HISTORY OF LIFE AND DEATH. 313 



From the inquisition touching living creatures and bodies 

 repaired by nourishment, pass on to the inquisition touching 

 man. And now being come to the principal subject of 



1 inquisition, the inquisition ought to be in all points more 



i precise and accurate. 



5. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 men, according to the ages of the world, the several regions, 

 I climates, and places of their nativity and habitation. 



6. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 i men, according to their races and families, as if it were a 

 I thing hereditary ; also according to their complexions, con 

 stitutions, and habits of body, their statures, the manner 

 and time of their growth, and the making and composition 

 of their members. 



7. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 men, according to the times of their nativity, but so as you 

 omit for the present all astrological observations, and the 

 figures of heaven under which they were born, only insist 

 upon the vulgar and manifest observations ; as whether they 



j were born in the seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth month ; 

 also, whether by night or by day, and in what month of 

 the year. 



8. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 men, according to their fare, diet, government of their life, 

 exercises, and the like. For as for the air in which men live 

 and make their abode, we account that proper to be inquired 

 of in the abovesaid article, touching the places of their 

 habitation. 



9. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 men, according to their studies, their several courses of life, 



the affections of the mind, and divers accidents befallino* 

 i 



them. 



10. Inquire apart touching those medicines which are 

 thought to prolong life. 



1 1. Inquire touching the signs and prognostics of long 

 and short life, not those which betoken death at hand (for 

 they belong to a history of physick) but those which are 

 seen and may be observed even in health, whether they be 

 physiognomical signs or any other. 



Hitherto have been propounded inquisitions touching- 

 length and shortness of life, besides the rules of art, and in 

 a confused manner; now we think to add some, which 

 shall be more art like, and tending to practice, under the 

 name of intentions. Those intentions are generally three ; 

 as for the particular distributions of them, we will propound 



