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

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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$when the Viper was come, and could not climb up to utter her malice upon the man, she emptied the same upon the tree, and by and by after, the man in the tree died, by the savour and secret operation of the same. If a man chance to tread upon the reins of a Viper unawares, it paineth him more than any venom, for it spreadeth itself over all the body incurably ; and the mushrooms or toad- stools which grow near the dens and lodgings of Vipers are also found to be venomous. The eating of Vipers is an admirable remedy against leprosy. [He narrates several instances, in one of which a leprous woman was not only cured of her leprosy, but soon after conceived a man- child, having been barren before the space of 40 years.] The skin of the Viper beaten to powder and laid upon the places where the hair is fallen, it doth wonderfully restore hair again. llpsell, History of Serpents, pp. 800-10. It would infect the genius of the air With mists contagious (as if compos'd Of Viper-steam). Glaptkorne, The Hollander, iii. 1. V, Serpent. Vulture. Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3, 94. The Vulture hath that name of slow flight, for of the plenteousness of much flesh, he lacketh swiftness of flight. And some men tell that she conceiveth and is conceived, and gendereth and is gendered without joining of treading ; and they tell that they live an hundred years. This bird is cruel about his own birds, as the kite is ; and if she seeth her birds too fat, she beateth them with her feet and bill to make them lean. Also in this bird the wit of smelling is best ; and therefore by smelling he savoureth carrions that be far fiom him, that is beyond the sea ; and againward [/.^., vice versd\ And the Vulture fighteth with the gentle falcon, and fleeth about him, and when he hath overcome him he dieth. And he hunteth from mid-day to night ; and resteth still from the sun-rising to that time. And when he ageth, his over bill waxeth long and crooked over the nether, and dieth at the last for hunger. Also$