History of Serpents and Dragons

E In turn, as Autumn approaches, all the vegetable spirits of this balsam return into the subterranean passages, as if to their own matrix A womb-like source or place of origin; in alchemy, the earth was often viewed as a living womb.. The serpents, directing their path there once more, return to their caves to enjoy this spiritual nourishment again. Quercetanus Joseph Duchesne (c. 1544–1609), known as Quercetanus, was a French physician who championed Paracelsian "chemical" medicine over traditional Galenism. confesses that he learned this not from the serpents themselves, but from the effects. For indeed, snakes dwelling under the earth during the winter season are not only imbued with the aforementioned radical balsamIn early medicine, this refers to the fundamental life-sustaining fluid of an organism, similar to the oil in a lamp., but as spring arrives, they cast off their old skins and wander about as if young again. Furthermore, they acquire the power to take away leprosy—a virtue which nature has not bestowed upon other medicines. And since someone might doubt whether many other animals, besides serpents, inhabiting the caverns of the earth in winter could share in this radical balsam, Quercetanus responds that this property was assigned by nature to serpents alone—just as nature granted the plant antithoraHealing Wolfsbane (Aconitum anthora), believed to be an antidote to the poisonous thora plant. the power to extinguish the poison of thoraA highly poisonous species of aconite.. Again, because someone endowed with a sharp mind might wonder why the efficacy of this balsam does not remove and overcome the venom in serpents, he responds once more that a sting is observed even in honey-making bees.

Exercise 189. F Cardanus Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), a famous Italian polymath., in his History of Subtlety, asserts that the skin original: "spolium", literally "spoils" or "slough." is shed in spring because of the dryness they contract from winter hunger. He claims that what happens to them is similar to what occurs in men suffering from elephantiasis In this period, a term for severe skin diseases including leprosy., whose skin, dried by the vapor of corrupt humors, is lifted up. Scaliger Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558), a scholar who famously critiqued Cardano's work., however, in his Exercises against Cardanus, writes that this can by no means arise from the animal's dryness. For the stellioA type of spotted lizard or gecko. sheds its "old age" original: "senectutem", a common term for a shed snakeskin. even though it partakes of no dryness. Moreover, trees are far drier, yet they change no bark. Likewise, blister beetles (Cantharides) are judged the driest among insect animals, yet they do not leave behind their first skins as the year turns. In resolving this difficulty, the opinion of Grevinus Jacques Grévin (1538–1570), a French physician and author of a treatise on poisons. pleases us more; he thinks that the spring shedding of snakes is by no means the genuine skin, Book 2 on Poisons. but rather a slough formed from mucus and filth, like moss, collected and dried around the animal's body in its hiding places, which they afterwards cast off when they emerge from their caves in spring and rub themselves against narrow places.

True opinion on the serpent's slough. G Besides these things, serpents are said to have obtained long life for themselves from nature, and many think this flows from the shedding of their skins. Nevertheless, this is best attributed to the constitution of the body, because it is carefully purged of biliary excrement Yellow bile, one of the four humors, associated with heat and aggression., since a great quantity of this excrement is contained in the gallbladder. But someone might object: if the cause of a long life is attributed to the lack of bile—as happens to stags, according to the testimony of Mercurialis Girolamo Mercuriali (1530–1606), a famous Italian physician.— Book 1 of various readings, ch. 23. then serpents, due to their abundance of bile, should not be asserted to have longer lives. We resolve this doubt along with "the Philosopher" Aristotle., as we assign the vitality of this animal to a healthy and favorable constitution of the liver. For even from the smallest portion of biliary humor, the liver is carefully purged, so that the bile of serpents, not flowing through the veins, does not harass their internal organs or body. For such a fault continuously flows down to that membrane covering the teeth, so that it is ready and at hand for any strike. Serpents are of a longer age. H Indeed, since it does not permeate through the veins, these animals are not only of a longer age, but are also immune to many ailments to which other living creatures are subject due to the excessive abundance of this excretion entering the veins. Furthermore, according to the opinion of some, serpents are said to be of a longer life because they are very sparing in their diet. For if they ate in the manner of other animals, their weak heat would be extinguished, and they would perish immediately. Yet this account is still pressed by another difficulty: since, if snakes are filled with such weak heat, they could not live for many years. It must be noted that serpents, in comparison to other beasts, have this innate heatThe internal fire or vital warmth believed to drive life processes. proportioned to their nature and tenaciously coupled to a viscous radical moistureThe internal fluid that acts as the "fuel" for the body's innate heat., in which it is so well preserved that, because of its stickiness, it cannot vanish so quickly. Therefore, these animals enjoy the use of light for a long time. This also seems to be more clearly seen in plants that stay green with a perpetual foliage under the midday sun; for these do not shed their leaves in the winter season because of a viscous moisture in which their heat resides, which cannot then return to the roots Why some plants do not shed leaves in winter. as usually happens to other types of plants.

Added to this is the vigilance which many believe is proper to serpents, for which reason the Poets have fabled that the Garden of the Hesperides was guarded by serpents. Alluding to this, Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (c. 38–104 AD), a Roman poet famous for his epigrams., speaking of a certain small gift of apples, sang thus: