and hands when first I found it But you have found one like it in the heart of a Noble Lord but when you have seen this I shall know whether so grown or of this forme or otherwise Let the Vulgar and Ignorant beleeve it or not believe it Physitians and knowing men as you do will receive it And therefore briefly the certaine History and true Relation is this §. 2. THe seventh of October this yeare current 1637 the Lady Herris wife unto Sir Francis Herris Knight came unto me and desired that I would bring a Surgeon with me to dissect the body of her Nephew Iohn Pennant the night before deceased to satisfie his friends concerning the causes of his long sicknesse and of his death And that his mother to whom my selfe had once or twice given helpe some yeares before concerning the Stone might be ascertained whether her Sonne died of the Stone or no Upon which intreaty I sent for Master Iacob Heydon Surgeon dwelling against the Castle Taverne behind St. Clements Church in the Strand who with his Man-Servant came unto me And in a word we went to the house and Chamber where the dead man lay We dissected the naturall Region and found the bladder of the young man full of purulent and ulcerous matter The upper parts of it broken and all of it rotten The right kidney quite consumed the left tumified as big as any two kidnies and full of sanious matter All the inward and carnose parts eaten away nothing remaining but exteriour skins No where did we find in his body either Stone or gravell The Spleen and Liver not affected in any discernable degree only part of the Liver was growne unto the Costall membranes by reason of his writing profession Wee ascending to the Vitall Region found the Lungs reasonable good the heart more globose and dilated then long the right Ventricle of an ashe colour shrivelled and wrinkled like a leather purse without money and not any thing at all in it the Pericardium and Nervous Membrane which conteyneth that illustrious liquour of the Lungs in which the heart doth bath its selfe was quite dried also The left Ventricle of the heart being felt by the Surgions hand appeared to him to be as hard as a stone and much greater then the right which upon the first sight gave us some cause of wonder seeing as you know the right Ventricle is much greater then the left Wherefore I wished M. Heydon to make incision upon which issued out a very great quantity of blood and to speake the whole verity all the blood that was in his body left was gathered to the left Ventricle and contayned in it * Here those men may be handsomely questioned who say that the pulse is nothing else but the impulse of blood into the Arteryes or the Systole of the heart what was become of the pulse in this man all the while that the whole blood betooke it selfe into the hâ—art here was either a living man without pulse or pulse without the Systole of the heart For what could the arteryes receive where nothing was to be received or how could there be pulse where was no impulse into the arteryes The pulse the doubtlesse â—s from another cause and is a farre other matter then most men conceive for there are in a sound man 4450 pulsations in an houre in a sicke man sometimes in some percute fevers and diseases above 35600 and more which cannot be from so many severall expressions and receptions of blood for it is impossible the heart should make compression and the arteryes apartion so often in that space Nay in Dicrot Capizant and other inordinate pulses diverse pulses strike in lesse space then the mouth of an arterey can goe much more then in lesse times then it can open shut and open againe which 3. acts are requisite to the beginning of a second pulse But of this I have largely treated in my 3 Booke De Febribus No sooner was that Ventricle emptied but M. Heydon still complaining of the greatnesse and hardnesse of the same my selfe seeming to neglect his words because the left Ventricle is thrice as thicke of flesh as the right is in sound men for conservation of Vitall Spirits I directed him to an other disquisition but he keeping his hand still upon the heart would not leave it but said againe that it was of a strange greatnesse and hardnesse whereupon I desired him to cut the Orifice wider by which meanes we presently perceived a carnouse substance as it seemed to us wreathed together in foldes like a worme or Serpent the selfe same forme expressed in the first Iconography at which we both much wondred and I intreated him to seperate it from the heart which he did and wee carryed it from the body to the window and there layed it out in those just dimensions which are here expressed in the second figure The body was white of the very colour of the whitest skin of mans body but the skin was bright and shining as if it had beene varnished over the head all bloody and so like the head of a Serpent that the Lady Herris then shivered to see it and since hath often spoken it that she was inwardly troubled at it because the head of it was so truely like the head of a Snake The thighes and branches were of flesh colour as also all these fibraes strings nerves or whatsoever else they were After much contemplation and conjectures what strange thing that part of the heart had brought forth unto us I resolved to try the certainty and to make full exploration both for mine owne experience and satisfaction as also to give true testimony to others that should heare of it And thereupon I searched all parts of it to finde whether it were a pituitose and bloody Collection or the like Or a true organicall body and Conception J first searched the head and found it of a thicke substance bloody and glandulous about the necke somewhat broken as J conceived by a sudden or violent separation of it from the heart which yet seemed to me to come from it easily enough The body I searched likewise with a bodkin betweene the Leggs or Thighs and I found it perforate or hollow and a solid body to the very length of a silver bodkin as is here described At which the Spectators wondered And as not crediting me some of them tooke the bodkin after me made triall themselves and remained satisfied that there was a gut Veine or Artery or some such Analogicall thing that was to serve that Monster for uses naturall Amongst whom the Lady Herris and the Surgian made tryall after me with their owne hands and have given their hands that this Relation is true This Lady dwelleth at the signe of the Sugar loafe in S. Iames street in the Convent Garden §. 3. THis strange and monstrous Embryon borne in the said Ventricle which as Hippocrates saith is nourished neither
whatsoever also by force shall come neere unto it It remaineth that the heart is not neither can be subject to any disease or at least not easily Yea those other men who enumerate the diseases of the heart grant as chiefely Valescus de Tharanta and the Arabians all confesse that a Syncope hapneth or else death as soone as any disease approacheth or hurt toucheth the substance of the heart also Avicen Petrus de Ebano relate that the forementi-oned diseases kill as soone as any of them touch the substance of the heart So also Herophylus coefessed that sudden death followed if a Paralysis once surprized the heart And for Bothors or Phlegmo's or Erisipelas or the like they say that they are diseases of the heart initiativè only and not subjectivè to dwell there any time And indeed I am fully perswaded that the heart suffereth a marasmus privativè by negation of due transmission from other parts rather then that marcor should follow à d cordis substantiae ariditatem for if any part have good substance in it the heart hath and therefore Hippocrates saith that quando fontes resiccati fuerint homo moritur that the Ventricles have the last humidity in them wherefore Galen seemeth to desert his Master in saying a cordis ariditate incipere malum Viz veram senectutem interitum naturalem Whereas hee should have said the contrary that the aridity of the heart followeth the desiccation and want of due transmission of other parts Yee if J may speake my mind freely Hippocrates is not to be taken simply that the heart cannot be any wayes affected but perhaps in the sense of Galen that the heart suffereth little or no paine by reason the substance of the heart hath but little sensation having but one little nerve for feeling from the sixt Conjugation and that is somewhat obscure also Gal. 2. pla 8. Or if hee meane as indeed I am sure hee doth that diseases doe not affect the heart hee is to bee understood that ordinarily they doe not but very seldome by reason of the carnous parts Cor solidum ac densum ut ab humore non aegrotet propterea nullus morbus in corde aboritur caput autem Splen maximè sunt morbis abnoxia His speech is evidently comparative else wee see very often that which hee never saw in all his long life and experience And indeed we see now very frequently the heart affected with Imposthumes with Wormes with Abscesses with Fleamy concretion both in the Eares of the heart and Ventricles yea and now with a Serpent And yet men live divers yeares with them and many other diseases both per essentiam Consensum all kinde of distempers both equall and unequall of which the Ancients have left no memory nor mention unto us with which the Books of late Physitians are repleate Wherefore the propositions of the Ancient Physitians must have a friendly interpretation or else mens hearts now a daies are more passible and obnoxious unto diseases then in former ages which by me as yet cannot easily be admitted Wee are forced therefore to conclude that the heart per essentiam primariò subjectivè may be afflicted with a disease and cause of death and it cannot otherwise be conceived seeing such creatures are begotten in it yet doubtles exteriour diseases kill sooner then innate §. 5. BUt this then begets a greater question how this Monster or such as this should bee begotten or bred in the heart so defended as hath beene said more then all the body and in the most defended part of the heart the left Ventricle three times thicker of flesh and substance then the right as also of what matter seeing that Cell is possessed and replenished with the best purest and most illustrious liquor in the body the blood Arteriall and the vitall spirits There are who conceive that pervious passages may be found for little Wormes and the like to enter into the heart but they must give a better way then any that J have yet seene doe as also the Wormes must be very little Others say that such matters are caused by the ill habit of the heart by which if they meane the substance of the heart it is not to be receaved till the heart hath beene hurt by ill distributions and transmissions which in our case is otherwise for halfe of the heart the left Ventricle the Matrix of this Serpent was solid and still good Wherefore it is not in the ill habit of the substance Others thinke that those Wormes which create sometimes the mal della luna as the Italians terme it living in the pericardium and gnawing the heart Of which there are innumerable Stories Heben flreit lib de peste telleth us one of a Prince to whose heart a white Worme was found cleaving with a sharp and horny nose Alexius pedemont anus lib. 1. Sceret telleth us of an other and so Math Corvar lib. 2. c. 28. Consult med In Stowe's Cronnicle ad annum 1586. of Q Elizabeth a matter of this nature in an Horse is recorded as a memorable thing in these wordes The Seventeenth day of March a strange thing hapned the like whereof before hath not beene heard of in our time Master Dorington of Spaldwick in the County of Huntington Esquire one of her Majesties Gentlemen Pentioners had an horse which died suddenly and being ripped to see the cause of his death there was found in the hole of the heart of the same horse a Worme which lay on a round heape in a kall or skinn of the likenesse of a Toade which being taken out and spread abroad was in forme and fashion not easie to be described The length of which worme divided into many graines to the number of fifty spred from the body like the branches of a Tree was from the snout to the end of the longest graine seventeene inches having soure issues in the graines from which dropped forth a red water The body in bignesse round about was three inches and a halfe the colour whereof was very like a Mackerel This monstrous worme found in manner aforesaid crawling to have got away was stabbed in with a dagger and died which being dryed was shewed to many honourable personages of this Realme If this Horse-worme or Serpent be Chronicled how much more may this be memorized for Posterity Or that which you have or that which you told me was found in the heart of the Lord Boclew By reason these were found in Men that in an Horse and this found by me of greater length and more certaine forme then that which they could not tell how to describe As also those peeces of black flesh generated in the left Ventricle of which Benivenius historizeth one C. 35. de abdit is in forme of a Medler upon the Artery and Vesalius lib. 1. c. 5. de humani corporis fabricâ speaketh of a most Noble and learned Personage in the left Ventricle of whose heart two pounds
with meats nor drinkes Sed purâ illustri substantia taking aliment from the blood purified out of the next Cisterne made mee importuned with other occasions then to leave this new and rare Spectacle in the charge of the Surgion who had a great desire to conserve it had not the Mother desired that it should be buried where it was borne saying and repeating As it came with him so it shall goe with him Wherefore the Mother staying in the place departed not till shee had seene him sow it up againe into the body after my going away Which as soone as I heard I presently described the forme of it at home inter rariora à me reperta And thus this History had alwayes beene buried from the World the Mother having thus buried the Creature if your selfe and others had not desired a figure and narration of it which caused me to take the hands and mindes of some of them who were present Who being nearest the young man were most likely to say the best and therefore being besides people of good fame and reputation might bee credited considering that they would say nothing at all either against their owne house or against verity more then what apparent and cleare truth should necessitate them unto Which from themselves and under their hands here I have done There were also divers others such as dwelled in the house and some that came in who beheld it after whom I have no leisure to enquire But such who will scarce believe their Creed or any true mans word or that men have senses which have alwaies beene reputed incorrupted Witnesses may goe into the high buildings upon the Street in Saint Giles Parish and at the corner house next the greene Dragon where the Young-man died they may make further inquisition Since which time the Mother hath remooved her selfe into Bloomesbury neare unto the house of one Master Nurse who directed me to her lodgings a man well knowne in all that Region Mistris Gentleman dwelleth neare unto S. Clements Church in the Strand and the Chirurgion or his man can direct them to the house Moreover that day all of us that were present at this sight related to our friends wives or husbands what we had found as they will testifie The History therefore being verified by as much testimony as humane perswasion need require Except nothing but oath will content some which if it shall be found necessary to Authority It will most readily come forth also and obey It is most requisite that something be said of this or any such like matters generated in mans heart both for the manner of their generation and the way of their cure and by what means such rare and incredible causes of death may bee found out in time and taken away §. 4. SUch matters as these were worthy of your selfe and a man of your long experience Yet because this strange generation was found by me I will consult with your learning rather then by any hasty resolution determine and discourse a little to state a question of no smal difficulty Hip de morbis Avicen l. 3. se◠11. since Hippocrates first hath given the occasion which was this Cor nullo morbo laborat the heart laboureth of no disease Prince Avicen cor longinquum anocumentis the heart is farr remote from dangers And yet contrary to these Very many Physitians enumerate these diseases of the heart the Marasmus Syncope the Cordiack passion Lypothymy Apostems Vlcers Botheralia Corrosion of Sublimate and I dare adde diseases which afflict the heart by reason of distillations from the head in some who have had the unction Tremors also and palpitations of the heart as Peter Ebanus in his Booke de Venenis And the Paralysis of the heart as old Aurelianus in his second Booke of Slowpassions After Haerophylus and Erasistratus have observed And now of late Skinkius and others have found wormes in Cordis capsulâ which is the Pericardium But I speake more precisely and punctually that now in the left Ventricle of the heart this Worme or Serpent hath beene found Which the Mother of the Young-man saith was at least of three yeares growth for so long he complained of his breast and as shee saith would never button his Doublet in the Morning but be open breasted in all weathers till he had washed his hands and face and was subject to palpitations Now then that wee may judge whether Hippocrates and Avicen direct their speeches these reasons are to be admitted reason 1 First from the situation of the heart in medio medij pectoris saith Avicen in the middle of the middle of the brest which Mathematically is not true for so the basis or upper part or caput onely is placed in an Equidistance from the diaphragma the inferiour furcula and the Clanicula and the furcula superior and betweene the Vertebra of the backe and the anterior Sternon reason 2 The Second is that the heart dwelleth in a strong pannicle and such an one that non invenitur panniculus compar ei in spissitudine ut sit ei Clypeus tutamen Hip. l. de Cord. that no pannicle is comparable unto it that it may be a shield and defence unto the heart reason 3 Thirdly Avicen addeth that the heart it selfe is created of strong flesh that it may be longinquum anocumentis in quo contextae sunt species villarum fortium Diverse strong strings admirably woven together do bind and strengthen the heart and give it aptitude for motion and resistance Hippocrates long before Avicen saith the same and things of greater consequence Cor est musculus fortis c. The heart is a strong muscle non nervo sed densitate carnis constrictione Hip. ubi supra not by his nervous nature but by solidity of flesh and constriction And in the heart there lye hidden diverse skins like spiders webs extended which do so bind and shut the endes of the forts that no man ignorant knowes how to take out the heart but will take up one for an other Neither can water or wind penetrate into the heart and more Cor tunicam habet circumdatam est in ipsâ humor modicus c. Vt cor sanum in custodiâ floreseat habet autem humiditatem tantam quanta sat is est aestuanti in medelam hunc humorem cor emungit bibendo ipsum assumens consumens pulmonis nimiram potum lambens He speakes further of the cover called the Epiglottis that nothing may enter that way but what is convenient So that seeing the heart is fortified with such strength of ribbs with such covers such skins such fortitude of substance such density of flesh such excellence of liquour such curious filaments that nothing can enter hurt or come neere the heart to make it sicke but that it is able to defend it selfe both by its owne situation strength and happy condition in very many respects and keepe out or put backe
of blacke glandulous flesh were found the heart extended like a pregnant wombe Yea and those pituitose carnosities and other matters so often seene in the left Ventricle by Neretus Neretius that famous Physitian of Florence and Erastus part 5. disputat de feb putrid may be generated in the pericardium either by drinkes of ill condition sliding into the Trachaea and so into the Arteries and the heart Cornelius Gemmad de Naturae divinis characterismis and sometimes some small seedes or attomes of creeping creatures which Cornelius Gemma setteth forth sufficiently and historiseth many strange matters in this kinde as some to vomit Yeeles and Serpents of strange formes and it is a common saying of the Pedemontanes and such as drinke the waters of the Alpes that every such man borne hath a Frog to his brother Such things may passe into the stomak but rarely into the heart §. 6. BUt that which I have to say is this that these strange and extraordinary generations are caused from the temperament individuall for you well know that there is a double temperament the one Specificall the other individuall the one is fixum and unalterable the other is temperamentum fluxum and accidentall As for the Specificall temperament although the vitall acts cease yet the specificall act is never changed for you see that the parts of this or that animall retaine their specificall vertue when they are dead as herbes or those partes of herbes as leave seedes or rootes keepe their property and retaine their owne heates or savours when they are cut away or taken up from the ground Yea and there are certaine specifike atoms which alwayes continue after putrefaction and extreame drinesse in the fixed salt Lucret. lib. 1. Sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate Quae minimis stipata cohaerent partibus arte Non ex ullorum conventa conciliatu Sed magis aeterna pollentia simplicitate Vnde neque avelli quicquam neque diminui jam Concedit natura reservans semina rebus This temperament is proper to every creature for Man hath his temperament the Lyon his hysopp his and the rose his owne For God made every thing secundum species suas in genere suo producat aqua in species suas omne volatile secundum genus suum Et Deus fecit bestias juxta species suas omne reptile terrae in genere suo producat terra animamin genere suo c. Wherfore the Specificall temperament of Socrates doth not differ from the temperament of Hippocrates Plato Cato or any other man which may be well put against Aristotle who thought the soules of men did differ in nobility one from an other which difference can no way be founded upon the temperament specifically but rather upon the jndividuall which is but the accidentall constitution of the Individualls of the same species which followeth some peculiar determination of th' horoscopant or else upon some other speciall helpe or hinderance as from the singular scite of Heaven ascention of Starres aspect in flux the aliment of parents either more or lesse elaborate and many other matters every creature borne hath according to the felicity or infelicity of his generation especially Man who of all other creatures is nourished with most variety of meates and drinkes We also see every day that such men are more hot and vivacious who are borne either in the Starres of Leo or the Sun Orientiall they also to be of more suculent habit who are born within the second quadrate of the Moon and such to be least vital who are born in the silence of the Moon herbs also gathered the Moon decreasing have lesse force the very soile often doth either so augment ordwarfe plants and herbes and give them such strange conditions that they are found degenerat and scarcely the same herbs As for the prolifick matter it breedes as Physitions say a male or female as it is more or lesse concocted There are also diverse conjunct matters which helpe or hinder generation as such matter doth which differeth much a punctis specificis or à semine for the sperma may be much which is materia augment ativa but the seed is so little of which a giant is generated that as novum lumen saith it can be no greater at first moment of conception then in proportion to the 8200. part of a graine of wheate which confirmeth that of Aristotle that the fortieth day after conception homo formicá non major from which augmentative matter it is which is made of various and alterative aliment that children differ so much from both their owne parents hence one sweates and sweares at the sight of a Cat and an other forsakes the table at the sight of a Pigg or Goose the reasons of which antipathies and diversities are founded in the latent matter spermatike as if the Mother of one somewhat before her Sonne was begotten had eaten a mouse and the other fed upon the eares of a Jew All which is said to illustrate that there is in many men a certaine connate matter and obedientall susceptible of divers diseases and infelicities Wherefore it was not so anciently as worthily said Foelicissimum est benè nasci it is a most happy thing to be well borne And from this Diatheses and ill dispositions may many a strange sicknesse in after ages spring as time diet and other accidents doe alter or intend the heat cold or acrimony of the humour and blood or some other quality I pray Sir note well the faithfull Relation of a most understanding and sincere man M. Iohn Whistler one of the Benchers of Graies-Inn and Recorder of Oxford who upon my Narration of this History of Iohn Pennant the very same day or the next that I found the Serpent told me that in his younger daies himselfe was a great Cock-Master and one of his old fighting Cocks beginning to droope he thought it best to cut off his head which as soone as it was done there appeared and shot out betweene the skinns another head and neck like that of his Cock but it was a kinde of gelly as hee conceived with a very fine skin upon it with a bill and a little combe The rest was not searched which perhaps was bred of some Egg in the body of the Cock which kind of Conceptions are very rare yet the sacred Scripture maketh mention of Cockatrices Which doubtlesse cannot be bred but of some humour or blood exalted to some extraordinary and preternaturall degree of heat cold or sharpenesse or some other quality Which first the naturall heat and valour of that bird prooveth Secondly his martiall profession and terrible battells performed almost to death all his life long as also being begotten of such like Ancestors himselfe also excelling in heat and fiery spirits accidentall Compare this Young-mans state also with this history his right kidny wholy consumed his left tumified as big as any two kidnies or three full of
ulcerous matter So likewise his bladder full of ulcer and rottennesse and nothing in his body to be found the cause of this Wherefore the sharpnesse and extraordinary heate of the blood or some such like quality was the cause of the Ulcers and so also consequently of that extraordinary production in the heart For nothing els appeareth whatsoever may be conceived And this accidentall temperament of the blood I take to be the cause of this which we found in the heart For in the heart if any where was the greatest heat and if in any part of the heart in the left Ventricle the principall receptacle of arteriall blood and spirits And I have more to confirme me in this opinion having certaine knowledge both of the diet of his Mother and Grand-mother also and of his owne Which I am not willing to make publique but to make private use of it to my selfe All which shall not by me bee intended to prejudice any other better judgement concerning other like conceits by reason that passages to that Ventricle may be sometimes pervious although very rarely But to informe you of some peculiar knowledge that I have of this mans History which may give us great light concerning others of like condition I could here discourse how the imagination produceth strange things in men and worketh not only in our owne bodies but also in hyle mundi as Fryer Bacon prooveth Ro. Bacon l. de Coelo mundo and Prince Avicen But this I will not attempt except you shall judge this Relation may be beneficiall to any and then I shall discusse it out at large §. 7. BUt to me the resolution of this matter seemeth very profitable to know how these things may be bred in men for I suppose men from hence will take speciall care to alter the accidentall temperament of humors if they find them excell in any high degree of heate cold sharpnes or the like such as have in them inconvenience and danger and to deale with learned Physitians in time So also is the knowledge of singular use and benefit to know when men are affected with any such disease and how they may be cured As for the knowledge of abstruse and secret affections where perhaps no dolor gives certitude of the place affected as in diseases by consent when some other parts are more afflicted such skill is worthy of a Physitian and at any rate to be procured But how or where shall we have it Who writeth of it Who hath so much as ever dreamed of any such helpe to mankind For mine owne part I never yet read of any Signa pathognomonica of any such disease Neither doe I know where to find one graine of instruction in this as also in divers other diseases which I can nominate more then from mine owne observation and care Wherefore if I set downe one thing which is not common nor els where to be found I hope you will take it as my good wish unto the Common-wealth of Physitians and I will lay my ground upon two Histories of mine own the one was in December anno 1634. For being sent for to a yong gentleman whose name was Arthur Buckeridge son unto M. Arthur Buckeridge now of Tottenham Gentleman who was sick of that kind of pox which our Country people call the Flocks which were many flat headed white and wrought along as if wormes had made certaine crooked furrowes among them which when at first I beheld I was very diffident in my selfe of doing any cure because I never-knew any of that disease and manner saved Yet while the friends of the Youth declared unto mee what an ingenious child and scholler he was and what hopes all his friends had of him I still beheld the variegation or vermiculation of that kind of variolae And because no Physitian in all my reading ever gave me the least light or helpe to cure them J more studiously searching the cause of their forme strongly apprehended that that outward work and waving could proceed from no cause but from putrefaction caused of worms and that God and nature did assist in so great a difficulty shewing by this external signature the internall cause taking therefore my Indicative from the Conjunctive as Galen counselleth very well J prescribed chiefly against wormes and inward putrefaction and in very short space he was restored to his health And while I write these things the yong-man whom J never saw since commeth in to my house to search after me and to give me thanks so long after being shortly to goe for Oxford Wherefore to confirme this History I sent unto the Young-mans Apothecary to see what was yet upon file to ascertaine what I say and it is returned me that two of my bils are yet there remaining As also one honest Gentleman remembreth well that I then expressed as much and told his friends that I intended to prescribe against the worms principally The other History was of this Iohn Pennant whom we dissected who was well known unto me as his friends and others well can assure it in whom as is likewise sufficiently knowne I very often noted this that he had an excellent Eye but extraordinarily sharpe and like the Eye of a Serpent and so much I have spoken of it that divers Gentlemen and good Schollers did make answer unto me that heard of his long diseases of the supposed stone or ulcer of the bladder that pains and griefes did sharpen mens aspects But finding what we have seene in him thus much shall mine owne observation teach me ever Let others doe or believe as little as they please that secret unusuall and strange inward diseases doe send forth some radios or signatures from the center Analogicall to the circumference by which we may finde the causes if we be diligent and carefull And this is that which I would commend of which I know no man that hath written one word as yet Which although at first it seemeth new yet if men will well consider it and what I shall say I doubt not but they will be confirmed that it is an accurate and a most necessary observation and a chiefe Window to see into the most secret diseases and Closets of the body and heart also And first as an introduction to beliefe what helps Physitians may have from beames and signatures All learned Physitians will thus farre goe vvith me that this vvas that admirable way of the old Magitians to find out the natures of medicines from their peculiar beams signatures and similitudes and that there is no Simple or medicine Specifical as they say or excellent for any disease or very few but we are able to make the radij or signatures to appeare from which those learned Magi did or might find out the properties and virtues of those Simples or medicines and this you know to be true and this way you all know that Sponsa Solis or the Kiramides of the Synas went as that