CHAPTER II.

OF DISEASES RELATING TO WOMEN’S MONTHLY TERMS.

SECT. I. _Of Women’s Monthly Terms in General._

That divine Providence, which with a wisdom peculiar to itself has appointed woman to conceive, and to bear and bring forth children, has provided for the nourishment of children during their recess in the womb of their mother, by that redundancy of the blood which is natural to all women; and which, flowing out at certain periods of time (when they are not pregnant), are from thence called _terms_ and _menses_, from their monthly flux of excrementitious and unprofitable blood. Now, that the matter flowing forth is excrementitious, is to be understood only with respect to the redundancy and overplus thereof, being an excrement only with respect to its quality; for as to its quality, it is as pure and incorrupt as any blood in the veins; and this appears from the final cause of it, which is the propagation and conservation of mankind; and also, from the generation of it, being the superfluity of the last aliment of the fleshy parts. If any ask, if the menses be not of a hurtful quality, how can they cause such venomous effects? If they fall upon trees and herbs, they make one barren and mortify the other. I answer, this malignity is contracted in the womb; for the woman wanting native heat to digest the superfluity, sends it to the matrix, where seating itself till the mouth of the womb be dilated, it becomes corrupt and mortified; which may easily be, considering the heat and moistness of the place; and so this blood being out of its proper vessels, offends in quality.

SECT. II. _Of Terms coming out of order, either before or after the usual Time._

Having, in the former part of this work, treated of the suppression and overflow of the monthly terms, I shall content myself with referring the reader thereto, and proceed to speak of their coming out of order, either before or after the usual time.

Both these proceed from an ill constitution of body. Every thing is beautiful in its order, in nature, as well as in mortality; and if the order of nature be broke it shows the body to be out of order. Of each of these effects briefly.

When the monthly terms come before their time, showing a depraved excretion, and flowing sometimes twice a month, the cause is in the blood, which stirs up the expulsive faculty of the womb, or else in the whole body, and is frequently occasioned by the person’s diet, which increases the blood too much, making it too sharp or too hot. If the retentive faculty of the womb be weak, and the expulsive faculty strong, and of a quick sense, it brings them forth the sooner. Sometimes they flow sooner by reason of a fall, stroke, or some violent passion, which the parties themselves can best relate. If it be from heat, thin and sharp humours, it is known by the distemper of the whole body. The looseness of the vessels, and weakness of the retentive faculty, is known from a moist and loose habit of the body. It is more troublesome than dangerous. If it proceed from a sharp blood, let her temper it by a good diet and medicines. To which purpose, let her use baths of iron water, that correct the distemper of the bowels, and then evacuate. If it proceed from the retentive faculty, and looseness of the vessels, it is to be corrected with gentle astringents.

As to the menses flowing after the usual time, the causes are, thickness of the blood and the smallness of its quantity, with the straitness of the passage, and the weakness of the expulsive faculties. Either of these singly may stop the menses, but if they all concur, they render the distemper worse. If the blood abounds not in such a quantity as may stir up nature to expel it, its purging must necessarily be deferred till there be enough. And if the blood be thick, the passage stopped, and the expulsive faculty weak, the menses must needs be out of order, and the purging of them retarded.

For the cure of this, if the quantity of blood be small, let her use a larger diet, and very little exercise. If the blood be thick and foul, let it be made thin, and the humours mixed therewith be evacuated. It is good to purge after the menses have done flowing, and to use calamint; and indeed the oftener she purges the better. She may also use fumes and pessaries, apply cupping-glasses without scarification to the inside of the thighs, and rub the legs and scarify the ancles, and hold the feet in warm water four or five days before the menses come down. Let her also anoint the bottom part of her abdomen with things proper to provoke the terms.

_Remedies for Disorders in Women’s Paps._

Make a cataplasm of bean meal and salad oil, and lay it to the place affected. Or anoint with the juice of papilaris. This must be done when the paps are very sore.

If the paps be hard and swelled, take a handful of rue, colewort roots, horehound and mint; if you cannot get all these conveniently, any two will do; pound the handful in honey, and apply it once every day till healed.

If the nipples be stiff and sore, anoint twice a day with Florence oil till healed.

If the paps be flappy and hanging, bruise a little hemlock, and apply it to the breast for three days; but let it not stand above seven hours. Or, which is safer, rusæ juice well boiled, with a little smapios added thereto, and anoint.

If the paps be hard and dead, make a plate of lead pretty thin, to answer the breasts; let this stand nine hours each day, for three days. Or sassafras bruised, and used in like manner.

_Receipt for Procuring Milk._

Drink arpleni, drawn as tea, for twenty-one days. Or eat aniseeds. Also the juice of arbor vitæ, a glassful once a day for eleven days, is very good, for it quickens the memory, strengthens the body, and causeth milk to flow in abundance.

_Directions for Drawing of Blood._

Drawing of blood was at first invented for good and salutary purposes, although often abused and misapplied. To bleed in the left arm removes long-continued pains and head-aches. It is also good for those who have got falls and bruises.

Bleeding is good for many disorders, and generally proves a cure, except in some very extraordinary cases; and in these cases bleeding is hurtful.

If a woman be pregnant, to draw a little blood will give her ease, good health and a lusty child.

Bleeding is a most certain cure for no less than twenty-one disorders, without any outward or inward applications; and for many more, with application of drugs, herbs and flowers.

When the moon is on the increase, you may let blood at any time, day or night; but when she is on the decline, you must bleed only in the morning.

Bleeding may be performed from the month of March to November. No bleeding in December, January, or February, unless an occasion require it. The months of March, April, and November, are the three chief months of the year for bleeding in; but it may be performed with safety from the 9th of March to the 19th of November.

To prevent the dangers that may arise from the unskilful drawing of blood, let none open a vein but a person of experience and practice. There are three sorts of people you must not let draw blood: first, ignorant and inexperienced pretenders. Secondly, those who have bad sight and trembling hands, whether skilled or unskilled. For when the hand trembles, the lancet is apt to startle from the vein, and the flesh be thereby damaged, which may hurt, canker, and very much torment the patient. Thirdly, let no woman bleed you, but such as has gone through a course of midwifery at college; for those who are unskilful may cut an artery, to the great damage of the patient. Besides, what is still worse, those pretended bleeders, who take it up at their own hand, generally keep unedged and rusty lancets, which will prove hurtful even in a skilful hand. Accordingly, you ought to be cautious in choosing your physician: a man of learning knows what vein to open for each disorder; he knows how much blood to take as soon as he sees the patient; and he can give you suitable advice concerning your disorder.

ARISTOTLE’S BOOK OF PROBLEMS, WITH OTHER ASTRONOMERS, ASTROLOGERS, AND PHYSICIANS, CONCERNING THE STATE OF MAN’S BODY.

Q. Among all living creatures, why hath man only his countenance lifted up towards heaven? A. 1. From the will of the Creator. But, although this answer be true, yet it seemeth not to be of force, because that so all questions might be easily resolved. Therefore, 2. I answer, that, for the most part, every workman doth make his first work worse, and then his second better; so God creating all other animals before man gave them their face looking down to the earth; and then secondly, he created man, unto whom he gave an upright shape, lifted unto heaven, because it is drawn from divinity, and is derived from the goodness of God, who maketh all his works both perfect and good. 3. Man only among all living creatures, is ordained to the kingdom of heaven and therefore hath his face elevated and lifted up to heaven, because that, despising earthly and worldly things, he ought often to contemplate on heavenly things. 4. That the reasonable man is like unto angels, and finally ordained towards God; and therefore he hath a figure looking upward. 5. Man is a microcosm, that is, a little world, and therefore he doth command all other living creatures, and they obey him. 6. Naturally there is unto every thing and every work that form and figure given which is fit and proper for its motion; as unto the heavens roundness, to the fire a pyramidical form, that is, broad beneath and sharp towards the top, which form is most apt to ascend; and so man has his face towards heaven, to behold the wonders of God’s works.

Q. Why are the heads of men hairy? A. The hair is the ornament of the head, and the brain is purged of gross humours by the growing of the hair, from the highest to the lowest, which pass through the pores of the exterior flesh, become dry, and converted into hair. This appears to be the case from the circumstance that in all man’s body there is nothing drier than the hair, for it is drier than the bones; and it is well known that some beasts are nourished with bones, as dogs, but they cannot digest feathers or hair, but void them undigested, being too hot for nourishment. 2. It is answered, that the brain is purged in three different ways; of superfluous watery humours by the eyes, of choler by the nose, and of phlegm by the hair; which is the opinion of the best physicians.

Q. Why have men longer hair on their heads than any other living creatures? A. Arist. de. Generat. Anim. says, that men have the moistest brains of all living creatures, from which the seed proceedeth which is converted into the long hair of the head. 2. The humours of men are fat, and do not become dry easily; and therefore the hair groweth long on them. In beasts, the humours easily dry, and therefore the hair groweth not so long.

Q. Why doth the hair take deeper root in man’s skin than in that of any other living creatures? A. Because it has greater store of nourishment in man, and therefore grows more in the inward parts of man. And this is the reason why in other creatures the hair doth alter and change with the skin, and not in man, unless by a scar or wound.

Q. Why have women longer hair than men? A. 1. Because women are moister and more phlegmatic than men; and therefore there is more matter for hair in them, and, by consequence, the length also of their hair. And, furthermore, this matter is more increased in women than men from their interior parts, and especially in the time of their monthly terms, because the matter doth then ascend, whereby the humour which breedeth the hair doth increase. 2. Because women want beards; so the matter of the beard doth go into that of the hair.

Q. Why have some women soft hair and some hard? A. 1. The hair hath proportion with the skin; of which some is hard, some thick, some subtle and soft, and some gross; therefore the hair which grows out of a thick gross skin, is thick and gross; that which groweth out of a subtle and fine skin is fine and soft; when the pores are open, then cometh forth much humour, and therefore hard hair is engendered; and when the pores are strait, then there doth grow soft and fine hair. This doth evidently appear in men, because women have softer hair than they; for in women the pores are shut and strait, by reason of their coldness. 2. Because for the most part, choleric men have harder and thicker hair than others, by reason of their heat, and because their pores are always open, and therefore they have beards sooner than others. For this reason also, those beasts which have hard hair are the boldest, because such have proceeded from heat and choler, examples of which we have in the bear and boar; and contrariwise, those beasts that have soft hair are fearful, because they are cold, as the hare and the hart. 3. From the climate where a man is born; because in hot regions hard and gross hair is engendered, as appears in the Ethiopians, and the contrary is the case in cold countries towards the north.

Q. Why have some men curled hair and some smooth? A. From the superior degree of heat in some men, which makes the hair curl and grow upward: this is proved by a man’s having smooth hair when he goes into a hot bath, and it afterwards becomes curled. Therefore, keepers of baths have often curled hair, as also Ethiopians and choleric men. But the cause of the smoothness is the abundance of moist humours.

Q. Why have not women beards? A. Because they want heat; which is the case with some effeminate men, who are beardless from the same cause, and have complexions like women.

Q. Why doth the hair grow on those who are hanged? A. Because their bodies are exposed to the sun, which by its heat doth dissolve all moisture into the fume or vapour of which the hair doth grow.

Q. Why is the hair of the beard thicker and grosser than elsewhere; and the more men are shaven, the harder and thicker it groweth? A. Because by so much as the humours or vapours of any liquid are dissolved and taken away, so much the more doth the humour remaining draw to the same; and therefore, the more the hair is shaven, the thicker the humours gather which engenders the hair, and cause it to wax hard.

Q. Why are women smoother and fairer than men? A. Because in women much of the humidity and superfluity, which are the matter and cause of the hair of the body, is expelled with their monthly terms; which superfluity, remaining in men, through vapours passes into hair.

Q. Why doth man, above all other creatures, wax hoary and gray? A. Because man hath the hottest heart of all living creatures; and, therefore, nature being most wise, lest a man should be suffocated through the heat of his heart, hath placed the heart which is most hot, under the brain, which is most cold; to the end that the heat of the heart may be tempered by the coldness of the brain; and contrariwise, that the coldness of the brain may be qualified by the heat of the heart; and thereby there might be a temperature in both. A proof of this is, that of all living creatures man hath the worst breath when he comes to full age. Furthermore, man doth consume nearly half his time in sleep, which doth proceed from the great excess of coldness and moisture in the brain, and from his wanting natural heat to digest and consume that moisture, which heat he hath in his youth, and therefore in that age it is not gray, but in old age when heat faileth; because then the vapours ascending from the stomach remain undigested and unconsumed for want of natural heat, and thus putrefy, of which putrefaction of humours the whiteness doth follow which is called grayness or hoariness. Whereby it doth appear, that hoariness is nothing else but a whiteness of hair, caused by a putrefaction of the humours about the roots of the hair, through the want of natural heat in old age. Sometimes all grayness is caused by the naughtiness of the complexion, which may happen in youth; sometimes through over great fear and care, as appeareth in merchants, sailors, and thieves.

Q. Why doth red hair grow white sooner than hair of any other colour? A. Because redness is an infirmity of the hair; for it is engendered of a weak and infirm matter, that is of matter corrupted with the flowers of the woman; and therefore it waxes white sooner than any other.

Q. Why do wolves grow grisly? A. To understand this question, note the difference between grayness and grisliness: grayness is caused through defect of natural heat, but grisliness through devouring and heat. The wolf being a devouring animal beast, he eateth gluttonously without chewing, and enough at once for three days; in consequence of which, gross vapours are engendered in the wolfs body, which cause grisliness. Grayness and grisliness have this difference; grayness is only in the head, but grisliness all over the body.

Q. Why do horses grow grisly and gray? A. Because they are for the most part in the sun, and heat naturally causes putrefaction; therefore the matter of air doth putrefy, and in consequence they are quickly peeled.

Q. Why are not women bald? A. Because they are cold and moist, which are the causes that the hair remaineth; for moistness doth give nutriment to the hair, and coldness doth bind the pores.

Q. Why are not blind men naturally bald? A. Because the eye hath moisture in it, and that moisture which should pass through by the substance of the eyes doth become a sufficient nutriment for the hair, and therefore they are seldom bald.

Q. Why doth the hair stand on end when men are afraid? A. Because in time of fear the heat doth go from the outward parts of the body into the inward to help the heart, and so the pores in which the hair is fastened are shut up; after which stopping and shutting up of the pores, the standing up of the hair doth follow.

_Of the Head._

Q. Why is a man’s head round? A. Because it contains in it the moistest parts of the living creature; and also that the brain may be defended thereby, as with a shield.

Q. Why is the head not absolutely long, but somewhat round? A. To the end that the three creeks and cells of the brain might the better be distinguished: that is, the fancy in the forehead, the discoursing or reasonable part in the middle, and memory in the hindermost part.

Q. Why doth a man lift up his head towards the heavens when he doth imagine? A. Because the imagination is the fore part of the head or brain, and therefore it lifteth up itself, that the creeks or cells of the imagination may be opened, and that the spirits which help the imagination, and are fit for that purpose, having their concourse thither, may help the imagination.

Q. Why doth a man, when he museth or thinketh of things past, look towards the earth? A. Because the cell or creek which is behind, is the creek or chamber of the memory; and therefore that looketh towards the heavens when the head is bowed down, and so that cell is open, to the end that the spirits which perfect the memory should enter in.

Q. Why is not the head fleshy, like other parts of the body? A. Because the head would be too heavy, and would not stand steadily. Also, a head loaded with flesh betokens an evil complexion.

Q. Why is the head subject to aches and griefs? A. By reason that evil humours, which proceed from the stomach, ascend up to the head and disturb the brain, and so cause pain in the head: sometimes it proceeds from overmuch filling the stomach, because two great sinews pass from the brain to the mouth of the stomach, and therefore these two parts do always suffer grief together.

Q. Why have women the headache oftener than man? A. By reason of their monthly terms, which men are not troubled with; and by which a moist, unclean, and venomous fume is produced, that seeks passage upwards, and so causes the headache.

Q. Why is the brain white? A. 1. Because it is cold, and coldness is the mother of white. 2. Because it may receive the similitude and likeness of all colours, which the white colour can best do, because it is most simple.

Q. Why are all the senses in the head? A. Because the brain is there, on which all the senses depend, and are directed by it; and consequently, it maketh all the spirits to feel, and governeth all the membranes.

Q. Why cannot a person escape death if the brain or heart be hurt? A. Because the brain and heart are the two principal parts which concern life; and, therefore, if they be hurt, there is no remedy left for cure.

Q. Why is the brain moist? A. Because it may easily receive an impression, which moisture can best do, as it appeareth in wax, which doth easily receive the print of the seal when soft.

Q. Why is the brain cold? A. 1. Because that by this coldness it may clear the understanding of man, and make it subtle. 2. That by the coldness of the brain the heat of the heart may be tempered.

_Of the Eyes._

Q. Why have you one nose and two eyes? A. Because light is more necessary for us than smelling; and therefore it doth proceed from the goodness of Nature, that if we receive any hurt or loss of one eye, the other may remain.

Q. Why have children great eyes in their youth, which become small as they grow up? A. It proceeds from the want of fire, and from the assemblage and meeting together of the light and humour; the eyes being lightened by the sun, which doth lighten the easy humour thereof and purge them; and, in the absence of the sun, those humours become dark and black, and the sight not so good.

Q. Why does the blueish gray eye see badly in the day-time, and well in the night? A. Because grayness is light and shining of itself, and the spirits with which we see are weakened in the day-time and strengthened in the night.

Q. Why are men’s eyes of divers colours? A. By reason of diversity of humours. The eye hath four coverings and three humours. The first covering is called consolidative, which is the outermost, strong and fat. The second is called a horny skin or covering, of the likeness of a horn; which is a clear covering. The third, uvea, of the likeness of a black grape. The fourth is called a cobweb. The first humour is called _abungines_, from its likeness unto the white of an egg. The second _glarial_; that is, clear, like unto crystalline. The third, _vitreous_; that is, clear as glass. And the diversity of humours causeth the diversity of the eye.

Q. Why are men who have but one eye good archers? and why do good archers commonly shut one eye? And why do such as behold the stars look through a trunk with one eye? A. This matter is handled in the perspective arts; and the reason is, as it doth appear in _The Book of Causes_, because that every virtue and strength united and knit together is stronger than when dispersed and scattered. Therefore all the force of seeing dispersed in two eyes, the one being shut, is gathered into the other; and so the light is fortified in him; and by consequence he doth see better and more certainly with one eye being shut, than when both are open.

Q. Why do those that drink and laugh much shed most tears? A. Because that while they drink and laugh without measure, the air which is drawn in doth not pass out through the wind-pipe, and so with force is directed and sent to the eyes, and by their pores passing out, doth expel the humours of the eyes; which humour being so expelled brings tears.

Q. Why do such as weep much, urine but little? A. Because the radical humidity of a tear and of urine are of one and the same nature; and therefore, where weeping doth increase, urine diminishes. And that they are of one nature is plain to the taste, because they are both salt.

Q. Why do some that have clear eyes see nothing? A. By reason of the oppilation and naughtiness of the sinews with which we see; for the temples being destroyed, the strength of the light cannot be carried from the brain to the eye.

Q. Why is the eye clear and smooth like glass? A. 1. Because the things which may be seen are better beaten back from a smooth thing than otherwise, that thereby the sight should strengthen. 2. Because the eye is moist above all parts of the body, and of a waterish nature; and as the water is clear and smooth, so likewise is the eye.

Q. Why do men and beasts who have their eyes deep in their head see best far off? A. Because the force and power by which we see is not dispersed in them, and doth go directly to the thing which is seen. Thus, when a man doth stand in a deep ditch or well, he doth see in the day-time the stars of the firmament; because then the power of the sight and of the beams are not scattered.

Q. Wherefore do those men who have eyes far out in their head not see far distant? A. Because the beams of the sight which pass from the eye are scattered on every side, and go not directly unto the thing that is seen, and therefore the sight is weakened.

Q. Why are many beasts born blind, as lions’ whelps and dogs’ whelps? A. Because such beasts are not yet of perfect ripeness and maturity, and the course of nutriment doth not work in them. Thus, the swallow, whose eyes, if they were taken out when they are young in their nest, would grow in again. And this is the case in many beasts who are brought forth before their time, as it were dead, as bears’ whelps.

Q. Why do the eyes of a woman that hath her flowers stain new glass? And why doth a basilisk kill a man with his sight? A. 1. When the flowers do run from a woman, then a most venomous air is distilled from them, which doth ascend into the woman’s head; and she having pain in her head, doth wrap it up with a cloth or handkerchief; and, because the eyes are full of insensible holes, which are called pores, there the air seeketh a passage and infects the eyes, which are full of blood. The eyes also appear dropping and full of tears, by reason of the evil vapour that is in them; and these vapours are incorporated and multiplied till they come to the glass before them; and by reason that such a glass is round, clear, and smooth, it doth easily receive that which is unclean. 2. The basilisk is a very venomous and infectious animal, and there pass from his eyes venomous vapours, which are multiplied upon the thing which is seen by him, and even unto the eye of man; the which venomous vapours or humours entering into the body do infect him, and so in the end the man dieth. And this is also the reason why the basilisk, looking upon a shield perfectly well made with fast clammy pitch, or any hard smooth thing, doth kill itself, because the humours are beaten back from the hard smooth thing unto the basilisk, by which beating back he is killed.

Q. Why is the sparkling in cats’ eyes and wolves’ eyes seen in the dark and not in the light? A. Because that the greater light doth darken the lesser; and therefore in a greater light the sparkling cannot be seen; but the greater the darkness, the easier it is seen, and is made more strong and shining.

Q. Why is the sight retreated and refreshed by a green colour? A. Because green doth merely move the sight, and therefore doth comfort it; but this doth not black nor white colours, because these colours do vehemently stir and alter the organ and instrument of the sight, and therefore make the greater violence; and by how much the more violent the thing is which is felt or seen, the more it doth destroy and weaken the sense.

_Of the Nose._

Q. Why doth the nose stand out farther than any other part of the body? A. 1. Because the nose is as it were, the sink of the brain, by which the phlegm of the brain is purged; and therefore it doth stand forth, lest the other parts should be defiled. 2. Because the nose is the beauty of the face, and doth smell.

Q. Why hath man the worst smell of all creatures? A. Because man hath most brains of all creatures; and, therefore, by exceeding coldness and moisture, the brain wanteth a good disposition, and by consequence, the smelling instrument is not good; yea, some men have no smell.

Q. Why have vultures and comorants a keen smell? A. Because they have a very dry brain; and therefore, the air carrying the smell is not hindered by the humidity of the brain, but doth presently touch its instrument; and, therefore, vultures, tigers, and other ravenous beasts, have been known to come five hundred miles after dead bodies.

Q. Why did nature make the nostrils? A. 1. Because, the mouth being shut, we draw breath in by the nostrils to refresh the heart. 2. Because the air which proceedeth from the mouth doth savour badly, because of the vapours which rise from the stomach, but that which we breathe from the nose is not noisome. 3. Because the phlegm which doth proceed from the brain is purged by them.

Q. Why do men sneeze? A. That the expulsive virtue and power of the sight should thereby be purged, and the brain also, from superfluities: because, as the lungs are purged by coughing, so is the sight and brain by sneezing; and therefore physicians give sneezing medicaments to purge the brain; and thus it is, such sick persons that cannot sneeze die quickly, because it is a sign their brain is wholly stuffed with evil humours, which cannot be purged.

Q. Why do not such as are apoplectic sneeze; that is, such as are subject easily to bleed? A. Because the passages or ventricles of the brain are stopped; and if they could sneeze, their apoplexy would be loosed.

Q. Why does the heat of the sun provoke sneezing, and not the heat of the fire? A. Because the heat of the sun doth dissolve, but not consume, and therefore the vapour dissolved is expelled by sneezing; but the heat of the fire doth dissolve and consume, and therefore doth rather hinder sneezing than provoke it.

_Of the Ears_

Q. Why do beasts move their ears, and not men? A. Because there is a certain muscle near the under-jaw which doth cause motion in the ear; and therefore that muscle being extended and stretched, men do not move their ears, as it hath been seen in divers men; but all beasts do use that muscle or fleshy sinew, and therefore do move their ears.

Q. Why is rain prognosticated by the pricking up of asses’ ears? A. Because the ass is of a melancholic constitution, and the approach of rain produceth that effect upon such a constitution. In the time of rain all beasts prick up their ears, but the ass before it comes.

Q. Why have some animals no ears? A. Nature giveth unto every thing that which is fit for it; but if she had given birds ears, their flying would have been hindered by them. Likewise fish want ears, because they would hinder their swimming, and have only certain little holes through which they hear.

Q. Why have bats ears, although of the bird kind? A. Because they are partly birds in nature, in that they fly, by reason whereof they have wings; and partly they are hairy, and seem to be of the nature of mice, therefore nature hath given them ears.

Q. Why have men only round ears? A. Because the shape of the whole and of the parts should be proportionable, and especially in all things of one nature; for as a drop of water is round, so the whole water; and so, because a man’s head is round, the ear inclines towards the same figure; but the heads of beasts are somewhat long, and so the ears are drawn into length likewise.

Q. Why hath nature given all living creatures ears? A. 1. Because with them they should hear. 2. Because by the ear choleric superfluity is purged; for as the head is purged of phlegmatic superfluity by the nose, so from choleric by the ears.

_Of the Mouth._

Q. Why hath the mouth lips to compass it? A. Because the lips cover and defend the teeth; for it would be unseemly if the teeth were always seen. Also, the teeth being of a cold nature, would soon be hurt if they were not covered with lips.

Q. Why has a man two eyes, two ears, and but one mouth? A. Because a man should speak but little, and hear and see much. And by hearing and the light we see the difference of things.

Q. Why hath a man a mouth? A. 1. Because the mouth is the gate or door of the stomach. 2. Because the meat is chewed in the mouth, and prepared and made ready for the first digestion. 3. Because the air drawn into the hollow of the mouth for the refreshing of the heart is made pure and subtle.

Q. Why are the lips moveable? A. For the purpose of forming the voice and words, which cannot be perfectly done without them. For, as without _a_, _b_, _c_, there is no writing, so without the lips no voice can be well formed.

Q. What causes man to yawn or gape? A. It proceeds from the thick fume and vapours that fill the jaws; by the expulsion of which is caused the stretching out and expansion of the jaws, and opening of the mouth.

Q. Why doth a man gape when he seeth another doing the same? A. It proceeds from the imagination. And this is proved by the similitude of the ass, who, by reason of his melancholy, doth retain his superfluity for a long time, and would neither eat nor make water unless he should hear another doing the like.

_Of the Teeth._

Q. Why do the teeth only, amongst all other bones, experience the sense of feeling? A. That they may discern heat and cold, that hurt them, which other bones need not.

Q. Why have men more teeth than women? A. By reason of the abundance of heat and blood, which is more in men than women.

Q. Why do the teeth grow to the end of our life, and not the other bones? A. Because otherwise they would be consumed with chewing and grinding.

Q. Why do the teeth only come again when they fail, or be taken out, and other bones being taken away grow no more? A. Because all other bones are engendered of the humidity which is called radical, and so they breed in the womb of the mother; but the teeth are engendered of nutritive humidity, which is renewed and increased from day to day.

Q. Why do the fore-teeth fall in youth, and grow again, and not the cheek teeth? A. From the defect of matter, and from the figure; because the fore-teeth are sharp, and the others broad. Also, it is the office of the fore-teeth to cut the meat, and therefore they are sharp; and the office of the other to chew the meat, and therefore they are broad in fashion, which is fittest for that purpose.

Q. Why do the fore-teeth grow soonest? A. Because we want them sooner in cutting than the others in chewing.

Q. Why do the teeth grow black in human creatures in their old age? A. It is occasioned by the corruption of the meat, and the corruption of phlegm, with a choleric humour.

Q. Why are colt’s teeth yellow, and of the colour of saffron, when they are young, and become white when they grow up? A. Because horses have abundance of watery humours in them, which in their youth are digested and converted into grossness; but in old age heat diminishes, and the watery humours remain, whose proper colour is white.

Q. Why did nature give living creatures teeth? A. To some to fight with, and for defence of their lives, as unto wolves and bats; unto some to eat with, as unto horses; unto some for the forming of voice, as unto men.

Q. Why do horned beasts want their upper teeth? A. Horns and teeth are caused by the same matter, that is, nutrimental humidity, and therefore the matter which passeth into horns turneth not into teeth, consequently they want the upper teeth. And beasts cannot chew well; therefore, to supply the want of teeth, they have two stomachs, from whence it returns, and they chew it again; then it goes into the other to be digested.

Q. Why are some creatures brought forth, with teeth, as kids and lambs; and some without, as men? A. Nature doth not want unnecessary things, nor abound in superfluous; and therefore because these beasts, not long after they are fallen, do need teeth, they are fallen with teeth; but men, being nourished by their mother, for a long time, do not stand in need of teeth.

_Of the Tongue._

Q. Why is the tongue full of pores? A. Because the tongue is the means whereby we taste; and through the mouth, in the pores of the tongue, doth proceed the sense of tasting. Again, it is observed, that frothy spittle is sent into the mouth by the tongue from the lungs, moistening the meat, and making it ready for digestion.

Q. Why do the tongues of such as are sick of agues judge all things bitter? A. Because the stomachs of such people are filled with choleric humours; and choler is very bitter, as appeareth by the gall; therefore, this bitter fume doth infect their tongues; and so the tongue being full of those tastes, doth judge every thing bitter.

Q. Why doth the tongue water when we hear sour and sharp things spoken of? A. Because the imaginative virtue or power is of greater force than the power and faculty of tasting; and when we imagine a taste, we conceive the power of tasting as a means; there is nothing felt by the taste, but by means of the spittle the tongue doth water.

Q. Why do some persons stammer and lisp? A. Sometimes through the moistness of the tongue and brain, as in children, who cannot speak plainly nor pronounce many letters. Sometimes it happeneth by reason of the shrinking of certain sinews which go to the tongue, which are corrupted with phlegm.

Q. Why are the tongues of serpents and mad dogs venomous? A. Because of the malignity and tumosity of the venomous humour which predominates in them.

Q. Why is a dog’s tongue good for medicine, and a horse’s tongue pestiferous? A. By reason of some secret property, or that the tongue of a dog is full of pores, and so doth draw and take the viscosity of a wound. It is observed that a dog hath some humour in his tongue, with which, by licking, he doth heal; but the contrary effect is in a horse’s tongue.

Q. Why is spittle white? A. By reason of the continual movement of the tongue, whereof heat is engendered, which doth make this superfluity white; that is seen on the froth of water.

Q. Why is spittle unsavoury and without taste? A. If it had a certain determinate taste, then the tongue would not taste at all, but only give the taste of spittle, and could not distinguish others.

Q. Why does the spittle of one that is fasting heal an imposthume? A. Because it is well digested, and made subtle.

Q. Why do some abound in spittle more than others? A. This doth proceed of a phlegmatic complexion, which doth predominate in them; and such are liable to a quotidian ague, which ariseth from the predominance of phlegm: the contrary, in those that spit little, because heat abounds in them, which consumes the humidity of the spittle; and so the defect of spittle is the sign of fever.

Q. Why is the spittle of a man who is fasting more subtle than of one who is full? A. Because the spittle is without the viscosity of meat, which is wont to make the spittle of one who is full, gross and thick.

Q. From whence proceedeth the spittle of man? A. From the froth of the lungs, which, according to the physicians, is the seat of the phlegm.

Q. Why have not birds spittle? A. Because they have very dry lungs.

Q. Why doth the tongue sometimes lose the use of speaking? A. It is occasioned by a palsy or apoplexy, which is a sudden effusion of blood, and by gross humours; and sometimes also by infection of _spiritus animalis_ in the middle cell of the brain, which hinders the spirits from being carried to the tongue.

_Of the Roof of the Mouth._

Q. Why are fruits, before they are ripe, of a bitter or sour relish, and afterwards sweet? A. A sour relish or taste proceeds from coldness and want of heat in gross and thick humidity; but a sweet taste is produced by sufficient heat; therefore, in the ripe fruit humidity is subtle through the heat of the sun, and such fruit is commonly sweet; but before it is ripe, as humidity is gross or subtle for want of heat, the fruit is bitter or sour.

Q. Why are we better delighted with sweet tastes than with bitter or any other? A. Because a sweet thing is hot and moist, and through its heat dissolves and consumes superfluous humidities, and by this humidity immundicity is washed away; but a sharp eager taste, by reason of the cold which predominates in it, doth bind overmuch, and prick and offend the parts of the body in purging, and therefore we do not delight in that taste.

Q. Why doth a sharp taste, as that of vinegar, provoke appetite rather than any other? A. Because it is cold, and doth cool. For it is the nature of cold to desire and draw, and therefore it is the cause of appetite.

Q. Why do we draw in more air than we breathe out? A. Because much air is drawn in that is converted into nutriment, and with the vital spirits is contained in the lungs. Therefore a beast is not suffocated so long as it receives air with its lungs, in which some part of the air remaineth also.

Q. Why doth the air seem to be expelled and put forth, seeing the air is invisible, by reason of its variety and thinness? A. Because the air which is received in us, is mingled with vapours and fumes from the heart, by reason whereof it is made thick, and so is seen. And this is proved by experience, because that in winter we see our breath; for the coldness of the air doth bind the breath mixed with fume, and so it is thickened and made gross, and by consequence is seen.

Q. Why have some persons stinking breath? A. Because of evil fumes that arise from the stomach. And sometimes it doth proceed from the corruption of the airy parts of the body, as the lungs. The breath of lepers is so infected, that it would poison birds if near them, because the inward parts are very corrupt.

Q. Why are lepers hoarse? A. Because the vocal instruments are corrupted, that is, the lights.

Q. Why do persons become hoarse? A. Because of the rheum descending from the brain filling the conduit of the lights: and sometimes through imposthumes of the throat, or rheum gathering in the neck.

Q. Why have the females of all living creatures the shrillest voice, the crow only excepted, and a woman a shriller and smaller voice than a man? A. By reason of the composition of the veins the vocal arteries of voice are formed, as appears by this similitude, that a small pipe sounds shriller than a great. Also in women, because the passage where the voice is formed is made narrow and strait, by reason of cold, it being the nature of cold to bind; but in men, the passage is open and wider through heat, because it is the property of heat to open and dissolve. It proceedeth in women through the moistness of the lungs, and weakness of the heat. Young and diseased men have sharp and shrill voices from the same cause.

Q. Why doth the voice change in men at fourteen, and in women at twelve? A. Because then the beginning of the voice is slackened and loosened; and this is proved by the similitude of the string of an instrument let down or loosened which gives a great sound; and also because eunuchs, capons, &c. have softer and slenderer voices than others, in consequence of the absence of generating powers.

Q. Why do small birds sing more and louder than great ones, as appears in the lark and nightingale? A. Because the spirits of small birds are subtle and soft, and the organ conduit strait, as appeareth in a pipe; therefore their notes following easily at desire they sing very soft.

Q. Why do bees, wasps, locusts, and many other such like insects, make a noise, seeing they have no lungs, nor instruments of voice? A. Because in them there is a certain small skin, which, when struck by the air, causeth a sound.

Q. Why do not fish make a sound? A. Because they have no lungs, but only gills, nor yet a heart; and therefore they need not the drawing in of the air, and by consequence they make no noise, because a noise is the percussion of the air which is drawn.

_Of the Neck._

Q. Why hath a living creature a neck? A. Because the neck is the supporter of the head, and therefore the neck is in the middle between the head and the body, to the intent that by it and by its sinews, motion and sense of the body might be conveyed through all the body; and that by means of the neck, the heart, which is very hot, might be separated from the brain.

Q. Why do some creatures want necks, as serpents and fishes? A. Because they want hearts, and therefore want that assistance which we have spoken of; or else they have a neck in some inward part of them, which is not distinguished outwardly.

Q. Why is the neck full of bones and joints? A. That it may bear and sustain the head the better. Also, because the backbone is joined to the brain in the neck, and from thence it receives marrow, which is of the substance of the brain.

Q. Why have some creatures long necks, as cranes, storks, and such like? A. Because such birds seek their food at the bottom of waters. And some creatures have short necks, as sparrows, hawks, &c. because such are ravenous, and therefore for strength have short necks; as appeareth in the ox, which has a short neck and strong.

Q. Why is the neck hollow, and especially before, about the tongue? A. Because there are two passages, whereof the one doth carry the meat to the nutritive instrument, or stomach and liver, which is called by the Greeks _Œsophagus_; and the other is the wind-pipe.

Q. Why is the artery made with rings and circle? A. The better to bow and give a good sounding.

_Of the Shoulders and Arms._

Q, Why hath a man shoulders and arms? A. To lift and carry burdens.

Q. Why are the arms round? A. For the swifter and speedier work.

Q. Why are the arms thick? A. That they may be strong to lift and bear burdens, and thrust and give a strong blow; so their bones are thick, because they contain much marrow, or they would be easily corrupted and injured.

Q. Why do the arms become small and slender in some diseases, as in mad men and such as are sick of the dropsy? A. Because all the parts of the body do suffer the one with the other; and therefore one member being in grief, all the humours do concur and run thither to give succour and help to the aforesaid grief.

Q. Why have brute beasts no arms? A. Their fore feet are instead of arms, and in their place.

_Of the Hands._

Q. For what use hath a man hands, and an ape also like unto a man? A. The hand is an instrument that a man doth especially make use of, because many things are done by the hands and not by any other part.

Q. Why are some men ambo-dexter, that is, they use the left hand as the right? A. By reason of the great heat of the heart, and for the hot bowing of the same; for it is that which makes a man as nimble of the left hand as of the right.

Q. Why are the fingers full of joints? A. To be more fit and apt to receive and keep what are put in them.

Q. Why hath every finger three joints, and the thumb but two? A. The thumb hath three, but the third is joined to the arm, therefore is stronger than the other, fingers; and is called pollox, or polico, that is to excel in strength.

Q. Why are the fingers of the right hand nimbler than the fingers of the left? A. It proceedeth from the heat that predominates in those parts, and causeth greater agility.

_Of the Nails._

Q. From whence do nails proceed? A. Of the tumosity and humours, which are resolved and go into the extremities of the fingers, and they are dried through the power of the external air, and brought to the hardness of horn.

Q. Why do the nails of old men grow black and pale? A. Because the heat of the heart decaying, causeth their beauty to decay also.

Q. Why are men judged to be good or evil complexioned by the colour of their nails? A. Because they give witness of the goodness or badness of the heart, and therefore of the complexion; for if they be somewhat red, they betoken choler well tempered; but if they be yellowish or black, they signify melancholy.

Q. Why do white spots appear in the nails? A. Through mixture of phlegm with the nutriment.

_Of the Paps and Dugs._

Q. Why are the paps placed upon the breasts? A. Because the breast is the seat of the heart, which is most hot; and therefore the paps grow there, to the end that the menses being conveyed thither, as being near to the heat of the heart, should the sooner be digested, perfected, and converted into the matter and substance of the milk.

Q. Why are the paps below the breasts in beasts, and above the breasts in woman? A. Because woman goes upright, and has two legs only: and therefore if her paps were below her breasts, they would hinder her going; but beasts having four feet prevents that inconveniency.

Q. Why have not men as great paps and breasts as women? A. Because men have not monthly terms, and therefore have no vessel deputed for them.

Q. Whether are great, small or middle-sized paps best for children to suck? A. In great ones the heat is dispersed, and there is no good digestion of the milk; but in small ones the power and force is strong, because a virtue united is strongest, and by consequence there is a good digestion of the milk.

Q. Why do the paps of young women begin to grow about 13 or 15 years of age? A. Because then the flowers have no course to the teats, by which the young one is nourished, but follow their ordinary course, and therefore wax soft.

Q. Why hath a woman who is pregnant of a boy, the right pap harder than the left? A. Because the male child is conceived in the right side of the mother: and therefore the flowers do run to the right pap and make it hard.

Q. Why doth it show weakness of the child, when the milk doth drop out of the paps before the woman is delivered? A. Because the milk is the proper nutriment of the child in the womb of the mother; therefore if the milk run out, it is a token that the child is not nourished, and consequently is weak.

Q. Why doth the hardness of the paps betoken the health of the child in the womb? A. Because the flowers are converted into milk, and that milk doth sufficiently nourish the child, and thereby strength is signified.

Q. Why are women’s paps hard when they be pregnant, and soft at other times? A. Because they swell then, and are puffed up; and the great moisture which proceeds from the flowers doth run into the paps, which at other seasons remaineth in the matrix or womb, and is expelled by the place deputed for that end.

Q. By what means doth the milk of the paps come to the matrix or womb? A. There is a certain knitting and coupling of the paps with the womb, and there are certain veins which the midwives do cut in the time of the birth of the child, and by those veins the milk flows in at the navel of the child, and so it receives nourishment by the navel.

Q. Why is it a sign of a male child in the womb, when the milk that runneth out of a woman’s breast is thick, and not much, and of a female when it is thin? A. Because a woman that goeth with a boy, hath a great heat in her, which doth perfect the milk and make it thick; but she who goes with a girl hath not so much heat, and therefore the milk is undigested, imperfect, watery, and thin, and will swim above the water if it be put into it.

Q. Why is the milk white, seeing the flowers are red, of which it is engendered? A. Because blood which is well purged and concocted becomes white, as appeareth in flesh whose proper colour is red, and being boiled is white. Also, because every humour which is engendered of the body, is made like unto that part in colour where it is engendered, as near as it can be; but because the flesh of the paps is white, therefore the colour of the milk is white.

Q. Why doth a cow give milk more abundantly than other beasts? A. Because she is a great eating beast, and where there is much monthly superfluity engendered, there is much milk; because it is nothing else but that blood purged and tried.

Q. Why is not milk wholesome? A. 1. Because it curdeth in the stomach, whereof an evil breath is bred. 2. Because the milk doth grow sour in the stomach, where evil humours are bred, and infect the breath.

Q. Why is milk bad for such as have the headache? A. Because it is easily turned into great fumosities, and hath much terrestrial substance in it, the which ascending doth cause the headache.

Q. Why is milk fit nutriment for infants? A. Because it is a natural and usual food, and they were nourished by the same in the womb.

Q. Why are the white-meats made of a new-milked cow good? A. Because milk at that time is very spongy, expels many fumosities, and, as it were, purges at that time.

Q. Why do physicians forbid the eating of fish and milk at the same time? A. Because they produce a leprosy, and because they are phlegmatic.

Q. Why have not birds and fish milk and paps? A. Because paps would hinder the flight of birds. And although fish have neither paps nor milk, the females cast much spawn, which the male touches with a small gut, and causes their kind to continue in succession.

_Of the Back._

Q. Why have beasts backs? A. 1. Because the back is the way and mien of the body, from which are extended and spread throughout all the sinews of the backbone. 2. Because it should be a guard and defence for the soft parts of the body, as for the stomach, liver, lights and such like. 3. Because it is the foundation of all the bones, as the ribs, fastened to the backbone.

Q. Why hath the backbone so many joints or knots, called _spondelia_? A. Because the moving and bending it, without such joints, could not be done; and therefore they are wrong who say that elephants have no such joints, for without them they could not move.

Q. Why do fish die after their backbones are broken? A. Because in fish the backbone is instead of the heart; now the heart is the first thing that lives, and the last that dies; and when that bone is broken, fish can live no longer.

Q. Why doth a man die soon after the marrow is hurt or perished? A. Because the marrow proceeds from the brain, which is the principal part of a man.

Q. Why have some men the piles? A. Those men are cold and melancholy, which melancholy first passes to the spleen, its proper seat, but there cannot be retained, for the abundance of blood; for which reason it is conveyed to the backbone, where there are certain veins which terminate in the back, and receive the blood. When those veins are full of the melancholy blood, then the conduits of nature are opened, and the blood issues out once a month, like women’s terms. Those men who have this course of blood, are kept from many infirmities, such as the dropsy, plague, &c.

Q. Why are the Jews much subject to this disease? A. Because they eat much phlegmatic and cold meats, which breed melancholy blood, which is purged with the flux. Another reason is, motion causes heat, and heat digestion; but strict Jews never move, labour, nor converse much, which breeds a coldness in them, and hinders digestion, causing melancholic blood, which is by this means purged out.

_Of the Heart._

Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy, and full of holes? A. That the air may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours, because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows are raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest through too much air drawn in, the heart should be suffocated.

Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual motion.

Q. Why have those beasts only lungs that have hearts? A. Because the lungs are no part for themselves, but for the heart; and therefore it were superfluous for those creatures to have lungs that have no hearts.

Q. Why do such creatures as have no lungs want a bladder? A. Because such drink no water to make their meat digest, and need no bladder for urine; as appears in such birds who do not drink at all, viz. the falcon and sparrow-hawk.

Q. Why is the heart in the midst of the body? A. That it may impart life to all parts of the body; and therefore it is compared to the sun, which is placed in the midst of the planets, to give light to them all.

Q. Why only in men is the heart on the left side? A. To the end that the heat of the heart may mitigate the coldness of the spleen; for the spleen is the seat of melancholy, which is on the left side also.

Q. Why is the heart first engendered; for the heart doth live and die last? A. Because the heart is the beginning and original of life, and without it no part can live. For of the seed retained in the matrix, there is engendered a little small skin, which compasses the seed; whereof the heart is made of the purest blood; then of blood not so pure, the liver; and of thick and cold blood the marrow and brain.

Q. Why are beasts bold that have little hearts? A. Because in a little heart the heat is well united and vehement, and the blood touching it doth quickly heat it, and is speedily carried to the other parts of the body, which gives courage and boldness.

Q. Why are creatures with a large heart timorous, as the hare? A. The heart is dispersed in such a one, and not able to heat the blood which cometh to it; by which means fear is bred.

Q. How is it that the heart is continually moving? A. Because in it there is a certain spirit which is more subtle than air, and by reason of its thickness and rarefaction seeks a larger space, filling the hollow room of the heart, hence the dilating and opening of the heart; and because the heart is earthly, the thrusting and moving ceasing, its parts are at rest, tending downwards. As a proof of this, take an acorn, which, if put into the fire, the heat dissolves its humidity, therefore it occupies a greater space, so that the rind cannot contain it, but puffs up and throws it into the fire. The like of the heart. Therefore the heart of a living creature is triangular, having its least part towards its left side, and the greater towards the right; and doth also open and shut in the least part, by which means it is in continual motion; the first motion is called _diastole_, that is, extending the breast or heart; the other _systole_, that is, shutting of the heart; and from these all the motions of the body proceed, and that of the pulse which physicians feel.

Q. How comes it that the flesh of the heart is so compact and knit together? A. Because in thick compacted substances heat is strongly received and united. And because the heart with its heat should moderate the coldness of the brain, it is made of that fat flesh apt to keep a strong heat.

Q. How comes the heart to be the hottest part of all living creatures? A. It is so compacted as to receive heat best, and because it should mitigate the coldness of the brain.

Q. Why is the heart the beginning of life? A. It is plain that in it the vital spark is bred, which is the seat of life; and therefore the heart having two receptacles, viz. the right and the left, the right hath more blood than spirits; which spirit is engendered to give life and vivify the body.

Q. Why is the heart long and sharp like a pyramid? A. The round figure hath an angle, therefore the heart is round, for fear any poison or hurtful matter should be retained in it; and because that figure is fittest for motion.

Q. How comes the blood chiefly to be in the heart? A. The blood in the heart has its proper or efficient place, which some attribute to the liver; and therefore the heart doth not receive blood from any other parts, but all other parts from it.

Q. How comes it that some creatures want a heart? A. Although they have no heart, yet they have somewhat that answers for it, as appears in eels and fish that have the backbone instead of the heart.

Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures when the head is off, as in birds and hens? A. Because the heart lives first and dies last, and therefore beats longer than other parts.

Q. Why doth the heat of the heart sometimes fail of a sudden, as in those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of the heart itself, and of certain small sinks with which it is covered, which being infected and corrupted, the heart faileth on a sudden: sometimes only by reason of the parts adjoining; and therefore, when any venomous humour goes out of the stomach, that turns the heart and parts adjoining, that causeth the fainting.

_Of the Stomach._

Q. For what reason is the stomach large and wide? A. Because in it the food is first concocted or digested as it were in a pot, to the end that that which is pure should be separated from that which is not; and therefore, according to the quantity of food, the stomach is enlarged.

Q. How comes it that the stomach is round? A. Because if it had angles and corners, food would remain in them, and breed ill humours, so that a man would never want agues, which humours are evacuated and consumed, and not hid in any such corners, by the roundness of the stomach.

Q. How comes the stomach to be full of sinews? A. Because the sinews can be extended and enlarged; and so is the stomach when it is full; but when empty it is drawn together; and therefore nature provides those sinews.

Q. How comes the stomach to digest? A. Because of the heat which is in it, and comes from the parts adjoining, that is, the liver and the heart. For as we see in metals, the heat of the fire takes away the rust and dross from iron, the silver from tin, and gold from copper; so also by digestion the pure is separated from the impure.

Q. For what reason doth the stomach join the liver? A. Because the liver is very hot, and with its heat helps digestion, and provokes appetite.

Q. Why are we commonly cold after dinner? A. Because then the heat goes to the stomach to further digestion, and so the other parts grow cold.

Q. Why is it hurtful to study soon after dinner? A. Because when the heat labours to help the imagination in study, it ceases from digesting the food, which remains undigested; therefore people should walk some time after meals.

Q. How cometh the stomach slowly to digest meat? A. Because it swims in the stomach. Now, the best digestion is in the bottom of the stomach, because the fat descends not there: such as eat fat meat are very sleepy, by reason that digestion is hindered.

Q. Why is all the body wrong, when the stomach is uneasy? A. Because the stomach is knit with the brain, heart, and liver, which are the principal parts in man; and when it is not well the others are indisposed. Again, if the first digestion be hindered, the others are also hindered; for in the first digestion is the beginning of the infirmity of the stomach.

Q. Why are young men sooner hungry than old men? A. Young men do digest for three causes; 1. For growing: 2. For restoring of life: and, 3. For conservation of life. Also, young men are hot and dry, and therefore the heat doth digest more, and by consequence they desire more.

Q. Why do physicians prescribe that men should eat when they have an appetite? A. Because much hunger and emptiness will fill the stomach with naughty rotten humours, which are drawn in instead of meat; for, if we fast over night, we have an appetite to meat, but none in the morning; as then the stomach is filled with naughty humours, and especially its mouth, which is no true filling, but a deceitful one. And therefore, after we have eaten a little, our stomach comes to us again; for the first morsel, having made clean the mouth of the stomach, doth provoke the appetite.

Q. Why do physicians prescribe that we should not eat too much at a time, but by little and little? A. Because when the stomach is full, the meat doth swim in it, which is a dangerous thing. Another reason is, that very green wood doth put out the fire, so much meat chokes the natural heat and puts it out; and therefore the best physic is to use temperance in eating and drinking.

Q. Why do we desire change of meats according to the change of times; as in winter, beef, pork, mutton; in summer, light meats, as veal, lamb, &c.? A. Because the complexion of the body is altered and changed according to the time of the year. Another reason is, that this proceeds from the quality of the season; because the cold in winter doth cause a better digestion.

Q. Why should not the meat we eat be as hot as pepper and ginger? A. Because as hot meat doth inflame the blood, and dispose it to a leprosy; so, on the contrary, meat too cold doth mortify and chill the blood. Our meat should not be over sharp, because it wastes the constitution; too much sauce doth burn the entrails, and inclineth to often drinking; raw meat doth the same; and over sweet meats to constipate and cling the veins together.

Q. Why is it a good custom to eat cheese after dinner, and pears after all meat? A. Because by reason of its earthliness and thickness it tendeth down towards the bottom of the stomach, and so putteth down the meat; and the like of pears. Note, that new cheese is better than old; and that old soft cheese is very bad, and causeth the headache and stopping of the liver; and the older the worse. Whereof it is said, that cheese digesteth all things but itself.

Q. Why are nuts good after cheese, as the proverb is, After fish nuts, and after flesh cheese? A. Because fish is of hard digestion, and doth easily putrefy and corrupt; and nuts are a remedy against poison.

Q. Why is it unwholesome to wait long for one dish after another, and to eat of divers kinds of meat? A. Because the first begins to digest when the last is eaten, and so digestion is not equally made. But yet this rule is to be noted, dishes light of digestion, as chickens, kids, veal, soft eggs, and such like, should be first eaten: because, if they should be first served and eaten, and were digested, they would hinder the digestion of the others; and the light meats not digested would be corrupted in the stomach, and kept in the stomach violently, whereof would follow belching, loathing, headache, bellyache, and great thirst. It is very hurtful too, at the same meal, to drink wine and milk because they are productive of leprosy.

Q. Whether is meat or drink best for the stomach? A. Drink is sooner digested than meat, because meat is of great substance, and more material than drink, and therefore meat is harder to digest.

Q. Why is it good to drink after dinner? A. Because the drink will make the meat readier to digest. The stomach is like unto a pot which doth boil meat, and therefore physicians do counsel to drink at meals.

Q. Why is it good to forbear a late supper? A. Because there is little moving or stirring after supper, and so the meat is not sent down to the bottom of the stomach, but remaineth undigested, and so breeds hurts; therefore a light supper is best.

_Of the Blood._

Q. Why is it necessary that every living thing that hath blood have also a liver? A. Because the blood is first made in the liver, its seat, being drawn from the stomach by certain principal veins, and so engendered.

Q. Why is the blood red? A. 1. It is like the part in which it is made, viz. the liver, which is red. 2. It is likewise sweet, because it is well digested and concocted; but if it hath a little earthy matter mixed with it, that makes it somewhat salt.

Q. How is women’s blood thicker than men’s? A. Their coldness thickens, binds, congeals, and joins together.

Q. How comes the blood to all parts of the body through the liver, and by what means? A. Through the principal veins, as the veins of the head, liver, &c. to nourish all the body.

_Of the Urine._

Q. How doth the urine come into the bladder, seeing the bladder is shut? A. Some say by sweating; others, by a small skin in the bladder, which opens and lets in the urine. Urine is a certain and not deceitful messenger of the health and infirmity of man. Men make white urine in the morning, and before dinner red, but after dinner pale, and also after supper.

Q. Why is it hurtful to drink much cold water? A. Because one contrary doth hinder and expel another; water is very cold, and lying so in the stomach hinders digestion.

Q. Why is it unwholesome to drink new wine? A. 1. It cannot be digested; therefore it causes the belly to swell, and a kind of bloody flux. 2. It hinders making water.

Q. Why do physicians forbid us to labour presently after dinner? A. 1. Because motion hinders the virtue and power of digestion. 2. Because stirring immediately after dinner causes the different parts of the body to draw the meat to them, which often breeds sickness. 3. Because motion makes the food descend before it is digested. But after supper it is good to walk a little, that the food may go to the bottom of the stomach.

Q. Why is it good to walk after dinner? A. Because it makes a man well disposed, and fortifies and strengthens the natural heat, causing the superfluities of the stomach to descend.

Q. Why is it wholesome to vomit? A. It purges the stomach of all naughty humours, expelling them, which would breed agues if they should remain in it; and purges the eyes and head, clearing the brain.

Q. How comes sleep to strengthen the stomach and digestive faculty? A. Because in sleep the heat draws inwards, and helps digestion: but when awake, the heat returns, and is dispersed through the body.

_Of the Gall and Spleen._

Q. How come living creatures to have a gall? A. Because choleric humours are received into it, which through their acidity helps the guts to expel superfluities, also it helps digestion.

Q. How comes the jaundice to proceed from the gall? A. The humour of the guts is blueish and yellow; therefore when its pores are stopped, the humours cannot go into the sack thereof, but are mingled with the blood, wandering throughout all the body, and infecting the skin.

Q. Why hath a horse, mule, ass, or cow, no gall? A. Those creatures have no gall in one place, as in a purse or vessel, yet they have one dispersed in small veins.

Q. How comes the spleen to be black? A. It is occasioned by terrestrial and earthy matter of a black colour. According to physicians, the spleen is the receptacle of melancholy, and that is black.

Q. Why is he lean who hath a large spleen? A. Because the spleen draws much water to itself, which would turn to fat; therefore, men that have a small spleen are fat.

Q. Why does the spleen cause men to laugh, as says Isidorus: “We laugh with the spleen, we are angry with the gall, we are wise with the heart, we love with the liver, we feel with the brain, and speak with the lungs.” A. The reason is, the spleen draws much melancholy to it, being its proper seat, the which melancholy proceeds from sadness, and is there consumed; and the cause failing, the effect doth so likewise. And by the same reason the gall causes anger, for choleric men are often angry, because they have much gall.

_Of Monsters._

Q. Doth nature make any monsters? A. She doth; if she did not, then would she be deprived of her end. For of things possible, she doth always propose to bring forth that which is most perfect and best; but in the end, through the evil disposition of the matter, not being able to bring forth that which she intended, she brings forth that which she can. As it happened in Albertus’s time, when, in a certain village, a cow brought forth a calf, half a man; then the countrymen suspecting a shepherd, would have burnt him with the cow; but Albertus, being skilful in astronomy, said, that this did proceed from a special constellation, and so delivered the shepherd from their hands.

Q. Are there one or two? A. To find out, you must look into the heart; if there are two hearts, there are two men.

_Of Infants._

Q. Why are some children like their father, some like their mother, some to both, and some to neither? A. If the seed of the father wholly overcome that of the mother, the child doth resemble the father; but if the mother’s predominate, then it is like the mother; but if it be like neither, that doth happen sometimes through the four qualities, sometimes through the influence of some heavenly constellation.

Q. Why are children oftener like the father than the mother? A. It proceeds from the imagination of the mother, as appeared in a queen who had her imagination on a blackamoor; and in an Ethiopian queen, who brought forth a white child, because her imagination was upon a white colour; as is seen in Jacob’s skill in casting rods of divers colours into the water when his sheep went to ram.

Q. Why do children born in the eighth month for the most part die quickly; and why are they called the children of the moon? A. Because the moon is a cold planet, which has dominion over the child, and therefore doth bind it with its coldness, which is the cause of its death.

Q. Why doth a child cry as soon as it is born? Because of the sudden change from heat to cold; which cold doth affect its tenderness. Another reason is, because the child’s soft and tender body is wringed and put together coming out of the narrow and strait passage of the matrix; and especially, the brain being moist, and the head being pressed and wrinkled together, is the cause that some humours distil by the eyes, which are the cause of tears and weeping.

Q. Why doth the child put its fingers into its mouth as soon as it cometh into the world? A. Because that coming out of the womb it cometh out of a hot bath, and entering into the cold, puts its fingers into its mouth for want of heat.

_Of the Child in the Womb._

Q. How is the child engendered in the womb? A. The first six days the seed hath the colour of milk; but in the six following a red colour, which is near unto the disposition of flesh; and then it is changed into a thick substance of blood. But in the twelve days following, this substance becomes so thick and round, that it is capable of receiving shape and form.

Q. Doth the child in the womb void excrements or make water? A. No; because it hath not the first digestion which is in the stomach. It receives no food by the mouth, but by the navel; therefore, makes no urine, but sweats, which is but little, and is received in a skin in the matrix, which at the birth is cast out.

Of Abortion and Untimely Birth.

Q. Why do women that eat unwholesome meats easily miscarry? A. Because they breed putrefied seed, which, the mind abhorring, doth cast it out of the womb, as unfit for the most noble shape which is adapted to receive the soul.

Q. Why doth wrestling and leaping cause the casting of the child, as some subtle women do on purpose? A. The vapour is burning, and doth easily hurt the tender substance of the child, entering at the pores of the matrix.

Q. Why doth much joy cause a woman to miscarry? A. Because in a time of joy woman is destitute of heat, and so miscarriage doth follow.

Q. Why do women easily miscarry when they are first with child, viz. the first, second, or third month? A. As apples and pears easily fall at first, because the knots or ligaments are weak, so it is with a child in the womb.

Q. Why is it hard to miscarry in the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth months? A. Because the ligaments are stronger and well fortified.

_Of Divers Matters._

Q. Why has not a man a tail like a beast? A. Because a man is a noble creature, whose property it is to sit; which a beast, having a tail, cannot.

Q. Why does hot water freeze sooner than cold? A. Hot water is thinner, and gives better entrance to the frost.

Q. Why cannot drunken men judge of taste as well as sober men? A. Because the tongue being full of pores and spongy, receives great moisture into it, and more in drunken men than in sober; therefore the tongue, through often drinking, is full of bad humours; and so the faculty of tasting is rendered out of order: also, through the thickening of the taste itself, drink taken by drunkards is not presently felt. And by this may be also understood why drunkards have not a perfect speech.

Q. Why have melancholy beasts long ears? A. The ears proceed from a cold and dry substance, called a gristle, which is apt to become bone; and because melancholy beasts do abound with this kind of substance, they have long ears.

Q. Why do hares sleep with their eyes open? A. 1. They have their eyes standing out, and their eye-lids short, therefore never quite shut. 2. They are timorous, and, as a safeguard to themselves, sleep with their eyes open.

Q. Why do not crows feed their young till they be nine days old? A. Because seeing them of another colour, they think they are of another kind.

Q. Why are sheep and pigeons mild? A. They want gall, the cause of anger.

Q. How comes it that birds do not make water? A. Because that superfluity which would be converted in urine, is turned into feathers.

Q. How do we hear better by night than by day? A. Because there is a greater quietness in the night than in the day, for the sun doth not exhale the vapours by night, but it doth in the day: therefore the mean is more fit than in the day; and the mean being fit, the motion is better received, which is said to be caused by a sound.

Q. For what reason doth a man laugh sooner when touched in the arm-pits than in the other parts of the body? A. Because there is in that place a meeting of many sinews, and the mean we touch, which is the flesh, is more subtle than in other parts, and therefore of finer feeling. When a man is moderately and gently touched there, the spirits that are dispersed, run into the face, and cause laughter.

Q. Why do some women love white men and some black men? A. 1. Some have a weak sight, and such delight in black, because white doth hurt the sight more than black. 2. Because like delight in like; but some women are of a hot nature, and such are delighted with black, because blackness followeth heat; and others are of a cold nature, and those are delighted with white, because cold produces white.

Q. Why do men incline to sleep after labour? A. Because, through continual moving, the heat is dispersed to the external parts of the body, which, after labour, is gathered together to the internal parts, there to digest; and from digestion vapours arise from the heart to the brain, which stop the passage by which the natural heat should be dispersed to the external parts: and then, the external parts being cold and thick, by reason of the coldness of the brain, sleep is easily procured. By this it appeareth, that such as eat and drink too much, do sleep much and long, because there are great store of humours and vapours bred in such persons, which cannot be digested and consumed by the natural heat.

Q. Why are such as sleep much evil disposed and ill-coloured? A. Because in too much sleep moisture is gathered together which cannot be consumed, and so it doth covet to go out through the superficial parts of the body, and especially it resorts to the face, and therefore is the cause of bad colour, as appeareth in such as are phlegmatic, and who desire more sleep than others.

Q. Why do some imagine in their sleep that they eat and drink sweet things? A. Because the phlegm drawn up by the jaws doth distil and drop to the throat; and this phlegm is sweet after a sore sweat, and that seemeth so to them.

Q. Why do some dream in their sleep that they are in the water and drowned, and some that they are in the water and not drowned; especially such as are phlegmatic? A. Because when the phlegmatic substance doth turn to the high parts of the body, then they think they are in the water and drowned; but when that substance draweth into the internal parts, then they think they escape. Another reason may be, overmuch repletion and drunkenness; and therefore, when men are overmuch filled with meat, the fumes and vapours ascend and gather together, and they are drowned and strangled; but if they cannot ascend so high, then they seem to escape.

Q. May a man procure a dream, by an external cause? A. It may be done. If a man speak softly at another’s ear and awake him not, then of this stirring of the spirits there are thunderings and buzzings in the head, which cause dreaming.

Q. How many humours are there in a man’s body? A. Four; whereof every one hath its proper place. The first is choler, called by physicians _stava bilis_, which is placed in the liver. The second is melancholy, called _atra bilis_, whose seat is in the spleen. The third is phlegm, whose place is in the head. The fourth is blood, whose place is in the heart.

Q. What condition and quality hath a man of a sanguine complexion? A. He is fair and beautiful; hath his hair for the most part smooth; is bold; retaineth that which he hath conceived; is shame-faced, given to music, a lover of sciences, liberal, courteous, and not desirous of revenge.

Q. What properties do follow those of a phlegmatic complexion? A. They are dull of wit, their hair never curls, they are seldom very thirsty, much given to sleep, dream of things belonging to water, are fearful, covetous, and given to heap up riches.

Q. What are the properties of a choleric man? A. He is soon angry, furious, and quarrelsome, given to war, pale coloured, and unquiet, drinks much, sleeps little, and desires women’s company much.

Q. What are the properties of a melancholy man? A. He is brown in complexion, unquiet, his veins hidden, eateth little, and digesteth less, dreameth of dark and confused things, is sad, fearful, exceeding covetous, and incontinent.

Q. What dreams do follow these complexions? A. Pleasant merry dreams do follow the sanguine; fearful dreams the melancholic; the choleric dream of children, fighting, and fire; the phlegmatic dream of water. This is the reason why a man’s complexion is said to be known by his dreams.

Q. What is the reason that if you cover an egg over with salt, and let it lie in it a few days, all the meat within is consumed? A. The great dryness of the salt consumes the substance of the egg.

Q. Why is the melancholic complexion the worst? A. Because it proceeds from the dregs of blood, is an enemy to mirth, and bringeth on an aged appearance and death, being cold and dry.

Q. What is the cause that some men die joyful, and some in extreme grief? A. Over great joy doth overmuch heat the internal parts of the body; and overmuch grief doth drown and suffocate the heart, which failing, a man dieth.

Q. Why hath a man so much hair on his head? A. The hair of the head proceeds from the vapours which arise from the stomach, and ascend to the head, and also from the superfluities which are in the brain; and those two passing through the pores of the head are converted into hair, by reason of the heat and dryness of the head. And because man’s body is full of humours, and he hath more brains that any other creature, and also more superfluities in the brains, which the heat expelleth: hence it followeth that he hath more hair than any other living creature.

Q. How many ways is the brain purged, and other hidden places of the body? A. Four; the watery and gross humours are purged by the eyes, melancholy by the ears, choler by the nose, and phlegm by the hair.

Q. What is the reason that such as are very fat in their youth are in danger of dying on a sudden? A. Such have very small and close veins, by reason of their fatness, so that the air and the breath can hardly have free course in them; and thereupon the natural heat, wanting the refreshment of air, is put out, and as it were, quenched.

Q. Why do garlic and onions grow after they are gathered? A. It proceedeth from the humidity that is in them.

Q. Why do men feel cool sooner than women? A. Because men, being more hot than women, have their pores more open, and therefore it doth sooner enter into them than women.

Q. Why are not old men subject to the plague like young men and children? A. They are cold, and their pores are not so open as in youth: and therefore the infecting air doth not penetrate so soon by reason of their coldness.

Q. Why do we cast water in a man’s face when he swooneth? A. Because that through the coldness of water the heat may run to the heart, and so give strength.

Q. Why are those waters best and most delicate which run towards the rising sun? A. Because they are the soonest stricken with the sun-beams, and made pure and subtle, the sun having them under it, and by that means taking off the coldness and gross vapours which they gather from the ground they run through.

Q. Why have women such weak and small voices? A. Because their instruments and organs of speaking, by reason of their coldness, are small and narrow; and therefore, receiving but little air, causes the voice to be effeminate.

Q. Wherefore doth it proceed that want of sleep doth weaken the brain and the body? A. Much watching doth engender choler, the which being hot doth dry up and lessen the humours which serve the brain, the head, and other parts of the body.

Q. Wherefore doth vinegar so readily staunch the blood? A. From its cold virtue; for all cold is naturally binding, and vinegar being cold, hath the like property.

Q. Why is sea-water saltier in summer than in winter? A. From the heat of the sun, seeing by experience that a salt thing being heated becometh more salt.

Q. Why do men live longer in hot regions than in cold? A. Because they may be more dry, and by that means the natural heat is better preserved in them than in cold countries.

Q. Why is well-water seldom or ever good? A. All water which standeth still in the spring, and is never heated by the sun-beams, is very heavy, and hath much earthy matter in it; and therefore, wanting the heat of the sun, is naught.

Q, Why do men sleep better and more at ease on the right side than on the left? A. Because when they lie on the left side, the lungs do lie upon and cover the heart, which is on that side under the pap; now the heart, the fountain of life, being thus occupied and hindered with the lungs, cannot exercise its own proper operation, as being overmuch heated with the lungs lying upon it, and therefore wanting the refreshment of the air which the lungs do give it, like the blowing of a pair of bellows, is choked and suffocated; but by lying on the right side, these inconveniences are avoided.

Q. What is the reason that old men sneeze with great difficulty? A. Because that through their coldness their arteries are very narrow and close, and therefore the heat is not of force to expel the cold.

Q. Why doth a drunken man think that all things about him do turn round? A. Because the spirits which serve the sight are mingled with vapours and fumes, arising from the liquors he has drunk: the overmuch heat causeth the eye to be in continual motion; and the eye being round causeth all things about it to seem to go round.

Q. Wherefore doth it proceed, that bread which is made with salt, is lighter than that which is made without it, considering salt is very heavy of itself? A. Although bread is heavy of itself, yet the salt dries it, and makes it light, by reason of the heat which it hath; and the more heat there is in it, the better the bread is, and the lighter and more wholesome for the body.

Q. Why is not new bread good for the stomach? A. Because it is full of moistness, and thick hot vapours, which do corrupt the blood; and hot bread is blacker than cold, because heat is the mother of blackness, and because the vapours are not gone out of it.

Q. Why do lettuces make a man sleep? A. Because they engender gross vapours.

Q. Why do the dregs of wine and oil go to the bottom, and those of honey swim uppermost? A. Because the dregs of wine and oil are earthly, and therefore go to the bottom; but honey is a liquid that cometh from the stomach and belly of the bee, and is there in some sort purified and made subtle; on which account the dregs are most light and hot, and therefore go uppermost.

Q. Why do cats’ and wolves’ eyes shine in the night, and not in the day? A. The eyes of these beasts are by nature more crystalline than the eyes of other beasts, and therefore do shine in darkness; but the brightness of the sun doth hinder them from being seen in the day-time.

Q. What is the reason that some men, when they see others dance, do the like with their hands and feet, or by other gestures of the body? A. Because the sight having carried the represented unto the mind that action, and judging the same to be pleasant and delightful, therefore the imagination draweth the like of it in conceit, and stirs up the body by the gestures.

Q. Why does much sleep cause some to grow fat and some lean? A. Those who are of ill complexion, when they sleep, do consume and digest the superfluities of what they have eaten, and therefore become fat. But such as are of good complexion, when they sleep, are more cold and digest less.

Q. How and from what cause do we suffer hunger better that thirst? A. When the stomach has nothing else to consume, it consumeth the phlegm and humours which it findeth most ready and most at hand; and therefore we suffer hunger better than thirst, because the heat hath nothing to refresh itself with.

Q. Why doth the hair fall after a great sickness? A. Where the sickness is long, as in an ague, the humours of the head are dried up through over much heat, and, therefore, wanting nourishment, the hair falls.

Q. Why doth the hair of the eye-brows grow long in old men? A. Because through their age the bones of the eye-lids are thin for want of heat, and therefore the hair doth grow there, by reason of the rheum of the eyes.

Q. Whereof proceedeth gaping? A. Of gross vapours, which occupy the vital spirits of the head, and of the coldness of the senses, causing sleepiness.

Q. What is the reason that some flowers do open with the sun rising, and shut with the setting? A. Cold doth close and shut, as hath been said, but the heat of the sun doth open and enlarge. Some compare the sun to the soul of the body; for as the soul giveth life, so the sun doth give life, and vivicate all things; but cold bringeth death, withering and decaying all things.

Q. Why doth grief cause men to grow old and gray? A. Age is nothing else but dryness and want of humours of the body; grief then causeth alteration, and heat dryness; age and greyness follow immediately.

Q. Why are gelded beasts weaker than such as are not gelded? A. Because they have less heat, and by that means less force and strength.

THE PROBLEMS of MARCUS ANTONIUS ZIMARAS SANCTIPERTIAS.

Q. Why is it esteemed in the judgement of the most wise, the hardest thing to know a man’s self? A. Because nothing can be known that is of so great importance to man, for the regulation of his conduct in life. Without this knowledge, man is like the ship which has neither compass nor rudder to conduct her to port, and is tossed by every passion and prejudice to which his natural constitution is subjected. To know the form and natural perfection of man’s self, according to the philosophers, is a task too hard; and a man, says Plato, is nothing, or if he be any thing, he is nothing but his soul.

Q. Why is a man, though endowed with reason, the most unjust of all living creatures? A. Because only man is desirous of honour; and so it happens that every one covets to seem good, and yet naturally shuns labour, though he attain no virtue by it.

Q. Why is man the proudest of all living creatures? A. By reason of his great knowledge; or as philosophers say, all intelligent beings have understanding, nothing remains that escapes man’s knowledge in particular; or it is because he hath rule over all earthly creatures, and all things seem to be brought under his dominion.

Q. Why have beasts their hearts in the middle of their breasts, and man his inclining to the left side? A. To moderate the cold on that side.

Q. What is the cause that the suffocation of the matrix, which happens to women through strife and contention, is more dangerous than the detaining of the flowers? A. Because the more perfect an excrement is, in its natural disposition, the worse it is when it is altered from that disposition, and drawn to the contrary quality; as is seen in vinegar, which is sharpest when it is made of the best wine. And so it happens that the more men love one another, the more they fall into variance and discord.

Q. How come women’s bodies to be looser, softer, and less than men’s; and why do they want hair? A. By reason of their menses; for with them their superfluities go away, which would produce hair; and thereby the flesh is filled, consequently the veins are more hid in women than in men.

Q. What is the reason that when we think upon a horrible thing, we are stricken with fear? A. Because the conceit or imagination of things has force and virtue. For Plato saith, the fancy of things has some affinity with the things themselves; for the image and representation of cold and heat is such as the nature of things are. Or it is, because when we comprehend any dreadful matter, the blood runneth to the internal parts; and therefore the external parts are cold, and shake with fear.

Q. Why doth a radish root help digestion, and yet itself remaineth undigested? A. Because the substance consisteth of divers parts; for there are some thin parts in it, which are fit to digest meat, the which being dissolved, there doth remain some thick and close substance in it, which the heat cannot digest.

Q. Why do such as cleave wood cleave it easier in the length than athwart? A. Because in the wood there is a grain, whereby if it be cut in length, in the very cutting, one part naturally separateth from another.

Q. What is the reason, that if a spear be stricken on the end, the sound cometh sooner to one which standeth near, than to him who striketh? A. Because, as hath been said, there is a certain long grain in wood, directly forward filled with air, but on the other side there is none, and therefore a beam or spear being stricken on the end, the air which is hidden receiveth a sound in the aforesaid grain, which serveth for its passage; and seeing the sound cannot go easily out, it is carried unto the ear of him who is opposite; as those passages do not go from side to side, a sound cannot be distinctly heard there.

Q. Why are the thighs and calves of the legs of men fleshy, seeing the legs of beasts are not so? A. Because men only go upright; and therefore nature hath given the lower parts corpulency, and taken it away from the upper; and thus she has made the buttocks, the thighs, and calves of the legs fleshy.

Q. Why are the sensible powers in the heart; yet, if the hinder part of the brain be hurt, the memory suffereth by it; if the fore part, the imagination; if the middle, the cogitative part? A. It is because the brain is appointed by Nature to cool the heat of the heart; whereof it is, that in divers parts it serveth the powers and instruments with their heat, for every action of the soul doth not proceed from one measure of heat.

THE PROBLEMS OF ALEXANDER APHRODISEUS.

Q. Why doth the sun make a man black, and dirt white, wax soft, and dirt hard? A. By reason of the disposition of the substance that doth suffer. All humours, phlegm excepted, when heated above measure, do seem black about the skin; and dirt, being full either of saltpetre, or salt liquor, when the sun hath consumed its dregs and filth, doth become white again; when the sun hath drawn and stirred up the humidity of wax, it is softened; but in dirt the sun doth consume the humidity, which is very much, and makes it hard.

Q. Why are round ulcers hard to be cured? A. Because they are bred of a sharp choler, which eats and gnaws; and because it doth run, dropping and gnawing, it makes a round ulcer; for which reason it requires drying medicines, as physicians assert.

Q. Why is honey sweet to all men but such as have the jaundice? A. Because they have much bitter choler all over their bodies, which abounds in the tongue; whence it happens, when they eat honey the humours are stirred, and the taste itself, by the bitterness, of choler, causes an imagination that the honey is bitter.

Q. Why doth water cast on serpents cause them to fly? A. Because they are dry and cold by nature, having but little blood, and therefore fly from excessive coldness.

Q, Why doth an egg break if it be roasted and not if boiled? A. When moisture comes near the fire, it is heated very much, and so breeds wind, which being put up in little room, forces its way out, and breaks the shell: the like happens to tubs, and earthen vessels, when new wine is put into them: too much phlegm breaks the shell of an egg in roasting; it is the same with earthen pots too much heated; wherefore some people wet an egg when they intend to roast it. Hot water, by its softness, doth dissipate its humidity by little and little, and dissolves it through the thinness and passages of the shell.

Q. Why have children gravel breeding in their bladders, and old men in their kidneys and reins? A. Because children have strait passages in their kidneys, and an earthy thick humour is thrust with violence by the urine to the bladder, which hath wide conduits and passages, that give room for the urine and humour whereof gravel is engendered, which waxes thick, and seats itself, in the manner it is. In old men it is the reverse, for they have wide passages of the veins, back, and kidneys, that the urine may pass away, and the earthy humour congeal and sink down; the colour of the gravel shows the humour whereof the stone comes.

Q. Why is it, if the stone do congeal and wax hard through heat, we use not contrary things to dissolve it by coldness, but light things, as parsley, fennel, and the like? A. It is thought to fall out by an excessive scorching heat, by which the stones do crumble into sand, as in the manner of earthen vessels, which, when they are over-heated or roasted, turn to sand. And by this means it happens that small stones are voided, together with sand, in making water. Sometimes cold drink thrusts out the stone, the kidneys being stretched, and casting it out by a great effort, thus easing the belly of its burden. Besides, it often happens that immoderate heat of the kidneys, or reins of the back (through which the stone doth grow) is quenched with coldness.

Q. Why is the curing of an ulcer or bile in the kidney or bladder very hard? A. Because the urine, being sharp, doth ulcerate the sore. Ulcers are worse to cure in the bladder than in the kidneys, because the urine stays in the former, but runs away from the latter.

Q. Why do chaff and straw keep water hot, but make snow cold? A. Because the nature of chaff wants a manifest quality; seeing, therefore, that of its own nature it can be easily mingled, and consumed by that which it is annexed unto, it easily assumes the same nature, and being put into hot things, it is easily hot, heats again, and keeps hot; and, on the contrary, being made cold by the snow, and making the snow cold, it keeps it in its coldness.

Q. Why have we oftentime a pain in making water? A. Because sharp choler issuing out, and pricking the bladder of the urine, doth provoke and stir up the whole body to ease the part offended and to expel the humour moderately. This doth happen most of all unto children, because they have moist excrements, by reason of their often filling.

Q. Why have some medicines of one kind contrary effects, as experience proves; for mastich doth expel, dissolve, and also knit; and vinegar cools and heats? A. Because there are some invisible bodies in them, not by confusion, but by interposition; as sand moistened doth clog together and seem to be but one body, though indeed there are many small bodies in sand. And since this is so, it is not absurd that contrary qualities and virtues should be hidden in mastich, and that nature hath given that virtue to these bodies.

Q. Why do nurses rock and move their children when they would draw them to sleep? A. To the end that the humours being scattered by moving, may move the brains; but those of more years cannot endure this.

Q. Why doth oil, being drank, cause one to vomit, and especially yellow choler? A. Because, being light, and ascending upwards, it provoketh the nutriment in the stomach, and lifteth it up, and so the stomach being grieved, summoneth the ejective virtue to vomit, and especially choler, because that is light, and consisteth of subtle parts, and therefore the sooner carried upward; for when it is mingled with any moist thing, it runneth into the highest room.

Q. Why doth not oil mingle with moist things? A. Because, being pliant, soft, and thick in itself, it cannot be divided into parts, and so cannot be mingled; neither if it be put on earth can it enter into it.

Q. Why are water and oil frozen in cold weather, and wine and vinegar are not? A. Because that oil, being without quality, and fit to be compounded with any thing, is cold quickly, and so extremely, that it is most cold. Water, being cold of nature, doth easily freeze when it is made colder than its own nature. Wine being hot, and of subtle parts, suffereth no freezing.

Q. Why do contrary things in quality bring forth the same effect? A. That which is moist is hardened and bound alike by heat and cold. Snow and liquid do freeze with cold; a plaster, and gravel in the bladder, are made dry with heat. The effect indeed is the same, but by two divers actions; the heat doth consume and eat the abundance of moisture; but the cold stopping and shutting with its overmuch thickness, doth wring out the filthy humidity, like as a sponge wrung with the hand doth cast out the water which it hath in the pores or small passages.

Q. Why doth a shaking or quivering seize us oftentimes when any fearful matter doth happen, as a great noise or crack made, the sudden downfall of water, or the fall of a large tree? A. Because that oftentimes the humours being digested and consumed by time, and made thin and weak, all the heat, vehemently, suddenly, and sharply flying into the inward part of the body, consumeth the humours which cause the disease.

Q. Why do steel glasses shine so clearly? A. Because they are lined in the inside with white lead, whose nature is shining, and being put to glass, which is lucid and transparent, doth shine much more; and casts its beams through its passages, and without the body of the glass; and by that means the glass is very shining and clear.

Q. Why do we see ourselves in glasses and clear water? A. Because the quality of the sight, passing into the bright bodies by reflection, doth return again on the beam of the eyes, as the image of him who looketh on it.

Q. What is the reason, that if you cast a stone into standing water which is near the surface of the earth it causes many circles, and not if the water be deep in the earth? A. Because that the stone with the vehemence of the cast, doth agitate the water in every part of it, until it come to the bottom; and if there be a very great vehemence in the throw, the circle is still greater, the stone going down to the bottom causing many circles. For, first of all, it doth divide the outermost and superficial parts of the water in many parts, and so always going down to the bottom, again dividing the water, it maketh another circle, and this is done successively until the stone resteth; and because the vehemence of the stone is slackened still as it goes down, of necessity the last circle is less than the first, because by that and also by its force the water is divided.

Q. Why are such as are deaf by nature dumb? A. Because they cannot speak and express that which they never heard. Some physicians do say, that there is one knitting and uniting of sinews belonging to the like disposition. But such as are dumb by accident are not deaf at all, for then there ariseth a local passion.

Q. Why doth itching arise when an ulcer doth wax whole and phlegm cease? A. Because the part which is healed and made sound doth pursue the relic of the humours which remained there against nature, and which was the cause of the bile, and so going out through the skin, and dissolving itself, doth originally cause the itch.

Q. How comes a man to sneeze oftener and more vehemently than a beast? A. Because he uses more meats and drinks, and of more different sorts, and that more than requisite; the which, when he cannot digest as he would, he doth gather together much air and spirit, by reason of much humidity; the spirits then very subtle, ascending into the head, often force a man to void them, and so provoke sneezing. The noise caused thereby proceeds from a vehement spirit or breath passing through the conduits of the nostrils, as belching doth the stomach, or breaking wind by the fundament, the voice by the throat, and a sound by the ear.

Q. How come the hair and nails of dead people to grow? A. Because the flesh rotting, withering, and falling away, that which was hidden about the root of the hair doth now appear as growing. Some say that it grows indeed, because carcases are dissolved in the beginning to many excrements and superfluities by putrefaction. These going out at the uppermost parts of the body by some passages, do increase the growth of the hair.

Q. Why does not the hair of the feet soon grow grey? A. For this reason, because that through great motion they disperse and dissolve the superfluous phlegm that breeds grayness.

Q. Why, if you put hot burnt barley upon a horse’s sore, is the hair which grows upon the sore not white but like the other hair? A. Because it hath the force of expelling, and doth drive away and dissolve the phlegm, as well as all other unprofitable matter that is gathered together through the weakness of the parts, or crudity of the sore.

Q. Why doth hair never grow on an ulcer or bile? A. Because man hath a thick skin, as is seen by the thickness of his hair; and if the scar be thicker than the skin itself, it stops the passages from whence the hair should grow. Horses have thinner skins, as is plain by their thick hair; therefore all passages are not stopped in their wounds and sores; and after the excrements which were gathered together have broken a passage through those small pores, the hair doth grow.

Q. Why is Fortune painted with a double forehead, the one side bald and the other hairy? A. The baldness signifies adversity; and hairiness prosperity, which we enjoy when it pleaseth her.

Q. Why have some commended flattery? A. Because flattery setteth forth before our eyes what we ought to be, though not what we are.

Q. Wherefore should virtue be painted girded? A. To show that virtuous men should not be slothful, but diligent, and always in action.

Q. Why did the ancients say it was better to fall into the hands of a raven than a flatterer? A. Because ravens do not eat us till we are dead, but flatterers devour us alive.

Q. Why have choleric men beards before others? A. Because they are hot, and their pores large.

Q. How comes it that such as have the hiccough do ease themselves by holding their breath? A. The breath retained doth heat the interior parts of the body and the hiccough proceeds from cold.

Q. How comes it that old men remember well what they have seen and done in their youth, and forget such things as they see and do in their old age? A. Things learned in youth take deep root and habitude in a person, but those learned in age are forgotten, because the senses are weakened.

Q. What kind of covetousness is best? A. That of time, when employed as it ought to be.

Q. Why is our life compared to a play? A. Because the dishonest do occupy the place of the honest, and the worst sort the room of the good.

Q. Why do dolphins, when they appear above the water, denote a storm or tempest approaching? A. Because at the beginning of a tempest there do arise from the bottom of the sea certain hot exhalations and vapours which heat the dolphins, causing them to rise up for cold air.

Q. Why did the Romans call Fabius Maximus the target of the people, and Marcellus the sword? A. Because the one adapted himself to the service of the commonwealth, and the other was very eager to revenge the injuries of his country; and yet they were in the senate joined together, because the gravity of the one would moderate the courage and boldness of the other.

Q. Why doth the shining of the moon hurt the head? A. Because it moves the humours of the brain, and cannot afterwards dissolve them.

Q. If water do not nourish, why do men drink it? A. Because water causes the nutriment to spread through the body.

Q. Why is sneezing good? A. Because it purgeth the brain, as milk is purged by the cough.

Q. Why is hot water lighter than cold? A. Because boiling water has less ventosity, and is more light and subtle, the earthy and heavy substance being separated from it.

Q. How comes marsh and pond water to be bad? A. By reason they are phlegmatic, and do corrupt in summer; the fineness of the water is turned into vapours, and the earthiness doth remain.

Q. Why are studious and learned men soonest bald? A. It proceeds from a weakness of the spirits, or because warmth of digestion causes phlegm to abound in them.

Q. Why doth much watching make the brain feeble? A. Because it increases choler, which dries and extenuates the body.

Q. Why are boys apt to change their voices about fourteen years of age? A. Because that then nature doth cause a great and sudden change of voice, experience proves this to be true; for at that time we may say that women’s paps do grow great, do hold and gather milk, and also those places that are above the hips, in which the young fruit would remain. Likewise men’s breasts and shoulders, which then can bear great and heavy burdens. The body is bigger and dilated, as the alternation and change of every part doth testify, and the harshness of the voice and hoarseness; for the rough artery, the wind-pipe, being made wide in the beginning, and the exterior and outward part within being unequal to the throat, the air going out the rough uneven pipe doth then become unequal and sharp, and after hoarse, something like unto the voice of a goat, wherefore it has its name called Bronchus. The same doth also happen to them unto whose rough artery distillation doth flow; it happens by reason of the drooping humidity that a light small skin filled unequally causes the uneven going forth of the spirit and air. Understand that the wind-pipe of goats is such by reason of the abundance of humidity. The like doth happen unto all such as nature hath given a rough artery, as unto cranes. After the age of fourteen they leave off that voice, because the artery is made wider and reacheth its natural evenness and quality.

Q. Why do hard dens, hollow and high places, send back the likeness and sound of the voice? A. Because that in such places also by reflection do return back the image of a sound, for the voice doth beat the air, and the air the place, which the more it is beaten the more it doth bear, and therefore doth cause the more vehement sound of the voice; moist places, and as it were soft, yielding to the stroke, and dissolving it, give no sound; for according to the quantity of the stroke, the quality and quantity of the voice is given, which is called an echo. Some do idly fable that she is a goddess; some say that Pan was in love with her, which without doubt is false. He was some wise man, who did first desire to search out the cause of that voice; and as they who love, and cannot enjoy that love, are grieved, so in like manner was he very sorry until he found out the solution of that cause: as Endymion also, who first found out the course of the moon, watching all night, and observing her course, and searching her motion, did sleep in the day-time, and therefore they do fable that he was beloved of her, and that she came to him when he was asleep, because she did give the philosopher the solution of the course of herself. They say also that he was a shepherd, because that in the desert and high places he did mark the course of the moon. And they gave him also the pipe, because that the high places are blown with wind, or else because he sought out the consonancy of figures. Prometheus, also, being a wise man, sought the course of the star, which is called the eagle in the firmament, his nature and place; and when he was as it were wasted with the desire of learning, then at last he rested, when Hercules did resolve unto him all doubts with his wisdom.

Q. Why do not swine cry when they are carried with their snouts upwards? A. Because that above all other beasts they bend more to the earth. They delight in filth, and that they seek, and therefore in the sudden change of their face, they be as it were strangers, and being amazed with so much light do keep that silence; some say the wind-pipe doth close together by reason of the straitness of it.

Q. Why do swine delight in dirt? A. As the physicians do say, they are naturally delighted with it, because they have a great liver, in which desire is, as Aristotle saith; the wideness of the snout is the cause, for he hath smelling which doth dissolve itself, and as it were strive with stench.

Q. Why do many beasts wag their tails when they see their friends, and a lion and a bull beat their sides when they are angry? A. Because they have the marrow of their backs reaching to the tail, which hath the force of motion in it, the imagination acknowledging that which is known to them as it were with the hand, as happens to men, doth force them to move their tails. This doth manifestly show some secret force to be within them, which doth acknowledge what they ought. In the anger of lions and bulls nature doth consent to the mind, and causeth it to be gently moved, as men do sometimes when they are angry, beating their hands on other parts; when the mind cannot be revenged on that which doth hurt, it presently seeks out some other source, and cures the malady with a stroke or blow.

Q. How come steel glasses to be better for the sight than any other kind? A. Because steel is hard, and doth present unto us more substantially the air that receiveth the light.

Q. How doth love show its greater force; by making the fool to become wise, or the wise to become a fool? A. In attributing wisdom to him that hath it not; for it is harder to build than to pull down; and ordinarily love and folly are but an alteration of the mind.

Q. How comes much labour and fatigue to be bad for the sight? A. Because it dries the blood too much.

Q. Why is goat’s milk reckoned best for the stomach? A. Because it is thick, not slimy; and they feed on wood and boughs rather than grass.

Q. Why do grief and vexation bring gray hairs? A. Because they dry, which bringeth on grayness.

Q. How come those to be most merry who have the thickest blood? A. Because the blood which is fat and thick makes the spirits firm and constant, wherein consists the force of all creatures.

Q. Whether is it hardest to obtain a person’s love, or to keep it when obtained? A. It is hardest to keep it, by reason of the inconstancy of man, who is quickly angry, and soon weary of a thing; hard to be gained, and slippery to keep.

Q. Why do serpents shun the herb rue? A. Because they are very cold, dry, and full of sinews, and that herb is of a contrary nature.

Q. Why is a capon better to eat than a cock? A. Because a capon loses not his moisture by treading the hens.

Q. Why is our smell less in winter than summer? A. Because the air is thick, and less moveable.

Q. Why does hair burn so quickly? A. Because it is dry and cold.

Q. Why is love compared to a labyrinth? A. Because the entry and coming in is easy, and the going out impossible, or very hard.

DISPLAYING THE SECRETS OF NATURE, RELATING TO PHYSIOGNOMY.