Medicines from Animals. 287 



milde and gentle then it had beene." " A Fox sod 

 in water till nothing of the Fox be left whole 

 except the bones, and the Legges or other parts 

 of a gouty body washed and daily bathed therein, 

 it shall drive away all paine and griefe, strengthen- 

 ing the defective and weake members." After 

 this prescription, however, our author adds, " Never- 

 thelesse, such bodies are soone againe replenished 

 through evill dyet, and relapsed into the same 

 disease againe." "A fat cat sod" is also pre- 

 scribed, "first taking the fat, and aiinoynting 

 therewith the sicke part, and then wetting Wooll 

 or Towe in the same, and binding it to the offended 

 place," and " A Woulfe being sodden alive untill 

 the bones doe only remaine, is very much com- 

 mended for the paines of the goute," though how 

 the remedy is to be applied does not appear. 

 " The dust of a living Weasell brent, mingled with 

 wax and rose-water, and annointed with a Feather 

 upon gouty legs," we are told, " cureth the same 

 disease " ; but all the above prescriptions are 

 simple in comparison with the following gruesome 

 recipe : " If ther shal be any flesh or bones of 

 men found in the body of a dead Hyaena, being 

 dried and beaten to powder, and then mixed with 

 a certain perfume, they will bee very excellent to 

 help the gout." Topsell quaintly adds : "The 

 vanity of the Magi or Wise-men which is witty in 

 nothing but in circumstance of words, doth say 

 that the best time to take Hyaenaes is when the 

 Moone passeth over the signe called Gemini." 



