Q. 20. Whether the Animal call'd Abados, or Rhinoceros, hath Teeth, Claws, Flesh, Blood, and Skin, yea his very dung and Water, as well as his Horns, antidotal? And whether the Horns of those Beasts be better or worse, according to the Food they live upon.
A.Their Horns, Teeth, Claws, and Blood are esteemed Antidotes, and have the fame Use in the Indian Pharmacopeia as the Theriaca hath in ours; the Flesh I have eaten is very sweet and short. Some Days before the Receipt of your Letter, I had a young one no bigger than a Spaniel Dog, which followed me wherever I went, drinking nothing but Buffalo Milk, lived about three Weeks, then his Teeth began to grow, and he got a Looseness and died. 'Tis observed, that Children (especially of European Parents) at the breaking out of their Teeth are dangerously sick, and commonly die of the scouring in these Parts. His Skin I have caused to be dried, and so present it unto you, since Fate permits not to send him you living; such a young one was never seen before. The Food I believe is all one to this Animal, being that they are seldom seen but amongst withered Branches, Thistles and Thorns; so that the Horn is of equal Virtue.
Q. 21. Whether the falsifying of the China Musk is not rather done by mixing Oxen and Cow's Livers dried and pulverized with some of the putrified and concrete Flesh and Blood of the China Musk-cat, than by beating together the bare Flesh and Blood of this Animal, &c.
Not answer'd.
Q. 22. Whether there be two Sorts of Gumlac, one produced from a certain winged Ant, the other the Exudation of a Tree; the first had in the Islands
