that my Remedy is infallible For truly I believe and not a few of the most eminent and ablest Physitians of the Faculty in Paris are of the same Opinion with me that there is not a Remedy which can be called infallible and made publick Of which thing in the occasion of the fermentation of humours I will a little more specially treat in my Philosophical Reflections which in a little time will see the Light. I only add this here that the Heat which follows the shakeing does proceed from an agitation of the Spirits stimulated by the violent motion and repeated stroke of the emancipated Atoms which are at last expelled through the Pores of the Body as the Rebellious Angels were thrown out of Heaven by the more powerful good Spirits CHAP. XIX Of the Circulation of the Blood. AS many as have delivered themselves from the prejudices of Antient Physick and Vulgar Philosophy have taught after Harvey That the blood in our Bodies is moved in a circular motion from the extream parts to the Centre and not from the Centre onely to the extream parts as was heretofore believed Gassendus does not disapprove this Opinion although he does not embrace it for Reasons alledged in a particular Treatise set forth by him I use his Reasons to establish it as being better founded in Reason and more agreeable to the disposition of the Veins and Arteries Let us see therefore how the Circulation of the Blood is made according to Harvey and the most Learned Physitians The Blood say they passeth into the Heart from the Vena Cava and Arteria Venosa by two Valves where they are ended and as often as the Heart dilates it self a drop of Blood falls into each of its Cavities and as often as the Heart contracts it self the Blood passeth into the Lungs from the right Cavity through the Vena Arteriosa and from the left Cavity into the Aorta so that the Blood is moved from the extream parts of the Body to its Centre into which it is carried by the Vena Cava where it exonerates it self in the Right Cavity from whence it passeth into the Vena Arteriosa and drives on the Blood which is contained in that through Anastomoses already discovered and through Pores less sensible into the Arteria Venosa And as much Blood as the Arteria Venosa hath received so much of it deposits into the left Cavity from whence passing into the Aorta it is carried into the extream parts of the Body through Branches which go to the Branches of the Vena Cava from hence the Blood being brought into the Trunk continuing its journey by the same way it returns to the Heart and by the same reason as I said it wonderfully and without intermission performs the Circulation This Circulation of the Blood relies upon some Experiments the first of which is taken from Blood-letting For Chyrurgeons when they Bleed a Vein tye the Arm above the Orifice and if they put their Finger upon the Vein on the other side of the Ligament the Blood is stopped immediately From whence it is apparent that it comes from the extremity of the Fingers to the Trunk and not from the Trunk to the extremity of the Fingers but by Circulation of which we are discoursing The Second Experiment is made if a Vein be tyed in a part of the Body separated from the Artery for it will be emptied on that side towards the Trunk and it will be swelled on the other side on that side that is to say from whence the Blood according to this Opinion ought to proceed There is nothing therefore so certain as this Circular motion of the Blood and its passage into the Heart but here are three things to be observed First that the motion of the Heart does not depend upon this Circulation of the Blood although it conduce to its conservation and inordinate motion as this Circulation is made more or less hastily and as the Blood is more or less temperate in the disposition of its particles and in its saline serosities which serve for a vehicle to it and render it more fluid Secondly that the Circulation of the Blood as the Moderns indeed will have it may be performed three times in an hour yet so that all the Blood does not enter into the Cavities or Ventricles of the Heart as not once every hour but either sooner or later according to the greater or lesser quantity or greater or lesser subtilty or mobility of the Blood. Thirdly I say that the Blood in some cases cannot pass out of the Arteries into the Veins through the extremities that is when the extremities are cut off in which Case it goes on another way through insensible Pores which they call Transpiration or Transudation CHAP. XX. Of the Inward Senses and the Inferiour Appetite BEsides the exteriour Senses of which we have spoken there are also found to be in Man interiour Senses to wit the Imagination common Sense and Sensitive Memory The first forms a lasting Image of Objects The Second judgeth of the agreeableness or disagreeableness of them The third retains and preserves these Images or Ideas which is manifest in Dogs who represent to themselves persons absent and distinguish both between the good and the evil that hath befallen them witnessing that they remember the thing by running away if they have an opportunity or by Fawnings Appetite follows the interiour Senses and is common to all Animals and which is performed by the weight of Atoms whereby it comes to pass that an Animal hath a propensity and is driven to seek for that with which it is delighted and to abstain from that which might bring trouble So that Delight and Pain are the two great importances of the Life of an Animal Pleasure according to the Opinion of Epicurus depends upon Corpuscles which have a soft round and agreeable Figure especially to the Brain as to which the Object is represented by the imagination and from which it is carried by the Senses Pain on the contrary and both of them are performed by those Corpuscles whether they come to or go from or continue In Morals we will speak concerning these Passions as the two Scales of sensitive actions in the mean time I may here say that the interiour Senses receive these Corpuscles which bring pleasure or pain by the ministery of the exteriour Senses from whence it comes that those that Sleep or are Lethargick or Apoplectick feel nothing though they are pricked For the Brain is filled with strange Humours which hinder the motion of the aforesaid Corpuscles or else that motion is stopped by Vapours brought from the lower parts to the Brain which happens to those that are asleep CHAP. XXI Of Sleep Wakefulness and Death SLEEP is the Image of Death for all the Senses are at rest nor is there any motion left but that of the Heart Lungs and Arteries this Rest proceeds from Vapours arising out of the Stomach which by their
the Eyes are of that Figure that they cannot be placed elsewhere without a violent concussion of these mutually self impelling Atoms and these concussions are sometimes the cause why when the Women are hurt the Child is not at all formed and that by reason of the sole inordinate motion of one Corpuscle which either does not or being hindred by others which cause this motion cannot find a place due to its Figure It is plain therefore that seminal Corpuscles have the Figure of that part from whence they are derived and the whole humane Body is no otherwise shut up in a small part of Matter than an whole Oak in an Acorn and an Apple in a Kernel The example brought by me above concerning the divers kinds of Salt dissolved in water which in evaporating part asunder from each other and each possesseth his place not without a difference of Figures will give some light to this my Doctrine CHAP. V. Of Nutrition which Plants and Brute Beasts have common with Man. NUtrition is a vital action and so proper to Living Creatures that as there is nothing nourished that is not Living so there is no Living thing that is not nourished All the difficulty lies in the manner of Nutrition for no Man doubts but Animals and Plants at the beginning of their existence are nourished and grow which could not be without the addition of new Matter which is changed into the substance of the thing Living This addition of Matter takes in its attraction preparation digestion and its distribution through all the Parts of the Body nourished These opperations appear in Plants wherein it is amiss to attribute that to Nutritive Attractive Digestive and Distributive Qualities which may be explicated by the motion of the Atoms or seminal Corpuscles contained in the Seed But because Nutrition is much more conspicuous in Living Creatures and especially in Man it will be necessary to explain the Reason how that is performed in him in the first State after Conception and afterwards when the Organs are formed For there is need of Aliment that the Organs which are just formed and tenderer then to be sufficient to undergo their Operations may grow and be encreased So that at the very moment he begins to live there is a necessity that he should be nourished CHAP. VI. How and with what Aliment an Embryo is nourished 'till the time of his Birth THe first thing that is done after the laying together of the parts of the Embryo and the disposition of its Organs is the infusion of the Rational Soul which God in one and the same moment Creates and gives to this little Body as its Lodging Forty or sometimes more days after its Conception what is done before the infusion of this Soul to speak properly is nothing else but a disposition of the Organs to receive it This admirable Structure begins from the Heart Head Bones and other particular Fundamentals and when it is already compleated and the Soul infused the seminal Atoms Presidents of the formation of the Body persevere in performing their works taking as Companions of their Office these Particles of the Mothers Blood which may serve to nourish the Infant being sensibly solicitous for its increase 'till the time of its Nativity Yet nevertheless it is very difficult throughly to declare the true Reason of the Nutrition and Life of the Infant for seven or eight Months together Gassendus recounts three Opinions of the Antients concerning this thing the first is of Alcmaeon in Plutarch affirming the Infant to be nourished by all parts of the Body drawing in by the help of the Pores a necessary Aliment The second Opinion is by the same Plutarch attributed to Democritus this Philosopher teaches that the Infant is nourished in the Mothers Womb in the same manner as it is nourished when born to wit by the Mouth and this is the Cause he says why the newly born seek the Breast with open Mouth The third is Aristotle's Galen's and many others who conclude that the Infant takes no nourishment in the Womb but by the Umbilical Veins which taking their Original from the bottom of the Matrix insinuate themselves into the middle of the Abdomen or Belly where being collected into one Trunk they lead on the Mothers Blood into the hollow part of the Liver where part of it is carried into a Branch of Vena-Cava and part into a Branch of the Vena-Porta and the two Arteries which accompany the Umbilical Veins having passed the Liver each of them apart go to the two Branches of the Aorta or great Artery and carry the Arterial Blood which they bring thither that it may all be distributed through the whole Body of the Infant and changed into a substance fit for its Nutrition This Opinion is confirmed by the refutation of the two former For the first is false For if the Infant was like a Sponge it would not be nourished but swelled by the Water or serous humour in which it swims and which is contained in the Amnion The second Opinion is not probable For the Infants head is placed betwixt both knees nor can it suck the Caruncles which are covered with a Skin as is supposed unless at one and the same time it should attract the water wherein it lies hid or penetrate the Membrane in which it is involved The third Opinion standing firm which I believe rests upon a better foundation nor does the Infants Stomach generate Chyle nor its Liver Blood the Mothers Blood subministring all those things And from hence it is that a Woman with Child communicates to the fruit of her Womb the purity or impurity of her Blood her good or ill nourishment as also her Health and Diseases and these Diseases are hereditary not but that there are some which proceed from the Fathers whose impure Blood licentious living ill nourishment and frequent excesses afford matter to these evils Besides we may say that the Infant in the Mothers Womb does neither live nor breath but by the Mouth Heart and Lungs of the Mother from whence it comes to pass that the Infant for the most part follows the Mothers affections and inclinations and seeing that in the state wherein it is in the Womb it is tyed to its Mother in so strict a bond of Union it is impossible that she alone should be feaverish nor that the big-bellied Woman should dye the Child remaining alive and healthful CHAP. VII How Man is Nourished after he is Born. AMan Born hath need of Nourishment now nothing can nourish him which hath not some Spirit of Life So Roots Plants Corn Pulse Flesh serve to the nourishing of a Man and all this business is performed by the benefit of Atoms and vital Corpuscles passing from one Compound Body to another This Nutrition is necessary to encrease the substance of the born Infant and so there is need of a new Compound Body to serve it for Aliment And this Compound Body must of
Muscles of the Breast The Pulse is nothing else but a percussion of the Arteries upon the variety of which the difference of Pulses depends The Cause of the Pulse according to Aristotle is the Natural heat of the Heart according to Galen it is the moving faculty according to Harvey this motion of the Heart and Pulse of the Arteries depends upon the circulation of the Blood which we will examine in the next Chapter Breathing comprehends two actions Inspiration and Respiration by the action of the first the Lungs receive the external Air and by the help of the last they drive it out The first is made by a dilatation of the Lungs and Breast as also by the motion of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are opened like a pair of Bellows and are by that means filled with Air the second is made by a pressing downwards of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are unlocked and the Air driven forth Breathing conduces to the tempering the heat of the Heart and to the exciting and preserving Natural heat besides it conduceth to the forming the Voice to perceiving Smells to expelling Excrements and dissipating the fumes of the Blood and lastly to produce vital Spirits in promoting their motion by which it happens that we dye when breathing ceaseth or when we take our last Breath CHAP. XVII Of the Motion of the Heart THat I may rightly explain the motion of the Heart I suppose it is moved by two different motions the first of which is Natural the second against Nature That resembles the motion of Machines and Clocks which are moved by help of Strings and Wheels So the Heart is the principal and chief Wheel of this animated Machine and moves and drives on all the others and takes its motion from the weight and impression of certain Fiery and Coelestial Atoms which like the Silk-Worm are shut up in the Seed and its covering and which give motion to it until they flye away from it which slight of the Atoms Death follows and an end of motion The Authors of the circulation of the Blood deduce the motion of the Heart from the Bloods entring into it saying that the Heart is opened by the motion commonly called Diastole the Blood entring into the Heart and that by the motion commonly called Systole the Blood returns back and this returning is the Cause of those two motions but it is more reasonable to say that the motion of the Heart hath its Principle in its self for it is Vital and the passing through of the Blood is rather an effect than a Cause of this motion for the Heart opens it self before the Blood enters in nor does the Blood go out but as it is driven by the opened Heart The second motion of the Heart is accidental and against Nature and proceeds from the intemperies of the Blood that passeth through the Heart and which impresseth this febrile motion whether as being more hot and subtile than it should be or having certain foreign Corpuscles mixed with it or being too thick and viscous or else offending in quantity it overwhelms the Heart and hereupon depends the difference of motions contrary to Nature as also the difference of Pulses and Feavers from hence proceeds the palpitation of the Heart intermitting Pulses Convulsions Suffocations and sudden Death And it is commonly said that the Life is in the Blood nor does any thing hinder why we should not say that Death is in it too when it is corrupted or very sharp and corroding or unfit for motion and containing such like Bodies as lie hid in Venoms and Narcoticks The motion which is observed in the Hearts of Animals taken out of their Bodies as for Example that of a Viper which continues a long while does not disanul Circulation but only lets us see that Circulation is not the Cause of the Natural motion of the Heart and if you stretch it never so far it is only its condition which makes it continue and keeps the same in its Natural state Whatsoever we say concerning the Heart and its motions does not make up that Idea which we conceive in our mind nor does it satisfie the mind of the Reader who expects we should explain from whence this motion of the Heart while it is in its natural state proceeds and what is the Cause of its immoderate motions That I may therefore satisfie the Reader I Affirm the Natural Motion of the Heart to be in the motion of the Vital Spirits shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart where they are detained by little Membranes made firm by the interweaving of Fibres and of thin threads so that they cannot escape out since the Pores of these membranes have a Figure opposite to the Pores of those Spirits or Vital Atoms And seeing that Atoms enjoy an actual motion and which can no more be separated from their Essence than Intelligence from an Angel or separated Soul or the Inclination from the Will it follows that they are always in motion and by their motions by turns dilate the Heart This Doctrine supposes what has been said of Vital Spirits being as it were the internal Principles of Life and Motion as also of the essential and proper motion of Atoms and of Bodies compounded of Atoms but it is convenient that we remember that we have said that motion is Natural to Atoms and that God who hath created them essentially moveable preserves their motion and moveable Nature in the same action that he Created them Besides it may be convenient to remember that there are such a sort of Atoms which may be detained and constitute the parts of a Compound Body and others which are not Naturally such yet may be shut up such as those are which we have said are shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart of Living Creatures And these indeed are shut up by the decree of the Creator and the determination of the seminal covering The Comparison of an Angel and the Rational Soul seems to contribute much to the illustrating this Doctrine An Angel is a certain indivisible spiritual thing and an Intelligence free from Matter and the Rational Soul is no less a certain indivisible Spiritual thing endowed with Understanding and Will as an Angel yet they differ in this that theSoul is consined or as being a part of the Compound can be consined by a material Body whereas an Angel neither is nor can be confined which notwithstanding does not hinder but that it may be shut up into a Body as it were an assisting Form yet it hath not any respect to an internal and substantial Form. Besides I look upon an Angel and consider it under the notion of Atoms naturally free and the Rational Soul under the notion of those which are subject to confinement It is true that a Rational Soul going out of this Dungeon or Physical Prison by reason of the Corruption of the Body which permits it a free exit is
never said before or that I do not proceed in the same manner and the same Course in the Progress of this Philosophical Tract wherein I will sincerely endeavour to bind my self up to the Truth without having any Regard to the Prejudices of the Schools I return to Poisons and after I have Discoursed of Pestiserous and Viperine Poison which attacks the Heart it will be time to say something of those which immediately invade the Brain and from thence the Heart the Center of Life before I address my self to either general or particular Antidotes which deserve a particular Chapter by themselves Therefore I say according to the common Opinion of Physicians That there are Toxicks and Poisons which immediately beset the Heart as I have said of the Pestiferous and Viperine poison and others like them there are others which attack the Head such as the biting of a mad Dog Opium Solan and other Narcotick and somniferous Simples There are also Poisons which rush into the Liver and corrupt the whole Mass of Blood as the Venerial poison and others of the same kind Thâ—s diversity is ascribed to Antipathy and an Aversion whereby Poisons are carried to certain parts of our Body but the foundation must be shewed whereupon this Antipathy is built the water sticks neither can any solid reason be given why the Poison of a mad Dog attacks the head or that of the Viper the Heart Besides that this Antipathy is not sufficient to explain the Nature of Poisons though we may confess that they have an aversion to our Nature because they endeavour the destruction of it and do procure the separation and division of our Bodies It being supposed as indeed it is that a Mad Dog biting a certain part of our Body doth leave in that part a certain Spittle or Foam which enters the wound for unless there be a Wound there is no fear of danger the venomous Atoms being dissolved and emancipated and as it were raving mad do insensibly and by degrees creep through the parts of the Body and finding no softer parts than the substance of the Brain and by consequence easier to be divided and destroyed do produce the dissolution of it and therefore it must be granted that if the Brain could not so easily be dissolved and that the fluidity of its substance were not the reason why it so easily receives the impression that is the action and motion of the emancipated Atoms the poison of a mad Dog would produce but little disturbance in us It must not be said that that poison ascends the Head by Sympathy and ruins it by Antipathy but according to our Principles it ought to be confessed that the Atoms of the spittle of the mad Dog being loosed and emancipated are as apt to destroy the other parts as well as the Brain if the Substance of the brain did not consist of certain Corpuscles yielding to these foreign Corpuscles whereby they enter into the vacant spaces of them which having entred in at these little chinks or fissures they raise a Tumult and confusion in the Castle This truth is evident in slow poisons which stagnate as well as that whereof we speak until the emancipated Atoms of it find out some part whose Vacuities give them free entrance or they meet with some Corpuscles whose little Hooks or Angles do either accelerate or retard their motion For these emancipated Atoms being not received nor fixed but by weak Corpuscles are like a Bird having only his feet entangled in the Birdlime endeavours with all his strength to get himself free or like a Man who is to be thrown into Prison and is withheld only by one Arm uses his utmost endeavour to obtain his liberty so it is with free and emancipated Atoms which are partly withheld by these tender little Hooks whereof the Brain doth consist whence arises a furious agitation in the Brain it self and at length madness for indeed the madness is in the Dogs Brain to which some emancipated Atoms came from abroad or from some dead Carrion which the Dog did eat or from the Air in the Dog-days being then too much rarified or from too much dryness of the Brain proceeding from too much drowth and these Atoms go forth with the Spittle when the Dog bites some part of our Body and in time produces the same confusion with that in the Dog. The third sort of Poison which I promised to speak of is that of the Venerial Disease which sets upon the Liver and without a prolix declaration of the external causes which produce it it will be sufficient for me if I will declare in few words that which is necessary to know wherein they do consist and why Poison is so pernicious that it corrupts the Liver and infects the whole Mass of Blood and afterwards tho' slowly ruins the whole Constitution of the Body and the Oeconomy of its constituent Parts It is frivolous to say that the Venerial Disease and its Poyson doth consist in an Antipathy to the Liver and the Mass of Blood for the Cause and Nature of this feigned Antipathy cannot be assigned But in my Opinion there is no difficulty in the matter for by the common consent of Physicians this Poison is nothing else but a malign quality proceeding from the Vapour raised from the corruption of the Spermatick Blood which corruption is occasion'd by a mixture of divers Seeds This Principle being supposed we do reject this feigned maligne Quality for it cannot be said what it is or from whence this malignity arises but we acknowledge this Vapour and admit the Corruption of the Seed and we say not mentioning the malign Quality that there are certain Atoms excited by Heat and Motion which do exhale and free themselves from the loose and corrupt Blood and finding the Pores of mans Body and of the natural parts to be open and dilated do creep and insinuate themselves into them and in process of time do penetrate into the Spermatick Vessels from thence into the great Veins and from thence into the great Vessels and the Liver being the Trunk of them which they by dividing do alter and by separating do Corrupt whence at length there follows a corruption of all the Blood. The subtilty and continual motion of these emancipated Atoms appears from the Gout sometimes from the Reliques of the Venerial Distemper for these Atoms do penetrate into the marrow of the Bones and fix them above the Articulations where they find an allumenous matter to which they stick But because these Venerial and other emancipated Atoms are not fixed therefore they are moved in those places where they are like a Captive fetter'd in Prison looking about him which way he can most conveniently make his escape hence it is that the pain of the Gout doth not cease until these Atoms are discharged either by Transpiration Sweat or some other Evacuation or that they are wholly accumulated by other Bodies of the same figure
I have Discoursed Physically of the Causes of our Diseases in General it will not be amiss to trace òut the Particular Causes of them That this Doctrine which may be accounted new may the better be understood I suppose that we are never subject to any Disease but whose immediate Cause is either some Poison or Toxick 2ly This Poison consists only in emancipated Atoms and Toxicks in loosned Corpuscles 3ly These Atoms are not emancipated nor these sharp Corpuscles loosned but in the Corruption of Bodies 4ly Corruption is nothing but a Total or Partial Division and separation of Bodies 5ly There is no new Generation by which a new Body is made but by a precedent corruption or Division of another Body which ceases to be in Nature when one or more other Bodies possess the Room of it So when Meat in the Stomach is turned into Chyle when the Chyle in the Liver and the Branches of the Vena Porta is changed into Blood and lastly when the Blood is changed into our Substance as Flesh Muscles Nerves and other Parts of our Body by the last degree of Concoction there is necessarily a Corruption of the Meat which begins to be divided and separated by Chewing of it in the Mouth and it is digested and separated or Corrupted in the Ventricle Chyle to the end it may be turned into Blood is altered in the Branches of the Vena Porta and the Meseraick Veins and thence it is wholly and perfectly Digested that is Corrupted Concocted and Divided in the Liver unless that hath lost something of its own Substance The Blood designed for Flesh is filtred out of the Veins into the Arteries and Circulates until it be sufficiently purged and freed from Foreign Bodies and then it is changed into the Substance of our Body This Doctrine being supposed I say there are made in us Three Principle Corruptions which are the Concoctions or Digestions whereof we speak and I say moreover that there are Atoms in every one of them which are emancipated and loosed as likewise Corpuscles flying and deserting more or less as the Digestion is the better performed that is as the Pure is more rightly separated from the Impure Therefore it follows that we cannot be nourished unless we take together into our Bodies the Causes and Seeds of many Diseases It follows likewise that these Diseases are diverse according to the difference of the Corruptions of the emancipated Atoms or the loosed Corpuscles and that these Atoms are Poisons and the Corpuscles Toxicks which do produce Diseases by their violent Motion and they labour so with Reiterated Corruptions that they deprave separate and divide all the Parts of our Body Here we may behold the just Cause of the Pains of the Stomach and of the Wind Chollick and also of the Wind proceeding from the first Concoction of our Meat in the Stomach these winds are the Corpuscles or the more subtile Parts of that Corrupted Nourishment and when the more subtile and sharp Corpuscles are received into the Body they do proportionably to the Nourishment which is taken produce most troublesome and dangerous Pains and vellications such as we observe in the Chollick And if it should happen that amongst Corpuscles there should be abundance of emancipated Atoms they do ordinarily betake themselves to the Brain whence do arise Apoplexies and Lethargies or if they penetrate into the Muscles and Nerves they occasion the Palsie which ordinarily follows these bilious Chollicks This Indisposition degenerates the Disease into a Vomiting and Loosness when the Wind or the subtile Particles the loosed Corpuscles and the emancipated Atoms are so plentiful that all the Symmetry of the Humours the intercourse of the Natural Spirits and the whole Anatomy of the Body are overthrown by them whence it is conspicuous what great Confusions Winds Vapours and little Bodies and depraved Atoms are capable of producing in our Bodies And that I have concluded upon good Reasons That there is Poison to be found in all our Diseases whether we consider them in their Beginning when we perceive our selves grieved indisposed and to have lost our Appetite or that we take a view of them in their progress when those Winds those little Bodies or little Atoms are advanced in the Body and do work a Division or lastly if we consider the end when these Poisons and Toxicks and these Corpuscles being freed from their Chains and these emancipated Atoms bear the sway by the confusion of the Principal Operations they are the Cause of Death In the second Digestion which is in the Liver we find Winds and Vapours which are called Flatus's and sometimes those loose Corpuscles and also the emancipated Atoms these Winds do produce a murmur and Flatus about the Liver Spleen Hypocondria and the Reins and the Corpuscles which are lodged there do prick and exulcerate the inward â—â—rts and are the Causes of Imposthumes which are so hard to be Cured Besides the emancipated Atoms Flying do sometimes ascend up to the Head where they beget Vertigo's and Buzzing in the Ears and also Convulsions by their vellications in the principal of the Nerves Thence proceed Epilepsie and other Diseases which have the same malignity which in the Opinion of all Men being not a Quality is a Poison that is the Atoms of the Blood are emancipated which are a Poison to the Brain and especially to the Membranes and Nerves From the same Fountain proceed Shakings and the duplications of continuant Fevers as the Periodick Fits of intermittent Fevers do happen from loosed Corpuscles and Atoms which are emancipated in the first Digestion in the Stomach by reason of a Fermentation which they make These loosed Bodies are also the Causes of Swellings in the Feet Hands and other Parts as Inflammations Erysipela's as also Itch and sore Puscles do arise from Atoms which are emancipated in the last Digestion as for the Dropsie we may say that it derives its Original from Atoms which are emancipated in the first and second Concoction for they penetrate the substance of the Liver and render it unfit to produce a well constituted Blood. Sudden death is often occasioned by the sudden motion of the flying Atoms which escape in the circulation of the Blood and the emancipated Atoms opening the heart and by this passage giving an opportunity to the vital Spirits to make their escape is the cause of that present death which follows it CHAP. XVI Of the Causes of our Health IF that be true which I suppose That all our Diseases do not arise from Natural Qualities nor from Antipathy which is in the nourishment we take and that they are nothing else but a confusion and an inordinate constitution of the Spirits humours and parts and that this confusion doth proceed from the impetuous and disorderly motion of the Winds Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms as I said before Then it is certain that our health which consists only in the just intercourse of the Spirits and a proportionate
necessity perish and be destroyed that so it may nourish the other Compound Body that is to be produced Such a Compound Body is Milk being Blood made white and fit to nourish the Infant and the same Blood wherewith the Infant was nourished in the Womb being brought by the Epigastrick Veins to the Mammillary's is there prepared and by a sole inversion of the Atoms or a different combination of the Corpuscles this Blood is turned into Milk which by the Childs Sucking being drawn into its Mouth is received into the Stomach where the first digestion is perfected and without any other Mystery the Chyle becomes Milk by the sole inversion of Atoms their site being changed moreover this Chyle brought by the branches of the Vena-Porta according to the Antients Opinion to the hollow part of the Liver is converted into Blood and becomes what it was just before this demonstrates the circulation of Compound Bodies which are turned from one thing into another the first Elements of things always remaining in their own Nature in such a number of mutations Blood being in this manner prepared in the Liver is carried from the greater Vessels into the lesser and out of theseit distils like Dew into the Parts of the Body and is there converted into a substance homogeneal to the Parts that are nourished and by this addition of substance the Body is nourished and encreaseth This addition differs much from that by which Stones take their encrease for this accretion proceeds rather from an external Agent than from an internal Principle and is almost totally performed in the superficies whereas in Living Bodies Animals and Man especially it is done by Internal Agents which make part of the Compound and Universally extend themselves into all the inward parts which are nourished We must constitute also another kind of difference between the reason why Plants and Animals are encreased and the manner how stones and Mettals themselves take their increase And in Animals indeed three divers States are to be considered The first is of Augmentation in which an Animal by Nutrition acquires more of substance than is dissipated which happens in a Man from the time of his Nativity to the Age of two and twenty The second is a State of consistence where the Animal by aliments acquires so much substance as it loses in taking pains which happens to a Man from two and twenty to forty four The third is of decrease wherein a Man loses and dissipates more substance than he acquires by aliment and this happens to a Man from forty four to the sixty eighth year and longer Aliment therefore is the support of Nature without which it could not make up the losses which we suffer by the evaporation of the more subtile parts or by a Consumption of the moist or by an alteration loss and ablation of the solid parts But besides that this very thing discovers that continual loss which the substance of Living Bodies makes by reason of the opposite motions of Atoms which mutually drive one another to and fro some reciprocally moving others and the more fixed those that are less fixed It does also constitute a difference between this and the Life of Mettals which doubtlesly increase inwardly and outwardly by reason of an internal and external Principle and new addition of substance But some contingent loss or dissipation is not repaired by this Addition which we may see in Plants and more distinctly in Animals The Life of Animals which in some things they have common with Plants doth yet differ from it in many circumstances which do not occur in Plants for Plants have neither Bones nor Teeth to take and chew their Meat but they take their aliment by sucking without chewing by which very thing the first digestion and resolution of aliments is performed Hunger and Thirst precede this chewing which does not appear in Plants Hunger is the desire of a solid and Thirst of a moist Body Sharp-pointed Atoms move Hunger and the Corpuscles of the acid Liquor which velicates the tunicles of the Stomach Thirst hath its beginning from the drying up of this acid Liquor its moisture being consumed by the heat of the Liver or by violent Labour by reason of this dryness the Orifice of the Stomach wrincles it self up and the parts of the Jaws Palate and Tongue perceive pain and pricking to which it requires no other Remedy but Liquor when the Atoms fill the wrincles and tissures proceeding from the evaporations of the humid parts CHAP. VIII The Sensitive Life in Man and other Animals MAN would not be in the number of Animals if he did not enjoy a Life of sense as well as other Animals but he is an intelligent and rationable Animal and by a special priviledge bears the Image of his Author He possesseth a Spiritual and immortal Soul than which there is no other substantial form in the World and consequentially only Man is compounded of Matter and Form. So that all those substantial Forms which go by the name of vegetative Souls in Plants and in Brutes by the name of sensitive Souls are nothing else but vain illusions since Atoms and Corpuscles are the internal Principles of all the sensitive operations which we distinguish in Living Creatures Five of these operations are thus numbred viz. Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting and Touching To these we may add respiration in all Animals or the greatest part of them and Speech specially in Man. These operations are not made after the same manner in all Animals for Man the noblest of them all is neither sharper sighted nor quicker of hearing than the rest And in the same respect the other Senses are much more perfect in other Animals than in Man. The Lynx is sharper-sighted the Hare hears more distinctly the Dog smells better the Ape enjoys a more exquisite taste and the Spider a more delicate touch For all these kind of Operations are purely Natural and Animal and do not depend upon the Will or Reason but upon the sole disposition of Atoms and the construction of the Organical Parts CHAP. IX Of Sight its Organ and Object viz. Light. SIGHT is the chiefest and most noble of all the Senses whether we consider its Organ and Object or the operation of it by it self and the necessity of it The Eye is the Organ of Sense its object is a coloured and lucid Body for without colour and light there can be no seeing The Eye is made up of three tunicles viz. the Horn-like the Grape-like and the Net-like This last is in the bottom of the Eye the Grape-like Tunicle has a perforation called Prunella and the horn-like is the outward covering of the Eye some part of which we call the white of the Eye The Eye enjoys likewise three transparent humors viz. the Watery Chrystalline and Glassy the Optick nerve rooted in the Brain and applying it self to the bottom of the Eye brings hither the Spirits or visual Corpuscles woven together out of a