Three Books of Occult Philosophy/Book 1/Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
Of the Vertues of things which are in them only in their life time, and such as remain in them even after their death.
Moreover we must know that there are some properties in things only whilest they live, and some that remain after their death. So the litle fish Echeneis stops the ships, and the Basilisk, and Catablepa kill with their fight, when they are alive, but when they are dead do no such thing. So they say that in the Colick, if a live Duck be applyed to the belly, it takes away the pain, and her self dies: like to this is that which Archytas sayes. If you take a heart newly taken out of an Animall, and whilest it is yet warm, and hang it upon one that hath a quartane feavor, it drives it away. So if any one swallow the heart of a Lapwing, or a Swallow, or a Weesel, or a Mole whilest it is yet warm with naturall heat, it shall be helpfull to him for remembring, understanding, and foretelling: Hence is this generall rule, viz. That whatsoever things are taken out of Animals, whether they be Stones, any Member, Excrements, as Haire, Dung, Nailes, they must be taken from those Animals, whilest they be yet living; and if it be possible, that so they may be alive afterwards. Whence they say, when you take the tongue of a Frog, you must put the Frog into the water again; and if you take the tooth of a Wolf, you must not kill the Wolf; and so of the rest. So writes Democritus, if any one take out the tongue of a water-Frog, yet living, no other part of the body sticking to it, and she be let go into the Water again, & lay it upon the place where the heart beats, of a woman, she shall answer truly whatsoever you ask her. Also they say, that if the eyes of a Frog be before Sun rising bound to the sick party, and the Frog be let go again blind into the Water, they will drive away tertian ague; as also that they will, being bound with the flesh of a Nightingale in the skin of a Hart, keep one alwaies watchfull without sleep. Also the ray of the fork fish being bound to the Navil, is said to make a woman have an easie travel, if it be taken from it alive, and it put into the Sea again. So they say the right eye of a Serpent being applyed, doth help the watering of the eyes, if the Serpent be let go alive. And there is a certain fish, or great Serpent called Myrus, whose eye, if it be pulled out, and bound to the forehead of the patient, is said to cure the inflamation of the eyes, and that the eye of the fish grows again, and that he is taken blind that did not let the fish go. Also the teeth of all Serpents, being taken out whilest they are alive, and hanged about the patient, are said to cure the quartane. So doth the tooth of a Mole taken out whilest she is alive, being afterwards let go, cure the tooth-ach; and Dogs will not bark at those that have the taile of a Weesel that is escaped. And Democritus relates that the tongue of a Chameleon, if it be taken from her alive, doth conduce to a good success in trials, and is profitable for women that are in travel, if it be about the outside of the house, for you must take heed that it be not brought into the house, because that would be most dangerous; Moreover there be some properties that remain after death: and of these the Platonists say, that they are things in which the Idea of the matter is less swallowed up, in these, even after death that which is immortall in them, doth not cease to work wonderfull things. So in the Hearbs, and Plants pulled asunder, and dryed, that vertue is quick, and operative which was infused at first into them by the Idea. Thence it is, that as the Eagle all her life time doth overcome all other birds: so also her feathers after her death destroy, and consume the feathers of all other birds. Upon the same account doth a Lyons skin destroy all other skins: and the skin of the Civet Cat destroyes the skin of the Panther: and the skin of a Wolf corrodes the skin of a Lamb: And some of these do not do it by way of a corporeall contact, but also sometimes by their very sound. So a drum made of the skin of a Wolf, makes a drum made of a Lamb skin not to sound. Also a drum made of the skin of the fish called Rotchet, drives away all creeping things, at what distance soever the sound of it is heard: and the strings of an instrument made of the guts of a Wolf, and being strained upon a Harp, or Lute with strings made of sheeps guts, will make no harmony.