Chapter XVII, Section 1b

When Sappho writes to Phaon: To Birds unlike oftimes joyned are white Doves; Also the Bird that’s green, black Turtle loves. Again, the whale and the little fish, his guide, are friendly. Neither is this amity in Animals amongst themselves, but also with other things, as with Metals, Stones and Vegetables: So the cat delights in the herb catnip and rubbeth herself upon it, and there be mares in Cappadocia that expose themselves to the blast of the wind. So frog, toads, snakes, and all manner of creeping poisonous things, delight in the plant called pas-flower, of whom, as the physicians say, if any one eat he shall die with laughing. The tortoise, also, when he is hunted by the adder, eats origanum, and is thereby strengthened; and the stork, when he hath eat snakes, seeks for a remedy in origanum; and the weasel, when he goes to fight with the basilisk, eats rue—whence we come to know that origanum and rue are effectual against poison. So in some Animals there is an imbred skill and medicinal art; for when the toad is wounded with a bite or poison of another animal, he is wont to go to rue or sage and rub the place wounded, and so escape the danger of the poison. So men have learned many excellent remedies of diseases and virtues of things, from brutes; so swallows have shewed us that sallendine is very medicinable for the sight, with which they cure the eyes of their young; and the pyet, when she is sick puts a bay-leaf into her nest, and is recovered. In like manner, cranes, jackdaws, partridges, and black-birds purge their nauseous stomachs with the same, with which also crows allay the poison of the chameleon; and the lion, if he be feverish, is recovered by eating of an ape. The lapwing, being surfeited with eating of grapes, cures himself with southernwood; so the harts have taught us that the herb ditany is very good to draw out darts; for they, being wounded with an arrow, cast it out by eating of this herb; the same do goats in Candy. So hinds, a little before they bring forth, purge themselves with a certain herb called mountain osier. Also they that are hurt with spiders seek a remedy by eating of crabs. Swine also being hurt by snakes cure themselves by eating of them; and cows, when they perceive they are poisoned with a kind of French poison, seek for cure in the oak. Elephants, when they have swallowed a chameleon, help themselves with the wild olive. Bears, being hurt with mandrakes, escape the danger by eating of ants. Geese, ducks, and such like watery fowls, cure themselves with the herb called wall-sage. Pigeons, turtles, and hens, with the herb called pellitory of the wall. Cranes, with bulrushes. Leopards cure themselves, being hurt, with the herb called wolf's-bane; boars, with ivy; hinds, with the herb called cinnara.