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.

Artic. 2. Of the Stones Chelidonium, Crabs eyes, Snail Stones, and Bezar.

CHelidonius is so called as if it came from Swallows: Yet it is formed of a yellow Gold coloured Jasper. Bound to the right arme, it is good against fantastick thoughts, from melancholy: It cures such as are Lunatick and mad, and hath a pe∣culiar vertue against diseases of the eyes, Plater. Also in the heads of River Crabs, there are stones which steeped in most sharp Vine∣gar, they will seem to move. Quercet. in dial. s. 3. c. 7. With their powder to half a dram in White Wine, the Stones of the Kidneys are happily driven out. Henric. a Bra. de calc. The Snail-Stone, put under the tongue, hath a great force to cause salivation. It makes the tongue moyst, and the humour fluent, and stencheth thirst, and represseth heat. Bound on, it helps Children to breed teeth, Plin. l. 30. c. 5. A water Snake casts up by vomit, a stone into the water under her, if you bind a cord to her tayle. Holler. l. 1. de morb. in∣ter. c. 39. This hath such force to consume water, that it presently drinks it up. Wherefore, laid to the belly of an hydropick person, it consumes the water by degrees, Plater. l. de vita. The Bezar Stone is found in the Stomack of a hee Goat (rather of a shee Goat) in the Indian Mountaines. Sennert l. 5. Epitom, scient. natural. c. 4. Som∣thing which hath a kind of bark, and is, as I may so say, Chamford (saith Sennertus) proceeds from a small beginning, that is oft times, straw, to which some moisture sticks like glew, and hence it is that that stone is made up as it were of many thin plates. It is great in an old, lesse in a young shee Goat; and all those plates both inward and outward are smooth and shining. Rasis by experiment com∣mends it against all Venome. Not only drank saith Mathiol. on Dia∣scorid. l. 5. c. 75. but also bound on, so that, it may touch the naked skin of the left side, it excells all other things. Abdalnarchus adds farther, The stone they call Bezoar, we have now seen, with the Sons of Al∣mirama keeper of the Law of God: for which stone at Cardubahee, at the be∣ginning of the Warrs, parted with a magnificent, and allmost Kings Palace.

Some say, that the Bezar stone is nothing but the Tears of the Stag; for they say, that the old ones, overgrown with Age, do eat Serpents,

and grow young again: and for to conquer the venom, they drench themselves in a River, onely their head forth••; and, as they stay so, a clammy humour falls from their eyes; and being congealed by the Suns heat, it becomes a Stone there. It is like an Acorn, and being fallen from their eyes, it is gathered up by such as attend for it. Yet they are thought to be divers, Scalig. Exerc. 112. writes thus con∣cerning the Stags tears, which he held to be the dearest thing to him in his Treasure of the Muses; Before 100 years a Stag hath none; after that age it growes at the corner of the eye, and thrusting forth like a bone, it growes harder than horn. The prominent part is round, very shining of a gold yellow colour, with prints of other veins. It is so smooth, that you can scarce feel it; and it so drawes it self away, that it even seems to move. It is an excellent remedy against poysons. To those infected with the Plague, it is given with a little wine, and they will sweat so, as if their whole body would melt. Thus far Scaliger. He that would be fully instructed, let him read Bauhinus of the Bezar stone.