Boo the CatBoo the Cat. 1987-2002.


Arcana Microcosmi:
OR,
The hid Secrets of MAN's BODY discovered.
In an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle
and Galen concerning the Parts thereof:

As also,
By a Discovery of the strange and mar-
veilous Diseases, Symptomes, & Accidents
of MAN's BODY.

WITH
A Refutation of Doctor Brown's
VULGAR ERRORS,
The Lord BACON's
Naturall History,
and Doctor Harvey's Book
DE GENERATIONE,
COMENIUS, AND OTHERS;

Whereto is annexed a letter from Doctor Pr.
to the Author, and his Answer thereto, touching
Doctor Harvy's Book De Generatione.


By A. R.


London, Printed by Tho. Newcomb, and are to bee sold
by John Clark, entring into Mercers-Chappel, at
the lower end of Cheapside, 1652.

 


THIS on-line edition of Alexander Ross's Arcana Microcosmi is being input (by hand) from the second (1652) edition. It is intended mostly as an extended footnote to Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica; therefore, I have begun with Book II, Ross's direct response to that work. The text is followed more or less slavishly; some typos have been corrected (and noted) when it is obvious that they are simply printer's errors (usually the omission of a final letter after a long ess). Long esses and "w"'s set as "vv" have been changed to their modern forms. Material within brackets inside the text is Ross's; he uses square brackets to enclose what are intended to be direct quotations (they are not always entirely accurate). Notes are of three kinds: numbered annotations, often the source of a quote, espcially if the quote is wrong, and comments on the text; asterisks, which lead to the source of quotes that Ross has identified exactly in the text; and linked references to Browne's Vulgar Errors. Page numbers are indicated at the beginning of each chapter. They are also indicated in the HTML as links (for instance, a url like ross22.html#103 will take you to page 103). When a page break occurs in the middle of a word, the break is indicated as a comment in the HTML.


CONTENTS OF BOOK II

Chapter Heads Responds to Browne:
I. 1. Divers ways to resist burning. 2. Locust eaters, the lowsie disease, the Baptist fed not on Locusts. 3. Mans flesh most subject to putrifaction, and the causes thereof; How putrifaction is resisted; Mumia. 4. The strength of affection and imagination in dying men. Strange presages of death. 5. Difference of dead mens skuls, and why. III.14
VII.9
VII.18
II. 1. The benefits of sleep, and reasons why some sleep not. 2. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim. Why dead and sleeping men heavier then others, why a blown bladder lighter then an empty. 3. Strang Epidemical diseases and deaths. The force of smels. The Roses smell. 4. Strange shapes, and multitudes of worms in our bodies. 5. The French disease, and its malignity. The diseases of Brasil. IV.7
III. 1. Centaurs, proved what they were. 2. Why the sight of a Wolfe causeth obmutesccency. 3. Pigmies proved. Gammadim, what. 4. Giants proved: they are not monsters. 5. The strange force of Fascination. The sympathies and antipathies of things. The Loadstones attraction, how hindred. Fascination, how cured. Fascination by words. II.3
III.7
III.8
IV.11
IV. 1. Strange stones bred in mens bodies. 2. Children nourished by Wolves and other Beasts. 3. Poison taken without hurt. Poison eaters may infect, how. How Grapes and other Plants may bee poisoned. 4. Of strange Mola's. Bears by licking, form their Cubs, the Plastick faculty still working. III.6
III.8
VII.17
V. 1. Divers priviledges of Eunuchs: The Fibers Testicles. 2. Diversities of Aliments and Medicaments, the vertues of Peaches, Mandrakes, the nature of our aliments. 3. A strange story of a sick Maid discussed, and of strange vomitings. 4. Men long lived; the Deers long life asserted. 5. That old men may become young again, proved. III.4
III.9
IV.6
VII.7
VI 1. Of many new diseases, and causes thereof. 2. Different colours in our bodies: the causes of the Ethiopian blackness. 3. The true Unicorn with his horn and vertues asserted. 4. Some born blind and dumb, recovered; A strange Universal Fever: A strange Fish, and strength of Imagination. III.23
VI.10
VI.12
(and others)
VII. 1. The diversities and vertues of Bezar stones. 2. A woman conceived in a Bath, of an Incubus. 3. Strange actions performed by sleepers, and the causes thereof. Lots Incest in his sleep. 4. Some Animals live long without food: The Camelions food is only air; the contrary reasons answered: Air turns to water, and is the pabulous supply of fire. III.21
III.23
VII.16
VIII. 1. Divers animals long-lived without food. The Camelion live, on air only. 2. Divers creatures fed only by water. 3. Chilification not absolutely necessary. Strange operations of some stomachs. The Ostrich eats and digests Iron. 4. How Bees, Gnats, &c. make a sound. Of Glow-worms: and Grains bit by Pismires: the vegitable Lamb, and other strange plants. 5. The Tygers swiftnesse. The Remora stays ships. III.21
III.22
III.27
III.28
III.23
VII.16
IX. 1. Lions afraid of Cocks: Antipathies cause fear and horror in divers animals. 2. Spiders kill toads; the diversities of Spiders. 3. The Cocks Egge and Basilisk: Divers sorts of Basilisks. 4. Amphisbæna proved, and the contrary objections answered. 5. The Vipers generation by the death of the mother proved, and objections to the contrary refuted. III.7
III.15
III.16
III.27
X. 1. Moles see not, and the contrary objections answered. 2. The opinions of the Ancients concerning divers animals maintained. 3. The true cause of the erection of mans body, and the benefit we have thereby. 4. Amphisbæna proved, and the contrary objections answered. 5. Mice and other vermin bred of putrefaction, even in mens bodies. 6. How men swim naturally; the Indian swimmers. III.1
III.2
III.9
III.11
III.13
III.17
III.18
III.20
III.24
III.27
III.28
IV.1
IV.5
IV.6
XI. 1. The Pictures of Pelican, Dolphin, Serpent, Adam and Eve, Christ, Moses, Abraham, and of the Sybils defended. 2. The Pictures of Cleopatra, of Alexander, of Hector, of Cæsar, with Saddle and Stirrops maintained. V.1
V.2
V.4
V.5
V.7
V.8
V.9
V.11
V.12
V.13
XII. 1. The Picture of Jephtha, sacrificing his daughter maintained. 2. The Baptist wore a Camels skin. 3. Other pictures, as of S. Christopher, S. George, &c. defended. 4. The antiquity, distinction and continuance of the Hebrew tongue, of the Samaritans, and their Letters. V.14
V.15
V.16
V.17
V.18
V.19
V.22
V.23
XIII. 1. There is not heat in the body of the Sun. 2. Islands before the Flood proved. 3. The seven Ostiaries of Nilus, and its greatness. The greatness of old Rome divers ways proved. Nilus over-flowing, how proper to it: the Crocodiles of Nilus; its inundation regular. VI.5
VI.6
VI.8
XIV. 1. The cause of Niles inundation. 2. Lots wife truly transformed into a salt Pillar. 3. Hels fire truly black: brimstone causeth blackness. 4. Philoxenus a glutton, and his wish not absurd: How long necks conduce to modulation. VI.8
VI.12
VII.11
VII.14
XV. 1. Heavy bodies swim in the dead sea: and the Ancients in this point defended. 2. Crassus had reason to laugh at the Ass eating Thistiles: Laughter defined: in laughter there is sorrow; in weeping, joy. 3. That Christ never laughed, proved. 4. Fluctus Decumanus, what? VII.15
VII.16
VII.17
XVI. 1. Epicurus, a wicked and wanton man, impious in his opinions. Seneca's judgement of him. 2. Twelve of his impious and absurd opinons rehearsed. VII.17
XVII. Epicurus his Atomes rejected by nineteen reasons. Atoms, passim.
XVIII. 1. That Chrystal is of water, proved, and the contrary objections answered; how it differs from Ice. 2. The Loadstone moves not; its Antipathy with Garlick. Of the Adamant, Versoria, Amber, &c. II.1
II.2
II.3
II.4
XIX. 1. The Navigation of the Ancients by the stars: they knew not the compass. 2. Goats bloud softneth the Adamant. Gold loseth its vertue and gravity with its substance. Iron may grow hot with motion. Coral is soft under water, and hardned by the air. Viscum or Missletoe, how it grows. The shade of the Ash-tree, pernicious to Serpents. II.2
II.5
II.6
II.7
XX. What the Ancients have written of Griffins may be true. Griffins mentioned in Scripture. Grypi and Gryphes, Perez and Ossifrage, what? III.11
XXI. 1. The existence of the Phœnix proved by divers reasons: and the contrary objections refelled: the strange generation of some birds. 2. The Ancients cleared concerning the Phœnix, and whether the Phœnix be mentioned in Scripture. Divers sorts of generation in divers creatures. The Conclusion, with an Admonition not to sleight the Ancients opinion and Doctrine. III.12
The entire work, in general

Sir Thomas Browne Page

Browne's Vulgar Errors


This page is by James Eason.