Chapter XV, Section 1b

Therefore, it is said, if any shall carry the heart of a crow or a bat about him, he shall not sleep till he cast it away from him. The same doth the head of a bat, dried and bound to the right arm of him that is awake, for if it be put upon him when he is asleep, it is said that he shall not be awaked till it be taken off from him. After the same manner doth a frog and an owl make one talkative, and of these specially the tongue and heart. So the tongue also of a water-frog, laid under the head, makes a man speak in his sleep; and the heart of a screech-owl, laid upon the left breast of a woman that is asleep, is said to make her utter all her secrets. The same also the heart of the horned owl is said to do, also the suet of a hare, laid upon the breast of one that is asleep. Upon the same account do animals that are long lived conduce to long life; and whatsoever things have a power in themselves to renew themselves conduce to the renovation of our body and restoring of youth, which physicians have often professed they know to be true; as is manifest of the viper and snake. And it is known that harts renew their old age by the eating of snakes. After the same manner the phœnix is renewed by a fire which she makes for herself; and the like virtue there is in a pelican, whose right foot being put under warm dung, after three months there is of that generated a pelican. Therefore some physicians by some certain confections made of vipers, and hellebore, and the flesh of some such kind of animals, do restore youth, and indeed do sometimes restore it so, as Medea restored old Pileas. It is also believed that the blood of a bear, if it be sucked out of her wound, doth increase strength of body, because that animal is the strongest creature.