divers kinds of beasts For Pliny writes and Solinus writes the same That the Hyaena and the Lionesse of Aethiopia gender the beast Crocuta Likewise the Panther is a most lustful beast and she also couples with beasts of divers kinds with a Wolf especially of both which the Hycopanther or beast called Thoes is gendred for the Panther when her sacoting is come goeth up and down and makes a great noise and thereby assembles many both of her own kind and of other kinds also And amongst the rest the Wolf oft-times meets and couples with her and from them is generated the beast Thoes which resembles the Dam in the spots of his skin but in his looks he resembles the Sire Oppianus saith That the Panther and the Wolfe do gender this Thoes and yet he is of neither kinde for saith he oft-times the Wolfe cometh to the Panthers Den and couples with her and thence is generated the Thoes whose skin is very hard and is meddled with both their shapes skinned like a Panther and headed like a Wolfe There is also a Thoes gendred of a Wolf and a female Hyaena This medley Hesychius and Varinus have described That of them comes this Thoes as the Greeks call it The Scholiast upon Homer saith That it is like to the Hyaena and some call it Chaos Pliny saith That this Chaos which by the French is called Raphium was first set forth for a shew in the games of Pompey the Great and that it hath spots like a Leopard but is fashioned like a Wolf But the Greeks make mention of a very strange adultery that The Bactrian Camel is gendred of a Camel and a Swine for Didymus in his workes called Geoponica reporteth that in certain Mountaines of India Boares and Camels feed together and so fall to copulation and gender a Camel and this Camel so gendred hath a double rising or two bunches upon his back But as the Mule which is generated of a Horse and an Ass is in many qualities like the Sire so the Camel which is begotten of a Boar is strong and full of stiffe bristles like a Boar and is not so soon down in the mud as other Camels are but helps himself out lustily by his own force and will carry twice so great a burthen as others But the reason of their name why they are called Bactrian Camels is this Because the first that ever was so generated was bred in the Country of Bactria CHAP. XII Of sundry copulations whereby a man genders with sundry kinds of Beasts I Am much ashamed to speak of it that Man being the chief of all living Creatures should so foully disparage himself as to couple with bruit beasts and procreate so many half-savage Monsters as are often seen wherein Man shews himself to be worse then a beast I will relate some few examples hereof thereby to make such wicked wretches an obloquie to the World and their names odious to others Plutark saith That bruit beasts fall not in love with any but of their own kinde but man is so incensed with lust that he is not ashamed most villanously to couple himself with Mares and Goats and other Beasts for Man is of all other Creatures most lecherous at all seasons fit and ready for copulation and besides agrees with many living Creatures in his time of breeding all which circumstances make much for the producing of monstrous and half-savage broods And howsoever the matter we speak of is abominable yet it is not fruitlesse but helps much to the knowledge of some other things in the searching out of the secrecies of nature Plutark in his Tract which he calls the Banquet of the wise men sheweth that a shepherd brought into the house of Periander A Babe gendred of a Man and a Mare which had the hands and neck and head of a Man but otherwise it was like a Horse and it cried like a young child Thales as soon as he saw it told Periander that he did not esteem it as a strange and monstrous thing which the gods had sent to portend and betoken the seditions and commotions likely to ensure as Diocles thought of it but rather as a naturall thing and therefore his advice was that either they should have no Horse-keepers or if they had they should have wives of their own The same Author in his Parallels reporteth out of Agesilaus his third book of Italian matters that Fulvius Stella loathing the company of a woman coupled himself with a Mare of whom he begat a very beautiful maiden-child and she was called by a fit name Epâ—na And the same Plutark reporeth also of A maiden that was generated of a Man and an Ass for Aristonymus Ephesius the Son of Demonstratus could not away with a womans company but made choice of an Asse to lie with and she brought him forth after a certain time a very comely maiden and in shew exceeding beautiful she was called Onoscelis that is to say one having Asses thighes and this story he gathered out of Aristotle in the second of his Paradoxes But Galen cannot think this possible nay it is scarce possible in nature seeing a Man and an Asse differ so much as they do for if a man should have to do with an Asse her wombe cannot receive his seed because his genitories are not long enough to convey it into her place of conception or if it were yet she would presently or at least not long after marte his seed Or if she could so conceive and bring her birth to perfection how or by what food should it be nourished after the birth But though this can hardly be yet I do not think it altogether impossible seeing all men are not of a like complexion but some may be found whose complexion doth not much differ from a horses and some men also have longer and larger genitories then others as also some Mares and Asses have lesse and shorter genitories then others have and it may be too that some celestial influence hath a stroke in it by enliving the seed and causing the Dam to conceive it and bring it forth in due time And because all these things do very seldom concur together therefore such births are very seldom seen Aelianus writeth another story That there was once generated A half-beast of a Man and a Goat There was a certain young man in Sybaris who was called Crachis a luster after Goats and being over-ruled by his lust coupled himself with a fair Goat the fairest he could light upon and lived with her as his Love and Concubine bestowing many gifts upon her as Ivy and Rushes to eat and kept her mouth very sweet that he might kisse her and laid under her soft grasse that she might lie easie and sleep the better The He-goat the Ring-leader of the Herd espying this watcht his time when the young man was on sleep and fell upon him and spoiled him But the She-goat when her time was come brought
wouldst bring forth any monsters by art thou must learn by examples and by such principles be directed as here thou mayest find First thou must consider with thy self what thing are likely and possible to be brought to passe for if you attempt likely matters Nature will assist you and make good your endeavours and the work will much delight you for you shall see such things effected as you would not think of whereby also you may find the means to procure more admirable effects There be many reasons and wayes whereby may be generated Monsters in Man First this may come by reason of inordinate or unkindly copulations when the seed is not conveyed into the due and right places again it may come by the narrownesse of the wombe when there are two young ones in it and for want of room are pressed and grow together again it may come by the marring of those thin skinnes of partition which nature hath framed in a womans wombe to distinguish and keep asunder the young ones Pliny writes that in the year of Caius Laelius and Lucius Domitius Consulship there was born a maid-child that had two heads four hands and was of double nature in all respects and a little before that a woman-servant brought forth a child that had sour feet and four hands and four eyes and as many ears and double natured every way Philostratus in the life of Apollonius writes that there was born in Sicily a boy having two heads I my self saw at Naples a boy alive out of whose breast came forth another boy having all his parts but that his head only stuck behind in the other boyes breast and thus they had sticken together in their mothers wombe and their navils also did cling each to other I have also seen divers children having four hands and four feet with six fingers upon one hand and six toes upon one foot and monstrous divers other wayes which here were too long to rehearse By the like causes may Monsters be generated in Beasts We shewed before that such beasts as bring forth many young ones at one burthen especially such as have many cells or receits in their wombe for seed do oftenest produce Monsters Nicocreon the Tyrant of Cyprus had a Hart with four horns Aelianus saw an Oxe that had five feet one of them in his shoulder so absolutely made and so conveniently placed as it was a great help to him in his going Livy saith that at Sessa-Arunca a City in Italy there was eaned a Lambe that had two heads and at Apolis another Lambe having five feet and there was a kitling with but three feet Rhases reports that he saw a Dog having three heads And there be many other like matters which I have no pleasure to speak of But it may seem that Monsters in Birds may be more easily produced both in respect that they are more given to lust and because also they bear in their bodies many egges at once whereby they may stick together and easily cleave each to other and besides this those birds that are by nature very fruitfull are wont to lay egges that have two yelkes For these causes Columella and Leontinus the Greek give counsel to air and purge the houses where Hennes are and their nests yea and the very Hennes themselves with Brimstone and pitch and torches and many do lay a plate of iron or some nailes heads and some Bay-Tree boughs upon their nests for all these are supposed to be very good preservatives against monstrous and prodigious births And Columella reports farther that many do strew grasse and Bay-Tree boughs and heads of Garlick and iron nails in the Hens nests all which are supposed to be good remedies against thunder that it may not marre their egges and these also do spoil all the imperfect chickens if there be any before ever they grow to any ripenesse Aelianus reporteth out of Apion that in the time of Oeneus King of the South there was seen a Crane that had two heads and in another Kings daies another bird was seen that had four heads We will shew also how to hatch A chicken with four wings and four feet which we learn out Aristotle Amongst egges some there are oft-times that have two yelkes if the Hennes be fruitful for two conceptions cling and grow together as being very near each to other the like whereof we may see in the fruits of Trees many of them being twins and growing into each other Now if the two yelks be distinguished by a small skinne then they yield two perfect chickens without any blemish but if the yelks be meddled one with another without any skinne to part them then that which is produced thereof is a Monster Seek out therefore some fruitful Hennes and procure some of the perfectest egges that they lay you may know which are for your purpose by the bignesse of them if not then hold them against the Sun and you shall discern both whether there be in them two yelks and also whether they be distinguished or no and if you finde in them such plenty of matter that you see they are for your turn let them be sitten upon their due time and the chickens will have four wings and four legges but you must have a special care in bringing them up And as some egges have two yelkes so there are some that have three but these are not so common and if they could be gotten they would yield chickens with six wings and sixs legges which be more wonderful There hath been seen a small Duck with four feet having a broad thin bill her fore-parts black her hinder-parts yellow a black head whitish eyes black wings and a black circle about her neck and her back and tail black yellow feet and not standing far asunder and she is at this day kept to be seen at Torga No question but she was generated after the same manner as we spake even now of chickens So they report of a Pigeon that was seen which had four feet And many such monsters we have oft-times hatcht at home for pleasure sake So also are Serpents generated having many heads and many tailes Aristotle writes of certain Serpents that they may be generated after the same manner to have many heads The Poets and the ancient devisers of Fables do speak much of that Hydra Lâ—rnaea which was one of Hercules labours to overcome which Fiction was without all question occasioned by these kinds of Monsters And whilst I was imployed about the writing of this present work there was in Naples a Viper seen alive which had two heads and three cloven tongues and moved every one of them up and down I my self have seen many Lizards that had two or three tails which the common people most foolishly esteem to be a jest and it cannot be but these were generated of such egges as had two yelks CHAP. XVIII Of certain other waies how to produce monstrous births WE may also
will not represent faces but pillars and spaces between and all ornaments Hence by the reciprocal reflection of the Glasses you shall see so many pillars basis and varieties keeping the right order of Architecture that nothing can be more pleasant or more wonderful to behold Let the perspective be the Dorick and Corinthian adorned with Gold Silver Pearls Jewels Images Pictures and such like that it may seem the more Magnificent the form of it shall be thus Let H G. be the place for the beholder to look the pillar against him shal be A in the Glass AB or AC the face of the beholder shall not be seen but AB is reflected into IH and IH into BD so by mutual reflections they are so multiplied that they seem to go very far inwardly so clearly and apparently that no spectator that looks into it unless he know it but he will thrust his hands in to touch the orders If you set a Candle in the middle it will seem so to multiply by the Images rebounding that you shall not see so many Stars in the skies that you can never wonder enough at the Order Symmetry and the Prospect I have raised and made this Amphitheatre divers ways and to shew other orders namely two ranks of pillars so that the one stuck to the Glasses the other stood alone in the middle bound with the chief Arches and with divers Ornaments that it may seem to be a most beautiful Perspective or Architecture Almost the same way is there made a little chest of many plain Glasses covered round this they call the Treasury on the ground arches and walls were there Pearls Jewels Birds and Monies hanging and these were so multiplied by the reflections of the Glasses that it reprsented a most rich Treasury indeed Make therefore a Chest of wood let the bottom be two foot long and one and half broad let it be open in the middle that you may well thrust in your head on the right and left hand erect the side-boards a foot long semicircular above that it may be arched but not exactly circular namely divided into five parts each a hand-breadth Cover this all about with Glasses where the Glasses joyn there put Pearls Precious-stones specious Flowers divers colour'd Birds above the bottom set heaps of Gold and Silver Meddals from the Arches let there hang Pearls fleeces of Gold for when the Câ—ffer is moved gently they will move also and the Images will move in the Glasses that it will be a pleasant sight CHAP. IV. Divers operations of Concave-Glasses BUt the operations of Concave-glasses are far more curious and admirable and will afford us more commodities But you can do nothing perfectly with it until you know first the point of inversion Therefore that you may do it the better and more easily Know the point of Inversion of Images in a Concave-glass Do thus Hold your Glass against the Sun and where you see the beams unite know that to be the point of Inversion If you cannot well perceive that breathe a thick vapour from your mouth upon it and you shall apparently see where the coincidence is of the reflected beams or set under it a vessel of boyling water When you have found the point of Inversion if you will That all things shall seem greater Set your head below that point and you shall behold a huge Face like a monstrous Bacchus and your finger as great as your arm So women pull hairs off their eye-brows for they will shew as great as fingers Seneca reports that Hostius made such Concave-Glasses that they might make things shew greater He was a great provoker to lust so ordering his Glasses that when he was abused by Sodomy he might see all the motions of the Sodomite behind him and delight himself with a false representation of his privy parts that shewed so great To kindle fire with a Concave-Glass This Glass is excellent above others for this that it unites the beams so strongly that it will shew forth a light Pyramis of its beams as you hold it to the Sun and if you put any combustible matter in the centre of it it will presently kindle and flame that with a little stay will melt Lead or Tin and will make Gold or Iron red hot and I have heard by some that Gold and Silver have been melted by it more slowly in winter but sooner in summer because the medium is hotter at noon rather than in the morning or evening for the same reason To make an Image seem to hang in the Air by a Concave-Glass This will be more wonderful with the segment of a circle for it will appear farther from the Glass If you be without the point of Inversion you shall see your head downwards That with fixed eyes and not winking at all you may behold the point until it comes to your very sight For where the Catheâ—us shall cut the line of reflection there the species reflected will seem almost parted from the Glass the neerer you are to the Centre the greater will it be that you will think to touch it with your hands and if it be a great Glass you cannot but wonder for if any man run at the Glass with a drawn sword another man will seem to meet him and to run through his hand If you shew a Candle you will think a Candle is pendulous lighted in the Air. But if you will That the Image of a Concave-Glass should go out far from the Centre when you have obtain'd the Image of the thing in its point if you will have it farther distant from the Centre and that the Picture of a thing shall be farther stretched forth then you shall decline from the point a little toward the right or left hand about the superficies of the Glass and the Image will come forth the farther and will come to your sight There namely where the Catherus doth the farthest off that is possible touch the line of reflection which few have observed from which principle many strange wonders may be done When you have this you may easily Reflect heat cold and the voice too by a Concave-Glass If a man put a Candle in a place where the visible Object is to be set the Candle will come to your very eyes and will offend them with its heat and light But this is more wonderful that as heat so cold should be reflected if you put snow in that place if it come to the eye because it is sensible it will presently feel the cold But there is a greater wonder yet in it for it will not onely reverberate heat and cold but the voice too and make an Eccho for the voice is more rightly reflected by a polite and smooth superficies of the Glass and more compleatly than by any wall I prove this because if a man turn his face to the Glass and his friend stand far behind his back when he beholds his face he shall decline his face
purer Elements and is called the Earth a thick and grosse substance very solid and by no means to be pierced through so that there is no solid and firm body but hath earth in it as also there is no vacant space but hath air in it This Element of earth is situate in the middle and centre of all and is round beset with all the rest and this only stands still and unmoveable whereas all the rest are carried with a circular motion round about it But Hippon and Critias held that the vapours of the Elements were the first beginnings Parmenides held that their qualities were the principles for all things saith he consist of cold and heat The Physitians hold that all things consist of four qualities hear cold moisture drouth and of their predominancy when they meet together for every Element doth embrace as it were with certain armes his neighbour-Element which is next situate to him and yet they have also contrary and sundry qualities whereby they differ for the wisdom of nature hath framed this workmanship of the world by due and set measure and by a wonderful fitnesse and conveniency of one thing with another for whereas every Element had two qualities wherein it agreed with some and disagreed with other Elements nature hath bestowed such a double quality upon every one as finds in other two her like which she cleaves unto as for example the air and the fire this is hot and dry that is hot and moist now dry and moist are contraries and thereby fire and air disagree but because either of them is hot thereby they are reconciled So the Earth is cold and dry and the water cold and moist so that they disagree in that the one is moist the other dry but yet are reconciled in as much as they are both cold otherwise they could hardly agree Thus the fire by little and little is changed into air because either of them is hot the air into the water because either of them is moist the water into the earth because either of them is cold and the earth into fire because either of them is dry and so they succeed each other after a most provident order From thence also they are turned back again into themselves the order being inverted and so they are made mutually of one another for the change is easie in those that agree in any one common quality as fire and air be easily changed into each other by reason of heat but where either of the qualities are opposite in both as in fire and water there this change is not so easie So then heat cold moisture and drouth are the first and principal qualities in as much as they proceed immediately from the Elements and produce certain secondary effects Now two of them namely heat and cold are active qualities fitter to be doing themselves then to suffer of others the other two namely moisture and drouth are passive not because they are altogether idle but because they follow and are preserved by the other There are certain secondary qualities which attend as it were upon the first and these are said to work in a second sort as to soften to ripen to resolve to make lesse or thinner as when heat works into any mixt body it brings out that which is unpure and so whilst it strives to make it fit for his purpose that it may be more simple the body becometh thereby smaller and thinner so cold doth preserve binde and congeal drouth doth thicken or harden and makes uneven for when there is great store of moisture in the utter parts that which the drouth is not able to consume it hardens and so the utter parts become rugged for that part where the moisture is gone sinking down and the other where it is hardened rising up there must needs be great roughnesse and ruggednesse so moisture doth augment corrupt and for the most part works one thing by it self and another by some accident as by ripening binding expelling and such like it brings forth milk urine monethly flowers and sweat which the Physitians call the third qualities that do so wait upon the second as the second upon the first and sometime they have their operations in some certain parts as to strengthen the head to succour the reins and these some call fourth qualities So then these are the foundations as they call them of all mixt bodies and of all wonderful operations and whatsoever experiments they proved the causes hereof rested as they supposed and were to be found in the Elements and their qualities But Empedocles Agrigentinus not thinking that the Elements were sufficient for this purpose added unto them moreover concord and discord as the causes of generation and corruption There be four principal seeds or beginnings of all things Jupiter that is to say fire Pluto that is to say earth Juno that is to say air and Nestis that is to say water all these sometimes love and concord knits together in one and sometimes discord doth sunder them and make them flie apart This concord and discord said he are found in the Elements by reason of their sundry qualities wherein they agree and disagree yea even in heaven it self as Jupiter and Venus love all Planets save Mars and Saturn Venus agrees with Mars whereas no Planet else agrees with him There is also another disagreement amongst them which ariseth from the oppositions and elevations of their houses for even the twelve signs are both at concord and at discord among themselves as Manilius the Poet hath shewed CHAP. V. That divers operations of Nature proceed from the essential forms of things ALl the Peripatericks and most of the latter Philosophers could not see how all operations should proceed from those causes which the Antients have set down for they find that many things work quite contrary to their qualities and therefore they have imagined that there is some other matter in it and that it is the power and properties of essential formes But now that all things may be made more plain we must consider that it will be a great help unto us for the making and finding out of strange things to know what that is from whence the vertues of any thing do proceed that so we may be able to discern and distinguish one thing from another without confounding all order of truth Whereas one and the same compound yeelds many effects of different kinds as we shall find in the processe of this Book yet every man confesseth that there is but one only original cause therein that produceth all these effects And seeing we are about to open plainly this original cause we must begin a little higher Every natural substance I mean a compound body is composed of matter and form as of her principles neither yet do I exclude the principal qualities of the Elements from doing their part herein for they also concur and make up the number of three principles for when
History But that we may perform this I shall reduce all those Secrets into their proper places and that nothing may be thrust out of its own rank I shall follow the order of Sciences And I shall first divide them into Natural and Mathematical Sciences and I shall begin with the Natural for I hold that most convenient that all may arise from those things that are simple and not so laborious to Mathematical Sciences I shall from Animals first proceed to Plants and so by steps to Minerals and other works of Nature I shall briefly describe Fountains also whence flow Springs and I shall annex thereto the Reasons and the Causes that Industrious men made acquainted with this may find out more of themselves And because there are two generations of Animals and Plants one of themselves the other by copulation I shall first speak of such as are bred without copulation and next of such as proceed from copulation one with another that we may produce new living Creatures such as the former ages never saw I shall begin therefore with Putrefaction because that is the principle to produce new Creatures not onely from the variety of Simples but of mixed Bodies I thought fit to leave none out though they be of small account since there is nothing in Nature appear it never so small wherein there is not something to be admired CHAP. I. The first Chapter treateth of Putrefaction and of a strange manner of producing living Creatures BEfore we come to shew that new living Creatures are generated of Putrefaction it is meet to rehearse the opinions of antient Philosophers concerning that matter Whereof though we have spoken elsewhere in the description of Plants yet for the Readers ease we will here rehearse some of them to shew that not onely imperfect but perfect living Creatures too are generated of Putrefaction Pâ—rphyry thought that Living creatures were begotten of the bowels of the Earth soaked in water and quickned by the heat of the Sun Of the same mind were Archelaus the Athenian Anaxagoras Clazomenius and Euripides his Scolar Cleodemus and after him Theophrastus thought that they came of putrified water mixt with earth and the colder and fouler the water was the unfitter it was for their generation Diodorus and many other good Philosophers hold that all living Creatures did arise of putrefaction For whereas in the beginning of the world the Heavens and Earth and Elements were setled in their natural places the earth being left slimy and soft in many places and then dried and stricken with the heat of the Sun brought forth certain tumors and swellings in the surface and uppermost parts in these tumors were contained and cherished many putrefactions and rotten clods covered over with certain small skins this putrified stuff being moiâ—â—ened with dew by night and the Sun heating it by day after a certain season became ripe and the skins being broken thence issued all kinds of living Creatures whereof they that had quickest heat became birds the earthy ones became creeping beasts the waterish ones became fishes in the Sea and they which were a mean as it were betwixt all these became walking-creatures But the heat of the Sun still working upon the earth hindered it from begetting and bringing forth any more such creatures but then the creatures before generated coupled together and brought forth others like themselves Avicenna in that work of his which he made of deluges and flouds holds that after the great flouds that drowned the Earth there was no mans seed but then man and all living Creatures else were generated of rotten carcases only by the vertue of the Sun and therefore he supposeth that the womb and such needful places framed by nature for the better fashioning of the infant are not needfull to the procreation of man He proves his assertion by this that mice which arise of putrefaction do couple together and beget store of young yea and serpents are generated chiefly of womans hair And in his book of living Creatures he tels of a friend of his that brought forth Scorpions after a strange manner and those did beget other Scorpions not imperfect or unlike to themselves but such as did also procreate others Averroes held that the stars were sufficient to generate imperfect creatures as mice bats moules and such like but not to generate Men or Lions And daily experience teacheth us that many living creatures come of the putrified matter of the earth And the Ancients supposing all things to be produced out of the earth called it the mother of all and the Greeks called it Dimitera Ovid hath very elegantly set down this generation of putrefaction under the fable of Pytho that the earth brought forth of its own accord many living creatures of divers forms the heat of the Sun enliving those moistures that lay in the tumors of the earth like fertile seeds in the belly of their mother for heat and moisture being tempered together causeth generation So then after the deluge the earth being now moist the Sun working upon it divers kinds of creatures were brought forth some like the former and some of a new shape CHAP. II. Of certain earthly Creatures which are generated of putrefaction PLants and living Creatures agree both in this that some of them are generated of seed and some of them Nature brings forth of her own accord without any seed of the same kind some out of putrified earth and plants as those Creatures that are divided between the head and the belly some out of the dew that lies upon leaves as Canker-worms some out of the mud as shel-creatures and some out of living Creatures themselves and the excrements of their parts as lice We will onely rehearse some which the Ancients have set down that so we may also learn how to procreate new creatures And first let us see how Mice are generated of putrefaction Diodorus saith that neer to the City Thebais in Egypt when Nilus overflowing is past the Sun heating the wet ground the chaps of the earth send forth great store of mice in many places which astonisheth men to see that the fore-part of the mice should live and be moved whereas their hinder parts are not yet shapen Pliny saith that after the swaging of Nilus there are found little mice begun to be made of earth and water their fore-parts living and their hinder parts being nothing but earth Aelianus saith that a little rain in Egypt engenders many mice which being scattered everywhere in their fields eat down their corn and devour it And so it is in Pontus but by their prayers to God they are consumed Macrobius and Avicenna say that the mice so generated do encrease exceedingly by coupling together Aristotle found out that a kind of field-mice encreased wonderfully so that in some places they did suddenly eat up whole fields of corn insomuch that many Husband-men appointing to reap their corn on the morrow when they came with their reapers found
out of Aelianus and Theophrastus of which circumstances we may take our best advantage in coupling them with Partridges After the same manner A Hen and a Pheasant may gender together for as Florentius writes the Pheasant and the Hen agree both in their time of laying either of them bringing forth egges one and twenty daies after conception And though she be not so wanton as other birds are yet in their treading time they are glad of coition and not very wilde especially those that are of the smaller sort for these may easily be made tame and suffered to go amongst Hens but at their first taking they are very fierce insomuch that they will not only kill Hens but even Peacocks too Some men bring up Pheasants to make a game of them but some breed them for delight and pleasure as I saw at Ferraria in the Princes Court where was brought up very great store both of Hens and Pheasants too And this hath been an old practice for in Athenaeus we find a saying of Ptolomy that not only Pheasants were sent for out of Media but the Country Hens they also afforded good store of them the egges being conceived in them by the treading of a Cock-pheasant First then you must take a Cock-pheasant and be very careful in keeping of him tame amongst your Hens after that you must seek our Country-hens of divers colours as like the colour of the Hen-Pheasant as you can and let them live with the Cock-Pheasant that in the Spring-time he may tread the Hens and they will bring forth speckled egges everywhere full of black spots far greater and goodlier then other egges are When these are hatched you must bring up the chicken with barly-flour and some leaves of smallage shred in amongst it for this is the most delightful and nourishing food that they that they can have There is also A Chick gendred of a Pigeon and a Hen the Pigeon must be young for then he hath more heat and desire of copulation and much abundance of seed for if he be old he cannot tread but young Pigeons do couple at all times and they bring forth both Summer and Winter I had my self at home a single Pigeon a Hen that had lost her Cock the Pigeon was of a large size and wanton withal the Hen was but a very small one these lived together and in the Spring-time the Pigeon trode the Hen whereby she conceived and in her due season laid egges and afterward hatched them and brought forth chicken that were mixt of either kind and resembled the shape of them both In greatnesse of body in fashion of head and bill they were like a Pigeon their feathers very white and curled their feet like a Hens feet but they were overgrown with feathers and they made a noise like a Pigeon and I took great pleasure in them the rather because they were so familiar that they would still sit upon the bed or nuzzle into some womans bosom But there is yet another mixture when A Cock and a Pea gender the Gallo-Pavus which is otherwise called the Indian-hen being mixt of a Cock and Pea though the shape be liker to a Pea then to Cock. In body and greatnesse it resembles the Pea but it hath a combe and chackels under the chin like a Cock it hath the voice of a Pea and spreads forth her tail and hath such varietie of colours as she hath The taste of her flesh relishes like a compound of them both whereby it appears that both kinds are not unfitly matcht together But afterward when the she Gallo-pavus and the Pea-cock were brought up tame together we had of them very fruitful egges which being hatcht yeelded very goodly chickens whose feathers were of a most orient and glistering colour and these young ones afterward growing bigger were mingled in copulation with Pea-cocks and Pea-hens and the brood which was so generated of them were in a manner all of the kind and fashion of the Pea. The like a man may conjecture of other kinds of birds CHAP. XV. How to generate Hawkes of divers properties WE will shew some commixtions of Hawks by the example whereof you may imagine of your self the like in other birds and hereby it shall appear how we may amend divers faults and defects in Hawks and engraffe in them some new qualities to be derived from their sundry progenitets And first how The bird Theocronus is gendred of a Hawk and an Eagle Hawks are exceeding hot in lust and though there be divers kinds of them yet they all couple together among themselves without any difference as Aristotle writeth they couple with Eagles and thereby engender bastard Eagles Eagles are most lecherous and whereas among other creatures the famale is not alwayes ready and willing to yeeld to the male for coition yet the Eagles never refuse it for though they have been trod never so oft yet still if the male desire copulation the female presently yeelds unto him Aelianus accounts ordinary and common Hawks in the kind of Eagles Oppianus in his Ixeutica saith that there is a bird known well enough called Theocronus which is generated of a male Hawk and a female Eagle There is a kind of Hawks so wholly given over to lust that in the Spring-time they lose all their strength and every little bird snaps at them but in the Summer having recovered her strength she is so lusty that she flies up and down to revenge her self upon those little birds and as many of them as she catches she devours If the male of this kind do but hear the voice of the female Eagle presently he flies to her and they couple together but the egges which she conceives by this base copulation she scorns to hatch and sit upon and that she may not be known of it to the male Eagle she flies far away from him for the male Eagle if once he perceive that she hath played the harlot divorces her from him and is throughly revenged upon her These birds are now commonly called Sea-eagles There is also a commixtion whereby the Hawk mingles himself with a Faulcon and with a Buzzard and the Eagle Nisus for Hawks do not only couple with their own kind but with Faulcons Buzzards and Eagles of divers kinds as also with most of those fowles that live upon the prey and spoil of other birds and according to the diversity of those kinds divers kinds of Hawks are generated Besides they couple with strange Faulcons of other Countries and other kinds for as soon as they be hatcht and Pen-feathered if their parents see that they are not right Faulcons presently they beat them away and so partly because they cannot endure their parents rage and partly to get their living they flie away into strange places and there finding no mates of their own kind they seek out a mate of another kind the likest to her own kind that the can meet with and couples with them So then
produce Monsters by another way then that which we spake of before for even after they are brought forth we may fashion them into a monstrous shape even as we list for as we may shape young fruits as they grow into the fashion of any vessel or case that we make for them to grow into as we may make a Quince like a mans head a Cucumber like a Snake by making a case of that fashion for them to grow in so also we may do by the births of living Creatures Hippocrates in his book of Air and Water and Places doth precisely set down the manner hereof and sheweth how they do it that dwell by the River Phasis all of them being very long-headed whereas no other Nation is so besides And surely Custom was the first cause that they had such heads but afterward Nature framed her self to that Custome insomuch that they esteemed it an honourable thing to have a very long head The beginning of that Custome was thus As soon as the child was new born whiles his head was yet soft and tender they would presently crush it in their hands and so cause it to grow out in length yea they would bind it up with swathing bands that it might not grow round but all in length and by this custom it came to passe that their heads afterward grew such by nature And in process of time they were born with such heads so that they needed not to be so framed by handling for whereas the generative seed is derived from all the parts of the body sound bodies yielding good seed but crazie bodies unsound seed and oftentimes bald fathers beget bald children and blear-eyed fathers blear-eyed children and a deformed father for the most part a deformed childe and the like also cometh to passe concerning other shapes why should not also long-headed fathers generate long-headed children But now they are not born with such heads because that practise is quite out of use and so nature which was upheld by that custom ceaseth together with the custom So if we would produce a two-legged Dog such as some are carried about to be seen we must take very young whelps and cut off their feet but heal them up very carefully and when they be grow to strength join them in copulation with other dogs that have but two legs left and if their whelps be not two-legged cut off their legs still by succession and at the last nature will be overcome to yield their two-legged dogs by generation By some such practise as you heard before namely by handling and often framing the members of young children Mid-wives are wont to amend imperfections in them as the crookednesse or sharpnesse of their noses or such like CHAP. XIX Of the wonderful force of imagination and how to produce party-coloured births PLutark in his rehearsal of the opinions of Philosophers writes that Empedocles held that an infant is formed according to that which the mother looks upon at the time of conception for saith he women were wont to have commonly pictures and images in great request and to bring forth children resembling the same Hippocrates to clear a certain womans honesty that had brought forth children very unlike their parents ascribed the cause of it to a certain picture which she had in her chamber And the same defence Quintilian useth on the behalf of a woman who being her self fair had brought forth a Black-moor which was supposed by all men to be her slaves son Damascen reports that a certain young woman brought forth a child that was all hairy and searching out the reason thereof he found the hiary image of Iohn Baptist in her chamber which she was wont to look upon Heliodorus begins that excellent history which he wrote with the Queen of Aethiopia who brought forth Chariclea a fair daughter the cause whereof was the fable of Andromeda pictured in that chamber wherein she lay with the King We read of some others that they brought forth horned children because in the time of their coition they looked upon the fable of Actaeon painted before them Many children have hare-lips and all because their mothers being with child did look upon a Hare The conceit of the mind and the force of Imagination is great but it is then most operative when it is excessively bent upon any such thing as it cannot attain unto Women with child when they long most vehemently and have their minds earnestly set upon any thing do thereby alter their inward spirits the spirits move the blood and so imprint the likenesse of the thing mused upon in the tender substance of the child And surely all children would have some such marks or other by reason of their mothers longing if this longing were not in some sort satisfied Wherefore the searchers out of secrets have justly ascribed the marks and signes in the young ones to the imagination of the mother especially that imagination which prevails with her in the chiefest actions as in coition in letting go her seed and such like and as man of all other living creatures is most swift and fleeting in his thoughts and fullest of conceits so the variety of his wit affords much variety of such effects and therefore they are more in mankind then in other living creatures for other creatures are not so divers minded so that they may the better bring forth every one his like in his own kind Iacob was well acquainted with this force of imagination as the Scriptures witnesse for endeavouring To bring forth party-coloured Sheep he took that course which I would wish every man to take that attempts any such enterprize He took certain Rods and Poles of Popler and Almond-tree and such as might be easily barked and cut off half the rine pilling them by white strakes so that the Rods were white and black in several circles like a Snakes colour Then he put the Rods which he had pilled into the gutters and watering-troughs when the Sheep came to drink and were in heat of conception that they might look upon the Rods. And the Sheep conceived before the Rods and brought forth young of party-colours and with small and great spots A delightful sight it was Now afterward Iacob parted these Lambes by themselves and turned the faces of the other Sheep towards these party-coloured ones about the time of conception whereby it came to passe that the other Sheep in their heat beholding those that were party-coloured brought forth Lambs of the like colour And such experiments might be practised upon all living Creatures that bear wool and would take place in all kinds of beasts for this course will prevail even in Generating party-coloured Horses A matter which Horse-keepers and Horse-breeders do practise much for they are wont to hang and adorn with tapestry and painted clothes of sundry colours the houses and rooms where they put their Mares to take Horse whereby they procure Colts of a bright Bay colour or of
kind of Nut which we now speak of I have growing in my own Orchard and it hath such a tender shell and so thin that as soon as ever it is but touched the shell falls off and the fruit is bare and naked Florentinus assayed to produce An Almond without a shell on this manner He break the shell very charily so that the kernel was kept whole then he took wool and sometimes green leaves of the Vine or of the Plane-tree and wrapt about the kernel lest if he should have set it without my covering about it the Emots or such like vermine should have gnawn it Columella sheweth another device whereby we may procure A Filberd to become a Tarentine Nut. When you have made your pit wherein you purpose to set your Nut put into it a little earth about half a foot deep and there plant the feed of Fennel-gyant and when the Fennel is come up cleave it and within the pith of it put your Filberd without any shell upon it and so cover it all over with earth this if you practise before the Calends of March or betwixt the Nones and the Ides of March you shall have your purpose They prescribe likewise another device whereby Gourds may bring forth fruit without any seeds within them The Gourd say they will grow seedless if you take the first branch or sprig of a Gourd when it is a little grown up and bury it in the earth as they use to deal by Vines so that onely the head thereof may appear and so soon as it is grown up again to bury it so again but we must have a special care that the slips which grow up out of the stalk be cut away and none but the stalk left behind so shall the fruit that grows upon it whether it be Gourds or Cucumbers be destitute of all seed within Likewise they will grow without seeds in them if the seeds which are planted be macerated or steeped in Sea-famine oyle for the space of three dayes before they be sowed CHAP. XIIII How to procure fruits to be of divers colours such as are not naturally incident to their kinde NOw we will shew how to colour fruits to the effecting whereof there have been divers means devised as waterings and engraffings which can never be sufficiently commended or spoken of and other like practises To begin with engraffing If we would colour any fruit we must engraffe it upon a plant that flourishes with the same colour which we would borrow As for example If we would produce Red Apples we must engraffe them upon a Plane-tree and the fruit will be red as Diophanes Didymus and Palladius affirm So we may procure that the fruit Rhodacen shall grow red if we engraffe it upon a Plane-tree as Africanus witnesseth Of whom Palladius learned that the way to make Rhodacens look red is to engraff them into a Plane-tree If you would have Citrons of a red scarlet-colour Avicenna shews you may effect it by engraffing them into a Pomegranate-tree for we shewed before that such an engraffing may well be made But if you would have Citrons to be blood-red Florentinus sheweth that you may effect this by engraffing them into a Mulberry-tree which experiment Deophanes approveth Likewise he that desires to have Red Pears must engraffe them into a Mulberry-tree for by this means the Pears will grow red as Tarentinus and Diophanes do witnesse So also you may procure A white Fig to become red by engraffing it upon a Mulberry-tree as the same Diophanes witnesseth By the same means Apples may be of a blood-red colour if they be engraffed into a Mulberry-tree as Avicenna sheweth But Beritius and Diophanes write that the Mulberry-tree it self which makes all other Apple-fruit to become red may be caused to bring forth White Mulberries if it be engraffed into a white Poplar tree for this will alter the colour of the fruit But Palladius procures this effect by another means not by engraffing the Mulberry into a white Poplar but into the Fig-tree for this also will alter their colour and cause White Mulberries as he shews in his verses wherein he saith that the Fig-tree doth perswade Mulberries to change their own colour and to take hers whereof I my self have seen the experience Likewise of A white Vine may be made red Wine if we engraffe a white Vine into a black for the stock into which it is engraffed will alter the colour much as I have seen by experience in hony-grapes those which we call Greek-grapes for the Vines which have been engraffed upon those Greek-Vines have yeelded a blackish juice or wine and the oftner such engraffing hath been made the blacker juice was yeelded In the places about the Hill Vesuvius the white-wine grape which grows upon her own stalk that is engraffed into the Greek-vine yeelds a more high-coloured wine then others do Another way to make Apples grow red is by diligent and cunning dressing even by applying them with hot and fat receipts for there are two chief Elements or principles of colours white and black or dark coloured now by dressing them and applying fat things unto them we may procure every flower or fruit that is blackish to become brighter and fresher coloured whereas on the other side if they be neglected that we do not bestow pains and care in trimming them their colour will not be so lively but degenerate into a whiterish hew for all colours that begin to fade wax somewhat whitish Beritius therefore endeavouring to make Apples grow red watered them with Urine and so obtained his purpose But Didymus To procure red Pomegranates watered the Tree with Bath-waters sodden into Lye and some other water mixed therewith But there is yet another device whereby we may procure Apples to grow red by opposing them directly to the greatest force of the Sun-beams for this will make them red Beritius that â—e might cause the reflex of the Sun-beams to be more forcible upon the fruit used this sleight He fastened certain stakes into the ground and weighing down the boughs that had fruit upon them he bound them charily without hurting the fruit to those stakes and neer thereunto he digged certain ditches filling them with water or else would place some other vessels full of water neer the boughs casting this in his conjecture that surely the heat of the Sun lighting upon the water would cause hot vapours which being reflected together with the heat of the Sun into the places neer adjoyning where the fruit hangs and so reflected upon the fruit would procure them to be of a reddish and a goodly colour Beritius assayed to procure Red Apples by another devise by a secret kind of operation Under the Tree he was wont to set Roses which did lend their goodly hew to the Apples that grow upon the Tree above them Democritus practised the like device not upon Apples but upon Rhodacens and made Red Rhodacens by planting Roses underneath the
Glass the Image will appear to be three and the farther he that looks stands with his face from the Glass the farther will those Images or faces stand asunder but as you come very neer they seem to joyn all in one If you hold a Candle lighted against it there will be many seen together which comes by the mutual reciprocation of the sight and the Glasse and if the polishers of Glasses be not neer-hand we may make the same with common Looking-glasses putting one aptly above another but let one be distant from the other by certain courses then shut them in a frame that the Art may not be discovered Nor will I omit How letters may be cast out and read on a wall that is far distant which we shall do with the same plain Glass and lovers that are far asunder may so hold commerce one with another On the superficies of a plain Glass make Letters with black ink or with wax that they may be solid to hinder the light of the Glass and shadow it then hold the Glass against the Sun-beams so that the beams reflecting on the Glass may be cast upon the opposite wall of a Chamber it is no doubt but the light and letters will be seen in the Chamber the Suns light will be clearest and the letters not so bright so that they will be clearly discovered as they are sent in CHAP. II. Other merry sports with plain Looking-glasses NOw I shall annex some other operations of a plain Glass described by our Ancestors that I may seem to leave out nothing and I will so augment them and bring them to a rule that they may be easily made I shall begin with this How by plain Looking-glasses the head may appear to be downwards and the heels upwards If any man by plain Glasses desires to see his head downward and his feet upward though it is proper for Concave-Glasses to represent that yet I will endeavour to do it by plain Glasses Place two Glasses long-ways that they may stick together and cannot easily come asunder or move here and there and that they make a right Angle when this is so done according to coherence the long way set this against your face that in one half the face in the other the other half may be seen then incline the Looking-glasse to the right or left hand looking right into it and your head will seem to be turned for according to their latitude they will cut the face into two and the Image will appear so as if the head were under and the heels upwards and if the Glass be large the whole body will seem to be inverted But this happens from the mutual and manifold reflection for it flies from one to the other that it seems to be turned We may Make a plain Glass that shall represent the Image manifold A Glass is made that will make many representations that is that many things may be seen at once for by opening and shutting it you shall see twenty fingers for one and more You shall make it thus Raise two brass Looking-glasses or of Crystal at right Angles upon the same basis and let them be in a proportion called sesquialtera that is one and half or some other proportion and let them be joyned together longways that they may be shut and opened like to a Book and the Angles be divers such as are made at Venice For one face being objected you shall see many in them both and this by so much the straighter as you put them together and the Angles are less but they will be diminished by opening them and the Angles being more obtuse you shall see the fewer so shewing one figure there will be more seen and farther the right parts will shew right and the left to be the left which is contrary to Looking-glasses and this is done by mutual reflection and pulsation whence ariseth the variety of Images interchangably We may Make a Glass of plain Glasses wherein one Image coming is seen going back in another Take two plain Glasses the length whereof shall be double or one and half to the latitude and that for greater convenience for the proportion is not material but let them be of the same length and equal and laid on the top of a Pillar inclining one to the other and so joyn'd together and let them be set upright upon some plain place perpendicularly so the Glasses fastned may be moved on the moveable side It is no doubt but you shall see the Image to come in one and go back in the other Glass and the more this comes neer the farther will the other go and in one will it be seen coming and in the other going Also you may see In plain Glasses those things that are done afar off and in other places So may a man secretly see and without suspition what is done afar off in other places which otherwise cannot be done but you must be careful in setting your Glasses Let there be a place appointed in a house or elsewhere where you may see any thing and set a Glass right over against your window or hole that may be toward your face and let it be set straight up if need were or fastned to the wall moving it here and there and inclining it till it reflect right against the place which you shall attain by looking on it and coming toward it and if it be difficult you cannot mistake if you use a quadrant or some such instrument and let it be set perpendicular upon a line that cuts the Angle of reflection and incidence of the lines and you shall clearly see what is done in that place So it will happen also in divers places Hence it is that if one Glass will not do it well you may do the same by more Glasses or if the visible Object be lost by too great a distance or taken away by walls or mountains coming between moreover you shall fit another Glass just against the former upon a right line which may divide the right Angle or else it will not be done and you shall see the place you desire For one Glass sending the Image to the other tenfold and the Image being broken by many things flies from the eye and you shall see what you first light upon until such time as the Image is brought to you by right lines and the visible Object is not stopt by the windings of places or walls and the placing of it is easie So oft-times I use to convey Images of things But if otherwise you desire to see any high place or that stands upright and your eye cannot discern it fit two Looking-glasses together long-ways as I said and fasten one upon the top of a post or wall that it may stand above it and the Object may stand right against it the other to a cord that you may move it handsomely when you please and that it may make with the first sometimes a blunt