Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

  • Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Note that if you boil a Serpent or a worm, and give of the fat of that worm to any man to eat, he will under- stand when they sing. [He does not explain who are they, but from the previous article they may be mice or Serpents.] This has been proved. Albertus Magnus, Of the Wonders of the World. In a garden of the suburbs [of Aleppo] I did see a Serpent of wonderful bigness, and they report that the male Serpent and young ones being killed by certain boys, this she-serpent, observing the water where the boys used to drink, did poison the same, so as many of the boys died thereof; and that the citizens thereupon came out to kill her, but seeing her lie with her face upward, as complain- ing to the heavens that her revenge was just, that they, touched with a superstitious conceit, let her alone ; finally that this Serpent had lived here many ages, and was of incredible years. F^nes Moryson, Itinerary, part i. p. 246. If a snake did bite a Cappadocian, the man's blood was poison to the snake, and killed him. Purckas' Pilgrims, p. 320 (ed. 1616). Serpents are plentifully engendered of much rain, or effusion of men's blood in war. Ibid., p. 560. ■ The cucurijuba is a fresh-water snake [in Brazil], toothed like a dog ; it catcheth a man, cow, stag, or other prey, winding it with the tail, and so swalloweth it whole ; after which she lies and rots, the ravens and crows eating her all but the bones, to which after groweth new flesh, by life derived from the head, which is hidden all this while in the mire. jtid., p. 843. Sheep. A Sheep is a nesh [soft] beast, and beareth wool, and is unarmed in body, and pleasing in heart. And if Sheep conceive toward the Northern wind, they conceive males ; and if they conceive toward the Southern wind, then they conceive females. And such as the veins be under the Sheep's tongue, of such colour is the lamb when he is