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
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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![taken; for all agree that the scarabees [beetles] are procreated from them ; rather I am of opinion that they are sprung from the dead bodies of horses,—for the horse is a valiant and warlike creature. Other sorts of them are produced out of the putrid corpse of the crocodiles. Wasps come out of the putrefaction of an old deer's head, flying some- times out of the head, sometimes out of the nostrils. Also Wasps are begotten of the earth and rottenness of some kind of fruits. The Wasps called Ichneumons are less than the rest ; they kill spiders, and carry them into their nests, and daub them over with dirt, and so sitting upon thejn do procreate their own species. Of the Wasps as well wild as tame some have no sting ; also very many of them that have stings lose them upon the approach of winter. They feed on flesh of serpents and then they sting mortally. They themselves are a plaister for their own stings. The distilled water of common Wasps applied to the belly makes it swell as if it had the dropsy, by which trick [the guile- less man is deceived by the designing woman]. The Wasp will not come near any man that is anointed with oil and the juice of mallows. Tl:)os. Mouff'et, Theatre of Insects, pp. 921-6. The Wasp scorns that flower from which she hath fetched her wax. Euphues' Golden Legacy.' Wasps feeding on serpents make their stings more venomous. Lilly, Sappho and Phaon, iii. 3. V. Fly. Water-rat. Merchant of Venice, i, 3, 23. Water-rat, ^. Otter. -Minsheti's Dictionary, s.v. The Water-rat hunteth fishes in the winter. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, p. 404. Water-rug. Macbeth, iii. i, 94. [Probably a rough-haired vvatei-dog ; perliaps a water-spaniel.] 22](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2100433x_0349.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
