John Jonston (1603-1675) was a Polish scholar and physician, descended from Scottish nobility and closely associated with the Polish Leszczynski family. In Polish he is Jan Jonston; in Latin he is Joannes Jonstonu. Scientific books were published in Latin at that time.

THE NATURALL HISTORY OF THE FOURFOOTED BEASTS.
TITLE II. Of the half wilde Toed-beasts.
ARTICLE III. Of tame foure-footed Beasts.
CHAPTER II., “Of the Cat”.

The Cat’s Latin name is Felis, comes from Phaelos, cozener-deceitful impostor; or Ailis, flatterer; in the Aeolic dialect, Phailis, called catus, Cat from cautus, wary. In Greek Ailouros, from flattering with the tail. A known beast found almost everywhere. At first probably wild. The greatest, all say, are bred in Iberia, among the Tartessians; they feed on flesh, fish, Mice, birds, snakes, and kill toads. In Cyprus they hunt Vipers, and Chameleons. They lie in wait also for leverets, and spare not their own kind. In Bononia they are known to play with kitlings, and then rend, and eat them. They live six years, sometimes ten; the gelded longer.

In Europa they go a caterwauling most what in January, and February. In India all the year long. The females engendering ever wail, whether for pain, or that the He scratches them. He stands, she lies. The shes are most lustful. They kitten after two months or six and fifty days. The March breed is preferred; those in August not, for the fleas. They kitten five, or six at once. The She is fondest of the kitlins; the He oft kills them to make the She covet others, and affect him. They hate mice, toads, serpents, Fox-geese, eagles, rue, their own gall, sweet smells, and wet. With rue you may drive them from your Dove-cotes, scents of ointments sometimes make them run mad. Duck them a while, and you drown them. On the contrary, they willing rub themselves with setwol, and delight in mint. The She casts her kitlins, if her male mate be killed. We meet with singular passages about their qualities. Cats eyes wax, and wane with the moon; nay the sun, and stars, breed changes in in their eyeballs. In the morning they are stretched out, at noon are they round, at sunset, duller. Cardan imputes it to want of muscles, that they cannot govern their eyes as they list. They glister by night. Carry them in a bag far from home, they come back again. They stay in the old house, though you remove. They love to be stroked; subtle they are: How slyly they steal upon birds. How softly they tread, and catch mice; how they watch them. They bury their own dung, knowing that the scent discovers them, some, especially in Spain, Holland, Brabant, eat them, as tasting like Hare. Their breath is pestilent, and breeds consumptions, and no marvel, for the brains are rank poison, and made an Uratislavian Girl mad, as Weinrichius (I think) relates. In Physick they have place. The ashes of the head burnt in a pot, and blown into the eyes, clears them; the flesh sucks weapons out of the body, and eases emrods, and back-ache; the liver burnt to powder eases the stone, the gall fetches away a dead child, the fat is smeared on gouty parts; the piss staled helps the thick of hearing, the dregs of the paunch with rosin, and oil of roses in a suppository, stops womans flux of blood. Some mince the flesh, and stuff a fat Goose with it, and salt, and roast it by a soft fire, and distil it, and anoint gouty joints with success. The fat keeps iron from rusting, nothing better.

There are tame, and wild, and outlandish cats. Among the tame, the Spanish are greediest, nimblest, and have softest skins. Among the exotics, or outlandish the Syrian are chief, and diverse, round mouthed, strong big-breasted, large footed, and content with a little meat. The wild are bigger than the tame, their hair thicker, and longer, dark-coloured, the tail thicker. They feed on birds, and other living things. Perfume of rue drives them from trees. In Malabar they live on trees, nothing so fleet as they. They are best at leaping, and even fly without wings. They stretch forth a thin skin from afore to behind, when they would fly, and then draw it together, and hover in the air; when they rest, they draw it up to their belly. There is also a kind of cat in India, black-haired, here, and there bright hairs, the muzzle long, ears small, thighs short, the tail streaked, and striped with black and white. The powder helps fevers. Then there are monstrous cats, one sort hath misshapen, another six feet. In Singui is a beast like a Cat, haired like a Deer, with many toes, two teeth in either chap, of the greatness of two fingers, having a fleshy bladder near the navel, full of blood, scenting like musk. We have put the print of it down, like a Cat, very coped-headed.

In dissecting a Cat are found these observables. The milt resembles the lower part of an oar. The neck of the gall-bag hath very swollen veins; at the bottom come down straight veins running outward, two sinews are on the sides of the sharp artery, on either side one, descending to the upper-mouth of the stomach, sending also branches to the said sides of the sharp artery. The said sinews are knit by one common nerve descending awry; then are set into the left side of the stomach, tied by many strings, where the sharp artery first parts appear great kernels, and some small ones white, red, ash-coloured, mixed. In the sharp artery are half circles, parted as in man, but behind wrapped in a double coat; the one outward, and fleshy, the other inner, and sinewy sprouting from the circle-brims. In the heart are lappets-party-coloured, the right more spotted with black, and white, then the left; besides the right is thicker, and rounder, the left slenderer, and longer, like the dogs, both hollow, and stringy. In the right creek of the heart is fold, like net-work, longer, and plainer to be seen then that in the dog; but not with such laps. The great artery is almost in the midst of the heart, inclining to the left side. The inner-coat of the stomach is rough all along, like the plaits in an ox’s paunch, turning up into a round. Those tunicles are very fast, tied to the upper orifice of the stomach; the pleats lie across. The Liver is coloured like that of the dog-fish. In the ear-bone a shell, a maze, a little window, a ring, a round muscle, three small bones, and a stirrup, but not bored through. In the brain are three creeks, two round with net-folds. In the eye the uvea or thin skin, cleaves not afore to the cornea, or horn-tunicles, whence the less dilatation to this greater kind; in that part is the uvea, coloured like a pale leaf. The optic nerve is almost in the midst, inclining downward, the outer thick skin somewhat covering the eye, as in the Cock.

In the He-cat we observe, that there is something peculiar about the spermatic vessels, testicles, &c. A white streak, the third part of a finger broad, descending by the right side of the paunch, lies under the muscles of the Peritoneum; the membrane is very thin; the Peritoneum under the ensie form, or sword, is fat. The Caul is very fast, tied to one right liverstring, and to the spleen, and stomach, and the gut duodenum, like a purse, or bag. The bladder fastened above to the Peritoneum, and below to the straight gut. The stones are covered with four skins; the outmost called scrotum; the next dartos, the third, erythroides, or the red; the fourth is the inmost. There is somewhat also considerable in the vessels preparing, and conveying the seed, &c. We saw the ureters descending from flat, or hollow of the reins to the bladder-neck: also the milk-veins, tending toward the bunchy-part of the reins, both sprouting from the body of the hollow-gut, but the left is higher than the right, and all most twice as long. The straight-gut is tied to the beginning of the tail by a middle-string; it hath veins, and sharp kernels. We saw the mid-riff, and meserics, and sweetbreads, being a kernel substance. We saw the blind-gut a thumb-breadth long; the other guts are uniform, but winding, and brittle. The reins large, bigger than a great nut, wherein are a few creeks, through which the piss is strained. We saw the vein porta with its meseric, and Spleen-branch; hereout sprouts the coeliacus; a branch compassing the stomach, and conveys the melancholy humour thither to provoke appetite. We saw the vein ascendant, piercing the mid-riff, and reaching the heart, and set into the right side thereof. We saw the peerless vein-branched from the hollow vein by the heart, and turning back again, and descending by the backbone on the right side, which sends forth sprigs to the ribs to nourish them.

The liver is distinguished by six strings, out of the midst of two of them on the right side goes the gall forth; the bottom shows like a bolt-eye. The gall-bag hath two branches, the one passes from the liver to the duodenum, carrying the dregs away. The other running back to the bladder, to be kept there. In the duodenum, four fingers below the pores called cholidochi, is found a worm, little, but of the bigness of the ureters: from the sides of the ascendant hollow vein, descends a sinew to the fleshy ringlet of the diaphragm; and another on the left side propped with the thin skins of the sharp artery, conveying feeling to the diaphragm. We saw the turnagain sinews, which propagated from the sixth conjugation of sinews, are set in at the head of the sharp artery; the one on the left turning upward about the great artery; the other about the branches of the artery, tending toward the throat; the heart with a double lappet on the right, and left side, the right is greatest, and blackish; the left of the colour of the heart.

The heart hath a right ventricle to beget vital spirits, and a left one whether the vein blood is conveyed, and it hath four large vessels; the first is the hollow ascending vein, which is set into the left ear; the third, the arterial vein, containing blood, having a double coat, whence it hath the name; this is set into the lungs, to nourish them. The fourth is a vein-artery, set into the left ventricle of the heart, to convey to the brain blood, prepared there, to beget animal spirits. In the right ventricle are lappets, or partitions, which keep in the blood, and so in the left. The lungs have six fins. We saw the inner-muscles about the larynx, or the head of the sharp artery, which being inflamed, breed a squincy. There are kernels in the yard like a Cats-tongue. Wee marked the passage, leading to the bladder. The Cats brain-pan hath red streaks like veins; the inner-ear is rarely fashioned, whereof they have such use to listen, and looked, and prey by night. Herein we marked the communion between the great artery, and the great vein, where the first parting is into the bowels.

I believe it is common to all living creatures what I observe in the tame Cats-back bone, for with the own membranes, it being covered at the end, that which answer the hard meninx, the inner sends forth nerves from itself, but since there are companies of them, like strings, we note that they having passed a little way, meet as in one knot, as we in top of grain. And, since those several strings are covered with the same skins, if you strain one, you spoil the other, till they come to the knot. In one rib of the house cat was noted a round knob, like a tree-knot, the midst whereof being broken asunder was porous, and full of pits with drops of blood. My fellow dissectors doubted whether it was the breach of a bone in anatomizing, or some error in the first shaping, and superfluous stuff. In a man on the flat part of the forehead bone, that lies between the two eyebrows lie equally on the right root of the nose: Bruise but that bone, or pierce it, you find two long pits, passing sidelings above under the skull, and below blind ones with partitions. These are doubtless the chambers of smelling, where the breath is, as also in the ear, which is but of late discovered. That which strengthens my opinion is, that in a hound these cells are broader and more conspicuous than in man; dogs excelling in scent. This is not found in a Monkey, perhaps because he needs not excel in that sense.

Edward Topsell (circa 1572 – 1625) was an English cleric and author. He was famous for his bestiary, but was not a natural historian or artist, but a cleric who was gifted in translation. This makes his work somewhat unreliable compared to Gesner, but his translation made Gesner's work accessible to the public. The History of Four-footed Beasts contained every illustration that was in Gesner's Historia Animalium, but with shortened texts. Topsell’s translation was coloured by his religious views.

Historia Animalium ("History of the Animals") by Conrad Gesner (1516–1565) was published at Zurich in 1551–58 and 1587. Gesner was a medical doctor and professor at the Carolinum in Zürich. The 5-volume, 4,500 page Historia Animalium was a Renaissance zoological work that attempted to describe all known animals known. An abridged edition called Icones Animalium (1553) contained a large selection of the illustrations from the Historia Animalium, but very little text.

OF THE CAT.

A Cat is a familiar and well known beat, called of the Hebrews, Catuli, and Schanav, and Schunara; of the Grecians, Aeluros, and Kattes, and Katis; of the Saracens, Katt; the Italians', Gatta , and Gatto; the Spaniards, Gata, and Gato; the French, Chat; the Germans, Katz; the Ilyrians, Kizka, and Furioz, (which is used for a Cat by Albertus Magnus) and I conjecture, to be either the Persian or the Arabian word. The Latins call it Feles, and sometimes Murilegus, and Musio, because it catcheth Mice, but most commonly Catus, which is derived of Cautus, signifying wary. Ovid saith, that when the Giants warred with the Gods, the Gods put upon them the shapes of Beasts, and the sister of Apollo lay for a spy in the likeness of a Cat, for a Cat is a watchful and wary beast seldom overtaken, and most attendant to her sport and prey : according to that observation of Mantuan;

Non fecus ac muricatus, ille invadexe pernam,
Nititur, hic rimas oculis observat acutis.

And for this cause did the Egyptians place them for hallowed beasts, and kept them in their Temples, although they alleged the use of their skins for the e-cover of Shields, which was but an unreasonable shift, for the softness of a Cats skin is not fit to defend or bear a blow: It is known also, that it was capital among them, to kill an Ibis, an Asp, a Crocodile, a Dog, or a Cat; in so much as, that in the days of King Ptolemie, when a peace was lately made betwixt the Romans and the Egyptians ; and the Roman Ambassadors remaining still in Egypt, it fortuned that a Roman unawares killed a Cat, which being by the multitude of the Egyptians espied, they presently fell upon the Ambassadors house, to raze down the same, except the offender might be delivered unto them to suffer death : so that neither the honour of the Roman name, nor the necessity of peace, could have restrained them from that fury, had not the King himself and his greatest Lords come in person, not so much to deliver the Roman Cat-murderer, as to safeguard him from the peoples violence. And not only the Egyptians were fools in this kind, but the Arabians also, who worshipped a Cat for a God ; and when the Cat died, they mourned as much for her, as for the father of the family, shaving the hair from their eye-lids, and carrying the beast to the Temple, where the Priests salted it and gave it a holy funeral in Bubastum, (which was a burying place for Cats near the Altar) wherein may appear to all men, in what miserable blindness the wisest men of the world, (forsaking, or deprived of the true knowledge of God) are more than captivated, so that their wretched estate cannot better be expressed then by the words of St. Paul, When they thought to be wise, they became fools.

Once Cats were all wild, but afterward they retired to houses, wherefore there are plenty of them in all Countries : Martial in an Epigram, celebrated a Pannonian Cat with this distichon ;

Pannonicas nobis nunquam dedit Umbria cattas,
mavult haec domino mittere dona pudens.

The Spanish black Cats are of most price among the Germans, because they are nimblest, and have the softest hair fit for garment.

A Cat is in all parts like a Lioness, except in her sharp ears, wherefore the Poets feign, that when Vensu had turned a Cat into a beautiful woman, (calling her Aeluros ) who forgetting her good turn, contended with the Goddess for beauty ; in indignation whereof, she returned her to her first nature, only making her outward shape to resemble a Lion ; which is not altogether idle, but may admonish the wisest, that fair and foul, men and beasts , hold nothing by their own worth and benefit, but by the virtue of their Creator : Wherefore if at any time they rise against their maker, let them think to lose their honour and dignity in their best part, and to return to baseness and inglorious contempt ; out of which they were first taken, and howsoever their outward shape and condition please them, yet at the best are but beasts that perish, for the Lions suffer hunger .

Cats are of diverse colours, but for the most part grizzled, like to congealed ice, which cometh from the condition of her meat: her head is like unto the head of a Lion, except in her sharp ears : her flesh is soft and smooth : her eyes glitter above measure, especially when a man cometh to see them on the sudden, and in the night they can hardly be endured, for their flaming aspect. Wherefore Democritus describing the Persian Smaragde saith that it is not transparent, but filleth the eye with pleasant brightness, such as is in the eyes of Panthers and Cats, for they cast forth beams in the shadow and darkness, but in sunshine they have no such clearness, and thereof Alexander Aphrodise giveth this reason , both for the sight of Cats and Bats, that they have by nature a most sharp spirit of seeing.

Albertus compareth their eye-sight to Carbuncles in dark places, because in the night they can see perfectly to kill Rats and Mice : the root of the herb Valerian (commonly called Phu ) is very like to the eye of a Cat, and wheresoever it groweth, if Cats come thereunto, they instantly dig it up , for the love thereof, as I my self have seen in mine own Garden , and not once only, but often , even then when as I had caused it to be hedged or compassed round about with thorns, for it smelleth marvellous like to a Cat.

The Egyptians have observed in the eyes of a Cat, the increase of the Moonlight , for with the Moon they shine more fully at the full, and more dimly in the change and wane, and the male Cat doth also vary his eyes with the Sun ; for when the Sun ariseth, the apple of his eye is long; toward noon it is round, and at the evening it cannot be seen at all, but the whole eye sheweth alike.

The tongue of a Cat is very attractive and forcible like a file, attenuating by licking the flesh of a man, for which cause, when she is come near to the blood, so that her own spittle be mingled therewith , she falleth mad. Her teeth are like a saw, and if the long hairs growing about her mouth (which some call Granons) be cut away, she loseth her courage. Her nails sheathed like the nails of a Lion, striking with her forefeet, both Dogs and other things, as a man doth with his hand.

This beast is wonderful nimble, setting upon her prey like a Lion, by leaping, and therefore she hunteth both Rats, all kind of Mice, and Birds, eating not only them, but also fish, wherewithall she is best pleased. Having taken a Mouse, she first playeth with it, and then devoureth it, but her watchful eye is most strange, to see with what pace and soft steps, she taketh birds and flies ; and her nature is to hide her own dung or excrement, for she knoweth that the savour and presence thereof, will drive away her sport, the little Mouse being able by that stool, to smell the presence of her mortal foe.

To keep Cats from hunting of Hens, they use to tie a little wild Rue under their wings, and so likewise from Dove-cotes, if they set it in the windows, they dare not approach unto it for some secret in nature. Some have said that Cats will fight with Serpents , and Toads, and kill them, and perceiving that she is hurt by them ; she presently drinketh water and is cured : but I cannot consent unto this opinion: it being true of the Weasel as shall be afterward declared. Pontzettus sheweth by experience that Cats and Serpents love one another, for there was (saith he) in a certain Monastery, a Cat nourished by the Monks, and suddenly the most parts of the Monks which used to play with the Cat fell sick: whereof the Physicians could find no cause, but some secret poison, and all of them were assured that they never tasted any : at the last a poor labouring man came unto them, affirming that he saw the Abbey-cat playing with a Serpent, which the Physicians understanding, presently conceived that the Serpent had emptied some of her, poison upon the Cat, which brought the same to the Monks, and they by stroking and handling the Cat, were infected therewith; and whereas there remained one difficulty, namely, how it came to pass, the Cat her self was not poisoned thereby ,it was resolved, that for as much as the Serpents poison came from him but in play and sport, and not in malice and wrath, that therefore the venom thereof being soft in play, neither harmed the Cat at all, nor much endangered the Monks : and the very like is observed of Mice that will play with Serpents.

Cats will also hunt Apes, and follow them to the woods, for in Egypt certain Cats set upon an Ape, who presently took himself to his heels, and climbed into a tree, after whom the Cats followed with the same celerity & agility : (for they can fasten their claws to the bark and run up very speedily:) the Ape feeing himself overmatched with number of his adversaries, leaped from branch to branch , and at last took hold of the top of a bough, whereupon he did hang so ingeniously, that the Cats durst not approach unto him for fear of falling, and so departed.

The nature of this beast is, to love the place of her breeding, neither will she tarry in any strange place, although carried far, being never willing to forsake the house, for the love of any man, and most contrary to the nature of a Dog, who will travel abroad with his master; and although their masters forsake their houses, yet will not these beasts bear them company, and being carried forth in close baskets or sacks, they will yet return again or lose themselves. A Cat is much delighted to play with her image in a [looking] glass, and if at any time she behold it in water, presently she leapeth down into the water which naturally she doth abhor, but if she be not quickly pulled forth and dried she dieth thereof, because she is impatient of all wet. Those which will keep their Cats within doors, and from hunting birds abroad, must cut off their ears, for they cannot endure to have drops of rain distil into them, and therefore keep themselves in harbour. Nothing is more contrary to the nature of a Cat, then is wet and water, and for this cause came the proverb that they love not to wet their feet. It is a neat and cleanly creature ; oftentimes licking her own body to keep it neat and fair, having naturally a flexible back for this purpose, and washing her face with her forefeet: but some observe, that if she put her feet beyond the crown of her head, that it is a presage of rain, and if the back of a Cat be thin the beast is of no courage or value. They love fire and warm places, whereby it often falleth out that they often burn their Coats. They desire to lie soft, and in the time of their lust (commonly called cat-wralling) they are wild and fierce, especially the males, who at that time (except they be gelded) will not keep the house : at which time they have a peculiar direful voice. The manner of their copulation is this, the female lyeth down, and the male standeth, and their females are above measure desirous of procreation, for which cause they provoke the male, and if he yield not to their lust, they beat and claw him, but it is only for love of young, and not for lust : the male is most libidinous, and therefore seeing the female will never more engender with him during the time her young ones suck, he killeth and eateth them if he meet with them, (to provoke the female to copulation with him again, for when she is deprived of her young, she seeketh out the male of her own accord) for which the female most warily keepeth them from his sight. During the time of copulation, the female continually cryeth, whereof the Writers give a double cause; one, because she is pinched with the talons or claws of the male in the time of his lustful rage; and the other, because his seed is so fiery hot, that it almost burneth the females place of conception. When they have littered, or as we commonly say kittened, they rage against Dogs, and will suffer none to come near their young ones. The best to keep are such as are littered in March ; they go with young fifty days , and the females live not above six or seven years, the males live longer, especially if they be gelded or libbed ; the reason of their short life is their ravening of meat which corrupteth within them.

They cannot abide the savour of ointments., but fall mad thereby ; they are sometimes infected with the falling evil, but are cured with Gabium. It is needless to spend any time about her loving nature man, how she flattereth by rubbing her skin against ones Legs, how she whurleth with her voice, having as many tunes as turns, for she hath one voice to beg and to complain, another to tell her delight and pleasure, another among her own kind by flattering, by hissing, by puffing, by spitting, in so much as some have thought that they have a peculiar intelligible language among themselves. Therefore how she beggeth, playeth, leapeth, looketh, catcheth, tosseth with her foot, riseth up to strings held over her head, sometimes creeping, sometimes lying on the back, playing with one foot, sometime on the belly, snatching now with mouth, and anon, with foot, apprehending greedily any thing save the hand of a man, with diverse such gestical [jesting] actions, it is needless to stand upon ; in so much as Caelius was wont to say, that being free from his Studies and more urgent weighty affairs, he was not ashamed to play and sport himself with his Cat , and verily it may well be called an idle mans pastime. As this beast hath been familiarly nourished of many, so have they paid dear for their love, being requited with the loss of their health, and sometime of their life for their friendship : and worthily, because they which love any beast in a high measure, have so much the less charity unto man.

Therefore it must be considered what harms and perils come unto men by this beast. It is most certain, that the breath and savour of Cats consume the radical humour and destroy the lungs, and therefore they which keep their Cats with them in their beds have the air corrupted, and fall into several Hecticks and Consumptions. There was a certain company of Monks much given to nourish and play with Cats, whereby they were so infected, that within a short space none of them were able either to say, read, pray, or sing, in all the Monastery ; and therefore also they are dangerous in the time of Pestilence, for they are not only apt to bring home venomous infection, but to poison a man with very looking upon him ; wherefore there is in some men a natural dislike and abhorring of Cats, their natures being so composed, that not only when they see them, but being near them and unseen, and hid of purpose, they, fall into passions, frettings, sweating, pulling off their hats, and trembling fearfully, as I have known many in Germany; the reason whereof is because the constellation which threatneth their bodies which is peculiar to every man, worketh by the presence and offence of these creatures: and therefore they have cried out to take away the Cats.

The like may be said of the flesh of Cats, which can seldom be free from poison, by reason of their daily food, eating Rats and Mice, Wrens and other birds which feed on poison, and above all the brain of a C is most venomous, for it being above measure dry, stoppeth the animal spirits, that they cannot pass into the ventricle, by reason whereof memory faileth, and the infected person falleth into a frenzy. The cure whereof may be this, take of the water of sweet Marjoram with Terra lemnia the weight of a groat mingled together, and drink it twice in a month, putting good store of spices into all your meat to recreate the spirits withall, let him drink pure Wine, wherein put the feed of Diamoschu. But a Cat doth as much harm with her venomous teeth, therefore to cure her biting, they prescribe a good diet, sometime taking Honey, Turpentine, and Oil of Roses melt together and laid to the wound with Centaury : sometime they wash the wound with the urine of a man, and lay to it the brains of some other beast and pure Wine mingled both together.

The hair also of a Cat being eaten unawares, stoppeth the Artery and causeth Suffocation : and I have heard that when a childe hath gotten the hair of a Cat into his mouth, it hath so cloven and stuck to the place that it could not be gotten off again, and hath in that place bred either the wens [warts] or the Kings evil [scrofula]. To conclude this point, appeareth that this is a dangerous beast, and that therefore as for necessity we are constrained to nourish them for the suppressing of small vermin : so with a wary and discreet eye we must avoid their harms, making more account of their use then of their persons.

In Spain and Gallia Narbou, they eat Cats, but first of all takeaway their head and tail, and hang the prepared flesh a night or two in the open cold air, to exhale the savour and poison of it, finding the flesh thereof to be almost as sweet as a Coney. It must needs be an unclean and impure beast that liveth only upon vermin and by ravening, for it is commonly said of a man when he neeseth, [sneezes] that he hath eaten with Cats ; likewise the familiars of Witches do most ordinarily appear in the shape of Cats, which is an argument that this beast is dangerous to soul and body. It is said that if bread be made wherein the dung of Cats is mixed, it will drive away Rats and Mice. But we conclude the story of this beast with the medicinal observations, and tarry no longer in the breath of such a creature compounded of good and evil. It is reported that the flesh of Cats salted and sweetened hath power in it to draw wens from the body, and being warmed to cure the Haemorrhoids and pains in the reins and back, according to the Verse Ursinus.

Et lumbus lumbis præstat adesus opem.

Aylsius prescribeth a fat Cat sod for the Gout, first taking the fat, and anointing therewith the sick part, and then wetting Wool or Tow in the same, and binding it to the offended place.

For the pain and blindness in the eye, by reason of any skins, webs, or nails, this is an approved medicine ; Take the head of a black Cat, which hath not a spot of another colour in it, and burn it to powder in an earthen pot leaded or glazed within, then take this powder and through a quill blow it thrice a day into thy eye, and if in the night time any heat do thereby annoy thee, take two leaves of an Oak wet in cold water and bind them to the eye, and so shall all pain fly away, and blindness depart although it hath oppressed thee a whole year : and this medicine is approved by many Physicians both elder and later.

The liver of a Cat dried and beat to powder is good against the [gall] stone : the dung-of a female Cat with the claw of an Owl hanged about the neck of a man that hath had seven fits of a Quartain Ague, cureth the same : a neesing [sneezing] powder made of the gall of a black Cat, and the weight of a groat thereof taken and mingled with four crowns weight of Zambach, helpeth the convulsion and wryness [twisting] of the mouth : and if the gall of a Cat with the black dung of the same Cat, be burned in perfume under a woman travelling [labouring] with a dead child, it will cause it presently to come forth : and Pliny saith that if a pin, or thorn, or fish bone, stick in ones mouth, let him rub the outside against it with a little Cats dung, and it will easily come forth. Given to a woman suffering the flux, with a little Rozen and Oil of Roses, it stayeth the humour ; and for a Web in the eye of an horse, evening and morning blow in the powder of Cats dung, and it shall be cured.

OF THE WILDE CAT.

All Cats at the beginning were wilde, and therefore some do interpret Iim, Ifa. 34. for wilde Cats ; and the Germans call it Baumruter, that is, a tree-rider, because she hunteth Birds and fowls from tree to tree. The Spaniard calleth it Gato-montes, and in some places of France it is called Chatcarets. There are great store of them in Helvetia, especially in the Woods, and sometime near the waters, also being in colour like tame Cats but blacker, such as in England is called a Poolcat. [Polecat] I saw one of them, which was taken in September, and observed, that it was in length from the forehead to the top of the tail, four full spans, and a black line or strake all along the back, and likewise some black upon the legs ; betwixt the breast and the neck there was a large white spot, and the colour of her other parts was dusky, red, and yellow, especially about the buttocks, the heels of her feet were black, her tail longer than an ordinary house Cats, having two or three black circles about it, but toward the top all black.

They abound in Scandivania, where the Lynxes devour them; otherwise they are hunted with Dogs, or shot with Guns, and many times the Countrymen seeing one in a tree, doth compass it about with multitude, and when she leapeth down kill her with their cubs, according to the verse of Neversianus :

— Felemque minacem
Arboris in trunco, longis perfigere telis.

In the province of Malabar, these Cats live upon trees, because they are not swift to run, but leap with such agility, that some have thought they did fly ; and verily they do fly, for they have a certain skin, which when they lie in quiet, cleaveth or shrinketh up to their bellies, but being stirred, the same spreadeth from their forefeet to their hinder, like the wing of a Bat; by virtue whereof, they stay up themselves in the air, passing from tree to tree like a fowl; as also doth the Pontique Mouse, as shall be declared afterward.

The skins of wild Cats are used for garments, for there is no skin warmer, as by experience appeareth in Scythia and Moscovia, where their women are clothed with the fur of Cats, but especially for buskins and sleeves with their hair turned inward, not only against cold but for medicine, against contracted sinews, or the Gout. The fat of this beast is reserved by some for beating, softening, and displacing rumours [aches] in the flesh: and whatsoever Rasis or any other said of the house Cat before in the medicinal parts, that also appertaineth to this, except as in all other, so it falleth forth herein, that the virtues of the wild kind is more effectual then the tame.

There are some among the Rhaetians and Germans, which eat the flesh hereof, accounting it delicate, having first cut off the head and tail; they cannot abide the fume of Rue, or of bitter Almonds; there is nothing memorable in the nature of this beast that I can learn, except that which is related by Aetius, that when men are bitten by Crocodiles, this beast by a natural instinct hating a Crocodile, will come about the wounded persons, otherwise fearing the presence of man.

We may hereunto add the beast which is bred in America, called Heyratt, spoken of by Theuetus : which name signifieth a beast of Honey, and the reason is, because it desireth Honey above measure, for it will climb the trees, and coming to the caves of Bees, it will with such it will with such dexterity take out the Honey with their nails, that it neither hurteth the Bees, or receiveth harm by them. It is about the bigness of a Cat, and of a Chestnut colour.