flesh. As for the entrails, they are all without bones; save that a bone is, sometimes, found in the heart of a stag; and it may be in some other creature. 750. THE skull hath brains, as a kind of marrow, within it. The back-bone hath one kind of marrow, which hath an affinity with the brain; and other bones of the body have another. The jaw-bones have no marrow severed, but a little pulp of marrow diffused. Teeth likewise are thought to have a kind of marrow diffused, which causeth the sense and pain; but it is rather sinew; for marrow hath no sense; no more than blood. Horn is alike throughout; and so is the nail. 751. NONE other of the hard substances have sense, but the teeth; and the teeth have sense, not only of pain but of cold. But we will leave the inquiries of other hard substances unto their several places; and now inquire. only of the teeth. 752. THE teeth are, in men, of three kinds; sharp, as the fore-teeth: broad, as the back-teeth, which we call the molar-teeth, or grinders; and pointed teeth, or canine, which are between both. But there have been some men that have had their teeth undivided, as of one whole bone, with some little mark in the place of the division; as Pyrrhus'had. Some creatures have over-long or out-growing teeth, which we call fangs, or tusks: as boars, pikes, salmons, and dogs, though less. Some living creatures have teeth against teeth; as men and horses; and some have teeth, especially their master-teeth, indented one within another like saws, as lions; and so again have dogs. Some fishes have divers rows of teeth in the roofs of their mouths; as pikes, salmons, trouts, etc. And many more in salt waters. Snakes and other serpents, have venomous teeth; which are sometimes mistaken for their sting. 753. No beast that hath horns hath upper teeth; and no beast that hath teeth above wanteth them below but yet if they be of the same kind, it followeth not, that if the hard matter goeth not into upper : teeth, it will go into horns; nor yet e converso; for does, that have no horns, have no upper teeth. 754. HORSES have, at three years old, a tooth put forth, which they call the colt's tooth; and at four years old there cometh the mark tooth, which hath a hole as big as you may lay a pea within it; and that weareth shorter and shorter every year; till that at eight years old the tooth is smooth, and the hole gone; and then they say, that the mark is out of the horse's mouth. 755. THE teeth of men breed first, when the child is about a year and half old: and then they cast them, and new come about seven years old. But divers have backward teeth come forth at twenty, yea some at thirty and forty. Query, of the manner of the coming of them forth. They tell a tale of the 'old Countess of Desmond, who lived till she was sevenscore years old, that she did dentire twice or thrice; casting her old teeth, and others coming in their place. 756. TEETH are much hurt by sweetmeats; and by painting with mercury; and by things over-hot; and by things over-cold; and by rheums. And the pain of the teeth is one of the sharpest of pains. 757 CONCERNING teeth, these things are to be considered. 1. The preserving of them. 2. The keeping of them white. 3. The drawing of them with least pain. 4. The staying and easing of the toothach. 5. The binding in of artificial teeth, where teeth have been strucken out. 6. And last of all, that great one of restoring teeth in age. The instances that give any likelihood of restoring teeth in age, are the late coming of teeth in some; and the renewing of the beaks in birds, which are commaterial with teeth. Query, therefore, more particularly how that cometh. And again, the renewing of horns. yet that hath not been known to have been provoked by art; therefore let trial be made, whether horns may be procured to grow in beasts that are not horned, and how? And whether they may be procured to come larger than usual; as to make an ox or a deer have a greater head of horns? And whether But the head of a deer, that by age is more spitted, may be brought again to be more branched? for these trials, and the like, will shew, whether by art such hard matter can be called and provoked. It may be tried, also, whether birds may not have something done to them when they are young, whereby they may be made to have greater or longer bills; or greater and longer talons? And whether children may not have some wash, or something to make their teeth better and stronger? Coral is in use as an help to the teeth of children. Experiments in consort touching the generation and bearing of living creatures in the womb. 758. SOME living creatures generate but at certain seasons of the year; as deer, sheep, wild conies, etc. and most sorts of birds and fishes: others at any time of the year, as men; and all domestic creatures, as horses, hogs, dogs, cats, etc. The cause of generation at all seasons seemeth to be fulness: for generation is from redundance. This fulness ariseth from two causes; either from the nature of the creature, if it be hot, and moist, and sanguine; or from plenty of food. For the first, men, horses, dogs, etc. which breed at all seasons, are full of heat and moisture; doves are the fullest of heat and moisture amongst birds, and therefore breed often; the tame dove almost continually. But deer are a melancholy dry creature, as appeareth by their fearfulness, and the hardness of their flesh. Sheep are a cold creature, as appeareth by their mildness, and for that they seldom drink. Most sort of birds are of a dry substance in comparison of beasts. Fishes are cold. For the second cause, fulness of food; men, kine, swine, dogs, etc. feed full; and we see that those creatures, which being wild, generate seldom, being tame, generate often; which is from warmth, and fulness of food. We find, that the time of going to rut of deer is in September; for that they need the whole summer's feed and grass to make them fit for generation. And if rain come early about the middle of September, they go to rut somewhat the sooner; if drought, somewhat the later. So sheep, in respect of their small heat, generate about the same time, or somewhat before. But for the most part, creatures that generate at certain seasons, generate in the spring; as birds and fishes; for that the end of the winter, and the heat and comfort of the spring prepareth them. There is also another reason why some creatures generate at certain seasons; and that is the relation of their time of bearing to the time of generation; for no creature goeth to generate whilst the female is full; nor whilst she is busy in sitting, or rearing her young. And therefore it is found by experience, that if you take the eggs or young ones out of the nests of birds, they will fall to generate again three or four times one after another. 759. Or living creatures, some are longer time in the womb, and some shorter. Women go commonly nine months; the cow and the ewe about six months; does go about nine months; mares eleven months; bitches nine weeks; elephants are said to go two years; for the received tradition of ten years is fabulous. For birds there is double inquiry; the distance between the treading or coupling, and the laying of the egg; and again, between the egg laid, and the disclosing or hatching. And amongst birds, there is less diversity of time than amongst other creatures; yet some there is; for the hen sitteth but three weeks, the turkey-hen, goose, and duck, a month: Query, of others. The cause of the great difference of times amongst living creatures is, either from the nature of the kind, or from the constitution of the womb. For the former, those that are longer in coming to their maturity or growth are longer in the womb; as is chiefly seen in men: and so elephants, which are long in the womb, are long time in coming to their full growth. But in most other kinds, the constitution of the womb, that is, the hardness or dryness thereof, is concurrent with the former cause. For the colt hath about four years of growth; and so the fawn; and so the calf, But whelps, which come to their growth, commonly, within three quarters of a year, are but nine weeks in the womb. As for birds, as there is less diversity amongst them in the time of their bringing forth; so there is less diversity in the time of their growth: most of them coming to their growth within a twelvemonth. 760. SOME creatures bring forth many young ones at a burden as bitches, hares, conies, etc. Some ordinarily but one; as women, lionesses, etc. This may be caused, either by the quantity of sperm required to the producing one of that kind; which if less be required, may admit greater number; if more, fewer or by the partitions and cells of the womb, which may sever the sperm. Experiments in consort touching species visible. 761. THERE is no doubt, but light by refraction will shew greater, as well as things coloured. For like as a shilling in the bottom of the water will shew greater; so will a candle in a lanthorn, in the bottom of the water. I have heard of a practice, that glowworms in glasses were put in the water to make the fish come. But I am not yet informed, whether when a diver diveth, having his eyes open, and swimmeth upon his back; whether, I say, he seeth things in the air, greater or less. For it is manifest, that when the eye standeth in the finer medium, and the object is in the grosser, things shew greater; but contrariwise, when the eye is placed in the grosser medium, and the object in the finer, how it worketh I know not. 762. IT would be well bolted out, whether great refractions may not be made upon reflexions, as well as upon direct beams. For example, we see, that take an empty bason, put an angel of gold, or what you will, into it; then go so far from the bason, till you cannot see the angel, because it is not in a right line; then fill the bason with water, and you shall see it out of its place, because of the reflexion. To proceed therefore, put a looking-glass into a bason of water; I suppose you shall not see the image in a right line, or at equal angles, but aside. I know not |