i 3 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pecially in age, do desire to live with them, with little or no meat or 

 bread. And above all, we strive to have drinks of extreme thin parts, 

 to insinuate into the body, and yet without all biting, sharpness, or 

 fretting; insomuch as some of them put upon the back of your hand 

 will, with a little stay, pass through to the palm, and yet taste mild 

 to the mouth. We have also waters which we ripen in that fashion, 

 as they become nourishing; so that they are indeed excellent drink; 

 and many will use no other. Breads we have of several grains, roots, 

 and kernels: yea and some of flesh and fish dried; with divers kinds 

 of leavenings and seasonings: so that some do extremely move appe- 

 tites ; some do nourish so, as divers do live of them, without any other 

 meat; who live very long. So for meats, we have some of them so 

 beaten and made tender and mortified, yet without all corrupting, as 

 a weak heat of the stomach will turn them into good chylus, as well 

 as a strong heat would meat otherwise prepared. We have some meats 

 also and breads and drinks, which taken by men enable them to fast 

 long after; and some other, that used make the very flesh of men's 

 bodies sensibly more hard and tough, and their strength far greater 

 than otherwise it would be. 



We have dispensatories, or shops of medicines. Wherein you may 

 easily think, if we have such variety of plants and living creatures 

 more than you have in Europe, (for we know what you have,) the 

 simples, drugs, and ingredients of medicines, must likewise be in so 

 much the greater variety. We have them likewise of divers ages, and 

 long fermentations. And for their preparations, we have not only all 

 manner of exquisite distillations and separations, and especially by 

 gentle heats and percolations through divers strainers, yea and sub- 

 stances; but also exact forms of composition, whereby they incorpo- 

 rate almost, as they were natural simples. 



We have also divers mechanical arts, which you have not; and 

 stuffs made by them; as papers, linen, silks, tissues; dainty works of 

 feathers of wonderful lustre; excellent dyes, and many others; and 

 shops likewise, as well for such as are not brought into vulgar use 

 amongst us as for those that are. For you must know that of the 

 things before recited, many of them are grown into use throughout 

 the kingdom; but yet if they did flow from our invention, we have of 

 them also for patterns and principals. 



We have also furnaces of great diversities, and that keep great 

 diversity of heats; fierce and quick; strong and constant; soft and 

 mild; blown, quiet; dry, moist; and the like. But above all, we have 

 heats in imitation of the sun's and heavenly bodies' heats, that pass 

 divers inequalities and (as it were) orbs, progresses, and returns, 

 whereby we produce admirable effects. Besides, we have heats of 



