524 NATURAL HISTORY. 



is said to be a great drier : it is true that the juice of 

 a hedge-hog must needs be harsh and dry, because it 

 putteth forth so many prickles : for plants also that 

 are full of prickles are generally dry ; as briers* 

 thorns, berberries; and therefore the ashes of an 

 hedge-hog are said to be a great desiccative of 

 fistulas. 



980. Mummy hath great force in stanching of 

 blood ; which, as it may be ascribed to the mixture 

 of balms that are glutinous ; so it may also partake 

 of a secret propriety, in that the blood draweth man s 

 flesh. And it is approved that the moss which 

 groweth upon the skull of a dead man unburied, will 

 stanch blood potently : and so do the dregs, or 

 powder of blood, severed from the water, and dried. 



981. It hath been practised, to make white 

 swallows, by anointing of the eggs with oil. Which 

 effect may be produced, by the stopping of the 

 pores of the shell, and making the juice that put 

 teth forth the feathers afterwards more penurious. 

 And it may be, the anointing of the eggs will be 

 as effectual as the anointing of the body ; of which 

 vide the experiment 93. 



982. It is reported, that the white of an egg, or 

 blood, mingled with salt-water, doth gather the salt- 

 ness, and maketh the water sweeter. This may be 

 by adhesion ; as in the sixth experiment of clarifica 

 tion : it may be also, that blood, and the white of 

 an egg, which is the matter of a living creature, have 

 some sympathy with salt : for all life hath a sympa 

 thy with salt. We see that salt laid to a cut finger 



