ontinue in succession.

_Of the Back._

Q. Why have beasts a back? A. 1. Because the back is the way and mien of
the body from which are extended and spread throughout, all the sinews
of the backbone. 2. Because it should be a guard and defence for the
soft parts of the body, as for the stomach, liver, lights and such like.
3. Because it is the foundation of all the bones, as the ribs, fastened
to the back bone.

Q. Why hath the back bone so many joints or knots, called _spondyli_? A.
Because the moving and bending it, without such joints, could not be
done; and therefore they are wrong who say that elephants have no such
joints, for without them they could not move.

Q. Why do fish die after their back bones are broken? A. Because in fish
the back bone is instead of the heart; now the heart is the first thing
that lives and the last that dies; and when that bone is broken, fish
can live no longer.

Q. Why doth a man die soon after the marrow is hurt or perished? A.
Because the marrow proceeds from the brain, which is the principal part
of a man.

Q. Why have some men the piles? A. Those men are cold and melancholy,
which melancholy first passes to the spleen, its proper seat, but there
cannot be retained, for the abundancy of blood; for which reason it is
conveyed to the back bone, where there are certain veins which terminate
in the back, and receive the blood. When those veins are full of the
melancholy blood, then the conduits of nature are opened, and the blood
issues out once a month, like women's terms. Those men who have this
course of blood, are kept from many infirmities, such as dropsy, plague,
etc.

Q. Why are the Jews much subject to this disease? A. Because they eat
much phlegmatic and cold meats, which breed melancholy blood, which is
purged with the flux. Another reason is, motion causes heat and heat
digestion; but strict Jews neither move, labour nor converse much, which
breeds a coldness in them, and hinders digestion, causing melancholic
blood, which is by this means purged out.

_Of the Heart._

Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy and full of holes? A. That the air
may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours,
because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows is
raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so
likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest
through too much air drawn in, the hear