Lastly, That Women drowned float prone, that is, with their bellies downward, but Men supine or upward, is an assertion wherein the hoti or point it self is dubious; and were it true, the reason alledged for it, is of no validity. The reason yet currant was first expressed by Pliny, veluti pudori defunctorum parcente naturâ, nature modestly ordaining this position to conceal the shame of the dead; which hath been taken up by Solinus, Rhodiginus, and many more. This indeed (as Scaliger termeth it) is ratio civilis non philosophica, strong enough for morality of Rhetoricks, not for Philosophy or Physicks. For first, in nature the concealment of secret parts is the same in both sexes, and the shame of their reveal equal: so Adam upon the tast of the fruit was ashamed of his nakedness as well as Eve. And so likewise in America and Countries unacquainted with habits, where modesty conceals these parts in one sex, it doth it also in the other; and therefore had this been the intention of nature, not only Women but Men also had swimmed downwards; the posture in reason being common unto both, where the intent is also common.
Again, While herein we commend the modesty, we condemn the wisdom of nature: for that prone position we make her contrive unto the Woman, were best agreeable unto the Man, in whom the secret parts are very anteriour and more discoverable in a supine and upward posture. And therefore Scaliger declining this reason, hath recurred unto another from the difference of parts in both sexes; Quod ventre vasto sunt mulieres plenoque intestinis, itaque minus impletur et subsidet, inanior maribus quibus nates præponderant: If so, then Men with great bellies will float downward, and only Callipygæ, and Women largely composed behind, upward. But Anatomists observe, that to make the larger cavity for the Infant, the hanch bones in Women, and consequently the parts appendant are more protuberant then they are in Men. They who ascribe the cause unto the breasts of Women, take not away the doubt; for they resolve not why children float downward, who are included in that sex, though not in the reason alleadged. But hereof we cease to discourse, lest we undertake to afford a reason of the [1]golden tooth, that is, to invent or assign a cause when we remain unsatisfied or unassured of the effect.
That a Mare will sooner drown then a Horse, though commonly opinion’d, is not I fear experienced: nor is the same observed, in the drowning of Whelps and Kitlins. But that a Man cannot shut or open his eyes under water, easie experiment may convict. Whether Cripples and mutilated Persons, who have lost the greatest part of their thighs, will not sink but float, their lungs being abler to waft up their bodies, which are in others overpoised by the hinder legs; we have not made experiment. Thus much we observe, that Animals drown downwards, and the same is observable in Frogs, when the hinder legs are cut off. But in the air most seem to perish headlong from high places; however Vulcan thrown from Heaven, be made to fall on his feet.
Footnotes
[1] Of the cause whereof much dispute was made, and at last proved an imposture.
[CHAPTER VII]
Concerning Weight.
That Men weigh heavier dead then alive, if experiment hath not failed us, we cannot reasonably grant. For though the trial hereof cannot so well be made on the body of Man, nor will the difference be sensible in the abate of scruples and dragms, yet can we not confirm the same in lesser Animals, from whence the inference is good; and the affirmative of Pliny saith, that it is true in all. For exactly weighing and strangling a Chicken in the Scales; upon an immediate ponderation, we could discover no sensible difference in weight; but suffering it to lie eight or ten hours, untill it grew perfectly cold, it weighed most sensibly lighter; the like we attempted, and verified in Mice, and performed their trials in Scales, that would turn upon the eighth or tenth part of a grain.
Now whereas some alledge that spirits are lighter substances, and naturally ascending, do elevate and waft the body upward, whereof dead bodies being destitute, contract a greater gravity; although we concede that spirits are light, comparatively unto the body, yet that they are absolutely so, or have no weight at all, we cannot readily allow. For since Philosophy affirmeth, that spirits are middle substances between the soul and body, they must admit of some corporiety, which supposeth weight or gravity. Beside, in carcasses warm, and bodies newly disanimated, while transpiration remaineth, there do exhale and breath out vaporous and fluid parts, which carry away some power of gravitation. Which though we allow, we do not make answerable unto living expiration; and therefore the Chicken or Mice were not so light being dead, as they would have been after ten hours kept alive; for in that space a man abateth many ounces. Nor if it had slept, for in that space of sleep, a Man will sometimes abate fourty ounces; nor if it had been in the middle of summer, for then a Man weigheth some pounds less, then in the height of winter; according to experience, and the statick Aphorisms of Sanctorius.
Again, Whereas Men affirm they perceive an addition of ponderosity in dead bodies, comparing them usually unto blocks and stones, whensoever they lift or carry them; this accessional preponderancy is rather in appearance then reality. For being destitute of any motion, they confer no relief unto the Agents, or Elevators; which makes us meet with the same complaints of gravity in animated and living bodies, where the Nerves subside, and the faculty locomotive seems abolished; as may be observed in the lifting or supporting of persons inebriated, Apoplectical, or in Lypothymies and swoundings.