Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/87

Rh For the Phalangium and deadly spiders are different from those we generally behold in England. However, the verity hereof, as also of many others, we cannot but desire; for hereby we might surely be provided of proper antidotes in cases which require them; but what we have observed herein, we cannot in reason conceal; who having, in a glass, included a toad with several spiders, we beheld the spiders, without resistance, to sit upon his head, and pass over all his body, which at last, upon advantage, he swallowed down, and that in few hours, unto the number of seven. And in the like manner will toads also serve bees, and are accounted enemies unto their hives."—p. 203.

"Wondrous things are promised from the glow-worm; thereof perpetual lights are pretended, and waters said to be distilled which afford a lustre in the night: and this is asserted by Cardan, Albertus, Gaudentinus, Mizaldus, and many more. But hereto we cannot with reason assent; for the light made by this animal, depends upon a living spirit, and seems by some vital irradiation to be actuated into this lustre. For when they are dead, they shine not, nor always while they live, but are obscure or light according to the diffusion of this spirit, and the protrusion of their luminous parts, as observation will instruct us. For this flammeous light is not over all the body, but only visible on the inward side, in a small white part near the tail. When this is full and seemeth protruded, there ariseth a flame of a circular figure, and emerald-green colour, which is more discernible in any dark place, than day; but when it falleth and seemeth contracted, the light disappeareth, and the