Arcana microcosmi, or, The hid secrets of man's body discovered in an anatomical duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the parts thereof : as also, by a discovery of the strange and marveilous diseases, symptomes & accidents of man's body : with a refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar errors, the Lord Bacon's natural history, and Doctor Harvy's book, De generatione, Comenius, and others : whereto is annexed a letter from Doctor Pr. to the author, and his answer thereto, touching Doctor Harvy's book De Generatione / by A.R.

CHAP. V.

1. Strange but not miraculous births. 2. Strange and strong imagi∣nations. 3. Poison inward and outward. 4. Poison of mad Dogs. 5. C••ntharides. 6. Poison how it worketh. 7. Why birds not poi∣soned as men. 8. Amphiam, Opium, Mandrakes. 9. The Plague no Hectick nor putrid Fever. 10. Epidemical diseases.

THat a boy of nine years old should beget a child, is rar••, but much mor•• strange it is that a child should be born with all his teeth, and another with a long beard, yet such have been: and these are but the effects of nature, which though in her ordinary course ••he observes a tim•• for the growth, perfection, and decay of things: yet sometimes she is furthered and hindred, according as the matter is disposed,

the heat proportioned, and her instruments fitted: Why should not Nature have the same priviledge that Art hath; but we see that hearbs and fruits can be produced and perfected before their time, by the Art of man, therefore such works are meerly natural, not miraculous: for sublunary bodies are not like the ••elestial, which are not su••ject to alteration, but ••till keep the same constant tenor.

II. What force the imagination hath in women, to make im∣pressions of the things imagined on the tender infant in the womb, is known by many Stories, and daily Examples: Hence it is that so many children are born with such variety of strange shapes and marks. Besides, we know how forcible the phantasie, is, both in curing and procuring of diseases; yea, oftentimes of death. Thus one having eat of a Rabbit pie, imagining she had eat of a cat, fel a vomiting and died. Another having passed over a dangerous bridg in the dark, and returning the next day to look upon the place, was struck with such an horror, that he went home and died. A third being in jest made believe that he must lose his head, swouned and fel down dead. Multitudes of such Examples th••re are; but the imaginatio••s which proceed from hypochondriacal melancholy, are most strange, whereby one supposeth himself to be dead, therefore will not eat. Ano∣ther is perswaded that he hath never a head. A third, that his breech is made of glass, therefore will not fit down for fear of breaking. Anoth••r thinks the heaven will fall upon him, there∣fore must have a Target born over him. Another wil not piss for fear he should drown the world: And many more such strange conceits are some men troubled with by reason of their ima∣ginations which are distorted by the black and malignant fumes that disturb the animal spirits, subservient to the phantasie. Such are the imaginations of those who think themselves wolves, and therefore run into the woods, and bite men and cattel they meet with. I have read of one who thought himself to be a cock, and therefore fel to crowing. And doubtless the Lycan∣thropie so much spoken of, is nothing else but the strength of a distemper'd imagination, whatsoe'r Bodin writes to the contrary.

III. The cause of many extraordinary distempers in us, is poy∣son, whether inte••nal, bred within our selves by the corruption or putrefaction of the seed, blood, or humors of our bodies, by which pestilent and venemous fumes assault the heart and brains: or external, as the biting of mad dogs, or cats, or other creatures: For I have read of some that never were bitten, and yet have beene subject to the same kinde of raging and

fury that they ar•• who are bit by mad dog••; but their fits were milder, because the constitution of dogs is more melan∣choly then that of mans, therefore their venom more dange∣rous; and who would think there were such poyson in a mad cock, who being angred, struck one in the h••nd with his beck, upon which blow the man fell distracted and died, neither could any physick cure him.

IV. The madness that is caused by the biting of mad dogs, is not in all men alike, bu•• upon some the poyson worketh sooner, upon some later, ••ccording to the degree of madness in the dog, or the deepness of the wound, or disposition of the body wounded: for foul bodies, melancholick and cholerick constitutions are aptest to receive the venom; therefore in some the poyson appeareth quickly, in others not in a long time, to wit, not in a year, or more; for the malignity doth not presently assault the s••irits, heart and brains. And Capi∣vacceus observes, that this poyson is of a fiery quality, and hot in the fourth degree, as he sheweth by one who was thus bit; his body being opened, there was found no water in his Peri∣cardium, but a part of it was burned up, and being touched, fell into ashes; the ventricles also were dried up, and had no blood at all.

V. It is strange that some do piss blood upon the applying of the Flyes called Cantharides to the neck, hands, or feet, so remo••e from the bladder: by this we see that the malignant vertue of these flies, hath a particular influence upon that member. This action of the bladder cannot be by the first or second qualities of the Ca••tharides: ••or then they should work first u••on the next members: therefore this action must be performed by an occult quality, of the specifical form of the flie. And much more strange is it, that the body of this ••lie should be poyson, and the wings thereof a counterpoy∣son, which in the living fly are a•• concord, by reason of the specifical form or soul of the fly ruling all the parts, and kee∣ping them in unity; but when that is gon in the dead fly, the one part destroys the other. Who can give exact reasons of Natures secrets?

VI. And no less stran••e is it, that Euphorbium and Mustard are equally hot, to wit, in the fourth degree, and yet the one is poyson, not the other; and Treacle which is hot in the first degree, heats more then Pepper which is hot in the fourth degree; this shews that the form of the one is not so a••••ive as the form of the other; and therefore four times so much heat in

the one, is not so prevalent as one degree of heat in the other; which shewes that poysons do not work by their temper which consist of elementary qualities, but by their substance or form, whose qualities are occult to us.

VII. Why Napelius, or Wolfe-bane, Hyosciamus, or Henbane, and other hearbs which are poyson to man, are nutriment to birds, can have no other reason, but that birds have a greater heat in their stomachs to subdue the malignity of these hearbs to send away the noxious and excrementitious part, and to convert the rest into their own substance, which substance notwithstanding is not poysonable to man, because the poy∣son was consumed by the heat of the bird. Now the heat of mans stomack is more temperate, and therefore less able to master such malignant hearbs; yet Scaliger (Exerc. 175.1.) speaks of a man who was fed with poyson from his infancy, whose flesh at last became so venomous, that the flies which sucked his blood swelled and died.

VIII. That Amphiam, or Opium, should stir up venery, and cause a tickling in the skin, and yet stupifie the members, and cast them into a dead sleep, is not without admiration; but doubtless either the Amphiam, or Opium, are different, that be∣ing made of the white, this of the black Poppies, or else in the Opium there be different substances, the one being very c••ld, which causeth stupidity; the other very hot, by causing a tickling in the skin: which heat is also perceived by its bit∣terness; but cold is most predominant, or else we may say that it ex••ites venery accidentally, by temperating the exces∣sive heat of the body, which is an enemy to Venus: The like effect is wrought by Mandrakes, which perhaps was the cause that Rachel so much desired them. Nor must we think it strange that the Opium produceth contrary effects; for we know that the same Rose in some part of it hath a stiptick, in other parts a laxative quality.

IX. The plague to which our bodies are subject, is an occult poyson, killing us by the breath or touch, and not an Hectick Feaver, beca••se this drieth and burneth up the heart by de∣grees, the plague kils sudd••nly. 2. The Hectick is not infecti∣ous, as this. 3. In a confirmed Hectick there is no recovery, in the Plague divers recover: nor is the pestilence a putrid Fea∣ver, because, 1. the pulse is more remiss, the urine clearer, the head ach, thirst, and agitation of the body less in the plague then in a putrid Feaver. 2. Because a pestilential feaver fol∣lowes upon a 〈…〉〈…〉 this is ••on, that begins.

X. Epidemical diseases, whereof pestilential are the most per∣hitious, are conveyed to us by the air, which we are continu∣ally attracting to the heart and brains, 1. either when the air is infected with the impression of malignant and occult quali∣ties from the influence of the Stars, or, 2. when it is poysoned with putrified, corrupt, and pernitious vapours exhaled out of pits, caves, ditches, putrified lakes, &c. Or, 3. When the prime qualities of the air, to wit, heat, cold, &c. are intensive beyond ordinary; but we must not think that the substance of the air is at any time putrified: for being a simple body, it is not subject to putrifaction.