy their Matrix or Center but no end can be assigned why the Loadstone should draw or move towards the Iron the motion therefore is in the Iron and other metals which are moved to the Loadstone as to their Matrix saith Scaliger therefore it is no more wonder for Iron to move to
before you yet doubtlesse I shall do you right otherwise if I acquaint the world with your vertues and that you are one of that small number which in this sordid and phantasticall Age loves true and solid Learning not being carried away with the vain whimzies of brainsick Sciolists whose learning and piety consists in shaking the foundation of both esteeming that building strongest which is erected on stubble and straw but let them aloue with their brittle and sandy ground-work Old Truth is that sure Rock against which Hell gates shall not prevail I have adventured to consecrate this small piece to you as one who is truly acquainted and affected with the Old and True principles In this Dedication I have endeavoured to discharge my selfe of ingratitude and oblivion and to testifie to the world how much I am indebted to you which I will alwayes thankfully acknowledge so long as I am Sir Your humble servant to command ALEXANDER ROSS AN APPENDIX Containing divers passages of Fishes Presages Sneezing Thunder c. With a Refutation of Doctor HARVY the Lord BACON and others CHAP. I. 1. Fishes breath not the Reasons thereof and the contrary objections answered 2. Fossil or earth-fishes 3. Fishes delight in the light 4. Fishes of Humane shapes 5. Fishes are cunning and docible creatures 6. Why some Fishes have Feet and Wings 7. Many monstrous fishes I. THat Fishes have no breathing or respiration is manifest 1. Because they want Lungs and other Instruments of breathing For though they may receive aire in at the mouth and let it out again by their gills yet this is not respiration which is the action of the Lungs Wind-pipe and Diaphragma in attracting the air for refrigeration and emitting the same 2. There is no air under or in the water therefore fishes cannot breath there For this cause terrestriall creatures die in the waters for want of air as fishes die in the air for want of water If any will say That man dieth in the water not for want of aire there but for want of gills or some other passage to let out the water received into the lungs I answer The Dolphin hath a passage or Fistula to let out the water and yet there he could not live without suffocation if he did not now and then elevate his head above the water to draw breath If it be be again objected That water is a body mixt with air therefore Fishes doe breath I answer That so is wine which we drink mixed with more air then water is yet if we did not draw the air above we should be quickly choked The quantity of air in the water is so little that it is discernable by Art onely not by the senses and so there is some water in that air which we breath yet we are not said to breath water but air Again if there were air in the water which the fishes drew bubbles would appear upon the superâ—icies thereof as we see in Mice or other terrestriall creatures drownd in the water For as soon as the water fils the breast and lungs it draws out the air which tending upward towards the superâ—â—cies â—auseth bubbles If it be objected That fishes breath and yet â—ake no bubbling because the air hath a free passage through the gills I answer That the freenesse of passage is no hinderance to bubbling seeing any light agitation of the water will make bubbles when it hath received air within ir and so we deny not but fishes may make the water bubble not by their breathing but by their motion 3. If fishes breath air in the water why doe they die when they are in the air If any say It is because they cannot endure the coldnesse of the air I answer That the water is colder then the air Again we see that the hotter the air is the fishes die the sooner Hence it is observed that â—els live longer in a Northern then in a Southern wind and these live longer out of the water then other fishes because their heat is in a more viscid and slimy humidity then others Hence it is that the parts cut off doe live and move sometime because their heat is not easily dissipated in so slimy a matter But some will object That fishes out of the water gape for air therefore they breath Answ To gape or open the mouth is no argument of breathing except we will give respiration to Oysters which sometimes gape Again fishes gape not for air but for water so men in the water being almost stilled gape not for water but for air Object 2. The air penetrateth into the thick earth therefore much more into the thin water Answ. I deny that air can penetrate into the thick parts of the earth for that were to make penetration of dimensions but onely to avoid vacuity the air enters into and fills up the holes and cavernosities of the earth for if the air could pierce the thick earth there would never be earthquakes and if that air which is mixt with the substances of the earth were sufficient for respiration Moles needed not take so much pains as to work through and make cavities purposely for respiration For shut up a Mole within a parcell of earth which he cannot dig through he will die for want of sufficient air Object 3. Exhalations and vapours arise out of the water which shews there is air Answ. These exhalations are the thinner parts of the water turned into vapours by heat or motion whence it will not follow that air is in the water actually or a body separated from the water in which are not cavities as in the earth and much lesse will it follow that fishes breath in the water though there were air in it seeing they want the organs of breathing as is said Object 4. Fishes inclosed in a vessel halfe full of water strive to get up into the air Answ. This striving to get uppermost is not to enjoy the air which is not their element but to get out of prison and to have more scope being straitned in a narrow vessel so fishes in the net struggle to get out and to be at liberty Object 5. Fish in a close vessell die for want of air Answ. They die for want of sweet water which being included from fresh air degenerates and putrifies Hence fish die in a pond that is long frozen because the water for want of agitation and fresh air becomes â—nwholsome to the fishes which yet can live a moneâ—h together under the Ice without any air Scaliger shewes that he hath kept fish in a close vessel who have lived and the same in an open vessell who have died It is also manifest that Leaches in a close glasse will live whole years without air Object 6. Pliny objects against Aristotle that as some creatures have not blood but an humor so some fishes want lungs but have some other instrument by which they breath Answ. It is as easie for us to deny as
for him to affirm that which he could never prove For neither doth he shew what these fishes be nor what are these instruments nor though there were such can he prove that they breath by them And though some creatures have an humor in stead of blood yet that humor hath not the properties qualities nor office of the blood Object 7. Fishes gape therefore they breath Answ. Here is no sequell for Oysters gape which breath not and many creatures breath which gape not Again if with their gaping there were any breathing we should see saith Aristotle the breathing parts move but there is no motion at all and it is impossible there should be attraction and emission of the air without motion Besides if Fishes breathed we should see some bubbles on the water when their breath went out as in breathing animals when they die in the water It is true that lunged fishes such as Dolphins Whales Seals and Frogges make bubbles because they breath which will not prove that all fishes do so And yet there be other causes of bubbling besides expiration for rains tempests vapours or any agitation of the water will cause bubbling Object 8. The Moon gives increment to shell-fishes therefore their spirits also do increase Answ. It 's true if they speak of the animall and vitall spirits but what is this to breathing the subject whereof is the air and not those innate spirits and if increment of substance doth suppose respiration then trees must breath as they grow in bignesse And although the Moon causeth humid bodies to swell yet she doth not make the air by which we breath being a part of the Universe Object 9. Fishes doe smell and hear therefore they breath because air is the matter of all three Answ. Air indeed may be called the matter of breathing but not of hearing and smelling it is not the air we smell or hear but we smell the odors and hear the sounds in the air which is therefore properly called by Philosophers the Medium not the matâ—er of hearing and smelling And as the air is to us so the water is to fishes the medium of hearing and smelling And if it be the matter of breathing to fishes then it is not air but water which they breath whereas indeed water cannot be the subject or matter of breathing nor can they breath at all which want the organs of breath Object 10. No animall can live without respiration therefore fishes breath Answ. The antecedent is denied for many animals live without respiration onely by transpiration such are insects so doth the child in the matrix so do women in their histericall passions these breath not yet they live Object 11. Pliny tells us that fishes do sleep therefore they breath Answ. Breathing hath no relation to sleep it is neither the effect nor cause nor quality nor part nor property nor consequent of sleep for some animals sleep which breath not all that time as Dormice in Winter the child in the mothers womb breathes not as having in the matrix or membran within which he lieth no air at all but a watrish humor which if he should suck in by the lungs he would be presently suffocated yet at that time the chid sleepeth There is no community at all in the subject or organ of sleep and respiration nor in their natures the one being a rest or cessation the other a motion the one consisting in the senses within the head the other in the lungs breast and Diaphragma Again respiration consists rather in the actions of life and sense which accompany waking then in sleep which resembles death Respiration is for refrigeration of the heart which is more heated by the motions of the body whilst we are awake then by rest when we are asleep therefore men that walk labour run struggle or whose heart is heated by anger or Feavers breath much faster then in sleep as standing more in need of air for refrigeration So children because of their heat breath faster then old men Therefore we concludeâ—with Aristotle that fishes which want lungs throats have gills breath not for what needed lungs to draw in air seeing Nature hath given them gills to let in water for cooling the fishes hear which is but weak because they have little blood II. That some small fishes have been found on hills farre from the Sea is verified by divers as also that sometimes fishes are digged out of the earth which we may call Fossil to distinguish them from aquatile is recorded by grave and ancient Writers But I believe that these are not true fishes but rather terrestriall creatures resembling fishes in their outward shape for as many fishes resemble terrestriall animals which are not therefore properly terrestriall so many terrestriall creatures may resemble fishes which properly are not such or else where these Fossil fishes are found there are subterraneall waters not farre off by which they are conveyed thither Hence sometimes fishes have been found in deep wells and I have read of some fishes found in springs of sulphury and allum water for otherwise fishes can no more live in the earth then earthy creatures in the water seeing nothing can live out of its own element where it hath its originall food and conservation Or lastly these land fishes have been such as have fallen out of the clouds For I have read in good Authors of divers showers or rains of fishes and of Frogs and Mice and such like animals out of the clouds III. That Fishes in Moon-shine nights chiefly when she is in the full delight to play upon the superficies of the water is plain by fishermen who take greatest quantities of them then The cause of this may be the delight that fishes take in the light or else they finde some moderate heat in the superficies of the water when the Moon is full but I rather think it is the pleasure they take in the Moon light which gives a silver brightnesse to the water and Natâ—re hath given them a quick sight and eminent eyes whereas the senses of smelling and hearing are in them yet the organs are so obscure they cannot be found and albeit they have all the senses yet they are dumb for they make no sound at all because they breath not nor have they the organs of sounding such as the throat windpipe and lungs IV. That some fishes resemble men in their faces hands and other parts is no fable for such are not only recorded by the ancients but also have been seen by late Navigators Lerius saw none of them yet relates that an American fisherman cut off the hand from one of those fishes which did offer to get into his boat the hand had five distinct fingers like ours and in his face he resembled a man Scaliger writes that one of those sea-men or men-fishes was seen by Hierom Lord of Noâ—icum which laid hold on the cable of his ship this story he related as a truth
sticks and glow-worms or cats eyes are fire or flames and if stars be flames because in colour they are like to flames let us say that the Heaven is water for in colour it is like water IV. It seems saith he Cent. 1.45 that the parts of living creatures that lie more inwards nourish more then the outward flesh except it be the brain which the spirits prey too much upon to leave it any great vertue of nourishment This is not so for experience shews the contrary that the outward flesh of sheep and so of other animals nourish more then the heart lungs liver kidney and spleen Therefore Galen l. de cibis reckoneth these amongst his meats of bad juyce and indeed this stands with reason for that nourisheth most which is easiest of concoction and softest and most abounding in benign and nutritive juyce but such is the outward flesh not the heart kidney c. which are harder and drier and not so apt to be converted into blood It is true the Romans made much of the gooses liver more to please their palate then out of any good nutriment it offorded so they preferred moshromes and such like trash to the best nutrive meates as for the brains they are less nutritive then the flesh not because the spirits prey upon them for the animal spirits in the brain do not prey more upon it then the vital spirits do upon the heart which notwithstanding his lordship acknowledgeth to be more nourishing then the outward flesh because more inward but because the brain is less sanguineal then the flesh for those parts which they call spermatical are less nutritive what is more inward then the Spinalis medulla or pith in the back bone on which the animal spirits do not prey and yet it is little nutritive V. The fift cause of cold saith he Cent. 73. is a quick spirit inclosed in a cold body as in nitre in water colder then oyle which hath a duller spirit so show is colder then water because it hath more spirit so some insects which have the spirit of life as snakes c. are cold to the touch so quick silver is the coldest of all mettals because fullest of spirits Answ. No spirit can be the cause of cold for all spirits in vigitable animals produce heat and are produced of heat therefore we finde that where there are most spirits there is least cold 2. Nitre which is mentioned by the Ancients is hot and not cold and therefore both Dioscorides Pliny and Galen adscribe to it the qualities of heat to cut extennat discuss and purge gross and cold humors and if that nitre which we use at this day be not the same yet it is not much unlike as Mathiolus shews as having divers qualities of the old nitre besides it is a kinde of salt and is begot of hot things as pigeons dung and the urins of animals therefore Brun. Seidelius makres it hot 3. I deny that water is colder then oyl to the outward touching for hot waters as he said before are in this regard cold and if oyl hath a dulâ—er spirit then water how comes it to mount upward and swim above the water sure this ascendant motion cannot produce from the earthy and gross substance but from the quick spirits thereof therefore we finde that water is cold and oyl hot in operation because more full of spirits then water 4. I deny that snow is colder then water because it hath more spirit but because it is more condensed for heat and cold are more active in a dense and solid then in a thin atternated substance so ice is colder then water and yet who will say that there is more spirits in the ice then in water besides the snow is colder then the water because begot of colder winds and in colder clymats 5. I deny that insects are cold to the touch for having in them the spirit of life because they are colder when that spirit is gon as we see in all dead bodies which are colder then when they were alive therefore death is called by the Poets frigida more and gelidum frigus the spirit of life is that which is both begot of heat and begets heat and preserveth it that when that spirit leave suâ— heat also for sakes us caler ossa relinquit saith the Poet It is not therefore the spirit of life but the temperament and constitution of the body of divers earthy and watrish animals which argue cold and we see that for this cause womens bodies are colder then mens and some men of colder constitutions then others because they have fewer spirits and more of earth and water in them We know also how dull and stupid our hands are in cold frosts till the spirits in them be quickned by heat 6. I deny also that quicksilver is the coldest of metals because fullest of spirits for it is much doubted whether Mercury be cold at all for agility proceeds from heat not from cold and such a quality became the messenger of Iupiter by whom all things receive life and vigour Indeed Mercury may be called the Monster of Nature for sometimes it refrigerats sometimes it califieth it cures sometimes cold sometimes hot diseases take it hot it produceth cold take it cold it produceth hot effects and it hath this quality of heat that nothing is more penetrating then it is Christopher Encelius de re metalica makes it hot and moist in the fourth degree Quercitan in his answer to Aubert makes it rather aerial then aquiall we know that heat is one of the qualities of air Renodaeus in Pharmac makes it both hot and cold Keckerman in Sist. Phy. sayth That it is hot as it is full of spirits but cold as these spirits are congealed Croclius in Bas. Cly. prescribes it in defluxions of the head and in hydropsies which shews it is hot And Poterius in Pharm Spagir tells us That by reason of its different operations no man can tell whether heat or cold be most predominant but it is certain saith he that it is both for is known by our senses that it is cold it is known by its effects and operations that it is hot for it cuts atâ—enuates dissolves and purges which are the effects of heat and so his Lordship doth acknowledge in the next following leaf That heat doth attennate and by atenuation sendeth forth the spirit In his following discourses he hath phrases not to be tolerated in Phylosophy as when he saith Cent. 1.80 That tangible bodies have an antipathy with air Belike then the air is no tangible body but experience shews the contrary that air is tangible both actively and passively our bodies are sensible enough of this tangibility both in hot and cold weather Again if by tangible bodies he mean grosse and dense bodies how can air have an antipathy with them seeing air is one of the ingredients of which all mixed bodies are compounded can it â—e contrary or antipatheticall
flowes from it when it is hurt 2. By the fat which is about it this would consume if the eye were fiery 3. By the watrish humour which is in the cavities of the face in the new formed Embryo 4. By the reception and conservation of the species for the fire can neither receive nor confer any image or species as the water doth VI. Though there be two eyes there is but one sight or one object seen 1. Because the optick nerves are united in one before they reach to the eyes 2. Because there is but one fantasie and one common sens which judgeth of the external object VII The eye in respect of its grosse and solid parts is a patient in seeing by receiving the species or shape not the substance into the chrystalline humor but in respect of the spirits in the eye it is an agent by perception of the species and partly a patient for there is some impression in the spirits or else by them the species could not be conveyed into the common sense and phantasie The spirits then are agents not outwardly upon the object but inwardly upon the spirits received from the object and when they are employed about som other thing in the phantasie the eye seeth not its object though the species be impressed in the chrystalline because there is required for sight not only the impression in the chrystalline but also a perception and apprehension in the spirits in which action properly and formally vision consisteth And though the spirits be no part of the eye as it is a solid substance yet they are part as the eye is the instrument of sight VIII There are in the eye when it seeth two lights the one from without whereof there is greatest quantity in the white of the eye the other from within which is most prevalent in the chrystalline disposing it to receive the species as the outward light disposeth the air The outward light if it bee not proportionable to the inward makes this unfit for vision not by extinguishing or destroying it for one light cannot destroy another but by too much extending or destroying the mean and proportion of the inward light There is besides these two a third light in the eies of owls cats such creatures as live by preying in the dark which light is not immanent in the eye but transient into the air that the medium being illuminate the species of the object might be raised IX The eye hath not such colours as are made by the mixture of the four elements or prime qualities but such only as are made by the mixture of the light and the diaphanous or perspicuous body The first sort of colours are in the dark in respect of their existence or quality the second sort hath no existence at all in the dark And though the light give not the first act or beeing to colours yet it giveth the second act in making them visible and actuating them to work upon the eye by sending their species thither 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 THAT there is in living creatures besides the elementary heat another called celestial is manifest because the fire or elementary heat neither in part nor in whole is the cause of generation 2. Because the elementary heat remains after the celestial is gone as may be seen in spices which retain or rather increase their elementary heat as they grow drier being separate from the Tree and yet they want that celestial heat by which they did live and had vegetation for now being dead nutrition attraction vegetation growth and other functions of life cease which were the effects of the celestial heat 3. Because in Mandrakes and other cold herbs there is this celestial heat by which they live and yet no elementary heat at all for they are cold both actually and vertually II. As in living creatures there be divers dissimular parts so there be temperaments and diversity of heat all which are united in the heart the fountain of heat which it communicates to all parts by the bloud and spirits this primitive heat is in perfect creatures compacted within the heart in Trees and Plants within the root in Insects it is diffus'd through all the body without any union in one part more then another which is the cause that when snakes and worms are cut in pieces every piece moves which is not so in the hand or foot of perfect animals if they be cut off so wee see in some twigs of Trees that being set in the ground grow and take root which shews That the original heat and substance of the root is in every part of the Tree and that the primitive heat of the creature might bee brought to a temper refrigeration is required which in terrestrial animals is performed by the air in fishes by the water in herbs by the earth moistned by which they are nourished and refreshed III. The animal and vital spirits in our bodies are not a celestial substance as some have thought For 1. The Heavens are not subject to generation and corruption as these are 2. The Heavens are a quintessence but these are elementary or aerial 3. The Heavens cannot be diminished which they must needs be if our spirits be heavenly bodies for they are as they say pieces of that great body which at last will be quite spent except they be repaired either by a new addition or by the reuniting of the same spirits to it again 4. Seeing the Heavens have but one motion which is circular how can any part therof come down into our bodies except it hath also a strait motion 5. Gravity and levity are elementary qualities whereof the Heaven is not capable and therefore cannot descend 6. Our spirits must either be united to the bodies of the Heavens and so continuated bodies with them or else separated and divided both which are absurdities 7. These spirits did either move them selves downward or else they had some other mover the first we cannot grant except wee make the celestial bodies living creatures for only such move themselves neither can we grant the second except we know what this mover should be it cannot be natural for the motion is violent nor can the mover be violent for the work of generation is natural it remains then that these spirits are aerial in their nature and substance but the instruments of the soul in regard of their function in which regard only we consider them as they are in our bodies for many actions proceed from them as they are the souls instruments which cannot be effected by the air as air IV. The natural or primogenial heat in living creatures is not a substance made up of seed
for about tenne years ago when my aged Father was giving up the ghost I came towards his beds side he suddenly cast his eyes upon me and there fixed them so that all the while I stood in his sight he could not die till I went aside and then he departed Doubtless the sympathy of affections and the imagination working upon the vital spirits kept them moving longer then otherwise they would have done so that the heart the seat of affection and the brain the hous of imagination were loth to give off and the spirits in them to rest from their motion so long as they had an object wherein they delighted The like I have read of others And truly the sympathy of affections and strength of imagination is admirable when the mind is able to presage the death or danger of a friend though a great way off This also I found in my self For once I suddenly fell into a passion of weeping upon the apprehension I took that my dear friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his vertues and it fell out accordingly as I presaged for he died about the same hour that I fell into that weeping fit and we were at that time 60 miles asunder nor could I tell certainly that he was dead till two days after Thus to some the death of friends is presaged by bleeding at the nose and sudden sadness by dreams and divers other ways which the learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith Agnovit longe gemitum praesaga mâ—li mens AEn l. 10. So by the Greek Poet the soul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soothsayer of evil The cause of this the Gentiles ascribed to the Sun which they held to be the Soul and our souls sparks of that great Lamp A Platoâ—â—cal conceit which thought mens souls to bee mâ—terialâ— we were better ascribe this to the information of that Angel which attends us V. That which Herodotus in Thalia c. 3. writes of this difference between the Persian and the AEgyptian skuls may be no fable for in the wars between them such as were killed on either side were buried apart after their bodies were putrified it was found that the Persian skuls were soft but the AEgyptians so hard that you could scarce break them with a stone The reason of this might be because the AEgyptians used from their childhood to cut their hair and to go bareheaded so that by the Sun their skuls were hardned Hence it was that few among them were found bald but the Persians who wore long hair and had their heads always covered must needs have had soft skuls by reason the humidity was kept in and not suffered to evaporate nor the Sun permitted to harden them CHAP. II. 1. The benefits of sleep and reasons why some sleep not 2. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim Why dead and sleeping men heavier then others why a blown bladder lighter then an empty 3. Strange Epidemical diseases and deaths The force of smels The Roses smell 4. Strange shapes and multitudes of worms in our bodies 5. The French disease and its malignity The diseases of Brasil WHereas Sleep is one of Natures chiefest blessings for refreshing of our wearied spirits repairing of our decayed strength moistning of our feebled limbs as the Poet speaks fessos sopor irrigat artus Virg. AEn 3. 4. for easing of our diurnal cares Positi somno sub nocte silenti lenibant câ—râ—s corda oblita laborum And therefore is as Euripides cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remedy of our evils And whereas in sleep the heart is at rest as Aristotle rightly said though Galen who understood him not checks him for it from feeling understanding and inventing though not from life and motion I say whereas by-sleep we have so many benefits it is a wonder that any should bee found to live a long time without sleep Yet I read in Fernelius Pathalog l. 5. ca. 2. of one who lived fourteen moneths without any rest And it is more strange what Heurinus Praxis l. 2. c. 7. records of Nizolius that painful Treasurer of Cicero's words and phrases who lived ten years without sleep Mecaenas was sleeplesse three years saith Pliny Laurentius in his Tract of Melancholy knew some who could not sleep in three moneths the reason of this might be 1. The heat and drinesse of the brain as is usual in decrepit and melancholy men 2. The spareness of 〈◊〉 so that no vapours could be sent up to moisten the brain or nerves 3. The want of exercise and motion for sedentary men are least given to sleep 4. Continual cogitation and intention of the phantasie 5. And adust melancholy humours 6. Accompanied with continual fears horrid and distemperate phantasâ—es representing to the mind unpleasant objects II. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim upon the water may seem strange seeing till then they lie hid under the water Cardan de subtil l. 8. gives this reason Because between the Peritoneum and Omentum flatulent matter is ingendred as appears by the great swelling of the belly Now this flatulent matter is begot of humidity dissolved by heat which heat is procreated of putrifaction Besides we see that putrified bodies as eggs fruit wood grow light because their solid parts being consumed what remains are porous and full of air for experience teacheth us that the more porous and aereal the body is the lighter it is and lesse apt to sink and perhaps may bee the reason why that body which wants the Spleen swimmeth not being a porous light substance And those men who have capacious lungs to hold much air can dive and live longer in the water then others And surely some people whose bodies are active subtile and quick will not sink so soon as men of duller spirits Such were the Thebii a people which could not sink so that it is a vain way to conclude those to be Witches who do not presently sink Hence also it is plain that dead bodies are heavier then living though Dr. Brown of Errors l. 4. c. 7. contradict this because he found no difference between a Mouse and a Chick being dead and alive in respect of gravity A weak reason to reckon a received truth among his vulgar errors for though there were no sensible difference in such little animals which have but few spirits yet in men which are of a greater bulk in whom do abound vital and animal spirits to say there is no difference of gravity in their life and death is to contradict sense and reason for every woman that attends upon sick men knows that they are more pondrous when dead then when alive being used to lift and turn them Reason also grounded on experience teacheth us that those bodies are lightest in which air is predominant therefore doubtlesse where there is store of such pure and refined air as the spirits are there must be lesse gravity then where they are vvanting his
all bodies at all times alike The means to discriminate the true Unicorns horn from the false are two to wit if it cause the liquor in which it is put to bubble and secondly if it sweat when the poison is near it as Baccius tells us IV. I have read of some who were born blind and dumb and yet have been cured Seidelus de morb incur but in these there could not be a totall privation of the organ or faculty of sight and speech for such cannot be cured by Nature nor Art And so Iohn 6. it was held impossible for one born blind to see In those then was only a privation of the act and so the eye-lids only shut up and agglutinated which by Art might be cut and opened And so the strings by which the tongue is tied are often cut I have also read in Seidelius of one who lived till he was an old man and every year from his birth till his dying day had a fever which took him still upon his birth-day This anniversary Fever held him still fourteen days and at last killed him The seeds of this Fever he got doubtlesse in his mothers womb and what impressions the seed or Embryo receiveth then can never be eradicated such is the force of the formative power upon our first materials Sâ—â—liger speaks of a certain Fish in the Island of Zeilam which if one hold fast in his hands puts him in a shaking fit of an Ague This effect I suppose proceeds from the excessive cold of the Fish which by the hand being communicated to the muscles and nerves causeth shaking and convulsion fits And no lesse strange is that which is mentioned by Libavius of one who hearing his kinsman being in a remote country was dead of the plague fell sick himself of the same disease though the place where he was then dwelling was free from any infection Libavius de veneno c. 8. Corollarii This proceeded from a deep apprehension or sudden fear a weaknesse in nature and an aptitude to fall into that disease and how powerful apprehension fear and fancies are â—pon our bodies may be seen in that story mentioned by Libavius de veneno c. 8. of one who ate a snake in stead of an Eel without any hurt till a good while after he was told it was a Snake and upon this he fell sick and pined away CHAP. VII 1. The diversities and vertues of Bezar stones 2. A woman conceived in a Bath of an Incubus 3. Strange actions performed by sleepers and the causes thereof Lots Incest in his sleep 4. Some Animals live long without food The Camelions food is only air the contrary reasons answered Air turns to water and is the pabulous supply of fire MOnardes in historia Bezoaris speaks of some who were poisoned by drinking out of a puddle where Toads Snakes and other virulent vermin had laid their spawn but were cured by taking Bezar two or three times Bauhinus c. 34.36 speaks of divers diseases cured by this stone and it is known by daily experience that it is used with good successe in pestilential Fevers as Synertus shews Syn. l. 4. de Feb. c. 8. It is also good in divers other maladies both to cure and prevent them Yet Doctor Brown thinks we are daily gulled in the Bezar whereof many are false Book 3. c. 23. I deny not but some adulterat Bezars there are yet we must not think all fals or that we are gulled because we do not see the wished effects For Synertus l. 4. de Feb. c. 8. shews that the best Bezar faileth if the just dose be not given For some out of fearfulness give but a grain or two whereas he hath given eight or ten grains with good successe Again the operation of it is hindred oftentimes by mixing it with other Simples It proves also ineffectual if any thing else be given too soon after or if the stomach be not clear when it is exhibited For as the spirit of Tartar and Vitriol by themselves will work powerfully but being mixed lose their operative qualities and taste so doth Bezar many times mixed with other things Now this stone is bred in a bag under the stomach of some beasts which in form resemble our Goats In the Eâ—st-Indies they have horns but in the West none The Oriental stones are the best a grain whereof hath been sold for four Ducats Some of them are as big as a Goose Egg they have divers forms and divers colours some yellow some green some black the best are bred in those beasts that feed on the hils and on aromatick hearbs which are not found in the valleys they grow like Onions wrapt about with many tunicles or crusts Acosta l. 4. c. 42. sheweth that in the midst of some of them are sound pins straws or sticks about which matter doth gather vvhich by degrees increaseth and hardneth till it come to a just magnitude In the midst of those stones are found sometimes odoriferous hearbs Mathiolus and Renodaeus hold those for the best stones in the midst of which are found dust or gravel The Indians use the pouder of Bezar not only against inward diseases but also with it they cure their wounds and Carbuncles or Boils Acosta l. 4. c. 42. relates the observation of the Peruans vvho say that the best stone is bred in a beast called Vieugne vvhich feeds upon a poisonable hearb by which it preserves it self from the grasse and vvaters that are poisoned by venomous beasts He that will see more of this stone lâ—t him read those above named and likewise Boutius Baccius Toll and others II. That story is strange of the Woman vvhich conceived in a Bath by attracting the mans sperm who bathed in the same place This is affirmed by Averroes Anat. l. 8. quaest 11. but denied by Laurentius del Rio and some others vvhom Doctor Brown in this followeth Hee that denyeth a matter of fact must bring good witnesses to the contrary or else shew the impossibility of the fact which they do not For we shall find this conception possible if either we consider the nature of the Matrix vvhich by a strange instinct and appetite attracteth the sperm to it for which cause Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as the stomach attracteth meat and drink though in some distance from it Or if wee consider that the seminal spirits in the vvarm vvater might be a vvhile preserved from evaporating and therefore what they say of the longitude of the organ in which the seed is refrigerated is not to the purpose except they could prove it to be so in all But the contrary is found in the long organ of great breasts wherein the sperm is no vvays damaged Besides the heat of the bath might have some proportion to that of the Matrix vvhereas the organ of emission is not so hot as consisting most of nervous and spermatical parts Again vve see that the sperm of Fishes 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
fire truly black brimstone causeth blackness 4. Philoxenus a glutton and his wish not absurd How long necks conduce to modulation THe Inundation of Nilus saith the Doctor proceeds from the rains in AEthiopia This I deny not because averred by Diodorus Seneca Strab◠Herodotus Pliny Solinus and others both ancient and modern Writers and it stands with reason for the Springs of Nilus are neere the Tropick of Capricorn where it is winter when the Sun is with us in Cancer then doth it rain abundantly in that Southern climat for though within the Tropicks the Suns vicinity causeth rains yet without his distance is the occasion thereof His melting of snow upon the Hils of AEthopia is a cause of this inundation But Scaliger denies that there is any snow at all yet I doe not think the high mountains there should be lesse subject to snow then in Peru under the line although the people in the low Countries thereof be black and the windes in the vallies warm The third cause of Nilus overflowing are the Etesiae or northerly windes which blow there every yeare when the Sunne is in Cancer This winde blowing into the mouth of Nile keeps it from running into the Mediterranean sea Scaliger refutes this reason because at the same time the river Nigir which runs into the Western Ocean overflows his banks but to this I can easily answer That at the same time there be different Etesi◠or constant windes in different regions of the world so that whilst the North wind blows against Nilus the West or Southwest which also as Acosta saith is predominant upon the coast of Peru blowes against Nigir As for the original of Nilus it hath been still held uncertain Pliny writes that King Iubia found out the springs thereof in the Mauritanian Mountains but since this river hath been found as far as the lake Zaire which is in ten degrees of Southerly latitude The AEgyptian Sultan did spare neither for men nor cost to search out these springs but could not find them therefore Virgil calls these streams of Nilus Latebrosa flumina Herodotus witnesseth that neither AEgyptian Grecian nor African could resolve him any thing of Nilus springs Hence in Homer Nilus is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is falling or descending from Iupiter because God onely knew the original of this river The Doctor book 7. c. 11. will not question the metamorphosis of Lots wife whether she were transformed into a reall statue of salt though some conceive that expression metaphoricall That the expression is not metaphorical but the transformation real is manifest by the testimonies of the Rabbins by the Thargum of Jerusalem by the best expositers by Iosephus and Borchardus in whose times that statue of Salt was yet extant besides divers reasons doe evince the same For it was as easie for God to turn her body into a salt Pillar as to turn Moses rod into a Serpent Nilus into blood Nebuchadnezzar into a beast 2. We see daily transformations in generation and in our own nutrition 3. Nature can transform mens flesh into Worms Calves flesh into Bees Horses and Asses flesh into Wasps and Hornets We read also of Birds procreation out of old Timber of Iaponian dogges transformed into fishes of water turned into stones and of an Oyster metamorphosed into a Bird which was presented to Francis the first of France 4. The Magicians of Egypt trans formed divers substances and the Devil by Gods permission hath often done the like examples of which may be seen in Spuedanus Camerarius Peucerus and others 5. The Gentiles who laugh at this transformation are convinced by their own stories or Fables of Ulysses and his fellowes transformed into beasts and of Diomedes his companions metamorphosed into birds if they can believe these changes why should they doubt of Lots wifes transmutation III. To conceive a general blacknesse in hell and yet therein the material flames of sulphur is no Philosophical conception nor will it consist with the real effects of its nature Answ. What though this were no Philosophical conceptions nor consisting with the effects of Nature is it therefore untrue God is not subject to Philosophical conceptions nor to the lawes of nature who could make fire to burn but not consume the bush and make the fiery furnace burn the Chaldeans and yet not sindge a haire of the three childrens cloathes the same power can make blacknesse and the flames of sulphur dwel together in hell and which is more he can make fire which naturally is accompanied with light to be the subject of darkness in Hell But the Doctor is deceived by his experiments who thinks that sulphur affords no blacking smoak for I know the contrary by blacking paper with the smoak thereof Besides both Philosophers and experience tell us that the sulphurous vapours which in thundring and lightning break through the clouds do make black the things touched with them so saith Aristotle Pliny and others And though Brimstone make red Roses and Tiffany white it wil not therfore follow that it will make any thing white the Sun beams which whiteneth the Linnen tawns the skin and if the whitning of things by sulphur proceeds as he saith from its drying and penetrating quality much more would all things be whitened by the Sun and fire whose heat is more penetrating and drying but we see how many things by them are blackned and the very heat of the fire will induce blacknesse upon paper though there come no smoke at all to it He therefore who long since destroyed Sodom with fire and brimstone will with the same materials punish the wicked in hell where shall be in stead of light blackness and darkness IV. Philoxenus the Musician desired a Crains neck not for any pleasure at meat but fancying thereby an advantage in singing Book 7. c. 14. Answ. That this Philoxenus was a glutton ancient Historians do affirme and that he wished a Cranes neck to enjoy the longer pleasure of meat and drink is asserted by Aristotle Athenaeus Machon the Comick AElian and others Machon sayes that he wished a neck of three cubits long He was a great Fish eater therefore was nick-named Phylichthys and Solenista from Solenes a kind of Oysters which he delighted in Being one day at Table with Dionysius the tyrant he had a small mullet set before him which he takes up in his hand and holds to his eare Dionysius asks what he meant by that He answers that he had asked advice of Galataea but she sayd that she was too young to advise him and that he were best to consult with the old Galataea in Dionysius his dish At which the Tyrant laughing gave him the great Mullet that he had before him which was very pleasing to the glutton This story is recorded by Caelius Rhodiginus and doubtless that proverb Collaria cadavera that is long necked carcasses which Erasmus borrowes from Aristophanes hath relation to this wish of Philoxenus for by it are
meant Gluttons and Drunkards who being buried in sleep and wine are little better then dead carcasses with long necks as this Philoxenus was whose belly was his God of whom it is recorded that when he saw a dish of good meat he would spit upon it that he might enjoy it all alone Yet the Doctor denies this wish upon no other ground but because it was absurd Sure this is no ground at all for it is no unusall thing with Gluttons and Drunkards both to wish and doe absurdly His wish was not so ausurd as that of Midas vvho vvished all he touched might become gold or that of Heliogabalus vvho vvished and longed that he might eat the Phoenix being the onely single bird in the World Again this vvish of Philoxenus was not so absurd as the Doctor thinks for though the Tongue be the organ of tast yet the Oesophagus cannot be altogether tastlesse seeing there is one common membrane which is nervous to it and the Tongue Now the membrane of the Tongue is the medium of tast vvill any man say then There is no tast or pleasure in deglutition We find by experience how unpleasant to the throat is the discent of bitter pills or potions so that I could never yet swallow a bitter pill be it never so small That there is much pleasure in deglutition of sweet meats and drinks is plain by the practice of those vvho to supply the vvant of long necks use to suck their drink out of long small Canes or Quils or glasses with long narrow snouts And others for vvant of these vvill tipple leasurely and let their liquor glide down the throat gently and by degrees therefore doubtlesse Philoxenus knew that a long neck conduced much to the pleasure of eating and drinking which made him vvish for a Cranes neck that he might enjoy for some longer time the relish of his delicate viands which gave the name afterwards to dainties and sweet meats for they vvere termed Placontae Philoâ—eniae Again when he saith That it had been more reasonable if Philoxenus had wished himselfe a Horse because in this animall the appetite is more vehement he is deceived for the vehemency of the appetite is no pleasure but pain there is no pleasure in hunger and thirst but in eating and drinking And indeed there is no reason that he who loved fish and sweet meats so well should with himselfe a Horse vvho must content himselfe vvith Oats and Hay and somtimes vvith dry straw without any sawce he should rather have vvished himself to have been Apuleius his Asse who sometimes filled his belly with good pies and other dainties Lastly when he saith That canorous birds have short necks and that long necked birds are not musicall I answer It is not the length of the neck that hinders medulation but the widenesse thereof For which cause youth before puberty women Eunuchs have more melodious voyces then men whose aâ—pera arteria vvith other vessels are dilated by the heat of the Testicles For therwise we find that the length of the neck is ahelp to singing Hence birds thrust out their necks when they chant which the Poet intimates when he saith Longa canoros dant per colla modos Therefore the proportionable length of wind-instruments doth conduce to modulation CHAP. XV. 1. Heavy bodies swim in the dead sea and the Ancients in this point defended 2. Crassus had reason to laugh at the Ass eating Thisâ—tles Laughter defined in laughter there is sorrow in weeping joy 3. That Christ never laughed proved 4. Fluctus Decumans what THat heavie bodies will not sink in the Lake Asphaltites or dead sea of Sodome is affirmed by Aristotle Solinus Diodorus Iustin Strabo Plutarch Iosephus and others and confirmed by the practice of Vespasian casting into that lake captives bound vvho sloated and sunk not Besides that it stands with reason for salt vvater will support heavie burthens much more will that vvater which is thickned with a forcible ebullition of Sulphur and Biâ—umen yet the Doctor Book 7. c. 15. will not believe but that heavy bodies doe sink there though not so easily as in other waters Therefore rejects Pliny's swimming of Bricks Mandevils Iron and Munsters burning Candle which sinks not there as fabulous yet all this may be true for the ebullition may be so forcible the water so thickned with the Bitumen the sulphurous vapours and spirits â—o violently tending upward that they may waft up Bricks and Iron and not suffer them to sink A greater wonder then this may be seen in those that write of AEtna Vesuvius the burning hills of Island and America whence are belched out and elevated into the air great stones by those fiery vapours which issue out of those Vulcans Within these twenty years Vesuvius cast out great stones above twenty miles distance And therefore it is no such wonder for a burning Candle to swim which being extinguished sinketh for the flame adds levity to it But let us see the Doctors reasons 1. Iosephus saith he affirms that onely living bodies float not peremptorily averring they cannot sink but that they doe not easily descend Answ. The words of Iosephus are these de bel Iud. l. 5. c. 5. The most heavy bodies that are being cast into this Lake float upon it neither can any man be â—asily drowned there though he would Here Iosephus speaks both of living bodies that though they vvould they cannot sink easily they may force themselves perhaps to dive under the water but not vvithout difficulty and he speaks also of the heaviest things in generall Aristotle saith he speaks lightly thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and esteemeth thereof as a Fable Answ. Aristotle speaks not lightly but seriously of this Lake for from the quality of supporting heavy bodies he deduceth one of his prime Arguments to prove the salsedinous quality of the Sea But the Doctor deceiveth himselfe in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if this did still signifie a fabulous relation whereas in that place and elsewhere it signifieth a serious narration So confabulari in Latin doth signifie conference of serious matters for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to speak not to tell Fables from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word or speech In Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a grave and serious speech made by Agamemnon So in the same Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to speak and discourse The like in Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be moderat in eating drinking speaking Andrew Thevet saith he saw an Asse cast therein and drowned Answ. So saith Camerarius indeed and I will not question the truth of Thevets narration there may be diuers reasons of this the violent hurling of the Asse with his burden under the vvater 2. His sudden suffocation by the sulphurous exhalations 3. The Lake in all places thereof and at all times hath not the same violent ebullitions but sometimes there is remission The Asse then
and so to suffer 8. If these atomes be smooth and round as some will have them they can no more unite to make up a mixt body then so many small seeds or grains which onely make up a body aggregate as a heap of stones but if they be rough cornerd or hooked as others say then they are divisible and so not atomes 9. If there be innumerable worlds as Epicurus holds and innumerable atomes must concurre to make up any one of these Worlds how many innumerable atomes are there to make up innumerable Worlds There must needs be more atomes then Worlds and consequently degrees of more and lesse in innumerability and infinity then which nothing can be more absurd 10. If all things are made of atomes to what end was seed given to vegitables and animals for procreation What needs the Husbandman sow corn or the Gardiner cast his seeds into the ground What needs he dig or plow plant water whereas all fruits herbs and plants can be produced by atomes Birds saith Lactantius need not lay eggs nor sit upon them for procreation seeing of atomes both eggs and bird can be produced 11. The souls and their faculties are made of finer and smaller atomes then the bodies which are compounded of a grosser sort It must then follow they have degrees of magnitude and consequently divisibility 12. Those atomes have neither knowledge reason wisdome nor counsell and yet can produce by hap-hazard worlds and all things in them which neither Men nor Angels can effect by their wisdom 13. If the statue or picture of a man cannot be effected but by art reason wisdom what impudency is it saith Lactantius to affirm man himselfe by chance to be made or by a â—emerarious and fortuitall conglobation of atomes 14. We see the World and the creatures therein governed not temerariously but by an admirable providence and wisdome how then can any imagine these should be made by chance and not by wisdome 15. I would know whether Towns Castles Temples Ships other buildings are made up of atomes If these are not how shall we believe that celestiall or sublunary bodies or the whole World should be made of them 16. When Epicurus gives to his atomes magnitude figure and weight hee makes them perfect bodies and consequently unapt for Physicall mixtion For the uniting of perfect bodies makes up an aggregative body so that in the generation of bodies there is no mixtion but aggregation which is ridiculous 17. Hee gives figures to his atomes and yet makes them invisible which is a plain Bull and contradiction For an invisible figure is like an invisible colour an inaudible sound an inodorable smell an ungustible sapor an untangible hardnesse To make the senses proper objects insensible is a senslesse toy 18. He makes his atomes move downward in a straight line by reason of their gravity but fearing lest by this motion there would never be any concurring of them for generation he assignes them in another motion which he calls declination and so to one simple invisible indivisible body he gives two motions but tells us not the cause of this motion of declination which as Tully saith argues his grosse ignorance in Natural Philosophy For I would know whether this motion be from an internal or external cause not from an internall for there is no other internal cause of the atomes motion downward but gravity which cannot produce two motions the cause cannot be external because Epicurus his Gods doe not move or work at all Beside that his Gods are also made of atomes as Cicero shews 19. Most ridiculously did he invent this motion of Declination lest he should seem to deprive man of his liberty of will For he thought mans will must needs be necessitated if those atomes of which the soul is made should have no other motion but downward which is a naturall and necessary motion And by the same means also he took away Fate or providence Thus have I briefly touched the absurdities of this opinion which is so hugged and greedily swallowed without chewing by some unsetled and vain-glorious men not regarding the dangerous consequences arising thence nor the impiety of the Authour being both an Atheist and a prophane wanton and unsetled in his opinions saying and unsaying at his pleasure For when he saw the envie and danger he had brought upon himselfe by his impious Dictates he sweetens them a little in effect as Tully saith denying all Divinity and yet in words allowing Divine Worship which is most ridiculous to pray and praise to feare and love to serve and worship such Gods as neither love nor hate us such as take no notice of our good and evill such as have no relation to us nor we to them So he palliates sometimes his swinish pleasures with the delights of the mind clothing a foul Strumpet with the habit of a modest Matron whereas by the delight of the minde he meant nothing else but mentall thoughts or the delightfull remembrance of his fleshly pleasures which we leave to him and his Disciples Epicuri de grege porcis CHAP. XVIII 1. That Chrystal is of water proved and the contrary objections answered how it differs from Ice 2. The Loadstone moves not its Antipathy with Garlick Of the Adamant Versoria Amber c. THat Crystall was at first Water then Ice and at last by extream cold hardned into a stone was the opinion of the ancient Philosophers and of Scaliger the best of the Modern but Mathiolus Cardan Bâ—eÌ„tius de Boöte and Agricola with some others will have it to be a Minerall body hardned not by cold but by heat or a Minerall spirit Of this opinion is the Doctor Book 1. Cap. but his reasons are not satisfactory For first saith he Minerall spirits resist congelation but Ice is water congealed by cold Answ. He takes this for granted which is not For he is to prove Crystal a mineral and that 't is hardned by a mineral spirit which he doth not Again all Minerals resist not congelation but further it sometimes as he sheweth himselfe of Snow and Salt by the fire side turned into Ice and of water converted into Ice by Salt-peter Besides all minerals are not hard for Quicksilver is not nor can mineral spirits harden their own bodies or keep them from dissolving into liquor it is the external heat or cold that doth it not the internal spirit as we see in Salt which dissolves into water if it be not hardned by the heat of Sun or fire and so will Ice dissolve into water if the cold grow remiss or the heat prevaile If then a Mineral spirit cannot harden its own body how can it harden the body of water What mineral spirits are there in cold water to harden it into Ice Spirits are hot therfore apter to dissolve water then harden it but we see manifestly that it is cold and not spirits which causeth Ice the same cold in some Caves where the Sun
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
to it selfe He saith Sect. 91. That paper or wood oyled last long moist but wet with water dry or putrifie sooner the cause is for that air medleth little with the moisture of oyle Answ. He should have told us the cause of this cause for why doth not air medle with oyle as well as with water The reason is because oyle is a more tenacious and dense substance then water and therefore resisteth the heat of the air longer and cannot be so soon evaporated and indeed it is not the air but the heat in the air that works both on water and oile for the cold air drieth up neither it may well harden them Take then two papers the one moystned with water the other with oyle and hold them near the â—re we shall see the one dried up long before the other so that his saying is erroneous when he inferreth Sect. 91. That fire worketh upon oyle as air upon water For indeed the air doth not work upon water but heat in the air or fire nor doth the fire work so soon upon the oyle as on the water when they are at a distance Again he saith That white is a penurious colour and where moisture is scant Answ. There are many things which want moisture and yet are black as divers dry stones and coals many bodies are not scant of moisture and yet are white as Lilies Milk Snow There is as much moisture in a white Swan as in a black Raven But when he saith Sect. 93 That Birds and Horses by age turn white and the gray hairs of men come by the same reason he is mistaken for it is not want or scant of moisture but want of heat rather that is the cause of whitenesse for old men abound more in watrish moisture then young men and therefore we see that cold climats produce white complexions and skins whereas they are black and swarthy in hot Countries Snow is not bred in hot Summers but in cold Winters and hoar frost is ingendred in cold Scithia not in hot Ethiopia Again he is mistaken when he saith Sect. 96 97. That the soals of the feet have great affinity with the head and mouth of the stomach so the wrists and hands have a sympathy with the heart For there is no more affinity between these parts then any other the feet have as great a sympthy with the heart and the wrists with the head as these with the heart and the other with the head If there be any affinity between the head and the feet it is by reason of the nerves and so the same affinity may be to the hands If there be any sympathy between the heart and the wrists it is because of the arteries and so the sympathy may be to the feet It 's true that the heart is affected in Agues by things applied to the wrists not because there is any sympathy between the skin muscles nerves and bones of the wrists with the heart but because the arteries which have their originall from the heart lie more open and are more tangible there then in many other parts of the body and yet in the temples and divers other parts of the body you shall find the pulse as well as in the wrists and things applied to these parts will work as powerfully on the heart as if applied to the wrists His Lordship is angry Sect. 98. Because we call the spirits of Plants and living Creatures Soules such superficiall speculations saith he they have But he should for the same reason be angry with the Scriptures which ordinarily calls the spirits of beasts birds and fishes Souls He must also be angry with all wise Nomenclators which have called living and sensitive creatures Animals because they have animal soules For animal is from anima Again I would know if this word likes him not how he will call these spirits of animals If he call them nothing but spirits then he makes no difference between them and all other tangible bodies For according to his doctrine there are spirits in stocks and stones as well as in plants and animals but I hope the spirits of these deserve another name then of the others which indeed according to the old and true Philosophy are meer qualities which word also he rejects as Logicall as though forsooth Logick or Logicall terms were needlesse whereas no knowledge is more usefull and necessary as being the hand-maid to all Sciences the want of which hath occasioned multitudes of whimzicall conceits and Chimera's in mens brains Again if he will not have these chiefe acts agents or movers in animals to be called souls or spirits but air or vapour or wind he will find that all these three are called by the word Anima 1. Aire is Anima in the Prince of Poets Eclog. 6. Namque canebat uti magnum pir inaâ—e coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent 2. Vapour is called anima too in the same Poet AEn 8. Quantum ignes animaeque valent 3. The wind is anima also in Horace Impellunt animae lintea Thracie and animus in the Poet AEn 1. Mollitque animos temperat iras So then call the Spirits of animals what you will air vapour wind or spirit you will still find anima or soul is the term most proper for them and that this is no superficiall speculation My Lord in his second Century sect 11. Makes pictures and shapes but secondary objects to the eye but colours and order the things that are pleasing to the sight If he had said That colours are the chief objects of the eye he had spoken more properly then to say they are pleasing to the eye for some colours are very displeasing to some eyes As for order that is not at all the object of the sight for it is a relation and relations incurre not into the senses Again he saith sect 114. That the sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediatly then the other senses This is a very improper saying for the senses are patients in receiving the species of their objects not agents upon their objects If there be any action of dijudication that is the work of the phantasie rather then of the outward sense and though I should yeeld that there were some actions of the eye yet the sense of hearing is meerly passive and therefore it is not the sense of hearing that striketh the spirits but the species of the sound which is received by the spirit in the auditory nerve and so conveyed into the phantasie so it is not the smelling as he saith that worketh on the spirits but the object that worketh on the sense of smelling Again when he saith sect 117. That dores in fair weather give no sound he speakes by contraries for if by fair weather he means dry weather then dores give the greatest sound I know not what kind of dores his were but mine sound much in dry Summers and but little in moist weather And this stands
more then others 2. The capacity of the vessels may be the cause of this differance for in men and beasts the veins arteries and nerves wherein the spirits and blood are contained be larger then in birds and therefore in them is a more sudden eruption of the blood spirits and consequently a shorter motion then in birds 3. The weight of the bodies in men and beasts farre exceed the weight of birds bodies and therefore are not so apt to be moved His Lordship is pleased to call The opinions of sympathies and antipathies ignorant and idle conceits and a forsaking of the true indications of causes Felix qui potuit rerum cognosere causas God will have us in some things rather admire his wisdom then know his secrets and because we cannot attain the true reason of many things we are to submit our judgments to a reverend admiration of his goodness who can give the reason of that sympathy between the loadstone and the iron Between the same stone and the pole We see there is a sympathy between some simples and some humors and between some parts of our bodies and some drugs What other reason properly can be given why Faltick draws choler Agaric fleghm Epithymum melancholy Why Selenites as Fernelius observeth being applied to the skin stayeth bleeding Why should Cantharides work onely on the bladder Why doeth Hemlock and Henbane poyson men which nourish birds How do cats come to the knowledge of Nip and dogs of grasse who taught the Chicken to fear the Kite or the Lamb the Wolfe And why have some men strong Antipathies with some meats Why are some sounds some smels some sights grateful to us some again odious If there be no sympathies and antipathies why are water and fire so averse to each other The Vine will not prosper if the Colewort grow near it he gives a reason for this Because the Colewort draweth the fattest juyce of the earth and where two plants draw the same juyce their neighbourhood hurteth This reason may be as well rejected as admitted for otheâ— plants that are set neare and among Cole-worts fare not the worse for their vicinity except it be Rue and not onely doth this Antipathy last between the Vine and Colewort when they are alive but when they are dead and separated from the earth for they write that Coleworts hinder inebriation and suffer not the wine to fume into the head and why is not the vine as strong to draw its nourishment from the earth as the Colewort seeing it hath more spirits and extends it selfe to a greater circuit and height But when he saith That Rue being set by a Figtree becometh stronger because the one draweth juice fit to refult sweet the other bitter I would know how one and the same piece of earth can afford sweet juyce to the one bitter to the other at the same timeâ—punc and how the fetide juice of the earth goeth into the Garlick and the odorate into the Rose when they grow together Sure these are whimzies for no piece of earth can have so many contrary qualities at the same time nor can there be severall juyces in one bud as he saith afterward neither is the earth any thing else but the common matrix of the plants affording them moisture and nourishment which my Lord acknowledgeth proceeds rather from the water then from the earth when he saith That white Satyrion bean flowers c. are very succubent and need to be scanted in their nourishment he contradicts his former assertion when he said That white was a penurious colour and where moisture is scant And yet he saith That white plumbs are the worst because they are over-watry So it seems that white is both a penurious and a super-plentifull colour where moisture is scant and yet over-watry The opinion that an Oke bough put into the earth will put forth wild Vines is rejected by him upon this ground â—t is not the Oke saith hee that turneth into a Vine but the Oke bough putrifying qualifieth the earth to put forth a vine of it selfe If the earth could put forth a vine of it selfe what need it to be qualified by the putrified Oke bough If it be of the putrified Oke bough as doubtlesse it is that the vine is generated then the earth doth not of it selfe send forth the vineIt is naturall for one thing to be generated out of the corruption of another but for plants to be generated of the earth alone without either seed boughes or some putrified materials of other things were miraculous He saith That transmutation of species is in the vulgar Philosophy pronounced impossible but this opinion is to be rejected What he means by vulgar Philosophy I know not but this I know that the Philosophy which is vulgarly received by all learned and wise men hold the transmutation of species impossible not to God who could transform Lots wife into salt Nebuchadnezzar into a beast waters into blood a rod into a serpent and water into wine but to Art or Nature which cannot transform species whether we understand the word in the extent and universality or as it may signifie the individuall nature under such a species For every individual consists of a matter and a forme the whole composition cannot be transformed into another composition nor the form to another specificall form nor the matter into another matter not the first for generation is not the changing of one composition into another but an introduction of a new form into the matter not the second for one form alwayes perisheth by corruption upon the introduction of another by generation not the third for the matter which is the common subject of all mutations must be alwayes the same in substance though it receive some alterations in qualities Transmutation then of species is impossible to Nature not to Chymists who think to transform silver into gold not to the Roman Church which holds a transubstantiation of bread into Christs body not unto Poets who sing of so many metamorphoses and transformations of men into beasts nor of those who think Witches can transform themselves into Cats Hares and other creatures He tells us That Mushroms cause the accident which we call Incubus or the Mare in the stomack If this were true in Italy and Africa where these are ordinarily eaten this disease would reign most but we find that the Northern Countries are more subject to the Incubus then the Southern Many then eat Mushroms who never were troubled with this disease many are troubled with it who never eat them But indeed the Incubus or Mare is no disease of the stomack as he saith but of the Diaphragma and lungs which being oppressed by a thick flegme or melancholy send up gross vapours into the throat by which speech is hindred and into the brain by which the imagination is disturbed It is reported saith he that grain out of the hotter Countries
translated into the colder will be more forward then the ordinary grain of the cold Country This is known to be untrue by divers grains transplanted hither into this cold climat and by the grains translated hence into the Orcades and other cold parts Again he saith That plants are all figurate and determinate which inanimat bodies are not if this be so then inanimat bodies are infinit for certainly vvhatsoever is finit hath its termination and figure is nothing else but the disposition of terminations even water is figurat because it is sinit though it assumeth the figure of the continent body in vvhich it is To say then that a stone is sinit and yet not figurat nor determinat is a plain contradiction a dead carcass is an inanimat body yet retains the same figure termination vvhich it had vvhilst it vvas animat In this same Section he tels us that plants do nourish inanimat bodys do not they have an accretion but no alimentation but how any thing can have an accretion vvithout alimentation is to me a ridle I speak of proper and Physicall accretion which is an extension of all the parts by an internall principle or soule converting the aliment into the substance of the body nourished For that accretion of stones and other inanimate things is an apposition of externall matter not an extension of the parts by an internall agent converting the nutriment into the thing nourished And how can stones or such hard bodies have extension whereas they want humidity which is the cause of extension Besides accretion is a supply of deperdition for where there is diminution of parts by means of the heat exhausting the radicall moisture there must be restauration â—y nutriment and consequently accretion Therefore there maybe an outward agglutination or aggregation of stones without alimentation but an accretion properly so called there cannot be Lastly he tells us in the same Section That Plants have a period of life which inanimate bodies have not If inanimate bodies have a life and no period then they are immortall like the Angels and so the stones we tread on in the dirty streets are in better condition then the great Monarcks of the world Again if plants have a period of life they have life and conquently are living creature and yet shortly after my Lord distinguisheth them from living creatures in divers respects Sugar saith he to the Ancients was scarce known and little used Sugar was both known to and used by the Ancients for that which they called mel arundineum hony of the cane was much used in Physick they called it also Indian salt because it was like salt in colour and consistence when it was harden'd by the Sun the other kinde of Sugar the Ancients knew and used as well as wee only they made it by pressing we by boyling of the canes which kinde of boyling they used not as we do because they sweetned their water by steeping the canes in them and that was their drink of this drink Lucan lib. 3. speaks Quique bibunt tenerâ dulces ab arundine succos And that they used sometimes to boil the Sugar canes is plain by Strabo lib. 35. likewise by Statius l. 1. Syl. Et quas praecoquit eboisa cannas Seeds and Roots saith he are chiefly for nourishment but leaves give no nourishment at all or very little this is not so for the leaves of cabbages coleworts lettice and such like give the nourishment and not the roots there is more nourishment in the leaves of one cabbage then in a hundred cabbage roots He gives us a bad definition of snow when he calls it the froth of the cloudy waters froth is aëreal snow is watrish froth is hot snow cold froth is light snow heavy because more terrestrial indeed in colour snow is like froth hence Scaliger saith that snow is almost froth Poetical Phylosophie discriminates froth from snow in making Venus the daughter of the one not of the other snow then is not the froth of cloudie waters though Pliny so calls it but it is the thin and raâ—ified vapours of the watrish cloudes united into those white flakes we see by cold snow then is not begot immediately of water as froth is but of cold and thin vapours Why he should call putrifaction the subtilest of all motions I cannot conceive for what more subtilty is there in putrifaction that is a kinde of corruption then in generation the one consisting in the deperdation of the old form the other in the acquisition of a new form neither doth he speak Philosophically vvhen he calls it a motion for indeed putrifaction is a mutation and no motion because both the termini à quo and ad quem are not positive as they are in all motions CHAP. VI. The Lord Bacons opinions confuted concerning Snow Ephemera gravitie the sperme of Drunkards putrifaction teeth bones and nails thick and thin mediums Nilus hot Iron brâ—in sudddn dakness drie and moist bodies fish cornes hunger liquifaction hardness moisture accidents light right side spungy bodies stone-walls imagination the cramp hedghog mummy salt Commenus and others refuted concerning motion qualities colours forms the Epilogue MY Lord thinks that there is in snow a secret warmth because the Ancients have observed worms bred in old snow but I am of another opinion though Scaliger seems to favour my Lords tenets that neither the snovv is vvarm nor do these vvorms breed in snovv our senses tell us there is no heat in snovv and vvhere there is no heat there can be no putrifaction nor generation the vvorms then are bred in the ground under the snovv but not of the snovv vvhich is not vvarm but keeps in the vvarmth of the earth and defends it as it vvere a mantle from the piercing air therefore in great snovves sheep vvill live longer under the snow then above in the sharp air And whereas the worm dieth when it comes out of the snow this proceedes not as he saith from the exhaling of the worms spirits which was shut in by the cold but rather from the chilling of that spirit which was kept in by heat for whilst it was under the snow the worm was kept warm from the piercing air which now kilsit He saith That the flies called Ephemerâ— live but a day the cause is the exility of the spirits or perhaps the absence of the Sun But neither of these is the cause not the exility of spirit for we see that among men they that have weak and attenuated spirits live longer then they who have more strong dense and more plenty of spirits and so in other creatures a Horse or Bull are not so long lived as a Crow or Raven which have more exility of spirit The cause therefore of short and long life is the goodnesse or badnesse of the crasis and temperament of the radical moisture and its due or undue proportion with the natural heat
the symatrie or assymatrie of the four humours and first qualities and the conformity of the organs As for the Suns absence that cannot be a cause of short life For 1. the Sun is never absent in his vertue efficacy and influence 2. Many creatures prosper best in shades as plants 3. In those Northern parts where the body and light of the Sun is not seen in many moneths together yet multitudes of creatures are generated and live there 4. It seems that the Ephemera are hurt rather by the Suns presence then absence for Scaliger writes Exer. 194.5 That those Ephemera flies which he had seen were always to be seen in the evening never at the Sun rising and one of them which he had caught lived all night but died in the morning The Suns presence then rather then his absence is the cause of this short life in the flye He saith That the motion of gravity is a meer motion of the matter and hath no affinity with the form If it be so what use is there of the form the form of every thing is the nature thereof and nature as the Philosopher tells us is the principle and cause of motion the matter is but the passive the motion is the active principle of motion When he tells us That over moisture doth somewhat extinguishthe heat as hot water quencheth the fire he speaks not like a Philosopher for there is not Physicall action but where there is a contrariety now there is no contrariety between moisture and heat but between moisture and driness heat and cold therfore the humidity of the warm water works upon the siccity of the fire and not upon its heat For if the one quality be taken away the other will fail Neither doth his Lordship speak like a Philosopher when he saith That the sperm of drunken men is unfruitfull because over moystned Lot who in his drunkenness got both his daughters with child of boyes can shew him the contrary and so can the Comick when he saith Sine Cerere libero friget Venus The Poets knew this vvhen they made Bacchus armour-bearer to Venus and a continuall companion of the Fauns and Satyrs And the Gentiles that still offered vvine in the sacrifices of Venus as I have shewed elsewhere In Mystagogo Neither is the sperm over-moistned as he saith for the drunkards vvine cannot get presently into the sperm to moisten it vvhich requireth time for elaboration in the spermaticall vessels Neither can I approve of his reason when he saith That Caterpillers breed upon Cabbages because they have fat leaves and apt to putrifie This contradicts his former assertion That the viscy substance of plants is most in the roots and the vvatrish in the leaves vvhich is the cause that the root is more nutritive then the leaves Neither doth fatnesse make a thing apt to putrifie but rather resisteth it it is the watrish moisture that is most apt to putrifie especially being mixed with a grosse and earthy substance He tells us That bones and teeth stand at a stay as for nails they grow continually This is not so for nature hath prefixed certain limits of growth to every thing which when it hath attained rests there nails then if they be not pared will grow to their prefixed length and there stay but if they be kept pared they will grow still aiming at their just magnitude which by paring them often we hinder Hence it is that they are still growing because still pared so doe the hairs of our head and beards and so do hedges and trees that are pruned He knoweth not how the eye worketh when it is placed in the grosser medium and the object in the finer This is easily known for if ever he had been in a mist he should have found that his eye being in the grosser medium could not well apprehend the object that was in the finer though the object be celestiall luminaries and so it is with those that are in the water they cannot see the object that is in the aire so well as they who being in the air behold the object in the water because the distance of the thicker medium from the eye dilateth the object which is contracted and made obscure if the eye be in the thicker medium for how can the species be received into the eye if the medium that should convey it hindereth it The cause why it raineth not in AEgypt saith he is For that Nilus hath a longer race and runneth swifter for such waters vapour not so much as standing waters or else there is a better concoction of that water for waters concocted vapour not so much as raw Besides the air there is thin and thirsty and imbibeth the moisture and suffereth it not to remain in vapours Here are divers causes alledged but none of them satisfactory For 1. there be rivers that have as long a race and run swifter which hinder not rain 2. If standing waters breed vapours then Nilus should when it stands 40 dayes together over AEgypt I deny that concocted waters breeds fewer vapours then raw waters for water over the fire will never cease to vapour till it be all spent and converted into vapours 4. The air of AEgypt is not so thin and thirsty as under the Line and yet there it raineth 5. The true cause then why it raineth not in AEgypt is because God and Nature doe nothing in vain but rain had been in vain and needlesse in AEgypt whereas Nile supplieth the effects thereof therefore by the Poet Nilus is called Iupiter AEgyptius My Lord speaketh against manifest experience when he writes That Iron red hot burneth and consumeth not That was the priviledge onely of the fire-bush which Moses saw We know that the fire by degrees wasteth the Iron and Steel also which is a harder metall But he saith That the increasing of the weight of the water will increase his power of bearing as brâ—in when it is salt enough will bear an egge In twenty gallons of water an egge will sink as well as in one so as the increasing of the weight is no-thing but it is the thickning of the water with salt that maketh it strong to bear So we see men in boats are better supported in Sea-water then in fresh How sight as hee saith coming into sudden darkness should induce an offer to shiver is a strange AEnigma for the sight in darknesse can neither act nor suffer as having no object nor visive species It is not the sight then but the imagination upon the sudden change apprehending danger that causeth the shivering Water he saith by a kind of appetite or thirst receiveth dry bodies and so dry bodies drink in waters and liquors It vvere strange that contraries should have an appetite or thirst to each other It were against nature simile simili gaudet like draws to like and contraries shun each other Hence it is that vvater vvill not
spread it selfe so soon on a dry board as on a wet upon a dry board a drop of vvater vvill contract it self into a globular form and rise into some height rather then joyn itselfe to its enemy whereas upon a vvet board it presently spreads it selfe So dry things will rather swim upon then sink in the vvater except their vveight force them downward He also contradicteth experience when he saith That Fish hating the dry will not approach the air till it grow moist For vve see that fish play most upon the top of the vvaters in hot and dry Summers and in the hottest and driest time of the day when the Sun is in his Meâ—idian So when he saith That Aches and Corns engrieve most towards rain or frost This is not as if they were sensible of future rain but because the extremity of heat and cold doe exasperate these infirmities For the same reason Moals vvork and Fleas bite more eagerly He tells That hunger is an emptinesse But this is not so for there is sometimes hunger without emptinesse and sometimes emptinesse without hunger It is therefore not emptinesse but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher tells us a desire or appetite of hot and dry things caused by the corrugation and sucking in the mouth of the stomach His Lordship is pleased to call the received opinion That putrifaction is caused by cold or preternaturall heat but nugation But if cold be not the cause of putrifaction how comes it that Apples and Cabbages doe rot in frosty vveather And if peregrine heat be not the cause how comes it that in hot and moist years and places pestilentiall Feavers and other putrid diseases doe reigne Besides abundance of vermin doubtlesse these are procreated of putrifaction and this of heat except we will forfeit our senses and reason of which he being afraid confesseth at last that such a heat tendeth to dissolution He will not have liquifaction to proceed from any of the foure prime qualities that he calls an inutile speculation but from his own phantomes For bodies saith he that are more turgid of spirit or that have their spirits more straitly imprisoned as metals or that hold them better pleased and content as butter are liquifiable How happy then are those spirits which dwell in butter where they have pleasure and content in comparison of those vvretched spirits vvhich are imprisoned in Irons and other metals and yet how these spirits should make the metall turgid I know not Surely these are but crasie fansies vvhereas it is apparent to all ntelligible men that these things are most liquifiable which aboundeth most with congealed moisture whether it be aeriall and oily as in pitch butter wax and grease or watrish alone as in Ice or of a middle nature between both or peculiar as the moisture of metals And to tell us That wood clay free-stone c. are not liquifiable because they are bodies jejune of spirits is ridiculous for there are more spirits in vegitables then in metals and it is plain that clay and stones melt not because they want moysture which is in metals So it is not the dilatation of the spirits as he saith by heat which causeth wax to melt at the fire but the rarefaction of the moysture by heat which was before contracted by the cold For this cause dry wood is more fragile then green stone then metall and fictile earth then crude because there is no moisture in the one comparable to the moisture of the other He tels us that the hardnes of body is caused chiefly by the jejuness of the spirits Indeed this Philosophy is somwhat jejun for I would fain know whether there be not more spirits and less jejune in the hard bodies of Cloves Nutmegs and Cinnamon then in the soft bodies of Wooll Silk and Cotton According to his Philosophy there is a greater quantity of Spirits in a pellet of butter because softer then in a Nutmeg which is harder he that beleeves this let him when he is troubled with flatulencies in his stomack use butter and not hard spices He saith That Moisture doth chiefly colour hair but driness turneth them gray and white In his Philosophy then gray and white are not colours nor indeed blacknes which he saith afterwards is but a privative and consequently hath no entity Aristotle indeed sometimes calls black a privation but there he useth the words in a large sense for if it were properly privative how could other colours be made of black and white seeing of habits and privations nothing can be made He saith That some fishes be greater then any beasts because these have not their moisture drawn by the air and sun-beams Also they rest always in a manner and are supported by the water If these be the reasons of fishes greatness then why are Smelts and other lesser fishes smaller then the beasts Or why are they not as big as Whales seeing neither air nor sun-beams draw away their moisture and are also supported by the water The true cause then of the bigness of fishes above the beasts is the predominance of moisture in them which is easily extendible And indeed it is a frivolous thing to give reasons for the different magnitudes of the creatures seeing Nature hath given to each creature a determinate magnitude and period of duration And whereas he thinks that fish doe rest in a manner when they swim because they are supported by the water he may as well say That beasts and men rest when they walk and run because supported by the earth they that swim find there is no rest but labour and motion Before my Lord told us That by heat in putrifaction the spirits are emitted suppressed and suffocated But now he saith That the spirits in putrifaction gather heat How the spirits at the same time should be destroyed by the heat and yet gather heat is so sublime a fansie that no fansie but his own can reach it Water saith he being contiguous with air cooleth it but moystneth it not except it vapour because heat cold have a virtuall transaction without communication of substance but moysture not He takes it for granted which no Philosophy will grant him to wit that accidents can passe from one subject to another without their substance which is to make accidents subsist by themselves and to be all one with the substance which is repugnant to sense and reason therefore without vapours neither can the water moysten nor cool the air He saith Air is not without some secret degree of heat He needs make no secret of it for it is manifest that the air is hot and moist as the fire is hot and dry but for any secret degree of light in the air I deny For though as he saith Cats and Owles see in the night this is not because there is any degree of light in the air for what light can