Medicines from Animals. 285 



chemists of Buenos Ay res. Yet lie was formerly- 

 told that to take the stomach of the ostrich to 

 improve his digestion was as wild an idea as it 

 would be to consume bird's feathers in order to 

 fly." Dr. Brookes gave many curious prescriptions, 

 but was careful not to give them on his own 

 authority ; for example, he says, " There are grave 

 physicians who affirm, that if those who have a 

 whitlow put their finger into the ear of a cat, it 

 will certainly cure it." But the Eev. Edward 

 Topsell, or rather his authority, Gesner, had no 

 such scruples, and without doubt believed implicitly 

 in all his marvellous remedies ; for in " the first 

 epistle of Conradus Gesnerus/' in the ff Historie of 

 Foure-f ooted Beastes," we read, " The beastes do 

 offer many profitable medicines for the cure of 

 men ; which the skilful Phitisia.n must borrow from 

 them if he will be perfect in his art and conscion- 

 able in his profession. . . . And I have proved, 

 by the inspection into this knowledge, that herein 

 is layed the largest foundation of Medicine." Of 

 course, in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth 

 centuries medical science, as now understood, was 

 practically non-existent; and the authorities for 

 the remedies to be found in the Historie range from 

 Hippocrates downwards. 



The following are a few of the recipes, taken 

 almost at random, choice being only made of those 

 prescribed for diseases and afflictions which are 

 perhaps as common as any to which flesh is heir. 

 To those who suffer from toothache a complaint 



