the stomachs of Animals of divers kinds the ferment being in some sorts different from that in others respectively to the difference of the blood And this is all I have to say of the chief instrument of Concoction the proper and inbred Ferment of the stomach 2. The Constitutions of the stomach in which the Concoctive Faculty seems to be founded are three viz. Vital Animal and Natural Of these the two former are influent the first from the fountain of life the blood the second from the brain the third insite or implanted in the stomach it self from its very formation From all these Constitutions concurrent and by an admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom combined there results a certain power which is the Principal Cause of all the operations of the stomach Hence we properly enough say the stomach craves meat and the stomach digesteth For the Seminal Principle of the stomach including both the Vital and Animal influences together with the native Constitution is the whole and so the Principal cause of all its operations But this being a Complex cause cannot be well understood unless the three Constitutions here named of which it is composed be singly consider'd What the Vital and Animal are will be easily collected from what I have designed to say when I come to inquire concerning life and the influence of the brain And as for the insite or congenite Constitution that consisteth in the Temperament in the Habit in the Tone and chiefly in the implanted spirit as the Galenist calls it or as the Chymists and Helmontians Archeus which assisted by the influent vital heat and by the Animal influx is doubtless the grand cause of Concoction and together with the newly describ'd Ferment performs the whole work Which being accomplish'd there immediately succeeds another operation equally necessary to Nutrition viz. The DISTRIBUTION of the Chyle WHICH is perform'd by three distinct actions of the Distributive Faculty of the stomach and Gutts viz. 1 the Exclusion of the Chyle out of the stomach into the Gutts 2 The Agitation of it to and fro by the Peristaltick motion partly in the stomach but chiefly in the gutts and 3 the Transmission of it into the Milky Veins The reason and manner of all which actions I shall endeavor briefly to explain supposing them to be Organical As to the FIRST viz. the Transfusion of the Chyle out of the stomach into the gutts I conceive it to be effected by a double motion of the Chyle one impress'd upon the Chyle the other natural to it or spantaneous The first upward the second downward The impress'd and upward motion by which the Chyle is elevated to the Pylorus I ascribe to the Constriction or closing of the whole stomach For all the fibres of the stomach by the motion of self-restitution common to all Tensiles after they have been extended in length more and more contracting themselves by degrees of necessity lessen the cavity in which the Chyle is contein'd and this coangustation of the cavity of equal necessity raises it up to the Pylorus and the other orifice remaining closely shut up while the whole act of Concoction lasteth forces it out at the same in the same manner as the liquor of a Clyster is squeez'd out at the pipe only by compression of all parts of the bladder including it The natural and downward motion by which the Chyle slides down into the gutts is to be attributed to its Gravity which causes it to descend from the Pylorus into the gutts spontaneously But this later motion belongs not to that part of the Chyle which is carried off immediately from the stomach by the milky veins that are proper to it Which yet cannot be much perhaps not the hundredth part of the whole mass of Chyle because the Venae Lacteae of the stomach are but few their number scarcely holding the proportion of a hundred to one with the great multitudes of those that take in their fraught from the Gutts Nor is all the other part of the Chyle devolved into the gutts together and at once but by degrees as it comes to be concocted For it is constant from the dissection of Animals alive that the Chyle when it is confected is fluid or liquid and visibly distinct yea easily separable from the solid meats not yet dissolved as broath is in a pot distinguishable from the flesh boyl'd in it And because the solid meat is for the most part heavier than the liquor and therefore sinks to the botom of the stomach it must needs by pressure cause the liquor to rise to the Pylorus to give way to what presses it So that the thinner part of the Chyle is always first express'd For the two orifices of the stomach are of equal height and both a little higher than any other part of the same Whence may be collected one good reason why 't is more conducible to health to sit or stand than to lie down upon a full stomach For in a man that keeps the Trunc of his body in an erect posture for some time after meat the load of the stomach creates little or nothing of trouble to the orifices of it but beareth only upon the bottom and sides Whereas he that lies down soon after he has fill'd his belly inverts the order of his meat and turns the liquid part out by the Pylorus before it hath been sufficiently concocted and so fills his body with crudities than which I scarce know any thing more pernicious to health And this seems to me sufficient to explain the reasons and manner of the devolution of the Chyle into the gutts which is the first act of the Distributive Faculty As to the SECOND viz. the Agitation of the Chyle to and fro this equally distributes the Chyle to all the gutts as is not only convenient but of absolute necessity to Nutrition For since Nature hath dispens'd Venae Lacteae equally to all the Gutts 't is fit the Chyle al so should be equally distributed to them all sooner or later that each one may have its share of the dividend Again since only the outward superfice of the matter contein'd in the stomach and gutts bears against the orifices of the Venae Lacteae and since the Venae Lacteae do not hang forth or stand strutting into that matter but are terminated in the interior membrane 't is requisite the matter should be turned and revolv'd to and again that the whole may at length be brought to their doors and offer'd to them Now this is effected wholly by an operation Organical and the Efficient is the Peristaltic Motion of the stomach and gutts proceeding from the alternate contraction and extension of their Fibres as we have this day shewn when we described the Peristaltick motion and gave a Mechanic account of it Choosing therefore rather to exercise your Memory than to abuse your Patience by a vain repetition of the same things I will here consider only the Congruity
vast quantity of his brain yet retain'd the use of all the Animal faculties the other by Kerckringius observat anatomic 46. of an infant whose skull he had found full of a mucose water in the place of the brain Hither may be brought two other examples one from Fontanus resp med annot in Vesal of a boy cui caput erat cerebro vacuum another from Arnoldus Villanovanus in Spec. intr med of a man whose skull was found likewise empty Now if these be true Histories what will become of the supposition that the Animal spirits are generated in the brain Can they be made and conserved in water and after most part of the brain hath been taken away Here I am at a stand wanting the wit of Thom. Bartholin Who in observat centur 6. Hist. 91. having told a very strange story of a Swedish Ox whose brain was wholly converted into a stone and desirous still to prop up the antique opinion of Animal spirits which that observation impugned was first so ingenuous as to suspect and after so lucky as to find certain holes and open passages reserved for them in the petrified brain through which they might freely pass into the nerves to carry the heavy headed beast to and fro in the meadows for pasture A wonderful providence of Nature this to continue both the poor Animal in motion and the doctrine of the spirits in reputation And therefore lest ye should think I do the learned Author wrong I am obliged to recite his very words in the clause of the History Quam prima ad nos fama rem novam hactenus inauditam deferret dub rare caepi hinc inde cogitationes volvere quomodo integer bovi remanserit matus ad horam usque à lanione indictam cerebro lapideo suspicabarque in vivi bovis cerebro indurato sinus patulos remansisse per quos liberè spiritus animales ex arteriis nervisque commearent alióqui bovi omnis fuisset motus dudum ademptus Nec vana fuit conjectura Testabatur enim mihi Illustris Bielkius foraminula hinc inde in lapide nominato conspici dispersa perforata per quae paleae possint intrudi Here to question the truth of his relation would be Incivility to believe all parts of it shameful credulity and to conclude from thence that there are Animal spirits down right folly the Author having omitted to bring any good reason to support his conjecture that the holes observed in the petrified Brain had been left for no other cause but only to give free passage to them I add that in the head of the Rana piscatrix which yet is a fish of singular cunning in taking his prey and of great strenght no Brain but only clear water is to be found To come then to a conclusion of this desperate Argument from what hath been said it sufficiently appears that we are still in great uncertainty not only of the matter generation Nature qualities and motion of Spirits Animal but of their very existence also I had reason therefore to appeal to your more discerning judgment for a decision of this so difficult controversie concerning them being my self unable to determine what I ought to conclude of the Antient and at this day vulgar opinion of their being absolutely requisite both to all sensation and to all voluntary motion ¶ Nor do I blush to acknowledge this my ignorance of a thing which Nature seems to have wrapt up in clouds of impenetrable darkness ne veritatis Inaccessibilis lux teneram ingenii humani aciem splendore nimio perstringeret But frankly confess with Lucretius Multa tegit sacro involucro Natura neque ullis Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia Multa Admirare modò nee non venerare neque illa Inquires quae sunt arcanis proxima Namque In manibus quae sunt haec nos vix scire putandum est Est procul à nobis adèo praesentia veri And enquire with Casper Barlaeus de anim Human admirandis Qua ratione et quibus apparitoribus mandata mentis deferri possint momento ad membra remotissima cùm nec membra haec nec spiritus internuncii aut mandata capiant aut mandantem norint Volo Currere pedes currunt quiescere quiescunt c. Quin illud omni sapientiâ humana majus est quomodo pulsantes citheram digiti pari motu celerimas cogitationes assequantur ut nec a mente digitus nec a digito mens relinquatur But this my ignorance must not deter me from proceeding in the administration of my province I come therefore to the instrumentum proximum sive ultimum by which immediately and sensibly the act of voluntary motion is performed This all men rightly hold to be the MUSCLES in which there occur three Generals to be chiefly considered by the Anatomist viz. their common Constitution and structure their principal and senseble Differences and the Reason by which they move the parts to which they are affixt For these things being duely explain'd may perhaps bring us at length to such a degree of knowledge of the manner of voluntary motion as may if not satisfie our Curiosity yet at least advance the noblest of all our intellectual delights the grateful admiration of the infinite Wisdom of our Creator Which as it is the principal End of our Being so ought it to be also the grand scope of all our studies and Natural inquiries Concerning the FIRST therefore obvious it is to every mans reason that the immediate organ of voluntary Motion ought to be of such a Constitution as may render it apt both to receive invigoration i. e. to be excited to motion by the Brain at the command of the will appetite or fancy and to move the member or part to which it is affixt Manifest therefore it is that a hard inflexible rigid and bony substance is so far incompetent to both those uses that Galen de motu musculor lib. 1. cap. 2 affirmed that any part casually becoming hard and stiff though only from a thick cicatrice or skar is thereby rendred unfit for motion and that consequently the substance of a Muscle ought to be as Nature has made it soft rare flexible extensible and furnished with great store of fibres Requisite it is also in respect of the distance betwixt the Brain and the Muscle that there should be some third thing intermediate and continued to both by which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first impetus in the former may be communicated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the other whether the invigoration be effected by influx of any substance from the Brain or by Dr. Glissons way formerly described And the Nerves being the only part of the whole body qualified for this use Nature hath therefore most prudently inserted one or more of them into each Muscle Now these two parts Flesh and Nerves are the principal ingredients requisite to compleat the essence of a Muscle as
oblivio obruet CUTLERUS posteritati narratus traditus aeternum superstes erit ¶ Would I were equally secure of Your good acceptance I dare not say Approbation of the mite I am about to contribute toward the accomplishment of his so gloriose Design But alas this is a wish without hope so destitute I know my self to be of all the Faculties of Mind requisite to so difficult an Atchievement my Zeal for the promotion of Anatomy only excepted and much more reason there is why I should apologize for my insufficiency before I farther expose it Notwithstanding this discouragement considering with my self that profound Erudition and great Humanity are like Love and Compassion inseparable I think it much safer to confide in Your Candor and Benignity for pardon of my Defects than to attempt to palliate them by Excuses however just and evident Not to be conscious of my faileurs and lapses in my following Lectures would argue me of invincible ignorance not freely to acknowledge them would be tacitly to defend them to seek by speciose praetences of hast of frequent diversions of natural impatience of long meditation of bodily indispositions intervenient and other the like vulgarly alleged impediments to extenuate them were the most certain way to aggravate them and to conceal them from your sight is in this place and occasion impossible Having then no other Refuge but in Your Grace and Favor I fly to that alone to secure me from the danger of malignant Censures which I am more than likely to incurr nor will I fore-arm my self with any other defense but this If the Matters of my subsequent discourses shall appear to be neither Select nor of importance enough to compensate Your time and patience be pleas'd to remember that saying of Aristotle Metaphys lib. 2. cap. 1. Non solùm illis agendae sunt gratiae quorum opinionibus quis acquiescet sed iis etiam qui superficie tenus dixerunt Conferunt enim aliquid etiam isti habitum namque nostrum exercuorunt Si enim Timotheus non fuisset multum melodiae nequaquam habuissemus Si tamen Phrynis non fuisset nè Timotheus quidem extitisset c. If my Stile shall sound somewhat harsh and ungrateful many times to Ears unatcustomed to any but their Mother tongue as coming too near to the Latin I intreat you to consider this is either no indecency in this place or such a one at worst which I could not otherwise avoid than by involving my sense in the obscurity of words less proper and significant the nature and quality of the Subjects treated of being such as cannot be fully expressed in our yet imperfect Language So that I have a clear right to that honest plea of Lucretius Abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas ¶ PRAELECTIO I. Of Nutrition MAN being consider'd ut Animal Rationale as a living Creature naturally endow'd with Reason and compos'd of two principal parts a Soul and a Body each of which hath various Faculties or Powers the summe of Human Nature must be comprehended in those Powers conjoyn'd Of these Powers some are peculiar to the Soul or Mind others belong to the Body as Organical and animated by the Soul To the Former sort are referr'd the Faculties of thinking knowing judging reasoning or inferring concluding electing and willing all commonly signified by Understanding and Will All which being remote from the Province of Anatomists I leave them to be handled by Philosophers inquiring into the nature of the Soul Of the Later some are requisite to the complement of Man as single or individual viz. the Faculties of Nutrition of Life of Sense and of Voluntary Motion and there is one that respects the Procreation of Mankind namely the Power Generative And these are the natural Faculties to which as principal Heads the Learned Anatomist is to referr all his Disquisitions that at length he may if it be possible attain to more certain knowledge of the Mechanic frame of the Organs in which they are founded But being more than can be tho' but perfunctorily enquir'd into in so few hours as are assign'd to this publick Exercise I have therefore chosen to treat of only some of them at this time viz. Nutrition Life and voluntary Motion not as more worthy to be explain'd than the rest but as more comprehensive or of larger extent I have chose also to begin from NUTRITION not only because the Stomach Gutts and other parts principally inservient thereto being by reason of impurities contain'd in them more prone to putrefaction ought therefore first to be taken out of the cavity of the Abdomen to prevent noisomnes but because Nutrition seems to be if not one and the same thing with yet at least equal or contemporany to Generation it self and that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Time and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Nature For tho' the operation of the Power Gen rative or Formative Virtue may seem to precede that of the Nutritive yet in truth the Stamina or first rudiments of an Embryo are scarcely delineated when they begin to be augmented also by nutrition so that 't is consentaneous as well to the observions of Dr. Harvey and others since as to reason that Formation and Nutrition are but different names of one and the same act of the Plastic power Again Generation and Accretion are not perform'd without Nutrition nor Nutrition or Augmentation without Generation To nourish what is it but to substitute such and so much of matter as is by reason of exhaustion wanting to the solid parts of the body namely flesh nerves veins arteries c. and what is that in reality but to generate flesh nerves veins arteries c. In like manner Accretion is not effected without Generation for all natural bodies capable of Nutrition are by accession of new parts augmented and these new parts must be such as those of which the bodies were at first composed and this is done according to all their dimensions So that in verity the parts of an Animal are increas'd distinguish'd and organiz'd all at the same time by the same Formative power Moreover if we reflect upon the Efficient cause of Formation and Nutrition and upon the Matter it uses we shall on both sides find it necessary that those two works if ye will have them to be distinct be carried on together On the part of the Efficient because idem esse principium efficiens nutriens conservans in singulis Animalibus necesse est nisi aliam formam in puero aliam in adolescente in sene aliam constituamus quod absurdum est On the part of the Matter ex qua because all Animals such as are produced per Epigenesin of which alone is our discourse not of such Infects that are generated per Metamorphôsin are made of one part of the Matter prepar'd by the Formative Spirit and nourish'd and augmented out of the remainder not out of a divers
namely into bones cartilages ligaments tendons membranes fibres c. So that all the Organs are at length compos'd of dissimilar parts by wonderful artifice context without the least of confusion or incongruity Which deserves to be reckon'd the seventh Act. 8. In that work of Organization 't is credible the inimitable Artist divides without section only by terminating the parts and unites without glew or cement only by continuing them to the common term or bounds which depends more upon union of matter than upon union of nature By these admirable artifices of Division and Unition the Plastic Spirit perforates separates conjoins cements the yet fluid at least soft Stamina of the parts where how and as often as need requires it deduces and runns out their Rivulets terminated in the fluid matter as by chanels it preserves from confusion the two different Colliquamenta and the Yolk divided as it were by partitions it so distinguishes and disterminates even contiguous and semblable parts that they may be diversly moved at the same time without interfering or impediment and each yield to other when occasion requires and thus almost all fibres very many membranes and in many sorts of Animals the Lobes of the Lungs and Liver and the Cartilages mutually touching each other in the joints c. are divided among themselves In a word by these wayes and degrees here by me from Malpighius his Microscopical Observations collected and rudely described it seems most probable that the Embryo is form'd augmented and finish'd in an Egg. Now therefore that we may accommodate this Epitome to our present Argument if this be the method and process that Nature uses in the Generation of Oviparous Animals and if she uses the like in the production of Viviparous also as Dr. Harvies observations and our own assure us that she doth we may safely conclude that Human Embryons are in like manner form'd augmented and finish'd by one and the same Plastic Spirit out of one and the same matter the Colliquamentum Quod er at probandum I add that the same Plastic Spirit remaining and working within us through the whole course of our life from our very first formation to our death doth in the same manner perpetually regenerate us out of a liquor analogous to the white of an Egg by transmuting the same into the substance of the solid parts of our body For as I said before Nutrition is necessary to all Animals not only in respect of the Augmentation of their parts while they are little Embryons but also in respect of their Conservation after during life because their bodies being in a natural consumption or exhaustion would inevitably be soon resolv'd into their first elements unless the providence of Nature had ordain'd a continual renovation or reparation of the parts by substitution and assimilation of fresh matter in the room of those particles dispers'd and consum'd Having therefore to some degree of probability explain'd the former necessity of Nutrition and the causes of it my next business must be to inquire into the Later Which that I may the more effectually do I find my self obliged to begin my scrutiny from the Causes of the perpetual Decay or Depredation of the substance of our bodies viz. the Efficient or Depraedator and the Matter or substance thereby consum'd and the Manner how The Depraedator then or Efficient cause of the perpetual consumtion of our bodies seems to be what all Philosophers unanimously hold it to be the Vital Heat of the bloud therein first kindled by the Plastic Spirit continually renew'd by the Vital Spirit and by the arteries diffus'd to all parts of the body that they may thereby be warm'd cherish'd and enliven'd This Lar familiaris or Vital Heat continually glowing within us and principally in the Ventricles of the Heart call'd by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingenitus ignis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde and flamma Biolychnii the flame of the Lamp of Life by others and by others again ignea pars Animae Sensitivae is what Physicians generally have heretofore understood by Calidum innatum tho' they seem to have had but an obscure and inadaequate notion of the thing it self as I hope to evince when I shall come to inquire what life is and upon what it chiefly depends Meanwhile supposing it to be an Actual Heat consisting in a certain motion of the various particles of the bloud and in some degree analogous to fire or flame I cannot conceive how 't is possible for it to subsist or continue for so much as one moment of time unless it be maintain'd by convenient fewel which is thereby uncessantly fed upon and by degrees consum'd for it is of the nature of all fire how gentle or mild soever to generate and conserve it self only by preying upon and destroying the matter in which it is generated This Vital Heat therefore without intermission agitating dissolving and consuming the minute and most easily exsoluble particles of the body must be the Depraedator here sought after So that in truth we have one and the same cause both of our life and of our death or to speak more properly our very life is nothing but a continual death and we live because we die For we live so long as while this internal Vestal Heat is kept glowing in the bloud and when it ceases to glow either from want of convenient sustenance or by violent suffocation life is instantly extinguish'd So true even in this natural sense is that Distich of Euripides Quis novit autem an vivere hoc sit emori An emori hoc sit quod vocamus vivere The Matter consum'd I humbly conceive to be for the greatest part the fluid parts of the body chiefly the bloud and spirits which are most easily exsoluble and somewhat tho' but little of the substance also of the solid parts For Experience teaches that divers Animals Bears Dormice Swallows c. sleep the whole Winter without receiving any supply of aliment and yet have all the solid parts of their bodies as large and firm when they awake again in the Spring as when they first betook themselves to their dens or dormitories and the Reason hereof seems to be this that their Vital Heat being all that time calm and gentle consumes their bloud and spirits but slowly and very little of their solid parts as a lamp burns long when the oyl that feeds it is much and the flame but little and calm We have Examples also of Leucophlegmatic Virgins who from a gradual decay of Appetite have fall'n at length into an absolute aversion from all food and endur'd long abstinence without either miracle or imposture and yet notwithstanding have not been emaciated in proportion to the time of their fasting Whence 't is probable that in our bodies there is not so rapid and profuse an expense or exhaustion of the substance of the solid parts as heretofore many learn'd Physicians
have imagin'd to be made by the activity of the Vital Heat If it be objected that in many diseases the habit of the body is wont to be very much extenuated we are provided of a double answer First That extenuation seems to proceed rather from a meer subsidence or flaccidity of the Musculous flesh for want of bloud and the nourishing juice to fill and plump it up than from any great deperdition of the substance of the fibres of which the Muscles are mostly made up otherwise such decayes could not be so soon repair'd as we observe them to be in the state of convalescence Secondly Whatever be the cause of the extenuation objected it impugns not our present supposition which extends not beyond the natural and ordinary depraedation made by the Vital Heat in the state of Health And as for the Manner how the bloud spirits and other fluids and if ye please to have it so also the less fixt and more easily exsoluble particles of the solid parts are consum'd by the Vital Heat this may be sufficiently explain'd by the familiar example of oyl consum'd by the flame of a Lamp Whether we take fire or flame to be a substance luminose and heating or conceive it to be only a most violent motion of globular particles in its focus most certain it is that it consisteth in a perpetual fieri i. e. in a continual agitation or accension of the particles of its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pabulum or fewel and perishing as fast as it is propagated so that fire is made fire and again ceaseth to be fire in every the shortest moment of time and when in the combustible matter there remain no more particles in which it may generate it self anew it instantly perishes Now continual Dispersion being the proper and visible effect of fire or flame the matter or fewel wherein it subsisteth cannot but be in continual flux or decay In like manner the Vital Heat of Animals subsisting by a continual accension of new spirits in the blood as that is passing through the Heart those vital spirits transmitted from thence through the arteries to the habit of the body no sooner arrive there but having warm'd and enliven'd the solid parts they immediately fly away and disperse themselves by insensible transpiration carrying along with them many watery vapors and perhaps some sulphureous exhalations Moreover there being in all the solid parts of the body certain mild sweet and balsamic spirits as it were affixt unto and concorporated with them 't is very probable that the Vital Spirits acting upon them also by way of exagitation by little and little dislodge them render them Volatil and at length wholly disperse them whereupon the minute particles in which they did reside become mortified and as excrements are excluded together with the exhalations of the blood And this I apprehend to be the reason and manner of the depraedation made upon the body by the Vital Heat Here no man will I hope exact from me an accurate computation of the daily expenses of this Vital Heat which like some Governors rules by exhausting If any should I might perhaps applaud his curiosity but should not be able to satisfie it For so great is the difference among men in respect of temperament diet age exercise the season of the year and various other circumstances that no definite calculation can be made of this dispense no not in those who keep to the strictest rules of an Ascetic life weighing themselves and their meat and drink as Cornaro is reported to have done daily We may indeed conjecture from the Static experiments of Sanctorius that the expense is great for instance if forty pounds of meat and drink be suppos'd sufficient to maintain a man of a middle stature sober and of good health for ten days and about twenty pounds be assign'd to the excrements voided by stool and urine in that time the other twenty pounds may be reasonably ascribed to insensible transpiration but still this is mere conjecture Let it then suffice that we certainly know the quantity of bloud and spirits daily exhausted by the Vital Heat that conserves life in us is very great and that the greatest part of the matter of insensible transpirations is the Vital Spirits which are continually generated and continually dispers'd How apt and powerful these Vital Spirits are by reason of their subtility and brisk motions to exagitate and disperse the more exsoluble particles of even the nerves fibres membranes and other tender and sensile parts may be in some measure collected from various diseases and symptoms that seem to arise from their various depravations or vicious qualities I shall not therefore goe much out of my way if I make a short Digression to recount a few of those painful and contumacious Maladies which are with good reason referrible to the vices of the Spirits rendring the tone of the nervous parts either more strict or more lax than it ought to be at least according to the doctrine of Prosper Alpinus not long since reviv'd and illustrated by Dr. Franc. Glisson whose name is Elogie sufficient If it happens that the Blood is too vinose i. e. too abundant in Spirits as in Good fellows commonly it is many times it induceth diseases depending upon Fluxion For being by the arteries protruded into the more tender parts with greater force and impetuosity than is fit it rather invades than cherishes them by that violence putting their unfixt particles into a flux And this Fluxion usually first invades such parts as being weaker than the rest are therefore more dispos'd to receive it If the prevailing Spirits of the bloud be not only Vinose but Saline also many times there insues the like Fluxion conjoin'd with a languor and laxity of the tone of the parts such as is alwayes observ'd in Catarrhs in moist Coughs in Ebriety great heaviness to sleep the running Gout c. And 't is remarkable that these Fluxions are usually so much the more fierce and vexations by how much the more infirm and yielding the nerves and fibres of the part invaded are because these want strength to make resistence by vigorous contraction of themselves whereas nerves naturally strong and tense somewhat repress and break the force of the bloud rushing in upon them Which is perhaps one if not the chief reason why men of firm and vigorous nerves are very seldom or never infested by the Gout If this resolving fluxion chance to be accompanied with a Fermentation of the bloud then commonly the evil consequent is a rheumatic arthritic or pleuritic Fevre On the contrary if the Spirits that have obtain'd dominion in the bloud be Sulphureous or oyly there follows a Fluxion causing a Constriction and shutting up of the invaded part For tho' the arteries poure out bloud abounding in impetuous Spirits and so cause a Fluxion yet notwithstanding those Spirits by reason of their oyliness neither easily pass through the habit of the parts as
the Saline do nor are dispers'd by insensible transpiration but remain shut up as in a close prison and striving for liberty raise great tumults and pains Hence are excited various Symptoms according to the various parts into which the Fluxion rusheth in particular if the Fluxion be determin'd upon the Gutts there follow grievous Colic pains if in the Stomach a dire inflation of it if upon the Limms that sore affect which Physicians generally call a Rheumatisme which is not as some have erroneously thought rain'd down from the head but proceeds only from sulphureous Spirits effused out of the arteries into the habit of the body and therein imprison'd their own oyliness making them unapt to transpire and their tumultuous distension of the parts conteining them causing acute pains Hence also come wandring Scorbutic pains Hypochondriac winds rumblings in the stomach and gutts Head-aches the Tooth-ake c. And all these evils are the more aggravated by how much the more firm and tense the nerves of the part affected are whereas in Saline fluxions the contrary happens tho they be no less pernicious in the end by relaxing fretting and as it were melting the tone of the parts affected Finally if the strength of the nerves and fibres be greater than the force of the bloud flowing in from the arteries in that case succeeds a Disease è diametro contrary to Fluxion viz. Obstruction and Infarction and for the most part transpiration hinder'd The manner how seems to be this The too rigid tension of the nerves and fibres in any part rendring the passage of the arterial bloud through it more difficult than is requisite to the circuition of it freely the thicker and more viscid parts thereof must of necessity stick in their passage and so produce Obstructions And this vice alwayes is the more intended by how much the more languid and sluggish the Vital Spirits are For when these are copious and vigorous they easily prevail over the light renitence or reluctance of the nerves and maugre their opposition carry on the bloud in its circuit but when they flagg and act but dully they yield to the opposition of the nerves and fibres and leave the grosser and more viscid parts of the bloud sticking in the passages In a Cachexy Dropsy Asthma Scorbute obstruction of the pipes of the Lungs tumors and imflammations of the viscera c. the nerves commonly are more strict or tense than they ought to be But if a Saline fluxion chance to be conjoyn'd with or to supervene upon such an excessive tension of the nerves it either wholly solves the disease or very much mitigates it at least Whereas on the contrary if while the nerves and fibres continue strong such a constriction of them be accompanied with a Sulphureous fluxion then it causes dismal tempests in the parts affected Convulsions Epileptic fits Apoplexie extreme difficulty of breathing Suffocation Hysteric and other the like passions Now if the Genealogie of these Fluxions here describ'd be consentaneous to reason and experience it doth not a little confirm what hath been deliver'd touching the depraedation of the more easily exsoluble substance of the parts by the Spirits of the bloud For tho' what happens in a praeternatural state of the body be not alwayes a good Argument of what is done in the natural state yet in this case considering that the motion of the bloud is the same and that the Spirits also continue Spirits in both states so that the whole difference consists only in this that in the fluxions alleged the Spirits are suppos'd to be only deprav'd with Saline or Sulphureous qualities not wholly alienated from their nature considering this I say the inference I have made is not ingenuine For to argue from the identity of the effect to the identity of the cause or è converso is no Paralogism And so I conclude this not impertinent digression ¶ FROM the causes and manner of the continual consumtion of substance in Animals we may opportunely proceed to an inquiry into the causes and manner of the continual Restauration of the same by way of Nutrition Of this Restauration the Efficient principle or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls it is certainly the very same with the Generant or Formative because as I said before Generation cannot be effected without Augmentation and Augmentation is Nutrition Not that I am of their opinion who hold that Life and Nutrition differ not in re but only in ratione for the Human Embryo perhaps is nourish't before the Empsychosis but that I conceive that Life consists in and depends upon a continual generation of the Vital Spirits out of the most subtil active and volatile parts of the bloud and that Nutrition consists in reparation or instauration of what is absumed by apposition and assimilation of consimilar or congenerous matter So that according to the distinct notions I have of these Twinns Life is maintain'd by Dispersion of the most spirituose parts of the bloud and Nutrition is on the contrary affected by apposition and assimilation of new matter The Material or constituent Principle I take to be a certain mild sweet and balsamic liquor analogous to the white of an Egg or at least the Colliquamentum out of which the Chick is formed For since all Animals are nourish'd with the same out of which they were at first made up according to that common Axiom iisdem nutrimur ex quibus constamus and that of Aristotle eadem materia est ex qua augetur animal ex qua constituitur primùm and since they are all corporated ex colliquamento we may well conclude that the Succus nutritius sive ultimum nutrimentum partium is in all qualities semblable to the Colliquamentum of the white of an Egg. Farre from the white of truth therefore are they who think that the parts of the body being in substance divers the parts of the Aliment also ought to be equally divers as if Nutrition were really nothing but selection and similar attraction of convenient aliment and that there were not requir'd in every single part a concoction assimilation apposition and transmutation of one matter common to all For first 't is a difficult question whether there be in nature any such thing as Attraction or not and to prove Similar Attraction is yet more difficult so that the very fundament of this opinion is merely precarious and then 't is most evident from what we have said of the constitution and augmentation of all parts of an Embryo ex colliquamento that the Aliment common to all parts is Similar not Heterogeneous it being the proper work of the Plastic power still remaining in every Animal as to form all the various parts out of the same Homogeneous matter at first so to augment and repair them all during life out of like matter by transforming that into the substance of every part which is indeed potentially all parts but actually none as out
alternate Compression of them by the Diaphragme in inspiration by the Muscles of the Abdomen in exspiration Why then should not Anatomists be able by compression or any other way whatsoever to force the Chyle or other liquor injected through this Parenchyma or supposed Streiner I answer First that the Mechanic Ration of this Colatory being not yet for ought I know discover'd even by those curious Dissectors who have with the best Microscopes contemplated the texture of it I dare not pretend to understand the true reason of the difficulty objected Secondly that if I were permitted to declare my present conjecture concerning the same I should venture to say that the impediment to the manual expression of liquors out of the gutts into the Milky veins in Animals dissected alive may perhaps consist in one of these two things either that of the several causes or motions in the state of health and ease or indolency concurring to this complex and organic operation one or more is wanting and the Mechanism of the principal Organ the interior Membrane of the gutts altered and vitiated in the praeternatural and dolorose state of the Animal dissected or that by reason of the cruel torments the miserable Beast feels the Tone of the gutts becomes so strongly contracted and rigid as to be wholly impervious Which is the more probable because 't is well known that great and acute pain always irritates nervose and fibrose parts to contract themselves even to rigidity which is opposite to the gentle compliance and yieldingness requir'd to permeability Which may be one cause why Nature hath endow'd all Glandules ordain'd for Secretion with so little sense viz. lest otherwise being sensible of every light irritation they might be apt to shrink and condense themselves to the interruption and hinderance of their office And for Animals dissected after death I should guess that in them the Colatory of the Chyle is rendered impervious by Cold which by strong constriction or constipation shutts up all slender and inconspicuous passages of the body that had been kept open by the heat and motions of life But these are my private Conjectures as I have already declar'd offer'd rather to your examen than to your belief So is whatsoever I have said in this disquisition concerning the Distribution of the Chyle which I here conclude ¶ There remain yet two other Faculties of the stomach to be consider'd viz. the SECRETIVE by which it separates from the blood brought into its membranes by the Arteries a certain slimy and subacid mucus call'd pituita emortua dead Phlegm because the spirits thereof being exhausted it is of no further use to the blood and the EXCRETIVE by which it exonerates it self of that dead Phlegm of the sowre reliques of the food of its own decay'd Ferment and in fine of whatsoever else is unprofitable or offensive and that either upward by Eructation or by Vomit or downward into the intestines But because the explication of the Constitutions of the stomach upon which these Powers are chiefly founded and of the different motions and ways by which they are respectively executed is less pertinent and requisite to the short History of Nutrition at this time by me design'd than those precedent are upon which I have hitherto insisted and because the Sands in my glass are a good while since all run down therefore I find my self doubly obliged to pretermit the explanation of them lest I should at once both rove from my principal scope and further transgress the law of this Royal Colledge which hath set bounds to all Exercises of this kind when here perform'd By the later of which reasons I am hinder'd also from tracing the Chyle in the narrow obscure and anfractuose ways through which it passes before it can attain to the end of its journey and from observing particularly the Mutations it undergoes the Exaltation and Refinement it gradually acquires and the Secretion of its unassimilable parts made in Organs by Nature to that use ordain'd Let it therefore at present suffice if to gratifie the Curiosity of the Yonger Students of Anatomie I set before their eyes not an accurate Map but a rude Landskip of the Galaxy or Milky way in which the greater part of the Chyle glides along through the purple Island of the body to replenish the ocean of blood The Chyle being now as I said squeez'd out of the stomach and gutts into the slender pipes of the Venae Lacteae flows gently on in them from the Circumference toward the Centre of the Mesentery the precedent parts of it being necessarily pusht forward by the succedent ut unda undam pellit till it enter into certain Glandules there placed And this may be call'd the First stage of the Chyles progess through the Galaxy Extruded from thence partly by more Chyle crowding in partly by compression of the Glandules by the distended Midrif and contracted Muscles of the Abdomen it flows into the Common Receptacle or Cistern first discover'd by the Curiose and fortunate Monsieur Picquet and thence call'd by his name Which I accompt the Second stage or remove of the Chyle From the Common Receptacle which consisting of a membranose substance situate at the very root of the Mesentery upon the sphondyls of the Loins and filling up the space between the Muscles Psoae is incumbent upon the two long and fleshy productions of the Diaphragm the Chyle is transferr'd into the Ductus Chyliferus which running upward near the spine of the back and continued quite home to the Subclavian branches of the Vena Cava exonerate themselves into them and commix the Chyle with the blood and this also seems to be done by impulse or protrusion Because the two Productions of the Diaphragm lying immediately under the Common Receptacle cannot be distended as together with the Diaphragm they always are in every inspiration but they must force the Chyle therein contain'd to give way by ascending in the pipes that from thence tend upward after the same manner as in artificial fountains the water is mounted into pipes only by pressing the surface of that in the Cistern Perhaps the so often mention'd Compression of all parts included within the Abdomen by constriction of the Muscles thereof may not a little contribute to this Elevation of the Chyle which is the Third remove of it Next the Chyle by the said Subclavial veins brought into the Ascendent trunc of the Vena Cava is immediately imported together with the blood therein descending into the right ear and ventricle of the Heart Which by its Systole or contraction squeezes it into the Lungs where by their Reciprocations it is more perfectly mixt with the blood and whence it is devolv'd into the Left Ventricle of the Heart and finally thence squirted into the Arteries so soon as it hath receiv'd the form and name of blood Which is the Fourth and last stage of its journy at least of so much of it as is ordain'd
to recruit the mass of blood and afford matter for the supply of the Vital spirits or Heat For I blush not here to declare my adherence to the doctrin of that great Light and Ornament of this Colledge Sir George Ent that a considerable portion of the most delicate and spirituose Chyle is never brought through the Galaxy newly by me describ'd into the blood but detach'd and by other ways by membranes and nerves and fibres perhaps by way of Filtration as the nourishing juice of Plants seems to ascend from the roots up to the top of the highest spriggs transferr'd to the brain and by Meteorization refin'd into the last aliment of the Spermatic parts Which I do not because I have hitherto zealously asserted this doctrin both in Exercitat 10. lib. de Oeconomia Animali lib. de Scorbuto cap. 8. but only because the Arguments and Experiments brought against it by Deusingius and some other Defendents of that antique Placit of Aristotle Sanguinem esse ultimum alimentum partium are not in my judgement half so weighty and cogent as those brought to recommend it to the belief of an equal Arbiter Of all the Objections hitherto put into the opposite end of the ballance the most ponderose seems to be that which hath been by way of induction alleged by my Learned Collegue Dr. Lower from a remarkable Anatomic Experiment made by himself and recorded in his Book de motu Cordis Sanguinis cap. 5. Whence he inferrs that the whole revenue of the Chyle is certainly expended upon the bloud and yet notwithstanding I dare affirm that though the Experiment be true and ingeniose the inference is more than can be according to the Laws of right ratiocination from thence deduced The Experiment it self is in short this If in a Dogg or any other Animal fed about three hours before the pipe leading from the Common Receptacle then fill'd with newly imported Chyle be broken as without much difficulty it may by making a convenient incision betwixt the two lowest ribbs of the right side and tearing the Receptacle with the nail of the fore-finger so as the course of the Chyle into the Thoracic vessels be intercepted the poor Animal how plentifully soever supplyed with food will nevertheless perish by famine within few dayes after and in his breast will be found a deluge of Chyle The Inference this Certain it is therefore that the Animal though abounding with Chyle in the stomach gutts and milky veins dies nevertheless of famine by reason that the Chyle cannot ascend by the Thoracic pipes into the Subclavial veins but is intercepted by the way and by consequence that the whole stock of Chyle is imported by the chyliferous vessels into the bloud Which to me seems to be a Paralogism For granting that whatever of Chyle is brought from the Common Receptacle into the mass of bloud passes thither by no other way but through the Thoracic pipes it will not therefore necessarily follow that the whole provision of Chyle made in the Ventricle is convey'd thence into the Common Receptacle and so into the bloud For why may not some part of it be diverted into other wayes from the Ventricle by the membranes thereof from the Glands of the Mesentery from the Lumbares and others vicine to them Chiefly when the wayes of that diversion or detachment are sufficiently probable as I have many years past shewn ex professo in my Exercitation de distributione Succi Nutritii per membranas nervos and when otherwise the spermatic parts of the body would all be destitute of requisite nourishment the bloud being so unfit to repair their exhaustion that in all probability it rather preys upon and consumes them as hath been with many nervose reasons asserted by Dr. Glisson in lib. de Anatom Hepat Nor is it necessary because the Doggs upon which this Experiment hath been tried died within few daies after that therefore they died of famin For why might not so great a wound penetrating into the cavity of the Thorax be sufficient of it self to destroy them in that space of time Why is it not more consentaneous to conceive that in those Doggs the bloud it self being depriv'd of the requisite afflux of new Chyle daily and so alienated from its vital constitution as to have been no longer fit to afford a continual recruit of spirits became vappid and so inferr'd death in a few dayes though the solid parts were not defrauded the while of their portion of the Chyle brought to them by other wayes That in long fasting when new Chyle is wanting the bloud doth usually estuate grow acrimonious and prey upon the substance of the body is a truth so well known by common experience that it needs not farther probation But how long after the wounds had been inflicted did the Doggs live That our Author forgot to record leaving the number of the dayes undefin'd notwithstanding the Circumstance of time be of great moment toward the strengthning his supposition that they perish'd meerly by famin For if they surviv'd but two three or four dayes 't is more improbable they should be in so short time starv'd to death than that they perish'd only by the wounds they had receiv'd Again 't was necessary that by so great quantity of Chyle effused into the cavity of the Thorax the motions of the Diaphragm Heart and Lungs should be highly impeded that from the putrefaction of the same Chyle an acute fever should be soon kindled and that the whole Oeconomy of Nature should be in so great streights perverted into mortal confusion in those suffering Animals There are then you see other causes besides the interception of the Chyle to which the death of the Doggs may be with more of verisimilitude ascrib'd Where then is the necessity of that conclusion that Famin alone kill'd them or how doth this Experiment demonstrate that the whole revenue of Chyle is as a due tribute paid into the Exchequer of the bloud I am therefore to be excus'd if I deny this mighty Objection to be of force enough to subvert the doctrine of the Nutrition of all the spermatic parts by the Succus nutritius clearly distinct from the bloud More considerable it is that even that Great Man Dr. Franc. Glisson who had in lib. de Anat. Hepat cap. ult with so many and so strong arguments drawn from reason and observations propagated this doctrine hath notwithstanding in his last and most elaborate work de Ventric intestin cap. 8. taken occasion to retract it in these very words Hîc tres Errores à me olim admissos ultrò agnosco revoco Conjectabam quidem tunc 1. Materiam succi nutritii esse selectissimam Chyli partem 2. Hanc per viam secretionis in glandibus quibusdam potissimum Mesenterii à reliquo chylo separari per nervos ad cerebrum transmitti 3. Nervos splenicos è liene succum quendam tenuem mitem qui sit vehiculum
as to reject them should dare also to substitute in the room of them some new one of my own excogitation if not more perfect yet at least less culpable To these expecting Gentelmen therefore I say that much less of skill and strength being required to demolish than to build a Pigmy may be able to pull down what Giants have raised and that to form a true and complete definition of any the most obvious thing in Nature much more of Life which is extremly abstruse would puzzel a much stronger Brain than mine Well then may I be excused if conscious of my imparity to a task so desperate I forbear farther to expose my weakness by attempting it and choose rather to leave them to collect what my sentiments are of the nature of Life from my following discourse WHICH being designed only as a modest disquisition of the natural causes of Human Life I professedly pass by what that over-curiose nation of Scholemen impensly addicted to notions abstracted from all commerce with the Senses and to Speculations Metaphysical have delivered of the Life of Spirits of Angells Daemon's and other Beings of that kind subject neither to the Laws of Nature nor to the Empire of Fate And this I do because some of their Doctrines far transcend the capacity of my narrow Wit others seem more fine than useful and all are remote from my present institute I omit also what our equaly acute Dr. Glisson hath with admirable subtility of Wit and immense Labour of Meditation excogitated and not many Years before his Death divulged of the Energetic Life of Nature and its Faculties by virtue of which he supposed that even the most minute particles of this aspectable World do naturally perceive desire move themselves with Counsel and what is yet more wonderful frame Bodies for themselves to inhabit animate or inform them and perform other most noble operations Which I do not only because this opinion how favorable soever hath not yet been received as canonical by common assent of Philosophers but also because I humbly conceive it to be in all things the Name only excepted the same with that antique Dogma first delivered by Plato and after asserted by his Followers that all things in the Universe are Animate that is are naturally endowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Sense and Self-motion which hath been sufficiently impugned by Aristotle Lucretius Gassendus and all others who have refuted Plato's Doctrine de Anima mundi upon which it is grounded Not that I reject this opinion of natural Sense or Perception attributed to all things but that I am not yet convinced of the truth of it Insipientis est aliis dogmata illa aut commendare aut convellere de quorum veritate ipsemet adhuc dubitat And well may I suspend my assent to this opinion which gives to things inanimate such Faculties which my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational Creatures Nor indeed would either Lucretius or Des Cartes For the former though according to the Epicurean Hypothesis which he in all things followed he attributes to Atoms or as he calls them Solida Primordia rerum a Spontaneous Mobility nevertheless denies that they are naturally moved with Knowledg or Design in these Verses Lib. 2. Nam neque consilio debent tardata morari Nec perscrutari primordia singula quaeque Ut videant qua quidque geratur cum ratione And the Later in one of his Epistles to Mersennus Epistol parte 2. epist. 44. where he strictly examines the Doctrine of a certain Monk that ascribed to even the most minute particles of Matter a Power of moving themselves and other ingenite propensions the very same I guess with those supposed to be inseparably conjoyn'd with Natural Perception plainly declares his Judgment of the unreasonableness thereof in these Words Non probo indivisibilia ista neque naturales quas illis tribuit propensiones istiusmodi enim propensiones absque intellectu concipere nequeo ne irrationalibus quidem animalibus tale quidquam tribuo Sed quicquid in illis appetitus aut propensiones vocamus per solas Mechanicae regulas explico These two praeliminary Advertisements premised I come into the direct way of my intended disquisition That the Life of Man doth both originally spring and perpetually depend from the intimate conjunction and union of his Reasonable Soul with his Body is one of those few Assertions in which all Divines and natural Philosophers unanimously agree And they have reason For while the rational Soul continues in the Body so long Life continues and when the same is separated from the Body in that very moment of Time Death succeeds Now this rational Soul being by most wise Men granted to be a pure Spirit or substance merely Spiritual it is from thence necessarily consequent that the Life of it is Substantial that is the very substance of it considered as Metaphysicians love to speak non in ordine ad esse per se sed in ordine ad operationes For we dull-brain'd Mortals to whom it is not granted to be able to conceive the nature of Beings purely Spiritual by notions adaequate to it according to the Module of our understanding distinguish even in Angels their subsistence Fundamental from their Energetic Nature although in reality both are the same substance but diversly considered For this substantial Life though it may be as to its Operations by the same Divine Power that gave it suspended cannot yet be wholly taken away so as that it should after continue to be a Spirit Because if a Spirit be supposed to be deprived of Life the very substance of it must also be supposed to be at the same time annihilated For who can conceive so gross a contradiction as a dead Angel The same may be as truly said also of a Rational Soul which is allowed to be a Spirit too Wherefore the Life of it is as I affirmed Substantial and Essential and consequently incapable to be taken away unless the Soul or Spirit it self be at the same time annihilated Which the Omnipotent Creator can indeed when he shall so please do but it doth not appear from any place of holy Scripture that he either hath done or ever will do it and therefore let no man doubt of the Immortality of his Soul Sic etenim lethi praeclusa ' st janua menti From this our fundamental position then that the Life of a Man is in his rational Soul essentially it follows of necessity that the same Life cannot be in his Body too essentially but by way of Participation or Communication Nor is it difficult to conceive in our mind that the Life of the Body being separable from it is only communicated to it or derived from another thing of a different Nature For if a substance essentially living be intimately united to another substance of its own nature void of Life the thing composed of those two substances so united must have Life but
delivers the first into a free injoyment of her essential immortality but dissolves the latter into the Elements or matter of which it was composed is an opinion very antient highly consentaneous to reason and defended not only by many eminent Philosophers as well antique as modern but even by some Divines of great learning Piety and Fame among whom I need name only Gassendus of the Roman and Dr. Hammond of our Church The former of which hath professedly asserted it in Physiologia Epituri cap. de Animae sede the other in Notes on the 23. Verse of the 5 Chap. of St. Pauls first Epist. ad Thess. Where interpreting these Words of the divinely inspir'd Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integer vester spiritus anima corpus he conceived that the Apostle divides the whole Man into his three constituent parts viz. the Body which comprehends the Flesh and Members the Sensitive or Vital Soul which is common also to Brutes and the Spirit by which is denoted the reasonable Soul originally created by God infused into the Body and from thence after death to return to God and this his exposition he confirms by agreeing Testimonies of many Ethnic Philosophers and some antient Fathers Much more I should here have said in defence of this opinion had I not thought it less labour to direct the unsatisfied to a little Treatise intitled a Natural History of the Passions publish'd about three Years past where the Author professedly handles it Now if either of these two recited opinions be granted to be true and 't is no easy task to refute either of them then both my positions that occasioned my recital of them may be also true and so the supposed inconsistency of them solved Presuming then that what I have said concerning the First Act of the Blood or the Generation of Original Life in the Blood and the manner how it is performed is probable and sufficient to explicate the Theorem I here conclude my discourse of it ¶ The SECOND Act of the Blood in the race of Life is the Excitation of the Motion or Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries which seems to be done in this manner The Blood descended partly out of the Trunc of the Vena Cava partly from the Arteria Venosa into the Ears or Portals of the Heart and there beginning its expansive motion fills them even to distention and by that distention irritates or incites their Fibres which are numerose and strong to contract themselves by the motion of Restitution By this constriction of the Fibres on all sides the cavities of the Ears of the Heart are necessarily closed or streightned and by consequence the Blood newly admitted into them is sequeez'd out into the two Ventricles of the Heart forcing the Valves called Tricuspides or Trisulcae which are seated at the Gates or Mouths of the Ventricles and open from without inward to open themselves and give way The Blood thus propuls'd into the Ventricles of the Heart and somewhat increasing or intending its expansive Motion fills them even to distention and to the shutting of the Valves which it so lately open'd so that at that time no more Blood can be admitted nor what is admitted recoyl or return by the Wicket through which it enter'd The Ventricles of the Heart being thus filled and distended and by virtue of their Fibres spontaneously contracting themselves into a much narrower compass strongly compress the Blood contained in them and force it to thrust back three other Valves call'd Sigmoides which open outwards and to rush forth partly into the Venae Arteriosa leading it into the Lungs from the right Ventricle partly into the Aorta or great artery from the left By this constriction of the two Ventricles of the Heart which is their proper and natural Motion the Circulation as they call it of the Blood is chiefly effected that Blood which is out of the right Ventricle express't through the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs being impell'd forward till it arrive in the Arteria Venosa that brings it into the left Ventricle and that which is expell'd from the left Ventricle into the great Artery being by the Branches thereof distributed into all the parts of the Body The Blood being in this manner squirted out and the irritation ceasing the Ventricles instantly restore themselves to their middle position and make way for the reception of more Blood from the Ears of the Heart as before and then being by the Influx and expansive Motion thereof again distended and irritated repeat their Constriction and thereby eject it and this reciprocation or alternate dilatation and constriction or Diastole and Systole of the two Ventricles of the Heart together with the Arteries continued to them is what we call their Pulsation and the grand cause of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood as the alternate expansion and repression of the Spirits during that pulsation is that motion which Dr. Glisson first named the Mication of the Blood comprehending the double motion in that single appellation The Blood then it is that alone excites the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries by distending them not by reason of any actual Ebullition or any considerable Rarifaction it undergoes in either of the Ventricles or in their avenues but as I humbly conceive merely by its quantity rushing in Not by Ebullition or Effervescence as Aristotle who gave it the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believ'd 1 Because no ebullition of any Liquor whatsoever proceeding either from external Heat or from intestine Fermentation is constantly equal or uniform whereas the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries and consequently the motion of the Blood that causeth it is in Men healthy temperate and undisturbed by Passion constantly equal or of the same tenor and rhythm 2 Because the greater the Ebullition of the Blood the greater would be the pulsation of the Heart but in burning Fevers though there be a very great effervescence of the Blood arising from an extraordinary effort of the vital Spirits contending against oppression by the putrefactive or febrile Ferment yet the Pulse most frequently is low and weak as Galen himself observed 3 Because in living dissections if either of the Ventricles of the Heart or the great Artery be pierced with a lancet pure and florid Blood indeed will spring from the Wound in every Systole but not frothy not boyling nor meteorized nay not to be by any sign of difference distinguished from Blood at the same time emitted from the Vena Cava of the same Animal An Argument certainly of itself sufficient to subvert the Ebullition of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart excogitated by Aristotle at least if he were Author of the Book de Respiratione vulgarly ascribed to him to solve the Phaenomenon of the Pulse and to this day obstinately defended by many learned men seduced by the Authority of his great name 4 If the Blood suffer'd any such Ebullition an immersion or
to arrive at the Period of his own within few Hours after ¶ PRAELECTIO V. Of Fevers IT is the custom of Mathematicians as ye most Candid Auditors well know when from a Series of Propositions premised and verified they have inferred the conclusion they sought to add as overplus certain useful Theorems or consectaneous Speculations by the Graecs called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Consectaria sive Coroltaria by the Latins the knowledg of which is many times of equal moment with that of the Verity on which they depend Give me leave then I beseech you so far to imitate this Method of those great Masters in the art of Reasoning rightly as from my discourse on Saturday last in the morning concerning the Primordia perpetual Source and circular race of Life to deduce a few Pathological Consectaries such as may perhaps afford some glimses of Light toward the discovery and nature and causes of a certain Malady which is of all others incident to Mans frail Body the most common most grievous and most dangerous And this Leave I with the greater confidence ask because I intend not to abuse it by digressing impertinently from either my present Subject or my Duty For the Subject of my Speculation designed is the same with that of my antecedent disquisition viz. the Blood and to find out the most probable Causes and reason of curing great Diseases is the principal scope and end of all our Enquiries as well Physiological as Anatomical Of which none can be ignorant who hath perused that little but oraculous Book of Hippocrates de Prisca Medicina where he teacheth that it is the great Duty of all Physicians who desire to render themselves worthy of that honourable appellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by discours alone but also by their Works and real succoring of the Sick to be solicitous about investigating the true Nature Causes and Remedies of Maladies above all things Nor is it new to find in the Writings of Anatomists Pathological reflexions subjoyned to the description of the part which is known to be the primary Seat of the preternatural Assections incident thereunto Secure then that what I have resolved with my self at this time to speak cannot in the end be justly esteemed a Parergon or beside the principal purpose I have taken in hand and conceiving great Hope both from the frequency and from the benign Aspect of this learned Assembly that hitherto my dulness hath not been able wholly to overcome your Patience I will presume ye are not unwilling to grant my so equitable Petition In my last Exercitation I endevored to evince as ye may be pleased to remember that the Vital Heat or Motion of the Blood doth formally consist in a certain expansive luctation of the spirituose Particles thereof with the less moveable or unactive repulsed and prevailing alternately but mild amicable benign and conducing to the exaltation of all the faculties and Uses of the Blood Now I come to add that it is not only possible but that it often happens that this Vital Motion although proceeding only from the Spirits that conserve and rule the Blood is by causes beside the institute of Nature invading it perturbed interrupted perverted and sometimes also wholly extinguished the vital Oeconomy being thereby sooner or later utterly subverted Of this we have instances almost innumerable Nor is there any one kind of preternatural Causes assignable by which Nature may not be impeded in her production of this Vital Motion and more or less perturbed as we cannot but observe it within our selves to come to pass sometimes from the immoderate Heat of the Aire surrounding us as in Ephemera sometimes from Meats and Drinks potentially too Hot as in Surfets and drunkenness sometimes from vehement Passions of the Mind as in anger Fear Grief c. Sometimes from a fermentation of the Blood as in putrid Fevers sometimes from venenate effluvia of Bodies as in pestilential and contagious Fevers sometimes from a simple solution of continuity of the Parts as in Wounds so that in fine to enumerate all the various causes by the hostility of which this Life conserving work of the vital Spirits may be hindred and perverted is a thing extremely difficult if not plainly impossible But in all these so various cases this is worthy to be noted as a general verity that the vital Spirits of the Blood are always preternaturally affected and that the disorder from thence emergent ought to be imputed to a p. n. Cause Every thing then that pollutes the Blood and that putts Nature to an effort or essay to separate and eject it from thence as alien and hostile is wont more or less according to the diversity of its Nature and Malice to impugn and repress the vital Motion of the Blood But nothing hath been observed to do it either more frequently or more contumaciously than impurities arising from Crude Humours congested in the Mass of Blood which cannot be separated and extirpated without previous Concoction or Digestion For these constituting a certain peculiar Inquinament or Pollution of the Blood put on the nature and acquire to themselves the efficacy of a Ferment not indeed such as the Leven of Bread or as the Yest of Ale and Beer but such that being in our Bodies mixt with the Blood which perpetually conceives new vital Heat in itself produceth the like commotions therein that those domestic Ferments do in their respective Subjects and may therefore be not unfitly called a Ferment according to the Name given to it by all Modern Physicians For it causeth a manifest Tumult or intestine War in the Blood after this manner The inquinament of the Blood by reason of the crudity and viscidity of its parts impugnes and hinders the benign expansive Motion of the Spirits in which I have declared the Generation of the vital Heat of it to consist and the Spirits on the contrary by their natural tendency to expand themselves oppose that repressive Force and strive to defend themselves from oppression producing by their energy a continuation of the Mication of the Blood imperfect indeed and mixt with Fermentation but the best they are able till they have gained the Victory to produce So that the Fermentation of the Blood in Fevers seems to proceed not from the impurities mixt with the Blood alone but partly from them and partly from Nature i. e. from the vital Spirits conserving the vitality of the Blood For while these are impugned checkt and hindred by those the Motion resulting from that conflict is indeed a certain Mication of the Blood but tumultuous violent unequal and interrupted with little Bubles and Froth I say therefore that this civil War in the Blood as it includes a certain Vital though imperfect and irregular Mication of the Blood cannot be denied so far forth to be the work of Nature but as that Mication is supposed to be tumultuose seditiose hostil and unequal it must be in that respect
Ferment that by clogging and oppressing them hinders their spontaneous expansion and the vital Mication of the Blood thereon depending And this to me seems to be that kind of Ferment by which a Fermentation of the Blood is wont to be excited in putrid Fevers and which for that very cause ought to be nominated Fermentum Febrile It seem's also to consist of any crude humor whatsoever commixt with the Mass of Blood For this doubtless is that Crudity which Hippocrates in the newly cited Aphorism forbids to be importunely attempted by purging Medicaments until Nature hath mitigated tamed and prepared it for evacuation by gradual digestion Of which Counsel though many reasons have been by the learned Commentators on his Aphorisms chiefly by Cardan alleged yet the most credible and therefore the most considerable seems to be this That Nature hath provided no Organs for the Separation or Secretion of such Crude Humors from the Blood the Spirits of which are not yet exhausted Most true indeed and evident it is that Nature has with amirable Wisdom and Providence taken care to preserve the Blood pure and undefiled and to that end framed and most advantagiously placed three conspicuous Secretory Organs for the purifaction of it viz. the Liver Kidneys and Stomach with the conjoin'd Intestines and yet it is no less true that none of these is by her primary institution destined to separate and drein from the Mass of Blood any matter yet remaining in the state of Crudity or no yet despoiled of its Spirits but all three ordained lest the Blood after it hath spent and consumed the sweet and profitable Spirits of the Aliment and becomes thereby effete and ungenerose should be longer detained in the Body and like a dead Body bound to a living pollute and infect the Blood newly made of Chyle lately imported and replenish'd with sweet and useful Spirits Now the Humors here by us supposed to be both the antecedent and conjunct Causes of Fevers are not such as have already been spoiled of their Spirits and apt to turn vappid but such as abound with Spirits yet unvolatilized and infest to the vital Mication of the Blood For the matter not sufficiently digested altered and elaborate in the Stomach becomes at length apt to produce Fevers in this respect only that the Spirits contained in it are either not sufficiently excited or not sufficiently subdued and tamed Likewise the matter that grows crude and apt to generate Fevers either from defect of due eventilation by insensible transpiration or from want of free motion is not vitiose because the Spirits of it are already dissipated but only because they are contrary to the institute of Nature detained and because they at the same time impede and somewhat suppress the vital Mication of the Blood In fine the Seminia heterogenea unalterable reliques of some precedent form remaining in the crude Matter commixt with the Blood cause a Malignant Fever not because the Spirits of that matter have been already exhaled but because they are hostile highly infense and pernicious to the Vital Spirits and incapable of being tamed We have reason then to believe that the material causes of Fevers are not the dead useless and excrementitious parts of the Blood not the Phlegm not the Bile nor that thin Humor consisting of the Serum Salt and Tartar of the Blood which is separated in the Kidneys for all these have their peculiar Secretory Organs by which they are daily separated and carried off nor do they require any other Preparation to their Separation but what consists in their transmutation into those Humors in Specie Wich is done only by the gradual deflagration of the Blood by which the vital Heat is sustained For hence it is that in tract of Time the nobler parts of the vital Juice are dissipated and consumed and the remaining Parts which they had before kept united divided into various parties and becoming excrementitious pass some into Bile some into Phlegm and more into the matter of Urine and all these now unprofitable Humors being brought together with the Blood to the respective Organs in which they ought to be separated are there by way of percolation secerned and by their proper excretory Vessels carried off and ejected If this be admitted for true what then are we to think of the long-lived and even to this Day flourishing Doctrine of the Antients that attributes tertian Fevers to Choler Quotidian to Phlegm and Quartan to Melancholy I answer with Dr. Glisson who in all arguments endevor'd as far as his Devotion to Truth would permit him to sustain the auctority of the Antients that those Humors were or at least might be taken either for the reliques of the Stale and vapid Blood or for Humors analogous to them The Reliques of the Blood are as was just now said resolved into Bile Phlegm and Urine in the last of which are contained four other kinds of Excrements viz. the potulent matter Salt Serum and a certain earthly liquamen commonly distinguished by the name of Tartar But as for Melancholy no place is to be found for it among the reliques or stale and rejected parts of the Blood For in the whole Body we find no peculiar Organ provided by Nature for the Secretion reception and exclusion of any such Humor and therefore saving the respects and veneration due to those Fathers of our Art the interest of Truth which is still more sacred and venerable obliges us to affirm that they erred most egregiously when they assigned that Office to the Spleen The Humors Analogous to the newly enumerated Reliques of the Blood are signified by the same Names in particular the viscid insipid and white part of the Blood is called Pituita or Phlegm the hot drie acrimonious and pungent or corroding Bilis or Choler the cold drie blackish and adust Melancholy if at least any such Humor may be admitted to lye concealed in the Mass of Blood For we must confess we usurp more than a Physical License when we call this an Analogous Humor to which nothing that holds any the least resemblance or analogie can be any where in the whole Body found and yet nevertheless it may be lawful to say that the Analogie that some parts of the Blood seem to have to that fictitious Humor which the Antients imagined to be separated and received by the Spleen may serve to excuse us if out of compliance with custom and the vulgar Doctrine of the Schools we retain the denomination while we rectify the Notion of Melancholy For though the Analogatum be wanting yet if in reality a thing respondent thereto hath existence in Nature the supposed Analogy is enough to justify the appellation Considering this I assert that in the Mass of Blood are most commonly contained 1 A sharp pungent or corrosive Serum such as is wont to be cast out by exsudation in an Erysipelas and in the little Bladders or Blisters raised by Epispastic emplasters which
fermentation upon the Blood As for the OTHER viz. Where the same crude Matter is wont to be congested and to lye in ambush till that time if the whole matter of the precedent Paroxysm be spent and consumed in the Paroxysm as hath been supposed then it necessarily follows that the matter of the subsequent Paroxysm must either be generated anew in the time intervenient betwixt the two Fits or lie conceal'd somewhere in the Body either in the Vessels carrying the Blood or out of them from whence as from its Fomes it may after certain intervals of Time sally forth to infect the Blood and invade the vital Spirits For both these cannot be true and therefore it remains to be inquired which of the two is most likely to be so My Opinion is that the matter of every subsequent Paroxysm is not generated anew and my Reasons are these 1 So soon as any Paroxysm is ended the very essence of the Fever Ceases for that time and the Blood quickly returns to an Apyrexia Now if the Cause be extirpated together with the Disease nothing will be left remaining in the Body to continue it and by consequence every new Paroxysm will be a new Fever which no experienced Physician who hath observed the Disease to be of the same genius or nature from the first Fit to the last will easily be brought to grant 2 The same may be confirmed by this that intermittent Fevers even in poor Country People frequently run through alll their times regularly by degrees ascending to their State and thenceforth gradually tending to their Declination when no Physician is called to Succour Nature So that merely from diligent Observation of the motion of the Fever a certain prognostication of the State and final cessation of it may be collected which would be impossible if the matter of the Disease were every Day generated de novo for who could foresee when that new Generation would Cease 3 The cause of the Fever coming ab extra is accidental and depends on a less or greater Error committed in Diet and is constituted extra Febris essentiam nor can any indication be from thence desumed And our Dr. Glisson affirms that he knew a Man who being of a strong Constitution and afflicted with a Tertian Intermittent obstinately abstained from all Meat and Drink from one Fit to another and yet could not thereby elude the return of his Fever It may be therefore with good reason inferred that putrid Fevers have an internal Focus some where in the Body whence the material Cause of them breaking forth and gathering fresh Forces invades and irritates the Vital Spirits again and again even till the Fomes be utterly exhausted and consumed There are I confess many great Wits who in every intermittent Fever seek for a peculiar Fomes or Seat of the Cause I confess also that sometimes such a particular and partial Fomes may be found as for Instance in the Stomach or in the Pancreas or in the Mesentry and other Parts of the Abdomen and an inflamation of the Lungs is in some sort the Fomes of a Peripneumonia an inflamation of the Pleura the Fomes of a Pleurisy and sic de multis aliis partibus So that itcannot be denyed but both intermittent and continual Fevers may arise from particular Seats and that an Aposteme chiefly an Empyema may minister Fewel to a Fever yea more that an inflamation repercu'st from the outward parts and a Gangrene in any the remotest Member of the Body may produce a continual Fever by sending forth corrupt matter to pollute and infect the Blood All this I say must be confessed And yet nevertheless it must be acknowledged that besides these particular Fomites of Fevers there is a certain General one common to all putrid Fevers and this general Fomes I hold to be the very Parenchyma of the Parts nourished out of impure Juices For this FOMES is of all others hitherto supposed most consistent with the Circuition of the Blood by which it is commodiously carried to all Parts and diffused universally whereas other impurities can scarcely be so accumulated in the Solid Parts but they must when extravasated obstruct the free course of the Blood If they be supposed to stick and be congested in the capillary Vessels or in the inconspicuous Pores of the Parts they must be a manifest and intollerable Obstacle to the pertransition of the Blood If out of the Vessels they stagnate in the habit of the Parts they must induce not a Fever but a Cachexia or an Anasarcha Compelled therefore we are to fly to the very Parenchyma of the Parts which in every putrid Fever are necessarily fused or melted by degrees and being fused as necessarily become Fewel to continue the Fever For in continual Fevers the substance of the Parts amass'd out of Crude and impure Chyle is continually melted and so maintains the fermentation without intermission until all the Fewel be consumed and then the Fever is extinguished But in intermittent the same impurities are melted by turns or Intervals and in every Paroxysm some portion of them is colliquated into a kind of Sanies or putrid Matter which being remixt with the Blood becomes in a Tertian the Fewel of a Paroxysm to recur on the third Day from its Fusion in a Quartan of a Paroxysm to invade on the fourth in a Quotidian of a Fit to return on the next Day sic de caeteris And as to the Duplication and Triplication of these intermittent Fevers 't is probable that when of a Simple Tertian is made a double one the Simple is not the direct Cause of the double but the later arises from Causes like to those from which the former took its beginning So that a double Tertian may be rightly enough accounted to be two single Tertians alternately succeding and complicated with each other And the same mutatis mutandis may be said with equal congruity also of the origin of a double and treble Quartan But there remains yet another Difficulty greater than either of the two precedent viz. concerning the Suspension of the Action of the crude Matter to the time of the Paroxysm in which it is actuated That the State of which Question may be the better understood let us for instance Sake suppose that in a double Tertian A. B. C. D. are four distinct crude Matters melted and set afloate in the Mass of Blood in four successive Paroxysms Let us suppose also that this Fever first invaded the Patient upon Munday and that in the first Fit it melted so much of the crude Parenchyma of the solid Parts as may suffice to produce a new Fit on Wednesday following Let us suppose farther that on Tuesday another Tertian began and during that first Fit in like manner melted so much of the Crude Parenchyma as may be sufficient to raise a second Fit on Thursday following These things being supposed the Question is why the crude Matter B. melted on Tuesday is
they were fomented only by Matter before contained in the Veins and Arteries and yet afterward when they began to be supplied with new Matter or Fewel from the colliquated Crudities that had been long congested in the habit of the Body they have raged in extremity and continued long before Nature however accurately assisted and succour'd by our Art could bring them to a Crisis Conclude we therefore that in putrid Fevers there is no other Fomes but the described Crudities by long intemperance and other errors in Diet congested in the babit of the solid Parts For these are in all putrid Fevers daily resolved or fused into a certain Sanies or corrupt Matter and constitute a new febrile Ferment which is the thing we have gone so far about to find But yet I must not omit to subjoin that these Liquamina of the solid Parts imperfectly nourisht are not confined within the narrow compass of one single Genus but diffused through a large Field of indefinite variety For as indulgent Nature hath granted to us various kinds of Aliments each of which is in its peculiar qualities or proprieties in some sort distinct from all the rest and as the Iuices or Tinctures extracted from them by the concoctive Faculty of the Stomach are in diversity respondent to the diversity of our Meats and Drinks So must it be granted that the Crudities after imperfect digestion admitted first into the Blood and then into the habit of the Body and there affix'd to the solid Parts and at length resolved into a certain kind of Sanies that is most apt to afford Fewel to putrid Fevers as hath been often affirm'd cannot be all of a Sort but some different from others respectively to the different matters of which they were generated And of these doubtless the variety is greater than can possibly be known by any Physician however curiose so far are we from hope to reduce them all to Computation It were hard then for me if any here present should exact from me an accompt of more of these obscure Differences than what my present institute requires me briefly to explain and all my learned Hearers will I presume be contented if I do my devoir to reduce them in general to the Analogous Humors of the Antients above described namely Choler Phlegm and Melancholy not pure or natural but Corrupt For from these Humors taken in the Sense afore explicated may be commodiously and congruously deduced both the principal differences of putrid Fevers and the most probable causes of those Differences First therefore I must put you in remembrance of what I have more than once asserted viz. That the Humors by this Hypothesis assigned to putrid Fevers for their Causes both antecedent and conjunct are such which are not exolete or stale and despoiled of their Spirits and grown vappid but sufficiently stored with Spirits noxious and infest to the vital mication of the Blood Then I with good reason suppose that when the Crudities received first into the Mass of Blood and after into the substance of the Parts come neer to the nature of the Serum of the Blood now corrupt and by that putrefaction render'd acrimonious and well nigh Corrosive which emulating the Bile contained in the Bladder of Gall makes the Choler of the Antients there is congested and prepared Matter most apt and disposed to produce Biliose Fevers as they are call'd Tertians either continual or intermittent That in case the congested Crudities neerly resemble the white and viscid Grumus of the Blood which makes the Analogous Phlegm of the Antients but corrupt then there is laid up Fewel most convenient to foment Pituitose Fevers Quotidians continual or intermittent That if it happens that the Crudities congested be of such a Nature and Condition as to be affine to the Analogous Melancholly of the Antients i. e. to the blackish Grumus of the Blood degenerate from its natural purity and corrupt then the Bodies carrying them about are obnoxious and prone to a Quartan ere long to invade them And this may suffice to explain the Sentiments suggested to me by Glisson's new Doctrine concerning the most general and obvious Differences of Crudities apt to produce Fevers so far forth as they may be taken for the Conjunct Causes of putrid Fevers ¶ I come then to the Fundament of the so often mentioned division of putrid Fevers into CONTINUAL and INTERMITTENT that we may opportunely investigate what that is on which this remarkable difference seems immediately to depend This in probability is nothing else but the very Fermentation of the Blood in which alone the formal Reason of all Fevers doth consist and which by vehemently exagitating the whole Mass of the Blood sometimes continually sometimes by Intervals and those one while certain and ordinate another while uncertain and inordinate induces that Intense and afflicting Heat in which alone the Antients have unanimously placed the essence of a Fever and renders the Pulses of the Heart and Arteries more frequent than they ought to be so that from thence alone as from a Pathognomonic Sign a Physician may certainly conclude of the presence of a Fever A continual Fever therefore is that which from the first Moment of its Invasion to the last of its duration continnes and afflicts without Intermission never coming in all that time to a perfect Apyrexia or utter Extinction This Fever if it be mild gentle unaccompanied with grievous Accidents or Symptomes and but of one days continuance is thence call'd an Ephemera or Diaria if in like manner mild but of two three or four Days duration it is denominated accordingly a Diaria of a few Days or more properly Synochus Simplex An Intermittent Fever is that in which the febrile Fermentation doth not dure from the beginning to the end continually but is intermitted and returns with diverse Paroxysms after Intervals now shorter now longer and these Paroxysms running through their peculiar times namely their beginning augment state and declination there alternately i. e. after the end of every single Paroxysm succeds an Apyrexia not perfect perhaps but quoad Sensum From this vicissitude or rather from the various Intercalation of the Paroxysms various sorts of intermittent Fevers have for distinction sake obtain'd various Names In particular when a new Fit in proportion respondent to the former returns dayly i. e. once in every twenty four Hours the Fever is named an intermitting Quotidian When a Paroxysm recurs every other Day or on every third Day t is called a Tertian and by the Vulgar a third-Days Ague When the Paroxysm recurs not till after two whole Days of intermission 't is call'd a Quartan or fourth-Days Ague and so forward for there have been observ'd also Quintans and Sextan's though very rarely Here give me leave en passant to note that the word Ague by which the common People understand an intermittent Fever is derived from the French adjective Aigù which signifies Acute or sharp perhaps
floating in the Blood and makes room for the remainder to be more freely fermented and prevents eruption of the Blood out of its Vessels into some noble part To satisfie the Second capital Intention various things are required viz. such as may facilitate the Motion of Fermentation in the Blood such as may moderate the same when it is excessive in point of velocity such as may incite nature to quicken and accelerate it when too slow such as may keep it within due Bounds lest it bring a dangerous flood upon any noble part For the motion of Fermentation is sometimes too turbulent and tumultuose and in that respect exceedingly laboriose requiring remedies to make it more sedate and easie sometimes too dull and slow and to be quickened sometimes it threatens a Flux upon some nobler parts and then ought to be restrained In particular 1. The laboriose Fermentation which the Ancients seem to have meant by the name of Orgasmus or Turgescentia indicates remedies apt to compose it and render it less prone to molest and offend the Vessels containing the Blood such as taking away some Blood by Phlebotomy which by diminishing the Mass lessens the burden of nature and makes room for the freer Fermentation of the rest such also are Acids and Refrigerating and Moistning Juleps not given actually cold but luke-warm nor in the least vinose all which allay the ebullition of the Blood and make it less prone to be frothy 2. The too swift or vehement Fermentation which makes the Fever more acute than the strength and spirits of the Patient can well bear and by consequence ought to be moderated requires remedies that may somewhat retard it and procure a truce to nature that she may have respite to recollect and rally her Forces Of which sort are Blood-letting Anodynes Hypnotics and sometimes even Narcotics either taken in the Mouth or applyed outwardly to places convenient 3. On the contrary the too slow and lingring Fermentation such as causes Lent Fevers calls upon the Physician for Spurs to incite and stimulate nature to accelerate the Conflict In this case therefore he ought to have recourse sometimes to Purging Medicaments to be by Intervals repeated sometimes to Sudorifics and those pretty hot efficacious vinose or rich in spirits for all these quicken the Fermentation and dissolve the clammyness of the Febrile Matter and in both those respects bring great relief to the Patient 4. The Turgent Fermentation which threatens a Flux upon some noble part and imminent danger thereupon directs to the speedy use of the best means for Diversion Here therefore the most urgent Symptom is without delay to be opposed by Remedies Revellent Divertent Repellent as Phlebotomy Cupping-Glasses Leeches Ligatures Vesicatories and other Topics In sine the Conservation of the vital powers is in putrid Fevers of greatest moment because the Febrile Matter tends directly to the oppression of the vital Mication of the Blood and the Fermentation it self proceeds no less from the Luctation of Nature endeavouring to continue that motion in which life consists than from the Ferment that hinders it Hence it comes that the lighter causes of Fevers are sometimes discussed by Cardiacs only by a bitter decoction of Chamomil Flowers and the tops of Wormwood by Carduus Benedictus boiled in Posset-Drink and the like Euporista or domestick Remedies For if the expansive motion of the vital spirits be so far assisted and corroborated as to enable it to overcome the clamminess of the febrile Ferment that tends to the suppression of it Nature certainly will soon obtain the Victory and easily exterminate her Enemy Here then is the opportunity of giving Cordials as they are call'd Antidotes and Specifics or Appropriate remedies vulgarly so named all which conduce to the Conservation of the vital Faculty ¶ Besides the just now described preparation of the matter in putrid Fevers offending to the opportune expurgation of it there is required also a certain preparation of the WAYS or passages through which the same is to be most commodiously carried off that so the evacuation whether by nature her self critically or by her Minister the Physician artificially instituted may be not only seasonable but easie too and beneficial For these being either by their asperity or by their narrowness or by obstruction less passable than they ought to be to attempt purgation is vain and unsafe Of which our Law-giver Hippocrates being fully conscious left us this most prudent counsel Aphor. 10. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis corpora purgare voluerit meabilia ut reddat est necesse But how is the Body to be made more permeable By opening all the passages of it and by cutting dissolving and attenuating the gross and viscid humours that stick in them which may be best effected by Remedies Lubricant Abstergent and Aperient the particular reasons of all which I shall endeavour briefly to explain 1 Lubricantia certainly render the ways more fit to give passage to humors that require purgation by smoothing their roughness and inducing instead thereof a manifest slipperiness so that the humours slide along through them without any sensible renitency or attrition which always causeth Gripes in the Stomach and Belly Now of these Medicaments that are apt to induce slipperiness some are simply Aqueous and remove asperity only by their moisture as Barley Water thin Broaths Whey c. Others are Mucilagineous smoothing the ways with a certain friendly and pleasing Lentor as the Syrups of Althaea of the Flowers of Mallows de Mucilaginibus of Jujubs c. Others Oleagineous as Oil of sweet Almonds Linseed Oil fresh Butter Lard c. Others Saline as the Salt Cream and Magistery of Tartar Others Spirituose as New-laid Eggs but little boiled the Pulp of ripe Fruits Again of these some loosen the Belly also as the Pulp of Cassia and Damasco Prunes which above all things contemperate the roughness of purging Medicines being for that reason chiefly admitted into the composition of the Diaprun Solut. 2 Abstergentia seem to have the like good effect in facilitating the operation of purging Medicaments as Soap hath in cleansing of Linnen For whatsoever sticks to the inside of the Stomach and Guts they wipe away and are found in that respect perhaps to conduce much to the correction of strong and churlish Cathartics by preventing their rough and grating Particles from pertinaciously adhering to the Coats of the Ventricle and Intestines and so inducing Gripes and Contorsions Hence 't is familiar to Physicians to tame fierce Purgers with Salts viz. Sal Gemme Salt of Tartar of Nitre Spirit of Vitriol and of Nitre dulcified Cremor Tartari and the like Not that they confer to the bridling of the fierceness of stronger Cathartics in this name only but because they are usually prescribed chiefly to this end 3 Nor are Aperient i. e. cutting and attenuating Medicaments of less utility in this business where the ways through which peccant humours are
consideration are these I shewed in the first Stadium 1. That the vital motion of the Blood is sometimes disordered impeded and impugned by causes praeternatural and chiefly by crude humors constituting a peculiar Fermentative Inquinament of the Blood and that from thence arises a duel or conflict between the vital spirits on one side and that Inquinament on the other which conflict in putrid Fevers is call'd by the Ancients Putrefaction and Fermentation by the Moderns 2. That the same Ferment in Fevers tends naturally to the oppression of the vital Mication of the Blood in which life it self immediately consists 3. That the crudity of humors generating that Ferment and consequently Fevers doth consist chiefly in this that the spirits of our food receiv'd into the Stomach either have not been by the concoctive faculty thereof sufficiently exalted which always happens in Fevers simply putrid or though excited have not been subdued and tamed so as to become useful and fit to promote the vital Mication of the Blood which always happens in Malignant Fevers 4. That the principal reason why in putrid Fevers it is unsafe to purge before nature hath concocted the crude matter mixed with the Blood seems to be this that in the whole Body are no Secretory Organs destined peculiarly to the separation of humors yet crude from the Mass of Blood 5. That the Analogous Humors of the Ancients are coincident with the Elements by the Moderns supposed to constitute the Blood and that it is plainly necessary that in every Fever of whatever sort some one or more of those Analogous Humors be in fault 6. That the formal reason of a Malignant Ferment is radicated in some seminal nature pernicious to the principles of Life in Man In the Second 1. That the oppressive Energy of the Febrile Ferment described comes immediately from the pendulous Lentor or clamminess of it by which it is apt to render the Blood soul and roapy and to inviscate the vital spirits that should by their expansive motion conserve its purity 2. That these vital spirits are incited to raise a Fermentation not by the exhalations of the Blood retained but only by the said clamminess of the crude matter inducing the Fever In the Third 1. That the Symptoms contingent in the beginning of a Febrile Paroxysm may be most commodiously referred to the aforesaid Conflict or Colluctation betwixt the expansive endeavour of the vital spirits and the opposite clamminess of the Febrile Ferment And 2. that the Symptoms succeeding in the Augment State and Declination may be with equal congruity solved by the same Hypothesis In the Fourth 1. That the cardinal Differences of Fevers are most probably derived from the Different Ferments that induce them immediately 2. That the Origin of all Fevers simply putrid i. e. free from all Malignity may be most congruously deduced mediately from defect either of Chylification or Transpiration and free motion of the Blood whether this happen with or without extravasation thereof 3. That the Blood when inquinated by crude Chyle doth not presently conceive a Fermentation but after some time and by degrees 4. That in intermittent Fevers the matter of each single Fit is not generated anew but comes from a general Fomes existent in the very substance of the solid parts imperfectly nourish'd with crude juices 5. That this very substance of the solid parts is melted into a kind of Sanies or putrid matter and remixt with the Blood in all putrid Fevers 6. That the Analogous Humors of the Ancients result from various Crudities mixed with the Blood and that from thence arise various sorts of Fevers namely biliose pituitose and melancholic 7. That the division of Fevers into continual and intermittent doth immediatly depend upon the Fermentation sometimes continual sometimes ceasing and recurring diversly by intervals 8. That an intermittent Fever simple is not the direct cause of an intermittent double or triple In the Fifth and Last 1. That to the Maturation of the crude matter are required three things viz. Dissipation and Consumption of the unexcited spirits therein remaining Moderation of the Fermentation already begun and Conservation of the Vital Faculties 2. That in order to safe and opportune Evacuation of the same peccant matter is required also due preparation of the Ways or Passages by which it is to be educed and that by Remedies Lubricant Abstergent Aperient 3. That sometimes even in the beginning of putrid Fevers Purgation is requisite specially when vitious humors molest in the first Region of the Body or when the Febrile Matter is turgent or when part of it is transmitted together with the stale Recrements of the Blood to any one or more of the three Secretory Organs or when Crudities are highly redundant in the Mass of Blood or finally when the Fermentation it self is too sluggish and lingring but in no other case whatsoever And this most candid Auditors is the Sum of what hath been in this Session said concerning Fevers Nor have I any thing more to add but only this that if I have by offering you this Abridgement usurped the Office of your Anagnostes it was not from a vain conceit that the positions therein contained are worthy your belief but only from hopes that ye might be thereby more easily inclined to let me understand from your judgment of them how far they may be worthy mine For in this Argument as in all others whether Physical or Pathological I pretend not to know truth but to seek it nor to seek it contumaciously and arrogantly but modestly and doubtingly as becomes a Man a Philosopher and a Fellow of this Royal Colledge of Physicians into which I entered with no other ambition but that of being more and more instructed in Natural Science and all other Virtues ¶ PRAELECTIO VI. OF MOTION VOLUNTARY IN the beginning of time when it pleas'd the Divine Majesty to call this visible University of things the World out of nothing and to create Subjects whereon to exercise his infinite goodness having indowed all living Creatures with Appetites requisite to the conservation of their peculiar Beings and accommodated them with Objects proportionate to those Appetites He saw it convenient to consummate that Emanation of his Bounty by furnishing them also with Faculties by which they might be impowerd not only to discern what Objects are good or convenient what evil or inconvenient to their particular Natures but also to pursue or avoide them accordingly Now among these so necessary Faculties that by which all Animals are inabled to prosecute what is presented to them under the appearance of Good and to eschew what they apprehend to be Evil is what Physiologists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faculty LOCOMOTIVE and rightly enough define to be the Power by which a living Creature is inabled to move or transferr from place to place either is whole Body or any Part thereof at pleasure To the putting this noble Power into Act are required as