"- J.B.]
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In the city of Salisbury doe reigne the dropsy, consumption, scurvy,
gowte; it is an exceeding dampish place.
At Poulshot, a village neer the Devises, in the spring time the
inhabitants appeare of a primrose complexion; 'tis a wett, dirty
place.
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Mrs. Fr. Tyndale, of Priorie St. Maries, when a child, voyded a
lumbricus biceps. Mr. Winceslaus Hollar, when he was at Mechlin, saw
an amphisb?na, which he did very curiously delineate, and coloured it
in water colours, of the very colour: it was exactly the colour of the
inner peele of an onyon: it was about six inches long, but in its
repture it made the figure of a semicircle; both the heads advancing
equally. It was found under a piece of old timber, about 1661; under
the jawes it had barbes like a barbel, which did strengthen his motion
in running. This draught, amongst a world of others, Mr. Thorn.
Chiffinch, of Whitehall, hath; for which Mr. Hollar protested to me he
had no compensation. The diameter was about that of a slo-worme; and I
guesse it was an amphisb?nal slo-worme.
[The serpents called amphisb?na are so designated (from the Greek
{Gk: amphisbaina}) in consequence of their ability to move backwards
as well as forwards. The head and tail of the amphisb?na are very
similar in form: whence the common belief that it possesses a head at
each extremity. It was formerly supposed that cutting off one of its
"heads" would fail to destroy this animal; and that its flesh, dried
and pulverized, was an infallible remedy for dislocations and broken
bones.
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