On the Signature of Natural Things Theses:

De signatura rerum naturalium theses / De quibus ex consilio & decreto Amplissimi Collegij Medici, in celeberrima Basiliensium Academia, pro Doctoris gradu in Medicina consequendo, Iehova summo iuvante, disputabit Henricus Khunrath Lipsicus. A. D. XXIIII. Augusti, loco horisque consuetis

On which, by the counsel and decree of the Most Distinguished College of Medicine, in the most celebrated University of Basel, for the attainment of the Doctor’s degree in Medicine, with the highest help of Jehovah,

Henricus Khunrath of Leipzig

Translated to English by Mitko Janeski

will dispute, in the year of our Lord 1588, in August, at the customary place and hour.

What is sufficiently ancient is sufficiently true.

Basel, printed by Oporinus, 1588.

To the most illustrious and most learned
Doctor Wilhelm Moller,
Counselor of the Republic of Hamburg,
most prudent Syndic,
kinsman and singularly honored patron,

These Theses on the Signature of Natural Things
the Author names, dedicates, and consecrates.

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On the Signature of Natural Things
Theses

1.
Since in the universal theatre of the world, as Aristotle testifies in On the Parts of Animals, Book I, nothing is found that does not contain something worthy of admiration:

2.
And whose use is not certain and determined in Nature:

3.
So that, as long since it has been proved and received in the schools of the philosophers, all things have been established for a certain end:

4.
Finally, that God and Nature do nothing in vain.

5.
I have admired also that virtue, equally with the signatures or marks of natural things, for their manifold diversity.

6.
Thereupon the thought arose in my mind concerning the signatures, as for example in animals, plants, gems, stones, earths, and so forth — not imprinted by chance, but by the most certain will and providence of God, for a definite and determined use in Nature, they are destined by God the Creator in Nature.

7.
The great Artificer has wished to mark something of hidden meaning in each individual, from these signs; so that from the wonderful signs of nature we might learn what true Physiognomy is.

8.
But by the signatures of natural things we understand not only colors, odors, tastes, but also their quantities; the sympathetic and antipathetic powers, called magnetic; the small lines and marks, hieroglyphs and figures, and so forth. These (as signs and seals) are imprinted not merely by nature but rather divinely: by which very signs Nature herself, as if conversing with mankind, wishes rather to make us marvel than to understand, revealing her powers, her faculties, and especially those most hidden and recondite, whether general or individual, whose causes, whether known to us or not, she shows forth.

By these signs she indicates to us, in a skillful and useful way, what must be preserved in the human body and its parts, what diseases and symptoms must be specifically overcome. Sometimes she even declares to us her ages; and in short, she seems to explain many things to us with one word or mark, what sort they are.

9.
From this source, that natural inspection of the face and bodily habit of living beings — commonly called Physiognomy — as well as Chiromancy and Metoposcopy, have taken their origin.

10.
But since, of those already enumerated, in Homer, Aristotle, Suetonius, Michael Scotus, Johannes de Indagine, Bartholomaeus Cocles, Johannes Taisner, Thaddaeus ab Hayck, and other investigators of the secrets of natural things, splendid monuments are extant, I shall at present say nothing in particular of these. Rather, I will attempt to illustrate with some examples this noble branch of Physiognomics, which judges in the aforesaid manner concerning Plants, Gems, Stones, Earths, and so forth.

11.
Thus, as I think, it may from this be clear enough to anyone, that what we see pleasantly, safely, and quickly attained, may confirm what was foreknown: from the effect and the work, the work of the efficient cause shows the signature.

12.
Let us consider the Hippoglossum: each of its leaves represents the figure of a tongue, and a little leaf like the epiglottis is found joined upon its surface. In ulcers of the throat and in swellings of the uvula beyond measure, the more recent physicians employ it successfully (its signature perhaps having given prior indication), as Fuchs testifies. Therefore, both from its shape and its effect, the Italians call it Bilingua, the apothecaries Uvularia, and the Germans Zäpflein Kraut (little uvula herb).

13.
The Lichen, according to Fuchs, is seen to be most effective in fissures of the liver and fevers; physicians teach that this plant is especially to be preferred for diseased conditions of the liver. Hence also in the shops and among the herbalists it is called Hepatica, and by the Germans Steinleberkraut (“stone-liver herb”).

14.
The Pulmonaria (lungwort), which grows in dense, shady forests, in the hollows of oaks and other wild trees, puts forth broad, soft leaves, lying one upon another, cut around the edges in many ways, full of many hollows, as if eaten away by worms. When dry, they are brownish on the upper side, but underneath pale, sometimes yellowish-white, and marked with spots or speckles resembling little pustules.

Because of this, Fuchs thought it bore some likeness to the human lung, and therefore judged that it was called Pulmonaria, or in German Lungenkraut (“lung-herb”), and that it is a chief remedy for diseases and ulcerations of the lungs.

15.
The Solanum Halicacabum, called Alkakengi by the Moors, is also named Vesicaria by herbalists, from its pods, which, as Fuchs says, resemble small bladders produced in animals. And because, by the unanimous consent of physicians, it cures ailments of the bladder and its stones, it is rightly so applied.

16.
Another kind of Vesicaria or Halicacabum, called Repens (creeping), is mentioned by Matthiolus. In its seed, on one side, a mark of the human heart is seen, of a white color. This seed, found within green pods, somewhat rounded, marked lengthwise with seams as if from a kind of pericardium, is believed to be efficacious for all affections of the heart. Because of this mark (as Matthiolus himself explains, setting forth the power of this seed with a physiognomic demonstration, if I may so speak), it bears this indication.

17.
The Elm produces large, numerous, wrinkled pods, resembling almost (according to Matthiolus) the human scrotum, filled with a clear, sticky liquid, and containing also numerous small insects. This same liquid is highly praised for healing the Enteroceles (inguinal hernias) of boys and youths.

18.
The Scorpioides is a small herb with few leaves, its seed shaped like the figure of a scorpion’s tail. Against the stings of scorpions, according to Galen (De simplicium medicamentorum, book 8), it is an immediate remedy.

19.
The Symphytum (commonly called Consolida major, from “consolidating” or “healing”), has roots that are black on the outside, but within white and glutinous. When boiled together with cut flesh, they are very easily joined together again. Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny also attest that this same healing power belongs to the wild Petraea Symphyton. For recent wounds and fractures of bones it is found most successful, as the aforesaid signatures demonstrate.

20.
Example of a Magnetic Signature
We read in Dioscorides, Book 4, chapter 165, concerning the Fern (Felix), where he writes: The root of the male fern, when drunk, and applied with wine to wounds caused by reed-arrows, is a remedy. A proof of this matter is reported thus: the fern perishes when encircled all around by a growing reed; and on the other hand, when the reed withers away, many ferns spring up in a circle around it.

21.
Another example of this same signature is related by Pliny in Natural History, Book 16, chapter 14. He reports that it has been truly observed in the Hercynian forest, and is worthy of credit, that the power of the Ash tree is so great that it drives away serpents. Pliny says: the virtue of the ash is such that, whether it be morning shadows or evening, however long, if they but touch the tree, the serpent flees far from it. It is observed that if fire and a serpent be enclosed within a circle of ash-leaves, the serpent will rather throw itself into the fire than into the ash.

This, what happens in the Macrocosm, is also shown in the Microcosm: serpents borne within the human stomach are expelled by the ash. Nature by this provident signature seems to indicate the matter. The confirmation of this conjecture is given by Dioscorides, Book 1, chapter 92, who notes that the leaves of the ash (or their juice) drunk with wine cure the bites of vipers.

22.
The Ætites stone, called by the Germans Adlerstein (“eagle-stone,” on account of its virtue) if we believe the writers on natural things, the eagle cannot give birth without it (for which reason also the cause is often found in its nest). Its signature shows it to be pregnant (for it is indeed a stone with another stone inside, which rattles as if in a womb). For this reason, it exerts its power: it assists pregnant women in childbirth. When bound to the left arm, it helps women in labor to bring forth without pain, for their passages are slippery, and the womb not too constricted. But when delivery is completed, it must be removed from the left arm and attached to the woman’s right arm, that they may give birth without suffering. Dioscorides affirms this in Book 5, chapter 93. Levinus Lemnius likewise declares that he has confirmed it by his own experiments, in Occulta Naturae Miracula, Book 4, chapter 12.

23.
The Lapis Judaicus (Jewish Stone), taken from the bladder by excision, exactly represents in its form the stone of the bladder. By its likeness it seems to point out, as it were with a finger, the very specific medicine to break up the bladder stone and to cure the sufferer.

24.
The Haematites (called Sedeneg in Arabic, consecrated to Mars by the ancients, called by the Germans Blutstein, “bloodstone”), because of its blood-red color, with which it stains and is admired, and because of the effect it has in staunching blood — in every flow of blood.

25.
In that region of the Rhine which the Germans call the Bergstrasse, around the town of Darmstadt, about two miles from the Rhine, there is found in the sand (for such is the soil of that place) a certain stone, which closely resembles a bone turned to stone.

It is of truly admirable power for bone fractures, which, when this stone is properly applied, are said to be healed within four or five days. This is affirmed by Matthiolus, Book 5, chapter 109, commenting on Dioscorides, and also by Joseph Quercetanus in his Sclopetarium, page 133.

26.
Hence Claudius Alberius Triuncurianus, professor of Organics at Lausanne of the Helvetians, in the latter book of his former work, has set forth his Physiognomic syllogisms, of which he himself gives this example:

“Everything inanimate which bears the signs of a disease, or of an animal poison, or of a part subject to illness, is the remedy for that poison and disease.

Serpentaria bears the sign of a serpent.
Therefore, Serpentaria is the remedy for the disease and poison of the serpent.”

27.
From which we conclude that in consultations such a demonstration may be confirmed: that this disease or symptom has this remedy, and this remedy is for this disease or symptom.

28.
This use, although scarcely to be sought out by us entirely and universally in the obscurity of the human mind, I nevertheless judge to be a true light of good reason, so far as Nature permits.

So far as it has been granted to man, let him diligently investigate in all the works of nature (for his own and his neighbor’s benefit), and thus contemplate the greatness and wisdom of the supreme Archetype; which shines forth no less (so I may say) in these smallest signatures of natural things, than in some vast and immense body.

As Aristotle in his book On Animals admired the divine craftsmanship and wisdom in contemplating the little bee and the ant, so too must we admire it here.

Therefore, that this may be done, I offer this small contribution, proposed for the sake of eliciting truth, to the good and learned minds.

IHSUH VERITAS AETERNA OSTENDE VERITATEM.

Jesus, Eternal Truth, show the Truth.

The End