ious arguments can of course have no weight in our
day, but this tendency to imitate others is as true now as then.
Evidently, if the Darwinian theory holds good, a matter of three
centuries is not sufficient to cause any perceptible diminution in the
strength of original instinct inherited from the ape.]

[Footnote F: Time has taken upon itself to upset this argument; for
though the novelty may certainly be said to have worn off, the habit
itself is more firmly rooted than ever.]

[Footnote G: This shows that so late as the 17th century the influence
of the planets on the body was an article of firm belief, even amongst
the learned. The following recipes may be of interest to the reader.
They are taken from a manuscript volume which belonged to and was
probably written by Sir John Floyer, physician to King Charles II., who
practised at Lichfield, in the Cathedral library of which city the
volume now is:--"An antidote to ye plague: take a cock chicken and pull
off ye feathers from ye tayle till ye rump bee bare; you hold ye bare of
ye same upon ye sore, and ye chicken will gape and labour for life, and
in ye end will dye. Then take another and do ye like, and so another
still as they dye, till one lives, for then ye venome is drawne out. The
last chicken will live and ye patient will mend very speedily."

"Madness in a dog: 'Pega, Tega, Sega, Docemena Mega.' These words
written, and ye paper rowl'd up and given to a dog, or anything that is
mad, cure him."]

[Footnote H: Or Camisado. A night attack on horseback, wherein the
attacking party put their shirts on over their armour, in order to
recognise each other in the darkness. Charles II. attempted a Camisado
at Worcester, which did not succeed, owing to treachery.]

[Footnote I: Our royal author would no doubt have been astonished to see
English officers smoking on the field of battle, which I am told is now
a common occurrence.]

[Footnote J: It was not dreamt of in James's philosophy, that the price
of tobacco might fall to 5s. 6d. and less a pound.]

[Footnote K: They still say in Scotland, "To feel a smell."]

End of Project Gutenberg's A Counter-Blaste to Tobacco, by King James I.

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