AEâ—OCHALINOS OR A Register for the Air IN FIVE CHAPTERS 1. Of Fermentation 2. Of Chylification 3. Of Respiration 4. Of Sanguification 5. That often changing the Air is a friend to health Also a discovery of a new method of doing it without removing from one place to another by means of a Domicil or Air-Chamber fitted to that purpose For the better preservation of Health and cure of Diseases after a new Method By NATHANIEL HENSHAW M. D. a Member of the Royal Society at GRESHAM-COLLEDGE Dublin Printed for Samuel Dancer Bookseller in Castle-street 1664. To the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Ossory Lord Deputy General of IRELAND c. Right Honorable THat the happy Industry of former Ages whereby we enjoy the benefit of so many useful inventions hath still left mater enough for the contrivance and discovery of succeeding times cannot be better made appear than by calling to mind those many worthy improvements which almost all the more Liberal Arts have received within the compass of this last Century especially Physick wherein Anatomy alone I may truly say hath been inriched by a full third part at least And herein our own Countrymen have been as successfully inquisitive as any other their Contemporaries whatsoever No wonder then if in such an Age I imitating their example have thought fit to give this account of my leisure to the world but that I offer it to the protection of so great a Patron the reasons perhaps are not so manifest as necessary For as the Novelty of so unexpected a method as I here propose will undoubtedly expose it to the calumny of such who rather than give themselves the trouble of examining the truth of it being betimes perswaded that they already know as much as is to be learnt will soon condemn it both of folly and innovation So it seems of absolute necessity that it bear with it the splendid name of some great Personage the better to bespeak the judicious Readers charitable Censure Whose name then could I more hopefully have prefixed than that of your Lordships a person so Noble by descent so Eminent by your Great and Honorable Imployments and so deservedly beloved and admired of all for that excellent composure of Greatness and Goodness so remarkable in your Lordship which attempt of mine if it may receive a favourable Interpretation I shall be obliged to continue Your Honors in all submission c. N. H. Dublin July 1. 1664. The Preface I Hold it not unsuitable to our design in this Treatise where I have so often occasion to make mention of it that something be said by way of Preface concerning the Air. Not that I intend to treat of it's first or second qualities c. Which I leave to the natural Philosophers consideration much less of the Elastic power of it in Pneumatick Engines already so well performed by others especially by the Honorable Robert Boyl in his most accurate Treatise on that Subject my purpose here being only to present my Reader with some few observables concerning Air the better to confirm and illustrate what follows in the Treatise it self especially in the Chapter of Fermentation First therefore that the Air is of some very general use may well appear from its being so great in Vbiquitarian as it is No place almost without it no body perhaps but participating more or less of it insomuch that even in metals themselves the sound of them it reckoned an affection of the Air included in them And if the transparency of Bodies be to be imputed to their porousness or rather to the streightness or rectitude of their pores as it s almost generally agreed on by Modern Writers it will follow that there is a great proportion of Air in the hardest Gemmes Which is yet more manifest in softer stones and becomes the cause of their moldring and cracking after they are taken out of the Quarrey and exposed to the weather which some sort of stones are very subject to For the imprisoned Air that while it was in the cold bowels of the Earth lay very much condensed or compressed afterward symbolizing with the Air of a thinner Medium powerfully dilates its self and after some time so weakens the continuity of parts that at last becoming too strong for it the stone breaks into many pieces which will sooner happen if the same be thrown into the fire the included Air in such case with much more violence dilating its self than in the former experiment Plants seem to owe their very life and being to this included Air for not having hearts or other principal of motion in them that we know of for the distributing of the Sap the included Air seems to supply that defect after this manner In the day time in hot weather and generally as often as the Air of the Medium is dilated or contracted the Air included in the body of every Vegetable suffers after the same manner and has its dimensions and tone varied Whereupon these two considerable effects follow to wit that upon the dilatation of the internal or included Air the parts of the Vegetable are distended somewhat according to their trinal dimension whereby the Plant grows bigger and taller And again upon the compression of the internal Air room is made for the water or sap to rise up through the pores of the Plant exactly after the manner of the Weather-glass where the compression of the Air becomes the cause of the ascent of the water And thus according to these periods of heat and cold and the consequent rarity and density of the included Air and that of the Medium every Plant makes as it were so many meals or is so often refreshed by the ascending Sap which ascent is also not a little promoted by those gentle Vibrations from the winds whereby the parts of Vegetables and consequently the included Air are moderately compressed and dilated reciprocally wherrupon the foresaid effects follow even after the same manner as is said of the Swing and in the last Chapter of this Treatise The included Air serves likewise in Vegetables as in all other bodies for the maturing and fermenting the juices in them in such manner as is hereafter expressed A farther confirmation whereof may be hence had that the most vegetous plants and such as we call Ever-Greens abound most with Air in them as appears when they are thrown into the fire by the violent eruption of it And there is I think no vegetable that has not one great pore or Pipe running from the root to the very top of it Farther in the Sea wrack or Quercus Marina 't is obvious for every one to observe a very particular and curious contrivance of Nature for the nourishment of that plant by the help of Air after this sort The plant as always fastened to some stone and as it branches out with jagged leafs somewhat resembling those of the Oak it hath several little Blisters or Bladders on it some where
they make that frothy head or scum observable in Sider Wine Beer and other liquors and this I take to be the natural method of all fermentâ—tion when not checked or otherwise determined by some outward circumstance And this also seems a genuine reason of the depuration and of the casting off the heavier and lighter recrement mentioned before N. 5. to happen in fermented liquors 12. That Bodies are ripened and acquire their due perfection by fermentation is asserted N. 6. but in such case it is necessary that this fermentation be checked or retarded in such sort as is there mentioned both in natural and more artificial fermentations But the most universal Moderator of this motion is what was lately call'd the tone of Air as well as its temperature which daily and hourly changing doth accelerate retard check and put backward this motion and then restores it again by which various and oft repeated course the parts are comminuted their roughness retunded and mitigated and they so disposed of after an inexplicable manner as conduces most to the beauty and perfection of the Body fermented 13. This dilatation and constriction in Bodies fermented caused by the like accidents of the Ambient Air may not improperly be compared with the pulse in Animals having its Systole and Diastole even as they have though by longer periods as of day and night warm weather and cold c. and from hence perhaps is the true cause of pulses in Animals to be lookt for which yet as forreign to our present scope we here enquire not farther after but it will not be improper to observe with common experience that Malt is best made in windy weather and that the best and most lasting Beer is brewed in March and September windy moneths and of an unequal temper Now 't is evident that all winds are moved by gusts rather then equal fluxes from whence probably it is that the Sea is lifted into Waves as it were numbring to us the several impetuous stroaks it received from the winds Thus the motion of all Animals seems to be performed by snatches and jerks and it is indeed a great question among School-Philosophers whether any local motion be strictly speaking continual and not rather consisting of short motions and frequent rests as it were compounded together This Pulse or frequent change in the tone of the Air however it may seem at first view an idle or over-subtil contemplation will upon due consideration be found not only true and the cause of those effects assigned to it in the foregoing Paragraph but that it may also with good effect be made use of in Physick as a notable instrument for preservation of health and the cure of diseases I shall hereafter endeavour to prove in the ensuing discourse That most liquors fermented especially in the beginning conceive heat and become warm even to sense the reason may be partly gathered out of what has been already said namely that the small particles of Air in such liquor become dilated which dilatation is always accompanied with an encrease of heat they mutually making way for and introducing one the other in the Air and bodies participating of Air if not hindred from without to which may be added that all motion is apt to beget heat in the Body moved which is true not only of solid Bodies though more eminently in them but also of liquid Bodies themselves Thus 't is said in making Butter you must neither make too much at once nor yet must it be too violently beaten or shaken for in such case there will be great hazard of over-heating the Butter which as you see is the meer effect of motion in a liquid Body only Besides most liquors fermented abouâ— with a kind of Tartar which afterwâ—â—â— subsideth when the Mass begins to coâ—… the collision of whose rough particles 〈◊〉 against the other may perhaps somewâ—… contribute to the production of this heâ—… though I for my part impute less to 〈◊〉 then the causes before assigned though 〈◊〉 remarkable heat arising in Aqua fortis aâ—…sed upon filings of Iron or Silver is perhâ—… best made out by the collision of its asproâ—… parts against those of the said Metals 14. As concerning particular ferments I shall only observe that congenerous Bodies suffer most and are best fermented by their own proper ferments namely Ale by yeast Dough by Leven Milk by Renet Thus Apples Pears and Grapes and generally all fruit once corrupted or rotten do more easily affect and putrifie those of their own kind then of any other I say more easily for they will though with more difficulty and after a longer time corrupt fruits of a divers kind also and those particular Levens before-mentioned will in like manner though probably not so naturally ferment â—ther Bodies of whose kind they are not â—…s Yest will ferment Dough which yet 〈◊〉 something congenerous to it as proâ—…ng it self originally from Corn or 〈◊〉 and whites of Eggs beaâ—… up 〈◊〉 snowy froth will indifferently supply â—…ant of Yest in either Wort or Dough â—…am verily perswaded that the Yesty 〈◊〉 which may be taken off the top of 〈◊〉 running Drills of water would effect â—…me mingled with Dough unless perâ—… it be not viscous enough wherein it â—…ms only to differ from the whites of â—ggs beaten as is said and it were worth the trying to understand whether a Mass of Dough made with flower and snow only would need any other raising or Leven I have read that in the Countryes about Parma and Piacenza whence those so much valued Parmisan Cheeses come the people make use of Snow instead of Renet This instance however of the white of an Egg beaten may serve very well to illustrate our Position concerning the fermentation of Bodies by the dilatation and constriction of its aereous Particles as also the kneding of Dough and shaking of liquors which is a kind of kneding too the better to make them rise and work will notably confirm what we said of the Tone of the Air its frequent alterations and of windy weather how much they conduce to the better fermentation of most Bodies 15. Note that the reason why the juices of most fruits do soon after expression acquire a strong fermentation seems to be this that not only the liquor is now more at liberty then when mixed with the fleshy parts of the fruit but likewise that the Airy Particles lay very much compressed in the fruit every particular Grape Cherry and Apple being in the nature of a little Bottle which as we see if well stopt hinders the working of Ale or Wine but once opened the liquors straightway ferment and swell very impetuously the compressed Air forcibly dilating it self and this is the reason that fruit a little eaten by the Birds or Snails will ripen much faster than if they had not been entered upon but then the taste will not be altogether so generous and sprightly Thus Apples and Pears gather'd green and hoarded ripen
of I have seen as big as a small Pullets Egg. Now upon the coming in of the Tide the water rising this weed by means of the said Bladders floats and if the Stone be not too heavy Boys it up and hangs in the water like a Net that hath Corks and Leads to it whereupon the Plant is considerably stretched and again upon the subsiding of the water receives its nourishment as in the former instance of other vegetables though perhaps not from the root being fastened to a stone but by the porose surface of its body And lastly that there is much Air disseminated through the bodies of Animals is manifest from their food herbs and water both which participate of it in good quantity A notable argument whereof in water may be that it doth upon such easie terms rise up in a vapour and mingle its minute and insensible parts with the Air. For as the water grows warm either by the heat of the Sun or fire the small parts of Air dilating make haste to the top of the water where they frame themselves with some of the water into little bubbles and are carried away by the motion of the Air or Medium like those bubbles made by Children with Soap and water And this perhaps may be one reason why Rain water is better for plants then other water because it has more air in it a testimony whereof the Scale may afford us And this is manifest in wine even to sense from which if it be brisk and fresh and poured from on high into a glass you shall first see a great number of little bubbles or floating parcels of Air rise up with such force as to mount neer a foot above the surface of the wine But it is not enough for us to have proved great quantities of Air in all mixed bodies unless it be at the same time allowed us that the Air be actually and formally there as in the Medium or open Air suffering nothing else but barely an imprisonment or confinement only which is already sufficiently made out by the uses lately assigned it in vegetables unless they may be otherways more commodiously explained besides that the possibility of converting one substance into another was yet never so clearly taught as to become intelligible and has at this day but few Asserters of it In contemplation of all which particulars and that the Air alone of all Simple Bodies is capable of dilatation and constriction or call it rarity and density yet not by any power to move it has of its self but as it is moved more or less by the presence or absence the neerness or remoteness of the Sun the heart and Center of this worldly System in which we live I thought it a matter worth my pains though perhaps exceeding my abilities to assay whether all fermentation were not reducible to this simple motion of the Air and did not depend on it as on a general and more universal cause which if I fail not in it will be no very difficult matter to reduce all other motions in the world to that of fermentation and probably to resolve many hard questions not as yet so rightly determined But because contemplations of this kind are in their own Nature very unprofitable if not reducible to practise I have as well as I could applied the same to the cure and prevention of most diseases as will somewhat more at large appear by the ensuing Treatise Which I have suffered to undergo the publick view with this assurance that if the foundaâ—ion I build on fail me not I need not at all â—â—â—bt the Superstructure CLarissimi viri Nathan Henshaw M. D. opus hoc mole quidem Exiguum sed acumine eruditione cùm variâ jucundà tum utili novà succóque plenum relegimus idque cunctis tam Medicinae non-vulgaris quà m Secretioris Solidioris Philosophiae Studiosis summoperè commendamus JOHANNES STEARNE M. J.V.D. M. Professor Publicus in Academiâ Dubliniensi Dat. è Collegio S. Individ Trin. propter Dublinium Calend. Julii 1664. CHAP. I. Of Fermentation in General 1. BY Fermentation I understand that motion observable in all compound or mixed bodies whereby the order and situâ—â—â—on of all the minute parts of the same are continually changed as well in respect of themselves as of the whole Mass whereof they are parts and that chiefly from an internal cause so moving or disposing them without the local motion of the whole whether the same be accompanied with any sensible heat in the Mass so fermented or not 2. That such a motion or fermentation 〈◊〉 every where observable we need not go 〈◊〉 to prove if we consider that there is scarce any thing sublunary which is subject to our observation that continues the least moment of time in the same tenour without alteration which if not observable to sence is yet found to be so with as little reasoning as that the shadow upon the Dyal continually moves on though our eye determine not till after some minutes perhaps of time it becomes apparent that the shadow has moved and then we straight conclude it moved all the while and that the proportional parts of space were commensurate to the respective moments in which the shadow passed from one term to the other if therefore all bodies are thus moved or fermented at all times it folâ—ows that the Doctrine of Fermentation according to our acception of the word 〈◊〉 manner as far extended as that of 〈◊〉 itself I shall only consider it so 〈◊〉 as it seems conducible and subservient to those noble ends I have proposed my self in this Treatise viz. the continuation of health the cure of Diseases and the retardâ—ng of old Age to say no more and not â—o promise too much by a new and hitherto unheard of method 3 The most general properties of fermentation are these that the Mass so fermented suffers an eminent alteration in all its usual wayes of affecting our senses as well in its first as second qualities they are either exalted or depressed they are sometimes changed for their contrary and in a word relation being had to our esteem of things thus fermented all fermentation may be said to be either perfective or destructive though in it self it be but one continued flux as for instance in an apple or the like that from a green austere bud first acquires its due perfection and after by a continuation of that fermentation that ripened it at last arrives at corruption and so changes both its name and nature together 4 Another eminent property of fermentation is that for the most part the Body fermented doth occupy more space than the same did before which is very evident in the drowned bodies of men or other animals which though at first they go to the bottom yet after a certain time do slowly boye themselves up again to the top of the water not for that the breaking of the Gall becomes the
cause of their ascending as some even knowing men have suffered themselves to be perswaded but because such bodies formerly heavier than water quantity for quantity and consequently apt to sink have now acquired a larger dimension while they however increase not their weight and so becoming lighter than the water contained in the like space are protruded by it to the top where they by degrees swell yet bigger so that sometimes I have seen a dog lye with more than one halfe of his body above the surface of the water and it is no more than happens in a pound of Glass metal or other heavy material which in a solid Mass sinks to the bottom but if blown or wrought into a bottle it keeps the top of the water all which together with the reason is well enough known to such as have been conversant in statick Experiments 5 Another very useful property of Fermentation is that while it separates all Heterogeneous parts it leaves the Basis as it were or main ingredient of the Mass clear and limpid if not hindred by the density of the body and throws off two recrements or superfluities one a heavier descending to the bottom the other of a lighter more frothy substance which takes its place at the top of the liquor as is manifest in Wine Sider and the juices of other fruits in Beer made with Barly and the decoctions of other grains first maulted and grown'd This happens not in Bread because the greatest part of the Mass being the more solid the less or watry par◠takes its flight on all sides to the circumference though somewhat more slowly and there coagulates into a blew mould 6. Another noble property of Fermentation is that it exalts the body fermented to what perfection it is capable of but then it is requisite that the body fermented be of such a consistence as may not be fermented too fast as in fruits upon trees or if thin that it be close stop't in some full Vessel as all kind of drinks or if o◠〈◊〉 middle consistence that it be often stirred which is observed by Apothecaries in the making of Treacle and other such Compositions which afterward will keep a very long time For thus it is necessary that that spirit as we will call it for the present which ferments the Mass be for a while detained either by the tone of the body by some strong vessel or that it be often re-effused as it were upon its body that so by its long difficult and reiterated working it may at last find out some congruity amongst the less Heterogeneous parts and cause a kind of complanation of the whole Mass and it self with less reluctancy be detained in the Body or Mass 7. Another very General property of Fermentation is that all bodies almost by it at last become acide as is manifest in all liquors decoctions of flesh or herbs electuaries sirups c. by which acidity I understand not that sowre taste observable in most green fruits which is rather to be termed acerbity and differs as much from what we here speak of as Agresta the juyce of green grapes exprest doth from Vinegar 8. In the next place let us briefly consider the causes of Fermentation the most immediate of which seems to be the Air contained in every mixt body for as I noted before all bodies fermented do occupy a larger room than they did before fermentation which cannot be duely ascribed to any other ingredient in mixt bodies than to the air for that it hath not yet been found by sufficient experiment that any body whatsoever is capable of rarifaction and condensation or dilation and construction besides air as for Leaf Gold what it got in one dimension it lost in the other and all the parts of Gold calcined do but equal the Mass they were made of no more than if the same had been reduced to an impalpable powder by means of a very fine file The same is to be understood of water evaporated by heat which is only a comminution of it into exceeding small parts and no way a conversion of it into air as hath been formerly received which is from hence evidenced that such vapours by the Alembic are again reducible to the same liquors from whence they were first raised viz. into Rosewater or spirit of Wine which were no more possible if they had been really converted into air then out of common air to draw Rose-water or spirit of Wine and if water or milke or other liquor take up more room when boyling on the fire then they did cold 't is by reason that the particles of air formerly not visible are now considerably dilated so as to become observable to the eye 9. As the Air contained in mixt bodies is the most immediat efficient cause of Fermentation so it needs exciting and actuating for the most part as well by the temper and tone of the Medium as from the addition of this or that particular Ferment as of leven yeast Renet or the like of which perhaps we shall have farther occasion to speak more hereafter and at present only consider how the Medium especially the Ambient Air excites the internal air in the work of Fermentation 10. By the Tone of the Air I understand the measure of its rarity and density and especially its reciprocations or frequent access and recess to this or that degree of rarity and density Now that one Air is rarer than another as that of hills then that of the valleys that of southern Regions then that of the more Northern is I think an undoubted truth also that the Air of every particular place is sometimes rarer sometimes denser according to the several seasons of the year times of the day and night c. needs no other proof then that of the Weather-glass By the temperature of the Air I mean its degree and difference of heat and cold which admits of the same considerations of place and time as before and is not only proved by the Weather-glass but even by sense it self 11. The manner how the Ambient works upon the internal air in mixed bodies is the same with that of the Weather-glass where the inclosed air is rarified and condensed heated and cooled accordingly as the Medium is affected So in bodies fermented especially liquors the imperceptible particles of air being gently and by degrees dilated become the cause that the whole Mass doth occupy more and more room or encreases its dimensions under the same weight whereupon this effect immediately follows that several Heterogeneous Particles which before floated in the liquor and were as I may say equilibrous with the same do now gently descend toward the bottom in order according to their weight The small Particles of air in the mean while being more and more dilated do together with the more viscous parts of the liquor of which they form themselves Coats or Integuments gently ascend to the top of the Mass where
sooner far than if they had continued hanging on the Trees for that they now receive some vent at their stalks and I find the Ancients were wont to plant the Caprificus or wild Fig-tree neer their other domestick Fig-trees that so the Flees which in great quantities are bred out of the fruit of the Caprificus may seize and pierce the Figs of the other trees as they do in several places thereby not only accelerating their time of maturity but also which perhaps is particular to this kind of fruit rendring them much more tender and delightful than otherwise they would have been had no such Artifice been made use of Now as we have said this kind of fermentation whereby fruits attain their maturity bears a very due proportion with that observed in botled drinks which if well stopt are slower in ripening but of better taste than in open vessels as also if placed in cold well-vaulted Cellars then if exposed to the Air and that for this reason that the difference of heat and cold especially in Summer is by many degrees more in the open Air than in such subterraneous Vaults and consequently the Aerous Particles contained in such fermented liquors are more dilated and constricted reciprocally when exposed to the weather than if laid up in Cellars or buried in the ground Which reciprocation of the tone of Air we have already asserted to be the principal if not the only cause of all fermentation And it may be farther illustrated by a common practise of botling up Wine or other drink with a lump of Loaf-sugar in it which will make it much more brisk and lively And this it dâ—th not by its sweetness sure for that were apter to clog and tame it as is found by practise or if it did then Syrup of Sugar or a small quantity of powder Sugar might indifferently produce the same effect which yet is contradicted by experience Nay I dare confidently affirm that the like quantity of the fame Loaf-sugar first done into very fine powder will not serve the turn So that I cannot imagine other reason why the lump of Loaf-sugar is of that use put into botled wine c. than that being very porous it conveys with it self a great quantity of air into the liquor and does in effect no more than what has been already said of the whites of Eggs beaten up together into a froth So it is not the Sugar but the air contained in the sugar which mends the fermentation of the drink and whereby the Sugar supplies the place of an additional ferment the better to excite the working of the liquor 16. And lastly methinks it might alone serve turn to convince us of the great efficacy the air hath and the power it exerciseth on all or most mixed Bodies what we finde to manifest by experience in preserving of flesh fruits the Bodies of Insects and other the like whether for aliments or curiosity only and that with little other preparation many times than by barely immersing them in wax oyl butter sewet some Gum or Rosine c. and afterward carefully putting them up into Vessels well stopped By which practise we seem to obtain little else than that we do hereby as it were conceal those Bodies thus preserved from the air which would otherwise in a short time have totally corrupted them their long continuance and preservation seeming to follow as the consequence of that artificial exclusion of the air whereby the Bodies or rather the air in them are no longer apt to be affected according to the various dispositions of the Medium Farther it is well worth our Observation that Chyle Milk Cream the seeds of all Vegetables and even that of Animals it self seem to owe their whiteness to the interspersion or dissemination of air only even after the same manner as is already observed in Snow and some other Bodies CHAP. II. That Chylification is a sort of Fermentation and how distribution is performed 1. THe Stomack or Ventricle in animals designed by Nature for the Office of Chylification commonly called the first Concoction and which is as it were the root of all Vegetation or nutrition in them seems at first birth but ill fitted for such a work till the Coats or Membrances thereof have been well stained or seasoned by the receipt of an aliment so prepared that it want little more than warmth to the perfecting of that operation upon it which is expected from the Stomack And thus for all animals that suck Nature has provided for their first food a kind of corrupted Milk usually called Beastings which gives as it were the first tincture to their tender Stomacks and whereby they seem enabled to concoct more perfect Milk which they begin to draw after a day or two Which Milk also by degrees becomes more thick and harder of concoction proportionably to the encrease of strength in the stomack it self till by little and little they begin to alter their diet and forsake the Teat for such other food as is most proportionable to their respective Natures 2. This Tincture thus imprinted on the Stomack may very properly be termed a ferment and seems to bear a just proportion with Leven which is a small part of the Mass of Dough suffered to grow sowre while the rest is converted into bread which if not hindred would have all turned into leven likewise Thus after the Chyle is conveyed from the Stomack into the Guts from thence to be distributed through the whole Body some small part that remains sticking to the coats of the Stomack soon after acquires that acidity due to all fermentation not interrupted which after some time begins to grieve and afflict the Stomack with its sharpness the sense whereof we usually call hunger which sense of pain or hunger continues to grow more and more that which caused it becoming still sharper and sharper till by the reception of new aliment the acidity of the said Tincture or Leven be so mitigated and allayed that the Stomack being as it were healed by application of these new benigne and uncorrupted juices is no longer sensible of any pain or molestation which then puts an end to the desire of eating But if food be forborn or withheld the pain so long encreases till it at last destroys the sense of the part and introduces a sphalelus Gangrene or Mortification in the Stomack which is afterward soon conveyed to the heart and brain by its communion of Vessels and so at length becomes the death of the Animal Which seems rather to be the cause of death in such as perish by hunger than the emptiness or inanition of the Vessels which though much exhausted are yet found in such cases with a considerable quantity of blood in them Nay 't is a frequent practise in the Desarts of Arabia as I am informed by some that have travelled in the Levant to let their Camels blood after several days fasting and to give them their own blood
their burden And in case of hanging or strangling letting of blood in great quantity has sometimes saved mens lives that have been executed and this by no other ways that I can think of than by helping to discharge the lungs of their oppression as has been already said 8. And thus we have if our Opinion fail us not discovered the true use of Respiration We have also of consequence freed the heart of almost one half of the task imposed on it by the modern Physitians For since the circulation of the blood consists of two parts viz. First the conveying it from the heart or center to the rest of the body as to a kind of natural circumference And secondly the returning or bringing back of the blood again to the heart The first part we conceive to be the Office of the heart The second part seems to be the work of every particular member to discharge it self of its own superfluities For which purpose nature hath endued them with a tone or tonical motion sufficient for that service the lungs only excepted wherein Nature hath worthily imployed her industry by the additional contrivance of Respiration through the assistance of the Diaphragme which labour of the lungs in Respiration for the returning of the blood to the left Ventricle of the heart seems to equal that of the tone or tonical motion of all the other parts of the body for the lungs convey the same quantity with all the rest that is to say the whole Mass of blood through them and that in as little time as the same passes through the rest of the body And if it carries it not so far it moves â—t so much the faster And so we shall have entitled the lungs to one full quarter part of this work of the circulation of the blood leaving an other quarter to the tonical motion of the body And the first and worthier half of dispensing blood and life through the whole body to the heart as its proper office and duty What part the lungs may justly claim to themselves in the business of Sanguification we shall more conveniently find place to consider of in the following Chapter CHAP. IV. Of Sanguification THe Chyle when separated from the remaining unprofitable parts of our Aliment is by proper vessels of its own the discovery of modern Anatomists conveyed directly into the Subclavial veins and from thence into the right Ventricle of the heart where it is mingled with a larger quantity of blood returning home by the great vein together with which it is immediately transmitted to the lungs where though it make great hast through and moves very impetuously as has been said yet by reason of the length of the way it continues a considerable time and is more perfectly mingled with the blood and wrought up together with it into one Mass and at the same time acquires both the name and form of blood as Physitians term it and so is fitted for the heart from thence to be distributed to the rest of the body where after what manner it is circulated we say not as a thing already sufficiently known and whereof we have delivered our sense already 2. That Chyle is very easily mixt with blood is evident for that it is the matter whereof all blood is made by a farther continuation of that fermentation or concoction begun on it in the stomack Nor yet is the proportion so great between them but that upon mingling the dissimilitude of parts becomes immediately the cause of an extraordinary ebullition which is very much encreased by the reciprocal motion of the lungs whereby the blood is wrought almost all into a froth or foam by that time it gets into the left Ventricle of the heart Which sudden excess of heat is not unlike what happens upon the mingling several Chymical liquors together as Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Turpentine and other such like where the heat becomes so great that it often endangers the vessel they are contained in And this is the cause of that heat a while after meals discernable in Hectical persons and others otherwise affected and which in many appears by flushings in the face Now that the blood is wrought up to that froth we speak of during its passage through the lungs is not only suitable to reason but appears most evidently in those sanguine excretions from the lungs which happen in consumptive persons nor does that frothiness then observable proceed from the mingling with it the air we breath for that at one breathing out or expiration could not be sufficiently performed 3. The blood by several very learned men has not unaptly been compared to wine and in my Opinion the Chyle may as properly be likened to the juice newly pressed out of the Grapes which if it were by certain intervals in a due proportion poured gently into new wine or must as it begins to cool would again renew its ebullition and continue the warmth of it to what degree is requisite and that so long as this practise shall be continued And from this Illustration may be clearly gather'd the necessity and use of eating at least within certain periods or intervals to wit that by the frequent affusion of Chyle the blood may again recover its motion warmth and vigour without which supply it would soon languish cool and congeal and consequently death ensue Now that the lungs are indeed the principal Officina Sanguinis may be farther collected from Consumptions of the lungs wherein all parts of the body are so suddenly extenuated by the affection of the part 4. 'T is probable that the blood during its stay in the lungs does not actually dilate it self and rise into froth but only acquires an aptness so to do as soon as it is at a little more liberty as appears in blood spit out of them and consequently when it falls into the left Ventricle of the heart it immediately dilates it self with great force in the manner of botled Beer and in this manner does for ought I know in great part become the cause of the Diastole or expansion of the heart which being extended beyond its due and natural scituation does again violently contract it self by a power almost all bodies have of restoring themselves and which we call the tone or tonical motion And as we observe in a Switch bowed down or in a Pendulum removed out of its place that they return beyond the perpendicular so it fares in this motion of the heart whereby it is again more contracted than is natural to it and so of it self returns again to expand it self and is again violently distended as before by the influx of more spumy blood from the lungs Now though it may be objected that the pulse in the heart continues many times a long while after it is taken out of the body and when there is no longer any such influx to be pretended as the cause of it To this I answer that such pulse