II. The same is done by Dragons. Well therefore may such a destructive Breath as this, blown out of his pernicious Mouth, and lighting upon any Man as he chances to pass by, penetrate through his whole Substance, by its subtil and virulent quality, and by inverting the contexture of the Fibres, so afflict him, as to render him less capable of performing the Offices of Life. The same is related of Dragons in the time of Philip, King of Macedon, for that the Soldiers passing through two Mountains, fell dead as they marched.
The Reason▪ as Socrates reported was, that by his prospective Glass he discerned two Dra∣gons, one upon each Mountain, breathing forth their Venemous Breath one against the other: By the power whereof whatsoever went between escaped not Death: For this story we have the authority of Libanius De Origine Rerum.
III. O•• the Be∣••••ming ••••sh. There goes a Story of a Fish in the Island call∣ed Cay••nne, not much unlike a larger sort of Eel, which by touching the utmost end of the Fingers, or the very Staff or Stick held in the Hand, strikes a numbness through the whole Arm, and the parts near about it, accompany'd with a kind of Scotomy or heavy dimness of Sight. It is also related of this Fish, that to make a prey of other Fishes, and prepare them for his Tooth, he strikes them with the extremity of his Tail, and so be∣numbs them into an irresistance. This Mischief is to be imputed to the virulency of those Breathings, Evaporations and Effluviums which proceed from these Creatures; much like those that steam from Aqua-Fortis, Quicksilver, and such like sort of Minerals.
IV. Why the Lion dreads the Voice of the Cock. The Elephant that of the Sow. So great is the Antipathy between the Cock and the Lyon, that the noise of his Crowing, or the very fluttering of his Wings strikes a terror into the Lion. The Elephant starts at the grunting of a Sow, and tho' the strongest of all Beasts, trembles when he hears that noise.
This Aversion in both these Creatures proceeds from such a Contexture of the Organs, as that the noises of the Cocks Crowing, and the Sows grunt∣ing, being conveyed to them, pierce their Bodies with a sort of Vellication, and as it were rend them a sunder with a kind of sharp smiting vio∣lence; insomuch that being received into their Ears, they open the Pores of the Brain, not only into the Muscles, that serve for the moving of the Members, but also into those Fibres of the Heart that conduce to the exciting of Fear. Who knows not that the grating noise of a Sow is very harsh and ungrateful to the Ear? In fine, there∣fore it is that a Lion trembles at the Crowing of a Cock; and an Elephant is affrighted at the Grunting of a Sow, because their Organs are so disposed, that they cannot receive in those sounds without great trouble and offence.
V. How it ••••mes to pass that Elephants cannot en∣dure the ••ight of any thing that appears Red. To the same cause we may refer that which is related in the History of the Macchabees, namely that Elephants loaden with Wooden Towers full of Armed Men, at the sight of ruddy colour'd Grapes or Mulberries, were so exasperated there∣by, that they could not forbear rushing into the midst of the Enemy, without regard either to their own or their Charges danger; and all upon this occasion, that Elephants have their Eyes so dispo∣sed as to be ill affected with Red, or any Colour inclining thereunto; and by certain Rays flowing
from such a Body, to have those passages of the Brain dilated, which open those Fibres of the Heart that conduce to the exciting of Rage and Fury.
VI. The reason of the A∣version be∣tween a Ca∣mel and Horse, Cat and Mouse. A Camel and a Horse have great aversion to each other, so that these two Creatures can by no means be brought to live together without extra∣ordinary dissention and hostility. The Weesel ab∣hors the Toad, and comes not near it, but with great reluctance. The Mouse flies the Cat as its mortal Enemy. The Pheasant designs against the Hart, and to do him a mischief sits upon his Back, twitches up his Hair by the Roots and pecks his Flesh with its Bill.
The Peripateticks express all these Enmities and Aversions by no other name than that of Antipa∣thy, thinking they have discharged themselves ve∣ry well, and given a sufficient explication, when they tell us, that it is a certain natural hatred between one Animal and another, by which they fly and abhor each others sight. But who is there so ignorant as not to understand that we are not one jot the wiser by this Answer? That there is a dissention and hatred in several Creatures one with another; but how this enmity arises, or in what motives it is founded, certainly it can be no otherwise than from some passion transmitted into the Brain, through the external Senses by the help of the Nerves. For such is the disposition of the Brain, and such the contexture of the Fibres in Animals, that from such a species proceeding from without, such an affection must needs arise, no otherwise than as Heat hardens some Bodies, and softens and melts others. And hence it is that the smell of a Camel so disturbs the Brain of a Horse, that it renders him wholly unfit for ser∣vice in the War. The evaporations only of Efflu∣viums from a Horse, hath such a power over an Elephant, as to drive it into a frantick rage, which effect can certainly be Imputed to nothing but such or such a disposition of the Organs, or con∣texture of the Fibres. And much after the same manner it is that a Blood-Colour disorders an Ele∣phant: The smell of a Panther attracts Apes, and Fear seizes a Lion at the sight of a Cock.
VII. Whether a slain Body bleeds a-fresh at the sight of the Murtherer. Blood is said to gush out of a Wound, tho' bound up, upon the approach of the Person that gave it; and the Lawyers of some Countries take it for more than a half proof of Murther, when in the presence of any suspected, the Body of a slain Person begins to fall a bleeding a-fresh.
Lemnius in his 2d Book Of the Occult Mira∣cles of Nature, assigns no other Cause to this Effect but Imagination only. So great, saith he, and powerful is the force of hidden Nature, and so strong is Imagination, that so long as any spark of Life is left, and the slain Body not quite cold, the Blood may possibly gush out a-fresh, and boil by means of the Cholers retained heat. Others refer it to the Antipathy that is between the Carcase and the Murtherer, as if there were still remaining some strugling of the Spirits, some∣what like to that which struck the horror at the time of the Murther. But these Examples carry little weight with me who look upon the thing as dubious; and if I may take the boldness to con∣tradict so many Assertors of this accident, altoge∣ther false: Forasmuch as I my self have seen the Dead Body bleed at the Nose and Mouth after