Book VIII, chapters 7–14: Physical experiments

CHAP. VII.

That a Woman may conceive.

THere are many Medicines to cause Conception spread abroad, because they are much desired by Great Persons. The Ancients did applaud Sage very much for this purpose: And in Coptus after great Plagues, the Egyptians that survived, forced the Women to drink the juice of it, to make them conceive, and bring forth often. Salt also helpeth Generation: for it doth not only heighten the Pleasures of Venus, but also causeth Fruitfulness. The Egyptians, when their Dogs are backward in Copulation, make them more eager by giving them Salt-meats. It is an Argument also of it, That Ships in the Sea, as Plutarch witnesseth, are alwayes full of an innumerable company of Mice. And some affirm, That Female-Mice will conceive without a Male, onely by licking Salt. And Fish-wives are insatiably leacherous, and alwayes full of Children. Hence the Poets feigned venus to be born of Salt or the Sea. The Egyptian Priests (saith the same Author) did most Religiously abstain from Salt and Salt-meats, because they did excite to lust, and cause erection.

A remedy to procure conception.

This I have tryed and found the best; when a womans courses are just past, let her take a new-laid egge, boil it, and mix a grain of musk with it, and sup it up when she goes to bed. Next morning take some old beans, at least five years old, and boil them for a good space in a new pipkin, and let the woman when she ariseth out of her bed, receive the fume into her privities, as it were through a tunnel, for the space of an hour: then let her sup up two eggs, and go to bed again, and wipe off the moisture with warm clothes: then let her enjoy her husband, and rest a while; afterwards, take the whites of two eggs, and mix them with Bole-armenick and Sanguis[…]draconis, and dip some flax into it, and apply it to the reins; but because it will hardly stick on, swathe it on from falling: a while after, let her arise, and at night renew the plaister. But when she goeth to sleep, let her hold ginger in her mouth. This she must do nine days.

CHAP. VIII.

Remedies against the Pox.

SInce this disease hath raged so cruelly amongst men, there have been invented a multitude of most excellent remedies to oppose it. And although many have set out several of them, yet I will be contented with this one only, which we may use, not onely in this disease, but almost in all other: and I have seen many experiences of it. It is easily made, and as easily taken. Take a pound of lingnum Guaiacum, half a pound of Sarsaperilla beaten small, five ounces of the stalks and leaves of Sena, one handful of Agrimony and Horse-tail, a drachm of Cinnamon, and as much cloves, and one nutmeg: Poun them all, and put them into a vessel which containeth twenty gallons of Greek wine; let it stand a day, and then let the patient drink it at meals, and at his pleasure: for it purgeth away by degrees all maladies, beside the French-pox. If the patient groweth weak with purging, let him intermit some days. In the summer time leave out the cinnamon, and the nutmeg. I have used it against continual head-aches, deafness, hoarsness, and many other diseases.

A preservation against the Pox,

which a man may use after unclean women. Take a drachm of hartwort and gentian, two scruples of sanders and lignum-aloes, half a drachm of powder of coral, spodium, and harts horn burnt, a handful of sowthistle, scordium, betony, scabious, and tormentil; as much of roses, two pieces of Guaiacum, two scales of copper, a drachm and a half of Mercury precipitate; a pint of malmesey, a quart of the waters of sowthistle, and scabious: mix the wine and waters, and lay the Guaiacum in it a day, and then the rest; then boil them, till half be consumed; strain them, and lay a linnen-cloth soaking in the expression a whole night; then dry it in the shade: do this thrice, and after copulation, wash your yard in it, and lay some of the linnen on, and keep it close.

CHAP. IX.

Antidotes against Poyson.

IT is the common opinion of all Physitians, that those herbs, stones, or any other thing, which being put into a Serpents mouth, doth kill him, is an Antidote against his poyson. We read in Dioscorides of the herb Alkanet, which is very efficacious against the poyson of Serpents; and being chewed and spit out upon a Serpent, killeth him. Upon this, I thrust half a drachm of treacle or mithridate, mixt with Aqua vitae, into a vipers mouth, and she died within half an hour. I made a water-serpent swallow the same, but she received no hurt by it, onely lay a small time […]upified: wherefore I pressed some oyl out of the seeds of citron, and orange or lemons, and dropt it into the serpents mouth, and she died presently. Moreover, a drachm of the juice of Angelica-roots will kill a serpent. The Balsame, as they call it, which is brought from the west-Indies, is excellent against them; for when I anointed their mouth and jaws with it, they died in half an hour. Balsame of the east, is a present remedy against poyson by oyntments, or the biting of a serpent, saith Aetius. In Arabia, where it groweth, there is no fear of poyson, neither doth any one dye of their bitings; for the fury of this deadly poyson, is allayed by the feeding of the serpents upon this pretious Balsame. But I have found nothing more excellent than the earth which is brought from the Isle of Malta: for the least dust of it put into their mouths, kills them presently. I have tried the same vertue in Lithoxylon, which Physitians use for the worms in children. There is a stone called Chelonites, the French name it Crapodina, which they report to be found in the head of a great old Toad; and if it can be gotten from him, while he is alive, it is soveraign against poyson: they say it is taken from living Toads, in a red cloth, in which colour they are much delighted; for whilst they sport and open themselves upon the scarlet, the stone droppeth out of their head, and falleth through a hole made in the middle, into a box set under for the purpose, else they will suck it up again. But I never met with a faithful person, who said that he found it: nor could I ever find one, though I have cut up many. Nevertheless, I will affirm this for truth, that those stones which are pretended to be taken out of Toads are minerals; for I remember at Rome I saw a broken piece of stone, which was compacted of many of those stones, some bigger, some less, which stuck on the back of it like limps on a rock. But the vertue is certain: if any swallow it down with poyson, it will preserve him from the malignity of it; for it runneth about with the poyson, and assawageth the power of it, that it becometh vain and of no force.

A most perfect oyl against poyson,

often tryed in repressing the violence of it. Take three pound of old oyl, put into it two handfulls of the flower of St Johns wort, and let them macerate in it for two months in the sun. Then strain out the flowers, and put into the oyl two ounces of the flowers of the same herb, and set it to boil in Balneo Mariae a quarter of a day. Stop the bottle close, that it may have no vent, and set it a sunning for fifteen days. In the moneth of July, take three ounces of the seed, stamp it gently, and steep it in two glasses of the best white-wine, with gentian, tormentil, white dittany, zedoary, and carline gathered in August; red sanders, long aristolochie, of each two drams: Let all these mecerate in the wine for three days; then take them out, and put them in the oyl, and boil them gently in Balneo for six hours; then strain them in a press. Adde to the expression an ounce of saffron, myrrhe, aloes, spikenard, and rubarb, all bruised, and let them boil in it for a day in B. M. at last treacle and mithridate, of each two ounces, and let them also boil in it six hours as before: then set it forty days in the sun. It must be used thus: In the plague-time, or upon suspition of poyson, anoint the stomach and wrists, and the place about the heart, and drink three drops of it in wine. It will work wonders.

CHAP. X.

Antidotes and preservatives against the Plague.

I Have spoken of poysons, now I will of the plague, being of the same nature, and cured almost by the same Medicines. I will set down onely them, which in our time have been experimented by the Neapolitanes, Sicilians, and Venetians (whilst the plague was spread amongst them) to resist the contagion of that epidemical plague, and preserve their bodies from infection.

A confection of Gillyflowers against the plague, of wonderful operation.

Gather some clove-gilliflowers in the moneth of May, of a red and lively colour, because they are of the greater vertue; pull them out of their husks, and clip off the green […]nd, then beat them in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, until they become so fine as they may hardly be felt. In the mean while, take three pound of sugar for one of the flowers; melt it in a brass skillet, and boil it with a little orange-flower water, that may quickly be consumed. When it is boiled sufficiently, put in some whites of egges beaten, enough to froth and clarifie it, still stirring it, and skimming off the froth with a spoon, until all the dregs be taken out. Then put in the due weight of flowers, and stir it with a wooden slice, till i[…] turn red: when it is almost boiled, adde thereunto two drachms of cloves beaten with a little musk, the mixture of which will both add & excite a sweet sent and pl[…]asantness in the flowers. Then put it into earthen pots, and set it up: if you add a little juyce of lemon, it will make it of a more lively blood-colour. We may also make Lozenges and round Cakes of it, by pouring it on a cold marble. If any would do i[…] after the best manner, they must extract the colour of the flowers, and boil their sugar in that infusion, for so it will smell sweeter. Some never bruise the flowers, but cut them very small with sizers, and candy them with sugar; but they are not very pleasant to eat. This confection is most grateful to the taste, and by reason of the sent of the cloves, very pleasant. The vertues of it are these, as I have found by experience: it i[…] good for all diseases of the heart, as fainting, and trembling thereof; for the megrum and poyson, and the bitings of venimous creatures, and especially against the infection of the plague. There may be made a vinegar, or infusion of it, which being rub'd about the nostrils, is good against contagious air, and night-dews, and all effects of melancholy.

Against the Plague.

Gather Ivy-berries in May, and wilde Poppies before the sun rise, lest they open; In April gather goats rue: dry them in the shade, and make them into powder. One drachm of it being drank in wine, is excellent against infectious diseases. The Bezoar stone, brought from the west-Indies, being hung about the neck nigh to the heart; or four grains of it in powder, being taken in wine, is good against the plague, and the infection of all pestilential feavors, as I can testifie: And taketh away soundings, and exhilarateth the heart. The water or oyl, extracted from the seeds of Citron, is a very strong Antidote against the plague. Apparitius Hispanus, his oyl is also approved against the same.

CHAP. XI.

Remedies for wounds and blows.

THere are some remedies for wounds and blows, which shall not be omitted, for I have found some of them to be of wonderful vertue.

The oyl of Hispanus for wounds and other things.

Take two pound of new wax, four ounces of wax, as many of linseed, two ounces of rosemary-flowers, and bay-berries, as many of betony; of chamomil-flowers, or the oyl of it, three ounces; of cinnamon an ounce and a half, as much of St Johns wort, or the oyl of it, two ounces of old oyl. Dry the flowers and herbs in the shade; and when they are withered, beat them, and seirce them through a sieve. Melt the wax on the fire, then pour in the oyls, next the powders, still stirring them with a stick. At length, pour it on a marble, and cut it into small slices, and put it into a glass retort; stop it close with straw-mortar, and set it on the fire with his receiver; stop the joynts, and give the inclosed no vent, lest the virtue flye out and vanish away. First, by a gentle fire draw out a water; then encreasing it, and changing the glass, draw a red oyl; stop them close, and keep them for use: the qualities of it are heating; by anointing the neck, it cureth all creeks that are bred by cold; it healeth wounds, helpeth the contraction of the nerves caused by cold; it mo[…]lifieth cold gouts, and taketh away the trembling of the hands; It may be drank for the Sciatica, taken in wine; it helpeth the quinsie: by anointing the reins of the back, and the belly, or by drinking the water or oyl in wine, it will break the stone and bring it down, and asswageth poyson. For deafness, you must steep some wool in it, and stop the ears with it: anoint the belly and back in any pain there. Being drunk in vinegar, it cureth the falling sickness, and restoreth lost memory; it provoketh the menstrues in women, by anointing their privities with it, or by drinking some drops of it in wine; taken in the same manner, it provoketh appetite, being taken early in the morning; and is good against the bitings of Scorpions: Drink it going to bed, or when you arise in the morning, and it will cure a […]inking breath.

For cold aches.

Oyl of Herns is excellent to allay and remove all cold aches, the gout, sciatica, griefs of the sinews, convulsions, pain in the joynts, cold defluctions, and other diseases of moisture and cold. In the Diomedian Isles, now called Tremi[…]y, in the Adriatique Sea, there are birds, commonly called Hearns, who breed there, and continue there, and are to be found nowhere else: they are a kind of Duck, feeding on fish, which they catch in the night: they are not to be eaten, though they be very fat, because they savour of the rankness of fish. Kill these birds, and pluck off their feathers; draw them, and hang them up by the feet, there will drop from them a certain black yellowish oyl, very offensive to the nose, being of a noisome fishy smell. This oyl being applied to any place, as much as you can endure, will do the effects before mentioned, and more: but it is very hurtful for any hot maladies. There is a water also

For old Sores.

Take lime unkilled, and dissolve it in water; stir it three or four times in a day; then when it is settled and cleared, strain it and keep it; wet a linnen cloth in it, and apply it to a wound or sore, and it cureth them. I will not omit

The vertues of Tobacco.

Out of the seeds of it is expressed an oyl, three ounces out of a pound, which allays the cruel tortures of the gout: the juyce clarified and boiled into a syrup, and taken in the morning, maketh the voyce tunable, clear and loud; very convenient for singing Masters. If you bruise the leaves, and extract the juyce, it killeth lice in childrens heads, being rubbed thereon. The leaves cure rotten Sores and Ulcers, running on the legs, being applied unto them. The juyce of this herb doth also presently take away and asswage the pain in the codds, which happeneth to them who swimming do chance to touch their codds.

CHAP. XII.

Of a secret Medicine for wounds.

THere are certain Potions called Vulnerary Potions, because, being drunk, they cure wounds: and it seemeth an admirable thing, how those Potions should penetrate to the wounds. These are

Vulnerary Potions.

Take Pirole, Comfrey, Aristolochy, Featherfew of each a handful; of Agrimony two: boil them in the best new Wine: digest them in horse-dung. Or take two handfuls of Pirole, of Sanicle, and Sowe-bread one, of Ladies Mantel half one. Boil them in two measures of Wine, and drink it morning and evening. Binde the herbs, which you have boiled, upon the wound, having mixt a little salt with them: and in the mean while use no other Medicine.

The Weapon-Salve

Given heretofore to Maximilian the Emperor, by Paracelsus, experimented by him, and always very much accounted of by him while he lived: It was given to me by a noble man of his Court. If the Weapon that wounded him, or any stick dipt in his blood be brought, it will cure the wound, though the Patient be never so far off. Take of the moss growing upon a dead man his scull, which hath laid unburied, two ounces, as much of the fat of a man, half an ounce of Mummy, and man his blood: of linseed oyl, turpentine, and bole-armenick, an ounce; bray them all together in a mortar, and keep them in a long streight glass. Dip the Weapon into the oyntment, and so leave it: Let the Patient in the morning, wash the wound with his own water; and without adding any thing else, tye it up close, and he shall be cured without any pain.

CHAP. XIII.

How to counterfeit infirmities.

IT hath been no small advantage to some, to have counterfeited sicknesses, that they might escape the hands of their enemies, or redeem themselves for a small ransom, or avoid tortures; invented by former ages, and used by these latter. I will first teach you

How to counterfeit a bloody Flux.

Amphiretus Acantius, being taken by Pirates, and carried to Lemnos, was kept in chains, in hope that his ransom would bring them a great sum of money. He abstained from meat, and drank Minium mixt with salt water. Therefore, when he went to stool, the Pirates thought he was fallen into a bloody Flux, and took off his irons, lest he should dye, and with him their hopes of his ransom. He being loose, escaped in the night, got into a Fisher-boat, and arrived safe at Acantum: so saith Poliaenus. Indian Figs, which stain the hands like ripe Mulberries, if they be eaten, cause the urine to be like blood: which hath put many into a fright, fearing they should dye presently. The fruit of the Mulberry, or Hoggs blood boiled and eaten, maketh the excrements seem bloody. Red Madder maketh the urine red, saith Dioscorides. We may read also, that if you hold it long in your hand, it will colour your urine. I will teach you also

To make any one look pale.

Cumine taken in drink causeth paleness: so it is reported, That the Followers of Portius Latro, that famous Master of Rhetorick, endeavored to imitate that colour which he had contracted by study. And Julius Vindex, that assertor of liberty from Nero, made this the onely bawd to procure him an executorship. They smoke themselves with Cumine, who disfigure their faces, to counterfeit holiness and mortification of their body. There is an experiment also, whereby any one may know how

To cause Sores to arise.

Take Perwinckle, an herb of an intolerable sharpness, that is worthily named Flammula; bruise it, and make it into a plaister, and it will in a short space ulcerate, and make blisters arise. Cantharides beaten with strong water, do also raise watry blisters, and cause ruptures.

CHAP. XIV.

Of Fascination, and Preservatives against inchantments.

NOw I will discourse of inchantment; neither will I pass over in silence, who they are whom we call Inchanters: For if we please to look over the Monuments of Antiquity, we shall finde a great many things of that kind delivered down to posterity. And the tryal of later ages doth not altogether explode the fame of them: neither do I think that it derogateth from the truth of the stories, that we cannot draw the true causes of the things, into the streight bonds of our reasons, because there are many things that altogether impede the enquiry: but what I my self judge of others opinions, I thought fit here to explicate. You may find many things in Theocritus and Virgil, of this kind: whence that verse arose:

There's same, I know not whose unlucky eye
Bewitcheth my yong Lambs, and makes them die.

Isigonus and Memphodorus say, There are some families in Africa, that bewitch with their tongue the very Woods: which if they do but admire somewhat earnestly, or if they praise fair trees, growing corn, lusty children, good horses, or fat sheep, they presently wither, and die of a suddain, from no other cause or harm: which thing also Solinus affirmeth. The same Isigonus saith, there are amongst the […]riballians and Illyrians, certain men, who have two pupils in each eye, and do bewitch most deadly with them, and kill whatever they look earnestly on, especially with angry eyes; so pernicious are they: and yong children are most subject to their mischief. There are such women in Scythia, called Bichiae, saith Apollonides. Philarchus reporteth of another kind, called Thibians in Pontus, who had two pupils in one eye, and in the other the picture of a horse; of which Didymus also maketh mention. Damon relateth of a poyson in Ethiopia, whose sweat would bring a consumption in all bodies it touched: and it is manifest, that all women which have two pupils in one eye, can bewitch with it. Cicero writeth of them; so Plutarch and Philarchus mention the Paletheobri, a Nation inhabiting in part of the Pontick Sea, where are Inchanters who are hurtful, not onely to children that are tender and weak, but to men of full growth, who are of a strong and firm body; and that they kill with their looks, making the persons languish and consume away as in a consumption. Neither do they infect those onely who live among them, but strangers, and those who have the least commerce with them; so great is the power and witchcraft of their eyes: for though the mischief be often caught in copulation with them, yet it is the eyes that work; for they send forth spirits, which are presently conveyed to the heart of the bewitched, and so infect him. Thus it cometh to pass, That a yong man, being full of thin, clear, hot, and sweet blood, sendeth forth spirits of the same nature; for they are made of the purest blood, by the heat of the heart: and being light, get into the uppermost parts of the body, and flye out by the eyes, and wound those who are most porous, which are fair persons, and the most soft bodies. With the spirits there is sent out also a certain fiery quality, as red and blear-eyes do, who make those that look on them, fall into the same disease: I suffered by such an accident my self: for the eye infecteth the air; which being infected, infecteth another: carrying along with it self the vapors of the corrupted blood, by the contagion of which, the eyes of the beholders are overcast with the like redness. So the Wolf maketh a man dumb; so the Cockatrice killeth, who poysoneth with looking on, and giveth venimous wounds with the beams of his eyes: which being reflexed upon himself, by a looking-glass, kill the Author of them. So a bright Mirror dreadeth the eyes of an unclean women, saith Aristotle, and groweth cloudy and dull, when she looketh on it: by reason that the sanguine vapour is contracted by the smoothness of the glass into one place; so that it is spotted with a kind of little mist, which is plainly seen; and if it be newly gathered there, will be hardly wip'd off. Which thing never happeneth on a cloth or stone, because it penetrateth and sinketh into the one, and is dispersed by the inequality of parts in the other. But a Mirror being hard and smooth, collecteth them entire; and being cold, condenseth them into a dew. In like manner almost, if you breath upon a clear glass, it will wax moist as it were with a sprinkling of spettle, which condensing will drop down: so this efflux of beams out of the eyes, being the conveyers of spirits, strike through the eyes of those they meet, and flye to the heart, their proper region, from whence they rise; and there being condensed into blood, infect all his inward parts. This stranger blood, being quite repugnant to the nature of the man, infects the rest of him, and maketh him sick: and there this contagion will continue, as long as he hath any warm blood in his body. For being a distemper in the blood, it will cast him into a continual feaver; whereas, if it had been a distemper of choler or flegme, it would have afflicted him by intervalls. But that all things may be more distinctly explained, you must know first, that there are two kind of Fascinations mentioned by Authors: One of Love, the other of Envy or Malice. If a person be ensnared with the desire of a fair and beautiful woman, although he be caught at a distance, yet he taketh the poyson in at his eyes, and the Image of her beauty settleth in the heart of this Lover, kindleth a flame there, which will never cease to torment him: For the soft blood of the beloved being strayed thither, maketh continual representations of her: she is present there in her own blood; but it cannot settle or rest there, for it continually endeavoureth to flye homeward, as the blood of a wounded person spirts out on him that giveth the blow. Lucretius describeth this excellenty:

He seeks that body, whence his grief he found;
For humors always flow unto a wound.
As bruised blood still runs unto the part
That's struck, and gathers where it feels the smart:
So when the murtheress of his heart's in place,
Blushes arise, and red orespreads his facee.

But if it be a Fascination of Envy or Malice, that hath infected any person, it is very dangerous, and is found most often in old women. Neither can any one deny, but that the diseases of the minde do distemper the body; and that the good disposition of it, doth strengthen and corroborate the same: and it doth not work this alteration onely in its own body, but on others also, by how much it stirreth up in the heart inward desires of love and revenge. Doth not covetousness, grief, or love, change the colour and disposition? Doth not envy cause paleness and meagerness in the body? Doth not the longing of the mother, imprint the mark of what she desired upon the tender Embryo? So when Envy bends her fierce and flaming eyes, and the desire of mischief bursts thereout, a vehement heat proceedeth from them, wch infecteth those that stand nigh, especially the beautiful; they strike them through as with a sword, set their entrails on fire, and make them wast into a leannness, especially if they be of a cholerick or sanguine complexion; for the disease is easily fed, where the pores are open, and the humors thin. Nor is it the passions of the mind onely, that affecteth the body thus: but the body it self, as Avicenna proveth, may be endued with venimous qualities: many are so by Nature; so that it cannot seem a wonder, if sometimes some are made so by Art. The Queen of India sent to Alexander a very beautiful maid, anointed and fed with the poyson of Serpents, as Aristotle saith, and Avicenna from the Testimony of Rufus, Galen Writeth of another, who eat Henbane without any harm; and another, Woolf-bane; so that a Hen would not come near her. And Mithridates (as old Histories deliver it to us) King of Pontus, had so strengthened himself against poyson, that when he would have poysoned himself, lest he should fall into the hands of the Romans, nothing would do him any hurt. If you give a Hawk a Hen fed with snakes or lizards flesh, or with barly boiled in the broth of them, it will make him mew his feathers betimes: and many other such things are done, which are too long to be recounted. So many men are of such a nature, that they will cure some diseases onely with their stroaking. Many eat Spiders and wilde Olives, and care not for the biting of Serpents, nor suffer any wasting or consumption, if they be of such a nature, that their looks or breath will not onely blast men, but plants and herbs, and any other thing, and make them wither away: and oftentimes, where such kind of creatures are, you may find blasted corn, poysoned and withered, meerly by the contagion of their eyes, the breath that cometh from them. Do not women in the time of their courses, infect cucumbers and melons, by touching or looking on them, so that they wither? Are not children handled with less prejudice by men then women? And you will find more women then men witches, by reason of their complexion; for they are farther distant from a right temper, and eat more unwholesome food; so that every moneth they are filled with superfluities, and purge forth melancholy blood: from whence vapors arise, and flie out through their eyes, poysoning those that stand nigh them, and filling them with the same kind of blood. Hence sanguine complexioned men, and somewhat cholerick, who have large, shining, gray eyes, and live chastly (for too often copulation exhausteth the moisture) who by frequent glances, and continual imagination, encounter point to point, beams to beams, eyes to eyes, do generally stir up love. But why a man is taken by this Fascination with one, and not another, appeareth by the former, and this reason: for it happeneth from the intention of the Inchantor, who by those spirits or vapors, is transmitted into the bewitched person, and he receiving them, is made like unto him: For the infection seizing on his mind, and fixing in his imagination, becomes a permanent habit, and maketh the spirits and blood obedient to it; and so bindeth the imagination, and inflameth them with the thing beloved. Although the mind (which opinion is fathered upon Avicen, neither doth it want his authority) can of its own will and power, produce such passions. Musaeus will have the eyes to lay the foundation of Love, and to be the chief allurements of it. And Diogenianus saith, That Love is begotten by looks, affirming that it is impossible for a man to fall in love unawares. So Juvenal placeth that Lover among prodigies,

Who burnt with Love of her he never saw:

For the bright glances of the eyes, driveth the Object into a kind of madness, and teach the rudiments of Love. The other parts are scarce any cause of Love, but provoke and entice the beholder to stay, and gaze a while upon their beauty, whilst the eyes wound him; for there they say, Cupid lieth in ambush with his bowe, ready to shoot his arrows into the beholders eyes, and set his heart on fire. For thy eyes slide in through my eyes (saith Apuleius) and raise a cruel fire within my heart. Now I have discovered the original of it unto you; unless you are quite mad, you may many ways fortifie your self against it. But many one may well wonder, considering those diseases which come by infection, as the itch, scabbiness, blear-eyes, the plague, do infect by sight, touching or speaking, and presently cause putrefaction, why Love's contagion, which is the greatest plague of all, doth not presently seize upon men, and quite consume them: Neither doth it infect others onely, but sometimes it returneth upon it self, and the persons will be ensnared in their own charms: It is reported by the Antients of Eutelides, that he bewitched himself by reflection in water, looking-glasses, or fountains, which returned his own shadow upon him. So that he seemed so beautiful unto himself, that falling in love with that wherewith he used to entrap others, he lost his former complexion, and died a Sacrifice unto his own Beauty. So children oftentimes effascinate themselves, when their parents attribute it to haggards and witches. Now take

Some Preservatives against Love.

There are many prescribed by wise antiquity. If you would endeavor to remove the […]charms of love, thus you may expel them. Turn your face away, that she may not asten her eyes on yours, nor couple rays with you; for you must remove the cause from the place, where it useth to make its impression: forsake her company, avoid idleness, employ your mind in business of concernment; evacuate blood, sweat, and other excrements in a large quantity, that the infection may also be voided with them.

A Preservative against Envy.

If it be the witchcraft of Envy, you may know it thus. The infected loseth his colour, hardly openeth his eyes, always hangeth his head down, sighs often, his heart is ready to break, and sheddeth salt and bitter tears, without any occasion or sign of evil. To disencharm him, because the air is corrupted and infected, burn sweet persume to purifie the air again, and sprinkle him with waters sweetned with cinnamon, cloves, cypress, lignum aloes, musk, and amber. Therefore the old custome is continued until this day, and observed by our women, to smoke their children, and rowl them about in frankincense. Keep him in an open air, and hang Carbuncles, Jacinthes, or Saphires about his neck. Dioscorides accounteth Christs Thorn, wilde Hemp, and Valerian, hung up in the house, an amulet against witchcraft. Smell to Hyssope, and the sweet Lilly; wear a ring made of the hoof of a tame or wilde Ass; also Sa[…]v[…]ion, the male and female, are thought the like. Aristotle commendeth Rue, being smelt to. All these do abate the power of witchcraft.