Alexander Ross

#### English original

III. Mens bodies are obnoxious to many dangers, by reason of the many sorts of poisons in the world, some killing by occult, some by manifest qualities; but God out of his goodnesse to mankind, hath ordained as many remedies and antidotes as there be poisons, whereby their malignity is either prevented expelled: Among all these Antidotes, there is none more wonderful then the Unicorns horn, which hath been so much questioned and doubted by divers Writers, some denying the existence of the Unicorn as it is ordinarily painted & described; Others denying that there is any such horn, and some disallowing the vertues thereof; among whom is Doctor *Brown* (*Book* 3. c. 23.) in his *Vulgar Errors*: But that there are Beasts with one Horn in the *Indies*, as Bulls, Asses, Horses, &c. I think none will deny. 2. The *Unicorn* or *Monoceros*, is not the same with *Rhinoceros* or *Naricorn*: for this is of an Elephantine bignesse, with short legs, whose bodie is covered with shels, the Elephants enemy, which he overcame at *Lisbon*, in that publick combat exhibited by *Emanuel* of *Portugal*, *anno* 1515. he hath a short Horn on his shoulders, another longer on his nose; but that *Rhinoceros*, whose picture *Scaliger* saw (*Exerc*. 205.) had an head like a hog, with two horns, one upon his nose, the other upon his forehead, called by *Martial*, (*in Amphit. Epig.* 22.) *Ursus gemino cornu gravis*. But the true Unicorn hath the proportion and bignesse of a Horse, the head, legs and feet of a Stagge, and the mane of an horse; he hath a horn in his forehead, saith *Cardan* (*de subtil.* *l*. 10.) three cubits long; two of these Unicorns were seen at *Mecha*, of which see Parry in his 21 Book of poisons, *Munster* and *Fernandus de Cordova*, [*l*. 5. *didas*. *c*. 9.] 3. The reason why the *Unicorn* is differently described, is, because divers Authors confound him with the *Naricorn*, or else because there be divers species of *Unicorns*, as there be of Dogs and other Animals, or else because they vary the colour and bignesse of their horn according to their age and climat wherein they live, as other beasts doe: but from variety of description and circumstances, we must not infer a nullity of the substance, as *Parry* doth; for so wee may deny the *Rhinoceros*, which is diversly described; *Strabo* makes him like a Bear [*l*. 16 *de sub.* *l*. 10.] *Cardan*, like a Bull, others like an Elephant. [See *Parry*, *Cardan*, *Fern. de Cord.* *Pausanias*, *Scaliger*, *Munster*, *Pliny*, *Solinus*, *Cæsar*, *Ælian*, *Polyhistor*.] Some give him but one horn, some two, which with some is crooked, with others straight. I therefore make no question of the true Unicorn, as he is commonly painted, because *Vertomanus* saw two of them, as *Scaliger* witnesseth, and so did *Lewis Bothema*, who as some say, is the same with *Vertomanus*, *Justin Martyr*, *Basil*, and others of the Fathers; Yea, the holy scriptures seem to favour this description, *Job* 39.9. *will the Unicorn be willing to serve thee* &c.? The Hebrew word *Rem* is by *Hierom*, *Montanus*, and *Aquila*, translated *Rhinoceros*; but by the 70 *Monoceros*. Yet in another place *Hierom* and *Montanus* translated the word *Unicorn*: and in this place it cannot signifie *Rhinoceros*, because this beast hath been oftentimes subdued by man, and bound, as we read in the Roman stories, but so was never the Unicorn brought into subjection, as God sheweth to *Job*: And when *David* saith, *He shall be exalted like the Horn of an Unicorn*, he cannot mean the *Rhinoceros*, who of all cornuted Animals, hath the shortest Horn; but the true Unicorn, whose Horn is the highest of all others; for else *Davids* comparison had been childish. Now for the Horn it self, and vertues thereof, they are rejected by *Rondeletius*, *Parry*, *Brown*, and some others. *Rondeletius* [*l*. 21. *de venenis*, *c*. 61.] found no more vertue in this Horn then in an Elephants Tooth. *Parry* found no vertue in the French Kings Horn. *Brown* rejects the Horn, [because it is so diversly described. 2. The Ancients adscribed no vertue to it. 3. It cannot resist Arsenick, and poisons, which kill by second qualities.] To these I answer, 1. If it be suficient to deny an Horn, for that it is differently described, we may deny the Harts Horns, for there are great differences of them, some bigger and higher then others, some more branchy, some harder, some are cloathed with a soft Doun, others are not; and they have not all of them exactly the same colour. Neither do I allow, that all which are called Unicorns horns, are true; for some are fictitious. 2. If the Ancients adscribed no vertue to this horn, why was it of such account among them? Why did the *Indian* Princes drink out of them, and make Cups and Rings of them, which either they wore on their fingers, or applied to their breasts, but that they knew there was in them an antidotal vertue against poison, as *Andreth Baccius* [*l. de Unicor.*] sheweth, and the Doctor denieth not [an Antidotall efficacy, and such as the Ancients commended in this Horn] and yet two lines before, [he denies that the Ancients adscribed any vertue to it.] But sure it is apparent, that not only there is an occult quality in it against poison, as in the *Elks* Hoof against the falling sicknesse, but also by manifest qualities it works; for *Baccius* proves it to be of an excessive drying quality, and therefore good against worms and putrefaction. And that *Riccius* the Physitian did use sometimes the weight of a scruple, sometimes of ten grains thereof in burning fevers with good successe. 3. That it can resist Arsnick, the same *Baccius* proves, by the experiment which the Cardinal of *Trent* made upon two Pigeons, [*l. de Unic.*] to which he caused some Arsenick to be given: shortly after he gave som scrapings of his Unicorns horn to one of them, which after some symptomes recovered and lived, the other died two hours after it had eaten the Arsenick: The same Horn cured divers pestilential Fevers, and such as were poisoned. Hence then it appears, that this Horn was both commended by the Ancients, namely, by *Ælian*, *Philostrates*, and divers others, as also by modern Physitians, as *Ficinus*, *Brasavolus*, *Matthiolus*, *Mandella*, and many more. It is true, that some might not find the vertue of it, either because it was not the true Horn, or the true dosis was not exhibited, or due time was not observed, or else the malignancy of the disease would not yeild: For *Interdum docta plus valet arte malum.* But from hence to deny the Horn of its vertue, were all one as to deny Rhubarb, Agarick, Sena, or other Simples, because they do not always produce the wished effect, or work upon all bodies at all times alike. The means to discriminate the true Unicorns horn from the false, are two, to wit, if it cause the liquor in which it is put, to bubble; and secondly, if it sweat when the poison is near it, as *Baccius* tells us.

1. ↑ 1652 sic.
2. ↑ Martial. *de Spect.* XXII.5:

Namque gravem cornu gemino sic extulit ursum,

iactat ut inpositas taurus in astra pilas
3. ↑ Strabo XVI.4.15. Like a *boar*, not like a *bear*, presumably a typographical error rather than a mistaken reading. In the following bracketed references, "l. 16" goes with Strabo and "de sub. l. 10" goes with Cardan. Economical but confusing.
4. ↑ In the 92nd Psalm. ] I see no reason why a short horn may not be exalted.
5. ↑ Andrea Baccio's *Discorso dell'alicorno. Nel quale si tratta della natura dell'alicorno, & delle molte sue virtù;: revisto dal propio autore con aggiunta delle esperienze, & di molte cose notabili contro a' veleni* etc. of 1582.
6. ↑ Interdum etc.: Ovid epist. ex Ponto, Lib. I, iii.18.

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* In the pages of the University of Chicago