Pseudodoxia epidemica, or, Enquiries into very many received tenents, and commonly presumed truths / By Thomas Brown Dr. of Physick.

Thomas Browne

Date:: 1658

Credit: Pseudodoxia epidemica, or, Enquiries into very many received tenents, and commonly presumed truths / By Thomas Brown Dr. of Physick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$3^ LntjuirieS into Vulgar B^ok man would relie upon that Antidote delivered by Pierius in ins Hieroglyphicks again# the fling of a Scorpion > that is,to fit upon an Afs with ones face toward his tail; for fo the Pain ieavetb the man and palleth into the Beaft. It were me thinks but an unconfortable receit for an Quartans Ague (and yet as good perhaps as many • others ufed) to have recourfe unto the Recipe of Sammnicuri that is , to lay the fourth book of Homers Iliad under ones head, according to the precept of that Phyfitian and Poet, Mr.onie Iliados quart uni fuppone tremcntn There are Purely few An eye mede- c^ac have belief to fwallow, or hope enough to experiment the Col- cine. lyritun of Albertus > which promifeth a ftrange effeft, and fuch as Thieves would count ineflimable, that is, to make one fee in the dark yet thus much, according unto his receit, will the right eye of an Hedge-hog boyied in oyl, and preferved in a brazen veflel effeft. As ftrange it is, and unto vicious in- clinadons were worth a nights lodging with Lais, what is de- diachracf1 •,n^ '*vere^ *n Liranides; that the lefc ftone of a Weefel, wrapt up rac racs. in the skin of aflieMule, is able to fecure incontinency from con¬ ception. - , * B Thefe with- {warms of others have men delivered in their Writings, whofe verities are onely fupported by their Authori¬ ties : But being neither coufouant unto reafon, nor correfpondent unto experiment, their affirmations are unto us no Axiomes: We efteem thereof as things unfaid, and account them but in the lift of nothing. I wiffi herein the Chymijis had been more fparing : who over-magnifying their preparations, inveigle the curiouty of many, and delude the fecurity of moil. For if experiments would anfwer their encomiums, the ftoue audquar- tane Agues, were not opprobrious unto Phyfitians ■, we might con¬ temn that firft, and moft uncomfortable Aphorifm of Hippocrates^ Ars tonga vita for Purely that Art werefoon attained, that hath fo general rente- ktevis, dies; and life could not be ihort, were there fuch to prolong it. CHAP. VIII. « . • •. A brief enumeration of Authors, ]Sjfor as much as we have difeourfed of Authority, and there ^ is fcarce any tradition or popular error but ftands alfo deli¬ vered by fome good Author j we fhall endeavour a ftiort difeovery of fuch, as for the major part have given authority hereto : who though excellent and ufeful Authors, yet -being either tran- feriptive, or following common relations, their accounts are not$