CHAP. XX. Of the wonderful original, or breeding of some creatures.
WEE have read in Boistey, that a certain work-man of Avignion,* 1.1 when as he lived in that city, opened a leaden coffin, wherein a dead body lay, that was so closely sau∣dered, that the air could not get in; and as he opened it, he was bitten by a Ser∣pent that lay therein, with so venemous and deadly a bite,* 1.2 that it had neer to have cost him his life. Yet the original of this creature is not so prodigious as he supposeth, for it is an usual thing for a Serpent to breed of any putrified carcass, but chiefly of mans.
Baptista Leo writes, that in the time of Pope Martin the fifth, there was a live Serpent found en∣closed in a vaste, but solid Marble, no chink appearing in such dense solidity,* 1.3 whereby this living creature might breathe.
Whilest in my vine-yard, that is at Meudon, I caused certain huge stones to be broken to pie∣ces, a Toad was found in the midst of one of them. When as I much admired thereat, because there was no space wherein this creature could be generated, increase, or live;* 1.4 the Stone-cutter wished me not to marvel thereat, for it was a common thing, and that he saw it almost every day. Cer∣tainly it may come to pass, that from the more moist portion of stones, contained in places moist and under ground, and the celestial heat mixing and diffusing it self over the whole mass of the world, the matter may be animated for the generation of these creatures.