A MOST CERTAIN AND TRUE RELATION OF A STRANGE MONSTER OR SERPENT Found in the left Ventricle of the heart of JOHN PENNANT, Gentleman, of the age of 21. years.  
By Edward May Doctor of Philosophy and Physic, and professor Elect of them, in the College of the Academy of Noblemen, called the Musaeum Minervae: Physician also extraordinary unto her most Sacred Majesty, Queen of great Britain, etc.  
LONDON. Printed by George Miller, MDCXXXIX.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD AND highly renowned Peer of this Kingdom, EDWARD Earl of Dorset, etc. Knight of the most Noble order of the garter, Lord High Chamberlain unto her most Sovereign Majesty, QUEEN of great Britain, etc. And one of the Lords of his Majesty's most honourable privy Council. Edward May wisheth all health and glory.  
My LORD,  
FOR this Treatise I seek no patronage, for if the Relation and the Author cannot defend themselves, let them both suffer. A Swallow flies better than a Swan, though his wing be less: And one little Diamond will buy 17. of those stones that were drawn to S. Paul's Church of 17. Tons: yet whether this Description of mine be good, or great, worthy or otherwise, it is not dedicated to your Honour as a matter presuming towards your worth, or presence, but as a public obligation in the face of the world, of my future and more solid gratitude: You have honoured me before the Noble Peers, and highest Councillors of the Kingdom: You have otherwise done me real favours, what am I, or what is in me that you have not conquered? and not by these benefits to me only, but these many years my observations of your most Noble nature, your more than humane parts, your vast and incredible comprehension of all things, both essential and accidental to your place and dignity. Your innumerable merits and that universal acclamation of all men whatsoever, have made me, more your humble servant than you know, and when after a short space God shall give me to sit a little quiet, tending mine own affairs, your Lordship shall see, not by my writings but by my doings, that I am more your Lordships then any French or thrice devoted servant.   

A Preface to the Reader.  
WHat my designs are in the publishing of this History, the Reader may find every where in it, to be no other than the Conservation of the works of God, and nature, and preservation of men: but for the Printing of it in English, I have neither end nor intent: For these two years it hath been neglected by me, and perused up and down in the hands of the best, and best learned, who have desired satisfaction, touching so rare an ostent: for the young Gentleman in whom it was found, deceased the 6t. of October, in the year of our Lord, 1637. My intention in this Description was for the Continent, and not for our Lands only, wherefore I stayed my hand till some opportunity to publish some other Latin Treatises of mine own with it; which many years have been desired: But now this being still out of my hands, and licenced for the press before any notice given me; for the satisfaction of our own nation, and for the benefit of them who desired the printing of it, I have freely given way to pleasure any who shall desire to read it: wherefore if Platonical and specifical Jdeas do correspond: and the readers honest mind answer my sincere truth and good wishes, I have my end.   

The Contents.  

§. 1. THe Preface.  
§. 2. The History itself.  
§. 3. The Occasion of this description: and who were present.  
§. 4. How Hypocrates and the Ancients are to be understood, who said that the heart was not subject to any disease: as also an enumeration of diseases of the heart.  
§. 5. How such Monsters are begotten or bred in the heart.  
§. 6. That these strange generations are caused by the Temperament individual.  
§. 7. What light and help men may have by such relations, and such resolution of this difficulty as in the former Paragraph is set down: and how that in latent causes some exterior signature, or beams discover the disease.  
§ 8. That all creatures, things in the world, and diseases have their radij, as well as the Stars of Heaven: proved by Friar Bacon, and that most learned Philosopher Alkindus, and by reasons and experience, and that there is no action but per radios, and that there is no action immediatione suppositi, but only immediatione virtutis.  
§. 9 How some Physicians have prescribed against such diseases.  
§. 10. One reason why these occult maladies are so seldom found, and never cured: the many benefits of frequent dissections.    

Errata.  
Pag. 2. lin. 12. put in to. p. 4. l. 37. read Caprizant, l. 38. open. p 13. l. 25. Aorts. p. 12. l. 16. yet. p. 19 l. 3. conventu concitiata. p 27. l. 25 Kirannides. p. 28. l. 7. discovered. 32. l. 14. Regulus ●…atus l. 21. essentiator.   

 depiction of heart with parasitic worm  depiction of parasitic worm  
That the 7. of October, this 1637 an Embryo of this form and dimensions, as is here described was found in the left Ventricle of the heart of john Pennant Gentleman, of the age of 21. years, or thereabouts, We who saw it testify under our hands:  


Edward May Doctor of Physic.  
jacob Heydon Surgeon.  
Elizabeth Herris Aunt unto the said john Pennant.  
Dorothy Pennant Mother to the said john Pennant.  
Richard Berry.  
Mrs. Gentleman's mark. This is my wives mark I testify. George Gentleman.     
TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR THEODORE MAIHERNE KNIGHT, CHIEF PHYSICIAN UNTO HIS MOST Sovereign Majesty, KING of great Britain, etc. Edward May wisheth all health.  

§. I.  
SIR,  
AMong those many favours you have afforded me, your private, sweet, most familiar and long Colloquies with me have been singular: While you laying aside important affairs, out of an admirable candour and love to Learning, (in which few excel you) vouchsafe sometimes to treat with me concerning occult Philosophy and most sacred medicines: In one of which meetings, as I had laid open what I had found in the Sinister Ventricle of the heart of a young Gentleman, which you desired me to describe while the Species were yet fresh in my memory, as others many both Physicians and Friends have done also: So here I have done it: And do first communicate it unto yourself, as a small 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my certain knowledge of your great and admirable perfections in many Sciences, nececessary him who is Physician to Princes; and of my singular estimation of them: As also to sow some seeds of future Discourses, both new and worthy of that saving and divine Magic which we both profess: Well knowing that good use may be made of this History by all Physicians, and profit unto many, as I have partly declared in the Subsequents.  
It is an ostent and prodigy, strange and incredible which I am to paint: And if in many Physicians of best esteem, and sincerity I had not found Relations very like it, mine own heart would not have given credit to mine own eyes and hands when first I found it: But you have found one like it in the heart of a Noble Lord; but when you have seen this, I shall know whether so grown, or of this form, or otherwise: Let the Vulgar and Ignorant, believe it, or not believe it, Physicians and knowing men (as you do) will receive it: And therefore briefly the certain History and true Relation is this.   

§. 2.  
THe seventh of October this year current, 1637 the Lady Herris wife unto Sir Francis Herris Knight, came unto me and desired that I would bring a Surgeon with me, to dissect the body of her Nephew john Pennant, the night before deceased, to satisfy his friends concerning the causes of his long sickness and of his death: And that his mother, to whom myself had once or twice given help some years before concerning the Stone, might be ascertained whether her Son died of the Stone or no? Upon which entreaty I sent for Master jacob Heydon Surgeon, dwelling against the Castle Tavern behind St. Clement's Church in the Strand, who with his Manservant came unto me: And in a word we went to the house and Chamber where the dead man lay: We dissected the natural Region and found the bladder of the young man full of purulent and ulcerous matter: The upper parts of it broken, and all of it rotten: The right kidney quite consumed, the left tumified as big as any two kidneys, and full of sanious matter: All the inward and carnose parts eaten away & nothing remaining but exterior skins.  
No where did we find in his body either Stone or gravel. The Spleen and Liver not affected in any discernible degree, only part of the Liver was grown unto the costal membranes, by reason of his writing profession.  
We ascending to the Vital Region, found the Lungs reasonable good, the heart more globose and dilated, then long; the right Ventricle of an ash colour shriveled, and wrinkled like a leather purse without money, and not any thing at all in it: the Pericardium, and Nervous Membrane, which containeth that illustrious liquor of the Lungs, in which the heart doth bathe its self, was quite dried also: The left Ventricle of the heart, being felt by the Surgeon's hand, appeared to him to be as hard as a stone, and much greater than the right: which upon the first sight gave us some cause of wonder, seeing (as you know) the right Ventricle is much greater than the left: Wherefore I wished M. Heydon to make incision, upon which issued out a very great quantity of blood; and to speak the whole verity, all the blood that was in his body left, was gathered to the left Ventricle, and contained in it 
* Here those men may be handsomely questioned (who say that the pulse is nothing else but the impulse, of blood into the Arteries or the Systole of the heart) what was become of the pulse in this man all the while that the whole blood betook itself into the heart, here was either a living man without pulse, or pulse without the Systole of the heart. For what could the arteries receive where nothing was to be received? or how could there be pulse where was no impulse into the arteries? The pulse the doubtless ●s from another cause, and is a fare other matter then most men conceive: for there are in a sound man 4450 pulsations in an hour, in a sick man sometimes in some percute fevers and diseases above 35600, and more, which cannot be from so many several expressions and receptions of blood; for it is impossible the heart should make compression, and the arteries apartion, so often in that space. Nay in Dicrot: Capizant. and other inordinate pulses, divers pulses strike in less space than the mouth of an arterey can go, much more than in less times than it can open, shut, and open again, which 3. acts are requisite to the beginning of a second pulse. But of this I have largely treated in my 3, Book De Febribus.   
No sooner was that Ventricle emptied, but M. Heydon still complaining of the greatness and hardness of the same, myself seeming to neglect his words, because the left Ventricle is thrice as thick of flesh as the right is in sound men for conservation of Vital Spirits; I directed him to an other disquisition: but he keeping his hand still upon the heart, would not leave it, but said again that it was of a strange greatness and hardness; whereupon I desired him to cut the Orifice wider: by which means we presently perceived a carnouse substance, as it seemed to us wreathed together in folds like a worm or Serpent, the self same form expressed in the first Iconography: at which we both much wondered, and I entreated him to separate it from the heart, which he did, and we carried it from the body to the window, and there laid it out, in those just dimensions which are here expressed in the second figure.  
The body was white of the very colour of the whitest skin of man's body: but the skin was bright and shining, as if it had been varnished over; the head all bloody, and so like the head of a Serpent, that the Lady Herris then shivered to see it, and since hath often spoken it, that she was inwardly troubled at it, because the head of it was so truly like the head of a Snake.  
The thighs and branches were of flesh colour, as also all these fibraes, strings, nerves, or whatsoever else they were.  
After much contemplation and conjectures what strange thing that part of the heart had brought forth unto us, I resolved to try the certainty, and to make full exploration, both for mine own experience and satisfaction, as also to give true testimony to others that should hear of it: And thereupon I searched all parts of it, to find whether it were a pituitose and bloody Collection, or the like: Or a true organical body, and Conception: I first searched the head and found it of a thick substance, bloody and glandulous about the neck, somewhat broken, (as I conceived) by a sudden or violent separation of it from the heart, which yet seemed to me to come from it easily enough.  
The body I searched likewise with a bodkin between the Legs or Thighs, and I found it perforate, or hollow, and a solid body, to the very length of a silver bodkin, as is here described: At which the Spectators wondered. And as not crediting me, some of them took the bodkin after me, made trial themselves, and remained satisfied, that there was a gut, Vein or Artery, or some such Analogical thing that was to serve that Monster for uses natural: Amongst whom the Lady Herris and the Surgeon made trial after me with their own hands, and have given their hands that this Relation is true. This Lady dwelleth at the sign of the Sugar loaf in S. james street in the Convent Garden.   

§. 3.  
THis strange and monstrous Embryon borne in the said Ventricle, which as Hypocrates saith is nourished neither with meats nor drinks, Sed purâ & illustri substantia, taking aliment from the blood purified out of the next Cistern; made me (importuned with other occasions then) to leave this new and rare Spectacle in the charge of the Surgeon, who had a great desire to conserve it, had not the Mother desired that it should be buried where it was borne; saying and repeating, As it came with him, so it shall go with him: Wherefore the Mother staying in the place departed not till she had seen him sow it up again into the body after my going away.  
Which as soon as I heard, I presently described the form of it at home, inter rariora à me reperta: And thus this History had always been buried from the World, (the Mother having thus buried the Creature) if yourself and others had not desired a figure and narration of it, which caused me to take the hands, and minds of some of them who were present: Who being nearest the young man, were most likely to say the best, and therefore being besides people of good fame and reputation might be credited; considering that they would say nothing at all either against their own house, or against verity more than what apparent and clear truth should necessitate them unto: Which from themselves and under their hands, here I have done.  
There were also diverse others, such as dwelled in the house, and some that came in, who beheld it, after whom I have no leisure to inquire: But such who will scarce believe their Creed, or any true man's word, or that men have senses (which have always been reputed incorrupted Witnesses,) may go into the high buildings upon the Street in Saint Giles Parish, and at the corner house next the green Dragon where the Youngman died; they may make further inquisition.  
Since which time the Mother hath remooved herself into Bloomesbury near unto the house of one Master Nurse, who directed me to her lodgings; a man well known in all that Region.  
Mistress Gentleman dwelleth near unto S. Clement's Church in the Strand, and the Chirurgeon, or his man can direct them to the house.  
Moreover that day all of us that were present at this sight related to our friends, wives, or husbands what we had found, as they will testify.  
The History therefore being verified by as much testimony as humane persuasion need require: Except nothing but oath will content some, which if it shall be found necessary to Authority: It will most readily come forth also and obey: It is most requisite that something be said of this or any such like matters generated in man's heart, both for the manner of their generation and the way of their cure, and by what means such rare and incredible causes of death may be found out in time and taken away.   

§. 4.  
SUch matters as these were worthy of yourself, and a man of your long experience. Yet because this strange generation was found by me, I will consult with your learning, rather than by any hasty resolution, determine and discourse a little to state a question of no small difficulty; 
Hippolito de morbis Avicen l. 3. se● 11.  since Hypocrates first hath given the occasion, which was this; Cor nullo morbo laborat: the heart laboureth of no disease: & Prince Avicen, cor longinquum anocumentis, the heart is far remote from dangers. And yet contrary to these: Very many Physicians enumerate these diseases of the heart; the Marasmus, Syncope, the Cordiack passion Lypothymy, Apostems, Ulcers, Botheralia, Corrosion of Sublimate; and I dare add, diseases which afflict the heart by reason of distillations from the head in some who have had the unction: Tremors also and palpitations of the heart; as Peter Ebanus in his Book de Venenis: And the Paralysis of the heart, as old Aurelianus in his second Book of Slowpassions: After Haerophylus and Erasistratus have observed.  
And now of late Skinkius and others have found worms in Cordis capsulâ, which is the Pericardium: But I speak more precisely and punctually, that now in the left Ventricle of the heart, this Worm or Serpent hath been found: Which the Mother of the Youngman saith, was at least of three year's growth, for so long he complained of his breast, and as she saith would never button his Doublet in the Morning, but be open breasted in all weathers, till he had washed his hands and face, and was subject to palpitations.  
Now than that we may judge whether Hypocrates, and Avicen direct their speeches: these reasons are to be admitted.  
reason 1 First, from the situation of the heart, in medio medij pectoris, saith Avicen, in the middle of the middle of the breast: which Mathematically is not true: for so the basis or upper part, or caput only is placed in an Equidistance from the diaphragma (the inferior furcula,) and the Clanicula, (and the furcula superior) and between the Vertebra of the back and the anterior Sternon.  
reason 2 The Second is, that the heart dwelleth in a strong pannicle, and such an one, that non invenitur panniculus compar ei in spissitudine, ut sit ei Clypeus & tutamen: 
Hip. l. de Cord.  that no pannicle is comparable unto it, that it may be a shield and defence unto the heart.  
reason 3 Thirdly, Avicen addeth, that the heart itself is created of strong flesh, that it may be longinquum anocumentis, in quo contextae sunt species villarum fortium: Divers strong strings admirably woven together do bind and strengthen the heart, and give it aptitude for motion, and resistance. Hypocrates long before Avicen saith the same, and things of greater consequence: Cor est musculus fortis, etc. The heart is a strong muscle, non nervo, sed densitate carnis & constrictione: 
Hip. ubi supra.  not by his nervous nature, but by solidity of flesh and constriction: And in the heart there lie hidden divers skins like spider's webs extended, which do so bind and shut the ends of the forts, that no man ignorant, knows how to take out the heart, but will take up one for an other. Neither can water or wind penetrate into the heart: and more; Cor tunicam habet circumdatam, & est in ipsâ humor modicus, etc.  cor sanum in custodiâ floreseat: habet autem humiditatem tantam quanta sat is est aestuanti in medelam: hunc humorem cor emungit bibendo ipsum assumen & consumens, pulmonis nimiram potum lambens: He speaks further of the cover called the Epiglottis, that nothing may enter that way but what is convenient; So that seeing the heart is fortified with such strength of ribs, with such covers, such skins, such fortitude of substance, such density of flesh, such excellence of liquor, such curious filaments, that nothing can enter, hurt, or come near the heart to make it sick: but that it is able to defend itself, both by its own situation, strength, and happy condition in very many respects, and keep out or put back whatsoever also by force shall come near unto it: It remaineth that the heart is not, neither can be subject to any disease, or at least not easily.  
Yea those other men who enumerate the diseases of the heart; grant, as chiefly Valescus de Tharanta and the Arabians all confess that a Syncope happeneth, or else death as soon as any disease approacheth, or hurt toucheth the substance of the heart; also Avicen, Petrus de Ebano relate that the forementi-oned diseases kill as soon as any of them touch the substance of the heart: So also Herophylus coefessed that sudden death followed if a Paralysis once surprised the heart: And for Bothors or Phlegmo's, or Erisipelas or the like, they say that they are diseases of the heart initiatiuè only, and not subjectiuè, to dwell there any time.  
And indeed I am fully persuaded that the heart suffereth a marasmus privatiuè, by negation of due transmission from other parts, rather than that marcor should follow àd cordis substantiae ariditatem; for if any part have good substance in it, the heart hath; and therefore Hypocrates saith, that quando fontes resiccati fuerint homo moritur: that the Ventricles have the last humidity in them: wherefore Galen seemeth to desert his Master in saying, a cordis ariditate incipere malum. Viz, veram senectutem & interitum naturalem. Whereas he should have said the contrary: that the aridity of the heart followeth the desiccation and want of due transmission of other parts: Ye if I may speak my mind freely, Hypocrates is not to be taken simply, that the heart cannot be any ways affected; but perhaps in the sense of Galen, that the heart suffereth little or no pain by reason the substance of the heart hath but little sensation, having but one little nerve for feeling from the sixth Conjugation, and that is somewhat obscure also. 
Gal. 2. pla. 8.  Or if he mean, as indeed I am sure he doth, that diseases do not affect the heart; he is to be understood that ordinarily they do not, but very seldom, by reason of the carnous parts, Cor solidum ac densum ut ab humore non aegrotet, & propterea nullus morbus in cord aboritur, caput autem & Splen maximè sunt morbis abnoxia, His speech is evidently comparative; else we see very often that which he never saw in all his long life and experience: And indeed we see now very frequently the heart affected with Imposthumes, with Worms, with Abscesses, with Phlegmy concretion both in the Ears of the heart and Ventricles, yea and now with a Serpent: And yet men live diverse years with them, and many other diseases both per essentiam & Consensum, all kind of distempers both equal and unequal, of which the Ancients have left no memory nor mention unto us, with which the Books of late Physicians are replete. Wherefore the propositions of the Ancient Physicians must have a friendly interpretation; or else men's hearts now a days are more passable and obnoxious unto diseases then in former ages, which by me as yet cannot easily be admitted: We are forced therefore to conclude that the heart per essentiam & primariò & subjectiuè may be afflicted with a disease and cause of death, and it cannot otherwise be conceived, seeing such creatures are begotten in it; yet doubtless exterior diseases kill sooner than innate.   

§. 5.  
BUt this than begets a greater question, how this Monster or such as this should be begotten or bred in the heart, so defended, as hath been said, more than all the body, and in the most defended part of the heart, the left Ventricle three times thicker of flesh and substance than the right? as also of what matter? seeing that Cell is possessed and replenished with the best, purest and most illustrious liquor in the body, the blood Arterial and the vital spirits.  
There are who conceive that pervious passages may be found for little Worms and the like to enter into the heart: but they must give a better way than any that I have yet seen do, as also the Worms must be very little. Others say, that such matters are caused by the ill habit of the heart; by which if they mean the substance of the heart, it is not to be received, till the heart hath been hurt by ill distributions and transmissions which in our case is otherwise: for half of the heart, the left Ventricle, (the Matrix of this Serpent) was solid and still good: Wherefore it is not in the ill habit of the substance.  
Others think that those Worms which create sometimes the mal della luna, as the Italians term it, living in the pericardium, and gnawing the heart: Of which there are innumerable Stories.  
Ebony flreit lib de peste telleth us one, of a Prince to whose heart a white Worm was found cleaving with a sharp and horny nose.  
Alexius pedemont anus, lib. 1. Sceret. telleth us of an other: and so Math: Corvar: lib. 2. c. 28. Consult. med.  
In Stowe's Cronnicle ad annum 1586. of Q Elizabeth, a matter of this nature, in an Horse is recorded as a memorable thing in these words.  
The Seventeenth day of March, a strange thing happened, the like whereof before hath not been heard of in our time. Master Dorington of Spaldwick in the County of Huntingdon Esquire, one of her Majesty's Gentlemen Pensioners, had an horse which died suddenly, and being ripped to see the cause of his death, there was found in the hole of the heart of the same horse, a Worm which lay on a round heap in a kall or skinn, of the likeness of a Toad; which being taken out and spread abroad, was in form and fashion not easy to be described: The length of which worm divided into many grains to the number of fifty (spread from the body like the branches of a Tree) was from the snout to the end of the longest grain seventeen inches, having sour issues in the grains from which dropped forth a red water: The body in bigness round about was three inches and a half, the colour whereof was very like a Mackerel. This monstrous worm found in manner aforesaid, crawling to have got away, was stabbed in with a dagger and died; which being dried was showed to many honourable personages of this Realm.  
If this Horse-worme or Serpent be Chronicled, how much more may this be memorised for Posterity? Or that which you have, or that which you told me was found in the heart of the Lord Boclew.  
By reason these were found in Men, that in an Horse: and this found by me of greater length, and more certain form, then that which they could not tell how to describe.  
As also those pieces of black flesh generated in the left Ventricle, of which Benivenius historizeth one, C. 35. de abdit is, in form of a Meddler, upon the Artery; and Vesalius, lib. 1. c. 5. de humani corporis fabricâ, speaketh of a most Noble and learned Personage, in the left Ventricle of whose heart, two pounds of black glandulous flesh were found; the heart extended like a pregnant womb.  
Yea and those pituitose carnosities and other matters, so often seen in the left Ventricle, by Neretus Neretius that famous Physician of Florence, and Erastus, part. 5. disputat. de feb, putrid: may be generated in the pericardium, either by drinks of ill condition sliding into the Trachaea, and so into the Arteries, and the heart: 
Cornelius' Gemmad de Naturae divinis characterismis:  and sometimes some small seeds or atoms of creeping creatures; which Cornelius Gemma setteth forth sufficiently, and historiseth many strange matters in this kind, as some to vomit Yeeles and Serpents of strange forms: and it is a common saying of the Pedemontanes, and such as drink the waters of the Alps; that every such man borne hath a Frog to his brother. Such things may pass into the stomach, but rarely into the heart.   

§. 6.  
BUt that which I have to say, is this; that these strange and extraordinary generations are caused from the temperament individual, for you well know that there is a double temperament; the one Specifical, the other individual; the one is fixum and unalterable, the other is temperamentum fluxum, and accidental.  
As for the Specifical temperament, although the vital acts cease, yet the specifical act is never changed; for you see that the parts of this or that animal, retain their specifical virtue when they are dead: as herbs, or those parts of herbs, as leave, seeds or roots, keep their property, and retain their own heats or savours, when they are cut away, or taken up from the ground: Yea and there are certain specifike atoms which always continue after putrefaction, and extreme dryness in the fixed salt.  

Lucret. lib. 1.  Sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate  
Quae minimis stipata cohaerent partibus arte  
Non ex ullorum conventa conciliatu  
Sed magis aeterna pollentia simplicitate  
Vnde neque avelli quicquam neque diminui jam  
Concedit natura reservans semina rebus.  
This temperament is proper to every creature: for Man hath his temperament, the Lion his, hysopp his, and the rose his own: For God made every thing, secundum species suas, & in genere suo producat aqua in species suas, & omne volatile secundum genus suum.  
Et Deus fecit bestias juxta species suas & omne reptile terrae in genere suo, & producat terra animamin genere suo, etc.  
Wherefore the Specifical temperament of Socrates doth not differ from the temperament of Hypocrates, Plato, Cato, or any other man: which may be well put against Aristotle, who thought the souls of men did differ in nobility one from an other: which difference can no way be founded upon the temperament specifically, but rather upon the jndividuall, which is but the accidental constitution of the individuals of the same species; which followeth some peculiar determination of th' horoscopant; or else upon some other special help, or hindrance; as from the singular scite of Heaven, ascension of Stars, aspect in flux, the aliment of parents, either more or less elaborate; and many other matters every creature borne hath according to the felicity or infelicity of his generation: especially Man, who of all other creatures is nourished with most variety of meats and drinks: We also see every day that such men are more hot, and vivacious, who are borne either in the Stars of Leo, or the Sun Orientiall: they also to be of more suculent habit, who are born within the second quadrate of the Moon: and such to be least vital, who are born in the silence of the Moon, herbs also gathered the Moon, decreasing, have less force: & the very soil often doth either so augment, ordwarfe plants, and herbs, and give them such strange conditions, that they are found degenerate, and scarcely the same herbs: As for the prolific matter, it breeds (as Physicians say) a male, or female, as it is more or less concocted: There are also divers conjunct matters, which help or hinder generation, as such matter doth which differeth much a punctis specificis, or à semine, for the sperma may be much, which is materia augment ativa, but the seed is so little of which a giant is generated, that as novum lumen saith: it can be no greater at first moment of conception, then in proportion to the 8200. part of a grain of wheat; which confirmeth that of Aristotle, that the fortieth day after conception, homo formicá non major; from which augmentative matter it is (which is made of various and alterative aliment) that children differ so much from both their own parents: hence one sweats and swears at the sight of a Cat: and an other forsakes the table at the sight of a Pig or Goose; the reasons of which antipathies and diversities, are founded in the latent matter spermatike, as if the Mother of one, somewhat before her Son was begotten, had eaten a mouse; and the other fed upon the ears of a Jew.  
All which is said to illustrate, that there is in many men, a certain connate matter and obedientall, susceptible of diverse diseases, and infelicities: Wherefore it was not so anciently, as worthily said; Foelicissimum est benè nasci, it is a most happy thing to be well borne.  
And from this Diatheses and ill dispositions may many a strange sickness in after age's spring, as time, diet and other accidents do alter or intent the heat, cold, or acrimony of the humour and blood, or some other quality.  
I pray Sir, note well the faithful Relation of a most understanding and sincere man, M. john Whistler, one of the Benchers of Gray's-inns and Recorder of Oxford, who upon my Narration of this History of john Pennant (the very same day, or the next that I found the Serpent;) told me that in his younger days himself was a great Cock-Master, and one of his old fight Cocks beginning to droop, he thought it best to cut off his head, which as soon as it was done, there appeared and shot out between the skins another head and neck, like that of his Cock, but it was a kind of jelly (as he conceived) with a very fine skin upon it, with a bill and a little comb: The rest was not searched, which perhaps was bred of some Egg in the body of the Cock, which kind of Conceptions are very rare, yet the sacred Scripture maketh mention of Cockatrices: Which doubtless cannot be bred but of some humour or blood exalted to some extraordinary and preternatural degree of heat, cold, or sharpness, or some other quality: Which first the natural heat and valour of that bird prooveth: Secondly his martial profession and terrible battles performed almost to death, all his life long; as also being begotten of such like Ancestors, himself also excelling in heat and fiery spirits accidental.  
Compare this Youngman's state also with this history; his right kidny wholly consumed, his left tumified as big as any two kidneys or three, full of ulcerous matter: So likewise his bladder full of ulcer, and rottenness, and nothing in his body to be found the cause of this: Wherefore the sharpness and extraordinary heat of the blood or some such like quality was the cause of the Ulcers, and so also consequently of that extraordinary production in the heart: For nothing else appeareth whatsoever may be conceived: And this accidental temperament of the blood, I take to be the cause of this which we found in the heart: For in the heart (if any where) was the greatest heat, and if in any part of the heart in the left Ventricle, the principal receptacle of arterial blood and spirits: And I have more to confirm me in this opinion, having certain knowledge both of the diet of his Mother and Grandmother also, and of his own: Which I am not willing to make public; but to make private use of it to myself.  
All which shall not by me be intended to prejudice any other better judgement concerning other like conceits; by reason that passages to that Ventricle may be sometimes pervious, although very rarely: But to inform you of some peculiar knowledge that I have of this man's History; which may give us great light concerning others of like condition.  
I could here discourse how the imagination produceth strange things in men; and worketh not only in our own bodies, but also in hyle mundi, as Friar Bacon prooveth, 
Ro. Bacon. l. de Coelo & mundo  and Prince Avicen: But this I will not attempt, except you shall judge this Relation may be beneficial to any, and then I shall discuss it out at large.   

§. 7.  
BUt to me the resolution of this matter seemeth very profitable to know how these things may be bred in men, for I suppose, men from hence will take special care to alter the accidental temperament of humours, if they find them excel in any high degree of heat, cold, sharpness, or the like, such as have in them inconvenience and danger, and to deal with learned Physicians in time.  
So also is the knowledge of singular use and benefit to know when men are affected with any such disease, and how they may be cured.  
As for the knowledge of abstruse and secret affections, where perhaps no dolour gives certitude of the place affected, as in diseases by consent, when some other parts are more afflicted, such skill is worthy of a Physician, and at any rate to be procured: But how or where shall we have it? Who writeth of it? Who hath so much as ever dreamt of any such help to mankind? For mine own part I never yet read of any Signa pathognomonica of any such disease: Neither do I know where to find one grain of instruction in this, as also in diverse other diseases (which I can nominate) more than from mine own observation and care. Wherefore if I set down one thing which is not common nor else where to be found. I hope you will take it as my good wish unto the Commonwealth of Physicians, and I will lay my ground upon two Histories of mine own: the one was in December, anno. 1634. For being sent for to a young gentleman whose name was Arthur Buckeridge son unto M. Arthur Buckeridge now of Tottenham Gentleman, who was sick of that kind of pox which our Country people call the Flocks, which were many, flat headed, white, and wrought along, as if worms had made certain crooked furrows among them, which when at first I beheld, I was very diffident in myself of doing any cure, because I never-knew any of that disease and manner saved: Yet while the friends of the Youth declared unto me what an ingenious child and scholar he was, and what hopes all his friends had of him: I still beheld the variegation, or vermiculation of that kind of variolae: And because no Physician in all my reading ever gave me the least light or help to cure them: I more studiously searching the cause of their form, strongly apprehended that that outward work and waving could proceed from no cause, but from putrefaction caused of worms; and that God and nature did assist in so great a difficulty, showing by this external signature the internal cause, taking therefore my Indicative from the Conjunctive (as Galen counselleth very well) I prescribed chief against worms and inward putrefaction, and in very short space he was restored to his health: And while I writ these things, the youngman (whom I never saw since) cometh in to my house to search after me, and to give me thanks so long after, being shortly to go for Oxford: Wherefore to confirm this History I sent unto the Youngman's Apothecary to see what was yet upon file, to ascertain what I say; and it is returned me, that two of my bills are yet there remaining: As also one honest Gentleman remembreth well that I then expressed as much and told his friends that I intended to prescribe against the worms principally.  
The other History was of this john Pennant, whom we dissected; who was well known unto me, as his friends and others well can assure it, in whom as is likewise sufficiently known, I very often noted this, that he had an excellent Eye, but extraordinarily sharp, and like the Eye of a Serpent, and so much I have spoken of it, that diverse Gentlemen and good Scholars did make answer unto me that heard of his long diseases of the supposed stone, or ulcer of the bladder: that pains and griefs did sharpen men's aspects: But finding what we have seen in him, thus much shall mine own observation teach me ever; Let others do, or believe as little as they please, that secret, unusual and strange inward diseases, do send forth some radios, or signatures from the centre, Analogical to the circumference, by which we may find the causes if we be diligent and careful: And this is that which I would commend, of which I know no man that hath written one word as yet: Which although at first it seemeth new, yet if men will well consider it and what I shall say I doubt not but they will be confirmed, that it is an accurate and a most necessary observation, and a chief Window to see into the most secret diseases and Closets of the body and heart also.  
And first as an introduction to belief what helps Physicians may have from beams and signatures. All learned Physicians will thus fare go with me, that this was that admirable way of the old Magicians to find out the natures of medicines, from their peculiar beams, signatures and similitudes, and that there is no Simple or medicine Specifical (as they say) or excellent for any disease or very few, but we are able to make the radij or signatures to appear, from which those learned Magis did, or might find out the properties and virtues of those Simples or medicines, and this you know to be true, and this way you all know that Sponsa Solis or the Kiramides of the Synas went, as that book of the King of Persia showeth, which I lent unto you; and you have no doubt many volumes of Physicians as well as others who have written of this argument. Wherefore seeing it is so clear that signatures and beams have so excellently and clearly discovered the virtues of all medicines latent and abstruse. Shall we conceive that God and Nature are deficient in affording outwardly some helps to know the inward, secret and strangest maladies? It cannot be: For to what purpose is it, that the Simples have virtues medicinal, and for every disease, if some diseases may not be disvered, and how can they be discovevered within, to which no eye can come? from which nothing is received, as in some other diseases. Some are known by time, as Fevers, keeping Period: Some by place or part affected, as Colic, Angine, Stone in the reynes, and the like. Some by excretions, as Dissenteries. Some by such like and others more or less: But there is no means to discover such a thing as this that hath given occasion of all this discourse, for nothing was excerned of it any ways, or from it that could give any light: No topical grief so great as that in his reynes and bladder, he did complain of his breast and of a beating there sometimes; but Palpitatio cordis is signum common. Neither did this man complain as he did always of his other affections. Neither can it be imagined how such a substance growing and receiving daily augmentation in his heart could be discovered by the wit of man, but by some outward thing singular and unusual, as a special radius of what was within.   

§. 8.  
I trust then that this speculation and practice will in time be thought of, and that it may, I will set this signature upon it (although seldom or scarce ever noted by any except by Friar Bacon in his Book de Caelo & mundo, etc. More especially by that incomparable sage Alkinaus, the most learned man that the East since his time, or long before hath brought forth unto the world: that every thing hath his radios proprios, as well as the stars of Heaven have: Alkindus his words are these, in his Treatise de radijs, as a firm conclusion, and sufficiently there by him confirmed; Agite ergo cum mundus Elementaris sit exemplum mundi, it a quod quaelibet res in ipso contenta ipsius speciem continet. Manifestum est quod omnis res huj us mundt sive sit substantia, sive accidens, radios facit suo modo ad instar siderum, alioquin figuram mundi syderci ad plenum non haberet. But this we will manifest to the sense in some few (saith he) the fire transmitteth his beams to a certain distance: the earth sends out her beams of cold, of medicine, and of health; and medicines taken into the body, or outwardly applied, diffuse their beams through the wholebody of him that receives them: the collision of solid bodies makes a sound which diffuseth itself by the beams of the thing moved: and every coloured body sendeth out his beams, by which it is perceived, and this is subtly known in most other things: by which by vive reason it is certainly known to be true in all things; taking this therefore for truth we say, that every thing which hath actual existence in the elementary world, sends forth his beams, which fill the elementary world after their manner, whereupon every place of this world containeth the beams of all things which are actually existent in every place: And as every thing differeth from other; so the beams of every thing do differ in effect and nature from the beams of all other things, by which it comes to pass that the operation of the beams is divers in all divers things: Thus fare, and much more Alkindus to the same and like effect: Yet I will add some few instances more. The several smells of all things in the world, are their several radij which do discover themselves unto us, and we perceive them to be many times where we see them not: We smell Roses, Musk, Civit, Amber, Quinces, Apples, plants and herbs of all sorts, and very many other things in rooms or boxes, before we come near them: and we are most times assured of such things to be near us, by their proper and peculiar emanations, or irradiations, which are their specific beams, darting out and diffusing themselves from one centre, unto a certain distance, according to the virtue of the species or his proper nature, which may doubtless also be intended, or remitted, or varied, and so make strong projection, according to the rectitude of line, or else be debilitated according to the proportion of obliquation: but this I insist not upon.  
Fetted things also have their radios, according to their own proper nature, and there is the same reason of them in all points according to their species: The colours of other things are also beams: and the very truth is, that as all things in the world have their proper radios: so all the actions that they have is by virtue of these radij: and as Alkindus saith, by these beams is exercised in conjunctum localiter, aut in seperatum: which the Schoolmen call immediatio virtutis, or immediatio suppositi: in both, nothing is done sine radijs, nor truly known: As for example, If two men come close together, one cannot strike another, Immediatione suppositi, except the animales radij actuate the nerves and muscles of the hand, and therefore immediatio virtutis is supposed. These spirits are the radij animales, and by these every action arbitrary or not arbitrary is effected in or by man, and every other creature.  
And as clear to us is that action which is performed immediatione virtutis in other creatures; for we see an Adamant to draw iron at a distance: A looking Glass to represent the Images of things separated from the glass: And this we know must be by some Emission or projection of beams one towards another, as well as by the Emission of the animal spirits from the brain into the nerves. And a marvellous wonder it hath been to me to see how Minerals purified and defecated from heterogenial mixtures, finding themselves free do strike out themselves in any liquor into branches and Stars, as is acknowledged by Physicians, calling them medicinas stell at as, as Mercurius Stellatus: Regulas Antimonij Stellatas, etc. and not only Minerals do thus, but the Salt of vegetables, and animals I have made so, that they will do the like: So that it is evident that every thing in the world hath his beams; and it cannot, nor ought not to be otherwise, sith the nine times most blessed and most glorious Essentator of all things who hath been so diffusive, as to branch out himself into every thing visible and invisible, that any thing should not have some likeness unto him who made all things summaratione, and with as great perfections as their several species were capable of. And for them therefore not to show themselves, and who was their Father, it is impossible.  
Coelum est in terra sed modo terrestri:  
Terra est in Coelo, sed modo Coelesti:  
Yea even putrid humours, and material causes of diseases, as being natural things though corrupted are good: and have their beams and their signatures in savours, pustles, bubos, spots, and tokens without, of diverse sorts according to the several species of the humour putrified within, or from the commixtion with other causes by which a Physician is much instructed, what is within, and how to take heed himself; and to come home to the very point, and cause of all this Discourse, we see in all kind of Animals in the world (and I doubt not but your incredible desire to know and excellent natural sagacity hath often observed) that according as their arterial blood is exalted, such radij are in their Eyes; as we see in some men more than others, and in Cocks, and in Serpents: A Cock hath an Eye whose radij are almost exalted to the beams of the Eye of a Serpent: And doubtless such blood had this man, and such spirits of an incredible heat or acrimony: The Eye is an Index animi, which cannot otherwise be then by the radij or spirits of it, much more than doth it show the blood arterial upon which those spirits are founded; and thus from the Eye I have made it evident, that we may know much of the left Ventricle of the heart where the arterial blood is elaborated and made: And thus in other matters, if from the radij or signatures exterior we play the good Magicians and diligently consider them: I am persuaded we may have a singular help and insight to cure the most hidden and most dangerous diseases of all, and such as otherwise cannot be known. You see Sir, I have founded my sentence upon God, Nature, and Experience, and if it be hidden or not believed by any, it is to them incredible who have gross conceptions, small skill, as I am sure your great insight and wisdom will and can better confirm: For what is that which makes some men wiser than others? Magis sapiens est & dicitur qui minus perceptibilia percipit de rebus & earum conditionibus, saith that wise man Alkindus: There is no doubt therefore (as the same man saith) but that they who are informed with an holy desire of wisdom will labour much to comprehend the secret conditions of things, as the ancient Physicians did who with wonderful sagacity searched for that skill which we enjoy: As for such as are neither wise nor have desire of wisdom, I leave them to Ptolemey that other miracle of knowledge to instruct the world of them; Reprehendunt insipientes quod non comprehendunt, unwise men reprehend all that they do not comprehend.   

§. 9  
IT remains only that something be said of the cure of such Conceptions if by any Physician they be perceived in time: Either by pulsation of the heart or by any external sign or signature, or Syndrome.  
There are some who use no alterants nor other piece of art then to kill and dissolve such conceptions: and they confide in this. ℞. Succi Allij, Nasturtij, Raphani, ana.ʒ.j. detur & statim curabitur. So Schenckins from Stockerus. Others thus. ℞. Tanaceti ramulum in umbra siccatum, in pulverem redactum cribellatumque, cui addatur pulvis sequens, ℞. Rad gentian. Rad. Paeoniae longae, ana.ʒ.j. Myrrhae, ʒ. ss. misce, tere & cum uti volueris. ℞. ℈ i Et cum guttula aquae ut solum madefiat misce, deinde inunge os & lahra infantis aut patientis ter aut quater, & una cum caeteris medicamentis eijcientur. So Schenckins. This I grant is good for worms that cause Epileptic fits in children, but for such as lie deeper in the pericardium and the left Ventricle, it is not likely they will be sensible of, at so great a distance and enclosure: I rather think that the use of some oils which are more penetrative, may do more good, as some drops of Olei de Sabina in aqua juventutis, Raimundi or Olei ex Baccis juniperi ob ejus penetrativam virtutem may with some continuance or with the success before mentioned be more efficacious: But why am I so large speaking to you? But to lay some grounds of future discourses with you, concerning both preservation and cure of such latent maladies, rather than here to set them out.   

§. 10.  
Yet for conclusion I have only this one thing to note unto the world: how that these which seem so rare, strange, and incurable mischiefs, might be more familiarly known, and easily cured, if it were not for a babish, or a kind of cockney disposition in our common people, who think their children or friends murdered after they are dead, if a Surgeon should but pierce any part of their skins with a knife: by which it cometh to pass, that few of those innumerable and marvellous conceptions, which kill the parents in which they are bred, (as yourself with admiration have knowingly spoken to me of their infinite number which are generated in man's body) can ever be found out, or cured: so great a monster is begotten in the blood of fools, and fearful people, which destroyeth the common good of mankind in a very great proportion: whereas that knowledge of their generations, which Physicians have, is commonly from the dissections of the bodies of Noble Personages, and of the Gentry, who with their friends about them have been bred to more fortitude, and are more wise and communicative, as most of our medicinal histories, you know confirm, and yourself likewise hath told me of some. All virtuous and heroic souls know that when their particle of divine perfection is returned to him that gave it, that then their bodies are to serve the universe (as that pious Bishop knew) who when he had given away all besides his body, at last gave that also for the good of the living, when it should be found dead, and therefore bequeathed it to the Physicians to dissect it: but doubtless our Tradesmen, their wives and children, and our sugar-sop citizens are compounded of a rarer, noli me tangere, when they are dead then when they were alive; And though Nobles and Princes may be cut in pieces, yet is it piacular, and the loss of grace for ever with them, if a Physician should but intimate such a matter as decently but to open any part of their most intemerate Imps.  
But what good more frequent dissections might do, what portentous matters they might discover, and how facile they might find the causes, and their cure, you sufficiently know, and in part others may by this history understand: And although the learning and knowledge of some Physicians of our age be singular, and grown to such an happy degree of perfection, yet there are by dissections every day something to be learned: and how much the internal do symbolize with external, as in part I have discovered, and I will yet give out one illustration more: let but Physicians well note their patient's complexions, and colours (for this time I will only speak of the face) and let them take afterward if they come to dissect them notice of their livers, and if they be diligent, in few dissections they shall be able, looking into any man's face whatsoever, to know the affections very manifestly of his liver. Sir, under favour, and with you I have thus much freedom as to tell some of my brother Physicians and Surgeons, that the inspections and dissections which they celebrate over the world, are not to enable men to talk of names, parts and places, but to do, and to be able to judge of things hidden and secret, that they may not be deceived touching the causes of men's diseases: this is the chiefest end, and yet how few study out of entrailes this learning, I need not intimate unto you.  
The ways of nature, by which operations are effected, as also the continuation of parts and vessels, their communication, and to find the causes of sicknesses, their epigenese, their metastases, their apostases, their palyndromyes.  
The ways of Simptomes, reasons of revulsions and the like, are the next: and so much subordinate to the other, and of less necessity, as obvious inspections show this to be more facile, and with less labour to be attained then that; the other therefore not being so well perfected to our days, I have by this extraordinary occasion, and out of my good wishes, ventured to speak a word by you, unto such as are wise in our own profession, since Physicians should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as our dictator's word is, like Gods, what is in us in good skill, and good will, for the safety of mankind: that as it was said of his days, so it may of ours, in corum diebu; raro animae descendebant ad infernum: in their days, souls seldom descended into hell, if any at last forsaking divine grace shall descend; yet that hell may gape a long time ere it receive them, and that others may have time to shake hands with Heaven, that our profession, the noblest and wisest of all others, (I speak of professions which concern this life only, not of professions supernatural) may still be esteemed divinest (as the old Physicians were crowned deservedly, and related among the Gods, above all others) while by our means, miserable men are restored to the only blessing of this life, health; and (as I said) be preserved from that great and eternal gulf of infelicity, Hell (many of them not being in state of grace, because sick upon their sins) and last, made live till they be friends and sons of God, and so rich as to come to Heaven: our Saviour Christ crowning us with such happy minds, as to be made instruments and means of many men's eternal salvation, by occasion of their temporal restitution.  
FINIS.