Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A26645
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Mirabile pecci, or, The non-such wonder of the peak in Darby-shire discovered in a full, though succinct and sober, narrative of the more than ordinary parts, piety and preservation of Martha Taylor, one who hath been supported in time above a year in by H.A.
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H. A.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing A9; ESTC R13065
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43,707
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98
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live without food for some years more he sends again two other deep-sighted Physicians to try her the second time which they did by the utmost scrutiny in April 1588. One of the first of these Doctors of Physick viz. Henricus Smelius in the tenth Book of his Miscellanies gives you this Relation with some other strange passages concerning her I might also have told you of that other Maid of Spire in Germany whose memory Joubert hath made illustrious and Langius mentions in his Epistles to have lived four years without meat try'd by Fardinand the Emperour and other Magistrates in that Country But the last I shall name is that famous known story of Apolloniae Scheieriana or Chrier as I think Quereâ—tanus calls her Who was born in the Town of Gats within the jurisdictions of the celebrated City Berne in Switzerland She first lost the Appetite to Meats then to Drinks and shortly after fell under an abhorrence of all Nutritives Her fame flying abroad in the Senate of Berne presently gives forth a strict Order which brought her and her mother into an Hospital within their City where she was committed to the through search and observation of many watchful Eyes who all after a competent time of trial give in their Testimony to the Senate that she did beyond dispute live without any Aliment at all And thus from the year 1600. for several years on forward she continued this hâ—r marvelous fast all which time the whole Abdomen or the Belly from the Ribs to the Pudendum Muliebre was fallen down and hard which was frequently view'd by her multitudinous Visitors But you may find her whole History writ by the care and industry of the Learned Paulus Lentulus who was then Professor of Physick at Berne with a Collection of several other Remarkables of the like Nature as also the united Testimonies and Eulogies of several of them who were his Eminent Noble Contemporaries I suppose these things makes a total Abstinence appear something more probable and real then many have been free to conjecture I confesse many things of this nature may have been fabulous in all likelihood As the Aâ—â—om a People in India who are without Mouths and live onely by Odors and Aire the Luc mâ—riâ—â—s who Inhabit the Northern Mountains in the most Remote Parts of Muscovy neer to the Fâ—â—â—â—n Sâ—a where the stern Boreas â—â—eps his Blustring Court and hath his Imperial Throne Seated There this People towards the close of Nâ—vember every year are glad to betake themselves to Dens and Caves where they lye Froâ—en up till the grateful influence of the Vernal Sun awake them out of this cold Sleep of these see Citâ—sâ—us in his Abstin Confol â—â—57 103. c. and Guvaâ—ninus in Moscoviae Desâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Luâ—â—mor We have also great variety of stories of Eremitical Men Superstitious Zealots and Popish Votaries who are reported to have banished themselves from humane Society into some or other solitary Places or Deâ—arts and there to have lived without Meat or Drink for many Months or Years as is to be found in Sennertus the above-nam'd Citesius and Gasp Schottus in his Physica Curiofa p. 408. c. Further we read of seven Ephesian Boys who under the persecution of Decius being terrified by his cruelty upon the Professors of the Gospel did fly away into a Cave not far from the City Ephesus where they were walled up and are reported to have slept for the long Night of three hundred years space till the more pleasant days of Theodosius the Emperour in whose time their Prison-doors were pulled down and they were awaked out of their miraculous sleep This you may find in the applauded Nicâ—phorus in his Ecclesiastical History lib. 14. cap. 45. Now let any one judge how probable these are though I know several of them are credited by some sober prudent Men. Yet we have but small ground to believe the prodigious Stories of the more remote and darker Ages and Places of the world in which both Truth and Knowledge lay long bury'd under a palpable Cimmerian Darkness But we have no ground to disbelieve those Things which are within the Memory of those latter Days and the Relations of inquisitive knowing Men and the sharp Trials of impartial eminent Magistrates SECT III. HEre I shall shew you the Possibility of it in point of Nature according to the judgement of Citesius as above Joubert Sennertus and Fortunâ—us Licetus with some others who have writ on this Subâ—ect whom I mention here once for all that I may not interrupt you with too frequent Citations which I know to be a great trouble and little satisfaction to the ordinary Reader 1. I know very well that History is copiously stor'd with the true Reports of several dull and solitary Melancholicks of many in the more warme parts of the world which was frequent and of some in the colder Climates not at all troubled with crasie Heads who have fasted for seventeen and â—o on to twenty days without destruction of my extraordinary decay to their weak and brittle our-sides This hath been an inducement to stir up the former wits of the world to search for the distaining cause but the far lâ—rger more astonishing Abstinence of some in these latter days hath awak'd the coetaneous profound Head-pieces of Neighbour Nations to make a much more deep and double inquiry into the way of Natures Support From these I shall give the following concise Account to evince a Possibility The most learned pristine and modern Physician and Philosophers do say That the great instrument of Life in all Animate beings is indwelling Natural heat which its possible hath its seat in the Bloud Now as the Fire feeds upon the combustible matter which is adjoyned to it or as you see the lighted Match in the Lamp or the burning Wick in the Candle live upon the annexed Oyle or Tallow so doth this Innate-heat within the Body live upon a solid a moist and a spiritual substance which the later and more experienced Physicians do comprise under the Humiditâ—â— radical prâ—â—â—geâ—â—um This one would think should presently be spent and consumed away without new and fresh supplies from Meat and Drink So then the wonder is how this Fire should live without its ordinary and obvious Fewel For where Natural heat is more abundant as it is in Children and Young Men there is the greatest desire need and use Meat and Drink 3. But this you must know that in these foodlesse Creâ—tures this Natural-heat is reduced to a very slender proportion and so can live upon very smaâ—l supplies 〈◊〉 â—s I have seen a Candle confined to a spare and thrifty way of burning by the density or humility or other deficiency of the ambient Air continue for some hours together sending forth flame and light without any visible or considerable waste of the Wax or Tallow Which hath often made me think there might be some truth in those mâ—ny Stories which I have read