What shall I say of Elizabeth Queen of England she by her vertues put all the world into admiration and she so amazed Pope Sixtus that he said That she onely with Henry the Fourth of France was fit to give counsell concerning the state of the whole Christian World Examples testifie that women in time were changed into men At Antioch a famous Maid being married after she had born a child became a man at Maevan another also became a man At Rome one the same day she was married was transformed Volat. l. 24. Comm. Urbin The same happened to Aemilia after she had been married 12 years See more examples in Schenkius Artic. 5. Of the noise of the Womb. SOme have observed that Children have cryed in their mothers wombs and so lowd that they could be well heard In Weinrichius of Monsters you shall find Examples A Poet writes thus Wonder it is a Child did sadly cry Which was unborn and in the womb did ly The cause was this it griev'd and with its might Strove to come forth to see the Worlds great light Or else perhaps it shew'd the earnest care To help its Parents that now weary were Some think that this portends some hurt to the child or to the mother others think that this is contrary to reason and experience To Experience because there is no certainty that any such thing happened amongst the old Philosophers To Reason because there can be no cry heard without drawing the ayr by the mouth and without the beating at the ayr by the sharp artery when we breathe it forth and without a certain forming of it by the mouth and the Palate For being there is no place for a reciprocall course of the ayr in the veins and arteries and the Infants urinary passage that are filled with other things nor for so great abundance that a passage should be made by the heart it cannot enter by the navel by reason of the notable danger of heat nor can it be admitted by the matrix to say nothing that all are full of an excrementitious glutinous matter Libavius supposeth all things required for breathing in the Thorax to be made and he thinks that the internal aereal breath made of the humours by the active heat and shut up within the house where the child is and also contain'd in the capacity of the Lungs being pressed forth by the Child may serve the turn See disc de vagitu c. Artic. 6. Of numerous Births IN the single faculty of generation that man hath there happens variety if we consider time and number Some are born in the fift month some in the sixt some in the 7th 8th or 9th and some in the tenth 13th 15th Paschal in Biblio medica saith one was great with Child 23 months another 2 years Aventinus l. 5. Annal This Child was born speaking One was with Child four yeares Mercurialus Yet Physitians set the 9th and tenth months for the time of natural birth when the Child is grown great and wants plenty of nourishment and the place where he lyes is grown too narrow Those that are born in the fift month are very feeble as a maid was that Valescus de Philos. sacra c. 18. mentions who was more slender and thin than women-kind use to be Those that are born in the 7th month are weak and suspected not to be perfect in all things few live in the 8th month the striving to be born in the 7th month hath made them weak as some think For number some will bring two three four oft times and some will exceed this that it is miraculous An Aegyptian in Gellius l. 10. c. 2. had five at a birth The Mother of Lamisius King of Lombardy had 7 Sigebert in Chronic. The Countesse of Quenfurt had 9. Betraff l. 4. of the Princess of Anhalt A woman that Albertus speaks of miscarried of 22 another of 70 another of a 150. The matter was proved by cutting the little coats they were wrapped in Caelinus l. 4. c. 25. The Wife of Irmentrud Isenbert Earl of Altorf was delivered of 12. Margaret the Wife of the Earl of Viraboslai of 36 Cromer l. 11. Margaret the daughter of Florentius Earle of Holland had 365 Ludovicus vives in colloquiis Maude Countesse of Henneberg under Frederick the second had 1500. Aventin l. 7. annal Cuspinianus saith 350. But if you take them at severall times you shall find wonderfull examples of fruitfullnesse Priamus by Hecuba had 19 Children and 31 by other Women Artaxerxes had 106 Herotimus 600. Conradus Duke of Moscovia had 80. The King of Giloto it is an Island amongst the Mâ—luccas had 600 Pigafetta of Ziamb 325. another had 650. Martinus Polus l. 3. c. 6. saith he saw these living Ludovicus Vives saw a Country man in Spaine whose Children whil'st he lived had filled a Village of above a hundred housholds And in our times an old Wife spake of her ofspring thus Ah my daughter tell thy daughters daughter to lament for her daughters daughter Sphinx c. 17. Thomas Fazell writeth that Iane Pancica who in his time was maried to Bernard Belluard Sicilian of the citie of Agrigent was so fruitfull that in thirtie child-beds she was delivered of seventie and three children which should not seeme saith he incredible seeing Aristotle affirmes that one woman at four births brought forth twentie Children at every one five Albertus Magnus writes That a woman of Germanie had two and twentie abortive Children at one time all having their perfect shapes and another woman seventie And besides that another woman delivered into a bason a hundred and fiftie every one of the length of ones little finger Erasmus Vives and others have written of the strange deliverance of the Countesse of Henneberg Lewis Guicciardin in his description of the Low-Countries setteth down the same storie taken out of the ninth book of the Annals of Flanders composed by Guido Dominicus Petrus His words are these A certaine poore woman brought a bed of two Children prayed the Countesse to give her some assistance in her necessitie but the Countesse did not only send her away empty-handed but charged her that she was of an ill behaviour saying that it was a thing against nature in her opinion for a woman that is honest to conceive by her husband two Children at one birth and therefore that this her deliverance had bewraied that she had lewdly abandoned her selfe to some others The poore woman moved with this reproach and ignominious repulse and of the other side well assured of her honest carriage made earnest request to God that for the proofe of her innocency and of the faith which He knew she had kept inviolably to her husband it would please him to grant that this Countesse might have so many Children at one burden as there were daies in the yeare which within a while after came to passe And he addeth that these Children were as big as Chickens new hatcht all alive
Table the spirit as was said is not hindred CHAP. XVI Of the Stones Schistos Galactites Gip Selenites Amiantos SChistos the more it shines like Iron the harder it is In Missena there are bred some knobs about the bigness of a Wallnut so hard that laid on an anvil they resist the strokes Agricola saw one of Missena that weighed 14 pounds Galactites at Hildesham is dug forth of a Sand-pit yearly it increaseth from a milky and lutinous juice so that some are found as big as ones head they say it makes Nurses full of milk that drink it in powder with water or sweet wine All Gin is hard In Saxony in the Land of Hildesham it is found like to Sugar The Inhabitants of Hercinium and Thuringum burn â—hat which is hard and grind that which is burnt and wetting it with water they use it for Lime what colour soever it be it growes white by burning Lysistratus of Syâ—e Brother to Lysippus was the first that made a Mans picture with a face in Gyp and then poured Wax melted into that form trying thereby to make it better A wall was made of Gyp in pieces of Ash-colour at Northusia in Thuringia and the Port of Algâ—â—s a Town of Mauritania Caesariensis Selenites is a stone that is wont to be found at dark night when the Moon increaseth and it represents the Moon by shining in the night and it increaseth and diminisheth with it daily It not onely shews your face but it will represent the image of a thing behind your back It endures the Suns heat and Winters cold but it cannot away with rain for it will corrupt if great pieces of it be exposed to rain Amianthus is made of an appropriate juice the fire is so far from polluting its lustre that if it be cast in it will shine the brighter Once lighted it never goes out if oyl fail not Hence it is called Asbestos and because it is like to womens full hair and to mens hoarinesse it is called Bostrychitis and Corsoides We saw saith Pliny in banqueting places napkins made of it that when the filth was burnt out of them were cleansed more with fire than they would have been with water It was found at the siege of Athens that things anointed with it would not burn under L. Sylla This stone is kembed spun and wove though with difficulty because it is short and they make not onely Napkins but Table-cloaths of it and Towels Also of old time they made the Funeral Coats for Kings which were put upon them when they were put into great fires to be burnt that so the ashes of their bodies being parted from the wood-ashes might be laid up in their Sepulchres Pliny saith that this Linnen hath been found to equall the price of the best pearls but now it is sold at mean rates CHAP. XVII Of Stones that represent divers Forms THere are many stones representing divers forms We will mention some here namely Trochites Eutrochos Encrinos Enorchis and others Trochites is like the round head of a pillar the round part is smooth but each broad part hath as it were a kind of conveyance from whence are lines unto the extream part of the Circle Put into vinegar it raiseth bubbles and some are found that move from place to place Eutrochos is made of Trochites not yet separated Whose Trochites have eminent lines in that part where two of them meet there seems to be a girdle twisted round within it But the Trochitae are so joyned that the lines of the one enter into the furrowes of the other Encrinos is like Lillies for when one part with corners is parted from the other both shew like five Lillies Enorchis in the shards is like testicles In the Diocesse of Trevirs when Cements are digged up to repair buildings they meet with blackish stones that represent the secrets of women Diphyis by an intercurrent line represents the Genitals of both Sexes The Dâ—ctyli of Ida in Crete of an iron colour are like a mans thumb There is also a stone found like a new Moon cloathed with Armour of a golden colour Haephestites represents the nature of a glasse and in the Sun it will fire dry matter At Salfelda in Thuringia there is a stone dug forth of a pit 20 fathom deep it is like a firm breast a foot and half long three hands breadth on the former part where the ribs end it is six fingers thick on the hinder part where the whirlbones are pierced through the middle but three the back-bone was empty where it should represent the marrow The outside of this stone was either black or some rare colour and the inside was like to the Lapis Arabicus It is supposed to be of great vertue Belemnites is like an Arrow with a large head and a sharp point There is in it a kind of rift it is clothed with golden coloured lines and it shines naturally like a Looking-glasse It smells like filed or burnt horn if it be rubb'd The Saxons name it by a name compounded of Ephialtes and an Arrow and they say if one drink it that it is good against suppressions and such hags in the night CHAP. XVIII Of the Eagle stone Enhydros the Touch-stone and the Pumex stone THe Eagle stone is found in divers Countries In the Country of Misenus then especially when great rains fall It smells like a Violet by the Mosse sticking upon it It hath in it little stones that being loose and shaken make a noise They commonly stick to Misenus some have earth with them as at Hildesham and some gold as those of Cyprus That which hath a little stone in its belly as the Greeks say if it be bound to the left arm of a woman great with Child through which an Artery runs from the Heart toward the ring-finger next to the little finger it will hold the Child in the womb that is ready to miscarry bound to the left thigh of one in labour it will so help her that she shall be delivered without pain but so soon as she is delivered it must be taken off that the Matrix follow not As it fell out with the Wife of a Citizen of Valencia Francis valeriola l. 1. observ 10. It helped her tyed on to be delivered but not taken away it was her death Enhydros hath water within it It is perfectly round it is white and smooth but it flotes when it is shaken There is liquour in it like as in an Egg. Also liquid Bitumen sometimes that smells sweet is found in stones shut up as in vessels The Touch-stone is that stone they prove gold by In Theophrastus's dayes they were onely found in Tmolus but at this day in the Rivers of Hildesham and Gosselar The parts of them that are found looking toward the Sun are the best for tryall the worst look toward the Earth those are the dryest but these are hindred by their moysture that they cannot take the colour of gold or silver
a Swan There was one brought to Middleburg in Zeland Anno. 1558. It was called an Indian Sheep Scalig. in exerc calls it Allo. Camelus CHAP. VII Of the Shee-Goat THe report is that Goats see as well by night as by day wherefore if those that are blind in the night eat a Goats Liver they will be cured They breathe out of their eares and nostrils if we will credit the Shepherds Phiâ—es gives the reason because when their nostrills are stopt they are not hurt Aelian When the Sun sets they lye backwards in the fields and so they do at other times but one with another A Goats horn laid under a sick mans head will bring him to rest scraped with honey it stops the belly flux burnt it will raise people in a Lethargy In Aegypt they are said to bring 5 young ones The cause is the water of Nilus that is drank by such as are Barren and want milk They shew the revolution of Syrius For as often as he riseth with the Sun they turn to the East and gaze upon it Plutarch In some part of Africa they sheer them and make Cabels of their haire Those of Lybia shew when rayn comes for so soon as they come forth of their stalls they run to feed and presently come back to their stalls again Aelâ—an Those of Gimanâ—a do not drink in six moneths but turning toward the Sea they receive the vapours with open mouth and so they quench their thirst The Goat of Mambrey will endure a saddle and bridle and a rider he hath ears that hang down to the ground and horns twisted below his mouth Gesner l. 1. de quadrup The wild ones in Lâ—bia are as great as Oxen so active that they will leap upon the highest Mountain tops and their limbs are so hard that if they fall they neither break their horns nor hurt their heads Aelian l. 14. c. 16. CHAP. VIII Of the Beaver and Colus THe Beaver is a most strong Creature to bite he will never let go his teeth that meet before he makes the bones crack Plin. His hinder feet are like a Gooses and his fore-feet like an Apes His fat tail is covered with a scaly skin and he useth it for a rudder when he pursues fish He comes forth of his holes in the night and biting off boughs of Trees about the Rivers he makes his houses with an upper loft and when the water riseth he lies there Albert. When they are cut asunder they are very delightsome to see for one lies on his back and hath the boughs between his leggs he holds them fast that they may not fall down and the others draw him by the tail to their Cottage Colus is a four-footed wild Beast amongst the Scythians and Sarmatians he is for greatnesse between a Stag and a Ram. He is white and very swift He drawes his drink by his nostrils into his head and holds it for some dayes so that he will feed well enough in Pastures where there is no water Strabo l. 7. Sometimes they will be 500 together but about Easter you may see 2000. In March they dig up an herb by the sent whereof they stirre up venery when that is spent for a day they lie as half dead but when they taste of it once more they are restored Gesn. CHAP. IX Of the Cat and Câ—ney THe Cats eyes are so good that she will see any thing in the dark Albert. The Cat by the Egyptian Sea is observed to change the pupils of his eye as the Sun doth alter They are long in the morning round at noon when the Sun sets they are obscured Gellius He commonly playes on his back that he may look round about Cut off his ears he will stay at home more for he cannot endure the drops that fall into his ears If a Cat 's hair fall into a mans mouth it will stick there Hence matter is heaped together that causes a Scrâ—fulous diseases Scaliger saith That in the Province of Malabar there are wild-Cats dwelling in Trees they leap as though they flew having no wings They have a membrane stretched out from their fore-feet to their hinder-feet when they rest they contract it up to their belly when they begin to fly by moving their feet and thighes they are carried and born up by stretching out and gathering in this membrane and it is wonderfull to see them run as if they ran in the Ayr. Conies are abundant in the Baleares where they do the Corn and the fields great harm Solin They breed every moneth nor are their young ones blind They presently take Buck again so soon as they have bred though the young ones do suck Plin. l. 10. The female hath not milk presently so soon as she hath brought forth before she hath been six hours with the Buck and they have eaten some Oats Gesner de quadrup CHAP. X. Of the Stag. IT is certain that there are white Stags and Does that have horns Apollonius saw them as he passed beyond Paraca a City of the Indies Philostrat l. 3. Sertorius led one about which he feigned to have received from Diana that he took counsel with that so he might keep his Souldiers in obedience Gellius Lewis King of France took one and when Anna of Britanny asked what that was he said That they were all such at first and that God took them from them for their pride Their blood hath no fibres as other creatures have and therefore it will never grow thick The Gall is not upon the Liver but upon the Intestines or in the Tail Hence it is so bitter that dogs will not eat it Plin. In their heads they have live Worms sometimes 20 and they are parted so great as Maggots in flesh They are said to breed under the hollow of their tongue near the Vertebra where the head joyns to the neck If you pierce the scull bone in such as are of years under the eye you shall see Wasps fly out bred of the superfluous humour if you will credit Hunters and then he can live no longer unlesse he eat a Serpent to renew himself Gesner writes That in the basis of the heart between the lap of the greater ventricle and the urinal vein there is a bone found He addes That it is reddish from the heart blood and melancholick some adde that from a dry vapour it is turned into a bony substance Some adde further that it is found at no other time than between the two Feasts of the blessed Virgin that is from the middle of August to the Iâ—es of September The Doe breeds near the pathwayes for she thinks that she is safe from wild beasts by reason of men passing up and down So soon as she is delivered she first eaâ—e the gleaning hence it is that the herb Seseli is her medicament in bringing forth Arist. in hist. animal They swim over the Sea like Ships the Master Buck leads the rest follow They lean their heads one
heat the Sun the great light of the World is the Father of it which it sends upon all earthly creatures enlightning and enlivening them Hence men say that the Sun and Man beget a man namely by the intermediate seed Otherwise it proceeds of another fashion when without those mediums in things are bred of putrefaction as we said before For when the solar or elemental heat incloseth any mixt body wherein natural heat is included this is raised up by that is moved and stirred to perform its operations as appears in the hatching of eggs by artificiall heat of Furnaces or natural heat of the hens For in the yolks there is a hidden naturall heat that is stirred by the external heat so that by circulation of the Elements Water is turn'd to Ayr Ayr into Fire Fire into Earth Earth into Water and the Chickens limbs and entrals are formed and made by natural heat which is the principal internal Agent The Material cause in the generation of this Tree-Goose is that clammy matter of the wood of Firre or the Rosin and Pitchy substance of it upon which the outward Suns heat doth work and the internal heat increased in the corrupt matter This matter though it be small yet may well afford the first rudiments to this Embryo which is afterwards nourished by the clammy substance of the Ocean as Oysters and other shell-fish grow and increase for neither the hard substance of the wood nor yet the weeds affords any matter for it for the one is observed to be the container and the other the conveyer of the true matter For as in the generation of Man neither the Matrix nor the umbilical vein do afford any matter but are required as necessary instruments so must we judge here of the wood and the Sea-weeds Some will have it that from the worm bred in the rotten wood there should be made some transmutation and that the worm doth afford the first matter for this generation yet that opinion is false for that Worm cannot come â—orth to the end of the weeds nor can it make shell-fish but that must breed at the end of the weeds nor doth it come thither from any other place that it can go from place to place by an animall motion before it receive its essential form Pliny writes that the Fish Pinnotheâ— is so cunning that he will hide himself in the Oyster and as he growes he will go into such as are greater but to imagine any such thing of that Worm that eats into the wood is against the nature of it But it is no doubt but that the rosinous and pitchy matter may communicate something to the end of the weeds which yet nature must do by a way we cannot perceive as nature useth in all other generations such wayes and means that we can better think and judge of by reason than see with our eyes For who can see how the heart in the generation of living Creatures is first formed What fibres and veins nature useth there for her Instruments how and by what means this is done and when it is done how she disposeth of the other bowels and makes them of a seminall and menstruall matter There was never man yet found so quick-sighted that he could see these things whilest they were doing but when they are done reason can discern them So no man could yet say how this matter that was first radical moysture in the wood could passe to the ends of those Sea weeds and should be formed there yet it is plain afterwards that so it was made Nor will that be so hard for the matter to passe through the grasse to the end of them as to passe without any medium But the greater difficulty is and most worthy to know the Formal or seminall cause of this wonderfull birth which since it is nor contain'd in seeds for here are none to be found it must needs enter into the matter otherwise than in other kinds of generations For the seeds of both Sexes in living Creatures which are mixt together in copulation are as it were the sheaths and cases of the forming spermaticall faculty which forms the prae-existent matter of the seed or blood into an essentiall form fit for that kind that the seeds belong unto howsoever they are mingled or drawn forth into act That force of nature is a blessing given to her in the creation in the word increase which word was never idle nor shall be whilest the world endures God spake and all that God said were made very good containing in themselves principles to multiply their own kinds by because individualls must perish The Heaven with its Stars shall last from the beginning to the end and the entire Elements Ayr Water and Earth But things compounded of them as they â—y so they are restored again by multiplication of seed not the same in number but in kind not by external form but by that form which is internall and essential But since that God gave this Commission for propagation to the sublunary World and this alwaies proceeds by mediums though in the production of these Barnacles there are no visible seeds whereby the matter may receive its form wherefore it is consonant to Reason and to Nature that the form must come from some other place into the matter lest any thing should seem since the Creation to be made of nothing contrary to Gods will For nothing is the cause of it selfe or forms it self but only the eternal and infinite God All other things indeed were made by him of nothing but not by themselves nor are they propagated of nothing nor from themselves but from means appointed by Nature Plato sets universal Ideas of every species of things subject to generation fixed in a certain place from whence a formative force descends to beget and make all individualls to be made This opinion is pleasant but not true For there can be no universal substances save in the conceptions of Mens minds but only individuals that cannot give what they have not and what they do give they cannot alwaies hold themselves Nature is in all things as in individuals dispersed all over which yet operates in each individual according to the condition that every one of them requires which is true in all things that have seeds for those are the very subjects and vessells that nature works upon But the question now is how that faculty is imprinted on the seeds and from whence whether from nature If this be true then of every matter she makes what she will when as she can imprint what forme she please on any matter And then how can nature in this Barnacle that hath no seed visible presupposed proceed to generation and in other such like things bred of meer putrefaction As in man there is an imagination and cogitative force which is performed by a subtile Artifice of Images conceived in the braiâ— arising first from the outward senses and so proceeding to the
bite dangerously Ludovic Rom. in Navig In Hispaniola called Hivana of the West-Indies there are some like to these Their back is with pricks their heads crested they are mute with four feet a Lizzards tail very sharp teeth they are bigger than Conies they live indifferently in Trees Land or Water and will suffer hunger many dayes Anno 1543 there appeared four-footed beasts in the borders of Germany near to Styria they were like Lizzards and had wings their biting was incurable Anno 1551 about St. Margarets day in Hungary near Zischa about the River Theisa they were found in the bodies of many They killed about 3000 men Some came out of mens mouthes but they went in again It is almost incredible what is reported of those places That multitudes of them were found in piles or handfuls of wheat and when the Country men thought to burn them there came a great many more forth and charged them with mans voice to forbear saying that they were not bred naturally but sent by God to punish men for their sins CHAP. XXXIV Of the Squirril and Ape-fox THe Squirrils have but one blind gut as great as a stomack and in dissection it is alwayes found swoln with excrements Vesalius They are said to have a bony generative part They foresee a tempest and opening their holes on the contrary side they shut those places where the winds will blow Albert. When it would passe over the water for to find food he takes the bark of a Tree that is very light and sets it on the water sitting in it and stears it with his Tail lifted up and so the wind carries him over Autor lib. de natur The Ape-fox is a Creature in Pariana a Country of the Indies Before he is like a Fox behind an Ape he hath mans feet and Owls ears under his common belly he hath another belly like a Wallet she keeps her young in this and it comes not forth but to suck Gillius Peter Martyr Decad. 1. l. 9. saith he saw one dead amongst such vaste Trees that 16. men together could not fathom round CHAP. XXXV Of the Ape THere are in some Countries Apes in abundance Posidonius saw a wood full of them in the borders of Lybia In a word Alexander saw Mountains full of them in the Indies He thought when he espyed them by chance standing upright that an Army was ready to besiege him Aelian Amongst the Troglodites they have Manes like Lions and the greatest are as tall as weathers Scalig. in Exercit. In the Indies Mediterranean they are huge bodies and they follow civill Merchandise without any offence Galen thought them the likest to Mankind amongst all creatures for their Bowels Muscles Arteries and Nerves But Vesalius saith they are the most unlike in the Muscles of the Thorax that move the arm cubit and thigh and those that move the shoulders and toes and lastly for the inward structure of the hand A Male was seen whose heart had two points Albert. Scaliger saw many without tails as great as a boy of eight years old and a male and female with their young If the young desire any thing the shee is admonished by the hee clinching his fist and he will correct her with a fierce look as being guilty of ill-using her young ones Mutianus saith that those which have such tails are sad when the Moon is decaying and they rejoyce and adore the new Moon He addes That some were seen to play at Chesse for they will imitate a man unluckily for an Ape saw a Midwife wash the Child and bind him up in swathebands and lay him in the Cradle when he spide that the Child was alone he went in at the window that was open and took up the Child and unswathed it and washed it with scalding water till he kill'd it Aelian He is very much afraid of a snail Erasmus saith At Rome we had an example of this A man put a snail on his Childs head and covered it with a Cap. Then he brought him to the Ape who was glad and leaped on the boys shoulder to look lice taking off his Cap he saw the Snail it was strange to see how he was frighted and leapt back and how fearfully he looked backward to see if the snail followed him Another example We tied a snail to one end of the cord that the Ape was tied with that he could not get away but he must look upon it t is wonderfull how he was frighted only he did not dye for feare somtimes he strove to drive away the beast that stuck fast with his hinder feet at last he pissed and shit all he had in his belly and of this fright he fell into a feaver that we were forced to let him loose and to give him Wine mingled with Water to refresh him CHAP. XXXVI Of Su and Subus SU in Patagonia is a most monstrous beast she takes her Whelps on her back and covers them with her tail when the hunter follows and so she escapes Wherefore she is caught in a pit covered with leaves when she is taken she kills her young ones for madnesse and cryes out so horridly that she frights the Hunters Thevet in descript Americae Subus is an Amphibion with two Horns he follows shoals of fish swimming in the Sea Lobsters Pagri and Oculatae are fishes that love him but he cares for none of their love but makes them all his prey CHAP. XXXVII Of the Sow WEe shall contract briefly what is said of the Sow It is a creature we know but it will not live in Arabia Pliny Brought into Hispaniola it grows as great as a Mule Martyr In Aethiopia it hath Horns In England and Sclavonie they have none In Macedonia they are mute Aelian A Sows brain is fat when the Moon decreaseth it abateth the eares are full of a humour like gall When she looks upward she is silent for looking commonly down ward when she looks upwards the light dants her and her sharp artery being straightned holds in her voyce Aphrodis Somtimes she will grow so fat that it is miraculous There were two ribs of a Hogg sent to L. Volumnius being in Spain they weighed 23 pound and from the bone to the skin was a foot and 3 fingers Pliny And Crescentiensis saith that the whole hog weighed 570 pound There was one seen in Arcadia that the Mice and Rats had eaten into it and bred there The same happened at Basil Gesner For some Creatures have fat that is insensible and we read in Pliny that the fat was taken away from the Son of L. Apronius the Consul and his body was made lighter of a burden one man could not carry As concerning venery Sows breed often that are homebred but wild Sows but seldom For they have plenty of meat and do not labour much these must seek for it and wandring over the Mountains endure trouble Plutarch Both of them are so wearied with copulation that they fall asleep and will
transparent which I think is their blood and by concoction is changed into silk and the parts of the Creature The head cut off the beginning of the throat swells forth and doth represent the blunt head of the Nympha The gut being taken out with the foeces contain'd in the abdomen there are seen like worms some glutinous clammy concretions some yellow some white two very great the rest small so like worms that nothing wants but a skin and life They are sharp at both ends They are so placed in the belly that both their points are turned toward their tail and the body of them is doubled you would say it were their yarn folded together If they begin to spin from the points it is necessary that they be drawn from the tail to the mouth I think that the small whitish pieces make weaker silk and towe but the greater the stronger I took out these worms and I found that they dryed presently on the paper and became hard and brittle as Ox glew useth to do and as the Tendons and Intestines of living creatures The body of it is all of one kind and transparent that no man can draw it into so fine and small thred but this labour must be left to the Silk-worm as webs to the Spiders The outward skin was white mingled with lead colour but within it was drawn with a little skin black and blew in part and partly with a shining gold colour as in a Herring About the belly where the matter of the silk lay the substance was pretty thick consisting of nervous deductions and a texture containing a white fat infolded with nervous coats the like is found afterwards in the young Nymphs of Silk-worms and they have a matrix and a genital member Under that substance there are lead-colour'd branches let down into their feet like to tendons or chords This skin the matrix and genital member remaining is put oft in weaving their silk with all the parts that stick forth so that the Nymph and Butterfly that riseth from thence borrow nothing from the Silk-worm but the belly and gut and the nervous parts that are in them There remains in the gut and genitals a great deal of moysture From whence afterwards growes the matter of the seed and excrements of the belly But the humour that is in the Intestine is yet raw and is partly green partly yellow something thick and elsewhere thin If one part the fat from the nervous coats of the genitals and smeer it on paper when it is dry it will be like â—ewer and brittle You may compare it with milk in fishes Therefore it is apparent that in the Silk-worm these members are outward It s threefold feet the skaly joynting of the belly the breast head mouth the anus skin tail plectrum but within is the Intestine the vital arteries or the nerves the white flesh of the breast the genitals betwixt which and the Intestine is contain'd the matter for Silk and besides those the pannicles and nervous membranes in which the parts are contain'd Whether they have any heart let others seek out yet there must be some such Principle and that not in the head nor any where but near the breast whence the vital force is sent through the whole body And this is manifest chiefly by motion of the nerves or arteries as I may call them in the back of the belly not of the breast so far as the hollow of the tail I will speak afterwards of the nymphs and young silk-worms Now I will add what I observed in their making of silk When they abstain from meat and as I said they seek for a place to make their case they have commonly about the end of their belly a green wan mark the other part of their body is white with green or wan and of a spiceous colour Then I saw them often make it as they went up and down and to gape at the mouth as it were Cows chewing the cud when as out of their gorge they pull back their meat to chew on Then it is likely that the Silk-worms strive to turn the matter of the silk toward their mouths and to draw it out If you put them into a paper Coffin you shall hear them gnawing a whole day and then into the bottom of this Coffin like a Fryars cowl they put down their excrement first dry like a black green pill or yellow The last pill but one is commonly green the last is yellow and sanious The number of tâ—is dung is as their excrements abound For I found in one paper sometimes two little knobs sometimes more to 12 of divers colours as black green yellow and those not with bright spots but round When the last yellow pill comes forth watry matter comes forth of divers colours and a different consistence For some part is thicker some thinner having some red colour with yellow and green yet some of the sanies is bloody and blackish such it appears on a clean paper where you may sometimes see green polluted with yellow sometime somewhat like chalk In a glasse it is like to Lye But that you may not doubt whether she voids it by her mouth or her belly know that she makes her silk onely out of her mouth and her excrements by her belly Yet they send forth moysture also out of their mouth when they are sick or strangled or pressed I found a Silk-worm that was at liberty that put forth both these excrements behind Some of them void forth much moysture others but a little They that void much seem to be the weaker and to have gathered lesse silk For many of them make small silk cases but not all It is doubtful what colour the silk will be For I was often deceived by observing their heads backs bellies and feet All of them do not make silk of the same colour and oft-times the towe and utmost coat is white but the middle silk is gold-coloured I thought the Silk-worms that were of a spiceous colour would make yellow and the white ones white silk but that was false For both drew white Once and again I judged right that a Citron coloured female would make such a thred yet such was also drawn by that silk-worm whose belly was Lead-colour with white and the spot in the fore-head yellow I saw a female also all white that made white silk In small and narrow papers yet according to the Worms proportion lesser cases are made but thicker with lesse towe yet I observed little cases in the larger They that are not shut up but choose a place freely they consume much thred in towe at random whence the silk is much lost For their cases are lesse and not wrought so thick If you will observe you may know exactly the reason of their spinning in these things For when they have wandred a time and have begun here and there to make their entrance of their work which they do by
bones of an Embryo Bartholin de Pigm c. 6. In Marchia and Lusatia there was an entire skeleton found with the skull 2 foot and 3 fingers long Leonhardus Turnheuserus in German Pisone memorat l. 7. c. 84. Now because Coffins of the dead were often dug up in those parts the people think the Pigmies make them under ground In Winter they lye 20 foot deep about Whitsontide one cubit it is the opinion of the people Multitudes of Authours may perswade us to beleive that there was a Country of Pigmies amongst the rest Câ—esias Indicus writes thus Middle India hath blackmen that are called Pigmies and they speak the same language the rest of the Indians do they are very small for great part of them are but half a cubit high and the greatest of them is not above two cubits Their haire hangs as farr somtime below their knees they wear their beards longer than any men And so soon as their long beard is grown they use no clothing but they let their haire fall backwards much below their knees and their beard covers their fore-parts Then when they have covered their whole bodies with haire they girt themselves about with them instead of garments Also their Yard is so thick and so great that it will come down to their ankles They are also flat nosed and deformed Their sheep are no bigger than our Lambs their Oxen and Asses are like our Rams in greatnesse their Horses and Mules and other creatures to carry burdens are no bigger The King of the Indies hath 3000 of these Pigmies in his company For they are most cunning Archers They are very just use the same Laws the other Indians do They hunt Hares Foxes not with Dogs but with Crows Kites Rooks Eagles There is a lake amongst them that is 800 furlongs about upon which when the wind troubles it not oyle swims which some of these men take away from the middle of it in boats swimming through it with little ships and this they use They use also oyle of Sesama nuts but the best is taken out of that Lake So far he describes them Antonius Pigafetta found some of them in an Island of the Moluccas but Jovius l. 3. de rebus Muscovit saith they are in the Island Caphi beyond the Laplanders Lastly Odericus de reb Indic l. 3 saith he saw some but three hands breadth and that they begat Children at five yeares old CHAP. V. Of Generation Article 1. Of Seed THe Seed the most noble principle in Generation resists many injuries That appears even from this that the essence of many things can remain entire in many changes under another form Let a Goat be fed with many purgative herbs let the nurse drink the Goats-milk and it will purge the child that sucks her yet in the stomach of the Goat those herbs were changed into Chylus and the Chylus was made blood in the Liver and from blood milk in the Udder when the nurse drinks this milk again Chylus is made of it in the stomach blood of this Chylus in the Liver milk of this blood in her breasts I received it from one saith Sennertus worthy of credit de consens et dissens that from the froth of a mad dog that stuck upon a cloath little creatures were bred like to whelps It is wont being retain'd in Virgins and lusty Widows to get a venomous quality by corrupting in the matrix and it will cause strong symptoms For a malignant vapour flying up presseth the Intestines the Liver and the 〈…〉 and makes the breathing so small that it can hardly be perceived When any thing hangs over the parts of the privities or Navel toward the Diaphragma and ascending to the orifice of the stomach is perceived there followes presently panting of the heart aking of the heart swimming of the head and palenesse Whilest this continues a woman falls suddenly down and is deprived of breathing speech and sight many have layn so 3 dayes others have been buried as though they had been dead Vesalius dissected one to his great dishonour and sometimes a woman is affected with the Epilepsie Convulsion sits and raving and as the malignant vapour fall on this or that part so is she disquieted Sometimes wonderfull voyces are heard out of their bellies crying of frogs hissing of Serpents croking of Crowes crowing of Cocks barking of dogs which Gemma Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit thinks they do vary as the passages and the spirits that break forth are proportioned The Daughters of the President of Roan did alwaies laugh and would not cease from it Holler de intern morb It happens sometimes that imagination being hurt they grow sick of melancholy and think the Devill is present also they fall into the fury of the womb and wandring melancholy this principally is of force in February and is heaped up in winter When they are so affected they will speak divers things and divers wonders in strange tongues Physitians say they will desire to lye with those they meet they will talk in the night and hide themselves in tombs Henr. Petreius Nosolog Harmon Discours 3. We read that the Virgins of Miletus affected with this disease offered violence to themselves The order of formation is this First of all the membranes that surround the Infant are made For in these the nobler part of the seed is included and the heat of the spirit and seed is covered after After this all the spermatick parts are delineated and as their dignity is so is each of them made in its order Yet some are perfected sooner some later Hence at the first time of conception there appear 3. bubbles as it were swelling with spirits which are the rudiments of the Brain Heart and Liver and an innumerable company of threds that are the beginnings of veins nerves and arteries and as it were the foundations of the solid parts Sennert l. 1. Institut c. 9. Artic. 2. Of menstruous Blood and Milk THe coldness of Women generation is the cause that all blood is not wasted in them yet because they are not alwaies with Child it is then collected in the vessels about the matrix and is cast forth every month that they may not feel the burden of it wherefore Physitians call them monthly terms They begin to be cast forth when they are young Maids the bottom or neck of the matrix determins the manner of the flux It is observed that a fresh maid with great brests hanging down which had hair under her arm-pits and on her privities had her courses five yeares together without any hurt Schenk l. 4. observ Nature if it cannot find the ordinary way seeks another passage A Maid of Saxony had her Terms come forth of her eys A Nun had them came forth of her ears Pareus his Wife had them by her nostrills A Maid at Sturgard vomited them up A Maid in the Island Chios spit them up Amatus speaks of some
Faustina tasting the Fencers blood had a son that was most cruell If any think that a habit cannot be got by one act he must know that is false of naturall powers for they that of old were once taken into Trophonius his den were wayward ever after and a woman that fell into a Wolfs hole grew hoary the same night Artic. 11. Of some Wonders concerning Generation I Adde these though I have said much that nothing might seem to be wanting Soranus Ephesinus Isag. 17. writes that women that are delivered in ships have still children not that they cannot speak but they will not cry when they are born Ausonius speaks of one thus Thy Father Genoâ—es thy Mother Graecian blood Born in a Ship at Sea can that Son ere be good Ligurians vain Greeks liars false Sea these three Thou dost resemble well they all do meet in thee Some are born with marks upon them Johannes Fredericus Elector of Saxony had a golden crosse on his back a sign of his future calamity Buchol in Chronol James King of Great Britany had a Lion a Sword and a Crown when he was born Camer hor. subcis Cent. 3. c. 42. The Kings of the Corzani have the sign of a black Eagle on their shoulders Marcus Venetus It is a report that the Princes of Austria others do not write so are born with a golden crosse that is that they have white hairs drawn out in the form of a crosse Foelix Faber histor Suev l. 1. c. 15. Some men procreate after 80 years For Masanissa begot 6. Children after that age and a Noble-man of Francony had a son and a daughter after that time Camerar Women have born children after 50 years And some have born children being children themselves Albertus Magn. l. 4. sentent writes that one was with child at 9 years old and was delivered at ten And Pliny l. 7. c. 2. saith that some have born children at 7. years old and that but once and they lived not above 40 years and they were held to be very old Rhodig Antiqu. l. 14. c. 18. saith that a boy of ten years old got a child Some have been delivered in the second third or fourth month after their first child of another living child Nancelius l. 8. Analog writes of one that was brought to bed twice in two months Others could not be delivered but by a Chirurgions opening their wombs Schenkius reports that one woman was cut open four times for four severall children Pliny writes that Proculus Caesar got 100 Maids with child in 15 dayes Pliny l. 7. c. 32. In Picenum a child was born with 6 teeth Bonfin Decad. 3. l. 8. In Prussia the son of the King of Bythinia had but one solid bone in place of teeth Solin c. 3. Some are born that can sometimes move their ears Zoroaster was born laughing So much for this we shall proceed to other matters CHAP. VI. Of Vitall action Article 1. Of the Heart SOme have wanted a Heart if we credit Avicenna and if his writings be not corrupted Rhodig l. 4. c. 6. When Caesar was Dictator the same day he went in his purple garment the Priest found it twice wanting in the bowels Plin. l. 11. c. 37. Some have been found with two hearts as the Partridges in Paphlagonia some have wanted the left ventricle and the midriff in some hath been like a gristle Columb l. 15. Anatom And Gemma found a bone in it in two mens bodies l. 2. Cyclog And Wier l. â— de praestig Daemon c. 16. found stones as big as pease Aristomanes Messenius who killed 300 Lacedemonians and was sometimes taken and sometimes escaped had a hairy heart Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 8. The same thing Beniventus reports of a certain thief c. 33. de abditis The 〈…〉 or purse wherein the heart lies may be wanting Columbus l. 15. Anatom observed a young man that wanted it and he was troubled with swoonding fits A wound may be in the heart that is not mortall for the Son of Maryllus the writer of obscene matters had the pericardium cut that one might see his heart yet he did not die Galen l. 7. administr Anatom A history of Groning tells the same almost that happened upon a wound in the Heart because but few know it I shall set it down A wonderfull Accident of a wound in the Heart Nicol. Malerius wisheth happinesse to the Reader IT hath been thought hitherto that a man could not live a moment almost if his Heart were wounded Reason and Experience prove it For since our life depends upon the safety of the spirits the shop and making whereof is in the Heart when the heart is wounded it is necessary that the generation of the spirits cease Yet I thought good to set down here a very notable History a history of a Souldier that lived 15 dayes after he was wounded in the heart none of the old or new Physitians mention any such thing Andreas Hasevanger who was of the Lifeguard of the most illustrious Count William of Nassaw Governour of Frisia Groning and Omland c. received a wound in his brest by his fellow-Souldier Anno 1607 on the 22 of August about the Evening he died September the 8th at one of the clock after Sun-rising which was the 16 day after he received the wound The body of the dead Souldier by command of the Generall of the Army was opened to search for the wound by me and two Chirurgions Caspar and Lucas Hultenus a noble valiant man Bernard Hoornkens looking on and some other Souldiers that were of note When we had opened the cavity of his breast and a great deal of very stinking matter was run forth we found and wondred that the wound had entred the right cavity of his heart and all that part of his heart was almost all consumed the left part being entire wherein is contain'd the chief shop of the vitall spirits By the benefit of this Andreas lived to the sixteenth day and left some should not believe this the most noble and worthy men signed it with their names subscribed to confirm it c. Article 2. Of the Pulse THe Pulse is the motion of the heart and arteries consisting of a systole and diastole Platerus thinks it is felt on the left side by reason of the great Artery Yet Cardan saith some have perceived it onely on the right side There is great inequality in it from divers accidents that happen whence comes the diversity of pulses amongst Physitians No man can deny but that sometimes it may be intercepted and not felt when the Arteries lye deep Balduinus Ronseus The Player of Andreas Count of Gorca had naturally all kind of inequalities of pulse But Johannes Brosovius of the Order of the Crosse of the blessed Virgin had it with intermission all the time he lived Physitians try the motion of the heart in living creatures Coiterus observed it in a Cat. Then cutting the Pericardium he