Of the Heart.
Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy, and full of holes? A. That the air may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours, because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows are raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest through too much air drawn in, the heart should be suffocated.
Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual motion.
Q. Why have those beasts only lungs that have hearts? A. Because the lungs are no part for themselves, but for the heart; and therefore it were superfluous for those creatures to have lungs that have no hearts.
Q. Why do such creatures as have no lungs want a bladder? A. Because such drink no water to make their meat digest, and need no bladder for urine; as appears in such birds who do not drink at all, viz. the falcon and sparrow-hawk.
Q. Why is the heart in the midst of the body? A. That it may impart life to all parts of the body; and therefore it is compared to the sun, which is placed in the midst of the planets, to give light to them all.
Q. Why only in men is the heart on the left side? A. To the end that the heat of the heart may mitigate the coldness of the spleen; for the spleen is the seat of melancholy, which is on the left side also.
Q. Why is the heart first engendered; for theheart doth live and die last? A. Because the heart is the beginning and original of life, and without it no part can live. For of the seed retained in the matrix, there is engendered a little small skin, which compasses the seed; whereof the heart is made of the purest blood; then of blood not so pure, the liver; and of thick and cold blood the marrow and brain.
Q. Why are beasts bold that have little hearts? A. Because in a little heart the heat is well united and vehement, and the blood touching it doth quickly heat it, and is speedily carried to the other parts of the body, which gives courage and boldness.
Q. Why are creatures with a large heart timorous, as the hare? A. The heart is dispersed in such a one, and not able to heat the blood which cometh to it; by which means fear is bred.
Q. How is it that the heart is continually moving? A. Because in it there is a certain spirit which is more subtle than air, and by reason of its thickness and rarefaction seeks a larger space, filling the hollow room of the heart, hence the dilating and opening of the heart; and because the heart is earthly, the thrusting and moving ceasing, its parts are at rest, tending downwards. As a proof of this, take an acorn, which, if put into the fire, the heat dissolves its humidity, therefore it occupies a greater space, so that the rind cannot contain it, but puffs up and throws it into the fire. The like of the heart. Therefore the heart of a living creature is triangular, having its least part towards its left side, and the greater towards the right; and doth also open and shut in the least part, by which means it is in continual motion; thefirst motion is calleddiastole, that is, extending the breast or heart; the othersystole, that is, shutting of the heart; and from these all the motions of the body proceed, and that of the pulse which physicians feel.
Q. How comes it that the flesh of the heart is so compact and knit together? A. Because in thick compacted substances heat is strongly received and united. And because the heart with its heat should moderate the coldness of the brain, it is made of that fat flesh apt to keep a strong heat.
Q. How comes the heart to be the hottest part of all living creatures? A. It is so compacted as to receive heat best, and because it should mitigate the coldness of the brain.
Q. Why is the heart the beginning of life? A. It is plain that in it the vital spark is bred, which is the seat of life; and therefore the heart having two receptacles, viz. the right and the left, the right hath more blood than spirits; which spirit is engendered to give life and vivify the body.
Q. Why is the heart long and sharp like a pyramid? A. The round figure hath an angle, therefore the heart is round, for fear any poison or hurtful matter should be retained in it; and because that figure is fittest for motion.
Q. How comes the blood chiefly to be in the heart? A. The blood in the heart has its proper or efficient place, which some attribute to the liver; and therefore the heart doth not receive blood from any other parts, but all other parts from it.
Q. How comes it that some creatures want a heart? A. Although they have no heart, yetthey have somewhat that answers for it, as appears in eels and fish that have the backbone instead of the heart.
Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures when the head is off, as in birds and hens? A. Because the heart lives first and dies last, and therefore beats longer than other parts.
Q. Why doth the heat of the heart sometimes fail of a sudden, as in those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of the heart itself, and of certain small sinks with which it is covered, which being infected and corrupted, the heart faileth on a sudden: sometimes only by reason of the parts adjoining; and therefore, when any venomous humour goes out of the stomach, that turns the heart and parts adjoining, that causeth the fainting.
Q. For what reason is the stomach large and wide? A. Because in it the food is first concocted or digested as it were in a pot, to the end that that which is pure should be separated from that which is not; and therefore, according to the quantity of food, the stomach is enlarged.
Q. How comes it that the stomach is round? A. Because if it had angles and corners, food would remain in them, and breed ill humours, so that a man would never want agues, which humours are evacuated and consumed, and not hid in any such corners, by the roundness of the stomach.
Q. How comes the stomach to be full of sinews? A. Because the sinews can be extendedand enlarged; and so is the stomach when it is full; but when empty it is drawn together; and therefore nature provides those sinews.
Q. How comes the stomach to digest? A. Because of the heat which is in it, and comes from the parts adjoining, that is, the liver and the heart. For as we see in metals, the heat of the fire takes away the rust and dross from iron, the silver from tin, and gold from copper; so also by digestion the pure is separated from the impure.
Q. For what reason doth the stomach join the liver? A. Because the liver is very hot, and with its heat helps digestion, and provokes appetite.
Q. Why are we commonly cold after dinner? A. Because then the heat goes to the stomach to further digestion, and so the other parts grow cold.
Q. Why is it hurtful to study soon after dinner? A. Because when the heat labours to help the imagination in study, it ceases from digesting the food, which remains undigested; therefore people should walk some time after meals.
Q. How cometh the stomach slowly to digest meat? A. Because it swims in the stomach. Now, the best digestion is in the bottom of the stomach, because the fat descends not there: such as eat fat meat are very sleepy, by reason that digestion is hindered.
Q. Why is all the body wrong, when the stomach is uneasy? A. Because the stomach is knit with the brain, heart, and liver, which are the principal parts in man; and when it is not well the others are indisposed. Again, if thefirst digestion be hindered, the others are also hindered; for in the first digestion is the beginning of the infirmity of the stomach.
Q. Why are young men sooner hungry than old men? A. Young men do digest for three causes; 1. For growing: 2. For restoring of life: and, 3. For conservation of life. Also, young men are hot and dry, and therefore the heat doth digest more, and by consequence they desire more.
Q. Why do physicians prescribe that men should eat when they have an appetite? A. Because much hunger and emptiness will fill the stomach with naughty rotten humours, which are drawn in instead of meat; for, if we fast over night, we have an appetite to meat, but none in the morning; as then the stomach is filled with naughty humours, and especially its mouth, which is no true filling, but a deceitful one. And therefore, after we have eaten a little, our stomach comes to us again; for the first morsel, having made clean the mouth of the stomach, doth provoke the appetite.
Q. Why do physicians prescribe that we should not eat too much at a time, but by little and little? A. Because when the stomach is full, the meat doth swim in it, which is a dangerous thing. Another reason is, that very green wood doth put out the fire, so much meat chokes the natural heat and puts it out; and therefore the best physic is to use temperance in eating and drinking.
Q. Why do we desire change of meats according to the change of times; as in winter, beef, pork, mutton; in summer, light meats, as veal, lamb, &c.? A. Because the complexion of thebody is altered and changed according to the time of the year. Another reason is, that this proceeds from the quality of the season; because the cold in winter doth cause a better digestion.
Q. Why should not the meat we eat be as hot as pepper and ginger? A. Because as hot meat doth inflame the blood, and dispose it to a leprosy; so, on the contrary, meat too cold doth mortify and chill the blood. Our meat should not be over sharp, because it wastes the constitution; too much sauce doth burn the entrails, and inclineth to often drinking; raw meat doth the same; and over sweet meats to constipate and cling the veins together.
Q. Why is it a good custom to eat cheese after dinner, and pears after all meat? A. Because by reason of its earthliness and thickness it tendeth down towards the bottom of the stomach, and so putteth down the meat; and the like of pears. Note, that new cheese is better than old; and that old soft cheese is very bad, and causeth the headache and stopping of the liver; and the older the worse. Whereof it is said, that cheese digesteth all things but itself.
Q. Why are nuts good after cheese, as the proverb is, After fish nuts, and after flesh cheese? A. Because fish is of hard digestion, and doth easily putrefy and corrupt; and nuts are a remedy against poison.
Q. Why is it unwholesome to wait long for one dish after another, and to eat of divers kinds of meat? A. Because the first begins to digest when the last is eaten, and so digestion is not equally made. But yet this rule is to be noted,dishes light of digestion, as chickens, kids, veal, soft eggs, and such like, should be first eaten: because, if they should be first served and eaten, and were digested, they would hinder the digestion of the others; and the light meats not digested would be corrupted in the stomach, and kept in the stomach violently, whereof would follow belching, loathing, headache, bellyache, and great thirst. It is very hurtful too, at the same meal, to drink wine and milk because they are productive of leprosy.
Q. Whether is meat or drink best for the stomach? A. Drink is sooner digested than meat, because meat is of great substance, and more material than drink, and therefore meat is harder to digest.
Q. Why is it good to drink after dinner? A. Because the drink will make the meat readier to digest. The stomach is like unto a pot which doth boil meat, and therefore physicians do counsel to drink at meals.
Q. Why is it good to forbear a late supper? A. Because there is little moving or stirring after supper, and so the meat is not sent down to the bottom of the stomach, but remaineth undigested, and so breeds hurts; therefore a light supper is best.
Q. Why is it necessary that every living thing that hath blood have also a liver? A. Because the blood is first made in the liver, its seat, being drawn from the stomach by certain principal veins, and so engendered.
Q. Why is the blood red? A. 1. It is like thepart in which it is made, viz. the liver, which is red. 2. It is likewise sweet, because it is well digested and concocted; but if it hath a little earthy matter mixed with it, that makes it somewhat salt.
Q. How is women’s blood thicker than men’s? A. Their coldness thickens, binds, congeals, and joins together.
Q. How comes the blood to all parts of the body through the liver, and by what means? A. Through the principal veins, as the veins of the head, liver, &c. to nourish all the body.
Q. How doth the urine come into the bladder, seeing the bladder is shut? A. Some say by sweating; others, by a small skin in the bladder, which opens and lets in the urine. Urine is a certain and not deceitful messenger of the health and infirmity of man. Men make white urine in the morning, and before dinner red, but after dinner pale, and also after supper.
Q. Why is it hurtful to drink much cold water? A. Because one contrary doth hinder and expel another; water is very cold, and lying so in the stomach hinders digestion.
Q. Why is it unwholesome to drink new wine? A. 1. It cannot be digested; therefore it causes the belly to swell, and a kind of bloody flux. 2. It hinders making water.
Q. Why do physicians forbid us to labour presently after dinner? A. 1. Because motion hinders the virtue and power of digestion. 2. Because stirring immediately after dinner causes the different parts of the body to draw the meatto them, which often breeds sickness. 3. Because motion makes the food descend before it is digested. But after supper it is good to walk a little, that the food may go to the bottom of the stomach.
Q. Why is it good to walk after dinner? A. Because it makes a man well disposed, and fortifies and strengthens the natural heat, causing the superfluities of the stomach to descend.
Q. Why is it wholesome to vomit? A. It purges the stomach of all naughty humours, expelling them, which would breed agues if they should remain in it; and purges the eyes and head, clearing the brain.
Q. How comes sleep to strengthen the stomach and digestive faculty? A. Because in sleep the heat draws inwards, and helps digestion: but when awake, the heat returns, and is dispersed through the body.
Q. How come living creatures to have a gall? A. Because choleric humours are received into it, which through their acidity helps the guts to expel superfluities, also it helps digestion.
Q. How comes the jaundice to proceed from the gall? A. The humour of the guts is blueish and yellow; therefore when its pores are stopped, the humours cannot go into the sack thereof, but are mingled with the blood, wandering throughout all the body, and infecting the skin.
Q. Why hath a horse, mule, ass, or cow, no gall? A. Those creatures have no gall in one place, as in a purse or vessel, yet they have one dispersed in small veins.
Q. How comes the spleen to be black? A. It is occasioned by terrestrial and earthy matter of a black colour. According to physicians, the spleen is the receptacle of melancholy, and that is black.
Q. Why is he lean who hath a large spleen? A. Because the spleen draws much water to itself, which would turn to fat; therefore, men that have a small spleen are fat.
Q. Why does the spleen cause men to laugh, as says Isidorus: “We laugh with the spleen, we are angry with the gall, we are wise with the heart, we love with the liver, we feel with the brain, and speak with the lungs.” A. The reason is, the spleen draws much melancholy to it, being its proper seat, the which melancholy proceeds from sadness, and is there consumed; and the cause failing, the effect doth so likewise. And by the same reason the gall causes anger, for choleric men are often angry, because they have much gall.
Q. Doth nature make any monsters? A. She doth; if she did not, then would she be deprived of her end. For of things possible, she doth always propose to bring forth that which is most perfect and best; but in the end, through the evil disposition of the matter, not being able to bring forth that which she intended, she brings forth that which she can. As it happened in Albertus’s time, when, in a certain village, a cow brought forth a calf, half a man; then the countrymen suspecting a shepherd, would have burnt him with the cow; but Albertus, being skilfulin astronomy, said, that this did proceed from a special constellation, and so delivered the shepherd from their hands.
Q. Are there one or two? A. To find out, you must look into the heart; if there are two hearts, there are two men.
Q. Why are some children like their father, some like their mother, some to both, and some to neither? A. If the seed of the father wholly overcome that of the mother, the child doth resemble the father; but if the mother’s predominate, then it is like the mother; but if it be like neither, that doth happen sometimes through the four qualities, sometimes through the influence of some heavenly constellation.
Q. Why are children oftener like the father than the mother? A. It proceeds from the imagination of the mother, as appeared in a queen who had her imagination on a blackamoor; and in an Ethiopian queen, who brought forth a white child, because her imagination was upon a white colour; as is seen in Jacob’s skill in casting rods of divers colours into the water when his sheep went to ram.
Q. Why do children born in the eighth month for the most part die quickly; and why are they called the children of the moon? A. Because the moon is a cold planet, which has dominion over the child, and therefore doth bind it with its coldness, which is the cause of its death.
Q. Why doth a child cry as soon as it is born? Because of the sudden change from heat to cold; which cold doth affect its tenderness. Anotherreason is, because the child’s soft and tender body is wringed and put together coming out of the narrow and strait passage of the matrix; and especially, the brain being moist, and the head being pressed and wrinkled together, is the cause that some humours distil by the eyes, which are the cause of tears and weeping.
Q. Why doth the child put its fingers into its mouth as soon as it cometh into the world? A. Because that coming out of the womb it cometh out of a hot bath, and entering into the cold, puts its fingers into its mouth for want of heat.
Q. How is the child engendered in the womb? A. The first six days the seed hath the colour of milk; but in the six following a red colour, which is near unto the disposition of flesh; and then it is changed into a thick substance of blood. But in the twelve days following, this substance becomes so thick and round, that it is capable of receiving shape and form.
Q. Doth the child in the womb void excrements or make water? A. No; because it hath not the first digestion which is in the stomach. It receives no food by the mouth, but by the navel; therefore, makes no urine, but sweats, which is but little, and is received in a skin in the matrix, which at the birth is cast out.
Q. Why do women that eat unwholesomemeats easily miscarry? A. Because they breed putrefied seed, which, the mind abhorring, doth cast it out of the womb, as unfit for the most noble shape which is adapted to receive the soul.
Q. Why doth wrestling and leaping cause the casting of the child, as some subtle women do on purpose? A. The vapour is burning, and doth easily hurt the tender substance of the child, entering at the pores of the matrix.
Q. Why doth much joy cause a woman to miscarry? A. Because in a time of joy woman is destitute of heat, and so miscarriage doth follow.
Q. Why do women easily miscarry when they are first with child, viz. the first, second, or third month? A. As apples and pears easily fall at first, because the knots or ligaments are weak, so it is with a child in the womb.
Q. Why is it hard to miscarry in the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth months? A. Because the ligaments are stronger and well fortified.
Q. Why has not a man a tail like a beast? A. Because a man is a noble creature, whose property it is to sit; which a beast, having a tail, cannot.
Q. Why does hot water freeze sooner than cold? A. Hot water is thinner, and gives better entrance to the frost.
Q. Why cannot drunken men judge of taste as well as sober men? A. Because the tongue being full of pores and spongy, receives great moisture into it, and more in drunken men thanin sober; therefore the tongue, through often drinking, is full of bad humours; and so the faculty of tasting is rendered out of order: also, through the thickening of the taste itself, drink taken by drunkards is not presently felt. And by this may be also understood why drunkards have not a perfect speech.
Q. Why have melancholy beasts long ears? A. The ears proceed from a cold and dry substance, called a gristle, which is apt to become bone; and because melancholy beasts do abound with this kind of substance, they have long ears.
Q. Why do hares sleep with their eyes open? A. 1. They have their eyes standing out, and their eye-lids short, therefore never quite shut. 2. They are timorous, and, as a safeguard to themselves, sleep with their eyes open.
Q. Why do not crows feed their young till they be nine days old? A. Because seeing them of another colour, they think they are of another kind.
Q. Why are sheep and pigeons mild? A. They want gall, the cause of anger.
Q. How comes it that birds do not make water? A. Because that superfluity which would be converted in urine, is turned into feathers.
Q. How do we hear better by night than by day? A. Because there is a greater quietness in the night than in the day, for the sun doth not exhale the vapours by night, but it doth in the day: therefore the mean is more fit than in the day; and the mean being fit, the motion is better received, which is said to be caused by a sound.
Q. For what reason doth a man laugh soonerwhen touched in the arm-pits than in the other parts of the body? A. Because there is in that place a meeting of many sinews, and the mean we touch, which is the flesh, is more subtle than in other parts, and therefore of finer feeling. When a man is moderately and gently touched there, the spirits that are dispersed, run into the face, and cause laughter.
Q. Why do some women love white men and some black men? A. 1. Some have a weak sight, and such delight in black, because white doth hurt the sight more than black. 2. Because like delight in like; but some women are of a hot nature, and such are delighted with black, because blackness followeth heat; and others are of a cold nature, and those are delighted with white, because cold produces white.
Q. Why do men incline to sleep after labour? A. Because, through continual moving, the heat is dispersed to the external parts of the body, which, after labour, is gathered together to the internal parts, there to digest; and from digestion vapours arise from the heart to the brain, which stop the passage by which the natural heat should be dispersed to the external parts: and then, the external parts being cold and thick, by reason of the coldness of the brain, sleep is easily procured. By this it appeareth, that such as eat and drink too much, do sleep much and long, because there are great store of humours and vapours bred in such persons, which cannot be digested and consumed by the natural heat.
Q. Why are such as sleep much evil disposed and ill-coloured? A. Because in too much sleep moisture is gathered together which cannot beconsumed, and so it doth covet to go out through the superficial parts of the body, and especially it resorts to the face, and therefore is the cause of bad colour, as appeareth in such as are phlegmatic, and who desire more sleep than others.
Q. Why do some imagine in their sleep that they eat and drink sweet things? A. Because the phlegm drawn up by the jaws doth distil and drop to the throat; and this phlegm is sweet after a sore sweat, and that seemeth so to them.
Q. Why do some dream in their sleep that they are in the water and drowned, and some that they are in the water and not drowned; especially such as are phlegmatic? A. Because when the phlegmatic substance doth turn to the high parts of the body, then they think they are in the water and drowned; but when that substance draweth into the internal parts, then they think they escape. Another reason may be, overmuch repletion and drunkenness; and therefore, when men are overmuch filled with meat, the fumes and vapours ascend and gather together, and they are drowned and strangled; but if they cannot ascend so high, then they seem to escape.
Q. May a man procure a dream, by an external cause? A. It may be done. If a man speak softly at another’s ear and awake him not, then of this stirring of the spirits there are thunderings and buzzings in the head, which cause dreaming.
Q. How many humours are there in a man’s body? A. Four; whereof every one hath its proper place. The first is choler, called by physiciansstava bilis, which is placed in theliver. The second is melancholy, calledatra bilis, whose seat is in the spleen. The third is phlegm, whose place is in the head. The fourth is blood, whose place is in the heart.
Q. What condition and quality hath a man of a sanguine complexion? A. He is fair and beautiful; hath his hair for the most part smooth; is bold; retaineth that which he hath conceived; is shame-faced, given to music, a lover of sciences, liberal, courteous, and not desirous of revenge.
Q. What properties do follow those of a phlegmatic complexion? A. They are dull of wit, their hair never curls, they are seldom very thirsty, much given to sleep, dream of things belonging to water, are fearful, covetous, and given to heap up riches.
Q. What are the properties of a choleric man? A. He is soon angry, furious, and quarrelsome, given to war, pale coloured, and unquiet, drinks much, sleeps little, and desires women’s company much.
Q. What are the properties of a melancholy man? A. He is brown in complexion, unquiet, his veins hidden, eateth little, and digesteth less, dreameth of dark and confused things, is sad, fearful, exceeding covetous, and incontinent.
Q. What dreams do follow these complexions? A. Pleasant merry dreams do follow the sanguine; fearful dreams the melancholic; the choleric dream of children, fighting, and fire; the phlegmatic dream of water. This is the reason why a man’s complexion is said to be known by his dreams.
Q. What is the reason that if you cover an egg over with salt, and let it lie in it a few days, allthe meat within is consumed? A. The great dryness of the salt consumes the substance of the egg.
Q. Why is the melancholic complexion the worst? A. Because it proceeds from the dregs of blood, is an enemy to mirth, and bringeth on an aged appearance and death, being cold and dry.
Q. What is the cause that some men die joyful, and some in extreme grief? A. Over great joy doth overmuch heat the internal parts of the body; and overmuch grief doth drown and suffocate the heart, which failing, a man dieth.
Q. Why hath a man so much hair on his head? A. The hair of the head proceeds from the vapours which arise from the stomach, and ascend to the head, and also from the superfluities which are in the brain; and those two passing through the pores of the head are converted into hair, by reason of the heat and dryness of the head. And because man’s body is full of humours, and he hath more brains that any other creature, and also more superfluities in the brains, which the heat expelleth: hence it followeth that he hath more hair than any other living creature.
Q. How many ways is the brain purged, and other hidden places of the body? A. Four; the watery and gross humours are purged by the eyes, melancholy by the ears, choler by the nose, and phlegm by the hair.
Q. What is the reason that such as are very fat in their youth are in danger of dying on a sudden? A. Such have very small and close veins, by reason of their fatness, so that the air and the breath can hardly have free course in them; and thereupon the natural heat, wantingthe refreshment of air, is put out, and as it were, quenched.
Q. Why do garlic and onions grow after they are gathered? A. It proceedeth from the humidity that is in them.
Q. Why do men feel cool sooner than women? A. Because men, being more hot than women, have their pores more open, and therefore it doth sooner enter into them than women.
Q. Why are not old men subject to the plague like young men and children? A. They are cold, and their pores are not so open as in youth: and therefore the infecting air doth not penetrate so soon by reason of their coldness.
Q. Why do we cast water in a man’s face when he swooneth? A. Because that through the coldness of water the heat may run to the heart, and so give strength.
Q. Why are those waters best and most delicate which run towards the rising sun? A. Because they are the soonest stricken with the sun-beams, and made pure and subtle, the sun having them under it, and by that means taking off the coldness and gross vapours which they gather from the ground they run through.
Q. Why have women such weak and small voices? A. Because their instruments and organs of speaking, by reason of their coldness, are small and narrow; and therefore, receiving but little air, causes the voice to be effeminate.
Q. Wherefore doth it proceed that want of sleep doth weaken the brain and the body? A. Much watching doth engender choler, the which being hot doth dry up and lessen the humours which serve the brain, the head, and other parts of the body.
Q. Wherefore doth vinegar so readily staunch the blood? A. From its cold virtue; for all cold is naturally binding, and vinegar being cold, hath the like property.
Q. Why is sea-water saltier in summer than in winter? A. From the heat of the sun, seeing by experience that a salt thing being heated becometh more salt.
Q. Why do men live longer in hot regions than in cold? A. Because they may be more dry, and by that means the natural heat is better preserved in them than in cold countries.
Q. Why is well-water seldom or ever good? A. All water which standeth still in the spring, and is never heated by the sun-beams, is very heavy, and hath much earthy matter in it; and therefore, wanting the heat of the sun, is naught.
Q, Why do men sleep better and more at ease on the right side than on the left? A. Because when they lie on the left side, the lungs do lie upon and cover the heart, which is on that side under the pap; now the heart, the fountain of life, being thus occupied and hindered with the lungs, cannot exercise its own proper operation, as being overmuch heated with the lungs lying upon it, and therefore wanting the refreshment of the air which the lungs do give it, like the blowing of a pair of bellows, is choked and suffocated; but by lying on the right side, these inconveniences are avoided.
Q. What is the reason that old men sneeze with great difficulty? A. Because that through their coldness their arteries are very narrow and close, and therefore the heat is not of force to expel the cold.
Q. Why doth a drunken man think that allthings about him do turn round? A. Because the spirits which serve the sight are mingled with vapours and fumes, arising from the liquors he has drunk: the overmuch heat causeth the eye to be in continual motion; and the eye being round causeth all things about it to seem to go round.
Q. Wherefore doth it proceed, that bread which is made with salt, is lighter than that which is made without it, considering salt is very heavy of itself? A. Although bread is heavy of itself, yet the salt dries it, and makes it light, by reason of the heat which it hath; and the more heat there is in it, the better the bread is, and the lighter and more wholesome for the body.
Q. Why is not new bread good for the stomach? A. Because it is full of moistness, and thick hot vapours, which do corrupt the blood; and hot bread is blacker than cold, because heat is the mother of blackness, and because the vapours are not gone out of it.
Q. Why do lettuces make a man sleep? A. Because they engender gross vapours.
Q. Why do the dregs of wine and oil go to the bottom, and those of honey swim uppermost? A. Because the dregs of wine and oil are earthly, and therefore go to the bottom; but honey is a liquid that cometh from the stomach and belly of the bee, and is there in some sort purified and made subtle; on which account the dregs are most light and hot, and therefore go uppermost.
Q. Why do cats’ and wolves’ eyes shine in the night, and not in the day? A. The eyes of these beasts are by nature more crystalline than theeyes of other beasts, and therefore do shine in darkness; but the brightness of the sun doth hinder them from being seen in the day-time.
Q. What is the reason that some men, when they see others dance, do the like with their hands and feet, or by other gestures of the body? A. Because the sight having carried the represented unto the mind that action, and judging the same to be pleasant and delightful, therefore the imagination draweth the like of it in conceit, and stirs up the body by the gestures.
Q. Why does much sleep cause some to grow fat and some lean? A. Those who are of ill complexion, when they sleep, do consume and digest the superfluities of what they have eaten, and therefore become fat. But such as are of good complexion, when they sleep, are more cold and digest less.
Q. How and from what cause do we suffer hunger better that thirst? A. When the stomach has nothing else to consume, it consumeth the phlegm and humours which it findeth most ready and most at hand; and therefore we suffer hunger better than thirst, because the heat hath nothing to refresh itself with.
Q. Why doth the hair fall after a great sickness? A. Where the sickness is long, as in an ague, the humours of the head are dried up through over much heat, and, therefore, wanting nourishment, the hair falls.
Q. Why doth the hair of the eye-brows grow long in old men? A. Because through their age the bones of the eye-lids are thin for want of heat, and therefore the hair doth grow there, by reason of the rheum of the eyes.
Q. Whereof proceedeth gaping? A. Of grossvapours, which occupy the vital spirits of the head, and of the coldness of the senses, causing sleepiness.
Q. What is the reason that some flowers do open with the sun rising, and shut with the setting? A. Cold doth close and shut, as hath been said, but the heat of the sun doth open and enlarge. Some compare the sun to the soul of the body; for as the soul giveth life, so the sun doth give life, and vivicate all things; but cold bringeth death, withering and decaying all things.
Q. Why doth grief cause men to grow old and gray? A. Age is nothing else but dryness and want of humours of the body; grief then causeth alteration, and heat dryness; age and greyness follow immediately.
Q. Why are gelded beasts weaker than such as are not gelded? A. Because they have less heat, and by that means less force and strength.