CHAP. XXIII.
Of the Lice of brute Beasts and Plants.
THis plague fell not only on Man for his first transgression, but upon beasts also: yet amongst mankinde children are more full of them than young people, men than women, sick people than sound, nasty people than such as are cleanly; and so it is with other creatures: only the Asse is said to be free from this disease, not because Christ rid upon him, (as some fools dream) but because he goes so softly that he seldom sweats, or else God hath bestowed upon him some pe∣culiar antipathy. The Lion is a couragious creature and king of beasts, yet is he so tormented with Lice feeding on his eye-browes, that when he cannot help himself with scratching with his clawes, he will sometimes grow furious, as Pliny reports. Who hath not seen the Lice of a Horse, that most generous four-footed creature, and Nits with red heads that are apparent, and the rest of their body is of a dark white? The Lice of Oxen and Calves are black, and those that are lean have very many, like to Hog-lice almost, but shorter and somewhat thicker. Hog-lice have the same form, but they are so great and hard that you can hardly kill them with your fingers, these are called Ʋrii from burning, as Albertus testifieth l. 4. c. 205. Dogs though more seldom, yet are sometimes Lowsie; but their Lice are small ones, speckled, and with a whitish head, the rest of their body is of a blackish or wan colour from blew, as I first observed by the Dogs at Malta. Sheeps Lice are very small, their heads are red, their bodies white. Goats Lice differ but little from these▪ when the stag hath strove to cast his horns, he is troubled with an exceeding itching of his eye-lids, from Lice that breed of the same colour with their head that thrusts forth: who doth not know by Gesners History of Birds, or by his own experi∣ence, that Swans, Hens, Geese, Pigeons, Quails, Pheasants, Partridge, Hawks, and other fowl have Lice? Also Palladius, Columella, Paxanus, Varro, and other principal Leeches for cattel, have shewed us remedies sufficient for to kill Lice in brute beasts, that it will be no glory for me to insist upon them, nor fruitful to the Reader: what Avicenna l. 4. fen. 6. tract. 5. meant by Vultures Lice, I cannot conjecture, and I much desire the help of some Oedipus to untie this rid∣dle for me: we mentioned before in our first Book, that your dung-Beetles are killed by their own Lice. Also Salmon-fishes, especially the leaner sort, were seen by Pliny to have many Lice under their gils oft-times. Also they are found in Plants, as Southernwood, Wormwood, flowers of Water-lillies, and chiefly in Columbine leaves, in June, by reason of its exceeding sweetness, (saith Gesner). Also some plants a••e called lowsie plants, either because they are good against them, as Staves-acre, or because they breed Lice, as Dodonaeus his Fistularia, or because they abound with Lice, as Columbines, or from the great despicableness of them, as the fruit of the great plum-tree, which are therefore called lowsie plums.