men in whom this sense is hurt see but perceive it not nor doe they difference the objects which they fee but either confound them or mistake the one for the other So when the sensitive spirits are imployed by the fantasie though we see oftentimes the object yet we perceive it not 2. Though the common sense apprehends diversity of objects yet it is but one sense because its actions in judging or differencing these objects is but one So the eye hath but one action though it seeth many objects 3. The act of judging in the common sense is not that of the soul which extendeth it self to things also spiritual and universal and belongs only to man not to the beasts as the judging of the common sense doth 4. The external senses apprehend their objects onely present but the internal senses apprehend them being absent 5. The common sense is in the brain subjectively for there are the animal spirits and nerves so saith Galen but in the heart originally and in its cause for from thence are the vital spirits which are the matter of the animal and so is Aristotle to be understood II. The second internal sense is the imagination so called from the images or species which it both receiveth from the common sense and frameth to it self If the brain be sound and undisturbed it receiveth species from the common sense only and judgeth more distinctly of them then the common sense doth it compoundeth also and uniteth and in beasts it serves in stead of reason to direct them to their operations in man it is subservient to the intellect in ministring species to it therfore it is called phantasie from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine or shew For as the eye discerns its objects by the light so doth the intellect whilest it is in the body work and speculate by the phantasie 2. In disturbed brains by phrensies fevers or inordinate sleep the phantasie makes other objects to its self then were represented to it by the common sense 3. The phantasie compoundeth that which the common sense apprehendeth in a divided way as I see a horse and a man and the common sense apprehendeth the species of both apart but to conceive them united in a Centaure is the work of the phantasie 4. The estimative is not a sense distinct from the phantasie but the very same whose office is to esteem what is good or hurtful to the creature and so to follow or avoid it therefore this sense stirreth up the appetite 5. The common sense doth not work but when the outward senses are working but the fantasie worketh without them to wit in sleep 6. The fore part of the brain in which is the common sense is humid as being fittest for reception which is the common senses work the hinder part is dry as fitâ—est for retention which is the work of the memory but the middle part is temperately humid and dry as fittest for reception and retention both which are performed by the phantasie 7. For a right and orderly phantasie or imagination there are required clear spirits from vapors a temperate organ straight nerves and passages and a moderate heat from the heart if any of these bee deficient the phantasie is disordered III. The third internal sense is the memory not so much to be called a sense as it retaineth the species for in this the nature of sensation consisteth not but as it receiveth them for sensation is properly in reception 2. This sense is the treasury in which are laid up that species of things past which have been apprehended by the external senses For as these consider things present and hope things future so doth the memory things past it is the wax receiving and retaining the stamp of the seal and it is a faculty of the sensitive not of the intellective soul for beasts and birds have memories As for the intellective memory it is all one with the passive intellect which is the keeper of the intelligible species for it belongs to the same faculty to understand and to remember 3. Though in brutes there is memory yet recordaâ—ion or reminiscence is onely in man because it is joined with discourse and deliberation which are operations of the intellect for memory is the retention of the species but reminiscence is a recollecting by discourse and comparing of circumstances the species which he had forgot therefore a nimble wit and reminiscence which consisteth in discourse go together commonly but seldome a good wit and a good memory this requiring a dry organ the other that which is temperately moist 4. Children have bad retentive memories because their brains are moist and old men have had receptive memories because their brains are too dry therefore there is required for memory a brain temperately moist to receive and temperately dry to retain the species Finis Libri Secundi BOOK III. Of mans rare Infirmities or admirable Diseases CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5. Of one that lived some years without a brain another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull HAving briefly discoursed upon the fabrick parts and passages of mans body I will as briefly touch some rare and extraordinary infirmities with which the bodies of some men have been molested and will point at such causes as I conceive may stand with the grounds of Divinity and Philosophy As for ordinary diseases with their causes symptomes and cures I leave to Physitians I. I read in Cornelius Gemma in his Divine characterismes l. 2. c. 4. and in Marcel Donatus his admirable Histories l. 2. ca. 1. of a Maid that voided Eels by the stool which I conceive may proceed from a natural cause For if by the heat of the Sun divers forms are educed out of putrified matter as Eels out of mud why may not Eels also be generated in mans body by its heat there being a disposition and preparation in the matter for reception of such a form Thus Bees are begot of Calves flesh Waspes and Hornets of Horses and Asses and divers sorts of Worms in our bodies I have read of a Bird found in an Oyster which was presented to Francis the first of France I will not speak of the Barnecles in the Scottish Seas begot of old rotten planks of ships nor of him that had a golden â—ooth which if it were not perfect gold it might in some qualities resemble it as pins that have been voided in Impostâ—umes For stones begot in the bladder and kidneys and chalk in the joints of gouty bodies are not so rare II. I read in Martin Wienrich in his book
which much troubled the Physitians not knowing the cause thereof till they opened one of the dead bodies in whose brain they found a red worm yet alive This they tried to kill by divers medicaments such as are prescribed against worms but noâ—e of them could kill it At last they boiled some slices of Radish in Malago wine and with this it was killed He shews also that one being cured of the French malady was notwithstanding still tormented with the head-ach till his skull by advice was â—pâ—nâ—d under which upon the Dura mater was found a black woâ—m which being taken out and killed he was cured Brasavola records in 16. Aphoris l. 3. Hippocr that an old man of 82 years by a potion made of Scordium and sea-moss voided five hundred worms which was the more strange in so old a man whose body must needs have been cold and dry yet it seems he wanted not putrified matter enough to breed themâ— Alexander Benedict speaks of a young maid who lay speechless eight days with her eyes open and upon the voiding of forty two worms recovered her health lib. de verit rerum Cardaâ— records that Erasmus saw an Italian who spoke perfect Dutch which he never learned so that he was thought to bee possessed but being rid of his worms recovered not knowing that he ever â—pake Dutch It is not impossible in extasies phrensies and transes for men to speak unknown tongues without witchcraft or inspirationâ— if we consider the excellency and subtilty of the soul beinâ—â— sequestred from corporeal Remora's and so much the rather if with Plato we hold that allâ—onr knowledge is but reminiscency Ambrose Parry lib. 19. c. 3. sheweth that a woman voided out of an imposthume in hâ—r belly a multitude of worms about the bigness of ones finger with sharp heads which had pierced her intestins Forestus l. 7. Obs. 35. tells us of a woman in Delph who in 3 several days voided 3 great worms out of her navel and not long after was delivered of a Boy and then seven days after that another Thad Dunus speaks of a Switzer woman who voided a piece of a worm five ells long without head and tail having scales like a Snake After this she voided another bred in her bowells which was above twenty ells long This poor woman was tortured so long as she was fasting but when she ate she had some ease I â—ould set down here many other stories of Worms voided out of mens bodies some having the shape of Lizards some of Frogs some hairy and full of feet on both sides some voided by the eyes some by the ears some by vomiting some by the stool some by urine some by imposthumes but I will not be tedious these may suffice to let us know of what materials this body of ours which we so much pamper is composed and how little cause vve have to be sollicitous for the back and belly and vvithal let us stand in awe of God vvho vvhen he pleaseth can for our sins plague us vvith vermin in our bodies vvhiles vve are yet alive V. I said before that divers Countries had their peculiar diseases the French sickness as vve now call it vvas peculiar to the Americans and not known to this part of the vvorld but Christopher Columbus brought it from America to Naples Now it is become common and yet no disease more pernicious and vvhich breeds more dangerous symptoms and tortures in the body This is that great scourge with which God whips the wantonnesse of this lascivious age not without cause is this called the Herculean disease so hard to be overcome and the many headed Hydra the poison of it is so subtile that not only it doth wast the noble parts and spoils the skin even to the losse of all the hairs both of head beard and eye-brows besides the many swellings and bunches it causeth it pierceth also into the very bones and rots them as Fernelius fully describes De abdit rer causis l. 2. I have read of some who have been suddenly struck blind with the infection thereof Zacuta mentions one who was so blinded that he could never recover his sight again And another who was troubled with an Ophthalmy the poison of which was so viâ—lent and subtile that it infected the Chyrurgion that cured him Prax. mira l. 2. by which it appears this disease is infectious at a distance There is another peculiar disease in Brasile called the Worm which comes with an itch and inflammation of the fundament if this be taken in time before the Fever comes it is easily cured by washing the place affected with the juice of Lemmons whereof that Countrey abounds but if it be neglected till it come to a Carbuncle it is harder to be cured and not without the juice of Lemmons and Tobacco But if this by carelesnesse be omitted no help will then prevail and so the party dieth with a thirst or fever which is strange Not unlike to this is that disease which Zacuta speaks of one who was tortured with a terrible pain in his Hip and Fundament with a violent Fever upon this he openeth the outward ancle vein out of which gushed scalding blood and with it a living Worm the breadth of ones palm and so the party was cured It seems the poison of this Worm had reached into the Hemorrid veins in the fundament which caused that pain Linschoâ—en in his voiages makes mention of another disease familiar to the Brasilians called Pians proceeding from their letchery it maketh blisters bigger then the joynt of a mans thumb which run over the whole body and face CHAP. III. 1. Centaurs proved what they were 2. Why the sight of a Wolfe causeth obmutescency 3. Pigmies proved Gammadim what 4. Giants proved they are not monsters 5. The strange force of Fascination The sympathies and antipathies of things The Loadstones attraction how hindred Fascination how cured Fascination by words THat there have been Centaurs that is Monsters half Horses and half Men in the world I make no question though Dr. Brown Book 1. c. 4. reckons this among his Vulgar Errors who should have made a distinction between Poetical fictions and real truths For Centaurs are Monsters and aberrations from nature not the common nature of all things which intends and effects Monsters to shew Gods wrath against sin but from the particular nature of those creatures of which they are ingendred Therefore S. Ierome in the life of Paul the Eremite speaks of a Centaur seen by Paul Pliny Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 3. was an eye-witnesse to this truth For he saw in Thessaly a Centaur which was brought out of Egypt to Claudius Caesar. Ambrose Parry l. 15. de Monstris speaks of a Centaur which in the year â—254 was brought forth at Verona there is no doubt then but Centaurs as well as other Monsters are produced partly by the influence of the stars and partly by other causes as the ill disposition of the
stone found in the matrix CHAP. IV. 1. Some without Lungs 2. Impostumes voided in Vrine 3. Worms the cause of many diseases 4. No change of sexes 5. Giants 6. Some without livers 7. Fleshy bladders 8. Stones haires worms c. Begot in our Vrine 9. A woman without a matrix CHAP. V. 1. Strange but not miraculous births 2. Strange and strong imaginations 3. Poison inward and outward 4. Poison of mad Dogs 5. Cantharides 6. Poison how it worketh 7. Why birds not poisoned as men 8. Amphiam Opium Mandrakes 9. The Plague no Hectick nor putrid Fever 10. Epidemical diseases CHAP. VI. 1. Antipathies to some meats 2. The force of Fear 3. Blood voided by the Gums and Navil 4. Black hairs suddenly gray 5. Violence of passions 6. Defects in nature recompensed 7. A Fly voided by Vrine 8. Monethly bloud in men 9. The causes of Monsters 10. Horns on mens heads and heels CHAP. VII 1. The effects of blood being drunk 2. Some strange diseases 3. Plie ca Polonica 4. Some eat poyson without hurt 5. Stones in th intestines 6. Old men come young 7. Some strange monsters CHAP. VIII 1. Of divers and strange spleens 2. Black urine 3. One lives without sleep 4. The Tarentula's effects and cure The force of Musick 5. Serpents begot of dead brains 6. Of Tiberius his sight Alexanders sweat Strabo's eyes The Second Book Of the strange diseases and Accidents of MANS Body CHAP. I. 1. Divers ways to resist burning 2. Locust eaters the lowsie disease the Baptist fed not on Locusts 3. Mans flesh most subject to putrifaction and the causes thereof How putrifaction is resisted Mumia 4. The strength of affection and imagination in dying men Strange presages of death 5. Difference of dead mens skuls and why CHAP. II. 1. The benefits of sleep and reasons why some sleep not 2. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim Why dead and sleeping men heavier then others why a blown bladder lighter then an empty 3. Strange Epidemical diseases and deaths The force of smels The Roses smell 4. Strange shapes and multitudes of worms in our bodies 5. The French disease and its malignity The diseases of Brasil CHAP. III. 1. Câ—ntaurs proved what they were 2. Why the sight of a Wolf causeth obmutescency 3. Pigmies proved Gammadim what 4. Giants proved they are not monsters 5. The strange force of Fascination The sympathies and antipathies of things The Loadstones attraction how hindred Fascination how cured Fascination by words CHAP. IV. 1. Strange stones bred in mens bodies 2. Children nourished by Wolves and other Beasts 3. Poison taken without hurt Poison eaters may infect how How Grapes and other Plants may bee poisoned 4. Of strange Mola's Bears by licking form their Cubs the Plastick faculty still working CHAP. V. 1 Divers priviledges of Eunuchs The Fibers Testicles 2. Dâ— versities of Aliments and Medicaments the vertue of Peacheâ— Mandrakes the nature of our aliments 3. A strange story 〈◊〉 a sick Maid discussed and of strange vomitings and Monsters and Imaginations 4. Men long lived the Deers long life 〈◊〉 serted 5. That old men may become young again proved CHAP. VI. 1. Of many new diseases and causes thereof 2. Different colours iâ— our bodies the causes of the Ethiopian blackness 3. The 〈◊〉 Vnicorn with his horn and vertues asserted 4. Some born blind and dumb recovered A strange Vniversal Fever A strange Fish and strength of Imagination CHAP. VII 1. The diversities and vertues of Bezar stones 2. A woman conceived in a Bath of an Incubus 3. Strange actions performed by sleepers and the causes thereof Lots Incest in his sleep 4. Some Animals live long without food The Camelions food is only 〈◊〉 the contrary reasons answered Air turns to water and is theâ— pabulous supply of fire CHAP. VIII 1. Divers animals long-lived without food The Camelion lives on air only 2. Divers creatures fed only by water 3. Chilification not absolutely necessary Strange operations of some stomachs The Ostrich eats and digests Iron 4. How Bees Gnats c. make a sound Of Glow-worms and Grains bit by Pismires the vegitable Lamb and other strange plants 5. The Tygers swiftnesse The Remora stays ships CHAP. IX 1. Lions afraid of Cocks Antipathies cause fear and horror in divers animals 2. Spiders kill Toads the diversities of Spiders 3. The Cocks Egge and Basilisk Divers sorts of Basilisks 4. Amphisbaena proved and the contrary objections answered 5. The Vipers generation by the death of the mother proved and objections to the contrary refuted CHAP. X. 1. Moles see not and the contrary objections answered 2. The opinions of the Ancients concerning divers animals maintained 3. The right and left side defended 4. The true cause of the erection of mans body and the benefit we have thereby 5. Mice and other vermin bred of putrefaction even in mens bodies 6. How men swim naturally the Indian swimmers CHAP. XI 〈◊〉 The Pictures of the Pelican Dolphin Serpent Adam and Eve Christ Moses Abraham and of the Sybils defended 2. The Pictures of Cleopatra of Alexander of Hector of Caesar with Saddle and Stirrops maintained CHAP. XII 1. The Picture of Iephtha sacrificing his daughter maintained 2. The Baptist wore a Camels skin 3. Other pictures as of S. Christopher S. George c. defended 4. The antiquity distinction and continuance of the Hebrew tongue of the Samaritans and their Letters CHAP. XIII 1. There is not heat in the body of the Sun 2. Islands before the Flood proved 3. The seven Ostiaries of Nilus and its greatness The greatness of old Rome divers ways proved Nilus over-flowing how proper to it the Crocodiles of Nilus its inundation regular CHAP. XIV 1. The cause of Niles inundation 2. Lots wife truly transformed into a salt Pillar 3. Hels fire truly black brimstone causeth blackness 4. Philoxenus a glutton and his wish not absurd How long necks conduce to modulation CHAP. XV. 1. Heavy bodies swim in the dead sea and the Ancients in this point defended 2. Crassus had reason to laugh at the Ass eating Thistles Laughter defined in laughter there is sorrow in weeping joy 3. That Christ never laughed proved 4. Fluctus Decumans what CHAP. XVI 1. Epicurus a wicked and wanton man impious in his opinions Seneca's judgement of him 2. Twelve of his impious and absurd opinions rehearsed CHAP. XVII Epicurus his Atomes rejected by nineteen reasons CHAP. XVIII 1. That Chrystal is of water proved and the contrary objections answered how it differs from Ice 2. The Loadstone moves not its Antipathy with Garlick Of the Adamant Versoria Amber c. CHAP. XIX What the Ancients have written of Griffins may be true Griffins mentioned in Scripture Grypi and Gryphes Perez and Ossâ—frage what CHAPr XX. 1. The Navigation of the Ancients by the stars they knew not the compass 2. Goats bloud softneth the Adamant Gold loseth its vertue and gravity with its substance Iron may grow hot with motion Coral is soft
aberration of nature for the one sex is no less needfull for procreation then the other 2. The male is hotter then the female because begot of hotter seed and in a hotter place to wit the right side and because the male hath larger vessels and members stronger limbs a more porie skin a more active body a stronger concoction a more couragious minde and for the most part a longer life all which are effects of heat Besides that the bodies of males are sooner articulated and conformed to wit by 10 days in the womb then the females are the motions of the male in the womb are quicker and stronger then of the female The fatness softness and laxaâ—ie of the womans body besides the abundance of blood which cannot be concocted and exhaled for want of heat argue that she is of a dol'der temper then the man She indeed hath a swifter pulse because of the narrowness of the arteries and her proneness to anger and venery argue imbecility of minde and strength of imagination not heat 3. The male groweth flower then the female because he was to live longer therefore nature proceeds the flower as we see in trees and plants a Cherry-Tree groweth up sooner then an Oak and decayeth far sooner Besides the soft and loose flesh of the female is sooner extended then the solid and harder flesh of the male We may then conclude that the male is hotter intensively but the female by reason she hath more blood is hotter extensively II. The seed is no part of the body because the body is not more perfect by its presence nor malmed by its loss or absence nor is it the aliment of the body because then the body would not part with it nor is it properly an excrement peccant in the qualitie but it is the purer part of the blood or quintessence of it unuseful for the body when it is peccant in the quantity 2. Because the blood is in every part of the body and the seed is the quintessence of the blood therefore the seed may be said to be derived from all parts of the body for all parts of the body consume upon much evacuation of seed and as it is from all parts in respect of its material and grosseâ— substance so it is principally from the head heart and liver in regard of its more aerial parts III. Though the menstruous blood may receive corruption by its long suppression or by the moisture of some bad humors yet in sound women it is as pure as any other blood in the body For it is appointed by nature for nutriment of the infant whilst it is in the womb and after birth it is converted into milk neither doth it differ from other blood in its material and efficient causes besides that it is as red and coagulates as soon as the purest blood of the body Neither doth nature send it away because it is peccant in the quality but because it is exuberant in the quantity 2. By reason the menstruous blood is infected with ill humours on which the child in the womb feeds hence it is that there are few or none but one time or other are infected with the small pox which as divers other poisons doth not presently shew it self but lieth a long time lurking in the body And if at the first time the venome of this disease is not thoroughly purged out it returns Hence it is that some have this disease divers times 3. The menstruous blood is not the cause of the small pox whilst it remains in the vessels but when it is converted into the substance of the body hence it is that women whose moneths are stopped are not infected with this malady 4. This blood is evacuated once in a moneth ordinarily at such time as the Moon which hath dominion over humid bodies is most prevalent Nature also observes her own periods and times of evacuation of which we can give no reason But this is certain that if the evacuation of this blood were as frequent as of other excrements there would be no conception IV. The chief uses of the matrix are to draw the seed to it to mingle it with the blood to contain it to excite its faculties and spirits for it is not actually animated till now and so the seed by its spirits is made capable of animation and shortly after being incorporated with the blood of articulation These fore-named functions of the matrix are performed not so much by its heat as by its natural temper V. Oftentimes the vitiosity of the matrix is the cause of monstrous births so likewise is the imagination the defect or exuberance of seed the unlawful permistion of seeds the heat of the body and the formative faculty 2. The false conception called Mola is begot when the seed is faulty weak or deficient and the blood predominant which is known from a true conception because there is no milk in the breasts when there is a false conception neither doth it move after the fourth moneth as the child doth sometimes it is moved by the matrix but not by it self as the child besides it remains after the eleventh moneth which is the time prefixed for the birth of the child CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membrans first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4. The similitude of the parents on the children 5. Twins how begot and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Superfetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The childs heart moveth in the matrix I. ARISTOTLE will have the heart to be the first member that lives in us Galen the liver but indeed Aristotle is in the right for how can any thing live till the heart which is the fountain of heat and spirits live and how can the soul frame to her self a fit habitation for exercising of her functions â—ill first she hath framed the heart by whose heat and spirits she may work If it be objected that the heart cannot live without nutrition but nutrition is by blood and this by the liver therefore the liver must first live I answer that there needs no nutrition till the body be compleat and perfected for wee see imperfect creatures can live long without food I have kept a Spider nine moneths alive in a glass without food Again there needs no nutriment but when there is deperdition and wasture of the substance which cannot bee of the heart before the body be perfected And although the body live at first the life of a plant it will not therefore follow that the heart is not first framed for even in plants there is a principle of life which is the root and nature worketh methodically by quickning that first which must quicken the rest II. As the heart is the first member that is framed by the formative faculty so the outward membranes are first formed by the heat or natural temperament
there is no necessity that we should call these miracles for as it is no miracle for a Cat to see in the dark nor for a musk-Cats sweat to smell sweetly nor for a Basilisk to kill with his eye or rather with the poisonsome vapour of his eye or breath of his mouth nor is it a miracle for an Eagle or Raven to see at such a distance these effects flowing from the natural temper and constitution of these creatures of which temper might these men now mentioned be I could alledge many other strange qualities of men as of one who could move his ears like an Horse of another whose spittle was poison and of one who never laughed c. but these are sufficient to let us see the power and wisdome of God and the dexterity of his Handmaid Nature both in the fabrick and divers temperaments of mens bodies FINIS The Second BOOK Of the strange Diseases and Accidents of MANS BODY Wherein divers of Dr. Browns vulgar errors and assertions are refuted and the ancient Tenents maintained CHAP. I. 1. Divers ways to resist burning 2. Locust eaters the lowsie disease the Baptist fed not on Locusts 3. Mans flesh most subject to putrifaction and the causes thereof How putrifaction is resisted Mumia 4. The strength of affection and imagination in dying men Strange presages of death 5. Difference of dead mens skuls and why THAT some mens bodies have endured the fire without pain and burning is not more strange then true which may be done three manner of ways 1. By divine power as the bodies of Shadrach Meshech and Abednego received no hurt or detriment in the fiery furnace 2. By a Diabolick skill so the Idolatrous Priests among the Gentiles used in some solemn sacrifices to walk securely upon burning coals as the Prince of Poets shews AEn lib. 11. Medium freti pietate per ignem Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna And as the men in the Sacrifices of Apollo so women in the Sacrifices of Diana used to walk upon burning coals as Strabo witnesseth lib. 12. Of this custome Horace also speaks Hâ—r 1. Od. 1. Incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso So Propertius Pro. El. 5. l. 1. Et miser ignotos vestigia ferre per ignes And so it was used as a Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk upon coals when a man undertook any dangerous businesse The Scripture also sheweth that the Gentiles used to make their sons and daughters passe through the fire They used also in swearing to take a burning Iron in their hands without hurt as Deliro sheweth in his Magick Pliny and Sueton write that Pyrrhus his thumb and Germanicus his heart could not be burned 3. The body is made sometimes to resist fire by natural means as by unguents so those Hirpiae or Hirpini in Italy of whom Pliny Varro and others make mention used to anoint the soles of their feet with this unguent that they might walk on the fire Bushequius Epist. 4. was an eye-witnesse at Constantinople of what was done in this kind by a Turkish Monk who after dinner took an hot burning iron out of the fire held it in his hand and thrust it in his mouth so that his spittle did hisse without any hurt whereas one of Busbequius his men thinking this Monk had onely deluded the eye takes the same iron in his hand which so burned his palm and fingers that he could not be healed again in many days This was done by the Monk saith Busbequius after he had put some thing in his mouth when he went â—orth into the Court pretending it was to seek a stone The same Authour witnesseth that he saw at Venice one who washed his hands in scalding lead and why may not the body be made to resist the fire as well as that kind of Linum called therefore Asbetinum by the Greeks and Linum vivum by the Latines Pancerol de Lin. vivo in which they used to wrap their Emperours bodies when they buried them that their ashes might not be mingled with the ashes of their fire this Linum being incombustible The Salamander also liveth sometime in the fire though not so long as some have thought Pyrausâ—â— are gendred in the fire So Aristotle and Scaliger Nor must we think it fabulous as Dr. Brown too magisterially concludes Of Errors 7. Book c. 18. What is written of the Spartan Lad and of Scaevola the Roman who burned their hands without shrinking he doubts of the truth of this and yet makes no doubt of that which is more unlikely to wit of Saint Iohns beingâ— in the Chaldron of scalding oyl without any hurt at all Book 7. c. 10. he that will question the truth of Scaevola's burning his hand and of Gurtius leaping into the burning gulf may as well question the broiling of Saint Lawrence on the Grediron or the singing and rejoycing of other Martyrs in the midst of their flames II. That in Ethiopia there is a people whose sole food are locusts is witnessed by Diodorus and Sâ—rabo l. 4. c. 16. these from their food are called Acridophagi they are a lean people shorter and blacker then others they are short lived for the longest life among them exceedeth not 40 years Their Countrey affordeth neither fish nor flesh but God provides them locusts every Spring which in multituds are carried to to them from the Desart by the West and South-west winds these they take and salt for their use These wretched people die all of one disease much like our lousie sicknesse A little before their death their bodies grow scabby and itchy so that with scratching bloody matter and ugly lice of divers shapes with wings swarm out of their belly first then from other parts so that they pine away and die in great pain This disease doubtlesse proceeds partly from the corruption of the aire and partly from the unwholesomnesse of their diet which turns to putrid humours in their bodies whence the disease is Epidemical This vermin breeds most in those who are given to sweat to nastinesse and abound with putrified humours between the flesh and skin whose constitutions are hot moist as children and according as either of the four humours are predominant so is the colour of lice some being red some white some brown some black sometimes they burst out of all parts of the body as in Herod and in that Portugal of whom Forestus speaks l. 4. de vitiis capitis out of whose body they swarmed so fast that his two men did nothing else but sweep them off so that they carried out whole baskets full Sometimes they breed but in some parts onely as in the head or arm-pits Zacuta mentioneth one who was troubled nowhere but in his eie-lids out of which they swarmed in great numbers Some have voided them by boils and imposthumes Forestus speaks of one who had them only in his back whom he advised to hold his naked back so close to the
the radical moisture and natural heat are longer preserved In the Torrid and Frigid Zones men are short lived because the natural heat of the body is drawn out by the ambient heat of the one and extinguished by the cold of the other but this is where the heat and cold are in the excesse So likewise in the same Region we finde some men longer lived then others because they abound more in radical moisture and natural heat then others besides temperance in diet exercise and passions are great helps for prolonging of life In Orkney Shâ—tland Norway and other Septentrional places men live till they be six or sevenscore years of age And Lerius in Navigat Brasil shews that in Brasil which is a hot countrey some doe attain six score years without gray hairs Pliny l. 7. c. 49. speaks of divers in Vespasians time in Italy of 120 130 140 150 years old and it stands with reason that man should not be shorter lived thâ—n other animals being of a more excellent temper then they having also dominion over them and being made for a more excellent end to wit contemplation wisdome knowledge for the finding out of Arts and Sciences Therefore God permitted the Patriarchs before the Flood to live so long as they did Now we finde that divers beasts lived beyond an hundred years AElian Pliny and others affirm that Elephants live two hundred years Deer exceed an hundred years as Pliny shews by those Staggs that were found with Brasse collars about their necks which Alexander had put on an hundred years before This story is rejected by Dr. Brown Book 3. ca. 9. upon wâ—ak grounds 1. Because Deer attain to their full growth at six years therefore their state and declination which ought to be proportionable to the growth cannot be of long continuance 2. Their immoderate salacity in the Moneth of Septâ—mber And 3. Their losse of teeth between twenty and thirty which is aâ— infalible mark of old age These are feeble reasons to deny an ancient story or matter of fact For 1. Nature doth not observe that imaginary proportion between the growth and decay of things for some tame birds which attainâ— their full growth in three or four months have lived twenty years after and men who have their full growth at 25 years have lived two or three hundred years 2. Salacity for one moneth in the year cannot argue a short life as it doth in Sparrows who are salacious every houre â—ay almost every minute For Scaliger observed a Cock-Sparrow tread the Hen ten times in a few minutes 3. Nor is the losse of teeth an argument of short life for many after this losse have lived 60 or 70 years And it is observed by Scaliger that the drinking of cold water which is an enemy to the nerves causeth the falling away of the teeth therefore I will content my self with the report of Pliny concerning the Deers age till I have better reasons then these V. It may be questioned whether old men may becom young again and I am of opinion they may not that the years past can be revoked or that which is done undone for Evanders prayer in the Poet was in vain O mihi praeteritos referat si Iupiter annos But that the decayed nature may be so renewed and repaired as an old man may perform the functions of a young man and may say with Tully Nihil habeo quod accusem senectutem meam This the Poets exprâ—sse under the fiction of â—acchus his Nurses and of old AEson made young again by Medea It stands also with reason For 1. Serpents by casting off their old skins renew their youth and vigour and Stags do the like by eating Serpents Languescunt in juventutem Tertul. de Paâ—â—â—o Why then may not man be renewed 2. Every fit of sicknesse is like old aâ—e men in a long Ague differ nothing from the most dâ—crepid and aged persons that are But being recovered they obtain a youthful vigour and agility 3. The radical moisture when it is much decayed either by famine or sicknesse may be again repaired and consequently the youthful vâ—gâ—ur of the body 4. Davâ—d saith Psalm 103.5 that his youth is renewed like the Eagles Now the Eaglâ—s as Saint Austin observes on that place when with age the upper Bill is so over-grown that they cannâ—t feed they uâ—e by â—eaâ—ing their Bill against a rock to break off the excrescence and so by feeding recover their strength and youth again 5. For this end God created the Tree of Life in Paradise that when mans radical moisture fails it might be repaired again and his youth be renewed by eating thereof 6. Divers examples we have of this renovation Del Rio de Mag. l. 2. sheweth out of Torquenda that in the yeare 1511 was an old man at Tarentum of an hundred years old who having lost his strength hairs nails and colour of his skin recovered all again and became so young and lusty that he lived fifty years after Another example he brings of a Castilian who suffered the same change and of an old Abbatesse in Valentia who being decrepid suddenly became yong her monethly courses returned her rugged skin grew smooth her gray hairs became black and new teeth in her head Massaeus in his Indian History lib. 1. speaks of a certain Indian Prince who lived 340 years in which space his youth was three times renewed Besides Cardan Langius in his Epistles Epist. med 79. speaks of a Well in an Island called Bonica the waters of which being drunk makes old men become young Ambrose Parry l. 24 17. speaks of a woman who being 80 years old lost her hair and teeth which grew again I have read of divers women whose intermitted courses have flowed when they were 70 80 90 100 years old CHAP. VI. 1. Of many new diseases and causes thereof 2. Different colours in our bodies the causes of the Ethiopian blackness 3. The true Vnicorn with his horn and vertues asserted 4. Some born blind and dumb recovered A strange Vniversal Fever A strange Fish and strength of Imagination THAT in all Ages some new diseases have invaded mens bodies may appear by these testimonies Thycides l. 2. de Bel. Pelopon speaks of a new pestilence in Athens never heard of there before Agitharchidas de mari rubro writes of the inhabitants about the red Sea in whose flesh vermin was bred like little dragons which consumed their flesh sometimes they would thrust out their heads and being touched pull â—hem back again they made great inflammations in the musculous parts This mischief was never heard of before one amongst them being troubled with a Dysury voided at last a stalk of Barly At Athens a youth with his urine voided a little beast with many feet Pliny tells us that the Mentagra or Tetter of the Chin and Face was not known in Rome till the time of Tiberius The Carbuncle came to Rome in the Censorship of L. Paulus and I.
Marius The Leprosie called Elephantiasis appeaâ—ed first in Italy in the time of Pompey He speaks also of other diseases which not long before his time sprung up in Italy A kind of Fever called Coqueluche by the French invaded their country anno 1510. England was plagued with a new sweating sicknesse anno 1529 The French malady appeared first at Naples anno 1492. The Scorbutus is but a new disease in those parts Many strange kinds of vermin have been bred in mens bodies in this last Age not known before in this part of the world Of these and many more new diseases Fernelius Fracostorius Sebizius and others do write Now it is no wonder that there are new diseases seeing there are new sins 2. New sorts of foods and gluttony devised 3. New influences of the Stars 4. New Earthquakes and pestiferous exhalations out of the Earth 5. New temperaments of mens bodies 6 Infections of waters malignant meteors and divers other causes may be alledged for new diseases but none more prevalent then the food which is converted into our substance therefore in eating and drinking wee should regard the quantity quality and seasons II. It is strange to consider the diversitie of colours caused in the same Individual body of man by the same heat the chylus milk sperm and bones are white the blood and liver red the choler yellow the melancholy green the spleen blew a part of the eye black the hairs of divers colours and yet none blew or green And as strange it is that in some the skin is tauny in others white and in others black all which is effected by one and the same Sun which as it produceth all things by its heat so it giveth colour to all things for what giveth the essence giveth also the consequences yet Dr. Brown Book 6. c. 10. will not have the Sun to be the caus of the Negro's blacknesse 1. Because the people on the South-side of the River Senaga are black on the other only tauny 2. Other animals retain their own colours in that clime 3. In Asia and America men are not so black I answer that it will not follow that the Sun is not the cause of blacknesse for he doth work upon each Subject according as it is disposed to receive his impression and accordingly produceth diversity of colours Hence in the same hot climat men are black Parrets and leaves of trees are green the Emmets as some report are white the Gold is yellow and every thing there hath its own peculiar colour and yet all are produced by the same Sun nay the same man that hath a black skin hath white teeth the same Sun at the same time in the same Garden doth cloath the Lily in white the Rose and Cherry in red and divers fruits in black it is observed that the Sun whiteneth those things which are inclined to be hard and blackneth soft things so he makes the Ethiopians teeth white the skin black he makes the green corn turn white and hard with his heat and at the same time makes the plumb black and soft women that blanch or whiten their linnen in the Sun know that he can â—an their skins but whiten their cloth â—gain the air may be more temperate and greater store of refreshing windes and exhalations on the one side of the river Niger then on the other and so the Suns operation may bee hindred which is the cause that in America and Asia under the same parallel men are not so black as in Africk where there is more heat and greater drought For it wants those fresh Winds and great Lakes and Rivers which are in Asia and America The Suns heat then is the cause of blacknesse in such as are capable of it whether the clime be torrid or frigid Hence in cold countries we finde black crowes and in hot white Swans Besides this narration is suspicious for on both sides of the River men have been seâ—n equally black and there be some in Asia as black as in Affrica He objects again That Nigro's transplanted into cold countries continue their hue therefore the Sun is not the sole cause of this blacknesse Ans. The question is not if the Sun be the sole cause but whether a cause at all which the Doctor in his former objections seemed to deny 2. I say that the Sun is the sole primary cause if there be any other causes they are secâ—ndary and subordinate to the Suns heat and influence 3. Hee may as well infer the Sun is not the cause of greennâ—sse in leaves grasse or plants in the Torrid Zone because these being transplanted into cold climats retain their hues Book 6. c. 12 And indeed he seems to make the spirit of Salt peter in the Earth the cause of viridity because in a glasse these spirits project orient greens I should like his reasons well if the verdure of the plant were not more real then that of Salt-peter in the glasse but what will he say to that Earth where is no Salt-peter at all and yet the â—earbs are green Or is there Salt-peter in a glasse of pure water where I have seen green leaves bud out of the stem of an hearb Besides I finde urine out of which Salt-peter is made to spoil the greennesse of the hearbs 4. If the impression of black which the Sun causeth in a hot clime must alter in a cold then may the other qualities also which the Sun by his heat procureth be lost in a cold countrey and so what is hard in Ethiopia must bee soft in England and the heat of Indian spices must here grow cold He objects again that there are Negroes under the Southern Tropick and beyond which are colder countries I answer that these Negroes were colonies out of hotter countries and not Aborigines or Natives at first And he confesseth there be Plantations of Negroes in Asia all which retain their original blacknesse Lastly he objecteth That in the parts where the Negroes possesse there be rivers to moisten the air and in Lybia there are such dry and sandy desarts as there is no water at all but what is brought on camels backs and yet there are no Negroes therefore drinesse cannot cause blacknesse I answer 1. It cannot be proved that the Neâ— groes who dwell neere rivers had their originall there 2. Though there may be some moist exhalations yet it seems they are not so abundant as to qualifie the Suns heat 3. Though the desarts of Lybia be dry yet they are not so hot as under the Line It is the excesse of heat and siccity together that causeth blacknesse and not one of these alone 4. We see men grow tauny here by conversing much in the Sun And further South more tauny and still as the heat increases the degrees of blacknesse increase also to deny this were to deny our senses and we see dead bodies hung in the Sun grow black the same would befall to living bodies if they continued
no intentions nor remissions the form then being simple and indivisible cannot be made up of two so that two seeds cannot concurre as two efficient causes to make up a third entity For Ex ' duobus entibus per se non fit unum ens per se. Again wee see that trees and plants are generated of one seed without copulation for the earth concurres not by affording another seed to propagate but as the matrix to cherish and foment So in fishes which have no distinct sex there is generation notwithstanding because in them there is seed which is the onely active principle of generation Again that outward shape or form which the Mule hath was not induced by the formative faculty of the females seed for there is none as we have shewed much lesse of the blood for the plastick vertue resideth not in the blood but in the Males seed which of its own particular nature endeavours to form a Horse but finding the Asses blood being united now and coagulated with and by the Horses seed uncapable to receive that form of the Horse is retreated by the superior and generall formative faculty which aiming at the production of a new species for the perfection of the Universe generates a Mule Hence we may inferre that Mules were not the invention of Ana except we will conclude that the world was imperfect till that time which were an injury to God who made the world perfect but perfect it could not be till the production of this species for Perfectum est cui nihil deest The Doctors second Argument Exercit. 34 is taken from the production of the egge which Aristotle holds is generated by the Hen and which hath also vegitation from her Hence he inferres That according to Aristotles mind the Hen is an active principle in generation Answ. From hence it will not follow That the Hen is an active principle in the generation of the Chick because she furnisheth the Egge which is the materials of the chick for so in other animals the female furnisheth blood which is the matter of which the Embryo is made and yet she is not as we have said an efficient cause of generation but the male onely by his seed neither will it follow that vegitation doth still presuppose generation for in many individuals there is a vegitive soul and yet no generation so there is in some species as in Mules in adianthum or capillus veneris which we call Maiden-hair and divers other hearhs which generate not though they have vegitation But when Aristotle saith The egge is generated in the Hen or that the female generates in her self he takes generation in a large sense for any way of production so we say water is generated of air and worms of purrid matter and yet neither the one nor the other is the efficient but the materiall cause onely of generation And though we should yeeld that the Hen were the efficient cause of the egge yet it will not therefore follow that she is the efficient cause of the Chick for that is onely the Cock as Aristotle holds though in the woman there is a working faculty of her blood yet there is no working faculty in her of the child or Embryo that is meerly from the plastick power of the fathers seed II. Now let us see Fernelius his Arguments l. 6. de hom prâ—creat the first whereof is this The womans seed hath no other originall from the testicles and vessels then the males seed hath therefore in her seed there is a procreative faculty Answ. 1. We deny that there is seed in the woman properly so called 2. If it were so that she had seed yet it will not follow that it is prolificall for it must be concocted spirituous because the spirits are the prime instruments of Nature in generation but the the womans seed is crude because that Sex by nature is cold being compared to the man as both Aristotle and Galen affirm and experience doth evince for the woman is much weaker and slower then the man whereas strength and agility argues plenty of spirits and calidity The mans hairs also are more curled stiffe and strong then the womans which shews more heat The womans voyce is weaker and smaller which argues the narrownesse of the vessels and consequently defect of heat and because the woman is lesse hot and dry then the man Hence it is that she abounds much more in blood which in man is dried up Besides the woman is the more imperfect Sex her seed therefore must be imperfect and consequently not fit to be the principall or efficient cause of so noble an animall as man Aristotle observeth that boyes in the mothers womb are more lively and nimbler then maids that they are sooner formed in the matrix and that the woman sooner groweth to her height and sooner decayeth her strength quickly fails her and old age assaults her soonest Secondly he proves That the child drawes 〈◊〉 Gout Stone Epilepsie and other hereditary diseases from the mother who was subject to these her selfe Answ. This will not prove that the mother is an active cause in generation or that the formative faculty â—â— the cause of diseases which rather are to be attributed to the matter of which the similar parts are formed then to the active principle of generation whereas then the woman â—â—rnisâ—â—th blood of which our bodies are made up it is no marvell if with the blood she imparts to the child whatsoever infirmitie is in it and not onely doth the mother by her blood but the father also by his seed communicate diseases to the child for the same seed which is the efficient cause of generation is also the materiall cause of infirmities and diseases Hence many times gowry fathers beget gowty children His third Argument is The child oftentimes resembleth the mother therefore her seed must needs be active Answ. That the child for the most resembleth the mother proceedeth not from any agencie of her seed but from the strength of her imagination for otherwise the child would still resemble the father in whose seed alone resideth the formative faculty which because it is a naturall power depending from the generative and consequently inferior to the imagination which is an animall faculty that giveth place to this This force of the mothers imagination is plain by the divers impressions made on the tender Embryo upon her depraved imaginations by the stories of those women who have conceived children resembling the pictures hanging in their bed-chambers and by the practise of Iacob Gen. 30. in causing his Ewes to bring forth streaked Lambs according to the streaked rods put in their troughes when they drank II. There is no disease that more molests and tortures man then the Cholick which is so called from Colon the great intestine the torment of which hath made some to kil themselvs nor is there any malady that proceeds from more causes or hath more strange and
original from eggs which if true then that is no fiction of the Poets concerning Leda's two eggs out of which were procreated Pollux and Helena Castor and Clytemnestra but I conceive the Doctor in this speaks rather tropically then properly for simile non est idem and what may in some sort resemble an egge is not an egge however his book is full of excellent learning and observation yet I have been bold in some thingâ— to dissent from him as may be seen in the former Chapter The other book I lately viewed is my Lord Bacon's Natural History a Piece fraughted with much variety of elegant learning but yet wherein are divers passages that deserve animadversionâ— I never had leasure to run over the book till now though I had seen it before and now my distractions are such that I cannot exactly examine it but onely ut canis è nilo here and there touch a little First then I finde him mistaken in thinking that the French-pox is begot by eating of mans flesh Cent. 1. Sect. 26. His reasons are A story of mans flesh barrelled up like tunny eat at the siege of Naples the other is because the Canibals who feed on mans flesh are subject to that disease 3. Because the blood or fat of mans flesh is mixed with poysons And lastly because Witches feed on mans flesh to aid their imaginations with high and foul vapors Answ. These reasâ—ns are of small validity For 1. it was not the eating of mans flesh at the siege of Naples that brought this disease into Europe but it was procured by some of Columbus his Company who had carnal commerce with soul Indian women which with the pox they brought along with them 2. Mans flesh of all other animals is counted the most temperate therefore cannot produce such a venomous distemper so repugnant to mans body 3. This is a peculiar disease of the Indians both East and West for divers Countries have their divers maladies 4. Neither can this or any disease be counted new in respect of their subjects original causes or seminaries for this disease is as old as mans flesh though in this part of the world it did not break out so generally as of late and who knows but that the ancients had it but under another name being a kind of Leprosie 5. The Canibals among the Indians are not more subject to this disease then others who never tasted of mans flesh for in all ages there have been men eaters yet not tainted mith this malady and millions of latter years among us who are infected with this poyson and yet never eat of mans flesh 6. It is against reason to imagine that the flesh of a man should rather breed this disease then of an ox or a sheep seeing mans flesh is sooner convertible into nutriment then of any other animal because of the greater simpathy and specifical unity 7. Though ignorant Indians do mix mans blood or fat with poyson it will not therefore follow that these are poyâ—â—nable no more then wine can be called poyson because poysonable materials may be mixed with it so we mix sugar and butter with rats bane which we know have no venemous quality in them 8. Witches who are silly fools may eat mans flesh hoping thereby to aid their imaginations but there is no such vetue in mans flesh as they conceive so they use many spels charms and canting words in which there is no more vertue then in a pibble stone or a piece of rotten wood 9. Mans flesh can afford no soul vapors except it befoul it self and putrified and so indeed it may breed loathsome diseases as all other corrupt and putrified meats do which is done as it is corrupted not as it is mans flesh neither can it afford high vapors except it were full of spirits which cannot be in a piece of dead flesh he that will have high vapors must drink sack not eat mans flesh the blood of the vine not of the vein can breed high vapors Indeed the drinking of mans blood and eating of his flesh may inure a man to cruelty which Catelin knew by causing his associates to drink humane blood hence the Judaical law forbids eating of blood at all shewing us hereby how much God abhors cruelty or that which may induce a man to it II. His Lordship calls it A crude and ignorant speculation to make the dilatation of the fire the cause of the expulsion of the pellet out of the Gun but he will have the cause to be the crude and windy spirits of nitre dilated by heat which bloweth abroad the flame as an inward bellows But I would know what difference there is between dilatation and between the flame and spirit of the nitre He affirms dilatation to be the cause of this expulsion therefore his exception against the former opinion was needless and whereas he grants the flame to be the immediate expeller of the pellet he unawares affirms what he rejects neither can I see any difference between the flame of the nitre and the spirit of the nitre inflamed onely he was pleased to make shew of a new reason by altering somewhat the words of the former whereas the sense is one and the same the speculation then is not crude but the spirit of his nitre is crude which without the flame can do nothing 3. From a wax candle burning in a porringer full of spirit of wine set on fire he infers Cent. 1.31 strange conculsions As 1. That the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular and not in pyramis and consequently that the pyramis of the flame is accidental I answer the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular accidentally because the air about it is heated by the flame of the wine therefore as in all things like draws to like so one flame dilates it self to enjoy the other as a drop of water will contract it self upon a drie but dilate it self upon a wet table 2. He infers That the flame of itself would be round if it were not for the air that quencheth the sides of it But I say that the air is so far from quenching that it cherisheth and maintaineth the flame without which it would quickly vanish and that the flame would not be round of it self if the air round about were not inflamed for the same cause it rouls and turns not of its own nature but because the ambient flame draws it 3. He â—nfers hence That the celestial bodies are true fires for they are igâ—obular and have rotation and have the colour and splendor of flame These are weak arguments that from common accidents prove specifical identities for if the stars be true fires because globular then we may infer that water drops are fire because round and that every thing which hath rotation is fire and if that be fire which hath the colour of fire or that a flame which hath the splendor of flame we may say that rotten
convert any other metall into gold which were to introduce by Art a specificall form into the matter which is the work ofâ— Nature alone He saith It is a vain opinion to think the starre is the denser part of his Orb. This is spoken both Lordly and maâ—esterially but he had done well to tell us why this opinion is vain and to have delivered an opinion void of vanity which he doth not but his bare word is not sufficient to make this a vain opinion which the learned of so many Ages have approved and stands so much with reason I confesse we know but little of those quintessentiall natures for we are as the Poet saith Curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes Yet of all opinions this is most consonant to reason that the starre is homogeneall with its spheare so that the starre is the heaven contracted and the heaven in which the starre moveth is the starre dilated for otherwise wee must make the heaven an heterogeneall body and consequently organicall which will prove the vainer opinion of the two He tells us That Oyl is almost nothing else but water digested I may say it is any thing else rather then water from which it is so averse that it will not be united or incorporated with it and the effects are clean opposite for water is cold oyle hot in operation water putrifieth oyle resisteth putrifaction water makes Iron rust oyle keeps it from rusting water quencheth the fire oyle kindles and feeds it water is heavy oyle light for it vvill still be uppermost vvater is thin oyle thick water is quickly up by heat and turned into vapours so is not oyle water is the food of plants oyle of men oyle is apt to be inflamed so is not water therefore oyle is rather air or fire then vvater digested He gives us a strange cause of mans indisposition to motion when Southern winds blow The cause saith he is that the humours do melt and wax fluid and so flow into the parts How humours should melt I know not except they were congealed like butter wax or ice and where be the parts into which they flow he tells us not but indeed the true cause is the giving as we call it or relaxation of the muscles nerves and tendons by the warm and moâ—st air which in dry and cold weather are more firm compacted and united and therefore the apter for motion It is saith he commonly seen that more are sick in Summer and more die in Winter This is to me a Riddle for if more die in Winter then in Summer it must follow That more are sick in Winter then in Summer for men usually die not till they be sick and so he contradicts himselfe Much like to this is that saying of his Diseases are bred chiefly by heat the contrary whereof is apparent that multitudes of diseases are bread by cold neither can I yeeld to him in saying That it is a superficiall ground that heat and moisture cause putrifaction because there have been great plagues in dry years But by his Lordships leave the plagues were not bred by the drynesse of the yeare but by the precedent heat and moisture of the Winter or Spring which break out upon the hot and dry Summer or Autumne and this hee acknowledgeth in his next Section where he sheweth That the cause of diseases is falsly imputed to the constitution of the air at that time when they break forth whereas it proceeds from a precedent sequence and series of the seasons of the year and so when he saith That in Barbary their plagues break up in Summer when the weather is hot and dry If this be so then it is no superficial ground to say that heat and moysture cause putrifaction seeing it is resisted by hot and dry weather and indeed it were absurd to think otherways seeing both experience and reason tells us that heat and moysture are â—he breeders of putrifaction and that frigidity and â—â—ccity are its greatest enemies therefore in cold climats and seasons putrifaction is not so frequent as in hot Countries and Summers so he confesseth that the Country about Cap Vorde is pestilent through moysture neither are drie things so apt to putrifie as moist so the flesh putrifieth and not the bones the apple or the pear will putrifie when the seed within remains unputrified whereas those bodies which have little or no moysture resist putrifaction both in themseves and others as Salt Brimstone Myrrhe Aloes and such like He makes Refrigeration of the tongues the cause of stuttering If this were so then old men should stutter more then young men for old men are colder But we know the contrary that not the coldnesse but rather the over-heating of the tongue causeth stuttering and this he acknowledgeth in the same Section that many stutterers are very cholerick men But choler is hot then it seemes that both heat and cold is the cause of stuttering But indeed the true cause in some is a bad habit or custom contracted from their infancy in others eagernesse of disposition for hasty and eager natures usually stutter and whilst they make the more haste they use the lesse speed in others again stuttering proceeds from some infirmity or impedimâ— in the tendon muscles or nerves of the tongue As for drinking of wine moderatly which he saith will cause men stut lesse is a thing I could never yet observe in those stutterers I have bin acquainted with He saith That men and beasts move little after their headss are off but in birds the motion remains longer because the spirit are chiefly in the head brain which in men beasts are large but birds have smal heads therfore the spirits are more dispersed in the sinewes That the spirits are chiefly in the head brain I deny for the vital spirits are chiefly in the heart And if the spirits be chiefly in the head and brain why doth the body separated from the head move more and longer time then the head Again though birds have lesser heads then men and beasts yet they have heads proportioned to their bodies and the spirits proportionably are as much in their heads as in mens or beasts heads Moreover though some men and beasts move little after the head is off yet some move much for I saw one beheaded whose body after it was laid in the coffin and carried a pretty way from the place of execution with a violent fit of motion was like to beat the coffin out of the hands of the bearers therefore the true causes of this difference are these as I conceive 1. The spirits of birds are more aeriall and fervent then of men and beasts and in some more in some lesse therefore the body of a Cock beheaded will flutter more then of a Goose or Turkie and so in beasts a Cat beheaded will move more violently then of many others for this reason some men move