An history of the wonderful things of nature set forth in ten severall classes wherein are contained I. The wonders of the heavens, II. Of the elements, III. Of meteors, IV. Of minerals, V. Of plants, VI. Of birds, VII. Of four-footed beasts, VIII. Of insects, and things wanting blood, IX. Of fishes, X. Of man / written by Johannes Jonstonus, and now rendred into English by a person of quality.

OF THE DESCRIPTION Of Naturall VVonders. (Book 10)

The Tenth Classis. Wherein are set down the Wonders of MAN. (Book 10)

WHosoever thou art, that dost unjustly determine the condition of Man, consider how great things our Mother Nature hath given un∣to us; how much more strong Creatures are under our subjection; how we can catch those that are much more swifter than our selves, that nothing that is mortal is not under our power. We have received so many Vertues, so many Arts, and lastly a Soul, swifter than the Stars; for it will out-run them in their motions, that are to be performed many years after, and in one moment penetrates into whatsoever it is intent about;

Seneca.

CHAP. I. Of Man in generall.

HItherto I have described irrational living Creatures; Man followes next, of whom we shall speak in order, according to his actions, natural, vital, animal, and rational. And first of his proportion. This is so excellent and admirable, that it cannot be more. The body of Adam was made out of the Earth, and ours of 3. small drops of seed, and as much blood, poured forth like milk, and framed like to cruddled cheefe; of the same matter, are so many and so divers parts made. The whole structure

consists of above 200 bones to support it, and as many cartilages; all the joynts are smeered with, all are joyn'd together with many li∣gaments, and cloathed with innumerable membranes: the vast mass of the members, are watered with above 30, paire of nervs, as with little cords, and all the parts are sprinkled with as many arte∣ries as with water pipes, filld with foming blood and vital Spirits; the empty places are filled up, and the entralls covered, with almost 400, Muscles, and flesh of divers sorts, as with flocks: and lastly all is covered about with skin. The Image of God is in it (his mind represents the same) and it hath included in it, the forces and tempe∣rament of all the creatures. You shall find many men that have an Ostrich stomack, many that have the Lyons Heart, not a few have the heart of a Dogg, many of a Sow; and infinite there are, that are like the Asse by nature. Alexander the Great, had such a symmetry of humours, that his spirits, and humours, and also his dead body, smelt as sweet as natural balsom; because in man as in the Centre, as in a knot, or little bundle, the original and seminary cause of all creatures lye bound up. Vegetables are nourished and increased by the balsom-like Spirits of Mineralls, animals of vegetables, and by them of mine∣ralls; but man, for whom all things were created, is nourished and augmented by the balsamick spirits of animals, vegetables, and mineralls; wherefore there is reason that he should consist of all ••hese. Wherefore in man there do flowrish, and produce fruit, that are messengers of health or sicknesse, both the balme, violets, Germander, namely the Spirits of the Heart, Brain, and Liver: the Nettle, Wake-Robin, Crowfoot, as Pushes, Scabs, Creeping sores; Also there are wrought in man mineral separations, that ap∣peare in paroxysms, of Vitriol, Alum, Salt, of Gemma, of the Colcothat, Tartar; as the Leprosy, Elephantiasis, Morphew, Cancer, discovering themselves in several Tinctures and Signatures. Nor are aqueal generations wanting, as Gold, Silver, Tin, Copper, Iron, Lead; the Heart, Brain, Liver, Reins, Stomach. There are found in our bodies Mines, out of which stones are dug, the stones of the Bladder and Kidneys, not to build but to destroy the house. The head is the Fort of mans mind, the seat of reason, the habitation of Wisdom, and the shop of memory, judgment, and cogitations; possessing the highest place doth it not represent the up∣permost and angelicall part of the World? You have the middle and the Caelestial part in the Thorax▪ and in the middle belly, exactly set forth. For as when the Sun riseth, the upper parts are enlightned, and all the lower parts are enlivened; but contrarily, when the Sun departs, they grow cold, and tend to ruine: so by the perpetuall motion of the heart, and by the vital heat thereof, all things flourish, and there is a plentifull harvest of rejoycing, to be perceived; but when that is darkned by cares, sorrows, fears, and other Clowds, all the parts are debilitated, and at last dye. Who sees not the subluna∣ry part of the World, expressed in the lower belly? In it, are containd the parts that serve for nutrition, concoction, and procreation. Per∣haps

you will want the Dukedome of the Planets in this little world. Behold, the flowing marrow of the brain represents the moystning power of the Moon, the genital parts serve for Venus, the Instru∣ments of eloquence and comelinesse do the office of witty Mercury; the Sun and the Heart hold the greatest proportion. Man's Liver, the fountain of good vapours, is compared to beneficiall Jupiter; the bladder of the Gall, contains the fiery fury of Mars; and the loose spungy flesh of the Milt, which is the receptacle of melancho∣lique humours, doth perfectly represent the cold Planet of Saturn. And if you please to proceed farther, I can say boldly, that the Elements, Seas, Winds are here shadowed forth. The spirits of Mans body do set forth Heaven, the quintessence of all things. The four hu∣mours expresse the four Elements; Hot dry choler represents the Fire; blood-hot and moyst▪ the Ayr; flegme, cold and moyst, the Water: melancholy cold and dry, the Earth. So the belly of Man is the Earth, fruitful of all fruits: The hollow vein, is the Mediter∣ranean Sea; the Bladder the Western Sea, into which all the Rivers discharge themselves, and the superfluous salt which is resolved, is collected. He hath the East in his Mouth, the West in his Funda∣ment; the South in his Navel; the North in his Back. Europe, Asia, Africa and America may summarily be described in Man. Where∣fore Abdalas the Barbarian said well, that the body of Man is an ad∣mirable thing; and Protagoras call'd Man, The measure of all things. Theophrastus, The pattern of the Universe, and Epitome of the World. Synesius, The horizon of corporeall and incorporeall things. And lastly, we may truly cry out with Zoroastres, O Man! the Workmanship of most powerfull Nature; for it is the most artificiall Master-piece of Gods hands.

CHAP. II. Of Nutrition.

Article 1. Of the harmlesse feeding on venomous things.

IF we regard Histories, we can hardly doubt, but that venomous things may by custome become nutrimental: For many learned men having written thus, they ought to be of credit. Avicenna, Rufus, and Gentilis speak of a young Maid, who was fed with poysonous creatures from her tender age; and her breath was venom to those that stood by her. Albertus writes, That at Colonia Agrippina, there was a man that held Spiders for his daintiest meat. One Porus▪ a King of the Indies, used poyson every day, that he might kill other men. There was one who killed venomous creatures that bit him▪ Avicenna l. 8. de anim. c. 2. It is a known History of a young Maid fed with poyson, with which the Persian Kings kill'd other men. In Hellespont the Ophyogenes feed on Serpents: One that was delighted

with the same food, when he was cast into a vessell fill'd with Ser∣pents, received no harm. Pliny and Athenagoras of Greece, could never be hurt by Scorpions; and the Aethiopians that are Inhabitants by the River Hyaspis, made brave cheer of Serpents and Vipers. Galen saith, That an old Woman of Athens eat a great quantity of Hemlock, which did her no hurt. Hypoth. the Empirick writes, that another took 30 drams of it, and received no harm; and he saith further, That one Lysis eat 4▪ drams of Opium. The Thracian Dame made gallant victualls of handfulls of Hellebor. Lastly,

King Mithridates could not poyson'd bee, He drinking poyson oft, grew poyson-free.

If you search the cause of it, you shall find divers. First is, every mans natural property, by reason of which, Stares feed on Hemlock; Sows on Henbane, with delight. Then there is a certain proportion of poyson; for this changeth the power of the poyson, and the dispo∣sition of the subject. Again, the strength or weaknesse of the body. Conciliator saith, he saw four men feeding on venomous meats, one dyed suddenly, two were dangerously sick, and the fourth escaped. To this adde the force of the composition, and the quantity; the va∣riety of the time and place wherein they are collected. So Trassius Mantinensis gathered his Hemlock in the coldest places, that he might sooner kill men. Theophrastus shews, l. 9. hist. Plant. that at Chios there was a certain way to compound it, to make it effectuall. One stung by a Scorpion, may live many dayes; and one stung by Ammodites may live 7 dayes. Chersydrus kills in 3. days; a Viper in 3. hours; a Basilisk suddenly. Lastly, the history of a woman that sought to poyson her husband, proves, that poyson growes more effectuall by being mingled with poysons of the same kind; and lesse, by being mingled with poysons of a contrary kind. Also it is certain, that hot poysons cannot be conquer'd; for Sublimate by its extream corroding cannot be concocted by nature; and Napellus kills by its extremity of heat.

Article 2. Of the eating of other unusuall Meats.

NAncelius l. 3. Analog. writes of a Maid delighted to feed on dung; and he relates, that a certain Noble-man did greedily sup up the liquid dung of Maids. Fernelius l. 6. Pathol. c. 3. tells of a Maid that eat quicklime as great as a mans Fist. Trincavellus tells of one, l. 7. c. 5. that eat threds out of Garments. Lusitanus c. 3. cur. 86, of one that eat Bombasse and Wooll. Marcellus Histor. mirab. l. 4. c. 1. of one that eat Lizards. A woman that was fifty years old eat Tartar, Nicolaus serm. 5. tract. 4. c. 36. Camerarius speaks of another eat hair; This may happen in a particular disease, which in women with Child is called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Virgins and others, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. For the cause is a vicious naughty humour, impacted in the coats of the stomack, or

bred in the same by ill diet, or coming thither from the matrix. Hence for the three first months especially, it happens to women great with Child, when they vomit, and the Child consumes not much. It troubles maids, when their courses are stopt. But it is hard to say, how such an appetite should proceed from this cause, and it is better to ascribe it to a hidden quality than to commit an absur∣dity in what is manifest. But what is reported of one Lazarus, that he would eat glasse, stones, Wood, Living creatures, and Live-fish; and we were told by the famous Winsemius in praelection. anatomic. that a Country man in Frisland would do the same for money, that seems to proceed from the fault of the nerves. For in him▪ when he was dissected, the fourth conjugation of nervs, that is produced in other men for the benefit of their tast, neither came to his tongue nor pa∣late, but was turned back to the hinder part of his head, as Colum∣bus observed, Anatom. l. 15. Some also think a man may be nourish∣ed by smells, and some Histories say, it hath been done. Rondeletius de piscib. saith, that one at Rome lived 40, yeares only by the Ayre, and Laertius reports that Democritus the Abderite, a Philosopher lived four days by smelling of bread steeped in Wine, that he might not profane the feasts of Ceres. Cardanus l. 8. de varietate rerum. c. 41, saith, that men may live longer only by contemplation. Lastly, Megasthenes writes that at the farthermost part of the Indies, from the East about the River Ganges, there is a Nation call'd Astomores, people that have no mouth, their body is all hairy, and they are clothed with the mosse of boughs: they live only by the Ayre and sents that they take in by their nostrills, they take no meat nor drink, but only the di∣versity of smells from roots and flowers, and wild Apples, that they carry with them in long Voyages, that they may not want sweet smells; and if the sents be too strong a little, they easily are killed thereby, Pliny l. 7. c. 3. Yet surely sents being but qualities can nou∣rish no man; they may out of all question refresh and cherish the brain.

Artic. 3. Of prodigious Eaters.

THere was a Woman once at Alexandria, as Athenaeus sets it down; he saith, She eat 12 pound of flesh, four chaevice of bread that is more than 12 pound; and she drank a gallon of wine and upward. Maximinus the Emperour would drink often in one day 9. Gallons of Wine of the Capitol measure, he eat 40, pound of flesh, and as Cordus saith, 60 pound, Capitolinus is my Authour; now an Amphora is 8, congii, that is about 9, Gallons. One Phagon in Vopiscus, who was in great respect with Aurelianus the Emperour, eat so much in one day, that he devoured a whole Bore, a hundred Loafs, a Wether and a young Hogg; and he drank more than an Orca of Wine with a tunnel put into it: now an Orca was a Vessel of Wine greater than an Amphora. What shall I say of Clodius Albinus the Emperour? He, as Capitolinus writes, devoured so much fruit as is incredible to speak:

for Cordus saith, that he eat 500 dried Figs which the Graecians call Cal∣listruas, for a breakfast; and a hundred Peaches of Campania, and ten Melons of Ostia, and 20 pounds of Grapes of Lovinium, and a hundred Gnatsappers, and 400 Oysters.

Uguccio Fagiolanus being a banish'd old man, did glory at the Table before Scaliger at Verona; that when he was a young man, he eat four fat Capons, and so many Partridges, and the roasted hinder parts of a Kid, and the breast of a Calf stuft, beside salt fish, at one Supper To this appertains that prodigious man, in the time of Caesar Maxi∣milian, who eat a raw Calf, and a Sheep, at one meal. Suidrigellus Duke of Lithuania, sate 6. hours at Supper, and fed on 130 dishes, Sylv. l. 2. Comment. in Pannormit. The Epitaph of Thymocreon Rhodius was this:

Here Lies Timocreon Rhodius, who had skill To eat and drink, and rail, and speak much ill.

Now over-great appetite, if it proceed from a praeternatural cause, it is called Bulimos; and if it be with vomiting, it is call'd dogs appe∣tite. And it proceeds from some gnawing humour in the stomach, or from a consumption of the whole body, or by reason of the ope∣ration of the cold ayr; or, lastly, from Worms. Brutus, when he went from Dyrrachium to Apollonia through the Snow, had like to have got this disease; and a woman that cast up a Worm of twelve fingers breadth long, lost her great stomach; and so did another that voided 100 worms. Brasavolus testifies, that this disease was epi∣demical at Ferrara; and Anno 1535, it was so in Borussia; Leonellus Faventinus writes it. Gemma Frisius speaks of a woman not very aged, that could not live one moment without eating. He gives the cause to be the greatnesse of her Liver, and the prodigious peculiar temperament of it. For her fat being increased unmeasurably, and her heat choaked, her belly was opened, and about 20 pounds of fat were taken out; her Liver was found to be sound, swelling with blood and spirits, but extream red, and huge great, that by its very weight it pressed the vitall parts, Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit.

Article 4. Of monstrous drinkers.

IT is no hard matter to find men that sail in drink, and rowe in their cups. You see that drunkennesse abates in no part of the World, and as if we were born to consume Wines, and they could not be poured forth, but through the bodies of Men. What Seneca foretold, That a time should come when drunkennesse should be honour'd; and to drink abundance of Wine, should be esteemed Vertue, is come to passe in our dayes. He is counted best, not he that can speak knowingly of Phi∣losophy, but he that can drink off many great cups, Galen. And not onely wine and waters, but smokes and fumes are introduced to make men mad▪ Yet all go not an equal pace, some will win the garland.

In that publick drinking for a wager before Alexander, there was one Promachus that drank four Congii, that is, 40 pound. We read the same of Proteus of Macedonia in Athenaeus. Novellius Torquatus of Millan drank 30 pints at one draught, Tiberius the Emperour stand∣ing by to see this wonder, Plin. l. 14. hist. Natur; And which is more wonderfull in him, they are Pliny his words, He wan the glory of it, that is very rare, for he never fail'd in his speech; nor did he vomit or void any thing any way when he drank; nor did he sleep: he drank most at one draught, and drank many more little draughts: and he was faithfull in the businesse, not to take his breath when he drank, nor to spit any out; nor did he cast away any snuff that could be heard dash on the pavement. Cicero the son, drank two gallons. Bonesus, as the words of Spartianus con∣firm, drank more than any man. Aurelianus said often of him, He was not born to live, but to drink. Yet he long honour'd him for military affairs. For if any Embassadours of barbarous people came from any Country, he drank with them to make them drunk, and so in their cups he would find out their secrets. He drank what he pleased, and was alwaies sober; and, as Onesimus the writer of Probus his Life, He was wiser in his drink. This was farther admirable in him, that so much as he drank, the like quantity he pissed, and his belly or sto∣mach or bladder were never burthened. A certain man drank 6 gal∣lons at a marriage of a Noble-man, in the dayes of Lipsius. Nicetas l. 3. Histor. writes of Camaterus Logotheta that drank two gallons.

Article 5. Of some Secrets concerning Drunkennesse.

DRunkards differ in their manner of their drunkennesse; for some are drunk before others. And some when they are drunk fall backwards, some forward, some sing, some quarrel. Writers give many reasons for this: They that are soonest drunk, are not ac∣customed to Wine, or they have drank more then their ability, (for naturally one cannot go from one extream to another without incon∣venience) or they have narrower veins that are too hot, or have a thicker constitution of body, or they prate too much when they drink. For speaking out, augmenteth natural heat that is inflamed by wine, and fills the head with vapours, and heaps up abundance of them; which being corrupted by continuall motion, are distri∣buted through the whole body, distending the eyes, inflating the temples, offending the brain. The same reason serves for such who at Feasts eat hot bread, drink strong wine, and eat abundance of meats that are salt, and talk continually. For all these things increase thirst exceedingly, and makes men drink out of measure. Also di∣vers sorts of men eat bread wherein there is contain'd Nigella seed, Darnell, when they eat brown bread, or mingled with Millet seed. For these cause heavinesse, and a passion like to drunkennesse by grosse vapours, Canonher. l. 3. de admirand. Vini c. 1. Hitherto appertains refined wine, poured from the Lees. For this, though it be weaker to preserve it self, and having no lees, will sooner grow sowr, (for the

Lees are the root to preserve the Wine) yet because it is moyster, and pierceth into all the Veins of those that drink it, it sooner inflames the blood, makes men drunk, and overturns reason. Jason Pratens. de morb. cerebri. But women come not into this consideration, nor such as drink sharp Wine after sweet, or such as delight in new Wine. For women are of a very moyst body, are often purged, have very open passages, Macrob. in Saturnal. Yet because they have a weaker brain, and narrower sutures of their skull, it is better to say with Alphonsus Lupeius, that they are seldom so drunk that they rave, but they are often sottish in their drink. Sweet Wine stops the pores, through which the Vapours of sharp Wines, might as∣cend to the head.

Lastly sweetnesse so resists drunkennesse, that Physitians cause such that are too much inflated with Wine, first to vomit much, and then they give them bread with honey to eat, to repell the fumes that remaine of the Wine; Macrob. Saturnal: What concerns their di∣vers gestures, that is founded in the diversity of the parts and hu∣mours. Fumes from Wine flye to the forepart of the head, and fumes of Beer and Ale to the hinder parts. Those that are drunk with this, fall backwards, but these with Wine fall forwards. Those are clamo∣rus and talkative, these sleepy and forgetfull. Lemnius l. 2. de. occult. c. 19. They see things lesse a farr off, because the optick Spirits are made more thick. The sanguine tempers laugh; the cho∣lerick prate and are mad; the phlegmatique grow stupid; the me∣lancholique sad. And because all of them have their opticks troubled with Vapours, they all see a divers colour'd circle about the light of the Candle. Gordon Libro. Medic. part. 2. c. 21. If they weep they de∣light in so doing. Rhodig. l. 12. c. 4. Moysture makes them stammer; for by this the tongue is extended as a sponge with water, and being swoln and thick cannot speak plain. Jacob Pratens. de natura vini. Moreover experience hath found that Coleworts resist drunkennesse exceedingly, chiefly raw, and above all the red Cabbage. Lemnius l. 2. c. 11. de occult. But Galen saith, L. 2. de composit. medicam. c. 5. hot Cabbage macerated, and bound about the head. And so great is the antipathy between it and Wine, that if one powre Wine to it whil'st it boyls, it will not boyle much. If you desire a reason, some say, that by eating of it, grosse Vapours ascend, that thicken the Va∣pours of the Wine. Aristotle saith that it draws the moysture of Wine down to the belly, and cools the body. Weckerus attributes the same force of the Ivy, and Alexander saith that smallage, nuts, Lupins will do the like. Pumanellus saith, powder of Pumex-stone drank in water will do it. Gratarolus speaks the same of Saffron, de vini natura c. 5. Africanus, of a Goats Lungs. Amandus de Sancta Sophia. l. 1. de veris secretis, attributes as much to new Milk drank fasting. Platerus prax. medic. Tom. 1. c. 3. prescribes pap made of Milk and Barley meal ta∣ken with Vinegar. And he describes a certain powder thus: Take Colewort seeds 1, dram; Coriander seed 5, drams; camphir, 10, grai••s: make a powder, and give one spoonfull in sharp Wine. But the dung of swal∣lows

powdred and drank, will maka a man sober, Pliny. Rue eaten, Merula. The humour that first drops from the Vines at the begin∣ning of the Spring; bread that is made of darn••l, dried and made into powder. But that is superstitiously said, That whosoever shall rehearse this verse, before the first glasse of Wine he drinks,

Juppiter his alta sonuit clementer ab Ida.

shall never be drunk.

Artic. 6. Of Bread.

THe chief foundation of mans preservation and nutriment▪ and the staffe of life, is bread, well ordered. Hence some say, Panis, Bread, comes from pasco to feed: some take it to be so call'd from Pan, that is, all, because it answers all meat. It is made of divers things. The Aethiopians made it of the seed of Orindium. The Icthyophagi made it of fish dried in the Sun. Plin. l. 7. c. 1. The Aegyptian shepherds made it of the Lote-Tree seed. Pliny, l. 22. c. 21. Neer the Mountain Vogesus, about the Town Burcken, there is a fine white meale dug forth of a Mountain; the Inhabitants make Bread of it, and all sorts of Cakes, Claudius Diodatus, l. 2. Panther Hygiastici. c. 4. But I say, that can be no true meal, but it must be miraculous. I think it is some thick juyce that proceeds out of the earth, and in time is congealed by heat of the Sun, and so becomes fine meale. Divers Medicaments are made of bread. Aqua-vitae, the most noble treasure of life is thus made. Take the best bread cut into thin sippets, what is sufficient; put them into a hot Furnace, that by degrees they may dry, like red Bisquit: then bruise it grosely, and put it into a wide cauldron, and for every pound of this Bread, put in five pound of Fountain Water; flowers of hops one handfull, of anniseeds one ounce: boyle them together till one part be consumed, let them coole a little, and then powre them forth, and pass them through a basket or sieve, then powre on some leaven, first dissolved in warm water; shut this up in a Vessel, and let it ferment and work like new wine: lastly part it as it grows clear, distill it, and rectifie it like Spirit of Wine. Some distill the crumbs of white bread newly taken forth of the Oven, putting it into glasse Stills▪ four ounces of it are given successefully against the Epilepsie. See Deodate how the quintessence may be extracted.

Artic. 7. Of wonderfull fasting.

THough nourishment be necessary for our life, yet there have been many, that have lived along time without it. In Saint Augustine his days, one lived 40, days without eating any thing. Another, in the time of Olimpiodorus the Platonist, for so long as he liv∣ed, he neither fed nor slept, but only stood in the Sun to refresh him∣self. The daughter of the Emperour Clotarius fasted eleven years.

Petrus Aponus saw one fasted 18 years. Rondeletius saw one fasted ten, and afterwards became a fruitfull Mother. Hermolaus knew a Priest who lived in health 40 years without any thing, but by sucking in the Ayr. Lastly, one Nicolaus Helvetius under Waldensis, Anno 1460, after that he had five Children by his Wife, lived a solitary life, and neither ate nor drank in 15 years. Some dare affirm, that he fasted 22 years; and Bocatius saith, that this party, or another, fasted 30 years. Mago Carthaginensis, and Lasyrtas Lasionensis lived without taking any liquid substance all their lives, Athen. l. 2. c. 2. One that Coelius speaks of, that was by Country of Tomos, did the like at Naples; and Aristotle speaks of Andronis of Greece.

I will not speak of Conflana and Bernenses, two Maids, in Querceta∣nus l. 2. Diaetetica c. 6. nor the Maid of Colen, in Albertus l. 7. de ani∣mal; nor her of Hay, in Namelius; nor yet of the Aunt of Timon, in Athenaeus l. 2. nor yet of the French-man that came from his Pil∣grimage from Jerusalem: Yet there is no man, I think, but will say, that all these things are preternatural. The cause is, in what takes away, or augments the appetite; and that is done either when the meseraique veins do not attract the Chylus, and draw it out of the sto∣mach; or when their sucking is not perceived in the orifice of the stomach. That, is caused by stopping of the veins, or by a hot distem∣per, or want of evacuation of the excrements that abound; or when the orifice of the stomach is beset with flegmatick humours. This, either from the inhibition of the influence of the animall spirits, and the fainting of them, or from the distraction of the faculty, or from the distemper of the stomach, and stupidity of it. But because death doth not follow this taking away of the appetite, there must be some other cause besides. Some make this to be, the relaxation of the nerves in the orifice of the stomach, as Langius; others think the Ayr drawn in, feeds the spirits, as Quercetan. But since they do not shew the cause of life, and this opinion is yet doubtful; and they, which make the cause to be abundance of flegmatique humours, confesse there are plenty of them in cachecticall bodies; Sennertus his Judgment pleaseth me best, who sayes, that such bodies are almost immortall; and little or nothing exhales from them; because they consist of a tenacious humour well compacted and growing fast together, and that will not yield to the action of heat that feeds on nutriment; and their heat is most mild and gentle, and requires not much nourish∣ment, Instit. l. 2. Part. 3. Sect. c. 2.

CHAP. III. Of Concoction.

Article 1. Of the Liver and Spleen.

NUtrition hath attraction, retention, expulsion, concoction sub∣ordinate unto it. Concoction is either in the Stomach, the Liver, or the Spleen, or in other parts. In the first the Chylus is made of the meat, the faeces and watry excrements are cast forth: In the second, blood, yellow choler, whey, and urine are sent forth: in the third, dew, glew, and that which is call'd Cambium, some thicker, some thinner are thrust forth. As for the Liver, there was none found in Mathias Ortelius, a Merchant of Antwerp. Though it be one entire body in Man, yet in bruit beasts it is divided into many Laps. In one Maid it was found with three laps. In Carolus Sabaudus it ha•• four little coats, Francisc. Puteus, l. 5: Apol. In Colet, the outmost fibres of it were adorned with hairy tufts sticking forth, Camerar. When the heat of it growes weak, a Dropsie followes.

I will say a few things of the Spleen; There was a woman at Paris was found to have none, Holler. in observ. And Pliny l. 1••. saith, That in Cawnus, men are born without it, Natur. Histor. c. 73. Hence the common people think it may without hurt be cut out of Footmen and Horses. Pallopius observed 3. that lay one upon another. Posthius observes two at Montpelier: Where it increaseth, the body decayes. For then it sucks away too much Chylus from the Liver. Hence Tra∣jan call'd the Spleen the Treasury: For, as this growes rich, the com∣mon people grow poor: so, as the Milt increaseth, the body decrea∣seth. One was seen so great, that it weighed above 20 pounds, C••∣lumb. l. 15. Anatom. A Marriner had a Milt 23 pound weight, and his Liver eleven pounds. In Jacobus Antonellius it was no bigger than a Pigeons Egge; In one of Spoletum it was empty like a purse.

Article 2. Of Humours in generall.

THere is scarce any question to be made, but that the Humour•• cannot he defined by the onely force of the Elementary qualities. For Man lives upon Plants, and they contain in them sharp, bitter, and sometimes Minerall juices. They are alter'd indeed by that internall Archaeus, which is naturall heat; but when they are un∣mingled, unfit, and robustous, they cannot be changed.

Hence it is that Urines are made somtimes that will corrode cloth; and somtimes blood falne from the nose will do the like. Doring. l. 1: de medicin. et medic. Somtimes things are cast up so hot by vomit, that they will boyle in the bason, and dye Silver Chargers with a brasen colour, that no washing, nor strong rubbing can take off, Schenk.

obs. l. 3. Sometimes things yellow like Saffron are voided, so sweet; that they tast like liccoris, when as they should be bitter. Cardan, contra, 9. l. 2. tract. 5. reports that a woman that had drank Poyson, had a vein opened, and no blood would run forth, but a green juice as from herbs, to 9. ounces in quantity; and a mans blood was, like to milk. The humours have wonderfull conveyances in the body, and certain periods. The blood doth grow vigorous, saith Soranus Ephesinus, (which like the Evangelists, doth measure the spaces and course of day and night by equall hours) from 9 a clock at night, till 3. a clock in the morning, in which time the blood in Man is con∣cocted and elaborated: Thence is the mind of Man cheerfull at Sun-rising. Yellow choler is concocted from 3. in the morning, un∣till 9 a clock; in which time the naturall faculty separates choler from blood, and sends it to the gall bladder: Thence a man is prone to anger. Black choler is elaborated from 9. a clock of the day, till 3. at night. In this time the Liver is purified, and made clean of grosse blood; and this, Nature, as some say, ordains for the Spleen. From hence is the mind of Man darkned. Flegme is concocted from 3. at night till nine: For then Supper being ended, concoction begins to be made in the stomach, and the meat to be liquified. From hence Flegme swimming upon the stomach, and carried to the brain, makes a man sleepy. But if they be over-much, and joyn'd one with an∣other, then they do not keep their times. Moreover, the Persians, by reason of their moderate exercises being children, grew so dry of bo∣dy, that they neither spit, nor did blow their noses, nor were their bo∣dies puft up, Varro in fragment.

Artic. 3. Of Blood.

BLood is stopt by some, wonderfully: Gesner notes, that Frederick Duke of Saxony, gave a Toad that was thrust through with a woodden spit, and well dryed in the Sun, and wrapt in Sarsnet, for them that bled at the nose, to hold in their hands till it grew hot, and so the blood was stopt. A hens chicken will do the same, if the part hurt be thrust into that place where Cocks use to be gelt, a hole being cut open. Platerus l. 2. de vit. c. 5. proved it, and found it so. A noble Matron stayd bleeding at the nose, by holding a bit of white chalk under the ring-finger, on that side the nostrill bled, Forest. l. 13. c. 10. Osorius writes also of Nahodaguca, a Prince in the King∣dome of Malacca, who was hurt with many wounds and fell down, yet not one drop of blood came forth; when he was stript, and a bracelet of gold was taken off, then it began to run. That stone was said to have power to stop blood, that was set in it. It is taken out of beasts which the Sinenses call Cabrisias, Osor. l. 7. de reb. Afric. et Indicis. That it comes forth of a vein cut, the distending of the ves∣sels is the cause. For the continuall motion of the arteries added to the veins, doth presse the veins: but if the veins be opened, the blood comes forth, because there is nothing to hinder it. Hence when a

vein is opened, if one swoond, the blood stops. For the vitall spirit doth no longer distend the vessels, Bartholin. Probl. 5. It is observed, that when a man is killed, it will run forth if the murderer be present; but when a man is drown'd, it runs forth when friends are present. When you ask the cause, it is either motion and agitation that opens the orifices of the veins, or Sympathy and Antipathy: The re∣venge of the person is put for an Argument. He that is grievously woun∣ded, becomes the Assailer, saith Rhodigi••. Thought greedily desires re∣venge; choler burns suddenly for it; the blood is presently inflamed with it, and runs with all its force to the wound, both to foment it, and to revenge. The spirits fly together, and by an inbred leightnesse do fly about the Author of it, by whose heat they continue, and remain for some time, Rhodig. 3. Antiq. c. 12. It was of old thought to be a remedy for the Falling-sicknesse, to drink man's blood yet warm. It was the Devil's Inven∣tion, who delights in the slaughter of men▪ and to do them mischief. The Wife of Marcus Antonius the Philosopher, fell in love with a Fencer; the Wizards were enquired of, and they gave counsel to kill him, and that Faustina should drink his blood, the next time she lay with Caesar. It was so done, and her love was ended, but the boy born was of a fighting disposition, and destroy'd the Common-wealth, Jul. Capitolin. Langius reports, that the Son of a certain shepherd was faint-hearted for robberies; but when he had eaten a crust of bread dipt in mans blood, he was flesh'd for all villany. The Car∣mani had this custom, that at Feasts they would open a vein in their face, and mingle the blood that ran forth with wine, and so drink it, holding it the end of their friendship, to taste one the others blood. (But these things belong to the description of Wonders in Customes) There is compounded a Lamp of life and death with mans blood, whereof Ernestus Burgravius writes thus: This Lamp or Light once lighted, burns continually, so long as that man, of whose blood it was made, doth live, and at the very same moment that he di••s, it will go out. Know also, that if the flame be bright, rising high and quiet, that Man feels nothing that troubles his Mind or Body: But if it be otherwise, and the flame rising, twinckles diversly, or is lower and clowdy and troubled, it gives thee a sign of great sorrow and other passions. For perpetually from the coelestiall influences bred with the Microcosme, and from the naturall inclinations (since that blood is nourished by the blood of that man, and the body of the same from the substance of this very blood, from which blood was as it were mutually taken to prepare it) that flame shines according to the state and habit of that man, in prosperity or adversity, and so shews it self. Sennertus and Deodate, call this Pyromantia.

Artic. 4. Of Urine and Reins.

MAny things perswade us, that there is somthing else contain'd in Urines beside the watery substance. For in diseases they are made plentifully, though men have drank nothing. And it is ob∣served that creatures that drink nothing, will make water. Physiti∣ans foretell many things by their colours, thinnesse, and thicknesse. And Chymists find salt in Urine resolved. But whatsoever that is, it is call'd Serum, and it is the superfluous salt matter in meats and drinks, and is not fit for nutriment. Salt is hid in meats, to season them; and that plants are full of salt, you may find by distilling them. It is very well known that divers kinds of salt may be fetch∣ed out of Urines. Aegineta saith, that artificiall Chrysocolla is made with Urine. Nitre is made of earth, moystned with the Urine and dung of living creatures. Baccius shews the way: His words are. Saltpeter is made now a days by industry of a most sharp Lixivium, that drains forth from old dung, or rotten ordure, from the matter of Churchyards, and some earths that are rotted together, the sane water being often powred on in wodden Vessels. This Lixivium is boyld in great Cauldrons, and Salt∣peter is made, long fibres growing hard in the bottom like to salt. Hence Ruffus Ephesmus said; that Urine was a nitrous humour that falls into the bladder. de appel. corp human. c. 36. The Arabians write that in the Urine of those are bit with mad dogs, the pictures of dogs may be seen Abenzoar. But that seems to be attributed to the force of the Venom, because it changeth exceedingly a mans constitution, and makes it like to a doggs. For the humours are so corrupted by it, that some little creatures like to puppies are bred in the body, Sennert. l. 2. p. 2. s. 2. c. 4. Truly we find Worms to breed in the bladder; for a woman voided one a span long; and a noble maid, voided many as great as wiglice, Schenck, l. 3. obs. Also Charls Count of Mansfield, void∣ed one like a Magpie; Duretus, like a Hog-louse. But one that had the stone of the bladder voided two, with a sharp head, with horns; the back and belly were crusty, and they were black, and like Tor∣toises, but that their belly was red, Pareus l. 19. c. 3. Holler. de morb. intern. Another voided a living Scorpion; another, shell-fish, Schenk. observ. All know the urinary passage, yet somtimes other things are voided by it. The Sonne of Boninus made water a little beneath the glans; and a Maid of a noble family at the Hague, urin'd her Na∣vel. An old Vine dresser had it coming forth at an Ulcer of his left buttock; a Souldier Voided it by his hip and thigh; others by their belly. Schenk. in obser. Fernel. l. 6. Pathal. c. 13. As for the Kidneys, Gemma saw 3, or 4, Lib. 6, Cyclogn. Wolphius and Columbus, l. 15. Ana∣tom. saw but one. They were seen fastned to the Liver by Holtzapfelius at Auspurg. The fat of them is somtimes found so hard and con∣geal'd that it is almost as hard as a stone, Eustach. de Renib. c. 45. Saxonia saw the substance of them resolved into little peices of flesh. Stones also are bred in them of a faeculent matter, mingled with a

salt and stony juyce. Somtimes they are very great. A Father gene∣ral of the Carmelites had a stone in one of his Kidneys, which growing from a large root, was divided into eight branches, according to the forme of the Channels of the urinary Vessels, and the number of them, this excellent∣ly resembled the stock and branches of Corall; moreover the flesh much contracted and diminished, with the Veins, stuck so fast to this stone all about, that it had lost its own form, and seem'd to be a thick skin that covered it round. Eustach. ad c. 44. de Renib.

Artic. 5. Of Marrow.

PLinie writeth, that a Serpent is ingendred of the Marrow of the back-bone of a man. The truth of this testimony appeareth by experience, and is made manifest by an example that we read in Plu∣tarch. For the King of Aegypt having made the dead body of Cleomenes to be hanged up, and they that watched it having spied a great Ser∣pent winding about his head, and covering the face in such sort as no bird that preyes upon carrion durst soare thereabouts; the people of Alexandria running thither (saith he) in troupes to see this specta∣cle, called Cleomenes a demi-god, and the sonne of the Gods: untill such time as the best in knowledg among them had called to mind, that as of the putrified flesh of a dead Oxe, there grow Bees; of a horse, Wasps; and of an Asse, Beetles: so likewise, when the matte∣rie substance which invironneth the Marrow, gathereth together and thickneth, Serpents are ingendred thereof. Camerarius saith, he hath oftentimes seen in a well-known place of Germany a yong gentlemans tombe, who was buried in a Chappell where his predecessors lay: It is said, that he was the fairest yong man of his time; and being troubled with a grievous sicknesse in the flower of his age, his friends could never get so much of him (no more than Agesilaus friends could get of him) as to suffer himself to be represented in sculpture or picture, to serve for posteritie: only this, through their importunitie he agreed unto, that after he should be dead and some daies in the ground, they should open his grave, and cause him to be represent∣ed as they then found him. They kept promise with him, and found that the Worms had half gnawne his face, and that about the mi∣driffe and the back-bone there were many Serpents. Upon this, they caused the spectacle (such as they found it) to be cut in stone: which is yet at this present to be seen among the armed Statues of the An∣cestors of this yong gentleman. A notable example of the fragilitie of mans body, how faire and goodly so ever it be; and that all the splendor and magnificall shew that may be seen therein, is nothing else but rottennesse and Wormes-meat: as the Author of Ecclesiasticus saith; When a man dieth, he is the heritage of Serpents, Beasts and Worms. Which is confirmed by a certaine inscription graven upon a tombe at Rome in Saint Saviours Church, where are two Latine Verses to this effect.

When in my bodies prison I was pent, I was compact of shamefull filth and ordure: Now to this lower dungeon being sent, To crawling Wormes I serve for food and pasture.

Saint Bernard aymed at the same when he said, That man was no∣thing but stinking seed, a sack of excrements, and the food of Worms.

Of bodies dead ingender Worms, of Wormes a rotten stink, And then as horrible a state as mind of man can think: This is our very case, for all our pride and hie conceit, Nor can we stay the stroake of death when he our life doth threat.

So then, nature ingendring of the carrion of our bodies, a Serpent, or a Dragon, it seemeth to shew unto us (as it were with the finger) the author of our calamities and corruptions; as also the enemie that hath an unreconcileable warre with us: to wit, that old dragon and serpent, who not only layeth traps for the living; but besides never leaveth rending and devouring those that be dead and buried.

Article 6. Of Sweat.

ARistotle reports, that some have sweat blood. And Fernel. l. 6. de part. morb. c. 4. observed, that sometimes blood will run forth of the ends of the veins that end in the skin, in many places. There was one, that every month about a pound of blood, run forth of a vein opened, by the skin, near the lower part of the Liver▪ when it was voided, none could discern where it came forth, Beneven. Lastly, the President of Mons Marinus, when he was besieged by Augustus the base son of the Prince of Salucia, and was called forth as it were to parley, and then held prisoner, and he was threatned with death, if he yielded not up the place, was so frighted with this undeserved death, that he sweat blood all over his body, Thuan. l. 11▪ Histor. The causes are two, saith Aristotle. The thinnesse of the blood, the rari••y of the skin, and the opening of the pores. To this may be added, the weaknesse of the parts that serve for nutrition, if the retentive faculty hold not, and the expulsive cast forth strongly. Anno 1486, there was a kind of disease call'd the English Sweat; It first fell out in England, and in Germany Anno 1529, it so spread, that it brake off the Treaty of Zwinglius and Luther. The force was so great, that it killed men in 24 hours, or else they recovered if it did breathe forth by sweat, Thuan. lib. 6. Physicall observations shew, that one recovered who went into a very hot oven, and sweat violent∣ly. But as many as eat of the bread was baked in the same oven, were all consumed by a consumption, Riqu. de febre sudor in Epist. And though Sweat, when other signs are good, be a Token of a good Cri∣sis,

yet a cold sweat is certainly mortall, for it comes from the decayd heat of the solid parts. When as it breaks forth from a great feavorish heat within, it is cooled in the Externall parts that are now void of all heat. Whence our Hippocrates, l. 4. Aphor. 37. saith, If cold Sweats come forth upon a hot Feaver, they signifie Death; but if the Feaver be mild, a Chronicall disease.

Article 6. Of insensible Transpiration.

AS in the great World, vapours are drawn forth from moyst places by the heat of the Sun and the Stars: so in Man, the lit∣le world, we must grant the same is caused by force of the inward heat. Yet lest they being united in mans body, should cause distem∣per, and make Feavers, God made mans body open and full of pores, through which the vapours breathe out, and that so finely, that the senses can scarce perceive them. Yet Sanctor. Sanctorius, did ob∣serve and weigh them as fine as they are. Hence grew, that Physick is called Statica, wherein amongst other Aphorismes these are con∣tain'd:

I. Insensible transpiration is far more, than all sensible transpirations put together.

II. If the weight of the body begins to increase more than usually, without any greater addition of meat or drink, or retention of sensible excrements, there is a stopping of the pores.

III. Perspiration that cures the body of a disease, and of that unprofitable weight, is not that which is made by sweat, but by that invisible breathing forth, which in Winter in one naturall day can send forth above 50 oun∣ces.

IV. After sleep, before he voids any sensible Excrements, a man feels himself lighter; for he is so, about 3. pounds weight more than ordinary.

V. In one night commonly a man voids 16 ounces of urine, more or lesse, 4. ounces of excrements by siege, and above 40 ounces by insensible transpi∣ration.

VI. Many men void more in one naturall day by insensible transpiration, than they do by their belly in 15. dayes.

VII. If cold fall upon the Ayr in Summer, and a man drink hard that day, it will hinder a third part almost of insensible transpiration; and if sensible transpiration do not help, it will easily dispose a man to corrupt hu∣mours or Cachexia.

VIII. In Summer temperate bodies are lighter than in Winter about three pound weight.

IX. In Summer if cold fall upon heat, the same day about one pound of excrements are kept in, and cannot breathe forth.

X. From the Autumnall Equinoctiall, to the Summer Solstice, we breathe forth above one pound weight lesse every day; and from thence to the Vernall Aequinox we begin to breathe them forth more freely.

XI. The stomach fill'd with meat, if it perform the first concoction whilest

we sleep, the perspiration of that night commonly amounts to 40 ounces; but if it do not end it, it comes to about 18 ounces.

XII. Meats that nourish much, except Wether-Mutton, from Supper to Dinner, use not to breathe out above 18. ounces.

XIII. Plenty of meats, that nourish but little, in one night may breathe forth above 40 ounces in most men.

XIV. Wether-Mutton is easily concocted, and will breathe forth; for in one night it will come forth by insensible transpiration 3. ounces more than other ordinary meats.

XV. Unquiet rest hinders at least 3. ounces of ordinary transpira∣tion.

XVI. I have found that insensible transpiration in many men will breathe forth in 7. hours 40 ounces, when they sleep; and 20 when they wake, or thereabouts.

CHAP. IV. Of Increasing.

Article 1. Of Gyants.

THere are two sorts of Gyants. For they are either people of a Country; or else Monsters, by errour of the matter, or of the Agent. Goropius Becanus denyes that ever there were, or are any of the first kind. But the holy Scripture gives testimony, and there are evi∣dent examples, and modern experience confirm it. For the Spies, Numb. 13. v. 33. say expresly, We saw Gyants the sons of Anak, which come of the Gyants, that we seemed in our eyes like to Grashoppers, and so we were in their eyes. And what are the names of the Emims, and Zamzummims; but titles of Gyants? Procopius testifieth, that Justi∣nian wondred at the Goths of old for their vast bodies. Some think they had their names from Gygas, Bartholin. de Pigmaeis c. 5. Mela. l. 3. c. 4. writes, That amongst the Indians there were men so tall, that they rid on the greatest Elephants instead of horses. The Patagones in America are certainly known to be 12. spans high. Pigafetta saith, he saw there amongst the Canibals a Gyant that was taller than other men from the girdle upwards. But about the straights of Magellan near the Antartick Pole, he saw men whose neck was half as long as a mans Arm; and he affirms it exceedingly. We may place Goliah, and such as are spoken of, 2 Sam. 27. in the number of the last kind of Gyants. Augustine saw the grinding tooth of one, that, cut into pieces, would make a hundred teeth of ours, Lib. 15. de civitat Dei, c. 9. Some were found in Drepanum in Sicily, each of them weighed 3. pound, Pulgosius l. 1. c. 6. Lucius Flaccus and Metellus in the Cre∣tian Warre found some of their bodies that were 30 cubits. In the same place the earth opening by an Earthquake cast up one 40 cubits

high, Plin. l. 7. c. 26. In another place amongst the waves there was a Maid seen 50 cubits long, and she was 4. cubits broad between the shoulders, she was clothed in a purple garment, Vincentius histor. Natur. l. 31. c. 25. But what saith Bertius of another in his descripti∣on of Zealand▪ Our Chronicles relate, from Gulielmus Bonus, Earl of Holland, unto the Marriage solemnities of Charles the fair, King of France, a woman was brought, of an unusuall stature, born in Zealand, in respect of whom very tall men seemed but dwarfs; and she was so strong, that she would carry two barrels full of beer in both hands, each of them weighing 40 Italian pounds; and a beam that 8 men could not lift, she would weeld at pleasure. He that desires more, let him read the Book of Johannes Cassio de Gygantibus: I onely mention some of the chief, commonly they that feed abundantly do not grow so beautifull. The choaking of the natural heat, is the cause, with abundance of moysture. The same happeneth in diseases, Lemnius in occult.

Artic. 2. Of Pigmies.

PYgmies have their name from their cubital stature. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is the distance from the bending of the elbow to the top of the little finger. The Hebrews call them Gammadim, from Gomed a cu∣bit. There were two sorts of them, some very little ones brought up in Princes Courts for sport; born by accident as Monsters are. Some are a people that live some where, or else they did formerly. I need not prove the former. Under Theodosius there was one so small in Aegypt, that he seem'd no bigger than a Partridge; he was very wise, and had a pleasant voyce, and spake clearly, shewing the marks of a generous mind, he lived 20, years. Nicephor l. 12. Eccles. histor. c. 37. Johannes Cassinon de Gygant, p. 66, saw two at Lyons, one of them had a long beard, and was of a very beautiful countenance, some of our Chamberfellows saw at Falconburg, a mile from Leyds the last yeare, a female a cubit long, There was a Dwarf at the Marriage of the Duke of Bavaria, who was compleatly arm'd, with a short spear, and his sword girt about him, and he was hid in a Pie that one could not see him, and he was set upon the Table, and he brake the crust of the Pie and came forth, and drawing his sword he danced like a Fencer, and made all the people laugh and admire him, Plater. l. 3. Observ. At Dresda in the Castle of the Elector of Saxony there is to be seen the Skeleton of a dwarfe, not a cubit high, with so solid and well proportion'd bones, that one would think they were the bones of an Embryo. Bartholin de Pigm. c. 6. In Marchia and Lusatia, there was an entire skeleton found, with the skull, 2 foot and 3 fingers long, Leonhardus▪ Turnheuserus in German Pisone memorat. l. 7. c. 84. Now because Coffins of the dead were often dug up in those parts, the people think the Pigmies make them under ground. In Winter they lye 20, foot deep, about Whitsontide one cubit, it is the opinion of the people. Multitudes of Authours may perswade us to beleive that there was a Country of Pigmies: amongst the rest C••esias Indicus writes thus: Middle India

hath blackmen, that are called Pigmies, and they speak the same lan∣guage, the rest of the Indians do; they are very small, for great part of them are but half a cubit high, and the greatest of them is not above two cubits. Their haire hangs as farr & somtime below their knees, & they wear their beards longer than any men. And so soon as their long beard is grown, they use no clothing, but they let their haire fall back∣wards much below their knees, and their beard covers their fore∣parts. Then when they have covered their whole bodies with haire, they girt themselves about with them instead of garments. Also their Yard is so thick and so great, that it will come down to their ankles. They are also flat nosed and deformed. Their sheep are no bigger than our Lambs, their Oxen and Asses are like our Rams in greatnesse, their Horses and Mules, and other creatures to carry burdens are no bigger. The King of the Indies hath 3000 of these Pigmies in his company. For they are most cunning Archers. They are very just, & use the same Laws the other Indians do. They hunt Hares & Foxes, not with Dogs, but with Crows, Kites Rooks, & Eagles, There is a lake amongst them that is 800 furlongs about, upon which, when the wind trou∣bles it not, oyle swims which some of these men take away from the middle of it in boats, swimming through it with little ships, and this they use. They use also oyle of Sesama & nuts, but the best is taken out of that Lake. So far he describes them. Antonius Pigafetta found some of them in an Island of the Moluccas, but Jovius l. 3. de rebus Muscovit. saith, they are in the Island Caphi, beyond the Laplanders▪ Lastly Odericus de reb. Indic. l. 3, saith, he saw some but three hands breadth, and that they begat Children at five yeares old.

CHAP. V. Of Generation.

Article 1. Of Seed.

THe Seed, the most noble principle in Generation, resists many injuries. That appears even from this, that the essence of many things can remain entire in many changes, & under another form. Let a Goat be fed with many purgative herbs; let the nurse drink the Goats-milk, and it will purge the child that sucks her: yet in the stomach of the Goat those herbs were changed into Chylus, and the Chylus was made blood in the Liver, and from blood milk in the Ud∣der; when the nurse drinks this milk, again Chylus is made of it in the stomach, blood of this Chylus in the Liver, milk of this blood in her breasts. I received it from one, saith Sennertus, worthy of credit, de consens. et dissens. that from the froth of a mad dog that stuck upon a cloath, little creatures were bred like to whelps. It is wont, being retain'd in Virgins and lusty Widows, to get a venomous quality, by corrupting in the matrix, and it will cause strong symptoms. For a malignant

vapour flying up, presseth the Intestines, the Liver, and the 〈…〉〈…〉▪ and makes the breathing so small, that it can hardly be perceived. When any thing hangs over the parts of the privities or Navel to∣ward the Diaphragma, and ascending to the orifice of the stomach is perceived, there followes presently panting of the heart, aking of the heart, swimming of the head and palenesse. Whilest this continues▪ a woman falls suddenly down, and is deprived of breathing, speech, and sight; (many have layn so 3 dayes; others have been buried, as though they had been dead; Vesalius dissected one to his great disho∣nour) and sometimes a woman is affected with the Epilepsie, Con∣vulsion sits, and raving; and, as the malignant vapour fall on this or that part, so is she disquieted. Sometimes wonderfull voyces are heard out of their bellies, crying of frogs, hissing of Serpents, cro∣king of Crowes, crowing of Cocks, barking of dogs; which Gemma Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit. thinks they do vary as the passages and the spirits that break forth are proportioned. The Daughters of the President of Roan did alwaies laugh, and would not cease from it▪ Holler. de intern. morb. It happens sometimes, that imagination be∣ing hurt, they grow sick of melancholy, and think the Devill is pre∣sent; also they fall into the fury of the womb, and wandring melan∣choly: this principally is of force in February, and is heaped up in winter. When they are so affected, they will speak divers things, and divers wonders in strange tongues. Physitians say, they will de∣sire to lye with those they meet; they will talk in the night, and hide themselves in tombs, Henr. Petreius Nosolog. Harmon. Discours. 3. We read, that the Virgins of Miletus affected with this disease, of∣fered violence to themselves. The order of formation is this; First of all, the membranes that surround the Infant are made; For in these the nobler part of the seed is included, and the heat of the spi∣rit and seed is covered after: After this all the spermatick parts are delineated; and as their dignity is, so is each of them made in its order. Yet some are perfected sooner, some later. Hence at the first time of conception there appear 3. bubbles, as it were, swelling with spirits, which are the rudiments of the Brain, Heart and Li∣ver, and an innumerable company of threds, that are the beginnings of veins, nerves and arteries, and, as it were, the foundations of the solid parts, Sennert. l. 1. Institut. c. 9.

Artic. 2. Of menstruous Blood and Milk.

THe coldness of Women, & generation is the cause that all blood is not wasted in them, yet because they are not alwaies with Child, it is then collected in the vessels about the matrix, and is cast forth every month, that they may not feel the burden of it, wherefore Physitians call them monthly terms. They begin to be cast forth, when they are young Maids, the bottom or neck of the matrix deter∣mins the manner of the flux. It is observed that a fresh maid, with great brests hanging down, which had hair under her arm-pits, and

on her privities, had her courses five yeares together without any hurt Schenk. l. 4. observ. Nature if it cannot find the ordinary way seeks another passage. A Maid of Saxony had her Terms come forth of her eys. A Nun had them came forth of her ears. Pareus his Wife had them by her nostrills: A Maid at Sturgard vomited them up: A Maid in the Island Chios, spit them up. Amatus speaks of some that voided them by their Teats: A woman of Trent, voided them by her Navel; and which is wonderfull, a Nun voided them every month by her little finger, and ring finger of her left hand, Ludovic. Mercat. l. 1. c. 7. de Mulierib. affect. All have not this flux uniforme; Those that are of a good habit have them twice a yeare without hurt, and some not so much as once. And Hortensius saith they have them before they conceive. Institut. medic. l. 1. c. 28. They that are born from Mothers that were long before they had their Terms, are com∣monly sickly. So it was with Francis the 2d. King of France, who never had a s••otty nose, and seldom spit, but a great deal of filthy excrements came towards his eare, and purged his brain that way, and at last the corruption grew Mortall. Thuan. l. 23. Histor. And Pliny affirms that there is a venemous quality in it. For l. 7. c. 15. l. 19. c. 1. he writes thus, You shall not easily find any thing that is more monstrous than the terms of wo∣men: new Wine will grow sowre by them, Corn will wither by touching them, plants will dye, the buds of Trees will be burnt by them, and fall; Looking-glasses grow dark by their very looks. The edge of Steel and the brightnesse of Ivory is mad blunt, swarms of Bees dye, Brasse and Iron will presently rust, and a stinking smell corrupts the ayre: Dogs run mad that tast them, and bite deadly with venome incurable. Also it is reported that the Ant, the smallest creature is sensible of this, and will not eat the Corn hath touched them, not come there any more. Milk hath been somtimes found in Mens brests. For Cardan de subtil. testifies that Antonius Benzus, being 34, yeares old, pale, and with a thin beard, fat of body, had as much Milk in his brests as would suckle a Child. They that have seen the new World, affirm that all the men almost have abundance of Milk. Aristotle saw a hee Goat in Lemnus, that afforded so much milk as would suffice to give a kid suck. l. 3. histor. animal. c. That it will somtimes grow hard as a stone, see Schenkius observat. Mathaeus Medic. quaest, centur. qu. 14▪ denies that Virgins have any. Heurnius ad l. 5. Aphor. 39. affirms it. If Virgins, saith he, abound with this blood, and their termes be stopt, un∣lesse this be voided by letting blood, or vomiting, or bleeding at the nose, or emrods, or a bloody dysentery; and if their brests be hotter and rubbed, it may incline somtimes that way and be turned into milk. Hippocrates in the same Aphoris••m. If a woman have Milk, and be neither great with Child, nor de∣livered, her courses are stopt. Yet we confesse, this hapneth but seldom, since Nature ordaind the Milk to suckle the Infant.

Artic. 3. Of the Generative parts.

I Shall speak but little of these, and with a mind that is modest, and with such a mind they ought to be read. Histories relate, that Sylla had but one testicle; and Philip Landgrave of Hassia had 3. Thuan. l. 41. He addes, he was so full of juice for venery, that when he used onely his Wife, and she could not suffer him so often, as he would; he being otherwise a chaste man, by consent of his wife, and relating his mind to the Priests, he was forced to take a Concu∣bine besides. A Prince of Germany who was emasculated by a Can∣non bullet, made that member of silver, and with that he got many children, Nancel. Analog. Microcosm. l. 7. A Bull that presently leapt on a Cow, so soon as he was gelt, got her with Calf, Aristotle. And Albertus relates of an Eunuch that used copulation. One was born without a genital member, yet with the Scrotum and testicles; ano∣ther, without the parts of either Sex, Schenkius in observat▪ It is cer∣tain, that Virgins have a virginall Cloyster. But there is not a little skin placed a thwart in the middle of the matrix, that makes the neck thereof impassible: but four Caruncles, placed round, with small fibres comming between them, till they are broken by force, and they are circularly shrivelled by course, leaving a hole in the middle of them, that the terms may run forth from the matrix, Ludovic. de Gar∣din. Anatom. c. 99. Avicenna l. 3. sen. 21. makes mention of a part found in the privity of a woman, which he calls the wand, or Alba∣thara. Albucasis l. 2. c. 7. calls it Tentigo; and sometimes this hath grown so big, that women that have it, could copulate with others like men, Fa••lopius. Caesarean births shew, that the womb may be cut sometimes without danger. Physicall Histories testifie, that one had her Matrix cut out for her Lasciviousnesse, yet without danger of her life. Rhodiginus saith, he saw a Maid foretell future things by her matrix. Chrysostome saith, that one of Apollo's Nuns did the like.

Article 4. Of the Female Sex.

WEe all know there are two Sexes: the male the superiour; and the female, inferiour almost in all things. God gave the man the Superiority, and commanded the woman to obey. If we consider her body, she shewes by this, her condition is the lowest; chiefly if we consider her temper and excrements. Hence, because they send forth sad vapours, by reason of their courses, they will make Nutmegs and Corall, look foul and black. But if a male carry the first it will grow fatter, the latter will look more red, Lemnius l. 2. c. 12. de occult. They are easily angry, and their choler kindled, soon will boyl over; and for want of heat, they are not so ingenious. It is now the common opinion, that this sex is more lustfull than men are. Yet no man will deny, but that there are degrees in this. For in pale lean

people, the genitall parts are filled with a sharp biting humour, and desire to be moystned. Lemnius l. 2. de occult. c. 37. conjectures, that they are more venereous than red fat people. Rue makes men lesse, women more lustfull. Secundus Philosophus, when he was perswaded that all women were naught, and having made triall, found it so in his own Mother, not that he lay with her, but found she would give him leave, being asked by Adrian what a woman was, answered, Mans Confusion; an unsatiable beast; a continuall trouble; a battel with∣out end: the shipwrack of an incontinent Man; the slave of mankind. Yet be what it will be; This sex is not so much to be despised: but there are some found above this condition. In the Siege at Brunswick a wo∣man playd the Souldier; another did the like formerly in Caesar's Camp, Camer. Hor. subcis. c. 76. Cent. 3. Eudoxia the Wife of Theo∣dosius the younger writ Poems; and there is extant of her making Homers fragments concerning our Saviour. Proba Falconia did the like out of Virgils Verses. Jane Grey, understood Hebrew, Greek, and Latine. Olympia Fulvia Morata, could make verses Greek or Latine; and when she turned to the Orthodox Religion, she gave her self whol∣ly to Divinity. What shall I say of Elizabeth Queen of England? she by her vertues put all the world into admiration; and she so amazed Pope Sixtus, that he said, That she onely with Henry the Fourth of France was fit to give counsell concerning the state of the whole Christian World. Examples testifie, that women in time were changed into men. At Antioch a famous Maid being married after she had born a child, became a man; at Maevan, another also became a man. At Rome one, the same day she was married, was transformed, Volat. l. 24. Comm. Urbin. The same happened to Aemilia, after she had been mar∣ried 12 years. See more examples in Schenkius.

Artic. 5. Of the noise of the Womb.

SOme have observed, that Children have cryed in their mothers wombs, and so lowd, that they could be well heard. In Wein∣richius of Monsters, you shall find Examples. A Poet writes thus:

Wonder it is, a Child did sadly cry, Which was unborn, and in the womb did ly. The cause was this, it griev'd, and with its might Strove to come forth, to see the Worlds great light. Or else perhaps, it shew'd the earnest care To help its Parents that now weary were.

Some think, that this portends some hurt to the child, or to the mo∣ther: others think, that this is contrary to reason and experience. To Experience, because there is no certainty that any such thing hap∣pened amongst the old Philosophers. To Reason, because there can be no cry heard without drawing the ayr by the mouth, and without

the beating at the ayr by the sharp artery when we breathe it forth, and without a certain forming of it by the mouth, and the Palate. For being there is no place for a reciprocall course of the ayr, in the veins and arteries, and the Infants urinary passage, that are filled with other things; nor for so great abundance, that a passage should be made by the heart; it cannot enter by the navel, by reason of the no∣table danger of heat, nor can it be admitted by the matrix: to say no∣thing, that all are full of an excrementitious glutinous matter. Li∣bavius supposeth all things required for breathing in the Thorax to be made, and he thinks that the internal aereal breath made of the hu∣mours by the active heat, and shut up within the house where the child is, and also contain'd in the capacity of the Lungs, being pres∣sed forth by the Child, may serve the turn. See disc. de vagitu, &c.

Artic. 6. Of numerous Births.

IN the single faculty of generation, that man hath, there hap∣pens variety, if we consider time and number. Some are born in the fift month, some in the sixt, some in the 7th, 8th, or 9th, and some in the tenth, 13th. 15th. Paschal. in Biblio. medica saith, one was great with Child 23 months, another 2 years, Aven∣tinus. l. 5. Annal, This Child was born speaking; One was with Child four yeares, Mercurialus. Yet Physitians set the 9th and tenth months for the time of natural birth, when the Child is grown great and wants plenty of nourishment, and the place where he lyes is grown too narrow. Those that are born in the fift month, are very fee∣ble, as a maid was that Valescus de Philos. sacra c. 18. mentions, who was more slender and thin than women-kind use to be. Those that are born in the 7th month are weak, and suspected, not to be perfect in all things; few live in the 8th month, the striving to be born in the 7th month, hath made them weak as some think. For number some will bring two, three, four, oft times; and some will exceed this, that it is miraculous. An Aegyptian, in Gellius l. 10. c. 2. had five at a birth. The Mother of Lamisius King of Lombardy had 7, Sigebert in Chronic. The Countesse of Quenfurt had 9. Betraff. l. 4. of the Princess of Anhalt. A woman that Albertus speaks of, miscarried of 22, ano∣ther of 70, another of a 150. The matter was proved by cutting the little coats they were wrapped in, Caelinus l. 4. c. 25. The Wife of Irmentrud Isenbert, Earl of Altorf, was delivered of 12. Margaret the Wife of the Earl of Viraboslai of 36, Cromer. l. 11. Margaret the daughter of Florentius Earle of Holland had 365, Ludovicus vives in colloquiis. Maude Countesse of Henneberg under Frederick the second had 1500. Aventin. l. 7. annal, Cuspinianus saith, 350. But if you take them at severall times, you shall find wonderfull examples of fruitfullnesse. Priamus by Hecuba had 19, Children, and 31, by other Women. Artaxerxes had 106, Herotimus, 600. Conra∣dus Duke of Moscovia had 80. The King of Giloto (it is an Island amongst the M••luccas) had 600, Pigafetta of Ziamb, 325. another had

650. Martinus Polus l. 3. c. 6. saith, he saw these living. Ludovicus Vives saw a Country man in Spaine, whose Children whil'st he lived, had filled a Village of above a hundred housholds. And in our times an old Wife spake of her ofspring, thus. Ah my daughter, tell thy daughters daughter to lament for her daughters daughter. Sphinx. c. 17.

Thomas Fazell writeth, that Iane Pancica, who in his time was ma∣ried to Bernard Belluard, Sicilian, of the citie of Agrigent, was so fruit∣full, that in thirtie child-beds she was delivered of seventie and three children: which should not seeme (saith he) incredible, seeing Ari∣stotle affirmes, that one woman at four births brought forth twentie Children; at every one, five. Albertus Magnus writes, That a woman of Germanie had two and twentie abortive Children at one time, all having their perfect shapes: and another woman, seventie. And besides, that another woman delivered into a bason a hundred and fiftie, every one of the length of ones little finger. Erasmus, Vives, and others, have written of the strange deliverance of the Countesse of Henneberg. Lewis Guicciardin in his description of the Low-Coun∣tries setteth down the same storie, taken out of the ninth book of the Annals of Flanders, composed by Guido Dominicus Petrus: His words are these; A certaine poore woman, brought a bed of two Children, prayed the Countesse to give her some assistance in her necessitie: but the Countesse did not only send her away empty-handed, but char∣ged her that she was of an ill behaviour, saying that it was a thing against nature (in her opinion) for a woman that is honest to conceive by her husband two Children at one birth; and therefore that this her deliverance had bewraied, that she had lewdly abandoned her selfe to some others. The poore woman moved with this reproach and igno∣minious repulse, and of the other side well assured of her honest carriage, made earnest request to God, that for the proofe of her in∣nocency, and of the faith which He knew she had kept inviolably to her husband, it would please him to grant that this Countesse might have so many Children at one burden, as there were daies in the yeare: which within a while after came to passe. And he addeth, that these Children were as big as Chickens new hatcht, all alive, and sound, and died within a little while together with their mother: to whom this Epitaph following was erected in the Monasterie of Lodun, where there were Nunnes of the order of S. Bernard, and it is hard by the Hague in Holland.

THE EPITAPH.

The daughter of the right noble Lord Florent Earle of Holland, and of Mawd his Wife the daughter of Henrie Duke of Brabant, sister of William King of Almaine, named Margaret, of the age of fortie two yeares, was brought a bed upon the Friday before Easter, in the yeare 1276, at nine a Clock in the morning, of three hundred, three-score, and five Children, as well male as female; who after they had been all baptized in a great bason by the reverend Bishop Don William, Suffragan, in the presence of some great Lords and notable persons, the male Children being called by the name of

John, the female by the name of Elizabeth, dyed all of them together with their mother; their souls returning to God, to live eternally, their bodies rest∣ing under this Tombe.

The like storie well neere is reported of the beginning of the noble race of the Wolfes. Irmentrudes the Wife of Isenbard Earle of Altorf, having given her selfe the reines so far, as to accuse of adulterie a woman that had three Children at one birth, being not able to believe that one man could at one time get so many Children, adding withall, that she deserved to be sowed in a sack and thrown into the water, yea, and accusing her in that regard to her husband: It happened that the next yeare the Countesse felt her self with Child, and the Earle being from home, she was brought a bed of twelve male Children, but all very little. She fearing the reproach of adulterie (whereof yet she was not guilty) and the punishment of like-for-like, com∣manded that eleven of them should be taken and cast into a River that was not far from the house, and that one should be saved to be brought up. It so fell out that Isenbard met the woman that was car∣rying the little infants to their death, and asking her, whither she went with her paile? he had this answer, that she was going to drown a few baggage whelps in the River of Schere. The Earle came unto her, and (for all the resistance the woman made) would see what was there, and then discovering the Children, pressed her in such wise, that she told him all the matter. Then he caused them to be nourished and educated secretly, and so soon as they were grown great and brought home to him, he set them in an open hall besides him whom his wife had brought up: and then being all known to be brethren by their faces, and their other fashions, their mother moved in conscience confessed all the fact, and obtained pardon for her fault. In remembrance whereof the honorable race of the Wolfes got that name, which ever since it hath kept.

Article 7. Of monstrous Births.

NAture in working intends her own businesse; but because divers obstacles may happen in respect of the first agent, the seed, the constitution of the Heavens, the formative vertue, imagination, heat, it is no wonder if she erre sometimes. And though there be Monsters almost in all mixt bodies, yet those Monsters that happen amongst living creatures are chiefly remarkable. And such fall out either in quantity or quality. A woman of Troas, Anno 1569, brought forth twins joyn'd by the heads, Pareus l. 24. oper. c. 2. Valeriola locor. commun. l. 1. c. 8. saw at Avignon one with two bodies all from the neck. Munsterus saw two Maids joyn'd together, with their fore∣heads one against the other; and when one went forward, the other went backwards. At Florence there were two boyes, one was an en∣tire body, the other was fastned by his shoulders to the others sto∣mach, that all his head seemed to be thrust into it; and when the former sucked, he moved as if he sucked also, Benivent. de reb. abdit. Paraeus l. 24. c. 2. Anno 1530, saw the same at Paris, in a man of 40

years. About the end of the Empire of Lotharius, a certain woman bore a child like a man and a dogg; their bodies joyn'd entirely, and they were fastned at the ridge of their backs, Lycost. lib. prodigior. In Scotland there was one that was a male for the nether parts, but above the navell it had two members, distinct both for use and in shape. This Monster was taught the Musicall Art, and learn'd many Lan∣guages. It held consultation, and when they differ'd, they would chide and quarrel; it lived 28 years. And when one body dyed many dayes before the other, the other that lived pined away, half the body being putrified before, Buchan. in histor. Scotica. Lastly, in former times there was a child born at Cracovia from noble Parents, that was terrible to behold, with flaming shining eyes; the mouth and nostrils were like to an Oxes, it had long horns, and a back hairy like a dogs, and faces of Apes in the breast, where the teats should stand; it had Cats eyes under the navell fastned to the hypogastrium, and they looked hideously, and frightfully, and the heads of dogs of both elbowes; and at the whirlbones of each knee, looking forwards; It was splay-footed, and splay-handed; the feet were like Swans feet, and it had a tail turn'd upwards that was crooked backwards, about half an ell long: It was born and lived four hours, and then spake thus; Watch, the Lord your God comes; and then it dyed, Peucer. in Tetratosc.

To this may be added, the stony birth at Agendicum of the Senones, that was carried 28 years, and was cut out of the mothers womb, when she was dead. It is seen to this day at Agendicum, for a mi∣racle, and is not corrupted, Thuan. l. 76. Histor. He that would hear more, let him read Bauhinus de hermaphrodite, Weinrichius de monstris, and others.

Article 8. Of the recompence Nature makes to Monsters.

IT is commonly said, that those that are deficient naturally, are mar∣ked for some malignant qualities: and this is sometimes found to be true; but it is most false, that it is alwayes so. For to say nothing of the diversity of parts, which Lemnius adviseth us to take notice of: such is the force of education, that it made Socrates good, that would have been bad. Moreover, Nature is so indulgent, that, as if she were ashamed of her mistake, she largely recompenceth her errour with other endowments. Count Mansfeld that fail'd in sight, could by touching, know white from black, Keckerm. in Physicis. Hamar, a Captain of a Caravan, would know where he was by onely smelling the same, Leo African. A Preacher in Germany that was blind from his nativity, chose the fairest of three Sisters, by taking her by the hand, Camer. Hor. subcis. Cent. 3. c. 80. Cicero saith, Homer was blind; we see not him, but his Poetry. His words are, Tusculan. 5. What Country, what place, what Town of Greece, what form, what fight, what Army, what rowing, what motion of men or beasts, is not so represented by him, that what he saw not, he described it so, that we might see it? Didymus

Alexandrinus was also blind from his childhood, who professed wis∣dome divine and humane, which he learned, Ruffin. l. 11. c. 7. Eccles. histor. What shall I say of Thomas Schweikerus? Posthius a Poet, and a famous Physitian writes thus of him,

Thomas by nature wanting arms, with's feet Performs all things, youl'd wonder for to see't; With's feet he eats and drinks, full well; and then, With's feet he turns his books, or makes a Pen With's feet to write, and paint doth understand, No man can do it better with his hand. Caesar Aemilian, as stories mention, Admir'd, maintain'd him, with a Pension.

Georgius Pictorius Villinganus l. 4. Sermon Convival. testifies, that he saw a Spaniard born without arms, so cunning with his feet, that he could spin, or use the neidle curiously, as the cunningst woman could with both her hands. He could so wield his arms, that no Souldier could match him; and shoot in a bowe, that he would never misse the mark; and with one stroke he would break a thick log. To con∣clude, Keckerman speaks of a Schollar, l. 1. Physic. c. 4. that had but one little finger on each hand, and his feet were triangular without any toes, and he had more force in one finger, than others had with five; he writ curiously and swiftly, and stood so firm, that in slippery places he would seldom slip. Also Pliny may cease to complain of nature, that is a bountifull mother to all; and recompenseth a defect with more benefit.

Camerarius and some others being once at Combourg, in the house of Erasmus Neusteter, a wise and vertuous gentleman of Germanie, he entertained us with the greatest kindnesse that could be devised, and sent to a place not very farre from them for one Thomas Schweiker, a young man of one and thirtie yeares of age, descended of a worship∣full house, and borne without ever an arme, who did with his feet all that a readie man could do with his hands, so that himself affirm∣ed he was recompenced with one gift in stead of another. Having set himself in a place equall with the heighth of the table whereon the meat was placed, he took a knife with his feet, begins to cut bread, and to cut meat, which he carried with his feet to his mouth, and likewise the cup, as easily as another would have done with his hands. After dinner, ••e begins to write examples in Latin and German let∣ters, so straight and so faire, as every one of us desired to have some of them to keep as a speciall monument. Being requested, he did with a penknife make penns, very good to write with, which he gave us. While he was thus a doing, I marked diligently the making of his feet, and saw that his toes were long, fit to take hold of things; and to behold them a farr off, one would take them for fingers: for his thighs and legs, he kept them mannerly covered with his Cloake. This sight (which we had never seen before) was no lesse pleasing

than strange to us; as it was also at another time to the Emperor Maximilian the second, who passing that way, desired to see the man, and having noted in him (not without wonderment) the strange re∣compence of Nature, he dismissed him with a rich gift. Of late there hath been seen a man without armes going about in Germanie, who had learned by custome turned into art, to handle a sword, and to flourish it about his neck; to fling halberds, and to do other strange things so nimbly, and so surely withall, that he would most com∣monly hit the marke; and all other duties of the hands, he did them with his feet. But the end of his life shewed that he was a deceiver and a wicked person: for he was broken upon the wheele for his rob∣beries and murders.

We have at Nuremberg a young Man and a young Maid, borne of one Father and Mother, of a good House, and well known, that are endued with a singular quick conceit: for although they be deafe and dumb by nature, yet can both of them read very well, write, cypher, and cast account. The young man conceiveth at first by signes that are made him, what he is required to do. If his pen be wanting, by his countenance he sheweth his thoughts, being the quickest and cun∣ningest at all games both at Cards and Dice, that one can find among the Germans; although there they use great advisement, and be marveilous readie and quick. His sister passeth all other maids for working with her needle all kinds of Seamstrie, Tapistrie, Embroide∣rie, &c. But among all the other wonderfull recompences of nature, this is remarkable in them, that most commonly as soon as they see ones lips stirr, they understand his meaning. They are oftentimes at Sermons, and a man would say that they draw and conceive with their eyes the words of the Preacher, as others use to do with their eares: for, they will oftentimes (no body ever teaching them, or set∣ting them any Letters or Copies) write the Lords Prayer and other godly prayers, know by heart the texts of the Gospels that are read upon holy-days, and write them readily. When in the Sermons the Preacher maketh mention of the name of Jesus, the young man is readie before any of the hearers, to take off his hat, and to bow his knee with all reverence; So carefull is nature, like a good mother, to make amends for a fault, that none should accuse her to be a step-mother: for, what she taketh away in some of the senses, she al∣loweth in the rest, as appeareth by Didymus Alexandrinus, of whom ••ussinus writeth, that he being blind, after he had humbly recom∣mended himself to God, spent all his time in hearing, insomuch as by his diligent attention he attained to that which others obtaine by reading; and by the direction of the holy Spirit, became so skillfull in divine and humane learning, that he was excellent among the Divines of his time. Moreover, our Ancestors have seen Iohn Ferdi∣nand, a blind and poor soul, a Spaniards son, who over∣came so happily these two difficulties (very crosse to all, especially to learned men) that he became not only a very learned Poet and Phi∣losopher, but also so excellent a Musician, that he played upon di∣vers

kinds of Instruments, to the great pleasure of the hearers; and besides, he made good songs and full of musick, of many parts. Ano∣ther, named Nicasius of Werd, borne at Macklin, excelled him: for fall∣ing blind when he was three yeares old, and not being able before 〈…〉〈…〉 learne any one letter, he so profited in the knowledg of Philosophy, both humane and divine, that all men were ravished with him. Having proceeded Master of Arts at Lovain, and afterwards being made Principall of Macklin Colledg, where he discharged his dutie passing well; he ascended a while after to the degree of Licenciat in Theologie, and though he were blind, he read, and preached open∣ly. Furthermore, being made Doctor of the Laws in the University of Colen, he read there, and expounded the Civil and Canon Law, repeating by heart the texts which he had never read, and at last di∣ed at Colen in the yeare 1492.

We will conclude this Chapter with an example of one borne blind, in whom nature made supplie of that defect with a marvel∣ous recompence other ways. The story is mentioned by Antonius de Palermo, thus: I learnt (saith he) of King Alphonsus, that there was a Sicilian borne blind, living still at that time in the Citie Gergento, called in old time Agrigentum, who had followed him oftentimes a hunting, shewing to the Hunts-men (who had their sights well ynough) the retraits and repairing places of the wild beasts. He add∣ed further touching the industry of this blind man, that having by his sparing and scraping, gotten together about five hundred Crowns, which put him to a great deale of care, he resolved (at last) to hide them in a field. As he was making a hole in the ground to that end, a gossip of his being his neighbour, espied him, who so soon as the blind man was gon, searched in the earth, found the money, and ca∣ried it cleane away. Two or three dayes after, the blind man re∣turning thither to visit his cash, and finding nought there; like one altogether forlorne, he frets and torments himselfe, and after much debating and discoursing concludes, that no man but his gossip could have played him such a trick. Whereupon finding him out, he thus began to say unto him; Gossip, I am come to you to have your opinion: I have a thousand Crowns, and the one half of them I have hid in a safe place; and for the other halfe I know not what to do with them, having not my sight, and being very unfit to keep any such thing, therefore what think you? might I not hide this other halfe with the rest, in the same place of safetie? The gossip approved and commended his resolution, and going speedily to the place, car∣ried back againe the five hundred Crowns that he had taken away before, hoping that he should have all the whole thousand together. A while after the blind man goes to his hole, and finding there his Crowns againe, took them up, and comming home, calleth for his gossip, saying unto him with a cheerfull voice; Gossip, the blind man hath seen better than he that hath two eyes.

Article 9. Of Nations of divers forms.

WHat I said in the 8th Article of Monstrous Births▪ happens but seldom; yet some thought, that happened commonly amongst some Nations. Not far from the Troglodites in Aethiopia, there is a people that have no heads, and their eyes are in their breasts. Au∣gustine saw them, Serm. ad Fratr. in Eremo. Solinus confirms it, c. 53. Pliny l. 5. c. 8. In Peru in the Province of Caraqui, Hispalensis sayes, they want the forepart, and hinder part of the head, Sylvius▪ p. 5. c. 35. For he adds, That so soon as they are born, they make their heads level with boards. Rawleigh in his Navigations to Guiana, speaks of some that are call'd Epumerocaci. The Circades, a people beyond Taprobana, are long visaged, with horse heads, if we credit Arrianus, Ramus tom. 1. In the Mountains of the Indies they have Dogs heads, and claws, and hides like beasts; they cannot speak, but bark, saith Megastenes, Aelian l. 10. c. 26. saith, they are in Egypt, in the way to Ethiopia, and he describes them, that they are black visaged, having no voyce, they make a thrill noise, and their chin is so far beneath their beards, that it is like to a Serpent. They live by hunting Oxen and Does. Augustin de civitate Dei, l. 16. c. 6. thinks, that is not incredible. Amongst the Scythians there are some with such large ears, that they will cover all their bodies, Isidor. l. 11. c. 3. Some have their feet so broad, that they can shadow their whole bodies with them, when they lie down, from the heat. I may here adde, that there are Sea-Men. Anno 1403, a Sea-Woman was taken in the Lake of Holland, and brought to Harlem, she was ready to learn some things that wo∣men do, but she could not speak. Anno 1526, in Frisland a Sea-Man was taken with a beard and hairy, he lived some years, but could never speak, Libav. l. 6. de universitat. rerum. And not long since, when the Denmark Ambassadors sail'd into Norway, they saw a man in the Sea, that had a swathband of corn, they took him and put him into the Ship, and he dyed, they cast him into the Sea again, and he revived. Historians approved do write these things. We will not here add what we think, onely the Devill hath many wiles; and great is the force of Imagination; and sometimes beasts are taken for men, if they be but like them. We read in the Scotch History, that the Kings Embassa∣dours were brought by a storm into Norway, and saw hairy beasts in the Mountains wandring like to men, they thought they had been men, the Inhabitants told them they were wild beasts. Let every man think what he please. I may have occasion to speak more of this elsewhere.

Article 10. Of a wonderfull Antipathy betweeen the Father and the Sonne.

THere was a Father that hated his child as much as some men do Cats; for if he were present, though he saw him not, he would swoond. Georgius Mylius, a Divine of Jena, related it. Libavius sought the cause diligently. And if the reason of antipathy in naturall things be worth enquiry, that is most worthy to be searched out, that is between children and parents. This is certain, that the cause of this discord cannot be found, nor in the rational nor the sensual part. For he wished his son no harm, nor can sympathy or antipathy be called love or hatred in parents. For they are to be found in things that are not living; and if they be in living creatures, they are not in them as they are living, but as they are natural, things. Yet because he did not abhor his other son, nor hate his off-spring, for which cause he married, it is certain that was no hereditary infirmity. It is pro∣bable, the son was changed into a disposition the father could not away with; and that might proceed from the seminary body ill disposed from the womb, or by the confluence of impure blood, that had in it some ground for this alteration, or from the blood the Em∣bryo was nourished with. For this growes divers from the matter of the nourishment, or may degenerate from some other inward cause, or from the place: sometimes the spirits that assist the blood and the whole nature, cause a change. Therefore either the mother had a great longing for some meat the father hated; or else she was frighted at something the father could not endure: To say nothing of the Midwife, or of hidden causes. So a Maid at Uratislavian, drank Cats blood, and became of a Cats qualities; and Faustina tasting the Fencers blood, had a son that was most cruell. If any think that a habit cannot be got by one act, he must know that is false of naturall powers; for they that of old were once taken into Trophonius his den, were wayward ever after; and a woman that fell into a Wolfs hole, grew hoary the same night.

Artic. 11. Of some Wonders concerning Generation.

I Adde these, though I have said much, that nothing might seem to be wanting. Soranus Ephesinus Isag. 17. writes, that women that are delivered in ships, have still children; not that they cannot speak, but they will not cry when they are born. Ausonius speaks of one thus:

Thy Father Geno••es, thy Mother Graecian blood, Born in a Ship at Sea, can that Son ere be good? Ligurians vain, Greeks liars, false Sea, these three Thou dost resemble well, they all do meet in thee.

Some are born with marks upon them: Johannes Fredericus, Elector of Saxony had a golden crosse on his back, a sign of his future calami∣ty, Buchol. in Chronol. James, King of Great Britany, had a Lion, a Sword, and a Crown when he was born, Camer. hor. subcis. Cent. 3. c. 42. The Kings of the Corzani have the sign of a black Eagle on their shoulders, Marcus Venetus. It is a report, that the Princes of Au∣stria, (others do not write so) are born with a golden crosse, that is, that they have white hairs drawn out in the form of a crosse, Foelix Faber histor. Suev. l. 1. c. 15. Some men procreate after 80 years. For Masanissa begot 6. Children after that age; and a Noble-man of Francony had a son and a daughter, after that time, Camerar. Women have born children after 50 years. And some have born children being children themselves. Albertus Magn. l. 4. sentent. writes, that one was with child at 9 years old, and was delivered at ten. And Pliny l. 7. c. 2. saith, that some have born children at 7. years old, and that but once, and they lived not above 40 years, and they were held to be very old. Rhodig. Antiqu. l. 14. c. 18. saith, that a boy of ten years old got a child. Some have been delivered in the second, third, or fourth month after their first child, of another living child. Nancelius l. 8. Analog. writes of one that was brought to bed twice in two months. Others could not be delivered but by a Chirurgions opening their wombs. Schenkius reports, that one wo∣man was cut open four times for four severall children. Pliny writes, that Proculus Caesar got 100 Maids with child in 15 dayes, Pliny l. 7. c. 32. In Picenum a child was born with 6 teeth, Bonfin. Decad. 3. l. 8. In Prussia the son of the King of Bythinia, had but▪ one solid bone in place of teeth, Solin. c. 3. Some are born, that can sometimes move their ears. Zoroaster was born laughing. So much for this; we shall proceed to other matters.

CHAP. VI. Of Vitall action.

Article 1. Of the Heart.

SOme have wanted a Heart, if we credit Avicenna, and if his wri∣tings be not corrupted, Rhodig. l. 4. c. 6. When Caesar was Dicta∣tor, the same day he went in his purple garment, the Priest found it twice wanting in the bowels, Plin. l. 11. c. 37. Some have been found with two hearts, as the Partridges in Paphlagonia; some have wanted the left ventricle; and the midriff in some hath been like a gristle, Co∣lumb. l. 15. Anatom. And Gemma found a bone in it in two mens bodies, l. 2. Cyclog. And Wier. l. ••. de praestig. Daemon. c. 16. found stones as big as pease. Aristomanes Messenius, who killed 300 Lacedemonians, and was sometimes taken, and sometimes escaped, had a hairy heart, Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 8. The same thing Beniventus reports of a

certain thief, c. 33. de abditis. The 〈…〉〈…〉 or purse wherein the heart lies, may be wanting. Columbus l. 15. Anatom. observed a young man that wanted it, and he was troubled with swoonding fits. A wound may be in the heart that is not mortall; for the Son of Maryl∣lus the writer of obscene matters, had the pericardium cut, that one might see his heart, yet he did not die, Galen. l. 7. administr. Anatom. A history of Groning tells the same almost that happened upon a wound in the Heart; because but few know it, I shall set it down.

A wonderfull Accident of a wound in the Heart. Nicol. Malerius wisheth happinesse to the Reader.

IT hath been thought hitherto that a man could not live a moment almost; if his Heart were wounded. Reason and Experience prove it. For since our life depends upon the safety of the spirits, the shop and making whereof is in the Heart; when the heart is wounded, it is necessary that the generation of the spirits cease. Yet I thought good to set down here a very notable History; a history of a Souldier that lived 15 dayes after he was wounded in the heart; none of the old or new Physitians mention any such thing. Andreas Hasevanger, who was of the Lifeguard of the most illustrious Count William of Nassaw, Governour of Frisia, Groning, and Omland, &c. received a wound in his brest by his fellow-Souldier, Anno 1607, on the 22 of August about the Evening, he died September the 8th, at one of the clock after Sun-rising, which was the 16 day after he received the wound. The body of the dead Souldier, by command of the Generall of the Army was opened to search for the wound, by me and two Chirurgions, Caspar and Lucas Hultenus; a noble valiant man, Bernard Hoornkens looking on, and some other Souldiers that were of note. When we had opened the cavity of his breast, and a great deal of very stinking matter was run forth; we found, and wondred, that the wound had entred the right cavity of his heart, and all that part of his heart was almost all consumed; the left part being entire, wherein is contain'd the chief shop of the vitall spirits; By the benefit of this, Andreas lived to the sixteenth day: and left some should not believe this, the most noble and worthy men signed it with their names subscribed, to confirm it, &c.

Article 2. Of the Pulse.

THe Pulse is the motion of the heart and arteries, consisting of a systole and diastole. Platerus thinks it is felt on the left side, by reason of the great Artery. Yet Cardan saith, some have perceived it onely on the right side. There is great inequality in it, from divers accidents that happen, whence comes the diversity of pulses amongst Physitians. No man can deny, but that sometimes it may be inter∣cepted; and not felt when the Arteries lye deep, Balduinus Ronseus. The Player of Andreas Count of Gorca, had naturally all kind of in∣equalities of pulse. But Johannes Brosovius of the Order of the Crosse of the blessed Virgin had it with intermission all the time he lived. Physitians try the motion of the heart in living creatures. Coiterus observed it in a Cat. Then cutting the Pericardium, he observed a double and contrary motion in the heart, namely unto the ears of it. For whilest the heart beat, the ears sank down; when the heart sank, the ears were lifted up and fill'd; which in the ears were com∣posed for a diastole: they seemed to be inflated like a bladder; and when they were extended, they were red, and continued so a while, before they came to a systole. The same reason was observed in the space of the diastole. Yet in the systole they grew white, and became loose, and sank down, and by the force of the heart, they were drawn a little toward the basis of the heart, &c. In obs. Anatom.

Artic. 3. Of Life and Death.

I Have little to say of Life, but that men were long lived before the Flood: after that time none lived to Adam or Methusalems Age. Yet some have lived very long, Lemnius l. 4. c. 24. Occult. writes, that he saw a Pilote at Stockholm a 100 years old, who married a Wife of 30, years, and had some Children by her. Laurentius Hethlandius in Buchanan was 140 years old, and yet in the coldest Winter went a fishing. An Indian of the Nation of the Gandaridae, they call it now a days, Bengala, lived 335 years, his Son was 90 years old, and though he knew no letters, yet he could by memory report as true as the Chronicles. His teeth shed and grew again, and his hoary beard grew black again. Petrus Maffeius. That is also rare, that Thuan. l. 134 writes. That Emanuel Demetrius, bred obscurely, lived 103, yeares, his Wife was 99, and was married to him 75 years, the one supervived the other but three hours, and Anno 1603 they were both buried at Delph. The years of Mans age that rise by 7 and 9, are de∣cretory or climactericall, hence Children are endangered about 4, 7, 9, years, &c. Cels. l. 2. c. 1. The 63 year is most dangerous for old men. Whence that proceeds it is hard to conjecture. Lemnius l. 2. c. 32. He thinks that at certain periods of yeares, a great abun∣dance of humours are heaped up, by the agitation whereof diseases arise. For when nature comes to immoderate repletion, and the

receptacles cannot receive the plenty of humours, it must come to a disease. Philo in loc. allegor. l. 1. writes thus of the 7th year. Nature delights in the 7th number; there are 7 Planets, the Bear hath 7 Stars; the Moon hath some change every week, and those changes in the ayre proceed from thence. All humane things, that have a divine principle, are mov∣ed healthfully in the 7th number; Children born in the 7th month are safe; in the 7th yeare a man is perfectly a reasonable creature; at 14 he is able to get his like, at 21 he leavs growing: the part of the brutish soul is divided in∣to 7, into the five senses, the instrument of voyce, and the generative force. The motion of the body is 7 fold, six according to the parts, the 7th round a∣bout. There are 7 inward Bowels, the Stomach, Heart, Milt, Liver, Lungs, the two Kidneys. There are 7 Members of the Body, the Head, Neck, Brest, Hands, Belly, the Groins, the Feet. The principall part of man hath seven holes, two Eyes, two Ears, Nostrills and Mouth. There are 7 excre∣ments, Tears, S••ot, Seed, and what comes forth by the two sinks of the body, and Sweat in every part, &c. What ever it be, live long or little, death is certain to all. Nature at the same moment gave a law of being born, and to dye, Valer. Max▪ l. 5. c. 10. Mourning weeds are put upon conquerours dores, Senec. ad Polyb. But the way is unknown, and divers. Baldus was bit by a Cat at Meletum, but lightly, on the lip; he grew mad four months after, fell into Hydrophobia, and died. Magol. in Colloqv. Ladislaus King of Naples, when he dwelt at Perusium, died of the Pox. Colenut. in compend. histor. Neapolitan. Some have died with too much joy, some with grief. When the Janisary was sent to kill the youngest Son of Bajazet by Solymans command, and he saw the Child laugh at the halter, and to kisse him, and to sport; this cruel man was so moved, that he fell down dead. Thuan l. 24. After death, almost all Carkases corrupt, and are changed into other bo∣dies. Pliny saith, l. 10. c. 66, that Serpents breed of the Marrow, and so they did of the body of Cleomenes who was hanged, Plutarch. The same was done in a young Man Camer. cent. 1 horar. subcis. c. 11. For when he was thought to be the fairest of his time, and fell dead∣ly sick, he could not be perswaded to leave his picture to posterity; only he granted thus much to their request, that many days after he was dead and buried, they should open the Monument, and as they then found his body; so should they picture him. When they open∣ed it, his face was found halfe eaten up with Worms, and they saw many Serpents about his Diaphragma, and Marrow of his back. The Sepulcher of Carolus Martellus, was found without his body, and a Serpent in the place, Guaguin et Aemil. In Aegypt whole Carkases are found, out of which Mumie is taken, that is a cure for many diseases. Nor do those bodies corrupt that are seen neere Kijovia by Borystenes.

Artic. 4. Of Venemous infection.

BEcause Venoms are most pernicious by a hidden quality, I shall add a few things concerning the variety of Infections. First I shall speak of the Ayre infected. That is seen in the Plague, and might be proved by all in that Cave neere to Naples. And the mat∣ter is come so far, that the Ayre may be infected by art, that the ene∣my coming into it may be killed. That was clear in the Sepulcher of Semiramis, that was placed above the famous gates of the City. For when Darius, hoping to find treasure, opened this, he found a little Coffer, which being opened, such a Venemous blast flew out, that it killed a third part of the men. Some living Creatures kill by sight, and hissing. That was thought true of the Basilisk, that was seen in the treasure of Maximilian the Emperour. And Avicenna writes l. 4. sen. tract. 3. c. 22. that a Souldier wounded a Serpent with his Lance, and by his Lance he and his Horse were poysoned, and died. Bartholin. Phys. special. part. 3. c. ult. saith, that in Cimbria a Shep∣heard that leand his arme on a Barn dore, had his sense and motion taken suddenly away on that side he leand, and his beard grew grey on that side, and there was a brood of Serpents, found under the dore. Jambolus saith, in Arabia there is an hearb, and if any man sleep upon it, they die in a sweet sleep. Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. I add tasting to sight. So in India when those of Europe tasted the beautifull Plants, they died suddenly. Alexanders Army was almost ruin'd by a new kind of Apple. A Country man in the Valley of Ana, was bit una∣wares by the head of a Serpent cut off, he put his mouth to the wound and sucked it, to help it; but he grew suddenly speechlesse and died, Mathiol. What shall we say for touching? The Turks have Poysons that will kill in one day by touching. Cardan. l. 1. de venen. c. 15. Otho the 3, Emperour of Rome was killed by a pair of venom'd gloves sent him from the Wife of Crescentius a Roman Consul, who was frustrated of his marriage. Johan Galeacius was killed by Venome put into his stirrop when he rid. Dryinus, if any man tread upon it, it will excoriat his feet, and the hand of the Chirurgion that dresseth the sore will be excoriated by it. Lastly many dye by venom'd smells. For Alexander Magnus his horse-forces in India, died all al∣most of the smell of a Pestilent shrub: and Franciscus Ordelaphus, a Captain of Forolivium, had a kind of Poyson, that, cast upon coles, would kill all came neere it. Think not that to be done by the naked quality: some Venemous thing was joyn'd with the smell; for certain it is, that there are many effluxions of things.

CHAP. VII. Of the internall and externall Sense.

Article 1. Of Imaginations of melancholy people.

THose that are sick of melancholy have such strange phantasms presented to them that sometimes the wisest men are deceived by them. One man thought he was all Soul; another that he was a Millet seed. One, that he had so great a nose, that no gates were great enough to let him in, Lemnius l. 2. de complex. c. 6. Some thought they had no head; some thought their buttocks were made of glasse, Lemnius. One of Sena of noble birth, thought that if he should make water, he should drown the World, Laurent. l. de me∣lanchol. c. 7. A woman, saith Trallianus, tied the middle finger of her hand, as if she carried the whole world upon it; she cryed, saying, she feared that should she bend it, the whole World would fall down. A learned man in Quercetan. Diaetet. Polyhist. l. 1. c. ult. thought, that two evill spirits were put into him by his friend that brought them out of Italy, and that they oft-times talked with him. A Burgundian at Paris in the Temple of St. Julian, said, he was dead, and desired the Physitians to trouble his soul no longer, that was flying out of Purga∣tory into Heaven. Then he imitated men dying, Scholiogr. ad. c. 17. l. 1. Holler. de morb. intern. A certain man in Montan. consil. 75. thought the world was made of fine glasse, and that Serpents lay un∣der it, and that he was in his bed as in an Island; and should he come forth, he should break the glasse and fall down amongst the Serpents. I say nothing of a Maid, who supposed she was in Heaven, and that she walked with the sacred Trinity, and Angels, and the Devill per∣swaded her to think so. Sometimes such people use to speak strange tongues, and foretell future events. So Erasmus in Encom. Medicinae, writes, that one of Spoletum, when he was sick, spake a strange Lan∣guage; when he recovered, he forgat it. Guainerius tract. 15. c. 4. reports, that he saw a Country man that was sick of melancholy, who alwayes when the Moon was combust, would write Latine ver∣ses; and after a new Moon, about two dayes, till the next new Moon, he could not speak one word in Latine. Forestus writes of a melan∣choly woman that would sing Latine songs that she had never learned. And Johan. Huartus in scrutin. Ingenior. makes mention of a Spanish servant, who imagined himself to be a King, and made learned spee∣ches concerning Government when he was sick. But we must needs confesse, that the Devill is the Author of these things, by a just Judg∣ment of God. Nor can this be ascribed to the Stars, as Guainerius thinks; nor to the agreement of the Latine tongue with the rationall Soul, as Huartus would have it; nor to the pure overshadowing of the spirits, or to a malignant quality, as others suppose. Whether

some modern examples appertain to this matter, I leave it to wise men to judge, and will say no more of it.

Article 2. Of the force of Imagination.

THe force of Imagination may be known by the former Article; but because melancholique Imaginations are with sicknesse, they do not so well expresse it, as fear and conception do. For when a no∣ble Youth who had ravished a Maid, was to dye for it, he considered so deeply of it, that his vital heat and spirits were so extinguished, that all his beauty became despicable, and the roots of his hair grew dry, for want of moysture, and turn'd grey, Camer. memorab. medic. Cent. 2. Mem. 15. The same happened to Franciscus Gonzaga, when he was im∣prisoned for a Traytor, Scalig. Exer. 312. And to Lodowick. Bavarus the Emperour, when he had slain Helica a Virgin of Prenneberg, cut off his Wifes head, and had cast another Noble woman headlong from a Tower, he fell sick of it by a vision in the night, Avent. l. 7. Innu∣merable Examples prove, that in conception the same may happen. The Wife of Duke Plumbinus having layn with a Black-moor, was delivered of a Blackmore. Persina an Aethiopian, seeing the Image of a white child when she lay with a man, had a child with a white face, Heliodor. When Charles the fourth was Emperour, the Wife of John Baptista, looking often on a picture, bare a hairy child. A man disguised lying with the Wife of Bolduck, as if he had been the Devill, got her with child, and the boy ran about so soon as he was born. You shall find the like Monster in Lemnius in occult. And he extends Imagination so far, that he thinks, that in more venereous Virgins, their seed being mingled with their blood by imagination of venereous things, may cause the rudiments of a living creature. How that may be, it is hard to explain, nor doth it belong to this place.

Artic. 3. Of Sight and Smelling.

AUgustus Caesar had such clear eyes, that whom he looked on in∣tentively, he would make them to wink, as at the Sun beams. Suetonius saith, that Tiberius could see in the dark like a Cat. It is certain, that Strabo had such acute eyes, that from Lilybaeum he could discern Ships going forth of the Carthagenian Haven, Val. l. 1. c. 8. and he could number all the Ships. The distance was 135 miles. If this be true, that is true also, That a Spaniard, one Lopes, was in Gades, who from a high Mountain call'd Calpen, would see over the Sea against it, and discern out of Europe, the banks of Africa, (the passage, as Cleonardus in Epistol. ad Jacob. Labocum saith, is in a calm Sea, 3 or 4 hours over,) yet he could see what was done there, Ca∣mer. hor. subcis. l. 3. c. 81. In the West of Africa there are Black∣mores with four eyes, Lycosten. Also Isigonus and Nymphodorus re∣port, that Some Families in Africa have eyes that bewitch people: If they

praise any things, they perish by it, trees will wither, Children will die: and Isigonus saith, there are such people in Illirium, and the Triballi, that will bewitch any thing with looking on it, and kill those they look upon long, especially with angry eyes, and young men especially are bewitched by them. That is most notable that they have two Apples in each eye. In Albania there are some that have Owls eyes, and are hoary from their childhood, who see better by night than day, Pliny l. 7. c. 2. Anastasius the Emperour had Apples of his eyes of divers colours, the right eye was blacker, the left more grey, Zonar. They that dwell near Lakes cannot endure smells. Strabo l. 16. reports, that such amongst the Sabaeans as are stupified by sweet smells, are refresh∣ed by the fume of bitumen, and by the beard of a Goat burnt. That stinking smells are good sometimes, women that are cured by them of their hysterical passions, and the plague, thereby removed, do con∣firm. At Antwerp a Country man coming into a Perfumers shop, swo••nded, but came to himself by rubbing his nose with horse dung, Lemn. l. 2. occult. c. 9.

Article 4. Of the Face.

GOd hath set Majesty in some mens Faces, chiefly if you regard Princes: some are of a wonderful form for comelinesse; others for ill-favourednesse. They of Bruges were afraid of the Countenance of Caesar Maximilian, being captive, Delf▪ l. 3. in Maximil. vita et Philippi. The Conquerours that beheld the Countenance of Francis the first King of France, who was worthy of everlasting renown, when he was taken at Ticinum, they all strove to do him service, seeing his Kingly Counte∣nance, Forcatul. de Gullor. Imper. l. 3. When the Conspirators thought to have slain Alphonsus Estensis the First, Duke of Ferrara, he frighted them with his looks that they durst not do it. The twins Moenechmi in Plautus were so like, that neither their Nurse nor Mother could know them asunder. Vives observes the same of two sons, John and Peter, of a Senatour of Mechlin. Antonius Bithynicus was so fair, that Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to him, in Mantinea, and a City by Nilus, and engraved his Image on the Coin. The son of Maximinus was so beautifull, that his head that was grown black af∣ter he was dead, and soked with corrupt matter, yet seemed very fair. Democles an Athenian boy was call'd so for his comelinesse, and he had so much care of his chastity, that to decline the force of Demetrius, he cast himself into a Kettle of scalding water, Plutar. in Demetrio. Spurina a young Maid, by her very looks enticed men and women to lust, Va∣le••. Max. Lastly, Queen Suavilda was so delicate of form, that when she was bound with thongs, and exposed to be trod on by horses, she was a terrour to the very beasts, that they durst not tread on her fair limbs, Saxo Gram. l. 3. histor. Danic.

Artic. 5. Of Dreams.

AS in other things, so Nature sports her self in dreams: for sad people are merry when they dream somtimes, merry people are sad; Servants are Kings, and Lords become Servants. And though we must confesse that many of them, and what is then done be natu∣ral, yet scarse any can deny, but many of them are supernatural. God in elder times did teach his Church by dreams, and now adayes many dreams come to pass••. When Lucas Iselius the Son in Law of Zwingerus was at Vesontio, he foresaw in his dream the death of Huber, a Physitian of Basil. For he seemed to see his bed covered with fresh earth cast upon it, which when removing the blanket, he thought to cast off, he saw Huber the Physitian under the bed, and in the twinkling of an eye he was changed into the forme of a Child. Nessenus the same day he was drownd in the Albis, dreamt of some hurt came to the boat, and his own falling out of it. Christopher Rhaumbavius a Physitian of Uratislavium, followed the counsel he had given him in a dream, concerning the cure of a disease, was to him incurable; and he recovered his patient. The wonder was, that a few yeares after he met with that receipt in a Book newly printed. Doring. de medic. l. 1. part. 2. s. 1. d. 1. c. 3. Histories report that the same hapned to Philip, and to Galen before him. To this may be add∣ed the dream of the Mother of Scanderbeg, concerning a Serpent, that covered all Epirus, and stretched forth his head into the Turks borders, devouring them with bloody jaws, but the tayle was con∣tain'd amongst the Christians, and the government of the Venetians. Barlet. l. 1. de gest. Scanderbegi, c. 82. That of Scaligers, of a great flame with a mighty noise passing over the Alps, at Noricum, Rhaetia, and Liguria without any hurt. Scalig. in com. l. de insomn. Hippocrat. Apotel. 42. Of Hunnius his, of a Pillar in the Church; These did foreshew the future condition of their Sons, and that certainly. For Scanderbeg was a hammer to the Turks Scaliger the bright S••ar of those quarters. And Hunnius a Pillar of the Church he lived in. What shall I say of Gunthram King of the Francks? It is wonderfull what he dreamt. For when on a time he went through a Wood a hunting, by chance losing his company, and having but one man left with him, who was more faithfull to him than the rest, he came to a brook of cold water. And when he was heavy with sleep he laid his head in that Mans bosome and fell a sleep. This servant there observed a strange thing; For he saw as it were a little Creature creep out of his mouth whilst he slept, and go strait to the River; and when he strove in vain to passe over, the Servant laid his drawn sword over the brook, whereby, when the little beast had easily passed over, he crept into a hole in a Mountain hard by, and coming back an hour after he passed the same way, and crept again into the Kings mouth. The King wak'd and told his Servant, that in a dream he seemed to be brought to the bank of a great River, and to have passed over an iron bridge, and so to come to a Mountain where there was great store of gold hid. When the King had related

this to his Servant, and heard again from him what strange thing hapned when he slept, they both went to that Mountain, and there they found a mighty masse of Gold conceald. Heidfeld in Sphinge c. 14. Marinus Mersennus in Ge∣nesin, calls this a diabolical dream. That is more wonderfull, that he dreamt at Schmalcaldium. He that will have the relation, let him read Pencerus de Divinatione. And, in place of that, I will set down the dream of David Pareus, which is thus described by him. I saw a great Oxe that was weary, which extended his head to the East, and behold a Ram came from the East with three horns, and he ran upon this Oxe, and hurt his hinder legs, and the Oxe fastned himself, and stood stronger. And I saw that the weary Oxe set his feet firmer. And there came another Ram from the Mountain of the Gentils, and those ways, and breaking one leg between his horns, he ran upon his fore parts; yet the Oxe stood fast again and fell not, but the Rams grieved exceedingly, and those that adored the Rams wept; because God preserved him, and sent him food from India that strengthned him. And behold on the otherside of the River stood an Arme∣nian Tyger, with the Moon upon his Head, and he said, I will prey on both the conquerer, and the conquered; and the Ram with three horns was devour∣ed by the Tyger, and conquered him. The other Ram fled to his Mountain, and the grasse withered, but the Oxes horns grew, and the Tyger fled from him; and the Ram did not escape into the Mountain, and I was glad that God preserved the Oxe.

Artic. 6. Of Walkers in the Night.

THere are many examples of Night-walkers. A certain young man rising out of his bed, putting on his Cloths, and his Boots and Spurs, got astride above the window, upon a Wall; and spurd the Wall as if it had been a horse. Another went down into a Well and came not up again till he had touched the water. Horstius tells of a Noble Man that went to the top of a Tower, and robb'd a birds nest, and came down again by a rope.

It is reported, that one at Paris, girt with his sword, swam over the Seyn, and killed one he was minded to kill before; when he had done this villany, he return'd home, Aleman. comm. ad. libr. Hippocrat. de Aere, &c. As for the cause, many men are of divers minds. The best opinion ascribes it to Imagination: for the sensitive soul in sleep, not onely rouzed by an external object, converts her self to be sensible, and first perceives darkly, afterwards more clearly; but be∣ing affected by the inward object represented in a dream, rouzeth the moving faculty. The Imagination is rouzed by the species of things reserved; about which whilest it acts intentively, it stirs up the mo∣ving faculty. That this is so, appears by daily experience. For who knowes not but we are troubled in our sleep? That we rise not, is be∣cause our phantasie is not altogether so busie about the Images reser∣ved, as in some other men. Yet the stronger motion doth not alwaies proceed from the same cause. For some think the same thing may be

caused from diurnal cogitation, especially in younger people, that are more bold, and more lustfull. Others suffer this from an internal af∣fection of their body, yet they are not all of the same kind. Some have more cheerful, and more phantastick animal spirits; some seem to do this out of simplicity. That they wake not, is caused by the stiffnesse of the vapours. For these not suffering them to be easily awaked; and on the other side, the animal spirits being lively, it falls out that they are half awake, half asleep: yet it is not likely, that all are of the same kind. For that boy Libavius speaks of, that went na∣ked to the door, and came home again, observed a Watchman sitting in the streets. Lastly, the cause they do those things in their sleep, they cannot do waking, is their ignorance of the danger; the action of reason is darkned, and they cannot hinder the motions raised by Phantasie, Libav. in Noctambulis.

Article 7. Of some things observable concerning the Head and the Senses.

THere was one born and grew to be a man, Anno 1516, that put forth another head at the navel, Lycosthen. Anno 1487, there was a boy at Venice that had his mouth cut divers wayes, and a genital member growing to his crown. Some of years have had horns grow on their heads. A Virgin had them about the joynts of her Feet and Arms, like to Calves horns, she was cured afterward, Schenk. l. 1. ob∣serv. The Egyptians had such hard heads, that you could hardly break them with throwing a stone at them. The Persians heads were so weak, that a little stone would break them, Herodot. The Indians heads in Hispaniola are so hard, that they will break swords. Cardan. l. 12. de variet. rer. Beniventus saith, de abdit. c. 10. that a Monk had his forehead bone eaten naked by a sharp humour. Tyrrhenus Torcon and Cyonus Trojanus, were grey when they were young, Cal. l. 3. c. 27. Antiq. And Ctesias writes, that in a part of the Indies, the women never breed but once, and presently grow grey after the first child. The Miconii are born without hair, Plin. l. 14. c. 37. It is rare for a wo∣man to grow bald; no Eunuchs ever do, nor any man before he hath known a woman, Pliny. There was a woman seen at Paris with a black upper beard that began to be hoary, of a great magnitude, her chin also was moderately hairy. Also they report, that in the com∣pany of women, that Albertus the Duke of Bavaria kept, one of them had a long beard, Wolsius. There was a child born in Lombardy in the time of Pope Gregory, that had ears big enough to cover the whole body, Thomaius in horto mundi c. 19. Many men could move their ears, and the skin of their heads at pleasure, Dalechamp. Men say, that in the inward parts of the East, there are people without any nose, and their face is flat; others that want their upper lip; others without tongues, Plin. l. 6. c. 30. They write also, that there is a part of Aethio∣pia, where the Inhabitants are born with a flexible body, that they

can wind themselves easily every way they please▪ and they have two tongues, and can use them both, and speak plainly with them a•• pleasure, Gem. Fris. l. 1. c. 7. Cosmocrit Mutianus saith, he saw Zanes a Samothracian Citizen, who had his teeth grew again after 104 years, Plin. l. 11. c. 17. Aristotle l. 2. c. 4. de histor. animal▪ makes mention of a woman that had her cheek teeth come forth with pain, in her 80 year. Pliny writes, that some had teeth bred in their pa∣lates, Pliny l. 11. c. 37. Moecenas never slept in three whole years, at last he was cured by gentle Musick, Seneca de provident. Nizolius, call'd Ciceronianus, never slept in ten years, Heurn. c. 16. de morb. cap▪ Cardan, when he pleased, could be so taken up in his thoughts, that he would feel no pain in that state. And Augustine l. 14. de Civ. Dei▪ c. 24. reports the same of a Presbyter restored: He lay as though he were dead, and did not feel those that pulled him; nor would he stirre, though they burn'd him with fire: yet he confessed, that he could then hear men speak, if they spake aloud, as though they were far off from him: And it was confirmed by this Argument, that he did not do it by resisting, but by not feeling, that he moved not his body; for he lay as dead, and drew no breath. The English History relates, that Elizabeth Burton a Maid of Canterbury had contracted the same custom of taking away her senses, from a disease she had.

CHAP. VIII. Of the faculty of moving from place to place.

Artic. 1. Of the wonderfull strength and agility of some people.

I Shall speak Wonders; and that there were such Examples, Poly∣damas may prove: who being unarmed slew a Lion. The same man set upon a herd of Oxen, he caught hold of the hinder foot of one of the greatest Oxen, and would not let it go, though the Ox raged, till he left his hoof in his hand. He held Chariots with four horses back, with his hand, when they went with all their force, Rhodig. l. 7. c. 37. When Milo Crotoniensis held an Apple, no man could wrest it from him. He at the Olympian Games, carried an Ox a furlong, and held his breath all the while; then killed him with a box of his fist, and easily eat him up all the same day. At last, when he thought to pull asunder a cleft Oke, it fell upon him and kill'd him, Pliny l. 7. c. 20. Maximinus the Emperour had such strong limbs, that he put on his Wifes bracelets, that was a circle set with Jewels, that went about her Arms, for a ring on his thumb. A Cobler in Sweden carried al∣wayes 120 pounds of gold hang'd about his neck; and he fought with 9 Fencers, and killed them all, Olaus l. 5. c. 2. One Paulus in Bonsinius rer. Ungar. decad. 4. l. 2. was in stature and for limbs like Her∣cules: He took an armed man in his teeth at a military dance; and though he was in armour himself, yet he carried him with him, and

danced. Ubert••s de cruce, of Mill••in, carried a beast laden with Wheat, and standing but upon one foot, no man could thrust him off from the place he stood, Leander in Mediol.

Lastly in the Mountain Anchusa, not farr from Atlas, every single foot-man can resist two horse-men in ••ight. Leo African. Philetas Colis was so light, that he tied leaden bullets to his feet, that the wind should not carry him away. There are as wonderfull examples of agility of body. In a Western Province of the New World, the Indians are so swift, that they will run a whole day to overtake a Man. Hispal. sylv. p. 5. c. 7. The Scritofinni will out run Wild Beasts. Krant. in Suecia. The same Author writes that Herald a Noble Irish man would out run any horse. l. 5. Norveg. c. 6. In Mexica, Posts in four days will run 70 leagues. Polymnestor Milesius, when he was a boy catcht a hare in sport. Philonides in one day ran 1200 furlongs on foot, that is 75 French leagues. Ladas, so ran over the white sand, that he left no prints of his feet. In Italy there was a Boy born when Font∣eius and Vip••anius were Consuls, who at eight yeares old ran 45, miles from Noon to Night. Solin. But wonderfull is the agility of a Country man bred amongst Cattle, who came to the Court of the Prince of Papeberg. Camer. cent. 1. hor. subcis. c. 75. The Prince had in his Court a Dwarf call'd Martinettus, that got on the back of that nimble man, as upon a horse, and he turnd round with him, and ran here and there as he li••ted, but when he pleased, he would at one leap cast his rider, though he sat never so fast. Then he with the Dwarfe on his back would fight with the Hownds, and great Mastives the English call them Dogs: some of them were very fierce, and yet with his b••rking like a dogg, and grinning, and with his hair about his ears, he did fright them, and drive them out of the Chamber, and somtimes he would bite the lesser dogs, when he had driven forth all the doggs he leapt wonderfully up and down, with four feet, and jumped to the highest corners of the room, that an ape could hardly do as much, and yet he with his Country square body did it with ease. I saw him, once and twice, when I dined with the Prince, when he had cast off the Dwarfe from his back, and barked away the doggs, he leaped over the shoulders of one that sat at table, then over the Table, not touching the cups nor platters that stood upon it, and then into higher places, and that so nimbly, that he seemed to flye like a Squirrel, or Indian Cat where∣of Julius Scaliger writes. He adds, many were of opinion, that he cast a mist before mens eyes, but he knew nothing of that, nor do I think he could do that if he would. Justinus l. 44. writes that Habides Son to Gargor, King of the Curetes was of the like agility.

CHAP. IX. Of the rational Soul; and first, of Memory.

THe rational Soul is the Form of Man, and gives man his Being, distinguishing him from other creatures. The faculties of it are two, Understanding and Will, the speaking faculty is given to them both, to interpret. There is scarce any thing to be said of them. For though there are infinite almost considerations of them, if you consi∣der the diversity of inventions, virtues, consultations, tongues, man∣ners of writings, and the rest, yet, should we adde them here, it would be a great fault in method, for they are more fitly handled in the Ethicks, and therefore I forbeare them here.

I shall onely adde one thing of Memory: That some have had an excellent Memory; Esdras the Priest had all the Jews doctrine by heart. Cyrus and Scipio knew every Souldiers name in their Armies. Carmides would say any books that any one asked for in their Libra∣ries, as if he read in them, Plin. Mithridates had learned the Lan∣guages of 22 Nations, Gellius. Julius Caesar would dictate to four at the same time; Pliny saith, he was wont to dictate, to read, and to hear. Themistocles had such a Memory, that when Simonides offered to teach him the Art of Memory, he said, He had rather learn the Art to forget; saying, He remembred what he would not, but could not forget what he would, Cic. l. 2. de finib. Seneca repeated in order 2000 names as they were first spoken. He rehearsed 200 verses, and began at the last. Portius Latro never read over again what he was to deliver: For he learned it as he writ it, and he repeated it, and never missed one word. As these had excellent Memories, so others had as bad, either from some disease, or ill constitution by birth. Messala Corvinus for∣gat his own name. Franciscus Barbarus, a most learned Man at Athens in the Greek Tongue, having a blow on his head with a stone, remembred firmly all things else, onely he forgate Learning, that he had spent so much time upon, Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 8. Clusius Sabinus had such a barren Memory, that sometimes he forgat the name of Ulysses, sometimes of Achilles, sometimes of Priamus, Seneca in Epistol. Atticus the son of Herod the Sophister, could never learn the names of the letters. The Thracians could never count above four. But the greatest Wonder is that Thuan. l. 134 writes of Theodore Beza, that be∣fore he dyed, when his mind was grown feeble, he forgat things pre∣sent, but what was printed in his Memory afore time, when he had his understanding, that he held; and it continued for two years so, when he languished. As for wit, that depends on a certain tempera∣ment. And it is wonder, that oft-times those are stupid in many things, that are held wise in other things. Themistocles could not so well take as catch counsels. There was one could not learn the Rules of Logick, yet other Arts he could quickly learn, Huartus. For the excellency of it; Janus Drusus, the famous Student, had a son so sin∣gular,

that from 15 years old to 20, when he dyed, he writ excellent Commentaries on the Proverbs and other Books. Drus. in praef••t. Pa∣ralip. in n. 7. Yet the Wit of Man cannot reach many things. The force of the Loadstone; flowing of the Sea; the wonderful effects of humours in Man's body; the constitution of his naturall heat; and many more. They have busied many, but no man hath rightly found them out. The vulgar opinion is, God cannot be comprehen∣ded by reason of his Excellency; nor materia prima for its worthles∣nesse. Hidden Properties are too loose an Asylum for our Ignorance. I will here stop, for so I intend. My purpose was to set down things most pleasant, to make young Men delight in Naturall History, and to help those that teach Noblemens children privately. I have in∣serted many things doubtfull, and I have alledged their causes from other mens opinions, to shew, that Nature requires searching. Na∣ture is fruitfull, and I could not set down all. Her bounds are so large, that it is beyond my strength to search over all. If what I have writ be accepted, and I shall have so much ability and op∣portunity, I shall write an Enchiridion of Naturall History, wherein Nature shall be set forth at large, and in short also. I shall leave the scrutiny to others; Whether, and Wherefore, things are. But the Supream over all will provide for these things. To whom be praise and glory to all Ages. Amen.

FINIS.