C H A P T E R

X X I.

Of the Cameleon.

ONCERNING the Chameleon there generally passeth an opinion that it liveth only upon ayre, and is sustained by no other aliment; Thus much is in plaine termes affirmed by Solinus, Pliny and divers other, and by this periphrasis is the same described by Ovid; All which notwithstanding, upon enquiry, I finde the assertion mainly controvertible, and very much to faile in the three inducements of belief.

And first for its verity, although asserted by some, and traditionally delivered by others, yet is it very questionable. For beside AElian, who is seldome defective in these accounts; Aristotle distinctly treating hereof, hath made no mention of this remarkeable propriety; which either suspecting its verity, or presuming its falsity hee surely omitted; for that he remained ignorant of this account it is not easily conceivable, it being the common opinion, and generally received by all men: Some have positively denyed it, as Augustinus, Niphus, Stobaeus, Dalechampius, Fortunius, Licetus, with many more; others have experimentally refuted it, as namely Johannes Landius, who in the relation of Scaliger, observed a Chameleon to lick up a flye from his breast; But Bellonius hath beene more satisfactorily experimentall, not onely affirming they feede on Flyes, Caterpillers, Beetles, and other insects, but upon exenteration he found these animals in their bellies; and although we have not had the advantage of our owne observation, yet have we received the like confirmation from many ocular spectators.

As touching the verisimility or probable truth of this relation, severall reasons there are which seeme to overthrow it; For first, there are found in this animall, the guts, the stomack, and other parts officiall unto nutrition, which were its aliment the empty reception of ayre, their provisions had beene superfluous; Now the wisdome of Nature abhorring superfluities, and effecting nothing in vaine, unto the intention of these operations, respectively contriveth the organs; and therefore where we finde such Instruments, wee may with strictnesse expect their actions, and where we discover them not, wee may with safety conclude the non-intention of their operations: So when we observe that oviperous animals, as Lizards, Frogs, Birds, and most Fishes have neither bladder nor kidnies, we may with reason inferre they do not urine at all: But whereas in this same kinde we discover these parts in the Tortoys beyond any other, wee cannot deny he exerciseth that excretion; Nor was there any absurdity in Pliny, when for medicinall uses he commended the urine of a Tortoise: so when we perceive that Bats have teats, it is not unreasonable to infer they suckle their younglings with milke; but whereas no other flying animall hath these parts, we cannot from them expect a viviparous exclusion, but either a generation of egges, or some vermiparous separation, whose navell is within it selfe at first, and its nutrition after not inwardly dependant of its originall.

Again, nature is so farre from leaving any one part without its proper action, that she oft-times imposeth two or three labours upon one, so the pizell in animals is both officiall unto urine and to generation, but the first and primary use is generation; for many creatures enjoy that part which urine not, as fishes, birds, and quadrupeds oviparous; but not on the contrary, for the secondary action subsisteth not alone, but in concommitancie with the other; so the nostrills are usefull both for respiration and smelling, but the principall use is smelling; for many have nostrills which have no lungs, as fishes, but none have lungs or respiration, which have not some shew, or some analogy of nostrills: And thus we perceive the providence of nature, that is the wisdome of God, which disposeth of no part in vaine, and some parts unto two or three uses, will not provide any without the execution of its proper office, nor where there is no digestion to be made, make any parts inservient to that intention.

Beside the teeth, the tongue of this animall is a second argument to overthrow this ayrie nutrication, and that not only in its proper nature, but also in its peculiar figure; for indeed of this part properly taken there are two ends; that is, the formation of the voice, and the execution of taste; for the voice, it can have no office in Camelions, for they are mute animals, as, beside fishes, are most other sorts of Lizards: As for their taste, if their nutriment be ayre, neither can it be an instrument thereof; for the body of that element is ingustible, void of all sapidity, and without any action of the tongue, is by the rough artery or weazon conducted into the lungs: and therefore Plinie much forgets the strictnesse of his assertion, when he alloweth excrements unto that animall, that feedeth only upon ayre, which notwithstanding with the urine of an Asse, he commends as a magicall medicine upon our enemies.

The figure of the tongue seems also to overthrow the presumption of this aliment, which according to the exact delineation of Aldrovand, is in this animall peculiar, and seemeth contrived for prey; for in so little a creature it is at the least halfe a palme long, and being it self very slow in motion, hath in this part a very great agility; withall its food being flyes and such as suddenly escape, it hath in the tongue a spongy and mucous extremity, whereby upon a sudden emission, it inviscates and tangleth those insects: And therefore some have thought its name not unsutable unto its nature; the nomination is Greek, , that is a little Lion, not so much for the resemblance of shape, as affinity of condition, that is for vigilancy in its prey and sudden rapacity thereof, which it performeth not like the Lion with its teeth, but a sudden and unexpected ejaculation of the tongue. This exposition is favoured by some, especially the old glosse upon Leviticus, whereby in the Translation of Jerome and the Septuagint, this animall is forbidden; whatever it be, it seems more reasonable then that of Isidore, who derives this name a Camelo & Leone, as presuming herein resemblance with a Camell; for this derivation offendeth the rules of Etymology, wherein indeed the notation of names should be Orthographicall, not exchanging dipthongs for vowells, or converting consonants into each other.

As for the possibility hereof, it is not also unquestionable, and many wise men are of opinion, the bodies of animalls cannot receive a proper aliment from ayre: for beside that taste being (as Aristotle termes it) a kinde of touch, it is required the aliment should be tangible, and fall under the palpable affections of touch; beside also that there is some sapor in all aliments, as being to be distinguished and judged by the guste, which cannot be admitted in ayre; Beside these, I say, if wee consider the nature of aliment, and the proper use of ayre in respiration, it will very hardly fall under the name hereof, or properly attaine the act of nutrication.

And first concerning its nature, to make a perfect nutrition into the body nourished, there is required a transmutation of the nutriment; now where this conversion or aggeneration is made, there is also required in the aliment a familiarity of matter, and such a community or vicinity unto a living nature, as by one act of the soule may be converted into the body of the living, and enjoy one common soule; which indeed cannot be effected by the ayre, it concurring only with our flesh in common principles, which are at the largest distance from life, and common also unto inanimated constitutions; and therefore when it is said by Fernelius, and asserted by divers others, that we are only nourished by living bodies, and such as are some way proceeding from them, that is the fruits, effects, parts, or seeds thereof, they have laid out an object very agreeable unto assimulation; for these indeed are fit to receive a quick and immediate conversion, as holding some community with our selves, and containing approximate disposition unto animation.

Secondly (as is argued by Aristotle against the Pythagoreans) whatsoever properly nourisheth, before its assimulation, by the action of naturall heat it receiveth a [corpulency] or incrassation [i.e., thickening, condensation] progressionall unto its conversion; which notwithstanding it cannot be effected upon the ayre, for the action of heat doth not condense but rarifie that body, and by attenuation, rather then for nutrition, disposeth it for expulsion.

Thirdly (which is the argument of Hippocrates) all aliment received into the body, must be therein a considerable space retained, and not immediatly expelled: now ayre but momentally remaining in our bodies, it hath no proportionable space for its conversion, that being only of length enough to refrigerate the heart, which having once performed, lest being it selfe heated again, it should suffocate that part, it maketh no stay, but hasteth backe the same way it passed in.

Fourthly, the proper use of ayre attracted by the lungs, and without which there is no durable continuation in life, is not the nutrition of parts, but the contemperation of that fervour in the heart, and the ventilation of that fire alwayes maintained in the forge of life; whereby although in some manner it concurreth unto nutrition, yet can it not receive the proper name of nutriment; and therefore by Hippocrates de alimento, it is termed Alimentum non Alimentum, a nourishment and no nourishment; that is in a large acception, but not in propriety of language conserving the body, not nourishing the same, not repairing it by assimulation, but preserving it by ventilation; for thereby the naturall flame is preserved from extinction, and so the individuum supported in some way like nutrition: And so when it is said by the same Author, Pulmo contrarium corpori alimentum trahit, reliqua omnia idem, it is not to be taken in a strict and proper sense, but the quality in the one, the substance is meant in the other; for ayre in regard of our naturall heat is cold, and in that quality contrary unto it; but what is properly aliment, of what quality soever, is potentially the same, and in a substantiall identity unto it.

And although the ayre attracted may be conceived to nourish that invisible flame of life, in as much as common and culinary flames are nourished by the ayre about them; I confesse wee doubt the common conceit, which affirmeth that aire is the pabulous supply of fire, much lesse that flame is properly aire kindled: And the same before us, hath been denyed by the Lord of Verulam, in his Tract of life and death, & also by Dr. Jorden in his book of Minerall waters: For that which substantially maintaineth the fire, is the combustible matter in the kindled body, and not the ambient ayre, which affordeth exhalation to its fuliginous atomes, nor that which causeth the flame properly to be termed ayre, but rather as he expresseth it, the accention of fuliginous exhalations, which containe an unctuosity in them, and arise from the matter of fuell; which opinion is very probable, and will salve many doubts, whereof the common conceit affordeth no solution.

As first, How fire is stricke[n] out of flints, that is not by kindling the aire from the collision of two hard bodies; for then Diamonds and glasse should doe the like as well as flint, but rather from the sulphur and inflamable effluviums contained in them. The like saith Jorden we observe in canes and woods, that are unctuous and full of oyle, which will yeeld fire by frication, or collision, not by kindling the ayre about them, but the inflamable oyle [within] them: why the fire goes out without ayre? that is, because the fuligenous exhalations wanting evaporation recoyle upon the flame and choake it, as is evident in cupping glasses, and the artifice of charcoals, where if the ayre be altogether excluded, the fire goes out, why some lampes included in close bodies, have burned many hundred yeares, as that discovered in the sepulchre of Tullia the sister of Cicero, and that of Olibius many yeares after, near Padua; because what ever was their matter, either a preparation [of] gold, or Naptha, the duration proceeded from the puritie of their oyle which yeelded no fuligenous exhalations to suffocate the fire; For if ayre had nourished the flame, it had not continued many minutes, for it would have been spent and wasted by the fire: Why a piece of flaxe will kindle, although it touch not the flame? because the fire extendeth further, then indeed it is visible, being at some distance from the weeke [i.e., wick] a pellucide and transparent body, and thinner then the ayre it self: why mettals in their liquation, although they intensly heat the aire above their surface, arise not yet into a flame, nor kindle the aire about them? because their sulphur is more fixed, and they emit not inflamable exhalations: And lastly, why a lampe or candle burneth onely in the ayre about it, and inflameth not the ayre at a distance from it? because the flame extendeth not beyond the inflamable effluence, but closly adheres unto the originall of its inflamation, and therefore it onely warmeth, not kindleth the aire about it, which notwithstanding it will doe, if the ambient aire be impregnate with subtile inflamabilities, and such as are of quick accension, as experiment is made in a close roome, upon an evaparation of spirits of wine and Camphir; as subterraneous fires doe sometimes happen, and as Creusa and Alexanders boy in the bath were set on fire by Naptha.

Lastly, the Element of aire is so far from nourishing the bodie, that some have questioned the power of water; many conceiving it enters not the body in the power of aliment, or that from thence, there proceeds a substantiall supply: For beside that some creatures drinke not at all, unto others it performs the common office of ayre, and serves for refrigeration of the heart, as unto fishes, who receive it, and expell it by the gills; even unto our selves, and more perfect animals, though many wayes assistent thereto, it performes no substantiall nutrition, in serving for refrigeration, dilution of solid aliment, and its elixation in the stomacke, which from thence as a vehicle it conveighs through lesse accessible cavities into the liver, from thence into the veines, and so in a roride substance through the capillarie cavities into every part; which having performed, it is afterward excluded by urine, sweat and serous separations. And this opinion surely possessed the Ancients, for when they so highly commended that water which is suddenly hot and cold, which is without all savour, the lightest, the thinnest, and which will soonest boile Beanes or Pease, they had no consideration of nutrition; whereunto had they had respect, they would have surely commended grosse and turbid streames, in whose confusion at the last, there might be contained some nutriment; and not jejune or limpid water, nearer the simplicity of its Element.

All which considered, severer heads will be apt enough to conceive the opinion of this animal, not much unlike unto that of the Astomi, or men without mouthes in Pliny, sutable unto the relation of the Mares in Spaine, and their subventaneous conceptions, from the westerne winde; and in some way more unreasonable then the figment of Rabican the famous horse in Ariosto, which being conceived by flame and wind never tasted grasse, or fed on any grosser provender then ayre; for this way of nutrition was answerable unto the principles of his generation; which being not ayrie, but grosse and seminall in the Chameleon, unto its conservation there is required a solid pasture, and a food congenerous unto the principles of its nature.

The grounds of this opinion are many, The first observed by Theophrastus, was the inflation or swelling of the body, made in this animal upon inspiration or drawing in its breath, which people observing, have thought it to feed upon ayre. But this effect is rather occasioned upon the greatnes of its lungs, which in this animal are very large, and by their backward situation, afford a more observable dilatation, and though their lungs bee lesse, the like inflation is also observable in Toads.

A second is the continuall hiation or holding open its mouth, which men observing conceive the intention therof to receive the aliment of ayre; but this is also occasioned by the greatnes of its lungs, for repletion whereof not having a sufficient or ready supply by its nostrils, it is enforced to dilate and hold open the jawes.

The third is the paucitie of blood observed in this animal, scarce at all to be found but in the eye, and about the heart; which defect being observed, inclined some into thoughts, that the ayre was a sufficient maintenance for these [exanguious] parts. But this defect or rather paucity of blood, is also agreeable unto many other animals, whose solid nutriment wee doe not controvert, as may bee observed in other sorts of Lizards, in Frogges, and divers Fishes, and therefore an Horse-leech will hardly be made to fasten upon a fish, and wee doe not read of much blood that was drawn from Frogges by Mice in that famous battaile of Homer.

The last and most common ground which begat or promoted this opinion, is the long continuation hereof without any visible food, which some precipitously observing, conclude they eate not any at all. It cannot be denyed it is (if not the most of any) a very abstemious animall, and such as by reason of its frigidity, paucity of blood, and latitancy in the winter, (about which time the observations are often made) will long subsist without a visible sustentation: But a like condition may bee also observed in many other animals, for Lizards and Leeches, as we have made triall, will live some months without sustenance, and wee have included Snailes in glasses all winter, which have returned to feed againe in the spring: Now these notwithstanding, are not conceived to passe all their lives without food; for so to argue is fallacious, that is, A minori ad majus, A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, and is moreover sufficiently convicted by experience, and therefore probably other relations are of the same verity, which are of the like affinity, as is the conceit of the Rhintace in Persia, the [Canis] Levis of America, and the Manucodiata or bird of Paradise in India.

To assigne a reason of this abstinence in animals, or declare how without a supply there ensueth no destructive exhaustion, exceedeth the limits of my intention, and intention of my discourse. Fortunius Licetus in his excellent Tract, De his qui diu vivunt sine alimento, hath very ingeniously attempted it, deducing the cause hereof from an equall conformity of naturall heat and moisture, at least no considerable exuperancy in either; which concurring in an unactive proportion, the naturall heat consumeth not the moisture (whereby ensueth no exhaustion) and the condition of naturall moisture is able to resist the slender action of heat, (whereby it needeth no reparation) and this is evident in Snakes, Lizards, Snails, and divers other insects latitant many moneths in the yeare; which being cold creatures, containing a weak heat, in a crasse or copious humidity doe long subsist without nutrition: For the activity of the agent, being not able to overmaster the resistance of the patient, there will ensue no deperdition. And upon the like grounds it is, that cold and phlegmatick bodies, and (as Hippocrates determineth) that old men, will best endure fasting. Now the same harmony and stationary constitution, as it happeneth in many species, so doth it fall out sometime in Individualls; For wee read of many who have lived long time without aliment; and beside deceites and impostures, there may be veritable Relations of some, who without a miracle, and by peculiarity of temper, have far outfasted Elias.