X. Both Aristotelians and Galenists affirm that the child at first lives the life of a plant but from hence the Aristotelian concluds that the heart is the first members begot in us because it is answerable to the root in plants which is first generated but the Galenist infers that the liver must be the first member because the child living the life of a plant hath no other faculty but nutritive which is the faculty of the plant the seat whereof is in the liver But here I side with Aristotle because the liver is no more the seat of nutriment then the heart And because the heart is as the root but it is by the root the plant lives and is nourished And if the liver be the seat of nutriment because of the blood thereof I should rather say the heart is this seat because we finde blood there out of the veins as in a cistern but in the liver there is no other Blood then what is in the veins Neither can the liver be the originall of the nutritive power because there is the sense of indigence or want for so the stomack should rather be this originall because there is the most exquisit sense of want XI The liver cannot be generated without heat and spirits But the seat of heat and spirits is the heart therefore this must be first If any will say that the heat of the matrix is sufficient I deny it for that heat is onely conservative not generative it hardeneth and consolidateth the outward parts but doth not produce the inward XII Aristotle will have the right ventricle of the Heart the nobler Galen the left but I subscribe to Aristotle because I finde that the right Ventricle liveth longer then the left 2. That the Pulse in the right side of him that is dying is more valid then in the left side 3. The right ventricle leans upon the lungs as upon a Cushion or supporter Nature shewing as it were a greater care of this then of the other 4. The right parts are nimbler and stronger then the left because they are hotter 5. Though the spirits receive their completion in the left ventricle yet they are prepared and fitted in the right and therefore there needs not so great a heat in the left ventricle as the Galenists speak of for a moderate heat will suffice to perfect that which is already begun 6. The left ventricle is but a servant to the right in finishing that work which was begun by the right and distributing it into the body being finished XIII The Aristotelians make the vital and nutritive faculty the same the Galenists make them distinct but the Peripateticks reason prevails with me which is this That where there are distinct faculties there must be distinct operations because the faculty is for the operation But there are no distinct operations of the vital faculty from that of the nutritve for accretion diminution and generation are actions of the vital or nutritive Sense and motion are actions of the animal faculties 2. Life is the presence of the soul in the body this presence consists in action this action is nutrition for when this action fails life fails because the chief and first action of the living creature is to preserve it self which cannot be without nutrition seeing nutrition is not without tact in the sensitive creature but when tact faileth animality must needs fail XIV The Aristotelians make heat the efficient cause of the hearts publick motion Others will have the soul Others the vegetive faculty but Aristotle is in the right for the soul works by its faculties and these by heat so that heat is the immediate cause of this motion and the souls instrument yet not such an instrument as worketh nothing but by the force of the principal agent for the heat worketh by its own natural force though it be directed and regulated by the soul the heat then of the heart rarifying the blood into vapors which require more room dilate the heart but by expelling some of these vapors into the arteries and receiving also some cold air by the lungs the heart is contracted this is called Systole the other Diastole And as heat is the efficient cause so it is also the end of this motion For therefore doth the heat move the heart that it by this motion might impart heat to the body But I understand not here by heat a bare quality but that which is called Calidum innatum If it be objected that there is in Plants a vegetive faculty and heat but not this pulsifick motion nor yet in effects I answer the reason is because there are not instruments fit for such a motion nor is there any use of it 2. This motion of the heart is local not totally but partially for not the whole heart but the parts thereof change their place or seat and so in this regard augmentation and diminution are local motions XV. That the heart is not only first formed but is also first informed and first exerciseth the action of life is plain by this reason drawn from the Peripateticks the heart was made at first an Organical member but that could not be if it was not first informed by the soul which is the first act of the organical body and if it was made organicall it had been made to no end and nature had been idle to have made an useless member which could no more deserve the name of heart then a blinde eye the name of eye But the soul that I speak of here is the vegetive or sensitive resulting out of the matter which is first prepared in the heart for reception of it and not the reasonable soul which with all its perfections is created and infused by God into the whole body after it is articulated and made capable of such a noble Guest XVI The Aristotelians are more rational in placing but one principall member in the body then they who place either three or four For it is nedless to make so many principals when as one will suffice Nature aimeth always at unity for all the five senses are united in one common sense all the members in one body all the different specificall parts of the world into one common nature so all the members into one heart which hath in it the natures of all or their temperaments Nor could the soul being but one work upon so many different temperaments if they were not united into one temperament Besides we should be forced to run in infinitum if we should hold more principles then one for avoiding of which inconvenience we must stay in one chief principle If it be objected that the nerves veins and arteries are of different temperaments therefore must proceed from different principles I Answer that from one principle in which divers temperaments are united may issue different temperatures 2. I denie that the temperature of the veins nerves and arteries are different otherwise then Secundum magis
Marius The Leprosie called Elephantiasis appeaâ—ed first in Italy in the time of Pompey He speaks also of other diseases which not long before his time sprung up in Italy A kind of Fever called Coqueluche by the French invaded their country anno 1510. England was plagued with a new sweating sicknesse anno 1529 The French malady appeared first at Naples anno 1492. The Scorbutus is but a new disease in those parts Many strange kinds of vermin have been bred in mens bodies in this last Age not known before in this part of the world Of these and many more new diseases Fernelius Fracostorius Sebizius and others do write Now it is no wonder that there are new diseases seeing there are new sins 2. New sorts of foods and gluttony devised 3. New influences of the Stars 4. New Earthquakes and pestiferous exhalations out of the Earth 5. New temperaments of mens bodies 6 Infections of waters malignant meteors and divers other causes may be alledged for new diseases but none more prevalent then the food which is converted into our substance therefore in eating and drinking wee should regard the quantity quality and seasons II. It is strange to consider the diversitie of colours caused in the same Individual body of man by the same heat the chylus milk sperm and bones are white the blood and liver red the choler yellow the melancholy green the spleen blew a part of the eye black the hairs of divers colours and yet none blew or green And as strange it is that in some the skin is tauny in others white and in others black all which is effected by one and the same Sun which as it produceth all things by its heat so it giveth colour to all things for what giveth the essence giveth also the consequences yet Dr. Brown Book 6. c. 10. will not have the Sun to be the caus of the Negro's blacknesse 1. Because the people on the South-side of the River Senaga are black on the other only tauny 2. Other animals retain their own colours in that clime 3. In Asia and America men are not so black I answer that it will not follow that the Sun is not the cause of blacknesse for he doth work upon each Subject according as it is disposed to receive his impression and accordingly produceth diversity of colours Hence in the same hot climat men are black Parrets and leaves of trees are green the Emmets as some report are white the Gold is yellow and every thing there hath its own peculiar colour and yet all are produced by the same Sun nay the same man that hath a black skin hath white teeth the same Sun at the same time in the same Garden doth cloath the Lily in white the Rose and Cherry in red and divers fruits in black it is observed that the Sun whiteneth those things which are inclined to be hard and blackneth soft things so he makes the Ethiopians teeth white the skin black he makes the green corn turn white and hard with his heat and at the same time makes the plumb black and soft women that blanch or whiten their linnen in the Sun know that he can â—an their skins but whiten their cloth â—gain the air may be more temperate and greater store of refreshing windes and exhalations on the one side of the river Niger then on the other and so the Suns operation may bee hindred which is the cause that in America and Asia under the same parallel men are not so black as in Africk where there is more heat and greater drought For it wants those fresh Winds and great Lakes and Rivers which are in Asia and America The Suns heat then is the cause of blacknesse in such as are capable of it whether the clime be torrid or frigid Hence in cold countries we finde black crowes and in hot white Swans Besides this narration is suspicious for on both sides of the River men have been seâ—n equally black and there be some in Asia as black as in Affrica He objects again That Nigro's transplanted into cold countries continue their hue therefore the Sun is not the sole cause of this blacknesse Ans. The question is not if the Sun be the sole cause but whether a cause at all which the Doctor in his former objections seemed to deny 2. I say that the Sun is the sole primary cause if there be any other causes they are secâ—ndary and subordinate to the Suns heat and influence 3. Hee may as well infer the Sun is not the cause of greennâ—sse in leaves grasse or plants in the Torrid Zone because these being transplanted into cold climats retain their hues Book 6. c. 12 And indeed he seems to make the spirit of Salt peter in the Earth the cause of viridity because in a glasse these spirits project orient greens I should like his reasons well if the verdure of the plant were not more real then that of Salt-peter in the glasse but what will he say to that Earth where is no Salt-peter at all and yet the â—earbs are green Or is there Salt-peter in a glasse of pure water where I have seen green leaves bud out of the stem of an hearb Besides I finde urine out of which Salt-peter is made to spoil the greennesse of the hearbs 4. If the impression of black which the Sun causeth in a hot clime must alter in a cold then may the other qualities also which the Sun by his heat procureth be lost in a cold countrey and so what is hard in Ethiopia must bee soft in England and the heat of Indian spices must here grow cold He objects again that there are Negroes under the Southern Tropick and beyond which are colder countries I answer that these Negroes were colonies out of hotter countries and not Aborigines or Natives at first And he confesseth there be Plantations of Negroes in Asia all which retain their original blacknesse Lastly he objecteth That in the parts where the Negroes possesse there be rivers to moisten the air and in Lybia there are such dry and sandy desarts as there is no water at all but what is brought on camels backs and yet there are no Negroes therefore drinesse cannot cause blacknesse I answer 1. It cannot be proved that the Neâ— groes who dwell neere rivers had their originall there 2. Though there may be some moist exhalations yet it seems they are not so abundant as to qualifie the Suns heat 3. Though the desarts of Lybia be dry yet they are not so hot as under the Line It is the excesse of heat and siccity together that causeth blacknesse and not one of these alone 4. We see men grow tauny here by conversing much in the Sun And further South more tauny and still as the heat increases the degrees of blacknesse increase also to deny this were to deny our senses and we see dead bodies hung in the Sun grow black the same would befall to living bodies if they continued
convert any other metall into gold which were to introduce by Art a specificall form into the matter which is the work ofâ— Nature alone He saith It is a vain opinion to think the starre is the denser part of his Orb. This is spoken both Lordly and maâ—esterially but he had done well to tell us why this opinion is vain and to have delivered an opinion void of vanity which he doth not but his bare word is not sufficient to make this a vain opinion which the learned of so many Ages have approved and stands so much with reason I confesse we know but little of those quintessentiall natures for we are as the Poet saith Curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes Yet of all opinions this is most consonant to reason that the starre is homogeneall with its spheare so that the starre is the heaven contracted and the heaven in which the starre moveth is the starre dilated for otherwise wee must make the heaven an heterogeneall body and consequently organicall which will prove the vainer opinion of the two He tells us That Oyl is almost nothing else but water digested I may say it is any thing else rather then water from which it is so averse that it will not be united or incorporated with it and the effects are clean opposite for water is cold oyle hot in operation water putrifieth oyle resisteth putrifaction water makes Iron rust oyle keeps it from rusting water quencheth the fire oyle kindles and feeds it water is heavy oyle light for it vvill still be uppermost vvater is thin oyle thick water is quickly up by heat and turned into vapours so is not oyle water is the food of plants oyle of men oyle is apt to be inflamed so is not water therefore oyle is rather air or fire then vvater digested He gives us a strange cause of mans indisposition to motion when Southern winds blow The cause saith he is that the humours do melt and wax fluid and so flow into the parts How humours should melt I know not except they were congealed like butter wax or ice and where be the parts into which they flow he tells us not but indeed the true cause is the giving as we call it or relaxation of the muscles nerves and tendons by the warm and moâ—st air which in dry and cold weather are more firm compacted and united and therefore the apter for motion It is saith he commonly seen that more are sick in Summer and more die in Winter This is to me a Riddle for if more die in Winter then in Summer it must follow That more are sick in Winter then in Summer for men usually die not till they be sick and so he contradicts himselfe Much like to this is that saying of his Diseases are bred chiefly by heat the contrary whereof is apparent that multitudes of diseases are bread by cold neither can I yeeld to him in saying That it is a superficiall ground that heat and moisture cause putrifaction because there have been great plagues in dry years But by his Lordships leave the plagues were not bred by the drynesse of the yeare but by the precedent heat and moisture of the Winter or Spring which break out upon the hot and dry Summer or Autumne and this hee acknowledgeth in his next Section where he sheweth That the cause of diseases is falsly imputed to the constitution of the air at that time when they break forth whereas it proceeds from a precedent sequence and series of the seasons of the year and so when he saith That in Barbary their plagues break up in Summer when the weather is hot and dry If this be so then it is no superficial ground to say that heat and moysture cause putrifaction seeing it is resisted by hot and dry weather and indeed it were absurd to think otherways seeing both experience and reason tells us that heat and moysture are â—he breeders of putrifaction and that frigidity and â—â—ccity are its greatest enemies therefore in cold climats and seasons putrifaction is not so frequent as in hot Countries and Summers so he confesseth that the Country about Cap Vorde is pestilent through moysture neither are drie things so apt to putrifie as moist so the flesh putrifieth and not the bones the apple or the pear will putrifie when the seed within remains unputrified whereas those bodies which have little or no moysture resist putrifaction both in themseves and others as Salt Brimstone Myrrhe Aloes and such like He makes Refrigeration of the tongues the cause of stuttering If this were so then old men should stutter more then young men for old men are colder But we know the contrary that not the coldnesse but rather the over-heating of the tongue causeth stuttering and this he acknowledgeth in the same Section that many stutterers are very cholerick men But choler is hot then it seemes that both heat and cold is the cause of stuttering But indeed the true cause in some is a bad habit or custom contracted from their infancy in others eagernesse of disposition for hasty and eager natures usually stutter and whilst they make the more haste they use the lesse speed in others again stuttering proceeds from some infirmity or impedimâ— in the tendon muscles or nerves of the tongue As for drinking of wine moderatly which he saith will cause men stut lesse is a thing I could never yet observe in those stutterers I have bin acquainted with He saith That men and beasts move little after their headss are off but in birds the motion remains longer because the spirit are chiefly in the head brain which in men beasts are large but birds have smal heads therfore the spirits are more dispersed in the sinewes That the spirits are chiefly in the head brain I deny for the vital spirits are chiefly in the heart And if the spirits be chiefly in the head and brain why doth the body separated from the head move more and longer time then the head Again though birds have lesser heads then men and beasts yet they have heads proportioned to their bodies and the spirits proportionably are as much in their heads as in mens or beasts heads Moreover though some men and beasts move little after the head is off yet some move much for I saw one beheaded whose body after it was laid in the coffin and carried a pretty way from the place of execution with a violent fit of motion was like to beat the coffin out of the hands of the bearers therefore the true causes of this difference are these as I conceive 1. The spirits of birds are more aeriall and fervent then of men and beasts and in some more in some lesse therefore the body of a Cock beheaded will flutter more then of a Goose or Turkie and so in beasts a Cat beheaded will move more violently then of many others for this reason some men move
the symatrie or assymatrie of the four humours and first qualities and the conformity of the organs As for the Suns absence that cannot be a cause of short life For 1. the Sun is never absent in his vertue efficacy and influence 2. Many creatures prosper best in shades as plants 3. In those Northern parts where the body and light of the Sun is not seen in many moneths together yet multitudes of creatures are generated and live there 4. It seems that the Ephemera are hurt rather by the Suns presence then absence for Scaliger writes Exer. 194.5 That those Ephemera flies which he had seen were always to be seen in the evening never at the Sun rising and one of them which he had caught lived all night but died in the morning The Suns presence then rather then his absence is the cause of this short life in the flye He saith That the motion of gravity is a meer motion of the matter and hath no affinity with the form If it be so what use is there of the form the form of every thing is the nature thereof and nature as the Philosopher tells us is the principle and cause of motion the matter is but the passive the motion is the active principle of motion When he tells us That over moisture doth somewhat extinguishthe heat as hot water quencheth the fire he speaks not like a Philosopher for there is not Physicall action but where there is a contrariety now there is no contrariety between moisture and heat but between moisture and driness heat and cold therfore the humidity of the warm water works upon the siccity of the fire and not upon its heat For if the one quality be taken away the other will fail Neither doth his Lordship speak like a Philosopher when he saith That the sperm of drunken men is unfruitfull because over moystned Lot who in his drunkenness got both his daughters with child of boyes can shew him the contrary and so can the Comick when he saith Sine Cerere libero friget Venus The Poets knew this vvhen they made Bacchus armour-bearer to Venus and a continuall companion of the Fauns and Satyrs And the Gentiles that still offered vvine in the sacrifices of Venus as I have shewed elsewhere In Mystagogo Neither is the sperm over-moistned as he saith for the drunkards vvine cannot get presently into the sperm to moisten it vvhich requireth time for elaboration in the spermaticall vessels Neither can I approve of his reason when he saith That Caterpillers breed upon Cabbages because they have fat leaves and apt to putrifie This contradicts his former assertion That the viscy substance of plants is most in the roots and the vvatrish in the leaves vvhich is the cause that the root is more nutritive then the leaves Neither doth fatnesse make a thing apt to putrifie but rather resisteth it it is the watrish moisture that is most apt to putrifie especially being mixed with a grosse and earthy substance He tells us That bones and teeth stand at a stay as for nails they grow continually This is not so for nature hath prefixed certain limits of growth to every thing which when it hath attained rests there nails then if they be not pared will grow to their prefixed length and there stay but if they be kept pared they will grow still aiming at their just magnitude which by paring them often we hinder Hence it is that they are still growing because still pared so doe the hairs of our head and beards and so do hedges and trees that are pruned He knoweth not how the eye worketh when it is placed in the grosser medium and the object in the finer This is easily known for if ever he had been in a mist he should have found that his eye being in the grosser medium could not well apprehend the object that was in the finer though the object be celestiall luminaries and so it is with those that are in the water they cannot see the object that is in the aire so well as they who being in the air behold the object in the water because the distance of the thicker medium from the eye dilateth the object which is contracted and made obscure if the eye be in the thicker medium for how can the species be received into the eye if the medium that should convey it hindereth it The cause why it raineth not in AEgypt saith he is For that Nilus hath a longer race and runneth swifter for such waters vapour not so much as standing waters or else there is a better concoction of that water for waters concocted vapour not so much as raw Besides the air there is thin and thirsty and imbibeth the moisture and suffereth it not to remain in vapours Here are divers causes alledged but none of them satisfactory For 1. there be rivers that have as long a race and run swifter which hinder not rain 2. If standing waters breed vapours then Nilus should when it stands 40 dayes together over AEgypt I deny that concocted waters breeds fewer vapours then raw waters for water over the fire will never cease to vapour till it be all spent and converted into vapours 4. The air of AEgypt is not so thin and thirsty as under the Line and yet there it raineth 5. The true cause then why it raineth not in AEgypt is because God and Nature doe nothing in vain but rain had been in vain and needlesse in AEgypt whereas Nile supplieth the effects thereof therefore by the Poet Nilus is called Iupiter AEgyptius My Lord speaketh against manifest experience when he writes That Iron red hot burneth and consumeth not That was the priviledge onely of the fire-bush which Moses saw We know that the fire by degrees wasteth the Iron and Steel also which is a harder metall But he saith That the increasing of the weight of the water will increase his power of bearing as brâ—in when it is salt enough will bear an egge In twenty gallons of water an egge will sink as well as in one so as the increasing of the weight is no-thing but it is the thickning of the water with salt that maketh it strong to bear So we see men in boats are better supported in Sea-water then in fresh How sight as hee saith coming into sudden darkness should induce an offer to shiver is a strange AEnigma for the sight in darknesse can neither act nor suffer as having no object nor visive species It is not the sight then but the imagination upon the sudden change apprehending danger that causeth the shivering Water he saith by a kind of appetite or thirst receiveth dry bodies and so dry bodies drink in waters and liquors It vvere strange that contraries should have an appetite or thirst to each other It were against nature simile simili gaudet like draws to like and contraries shun each other Hence it is that vvater vvill not
as Galen thinks CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2 The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud CHAP. IX 1. The Livers heat inferiour to that of the Stomachs 2. Of the natural Spirits in the Liver and how it is cherished by air 3. Of the Gall and how it is nourished How the Choler is conveyed to it of its two passages and one membrane CHAP. X. 1. The use of the Gall and Spleen its obstructions its Veins and Arteries without concavity 2. Vas venosum 3. How the Spleen purgeth it self 4. The Veins and its humours 5. Why the stone causeth vomiting and numbness in the thigh 6. The bladder its attraction and expulsion CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testieles how the noblest parts Generation without Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuaâ—ion 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membranes first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4 The similitudeâ— of the parents on the children 5. Twins how bâ—got and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Supersetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The Childs heart moveth in the matrix CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How caused CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutrimeâ—t 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye both watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eye is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eye proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus of the sympathy between the ear and the mouth CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell realâ— odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without tact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories LIB III. A Refutation of Doctor BROÌ„WNS Vulgar Errors CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5 Of one that lived some years without a brainâ— another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fought after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie while we are alive 6. Worms in the brain CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange
of the matrix as we see the outward skin of fruits by the heat of the Sun For nature providently fences the seed with these walls that the inward spirits may work the more powerfully and be the lesse subject to dissipation III. Besides the umbilical vein and the two umbilical arteries nature hath made a vessel called Vrachos by which the child in the matrix conveys the urine into the membran for it reacheth from the bottom of the bladder to the navel and in those in whom the navel is not well bound at first and this Vrachos dried upon any stoppage of the bladder the urine will flow out by the navel IV. The similitude of the parents is impressed on the children partly by reason of the formative power in the seed and partly by the imagination of the parent moving the spirits which being mixed with the blood on which the child is fed makes the impression upon the tender flesh of the infant 2. The childe resembleth the grand-fathers or grand-mothers sometimes as the Load-stone communicates its power to the third or fourth needle so doth the formative faculty of the grand-father which is potentially in the seed of the grand-childe oftentimes show it self V. Twins are oftentimes begot partly because of the abundance of seed partly by reason of the scattering thereof into divers parts of the matrix which â—oments each part of it for though the matrix hath no cells yet it hath a right and a left side in the right males in the left females are begot or if the seed be strong vigorous or masculine males if weak and feminine females if one part masculine the other feminine then male and female are ingendred but the female is seldome strong or lively because the time of conformation is not alike in both â—0 days being required for the forming of the male and 40 for the female 2. Twins are like each other because they are wrapped within the same membran are conceived at the same time they feed on the same blood and enjoy the same maternal spirits VI. The infant in the womb is not fed by the mouth but by the navel for there are no vessels that reach to the mouth neither is there need of chylification or sanguification neither is there any other excrement found in the intestins of new born infants except the excrement of blood therefore as they breath by the umbilical arteries so they are fed by the umbilical vein VII Sometimes there is superfetation for we read of second births some days weeks and moneths after the first which shews that the matrix after conception is not so fast bound but that it openeth again in copulation but seldome is the second birth either strong or lively because the first conception groweth strong and big drawing the blood or nutriment to it by which means the second conception is starved VIII The infant doth not cannot should not breath whilst it is in the womb but is content with transpiration by the umbilical arteries For if there were inspiration there must be air within the membrane where the child lieth but there is nothing except the child and that watrish substance in which it swimâ— this must needs be â—uck'd in with the air and so the childe be choaked Besides the rednesse and grossenesse of the lungs whilst the childe is in the womb shews that it breaths not for the lungs of those creatures that breath are of a whitish colour and of a ratified substance for the better reception of the air IX Whilst the child is in the womb the heart is not idle as some Galenists imagine but according to Aristotle it then moveth and giveth life to the body otherwise the childe should live all the while the life of a plant not of an animal if it had no other life then what it hath from the mother by the umbilical arteries 2. How could the heart having no air to refresh it within that narrow membran in which the child lieth receive refrigeration if it did not move some answer that the heart is refrigerate by the water in which the child lieth I should like this answer well if that water were cold or if the child were a fish which with its gils might receive water for refrigâ—ration of the heart 3. The arteries of the child movâ— but how can they move without the heart move also If they say that they are moved by the Arteries of the mother I would know how they can move after the mother is dead for some children have been cut out alive from the dead mothers womb 4. Although the umbilical arteries convey the material spirits â—o the child yet they give not life no more then the aire which we breathe till they be refined by the heat and motion of the heart 5. The animal spirits of the childe are begot in its brain whilst it is in the womb but the animal spirits have their original from the vital CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms THE birth oâ— the child is caused partly by its calcitration breaking the membranes in which it lieth having now need of more food and spirits by reason it is grown bigger and stronger and partly by the contraction of the matrix endeavouring to be rid of the burthen if either of these fail the birth will be the more painful and difficult but the Mola having neither life nor motion and not standing in need of air and food remains in some many years together before it be expelled 2. The causes of difficult child-bearing are partly the â—igness of the child partly the narrowness of the neck of the matrix or the weakness of the child or the mother or inflammations or tumors and such like infirmities whether natural or adventitious II. The reason why the childe which is borne the seventh moneth is for the most part lively whereas that which is born in the eigâ—th moneth is not because the seventh moneth the child having attained the perfection of parts and so much strength as to break the membrans doth live but if it cannot break the membran till the 8 month all the time iâ— remains froÌ„ the first attempt it made of going forth it doth not prosper but decays in strâ—ngth being as it were against its will kept in prison III. The sensitive Soul is derived with the seed from the parents which soul is potentially in the seed but actually in the Embryo where the members are formed But in the fourth month after the heart and brain are perfected the reasonable soul is introduced which if it were taken out of the matter it should in reasoning and understanding depend altogether on the matter which were absurd to think 2. The rational soul doth not exercise its functions untill
the imagination is vitiated or the spirits subservient to the same are disturbed or an opac vapour is interjected between the Cornea and chrystalline humor wee seem to see things and colours in the air which are not there but this is an imperfect vision because there is no reception of species from the air nor is the organ distinct from the medium and object nor is there that distance between the organ and the object as is required in perfect vision II. The eye should be of a watrish substance not fiery because water is dense and diaphonous fit to receive the species as it is diaphonous and to retain them as it is dense so is not the fâ—re for though it be diaphonous it is not dense therefore not fit to retain the species 2. The species being spiritual or immaterial do not affect or hurt the eye but the colours only hurt the eye more or lesse as they participate more or lesse of the light which dissipates the visive spirits these being lucid spend themselves on lucid objects by reason of their cognate quality 3. Sometimes the eye is wearied with seeing not as vision is a reception and so a passion but in respect of the visive spirits which are agents 4. The eye in an instant perceives its object though never so far distant because the visible species are in the air contiguous to the eye though the object be distant III. That there are spirits in the eye is apparent by the dilatation of the Ball of one eye when the other is shut which is caused by the spirit passing from one eye to the other and by reason of these spiriâ—s the eye is more cheerful at one time then at another 2. Though there be two eyes and divers mâ—scles yet they are moved but with one motion because otherwise one object would appear as two Thus by lifting up one of our eyes with our finger the object we look upon appears double because the two Balls of the eyes are not upon the same â—uperficies nor do the beams of both eyes equally reach the object Thus it is with dâ—uâ—karâ—s and goggle eyes and in conâ—ulsâ—ons of the muscles of the eye â— There are not properly any câ—louâ—s in the eye becauâ—e then the object would seem to be of the same colour that the eye is of yet the eyes seem to be coloured because they are visible IV. The optick nerves seem of all others the most soft and spongy that they â—ight bee the lesse offensive to the eye the most tender of all other members and that they might convey the gâ—eater quantity of optick spirits 2. They are united into one about the middle way between the brain where they have their beginnings and the eyes into which they are inseâ—ted that by this union they might be the stronger and that â—hey might be â—qually implanted into the same superficies of both eyes lest the visive spirits beiâ—g unequally communicate should occaâ—ion the object to appear double V. The Chrystallinâ— humour is a part of the eye because it hath its life nutriment and function as other parâ—s have it is also both a similar part in its temper and substance and it is organical in its sâ—tuation and figure 2. The glassâ—e humour is also a part for the saâ—e reâ—sons therefore the Chrystalline doth not feed upon it for no partâ—feeds upon another but it prepares the blood and alters it for the Chrystalline left it should be infecâ—ed with a red colour it affords then the same service to the Chrâ—stalline which the stomach doth to the liver 3. The white of the eye is a part thereof and no excrement for Nature exâ—ludes excrements but if this white should perish sight faileth for it is as a Bulwark to the Chrystalline and conveyeth the species to it CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus â—f the sympathy between the ear and the mouth I. FOR the sense of hearing are required 1. A sound which is caused by the collision of two solid bodies or of the air and of another body 2. Air which is the medium that receiveth and carrieth the sound whereas the water in respect of its thickness carrieth the sound but imperfectly and dully 3. The ear containing in it the thin and dry membrane called the drum which if it be thick or too much moistned hindreth hearing 2. Three little bones called Incus malleus Stapes 3. An innate and immoveable air 4. A winding labyrinth that the external air and sound may not too suddenly rush in upon the nerve of hearing 5. This auditory nerve carrieth the sound to the brain that there the common sense and fantasie may judge thereof II. The sound which is carried into the ear is not real but intentional and spiritual or the species and image of the real sound for how can a real sound passe through a thick wall or multiply it self in a thousand ears in an instant or in so short a time reach twenty miles from any canon to the eare 2. The winding labyrinth in the ear is the cause why men that are drowned lose the sense of hearing last because the water cannot passe through that winding Meander III. The innate air of the ear is not the organ of hearing but a medium for it differs not from the external air nor can that be an organ which is no part of the body either spermatical or sanguiâ—eal as Physitians use to speak neither is it animated by the soul for the soul is the act of organical bodies onely Nor is it a spirit either animal or vital because it is not contained within the nerves or arteries and being it is not a mixed but a simple body it can be no part either similar or dissimilar IV. By reason the auditory nerves do impart some branches to the tongue hence it is that there is such a sympathy between the ear and mouth That this is a help or hindrance to our hearing and this to speaking so that if the auditory nervs be stopped or deficient not onely deafness but dumbness is caused and we finde that those who hear hardly speak little and such as are born deaf are born dumb too and if we hold a musical instrument with our teeth and stop our ears we shall hear the sound perfectly CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell reall odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling I. THOUGH the beasts excel us in the sense of smelling in respect of celerity and way of reception yet in respect of dijudication and differencing the diversities of smells wee exceed them for our brains being bigger colder and moister then those of beasts cannot so quickly receive the smell But because of the reasonable soul we judge better of
before you yet doubtlesse I shall do you right otherwise if I acquaint the world with your vertues and that you are one of that small number which in this sordid and phantasticall Age loves true and solid Learning not being carried away with the vain whimzies of brainsick Sciolists whose learning and piety consists in shaking the foundation of both esteeming that building strongest which is erected on stubble and straw but let them aloue with their brittle and sandy ground-work Old Truth is that sure Rock against which Hell gates shall not prevail I have adventured to consecrate this small piece to you as one who is truly acquainted and affected with the Old and True principles In this Dedication I have endeavoured to discharge my selfe of ingratitude and oblivion and to testifie to the world how much I am indebted to you which I will alwayes thankfully acknowledge so long as I am Sir Your humble servant to command ALEXANDER ROSS AN APPENDIX Containing divers passages of Fishes Presages Sneezing Thunder c. With a Refutation of Doctor HARVY the Lord BACON and others CHAP. I. 1. Fishes breath not the Reasons thereof and the contrary objections answered 2. Fossil or earth-fishes 3. Fishes delight in the light 4. Fishes of Humane shapes 5. Fishes are cunning and docible creatures 6. Why some Fishes have Feet and Wings 7. Many monstrous fishes I. THat Fishes have no breathing or respiration is manifest 1. Because they want Lungs and other Instruments of breathing For though they may receive aire in at the mouth and let it out again by their gills yet this is not respiration which is the action of the Lungs Wind-pipe and Diaphragma in attracting the air for refrigeration and emitting the same 2. There is no air under or in the water therefore fishes cannot breath there For this cause terrestriall creatures die in the waters for want of air as fishes die in the air for want of water If any will say That man dieth in the water not for want of aire there but for want of gills or some other passage to let out the water received into the lungs I answer The Dolphin hath a passage or Fistula to let out the water and yet there he could not live without suffocation if he did not now and then elevate his head above the water to draw breath If it be be again objected That water is a body mixt with air therefore Fishes doe breath I answer That so is wine which we drink mixed with more air then water is yet if we did not draw the air above we should be quickly choked The quantity of air in the water is so little that it is discernable by Art onely not by the senses and so there is some water in that air which we breath yet we are not said to breath water but air Again if there were air in the water which the fishes drew bubbles would appear upon the superâ—icies thereof as we see in Mice or other terrestriall creatures drownd in the water For as soon as the water fils the breast and lungs it draws out the air which tending upward towards the superâ—â—cies â—auseth bubbles If it be objected That fishes breath and yet â—ake no bubbling because the air hath a free passage through the gills I answer That the freenesse of passage is no hinderance to bubbling seeing any light agitation of the water will make bubbles when it hath received air within ir and so we deny not but fishes may make the water bubble not by their breathing but by their motion 3. If fishes breath air in the water why doe they die when they are in the air If any say It is because they cannot endure the coldnesse of the air I answer That the water is colder then the air Again we see that the hotter the air is the fishes die the sooner Hence it is observed that â—els live longer in a Northern then in a Southern wind and these live longer out of the water then other fishes because their heat is in a more viscid and slimy humidity then others Hence it is that the parts cut off doe live and move sometime because their heat is not easily dissipated in so slimy a matter But some will object That fishes out of the water gape for air therefore they breath Answ To gape or open the mouth is no argument of breathing except we will give respiration to Oysters which sometimes gape Again fishes gape not for air but for water so men in the water being almost stilled gape not for water but for air Object 2. The air penetrateth into the thick earth therefore much more into the thin water Answ. I deny that air can penetrate into the thick parts of the earth for that were to make penetration of dimensions but onely to avoid vacuity the air enters into and fills up the holes and cavernosities of the earth for if the air could pierce the thick earth there would never be earthquakes and if that air which is mixt with the substances of the earth were sufficient for respiration Moles needed not take so much pains as to work through and make cavities purposely for respiration For shut up a Mole within a parcell of earth which he cannot dig through he will die for want of sufficient air Object 3. Exhalations and vapours arise out of the water which shews there is air Answ. These exhalations are the thinner parts of the water turned into vapours by heat or motion whence it will not follow that air is in the water actually or a body separated from the water in which are not cavities as in the earth and much lesse will it follow that fishes breath in the water though there were air in it seeing they want the organs of breathing as is said Object 4. Fishes inclosed in a vessel halfe full of water strive to get up into the air Answ. This striving to get uppermost is not to enjoy the air which is not their element but to get out of prison and to have more scope being straitned in a narrow vessel so fishes in the net struggle to get out and to be at liberty Object 5. Fish in a close vessell die for want of air Answ. They die for want of sweet water which being included from fresh air degenerates and putrifies Hence fish die in a pond that is long frozen because the water for want of agitation and fresh air becomes â—nwholsome to the fishes which yet can live a moneâ—h together under the Ice without any air Scaliger shewes that he hath kept fish in a close vessel who have lived and the same in an open vessell who have died It is also manifest that Leaches in a close glasse will live whole years without air Object 6. Pliny objects against Aristotle that as some creatures have not blood but an humor so some fishes want lungs but have some other instrument by which they breath Answ. It is as easie for us to deny as
no intentions nor remissions the form then being simple and indivisible cannot be made up of two so that two seeds cannot concurre as two efficient causes to make up a third entity For Ex ' duobus entibus per se non fit unum ens per se. Again wee see that trees and plants are generated of one seed without copulation for the earth concurres not by affording another seed to propagate but as the matrix to cherish and foment So in fishes which have no distinct sex there is generation notwithstanding because in them there is seed which is the onely active principle of generation Again that outward shape or form which the Mule hath was not induced by the formative faculty of the females seed for there is none as we have shewed much lesse of the blood for the plastick vertue resideth not in the blood but in the Males seed which of its own particular nature endeavours to form a Horse but finding the Asses blood being united now and coagulated with and by the Horses seed uncapable to receive that form of the Horse is retreated by the superior and generall formative faculty which aiming at the production of a new species for the perfection of the Universe generates a Mule Hence we may inferre that Mules were not the invention of Ana except we will conclude that the world was imperfect till that time which were an injury to God who made the world perfect but perfect it could not be till the production of this species for Perfectum est cui nihil deest The Doctors second Argument Exercit. 34 is taken from the production of the egge which Aristotle holds is generated by the Hen and which hath also vegitation from her Hence he inferres That according to Aristotles mind the Hen is an active principle in generation Answ. From hence it will not follow That the Hen is an active principle in the generation of the Chick because she furnisheth the Egge which is the materials of the chick for so in other animals the female furnisheth blood which is the matter of which the Embryo is made and yet she is not as we have said an efficient cause of generation but the male onely by his seed neither will it follow that vegitation doth still presuppose generation for in many individuals there is a vegitive soul and yet no generation so there is in some species as in Mules in adianthum or capillus veneris which we call Maiden-hair and divers other hearhs which generate not though they have vegitation But when Aristotle saith The egge is generated in the Hen or that the female generates in her self he takes generation in a large sense for any way of production so we say water is generated of air and worms of purrid matter and yet neither the one nor the other is the efficient but the materiall cause onely of generation And though we should yeeld that the Hen were the efficient cause of the egge yet it will not therefore follow that she is the efficient cause of the Chick for that is onely the Cock as Aristotle holds though in the woman there is a working faculty of her blood yet there is no working faculty in her of the child or Embryo that is meerly from the plastick power of the fathers seed II. Now let us see Fernelius his Arguments l. 6. de hom prâ—creat the first whereof is this The womans seed hath no other originall from the testicles and vessels then the males seed hath therefore in her seed there is a procreative faculty Answ. 1. We deny that there is seed in the woman properly so called 2. If it were so that she had seed yet it will not follow that it is prolificall for it must be concocted spirituous because the spirits are the prime instruments of Nature in generation but the the womans seed is crude because that Sex by nature is cold being compared to the man as both Aristotle and Galen affirm and experience doth evince for the woman is much weaker and slower then the man whereas strength and agility argues plenty of spirits and calidity The mans hairs also are more curled stiffe and strong then the womans which shews more heat The womans voyce is weaker and smaller which argues the narrownesse of the vessels and consequently defect of heat and because the woman is lesse hot and dry then the man Hence it is that she abounds much more in blood which in man is dried up Besides the woman is the more imperfect Sex her seed therefore must be imperfect and consequently not fit to be the principall or efficient cause of so noble an animall as man Aristotle observeth that boyes in the mothers womb are more lively and nimbler then maids that they are sooner formed in the matrix and that the woman sooner groweth to her height and sooner decayeth her strength quickly fails her and old age assaults her soonest Secondly he proves That the child drawes 〈◊〉 Gout Stone Epilepsie and other hereditary diseases from the mother who was subject to these her selfe Answ. This will not prove that the mother is an active cause in generation or that the formative faculty â—â— the cause of diseases which rather are to be attributed to the matter of which the similar parts are formed then to the active principle of generation whereas then the woman â—â—rnisâ—â—th blood of which our bodies are made up it is no marvell if with the blood she imparts to the child whatsoever infirmitie is in it and not onely doth the mother by her blood but the father also by his seed communicate diseases to the child for the same seed which is the efficient cause of generation is also the materiall cause of infirmities and diseases Hence many times gowry fathers beget gowty children His third Argument is The child oftentimes resembleth the mother therefore her seed must needs be active Answ. That the child for the most resembleth the mother proceedeth not from any agencie of her seed but from the strength of her imagination for otherwise the child would still resemble the father in whose seed alone resideth the formative faculty which because it is a naturall power depending from the generative and consequently inferior to the imagination which is an animall faculty that giveth place to this This force of the mothers imagination is plain by the divers impressions made on the tender Embryo upon her depraved imaginations by the stories of those women who have conceived children resembling the pictures hanging in their bed-chambers and by the practise of Iacob Gen. 30. in causing his Ewes to bring forth streaked Lambs according to the streaked rods put in their troughes when they drank II. There is no disease that more molests and tortures man then the Cholick which is so called from Colon the great intestine the torment of which hath made some to kil themselvs nor is there any malady that proceeds from more causes or hath more strange and
original from eggs which if true then that is no fiction of the Poets concerning Leda's two eggs out of which were procreated Pollux and Helena Castor and Clytemnestra but I conceive the Doctor in this speaks rather tropically then properly for simile non est idem and what may in some sort resemble an egge is not an egge however his book is full of excellent learning and observation yet I have been bold in some thingâ— to dissent from him as may be seen in the former Chapter The other book I lately viewed is my Lord Bacon's Natural History a Piece fraughted with much variety of elegant learning but yet wherein are divers passages that deserve animadversionâ— I never had leasure to run over the book till now though I had seen it before and now my distractions are such that I cannot exactly examine it but onely ut canis è nilo here and there touch a little First then I finde him mistaken in thinking that the French-pox is begot by eating of mans flesh Cent. 1. Sect. 26. His reasons are A story of mans flesh barrelled up like tunny eat at the siege of Naples the other is because the Canibals who feed on mans flesh are subject to that disease 3. Because the blood or fat of mans flesh is mixed with poysons And lastly because Witches feed on mans flesh to aid their imaginations with high and foul vapors Answ. These reasâ—ns are of small validity For 1. it was not the eating of mans flesh at the siege of Naples that brought this disease into Europe but it was procured by some of Columbus his Company who had carnal commerce with soul Indian women which with the pox they brought along with them 2. Mans flesh of all other animals is counted the most temperate therefore cannot produce such a venomous distemper so repugnant to mans body 3. This is a peculiar disease of the Indians both East and West for divers Countries have their divers maladies 4. Neither can this or any disease be counted new in respect of their subjects original causes or seminaries for this disease is as old as mans flesh though in this part of the world it did not break out so generally as of late and who knows but that the ancients had it but under another name being a kind of Leprosie 5. The Canibals among the Indians are not more subject to this disease then others who never tasted of mans flesh for in all ages there have been men eaters yet not tainted mith this malady and millions of latter years among us who are infected with this poyson and yet never eat of mans flesh 6. It is against reason to imagine that the flesh of a man should rather breed this disease then of an ox or a sheep seeing mans flesh is sooner convertible into nutriment then of any other animal because of the greater simpathy and specifical unity 7. Though ignorant Indians do mix mans blood or fat with poyson it will not therefore follow that these are poyâ—â—nable no more then wine can be called poyson because poysonable materials may be mixed with it so we mix sugar and butter with rats bane which we know have no venemous quality in them 8. Witches who are silly fools may eat mans flesh hoping thereby to aid their imaginations but there is no such vetue in mans flesh as they conceive so they use many spels charms and canting words in which there is no more vertue then in a pibble stone or a piece of rotten wood 9. Mans flesh can afford no soul vapors except it befoul it self and putrified and so indeed it may breed loathsome diseases as all other corrupt and putrified meats do which is done as it is corrupted not as it is mans flesh neither can it afford high vapors except it were full of spirits which cannot be in a piece of dead flesh he that will have high vapors must drink sack not eat mans flesh the blood of the vine not of the vein can breed high vapors Indeed the drinking of mans blood and eating of his flesh may inure a man to cruelty which Catelin knew by causing his associates to drink humane blood hence the Judaical law forbids eating of blood at all shewing us hereby how much God abhors cruelty or that which may induce a man to it II. His Lordship calls it A crude and ignorant speculation to make the dilatation of the fire the cause of the expulsion of the pellet out of the Gun but he will have the cause to be the crude and windy spirits of nitre dilated by heat which bloweth abroad the flame as an inward bellows But I would know what difference there is between dilatation and between the flame and spirit of the nitre He affirms dilatation to be the cause of this expulsion therefore his exception against the former opinion was needless and whereas he grants the flame to be the immediate expeller of the pellet he unawares affirms what he rejects neither can I see any difference between the flame of the nitre and the spirit of the nitre inflamed onely he was pleased to make shew of a new reason by altering somewhat the words of the former whereas the sense is one and the same the speculation then is not crude but the spirit of his nitre is crude which without the flame can do nothing 3. From a wax candle burning in a porringer full of spirit of wine set on fire he infers Cent. 1.31 strange conculsions As 1. That the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular and not in pyramis and consequently that the pyramis of the flame is accidental I answer the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular accidentally because the air about it is heated by the flame of the wine therefore as in all things like draws to like so one flame dilates it self to enjoy the other as a drop of water will contract it self upon a drie but dilate it self upon a wet table 2. He infers That the flame of itself would be round if it were not for the air that quencheth the sides of it But I say that the air is so far from quenching that it cherisheth and maintaineth the flame without which it would quickly vanish and that the flame would not be round of it self if the air round about were not inflamed for the same cause it rouls and turns not of its own nature but because the ambient flame draws it 3. He â—nfers hence That the celestial bodies are true fires for they are igâ—obular and have rotation and have the colour and splendor of flame These are weak arguments that from common accidents prove specifical identities for if the stars be true fires because globular then we may infer that water drops are fire because round and that every thing which hath rotation is fire and if that be fire which hath the colour of fire or that a flame which hath the splendor of flame we may say that rotten
to it selfe He saith Sect. 91. That paper or wood oyled last long moist but wet with water dry or putrifie sooner the cause is for that air medleth little with the moisture of oyle Answ. He should have told us the cause of this cause for why doth not air medle with oyle as well as with water The reason is because oyle is a more tenacious and dense substance then water and therefore resisteth the heat of the air longer and cannot be so soon evaporated and indeed it is not the air but the heat in the air that works both on water and oile for the cold air drieth up neither it may well harden them Take then two papers the one moystned with water the other with oyle and hold them near the â—re we shall see the one dried up long before the other so that his saying is erroneous when he inferreth Sect. 91. That fire worketh upon oyle as air upon water For indeed the air doth not work upon water but heat in the air or fire nor doth the fire work so soon upon the oyle as on the water when they are at a distance Again he saith That white is a penurious colour and where moisture is scant Answ. There are many things which want moisture and yet are black as divers dry stones and coals many bodies are not scant of moisture and yet are white as Lilies Milk Snow There is as much moisture in a white Swan as in a black Raven But when he saith Sect. 93 That Birds and Horses by age turn white and the gray hairs of men come by the same reason he is mistaken for it is not want or scant of moisture but want of heat rather that is the cause of whitenesse for old men abound more in watrish moisture then young men and therefore we see that cold climats produce white complexions and skins whereas they are black and swarthy in hot Countries Snow is not bred in hot Summers but in cold Winters and hoar frost is ingendred in cold Scithia not in hot Ethiopia Again he is mistaken when he saith Sect. 96 97. That the soals of the feet have great affinity with the head and mouth of the stomach so the wrists and hands have a sympathy with the heart For there is no more affinity between these parts then any other the feet have as great a sympthy with the heart and the wrists with the head as these with the heart and the other with the head If there be any affinity between the head and the feet it is by reason of the nerves and so the same affinity may be to the hands If there be any sympathy between the heart and the wrists it is because of the arteries and so the sympathy may be to the feet It 's true that the heart is affected in Agues by things applied to the wrists not because there is any sympathy between the skin muscles nerves and bones of the wrists with the heart but because the arteries which have their originall from the heart lie more open and are more tangible there then in many other parts of the body and yet in the temples and divers other parts of the body you shall find the pulse as well as in the wrists and things applied to these parts will work as powerfully on the heart as if applied to the wrists His Lordship is angry Sect. 98. Because we call the spirits of Plants and living Creatures Soules such superficiall speculations saith he they have But he should for the same reason be angry with the Scriptures which ordinarily calls the spirits of beasts birds and fishes Souls He must also be angry with all wise Nomenclators which have called living and sensitive creatures Animals because they have animal soules For animal is from anima Again I would know if this word likes him not how he will call these spirits of animals If he call them nothing but spirits then he makes no difference between them and all other tangible bodies For according to his doctrine there are spirits in stocks and stones as well as in plants and animals but I hope the spirits of these deserve another name then of the others which indeed according to the old and true Philosophy are meer qualities which word also he rejects as Logicall as though forsooth Logick or Logicall terms were needlesse whereas no knowledge is more usefull and necessary as being the hand-maid to all Sciences the want of which hath occasioned multitudes of whimzicall conceits and Chimera's in mens brains Again if he will not have these chiefe acts agents or movers in animals to be called souls or spirits but air or vapour or wind he will find that all these three are called by the word Anima 1. Aire is Anima in the Prince of Poets Eclog. 6. Namque canebat uti magnum pir inaâ—e coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent 2. Vapour is called anima too in the same Poet AEn 8. Quantum ignes animaeque valent 3. The wind is anima also in Horace Impellunt animae lintea Thracie and animus in the Poet AEn 1. Mollitque animos temperat iras So then call the Spirits of animals what you will air vapour wind or spirit you will still find anima or soul is the term most proper for them and that this is no superficiall speculation My Lord in his second Century sect 11. Makes pictures and shapes but secondary objects to the eye but colours and order the things that are pleasing to the sight If he had said That colours are the chief objects of the eye he had spoken more properly then to say they are pleasing to the eye for some colours are very displeasing to some eyes As for order that is not at all the object of the sight for it is a relation and relations incurre not into the senses Again he saith sect 114. That the sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediatly then the other senses This is a very improper saying for the senses are patients in receiving the species of their objects not agents upon their objects If there be any action of dijudication that is the work of the phantasie rather then of the outward sense and though I should yeeld that there were some actions of the eye yet the sense of hearing is meerly passive and therefore it is not the sense of hearing that striketh the spirits but the species of the sound which is received by the spirit in the auditory nerve and so conveyed into the phantasie so it is not the smelling as he saith that worketh on the spirits but the object that worketh on the sense of smelling Again when he saith sect 117. That dores in fair weather give no sound he speakes by contraries for if by fair weather he means dry weather then dores give the greatest sound I know not what kind of dores his were but mine sound much in dry Summers and but little in moist weather And this stands
read in the first degree of light which is from darknesse but in the other degree which is from lesse light to more I can see to read therefore this degree of lesse light to more light as far greater then the other which was from the privative to the active He tells us 270 That in visibles there are not found objects soÌ„ odious and ingrate to the sense as in audibles thus the grating of a Saw sets the teeth on edge That there are visible objects more ingrate to the eye then audible to the ear is plan by experience in such as have swounded and fallen suddenly dead at the sight of some objects some will sweat and fall into strange passions at the sight of a Cat others at other sights Pompey's wife fell into a swound when she saw her husbands coat be sprinkled with blood Mark Antonies speech did not so forcibly work upon the Romans as the sight of Caesars bloody garment to prosecute his murtherers The phantasie is much more affected by the eye then by the ear As for the grating of a Saw by which some mens teeth are set on edge will not prove what he aimes at but onely that the teeth are thus affected by reason of that nerve of the fifth conjugation which sendeth one branch to the ear and another to the larinx and tongue as likewise there is a cartaligenous passage between the ear and palat by which the air received by the mouth is communicated to the ear Hence we stop our breath when we will hear attentively and violent sounds are evacuated by that passage which are received by the ear But when he saith 276 That there is no effect of deafnesse found in Canoniers and such like he is again mistaken For it is known that divers have lost their hearing by the noyse of Cannous and other violent sounds I knew one who grew deaf by being present at a Muster where many Muskets were discharged Again hee saith 277. That when a Skreen is put between the candle and the eye the light is seen on the paper whereon one writeth where the body of the flame is not seen But indeed neither the flame is seen because of the Skreen nor the light on the paper but the paper by the light for light is not the object which we see but by which we see it actuates the medium and makes the object visible CHAP. V. The Lord Bacons opinions refuted Of holding the breath when wee hearken Of time Of long life Of making gold Of starres Of oyl Of indisposition to motion Of death diseases and putrifaction Of stuttering Of motion after the head is off Of sympathies and antipathies of the Vine and â—olewort the Fig-tree and Rew. Of white colour Of the Oke bough in the earth Of transinutation of species Of Incubus Of grain in cold Countries Of determination and figures Of accretion and alimentation Of the period of life Of sugar leaves roots snow and putrifaction WE have shewed out of Anatomy why we hold our breath when we hearken attentively but my Lord gives a reason no way satisfactory For saith he the cause is for that in all expiration the motion is outward and therefore rather driveth away the voyce then draweth it His Lordship sayes well if we did hear by the mouth but withall he should have considered that in breathing there is inspiration as well as expiration and we hold our breath in hearing attentively that there may be no inspiration as well as expiration And indeed it must be a very weak voyce that our breath in expiration drives away The true cause then as we have shewed is the free passage of the air between the mouth and ear by means of the pipe or chanell we mentioned therefore we stay our breath rather from inspiration then expiration lest the drum in the ear be extended too much with air He saith It conduceth to long life that mens actions be free and voluntary If this were so the absolute Monarchs of the world whose words and commands are laws and who have none to controll them should be longer lived then their subjects who are forced to doe many things against their liking though not against their will for all mens actions otherwise are free and voluntary because they are men but many times we see slaves live longer then Princes He tells us That time and heat are fellows in many effects for they both are airy and liquifie Time and heat cannot be fellows in effects because time is no agent it doth not operate at all quantities work not though all things are produced in time so hony and sugar grow liquid clay and roots grow dry in time but not by time These effects are produced by the heat drinesse and moisture of the aire so that sugar waxeth not more liquid by age but by the air for keep it twenty years it will harden or soften according to the weather So it is not time that hardeneth the crum of bread but the heat of the air by drawing in insensibly its humidity and therfore it is rather Poetically spoken then Philosophically to say that time hardeneth or softnâ—th produceth or destroyeth This indeed is to put the syth into Saturns hand and to make him the father and devourer of his own children He alledgeth one cause why women live longer then men because they stir lesse But I say that men live longer then women because they stir more For by exercise the blood is warmed the pores are opened vapours are expelled concoction is helped the limbs and joynts are strengthened the naturall heat is excited the spirits and humours are refined All ages shew us that no women have ever reached to the age of some men and it stands with reason that men should be longer lived because they abound more in naturall heat which is the cause why the Northern people are longer lived then the Southern And I have observed that in the Northern parts women are more given to exercise then in the countries farther South and therefore are longer lived there then here And my Lord himselfe acknowledgeth That exercise hindreth putrifaction and rest furthers it Therefore it follows that men who exercise live longest because they are furthest from putrifaction He judgeth the work of making gold possible So have all they who have made shipwrack of their estates upon that stone which hath proved no lesse dangerous then the rocks of Malea It is not enough to judge the possibility but it must be proved either by reason or experience neither of which hath been yet done For that factitious or rather fictitious gold the Chymists brag of is as far from true gold as a painted fire is from a reall for neither can it endure the fire nor comfort the heart nor hath it any of the qualities or essentiall properties of true gold I am of Scaligers opinion that it is as easie to change a beast into a man as to
translated into the colder will be more forward then the ordinary grain of the cold Country This is known to be untrue by divers grains transplanted hither into this cold climat and by the grains translated hence into the Orcades and other cold parts Again he saith That plants are all figurate and determinate which inanimat bodies are not if this be so then inanimat bodies are infinit for certainly vvhatsoever is finit hath its termination and figure is nothing else but the disposition of terminations even water is figurat because it is sinit though it assumeth the figure of the continent body in vvhich it is To say then that a stone is sinit and yet not figurat nor determinat is a plain contradiction a dead carcass is an inanimat body yet retains the same figure termination vvhich it had vvhilst it vvas animat In this same Section he tels us that plants do nourish inanimat bodys do not they have an accretion but no alimentation but how any thing can have an accretion vvithout alimentation is to me a ridle I speak of proper and Physicall accretion which is an extension of all the parts by an internall principle or soule converting the aliment into the substance of the body nourished For that accretion of stones and other inanimate things is an apposition of externall matter not an extension of the parts by an internall agent converting the nutriment into the thing nourished And how can stones or such hard bodies have extension whereas they want humidity which is the cause of extension Besides accretion is a supply of deperdition for where there is diminution of parts by means of the heat exhausting the radicall moisture there must be restauration â—y nutriment and consequently accretion Therefore there maybe an outward agglutination or aggregation of stones without alimentation but an accretion properly so called there cannot be Lastly he tells us in the same Section That Plants have a period of life which inanimate bodies have not If inanimate bodies have a life and no period then they are immortall like the Angels and so the stones we tread on in the dirty streets are in better condition then the great Monarcks of the world Again if plants have a period of life they have life and conquently are living creature and yet shortly after my Lord distinguisheth them from living creatures in divers respects Sugar saith he to the Ancients was scarce known and little used Sugar was both known to and used by the Ancients for that which they called mel arundineum hony of the cane was much used in Physick they called it also Indian salt because it was like salt in colour and consistence when it was harden'd by the Sun the other kinde of Sugar the Ancients knew and used as well as wee only they made it by pressing we by boyling of the canes which kinde of boyling they used not as we do because they sweetned their water by steeping the canes in them and that was their drink of this drink Lucan lib. 3. speaks Quique bibunt tenerâ dulces ab arundine succos And that they used sometimes to boil the Sugar canes is plain by Strabo lib. 35. likewise by Statius l. 1. Syl. Et quas praecoquit eboisa cannas Seeds and Roots saith he are chiefly for nourishment but leaves give no nourishment at all or very little this is not so for the leaves of cabbages coleworts lettice and such like give the nourishment and not the roots there is more nourishment in the leaves of one cabbage then in a hundred cabbage roots He gives us a bad definition of snow when he calls it the froth of the cloudy waters froth is aëreal snow is watrish froth is hot snow cold froth is light snow heavy because more terrestrial indeed in colour snow is like froth hence Scaliger saith that snow is almost froth Poetical Phylosophie discriminates froth from snow in making Venus the daughter of the one not of the other snow then is not the froth of cloudie waters though Pliny so calls it but it is the thin and raâ—ified vapours of the watrish cloudes united into those white flakes we see by cold snow then is not begot immediately of water as froth is but of cold and thin vapours Why he should call putrifaction the subtilest of all motions I cannot conceive for what more subtilty is there in putrifaction that is a kinde of corruption then in generation the one consisting in the deperdation of the old form the other in the acquisition of a new form neither doth he speak Philosophically vvhen he calls it a motion for indeed putrifaction is a mutation and no motion because both the termini à quo and ad quem are not positive as they are in all motions CHAP. VI. The Lord Bacons opinions confuted concerning Snow Ephemera gravitie the sperme of Drunkards putrifaction teeth bones and nails thick and thin mediums Nilus hot Iron brâ—in sudddn dakness drie and moist bodies fish cornes hunger liquifaction hardness moisture accidents light right side spungy bodies stone-walls imagination the cramp hedghog mummy salt Commenus and others refuted concerning motion qualities colours forms the Epilogue MY Lord thinks that there is in snow a secret warmth because the Ancients have observed worms bred in old snow but I am of another opinion though Scaliger seems to favour my Lords tenets that neither the snovv is vvarm nor do these vvorms breed in snovv our senses tell us there is no heat in snovv and vvhere there is no heat there can be no putrifaction nor generation the vvorms then are bred in the ground under the snovv but not of the snovv vvhich is not vvarm but keeps in the vvarmth of the earth and defends it as it vvere a mantle from the piercing air therefore in great snovves sheep vvill live longer under the snow then above in the sharp air And whereas the worm dieth when it comes out of the snow this proceedes not as he saith from the exhaling of the worms spirits which was shut in by the cold but rather from the chilling of that spirit which was kept in by heat for whilst it was under the snow the worm was kept warm from the piercing air which now kilsit He saith That the flies called Ephemerâ— live but a day the cause is the exility of the spirits or perhaps the absence of the Sun But neither of these is the cause not the exility of spirit for we see that among men they that have weak and attenuated spirits live longer then they who have more strong dense and more plenty of spirits and so in other creatures a Horse or Bull are not so long lived as a Crow or Raven which have more exility of spirit The cause therefore of short and long life is the goodnesse or badnesse of the crasis and temperament of the radical moisture and its due or undue proportion with the natural heat
spread it selfe so soon on a dry board as on a wet upon a dry board a drop of vvater vvill contract it self into a globular form and rise into some height rather then joyn itselfe to its enemy whereas upon a vvet board it presently spreads it selfe So dry things will rather swim upon then sink in the vvater except their vveight force them downward He also contradicteth experience when he saith That Fish hating the dry will not approach the air till it grow moist For vve see that fish play most upon the top of the vvaters in hot and dry Summers and in the hottest and driest time of the day when the Sun is in his Meâ—idian So when he saith That Aches and Corns engrieve most towards rain or frost This is not as if they were sensible of future rain but because the extremity of heat and cold doe exasperate these infirmities For the same reason Moals vvork and Fleas bite more eagerly He tells That hunger is an emptinesse But this is not so for there is sometimes hunger without emptinesse and sometimes emptinesse without hunger It is therefore not emptinesse but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher tells us a desire or appetite of hot and dry things caused by the corrugation and sucking in the mouth of the stomach His Lordship is pleased to call the received opinion That putrifaction is caused by cold or preternaturall heat but nugation But if cold be not the cause of putrifaction how comes it that Apples and Cabbages doe rot in frosty vveather And if peregrine heat be not the cause how comes it that in hot and moist years and places pestilentiall Feavers and other putrid diseases doe reigne Besides abundance of vermin doubtlesse these are procreated of putrifaction and this of heat except we will forfeit our senses and reason of which he being afraid confesseth at last that such a heat tendeth to dissolution He will not have liquifaction to proceed from any of the foure prime qualities that he calls an inutile speculation but from his own phantomes For bodies saith he that are more turgid of spirit or that have their spirits more straitly imprisoned as metals or that hold them better pleased and content as butter are liquifiable How happy then are those spirits which dwell in butter where they have pleasure and content in comparison of those vvretched spirits vvhich are imprisoned in Irons and other metals and yet how these spirits should make the metall turgid I know not Surely these are but crasie fansies vvhereas it is apparent to all ntelligible men that these things are most liquifiable which aboundeth most with congealed moisture whether it be aeriall and oily as in pitch butter wax and grease or watrish alone as in Ice or of a middle nature between both or peculiar as the moisture of metals And to tell us That wood clay free-stone c. are not liquifiable because they are bodies jejune of spirits is ridiculous for there are more spirits in vegitables then in metals and it is plain that clay and stones melt not because they want moysture which is in metals So it is not the dilatation of the spirits as he saith by heat which causeth wax to melt at the fire but the rarefaction of the moysture by heat which was before contracted by the cold For this cause dry wood is more fragile then green stone then metall and fictile earth then crude because there is no moisture in the one comparable to the moisture of the other He tels us that the hardnes of body is caused chiefly by the jejuness of the spirits Indeed this Philosophy is somwhat jejun for I would fain know whether there be not more spirits and less jejune in the hard bodies of Cloves Nutmegs and Cinnamon then in the soft bodies of Wooll Silk and Cotton According to his Philosophy there is a greater quantity of Spirits in a pellet of butter because softer then in a Nutmeg which is harder he that beleeves this let him when he is troubled with flatulencies in his stomack use butter and not hard spices He saith That Moisture doth chiefly colour hair but driness turneth them gray and white In his Philosophy then gray and white are not colours nor indeed blacknes which he saith afterwards is but a privative and consequently hath no entity Aristotle indeed sometimes calls black a privation but there he useth the words in a large sense for if it were properly privative how could other colours be made of black and white seeing of habits and privations nothing can be made He saith That some fishes be greater then any beasts because these have not their moisture drawn by the air and sun-beams Also they rest always in a manner and are supported by the water If these be the reasons of fishes greatness then why are Smelts and other lesser fishes smaller then the beasts Or why are they not as big as Whales seeing neither air nor sun-beams draw away their moisture and are also supported by the water The true cause then of the bigness of fishes above the beasts is the predominance of moisture in them which is easily extendible And indeed it is a frivolous thing to give reasons for the different magnitudes of the creatures seeing Nature hath given to each creature a determinate magnitude and period of duration And whereas he thinks that fish doe rest in a manner when they swim because they are supported by the water he may as well say That beasts and men rest when they walk and run because supported by the earth they that swim find there is no rest but labour and motion Before my Lord told us That by heat in putrifaction the spirits are emitted suppressed and suffocated But now he saith That the spirits in putrifaction gather heat How the spirits at the same time should be destroyed by the heat and yet gather heat is so sublime a fansie that no fansie but his own can reach it Water saith he being contiguous with air cooleth it but moystneth it not except it vapour because heat cold have a virtuall transaction without communication of substance but moysture not He takes it for granted which no Philosophy will grant him to wit that accidents can passe from one subject to another without their substance which is to make accidents subsist by themselves and to be all one with the substance which is repugnant to sense and reason therefore without vapours neither can the water moysten nor cool the air He saith Air is not without some secret degree of heat He needs make no secret of it for it is manifest that the air is hot and moist as the fire is hot and dry but for any secret degree of light in the air I deny For though as he saith Cats and Owles see in the night this is not because there is any degree of light in the air for what light can
sticks and glow-worms or cats eyes are fire or flames and if stars be flames because in colour they are like to flames let us say that the Heaven is water for in colour it is like water IV. It seems saith he Cent. 1.45 that the parts of living creatures that lie more inwards nourish more then the outward flesh except it be the brain which the spirits prey too much upon to leave it any great vertue of nourishment This is not so for experience shews the contrary that the outward flesh of sheep and so of other animals nourish more then the heart lungs liver kidney and spleen Therefore Galen l. de cibis reckoneth these amongst his meats of bad juyce and indeed this stands with reason for that nourisheth most which is easiest of concoction and softest and most abounding in benign and nutritive juyce but such is the outward flesh not the heart kidney c. which are harder and drier and not so apt to be converted into blood It is true the Romans made much of the gooses liver more to please their palate then out of any good nutriment it offorded so they preferred moshromes and such like trash to the best nutrive meates as for the brains they are less nutritive then the flesh not because the spirits prey upon them for the animal spirits in the brain do not prey more upon it then the vital spirits do upon the heart which notwithstanding his lordship acknowledgeth to be more nourishing then the outward flesh because more inward but because the brain is less sanguineal then the flesh for those parts which they call spermatical are less nutritive what is more inward then the Spinalis medulla or pith in the back bone on which the animal spirits do not prey and yet it is little nutritive V. The fift cause of cold saith he Cent. 73. is a quick spirit inclosed in a cold body as in nitre in water colder then oyle which hath a duller spirit so show is colder then water because it hath more spirit so some insects which have the spirit of life as snakes c. are cold to the touch so quick silver is the coldest of all mettals because fullest of spirits Answ. No spirit can be the cause of cold for all spirits in vigitable animals produce heat and are produced of heat therefore we finde that where there are most spirits there is least cold 2. Nitre which is mentioned by the Ancients is hot and not cold and therefore both Dioscorides Pliny and Galen adscribe to it the qualities of heat to cut extennat discuss and purge gross and cold humors and if that nitre which we use at this day be not the same yet it is not much unlike as Mathiolus shews as having divers qualities of the old nitre besides it is a kinde of salt and is begot of hot things as pigeons dung and the urins of animals therefore Brun. Seidelius makres it hot 3. I deny that water is colder then oyl to the outward touching for hot waters as he said before are in this regard cold and if oyl hath a dulâ—er spirit then water how comes it to mount upward and swim above the water sure this ascendant motion cannot produce from the earthy and gross substance but from the quick spirits thereof therefore we finde that water is cold and oyl hot in operation because more full of spirits then water 4. I deny that snow is colder then water because it hath more spirit but because it is more condensed for heat and cold are more active in a dense and solid then in a thin atternated substance so ice is colder then water and yet who will say that there is more spirits in the ice then in water besides the snow is colder then the water because begot of colder winds and in colder clymats 5. I deny that insects are cold to the touch for having in them the spirit of life because they are colder when that spirit is gon as we see in all dead bodies which are colder then when they were alive therefore death is called by the Poets frigida more and gelidum frigus the spirit of life is that which is both begot of heat and begets heat and preserveth it that when that spirit leave suâ— heat also for sakes us caler ossa relinquit saith the Poet It is not therefore the spirit of life but the temperament and constitution of the body of divers earthy and watrish animals which argue cold and we see that for this cause womens bodies are colder then mens and some men of colder constitutions then others because they have fewer spirits and more of earth and water in them We know also how dull and stupid our hands are in cold frosts till the spirits in them be quickned by heat 6. I deny also that quicksilver is the coldest of metals because fullest of spirits for it is much doubted whether Mercury be cold at all for agility proceeds from heat not from cold and such a quality became the messenger of Iupiter by whom all things receive life and vigour Indeed Mercury may be called the Monster of Nature for sometimes it refrigerats sometimes it califieth it cures sometimes cold sometimes hot diseases take it hot it produceth cold take it cold it produceth hot effects and it hath this quality of heat that nothing is more penetrating then it is Christopher Encelius de re metalica makes it hot and moist in the fourth degree Quercitan in his answer to Aubert makes it rather aerial then aquiall we know that heat is one of the qualities of air Renodaeus in Pharmac makes it both hot and cold Keckerman in Sist. Phy. sayth That it is hot as it is full of spirits but cold as these spirits are congealed Croclius in Bas. Cly. prescribes it in defluxions of the head and in hydropsies which shews it is hot And Poterius in Pharm Spagir tells us That by reason of its different operations no man can tell whether heat or cold be most predominant but it is certain saith he that it is both for is known by our senses that it is cold it is known by its effects and operations that it is hot for it cuts atâ—enuates dissolves and purges which are the effects of heat and so his Lordship doth acknowledge in the next following leaf That heat doth attennate and by atenuation sendeth forth the spirit In his following discourses he hath phrases not to be tolerated in Phylosophy as when he saith Cent. 1.80 That tangible bodies have an antipathy with air Belike then the air is no tangible body but experience shews the contrary that air is tangible both actively and passively our bodies are sensible enough of this tangibility both in hot and cold weather Again if by tangible bodies he mean grosse and dense bodies how can air have an antipathy with them seeing air is one of the ingredients of which all mixed bodies are compounded can it â—e contrary or antipatheticall