Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note

Marginal notes are used for multiple purposes in this edition. Footnotes and section headers were both printed in the margins. For this text version, numbered marginal footnotes have been moved to the end of their paragraphs. The headers have been moved to appear on a separate line at the beginning of each section. Redundant sidenotes merely indicating Part and Section numbers have been removed.

Those notes which serve as paragraph descriptions, at or near the head of a paragraph, precede that paragraph. Those which serve to annotate specific points are inserted parenthetically as [SN: notes].

Italics are used freely, and have been rendered using _underscore_ characters. Superscripted characters are rendered as {x}.

Please consult the more detailed notes at the end of this text.

THE ENGLISH LIBRARY

THE WORKS OF
SIR THOMAS BROWNE

VOLUME II

THE WORKS OF
SIR THOMAS BROWNE

Edited by
CHARLES SAYLE

VOLUME II

LONDON
GRANT RICHARDS
1904

Edinburgh T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty

PREFATORY NOTE

The frontispiece to this volume is reproduced from a photograph kindly lent to me for the purpose by Mr. Charles Williams, F.R.C.S.E., of Norwich, whose note upon the measurements of Sir Thomas Browne's skull appeared as Appendix II. in the edition of Browne's _Hydriotaphia_ and _Garden of Cyrus_, published in the 'Golden Treasury Series,' by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., in 1896.

The identification of the author quoted in the margin of page 233 (Book v. Chapter x.). I owe to Mr. W. Aldis Wright.

C.S.
_May 1, 1904._

CONTENTS

PAGE
PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA

THE THIRD BOOK (_continued_):

11. Of Griffins, 1
12. Of the Phœnix, 4
13. Of Frogs, Toads, and Toad-stone, 13
14. Of the Salamander, 18
15. Of the Amphisbæna, 22
16. Of the Viper, 26
17. Of Hares, 33
18. Of Moles, or Molls, 42
19. Of Lampries, 46
20. Of Snayls, 48
21. Of the Chameleon, 50
22. Of the Ostrich, 62
23. Of Unicorns Horn, 66
24. That all animals of the Land, are in their kind in the Sea, 73
25. Concerning the common course of Diet, in making choice of
some Animals, and abstaining from eating others, 76
26. Of Sperma-Ceti, and the Sperma-Ceti Whale, 85
27. Compendiously of Sundry Tenents concerning other Animals,
which examined, prove either false or dubious, 89
28. Of some others, 103

THE FOURTH BOOK:

1. Of the Erectness of Man, 109
2. Of the Heart, 113
3. Of Pleurisies, 116
4. Of the Ring-finger, 117
5. Of the right and left Hand, 122
6. Of Swimming and Floating, 134
7. Concerning Weight, 138
8. Of the passage of Meat and Drink, 142
9. Of Sneezing, 144
10. Of the Jews, 147
11. Of Pigmies, 155
12. Of the great Climacterical year, that is, Sixty-three, 160
13. Of the Canicular or Dog daies, 183

THE FIFTH BOOK:

1. Of the Picture of the Pelecan, 202
2. Of the Picture of Dolphins, 205
3. Of the Picture of a Grashopper, 207
4. Of the Picture of the Serpent tempting Eve, 209
5. Of the Picture of Adam and Eve with Navels, 212
6. Of the Pictures of Eastern Nations, and the Jews at
their Feasts, especially our Saviour at the Passover, 215
7. Of the Picture of our Saviour with long hair, 224
8. Of the Picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, 226
9. Of the Picture of Moses with horns, 227
10. Of the Scutcheons of the Tribes of Israel, 229
11. Of the Pictures of the Sibyls, 233
12. Of the Picture describing the death of Cleopatra, 235
13. Of the Pictures of the Nine Worthies, 237
14. Of the Picture of Jephthah sacryficing his daughter, 241
15. Of the Picture of John the Baptist, 245
16. Of the Picture of St. Christopher, 247
17. Of the Picture of St. George, 249
18. Of the Picture of Jerom, 251
19. Of the Pictures of Mermaids, Unicorns, and some others, 253
20. Of the Hieroglyphical Pictures of the Egyptians, 258
21. Of the Picture of Haman hanged, 260
22. Compendiously of many questionable Customs, Opinions,
Pictures, Practices, and Popular Observations, 264
23. Of some others, 276

THE SIXTH BOOK:

1. Concerning the beginning of the World, 283
2. Of mens Enquiries in what season or Point of the
Zodiack it began, 300
3. Of the Divisions of the seasons and four Quarters
of the year, 302
4. Of some computation of days and deductions of one part
of the year unto another, 309
5. A Digression of the wisdom of God in the site and
motion of the Sun, 313
6. Concerning the vulgar opinion, that the Earth was
slenderly peopled before the Flood, 319
7. Of East and West, 338
8. Of the River Nilus, 349
9. Of the Red Sea, 363
10. Of the Blackness of Negroes, 367
11. Of the same, 380
12. A Digression concerning Blackness, 387
13. Of Gypsies, 395
14. Of some others, 397

PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA

THE THIRD BOOK--_continued_