h cast it out of
the womb as unfit for the shape which is adapted to receive the soul.

Q. Why doth wrestling and leaping cause the casting of the child, as
some subtle women do on purpose? A. The vapour is burning, and doth
easily hurt the tender substance of the child, entering in at the pores
of the matrix.

Q. Why doth much joy cause a woman to miscarry? A. Because in the time
of joy, a woman is destitute of heat, and so a miscarriage doth follow.

Q. Why do women easily miscarry when they are first with child, viz.,
the first, second or third month? A. As apples and pears easily fall at
first, because the knots and ligaments are weak, so it is with a child
in the womb.

Q. Why is it hard to miscarry in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth
month? A. Because the ligaments are stronger and well fortified.

_Of Divers Matters._

Q. Why has not a man a tail like a beast? A. Because man is a noble
creature, whose property is to sit; which a beast, having a tail,
cannot.

Q. Why does hot water freeze sooner than cold? A. Hot water is thinner,
and gives better entrance to the frost.

Q. Why is every living creature dull after copulation? A. By reason that
the act is filthy and unclean; and so every living creature abhors it.
When men do think upon it, they are ashamed and sad.

Q. Why cannot drunken men judge of taste as well as sober men? A.
Because the tongue, being full of pores and spongy, receives more
moisture into it, and more in drunken men than in sober; therefore, the
tongue, through often drinking, is full of bad humours, and so the
faculty of tasting is rendered out of order; also, through the
thickening of the taste itself, drink taken by drunkards is not
presently felt. And by this may also be understood why drunkards have
not a perfect speech.

Q. Why have melancholy beasts long ears? A. The ears proceed from a dry
and cold substance, called gristle, which is apt to become bone; and
because melancholy beasts do abound with this kind of substance, they
have long ears.

Q. Why do hares sleep with their eyes open? A. 1. They have their eyes
standing out, and their eyelids short, therefore, never quite shut. 2.
They are timorous, and as a safe-guard to themselves, sleep with their
eyes open.

Q. Why do not crows feed their young till they be nine days old? A.
Because seeing them of another colour, they think they are of another
kind.

Q. Why are sheep and pigeons mild? A. They want galls, the