454 ^^ Phyfiognomy. 



quid proferunt (ut Saxifragia), calculo ; herhie perforata, ut 

 hypericon, 'vulneribus. So alfo in another place* he lays it 

 down, emnis planta fuam ipjius inf.tam virtutem, certo et infal- 

 lihili Jigno ojiendit hominz. Alfted is fufficient authority for 

 the opinions of his day, as his compilation was in great 

 vogue and really pofTefled great merit. It was no fmall 

 praife that Leibnitz thought fo well of the work, as to have 

 entertained at one time an intention of revifing and re- 

 publifhing it. When notions like the preceding came 

 fubfequently to be rejefted, it is no wonder that phyfiog- 

 nomy thus artificially connefted with them Ihould be re- 

 jefled alfo. f 



Of the ftill ftranger doftrine oi fympathies , I have little to 

 fay ; partly becaufe I do not find any writer exprefsly 

 phyfiognomical who has treated on the fubjeft, except 

 Goclenius ; and partly becaufe MorhofF's Chapter de quali- 

 tatibus occultis,J together with the obfervations of Dr. 

 Ferriar on this head in his paper on Popular lUufions 

 will furnilh fufficient imformation. The theofophers how- 

 ever, in this as in the dodlrine of fignatures extended their 



• Ibid. lib. XIH. Phyf. part V, cap. 2. 

 + Boyle feems to have adopted the fignatural opinions from his favourite 

 authors the chemical (or rather alchemical) philofophers. Thus in his 

 treatife entitled " Some Confiderarions touching the Style of the Holy 

 Scriptures," he fays, " And as chemlfts obferve in tlie Book of Nature, 

 " that the fimples that wear the figure or refemblance (by them termed 

 "fignaturc) of a diftempered part, are medicinal for that part of that 

 " infirmity whofe fignature they bear, fo &c." It is upon this fignatural 

 principle I prefume, that among his medicinal experiments he fo often 

 prefcribed horfe dung for the colic j album graecum for the hemorrhoids; 

 fheeps bladders for the diabetes ; the application of frefti blood in 

 erifipelas; turmeric, faffron and frefti fheeps dung in the jaundice; dead 

 men'o bones fpr the ague, &c. The doftrine of fignatures was not 

 peculiar however to the chemical philofophers, for Porta Crollius and Car- 

 dan cannot be reckoned among them ; and the fame notion was adopted by 

 Dr. Henry More, the opponent of the chemifts. See his Antidote againft 

 Atheifm, book II. chap. 6. 



I Polyhift. tom. II. lib. II. part II. cap, 8. 



notion 



