56 Transactions of the 



Arezzo, optics apparently cliiefly from Baptista Porta, but, 

 undoubtedly, also from Vitello, and from various Arabic 

 sources. Fludd was neither a Copernican nor an Aristo- 

 telian ; nor does lie appear to have been impressed by any of 

 the discoveries which were being made round him by Gill3ert 

 and Galileo, or by the writings of Bacon. As to his natural 

 science, he not unfrequently shows considerable aptitude for 

 such studies, and great minuteness of observation. Of the 

 old experiment, in which a candle is burned in a closed 

 vessel standing over water, which latter, on the extinction 

 of the flame, ascends somewhat into the vessel, he says, 'Aer 

 enim nutrit ignem et nutricndo consumittir,^ but he denied the 

 j)0ssibility of a vacuum. Again, m the ' Anatomite Amphi- 

 theatrum,' we find a chapter entitled ' De anatomia san- 

 guinis humani chimia artificiali dissecti; ' this he recommends 

 to be done by submitting the blood to a gradually increasing 

 degree of heat in a retort, and collecting the products at 

 various stages, in other words, a ' fractional distillation,' of 

 necessity rough, for thermometers were then unknown. As 

 to Fludd's astrology, perhaps the most rational thing to 

 which he attempts to apply it is the prognostication of 

 tempests, but the casting of horoscopes is a favourite subject, 

 and one part treats of the discovery of a thief. ' The truth 

 of this portion of the art,' he says, ' is not alone supplied by 

 others, for I also have confirmed it by practice and expe- 

 rience ; ' he then tells us how to discover who the thief is, 

 ' if the Lord of the Sixth House is found in the Second 

 House, or in company with the Lord of the Second House, 

 the thief is one of the family, either parent, or brother, or 

 sister ; ' and so on. Then we have no less than eighteen rules 

 to enable us to discover the form of the thief : if Mercury is 

 in the sign of the Scorpion, he will be bald, while another 

 planetary condition gives him height, and crisp yellow hair ; 

 some signs show hiui to be stout ; others, a monster of a 

 deformed body, others strong and patient, while Saturn or 

 Mars, in certain positions, show that he is blood-thirsty and 

 about to perish by a violent death, which at once relieves 

 the astrologer from further anxiety, except as to his stolen 

 goods. And this was dignified by the name of Judicial 

 Astrology, and called an Art\ Enough has been said, we 

 think, to show how utterly trivial were many of the apjilica- 

 tions of this rankly superstitious practice ; at the same time, 

 it is impossible for us in the present day to fully realise the 

 extent of the belief in the influence of supernatural causes in 

 the time of Fludd. It was in every way a superstitious age ; 



