the Radish seed and cover them about with dung and then lay them under the ground whereby the Lettice grows up garded with the stalks of so many herbs as there were seeds put into the leaves If you would procure Party-coloured flowers to grow you may effect it by the same ground and principle You must take the seeds of divers kinds of flowers and when you have bound them up in a Linen cloth set them in the ground and by the commixtion of those seeds together you shall have flowers that are party-coloured By this means it is thought that Daisies of divers kinds were first brought forth such as are to be seen with golden leaves reddish about the edge nay some of them are so meddled with divers colours that they resemble little shreds of silk patcht together CHAP. VI. How a double fruit may be made whereof the one is contained within the other THere is also another way of Composition whereby fruits may be so meddled together not as we shewed before that one part of it should be of one fruit and the other part of another kinde nor yet that one and the same bough shall at once bear two or three several kinds of fruits but that one and the same fruit shall be double containing in it self two several kinds as if they were but one whereof I my self have first made trial But let us see how the Ancients have effected this and first How to make an Olive-grape Diophanes sheweth that the Olive being engraffed into the Vine brings forth a fruit called Elaeo-staphylon that is to say an Olive-grape But Florentinus in the eleventh book of his Georgicks hath shewed the manner how to engraffe the Olive into a Vine that so it shall bring forth not only bunches or clusters of grapes but an Olive fruit also We must bore a hole through the Vine neer to the ground and put into it the branch of an Olive-tree that so it may draw and receive both from the Vine sweetnesse and also from the ground natural juice and moisture whereby it may be nourished for so will the fruit taste pleasantly And moreover if while the Vine hath not yet born fruit you take the fruitful sprigs thereof and plant them elsewhere these sprigs will retain the mixture and composition of the Vine and the Olive-tree together and bring forth one fruit that shall have in it both kinds which therefore is called by a name compounded of both their names Eleo-staphylus an Olive-grape He reports that he saw such a tree in the Orchard of Marius Maximus and tasting the fruit thereof he thought with himself that he felt the relish of an Olive-berrie and a grape kernel both together He writes also that such plants grow in Africa and are there called by a proper name in their Country language Ubolima But we must set props under them to bear up the weight and burden of the boughs though if we engraffe them any other way but this we shall need no polls at all I suppose also that by this self-same means it may be effected That a Grape should have Myrtle in it Tarentinus writes that the Vine may be engraffed into the Myrtle-tree and the Vine-branches thereon engraffed will bring forth grapes that have Myrtle-berries growing underneath them But the manner of this engraffing he hath not set down If you engraffe the Vine-branches in the higher boughs or arms of the Mrytle then they will bring forth grapes after their ordinary manner not having any Myrtle in them but if you engraffe them as she shewed before neer to the ground as the Olive-tree must be into the Vine then you may produce Myrtle-grapes though not without some difficulty We may likewise produce Damosins that shall be of the colour of Nuts for such kind of fruit were produced by the Ancients and called Nucipruna that is Nut-Damosins as Pliny reporteth It is a peculiar property of these fruits that are engraffed into Nut-trees that they are in colour like to their own kinde but in taste like unto Nuts being therefore called by a mixt name Nuci-pruna So there may be produced as the same Pliny writes Damosins that have sweet Almonds within them There is saith he in this kind of fruit an Almond-kernel neither can there be any prettier double fruit devised The same Pliny reports also that there is a kind of Damosin that hath in it the substance of an Apple which of late was called by the Spaniards Malina which cometh of a Damosin engraffed into an Apple-tree There is also a kind of fruit called by the Apothecaries Sebesten or Mixa which hath in it a sweet Almond This same Mixa is a kind of Damosin which differs from all others for whereas others have a bitter Almond or kernel within their stone this only hath a sweet kernel It is a plant peculiar to Syria and Egypt though in Plinies time it was common in Italy and was engraffed in the Service-tree whereby the kernel was the pleasanter They engraffed it into the Service-tree likely for this cause that whereas the fruit of it self would make a man laxative the sharp taste of the Service being mixed with it might cause it to be more binding But now we will shew How to produce an Almond peach which outwardly is a Peach but within hath an Almond-kernel The former means producing double fruits which the Ancients have recorded are but vain fables not only false matters but indeed impossible to be so done for we shewed in the book of Husbandry if you engraffe the Vine into the Myrtle there will be no such fruit brought forth after that manner Besides it is impossible to engraffe the Olive-tree into the Vine or if it were engraffed yet would it not bring forth any such grapes Pliny speaks of Apple-damosins and Nut-damosins but he sheweth not the manner how they may be produced happily because it was never seen nor known But we will demonstrate the manner of it to the whole world by this example this fruit is called an Almond-Peach by the late Writers because it bears in it self the nature both of the Almond and the Peach compounded together And it is a new kind of Adultery or commixtion wrought by skill and diligence used in graffing such a fruit as was never heard of in former ages partaking both of the shape and also of the qualities of either parent outwardly it resembles the Peach both in shape and colour but inwardly it hath a sweet Almond within the kernel that both looks and tastes like an Almond and so is the Tree also a middle betwixt the Almond-tree and the Peach-tree outwardly like the Peach-tree and inwardly like the Almond-tree The manner of engraffing is by clapping the bud of one upon the bud of another either upon one of the trees that bare one of the buds or else setting them both into a third tree as we have done when the Trees have been old We may also go farther and upon that
there is a just and due quantity required for their working then put in the other ingredients as sauce and seasoning to help the principal to work more easily and in due time So we mingle sweet things with unsavory and with bitter that it may smell and taste well for if we should mingle onely unsavoury and bitter receits they that we give it unto would loath it and their animal spirits would so abhor it that though they took it yet it could not work in them So we meddle soft and hard things together that they may go down more pleasantly Sometimes there is so little in a receit that the heat of the body wastes it before it can work here then is required a greater quantity for this doth not hinder the working but gives the natural heat somewhat to feed upon that in the mean space the receit may have fit time to work As for example If we would catch birds by bringing them to sleep here we must take the Nut Methella which is of that force as to cause sleep and heaviness of brain and let this be the ground of our mixtion then to make it more lively in working put thereto the juice of black Poppie and the dregs of wine If it be too hard and we would have it more liquid that so it may fill out the pulse or other baites which we lay for them put thereto the juice of Mandrakes and Hemlock and an Ox gall and that it may not be bitter or unsavoury put hony cheese or floure amongst it that so it may be fitter to be eaten and when once the birds have tasted of it they lie down to sleep on the ground and cannot flie but may be taken with hands The like must be observed in other things CHAP. XIX How to find out the just weight of a mixture WE must also have a special care to know the right ministring of a compound and how to find out the just proportion of weight therein for the goodness of the operation of things consists chiefly in the due proportion and measure of them And unless the mixtion be every way perfect it availeth little in working Wherefore the Antients were wont to observe not only in compounds but also in Simples due weight and measure and their experience hath left it unto us If then then bestowest thy pains in this faculty first thou must find out the weight of a simple Medicine how much of it would serve such a purpose as thou intendest and to that thou must proportionably frame thy compound observing a due proportion both in the whole and every part thereof Let thy chief Simple the ground of thy mixture be half the weight and the other ingredients altogether must be the other half but how much of each of these other ingredients that thou must gather by thy own conjecture So then thy whole compound must be but as much as if it were onely a simple receit for we do not compound things to make the receit greater either in quantity or in vertue but only because it should be more speedy in operation It must also be considered that the weights of mixtures and medicines must vary proportionably as the Countries and Climates vary for this alters their operation as we shewed before Thou must therefore work advisedly and as the operation of the Simples altereth so thou must alter their weight by putting to and taking from and wittily fitting all things that they may effect that which thou wouldest This is the reason why in our experiments which we have set down hereafter we have described the parts thereof by their several weights and lest the divers names of weights should hinder thy working we have used those weights and names which Cornèlius Celsus used before us for so it is fittest for all mens satisfaction CHAP. XX. How to prepare Simples HAving shewed the way how to compound and find out the just weight of our composition it now remains we teach how to prepare Simples which is a matter chiefly necessary for this work and greatest skill is seen in it For the operations of Simples do not so much corsist in themselves as in the preparing of them without which preparation they work little or nothing at all There be many wayes to prepare Simples to make them fitter for certain uses The most usual wayes are Steeping Boiling Burning Powning Resolving into ashes Distilling Drying and such like To macerate or steep any thing is to drench and to soak it in liquor that it may be throughly we both within and without so that the more subtil and intimate part of it may be drained and squeezed out and the grosser and earthly part be left behind to receive that humour in the very middle which we would have in it Boiling we then use when we cannot otherwise well get out the juice of any thing for by boiling we draw out of the centre into the circumference when we cannot do it by steeping though thereby the slighter vapours may be resolved So we use to burn to roste to pown things that we may take away all their moisture from them for by this means they may the more easily be resolved and the sooner converted into liquor and the better mingled with other things to be put to them So we roste or broil things when otherwise we cannot break them that they might become dust yet alwayes we must take heed that we do not so burn them as they may lose their strength nor so boil things but only as they may be fitter to receive that subtil humor and quality which we would convey into them Distillation of things is used as well to get out water that may be of greater strength therby to work more easily handsomly as also because the slighter and more subtile parts of Medicines are fittest for us the grosser parts must be cast away as being an hindrance to our purpose and the like we must conceive of other operations These things I thought fittest for this work He that would be instructed more at large herein let him look into the books of Physitians But let us now proceed to further matters THE SECOND BOOK OF Natural Magick Shewing how living Creatures of divers kinds may be mingled and coupled together that from them new and yet profitable kinds of living Creatures may be generated The PROEME HAving wandred beyond my bounds in the consideration of Causes and their Actions which I thought fit to make the Subject of my first book it will be time to speak of those Operations which we have often promised that we may not too long keep off from them those ingenious men that are very desirous to know them Since that we have said That Natural Magick is the top and the compleat faculty or Natural Science in handling it we will conclude within the compass of this Volume whatsoever is High Noble Choice and Notable that is discovered in the large field of Natural
ground never grows old or barren but is everywhere naturally rank to receive new seed and to produce new and is ever unsatisfied in fruitfulnesse and brings perpetual increase and if nature be alwayes admirable she will seem more wonderful in Plants Copulation was but of one kind here it is almost infinite and not onely every Tree can be ingrafted into every Tree but one Tree may be adulterated with them all Living Creatures of divers kinds were not easily produced and those that come from other Countries were hard to get here is no difficulty at all grafts are fetcht and sent if need be to any part of the world And if diversity of Creatures are made in Africa by their copulating when they meet at the Rivers that so new creatures are alwayes produced here in Italy where the Air is alwayes calme and the Climate very indulgent strange and wilde plants find a good harbour and ground to grow in which is the mother and nourisher of all and so fruitful to produce new and diversity of plants that it can hardly be exhausted And we can better write of them and know the truth more then others because we have them still before our eyes and an opportunity to consider of their effects And if our Ancestors found many new things we by adding to theirs have found many more and shall produce more excellent things overpassing them because daily by our art or by chance by nature or new experience new plants are made Diodorus writes that the Vine at first was but one and that was wilde but now by the help of Bacchus alone from the quality of the ground the nature of the climate and the art of planting it is varied into many kinds that it were madnesse to number them up and not worth our time Nature brought forth but one kind of Pear-tree now so many mens names are honoured by it that one is called Decumana another Dolabelliana and another is named from Decumius and Dolabella The same thing is observed in Figges of Livy and Pompey Quinces are of many kinds some called Mariana from Marius Manliana from Manlius Appiana Claudiana from Appius Claudius Cestiana from Cestius their varieties have made the Authers names immortal What shall I say of Laurel cherries found in Pliny his time what of Citrons which as Athenaeus saith were too sharp to eat in the days of Theophrastus and the ancestors of Plutark and Pliny but Palladius made them to become sweet What of the Peach and Almond-peach Nuts fruits our fore-fathers knew not yet now are they eaten being pleasant and admirable what of Clove-gilliflowers that the Gardrers Art hath made so dainty and sweet scented and so of other plants I have everywhere set down in this work Our Naples abounds so with them that we would not go forth to see the Orchards of the Hesperides Alcinus Semiramis and at Memphis that were made to hang above ground But I shall briefly and plainly relate the History CHAP. I. How new kinds of Plants may be generated of putrefaction AS we have shewed before that new kinds of Living Creatures may be generated of putrefaction so to proceed in the same order as we have begun we will now shew that new kinds of Plants may grow up of their own accord without any help of seed or such like The Antients questionless were of opinion that divers plants were generated of the earth and water mixt together and that particular places did yield certain particular plants We rehearsed the opinion of Diogenes before who held that plants are generated of water putrified in it self and a little earth tempered therewith Theophrastus held that the rain causeth much putrefaction and alteration in the earth and thereby plants may be nourished the Sun working upon it with his heating and with his drying operation They write also that the ground when it is stirred brings forth such kinds of Plants alwaies as are usuall in the same place In the Isle Creta the ground is of that nature that if it be stirred anywhere and no other thing sown or planted in it it will of it self bring forth a Cypresse-tree and their tilled lands those that are somewhat moist when they lie fallow bring forth thistles So the herb Laser in Africa is generated of a kind of pitchy or clammy rain and thick dirt and the herb will shew it self out of the earth presently after the rain is fallen Pliny said that the waters which fall from above are the cause of every thing that grows upon the earth nature shewing therein her admirable work and power and many such things they report which we have spoken of in the books of the knowledge of Plants And I my self have oft-times by experience proved that ground digged out from under the lowest foundations of certain houses and the bottom of some pits and laid open in some small vessel to the force of the Sun hath brought forth divers kinds of Plants And whereas I had oftentimes partly for my own pleasure and partly to search into the works of Nature sought out and gathered together earths of divers kinds I laid them abroad in the Sun and watered them often with a little sprinkling and found thereby that a fine light earth would bring forth herbs that had slight stalkes like a rush and leaves full of fine little ragges and likewise that a rough and stiff earth full of holes would bring forth a slight herbe hard as wood and full of crevises In like manner if I took of the earth that had been digged out of the thick woods or out of moist places or out of the holes that are in hollow stones it would bring forth herbs that had smooth blewish stalkes and leaves full of juice and substance such as Peny-wort Purslane Senegreek and Stone-croppe We made trial also of some kinds of earth that had been farre fetcht such as they had used for the ballast of their Shippes and we found such herbs generated thereof as we knew not what they were Nay further also even out of very roots and barks of Trees and rotten seeds powned and buried and there macecrated with water we have brought forth in a manner the very same herbs as out of an Oken root the herb Polypody and Oak-fern and Splenewort or at least such herbs as did resemble those both in making and in properties What should I here rehearse how many kinds of toad-stools and puffs we have produced yea of every several mixture of putrified things so many several kinds have been generated All which I would here have set down if I could have reduced them into any method or else if such plants had been produced as I intended but those came that were never sought for But happily I shall hereafter if God will write of these things for the delight and speculation and profit of the more curious for t which I have neither time nor leisure now to mention seeing this work is ruffled up in
haste But let us see How Toad-stools may be generated Dioscorides and others have written That the bark of a white Poplar-Tree and of a black being cut into small pieces and sowed in dunged lands or furrows will at all times of the year bring forth mushromes or toad-stools that are good to be eaten And in another place he saith that they are more particularly generated in those places where there lies some old rusty iron or some rotten cloth but such as grow neer to a Serpents hole or any noisome Plants are very hurtful But Tarentinus speaks of this matter more precisely If saith he you cut the stock of a black Poplar peece-meal into the earth and pour upon it some leaven that hath been steeped in water there will soon grow up some Poplar toad-stools He addeth further If an up-land or hilly field that hath in it much stubble and many stalks of corn be set on fire at such time as there is rain brewing in the clouds then the rain falling will cause many toad-stools there to spring up of their own accord but if after the field is thus set on fire happily the rain which the clouds before threatned doth not fall then if you take a thin linnen cloth and let the water drop through by little and little like rain upon some part of the field where the fire hath been there will grow up toad-stools but not so good as otherwise they would be if they had been nourished with a showre of rain Next we will shew How Sperage may be generated Dydimus writes That if any man would have good store of Sperage to grow he must take the horns of wilde Rams and beat them into very small powder and sow them in eared ground and water it and he shall have his intent There is one that reports a more strange matter that if you take whole Rams horns not powned into small pieces but only cut a little and make a hole in them and so set them they will bring forth Sperage Pliny is of Didymus opinion that if the horns be powned and â—igged into the earth they will yield Sperage though Dioscorides thinks it to be impossible And though I have made often trial hereof but could not find it so to be yet my friends have told me of their own experience that the same tender seed that is contained within the Rams horn hath produced Sperage The same my friends also have reported That Ivy doth grow out of the Harts horn and Aristotle writes of an Husband-man that found such an experiment though for my own part I never tried it But Theophrastus writes that there was Ivy found growing in the Harts horn whereas it is impossible to think how any Ivy seed could get in there and whereas some alledge that the Hart might have rubbed his horn against some Ivy roots and so some part of the horn being soft and ready to putrifie did receive into it some part of the root and by this means it might there grow this supposal carries no shew of probability or credit with it But if these things be true as I can say or see nothing to the contrary then surely no man will deny but that divers kinds of plants may be generated of divers kinds of living Creatures horns In like manner may plants be generated of the putrified barks and boughs of old Trees for so is Polypody and the herb Hyphear generated for both these and divers other plants also do grow up in Firre-trees and Pine-trees and such other for in many Trees neer to the bark there is a certain flegmatick or moist humour that is wont to putrifie which when it abounds too much within breaks forth into the outward shew of the boughs and the stock of the Tree and there it meets with the putrified humour of the bark and the heat of the Sun working upon it there quickly turns it into such kinds of herbs CHAP. II. How Plants are changed one of them degenerating into the form of the other TO work Miracles is nothing else as I suppose but to turn one thing into another or to effect those things which are contrary to the ordinary course of Nature It may be done by negligence or by cunning handling and dressing them that plants may forsake their own natural kind and be quite turned into another kind wholly degenerating both in taste and colour and bignesse and fashion and this I say may easily be done either if you neglect to dresse or handle them according to their kind or else dresse them more carefully and artificially then their own kind requires Furthermore every plant hath his proper manner and peculiar kind of sowing or planting for some must be sowed by seed others planted by the whole stem others set by some root others graffed by some sprig or branch so that if that which should be sowed by seed be planted by the root or set by the whole stock or graffed by some branch or if any that should be thus planted be sowed by seed that which cometh up will be of a divers kinde from that which grows usually if it be planted according to its own nature as Theophrastus writes Likewise if you shall change their place their air their ground such like you pervert their kind and you shall find that the young growing plant will resemble another kind both in colour and fashion all which are clear cases by the books of Husbandry Some examples we will here rehearse If you would change A white Vine into a black or a black into a white sow the seed of a white Garden-Vine and that which cometh of it will be a black Wilde-vine and so the seed of a black Garden-vine will bring forth a white Wilde-vine as Theophrastus teacheth The reason is because a Vine is not sowed by seed but the natural planting of it is by sprigs and roots Wherefore if you deal with it otherwise then the kind requires that which cometh of it must needs be unkindly By the like means A white Fig-tree may degenerate into a black for the stone of a Fig if it be set never brings forth any other but a wilde or a wood Fig-tree and such as most commonly is of a quite contrary colour so that of a white figtree it degenerates into a black and contrariwise a black fig-tree degenerates into a white Sometimes also of a right and noble Vine is generated a bastard Vine and that so different in kind oftentimes that it hath nothing of the right garden-vine but all meerly wilde In like manner also are changed The red Myrtle and the red Bay-tree into black and cannot chuse but lose their colour for these likewise degenerate as the same Theophrastus reports to have been seen in Antandrus for the Myrtle is not sowed by seed but planted by graffing and the Bay-tree is planted by setting a little sprig thereof that hath in it some part of the root as we have shewed in our
beaten together that it may be about the thickness of honey and drench your Cervises in it and then hang them up so you may preserve them sound a while and afterward you must wash them that the morter which sticks upon them may fall off So the fruit Ziziphum may be shut up in earthen vessels to be long preserved as Palladius sheweth But they must be gathered by hand and that not before they be ripe and you must shut them up in long earthen vessels and plaister them over and so lay them up He sheweth also that Medlars and the fruit Tuber may be shut up in pitchers so to be preserved You must put your Medlars into pitchers that are besmeared with pitch on the inside but the pitchers wherein you put your Tubers must not only be pitched on the in-side but also daubed over on the out-side So Didymus sheweth that Myrtle-berries may be very well kept to last long if you gather them when they are green and put them into a vessel that is not pitched and so cover it close and lay them up Others lay them up with tails or stalks upon them Palladius sheweth that Nuts may be long preserved if you shut them up close in coffers but the coffers must be made of Nut-tree The same Palladius shews that Chest-nuts may be long preserved if you put them in wicker baskets and plaister up the baskets round about but the rods which the baskets be made of must be Beechen-rods and they must be made up so close that no air may come at that fruit which is in them Likewise Roses may be shut up to be preserved if you take green Barley being pluckt up by the roots and put them into a barrel that is not pitched and lay Roses in amongst it before they be blown for by this means you may keep them long So also you may shut up Lillies to make them last a whole year You must gather them with their boughs as they grow before they be blown and put them into new earthen vessels that were never pitched and when you have covered the vessels lay them up and so shall you have Lillies of a year old But if you have use for any of them in the mean time bring them forth into the Sun and by the heat thereof they will be opened and blown We will shew also out of Didymus how Grapes may be shut up to last long Some take certain cases that are pitched all within and when they have strewed them with the dust or dry powder of the Pitch-tree or the Firre-tree or the black Poplar-tree or else with the dry flower of Millet then they put in their grapes and so they last long but they take their grapes presently after the time of Vintage and make special choice of those grapes that are without any bruise or blemish and they shut up the mouth of the vessels very close and overlay them with morter Or else they may be drenched in clay-morter that is well beaten and somewhat liquid and then be hanged up and so kept for a while and afterward when you would use them wash them over that the morter may fall off Columella saith you must take the great Teat-grape or else the hard-skinned grape or else the fair purple-grape from the Vine and presently pitch their stalks with hard pitch then take a new earthen Vatt and fill it with dry chaffe well sifted that it be without dust and so hang up your grapes upon it then take another Vat and cover therewith the former grapes and all and when you have laid the brims of both vatts together then daube them up with more that is made with chopped straw and when you have so done place them in a very dry loft and cover them all over with dry chaffeâ— Wheat may be laid up close to be preserved by putting it into caves or pits of the earth as we have shewed out of Varro for the Cappadocians and Thracians put their Corn into Caves and Dens the Spaniards put it into certain pits and make special provision that the moisture and air may not come at them except it be when they take cut any for their use for if the air do not breath upon it it will be free from the mice and such like vermine and it is known that Corn being thus laid up hath been kept clean and sweet fifty years together Marcus Varro saith that Beans and Pulse have been laid up in vessels and so preserved for a long time but they must be oyle-vessels and they must be covered over with ashes Pliny writes the very same experiment out of Varro that Beans and Pulse being laid up in oylebuts and covered over with ashes have lasted a great while and being laid up in some hole of the earth they have lasted an hundred and twenty years So the Pulse called Lintels have been preserved long as Columella sheweth for if you put them into oyle-vessels or else into salting-tubs that they may be full and so plaister them over with morter whensoever you take them forth again for your use you shall find your Lintels sweet and good CHAP. VIII How the Ancients when they had put their fruit into certain vessels and so shut them up close did put them also into some other vessels full of liquor HOwsoever the Ancients by making up their vessels close did shut out and keep away the air as being the Author of all putrefaction so that it could not come in to the fruit yet they did not by this means keep away the air out of those places where the vessels were laid but that as the circumstant air was changed either being disposed to heat or cold or drouth or moisture to the air also that is within mustneeds be changed and consequently the fruit also must be affected with the same change Wherefore for the avoiding of all inconveniences which this way might ensue after they had plaistered their fruit-vessels and so made them up fast they did drown these vessels in divers and sundry kinds of liquors And surely not without great reason as experience shews For I have oft-times observed it being seriously imployed in these affairs that if the air be uniform and without alteration the fruits and flowers that have been shut up in vessels of glass have lasted long without any putrefaction but when once they felt any alteration in the air presently they began to putrifie For this cause are those vessels to be drowned in Cisterns or ditches oâ— some places underneath the ground that so the variable alterations of the air may not be felt by the fruit And to descend to experiments we will first shew How Quince-pears being shut up close may be drowned for their better preservation An experiment which Democritus hath set down You must put your Quince-pears into a new earthen-vessel and then cover it and pitch it all over and so put it into a but of wine but so that they may have
meal Do this thrice or four times and so you may increase it continually and this must be done in a stove that the dewy spirit may be fostered I thought good to tell you also before that you must not prick the lump lest the generative blast should breath forth and flie into the air for so you will lose your labour and there must not want presently a dewy vapour which being carried into the air and made to drop may moisten the lump so you will rejoice at the wonderful increase but you must be cunning in the manual application Pray do not destroy by your negligence what was invented by the careful ingenuity of those that tried it CHAP. XX. How we may long endure hunger and thirst THe Antients had some compositions to drive away hunger and thirst and they were very necessary both in times of Famine and in wars Pliny saith some things being but tasted will abate hunger and thirst and preserve our forces as Butter Licoris Hippace and elsewhere Scythia first produced that root which is called Scythia and about Baeotia it grows very sweet And another that is excellent against Convulsions also it is a high commendation of it that such as have it in their mouths fell nor hunger nor thirst Hippace amongst them doth the same which effects the same in horses also And they report that with these two herbs the Scythians will fast twelve dayes and live without drink also all which he translated out of Theophrastus first book The Scythian Hippace is sweet also and some call it Dulcis it grows by Maeotis Amongst other properties it quencheth thirst also if it be held in the mouth For which cause both with both with that and with the other called equestris men say the Scythians will endure hunger and thirst twelve dayes Hence it appears that Pliny translated all this out of Theophrastus But I think he erred for Hippace signifies Cheese made of Mares milk and is no herb Theodorus translated it Equestrem as it were a root like Licoris fit to drive away hunger and thirst For Hippocrates saith the Scythian shepherds eat Hippace but that is Mares Cheese and elsewhere The Scythians pour Mares milk into hollow vessels of wood and shake it and that froths with churming and the fat of it they call butter which swims on the top that which is heavy sinks to the bottom they separate this and dry it when it is dry they call it Hippace the reason is because Mares milk nourisheth exceedingly and is as good as Cows milk Dioscorides The west Indians use another composition also To endure hunger and thirst Of the herb called Tobacco namely of the juice thereof and the ashes of Cockle shells they make little balls and dry them in the shade and as they travel for three or four dayes they will hold one of them between their under lip and their teeth and this they suck continually and swallow down what they suck and so all the day they feel neither hunger thirst nor weariness but we will teach another composition which Heron mentions and it was called The Epimenidian composition to endure hunger and thirst For it was a medicament that nourished much and abated thirst and this was the food the besiegers of Cities and the besieged also lived on It was called the Epimenidian composition from the Sea-onion called Epimendium that is one of the ingredients of that composition it was made thus The squil was boiled and washt with water and dryed and then cut into very small pieces then mingle sesamum a fift part poppy a fifteenth part make all these up with honey as the best to make up the mass to mitigate it divide the whole as into great Olives and take one of these about two of the clock another about ten and they felt no hurt by hunger that used it There is another composition of the same that hath of Athenian sesamum half a Sextarius of honey a half part of oyle a Cotyle and a Chaenice of sweet Almonds mundified the sesamum and Almonds must be dried and ground and winowed then the squil must have the outsides taken off and the roots and leaves must be cut into small pieces and put into a morter and bruised till they be well mollified then you must make up the squils with the like quantity of honey and of oyle and put all into a pot and set them in cold and stir them well with a wooden ladle till they be well mingled when the lump is firm it is good to cut it into little morsels and he that eats one in the morning another at night hath meat enough This medicament is good for an Army for it is sweet and so fills a man and quencheth thirst we had this in an old Scholiast a Manuscript upon the book of Heron in the Vatican Library I saw the same composition in Philo in his fifth book of wars where he describes such like other things CHAP. XXI Of what fruits wines may be made NOw we shall speak of fruits of which wines may be made And first our Ancestors did do thus but they had two wayes for some were for Physicks which are found plentifully in Physick books others again were for ordinary use and they were divers and almost infinite according as the differences of places and Nations are for what is granted to one is denyed to another First Wine of Dates Pliny saith that in the East they make wine of Dates and he reckons up fifty kinds of Dates and as many different wines from them Cariotae are the chief full of juice of which are made the principal wines in the East they are naught for the head and thence they have their name The best are found in Judaea chiefly about Jericho yet those of Archelaiis are well esteemed and of Phaselis and of Libias valleyes of the same Country The chiefest property they have is this they are full of a white fat juice and very sweet tasting like wine with honey The wine will make one drunk and the fruit also eaten largely Dioscorides teacheth thus Put ripe Dates called Chydeae into a pitcher with a hole at bottom and stopt with a pitched reed shut the hole with linnen and to fourty Sextarii pour on three gallons of water If you would not have it so sweet five gallons will be sufficient to pour on after ten dayes take away the reed with the linnen take the thick sweet wine and set it up Also wine is made Of Figs. Sotion relates it thus Some make wine of green figs filling half the vessel with them and the other half to the brim they fill with fair water and they try still by tasting for when it tasts like wine they strain it and use it It is made faith Dioscorides of ripe figs and it is called Catorchites or Sycites Chelidonian or Phaenician figs called Caricae are steeped in a pot with a hole in the bottom with a pitched reed
not you will not easily obtain your deâ—â—re I have set them down here that you might not be put to seek them elswhere First To draw forth the life of Tinne The filings of Tinne must be put into a pot of earth with equal part of salt-peter you shall set on the top of this seven as many other earthen pots with holes bored in them and stop these holes well with clay set above this a glass vessel with the mouth downwards or with an open pipe with a vessel under it put fire to it and you shall hear it make a noise when it is hot the life flies away in the fâ—me and you shall find it in the hollow pots and in the bottom of the glased vessel compacted together If you bore an earthen vessel on the side you may do it something more easily by degrees and you shall stop it So also From Stibium we may extract it Stibium that Druggists call Antimony is grownd small in hand-mills then let a new crucible of earth be made red hot in a cole fire cast into it presently by degrees Stibium twice as muâ—h Tartar four parts of salt-peter finely powdred when the fume riseth cover it with a cover lest the fume rising evaporate then take it off and cast in more till all the powder be burnt then let it stand a little at the fire take it off and let it cool and skim off the dregs on the top and you shall find at the bottom what the Chymists call the Regulus it is like Lead and easily changed into it For saith Dioscorides should it burn a little more it turns to Lead Now I will shew how one may draw a more noble Metal To the out-side As foolish Chymists say for they think that by their impostures they do draw forth the parts lying in the middle and that the internal parts are the basest of all but they erre exceedingly For they eat onely the outward parts in the superficies that are the weakest and a little quick-silver is drawn forth which I approve not For they corrode all things that their Medicament enters the harder parts are left and are polished and whitened may be they are perswaded of this by the medals of the Antients that were within all brass but outwardly seemed like pure silver but those were sodered together and beaten with hammers and then stamp'd Yet it is very must to do it as they did and I think it cannot be done But the things that polish are these common Salt Alom Vitriol quick Brimstone Tartar and for Gold onely Verdigrease and Salt Ammoniack When you would go about it you must powder part of them and put them into a vessel with the metal The crucible must be luted with clay and covered there must be left but a very small hole for perspiration then set it in a gentle fire and let it burn and blow not lest the metal melt when the powders are burnt they will sink down which you shall know by the smoke then take off the cover and look into them But men make the Metal red hot and then when it is hot they drench it in or otherwise they put it in vinegar till it become well cleansed and when you have wrapt the work in linnenrags that was well luted cast it into an earthen vessel of vinegar and boil it long take it out and cast it into urine let it boil in salt and vinegar till no filth almost rise and the foul spots of the ingredients be gone and if you find it not exceeding white do the same again till you come to perfection Or else proceed otherwise by order Let your work boil in an earthen pot of water with salt alom and tartar when the whole superficies is grown white let it alone a while then let them boil three hours with equal parts of brimstone salt-peter and salt that it may hang in the middle of them and not touch the sides of the vessel take it out and rub it with sand till the fume of the sulphur be removed again let it boil again as at first and so it will wax white that it will endure the fire and not be rejected for counterfeit you shall find it profitable if you do it well and you will rejoyce if you do not abuse it to your own ruine CHAP. VIII How to make a Metal more weighty IT is a question amongst Chymists and such as are addicted to those studies how it might be that silver might equal gold in weight and every metal might exceed its own weight That may be also made gold without any detriment to the stamp or engraving and silver may increase and decreasâ— in its weight if so be it be made into some vessel I have undertaken here to teach how to do that easily that others do with great difficulty Take this rule to do it by that The weight of a Golden vessel may increase without hurting the mark if the magnitude do not equal the weight You shall rub gold with thin silver with your hands or fingers until it may dâ—ink it in and make up the weight you would have it sticking on the superficies Then prepare a strong lixivium of brimstone and quick lime and cast it with the gold into an earthen pot with a wide mouth put a small fire uâ—der and let them boil so long till you see that they have gain'd their colour then take it out and you shall have it Or else draw forth of the velks of eggs and the litharge of gold water with a strong fire and quench red hot gold in it and you have it Another that is excellent You shall bring silver to powder either with aqua fortis or calx the calx is afterwards washt with water to wash away the salt wet a golden vessel or plate with water or spittle that the quantity of the powder you need may stick on the outward superficies yet put it not on the edges for the fraud will be easily discovered by rubbing it on the touch stone Then powder finely salt one third part brick as much vitriol made red two parts take a brick and make a hole in it as big as the vessel is in the bottom whereof strew alâ—m de plume then again pour on the powder with your work till you have filled the hole then cover the hole with another brick and fasten it with an Iron pin and lute the joynts well with clay let this dry and let it stand in a reverberating fire about a quarter of a day and when it is cold open it and you shall find the gold all of a silver colour and more weighty without any hurt to the stamp Now to bring it to its former colour do thus Take Verdi rease four parts Salammoniack two parts salt-peter a half part as much brick alom a fourth part mingle these with the waters and wash the vessel with it then with iron tongs put it upon burning coles that it
pure and good and become cool and allayed then pure and unmixed and pleasant visions appear Wherefore I thought it not irrational when a man is overwhelmed with drink that vapors should arise participating as well of the Nature of what he hath drank or eat as of the humours which abound in his body that in his sleep he should rejoyce or be much troubled that fires and darkness hail and putrefactions should proceed from Choler Melancholy coâ—d and puâ—rid humors So to dream of killing any one or being besmeared with Blood shews an abundance of Blood and Hippocrates and Galen say We may judge a man to be of a sanguine Complexion by it Hence those who eat windy meats by reason thereof have rough and monstrous dreams meats of thin and small vapours exhilarate the minde with pleasant phantasms So also the outward application of simples doth infect the species while they are a going to the Heart For the Arteries of the body saith Galen while they are dilated do attract into themselves any thing that is next them It will much help too to anoynt the Liver for the Blood passeth upward out of the Stomack by evaporation and runneth to the Liver from the Liver to the Heart Thus the circulating vapors are infected and represent species of the same colour That we may not please the Sleepers onely but also the Waking behold A way to cause merry dreams When you go to bed to eat Balm and you cannot desire more pleasant sights then will appear to you Fields Gardens Trees Flowers Meadows and all the Ground of a pleasant Green and covered with shady Bowers wheresoever you cast your eyes the whole World will appear pleasant and Green Bugloss will do the same and Bows of Poplar so also Oyl of Poplar But To make dark and troublesome dreams we eat Beans and therefore they are abhorred by the Pythagoreans because they cause such dream Phaseoli or French Beans cause the same Lentiles Onyons Garlick Leeks VVeedbine Dorycnium Picnocomum new red VVine these infuse dreames wherein the phantasms are broken crooked angry troubled the person dreaming will seem to be carried in the Air and to see the Rivers and Sea flow under him he shall dream of misfortunes falling death cruel tempests showers of Rain and cloudy dayes the Sun darkned and the Heavens frowning and nothing but fearful apparitions So by anointing the aforesaid places with Sooâ— or any adust matter and Oyl which I add onely to make the other enter the easier into the parts fires lightnings flashings and all things will appear in darkness These are sufficient for I have already shewed in my Book Phytognom how to procure true dreams CHAP. IV. Excellent Remedies for the Eyes HEretofore being much troubled with sore Eyes and become almost blinde when I was given over by Physitians of best account a certain Empyrick undertook me who putting this VVater into my Eye cured me the very same day I might almost say The same hour By Gifts Entreaties Cunning and Money I gained the Secret which I will not think much to set down that every one may use it at their pleasure It is good for Inflammations Blearness Mists Fistula's and such-like and cureth them certainly the second day if not the first If I should set down all those whom I have cured by it I should be too tedious Take two Bottles of Greek-VVine half a Pint of White-Rose-Water of Celendine two Ounces of Fennel Rue Eye-bright as much of Tutty half an Ounce of Cloves as much Sugar-Candy of Roses one Drachm Camphire half a Drachm and as much Aloes Tutty is prepared after this manner Let it be heat and extinguished six times in Rose-water mixed with Greek-Wine but let the water at last be left out powder what are to be powdered finely and mix them with the waters Aloes is incorporated with waters thus because it will not be powered let it be put into a Morâ—ar with a little of the forementioned waters and beat together until it turn to water and swim about in ropings and mix with the waters then put it to the rest Set them all in a Glass-Bottle close covered and waxed up that it do not exhale abroad in the Sun and Dew for forty dayes still shaking them four times in a day at last when it is well sunned set it up and reserve it for your use It must be applied thus In Inflammations Blood-shots and Fistula's let the Patient lie flat on his back and when a drop of this water is put upon his Eye let him open and shut his Eye-lids that the water may run through all the cavities of his Eve Do this twice or thrice in a day and he shall be cured But thus it must be used for A Pearl in the Eye If the Pearl be above or beneath the Cornea make a Powder of Sugar-Candy of Roses burnt Allome and the Bone of a Cuttle-Fish very finely beat and searched exactly and when the Patient goeth to Bed sprinkle a little of this Powder upon his eye and by and by drop some of this water into it and let him shut his Eyes and sleep for he will quickly be cured CHAP. V. To fasten the Teeth I Could finde not any thing in all this Physical Tract of greater value then this Remedy for the Teeth for the water gets in through the Gumms even to the very Nerves of the Teeth and strengthens and fasteneth them yea if they are eaten away it filleth them with Flesh and new cloaths them Moreover it maketh them clean and white and shining like Pearls I know a man who by this onely Receit gained great Riches Take therefore three handfuls of Sage Neâ—tles Rosemary Mallows and the rinde of the Roots of Wall-nut wash them well and beat them also as much of the Flowers of Sage Rosemary Olive and Plantaine Leaves two handfuls of Hypocistis Horehound and the tops of Bramble one pound of the Flower of Mirtle half a pound of the Seed two handfuls of Rose-Buds with their Stalks two drachms of Saunders Coriander prepared and Citron-Pill three drachms of Cinnamon in powder ten of Cypress Nuts five green Pine-Apples two drachms of Bole-Armenick and Mastick Powder them all and infuse them in sharp black Wine and let them macerate three dayes then slightly pressing the Wine out put them into an Alembick and still them with a gentle fire then boyl the distilled water with two ounces of Allome till it be dissolved in a Vâ—ssel close stopt When you would use it suck up some of the water and stir it up and down your mouth until it turn to Forth then spit it out and rub your Teeth with a Linen-cloth It will perform what I have promised for it fasteneth the Teeth and restoreth the Gums that are eroded Now we will deliver other Experiments To fasten the Teeth Macerate the Leaves of Mastick Rosemary Sage and Bramble in Greek-Wine then distil it with a gentle fire through a Retort take a mouthful
the force of words and they answered all questions by it as from an Oracle for if they changed their places all should go well and prosper otherwise they should have ill success and they would not change their superstitious belief with reason and experience because they had so believed many years If you will have Money to turn about upon a point I oft have seen Impostors that to cheat women used this fraud that two Schroles of Paper or some other light matter upon a plain should lift up themselves and move alone If you search in Barley you shall finde a small ear of wilde Oates that is black and wrested like the foot of a Locust and if you binde this with wax to the top of a Knife or point of a Stile and shall sprinkle softly some drops of water upon them when it feels the wet it will twist like a Harp string and the Paper will rise and so will Money turn on the point of a Stile If we will Discover theft we may do it thus and recover what is lost There are many superstitions for theft that stand by Natural reasons and Cheaters ascribe them to the vertue of Words There is the Eagle stone so called it is as one great with childe for shake the stone and it rings in the belly If then any one powder this and put it into good bread baked upon the Embers and give it to a Thief the Thief cannot swallow it when he hath chewed it but he must either be choked or discovered for a Thief for he cannot swallow it being baked with that as Dioscorides saith The Natural cause for this is because the powder that is mingled with the bread is so dry that it makes the bread extream dry and like a pumish that it cannot be swallowed when it comes into the throat Adde to this that he who seeks to finde a Thief must say to the franders by whom he suspects that he will work wonders whereupon he that is the Thief hath his throat very dry by reason of the fear and terrour he is in so that he cannot swallow this bread with the powder in it for it will stick to his throat for if he were void of fear he could scarce swallow it There is another cunning invention they write the names of those that are suspected upon Schroles of Paper and make them fast in clay bullets and put them under the water the pellets being well wet open and the light schroles of Paper rise above the water And this causeth the spectators to admire and to suppose it is some diabolical art The clay pellets are made as many as the standers by are and the names writ in the schroles are wrapt up in the pellets for the schroles that are not very fast wrapt in the pellets are not very fast bound in but if you will have them never to open you shall work it well with the schrole and so it will never come forth If you will have Flowers to fall from a Tree When I saw this first I was amazed but I asked the reason and he shewed me it It is a property of Mullens that when in the morning it opens the Flowers if the Plant be shaken gently the Flowers drying by degrees will fall all to the ground and one that sees it will think it comes from Magical Art if he that shakes them off shall mumble some idle words Also Women are made to cast off their clothes and go naked To let nothing pass that Jugglers and Impostors counterfeit They set a Lamp with Characters graved upon it and filled with Hares fat then they mumble forth some words and light it when it burns in the middle of womens company it constrains them all to cast off their clothes and voluntarily to shew themselves naked unto men they behold all their privities that otherwise would be covered and the women will never leave dancing so long as the Lamp burns and this was related to me by men of credit I believe this effect can come from nothing but the Hares fat the force whereof perhaps is venemous and penetrating the brain moves them to this madness Homer saith The Massagerae did the like and that there are Trees whose fruit cast into the fire will make all that are neer to be drunk and foolish for they will presently rise from their seats and fall to leaping and dancing There are Thieves also Who bore through the head of a Pullet with an Aule and yet maintain that she is alive And they say it is done by conjuration and they promise to make a man hard by this that he cannot be wounded for with some Characters fraudulently invented and bound under the wings they thrust through the head of the Cock with a Bodkin and staying awhile they pull it forth again and the Pullet flies away without any wound or loss of blood When I considered of this and opened the Pullets head I found it to be parted in the middle and the Knife or Bodkin passing through that place hurts not the brain and I have often tried it and found it true There is also A remedy for the Sciatica Great Cato the chief man for all commodity and the Master of all good Arts as Pliny saith In his Books of Husbandry he used some charms against the pains of the Sciatica saying that if any thing be dislocated you may charm it whole again by this means Take a green Reed four or five foot long cut it in the middle and let two men hold them to the huclebones Begin to play with another S. F. motas vaeta daries dardaries astataries dissunapiter until such time as they joyn together and shake about your sword when they come together and one toucheth the other take that in your right hand and cut it asunder with your left bind it to the place dislocated or broken and it will be whole See how so worthy a learned man brake forth into such madness nor did he know by his great learning that without the force of Words green Reeds cut long-ways will turn round of themselves and meet if they be pendulous as the wands of Willows and brambles will do Theophrastus gives the reason why they turn round in his Books De Causis Plantarum Moreover we reade in Dioscorides that a Reed with Vinegar applied to the hucklebones will cure the Luxation of the loins without words or superstition CHAP. IX Of some Experiments of a Lamp I Much rejoyced when I found amongst the Ancients that Anaxilaus the Philosopher was wont to make sport with the Snuff of a Candle and the Wick and by such delusions would make mens heads shew like Monsters if we may believe Pliny By taking the venomous matter comes from Mares newly having taken Horse and burning in new Lamps for it will make mens heads seem like Horsheads and such like but because I gave no credit to these things I never cared to try them But take these