ANNOT.
This is a great Riddle, which was never found out till now; and had I not been born in the Countrey where the History did happen, it might have been unknown to this day, and buried in oblivion.
The History of a λιθοπαίδιον or petrified child.
In the year of the Lord 1613. which was that of my Birth. There was in the Town of Sens a Taylors Wife named Columba Chatry, who presently after her marriage conceived, and for the space of 28. years persuaded her self to be with Child, had all the signs of it in the beginning of her impregnation, and having gone her compleat time, she begun to feel the pains of a woman in Labour, with great gripings in the Guts. The Urine was suppressed for a while, but at last it broke out with a strong current. This quantity of water not coming so much out of the Bladder as was supposed, as from the womb, by the breaking of the Membrane, called Amnion, seeing that with those serous excrements, she avoided some conjealed blood. After that her breast begun to fall, and the Child had little or no motion, her pains being less than they were, which caused no small admiration to the Midwifes, who expected a safe deliverance. For the space of three years after, this woman kept her Bed, and was brought to Deaths door, complaining of gripings and a hard swelling, which she desired all the Physitians and Chyrurgeons to feel, having lost all appetite, but that little which she recovered by the use of sharp things, as Verjuice, Lemmons, &c. she was wont to say to her Neighbours, that she bare a Child that should be the cause of her death. After she was dead, her Husband got two experienced Chyrurgeons to open her body, who having opened the belly, and taken away the Peritonæum, saw the Womb of several colours, as the flesh that is about the head and neck of a Turky-cock, but as it were of a Horny substance. They begun to make an incision in it with a Rasour, but finding it resisted the edge, they begun to use their Incision knives with all their strength; at last one of them by chance hit the Scull, and after that some Ribs, and then the Shoulder bone, by which, knowing that there was bones contained in that lump, with greater strength they made a deeper incision, and having parted the edges of the womb, saw in the bottom of the womb a Child, wrapped in the membrane, called Allantoides; at which the Chyrugeons wondering, sent for the Physitians to have their opinion in a thing that is almost beyond belief; in the mean time people flocking thither from all parts, and troubling the Chyrurgeons in their operation; they thought good to take away with their Instruments all that Lump, as a Tree from its Roots, and to carry it home, that they might with more time and leasure examine the whole Anatomy of it. In that hasty pulling out of the Child, they had no time to observe what Chorion it had, what umbilical Vessels, and what connexion there was of the Allantoides with the Womb, and with the Child, chiefly about the right hip, the Buttocks, and the Back-bone being all grown solid together.
The scituation of the Child was almost Spherical, the face leaning upon the breast, and the Nostrils upon the Knees; the bones of the Head were but thin, but very hard, and shining like Horn; the skin of the Head was hairy in many places; the head did hang so much upon the left arm, that the Ear, and part of the skull had given way to the Shoulder-bone; the Elbow was bent towards the Shoulder stretching only his hand, which was so close shut, and the fingers sticking so fast to the Palm of it, that although they did appear distinct one from another, nevertheless it was all but one and the same stone; the right arm did stretch its hand towards the Navel, which unadvisedly was broken by the wrist, and left in the Mothers Belly; the left Thigh, Knee and Leg were on the top of the right ones, with which they were so entangled, that the left heel, and the sole of the foot were planted upon the right foot, who seemed to have given place to them, and were almost inseparably joyned; for all such hardness of the matter, the body was not less than that of other Children of the same age, but kept a perfect fulness and proportion all the internal parts, as the Brains, the Heart, the Liver, had their natural shape, and were not altogether so hard as the external parts, so that to this very day this little body defieth all kind of corruption.
This Child was kept in my time by one Mr. Michel a Chirurgion of Sens, who kindly shewed it to all the strangers that came far and near to see it. The Fame of it was so great, that Doctor Mayerne coming from Switzerland to England, took his way through Sens to see it, and would have perswaded King Charles I. to buy it, as himself told me; since that I hear it was fallen into the hands of the Venetians. In this History there is two observable wonders. One, that the Child dying in the Womb, did not corrupt, and so cause the death of its Mother. The other, by what vertue or power of the body this child was petrified, seeing that the Womb is a hot and moist place, and therefore more subject to putrifaction. Those that will satisfie themselves with the reasons of it, and the truth of the History, may read Johannes Alibosius Physician of Sens, who was an eye witness of it, and Sennertus in his book of Sympt. quam feminis in utero accidant.
Now this accident being so rare, and without parallel, our Author thought fit to foretel it, and to cover it in abscure tearms, that he might not appear ridiculous in so admirable an event. When therefore he saith, That which shall live and shall have no Sense, he meaneth this λιθοπαίδιον or child petrified, which had a Life while it was in the Mothers belly, being tied to it by the several Vessels and connexions, known to Anatomists, and yet was senseless in that it was petrified. When in the second verse he saith, The Iron shall destroy the art of it, he meaneth that it should be spoiled by the rasour, in the two last verses he saith, that the Towns of Autun, Chalons, Langres, and Sens the Town in which this did happen should that same year suffer much damage by Hail and Ice, which did come to pass, as many persons may justify in that Countrey, that are alive to this day.
XXIII.
French.
Au mois troisiesme se levant le Soleil,