them and observed that the Sparrowes moved thereto by the comming of the other were eating up the graines of Corne shed on the ground But for Crowes and Pyes artificially taught to counterfeit mens voyces it is too small a thing that for that cause they should contend with men For they have quickly babled all they have learnt with longer cost and labour tediously singing still the same song and whatsoever they prate they doe it without sense understanding or any reason for what they say But man alwaies contemplating somewhat more high still thinkes of greater things than these present and never rests But burning with an infinite and endlesse desire of knowledge hee doth not onely covet to know these things which appertaine to food and clothing but by casting up his eyes towards heaven and by the light of his minde he learnes and understands things divine Which is so certaine an argument of the celestiall originall of our soule that hee which considers those things can no wayes doubt but that we have our minds seasoned by the universall divine understanding But now it is time for us to set upon the description of the body the habitation and fit instrument of all the functions of that divine minde The ende of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE TREATING OF THE Anatomy of Mans body I Following custome and the manner of such as before me have written of Anatomy will first that I may make the mindes of the Readers more attentive and desirous of these studies declare how necessary it is and also how profitable and then shew the order to bee observed in it before I come to the particular description of mans body Furthermore how Anatomy may bee defined and the manner of the definition of the parts For the first the knowledge of Anatomy seemes in my judgement very necessary to those that desire to excell or attaine to perfection of Physicke that is whereby they may be able to preserve the present health of the body and the parts thereof and drive away diseases For how can either Physition or Chirurgion preserve health by the use of the like things which consists in the temperament conformation and naturall union of the parts or expell the disease which hurts those three by the like use of their contraries unlesse he shall know the nature and composure of the body and understand as by the rule of this knowledge how much it swerves from the nature thereof Wherefore it is excellently said of Hippocrates that the Physition called to cure the sicke Patient ought diligently to consider whether those things that are in him or appeare to be in him be like or unlike that is whether the Patient be like himselfe and his owne nature in all his parts and functions temperature composure and union that hee may preserve those which are yet contained in the bounds of nature and restore those that are gone astray Which thing Galen hath also confirmed specially where hee saith hee must well know the nature and structure or composure of the bones who takes upon him to restore them broken or dislocated to themselves and their proper seates or places Moreover seeing that healing doth not onely consist in the knowledge of the disease but as well in prescribing fit medicines and like application of them to the body and the parts thereof all which by their naturall dissimilitude doe require unlike medicines according to Galens opinion I prethe tell mee who can performe this which is ignorant of the description of the whole and the parts thereof taught by Anatomie We may say the like of the Apothecarie who ignorant of the scituation of the parts in the body cannot apply Emplaisters Ointments Cataplasmes Fomentations Epithemes bagges to the fit places as to the sutures of the skull to the Heart Liver Stomacke Spleene Reines Wombe or Bladder For example let us imagine the Liver to be troubled with a hot distemperature but on the contrary the stomacke with a cold which commonly happens seeing the Liver hotter than it ought to be sends up many vapours to the head from whence cold humors fall into the stomacke if hot things to be applied to the stomacke by the Physitions prescription be by the Apothecarie making no difference applied both to the stomacke and neighbouring Liver which may chance if hee be ignorant that the stomacke bends somewhat to the left side under the breast-blade but the liver so takes up the right side of the body that with a great parr thereof it covers almost all the stomacke will not he much offend by encreasing the hot distemper of the liver and not thereby giving case or helpe to the disease Shall not by this his ignorance the Patient be frustrated of his desire the Physition of his intent and the medicine of its effect By these examples I thinke it most manifest that the Anatomicall knowledge of the parts of the body is exceeding necessary to all Physitions Chirurgions and Apothecaries who will practise Physicke with any praise to the glory of God and the benefit and good of man for whose sake wee have writ these things and illustrated them by figures subjecting the parts to the eye and fitly put them in their proper places But Anatomy is commodious foure manner of wayes the first is because thus we are led to the knowledge of God the Creator as by the effect to the cause for as we reade in Saint Paul The invisible things of God are made manifest by the visible The second is That by meanes hereof wee know the nature of mans body and the parts thereof whereby wee may more easily and certainely judge and determine of sicknesse and health The third is that by the knowledge of the body and its parts and together therewith its affections and diseases wee may prognosticate what is to come and foretell the events of diseases Lastly the fourth is that considering the nature of the diseased part we may fitly prescribe medicines and apply them in their due places Now we must declare in what order Anatomie may be fitly delivered but first we must observe there is a threefold Methode The first is called of Composition being very commodious for the teaching of Arts which Aristotle hath used in his Workes of Logicke and naturall Philosophy the order and beginning taken from the least and most simple to the more compound The second of Division fit for the inventing or finding out of sciences Galen hath followed this order in his Bookes of Anatomicall Administrations and of the use of the parts The third of Definition which sheweth the nature and essence of things as appeares by Galen in his Booke De Arte parva And because this order doth also prosecute the divisions therefore it is commonly accustomed to bee comprehended in the compasse of the second Therefore I will follow this in my Anatomicall Treatise deviding mans body into its parts which I will not
Camell their haire long and yellow the taile of a Lion there is scarce any creature more fierce or wild for it can never be tamed unlesse it be taken from the dam. The Salvages use their Hides against the cold and their hornes as an Antidote against poyson The same author affirmes that whilest he sayled in the red sea hee saw a monster in the hands of certaine Indian merchants which in bignesse and shape of his limbs was not unlike a Tiger yet had the face of a man but a very flat nose besides his fore feet were like a mans hands but the hinde like the feet of a Tiger hee had no taile he was of a dun colour to conclude in head eares necke and face it resembled a man but in the blackish and curled haire a More for the other parts they were like a Tiger they called it Thanacth The figure of a beast called Thanacth This following monster is so strange that it will scarce bee believed but by those that have seene it it is bred in America and by the Salvages called Haiit of the bignesse of a Monkey with a great belly almost touching the ground and the head and face of a child being taken it mournes and sighes like to a man that is troubled and perplext it is of an ashe colour hath the feet divided into three clawes foure fingers long and sharper than those of a Lion it climbes trees and lives there more frequently than upon the ground the taile is no longer than the breadth of three fingers It is strange and almost monstrous that these kinde of creatures have never bin seene to feed upon or eat any thing for the salvages have kept them long in their houses to make triall thereof wherefore they thinke them to live by the aire The figure of a beast called Haiit I have taken this following monster out of Leo's African history it is very deformed being round after the manner of a Tortoise two yellow lines crossing each other at right angles divide his backe at every end of which he hath one eye and also one eare so that such a creature may see on every side with his foure eyes as also heare by his so many eares yet hath hee but one mouth and one belly to containe his meat but his round body is encompassed with many feet by whose helpe he can go any way he please without turning of his body his taile is something long and very hairy at the end The inhabitants affirme that his blood is more effectuall in healing of wounds than any balsome It is strange that the Rhinoceros should be a born enemy to the Elephant wherfore he whets his horne which growes upon his nose upon the rockes and so prepares himselfe for fight wherein he chiefly assailes the belly as that which he knowes to be the softest he is as long as an Elephant but his legs are much shorter he is of the colour of box yet somewhat spotted Pompey was the first that shewed one at Rome The effigies of a Rhinoceros The figure of a Chameleon Africa produceth the Chameleon yet is it more frequent in India he is in shape and greatnesse like a Lizard but that his legs are straight and higher his sides are joyned to the belly as in fish his backe stands up after the same manner his nose stands out not much unlike a swines his taile is long and endeth sharpe and hee foulds it up in a round like a serpent his nailes are crooked his pace slow like as the Tortoise his body rough hee never shuts his eyes neither doth hee looke about by the moving of the apple but by the turning of the whole eye The nature of his colour is very wonderfull for he changeth it now and then in his eyes and taile and whole body beside and hee alwaies assimulates that which he is next to unlesse it be red or white His skin is very thinne and his body cleare therefore the one of these two either the colour of the neighbouring things in so great subtlety of his cleare skinne easily shines as in a glasse or else various humors diversly stirred up in him according to the variety of his affections represent divers colours in his skinne as a Turky-cocke doth in those flethy excrescences under his throat and upon his head hee is pale when he is dead Mathiolus writes that the right eye taken from a living Chameleon takes away the white spots which are upon the horny coat of the eye his body being beaten and mixed with Goats milke and rubbed upon any part fetcheth off haires his gall discusseth the Cataracts of the eye CHAP. XXIII Of coelestiall Monsters PEradventure it hath not bin strange that monsters have beene generated upon the earth and in the Sea but for monsters to appeare in heaven and in the upper region of the aire exceeds all admiration Yet have wee often read it written by the antients that the face of heaven hath beene deformed by bearded tailed and haired Comets by meteors representing burning Torches and lamps pillars darts shields troups of clouds hostilely assailing each other Dragons two Moones Sunnes and the like monsters and prodigies Antiquity hath not seene any thing more prodigious than that Commet which appeared with bloody haire in Uvestine upon the ninth day of October 1528. for it was so horrible and fearefull a spectacle that divers died with feare and many fell into grievous diseases going from the East to the South it endured no longer than one hower and a quarter in the toppe thereof was seene a bending arme holding a great sword in a threatning hand at the end thereof appeared three starres but that over which the point of the sword directly hanged was more bright and cleare than the rest on each side of this Comet were seene many speares swords and other kinds of weapons died with blood which were intermixt with mens heads having long and terrible haire and beards as you may see in the following figure The figure of a fearefull Comet Also there have beene seene great and thicke barres of Iron to have fallen from heaven which have presently beene turned into swords and rapiers At Sugolia in the borders of Hungaria a stone fell from heaven with a great noise the seventh day of September anno Dom. 1514. it weighed two hundred and fifty pound the Citizens hanged it up with a great iron chaine put through it in the midst of the Church of their City and used to shew it as a miracle to travellers of better note that past that way Pliny reports that the clashing of armour and the sound of a trumpet were heard from heaven often before and after the Cimbrian warre The same author also writes that in the third Consul-ship of Marius the Amarines and Tudortines saw the heavenly armies comming from East and West and so joyning those being vanquished which came from the East Which samething
are the youngest and the smallest And therefore if the winde chance to rise any thing high they expect untill it cease and that the force and violence thereof bee over But if it continue violent then doe they ballast themselves with a little stone flying close by the ground to prevent their being driven too and fro by the force of the winde They are exceeding diligent in all their businesse and doe punish the sloth of the lazie oftentimes with death Some of them are the builders others polish the building and the rest bring in their materials The building in their arched hives is with wonderfull artifice being made with two doores one to come in and the other to goe out at They have all things alike least that the inequalitie either of their food or labour should give occasion of dissention Their care is that their houses may shew both state and handsomenesse Idle droanes borne for nothing but to eate and consume the fruits of their labours they chase from their hives Those that chance to lose their stings are utterly disabled and in a short time their guts come out that way and they die They bring to their owners wonderfull increase of wax and honey Aristomachus the Philosopher doth boast that for fiftie eight yeares together hee had with great care beene a nourisher of Bees onely that he might the better attaine to the knowledge of their state and condition Of Pismires and Ants. NEither truly is the industry diligence and experience of the Pismire lesse worthy of admiration than that of the Bees Insomuch as that Salomon bids the sluggard to take an example of diligence from the Pismire Truly if experience did not witnesse it it would seeme incredible that so small a creature should be able to store up such aboundance of corne to dispose and manage her affaires in that good order that we see she doth Plinie saith that they have among them the forme of a well governed and well ordered common weale For how pretty a sight it is to see them when they seize upon a graine which they have a minde to carrie away how they set to it and lift it with head and shoulders And how least the corne which they carrie to their store-house should put forth and grow they bite it at one end If it be so bigge that they cannot carry it into their little hole they divide it in the middle If it be dampish they lay it out to drie in the Sunne and open aire When the Moone is at the full they follow their worke in the night when shee doth not shine they take their rest whereby they shew themselves to have some knowledge of heavenly things Plinie affirmeth that they have their set Faires and Markets whither they come in great companies and where they use to establish leagues of amitie and friendship one with another And when one markes them well would hee not thinke that they were in conference one with another and that they did discourse among themselves of their businesse Doe wee not see that the often trampling of their little feete doth weare a path even upon hard flint stones From whence wee may note what in all kinde of things is the effect of assiduitie They say also that they performe the rites of buriall one unto another after the manner of men What words shall I use saith Plutarch to expresse sufficiently the diligence and industry of the Pismires There is not among all the great things in nature a sight of greater wonder than these For in the Pismires are seene the markes of all vertue Their great meetings argue that they maintaine a kinde of friendship Their alacritie in the undergoing of their laboures seemes to shew their fortitude and magnanimity and lastly they are eminent examples of temperance providence and justice Their mutuall charitie appeareth in this that if one of them that is not loaden meets another in one of their narrow paths that is hee will give him the way that hee may the better goe on in his intended journey They say that the first entrance into their hole is not straight but full of many diverticles and crooked paths which all end which will bring you to three little cells in one of which they have their conventicles in the other they lay up their provisions and in the third they bury the carkasses of their dead This doth Plutarch speake concerning Pismires Of Silke-Wormes WIth the industry of these creatures I shall not unfitly joyne that of the Silkewormes of whose paines and care both in the making of their neasts and the spinning of their threed and bottomes wherewith Kings are so magnificently adorned Philosophers have written very strange things And who can chuse but wonder at those great endowments of skill and knowledge and that exceeding industry the mother of so much wealth in the little body of so small a creature The providence therefore of God doth not onely appeare in this that hee hath adorned each creature with a peculiar and proper endowment but in this especially that on the least creatures of all hee hath bestowed the greater portion of skill industry and ingenuity to supply their defect of bodily strength Of the love of Beasts one towards another and to their young PLutarch writeth That all kinde of creatures beare a singular love and have a kinde of care of those thatt are generated of them and the industry of the Partridges this way is much commended for during the time that their young ones are weake and unable to flie they teach them to lie upon their backes and to hide themselves among the cloddes on the ground that so being almost of the same colour they may not be discerned by the Faulkoner But if notwithstanding they see any body comming and that hee is neere them they doe with a hundred dodges and stoopings of themselves as if they were wearie with flying entise him away from their young to follow after them and when they have their purpose they then as if they had recovered some fresh strength fly quite away who can but wonder at this both affection and subtilty Neither are those things lesse wonderfull that are reported of Hares for when they would goe to their seate they sever their young and commit them to the trust of divers places it may be two acres asunder one from another least peradventure a Huntsman a dogge or any man should chance to come that way and they might be in danger to be lost at once And then after they have traced up and downe hither and thither and every way that the dogges may not trace them nor the Huntsman pricke them they take a leape or two and leape into their formes Nor inferior to this is the craft of the Hedghogge for when the Foxe pursueth him and is now at his heeles hee rowles himselfe up in his prickles like a chesnut in the outward shell
a sound sleepe then presently with his head a litle lifted up hee looked this way and that way to the great admiration of all the beholders and finally rise up and went familiarly and cheerfully to him he should the which sight the Emperour Vespatian who was then present in Marcellus his Theater never saw any which more delighted him Of the Ape AN Ape is a ridiculous Creature and which makes men much sport in imitating their actions There hath beene seen an Ape which would pipe and sing and besides dance and write and endeavour to performe many other things proper to men I remember I saw in the Duke of Somes house a great and curst Ape who because he much troubled many had his hands cut off who suffering himself to be cured when the wound was cicatrized he grew more mild and docile Wherefore cloathed in a greene coate and girt over his loines with a girdle he carried hanging therat a case of spectacles a paire of knives a childs handkercheife He was commited to the charge of the Master Cooke to teach because he had taken up his lodging in the Chimney corner hee was taught many pretty tricks and feates If at any time hee swarved from his doctrine and precepts in a trice the whip was upon his back loines and much was abated of his daily allowance for as Persius saith The belly is the master of Arts and sharpener of wit By these means be profited so in a short time that he much exceeded all the Apes of his time in the glory of his wit there was none counted more skilfull in leaping and dancing to the pipe running up a pole and nimbly leaping through his Masters legs To conclude he performed all the actions of a strong Ape and very reverently carried up dishes with the waiters servingmen and made cleane the dishes and platters by licking and did much other drudgery so that he was commonly called Master Iohn Do-all At dinner and supper sitting in a chaire he said grace and cast his eyes up towards heaven and rouled them this way and that way and smote his breast with the stumpes of his hands with much lamentation and imitated prayer by the gnashing or beating together of his teeth He would turne up his taile to any that offended him for his coate scarse covered halfe his buttocks lest he should have filed it he made much other pastime alwayes going upright by reason of the cutting away of his hands unlesse at any time through wearinesse he were forced to sit on his buttocks Of Ravenous birds BVt let us take a view of Faulconers teaching ravenous birds how with swift wings carried aloft into the Aire they may seaze upon other Birds and cast them downe dead to the ground in performance whereof they often too freely soare up to the clouds so that they carry themselves out of the Faulconers sight with a desire to sun themselves neglecting in the meane time their designed prey The Herne when she sees her selfe kept under and below the Falcon carried up by his strong wings with a merveilous swiftnesse with her beake which is long sharpe hid under her wings and turned upwards she receives the Falcon blinded with the heat of fight and desire of prey carelesly flying downe and rushing upon him so that he often strikes him through the gorge so that oft times they both fall downe dead to the ground But if the Falcon without harme escape the deceits by Arte the happy turning of his body and the Herne be not cast downe the Faulconer calling her backe with never so loud a voyce yet by setting up her Feathers she dares her to the pretended fight Of the Camels THe Camell is a very domesticall and gentle beast and which is easily tamed and taught all kind of obedience and service although some of them are cruell wilde and troublesome by biting and striking such as they meet no lesse than vntamed horses There is no neede to house them in the night for they may be left in the plaine fields in the open and free aire feeding upon the grasse and trees and cropping the tops of the thistles neither in the morning doe they any whit the worse undergoe or carry their burdens They are not put to carry burdens before they be foure yeare old The Arabians geld them young that they may enjoy their labour the longer neither being gelt doe they rage for love or desire of venery At the putting in of the Spring they endure hunger and thirst for eight dayes they are so dutifull that at the becke of the Turkish slaves or but touched on the necke with a twigge they presently kneele on the ground to take up their burden neither doe they lift themselves up before that they finde they have a sufficient load layd upon them Those which have but one bunch on their backe are of Africke but such as have two bunches are of Asia or Scythia Those kinde of Camels that are the bigger are used to carry packes but the lesser are used to ride upon as our horses are They love nothing so well as beanes and yet they live content with foure handfulls of beanes for a day The greatest wealth of the Arabians consists in Camels and so they estimate their riches not by the quantity of silver or gold but by the number of Camels The Turkish Emperour Thevet being the reporter made a Captaine over the heards of his Camels giving him a great troope of African and Christian slaves that they might be the better looked unto I have heard it reported saith Thevet by certaine Arabian African and Iewish Merchants who were present at that time when Sultan Selim the first of that name beseiged Caire in Aegypt which in former times was called 〈◊〉 that there was then in that Emperours army sixtie thousand Cammels besides a mighty company of Mules That Birds have taught us musicall tunes THe Nightingales are sweet and excellent singers tuning rheir notes with infinite quaverings and diversities of sounds so pretily and sweetly that humane industry can scarse equall the sweetnesse thereof by so many musicall instruments so that wee say hee sings like a Nightingale who varies his voice with much varietie In which thing Birds much excell men because they have that admirall sweetnesse of singing from nature it selfe without any labour of learning which men can scarse attaine to in any schoole of musicke by having their eares a thousand times pluckt by the hand of a curst master That Beasts know one anothers voice BEasts know one another by their voice so that they may seeme to talke and to laugh together whilest flattering with their eares they plucke in their noses with a pleasant aspect of their eyes and as speech is given to men so Birds have their naturall voice which is of the same use to them as speech is to us For all birds of the same
beasts For this purpose he doth not onely harnesse himselfe as with brasen walles but also makes ditches and Bulwarkes he makes by the ministery of his hands all kind of weapons weaves himself graments casts into the water and drawes forth nets to catch fish and to conclude he performes all things to his owne contentment and having that priuiledge granted him by God he rules over all the earth all things which lye hid in the bowells of the earth which goe or creepe upon the earth which swim in the sea and fly through the aire or are any where shut up in the compasse of the skie are in mans dominion How wonderfull God hath shewed himselfe in making man GOds Deity and providence hath principally shewed it self in the creation of man neither his so admired light hath so shone in the production of other creatures seeing that God would have them to live and have theit being onely for mans sake that they might serve him Therefore man is if we diligently consider all his endowments a certaine patterne and rule of the divine majesty if If I may so say Artifice For being made to Gods image he is as it were his coine exceeding the capacity of all humane understanding Which seemed a just reason to the ancient Philosophers that he should be called Microcosmos or a litle world because the particles of all things conteined in the compasse of heaven and earth are contained in his minde and body that in the meane time I may in silence passe over his soule more great and noble than the whole world Why Nature hath not given Man the facultie of persaging THis seemes the reason that men by the instinct of nature doe not foresee the future seasons and dispositions of the heaven and aire because seeing they have received certaine sparks of prudence from God by whose care and guidance they are led to the knowledge of things by no deceiptfull but certaine judgment being not obnoxious to the conditions and changes of times and seasons as beasts are Wherefore knowing all these airy changes to be placed under them that is to say their minds according as occasion serves and their minds desire they give themselves to mirth when the Aire is wet stormy and darke and on the contrary in a cleare and faire season to a sincere and grave meditation of things sublime full of doubt But beasts accommodating themselves to that disposition of the aire which is present at hand are lively or sad not from any judgment as men but according to the temper and cōplexion of their bodies following the inclinations of the aire and of the humors one while diffused another while contracted Neither ought we to blame man because he can imitate the voyce of beasts but rather much commend him that he can infinitely wrest and vary one thing that is his voyce for men can barke like Foxes and doggs grunt like hogs whet and grinde their teeth like boares roare like Lyons bellow like Bulls neigh like horses knacke their teeth like Apes houle like Wolues bray like Asses bleate like Goats and Sheepe mourne like Beares Pigeons and Turtles Keeke and gaggle like geese hisse like Serpents cry like Storkes caw like a Crow and crow like a Cocke clocke like Hennes chatter as Swallowes and Pyes sing like Nightingales croake like Frogs imitate the singing of Waspes and Humming of Bees Mew like Catts The singing of Birds scarse seemes to merit the name of Musicall compared to the harmony of men fitted and tuned with infinite variety of voyces For with this they possesse the eares of Kings and Princes provoke and temper their wrath and carry mens minds beyond themselves and transforme them into what habits they please But if those cruell beasts have any humanitie they owe it all to man For he tames Lyons Elephants Beares Tigers Leapards Panthers and such other like Of the Crocodile PLutarch reports of the Crocodile whose figure is here deliniated that being tamed and taught by man hee doth not onely heare mans voyce and answeres to his call but suffers himselfe to be handled and opening his throate lets his teeth be scratched and wiped with a towell How small a part of Physicke is that which beasts are taught by nature Certainely nothing in comparison of man who by the study and practise of a few yeares can learne at his fingers endes all the parts of Physicke and practise them not onely for his owne but also for the common good of all men But why cannot beasts attaine unto the knowledge of Physicke so well as men I thinke because so great an Arte as Physicke is cannot be attained unto by the dull capacities of Beasts But for that I have written of the Religion of Elephants if I must speake according to the truth of the matter wee cannot say they worship God or have any sense of the divine Majesty For how can they have any knowledge of sublime things or of God seeing they wholy following their foode know not how to meditate on celestiall things Now for that they behold and turne themselves to the Moone by night and to the Sunne in the morning they doe not that as worshipping or for that they conceive any excellency or divinitie in the Sunne but because nature so requiring and leading them they feele their bodyes to rejoyce in that light and their entralls and humors to move and stirre them to it Therefore when we attributed religion to Elephants we said it rather popularly than truely and more that we might exhort men to the worship of God than that we thought Elephants had any knowledge of divine worship implanted in their mindes That man may attaine unto the knowledge of all voyces and tongues THe docility of mans wit is so great and the facillity of the body obeying that divine gift of wit such that he is not onely able to learne to understand and speak the tongues of diverse nations differing in so many peculiar languages and not only to imitate and counterfeit the voyces of all beasts though so much different from man which many flattering and jugling companions followers of other mens tables will doe but also may be able to know and understand both what they pretend and signifie In confirmation of which thing they cite the Philosopher Apollonius most famous in this kind of study and knowledge He walking on a time amongst a company of his friends thorough the field and seeing a Sparrow come flying and chirping much to diverse other Sparrowes sitting upon a tree is reported to have said to those which were with him That bird which came flying hither told the other in her language that an Asse laided with corne was fallen downe at the City gate and had shed the wheat upon the ground Wherefore Apollonius and all his friends which were with him went thither to see whether it were so and found that it was so as he had told
defaced that it may seeme one bone growne together of many This shall be made manifest by recitall of the following Historie A servant of Massus the Poste-master had a greevous blow with a stone upon the right Bregma which made but a small wound yet a great contusion and Tumor Wherefore that it might more plainely appeare whether the bone had received any harme and also that the congealed blood might be pressed forth the wound was dilated the skinne being opened by Theodore Hereus the Chirurgion who as hee was a skillfull workeman and an honest man omitted nothing which Art might doe for his cure When he had divided the skinne the bone was found whole although it was much to bee feared that it was broken because he fell presently to the ground with the blow vomited and shewed other signes of a fractured scull so it happened that he dyed on the one twentieth day of his sicknes But I being called to learne search how he came by his death deviding the scul with a saw found in the part opposite to the blow a great quantity of Sanies or bloody matter and an Abscesse in the Crassae meninx and also in the substance of the very braine but no sutures but the two scaly ones Therefore that is certaine which is now confirmed by the authority of Hippocrates as also by reason and experience that a blow may bee received on the one side and the bone may be fractured on the opposite especially in such as have either no sutures or else so firmely united and closed that they are scarse apparent Neither is it absured that the part opposite to that which received the stroake of the same bone and not of diverse bones may be cloven and in those men who have their sculls well made and naturally distinguished and composed with sutures and this both was and is the true meaning of Hippocrates That this may bee the better understood we must note that the opposite part of the same bone may be understood two manner of wayes First when the fracture is in the same surface of the smitten bone as if that part of one of the bones of the Bregma which is next to the Lambdall future be smitten and the other part next to the Coronall suture be cloven Secondly when as not the same superficies and table which receives the blow but that which lyes under it is cleft which kind of fracture I observed in a certaine Gentleman a Horsman of Captaine Stempans troope He in defending the breach of the wall of the Castle of Hisdin was strucke with a Musket bullet upon the Bregma but had his helmet on his head the bullet dented in the Helmet but did not breake it no nor the musculous skinne nor scull for as much a could be discerned yet notwithstanding hee died apoplecticke upon the sixt day after But I being very desirous to know what might be the true cause of his death dividing his scull observed that the second table was broken and cast off scales and splinters wherewith as with nedles the substance of the braine was continually pricked the first and upper table being whole for all this I afterwards shewed the like example to Capellanus and Castellanus the King and Queenes chiefe Phisitions in the expedition of Roane But Hippocrates prescribes no method of curing this fifth kind of fracture by reason he thinks it cannot be found out by any circumstance whence it happens that it is for the most part deadly Yet must we endeavour to have some knowledge conjecture of such a fracture if it shall at any time happen Wherefore having first diligently shaved away the haire we must apply an Emplaister of Pitch Tarre Waxe Turpentine the powder of Iris or floure deluce rootes and mastich now if any place of the head shall appeare more moyst soft and swollne it is somewhat likely that the bone is cleft in that place so that the patient though thinking of no such thing is now then forest to put his hand to that part of the scull Confirmed with these and other signes formerly mentioned let him call a counsell of learned Physitions and foretell the danger to the Patients friends which are there present that there may no occasion of calumnie remaine then let him boldely perforate the scull for that is far better than forsake the patient ready to yeelde to the greatnesse of the hidden disease and so consequently to dye within a short while after There are foure sorts or conditions of fractures by which the Chirurgion may be so deceived that when the scull is broken indeed yet he may thinke there is no fracture The first is when the bone is so depressed that it presently rises up into its true place and native equability The second is when the fissure is onely capillary The third is when the bone is shaken on the inside the utter surface neverthelesse remaining whole forasmuch as can be dediscerned The fourth is when the bone is stricken on the one side and cleft on the other CHAP. IX Of the moving or Concussion of the Braine BEsides the mentioned kindes of fractures by which the braine also suffers there is another kinde of affect besides nature which also assailes it by the violent incursion of a cause in like manner externall they call it the Commotion or shaking of the braine whence Symptoms like those of a broken scull ensue Falling from aloft upon a solide and hard body dull and heavie blowes as with stones clubbes staves the report of a peece of Ordinance or cracke of Thunder and also a blow with ones hand Thus as Hippocrates tells that beautifull damosell the daughter of Nerius when she was twenty yeeres old was smitten by a woman a friend of hers playing with her with her flat hand upon the fore part of the head and then she was taken with a gâ—ddines and lay without breathing when she came home she fell presently into a great Feaver her head aked and her face grew red The seaventh day after there came forth some two or three Ounces of stincking and bloody matter about her right eare and shee seemed some what better and to be at somewhat more ease The feaver encreased againe and she fell into a heavie sleepinesse and lost her speech and the right side of her face was drawne up and she breathed with difficulty she had also a convulsion and trembling both her tongue failed her and her eyes grew dull on the ninth day she dyed But you must note that though the head be armed with a helmet yet by the violence of a blow the Veines and Arteries may be broken not onely these which passe through the sutures but also those which are dispersed betweene the two tables in the Diploe both that they might binde the Crassa Meninx to the scull that so the braine might move more freely as also that they might carry the
by another madde dogge A mad dog hath sparkling and fierie eies with a fixed looke cruell and a squint hee carries his head heavily hanging downe towards the ground and somewhat on one side hee gapes and thrusts forth his tongue which is livide and blackish and being short breathed casts forth much filth at his nose and much foaming matter at his mouth in his gate as if he suspected and feared all things he keepeth no one or certain path but runs one while to this side another while to that and stumbling like one that is drunke he oft-times falleth downe on the ground he violently assailes whatsoever he meets withall whether it bee man tree wall dog or any thing else other dogs shun him and presently sent him a farre off But if another unawares chance to fall foule on him he yeelds himselfe to his mercy fawnes upon him and privily labours to get from him though hee be the stronger greater Hee is unmindfull of eating and drinking he barkes not yet he bites all he meets without any difference not sparing his master as who at this time hee knowes not from a stranger or enemie For it is the property of melancholie to disturbe the understanding so that such persons as are melancholike doe not onely rage against and use violence to their friends and parents but also upon themselves But when as he sees water he trembles and shakes and his haires stands up on end CHAP. XII By what signes we may know a man is bitten of a mad dog IT is not so easie at the first to know a man that is bitten with a mad dogge and principally for this reason because the wound made by his teeth causeth no more pain than other wounds usually do contrary to the wounds made by the sting or bite of other poysonous creatures as those which presently after they are inflicted cause sharpe paine great heat swelling and abundance of other maligne accidents according to the nature of the poyson but the malignity of the bite of a mad dogge appeares not before that the venome shall invade the noble parts Yet when you are suspicious of such a wound you may acquire a certaine knowledge and experience thereof by putting a piece of bread into the quitture that comes from the wound For if a hungry dog neglect yea more fly from it and dare not so much as smell thereto it is thought to bee a certaine signe that the wound was inflicted by a madde dogge Others adde That if any give this piece of bread to hens that they will die the same day they have eaten it yet this latter I making experiment thereof failed for devouring this virulent bread they became not a jot the worse Wherefore I think the former signe to be the more certaine for dogs have a wonderfull and sure smelling faculty whereby they easilie sent and perceive the malignitie of the like creature But when as the raging virulencie hath invaded the noble parts then the patients becomming silent and sorrowfull thinke of many things and at the beginning make a noise with their teeth they make no answer to the purpose they are more testie than ordinarie and in their sleepes they are troubled with dreames and strange phantasies and fearfull visions and lastly they become affraid of the water But after that the poison hath fixed it selfe into the substance of the noble parts then all their faculties are disturbed all the light of their memorie senses reason and judgement is extinguished Wherefore becomming starke mad they know not such as stand by them not their friends no nor themselves falling upon such as they meet withall themselves with their teeth nailes feet Often twitchings like convulsions do suddenly rise in their limbs I judge them occasioned by extraordinary driness which hath as it were wholly drunk up all the humiditie of the nervous parts there is a great drinesse of the mouth with intolerable thirst yet without any desire of drink because the mind being troubled they become unmindful negligent of such things as concerne them and are needful for them the eyes look fierie red all the face is of the same colour they still think of dogs and seem to see them yea and desire to bark and bite just after the maner of dogs I conjecture that the virulent humour hath changed all the humours the whole body into the like nature so that they think themselves also dogs whence their voice becomes hoarse by much endevouring to barke having forgot all decencie like impudent dogs to the great horrour of the beholders For their voice growes hoarse by reason of the great drynesse of the aspera arteria they shun the light as that which is enemy to melancholy wherewith the whole substance of the braine is replenished on the contrary they desire darkenesse as that which is like and friendly to them But they are affraid of the water though good to mitigate their great distemper of heat and drinesse and they fly from looking-glasses because they imagin they see dogs in them whereof they are much affraide by reason whereof they shun the water and all polite and cleare bodies which may supply the use of a looking-glasse so that they throw themselves on the ground as if they would hide themselves therein lest they should be bitten againe for they affirme that he which is bitten by a mad dog alwaies hath a dog in his minde and so remaines fixed in that sad cogitation Wherefore thinking that he sees him in the water he trembles for feare and therefore shuns the water Others write that the body by madnesse becommeth wondrous dry wherefore they hate the water as that which is contrary thereto being absolutely the moistest element and so they say that this is the reason of their fearing the water Ruffus writes that madnesse is a kinde of melancholie and that feare is the proper symptome thereof according to Hippocrates wherefore this or that kind of melancholie begets a feare of these or these things but chiefly of bright things such as looking-glasses and water by reason that melancholie persons seeke darkenesse and solitarinesse by reason of the black corruption of the humour wherewith they abound They fall into cold sweats a fomie stinking and greenish matter flowes from the ulcer by reason of the heat of the antecedent cause and ulcerated part The urine most commonly appeares watrish by reason that the strainers as it were of the kidnies are straitned by the heat and drinesse of the venome Yet sometimes also it appears more thick and black as when nature powerfully using the expulsive facultie attempts to drive forth by urine the melancholy humour the seat of the venome Also sometimes it is wholly supprest being either incrassated by hot drynesse or else the mind being carried other waies and forgetfull of its owne duty untill at length the patients vexed by the cruelty of so
forthwith I exceeding straitly bound my finger above the wound that so I might presse forth the blood and poyson lest they should diffuse themselves further over the body I dissolved old treacle in aqua vitae wherein I dipped and moistened cotton and so put it to the wound and within a few dayes I throughly recovered by this onely medicine You may use in stead of Treacle Mithridate and sundry other things which by reason of their heat are powerfull drawers as a squill rosted in hot embers garlicke and leeks beaten and applyed barly floure tempered with vinegar hony and goats dung and so applyed like a pultis Some thinke it sufficient forthwith to wash and foment the wound with vinegar salt and a little hony Galen writes that the poyson inflicted by the bite of a viper may bee drawne forth by applying to the wound the head of a viper but othersome apply the whole viper beaten to mash CHAP. XVII Of the Serpent called Haemorrhous THE Serpent Haemorrhous is so called because by his biting hee causeth blood to droppe out of all the passages of the wounded bodie hee is of a small bodie of the bignesse of a viper with else burning with a certaine fierie brightnesse and a most beautifull skinne The backe of him as Avicen writes is spotted with manie blacke and white spots his necke little and his taile verie small the part which he bites forthwith growes blackish by reason of the extinction of the native heat which is extinguished by such poison which is contrarie thereto in its whole substance Then followes a paine of the stomacke and heart these parts being touched with the pestiferous qualitie of the poison These paines are seconded by vomiting the orifice of the ventricle being relaxed by a Diarrhaea the retentive facultie of all the parts of the bellie being weakened and the veines which are spred through the guts not being able to retaine the blood conteined in them For the blood is seen to flow out as in streams from the nose mouth eares fundament privities corners of the eies rootes of the naile and gums which putrefie the teeth falling out of them Moreover there happens a difficultie of breathing and stoppage of the urine with a deadlie convulsion The cure is forthwith to scarifie and burne the bitten part or else to cut it quite off if that it may be done without danger of life and then to use powerfullie drawing Antidores The figure of the serpent Haemorrhous CHAP. XVIII Of the Serpent called Seps THe Serpent Seps is so called because it causeth the part which it bites forthwith to putrefie by reason of the cruell malignitie of its poyson It is not much unlike the Haemorrhous but that it curles or twines up the taile in divers circles Pausanias writes that this serpent is of an ash-colour a broad head small necke bigge bellie writhen taile and as he goes hee runs aside like a crabbe But his skin is variegated and spotted with severall colours like to Tapistrie By the crueltie of his causticke and putrefying venome hee burnes the part which he hath bit with most bitter paine he causeth the shedding of the haires and as Aëtius addeth the wound at the first casteth forth manifest blood but within a little while after stinking filth The putrefyed affected parts waxe white and the bodie all over becomes of the colour of that scurfe which is termed Alphos so that by the wickednesse of this putrefactive poison not onely the spirits are resolved but also the whole bodie consumed as by fire a pestilent carbuncle and other putride tumours arising from a hot and humide or suffocating constitution of the aire Now for the remedies they must be such as are formerly prescribed against the bitings of a viper The Figure of the Serpent Seps CHAP. XIX Of the Basiliske or Cockatrice THe Basiliske far exceeds all kinds of Serpents in the curstness of its poyson Therefore it is affirmed by Nicander that into what place soever he comes other venemous creatures do forthwith flie thence for that none of them can so much as endure his hissing for he is thought to kill all things even with this not with his biting and touch only besides if any of them hasten to get anie meate or drinke and perceive that the Basiliske is not farre from thence he flies back and neglects the getting of nourishment necessarie for life Galen writes that the Basilisk is a yellowish serpent with a sharpe head and three risings distinguished with white spots and rising up in forme of a crowne by reason whereof hee is stiled the King of Serpents Certainely the violence of his poyson in killing men is so great that he is therefore thought to kill men and other creatures by his sight onely Solinus affirmes that the body of a dead Basiliske hath wondrous faculties Wherefore the inhabitants of Pergamum in ancient times gave a mightie price for one to hang upon the joistes of the temple of Apollo so to drive away the Spiders and Birds lest they should there weave their webs or the other build their nests in that sacred place Verily no ravenous creature will touch their carkasse but if constrained by hunger they doe touch it then they forthwith fall downe dead in the same place and this happens not onely by eating their body but also by devouring the bodies of such beasts as are killed by their bitings They kill the trees and shrubs by which they passe not onely by their touch but even with their breath Amongst the westerne Aethiopians is the fountaine Nigris neer which there is a serpent called Catablepas small in bodie and slow having a great head which it scarce can carrie but that it lies alwaies upon the ground otherwise it would kill abundance of people for it forthwith kills all that see the eyes thereof the Basiliske hath the same force he is bred in the province of Cyrene of the length of some twelve fingers with a white spot in his head resembling a crowne he chaseth away all serpents with his hisse Weasels are the destruction of such monsters thus it pleased nature that nothing should be without its equall they assaile them in their dennes being easily knowne by the barrennesse or consumption of the soile These kill them also by their sent and they die and the fight of nature is ended thus nature to the magnanimous Lion lest there should be nothing which he might fear hath opposed the weake creature the Cocke by whose crowing onely he is terrefied and put to flight Erasistratus writes that a golden yellownesse affects the bitten part of such as are hurt by a Basiliske but a blacknesse and tumour possesseth the rest of the body all the flesh of the muscles within a while after falling away piece-meale An antidote against this must be made of a dramme of Castoreum dissolved in wine and drunken or else in
guts doe not onely minister those things fore-named but also some laxative syrupe as that that is made of damaske Roses But before the infant bee put to suck the mother it is fitting to presse some milke out of her breast into its mouth that so the fibres of the stomack may by little and little accustome themselves to draw in the milke CHAP. XX. That mothers ought to nurse or give sucke unto their owne children THat all mothers would nurse their owne children were greatly to bee wished for the mothers milke is farre more familiar nourishment for the infant than that of any other nurse for it is nothing else but the same bloud made white in the dugges wherewith before it was nourished in the wombe For the mother ought not to give the child suck for the space of a few dayes after the birth but first to expect the perfect expurgation and avoyding of the excrementall humours And in the meane time let her cause her breasts to bee sucked of another or many other children or of some wholsome or sober maide whereby the milke may bee drawne by little and little unto her breasts and also by little and little purified For a certaine space after the birth the milke will bee troubled and the humours of the body moved so that by long staying in the dugges it will seeme to degenerate from its naturall goodnesse as the grossenesse of it is somewhat congealed the manifest heate in touching and the yellow colour thereof testifieth evidently Therefore it is necessary that others should come in place thereof when it is sucked out wherewith the infant may be nourished But if the mother or the nurse chance to take any disease as a Feaver Scouring or any such like let her give the child to another to give it sucke lest that the child chance to take the nurses diseases And moreover mothers ought to nurse their owne children because for the most part they are farre more vigilant and carefull in bringing up and attending their children than hired and mercenary nurses which doe not so much regard the infant as the gaine they shall have by the keeping of it for the most part Those that doe not nurse their owne children cannot rightly bee termed mothers for they doe not absolutely performe the duty of a mother unto their childe as Marcus Aurelius the Roman Emperour was wont to say For this is a certaine unnaturall imperfect and halfe kinde of a mothers duty to beare a childe and presently to abandon or put it away as if it were forsaken to nourish and feede a thing in their wombe which they neither know nor see with their owne bloud and then not to nourish it when they see it in the world alive a creature or reasonable soule now requiring the help and sustentation of the mother CHAP. XXI Of the choice of Nurses MAny husbands take such pitty on their tender wives that they provide nurses for their children that unto the paines that they have sustained in bearing them they may not also adde the trouble of nursing them wherefore such a nurse must bee chosen which hath had two or three children For the dugges which have beene already sucked and accustomed to bee filled have the veines and arteries more large and capable to receive the more milke In the choyce of a nurse there are ten things to bee considered very diligently as her age the habit of her body her behaviour the condition of her milke the forme not onely of her dugges or breasts but also of her teats or nipples the time from her child-birth the sexe of her last infant or childe that shee bee not with childe that shee bee sound and in perfect health As concerning her age shee ought not to bee under twenty five yeares nor above thirty five the time that is betweene is the time of strength more temperate and more wholesome and healthy and lesse abounding with excrementall humours And because her body doth not then grow or encrease shee must of necessity have the more abundance of bloud After thirty five yeares in many the menstruall fluxes do cease and therefore it is to bee supposed that they have the lesse nutriment for children The nurse must also be of a good habit or square or wel set body her breast broad her colour lively not fat nor leane but well made her flesh not soft and tender but thick and hard or strong whereby she may be the more able to endure watching taking of pains about the child she must not have a red or freckled face but browne or somewhat shadowed or mixed with rednesse for truly such women are more hot than those that are red in the face by reason whereof they must needs concoct and turne their meate the better into bloud For according to the judgement of Sextus Cheronensis as blackish or browne ground is more fertill than the white even so a browne woman hath more store of milke You must looke well on her head lest shee should have the scurfe or running sores see that her teeth bee not foule or rotten nor her breath stinking nor no ulcer nor sore about her body and that she be not borne of gouty or leprous Parents Shee ought to bee quicke and diligent in keeping the childe neate and cleane chaste sober merry alwaies laughing and smiling on her infant often singing unto it and speaking distinctly and plainely for shee is the onely mistrisse to teach the childe to speake Let her bee well mannered because the manners of the nurse are participated unto the infant together with the milke For the welpes of dogges if they doe sucke Wolves or Lionesses will become more fierce and cruell than other-wise they would Contrariwise the Lions whelps will leave their savagenesse and fiercenesse if that they bee brought up and nourished with the milke of any Bitch or other tame beast If a Coat give a Lambe sucke the same Lambes wooll will be more hard than others contrariwise if a Sheep give a Kyd suck the same Kyds haire will be more soft than another Kyds haire She ought to be sober and the rather for this cause because many nurses being overloaden with wine banqueting often set their children unto their breasts to suck and then fall asleep and so suddenly strangle or choak them Shee must abstaine from copulation for copulation troubleth and moveth the humours and the bloud and therefore the milke it selfe and it diminisheth the quantity of milke because it provoketh the menstruall fluxe and causeth the milke to have a certain strong and virous quality such as we may perceive to breathe from them that are incensed with the fervent lust and desire of venery And moreover because that thereby they may happen to bee with childe whereof ensueth discommodity both to her owne childe that is within her body and also to the nurse child to the nurse childe because that the milke
sore eyes a paper wherein the two greeke letters Î and A are written must bee tyed in a thred and hanged about the necke And for the tooth ache this ridiculous saying Strigiles falcesque dentatae dentium dolorem persanate Also oft times there is no small superstition in things that are outwardly applied Such is that of Apollonius in Pliny to scarifie the gummes in the tâ—… ache with the tooth of one that died a violent death to make pils of the skull of one hanged against the bitings of a mad dogge to cure the falling sicknesse by eating the flesh of a wilde beast killed with the same iron wherewith a man was killed that he shall be freed from a quartaine ague who shall drinke the wine whereinto the sword that hath cut off a mans head shall be put and he the parings of whose nailes shall be tyed in a linnen cloth to the necke of a quicke Eele and the Eele let goe into the water againe The paine of the Milt to be asswaged if a beasts Milt bee laid upon it and the Physitian say that he cures or makes a medicine for the Milt Any one to bee freed from the cough who shall spit in the mouth of a Toad letting her goe away alive The halter wherein one hath beene hanged put about the temples to helpe the head ache This word Abracadabra written on a paper after the manner described by Serenus and hanged about the necke to help agues or feavers especially semitertians What truth can bee in that which sundry affirme that a leafe of Lathyris which is a kinde of Spurge if it be plucked upwards will cause vomit but broken downewards will move to stoole You may also finde many other superstitious fictions concerning herbes such as Galen reports that Andreas and Pamphilus writ as incantations transformations and herbes dedicated to conjurers and devills I had thought never in this place to have mentioned these and the like but that there may bee every where found such wicked persons who leaving the arts and means which are appointed by God to preserve the health of mans body flye to the superstitious ridiculous remedies of sorcerers or rather of devils which notwithstanding the devill sometimes makes to performe their wisht for effects that so hee may still keep them ensnared addicted to his service Neither is it to be approved which many say that it is good to be healed by any art or meanes for that healing is a good worke This saying is unworthy of a Christian and savours rather of him that trusts more in the devill than in God Those Empericks are not of the society of Sorcerers and Magitians who heale simple wounds with dry lint or lint dipt in water this cure is neither magicall nor miraculous as many suppose but wholly naturall proceeding from the healing fountains of nature wounds fractures which the Chirurgian may heale by onely taking away the impediments that is paine defluxion inflammation an abscesse and gangrene which retard and hinder the cure of such diseases The following examples will sufficiently make evident the devils maliciousnesse alwaies wickedly and craftily plotting against our safety and life A certaine woman at Florence as Langius writes having a maligne ulcer and being troubled with intolerable paine at the stomacke so that the Physitians could give her no ease behold on a sudden shee vomited up long and crooked nailes and brasse needles wrapped up with wax and haires and at length a great gobbit of flesh so biâ—ge that a Giants jawes could scarce swallow it But that which happened in the yeere of our redemption 1539. in a certain town called Fugenstall in the Bishopricke of Eistet exceeds all credit unlesse there were eye-witnesses of approved integrity yet living In this towne one Ulrich Neusesser a husbandman was tormented with grievous paine in the one side of his belly hee sodainely got hold of an iron key with his hand under the skinne which was not hurt the which the Barber-Chirurgian of the place cut out with his razour yet for all this the paine ceased not but hee grew every day worse than other wherefore expecting no other remedy but death he got a knife and cut his throat His dead body was opened and in his stomacke were found a round and longish piece of wood foure steele knives part sharpe and part toothed like a saw and two sharpe peices of iron each whereof exceeded the length of a spanne there was also as it were a ball of haire All these things were put in by the craft and deceit of the devill Thus farre Langius CHAP. XVIII Of the Cozenages and crafty Trickes of Beggars HAving treated of Monsters it followes that wee speake of those things which either of themselves by reason of their nature full of admiration have some kinde of monstrousnesse in them or else from some other waies as by the craft and cozenage of men And because to the last mentioned crafts of the Devill the subtle devices of begging companions are sowewhat alike therefore I will handle them in the next place that the Chirurgian being admonished of them may be more cautious and cunning in discerning them when hee meets with them Anno Dom. 1525. when I was at Anjou there stood a crafty beggar begging at the Church dore who tying and hiding his owne arme behind his backe shewed in steed thereof one cut from the body of one that was hanged and this he propped up and bound to his breast and so laid it open to view as if it had been all enflamed so to move such as passed by unto greater commiseration of him The cozenage lay hid every one giving him mony untill at length his counterfeit arm not being surely fastened fell upon the ground many seeing and observing it hee being apprehended and layed in prison by the appointment of the Magistrate was whipped through the towne with his false arme hanging before him and so banished I had a brother called John Parey a Chirurgian who dwelt at Vitre in Britany he once observed a young woman begging who shewed her breast as if it had a cancrous ulcer thereon looking fearfully by reason of much and fordid filth wherewith it seemed to defile the cloath that lay under it But when as hee had more diligently beheld the womans face and the fresh colour thereof as also of the places about the ulcer and the good habite of the whole body agreeable to that colour for she was somewhat fat and of a very good habite of body he was easily hereby induced to suspect some roguery and deceit He acquainted the Magistrate with this his suspicion and got leave that hee might carry her home to his house so to search her more narrowly Where opening her breast he found under her arme-pit a sponge moistened with a commixture of beasts blood and milke and carried through an elder pipe to the hidden holes of her counterfeit cancer Therefore he foments her
it be touched with a speare or rod will benumbe even the strongest armes and retarde the feet how ever nimble to runne away CHAP. XXII Of the admirable nature of Birds and of some Beasts THAT there bee divers things not onely in the Sea but also in the aire and earth which by the wonderfull condition of their nature may equall that of Monsters the onely Estrich may serve for a witnesse It is the biggest of Birds though indeed it partly resembles a bird and partly a beast and it is familiar to Africa and Aethiopia as which contrary to the nature of beasts hath feathers and against the custome of birds cannot flye aloft for it hath not feathers fit to flye but like unto haires yet will it out-run a horse The naturall force of the stomacke in concocting is miraculous as to which nothing is untameable shee layes egges of a wondrous largenesse so that they may bee framed into cuppes their feathers are most beautifull as you may perceive by this following figure The figure of an Estrich Any one may easily gather of what a prodigious magnitude an Estrich is by the greatnesse of his bones Three of these birds were kept at the Kings charge by the Mareschall de Rets one whereof dying it was bestowed upon mee whereof I have with great diligence made a Sceleton The delineation of the Sceleton of an Estrich A. Shewes the head which was somewhat thicker than the head of a Crane of the length of ones hand plaine from the crowne even to the beake the beake being divided to the middle region of the eye being roundish at the end thereof B. The necke a yard long consisting of seventeene vertebrae each whereof on each side is furnished with a transverse processe looking downewards of some fingers length excepting the two which are next the head as which want these and are joyned together by Ginglymos C. The backe is of a foots length consisting of seven Vertebrae D The holy-bone of two foot long in whose top there is a transverse processe under which there lyes a great hole E. Three more but lesse F. G. H. After which there followes the cavity or socket whereinto the head of the thigh-bone is received and hid This externally and on the side produceth a perforated bone noted with the letter I. perforated I say at the beginning for it is presently united at the letter K. then is it forked and divided into two other bones whereof one is bigger than the other The lesse is noted with the letter L. then are they both united at the letter M. each of them is halfe a foot and foure inches long But from that part whereas they first begun to bee divided to that whereas they are united there is a hole some foure fingers broad but the length of ones hand or more and it is noted with the letter N. The residue of the bone is like to a pruning knife three inches broad but sixe in length at the end whereunder is the letter O. it is joyned by coalition P. The rumpe consisting of nine vertebrae like to a mans The thigh-bones are two whereof that which is noted with the letter Q. is of the length of a foot and of thickenesse equall to a horses thigh The other next under which peradventure you may call the legge-bone noted with R. is a foot and halfe long it hath joyned thereto the Fibula or lesser focile of the like length but which growes smaller as it comes lower S. Is the legge to which the foot adheres being one foot and a halfe long divided at the end into two clawes the one bigger the other lesse whereof each consists of three bones T. Eight ribbes which are inserted into the Sternon the three middlemost of these have a bony production like to a hook V. Is the Sternon consisting of one bone of some foot 's length representing a buckler to this there is joyned another bone which stretched over the three first ribs is in stead of clavicles or collar-bones X. The first bone of the wing which is one foot and halfe long Y Two bones under this equivalent to the ell and wand under which there are sixe other bones composing the point of the wing noted with Z. This whole Sceleton is seven foot long and so many foot or more high from the feet to the beake there are many other observable things in her composure but I have thought fit to omit them for brevities sake Jerome Cardane in his bookes De subtilitate writes that in the Hands of the Molucca's you may sometimes find lying upon the ground or take up in the waters a dead bird called a Manucodiata that is in Hebrew the bird of God it is never seene alive It lives aloft in the aire it is like a Swallow in body and beake yet distinguished with divers coloured feathers for those on the toppe of the head are of a golden colour those of the necke like to a Mallard but the taile and wings like Peacocks it wants feet Wherefore if it become weary with flying or desire sleepe it hangs up the body by twining the feathers about some bough of a tree It passeth through the aire wherein it must remaine as long as it lives with great celerity and lives by the aire and dew onely The cocke hath a cavity deprest in the backe wherein the hen laies and sits upon her egges I saw one at Paris which was presented to King Charles the ninth The effigies of a Manucodiata or bird of Paradise Wee have read in Thevets Cosmography that he saw a bird in America which in that country speech is called Touca in this very monstrous deformed for that the beake in length and thickenesse exceeds the bignesse of the rest of the body it feeds on pepper as the black-birds and felfires with us do upon Ivie berries which are not lesse hot than pepper A certaine Gentleman of Provence brought a bird of this kinde from that country to present it to King Charles the ninth but dying in the way he could not present it alive Wherefore the King wished the Mareschal de Rets to give her to me that I might take forth her bowells and embalme her that she might bee kept amongst the Kings rarities I did what I could yet not long after she rotted she resembled a crow in body and feathers but had a yellowish beake cleere smooth and toothed like a saw and of such length and thicknesse as we formerly mentioned I keep it yet as a certaine monstrous thing Thevet writes that in the Iland Zocetera there is frequently found a certaine wild beast called Hulpalis of the bignesse of an Aethiopian Monkey It is a very monstroas creature but in nothing more than that it is thought to live upon the aire only the skinne as if it were died in graine is of a scarlet colour yet is it in some places spotted variegated it hath a round