the same time the rest of the Blood in the Arteries remits its expansive Motion which was the other cause that hinder'd the Arteries from contracting themselves and those two impediments removed for that time the Fibres of the Arteries now prevail and by contracting themselves return to their middle posture of quiet by that contraction pressing the Blood forward on its Journey till it be impell'd into the substance of the Parts From whence after it hath done its Office it is soon forced to return toward the Heart through the Veins partly by more Blood flowing after and pressing it behind partly by the renitency and tonic Motion of the parts partly by the tension of the Muscles in the habit of the Body and in fine by the Pulsation of the Vena Cava which though but light is yet perceptible at its approach to the Heart where to that end it is furnisht with fleshy Fibres so that from thence Walaeus in Epist. de motu Sanguinis concluded that the circular Motion of the Blood beginn's from that part of the Vena Cava If I do not here particularly explain the reason and manner how each of these various Causes conduceth to the effect ascribed to their Syndrome or concurse it is because I presume that the whole History of the Circuition of the Blood with all its helps and circumstances is well known to the greatest part of my Auditors and because I hast to the FOURTH Act in the race of Life which beginns where the distribution of the Blood through the Arteries end 's and is the Communication of Life from the Blood distributed to all parts of the Body For these receiving the Blood impregnate with Original Life are thereby in a moment heated anew invigorated incited to expand themselves and made participant of Life Influent i. e. they are stirred up to the actual exercise of Augmentation or nutrition and of all other their Faculties And this Participation of Life is that vital Influx with so great Encomiums celebrated by Anatomists and the Heat of the Body both actual and vital and the general cause at least Sine qua non of all the noble Actions of the whole Body I say the General Cause because it is this influent Vital Heat that revives and stirrs them up to activity when without it all parts would be dull flaggy and torpid and yet notwithstanding it is not sufficiently able of itself to produce those Effects unless so farr forth as it is at the same time contemperated and determinated to this or that particular effect by that which some call the peculiar temperament and others the Spiritus insitus of that Member or Part whose proper Office it is to cause that effect For this vital Heat or general enlivening and invigorating influence operates one thing in the Liver another in the Spleen another in the Stomach and Gutts another in the Kidneys Sic de caeteris assisting and promoting the faculties of all parts so that no one can execute its proper function without it as the irradiation of the Sun is requisite to make the Ground fruitful and to excite the Seeds of all Vegetables lying in it and indeed this vital Heat is to Animals the Sun within them their Vesta perpetual Fire familiar Lar Calidum innatum Platonic Spark pepetually glowing not that like our common Fire it shines burns and destroys but that by a circular and incessant Motion from an internal Principle it conserves nourishes and augments first itself and then the whole Body Undè Entius noster in Antidiatribae pag. 6. in hunc finem extructum est cor quod calentis sanguinis rivulis totum corpus perpetim circumluit Cumque Plantae omnes à Solis benigna irradiatione vigorem vitamque adeo suam praecipùe mutuentur animalibus caeteris cordis calor innascitur unde tanquam à Microcosmi sole partes omnes jugiter refocillantur Ac propterea minùs placet quòd plantarum germen Corculi nomine indigitaveris Good reason then had our most Sagacious Harvey to sing so many Hymns as it were to this Sol Microcosmi that continually warms comforts and revives us Discoursing of the Primogeniture of the Blood in an Embryon Lib. de Generat Animal exercit 50. he falls into this elegant encomium of it Ex observatis constat Sanguinem esse partem genitalem fontem vita primùm vivens ultimò moriens sedemque animae primariam in quo tanquam in fonte calor primò praecipùe abundaet vigetque à quo reliquâ—â— omnes totius corporis partes calore influente foventur vitam obtinent Quippe calor Sanguinem comitatus totum corpus irrigat fovet conservat Ideoque concentrato fixoque leviter sanguine Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominavit veluti in lipothymia timore frigore externo febrium insultu contingit videas illicò totum corpus frigescere torpere pallore livoreque perfusum languescere evocato autem rursum sanguine hui quam subitò omnia calent denùo florent vigent splendentque Nec jecur munus suum publicum exsequitur sine influentia sanguinis caloris per arteriam Caeliacam Imò vero Cor ipsum per Arterias Coronarias influentem unà cum sanguine caliditatem vitamque accipit Quippe nullibi est caloris affluentia citra sanguinis influxum per arterias Sanguis denique totum corpus adeo circumflùit penetrat omnibusque ejus partibus calorem vitam jugiter impertit ut Anima primò principaliter in ipso residens illiûs gratiâ tota in toto tota in qualibet parte ut vulgò dicitur inesse meritò censeatur In another place Exercit. 51. vindicating the Supremacy of it over all parts of the Body he breaks forth into this memorable expostulation Si Neoterici quidam verè dicant animalium semen coitu emissum esse animatum quidni pari ratione affirmemus animam esse in sanguine cùmque hic primò generetur nutriatur moveatur ex eodem quoque animam primùm excitari ignescere Certè sanguis est in quo vegetativae sensitivae operationes primò elucent cui calor primarium immediatum animae instrumentum innascitur qui corporis animaeque commune vinculum est quo vehiculo animae omnibus totius corporis partibus influit In a third place Exercit. 70. where he with cogent reasons refutes the vulgar error de calido innato he puts an end to all false notions and all disputes concerning that Subject and then concludes in these words Solus sanguis est calidum innatum seu primò natus calor animalis Habet profectò in se animam primò ac principaliter non vegetativam modò sed sensitivam etiam motivam permeat quoquoversum ubique praesens est eodemque ablato anima quoque ipsa statim tollitur adeo ut sanguis ab anima nihil discrepare videatur vel saltem substantiae cujus actus sit anima
throat and by that compression forces it into the mouth of the Gullet For being so environ'd as that it cannot slipp away either by the funnells above leading to the nosestrills or by the palate it must be cramm'd into the orifice of the Gullet there being no other way or door left open by which it may free it self from compression Nor doth this compression instantly cease but is continued till the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx filling up the whole cavity of the throat have thence driven all the matter contain'd therein and thrust it down into the Gullet 2. Whilst this action is perform'd the Muscles of the Pharynx being also vigorated i. e set on work by tension cause its membrane closely to embrace the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx in their ascent but so as that the orifice of the Gullet is at the same time carried upward and a little forward to meet the matter to be swallow'd No wonder then if the describ'd compression easily squeez into the Gullet all the matter brought into the throat when the same is promoted by a clausure on each side from below by the ascent of the tongue and Larynx from above by the tension of the muscles of the Pharynx and at the same time the mouth of the Gullet is offer'd as a door by which it may slipp away and evade the compression 3. No sooner is the matter in this manner thrust down into the orifice of the Gullet than the Sphincter Muscle thereof constringing it self so girds the orifice as that it not only prevents the recoiling or slipping back of the matter into the mouth but squeezes it somwhat farther down And then 4. The Peristaltic or Compressing motion of the spiral fibres of the Gullet beginning and by degrees girding the sides thereof farther and farther downward soon thrusts the matter into the cavity of the Stomach And this seems to me to be the most reasonable and plain accompt that hitherto hath been given how the whole complex work of Deglutition is perform'd Mechanically A work of so great Use to the whole body that all men know and acknowledge it to be absolutely necessary to the conservation of the whole Experience teaching even the most illiterate that when it happens to be abolish'd as in various diseases of the throat chiefly in inflammations tumors and palseys of the muscles of the Larynx and Pharynx it often is miserable famin and death inevitably insue It is not then without good cause that Nature hath according to her accustom'd bounty in works of publick utility either to the subsistence of individuals or to propagation of the species to the exercise of the faculty of Deglutition annex'd an ample reward viz. a grateful Complacency of the instruments therein used yea a pleasure so inviting that many Animals are thereby allured to hurt themselves by eating more than they can digest and above all intemperate Man whose diet is in variety of tasts the most delicious With which vulgar remark I conclude this short and imperfect history of the Oesophagus ¶ PRAELECTIO II. HISTORIA VENTRICULI THAT we may not in our surveys divide parts that Nature hath so closely conjoyn'd let us in the next place convert our contemplation upon the principal Organ of Chylification wherein as in a publick Kitchin nourishment for the whole body is praepar'd viz. the STOMACH This common Receptacle of all our meat and drink and Laboratory in which all the profitable parts of both are by the inimitable Chymistry of Nature converted into a certain whitish liquor somwhat resembling barly cream and call'd Chyle hath been by the Antient Graec Physicians describ'd under three divers names By Hippocrates 't is sometimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to receive or contein because it receives all the Aliment swallowed down and wherever in his works we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without addition to appropriate it to the Head or Thorax which by him are also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellies there we are to understand this part alone sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cavity and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heart from the vicinity of the upper orifice of the Stomach to the Heart and the symptoms thence arising But of these Appellations the two first are common to all great cavities or receptacles in the body and the last in stricter sense denotes not the whole stomach but only the principal and most sensil part of it the Mouth Among the Latines likewise we find an equal variety of denominations For Celsus lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 4. cap. 5. uses the words Venter Ventriculus and Stomachus indifferently to signify this whole part and Cicero de nat Deor. lib. 2. expresses the same by Ventriculus and Stomachus indiscriminately But now use hath obtain'd that the diminutive Ventriculus quasi minor ventor without a limitation annext stand for the proper name of what the Vulgar calls the Stomach For tho' Anatomists name the cavities of the Heart and Brain also Ventricles yet they never do so without adding for distinction sake the name of the part viz. Heart or Brain of which they speak This Ventricle then being an Organical part of great dignity but greater necessity well deserves our strictest scrutiny Let us then with diligence and patience consider 1. The Structure or Organization 2. The Elements or similar parts and 3. The Actions and Uses of it For if we can attain to a competent knowledge of all these things I do not see what can remain to hinder us from coming at length to understand the nature of it fully and perfectly Begin we then from the Site or situation of it which being not the same in Animals of all kinds but various requires to be consider'd first in genere and then speciatim to the end that Comparative Anatomy may go hand in hand with simple or Positive In all Animals that have bloud Fowls that feed upon corn only excepted the Ventricle is seated in the upper part of the Abdomen The superior Orifice of it in Man in all four-footed Beasts and in all Fishes that have lungs is immediately under the Diaphragm but in all Fishes that respire not immediately appendant to the mouth as well because having neither thorax nor neck they consequently want the Gullet as because in them the belly is disterminated from the mouth by a certain membraneous partition not much unlike to and as to separation supplying the defect of the midriff Whereas in Animals that respire the Gullet is requisite because of the interposition of the breast betwixt the mouth and the Ventricle which could not be commodiously placed above the diaphragm in the thorax for more than one reason viz. 1. Because it would have straitned and compress'd the Lungs especially when fill'd and distended with food 2. Because the Thorax being inviron'd with strong bones could not be
Wherefore the native temperament of all fibres is cold and moist indeed but enrich'd with delicate and noble spirits however fixt and consequently they require to be nourish'd with a spermatic aliment The Corpulency or fleshiness of fibres is variable somtimes greater as in strong and laborious men somtimes less as in weak lean and sedentary The Cohaerence of parts ought to be firm and tough that they may be extended without danger of divulsion or rupture and return to their natural posture by spontaneous contraction after extension Their Flexibility depends partly upon their tenacity partly upon their middle constitution betwixt hardness and softness that they may be neither rigid or stiff nor flaggy The Organical native constitution of fibres consisteth in their due situation figure magnitude and continuity all which are included in their former description The influent constitution of them is either Vital or Animal If the vital influx be deficient the force and strength of the fibres soon languishes as in swoonings and faintings Yea if it be but depraved as in fevers their vigour in a few hours decayes If the Animal influx be intercepted as in the palsy they quickly become languid and stupid yea if the brain and nerves grow dull and sluggish the fibres at the same time grow flaccid and loose unapt for vigorous motion 2. The general Uses of all fibres are to corroborate the parts to which they belong and to move them The special uses are various respective to their various formation in divers parts as for instance in the Stomach and Gutts they serve chiefly to their Peristaltic motion 3. The Action of Fibres is either Common or Proper Common when being invigorated i. e. set on work by extension which is against their nature they pull and move the part to which they are connex'd as a chord pull'd by a mans hand pulls a plummet or any other body fastned to it but this seems to me to be in strictness of truth rather Passion than action in respect of the fibres themselves for they suffer extension being notwithstanding their natural renitency stretcht in length by the pulling of the nerves from which they are elonged Wherefore according to my weak judgment their Proper action is only Self-contraction by which they restore themselves to their natural posture A motion common indeed to all Tensil bodies whatever and therefore rightly term'd by Philosophers motion of Restitution the cause whereof I take to be the strong cohaerence of the parts of which they are compos'd If so what need we amuse our selvs by striving to deduce the spontaneous Contraction of nerves and fibres either from natural Instinct which implying I know not what secret suggestion pro re nata from some forein cause whether God or His servant Nature is to me unintelligible or what is equally abstruse from Natural Perception which supposes even inanimate things yea every the least particle of matter in the whole Universe to be naturally endowed with knowledge of what is good or evil to their nature with appetites to embrace the good and eschew the evil and with power to move themselves accordingly faculties that my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational creatures 4. The Passion therefore of a Fibre is the extension of it which is a passive motion coming from a cause without the essence of the fibre it self Which cause unless it actually relax or stupesie the fibres incites or irritates them to contract themselves and the more violent the irritation the stronger is the renitency and spontaneous contraction as is observ'd in convulsions To me it seems impossible that a simple fibre should by its own action alone extend it self in length nor have I wit enough to conceive how this can be done since all extension is a less or greater degree of force tending to the tearing asunder of the parts of the tensible body against which divelling force the firm cohaerence of the parts makes it strive And as for the Cessation of fibres that is when they neither act nor suffer but rest from all either extension or contraction having restor'd themselves to their natural posture of laxity This they attain to chiefly in sleep when all fibres of the whole body those that serve to respiration and the motions of the heart only excepted are at rest and thereby refresh'd acquiring after labour and weariness new strength and vigor from the sweet mild and balsamic juice dispensed to them from the brain by the nerves After this concise survey of the fibres in the membranes of the Ventricle there remains only their peculiar Parenchyma to challenge our observation which it may with the greater right pretend to because there are many who question whether it be real or imaginary because the whole Ventricle being of a white color seems therefore to be made up only of fibres and membranes It concerns us then to be certified 1. Of the real existence 2. Of the necessity 3. Of the quality and 4. Of the various uses of what we call the Parenchyma of the Ventricle as a distinct part thereof 1. To be assured even by our own eyes that there is really such a thing we need only to essay the excarnation of the stomach by laying it extended upon a plain bord and then scraping it moderately hard with a blunt knife in the same manner as Sheep skins are scrap'd by those who make Velom and Parchment or gutts by those who make Sawciges For by this easie means you may scrape off so great a quantity of soft white pulp as will by nineteen parts of twenty exceed all that you leave behind of membranes and fibres which will yet remain as strong and tenacious as they were before Against which experiment I see not what can be objected For if the firm cohaerence of the fibres of the Stomach be not only not abolish'd but not at all diminish'd by this scraping away of the pulp that stufft them it follows that the pure fibres in which alone the strength of the stomach consists still remain intire and that nothing but the Parenchyma or pulp hath been taken away From the same experiment it appears also that the membrane and pure fibres of the Ventricle are in themselves pellucid or transparent as we see in the skins of Sawciges and that they owe all their opacity to their stuffing with this Parenchyma 2. Which is necessary to the constitution of the Stomach in more than one respect Necessary it seems to fill up and make smooth and plain the inequalities arising from the contexture of the fibres which running various courses and riding each over other somtimes would otherwise render the surfaces of the membranes uneven Necessary it is also to stop the pores of the Stomach that it may hold liquors the better and be stanch even to vapors and wind as linnen cloth is made to hold water by dipping it into melted wax oyle and turpentine which fill up the void spaces betwixt
the threads in the same manner as this mucilaginous pulp fills up the interstices betwixt the fibres and so makes the membranes impervious Necessary it is to the augmentation and extenuation of the fibres themselves For the fibres of the Stomach although seldom or never liable to fatness are yet easily capable of plumpness and leanness In men sick of a Consumtion they are alwayes extenuated in fat men alwayes plump and thick But these mutations could not so easily happen if the fibres were not stuff'd with some pulp for all Parenchymata are easily melted a way by degrees but fibres not without great difficulty nor do I know any thing more apt to colliquate their substance and destroy their tone than Brandy and other corroding Spirits how highly soever extoll'd by Chymists that distill them We may see in men languishing of Hectic fevers and ulcers of the lungs the Tendons of the muscles remaining intire when the pulp of them is in the mean time almost wholly consumed Whence 't is evident that the fibres which are more easily obnoxious to augmentation and diminution than other solid parts have much of a pulpy substance in their composition 3. This pulp if softned and diluted with water is like a mucilage or gelly otherwise tenacious tensible and strong like paste so as to be impervious to winds and liquors though apt perhaps to imbibe the thinner and spirituose part of the Chyle Different from the Parenchyma of the bowels and from that of the Muscles also as being neither bloody but white and spermatic nor congested into a mass but spread abroad like plaister so as to bear extension and contraction together with the fibres part of it being stuff'd or cramm'd into the fibres the rest dawbed upon and betwixt them so as to fill up and plane their interstices 4. Besides which two Uses it seems to serve also to three others viz. to the safe conduct of the Venae Lacteae proceeding from the Stomach which probably have their roots in the parenchyma of the inmost tunic thereof where the small Glandules observ'd by Steno and Malpighius are seated to the separation of the mucus or pituita emortua from the bloud brought by the arteries into the coats of the Ventricle of which we shall more opportunely inquire when we come to the uses of the Stomach and lastly to make way for a larger current of blood to pass through the membranes of the Stomach than otherwise they and their pure fibres could through their substance transmitt For Fibres by how much more firm and tenacious they are than the Parenchyma is by so much more they resist the transition of the blood and therefore if here were no Parenchyma certainly the Ventricle would be irrigated with more slender streams of blood and consequently colder than it ought to be Whereas now no less than five conspicuous arteries discharge themselves into its coats Certain therefore it is that a more liberal afflux of bloud is requir'd to the constitution of the stomach than seems possible to be transmitted through the naked membrane and fibres without this pulp Having now at length finish'd I wish I might say perfected my survey of all visible Elements or constituent parts of the Ventricle I should proceed to the functions actions and uses of it But remembring that an empty Stomach hath no ears and considering that it would be double wrong to you should I at once starve both your bodies and your curiosity I choose rather here to break off the thread of my discourse than to weaken that of your life by detaining you longer from necessary refection ¶ PRAELECTIO III. Of the ACTIONS and USES of the VENTRICLE AFTER dinner sit a while is an old and good precept to conserve health Let us then if ye please now observe it And that we may repose without idleness let us calmly inquire into the method causes and manner of Digestion resuming the clew of our discourse where hunger and thirst brake it off when it had brought us to that place where we might most opportunely consider the ACTIONS and USES of the Ventricle whose admirable Structure and various Parts we had so particularly contemplated in order to our more accurate investigation of them In this disquisition Nature her self hath plainly mark'd out the steps wherein we are to tread having assign'd to the Ventricle eight distinct operations or actions to be perform'd in order successively These Actions are 1. Hunger 2. Thirst 3. The Peristaltic motion 4. Reception 5. Retention 6. Concoction 7. Secretion 8. Expulsion each of which hath a peculiar Faculty respondent to it for every action in specie distinct necessarily implies a distinct power But because each distinct faculty and the action respondent to it are though in reason different yet in reality one and the same thing I shall not treat of them separately but describe them together under the more familiar name of action the rather because if we can be so lucky to find out the true reason of any one operation here specified we need search no farther to know the nature of the faculty to which it belongs all mechanical operations conducting our understanding to the knowledge of the proper powers by which they are perform'd Following then the order of Nature in examining these Actions I begin from the first viz. HUNGER Among the many differences betwixt Plants and Animals this is not the least remarkable that Plants are fixt by their roots which serve them also instead of mouth and stomach in the earth so that they remove not from their places in quest of nourishment Unde facundiss noster Entius in Antidiatribae pag. 5. Plantae inquit non sunt quidem gressiles sed humo affixae secum continuè habitant quòd pluviâ solùm ac rore tenuissimo scilicet victu pascantur Ideoque cùm ad rivulos potatum ire nequeant expansis veluti brachiis facundos imbres à Jove pluvio implorant But Animals having their Stomach within their bodies and sucking no juice immediately from the earth are therefore forced to change their stations and range from place to place to find food convenient for their sustenance And because the capacity of their Ventricles and Gutts is not so great as at once to contain a quantity of food sufficient to maintain life for many dayes together necessary it is they should often be recruited by eating fresh aliment To obtain which they must seek it and to oblige them to seek it they must be excited and urged by somthing within them to that quest and to that excitation is requir'd an internal goad as it were and that a sharp one too and irresistible the inevitable necessity of their nutrition consider'd otherwise they would neglect to supply themselves in due time with new sustenance and consequently soon pine away and perish Now the goad that compells them to feed is Hunger and Thirst the one urges them to seek meat the other drink both by