BOOKS OF SECRETS. 23 



After the herbals came books on gardening, and, in at least some of 

 them, attention is bestowed on the cultivation of medicinal plants. There 

 is space for only one example. Thomas Hill, Londoner, of whose life 

 nothing definite is known, not even the dates of his birth and death, in 

 addition to a number of other works already referred to, wrote one entitled 

 "The Profitable Arte of Gardening," 1568. In it he not only lays down 

 rules for planting and tending the flowers, vegetables and herbes, but to 

 each appends a paragraph headed "The physicke helpes," that is, its use in 

 medicine. In " The Gardeners Labyrinth " by Didymus Mountain, 

 commonly identified with Thomas Hill, though the accuracy of so doing 

 may be doubted, there are similar sections in the second part of the book 

 where the individual plants are described. The point to be noticed, 

 however, is that in these and similar books there is an overlapping of the 

 subjects of gardening, pharmacy and medicine. 



There is still another connection which displayed itself in a marked 

 way in the manuals written by ladies, or under their name. In them, as in 

 the Countess of Kent's "Manual," or in "The Queen's Closet opened," or 

 in " The Queen-like Closet " of Mrs. WoUey, Physicke and Chyrurgerie 

 came to be associated with Conserving and Preserving, and ultimately with 

 Cookery. Such collections appeared frequently, and their popularity is 

 exhibited by those just mentioned having passed through many editions, as 

 has been exhibited above. 



Of more interest, perhaps, than some of these books, may be those 

 about the mysteries of reproduction. Here again we meet with works 

 which have been long current, such as the Secreta Mulierum of Albertus, 

 and the Physionomia of Michael Scotus. But a book much better known 

 now than either of these passes under the name of The Compltte Masferpiece 

 and is ascribed to Aristotle. Such books were the instructors of people in 

 all that pertained to the subject, theoretical and practical, and one has 

 heard occasionally views expressed the source of which could be found in 

 them. That is not surprising, for the " Masterpiece " has been " Printed 



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