A description of the nature of four-footed beasts with their figures en[graven in brass] / written in Latin by Dr. John Johnston ; translated into English by J.P.

About this Item

Title
A description of the nature of four-footed beasts with their figures en[graven in brass] / written in Latin by Dr. John Johnston ; translated into English by J.P.
Author
Jonstonus, Joannes, 1603-1675.
Publication
Amsterdam :: Printed for the widow of John Jacobsen Schipper, and Stephen Swart,
1678.
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Subject terms
Animal behavior -- Early works to 1800.
Zoology -- Pre-Linnean works.
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A46231.0001.001
Cite this Item
"A description of the nature of four-footed beasts with their figures en[graven in brass] / written in Latin by Dr. John Johnston ; translated into English by J.P." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A46231.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 14, 2025.

Pages

ARTICLE II. Of the green, and the Brazen-co∣loured Lizard.

THe green Lizard,* 1.1 or Chloorosaura, is called also the Greater; and the Ser∣pent-fighter, (they worstling serpents.) They haunt hote places, as Italy, where coming of many abroad at once pre∣sages a sickly time. In summer they bide in trees, and croak like frogs; and have two tails. The figure below shall save a labour to describe them. It is usefull in Phisick; ty it on thirty dayes for neck-swellings, and then change it. Childrens burstings are cured by a bite, then shoot him through with an arrow,* 1.2 and bloat him. Boyled alive with wine, and given fasting, it helps wheesings, and sod with oyl, face pim∣ples. With tarre, and an old sows grease it takes away tendernesse of Horse-hoofs: It makes the hair black;* 1.3 And it renews hair. See in Ambrosine the ointment for the falling sick∣nesse. The ashes help exulcerated neck-swel∣lings. The bones help them in a swound, after you powder him alive in a stone pot, and the flesh fall off.

There is a Lizard with brasse-coloured streaks down the back, called Ziglis,* 1.4 Samia∣mithon, and Seps, a serpent, because the flesh it bites, rots, and Tarantula, but amisse. It re∣sembles the small Lizard, and is coloured like the serpent Caecilia. It is bred, and lives among the stones in Syria, Lybia, and Cyprus. It beares young, as the viper doth, but carry egs in the belly, as other animals that lay egges. Fabius Columna killed one in a French camp, and cutting it up found fifteen young within her; some hath a thin transparent skin,* 1.5 some none, cut it in two it cures a bite. Galen prae∣scribes it among pickled meats.

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