or women painted or died therewith in old time 114. l VVooll reuerently regarded among the ancient Romanes 349. e. the side posts of the bridegrooms doore bedecked with wooll by the bride on the wedding day 349. e the vse of VVooll ibid. 351. h VVooll vnwashed medicinable 351. k VVooll of a sheep greasie is medicinable 350. g. h. i VVooll vnwashed and greasie doth mollifie 424. g VVooll greasie of a ram is effectuall in Physicke 350. h VVooll of the necke is best ibid. from what countries ibid. Wooll greasie how to be ordered for vse in Physicke 350. i. k how it is calcined 350. k the ashes thereof is medicinable ibid. fleece VVooll washed and the vse thereof 351. b Woooll-beards or Caterpillers called Multipedae described 369. e. a Wolues snout why it is set vsually vpon the gates of countrey ferme houses 323. a VVolues dung medicinable 324. k the bones found in their dung likewise 332. i the strange operations of the VVolfe and parts of the bodie 323. a Wolues how they may be kept out of a territorie 342. l Wolues greace much esteemed in old time 320. k the bride therwith striked the dore sides of her husbands house ibid. Wolues i. sores how to be cured 149. d. 300. m. 265. d See more in Vlcers cancerous and eating deepe Wombe See Bellie and Guts Women with child longing and hauing a depraued appetite how to be helped of that infirmitie 155 d. 277 a 307 c. 164 i l. Womens breasts aking how to be assuaged 340. g Womens breasts or paps enflamed swollen hard sore and impostumat by what means cured 167 d. 143 b 148 i. 182. h. 183. e. 266 k. 279. c. 307. d. 320. g. issue of bloud out of Womens breast heads how to be stanched 263. f Womens breasts ouer big how to be brought downe 340. g haire springing about their breast nipples how to be rid away 268. i for all infirmities of Womens breasts in generall conuenient remedies 70. g. 72 h m. 104 h. 108 h. 138 m. 142 g 157 d. 161 a. 164 g. 172 h. 169 i. 274 g. Womens purgations vpon their new deliuerance how to be procured and helped forward 59 b. 63 e. 65. a. d 340. g Womens infirmities of the matrice in generall how to be remedied 266 i k. 276 h. 290 k. See more in Matrice Womens infirmities following child-birth how to be cured Womens flux of whites or reds immoderat how by what means staied 39 a. 59 d. 102 k. 110 i k. 130 h. 267 g 340 l. 396 g. 516 i. 529 b. Women with child their swawms and faintings how to be helped 146. k Women how they may preserue the skin of their faces faire 149. b. 276. h. 286. l. Women by what meanes they shall looke young faire and full without freckles and wrinkles 440. m. 559. f Women who cannot deliuer their vrine but dropmeale and with difficultie how to be cured 395. d how a Woman shall forme and bring forth a boy child 395. d. Women how they may keepe their skin supple and soft 319. e. Women by what meanes they may cleanse the skin of their face from morphew 149. b. 276. h. 286. l Women become soone barraine by hard trauaile in child-birth 340. k how a Woman may haue speedie deliuerance of childbirth 395 d. e. what comforteth a Womans backe and loines in labour 395. c. Women hauing an inordinat itch in their secret parts how to be eased 396. i hauing vlcers and vntoward sores in their priuities by what meanes to be cured 449. b Womens bodies yeeld medicines 307. a a Womans haire-lace or fillet what it is good for 308. h Women in time of their monethly sickenesse worke wonders 308 i. Womens lazie feuers how to be cured 74. l Women more skilfull in witchcraft and fitter instruments therefore than men 210. k Women and ancient matrons at their deuotions what Imageurs delighted to expresse in brasse 503 e f. 504 i Womens excesse and prodigall wast of gold in Plinies time taxed 462 g h i c Women excellent paintresses 551. a Wood-evill in sheepe how to be helped 218. k Wood-soure or wood-sorrell an herbe See Oxys Woodbind an herbe 288 g. the description ib the vertues ibid. h Words pronounced in charms or spels whether they should be strange or familiar 296. l whether Words barely vttered auaile not in curing diseases or no 294. k a set forme of Words in praier inuocations and exorcisms held to be materiall in many respects 294 k Worms of diuers sorts medicinable 393. f Worms in the bellie how to be killed and chased out 39. e 41 e. 44 i. 45 f. 47 a. 71. e. 55. e. 56 h. 59 c. 60 h. 70 i 105 b. 108 l. 122. g. 124 g. 126 i. 143 c. 160 k. 165 b 166. g. 170. g. 172 i. 179 e. 190 g. 192. g. 249. b 250 l. 253 c. 277 a. f. 281 c. 332. h. 419 c. 443 d 511. b. Wormewood an herbe 276 i. the sundry Linds ibid. Santonicum why so called ibid. Ponticum why so named ibid. Seripl ium why so named 277. e in Pontus the sheepe feed fat with wormewood 276. i Wormewoâ—…d not so common but it is as wholesome 276. i Wormewood why it was giuen in drinke to the winners at the charriot running 276. k Wormewood wine ibid. Wormewood drinke how it is made by way of decoction ib. the vertue thereof 277. a the infusion of Wormewood 276 l the iuice of wormewood by way of expression ibid. a syrrup of wormewood made of the iuice 276. m hurtfull to stomacke and head 277. a the manifold vertues of the ordinary drinke or decoction of Wormwood 277. a how it was giuen for apurgatiue 277. b Wormewood Seriphium called likewise See-wormewood 277 f. the description ib. an enemy to the stomacke ib. it looseth the belly ibid. decoction of Wormewood how to be made 278 g Wounds in the head how to be healed 183. a. 192. i. 233. 〈◊〉 301 b. 307 c. 365 e. 412 m. Wounds fresh made how to be kept from inflammation 423 e. how from swelling 338. k symptoms following vpon Wounds how cured 72. l paine or Wounds and their smaâ—…t what assuageth 302. k Wounds how to be cleansed 471. e. 511. c Wounds bleeding excessiuely stanched with a charme by Vlyxes 297. m Wound-salues or vulnerariâ—… medecins 160 l. 182. l Wounds more angry by the presence of those that haue been stung by serpents or 〈◊〉 by mad dogs 299. b Wounds-greene by what meâ—…s healed 38 h. 43 b. 45 b 49 a. 50 l. 52 i. 63 b. 68 〈◊〉 70 k. 73 a. 103 b. d. 104 i 111 d. 146 k. 159 d. 163 b. 169 f. 177 〈◊〉 178 h. 185 c d 193 b. 194 h. 197 b. 253 e. 263 c. 264 l. 265. b c. 266 g 272 i. 277. a. 283 e. 289. c. 290 k. l 305 c. 338 g 350. g i. 370 l. 393 c. f. 394 g h i. 403. b. 404 g. 418 i 516 i. 557 c. Wounds made by swordor edge
the world man only is born without them and at the 7 moneth they commonly breed In all other creatures they continue still and stick fast except Men Lions Horses Mules Asses Dogs and such as chew cud for these change their teeth but Lions and dogs cast only the eie-teeth called Canini in Latine The eie-tooth of a Wolfe so it grow on the right side of the head is thought to doe strange matters The great grinders which stand beyond the Eye-teeth in no creature whatsoeuer doe fall out of themselues As for the farthest cheek-teeth in a mans head which be called Genuini 〈◊〉 the Wit-teeth they come about the time that he is 20 yeares old and in many at 80 yeares of age Sure it is that those teeth fall from women in their old age and soone after come againe such women I meane as had no children in their youth And Mutianus hath reported That hee saw one Zancles a citizen of Samothrace who had new teeth comming vp after he was an 104 yeares old Moreouer males ordinarily haue more teeth than the females as we may see in mankind Sheep goats and Swine Timarchus the son of Nicocles the Paphian had a double course of teeth in either jaw He had a brother also who neuer cast his foreteeth and therefore hee wore them before to the verâ—… stumps We reade in Chronicles of one man that had a tooth growing out of the very pallat of his mouth As for the eye-teeth if they be lost by any mischance there neuer grow again any other for them In horses only of all other creatures teeth wax whiter by age for in the rest they turne to be browne and reddish The age of Horses Asses and Mules is knowne by a marke in the teeth a horse hath in all 40. At the end of 30 moneths hee loseth his fore teeth of either chaw as well aboue as beneath the yere following as many euen those that be next namely at what time as they put out those which be called the cheeke teeth At the beginning of the fifth yere he loseth other two but there come vp new in the place in the sixth yere By the seuenth yere he hath all as well those that should come in others place as those which are firme and neuer change A guelding neuer casts his teeth no not his sucking teeth in case he were guelded before Asses in like manner begin to shed their teeth at the 30 moneth of their age and so forward from 6 moneths to 6 moneths and if they fole not before they haue shed their last teeth they are for certaine to be holden barren Kine and Oxen when they be two yeres old do change their teeth Hogs or Swine neuer haue any teeth to fall Now when as these marks are gon out which shew the Age of Horses Asses and such like yee must to know their age go by the ouergrowth standing out of the teeth the greinesse of the haire ouer their brows and the hollow pits thereabout for then are they supposed to be 16 yeares of age As touching men some are thought to haue venome and poison in their teeth insomuch as they be shewed bare and naked against a cleare mirror or looking glasse they wil dimme the beauty thereof yea and kill yong pigeons whiles they be calow and vnplumed But forasmuch as we haue spoken sufficiently of teeth in our treatise as touching the generation of Man wee will passe ouer the rest and proceed vnto other parts saue onely that this is to be obserued and noted How children be sicke when they be about breeding of their teeth And to conclude of all other creatures those are most dangerous with their Teeth which haue them framed like sawes and closing one betweene another Now as concerning Tongues we obserue much diuersitie in them for all creatures are not tongued alike First and formost Serpents haue very thin tongues and the same three-forked blacke of colour â—…ing and ready to pierce and if a man take them forth very long Lizards haue tongues two-forked and full of haires so haue the Seales or Sea calues a double tongue but the tongues of these beforenamed are as small as haires as for the rest their tongues serue them to licke their muffles and lips all about Fishes haue their tongues for the greater part therof cleauing fast to their pallat and in Crocodiles they are so clean throughout But as wel fishes as other creatures of the water haue a fleshy palat which serues them in stead of a tongue to tast withall Lions Libards and all of that sort yea and Cats haue their tongues rough and vneuen made like a file with many small edges lapping one ouer another in such sort as that with licking it wil weare the skin of a man so thin that their spittle and moisture when it commeth neare vnto the bloud and the quick will driue oftentimes into rage and madnesse those whom they so licke yea although otherwise they be made tame and gentle to come to hand As touching the tongues of Purple fishes we haue written already Frogs haue their tongues in the forepart fast to the mouth the hinder part within toward their throat is free and at liberty whereby they keep that croking which we heare at one season of the yeare namely when the males cal to the femals for to ingender then they be called Olalygones for at that time they let down their nether lip somwhat vnder the water that they gargle with their tongue leuell to the water which they receiued into their throat and so while their tongue quauereth withall they make that croking noise abouesaid he that would looke then aduisedly vpon them should see their specks so swoln and stretched out full that they will shine againe he should perceiue their eies ardent and fierie with paines that they take thus with the water Those creatures that haue pricks and stings in their hin-parts are furnished also with tongue and teeth As for Bees their tongue is very long and the Grashoppers put it forth a good way They that haue a fistulous sting or pricke in their mouth are prouided neither of teeth nor tongue In some Insects as namely Pismires the tongue lieth close within Elephants aboue all other beasts haue a large and broad tongue All creatures haue their tongue loose and at libertie at all times each one in their kind man only is oftentimes so tongue tied that needful it is to cut certain strings and veines for to ease it Metellus the high priest and chiefe sacrificer at Rome had such a stutting and stammering tongue by report that against he should dedicate the temple of the goddesse Opifera he labored so with his tongue for vtterance for certaine moneths together took such pains as if he had bin vpon the racke All children by that time that they be seuen yeares old at the farthest speake readily so as they be not by some vnnaturall cause impeached
Spythamaei are reported to be called they are so for that they are but a cubit or three shaftments or spannes high that is to say three times nine inches The clime wherein they dwel is very wholsome the aire healthy and euer like to the temperature of the Spring by reason that the mountains are on the North side of them beare off all cold blasts And these prety people Homer also hath reported to be much troubled anoied by cranes The speech goeth that in the Spring time they set out all of them in battell aray mounted vpon the backe of rammes and goats armed with bowes and arrowes and so downe to the sea side they march where they make foule worke among the egges yong cranelings newly hatched which they destroy without all pitty Thus for three months this their journy and expedition continueth and then they make an end of their valiant seruice for otherwise if they should continue any longer they were neuer able to withstand the new flights of this foule grown to some strength and bignesse As for their houses and cottages made they are of clay or mud fouls feathers and birds egge shels Howbeit Aristotle writes That these Pygmaeans liue in hollow caues holes vnder the ground For all other matters he reports the same that all the rest Isogonus saith that certain Indians named Cyrni liue a hundred and fortie yeares The like he thinketh of the Aethyopian Macrobij and the Seres as also of them that dwell on the mount A thos and of these last rehearsed the reason verily is rendred to be thus because they feed of vipers flesh therefore is it that neither lice breed in their heads nor other vermine in their cloths for to hurt annoy their bodies Onesicritus affirmeth That in those parts of India where there are no shadowes to be seene the men are fiue cubits of stature and two hand breadths ouer that they liue 130 yeares and neuerage for all that and seem old but die then as if they were in their middle and settled age Crates of Pergamus nameth those Indians who liue aboue an hundred yeare Gymnetes but others there be and those not a few that call them Macrobij Ctesias saith there is a race or kinred of the Indians named Pandore inhabiting certaine vallies who liue two hundred years in their youthfull time the haire of their head is white but as they grow to age waxeth black Contrariwise others there be neer neighbours to the Macrobij who exceed not fortie years and their women beare but once in their life time And this also is auouched by Agatharcides who affirmeth moreouer that all their feeding is vpon locusts and that they are very quicke and swift of foot Clitarchus and Megasthenes both name them Mandri and thinke they haue 300 villages in their countrey Moreouer that the women bring forth children at seuen yeares of age and wax old at forty Artemidorus affirmes that in the Island Taprobana the people liue exceeding long without any malady or infirmitie of the body Duris maketh report That certaine Indians ingender with beasts of which generation are bred certaine monstrous mungrels halfe beasts and halfe men Also that the Calingian women of India conceiue with childe at fiue yeares of age and liue not aboue eight In another tract of that countrey there be certaine men with long shagged tailes most swift and light of foot and some againe that with their eares couer their whole body The Orites are neighbours to the Indians diuided onely from them by the riuer Arbis who are acquainted with no other meate but fish which they split and slice into pieces with their nailes and rost them against the Sun and then make bread thereof as Clitarchus reporteth Crates of Pergamus saith likewise that the Troglodites aboue Ethyopia be swifter than horses and that some Aethiopians are aboue eight cubites high and these are a kinde of Ethiopian Nomades called Syrbotae as he saith dwelling along the riuer Astapus toward the North pole As for the nation called Menismini they dwel from the Ocean sea twenty dayes iourney who liue of the milke of certain beasts that we cal Cynocephales hauing heads and snouts like dogs And whole heards and flocks of the females they keepe and feed killing the male of them all saue onely to serue for maintenance of the breed In the desarts of Africke ye shall meet oftentimes with Fairies appearing in the shape of men and women but they vanish soone away like fantasticall delusions See how Nature is disposed for the nones to deuise full wittily in this and such like pastimes to play with mankinde thereby not only to make her self merry but to set vs a wondring at such strange miracles And I assure you thus dayly and hourely in a manner playeth she her part that to recount euery one of her sports by themselues no man is able with all his wit and memory Let it suffice therfore to testifie and declare her power that we haue set downe those prodigious and strange workes of hers shewed in whole nations and then go forward to discourse of some particulars approued and knowne in man CHAP. III. ¶ Of prodigious and monstrous births THat women may bring forth three at one birth appeares euidently by the example of the three twins Horatij and Curiatij But to go aboue that number is reputed and commonly spoken to be monstrous and to portend some mishap but only in Egypt where women are more than ordinary fruitfull by drinking of Nilus water which is supposed to help generation Of late yeres and no longer since than in the later end of the reigne of Aug. Caesar at Ostia there was a woman a Commoners wife deliuered at one birth of two boies as many girles but this was a most prodigious token and portended no doubt the famine that ensued soone after In Peloponnesus there is sound one woman that brought forth at foure births 20 Children and the greater part of them all did well and liued Tregus saith that in Egypt it is an ordinarie thing for a woman to haue seuen at a birth It falleth out moreouer that there come into the world children of both sexes whom wee call Hermophrodites In old time they were knowne by the name of Androgyni and reputed then for prodigious wonders how soeuer now men take delight and pleasure in them Pompey the great in his Theatre which hee adorned and beautified with singular ornaments and rare deuices of antique worke as wel for the admirable subiect and argument thereof as the most curious and exquisit hand of cunning and skilfull artificers among other images and pourtracts there set vp represented one Eutiche a Woman of Tralleis who after she had in her life time borne thirty births her corps was caried out by twenty of her children to the funerall fire to be burnt according to the maner of that countrey As for Alcippe she was deliuered of an Elephant
he was in his gate slow and heauy and in his wit as dull and blockish howbeit in his time vndergrowne he was and his voice changed to be great and at three yeares end died suddenly of a generall crampe or contraction of all the parts of his body It is not long since I saw my selfe the like in all respects sauing that vndergoing aforesaid in a son of one Cornelius Tacitus a Roman knight and a procurator or general receiuer and Treasurer for the State in Gaule Belgique such the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Ectirapelos wee in Latine haue no name for them CHAP. XVI ¶ Certaine notable obseruations in bodies of men and women WE see tried by experience that take measure of a man from the sole of the foot vp to the crowne of the head so far it is between the ends of his two middle and longest fingers when he stretcheth out his armes and hands to the full As also that some men and women be stronger of the right side than of the left others againe that be as strong of one as the other and there be that are altogether left handed and best with that hand but that is seldome or neuer seen in women Moreouer men weigh heauier than women and in euerie kind of creature dead bodies be more heauy than the quicke and the same parties sleeping weigh more than waking Finally obserued it is that the dead corps of a man floteth on the water with the face vpward but contrariwise women swim groueling as if Nature had prouided to saue their honesty and couer their shame euen when they are dead CHAP. XVIII ¶ Examples of diuers extraordinarie cases in mans body WE haue heard that some mens bones are sollid and massie and so do liue without any marrow in them you may know them by these signes they neuer feele thirst nor put forth any sweat and yet we know that a man may conquer and master his thirst if hee list for so a gentleman of Rome one Iulius Viator descended from the race of the Vocontians our allies being falne into a kind of dropsie between the skin and the flesh during his minority and nonage and forbidden by the Physicions to drink so accustomed himselfe to obserue their direction that naturally he could abide it insomuch that all his old age euen to his dying day he forbare his drink Others also haue bin able to command and ouer-rule their nature in many cases and breake themselues of diuers things CHAP. XIX ¶ Strange natures and properties of diuers persons IT is said that Crassus grand father to that Crassus who was slaine in Parthia was neuer known to laugh all his life time and thereupon was called Agelastus and contrariwise many haue bin found that neuer wept Also that sage and renowned wise man Socrates was seene alwaies to carry one and the self-same countenance neuer more merry and cheerefull nor more solemne and vnquiet at one time than at another But this obstinate constancy and firm cariage of the mind turneth now and then in the end into a certain rigour and austerity of nature so hard and inflexible that it cannot be ruled and in very truth despoileth men of all affections and such are called of the Greekes Apathes who had the experience of many such and that which is a maruellous matter those especially that were the great pillars of philosophy and deep learned Clerks namely Diogenes the Cinicke Pyrrho Heraclitus and Timo and as for him he was so far gone in his humor that he seemed professedly to hate all mankind But these were examples of a corrupt peruerse froward nature As for other things there be sundry notable obseruations in many as in Antonia the wife of Drusus who as it was well knowne neuer spit in Pomponius the poet one that had sometimes bin Consull who neuer belched But as for such as naturally haue their bones not hollow but whole and solid they be very rare and seldom seene and called they are in Latine Cornei i. hard as horne CHAP. XX. ¶ Of bodily strength and swiftnesse VArro in his treatise of prodigious and extraordinary strength maketh report of one Tritanus a man that of body was but little and lean withall how beit of incomparable strength much renowned in the fence schoole and namely in handling the Samnites weapons wearing their manner of armor and performing their feats and masteries of great name He maketh mention also of a sonne of his a souldier that serued vnder Pompeius the Great who had all ouer his body yea and throughout his armes and hands some sinewes running streight out in length others crossing ouerthwart lattise-wise and he saith moreouer of him that when an enemie out of the camp gaue him defiance and challenged him to a combat he would neither put on defensiue harnesse ne yet arme his right hand with offensiue weapon but with naked hand made meanes to foile and ouercome him and in the end when hee had caught hold of him brought him away perforce into his own camp with one finger Iunius Valens a captaine pensioner or centurion of the gard-souldiers about Augustus Caesar was woont alone to beare vp a charriot laden with certain hogsheads or a butt of wine vntill it was discharged thereof the wine drawne out also his manner was with one hand to stay a coach against all the force of the horses striuing and straining to the contrary and to perform other wonderfull masteries which are to be seen engrauen vpon his tombe and therefore qd Varro being called Hercules Rusticellus he tooke vp his mule vpon his back and carried him away Fusius Saluius hauing two hundred pound weights at his feet and as many in his hands and twise as much vpon his shoulders went withall vp a paire of staires or a ladder My selfe haue seene one named Athanatus do wonderfull strange matters in the open shew and face of the world namely to walke his stations vpon the stage with a cuirace of lead weighing 500 pound booted besides with a pair of buskins or greiues about his legges that came to as much in weight As for Milo the great wrestler of Crotone when he stood firm vpon his feet there was not a man could make him stir one foot if he held a pomegranat fast within his hand no man was able to stretch a finger of his and force it out at length It was counted a great matter that Philippides ran 1140 stadia to wit from Athens to Lacedaemon in two daies vntill Lanisis a courtier of Lacedaemon and Philonides footman to Alexander the great ran between Sicyone and Olis in one day 1200 stadia But now verily at this day we see some in the grand cirque able to indure in one day the running of 160 miles And but a while agoe we are not ignorant that when Fonteius Vipsanus were Consuls a yong boy but 9 yeres old between noon and euening ran 75 miles And verily a man
in our Latine story that they had hornes I take them to be meer fables and no better Certes in nothing more hath Nature taken her pleasure than in this as if she had meant to delight and sport her selfe in these armes and weapons of beasts For in some she hath made them knagged and branched as in Deere both red and fallow in others plain and vniforme without tines as in the Spitters a kind of Stag which thereupon be called Subulones in Latin for that their horns be like a shoomakers * Nall blade There be againe which haue broad hornes and plaited like a mans hand with fingers standing out of them whereupon the beasts that beare them be called Platycerotes i. broad horned Roe bucks haue by nature branched heads but they are small and these do not mew and cast them yearely as the stag and bucke All the sort of rams be armed with crooked horns turning and winding with certain revolutions as if they were gantlets or whorlebats giuen them by nature to thumpe and jurre withall Buls hornes be strait and vpright ready alwaies to do a mischiefe The females of this kind to wit Cowes are horned as wel as Buls whereas in many others the males only be in that wise armed The wild Goats called Roch-goats haue their hornes turning backeward whereas in fallow Deere they bend rather forward There is a kind of Roe-buck called in Africke Addace which the Greeks haue named Strepsiceros and they haue vpright hornes but they are furrowed and wreathed round about as if they were ribbed like the backe of a lute or rather chamfered like the ridge of a land and alwaies sharp pointed with a tip Ye shall haue droues and herds of beasts namely Kine and Oxen in Phrygia which wil stir and wag their horns like eares and those in the kingdome of the Troglodites cary their hornes pendant directly to the ground which is the cause that as they eat they are forced to beare their necks awry and looke atone side Some haue but one horne apiece and that either in the midst of the forehead as the Oryx or else in the nose and muffle as the Rhinoceros wherof we haue written before In sum there be that haue strong and hard horns to butt with others to strike and gore withall some crooking forward others bending backward In some they are good only to tosse and fling and that in diuers manners For there be of them that giue back others turn one against another and some euen ioyne and meet together but all run vp sharp pointed in the end A kind of beasts there is that vse their horns in stead of hands to scratch their body when it itches and others serue the turn to sound the way before them as certain shel-Snails and Winkles And these horns giuen for this purpose are some of them of a fleshy substance as those of the serpents called Cerastâ—… and otherwhiles one alone without a fellow As for the Periwinckles and Snailes a foresaid they are neuer without twain apiece and at this passe they haue them to put out and draw in as they list In Buffles horns the barbarous people of the North parts vse to drinke and ye shall haue the hornes of one Buffles head to hold full two measures called Vrnae which is about 8 gallons In some countries men head their speares and jauelins with horne With vs in Italy they be cut into thin plates and serue for lanterns and surely they are so transparent and cleare that they make the candle within inclosed to cast the greater light and farther off Nay they are good for many other toies of delight and pleasure insomuch as some paint and die them with sundry colours others vernish and anneile them and ye shal haue men to make thereof their fine inlaid works in Marquetrie of diuers colours called thereupon Cerostrata All horns in manner be hollow saue that as they grow toward the pointed tip they be solid and massie onely Deers both red and fallow are sound and entire throughout and euery yere they fal off Husbandmen in the countrey when they see their Oxe hoofes surbatted and worne too neere the quick with ouermuch trauell anoint their hornes with sweet grease that is the way to make them grow again And in very truth the hornes of these beasts are of so pliable a substance and easie to be wrought that as they grow vpon their heads euen whiles the beasts are liuing they may with boiling wax be bended and turned euery way as a man will yea and if they be cut when they break new forth out of the skin they may be easily writhed to grow seueraly in sundry parts so as euery head may seem to haue foure hornes For the most part the hornes of Cowes are more tender and thinner than the other like as we see it is in the females of smaller beasts Ewes haue none at all ne yet Hinds and Does no more than the beasts that haue feet clouen diuided into many toes or those that be whole hoofed except the Indian asse who is armed with one horne and no more Beasts clouen footed in twaine haue likewise two hornes but none at all haue they which are toothed in the vpper mandible They that make this reason because the matter of their teeth runs al into the horn and so contrariwise are deceiued and soon conuinced by this That Hinds Does are toothed no more than Stags and Bucks and yet are not horned In other beasts the hornes grow to the very bone of the head in Deere only they come out of the skin and are graffed no deeper Fishes of all liuing creatures haue the biggest heads for the proportion of their bodies haply because they might the better diue vnder water and sink to the bottom No kind of Oisters haue any head at all no more than Spunges or any other in manner which want al their sences but only feeling Some haue heads indeed but within their body and not diuided apart from it as Crabs and Creifishes Mankind of all liuing creatures hath most haire on the head euen men as much as women as we may see in those countries where they neuer cut their haire but let it grow And namely in Sauoy Dauphine and Languedoc about the Alps where men and women both weare long haire and thereupon that part of France is called Comata And yet this is not so general but that the nature of some land and soile may make some alteration and varietie For the Myconians naturally haue no haire at all like as the Caunians be all subiect to the disease of hard and swelling spleens euen from their mothers womb Some reasonlesse creatures likewise are by nature bald as Ostriches and certain water Rauens which of the Greeks are named thereupon Phalacro-coraces Seldom do women shed their haire clean and become bald but neuer was any guelded man knowne to be bald nor any others that be pure
virgins and haue not sacrificed vnto Venus The haire growing beneath the ventricles of the brain vnder the crown of the head like as also about the temples and eares falls not off quite Man alone of all creatures groweth to be bald I speake not of those that are so by nature Men women and horses wax gray haired Men and women both begin at the forepart of their heads to be grislie and afterwards behind Men and women alone be double crowned Some creatures haue the bones of their skull flat plain thin and without marrow and the same vnited or ioined together by certain sutures or seams indented toothed on either side which run one into another The ruptures and cracks of the brain pan cannot be consolidated and saundred perfectly again but if the spels and pieces be gently taken out and but smal there is no danger of death for in their place there will grow a certain callous cicatrice or fleshie substance that will supply in some sort that defect Bears of all others haue the tendrest suls and Parrats the hardest as we haue said before in place conuenient Moreouer all liuing creatures that haue bloud haue likewise brains yea those in the sea which we call Soft-fishes although they haue no bloud at all as namely the Pour-cuttles or Polypes But man for his bignes and proportion hath most braine of all other and the same is the moistest coldest part he hath within his body Infolded it is within two tunicles or kels both aboue and beneath whereof if the one be pierced and wounded to wit Piamater there is no way but present death Also men commonly haue more braines than women And both of them haue neither bloud nor veines therein as for that which is in other creatures it wanteth all kind of fat The learned Anatomists who haue searched diligently into the nature of things do teach vs a difference between the brain marrow of bones for brains in the boyling and seething wax hard In the midst of the braine of all creatures there be certaine little bones Man alone in his infancie hath his brain to pant and beat and fully settled it is not nor confirmed before that he begins to speak Of all parts necessary for life it is placed highest and next vnto the cope of head and heauen both without flesh without bloud without filth ordure And in truth it is the fort and castle of all the sences vnto it all the veines from the heart do tend in it they all do likewise end It is the very highest keep watch-tower and sentinell of the mind it is the helme and rudder of intelligence and vnderstanding Moreouer in all creatures it lieth forward in the front of the head and good reason because all our sences bend that way just before our faces From our braine comes sleepe from thence proceedeth our nappes our nods our reeling and staggering And looke what creature soeuer wanteth braine the same sleepeth not Stags by report haue within their heads twentie little wormes to wit in the concauity vnder their tongue and about that joincture where the head is graffed to the chin bone Man alone hath not the power to shake his eares Of flaggie long and hanging eares came the syrnames first of the Flacci families houses in Rome There is no one part of the bodie costeth our dames more than this by reason of their precious stones and pendant pearls thereat In the East countries men also as wel as women think it a great grace and brauery to weare earings of gold As touching their proportion some creatures naturally haue bigger or lesser than others Deere only the fallow as well as the red haue them slit and as it were diuided In Rats and mice they be hairy To conclude no creature hath ears but those that bring forth their yong aliue and none of them are without saue onely Seales Dolphins Vipers and such fishes as were called Cartilagineous and gristly And these all in stead of ears haue certaine holes oâ—… conduits except the foresaid gristly fishes the Dolphins and yet manifest it is that they do heare wel enough For delighted they be with musick and vpon some great noise and sudden crack they are astonished and then easily taken But maruel it is how they should heare as they do neither can I comprehend the reason and means thereof no more than I am able to shew how they do smell for no Organs and Instruments haue they thereof to be seene yet there is not an hound vpon the land sents better nor hath a finer nose than they Of all fouls the Like-owle and the Otus alone haue feathers like eares the rest haue only holes to heare by And after the same manner skaled fishes and serpents In Horses Mules and Asses and all such as serue either pack or saddle the ears are tokens of their courage more or lesse and will shew what stomack is within them If they be tired and weary they hang down flaggie be they afraid you shall perceiue them to wag too and fro in heat of fury they stand pricking vp in sicknes they lie downe Man only of all creatures hath a Face and Visage the rest haue either muzles and snouts or else bils and beakes Other creatures haue Foreheads also as well as men but in mans alone we may see reade sorrow heauinesse mirth and joy clemencie and mildnesse cruelty and seuerity and in one word guesse by it whether one be of a good nature or no In the ascent or rising of the forehead man hath Eie-brows set like to the eaues of an house which he can moue as he list either both at once or one after another and in them is shewed part of the mind within By them we denie by them wee grant These shew most of all others pride and arrogancie Wel may it be that pride doth appeare and settle in some other part yet here is the seat place of residence True it is that in the heart it beginnes but hither it mounteth and ascendeth here it resteth and remaineth No part can it find in the whole body more eminent and hauty and withall more steepe than the browes wherein it might rule and raigne alone without controlment Next vnder the browes is the Eie the most precious member of the whole body which by the vse of light makes difference between life and death Yet hath not Nature giuen eies to all creatures Oisters haue none and for some other shel-fishes it is hard to say whether they haue any or none As for Scallops if a man stir his fingers against them as they lie gaping open they wil shut as if they saw And the shel-fishes called Solenes giue backe if any edge-toole come neere vnto them Of foure-footed creatures Moldwarpes see not at all a certaine shew and forme they haue of eies to be seen if a man take off the
drie as that which will not thicken at all Also which is the grossest bloud and heauiest which the lightest and thinnest and last of all what creatures liuing haue no bloud at all THose that haue much bloud and the same fat and grosse are angrie and chollericke The bloud of males is commonly blacker than that of females yea and more in youth than in old age and the same in the bottome and lower part setleth fatter and grosser than aboue In bloud consists a great portion and treasure of life When it is let out it caries with it much vitall spirit howbeit sencelesse it is and hath no feeling The strongest creatures bee they which haue the thickest bloud but the wisest those that haue thinnest the more fearefull that haue least but dull and blockish altogether which haue none at all Buls bloud of all other soonest congealeth and waxeth hard and therefore poison it is to be drunke especially The bloud of Bores red and fallow Deere Roe-buckes and all Buffles will not thicken Asses bloud is most fatty and grosse and contrarily mans bloud is thinnest finest Those beasts which haue more than 4 feet are bloudlesse Those that be fat haue small store of bloud because it is spent in fatnesse Man only bleeds at the nose some at one nosthrill alone others at both and some againe void bloud downward by the Hemorrhoids Many there be that cast vp bloud at certaine times ordinarie by the mouth as not long since Macrinus Viscus late pretor of Rome and vsually euerie yeare Volusius Saturninus Prouost of the citie who notwithstanding liued vntill hee was aboue fourescore and ten yeres old Bloud is the only thing in the body that increases presently For so we see that beasts killed for sacrifice wil bleed most freshly in greater abundance if they dranke a little before Those creatures that lie hidden in the earth at certaine times as we haue said before haue no bloud in all that while vnlesse it be some few and those very smal drops gathered about their hearts A wonderfull worke of Nature that it should be so as also that in a man it should alter and change euer and anon so as it doth vpon euery small occasion and the force and strength thereof varie not only for defect and want of matter to disperse abroad but also for euery little motion and passion of the minde as shame anger and feare For one while it sheweth pale another whiles red more or lesse in much varietie of degrees In case of anger it wil shew one color of shame and bashfulnesse appearing in another In feare doubtlesse it retires and flies backe in such sort as a man knowes not what is become of it so as many in that fit haue ben stabbed and run thorough and yet bleed not at all one drop but this suddaine change of colour happens to men only For in other creatures which as we haue said do alter their hue it is an outward colour that they take from the reflection of certain places neer vnto them man alone hath this change from within himselfe To conclude all maladies and death especially consume the bloud CHAP. XXXIX ¶ Whether in Bloud resteth the soueraignetie or no Also of the nature of Skin of Haires and the Paps SOmâ—… measure not the finenesse of spirit and wit by the puritie of bloud but suppose that creatures are brutish more or lesse according as their Skin is thicker or thinner and as the other couertures of their bodie be either grosse and hard or thin and tender as we see for example in Oisters and Tortoises They affirme moreouer that the thick hide in Kine Oxen and the hard bristles in Swine impeach the entrance of subtile aire and fine spirit into their bodies in such wise that nothing can pierce and passe through which is pure and fine as it should be And hereto they bring men also as a proofe who are thicke skinned and more brawnie for to be more grosse of sence and vnderstanding as who would say that Crocodiles were not very wittie and industrious yet their skin is hard enough And as for the Riuer-horse his hide is so thicke that thereof jauelines and speares are turned and yet so industrious is that beast that in some case he is his owne Physician and he hath taught vs to open a veine and let bloud The Elephants skin is so tough and hard that therof be made targuets and shields of so good proofe that is is impossible to pierce them thorough and yet they are thought to be of all four-footed beasts most ingenious and wittie Wherefore conclude we may that the skin it selfe is sencelesse and hath no fellowship at all with the vnderstanding and especially that of the head and whersoeuer it is of it selfe naked and without flesh be sure if it be wounded impossible it is to consolidate the wound and namely in the eie lids and bals of the cheekes All creatures that bring forth their young quicke are hairie those that lay egs haue either feathers as birds skales as fishes or else be couered with shels as Tortoises or last of all haue a plaine skin and no more as Serpents The quils of all feathers be hollow Cut them they will grow no more plucke them they will come againe Insects flie with thin and brittle pellicles or membranes The sea Swallowes haue them euermore moist and drenched in the sea As for the Bat he is afraid to wet them and therfore flies about housen his wings besides are diuided into joints The haires that grow forth of a thick skin are commonly hard grosse but euermore thinner and finer in the females In horses and mares they grow at length vpon their mains Lions also haue them long about their shoulders and foreparts Connies haue long haires about their checkes yea and within-forth as also in the soles of their feet and so hath the Hares according to the opinion of Trogus who thereby collecteth that hairy men likewise are more letcherous than other The hairiest creature of all other is the Hare In mankind only there grows haire about the priuy parts and whosoeuer wants it man or woman is holden for barren not apt for generation Haires in men and women are not all of one sort for some they bring with them into the world others come vp and grow afterwards Those they haue from their mothers womb do not lightly fall and shed and least of all in women Yet shal ye haue some women to shed the haire of the head by occasion of sicklinesse as also other women to haue a kinde of down vpon their face namely when their monethly fleurs do stay vpon them In some men the later kind of haires to wit of the beard c. wil not come of their own accord without the help of Art Four-footed beasts shed their haire yerely and haue it grow again Mens haire of their heads groweth most and next to it that
thereof in former times ibid. it brought forth that noble Citizen Cadmus ibid. Millet how it groweth in the head and beareth fruit 558. h it maketh diuerse kindes of bread ibid. Milke rained See Raine Indish Millet of greatest encrease ibid. i Milke of a woman before shee haue gone seuen moneths is not good 548. g Millet where it is much vsed 555. f. 556. g Milke vsed in sacrifice 418. h of Milke a discourse 348. h Milke of a woman how it is most pleasant ibid. Millet how to be ordered for preuenting maladies incident thereto 575. d Milke that commeth first from a Cow is called Beestings it will be as hard as a pumish stone ibid. Milke of shee Asses when it is not good ibid. Milke of Cammels most thin 348. i Milke-way what circle 599. c Milke of Asses most thicke ib. it whiteth womans skin ibid. Milke of all sorts will thicken by the fire ibid. Minutius Augurius honoured with a statue 551. c Misselto a wonder in Nature 496. h Misselto vpon the Oke 460. m Misselto of three kindes 496. g Misselto of what tree it groweth ibid. k Misselto how it groweth and whereupon it commeth ibid. m Misselto for what it is thought good 497. d Mines of brasse who first digged 188. i Mists when they are seene 29. b a kinde of Mist like vnto a pillar and so called 23. a Milo his strength 166. m Militarie orders and discipline who first deuised 189. c M O Modenna a territorie 39. d Mola a Moone-calfe 163. c a Monster embaulmed and preserued in hony 158. g Molluscum what it is 467. a Monstrous births 157. f Monarchie who first erected 189. a Mona an Island 36. k Monkie 206. h Monoceros what kinde of beasts 212. h Monosceli what kinde of men 156. g Moon her nature motion and effect 6. l. the diuerse motions hereof obserued first by Endimion who therefore is said to be in loue with her 7. a. eclipse thereof in the night only and why 7. d. See further in Eclipse Moone lesse than the other Planets and the reason thereof 9. f. what difference there is betweene the earth and the Moone 14. i Moon how many furlongs from the cloudy region tâ—… her 14 m Moone in the middest between the earth and the Sun 15. b Moon calfe what it is 163. e Moon to be obserued in cutting hair of head beard 488 i Moone to be obserued in falling timber 487. e Moones threè appeared 18. g. by her power grow the bodies of sisters Muskles 20. i. foresheweth wind and weather 611. e Moone with all power it hath ouer things on earth and in the sea 44. c. creatures that haue no bloud doe most of all feele her power ibid. a Planet feminine and of her nature 44. k. nourished by the fresh water ibid. how to be knowne croisant in the wane full and change 607. d to be obserued in some points of husbandrie 607. b Moone-calues how engendred 304. a Moramarusa what 85. c Morphnos a kinde of Aegle 271. e Mosses sweet 375. e Mouldwarpes vndermine a towne 212. h Mouldwarpes passe vs in the sence of hearing 306. g Mould blacke and red not alwaies best 502. k M V Mucke when best to be spread 508. i Muckhils how made and where ib. how kept froÌ„ snakes ib. Muing of foules who first deuised 297. c Mulberry tree lasteth long aad why 474. g Mulberries described 447. c. it is of three colours ibid. Mulberies of the bramble 447. d Mulberrie trees the wisest of all others 472. l. how to be cut for the liquor thereof 486. h. they giue signe that cold weather is gone 494. h Mules how engendred 223. f. which be so called properly 224. h. bearing foles prodigious ibid. in Cappadocia they engender and beare ibid. Mullets their nature 245. 〈◊〉 a Mule eighteen yeares old 224. i Mulvianâ—… Quinces 436. h Mures Marini what they be 247. b Murex what fish 249. a Munkies and Marmosetes adore the new Moone 231. e Muscadell grapes and wines See Apianae Musicke who first inuented 189. d Musicall instruments ibid. Mushromes 460. l Mustea what Quinces 436. h M Y Myagirus the god of the Elaeans 285. a Myrobalanus See Ben. Myrobalanos Petraea 374. k Myrtles of sundry kindes 451. d Myrtle Hexastica ibid. why so called ibid. Myrtle tree lasteth long 494. l Myrtles of three principall kindes 451. c Myrtle berries vsed in stead of Pepper 450. l Myrtle growing in the place where Rome standeth ibid. m Myrtle Plebeia and patritia at Rome 451. b Myrtle Coniugula ibid. c Myrice 398. m Myrrhina what wine 419. a Myrrhe Atramiticke 369. b Myrrhe Ausaritis ibid. Myrrhe Dusaritis ibid. Myrrhe trees where they grow 368. k. their description ib. l Myrrhe of sundry sorts 369. b Myrtle berries of diuerse kindes ibid. d. how counterfeit ib. Myrtle leaues in pouder very good 451. e Myrtle wine how made 451. d Myrtle oyle the vse thereof ibid. e Myrtle coronets vsed in triumph 452. g Myrtle rods and rings to what vse ibid. N A NAcre a kinde of fish 261. c Naevius Pollio a giant 165. h Names of Uine sprigs or sets 526. k. 527. a of Nailes a discourse 349. f Naphtha the strange nature thereof and affinitie it hath with fire 47. a Naphtha what it is ibid. Nard leafe of three sorts 364. k Nard the best ibid. l Nard Celticke ibid. m Nard Rusticke ibid. Narcissimum ointment 381. d Nardinum oyle 382. k Nardus sophisticated and true how distinguished 364. k root spike and leafe ibid. Actius Nauius the Augur 443. d Nathecusa Island 40. k Nature onely accounted of diuine power 5. b Nature of wild trees mitigated by translating them 510. l. Natures secrets not to be attained vnto ibid. i Nature or ground diuerse 506. l Nauell the place where veines do meet 345. e Nabis a kinde of beast 205. d Navew See Rape Navigation who deuised 190. g. Nauigations vpon the sea 32. k. by whom the parts thereof were sailed and discouered ibid. Nauplius a fish how it swimmeth 252. h Nautilos or Pompiles a fish and wonder of Nature 150. l Nayles grow in dead men 550. g Nayles are the extremities of the fingers 345. 〈◊〉 Nayles in creatures except the Elephant ibid. N E Nea Island 40. g Necke how it is composed 339. a Neckes of all beasts may turne about ibid. Needle fishes Belonae 266. h Needle worke whose inuention 228. i Nemesis her place behind the right eare 250. k Neptune his chappell famous for the games there vsed euery fiue yeares 74. m Nereides See Meremaids Nerion See Oleander Nero how he tooke out the blew and blacke markes in his face after beating 400. h Nero borne with his feet forward 160. h Nero how much Incense he wasted at the funerall of Poppea 371. e Neasts wonderfully made by birds 288. l sea-Nettle a fish 262. i N I Nicaeus borne of his mother afaire woman resembled his Grand-father a blacke Aethiopian 161. b Nicias ouer fearefull
continue healthful strong lusty that they be good for the stomack in this regard that they cause rifting and breaking of wind vpward which is a good exercise of the stomacke and withall that they keepe the bodie loose and laxatiue yea and open the Haemorrhoid veines if they be put vp in maner of suppositories Also that the juice of onions and Fennell together be maruellous good to be taken in the beginning of a dropsie Item That their juice being incorporat with Rue and Hony is soueraigne for the Squinance As also that they will keep waking those who are fallen into a Lethargie To conclude Varro saith That if Onions be braied with salt and vinegre and then dried no woorms or vermine will come neere that composition CHAP. VI. ¶ Of cut Leekes or Porret of bolled Leeks and of Garlicke POrret otherwise called Cut-Leekes or vnset Leeks stancheth bleeding at the nose in case it be stamped and put vp close into the nosethrils or otherwise mingled with the pouder of the Gall-nut or Mints Moreouer Porret staieth the immoderat shift or fluxe of bloud that follows women vpon a slip or abortiue birth if the juice thereof be drunk in breast-milke In the same manner it helps an old cough and al other diseases of breast and lungs Burnes and sealdings are healed with a liniment made of Porret or Leek blades likewise the Epinyctides for so in this place I tearme that vlcer which in the lachrymal or corner of the eie runneth and watereth continually some call it Syce that is to say a fig. And yet others there be who vnderstand by that word Epinyctides the blackish or blew blistring wheals the bloudy fals I mean and angrie chilblanes that in the night disquiet and trouble folk that haue them But to come againe to our Porret the blades thereof stamped and laid too with Honie healeth all sores and vlcers whatsoeuer The biting of any venomous beast the sting also of Serpents are cured therwith As for the impediments of the hearing and the ears they be remedied with the juice of Leeks and Goats gall or els a like quantitie of honied wine instilled thereinto And as for the whistlings or crashing noises that a man shall heare within head otherwhiles they are discussed with the iuice of Leeks and womans milk dropped into the ears If the same be snuffled vp into the nosthrils or otherwise conueighed that way vp into the head it easeth head-ach for which purpose also it is good to poure into the eare when one goeth to bed and lieth to sleepe two spoonfuls of the said iuice and one of Honie The iuice of Porret if it be giuen to drinke with good wine of the grape against the sting of serpents and namely Scorpions likewise so taken with an Hemine of wine it cureth the pains of the loines or small of the back Such as spit or reach vp bloud such as be diseased with the Phthisick or consumption of the lungs such also as haue bin long troubled with the Pose the Murre Catarrhe and other rheums find great help by drinking the iuice of Porret or eating Leeks with their meat Moreouer Leeks are taken to be very good either for the iaundise or dropsie Drinke the same with the decoction of husked Barley called Ptisane to the quantity of one Acetable you shal find ease for the pains of the rains or kidnies The same measure and quantity being taken with honey mundifieth the Matrice and naturall parts of women Men vse to eat of Porrets or Leekes when they doubt themselues to haue taken venomous Mushroms And a cataplasm therof cureth green wounds Porret is a solicitour to wantonnesse and carnal pleasures it allaieth thirstinesse dispatcheth those fumes that cause drunkennesse But it is thought to breed dimnesse in the eie-sight to ingender wind and ventosity howbeit not offensiue to the stomack for that withall it maketh the belly laxatiue Finally it scoureth the pipes cleareth the voice thus much of Porret in blade or cut Leeks vnset These headed Leeks that are bolled and replanted are of the same operation but more effectual than the vnset Leeks The iuice therof giuen with the pouder either of Gal-nuts or frankincense or els Acacia cureth those that reject or reach vp bloud Hippocrates would haue the simple iuice therof giuen without any thing els for that purpose and hee is of opinion that it will disopilate the neck of the Matrice and the naturall parts of women yea and that they will proue fruitful and beare children the better if they vse to eat Leeks Being stamped and laid to filthie sores or vnclean vlcers with hony it clenseth them Being taken in a broth made of Ptisane or husked barly it cureth the cough staieth the rheume or catarrh that distilleth into the chist or breast-parts it scoureth the lungs and wind-pipe and healeth their exulcerations The like it doth if it be taken raw without bread 3 bols or heads of them together each other day and in this maner it will cure the patient although he raught vp and spit out putrified and corrupt matter After the same maner it cleareth the voice it inableth folk to the seruice of lady Venus and auaileth much to procure sleep If Leeke bols or heads be sodden in two waters i. changing the water twice and so eaten they wil stop the Lask and stay all inueterat fluxes whatsoeuer The pillings or skins of Leek heads if they be sodden the decoction therof wil change the haire from gray to blacke if they be washed or bathed therewith As touching Garlicke it is singular good and of great force for those that change aire and come to strange waters The very sent thereof chaseth Serpents and Scorpions away And as some haue reported in their writings it healeth all bitings stings of venomous beasts either eaten as meat taken in drinke or annointed as a liniment but principally it hath a special property against the Serpents called Haemorrhoids namely if it be first eaten and then cast vp aâ—…in by vomit and wine Also it is soueraigne against the poisonous biting of the mouse called 〈◊〉 Shrew and no maruell for why it is of power to dull and kill the force of the venomous herb Aconitum i. Libard bane which by another name men cal Pardalianches because it strangleth or choketh Leopards yea it conquereth the so poriferous deadly quality of Henbane the bitings also of a mad dog it healeth if it be applied vpon the hurt or wounded place with him As for the sting of serpents verily Garlick is exceeding effectuall if it be taken in drink but withal you must not forget to make a liniment of it the hairy strings or beard growing to the head the skins also or tails and all wherby it is bunched tempered all together with oile laid vpon the grieued place and thus also will it help any part of the body fretted or galled yea though it were risen
and layd abroad in the Sun it wil ingender wormes and magots The people of Africk are verily persuaded and so they giue out That if one be stung with a scorpion the same day that he hath eaten Basil it is vnpossible for to scape with life Likewise some hold opinion and would beare vs in hand That if a man stamp a bunch or handfull of Basill together with ten sea crabs or as many craifishes of the fresh water all the Scorpions thereabout will meet and gather together about that bait Finally Diodorus in his Empiricks or book of approued receits and medicines saith That the eating of Basil ingendreth lice Contrariwise the later writers and modern phisitians defend maintain the vse of Basil as stoutly as the other blamed it for first they auouch constantly That Goats vse to feed therupon Secondly That no man was euer known to go beside himselfe who did eat thereof Thirdly That Basil taken in wine with a little vineger put therto cureth as wel the sting of land scorpions as the venom of those in the sea Moreouer they affirme vpon their knowledge by experience That a perfume made of Basil and vinegre is singular good to recouer and fetch them again that be gon in a swound Also that in the same maner prepared it rouseth and wakeneth those that be in a lethargie and sleep continually yea and mightily cooleth and refresheth them that be inflamed in a burning heat A liniment made with Basill oile Rosat or oile of Myrtles in stead thereof with vineger asswageth the paine of the head Moreouer being laied to the eies with wine it staieth the waterish rheume that runs thither Furthermore comfortable it is to the stomack as they say for being taken with Vinegre it dissolueth ventosities and breaketh wind by rifting vpward Being applied outwardly it bindeth and staieth the running out or flux of the belly and yet it causeth free passe of vrine in abundance After the same maner it doth good in case of Iaunise and dropsie It represseth the rage of choler that moueth both vpward and downward yea and staieth all defluxions from the stomack And therefore Philistio knew what he did well enough when he gaue it to those that were troubled with the stomachical flux As also Plistonicus was well aduised in ministring it sodden for the bloudy flix the exulceration of the guts and the Collicke Some there be who giue it in wine to them who run euer and anon to the close stoole sit downe and do nothing to those that reach and cast vp bloud yea and to mollifie the hardnesse of the precordiall parts Being laid as a liniment to the nurses paps it restraineth the abundance of milk vea and drieth it vp There is not a better thing in the world for to be dropped into the eares of little babes and sucking children and namely with goose-grease If the seed be brused and so snuffed or drawn vp into the nosthrils it prouoketh sneesing The iuice moreouer laid as a liniment to the forehead openeth the passages that the rheumes or cold which lay in the head may breake away Being taken at meat and dipped in vinegre it mundifieth the matrice and natural parts of women Mixed with Copperose or Vitriol it taketh away warts Finally it setteth folk forward to venerious pleasure which is the reason that men vse to lay Basil vpon the shap of mares or she Asses at the time of their couering CHAP. XIII ¶ Of wild Basil Rocket Cresses and Rue WIld Basill is endued with vertues and qualities seruing to all the purposes abouesaid but the same is of better operation and more effectual And these properties ouer and besides it hath by it selfe namely To cure the weaknesse of the stomack and those accidents which come by often casting or immoderat vomits The root thereof taken in wine is singular good for the apostumes of the matrice and against the biting of venomous beasts As touching Rocket the seed cureth as well the venomous sting of Scorpions as the biting of the hardy shrew The same chaseth all vermin that be apt to ingender in mans body A liniment made with it and hony together taketh away all the spots that blemish the skinne of the face and with vinegre represseth the red pimples whatsoeuer The black or swe rt skars remaining after wound or sore it reduceth to the former fair white if it be applied with a beasts gal It is said moreouer that a potion therof made with wine and giuen to those who are to receiue punishment by the whip will harden them in such sort that they shall feele little or no smart at all by any scourging And for seasoning of all kinde of viands it hath such a pleasant grace in any sauce that the Greekes thereupon haue giuen it the name of Euzomos It is thought moreouer that a fomentation of Rocket brused and stamped somewhat before quickeneth and clarifieth the eye-sight it easeth little children of the chin-cough The root boiled in water and so applied draweth forth spils of broken bones As touching the vertue that Rocket hath to procure the heat of lust I haue spoken already yet thus much more in particular I haue to say that if one do gather three leaues of wild Rocket with his left hand stamp them afterward and so giue them to drink in honied water this drink mightily prouoketh that way As for Cresses they haue a contrary operation for they coole and dull the heat of the flesh how soeuer otherwise they giue an edge to the wit and vnderstanding as heretofore we haue declared Of these Cresses there be two kinds The white is purgatiue and the weight of a Roman denier taken in water doth euacuate cholerick humors A liniment thereof together with bean flower applied vnto the hard kernils called the Kings euill is a soueraigne remedie therefore so that a Colewort leafe be laid thereupon The other kinde is more blackish and purgeth the head of ill humors It clenseth the eies and cleareth the sight Taken in vineger it stayeth their brains that be troubled in mind and drunk in wine or eaten with a fig it is singular good for the splene If a man take it fasting euery morning with hony it cureth the cough The seed drunke in wine expelleth all the wormes in the guts which it doth more effectually if wilde Mints be ioyned withall With Origanum and sweet wine it helpeth those that be short winded and troubled with the cough The decoction therof when it is sodden in goats milk easeth the pains of the chest or breast Laid to as a Cerot with pitch it resolueth pushes and biles vea and draweth forth pricks and thorns out of the body A liniment applied with vineger taketh off all spots and speckles of the visage and if the white of an egg be put thereto it cureth cankerous sores Also being applied in forme of a soft vnguent to the splene it cureth the infirmities thereof but if
gout There be who are of opinion That it hath a speciall vertue and property to resist the poison of the Aspis Certain it is that it prouoketh vrine allaieth thirst and the appetite to drink yea and soliciteth to carnal lust Taken in wine it gently putteth forth a kind sweat Moreouer it keepeth cloths and apparel from the Moth. Generally the fresher and newer alwaies that it is and the blacker that it looketh the more effectuall it is found to be Howbeit this one discommodity it hath That it is an enemy to the stomacke vnlesse haply it bee pestered with ventosities CHAP. XVIII ¶ Of Dill of Sacopenium and Sagapenum Of Poppy both white and black The manner of gathering and drawing iuice out of herbes Also of Opium DIll also hath a property to dissolue ventosities to break wind and cause rifting also to assuage any wrings or torments of the belly yet it staieth the flux The roots being reduced into a liniment with water or wine restraineth the flux of watering eies A perfume made of the seed as it boileth receiued vp into the nosthrils staieth the yex Taken as a drinke in water it concocteth crudities and appeaseth the pain of windinesse proceeding from thence The ashes of it burned raise vp the Vvula in the throat that is fallen Howbeit Dill dimmeth the eie-sight and dulleth the vigor of genitall seed As for our Sacopenium here in Italy it differeth altogether from that which grows beyond sea For the outlandish kind resembling gum Ammoniack is called Sagapen Good it is for the pleurisiè and pain of the brest Convulsions or Spasmes and old setled Coughes for those that reach vp filthy and rotten matter for the tumors of the midriffe and precordial parts It cureth the swimming and giddinesse of the head the shaking and trembling of the joints the crampe or convulsion that draweth the neck backward the great swelled spleens the pain of the bones and all shaking and quiuering colds A perfume made therewith in vineger if a woman smell vnto it helpeth the Mother that is ready to stop her wind As for the other accidents it is both giuen in drinke and also rubbed into grieued parts with oile It is thought to be soueraign also against poysoned drinkes giuen by Witches and Sorcerers Touching garden Poppie and the seuerall kinds therof I haue written already but besides them there be other sorts also of the wild whereof I promised to treat Meane while the heads of the foresaid garden white poppy if they be bruised whole as they grow with seed all and so drunk in wine do procure sleep The seed it selfe alone cureth the Leprosie Diagoras giueth counsell to cut the stem or stalk of the blacke Poppy when it beginneth to strout and swell toward the flouring time out of which there wil issue a certaine juice called Opium but Iollas aduiseth to make that incision when it hath bloomed and to chuse a faire cleare day for it that houre of the day when as the dew thereon is dried vp Now would they haue them to be cut vnder the head before the bloom but in the very head after it hath don flouring and verily there is no other kind of herb wherein the head is cut but this only The said juice of this herbe as well as of all other is receiued in wooll or else if it run but in small quantitie they gather it with the thumbe naile as the maner is in Lectuces but the morrow after the incision so much the more vigilant they must be to saue gather that which is dried and in very deed the iuice of Poppy commonly runneth out in great abundance gathereth into a thicknesse which afterward is stamped and reduced into little trosches and dried in the shade Which juice thus drawne and thus prepared hath power not only to prouoke sleep but if it be taken in any great quantity to make men dye in their sleep and this our Physitians call Opion Certes I haue knowne many come to their death by this meanes and namely the father of Licinius Cecinna late deceased a man by calling a Pretor who not able to indure the intollerable pains and torments of a certain disease and being weary of his life at Bilbil in Spaine shortened his owne daies by taking Opium By reason whereof Physitians are growne to great variance and be of contrary opinions as touching the vse of the foresaid Opium Diagoras and Erasistratus condemned it altogether as a most deadly thing would not allow that it should be so much as injected or infused into the body by way of clyster for they held it no better than poison and otherwise hurtful also to the eies Andreas saith moreouer That if Opium doth not presently put out a mans eies make him blind it is because they of Alexandria in Egypt do sophisticat it But in processe of time the later modern Physitians did not vtterly reject it but found a good vse therof as may appeare by that noble and famous Opiat confection called Diacodium Moreouer there be certain ordinary trosches made of Popy seed beaten into pouder which with milk are commonly vsed by way of a liniment to bring sicke patients to sleepe Likewise with oile Rosat for the head-ach and with the same oile they vse to drop it into the eares for to mitigat their pain Also a liniment made therof with brest-milk is singular good for the gout In which sort there is a great vse of the leaues also to the same purpose And being applied as a cataplasme with vineger they help S. Anthonies fire and all sorts of wounds For mine own part I would not haue it in any case to enter into Collyries much lesse vnto those medicines which be ordained to driue away ague fits or into maturatiues no nor to go among other ingredients into those remedies which are deuised to stay the flux that commeth from the stomack Howbeit in this case last specified many giue the black Poppy with wine Al garden Poppies grow rounder in the head than the wild for these beare a head longer smaller howbeit for any vse of greater operation than those of the garden For the decoction therof taken as a drink procureth sleep to such as be ouer watchfull so doth a fomentation thereof if either the visage bee sprinckled or the mouth washed therewith The best Poppies be they that grow in dry places and where it raineth seldome When the heads and leaues both be sodden stamped the iuice that is pressed from them Physitians call Meronium and it is far weaker and duller in operation than Opium Now to know which is good Opium indeed the first and principal trial is by the nose for the true Opium is so strong that a man may not indure to smel it the second proof is by fire for the right Opium will burn cleare like a candle and when it is put forth yeeldeth a stinking sent from it in the end which
with ease yea and to take his wind and breath at liberty In like manner being taken warm with the juice of Cucumber it cureth the falling sicknesse It purifieth the senses it purgeth the head by smelling it keepeth the body soluble it prouoketh womens monethly fleures and vrine A cataplasme made therewith and applied accordingly helpeth them that be in a dropsie so it doth those that be subject to the falling sicknes but then must it be stamped with three parts of Cumin and figs. If it be tempered with vineger and held to the nose of such women as with the rising of the mother seeme to be strangled and to lie in a trance it raiseth them vp again in like sort it awakens those who be in a fit of the lethargy howbeit in this case it is good to put thereto the seed of Seseli of Candy which they call Tordilion But say that the Patients be in so deep a sleep in this drowsie disease that by such means they will not start vp and be raised then take mustard-seed and figgs temper them with vineger into a cataplasme apply the same to the legs or the forehead or region of the brain rather It hath a caustick or burning quality and being applyed in form of a liniment to any part it raiseth pimples by which means it cureth the old inueterat pains of the brest the ach of the loins the haunch and hucklebone the shoulders or any part of the body where need is that the offensiue humors setled deep within should transpire and be drawn outwardly to an issue Now for that the nature thereof is to blister in case the patient be timerous fear some extreme operation of that burning quality that it hath it may be applied to the part affected between a doubled linnen cloth otherwise if the place be very thick and hard it would be laid too without any figs at all Moreouer there is a good vse of Senuy with red earth for to make the haire come again which is faln for scabs and scurfe for soule morphew or the leprosie the lowsie disease the vniuersall cramp that causeth the body to stand stiffe and stark as it were all of one piece without ioint also the particular cricke which setteth the neck backward that it cannot stir An inunction made with it and hony cureth the eye-lids that be not smooth but rugged and chapped yea and clarifieth the eies which be ouercast with a muddy mist. As touching the juice of Scnvie it is after three sorts drawne the first being pressed forth it is let to take a heat in the Sun gently by little and little within an earthen pot Secondly there issueth forth of the small stems or branches that it hath a white milky liquor which after it is dried and hardened in that manner is a singular remedy for the tooth-ach Where note by the way that the seed root both after they haue bin wel steeped and soked in new wine are stamped or brayed together now if one do take in a supping as much of this iuice thus drawne as may be held in the ball of the hand it is very good to strengthen the throat and chaws to fortifie the stomack to corroborat the eies to confirm the head and generally to preserue all the senses in their entire And verily I know not the like wholsome medicine againe to shake off and cure the lazy and lither feuers that come by fits many times vpon women Senuy also being taken in drinke with vineger breaketh the stone and expelleth it by grauell There is an oyle also made of mustard-seed infused and steeped in oyle and so pressed out which is much vsed to heat and comfort the stiffenesse of sinewes occasioned by cold to warme also and bring into temper the thorough cold lying in the loins hanches and hucklebones whereof commeth the Sciatica Of the same nature and operation that Senuie is Adarca is thought to be according as I haue touched in the discourses of plants and trees growing wild in the woods which is a certain fomy substance arising and sticking in the bark of certain Canes vnder their very leaues and tufts that they beare in the head Concerning Horehound which the Greekes call Prasion others Linostrophon some Phylopes or Philochares an hearbe so well knowne and so common that it needs no description many Physitians haue commended to be as medicinable as the best And in truth the leaues and seed both being beaten into powder are excellent good for the stinging of serpents for the paine of the brest and sides singular for an old cough Moreouer the juice is right soueraign for those who haue their lungs perished and do reach vp bloud if the branches therof gathered and bound vp into bunches be sodden first in water with the grain called Panick for to mitigat in some sort the vnpleasant harshnesse of the said juice A cataplasme of Horehound applied vnto the Kings euill with some conuenient fat or grease resolueth the hard kernels Some prescribe a receit for the cough in this maner Take the seed of green Horehound as much as a man may comprehend with two fingers seeth it with a smal handful of the wheat called Far putting thereto a little oile and salt and so sup off the decoction fasting Others hold That without all comparison there is not a medicine in the world like to the juice of Horehound and Fennel together first drawn by way of expression to the quantity of 3 sextars afterwards boiled to the consumption of a third part vntill there remaine but two sextars then to this decoction there must be put one sextar of hony all sodden again to the consumption of one third part more vnto the height of a syrrup whereof one spoonfull euery day taken in a cyath of water is a drink that in this case hath no fellow Horehound stamped and mixed with hony is of wonderfull effect being applied to the priuy parts of a man for any griefes incident thereto Laid with vineger vnto ring-worms tettars and any such running wildfires it purgeth and riddeth them clean away A wholsom medicine it is to be applied as a cataplasm to ruptures convulsions spasmes and cramps of the sinews Taken in drink with salt and vineger it easeth the belly and maketh it laxatiue It prouoketh womens terms and sendeth out the after-birth The powder of it drie mixed with honey is of exceeding great efficacy to ripen a dry cough to cure gangrenes whiteflaws and wertwalls about the root of the nails The juice dropped into the ears with honey or snuffed vp into the nose cureth their infirmities it scoureth away the Iaundise also and purgeth cholerick humors And for all kinds of poisons few herbs are so effectuall as Horehound for it selfe alone without any addition clenseth the stomack and breast by reaching and fetching vp the filthy and rotten fleam there ingendred If it be taken with hony and the floure-de-lis root it
prouoketh vrine Howbeit where there is danger of any exulceration in kidnies or bladder it must be vsed with great warinesse if it be vsed at all Moreouer the juice of Horehound is said to clarifie the eie-sight Castor putteth downe two sorts of Horehound to wit the black and the white but he setteth greater store by the white than the other He prescribeth to take an empty egg-shel and to put into it the juice of Horehound and hony by euen portions when the said egge is warm to minister the same by way of clyster or syringe promising vs that the said iniection will breake all inward imposthumes and when they be broken clense and heale them throughly Also a liniment saith hee made of Horehound stamped together with old swines grease cureth all wounds occasioned by the biting of mad dogs Touching running Thyme some think it is called Serpyllum in Latine a serpendo i. of creeping because it runneth and creepeth by the ground a property indeed of the wild kind and especialy among rocks and stony grounds The garden Serpyllum which commeth of seed creepeth not but groweth to the height of four-fingers bredth The wilde Thyme which commeth vp of the own accord liketh and thriueth better hauing whiter leaues and branches than the other this I say is thought to haue a speciall vertue against serpents and namely the Cenchris the Scolopendres also as well of the sea as the land likewise the Scorpions in case the sprigs and leaues thereof be sodden in wine and so taken inwardly if the same be burned it yeeldeth a perfume which with the very sent chaseth them all away A singular power it hath against all venomous creatures of the sea Boiled in vineger reduced into a liniment with oile of roses it cureth the head ach if it be applied as a frontall to the forehead and temples In like manner it helpeth the phrensie and lethargy but if it be giuen to drink the weight only of four drams it easeth the wrings torments of the belly it giueth free passage with ease to the vrine it resolueth squinancy or bringeth them to maturity and staieth vomits And if one drinke it with water it is excellent good for the opilation heat inflammations and other accidents of the liuer The leaues to the weight of four oboli are giuen in vineger for the inflation and hardnesse of the splene If it be beaten to pouder and giuen in 2 cyaths of vineger and hony it is thought a good medicine for them that spit and reach vp bloud The wild Sisymbrium or Cresses called of some Thymbraeum groweth to a foot in height and no higher That which commeth vp in watery places is like vnto garden Cresses but both sorts are effectuall against all pricks and stings of Hornets and such like creatures That which springeth vp in dry ground hath the narrower leafe of the twain and carrieth a sweet smel with it whereupon it is commonly plaited amongst other odoriferous herbes in chaplets and guirlands But both the one and the other allaieth head-ach likewise they doe stay the flux of waterish humors which distill into the eyes Some put crums of bread thereto others seeth them alone in wine and vse the decoction Being reduced into a cataplasme and so applied euery night and taken off in the day time it heals within foure times laying on the angry chilblanes and bloudy-fals that trouble the feet in the night season yea and taketh away the spots pimples arising in womens faces which marreth their beauty whether it be eaten with meat in substance or the juice only taken in drink it staieth vomits yexes wringings gnawings and the dissolution or feeblenesse of the stomack which causeth inordinat flux Women going with child must take heed how they eat Sisymbrium vnlesse the fruit of their bodies be dead within them for if it be but applyed outwardly it will send it forth If one drinke it with wine he shall find that it prouoketh vrine and the wild kind ouer and besides expelleth the stone and the grauell Such as had need to wake and watch namely those that be giuen to drowsinesse and lethargie will be raised from their sleep and throughly wakened if it be distilled aloft vpon their heads with vineger Line-seed is imployed with other matters in diuers medicines to many vses but of it selfe alone it cleareth the skin of womens faces taketh out spots freckles pimples wems and molls that be eye-sores if it be applied as a liniment thereto The juice therof quickneth and helpeth the eye-sight With Frankincense and water or els with Myrrhe and wine it represseth the violent flux of humors to the eyes Reduced into a cataplasme with honey grease or waxe and so applyed it resolueth the swelling kernels behind the ears The meale thereof in manner of drie barley groats if it be strewed vpon the stomack helpeth the weaknesse and queasinesse thereof which maketh it ready to ouerturn If it be sodden in water and oile and so reduced into a liniment with Annise-seed and applyed it cureth the squinancie It must be wel dried and parched at the fire in case it be giuen to stay the running out of the belly As for those that be troubled with the stomachicall flux or the exulceration of the guts a cataplasme thereof with vineger and so applied bringeth them present ease For the griefe of the liuer it ought to be eaten with raisons This seed is passing good for lohoches or electuaries to be made thereof in the cure of the Phthisick and consumption of the lungs Lineseed growing into floure and mingled with nitre or salt or els with ashes put thereto is of great operation to mollifie the hardnesse of muscles sinews joints and the nape or chine of the neck yea and to mitigat the inflammations of the membrans or pellicles of the brain The same applyed with figs is an excellent maturatiue and ripeneth all impostumes But if it be laid too with the root of the wild Cucumber it draweth forth any thing that sticketh within the body euen the very spils shiuers of broken bones The said pouder or floure made of Line-seed sodden in wine and applied as a cataplasme stayeth cancerous vlcers that they run no further the same also with hony ripeneth apostemations of flegmatick humors and the breaking forth of the small pox Being mingled with an equall portion of garden Cresses it cureth the rough nailes that grow vntowardly and fetcheth them off without any inconuenience Incorporat with rosin and Myrrhe and so laid to the cods it helpeth their swelling and inflammations it is good also for ruptures of all sorts with water it healeth the gangrene Take of Line-seed Fenigreek seed of each one sextar seeth them in honied water and make a liniment thereof it easeth the paine of the stomack Line-seed ministred in a clystre with oile and hony cureth the deadly maladies of the guts and breast parts Bleets seeme to be dull
learne How all things whatsoeuer that flourish most louely and be gayest in shew soonest fade and are gon suddenly But to come again to the varietie of floures aforesaid together with their diuers mixtures verily there is no painter with all his skil able sufficiently with his pensil to represent one liuely garland of floures indeed whether they be plaited and intermedled in maner of nosegaies one with another or set in ranks and rewes one by another whether they be knit and twisted cord-wise and in chain-work of one sort of floures either to wind and wreath about a chaplet bias or in fashion of a circle or whether they be sorted round into a globe or ball running one through another to exhibit one goodly sight and entire vniformity of a crosse garland CHAP. II. ¶ Of Garlands Coronets Chaplets and Nosegaies made of floures Who deuised first the sorting and setting of sundry floures The first inuention of the Coronet or Guirland and the name of it in Latine Corollae and whereupon it was so called THe Coronets or Garlands vsed in antient time were twisted very small and thereupon they were called Strophia i. Wreaths from whence came also womens gorgets stomachers to be named Strophiola As for the word Corona a Coronet or Garland long it was first ere it came to be vulgar and commonly taken vp as a term chalenged either by priests and sacrificers in their diuine seruice or victorious captaines in their glorious triumphs But those Garlands and nosegaies being made of floures were called in Latine Serta or Seruiae à serendo i. of sorting and setling together The maner of which plaiting and broiding of herbes and floures the antient Greekes took no pleasure in for at the beginning they vsed to crowne with branches only of trees those braue men who had woon the prise in their sacred games and solemne Tournies or exercises of actiuitie But afterwards they began to beautifie and enrich their chaplets of triumph with sundry floures entermingled together And to say a truth the Sicyonians passed in this feat of sorting together one with another floures of sweet sauor and pleasant color in making of posies and garlands Howbeit the example of Pausias the cunning painter and Glycera the artificial maker of such Chaplets set them first a worke This Painter was wonderfully enamoured vpon the said Glycera and courted her by all the meanes hee could deuise among the rest he would seem to counterfeit and represent liuely with his pensil in colours what floures soeuer she wrought and set with her fingers into garlands and shee againe striued avie to change and alter her handiwork euery day for to driue him to a non-plus at the length or at leastwise to put him to his shifts insomuch as it was a very pleasant and worthie sight to behold of one side the works of Nature in the womans hand and on the other side the artificiall cunning of the foresaid painter And verily there are at this day to be seene diuers painted tables of his workmanship and namely one picture aboue the rest entituled Stephanoplocos wherein hee painted his sweet-heart Glycera twisting and braiding Coronets and Chaplets as her manner was And this fell out to be after the hundreth Olympias was come and gon by iust account Now when these Garlands of floures were taken vp and receiued commonly in all places for a certain time there came soon after into request those Chaplets which are named Egyptian and after them winter Coronets to wit when the earth affourdeth no floures to make them and those consisted of horn shauings died into sundry colours And so in processe of time by little and little crept into Rome also the name of Corollae as one would say petty Garlands for that these Winter Chaplets at first were so prety and small and not long after them the costly Coronets and attires Corollaria namely when they are made of thinne leaues and plates and Latin either guilded or siluered ouer or else set out with golden and siluered spangles and so presented CHAP. III. ¶ Who was the first that exhibited in publicke shew a Guirlandor Chaplet of gold and siluer-foile How highly Coronets were esteemed in old time Of the honour done to Scipio Of plaited Coronets And one notable Act of Queene Cleopatra CRassus the rich was the first man who at the solemn Games and Plaies which he set out in Rome gaue away in a braue shew Chaplets of gold and siluer resembling liuely floures and leaues of hearbes Afterwards such Coronets were adorned with ribband also and those were added as pendants thereto for more honour and state a deuise respectiue to those Tuscane Guirlands and Coronets which might haue no such ribbands or lace hanging vnto them but of gold And in truth those labels a long time were plaine and without any other setting forth saue only the bare gold vntill P. Claudius Pulcher came in place who exhibited in his publicke shewes the said labels wrought chased and engrauen yea and hee garnished the said plates of gold with glittering and twinckling spangles besides Howbeit were these Coronets neuer so rich and precious yet those Chaplets woon and gotten at the solemn Games for some worthy feats of actiuity performed caried alwaies the greater credit authority For to gaine this prise the Grand-siegniors and great men of the citie thought it no scorne to enter themselues in proper person into the publick place of Exercise to trie mastries yea and thither they sent euery man his seruant and slaue Hereupon grew these Ordinances specified among the laws of the twelue tables in these words Whosoeuer winneth Guirland either himselfe in person or by his monie goods and chattels is to be honoured in regard ef his vertue And certes who maketh doubt but what Prise or coronet either slaues or horses haue obtained the same by vertue of this law should be reputed as gotten by the money and goods of the master or owner of the said horses or slaues But what honor might this be which is thus atchieued by such a chaplet mary that which is right great namely that without all fraud and contradiction not only the party himselfe who woon it should be crowned therewith after his death both whiles his body lay vnder bourd within house and also all the way that it was caried forth to the place of sepulture or funerall fire but euen his parents likewise both father and mother if they were then liuing certes such Guirlands otherwise though they were not woon at games or prize but only made for pleasure pastime might not come abroad ordinarily nor be commonly worn for the law was very strict and seuere in this case we read that L. Fulvius Argentarius in the time of the second Punicke war vpon an information or speech giuen out That in the open day time he only looked forth of a gallerie which he had in the publicke Forum or common place at Rome with a
would trouble and disquiet the head Violets being drunk with water doe cure the Squinancie That which is purple in the floure of the Violets helpeth the falling euil in children especially if they drink it with water Violet seed resisteth the poison of scorpions Contrariwise the floure of the white Violet to wit the bulbous stocke-Gillofre is good to break all impostumat swellings whereas March violets did resolue them But as wel the white Violets as the yellow wall-floures are singular good to extenuate the grosse bloud of womens terms and to moue vrine Violets if they be fresh and new gotten are not so effectuall for these purposes as the dry and old gathered and therefore they would haue a whole yeares drying before they be vsed The wall-floure being taken to the quantitie of halfe a cyath in three cyaths of water stirreth womens fleurs and draweth them downe A liniment made with the root and vinegre together do mitigate and allay the pain of the spleen likewise it asswageth the gout and being tempered with myrrh and saffron it is singular for inflammations of the eyes The leaues mixed with hony clense the head from scurfe and skall reduced into a cerot it healeth vp the chaps in the seat or fundament as also all such Fissures in any moist place whatsoeuer And with vinegre they be good for all collections of humors and apostemations Bacchar also is an herb whereof there is good vse in physick Some of our countrymen haue called it in Latine Perpensa It affourdeth a good remedie against serpents it qualifieth the excessiue heat of the head allaieth the ach and restraineth the flux of humours downe into the eyes A cataplasme is made thereof for womens breasts swelling immediatly after childbirth for to breake the kernell Also for fistulous vlcers beginning to breed betweene the corners of the eies and of the nose and Saint Anthonies fire The very odour thereof is a good inducement to sleep The root sodden and taken in drink is singular for them that are troubled with cramps and convulsions that haue fallen from on high that be drawn togetther with spasmes and finally for such as labor for wind A decoction made of three or foure of the roots boiled away to the thirds is giuen with good successe for an old cough And this drink or Iuleb is very conuenient for to purge women that haue trauelled and bin deliuered before their time It taketh away the stitches in the side cureth the pleurisie and skoureth the stone Herof be bags and quilts made and those if they be laid in a wardrobe among cloathes and apparel causeth them to smell sweet As for Combretum which I said was much like vnto Bacchar if it be beaten to pouder and tempered with hogs grease it maketh a soueraign salue that healeth wounds wonderfully Asarum by report is an appropriat medicine for the liuer if an ounce of it be taken in one hemine of honied wine It purgeth the belly as violently as Ellebore In case of the dropsy it is singular as also for the midriffe precordial parts the Matrice and the Iaunise If it be put into new wine when it worketh and so tunned vp it maketh a singular diuretick wine for to prouoke vrin It must for this purpose be digged out of the ground when the leaues begin to put forth Dried it ought to be in the shade although it be subiect to corruption and mouldeth very soon CHAP. XX. ¶ Of French Nard and Saffron The medicinable vertues of Saffron and the cake or dregs thereof Of Saliunca Polium and Floure de-lis Of Holochryson Chrysocome and Melilote FOrasmuch as some haue taken rustick-Nard to be the root of Bacchar and so named it the which hath put me in mind of French Nard and the promise which I made in my treatise of strange and forrein trees to put off no longer than this place for to speake of it and the properties thereto belong To acquit my selfe therefore I will here set down the vertues of the said Nard as touching the vse thereof in Physicke First therefore if two drammes of French Nard be taken in wine it is singular against the sting and biting of serpents Item if one drinke it either in wine or water it easeth the passions of the Collick proceeding from the inflammation of the gut Colon. In like sort it cureth the inflaammtion of the liuer and the reins the ouerflowing also of the gal and the Iaunise thereupon Taken alone by it selfe or with Wormewood it is a good remedy for the Dropsie It represseth the immoderat flux of womens fleurs As touching Setwall or Valerian which in the foresaid place we named Phu the * root either beaten into pouder or sodden and so giuen in drinke is excellent for the rising of the Mother which threatneth suffocation for the pains of the breast and pleurisie The same prouoketh the course in womens terms so it be taken in wine Saffron will not resolue nor be mixed wel with hony or any sweet thing Howbeit in wine or water it wil dissolue very soon and be incorporated therewith A soueraign spice this is singular for many maladies The best way to keep saffron is within a box of horn It discusseth verily all inflammations but principally those of the eies if together with an egge it be applied in forme of a liniment Excellent it is for the suffocation of the matrice the exulcerations of the stomacke breast kidnies liuer lungs and bladder and more particularly if any of these parts be enflamed a proper remedie also it is in that case Likewise it cureth the cough pleurisie It killeth an itch and prouoketh vrin Our wine-knights when they purpose to sit square at the tauerne and carouse lustily if they drinke Saffron neuer feare surfeit nor the ouerturning of their braine and they are verily persuaded that this keepeth them from drunkennesse and maketh them carie their drinke well Certes a Chaplet of Saffron vpon the head dooth allay the fumes ascending vp thither and preuent drunkennesse Saffron induceth sleep but it troubleth the braine somewhat it pricketh forward to wanton lust The floure of Saffron reduced into a liniment with white Fullers earth helpeth the Shingles and S. Anthonies fire And saffron it self entereth into very many compositions of Physicke One Collyrie or eye-salue there is which taketh the name also of saffron And when the ointment made of Saffron called Crocinium is strained and pressed out the grounds which remaine is named Crocomagma which also is not without some speciall vses for it cureth the suffusion of the eyes or the cataract but it causeth ardeur and heat of vrine more than Saffron it selfe The best is that accounted which if a man tast in his mouth doth colour his spittle and staine his teeth As touching the Flower-de-lis the red is thought to be better than the white Certes if little infants do wear it tied about them by way of necklace collar or
girdle it is supposed to be a singular remedie especially when they breed teeth or haue the chincough Also if they be troubled with the worms they hold it good gently to instill the same in the body either by drink or clystres All other operations that the Flour-de-lis hath differ not much in effect from hony A singular property it hath to clense the head from sores and skalls and generally to mundifie all impostumat vlcers Two drams thereof taken with hony easeth the belly prouoketh to the stoole Giuen in ordinary drink it staieth the cough appeaseth wrings dissolueth ventosities in the belly In vinegre it openeth the opilations of the spleene And being taken with water and vinegre together it is an effectuall remedie against the stinging of serpents and spiders The weight of two drams eaten with bread or drunk in water resisteth the poison of scorpions Being made into a liniment with oile and so applied it cureth the bitings of mad dogs and heateth the parts mortified with extreame cold In like manner also it allaieth the paines of the sinews Reduced into an ointment with Rosin it is singular for the paine of the loins and the gout Sciatica This root is hot in operation If it be drawne or snuffed vp into the nose it causeth sneesing and purgeth the head A liniment of it and Pome-quinces or Peare-quinces easeth the head-ach it represseth also the vapours flying vp into the head causing distemperature of the braine in a surfeit of wine or strong drinke It helpeth streightnesse of breath and such as cannot take their winde but sitting vpright It prouoketh vomit if it be taken to the weight of 2 Oboli A cataplasme of it and hony together draweth forth spils of broken bones The pouder of it is much vsed for Whit-flawes and the same applied with wine taketh away cornes and werts but it must lie on three daies before you vnbind and take it from the place The very chewing of it correcteth a strong and stinking breath as also the filthie fauour of the arme-holes The juice thereof doth mollifie all hard tumors It prouoketh sleepe but it consumeth sperme or natural seed The Fissures in the seat as also the blind and swelling piles in the fundament and all superfluous excrescences of the bodie it cureth There is a wild kind of Floure-de-lis which some call Xyris the root of this herb is good to resolue discusse the swelling kernels named the Kings euil hot biles risings in the groin Howbeit for to work these effects there be certain ceremonies precisely to be obserued namely That it be taken out of the ground with the left hand in any case Item that they who gather it do say in the gathering For whose sake they pluck it vp and withall name the person here in making mention of this matter I canot but detect the knauery of these Harbarists and simplers Their maner is not to employ occupie all that they haue gathered but reserue keep part thereof as also of some other hearbes as namely of Plantaine and if they be not well contented nor thinke themselues paied thoroughly for their paines in the cure they make no more ado but burie and couer within the earth that part which they kept by them in the same place where it was digged forth And I beleeue verily they haue an vnhappy meaning and a certaine kind of witchcraft herin forsooth That the maladies which they seemed to haue healed should breake out and be sore again to the end that they might be set on work anew As touching Saliunca the decoction of it in wine and so taken staieth vomits and corrobroateth the stomack Musaeus and Hesiodus the Poets haue a great opinion of Polium for they giue counsell to all those that would come to preferment promotion for to be anointed all ouer with a liniment thereof such also as be desirous of renowme and glory to be euer handling of it to set it also and maintaine it in their gardens True it is that solke docarie Polium about them ordinarily or lay it vnder their beds for to chase away serpents Physicians do seeth it either new green or drie in wine and therof make a liniment or els they giue it to drink in vinegre to those that be pained with the jaundise yea to such as be newly fallen into the dropsie they giue counsell to drinke the decoction thereof being sodden in wine And of it so prepared they make a liniment for to be applied vnto green wounds Moreouer this herb is very good to send out the after-burden in women newly brought to bed and to expell the dead infant out of the mothers wombe And otherwise it serueth well to mitigate any paines of the body It doth purge and euacuate the bladder and in a liniment applied to the eyes restraineth their excessiue watering I know not any other hearbe better to goe with other ingredients into antidots or countrepoisons named of the Greeks Alexipharmaca than this Howbeit some denie all this and are of opinion that it is hurtful to the stomacke that the drinking of it stuffeth the head and causeth women to fal into labor before their time They say also that this cerimonie would be precisely obserued That in the very place where this plant is found so soone as euer it is gathered it should be hanged presently vpon the necke of the partie with a speciall care that it touch not the ground first and then is it an excellent remedie for the cataract in the eye And these authors describe this hearbe to haue leaues like Thyme but that they be softer and couered ouer with a more hoarie and woollie downe Being taken with wild Rue in raine water so that it be beaten before into pouder it doth mitigat by report the deadly paines caused by the sting of the Aspis it bindeth and draweth vp a wound it keepeth corrosiue sores from festering and going farther as well as the floures of the Pomegranate The hearb Holochrysos if it be taken in wine helpeth the strangury and such as cannot pisse but by drops And a liniment therof is passing good to represse the flux of humors to the eyes If it bee incorporat with Tartar or wine lees burnt into ashes and drie Barley groats it mundifieth the skin and riddeth away ring-wormes tettars and such like wild fires As for Chrysocome the root of it is hot and yet astringent It is giuen to drinke for the diseases of the liuer and the lights And being sodden in honied water it assuageth the paines incident to the matrice It prouoketh womens monthly purgation and being giuen in drink raw it purgeth waterie humors gathered in the dropsie Touching Baulm which the Greeks call Melittis or Melissophyllon if Bee-hiues be rubbed all ouer and besmeared with the juice thereof the Bees will neuer away for there is not a floure whereof they be more desirous and faine than of it and in truth
which serue for good vse in Physicke But first as touching Anemone in generall some there bee who call it Phenion and two principal kinds there be of it The first groweth wild in the woods the second commeth in places wel tilled and in gardens but both the one and the other loue sandy grounds As for this later kind it is subdiuided into many speciall sorts for some haue a deepe red skarlet floure and indeed such are found in greatest plenty others bear a purple floure and there be again which are white The leaues of all these three be like vnto Parsly None of them ordinarily grow in height aboue halfe a foot and in the head of their stemme they shoot forth sprouts in manner of the tendrils of Asparagus The floure hath this property Neuer to open but when the wind doth blow wereupon it tooke the name Anemone in Greek But the wild Anemone is greater and taller the leaues also are larger and the floures are of a red colour Many writers being carried away with an error thinke this Anemone and Argemone to bee both one others confound it with that wild Poppy which we named Rhoeas but there is a great difference betweene them for that both these hearbes doe floure after Anemone neither doe the Anemonae yeeld the like juice from them as doth either Argemone or Rhoeas before-named they haue not also such cups and heads in the top but only a certaine musculositie at the ends and tips of their branches much like to the tender buds of Asparagus All the sorts of Anemone or Wind-floure bee good for the head-ach and inflammations thereof comfortable to the matrice of women and increaseth their milk Being taken inwardly in a Ptisane or barly gruell or applied outwardly as a cataplasme with wooll this hearb prouoketh their monthly tearms The root chewed in the mouth purgeth the head of fleame and cureth the infirmities of the teeth The same being sodden and laid to the eyes as a cataplasm represseth the vehement flux of waterie humours thither The Magicians and Wise men attribute much to these hearbes and tell many wonders of them namely That a man should gather the first that he seeth in any yeare and in gathering to say these words I gather thee for a remedie against tertian and quartan agues which done the partie must lap and bind fast in a red cloth the said floure and so keep it in a shady place and when need requireth to take the same and either hang it about the necke or tie it to the arme or some other place The root of that Anemone which beareth the red floure if it be bruised and laid vpon any liuing creature whatsoeuer raiseth ablisâ—… by that caustik and corrosiue vertue which it hath and therfore it is vsed to mundisie and 〈◊〉 filthie vleers CHAP. XXIIII ¶ The vertues of Oenanthe in Physicke OEnanthe is an hearb growing vpon rocky and stony grounds The leafe resembleth those of the Parsnep roots it hath many and those big The stemme and leaues of this herb if they be taken inwardly with honey and thicke sweet wine doe cause women in labor to haue easie deliuerance and withall doe clense them wel of the after-birth Eaten in an Electuarie or licked in a lohoch made with hony the said leauesdoe rid away the cough and prouoke vrine To conclude the root also is singular for the infirmities and diseases of the bladder CHAP. XXV ¶ The medicines made wich the hearbe Heliochryson HEliochryson which others name Chrysanthemon putteth forth little branches very faire and white the leaues are whitish too much like vnto Abrotomum From the tips and ends of which branches there hang down certaine buttons as it were like berries round in a circle which with the repercussion and reuerberation of the Sun-beames doe shine againe like resplendent gold These tufts or buttons doe neuer fade nor wither which is the cause that the chaplets wherewith they crowne and adorne the heads of the gods be made thereof a ceremonie that Ptolomaeus K. of Aegypt obserued most precisely This herbe groweth in rough places among bushes and shrubs If it be taken in wine it prouoketh vrine and womens fleures All hard tumors and inflammations it doth discusse and resolue without suppuration A liniment made with it honey is good to be applied to any place burnt or scalded It is giuen in drinke vsually for the sting of serpents for the paines and infirmities also of the loines If it be drunke in honyed wine it dissolueth and consumeth the cluttered bloud either in the belly and guts or the bladder The leaues taken to the weight of three Oboli in white wine do stay the immoderat flux of the whites in women This hearbe if it be laid in wardrobes keepeth apparel sweet for it is of a pleasant odour CHAP. XXVI ¶ The vertues and properties of the Hyacinth and Lychnis in Physicke THe Hyacinth loueth France very well and prospereth there exceedingly The French vse therewith to die their light reds or lustie-gallant for default of graine to color their scarlet The root is bulbous Onion-like well known to these slaue-coursers who buy them at best hand and after tricking trimming and pampering them vp for sale make gain of them for being reduced into a liniment they vse it with wine to annoint as well the share of youths as the chin and checks to keep them for euer being vnder-grown or hauing haire on their face that they may appeare young still and smooth It is a good defensatiue against the prick of venomous spiders and besides allaieth the griping torments of the belly It forciby prouoketh vrine The seed of this hearbe giuen with Abrotonum is a preseruatiue against the venome of serpents and scorpions it cureth the jaundise As touching Lychnis that fllaming hearbe surnamed Flammea the seed of it beaten to pouder and taken in wine is singular good against the sting of serpents scorpions hornets and such like The wild of this kind is hurtfull to the stomacke and yet it is laxatiue and purgeth downward Two drams thereof is a sufficient dose to purge choller for it worketh mightily Such an enemie it is to scorpions that if they doe but see it they are taken with a nummednesse that they cannot stir In Asia or Natolia they call the root of this hearbe Bolites which if it be laid vpon the eies and kept bound thereto taketh away the pin and the web as they say CHAP. XXVII ¶ The medicinable vertues of Pervincle Rusâ—…us Batis and Acinos ALso the Peruincle called by the Greeks Chamaedaphne if it be stamped drie into pouder and a spoonful thereof giuen in water to those that are full of the dropsie it doth euacuat most speedily the waâ—…y humors collected in their belly or otherwise the same root rosted in embres and well sprinkled and wet with wine discusseth and drieth vp all tumors being applied thereto The iuyce thereof dropped into the ears
forrein Nations who time out of mind haue been euer accustomed to annoint their bodies with the iuice of certain herbs for to imbellish and beautifie them as they thought And verily in some of these barbarous countries ye shall haue the women paint their faces some with this herbe and others with that yea and among the Dakes and Sarmatians in Transyluania Valachia Tartaria those parts the men also marke their bodies with certain characters But to goe no farther than into Gaule there groweth an herb there like vnto Plantain and they call it Glastum i. Woad with the iuyce whereof the women of Britain as wel the maried wiues as yong maidens their daughters anoint and dy their bodies all ouer resembling by that tincture the color of Moores and Ethyopians in which manner they vse at some solemne feasts and sacrifices to go all naked CHAP. II. ¶ That Clothes be died with certaine Herbs ANd now of late dayes we know there hath been taken vp a strange and wonderfull maner of dying and colouring clothes For to say nothing of the groin brought out of Galatia Africke and Portugal whereof is made the royall Skarlet reserued for princes only and great captains to weare in their rich mantles of estate and coats of armes behold the French inhabiting beyond the Alps haue inuented the means to counterfeit the Purple of Tyrus the Skarlet also and Violet in graine yea and to set all other colours that can bee deuised with the juice only of certain hearbs These men are wiser beleeue mee than their neighbours of other nations before them they hazard not themselues to sound and search into the bottome of the deepe sea for Burrets Purples and such shell-fishes These aduenture not their liues in strange coasts and blind baies where neuer ship hath rid at anker offering their bodies as a prey to feed the monstrous Whales of the sea while they seeke to beguile them of their food in fishing for the said Burrets all to feed that wherby as well vnchast dames of light behauiour might set out themselues and seeme more proper to allure and content adulterous ruffians as also those gallants again squaring and ruffling thus in their colours might court faire ladies and wedded wiues yea and with more case entrap and encompasse them to yeeld to their pleasure but these men stand safe vpon drie land and gather those hearbs for to die such colors as an honest minded person hath no cause to blame nor the world rason to crie out vpon Nay our braue minions and riotous wantons it might beseeme also to be furnished therewith if not altogether so glorious to the eye yet certainly with lesse offence and harm But no part it is of my desseigne and intent to discourse vpon these matters at this present neither will I stand on the thrift and good husbandry that may be seen in such a thing as this least I might seeme to colour any vanitie with a shew of commodity and frugalitie and to limit excesse and superfluitie within the tearms of profit and cheapnesse which indeed will not be gaged and brought within any compasse Besides I shall haue occasion hereafter in some other place to make mention both of dying stones and also of painting walls with herbs As for the art and mysterie of Diers if euer it had been counted any of the liberal Sciences beseeming a gentleman either to professe or practise I assure you I would not haue ouer passed it in silence And yet I promise you this feat grows to credit euery day more than other and the hauens abroad where those fishes be taken which furnish them with colors are mightily frequented and in greater name and request than euer they were In which regard I canot chuse but shew and declare what account we ought to make of these dumbe tinctures in that behalfe I meane such hearbs and simples whereof there is but base reckoning or none at all made for those great princes which were the first founders and establishers of the Roman Empire did mighty things therewith and emploied these herbs in the highest matters of state For in the affaires of greatest importance namely either in publick sacrifice for the auerting of some heauy judgement of the gods threatened or in expiation of any grieuous sinne and offence committed whether they performed diuine seruice to their gods or dispatched honourable embassages to other States they vsed their Sagmina and Verbenae by which two words verily was meant one and the same thing euen some plain and common grasse plucked vp with ceremoniall deuotion turfe and all from their castle hil or citadel of Rome And this at all times was obserued religiously that they neuer sent their heraulds to the enemies of the people of Rome for to clarigat that is to say to summone them with a lowd voice for to make restitution of that which they deteined of theirs without a turfe and tuft of the said grasse and euermore there accompanied these heraulds in their train one speciall officer who had the charge to carie and tender that hearbe who thereupon was called Verbenarius CHAP. III. ¶ Of grasse Chaplets NO Coronets verily were there euer at Rome better esteemed either to testifie the triumphant majestie of that victorious citie the soueraign lady of the whole world or to giue testimony of honour and reward for some notable seruice performed for the Common-weale than those which were made simply of green grasse The crownes of beaten gold and enriched with pearle the Vallare and Murall Chaplets bestowed vpon braue knights and valiant souldiers who either entred the fortified camp of the enemie ouer trench rampier or mounted the wals in the assault of a city came nothing neer to this the Nauall garlands giuen to admirals and generals at sea for obtaining victory in that kind of seruice the ciuick coronets also presented vnto such as had rescued a Romane citizen and saued his life came behind these and in one word the Chaplet triumphal which they ware who entred with triumph into Rome was nothing comparable to these And yet all these Guirlands abouenamed haue notable prerogatiues and differ one from another in many respects In a word those Coronets and Chaplets of honor all saue these made of grasse were giuen many times by some priuat and particular persons are by the captains and generals themselues vnto their soldiers yea and otherwhiles from one Generall to another when they were ioined together in equall commission in testimony of vertue and valour CHAP. IIII. ¶ The singularitie and rare examples of such Chaplets made of grasse NOw whereas other Garlands of honour and Coronets of triumph were alwaies either ordained by a decree from the Senat in time of peace and after the troubles of warre ouerblowne or granted by an act of the people being quiet and â—…epose when dangers were past this Chaplet of grasse aforesaid it was neuer any mans hap to haue but in some
as most times it falleth out that a feuer follow vpon such accidents then the patient must drinke it with water A speciall and effectuall property it hath against certain land-snakes called Chersydri and venomous todes if it be reduced into a liniment and so applied to the sore But Heraclides the Physitian is of opinion That if the said root be boiled in the broth of a goose it is of more efficacie than all other against the Toxica and Aconita But whereas others do boile it in sheere water against the poisons Toxica Appollodorus would haue a frog sodden withal The herb it selfe is of substance hard branching much full of leaues and those beset with pricks A stem or stalk it carieth parted by knots and joints a cubit high somwhat more Moreouer as there is white Erynge so you shal haue of it black The root is odoriferous Eryngion verily commeth vp ordinarily of seeds and by setting But it groweth also in rough and stony places of the own accord And that which we see along the sea shore is harder and blacker than the rest leaued also like common Ach or Persely CHAP. VIII ¶ Of the hearbe or thistle commonly called Centum-Capita i. the hundred heads AS for the white Erynge our countrymen call it in Latine Centum-capita But they be all of one and the same operation and effect And the Greeks verily make their ordinary meat as well of their stalks as roots both waies to wit either raw or boiled as they list Certes there be wonders reported of this herb namely That the root of this white Eryngion which is very geason and hard to be found resembleth one while the male sexe and otherwhiles the female of our kind But if it chance that a man do meet with that Eryngion which is like to that member which distinguisheth him from a woman he shall be very amiable and beloued of women Which was the reason men say that lady Sappho was so enamoured on the yong knight Phao of Lesbos And verily as touching this herb not only the Magitians but the disciples also and followers of Pythagoras tell vs many vain and foolish tales But to come indeed to the vse of it in Physick Ouer and besides those vertues and properties which I haue related already good it is to resolue ventosities it easeth the gripes and wrings in the belly it cureth the diseases and debility of the heart it helpeth the stomack and liuer For the midriffe and precordial parts it is very wholsome taken in honied water and for the spleen in vineger water together Also drunk in mead or honied water aforesaid it is singular for the kidneies the strangury the cramp or crick that pulleth the head of a body backward for other spasmes also and convulsions for the loines the dropsie and the falling sicknesse Soueraigne it is moreouer for womens monthly fleures whether they do stay vpon them or contrariwise run excessiuely from them and in one word it cureth all the accidents infirmities of the matrice Being applied as a liniment with hony it draweth forth any offensiue thing sticking within the body And if it be laid too with salt lard or hogs grease and so incorporat into a cerot it heales the kings euill the swelling kernels within the eares and the flat biles and botches It reioineth also the flesh that is gone from the bone finally soudereth and knitteth broken bones or fractures Taken before a man sit downe to eat or drink it preserueth him from surfet or drunkennesse and bindeth the belly Some of our Latine writers would haue it to be gathered a little before the summer-solstice saying moreouer That if it be applied with rain water it helpeth al the infirmities incident to the nape of the neck and by their report if it be bound to the eies it cureth the pin and the web CHAP. IX ¶ Of Acanus and Liquorice SOme there be who take Acanus for a kind of Eryngium And they describe it to be a low herbe and yet growing broad and large full of prickes and thornes and those likewise bigger than ordinary being applied outwardly wonderfull effectuall it is by their saying to stanch bloud Others there are who haue thought Erynge and Liquorice to be all one but they are deceiued Howbeit for some resemblance that is between them I think it not amisse to set down the description therof immediatly after these Erynges Doubtlesse this Liquorice also is to be counted among these thorny plants for that the leaues stand pricking vp sharp pointed the same are fatty and in handling gummy and glewie It putteth forth many branches and those two cubits high it carrieth a floure in manner of the Hyacinth and beareth fruit resembling bals of the bignesse of those which hang vpon the Plane tree The excellent Liquorice is that which groweth in Cilicia the next for goodnesse commeth from Pontus and hath a sweet root which only is vsed in Physick Taken vp this is and gathered at the setting or occultation of the Brood-hen star and is found running along in the ground in manner of the Vine root in colour like to the Box tree That which is duskish and somwhat black is thought to be the better like as the lithe pliable root which wil wind and turn euery way is preferred before that which is brittle and easie to break Great vse there is of it in those medicines which be held vnder the tongue so to resolue melt leasurely namely after it hath bin sodden to the thirds yea and otherwhiles boiled to the height and consistence of hony Somtimes they vse to bruse it and in that manner they do lay it vpon wounds where it doth much good as also if it be applied to all the diseases and accidents befalling to the throat and jawes The juice of Liquorice reduced to a thick consistence if it be put vnder the tongue is singular for to cleare the voice In like manner it is supposed very wholsome for the brest and liuer And therewith as I haue sayd before both thirst and hunger may be slaked and allaied Which is the cause that some haue called it Adipson and in that regard ministred it to those persons who be fallen into a dropsie for to preuent and take away their thirstinesse Therfore it is thought to be a proper remedy for the diseases of the mouth if it be either chewed or otherwise cast and strewed vpon the vlcers therein and so it cureth the excrescences also and exulcerations about the roots of the nailes Moreouer it healeth the excoriation sorenesse of the bladder assuageth the paine of the kidneies cureth the swelling aking piles the fissures also in the seat and finally the vlcers of the priuy parts Some Physitians haue prescribed to drink in a quartaine ague the weight of two drams of Liquorice one of Pepper in a draught of water to the quantity of a smal pint or hemina this root being
the belly than the other but the meale as wel of the one as the other doth heale the running sores scales of the head howbeit the wild better than the rest Moreouer these ciches are taken to be good for the falling sicknesse the swellings of the liuer and the sting of Serpents They procure womens termes and prouoke vrine and especially the grain it selfe rather than the leafe The same are singular for tettars and ring-worms for inflammations of the cods for the jaundise dropsie But all the sort of them be hurtfull to the bladder and kidnies especially if they be exulcerat For gangrenes and those morimall vlcers called Cacoethe they be better in case they bee tempered with honey Some there be who for to be ridde of all kinde of Warts take as many Cich-pease as there be warts and with euery one of them touch a wart and that vpon the first day after the change of the Moon which done they tie the foresaid Pease or Ciches in a little linnen â—…ag and fling them away backward behind them and they are persuaded that the warts will be gone by this means But our Latine Physitians are of opinion That the blacke ciches which be called Ram-ciches should be well and throughly sodden in water and salt of which decoction they prescribe vnto the patient for to drinke two cyaths in difficulty of making water for to expell the stone and rid away the jaundise Their leaues and stalks of straw being sodden in water ouer a good fire yeeld a decoction which beeing vsed as hot as may be suffered doth mollifie the callosities hardnesse growing about the feet so doth a liniment also made of the very substance it selfe stamped and applied hot The Columbine ciches sodden in water are thought to lessen and shorten the shaking fits in tertian and quartan agues The black cich-pease being beaten to pouder with halfe the quantity of gall-nuts and incorporat with sweet wine cuit called Passum and so applied cureth the vlcers of the eyes As touching Eruile somewhat I haue said already touching the properties thereof when I made mention of it among other kinds of pulse And indeed the old writers haue attributed as great power vertue vnto it as to the Colewort Being laid to with vineger it cureth the hurts that come by the sting of serpents or the teeth of man crocodile There be writers of approued authority who assirm for certain That if a man doe eat Eruile fasting euery day it will diminish and wast the swelling of the spleen The meale of Eruile as Varro reporteth taketh away the spots and moles of any part of the body And in truth this pulse is singular to represse corrosiue and eating vlcers but aboue all it is most effectuall in the sores of womens brests applied with wine it breaketh carbuncles Being torrified and incorporat with hony and reduced into an electuarie or bole and so taken as much as an hazell nut it amendeth the suppression or difficulty of voiding vrine dissolueth ventosities openeth obstructions and helpeth other accidents of the liuer the prouocations and proffers to the stoole without doing any thing reuiueth those parts that mislike and feele no benefit or nutriment of meat which they cal in Greek Atropha In like manner it cureth shingles ring-worms and tettars if it be first sodden in vineger so applied and not remoued vntil the fourth day If it be laid too with hony it keepeth biles from suppuration A fomentation made with the decoction thereof in water helps kibed heels the itch And it is generally thought That if a man drink it euery day next his heart vpon an empty stomack it will make the whole body looke with a better and more liuely colour Contrariwise the common opinion is That it is not good to be eaten ordinarily as meat for it moueth to vomit troubleth the belly lieth heauy vpon the stomack and fumeth vp into the head it breedeth ache and heauinesse in the knees But if it haue lien many daies in steepe after that imbibition of water it becommeth more mild and is a most wholsom prouender for horse and oxen The green cods of Eruile before they waxe hard if they be stamped with their stalkes and leaues together do colour and die the hairs of the head blacke As touching wild Lupines they be inferior to those which come of seed in all respects but only in biternesse And verily there is not a thing more commendable wholsome and light of digestion than white Lupines if they be eaten dry They are brought to be sweet and pleasant by hot ashes or scalding water Beeing eaten at meales vsually they make a fresh colour and chearfull countenance Bitter Lupines are very good against the sting of the Aspides Dry Lupins husked clensed from their skins applied to black mortified vlcers ful of dead flesh with a linnen cloth between reduce them to a liuely colour and to quick flesh again The same sodden in vineger discusse the kings euill and the swelling kernels impostumations behind the ears The broth or collature of them being sodden with Rue and Pepper may be giuen safely although it were in an ague to those that bee vnder thirty yeares of age for to expell the wormes in the belly As for young children who haue the wormes it is good to lay Lupines to their bellie whiles they be fasting All others are to take them torrified either by way of drink in a kind of wine cuit or els in electuary after the maner of a lohoch The same do giue an edge to the stomacke and quicken the appetite to meat The meale or pouder of Lupines wrought with vineger into a dough or paste and so reduced into a liniment and vsed in a bain or stouve represseth and keepeth down all wheales and itching pimples which are ready to breake forth and of it selfe is sufficient to drie vp vlcers It bringeth to the natiue and liuely colour al places blacke and blew with stripes Medled with Barly groats it assuageth all inflammations For the weaknesse of the huckle bone the haunch and loins the wilde Lupines are counted more effectual than the other A fomentation with the decoction of these wild Lupins maketh the skin more smooth and beautifull taking away all spots and freckles But if the same or garden Lupines be boiled to the height and consistence of hony they do clense the skin from black morphew and the leprosie These also if they be applied as a cataplasme do break carbuncles bring down or els ripen the swelling kernels named the kings euil and other biles and botches which of their nature be long ere they gather to head Boiled in vineger they reduce places cicatrized to their naturall colour and make them look faire white again But if they be throughly sodden in rain water of the collature that passeth from them there is made an abstersiue and scouring lie in manner of sope most excellent for to
reiect and reach vp bloud and for the Squinance Next after the wine verjuice Omphacium I cannot chuse but write of Oenanthe which is the floure that wild vines do beare whereof I haue already made mention in my discourse of ointments The best Oenanthe is that of Syria especially along the coasts and mountaines of Antiochia and Laodicea That which groweth vpon the white vine is refrigeratiue and astringent being powdered and strewed vpon wounds it doth very much good applied as a liniment to the stomack it is exceeding comfortable A proper medicine it is for the suppression of vrine the infirmities and diseases of the liuer the head-ache the bloudie flix the imbecility of the stomack and the loosenesse proceeding from it also for the violent motion of cholerick humours proceeding vpward and downeward The weight of one obolus thereof taken with vineger helpeth the loathing that the stomacke hath to meat and procureth appetite It drieth vp the running scales breaking out in the head and most effectuall it is to heale all vlcers in moist parts and therefore cureth sores in the mouth priuie members and the seat or fundament Taken with hony and saffron it knitteth the belly The scurfe and roughnesse of the eie-lids it doth clense and make them smooth it represseth rheume in waterie eies Giuen in wine to drink it comforteth and confirmeth feeble stomackes but in cold water it staies the casting and reaching vp of bloud The ashes thereof is much commended in collyries eie-salues also for to mundifie filthy and vlcerous sores to heale likewise whitflawes rising at the naile roots and either the going away of the flesh from them or the excrescence thereof remaining about them For to bring it into ashes it must be torrified in an Ouen and so continue vntill the bread be baked and readic for to bee drawne As for Massaris or the Oenanthe in Africke it is imploied onely about sweet odours and pomanders and both it as also other floures men haue brought into so great name by making haste to gather them before they could knit to any fruit so inuentiue is mans wit and so greedy to hunt after nouelties and strange deuises CHAP. I. ¶ The medicines which grapes fresh and new gathered do yeeld Of Vine branches and cuttings of grape kernels and the cake remaining after the presse Of the grape Theriace Of dried grapes or Raisins Of Astaphis of Staphis-acre otherwise called Pituitaria Of the wild vine Labrusca of the wild vine both white and blacke Of Musts or new wines Of sundry kinds of Wine and of Vineger OF Grapes that grow to their ripenesse and maturitie the blacke are more vehement in their operation than the white and therefore the wine made of them is nothing so pleasant for in very truth the white grapes be sweeter far by reason they are more transparent and cleare and therefore receiue the aire into them more easily Grapes new gathered do puffe vp the stomacke and fill it with winde they trouble also the belly which is the cause that men are forbidden to eat them in feuers especially in great quantity for they breed heauinesse in the head and induce the Patient to sleepe ouermuch vntill hee grow into a lethargie Lesse harme doe those grapes which after they be gathered hang a long time by which means they take the impression of wind and aire and so become wholsome to the stomacke and to any sicke person for they doe gently coole and bring the Patient to a stomacke againe Such grapes as haue bin condite and preserued in some sweet wine are offensiue to the head and fume vp into the brains Next in request to those aboue said which haue hanged a long time be such as haue bin kept in chaffe for as many as haue lien among wine-marc or the refuse of kernels skins remaining after the presse are hurtfull to the head the bladder and the stomacke howbeit they doe stop a laske and nothing is there better in the world for those that doe cast and reach vp bloud and yet those grapes that haue bin kept in must or new wine are much worse than such as haue lien in the marc afore said Moreouer wine cuit if they haue come into it maketh them hurtfull and offensiue to the stomack But if they must needs be preserued in some liquor the Physitians hold them most whol some which haue bin kept in rain water although they be least toothsome for they do the stomack a great pleasure in the hot distemperature thereof they be comfortable when the mouth is bitter by occasion of the regurgitation of choler from the liuer and the burse of the gal they giue great contentment also in bitter vomits in the violent and inordinat motion of cholerick humors raging vpward and downward as also in case of dropsie to those that lie sick of burning feuers As touching grapes preserued in earthen pots they refresh and season the mouth which was out of tast they open the stomack and stir vp the appetite to meat how beit this inconuenience they bring with them That they are thought to lie more heauy in the stomacke by reason of the breath and vapor which exhaleth from their kernels If hens capons cocks and such like pullen be serued among their meat with the floures of grapes so as they once tast and eat thereof they wil not afterwards peck or touch any grapes hanging by clusters vpon the vine The naked branches and bunches wherupon there were grapes haue an astrictiue vertue and indeed more effectual that way be such as come out of the pots abouesaid The kernels or stone within the grapes haue the same operation and in very truth these be they and nothing els whereby wine causeth head-ach Being torrified beaten to pouder and so taken they be good for the stomack Their pouder is vsually put into the pot in manner of barly groats for to thicken broth and suppings which are ordained for them who haue the bloudy flix who are troubled with a continual loosnesse following them by occasion of the imbecillity of the stomack and for such as are ready to keck and heaue at euery little thing Their decoction serueth very wel to foment those parts which are broken out and giuen to bleach and itch The stones themselues are lesse hurtful to the head or bladder than the little kernels within The same beeing driuen into pouder and applied with salt are good for inflammations of womens brests the decoction thereof whether it be taken inwardly or vsed by way of fomentation helpeth as well those who haue gone a long time with a dysentery or bloudy flix as them who through imbecility of stomack do scoure and purge downward continually The grape Theriace whereof we haue written in due place is good to be taken as a counterpoison against the sting of serpents it is a common receiued opinion that the burgeons and branches of that vine should likewise be taken inwardly as
boiled in oile the decoction also is vsually giuen in drink to those who be subiect to the falling euill likewise to such as be troubled in mind beside themselues to as many as are giuen to dizzines giddines of the brain and do ween that euery thing turnes round but they must take the poise of one dram euery day throughout the yeare The same root if it be taken in any great quantity purgeth the sences But the principall and most excellent vertue that it hath is this That if it be stamped with water and so applied it draweth forth spels of broken and shiuered bones as well and effectually as the verie true Bryonie which is the cause that some doe call it White Bryonie for there is another which is black and of greater efficacie to the same purpose if it be applied with hony Frankincense It is very good to resolue impostumes and biles which are in growing and not yet come to suppuration but if they haue continued and gather to an head it bringeth them soone to maturation and afterwards clenseth them It bringeth downe womens monthly sicknesse and prouoketh vrine An electuary or lohoch made therof to licke and suffered gently to melt vnder the tongue and go downe leisurely is singular good for such as bee short-winded and labour for breath also for pleurisies or pains of the side for convulsions and inward ruptures If one drink the weight of three oboli 30 daies together it will wast and consume the swelled splene The same serueth in a liniment to be applied with figs to the excrescences or risings of the flesh ouer the naile called Pterygia Being laid too as a cataplasm with wine it fetcheth away the after-birth in women and taken to the weight of a dram in honied water it purgeth flegmatick humors The juice of the root must be drawne before the fruit or seed be ripe this juice either alone or incorporat with Eruile meale if the body be annointed therewith doth illustrat the colour make the skin soft and tender and in one word it is such an embelishment that it maketh any person better for the sale where by the way note that it chaseth serpents away Moreouer the very substance of the root if it be stamped with fat figs doth lay the riuels and wrinckles of the skin plain and euen if it be rubbed or annointed therewith but then the party must walk immediatly vpon it a good quarter of a mile for otherwise it will fret and burne the skin vnlesse presently it be washed off with cold water Howbeit the black wild vine doth this feat more gently and with greater ease for surely the white setteth an itch vpon the skin There is therfore a black wild vine which properly they call Bryonia some Chironia others Cynecanthe or Apronia like in all respects to the former but only in the colour of the root grape or berry for it is black as I haue before said The tender sprouts sions that spring from the root Diocles preferred to be eaten in a sallad or otherwise before the very crops and tender shoots of the true garden Sperage and indeed they prouoke vrine and diminish the spleen far better it groweth commonly in hedges among bushes and shrubs and most of all in reed-plots The root without-forth is blacke but within of a pale yellow box colour and this is of much more efficacie to draw out broken bones than the aboue-named white Briony Moreouer this peculiar property it hath besides To cure the farcines or sores in horse necks and for this it is thought to be the only thing in the world Said commonly it is that if a man do set an hedge or hay thereof round about a grange or ferm house in the country there will no kites nor hawks nor any such rauening birds of prey come neere so as the pullen and other foul kept about the said ferme shall be secure from their claws or tallons If it be tied about the ankles of a man or the pasterns of laboring horses vnto which there is a fall either of Phlegmatick humors or of a bloud causing the gout in the one and the pains in the other it cureth the same Thus much concerning the sundrie sorts of Vines and their properties respectiue to Physicke As touching Musts or new wines the first and principall difference of them lieth in this that some by nature are white others blacke and others again of a mixt colour between them both Secondly some Musts there be whereof wine is made and others which serue only for cuit but if we regard the artificiall deuises and the carefull industry of man about them there be an infinit number of musts all distinct and different one from the other Thus much may suffice to deliuer fully in generall terms concerning musts or new wines As for their properties There is no must or new wine but it is hurtfull to the stomack though otherwise pleasant to the veines and passages Certes if a man poure downe new wine hastily without breathing or taking the wind between presently as he commeth out of the bain or hot-house hee doth enough to kill himselfe Howbeit of a contrary nature it is to the Cantharides saueth those that are in danger by drinking them A singular counterpoison is new wine in the lees against al serpents but principally the Haemorrhoids and the Salamanders It causeth head-ache and is an enemy to the throat and windpipes wholsome it is for the kidnies the liuer and the inward parts of the bladder for it easeth them all of pain But a singular vertue it hath against the venomous worm or flie Buprestis aboue the rest if one drink it with oile and cast it vp againe by vomit it is an excellent remedy for those who haue taken too much Opium it helpeth those who are in danger of crudled milk within the body such also as are poisoned with hemlock envenomed with the poison Toxica Dorycnium In sum white new wine is not so powerful in operation as others Likewise the Must wherof cuit is made is pleasanter than the rest causes lesse headach As touching the sundrie kinds of wine which are exceeding many as also the vertues and properties of euery seueral sort in manner by it selfe I haue sufficiently discoursed in a former Treatise Neither is there any point more difficult to be handled or that affourdeth greater variety of matter And a man canot readily say Whether wine be more hurtfull or wholsome for our bodies considering the doubtful euent and issue presently on the drinking therof for that somtime it is a remedy and a helpe otherwhiles it proueth to be a mischiefe and a very poison For mine owne part according to my first dessign and purpose I am to treat only of such things as Nature hath brought forth for the health and preseruation of man Wel I wote that Asclepiades hath made one entire volume expressely of the manner how to giue
soone loseth the heart and force if it be not kept in a place well enclosed by the said burning it commeth to be much more stronger in operation Sodden with figgs it yeeldeth an excellent decoction to reâ—â—â—s tettars shingles and such like wildfires to scoure away also scurfe and dandruffe in that soft either applied as a cataplasme or fomentation it cureth the leprie and running skals of the head Being taken in drinke especially raw it is a soueraign countrepoison for such as haue eaten venomous mushromes Boiled and washed it is mingled with collyries which serue for the eyes A liniment thereof cureth the accidents that befall to the cods and genetoirs Taken in wine it helpeth the strangury and giueth them ease who otherwise could not pisse but by drop-meale Les of wine after it hath lost the caustick operation and life that it had wil serue very wel for a good lie or water to clense the skin of our bodies and to wash or scoure clothes and then verily it hath the astrictiue power of Acacia and serueth for the same vse The dregs of vinegre must of necessitie be much more sharpe biting and vlceratiue than wine lees in regard of the matter whereof it commeth it driueth backe impostumes or biles and keepeth them from suppuration A liniment of it helpeth the stomack belly and entrails it staieth the flux of those parts and the ouerflow of womens months it discusseth pushes and small biles and squinances if they be taken betimes before they fester and impostumat and a cerot made with it and wax together is good against S. Anthonies fire The same drieth vp the milke in womens breast who would not be nources or bee troubled with ouermuch milke It taketh away with ease the ilfauoured rugged nails and giueth roum for new to come vp in their place Applied with grosse barley meale or groats it is singular and most effectuall against the venome of the horned serpents called in Greeke Cerastae and with Gith or Nigella Romana it is vsed for the biting both of crocodile and mad dog The burning also of these dregs quickeneth fortifieth the strength therof being thus burnt and incorporat with the oile of Lentiske it coloureth the haires of the head in one night red if they bee annointed withall The same lapped in a fine linnen cloth and put vp in forme of a pessarie cleanseth and mundifieth the secret parts of women To conclude with the grounds or lees of the cuit Sapa vinegre dregs are knowne to be very good for to heale burnes and the cure proceedeth better in case they be mixed with the furry cotton or downe of reeds the same being sodden and the decoction thereof taken as drinke cureth inueterat coughs Sast of all they vse to seeth or stew it betweene two platters with salt and grease wherwith they make a liniment or ointment to take down the swelling of the chaws and the nape of the necke CHAP. III. ¶ Of Oliuetrees of the leaues of Oliues their floures and their ashes Of the white and blacke Oliue berries and of the mother or lees of Oile-oliue NExt after the Vine there is not a tree bearing fruit of so great authority and account as the Oliue The oliue leaues are exceeding restringent good to cleanse good also to restraine or stop any flux being chewed and applied to vlcers they heale them and reduced with oile into a liniment they assuage the pain of the head A decoction of their leaues together with honey is singular to bath and foment the parts cauterized by the Chirurgian according to the direction of the learned Physician the same vsed by way of a collution cureth the inflammation of the gumbs whitflaws and excrescenses of ranke flesh in filthy vlcers with honey also it stauncheth the flux of bloud proceeding from any neruous parts The juice of oliue leaues is singular for the little vlcers in manner of carbuncles with a crust or roufe vpon them rising about the eies and all other small wheals or blisters as also in case the bal or apple of the eye be readie to start forth and therefore it is vsed in collyries or eye-salues for it healeth weeping eies that haue run with water a long time and the excoriations or frettings of the eie-lids Now this juice is drawn out of the leaues first stamped and then well sprinckled and wet with wine rain water so pressed forth which being afterwards dried is reduced into trochiskes The same rolled in wooll or bombast to the forme of a pessarie and so put vp into the naturall parts of women staies the immoderat flux of their fleurs Good it is also for those who rid corrupt bloud by the inferiour parts Moreouer it easeth the swelling piles or bigs sticking out in the fundament killeth the cholerique exulcerations called S. Anthonies fire healeth corrosiue and eating sores and allaieth the paine of night-foes or childblanes called by the Greeks Epinyctides The same effects haue their floures The tendrons or young twigs of Oliues being in floure if they be burnt yeeld a kind of ashes that may serue as a succedan in stead of Spodium but the same must be burnt a second time after they haue beene well drenched and soked with wine These ashes applied as a liniment or the very leaues only stamped and tempred with honey are good for impostumes growne to suppuration and for the pushes or biles named Pani but if they be mixed with grosse barly meal or groats they are in a liniment comfortable to the eyes Take the green branches of an Oliue and burne them there will destill and drop from the wood a certaine juice or liquor which healeth ringwormes tettars and shingles scoureth away the skales of the skin and dandruffe and cureth the running skalls of the head Touching the gum that issueth from the oliue tree it self and namely that wild oliue which is called Aethiopica I cannot wonder enough at some who giue counsell therwith to annoint the teeth which ake considering that they themselues giue out That it is a poison and to be found as wel in wild oliues as others The rind or bark pared from the root of a most tender and yong oliue reduced into an electuary and often licked and let downe by leisure into the throat after the manner of a lohoch cureth those who reach vp bloud and cough out filthy and rotten matter The ashes of the very oliue it self mixed with swines grease cure all tumors draw forth corruption of fistulous vlcers and when they are thus mundified heale them vp cleane White oliues agree very well with the stomack but they are not so good for the belly A singular commoditie they yeeld before they be put vp in their compost or pickle for to be eaten greene by themselues as meat for they scoure away grauel with vrine good they are for the teeth whether they be worne rotten worme eaten or loose in the head Contrariwise
rind thereof incorporat with wax and rosin healeth all maner of scales within â—…o daies The same boiled and applied accordingly cureth the accidents befalling to the cods and genetoirs The very perfume thereof coloreth the haire of the head black and the suffumigation fetcheth downe the dead infant out of the mothers belly It is giuen inwardly in drinke for the infirmitie of the kidnies bladder precordial parts how beit an enemy it is vnto the head and sinews A decoction or bathe thereof if a woman sit in it staieth the immoderat fluxe both of Matrice and belly Likewise the ashes taken in white wine are singular for the pains and torments of the collick as also a collution therewith is as effectuall to cure the fal of the Vvula and other defects incident to that part CHAP. VI. ¶ The medicin able vertues considered in the floures leaues fruit boughes branches bark wood iuice root and ashes of many trees of seuerall kinds IT remaineth now to decipher the manifold medicines which apples such like fruits tender skinned do affoord according to the variety of trees which bring them forth Of which thus much in generall is to be noted That all fruits which ripen in the Spring while they be soure and harsh be enemies to the stomack they trouble the belly disquiet the guts and bladder and withall be offen siue to the sinews but if they be ful ripe or sodden they are the better But to grow vnto particulars Quinces if they be boiled baked or rosted are sweeter and more pleasant to the tast than raw Yet being throughly ripe vpon the tree although they be eaten raw they are good for those that spit and reach bloud and are diseased with the bloudy flix such also as vpon the violent motion of vnbridled cholerick humors void vpward and downward as also for them who be subiect to continual loosnesse of the belly occasioned by the feeblenes of the stomack Being once boiled or baked they are not of the same operation for they lose therby that astringent vertue which their iuice had In hot and sharp feuers they serue for to be applied to the brest And yet if they be sodden in rain water they will do well in those cases aboue recited but for the pain of the stomack it matters not whether they be raw sodden or baked so they be reduced into the form of a cerot laid too Their down or mossinesse which they beare if it be boiled in wine and reduced into a liniment with wax healeth carbuncles And the same maketh the haire to grow again in bald places occasioned by some disease Raw Quinces condited and preserued in hony do stir the belly moue to siege They impart vnto the hony a pleasant tast whereby it is more familiar and agreeable to the stomack But such as being parboiled before are then kept and confited in honey be thought good for the stomacke in the opinion of some who ordaine and prescribe to stamp them first and then to take them in manner of a meat or consâ—…ue beeing incorporaâ—… with Rose leaues boyled for the infirmities of the Stomacke The juice of raw Quinces is a soueraigne remedy for the swoln spleen the dropsie and difficulty of taking breath when the patient cannot draw his wind but vpright The same is good for the accidents of the breasts or paps for the piles and swelling veines The floure or blossom of the Quince as well green and fresh gathered as drie is held to be good for the inflammation of the eies the reaching and spitting of bloud and the immoderat flux of womens monthly terms There is a mild juice drawn also from these floures stamped with sweet wine which is singular for the flux proceeding from the stomack and for the infirmities of the liuer Moreouer the decoction of them is excellent to soment either the matrice when it beareth down out of the body or the gut Longaon in case it hang forth Of Quinces also there is made a soueraigne oile which is commonly called Melinum but such Quinces must not grow in any moist tract but come from a sound and dry ground which is the reason that the best Quinces for this purpose be those that are brought out of Sicily The smaller Pear Quinces called Struthia are not so good although they be of the race of Pome Quinces The root of the Quince tree tied fast vnto the Scrophules or Kings-euill cureth the said disease but this ceremony must be first obserued That in the taking vp of the said root there be a circle made round about it vpon the earth with the left hand and the party who gathereth it is to say What root he is about to gather and to name the Patient for whom he gathereth it and then as I said it doth the deed surely The Pome-Paradise or hony Apples called Melimela and other fruits of like sweetnesse do open the stomacke and loosen the belly they set the body in a heat and cause thirstinesse but offensiue they be not to the sinews The round Apples bind the belly stay vomits and prouoke vrine Wildings or Crabs are like in operation to the fruits that be eaten soure in the Spring and they procure costiuenesse And verily for this purpose serue all fruits that be vnripe As touching Citrons either their substance or their graines and seed within taken in wine are a counterpoison A collution made either with the water of their decoction or their juice pressed from them is singular to wash the mouth for a sweet breath Physitians giue counsell to women with child for to eat the seed of Citrons namely when their stomackes stand to coles chalk and such like stuffe but for the infirmity of the stomack they prescribe to take Citrons in substance howbeit hardly are they to be chewed but with vineger As for Pomgranats needlesse altogether it were now to iterate and rehearse the nine kinds thereof Sweet Pomgranats all the sort of them which by another name we called Apyrena are counted hurtfull to the stomack they ingender ventosities and be offensiue to the teeth and gums But such as in pleasant tast are next vnto them which we called Vinosa hauing smal kernels within are taken and found by experience to be somwhat more wholsom they do stay the belly comfort and fortifie the stomack so they be eaten moderatly and neuer to satisfie the appetite to the full yet some there be who forbid sick persons once to tast of these last named yea and in no hand wil allow any Pomgranats at all to be eaten in a feuer forasmuch as neither their juice and liquor nor the carnous pulp of their grains is good for the patient In like maner they giue a charge and caueat not to vse them in vomits nor in the rising of choler Certes Nature hath shewed her admirable worke in this fruit for at the very first opening of the rind she presently maketh shew of
a perfect wine without appearance of any grape at all nor so much as of Must which ordinarily is the rudiment of wine All Pomgranats as wel sweet as tart are clad with a very hard coat rough rind And verily the coat which the sour kind hath is much vsed and in great request and namely the Curriers know full well how to dresse their skins therwith and this is the cause that the Physitians name it in Latine Malicorium And they would bear vs in hand That the same doth prouoke vrine as also that the decoction therof in vineger with gal-nuts among doth confirm and keep the teeth fast which do shake and are loose in the head Women with child and giuen to longing after a strange and vnreasonable manner finde much good and contentment hereby for no sooner tast they of it but the childe doth stir and sprunt in their wombe The Pomgranat diuided into quarters or parcels and laid to steepe and infuse in raine water for three daies or thereabout yeeldeth a good and wholsome drinke for them to take actually cold who are troubled with loosenesse of the body occasioned by a flux from the stomacke and with casting and reaching vp bloud Of the tart and soure Pomgranat there is a singular composition which the Greeks call Stomatice for that it is a most soueraigne medidine for the infirmities incident to the mouth and yet it is as wholsom for the accidents of the nosthrils and ears as also for the dimnesse of the eies for the trouble some ouergrowing turning vp of the skin and flesh about the roots of the nailes for the genitoirs or priuie members for corrosiue vlcers which they cal Nomae and for the proud flesh and all excrescences in sores Against the poison or venom of the sea-hare there is an excellent composition made with Pom granats in this manner take the grains or kernels of Pomgranates being despoiled and turned out of their outward rind or skin stampe them well and presse out their iuice and liquor from them seeth the same vntil a third part be consumed together with Safron Roch-allom Myrth and the best Attick hony of each halfe a pound Others do compound and prepare a medicine after another sort in this wise they take and pun many soure Pomgranats and draw out of them a juice which they seeth in a new cauldron or pot of brasse neuer vsed before to the thicknesse of honey this they vse in all infirmities of the fundament and priuy parts for al griefs and maladies which be cured with the medicinable juice Lycium with this they clense ears that run with filthy matter restraine all violent fluxes of humors newly begun and especially taking a course to the eies and rid away the red pimples and spots that arise in any part of the body Whosoeuer carieth in his hand a branch of the Pomgranat tree shall soone chase away any serpents The pill or rind of a soure Pomgranate boiled in wine and so applied cureth kibes A Pomgranat stamped and then sodden in three Hemines of wine vntill one remain is a singular remedy for the torments of the Collick and driueth wormes out of the belly A Pomgranate torrified in an ouen within a new earthen vessell neuer occupied before well stopped and couered with a lid and so being calcined and drunk in wine staieth the flux of the belly and assuageth the wrings in the guts The first knitting of this fruit when the tree begins to floure is called by the Greeks Cytinus Of which there be obserued strange properties approued by the experience of many men for if any person man or woman vnbraced vnlaced vnpointed and vnbuttoned with girdle loose hose vngartered shooes vnbuckled and hauing not so much as a ring about any singer come and gather one of these tender bnds or knots with 2 fingers only to wit the thumb and the fourth ring-finger of the left hand and after this ceremony performed proceed forward to another namely to touch lightly with the same bud the compas of the eies round about as if the priest should sacre or hallow them and withal when this is don coueigh the same into the mouth and swallow it down whole so as a tooth touch it not there goeth an opinion That he or she for certain shal feele no impediment or infirmity of the eyes that year throughout The same knots or yong Pomgranats if they be dried and beaten to pouder are very good to keepe downe all excrescences of ranke flesh and be wholesome for the gummes and teeth moreouer the very juice drawn out of them after they be sodden do fasten the teeth in the head although they were loose and ready to fall out before The very yong Pomgranats themselues alone newly knit and making shew vpon the tree if they be stamped to the form of a liniment are singular for any corrosiue vlcers such as tend to putrifaction Likewise they be excellent good in that sort prepared and applied for the inflammation of the eies of the entrailes and in manner for all those occasions wherein the outward rinds and pils do serue And here before that I proceed any farther I canot sufficiently admire and wonder at the careful industry and diligence of our antients before time which they imploied in the consideration of Natures workes searching as they did into euery secret and left nothing behind them vnassaied and vntried in somuch as they took regard of those little pretty floures appearing vpon these knots or buds before said such I meane as break forth and spring before the Pomgranat it selfe is formed and maketh any appearance which smal blossoms as I said before are called Balaustia For euen these as little as they be our ancestors haue found by their experiments to be aduerse vnto scorpions And true it is that being taken in drinke they do restraine the extraordinary flux of womens fleurs they heale the cankers and sores in the mouth the diseases of the Tonsils or Amygdales and of the Vvula they do helpe the spitting and reaching vp of bloud they cure the feeblenesse both of belly and stomack with the fluxes thereupon insuing they are singular besides for the grieuances of the priuy members and for all running vlcers spreading in any part of the body whatsoeuer Moreouer they made proofe of the said floures dried and this high magistery they found That being beaten to pouder they cured those of the bloudie flix who lay at the very point of death on that disease as also that there was not a better thing in the world to stay any lask or flux of the belly Nay they staid not here so inuentiue were our forefathers nor thought much to make trial of the very kernels or stones within their grains to see if they could meet with any goodnesse therein for to deliuer vnto posterity and the age following And in good faith they found That euen those as contemptible
of Roses or with Nard it is good to be infused or dropped into ears that run with matter the very persume alone or smell thereof is good to raise them who are taken with the epilepsie or falling sicknesse also to recouer women lying as it were in a trance or dead vpon a fit of the mother to bring them again who are gon in a swoune If a woman fall to trauell before her time it is good to fetch out that vntimely fruit of hers if it be loth to come away either by way of cataplasme or suffumigation The same effect it hath if the branches or small roots of Ellel oâ—…e be well annointed therewith and so put vp as a pessary The smoke of it frying in the fire as I said before driueth serpents away and more than so serpents will not come neere to them that are besmeared with Galbanum And say that one be strucken with a scorpion a plaster of Galbanum will heale the wound If a woman haue bin long in labor of childbirth and cannot be deliuered let her drinke in one cyath of wine as much Galbanum as the quantity of a Bean she shal fall to her busines and be deliuered anon The same is a good medicine to reduce the mother into the right place if it be vnsetled or turned If Galbanum be taken in wine with Myrrhe it sendeth out the dead infant in the mothers womb Also with Myrrh and wine it is good against all poisons and especially those which be called Toxica Incorporat Galbanum with oile and Spondylium together it will kill any serpents if they be but touched therewith Howbeit there is an opinion of Galbanum that in difficulty of vrine it is not good to be vsed CHAP. VI. ¶ Of Gum Ammoniack of Storax Spondylium Spagnos Terebinth Chamaepitys of Pituysa of Rosius of the Pitch tree and the Lentiske SInce we are fallen into the mention of Gums it will not be amisse to treat of Ammoniack being as it is so like in nature as I haue said to Galbanum for it hath vertue to mollifie to heat discusse and dissolue Vsed in collyries it is a proper medicine to clarifie the eiesight and serueth wel to take away the itch the spots or cicatrices the pin and web also of the eies It allaieth the tooth-ach but more effectually if it be set a burning the sume receiued into the mouth Taken in drink it helpeth those who hardly fetch and deliuer their winde It cureth the pleurisie Peripnewmony or inflammation of the lungs the infirmities of the bladder pissing of bloud the swelled spleen and the Sciatica And in that manner it easeth the belly and maketh it soluble Boiled with the like weight of pitch or wax and oile rosat together and so reduced into an ointment it is good for all gouts and especially that which lieth in the feet It ripeneth the biles called Pani if it be applied to them with honey and fetcheth away any corns by the roots In which sort it doth soften any hardnesse Incorporat with vineger and Cyprian wax or els with oile osat it maketh an excellent plaster for to mollifie the hard spleen Moreouer if it be reduced into an ointment with vineger oile a little sal-nitre it is singular to annoint those that haue a lassitude or wearinesse vpon them Touching Storax and the nature thereof I haue said enough in my Treatise of strange and forrame trees But ouer and aboue the qualities or properties before required I take that for the best Storax which is fattest pure and cleane and whereof the pieces or fragments do break white This drug cureth the cough the sorenesse of the throat and the accidents of the brest it openeth the obstructions of the matrice mollifieth the hardnes therof Whether it be taken inwardly in drinke or outwardly applied it prouoketh womens fleurs moueth to the siege I reade in some authors that if one drink Storax Calamita in small quantity it will procure gladnesse and mirth of heart but if it be taken in greater quantity it breedeth heauinesse of the mind Instilled or poured into the eares it riddeth away all the singing therin and in a liniment it resolueth the wens called the Kings euill and the nodosities of the sinews Soueraign it is against those poisons which burt by meanes of their coldnesse and therefore it is good for them that haue drunk the juice of Hemlock Likewise of Spondylium a kind of wild Parsnep or Madnep I haue spoken thereof heretofore together with Storax An embrochotion made of it to be infused vpon the head is excellent for such as be in a frensie or lethargy also to cure the inueterat pains of the head Taken in drink with old oile it helpeth the infirmities of the liuer the jaundise the falling sicknesse the straitnesse of breath whereby one cannot take his winde but sitting vpright and the rising or suffocation of the mother in which cases a suffumigation thereof is good This Spondylium is effectual to mollifie the belly and make the body soluble Reduced into a liniment with rue it serueth fitly to be applied vnto vlcers that spread and eat as they go The juice of the floures is of great effect if it be poured into the ears that run with filthy matter but when this juice is a pressing or drawing forth it had need to be kept well couered for feare of flies and such like which are very greedy thereof and loue a-life to settle vpon it The root of Spondylium or a piece therof scraped if it be put in maner of a tent into a fistula eateth away all the hardnes and callositie thereof Being dropped into the ears together with the juice it is exceeding good for them The root giuen alone in substance cureth the jaundise the infirmities of the liuer matrice If the head be all ouer annointed therewith the haire will curle and frizle Concerning the sweet Mosse called of the Greeks Sphagnos Sphacos or Bryon growing as I haue shewed before in France it is good for the naturall parts of women to sit ouer the decoction of it in manner of a bath likewise if it be mingled with cresses and so stamped together in salt water it serueth well to be applied as a cataplasme to the knees and thighs for any tumors or swellings in those parts Taken in wine with dry per-rosin it causeth one most speedily to make water Stamped with Iuniper and drunk with wine it doth euacuat the aquosities in the dropsie The leaues and the root of the Terebinth tree applied in form of a cataplasme are good for the collection of humors to an impostumation A decoction made with them doth comfort and fortifie the stomack In case of head-ache of stopping and difficultie of vrine it is passing good to drink the seed or grains of the Terebinth tree in wine The same gently easeth and softeneth the belly it prouoketh also carnal lust The leaues of the
Silphium be mingled withal tempered with hony it cureth and healeth all running vlcers and in that maner prepared it is excellent for the roughnes of a furred tongue for places bruised looking black blew or otherwise raw where the skin is rased pilled off Nothing so soon healeth any wounds in the head and bringeth them so quickly to cicatrice And taken inwardly with other meats it stoppeth the immoderat flux of womens fleurs As touching Madder which some Greeks call Erythrodanus others Ereuthodanus and wee in Latine Rubia it is an herb different from Rhus Erythros aboue named Diers vse it much to colour their wooll woollen cloth so do curriers about their skins and leather In Physicke it serueth to prouoke vrine it cureth the jaundise if it be taken in mead or honied water and reduced into a liniment with vineger it healeth the il-fauored tettars called Lichenes Ouer besides it is good for the Sciatica and the palsie in case the patient who drinks therof do likewise bath euery day The root and seed both of Madder draw down womens months stop the laske and discusse or resolue any impostumations breeding The branches and leaues therof reduced into a cataplasme and laid too are good for the sting of serpents The leaues also haue a speciall property to colour the haire of the head I reade in some writers that if this herb be tied about the neck or some other part of the body and the patient do no more but look thereupon it is sufficient to cure the jaundise The herb Alysson differeth from this Madder in regard of the leaues and branches onely which be lesse It took that name Alysson because those that be bitten with a mad dog if they drink it with vineger or weare it tied fast about them shall not likewise run mad But it is verie strange which is said moreouer of this herb namely That the very sight thereof is enought to dry vp and consume that venomous matter or humour infused by the tooth of the said dog and which is the cause of madnesse As for the Fullersweed which the Latines cal Radicula and the Greeks Struthion as I haue beforesaid it serueth to scoure and prepare wooll and woollen cloth for the diers hand In Physick the broth or decoction thereof drunk cureth the jaundise and the infirmities or diseases of the brest It prouoketh vrine looseth the belly and cleanseth the matrice which is the cause that Physitians call it Aureum poculum i. the golden cup or golden drinke The same taken with honey in manner of an electuary to the quantity of one spoonefull at a time is of singular operation for the cough and shortnesse of breath when the patient cannot draw and deliuer his wind but sitting vpright Reduced into a liniment with parched barly groats and vineger it cureth and clenseth the foule leprosie Drunke with Panaces and Caper rootes it breaketh the stone and expelleth it out of the body Sodden with Barly meal in wine and brought to a pultesse it dispatcheth risings in the flesh or broad flat biles called Pani It is vsualy put into emolitiue cataplasmes yea and into collyries ordained for to cleare the eiesight I know few things so good to prouoke sneezing as this Radicula neither is there a better herb for the spleene and the liuer The same also if it be drunk to the weight of a Roman denier or dram in mead or honied water helpeth those that be short-winded So doth the seed therof taken with water cure the pleurisie and any stitches or pain in the sides To come now to Apocynon a shrub it is bearing leaues like vnto Ivy but that they be softer and the shoots or tendrils therof not so long the seed is sharp pointed clift or diuided full of a soft down of a strong or vnpleasant sauor Being giuen either to dogs or any other four-footed beasts in meat it is their bane and killeth them Moreouer there is the Rosemary wherof be two kinds the one is barren and bears no seed the other which riseth vp also in a stem or main stalk carieth seed or a rosinous gummy fruit called Cachrys The leaues in smel resemble Frankincense The root fresh and new gathered reduced into a salue healeth green wounds applied to the seat it reduceth the fundament when it is fallen into the right place resolueth the swelling piles and cureth the running hemorrhoids The juice both of the branches and herb it self as also of the root is singular for to scour the jaundise and al things els which haue need of clensing and mundification it cleareth and quickneth the eiesight The seed is giuen to drinke with great successe for all old accidents of the brest but with wine and pepper it is good for the matrice helpeth to send down womens monthly terms Made into a cataplasm with cocle floure it is applied with good effect vnto the gout It clenseth and scour eth away morphew it serueth wel to bring any part ot heat that hath need of chaufing yea to procure sweat if the case require so the place be anointed therwith also it helpeth any convulsion or cramp Drunk in wine it increaseth milk so doth the root likewise the very substance of the herb reduced into a liniment cureth the wens called the kings euil if it be applied vnto them with vineger and taken with hony it is good for the cough As for Cachrys there be many kinds of it as I haue shewed before But this Cachrys of the Rosemary abouesaid if it bee rubbed yeeldeth a substance or liquor of rosin Contrary it is to poisons stings of all venomous beasts but only of Snakes It moueth sweat dispatcheth the wringing torments of the belly and causeth nurces to haue plenty of milk Sauine the herb called by the Greeks Brathy is of two sorts the one in leafe resembleth the Tamarisk the other the Cypresse tree whereupon some haue giuen it the name of Candy Cypresse Many vse it in suffumigations perfumes for Frankincense But in medicines we Physitians take the double weight of it instead of Cinnamon it is thought to haue the same operations and effects It driues back keepeth down all swelling impostumes it represseth also those vlcers which be corrosiue and cankerous brought into a salue it mundifieth filthy sores Applied outwardly it drawes dead infants out of the body no lesse it worketh being but receiued by way of perfume Made into a liniment it healeth S. Anthonies fire and carbuncles Drunk with hony and wine it cureth the jaundise It is said that the very fume or smoke of this herb wil rid hens and such like pullen of the pip Much like vnto this herb Sauine is that which they cal Selago Many ceremonies are to be obserued in the gathering of this herb first and formost the party who is to gather it must bee apparelled all in white as it were in a surplice go barefoot he must
and haue his feet washed in faire water before he commeth to gather it he ought to do sacrifice vnto the gods with bread and wine moreouer no knise or yron toole is to be vsed hereabout neither will any hand serue but the right and that also must do the deed not bare and naked but by some skirt or lappet of his coat between which was done off with the left hand and so closely besides as if he came to steal it away secretly last of all when it is gathered wrapped it must be and caried in a new linnen napkin or towell The Druidae of France haue agreat opinion of this herbe thus gathered and haue prescribed it to be kept as the only preseruatiue against all hurtfull accidents misfortunes what soeuer saying that the fume thereof is singular good for all the infirmites diseases of the eies The Druidae or Prelats of France aboue named make great account of another herb growing in moist grounds which they name Samolus and forsooth if you did well you should gather it fasting with the left hand in any wise in the gathering not look back howsoeuer you do Moreouer when it is thus gathered it ought not to be laid down out of the hand in any place but in the troughs cisterns or channels where swine kine or oxen vse ordinarily to drink where it must be likewise stamped and then without faile the foresaid cattell shal be warished and secured from all diseases As concerning gums I haue heretofore declared how many kinds thereof are to be sound To speak of them in generall The better that any gum is the more effectuall be the operations thereof hurtfull they are to the teeth they haue a property to thicken or coagulat bloud and therefore be good for those who cast and reach vp bloud likewise they be singular for burns as also for the wind pipe and instruments of respiration The superfluous and corrupt vrine within the body they prouoke and giue passage vnto They dul diminish the bitternesse of other medicines wherin they be mingled how soeuer otherwise they be astringent do fortifie other qualities That which commeth from the bitter almonds and is of a stronger operation to thicken and incrassat hath vertue also to heat the body The best gums be those of Plum-trees chery trees and vines they haue all of them a drying and astringent quality if any part be annointed with them and dissolued in vineger they kill the tettars or ringwormes in children heale them vp Being drunk to the weight of foure oboli in new wine they be good for any inueterat cough Moreouer they be thought to make the colour more fresh liuely pleasant to procure and stir vp the appetite to meat also to help those who be pained with the stone in case they be drunk in sweet wine cuit And to conclude with some particularity The gum of the Egyptian thorne is soueraigne for wounds and all accidents of the eies CHAP. XII ¶ Of the Arabian Thorne of the white Thistle Bedegnar of Acanthium and Acacia TOuching the Arabian Thorne or Bush and the commendable qualities therof I haue sufficiently spoken in the treatise of perfumes and odoriferous confections yet thus much moreouer I haue to say of the medicinable vertues that it doth thicken and incrassat thin and rheumatick humors it restraineth all catarrhes and distillations it represseth the reaching vp bloud staieth the immoderat flux of womens monthly terms for which purposes the root is more effectuall than any other part of the plant The seed of the white Thistle is singular for the sting of scorpions a garland made of it and set vpon the head assuageth the paine thereof Much like vnto this is that Thistle which the Greeks call Acanthion but that the leaues be much smaller and those are sharpe pointed and prickly all about the edges and couered with a downe resembling a cobweb which the people of the East countries do gather and therof make certain cloth for garments resembling silke The leaues or roots drunk in substance are supposed to be a singular remedy for the crampe or convulsion which draweth the neck and body backward Moreouer there is a kind of Thorne whereof commeth Acacia and it is the juice thereof It is found in Egypt to issue from certain trees which be white black and green howbeit the best Acacia by far is that which the former that is to say the white and the black do yeeld There is made likewise a kinde of Acacia in Galatia which is most soft and tender and the tree that affoordeth it is more pricky and thorny than the rest The seed or fruit of all these trees is like vnto Lentils but only that the grain is lesse and the cod or huske wherein it lieth smaller The right season to gather this fruit is in Autumn for if it be taken before it is too too strong For to draw this juice which we cal Acacia the cods wherin the grains lie ought to be throughly steeped first in rain water soone after when they be punned or stamped in a mortar the sayd juice is pressed forth with certaine instruments seruing for the purpose which done they let it remaine within mortars in the sun and there take the thickening and so at length reduce it into certain trochisks and reserue them for vse There is a iuice likewise drawne out of the leaues but the same is not so effectual as the other The curriours vse to dresse their skins with the seed or grains therof in lieu of Galls The juice which the leaues of the Galatian thorne aboue said doth yeeld and namely the blackest is reiected for naught like as that also which is of a deepe red colour Contrariwise that which is either purple or ash-colored and russet to see too as also that which will be soone dissolued is of exceeding efficacy to thicken and coole withall and is preferred before all other in colyries or eie-salues now for these vses some are wont to wash the trosches aforesaid others torrifie and burn them They are good to colour the haire of the head black they heale S. Anthonies fire and corrosiue sores yea and all grieuances of the body that consist in moisture they cure any impostumes joints that are bruised kibed heels and the turning vp of the skin and flesh from the naile roots They represse the exceeding flux of womens monthly fleurs the matrice and tiwell if they be slipt and faln out of the body they reduce into their place again In sum for the eies for the sores and infirmities of the mouth and naturall parts seruing for generation they be soueraigne CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the common Thorne of the wilde or wood Thorne of Erysisceptrum of Spina Appendix of Pyxacanthus and Paliurus of Hulver or Holly of Yeugh and Brambles with the medicinable vertues of them all THe common Thorn also wherewith the Fullers vse to fill
midst of the palm of that hand which gaue the stroke the party immediatly that was smitten shall be eased from pain and take no harm thereby And verily we find this to be so by experiments oftentimes made vpon the bodies of fourfooted beasts for let them be swaied in the back or hipped by some stripe giuen them with stone or cudgel do no more then but spit into that hand which did the deed streightwaies they will goe vpright again vpon all foure Contrariwise some there be who before they either strike or discharge any thing from them against another after the same manner first spit into the bal of their hands and so they make account to do a greater displeasure to hurt more dangerously But this we may assure our selues that there is not a better thing in the world for to kil tettars ringworms the foule leprie than to rub and wet them continually with our owne fasting spittle likewise to annoint therewith euery morning our eies keepeth them from being bleared also cankerous sores are cured with the root of Sowbread which we call the earth-apple if the same be wrought into a salue with our fasting spittle Moreouer if a man haue a cricke and ach in the nape of his neck let him take the spittle of a man that is fasting some in his right hand and there with anoint the ham of his right leg and the rest with his left and do the like to the left leg and thereupon hee shall find ease If an earwig or such like vermin be gotten into the eare make no more ado but spit into the same and it will come forth anon Among countercharms preseruatiues against sorcerie these be reckoned namely that a man spit vpon his own vrine as soon as he hath deliuered it out of his body likewise to spit into the shooe that serueth his right foot before he put it on in a morning also whensoeuer he goeth ouer or passe by a place where sometime he was in danger to remember that he spit vpon it Marcion of Smyrna who wrote a Treatise of the vertues and effects of simples reporteth that the Scolopendres of the sea will burst in sunder if one spit vpon them and so will hedge toads and other venomous frogs Ophilius writeth that spittle wil do the like by serpents if one spit into their mouths as they gape As for the learned Salpe shee saith that if one perceiue any member or part of the body be asleep and benummed there is not a better thing to recouer the sence thereof than to spit into the bosome or to touch the vpper eielids with fasting spittle Now if we beleeue these things to be true we may as well giue credit to all that which followeth Wee see it is an ordinary thing that if a stranger come in place where a babe lieth in the cradle or look vpon the said infant whiles it is asleep the nource vseth to spit thrice although I am not ignorant that there is a religious opinion of this sillable Mu that it is able to defend such yong sucklings as also of the foolish puppet Fascinus both which are of power to put back any witchcraft from them and returne the mischiefe vpon the eie-biting witch And since I am light vpon this name I must let you vnderstand that this Fascinus is holden to be a god forsooth the gardian keeper not of infants only but of great captains and braue generals of the field who hath diuine seruice done to him at Rome among other gods and that by the vestall Nuns for the manner was to hang this ridiculous puppet vnder the chariots of noble victorers riding in triumph not onely to defend them by a medicinable power against the venome of enuious and spightfull tongues but also to returne all enuie vpon them bid as it were to take it among them the like vertue is in the tongue beseeching fortune to bee propitious and fauorable vnto them Fortune I say who ordinarily commeth after to whip and punish them as the scourge and tormentresse of glory and honour Ouer and besides the tooth of a man especially when he is mad is reckoned to be as dangerous and pernicious a biting as any other The excrement found in mans ears called ear wax is thought in this case to be soueraigne and let no man maruell thereof considering how it will heale the sting of Scorpions and serpents also if it be applied to the place presently but it is the better and more effectuall if it be taken out of the Patients own ears who is thus wounded and in that sort it healeth also the whitflaws and impostumations that breed about the naile roots Moreouer take a mans or womans tooth and stamp it into pouder it is thought good for the sting of a serpent The haire of yong boy-children which is first clipped off is held to be a singular remedy for to assuage the painful fits of the gout if the same be tied fast about the foot that is grieued generally their haire so long as they be vnder 14 yeres of age easeth the said anguish if it be applied vnto the place Likewise the hair of a mans head cureth the biting of a mad dog if it be laid to the place with vineger it healeth also the wounds in the head applied with oile or wine But if it were plucked from his head whiles he hangeth vpon the gallows then is it soueraign for the quartan ague but we may chuse whether we will beleeue it or no. Certainly the haire of the head burnt to ashes is known to be very good for a cancerous vlcer If a woman take the first tooth that a yong child cast set it in a bracelet and so weare it continually about her wrest it will preserue her from the pains grieuances of her matrice and naturall parts Tie the great Toe and that which is next vnto it together you shall see how it will allay any risings tumors in the share Bind gently the two middle fingers of the right hand with a linnen thred marke of what force this remedy is to represse the rheum falling into the eies and how it wil keep them from being bleared If all be true that is commonly said the stone that one hath voided thrust out of the body easeth all others that be pained with the stone if the same be kept fast tied to the share also it doth mitigat the griefe of the liuer and procureth speedy deliuerance to women in trauel with child Granius affirmed moreouer that in all these cases it would do the better if one were cut for it that it were taken forth of the bladder by way of incision If a woman be neere her time and looks euery day to fal to labour cry out let the man come by whom she is with child and after he hath vngirt himselfe gird her about the middle with his own girdle and vnloose the
same againe saying withall this charme I tied the knot and I will vndo it againe therewith go his waies she shall soone after fall to her businesse and haue more speedy deliuerance Orpheus and Archelaus both do affirme That if the squinancy be anointed with man or womans bloud it skilleth not out of what vein or part of the body it issued it is an excellent remedy for that disease The like effect it hath if their mouthes be rubbed with the said bloud who being ouertaken with the epilepsie are falne down for immediatly thereupon they will rise and stand vpon their feet Some write That if the great toes be pricked vntill they bleed again the drops that come forth worke the like effect in the falling sickenesse so that the face of the Patient be sprinkled or besmeared therewith or if a maiden touch the parties face that lieth in a fit of the said disease with her bare thumbe or great toe he shall come againe to himselfe and recouer By which experiment Physitians going by coniecture are of opinion That such persons subject to that disease should feed of the flesh of such beasts as neuer were with yong Aeschines a Physitian of Athens was wont to cure squinsies the inflammations of the amygdals the infirmities of the uvula and all cancerous sores with the ashes of a man or womans body burnt and this medicine he called Botryon Many maladies there bee that goe away the first time that either a man hath carnall knowledge of a woman or that a maid seeth her monthly sicknesse but if they end not at such a time commonly they proue chronicke diseases and continue a long time and especially the falling sicknesse It is said moreouer That the company of a woman easeth them very much who are stung with a scorpion but women in the same case catch harme by that means Some say also that if the eies be dipped three times in that water wherein a man or woman hath washed their feet they shall be troubled neither with blearednesse nor any other infirmity And others there be who affirm that the wens called the Kings euil the swelling kernels also behind the ears and the squinancy are cured with touching the hands of them that haue died a violent vntimely death Some stand not so much vpon that point but say That the backe of the hand of any one that is dead it skills not how nor by what means if it touch the grieued part wil work the like effect so that the dead party the Patient be both of one sex As for the tooth-ach it is a common speech That if one bite off a peece of some tree that hath been blasted or smitten with lightning prouided alwaies that he hold his hands behind him at his back in so doing the said morsell or peece of wood will take away the toothach if it be laid vnto the tooth Some there be who giue direction to take the perfume of a mans tooth burning in the fire for to ease the too h ach of a man and semblably of a womans tooth to help woâ—…en in the same case Others you shall haue that prescribe to draw one of the eie-teeth called in Latine Canini out of the head of man or woman lying dead and not yet enterred and to wear the same against the tooth-ach It is a common speech That the earth found in or about a man or womans scull is a singular depilatory and fetcheth away the haire of the eiebrows As for the grasse or weed that grows therein if any such may be found it causeth the teeth to fall out of the head with chewing only As also that no vlcer wil spread farther but keep at a stay if there be a circle drawne about it with the bone of a man or womans body As touching the cure of a tertian ague some there be who lade vp water out of 3 pits as much out of one as another and mingle all together which done they put the said water into a new earthen pot that neuer was occupied before begin to the Patient out of it giuing the rest vnto him or her for to drink when the fit commeth But for the quartan ague they get me a broken fragment of a wooden pin which held the sides crosse peece of a paire of gallows together wrap it within a lock of wool and so hang it about the Patient or els they take a peece of the halter or rope from the gallows and vse it in like maner for the foresaid purpose but wot ye what when the patient is by this meanes rid of the feuer the said parcel of wood or cord they vse to bury or bestow close in some hole within the ground where the Sun may neuer shine on it then the accesse wil neuer return more See the toies vanities of these Magitians and yet these be not all for they run on stil and say that if one take a whetstone which hath serued a long time to whet kniues other edge tooles on and lay the same vnder the boulster or pillow where one lieth that is ready to faint and giue vp the ghost vpon some indirect means by sorcery witchcraft or poisoning but this must be done without the knowledge of the said party you shal from the very mouth of the patient hear what poison was giuen in what place at what time but who it was that gaue it he or she shal not be able to name Moreouer this is known for a truth that if one be strucken speechlesse with lightning and then the body be bent and turned toward the wounded place the party shal recouer presently and speak again Some there be who to driue back and keep down the biles and botches that rise in the share take the thred or yearn out of the weauers loome which serue for the selvedge or list making seuen or nine knots and in the knitting of euery one of them name some widow or other and then tie it fast about the grieued place Also for to assuage the paine of any wound they giue order that the wounded party take a naile or some other thing that one hath troden vnder foot and to weare the same tied about the neck arme or other part of the body For to be rid of warts some chuse a time to pluck them vp by the roots when the Moone is twenty daies old at least and then lay themselues along vpon their backs in some ordinary high way looking fully vpon the Moone and stretching their armes backeward as farre as they can beyond their heads and looke what they can catch hold of with their hands therewith they rub the place If one cut and pare an agnell or corn in any part of the body obseruing a time when a star seemeth to shoot or fall they say it wil quickly weare away and be healed for euer They would beare vs in hand That if a man poure vineger vpon the
hold any thing it is good to presse hard and straine the feet together or els to thrust both hands into hot water To come now vnto our speech and exercise of the tongue in many cases and for diuers causes it is wholsom to speak but little I haue head say that Mecaenas Messius inioined himselfe three yeres silence and during that time neuer spake word for that in a fit of a convulsion or crampe he had beforetime cast vp bloud In case any thing be ready to fall or rush violently against vs and that we be in danger of some stroke say that we be climbing vp hill or turned downe backward or lying along there is not the like meanes againe to preserue our bodies as to hold our winde and this inuention we had from a bruit and dumbe beast according as I haue shewed before Moreouer it is said that to stick down a spike or yron naile in that very place where a man or womans head lay during the fit of the falling sicknesse at the very first time that hee or she fell secureth the party that so doth for euer being troubled with that disease Also it is holden for a singular thing to mitigat the intollerable torments of the reins loins and bladder to pisse with the body bending forward and groueling in the bathing tubs within the baines As for greene wounds it is wonderfull how soon they will be healed in case they be bound vp and tied with a Hercules knot and verily it is thought that to knit our girdles which we weare about vs euery day with such a knot hath a great vertue in it by reason that Hercules first deuised the same Demetrius in a treatise that he compiled as touching the number of foure affirmeth that it is of great efficacy and he alledgeth reasons why it is not good to prescribe in any medicine to be drunke the quantitie of foure sextars or foure cyaths To rub the ears behind is supposed to be very good for them that are giuen to be bleare-eied like as to rub the forehead forweeping or watering eies Concerning the signs of life death which may be found in man this is one That so long as the Patients eie is so cleare that a man may see himselfe in the apple of it wee are not to despaire of life As for the Vrine of mankind diuers authors haue treated of it who as I find haue not onely set downe their reasons in nature as touching the vertue thereof but also haue bin very ceremonious and superstitious in handling that argument yea and they haue written distinctly of the seuerall kinds of vrine digested into certain principal heads And among other things I remember that they set down the vrine of men that are vnable for generation to be singular good by way of injection to make women fruitfull But to speak of such remedies as we may be bold to name with honesty the vrine of yong children who be not yet vndergrowne nor 14 yeres of age is good against the venomous humor of the Aspides or Adders which the Greeks name Ptyades for that they spit their poison vpon the eies and faces of men and women Also the same is held to be singular for the pearle the cataract the filmes the pin and web in the eies like as for the eie-lids also and the accidents happening vnto them Being incorporate with the floure of Eruile it is good for sun-burnings sodden also with bolled leeks to the consumption of the one halfe in a new earthen pot which was neuer occupied it is excellent to mundifie the eares that run with matter or that haue any worms or vermin within them and verily a stouph made with the vapour of this decoction bringeth downe the desired sicknesse of women Dame Salpe ordaineth to foment the eies with the said decoction for to fortifie the sight and to strengthen them that they fal not out of the head she appointeth to make a liniment with it and the white of an egge but principally if it be of an ostrich and therewith to annoint the skin that hath bin tanned and burnt in the Sun for the space of two houres together with it a man may wash away any blots or blurs of ink Mans vrine is much commended for the gout in the feet as wee may see by Fullers who neuer be goutie because ordinarily their feet are in mens vrine Stale chamber-lie or vrin long kept and incorporat together with the ashes of oister shels cureth the red-gomb in yong infants and generally in all running vlcers the same so prepared serueth in a liniment for eating cankers burns and scalds the swelling piles the chaps and rifts in the seat and feet also for the sting of serpents The most expert and skilfull midwiues haue pronounced all with one resolution that for to kill an itch in any part of the body to heale a scald head to scoure away dandruffe and scurfe in the head or beard and to cure the corroding vlcers in any place but in the priuy members especially there is not a liquor more effectuall than vrine with a little sal-nitre put thereto But surely euery mans own water if I may for reuerence of manhood so say is simply best and namely if the Patient that is bitten with a dog do straightways bath the place therewith or in case there be any prick of vrchin hedghog or such like spill sticking in the flesh to apply the same thereto in spunges or wooll and so let it lie on But say it was a mad dog that bit the Patient or that he be stung with a serpent it is good to temper it with ashes and lay it vnto the sore For as touching the vertue thereof against Scolopendres it is wonderfull what is reported namely That whosoeuer be hurt by them if they doe wet the crown of their heads but with one drop of their own vrine it will presently cure the same so as they shall feele no more pain nor harm thereby Ouer and besides by the speculation of our vrine we are able to giue iudgement and pronounce of health and sicknesse for if the first water made in a morning be white and cleare and the next after it higher coloured and inclining to a deep yellow the former sheweth that concoction was then begun and the second is a signe that digestion is now perfect A red vrine is naught but the black is worst of all likewise if it be ful of bubbles and froth aloft and be withal of a grosse and thick subsistence the same is but a bad water If the Hypostasis or Sediment which setleth heauy to the botom be white it signifieth that there is some pain and grieuance like to insue about the joints or principall parts within the body Doth an vrine look greenish it betokeneth some obstruction or disease already in the noble bowels and inwards is it of a pale hew it saith that choler aboundeth in that body
If it look red the bloud be sure is predominant and distempered The vrin is not to be liked but presageth danger wherin there appeare certain contents like brans blackish clouds also a white thin and waterish vrine is neuer good but in case it be thick and of a stinking smell withall it is a deadly signe and there is no way but one with the Patient As for children if their water be thin and waterish it is but ordinary and naturall The Magitians expressely forbid in making water to lay bare the nakednesse of that part against Sun and Moon or to pisse vpon the shadow of any person And therefore Hesiodus giueth a precept to make water against a wall or something standing full before vs for feare least our nakednesse being discouered might offend some god or Angell To conclude Hosthaues doth vpon his warrant assure vs That whosoeuer droppeth some of his owne vrine euerie morning vpon his feet he shal be secured against all charms sorceries and deadly poisons whatsoeuer CHAP. VII ¶ The remedies that womens bodies do minister THe medicines which are said to proceed from the bodies of women be such and the operations so miraculous that they come nearer to the nature of monstrous wonders than true reports of natural works to say nothing of much mischiefe and many wicked parts committed by the means of their vntimely births and infants stil born which haue bin dismembred and cut in pieces for some abhominable practises to let passe the strange expiations wrought by their monthly terms and a thousand more deuises which haue bin deliuered and set abroad not only by midwiues but also by secret harlots that haue slipt their conceptions and bin deliuered in corners But to speak of the foresaid remedies which are in vre and commonly known The perfume that the hairs of a womans head make whiles they burn chaseth away Serpents The smell thereof also raiseth and reuiueth women who in a fit of the mother lie speechlesse and breathlesse The ashes verily of the said hairs burnt in some earthen pan or fish-shell being applied alone or with litharge of siluer is a singular medicine for the asperity of the eies the itch Item It taketh warts away and cureth the red gum and sores that infants be subiect vnto if it be vsed with hony The same ashes mingled with Hony and Frankincense healeth wounds in the head and doth incarnat or fil vp with good flesh hollow vlcers whatsoeuer they be And incorporat with swines lard it is good for the broad biles called Pani for the gout and S. Anthonies fire it staieth also any bleeding presently and stoppeth the running of ring-wormes and such like Touching womens milke it is holden by a generall accord of all other to be sweetest most delicat whereupon it is prescribed by Physitians vnto those that haue lien of a long languishing feuer as also to such as be troubled with a fluxe occasioned by a feeble stomacke but in these cases that milk is reputed most wholsom which a nurce giueth that hath newly weaned her child besides when the appetite of women is giuen to an inordinate longing after strange things in agues also in gnawings and frettings of the stomacke it is found by experience to be most effectuall Likewise being incorporat with Frankincense it is singular good for the impostumes breeding in womens brests If the eies be bloudshotten vpon any stripe if they be in pain or troubled with a violent rheum falling into them let a nource milk it in them they shall find very much ease thereby howbeit for the accidents abouenamed it is held to be more soueraign in case it be applied to the place together with hony the juice of the daffodil or els with the pouder of frank incense where by the way this would be obserued that for what vse soeuer milk is imploied that is ordinarily of more force which a woman giueth that bare a man child but if she was brought to bed of two twins both boies then it is best and most effectuall prouided alwaies that the mother her selfe do forbeare drinking of wine eat no meat or sauces that be sharp Moreouer this is knowne for certaine that if womans milk be incorporat with the liquid white of an egge and so applied to the forehead with wooll wet in the said liquor it staieth the flux of humors into the eies Moreouer a soueraign remedy is milk against the venomous slime or spittle of roads in case they pisse or spurt into our eies Also if they haue bitten one there is not a better thing either to be drunk or dropped vpon the sore than brest milk It is a common saying That whosoeuer can meet at one time together with the milk of mother and daughter both shall neuer need to feare all their life long any infirmities of the eies so they be annointed or bathed therewith Semblably womens milk is singular for to cure the accidents befalling to the eares if it be dropped in with a little Opium put thereto but if so be the eares are pained by reason of some stripe that they haue receiued the said milke would haue some Goose grease mixed with it and so be instilled warme And say that they haue a strong and stinking smell with them as commonly it falleth out in all long diseases there is nothing better than to put wooll into them which is soked in brest milk and hony together If it happen that the eies look still yellow after the jaundise it is good to drop milk into them with the juice of the wild Cucumber This peculiar vertue it hath ouer and besides those abouenamed if it be taken in drink to help those that haue bin poisoned with the sea-Hare the worme Buprestis and as Arâ—…stotle saith with the deadly Dwale called Dorycnion In this maner also it cureth those whose brains be troubled and intoxicat with drinking Henbane Physitians likewise haue prescribed to make a liniment with milk and Hemlock for to be applied vnto the gout And some there be who vse it in that case together with Oesype i the sweat or fattinesse of vnwashed wooll and Goose-grease in which manner it serueth in a pessary to be put vp in the naturall parts of women to assuage the pain of the matrice To drink brest milk is a good meane to stop a laske as Rabirius writeth yet the same doth prouoke the monthly course of womens fleurs what is to be sayd now or a womans milk who hath born a maid child surely it is better than the other in these cases only to wit in scouring the skin of the face and taking away the pimples spots and freckles which be therein But I must not forget that any breast-milke whatsoeuer cureth the maladies incident to the lights and if there be tempered therewith the vrine of a yong lad not ful fourteen yeares old and Attick honey so there be of each one spoonfull I find it
to be an excellent remedy for to rid away the ringing end thumping within the ears And to conclude it is a generall speech That if dogs do lap and tast the milke of a woman which hath borne a maid child they will neuer run mad As touching the fasting spittle of a woman it is judged to be a proper medicine for bloud-shotten eies also for the rheum that hath taken a course thither if so be the corners of the eyes be euer and anone bathed and wet therewith when they be hot and inflamed but more effectually will this remedy work in case the woman forbeare all meat and wine the day before I read moreouer in some Authors That if the head be bound vp with a womans haire-lace or fillet it easeth the pain thereof And thus much in some good sort as touching the medicines proceeding from women As for the rest that are written and reported they exceed all reason and there is no end of them For first and formost it is said that if a woman whiles her monthly sicknesse is vpon her bee set into the wind abroad with her belly naked she will scar away hailestorms whirlewindes and lightenings yea and aâ—…ert any violence of the weather whatsoeuer And at sea verily any woman standing openly against the weather bare although she haue not her fleurs is enough to secure the sailers and passengers from all tempests As for the very monthly flux itself of women a thing in other respects and at all times as I haue shewed before of a monstrous nature there be writers who tell and presage wonders thereof such as be horrible abhominable and indeed not to be spoken and yet some of these things I hold it no shame to deliuer in writing namely If it fall out just in the eclipse of Sun or Moon that a woman hath her sicknesse come down the same is a pestilent quality and apt to breed diseases incureable Likewise if haply the time of the change when the Moon is in coniunction with the Sun and those things concurre together the man who medleth with her during that time shall not auoid his bane but it will bring vpon him some pestilent malaâ—…y remedilesse Moreouer the venome thereof is so strong at that time especially more than at any other that the presence or breath only of a woman then will infect and staine any purple cloth And yet bad enough it is at all times for whensoeuer they are in their fleurs it skills not in what quarter of the Moone if they goe about any field of corn with their nakednesse vncouered yee shall see the canker wormes caterpillers beetles and all such wormes and hurtfull vermine to fall from the corn as they passe along This inuention by the saying of Scepsius and Metrodorus came from the Cappadocians who being infested with a number of those green flies called Cantharides deuised this means to be rid of them for they caused their women at the time of their monthly terms sauing the reuerence of womanhood be it spoken to go through the standing corne with their cloths tuckt vp round about their wast and all bare beneath In other countries yet they are more mannerly and in a better respect to the honor of women put them only to go barefoot for this purpose with their haire hanging loose about their eares vngirt vnlaced and vnbraced Howbeit great heed must be taken that they walke not thus at the Sunne-rising for then surelv all the crop vpon the ground will wither and dry away to nothing Also if a woman during her natural courses doe but touch any yong vines it is enough to marre them for euer As for Rue and Iuie Plants otherwise of themselues most medicinable and indued with singular vertues against poison they will presently die with their touch Much I haue already said of this strong and pestiferous venome and yet I haue not written all For ouer and besides certaine it is that if a menstruous woman doe no more but touch a Bee-hiue all the Bees will be gone and neuer come to it againe Also if at such a time she handle any skains or slips of linnen yearn and set them ouer the fire to seeth they will in the boiling turn black Let her but take a barbers rasor in her hand the edge wil turn and become blunt nay if she do no more but touch any brasen vessel it is wonderfull what a strong sauor it wil cast and how it wil rust and canker therupon and the rather if this fall out to be in the decrease or wane of the moon Doth a woman at such a time touch a mare that is in fole it is enough to make her cast the same before due time And not onely so but the very sight of women in that case although they be a great way off is able to do much harm but principally the first time that they haue the said fleurs after the losse of their maidenhead or otherwise during their virginity when they first come down by course of nature of the owne accord The malignitie of this venomous humor is so great that the slime ingendred within the lake of Sodome in Iury as viscous as it is otherwise will forgoe all that tenacity and diuide in sunder by nothing els but a thred infected with the said menstrual bloud according as I haue declared heretofore So forcible it is besides that the very fire which is of power to ouercome all things and change their nature is not able to conquer and alter this for burne or calcine it to ashes and strew neuer so little thereof vpon any cloths that are to be washed or scoured in the Fullers mill it wil change their color though they were of purple and cause any die whatsoeuer to lose the fresh lustre And more than that so pernicious is the quality of this venome that as naturall otherwise as it is to women it is no better than a poison to those of their own sex for in case one woman with child be annointed about her naturall parts with the foresaid bloud of another or do but step ouer the place where it is she will immediatly fall to labour and slip an abortiue birth As for the famous curtizans Lais and Elephantis who haue written so contrary one to the other of this argument and namely as touching abortions and of what efficacy the cole of Colewort Myrtle or Tamariske root is after it hath bin quenched in the said bloud as also how she Asses will not conceiue for so many yeres as they chance to eat Barly corns infected therewith besides other strange deuises that they haue set abroach I think them incredible I would not haue any credit at all giuen vnto their writings considering the monstruosities contrarieties which they haue put down whiles the one prescribeth medicines for to make fruitful the other ordaineth the very same to hinder conception and cause them to be barren Moreouer Bythus of
The same is good to be drunke in oxymell to the weight of two oboli for the falling sicknesse and applied in forme of a pessarie it prouoketh womens fleurs Now if you would chuse the best Crocodilea take that which is whitest brittle or easie to crumble least weighty in hand and withall swelling in manner of a leuaine if it be rubbed between the fingers The manner is to wash it as they do white lead called Cerusse Sophisticated it is with amyll or the scouring Fullers clay Tuckers earth called Cimolia but principally with the dung that sterlings meut which are of purpose caught and fed only with rice Now there is not a better thing in the world say these Magitians for the cataract than to anoint the eies with it and honey together And if a man may beleeue their words there is a soueraigne perfume made of the guts and the whole body besides for women who are sicke of the mother or otherwise diseased in the matrice if they sit ouer it whiles it smoketh In like manner it doth them good to be lapped round about with wooll that hath bin so perfumed The ashes of the Crocodiles skin as well the bigger as the lesse brought into a liniment with vineger and applied vnto those parts of the body which had need to be cut away or dismembred causeth the patient to haue no sense or feeling at all either of saw or launcer The very swoke also of the said skin burning doth the semblable The bloud of both Crocodiles mundifieth the eies and causeth them to see cleare which are annointed therewith remouing the filmes and dispatching the spots that impeach the same The very body or flesh it selfe of the Crocodile all saue head and feet is good meat sodden for those who bee troubled with the Sciatica the same cureth an old cough especially the chin-cough in children and assuageth the paine of the loins The Crocodiles haue a certaine fat in them that is depilatorie for no sooner is the hare rubbed therewith but presently it sheddeth The said fat or grease preserueth those who be anointed therewith from the danger of the Crocodiles and is excellent good to bee melted and dropped into the wounds made by their bit The Crocodiles heart wrapped within a lock of wooll which grew vpon a black sheep hath no other color medled therewith so that the said sheep were the first lambe that the dam yeaned is said to driue away quartane agues To this discourse of Crocodiles wee shall not doe amisse if we annex other beasts in some sort resembling them and which be likewise straungers as well as they And to begin with the Chamaeleon Democritus verily made so great reckoning of this beast that hee compiled one entire booke expressely of it and hath anatomized euery seuerall member thereof and certes I cannot chuse but take great pleasure therein knowing as I do by that meanes how to descicipher and deliuer abroad the loud lies of vaine Greekes This Chamaeleon for shape bignesse is much answerable to the Crocodile last named differing onely in the curbing or crookednesse of the ridge-bone and largenesse of the taile There is not a creature in the world thought more fearefull than it which is the reason of that mutability whereby it turneth into such varietie of colours howbeit of exceeding great power against all the sorts of hawkes or birds of prey for by report let them fly and soare neuer so high ouer the Chamelaeon there is an attractiue vertue that will fetch them downe so as they shall fall vpon the Chamelaeon and yeeld themselues willingly as a prey to be torne mangled and deuoured by other beasts Democritus telleth vs a tale That if one burn the head and throat of the Chamaeleon in a fire made of oken wood there will immediatly arise tempests of rainy stormes and thunder together and the liuer will do as much saith he if it burne vpon the tiles of an house As for all the other vertues which the said author ascribeth to the Chamaeleon because they smell of witch-craft and I hold them meere lies I will ouerpasse them all vnlesse they be some few for which he deserueth well to be laughed at and would indeed be reproued by no other means better namely That the right eie of this beast if it be pulled out of the head whiles it is aliue taketh away the pearl pin and web in man or womans eies so it be applied therto with goats milk The tongue likewise plucked forth quicke secureth a woman from the danger of childbirth if shee haue it bound to her body whiles shee is in trauell If there be found by chance a Chamaeleon in the house where a woman is in labor she shall soon be deliuered in safety but if such an one bee brought thither of purpose the woman is sure to die Also the Chamaeleons tongue pulled out of the head whiles the Chamaeleon is quicke promiseth good successe in iudiciall trials The heart bound within black wooll of the first shearing is a most soueraigne remedy against quartan agues The right forefoot hanged fast to the left arm within the skin of a Hyaena is singular against the perrils and dangers by theeues and robbers as also to skar away hobgoblins and night spirits In like manner whosoeuer carry about them the right pap of this beast may bee assured against al fright and feare But the left foot they vse to torrifie in an ouen with the herb called also Chamaeleon and with some conuenient ointment or liquor to make in certaine trosches wherof if a man do carry any in a box of wood about him he shal go inuisible as sayth Democritus if we were so wise as to beleeue him who affirmeth moreouer That whosoeuer hath about him the right shoulder of the Chamaeleon shall be able to ouerthrow his aduersarie at the barre and to vanquish his enemie in the field but first hee must be sure to cast away and make riddance of the strings and sinewes belonging thereto and to tread them vnder-foot As for the left shoulder I am ashamed to relate vnto what monstrous spirits hee doth consecrate it and namely how by the vertue thereof a man may cause what dreames and fantasticall illusions hee listeth yea and make those whome hee will himselfe to imagine the same apparitions As also how the right foot of the said beast driueth away all such strange visions euen as the lethargie will goe away by the meanes of the left side of this beast which lethargie was occasioned by the right Touching head-ache hee sayth plainely that the next way to cure it is to be sprinckle and wet the same with wine wherein either of the two sides were soked Take the ashes quoth hee of the left thigh or foot chuse you whether incorporate the same with the milke of a Sow and therewith annoint the feet it wil be an occasion speedily to bring the gout vpon them But of the Chamaeleons gall
other skin about them But with brimstone it cureth the raggednesse of the nails it staieth likewise the haire of the head which is giuen to shed also if it be mixed with a fourth part of gall-nuts it healeth the vlcers in a womans head but if it be well smoked it helpeth to preserue the haires of the eie-lids An ounce weight thereof boiled in one hemine of old wine vntill there be three ounces and no more of the whole remaining is giuen an ounce at once to those who are in a phthysick Some appoint a little hony to be put thereto The same together with Quick-lime reduced into a liniment is singular for the biles and impostumes called Pani as also for felons and the hard tumors of womens paps it serueth besides to cure inward ruptures and convulsions spasmes crampes and dislocations Being applied with white Ellebore it healeth corns agnels fissures chaps and callosities But incorporat with the pouder of a saltars pot-shard it heales the swelling impostumes behind the ears as also the wens called the Kings euil being ordered in like manner If the body be well rubbed and annointed therwith in the baine or hot-house it taketh away all itch red pimples wheals rising in the skin Moreouer prepared after another sort to wit with old oile together with the stone called by the Greekes Sarcophagus beaten to pouder adding thereto the herb Cinquefoile stamped in wine either with Quicklime or with ashes and so reduced into a liniment it is very good for those that be troubled with the gout Thereof also is made a singular plaster against inflammations in this wise Take of the said grease the weight of fourscore and fiue pound of white litharge of siluer one hundred pound weight mix them both together As for Bores grease if there be a liniment made of it and rosin it is thought to be excellent good for to anoint therwith vlcers that be corrosiue and giuen to spread farther In old time men vsed it most about the axletrees of their carts and wagons anointing them therwith that the wheels might turn about more easily whereupon it took the name Axungia And being emploied in this maner it serueth for a medicin to cure the vlcers of the seat priuy members seruing to generation by reason that it is mixed and coloured with the rust of the yron incorporat into it The antient Physitians made most account alwaies of the said hogs grease by it selfe which was plucked from the kidnies for after it was clensed from the strings veins and skins they washed it often and rubbed it well in rain water which done they sod it in new earthen pots shifting it out of one into another many times and beeing thus tried and clarified they kept it for their vse Howbeit all are agreed that when it hath taken salt it is a greater emollitiue it heateth also discusseth and resolueth more yea being washed in wine it is much better than otherwise As touching the fat or grease of a Wolfe Massurius writeth that in old time it was esteemed before any other had the price aboue all And he saith that new wedded wiues were wont vpon their mariage day to anoint the side posts of their husbands houses therwith at their first entrance to the end that no charms witchcrafts and sorceries might haue power to enter in thus much of grease Look what vertue grease hath the same be sure is the suet and tallow endued with which commeth from those beasts that chew cud and although it may be handled dressed otherwise yet in force it is nothing inferior But what talow soeuer it be the best way of pre paring it is after the skins or veins be rid away to wash it first either in sea water or salt brine and then within a while to stamp it in a mortar eftsoons sprinkling it with sea-water after which it ought to be sodden in many waters vntill it haue lost all the sauor rank tast that it had and then at last by setting it in the Sun continually it wil be reduced to a perfect whitenesse moreouer this is to be noted that the best suet is that which groweth about the kidnies But say that old tallow is called for and to be vsed in any cure it ought first to be melted and then anon to be well and often washed in fresh cold waters which done it must be liquified a second time casting and pouring thereupon eftsoons the best odorifeorous wine that may be gotten after which maner they vse to seeth it again and again and neuer giue ouer vntill the rank smell and sent thereof be clean gone and verily many are of opinion that particularly the fat of Buls Lions Panthers and Cammels ought thus to be ordered and prepared As for the vses properties of these Pomonades I will treat thereof in conuenient place Concerning marrow it is a thing common to all creatures like as the fat abouesaid All the kinds thereof are emollitiue and incarnatiue they dry also heat the body The best marrow simply is that of Deere as well red as fallow next to it in goodnesse is calues marrow and then in a third rank follow kids and goats marrow Prepared they ought to be and dressed before Autumne when they be new and fresh washed and dried in the shadow But afterwards they must be melted again and run through a finer sercer or pressed through linnen strainers which done they should be put vp in earthen pots and set in a cold place But of all those things which are generally to be found in euery liuing creature the gall is that which is of greatest efficacy in operation for power it hath naturally to heat bite cut draw discusse and resolue The gall of smaller beasts is taken to be more subtill and penetratiue than that of the greater and therfore supposed to be the better for to go into eie-salues Buls gall is thought to haue a speciall faculty aboue all others principally in setting a golden colour vpon skins brasse What gall soeuer it be in the preparation therof for any vse regard must be had that it be taken fresh and new and then the orifice of the burse or bag wherein it is contained ought to be tied fast with a good round pack thred thus being bound vp close it must be cast into boiling water and there remain halfe an hour within a while after so soon as it is dried out of the Sun it ought to be preserued and kept in hony The gal of horses only is vtterly condemned reputed as a very poison which is the cause that the arch-Flamin or principall sacrificer is forbidden by law expressely to touch an horse notwithstanding that in Rome it is an ordinary thing to sacrifice euen horses publickly and not their gall alone but also their bloud is corrosiue by nature and putrifactiue The bloud of Mares milke likewise vnlesse they be such as were neuer couered nor bare soles
yelks of egs supped off raw in one hemin of wine are singular good for the dysenterie or bloudy flix and namely with the pouder of the shels from whence they came the juice of Poppie and a little wine withall For the flux of the belly proceeding from a feeble stomacke they vse to giue the said yelks of eggs raw with as much in weight of good and full raisins and the rind of a pomegranat with direction to the patient for to take this medicine three daies together by euen portions and no more one day than another for which purpose also there is another way to vse them namely to take three yelks of an egg to incorporat the same in as many onnces of honey and old lard putting thereto three cyathâ—… also of good old wine and stamped all together into one composition vntill such time as it be reduced to the consistence or thicknesse of hony of which the patient must drinke as need requires with water the quantity of an hazle nut at a time Also it is good to lay three egs in vinegre for three daies together and vpon the fourth day to eat them for the foresaid flix of the stomack after which maner it auaileth much to take them against the oppilations hardnesse of the spleene but to such as are subject to casting and reaching bloud vpward Physicians prescribe to take them in three cyaths of new wine Some vse the yelks of egs that haue bin old kept for to reduce the skin that is blacke and blew to the fresh and liuely colour again but they incorporat the same in hony with bulbe roots the same sodden and drunk in wine doe represse the immoderat flux of womens months but applied raw with oile and wine they discusse resolue the ventosities within the matrice Incorporat with oile rosat and goose grease they are good to be applied to the nape of the neck for the cricke and pain thereof being rosted against the fire hard and so presently applied hot to the seat they are good for the griefs and accidents of the fundament but more particularly for the swelling piles and bigs rising in those parts they would be laid too with oile of roses Being sodden in water vntill they be hard they serue very well for any burne or scald with this charge That presently the ashes of the same eg-shels calcined vpon burning coales be applied to the place and then to annoint the same with the foresaid yelks and oile rosat mixed together Now it falleth out somtime that egs be all yelke within haue no white at all namely when the hen hath couved sitten ouer them three daies together and then be taken away from vnder her and such kind of egs the Greeks call Schista Take the egs from vnder the hen when they be full of chicken a little before they spring and the chicke be hatched together with halfe as much of gal nuts and giue the same for to strengthen a feeble and weak stomack with this caution That the patient haue eate nothing in two hours before And so me doe aduise for the dysentery or bloudy flix to giue the said chickins sodden egg and all together putting therto one hemine of austere or sharpe wine and an equall quantitie of oile and parched barly groats drie The fine pellicle or skin that is within the egg-shell being taken from it whether the egg be raw or sodden it skilleth not healeth the chaps that are in the lips if it be applied thereto The ashes of an egg-shell drunke in wine stoppeth the issue of bloud gushing out at any part but the same ought to be burnt or calcined without the pellicle or skin aforesaid and so it makes an excellent dentifrice also to cleanse and scoure the teeth white a liniment made with the said ashes and myrrhe together staies the super fluous flux of womens terms And here I cannot chuse but note vnto you by the way the strange propertie and wonderfull nature that egg-shels haue for so hard compact and strong they be that if you hold or set an egg endlong no force nor weight whatsoeuer is able to break and crush it so long as it standeth streight and plumbe vpright vntill such time as the head incline to a side and bend one way more than another Egs entire and all whole as they be i. white yelke shell and skin taken in wine with rue dill and cumin helpe women in hard trauell to speedie and easie deliuerance Egs incorporat with oile rosin of the cedar mixed together are singular good for to heale scabs and to kill the itch put thereto the root of Cyclamin i. Sow-bread it healeth the running skalls of the head for those that reach vp purulent matter out of the chest or spit bloud it is good to sup off a raw egg together with the juice of vnset leeks and an equall quantitie of Greekish wine but first all must be warmed before that it be giuen to the patient Against a cough they ordaine egs sodden and stamped together with hony and so to eat them or else to sup them off raw with wine cuit oile of each a like quantity If a man haue any sore or vlcer in his secret parts seruing for generation it were very good to inject one egg tempered with three cyaths of wine cuit and halfe an ounce of Amylum or starch-floure presently vpon his comming forth of the bains or hothouse An excellent linement there is made of sodden egs stamped together with cresses for the sting or biting of serpents How many means there be whereby egs doe good as meat there is not one but knoweth for euen in their going downe they passe through any tumor or swelling of the throat and with their kind heat foment those parts by the way There is not any kind of viand in the world besides it that nourisheth a sicke man without any offence or burden at all to the stomacke and it may go well enough for meat and drinke both As touching egs sodden in vinegre and how their shels may be made soft and tender therby I haue alreadie shewed such egs if they be wrought and knead with meale into a dough or past do make a kind of bread which is soueraigne for all fluxes of the stomack Some there be who think it better to take these egs thus mollified resolued in vinegre and to torrisie the same betweene two platters of earth supposing that being thus prepared they serued not only to stop a lask but also to represse the immoderat flux of womens monthly tears but in case the said fluxions be excessiue and beyond all measure vehement they are to be supped off raw with water and meale in maner of a grewell or pottage or els the yelks may be boiled by themselues in vinegre vntill they be hard and then a second time be fried torrified afterwards with grosse pepper and in this sort they will die any
that they be far bigger their heads be reddish the rest of their body black howbeit here and there marked with white spots The sting of this spider is more keene and sharpe than that of the wespe It liueth ordinarily about ouens and mils The best remedie against the prick of their sting is to present before the eies of the patient another spider of the same kind for which purpose folke vse to keepe them in store when they find any of them dead Their cases or skins brought into pouder and taken in drink haue the like effect to young weazils or kitlings as I haue declared before A second sort there is of these venomous spiders Phalangia which the Greeks distinguish from others by the name of Lupus Those that be of a third kind and yet named Phalangia are the spiders which be couered all ouer with a certain downe and of all the rest haue the biggest heads Cut one of them and rip the bellie you shall find within two little wormes or grubs which if it be true that Cecilius hath left in writing hinder women for conception in case they be knit within a peece of leather of a red deere skin and tied to their armes or other parts of their bodie before the sunne-rising but this vertue continueth not aboue one yeare Thus haue I shewed one receit only of all those that keep women from conceiuing which I may be allowed to do in regard of some wiues who being too fruitfull and ouercharged with child bearing haue some reason to play them a while and rest from teeming and therefore may be pardoned if they vse some such meanes therefore There is another kind of spiders which the Greeks call Rhagion for that it resembles a black grape kernill these haue a very little mouth vnder their belly and as short legs as if they were vnperfect and not fully made Look where they bite the pain that ensueth is much like to that which is occasioned by the sting of a fcorpion and their vrine who are hurt by them seemes to shew to the eye cobwebs floting aloft I would say that this spideâ—… were the same that Asterion another kind of them but that these haue certaineraies or streakes of white Their sting or pricke causeth loosenesse and feeblenesse of the knees As for the blew spider which carrieth a blacke downe or cotton it is worse than both the former causeth trouble and dimnesse of the eyes by their pricking yea and vomiting of matter resembling cobwebs And yet there is another Phalangium worse than it which commeth neare in shape to the Hornet but that it hath no wings at all and look whomsoeuer it biteth they are sure to become leane and pine away The venomous spider called by the Greeks Myrmecion is headed like vnto an Emmet the bellie is blacke howbeit marked with certain white spots their sting is as painefull as that of Wespes But as touching that kind of Phalangium which is called Tetragnatium there be two sorts thereof The one which is the worst of the twaine hath the head diuided directly in the middest with a white line wheras in the other the said line or seame runneth crosse ouerthwart These make the mouths to swell whom they haue bitten But those that be of a dead ash colour and yet whitish behind are not so quicke with their prick as the rest Of which colour there is another sort that be altogether harmlesse and these be our common spiders or spinners which against wals vse to stretch out their large webs as nets to catch poore flies Now concerning the remedies appropriat to any pricke or biting of the foresaid Phalangia there is not a better thing than to drink in oxycrat i. water and vinegre mingled together the braines of a Cock or Hen with a little pepper Also to take in drink fiue Pismires is thought to be a siugular medicine and withall to make a liniment of sheeps mucke ashes tempered in vinegre and therwith to annoint the grieued place Moreouer the said spiders themselues of any kind whatsoeuer resolued and putrified in oile serue for the said purpose As for the mischeeuous mouse called the Hardishrew the runnet found in a lambes maw taken in wine healeth the hurt that commeth by her biting also the application of a salue made with the ashes of a Rams cley incorporat with hony worketh the same effect so doth a young weazill or kitling prepared and vsed in manner aforesaid in the Treatise of serpents If one of these shrewes haue bitten a horse or other beast it is good to lay vnto the place a mouse or â—…t new killed with some salt or else the gall of a Bat with vineger The shrew it selfe being burst and so laid fresh and warm to the sore cureth the same for this is obserued That if one of them be with yong when she doth bite presently she cleaueth in sunder And in truth the best surest means to cure the hurt is to apply vnto the wound the very shrew it selfe that did the deed if possibly shee may be had and yet the rest are very good for which purpose they vse to be kept in oile or els to be dawbed ouer with clay to serue in time of need also the earth taken from a cart-rut where a wheele hath gon is thought to be a proper remedie for the said biting of a shrew if it be applied thereto for it is said that this creature is by nature so benummed or dull of mouing that it will neuer go ouer a cart-tract As touching Scorpions the lizard named Stellio by way of a reciprocall counterchange is the greatest enemie they haue insomuch as at the very sight only of the said lizard they wil be afrighted and astonied and fall into cold sweats and therefore people vse to putrifie resolue Stelliona in oile and therewith anoint the wounds that Scorpions haue made Some there be who make a kind of plaistre of the said oile and litharge of siluer boiled both together wherewith they rub and anoint the grieued place This lizard which we name Stellio the Greeks cal Colotes Ascalabotes and Galeotes it breeds not in Italy but call it what you will whersoeuer it is to be found full it is of little red spots like lentils a shril noise it maketh that pierceth the eares and goeth through ones head it doth eat and graze like other beasts which be marks all contrary to our Stellions or starre-lizards here in Italy But to come againe vnto the pricke of scorpions it is thought good to rub the same with the ashes of hens dung mixt with the liuer of a dragon or to take a lizard that is bursten and the same to apply vnto the affected place or a mouse likewise which is clouen in sunder also to lay to the sore the very same scorpion that did the harm or to eat him rosted and last of all to drinke it in two cyaths of pure wine
to eat also a dogs head Others seeke after the wormes that breed in the carkasse of a dead dog and hang the same fast about the necke or arme of the party that is bitten or els they lap within a cloath some of the menstrual bloud of a woman and put it vnder the cup or pots bottome out of which the patient drinketh And there be some againe who burn the haires of the same mad dogs taile and conueigh the ashes handsomely in some tent of lint into the wound Moreouer it is commonly said That as many as haue a Dogges head about them no other Doggs will come neere to do them any harme In like manner if a man carry a dogs tongue in his Shooe vnder his great toe there will no Dogges bay or barke at him If hee haue about him a weazils taile which hath beene let goe againe after it was cut away There is to be found under the tongue of a mad dog a certaine slimy and grosse spittle which being giuen in drinks to those that are bitten keep them from the feare of water which symptome the Greeks call Hydrophobia but the best and most soveraigne remedy of all other is the liver of the same dog that in his madnesse bit any body eaten raw if possibly it may be if not yet sodden or boiled any way or else to cause the Patient for to sup the broth that is made of the same dogs flesh There is a certaine little worme in dogs tongues called by a Greeke name Lytta which if it be taken out when they be young whelpes they will never after proue mad nor lose their appetite to meat The same worme giuen to such as are bitten with a mad dog preserueth them from beeing mad but with this charge that before they take the same it must be carried three times about the fire Also the braines of a Cocke Capon or Hen is singular good against the biting of a mad dog but if one haue eaten the same the vertue thereof indureth but for that yeare onely and no longer It is commonly said that the crest or combe of a Cocke well bruised and stamped and so laid in manner of a cataplasme to the place bitten is very effectuall to cure it as also the grease of a goose incorporate with honey Furthermore some there be who vse to salt the flesh of dogs which haue bin mad and so keepe it to giue in meat vnto those who chance to be bitten by others There be who take some young whelpes male or female according to the sex of dog or bitch that hath bitten any one and presently drowne them in water causing the Patient to eat their liuers raw The yellow or reddish doung of a cock or a hen dissolued in vineger and applied to the sore is singular good The ashes also of an hardy-shrewes taile provided alwaies that the shrew were let go aliue so soone as she was curt-tailed Moreouer a piece of clay taken from a swallows nest made into a liniment with vineger or the ashes of young swallows newly hatched and burnt the old skin also or slough which a snake vseth to cast off in the spring time stamped with a male crab-fish and with wine brought into a Cataplasme be all especiall remedies for the biting of a mad dog As for the skinne or spoile of a snake if it be put alone in a chist presse or wardrobe among cloaths it will kil the moth But to come again vnto a mad dog his poison is so strong that whosoeuer do but tread upon his vrine especially if they have any sore or vlcer about them they shall sensibly feele hurt therby Now what remedy is there for such None better than the dung of a caple well wet and tempered with vineger and the same laid very hot within a fig to the foresaid sore These may seeme to some men strange things monstrous but lesse will they wonder hereat when they shall heare and consider that a stone which a dog hath taken vp with his mouth and bitten wil cause debate and dissention in the company where it is and yet this is held for a certain truth insomuch as it is growne into a common prouerbe and by-word when we perceiue those that dwel in one house together to be euermore jarring and at variance one with another to say You have a dog-bitten stone here among you Againe whosoever maketh water in the same place where a dog hath newly pissed so as both vrines be mingled together shall immediatly find a coldnesse and astonishment in his loines as folke say That kinde of Lizard which of some Greeks is called Seps of others Chalidicum hath a venomous tooth howbeit the same worme or serpent taken in drinke cureth the bit which it selfe inflicted If wilde Weazils haue empoisoned any body let the patient take a large draught of the broth of an old Cocke he shall finde it to bee a very soueraigne remedy therefore but aboue all it is most effectuall against the poison of the herbe Aconitum but then it must be given with a litle salt among Against the poison of venomous Tadstoles and hurtfull Mushromes hens doung I meane that part alone which is white sodden with Hyssope or honied wine is singular good for it represseth and killeth the malice thereof And the same otherwise keepeth downe ventosities and stuffing of the stomacke ready to choke one Whereat I cannot chuse but maruell much considering that if any other living creatures do tast never so little of the said dung but man or woman onely they shall be exceedingly vexed with winde in the belly and other grievous wrings and torments The Sea-hare is knowne to be venomous but goose bloud taken with an equall quantity of oile is a soueraign counterpoison for it Of this bloud incorporat with the best Terra Sigillata of the Island Lemnos and the juice of the S. Mary thistle called Bedegnar there be excellent trochischs made weighing fiue drams apeece which are vsually kept in a readinesse for to bee drunke in three cyaths of water as a counterpoison and countercharme against all venomous confections and divellish sorceries for which purpose serveth also a yong sucking Weazill prepared in manner aforesaid The rennet in a lambs maw likewise is passing good for any such indirect means wrought by poison or witch craft like as the bloud of ducks and mallards bred in the realm of Pontus and therefore their bloud is ordinarily kept dry in a thicke masse and as need requireth is dissolued and giuen in wine but some think that the bloud of the female duck is better than that of the mallard or drake Semblably the gesier of a storke and the rennet or read of a sheep is thought to be singular good for any poisons whatsoeuer The broth or decoction of Coleworts boiled with Rams mutton hath a peculiar vertue against the Cantharides Ewes milke also drunke warm availeth much against all poisons vnlesse it be
said Tortoise a long while in wine Moreouer the gall of Tortoises mixed with hony amendeth all the imperfections incident to the eies if they bee annointed therewith yea if it were a cataract the gall of a sea Tortoise tempered with the bloud of a riuer Torroise and womans milk riddeth and scoureth it away The said gall is very proper to giue a yellow die or colour to womens haire Against the poison of Salamanders sufficient it is to drinke the broth or decoction of a Tortoise As touching those kind of Tortoises that liue and breed in mud and moorie waters which I reckoned to be the third kind broad they be and flat in the backe as well as vpon the brest neither doth their shell arise arch-wise in manner of a vault these are il favored to see to and yet as louelesse as they be they are not without some medicinable vertues and remedies for take 3 of them and throw them into a fire made of Vine twigs or their cuttings when their shels or couers begin to diuide in sunder and part one from another pull them hastily out of the fire pluck the flesh out of their shels seeth them in a gallon of water with a little quantity of salt put thereto thus let them boyle vntill a third part of the liquor be consumed This broth or decoction if it be drunken is thought to be soueraign for those that be troubled either with the palsie gout or paine of joints The gall of these Tortoises purgeth also phlegmaticke humours and corrupt bloud out of the body And after that this medicine hath don his part and set the belly in a loosenesse a draught of cold water knitteth it againe and staieth all To come now vnto the fourth kind of Tortoises which keepe in fresh riuers they affoord an excellent remedy for to rid away a quartane ague in this manner prepared and vsed first take certain tortoises diuide one piece from another take out the fat within stamp the same with the herb called housleek and Lineseed incorporate all into an ointment let the patients be annointed therewith before the fit commeth all ouer the body saue the head only and when they be well lapped with cloathes about them giue them some hot drink This I say is thought to be a soueraigne medicine against the said ague But a tortoise to be applied for this purpose ought to be taken at the full of the moone because there may be more fat found in her Mary the sick body must not be anointed men say at any time but two daies after The bloud of tortoises which are of this fourth kinde if it be dropped on the head by way of embrochation appeaseth the head-ach that vseth to return and come often by fits the same also applied vnto the kings euill cureth it Some are of opinion that the better to let tortoises bloud and according to art as requisit it is in such cases of physick they ought to be laid along with their bellies vpward and so their heads to be cut off with a brasen knife and then they giue order to receiue the bloud in a new earthen vessel neuer occupied before which bloud is excellent to anoint the shingles or any kind of S. Anthonies fire likewise the running scalls of the head and also werts The same Authors doe promise and warrant That with the dung of all sorts of Tortoises the biles called Pani may be discussed and resolued And although it be incredible and not to be spoken yet some there be who haue written That any ship maketh way more slowly at Sea that carrieth within it the right foot of a Tortoise And thus much shall suffice as touching Tortoises And now from henceforth as touching the fishes and other water creatures I meane to discourse of them and their medicinable properties according to euerie disease which they serue for And yet I am not ignorant that many a one will be desirous to know all at once the vertues of each liuing creature which indeed maketh them to seem more admirable a great deal Howbeit this course that I meane to take I hold to be more expedient and profitable to this life namely to set downe receits and remedies digested by order of each disease and malady considering that one thing may be good for this Patient and another for that and some medicines are sooner found and gotten than others CHAP. V. ¶ Sundry medicines and receits taken from those liuing creatures which conuerse in waters and the same digested orderly into diseases And in the first place such as be appropriat to poysons and venomous beasts HEretofore haue I written of venomous honey and the countties wherein such is gathered and made now if any be poisoned therewith good it is to eat the fish called Arata i. a Guilt-head Or say one be glutted with pure hony or haue taken a surfet thereof being of all other most dangerous wherby the appetite is clean gon and the stomack oppressed with crudities for to preuent farther danger Pelops ordained for a special antidote or defenfatiue the meat of tortoises boiled after the head feet and taile were cut away But Apelles in this case attributeth as much to Scincus Now what this Scincus is I haue declared heretofore Shewed also I haue oftentimes in many places how venomous the monthly fleurs of women are but yet as hath bin said already the fish called a Barble is a singular remedy against the poison therof like as both applied outwardly in a liniment and taken inwardly as meat it is a soueraigne thing for the prick of the Puffin or Forkfish of Scorpions as well of the land as the sea and of the malicious spiders Phalangia The ashes of a Barble fresh taken and calcined is a generall counterpoison but more particularly it helpeth those who haue eaten deadly Mushroms Also it is said That if the fish called a Sea-star wel besmeared and anointed all ouer with the bloud of a Fox be fastned to the lintell or hanged to the brasen naile or ring of a dore it will put by all charmes forceries and witchcrafts that none shall come into the house or if any doe yet they shall not worke any harme As for the pricke or sting of sea-dragons and scorpions a cataplasme of Sea-stars flesh applied thereto healeth them so it doth also the venomous bit of spiders In sum the broth of their decoction is thought to be a soueraigne remedie against all manner of poisons whether it be that a man haue taken it by the mouth or be stung and bitten by any venomous beast As touching fishes kept in salt they are not without their medicinable vertues for to eat salt fish is very good for them who are strucken with serpents or otherwise bitten or stung by any venomous beast so they drink to it eftsoons pure wine of the grape and withal be sure to cast vp again by vomit toward euening their foresaid meat which they did eat that
the edges and by this signe they know the oisters of the best kind and race from others and call them by a proper name Calliblephara Oisters delight as I may so say to trauell into strange quarters to be transported from their naturall seat into other vnknown waters Thus the oisters bred about Brindis and remoued from thence to the lake Auernus and beeing there fed are suppoposed by that means to keep still their own natiue juice and humidity and besides to gain nouriture by the moisture of Lucrinus Thus much as touching the substance and body of Oisters it remaineth now to speake of those parts and tracts where the best oisters are to be had to the end that such coasts may not be defrauded of the honour due and appertaining vnto them But of this point speake I will by the tongue of another and alledge his speech who is thought to haue written hereof with best judgement of any man in our time These therefore bee the verie words of Mutianus which I will put downe as followes The oisters quoth he of Cyzicum taken about the straights of Callipolis be the fairest of all other and bigger than those which are fed or bred in the lake Lucrinus sweeter than those of Brittain more pleasant in the mouth than the Edulian quicker in tast than those of Leptis fuller than the Lucensian drier than those of Coryphanta more tender than the Istrian and last of all whiter than the oister of Circeij and yet there haue not bin found any oisters either more sweet or tender than these last named The Historiographers who wrote of Alexanders voiages and exploits haue left in writing that within the Indian sea there be oisters found a foot long euery way Moreouer there is among vs a certain Nomenclator or Controller belonging to one of our prodigall and wastful spend thrifts here at Rome who haue giuen a proper name to certain oisters and termed them Tridacna his desire was by that significant name to expresse thus much That they were so big as that they would make three good bits or mouths-full a piece Now proceed I will to their medicinable vertues before I go any further in this very place set down how far forth they serue in physick First and formost they be the only meat to comfort and refresh a decaied stomack they recouer an appetite that was cleane gone But see the practise of our delicat wantons to coole oisters forsooth they must needs whelm couer them all ouer with snow which is as much as to bring the tops of mountaines and bottom of the Sea together and make a confused medley of all This good moreouer do oisters that they gently loose the belly and make a body soluble seeth the same with honied wine they cure the Tinesme which is an inordinat and bootlesse desire to the stoole without doing any thing especially if the tiwil which is the place affected be not exulcerat oisters likewise so prepared clens and mundifie the vlcers of the bladder eat them in their shel with their water as they came closed and shut from the sea you shall find them wondrous good for any rheumes or distillations The ashes of an oister shell calcined and incorporat with honey be singular for the paine of the uvula and assuage the inflammation of the tonsils semblably they represse the swelling kernels that rise vnder the ears assuage the biles and botches called Pani mortifie the hard tumours of womens brests and heal the sores or scalls of the head if they be applied accordingly with water and in the same order prepared they rid away wrinkles and make womens skin to lie smooth and euen These ashes are a soueraigne powder to be cast vpon any place that is raw by reason of a burne or scalding and the same is commended for an excellent dentifrice to clense whiten the teeth withall temper the said ashes with vineger it killeth the itch and healeth angrie wheales the small pocks also and meazils Oisters punned raw and reduced into a cataplasme heale the kings euill and kibed heels if they be applied accordingly Moreouer the Shell-fishes called Purples are very good against poison As for the reits Kilpe Tangle such like sea-weeds Nicander saith they are as good as treacle Sundry sorts there be of these reits going vnder the name of Alga as I haue already declared some are long leafed some large others of a reddish colour and some haue curled and jagleaues the best simply of all others be they of the Island Creta which grow near the ground vpon rocks and namely for to dye wooll woollen cloth for they set so sure a colour as neuer will shed or be washed off afterwards Nicander giueth direction to take the said treacle in wine CHAP. VII ¶ Medicines against the shedding of haire For to colour the haire of the head Also against the accidents of the eares teeth and vis age IF by occasion of some infirmity the haire be fallen off or grow very thin the ashes of the fish called the Sea-hors mingled with sal-nitre and swines grease or applied simply with vineger replenish the bare places with new haire and cause it to come vp thick again and for to apply such medicines for this purpose the pouder of a cuttle bone prepareth the skinne well before-hand Also the ashes of the sea-Tortoise incorporat with oile of a sea-vrchin likewise burnt and calcined flesh and all together as also the gall of a scorpion be appropriat medicines to recouer haire that was lost In like maner take the ashes of 3 frogs burnt together aliue in an earthen pot meddle them with hony it is a good medicine to cause haire to grow but the operation will be the better in case the same be tempered with liquid pitch or tar If one bee disposed to colour the haire of the head black let him take horse-leeches which haue putrified and been resolued together in some grosse red wine for the space of 60 daies he shall find this to be an excellent medicine Others there be who giue order to put as many horse-leeches as a sextar will hold in two sextars of vineger and let them putrifie within a vessell of lead as many daies together and when they be reduced into the form of a liniment to annoint the haire in the sunshine for the same purpose And Sornatius attributeth so much power vnto this composition that vnlesse they that haue the annointing of the haire with it hold oile in their mouths all the while their teeth also by his saying who haue the doing of it wil turn black The ashes of Burrets or Purples shels incorporat in hony serue passing well in a liniment to heale scald heads and the pouder of the foresaid fish shels although they be not burnt and calcined tempered with water is as good for the head-ach Of the same operation is Castoreum incorporat with Harstrang in oile rosat The fat or grease of all fishes
they vse with a paire of sizzers to clip them at the very mouth as they be sucking and then shall you see the bloud spring out as it were at the cocke of a conduit and so by little and little as they die they will gather in their heads and the same will fall off and not tarrie behind to do hurt These horsleeches naturally are enemies to Punaises in so much as their perfume killeth them Furthermore the ashes of Beuers skins burnt and calcined together with tar stancheth bloud gushing out of the nose if the same be tempered mingled wel with the juice of porret The shels of cuttles applied to the body with water draw forth arrow heads pricks or spils that sticke deepe within the flesh so doth any saltfish if the fleshie side be laid therto yea and fresh-water creifishes haue the same effect likewise the flesh of the fresh water Silurus for this fish breedeth in other riuers besides Nilus applied to the place either fresh or salted it makes no matter worke with the same successe The ashes of the same fish and the fat be of the same operation and very attractiue As for the ashes of their ridge-bone and prickie finnes they are taken to bee as good as Spodium and are vsed in stead thereof As touching those vlcers which be corrosiue as also the excrescence of proud flesh growing in such sores there is not a better thing to represse and keepe them downe than the ashes of Cackerels or the fish Silurus aforesaid The heads of salted Perches be singular good for cancerous vlcers and the more effectually they will work in case there be salt mingled with their ashes and together with knopped Majoram or Sauorie and oile be incorporat into a liniment The ashes of the Sea-crab burnt and calcined with lead represse cancerous sores and for this purpose sufficient it were to take the ashes only of the riuer creifish medled with hony and lint but some chuse rather to mingle alume and hony with the said ashes As for the eating sores called in Greeke Phagedaenae they may be healed well with the fish Silurus kept vntill it be dried and so together with red orpiment reduced into a pouder Likewise morimals and other consuming cankers and those sores which be filthy and growing to putrefaction are commonly healed with the old squares of the Tunie fish Now if there chance to be wormes and vermine breed in the said vlcers the only means to cleanse them is with the gall of frogs But the hollow sores commonly knowne by the name of Fistuloes are enlarged kept open yea and brought to drines with tents made of saltfish conueied into them within fine linnen rags and within a day or two at most they will rid away all the callositie together with the dead and putrified flesh within the sores yea and represse the eating and corrosiue humor in them if they be wrought into the forme of a salue or emplaster and so applied To mundifie vlcers there is not a fitter thing than stockfish made into a tent with fine lint of rags and so put into the sore Of the same effect are the ashes of the sea-vrchins skin The pieces of the fish Coracinus salted discusse and resolue the hotapostems named carbuncles if they be applied so doe the ashes of the Barble salted and calcined Some vse the ashes of the head of the said fish onely with hony or els the very flesh of Coracinus The ashes of murrets tempered with oile delay take down any swelling The gall likewise of the Sea-scorpion taketh off the roufe of sores and bringeth skars that ouergrow the flesh vnto the leuell of the other skin The liuer of the fish Glanus causeth werts to fall off if they be rubbed withall Also the ashes of Cackerell heads do the like if they be tempered with garlick but for the thyme werts particularly they vse them raw the gall likewise of the reddish sea scorpion and the small sea fish Smarides punned and brought into a liniment do the like The grosse pickle sauce called Alex if it be made through hot cures the raggednesse of nails the ashes also which come of Cackerell heads do extenuat and make them fine The fish Glauciscus eaten in the own broth causeth women to haue store of milke so doe the small fishes called Smarides taken with ptisan or barley gruell or els boiled with fennell and in case they haue sore brests the ashes of Burrets or Purple shells incorporat with honey doe heale effectually A liniment made of Sea crabs or fresh-water Creifishes takes away the offensiue haires that grow about womens nipples or breast heads the fleshie substance also of the Burrets applied to them work the same effect A liniment made of the fish called a Skate will not suffer womens paps to grow big A candle-weike or match made of lint and greased al ouer with the oile or fat of a dolphin and so set a burning yeeldeth a smoake which will raise women againe lying as it were in a trance and dead vpon a fit of the mother the same do Macquerels putrified in vinegre The ashes either of Pearch or Cackerel heads tempered and incorporat with salt sauerie and oile serue for all the accidents of the matrice and more particularly in a perfume bring down the after-birth Semblably the fat of a Seale or Sea-calfe conueighed by meanes of fire in a perfume vp into the nosthrils of a woman lying halfe dead vpon the rising and suffocation of the matrice bringeth her to her selfe againe so doth it also if with the rennet of the same Seale it be put vp in wooll after the manner of a pessarie into the priuie parts The ashes of the Sea-fish called Pulmo applied conueniently to the region of the matrice and kept fast thereto purgeth women passing well of their monethly fleurs of the same operation are Sea-vrchins stamped aliue and drunk in some sweet wine but the riuer Creifishes likewise punned and taken in wine do contrariwise stay the immoderat flux thereof Likewise it is said that a sussumigation of the fish Silurus especially that which breedeth in Africa causeth women to haue more speedie and easie deliuerance in childbirth as also that Crabfishes drinke in water doe stop the excessiue ouerflowing of their monethly terms whereas with hyssop they set them a going and purge them away Say that the infant sticke in the birth and by reason of painfull labour be in danger of suffocation let the mother drinke the same in like manner there will present help ensue Women with child vse also either to eat them fresh or drink them dried that they may go out their full time and not slip an abortiue fruit Hippocrates vseth the same and prescribeth vnto women for the bringing down of their sicknesse and likewise to thrust out the infant dead in their wombs to drinke them in honied wine with fiue dock roots stamped together with â—…e and soot and in very truth sodden
own son by adoption exhibited a shew for three days together of thirty paire of such fencers fighting with vnrebated swords and a faire painted table which carried the liuely resemblance of this spectacle hee set vp and dedicated within the sacred groue of Diana CHAP. VIII ¶ The antiquitie of Painting and the seuerall ages wherein the famous Painters liued A suruey of excellent Pictures and the Artificers that made them together with the prices that their workmanship was valued at and notable pictures to the number of 305. NOw will I after a cursorie sort run through all the famous professors and Artizans in this kind and that with as great breuity as possibly I can for the scope I haue proposed to my selfe tends another way and therefore let not the Reader think much if I do but touch the names of some as it were passing by and by occasion of others whose catalogue I meane to deliuer Howbeit in making this hast my purpose is not to omit any excellent piece of worke which is worth the remembrance and relation whether the same be extant at this day or lost and perished Where I must aduertise the readers that in this argument my meaning is not to stand much vpon the authoritie of Greeke writers who indeed deliuer no certitude nor agree in their records as touching this point notwithstanding that they would seeme diligent in that behalfe and namely in that they haue written That the excellent painters flourished so many Olympiads after the famous Imageurs and haue nominated for the first and chiefe to haue liued in name about the time of the 90 Olympiad whereas this is for certain reported that Phidias himself was a painter in the beginning and that the noble shield of Minerva in Athens was by him painted besides this is confessed and resolued vpon for a truth that Panus his brother liued in the 83 Olympias and painted the inside of the said shield who also in another scutchion of Minerva which Colores the apprentice of Phidias had made as also in making the statue of Iupiter Olympius wrought with the said Colores and helped him But what should I dwel long in this matter Is there any doubt made that Candaules King of Lydia the last of the race and family of the Heraclidae who also was commonly caled Myrsilus bought the painted table which contained the battell of the Magnetes and paid for it to Bularchus the painter or workman therof as much gold as it came to in weight See of what price and estimation pictures were euen in those daies And needs it must be that this hapned about that age wherein K. Romulus liued for the said K. Candaules died in the 18 Olympias or as some write in that very yeare that Romulus departed this life at what time this skill of painting if I be not much deceiued was in great request euery where and growne already to an absolute perfection Which being granted as of necessitie it cannot be denied euident and apparent it is that the originall and beginning of this art was much more antient and that those painters who vsed one colour and no more in their plain draughts called Monocromata to wit Hygiaenon Dinias and Charmas liued a good while before although it be not recorded in any writer in what age precisely they flourished as also that Eumarus the Athenian painter who deuised first to distinguish male and female in painting and besides vndertook to draw with his pensill the proportion shape of any thing that he saw together with Cimon the Cleonaean who followed his steps and practised his inuentions could not chuse but by al congruity consequence be of more antiquity than Bularchus aforesaid or the reign of Romulus Candaules this Cimon deuised the works called Catagrapha i. pourtraits and images standing by as and side-long the sundry habits also of the visage and cast of the eie making them to look some backward ouer their shoulders others aloft and some againe downward his cunning it was to shew in a picture the knitting of the members in euery ioint to make the veins appeare how they branched and spread and besides the first hee was that counterfeited in flat pictures the plaits folds wrinckles and hollow lappets of a garment As touching Phanaeus the brother of Phidias hee painted also the battell betweene the Athenians and the Persians vpon the plains of Marathon for now by this time were painters furnished in some sort with colours to their purpose and the art was growne to such perfection that in the picture resembling the said battell the full personages were pourtraied most liuely of the captains on both sides to wit Milciades Callimachus and Cynegyrus for the Athenians Datis also and Artaphanes for the Barbarians or Persians CHAP. IX ¶ The Painters that first entred into contention for to win the prize by their Art and who deuised to paint with the pensill MOreouer during the time that the aboue-named Panaeus flourished there were prises proposed at Corinth and Delphos for those painters that could win them and the first that striued for the best game was the said Panaeus who challenged Timagoras the Chalcidian vpon this occasion That the same Timagoras had giuen him the foile before at the Pythian games which also doth appeare by certain verses composed by Timagoras himselfe as touching that argument which sauor of great antiquity Whereby the error of Chronicles beforesaid is manifestly conuinced who haue failed much in the calculation of the times Furthermore besides these painters aboue rehearsed others there were of great name and yet all of them before that 90 Olympiad whereof they write as namely Polygnotus the Thasian who was the first that painted women in gay and light apparell with their hoods and other head attire of sundry colours and in one word passed all others before him in deuises for the bettering of this art His inuention it was to paint images with their mouths open to make them shew their teeth and in one word represented much variety of countenance far different from the rigorous and heauy looke of the visage beforetime Of this Polygnotus workemanship is that picture in a table which now standeth in the stately gallerie of Pompeius and hung sometime before the Curia or Hall that beareth his name in which table he painted one vpon a scaling ladder with a targuet in his hand but so artificially it is done and with such dexterity that whosoeuer looketh vpon him cannot tell whether he is climbing vp or comming downe All the painting of Apollo his temple at Delphos was of this mans doing who also beautified with pictures the great gallery or walking place at Athens which thereupon was called Poecile and this he did gratis and would not take one penny for it whereas Mycon afore him painted one part thereof was well paid for his workmanship which liberall mind of his wan him the greater credit and honor besides for by a decree
are to be seen the picture of prince Bacchus the pourtrait of Alexander in his childhood and of Hyppolitus the yong gentleman affrighted and astonied at the sight of a monstrous bull let loose and ready to incounter him Likewise in the gallerie of Pompey the counterfeits of Cadmus and Europa all pictures of Antiphilus his making Of his handy-worke there is a fool with his bel cockscomb bable and in other ridiculous habit going vnder the name of Gryllus deuised for the nones to make sport and pastime wherupon all such foolish pictures be called Grylly Himself was born in Aegypt howbeit he learned all his cunning of Ctesidemus In this bed-roll of painters I should not do well to passe ouer in silence the workeman that painted the temple of Iuno at Ardea especially seeing that he was infranchised free burgeois of that city and honored besides with an Epigram or Tetrastichon remaining yet to be read in the mids of his pictures in these foure Hexameter verses following Dignis digna loca picturis condecorauit Reginae Iunonis supremi conjugis templum Marcus Ludius Elotas Aetolia oriundus Quem nunc post semper eb artem hanc Ardea laudat This stately Church of Iuno Queen with pictures richly dight Whom wife to mighty Iupiter and sister men do call Commends the hand of Marke Ludie Elotas also hight Aetolian born whom Ardea doth praise and euer shall These verses are written in antique Latine letters By occasion of whose name I must not defraud another Ludius of his due praise and commendation who liued in the time of Augustus Caesar Emperor of happy memory for this Ludius was he who first deuised to beautifie the wals of an house with the pleasantest painting that is in all varietie to wit with the resemblance of manors farms houses of pleasure in the country hauens vinets floure-work in knots groues woods forrests hils fish pooles conduits and drains riuers riuerets with their banks and whatsoeuer a man would wish for to see wherin also he would represent sundry other shews of people some walking and going to and fro on soot others sailing rowing vp and down the stream vpon the riuer or els riding by land to their farms either mounted vpon their mules and asses or els in wagons and coaches there a man should see folk in this place fishing and angling in that place hauking and fouling some hunting here the hare the fox or deere both red and fallow others busie there in haruest or vintage In this maner of painting a man should behold of his workmanship faire houses standing vpon marishes vnto which all the ways that lead be ticklish and full of bogs where you should see the paths so slipperie that women as they goe are afraid to set one foot afore another some at euery step ready to slide others bending forwards with their heads as though they caried some burdens vpon their neck and shoulders and all for feare lest their feet failing vnder them they should catch a fal and a thousand more deuises and pretty conceits as these full of pleasure and delight The same Ludius deuised walls without dores and abroad in the open aire to paint Cities standing by the sea side All which kinde of painting pleaseth the eie very well and is besides of little or no cost Howbeit neither hee nor any other in this kinde howsoeuer otherwise respected grew euer to be famous and of great name that felicitie they only attained vnto who vsed to paint in tables and therefore in this regard venerable antiquitie we haue in greater admiration for painters in old time loued not to garnish wals for to pleasure the master only of the house ne yet to bedeck houses in that maner which canot stir out of the place nor shift and saue themselues when fire commeth as painted tables may that are to be remoued with ease Protogenes as excellent a painter as he was contentented himselfe to liue within a little garden in a small cottage and I warrant you no part therof was painted Apelles himselfe might well haue the walls of his house rough cast or finely plaistered but neuer a patch thereof had any painting they took no pleasure nay they had no lust at all to paint vpon the whole wals and to work vpon them from one end to another al their skil and cunning attended vpon the publique seruice of states and cities and a painter was not for this or that place only but imploied for the benefit indifferently of all countries and nations But to return again to our particular painters there flourished at Rome a little before Augustus Caesars days one Arellius a renowned painter but that he had one notable foul fault that marred all and discredited his art giuen he was exceedingly to wenching and sure hee would be to haue one woman or other all times in chase which was the reason hee loued alife to be painting of goddesses which were euer drawn by the pattern of his sweet-hearts whom hee courted A man might know by his pictures how many queans he kept and which were the mistresses or rather goddesses whom he serued Of late daies wee had among vs here at Rome one Amulius a Painter he caried with him in his countenance and habit grauitie and seuerity howbeit he loued to make gay and gallant pictures neither scorned he to paint the most trifling toies meanest things that were The picture of Minerva was of his making which seemes to haue her eie ful directly vpon you looke which way soeuer you will vpon her Hee wrought but some few houres of the day and then would he seem very graue and antient for you should neuer find him out of his gown and long robe but very formall though he were close set at work euen lockt as it were to his frame The golden house or palace of Nero caught vp all the workes hee made where they remained as it were in prison and neuer came abroad which is the reason that none of his pictures els be extant After him succeeded Cornelius Pinus and Actius Priscus two Painters of good reputation who painted the temples of Honour and Vertue for Vespasianus Augustus the Emperor when he caused them to be re-edified but of the twaine Priscus in his workemanship came neerer to the painters of antient time CHAP. XI ¶ The manner how to make Birds silent and to leaue their chattering and singing Who first deuised with fire and pencill to enamel and paint the arched roufes and embowed seelings of houses The admirable price of pictures inserted here and there among other matters SInce I haue proceeded so far in the discourse of Painters and their art I must not forget to set down a pretty jest which hath bin reported by many as touching Lepidus It hapned during the time of his Triumvirat that in a certain place where he was the magistrates attended him to his lodging enuironed as it were with woods on euerie side the next
in colours the common people of Athens and a solemne sacrifice of Oxen. There was also one Mechopanes apprentise likewise vnto the same Pausias who is highly commended by some for his curious and exquisit workmanship but such it is as none but cunning artists can conceiue for otherwise I assure you his colours are vnpleasant and hee loued to lay on too much of one thing and that was Sil. As for Socrates the painter his pictures were liked very well of all that saw them and in truth they deserued no lesse for of his doing are these and such like to wit Aesculapius with his daugh ters Hygia Aegle Panacea and Iaso and an idle lazy â—…ubber knowne by a deuised name Ocnos whom he pourtraied twisting a cord of Spart and euer as he did it an asse behind him gnawed it asunder Thus much may serue concerning the principall painters that haue been knowne to excell in both kinds to wit with the pensill and with fire it remaineth now that I should discourse of those who were next vnto the principall and so reputed In this second course of painters I must range Aristoclides who beautified with his pictures the temple of Apollo in Delphos as for Antiphilus he is as much praised for painting a boy blowing hard at the coles in which table it is a prety sight to see how all the house which was faire enough besides shineth by the fire that he makes as also what a mouth the boy makes likewise for the picture of a company of Spinsters so liuely that one would imagin he saw euery woman making hast to spin off her distaffe striuing avie who shal haue don her task first He deuised also to portray Ptolomae hunting this they call Aposcopon for which he is much commended but principally for a braue Satyr of his workmanship clad in a Panthers skin Aristophon woone much credit by painting Ancaeus wounded to death by a wild bore his wife Astypale standing hard by who seemeth to lament for his sake and as it were to feele part of his paine he made also one faire table inriched with a number of personages to wit K. Priamus faire Helena dame Credulitie Vlixes Deiphobus and Dolori Androbius got himself a great name by a picture representing one Scyllis a cunning diver cutting in two the anker cables of the Persian fleet riding at sea Artemon likewise was renowned for the counterfeit of lady Danae found floting in the sea by rouers or men of war who seemed to wonder at her beauty and to behold her with much contentment also for picturing queene Statonice Hercules and Deianira his wife but the most excellent pieces of his work manship be those which are to be seene in the galleries of Octauia among other of her stately buildings to wit Hercules ascending vp into heauen from the mountaine Oeta within the region of Doris where he changed this mortall life and by the generall consent of all the gods was receiued into their society the whole history also of Laomedon as touching his falshood to Hercules and Neptune Alcimachus the painter was renowned for the picture of hardy Dioxippus who carried away the prize in all feats of actiuity at the solemn games of Olympia and neuer sweat nor touched dust for it which easie victory the Greekes call Aconiti As for Caenus he was excellent at painting Coronets Garlands also at drawing coats of arms in scutchions of gentlemen and noble persons with the stile of their titles dignities Ctesilochus an apprentice to Apelles became very famous for one picture aboue the rest although it were but a wanton one and offensiue to chast eies wherein forsooth hee depainted Iupiter attired in a caule or coife about his head like a woman groning and crying out also as women do in trauell of childe birth among the goddesses for their helping hand who plaied the midwiues about him vntil he was deliuered of god Bacchus and brought to bed Cleon was much spoken of for the picture which hee made of K. Admetus Ctesidamus for pourtraying the winning of Oechalia by Hercules And for drawing the picture of lady Laodamia the wife of Protesilaus Clesides was notorious for one picture which he made in despight of queene Stratonice wife to K. Antiochus and to be reuenged of her for a disgrace that he had receiued at her hands for being in the court and perceiuing that the queen did him no honour at all nor gaue him any countenance he made no more ado but painted her in her colours tumbling and wallowing along full vnseemly with an odde base fisherman whom as the voice went she was inamored vpon and when he had done set it vp in the very hauen of Ephesus recouered a barke presently and away he went vnder sale as fast as wind and tide would carry him When the queene heard of it she made but a jeast and mocke of it neither would shee suffer the picture to be taken away in regard of the wonderfull workmanship which-expressed her and him so like and liuely Craterus was a Comoedian and plaier in Enterludes howbeit a fine Painter as may appeare by his handy worke at Athens within the publicke place Pompeium Eutychides pourtraied a charriot drawne with two horses and Victorie to guid and driue the same Eudoxus had the name for his pictures which are seen at stage-plaies to beautifie the place who also was a good imageur and cast many faire pieces in brasse Iphis was well thought of for Neptune and Victorie of his painting and Abron was no lesse esteemed for the pictures resembling Amity and Concord as also for the pourtraitures of the gods Leontiscus pictured Aratus the Generall of the Achaeans returning with victory and triumphing with his trophy He painted also a minstrel wench playing vpon a Psaltry and seeming to sing to it which was thought to be a daintie piece of worke As for Leon he painted Sappho the Poetresse And Nicaearchus was much bruited abroad for a picture shewing Venus accompanied with the Graces and the pretty Cupids And of his workemanship is Hercules sad and pensiue penitent also and repentant for that which he had done in his furious madnesse Nealoes made one picture of Venus most curiously for passing witty hee was full of inuention and exquisit in his art When he painted the nauall battell betweene the Aegyptians and the Persians which was fought vpon the riuer Nilus the water whereof is rough and like the sea because he would haue it knowne that the fight was vpon the said riuer he deuised another by-worke to expresse the same which all the Art of painting otherwise could not performe for he painted an Asse vpon the banke drinking at the riuer and a Crocodile lying in wait to catch him whereby any man might soone know it was the riuer Nilus and no other water Oenias the painter made one pictiure aboue the rest which he called Syngenicus Philiscus became renowned
description ibid. the vse of root and seed ibid. a soueraigne hearbe 127. e. the harme that commeth by Asphodell seed 128. 〈◊〉 Aspilate a pretious stone 624. l. two of that name and their description and vertue ibid. Aspis a venomous serpent killeth by a sleepie poyson and is killed likewise by a soporiferous hearbe 113. a. b Aspis a most deadly serpent with a sting 356 k. it killeth by drousinesse ibid. inwardly taken it is no poyson ibid. how the Aspis may be intoxicated 201. b. the miraculous cure of a manstung with an Aspis 156. h. what remedies against the venomous sting of the Aspis 67. b. 106. i 143. d. 200. g. 228. g. 355. e. 356. g. ibid l. Assault of serpents wild beasts and theeues how to bee auoided 359. b Assius a stone medicinable 587. c. the floure of this stone good in Physicke ibid. f Astaphis what it is 148 k Aster an hearbe 274. m. the description ibid. why called Bubonium ibid. Aster a kinde of Samian earth 559. d. the vse in Physicke ibid. c. how knowne ibid. Asteriae a kinde of white gem called a Girasole 622. i. the description and reason of the name ibid. k Astericum an hearbe 123. d. the description ibid. Asterion a kinde of spider 360. i Astragalus what hearbe 249. b. the vertues ibid. c Astragalizontes 497. f. an excellent peece of work wrought by Polycletus 498. g Astrape a picture of Apelles his workemanship 541 b Astrapias a pretious stone 630. l Astrios a pretious stone of a white colour 622. k. the description and reason of the name ibid. l Astringent medicines 48 g. 141. a. 147. a. 148. h. 158. i 161. c. 162. g. 163. e. 172. l. 175. b. 182. m. 192. h 194. g. 195. d. f. 196. i. 223. c. 237. e. 249. c. ib. f. 250. g 255. a. 263. d. 275. b. 277. a. 278. i. 281. c. 284. h 286. k. 287. b. d. 319. b. 418. k. l. 421. e. 473. d. 474. h 485. b. 506. m. 511. c. 516. h. 519. c. 520. m. 529. d 557. d. 559. i. 556. a. Astringent medicines and binding the belly bee diureticall 249. c Astrobolos a pretious stone 622. l Astroites a pretious stone ibid. Astylis the hearbe Lectuse why so called 24. k Asturia the richest part of Spaine for gold mines 469. c Asyctos a pretious stone the forme and vertue of it 625. a Asyla what hearbe 234 l A T Atalanta her picture at Lanuvium 525. d Athamanticum a kinde of Spikenard or Men. 77. a. why so called ibid. the description ibid. Athara what it is 138. i Athemon of Marona an excellent Painter wherein he excelled and his workes 548. h. i Atizoe a pretious stone 624. l. the forme and vse thereof ibid. Atlantion what it is 312. m Atramentum painters blacke an artificiall colour 530. h Atramentum Sutorium naturall See Vitrioll Atrophia what infirmitie and defect of the body 143. c the remedies thereof ibid. 317. d. e. 318. h Atrophi who they be ibid. Atractylis an hearbe 97. c. why so called ibid. Attalus a writer 297. c Attalica vestis what kinde of cloath 466. g Attelabi a kinde of vnwinged Locusts 361. d Attir in the breast chist how to be discharged 58. g. 67. d See more in Breast Attractiue medicines to the outward parts 139. b. See more in drawing A V Auens an hearbe 247. d. the description and vertues ibid. Auernus a lake wherein nothing will flote 404. i Aufeia what water 408. g Augites a pretious stone thought to be Callais or the Turquois 624. m Augustus Caesar signed at first with the image of Sphinx 601. e. the â—…east that arose thereupon ibid. f. he gaue it ouer and vsed afterward the image of king Alexander the great 602. g Augustus Caesar his owne image serued as a signet vnto his successors to seale withall 601 d Augustus Caesar crowned with an obsidionall or grasse coronet 117. c. f Auli the male shell-fishes 444. h Auncients commended for their industrie 165. e. 208. 〈◊〉 for their loue to posteritie ibid. l. 209. c. for their labour and tranaile 209. a Austrauia an Island the same that Glessaria 607. d Autolicus a boy represented liuely in brasse by Leocras the Imageur 502. i Autopyros a kinde of bread 141. a. how medicinable ibid. A X Axinomantia what kinde of Magicke 589. d Axungia what greace it is 320. i. why so called ibid. the vertue and vse in Physicke and otherwise ibid. A Z Azonaces taught Zoroastres art Magicke 372. i. Azur minerall or naturall 484. h. what it is ibid. l. sundrie sorts ibid. Azur artificiall ibid. how it is coloured ibid. Azur the best how it is knowne 485. a false Azur how it is made ibid. b the vertues medicinable of Azur ibid. B A BAbes how preserued from eye-biting of Witches 300. 〈◊〉 See Infants Bacchar an hearbe 85. e. the root onely is odoriferous ibid. what sauour it hath ibid. where he loueth to grow ibid. how medicinable it is 104. g Bacchus his image most cunningly wrought in marble by Scopas 568. g Backe paine how to be eased and the weakenesse strengthened 49. e. 52. g. 53. a. 54. h. 125. a. 191. d. 199. b. 248. i 313. b. 450. i. Baianus a vale full of medicinable Springs 401. d Baines naturally hot became of a suddaine cold 411. b Baines hot not vsed for Physicke in Homers daies 412. h Baines of Brimstone for what good ibid. Baines of Bitumen in what diseases medicinable ibid. Baines of Sal-nitre for what infirmities wholesome ibid. Baines of Alume in what cases good ibid. hot Bains Stoues and Hot-houses how dangerous 348. m 349. a. how such are to be vsed 303. f in Baines naturall how long the patient is to sit 412. h Baines or bathing in cold water after hot ibid. who deuised it 222. l Baines of cold water deuised by Charmis and approued by Annaeus Seneca 345. b. c forbearing Baines and Bathes is medicinable 303. c heat in a Baine or Stoue how it may be better endured 407. f. 419. c. Balance all contracts and sales passed by it in Rome 462. l. Balanites a pretious stone 625. a. two kindes of it and their forme ibid. Balaustia what they be 165. e Baldnesse or Bald places occasioned by Alopecia how to be replenished with haire 364. i. k. l. m. 365. a. b. 432. h. See more in Haire shedding Baleare Islands yeeld earth medicinable 561. d Balis a wonderfull hearbe 211. b. a young dragon and a man were by it reuiued ibid. Ballote an hearbe 278. g Baltia an Island 606. i Baluces what they be 469. b Banchus a fish medicinable 439. e. the stones in the head likewise medicinable 444. g Baptes a pretious stone 625 a Baraine women how to proue fruitfull 306. g. 312. k. 313. c. 397. a. b. 402. g. l. 403. a. See more in Conception Barrainesse what things doe cause 274. l. 403. a Barble fish medicinable 433. e. hurtfull to the eye-sight 438. i. 442.
sundry names of it ibid. the description and vertues 238. k. l. why called in Greeke Erigeron ib. l. why some name it Aâ—…s others Pappos ibid. Grylli what insects they be 378 h. 379. d. their me â—…ble vertues ibid. Gryllus the picture of a foole with his bel bable c. 544. l Grylli all such pictures to make sport withall ibid. of Guirlands 80. h. i. why they were called Strophion 80. i Guirlands and nose-gaies called in Latine Serta and Serviae and wherefore ibid. Guirlands Aegiptian what they were 80. l winter guirlands what they were ibid. Tusean Guirlands what they were ibid. the vse of Guirlands representing health 82. i ordinances concerning Guirlands woon at solemne games 81. c the honour belonging to such Guirlands ibid. abuse in Guirlands 81. e Guirlands of floures how they were imployed 82. g Guirlands platted were the best ibid. superfluitie and excesse in Guirlands 82. h costly Guirlands or chaplets of silke perfumed with daintie odours ibid. Guirlands consist properly of floures and hearbes 89. e Gums in generall their vertues medicinable 194. a Gums soone dissolue in vinegre 176. k Gum of Chamaeleon called Ixias venomous 39. d. the remedies proper therefore ib. 64. h. 153. b. 157. b. 182. m 277. c. 323. a. 323. d. 431. b. Gumbs of young infants pained how to be eased 449. e Gumbs flaggie how to be knit and confirmed 161. c Gumbs swelled and impostumat how to be allaied and cured 161. e. 238. h. 249. c. 419. b. Gumbs sore cankred and exulcerat how to be healed 159 c 160 i. 287 d. 351 b. 509 a. for Gumbs pained or otherwise diseased generall medecins 51. e. 63. g. 70. g. 102. i. 156. m. 158. k. 165. d. 169. c 177. f. 178. l. 184. g. 195. f. 197. d. 238. i. 272. i. 376. k 443. b. 509. c. Gurrie in horses other beasts how to be staied 41. c. 78. h for the paine wrings and corosion in the Guts proper remedies in generall 37. e. 53 b. 60. i. 61. a. d. 62. i. 66. h 77. b. 187. e. 263. d. 41. d. 52. g. 72. l. 76. l. 77. e. 78. k 102. l. 105. c. 106. k. 109. b. 111. a. e. 174. k. 238. m 318. g. See more in bellie ach and Wrings of Guts Guts exulcerat how to be cured 38. i. 76. c. 107. e. 200. k 207. e. 249 c. 272. k. See more in Dysenterie and Bloudie flix grinding of the Guts in young children how to be assuaged 318. i. to cleanse the Guts proper remedies 272. k. 283. a. 443. a Gutti the name of certaine people 606. i G Y Gylding of marble 466. g Gylding of wood 466. h Gylding of brasse ibid. Gylihead the fish Aurata what medicines it doth affourd 433. d. H A HAbergeon of K. Amasis wrought of imnen twist exceeding fine 3. d Haddocke fish hath a stone in the head medicinable 445. e Hamachates a pretious stone 623. c Haemaetites a red Bloudstone 367. d Haematites the Bloudstone described 587. b Haematites a meere minerall 589. e. how calcined ibid. how sophisticated ibid. wherein it differeth from the stone Schistos ib. the medicinable vertues that it hath ibid. fiue kindes of Haematites or Bloud-stone 590. g Haematites a pretious stone 627 e. why so called ib. where it is found ibid. the wonderfull properties there of according to the vaine magicians 627. 〈◊〉 Haemorrhis a worme or serpent 352. g. why so called ibid. against the hurt of the serpent Haemorrhois what remedies 43 e. 69 e. 148 k. 150 l. 153. b. 196 g. 352 g. Haemorrhoid veins how to be opened 42 k. 200 k Haemorrhoid veins running immoderatly how to be stopped 193 b. 256 g. 272 i. 511 b. 516 k. 519 d. 470 k 591. b. Haemorrhids aching how to be eased 199. f. 351 e Haemus a mountaine yeelding springs of water sodainly by occasion of a fall of wood 410 k. l Haile-water hurtfull 406. i Haire shedding how to be retained and recoucred 39. f 42 h. 47 e. 50 h. 56 i. 74 l. 78 m. 103 a. 113 c. 122 g 127 a c. 128 h. 130 i. 163 c. 166 m. 174 k. 177 b 178 i l. 183 d. 185 d. 191 c. 196 l. 205 c. 212 h 232 i k. 239 d. 249 d. 272 h. 290 m. 291 a. 320. g 323 f. 324 i. 364 m. 437 f. 438 g. 446 l. 450 i 516 h. 521. a. 531 c. Haire of mans head medicinable 301 b. of a womans head in what cases effectuall 307 b means to cause the Haire to grow thicke on head or beard where it was thin 146 l. 161 d. 172 i. 185 d. 199 f 290 m. 316 l. 324 g h i. 364 i. Haire of eye-lids gorwing crooked into the eyes how to be rectified 397 f. 438 i k. 557 d Haire of eye-lids how to be kept from growing 236 l. how to be taken away 312 k. how it may grew 324. g how preserued 320 g Haire of eyelids how to be kept from growing 438 k. 439. e Haire of eyebrowes how to be trimmed 102 k. how to haue a louely blacke 397 d. how to be setched off 302. g how it shall grow no more 324. l Haire how to be curled 127 a. 128 l. 181 b. 311 c how Haire shall come vp blacke 365 a Haire how to be coloured blacke 43 d. 71 c. 127 a. 143 d 163 c. 170 g. 174 i. 175 b. 178 g. 179 a. 184 h. 186 g 190 h. 194 m. 196 m. 268 g k. 277. e. 324 i. 438. g 560. g. what coloureth the Haire yellow 162 g. 268 k 328 l 432 k. what giueth haire a red colour 158 h. 192 k Haire how to be washed bright 475. a Haire growing vpon a mole or wert of the face some make scruple to clip or shaue 300 g Haire how it shall grow vpon scarred places 364. l Haire what hindereth it in growing 339 f. 379 e. f. 397 b c. 449 c. Haire how to be preserued from hoarinesse 249 e. 324. g 397 d. Haire of a man-child not yet vndergrowne thought to bee medicinable 301 a b Halcioneum what it is 441 c. the sundry kindes ibid. their description ib. which is best 441 d. their properties ibid. Halicacabus a dangerous hearbe commended by some 112 l. the description thereof ib. h. the hurtfull qulities that it hath ibid. k Halicuticon a booke of the Poet Ouid 427. d Hallowing of houses against ill spirits and sorcerie with brimstone 557. a Halmirax or Halmiraga what it is 420. h. where found ibid. Halmirida a kinde of Colewoort why so called 27. a Halum what hearbe 248. h Hams of the legs pained how to be eased 30â—… b Hammâ—…tes a pretious stone and the description 627. d Hammochrysos a pretiâ—…us stone 630. k Hammons horne a pretious stone 627. d. the description and properties ibid. Hanch See Loins Hand swolne or broken out how to be healed 106. m to sit with one Hand in another and crosse fingred what effect it worketh 304. m Harefoot an hearbe 250. i seeding
Infant dead in the wombe how to be expelled or fetched away 58. g. 76. h. 106. g. 107. f. 125. d. 135. e. 142. k 157. c. 163. c. 180. h. 193. d. 266. l. m. 267. a. c. d. 273. f 339 e. 340. i. 350. g. 448. l. Infants mouthes sore with the cankers how to be helped 341. b. d. their gumbes sore how to be eased 341. b Infants marrow and braines found by some to be medicinable 293. d Infection by water and aire how to be corrected 134. k against Inflammations proper remedies discussiue 39. f 77. f. 105. a. 111. f. 120. k. 143. f. 146. h. 161. a. 168. l 185. e. 233. d. 262. i. 289. e. 313. b. c. 320. h. 531. c. Inflammations apostumat how to be cured 133. f. 289. c See more in Impostumes Inflammation of the pannicles containing the braines how to be cured 76. k Inguinaria 256. h. called by some Argemone ibid. Inke of the Cuttle fish 450. k. the strange operation thereof ibid. writing Inke taketh the perfection by gum Arabicke 530. l Inula an herbe described 18. i. the manner of dressing it and the vse thereof ibid how to be planted 18. k how to goe Inuisible 315. e Inundation of waters how to be staied 316. h Invocation vpon the gods thought to be effectuall 294. l I O S. Iohns-wort See Coris and Hipericon Ioints shrunke how to be mollified and drawne out 78. h 126. i. Ioints bruised and hurt by crush or rap how to be cured 394. k for Ioints pained or in ach and otherwise diseased comfortable medicines 48. m. 73. a. 77. b. 128. g. 146. h. 174 l 189. c. 207. e. 258. k. l. 262. l. 423. f. 432. l. 443. a 445. a. c. 557. e. See more in Gout Iollas a Physician 67. e. 506. m Ion a pretious stone why so called 628. h Iotapes a magician 373. d Iovetanum what 518. h Iphicrates an excellent imageur and grauer 501. b. his workemanship ibid. Iphis a painter well thought for his workemanship 549. f I R Irene a woman excellent in painting with the pencil 551. a Ireos Iris or Floure-delis the vertues thereof in Physicke 105. b. See more in Floure-delis Irinum what oile and where it is best 88. g Irio an hearbe 144. h. the description and medicinable properties that it hath ibid. Iris a pretious stone 623. b. why it is called the root of crystall 623. b. whereupon it tooke the name Iris ibid. the properties that it hath 623. c. which is the best ibid. Iris another stone ibid. good against the bite of the Ichneumon ibid. I S Isatis an hearbe 45. c. what Plinie taketh it for ibid. Ischaemon what hearbe 233. f. why so called 224. g. the wonderfull power thereof in staunching bloud ibid. Ischias what hearbe 123. a Isidorus a famous imageur and his workes 502. i Ismenius a vaine and gaudie minstrell giuen to weare many gems and pretious stones 601. b by his example Musicians were knowne by wearing of such iewels ibid. Isodomon what kinde of worke in masonrie 593. f Isoetes what hearbe 237. c Isopyron an hearbe 284. g. the description ibid. Issues in the skin how to be made 168. i Issue of bloud out of the head or braine how to be staied 473. e. Issue of bloud gushing out of any part how to be staunched 263. c. 287. e. 341. b. 352. l. 393. b. 407. f. 424. h. 473 e 509. e. 510. k. 589. a. 590. i. out of a wound how to be stopped 424. i. 557. e. 559. a. See Bleeding and Nose-bleeding I T Italie the goodliest country in the World 632. k the commendation thereof in all respects 632. k. l Italie furnished with hearbes of powerfull operation 210. k Italie full of gold mines and other 469. c an act forbidding to breake any ground for mines in Italie ibid. Itch and itching pimples how to be killed 49. c. 60. l. 64. k 73. d. e. 105. a. 143. c. f. 144. l. 148. i. 149. a. 155. f 173. c. 174. g. 180. k. 232. m. 277. d. 306. i. 307. b 316. m. 317. d. 320. h. 337. a. 353. a. 367. b. 395. a 413. b. 419. b. 422. l. 437. d. 446. m. 557. d. 558. i. k 559. a. Itch occasioned by iaundise how repressed 419. e 422. i. I V Ivae Moscata an hearbe See Chamaepitys K. Iuba wrote the hictorie of Arabia 427. c Iubarbe See Sengreene and Housleeke Iudges of Rome who properly were called 459. d. 460. g chamber of Iudges instituted at Rome 459 f. See Decuries Iuell-caskets 602. g Ivie the vertues and discommodities that it hath 189. d killed with a touch of a menstruous woman 308. m Iulides what fishes 441. l Iulius Rufas died of a carbuncle 241. d Iuniper tree what vertues it yeeldeth in Physicke 186. h Ivorie Minerall 588. h Iupiters garden about Athens 410. g Iupiter Ammon 415. b Iupiter Labradius 428. k Iupiter Latrarius 495. f Iupiters image at Rome was vsually painted with vermillion against high daies 475. c the first thing enioyned by the Censors to paint his visage with vermillion 475. d Iupiter Tonans his image at Rome wrought by Leocras 502. k. Iupiter and Ianoes temple at Rome mismatched in the pictures and images that beautifie the places and by what occasion 570. k Iupiters image of cley in the Capitoll 553. a therefore it was vsually painted with vermillion 553. a Iupiters gem a pretious stone 628. g I X Ixias the viscous gum and venomous how it is mortified 56 〈◊〉 where it is engendred 123 f. why so called 124. g Ixias the hearbe Chamaeleon 123. f Ixine what hearbe 98. i K I KIbed heels how to be cured 47 b. 122 g. 128 i k. 134 k 139 b. 141 f. 143 c. 159 c. 165 b. 167 e. 194 m 258 m. 274 k. 319 c. 334 k. 386 i k. 413 b. 419 d 437 d. 445 b c. 475 b. 559 b c. for Kidnies pained and diseased appropriat remedies 37. b 43 b. 47 c. 57 d. 66. k. 119 d. 120 h. 124 l. 125 c 127 c. 130 g k. 141. f 150 l. 157 a. 171 e. 330 h. 422. k 556 l. Kidnies obstructed what medicines doe open and cleanse 167 c. 444 h. 529 b. Kidnies exulcerat how to be healed 171. d Kilpes See Reike or Seaweed Kine and Oxen how to be preserued healthfull 400. g Kings euill swelling and hard by what medicines to be cured 40 h. 44. g. 50 m. 52 g. 56 h. 58 h. 62 m. 65 a 72 g m. 73 b d. 75. a. 105 e. 106. l. 111 f. 119 d 120 k 122 k. l. 127. c. 128 i. 129 d. 138 k. 139 a 141 e. 142 g. 143 e. 144 g. 164 h. 166 m. 168 h k 169 a b. 178 h. 179 a h. 180 g m. 183 d. 193. c 199 e. 206 l. 118 k. 139 b e. 245 c. e. 250 h. 251. a 256 h. 265 b. 289 g. 282 h. 301 f. 309 d. 320 h 328 k. m. 370. l. 379 a b c d e. 431 e. 432 g.
bath of this decoction The root of this Cerrus in powerful against the prick of scorpions The bark of the Corke tree beaten into pouder and taken in hot water is excellent for to represse any flux of bloud whether it be vpward or downward The ashes of the said bark giuen in wine hot is greatly commended for the reaching and spitting of bloud CHAP. V. ¶ Of the Beech and Cypressetrees Of the great Cedars and their fruit called Cedrides of Galbanum THe leaues of the Beech tree being chewed do much good to the gums and lips in any accidents that be fall vnto them The ashes of Beech mast is singular for the stone if it bee applied as a liniment The same also bringeth haire againe when by occasion of sicknesse it is shed and fallen away if the place be annointed with it and hony together Cypresse tree leaues stamped and so applied are a conuenient remedie for the sting of Serpents Also laid vnto the head with dried groats of Barley they ease the pain therof occasioned by the heat of the Sunne In like sort the same cataplasme cureth ruptures For which cause a drinke made of them is very good A liniment also of Cypresse leaues and waxe mingled together assuageth the swelling of the cods Tempered with vineger they will make the haire cole black Moreouer if they be stamped with two parts of soft dough or the tender crums of bread so incorporat together with Amminean wine they allay the paine of the feet or the sinews The little bals or Apples hanging vpon Cypresse trees are soueraigne for to be taken in drinke against the sting of serpents and for the casting vp of bloud out of the body Brought into an onitment they serue for the swellings or impostumes gathered to a place Take them whiles they be yong and tender stamp them with swines grease and Bean floure they do much good to those that are bursten and for that purpose a drink made of them is passing effectuall With ordinary meale they serue in a cataplasme to be applied vpon the swelling kernels behinde the ears as also the kings euill There is a juice drawn out of these apples after they haue bin stamped together with their grains or seed within which if it be mingled with oile helpeth them to their cleare sight again whose eies are ouercast with a web dimmed The same effect it hath if it be taken in wine to the weight of one Victoriat or halfe dram But Cypresse apples rid and cleansed from their grains within and reduced into a liniment with fat dried figs and so applied vnto the cods cure their infirmities and namely resolue the tumors incident to those parts but incorporat with leuaine they dispatch the Scrophules or kings euill The root and leaues punned together and then taken in drink do comfort the bladder and help such as are diseased with the strangury they serue also against the prick of the venomous spiders Phalangia Their small shauings or scrapings if a woman take in her drinke procure her monethly terms and are singular for the sting of scorpions The great Cedar called by the Greeks Cedrelate as one would say the Fir-Cedre yeeldeth a certain pitch or parrosin named Cedria a singular medicine for the tooth-ach for it breaketh them fetcheth them out of the head and easeth all their pain As touching the liquor that runneth from the Cedar and the manner how it is made I haue written already this kind of pitch were excellent for the eies but for one discommodity in that it causeth head-ach It preserueth dead bodies from corruption a world of yeares contrariwise liuing bodies it doth putrifie and corrupt A strange and wonderfull property thus to mortifie the quick and quicken as it were the dead It marreth and rotteth apparell as wel linnen as woollen and it killeth all liuing creatures And therefore I would not aduise as some haue done to tast this medicine and take it inwardly for the squinancie or crudities of the stomack neither would I be bold but fear rather to prescribe it in a collution with vineger to wash the mouth withall for the toothach or to drop it into their eares who be hard of hearing or otherwise haue vermine within them But a monstrous and beastly thing it is which some report of it That if a man do annoint therwith the instrument or part seruing for generation at what time as he is minded to know a woman carnally it wil bring her to an abortiue slip if she were conceiued before or hinder conception if she were cleare Howbeit I would not make doubt to annoint therwith the head other parts for to kill lice or to rid away the scurffe or scaily dandruffe among the haire either in head or face Some giue counsell for to drink it in sweet wine cuit vnto them who are poisoned with the sea Hare For mine own part I hold it a safer way and an easier to annoint therwith the leprosie But some of the foresaid authours haue applied it to filthy putrified and stinking vlcers the excrescences therein as also to rub or annoint therwith the eies against the pin and web such accidents as dim and darken the sight Moreouer they haue prescribed to drink a cyath of it for to cure the vlcer of the lungs and to expell wormes and vermin out of the belly Of this pitch or rosin there is an oile made which they call Pisselaeon and the same is far more strong in operation for all the infirmities aboue named than the simple rosin it selfe Certaine it is that the fine dust scraped or filed from the Cedar wood chaseth away serpents so do the berries also of the Cedar beaten to pouder and reduced with oile into a liniment in case a man annoint his body all ouer with the same As touching Cedrides i. the fruit of the Cedar it is soueraign for the cough and prouokes vrine bindeth the belly healeth ruptures It cureth spasmes convulsions or cramps yea and helpeth the infirmities of the matrice if it be applied accordingly Also it is a counterpoison against the venomous sea Hare and a medicine for other maladies aboue named and namely for apostemes and inflammations Of Galbanum I haue written heretofore Good Galbanum should be neither moist nor dry but such in all respects as I haue described already Being taken of it selfe alone in drink it cureth an inueterat cough shortnesse and difficultie of winde ruptures crampes and convulsions Outwardly applied it is singular for the Sciatica pleurisie or pains of the side angry biles and fellons It is good also to be vsed in case the flesh corrupted by meanes of corrosiue vlcers as wolues and such other is departed and eaten from the bone moreouer for the wens called Scrophules or the kings euill the knots and nodosities growing vpon the ioints and the tooth-ach it serueth also in a liniment with hony for to annoint scald heads With oile