alchemy, and namely in turning and
changing of metals."

Bartholomew also enlightens us on the animals of Egypt, and says, "If
the crocodile findeth a man by the water's brim he slayeth him, and then
he weepeth over him and swalloweth him."

Naturally this good Franciscan naturalist devotes much thought to the
"dragons" mentioned in Scripture. He says: "The dragon is most greatest
of all serpents, and oft he is drawn out of his den and riseth up into
the air, and the air is moved by him, and also the sea swelleth against
his venom, and he hath a crest, and reareth his tongue, and hath teeth
like a saw, and hath strength, and not only in teeth but in tail, and
grieveth with biting and with stinging. Whom he findeth he slayeth.
Oft four or five of them fasten their tails together and rear up their
heads, and sail over the sea to get good meat. Between elephants and
dragons is everlasting fighting; for the dragon with his tail spanneth
the elephant, and the elephant with his nose throweth down the
dragon.... The cause why the dragon desireth his blood is the coldness
thereof, by the which the dragon desireth to cool himself. Jerome saith
that the dragon is a full thirsty beast, insomuch that he openeth his
mouth against the wind to quench the burning of his thirst in that wise.
Therefore, when he seeth ships in great wind he flieth against the sail
to take the cold wind, and overthroweth the ship."

These ideas of Friar Bartholomew spread far and struck deep into the
popular mind. His book was translated into the principal languages of
Europe, and was one of those most generally read during the Ages of
Faith. It maintained its position nearly three hundred years; even after
the invention of printing it held its own, and in the fifteenth century
there were issued no less than ten editions of it in Latin, four in
French, and various versions of it in Dutch, Spanish, and English.
Preachers found it especially useful in illustrating the ways of God
to man. It was only when the great voyages of discovery substituted
ascertained fact for theological reasoning in this province that its
authority was broken.

The same sort of science flourished in the Bestiaries, which were used
everywhere, and especially in the pulpits, for the edification of the
faithful. In all of these, as in that compiled early in the thirteenth
century by an ecclesiastic, William of Normandy, we have this lesson,
borrowed from the Physiologus: "The lion