On the Exact Anatomy of Bread or Wheat.

...I shall proceed to indicate more seriously. From the effect of this chapter, it will be permitted for us to observe that the motion or progress in generation or resurrection in a plant is in every way contrary to that of extreme deprivation or destruction; for in the former, the elements rise up in their dignity and order according to the disposition of nature, which is as follows: namely, ether, fire, air, water, and finally earth, which is the basis and foundation of all. But in destruction, things are perceived to behave in the opposite manner, for first the water ascends, then the air, then the fire, and finally the ether, etc.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the Elements of Wheat or Bread, and their manifest qualities.

From wheat, therefore, that earthly bread of the highest grade is fashioned, which our Savior Christ—by reason of the nobility and excellence of that vegetable—chose for the representation of his own body. Some have made this bread the real body of our Savior, with consecration preceding; others have received it as a certain memorial sign of his passion, with a blessing preceding; concerning which we shall speak more widely and clearly below. For throughout the entire thread of this chapter, it has come to my mind to insist upon the detection and revelation of the natural elements of wheat or bread and its qualities. For although wheat is but a single simple thing in the vegetable kingdom, it is nonetheless composed of members and parts more pure and homogeneous than its whole, which we call its elements. By their union or conjunction (mediated by the knot or bond of the quintessence The "fifth element" or purest essence that binds the four physical elements together.), the entire body or grain of wheat is contracted into this vegetable species, in which, by means of corruption In alchemy and early biology, "corruption" refers to the breaking down of a seed so it can sprout., it is multiplied.

Experience, therefore, relying on other infallible proofs, has taught us that water abounds more in the mass of this vegetable than any other element; which indeed, being superfluous and of very little nourishment, is to be exhaled and evaporated out of the Bread, by the advice and admonition of the most skillful physicians. And for this reason, Hippocrates left us an entire treatise on the preparation and baking of Bread. Hence it is that this vegetable, once the threshing is done so that it may be more easily reduced into bread, is exposed to artificial heat, so that the said superfluous moisture might be breathed out and evaporated, whereby its substance might be moderately dried. For it is concluded by those most skilled in medicine (who are instructed by common observation and practice) that such superfluous and useless moisture is the occasion of many diseases in the human body, as it generates thick and viscous humors, and consequently is the origin of those phlegmatic crudities Undigested or "raw" fluids believed to cause illness in the Galenic system of medicine. which very often afflict the stomach and produce flatulent vapors with indigestion; whence it happens that this humor nourishes little or nothing. Furthermore, it even produces pains in the sides and ribs, and causes the substance of its chyle The milky fluid drained from food in the intestines during digestion. or juice to be suddenly converted into putrefaction; and from this, worms of various kinds arise.

But on the other hand, physicians acknowledge and confess that if it be well baked, it nourishes wonderfully and generates good blood; it is seen to procreate little or no windiness in the stomach, and renders the whole mass more styptic Astringent or contracting; here meaning it firms up the digestive system. in its disposition. From this, therefore, it appears that the element of water, so abundant in this grain, is of either little or plainly no utility, but rather superfluous and more harmful to nourishment than useful, as was said before. And certainly, the manifest reason for this superfluity of water in wheat or bread ought not to be hidden from the skilled physician, to whom it is not unknown that the effective heat lurking in such a vegetable grain, and aspiring to the summit of that cedar-like plant, by a certain natural inclination greedily desires watery moisture. For this reason, it draws to itself subtle water from the earth by means of the trunk or the pipe of the stalk, at every moment to refresh and sprinkle with moisture its warm dwelling-place. It attracts it no differently than the hidden sparks of celestial heat, which are suspended in the middle region of the air, by their magnetic attraction draw up lakes and rivers from the lower parts to the upper sphere which they inhabit, to mitigate and temper the fires of the flashing lightnings. Whence it also appears that wheat, in its manifest quality, is moist by reason of its moisture, which abounds in plenty, and hot in respect to the exuberance of its natural heat, which acts essentially within it. And the herbalists seem to agree with this assertion of ours, who judge this simple to be hot and moist in a temperate degree.

Besides this aqueous element, we shall perceive that subtle and clear air lurks in this subject of ours, which contains many hidden faculties within itself, as we shall clearly explain in its proper place below.

Furthermore, even the foul element of fire (the perfect agent for all corruption) is drawn from it, which is without doubt the cause of many preternatural effects in the human body, so that by means of it, one is subjected to many infirmities. Finally, that glorious and ethereal spirit, dispersed and sown throughout the universe as the rays of Phoebus's The sun's light, betrays itself to the eyes by leaving its dark prison, deprived of all grace, light, life, and solace; for when that fiery spirit is lost, it is like a damned empty earth, and that dead head original: "caput mortuum" — a chemical term for the useless residue left after distillation. of the chemists. We shall observe, therefore, and by preceding due inquiry we shall find, that all these elements are present in bread or wheat: namely, earth, which is the final dregs of separation; then water, which appears first; then afterwards air, which claims for itself the second rank after water; fire follows this, which is immediately succeeded by the quintessence, or fifth element, ascending from the region of night into the horizon of day, from whence it first proceeded. Nor would I wish you to understand me in this place as having meant the simple elements in nature, for it so pleased the most august majesty and most renowned in learning, the Monarch of Britain, to me not un—