and nourished with humidity and new always substituted in the place of that which is absumed for I do not see why if radical humidity be wanting that death should follow but answer may be made that the privation or defect of the radical humor depends upon the impotency of heat for whatsoever suffices in the place of its native humour that is necessary to be changed by the help of heat which as Scaliger thinks is altered and grows feeble by use and diuturnity of time therefore what accedes of aliment is more worse and impure then that which decedes therefore heat destitute of idoneous aliment is dissipated And hence it is that man necessarily must dye CHAP. 8. Of Spirits 1. HItherto of humors so called Now we shall handle the doctrine of spirits they are called A spirits because they fly away by their subtil and aereal tenuity which after a certain manner responds to the Nature of Spirits indeed 2. But here the word spirit is taken B for a very small or thin substance aereal and vaporous the first instrument of life as to the performance of action 3. Here its essence is not to be understood ethereal and celestial but in a manner elementary First because such like spirits are what like their matter is but their matter is elementary Secondly they can accend refrigerate increase diminish and extinguish but the celestial on the contrary want these neither can they be changed by natural cause Thirdly because to their preservation the inspiration of the air is necessary Fourthly and lastly the spirits do restore again an elementary body in a swounding fit 4. A spirit is either insited or fixed or influent 5. Insited which is ordinarily C complanatus is an aereal and tender substance lying within several solid members and procreated of the genital seed from the governess faculty of the principal parts the first and proximate seat of native heat and a certain faculty as it were the band of unition of the soul with the body 6. Of this there seems to be so many differences as there are natures and temperaments of parts if it may be accommodated to these and attemperated to the nature of every part 7. The influent is that which is implanted and lest it should dissolve and vanish it remains fixed 8. And here it is threefold natural vital and animal 9. And as in mans body First there are three Vertues Natural Vital and Animal Secondly so also there are three principal bowels if I may so call them the Liver Heart and Brain Thirdly three Organs also administring to these the Veins Arteries and Nerves so there are so many spirits distinct in species and form which are as it were the chariots of strength 10. The natural is D a thin vapour procreated in the liver of the purer part of blood and thence diffused by the veins into the habit of the body to absolve all natural actions 11. Concerning this many great questions are made some do expunge it from the catalogue of spirits First because it takes its natural faculty from the Liver Secondly that it doth renew the same faculty insited from every part Thirdly and by this Spirit or Captain the gross blood is carried to distant parts 12. The vital spirit E is a thin halite vapour or breath begotten of inspirated air and natural spirit carried to the left side of the heart and so runs by the artery over the whole body and so supplies the vivifical strength unto them 13. All the ancient Neotericks do conclude this to be coacted when it is chiefly necessary to life for as Plato doth affirm if the sun should quiesce one moment the whole world would perish because it excites spirit and heat by its motion so here if the spirits be prohibited forthwith the Animal perishes 14. The animal spirit is F a pure halite begotten of a portion of vital spirit carried to the brain and insited in its faculty diffused by the nerves into the body that it may incite it to motion sense and all animal actions 15. This as it pleases some doth not differ from the vital in kinde and nature because they maintain that there is but one universal spirit but as aliment doth take a new form by a new coction and thence a new denomination So that first there are divers Organs Secondly divers faculties Thirdly divers manner of generations so also this spirit is diverse from the rest in species The Commentary A BY spirit here we understand not an incorporeal substance or the intellect of man which is rightly called by the Philosophers a spirit which Scaliger otherwise a man very learned dothseem to dissent from for he speaks Theologically and is to be understood as speaking of an incorporate substance but by spirit we mean a thin and subtil body B Because nature is not wont to copulate one contrary to another unless it be with some medium not unlike a band for mortal and immortal do differ more then in kinde and therefore an incorporate being is not consentaneous to a brittle body and immortality cannot be united to the intellect of man without the concurrence of a medium and this is no other then a spirit which doth bring mortality to the body having a thin and tender substance as it were acceding to the intellect The medium between both is nature and this spirit is not void of a body but begotten of the elements which were in the seed and it is most elaborate nearly acceding to the nature of celestial spirits and most thin that it may fly all sense very apt to pass by an incredible celerity for it passes over the whole body with a great celerity that it may give motion sense and strength to its parts and perform other functions of the soul. D Concerning this spirit many great questions are agitated some do-banish it from the catalogue of spirits moved thereto by these Arguments First because there is no use nor necessity for it We answer Its use is great for first of all it is the chariot of aliment for the humours gotten in the liver can scarce penetrate of themselves through the narrow passages by reason of their crassitude nor can they well be carried to the other parts of the body by reason of the slowness of their motion Furthermore this spirit takes its natural faculty from the liver whose work is to attract retain and concoct familiar aliment to all the parts of the body and by a certain force doth expel the excrements Secondly they will have no place to be given by nature proper for this spirit We answer the liver is its fountain and principle as the heart of life and the brain of the soul. Thirdly they alledge that this spirit doth not lead any thing to any part or carry any thing thereunto But we say that as the animal spirit is carried by the Nerves the Vital by the Arteries so the natural spirit is carried by the veins together with the
compelling them into one of the ligaments serving the arteries to a voluntary motion the fibres of the tendons growing of the junctures are joyned amongst themselves E They are called spermatick parts because they are generated of seed and not of blood which argues that their colour must be white and cold in substance All nerves do arise from the brain and not from the heart as Aristotle imagined their use is to carry that animal spirit gotten in the brain and the motive and sensitive faculty and to communicate it to the body F The veins and arteries are joyned with a friendly intercourse that the veins may supply them with matter of spirit for the spirit doth cherish the blood with its heat in the arteries and there are mutual orifices that the spirit may take nutriment out of the veins and the veins spirit and heat out of the arteries But the arteries and veins do differ First in their original because they come out of the sinister ventricle of the heart Secondly in their function because they subminister vital spirits to the whole body Thirdâ—…y in their substance for the arâ—…eries so likewise the veins do â—…onsist of a membranous body â—…et more solid harder and conâ—…rmed by more crasser tunicles Now a tunicle is twofold exterior interior that fibre which is knit with many strait and crooked windings hath the like crassitude and firmness with the tunicle of the veins but this hath five times a more harder and grosser substance lest the subtil spirit should exhale and the artery it self be broken with the perpetual motion of the heart Fourthly in motion for the arteries are moved without intermission by dilatation and contraction when dilated they draw the cold air and when contracted cast out hot fumes G This question is moved by Physitians and Philosophers about the veins Whether they have a force or faculty to generate blood Some maintain it that the blood which the veins contain within themselves to elaborate more exquisitely and to be made by an insited force and faculty and therefore in that blood that the chiefest degree of perfection is gotten But the falsity of this opinion is easily known by those who diligently mark the thin tunicle of the veins and its white substance Now it is provided by nature that every part of the body should be converted to the other and transmuted into its colour then how can the veins with their thinness and whiteness change white chyle and gross into red and pure blood Therefore more truer is that opinion that the generation of blood is onely the work of the liver which doth make blood by a certain force and faculty within it self seated all the sanguifick force is given to the veins yet they receive it from the liver as Avicen demonstrates H Aristotle and Hippocrates do prove that fibres do concrete the blood by their frigidity because that blood out of which fibres are taken can never be concreted by any cold for when blood is let out of the veins if it doth not concrete it is a sign of death I Fat is the matter of blood and although it be made of the cream of blood yet notwithstanding it is cold and without blood degenerating into fat by the want of heat and frigidity of the membrane it consists of coldness and dryness because by heat it is melted and by the humidity of other parts coagulated by cold The efficient cause is the want of heat which is thus proved because you shall finde no fat as to any quantity about the liver or the heart or any other hot part by reason of the heat of those parts K Take this as another definition of the cutis the skin is a thin part membranous porous endowed with blood the tegument or cover of all the parts of the body which as it is easily taken away by accident so it doth easily grow again which denotes thus much that the skin is not altogether endowed with a sensitive faculty but onely so far as it hath the nerves and of the faculty of blood in it and whereas it is defined to be membranous that is smooth simple thin and white and that it hath a middle nature between flesh and nerves for neither is it altogether without blood as the nerves are so neither doth it abound with blood as the flesh doth whence it is adjudged to be the rule of temperaments and indeed the skin about the hands in it there is the most exquisite and perfect faculty of sense but not so in other parts of the body and the skin is porous that it may thereby attract the coldness of the air and expulse the excrementitious vapours of the body Now the excrement which comes out of the pores is sweat sweat is an excrementitious humidity of the third coction breaking out by the skin in the species or form of water the matter of sweat is the whole humidity which is gotten in meat and drink which thing is necessary to all animals because it might make way for other aliment and not longer lie in the vessels it is of the same genus with urine onely differing in this that the urine is carried to the bladder this with blood a longer passage through the body its efficient cause is heat but not so vehement as to have a drying faculty but moist so calefying the nature of sweat by the habit of the body that it becomes thin and so softens the skin by relaxation that it may the better pass through those whose skins are hard and thick are very unapt to sweat L Flesh may be taken either properly or improperly when properly taken then absolutely that which is described by us and it is the chiefest part of the muscles for the substance of them doth truly and properly deserve the name of flesh that which is taken improperly is the flesh of the bowels generated of blood poured out as the liver heart and lungs CHAP. 10. Of External dissimilar Parts 1. HItherto we have spoken of similar parts Now of dissimilar or organical which are diversly compounded of the similar 2. And they are either external or internal 3. The external parts are first the head secondly the trunk of the body thirdly the artus under which we comprehend the arms and feet 4. The head is the highest part of the body globular set upon the neck the seat of the animal faculty 5. Its parts that are external are chiefly the skull and the face 6. The skull is a crafs bone of the head round distinguished into twenty bones and certain futures covering the brain environing it on every side 7. Its bones are thus distinguished there are two in the crown one in the front two in the temples one in the form of a wedge another in the form of a sieve twelve in the superior jaw and one in the hinder part of the head 8. There are three sutures The first is transverse the crown going from towards one ear to the
is a certain partition which divides either side the vulgar call it the seventh medium which at the first sight appears crass but after a more curious inspection it is found to have many holes in it that there may be an easie passage from the left side to the right notwithstanding what the Neotericks exclaim against it and urge to the contrary 13. Furthermore there are certain appendixes membranous and full of windings leaping to each side of the ventricle which are called Auriculae not from its use or action but similitude 14. On the right side it lies open to the door of the vena cava the left is placed in the orifice of the venous artery and it is larger because it is the receptacle of gross blood the latter is the less because it contains air 15. The chief use of those Auriculars are First that they be ready receptacles of blood and air that they do not confusedly pass into the heart and so to suffocate the heart by oppression Secondly lest the vena cava and the venous artery be broken in violent motions for they have great force in drawing of blood and air in to the heart 16. The lungs E are of rare parts light and spungious and as it were concreted of spumous blood like the substance of a Snail seated in the thorax filling its whole cavity the instrument of breath and voice 17. And although it is but one in body yet it is divided into two parts by the membrane called Mediastinus the right and left 18. Either part consists of two Globes or Knots the one superior the other inferior often discernable and sometimes obscure 19. The use of these is that its flesh or substance should not be collaberated or tyred but that it may be more actively moved and that the heart be embraced on every side 20. The air is transmitted into the lungs by the asper-artery whose structure is constituted of Veins Cartilages Membranes and Nerves The Commentary A DIaphragma hath divers appellations for it is sometimes derived from the verb Diaphratto that is to fortifie because Diaphrattei that is it separates out the middle and low belly and also it is called the seventh transverse it is called Diaphragma and by ancient Medicks called Phrenas because as some judge by its inflammation the minde is hurt It s use is noble for it separates between the spiritual and vital bowels and the heart and the lungs from the naturals which separation Aristotle thinks to be made by nature lest the vapours which do exhale from meat offend the heart in which the soul he thinks doth reside But this opinion is false because the fumes do pass by the Oesophagum To conclude the Diaphragma hath two holes placed in organs ascending and descending Again it helps exspiration and inspiration for when the thorax is contracted then the inspiration is dilated but when it is laxed then inspiration is made Again it helps the ejection of the excrements by its motion with the muscles of the Abdomen Again it is the rise of the organs whereby it pleasantly affects the heart and causes laughter D The covering which defends the heart and contains it in its seat and hinders it lest it should be oppressed with its vicine members is called Capsula which contains also a certain watrish humour lest it should 〈◊〉 and dry with too much heat the substance of the heart is hard and dense lest it should be broken by its violent motions Its substance saith Aristotle is thick and spiss into which heat is received strongly and therefore its temperament is the hottest of all the members it is endowed with three kinds of fibres strait crooked and transverse that it may both draw contain and expel Now Aristotle thinks these fibres to be nerves and the principle of the nerves to be in the heart but he is deceived its figure is Pyramidal but not absolutely so in brutes but it is more flat then in a man it is placed in the thorax as the safest place and on the left side thereof C This is the shop of the vital faculty and therefore it is rightly called by Aristotle the first thing that lives and â—…he last that dies by its perpetual motion and heat it begets vital spirits for when it is dilated which motion is called Dyastole it allures unto it and draws blood by the benefit of the strait fibres from the vena cava by the venous artery but when it is constringed which is called Systole it sends blood from the right ventricle into the lungs by which they are nourished and that by the venous artery but the vital spirit out of the left by Aorta into the whole body and both ways it converts into vital spirit by attenuating the pure blood into vapour D There are two remarkable ventricles of the heart the right and the left between these there is a partition which distinguishes the one from the other which whereas it is crass and firm it is not rightly called by Aristotle the third side or belly but lest that the passages may seem to be made by this it sends out blood into another ventricle by narrow pores E The lung is called by the Greeks pneumon a pneo which is to breath because it is the organ of breathing therefore the lung ought to consist of such a substance that it may be filled and distended with air like a pair of bellows The primary Cause of which action is its proper substance which helps the motion thereof for when it is dilated it draws air and by the venal artery carries it to the heart by which the heat of the heart is allayed and the vital spirit as with food thereby cherished The figure of the Lung resembles the hoof of an ox which is divided by the Mediastinum into two parts it is the organ of voice which I prove because no animal hath a voice that hath not a lung there are some that say that there are two lungs but truly it is but one divided into two parts the right and the left And again both the parts consist of two Globes the one superior the other inferior sometimes seen open and sometimes shut the use thereof is that it may be moved more nimbly and so amplex the heart more easily CHAP. 13. Of the parts of the Animal faculty 1. VVE have spoken sufficiently of the parts of the middle belly Now we proceed to the organs of the supream region serving the animal faculty and they are such as are â—…ontained in the brain 2. The brain A is a soft part white and medullous fabricated of pure seed and spirit involved as it were in folds compassed about with a thin skin and contained in the cavity of the brain the principle of the animal faculty c. 3. And this is the highest of all the bowels and the next to heaven this is the tower of the senses the highest pinnacle the regiment of the minde 4. For the
onely distinguish of those which are idoneous to be eaten of which sort are edible Fruits and Herbs Fruits as Wheat Rye Barley Oats c. all manner of pulse as Pease c. Pot-herbs as Radish Fennel c. and all other Herbs that are eaten or mingled with meats as the Cabbadge Lettice c. Those which are not fit for esure are healthful or exitial the use whereof is in medicine either to absterge calefie or refrigerate with many other properties which medicine requires exitial are those that have an excedent quality as Hemlock But why have Plants and Animals such a familiarity or hatred amongst themselves is a question worth resolving There are certain Herbs which are edible which preserve the life of Animals now the consent must be in principles for all things are nourished by their simile and corrupted by their contrary but whether this consent be from the form or matter is a question not yet resolved That it doth proceed from the matter is a thing seemingly to be proved because the aliment doth not come from the naked form but body of the Plants and when it begins to nourish for those aliments which nourish must be concocted by the innate heat of the Animal and so be changed divers manner of ways it seems rather to belong to the matter then the form but we must know that matter cannot be idoneous for the nourishment of any body unless also the consent of form doth concur for neither without the help of other can be the cause of any action For whatsoever is made from a body that doth consist of matter and form is so made that the actions may be given rather to the form then matter and the passions rather to the matter then form and therefore the familiarity of nutriment is chiefly to be referred to the form although that the concurrence of the hability of the matter be necessary From these may be gathered why certain herbs are so averse from putrefaction but on the contrary apt and ready to the breaking of the whole body and everting of life for the cause of corruption is the contrariety of form and the matter makes repugnancy lest that any nutriment happen to the other for so the seeds of Grapes have of the matter and yet not nourish men and the wolf Thos hath of form and matter and yet averse from the life of men CHAP. 7. Of parts contained in animate Bodies and first of all of Humors 1. HItherto we have spoken of the first kinde of natural Animates to wit of Plants We shall now prosecute the other kinde aistheton or such as have sense 2. Aisthetice is a nature which is indowed with sense 3. And it is Zoophyton or an Animal 4. An Animal is a A sensible and animated body moving it self to a place 5. For Sense belongs onely to Animals and they are constituted for them and herein they differ from Plants 6. This animated Body B is one and simple harmony of many parts by continuation and union of form and it is dividual and variable into almost infinite parts 7. Therefore all that is part of an animate Body into which the same body cannot be divided or remain well whole Arist. 7. Polit. c. 8. 8. And some things are contained in these parts 9. They are contained which when they have a fluent and coherent nature are yet sustained by help of others 10. Of which sort C are both humours and spirits 11. An humour is the liquid and fluent part of a body contained in the spaces of an animate body and so placed therefore for the preservation of the same 12. Therefore whatsoever doth flow in and from the body insomuch that a vessel is required to be subjected in which the thing may be contained is called an humour 13. And humour is either insite or acquisite the insite is engendered of the whole mass of the body having its rise from the seed and menstruous blood for the conformation of the body and it is also called radical or primogenial 14. And it is either airy or oleous in which the native heat is preserved even as a flame by the candle 15. It is daily made of aliment for whatsoever suffices in its place it is needful to be changed by the help of heat but heat in product of time begins to fade and therefore what happens of aliment is impure and if it be destitute of fit aliment then heat at length quite dissipates 16. The acquisite doth come out for reparation sake for the more profitable parts of aliments 17. And it is either primary or secondary 18. The primary is gotten immediately of aliments concocted in the liver 19. Chylus therefore is not to be accounted the first humour both for that it is unapt of it self to nourish the body or any part thereof and also that it is not as yet truly fluid and not cocted in the liver 20. Primary humours are either profitable or excrementitious 21. Those that are profitable and make much to nutrition are blood and flegme 22. Blood D is a hot humour temperate sweet rubicund prepared in the Miseraick veins and confected in the liver of the most temperate oleous and airy parts of chyle 23. With this alone are all the parts of animals nourished First when it is certain that we are nourished of those things of which we consist but we are made of pure blood in the womb Secondly because this humour alone is distributed by vessels over the whole body and so doth accede to every part Thirdly this alone also is sweet and apt to nourish other humours are either bitter or acid Fourthly this alone can concrete by the benefit of the fibres and be assimilated to the body Arist. l. 2. de part anim c. 23. 24. Therefore this alone is contained in the veins not mingled with any other humour although it be conflated of four divers parts which do so constitute the sanguineous Mass as Cheese and Whay belongs to the substance of milk 25. Therefore because nature is not one and the same in all parts therefore from this Mass several stocks of juices may be drawn 26. Those parts are various of which blood doth consist some improperly entitle them by the name of excrementitious humours 27. For those humours are not carried with blood into the body if it injoys fully its native health but if infested with any preternatural affection then it is not blood but an excrement as Aristotle calls it and the Philosophers Nosodes haima diseased blood 28. Flegme E is a cold humour moist white and insipid gotten of a cold portion of chyle in the liver that by the progress of time and greater concoction it may divert to blood and so nourish the body 29. Therefore nature prudently hath hid no receptacle which might expurge it therefore seeing it cannot be evacuated it requires to be altered 30. Furthermore there are excrementitious humours which are unprofitable to nourish the body
therefore they are purged by nature 31. And these are made either by the second concoction together with the blood in the liver and may be discerned or of the third of what is left of every part 32. Two excrementitious humors are generated in the second concoction in the liver the one representing the flower the other the fecies of wine to wit yellow and black choler and whey 33. Yellow bile or choler F is an excrementitious humour hot and dry bitter also being procreated of the tender and hotter parts of chyle and so gathered into the bladder of the gall 34. This humor doth flow from the bladder of the gall by the passage of the Choledochum from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is choler and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to receive to the end of the intestines that it may stimulate the dull intestines by its acrimony to excretion and so bring down the slow flegme adhering to the interior membranes 35. Black choler G or melancholy is a cold and dry humour crass and black acerb acid arising from the grossâ—…r and feculent part of aliment and expurged from the spleen 36. Serum or whey is an excrementitious humor begotten of drink or any other liquor wherewith meat is digested in the stomach by the action of heat in the liver 37. Part of it is mild and distributed together with blood into the veins and so the same made gross by the coction and plenty of fibres and as it were deduced in a chariot to the extremities of the body the other part which is unprofitable is forthwith expelled to the â—…ins and hence by the Uretra's to the bladder 38. This Serum therefore is matter of urine for this is no other thing then serum altered in the liver and vessels attracted from the reins and expulsed into the bladder and at last excreted by the passage of the vein that purer blood may be made 39. But the excrementitious humours which are discerned in the third concoction do either break out of the whole body or by some determinate part 40. Of which sort are sweats and tears which we put amongst the excrements of the third concoction not that they are then generated for their matter is the same with serum but after that the concoction is made they are discerned 41. Sweat therefore is serum altered in the liver and by the conveyance of the blood is transmitted by the veins and at length out of these veins by the insensible passages of the body expulsed into the species of water 42. The usual and natural sweat of our body is of a watry colour but sometimes it is yellowish and reddish by reason of the tenuity of the blood which Aristotle mentions 43. A Tear is a drop contained in the head and angles of the veins which are in the eyes and doth break out by the watry holes to the internal angle of the eye and by compression and dilatation by the scissure of the conjunctive tunicle 44. Hence it is that the coming of tears doth not proceed from the eyes for they are as it were but the emissaries of the drops 45. It behoves also that nature should have given to every man tears properly so called because sometimes he is sad and sometimes rejoyces whence his veins are dilated and compressed 46. They are most prone to tears whose bodies are endowed with a cold and moist tender soft and effeminate constitution and with a moist and languid brain hence it is that children and women more then men are addicted more to pour out tears in such a plentiful manner 47. Great plenty and abundance of tears do flow from them also who have the carnucles and angles of the eyes great and lax 48. And on the contrary some by no force nor means can be made to weep because in them the Lachrymal flesh doth obduce the veins and so hinder the flux of tears 49. Let these suffice to have been spoken of the primary humours both excrementitious and profitable the secondary humours are those which are made new of insited or radical moisture or of blood much concocted 50. Of which sort are these two H Ros and Gluten 51. Ros is an humour which doth distil like a dew generated of blood resolved into vapour and doth resude by the tunicles of the veins and partly flows from or by the pores thereof 52. Gluten is an humour begotten of Ros applied first to the substance of the part and there adhering and then changed by the heat of the parts and it is called Gluten because it agglutinates the parts 53. Therefore we shall exclude the rest either because they are or may be referred to what hath been said or that they are improper wanting names whereby they cannot be appropriated to any class The Commentary A IT is delivered in the definition that an Animal doth consist of Matter and Form Matter is an Animate or Organical body Form is endowed with sense for sense ought to belong and is necessary to such an Animal and of that alone are Animals constituted and therein do they differ from Plants which indeed are animates but destitute of sense Now in animals motion doth always accompany sense as a thing necessary to the conservation of the animal for because it is preserved by nutriment it stands in need of motion to procure that nutriment but every animal by divine ordination doth generate the whole and perfect simile to it self in which generation matter is the seed of both sexes masculine and feminine or a certain simile that is in stead of seed although sometimes certain animates are produced out of putrefaction yet there must be some certain seminal force therein or else it could not be the efficient cause of any such generation B Because these sublunaries do consist of dissimilar natures therefore they are mortal corruptible therefore lest that God should seem to be wanting to them he hath or dained that they that cannot remain in the same number or at least in the same species be revived by annual succession and therefore by the benefit of procreation that one species should proceed out of another whence the life of the dead as we may say is placed in the memory of the living and the father doth live in the son as the artificer in his work But as God is always the first cause of all natures so is he the true proper and first efficient cause in the rise of all animals The secondary or instrumentary are the animals themselves whether masculine or feminine of the same species that they may make one when they are united and distinctly ordered to the obscene parts and instruments of generation for the masculine is generated in another and not in it self the feminine doth generate in it self and not in another Where observe that perfect animals onely can be said to proceed from the congress of the masculine and the feminine yet some may be excepted for of little animals as insects
which are produced of putrid matter alone without seed so the flye Cantharis hath neither masculine nor feminine nor is it a Pâ—…enix in nature so an Eel is of neither sex and many other C It is disputed by some whether humours or spirits may be rightly reckoned amongst animal parts because they obtain no figure nor certain mode of increment like solid and dimense parts but know that we take the word part largely in this place for all that which is necessary to the constitution of an animate body for whatsoever may not be taken from the whole without a dissolution of that whole that may properly be called part of that whole therefore humors and spirits because if they be taken away the animal whole cannot consist therefore they are adjudged to pass under the name of parts But here it will be demanded whence doth the dissimilitude of the four humours depend from the efficient or from the matter Galen and Avicen do assert that blood doth arise from a moderate and temperate choler from an intense and flegme from a remiss heat But Fernelius more rightly refers the cause of so great variety to the aliment that is â—…o the material cause because it â—…s not consentaneous the same â—…eat in the same time and part â—…o produce contrary effects â—…herefore the cause of this dissiâ—…ilitude is referred to the matâ—…er For whereas aliment which â—…s the matter taken into our boâ—…ies doth consist of divers parts â—…t is altogether consentaneous to â—…uth that those humours which â—…o arise from it cannot be altoâ—…ther of one and the same genus â—…ut divers for what part of the â—…yle is more temperate is converted by the liver into blood and what more hotter is changed into yellow choler and what is crude into flegme and what is terrene into melancholy And these are familiar to the body four manner of ways as Hippocrates saith by which we are constituted and nourished for because the bodies of animals do disperse those things which are excrementitious by certain occult foramens and that by diflation therefore they need aliment D Blood may be understood two manner of ways First for all the four humours which are contained in the veins which when opened blood doth flow out endowed with the four humours for blood is not similar but a mass conflated of different humours Secondly blood may be taken peculiarly and properly for a pure sejoyned humor which is known by this sign that assoon as it is let out into a vessel it concretes and turns into clots by reason of its fibres this humour is called by Hippocrates hot and moist because it conserves the life of the animal which consists of a humid as though material and a calid principle as formal and it is also called temperate by Galen because a hot and moist temperament doth next accede to the temperature because it is the fittestto produce animal-operations and it is called sweet because it arises from a moderate heat and of a temperate and best part of chyle it is called Red or Rubicund because it acquires a colour from the liver that is red for every part propounds this as its end to assimilate that to itself which it altered therefore chyle is taken from the ventricle and transmuted by little and little to the liver and so by degrees doth pass and is converted into its nature and hence it is that it receives its colour from this doth every part attract aliment whence blood is called by some the treasure of life which nature so keeps in such safe custody that all the other humors may receive loss before blood nay some have gone so far as to go about to demonstrate that the soul resides in blood others do affirm that blood is essentially the very soul. E Flegme is gotten of the gross and watrish part of chyle sometimes it is called sweet not that any dulcitude or sweetness doth possess it as it is with honey or sugar but so to be understood as when we say sweet water or water is sweet and when we ascribe frigidity to it we do mean that it is not partaker of the contrary viz. heat but because that coldness is predominant in it for if flegme were onely cold exactly then it would be coacted like unto ice and if it were exactly humid it were void of all crassitude and lentor the effect of it is to nourish the flegmatick members together with blood and it is alimenâ—… half cocted and in progress of time may easily make blood and nourish the whole body F The matter of black choler or melancholy is the more gross and feculent part of aliment not unlike to the fecies of wine or the setlings of oyl This humour is cold and dry because terrene neither yet so cold but that it is a partaker of some heat otherwise it would concrete like ice nor void of all humidity otherwise it would not be an humor but a hard body like to an Adamant its proper colour is black or rather oleaceous which in a temperate man is called black if compared with the colour of other humours it is crass by reason of its terrene nature and it hath sometimes a sowre sapour when much heat cocts the humidity and sometimes sharp when less heat c. its use is to nourish the gross hard and terrene members But here a question may be handled whereas it is said that melancholy is terrene cold and dry therefore unapt to all the motions both of body and minde its strange why Aristotle will have all melancholy persons to be ingenious either in the study of Philosophy or moral Policy in Poetry and many other Arts and Sciences It is answer'd that the strength of wit is discerned and discovered either by quickly learning or strongly retaining In this latter melancholy persons do excel because siccity is necessary and appropriated to the retentive faculty therefore the brain is made firm and contemperated from this humor by the heat of blood and spirit and indeed those that are without this humour are very forgetful and though they may be ingenious yet they are always found to be light and unstable seldom persevering in the thing proposed by reason of the levity of spirits for judgement and prudence is noâ—… perfected in motion but in rest whence Aristotle could affirm that the soul is rendred more intelligible by rest and quietness then commotion and trouble H Avicen besides those two before named doth make other two adventitious humours amongst which those spoken of do possess a medium the first is called innominatus because it never flows out of the veins but the second the Barbarians call Cambium because it desires to flow out and would be changed into the substance of flesh but both of them are rejected yet Fuchsius would have this humor to be the same with the radical but without reason Here it may be demanded whether it may perpetuate life because the oleous or radical is preserved
aliment blood into the general mass of the body But here another question will arise how can the spirits flow into the inward and most remote parts but by penetration and dimension Answer Some bodies are crass and solid and some thin and tender through those that are hard they cannot penetrate but the spirits because they are thin do fly all manner of sense and are diffused without impediment in a moment this way and that way with a certain kind of celerity and do pervade the members neither by their presence filling them nor by their absence emptying them E And in this spirit all the causes come to be considered the matter is the natural spirit procreated in the liver thence carried by the vena cava with the arterious blood that is the purest of blood upwards going into the right side of the heart where it is attenuated most accurately by the passages not altogether occult but if a dog be dissected it will be found in the left side the efficient cause is the strong heat of the heart attenuating and making thin the vital spirit it 's form its rarefaction not unlike to the tenuity of a little flame its end is to conserve life diffused from the heart by the arteries into the universal body F The matter of this spirit is that vital which is carried by the crevices of the arteries to the basis of the brain and it doth slide thereinto as into a net which is placed there by nature as a labyrinth for when any matter would exactly elaborate it doth devise a longer stay in the instruments of coction and afterwards by another context is intromitted into ventricles of the brain the efficient cause is motion but chiefly the proper force of the solid substance of the brain whereby this spirit doth exactly elaborate and so become animal the form of it is rarefaction made perfect by the degeneration of the vital spirit into the animal its end is to shew a sensitive and moving faculty with great celerity from the middle ventricle of the brain by the nerves into the whole body by which spirit the animal faculty is apprehended in man of reason and memory if its force or motion be not hindred CHAP. 9. Of the similar parts of an Animate body 1. HAving expounded the contained parts the continent do follow which consist of substance by reason of that firmness and solidity they have 2. And they are either homogeneous or heterogeneous similar or dissimilar 3. A similar A part is that which may be divided into similes according to the particles of sense and into the same species 4. Of similar parts some are spermatical others carnous 5. The spermatick parts are those which are generated immediately of the crassament of seed and so coalesced into hard substances 6. Of which sort are Bones Cartilages Ligaments Membranes Nerves Arteries Veins Fibres Fat 's Skin 7. Bones are the hardest parts B of animates dry and cold begotten of the crassament of seed by exustion to the stability of the whole 8. These are endowed with no sense because first no Nerves are disseminated by their substance Secondly if they were sensible they could not endure daily labors without great pain and that sensation would either take away the greatest part of action or render it frustraneous 9. A Cartilage C is a kin to these which is a substance or part a little softer then bones and harder then any other member and flexible after a certain manner made to the keeping of motion in its destinated parts 10. A Ligament D is a simple part of the body hard and begotten of seed yet softer then a Cartilage and yielding to the touch knitting the bones together 11. A certain portion of these is called tendous which is a similar part begotten of Fibres Nerves and Ligaments mixed in a muscle all which are called articles 12. A Membrane is a similar part begotten of seed tender covering several other parts 13. The Nerves are spermatick parts arising from the brain or back-bone the interior part of the marrow the exterior of the membrane carrying the animal spirit to sense and motion 14. They are distinguished into softer or harder 15. They are soft which do arise from the former part of the brain 16. And they are seven conjugations for none of all the Nerves are simple but all conjugated whence they are called paria nervorum 17. The chiefest of these are inserted in the centre of the eye and are called the visive or optick nerves carrying the faculty of seeing unto them 18. The second propagation of moving of the nerves is the eyes 19. The third society is partly scattered into the tunicle of the tongue to propogate to the taste and part dispersed in other parts of the face 20. The fourth conjugation is a certain proportion dispersed in the palate 21. The fifth is carried by the auditory passage to the drum of the ears and they are called the auditory nerves 22. The sixth is a large portion of nerves wandring and running almost through all the bowels 23. The seventh arises from the hinder part of the head and the marrow of the back-bone and inserted into the muscles of the tongue and is said to move the tongue 24. The crasser nerves in which there is a more obtuser faculty and they do come out of the marrow of the back-bone carrying sense and motion to the internal parts 25. And thirty of these are alike and combined seven to the hinder part of the neck twelve to the Thorax five to the Lungs six to the sacred bones all which do disperse themselvs like boughs into the other parts of the body 26. The Arteries F are hollow vessels long having two tunicles and those crass and substantial ordained for the deducing of the vital spirit and for temperating and expurging of the heart and other parts to heat 27. And they do arise out of the heart of which two principal Arteries do spring out of the left side thereof from which two all the other take their original Arteria Aorta et Arteria venosa 28. The great Artery Aorta is the foundation of all other Arteries and doth carry the vital spirit to all the other parts of the body 29. The venous artery is stretched out like a quill from the same side of the heart into the liver from whence it brings air to cool the heart 30. A vein G is a similar part and round and hollow like to a reed arising from the liver consisting of one tunicle contexted of three Fibres carrying blood for nutriment together with the natural spirit to the several parts of the body 31. Veins are distinguished into principal and less principal 32. The Principal are those out of which as out of a trunk or stock others do arise and they are two vena porta and vena cava 33 Vena porta is a great vein coming out of the hollow part of the liver and excepting all the Mesenterian veins
by which it takes chyle out of the ventricle and intestines and so doth carry it to the concavity of the liver 34. Vena cava which is also called the great vein doth arise from the bunchy part of the liver and running over the whole longitude of the animal carries the blood to all the parts for nutriment 35. The less principal veins are branches of the former and either they have peculiar names allotted or not 36. The branched veins are partly Mesenterial and partly Hemorrhoidal 37. The causes of these are either external or internal 38. The internal are the emulgent or seminal veins 39. The exterior are the jugular veins in the head the intercostal in the trunk and the auxiliary in the arms of these and all the branches dispersed from them into both the exterior and interior parts of the body no particular names are allotted them 40. The fibres are H similar parts begotten white and solid of seed and dispersed every where over the whole membrane 41. And they are either right oblique or transverse 42. They are right which are carried according to the longitude of the membrane and do serve to attract aliment 43. Those that are transverse are such as are placed cross the body and they retain the attracted aliment 44. Oblique are those that are obduced with an organ crooked and do crosswise cut the two former and have an expelling force 45. Fat is a similar part I of the body moist without blood concreted of the aereal and fatty part of blood erupting by sweat through the tunicles of the vessels and congealed by the frigidity of the nervous parts 46. The skin K is a similar part ample and spermatick and it is the covering of all the parts of the body 47. To this may be added that which is no other then a thin and tender skin not unlike to the peeling of an onyon 48. Hitherto of similar parts which are spermatick they are carnous which are generated of blood and they are the flesh of the muscles 49. Flesh L is a tender part soft and rubicund and concreted of coagulated blood The Commentary A MAny definitions of similar parts are delivered both by ancient and late writers Aristotle doth call that a similar part which is divided into like parts which definition almost all have kept which notwithstanding seems to be imperfect for it must be understood of those things that may be divided into similar parts both according to sense and reason As for example flesh in the judgement of sense may be divided into parts which are similar mutually to it self and to the whole but in reason or imagination it is divided both into the four humours of which it consists and also into the four elements which neither are similar mutually to it self or by being compound to the whole therefore this particle is rightly added in the definition according to sense whence also Galen makes mention of sense saying That these are similar parts which are like in sense and therefore those parts are called rightly similar which do admit of no division altogether sensible into diversities and therefore they are called simple as to sense For although the elements alone are truly simple because they acknowledge no composition onely of matter and form notwithstanding they are called simple and similar parts of animals by a certain similitude and analogy for those things which are truly similar cannot be divided into the parts of a divers species neither in sense nor reason so that what things are onely similar in sense are not to be divided into diversities sense being judge B Bones are called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their substance is hard and dry whence it follows that the same is chiefly terrene that is partaking more of earth then of any other element they are void of sense because much portion of the nerves is disseminated by their substance by the benefit whereof all the parts are sensitive But because some do assert that there is a notable sense in bones We answer that this sense doth not arise from the bones but from that membrane which doth cover the bone for that being abrased the bone may not onely be cut without any pain but without sense But it may be objected that the teeth are bones which experience doth teach to be most exquisite in sense I answer That happens by accident and not of it self for certain soft and tender nerves do appear to be derived from the teeth which because they are disseminated to the inward parts of the teeth do so affect the substance thereof that it causes great pain Furthermore in hollow bones marrow is contained which is a simple substance moist fat and white and the aliment of those bones this marrow is without blood yet hath its original of blood which doth distil out of the orifices of the vessels to the Periostium and so doth pierce into the cavities of the bones the efficient cause is the frigidity of the bones whence it is that cold and moist bodies do abound with much more fatness and marrow then the hot and dry and for this reason the bones of a Lyon do want marrow which of all creatures is the dryest and hottest because they have bones hard and dense It s use is to nourish the bones and to binde with iâ—… incalescency with motions and other causes C A Cartilage is called by the Greeks Condros its substance is terrene and solid but not so much as the bone whence Aristotle doth rightly write that the matter of a Cartilage and Bone to be one and the same matter onely differing in dryness for a Cartilage is softer then a Bone and somewhat flexible whence it gives place with its softness neither doth it so resist as the bone It s use is multifarious for first it is a certain stay and prop and makes the proximate parts more stable Secondly it admirably defends the bones from knocking or grinding together but being annexed by the same they may be more firm and stable Thirdly they promote and cause certain light parts to a promptness of motion in the arteries Fourthly they defend them against many accidents for their substance is idoneous to cover them and defend them because they being hard cannot easily be broken or cut hence we conclude with good reason that a Cartilage is void of sense D The most noted ligaments are in the trunk or artubus the ligaments of the trunk are either in the head or thorax in the head either in the whole or in part for a ligament doth convert the whole head with the spina so the tongue with the jaws In the trunk of the joynts there are ligaments knitting the bodies intrinsecally and cloathing of them as it were extrinsecally the ligaments of the joynts do connect other bones os ilii with os sacrum But there is a certain portion of a ligament called a tendon consisting of the fibres of the nerves and
other and doth knit the bone of the forehead to the rest of the body 9. The second is called Sagittalis which goes along the head and doth knit the two bones of the crown 10. The third doth ascend from the posterior part of one ear to the end of the sagittal suture and again deflects to the other ear in the form of the letter A and doth knit the bone of the hinder part of the head with the rest of the body 11. Thus much for the skull Now for the face which is called that whole in a man which is under the forehead or as Aristotle saith That interior part which is under the skull 12. This doth comprehend the eyes ears nose cheekes and mouth 13. The eye is no other thing then the organ of sight consisting of tunicles and humors 14. And because it ought to receive the several species of light and colours therefore it is formed of pellucid matter 15. The tunicles of the eyes besides the white which arising from the Peritoneum doth joyn the eye to the head whence it is called conjunctiva and adnata are four First the horny tunicle which is clear shining like to a horn Secondly the Uvea which is like to the husk of a grape and it adheres to the horny tunicle embracing the apple of the eye Thirdly the Retina or tunicle resembling a net which is of the substance it self of the visive nerves bringing an animal spirit to the eye and again the Idea of the object to the brain Fourthly the Aranea or like to sand containing the chrystalline humor and separating it from the white 16. The humors of the eyes are three First the watry humour which serves for the gathering of resemblances Secondly the glassy humour for the forming of those idea's 17. The ear is an organical part of the body and the instrument of hearing 18. It s nature is compounded of divers parts very artificiously of nerves membranes bones cartilage which gathereth sounds and so accordingly altereth them 19. Its bones are first Malleus Secondly Incus Thirdly Stapes of whose colision sound is said to be made 20. The nose is an organical part placed in the middle of the face the instrument of respiration and smelling 21. It s part is either superior or inferior 22. The superior is the bony part which is immoveable and this the inferior part the exteor is the back of the nose 23. The inferior part is moveable which is the end being round divided into parts consisting of muscles 24. A cheek is nothing else then the superior part of the jaw and the inferior 25. The superior cheek is that part of the face next to the front from both the ears to the lowest part of the jaws 26. The inferior is the moveable part of the face containing the teeth 27. The whole mouth is called that space which is between the lips and the jaws in which is contained the teeth the tongue the palate and throat-pipe 28. The teeth are A the hardest of all bones hollow within endowed with veins arteries and nerves ordained for to soften and prepare meat for the stomach 29. Those are in number thirty twenty whereof are accounted cheek-teeth eight cutting which are the foremost and four eye-teeth in either jaw two 30. The tongue is B a carneous part rare and lax the organ of taste and speech 31. The palate is the superior part of the mouth a little concavated bored through with many holes by which flegme doth ascend from the brain into the mouth 32. The throat-pipe C is fungous flesh long hanging from the palate to the mouth conducing to the moduling of voice in a man 33. Truncus is the whole body with head arms or legs 34. Some part of it is anterior and some posterior 35. The anterior again is either superior and that is called the thorax or inferior that is the belly 36. The thorax D or brest is the anterior part of the trunk which is subject to the neck and it is the seat of the vital members 37. It s proper parts are either soft and fleshy or bony and cartilaginous 38. The carnous parts are those many muscles placed in the thorax of which sort are all the muscles of aspiration and scapulation some of them moving the arms 39. To these carnous parts belong the paps which are parts sited or placed on each side in the middle region of the brest glandulous and woven with veins and arteries serving for the generation of milk in women 40. For these parts for their rare and cavernous substance which they have do receive into them menstruous blood which is the matter of milk which afterwards is levigated cocted and converted into a white liquor both by a specifical vertue of the flesh of the paps as also from the heat of the heart whereunto it is near 41. Hence Aristotle rightly concluded that milk was nothing else then superfluous blood changed and made white 42. The bony parts thereof are threefold the first bone is called Sternon and Sethos and it is on the anterior part in which the ribs do meet and under which the mouth of the ventricle doth lie hid 43. The cartilaginous extremity of this is after the form of a spear or buckler and it is called malum granatum 44. Secondly the two neck-bones which are called cleides and these bones are twins subject to the neck declining to the tops of the shoulders 45. The thorax F consists of twenty four ribs twelve on either side and they are either true or counterfeit 46. They are true which are coarticulated and they are the seven superior 47. The spurious or imperfect are those that are not coarticulated and they are the five inferior 48. The inferior part of the thorax is portended from the brest where the true ribs end backwards to the hips or pubes 49. The exterior part of this above the belly is portended to the going down of the spurious ribs and is called Spigastrion the inferior proceeds from the belly even to the hairy parts of the genitals and it is called Hypogastrion 50. The posterior part of the trunk is called the back and it is all that part which descends from the neck to the buttocks 51. It s substance is constituted 1. of the shoulderblade 2. Spina dorsi 3. hip bones 52. The shoulderblades are two bones placed after the thorax in the back inarticulated in the arms to strengthen the ribs and for the implantation of the muscles 53. Spina dorsi is no other thing then that series or structure of joynts extended even from the first joynts of the hinder part of the neck to the lowest called â—…cygs 34. There are in number of these joynts thirty four seven whereof are of the neck twelve of the thorax five of the loyns six of the sacred bone four of the ossis Coccygos twenty four of the formost are rightly named joynts because by them the body is turned divers ways the rest
are called rather by similitude then reality 55. The hip-bones are two strong bones placed within the os sacrum and ending in the buttocks 56. But os sacrum H is conflated of many bones to wit five or six sited almost in the middle of the body other bones both superior and inferior resting upon them are moved thereby 57. The Artus are two the hands and feet 58. The whole hand I is that which is portended from the shoulderblade to the end of the fingers 59. It is divided by Hippocrates into three parts into the arm the wrist and the hand it self 60. That is named the arm which extends from the shoulder to the elbow and doth consist of one great bone and many muscles seven whereof do govern the motion of the arm and four govern the motion of the wrists and it doth consist also of three chief veins the humerary axillary and median 61. The wrist is that part from the elbow to the hand and consists of two bones the greater and lesser whereof are both called Ulna which consists also of thirty three muscles prepared for the motion of the arms and hands 62. The hand reaches from the wrist to the end of the fingers the organ of apprehension 63. The parts of this again are brachial postbrachial and the fingers 64. The brachial or wrist is part of the hand it consists of eight bones the ligament being â—…ransverse 65. Postbrachial is that part of the hand placed between the wrist and the fingers whose posterior is articulated with the wrist the anterior with the fingers 66. The fingers are in number five every one consisting of three little bones the first is that which is the greatest in strength and magnitude and is called Pollex the second is called the Index and Demonstrator the third the middle fourthly the Ring-finger fifthly the least 67. The foot K is part of the body which is inserted into the hip the organ of walking and standing 68. Its parts are three the thigh the shank and the foot 69. The thigh doth reach from the hip even to the knee consisting of a bone the greatest of all with muscles and glandulous flesh 70. The knee is a knitting or dearticulation of the thigh and leg whose anterior part is called Patella and Posterior Poples 71. The shank is a part reaching from the knee to the foot the anterior part is called Anticnemion and the posterior Gastrocnemion 72. The shank doth consist of two long bones the interior and greater is called Tibia the exterior or less Fibula 73. The foot doth begin at the end thereof and reach to the extremity of the toe and doth consist of thirty eight bones and two musces whereby the toes are moved bended and extended The Commentary A TEeth are said to have sense by the communication of those soft little nerves proceeding from the third rank of nerves because those teeth that are â—…ormost or extant without the jaws are not capable of sense but those that are covered as it were with flesh in the jaws are very sensitive because the nerves and their vertues are extended to their region But now that part of the tooth which appears naked is insensible This I prove if it be cut filed broken or burned with a hot iron it is not sensible of any of these Therefore in this very thing do teeth differ from other bones because the teeth are perpetually nourished and increased which cannot be except there were instruments to convey this unto them But other bones onely take their determined increment B The substance of the tongue is laxe and therefore fit to be moved in every part and because it ought to judge of sapors therefore it ought to be rare that it may be easily imbued with the humour of sapours and that it may perfectly feel and distinguish of all kind of sapours it hath certain nerves implanted in it from the fourth rank C This Particle alone is proper to man for it avails much to the tuning of the voice and therefore it is called by some Plectron D By ancient writers that part of the body which reaches from the neck to the Genitals is called the Thorax so that according thereunto the belly is contained under the name of Thorax But Later Medicks with Galen do account that part onely the Thorax which is included between the sides or the region of the paps It is called Thorax apo to thoro for the continued motion of the heart its use is to be dilated and compressed to the motion of the vital members which contains in it self the benefit of respiration the substance of the Thorax doth consist of muscles paps and grisles or bones E They are called Cleides because they shut up the coarticulated humour with the shoulderblade lest it should slip into the brest thorax or arm F The ribs are numbred to be twenty four each side containing twelve where observe that this number is not always found for in some are found thirteen and in some but eleven which happens by reason of the matter either abounding or deficient Therefore Aristotle doth erre in asserting that there are but onely eight bones in the side of a man and in some nations onely seven And as many ribs as there are in a man so many there are in a woman and therefore altogether ridiculous is that Comment that there is one less in a man then in a woman or one abounding more in a woman then in a man G The belly is a part of the body which reacheth from the brest where the ribs end even to the privities and it is divided into three regions the first above about and below the navel above the navel from the midriff to the navel Epigastrion and Hypochondrion the middle which is as it were the center of the navel which is formed of two veins and so many arteries which carries blood and spirit for the nutriment of the yong and conveys back again the excrements about this are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both viâ—…ine parts to the navel so called because they are empty below the belly is containted the Hypogastrion which is that part of the belly which reaches from the navel even to the genitals H This bone is called Sacred because it is great broad and ample Hieron with the ancient is great this doth consist of many bones coagmented together which notwithstanding in tender age may be separated yet in old age with much coction so much coalesced that it is almost incredible to believe it conâ—…ts of many bones I Galen and Hippâ—…ates do call that the hand which is from the shoulder to the fingers that which Aristotle calls brachium we call manus and the Germans Ein hand K It consists of a superficies and substance tâ—… superficies is distinguished into five regions which are these Calcaneus and that is the posterior part the mouâ—…t of the foot by the Greeks called Tharsos and by the Arabians Rascheta and it
of this noxious humour is gathered into the bottom of the ventricle to excite appetite the rest slides into the intestines and so is thrust out of doors 39. The reins and bladder purge out a wheyish or serose humidity 40. The reins O which are in number two are carnous parts thick and solid purging out blood with a sâ—…rose humor 41. Both the emulgent veins and ureteres serve to evacuate serose humidity 42. The emulgent veins do arise from the vena cava and are inserted into the reins dispersing abroad an aguous humidity with blood and carried to the reins 43. The ureteres are two urinary channels arising from the cavity of the reins white consisting of one simple tunicle deducing the urine by the force of the reins into the bladder 44. The bladder P is a nervous part consisting of two tunicles interwoven with a treble kinde of fibres round and somewhat long placed in the Hypogastria taking the urine brought from the ureteres and conveys it out of the body 45. There are two parts of it the bottom and the neck 46. In the bottom is contained the urine and this passes by degrees thorow the neck a muscle there as a porteÌ„r obstructing its fluor lest it come at unawares upon us 47. And thus much of the members of the nutritive faculty Lastly there are organs of generation which are accommodated to continue and propogate their kinde 48. And these are either common to both sexes or peculiar to one 49. The common are the seminary vessels cods and stoneâ—… 50. The seminary vessels do ascend from the stones upwards inserted in the cods Parastaten adunoeide and the seed is the profitable superfluity of the mass of blood which is the matter of the seed and vital spirit producing heat into the act of the seed and carries it to the stones 51. And they are two the right and left the former arises immediately from the trunk of the cava the latter from a branch of the emulgent veins 52. The testicles Q are soft parts glandulous and white rare and cavernous in which the seed is perfected and cocted 53. In men they hang without the body but in women they grow on the back one on each side 54. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R are two vessels candid cavernous and glandulous arising from the testicles carrying feed into the testicles In men they are placed at the root of the yard in women at the bottom of the matrix 55. To conclude there are members peculiar to one sex either to man or woman 56. Competent to man S is the yard which hangs on the forepart of a man of a good length fistulous on every side a fit instrument for the conveyance of seed 57. And it doth consist of two hollow neres one passage common both to the seed and urine four muscles and as many veins and nerves and lastly of a nervous membrane and skin 58. The end of it is called glans consisting of a fleshly substance which is covered by a loose skin growing over it which is called Preputium 58. Proper onely to a woman is the matrix or womb and it is the membranous part of a woman consisting of a tunicle coagmented as it were of two things divided round and placed in the bottom of the belly forming the yong of prolifick seed and by a proper faculty cherishing the same and when it comes to maturity it excludes it The Commentary A THe aforesaid natural members are involved in three pannicles the Peritoneum Omentum and Mesenterium The Peritoneum is a thin membrane broad and continued like to a Weavers Loom or Spiders Web involving and containing all the bowels of the inferior belly binding them to the back lest they should fall down it helps also the putting forth of the excrements which when it is too little it is broken The Omentum is a double membrane arising from the Peritoneum interwoven with many nerves and arteries and covers the ventricle and intestines Its use is that it may cherish the ventricle in whose bottom it lies and holds the heat of the intestines which is shut up and so to increase with its own heat it is called with the Greeks Epiploon because of its fatness with which it overspreads the belly This tunicle is the first that appears after the incision of the belly The Mesenterium is a double member consisting of two firm tunicles of the Peritoneum and of many veins arteries and nerves placed in the middle of the intestines as its centre its use is to contain the intestines that they may not lose their proper foldings and that it may contain them more strongly it consists of a hard and double tunicle which arises from the Peritoneum the veins which are in the Mesentery do arise from vena porta and from thence do run between two of their membranes to the intestines that they may 〈◊〉 take chyle and they are called mesaraicae venae B There is onely in man one ventricle but in other animals more sometimes two sometimes three as in sheep goats oxen and harts that those hard meats wherewith they are fed may paâ—…s through divers ventricles for their better preparation and coction The ventricle is called by the Greeks Gastor and Colia its substance ought to be membranous that it may be extended and again corrugated according to the plenty or scarcity of nutriment its figure is spherical or round like the form of a long gourd for the capacity of aliments for if it were square a portion of the food would remain in the angles which if it should happen man would continually be in a feaver it is long also by reason of its situationÌ„ and hath two orifices the one whereof is at the top for the receiving of aliment the other at the bottom to convey it to other parts of the body when it is made and converted into chyle it hath two tunicles constituted of its proper substance one whereof is internal the other external the internal is wholly nervous gross and woven with straight fibres running down the back that it may better contain humid bodies lest they pass as it were through a strainer and also that it may be extended to all positions the External is wholly carnous and soft consisting of many fibres and those transverse that after the meat is cocted it may the better be driven out it hath also a third tunicle arising from the Peritoneum and doth involve the ventricle to the duodenum intestinum of which the temperament of the ventricle doth appear which is cold and dry and therefore convenient to the nature of nerves it hath also a native heat without which it cannot make a perfect concoction which is increased from the liver and spleen and other vicine members its seat is thus the superior part of it doth touch the Diaphragma in the left side and so falls into the the right side of the liver where it rests its bottom reaches from
the left side into the right and shews the place of the spleen its utility is famous for it serves the nutritive faculty and that divers manner of ways in its orifice the animal appetite doth reside for when all the parts of the body desire the aliment which succeeds into thâ—… place of a vacuated substance they endeavor to draw it from the veins the veins from the liver the liver from the vena porta the vena porta from the intestines and the intestines derive it from the stomack in which forthwith there is a desire of more aliment which is called hunger or thirst it alters the aliment it receiving concocts it and changes it into chyle and that in the space of five or six hours C The intestines are called by the Greeks Entra whence doth arise that word to Exenterate that is to embowel their substance is not much different from the ventricle yet a little thinner they have double tuniâ—…es partly that by a greater sorce they may drive out the excrements and partly from a certain providence of nature that if the interior be putrefied and exâ—…rated the exterior may be safe that the chyle may not flow out and the interior tunicle is more carnous the exterior membranous it is endowed with crooked fibres the better to be enabled to propel matter The intestines are folded with many windings and turnings that the chyle may tarry longer in them and the aliment may not so soon slide out for those animals whose entrals have but few windings are voracious concerning which Pliny writes very gallantly D Intestina Gracila the first is the duodenum it hath no windings but is strait and that because it hath many cells which do easily retain the fecies and may thereby at will hinder the distribution of chyle the passage also of this doth touch the vessel of the gall which carries yellow choler and so by its acrimony helps the propulsion of the chyle and that it may cast out the flegmy excrements of the intestines E It is called by the Greeks Nesis because it doth quickly transmit the chyle both for the greater number of Mesaraical veins which are engrafted into this intestine and also because the more sincerer part of choler doth flow into it F This last intestine because it is more tender then the rest is called Lepton because in it there is much chyle and that for this use that it may draw a certain moderate quantity of meat into them lest that it flow forthwith gross into the intestines in this there is sometime an obstruction that happens and it is called Iliacus morbus G In some brutes to wit Dogs and Hogs and other crude animals this intestine is like to a thick broad bag but in man it is a certain small appendix of the Ileos convolved in the manner of a worm scarce exceeding the latitude of two singers and longitude of one it is called by the Greeks Tuphlon because it hath but one hole H It is called Colon as though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a sheath or a case or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is mutilate or cut short because it hath divers turnings cut as it were into cells which cells indeed do contain dry excrements called Scubala that is the dung of Dogs some call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from its tormenting pain and passion which this intestine is often affected with when its passage is stopped with cold and gross humours or filled and dilated with winde I The strait intestine is called Apeuthymenon Enteron because it is not folded and thereupon it makes a more easie excretion of excrements it is called Principal for its use which it hath for if man did not enjoy that excretion it makes how would he live it hath a muscle adjoyned which goes about its seat and constring â—…it and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath also the Hemorrhoid-veins which expurge feculent blood or melancholy K The liver is a most generous member and reckoned amongst the principal organs of the nutritive faculty it arises from effused blood gross and concreted almost on the sixth day firm the seed conceived and because it is like to the substance of blood it retains its qualities or temperament of blood for it is hot and moist and as it is gotten of blood so it hath power to get blood for it doth convert into blood or an assimilated redness like to it the chyle which it receives within it self by a natural propension or specifical vertue for it alters every thing into that colour wherein it is to be altered But some will say that there are other humours gotten also therefore it is not the shop of blood alone I answer that happens by accident but it is the instrument of blood alone by itself again blood is to be taken two manner of ways either for pure blood or blood that doth contain in it the other three humors yet blood predominant over all and in both the latter especially the liver is the shop of blood But some again will say a natural agent doth not produce divers affects because nature acts by one and the same manner but the liver is the natural agent therefore it doth not produce divers effects I answer That to happen for the diversity of matter in which the liver acts and rests for of a terrene portion it produces melancholy of crude and cold parts flegme of subtil and fervent choler but of a mean or middle part it produces true blood for although the liver doth excite these functions by it self yet it takes and uses as instruments spirits both natural and vital which have their passage by small arteries It s figure is a semicircle or half moon it is placed in the right side of the Abdomen under the spurious ribs L The Gibba is the bunchy part of the liver and Sima the cavity thereof The Diaphragma succours the Gibba and the proper flesh of the liver doth reside in it and it is called Culosis which is a conversion of chyle separated from its excrements into an idoneous mass for nutrition that is blood in this do the veins gather into one which is called cava which do carry the blood into all the parts of the body Sima is the hollow part of the liver which doth cover the ventricle in the right Hypochondria and in it is made Haimatosis which is an alteration of chyle into a fluent and succulent liquor but in the middle part of the liver where the branches of vena porta do meet is made Diacrisis that is a separation of profitable humours from the excrements M As in an artificial Kitchin there are not onely vessels for the preparation and coction of meat but also others for more baser uses so in the Kitchin of our bodies that is the middle of the belly there are some organs which are constituted for the concoction of meat and some for the receiving and
censory hidden within the skull and therefore they cannot perceive odours but by the conduct of the ambient air introsumed But Insects do not perceive odours by the attraction of air but by the alone presence of the thing to be smelled at the censory which organ in them is always open and exposed to smelling not unlike to the eyes of those animals that have no lids nor covering but always open M The material cause of Insects is double as the Insects themselves are of two kinds for some are gotten of slimy earth and putrid mud as for example from putrified Pot-herbs the Canker or Palmer-worm from putrid Water the Gnat from decayed Wine the Midge from Slime worms from Mud frogs others arise from a mixed putretude as Beetles from the karcass of an Ass Bees from a Bull Wasps from a Horse And as there are two kinds of Insects so there is also a double efficient cause of them for they which take their rise from putrid Matter their efficient cause is the heat of the Sun diffused in the Ambient air But they which are gotten of a mixed and cadaverous putretude are procreated meerly from the proper heat of the mixed putretude for that heat doth dispose the Matter and produce a substantial form of the same not by its proper force for an accident cannot make a living substance but by the vertue of the Celestial heat But some may say that heat of mixture is broken in putretude if putretude be the corruption of heat natural therefore the heat of a mixed body putrefied cannot be the efficient cause of Insects I answer In the natural decay of mixtures simply all heat doth not vanish so that none may be said to remain but broken as natural and according to that measure which is necessary to retain the humidity with the â—…iccity as in the destruction death or decay of living creatures all heat simply doth not vanish but that onely which was convenient for the existence of the soul in the body and the preservation of life therefore that heat which is yet left in a mixed putretude hath reason to be the efficient cause of Insects But some may further instance that heat in the generation of mixtures ought to domineer passively not actively according to Aristotle who saith that heat and cold do generate when they overcome and rule in passives but in putretude the heat of mixture doth not obtain the name of dominion because its wants strength and vigor and is so unfurnished that it cannot retain the moist with the dry for the preservation of the mixture therefore it cannot be the efficient cause of Insects which Insects are procreated of the unity and consistency of humidity and sicâ—…ity I answer The heat of the body putrefied may be considered two manner of ways either in respect of that mixture which doth putrefie or in respect of the animals which are produced from that mixture if it be considered after the first manner then it is preternatural and not fit to retain the humidity with the siccity because it doth not further rule in these passive qualities but if heat be considered in the second respect then it is natural and hath force and dominion over the moist and dry and it can terminate and couple them and out of that matter produce a substantial form by the concurrence of the celestial heat but now as the matter is various and diverse in which heat doth exercise its action so likewise various and divers animals and insects are produced for if the matter be much terrene and corpulent then it will produce testaceous animals but if tender thin and subtil then heat doth generate slender animals as Flies Gnats c. For as Aristotle says In the sea there is much of an earthly substance and thence it is that from the concretion thereof so many shell-fishes are procreated But again it may be objected by some Every thing that is generated must proceed from a thing that is like to it self for a celestial body and heat are not similar to those which do arise from coenous and putrid Matter therefore from these they cannot rightly be said to be generated I answer Every thing that is generated is said to be generated from its simile either according to an univocal generation or an equivocal generation by analogy I call that an univocal generation when one man begets another or one dog another for here the thing getting and the thing begotten are of one Genus for the bitch generating is an animal and the dog generated is an animal But an equivocal generation is made by similitude as a frog that is produced out of filth by the force of the sun and it is so called because the thing getting and the thing gotten are Heterogeneous But now although the Insects proceeding from such like bodies are not similar according to the univocal Genus yet they are generated a simile according to the equivocal Genus by analogy because they are produced by some existent act as by a celestial body or the like which concur in the way of act to produce a body CHAP. 15. Of Man and his Formation in the Womb. 1. HItherto we have Treated of irrational Creatures Now we shall say something of the rational viz. Man 2. Man is A an animal endowed with reason 3. And as he is the most noblest of all Creatures so he hath the most beautiful and excellent structure of body of all other animals being erect and looking up to heaven 4. But as every thing which is gotten doth proceed of something and from something so there are certain necessary principles to the generation of mans Body 5. The seed B therefore of both Sexes is plentiful and fruitful and pronounced by the ancients to be the Mother-blood of principles 6. The Seed is a humid body spumous and white generated from the flower or cream oâ—… the spirits elaborated by the insited force of the stones for generation sake 7. Hence it consists of two parts of a watrish humidity and spirit 8. The Serous humidity is generated of blood whence he affirms seed to be an excrement of the last sanguineous aliment not in substance but by a profitable abundance Arist. 1 de Gen. Anim. c. 18 29. 9. The Spiritual part C is no other then the vital spirit dilated by the spermatick arteries to the cods where it is exquisitely mixed with blood and of two becomes one perfect body therefore the Seed is compounded of spirit and water 10. Maternal blood D or menstruum another principle of our generation is a sanguineous excrement begotten from the heat of the female for the conservation of her species 11. It is called menstruous because it comes monethly which nevertheless after conception is forthwith stopped 12. It is called a sanguineous excrement not that it is like thereunto or noxious in its quality as the Neotericks do affirm but that it is too luxuriant in quantity and therefore it is
poured into the greater veins from the fleshy parts that are already filled and satiated 13. Therefore this blood is laudable and alimentary whose efficient cause is the weakness of the heat of the woman 14. For the female is always more colder then the male therefore she cannot make all the last alâ—…ment and convert it into the substance of the body and therefore by little and little it is sent into the veins of the womb that it may he excerned 15. The time of excretion is not designed but in many it begins at the fourteenth year of their age and ceases about the fiftieth year because then heat grows weak and doth not longer generate the reliques of laudable blood neither can it expel them if they do abound 16. The use of this menstruous blood is very necessary both that it may cause a conception and afterwards nourish after conception 17. Therefore seed is the principle from which as it were the efficient cause the conformation is made from which as from the matter the spermatick parts are generated but blood hath the name of the matter alone and passive principle 18. For of it are both the carnous parts generated and both the spermatick and carnous nourished 19. But to the seed is alotted the nature both of the efficient and matterial principle because it consists of two parts for the efficient is by reason of the Spirits on which on every side is poured the material by reason of the thickness of the body and crassament of which the spermatick parts are generated 20. And the seed is double the one of the male the other of the female but the seed of the male is of greatest force 21. Neither do the Peripateticks altogether deny women to emit seed as Galen and not a few more have exclaimed against them but as they say they do not emit seed as men neither have they such seed 22. For women do put forth seed but not such as men do that is not so crass white and full of spirit 23. For when mans seed is poured out into the womb it is exquisitely mixed with the womans and is as it were in a fruitful field and immediately upon the permixion of the seeds the womb is gathered up together and doth contract it self so close that no empty space be left within 24. Seed so E taken and strictly comprehended is cherished in the womb by its heat and ingenital property exciting its strength lurking within it and stimulates it to act insomuch that it breaks out into action 25. This action of the womb they call conception which is a promotion of the retained seed to duty 26. The Signs of conception F are these a tickling over the whole body upon the meeting of the seeds a retention of the seed if the inward mouth of the womb doth exquisitely shut and open a small pain wandring about the belly if the Tearms be stopped if the brests swell and grow hard a nauseous stomach and frequent vomitings 27. Therefore the spirit of the seeds is used as an instrument for this divine faculty of generation in going to the bottom or centre whereby the work of conception is carried on and of which the conception it self is constituted 28. This work cannot be made without ordination position secretion concretion densation rarefaction extension contraction Arist. 29. Therefore when the spirit begins to act in the substance of the seed consisting of Heterogeneous parts it first divides its dissimilar parts those that are thin and tender and full of spirit it hides within those that are cold and thick which arise from the seed of the woman it covers without 30. The middle and more nobler parts of the seed are puffed up or blowen up by heat and spirit to the effiguration of the members 31. The number of these membranes are yet undetermined we reckon onely three the first whereof is called Amnios which is next to the yong wrapping it from the neck to the feet containing the excrements also with it in which the yong swims as it were 32. The second is called Alantois it is the middle between the first and the third thin and narrow onely going to the middle of the yong and it is the receptacle of urine 33. The third tunicle is called Chorion and it is the outermost covering the whole body of the yong and adheres to the womb by the interposition of the umbilical veins and arteries 34. These 3 membranes mutually connated to themselves do seem to constitute one tunicle which is called by the Latines secundina 35. The interior and subtil part of the seed being encloistered in these and as it were environed the formative vertue and as it were vital spirit of the same seed which contains in potency all parts both similar and instrumental doth coact together and as it were delineated so that the rude exordium of these parts or at least a resemblance of them may be seen which is wont to be made in seven days 36. For when the vital spirit which is the framer of generation is the same and doth act in one and the same moment disposited into the same matter and altered by heat what hinders but that this agent may decline all parts natural once and again 37. Yet there is an order observed in the formation of members I one member is perfected before another 38. And the more nobler and most necessary the first of all the ignobler and least necessary the last of all 39. Therefore the formatrix faculty doth perfect in the first place the spermatick parts of the male in thirty days of the female in forty or fourty two 40. Nor doth it hinder what some learned men do object that so little seed doth not suffice for the constituting of these parts for the sperme is appointed not onely to suffice the formation but the auction also 41. Again if this sperme which proves Abortive or may be known by the section of the living animal be cast into cold water it will scarce exceed the bigness of a large Emmeâ—… 42. The carnous parts are framed after the spermatical delineation from the other principle of generation to wit blood which flows by the navel vein 43. There are three sorts of flesh which grows in the bowels First the flesh 〈◊〉 Secondly the flesh of the Muscles which is called properly and absolutely Flesh Thirdly the peculiar flesh of every part and it is likely that these three sorts of flesh are not generated together but in order 44. For first of all the flesh Parencyma which is the substance of the Liver Spleen and Biters afterwards the peculiar flesh of every part and lastly the flesh of the Muscles 45. And amongst the fleshes Parencymate that of the Liver is the first made because the umbilical vein doth first pour blood into it which concretes after fusion and becomes flesh then that of the heart and lastly that of the rest of the bowels 46. So that the infant begins
nourished and it is called exerementitious blood to difference it from the seminal excrement and it is an excrement of the second concoction which is made in the liver and veins and therefore it is that it hath a red colour furthermore that matter which is contained in the veins and expurged by the veins of the womb is this superfluous blood and excrement of the second coction for whereas the Bodies of women are more colder then mens they cannot make perfect their last aliment nor convert it into the substance of the body to be nourished whereupon that which is above and cannot be converted by little and little is thence conveyed to the veins of the womb where it gathers together into one place and what of it cannot be sustained by nature is expelled It s use is necessary for as it helps conception so it nourishes the yong But here a question will arise how the yong whilst it is conceived and framed in 〈◊〉 â—…omb is gotten nourished by this same blood when it is endowed with a bad quality and puts forth many ill affections I answer This blood is not always so bad as is imagined for those women whose bodies are temperate their blood also must needs be temperate and when the body is vitious the blood also must needs be infected But again this pravity in women is purged away every moneth and in them it is otherwise then in those who keep their tearms beyond their accustomed time the former hath no noxious quality in it as to hurt what is generated of it which need not seem strange but if the same blood be not evacuated at its accustomed time but retained it will stir up and cause many bad affections as the suffocation of the matrix 〈◊〉 and the like But now if it be considered in a woman that hath milk in her brests it is otherwise for then blood is conflated of a treble substance for then the alimentary or pure portion of it goes to the nourishment of the yong and part somewhat impurer goes to the brests and converts to milk and the worst of all is contained as excrements in the tunicles where the yong is enrolled which is evacuated at the womans delivery E After the seed of both Sexes together with the menstruous blood is received into the womb it closes up and the seed therein contained is cherished by its heat and begins to act the spiritual part of the seed passes to the bottom and begins the formation and of the crass part of the seed the spermatick parts are engendred and of the menstruous the sanguineous parts F The Notes of conception are these The close shutting up of the womb A kinde of trembling and tickling over the whole body And after that an exceeding refrigeration Loss of stomach Nauseating of victuals Vomitings c. G Generation is made by the mutation of the power into the act and an artificial composition of many existents in the act the Soul is the act of an organical body but the seed is not the organ therefore not the animate then the power above will be the animate for as the Sun not hot doth calefie the Whetstone not sharp yet doth sharpen so also the seed may animate that is the yong is animated by the seed although there be no soul or life in it I It is a great and difficult dispute among Physitians and Philosophers in what order the parts of the yong are framed some think the liver first to be generated others the heart which they say is the first that lives and the last that dies In this Controversie we are to observe that neither the Liver nor the Heart nor any other principal member nor umbilical vessels are generated first as divers have judged â—…everal manner of ways but that all are inchoated in one and the same moment and that for this subsequent reason The vital spirit which is the efficient cause of the generation and the internal natural agent not the external voluntary hath the whole formatrix faculty in every part where it is joyned to the matter fitly disposited it must necessarily act secundum potentias and therefore all the parts of the body are produced by it at once this experience confirms by those who have miscarried in ten twenty or thirty days after conception when the whole substance hath not exceeded the bigness a grain of Barley a Bee or the figure of a Bean yet all its bowels are formed as some late Anatomists have observed CHAP. 16. De Zoophytis or of things that are partly Animals and partly Plants 1. HItherto we have illustrated the first Species of Nature Aisthetices to wit an animal the other which remains to be explained is part Plant and part Animal 2. And these Zoophyta's are corporeal Natures endowed onely with certain senses contracting and dilating themselves by motion 3. Whence Hermolaus Barbarus calls them Plantanimalia Budaeus tearms them Plantanimes because they have a middle and as it were a third Nature between Plants and Animals 4. Whereas they have a certain sense with Animals Hence they dilate themselves pleasantly to such things as they attract and affect but contract themselves if pricked or offended 5. But in the effigies of the Body they come nearest to the Nature of Plants 6. Their formes differ according to their greater or lesser vertue of feeling all of them adhere to Rocks Sand or Mud of which sort are these Holothuria Stella marina Pulmo marinus Uâ—…tica spongiae 7. To these may be added that Tree which grows in the Province of Pudifetanea to which if a man draws nigh it will gather in its boughes as though it were ashamed and when he is gone spread them abroad for which cause the inhabitants thereabouts have nominated it the Chaste tree Scaliger Exer. 181. Sect. 28. FINIS An Advertisement to the Reader THere is now in the Press that excellent Piece intituled Natural Magick in twenty Books by John Baptist Porta a Neopolitane Enlarged by the Author himself and cleared from divers errors wherewith the former Editions were tainted In which all the riches and delights of the natural Sciences are set forth Carefully Translated from the Latine and rendred into English by a worthy hand The Books of Natural Magick are these 1 OF the causes of wonderful things 2 Of the Generation of divers Animals 3 Of the production of new Plants 4 Of increasing Houshold-stuff 5 Of Changing Metals 6 Of Counterfeiting precious Stones 7 Of the wonders of the Load-stone 8 Of strange Cures 9 Of Beautifying of women 10 Of extracting Essences 11 Of Perfuming 12 Of Artificial Fires 13 Of the most rare Tempering of Steel 14 Of Cookery 15 Of Hunting 16 Of invisible Writing 17 Of strange Glasses 18 Of Staticks Experiments 19 Of Pneumatick Experiments 20. Chaos
to be Dearticulated and absolute after forty five days living at first the imperfect life as it were of a Plant after the manner of an animal and at last the life of a man 47. And this happens not by reason of the form which is simple and individual but by reason of the matter that is of the organs 48. But the embryon takes aliment onely by the navel but after the liver is made it ministers to all the members but it doth not yet move though it hath life by reason of the imbecility of the brain and softness of nerves 49. The weak and tender members of the infant by little and little are dried by heat and so made more solid and then the yong begins to feel by perfect Sensories and by and by to be moved in the womb 50. But a man-childe doth move sooner then a female for boys because they are conformed in thirty days do move on the ninetieth day which compleatly make three moneths but because the female is framed in forty or forty two days she moves not till the hundred and twentieth day which is about the latter end of the fourth moneth 51. And the infant is nourished and doth increase all this space of time and when it is ripe it is brought forth partly by the endeavor of the womb for it being burthened with its weight and abundance of excrements it strives to be exonerated partly by its proper motion for the necessity of breathing the want of aliment and the narrowness of the place do enforce the yong to endeavor a passage out 52. At the time of birth the doors are opened which immediately after delivery are shut again This we see done saith Galen but how it is done we know not onely we may admire it Avicen calls it a work to be wondred at above all wonders 53. The womb being opened the infant begins to come out by the head and by many painful throws it draws out and brings with it three membranes and thus by the prescript of nature are we born into the world 54. The time of bringing forth is not fully defined nor can it for some are delivered at seven moneths end some at nine and most then some at ten but seldom and very seldom at eleven but in the eighth moneths end seldom any are delivered with a live childe 55. And this is the manner of the Conception Conformation and Procreation of the noblest of Creatures The Commentary A THe definition of a Man delivered consists of a Genus and Difference As to the Genus he is an animal and as to the Difference one endowed with reason And in this it is that man hath a Prerogative Dignity and Excellency above all other Creatures for his minde which is Divine is the Image of God and he differs much from other animals and as it were exercises a regality over them for are not Lyons and Elephants tamed by the strength of man and overcome and made subject to him Man is created with his face looking up to Heaven as it were contemplating upon God Hence Ovid could say Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit caelumque tueri Jussit erectos ad sidera tollere vultus For whereas God created all other animals with their faces downwards to the ground man alone he erects with his eyes fixed upon heaven whither he should tend B The generation of man is made after this manner the seed of both Sexes being perfectly mixed the whole doth proceed from thence therefore the matter of the generation of mans Body is the seed both of the man and the woman plentiful and fruitful This seed doth consist of two parts watrish Humidity and Spirit the watrish Humidity proceeds from the blood whence Aristotle affirms blood to be a profitable excrement of the last aliment that is of the sanguineous aliment I say it is an excrement not supervacaneous in its nature or substance as Stones and Worms nor in its quality as Dung Sweat c. but onely in its abundance or quantity for because it superabounds from nourishing the parts of the body and cannot be assimilated thereunto it obtains the place of an excrement C The spiritual part of seed is no other thing then the vital Spirit which by reason of this Spirit it becomes hot and sometimes this Spirit is ingendred in the heart and thence sent out into the whole body so doth the Seed also according to the Spirit proceed from the whole because the Spirit is communicated from the heart to the whole Hence Aristotle saith if the Seed did not proceed from every part of the animal the cause of the similitude were false therefore seed ejected by the yard into the womb becomes fruitful when it is exquisitely mixed with the womans seed and it is the principal motion that is the first agent for the formotion of the yong by reason of the spirits contained in it For this going to the bottom as to its centre is cherished and preserved and so proceeds to action as to formation all which things are necessary for the framing of the yong for besides the seed of the man and the woman it is necessary that this vital spirit concur to the conception because the seed of man cannot besmear all the parts of the womb which else will impede conception and if the seed of the woman be onely present that will not cause conception by reason of its imperfection for the seed of man is more hot then womans and although this seed be not so perfect yet it concurs as an agent to the formation although not as the first agent for as Galen observes the mixture of the seed of man and woman is perfect seed whence Aristotle saith that what arises from the seed of man and woman do arise from contraries as when there are contraries in the same Genus and although each seed according to Aristotle is in its Genus an agent yet they do not act alike in power and strength but differ in these functions magis minus the seed of the woman doth concur as the matter of which both by reason of the seed of man which is its aliment for mans seed is nourished and made more perfect by womans seed as also by reason of the membranes which are produced out of it But in this place we may take notice what the Peripateticks in a manner aledge that the woman emits no seed but they are basely and injuriously dealt withall it is an aspersion cast upon them by some later Philosophers because Aristotle saith That the seed of the woman is not so crass while hot and full of spirit as the seed of man but he doth not say that women emit no seed at all D Besides the seed of both Sexes the menstruous blood of the woman concurs to generation it is called menstruous blood because it is an excrement yet it differs from that blood whereby a woman is