Thomas Browne

“ Butt what is remarkable in her is a kind of boulime or dogge appetite; shee greedily eating day and night all that her allowance, freinds and charitable people afford her, drincking beere or water, and making litle distinction of any food ether of broaths, flesh, fish, apples, peares, and any coarse food in no small quantity, insomuch that the overseers of late have been fayne to augment her weekly allowance. Shee sleeps indifferently well till hunger awakes her and then shee must have no ordinary supply whether in the day or night. ”

“ The eare according to the old observation made by Aristotle is placed in the same circumference with the eye, accounting the center from the vertex of the head, where if one foot of the compasse bee placed, a line drawne by the other will interesect both the eye & the eare. Butt in quadrupeds the eare is placed high, for convienience to avoyd the incommodities in the holding downe their head & feeding upon the ground, & the avoyd the convenience in sleeping wch long eares would afford when they sleepe on their side & laye upon one side of their heads. ”

“ To bee the primarie instrument of Tactus or feeling & thereby to distinguish of the Tactile qualities of heat, cold, moyst, drye, smoothnesse & the like, for though there bee a sense of feeling in inward membrane parts, yet the primarie & generall organ is the skinne wherein the nerves are dispersed, & some parts of the skinne more sensible then others, as the thinner parts, the hands & fingers, & some tempers more exquisite then others, & commonly thought to bee more exact in the spider then in man. ”

“ What perspiration fishes, who live always in coole water, have, is uncertain, butt they must also have their effluviums, & how Cola, the famous Sicilian swimmer, who lived many dayes together in the sea, could endure such abatement of perpiration as the cold water maketh, it addeth unto the wonder of that course of his life. ”

“ That the head of a man is about the fourteenth part of the whole body in wayght. The lungs taking up so considerable part of the brest, it may seeme something strange that that breast may bee perced or runne through or pierced transversely through & yet the lungs escape & have no hurt, which may happen when the thrust is made in the expiration or when the lungs subside. ”

“ The navell is more conspicuous in man that in other animals, allthough the urachos in them make a part as communicating with the Allantiodes or urine bladder which is not in man, & this may happen to bee so discernable in man not only from the barenesse of the skkinne, butt from the ligation which is made upon it before it bee cutt off, & a thick skinne which after covereth it. For in quadruped beasts the funiculus being bitt off, gradually rotteth away till it cometh to the skinne & so maketh no umbo or readily visible bunch as in man. ”

“ For they may bee surprized and their breath stopped up, ether in or at the end of their inspiration or drawing in of their breath, and when it so falleth out, there may bee also great contention and labour in the body dying and probably somewhat different then in the common way. ”

“ Pliny reports of some men with tayles in India & there hath been some rare examples of men with tayles. Birds have a curious part, uropigeum or rump, whereon fethers growe, wch serveeth the use of a tayle. some men have had tayles. Aristotle sayeth that the tayle of a snake cutt off will growe agayne. i have observed the same in a green lizard; butt the greatest wonder is that tayles shold turne into leggs, as they do in the Gyrinus or Tadpole, wherein after a litle time the tayle splits or divideth, & maketh their hinder leggs. ”

“ Navel Whether the navell bee the center of the whole body hath been disputed by some, butt to no great advantage unto physick, butt the same may bee allowed if wee measure it by a circumference drawne about the fingers & toes when the armes & leggs are stretched out. ”

“ The pericardium in man is peculiarly different in man from other animals in 2 considerations, that is in that it is not fatt and in that it is annexed to the diaphragma or midriffe. Death is expressed by expiration, and men are sayd to expire when they dye, because Spiration or breathing begins by inspiration, and endeth by expiration. this may hold in naturall deaths: butt in suspension, chaking, and violent stranlinge of animals it may happen otherwise. ”

“ On anatomy The subjects for anatomie in most parts of Europe are of bodies of persons hanged, wherein there seemeth to bee no considerable impediment in the exploration of parts, butt in the parts about the throat. ”

“ Andrew, could live so long under an inverted position of the heart, the heart pressing upon the vessells & inverted circulation of the blood, the blood in the veynes of the head circulates with great difficultie upward. ”

“ They are immovable in man, or noe very litle motion, although there bee divers muscles belonging to this organ and wch may the lesse performe any motion because in children they are bound close for some yeares, butt in many animals they are very movable that being prone they may bee connected to evert part from whence the sound cometh, so that in some quadrupeds they are very movable as in horses, in some very litle as in Apes, in others not at all or not perceptible as in man. ”

“ In old time, as Galen relates, the physitians dissected the bodies of German souldiers killed in the warre, butt that was also inconvenient, the parts being wounded, mangled, & most of the blood runne out. At Paris they sometimes, though more rarely, cutt up bodies of malefactors broken on the wheele, for their leggs & arms are broken & bruised, & the blowe which is given them on the brest makes a great contusion & disordereth the pectorall parts. ”

“ In many, especially yong persons, are,as 'tis usually named, goose skinned, wherein the same parts are a litle elevated, and some I have heard an odde observation that such as have have such skinns have not had the Lues venera. ”

“ Tails In many animals the spine is prolonged & extendeth into a tayle wch consisteth of small spondyls as in horses,doggs, monkeys. In horses tis usuall to dock them:there are 17. Tis usuall with us to dock them & cutt off the same to make their hinder parts more full & spredding, butt not without some inconvienience unto them, for one use of the tayle is to help them to their turning,& to brush off flies & molesting insescts by the hayres. ”