An Account of Some Books

An Account of some Books. I, & II. Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire Naturelle des ANIMAUX: To which is joined another Tract totally different, entitled, La MESURE de la TERRE. A Paris, de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1671, in fol. A Great part of these two Treatises having been already given an account of in Numb.49. and 112. of these Traits, as they there came to our hands; we shall now only take notice of what we could not do formerly, because there were not then described so many Animals, as there are now; and, as to the Account of the New Measure of the Earth, we then had it at the second hand in writing un-printed. But before I descend to particulars, I think, it will not be amiss to acquaint the Readers (who will find it very difficult to get any Copies of these Books,) with part of the Introduction, premised by the Illustrious Authors to their Observations concerning the Animals examined by them; which examen they own to have made as they are a Royal Academy and Body, instituted by his Majesty of France for the Improvement of Sciences. They say then, that that which they bear themselves most upon in these Memoires, (as they call them) is, the uncontrollable Testimony they give to a certain and known Truth. For they were not the work of one particular man, who may suffer himself to be prevented by his own opinion; who doth not easily apprehend but what confirms the first thoughts he hath entertain'd, for which he hath as great an indulgence, as a parent hath for his children; who is not contradicted in the liberty he gives himself to deliver whatever he shall judge capable to bring lustre to his work; and, in a word, who considers less the truth of matter of fact, than the fine dress, which he adds to it and forms himself, of certain peculiarities, which he supposes, or disguises, to make them serve his turn; insomuch that he would not be well pleased to learn such Truths and to make such Experiments as should ruin a fine spun ratiocination. But such Inconveniencies, as these, they say, are not incident to these Memoires, which contain no matter of fact but such as hath been verified by a whole Assembly, composed of persons who have Eyes to see such things as these, otherwise than the greatest part of the rest of the world, and that have Hands to search into them with more dexterity and success; who see very well well what is, and who will hardly be made to see what is not; who do not study so much to find things new, as to examine those well that are pretended to have been found; and to whom the very assurance of having been deceived in some Observation, gives little less satisfaction, than a curious and important Discovery: So much, (they assure us) doth the Love of certainty prevail above any other thing. Now this Love, (they add) is so much the stronger, as it meets with no combat from any other interest; forasmuch as the vain glory, which the success of an ingenious illusion might by a surprize have carried away, would be to them a very small thing, it being divided between so many persons that do all contribute to this work, either by the propositions that each of them makes of new things which he discovers, or by his clearing up of the Discoveries made by others, in examining them as others do examine his, with such a watchful care as a little emulation never fails to stir up amongst Philosophers: So that, in all appearance, such matters as have passed so strict a trial as these, are exempt from all deceit and falsity. Having thus introduced their labours, and intimated withal, that they have chiefly given an account of the Internal parts of the Animals here exhibited, now and then only adding some Reflexions upon particularities that might deserve them, yet no otherwise than an Essay, and the First fruits of that Crop, that one day may be reaped from a whole Magazine of such Observations: Having, I say, done this, they give us the Anatomical Descriptions themselves of 13 species of Exotic Animal's; of which Five (viz. a Cameleon, Castor, Dromedary, Bear, and Gazelle,) were formerly published, and described by the same Persons, in a Book in quarto, printed at Paris 1669; which now are reprinted here in a more magnificent manner, and augmented with the number of Eight species, which are, two Lions and a Lionneß, a Chat Pard (supposed to be engendred by a Leopard and a Sow-cat,) a Sea-fox, a Lupus Cervarius or Lynx, an Otter, a Civet cat, an Elke, and a Coati-Mondi of Brazil. First, they discourse of two Lions and one Lionneß; and among other observations, they take notice from divers circumstances, that one of the two Male-Lions sickned of a Surfeit; they having been inform'd, that some months before he died he would not only not come out of his lodge, but hardly eat; and that therefore some remedies remedies were order'd for him, and among the rest, not to eat any other flesh but that of young Animals, and to eat them alive. To which his Keepers (to render this food the more delicate for him) added the extraordinary preparation of flealing Lambs alive, and to let him eat divers of those; which at first recover'd him, by restoring his appetite and some cheerfulness. But yet, say they, this food in all appearance bred too much blood, and such as was too subtle for this Animal, to which Nature hath not given the industry or care of flealing those Creatures it feeds on; it being credible, that the hair, wool, feathers and shells, which all Animals of prey devour, are a kind of necessary corrective to keep them from filling themselves by their greediness with too succulent a food. Next, comes the Chat-Pard, wherein they chiefly note the defect of Spermatick vessels, and of other parts absolutely necessary to generation, which they found did not proceed from castration, but from some other cause: Where they take occasion to observe, that the Sterility, which is ordinary in some of those Animals that are born of two different species, must have in this subject a very particular cause. For, say they, that which renders Mules sterile, is not the defect of any of the Organs necessary to generation, in regard that the difference which may be found in the conformation of the matrix of a Mare and of that of a She-Ass cannot, as some pretend, be a ground of this cause of sterility; the Mare, in which something is deficient that is found in the She-Ass, not being destitute of any of the parts absolutely necessary to engender, because it doth engender; and the difference of the organs being not the cause of barrenness, forasmuch as the difference of organs, which is between the species of Horses and Asses, hinders not the breeding of Mules, which do issue from the mixture of those two species. Whence Aristotle, following Empedocles, imputes this defect only to the Temperament of those Animals, whose parts have contracted a hardness that renders them incapable to contribute to a new mixture: So that, if it be true, that most of the Animals, which are born of the mixture of two kinds, are notwithstanding fruitful, they are inclined to believe, that the conformation of this Chat-Pard was peculiar and accidental, and that the defect of the parts which it wanted, and which made it uncapable of engendring, proceeded not from that mixture of species's, which by changing the Conformation of the parts cannot so spoil the same as to render it unfit for the functions, and is yet less capable to make a Mutilation; but may more easily cause some vice in the Temperament, which is a very natural sequel of mixture; and lastly, that 'tis probable, that if the Mule be the only Animal, which the confusion of species renders sterile, there is something particular in those Animals that have engendred it, which is not found in others; and that is perhaps, as Aristotle thinks, the hardness of the matrix in Mares and Asses, which like an Earth is rendered sterile by driness; whereas that reason hath no place in Leopards, Foxes and others, which are Animals second enough to transmit to their offspring the strong dispositions they have for generation, notwithstanding the resistance which the mixture of different species may bring. The Third is the Sea-Fox, in whose stomach they found a branch of the Sea-herb Varec, and a Fish of five inches long, without its head, scales, skin and bowels, all having been consumed, except the muscular flesh, which was yet entire. And as to its Guts, they observe, that the Upper part of them had a peculiar structure, and, instead of the ordinary circumvolutions of Guts, the cavity of these was distinguished by many transvers separations, composed of the membranes of the Intestin turned inwards, which separations were half an inch distant from one another, and turn'd helically like a Snail-shell; which may be taken for a cause that the food is trated and a long while a passing, though the way be short enough. The fourth is the Female Lynx, which is one of the animals, that have short Guts, of which kind the Lion is also one, whose Guts they found hardly longer than three times the length of his Body: Which argues speedy digestion and great voracity. The fifth is the Otter, the difference of which from the Castor they have very carefully observed; as they have also the peculiar connexion of the Spleen of the Otter, which they say is different from that of almost all other animals, in which that viscus is generally fastned to the stomack, whereas in this Otter it was fast to the Epiploon. And as to a foramen ovale, they found no appearance in this Otter, that it had ever had a hole that could give passage to the blood from the vena cava into the arteria venosa; which, they say, agrees well enough with that remark, which all the Ancients have made, viz. that the Otter is constrain'd from time to time to rise rise above the water to breathe; which a Castor doth not, as having a far greater facility to be a long while without respiration. The sixth is the Civet-Cat, which they were glad they had the opportunity to compare with a Castor, forasmuch as those two Animals agree in those organs that are very peculiar to them, which are the receptacles wherein that liquor is collected that is so remarkable for its scent, but is very sweet in the one, and very unpleasing in the other. Which made them search, whether there was not some particular reason of this diversity of smell; but to them it appear'd not that there was any other cause than the diversity of the Temperament of these Animals, the Civet-Cat being hot and dry, drinking little, and living in hot and dry Countries; but the Castor, living now in the Water, then upon the Earth, and being a very moist Creature, hath not heat enough to convey and perfect its humidity. They had, it seems, two of these Cats, a Male and a Female, which were so like one another outwardly, that there was not so much as any distinction of sex that appeared; the Male, upon the dissection, being found to have its genitals hid and shut up within, and the vessel that contains the odoriferous liquor being altogether alike in both. Which vessel is a pouch or sack under the anus, not under the tail, as Aristotle puts it in his Hyena (which they make the same with the Civet Cat,) and is different from the matrix; both very accurately described by them. As to the odoriferous liquor, they found it come forth, in the Male as well as the Female, out of a great number of glands that are between the two coats that compose the pouches, which were in the Male very large, and very small in the Female; the Male yielding also a Civet more pleasing than the Female, though Authors generally affirm the contrary. They found not, that the smell of the Civet becomes more perfect by being kept a while, nor that it is of an offensive smell when new, as Amat. Lusitanus affirms; this smell not seeming to them better after a years time, than at the time of the dissection. The seventh is the Elk, of which they examine very solicitously its Claws, together with the tradition of this Animals curing itself of the Epilepsy (to which 'tis said to be very subject) by putting one of his feet into his Ear; whence the Claw of that foot is also much celebrated among the vulgar, as a specific against that distemper. Of its Brain they take notice, that the glandula pinealis pinealis therein was of an extraordinary bigness, and consider, that Lions, Bears, and other bold and fierce Animals have that part so very small that 'tis hardly discernable, and that the same is exceeding big in those that are very timorous, as the Elk; this Animal being esteemed to be so fearful, that it even dies of fear when it hath received the slightest wound, it having been observ'd, that it never survives when it seeth any of its own blood. The eighth and last is the Coati Mondi, a Brazilian Animal, recorded by Margravius, Laet, and others, in whose books the description of that Animal differs only in the description here made of it, that in the former the Authors describe not their teeth, which have a peculiar conformation, nor the spurs on their feet; and that they make the length of its tail much longer than the whole body; which in this Coati of our Authors, was but short in comparison; but may have been eaten off by the Animal itself, forasmuch as De Laet saith, that this kind of Creatures are wont to gnaw their tail, and sometimes quite off; which when they do they die of it. So much of one of these Treatises: The other, being a New and with great accurateness performed Mensuration of the Earth, hath been largely described, above a year since, in Numb. 112 of these Tracts, to which we shall refer the Curious Reader. III. BRITANNIA ANTIQUA Illustrata, or, The Antiquities of Ancient Britain, derived from the Phoenicians, &c. The First Volume: By Aylett Sammes, of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge; since, of the Inner Temple. London, printed by Tho. Roycroft for the Author, 1676. The Learned and Curious Undertaker of this great Work hath endeavoured, in this his First Volume, to attribute, with the Worthy Bochart, the first discovery of Britain to the Phoenicians, and to make a German Nation, and not the Gauls, the first Planters of the same, and to impute that great agreement which was between the Ancient Britains and Gauls, in point of Language and Customes, not to their being originally the same People, but to the joint entertainment of Commerce with the Phoenicians, the ancient and great Navigators throughout the World. From this Commerce with the Phoenicians he doth with much probability deduce the Original Trade of this Island, the Names of Places, Offices, and Dignities, as also the Language, Manners, Idolatry, Idolatry, and other Customes of the Primitive Inhabitants, illustrating many Old Monuments out of approved Greek and Latin Authors; and delivering withal a Chronological History of this Kingdom, from the first Traditional Beginning, until the Year of our Lord 800, when the Name of Britain was changed into that of England: All with great industry and care collected out of the best Authors that could give light herein, and disposed in a better Method than hitherto; together with the Antiquities of the Saxons as well as Phœnicians, Greeks and Romans. Before all which is prefixed a Curious Map of the Ancient World, representing to us, as 'twere in one view, the Progress of the Phœnicians in their remote voyages, and the Countries which they discover'd, together with the Names by them imposed on them; of all which particulars a large explication is subjoyned. To observe some of the things that are most suitable with the Nature of these Tracts; I shall first take notice of that Inquiry, Whether Britain was ever part of the Continent? Which he answers by enervating the Arguments that have been hitherto alleged by flourishing Authors; among which he examines that with most solicitude, which from the likeness of the Soil concludes a Conjunction of Earth; and shews, that in truth it was nothing more but the same Vein of ground which ran under water from one Country to another; which he illustrates and confirms from Philosophical Considerations. Secondly, I shall take notice of the most ancient Philosophical Order of people in Britain, the Bards, a Phœnician appellation of men, who in Poetical strains were wont to sing not only of the Praises of the Gods, the Essence and Immortality of the Soul, the Virtues of Great Men, but also of the Works of Nature, the Course of Coelestial Bodies, and the Order and Harmony of the Spheres; though afterwards by their degeneracy they gave the advantage to the Druids to get the upper hand of them; who yet notwithstanding, did not abolish all the Customes and Doctrines of the Bards, but retained the most useful parts of them, of which that of the Immortality of the Soul was one; to which they added the Soul's Transmigration, according to the opinion of Pythagoras; about whose time, or a little after, 'tis believed that the Greeks entered this Island. These Druids had, after the Bards, a government that was universal over the whole Country, as well in Civil affairs, as in Religion; and they were exempt both from the services of War, and from paying any Taxes; by which Immunities many were invited to enter themselves into that Order and Discipline. What it is; that engaged them to have the Oak in so great veneration, is not so easy to determine. It seems, this Order of men was in so great reputation, that the Gauls, though they had themselves Druids in their Country, yet sent their Children into Britain, to be instructed in the Mysteries of the Druids here. Thirdly, I cannot pass by the Observation, which our Author maketh, p.419. & seq. viz. That, as the Britains were originally a Branch of that Nation, vid. the Cimbri, a people of Germany, who anciently came and seated themselves in Britain; so the Saxons, that were invited hither after a revolution of so many Ages from that time, were a true branch of those very Cimbri, that had seated themselves so long ago before them in this Island. Nor need it to be wonder'd, that, if the Ancient Britains, and the later Saxons be derived from the same stock (the Cimbri,) they should understand nothing of each other's language at the Saxons entrance: For, the continuance of Time, and the mixture of the Britains with the Phoenicians, Gracians, Gauls and Romans, in several ages, was the cause of that difference; though it is not to be doubted but that there are many words in the British tongue which agree with the Saxon, and which in probability they had in use long before the arrival of the Saxons themselves. Errata in Numb. 123. P.551.l.1.r. Beginning the Twelfth year, for Eleventh; which was an unhappy oversight, ibid.l.15.r. Archimedes, ib.l.23.r. Vinetum; p.552.l.25. place, add, or Country where they were born or educated; p.553.l.4. for remote r. Roman, ib.l.14.r. Forests in Germany, ib.l.26.r. our friends n.; p.554.l.15.r. more intricate, ib.l.24.r. Biscay for Biscay, ib.l.25.r. apart from, ib.l.32.r. who have recorded; p.556.l.9.r. Wheelbarometer, ib.l.22.r. envy in us; p.564.l.31.r. a secretis; p.574.l.4.r.Vinetum. Err. in this Numb. Pag.590.l.penult.r. peni'cunct. Printed by T. R. for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-Yard.