fruit Africanus likewise affirmeth that if you dig about the stock of a bitter Almond-tree and make a hole into it some four inches above the root whereby it may sweat out the hurtful moisture it will become sweet Pliny saith the same If you dig round about the stock saith he and bore thorough the lower part of it and wipe away the humour which there issueth forth a bitter Almond-tree will become sweet Some there are who after they have made that hole do presently put honey into it that it may not be quite empty for they are of opinion that the relish of the honey is conveyed up into the fruit through the pith as thorough a Conduit-pipe As for example sake If we would procure Sweet Citrons for that kind of fruit was not wont to be eaten in Theophrastus time nor in Athenaeus time as himself reports nor yet in Plinies time Palladius hath shewed how to alter the bitter pith of a Citron-tree into sweet His words are these It is reported that the bitter pithes of Citrons may be made sweet if you take the Citron-seeds and steep them in honey-water or else in Ewes milk for this is better for the space of three dayes before you set them Some do bore a hole sloaping into the body of a Tree but not quite thorough it by which passage the bitter humour drops away This hole they make in it the about February and leave it so till the fruit is fashioned but after the fruit is fashioned then they fill up the hole with morter and by this device the pith is made sweet This hath Pontanuâ— set down in his book called The Gardens of Hesperides What is it saith he that Art will not search into Cut a thick Vine and make it hollow on the the top about thy hand breadth but so that the brims of the hole be brought round and something close together so that the sides be about an inch thick and no more Pour into it and fill it up with liquefied honey and cover it with a broad stone that the Sun may not come at it And when the Vine hath drunk in all that then fill it up again with the like and when that is soaked in too then open the concavity wider and let the Vine grow but you must continually water the tender roots thereof with mans water and you must be sure that you leave no buds or leaves upon the stock that so there may be no other moisture let into it but the whole Vine may grow up as it were in a spring of honey Palladius shews also How to make sweet Almonds of bitter ones even by boring a hole in the middle of the stock and putting into it a woodden wedge besmeared over with honey Sweet Cucumbers may be procured by steeping Cucumber seeds in sweet waters till they have drunk them up for they being planted will produce sweet Cucumbers Theophrastus shews how to make sweet Cucumbers even by the same sleight by steeping their seed in milk or else in water and honey sodden together and so planting them Columella saith that a Cucumber will eat very tender and sweet if you steep the seed thereof in milk before you set it Others because they would have the Cucumber to be the sweeter do steep the seed thereof in honey-water Pliny and Palladius do write the same things of the same fruit out of the same Authors Cassianus hath declared out of Varro how to procure Sweet Artichocks growing You must take the Artichock-seeds and steep them in milk and honey and after you have dryed them again then set them and the fruit will relish of honey So you may procure Sweet Fennel growing For if you steep Fennel-seeds in sweet wine and milk then will the fruit that grows of those seeds be much sweeter Or else if you put the seeds thereof in dry figs and so plant them the like effect will follow So you may procure Sweet Melons as Palladius shews even by steeping the seeds thereof in milk and sweet wine for three dayes together for then if you dry them and set them being so dryed there will grow up a very sweet fruit Likewise you may procure Sweet Lettice for if you water them in the evening with new sweet wine and let them drink for three evenings together as much of that liquor as they will soak up it will cause sweet Lettice as Aristoxenus the Cyrenian hath taught out of Athenaeus So A sweet Radish may be procured by steeping the Radish-seeds for a day and a night in honey or in sodden wine as both Palladius and Florentinus have recorded So you may procure the same by steeping the seeds in new sweet wine or else in the juice of Raisons There is also another device whereby to make sharp or bitter fruits to become sweet and this is by art and cunning in dressing them as by pouring hot water or the Lees of oile or casting soil and such like about their roots As for example when we would make A bitter Almond to become sweet we cast some sharp piercing matter upon the root that by vertue of their heat the Tree may the more easily concoct her moisture and so yield a sweeter fruit Theophrastus saith that if we apply hot and strong soil as Swines-dung or such like to the root of the bitter Almond-tree it will become sweet but it will be three years before the Tree be so changed and for all that time you must use the same husbanding of it Africanus saith If you uncover the roots and apply them still with Urine or with Swines dung then will the fruit be the sweeter The Quintils report of Aristotle that by covering the Almond-tree root with Swines-dung in March of a bitter one it becometh sweet And Palladius useth the very same practise By the same device Sharp and sowre Pomgranate-trees may be made to bring forth a sweet Pomegranate for these also may be changed from sharp and sowre into sweet Aristotle shews in his book of plants that Pomegranate-trees if their roots be applyed with Swins-dung and watered with soom cool sweet liquor the fruit will be the better and the sweeter Theophrastus saith that the roots of a Pomegranate-tree must be applyed with Urine or with the offals and refuse of hides yet not in too great a quantity for the roots of this kind of Tree have need of some sharp matter to knaw upon them and most of all every third year as we said before of the Almond-tree but indeed the Pomegranate-roots are more durable The reason is because of a kind of softnesse in the roots which is peculiar unto them alone Now Swines-dung saith he or somewhat that is of the like operation being cast upon the roots doth sweeten the juice of the Tree as also if you pour on good store of cold water it will work some kind of change thereof Paxamus prescribes this course to dig round about the root of the Tree and to lay
a spung dipped in vinegar and aqua vitae then let it dry which done strew it with unquenched Lime Alome and Salt let it hang so two days in the smoak of Myrrhe Bay Rosemary and Cypress in a dry and open place Then make a mixture of unquenched Lime five pound of burnt Alome one pound good Salt two pound of Aloes and Myrrhe half a pound of Aloes-wood half a pound of the Oyl of Spicknard three onces of the powder of Rosemary-flowers five of burnt Green-brass and Calcanthum two of the best Theriack four of the dust of Cypress half a pound of dryed Saffron one once of the seeds of Coloquintida three and a half of Antimony beaten to powder one and an half of the ashes of Wine-lees five and a half of Musk half a dragm of Amber two Let all be diligently brayed and mixed together and strewed upon the Body which must be for three days together strongly rubbed in an open and dry place This also we admonish that in fat Bodies the fat of the Abdomen Buttocks Hips Muscles of the Leggs thighs and all other places must be first abstracted Things may be also preserved by Balsom But seeing we can compass no true Balsom or if there be any it is exceeding dear we are glad to make artificial Balsoms as we shall shew in due place CHAP. XVI How divers sorts of Bread may be made WE have spoken of preserving fruits and other things It remains to shew how we may use those we have kept Amongst the rest we shall teach you concerning those things that are most necessary for dayly use as for many kinds of Bread Wine Vinegar and Oyls that not onely the Housholder may provide for his family with small cost but when provision is dear he may provide for himself with small pains in Mountains and Desarts of all those things almost we have spoken of But we will begin with Bread and see what our fore-fathers used in case of necessity I shall let pass those common things as Spilt and Bean-corn Amel-corn Typh-wheat Panick Sesamum being all well known But first To make Bread of Wall-nuts Dioscorides saith there is a kind of Thistle commonly found in the waters that onely in Rivers brings forth a certain seed as big as a Ches-nut with three points membranous full of white pith that tastes like Ches-nuts they call them water ches-nuts vulgarly and the Inhabitants use them in meats as they do Ches-nuts Pilgrims make Chapelets of them The Thracians that dwell by the River Strimon fat their horses with this Thistle when it is green and of the same seed they make Bread to eat Moreover in places where they grow amongst us the Inhabitants when provision is dear make Bread of them as at Ferrara they do of Ches-â—uts and the Brutii rost them in the embers and eat them for juncates Almost in the same manner To make Bread of the Lote tree Theophrastus teacheth it The Lote-tree grows in plain ground where the Countries are overflowed with water The fruit is like a Bean naturally but less and more slender That which grows on the head comes forth promiscuously as Beans do many and very thick together When the Sun sets it closeth and opens when he riseth and springs up above the water The head is as great as a Poppy-head where it grows in Euphrates The Egyptians lay those heads on heaps to putrefie and when the shells are putrefied they wash them in a River and part the fruit from them and dry it and break it and make bread of it and eat it Pliny There is also bread made of the seed of it like to Millet seed in Egypt by the Shepherds and they knead it with water especially or with milk They say that nothing is more wholesom then that bread or lighter whil'st it is hot but cold it is harder to digest and becomes heavy It is certain that those who live upon that are never troubled with Dysenteries Tenasmus or any diseases of the belly And therefore it is one of their remedies For it was of old a custom To make bread of Dates which Pliny writes of Dates that are very dry of Thebes and Arabia that are slender and very lean with a continual vapour they are terrified and are covered rather with a Shel then a Skin In Ethiopia it is crumbled so great is the draught and like meal it is made into bread Bread of the Mulberry-figtree In Caria and Rhodes there is a great Fig of Egypt or increase of the Sycamore-tree and in the neighbouring places where there is little wheat the people for want of corn use it for bread and for all bread corn So great and continual plenty is there of that Apple and abundance of bread is made of it pleasing to the stomach but it affords but little nutriment and we might make the same if we would We find it in Writers of husbandry How we may make bread without leaven Out of Didymus some adde Nitre for Nitre makes bread more crumbly as it doth flesh also Some the day before they make their bread cast Grapes into the water and the next day when they will make their bread they take them away for they swim above the water and they press them out and use the moisture pressed forth for leaven and so they make their bread more pleasing If you would have leaven last you all the year when the new wine hath boiled in the vessels Skim off the froth that boils on the top and mingle with it Millet-meal and work it well together and make morsels of it which dry in the Sun and lay up in a moist place and you may take a sufficient quantity and use it for leaven CHAP. XVII Divers sorts of Bread made of Roots and fruits NOw we shall proceed to other kinds of bread found out in our days that are no small profit to us when corn is dear How to make bread of the Roots of Cuckow-pint the root of Wake-Robin when it is not too acrimonious is eaten and desired in meats Dioscorides saith The decoction was drank as not being over sharp Galen That it was eaten as Rape-roots and in some Countries it grows more corroding To prepare it rightly pour out the water of the first boyling and presently cast it into other hot water In Cyrene those Roots are otherwise then amongst us for there it is no Physical root and is not acrimonious at all so that it is more profitable then a Rape-root Also our forefathers when Corn was dear used this Root in meats with great profit Caesar de bello civili Also there is a kind of Root found by them that were with Valerius which is called Chara which mingled with milk releived a Souldier that was hungry and it was made up like to bread There was great plenty of this Root and of it bread was made when those of Pompey his side objected to our Souldiers that they wanted food they would commonly
the Plane-Tree Pliny For want sometimes they are forced to make Oyl for candles of the Plane-tree berries soaked in water and salt but it is very little as I proved Pliny saith the Indians make Oyl of Ches-nuts which I think very difficult for but a little will come from them as you shall find if you try He said also That Gallia Cisalpina made Oyl of Acorns of the Oak to serve for lights but we can make very little Also the Ancients used to make Oyl of Wallnuts that they pressed from the Wallnuts unsavoury and of a heavy taste for if there be any rottenness in the kernel the whole manner is spoil'd Now Gallia Cisalpina makes it for to eat and for lights also For lights by parting the naughty Nuts from the sound but the best serves for to eat at second courses These therefore are to eat and those for lights they burn cleer and there is nothing that yields more Oyl For it turns almost all to Oyl for one pound of cleansed Nuts will yield almost ten ounces of Oyl Now follows Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of sweet Almonds is best for food and of bitter for Physick and of old it was made with great diligence Dioscorides shews the way how half a bushel of bitter Nuts cleansed and dried are pounded in a morter with a wooden pestle into lumpâ— then a sextarius of seething water is poured on and when for half an hour the moisture is drunk in they are beaten more violently then before then is it pressed between boards and what sticks to the fingers is collected with shells The Nuts being pressed again a Hemina of water is sprinkled on them and when they have drank that up they do as before every bushel yields an Hemina With us it is commonly drawn out the same way These are the Oyls of the Antients Now we shall proceed with our Oyls Next follows Oyl of small Nuts They yield abundance of sweet sented excellent Oyl which all may use also for meats one pound of the cleansed Nuts will yield eight ounces of Oyl which former times were ignorant of Oyl of Pistaches serve for Meat and Physicks Out of Pine kirnels Oyl is made They are cull'd and the naughty ones serve for lights but the Oyl that comes from the best is for to eat and for Physick very much is extracted I saw it at Ravenna But Oyl of Beech The best of all is pressed out in abundance for meats and for lights It burns very cleer and tastes as sweet Almonds and the whole Nut almost goes into Oyl as the Wallnut doth The elder the Mast is the more Oyl it yields and the Lees of the Oyl is excellent to far Oxen and Hogs They are soon gathered cleansed bruised and pressed We pressed also Oyl from the bastard Sycomore as they call it for it is abundant in seed and in winter the boughs of it are seen loaded with seed onely In February we collected it and crumbled it the shell is broken into six or seven parts the kernels are like a Pear they are bruised and heated in a pan then put into a press and they yield their Oyl They make clear light in lamps and the seed yields a fourth part of Oyl There is drawn Oyl out of the Sanguine-Tree for lights About the middle of September the ripe berries are taken forth of the clusters let them dry a few days bruise them and let them boyl in water in a brass kettle for one hour then put them into the press you shall have green coloured Oyl about a seventh part of the seed The Mountainous people use it There is pressed Oyl out of the Grapes or Raisins The Greeks call'd these Gigarta Cisalpina Gallia makes oyl of them bruised heat and pressed in a press but it is very little fit for lights because it burns exceeding cleer There is much in Egypt Oyl of Radish-seed made they use it to season their meats and boil it with them But Cisalpina Gallia presseth Oyl out of Radish-seed and Rape-seed Rapes are pulled up onely in Novembâ—r but they are covered with sand together with their leaves They are planten in March that they may seed in May. For unless they be pulled up they freeze with winter cold But there is another kind of Rape that is sowed in July it is weeded it comes forth in the spring in May it yields seed out of a quarter of a bushel of it eighteen pounds of Oyl are drawn it is good for lights and for common people to eat If you sow a whole Acre with this seed you shall have five load of seed and of every load you may make two hundred pounds of Oyl it is onely plow'd and weeded Also Oyl is made of the seed of Cameline It is made for lights but those of Lombardy make great plenty of a golden-coloured Oyl of a seed like to this called Dradella It hath plaited leaves as wild Rochet which they sowe amongst Pulse The same may be said of the seeds of Nettles Mustard Flax Rice CHAP. XXV How a Housholder may provide himself with many sorts of Thread NOw shall I speak of many sorts of Yarn because this may much help the Household for the Houswife hath always need thereof Our Ancestors used Hemp and Flax for thus they made Yarn of Flax yet there needs no example the Thread is so common I will speak of those that follow and of other inventions Pliny Flax is known to be ripe two ways when the seed smells or looks yellow then it is pulled up and bound in handfuls and dried in the Sun letting it hang with the roots upwards for one day Then five of these bundles standing with their tops one against another that the seed may fall in the middle Then after Wheat-harvest the branches are laid in the water that is warm with the Sun they are kept down by some weight and soaked there and again as before turn'd up-side down they are dried in the Sun Then being dried they are bruised on with a flax-hammer that which was next the rind is call'd hard or the worst flax and it is fit for to make weiks for Candles yet that is kemmed with hackes till all the membrans be pilled clean The art of kembing and making of it is out of fifty pound of Flax-bundles to make fifteen pound of Flax. Then again it is polished in Thread it is often beat upon a hard stone with water and when it is woven it is bruised again with Beetles and the more you beat it the better it is Also there is made Thread of Hemp Hemp is excellent for ropes Hemp is plucked up after the Vintage but it is cleansed and pill'd with great labour There are three sorts of it that next the rind is the worst and that next the pith the middlemost is the best which is called Mesa Another To make Thread of Broom It is broken and pull'd from the Ides of May until the Ides in June
and run out with great cries Then may he take away their Gold and chink The reason is Because the Loadstone is melancholick as you may conjecture by the colour of it the fumes whereof rising into the brain will cause those that are a sleep to have melancholick phantasms presented unto them and Coles will do the like The weight Davic with Serpents fat and juice of Metals given to one to drink will make him mad and make him run out of his House Country and Nation and this is doth by exaggeration of black Melancholy or it will make people lunatick and melancholick if they do but hold it in their mouths and by its drawing out of iron Physitians think it will help well to draw an Arrow-head out of ones body But we use the Loadstone in making Glass Pliny After Glass was found out as it is a very cunning invention men were not content to mingle Nitre but they began to add the Loadstone thereunto because it is supposed that it will attract the liquor of the Glass into it self and into iron also Hence it is that in making Glass we add a little piece of Loadstone to it for that singular vertue is confirmed by our times as well as former times it is thought so to attract into it self the liquor of the Glass as it draws iron to it and being attracted it purgeth it and from green or yellowish Glass it makes it white but the fire afterwards consumes the Loadstone Out of Agricola We read also That a Loadstone laid to ones head will take away all the pains Galen saith It hath purging faculties and therefore it is given to drink for the Dropsie and it will draw forth all the water in the Belly Lastly I shall not pass by the error of Hadrian concerning the Loadstone for he saith That the iron by its weight makes the Loadstone never the heavier For the Naturalists report That if a great Loadstone were weighed in a Scale and after that should draw iron to it it would be no heavier then it was when it was alone though they be both together so the weight of the iron is as it were consumed by the Loadstone and hindred by it from any effect or motion which I finde to be false It is like that jear in Aristophanes of a Clown that rid upon an Ass and carried his Coulter at his back that he might not load the Ass too much THE EIGHTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Physical Experiments THE PROEME I Intended to pass by these following Experiments in Physick because I have everywhere mentioned them in my History of Plants and we have not omitted any thing that was certain and secret in them that we knew unless iâ— be such things as could not be brought into that rank And though other things shall be described in my Book of Distillations yet that this place of Physick be not left empty I changed my opinion and have set down some of them here CHAP. I. Of Medicines which cause sleep THat we may in order set down those Experiments of which we intend to speak we will begin with those Diseases which happen in the Head and first with Sleep for Soporiferous Receits are very requisite to be placed amongst these Arcana and are of very great esteem amongst Physitians who by Sleep are wont to cheat their Patients of pain and not of less amongst Captains and Generals when they practice Stratagemes upon their Enemies Soporiferous Medicines do consist for the most part of cold and moist things Plutarch in Simpos saith That Sleep is caused by cold and therefore Dormitives have a cooling quality We will teach first how To cause Sleep with Mandrake Dioscorides saith That men will presently fall asleep in the very same posture wherein they drink Mandrake losing all their senses for three or four hours after and that Physitians do use it when they would burn or cut off a member And skilful men affirm That Mandrake growing by a Vine will transmit its Soporiferous quality into it so that those who drink the Wine that is made thereof shall more easily and readily fall asleep Here we will relate the pleasant stories of the Mandrake out of Authors of Stratagems Junius Frontinus reports That Hannibal being sent by the Charthagenians against some Rebels in Africa and knowing they were a Nation greedy of Wine mixed a great quantity of Mandrake with his Wines the quality of which is between poysonous and sleepy then beginning a light Skirmish he retired on purpose and in the middle of the Night counterfeited a flight leaving some Baggage in his Camp and all the infected Wine Now when those Barbarians had took his Camp and for joy had liberally tasted of that treacherous Wine he returned took and slew them all as they lay dead as it were before Polinaeus the same And Caesar sailing towards Nicomedia was taken about Malea by some Cilician Pirates and when they demanded a great Ransome for his Liberty he promised them double what they asked They arrived at Miletum the people came out of the Town to see them Caesar sent his Servant being a Milesian named Epicrates to those of the Town desiring them to lend him some money which they presently sent to him Epicrates according to Caesar's command brought the money and with it a sumpâ—uous Banquet a Water-pot full of Swords and Wine mixed with Mandrake Caesar paid to the Pirates the promised sum and set the Banquet before them who being exalted with their great Riches fell freely to it and drinking the infected Wine fell into a sleep Caesar commanded them to be killed sleeping and presently repaid the Milesians their own money Demosthenes intending to express those who are bitten as it were by a sleepy Dragon and are slothful and so deprived of sense that they cannot be awakened saith They seem like men who have drunk Mandrake Pliny affirmeth That smelling to the Leaves of it provoketh sleep For the same with Nightshade We may make the same of Nightshade which is also called Hypnoticon from the effect of it a Drachm of the Rinde drank in Wine causeth sleep but gently and kindely This later Age seemeth to have lost the knowledge of Solanum Manicon for in the very description of it Dioscorides seems to be mad But in my judgement as I have elsewhere said he describes two several Plants in that place Fuschius his Stramonium and the Herb commonly called Bell a Donna whose qualities are wonderfully dormitive for they infect Water without giving it either taste or sent so that the deceit cannot be discovered especially considering it must be given but in a very small quantity I prepared a Water of it and gave it to a Friend for certain uses who instead of a Drachm drank an Ounce and thereupon lay four days without meat or motion so that he was thought dead by all neither could he be awakened by any means till at last when the vapours were digested he arose
softness remains which is onely given to fat Hands To make the Hands as white as Milk Take things that are Milk-White as Almonds Pine-Kernels Melon and Gourd-Seeds and the like Therefore bruise bitter Almonds Pine-Kernels and Crums of Bread then make Cakes of them with Barley-water wherein Gum Traganth hath been soaked You may use this for Sope when you wash your Hands for they scowre them and make them white I For the same use oft-times bitter Almonds half a pound put them in hot water to blanch them then beat them in a Marble-Morter Afterwards take the lesser Dragons two ounces Deers Suet and Honey of each as much mingle them all in an earthen Pot with a large mouth set them at the fire and let them be stirred gently with a wooden-stick that they mingle well put it up in Boxes for your use If you will have Your hands white wash fresh Butter nine times in sweet water and last of all in sweet-sented Rose-water to take off the ill smell and that it may look as white as Snow then mingle white wax with it and a good quantity of Oyl of sweet Almonds Then wash your gloves in Greek-Wine as the manner is and smeer on the foresaid mixture put on these when you go to bed that all night they may grow soft by the help of fat things Then take Peach-Kernels with the skins picked off Seeds of Gourds Melons white Poppy Barley-meal of each one ounce and half the juice of two Lemmons rosted in the Embers mingle these with as much Honey as will make them thick as an Oyntment and to make them smell well you may add a little Musk or Civet when you go to bed but in the morning wash them with Fountain-water and for Sope use the Lees of Oyl of Nuts well pressed forth or Lees of Oyl-Olive Others use this Liniment onely Press the Cream out of Lemmon-Seeds with two ounces of it mingle one ounce of Oyl of Tartar and as much Oyl of Almonds When at night you go to bed wash your Hands in Fountain-water dry them and anoynt them with this Liniment and put on your Gloves Take Another For one weeks-time infuse the Marrow of Ox-bones in cold water but change the water four or five times a day and for every pound of Marrow take six excellent Apples and cut them in the middle and cast forth the Seeds and Core then beat them small in a Marble-Morter and put them into a new Morter that they may smell the sweeter adding a few Cloves Cinnamon Spikenard let them boyl in Rose-water When they are all very soft take them forth and strain them and again add a sharp Lixivium and let them boyl at a gentle fire until all the water be washed Then set them up in a Glass-Vessel for your use or make them into morsels That which follows is good For the same Make a hole in a Lemmon and put into it Sugar-Candy and Butter and cover it with the Cover wet Hards of Hemp and wrap it up in and boyl it in hot Embers and that it grow soft by rosting when you go to Bed anoynt your hands with it and put on your Gloves CHAP. XXVIII How to correct the ill sent of the Arm-pits THe stink of the Arm-holes makes some women very hateful especially those that are sat and fleshy To cure this we may use such kinde of Experiments The Ancients against the stink of the Arm-pits used liquid Allome with Myrrh to anoynt them or the Secrets and Arm-holes were strewed with the dry Leaves of Myttles in powder The Roots of Artichoaks smeered on doth not onely cure the ill sent of the Arm-pits but of the whole Body also But Zenocrates promiseth by Experiment That the faultiness of the Arm-pits will pass forth by urine if you take one ounce of the pith of the Root boyled in three Lemina's of Muskadel to thirds and after bathing fasting or after meat drink a cup thereof But I am content with this I dissolve Allome in waters and I wash the Feet and Arm-pits with it and let them dry so in some days we shall correct the strong smell of those parts But it will be done more effectually thus Pown Lytharge of Gold or Silver and boyl it in Vinegar and if you wash those parts well with it you shall keep them a long time sweet and it is a Remedy that there is none better CHAP. XXIX How the Matrix ovar-widened in Child-birth may be made narrower TRotula saith we may honestly speak of this because Conception is sometimes hindred by it if the Matrix be too open and therefore it is fit to lend help for such an impedient For some women have it stand wide-open by reason of their hard labour in Child-birth and if their Husbands be not content with it that the men may not abhor the women it is thus remedied Take Dragons-Blood Bole-Armeniac Pomegranate-shells white of an Egg Mastick Galls of each one ounce powder them and make them all up with hot water Put some of this Confection into the hole that goes into the Matrix Or Galls Sumach Plantain great Comfrey Allome Chamaelaea take equal parts of them all and boyl them in Rain-water and foment the Privities Or beat sowre Galls very finely mingle a little of the Powder of Cloves with them Let them boyl in sharp red Wine wet a woollen cloth in it and apply to the part Or thus may you restrain that part of common whores with Galls Gums whites of Eggs Dragons Blood Acacia Plantain Hypocistis Balanstia Mastick Cypress-nuts Grape-skins Akorn-cups Or in that hollow part where the Glans breaks forth and gaping shews the Nucleus with Mastick and Terra Lemnia If all these be boyled in red Wine or Vinegar and the Matrix be often wet therewith it will come very close and be much straighter Or else powder all these and cast them in through a Reed or make a fume under them Great Comfrey will be excellent for this purpose for flesh boyl'd with it will grow together And the other also if it be boyl'd will very well glew together fresh Wounds The Decoction of Ladies Mantle or the juice or distilled water of it cast into the Matrix will so contract it that Whores can scarce be known from Maids or if they sit in the Decoction of it especially if we mingle other astringent things with it and wet the Secrets therewith The distilled water of Starwort being often injected into the Matrix will make one scarce know which is corrupted and which is not But if you will have A woman deflowred made a virgin again Make little Pills thus Of burnt Allome Mastick with a little Vitriol and Orpiment make them into very fine Powder that you can scarce feel them when you have made them Pills with Rain-water press them close with your fingers and let them dry being pressed thin and lay them on the Mouth of the Matrix where it was first broken open change it every
let it evaporate it will leave behinde it a Tincture enriched with the sent and vertues of the Flowers Tincture of Coral Beat the Coral to Powder and with a vehement fire turn it into Salt add an equal quantity of Salt-Peter to it then extract the Salt with Aqua Vitae and it will bring out with it the Tincture of a wonderful vertue CHAP. XVI How to extract Salts SAlts do retain the greatest part of the Vertue of those things from whence they are extracted and therefore are used to season the sick persons meat and otherways because they have a penetrative quality It was a great Question among the Ancients Whether Salts retained the vertue of the things or whether they lost some in the fire and acquired others but it is row manifested by a thousand Experiments that the vertues do not onely remain in them but are made quicker and more efficacious Salt of Lemmons Distill the Lemmons with their Peels and Juice reserve the Water and dry the rest in the Sun if the season permit it or in an Oven Put them in a Pot close luted and calcine it in igne reverberationis Then dissolve the Powder in the Water and boyl them in a perfect Lye cleanse it with a Feather that the Dregs may settle to the bottom purifie it and let the Liquor evaporate so the Salt will remain in the bottom which is most excellent to break the Stone in the Bladder Salt of Pellitory of Spain Dry the Roots and burn it in a close luted pot for three dayes until it be reduced into white Ashes pour on its own Menstruum distil it and calcine iâ— again so the third time then cleanse it with a Feather boyl it in an earthen vernished Pipkin with the white of an Egg to clarifie the Salt at length a white grained Salt will appear Salt of Cumine Put the Roots Leave and Flowers in a close luted Vessel and dry them and put them into a Potters Furnace till they be burned to Ashes In the mean while distil the Roots Leaves and Flowers or if you please make a decoction of them and of that decoction a sharp Lye which being strained very clean through a Linen-cloth three or four times must be boyled to a Salt in a Glass-Vessel If you desire it very fine and white strow the Salt upon a Marble and set it in a moist place with a pan underneath to receive it as it dissolveth cleanse the filth still away and do this three times until it become of a Chrystal colour so reserve In this manner Sal Alchali is made Of Saxifrage It is made like the former if you season your meat with it it protecteth from all danger of poysoned bread or meat conserveth from the contagion of pestilential and infections Air. The same may be extracted out of other Alexiphatmacal Bodies which Princes may use at meals instead of ordinary Salt for they scarce differ in taste A Salt may be made of Thapsia very good to remove the Stone in the Bladder or Kidneys and to dissolve the Tartar or viscous Concrescency to kill the Worms and purge the Blood to provoke sweat by being often taken and is admirable in Venereal Diseases The Salt of Pimpernel being taken three days and the third month for a mans whole life-time secureth him from the Dropsie Pâ—hisick and Apoplexy It also preserveth from infection and pestiferous Air and helpeth digestion in a weak Stomack But it is to be observed That these Salts must not be eaten every day left they become too familiar to the Stomack and be taken for food There may be a Salt also extracted out of the filings of Lignum Guaiacum which is excellent in the French Pox being taken as the former By these you may learn to make other Salts CHAP. XVII Of Elixirs ELixirs are the Conservators of Bodies in the same condition wherein they finde them for their Vertue is to preserve from corruption not by meliorating their state but by continuing it and if by accident they cure any Diseases it is by reason of their tenuity They have a double Vertue to preserve from sickness and continue health not onely in Men but to preserve Plants also They imitate the qualities of Balsam and resort chiefly to the Heart Brain and principal Parts where the Spirits reside There are three kinds of Elixirs of Metals of Gems and of Plants as of Roots Herbs Flowers Seeds Woods Gums and such-like An Elixir differeth from Essences Tinctures and the rest because it is compounded of many things void of fatness therefore it cannot be an Oyl because it wanteth perspicuity and clearness not an Essence because it is a Compound not a Tincture but a mean between all and of a consistence most like to Water whence it had its name ab eliquesco to be dissolved or liquified To make Elixir of Pimpernel Dig up the Roots in a convenient time and macerate them in their Water putting some weight on them to depress them under Water when the Flowers are blown gather them and macerate them in the same manner in a peculiar Vessel the same must be done with the Seeds Then put them in an Alimbeck and draw out the Water and Oyl until the Foeces remain dry then separate the Oyl from the Water and circulate it in a Pelican for two months then take it out and reserve it for your use An Elixir of many things Many Compositions of Elixir are carried about which are erroneous and false to my knowledge and of so hard a work to extract the Oyl and Water that you will more probably lose your time and cost then gain any good by them for they are made for pomp and magnificence rather then for the benefit of man Besides I have found them often fail in the performance of what was promised from them and cannot be made according to those descriptions But here I will deliver one to you which will perform far more then is promised Take the Flowers of Sage Origanum Mugwort Savory Elder Sage-Leaves white Mint Rosemary Basil Marjoram Peniroyal Rose-buds the Roots of Betony Pellitory Snake-weed white Thistle Aristolochy Elder Cretan-Ditany Currants Pine-Apples Dates Citron-Pill of each an ounce and a half Ginger Cloves Nutmegs Zedoary Galangal white and long Pepper Juniper-berries Spikenard Mace Cubebs Parsley-seed Cardomoms Cinnamon Staechados Germander Granes Rose of Jerusalem Doronicum Ammoniac Opoponax Spodium Schaeinanthus Bdellium Mummy Sagapenum Champhire Mastick Frankincense Aloes Powder of Ebony Bole-Armenick Treacle Musk Galls Mithridate Lignum Aloes and Saffron of each three drachms of clarified Sugar thirteen pounds of Honey two I exclude Pearl Rubies Jacinths Saphires Emeraulds and Leaf-Gold from the Composition because as I have proved before they have no operation especially thus exhibited and therefore are used in Medicines by none but ignorant Physitians Reduce all these into Powder and put them into a Pelican or blinde Alimbeck with twelve pound of Aqua Vitae very well clarified as though
the Birds will be so stupid that they cannot flie but are catch'd with ones hand Or mingle Barley and mushrooms that are so called from flies with the seeds of Henbane and make the pap of it and lay on a board as before To catch Rooks with your hands Powder Nux vomica and mingle it with flesh So also you may make Fish drunk Opian teacheth some ways If you will Make Fish drunk Sow-bread will do it for I said that Sow-bread will make men more drunk His words are Of sow-bread-Sow-bread-Root they make a paste that 's white And fat with which the rocks and holes they smeer The water 's poyson'd by it and the might And force thereof doth spread both far and neer The Fishes fall the Fishes are made blinde And tremble at it for the stinking smell This Root thus ordered alwayes leaves behinde Doth make them drunk as Fishers know full well CHAP. IX The peculiar poysons of Animals are declared DO not think I mean that one poyson can kill all living Creatures but every one hath his several poyson for what is venome to one may serve to preserve another which comes not by reason of the quality but of the distinct nature Would we mention The venoms that kill Dogs Dioscâ—rides saith that white Chamaeleon made up with Barley-Flour will kill Dogs Sows and Mice being wet with water or Oyl Theophrastus saith Dogs and Sows kneaded with water and Oyl but with Coleworts Sows Nux vomica which from the effect is called Dogs Nut if it be filed and the thin filings thereof be given with Butter or some fat thing to a Dog to swallow it will kill him in three hours space he will be astonished and fall suddenly and dies without any noise but it must be fresh that Nature seems to have produced this Nut alone to kill Dogs They will not eat the Fruit of the Ash because it makes pain in their back-bone and hips yet Sows are fatted by it So there is one Plant called Dogs bane Chrysippus saith that Dogs are killed with it if the shoots of it are given to them with water Dogs cole or wilde cole if it be given with Flesh so the fumes of Lead Aristotle in his wonders concerning the Country of the Scythians and Medes saith that there is Barley that men feed on but Dogs and Sows will not endure the Excrements of those that eat it as being poyson to them I say nothing of Aconitum called by Dioscorides Dogs bane I shall say the same Of Wolfs bane Wolfs bane kills Wolfs and many other wild Beasts and it 's so called from the effect Mountebanks make venome thus Take black Hellebore two ounces Yew-leaves one ounce Beech-rinde Glass quick Lime yellow Arsenick of each one ounce and half of sweet Almonds three ounces Honey what may suffice Make pellets as big as a small Nut. Others take Wolfs bane yellow Arsenick and Yew-leaves of each alike and mingle them There are other Herbs that kill Wolfs but I pass them to avoid tediousness Aelian saith By Nilus grows an Herb called Wolfs bane if a Wolf tread on it he dies of convulsions Wherefore the Egyptians forbid any such Herb to be imported into their Country because they adore this Creature There are also Herbs that kill Mice That Aconitum which is called Myoctonon kills Mice a great way off Dioscorides and Nicandor Staves-acre hath almost the same forces whose Root or Seed in powder mingled with Meal and fried with Butter kills Mice if they eat it They are driven away with the Root of Daffodils and if their holes be stopt with it they die The wilde Cucumber and Coloquintida kill Mice If Mice eat Tithymal cut into small slices and mingled with Flour and Metheglin they will be blinde So Chamaeleon Myacanthus Realgar namely of live Brimstone quick Lime and Orpiment will do the same But amongst Wolfs banes is reckoned Libards bane by whose Root powdered and given with flesh they are killed Flesh is strewed with Aconite and Panthers are killed if they taste thereof Their jaws and throat are presently in pain therefore it is called Pardalianches They are killed also by Dogs bane which also they call Pardalianches Lious bane is called Leontophonon it is a little Creature that breeds nowhere but where the Lion is Being taken it is burnt and with the Ashes thereof flesh is strewed and being cast in the high-ways where they meet Lions are killed so Pardalianches kills Lions as well as Panthers Ox bane The juice of black Chamaeleon kills Heifers by a Quinsey wherefore some call it Ulophonon Oxen fear black Hellebore yet they will eat the white Goats bane There is an Herb that from killing Beasts but especially Goats is called Aegolethros The Flowers of it in a watry Spring-time are venome when they wither so that this mischief is not found every yeer Harts bane Some 〈◊〉 First are found in Armenia with the powder of them they scatter Figs strewed with it in the places where wilde Beasts come Beasts no sooner taste of them but they diâ—â— And by this Art are Harts and Bores killed Aelian Horse banes are Aconite Hellebore and red Arsenick Wheezles bane are Sal Ammoniacâ— and Corn moystened with some Liquor scatter this about such places as Wheeâ—les haunt when they eat it they die or flie away Sheeps bane Nardum kills Sheep Dioscorides Cattel and Goats if they drink the water where Rhododendron is steeped will die Pliny and Ononyâ—â—ius an Author nameless Flea-bane kills Goats and Sheep so doth Savin Pigeons bane Sâ—r apio writes that Pigeons are killed when they eat Corn or Beans steept in water wherein white Hellebore hath been infused Hens bane Hens die by eating the Seeds of Broom called Spartum Bats bane 〈◊〉 in Geopon saith they die by the fume of Ivy. Vultures Some Animals are killed by â—ings that smell very sweet to us Vultures by Unguents and black Beetâ—â—â— by Roses The same happens if a man do but anoynt them or give them meat that is smeered with sweet Oyntment Aristotle lib. Mirabil Scorâ—ions bane Aconite called Theliphonum from killing Scorpions Scorpions are stupified by touching it and they wax pale shewing thâ—â— they are conquered The Eagle is killed with Comfrey the 〈◊〉 with the Gall of the Hiaenaâ— the Stare with Garlick-seed the 〈◊〉 with Brimstone the Urcâ—in with Pondweed the Faulcon the Sea-gill the Turtlâ— the black-Bird the Vulture the night-Bird called Scopes perish with Pomegranate Kâ—rneâ— The â—â—â—ling by the Flower of Willows the Grow with Rocket-seed the Bâ—â—tle with sweâ—t Oyntment the Rook with the reliques of flesh the Wolf hath fed on the â—ark by Mustard-seed the Crane by the Vine-juice CHAP. X. Of the venomes for Fishes THe Sea and Rivers use to be infected with some Herbs and other simples whereby the Fishes 〈…〉 those waters are 〈…〉 and die But because they are several foâ— several Fish 〈…〉 the Particulars and the Genâ—â—als that the Fisherman taught by these may invâ—â—â— others
himself Fishes 〈…〉 saith Pliny by the Root the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 called round Birth-wort called also the venome of the Earth This Root they bruise and mingle it with Lime and cast itin to the Sea the Fishes come to it with great delight and are presently killed and float on the waters Dioscorides saith that broad leaved Tiâ—hymal bruised and strewed in the waters kills Fish We use now 〈…〉 Roots of it and with a weight let them down to the bottom of the waters that will be infected by them and kill the Fish presently But in the Sea 〈◊〉 shall sooner kill them thus Mingle Oriental Galls two drâ—chms 〈◊〉 Cheese one ounce Bean-meal three ounces with Aqua Vitae make pelleâ—s of these as big as Chick-peason Cast them into the Sea in the morning before Sun rise after three hours come to the place again and you shall finde all those that tasted of it 〈◊〉 drunk or dead and to appear either on the top or bottom of the Sea which you shall take up with a pole and a hook fastened to it or Fish speer The Aqua Vitae is added because it soon flies to the head The Oriental Galls are poyson that astonisheth them the Bean-meal is not of great concernment This bait invites them and the Cheese smells so that they sent it at a distance CHAP. XI Of other Experiments for hunting NOw I will add some Experiments that seem to be requisite that you may use for necessity when you please To change a Dogs colour Since white Dogs are seldom fit for hunting because they are seen afar off a way is found to change his colour that will be done if you boyl quick Iâ—me with Litharge and paint 〈◊〉 Dog with it 〈…〉 him black That a Dog may not go from you Democrites saith a Dog will never 〈◊〉 from you if you smeer him with Butter from head to tail and give him Butter to â—ick Also 〈…〉 you if you have the secondine of a Bitch close in a 〈…〉 â—mell to it If you â—ould not have Your Dog to bark If you have a Bitches second Membrane or Hares hairs or Dung or Vervain about you In Nilus there is a black stone found that a Dog will not bark 〈◊〉 he see it you must also carry a Dogs Tongue undâ—â— your great 〈◊〉 within your shooe or the dry heart of a dog about you Sextus Or the hair of 〈◊〉 or the Dung Pliny Or cut off the tail of a yong 〈◊〉 and put it under 〈…〉 or 〈◊〉 the Dog a Frog to eat in a piece of meat All these things are to â—â—ep Dogs from barking Nigidius saith that Dogs will all day 〈◊〉 from him who pulls off a tâ—â—k from a Sow and carrieth it a while about him Opâ—an If of 〈…〉 you takes And wâ—â—r it 〈…〉 dogs will 〈◊〉 for sake As frighted they will flie and 〈…〉 Bark at you though they barked much before That a Dog may not run If you anoynt him with Oyl under the shoulders he cannot run To make a Hawke 〈…〉 You shall animate your Hawk against 〈◊〉 prey thaâ— he may assail and flee at great Birds When you hawk wet the Hawks meat with Wine If it be a Buzzard add a little Vinegar to it when you would have him 〈◊〉 a give him three bits of flesh wet in wine or pour Wine in at his mouth with a yong Pidgeon so let him flie To make Partridge more bold to fight Give then 〈…〉 with their meat Pliny That dung-hill 〈◊〉 fight the better Give them Garlick to eat soon before theâ— fight whence in the old Comedy a Cock ready and earnest to fight is wittily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fed with Garlick 〈◊〉 a Bird may not the high Take out the Feathers of 〈…〉 that make him flie upwards so he will whirl about and flie downward If you will have That a Bird shall not flie cut the upper and lower nerves of his Wings and it will not hurt him yet he cannot flie out of your Bird-cages or places you keep them in THE SIXTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Wherein are handled secret and undiscovered Notes THE PROEME I Make two sorts of secret marks which they vulgarly call Syfers one of visible marks and is worthy of a treatise by it self another of secret marks whereof 〈…〉 tempted to say something in this present Volume 〈◊〉 what are the consequâ—â—â— thereof for the use of great Men and Princes that 〈…〉 than 〈…〉 man that knows the invention I shall set down plainly some examples 〈…〉 consequences of them must 〈◊〉 faithfully concealed lest by growing 〈◊〉 amongst ordinary people they be disrespecteâ—â— This is that I shall publish CHAP. I. How 〈…〉 in diver◠〈…〉 be reâ—â— THere are many anâ— almost infinit 〈◊〉 write things of necessity that the Charactâ—â— shall not 〈…〉 â—ou dip them into waters or put them neer the 〈…〉 them over 〈…〉 are read by dipping them into waters Therefore If you desire that letters not 〈…〉 are 〈◊〉 may be hiâ—â— Let Vitriol soak in boyling water when 〈…〉 strain it 〈◊〉 till the water grow clear with that liquor write 〈…〉 are dry they 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 Moreover grindâ— burnt straw 〈…〉 â—â—egar and 〈◊〉 will write 〈◊〉 the spaces between the foâ—â—er liâ—â—s describâ—â— large Then 〈…〉 Galls in white Wine wet a spunge in the liquor 〈◊〉 when you have need 〈…〉 and weâ— the letters so long until the native black 〈◊〉 disappear but the former colour that was not seen may 〈…〉 I will 〈◊〉 in what liquors paper must be soaked to make letters 〈◊〉 be see 〈…〉 said Dissolve Vitriol 〈…〉 then powder Galls finely and soak them inâ—â—ter let them stay there twenty four hours filtre them through 〈◊〉 cloth 〈…〉 that may make the water clear and make letters upon 〈…〉 to have concealed send it to your Friend absent when you would have 〈◊〉 appear dip them in the first liquor and the letters â—ill presenâ—â—y be seen That diâ—â—â—ng 〈◊〉 lineâ—â—â— water 〈◊〉 may appear Dissolve Alom in water and 〈…〉 linen 〈◊〉 napkins and the like for when they are dry they will 〈…〉 When you will have them visible 〈…〉 linen 〈…〉 to be darkned but only where the Alom 〈…〉 that you may read them 〈…〉 are dissolved those parts will admit water 〈◊〉 White 〈…〉 Litharge is first powdered and cast into an earthen pot that hath water and vinegar mix'd boyl it and strain it and keep it then write letters with Citron Lemons juce these are added to them when they begin to dry If you dip them in the liquor kept they will appear clearly and very white If womens brests or hands be wet in it and you sprinkle the said water upon them they will grow white as Milk Use it If at any time you want 〈◊〉 if you please A stone dipped in vinegar will shew the letters Make letters with Goats far upon a stone when they are dry they will not be seen If the stone be dipâ— into 〈◊〉 they presently
no place for the air to come in and that were against the second axiom wherefore by reason of vacuum and because the body is no heavior it falls not into the bowl beneath But should one make a hole in the bottom of the vessel A that the air might come in no doubt the water would not fall down into the bazon Also if the vessel A B were filled with any â—ight liquor and the broad bazon with one that is heavior they would not stir from their places Let therefore the vessel A B be filled with wine and the mouth of it turned downwards into a bazon full of water I say both liquors will keep their places and will not mingle for should the wine descend either vacuum must needs be in the body A or a heavy body must ascend out of the vessel C D which would be against the Nature of Gravity and the second axiom namely that heavy should ascend and light descend wherefore they will not remove from their places Hence comes that which is often done by great drinkers and gluttons who pour by drops into a cuphalf full of water so much wine as will fill the cup they come so close together that onely a line parts those liquors And those that would sooner cool their wine they dip a Vial full of wine into a vessel full of water with the mouth turned downward and hold it down under the water for when the water toucheth the superficies of the wine they cannot mingle and the wine grows sooner cool though it is necessary that the Vial should be lifted up to the superficies of the water and suddenly turned about poured forth and drank then fill them again and set in the bottle as before From this advantage I complain of those who first drink water then pour in wine for wine being the lighter and water the heavior they can hardly mingle wherefore some drink at first the strongest wine then mingled and last of all water At great mens Tables they first bring wine in a Glass then they pour in water that the water by its weight may mingle with the wine and get to the bottom and tast equally Theophrastus bids men first pour in wine then water CHAP. II. How we may by drinking make sport with those that fit at Table with us VVHen friends drink together if we would by such a merry deceit delude the guests that are ignorant of the cause hereof we may provoke them to drink with such a Cup Let there be a great Cup made like a tunnel let the mouth be broad above and beneath narrow Pyramidally and let it be joyn'd to a Glass-Ball by a narrow mouth First pour in water till the whole Ball be filled then put in wine by degrees which by reason of the narrowness of the mouth will not mingle and the water is heavy and the wine lighter He that drinks first shall drink the wine then give it your frind to drink for he shall drink nothing but water But if your friend shall challenge you to drink thus with him and will have you drink first fill the Ball of the Cup with wine and pour water upon it and stay awhile and hold him in discourse for the water will sink down by the narrow mouth and the wine by degrees will ascend as much and you shall see the wine come up through the middle of the water and the water descend through the middle of the wine and sink to the bottom so they change their places when you know that the water is gone down and the wine come up then drink for you shall drink the wine and your friend shall drink the water Hence it is that to great inconvenience of those that drink it when we plunge our wine into a well in vessels of earth or brass ill stopt to cool it the water being the heavior comes in at the least chink and forceth out the wine so in a little time the vessel is full of water and the wine is gone that there is not the least taste of wine in it wherefore stop the mouth very close CHAP. III. How to part wine from water it is mingled with FRom these I shall easily shew two things that a heavy body shut up in a Glass vessel having the mouth of it put within a lighter liquid body they will mutually give place the lighter will ascend the heavior will descend and that without any hindrance one of the other which I shall demonstrate from the former principals Let the Glass be turned downwards and full of water be A B the water is heavior than the wine Let the mouth of it B be put into the vessel C D that is full of wine These are bodies that will mutually yield one to the other as I shewed I say the water will descend into the vessel C D and the wine will ascend into the vessel A B where the water was before For the water because it was contain'd in the vessel A B it being heavy presseth the wine in the vessel C D that is lighter and because there is no body between them the water descends on one side into the vessel C D and the wine ascends on the other side into the vessel AB Now if the wine be red that you may see the difference or their colours you shall see the wine ascend through the middle of the water as far as he bottom of the upper vessel that is put downward into the other and the water to descend hastily to the bottom of the vessel C D and one descend as low as the other riseth high and if the liquors cannot be seen distinguished yet one goes without any hindrance of the other and without mingling into its own place and it will be a pleasant sight to behold the wine going up and the water falling down and when they rest they will be so well parted that not the least wine can remain with the water nor water with the wine Wherefore if you put into a Hogshead full of wine a long neck'd Glass full of water in a short time the vessel turned downwards will be full of wine and the water will go down into the Hogshhad By this any man may easily conjecture How to part water from wine because oft-time Country people and Vintagers use deceit and bring wine mingled with water to be sold to the Merchant we may easily prevent their craft by this Art Let there be underneath a vessel filled with wine that is mixed with water and we would separate the water from the wine But first there must be a vessel that can receive all the wine that is mingled in the other vessel and if we know not the quantity we must conjecture at it how much it may be of something less then fill the said vessel with water and set it with the mouth downwards on the other vessel that is full of wine and water mingled together and let the upper part of the
vessel turned downwards touch the upper part of the lower liquor that no Air may enter for then the water will presently descend into the vessel underneath and the lighter part of the mingled liquor will ascend and the water will sink down and if it be all wine it will all ascend no wine will stay with the water if any thing stay behind you must know that so much water was mingled with the wine which may easily be known by the smell and taste if you do it as it should be done Then take a vessel that will hold more of the same liquor and put it into a vessel underneath till it takes it all in whence by the proportion of the wine ascended and of the water any man may know easily how much water is mingled with the wine But for convenience let the Vial that shall hold the water be of a round belly and the hole not very great and let the vessel under that contains the wine have a narrow mouth that the upper round mouth may the better joyn with the undermost and no Air come in But because it happeneth oft that the upper Ball when it hath drank in all the wine the wine will not fill it and we would part the water from the wine take therefore the round Glass in your hand and turn it about with the mouth upwards then will the wine presently turn about and come uppermost which may be a tongue laid in be all call'd forth Be careful to see when the wine is all drawn out remove the tongue and the water will remain pure CHAP. IV. How otherwise you may part water from wine I Can do this another way not by levity and gravity as I said but by thinness and thickness for water is the thinnest of all liquors because it is simple but wine being coloured and colour comes from the mixture of the Elements it is more corpulent Wherefore to part wine from water we must provide a matter that is full of holes and make a vessel thereof into which the wine poured with the water may drean forth for the water will drean forth through the pores of the matter that is opened by a minglâ—â— and corpulent body And though many kinds of wood be fit yet Ivy is the best because it is full of pores and chinks wherefore if you make a vessel of Ivy wood that is green and pour into it wine mingled with water the water will in a short time drean out Yet I see that all the Antients and modern Writers thought the contrary yet both reason and experience are against them For Gaeto saith If you would know whether there be water put to your wine make a vessel of Ivy put your wine you think is mixed with water into it if there be any water the wine will run forth and the water stay behind for an Ivy vessel will hold no wine And Pliny from him The Ivy is said to be wonderful for proof of wine If a vessel be made of Ivy-wood the wine will run forth and the water will stay behind if any were mingled with it Whereupon both of them are to be noted for a two sold error because they say it comes from the wonderful faculty of the Ivy whereas every porous wood can do the same Again he saith that the wine will run forth and the water stay behind whereas it is the contrary But Democritus thought what was truest and more probable who used not an Ivy vessel but one full of holes saith he they pour it into a new earthen pot not yet seasoned and hang it up for two days the pot saith he will leak if any water be mingled with it Democritas used another Art for the same purpose Some stop the mouth of the vessel with a new Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth if there be water in it onely the water will run forth which experiment also he useth in Oyl For the Spunge is full of holes and open enough and being dipt in Oyl that hinders that the liquor cannot run forth so easily Africanus adds another reason Put liquid Alom into a vessel of wine then stop the mouth with a Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth for nothing but the water will run out For the Alom binds the liquors that they drean forth very slowly CHAP. V. Another way to part a light body mingled with a heavy I Have another Art to seperate a light body from a heavy or wine from water or by another way Make a linnen tongue or of bombast and dip it into the vessel where wine is mingled with water and let the tongue swim above without the liquor and ascend above it and so hang pendulous out of the vessel for the lighter liquor will ascend by the tongue and drop on the outside but when the lighter ascends it attracts the heavy also wherefore when you see the colour change take the vessel away for the water runs forth It is evident that the wine being lighter will always ascend to the top of the vessel and run forth by the tongue though all Vintners say the contrary that the water will run forth by the tongue and that the wine will stay within CHAP. VI. How light is mingled in heavy or heavy in light VVE can easily know whether any light matter is mingled with heavy or any heavy matter with light And I will expound the manner out of Archimedes his Book concerning thingâ— that swim above water the cause whereof is that if Wood stone or any heavy Metal be equal in weight to the same quantity of water the utmost superficies oâ— the body will be equal with the superficies of the water if it weigh heavior it will sink to the bottom if it be lighter the lighter it is then the water so much of it will swim above the watâ—â— Since therefore this is true and wine is heavior then water one and the same thing will sink more in wine than in water and in thicker water the less Wherefore vessels are more drown'd in River than in the Sea for Sea-water is thicker and more heavy by reason of its salt mingled with it as also we have it in Alexander If therefore you would know Whether water be mingled with wine Put the wine you suspect to be mingled with water into some vessel and put an Apple or Pear into it if the Apple sink the wine is pure but if it floâ—e the wine hath water mingled with it because water is thicker than wine Which Democritus saith is contrary and false He saith it is necessary sometimes to commit the Care of the wine of new wine to Stewards and Servants also the Merchant hath the like reason to try whether his wine be pure They use to cast an Apple into the vessel but wilde Pears are the best others cast in a Locust others a Grashopper and if they swim it is pure wine but
brass Cauldron that will hold much water fill it with salt water after that the Urinals and putting on their caps when fire is put under both the Urinals will drop and the cap that contains others by its pipe will drop out water also for the vapors rising from the Cauldron of hot water will make the Urinals drop and the cap will drop withal But if at Sea the commodity of such a vessel cannot be had We may Distil salt water otherwise though but little Dioscorides shews the old way of distillation we may that way distil sea water in ships which Pliny shews also Fleeces of wool extended about the ship are made wet by the vapors rising from the Sea and sweet water is pressed out of them But let us see whiter Salt water may be made fresh another way Aristotle saith it and Solomon before him That all Rivers came from the Sea and return to the Sea for by the secret passages under ground the waters that are sent forth leave their earthly and dry parts mixed with the earth and they come forth pure and sweet He saith The cause why the salt water comes not forth is because it is ponderous and settles and therefore onely hot-hot-waters of salt-salt-waters can run forth for they have a lightness that oversways the weight of the salt for what is hot is lightest Adde that waters running through the earth are much strained and therefore the heavior and thicker they are the more do they continually sink down and are left behind and the lighter they are the more pure do they come forth and are severed For as Salt is heavy so sweet water is light and so it comes that they are sweet waters that run forth This is the very cause why salt-water when it moves and is changed is made the sweeter for motion makes it lighter and purer Let us see now if we can imitate Nature Fill then great vessels with earth and set them so one above another that one may drean into another and thus salt-water dreaning through many vessels may leave the salt behinde I tried it through ten vessels and it remain'd still salt My friend said that he made it sweet through twenty vessels Yet thus I thought to warn you of that all earth is not fit for this use Solinus saith That sea-water strain'd through clay will grow sweet and it is proved that the salt is taken away if you strain it often through thin sand of a River Earth that lies in covered places and under roots is naught for that is commonly salt as also where Cattle are sâ—alled which Columella saith is naught for Trees for that it makes salt-water what is strain'd from it Black earth is naught for it makes the waters sharp but clay grounds make sweet waters Paxamus Anaxagoras said That the saltness of the sea came from the Rivers running through salt places and communicating that quality to the sea Some approve River-gravel for this use and their reason is because always sweet waters are found by the shores and they say this happens because they are strain'd through the sand and so grow fresh coming from the salt-sea for the sweet water that is found neer the sea is not of the sea but such water as comes from the tops of hills through the secret channels of the earth thither For waters that drean forth sweet are sweet though they lye even with the sea and in plain places as Apuila where the waters drean not from the hills they are salt So on the shores of Africa But Aristotle brings an experiment from a vessel of wax for if one make a Ball of wax that is hollow and shall dip it into the sea it being of a sufficient thickness to contain he shall finde it full of fresh water because the corpulent saltness cannot get in through the pores of the wax And Pliny by letting down little nets into the sea and hollow balls of wax or empty vessels stopt saith they will draw in fresh water for sea-water strain'd through clay will grow fresh But I have found this to be false For I have made pots of clay as fine and well as I could and let them down into salt-water and after some days I found salt-water in them Also if it were true it is of no use when as to sweeten one pound of water a thousand Balls of wax a day were not sufficient But for this many vessels might be invented of porous wood and stones A vessel of Ivy that parts as I said wine from water will not part salt from water if it drean through it But stones are brought from Portingal made into vessels into which sea water put will drean forth sweet if not the first yet the second time they use it to break the stone also for that many pumex and porous stones may be tried Leo Baptista Albertus saith That an earthen pot well stopt and put into the sea will fill with potable water But I have tried all earthen vessels and I always found salt-water Aristotle in his Problems saith It may be done Another way If salt-water cannot be drank cold yet hot and cool again it is better to drink It is because a thing useth to change from contrary to contrary and salt-salt-water is contrary to fresh and when it is boil'd the salt part is boil'd off and when it is cold stays at the bottom This I tried and found it false and more salt for by heat the thin vapors of the water that are sweet exhale and the salt stay behinde and in lesser water the same quantity of salt makes it salter as I said in my distillations I wonder such a wise man would relate such falsities Florentinus borrowing it from him saith If water be not good nor poâ—able but ill let it be boiled till a tenth part of it be consumed then purge it and it will be good For sea-water so boil'd will grow sweet Let me see whether it can be made so Another way and that in great quantity There is a thing that being cast into large vessels filled with sea-water by fastning the salt will make it fall to the bottom or by curdling it and so it frees the water from it Wherefore we must think on things that have a stiptick quality the Antients tried this the Moderns have effected it Pliny Nitrous of bitter waters if you put Barley-flower dried to them they are tempered that you may drink of them in two hours therefore is Barley-flower put into wine sacks and elswhere Those that go to the Red-sea through the Desarts make nitrous and salt and bitter waters fit to drink in two hours by putting in of Barley-meal and they eat Barley-meal The like force hath the Chalk of the Rhodes and our Clay Also Cooks with Catlings and Meal of Wheat will take salt out of very salt meaâ— I tried this oft but found it false yet some of the saltness was taken away Pliny If you must drink ill
Chap 13 The fifteenth Book Of Fishing Fowling Hunting c. VVHat meats allure divers animals Chap 1 How living creatures are drawn on with the baits of love Chap 2 Animals called together by things they like Chap 3 What noises allure Birds Chap 4 Fishes allured by light in the night Chap 5 By Looking glasses many creatures are brought together Chap 6 Animals are congregated by sweet smells Chap 7 Creatures made drunk catcht with hand Chap 8 Peculiar poysons of Animals Chap 9 Venomes for Fishes Chap 10 Experiments for hunting Chap 11 Tee sixteenth Book Of invisible Writing HOw a writing dipt in divers liquors may be read Chap 1 Letters made visible in the fire Chap 2 Letters rubâ—d with dust to be seen Chap 3 To write in an egge Chap 4 How you may write in divers places and deceive one that can reade Chap 5 In what place Letters may be inclosed Chap 6 What secret messengers may be used Chap 7 Messengers not to know that they carry Letters nor to be found about them Chap 8 Characters to be made that at set days shall vanish Chap 9 To take off Letters that are written on paper Chap 10 To counterfeit a Seal and Writing Chap 11 To speak at a great distance Chap 12 Signs to be made with fire by night and with dust by day Chap 13 The seventeenth Book Of Burning-glasses and the wonderful sights by them REpresentations made by plain Glasses Chap 1 Sports with plain Looking-glasses Chap 2 A Looking-glass called a Theatrecal-glass Chap 3 Operations of Concave glasses Chap 4 Mixt operations of plain Concave glasses Chap 5 Other operations of a Concave-glass Chap 6 How to see in the dark Chap 7 An Image may be seen to range in the air Chap 8 Mixtures of Glasses and divers operations of Images Chap 9 Effects of a Leuticular Crystal Chap 10 Spectacles to see beyond imagination Chap 11 To see in a Chamber things that are not Chap 12 The operations of a Cristal-pillar Chap 13 Burning-glasses Chap 14 A Parabolical Section which is of Glasses the most burning Chap 15 That may burn obliquely and at very great distance Chap 16 That may burn at infinite distance Chap 17 A Burning-glass made of many spiritural Sections Chap 18 Fire kindled more forcible by refraction Chap 19 An Image to be seen by a hollow Glass Chap 20 How Spectacles are made Chap 21 Foils are laid on Concave glasses and how they are banded Chap 22 How Metal Looking-glasses are made Chap 23 The eighteenth Book Of Things heavy and light THat heavy things descend and light ascend in the same degree Chap 1 By drinking to make sport with those that sit at table Chap 2 To part wine from water it is mingled with Chap 3 Another way to part water from wine Chap 4 To part a light body from a heavy Chap 5 To mingle things heavy and light Chap 6 Other ways to part wine from water Chap 7 The â—evity of water and air different and what may be wraught thereby Chap 8 The ninteenth Book Of Wind-Instruments VVHether material Statues may speak by an Artificial way Chap 1 Musical-Instruments made with water Chap 2 Experiments of Wind-Instruments Chap 3 A Description of Water-hour-glasses Chap 4 Of a Vessel casting forth water by reason of air Chap 5 How to use the air in many Arts Chap 6 The twentieth Book Of the Chaos HOw water may be made Potable Chap 1 To make water of air Chap 2 To alter the face that ones friends shall not know him Chap 3 That stones may move alone Chap 4 An Instrument whereby to hear at great distance Chap 5 To augment weight Chap 6 The wonderful proporties of the Harp Chap 7 To discover frauds in Impostors that work by natural means and pretend conjuration Chap 8 Experiments of a Lamp Chap 9 Some mechanical Experiments Chap 10 FINIS
wherein if a man make a gutter with a staff he shall see Rivers of fire run therein The like things are reported of waters For seeing they passe under the earth through veins of allum pitch brimstone and such like hence it is that they are sometimes hurtful and sometimes wholsome for the body There are also many kinds of water and they have divers properties The River Himera in Sicily is divided into two parts that which runs against Aetna is very sweet that which runneth through the salt vein is very salt In Cappadocia betwixt the Cities Mazaca and Tuava there is a Lake whereinto if you put reeds or timber they become stones by little and little and are not changed from stones again neither can any thing in that water be ever changed In Hierapolis beyond the River Maeander there is a water that becomes gravel so that they which make water-courses raise up whole banks thereof The Rivers Cephises and Melas in Boeotia if cattel drink of them as they do continually to make them conceive though the dams be white yet their young shall be russet or dun or coal-black So the sheep that drink of the River Peneus in Thessaly and Astax in Pontus are thereby made black Some kinds of waters also are deadly which from the poisonous juice of the earth become poisonous as the Well of Terracina called Neptunius which kills as many as drink of it and therefore in old times it was stopt up And the Lake Cychros in Thracia kills all that drink of it and all that wash themselves with it In Nonacris a Country of Arcady there flow very cold waters out of a stone which are called the water of Styx which break to pieces all vessels of silver and brasse and nothing can hold them but a Mules hoof wherein it was brought from Antipater into the Country where Alexander was and there his Son Jolla killed the King with it In the Country about Flascon the way to Campania in the field Cornetum there is a Lake with a Well in it wherein seem to lie the bones of Snakes Lysards and other Serpents but when you would take them out there is no such thing So there are some sharp and sowre veins of water as Lyncesto and Theano in Italy which I sought out very diligently and found it by the way to Rome a mile from Theano and it is exceeding good against the Stone There is a Well in Paphlagonia whosoever drinks of it is presently drunken In Chios is a Well that makes all that drink of it sottish and senslesse In Susa is a Well whoso drinks of it loseth his teeth The water of Nilus is so fertile that it makes the clods of earth to become living creatures In Aethiopia is a Well which is so cold at noon that you cannot drink it and so not at midnight that you cannot touch it There are many other like Wells which Ovid speaks of Ammons Well is cold all day and warm both morning and evening the waters of Athamas set wood on fire at the small of the Moon there is a Well where the Cicones inhabit that turneth into stones all that toucheth it or drinks of it Crathis and Sybaris make hair shew like Amber and Gold the water of Salmax and the Aethiopian Lakes make them mad or in a trance that drink of it he that drinks of the Well Clitorius never cares for wine after the River Lyncestius makes men drunken the Lake Pheneus in Arcady is hurtful if you drink it by night if by day it is wholesome Other properties there are also of places and fountains which he that would know may learn out of Theophrastus Timaeus Possidonius Hegesias Herodotus Aristides Meirodorus and the like who have very diligently sought out and registred the properties of places and out of them Pliny Solinus and such Writers have gathered their books CHAP. XVIII That Compounds work more forcibly and how to compound and mix those Simples which we would use in our mixtures NOw we will shew how to mix and compound many Simples together that the mixture may cause them to be more operative Proclus in his book of Sacrifice and Magick saith That the antient Priests were wont to mix many things together because they saw that divers Simples had some property of a God in them but none of them by it self sufficient to resemble him Wherfore they did attract the heavenly influences by compounding many things into one whereby it might resemble that One which is above many They made images of sundry matters and many odors compounded artificially into one so to expresse the essence of a God who hath in himself very many powers This I thought good to alleadge that we may know the Ancients were wont to use mixtures that a compound might be the more operative And I my self have often compounded a preservative against poison of Dragon-herbs the Dragon-fish Vipers and the stone Ophites being led therein by the likenesse of things The herb Dragon-wort both the greater and smaller have a stalk full of sundry-coloured specks if any man eat their root or rub his hands with their leaves the Viper cannot hurt him The Dragon-fish being cut and opened and laid to the place which he hath stung is a present remedy against his sting as Aetius writes The Viper it self if you flay her and strip off her skin cut off her head and tail cast away all her intrails boil her like an Eele and give her to one that she hath bitten to eat it will cure him or if you cut off her head being alive and lay the part next the neck while it is hot upon the place which she hath bitten it will strangely draw out the poyson Many such compound medicines made of creatures living on the earth in the water in the air together with herbs and stones you may find most wittily devised in the books of Kirannides and Harprocration But now we will shew the way and manner how to compound Simples which the Physitians also do much observe Because we would not bring forth one effect only but sometimes have use of two or three therefore we must use mixtures that they may cause sundry effects Sometime things will not work forcibly enough therefore to make the action effectual we must take unto us many helps Again sometime they work too strongly and here we must have help to abate their force Oft-times we would practice upon some certain member as the head the heart or the bladder here we must mingle some things which are directly operative upon that part and upon none else whereby it falleth out that sometimes we must meddle contraries together But to proceed When you would do any work first consider what is the chief thing which your simple or compound should effect then take the ground or foundation of your mixture that which gives the name to your compound and let there be so much of it as may proportionably work your intent for
this their counterfeit practise hath been derected by this chance that the hair of a horses skin being galled off in any place after a while hoary hairs have grown up there of themselves and it is not unlikely but that this chance taught them that practise The manner of the doing it is first to shave off the hair in that place where you would have a white spot and then rub off or cut the upper skin and so you shall there have a white patch But Oppianus speaking of the same experiment shews that it is to be done by fire There be some Horses saith he that are full of white round spots intermingled with their black colour it cometh by the industry of the Horse-breeder who when they are yet tender and young cunningly burns off their hair with an hot iron But on the contrary if you would have The hairs of a wounded or galled place to grow up of the same colour as the other hair is of Tiberius hath taught the way how to do it You must knead three pints of bruised or ground barley and put to it the froth of nitre and a little salt and make it into loaves then you must put them into an Oven till they are burned to coals afterward crush them and beat them to powder and then mix them with oyle and anoint the sore or the scar therewith and this you must do for twenty daies But what should be the reason that this barley ashes should cause not white hairs but the like in colour to the rest to grow upon the scars or sores of horses whereupon it is cast that Alexander Aphrodisaeus ascribes to this because barley hath in it a purgative and cleansing force and so wasteth and expelleth the humors and all the naughty stuff that was gathered by the sore into that part because it was maimed and consequently not so well able to relieve it self Neither yet will I here omit that toyish experiment whereby we may Procure in Oxen a counterfeit shew of fatnesse If you take an Oxe well grown in years and make a hole into his thigh and blow wind thereby into him and afterward give him meat he will shew fat though indeed he be very lean We may also by giving them some kind of water to drink Cause the fleeces and hides of cattel to be of divers colours as Aelianus sheweth The River Crathis affords one channel that makes beasts white for Oxen and Sheep and all four-footed beasts as Theophrastus saith as soon as they drink of it become white though before they were red or black In Euboea all for the most part are white Oxen by nature Sheep by reason of the diversity of mater which they drink do diversly change their colour the force and nature of the Rivers working this change in them especially at every ramming time Some are turned from black to white and contrariwise some are turned from white to black these alterations are commonly seen neer to the River Antandrus and neer also to a certain River in Thracia The River Scamander which is neer unto Troy makes as many Sheep as drink of the water thereof to become yellow We may also conjecture and foresee by certain outward bodily signs in the Dam or Sire What colour their young ones will be of To foreknow the colour of young Mules we must take special example of the hairs of their Dams ears and eye-lids for howsoever the rest of their body is of one and the same colour yet in those two parts we may discern so many and such colours as the foal shall have as Columella writeth So if you look under the Rams tongue you shall there find certain veins which if they be black then will the Lambs be black also but if they be white then he hath begotten white Lambs for look what colour these veins are of with the same colour will the fleece of the Lambe be overspread insomuch that if there be sundry colours in them there will be also sundry like colours upon the Lambes as Aristotle Democritus and Didymus do witnesse Now how we may Know by the egge whether the chick when it is hatcht will be a Cock or a Hen Aristotle teacheth us for saith he if the egge be exactly round then it will yield a Cock-chicken but if it be somewhat long then it yields an Hen-bird the reason is because in things that are round the natural heat is more kindly and strongly compacted together How to make a bird sociable and familiar with thee Now we will speak of the sociablenesse and familiarity which a certain Pie had with a friend of mine who by this pretty device did make the Pie so well acquainted with him and so serviceable to him that she would flie unto him not only for the supplying of her daily wants but as it were for love never forsaking him night or day The device was this While she was yet unfeathered in the nest he broke off her lower beak even to her very jaws that the poor wretch could not eat any meat but that which was put into her mouth with hands and he himself gave her with his own hands all the meat she did eat After that she would flie to his trencher at dinner and supper and would prate and chat unto him very flippant insomuch that nothing could be spoken in the house but she would imitate it and speak it again and not only frame her tongue to their words but her body also to the imitating and resembling of their actions And he was wont still to leave her loose at home and she would flie about everywhere but still at dinner and supper times she would return home It fell out that the man had occasion to go from home fifteen or sixteen days journey she would alwayes bear him company now and then flying a great way before him and would sit still upon a bough till he came at her and then she would leap upon his cap and his shoulders frisking about him for very joy and sometimes staying behind him and then when he was gone a great way before she would in all haste flie away after to overtake him and she was also his continual bed-fellow and yet to this day he hath her and enjoyeth her familiar company But concerning the general transmutation and change of living creatures let these things be sufficient which we have already spoken THE THIRD BOOK OF Natural Magick Which delivereth certain precepts of Husbandry and sheweth how to intermingle sundry kinds of Plants and how to produce new kinds The PROEME WE have rehearsed concerning divers kinds of new living Creatures now shall I speak of Plants which ravish with admiration the eyes and minds of those that contemplate on them with their abundant pleasantnesse and wonderful Elegancy These bring more profit and by these a natural Philosopher may seem more admirable For use made with the earth is more honest and honourable then with other things and the
scope to swim upon the top of the Wine for by this means shall you keep your fruit fresh and good for a long time and besides the wine wherein they float will have a very fragrant savour Likewise Apples being shut up close and then put into Cisterns will last long As Palladius sheweth You must put your apples saith he into earthen vessels well pitched and made up close and when you have so done drown those vessels in a Cistern or else in a pit Pliny putteth apples in earthen Basons and so lets them swim in wine for saith he the wine by this means will yield a more odoriferous smell Apuleius saith that Apples are to be put into a new pot and the pot to be put into a Hogs-head of wine that there it may swim and play on the top of the wine for so the Apples will be preserved by the wine and the wine will be the better for the Apples So Figs being shut up close may be drowned for their better preservation As Africanus affirmeth They take figs saith he that are not very ripe and put them into a new earthen vessel but they gather them with their tails or stalks upon them and lay them up every one in a several cell by it self and when they have so done they put the vessel into an Hogs-head of wine and so preserve their figs. I have also proved it by experience that Peaches being shut up in wooden Cisterns have been well preserved by drowning And I have proved 〈◊〉 also in other kinds of Apples that if they be shut up in a small vessel that is very well pitched on the utter side and so drowned in the bottom of a Cistern of water and kept down by some weights within the water that it may not float they may be preserved many moneths without any putrefaction By a sleight not much unlike to this Pomegranates may be preserved in a Pipe or But that is half full of water as Palladius sheweth You must hang up your Pomegranates within the But yet so that they must not touch the water and the But must be shut up close that the wind may not come in And as fruit may be thus preserved if the vessels be drowned in water or other liquor so there are some of opinion that if you hide those vessels underneath the ground you may by this means also eschew the danger of the alterations that are in the air Columella sheweth that Cervises being shut up close and so laid under ground will thereby last the longer When you have gathered your Cervises charily by hand you must put them into vessels that are well pitched and lay also pitched coverings upon them and plaister them over with morter then make certain ditches or trenches about two foot deep in some dry place within doors and in them so place your pitchers that the mouth may be downward then throw in the earth upon them and tread it in somewhat hard It is best to make many trenches that the vessels may stand asunder not above one or two in a trench for when you have use of them if you would take up any one of the vessels none of the rest must be stirred for if they be the Cervises will soon putrifie Pliny reports the like out of Cato that Cervises are put into earthen vessels well pitched the covering being plaistered over with morter and then put in certain ditches or pits about two foot deep the place being somewhat open and the vessels set with the mouth downward And Palladius writes out of those two Authors that Cervises must be gathered while they be somewhat hard and laid up even when they begin to be ripe they must be put in earthen pitchers so that the vessels be filled up to the top and covered over with morter and laid in a ditch two foot deep in a dry place where the Sun cometh and the mouths of the vessels must stand downward and the earth must be trodden in upon them The same Author writeth that Pears being shut up in vessels and so laid under the ground will last the longer You must take those pears which are hard both in skin and in skin and substance These you must lay upon an heap and when they begin to wax soft put them into an earthen vessel which is well pitched and lay a covering on it and plaister it over with morter Then the vessel must be buried in a small ditch in such a place as the sun doth daily shine upon Others as soon as the pears are gathered lay them up with their stalks upon them in pitcht vessels and close up the vessels with morter or else with pitch and then lay them abroad upon the ground covering them all over with sand Others make special choice of such pears as are very sound somewhat hard and green and these they shut up into a pitcht vessel and then cover it and set the mouth of it downward and bury it in a little ditch in such a place as the water runs round about it continually In like manner also Apples being shut up close may be hidden within the ground for their better preservation As Pliny sheweth You must dig a trench in the ground about two foot deep and lay sand in the bottom of it and there put in your apples then cover the pit first with an earthen lid and then with earth thrown upon it Some put their apples in earthen basons and then bury them Others put them into a ditch that hath sand cast into the bottom of it and cover it onely with dry earth The like device it is whereby Pomegranates are preserved in small Buts which have sand in them You must fill a small But up to the middle with sand and then take your pomegranates and put the stalk of them every one into a several cane or into the bough of an Elder-tree and let them be so placed asunder in the sand that the fruit may stand some four fingers above the sand but the vessel must be set within the ground in some open place This also may be done within doors in a ditch two foot deep Others fill up the But half full of water and hang the pomegranates within the But that they may not touch the water and shut up the But close that no air may come in Cato sheweth how Filberds may be preserved within the ground You must take them while they be new and put them into a pitcher and so lay them in the ground and they will be as fresh when you take them forth as when you put them in In like manner Palladius sheweth that Chestnuts may be preserved if you put them in new earthen vessels and bury them in some dry place within the ground He saith also that Roses being shut up may be buried in the ground for their better preservation if they be laid up in a pot and well closed and so buried in some open place But now we
will shew How all things that are shut up may be preserved for many years Fruits are to be laid up in vials of glass as we shewed before and when the pipe or neck of the glass is stopt close up then they are to be drowned in cisterns and they will last good for certain whole years Likewise flowers are to be closed up in a vessel that is somewhat long and the neck of it must be stopt up as we shewed before and then they must be cast into the water for by this means they may be kept fresh for a long time I have also put new wine into an earthen vessel that hath been glazed within and have laid it in the water with a waight upon it to keep it down and a year after I found it in the same taste and goodness as when I put it into the vessel By the like device as this is we may preserve Things that are shut up even for ever if we wrap them up in some commixtion with other things so that the air may not pierce them through but especially if the commixtion it self be such as is not subject to putrefaction I have made trial hereof in Amber first reducing it to a convenient softness and then wrapping up in it that which I desired to preserve For whereas the Amber may be seen thorow it doth therefore represent unto the eye the perfect semblance of that which is within it as if it were living and so sheweth it to be sound and without corruption After this manner I have lapped up Bees and Lyzards in Amber which I have shewed to many and they have been perswaded that they were the Bees and the Lyzards that Martial speaks of We see every where that the hairs of beasts and leaves and fruits being lapped up in this juice are kept for ever the Amber doth eternize them Martial speaks thus of the Bee A Bee doth lie hidden within the Amber and yet she shines in it too as though she were even closed up within her own honey A worthy reward she hath there for all her labours and if she might make choice of her own death it is likely she would have desired to die in Amber And the same Author speaks thus of the Viper being caught as it were in the same juice The Viper comes gliding to the dropping Pine-tree and presently the Amber juice doth overflow her and while she marvails at it how she should be so entangled with that liqour upon the sudden it closeth upon her and waxeth stiff with cold Then let not Cleopatra boast her self in her Princely Tomb seeing the Viper is interred in a Nobler Tomb then she But if you desire to know how to make Amber soft though there be divers ways whereby this may be effected yet let this way alone content you to cast it into hot boiling wax that is scummed and clarified for by this means it will become so soft and pliant that you may easily fashion it with your fingers and make it framable to any use Onely you must bee sure that it be very new CHAP. IX How Fruits may be drenched in Honey to make them last for a long time THe Antients finding by experience that the shutting up of fruits in vessels and the drenching of those vessels in water was a notable preservative against corruption did thence proceed farther and began to drench the fruits themselves in divers kinds of liqours supposing that they might be the longer preserved if they were sowsed in honey wine vineger brine and such like in as much as these liquors have an especial vertue against putrefaction For honey hath an excellent force to preserve not fruits onely but also even the bodies of living creatures from being putrefied as we have elsewhere shewed that Alexanders body and the carkass of the Hippocentaur were preserved in honey Meer water they did not use in this case because that being moist in it self might seem rather to cause putrefaction But of all other liquors honey was most in request for this purpose they supposing it to be a principal preserver against corruption Columella saith That Quinces may be preserved in honey without putrefaction We have nothing more certain by experience saith he then that Quinces are well preserved in honey You must take a new flagon that is very broad brimmed and put your Quuinces into it so that they may have scope within that one may not bruise another then when your pot is full to the neck take some withy twigs and plat them over the pots mouth that they may keep down the Quinces somewhat close least when they should swell with liquor they should float too high then fill up your vessel to the very brimme with excellent good liquefi'd honey so that the Quinces may be quite drowned in it By this means you shall not onely preserve the fruit very well but also you shall procure such a well relished liquor that it will be good to drink of But in any case take heed that your Quinces be through ripe which you would thus preserve for if they were gathered before they were ripe they will be so hard that they cannot be eaten And this is such an excellent way that though the worm have seized upon the Quinces before they were gathered yet this will preserve them from being corrupted any farther for such is the nature of honey that it will suppress any corruption and not suffer it to spread abroad for which cause it will preserve the dead carkass of a man for many years together without putrefaction Palladius saith that Quinces must be gathered when they are ripe and so put into honey whole as they are and thereby they will be long preserved Pliny would have them first to be smeared over with wax and then to be sowsed in honey Apitius saith Quinces must be gathered with their boughes and leaves and they must be without any blemish and so put into a vessel full of honey and new wine The Quinces that were thus dressed were called Melimela that is to say Apples preserved in honey as Martial witnesseth saying Quinces sowsed in pure honey that they have drunk themselves full are called Melimela Likewise Columella sheweth that Other kind of Apples may be so preserved Not onely the Melimela but also the Pome-paradise and the Sestian Apples and other such daiâ—ties may be preserved in honey but because they are made sweeter by the honey and so lose their own proper relish which their nature and kind doth afford therefore he was wont to preserve them by another kind of practise Palladius saith That Pears may be preserved in Honey if a hey be so laid up therein that one of them may not touch another So Africanus reporteth That Figgs may be long preserved in Honey if they be so disposed and placed in it that they neither touch each other nor yet the vessel wherein they be put and when you have so placed them you must make fast
and the water may run away through the cloth and the meal may dry the better upon the cloth In the mean time boil two pound of Rice and being boil'd mingle them with the Lupins divide the whole into two parts and mingle one with the leaven and a hundred pound of wheat-meal and make bread of it let the other be set by with the leven till the next day which being mingled again with wheat-meal will make excellent bread and will not taste of Lupins But you must use all diligence in the making of it for if you make it not of the best meal the bread will be naught wherefore the work lies in the right preparation of it For the worse Corn or Pulse you make it of the more Corn must be taken to prepare it After this manner it may be made of Tares and Vetches and the favour of them is dulcified with water and mingling meal with them Bread is made also of Peason Chiches Tarses Lentils Beans and chiefly of Acorns But it is not unprofitable to make Bread of Herbs If a man cut the Herb Clot-bur small and grind it in a mill to very fine powder and adde as much or a third part of wheat-meal to it it will make good bread that may be eaten when there is a famine and I have heard that the poor eat it in some places and it hurts them not and that some in a siege have lived a moneth with such bread CHAP. XIX How bread may be increased in weight NOw I shall shew how bread may be augmented a thing very strange and profitable not onely to help in time of need but it is good for the Housholder for with little meal he may nourish many and fill their bellies and that three wayes For there be things that added to Corn will increase the substance of the bread other things are dry and of a clammy nature that will thicken the Element by refraction into the substance of bread The last way is the life of the heat of it whereby it waxes and grows as if it were alive As much as is lost by the bran taken from it is added to it by casting water on it when it is ground and in the other workmanship Moreover the baking of bread takes away a tenth part and a half of the weight Let us see how our Ancestors did by some Earth or Chalk make their bread more weighty and white Pliny teacheth that Spelt will grow white by a kind of chalk thus Let this Spelt be of Beer-corn which he called a seed the corns of it are bruised in a wooden morter for it will be spoiled and consumed by the hardness of a stone the best as it is well known is made by those that are condemned to bray in morters for their punishment For the best there is an iron box the hulls being then beaten off again with the same instruments the marrow of it being made bare is broken so are there made three kinds of this Spelt-meal the finest the second sort and the third that is the coursest But yet they are not white which makes them excellent yet now are these preserved at Alexandria after this it is very strange chalk is mingled with them that passes both into the body and the colour of them and makes them tender You shall find this between Puteoli and Naples on the Hill called Leucogaeum And there is extant a decree of Divus Augustus wherein he commanded to pay them at Naples yearly 20000 Sestertia out of his Treasury drawing his Colony to Capua and he assigns the cause by reason that they of Campania affirmed that Spelt-meal could not be made without that stone Rice makes bread weigh It neither corrupts the taste or goodness of the bread but increaseth both and it brings it closer by one eighth part for by a continual turning it it will retaineth volatil meal and from hence you shall see it coagulate and when it is coagulated put leaven to it but it must first grow cold lest the force of the coagulation should be hindred To binde this fugitive servant fast adde so much Wheat-meal as may fasten it well together till you see there is enough and you shall find it increased to the weight desired By this example You may increase the weight of bread with Millet This is easily done for it is dry ctumbles and will not hang together and is weak let it be bruised with a wooden pestle and sifted through a sieve till the hulls be parted as we see it done at Rome and at Florence by this we hold it that it flie not away by its hungry driness then we mingle it with Wheat and the air reflects back and it will be converted into the substance of Alica that you will think nothing taken from the taste colour or goodness nor yet added to it Nor will it be unpleasant to see Bread weigh more by adding milk to it This is an experiment of great profit and praise-worthy for it adds weight and whitenesse to bread and makes it short being put in instead of water whilst it is hot I never tasted any thing more pleasant or tender I thought fit to adde this for the singular vertue of it adding also such things as we knew to be necessary for this art But truly that is admirable by the same Wheat to increase the weight of Wheat This is done without any addition for if we would we could do this with many and almost infinite things with any small addition but in this a leaven is drawn forth of the very substance of the Wheat which being strained cleansed and added to the same again either by increasing the substance of it or by retracting the air into its substance it will be much augmented giving you this warning before-hand that the augmenting heat must not be diminished but preserved and increased that all may depend on this But an admirable work of Nature and full of wonder it is how it may be that Wheat may increase out of it self I cannot discover this how it came into my mind lest it should be made publike to every common fellow and ignorant Animal Yet not to conceal it from ingenious men I shall hide it from these and open it to those That our fore-fathers knew it not is clear because there is no such thing mentioned in all their works of making bread The whole businesse consists in this that the Wheat-meal may be managed with the life of its heat which is the off-spring of celestial fire By nature it is of such renuity that being raised with its heat it will make the lump swell so much that it will come up to the top of the vessel the next day cast it into a Hutch and adde more meal to it which again being raised by its heat and coming back again by the same and meeting with the lump as flowing back again it joins into the refracted Elements and so into clotters of
meal Do this thrice or four times and so you may increase it continually and this must be done in a stove that the dewy spirit may be fostered I thought good to tell you also before that you must not prick the lump lest the generative blast should breath forth and flie into the air for so you will lose your labour and there must not want presently a dewy vapour which being carried into the air and made to drop may moisten the lump so you will rejoice at the wonderful increase but you must be cunning in the manual application Pray do not destroy by your negligence what was invented by the careful ingenuity of those that tried it CHAP. XX. How we may long endure hunger and thirst THe Antients had some compositions to drive away hunger and thirst and they were very necessary both in times of Famine and in wars Pliny saith some things being but tasted will abate hunger and thirst and preserve our forces as Butter Licoris Hippace and elsewhere Scythia first produced that root which is called Scythia and about Baeotia it grows very sweet And another that is excellent against Convulsions also it is a high commendation of it that such as have it in their mouths fell nor hunger nor thirst Hippace amongst them doth the same which effects the same in horses also And they report that with these two herbs the Scythians will fast twelve dayes and live without drink also all which he translated out of Theophrastus first book The Scythian Hippace is sweet also and some call it Dulcis it grows by Maeotis Amongst other properties it quencheth thirst also if it be held in the mouth For which cause both with both with that and with the other called equestris men say the Scythians will endure hunger and thirst twelve dayes Hence it appears that Pliny translated all this out of Theophrastus But I think he erred for Hippace signifies Cheese made of Mares milk and is no herb Theodorus translated it Equestrem as it were a root like Licoris fit to drive away hunger and thirst For Hippocrates saith the Scythian shepherds eat Hippace but that is Mares Cheese and elsewhere The Scythians pour Mares milk into hollow vessels of wood and shake it and that froths with churming and the fat of it they call butter which swims on the top that which is heavy sinks to the bottom they separate this and dry it when it is dry they call it Hippace the reason is because Mares milk nourisheth exceedingly and is as good as Cows milk Dioscorides The west Indians use another composition also To endure hunger and thirst Of the herb called Tobacco namely of the juice thereof and the ashes of Cockle shells they make little balls and dry them in the shade and as they travel for three or four dayes they will hold one of them between their under lip and their teeth and this they suck continually and swallow down what they suck and so all the day they feel neither hunger thirst nor weariness but we will teach another composition which Heron mentions and it was called The Epimenidian composition to endure hunger and thirst For it was a medicament that nourished much and abated thirst and this was the food the besiegers of Cities and the besieged also lived on It was called the Epimenidian composition from the Sea-onion called Epimendium that is one of the ingredients of that composition it was made thus The squil was boiled and washt with water and dryed and then cut into very small pieces then mingle sesamum a fift part poppy a fifteenth part make all these up with honey as the best to make up the mass to mitigate it divide the whole as into great Olives and take one of these about two of the clock another about ten and they felt no hurt by hunger that used it There is another composition of the same that hath of Athenian sesamum half a Sextarius of honey a half part of oyle a Cotyle and a Chaenice of sweet Almonds mundified the sesamum and Almonds must be dried and ground and winowed then the squil must have the outsides taken off and the roots and leaves must be cut into small pieces and put into a morter and bruised till they be well mollified then you must make up the squils with the like quantity of honey and of oyle and put all into a pot and set them in cold and stir them well with a wooden ladle till they be well mingled when the lump is firm it is good to cut it into little morsels and he that eats one in the morning another at night hath meat enough This medicament is good for an Army for it is sweet and so fills a man and quencheth thirst we had this in an old Scholiast a Manuscript upon the book of Heron in the Vatican Library I saw the same composition in Philo in his fifth book of wars where he describes such like other things CHAP. XXI Of what fruits wines may be made NOw we shall speak of fruits of which wines may be made And first our Ancestors did do thus but they had two wayes for some were for Physicks which are found plentifully in Physick books others again were for ordinary use and they were divers and almost infinite according as the differences of places and Nations are for what is granted to one is denyed to another First Wine of Dates Pliny saith that in the East they make wine of Dates and he reckons up fifty kinds of Dates and as many different wines from them Cariotae are the chief full of juice of which are made the principal wines in the East they are naught for the head and thence they have their name The best are found in Judaea chiefly about Jericho yet those of Archelaiis are well esteemed and of Phaselis and of Libias valleyes of the same Country The chiefest property they have is this they are full of a white fat juice and very sweet tasting like wine with honey The wine will make one drunk and the fruit also eaten largely Dioscorides teacheth thus Put ripe Dates called Chydeae into a pitcher with a hole at bottom and stopt with a pitched reed shut the hole with linnen and to fourty Sextarii pour on three gallons of water If you would not have it so sweet five gallons will be sufficient to pour on after ten dayes take away the reed with the linnen take the thick sweet wine and set it up Also wine is made Of Figs. Sotion relates it thus Some make wine of green figs filling half the vessel with them and the other half to the brim they fill with fair water and they try still by tasting for when it tasts like wine they strain it and use it It is made faith Dioscorides of ripe figs and it is called Catorchites or Sycites Chelidonian or Phaenician figs called Caricae are steeped in a pot with a hole in the bottom with a pitched reed
and the hole stopt with flax to fourty Sextarii you must pour on three gallons of water and if you will not have the wine so sweet pour on five gallons and it will do After ten dayes the liquor is taken and again the third time also the same measure of water wherein the figs were infused is poured on and in the like manner after four or five dayes it is drawn off Some to six Amphorae thereof adde ten Sextarii of salt that it may not early corrupt others put Fennel and Thyme in the bottom and the Caricae on the top and so in order till the vessel be full also men make Wine of Pears which from the Greek word for Pears is called Apyres and from the Latin Piery Palladius saith it was thus They are bruised and put in a very course bag of Canvas and pressed with weights or in a Press It lasts in the Winter but in Summer comes it sowrer Dioscorides will not have the Pears too ripe the same way is made Wine of Pomegranates Sotion makes wine of the grains of the Pomegranate taking away what is in the middle of the grains Palladius put the ripe grains well purged into a Date pail and press them out with a scrue press then boil them gently to half when it is cold put it into vessels that are pitched or plaistered with Gipsum Some do not boil the juice but to every Sextarius they mingle one pound of honey and put all in the said vessels and keep it There is made Wine of the Lote-tree fruit There is a kind of Lote without any inward kernel which is as hard as a bone in the other kind wine is pressed also out of it like Mead that will not last above ten dayes Nepos saith the same from Pliny Athenaus from Polybius Wine is made of the Lote steeped in water and bruised very pleasant to the taste as the best Mead is it is drunk pure without water also but it will not last above ten dayes wherefore they make but little for use to last onely so long Vineger is made also of it And yet not much or good enough yet there is made Wine of Myrtles berries and Cornels Out of Sotion who of the berries of Myrtles and Cornels when they are fresh pounded and pressed our made wine Now I shall shew how we may make Wine of Corn. Drink is made of Corn. Dioscorides teacheth to make Beer of Barley also a drink is made of Barley called Curmi they use that drink oft-times for wine the like drinks are wont to be made of Wheat In Hiberia toward the west and in Britany whence Pliny of Corn drink is made Beer in Egypt called Zythum in Spain Caelia and Ceria Beer in France and other Provinces In Aristotles book of drunkenness those that drink wine made of Barley till they be drunk fall upon their backs they call that wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but those that are drunk with any other kind of drinks fall any way on the right or left hand forward or backward but those that drink Pinum fall onely upon their backs Wine made of Barley they call Brytum Sophocles in Triptolemo and Aeschylus in Lycurgo But Hellanicus saith that Brytum is made in Farms out of roots Hecateus saith that the Egyptians grinde Barley to make drink and that the Macedonians drink Brytum made of Barley and Parabia made of Millet and Rice saith Athenaeus Also wine is made of Rice for saith Aelianus when an Elephant fights in war they give him not onely wine of grapes but of Rice also Now the same drink is made in the Northern Climates of Corn and they call it Biera but they put hops to it for it cannot be made without Barley and Wheat are infused in the decoction of it We see that of Barley and Wheat steeped in water a drink is made that tastes like wine and of them I have made the best aqua vitae But these drinks of old were Physical rather then to use as wine But I shall shew how some drinks that are so like wine in taste that you would think they were wine indeed And first Wine of Honey To nine vessels of water put eighteen pounds of Honey into brass Caldrons covered with Tin and let them boil a long time stirring all with wooden ladles and wiping away the froth that riseth with little brushes pour it out put it into a wine vessel then take two pounds of red wine Tartar and boil them in water till they be dissolved to which add an eighth part of a vessel of vineger that the loathsome and unpleasing taste of the sweetnesse of Honey may be lost let these be mingled then pour on two vessels of the best wine then let it settle after some days strain it through a hair-cloth strainer or one of cloth to cleanse it from the filth and excrements A liquor will run from this that will serve for sparing and to abate charge in a family and it is good to drink in health and sickness cover it close and drink it I shall shew you another way to make Wine of Raisins Pour into a brass Caldron seven vessels of water put in two pounds of Raisins let them boil till they be wasted in the water and the water be sweet as Mead if your kettle be too small do it at several times then take your kettle from the fire and when the liquor grows cold strain it gently forth put up the strained liquor in a wine vessel and pour into it a measure of the sharpest red wine vineger to abate the sweetnesse of the Raisins then add nine pound of Tartar finely powdered unto it and pouring on a fourth part of the best wine stop the vessel close when it is full after one week use it Another Wine of Quinces Put into brass Caldrons glazed with Tin a vessel of new wine and put thereto about fifty wild Quinces namely such as are full of streeks and wrinkled take out their kernels cut the Quinces in peices like as you do Rape Roots boil all at a gentle fire when they have boild a while take them off and let them cool pound the Quinces in a morter with a wooden pestle press them out with a press put the juice pressed forth of them the new wine and set it up in a glazed earthen vessel for a whole year When wine is scarce and you have occasion to use this put â—nto a vessel four parts of water two of new wine and one fourth part of the aforesaid mixture cover the vessel and let it boil and when it is clear use it Of all these an amphora of vineger a pound of honey as much Tartar in powder let them boil a while in a pot glazed with Nitre and mingle them and for every vessel of water pour on an Amphora of wine and cover all and after twenty dayes use it or take honey one pound as much red wine Tartar half
a pound of Raisins two Amphoras of Vineger let them boil in a pot adde wine also to them and it will be for drink I shall adde the Northern drink Wine called Metheglin The drink in Pannonia Poland and England is more pleasant and wholesome then many wines are it is made of twenty pound of good honey and of water one hundred and twenty pound skimming it till all comes to eighty pound which being cold and tunned up into a wine vessel put in leaven of bread six ounces or as much as will serve to make it work and purifie it self and withal put into a bag that hangs and may be put into the liquor and not touch the bottom of Cinnamon granes of Paradise Pepper Ginger Cloves two drams one hand full of Elder flowers let them stand in a wine Cellar all the Winter in Summer set them fourty dayes in the Sun till they taste like wine and the unpleasant taste of the honey be gone But it will be more pleasant if you add a third part of wine CHAP. XXII How vineger may be made divers wayes and of what AFter wine it follows to speak of vineger First how our forefathers made it then how of late years that it may be made extream sowre which is not only good for a family but is necessary for many Arts. Also there are some Countries where wine and so vineger is scarce Therefore in those places divers men have used their wits to make it wherefore to begin we say that Vineger may be made of the Fig-tree Out of Columella A green fig must be taken very betimes and also if it have rained and the figs fall to the earth beaten down with showres gather those figs and put them up in Hogs-heads or Amphora and let them ferment there then when it grows sharp and hath sent out some liquor what vineger there is strain it out diligently and pour it into a sweet pitched vessel This yields the best sharp vineger and it will never grow musty or hoary if it be not set in too moist a place Some to make more quantity mingle water with the figs and then they adde to them the ripest new figs and they â—et them consume in that liquor until it tast sharp enough like vineger then they strain all through rushy baskets or withie bags and they boil this vineger till they have taken off all the froth and filth from it Then they adde some terrefied salt and that hinders worms and other vermine to breed in it Cassianus makes it thus Put into a vessel old figs terresied Barley and the internal parts of Citrons Stir it often and diligently and when they are putrified and soaked strain them out and use them Apuleius They make vineger of figs wet upon the Trees and cast into water to putrifie Dioscorides The liquor of figs steeped grows sharp as vineger and is used for it There is made also Vineger of Dates To Date wine we speak of some adde water and receive it again and they do this three four five or six times and at last it grows sowre From the same Pliny teacheth to make Vineger of honey You must wash your honey vessels or hives in water with this decoction is made the most wholesome vineger Palladius teacheth the way to make Vineger of Pears wild Pears are such as are sharp and ripe are kept three dayes in a heap then they are put into a vessel and fountain or river water is put to them the vessel is left covered thirty dayes then as much vineger as is taken out for use so much water is put in to repair it Cassianus makes Vineger of Peaches Put soft delicate Peaches into a vessel and adde parched Barley to them let them putrifie for one day then strain them out and use it We may from Cassianus make Vineger without wine If you boil Gypsum and sea-water and then mingle it with River water and use it being strained But if you will Turn wine into vineger and contrarily vineger into wine Cassianus hath it He puts Beet roots bruised into wine it will be vineger when three hours are over But if he would restore it again as it was he puts in Cabbage roots So also To make the same We may do it another way and quickly Cast into wine Salt Pepper and sowre leaven mingle them and they will soon make it vineger But to do it more quickly quench in it often a red hot brick or piece of steel also provide for that unripe Medlars Cornels Mulberries and Plums But Sotion shews to make Sharp vineger of new wine Dry the mother of wine of grapes at the Sun and put them into new wine adding a few sowre grapes thereto and it will make sharp vineger that will be for use after seven dayes or put in pellitory of Spain and it will be sharp Moreover if you boil a fourth or fifth part of vineger at the fire put that to the rest and set all eight days in the Sun you shall have most sharp and pleasant wine The roots of old grass and Raisins and the leaves of a wild Pear-tree bruised and the root of the bramble and whey of milk burnt Acorns Prunes rosted and the decoctions of Chiches and pot-sheards red hot all of these put severally into vineger will make it tart Apuleius teacheth To double the quantity of vineger Take a good measure of Vineger about a Metreta and to that adde one Metreta of Sea-water boiled to half mingle them and set them aside in a vessel Some steep Barley and strain it and of that juice they mingle one Metreta and they stir them together and they cast in torrefied salt when it is yet hot a good quantity then they cover the vessel and let it stand eight dayes But I use to make it thus Vineger of clusters of grapes pressed forth After the Vintage we cast in the clusters when the wine is pressed forth into a wooden vessel and we pour upon them a quantity of water and it will be vineger when a week is over Moreover we cut the tendrels from Vines and bruise them and put water to them and it will be vineger Also thus Ill wine is turned to vineger When the bunches of grapes are pressed forth lay them between two wooden bowls not very thick together let them grow hot for four days then pour on them so much naughty wine as may cover them let them alone 24 hours then strain them into another wooden bowl and after so many hours put them into another bowl and do so til it be turned into most sharp white vineger and if you would make more of the same clusters pour on upon them some sharp vineger and let them alone till they be extream sharp and sowre then take that out and pour on ill wine and do as you did Lastly press those clusters out in a press and you shall recover as great quantity as of the wine that was spent CHAP. XXIII
flame when it hath ceas'd smoaking take it out and break part of it to see whether it be white quite through for that is an argument of the sufficient burning because it oftentimes happens that the outside onely is burned and the rest of it remaineth crude Therefore when it hath gained the colour of chalk it must be taken out and when it is cold grinde it and lay it in water in some wide-mouth'd vessel a quarter of a day When the water is grown clear filtrate it and strain it into another vessel and then pour water again unto the settlement observing the same things we spoke before until the water have taken out all the salt which will come to pass in the third or forth time Pour your waters which you saved into a vessel of glass and all things being ready put live coles under it and attend the work until the water be consumed by the force of the fire which being done the salt will stick to the bottom it being thus made preserve it in a dry place lest it turn to oyl CHAP. II. How Flint or Crystal is to be prepared and how Pastils are boiled THe matter of which Gems are made is either Crystal or Flint from whence we strike fire or round pebbles found by river sides those are the best which are taken up by the river Thames white clear and of the bigness of an egge for of those are made best counterfeit Gemms though all will serve in some sort Some think that Crystal is the best for this purpose because of the brightness and transparency of it but they are deceived The way of making Gems is this Take riverpebbles and put them into a fornace in that place where the retorted flame is most intense when they are red hot take them out and fling them into water then dry them and powder them in a mortar or a hand-mill until they are very fine put them into a wide-mouthed vessel full of rain water and shake it well in your hands for so the finest part will rise to the top and the grossest will settle to the bottom to that which swims at top pour fresh water and stir the dust again and do this oftentimes until the gross part be quite separated and sunk down Then take out the water and let it settle and in the bottom there will lie a certain slimy matter gather together and reserve the refined powder But whil'st the stone is ground both the morter and the mill will lose somewhat of themselves which being mixt with the powder will foul the Gem wherefore it will be worth the labâ—r to wash that away to which end let water be often poured into the lavel and stirred about the dust of the morter will rise to the top by reason of its levity and the powder of the pebbles will retire to the bottom by reason of its weight skim the lavel and separate them with a spoon till all that sandy and black dust be taken off then strain out the water and reserve the powder dry These being done we must teach How Pastils are boiled Artificers call those pellets which are made of the salts and the forenamed powder and water Pastils Take five parts of salt of Tartar as many of salt of Soda double the quantity of these of the forespoken powder of pebbles and mix them very well in a stone morter sprinkle them with water wet them so that they may grow into a past and make Pastils of them in bigness of your fist set them in the sun and dry them well Then put them into a fornace of reverbaration the space of six hours encreasing the fire by degrees that at last they may become red hot but not melt wherefore use no bellows when they are baked enough let them cool and they will become so hard that they will endure almost the hammer CHAP. III. Of the Fornace and the Parts thereof NOw the Fornace is to be built which is like to that of glass-makers but less according to the proportion of the work Let your fornace be eight foot high and consist of two vaults the roof of the lower must be a handful and a half thick the vault it self must have a little door by which you may cast in wood to feed the fire there Let it also have on the top and in the middle of its roof a hole about a foot in breadth by which the flame may penetrate into the second vault and reach to the upper roof whence the flame being reverberated doth cause a vehement heat In this upper vault there must be cut out in the wall small holes of a handful in breadth which must open and shut to set the pots and pans in on the floor and to take them out again Artificers call these pots Crucibles they are made of clay which is brought from Valencia and doth very strongly endure fire They must be a finger thick and a foot and a half deep their bottom somewhat thicker lest they should break with the force of the fire All things being thus provided cast in your wood and fire and let the fornace heat by degrees so that it may be perfectly hot in a quarter of a day Your workmen must be diligent to perform their duty then let the Pastils being broken into pieces about the bigness of a wall-nut be put into crucibles and set in the holes of the fornace built for that purpose with a pair of iron tongs to every pot When they melt they will rise up in bubbles and growing greater and greater must be pricked with sharp wires that the vapor passing out the bubbles may sink down again and not run over the mouth of the crucibles Then let other pieces be put in and do as before until the pots be filled to the top and continue the fire for a whole day until the matter be concocted Then put an iron hook into the pots and try whether the matter have obtained a perfect transparency which if it have take it out of the pots with iron instruments for that purpose and cast it into clear water to wash off the filth and stains and to purge out the salt for when the Gems are made on a suddain the salt breaks forth as it were spued out and overcast them like a cloud Yet there must be a great deal of diligence used whilâ—st you draw out this vitrified matter lest it touch the sides of the fornace for it will cleave thereto like birdâ—ime hardly to be pulled off without part of the wall as also lest it fall into the vessels for it is very difficult to separate it and it prejudices the clearness of the glasâ— When it is cold put it again into the crucibles and let it glow for two days until it be concocted into perfect glass When this vitrified matter hath stood so for two days some to make it more fine and bright lest it should be specked with certain little bubbles
to which glass is very subject put into the crucible some white lead which presently groweth red then melts with the glass and becomes clear and perspicuous Make your tryal then with an iron hook for if it be clear of those bubbles it is perfected and so will be a perfect mass of Gems Now we will teach the several Colours Yellow Green or Blue wherein we will cast our Gems CHAP. IV. To make Colours WHile the Crystal is preparing in the fornace by the same fire the Colours may be also made And first How to make Crocus of Iron Take three or four pounds of the limature of Iron wash it well in a broad vessel for by putting it into water the weight of the iron will carry that to the bottom but the straws and chips and such kind of filth will swim on the top so you will have your filings clean and wash'd Then dry it well and put it into an earthen glazed pot with a large mouth and pour into it three or four gallons of the best and sharpest vinegar there let it macerate three or four weeks stirring it every day seven or eight times with an iron rod then giving it time to settle pour out the vinegar into another pot and put fresh vinegar into the iron and do this till the vinegar have consumed all the filings Then put all the vinegar into an earthen vessel and set it on the fire and let it boil quite away In the bottom there will remain a slimy durty mattter mixt with a kind of fatness of the iron which the fire by continuance will catch hold of let it burn and the remaining dust will be Crocus Others file your rusty nails and heating them red hot quench them in vinegar then strain them and dry the rust and set it again to the fire till it be red hot then quench it again with vinegar this they do three or four times at length they boil the vinegar away and take the remaining Crocus from the bottom Next remains to shew How to reduce Zaphara into Powder A litâ—le window is to be made out of the side of the fornace nigh to which must be built a little cell or oven so joyned to the mouth of the oven that the flame may be brought in through a little hole Let this cell have a little door without to admit the workmans hand upon occasion Let this cell be a foot in length and breadth Set the Saffron upon a Potters tile into the cell and shut the door let it be red hot and after six hours take it out and put it into water so will it cleave into pieces let it be dryed stamped and so finely seirced that it may scarce be felt But if it cannot be effected with a pestle and morter pour water upon the powder and stir it with your hands and let it settle for a while then strain it into another vessel and pour fresh water into the powder and reiterate this so often till that which setleth being beat and brayed do pass through with water then dry it and it will become very fine powder How to burn Copper Set the filings of Copper with an equal quantity of salt mixt in an earthen pot over the fire and turn it about three or four hours with an iron book that it may be burned on all sides There let it burn a whole natural day then take it out and divide it into two parts lay the one part aside and set the other with salt on the fire again for an artificial day do the same three or four times that it may be more perfectly calciâ—ed always having a care that it be as hot as may be but that it melt not Waen it is burnt it is black CHAP. V. How Gems are coloured ALl things being thus prepared there is nothing more I think remaineth to make an end of this work but to know how to colour them And we will begin with the way How to dye a Saphire Artificers begin with a Saphire for when it is coloured unless it be presently removed from the fire it loseth the tincture and the longer it remains in the fire the brighter it groweth Put a little Zaphara as they call it into a pot of glass two drachms to a pound of glass then stir it continually from top to bottom with an iron hook when it is very well mixed make tryal whether the colour please you or no by taking a little out of the pot If it be too faint adde some more Zaphara if too deep put in more glass and let it boil six hours Thus you may Colour Cyanus or sea-water another kind of Saphire Beat your calcined brass into very fine powder that you may scarce feel it for otherwise it will mix with the Crystal and make it courser the quantity cannot be defined for there are lighter and deeper of that kind for the most part for one pound one drachm will be sufficient How to counterfeit the colour of the Amethist To a pound of Crystal put a dram of that they call Manganess and so the colour is made If the Gem be great make it the paler if small make it deeper for they use such for rings and other uses To counterfeit the Topaze To every pound of glass adde a quarter of an ounce of crocus of Iron and three ounces of red-lead to make it of a brighter red First put in the lead then the crocus The Chrysolite When you have made a Topaze and would have a Chrysolite adde a little more Copper that it may have a little verdure for the Chrysolite differeth from the Topaze in nothing but that it hath a greater lustre So we are wont To counterfeit an Emerald This shall be the last for we must let our work be as quick as possible because the copper being heavy when it is mixed with the Crystal doth presently sink down to the bottom of the pots and so the Gems well be of too pale a colour Therefore thus you must do when you give the tincture to a Cianus you may easily turn it into Smaragde by adding crocus of iron in half the quantity of the copper or brass viz. if at first you put in a fourth part of copper Now you must adde an eighth part of crocus and as much copper After the colours are cast in let it boil six hours that the material may grow clear again for the casting in the colours will make them contract a cloudiness Afterwards let the fire decrease by degrees until the fornace be cold then take out the pots and break them wherein you shall find your counterfeit precious Stones CHAP. VI. How Gems may otherwise be made THe manner which I have set down is peculiar and usual to our Artificers and by them is also accounted a secret But I will set down another way which I had determined always to keep secret to my self for by it are made with less charge less time and less
of this and stir about till it turn to Spittle it fasteneth the Teeth maketh them white and restoreth the Gums The Root of Pellitory bruised and put into the Teeth takes away the pain so doth the Root of Henbane For the bleeding of the Teeth I have often made trial of Purslaine so much commended For the swelling of the Gums beat the Roots and Leaves of Plantaine and lay them to the swelling when you go to bed and in the morning you shall finde your Gums well CHAP. VI. For other infirmities of Mans Body I Will heap together in this Chapter some Remedies not to be passed over which I know to be certain by continual Experience made and although some of them are common yet are they true And first For the Head-ach There is a certain Essence of the colour of Blood extracted out of Roses of a wonderful sweetness and great strength Wet a cloth in this Liquor and lay it to your Fore-head and Temples and if sometimes it doth not quite take away a pain of long continuance yet it will mollifie it If the cloth be dried before your pain cease wet it again I have often known the Ophites or Serpentine Marble applied to the Head both to take away and mollifie the pain The Vertigo I have seen it cured also by applying the Hoof of an Elk and by a Ring of it worn on the Finger Against the chopping of the Lips the Seeds of Henbane are good for being cast upon live Coles if you receive the rising vapor through a Paper-Tunnel upon the chopping of your Lips as hot as you can endure it appeaseth the swelling presently and healeth the Clefts that they will never more trouble you Against the clefts of the Fingers It is a most admirable Experiment which I learned of Paracelsus but have often practiced it my self for it taketh away the swelling and pain and cureth the Nail Take a Worm which creepeth out of the Earth especially in moyst Grounds for if you search and dig there you may easily 〈◊〉 them winde him being alive about your Finger and there hold him 〈…〉 be dead which will be within an hour The pain will presently cease the matter dry away and in a short time be cured Indeed I do not know a more admirable Remedy For a Pleurisie I found ou◠a most powerful Remedy made of the Flowers of wilde Poppy Gather them in the Month of May before the rising of the Sun and their opening for being thin Leaves they are easily dried with a little heat and shed dry them in the shade and lay them up for your use Or else still the Flowers and keep the water If any one taketh a drachm of the powder in Wine and some of the water or in the water alone or shall apply a Plaister of the Powder to the place the pain will presently cease to the admiration of the Beholders Missleto of the Oak infused in Wine and drunk doth the same There is a Stone also brought out of the West-Indies called in Spanish Della Hijada much like an Emerald which being worn in Silver upon the Arm is accounted a preservative against this Disease Against the Colick Civet is most excellent in this Disease for the quantity of a Pease applied to the Navil and a hot Loaf out of the Oven clapt over it presently easeth the pain the Patient must ly on his Belly upon the Bread before it be cold Against Crab lice The Dust which falls from the Curry-Combs while the Ostler dresseth Horses or such kinde of Beasts cureth them without any pain Or the Powder of Lithargy Aloes Frankincense Verdegreese and Alome beaten and mixed together with Oyl of Mastick and anoynt the place The Powder of Mercury praecipitate is best by far being applied To bring away the Stone Take Saxifrage Maiden-hair Pellitory of the wall Parsely Pimpernel and Ceterach distil them in Balneo Mariae and let the Patient drink of it every other day for it corrodes and eats away the Stone though never so great and by daily experience you will see in his Urine Gravel and Fragments of the Stone voided out Moreover the Fruit and Leaves of the Mulberry gathered before Sun-rising and distilled or dried in the shade if it be drank in Wine or a proper water early in the morning doth wonderfully remove the Stone Mushromes growing on a Rock reduced into Powder or dried in the shade or a warm Oven and drank with Wine in a morning is very Soveraign against the Stone If the Kernels of a Peach-Stone be bruised and macerated two dayes in the distilled water of Bean-Cods and then distilled again and drunk bring down the Stone The Hedge-Sparrow which Aetius mentioneth I know to be good against the Stone in the Kidney or Bladder It is the least of all Birds liveth in Hedges carrieth his Tail upright on the top of his Wings there are some streaks of Ash-colour of a short flight and lastly much like a Wren He hath a vertue against the Stone beyond all the rest eaten either raw or boyled or dried or salted or taken any way also reduced into Powder being made up close in a Pot covered and clayed up that the vertue may not expire and so set over the fire I have also tried a water against this Disease running out of a certain Vein described by Vitruvius which when I had diligently sought after and found out made me exceedingly rejoyce The words of Vitruvius are these There are also some Veins of acide Springs as at Lyncestum and in Italy at Theano in fertile Campania and many other places which being drunk have a vertue to dissolve Stones which breed in the Bladders of men And this seems to be naturally done because there lieth a sharp and acide juice under the Earth through which these Veins passing receive a tincture of sharpness and so when they come into the Bodies of Men they dissolve whatever they finde there congealed or setled But wherefore acide things should dissolve them we may thus guess the Reason An Egg laid in any Vinegar some time will wax soft and his shell will dissolve Also Lead which is the toughest and heaviest if it be laid in a Vessel of Vinegar and closed up will dissolve and become Ceruss By the same means Copper which is of a more solid Nature if it be ordered as the former will melt and become Verdegreese Likewise Pearl as hard as Flint which neither iron or fire can dissolve of themselves when they are heat by the fire and then sprinkled with Vinegar break and dissolve Therefore when we see these things done before our eyes we may infer by the same Reasons that the Stone may naturally be dissolved by acide things through the sharpness of their juice Thus far Vitruvius The place where the Vein is now to be found is called commonly Francolise about a mile from Theano and runneth along the way toward◠Rome To strengthen the Stomach We will not omit
the west-Indies is excellent against them for when I anointed their mouth and jaws with it they died in half an hour Balsame of the east is a present remedy against poyson by oyntments or the biting of a serpent saith Aetius In Arabia where it groweth there is no fear of poyson neither doth any one dye of their bitings for the fury of this deadly poyson is allayed by the feeding of the serpents upon this pretious Balsame But I have found nothing more excellent than the earth which is brought from the Isle of Malta for the least dust of it put into their mouths kills them presently I have tried the same vertue in Lithoxylon which Physitians use for the worms in children There is a stone called Chelonites the French name it Crapodina which they report to be found in the head of a great old Toad and if it can be gotten from him while he is alive it is soveraign against poyson they say it is taken from living Toads in a red cloth in which colour they are much delighted for whilst they sport and open themselves upon the scarlet the stone droppeth out of their head and falleth through a hole made in the middle into a box set under for the purpose else they will suck it up again But I never met with a faithful person who said that he found it nor could I ever find one though I have cut up many Nevertheless I will affirm this for truth that those stones which are pretended to be taken out of Toads are minerals for I remember at Rome I saw a broken piece of stone which was compacted of many of those stones some bigger some less which stuck on the back of it like limps on a rock But the vertue is certain if any swallow it down with poyson it will preserve him from the malignity of it for it runneth about with the poyson and assawageth the power of it that it becometh vain and of no force A most perfect oyl against poyson often tryed in repressing the violence of it Take three pound of old oyl put into it two handfulls of the flower of St Johns wort and let them macerate in it for two months in the sun Then strain out the flowers and put into the oyl two ounces of the flowers of the same herb and set it to boil in Balneo Mariae a quarter of a day Stop the bottle close that it may have no vent and set it a sunning for fifteen days In the moneth of July take three ounces of the seed stamp it gently and steep it in two glasses of the best white-wine with gentian tormentil white dittany zedoary and carline gathered in August red sanders long aristolochie of each two drams Let all these mecerate in the wine for three days then take them out and put them in the oyl and boil them gently in Balneo for six hours then strain them in a press Adde to the expression an ounce of saffron myrrhe aloes spikenard and rubarb all bruised and let them boil in it for a day in B. M. at last treacle and mithridate of each two ounces and let them also boil in it six hours as before then set it forty days in the sun It must be used thus In the plague-time or upon suspition of poyson anoint the stomach and wrists and the place about the heart and drink three drops of it in wine It will work wonders CHAP. X. Antidotes and preservatives against the Plague I Have spoken of poysons now I will of the plague being of the same nature and cured almost by the same Medicines I will set down onely them which in our time have been experimented by the Neapolitanes Sicilians and Venetians whilst the plague was spread amongst them to resist the contagion of that epidemical plague and preserve their bodies from infection A confection of Gillyflowers against the plague of wonderful operation Gather some clove-gilliflowers in the moneth of May of a red and lively colour because they are of the greater vertue pull them out of their husks and clip off the green â—nd then beat them in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle until they become so fine as they may hardly be felt In the mean while take three pound of sugar for one of the flowers melt it in a brass skillet and boil it with a little orange-flower water that may quickly be consumed When it is boiled sufficiently put in some whites of egges beaten enough to froth and clarifie it still stirring it and skimming off the froth with a spoon until all the dregs be taken out Then put in the due weight of flowers and stir it with a wooden slice till iâ— turn red when it is almost boiled adde thereunto two drachms of cloves beaten with a little musk the mixture of which will both add excite a sweet sent and plâ—asantness in the flowers Then put it into earthen pots and set it up if you add a little juyce of lemon it will make it of a more lively blood-colour We may also make Lozenges and round Cakes of it by pouring it on a cold marble If any would do iâ— after the best manner they must extract the colour of the flowers and boil their sugar in that infusion for so it will smell sweeter Some never bruise the flowers but cut them very small with sizers and candy them with sugar but they are not very pleasant to eat This confection is most grateful to the taste and by reason of the sent of the cloves very pleasant The vertues of it are these as I have found by experience it iâ— good for all diseases of the heart as fainting and trembling thereof for the megrum and poyson and the bitings of venimous creatures and especially against the infection of the plague There may be made a vinegar or infusion of it which being rub'd about the nostrils is good against contagious air and night-dews and all effects of melancholy Against the Plague Gather Ivy-berries in May and wilde Poppies before the sun rise lest they open In April gather goats rue dry them in the shade and make them into powder One drachm of it being drank in wine is excellent against infectious diseases The Bezoar stone brought from the west-Indies being hung about the neck nigh to the heart or four grains of it in powder being taken in wine is good against the plague and the infection of all pestilential feavors as I can testifie And taketh away soundings and exhilarateth the heart The water or oyl extracted from the seeds of Citron is a very strong Antidote against the plague Apparitius Hispanus his oyl is also approved against the same CHAP. XI Remedies for wounds and blows THere are some remedies for wounds and blows which shall not be omitted for I have found some of them to be of wonderful vertue The oyl of Hispanus for wounds and other things Take two pound of new wax four ounces of wax as many of linseed
two ounces of rosemary-flowers and bay-berries as many of betony of chamomil-flowers or the oyl of it three ounces of cinnamon an ounce and a half as much of St Johns wort or the oyl of it two ounces of old oyl Dry the flowers and herbs in the shade and when they are withered beat them and seirce them through a sieve Melt the wax on the fire then pour in the oyls next the powders still stirring them with a stick At length pour it on a marble and cut it into small slices and put it into a glass retort stop it close with straw-mortar and set it on the fire with his receiver stop the joynts and give the inclosed no vent lest the virtue flye out and vanish away First by a gentle fire draw out a water then encreasing it and changing the glass draw a red oyl stop them close and keep them for use the qualities of it are heating by anointing the neck it cureth all creeks that are bred by cold it healeth wounds helpeth the contraction of the nerves caused by cold it moâ—lifieth cold gouts and taketh away the trembling of the hands It may be drank for the Sciatica taken in wine it helpeth the quinsie by anointing the reins of the back and the belly or by drinking the water or oyl in wine it will break the stone and bring it down and asswageth poyson For deafness you must steep some wool in it and stop the ears with it anoint the belly and back in any pain there Being drunk in vinegar it cureth the falling sickness and restoreth lost memory it provoketh the menstrues in women by anointing their privities with it or by drinking some drops of it in wine taken in the same manner it provoketh appetite being taken early in the morning and is good against the bitings of Scorpions Drink it going to bed or when you arise in the morning and it will cure a â—â—inking breath For cold aches Oyl of Herns is excellent to allay and remove all cold aches the gout sciatica griefs of the sinews convulsions pain in the joynts cold defluctions and other diseases of moisture and cold In the Diomedian Isles now called Tremiâ—y in the Adriatique Sea there are birds commonly called Hearns who breed there and continue there and are to be found nowhere else they are a kind of Duck feeding on fish which they catch in the night they are not to be eaten though they be very fat because they savour of the rankness of fish Kill these birds and pluck off their feathers draw them and hang them up by the feet there will drop from them a certain black yellowish oyl very offensive to the nose being of a noisome fishy smell This oyl being applied to any place as much as you can endure will do the effects before mentioned and more but it is very hurtful for any hot maladies There is a water also For old Sores Take lime unkilled and dissolve it in water stir it three or four times in a day then when it is settled and cleared strain it and keep it wet a linnen cloth in it and apply it to a wound or sore and it cureth them I will not omit The vertues of Tobacco Out of the seeds of it is expressed an oyl three ounces out of a pound which allays the cruel tortures of the gout the juyce clarified and boiled into a syrup and taken in the morning maketh the voyce tunable clear and loud very convenient for singing Masters If you bruise the leaves and extract the juyce it killeth lice in childrens heads being rubbed thereon The leaves cure rotten Sores and Ulcers running on the legs being applied unto them The juyce of this herb doth also presently take away and asswage the pain in the codds which happeneth to them who swimming do chance to touch their codds CHAP. XII Of a secret Medicine for wounds THere are certain Potions called Vulnerary Potions because being drunk they cure wounds and it seemeth an admirable thing how those Potions should penetrate to the wounds These are Vulnerary Potions Take Pirole Comfrey Aristolochy Featherfew of each a handful of Agrimony two boil them in the best new Wine digest them in horse-dung Or take two handfuls of Pirole of Sanicle and Sowe-bread one of Ladies Mantel half one Boil them in two measures of Wine and drink it morning and evening Binde the herbs which you have boiled upon the wound having mixt a little salt with them and in the mean while use no other Medicine The Weapon-Salve Given heretofore to Maximilian the Emperor by Paracelsus experimented by him and always very much accounted of by him while he lived It was given to me by a noble man of his Court If the Weapon that wounded him or any stick dipt in his blood be brought it will cure the wound though the Patient be never so far off Take of the moss growing upon a dead man his scull which hath laid unburied two ounces as much of the fat of a man half an ounce of Mummy and man his blood of linseed oyl turpentine and bole-armenick an ounce bray them all together in a mortar and keep them in a long streight glass Dip the Weapon into the oyntment and so leave it Let the Patient in the morning wash the wound with his own water and without adding any thing else tye it up close and he shall be cured without any pain CHAP. XIII How to counterfeit infirmities IT hath been no small advantage to some to have counterfeited sicknesses that they might escape the hands of their enemies or redeem themselves for a small ransom or avoid tortures invented by former ages and used by these latter I will first teach you How to counterfeit a bloody Flux Amphiretus Acantius being taken by Pirates and carried to Lemnos was kept in chains in hope that his ransom would bring them a great sum of money He abstained from meat and drank Minium mixt with salt water Therefore when he went to stool the Pirates thought he was fallen into a bloody Flux and took off his irons lest he should dye and with him their hopes of his ransom He being loose escaped in the night got into a Fisher-boat and arrived safe at Acantum so saith Poliaenus Indian Figs which stain the hands like ripe Mulberries if they be eaten cause the urine to be like blood which hath put many into a fright fearing they should dye presently The fruit of the Mulberry or Hoggs blood boiled and eaten maketh the excrements seem bloody Red Madder maketh the urine red saith Dioscorides We may read also that if you hold it long in your hand it will colour your urine I will teach you also To make any one look pale Cumine taken in drink causeth paleness so it is reported That the Followers of Portius Latro that famous Master of Rhetorick endeavored to imitate that colour which he had contracted by study And Julius Vindex that assertor of liberty from Nero made
untwine themselves again put one of these into the mouth of each Glass to binder the Herbs from falling out when the Glasses are turned downwards Then thurst the necks through the holes of the Form into the Receivers which are placed underneath and admit them into their bellies fasten them together with linen bands that there may be noâ—vent and place the Receivers in dishes of water that the vapor may the sooner be condensed All things being thus provided expose them to most violent heat of Sun-beams they will presently dissolve them into vapors and slide down into the Receivers In the evening after Sun-set remove them and fill them with fresh Herbs The Herb Polygonum or Sparrows-tongue bruised and thus distilled is excellent for the inflammation of the eyes and other diseases Out of S. Johns-wort is drawn a water good against cramps if you wash the part affected with it and others also there are too long to rehearse The manner of Distilling this Figure expresseth CHAP. V. How to draw Oyl by Expression VVE have treated of Waters now we will speak of Oyls and next of Essences These require the industry of a most ingenious Artificer for many the most excellent Essences of things do remain in the Oyl as in the radical moysture so close that without the greatest Art wit cunning and pains they cannot be brought to light so that the whole Art of Distillation dependeth on this The cheifest means is by Expression which though it be different from the Art of Distillation yet because it is very necessary to it it will not be unnecessary to mention here The general way of it is this Take the Seeds out of which you would draw Oyl blanch them and strip them of their upper Coats either by rubbing them with your hands or picking them off with your nails When they are cleansed cast them into a Marble-Morter and beat them with a wodden Pestle then sprinkle them with Wine and change them into a Leaden-Morter set them on the fire and stir them with a wooden-Spoon When they begin to yield forth a little Oyliness take them from the fire and prepare in readiness two plates of Iron of a fingers thickness and a foot-square let them be smooth and plain on one side and heated so that you can scarce lay your finger on them or if you had rather that they may hiss a little when water is cast upon them wrap the Almonds in a linen-cloth being wetted squeeze them between these plates in a press save the Expression and then sprinkle more Wine on the pressed Almonds or Seeds allow them some time to inbibe it then set them on the fire stir them and squeeze them again as before until all their Oyl be drawn out Others put the Seeds when they are bruised and warmed into a bag that will not let the Oyl strain thorow and by twining two sticks about press them very hard and close then they draw the Oyl out of them when they are a little settled To draw Oyl out of Nutmegs Beat the Nutmegs very carefully in a Morter put them into a Skillet and warm them and then press out the Oyl which will presently congeal Wherefore to make it fluide and apter to penetrate distil it five or six times in a Retort and it will be as you desire or else cast some burning Sand into it and mix it and make it into Rolls which being put into the neck of a Retort and a fire kindled will the first time remain liquid To extract Oyl out of Citron-seed we must use the same means Blanch and cleanse them an Oyl of a Gold-colour will flow out they yield a fourth part and it is powerful Antidote against Poyson and Witchcraft and it is the best Menstruum to extract the sent out of Musk Civet and Amber and to make sweet Oyntments of because it not quickly grow rank Oyl of Poppy-Seed is extracted the same way and yields a third part of a Golden-colour and useful in dormitive Medicines Also thus is made Oyl of Coloquintida-Seeds The fairest yield a sixth part of a Golden-colour it killeth Worms and expelleth them from Children being rubbed on the mouth of their Stomach Also Oyl of Nattle-Seed An ounce and a half may be extracted out of a pound and a half of Seeds being picked and blanched it is very good to dye womens Hair of a Gold-colour Oyl of Eggs is made by another Art Take fifty or sixty Eggs boyl them till they be hard then peal them and take out the yelk and set them over warm Coals in a tinned Posnet till all their moysture be consumod still stirring them with a wooden-spattle then encrease the fire but stir them uncessantly lest they burn You will see the Oyl swet out when it is all come forth take away the fire and skim off the Oyl Or when the Oyl beginneth to swet out as I said put the Eggs into a press and squeeze then very hard they will yield more Oyl but not so good CHAP. VI. How to extract Oyl with Water NOw I will declare how to extract Oyl without Expression and first out of Spices Seeds Leaves Sticks or any thing else Oyl being to be drawn out onely by the violence of fire and very unapt to ascend because it is dense considering also That Aromatick Seeds are very subtile and delicate so that if they be used too roughly in the fire they will stink of smoak and burning therefore that they may endure a stronger fire and be secure from burning we must take the assistance of water Those kinde of Seeds as I said are endued with an Airy thin volatile Essence and by the propriety of their Nature elevated on high so that in Distillation they are easily carried upward accompanied with water and being condensed in the Cap of the Stillatory the oyly and the waterish vapours run down together into the Receiver Chuse your Seeds of a full ripeness neither too new not too old but of a mature age beat them and macerate them in four times their weight of water or so that the water may arise the breadth of four fingers above them then put them into a Brass-pot that they may endure the greater fire and kindle your Coals unto a vehement heat that the Water and Oyl may promiscuously ascend and flow down separate the Oyl from the Water as you may easily do As for example How to draw Oyl out of Cinnamon If you first distil Fountain-water twice or thrice you may extract a greater quantity of Oyl with it for being made more subtile and apt to penetrate it pierceth the Cinnamon and draweth the Oyl more forcibly out of its Retirements Therefore take CXXXV pound of Fountain-water distil it in a Glass-Alembick when forty pound is drawn distil that until fifteen flow out then cast away the rest and draw five out of those fiftteen This being done macerate one pound of Cinnamon in five of Water and distil them in a
and gives force to the rest to burn vehemently If it be in great corns pown it well and seirce it fine to seven parts of this add two parts of Colophonia three of Salt-Peter one of Brimstone pown them all together and mingle them sprinkling on of Naphtha or of liquid pitch Kitram moystning them so long until the powder pressed in your hand will stay together When these are well mingled make trial by them if it burn too vehemently add more Colophonia Salt-Peter and Brimstone but if but weakly more Gun-powder This mixture must be wrapt in straw or linen-rags or put into coffins made of the same things and binde it as close as you can with straw or little cords round about then dip it into scalding pitch and so let it dry then wrap it again with straw and smeer it over with pitch to keep it safe from water and that it may not break asunder by the violence of the fire When it is well dried and a little hole made in it put in Gun-powder and put fire to it and when it begins to burn stay but very little and cast it into the water It will by its weight fall to the bottom and the flames will strive with the water and drive them far from it so it will appear to burn above and is obscured with a black smoak that you will think you see the sulphureous waters at Puteoli burning there Being then made lighter by many turnings and windings it will seem to ascend to the superficies of the water which is a most pleasant sight for you will think that the water burns and you shall see two contrary Element fighting together yet to unite friendly until the matter be spent Others wrap in cloth nothing but Gun-powder a whole handful and this they binde in with cords then they dip it in melted scalding pitch and bound very fast and wrapt in many linen rags they make a small hole through it and they place this in the Centre of the Ball we even now spake of that when it comes to the superficies of the water the fire taking hold on the Powder within breaks the Ball in pieces and with a mighty noise wounds all those that stand neer it Some make it Otherwise They make a Composition of Brimstone Colophonia Salt-Peter Vernish and to this they add a fourth part of Gun-powder and they add Venice-Turpentine-Rofin Oyl of liquid Vernish Petroleum Linseed Oyl and the best refined Aqua Vitae with these they wet and sprinkle the dry Powders I have seen this take fire more vehemently and to cast the flames farther To do The same Take Mastick one part Frankincense two Grains of Vernish Brimstone Camphire Gun-powder of each three parts of Colophonia six Salt-Peter refined nine pown them all together and fift them onely pown the Camphire mingled with the Salt for that onely will not be powdered strew them all about upon an earthen dish with a large mouth and sprinkle them with Naphtha or Vernish or Linseed Oyl and mingle them with your hands Take out part of the Powder and put it into a hollow Cane and try it whether it will burn to your minde and if it burn too weak put in more Gun-powder if too vehemently more Colophonia always trying if it be as it should be For to these Compositions we add the same things to blunt the vehement burning of the Salt-Peter and the Gun-powder Then make Coffins of Canvas like Balls and fill them with your Composition and stuff it in well and binde them well with cords round about Then melt Brimstone and let there be in it one fourth part of Gun-powder stir them together with a wooden stick and lute the Ball over with that liquor that it may be well fenced and crusted Then with a wooden prick make a hole in it in the middle to the Centre and fill that with powder and so put in fire and it will burn under water it may also be shot forth of brass Engines I will shew you how to make Balls and Pots to be cast forth of Ships The Ancients write That Alexander the Great found out this Composition of Fires to burn Bridges Gates Ships and the like but it will work now more vehemently by reason of the Gun-powder added Take Gun-powder Salt-Peter Brimstone Pitch Pine-Tree-Gum Vernish in Grains Frankincense of each alike Camphire one half beat all these and mingle them Then take Oyl of Peter liquid Vernish Rosinous Turpentine equal parts and with these being liquid mingle all together and fill Pots with them to be cast among Ships and enemies or if you make a Ball of these binde it hard about the head of a hammer whose sharp-tooth'd end must be a foot long and the handle three foot If at a Sea-fight any one with a light Boat strike this into a Ship of the enemies with one blow he shall raise a mighty fire that neither water nor any other thing will put out CHAP. VII How Balls are made of Metals that will cast forth fire and Iron wedges I Shall shew you how to make brittle Balls of Metal that being filled with Gun-powder and all the places of vent stopt with the violence of the flame will flie into many pieces and strike through those they meet with and on all sides they will pierce through those who are not onely unarmed but armed men and these are to be used in besieging of Cities for cast amongst multitudes they will wound abundance The danger is seen among Herds of Cattle Make then Balls that will cast pieces of Iron a great way off Let a Ball of Metal be made a hand-breadth diameter half a finger thick the Metal is made of Brass three parts Tin one part to make it so brittle that by force of fire it may flie in small pieces To make the Ball more easily make it of two half circles for the charge is the less and let them joyn together like a box or let them screw one within another let it be equally thick that it may break in all parts alike Then with a Nail drove through the middle let it be fastened the better together a finger thick that it may break in all parts before it do in the joynts Then make a little Pipe as big as a finger and as long as ones hand that it may come to the Centre of the Ball and so stick forth beyond the Superficies like a Pyramis the Basis outward the Point inward sodder it fast to the Ball. The nail as I said must come forth on both sides and to this fasten wires that runs through iron piles that have a large hole through them that every wire may have thirty of them that when the ball is broken by force of the fire the wires of iron may break also and the piles of iron may be thrown about a great way with such force that they may seem to be shot forth Guns and Ordnance Lastly let the Ball be filled
with the best Gunpowder onely but the pipe with that mixture that burns more gently that when fire is put to it you may hold it so long in your hand until that slow composition may come to the centre and then throw it amongst the enemies for it will break in a thousand pieces and the iron wires and pieces of iron and parts of the Ball will fly far and strike so violently that they will go into planks or a wall a hand depth These are cast in by Souldiers when Cities are besiged for one may wound two hundred men and then it is worse to wound then to kill them as experience in wars shews But when you will fill the pipes hold one in your hand without a Ball full of the composition and try it how long it will burn that you may learn to know the time to cast them lest you kill your self and your friends I shall teach you how with the same Balls Troops of Horsemen may be put into confusion There are made some of these sorts of Balls that are greater about a foot in bigness bound with the same wire but fuller of iron piles namely with a thousand of them These are cast amongst Troops of Horsemen or into Cities besieged or into ships with slings or iron guns which they call Petrels and divers ways for if they be armed with iron pieces when they break they are cast forth so with the violence of the fire that they will strike through armed men and horses and so fright the horses with a huge noise that they cannot be ruled by bridle nor spurs but will break their ranks They have four holes made through them and they are filled with this said mixture that being fired they may be cast amongst Troops of Horsemen and they will cast their flames so far with a noise and cracking that the flames will seem like to thunder and lightning CHAP. VIII How in plain ground and under waters mines may be presently digged TO dig Mines to overthrow Cities and Forts there is required great cost time and pains and they can hardly be made but the enemy will discover it I shall shew how to make them in that champion ground where both armies are to meet with little labour and in short time To make Mines in plain grounds where the Armies are to meet If you would do this in sight of the enemy for they know not what you do I shall first teach how A little before night or in the twilight where the meeting shall be or passage or standing there may pits be made of three foot depth and the one pit may be distant from the other about ten foot There fit your Balls about a foot in bigness that you may fill the whole plain with them then dig trenches from one to the other that through them cotton matches may pass well through earthen pipes or hollow caâ—es but fire the Balls at three or four places then bury them and make the ground even leaving a space to give fire to them all at once Then at the time of war when the enemy stands upon the ground then remove at your pleasure or counterfeit that you fly from them and cast in fire at the open place and the whole ground will presently burn with fire and make a cruel and terrible slaughter amongst them for you shall see their limbs fly into the air and others fall dead pierced through burnt with the horrible flames thereof that scarce one man shall scape You shall make your Match thus In a new Test let the best Aqua vitae boyl with gunpowder till it grow thick and be like pap put your matches into it and role them in the mixture take the Test from the fire and strew on as much gunpowder as they will receive and set them to dry in the Sun put this into a hollow cane and fill it full of gunpowder or take one part refined salt-peter brimstone half as much and let it boyl in a new earthen pot with oyl of linseed put in your Match and wet them well all over with that liquor take them away and dry them in the Sun But if you will make Mines under the Water use this rare invention You shall make your Mines where the enemies Galleys or Ships come to ride you shall upon a plain place fit many beams or pieces of timber fastned cross-wise and thrust through or like nets according to the quantity in the divisions you shall make fit circles of wood and fasten them and fill them with gunpowder the beams must be made hollow and be filled with match and powder that you may set fire to the round circles with great diligence and cunning smeer over the circles and the beams with pitch and cover them well with it that the water may not enter and the powder take wet for so your labour will be lost and you must leave a place to put fire in then sink your engine with weights to the bottom of the water and cover it with stones mud and weeds a little before the enemy come Let a Scout keep watch that when their Ships or Galleys ride over the place that the snare is laid for fire being put to it the sea will part and be cast up into the air and drown'd the Ships or will tear them in a thousand pieces that there is nothing more wonderful to be seen or done I have tried this in waters and ponds and it performed more then I imagined it would CHAP. IX What things are good to extinguish the fire I Have spoken of kindling fires but now I shall shew how to quench them and by the way what things obnoxious to the fire will endure it and remain But first I will relate what our Ancestours have left concerning this business Vitruvious saith That the Larch-tree-wood will not burn or kindle by it self but like a stone in the furnace will make no coles but burn very slowly He saith the reason is That there is in it very little air or fire but much water and earth and that it is very solid and hath no pores that the fire can enter at He relates how this is known When Caesar commanded the Citizens about the Alps to bring him in provision those that were secure in a Castle of wood refused to obey his commands Caesar bade make bundles of wood and to light torches and lay these to the Castle when the matter took fire the flame flew exceeding high and he supposed the Castle would have fallen down but when all was burnt the Castle was not touched Whence Pliny writes The Larch-tree will neither burn to coles nor is otherwise consumed by fire then stones are But this is most false For seeing it is rosiny and oyly it presently takes fire and burns and being one fired is hard to put out Wherefore I admire that this error should spread so far and that the Town Larignum so called from the abundance of
be made softer now I will shew the tempering of it how it may be made to cut sharper For the temper of it is divers for divers uses For Iron requires several tempers if it be to cut Bread or Wood or Stone or Iron that is of divers liquors and divers ways of firing it and the time of quenching it in these Liquors for on these doth the business depend When the Iron is sparkling red hot that it can be no hotter that it twinkles they call it Silver and then it must not be quenched for it would be consumed But if it be of a yellow or red colour they call it Gold or Rose-colour and then quenched in Liquors it grows the harder this colour requires them to quench it But observe That if all the Iron be tempered the colour must be blew or Violet colour as the edge of a Sword Rasor or Lancet for in these the temper will be lost if they are made hot again Then you must observe the second colours namely when the Iron is quenched and so plunged in grows hard The last is Ash colour and after this if it be quenched it will be the least of all made hard For example The temper of a Knife to cut Bread I have seen many ingenious men that laboured for this temper who having Knives fit to cut all hard substances yet they could scarce fall upon a temper to cut Bread for the Table I fulfilled their desire with such a temper Wherefore to cut Bread let the Steel be softly tempered thus Heat gently Steel that when it s broken seems to be made of very small grains and let it be excellent well purged from Iron then strike it with a Hammer to make a Knife of it then work it with the File and frame it like a Knife and polish it with the Wheel then put it into the Fire till it appear Violet-colour Rub it over with Sope that it may have a better colour from the Fire then take it from the Fire and anoynt the edge of it with a Linen-cloth dipt in Oyl of Oâ—ives until it grow cold so you shall soften the hardness of the Steel by the gentleness of the Oyl and a moderate heat Not much differs from this The temper of Iron for Wood. Something harder temper is fit to cut wood but it must be gentle also therefore let your Iron come to the same Violet-colour and then plunge it into waters take it out and when it appears Ash-colour cast it into cold water Nor is there much difference in The temper for Instruments to let blood It is quenched in Oyl and grows hard because it is tender and subtile for should it be quenched in water it would be wrested and broken The temper of Iron for a Sythe After that the Iron is made into a Sythe let it grow hot to the colour of Gold and then quench it in Oyl or smeer it with Tallow because it is subtile Iron and should it be quenched in waters it would either crumble or be wrested CHAP. IV. How for all mixtures Iron may be tempered most hard NOw I will shew some ways whereby Iron may be made extream hard for that Iron that must be used for an Instrument to hammer and polish and fit other Iron must be much harder then that The temper of Iron for Files It must be made of the best Steel and excellently tempered that it may polish and fit other Iron as it should be Take Ox hoofs and put them into an Oven to dry that they may be powdered fine mingle well one part of this with as much common Salt bearen Glass and â—himney-foot and beat them together and lay them up for your use in a wooden Vessel hanging in the smoak for the Salt will melt with any moisture of the place or Air. The powder being prepared make your Iron like to a file then cut it chequerwise and crosswayes with a sharp edged tool having made the Iron tender and soft as I said then make an Iron chest fit to lay up your files in and put them into it strewing on the powders by course that they may be covered all over then put on the cover and lute well the chinks with clay and raw that the smoak of the powder may not breath out and then lay a heap of burning coals all over it that it may be red-hot about an hour when you think the powder to be burnt and consumed take the chest out from the coals with Iron pinchers and plunge the files into very cold water and so they will become extream hard This is the usual temper for files for we fear not if the files should be wrested by cold waters But I shall teach you to temper them excellently Another way Take the pith out of Goats horns and dry it and powder it then lay your files in a little Chest strewed over with this Powder and do as you did before Yet observe this That two files supernumerary must be laid in so that you may take them forth at pleasure and when you think the Chest covered with burning coals hath taken in the force of the Powder take out one of the supernumerary Files and temper it and break it and if you finde it to be very finely grain'd within and to be pure Steel according to your desire take the Chest from the fire and temper them all the same way or else if it be not to your minde let them stay in longer and resting a little while take out the out the other supernumerary File and try it till you have found it perfect So we may Temper Knives to be most hard Take a new Ox hoof heat it and strike it with a Hammer on the side for the pith will come forth dry it in an Oven and as I said put it into a pot alwayes putting in two supernumeraries that may be taken forth to try if they be come to be pure Steel and doing the same as before they will be most hard I will shew How an Habergeon or Coat of Arms is to be tempered Take soft Iron Armour of small price and put it into a pot strewing upon it the Powders abovesaid cover it and lute it over that it have no vent and make a good Fire about it then at the time fit take the Pot with iron pinchers and striking the Pot with a Hammer quench the whole Herness red hot in the foresaid water for so it becomes most hard that it will easily resist the strokes of Poniards The quantity of the Powder is that if the Harness be ten or twelve pounds weight lay on two pounds and a half of Powder that the Powder may stick all over wet the Armour in water and rowl it in the Powder and lay it in the pot by courses But because it is most hard lest the rings of a Coat of Male should be broken and flie in pieces there must be strength added to the hardness Workmen call it a
When it is all soft that it is transparent as Crystal they fry them with butter and milk and bring them to the Table So Squils grow tender We must do as we did to Crabs for they cast their shells as Crabs do and Nature did this for some end for when their shells are grown too thick and weighty they can scarce crawl wherefore by the excrements that go into it that are consumed to make a new shell within the former that was made is broken and falls off CHAP. V. That living Creatures may be made more fat and well tasted I Shall endeavour to shew how living Creatures may be made more fat and well tasted that we may set more favory meats before our guests The Antients were not negligent in this matter Wherefore you shall find many ways not onely amongst Cooks but such as write concerning Husbandry Liccorish Gluttons found out the ways to fat Cattle that they might feed on them more plentifully and daintily Hence they called them cram'd because they were full fed and had gross bellies Those were called Bird pens where they fatted all sorts of Birds M. Lelius Strabo was the first that appointed this and he appointed Crammers to take care of them and ordered how much every crammed bird should eat They will fat better in winter than in summer because Birds at that time of the year are best being not so much wasted with yong and Cocks will fat better then Hens and such as never trod nor made eggs In summer when it is at an end and the sowre Grapes hang yet upon the Vines they are at the best I shall therefore teach How Hens and other Birds must be crammed Choose a place that is hot and obscure shut them all up apart and so close in their pens that they cannot come together nor turn and make two holes one for their heads to put forth and the other for their tails that they may both at their meat and shite it out again when it is digested Lay soft hay under them for if they lye hard they will never fat Pull off all the feathers from their heads thighs and 〈◊〉 under their wings there that it may breed no lice here that the dung corrupt it not For meat give them gobbets of Barley-Meal made up with water at the first for some time more sparingly then after give them as much as they can digest and you must give them no new meat till you feel their câ—ops that all the old is digested When the Bird is full let him go a while not to wander abroad but if there be any thing that urgeth him he may pick it off with his bill Let him not be set to fatting before five or after twenty Moneths old Yong Pigeons or Chickens will fat better with their dams if you pull off a few of their feathers and bruise their legs that they may stay in their places and if you give meat plentifully to their dams that they may feed themselves and their yong ones sufficiently Turtles are best fatted in summer give them nothing but meat especially Millet-seed for they much delight to eat that but Geese in winter They must be put up to fat four Moneths you need give them nothing else but Barley-Meal and Wheat-meal three times a day so that you give them water enough to drink and no liberty to walk about thus they will fat in two Moneths But tender Pullers will not be made fat in forty days Ducks will grow fat with all nutriment if it be abundance especially with Wheat Millet-seed Barley and with Water-squils Locusts and Creatures found in Lakes Columella Pheasants Partidges Heath-cocks and Turky-hens will fat being shut up and the first day they eat meat the next set them water or good strong wine to drink Let their meat be raw Barley-Meal made up with water giving them it by degrees or else broken and ground Beans and Barley sod with water and whole Millet-seed Linseed boil'd and dry mingled with Barley-meal to these you may add Oyl and make gobbets of them and give them to eat to the full and they will grow fat at longest in sixty days Now I shall shew how Four-footed Beasts are fatted The Sow will soonest fat for in sixty days she will be far First kept hungry three days as all the rest must be She grows fat with Barley Millet Acorns Figs Pears Cucumbers rest and not wandring But Sows will grow fatter by wallowing in the mire Figs and Chick-peason will fat them soonest and they desire change of meats Varro The Sow is fed with Beans Barley and other Grain for these will not onely fat them but give them a good rellish The Olive wilde Olive Tares Corn in straw Grass and they are all the better sprinkled with brine but the more effectual will they be if she fast three days before Aristotle Bean-husks and Coleworts are pleasant meat for them Salt put to them will make them have a stomack which in summer put into their troughs will season their meat and make them eat it up and by that seasoning of it they will drink and eat the more Colunmella Oxen will grow faâ— with Corn and Grass Tares ground Beans and Beanflalks Also with Barley whole or broken and parted from the hulls also by sweet things as pressed Figs Wine Elm-boughs and with a Lotion of hot water Aristotle We feed them at home with Wine of Surrentum or else we put Calfs to two Cows and thus being fed with abundance of Milk they can scarce go for fat Also in their craâ—ches we strew Salt stones that they may lick them and so drink and they will grow exceeding fat and tender CHAP. VI. How the flesh of Animals is made sweeter NOw shall I shew with some Meats and Arts How not onely the parts of Animals but their whole bodies are made fat tender and more delicate And first How to fat the Livers of Geese Out wise Ancestours saith Pliny who knew the goodness of a Goose liver taught how by cramming to make it grow great also taken forth it is augmented by sweet Milk And it is not without cause demanded who was the first man that found out so profitable a thing Whether it were Scipio Metellus that was Consul or Mar Sejus that in the same age was a Gentleman of Rome Palladius taught the way how when Geese have been fatting thirty days if you desire to have their livers tender you shall bruise old Figs and steep them in water and make gobbets of them and feed the Geese with them twenty days together But Quintilius way is when they grow fat you shall break dry wilde Radish in small pieces and tempering them with water give them this to drink for twenty days Some that the liver may be made great and the Geese fat feed them thus They shut up the Goose and cast to him Wheat sleeped in water or Barley the same way Wheat makes him fat quickly but Barley makes
the flesh white Let her be sed with the said grain but severally with them both for twenty days giving to her twice a day a moyst Medicament made thereof so that seven of those meats may be given her for the first five days and by degrees the days following increase the number of these meats until twenty five days be past that the days in the whole may be thirty and when they are over heat Mallows and in the decoction thereof being yet hot give her leaven moystned therewith do so for four days and in the same days give her water and honey changing it thrice every day not using the same again and do this the days following till sixty days mingle dry Figs bruised all this time with the said leaven and after sixty days you may eat the Goose and its liver that will be white and tender Which being taken forth must be put into a large vessel wherein there is hot water that must be changed again and again But the Bodies and Livers of the females are best but let them be Geese not of one year but from two years old to four Horace in Serm. speaks of this Fat Figs do make the Goose white Liver great And Juvenal Satyr 5. A Goose's Liver fed before him stood As big as a Goose and to eat as good And Martial The Liver 's greater then the Goose that 's true But now you l wonder where this Liver grew Athenaus writes That this was of great account at Rome When you kill the Goose take out the Liver quickly and cast it into cold water that it may be solid then fry it in Goose-grease in a frying pan and season it with spices It is a dish for a Prince and highly commended by many So is A Sows Liver fatted Pliny There is art used for Sows Livers as well as for Geese It was the invention of Marcus Apicius when they are fat with dry Figs give them sweet wine to drink and kill them presently Apicius Add to the Liver of a Sow fatted with Figs Wine-pickle Pepper Time Lovage Suet and a little Wine and Oyl Aetius If saith he any man feed that creature with dry Figs the Sows Liver is preferred before all meat I said out of Aristotle that Figs and Chick peason will fat a Sow best Galen As whilst Sows are living their Livers are fed for delight with dry Figs so for Geese I see their meats are moystned with milk that their Livers may be not onely most pleasant meat but may be fed exceedingly and be most delicate If you will That Cattle may be more excellent to eat Cattle that use to feed on Masterwort and to be first cleansed will grow very fat and their flesh will be exceeding sweet Pliny Whence it is that this Benjamin is not for many years to be found in Cyrene because the Farmers that hire the grounds finding more gain by it devour them by their Cattel Moreover in India and chiefly in the Country of the Prasil it rains liquid honey which falling down on the grass and the tops of Reeds in the Lakes is admirable food for Sheep and Oxen and the Shepherds drive them thither where most of this sweet dew falls from the Air and there they are feasted with it as with pleasant bankets and they recompence their Shepherds with a pleasant reward for they milk very sweet milk from them and they have no need as the Grecians do to temper honey with it Aelian But How Pullets are made most white tender and delicate Such as I use to set before my friends The way is I shut them up five days in chambers or cellars and I give them a dish full of chippins of bread wet with milk and sometimes with honey fed thus they will grow as fat as great Sappers in Fig time and so tender that they will melt in your mouth and they taste better by far then Pheasants Heath-cocks or Thrushes And it seems the Antients knew this For saith Pliny when a crammed Hen was forbid to eat at supper by the Laws of the Antients they found out this evasion to feed Hens with meats wet in milk and so they were far more delicate to set on the Table And Columella They that will make Birds not onely fat but tender they sprinkle the foresaid Meal with water and honey new made and so they fat them Some to three parts of water put one of good wine and wet Wheat-bread and fat the Bird which beginning to be fatted the first day of the Moneth will be very fat on the twentieth day CHAP. VII How the Flesh of Animals may be made bitter and not to be eaten AGain if we will that Flesh shall be rejected for the bitterness and ill taste of it we must do contrary to what hath been said Or if we will not take the pains we must wait the times that these creatures feed on such meats as will do it whereby sometimes they become venemous also As if we would have Deers flesh become venemous Simeon Sethi saith That Deers flesh that is catcht in summer is poyson because then they feed on Adders and Serpents these are venemous creatures and by eating of them they grow thirsty and this they know naturally for if they drink before they have digested them they are killed by them wherefore they will abstain from water though they burn with thirst Wherefore Stags-flesh eaten at that time is venemous and very dangerous Sometimes also Partridge are nought Namely when they eat Garlick The Chyrrhaei will eat no Partridge by reason of their food for when they have eaten Garlick they stink and their flesh is stinking meat that the Fowler will not eat them So also Quails and Stares are rejected at that time of the year that black Hellebour is the meat they like onely Wherefore when Quails feed on Hellebour they put those that feed on them into so great danger of their lives that they swell and suffer convulsions and are subject to vertigo's Wherefore Millet-feed must be boil'd with them Also Birds are not to be eaten when the Goose-berries are ripe for their Feathers will grow black thereby and men that eat them fall into scowrings Dioscorides The Eggs of the Barbel or Spawn not to be eaten in May because they are dangerous but the Eggs are not dangerous of themselves nor do they breed such mischiefs For they do not do it always for often you may eat them without danger but they are onely then hurtful when they feed on Willow-flowers that fall into the waters So are Snails to be rejected when they stick fast to briars and shrubs for they trouble the belly and the stomack and cause vomiting Dioscorides And not onely these Animals themselves cause this mischief but their excrements as milk honey and the like For Milk must not be eaten when Goats and Sheep feed on green food because it will loosen the belly the more but Goats-milk doth not try the belly so
much because these Cattle feed on binding meats as on the Oak Mastick Olive-boughs and Turpentine-tree But in such places where Cattle eat Scammony black Hellebore Perwincle or Mercury all their milk subverts the belly and stomack such as is reported to be in the mountains of Justinâ—â— for Goats that eat black Hellebore that is given them when the yong leaves come first out their milk drank will make one vomit and causeth loathing and nauseating of the stomack Dioscorides Also there is found Honey that is venemous That which is made in Sardinia for there the Bees feed on Wormwood At Heraclia in Pontus some times of the year by a property of the flowers there Honey is made that they which eat it grow mad and sweat exceedingly Dioscorides There are Eggs laid that stink When there are no fruits nor herbs to be seen then Hens feed on dung and so do other Birds that lay Eggs. But then those raste best that feed on fat things and eat Wheat Millet and Panick but such as eat Wormwood their Eggs are bitter CHAP. VIII How Animals may be boiled rosted and baked all at once I Have thus far spoken to please the palate Now I shall represent some merry conceits to delight the guests Namely How a Hog may be rosted and boiled all at once Athenaeus in his ninth Book of Dipnosophistae Dalachampius translates it more elegantly saying There was a Hog brought to us that was half of it well rosted and half of it was soft boil'd in water and the Cook had used great industry to provide it that it should not be seen in what part he was stuck for he was killed with a small wound under his shoulder and the blood was so let out all his intestines were well washed with wine and hanging him by the heels he again poured wine on him and rosted him with much Pepper He filled half the Hog with much Barley-flouer kneaded together with Wine and Barley and he put him into an Oven setting a brass platter under him and he took care to rost him so leasurely that he should neither burn nor be taken up raw for when his skin seemed somewhat dry he conjectured the rest was rosted He took away the Barley-meal and set him on the Table So A Capon may be boil'd and rosted Put a Capon well pulled and his guts taken out into a silver dish and fill the one half of him with broth and put him into an Oven for the upper part will be rosted by the heat of the Oven and the under part will be boiled Nor will it be less pleasant to behold A Lamprey fried boilâ—d and rosted all at once Before you boil your Lamprey take out his bones to make it more graceful for his flesh is full of bones which you shall do with two little sticks held in both hands and fastning the Lamprey in the middle you shall cut his back-bone in the middle then his head and end of his tail about which the bones are heaped by reason of the bones pulled out being cut off and his entrails taken forth put him on a spit and wrap about three or four times with fillets all the parts that are to be rosted and fried strewing upon the one Pepper and the fillets must be made wet in Parsley Saffron Mint Fennel and sweet wine or with water and salt or broth for the rosted parts for the fried parts with Oyl and so let him be turned always moystning the fillets with strewing on the decoction of Origanum When part of it is rosted take it from the fire and it will be gallant meat set it before your guests CHAP. IX Of divers ways to dress Pullets I Shall here set down divers ways to dress Chickens that will be very pleasant for the guests So that A boiled Peacock may seem to be alive Kill a Peacock either by thrusting a quill into his brain from above or else cut his throat as you do for yong kids that the blood may come forth then cut his skin gently from his throat unto his tail and being cut pull it off with his feathers from his whole body to his head cut off that with the skin and legs and keep it Rost the Peacock on a spit his body being strffed with spices and sweet herbs sticking first on his brest cloves and wrapping his neck in a white linnen cloth wet it always with water that it may never dry when the Peacock is rosted and taken from the spit put him into his own skin again and that he may seem to stand upon his feet you shall thrust small iron wires made on purpose through his legs and set fast on a board that they may rot be discerned and through his body to his head and tail Some put Camphire in his mouth and when he is set on the table they cast in fire Platira shews that the same may be done with Pheasants Geese Capons and other Birds and we observe these things amongst our Guests But it will be a more rare sight to see A Goose rosted alive A little before our times a Goose was wont to be brought to the Table of the King of Arragon that was rosted alive as I have heard by old men of credit And when I went to try it my company were so hasty that we eat him up before he was quite rosted He was alive and the upper part of him on the outside was excellent well rosted The rule to do it is thus Take a Duck or a Goose or some such luâ—â—y creature but the Goose is best for this purpose pull all the feathers from his body leaving his head and his neck Then make a fire round about him not too narrow left the smoke choke him or the fire should rost him too soon not too wide lest he escape unrosted Within-side set everywhere little pots full of water and put Salt and Meum to them Let the goose be smeered all over with Suet and well larded that he may be the better meat and rost the better put fire about but make no too much hast when he begins to rost he will walk about and cannot get forth for the fire stops him when he is weary he quencheth his thirst by drinking the water by cooling his heart and the rest of his internal parts The force of the Medicament loosneth and cleanseth his belly so that he grows empty and when he is very hot it rosts his inward parts Continually moysten his head and heart with a spunge But when you see him run mad up and down and to stumble his heart then wants moysture wherefore take him away and set him on the Table to your Guests who will cry as you pull off his parts and you shall almost eat him up before he is dead If you would set on the Table A yong Pigeon with his bones pulled out you shall take out his bones thus Put a yong Pigeon his entrails taken forth and well wash'd for
put into it a little musk stop the mouth close that it vent not set it in the summer-Sun two weeks always stirring the water The use is if you put a drop of this into a gallon of wine all the wine will smell of Musk and so for Cinnamon or other Spices So you may make Hippocras Wine Take the sweetest wine we call it commonly Mangiaguâ—rra and into four Vials full of that pour in two pounds of beaten Sugar four ounces of Cinnamon Pepper and grains of Paradise one ounce and half let them infuse one day then strain them adde in the end in a knot a little Musk and it will be excellent Wine or to powdred Sugar we put a little Aqua vitae wherein Cinnamon Pepper Grains of Paradise and musk have been infused as I said and it is presently provided for it draws forth the quintessence I shall shew how Wine may freeze in Glasses Because the chief thing desired at Feasts is that Wine cold as ice may be drunk especially in summer I will teach you how Wine shall presently not onely grow cold but freeze that you cannot drink it but by sucking and drawing in of your breath Put Wine into a Vial and put a little water to it that it may turn to ice the sooner then cast snow into a wooden vessel and strew into it Salt-peter powdred or the cleansing of Salt-peter called vulgarly Salazzo Turn the Vial in the snow and it will congeal by degrees Some keep snow all the summer Let water boil in brass kettles then pour it into great bowls and set them in the frosty cold Air it will freeze and grow harder than snow and last longer CHAP. XII To make men drunk and to make them loath Wine NOw we are come to speak of Wine before we pass from it I will shew you how to make your guests drunk for drunkenness at Feasts increaseth mirth and then how to keep them safe from drunkenness when they are often provoked to drink healths and to strive who shall drink most You may with these fruits Make men drunk The fruits of the Arbute and the Lote-tree being eaten will make men as though they were drunk also Dates eat in too great a quantity cause drunkenness and the pain of the head Sow-bread with Wine makes a man drunk Amber-greese or Musk put in Wine exasperate drunkenness The filth of a Dogs ear mingled with Wine makes one drunk as Albertus saith But Rhases out of whom he took it saith That Wine wherein the seeds of Ricinus are infused if any one drink it it will inebriate them Camels froth drunk with water by a drunken man will make him mad as possessed with a Devil Let these suffice for I said more in my description of Plants But on the contrary these things will Take away drunkenness Because Hemlock with Wine is the cause of death by its venome it hath been invented and found true that Hemlock is the cause of life to others Pliny seems to intimate as much Also venoms are prepared to drink some taking Hemlock before that they may drink and die If a man hath drunk too much Wine that doth him hurt he shall discuss it thus Cato bids that at the beginning and middle of Supper a man should eat four or five tops of raw Coleworts and it will take off his drunkenness and remove the hurt comes by Wine and will make a man as though he had neither eat nor drank The Egyptians before all meat did eat boil'd Coleworts and so provided themselves for drink Many to keep themselves sober take Colewort-seeds first The Tibaritae saith Simaeus before they drank fenced themselves by feeding on Coleworts Alexis Yesterday thou drank'st too much And now thy head doth ake but such Distemper fasting cures then Eat boil'd Coleworts drink agen And Amphis There is no means can half so well As sudden trouble drink dispel For that will wonderfully cure Eat else Radish that 's as sure They were wont in a vessel of Amethyst to make another remedy for drunkenness that they might drink Wine without danger Athenaeus If you would otherwise hinder the vapours of the Wine drink it well tempered with water for they are soonest drunk that drink strongest Wines Africaâ—â—â— saith If thou have drunk too much eat before meat three or four bitter Almonds they are drying and will drink up the moysture and drive away drunkenness Plutarch relates That there was a Physitian with Drâ—sâ—s who when he had first eaten five or six bitter Almonds he always conquered at the duel of drunkenness The powder of Pumex-stone will do as much if the drinker take that first Theophrastus saith it is dangerous unless he drink abundantly So Eâ—deâ—â—â— drank two and twenty Cups at last he went into a Bath and did not vomit and supped so as if he had drank nothing for by its drying quality it consumes all the moysture and being cast into a vessel of new Wine that works the heat of the Wine is strait allayed There are other things prepated by the Antients to extinguish drunkenness as to eat Lettice at the end of Supper for they are very cold we eat it now first to procure appetite whence Martial writes Why do we first our Lettice eat Our Fathers made it their last meat Dioscorides seems to call it Acrepula because it hinders drunkenness Leeks discuss drunkenness and he that takes Saffron before shall feel no drunkenness There are also Herbs and Flowers that if you make Garlands of them they will hinder drunkenness as Violets Roses and Ivy-berries The ashes of the Bill of a Swallow powdred with Myrrhe and strewed into the Wine you drink will keep you secure from being drunk Hâ—rus the King of Assyria found out this invention Pliny I have said how drunkenness may be disposed now I shall shew how men shall abstain That love Wine to refrain it There are many who when they have drank much Wine that is the worst thing in the world for them fall sick and die of it Now if you would refrain and abhor Wine and strong drink because the Fountain Clitorins is too far off let three or four live eels put into the Wine stay there till they die Let one drink of this Wine who is given to drunkenness and he will loath Wine and always hate it and will never drink it again or if he do he will drink but little and with much sobriety Another way wash a Tortois with Wine a good while and give one of that wine to drink privately half a cup full every morning for three days and you shall see a wonderful vertue Myrepsus VVhen one complained before the King of the Indians that he had Sons born to him but when once they began to drink a little wine they all died Jarchus answered him thus It is better for them that they died for had they lived they would have all run mad because they were begot of seed that was too cold Therefore
to them they supposing it is a Deer indeed will entertain him and draw neer to him and will not flie away and embrace him as much as one would do a Friend come from a long journey but by this great friendliness they get nothing but nets and snares Catching of Bustards Bustards of all Birds are thought to be most in love with Horses and it appears because they cannot endure other living creatures but when they see a Horse they will presently flie to him with great joy and come neer to him If a man put on a horse skin he may catch as many as he please for they will come neer for love of the horse So almost are The Polypi or Pourcontrels taken The Polypi take delight in the Olive tree and they are oft-times found fastned with their claws about the body of it sometimes also they are found clapping about the Fig-tree that grows neer the Sea and eating the Figs saith Clearchus Wherefore Fishers let down an Olive-bough into the Sea where the Polypi use to be In short space without any labour they draw up as many Polypi as they will Opian handsomely describes it thus The Polypus doth love the Olive tree And by the speckled leaves t is wonder he Is catch'd Again He is enraged for the Olive-bough The wary Fisher doth by this know how To catch this Fish for he doth binde about A piece of Lead an Olive-branch throughout The Fish lays hold and will not let it go He loves it and it proves his overthrow CHAP. IV. What noises will allure Birds NOt onely love but noises and Musick will draw them and each creature delights in some special noise First The Dolphin loves the Harp And with this Musick is he most delighted as also with the sound of the Organs Hence Herodotus first and others from him report that Arion was carried to Tenarus on a Dolphins back for when the men of Corinth cast him into the Sea he begged that he might have his Harp with him and might sing one song as he was thrown in But a Dolphin took him and brought him to Tenarus Opian A Wolf is charmed by a Minstrel or Flute A Minstrel at Pythiocara when he sang and played very pleasantly he made the Wolves tame Aelian Horses delight in the Musick of the Flute The Horses of Lybia are so taken with the noise of the Flute that they will grow tractable for mans use thereby and not be obstinate Shepherds make a Shepherds Pipe of Rhododaphne and by piping on this they will so delight Horses that they will run after them and when the Shepherds play on the Horses will â—â—and still and weep for joy Euripides saith that Shepherds provoke Mares to take Horse by playing on a Pipe and the Horses are so provoked to back the Mares Stags and Bores are taken with a Pipe It is a common saying among the Tyrtheni that Bores and Stags are taken most with them by Musick which so comes to pass Nets being pitchâ—d and all things made ready for to ensnare them a man that can play well on the Flute goes through dales and hills and woods and plays as he goes neer their haunts they listen exceedingly after it and are easily taken by it for they are so ravished that they forget where they are And thus by delight they fall into the snare and are taken Aelian The Pastinaca is taken by dancing and Musick When the Fisherman sees the Pastinaca or Ray swimming he leaps ridiculously in his Boat and begins to play on the Pipe the Pastinaca is much taken with it and so comes to the top of the water and another lays hold of him with his Engine Grampels by Musick are enticed on land Fishermen catch Grampels by Musick some lie hid others begin to play with the Pipe when the Grampels hear the Musick they presently come forth of their holes as if they had been charmed and they are so ravished that they will come out of the waters These go back and play on the Pipe the others run and catch them on dry Land CHAP. V. Fishes are allured by light in the night AMongst the many Arts to deceive Animals Light is one for at night when some Fish rest Fishermen carrying Light in their Boats draw these Fish to them and so strike them with a three-forked Spear or catch them alive Which Opian knew Either at noon or when the Sun doth set Are Fishes caught or else in the dark night By burning torches taken in the Net For whilst they take such pleasure in the Light The Fisherman doth strike them with his dart Or else doth catch them then by some such Art Many men have been much troubled how to make a Fire or Light under Water that Fishes seeing it afar off might swim to it I have done it thus I made a Pillar of Brass or Lead three or four foot diameter it was sharp or pyramidal below that it might sink the better into the deep and it was bound about with iron hoops that being sunk by its weight it might be drawn under the water I set on the top a Pipe that was fifteen or twenty foot long and one foot broad The middle of this Pillar had many open windows five or six and these were Glass-windows well polished and fitted to them and the joynts were well glued wiht Pitch that no water could come in I sunk the Pillar by its weight in a place fit for it but the mouth of the Pipe stood at least two foot above water then I let down a lighted Candle into the belly of the Pillar by the Pipe with a cord and it was so provided that what motion soever it had it should always stand upright The Light passed through the windows into the waters and by reflection made a Light that might be seen under water very far to this Light abundance of Fish came and I catched them with Nets CHAP. VI. That by Looking-Glasses many Creatures are brought together IF Females be wanting Looking-Glasses may serve to make reflexion of themselves so these Creatures deluded by their own pictures are drawn thither Also Liquors may serve in stead of Glasses The Cuttle is taken with a Glass Glasses put into wood are let down by a cord by the Fishermen into the waters and as they flote they are drawn by degrees the Cuttle seeing himself in it casts himself at his own image and laying fast hold of the wood with his claws whilst he looks upon his own picture as enamored by it he is circumvented by the Net and taken A Jackdaw is taken with a Looking-Glass Jackdaws love themselves the Fowler following to take them invents such wayes for where he sees they flock there he sets a Bason full of Oyl the curious Bird coming thither sits on the brim of the Vessel looking down to see her own Picture and because she thinks that she sees another Jackdaw she hastens to flee down and so falls into the
Oyl and the thick Oyl sticks to her and so she is catched without snares or nets How Quails are taken with a Locking-Glass Clearchus saith that Quails spend their seed not only when they see the Females but when they hear their cry also The cause is the impression in their mindes which you shall know when they couple if you set a Looking Glass against them and before that a Gin for running foolishly to their picture in the Glass they see they are catcht Athenaeus and Eustathius CHAP. VII How Animals are congregated by sweet smells THere are many odours or other hidden qualities that gather Animals together from the particular Nature of things or of living Creatures I shall speak of the smelling odours and other aliments that they much desire As The Unicorn is allured by sent Tretres writes that the Unicorn so hunts after young Virgins that he will grow tame with them and sometimes he will fall asleep by them and be taken and bound The Hunters clothe some young lusty Fellow in Maids clothes and strewing sweet odours on him they set him right against the place where the Unicorn is that the winde may carry away the smell to the wilde Beast the Hunters lie hid in the mean time The Beast enticed with the sweet smell comes to the young man he wraps the Beast's Head in long and large sleeves the Hunters come running and cut off his Horn. To make Wheezles come together The Gall of a Stellio beaten with water will make Wheezles come together saith Pliny Also the wise Plinianists write that with the Gall of a Chamaelion cast into water Wheezles will be called together To make Mice come together If you pour thick lees of Oyl into a Dish and set it right in the house they will stick to it Palladius But Anatolins saith if you pour Oyl-Lees into a Brazen Bason and set it in the middle of the house all the Mice at night will meet together To make Fleas come together The fat of a Hedge-hog boyl'd in water and taken off as it swims on the top if you anoynt a staff with it and set it in the house or under your bed all the Fleas will come to it Rhasis To bring Frogs together The Gall of a Goat set into the earth in some Vessel is said to bring all the Frogs together if they can finde any delight therein CHAP. VIII How Creatures made drunk may be catch'd with the hand I Have said what draws them now I shall say what will make them drunk There are many simples that will do it that you may take them with your hands whilst they sleep and because there are divers Animals that are made drunk with divers things I shall speak of them in order And first How Dogs are made drunk Athenaeus saith that Dogs and Crows are made drunk with an Herb called Aenutra but Theophrastus from whom he had it saith that the Root Aenothera given with Wine will make them more tame and gentle Whence Aenutra comes by corruption of the word Theophrastus his Aenothera is Rhododaphni as I said So Asses are made drunk And when they sleep they are not onely taken but if you pull off their skins they will scarce feel you nor awake which comes by Hemlock for when they have eaten that they fall so fast asleep that they seem stupid and sensless So Horses are made stupid by Henbane seed if you give it them with Barley and they will be so fast asleep that they will be half dead half a day A certain Cheat who wanted money on his way cast this seed to some of his company and when they lay almost dead asleep and they were all much troubled for them for a reward he promised to help them which received he put Vinegar to their Nostrils and so revived them Whereupon they went on their journey So Libards are made drunk Opian teacheth the way and how they are taken when they are drunk In Africa so soon as they come to a Fountain where the Libards use to drink every morning there the Hunters in the night bring many vessels of Wine and not far from thence they sit covered in blankets The Libards very thirsty come to the Fountain and so soon as they have drunk Wine that they delight in first they leap then they fall fast asleep on the ground and so they are easily taken If you desire to know how Apes are taken being drunk Athenaeus writes that Apes will drink Wine also and being drunk are catch'd And Pliny saith that four-footed Beasts with Toes will not encrease if they use to drink Wine So Sows run mad eating Henbane-seed Aelian saith that Boars eating this Herb fall sick of a lingring disease and are troubled it is of the Nature of Wine that disquiets the minde and head So Elephants are made drunk Athenaeus reports out of Aristotle's Book de Ebrietate that Elephants will be drunk with Wine Aelian writes that they give the Elephant that must go to war Wine of the Grapes and made Wine of Rice to make them bold Now I will shew bow Birds laid asleep may be catch'd with your hands If then you would know how Birds may be catch'd with hands Pliny writes A certain Garlick grows in the Fields they call it Alum which being boyled and cast to them is a remedy against the villany of Birds that eat up the Corn that it cannot grow again the Birds that eat it are presently stupid and are catch'd with ones hand if they have staid a little as if they were asleep But if you will Hunt Partridge that are drunk Boetius teacheth you thus You shall easily hunt such Partridge if you cast unto them meal wet in wine for every Bird is soon taken with it If you make it with water and wine mingled and put that which is stronger into the vessels so soon as they have but sipt a little they grow drowsie and stupid He sheweth How to take Ducks with your hand If any one observe the place where Ducks use to drink and putting away the water place black wine in the place when they have drunk they fall down and may be easily taken Also wine-lees is best Ducks and other Birds being drunk are soon taken With some meats as are the Bur Dock seed strewed here and there in places where Birds frequent they are so light-headed when they have eaten them that you may take them with your hands Another bait Tormentil boy'ld in good wine and boyl Wheat or Barley in the same cast to Birds is good to catch them for they will eat pieces of Tormentil with the seeds and be drunk that they cannot flie and so are they catc'd with your hands This is best when the weather is cold and the Snow deep Or else strew Barley-corns in places where many Birds come then make a composition like a pultis of Barley-meal Ox-gall and Henbane-seed set this on a plank for them when they have tasted it
and draw your lines upon the lines of the letters you see through We may Open letters and shut them without suspition We use to seal letters putting paper upon them which goes through the letter on one side and wax is put on the other side where it comes forth and there it is sealed You shall open the letter thus Break away that part of the paper that is put upon the place where it passeth through the letter and the hole is the letter opens presently read it and shut it again and put the paper torn off in its proper place first anoynting the crack with gum-traganth dissolved in water for the paper will be so glewed that it will be stronger there then elsewhere press it with a small weight till it grow dry the fraud cannot be discovered because the glew is white and is not known from the colour of the paper CHAP. XII How you may spâ—ak at a great distance THere are many way how we may speak at a very great distance with our friends that are absent or when they are in prison or shut up in Cities and this is done with safety and without any suspition as I shall shew Two things are declared here either to do it by open voice reâ—uplicated or else by a Trunk We may With open voyce shew some things to those that are confederate with us It is wonderful that as the Light so the Voyce is reverberated with equal Angles I shall shew how this may be done by a glass It is almost grown common how to speak through right or circular walls The voice passing from the mouth goes through the Air if it goes about a wall that is uniform it passeth uncorrupted but if it be at liberty it is beaten back by the wall it meets with in the way and is heard as we see in an Eccho I through a circular building that was very long and smooth spake words to my friend that heard them round the wall and the words came entire to his ears but one standing in the middle heard not any noise and yet I heard again what my friend answered to me In the morning whenas I walked by the sea shore I heard above a mile what my friends talked in a Boat the sea was very calm and scarce moved and the words came clearly to me carried on the plain superficies of the water I hear that at Mantua and other places a great Gallery is built wherein one speaking in the corner is heard by another that knows the business standing in another corner but those that stand in the middle perceive nothing of it But more exactly and clearly To signifie to friends all things by a Trunk Let the pipe be of Earth but lead is better or of any matter well closed that the voice may not get forth in the long passage for whatever you speak at one end the voice without any difference as it came forth of the speakers mouth comes so to the ears of him that hearkneth and I doubt not but this may be done some miles off The voyce not divided or scattered goes whole a long way I have tried it for above two hundred paces when I had no other convenience and the words were heard so clear and open as the speaker uttered them Upon this it came into my mind to intercept words spoken by the way with leaden pipes and to hold them so long as I pleased close in that when I opened the hole the words should break forth I perceive that the sound goes by degrees and that being carried through a pipe it may be shut up in the middle and if a very long Trunk should take away the convenience of it that many winding pipes might shut it up in a close place I read that Albertus made an Artificial head that spake at a set time I might hope to do the same by this invention yet I never tried this farther then I have said yet I have heard by my friends that lovers have spoke a long time through a leaden pipe from their Houses that stood far asunder CHAP. XIII By night we may make signs by fire and with dust by day IT remains to shew whether we can make signs in the night by fire and in the day by dust to declare our business That may fall out two ways For by fire of a sudden we shew to our confederate friends or when we please by certain numbers of Torches we represent letters fit to demonstrate what our purpose is that those that are far off seeing and observing the motions may perceive our intent The first way we read that Medea promised to the Argonauts that if she killed Pelias she would signifie so much unto them by night with fire from a watch-Tower and by day with smoke When therefore the business was effected as she would have it she counterfeited that she must pay her vows to the Moon by making a fire by lighting Torches in the open Air from the top of the place as she had promised and when the Argonauts understood it this way they invaded the Kings palace and killing the guard they made her to enjoy her wishes We read also that Maga having possession of Paretonium agreed with the watch that at night in the evening and again in the morning beâ—imes they should set up the light that was for confederacy and by that means signs were made that the messenger came as far as Clius Also to friends that live out of the City by fire we may signifie our revenew and the quality of provision It is apparent that Annibal as Polybius writes when the people of Agrigentum were besieged by the Romans by many and frequent fires by night did shew forth the intolerable famine of his Army and for that cause many of his Souldiers for want of victuals fell off to the enemy Also the Grecians compacted with Sinon that by night when the Trojans were asleep those that came to Troy should have a token when he should open the Trojan Horse to let forth the Souldiers that were within Whence Virgil When the Kings fleet lift up the flames just then Did Sinon let forth all the Grecian men Also by Torches letters may be signified as we find it in the Manuscript of Polybius Tops of buildings or Towers are very fit to set up the Torches on Let the letters be divided into two or three parts if there may be eleven or seven parts of each If they be seven the first letters are shew'd by single Torches the second by double ones the third by three Torches The number may be also divided into four parts but in representing them we must observe the variety of motion For one Torch once lifted up shall signifie A the same lifted up twice B thrice C so seven times the last of the first order G after that two once H so many twice I thrice signifies L and so of the rest of the same order Then Q by the
if they sink it is mingled with water But if you seek to know If new wine have any water mingled with it it will be the contrary for the contrary reason For wine that is pure and sincere is thin but new wine at first is thick feculent gross clammy because the feces are not yet sunk down but in time it will grow clear and thin Wherefore if you put Apples or Pears into new wine and the new wine be most pure the Apples will flote above it but if there be water mingled with it â—he Apples will sink to the bottom for freeze-water is thinner than new wiâ—e and lighter iâ—â—â—useth the Apple to sink which is excellent well described by Sotion and very curiously He saith That we may know whether new wine be mingled with water cast wilde Pears that is green ones into new wine and if there be any water they will sink to the bottom For when you fill the vessel with new wine if you cast in Services or Pears they will swim the more water you put to it the more will the Apple sink But we shall adde this for an addition When new wine is mingled with water to know which part is the best the upper or lower part The Country people use after the pressing forth of the wine when the clusters are pressed forth to caâ—â— in a certain quantity of water and so they make drink for laborers in the Countrey This new wine they divide the Country man hath half and the Landlord the other half The question is which part is the best the first or last that runs forth of the press But if you well remember what I said before the wine being the lightest will come uppermost and the water being heaviest will always sink to the bottom Wherefore the first that comes forth is the wine that which remains and is pressed from the clusters is watry When water is cast on the clusters it goes into the inmost parts of the Grapes and draws forth the wine that is in them and so they mingle but being lighter it chooseth the upper place therefore the upper part is best because it contains most wine but if you turn the Cock beneath the water will first run forth and the wine last CHAP. VII Other ways how to part wine from water THere are other ways to do it as by distilling For in distilling the lightest will ascend first then the heaviest when the fire is not too strong and that is but reason wherefore that the liquor may ascend it must first be attenuated into thin vapours and become lighter therefore wine being thinner than water if it be put in a still in Balneo the lightest vapour of wine will ascend by degrees and fall into the receiver You shall observe the Aqua vitae that distills into the vessel and by the quantity of that you may judge of the proportion of water mingled with the wine Also note that when the lightest part of the wine is ascended the heavy feces remain as water or as part of the wine Oft-times in our distillations when Aqua vitae was distilled in Balneo by chance the vessel brake that contain'd the Aqua vitae and mingled with the water in the kettle I put the mingled liquor into a Glass vessel and putting a soft fire to it first came forth the pure Aqua vitae simple without any water the water stayed in the bottom and kept not so much as the smell of the Aqua vitae By the veins running in the cup I knew the water ascended I will not omit though it be for another reason for pleasure and ingenuity to shew The manner to part water from wine that by this means we may know how much water is mingled in the vessel Take the quantity of the wine and put it into a Glass Vial and put the Vial into very cold water that all that is in the Vial may freeze as I shew'd If the wine be sincere and pure it will be the harder to freeze and longer if it have much water it will freeze the sooner When the wine is frozen break the Vial upon a dish the ice must melt by degrees first the wine because that is hotter than the water will remain frozen Part the wine from it for it will be longer thawing by proportion of this you may know what part of water was put into the vessel CHAP. VIII How the levity in the water and the air is different and what cunning may be wrought thereby NOw I will speak of heavy and light otherwise than I spake before namely how it is in the air and how in the water and what speculation or profit may rise from thence And first how we may know whether a Metal be pure or mingled with other Metals as Gold and Silver as in Gilded cups or else in moneys where Silver or Gold is mingled with Brass and what is their several weights which speculation is useful not onely for Bankers but also for Chymists when they desire to try Metals in fixing of Silver or other operations which I will attempt to declare plainly But first I will see whether the Antients speak any thing hereof Vitruvius saith Archimedes did write of this For when Hiero purposed to offer a Golden Crown to the Gods in the Temple he put it to the Goldsmith by weight he made the work curiously and maintain'd it for good to the King and by weight it seemed to be just but afterwards it was said that he had stoln part of the Gold and made up the Crown with Silver to the full weight Hiero enraged at this this bad Archimedes to consider of it He then by chance coming into a Bath when he had descended into it he observed that as much of his body as went into the Bath so much water ran over the Bath when he considered the reason of it he leaped forth for joy running home and crying Eureka Eureka that is I have found it I have found it Then they say he made to lumps of equal weight with the Crown one of Gold the other of Silver then he filled a large vessel to the very brims with water and he put in the lump of Silver the bigness of that thrust into the water made the water run over wherefore taking out the lump what flowed over he put in again having measured a sixt part and he found what certain quantity of water answered to the quantity of the Silver then he put in the lump of Gold into the full vessel and taking that forth by the same reason he found that not so much water ran forth but so much less of the body of the Gold was less than the same weight in Silver Then he filled the vessel with water and put in the Crown and he found that more water ran forth by reason of the Crown than for the mass of Gold of the same weight and from thence because more water run over by reason of
the Crown than for the Gold lump he reasoned that there must be a mixture in the Crown This was the Greeks invention that is worthy of praise but the operation is difficult for in things of small quantity the theft cannot be discerned nor can this reason appear so clear to the eye where the obsolute fashion of the vessel was wanting Now a way is invented how for all money be it never so small we can tell presently and we want not many instruments that we may cry We have overfounded Vpereureka Vpereureka we have gone beyond Archimedes his Eureka The way is this To know any part of Silver mingled with Gold Take a perfect ballance and put in one scale any Metal in the other as much of the same Metal but the purest of its kind and when the scales hang even in the Air put them into a vessel full of water and let them down under water about half a foot Then will it be a strange wonder for the ballances that hang equal in the Air will change their nature in the water and will be unequal for the impure Metal will be uppermost and the pure will sink to the bottom The reason is because pure Gold compared with that kind is heavior than all impure Gold because pure Gold taketh less place wherefore it will way heavior by the former reason If then we would know how much Silver is in that Gold put as much pure Gold in the other scale as will make the ballances equal under the waters when they are equal take them up and the weight you added under water will be the weight of the mixture If you would know how much Gold is upon a vessel Gilded put the Cup in one scale and as much pure Silver in the other that the scales may hang equal in the Air then put them into the water and the vessel will sink down put into the other scale as much pure Gold as will make them equal under water draw them forth and that is the weight of the Gilt of the plate You shall do the same for Silver Brass Iron white or black Lead But would you know whether in Money Brass be mingled with Silver or Coin be adulterated with Copper put the Money into one scale and as much of the finest Silver into the other ballance them equal then put them under the water the Money will go down adde as much Brass as will make the scales equal then take them forth and it will be the weight of the mixture Now will I set the weighâ—s of Metals how much they weigh more in the waters than in the Air whereby without any other experiment we may know mixtures An Iron-ball that weighed nighteen ounces in the Air will weigh fifteen in the waters whence it is that a Ball of the same magnitude must owe three ounces to the water wherefore the proportion of Iron in the Air to the same in the waters is as fifteen to nineteen A Leaden Bullet of the same magnitude weighs 31 ounces in the Air in the water but 27 A Marble Bullet little less for bulk weighs 7 in the Air and 5 in the water Copper weighs 16 in the Air and 12 in the waters Silver weighs in the Air 125 in the waters 113 Brass in the Air weighs 65 Karats and one grain in the waters 50 Karats and two grains Crown Gold in the Air weighs 66 grains in the waters 6â— Gold called Zechini in the Air weighs 17 Karats under water 16 Karats Tâ—rkish Ducat Gold weighs in the Air 34 under waters 32 Common French Crown Gold weighs in the Air 67 under waters 60 Common Crown Gold of Hungary that is old in the Air weighs 17 in the water 16 Crown Gold of Tartary weighs 16 in the Air and 14 under water THE NINETEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Concerning VVind-Instruments THE PROEME I Have spoken concerning light and heavy now follow experiments by wind for these seem to follow the reasons of Mathematicks and of the Air and water and a Philosopher who seeks to find things profitable and admirable for mans use must insist on these things contemplate and search them out in no thing doth the Majesty of Nature shine forth more There are extant the famous Monuments of the most learned Heron of Alexandria concerning wind Instruments I will adde some that are new to give an occasion to search out greater matters CHAP. I. Whether material Statues may speak by any Artificial way I Have read that in some Cities there was a Colassus of Brass placed on a mighty high Pillar which in violent tempests of wind from the nether parts received a great blast that was carried from the mouth to a Trumpet that it blew strongly or else sounded some other Instrument which I believe to have been easie because I have seen the like Also I read in many men of great Authority that Albertus Magnus made a head that speak Yet to speak the truth I give little credit to that man because all I made trial of from him I found to be false but what he took from other men I will see whether an Image can be made that will speak Some say that Albertus by Astrological elections of times did perform this wonderful thing but I wonder how learned men could be so guld for they know the Stars have no such forces Some think he did it by Magick Arts. And this I credit least of all since there is no man that professeth himself to know those Arts but Impostors and Mountebanks whilst they cheit ignorant men and simple women nor do I think that the Godly man would profess ungodly Arts. But I suppose it may be done by wind We see that the voice or a sound will be conveighed entire through the Air and that not in an instant but by degrees in time We see that Brass-guns which by the force of Gun-powder make a mighty noise if they be a mile off yet we see the flame much before we hear the sound So hand-Guns make a report that comes at a great distance to us but some minutes of time are required for it for that is the nature of sounds Wherefore sounds go with time and are entire without interruption unless they break upon some place The Eccho proves this for it strikes whole against a wall and so rebounds back and is reflected as a beam of the Sun Moreover as I said in this work words and voices go united together and are carried very far entire as they are spoken at first These therefore being laid down for true grounds if any man shall make leaden Pipes exceeding long two or three hundred paces long as I have tried and shall speak in them some or many words they will be carried true through those Pipes and be heard at the other end as they came from the speakers mouth wherefore if that voice goes with time hold entire if any man as the words are spoken shall stop the
descend down to the water beneath and be set under it but fastned that it take no air let the vessel above be made hot by the Sun or fire for the air that is contained in the vessel rarefies and breathes forth whereupon we shall see the water rise into bubbles when the Sun is gone and the vessel grows cold the air is condensed and because the air included cannot fill up the vacuity the water is called in and ascends thither CHAP. IV. A discription of water Hour-glasses wherein Wind or Water-Instruments for to shew the Hours are described THe Antients had Hour-Dials made by water and Water-Dials were usual and famous Heron of Alexandria writ Books of Water-Dials but they are lost I have writ a Book of them and that this part may not be deficient I shall shew two that are made by contraries one by blowing in the air the other by sucking it out This shall be the first A Water-Dial Take a vessel of Glass like a Urinal it is described by the letters AB On the top is A where there is a very small hole that the point of a needle can scarce enter it at the bottom neer the mouth let there be set a staff EF that in the middle hath a firm Pillar going up to the very top of the vessel let the Pillar be divided with the Hour-lines Let there be also a wooden or earthen vessel GH full of water Upon the superficies of that water place the Glass vessel AB that by its weight will press toward the bottom but the air included within the vessel keeps it from going down then open the little hole A whereby the air going forth by degrees the vessel will gradually descend also Then make by another Dial the marks on the staff CD which descending will afterwards shew the Hourmarks When therefore the vessel goes to the bottom of the wooden vessel the Dial is done and it is the last Hour But when you would have your Dial go again you must have a crooked empty pipe OK the upper mouth K must be stopt with the finger K so K being stopt with the finger that the air may not enter sink it under the water that it may come within the vessel AB then put your mouth to K and blow into it for that will raise the vessel upward and it will come to its former place and work again I shall also describe for my minds sake Another Water-Dial contrary to the former namely by sucking in the air Let there be a Glass vessel like to a Urinal as I said AB and being empty set fast on it the vessel CD that it cannot sink down then fill it with water as far as B Let there be a hole neer the top E wherefore sucking the air by the hole E the water comes into the vessel AB from the vessel CD and will rise as high as FG when therefore AB is full of water stop the hole E that no air enter and the water will fall down again In the top of the vessel AB let there be another very small hole that the air may come in by degrees and so much as there comes in of air so much water will go forth On the superficies of the vessel make Hour-lines that may snew the Hours marked 1 2 3 c. or if you will let the Still fastned to a Cork swim on the top of the water and that will shew the Hours marked on the outside of the vessel CHAP. V. A description of Vessels casting forth water by reason of Air. NOw I will describe some Fountains or Vessels that by reason of air cast forth water and though Heron ingeniously described some yet will I set down some others that are artifically found out by me and other men Here is described A Fountain that casts forth water by compression of the Air Let there be a vessel of water-work close every where AB make a hole through the middle and let a little pipe CD go up from the bottom of the water-work vessel D so far from the bottom that the water may run forth Upon the superficies of the Tympanum let there be C a very little hole with a cover to it or let it have as the Greeks call it Smerismation to shut and open it handsomely and in the upper surface of the Tympanum bore the basis quite through with a little pipe which enters into the hollow of the Tympanum and having in the hole beneath a broad piece of leather or brass that the air coming in may not go back wherefore pour in water at E that it may be three fingers above the bottom then blow in air as vehemently as you can when it is well pressed in shut the mouth then opening the mouth A the water will fly up aloft until the air be weak I at Venice made a Tympanum with pipes of Glass and when the water was cast forth very far the Lord Estens much admired it to see the water fly so high and no visible thing to force it I also made another place neer this Fountain that let in light and when the air was extenuated so long as any light lasted the Fountain threw out water which was a thing of much admiration and yet but little labor To confirm this there is An Artifice whereby a hand-Gun may shoot a bullet without fire For by the air onely pressed is the blast made Let there be a hand Gun that is made hollow and very smooth which may be done with a round instrument of lead and with Emril-powder beaten rubbing all the parts with it Then you must have a round Instrument that is exactly plained on all parts that may perfectly go in at the mouth of the wind Gun and so fill it that no air may come forth let it be all smeer'd with oyl for the oyl by its grossness hinders any air to come forth So this lead Bullet being put into the Guns mouth and thrust down with great force and dexterity then presently take away your hands but you must first shut the little hole that is in the bottom of the hole and the bullet and little stick will fall to the bottom and by the violence of the air pressed together it will cast out the Bullet a great way and the stick too which is very strange Also I will make A Vessel wherewith as you drink the liquor shall be sprinkled about your face Make a vessel of Pewter or Silver like to a Urinal then make another vessel in the fashion of a Tunnel or a round Pyramis let their mouths be equal and joyn'd perfectly together for they must be of the same bredth let the spire of it be distant from the bottom of the Urinal a fingers breadth and let it be open then pour water into the vessel and fill the Urinal unto the hole of the spire end and fill the Tunnel to the top and the rest of the Urinal will be empty
because the air hath no place to get forth when therefore any man drinks when the water is drank up as far as the hole of the spire end by the air pressed within is the water thrust violently forth and flies in the face of him that drinks Also there is a vessel that no man can drink out of it but he who knows the art Make an earthen or metal vessel in form of a Bottle or Flagon and make it full of holes from the neck to the middle of the belly From the bottom let a pipe ascend by the handle of the vessel and the handle being round about it let it come above the brims of the vessel empty under the handle in a place not seen make a little hole that any man holding the vessel by the handle may with his finger stop and unstop this hole when he please under the brim of the vessel where you set it to your mouth let there be another secret hole Then pour water into the vessel if now any man put the bottle to his mouth and raiseth it to drink the water will run forth at the neck that is open and at the belly but he that knows the trick taking the vessel by the handle shuts the hole with his thumb and not moving the vessel he draws the air with his mouth for the water follows the air and so he drinks it all up but if any man suck and shut not the hole the water will not follow CHAP. VI. That we may use the Air in many Arts. VVE may use Air in many Artifices I shall set down some that I may give a hint to others to invent more And chiefly How wind may be made in a chamber that guests may almost freeze Make a deep pit and put in a sufficient quantity of river or running water let the pit be close stopt onely let a pipe convey it through the walls that it may be brought into the chamber Let the water be let down into the pit by a kind of Tunnel lest the air should come forth at the place where it goes in by the water is the air of the pit expelled and comes by the pipe into the chamber that not onely those that sleep there but such as converse there are extream cold and benummed I will shew How Air may serve for Bellows I saw this at Rome Make a little cellar that 's close on all sides pour in by a Tunnel from above a quantity of water on the top of the wall let there be a little hole at which the air may break forth with violence for it will come so forcibly that it will kindle a fire and serve for bellows for Brass and Iron-melting furnaces the Tunnel being so made that when need is it may be turned and water may be put in THE TWENTIETH BOOK OF Natural Magick The Chaos wherein the Experiments are set down without any Classical Order THE PROEME I Determined at the beginning of my Book to write Experiments that are contain'd in all Natural Sciences but by my business that called me off my mind was hindred so that I could not accomplish what I intended Since therefore I could not do what I would I must be willing to do what I can Therefore I shut up in this Book those Experiments that could be included in no Classes which were so diverse and various that they could not make up a Science or a Book and thereupon I have here heaped them altogether confusedly as what I had overpassed and if God please I will another time give you a more perfect Book Now you must rest content with these CHAP. I. How Sea-water may be made potable IT is no small commodity to mankinde if Sea-water may be made potable In long voyages as to the Indies it is of great concernment For whilst Sea men by reason of tempests are forced to stay longer at Sea than they would for want of water they fall into great danger of their lives Galleys are forced all most every ten days to put in for fresh water and therefore they cannot long wander in enemies countries nor go far for enemies stop their passages Moreover in sea Towns and Islands when they want water as in our days in the Island Malta and in the Syrses Souldiers and Inhabitants endured much hardness and Histories relate many such things Hence I thought it necessary to search curiously whether Sea-water might be made potable But it is impossible to finde out any thing for this how it may be done unless we first finde out the cause of its saltness and what our Ancestors have said concerning that matter especially since Aristotle saith That the salt may easily be taken from the Sea because the sea is not salt of its own Nature but by the Sun that heats the water which draws out of it cold and dry earthly exhalations to the top of it and these being there burnt cause it to be salt when the moist subtile parts are resolved into thin vapors We therefore imitating Nature by raising the thin parts by Chymical Instruments may easily make it sweet For so the Nature of the Sea makes sweet waters for the Rivers There are also veins of the Sea in the deep parts of the earth that are heated by the Sun and the vapours are elevated to the tops of the heighest Mountains where by the cold superficies they meet with they congeal into drops and dropping down by the vaulted roots of Caves they run forth in open streams We first fill a hollow vessel like a great Ball with Sea-water it must have a long neck and a cap upon it that live coles being put under the water may resolve into thin vapors and fill all vacuities being carryed aloft this ill sented grossness when it comes to touch the coldness of the head or cap and meets with the Glass gathers like dew about the skirts of it and so running down the arches of the cap it turns to water and a pipe being opened that pertains to it it runs forth largely and the receiver stands to receive it as it drops so will sweet water come from salt and the salt tarryeth at the bottom of the vessel and three pound of salt water will give two pounds of fresh water but if the cap of the limbeck be of Lead it will afford more water yet not so good For Galen saith That water that runs through pipes of Lead if it be drank will cause an excoriation of the intestines But I found a way How to get a greater quantity of fresh water when we distil salt water Make a cap of earth like to a Pyramis all full of holes that through the holes Urinals of Earth or Glass may be brought in Let their mouths stick forth well luâ—ed that the vapor may not exhale the cap after the fashion of the limbeck must have its pipe at the bottom running round and let it crop forth at the nose of it Set this upon a
waters strew in powder of Penniroyal Leo Baptista Albertus when they take up the water of Nilus muddy if they do but rub the edge of the vessel with an Almond it presently grows clear I tried this to and found it false when common salt is cast into Aqua fortis that parts Gold from Silver the Silver will presently descend We see also that in the making of that they call read Alac casting but Alom into Lye the salt and colour will presently precipitate to the bottom and nothing will remain but clear water We see that milk will curdle with many Herbs which we speak of elsewhere We shall use therefore for this purpose coagulaters and astringents Cooks say That a Spunge put into a pot of salt-water will draw the salt to it but pressed forth again and cast in once more will take it all out So wood wrapt about with fillets of linnen and put into the pot will draw the salt to it Others binde in a clout Wheat-meal and put it into the pot and draw forth the salt Palladius where he speaks of seasoning of wines saith The Greeks bid men keep sea-water that is clean and taken out of the calm sea the year before whose Nature is that in this time it will lose its saltness or bitterness and smell sweet by age It remains to shew How sweet waters may be mended Leo Baptista saith If you place a glazed vessel full of salt and well stopt with lime putting oyl under that no water may penetrate into it that it may hang in the middle of the waters of a Cistern these waters will in no time corrupt Others adde also Quick-silver If water begin to corrupt cast in salt to purge them and if salt be wanting put in some sea-water for so at Venice they draw water from St Nicolas Well for Marriners that go long voyages because it stands so neer the sea and salt lyes hid in it by communicating with those waters We read in Scripture that Elizeus did this who at Jericho or Palestina cast in salt into a Fountain and made it potable water which was before bitter and corrupt If water breeds worms cast in quick Lime and they will dye When we would make wine clear beat the white of an Egge and the troubled wine will descend if you put it in Others cast in the dust that is on the catlings of small nuts and the Spaniards cast in Gyp to make in clear and all these we may use in waters CHAP. II. How to make water of Air. IF all other means fail we may make water of air onely by changing it into air as Nature doth for she makes water of air or vapors Therefore when we want water we may make it of air and do as Nature doth We know when the Sun heats the earth it draws forth the thinnest vapors and carrieth them on high to that region of the air where the cold is those vapors are condensed into drops and fall down in Rain Also we see in summer that in Glass vessels well rinced and that are full of cold water the air by coming to the outermost superficies will presently clow'd the the Glass and make it lose its cleanness a little after it will be all in a dew and swell into bubbles and by degrees these will turn to drops and fall down which have no other reason for them but because the cold air sticking to the Glass grows thick and is changed into water We see also in Chambers at Venice where there windows are made of Glass when a gross and thick vapor sticks to the Glass within and a cold vapor prevails without that within will turn to dew and drop down Again in winter in Brass Guns which are always very cold and are kept in Cellars and vaulted places where men also use to be that the air will grow thick and lighting upon the cold superficies of them they will be all of a dew and drop with water But to say no more Make a large round vessel of Brass and put into it Salt-Peter unrefined what will fill it men call it Solazzo mingled with Ice for these two mixed as I said in this Book make a mighty cold and by shaking them with the wondeful force of the cold they gather air about the vessel and it will presently drop into a vessel underneath A deligent Artist will adde more that he may get a greater quantity of water It sufficeth that I have shewed the way CHAP. III. How one may so alter his face that not so much as his friends shall know him SUch as are taken prisoners or shut up close and desire to escape and such as do business for great men as spies and others that would not be known it is of great moment for them to know how to change their Countenances I will teach them to do it so exactly that their friends and wives shall not know them Great men do not a little enquire for such secrets because those that can dissemble theirown persons have done great matters and lovers have served their Mistresses and Parents have not suspected it Ulisses attempting to know what the Trojans did clothed in counterfeit garments and his face changed did all he would and was not discovered Homer With many scars he did transform his face In servants clothes as from a beggars race He went to Troy And when he desired to know what Penelope and her suters did he transformed himself again I shall shew how this may be done many ways by changing the Garments Hair Countenance Scars Swellings we may so change our Faces that in some places it may rise in bunches in other places it may sink down And first How to dye the Flesh. But to begin with the colouring of the Flesh. The Flesh may be dyed to last so long or to be soon washed out If you will have it soon wash'd off Steep the shells of Walnuts and of Pomegranates in Vinegar four or five days then press them forth by a Press and dye the face for it will make your face as black as an Ethiopian and this will last some days Oyl of honey makes a yellow colour and red and it will last fourteen days or more The fume of Brimstone will discolour the face that it will shew sickly as if one had long kept his bed but it will be soon gone But if you will have it last many days firm and very hardly to come off Use water of Depart that seperates Gold from Silver made of Salt-Peter and Vitriol and especially if it have first corroded any Silver this will last twenty days until the skin be changed But if you will Change the Hair I taught elsewhere how to do this yet I will take the pains to do it again Oyl of honey dyes the Hair of the head and beard of a yellow or red colour and this will hold a moneth But if they be hoary white or yellow we may dye them black with