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his proper aliment, but for the ends above expressed, and even as we observe the like in other animals.

And whether these fragments of iron and hard substances swallowed by the ostrich have not also that use in their stomachs which they have in other birds, that is, in some way to supply the use of teeth, by commolition, grinding and compressing of their proper aliment, upon the action of the strongly conformed muscles of the stomach, as the honoured Dr. Harvey discourseth, may also be considered.1

What effect therefore may be expected from the stomach of an ostrich by application alone to further digestion in ours beside the experimental refute of Galen, we refer it unto considerations above alleged. Or whether there be any more credit to be given unto the medicine of Elian, who affirms, the stones they swallow have a peculiar virtue for the eyes, than that of Hermolaus and Pliny drawn from the urine of this animal,-let them determine who can swallow so strange a transmission of qualities, or believe that any bird or flying animal doth separately and distinctly urine beside the bat.

That therefore an ostrich will swallow and take down iron is easily to be granted; that oftentimes it passes entire away, if we admit of ocular testimony, is not to be denied. And though some experiment may also plead that sometimes they are so altered as not to be found or excluded in any discernible parcels, yet whether this be not effected by some way of corrosion, from sharp and dissolving humidities, rather than any proper digestion, chylifactive mutation, or alimental conversion, is with good reason doubted.2

CHAPTER XXIII.

Of the Unicorn's horn.

GREAT account and much profit is made of unicorn's horn, at least of that which beareth the name thereof; wherein notwithstanding, many, I perceive, suspect an im

And whether, &c.] This paragraph first added in third edition.

2 That therefore, &c.] This paragraph was first added in second edition.

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posture, and some conceive there is no such animal extant.3 Herein, therefore, to draw up our determinations: beside the several places of Scripture mentioning this animal (which some may well contend to be only meant of the rhinoceros) we are so far from denying there is any unicorn at all, that we affirm there are many kinds thereof. In the number of quadrupeds, we will concede no less than five; that is, the Indian ox, the Indian ass, the rhinoceros, the oryx, and that which is more eminently termed monoceros or unicornis. Some in the list of fishes; as that described by Olaus, Albertus, and others; and some unicorns we will allow even among insects, as those four kinds of nasicornous beetles, described by Muffetus.

Secondly, although we concede there be many unicorns, yet are we still to seek; for whereunto to affix this horn in question, or to determine from which thereof we receive this magnified medicine, we have no assurance, or any satisfactory decision. For although we single out one, and eminently thereto assign the name of the unicorn, yet can we

3 some conceive, &c.] Some information, on this much debated subject, was obtained by M. Rüppell, in Kordofan, where the unicorn was said to be known, and to bear the name of millekma. Persons of various conditions in life agreed to the statement, that the millekma was of a reddish colour, of the size of a small horse, of the slender make of a gazelle, and furnished with a long, straight, slender horn in the male, which was wanting in the female. Some added that it had divided hoofs, while others declared it to be single-hoofed. According to these statements it inhabits the deserts of the south of Kordofan, is uncommonly fleet, and comes only occasionally to the Koldagi slave mountain on the borders of Kordofan. Three several Arabs asserted to M. Rüppell that they had themselves seen the animal in question; and one of his slayes from Koldagi, on seeing the antelopes brought from the desert of Korti, gave, of his own free motion, a description of the millekma, exactly coinciding with the notices afterwards obtained by the traveller.

The unicorn of Scripture, however, which is there spoken of as an animal of great size and strength, is probably one of the species of twohorned rhinoceros. Mr. Burchell has described one in the Bulletin des Sciences, Juin, 1817. In the 15th number of the Missionary Sketches, published by the London Missionary Society, is a description, accompanied by a wood-cut, of a species shot in South Africa-the head of which is preserved in the museum of the society, Old Jewry, London: which seems, on account of its great size, strength, and ferocity, and of the extraordinary length of its anterior horn, not unlikely to have been the unicorn of Scripture.

not be secure what creature is meant thereby, what constant shape it holdeth, or in what number to be received. For as far as our endeavours discover, this animal is not uniformly described, but differently set forth by those that undertake it. Pliny affirmeth it is a fierce and terrible creature; Vartomannus, a tame and mansuete animal; those which Garcias ab Horto described about the Cape of Good Hope, were beheld with heads like horses; those which Vartomannus beheld, he described with the head of a deer; Pliny, Ælian, Solinus, and after these from ocular assurance, Paulus Venetus affirmeth the feet of the unicorn are undivided, and like the elephants; but those two which Vartomannus beheld at Mecca were, as he describeth, footed like a goat. As Ælian describeth, it is in the bigness of an horse: as Vartomannus, of a colt; that which Thevet speaketh of was not so big as an heifer; but Paulus Venetus affirmeth they are but little less than elephants. Which are discriminations very material, and plainly declare, that under the same name authors describe not the same animal: so that the unicorn's horn of one, is not that of another, although we proclaim an equal virtue in all.

Thirdly, although we were agreed what animal this was, or differed not in its description yet would this also afford but little satisfaction; for the horn we commonly extol is not the same with that of the ancients. For that, in the description of Elian and Pliny, was black; this which is showed amongst us is commonly white, none black; and of those five which Scaliger beheld, though one spadiceous, or of a light red, and two inclining to red, yet was there not any of this complexion among them.

Fourthly, what horns soever they be which pass amongst us, they are not surely the horns of any one kind of animal, but must proceed from several sorts of unicorns. For some are wreathed, some not: that famous one which is preserved at St. Denis, near Paris, hath wreathy spires, and cochleary turnings about it, which agreeth with the description of the unicorn's horn in Elian. Those two in the treasure of St. Mark are plain and best accord with those of the Indian ass, or the descriptions of other unicorns: that in the repository of the Elector of Saxony is plain and not hollow, and is believed to be a true land unicorn's horn. Albertus

Magnus describeth one ten feet long, and at the base about thirteen inches compass: and that of Antwerp, which Goropius Becanus describeth, is not much inferior unto it; which best agree unto the descriptions of the sea-unicorns; for these, as Olaus affirmeth, are of that strength and bigness, as to be able to penetrate the ribs of ships. The same is more probable, because it was brought from Iceland, from whence, as Becanus affirmeth, three other were brought in his days and we have heard of some which have been found by the sea-side, and brought unto us from America. So that, while we commend the unicorn's horn, and conceive it peculiar but unto one animal, under apprehension of the some virtue we use very many, and commend that effect from all, which every one confineth unto some one he hath either seen or described.

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Fifthly, although there be many unicorns, and consequently many horns, yet many there are which bear that name, and currently pass among us, which are no horns at all. Such are those fragments and pieces of lapis ceratites, commonly termed cornu fossile, whereof Boëtius had no less than twenty several sorts presented him for unicorn's horns. Hereof, in subterraneous cavities, and under the earth, there are many to be found in several parts of Germany, which are but the lapidescencies and petrifactive mutations of hard bodies: sometimes of horn, of teeth, of bones, and branches of trees, whereof there are some so imperfectly converted, as to retain the odour and qualities of their originals, as he relateth of pieces of ash and walnut. Again, in most, if not all, which pass amongst us, and are extolled for precious horns, we discover not an affection common unto other horns; that is, they mollify not with fire, they soften not upon decoction or infusion, nor will they afford a jelly or mucilaginous concretion in either; which notwithstanding we may effect in goat's horns, sheep's, cow's, and hart's horn; in the horn of the rhinoceros, the horn of the pristis, or sword-fish. Nor do they become friable or easily powder

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an affection common unto other horns, &c.] It would appear that Browne had confounded true horn (which is composed of coagulated albumen, with a little gelatin, and about a half per cent. of phosphate of lime), with hart's horn, and others of a similar nature, intermediate between bone and horn.

able by philosophical calcination, that is, from the vapour or steam of water, but split and rift contrary to other horns. Briefly, many of those commonly received, and whereof there be so many fragments preserved in England, are not only no horn, but a substance harder than a bone, that is, parts of the tooth of a morse or sea-horse: in the midst of the solider part containing a curdled grain, which is not to be found in ivory. This, in northern regions, is of frequent use for hafts of knives or hilts of swords, and being burnt, becomes a good remedy for fluxes; but antidotally used, and exposed for unicorn's horn, it is an insufferable delusion, and with more veniable deceit it might have been practised in hart's horn.

The like deceit may be practised in the teeth of other sea animals; in the teeth also of the hippopotamus, or great animal which frequenteth the river Nilus: for we read that the same was anciently used instead of ivory, or elephant's tooth. Nor is it to be omitted, what hath been formerly suspected, but now confirmed by Olaus Wormius, and Thomas Bartholinus, and others, that those long horns, preserved as precious rarities in many places, are but the teeth of narwhals, to be found about Iceland, Greenland, and other northern regions, of many feet long, commonly wreathed, very deeply fastened in the upper jaw, and standing directly forward, graphically described in Bartholinus,* according unto one sent from a bishop of Iceland, not separated from the crany. Hereof Mercator hath taken notice in his description of Iceland: some relations hereof there seem to be in Purchas, who also delivereth, that the horn at Windsor was in his second voyage brought hither by Forbisher. These, before the northern discoveries, as unknown rarities, were carried by merchants into all parts of Europe; and though found on the sea-shore, were sold at very high rates; but are now become more common, and probably in time will prove of little esteem; and the bargain of Julius the Third be accounted a very hard one, who stuck not to give many thousand crowns for one.

Nor is it great wonder we may be so deceived in this, being daily gulled in the brother antidote, bezoar; whereof

* De Unicornu.

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