distilled water from the flowers will wonderfully make the Face whole Also with the decoction of Ivory one may make the Face like Ivory Melanthinm makes the Face beautiful Dioscorides But it shews its excellency when it is thus prepared Pown it and sift out the finest of it take the juice of Lemmons and let the Meal of Gith lie wet in it twenty four hours take it out and let it dry then break an Egg with the Shell and mingle it with it then dry it in the shade and sift it once more In the morning when the woman riseth out of her bed let her put this into a white Linen-clour that is not too fine and wet it with water or spittle and let her rub her Face with the clour that the moysture alone and not the Meal may come on the Face If you will have Your Face white it may be made as white as Milk many ways and chiefly with these that follow Let Litharge of Silver half an ounce boyl in a Glazed Earthen Pot with strong Vinegar until the thinner part be evaporated set it up for use Then in another Pot let half a pound of clear water boyl then mingle both these waters together and shake them and it will become like Milk and sink to the bottom when it is settled pour it off water being plentifully poured in and leaving it a while to settle pour it off again and pour on fresh shake it and leave it to settle a short time and so forbear That which is settled set in the Sun and when it is grown stiff as thick pap make small balls of it and lay them up You may use these with water to make the Face white Or else powder Lytharge of Silver eight ounces very fine pour on the Powder of the strongest Vinegar five pints distil them and keep them for your use Then take Allome de Plume Salt Gemma one drachm Frankincense one ounce and a half Camphire two drachms Oyl of Tartar six ounces rose-Rose-water one pound powder what must be powdered and pour it in distil the water in Chymical Vessel and set it up When you would use them mingle a little of both waters in the palm of your hand and it will be like Milk rub your Face with it and it will be white Or else take off the Pills of about twenty Cirton Lemmons infuse the Pills in one pound of the best Wine and one pint and an half of rose-Rose-water for six days then add one ounce of white Lilly and mallow-Mallow-Roots and let them stay as many days then add Rosin of Turpentine four ounces white Mercury sublimate two ounces Boxan half an ounce ten whites of Eggs made hard at the fire and mingle all these together let them stay one night The next day put a cap upon the Vessel and luting the joynts well that nothing may breath forth let the water drop into a Vessel to receive it set it aside for use I me this that is easie to make and doth the business completely Take the white of an Egg and stir it so long with an Iron that it froth well let it stand to turn to water then take half an ounce of the best Honey and beat with that water and â—ingle them until they unite add to them the quantity of two Corns of Wheat Mercury sublimate finely powdered when you go to bed take some of the water in the palm of your hand and wash your Face and so let it dry in that it may not slick to the Linen in the morning wash it off with Fountain-water and you shall have your Face cleer and white CHAP. X. How women shall make their Faces very clean to receive the Colour BEfore any thing be used to make the Face beautiful it must be made very clean and fit to receive it for oft-times women have excellent Waters and Remedies brought them but they have no operation wherefore the matter is that they must first prepare their Face This is the best Preparation of the Face Bind Barley-Meal-Bran in a Linen-cloth and let it down into a Pot full of water and let it boyl till a third part be remaining and press out the juice with this decoction wash your face and let it dry then bruise Myrrh and mingle it with the white of an Egg and burn it on hot Fire-sticks or red hot Tiles and receive the fume by a tunnel let the narrow part of it be toward the Face and the broad to the fire cover the head with a Napkin that the smoak flie not away and when you have received sufficient of the smoak rub your Face with a Linen-cloth then use your Remedy to anoynt your Face I shall shew you One that is stronger When the skin must be cleansed or made white you must cleanse some parts of your Face from skins that will not let your painting Oyntment stick Powder an ounce of Sublimate very finely put it into a Pot that is glazed and cast into it fix whites of Eggs so beaten that they are turned into water then boyl them on hot Embers till they grow thick put them into a Linnen-cloth that is loosly weaved and press the water out of them with your hands and wash your Face with it then mingle Honey whites of Eggs and the aforesaid water together equal parts put some in your palm and rub the place you would make white with the palms of your hands then boyl spelt and when it is boyl'd take the fume of it by a tunnel then rub your Face with a course Linnen-cloth Others wash their Face with water wherein fine flour is boyled CHAP. XI How the Face may be made very soft THe next Beauty of the Face and Hands is Tenderness which is procured by fat things and chiefly by Milk and principally of Asses for it takes off wrinkle and makes the skin white and soft And therefore it was not for nothing that Nero's wife had always five hundred Asses with her and in a Bath with a â—ear she soaked all her body with that Milk Wherefore if you would have Tour Face made soft and white Steep crums of Bread in Whey or in Milk then press it out and with that water wash your Face for it will wonderfully white your Face and make the skin fair Or take six Glasses of Milk steep crumbs of Bread in it five hours take ten Lemmons make clean the Pills and cut the Body of them into thin slices then shake ten whites of Eggs bruise an ounce of Camphire Allom Sauharinum two ounces mingle them all and distil them and set it in a glazed Vessel close covered in the Sun and then set it up for your use Here is one stronger For the same purpose Boyl two Calfs Feet in water first make them clean then boyl the water till half be consumed put it in Rice one pound and boyl it well let crums of Bread steep in Asses Milk or Goats Milk with ten whites of Eggs bruised with
the spots be gone See Another Take two ounces of Turpentine-Rosin Ceruss as much mingle them with the white of an Egg and stirring them well besmeer Linen-cloths with them And when you go to bed let them stick to the spots in the morning wash the place and do the same again till all the spots be gone If you please here is Another The distilled water of Pimpernel mingled with Camphire and laid to the Face will make women that desire to be beautiful have a cleer Skin very sightly to behold and will take off the spots Distil the Mulberry-Leaves let the water stand ten dayes in the Sun add to this Mercury sublimate Verdigrease artificial Chrysocolla called Borax and a good quantity of the Powder of Sea-Cockle-shells finely beaten Set it so many dayes in the Sun and then use it If you will rub off the wan colour of your cheeks do thus especially for women when they are in their courses Anoynt the place with Ceruss and Bean-flower mingled with Vinegar or yelks of Eggs mingled with Honey The same may be done with Bean-meal and Feny-Greek smeered on with Honey But we wipe away Black and blew marks thus If you wash the black and blew places with the juice of the Leaves and Roots of Thapsia made into Cakes in the Sun but one night they will be taken away Nero Caesar made his Face white from the strokes he had received in his Night-walks with Wax and Frankincense and the next day his Face was clear against all reports Or Oyl pressed from the Seeds of Flowers when it is thick will do it rarely Or the Root mingled with equal quantities of Frankincense and Wax but let it â—ay on but two hours at most then foment the place with Sea-water hot Also Wal-nuts bruised or smeered on will take away black and blew spots Vinegar or Honey anoynted will take away the same So doth Garlick rubbed on and brings black and blew to the right colour Or the Ashes of it burnt smeered on with Honey The juice of Mustard-Seed anoynted on but one night is good for the same or it is anoynted on with Honey or Suet or a Cerate If a Briony-root be made hollow and Oyl put into it and it be boyled in hot Embers if that be anoynted on it will blot out black and blew spots Marks that are noted upon Children by Women great with-child when they long exceedingly are taken away thus Let her first eat of that Flesh or Fruit her belly full then let her binde on that Flesh alive or the green Fruit to the part till it die or corrupt and they will be gone Or else let her wash the place with Aqua Fortis or Regia and the Skin grows very black so it will take the marks away Do it again For spots and beauty I will not omit Aelian's Experiment of a Lion which is a kinde of Locust For in some Membranes where the Testes are bound together under which there are some soft Carbuncles and tender that are called the Lions fat This will help people to make ill Faces look comely mingled with Oyl of Roses and made into an Oyntment it will make the Face look fair and shining CHAP. XXI How we may take off red Pimples BEcause red Pimples use to deform the Face and specially the whitest therefore to take them off use these Remedies I often to take off Pimples used Oyl of Paper namely extracting it from burnt Paper I shall shew the way elsewhere because I will not disturb the Order where I shall speak of the Extraction of Oyls and Waters Wherefore anoynting that on the red spots will soon blot them out For the same Rear Eggs are good twenty of them boyled hard cut in the middle and the yelks taken forth fill up the hollow places in the whites with Oyl of sweet Almonds and Turpentine-Rosin extract the Liquor in a Glass Vessel use it Another Beat two Eggs well together add as much juice of Lemmons and as much Mercury sublimate set it in the Sun and use it Another to polish the Face Take Sow-bread-Roots three parts cleansed Barley six parts Tartar calcined one part Roots of wilde Cucumers powdered two parts Wheat-Bran two handfuls let them all boyl in Water till a third part be consumed then wash your Face with it CHAP. XXII How Tetters may be taken from the Face or any other part of the Body RIng-worms will so deform the Face that nothing can do it more sometimes they run upon other parts of the Body as the Arm-pits and Thighs there drops forth of them a stinking water that will foul the cloths I found these Remedies Against Tetters Distil water from the Roots of Sowredock and add to every pound of these of Pompions and Salt-Peter half an ounce Tartar of white-Wine two ounces let them soak for some days then distil them and wash your Face in the morning therewith and at night smeer it with Oyl of Tartar and of Almonds mingled Oyl of Eggs is good also to anoynt them with Yet sometimes these Tetters are so fierce that no Remedies can cure them I shall set down Another that I have used with admirable success when they were inveterate In a Glass of sharp red-Wine boyl a drachm of Mercury sublimate then wash the place with it morning and evening let it dry of it self Do this three or four times and the Tetters will away and never come again Another Take Salt-Peter three ounces Oyl of bitter Almonds two pound of Squils half a pound one Lemmon without the Pills mingle them and let them ferment three days then with Chymical Instruments extract the Oyl and anoynt your Tetters therewith and they will be gone though they seem to turn to a Leprosie CHAP. XXIII How Warts may be taken away WArts use to possess the Fore-head Nose Hands and other open places so doth hard Flesh and other foulness of the skin women cannot endure them I found out Remedies against these deformities of the skin Against Warts The Ancients used the greater Spurge whose juice anoynted on with Salt takes them away and therefore they called it Warts-Herb There is also a kinde of Succory called Verrucaria from the effect for if one eat it but once in Sallets all the Warts will be gone from any part of the Body or if you swallow one drachm of the Seeds Another This one and so no more There is a kinde of Beetle that is Oyly in Summer you shall finde it in Dust and Sand in the way if you rub that on the Warts they will be presently gone and not be seen You may finde these and keep them for your use CHAP. XXIV To take away wrinkles from the Body MAny parts of the Body use to be wrinckled as the Hands Face Belly after Child-bearing and the like To contract the Skin therefore do thus For a wrinckled Forehead the Dregs of Linseed-Oyl is good or Lees of Oyl of Olives putting unto it a little Gum-Arabick
out of their mouths into the mortar until it be white as I said then they boil it in one pound of the distilled water of bryony-Bryony-root till it be consumed then they put a linnen cloth to receive it at the mouth of the vessel and so they strain it forth and set it in the sun they make â—roches of it with gum Traganth others to sublimate add a sixth part of quick-silver bruising it round about then they adde camphir borax and ceruss half as much and mingle all together The principal matter is it is the best way to sprinkle it with water whilst you grind it lest by grinding it the powder become so light that it fly away also when the water is poured on all the filth will come on the top and more easily be poured off then when the sublimate is washed it is left to settle down then again pouring off the former water they pour on fresh and they wash it oft till they see it is enough and no black swims on the top But there is no better as we said than Water of quick-silver But some will not away with quick-silver by reason of the hurt it commonly doth to the teeth but they use other water Yet there is no better water then that which is extracted from quick-silver it is so clear and transparent and the face anointed with it shines like silver it draws the skin handsome and makes it soft by and by and I never saw a better the manner was shewed before CHAP. XV. How white-lead is prepared for the face BEcause sublimate is so dangerous there is a private way to do it with ceruss but not the usual way that women may have their desire without hurting their skin or their teeth I am now come to the business of ceruss Take of swines grease well washed and cleansed in common water at least ten times put it in to a lye of sweet water and after fifteen days into a pot or earthen vessel with a broad mouth pouring in the sharpest vinegar put in your swines grease that the vinegar may swim three fingers above it then fasten a plate of lead on the mouth of the pot well luting the joynts with linnen cloths that the vinegar may not evaporate Every fifteen days take off the cover and see how it is if the lead be dissolved and scrape the cover of all that hangs upon it and put in the cover anoint it all about and let it stand so long till all the rest be performed as I said before and the whole lead be turned to ceruss Ceruss must be washt thus Pour water into a vessel put the ceruss into it stir it up and down that what dregs there is may swim on the top the ceruss is heavy and will sink to the bottom Pour forth what swims above in the vessel and pour on fresh water and do this so often until the pure ceruss be found without dregs dry it and lay it up If you will do it Another way Take two handfuls of cleansed barley let it steep all night in fair water then dry it on a linnen cloth spread abroad in the sun When it is dried poun it in a marble mortar when it is bruised put it into a glazed vessel which is full of vinegar and cast upon this four whole eggs with their shells then stop the vessel with a plate of lead that is arched or not very even and let there be no place that gives vent Set it half in the sand and let it stand in the open sun after ten days take off the covering of the vessel that you stopt it with strike down the ceruss that is in it with a feather and scrape it off then take the eggs out and put in new and do as you did and after so many days scrape it off until the whole plate be consumed Let down the ceruss you have stricken off into a vessel full of water bound up in a linnen cloth that is clean and moderately fine and stir it in the water carrying it about here and there until the muddy part of it run forth and the sediment remain in the cloth let the water settle and strain it and pour it forth changing the water so long until no dregs remain Lastly strain forth the water and lay up the powder when it is dry This alone with fountain water will make the face white mingled with the white of an egge and will make it shine Some Another way wash ceruss and make it pure Mingle hards of hemp with whites of eggs well stirr'd role up the ceruss in the middle of it and wrapping a cloth about it boil it one hour in a new earthen pot putting water to it as it boils take off the skum then take it from the fire and if any Lead be sunk down cast it forth afterwards make Troches of it with Gum-Traganth that it may keep the better Some bid boyl in water of white Lillies Ceruss very finely powdered tied up in a skin and fastned in a Linen-cloth over it to the handle of the Vessel The manner of boyling is the same as I first shewed Then pour it forth into an earthen dish and strain it gently from all its moysture dry it fifteen days in the Sun and keep it CHAP. XVI The best Sopes for women I Shewed in particulars how you might procure whiteness lustre and softness to the Face now shall I speak of waters made of these that will at the same time make if it be first rub'd clean The Face white clear ruddy and soft These I speak of can do it being composed together and distilled Take Ceruss ready washed one ounce half as much Mercury sublimate Gum-Traganth as much Tartar one ounce powder all these and put them into a young Pigeon washed and unbowelled and sow them in put it into a new Earthen Pot full of water distilled by a Retort boyl it till the flesh part from the bones then distil it when you go to bed wash you Face and in the morning wash it with Fountain-water so you shall have it white clear soft and well-coloured Also you may do it Another way Bruise three pound of Bean-Cods the shells add two pounds of Honey and one of Rosin of Turpentine put them into a Vessel and close it that nothing vent forth and let it ferment eight days in dung then add four pound of Asses milk and in the Vessel draw forth Oyl at the fire use this water morning and evening If you will have Another way do it thus Distil all these severally Elder-flowers and Flowers of wilde Roses Broom Honey-snâ—kles Solomons-seal and briony-Briony-Roots sowre Grapes and Sarcocolla mingle equal parts of each or distil them again and set them in the Sun This will be the best I shall shew Another for the same Pull of a Hens Feathers without water take out her Entrals cut her in pieces let infuse one night in white-Wine in the morning wash her in
Retort or Alembick First a Milky water will flow out with Oyl next cleer Water cast the Water in over the Oyl and separate them as we shall teach you Of a pound of Cinnamon you will scarce receive a drachm of Oyl How to draw a greater quantity of Oyl out of Cinnamon I do use to do it in this manner to the wonder of the best and subtillest Artists Provide a Descendatory out of the Bath the making of which I will shew hereafter and put your Cinnamon being grossly beaten into a Glass-Retort set it in its proper place and put water into the Bath the heat of the fire by degrees will draw a little water in many days receive it careful and pour it again into the Cinnamon that it may re-imbibe its own water so let it remain a while afterwards kindle the fire and you shall receive a little Water and Oyl Do this third and fourth time and you will gain an incredible quanity You may try the same in other things Oyl of Cloves may be extracted in the same manner To every pound of Cloves you must add ten of Water distil them as before so shall you have both Water and Oyl It will yield a twelfth part The Oyl is good for Medicines and the VVater for Sawces So also is made Liquid Oyl of Nutmegs If you bruise them and put them with the VVater into a Vessel and distil them as before they will yield a sixth part Oyl of Mace and Pepper is drawn in the same manner much stronger but in less quantity Oyl of Aniseed may be thus extracted an ounce out of a pound It congealeth in VVinter like Camphire or Snow in the Summer it dissolveth Let the Seeds be macerated in the VVater for ten days at least for the longer they lie there the more Oyl they will yield Oyl of Fennel is extracted in the same quantity when the Seeds are ripe and fresh they have most Oyl for they yield as much more Oyl of Coriander yieldeth but a small quantity and is of very hard extraction there is scarce one drachm drawn out of a pound new Seeds yield most And to be short in the same manner are extracted the Oyls out of the Seeds of Carrot Angelica Marjoram Rue Rosemary Parsely Smallage and Dill and such-like Oyl of Rosemary and Lavender-flowers and such-others which being dried afford no Oyl may be thus extracted Put the Flowers into a Receiver and set it close stopt in the hot Sun for a month there will they dissolve into Liquor and flie up to the sides of the Glass then being condensed again fall down and macerate in themselves at a fit time add VVater to them and distil them as the former so shall you draw forth with the VVater a most excellent sweet Oyl Oyl of Juniper and Cypress-Wood may de drawn out by the same Art if you macerate the dust of them in their own or in Fountain-water for a month and distil them in the same manner the Oyl will come out by drops with the water of a strong sent and excellent vertue These I have tried the rest I leave to thee CHAP. VII How to separate Oyl from Water VVHen we extract Oyls they run down into the Receiver together with the VVater wherefore they must be separated left the flegm being mixed with the Oyl do weaken the vertue of it that it may obtain its full vigour it must be purified by Distillation and Separation for being put into a Retort or broad Still over a gentle fire the VVater will run out the remaining Liquor will be clear Oyl This work of Separation is very laborious yet there are very artificial Vessels invented by the help of which all the VVater may be drawn off and the flegm onely pure Oyl will remain Prepare a Glass-Vessel let it be broad and grow narrower by degrees downwards until it come to a point like unto a Tunnel Put the distilled VVater which consisteth of the flegmatick VVater and Oyl into this Vessel let it stand a while the Oyl will swim on the top and the VVater will sink down to the bottom But stop the mouth of it with your finger so that removing it away the VVater may first run out and the Oyl sink down by degrees VVhen it is descended into the narrow part so that the Oyl becometh next to your finger stop the hole and let the Orifice be but half open for the VVater to pass out when it is all run out empty the Oyl into another small Vessel There is another very ingenious Instrument found out for to separate Oyl with a great belly and a narrow neck which a little nose in the middle Pour the Oyl mixed with Water into the Vessel the Water will possess the bottom the Oyl the neck Drop Water gently into it until the Oyl ascend up unto the nose then encline the Vessel downward and the Oyl will run out pure and unmix'd When you have emptied out some drop in more Water until the Oyl be raised again unto the nose then stop it down and pour out the rest of the Oyl But if the Oyl settle to the bottom and the Water swim on the top as it often hapneth filtrate it into a broad dish or any other Vessel with a cotten-cloth the Water will run out and the Oyl will remain in the bottom very pure CHAP. VIII How to make an Instrument to extract Oyl in a greater quantity and without danger of burning VVE may with several sorts of Instruments use several kindes of Extractions among the rest I found out one whereby you may draw Oyl with any the most vehement fire without any danger of burning and a greater quantity then by any other and it is fit for many other uses also Prepare a Vessel in the form of an Egg of the capacity of half an ordinary Barrel let the mouth of it be of a convenient bigness to receive in your arm when there shall occasion to wash it or to fill it with several sorts and degrees of things to be distilled Let it be tinned within then set a brass head upon it of a foot high with a hole in the bottom fit to receive the neck of the lower Vessel and stop the mouth of it exactly Out of the top of the head there must arise a pipe of Brass fifteen or twenty foot long bended into several angles that it may take up less room and be more convenient to be carried The other end of this Pipe must be fastened into the belly of another Vessel which must be of less capacity then the former but of the same figure Fix a head upon this also with a Pipe of the same length and bended like the former whose lower end shall be received into another straight Pipe which passing through the middle of a Barrel at last falls into the Receiver The manner of using it is this Put your Leaves Stalks or Seeds being beaten small into the Brass-pot and
is reverberated on the top and below too Stop it close and set a large Receiver under it for if it be too narrow the strong Spirits will break out with a great bounce crack the Vessel and frustrate your labour Distil it six hours if you calcine the Alome-fire the VVater will be stronger A Water for Separation of Gold Mix with the equal parts of Salt-Peter and Alom as much Vitriol and distil it as before there will proceed a VVater so strong that it will even corrode the â—iâ—cture of Gold Wherefore if this seem too violent take nine pounds of the former Salts being dissolved in VVater and two ounces of Sal Ammoniacum when they are melted set them two days in Fimo and with hot Ashes you may distil a VVater that will corrode Gold If you refund the VVater upon the Foeces let them macerate and distil it again the VVater will be much stronger How to purge the phlegm from these Waters without which they are of no force cast a little Silver into a litle of this VVater which being overcharged with phlegm will not corrode it But set it to heat over the fire and it will presently do it pour all this VVater into another Pot and leave the Foeces behinde in the former so the VVater will be clarified Oyl of Vitriol Dissolve Vitriol in an earthen Pan with a wide mouth let the phlegm evaporate then encrease the fire and burn it till it be all red and the fourth part be consumed Put it into a Glass-Retort luted all over thrice double and well dried and set in igne reverberationis continually augmenting the fire and continning it for three days until the Vessel melt and an Oyl drop out without any VVater Every three pounds will â—ield one ounce of Oyl Put it into a Glass-bottle and set it in hot Embeâ—s that the VVater if any be in the Oyl may evaporate for so it will be of greater strengh The sign of a perfect extraction is if it make a piece of VVood being cast into it smoak as if it burned it Oyl of Sulphur This is the proper way to extract Oyl of Sulphur Take a Glass with a large mouth in the form of a Bell and hang it up by a wire place a large Receiver under it that it may catch the Oyl as it droppeth out of the Bell. In the middle between these hang an earthen Vessel full of Sulphur kindle the fire and make the Sulphur burn the smoak of which ascendeth up into the Bell condenseth it self and falls down in an oyly substance When the Sulphur is consumed put in more until you have the quantity of Oyl which you desire There is also another way to extract it in a greater quantity Prepare a great Glass-Receiver such as I described in the Extraction of Oyl of Tartar and Aqua Fortis cut a hole thorow it with an Emerauld and indent the edges of it that the smoak may pass out set this upon an earthen Pan in which you burn the Sulphur Above this set another Vessel of a larger size so that it may be about a handful distant from the first cut the edges of the hole in deeper notches that the vapor ascending thorow the first and circulating about the second may distil out of both so you may add a third and fourth Pour this Oyl into another Glass and let the phlegm evaporate over hot Embers it will become of that strength that it will dissolve Silver and I may say Gold also if it be rightly made The fume of Sulphur is congealed in Sal Ammoniacum for I have gathered it in the Mountains of Campania and condensed it into Salt nothing at all differing from that which is brought out of the Eastern Countries Thus Sal Ammoniacus which hath so long lain unknown is discovered in our own Country and is nothing but Salt of Sulphur and this Oyl is the Water of Sal Ammoniac or Salt of Sulphur I would fain know how Learned Men do approve this my Invention I take the Earth thorow which the smoak of Sulphur hath arisen and dissole it in warm Waters and purge it thorow a hanging Receptacle described before then I make the Water evaporate and so finde a Salt nothing different as I hope from Ammoniacum CHAP. XXI Of the Separation of the Elements IN every Compound there are four Elements but for the most part one is predominant the rest are dull and unprofitable Hence when we speak of separating the Elements of a Compound we mean the separating that predominant one In the Water-Lilly the Element of Water is chief Air Earth and Fire are in it but in a small proportion Hence there is but a small quantity of heat and driness in it because VVater overwhelms them all The same must be understood in other things also But do not think that we intend by the separation of the Elements to divide them absolutely the Air from the VVater and the VVater from the Fire and Earth but onely by a certain similitude as what is hotter then the rest we call Fire the moister VVater Stones participate more of Earth VVoods of Fire Herbs of VVater VVe account those Airy which fill the Vessels and Receivers and easily burst them and so flie out VVhen the Elements are thus separated they may afterwards be purified and attenuated The manner of extracting them is various according to the diversity of natural things for some must be calcined some sublimated others distilled I will set down some examples How to separate the Elements of Metals Lay your Metal in Aqua Fortis as I shewed before till it be dissolved then draw out the Aqua Fortis by a Bath and pour it on again and so again until it be turned into an Oyl of a light Red or Ruby-colour Pour two parts of Aqua Fortis unto the Oyl and macerate them in a Glass in Fimo for a month then distil them on Embers till the VVater be all drawn out which you must take and still again in Balneo until it ascend so will you have two Elements By the Bath the Air is elevated the VVater and Earth remain in the bottom the Fire continueth in the bottom of the former Vessel for it is of a fiery substance this Nature and the Affusion of Water and the Distillation in Balneo will reduce into an Oyl again in which you must correct the Fire and it will be perfect You may lay Metal in Embers then by degrees encrease the fire the VVater will first gently ascend next the Earth In Silver the first Oyl is blewish and in perfect separation settleth to the bottom and the VVater ascendeth but in Balneo the Elements of Fire and Earth for the substance of it is cold and moist in Balneo the Elements of Fire and Earth remain first the Earth will come out afterwards the Fire So of Tin the first Oyl is yellow in Balneo the Air will remain in the bottom the Fire Earth and
remaining Powders make a mass which you may form into cakes which being burnt on hot Ashes smell very sweetly I take out the Cinnamon and the Woods because in burning they cast forth a stink of smoak Another way Take one pound and a half of the Coals of Willow ground into dust and seirced four ounces of Labdanum three drachms of Storax two of Benjamin one of Lignum Aloes mix the Storax Benjamin and Labdanum in a Brass Morter with an Iron Pestle heated and put to them the Coal and Lignum Aloes powdered Add to these half an ounce of liquid Storax then dissolve Gum Tragacantha in rose-Rose-water and drop it by degrees into the Morter When the powders are mixed into the form of an Unguent you may make it up into the shape of Birds or any other things and dry them in the shade You may wash them over with a little Musk and Amber upon a Pencil and when you burn them you will receive a most sweet fume from them Another Perfume Anoynt the Pill of Citron or Lemmon with a little Civet stick it with Cloves and Races of Cinnamon boyl it in Rose-water and it will fill your chamber with an odorifeous fume CHAP. IX How to adulterate Musk. THese Perfumes are often counterfeited by Impostors wherefore I will declare how you may discern and beware of these Cheats for you must not trust whole Musk-Cods of it there being cunning Impostors who fill them with other things and onely mix Musk enough to give its sent to them Black Musk inclining to a dark red is counterfeited with Goats blood a little rosted or toasted bread so that three or four parts of them beaten with one of Musk will hardly be discovered The Imposture may be discerned onely thus The Bread is easie to be crumb'd and the Goats blood looketh clear and bright within when it is broken It is counterfeited by others in this manner Beat Nutmegs Mace Cinnamon Cloves Spikenard of each one handful and seirce them carefully then mix them with the warm blood of Pigeons and dry them in the Sun Afterward beat them again and wet them with Musk-water and Rose-water dry them beat them and moysten them very many times at length add a fourth part of pure Musk and mix them well and wet them again with Rose-water and Musk-water divide the Mass into several parts and rowl them in the hair of a Goat which groweth under his Tail Others do it Another way and mingle Storax Labdanum and Powder of Lignum Aloes add to the Composition Musk and Civet and mingle all together with rose-Rose-water The Imposture is discovered by the easie dissolving of it in water and it differeth in colour and sent Others augment Musk by adding Roots of Angelica which doth in some sort imitate the sent of Musk. So also they endeavour To adulterate Civet with the Gall of an Ox and Storax liquified and washed or Cretan Honey But if your Musk or Amber have lost their sent thus you must do To make Musk recover its sent hang it in a Jakes and among stinks for by striving against those ill savours it exciteth its own vertue reviveth and recovereth its lost sent THE TWELFTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Artificial Fires THE PROEME BEfore I leave off to write of Fire I shall treat of that dangerous Fire that works wonderful things which the vulgar call Artificial Fire which the Commanders of Armies and Generals use lamentably in divers Artifices and monstrous Designs to break open Walls and Cities and totally to subvert them and in Sea-fights to the infinite ruine of mâ—rtal men and whereby they oft-times frustrate the malicious enterprizes of their Enemies The matter is very useful and wonderful and there is nothing in the world that more frights and terrifies the mindes of men God is coming to judge the world by Fire I shall describe the mighty hot Fires of our Ancestors which they used to besiege places with and I shall add those that are of later Invention that far exceed them and lastly I shall speak of those of our days You have here the Compositions of terrible Gun-powder that makes a noise and then of that which makes no noise of Pipes that vomit forth deadly Fires and of Fires that cannot be quenched and that will rage under Water at the very bottom of it Whereby the Seas rend asunder as if they were undermined by the great violence of the flames striving against them and are lifted up into the Air that Ships are drawn by the monstrous Gulphs Of Fireâ—Balls that flie with glittering Fire and terrifie Troops of Horse-men and overthrow them So that we are come almost to eternal Fires CHAP. I. How divers ways to procure Fire may be prepared VItruvius saith That it fell out by accident that sundry Trees frequently moved with Windes and Tempests the Bows of them rubbing one against another and the parts smiting each other and so being ratified caused heat and took fire and flamed exceedingly Wilde people that saw this ran away When the Fire was out and they durst come neerer and found it to be a great commodity for the Body of man they preserved the Fire and so they perceived that it afforded causes of civility of conversing and talking together Pliny saith It was found out by Souldiers and Shepherds In the Camp those that keep watch found this out for necessity and so did Shepherds because there is not always a Flint ready Theophrastus teacheth what kindes of Wood are good for this purpose and though the Anger and the handle are sometimes both made of one sort of Wood yet it is so that one part acts and the other suffers so that he thinks the one part should be of hard Wood and the other of soft Example Wood that by rubbing together will take Fire They are such as are very hot as the Bay-Tree the Buck-thorn the Holm the Piel-Tree But Mâ—estor adds the Mulberry-Tree and men conjecture so because they will presently blunt the Ax. Oâ— all these they make the Auger that by rubbing they may resist the more and do the business more firmly but the handle to receive them is to be made of soft Wood as the Ivy the wilde Vine and the like being dried and all moisture taken from them The Olive is not fit because it is full of fat matter and too much moysture But those are worst of all to make Fires that grow in shady places Pliny from him One Wood is rub'd against another and by rubbing takes Fire some dry fuel as Mushroomes or Leaves easily receiving the Fire from them But there is nothing better then the Ivy that may be rubbed with the Bay-Tree or this with that Also the wilde Vine is good which is another kinde of wilde Vine and runs upon Trees as the Ivy doth But I do it more conveniently thus Rub one Bay-Tree against another and rub lustily for it will presently smoak adding a little Brimstone put your fuel
dilated again and all the wrinkles will be gone and it will appear as it did at frst that you may read the Letters upon it without any hindrance Now I will shew the way How in the Sections of Books the Characters shall be hid When the Book is well bound and cut and coloured black if we open it and turn back the leaves that they may be turned in we may write at the corners of the leaves what we will but when the Book is set back again and the leaves put into their own places nothing is seen or can be imagined to be writ in them but he that would read those Letters must set the Book that way as it was and the Letters will be read So may we write on fly-traps that are made with wrinkles and then draw them forth If need be we may do The same with Cards to play with You may excellent well write on Cards if you put them in some order that one may follow the other and some shall be upright others turned downwards When you have set them right together you may write all things where they divide mingle the Cards together again and turn them and nothing will be seen but some disorderly marks if any man look curiously upon them But he that would read them must set them in order and they will joyn and be read exactly Also we may write in white Pigeons and other white Birds feathers of their wings turning them upwards for when they return to their own places they will shew nothing But if they be brought to their former posture you will read the Letters and this is no small benefit for those that shall use them for messengers There is a way To hide Letters upon wood Any one may make Letters upon wood and not be suspected for they shall not be seen but when we please Let the wood be fleshy and soft of Poplar or Tile-tree or such like and with those iron Markers Printers use when they make stamps upon Brass commonly called Ponzones make Letters in the wood half a finger thick then hew the wood with a Carpenters hatchet as deep as the Letters go when all is made plain and equal send the stick to your friend or board to him that knows the matter he putting the wood into the water the wood will swell out that was beaten in with the marks and the Letters will come forth That we may do in wooden vessels polished by the turner if when they are turned we mark the Letters on them and then turn them again when this is done send it to your friend and let him soke it in water c. CHAP. VI. In what places Letters may be inclosed I Shall speak in what places Letters may be inclosed and not be suspected and I shall speak last of Carriers I shall bring such examples as I have read in Antient Histories and what good a man may learn by them First How to hide Letters in wood Theophrastus's opinion was that if we cut the green bark of a Tree and make it hollow within as much as will contain the Letters and then bind it about in a short time it will grow together again with the Letters shut up within it Thus he saith That by including some religious precepts in wood people may be allured for they will admire at it But I mention this out of Theophrastus rather for a similitude then for to do the thing I would have for that would require a long time But this may be done well in dry wood as in Fir thus the chinks fastning together with common white glew Also the Antients used To conceal Letters in Junkets I will relate the cunning of the Wife of Polycretes for she whilst in the Milesian camps they solemnized a Solemn Feast of their Country when they were all fast asleep and drunk took this opportunity to tell her brothers of it and did thus She desired Diognetus General of the Erythrei that she might send some Junkets to her brothers and when she had leave she put a leaden scrole into a cake and she bad the bearer tell her brothers from her that no man should eat of it but themselves When they heard this they opened the cake and found the Letter and performed the contents of it They came upon the enemy by night that was dead drunk at the Feast and conquered him Also the Antients were wont To shut up Letters in living creatures Herodotus saith That Harpagus sent Letters to Cyrus put into the belly of a Hare whose entrails were taken out by one that counterfeited a shepherd hunting So Letters may be hid in Garments The secret places of clothes are best to avoid suspicion as in your bosom or under the soles of your feet Ovid in his Arte Amandi writes to this purpose Letters may be concealed in your brest Wrapt in a clowt which way is held the best Or else you may under your feet provide A place full closely Letters for to hide To hide Letters in your belt Those of Campania were wont when they would discover any thing to the Carthaginians and the Romans besieged them round they sent a man that seemed to run from them with a Letter concealed in his girdle and he taking occasion to escape brought it to the Carthaginians Others carried Letters in their scabbards and sent them away by messengers and were not found out But we use now adays To hide letters in the Bowels of living creatures For we wrap them in some meat and give them to a Dog or some other creature to swallow that when he is killed the letters may be found in his belly and there is nothing neglected to make this way certain The like was done by Harpagus He as Herodotus saith being to discover to Cyrus some secrets when the ways were stopt that he could do it by no other means he delivered the letters to a faithful servant who went like a Hunter that had catcht a Hare and in her belly were the letters put when the guts were taken forth and so they were brought to Persis We use also To shut up letters in stones Flints are beaten very fine in brazen Mortars and sifted then are they melted in a brass Cauldron by putting two ounces of Colophonia to one pound of the powder of the stone and mingling them put your letters into leaden plates and hide them in the middle of the composition and put the lump into a linnen bag and tye it fast that it may be round then sink it into cold water and it will grow hard and appear like a flint CHAP. VII What secret Messengers may be used THe Antients used the same craft for Messengers for they used men that should be disguised by their habits and some living creatures besides For To counterfeit the shape of a Dog It was the crafty counsel of Josippus that the Messengers should be clad with skins and so they past the enemies guards and
experiments prove false because that which we work by happily hath lost his vertue being kept too long But there are certain peculiar times to gather them in which the vulgar sort observeth not wherein the heavenly constellations bestow upon them some singular vertue proceeding from the most excellent nature and quality of the stars in which times if they be gathered they are exceedingly operative But there can be no set and just time assigned by reason of the divers situations of divers places in respect of the Sun for as the Sun-beams come neerer or further off so the earth fructifies sooner or later yet we will give some general observations Roots are to be gathered betwixt the old Moon and the new for then the moisture is fallen into the lower parts and that in the Evening for then the Sun hath driven in the moisture and by the stalk it is conveyed down into the root The time serves well to gather them when their wrinkles be filled out with moisture and they chap because they have so much juice as if they were about to break in pieces Leaves are then to be gathered as soon as they have opened themselves out of the sprigs and that in the morning about Sun-rising for then they are moister then in the evening the Suns heat having drunk up their moisture all day long Flowers are then to be gathered when they begin to seed while their juice is in them and before they wax limber Stalks are then to be gathered when the flower is withered for then especially are they profitable And seeds must be then gatherâ—d when they are so ripe that they are ready to fall There are some more peculiar observations Hot and slender herbs should be gathered when Mars and the Sun are Lords of the celestial houses moist herbs when the Moon is Lord but you must take heed that you gather them not in the falling houses thereof These things well observed in gathering plants will make them very profitable for Physical uses CHAP. XVI That the Countries and places where Simples grow are chiefly to be considered MAny are deceived in plants and metals and such like because they use them that come next hand never heeding the situation of the place where they grow But he that will work soundly must well consider both the aspect of the heavens and the proper nature and situation of the place for the place works diversly in the plants according to his own divers temperatures and sometimes causeth such an alteration in the vertues of them that many not onely young Magicians but good Physitians and Philosophers too have been deceived in searching them out Plato makes mention hereof God saith he hath furnished the places of the earth with divers vertues that they might have divers operations into plants and other things according to their kind And so Porphyry saith that the place is a principle of a generation as a father is Theophrastus would have Hemlock gathered and fetch'd from Susa because Thrasias was of opinion that there it might safely be taken and in other very cold places for whereas in Athens the juice of it is poison odious amongst the Athenians because it is given to kill men in common executions and Socrates there taking it died presently yet here it is taken without danger and beasts feed upon it The herb called Bears-foot that which grows on the Hill Oeta and Parnassus is very excellent but elsewhere of small force therefore Hippocrates when he would cure Democritus he caused it to be fetch'd from the Hills And in Achaia especially about Cabynia there is a kind of Vine as Theophrastus saith the wine whereof causeth untimely births and if the dogs eat the grapes they will bring forth abortives and yet in the taste neither the wine nor the grape differ from other wines and grapes He saith also that those Physicall drugs which grow in Euboea neer unto Aege are good but neer to Telethrium which is a shadowed and waterish place they are much worse and drier In Persia there grows a deadly tree whose apples are poison and present death therefore there it is used for a punishment but being brought over to the Kings into Egypt they become wholesome apples to eat and lose their harmfulnesse as Columella writes Dioscorides saith That the drugs which grow in steep places cold and dry and open to the winde are most forcible but they that grow in dark and waterish and calm places are lesse operative Wherefore if we find any difference in such things by reason of the places where they grow that they have not their right force we must seek them out there where the place gives them their due vertue CHAP. XVII Certain properties of Places and Fountains which are commodious for this work DIfference of places works much in the different effects of things For the place of the waters and also of the earth hath many miraculous vertues which a Magician must needs be well acquainted with for oft-times we see that some things are strangely operative onely by reason of the situation of the place the disposition of the Air and the force of the Sun as it cometh nearer or further off If one ground did not differ from another then we should have odoriferous reeds rushes grasse frankincense peper and myrth not only in Syria and Arabia but in all other Countries also Likewise many properties are derived out of Waters and Fountains which otherwise could not be made but that the waterish humor in the earth conveys his scent and such like properties into the root of that which there groweth and so nourisheth up that matter which springs out and causeth such fruit as savours of the place according to his own kind Zama is a City in Africa and Ismuc is a Town twenty miles from it and whereas all Africk besides is a great breeder of beasts especially of serpents about that Town there breed none at all nay if any be brought thither it dies and the earth of that place also killeth beasts whithersoever it is carried In the great Tarquine Lake of Italy are seen Trees some round some triangle as the wind moves them but none four-square In the Country beyond the River Po that part which is called Monsterax there is a kind of Corn called Siligo which being thrice sown makes good bread-corn Neer to Harpasum a Town of Asia there is a huge Rock which if you touch with one finger will move if with your whole body it will not move There are some places of the earth that are full of great fires as Aetna in Sicily the Hill Chimaera in Phaselis the fire whereof Ctesias writes will be kindled with water and quencht with earth And in the Country of Megalopolis and the fields about Arcia a coal falling on the earth sets it on fire So in Lycia the Hills Ephesti being touched with a Torch flame out insomuch that the stones and sands there do burn in the waters
ground never grows old or barren but is everywhere naturally rank to receive new seed and to produce new and is ever unsatisfied in fruitfulnesse and brings perpetual increase and if nature be alwayes admirable she will seem more wonderful in Plants Copulation was but of one kind here it is almost infinite and not onely every Tree can be ingrafted into every Tree but one Tree may be adulterated with them all Living Creatures of divers kinds were not easily produced and those that come from other Countries were hard to get here is no difficulty at all grafts are fetcht and sent if need be to any part of the world And if diversity of Creatures are made in Africa by their copulating when they meet at the Rivers that so new creatures are alwayes produced here in Italy where the Air is alwayes calme and the Climate very indulgent strange and wilde plants find a good harbour and ground to grow in which is the mother and nourisher of all and so fruitful to produce new and diversity of plants that it can hardly be exhausted And we can better write of them and know the truth more then others because we have them still before our eyes and an opportunity to consider of their effects And if our Ancestors found many new things we by adding to theirs have found many more and shall produce more excellent things overpassing them because daily by our art or by chance by nature or new experience new plants are made Diodorus writes that the Vine at first was but one and that was wilde but now by the help of Bacchus alone from the quality of the ground the nature of the climate and the art of planting it is varied into many kinds that it were madnesse to number them up and not worth our time Nature brought forth but one kind of Pear-tree now so many mens names are honoured by it that one is called Decumana another Dolabelliana and another is named from Decumius and Dolabella The same thing is observed in Figges of Livy and Pompey Quinces are of many kinds some called Mariana from Marius Manliana from Manlius Appiana Claudiana from Appius Claudius Cestiana from Cestius their varieties have made the Authers names immortal What shall I say of Laurel cherries found in Pliny his time what of Citrons which as Athenaeus saith were too sharp to eat in the days of Theophrastus and the ancestors of Plutark and Pliny but Palladius made them to become sweet What of the Peach and Almond-peach Nuts fruits our fore-fathers knew not yet now are they eaten being pleasant and admirable what of Clove-gilliflowers that the Gardrers Art hath made so dainty and sweet scented and so of other plants I have everywhere set down in this work Our Naples abounds so with them that we would not go forth to see the Orchards of the Hesperides Alcinus Semiramis and at Memphis that were made to hang above ground But I shall briefly and plainly relate the History CHAP. I. How new kinds of Plants may be generated of putrefaction AS we have shewed before that new kinds of Living Creatures may be generated of putrefaction so to proceed in the same order as we have begun we will now shew that new kinds of Plants may grow up of their own accord without any help of seed or such like The Antients questionless were of opinion that divers plants were generated of the earth and water mixt together and that particular places did yield certain particular plants We rehearsed the opinion of Diogenes before who held that plants are generated of water putrified in it self and a little earth tempered therewith Theophrastus held that the rain causeth much putrefaction and alteration in the earth and thereby plants may be nourished the Sun working upon it with his heating and with his drying operation They write also that the ground when it is stirred brings forth such kinds of Plants alwaies as are usuall in the same place In the Isle Creta the ground is of that nature that if it be stirred anywhere and no other thing sown or planted in it it will of it self bring forth a Cypresse-tree and their tilled lands those that are somewhat moist when they lie fallow bring forth thistles So the herb Laser in Africa is generated of a kind of pitchy or clammy rain and thick dirt and the herb will shew it self out of the earth presently after the rain is fallen Pliny said that the waters which fall from above are the cause of every thing that grows upon the earth nature shewing therein her admirable work and power and many such things they report which we have spoken of in the books of the knowledge of Plants And I my self have oft-times by experience proved that ground digged out from under the lowest foundations of certain houses and the bottom of some pits and laid open in some small vessel to the force of the Sun hath brought forth divers kinds of Plants And whereas I had oftentimes partly for my own pleasure and partly to search into the works of Nature sought out and gathered together earths of divers kinds I laid them abroad in the Sun and watered them often with a little sprinkling and found thereby that a fine light earth would bring forth herbs that had slight stalkes like a rush and leaves full of fine little ragges and likewise that a rough and stiff earth full of holes would bring forth a slight herbe hard as wood and full of crevises In like manner if I took of the earth that had been digged out of the thick woods or out of moist places or out of the holes that are in hollow stones it would bring forth herbs that had smooth blewish stalkes and leaves full of juice and substance such as Peny-wort Purslane Senegreek and Stone-croppe We made trial also of some kinds of earth that had been farre fetcht such as they had used for the ballast of their Shippes and we found such herbs generated thereof as we knew not what they were Nay further also even out of very roots and barks of Trees and rotten seeds powned and buried and there macecrated with water we have brought forth in a manner the very same herbs as out of an Oken root the herb Polypody and Oak-fern and Splenewort or at least such herbs as did resemble those both in making and in properties What should I here rehearse how many kinds of toad-stools and puffs we have produced yea of every several mixture of putrified things so many several kinds have been generated All which I would here have set down if I could have reduced them into any method or else if such plants had been produced as I intended but those came that were never sought for But happily I shall hereafter if God will write of these things for the delight and speculation and profit of the more curious for t which I have neither time nor leisure now to mention seeing this work is ruffled up in
making the Winter to be as the Summer and the Spring-time as the Winter Amongst other means engraffing is not a little helpful hereunto Wherefore let us see how we may by engraffing Produce Grapes in the Spring-time If we see a Cherry-tree bring forth her fruit in the Spring-time and we desire to have Grapes about that time there is fit oportunity of attaining our desire as Tarentinus writeth If you engraffe a black Vine into the Cherry-tree you shall have Grapes growing in the Spring-time for the Tree will bring forth Grapes the very same season wherein it would bring forth her own fruit But this engraffing cannot be without boring a hole into the stock as Didymus sheweth You must bore the Cherry-tree stock through with a wimble and your Vine growing by it you must take one of the next and goodliest branches thereof and put it into the aâ—ger-hole but you must not cut it off from the Vine but place it in as it grows for so the branch will live the better both as being nourished by his own mother the Vine and also as being made partaker of the juice of that Tree into which it is engraffed This sprig within the compasse of two years will grow and be incorporated into the Cherry-tree about which time after the skar is grown over again you must cut off the branch from the Vine and saw off the stock of the Cherry-tree wherein it is engraffed all above the boring place and let the Vine-branch grow up in the rest for so shall neither the Vine be idle but still bring forth her own fruit and that branch also which was engraffed doth grow up together with it being nothing hurt by that engraffing We may also by the help of engraffing procure A Rose to shew forth her buds before her time If we pluck off a Rose-bud from the mother and engraff by such an emplastering as we spake of before the same into the open bark of an Almond-tree at such time as the Almond-tree doth bud the Rose so engraffed will bring forth her own flowers out of the Almond bark But because it is a very hard matter to engraffe into an Herbe and therefore we can hardly produce flowers sooner then their time by that means we will shew another means hereof And namely How Cucumbers may hasten their fruits Columella found in Dolus Mendesius an Aegyptian an easie way whereby this may be done You must set in your Garden in some shadowy place well dunged a rank of Fenel and a rank of Brambles one within another and after the aequinoctial day cut them off a little within the ground and having first loosed the pith of either of them with a wooden puncheon to convey dung into them and withal to engraffe in them Cucumber-seeds which may grow up together with the Fenel and the Brambles for by this means the seeds will receive nourishment from the root of the stalk into which they are engraffed and so you shall have Cucumbers very soon But now let us shew how we may accomplish this thing by counterfeiting as it were the seasons of the year and first how we may procure that Cucumbers shall be ripe very timely The Quintiles say you must take panniers or earthen pots and put into them some fine â—â—â—ed earth mixed with dung that it may be somewhat liquid and preventing the ordinary season you must plant therein Cucumber-seeds about the beginning of the Spring and when the Sun shines or that there is any heat or rain they bring the panniers forth into the Air and about Sun-setting they bring them into a close house and this they do daily still watering them as occasion serveth But after that the cold and the frost is ceased and the Air is more temperate they take their panniers and digge a place for them in some well-tilled ground and there set them so that the brims thereof may be even with the earth and then look well to them and you shall have your desire The like may be done by Gourds Theophrastus sheweth that if a man sow Cucumber seeds in the Winter-time and water them with warm water and lay them in the Sunne or else by the fire and when seed-time cometh put whole panniers of them into the ground they will yield very timely Cucumbers long before their ordinary season is to grow Columella saith that Tiberius the Emperour took great delight in the Cucumbers that were thus ripened which he had at all times of the year for his Gardners every day drew forth their hanging Gardens into the Sun upon wheels and when any great cold or rain came they straightwayes carried them in again into their close hovels made for the same purpose Didymus sheweth Roses may bud forth even before Winter be past if they be used after the like manner namely if you set them in hampers or earthen vessels and carefully look unto them and use them as you would use Gourds and Cucumbers to make them ripe before their ordinary season Pliny sheweth How to make Figs that were of last years growth to be ripe very soon the next year after and this is by keeping them from the cold too but yet the device and practice is not all one with the former There are saith he in certain Countries as in Maesia Winter Fig-trees a small tree it is and such as is more beholding to Art then to Nature which they use on this manner After the Autumn or Fall they lay them in the earth and cover them all over with muck and the green Figs that grew upon them in the beginning of Winter are also buried upon the Tree with them Now when the Winter is past and the Air is somewhat calmer the year following they dig up the Trees again with the fruit upon them which presently do embrace the heat of a new Sun as it were and grow up by the temperature of another year as kindly as if they had then new sprung up whereby it cometh to passe that though the Country be very cold yet there they have ripe Figs of two years growth as it were even before other Fig-trees can so much as blossom But because we cannot so well practise these experiments in the broad and open fields either by hindering or by helping the temperature of the Air therefore we will assay to ripen fruit and flowers before their time by laying warm cherishers as lime or chalk and nitre and warm water to the roots of Trees and herbs If you would have A Cherry ripe before his time Pliny saith that you must lay chalk or lime to the root of the Tree before it begin to blossom or else you must oftentimes pour hot water upon the root and by either of these means you may procure the ripening of Cherries before their time howbeit afterward the Trees will be drie and wither away If you would procure the ripening Of a Rose before his time Dydimus saith you may effect it by covering the
Rose-bush with earth a foot above the root of it and there pour in wam water upon it whilst the slippe beginneth to shoot up and before any blossom appeareth Likewise if you would have A Vine to bring forth before her time you must take nitre and pown it and mix it with water so that it be made of the thicknesse of hony and as soon as you have pruned the Vine lay good store of your nitre upon the Vine-buds and so shall your buds shoot forth within nine days after But to procure the Grapes to be timely ripe you must take the mother of the wine before it is become sowre and lay the same upon the root of the plants when you set them for at that time it is best so to use them as Tarentinus and Florentinus both affirm Moreover if you would have any thing to bud forth very timely Theophrastus saith you may procure it by setting the same Into the Sea-onion for if a Fig-tree be set but neer it it will cause the speedy ripening of Figs. And to be brief there is nothing set in the Sea-onion but will more easily and speedily shoot forth by reason of the strong inward heat which that herb is endued withal Democritus sheweth another means whereby you may cause The Fig-tree to bring forth hasty Figs namely by applying the same with pepper and oyle and Pigeons dung Florentinus would have the duâ—g and the oyle to be laid upon the Figs when they be raw and green Palladius counselleth that when the Figs begin to wax somewhat red you should then besmear them with the juice of a long Onion mixed with pepper and oyle and so the Figs will be the sooner ripened Our practice is this when the Figs begin to wax ripe we take a wooden needle and anoint it over with oyle and so thrust it through both ends of the Figs whereby in few dayes the fruit is ripened Others effect this by heaping up a great many Rams horns about the root of the Tree Pliny shews How to make Coleworts branch before their time and this is by laying good store of Sea-grasse about it held up with little props or else by laying upon it black nitre as much as you can take up with three fingers or thereabouts for this will hasten the ripening thereof We may also cause Parsley to come up before his time Pliny saith that if you sprinkle hot water upon it as it begins to grow it will shoot up very swiftly And Palladius saith that if you pour vineger upon it by little and little it will grow up or else if you cherish it with warm water as soon as ever it is sown But the mind of man is so bold to enter into the very secret bowels of Nature by the diligent search of experience that it hath devised to bring forth Parsley exceeding timely It grows up easily of it self for within fifty or fourty daies it is wont to appear out of the earth as Theophrastus and others affirm as by their writings may be seen Our Country-men call it Petroselinum In the practising of this experiment you must shew your self a painful workman for if you fail or commit never so small an error herein you will misse of your purpose You must take Parsley seeds that are not fully one year old in the beginning of Summer you must dip them in the vineger suffering them to lie a while in some warm place then wrap up the seeds in some small loose earth which for this purpose you have before meddled with the ashes of burned bean-straw there you must bedew them oftentimes with a little warm water and cover them with some cloth that the heat get not from them so will they in short time appear out of the earth then remove the cloth away and water them still and thereby the stalk will grow up in length to the great admiration of the beholders But in any case you must be painful and very diligent for I have assayed it and by reason of some error and negligence I obtained not my desire howbeit many of my friends having made diligent trial hereof found it to be a very true experiment Likewise may Lentiles be hastened in their growth if they be smeared over with dry Ox-dung a little before they are sown but they had need lie in that dung four or five daies before they be cast into the ground So Melons may be hastened in their fruit for if in the Winter-time you lay a parcel of earth in mixens that are made of hot dung and in the same earth sow Melon-seeds the heat of the dung will cause them soon to sprout forth you must keep them warm with some covering from the snow and the cold of the night and afterward when the Air is more calm you must plant them in some other place for by this means we have hastened the fruit hereof And by this same device of preventing their seed-time we may cause Cucumbers to hasten their fruit But Theophrastus setteth down another practice Cucumber-roots if they be carefully lookt into will live long Therefore if a man cut off a Cucumber close by the ground after it hath brought forth fruit and then cover the roots over with earth the very same roots the year following will bring forth very timely fruit even before others that were most seasonably sown Theophrastus also sets down another way Of hastening Cucumbers and that is by macerating the seed before it be sown or else by supplying it with continual moisture after it is sown So also we may procure Pease or Vitches to be timely ripe If we sow them before their ordinary season in Barley time as Florentinus sheweth But Theophrastus saith this may be done by macerating them in the water before seed-time but especially if you macerate them shales and all for there is but a little of it will turn to putrefaction and the shale feeds the kernel well at the first howsoever afterward it turn to nothing The same Theophrastus sheweth also How the rape-Rape-root may be hastened in growth If the Gardner saith he do hide the same in an heap of earth it will cause it to bring forth very timely fruit the year following There may other fruits also be timely ripened as A Quince may be hastened in ripening if you daily bedew them with continual moisture as Palladius sheweth And Democritus saith you may have Roses growing in the moneth of January if you water the slip twice a day in the Summer-time We may likewise procure that Gourds shall bring forth very timely by underpropping and holding up their young tender sprigs In like manner we may cause The forward Fig-tree to hasten her fruit by renting or scarifying the body of the Tree that the milky juice may there swell and find issue out of it that when the superfluous humor is gone forth that which is left behind may be the more easily concocted and so the fruit will be sooner ripened
within the earth that so the herb may not bud forth but all the nourishment may be converted to the head of the herb So may we make Onions to grow bigger as Theophrastus supposeth if we take away all the stalk that the whole force of the nourishment may descend downwards lest if it should be diffused the chief vertue thereof should spend it self upon the seeding Sotion saith that if a man plant Onions he must cut off both the tops and the tails thereof that so they may grow to a greater bigness then ordinary Palladius saith that if we desire to have great-headed Onions we must cut off all the blade that so the juyce may be forced down to the lower parts In like manner if we would have Garlick-heads greater then common we must take all the greenish substance thereof before it be bladed and turn it downward that so it may grow into the earth There is yet another Device whereby to make herbs and roots grow bigger then ordinary but yet I like not so well of it howsoever many ancient Writers have set it down and first How to make Leeks grow greater Columella hath prescribed this course you must take a great many Leek-seeds and binde them together in thin linen clouts and so cast them into the ground and they will yeeld large and great leeks Which thing Palladius also confirms by his authority in the very same words But both of them had it out of Theophrastus who putteth it for a general Rule That if a man sowe many seeds bound up together in a linen cloth it will cause both the root to be larger and the buds to be larger also and therefore in his time they were wont to sow Leeks Parsly and other herbs after the same manner for they are of more force when there be many seeds together all of them concurring into one nature Moreover it makes not a little to the enlarging of fruits to take the seeds which we would sow out of some certain part of the former fruit As for example we shall procure A Gourd of a greater or larger growth if we take the seed out of the middle of a Gourd and set it with the top downward This course Columella prescribes in his Hortulus Look saith he where the Gourd swells most and is of the largest compass thence even out of the middle thereof you must take your seed and that will yeeld you the largest fruit And this is experienced not in Gourds onely but also in all other fruits for the seeds which grow in the bowels or belly as it were of any fruit are commonly most perfect and yeeld most perfect fruit wheras the seeds that grow in the outward parts produce for the most part weak unperfect fruit Likewise the grains that are in the middle of the ear yeeld the best corn whereas both the highest and the lowest are not so perfect but because Gourds yeeld great increase therefore the experience hereof is more evidently in them then in any other Cucumbers will be of a great growth as the Quintiles say if the seeds be set with their heads downward or else if you set a vessel full of water under them in the ground that so the roots may be drenched therein for we have known them grow both sweeter and greater by this Device CHAP. XII How to produce fruit that shall not have any stone or kernel in it IT is a received thing in Philosophy especially amongst those that have set forth unto us the choicest and nicest points of Husbandry that if you take Quicksets or any branches that you would plant and get out the pith of them with some ear-picker or any like instrument made of bone they will yeeld fruit without any stone and without any kernel for it is the pith that both breedeth and nourisheth the substance of the kernel But the Arcadians are of a quite contrary opinion for say they every tree that hath any pith in it at all will live but if all the pith be taken out of it it will be so far from yeelding any stoneless fruit that it cannot chuse but die and be quite dried up The reason is because the pith is the moistest and most lively part of any tree or plant for the nourishment which the ground sends up into any plant is conveyed especially by the pith into all the other parts for Nature hath so ordained it that all the parts draw their nourishment as it were their soul and their breath thorow the marrow or pith of the stock as it were thorow a Squirt or Conduit-pipe Which may appear by experience seeing any bough or stalk so soon as the marrow is gone returns and crooks backward till it be quite dried up as the Ancients have shewed But I for my part must needs hold both against Theophrastus and against others also that have written of Husbandry both that trees may live after their marrow is taken from them and also that they will bring forth fruit having stones or kernels in them though there be no pith in the trees themselves as I have shewed more at large in my books of Husbandry Notwithstanding lest I should omit any thing belonging to this argument I have thought good here to set down the examples which those Ancients have delivered in writing that every man that lists may make trial hereof and haply some amongst the rest using greater diligence in the proof hereof then I did may finde better success herein then I have found There be many means whereby Plants may be deprived of kernels as namely by engraffing by taking out their pith by soiling with dung or by watering and by other Devices We will first begin as our wonted manner is with engraffing and will shew how to produce A Peach-apple without a stone Palladius saith he learned this new kinde of engraffing of a certain Spaniard which he saith also he had experienced in a Peach-tree Take a Willow-bough about the thickness of a mans arm but it must be very sound and two yards long at the least bore it thorow the middle and carry it where a young Peach-tree grows then strip off all the Peach-tree-sprigs all but the very top and draw it thorow the hole of the Willow-bough then stick both ends of the Willow into the ground that it may stand bending like a bowe and fill up the hole that you bored with dirt and moss bind them in with thongs About a year after when the Peach-tree and the Willow are incorporated into each other cut the plant beneath the joyning place and remove it and cover both the Willow-bough and the top of the plant also with earth and by this means you shall procure Peaches without stones But this must be done in moist and waterish places and besides the Willow must be relieved with continual watering that so the nature of the wood may be cherished as it delights in moisture and it may also minister abundant
together in the oyle of Bayes or Spikenard or Balme-gum or the juice of Roses or of Mastick and afterward set them when they are dry that then the Artichocks that grow out of those seeds will yeeld the smell and savour of that which the seeds were before steeped in Florentinus makes Mellons of the fragrant smell of Roses after this manner by taking Mellon-seeds and laying them up amongst dry Roses and so planting them one amongst another I have procured Mellons to smell like Musk by opening that part whereby the seed sprouts out and steeping them in Rose-water wherein some Musk was distilled also and so planting them after two dayes steeping So we have procured Odoriferous Lettice by taking the seed of Lettice and putting it into the seed of a Citron and so planting it After the same manner you may learn to make Flowers grow that shall smell of Cloves if you take the seeds of those flowers and lay them in Clove-powder or the oyle of Cloves or Clove-water distilled and so set them for by this means the flowers will entertain the smell and savour of the Cloves And this I take it was the cun-ning the cunning sleight whereby our ordinary Clove-gilliflowers were first produced for questionlesse Gilliflowers do grow everywhere of themselves without any such pleasant smell and besides they are of a smaller assize and of their own kinde somewhat wilde But it should seem that Gardeners did by their industry and trimming bestow the smell of Cloves upon them by steeping their seeds in clove-Clove-water or by suppling them with the oyle of Cloves or else by sticking Cloves in the roots of them and so planting them We may adde to these sleights another device How to make Garlick grow that shall not smell rankly and unsavourily Sotion hath taught us the way If saith he you do set Garlick and pluck it up again both when the Moon is underneath the earth it will not have any bad savour And Theophrastus hath taught us a means How we may procure Roses to yield a more odoriferous smell namely if you take Garlick and plant it neer your Roses CHAP. XVII How to procure fruits to be sweeter and pleasanter for taste THere are some trees which cannot away with any scar but if you cut their stock never so little or make any other scar in them presently the Air and the extrinsecal heat get in and so the Trees perish for the corruption will fall downward to the root and so make the Trees presently to wither and fade away Now there are other Trees which will abide not only a scar but also to have their stock cleft and to be bored into yea and by this means too they will bear fruit more plentifully as doth the Pomegranate-tree the Almond-tree and the Apple-tree of all which there is very great use The reason hereof is this Their nature and kinde is to receive so much nourishment as is sufficient for them and to void away hurtful and superfluous humours for as those living creatures which sweat most or have some other issue in their bodies are most healthful and wont to live longest so when these Trees have a cut or a scar in them whereby they sweat out as it were their hurtful and superfluous moisture they do more easily digest that moisture which is left behind within them and the better that the moisture is digested the sweeter and pleasanter is their juice And besides they will live if the parts have any continuation at all though it be never so little only if they may but hang together and therefore they will easily defend themselves from any harm that may happen unto them by the cutting or mangling of any of their parts We will shew how to procure fruits that shall be sweter in taste then ordinarily their kind is wont to afford first by engraffing secondly by boring or cutting and last of all by other means And first by engraffing we may procure Cherries that shall have in them the relish of Bayes For as we have shewed before engraffing may amend those defects that are in plants and endue them with better qualities so that if you have any fruit that is loathsome because it is too sweet do but engraffe it into a bitter Tree and there will be such a medley that your fruit shall have a very savoury relish Pliny saith that if you engraffe a Cherry upon a Bay-tree you shall have Cherries thence growing that will have the smatch of the Bay Palladius saith the same engraffe a Cherry upon a Bay-tree and the fruit that grows thence will have the relish of the Bay In my time there have been seen certain Cherries in Naples which they called Bay-cherries somewhat bitter but yet pleasant withal a most excellent kinde of fruit far better then any other cherries of a very large assize full of juice of a very sanguine colour that have a bitter-sweet taste so that they are neither loathsome for their overmuch sweetnesse nor yet to be refused for their overmuch bitterness So likewise may be procured Sweeter Apples by engraffing them into a Quince For if you do engraffe an Apple into a Quince the Apple will have a relish like honey which kinde of fruit the Athenians do therefore call Melimela because they taste like honey as Diophanes sheweth Now we will shew also how by husbandry and skilful dressing fruits may be made sweeter in taste namely by piercing or boring the stock or scarrifying it round about or by some other chastisements as the Husband-men are wont to call them for by these means the trees may purge themselves of their superfluous moisture and so they will bear the sweeter fruit As for example If you would learn How to procure the Almond-tree to yield fruit without any bitterness Aristotle hath taught you the way You must knock a great nail into the body of the Almond-tree that the gum of the Tree which causeth the bitternesse of the fruit may drop out by that passage And this is such a sleight that hereby you may tame as it were wilde Trees and alter their nature into a milder kind Theophrastus saith that if you dig round about the stock of the Almond-tree and bore thorough it about nine inches above the ground the gum will thereby drop out and so the fruit will become the sweeter by that chastisement If you cut off a bough or an arm of it so that the gum may have egresse that way and if you wipe away the gum still as it cometh forth and observe this for two or three years together you may by this means alter a bitter Almond-tree into a sweet one For the bitternesse proceeds from no other cause but onely from the superfluity of nourishment and moisture which is abated by boring into the stock and when once that which is superfluous is evacuated then that which is left is more easily concocted and so the tree becomes fertile in bringing forth a sweeter and a better
fruit Africanus likewise affirmeth that if you dig about the stock of a bitter Almond-tree and make a hole into it some four inches above the root whereby it may sweat out the hurtful moisture it will become sweet Pliny saith the same If you dig round about the stock saith he and bore thorough the lower part of it and wipe away the humour which there issueth forth a bitter Almond-tree will become sweet Some there are who after they have made that hole do presently put honey into it that it may not be quite empty for they are of opinion that the relish of the honey is conveyed up into the fruit through the pith as thorough a Conduit-pipe As for example sake If we would procure Sweet Citrons for that kind of fruit was not wont to be eaten in Theophrastus time nor in Athenaeus time as himself reports nor yet in Plinies time Palladius hath shewed how to alter the bitter pith of a Citron-tree into sweet His words are these It is reported that the bitter pithes of Citrons may be made sweet if you take the Citron-seeds and steep them in honey-water or else in Ewes milk for this is better for the space of three dayes before you set them Some do bore a hole sloaping into the body of a Tree but not quite thorough it by which passage the bitter humour drops away This hole they make in it the about February and leave it so till the fruit is fashioned but after the fruit is fashioned then they fill up the hole with morter and by this device the pith is made sweet This hath Pontanuâ— set down in his book called The Gardens of Hesperides What is it saith he that Art will not search into Cut a thick Vine and make it hollow on the the top about thy hand breadth but so that the brims of the hole be brought round and something close together so that the sides be about an inch thick and no more Pour into it and fill it up with liquefied honey and cover it with a broad stone that the Sun may not come at it And when the Vine hath drunk in all that then fill it up again with the like and when that is soaked in too then open the concavity wider and let the Vine grow but you must continually water the tender roots thereof with mans water and you must be sure that you leave no buds or leaves upon the stock that so there may be no other moisture let into it but the whole Vine may grow up as it were in a spring of honey Palladius shews also How to make sweet Almonds of bitter ones even by boring a hole in the middle of the stock and putting into it a woodden wedge besmeared over with honey Sweet Cucumbers may be procured by steeping Cucumber seeds in sweet waters till they have drunk them up for they being planted will produce sweet Cucumbers Theophrastus shews how to make sweet Cucumbers even by the same sleight by steeping their seed in milk or else in water and honey sodden together and so planting them Columella saith that a Cucumber will eat very tender and sweet if you steep the seed thereof in milk before you set it Others because they would have the Cucumber to be the sweeter do steep the seed thereof in honey-water Pliny and Palladius do write the same things of the same fruit out of the same Authors Cassianus hath declared out of Varro how to procure Sweet Artichocks growing You must take the Artichock-seeds and steep them in milk and honey and after you have dryed them again then set them and the fruit will relish of honey So you may procure Sweet Fennel growing For if you steep Fennel-seeds in sweet wine and milk then will the fruit that grows of those seeds be much sweeter Or else if you put the seeds thereof in dry figs and so plant them the like effect will follow So you may procure Sweet Melons as Palladius shews even by steeping the seeds thereof in milk and sweet wine for three dayes together for then if you dry them and set them being so dryed there will grow up a very sweet fruit Likewise you may procure Sweet Lettice for if you water them in the evening with new sweet wine and let them drink for three evenings together as much of that liquor as they will soak up it will cause sweet Lettice as Aristoxenus the Cyrenian hath taught out of Athenaeus So A sweet Radish may be procured by steeping the Radish-seeds for a day and a night in honey or in sodden wine as both Palladius and Florentinus have recorded So you may procure the same by steeping the seeds in new sweet wine or else in the juice of Raisons There is also another device whereby to make sharp or bitter fruits to become sweet and this is by art and cunning in dressing them as by pouring hot water or the Lees of oile or casting soil and such like about their roots As for example when we would make A bitter Almond to become sweet we cast some sharp piercing matter upon the root that by vertue of their heat the Tree may the more easily concoct her moisture and so yield a sweeter fruit Theophrastus saith that if we apply hot and strong soil as Swines-dung or such like to the root of the bitter Almond-tree it will become sweet but it will be three years before the Tree be so changed and for all that time you must use the same husbanding of it Africanus saith If you uncover the roots and apply them still with Urine or with Swines dung then will the fruit be the sweeter The Quintils report of Aristotle that by covering the Almond-tree root with Swines-dung in March of a bitter one it becometh sweet And Palladius useth the very same practise By the same device Sharp and sowre Pomgranate-trees may be made to bring forth a sweet Pomegranate for these also may be changed from sharp and sowre into sweet Aristotle shews in his book of plants that Pomegranate-trees if their roots be applyed with Swins-dung and watered with soom cool sweet liquor the fruit will be the better and the sweeter Theophrastus saith that the roots of a Pomegranate-tree must be applyed with Urine or with the offals and refuse of hides yet not in too great a quantity for the roots of this kind of Tree have need of some sharp matter to knaw upon them and most of all every third year as we said before of the Almond-tree but indeed the Pomegranate-roots are more durable The reason is because of a kind of softnesse in the roots which is peculiar unto them alone Now Swines-dung saith he or somewhat that is of the like operation being cast upon the roots doth sweeten the juice of the Tree as also if you pour on good store of cold water it will work some kind of change thereof Paxamus prescribes this course to dig round about the root of the Tree and to lay
Swins-dung upon it and then when you have cast earth upon that water it with mans Urine Columella saith If you have a Pomegranate-tree that bears a sharp and a sowre fruit this is your way to amend it You must cover the roots with Swins-dung and mans ordure and water them with mans Urine that hath stood long in some vessel and so it will yield you for the first years a fruit that tastes somewhat like wine and afterward a sweet and pleasant Pomegranate Pliny reporteth the very same thing out of the very same Authors Anatolius shews How to make an Apple-tree become sweeter and that is by watering it continually with Urine which is a thing very comfortable to an Apple-tree Some do use Goats-dung and the Lees or dregs of old wine applying them to the roots of the Apple-tree and thereby cause it to bear a sweeter fruit Theophrastus saith If you water an Apple-tree with warm water in the Spring time iâ— will become better The like applications being used to Herbs will make them sweeter also As for example sake we may procure Sweet Endive There be many things which being watered with salt liquors do forsake their bitternesse and become sweet Of which sort Endive is one and therefore if we would have sweet Endive Theophrastus willeth us to water it with some salt liquor or else to set it in some salt places The like practise will procure Sweet Coleworts And therefore the Aegyptians do mix water and Nitre together and sprinkle it upon Coleworts that they may be sweet And hence it is that the best Coleworts are they which are planted in salt grounds for the saltnesse either of the ground where it is set or of the liquor wherewith it is watered doth abate and take away the tartnesse and natural saltnesse of the Coleworts In like manner if you would procure Sweet Betony Theophâ—astus counselleth you to water them with salt liquor and so they will be better Which very same things Pliny reporteth out of the same Author Likewise you may procure Sweet Rochet such as will yeeld leaves that shall be more toothsome if you water it with salt liquor There is another sleight in husbanding of Pot-herbs whereby they may be produced fitter to be eaten and this is by cropping the stalks of them Basil will grow the sweeter if you crop the stalk of it for at the second springing the stalk will be sweeter and pleasanter a most evident reason whereof is assigned by Theophrastus So Lettice will be the sweeter at the second springing Theophrastus saith that the sweetest Lettice springs up after the cropping of the first tops for the first tops of their first springing are full of a milky kind of juice which is not so pleasant because that it is not throughly concocted but they which grow at the second springing if you take them when they are young and tender will be far sweeter He shews also how Leeks may be made sweeter by cropping them once or twice and afterward let them grow the cause whereof he hath assigned in his book of causes namely that their first shooting up is the weakest and the most unperfect The like is to be thought and practised in other Pot-herbs for the cropping or cutting off doth make the second sprouts to be the sweeter almost in all herbs There are also divers other sleights in husbanding and dressing of such Pot-herbs whereby they may be made sweeter to be eaten As for example Garlick may be made sweeter for Sotion is perswaded that if you break the Cloves of Garlick before you set them or else supple them with the Lees of oyle when you do set them they will gather and yield a far sweeter relish By another sleight far differing from this Onions may be made sweeter for we must consider that divers things do exercise a mutual discord or agreement concord of natures toward each other whereby they either help one another if their natures agree or if their natures dissent they hurt and destroy one another Nuts and Onions have a sympathy or agreement of nature and therefore if you lay up Nuts amongst Onions the Onions will cause the Nuts to last the longer in liew of which kindness Nuts do gratifie Onions with another good turn for they ease the Onions of their sharpnesse as Palladius hath observed CHAP. XVIII How fruits that are in their growing may be made to receive and resemble all figures and impressions whatsoever MAny things do fall out by chance and hap-hazard as they say which an ingenious man lighting upon doth by his great industry and often experiments that he makes of them turn and apply to very good use Whence it is that the Poet saith manifold experience and much labour and practice sets a broach to the world many new arts and rare devices And because the most part are not acquainted with the cause of such things thence it is that they are esteemed to be miraculous and to come to passe besides Natures rule We have oftentimes seen in Citrons divers kinds of stamps and impressions which were made there by chance as by the hitting of some carved matter or any stick or such like which hath caused the same impressions whence the wit of man hath devised to cause divers kinds of fruits to grow up with divers kinds of figures on them If you take an earthen vessel and put-into it an apple that is very young as it hangs upon the Tree growing the Apple will grow to fill up his earthen case and will be of any form whatsoever you would desire if you make the case accordingly Also if you pown any colours and bray them together and dispose of them in places convenient on the fruit on the inside of the case the fruits will wear and expresse the same colours as if they were natural unto them Whence it cometh to passe that oftentimes the yellow Quince is made to grow like a mans head having in it the lively resemblance of white teeth purple cheeks black eyes and in all points expressing the form and colour of a mans head without any greenesse at all which is the natural colour of that fruit whiles it is in growing And this is the sleight that Africanus prescribes whereby A Citron may be made to grow in the likenesse of a mans head or the head of an horse or any other living Creature You must take some Potters clay or soft morter and fashion it to the bignesse of a Citron that is at his full growth but you must cleave it round about with a sharp instrument so that the fruit may be taken out of it handsomly and yet in the mean space the sides of the case must be so closely and firmly joyned together that the fruit growing on may not break it open If the counterfeit or case which you make be of wood then you must first make it hollow within if it be of clay you may clap it on as it is so that
wonderful quality in drawing into it self the juice of the Vine Pliny shews How to make that kind of wine which is called Phthorium and kills children in their mothers wombes That Hellebore which grows in Thassus as also the wilde Cucumber as also Scammony are good to make Phthorian wine which causeth abortives But the Scammony or black Hellebore must be engraffed into the Vine You must pierce the Vine with a wimble and put in certain withie-boughes whereby you may binde up unto the Vine the other plants that are engraffed into it so shall you have a grape full of sundry vertues So you may procure Figs that shall be purgative if you pown Hellebore and Sea-Lettice together and cast them upon the Fig-tree roots or else if you engraffe them into the same roots for so you shall have Figs that will make the belly loose Florentinus saith that you may make a Fig to grow which shall be good against the biting of venemous beasts if you set it after it hath been laid in triacle So we may procure Purgative Cucumbers You must take the roots of the wilde Cucumber and pown them and steep them in fair water two or three dayes and then water your Cucumbers with that liquor for five dayes together and do all this five several times Again you may make them purgative if after they are blossomed you dig round about their roots and cast some Hellebore upon them and their branches and cover them over with earth again So you may procure Purgative Gourds if you steep the seeds of them in Scammony-water nine dayes before you set them as the Quintiâ—es report Now if you would procure a man to be loose bellied and sleepy withal you may cause Purgative Damosins that be good also to cause sleep You must bore thorough a bough or through the whole stock of a Damosin-tree and fill it up with Scammony or the juice of black Poppy wrapt up handsomely in paper or some such covering and when the fruit is ripe it will be operative both for sleep and purgation Cato shews also how you may cause A Vine to be purgative After the Vintage at such time as the earth is used to be rid away from the roots of Vines you must uncover the roots of so many Vines as in your opinion will make wine enough to serve your turn mark them and lop them round about and prune them well Then pown some Hellebore roots in a morter and cast them about your Vines and put unto them some old rotten dung and old ashes and twice of much earth amongst them and then cover the Vine-roots with mould and gather the grapes by themselves If you would keep the juice of the grape long that it may last you a great while for that purpose you must take heed that the juice of no other grapes do come neer it When you would use it take a cup full of it and blend it with water and drink it before supper and it will work with you very mildely without any danger at all Late Writers have taken another course they rid and cleanse the vine-Vine-roots and then poure upon the juice of some purgative medicine to water them withal and this they do for many dayes together but especially at such time as the bud beginneth to fill out when they have so done they cast earth upon the roots again and they take special regard that the roots never lie naked and open when the Northern winde bloweth for that would draw forth and consume the juice of the medicine that is poured upon the roots This if you diligently perform you shall have grapes growing upon your Vines that are very operative for loosing of the belly I have effected The same by another means I pierced the Vine with a wimble even unto the very marrow and put into it certain ointments fit for such an effect it will suffice if you put them within the rine and this I did in divers parts of the Vine here and there about the whole body of the Vine and that about graffing time by Inoculation for then the Vine is full of moisture whereby it cometh to pass that the moisture it self ascending at that time into the superior parts doth carry up with it the vertue of the ointments and conveys it into the fruit so that the fruit will be operative either for purgation or for childe-bearing either to hurt or help either to kill or preserve according as the nature and quality of the ointment is which was poured upon the roots of the Vine CHAP. XXI How to plant Fruits and Vines that they may yield greatest encrease THat we may conclude this whole book with a notable and much desired experiment we will now shew in the last place how we may receive a large encrease from the fruits and pulse and Vines which we have planted A matter surely that must needs be exceeding profitable for a man to receive an hundred bushels in usury as it were for one bushel that he hath sowed Which yet I would not have to be so understood as if a man should still expect to receive an hundreth for one precisely or exactly so much for sometimes the year or the air and weather or else the ground or else the plants may not perform their parts kindly and in this case the encrease cannot be so great but yet it shall never be so little but that it shall be five times more then ordinary but if those things do perform their parts kindly together you shall receive sometimes for one bushel an hundred and fifty by encrease This may seem a paradox to some and they will think that we promise impossibilities but surely if they would consider all things rightly they should rather think it a paradox why half a bushel well sown or planted should not yield two hundred bushels encrease seeing that one grain or kernel that is planted and takes kindly doth oft-times spread his root as we see and fructifie into sundry and many stems sometimes into fifteen and in the ear of every one of those stalks are contained sometimes threescore grains I spare to mention here the ground that lies in Byzatium in Africa whereof Pliny speaks which for one grain that was planted in it did yield very neer four hundred stalks and the Governour of that Country sent unto Nero three hundred and fourty stems growing out of one grain But let us search out the cause whereby this comes to pass Some think that the encrease commonly falls out to be so little because the greater part of the fruit which is cast into the ground is eaten up of worms or birds or moles and of other creatures that live in the earth But this appears to be false because one bushel of Pulse being planted never yields above fifteen Now the Pulse or Lupines is of it self so bitter that none of those devouring creatures will taste of it but let it lie safe and untouched and when they are
a spung dipped in vinegar and aqua vitae then let it dry which done strew it with unquenched Lime Alome and Salt let it hang so two days in the smoak of Myrrhe Bay Rosemary and Cypress in a dry and open place Then make a mixture of unquenched Lime five pound of burnt Alome one pound good Salt two pound of Aloes and Myrrhe half a pound of Aloes-wood half a pound of the Oyl of Spicknard three onces of the powder of Rosemary-flowers five of burnt Green-brass and Calcanthum two of the best Theriack four of the dust of Cypress half a pound of dryed Saffron one once of the seeds of Coloquintida three and a half of Antimony beaten to powder one and an half of the ashes of Wine-lees five and a half of Musk half a dragm of Amber two Let all be diligently brayed and mixed together and strewed upon the Body which must be for three days together strongly rubbed in an open and dry place This also we admonish that in fat Bodies the fat of the Abdomen Buttocks Hips Muscles of the Leggs thighs and all other places must be first abstracted Things may be also preserved by Balsom But seeing we can compass no true Balsom or if there be any it is exceeding dear we are glad to make artificial Balsoms as we shall shew in due place CHAP. XVI How divers sorts of Bread may be made WE have spoken of preserving fruits and other things It remains to shew how we may use those we have kept Amongst the rest we shall teach you concerning those things that are most necessary for dayly use as for many kinds of Bread Wine Vinegar and Oyls that not onely the Housholder may provide for his family with small cost but when provision is dear he may provide for himself with small pains in Mountains and Desarts of all those things almost we have spoken of But we will begin with Bread and see what our fore-fathers used in case of necessity I shall let pass those common things as Spilt and Bean-corn Amel-corn Typh-wheat Panick Sesamum being all well known But first To make Bread of Wall-nuts Dioscorides saith there is a kind of Thistle commonly found in the waters that onely in Rivers brings forth a certain seed as big as a Ches-nut with three points membranous full of white pith that tastes like Ches-nuts they call them water ches-nuts vulgarly and the Inhabitants use them in meats as they do Ches-nuts Pilgrims make Chapelets of them The Thracians that dwell by the River Strimon fat their horses with this Thistle when it is green and of the same seed they make Bread to eat Moreover in places where they grow amongst us the Inhabitants when provision is dear make Bread of them as at Ferrara they do of Ches-â—uts and the Brutii rost them in the embers and eat them for juncates Almost in the same manner To make Bread of the Lote tree Theophrastus teacheth it The Lote-tree grows in plain ground where the Countries are overflowed with water The fruit is like a Bean naturally but less and more slender That which grows on the head comes forth promiscuously as Beans do many and very thick together When the Sun sets it closeth and opens when he riseth and springs up above the water The head is as great as a Poppy-head where it grows in Euphrates The Egyptians lay those heads on heaps to putrefie and when the shells are putrefied they wash them in a River and part the fruit from them and dry it and break it and make bread of it and eat it Pliny There is also bread made of the seed of it like to Millet seed in Egypt by the Shepherds and they knead it with water especially or with milk They say that nothing is more wholesom then that bread or lighter whil'st it is hot but cold it is harder to digest and becomes heavy It is certain that those who live upon that are never troubled with Dysenteries Tenasmus or any diseases of the belly And therefore it is one of their remedies For it was of old a custom To make bread of Dates which Pliny writes of Dates that are very dry of Thebes and Arabia that are slender and very lean with a continual vapour they are terrified and are covered rather with a Shel then a Skin In Ethiopia it is crumbled so great is the draught and like meal it is made into bread Bread of the Mulberry-figtree In Caria and Rhodes there is a great Fig of Egypt or increase of the Sycamore-tree and in the neighbouring places where there is little wheat the people for want of corn use it for bread and for all bread corn So great and continual plenty is there of that Apple and abundance of bread is made of it pleasing to the stomach but it affords but little nutriment and we might make the same if we would We find it in Writers of husbandry How we may make bread without leaven Out of Didymus some adde Nitre for Nitre makes bread more crumbly as it doth flesh also Some the day before they make their bread cast Grapes into the water and the next day when they will make their bread they take them away for they swim above the water and they press them out and use the moisture pressed forth for leaven and so they make their bread more pleasing If you would have leaven last you all the year when the new wine hath boiled in the vessels Skim off the froth that boils on the top and mingle with it Millet-meal and work it well together and make morsels of it which dry in the Sun and lay up in a moist place and you may take a sufficient quantity and use it for leaven CHAP. XVII Divers sorts of Bread made of Roots and fruits NOw we shall proceed to other kinds of bread found out in our days that are no small profit to us when corn is dear How to make bread of the Roots of Cuckow-pint the root of Wake-Robin when it is not too acrimonious is eaten and desired in meats Dioscorides saith The decoction was drank as not being over sharp Galen That it was eaten as Rape-roots and in some Countries it grows more corroding To prepare it rightly pour out the water of the first boyling and presently cast it into other hot water In Cyrene those Roots are otherwise then amongst us for there it is no Physical root and is not acrimonious at all so that it is more profitable then a Rape-root Also our forefathers when Corn was dear used this Root in meats with great profit Caesar de bello civili Also there is a kind of Root found by them that were with Valerius which is called Chara which mingled with milk releived a Souldier that was hungry and it was made up like to bread There was great plenty of this Root and of it bread was made when those of Pompey his side objected to our Souldiers that they wanted food they would commonly
throw these at them that they might deceive their expectation And a little after the Army used this and were very healthful And in Dioscorides in the false names of simples Cuckow-pint was of old called Chara with us it is so acrimonious that we scarce can endure to touch it with our tongues But I shall open the reason how excellent bread may be made of it and if I may say so better then Wheat-bread The great Roots are made clean and they are cut into small thin plates for the thinner they are cut the sooner will they become pleasant and they must boil in vessels of hot water until you perceive the water grow sharp and the Roots somewhat sweet pour out the former water and pour in fresh then boil them again till the water become sweet and the root when it is cheweded hath no acrimony left Then take them out of the water and put them upon linnen cloths extended and hanging up until they be dry then grind them in hand-mils and the meal will be exceeding white which by it self a with a third part of wheat-meal added to it will make most pure bread and well rasted There are other ways to make it sooner when you have obtained this art you will be exceeding glad I am very certain of it For with great pleasure Bread of Asphodils is eaten This is so fruitful of round-heads with us that no Plant hath more for oftimes 80 heads will be heaped together Moreover Mountains and Sea-shores are full of them that it may be truly thought to be made for mans meat Pliny The Daffodil is eaten with the seed and head terrified But this rosted in the embers as Hesiod affirms is eaten with oyle also braied with figs it is eaten with great pleasure These Round-heads are like to Navews of moderate bigness So saith Galen also But with us they are so unpleasant and acrimonious in tast that a man cannot eat them and Sowes digging them up with their snowts will hardly feed on them no not when we want corn can we eat this in our greatest hunger it was the poor fair of frugal antiquity But by boiling the sharpness of it becomes more mild and the heat of it more tolerable as we said of Cuckow-pint It will be sufficient to satisfie a mans hunger as of old it was used As Pliny saith We have made most wholesom bread of these mingled with meal especially for men wasted and in consumptions also Bread is made of Rape-roots Turneps and Skirworts For of those boil'd and cooked first cleansed from all excrements a most commendable bread may be made as I have tried But meal must be mingled with them to a third part or else half as much of one and the other as we shall shew a little after And not to be tedious the same way-bread to eat may be made of all Navews Roots or Bulbous-heads Also there is made Excellent bread of Gourds For Gourds may be had very cheap and they make savoury bread with meal and so the bread is greater for this is the greatest of all fruits for with a very little meal in time of Famine we may feed many men and not onely use it for need but for dainties also for seasoned with Sugar and prepared for mens pallats and to quench feaverish heats they are carried about every where to be sold. The way to make them up is this Take great round Gourds and fully ripe and cut into many pieces the dry skin and the pith must be taken from them with a knife put them into a kettle of boiling water and boil them for by long boiling the grassy greenness and the rank smell and loathsom taste are taken away and they will smell better and taste and nourish better and will last as long as bread Being now brought to the form of an ointment press it through a linnen strainer with your hands that if any parts of it be not well boiled or any woddy pieces be there they may be kept back by the narrowness of the strainer To this Mass adde a third part of meal and make them into bread together which will be pleasant to eat daily I will not have you to eat your fill of it but if you eat it moderately it will profit much When it is new it is excellent but stale it is not so sightly nor dainty I have shew'd you the way how you must use such things of superfluous moisture now do you learn wisely to do it CHAP. XVIII Divers ways to make bread of all sorts of Corn and Pulse ANtiently they made Bread of divers kinds of Corn and Pulse it would be needless to repeat them for you may find them in the Books of the Antients and there can be no error in making them In Campania very sweet bread is made of Millet Also the people of Sarmatia are chiefly fed with this bread and with the raw meal tempered with Mares-milk or blood drawn out of the veins of their legs The Ethiopians know no other Corn then Millet and Barley Some parts of France use Panick but chiefly Aquitane But Italy about Po adde Beans to it without which they make nothing The people of Pontus prefer no meat before Panick Panick meal now adays is neglected by us and out of use for it is dry and of small nourishment of Millet bread and cakes are made but they are heavy and hard of digestion and clammy to eat Unless they be eaten presently when they are newly baked or not else they become heavy and compact together Of the Indian Mais heavy bread is made and not pleasant at all very dry and earthly next to Millet like to this is bread called Exsergo that is also void of nutrimental juice There was also of old bread called Ornidos made of a certain seed of Ethiopia so like Sesamum that it is hard to know them asunder Also Bread is made of Lupins The best kind was known also to the Antients For Didymus teacheth how Lupins will grow sweet being three days infused in River or Sea-water and when they grow mild they must be dried and laid aside and then the meal of them mingled with Barley-meal or Wheat-meal is fit to make bread But we make it thus First the Lupins are ground in mills and are made into flower fifty pound of these are put into a wooden vessel and fair water is cast upon them that it may swim four fingers breadth above them and it must be often stirred with a woodden stick then let it settle till the water grow clear and the meal sink down then strain the water well that no meal be lost and pour on water the second time and stir it as before do so the third time till the meal and water be come sweet which will be done in one day if the water be often changed As that is done put the meal into a linnen cloth laid abroad that the meal may be seperated with a wooden slice
a pound of Raisins two Amphoras of Vineger let them boil in a pot adde wine also to them and it will be for drink I shall adde the Northern drink Wine called Metheglin The drink in Pannonia Poland and England is more pleasant and wholesome then many wines are it is made of twenty pound of good honey and of water one hundred and twenty pound skimming it till all comes to eighty pound which being cold and tunned up into a wine vessel put in leaven of bread six ounces or as much as will serve to make it work and purifie it self and withal put into a bag that hangs and may be put into the liquor and not touch the bottom of Cinnamon granes of Paradise Pepper Ginger Cloves two drams one hand full of Elder flowers let them stand in a wine Cellar all the Winter in Summer set them fourty dayes in the Sun till they taste like wine and the unpleasant taste of the honey be gone But it will be more pleasant if you add a third part of wine CHAP. XXII How vineger may be made divers wayes and of what AFter wine it follows to speak of vineger First how our forefathers made it then how of late years that it may be made extream sowre which is not only good for a family but is necessary for many Arts. Also there are some Countries where wine and so vineger is scarce Therefore in those places divers men have used their wits to make it wherefore to begin we say that Vineger may be made of the Fig-tree Out of Columella A green fig must be taken very betimes and also if it have rained and the figs fall to the earth beaten down with showres gather those figs and put them up in Hogs-heads or Amphora and let them ferment there then when it grows sharp and hath sent out some liquor what vineger there is strain it out diligently and pour it into a sweet pitched vessel This yields the best sharp vineger and it will never grow musty or hoary if it be not set in too moist a place Some to make more quantity mingle water with the figs and then they adde to them the ripest new figs and they â—et them consume in that liquor until it tast sharp enough like vineger then they strain all through rushy baskets or withie bags and they boil this vineger till they have taken off all the froth and filth from it Then they adde some terrefied salt and that hinders worms and other vermine to breed in it Cassianus makes it thus Put into a vessel old figs terresied Barley and the internal parts of Citrons Stir it often and diligently and when they are putrified and soaked strain them out and use them Apuleius They make vineger of figs wet upon the Trees and cast into water to putrifie Dioscorides The liquor of figs steeped grows sharp as vineger and is used for it There is made also Vineger of Dates To Date wine we speak of some adde water and receive it again and they do this three four five or six times and at last it grows sowre From the same Pliny teacheth to make Vineger of honey You must wash your honey vessels or hives in water with this decoction is made the most wholesome vineger Palladius teacheth the way to make Vineger of Pears wild Pears are such as are sharp and ripe are kept three dayes in a heap then they are put into a vessel and fountain or river water is put to them the vessel is left covered thirty dayes then as much vineger as is taken out for use so much water is put in to repair it Cassianus makes Vineger of Peaches Put soft delicate Peaches into a vessel and adde parched Barley to them let them putrifie for one day then strain them out and use it We may from Cassianus make Vineger without wine If you boil Gypsum and sea-water and then mingle it with River water and use it being strained But if you will Turn wine into vineger and contrarily vineger into wine Cassianus hath it He puts Beet roots bruised into wine it will be vineger when three hours are over But if he would restore it again as it was he puts in Cabbage roots So also To make the same We may do it another way and quickly Cast into wine Salt Pepper and sowre leaven mingle them and they will soon make it vineger But to do it more quickly quench in it often a red hot brick or piece of steel also provide for that unripe Medlars Cornels Mulberries and Plums But Sotion shews to make Sharp vineger of new wine Dry the mother of wine of grapes at the Sun and put them into new wine adding a few sowre grapes thereto and it will make sharp vineger that will be for use after seven dayes or put in pellitory of Spain and it will be sharp Moreover if you boil a fourth or fifth part of vineger at the fire put that to the rest and set all eight days in the Sun you shall have most sharp and pleasant wine The roots of old grass and Raisins and the leaves of a wild Pear-tree bruised and the root of the bramble and whey of milk burnt Acorns Prunes rosted and the decoctions of Chiches and pot-sheards red hot all of these put severally into vineger will make it tart Apuleius teacheth To double the quantity of vineger Take a good measure of Vineger about a Metreta and to that adde one Metreta of Sea-water boiled to half mingle them and set them aside in a vessel Some steep Barley and strain it and of that juice they mingle one Metreta and they stir them together and they cast in torrefied salt when it is yet hot a good quantity then they cover the vessel and let it stand eight dayes But I use to make it thus Vineger of clusters of grapes pressed forth After the Vintage we cast in the clusters when the wine is pressed forth into a wooden vessel and we pour upon them a quantity of water and it will be vineger when a week is over Moreover we cut the tendrels from Vines and bruise them and put water to them and it will be vineger Also thus Ill wine is turned to vineger When the bunches of grapes are pressed forth lay them between two wooden bowls not very thick together let them grow hot for four days then pour on them so much naughty wine as may cover them let them alone 24 hours then strain them into another wooden bowl and after so many hours put them into another bowl and do so til it be turned into most sharp white vineger and if you would make more of the same clusters pour on upon them some sharp vineger and let them alone till they be extream sharp and sowre then take that out and pour on ill wine and do as you did Lastly press those clusters out in a press and you shall recover as great quantity as of the wine that was spent CHAP. XXIII
How the defects of wine may be managed and restored OUr forefathers found out many remedies to preserve wine and in our dayes we have taken no less pains For wine is easily corrupted and takes to it self many strange qualities Paxamus saith wine either grows sowre or dead about the Solstices and when the seven stars set or when the dog star causeth heat and when it is extream cold or hot or rainy or windy or when it thunders We shall shew remedies for all these First we shall lay down out of Africanus the signs to know wines that will last or will corrupt When you have put your wine into a vessel after some time change the vessel and look well on the Lees for thence shall you know what the wine is proving it by smelling to it whether it corrupt or weevils breed in it these are signs it putrifies Others take wine out of the middle of the vessel they heat it and when it is cold they taste of it and they judge of the wine by the favour some by the smell of the cover a strong taste is the best sign a watry the worst sharpness of duration weakness of corrupting The signs must be taken at the times to be feared we mentioned But to come to the remedies we shall shew how To mend weak wine The wine will be weak when it begins to breath forth that force of heat fot when the soul of it is breathed forth the wine grows immediately sowre vineger is the carcasse of wine Then we may presently prevent it by adding aqua vitae to it for by that it may put on a new soul the measure will be the fourth part of a pound for a vessel Another remedy will be That wine may not grow hot In the Summer Solstice wine grows hot by the hot weather and is spoiled then put quick-silver into a glass-viol well stopt and hang it in the middle of the vessel and the coldness of it will keep the wine from heating The quantity is two pound for great vessels for when the air is hot the external heat draws forth the inward heat and when that is gone it is spoiled We That wine may not exhale use this remedy The vessel being full we pour oyle upon it and cover it for oyle keeps the spirits from evaporating which I see is now used for all liquors that they may not be perverted Wines sometimes are troubled But To clear wines Fronto bids us do thus Cast three whites of egges into a large earthen dish and beat them that they may froth put some white salt to them that they may be exceeding white and pour them into a vessel full of wine for salt and the white of an egge will make all thick liquors clear but as many Dolia or such measures as there are in the vessel so many whites of egges must you have to be mingled again with so many ounces of salt but you must stir the mixture with a stick and in four dayes it will grow clear Also it is done That wines may not corrupt I said that salt keeps all things from corrupting wherefore for every Dolium powder one ounce of Allome and put it into the wine vessel with the wine for it will keep it from corrupting The same is done if you put in one ounce of common salt or half one half the other Also brimstone hinders putrefaction Wherefore if you shall adde to eight ounces of Allome or of Salt four ounces of brimstone you shall do well The Antients were wont to peserve wine by adding Salt or sea-sea-water to it and it would continue along time Columella teacheth thus when the winds are quiet you must take water out of the deep sea when it is very calm and boyl it to thirds adding to it if you please some spices There are many ordinary things but we let them pass CHAP. XXIV How Oyl may be made of divers things IT is an excellent thing to shew the diversity of ways to make Oyl That if Olives should ever be scarce yet we might know how to draw Oyl from many kinds of fruits and seeds And some of these ways that came from the Antients yet onely the best and such as are our inventions Wherefore to begin We say that Oyl may be made of Ricinus call'd Cicinum Dioscorides makes it thus Let ripe Ricini as many as you please wither in the hot Sun and be laid upon hurdles let them be so long in the Sun till the outward shell break and fall off Take the flesh of them and bruise it in a morter diligently then put it into a Caldron glazed with Tin that is full of water put fire under and boil them and when they have yielded their inbred juyce take the vessel from the fire and with a shell skim off the Oyl on the top and keep it But in Egypt where the custom of it is more common for they cleanse the Ricini and put them into a Mill and being well grownd they press them in a press through a basket Pliny saith They must be boiled in water and the Oyl that swims on the top must be taken off But in Egypt where there is plenty of it without fire and water sprinkled with Salt it is ill for to eat but good for Candles But we collected them in September for then is the time to gather them with it parts from a prickly cover and a coat that holds the seed in it it is easily cleansed in a hot Caldron The weight of Oyl is half as much as the seed but it must be twice knocked and twice pressed Palladius shews how Oyl of Mastick is made gather many Grains of the Mastick-tree and let them lye in a heap for a day and a night Then put a basket full of those Berries into any vessel and pouring hot water thereto tread them and press them forth Then from that humour that runs forth of them the Oyl of Mastick that swims on the top is poured off But remember lest the cold might hold it there to pour hot water often on For thus we see it made with us and all the Country of Surrentum also so is made Oyl of Turpentine as Damageron teacheth The fruit of Turpentine is grownd in a Mill as the Olives are and is pressed out and so it sends forth Oyl The kernels serve to feed hogs and to burn Likewise Oyl of Bays Boil Bay-berries in water the shels yield a certain fat it is forced out by crushing them in the hands then gather the Oyl into horns Palladius almost as Dioscorides in January boil many Bay-berries that are ripe and full in hot water and when they have boy'ld long the watry oyl that swims on the top that comes from them you shall gently pour off into vessels driving it easily with feathers The Indians make as it is said Oyl of Sesamon It is made as we said before it sends forth excellent Oyl abundantly There is made Oyl of
of brass you may make Iron to become white If you put amongst it some silver though it be not much it will soon resemble the colour of silver for Iron doth easily suffer it self to be medled with gold or silver and they may be so thoroughly incorporated into each other that by all the rules of separation that can be used you cannot without great labour and very much ado separate the one of them from the other CHAP. V. Of Quick-silver and of the effects and operations thereof IN the next place it is meet that we speak something concerning Quick-silver and the manifold operations thereof wherein we will first set down certain vulgar and common congelations that it makes with other things because many men do desire to know them and secondly we will shew how it may be dissolved into water that they which are desirous of such experiments may be satisfied herein First therefore we will shew How Quick-silver may be congealed and curdled as it were with Iron Put the quick-silver into a casting vessel and put together with it that water which the Blacksmith hath used to quench his hot Iron in and put in also among them Ammoniack Salt and Vitriol and Verdegrease twice so much of every one of these as there was quick-silver let all these boil together in an exceeding great fire and still turn them up and down with an Iron slice or ladle and if at any time the water boil away you must be sure that you have in a readiness some of the same water through hot to cast into it that it may supply the waste which the fire hath made and yet not hinder the boiling thus will they be congealed all together within the space of six hours After this you must take the congealed stuff when it is cold and binde it up hard with your hands in leather thongs or linnen cloth or osiers that all the juice and moisture that is in it may be squeesed out of it then let that which is squeesed and drained out settle it self and be congealed once again till the whole confection be made then put it into an earthen vessel well washed and amongst it some spring-water and take off as neer as you can all the filth and scum that is upon it and is gone to waste and in that vessel you must temper and diligently mix together your congealed matter with spring-water till the whole matter be pure and clear then lay it abroad in the open air three days and three nights and the subject which you have wrought upon will wax thick and hard like a shell or a tile-sheard There is also another congelation to be made with quick-silver Congeailng of Quick-silver with balls of Brass thus make two Brass half circles that that may fasten one within the other that nothing may exhale put into them quick-silver with an equal part of white Arsenick and Tartar well powdred and searced lute the joynts well without that nothing may breathe forth so let them dry and cover them with coles all over for six hours then make all red hot then take it out and open it and you shall see it all coagulated and to stick in the hollow of the Brass ball strike it with a hammer and it will fall off melt it and project it and it will give an excellent colour like to Silver and it is hard to discern it from Silver If you will you may mingle it with three parts of melted Brass and without Silver it will be exceeding white soft and malleable It is also made another way Make a great Cup of Silver red Arsenick and Latin with a cover that sits close that nothing may exhale fill this with quick-silver and lute the joynts with the white of an Egg or some Pine-tree-rosin as it is commonly done hang this into a pot full of Linseed Oyl and let it boil twelve hours take it out and strain it through a skin or straw and if any part be not coagulated do the work again and make it coagulate If the vessel do coagulate it slowly so much as you find it hath lost of its weight of the silver Arsenick and Alchymy make that good again for we cannot know by the weight use it it is wonderful that the quick-silver will draw to it self out of the vessel and quick-silver will enter in Now I shall shew what may be sometimes useful To draw water out of Quick-silver Make a vessel of potters earth that will endure the fire of which crucibles are made six foot long and of a foot Diameter glassed within with glass about a foot broad at the bottom a finger thick narrower at the top bigger at bottom About the neck let there be a hole as big as ones finger and a little pipe coming forth by which you may fitly put in the quick-silver on the top of the mouth let there be a glass cap fitted with the pipe and let it be smeered with clammy clay and bind it above that it breathe not forth For this work make a furnace let it be so large at the top that it may be fit to receive the bottom of the vessel a foot broad and deep You must make the grate the fire is made upon with that art that when need is you may draw it back on one side and the fire may fall beneath Set therefore the empty vessel into the furnace and by degrees kindle the fire Lastly make the bottom red hot when you see it to be so which you may know by the top you must look through the glass cap presently by the hole prepared pour in ten or fifteen pounds of quick-silver and presently with clay cast upon it stop that hole and take away the grate that the fire may fall to the lower parts and forthwith quench it with water Then you shall see that the water of quick-silver will run forth at the nose of the cap into the receiver under it about an ounce in quantity take the vessel from the fire and pour forth the quick-silver and do as before and always one ounce of water will distil forth keep this for Chymical operation I found this the best for to smug up women with This artifice was found to purifie quick-silver I shall not pass over another art no less wonderful than profitable for use To make quick-silver grow to be a Tree Dissolve silver in aqua fortis what is dissolved evaporate into thin air at the fire that there may remain at the bottom a thick unctious substance Then distil fountain-water twice or thrice and pour it on that thick matter shaking it well then let it stand a little and pour into another glass vessel the most pure water in which the silver is adde to the water a pound of quick-silver in a most transparent crystalline glass that will attract to it that silver and in the space of a day will there spring up a most beautiful tree from the bottom and hairy as
pure and good and become cool and allayed then pure and unmixed and pleasant visions appear Wherefore I thought it not irrational when a man is overwhelmed with drink that vapors should arise participating as well of the Nature of what he hath drank or eat as of the humours which abound in his body that in his sleep he should rejoyce or be much troubled that fires and darkness hail and putrefactions should proceed from Choler Melancholy coâ—d and puâ—rid humors So to dream of killing any one or being besmeared with Blood shews an abundance of Blood and Hippocrates and Galen say We may judge a man to be of a sanguine Complexion by it Hence those who eat windy meats by reason thereof have rough and monstrous dreams meats of thin and small vapours exhilarate the minde with pleasant phantasms So also the outward application of simples doth infect the species while they are a going to the Heart For the Arteries of the body saith Galen while they are dilated do attract into themselves any thing that is next them It will much help too to anoynt the Liver for the Blood passeth upward out of the Stomack by evaporation and runneth to the Liver from the Liver to the Heart Thus the circulating vapors are infected and represent species of the same colour That we may not please the Sleepers onely but also the Waking behold A way to cause merry dreams When you go to bed to eat Balm and you cannot desire more pleasant sights then will appear to you Fields Gardens Trees Flowers Meadows and all the Ground of a pleasant Green and covered with shady Bowers wheresoever you cast your eyes the whole World will appear pleasant and Green Bugloss will do the same and Bows of Poplar so also Oyl of Poplar But To make dark and troublesome dreams we eat Beans and therefore they are abhorred by the Pythagoreans because they cause such dream Phaseoli or French Beans cause the same Lentiles Onyons Garlick Leeks VVeedbine Dorycnium Picnocomum new red VVine these infuse dreames wherein the phantasms are broken crooked angry troubled the person dreaming will seem to be carried in the Air and to see the Rivers and Sea flow under him he shall dream of misfortunes falling death cruel tempests showers of Rain and cloudy dayes the Sun darkned and the Heavens frowning and nothing but fearful apparitions So by anointing the aforesaid places with Sooâ— or any adust matter and Oyl which I add onely to make the other enter the easier into the parts fires lightnings flashings and all things will appear in darkness These are sufficient for I have already shewed in my Book Phytognom how to procure true dreams CHAP. IV. Excellent Remedies for the Eyes HEretofore being much troubled with sore Eyes and become almost blinde when I was given over by Physitians of best account a certain Empyrick undertook me who putting this VVater into my Eye cured me the very same day I might almost say The same hour By Gifts Entreaties Cunning and Money I gained the Secret which I will not think much to set down that every one may use it at their pleasure It is good for Inflammations Blearness Mists Fistula's and such-like and cureth them certainly the second day if not the first If I should set down all those whom I have cured by it I should be too tedious Take two Bottles of Greek-VVine half a Pint of White-Rose-Water of Celendine two Ounces of Fennel Rue Eye-bright as much of Tutty half an Ounce of Cloves as much Sugar-Candy of Roses one Drachm Camphire half a Drachm and as much Aloes Tutty is prepared after this manner Let it be heat and extinguished six times in rose-Rose-water mixed with Greek-Wine but let the water at last be left out powder what are to be powdered finely and mix them with the waters Aloes is incorporated with waters thus because it will not be powered let it be put into a Morâ—ar with a little of the forementioned waters and beat together until it turn to water and swim about in ropings and mix with the waters then put it to the rest Set them all in a Glass-Bottle close covered and waxed up that it do not exhale abroad in the Sun and Dew for forty dayes still shaking them four times in a day at last when it is well sunned set it up and reserve it for your use It must be applied thus In Inflammations Blood-shots and Fistula's let the Patient lie flat on his back and when a drop of this water is put upon his Eye let him open and shut his Eye-lids that the water may run through all the cavities of his Eve Do this twice or thrice in a day and he shall be cured But thus it must be used for A Pearl in the Eye If the Pearl be above or beneath the Cornea make a Powder of Sugar-Candy of Roses burnt Allome and the Bone of a Cuttle-Fish very finely beat and searched exactly and when the Patient goeth to Bed sprinkle a little of this Powder upon his eye and by and by drop some of this water into it and let him shut his Eyes and sleep for he will quickly be cured CHAP. V. To fasten the Teeth I Could finde not any thing in all this Physical Tract of greater value then this Remedy for the Teeth for the water gets in through the Gumms even to the very Nerves of the Teeth and strengthens and fasteneth them yea if they are eaten away it filleth them with Flesh and new cloaths them Moreover it maketh them clean and white and shining like Pearls I know a man who by this onely Receit gained great Riches Take therefore three handfuls of Sage Neâ—tles Rosemary Mallows and the rinde of the Roots of Wall-nut wash them well and beat them also as much of the Flowers of Sage Rosemary Olive and Plantaine Leaves two handfuls of Hypocistis Horehound and the tops of Bramble one pound of the Flower of Mirtle half a pound of the Seed two handfuls of Rose-Buds with their Stalks two drachms of Saunders Coriander prepared and Citron-Pill three drachms of Cinnamon in powder ten of Cypress Nuts five green Pine-Apples two drachms of Bole-Armenick and Mastick Powder them all and infuse them in sharp black Wine and let them macerate three dayes then slightly pressing the Wine out put them into an Alembick and still them with a gentle fire then boyl the distilled water with two ounces of Allome till it be dissolved in a Vâ—ssel close stopt When you would use it suck up some of the water and stir it up and down your mouth until it turn to Forth then spit it out and rub your Teeth with a Linen-cloth It will perform what I have promised for it fasteneth the Teeth and restoreth the Gums that are eroded Now we will deliver other Experiments To fasten the Teeth Macerate the Leaves of Mastick Rosemary Sage and Bramble in Greek-Wine then distil it with a gentle fire through a Retort take a mouthful
two ounces of rosemary-flowers and bay-berries as many of betony of chamomil-flowers or the oyl of it three ounces of cinnamon an ounce and a half as much of St Johns wort or the oyl of it two ounces of old oyl Dry the flowers and herbs in the shade and when they are withered beat them and seirce them through a sieve Melt the wax on the fire then pour in the oyls next the powders still stirring them with a stick At length pour it on a marble and cut it into small slices and put it into a glass retort stop it close with straw-mortar and set it on the fire with his receiver stop the joynts and give the inclosed no vent lest the virtue flye out and vanish away First by a gentle fire draw out a water then encreasing it and changing the glass draw a red oyl stop them close and keep them for use the qualities of it are heating by anointing the neck it cureth all creeks that are bred by cold it healeth wounds helpeth the contraction of the nerves caused by cold it moâ—lifieth cold gouts and taketh away the trembling of the hands It may be drank for the Sciatica taken in wine it helpeth the quinsie by anointing the reins of the back and the belly or by drinking the water or oyl in wine it will break the stone and bring it down and asswageth poyson For deafness you must steep some wool in it and stop the ears with it anoint the belly and back in any pain there Being drunk in vinegar it cureth the falling sickness and restoreth lost memory it provoketh the menstrues in women by anointing their privities with it or by drinking some drops of it in wine taken in the same manner it provoketh appetite being taken early in the morning and is good against the bitings of Scorpions Drink it going to bed or when you arise in the morning and it will cure a â—â—inking breath For cold aches Oyl of Herns is excellent to allay and remove all cold aches the gout sciatica griefs of the sinews convulsions pain in the joynts cold defluctions and other diseases of moisture and cold In the Diomedian Isles now called Tremiâ—y in the Adriatique Sea there are birds commonly called Hearns who breed there and continue there and are to be found nowhere else they are a kind of Duck feeding on fish which they catch in the night they are not to be eaten though they be very fat because they savour of the rankness of fish Kill these birds and pluck off their feathers draw them and hang them up by the feet there will drop from them a certain black yellowish oyl very offensive to the nose being of a noisome fishy smell This oyl being applied to any place as much as you can endure will do the effects before mentioned and more but it is very hurtful for any hot maladies There is a water also For old Sores Take lime unkilled and dissolve it in water stir it three or four times in a day then when it is settled and cleared strain it and keep it wet a linnen cloth in it and apply it to a wound or sore and it cureth them I will not omit The vertues of Tobacco Out of the seeds of it is expressed an oyl three ounces out of a pound which allays the cruel tortures of the gout the juyce clarified and boiled into a syrup and taken in the morning maketh the voyce tunable clear and loud very convenient for singing Masters If you bruise the leaves and extract the juyce it killeth lice in childrens heads being rubbed thereon The leaves cure rotten Sores and Ulcers running on the legs being applied unto them The juyce of this herb doth also presently take away and asswage the pain in the codds which happeneth to them who swimming do chance to touch their codds CHAP. XII Of a secret Medicine for wounds THere are certain Potions called Vulnerary Potions because being drunk they cure wounds and it seemeth an admirable thing how those Potions should penetrate to the wounds These are Vulnerary Potions Take Pirole Comfrey Aristolochy Featherfew of each a handful of Agrimony two boil them in the best new Wine digest them in horse-dung Or take two handfuls of Pirole of Sanicle and Sowe-bread one of Ladies Mantel half one Boil them in two measures of Wine and drink it morning and evening Binde the herbs which you have boiled upon the wound having mixt a little salt with them and in the mean while use no other Medicine The Weapon-Salve Given heretofore to Maximilian the Emperor by Paracelsus experimented by him and always very much accounted of by him while he lived It was given to me by a noble man of his Court If the Weapon that wounded him or any stick dipt in his blood be brought it will cure the wound though the Patient be never so far off Take of the moss growing upon a dead man his scull which hath laid unburied two ounces as much of the fat of a man half an ounce of Mummy and man his blood of linseed oyl turpentine and bole-armenick an ounce bray them all together in a mortar and keep them in a long streight glass Dip the Weapon into the oyntment and so leave it Let the Patient in the morning wash the wound with his own water and without adding any thing else tye it up close and he shall be cured without any pain CHAP. XIII How to counterfeit infirmities IT hath been no small advantage to some to have counterfeited sicknesses that they might escape the hands of their enemies or redeem themselves for a small ransom or avoid tortures invented by former ages and used by these latter I will first teach you How to counterfeit a bloody Flux Amphiretus Acantius being taken by Pirates and carried to Lemnos was kept in chains in hope that his ransom would bring them a great sum of money He abstained from meat and drank Minium mixt with salt water Therefore when he went to stool the Pirates thought he was fallen into a bloody Flux and took off his irons lest he should dye and with him their hopes of his ransom He being loose escaped in the night got into a Fisher-boat and arrived safe at Acantum so saith Poliaenus Indian Figs which stain the hands like ripe Mulberries if they be eaten cause the urine to be like blood which hath put many into a fright fearing they should dye presently The fruit of the Mulberry or Hoggs blood boiled and eaten maketh the excrements seem bloody Red Madder maketh the urine red saith Dioscorides We may read also that if you hold it long in your hand it will colour your urine I will teach you also To make any one look pale Cumine taken in drink causeth paleness so it is reported That the Followers of Portius Latro that famous Master of Rhetorick endeavored to imitate that colour which he had contracted by study And Julius Vindex that assertor of liberty from Nero made
until this day and observed by our women to smoke their children and rowl them about in frankincense Keep him in an open air and hang Carbuncles Jacinthes or Saphires about his neck Dioscorides accounteth Christs Thorn wilde Hemp and Valerian hung up in the house an amulet against witchcraft Smell to Hyssope and the sweet Lilly wear a ring made of the hoof of a tame or wilde Ass also Saâ—vâ—ion the male and female are thought the like Aristotle commendeth Rue being smelt to All these do abate the power of witchcraft THE NINTH BOOK OF Natural Magick How to adorn Women and make them Beautiful THE PROEME SInce next to the Art of Physick follows the Art of Adorning our selves we shall set down the Art of Painting and how to beautifie Women from Head to Foot in many Experiments yet lest any man should think it superfluous to interpose those things that belong to the Ornaments of Women I would have them consider that I did not write these things for to give occasion to augment Luxury and for to make people voluptuous But when God the Author of all things would have the Natures of all things to continue he created Male and Female that by fruitful Procreation they might never want Children and to make Man in love with his Wife he made her soft delicate and fair to entice man to embrace her We therefore that Women might be pleasing to their Husbands and that their Husbands might not be offended at their deformities and turn into other womens-chambers have taught Women how by the Art of Decking themselves and Painting if they be ashamed of their foul and swart Complexions they may make themselves Fair and Beautiful Something 's that seemed best to me in the Writings of the antients I have tried and set down here but those that are the best which I and others have of late invented and were never before in Print I shall set down last And first I shall begin with the Hairs CHAP. I. How the Hair may be dyed Yellow or Gold-colour SInce it is the singular care of Women to adorn their Hair and next their Faces First I will shew you to adorn the Hair and next the Countenance For Women hold the Hair to be the greatest Ornament of the Body that if that be taken away all the Beauty is gone and they think it the more beautiful the more yellow shining and radiant it is We shall consider what things are fit for that purpose what are the most yellow things and will not hurt the Head as there are many that will but we shall chuse such things as will do it good But before you dye them Preparing of the Hair must be used to make them fit to receive a tincture Add to the Lees of White-wine as much Honey that they may be soft and like some thin matter smeer your Hair with this let it be wet all night then bruise the Roots of Celandine and of the greater Clivers Madder of each a like quality mingle them being bruised very well with Oyl wherein Cummin-Seed Shavings of Box and a little Saffron are mingled anoynt your Head and let it abide so twenty four hours then wash it with Lye made of Cabbage-Stalks Ashes and Barley-Straw but Rye-Straw is the best for this as Women have often proved will make the Hair a bright yellow But you shall make A Lye to dye the Hair thus Put Barley-Straw into an Earthen-pot with a great mouth Feny-Graec and wilde Cummin mingle between them Quick-lime and Tobacco made into Powder then put them upon the Straw beforementioned and pour on the Powders again I mean by course one under the other over till the whole Vessel be full and when they are thrust close pour on cold water and let them so stand a whole day then open a hole at the bottom and let the Lye run forth and with Sope use it for your Hair I shall teach you Another To five Glasses of Fountain-water add Alume-Foeces one Ounce Sope three Ounces Barley-Straw one Handful let them boyl in Earthen-pots till two thirds be boyled away then let it settle strain the Water with the Ashes adding to every Glass of Water pure Honey one Ounce Set it up for your use You shall prepare for your Hair An Oyntment thus Burn the Foeces of Wine heaped up in a Pit as the manner is so that the fire may go round the Pit when it is burnt pown it and seirce it mingle it well with Oyl let the Woman anoynt her Head with it when she goes to Bed and in the morning let her wash it off with a Lye wherein the most bitter Lupines were boyled Other Women endeavour To make their Hair yellow thus They put into a common Lye the Pills of Citrons Oranges Quinces Barley-Straw dried Lupines Foeny-Graec Broom-Flowers and Tartat coloured a good quantity and they let them there lie and steep to wash their Hair with Others mingle two parts Sope to one part Honey adding Ox-Gall one half part to which they mingle a twelfth part of Garden-Cummin and wilde Saffron and setting them in the Sun for six weeks they stir it daily with a wooden-staff and this they use Also of Vinegar and Gold Litharge there is made a decoction very good to dye the Hair yellow as Gold Some there are that draw out a strong VVater with fire out of Salt-Peter Vitriol Salt-Ammoniac and Cinaber wherewith the Hairs dyed will be presently yellow but this as wont to burn the Hair those that know how to mingle it will have good effects of it But these are but ordinary the most famous way is To make the Hairs yellow draw Oyl from Honey by the Art of Distillation as we shall shew First there will come forth a clear VVater then a Saffron-colour then a Gold-colour use this to anoynt the Hair with a Spunge but let it touch the Skin for it will dye it Saffron-colour and it is not easily washed off This is the principal above others because the Tincture will last many dayes and it will dye Gray-Hairs which few others will Or make a Lye of Oak-Ashes put in the quantity of a Bean of Rheubarb as much Tobacco a handful of Barley-Straw and Foeny-Graec Shells of Oranges the Raspings of Guaiacum a good deal of wilde Saffron and Liquorish put all these in an Earthen-pot and boyl them till the water sink three fingers the Hairs will be washt excellently with this Hold them in the Sun then cast Brimstone on the Coals and fume the Hairs and whilst it burns receive the smoke with a little Tunnel at the bottom and cover your Head all over with a cloth that the smoke flie not away CHAP. II. How to dye the Hair bed BEcause there are many men and women that are ruddy Complexions and have the Hair of their Heads and Bearbs Red which should they make yellow-coloured they would not agree with their Complexions To help those also I set down these Remedies The
their Shells distil all at a gentle fire add to the water a little Camphire and Borax put into a glazed vessel two yong naked Pigeons with their guts taken forth and put in as much Milk as will cover them and add one ounce of Borax Turpentine three ounces Caâ—phire one ounce five whites of Eggs put on the cover and distil them for it is fat things that make the Face soft I shall say more when I come to speak of making the hands white and soft the reason is the same for both CHAP. XII How to make the face clear and shining like silver THe face is not onely made clear but white as silver by those things that I said were white as silver yet not exactly as silver but they shine as clear as silver There is an herb commonly called Argentaria or Argentina or wilde Tansey whose leaves are green above but on the backside they shine of a silver colour the distilled water of it is drank by women against spots in their faces and to make them white as silver The snails that are found in moist places and leave behind them as they creep a silver cord Dioscorides saith will cure the spots in the face women much desire them for they put them in a still and draw out water from them that polisheth the skin exceedingly and makes it contract a silver gloss And the seashell-fish like an ear whose shell is of a silver colour within or pearl colour and many kinds of shells that being steeped in vinegar will grow pure casting off the outward crust as the Oystershel doth that brings forth pearl There are also shells we call the Mothers of pearl that inwardly are shining and of a silver colour like pearls all which women use for their art of beautifying themselves for they make the face smooth and to shine as white as silver But pearls do it best of all things when they are dissolved in sharp juyces and soaked in rotten dung till they send forth a clear oyl that is the best thing to beautifie the face as I shall shew elsewhere For the same use is a glass-stone used that shines like silver But no better water is prepared then from Talk or Quick-silver as I shall shew in that which follows CHAP. XIII How to dissolve Talk for to beautifie women THough I shall speak in a work on purpose more at large how Talk may be dissolved into water or oyl We shall here onely set down how it may be fitted for womens use Of all such ways as are used I shall set forth such as I have tried to be good Beat Talk in a mortar of metal then put it into a pot of the strongest clay and cover it and bind it in with strong iron wyer lute it well all cover and stop the joynts that nothing breathe out and set it in the Sun to dry Then put this stone in an oven that flames strongly or in some other place where the fire is most vehement When the fire of the oven is out take it forth and break the vessel and if it be well calcined it is enough Otherwise do the same again until the calx of it be as white as it ought to be When the calcined body of it is white as it must be grind it on a porphyry-stone and put it into a little bag or upon a marble in a very moist place or deep well or cistern and let it lie there long and with much moisture it will drop forth at last It will more easily and perfectly dissolve into water if it were burnt long enough and turned into a calx For the parts being turn'd to lime and made exceeding dry by force of fire they attract moisture It is also done Another way that is good Calcine the Talk and put it in an earthen pot and set it in the hottest part of a potters oven to stay there six days When the Talk is thus turn'd to a calx put it into a gourd-glass which you shall first make clean and make a hole at the bottom of it and setting a vessel under it you shall have the moisture of it drop forth and the calx will resolve into water put this into a glass vial and let the water evaporate in Balâ—eo take the sediment out for your use I use also Another way Put snails in an earthen vessel in the open air that they may be kept hungry three days and pine for want of meat and be purged then take a silver Loadstone or Talk most finely powdred mingle it with the white of an egge and make an ointment anoint the earthen vessel with it and put the snails into it for they will eat up all the Talk When they have eaten all and voided their excrements bruise the snails with their shells and putting them into a retott draw out their moisture with a gentle fire the humour that drops forth will exceedingly adorn the face CHAP. XIV The preparation of Sublimate I Said that there was nothing better than quick-silver for womens paints and to cleanse their faces and make them shine Wherefore I shall set down many ways to Prepare it that you may have the use of it to your desire Take one ounce and half of pure quick-silver not falsified with lead for if there be lead mingled with it all your labour is lost How it must be purged and known I taught elsewhere Mingle this with half a pound of Mercury sublimate and put it into a marble mortar and with a new wooden pestle stir it well turning it round about First it will be black in six hours it will grow white if you cease not to beat it Then adde one ounce and half of white salt always turning it about with the pâ—stle for the more you grind it the perfecter it will be When it is very well ground it must be washt Sprinkle boiling clear water into the mortar and stir it and then stay a while until the muddy part may sink down and the filth that was lighter and swims on the top laying the vessel on one side pour out the water gently and pour in fresh do this five or six times in the same manner until the pure and onely powder remain without dregs make little cakes of it and dry it in the sun Some whilst they bruise it sprinkle water on lest the powder by grinding should be made so small that it should fly away into the air The chief business is to purge it and grind it well that it be not troubled when it is strain'd forth that which is gone to the bottom and so part of it be lost some open a hole in the belly of a pot that when it is settled the hole being opened the water with the dregs may run forth Others to sublimate adde a third part of quick-silver and grind it in a wooden mortar and in the â—â—an while they chew four grains of mastick in their mouths and they spit the clammy spittle
it and press her between your hands that no Wine remain and then adding two Cups of white-Wine distil her in a Chymical Vessel then distil the Flowers of Bindeweed Citrons Oranges together and keep this water by it self Then open Lemmons and press out the juice And also take water of Bean-flowers then distil six cups of Asseâ— milk and as many of Cows-milk You shall do the same with water of Gourds and of Milk well boyled and of water of Bean-flowers and of Rosin of Turpentine Then provide a glazed Vessel put into it Camphire two drachms four ounces of Ceruss finely powdered mingle them with the aforesaid waters and set it in a soft Vessel in the open Air fifteen days and nights When you would use it wet a Linen-rag in it and wash your Face CHAP. XVII How to make the Face Rose-coloured I Have made the Face white now I will make it red that the wise may be made wholly Beautiful for her husband And first To make a pale Face purple-coloured And to adorn one that wants colour use this Remedy Take Vinegar twice distilled and cast into it the raspings of red Sanders as much as you please boyl it at a gentle fire adding a little Allom and you shall have a red colour most perfect to dye the Face If you would have it sweet-smelling add a little Musk Civet Cloves or any Spices Now Another Take Flowers of Clove-Gilliflowers bruise the ends of the sprigs and draw forth the juice if they be so ripe that they are black add juice of Lemmons that they may shine with a more clear red With this paint your Face and you shall have a pleasant red colour without any stinking smell or wet the sprigs of Clove-gilliflowers in juice of Lemmons and set them in the Sun Take away the old and put in fresh until it be as red as you would have it let the juice dry and the color will be most glorious But I draw a quintessence from Clovegill flowers Roses Flower-gentle with Spirit of Wine then I add Allom and the juice of a Citron and I made an excellent colour to beautifie the Face Take Another If you add to the best Wine one tenth part of Honey and one ounce of Frankinsenceâ— and then distil it and steep in it the raspings of red Saunders until it is coloured to your minde and then wash your Face with it it will make your Face white and well-coloured Also A Fucus that cannot be detected And it is so cunningly made that it will delude all men for a cleer water makes the Cheeks purple-coloured and it will last long and the cleerer the part will be the more your wash it with it and rub it with a cloth of Woolen You shall draw out a water from the Seeds of Cardamom which the Apothecaries call Grains of Paradise Cubebs Indian Cloves raspings of Brasil and Spirit of Wine distilled when they have been infused some time draw forth the water with a gentle fire or corrupt Dung and wet your Face often with this There are also Experiments To colour the Body If you boyl Nettles in water and wash your Body with it it will make it red-colored if you continue it long If you distil Straw-berries and wash your self with the water you shall make your Face red as a Rose But the Ancients dyed their bodies of divers colours partly for ornament partly for terrour as Caesar writes of the Britans going to war for they painted themselves with wood Theophrastus calls it Isatis and we call it Guado The Grecian-women painted themselves with wood as Zenophon writes And in our days the West-Indians crush out in Harvest-time a blood-red juice from the Roots of wilde Bugloss which the women know well enough whereby they cover their pale colour with a pleasant red and so change their over-white colour with this Experiment CHAP. XVIII To wash away the over-much redness of the Face I Have shewed you how to colour the Face now I shall shew how to uncolour it when the Face is too red and women that are very red desire this The way is To wash away the too-much redness of the Face Take four ounces of Peach-Kernels and Gourd-Seed two ounces pown them and crush them out strongly that you may draw forth an oyly Liquor with this morning and evening anoynt the red Carbuncles of your face and by degrees they will vanish and be gone Another Take Purple-Violets Egg-shells Saunders Camphire mingled with water set the water in the open Air and wash the redness therewith Also I know that the distilled water of white Lillies will take away the redness CHAP. XIX How to make a Sun-burnt Face white WHen women travel in the open Air and take journeys in Summer the Sun in one day will burn them so black that it is hard to take it off I found out this Experiment Beat about ten whites of Eggs till they come to water put them in a glazed Vessel adding one ounce of Sugar-Candy to them and when you go to bed anoynt your Face and in the morning wash it off with foutain-Foutain-water Pliny also saith thus Another If the Face be smeered with the white of an Egg it will not be Sun-burnt With us women that have to do in the Sun to defend their Faces from the heat of it that they may not be black they defend it with the white of an Egg beaten with a little Starch and mingled and when the Voyage is done they wash off this covering with Barley-water Some do it Another way rubbing their foul Skin with Melon-Rindes and so they easily rub off Sun-burnings and all other spots outwardly on the Skin The Seed also bruised and rubbed on will do it better Also a Liquor found in little bladders of the Elm-Tree when the Buds first come forth makes the Face clear and shining and takes away Sun-burnings CHAP. XX. How Spots may be taken from the Face OFt-times fair women are disgraced by spots in their Faces but the Remedy for it is this to use Abstergents and Detergents in whiting of their Faces Therefore To take off spots from the Face anoynt the Face with Oyl of Tartar and let it dry on and wash it not at all do this for ten days then wash it with a Lixivium and you shall see the spots no more If the part be not yet clean enough do it once more If this please you not take Another Put Quick-Lime into hot water mingle them and stir them for ten days After two days pour forth the clear water into a Brazen Vessel then take Salt-Ammoniac between your Finger-tops and rub it so long at the bottom of the Vessel until you see the water become of a blew-colour and the more you rub it the better colour it will have and it will turn into a Skie-colour or Purple-colour very pleasant to behold Wet Linen-cloths in this water and lay them on the spots till they be dry and wet them again till
Traganth Mastick and Champhire it is good also for flagging Brests For a wrinkled Face When Eggs are boyled hard in water cut them in the middle fill the holes where the yelks were with Powder of Myrrh then cover one with the other half and binde them with a Thread that they come not asunder then take a glazed earthen Vessel with a broad mouth and lay sticks across it that the Eggs may lie upon them hanging neer the bottom let the cleft of the Eggs hang toward the bottom put the earthen Vessel into a chest of Osiers and set it in a Well let it hang one foot from the water by the moysture whereof the Myrrh will dissolve into Oyl of water anoynt your Face with it The juice of the green Canes of the Pine-Tree but it is weaker then the distilled water being applied to the Face with a Linnen-cloth wet therein will take away all wrinkles from the Face excellently well You have Another Steep Kidney-Beans in Malmsey one day then take away the black whence they sprout and distil them with Lemmons and Honey Take a quantity of old Cow-Beef and distil that also mingle the waters and set them in the open Air in a Glass-Vessel in the Sun for fifteen days and wash your Face morning and evening therewith Another Crop in the morning the Flowers of Mullens and steep them in Greek-Wine with the Roots of Solomons-Seal then receive the water distilled in Glass-stills and if a woman when she riseth out of her bed wash her face with this she will be very fair and if you would take off the wrinkles with the same water add distilled water of Lemmons thereunto and it will make you glad to see the effect But this is the best Water to whiten plain and beautifie the Face Take equal parts of the Root of Solomons Seal greater Dragons and lesser Sparagrass Bryony and white Lillies as much as you please bruise them a little and cast them into an earthen pot with a large mouth let it be glazed pour on Greek Wine that may cover all add to these juice of Lemmons a fourth part ten new Eggs bruised with their shells and Land-Snails without shells let them infuse a while then distil them at a gentle fire and keep the first water a part then augment the fire and keep the second that will be stronger for this wipes all spots and red pimples from the Face Some mingle with this water of Bean-Flowers Elder Poppy Honey-Suckles and the like so do they take away all wrinkles and spots coming from the Sun and all the rest But you may thus take off The wrinkles of the Belly after child-birth Untipe Services are long boyled in water with these mingle whites of Eggs and water wherein Gum-Arabick is dissolved wet a Linen-cloth in such water and lay on the Belly or mingle the Powders of Harts Horn burnt the Stone Amiantus Salt-Ammoniac Myrrh Frankincense Mastick with Honey and it takes away all wrinkles CHAP. XXV Of Dentifrices DEntifrices are used amongst things to beautifie women for there is nothing held more ugly then for a woman to laugh or speak and thereby to shew their rugged rusty and spotted Teeth for they all almost by using Mercury sublimate have their Teeth black or yellow and because they stand in the Sun when they would make their Hair yellow their Teeth are hurt thereby and grow loose ready to fall out and do oft-times I shall shew first how to make black Teeth white as Pearls then how to make flesh grow about such as are weak and bare of Gums and to make them strong But of old were made Dentifrices of the shells of Purples and others like trumpets burnt The Arabian-stone it is like the spotted Ivory burned it is good for Dentifrices Also of Pumex-Stone very profitable Dentifrices were made Pliny So with the Powder of Ivory rubbed on the Teeth were made as white as Ivory Ovid. That Teeth may not grow black forborn With Fountain-water wash them every morn I shall add Another that I use The Crums of Barley-Bread burnt with Salt sprinkled on and Honey will not onely make the Teeth white but makes the Breath sweet Also with red Coral Cuttle bone Harts Horn and such-like whereof every one will well polish and wipe the Teeth clean so doth also the Grains of Cochinele Also there is made a water of Allom and Salt distilled that whiteneth the Teeth exceedingly and confirms them but the Oyl of Sulphur doth it best for it smooths them and wipes away all spots and if any one think it is too strong it may be qualified with the water of Myrtle flowers Make a Tooth-scraper after the fashion of a Tooth and pour on Oyl and rub the spots therewith but he careful it touch not the Gums for it will whiten and burn them rub so long till the spots be gone and they be very white I have now described the most perfect Remedy CHAP. XXVI To hinder the brests from augmenting AMongst the Ornaments of women this is the chief to have after Child-bearing round small solid and not flagging or wrinkled Brests So we may Hinder the augmenting of the Brests if we will Bruise Hemlock and lay a Cataplasm thereof with Vinegar to womens Brests and it will stay them that they shall not increase especially in Virgins yet this will hinder milk when it should be seasonable But if you will Curb soft and loose Brests Powder white Earth the white of an Egg sowre Galls Mastick Frankincense and mingle them in hot Vinegar and smeer the Brests therewith let it stay on all night If it do not effect it do the same again The Stones of Medlars are good for this also unripe Services Sloes Acacia Pomegranate Pills Balanstia unripe Pine-nuts Wilde Pears and Plantain if they all boil in Vinegar and be laid to the Brests or some of them The Antients commended for this purpose a Whetstone of Cypress that we sharpen Iron upon to restrain Virgins Brests and not let them grow big Dioscorides But Galen saith That it not onely stops the encrease of the Brests but will hinder childrens Testicles from growing but I use the juice of Ladies Mantle from the Leaves of it and I wet Linen in it and lay it on the Brests and renew it for it will not onely hinder Virgins Brests from increasing but will fallen the loose Brests of Matrons and make them firm It is more effectual to use the decoction of the Herb and if you joyn any of the forementioned thingâ— therewith as Hypocistis Pills of Pomegranates and the like So water distilled from green Pine-Apples will draw in loose Brests and make them like the round hard solid Brests of Virgins CHAP. XXVII How the Hand may be made white THe Hands must not be forgotten but we must make them white also smooth and soft that are Ornaments of the Hands to be desired But how whiteness and smoothness may be obtained I have shewed already
softness remains which is onely given to fat Hands To make the Hands as white as Milk Take things that are Milk-White as Almonds Pine-Kernels Melon and Gourd-Seeds and the like Therefore bruise bitter Almonds Pine-Kernels and Crums of Bread then make Cakes of them with Barley-water wherein Gum Traganth hath been soaked You may use this for Sope when you wash your Hands for they scowre them and make them white I For the same use oft-times bitter Almonds half a pound put them in hot water to blanch them then beat them in a Marble-Morter Afterwards take the lesser Dragons two ounces Deers Suet and Honey of each as much mingle them all in an earthen Pot with a large mouth set them at the fire and let them be stirred gently with a wooden-stick that they mingle well put it up in Boxes for your use If you will have Your hands white wash fresh Butter nine times in sweet water and last of all in sweet-sented Rose-water to take off the ill smell and that it may look as white as Snow then mingle white wax with it and a good quantity of Oyl of sweet Almonds Then wash your gloves in Greek-Wine as the manner is and smeer on the foresaid mixture put on these when you go to bed that all night they may grow soft by the help of fat things Then take Peach-Kernels with the skins picked off Seeds of Gourds Melons white Poppy Barley-meal of each one ounce and half the juice of two Lemmons rosted in the Embers mingle these with as much Honey as will make them thick as an Oyntment and to make them smell well you may add a little Musk or Civet when you go to bed but in the morning wash them with Fountain-water and for Sope use the Lees of Oyl of Nuts well pressed forth or Lees of Oyl-Olive Others use this Liniment onely Press the Cream out of Lemmon-Seeds with two ounces of it mingle one ounce of Oyl of Tartar and as much Oyl of Almonds When at night you go to bed wash your Hands in fountain-Fountain-water dry them and anoynt them with this Liniment and put on your Gloves Take Another For one weeks-time infuse the Marrow of Ox-bones in cold water but change the water four or five times a day and for every pound of Marrow take six excellent Apples and cut them in the middle and cast forth the Seeds and Core then beat them small in a Marble-Morter and put them into a new Morter that they may smell the sweeter adding a few Cloves Cinnamon Spikenard let them boyl in Rose-water When they are all very soft take them forth and strain them and again add a sharp Lixivium and let them boyl at a gentle fire until all the water be washed Then set them up in a Glass-Vessel for your use or make them into morsels That which follows is good For the same Make a hole in a Lemmon and put into it Sugar-Candy and Butter and cover it with the Cover wet Hards of Hemp and wrap it up in and boyl it in hot Embers and that it grow soft by rosting when you go to Bed anoynt your hands with it and put on your Gloves CHAP. XXVIII How to correct the ill sent of the Arm-pits THe stink of the Arm-holes makes some women very hateful especially those that are sat and fleshy To cure this we may use such kinde of Experiments The Ancients against the stink of the Arm-pits used liquid Allome with Myrrh to anoynt them or the Secrets and Arm-holes were strewed with the dry Leaves of Myttles in powder The Roots of Artichoaks smeered on doth not onely cure the ill sent of the Arm-pits but of the whole Body also But Zenocrates promiseth by Experiment That the faultiness of the Arm-pits will pass forth by urine if you take one ounce of the pith of the Root boyled in three Lemina's of Muskadel to thirds and after bathing fasting or after meat drink a cup thereof But I am content with this I dissolve Allome in waters and I wash the Feet and Arm-pits with it and let them dry so in some days we shall correct the strong smell of those parts But it will be done more effectually thus Pown Lytharge of Gold or Silver and boyl it in Vinegar and if you wash those parts well with it you shall keep them a long time sweet and it is a Remedy that there is none better CHAP. XXIX How the Matrix ovar-widened in Child-birth may be made narrower TRotula saith we may honestly speak of this because Conception is sometimes hindred by it if the Matrix be too open and therefore it is fit to lend help for such an impedient For some women have it stand wide-open by reason of their hard labour in Child-birth and if their Husbands be not content with it that the men may not abhor the women it is thus remedied Take Dragons-Blood Bole-Armeniac Pomegranate-shells white of an Egg Mastick Galls of each one ounce powder them and make them all up with hot water Put some of this Confection into the hole that goes into the Matrix Or Galls Sumach Plantain great Comfrey Allome Chamaelaea take equal parts of them all and boyl them in Rain-water and foment the Privities Or beat sowre Galls very finely mingle a little of the Powder of Cloves with them Let them boyl in sharp red Wine wet a woollen cloth in it and apply to the part Or thus may you restrain that part of common whores with Galls Gums whites of Eggs Dragons Blood Acacia Plantain Hypocistis Balanstia Mastick Cypress-nuts Grape-skins Akorn-cups Or in that hollow part where the Glans breaks forth and gaping shews the Nucleus with Mastick and Terra Lemnia If all these be boyled in red Wine or Vinegar and the Matrix be often wet therewith it will come very close and be much straighter Or else powder all these and cast them in through a Reed or make a fume under them Great Comfrey will be excellent for this purpose for flesh boyl'd with it will grow together And the other also if it be boyl'd will very well glew together fresh Wounds The Decoction of Ladies Mantle or the juice or distilled water of it cast into the Matrix will so contract it that Whores can scarce be known from Maids or if they sit in the Decoction of it especially if we mingle other astringent things with it and wet the Secrets therewith The distilled water of Starwort being often injected into the Matrix will make one scarce know which is corrupted and which is not But if you will have A woman deflowred made a virgin again Make little Pills thus Of burnt Allome Mastick with a little Vitriol and Orpiment make them into very fine Powder that you can scarce feel them when you have made them Pills with Rain-water press them close with your fingers and let them dry being pressed thin and lay them on the Mouth of the Matrix where it was first broken open change it every
of any Metal be to be extracted by Corrosives separate the Salt from the Waters after the work is done and use those Salts only which will easily be taken out again Vitriol and Allom are very difficult to be separated by reason of their earthy substance Moreover use not a watry menstruum for a watry Essence nor an oyly menstruum for an oyly Essence because being of like natures they are not easily separated but watry Menstruums for oyly Essences and so on the contrary I will set before you some examples in Herb fat of Flesh and other things by which you may learn of your self how to perform it in the rest There are an infinite number of Essences and almost many ways of Extraction of them some I shall shew unto you whereof the first shall be How to extract the Essence out of Civet Musk Ambar and other Spices Take Oyl of Ben or of Almonds mix Musk Ambar Cinnamon and Zedoary well beaten in it put it in a Glass-bottle and set it in the Sun or in Balneo ten dayes then strain from it the Dregs and the Essence will be imbibed into the Oyl from which you may separate it in this manner Take Aqua Vitae and if it be an odoriferous Body Fountain-water three or four times distilled mix with the aforesaid Oyl and stir it about and so let it digest for six dayes then distil it over Cinders the hot Water and the Essence will ascend and the Oyl remain in the bottom without any sent Afterwards distil the Aqua Vitae and the Essence in Balneo until the VVater be evaporated and the Essence settle to the bottom in the form of an Oyl If you will do it with Aqua Vitae alone slice the Roots of Zedoary beat them and infuse them in so much Aqua Vitae as will cover them three fingers over in a Glass Bottle let them ferment for ten dayes according to Art then distil them over Cinders or in Sand until nothing but VVater run out yet have a care of burning it Take the distilled Liquor set it in Balneo and with a gentle fire let the Aqua Vitae evaporate and the Quintessence of Zedoaay will settle in the bottom in a liquid form Next To extract Essence out of Flesh. Out of three Capons I have oftentimes extracted an Essence in a small quantity but of great strength and nutriment wherewith I have recovered life and strength to sick persons whose Stomacks were quite decayed and they almost dead for want of nourishment having not been able to eat any things in three dayes Take Chickens or Hens or Capons pluck them and draw their Guts out beat them very well and let them boyl a whole day in a Glass-Vessel close stopt over warm Embers until the bones and flesh and all the substance be dissolved into Liquor then strain it into another Vessel through a Linen-cloth and fling away the Dregs for the remaining Bones are so herest of Flesh sent or any other quality that a Dog will not so much as smell to them which is an assured Argument that their goodness is boyled out Pour the strained Liquor into a Glass-bottle and dissolve it into vapor in a gentle Bath the Essence will remain in the bottom either hard or soft like an Oyntment as you please of a most admirable vertue and never sufficiently to be commended To extract Essences out of Salts Take Salt and calcine it according to Art if it be volatile burn it and grinde it very small lay the Powder upon a Marble in a moyst Cellar and set a Pan under it to receive it as it dissolveth let it ferment in that pan for a month then set it in Balneo and with a gentle fire let it distil cast away the sweet Water that comes from it and set that which remains in the bottom to ferment another month then distil out the sweet Water as before and do this while any sweet VVater will run from it keep it over the fire until the moysture be all consumed and then what remains settled in the bottom is the Quintessence of Salt which will scarcely arise to two ounces out of a pound To extract Essences out of Herbs Beat the Herbs and set them to ferment in dung for a month in a convenient Glass-Bottle then distil them in Balneo Again set them in dung for a week and distil them in Balneo again and thus macerate them so long as they will yield any Liquor then pour the distilled Water upon the Herbs again and distil them in this Circulation for six dayes which will make it of a more lively colour draw of the VVater by Balneum and the Essence must then be expressed out in a press ferment it in dung for five days and it will yield you the sent colour and vertues of the Herbs in perfection A way to extract The Essence of Aqua Vitae It is a thing bragged of by thousands but not effected by any I will not omit the description of it which I have found out together with a Friend of mine very knowing in Experiments by the assistance of Lulius Provide some rich generous old VVine bury it in dung for two months in large Bottles close stopt and luted that they may not have the least vent The whole business dependeth on this for if this be not carefully look to you will lose both your cost and your labour the month being past distil it in an ordinary Stillatory reserve the Spirits by themselves The Dregs and Faeces of the Wine must be buried again and the Spirits be distilled out as before and reserved by themselves Distil the Faeces until they settle like Honey or Pitch then pour on the phlegm upon them wash them and lay them to dry then put them into a Porters or Glass-makers Furnace and with a vehement fire burn them into white Ashes wet them with a little VVater and set them in the mouth of the Furnace that they may be converted into Salt There is no better mark to know the perfection of your work then by casting some of it on a red hot Plate of Iron if it melt and evaporate it is well done otherwise you must rectifie it Mix the Salt with water and put it into a Glass bottle with a long neck stop it with Cork and Parchment then set on the Head and kindle the fire the force of which will carry it up thorow all the stoppage into the Head and there it sticks to the sides like durt the VVater will remain quiet in the bottom in which you must again mingle the Salt and so by a continual Circulation draw it out of it self until it be divested of all its Grosness and obtain a more thin and subtile Essence CHAP. XIV What Magisteries are and the Extraction of them I Said That Quintessences do participate of the Nature of mixt Bodies on the contrary a Magistery taketh the temper of the Elements so that it neither extracteth the
let it evaporate it will leave behinde it a Tincture enriched with the sent and vertues of the Flowers Tincture of Coral Beat the Coral to Powder and with a vehement fire turn it into Salt add an equal quantity of Salt-Peter to it then extract the Salt with Aqua Vitae and it will bring out with it the Tincture of a wonderful vertue CHAP. XVI How to extract Salts SAlts do retain the greatest part of the Vertue of those things from whence they are extracted and therefore are used to season the sick persons meat and otherways because they have a penetrative quality It was a great Question among the Ancients Whether Salts retained the vertue of the things or whether they lost some in the fire and acquired others but it is row manifested by a thousand Experiments that the vertues do not onely remain in them but are made quicker and more efficacious Salt of Lemmons Distill the Lemmons with their Peels and Juice reserve the Water and dry the rest in the Sun if the season permit it or in an Oven Put them in a Pot close luted and calcine it in igne reverberationis Then dissolve the Powder in the Water and boyl them in a perfect Lye cleanse it with a Feather that the Dregs may settle to the bottom purifie it and let the Liquor evaporate so the Salt will remain in the bottom which is most excellent to break the Stone in the Bladder Salt of Pellitory of Spain Dry the Roots and burn it in a close luted pot for three dayes until it be reduced into white Ashes pour on its own Menstruum distil it and calcine iâ— again so the third time then cleanse it with a Feather boyl it in an earthen vernished Pipkin with the white of an Egg to clarifie the Salt at length a white grained Salt will appear Salt of Cumine Put the Roots Leave and Flowers in a close luted Vessel and dry them and put them into a Potters Furnace till they be burned to Ashes In the mean while distil the Roots Leaves and Flowers or if you please make a decoction of them and of that decoction a sharp Lye which being strained very clean through a Linen-cloth three or four times must be boyled to a Salt in a Glass-Vessel If you desire it very fine and white strow the Salt upon a Marble and set it in a moist place with a pan underneath to receive it as it dissolveth cleanse the filth still away and do this three times until it become of a Chrystal colour so reserve In this manner Sal Alchali is made Of Saxifrage It is made like the former if you season your meat with it it protecteth from all danger of poysoned bread or meat conserveth from the contagion of pestilential and infections Air. The same may be extracted out of other Alexiphatmacal Bodies which Princes may use at meals instead of ordinary Salt for they scarce differ in taste A Salt may be made of Thapsia very good to remove the Stone in the Bladder or Kidneys and to dissolve the Tartar or viscous Concrescency to kill the Worms and purge the Blood to provoke sweat by being often taken and is admirable in Venereal Diseases The Salt of Pimpernel being taken three days and the third month for a mans whole life-time secureth him from the Dropsie Pâ—hisick and Apoplexy It also preserveth from infection and pestiferous Air and helpeth digestion in a weak Stomack But it is to be observed That these Salts must not be eaten every day left they become too familiar to the Stomack and be taken for food There may be a Salt also extracted out of the filings of Lignum Guaiacum which is excellent in the French Pox being taken as the former By these you may learn to make other Salts CHAP. XVII Of Elixirs ELixirs are the Conservators of Bodies in the same condition wherein they finde them for their Vertue is to preserve from corruption not by meliorating their state but by continuing it and if by accident they cure any Diseases it is by reason of their tenuity They have a double Vertue to preserve from sickness and continue health not onely in Men but to preserve Plants also They imitate the qualities of Balsam and resort chiefly to the Heart Brain and principal Parts where the Spirits reside There are three kinds of Elixirs of Metals of Gems and of Plants as of Roots Herbs Flowers Seeds Woods Gums and such-like An Elixir differeth from Essences Tinctures and the rest because it is compounded of many things void of fatness therefore it cannot be an Oyl because it wanteth perspicuity and clearness not an Essence because it is a Compound not a Tincture but a mean between all and of a consistence most like to Water whence it had its name ab eliquesco to be dissolved or liquified To make Elixir of Pimpernel Dig up the Roots in a convenient time and macerate them in their Water putting some weight on them to depress them under Water when the Flowers are blown gather them and macerate them in the same manner in a peculiar Vessel the same must be done with the Seeds Then put them in an Alimbeck and draw out the Water and Oyl until the Foeces remain dry then separate the Oyl from the Water and circulate it in a Pelican for two months then take it out and reserve it for your use An Elixir of many things Many Compositions of Elixir are carried about which are erroneous and false to my knowledge and of so hard a work to extract the Oyl and Water that you will more probably lose your time and cost then gain any good by them for they are made for pomp and magnificence rather then for the benefit of man Besides I have found them often fail in the performance of what was promised from them and cannot be made according to those descriptions But here I will deliver one to you which will perform far more then is promised Take the Flowers of Sage Origanum Mugwort Savory Elder Sage-Leaves white Mint Rosemary Basil Marjoram Peniroyal Rose-buds the Roots of Betony Pellitory Snake-weed white Thistle Aristolochy Elder Cretan-Ditany Currants Pine-Apples Dates Citron-Pill of each an ounce and a half Ginger Cloves Nutmegs Zedoary Galangal white and long Pepper Juniper-berries Spikenard Mace Cubebs Parsley-seed Cardomoms Cinnamon Staechados Germander Granes Rose of Jerusalem Doronicum Ammoniac Opoponax Spodium Schaeinanthus Bdellium Mummy Sagapenum Champhire Mastick Frankincense Aloes Powder of Ebony Bole-Armenick Treacle Musk Galls Mithridate Lignum Aloes and Saffron of each three drachms of clarified Sugar thirteen pounds of Honey two I exclude Pearl Rubies Jacinths Saphires Emeraulds and Leaf-Gold from the Composition because as I have proved before they have no operation especially thus exhibited and therefore are used in Medicines by none but ignorant Physitians Reduce all these into Powder and put them into a Pelican or blinde Alimbeck with twelve pound of Aqua Vitae very well clarified as though
the whole work depended on it let it circulate in Balneo a whole month take off the yellow Oyl or Quintessence of all with a Silver-Spoon and add to it a drachm of Musk and Amber and set it by for your use in a Glass-bottle close stopt Distil the remainder and it will afford a yellow cleer water but you cannot extract the Oyl without a stink of burning I have very exactly extracted Oyl of Gums Roots and Seeds of the forementioned and mixing them together have effected strange things with them Most of their operations are against Poysons and Pestilential Contagions especially those that are apt to seize on the Spirits for a drop of it being anoynted on the Lips or Nostrils reviveth the Soul and keepeth it in perfect Senses at least six hours CHAP. XVIII Of a Clyssus and how it is made THat there may nothing be omitted I will now shew what a Clyssus is and how it may be made A Clyssus is the Extraction of the Spirits of every part of a Plant united in one common entity There are in a Plant the Root Leaf Flower Fruit and Seed and in every one of these parts there is a peculiar Nature The Operation is thus Dig the Roots when they are full of juice the Leaves when they are fresh and green the Flowers when they are blown the Fruit and Seeds in their due time Extract the Spirits or Essences out of all these by Distillation Maceration or Calcination or any other of the former wayes But when they are all extracted severally one in the form of Oyl another of Salt or Liquor then mix them all together so that the may be conjoyned and united in one body which is called a Clyssus Some mix them in Distillation in Vessels made for the purpose in this manner They put the Water Salt and Oyl in three several Curbicles of equal height and bigness and tying their three necks together and put them into one common Head which may be fit to receive them all close them lute them and kindle the fire under The heat will elevate the thinnest substance in all of them which will meet and mix in the Head and run down by the Nose or Spout into the Receiver so set them by for use This Congregation of Essences doth penetrate and search all the remote passages of the Body and is very useful in Physick CHAP. XIX How to get Oyl out of Salts I Have declared many ways of extracting Oyl now I will shew how to draw it out of Salts that they may be more penetrative and work more powerfully which can be done no other way They seem to have some kinde of fat in them yet will not burn so that it cannot be called a perfect Oyl How to extract Oyl of Tartar Burn the Tartar and reduce it into a Salt as I shewed before then lay it on a Marble in a moyst place and in a few days it will turn to Oyl and run down into a dish which you must set underneath to receive it Thus you may easily make it into Salt Beat the Tartar into Powder and mix an equal quantity of Salt-Peter with it when they are mixt in Iron Mortar set them in the fire until they be quite burned grind the remaining Foeces and dissolve them in a Lye strain it and let the Lye evaporate away and the Salt will settle to the bottom then boyl some Eggs hard take ouâ— the yelks and fill up their place with Salt and in a little time it will dissolve into Oyl Oyl of Sal Sodae Dissolve the Salt in Water and strain it through a cloth then dry it lay it on a Marble and set it in a moyst place and it will run down in an Oyl So The famous Oyl of Talk is extracted onely by the vehement heat of fire yet I knew not at first what it was useful for But I perceive it is much accounted of by women in their Fâ—cus Beat it into fine Powder in an Iron-Morter and put it into a very strong thick Pot fasten the cover on with wire plaiâ—â—er it with Potters Clay and set it in the Sun for three days then thrust it into a Potters Furnace where the flames are most violent After three or four days take it out break open the Pot and if you finde it not sufficiently calcined make it up and set it in again When it is burned perfectly white lay it on a Marble and place it in a moyst room or in a hole dug in the earth and there let it stand for a good while until it dissolve into Oyl then reserve it in a Glass-bottle So also is made Red Oyl of Sulphur Grinde live Sulphur into a small Powder and mix it with an equal quantity of the former Oyl of Tartar boyl it three hours in a Glass-bottle and when it is dissolved strain it through a Linnen-cloth into another Glass and set it over a Gentle fire till it thicken like clotted blood and so dry Then powder it and lay it on a Marble in a moist Cellar there it will dissolve and run down into the under-placed dish Set this Liquor being first strained thorow a cloth in a Glass-bottle over warm Ashes until the moysture be consumed and there will remain a red Oyl of Sulphur Oyl of Myrrh Boyl some Eggs hard cut them in the middle take out the yelks and fill their places with Myrrh powdered and seirced lay them in an earthen Pan upon long cross-sticks that the Eggs may not imbibe the Oyl again and shut them in a moist Cellar so the Oyl will drop down into the Pan. CHAP. XX. Of Aqua Fortis NOw I will recite those Distillations which draw out neither Water nor Oyl but a middle between both for the terrene parts are forced up turned into Water by the vehemency of the fire from whence they do acquire so great a heat that corrode and burn most violently They are extracted onely in igne reverberationis and with great care and labour How to draw Aqua Fortis or Oyl out of Salt It is a piece of Art discovered to very few Take Pit-Salt put into a Glass-Retort treble luted over and dried set it in igne reverberationis where the flames do struggle most violently the first time you will get but little moysture Break the Retort and remove the Foeces into another and pour the extracted Water into them and distill them again the second time thou wilt get more Do the same a third time and so to the tenth until the Salt be all turned into Liquor which is a most precious Jewel and worth thy labor Some quench hot Bricks in the liquified Salt and then distil them with a most intense fire as in Oyl of Bricks A Water for the Separation of Silver Take Salt-Peter and Alom in equal quantity beat them in a Morter and put them into a Glass-Retort luted over three double when it is well dried set it in the circulating-fire that is which
Sanders and Lignum Aloes an ounce of Spikenard let these all be grossly beaten and boyled in a vernished earthen Pipkin over a gentle fire for the space of an hour then let them cool Strain them through a Linen-cloth and set it up in a Glass close stopt But tye up the Cinnamon Cloves Lignum Aloes and Sanders in a thin Linen-cloth and so put them into the pot and boyl them as I said before and afterwards take out the bundle for after the boyling of the water the remaining dust may be formed into Pills and made into Cakes which may be used in perfuming as I shall teach hereafter This Water is made divers ways but I have set down the best yet in the boyling it will turn coloured and become red so that Hankerchiefs or white Linen if they be wetted in it are stained although they are made wonderfully sweet which maketh many forbear the use of it Wherefore if we would have Aqua Nansa clarified Take the former Water and put it into a Glass-Retort and set it in Balneo over a gentle fire the VVater will become clear and almost of the same sent onely a little weaker keep the Water and lay aside the rest of the Foeces for sweet Cakes CHAP. II. To make sweet Water by Infusion NOw I will teach how to make perfumed Liquors and what Liquors they are which will receive odors best for VVater is unapt to keep sent Oyl is better and VVine we may assign the reason out of Theophrastus for VVater is thin â—oid of taste or sent and so fine that it can gather no sent and those Liquors which are thick savory and have a strong sent VVine although it be not sweet of it self yet being placed nigh any odour it will draw it because it is full of heat which doth attract VVater being cold by Nature can neither attract nor receive nor keep any sent for it is so fine slender and thin that the odour flieth out again and vanisheth away as if there were no foundation whereon it could fix and settle as there is in VVine and Oyl who are more tenacious of sent because they are of a denser and callous Body Oyl is the best preserver and keeper of sent because it is not changeable wherefore Perfumers steep their perfumes in Oyl that it may suck out their sweetness We use Wine to extract the sent of Flowers and especially Aqua Vitae for Wine unless distilled infecteth the Water too much with his own senâ— Musk Water This VVater setteth off all others and maketh them richer wherefore it is first to be made Take the best Aqua Vitae and put into it some Grains of Musk Amber and Civet and set them in the hot Sun for some dayes but stop the Vessel very close and lute it for that will very much add to the frangrancy of it A drop of this put into any other water will presently make it smell most pleasantly of Musk. You may do the same with Rose-water and Fountain-water often distilled that it may obtain a thinness and heat which is very necessary for the extraction of Essences Water of Jasmine Musk-Roses Gilliflowers Violets and Lillies is extracted the same way for these Flowers send forth but a thin odour which dwelleth not in the substance of them but onely lieth scattered on the superficies so that if they remain too long on the fire or in their Menstruum their sweetness degenerateth from its former pleasantness and is washed off by the mixture of the stinking ill-savoured part of their substance VVherefore we must lay their Leaves onely in the best Aqua Vitae that is the Leaves of Lillies Jasmine Musk-Roses and the rest hanging them on a threed that when the VVater hath sucked out their odour we may pluck them out because their odour lieth onely on their superficies so that if they should remain long in the Aqua Vitae it would penetrate too deep into them and draw out a sent which would not onely destroy their former sweetness but taint them with an ill savour which accompanieth those inward parts After these Leaves are taken out supply them with fresh until you perceive their sent is also extracted But take out the Violets and the Gilliflowers sooner then the rest lest they colour the VVater This VVater being mixt with others taketh away the scurvy sent of the VVine A sweet compounded Water Take a great Glass-Receiver and fill the third part almost of it with Aqua Vitae put into it Lavender-Flowers Jasmine Roses Orange and Lemmon-Flowers Then add Roots of Iris Cypress Sanders Cinnamon Storax Labdanum Cloves Nutmegs Calamus Aromaticus with a little Musk Amber and Civet Fill the Glass and stop it well But after you have filled the Glass with the Flowers they will wither and sink down wherefore fill it up with more Set it in a very hot Sun or in Balneo until their sweetness be all extracted Then strain out the Water and one drop of it in Rose-water or of Myrtle-Flowers will perfume it all with a most fragrant smell CHAP. III. How to make sweet Oyls HOw to extract Oyl out of Spices and sweet things is declared before now I will shew how to draw sents out of other things with Oyl or as I said before to make Oyl the ground in which odours may be kept and preserved a long time which is done either by imbibing the Oyl with odors or the Almonds out of which we afterwards express the Oyl How to make Oyl of Ben which is the sweetest Oyl of all used by the Genois take an ounce of Ben a drachm of Amber as much Musk half a drachm of Civet put them in a Glass-bottle well stopt and set it in the Sun for twenty days then you may use it But be sure that it be close stopt for the Nature of odors being volatile and fugitive it quickly decayeth loseth his fragrancy and smelleth dully A way to make odoriferous Oyl of Flowers it is a common thing but very commodious for Perfumers and may be used for other things he that knoweth how to use it rightly and properly will finde it an Oyl very profitable to him Blanch your Almonds and bruise them and lay them between two rows of Flowers When the Flowers have lost their sent and fade remove them and add fresh ones Do this so long as the Flowers are in season when they are past squeeze out the Oyl with a press and it will be most odoriferous You may draw a sent with this way out of those Flowers from whom you cannot draw sweet Water Oyl of Jasmine Violets Musk-Roses Lillies Crows-foot Gilliflowers Roses and Orange-Flowers and of others being made this way smelleth most fragrantly Oyl of Amber Musk and Civet may be thus made also Cut the Almonds being blanched from the top to the bottom into seven or eight slices and enclose them in a Leaden Box with these perfumes for six days until they have imbibed the sent then press
either white or black or brown The white is made of Crude Parâ—er washed in Rose-water or other sweet Water and adding Musk Amber Civet and such-like it will smell at a good distance CHAP. VII How to make sweet Compounds THere may be made divers kindes of sweet Compounds of which are made Beads which some use to reckon their Prayers by and others to trim their clothes with also wash-Balls to cleanse and sweeten the hands And first How to make sweet Balls with small charge which yet shall seem to be very costly and sweet Take one ounce of Cyprian Powder and Benjamin of the best mixture which is brought out of Turky half an ounce of Cloves a sufficient quantity of Illyrian Iris. First melt some Gum Tragacantha in rose-Rose-water then with the former powder make it into a Mass and rowl it up in little Balls bore them thorow and fix every one on a several tent upon the Table then take four Grains of Musk dissolve it in Rose-water and wash the outside of the Balls with it then let them dry afterwards wet them again for three or four times so will they cast forth a most pleasant sent round about which they will not quickly lose But if you would bestow more cost and have a greater sent I will shew How to make them another way Take one ounce of Storax of Amber half one a fourth part of Labdanum cleansed one drachm of Lignum aloes and Cinnamon an eighth part of Musk. Beat the Gum Storax and Amber in a Brass Morter with an Iron Pestle being both hot when these are well mixed cast in the other powders and mix them all together at last add the Musk and before they grow cold from what you please of them I will add also Another Compound very necessary in a time of Plague which will not onely refresh the Brains with its sweet odour but will preserve it against infection Take three ounces of Labdanum as much Storax one of Bejamin an ounce and a half of Cloves an ounce of Sanders three of Champhire one of Lignum Aloes Calamus Aromaticus and juice of Valerian a drachm of Amber mix all these in the juice of Balm rose-Rose-water and Storax dissolved But to wash the Face and Hands I will set down a most Noble Composition Of washing Balls or Musk-Balls Take the fat of a Goat and purifie it in this manner Boyl a Lye with the Pills of Citron in a Brass Kettle let the fat remain in it for an hour then strain it thorow a Linen-cloth into cold water and it will be purified Make the Lye of two parts of the Ashes of the Ceruss-Tree one of Lime and half a Porringer of Alom mingle them and put them in a wooden Bowl with two holes in the bottom stopt with Straw then pour in water that it may cover them three fingers over and strain it out thorow the holes when the first is run out add another quantity of water and so the third time whilst the water doth receive any saltness Keep these several runnings asunder and add some of the second third unto the first while a new Egg will swim in it for if it sink and go to the bottom it will be too weak therefore add some of the first running If it swim on the top and lie upon the surface of the Water put in some of the second and third running until it descend so that scarce any part of it be seen above the Water Heat twenty pound of this Water in a Brass Kettle and put into it two of the fat then strain it out into broad Platters and expose it to the hot Sun mixing it often every day When it is grown hard make Pomanders of it and reserve them You may thus perfume them Put two pound of the Pomanders into a Bowl and with a VVooden Spoon mix it with Rose-water till it be very soft when it hath stood still a while and is grown hard add more water and set it in the Sun do this for ten days Then take half a drachm of Musk somewhat less Civet and as much of Cinnamon well beaten mix them and if you add a little Rose-powder it will smell much sweeter then judge of it by your nose If the sent be too weak add more of the Perfumes if too strong more of the Soap How to make Soap and multiply it Since we are fallen upon the discourse of Soap we will not pass it over this Take Soap Geta and reduce it into a small Powder set it on the fire in a Brass Kettle full of Lye of a moderate strength so that in three hundred pound of Lye you may put fourscore of Soap When the Water beginneth to boyl up in bubbles stir it with a wooden Ladle and if the Lye do fail in the boyling add new When the Water is evaporated take the Kettle from the fire and cast in six pound of ordinary Salt well beaten and with an Iron Ladle empty it out and let it cool all night In the mean time prepare a brine so sharp that it will bear an Egg. In the morning cut the Soap into slices and put it into a broad Vessel and pour the brine on it there let it stand one quarter of a day and it will become very hard If you put some Sal Alchali into the brine it will make it much harder CHAP. VIII How to make sweet Perfumes IT remaineth that we speak of Perfumes for they are very necessary for the senting of Skins Clothes and Powders and to enrich Noble mens Chambers with sweet odors in Winter they are made either of Waters or Powders How to make Perfumes of Waters Take four parts of Storax three of Benjamin of Labdanum Lignum Aloes and Cinnamon one an eighth part of Cloves a little Musk and Amber Beat them all grossly and put them in a Brass Pot with an ounce and a half of rose-Rose-water Set the Pot over the fire or hot Ashes that it may be hot but not boyl it will cast forth a pleasant odor when the Water is consumed put in more You may also add what you have reserved in the making Aqua Nanfa for it will send out a very sweet fume Another way Take three parts of Cloves two of Benjamin one of Lignum Aloes as much Cinnamon Orange-Pill and Sanders an eight part of Nutmeg Beat them and put them into a pot and pour into them some Orange-flower-water Lavender and Myrtle-water and so heat it Another way Express and strain the juice of Lemmon into which put Storax Camphire Lignum Aloes and empty Musk-Cods macerate them all in Balneo for a week in a Glass-Bottle close stopt When you would perfume your Chamber cast a drop of this Liquor into a Brass Pot full of Rose-water and let it heat over warm Ashes it will smell most pleasantly Excellent Pomanders for perfuming Take out of the Decoction for Aqua Nanfa Lignum Aloes Sanders Cinnamon and Cloves and of the
the Birds will be so stupid that they cannot flie but are catch'd with ones hand Or mingle Barley and mushrooms that are so called from flies with the seeds of Henbane and make the pap of it and lay on a board as before To catch Rooks with your hands Powder Nux vomica and mingle it with flesh So also you may make Fish drunk Opian teacheth some ways If you will Make Fish drunk Sow-bread will do it for I said that Sow-bread will make men more drunk His words are Of Sow-bread-Root they make a paste that 's white And fat with which the rocks and holes they smeer The water 's poyson'd by it and the might And force thereof doth spread both far and neer The Fishes fall the Fishes are made blinde And tremble at it for the stinking smell This Root thus ordered alwayes leaves behinde Doth make them drunk as Fishers know full well CHAP. IX The peculiar poysons of Animals are declared DO not think I mean that one poyson can kill all living Creatures but every one hath his several poyson for what is venome to one may serve to preserve another which comes not by reason of the quality but of the distinct nature Would we mention The venoms that kill Dogs Dioscâ—rides saith that white Chamaeleon made up with Barley-Flour will kill Dogs Sows and Mice being wet with water or Oyl Theophrastus saith Dogs and Sows kneaded with water and Oyl but with Coleworts Sows Nux vomica which from the effect is called Dogs Nut if it be filed and the thin filings thereof be given with Butter or some fat thing to a Dog to swallow it will kill him in three hours space he will be astonished and fall suddenly and dies without any noise but it must be fresh that Nature seems to have produced this Nut alone to kill Dogs They will not eat the Fruit of the Ash because it makes pain in their back-bone and hips yet Sows are fatted by it So there is one Plant called Dogs bane Chrysippus saith that Dogs are killed with it if the shoots of it are given to them with water Dogs cole or wilde cole if it be given with Flesh so the fumes of Lead Aristotle in his wonders concerning the Country of the Scythians and Medes saith that there is Barley that men feed on but Dogs and Sows will not endure the Excrements of those that eat it as being poyson to them I say nothing of Aconitum called by Dioscorides Dogs bane I shall say the same Of Wolfs bane Wolfs bane kills Wolfs and many other wild Beasts and it 's so called from the effect Mountebanks make venome thus Take black Hellebore two ounces Yew-leaves one ounce Beech-rinde Glass quick Lime yellow Arsenick of each one ounce and half of sweet Almonds three ounces Honey what may suffice Make pellets as big as a small Nut. Others take Wolfs bane yellow Arsenick and Yew-leaves of each alike and mingle them There are other Herbs that kill Wolfs but I pass them to avoid tediousness Aelian saith By Nilus grows an Herb called Wolfs bane if a Wolf tread on it he dies of convulsions Wherefore the Egyptians forbid any such Herb to be imported into their Country because they adore this Creature There are also Herbs that kill Mice That Aconitum which is called Myoctonon kills Mice a great way off Dioscorides and Nicandor Staves-acre hath almost the same forces whose Root or Seed in powder mingled with Meal and fried with Butter kills Mice if they eat it They are driven away with the Root of Daffodils and if their holes be stopt with it they die The wilde Cucumber and Coloquintida kill Mice If Mice eat Tithymal cut into small slices and mingled with Flour and Metheglin they will be blinde So Chamaeleon Myacanthus Realgar namely of live Brimstone quick Lime and Orpiment will do the same But amongst Wolfs banes is reckoned Libards bane by whose Root powdered and given with flesh they are killed Flesh is strewed with Aconite and Panthers are killed if they taste thereof Their jaws and throat are presently in pain therefore it is called Pardalianches They are killed also by Dogs bane which also they call Pardalianches Lious bane is called Leontophonon it is a little Creature that breeds nowhere but where the Lion is Being taken it is burnt and with the Ashes thereof flesh is strewed and being cast in the high-ways where they meet Lions are killed so Pardalianches kills Lions as well as Panthers Ox bane The juice of black Chamaeleon kills Heifers by a Quinsey wherefore some call it Ulophonon Oxen fear black Hellebore yet they will eat the white Goats bane There is an Herb that from killing Beasts but especially Goats is called Aegolethros The Flowers of it in a watry Spring-time are venome when they wither so that this mischief is not found every yeer Harts bane Some 〈◊〉 First are found in Armenia with the powder of them they scatter Figs strewed with it in the places where wilde Beasts come Beasts no sooner taste of them but they diâ—â— And by this Art are Harts and Bores killed Aelian Horse banes are Aconite Hellebore and red Arsenick Wheezles bane are Sal Ammoniacâ— and Corn moystened with some Liquor scatter this about such places as Wheeâ—les haunt when they eat it they die or flie away Sheeps bane Nardum kills Sheep Dioscorides Cattel and Goats if they drink the water where Rhododendron is steeped will die Pliny and Ononyâ—â—ius an Author nameless Flea-bane kills Goats and Sheep so doth Savin Pigeons bane Sâ—r apio writes that Pigeons are killed when they eat Corn or Beans steept in water wherein white Hellebore hath been infused Hens bane Hens die by eating the Seeds of Broom called Spartum Bats bane 〈◊〉 in Geopon saith they die by the fume of Ivy. Vultures Some Animals are killed by â—ings that smell very sweet to us Vultures by Unguents and black Beetâ—â—â— by Roses The same happens if a man do but anoynt them or give them meat that is smeered with sweet Oyntment Aristotle lib. Mirabil Scorâ—ions bane Aconite called Theliphonum from killing Scorpions Scorpions are stupified by touching it and they wax pale shewing thâ—â— they are conquered The Eagle is killed with Comfrey the 〈◊〉 with the Gall of the Hiaenaâ— the Stare with Garlick-seed the 〈◊〉 with Brimstone the Urcâ—in with Pondweed the Faulcon the Sea-gill the Turtlâ— the black-Bird the Vulture the night-Bird called Scopes perish with Pomegranate Kâ—rneâ— The â—â—â—ling by the Flower of Willows the Grow with Rocket-seed the Bâ—â—tle with sweâ—t Oyntment the Rook with the reliques of flesh the Wolf hath fed on the â—ark by Mustard-seed the Crane by the Vine-juice CHAP. X. Of the venomes for Fishes THe Sea and Rivers use to be infected with some Herbs and other simples whereby the Fishes 〈…〉 those waters are 〈…〉 and die But because they are several foâ— several Fish 〈…〉 the Particulars and the Genâ—â—als that the Fisherman taught by these may invâ—â—â— others
himself Fishes 〈…〉 saith Pliny by the Root the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 called round Birth-wort called also the venome of the Earth This Root they bruise and mingle it with Lime and cast itin to the Sea the Fishes come to it with great delight and are presently killed and float on the waters Dioscorides saith that broad leaved Tiâ—hymal bruised and strewed in the waters kills Fish We use now 〈…〉 Roots of it and with a weight let them down to the bottom of the waters that will be infected by them and kill the Fish presently But in the Sea 〈◊〉 shall sooner kill them thus Mingle Oriental Galls two drâ—chms 〈◊〉 Cheese one ounce Bean-meal three ounces with Aqua Vitae make pelleâ—s of these as big as Chick-peason Cast them into the Sea in the morning before Sun rise after three hours come to the place again and you shall finde all those that tasted of it 〈◊〉 drunk or dead and to appear either on the top or bottom of the Sea which you shall take up with a pole and a hook fastened to it or Fish speer The Aqua Vitae is added because it soon flies to the head The Oriental Galls are poyson that astonisheth them the Bean-meal is not of great concernment This bait invites them and the Cheese smells so that they sent it at a distance CHAP. XI Of other Experiments for hunting NOw I will add some Experiments that seem to be requisite that you may use for necessity when you please To change a Dogs colour Since white Dogs are seldom fit for hunting because they are seen afar off a way is found to change his colour that will be done if you boyl quick Iâ—me with Litharge and paint 〈◊〉 Dog with it 〈…〉 him black That a Dog may not go from you Democrites saith a Dog will never 〈◊〉 from you if you smeer him with Butter from head to tail and give him Butter to â—ick Also 〈…〉 you if you have the secondine of a Bitch close in a 〈…〉 â—mell to it If you â—ould not have Your Dog to bark If you have a Bitches second Membrane or Hares hairs or Dung or Vervain about you In Nilus there is a black stone found that a Dog will not bark 〈◊〉 he see it you must also carry a Dogs Tongue undâ—â— your great 〈◊〉 within your shooe or the dry heart of a dog about you Sextus Or the hair of 〈◊〉 or the Dung Pliny Or cut off the tail of a yong 〈◊〉 and put it under 〈…〉 or 〈◊〉 the Dog a Frog to eat in a piece of meat All these things are to â—â—ep Dogs from barking Nigidius saith that Dogs will all day 〈◊〉 from him who pulls off a tâ—â—k from a Sow and carrieth it a while about him Opâ—an If of 〈…〉 you takes And wâ—â—r it 〈…〉 dogs will 〈◊〉 for sake As frighted they will flie and 〈…〉 Bark at you though they barked much before That a Dog may not run If you anoynt him with Oyl under the shoulders he cannot run To make a Hawke 〈…〉 You shall animate your Hawk against 〈◊〉 prey thaâ— he may assail and flee at great Birds When you hawk wet the Hawks meat with Wine If it be a Buzzard add a little Vinegar to it when you would have him 〈◊〉 a give him three bits of flesh wet in wine or pour Wine in at his mouth with a yong Pidgeon so let him flie To make Partridge more bold to fight Give then 〈…〉 with their meat Pliny That dung-hill 〈◊〉 fight the better Give them Garlick to eat soon before theâ— fight whence in the old Comedy a Cock ready and earnest to fight is wittily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fed with Garlick 〈◊〉 a Bird may not the high Take out the Feathers of 〈…〉 that make him flie upwards so he will whirl about and flie downward If you will have That a Bird shall not flie cut the upper and lower nerves of his Wings and it will not hurt him yet he cannot flie out of your Bird-cages or places you keep them in THE SIXTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Wherein are handled secret and undiscovered Notes THE PROEME I Make two sorts of secret marks which they vulgarly call Syfers one of visible marks and is worthy of a treatise by it self another of secret marks whereof 〈…〉 tempted to say something in this present Volume 〈◊〉 what are the consequâ—â—â— thereof for the use of great Men and Princes that 〈…〉 than 〈…〉 man that knows the invention I shall set down plainly some examples 〈…〉 consequences of them must 〈◊〉 faithfully concealed lest by growing 〈◊〉 amongst ordinary people they be disrespecteâ—â— This is that I shall publish CHAP. I. How 〈…〉 in diver◠〈…〉 be reâ—â— THere are many anâ— almost infinit 〈◊〉 write things of necessity that the Charactâ—â— shall not 〈…〉 â—ou dip them into waters or put them neer the 〈…〉 them over 〈…〉 are read by dipping them into waters Therefore If you desire that letters not 〈…〉 are 〈◊〉 may be hiâ—â— Let Vitriol soak in boyling water when 〈…〉 strain it 〈◊〉 till the water grow clear with that liquor write 〈…〉 are dry they 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 Moreover grindâ— burnt straw 〈…〉 â—â—egar and 〈◊〉 will write 〈◊〉 the spaces between the foâ—â—er liâ—â—s describâ—â— large Then 〈…〉 Galls in white Wine wet a spunge in the liquor 〈◊〉 when you have need 〈…〉 and weâ— the letters so long until the native black 〈◊〉 disappear but the former colour that was not seen may 〈…〉 I will 〈◊〉 in what liquors paper must be soaked to make letters 〈◊〉 be see 〈…〉 said Dissolve Vitriol 〈…〉 then powder Galls finely and soak them inâ—â—ter let them stay there twenty four hours filtre them through 〈◊〉 cloth 〈…〉 that may make the water clear and make letters upon 〈…〉 to have concealed send it to your Friend absent when you would have 〈◊〉 appear dip them in the first liquor and the letters â—ill presenâ—â—y be seen That diâ—â—â—ng 〈◊〉 lineâ—â—â— water 〈◊〉 may appear Dissolve Alom in water and 〈…〉 linen 〈◊〉 napkins and the like for when they are dry they will 〈…〉 When you will have them visible 〈…〉 linen 〈…〉 to be darkned but only where the Alom 〈…〉 that you may read them 〈…〉 are dissolved those parts will admit water 〈◊〉 White 〈…〉 Litharge is first powdered and cast into an earthen pot that hath water and vinegar mix'd boyl it and strain it and keep it then write letters with Citron Lemons juce these are added to them when they begin to dry If you dip them in the liquor kept they will appear clearly and very white If womens brests or hands be wet in it and you sprinkle the said water upon them they will grow white as Milk Use it If at any time you want 〈◊〉 if you please A stone dipped in vinegar will shew the letters Make letters with Goats far upon a stone when they are dry they will not be seen If the stone be dipâ— into 〈◊〉 they presently
the Crown than for the Gold lump he reasoned that there must be a mixture in the Crown This was the Greeks invention that is worthy of praise but the operation is difficult for in things of small quantity the theft cannot be discerned nor can this reason appear so clear to the eye where the obsolute fashion of the vessel was wanting Now a way is invented how for all money be it never so small we can tell presently and we want not many instruments that we may cry We have overfounded Vpereureka Vpereureka we have gone beyond Archimedes his Eureka The way is this To know any part of Silver mingled with Gold Take a perfect ballance and put in one scale any Metal in the other as much of the same Metal but the purest of its kind and when the scales hang even in the Air put them into a vessel full of water and let them down under water about half a foot Then will it be a strange wonder for the ballances that hang equal in the Air will change their nature in the water and will be unequal for the impure Metal will be uppermost and the pure will sink to the bottom The reason is because pure Gold compared with that kind is heavior than all impure Gold because pure Gold taketh less place wherefore it will way heavior by the former reason If then we would know how much Silver is in that Gold put as much pure Gold in the other scale as will make the ballances equal under the waters when they are equal take them up and the weight you added under water will be the weight of the mixture If you would know how much Gold is upon a vessel Gilded put the Cup in one scale and as much pure Silver in the other that the scales may hang equal in the Air then put them into the water and the vessel will sink down put into the other scale as much pure Gold as will make them equal under water draw them forth and that is the weight of the Gilt of the plate You shall do the same for Silver Brass Iron white or black Lead But would you know whether in Money Brass be mingled with Silver or Coin be adulterated with Copper put the Money into one scale and as much of the finest Silver into the other ballance them equal then put them under the water the Money will go down adde as much Brass as will make the scales equal then take them forth and it will be the weight of the mixture Now will I set the weighâ—s of Metals how much they weigh more in the waters than in the Air whereby without any other experiment we may know mixtures An Iron-ball that weighed nighteen ounces in the Air will weigh fifteen in the waters whence it is that a Ball of the same magnitude must owe three ounces to the water wherefore the proportion of Iron in the Air to the same in the waters is as fifteen to nineteen A Leaden Bullet of the same magnitude weighs 31 ounces in the Air in the water but 27 A Marble Bullet little less for bulk weighs 7 in the Air and 5 in the water Copper weighs 16 in the Air and 12 in the waters Silver weighs in the Air 125 in the waters 113 Brass in the Air weighs 65 Karats and one grain in the waters 50 Karats and two grains Crown Gold in the Air weighs 66 grains in the waters 6â— Gold called Zechini in the Air weighs 17 Karats under water 16 Karats Tâ—rkish Ducat Gold weighs in the Air 34 under waters 32 Common French Crown Gold weighs in the Air 67 under waters 60 Common Crown Gold of Hungary that is old in the Air weighs 17 in the water 16 Crown Gold of Tartary weighs 16 in the Air and 14 under water THE NINETEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Concerning VVind-Instruments THE PROEME I Have spoken concerning light and heavy now follow experiments by wind for these seem to follow the reasons of Mathematicks and of the Air and water and a Philosopher who seeks to find things profitable and admirable for mans use must insist on these things contemplate and search them out in no thing doth the Majesty of Nature shine forth more There are extant the famous Monuments of the most learned Heron of Alexandria concerning wind Instruments I will adde some that are new to give an occasion to search out greater matters CHAP. I. Whether material Statues may speak by any Artificial way I Have read that in some Cities there was a Colassus of Brass placed on a mighty high Pillar which in violent tempests of wind from the nether parts received a great blast that was carried from the mouth to a Trumpet that it blew strongly or else sounded some other Instrument which I believe to have been easie because I have seen the like Also I read in many men of great Authority that Albertus Magnus made a head that speak Yet to speak the truth I give little credit to that man because all I made trial of from him I found to be false but what he took from other men I will see whether an Image can be made that will speak Some say that Albertus by Astrological elections of times did perform this wonderful thing but I wonder how learned men could be so guld for they know the Stars have no such forces Some think he did it by Magick Arts. And this I credit least of all since there is no man that professeth himself to know those Arts but Impostors and Mountebanks whilst they cheit ignorant men and simple women nor do I think that the Godly man would profess ungodly Arts. But I suppose it may be done by wind We see that the voice or a sound will be conveighed entire through the Air and that not in an instant but by degrees in time We see that Brass-guns which by the force of Gun-powder make a mighty noise if they be a mile off yet we see the flame much before we hear the sound So hand-Guns make a report that comes at a great distance to us but some minutes of time are required for it for that is the nature of sounds Wherefore sounds go with time and are entire without interruption unless they break upon some place The Eccho proves this for it strikes whole against a wall and so rebounds back and is reflected as a beam of the Sun Moreover as I said in this work words and voices go united together and are carried very far entire as they are spoken at first These therefore being laid down for true grounds if any man shall make leaden Pipes exceeding long two or three hundred paces long as I have tried and shall speak in them some or many words they will be carried true through those Pipes and be heard at the other end as they came from the speakers mouth wherefore if that voice goes with time hold entire if any man as the words are spoken shall stop the
brass Cauldron that will hold much water fill it with salt water after that the Urinals and putting on their caps when fire is put under both the Urinals will drop and the cap that contains others by its pipe will drop out water also for the vapors rising from the Cauldron of hot water will make the Urinals drop and the cap will drop withal But if at Sea the commodity of such a vessel cannot be had We may Distil salt water otherwise though but little Dioscorides shews the old way of distillation we may that way distil sea water in ships which Pliny shews also Fleeces of wool extended about the ship are made wet by the vapors rising from the Sea and sweet water is pressed out of them But let us see whiter Salt water may be made fresh another way Aristotle saith it and Solomon before him That all Rivers came from the Sea and return to the Sea for by the secret passages under ground the waters that are sent forth leave their earthly and dry parts mixed with the earth and they come forth pure and sweet He saith The cause why the salt water comes not forth is because it is ponderous and settles and therefore onely hot-waters of salt-waters can run forth for they have a lightness that oversways the weight of the salt for what is hot is lightest Adde that waters running through the earth are much strained and therefore the heavior and thicker they are the more do they continually sink down and are left behind and the lighter they are the more pure do they come forth and are severed For as Salt is heavy so sweet water is light and so it comes that they are sweet waters that run forth This is the very cause why salt-water when it moves and is changed is made the sweeter for motion makes it lighter and purer Let us see now if we can imitate Nature Fill then great vessels with earth and set them so one above another that one may drean into another and thus salt-water dreaning through many vessels may leave the salt behinde I tried it through ten vessels and it remain'd still salt My friend said that he made it sweet through twenty vessels Yet thus I thought to warn you of that all earth is not fit for this use Solinus saith That sea-sea-water strain'd through clay will grow sweet and it is proved that the salt is taken away if you strain it often through thin sand of a River Earth that lies in covered places and under roots is naught for that is commonly salt as also where Cattle are sâ—alled which Columella saith is naught for Trees for that it makes salt-water what is strain'd from it Black earth is naught for it makes the waters sharp but clay grounds make sweet waters Paxamus Anaxagoras said That the saltness of the sea came from the Rivers running through salt places and communicating that quality to the sea Some approve River-gravel for this use and their reason is because always sweet waters are found by the shores and they say this happens because they are strain'd through the sand and so grow fresh coming from the salt-sea for the sweet water that is found neer the sea is not of the sea but such water as comes from the tops of hills through the secret channels of the earth thither For waters that drean forth sweet are sweet though they lye even with the sea and in plain places as Apuila where the waters drean not from the hills they are salt So on the shores of Africa But Aristotle brings an experiment from a vessel of wax for if one make a Ball of wax that is hollow and shall dip it into the sea it being of a sufficient thickness to contain he shall finde it full of fresh water because the corpulent saltness cannot get in through the pores of the wax And Pliny by letting down little nets into the sea and hollow balls of wax or empty vessels stopt saith they will draw in fresh water for sea-water strain'd through clay will grow fresh But I have found this to be false For I have made pots of clay as fine and well as I could and let them down into salt-water and after some days I found salt-water in them Also if it were true it is of no use when as to sweeten one pound of water a thousand Balls of wax a day were not sufficient But for this many vessels might be invented of porous wood and stones A vessel of Ivy that parts as I said wine from water will not part salt from water if it drean through it But stones are brought from Portingal made into vessels into which sea water put will drean forth sweet if not the first yet the second time they use it to break the stone also for that many pumex and porous stones may be tried Leo Baptista Albertus saith That an earthen pot well stopt and put into the sea will fill with potable water But I have tried all earthen vessels and I always found salt-water Aristotle in his Problems saith It may be done Another way If salt-water cannot be drank cold yet hot and cool again it is better to drink It is because a thing useth to change from contrary to contrary and salt-water is contrary to fresh and when it is boil'd the salt part is boil'd off and when it is cold stays at the bottom This I tried and found it false and more salt for by heat the thin vapors of the water that are sweet exhale and the salt stay behinde and in lesser water the same quantity of salt makes it salter as I said in my distillations I wonder such a wise man would relate such falsities Florentinus borrowing it from him saith If water be not good nor poâ—able but ill let it be boiled till a tenth part of it be consumed then purge it and it will be good For sea-water so boil'd will grow sweet Let me see whether it can be made so Another way and that in great quantity There is a thing that being cast into large vessels filled with sea-water by fastning the salt will make it fall to the bottom or by curdling it and so it frees the water from it Wherefore we must think on things that have a stiptick quality the Antients tried this the Moderns have effected it Pliny Nitrous of bitter waters if you put Barley-flower dried to them they are tempered that you may drink of them in two hours therefore is Barley-flower put into wine sacks and elswhere Those that go to the Red-sea through the Desarts make nitrous and salt and bitter waters fit to drink in two hours by putting in of Barley-meal and they eat Barley-meal The like force hath the Chalk of the Rhodes and our Clay Also Cooks with Catlings and Meal of Wheat will take salt out of very salt meaâ— I tried this oft but found it false yet some of the saltness was taken away Pliny If you must drink ill
a strong Lixivium wherein Litharg is boiled Also it will notably alter the Countenance To adde or take off Hair An Unguent used in Stoves and Hot-houses is good for that purpose made of Orpiment and quick Lime for this will presently make the part bald so the eyelids and eyebrows being made smooth will strangely metamorphise a man We can also make the Hair grow suddenly with water of honey and the fat of an eel and horse as I said One may thus Make his face swelled pressed down or full of scars Nothing doth more deform the visage then the stinging of Bees We can make scars with caustick Herbs by applying them and letting them lye on for a little time Tumours and Cavities are made by using to the part milk of Tithymal as to the Mouth Nose Eyes especially where the skin is off that by this remedy alone the face is deformed so you may do the Cods and Testicles water of Cantharides smeered on doth presently cause bladders and humours Turbith beaten and boiled and anointed on makes all swell where it toucheth chiefly the Testicles The powder of the Yew doth so exulcerate the skin that the people will think the man is most miserable and in a sad condition The remedy is the juyce of the Poplar or the oyl of Poplar The fume of Brimstone and burnt straw will discolour the face as Hypocrites do who by such means alter their countenance Mingle together the feces of Aqua fortis one ounce Pickle and Curcuma of each one drachm with Oyl to the form of an unguent and anoint your face it will make it black When you will wash it with cold water it will come to its former complection Comedians and Tragedians when they Act on the Stage they smeer their faces with lees of Oyl to change them that such as are their acquantance may not know them Because the stinging of Bees Wasps Hornets do so change the face making the Nose Mouth and other parts to stand awry and to be full of swellings and depressions If any man wash his skin with the decoction of Hornets or Wasps the place will so swell that it will make men suspect some disease yet it is without pain The remedy is Theriot drank or smeered on the part and this is the fraud that false women use to counterfeit themselves to be with child Beat together Oyl-lees coles of a Vine and Pomegranate Pills and mingle them and if you touch your face with this liniment you shall make it exceeding black but the juyce of sowre Grapes or Milk will wash it off CHAP. IV. That stones may move alone THe Antients say that the stones called Prochites and Astroites laid upon some other plain stone will move of themselves if you put Vinegar to them The way shall be this let a plain well polished on the outward superficies Porphyr Marble stone lye beneath lay upon this the stone Trochites or Astroites whose outward superficies is made smooth also then put to them a little vinegar or juyce of Lemons presently of themselves will the Trochites as well as the Astroites without any thing moving them go to the declining superficies and it is very pleasant to see this Cardan saith That such stones have a thin moisture in them which by the force of the vinegar is turned into a vapor and when it cannot get forth it tumbles the stone up and down There is the beginning of a thin vapor but it comes not forth because it is credible that the passages are very narrow I should think that air is shut up in the veins of it for it is probable where you shall see substances of divers colours Wherefore vinegar because it is subtile of parts goes in and drives out the air which passing out by the vinegar moves the stone Yet I have found that all stones will move themselves that are mingled of divers stones have divers open passages in their veins For the vinegar entring in at the joynts forceth the stone to move it self The Alabaster stone called vulgarly Lodognium moves excellently for it is distinguished by divers veins and varieties of stones and I have seen a piece not onely of one pound but of â—our pounds to move it self and it was like a Tortois and when the stone began to move it seemed like a Tortois crawling That kinde of Marble moves by it self with vinegar which is called Brocadello which is compounded of divers and mingled parts Also with vinegar doth that spotted Marble walk which is spotted with red yellow and brown spots they call it the Lowsie stone and it makes the beholders to wonder at it I must tell you this before I leave off because I would omit nothing If the Marble be spotted underneath and be above all of one colour and hard or beneath all of one colour and hard and above of divers colours when vinegar is poured on or any sharp liquor it runs presently to the declining part sometimes in circles sometimes by jumps and sometimes hastily moving it self CHAP. V. How an Instrument may be made that we may hear by it a great way IN my Opticks I shewed you Spectacles wherewith one might see very fat Now I will try to make an Instrument wherewith we may hear many miles and I will search out a wood wherewith that may be performed better and with more ease Therefore to finde out the form of this Instrument we must consider the ears of all living Creatures that bear best For this is confirmed in the Principles of Natural Philosophy that when any now things are to be invented Nature must be searched and followed Therefore to consider of Animals that have the quickest hearing we must think of those that are the most fearful For Nature takes care for their safety that as they have no great strength yet they might exceed others in hearing and save themselves by flight as the Hare Coney Hart the Ass Ox and the like These Creatures have great ears and always open toward their foreheads and the open passages are to carry the sound from the place whence it comes Haâ—es therefore have long ears standing up high Pollux But Festus calls the Hare Auritum because of its great ears and quickness of hearing The Greeks call the Hare Lagos from the great ears for La in composition augments and Os signifies an ear and it was fit that a fearful creature should hear well that it might perceive dangers farther off and take care for it self in time The Egyptians thought the Hare so quick of hearing that it was their Hieroglyphick for hearing The Coney is of the same Nature and hath the same kinde of ears Cows have great hairy ears she can hear a Bull rore when he seeks to Bull a Cow thirty furlong off as giving this token of his love Aelian A Hart hath greater and longer ears as it is a fearful Creature If he holds his ears right up he perceives sharply and no snares can take
him but if he let his ears down he is easily slain Aristotle and Pliny from him When they raise their ears they hear quickly when they let them fall they are afraid and not to go over all Creatures that have large right up open ears I say those that have such ears they raise them and direct them forward when they would hear afar off and they are of most perfect hearing I shall shew now by the contrary that such Creatures which have short small ears and not so visible are of dull hearing Great part of Fishes want ears and such as have onely holes and no ears must needs hear more deafly for the outward ears are made by Nature that the sounds might be conveyed to the ears by them Adrianus Consul of Rome is a most clear witness of this who having this sense hurt made hollow catches to hear better by and these he fastned to his ears looking forward And Aristotle saith That Horses Asses Dogs and other Creatures that have great ears do always stir them about and turn them to hear noise Nature teaching them the use of those parts and we finde that they hear less that have their ears cut off wherefore it is fit that the Form of the Instrument for hearing be large hollow and open and with screws inwardly For the first if the sound should come in directly it would hurt the sence for the second the voice coming in by windings is beaten by the turnings in the ears and is thereby multiplied as we see in an Eccho The sea-Periwinkle is an argument to prove it which being held to the eare makes a light noise Now it remains to speak of what matter it must be made I think of porous Wood for the holes and pores are passable every way and being filled with air they sound with every small stroke and amongst the porous Wood is the Ivy and especially the tree called Smilax or Woodbind for a Dish made with Ivy will let out the water as I said Wherefore Pliny speaking of the Woodbind saith It is proper to this matter that being set to the ears it will make a small noise And in another place I said that the Woodbind-Ivy would sound if set to the ear Therefore fit your Instrument to put into your ear as Spectacles are fitted to the eyes CHAP. VI. How by some Impostures we may augment weight I Have set down some Impostures here that such as handle with wicked men may take heed that they be not deceived As To augment the weight of Oyl water is mingled with the Oyl that the fraud may not be known let it be done with troubled waters as with the decoction of Wood Rapes Asphodills that it may the harder be discerned from it Or else they put the choisest Gumtragant into water for two days then they bray it in a Mortar always putting water to it to melt the Gum adde these to the Oyl dropping forth and they will be turn'd to Oyl By the like fraud almost Silk is made to weigh more They put it upon the vapour that riseth from boiling water and this makes it swell with moisture and grow heavier Others bray one ounce of Gum Arabick and being well passed through a sieve they mingle it with the decoction of Honey they dissolve this mixture into water and wet the Silk with it and then let it dry Others keep it in the green leaves of Walnut-tree If you will Increase the quantity of Honey Adde to it the Meal of Chestnuts of Millet and that augments it and it cannot be known So you may Increase the weight of Wax Adde to the Wax Bean-meal excellent well beaten and this will burn in Candles without any excrement for it increaseth the weight and bigness and the fraâ—d is scarce discerned So you may Augment Sope. If you mingle the Ashes of Oxens shank-bones well burnt it Potters ovens or white Brimstone For you shall augment the weight and quantity without and distinction of it If you would Counterfeit Pepper You may gather green Juniper-berries and let them dry till they shrivel then mix them with grains of Pepper Others gather great black Vetches and first they boil them with wilde Pepper for swelling in the water when they come to be dried they become wrinkled I did sophisticate them so that I deceived in sport the best Apothecaries and afterwards I did in mirth discover the fraud Take the Berries of the ripe red Sanguinaria these when they are dried will be so shriveled and like to Pepper that any man almost may be deceived by it unless he tasts of it So we may Increase the weight of Wheat By setting a vessel of Wood within it full of water or vinegar For as Pliny saith It will drink it in CHAP. VII Of the Harp and many wonderful properties thereof THe Harp hath some properties in it and things worthy to be observed which I shall propound here First I shall mention some wonderful effects that the Antients speak of then how they may be done or how the Antients did then Since Musick is now more Adorned and Noble than it was amongst the Antients for then it was more rude and imperfect and yet in our days it doth not perform those operations It is certain that Musical Tunes can do much with men and there is no heart so hard and cruel but convenient and sweet harmony will make it yield and on the otherside harsh Musick will vex and harden a mans minde Musaeus discovers that Verse and Songs are a most delightful thing to Mortal man and the Platonists say That all things living are charmed by Musick and there are many effects observed of it Drums sound in the wars to provoke those that are slow to fight and we read that the Antients did such like things One Timotheus a Musician as oft he he pleased would play a Phrygian Tune and so enrage the mind of Alexander that he râ—n presently to the wars and when he would do otherwise he changed his tune and took off all his courage making him lasie and would then draw him being grown effeminate to Banquets and Feasts And Plutarch saith That when he heard Antigenida playing Melodies with a Pipe that they called Harmatii he was so inflamed that he rose in his Arms and laid hold of him that sat next to him Cicero reports That Pythagoras made a yong man more calm by a slower tune who was a Tancomonite and was whitled with wine and mad for a whore and spurred forward by a Phrygian tune for being a corrival he sought to set the house on fire where the whore was And the same Author saith If yong men are provoked by the sound of Flutes to commit any wickedness if the Piper play but a slower tune they are called off again for by the gravity of the Musick their petulant fury is alayed Empedocles when one set upon his Host that provoked him with reproaches and ill language turned the burden of his