blood Sixthly But to approach yet nearer to our mark I affirm that though there be no edibles received yet it follows not that there 's no sort of new chyle to renew the bloods fermentation for First In these cold bodies there must of necessity be a far greater quantity consideratis considerandis of pituitous humours than ordinary for if transpiration be denyed to our bodies but a very small time what a redundance of flegm doth presently oppress us which flegm being led into the mouth by a great variety of salivating ducts and thence conveyed into the Ventricle may take off the acidity the edge of the appetite by which they tolerate their abstinence with the greater patience and also suffer a sorry concoction which is much advanc'd by the attendance of all the concoctive forces to subact this sluggish matter which is other bodies are variously diverted by the great variety of food frequently admitted Secondly 'T is probable that some of these Fasters were more than ordinarily addicted to flegm before their abstinence which is usual with those whose concoctions are low and with these 't is more than an even lay they were not very high which must needs be augmented by the defect of urine and stool which if granted adds somewhat to our purpose Thirdly The air receiv'd continually into the Stomach by the Mouth and Nose and also into the blood more directly though sparingly by the pores and virtually if not formally by the Lungs may contribute much to this humour but more to the fermentation of the blood that the air is impregnated with Salts the Learned Dr. Ente affirms and ascribes vegetation as also the production of various animals thereunto as the worthy Willis doth frost and ice and 't is asserted by Chymists that Caput Mortuum's lixivated if expos'd to the open air for a good space they shall re-attain their saline principle and that salts cause fermentation in the blood hath been already noted Yet one step further I may advance upon good ground and that is these salts may much renew the ferment of the stomach also in lieu of other condiments Moreover the Liver being an ample bowell instructed with a great variety of vessels enrich'd with constant traffique from most of the Corporations in the Microcosm so curious in its elections and collections of the sulphuro-saline commodities so diligent in reconding them in a peculiar Cell and thence transmitting them to the intestines upon all occasions these severals I say considered it may be rationally inferr'd that 't is not only helpful to the guts in their excretions but also in their fermentations whereby the chyle is rendred not only more fermentiscible in the blood but also more fermentesceâ—t thereunto Yet Sir lest this lean meat should not satisfie your more delicate pallat I must advertise you that the blood in these persons must needs be sparing and therefore the lesser chyle may ferment it especially considering that their fermentations are but small as appears by the smalness of their heat and therefore pray do your self the right not to expect an account of robust ones Seventhly The heart it self contributes much to this fermentation 'T is acknowledged by all that the circulation of the blood being a rapid motion through the indefatigable pulsation of the heart adds much to the fermentation we see that motion given to Wine Ale Cyder or Cream of Milk though sufficiently fermented will yet without a new ferment give a new fermentation But Sir lest you should mistake me when I stumbled at an innate ferment in the heart and yet stood upon 't that fermentation may be ascribed thereto let me unbosome my self that you may see what the heart contributes thereunto First The heart is as it were a cistern into which the bloody veins milky veins and water veins or lymphaeducts by mutual consent deposite their multiform juices Secondly It hath the force of a Mill by its quaquaverse fibres continually busied in their constrictions and dilatations to grind and make small the more crassy particles of the juices Thirdly Of a Mortar wherein the more exact mixture of these different juices is highly promoted Fourthly Of a â—inne expelling the blood sufficiently subacted and then to the further execution of its Offices but too too troublesome and by the way the burden of the blood may be one cause of its pulsation for 't is said if a live heart be taken out of the body the prick of a Pin will renew its pulsation Fifthly Of a Pump to give motion and according to the sanguiterious ducts to the several parts distribution of this juice adapted to nutrition Sixthly Of a Loom wherein the blood is fermented Seventhly Of a kind of Philosophical Furnace wherein a spirital Biolychnium is kindled I intend only a heat perchance caused only by the motion and fermentation aforesaid Eighthly Of a Pelican to rarifie and exalt the vital spirits Ninthly of an Alimbeck not vulgar whereby the spirits receive a kinde of separation though yet they run with the blood which being condensed in the Refrigeratory of the habit of the body as the learned Walaeus expresseth it are the more easily subject to the brains Philtration and the nerves preservation Tenthly of a potential Philtre whereby there 's made such a fegregation of homogeneous particles into their proper classes as renders the blood much more obedient to the colatures and emunctories of the body as runnet in the milk potentially separates the whey and prepares it for an actual separation by the sieve and in chymical preparations the acid liquor or diluteing large quantity of weakning water provoke a kinde of fermentation whereby the suspended atomes in the strong Menstruums are precipitated and so prepaâ—red for a more facile separation so that indeed all the Engines in Natures shop depend mainly upon the right â—oâ—e texture and operation of the heart From which it seems apparent to me which yet I submit to clearer minds that the heart is further serviceable to fermentation and other offices of Nature than meerly Pump-like to conciliate motion which may be further confirmed by the site of the heart in the centre of the body as also by it's firmest muniments by which 't is garrison'd on its back by the spine on its face by the sternum on its sides by the ribs under its feet by the diaphragme and over its head by the canopy of the pyramidall thorax and lastly by its buâ—â—-coat the Pericardium and which is not nothing the curious fabrick with various camerations the retâ—form fibres and various passages the uniform procedure of Nature in the formation of the hearts of Animals whilest often it sports it self in the building of other parts and its primogeniture as appears by the 〈◊〉 vesi-cula palpitans first formed in Egges according to the renowned Harvey the rudiment of the heart and the bloods constant flux and reflux to and from the heart even then when the liver and lungs though famous
bowels are pass'd by unsaluted in the circulation of Embryo's as also Natures great care to supply the defective passages of those viscera by foramen ovale in the septum of the heart lest the intercourse of the blood with the heart should be impeded which hole is yet afterwards precluded when the Infant is midwiv'd into a new World much of this curiosity of Nature about the heart seems utterly unnecessary if it serv'd only for motion but we are sure that God and Nature do nothing frustraneously Neither am I yet satisfied that the whole of the bloods motion is to be ascribed to the hearts pulsation for Conringius affirms that in live dissections the blood strongly circulates a long time after the left ventricle hath lost its pulse yea though the heart be taken out yet presently is not the motion of the blood destroy'd which seems to be confirm'd by the experiment upon Frogs which leap so nimbly and swim so freely after their hearts are exempted that they cannot be known from unwounded Frogs that exercise in their company the story whereof that most dexterous Anatomist D. Needham hath published moreover if a Ligature be apply'd to a Vein or Artery whereby the pulse is intercepted with the undulation of the blood also yet the blood beyond the bond runs its course towards the heart and which is so much the more strange because 't is the motion of a heavy body contrary to its natural tendency upward Moreover if the pulse of the heart were the only cause of the motion of the blood why then is not the menstrual blood thrust into other parts as well as into the uterine sith the other parts equally with these receive the constant force of the hearts even pulsations and impartial distributions likewise we see that the animal spirits in the nerves with their juice the Lympha in its ducts the Chyle in its thoracicks the Seed in its seminals the Urine in the ureters and the Flegme in its pituitary Vessels are all in motion without the force of any such Engine to give the origen thereto Whereupon I am apt to conjecture that Nature hath furnished several parts with an attractive power the blood with fermentation and several Vessels with a kinde of Vermicular motion of their own no doubt excited by the nerves the Porta with Asinus in the Liver which serves for a Pump and the Cava or one part it with a pulsifick energy by which blood is thrust into the right ventricle as the learned Walaeus asserts by which the motion of humours is promoted and consequently that the rareness of the structure unweariedness of the puâ—sations of the heart c. are designed to some higher ends than meerly and as such to give motion though that it doth with an Emphasis Fourthly How can Spirits both vital and animal be prepared and separated without food and frequent fermentations â— I. Whether there be a flux of animal spirits through the genus nervosum seems yet not fully resolv'd and if no flux then the waste is small and a small reparation may supply a small waste but I confess I understand not how Narcotick fumes nor redundant humours restagnating in the brain can cause an Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie c. in the whole body if there be no flux of spirits from the brain nor how the hurt from a Coach in the seventh Vertebre of the back mention'd by great Galen could cause a Palsey in three singers nor why we anoint the Vertebres of the back for Palseys in the extreme parts if there be no flux of spirits 2. Supposing a flux of animal spirits through the nervous systeme yet according to the Doctrine of famous Dr. Wharton much of the nervous juice separated by the glandules is returned by the veins and Lymphaticks and so not lost though enseâ—bled by its peregrination and more yet deposited according to Dr. Willis the great Reformer of Physick by the extremity of the nerves in the habit of the body is again retriv'd by the Lymphaticks which serving in our Abstinents little or nothing to assimulation only somewhat to the cherishing of the implanted spirits is the more plentifully return'd and so the loss thus far forth less considerable than ordinary 3. 'T is apparent that there 's a decay of these spirits as well as an obstruction in most of these Abstinents as witnesseth their great inability to motion 4. The fermentations mentioned before though small may contribute something to the encrease of these spirits for Chymists know that there are few juices so 〈◊〉 so sterile but by the help of fermentation may yield a not contemptible spirit 5. Those spirits that pass from the brain to the extremity of the body and thence returned as before by the Lymphaticks and that more forâ—eably and plentifully being reflected by the impervious cold and constipated skin seem rather tyred than exhausted which may by the small ferments aforementioned the contritions mixtions and exaltations of the heart and the perpetual motions of the scarlet liquor be rarifi'd and volatiliz'd to do at a dead lift further good service 6. 'T is notorious that sents do hugely affect the brain as to instance in Apoplexies hysterical passions and in some sort of Syncopes and Cephalalgies common practice doth demonstrate so then if feeding animals perceive such strange alterations by odoriferous exhalations as of Assa faetida Galbanum Verrucae Equinae c. which according to the prodigious invention of the most Philosophical Dr. Willis are able to restrain the most violent explosions like those of Gunpowder than which none more violent of the Nitro-sulphurous atomes with which in spasmodick distempers the nervous juice is impregnated and by which it 's reduc'd to the greatest disorders why may not these Abstinents be reliev'd by such enriched fumes also Fifthly without sleep no long life and without food no sleep for say the Ancients sleep is the binding up of the first Sensorium or common sence caused by the food digesting in the stomach elevating its fumes to the brain which there condensing stop the passages of the animal spirits whereby they are detained from their just visitations whence the senses are disenabled for the execution of their offices R. 1. 'T is not certain that sleep is absolutely necessary to life for we read of many that liv'd waking 'T is said that Ramus studied Philosophy so uncessantly that he became blinde or deaf or both through defect of sleep Bhasis watched so long at his study of Physick till at last he could not sleep at all likewise a Doctor of the Law studyed so indefatigably that he never laid his eye-lids together for four months yet all recovered by the use of Hypnoticks The most inquisitive Galenist Fernelius reports a certain man to have surviv'd 14 moneths waking The grave Heurnius relateth a story from he saith a truly learned man Ierom Montuus of a Noble Matron that lived 35 years without sleep nor
Sulphur also Likewise it must be granted that there is an actual heat abiding in us whilest we live and somewhile after death this is obvious to the sence of feeling it self this is the heat as I conceive joyn'd with the primogenite humour to which Aristotle ascribes life it self But yet Sir I am somewhat doubtfull whether this heat be properly cal'd calor vivens though the great Riverius term it so or an immediate cause of life though an Aristotle himself pronounce it so For certainly Holy Writ ascribes life to the blood the blood is the life thereof and death to a dissolution of the compositum the body returns to the dust and the spirit to God that gave it But of this dissolution I suppose the soul is not ordinarily the cause but the body and what part of the body may more justly be challenged to be the Parent if I may so phrase it of death than the blood which is in a famous sense the parent of life So then most killing distempers must arise from the excessive multiplication consumption or depravation of the blood and the pernicious effects thereof yet mistake me not this hinders not other parts of the body bowels and humours to be often peccant as undoubtedly they are by infecting the blood and receiving infections morbifick from it Moreover this heat continues some hours without life even after the dissolution and as it is without life so is life often found without it as not only in some Vegetables as Lettuce Hemlock Cucumbers c. but in Animals as Frogs and Fish which are said to be actually cold and the Salamander reputed cold in a high degree This heat may possibly be but the effect of matter and motion i. e. of the blood or before it of the seed impregnated with active principles which through their activity and heterogeneity suffer mutual collisions or fermentations whence ebullition and thence this heat which is by circulation not only promoted but also convey'd to all parts of the body and by the same causes preserved which possibly may prove the summe of Riverius's implanted and influent heat These things presupposed 't will not be impossible to guess that this heat is no such Coelestial fire as the most famous Fernelius would have it but only the igneous result of the combinations and commotions of the most active elementary Principles and if there be any other heat it may prove to be according to the conjecture of great Riverius the product of the immateriate soul but of that I understand little only this is unquestionable that the caelestial Soul chooseth for its more immediate organs the most subtiliated spirituous and active parts of matter such as the vital and animal spirits and the heat before mentioned which seems to be of the same Genius and all but the mechanick productions of various fermentations percolations and distillations in the humane Engine Wherefore I shall crave leave to dismiss this fire till we come to discourse of Fermentations And so I pass on the next flame which is the Biolychnium or the actual flame of the blood kindled in the heart asserted both by Antients and Moderns of astonishing titles and tremendous veneration which devouring flame if once kindled will quickly depredate all the oleaginous aliment if not renewed by frequent and plentifull assumptions but therefore 't is greatly suspected to have no existence in our bodyes because in these Jejunants it must needs extinguish for want of Sulphureous supplyes and produce death to those that have liv'd long enough to help to entombe it 'T is strange to me that provident Nature should require such vast supplyes both of meat and drink out of which to extract a small quantity nutritious juice which with divers Ferments Colatures Emunctories and rapid motions it endeavours to exalt and defecate and yet after all should expose what she hath attain'd of purity and activity and consequently of noblest use by her unparallel'd artifices cost and toil to the improvident disposal of wastfull flames for indeed flames are great wasters as appears in the preparation of the Balsom of Sugar c. no less wonderfull it is that a flame should continually burn in the heart and yet the fleshy walls thereof not boiled roasted nor so much as a fuliginous or cineritious colour imparted But lest Sir you should be confident that this perennial slame scorns an extinction by these few drops I therefore commend to your observation those numerous and plentifull buckets that are poured thereupon by the dexterous hand of the very learned and candid Dr. Needham But yet lest you should be so far praepossessed by the determinations of venerable antiquity as to reject this new Doctrine and avowedly maintain this unseen fire I shall therefore adde 1. That this Flame can be but small through the defect of bodily exercise and freer ventilations these fasters being mostly close Prisoners as also of strong fermentations therefore the less the Lamp the less Oyl will sustain it 2. Through the defect of heat the pores are bolted and transpiration restrained whence a scarce credible quantity of moisture is retained which returning both by Veins and Lymphaticks gives no contemptible quantity of food to this fire 3. Through the restraint of Transpiration the igneous particles are secur'd from their excursions to the great increase of intestine heat for in feeders the loss of transpiration often kindles in the blood a feaverish fire 4. The Air as impregnated sometimes especially entring by the mouth the nose and pores in parts passing the various concoctions may be converted into a humour not altogether inept to preserve the lingring life of this dying flame 5. In pituitous bodies the abundance of flegme through the various concoctions which it undergoes in the body may become usefull in the room of more proper aliment to this analogous Lamp in its Table-supplyes which flegme though some reject as excrementitious yet I suppose they do it only when consideration is from home of its usefulness in the mastication of our food wherein as some say lyes the first concoction at least therein lyes the main preparation for the grand concoction in the ventricle the constant mixture of our food with our spittle in the Jaw-mill may enforce some considering men to think that 't is nearer of kin to our natural moisture than hath been formerly acknowledged 6. The colliquation of the parts of these emaciated bodies may yield Oyl to these Lamps as 't is usually affirmed in Hectick feavers besides if fire be nothing but an innumerable host of sulphurous atomes breaking the Prisons of their former compositions with other heterogeneities then certainly all fire is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for nothing of that Sulphur remains it leaves only the heterogenious Principles with which it was combin'd 7. 'T is probable that the moisture of these jejune bodies is much not only condens'd by their cold but also loaded with terrestreities through the
though much too yet her lower parts are very languid and inept for motion and the skin thereof deâ—iled with a dry pruriginous scurf for which of late they have washed them with milk she sleeps so sparingly that once she continued five weeks waking I hear nothing of any extraordinary previous sanctity though since her affliction being confin'd to her bed which lyeth in a lower room by the fire-side she hath learn'd to read and being visited so plentifully by the curious from many parts as also by the Religious of all perswasions she hath attain'd some knowledge in sacred Mysteries but nothing of Enthusiasm that she pretends unto And lest she should prove a Cheat she hath been diligently watch'd by Physitians Surgeons and other persons for at least a fortnight together by the appointment of the Noble Earl of Devon as is already publish'd by Mr. Robins B. of D. that is Ballad-maker of Darby whose Ballad they say doth much excell his Book Likewise several other persons at other times have been pleas'd to watch for their own satisfaction who detecting no fraud have given the account above mention'd which was for the main confirm'd to me by a Sophy the renown of whose wisdom hath often made England to ring who assured me that he had an exact account of her This story being born thus out of due time it may seem necessary to make some reflections therefrom on the precedent discourse And 1. her Age confirms the probability of a ferment in the seminals 2. An antipathy to meat was not the promoter of the Tragedy but an inability to swallow 3. Her assumptions of Liquors though seldom and slender contribute not only to a petite concoction in the Ventricle but also to a fermentation in the Heart 4. Her restrained Evacuations by Urine and Stool adde much to her moisture as well as to our trouble to render the assumption and non-evacuation consistent to the performance whereof let it be remembred that in this respect she was formerly compar'd to Embrio's who use no excretion by the fundament but retain in their Intestines the more crass feculencies till the time of their exclusion the uterine embraces which is the rather to be admitted because she as well as they receives nothing but liquids only in this she differs they evacuate by the Urachus into the Allantoides their urinal excrement but she hath no excretion of Urine at all the defect whereof may yet be supply'd by these three advantages which she hath above them as is her expiration extraordinary transpiration in the palms of her hands and the far smaller quantity of Liquors that she receives 5. Her non-excretion and the driness of her mouth argue the remanding of the humours to the further services of Nature 6. The Atrophy of the parts and inability to motion seem to argue a defect of nervous juice and animal spirits which weakens the necessity of our giving a perfect account how Nature may be compleatly sustain'd in the absence of food 7. Her impetiginous Eruptions argue the saltness of her blood which addes the greater probability to the several saline Ferments mentioned before 8. Her sparing sleep shews not only the no-necessity of the ordinary measures of healthfull Dormitators but also that sleep may be conciliated otherwise than by the powerfull mediation of fuming food 9. There 's no cause from any antecedent sanctity to ascribe this mirandous production to miraculous causes 10. Her abode in a lower Room doth accommodate her with a moister Air which is more generative of humours 11. Her propinquity to the Fire conduceth to the extraneous reception of igneous Atoms 12. Her non-pretensions to Revelations and the constant visits she receives from persons of all forms may serve to occlude not only the mouths that are so unevangelical as to cry her up for a Miracle but those also that are so unphilosophical as to cry her down for the cheat of a Faction Now Sir should I take my hand from the Table did I not suspect that some one may possibly reply upon me and say If I take it to be possible to live without food 't is a wonder I fall not my self to this piece of frugality I therefore adde though with this jejune Table one may possibly live yet it follows not that I can for according to the old Saw that which is one mans meat is another mans poyson And even in Physick 't is affirm'd by that noble Philosopher Esq Boyle a worthy Fellow of the Royall Society of whose admirable designs I would you should know that I am a great admirer that some medicines as particularly Salt of Amber is effectual for Epileptical Children not so for adult Epilepticks and the deserving Dr. Castle affirms that Mercur. dulc is more safe for children than grown persons especially if irrigated with acidities But Sir I finde my self launching into a wide Sea I shall therefore tack about to do my Devoire and crave your acceptance of this slender Offering and your quietus est for the present giving you assurance that in so doing you may hereafter command SIR King-Norton Feb. 25. 1668. Your Observant Servant Jo. Reynolds a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 7. 22. b Exod. 34. 28. c 1 King 19. 8. d Matth. 4. 2. e August in Epist. 86. ad 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 l. 14. c. 45. g 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 c. 1. h 〈…〉 p. 〈◊〉 hist. p. 914. i Sennert pract l. 3. par 1. Sâ—cl 2. c. 2. de loâ—â abstin p. 383. k 〈…〉 ubi supra Plutarch in Sympâ— l. de 〈◊〉 in orb 〈◊〉 l 〈…〉 m 1 Cor. 14. 22. n 2 Cor. 12. 3. o Si hujusmodi limitatiosis causa inquiratuâ— diâ—imus quod naturae paâ—ers posâ—it iâ— primoge to cujusque râ—i sâ—miâ—e ta lem spiâ—itus salis sâ—lpâ—â—ris copiam quae proâ—â—â— eadis â—â—times corporum stamâ—â—ibus seâ—â—â—camenti sâ—ssiâ—â—ret Willes de ferment p. 48. 49 p Sanctor de staticá mediciâ—a q River instit med l. 1. Sect. 4. c. 3. de calido innato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de respir. r Willis de morbis coavuls p. 175. Netdham de formâ—o fâ—ctu p. 138. Ioweri diatribae p. 115. Ferael de abdit l. 2. c. 7. s Riverius ubi supra t Needham de format foetu p. 129 c. u Willis de Fermeat p. 66. x Willis de â—â—br p. 103. Willis de Ferâ— p. 8 66. French's Art of Distillation p. 148. Ioh. Baptist. Porta Card. de subtilitate Ludovic Vives iâ— l. 21. c. 6. de Civitat Dei Augustin Guido Pancirollus Seâ—â—ert pract l. 3. paâ—l 1. Sect. 2. de loâ—ga abstiâ—â—tià 〈◊〉 Art of 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—eâ—h de form 〈◊〉 p. 132. 〈◊〉 de sâ—b p. 113. Castâ—â—'s Chym. Gal. p. 81 82. Wiâ—lis de 〈◊〉 p. 24 25. â—e 〈◊〉 101 102 113. Lowâ—â— Diatr p. 121 124. Castle 's Chym. Gal. p. 81 82. 〈…〉 〈◊〉 foet 132. Steâ—o de Muse. Gland De ferm 〈…〉 De 〈◊〉 p. 〈…〉 〈…〉 c. 20. p. 139. Apolog. 〈…〉 p. 93. 〈…〉 Walaeus iâ— Meth. 〈◊〉 De format foetu De. 〈◊〉 Aristot. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galen de sympt caus c. 8. de 〈…〉 c. 4. 〈…〉 de med 〈◊〉 hist. p. 23 24 25. l. 5. Patholog l. de 〈◊〉 cap. c. 16. l. de Proâ—identia Scept Chym. p. 251. Chym. Gal. p. 26.