which are produced of putrid matter alone without seed so the flye Cantharis hath neither masculine nor feminine nor is it a Pâ—…enix in nature so an Eel is of neither sex and many other C It is disputed by some whether humours or spirits may be rightly reckoned amongst animal parts because they obtain no figure nor certain mode of increment like solid and dimense parts but know that we take the word part largely in this place for all that which is necessary to the constitution of an animate body for whatsoever may not be taken from the whole without a dissolution of that whole that may properly be called part of that whole therefore humors and spirits because if they be taken away the animal whole cannot consist therefore they are adjudged to pass under the name of parts But here it will be demanded whence doth the dissimilitude of the four humours depend from the efficient or from the matter Galen and Avicen do assert that blood doth arise from a moderate and temperate choler from an intense and flegme from a remiss heat But Fernelius more rightly refers the cause of so great variety to the aliment that is â—…o the material cause because it â—…s not consentaneous the same â—…eat in the same time and part â—…o produce contrary effects â—…herefore the cause of this dissiâ—…ilitude is referred to the matâ—…er For whereas aliment which â—…s the matter taken into our boâ—…ies doth consist of divers parts â—…t is altogether consentaneous to â—…uth that those humours which â—…o arise from it cannot be altoâ—…ther of one and the same genus â—…ut divers for what part of the â—…yle is more temperate is converted by the liver into blood and what more hotter is changed into yellow choler and what is crude into flegme and what is terrene into melancholy And these are familiar to the body four manner of ways as Hippocrates saith by which we are constituted and nourished for because the bodies of animals do disperse those things which are excrementitious by certain occult foramens and that by diflation therefore they need aliment D Blood may be understood two manner of ways First for all the four humours which are contained in the veins which when opened blood doth flow out endowed with the four humours for blood is not similar but a mass conflated of different humours Secondly blood may be taken peculiarly and properly for a pure sejoyned humor which is known by this sign that assoon as it is let out into a vessel it concretes and turns into clots by reason of its fibres this humour is called by Hippocrates hot and moist because it conserves the life of the animal which consists of a humid as though material and a calid principle as formal and it is also called temperate by Galen because a hot and moist temperament doth next accede to the temperature because it is the fittestto produce animal-operations and it is called sweet because it arises from a moderate heat and of a temperate and best part of chyle it is called Red or Rubicund because it acquires a colour from the liver that is red for every part propounds this as its end to assimilate that to itself which it altered therefore chyle is taken from the ventricle and transmuted by little and little to the liver and so by degrees doth pass and is converted into its nature and hence it is that it receives its colour from this doth every part attract aliment whence blood is called by some the treasure of life which nature so keeps in such safe custody that all the other humors may receive loss before blood nay some have gone so far as to go about to demonstrate that the soul resides in blood others do affirm that blood is essentially the very soul. E Flegme is gotten of the gross and watrish part of chyle sometimes it is called sweet not that any dulcitude or sweetness doth possess it as it is with honey or sugar but so to be understood as when we say sweet water or water is sweet and when we ascribe frigidity to it we do mean that it is not partaker of the contrary viz. heat but because that coldness is predominant in it for if flegme were onely cold exactly then it would be coacted like unto ice and if it were exactly humid it were void of all crassitude and lentor the effect of it is to nourish the flegmatick members together with blood and it is alimenâ—… half cocted and in progress of time may easily make blood and nourish the whole body F The matter of black choler or melancholy is the more gross and feculent part of aliment not unlike to the fecies of wine or the setlings of oyl This humour is cold and dry because terrene neither yet so cold but that it is a partaker of some heat otherwise it would concrete like ice nor void of all humidity otherwise it would not be an humor but a hard body like to an Adamant its proper colour is black or rather oleaceous which in a temperate man is called black if compared with the colour of other humours it is crass by reason of its terrene nature and it hath sometimes a sowre sapour when much heat cocts the humidity and sometimes sharp when less heat c. its use is to nourish the gross hard and terrene members But here a question may be handled whereas it is said that melancholy is terrene cold and dry therefore unapt to all the motions both of body and minde its strange why Aristotle will have all melancholy persons to be ingenious either in the study of Philosophy or moral Policy in Poetry and many other Arts and Sciences It is answer'd that the strength of wit is discerned and discovered either by quickly learning or strongly retaining In this latter melancholy persons do excel because siccity is necessary and appropriated to the retentive faculty therefore the brain is made firm and contemperated from this humor by the heat of blood and spirit and indeed those that are without this humour are very forgetful and though they may be ingenious yet they are always found to be light and unstable seldom persevering in the thing proposed by reason of the levity of spirits for judgement and prudence is noâ—… perfected in motion but in rest whence Aristotle could affirm that the soul is rendred more intelligible by rest and quietness then commotion and trouble H Avicen besides those two before named doth make other two adventitious humours amongst which those spoken of do possess a medium the first is called innominatus because it never flows out of the veins but the second the Barbarians call Cambium because it desires to flow out and would be changed into the substance of flesh but both of them are rejected yet Fuchsius would have this humor to be the same with the radical but without reason Here it may be demanded whether it may perpetuate life because the oleous or radical is preserved
compelling them into one of the ligaments serving the arteries to a voluntary motion the fibres of the tendons growing of the junctures are joyned amongst themselves E They are called spermatick parts because they are generated of seed and not of blood which argues that their colour must be white and cold in substance All nerves do arise from the brain and not from the heart as Aristotle imagined their use is to carry that animal spirit gotten in the brain and the motive and sensitive faculty and to communicate it to the body F The veins and arteries are joyned with a friendly intercourse that the veins may supply them with matter of spirit for the spirit doth cherish the blood with its heat in the arteries and there are mutual orifices that the spirit may take nutriment out of the veins and the veins spirit and heat out of the arteries But the arteries and veins do differ First in their original because they come out of the sinister ventricle of the heart Secondly in their function because they subminister vital spirits to the whole body Thirdâ—…y in their substance for the arâ—…eries so likewise the veins do â—…onsist of a membranous body â—…et more solid harder and conâ—…rmed by more crasser tunicles Now a tunicle is twofold exterior interior that fibre which is knit with many strait and crooked windings hath the like crassitude and firmness with the tunicle of the veins but this hath five times a more harder and grosser substance lest the subtil spirit should exhale and the artery it self be broken with the perpetual motion of the heart Fourthly in motion for the arteries are moved without intermission by dilatation and contraction when dilated they draw the cold air and when contracted cast out hot fumes G This question is moved by Physitians and Philosophers about the veins Whether they have a force or faculty to generate blood Some maintain it that the blood which the veins contain within themselves to elaborate more exquisitely and to be made by an insited force and faculty and therefore in that blood that the chiefest degree of perfection is gotten But the falsity of this opinion is easily known by those who diligently mark the thin tunicle of the veins and its white substance Now it is provided by nature that every part of the body should be converted to the other and transmuted into its colour then how can the veins with their thinness and whiteness change white chyle and gross into red and pure blood Therefore more truer is that opinion that the generation of blood is onely the work of the liver which doth make blood by a certain force and faculty within it self seated all the sanguifick force is given to the veins yet they receive it from the liver as Avicen demonstrates H Aristotle and Hippocrates do prove that fibres do concrete the blood by their frigidity because that blood out of which fibres are taken can never be concreted by any cold for when blood is let out of the veins if it doth not concrete it is a sign of death I Fat is the matter of blood and although it be made of the cream of blood yet notwithstanding it is cold and without blood degenerating into fat by the want of heat and frigidity of the membrane it consists of coldness and dryness because by heat it is melted and by the humidity of other parts coagulated by cold The efficient cause is the want of heat which is thus proved because you shall finde no fat as to any quantity about the liver or the heart or any other hot part by reason of the heat of those parts K Take this as another definition of the cutis the skin is a thin part membranous porous endowed with blood the tegument or cover of all the parts of the body which as it is easily taken away by accident so it doth easily grow again which denotes thus much that the skin is not altogether endowed with a sensitive faculty but onely so far as it hath the nerves and of the faculty of blood in it and whereas it is defined to be membranous that is smooth simple thin and white and that it hath a middle nature between flesh and nerves for neither is it altogether without blood as the nerves are so neither doth it abound with blood as the flesh doth whence it is adjudged to be the rule of temperaments and indeed the skin about the hands in it there is the most exquisite and perfect faculty of sense but not so in other parts of the body and the skin is porous that it may thereby attract the coldness of the air and expulse the excrementitious vapours of the body Now the excrement which comes out of the pores is sweat sweat is an excrementitious humidity of the third coction breaking out by the skin in the species or form of water the matter of sweat is the whole humidity which is gotten in meat and drink which thing is necessary to all animals because it might make way for other aliment and not longer lie in the vessels it is of the same genus with urine onely differing in this that the urine is carried to the bladder this with blood a longer passage through the body its efficient cause is heat but not so vehement as to have a drying faculty but moist so calefying the nature of sweat by the habit of the body that it becomes thin and so softens the skin by relaxation that it may the better pass through those whose skins are hard and thick are very unapt to sweat L Flesh may be taken either properly or improperly when properly taken then absolutely that which is described by us and it is the chiefest part of the muscles for the substance of them doth truly and properly deserve the name of flesh that which is taken improperly is the flesh of the bowels generated of blood poured out as the liver heart and lungs CHAP. 10. Of External dissimilar Parts 1. HItherto we have spoken of similar parts Now of dissimilar or organical which are diversly compounded of the similar 2. And they are either external or internal 3. The external parts are first the head secondly the trunk of the body thirdly the artus under which we comprehend the arms and feet 4. The head is the highest part of the body globular set upon the neck the seat of the animal faculty 5. Its parts that are external are chiefly the skull and the face 6. The skull is a crafs bone of the head round distinguished into twenty bones and certain futures covering the brain environing it on every side 7. Its bones are thus distinguished there are two in the crown one in the front two in the temples one in the form of a wedge another in the form of a sieve twelve in the superior jaw and one in the hinder part of the head 8. There are three sutures The first is transverse the crown going from towards one ear to the
poured into the greater veins from the fleshy parts that are already filled and satiated 13. Therefore this blood is laudable and alimentary whose efficient cause is the weakness of the heat of the woman 14. For the female is always more colder then the male therefore she cannot make all the last alâ—…ment and convert it into the substance of the body and therefore by little and little it is sent into the veins of the womb that it may he excerned 15. The time of excretion is not designed but in many it begins at the fourteenth year of their age and ceases about the fiftieth year because then heat grows weak and doth not longer generate the reliques of laudable blood neither can it expel them if they do abound 16. The use of this menstruous blood is very necessary both that it may cause a conception and afterwards nourish after conception 17. Therefore seed is the principle from which as it were the efficient cause the conformation is made from which as from the matter the spermatick parts are generated but blood hath the name of the matter alone and passive principle 18. For of it are both the carnous parts generated and both the spermatick and carnous nourished 19. But to the seed is alotted the nature both of the efficient and matterial principle because it consists of two parts for the efficient is by reason of the Spirits on which on every side is poured the material by reason of the thickness of the body and crassament of which the spermatick parts are generated 20. And the seed is double the one of the male the other of the female but the seed of the male is of greatest force 21. Neither do the Peripateticks altogether deny women to emit seed as Galen and not a few more have exclaimed against them but as they say they do not emit seed as men neither have they such seed 22. For women do put forth seed but not such as men do that is not so crass white and full of spirit 23. For when mans seed is poured out into the womb it is exquisitely mixed with the womans and is as it were in a fruitful field and immediately upon the permixion of the seeds the womb is gathered up together and doth contract it self so close that no empty space be left within 24. Seed so E taken and strictly comprehended is cherished in the womb by its heat and ingenital property exciting its strength lurking within it and stimulates it to act insomuch that it breaks out into action 25. This action of the womb they call conception which is a promotion of the retained seed to duty 26. The Signs of conception F are these a tickling over the whole body upon the meeting of the seeds a retention of the seed if the inward mouth of the womb doth exquisitely shut and open a small pain wandring about the belly if the Tearms be stopped if the brests swell and grow hard a nauseous stomach and frequent vomitings 27. Therefore the spirit of the seeds is used as an instrument for this divine faculty of generation in going to the bottom or centre whereby the work of conception is carried on and of which the conception it self is constituted 28. This work cannot be made without ordination position secretion concretion densation rarefaction extension contraction Arist. 29. Therefore when the spirit begins to act in the substance of the seed consisting of Heterogeneous parts it first divides its dissimilar parts those that are thin and tender and full of spirit it hides within those that are cold and thick which arise from the seed of the woman it covers without 30. The middle and more nobler parts of the seed are puffed up or blowen up by heat and spirit to the effiguration of the members 31. The number of these membranes are yet undetermined we reckon onely three the first whereof is called Amnios which is next to the yong wrapping it from the neck to the feet containing the excrements also with it in which the yong swims as it were 32. The second is called Alantois it is the middle between the first and the third thin and narrow onely going to the middle of the yong and it is the receptacle of urine 33. The third tunicle is called Chorion and it is the outermost covering the whole body of the yong and adheres to the womb by the interposition of the umbilical veins and arteries 34. These 3 membranes mutually connated to themselves do seem to constitute one tunicle which is called by the Latines secundina 35. The interior and subtil part of the seed being encloistered in these and as it were environed the formative vertue and as it were vital spirit of the same seed which contains in potency all parts both similar and instrumental doth coact together and as it were delineated so that the rude exordium of these parts or at least a resemblance of them may be seen which is wont to be made in seven days 36. For when the vital spirit which is the framer of generation is the same and doth act in one and the same moment disposited into the same matter and altered by heat what hinders but that this agent may decline all parts natural once and again 37. Yet there is an order observed in the formation of members I one member is perfected before another 38. And the more nobler and most necessary the first of all the ignobler and least necessary the last of all 39. Therefore the formatrix faculty doth perfect in the first place the spermatick parts of the male in thirty days of the female in forty or fourty two 40. Nor doth it hinder what some learned men do object that so little seed doth not suffice for the constituting of these parts for the sperme is appointed not onely to suffice the formation but the auction also 41. Again if this sperme which proves Abortive or may be known by the section of the living animal be cast into cold water it will scarce exceed the bigness of a large Emmeâ—… 42. The carnous parts are framed after the spermatical delineation from the other principle of generation to wit blood which flows by the navel vein 43. There are three sorts of flesh which grows in the bowels First the flesh 〈◊〉 Secondly the flesh of the Muscles which is called properly and absolutely Flesh Thirdly the peculiar flesh of every part and it is likely that these three sorts of flesh are not generated together but in order 44. For first of all the flesh Parencyma which is the substance of the Liver Spleen and Biters afterwards the peculiar flesh of every part and lastly the flesh of the Muscles 45. And amongst the fleshes Parencymate that of the Liver is the first made because the umbilical vein doth first pour blood into it which concretes after fusion and becomes flesh then that of the heart and lastly that of the rest of the bowels 46. So that the infant begins
earth is necessary to the composition which doth afford matter for the unctuosity to astringe therefore stones are gotten of gross earth by the coalition of this humour which must be so understood not that the two other elements to wit the fire and the aire must be separated from their mixtion if so be the opinion of Philosophers be true that every mixed thing doth consist of four Elements The efficient causes of Metals or Minerals are two heat and cold heat persisting in the matter doth diduce moisture and unctuosity of â—…errene substance by certain tender parts and so doth coct and digest and perfectly mingle the portions of the several elements but especicially of water and earth and so purge them from all the excrementitious parts and at last doth prepare that matter rightly to produce the form of a stone and so cold at length doth condensate it with its astrictiveness expel all its superabundant humor and so indurate it into a stone But some may say that cold rather is the cause of corruption then generation I answer it is true in Animate bodies but in Inanimates to wit in meteors and metals coldness is the cause of generation Yet it may further be objected If stones do coalesce from coldness it follows by the same rule that they must melt by heat and so be resolved but that cannot be aâ—…â—…erefore nor the former I anâ—…wer Stones cannot be melted by heat alone without the affusion of some other humor because there is in them such an exquisite natural commixture of moisture and dryness that they refuse liquation by their contraries neither are they to be reduced to the action of their external faculty without the sympathy of some familiar quality B According to the divers and various subtilty of the matter whether pure or impure crass viscous or the like Stones both pure and impure noble and ignoble are ingendred whence it is that there is so great variety of Stones and Gemms and here an objection will arise whether precious Stones may change the matter of the earths generation Gems because of their noble fulgor and transparency do not seem to persist of earth which is dusky and blackish an enemy to such pulchritude whence many are of this opinion that Gems are partakers equally of celestial fire and water and from them to receive their fulgor and christalline clearness But we must know that Gems also do consist of certain earthly matter but not obscure but subtil mixed with a watrish humidity well cocted and tempered for the matter according to Logicians doth vary the dignity of things but the propinquity of the sun cocts better and stronger the matter of stone in Oriental regions makes the Gems and Stones both more excellent and precious Another question will here arise whether Stones do differ in forms and species We maintain the affirmative with this one undeniable reason divers actions and vertues do arise from divers Forms but there are divers actions in divers Stones therefore c. The assumption is proved because one stone resists poyson another discusses swellings another draws iron which are indeed divers effects C Pliny relates of the generation of the Pumice that it is gotten of Fruits some of Bays some of Thyme beyond the Columns of Hereules which are transformed into the Pumice which if it be true it is not strangâ—… why the Pumice cast into the water doth swim when it is made of porous and rare matter and therefore it hath its levity from its matter and will not sink to the bottom of water but that for use is accounted the best which is candid light and very spungious The flower of it according to Theophrastus doth take away drunkenneâ—…s D A Gemm properly is the sprouting or bud of a Tree fair and round bunching out at the first out of bunâ—…s and chiefly of Vines and so those precious Stones which reâ—…mble this form are wont to be called Gems because they respond thereunto in figure and form But the vertues and the effects of Gems are wonderful if we may believe Cardan Some says he are effectual in prolonging life others available in love in obtaining riches some for divination others for consolation some for wisdom others for good fortune some work effects to make men dull others joyful some sad others fearful some do resist poyson others help the concoction of the ventricle and liver But concerning the vertues of Gems read Scaliger Exer. 106. But Heaven no doubt hath infused into Gems many admirable properties and vertues concerning which Hermes Trismegistus hath sufficiently treated E But why doth the Adamant preserve its substance whole against the weighty stroaks of the hammer and furious flames of of the fire yet suffer it self to be dissolved with the blood of a goat There are some of our later writers who will admit of no occult property at all but go about to manifest every thing by plain reason therefore they judge goats blood by reason of its analogy which is in the beginning common to pierce the Adamant But says Scaliger what other thing is that anology of its common principle then an occult property No doubt but it is a great miracle of nature and why it should pierce so hard a body no man well can demonstrate F The Carbuncle comes from the Eastern regions shining like to white clouds but because it hath golden spots it is reckoned by some amongst Gems G Of which there are three sorts First that which shines in the dark they call Pyropus secondly that which is put in a black vessel shining water being powred upon it thirdly that is the basest which glisters onely when the light shines H Achates is of so many various kindes that it will scarce be credited to be one stone for it is clear red yellowish cineritious green dark blue insomuch that this one answers to all the colours of other Gems I Albertus Magnus relates that he hath tryed this that if this stone be hung about the neck it roborates the strength of the whole body which is incredible for by its frigidity it constringes the spirits By the same reason it is related that if it be hung about the belly it hinders venery whereupon the Indians every-where preserve themselves K Whether chrystal be glass is a subtil controversie between Cardan and Scaliger He denies it upon this reason because glass is dissolved by the fire but chrystal not unless for several days it lie in the midst of a vehement fire and be continually blown therefore Chrystal can never be glass Scaliger answers glass that hath never obtained the hardness of a stone is as yet water and therefore easily dissolvable by fire because it is but congealed with a little cold but when it is concreted and congealed by a diuturnal cold insomuch that it hath obtained the perfect form and hardness of a stone it will not easily melt or not at all but it is generated oftentimes under the earth
and sometimes upon the tops of high mountains where there is perpetual snow therefore it must needs be congealed into a hard substance for much of it is brought from the Alpes Helvetia and Italy L Coral is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a shrubby stone for it is called frutex marinus because being extracted from the sea by the air it is hardned into a stone under the water the Coral is green and soft but assoon as it is taken out and reposed to the air it grows hard and red because of the tenuity and subtilty of the air which compels and hardens its parts M The Loadstone is called Magnes as is supposed from its first finder out by some it is called the Herculean stone it hath a wonderful vertue in attraction it doth not onely strongly draw iron to it self but also infuse an attractive vertue into the iron drawn insomuch that it will attract other iron to it which thing can hardly be demonstrated with reason If any say that iron is drawn by the similitude of substance he errs not for similitude and the flight of the vacuum are the two causes of attraction heat draws by the flight of the vacuum every part doth draw its proper aliment according to the similitude of the substance whence iron is as it were the aliment of the Loadstone and therefore it is drawn by it for in the flakes of iron the Loadstone is preserved although Scaliger by no means will assent to this But we say that iron is the proper aliment of the Loadstone not so as to say that it lives as Scaliger well infers but as it were nourished by it But as the Elements move spontaneously to their places as to their end and perfection so the Loadstone because it is kept in the filings of iron and as it were nourished by them moves to the iron therefore we may well rest in the opinion of the antient that iron is drawn by the Loadstone by the similitude of substance and therefore it is that this stone is of the colour of iron Yet some say that the Loadstone doth not always draw iron I answer That happens by accident for when the Adamant is near it hinders and impedes its attraction Cardan yet denies that the Adamant can hinder the attraction of iron or can be hindred by Leeks and Onyons but maintains that it will always attract iron as he hath proved by experience N The manner of the generation of Pearl is this Shell-fishes in the spring time being incited to the desire of copulation or conception whereupon they come out to the shore and dilate themselves attracting the heavenly dew return as it were burdened and so bring forth Margaries Hence it is that there is so much difference in the goodness of the Pearl which happens according to their age or magnitude and also the quality of the dew received of round shell-fishes the best Pearls are gotten Those are the best Pearls which are found in the bottom of the sea and sometimes found floating upon the shore CHAP. 3. Of Juices or precious Earths 1. VVE having explained the Nature of hard metallick Bodies we shall now treat of such as are soâ—…t which precious Earthâ—… are of a milde Nature between Metals and Stones 2. And many of these Bodies are fricable that is to say rubbed small or brought into fine powder 3 Some of these may be melted others not those that are soft may that may be hardned into the body of a stone 4. Of the first kinde of these are those that are dry and concreted as Salt Alom Bitumen Vitriol 5. Salt is A a metallick Body friable begotten of a humid and watry Juice and gross earth mixed and boyled together 6. It hath force to absterge expurge astringe dissipate and attenuate 7. And it is either Natural or Artificial that which is Natural is called Fossile that which is Artificial Factitious 8. The Fossile is found either in the Earth or out of the Earth 9. That which is found in the Earth is either digged out of mountains or effoded out of the fields or sandy places 10. Of these there are various differences according to the diversity of places where they are found but four especially are most known to us Sal Ammoniack Sal gemm Sal Nitre Indian salt 11. Ammoniack is a bitter salt found in or about the sand of Cyrene whence it is called Cyrenaicus 12. Salt Gem is a Fossile salt found in Mines or Pits shining and resembling the form of Chrystal 13. Salt Nitre or salt-Peter consists of a coagulated humor in moistsubterraneous places shining like to congealed snow upon walls to this day by art it is made 14. The Indian is a salt blackish cut out of the mountain Oromontus in the Indies 15. Those Salts that are found out of the Earth are such as are digged or effoded out of waters and they are called either fontal when fountains or rivers by the heart of the sun are dryed and converted to salt or fluvial when the arm of some river is condensated into salt or stagnal when ponds in the summer are dryed and a salt remains or marine when in the shore a certain tender salt is gotten which Dioscorides calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pliny interprets it the spume of the sea we call it the dry spume of the sea or more rightly a salt made by heat of the sea-spume 16. Factitious 〈◊〉 cocted salt is made of water and that either Marine Fluvial Fenny Fountain or of the water of Ponds 17. Alome by the definition of Pliny is a certain salsugo or the salt sweat of the Earth concreted of a muddy and slimy water 18. And it is either clear or black 19. That which is clear is judged the best and it is either thick or liquid 20. The liquid is soft fat and clear 21. The thick is either round or scissile and it hath the form of of Sugar 22. The black is found in Cyprus which purges Gold 23. Bitumen is the juice of the Earth gentle and tender like to Pitch easily taking fire 24. And it is either hard 〈◊〉 soft 25. The hard is strongly concreted not unlike to the clods of the earth 29. Of this sort are Asphaltus Pissaphaltus and Amber 27. Asphaltus is a blackish Bitumen like to Pitch but harder and more inspissated splended and less olcous and this sort is gotten all over Babylon 28. Pissaphaltus is a certain Bitumen in a manner black but of a more Terrene concretion 29. Amber also is a Bitumen and fat of the Earth proceeding from the heat of the sea and the colour is sometimes white yellow or obscure 30. The liquid Bitumen is that which flows like an oleous liquor of whose species are Naptha and the Arabian Amber 31. Naptha is liquid Bitumen of an oleous crassitude the fire hath such force over it that it will leap into it where-ever it is neither can it be quenched by
water but the rather more inflamed by it 32. That is called Petreolum which flows from Rocks and sometimes Naptha Petra 33. Amber is fragrant Bitumen and kept amongst the richest merchandise and it is gotten about Arabia 34. Vitriol is a concreted Juice looking like the clearness of glass it is called by the Latines Atramentum sutorium and sometimes Chalchanthum 35. The native is found concreted in the Veins of the Earth or clefts of the Rock and from thence doth distil by drops part thereof hanging like frozen Ice and part found in the bottom of Channels 36. Furthermore Juices which cannot be melted yet not indurated into stones are Auripigmentum Sandarach Chalk Gypsum Lime Oker Argil Sealed earth Armenian earth 37. Auripigmentum or Arsnick is B a concreted Juice of a yellowish colour flourishing Pictures with a golden colour is hot and dry in the fourth degree and a present poyson 38. Sandarach is a reddish earth of the colour of Cinabaris yet something inclining to a yellow much of it is gotten in the veins of Metals with Auripigmentum smelling strong of Sulphure 39. Lime is a dry earth cocted to a stone which after it is burnt is inflamed with water and extinguished with oyl it is called Viva or Living because it contains fire hidden within it 40. Gypsum is a shining earth gentle and light akin to Lime but not so dry nor hot which is digged out of the bottom of the earth the Factitious is made of a certain stone and so placed in walls for the ornament of houses 41. Chalk is a tender earth and white plentiful in the Island of Crete 42. Ocher is a light and yellowish earth which when it is burnt is red 43. Argil is a fat and soft earth of which figuline vessels are made 44. Sealed and Lemnian earth is a portion of earth that is very red digged out of the Island Lemnos and sealed with the seal of Diana's high Priest it is also digged daily in Silesia and Hassia it resists poyson 45. The Armenian is a portion of earth digged out in Armenia drying by nature and of a pale colour The Commentary A SAlt is derived a saliendo from leaping because it leaps in the fire Some judge it to be called salt from the sun because it is gotten of its own accord of sea-water the spume thereof left upon the shore by the sun is concreted into salt The efficient cause of salt is the heat of the sun and the rest of the stars which drawing the sweeter and tender parts out of the saltish matter leaves the Terrene which being boyled makes a saltish substance Two things are required to a salt sapour the dry and Terrene parts and their adustion of the first is made a sapour of the latter a salt sapour Erroneous therefore is that opinion which judg'd salt to concrete as Ice of cold For if salt doth concrete of â—…old it is dissolved with heat because it is a general rule with Naturalists every thing to be dissolved by the contrary wherewith it was congealed but salt is dissolved with nothing less then with heat for that hardens it and dryes it more but it is quickly dissolved with water therefore it is not constringed of cold The matter is a Terrene Juice adust and dryed with heat the forme is dryed vapours with concocted water the end and use of salt is various in the whole course of life whence it is rightly said that nothing is more profitable then salt and the sun And old Homer called salt Divine because â—…t is accommodated to various â—…ses Salt hinders putrefaction and â—…akes away superfluous humidity â—…n our Bodies without salt a perfect concoction cannot be made besides it is of frequent use in the cure of wounds B Auripigmentum is double native and factitious that which is like to Ackorns erupts of its own accord from Metals this again is double the one is made of Arsnick and natural salt of equal parts mixed and burned in a crucible till the vapour appear like Chrystal hence it is called Christalline Arsnick the other is made of natural Arsnick and Sulphure mixed together and combustible both of them are dry and hot in the fourth degree and a present poyson CHAP. 4. Of the Nature of Plants in general and of their corruptions 1. HItherto we have spokeâ—… of an inanimate Body perfectly mixed Now we proceed to Animate Bodies which are perfectly mixed endowed with soul and life 2. There are two parts in the life of a furnisht Body the external Body and the soul which subministers life of the former we have spoken before of the latter we shall now 3. An animate Body is expert of sense or sensitive 4. A Plant is a Body expert in sense which is also called stirps A which is a body perfectly mixed endowed with a vigent soul which doth grow live wax green is nourished and increased from the earth 5. For when Plants are nourished and increased and bear flowers and fruits it proceeds from the soul and they are the works of animated Bodies neither can they be without this soul 6. Therefore rejected is that opinon of the Philosophers which call that the form which vivificates Plants and that their nature which indeed is the soul. 7. And also Erroneous is that opinion which maintans Plants to be Animals endowed with sense which Scaliger refutes Exer. 138. 8. For they are not accommodated with Organs which are requisite to sensitive faculties neither can the actions of any such faculties be apprehended in Plants for which of them can see hear smell taste or feel Arist. lib. 1. de planc C. 1. 9. We do not deny but some sense is resident in Plants in attracting to them what is profitable and shunning what is unprofitable but then the question will be how can Plants which are always fixed in a place properly be said to draw what is profitable and shun what is incommodious 10. The vegetable soul alonâ—… that is within the Plant is used as an instrument to the preservation of life by heat both native and adventitious lawfully temperated which the Plants draw out of the earth where they are fixed by the roots 11. That heat adhering in the moist matter it attracts as convenient to its nature and so alters and converts it into the substance of the Plant. 12. Hence there are two vital principles in every Plant heat and humour the want whereof as it is death to Animals so it is a corruption and decaying to Plants 13. Corruption doth either infest part of the Plant or the whole 14. A total corruption is either natural or preternatural 15. The natural is made when Plants are rendred more dryer for their internal heat and their moisture decayed by progress of time 16. Some are corrupted sooner others later and so accordingly they live long or short 17. The cause of which variety is especially the form yet sometimes it happens from the gluishâ—…ess of the humour and
NATURE'S CABINET UNLOCK'D Wherein is Discovered The natural Causes of Metals Stones Précious Earths Juyces Humors and Spirits The nature of PLANTS in general their Affections Parts and Kinds in Particular Together with A Description of the Individual Parts and Species of all Animate Bodies Similar and Dissimilar Median and Organical Perfect and Imperfect With a compendious Anatomy of the Body of Man As also the Manner of his Formation in the Womb. All things are Artificial for Nature is the Art of God By Tho. Brown D. of Physick London Printed for Edw. Farnham in Popes-head alley near Cornhil 1657 OF PHYSIOLOGY Treating of BODIES Perfectly mixed With Comments thereupon CHAP. 1. Of Metalls 1. WE shall here Treat of those Bodies which are perfectly mixed and substantial 2. That Body is perfectly mixed â—…hich is made solid by the Concretion of the Elements and therefore daily grows harder and harder 3. All the Elements do abide and are concentricated in a mixed Body because all mixed Bodies are carried to a place of the Earth and therefore much of earth must needs be in them And if earth be in them then water without which earth cannot consist for all Generation happens from their contraries so that if there be one contrary it 's necessary that there should be an opposite contrary to that Arist. lib. 2. De gen corrupt c. 8. 4. And these Bodies are either Inanimate or Animate 5. Inanimate bodies are such as are void of life As Metalls Stones precious Earths 6. Metall is a body perfectly mixed and Inanimate of Sulphure and Quicksilver gotten in the veins of the earth 7. Sulphure and Quicksilver is often found in the veins of Metalls and of these for the variety of the temperament and mutuall permission the Professors of the Rosie Cross do adjudge Metalls to have their original 8. They define Sulphure to be a Metallick matter consisting of a subtill exhalation fat and unctuous included in the earth 9. Quicksilver B is a Metallick matter consisting of a vapour more subtil then water which is conglutinated with the earth and cocted by the heat of Sulphure 10 The Peripateticks will have a double vapour to lye hid in the bowels of the earth the one dry that is more terrene then water the other moist and glutinous that is more watry then terrene and from these do Stones and Fossiles grow and these do produce proper Metall Arist. 3. Met. c. 7. 11. The Chymists do not dissenâ—… from this opinion of Aristole for he maketh the matter of Metalls to be a remote vapour They a nearer matter Sulphure and Quicksilver which do grow from the aforesaid vapour as the remote matter of Metalls 12. The efficient Cause of Metall is heat and cold for heat whether Elementary or Celestial doth animate digest and exactly mingle all portions of matter which mass so temperated and prepared for this or that kind of metall doth grow by cold and is condensated 13. The place in which Metals are ingendered is the bosom of the earth Arist. 3. met c. 7. 14. Many are made amongst Stones and that oftner in mountains then in plains for according to their solidâ—…ty they do retain their colour better which is easily decayed and dispersed in plains because of the softness of the earth 15. If it be demanded whether their form be one or more C that is to say whether they can be distinguished amongst themselves in specifical differences which do effect divers and incommunicable forms amongst themselves 16. To the latter it is agreed First Because every Species hath its Essence and that perfect Secondly Its Definition Thirdly Its Heats Fourthly It Strength and Use Scal. Exer. 106. sect 2. 17. But it is a great dispute amongst late writers whether Metalls are Bodies Inanimate or whether they Live It is most certain they perform no vitall action as other bodies that are endowed with a vegetive soul therefore they are not Animated Scal. Exer. 102. 18. But Metalls are either pure or impure 19. Pure Metall is when there is a perfect decoction exquisitely made as in Gold and Silver 20. Gold E is a pure Metall begotten of pure Quicksilver fixed red and clear and of pure red Sulphure not too hot but well qualified 21. This of all Metalls is the softest and tenderest wanting fatness It is heavy having a sweet pleasant and excellent sapor and odor 22. But whether the Chymists by the industry of art can make true and approved Gold it is a question much disputed of late yet in my opinion it is clear that though it be very difficult experience witnessing it yet it is â—…ot altogether impossible for if Art be a follower and imitator of Nature I see not why Nature may not be imitated in framing of true Gold 23. And whether it may be made potable that is so prepared that it may be taken into the body without danger is a great controversie between the Chymists and Galenists 24. The favourers of Galen defend the Negative to which Scaliger doth subscribe being perswaded with these two reasons I. There is no similitude to be discerned between Gold and our Body as there is between Aliment and Body to be nourished II. Because Gold is more solid then that it can be overcome by our heat or changed from its substance Scal. Exer. 272. 25. Silver is a pure Metall G begotten of clear Quicksilver shining white and of pure Sulphure almost fixed 26. Such Metalls are impure which do consist of impure Sulphure and Mercury 27. Of these some have more of the Humor or Mercury and some more of the Earth or Sulphure 28. Lead and Tinn do participate more of the Humor 29. Lead H is a Metall procreated of much crass and less-pure Quicksilver and burning Sulphure 30. Its Species are various according to the matter of which it consists and the heat by which it is cocted 31. And hence it is black or clear 32. Black-lead doth consist of impure Quicksilver and it is less elaborate therefore of a baser value 33. Clear or White-lead is fully cocted and doth coâ—… somewhat of a more purer matter 34. Tin I is a White-metal begotten of much yet not so pure Quicksilver outwardly white but inwardly red and of impure Sulphure not well digested 35. Brass and Iron have more of Earth to which is added Copper 36. Brass K is an impure Metall begotten of much Sulphure red and gross and a little impure Quicksilver 37. Cyprian Brass is a Species of it which doth grow copiously in the Island Cyprus whence it is called Cuprum 38. Iron is L a Metall impure begotten of much Sulphure Crude Terrestrial and burning and a little impure Quicksilver 39. And although it 〈◊〉 hard yet it is bruised with daily labor because there goes to its generation less Quicksilver or Humor but more Sulphure or Terrene 40. Copper is factitious Brass clarified of the colour of Gold or rather more yellow 41. The Native is now of no use and
the plenty thereof whereby the 〈◊〉 heat the instrument of form is nourished together with the firmness and solidity of the whole Plant. 18. For such grow a long time As first have much soft and gentle humidity in them Secondly a solid substance Thirdly their roots long and thick Fourthly those that are barren and fruitless Fifthly such as grow in a dry place 19. On the contrary part those Plants are short lived and sooner perish by natural corruption as have not the contraries to the former 20. Preternatural or violent â—…ruption happens either by â—…tinction or â—…nt of nourishâ—… 21. Corruption happening 〈◊〉 extinction is when the Plant perishes by too much cold 22. When cold 〈◊〉 goâ—… to the bottom it hinders 〈◊〉 warm vapour or heat from coming to the roots and at length causes the whole to perish 23. This corruption doth not happen but when an extream cold comes and invades the roots denuded of earth 24. Corruption happening from want of nourishment and that by heat by which the Plant is as it were scorched the humidity thereof being C exhausted by the vehemency of heat 25. And there are two seasons especially wherein Plants are exposed to this injury the one when they begin to bud because then they are more laxi the other when they bear fruit when their juice is exhausted and made weak 26. That is called partial corruption or sideration when the native heat of any part is extinguished either by cold or heat or with a wound mortification of that part following 27. Furthermore some kinde of Plants grow of their own accord and some are propagated by the art and industry of man 28. Such arise of their own accord of seed as are either manifest or obscure 29. Those that grow of manifest seed have but one manner of rising as in all Herbareous Plants that are sown of seed and others are propagated divers manner of ways 30. From manifest seed after this manner seed falling into the moist earth is thereby softned and is cherished both with naturall and celestial heat and so swelling by reason of the plenty of humour flowing into them from the earth it breaks and out of that part which is broken a certain soft and tender sprout doth grow by so little becomes more firm and crass one part whereof being partaker of the airy nature ascends up the other which is terrestrial and crass resides in the earth and there coaâ—…esces 31. So then Plants arising â—…rom seed are cherished by the humour of the earth decocted â—…y heat and attracted by their â—…nternal nature 32. But the time of sprouting of Plants is not one and the same D for some do begin to grow within three days as the Bafil and Rape some on the fourth day as Lettice some on the fifth as the Gourd some on the sixth as Beet some on the eighth as Arach some on the tenth as Colwort Leeks in twenty days Smallidg forty or fifty Last of all Pyony and Mandrake â—…rce in the space of a whole year 33. The causes of this diversity of sproutings are these First 〈◊〉 strength of Form Secondly the strength or weakness of their inward heat Thirdly the variety or density fatness or hardness of the seeds for in hard and dense Bodies the humour cannot be illicited out of the earth so readily whereby seed must swell before it erupts 34. Certain Plants E according to the opinion of Theophrastus are said to grow without evident or manifest seed and he declares the cause to be a certain permistion of earth and putrefied water which being as it were preserved both by the heat of the sun and the propriety of the matter renders a fit generation of spontaneous Plants 35. This opinion is probable enough for as a strange heat is the cause of putretude so also into things of new forms which are putrefied and he makes the heat of the sun and stars to be a beneficial induction therâ—… 36. But besides these the air and the earth may be the cause of sproutings of such Plants as grow spontaneously If it be true that according to the various station of first and second qualities in substance various mutations and generations of things may be made 37. Moreover a Plant sometimes is produced out of a hard stone which happens when air is included therein and endeavors to asâ—…end but when it cannot finde a passage it is reflected and so waxes hot by its agitation whereby it draws the humor of the stone to it self That vapour with the humour breaks out and of that vapour and humour brought out of the stone a Plant is ingendered by the concurrent heat of the sun Arist. lib. 2. de Plantis c. 5. 38. Furthermore Plante are variously propagated by the art and industry of men by setting of roots or ingrafting yong slips 39. By setting of roots as Liquorice Lilly for these do easily attract aliment and so live 40. By ingrafting or planting and that either by fastning them in the earth or upon the stock of a tree 41. Planted or fixed in the earth as the Rose Willow Vine Mulberry which is called a propagation 42. Engrafted upon the stock of a tree by thrusting a slip into the wood of another which properly indeed is called insition as an Apple-tree into a Pear-tree 43. Indeed most Plants may be propagated all these ways as Olives Figgs and Cherry-trees 44. But there are invented other manner of propagations more artificially whereby a leaf digged out of the earth to bud in a new stock 45. But it is a question not to be contemned F why the dissected parts of Plants do live and thereby propaga ed when it is the cause of death in Animals This is said to happen because Plants have the strength and force of the soul engrafted within them and so diffused over all their parts Heat also which is an individual companion of the soul and moisture gentle and thin and therefore not dissipable but it is not so with Animals for they stand in need of that faculty which flows from the heart 46. Therefore part of a bough which is planted in the earth doth preserve in it self heat humour and strength of the soul and by that attracted humour begins to swell and receive spirit and by the strength of the soul it detaines and by the help of its innate heat it distributes the grossest parts of the humour from whence the roots are framed and the thinnest part it preserves which causes it to grow higher 47. The same manner is observed in engrafting for as Plants out of the earth as out of a womb so Grafts from those where they are grafted do preserve keep and attract the nutriment of the Plant by the force of the soul and heat and by a continued action a generation of parts is made 48. But Aliment which the Graft draws is by far more elaborate First in that was concocted before in the mother Secondly in that is made
with the earth where seed is to be sowen the seed will sooner erupt not onely excited thereunto by the innate heat of the seed as the extream calidity of the earth so the seeds of Palmes if infused and macerated in water before its sation it sooner sprouts E Theophrastus saith that experience teaches that certain Plants do grow without seed and that some have been seen to grow in the earth where none was sowen or planted before he instances in Laserpitium which sometimes hath been seen in Affrica and never found before in the same place Some of the Philosophers do inquire out the seminal cause of these Plants Anaxagoras judges the air to convey the seed from some other place and there to fix according to the course of nature others judge it to happen by the inundation and conflux of waters whereby seeds are conveyed from some places to other parts of the earth more remote And although these things are not spoken altogether foolishly as without reason yet the truth thereof is to be questioned but it is certain that many Plants however have been found to grow of their own accord without any seed As Polypody of the Oak as we see certain little Animals to have their original by accidents as lice worms and other insects that are generated by accidents F It is a question deserves solution whence it is that the insected parts of Plants do live longer then if they had remained whole nay and are thereby propogated whereas it is not so with Animals for if their parts be cut they perish For we see that boughs plucked from their stock and plants plucked up by the roots to grow and are thereby propagated but with Animals after the division of a foot ear arm leg or ther parts forthwith they die I answer that Plants do longer survive after their section if again planted or engrafted because they have the force of the soul insited and that diffused through all and every part And besides they have scattered abroad their native heat the individual companion of the soul and their humidity which is lent and crass and therefore less dissipable through all the parts by which two principles they live and undergo all the functions of nature and hence it is that part of a Plant sejoyned from its stock is said to live in the earth the matrix as it were of Plants by the benefit of the soul which is correllative in the whole and every part and to beget a root or take rooting which is a new principle from the humidity resident and attracted out of the earth or sprout and grow out of another trunk planted therein by insition and so coalesce after the same manner even now declared For as long as Plants preserve that humidity of theirs stedfast and dense so long are they capable of life and soul but such as are perfect Animals and are consequently of a stronger and better nature do not onely stand in need of an insited but an influent faculty which is drawn from the heart and hence it is that their humidity is not so stedfast viz. substantial but more thin and tenderer and therefore doth the sooner expire Hence it is that if a hand be separared from the body all the life therein is extinguished because it is destitute of an influent faculty from the heart for that thing cannot have a soul unless it have a continued derivation from the heart which if it once be destitute of it loses to be an animated being CHAP. 5. Of certain affections of Plants 1. HItherto we have Treated of the rise of Plants both Natural and Artificial Now we shall proceed to their Affections or Corruptions wherewith they are infested their Affections may proceed either from their native soyl or rather the ground where planted from the variety of their germination fecundity and propriety of substance or from their qualities 2. The soyl or rather matter of the rise of Plants is either Terrestrial or Aquatical 3. Terrestrial viz. their native place in the earth and that either in gardens or fields sative or wilde 4. The Sative are Domestick Plants such as grow in Gardens 5. The Wilde are such as grow in the Woods Mountains Valleys and the like 6. Aquatical such as grow in waters and that either in the ocean or lesser waters as in Fountains Rivers Ponds c. Arist. 7. Again some Plants are delighted in a hot place some in a cold place some in the open field some in the shade some upon rocks and some upon sandy-ground 8. But why A Plants should delight to grow in such variety of soyls is not easily determined yet notwithstanding the place where the thing is sited is the conservation of that thing and indeed of all things sublunar therefore divers Plants are of divers natures and accordingly do attract convenient Aliment out of that soyl for the preservation of life and do therefore rejoyce as it were in a fit and convenient soyl 9. Furthermore notice must be taken in the germination of Plants the time when they germinate their Celerity and Tardity 10. The time of germination is the Spring when there is plenty of humour abounding which was gathered in the winter-season and then their innate heat is excited by the extremity of external heat insomuch that the cutis of Plants and the meatus of the universal Body begins to be opened which causes the juice to be educed abroad and a budding or germination to be made 11. Others put forth their summer-fruit sooner or later according to their naure which happens according to the greater or lesser force of the innate heat and humour and also the rarity or density of the Plants body 12. Sometimes notwithstanding tilled or pruned Plants do bud later then the untilled First by reason of the less revocation of the inward heat to the outward parts and by reason of the wounds made by pruning Secondly either from the debilitation or weakness of the same heat or the denudation of the root or from the incrassitude of the humour Thirdly from the density and thickness of the Plant induced or brought into the root by the force of nocturnal frigidity and by the root into the whole Plant. 17. And they do not generate forthwith in their first age neither do Animals whilst young and tender bear young because all their aliment at that time is diverted into their increment Secondly their force is more weak whereby it cannot concoct it nor condensate it into fruit 14 Neither do all Plants generate for so some are fruitful others not fruitful 15. The cause of fruitfulness is referred by some onely to heat but when there is heat without matter that is copious aliment it can effect or frame nothing Hot and succulent Plants are onely fruitful 16. Of fruitful or fecundine Plants some do bear fruit once in all their life others oftner 17. Those that bear fruit oftner are such as fructicate annally once a year some twice
and some three times a year the proximate cause of which is no other then the proximate form of every species 18. Of fecundine Plants some are fertile continently and that by the reason of the abundance of their heat and fatness of their humour as the Fig-tree which fructicates sometimes but every year the same is observed in Pear-trees and Apple-trees 19. These Trees are very profuse for they require so much aliment for the generation of fruit that if they receive not annually so much by reason of the season of the year they become barren for that year 20. The property of the substance of Plants may be discerned by their various affections whereby they exercise and act 21. Plants exercise their strength in things that are either Animate or Inanimate 22. Inanimate things as upon other Plants or Animals 23. Upon Plants they either exercise a sympathy or antipathy friendship or enmity so that the Olive-tree will be averse to the Oak the Cabadge to the Vine the Reed to the Fearn but on the contrary there is a friendship sympathy between Rue and the Fig-tree that each other profits much by their vicinity 24. The inquisition of these things is so obscure insomuch that some have referred their original to an occult cause and others have gone about to demonstrate it by reason 25. But however this is most likely the true meaning why they prosecute such a sympathy and antipathy by reason of the substraction of aliment and corruption for this cause it is that where the Oak is the Olive will not live because the aliment is corrupted by the dryness of the Oak and therefore is made more arrid then the nature of Olive is So the Cabbage and the Vine cannot grow together First because the roots of the Vine do draw abundance of aliment from all the parts of the ground where it is planted Secondly because the bushiness of the Vine obstructs the reflection of the sun upon the Cabbage 26. So in like manner do they exercise sympathy and friendship the Rue seems to have nutriment with the Fig-tree which is the cause of this loving correspondence for if the nature of the Fig-tree be hot it must needs attract hot nutriment which corresponds with the nature of Rue 27. Plants also have a sympathy and antipathy to Animals and that either to man alone or other Animals 28. Some Plants are friendly to mankinde others are adverse to humane nature and others do partake of a certain medium between both 29. Those that are friendly do repair and defend the universal Body or determinated parts 30. Those which are said to preserve the life of the universal Body are such as have a strong faculty in nourishing whose is the consent of principles if so be all things be nourished with its like 31. But whether this consent happens from the form or rather matter is an intricate doubt Indeed the hability of the matter is altogether necessary but the consent of the form ought to accede 32. And these Plants do nourish either in the whole or in part 33. Whole Plants that do nourish are such as these pot-herbs Lettice Cabbage Water-cresses Brooklime 34. Part of Plants as the roots of Rape Parsnip Radish fruits as of Mellons Cucumbers seeeds as of Beans and Pease corn as of Barley Wheat Rye c. 35. What things do defend a certain part of the body are various as Pyony the head Saffron the heart Mint the stomack Egrimony the liver Capers the spleen Hermodactyls the arteries the cause of which is a certain similitude and consent of that Plant with the form of that part to which ordained 36. Some Plants are enemies pernicious and hurtful and that either to the whole body or part to the whole they prove fatal by everting the continuity of union and depraving of life or stupefie or benum part of the body as Henbane to the head Pepper of the Mount to the liver Ervus to the reins and bladder Aloes to the hemorrhoids the cause of which antipathy or corruption is the controversie of the form 37. One and the same Plant is sometimes salutary to one man but noxious and death to another by reason of the peculiar constitution of the individuum 38. Some Plants there are partly friends and partly enemies to our bodies partaking of a middle nature between sympathy and antipathy 39. They are enemies indeed which are infested with a bad sapour or odour they are friends that are correspondent to our constitution which do bring out unprofitable juices out of our Bodies as Coloquintida and othâ—…r purging Plants 40. But as far as Medicaments act by purgation so far they operate upon nature by a â—…ertain force which may be accounted under the name of being an enemy to nature and those which draw corruption with humours are enemies though they be judged to draw them by a certain similitude and congruity 41. The strength of Plants have also a certain friendship and enmity with other Animals for Fennel is a friend to the Serpent but Rue an enemy the Ash to the Scorpion but Wolfs-bane infests him white Hellebore is a friend to him for if he be laid thereto he revives so Basil in which he hath been seen to ingender so the herbs Oenothara Crateva Lysimachus hung about the necks of mad Animals or untamed Bulls they will cause them as Antiquity hath observed to turn round all which do express necessarily a certain tacite consent of forms 42. Plants also do produce various effects in inanimite things for the ancients have left upon record that by the force and touch of Missletoe and the herb Aethiopis all Locks and Bolts do fly open The Spina of Theophrastus doth congeal water Radix Hybisci and the juice of Purslain and Mercury doth abate the force of fire this hath often been experimented in our time all which in reason we ought to believe to be acted no other ways then by the power of proper forms 43. Lastly for the nourishment and contemperation of the elementary qualities in Plants four degrees are constituted in Plants to wit that some be hot or cold moist or dry in the first or second third or fourth degree 44. And these degrees respectively taken are either remiss or intense those that are remiss are such as are placed in the first degree the rest are intense so that the fourth be the chief and exceed altogether mediocrity The Commentary A VVHy Plants are delighted to grow in various places is a thing not easily unfolded yet it is a thing worth inquiring Therefore according to the opinion of the Philosophers the place is the conservator of all things that as the nature of Plants is various so they have need of divers places to preserve life therefore that place alone or soyl is proper and profitable to the life of Plants which doth suggest convenient aliment unto them and in which the roots of the Plant may have foundation commodious for its nature
therefore they are purged by nature 31. And these are made either by the second concoction together with the blood in the liver and may be discerned or of the third of what is left of every part 32. Two excrementitious humors are generated in the second concoction in the liver the one representing the flower the other the fecies of wine to wit yellow and black choler and whey 33. Yellow bile or choler F is an excrementitious humour hot and dry bitter also being procreated of the tender and hotter parts of chyle and so gathered into the bladder of the gall 34. This humor doth flow from the bladder of the gall by the passage of the Choledochum from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is choler and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to receive to the end of the intestines that it may stimulate the dull intestines by its acrimony to excretion and so bring down the slow flegme adhering to the interior membranes 35. Black choler G or melancholy is a cold and dry humour crass and black acerb acid arising from the grossâ—…r and feculent part of aliment and expurged from the spleen 36. Serum or whey is an excrementitious humor begotten of drink or any other liquor wherewith meat is digested in the stomach by the action of heat in the liver 37. Part of it is mild and distributed together with blood into the veins and so the same made gross by the coction and plenty of fibres and as it were deduced in a chariot to the extremities of the body the other part which is unprofitable is forthwith expelled to the â—…ins and hence by the Uretra's to the bladder 38. This Serum therefore is matter of urine for this is no other thing then serum altered in the liver and vessels attracted from the reins and expulsed into the bladder and at last excreted by the passage of the vein that purer blood may be made 39. But the excrementitious humours which are discerned in the third concoction do either break out of the whole body or by some determinate part 40. Of which sort are sweats and tears which we put amongst the excrements of the third concoction not that they are then generated for their matter is the same with serum but after that the concoction is made they are discerned 41. Sweat therefore is serum altered in the liver and by the conveyance of the blood is transmitted by the veins and at length out of these veins by the insensible passages of the body expulsed into the species of water 42. The usual and natural sweat of our body is of a watry colour but sometimes it is yellowish and reddish by reason of the tenuity of the blood which Aristotle mentions 43. A Tear is a drop contained in the head and angles of the veins which are in the eyes and doth break out by the watry holes to the internal angle of the eye and by compression and dilatation by the scissure of the conjunctive tunicle 44. Hence it is that the coming of tears doth not proceed from the eyes for they are as it were but the emissaries of the drops 45. It behoves also that nature should have given to every man tears properly so called because sometimes he is sad and sometimes rejoyces whence his veins are dilated and compressed 46. They are most prone to tears whose bodies are endowed with a cold and moist tender soft and effeminate constitution and with a moist and languid brain hence it is that children and women more then men are addicted more to pour out tears in such a plentiful manner 47. Great plenty and abundance of tears do flow from them also who have the carnucles and angles of the eyes great and lax 48. And on the contrary some by no force nor means can be made to weep because in them the Lachrymal flesh doth obduce the veins and so hinder the flux of tears 49. Let these suffice to have been spoken of the primary humours both excrementitious and profitable the secondary humours are those which are made new of insited or radical moisture or of blood much concocted 50. Of which sort are these two H Ros and Gluten 51. Ros is an humour which doth distil like a dew generated of blood resolved into vapour and doth resude by the tunicles of the veins and partly flows from or by the pores thereof 52. Gluten is an humour begotten of Ros applied first to the substance of the part and there adhering and then changed by the heat of the parts and it is called Gluten because it agglutinates the parts 53. Therefore we shall exclude the rest either because they are or may be referred to what hath been said or that they are improper wanting names whereby they cannot be appropriated to any class The Commentary A IT is delivered in the definition that an Animal doth consist of Matter and Form Matter is an Animate or Organical body Form is endowed with sense for sense ought to belong and is necessary to such an Animal and of that alone are Animals constituted and therein do they differ from Plants which indeed are animates but destitute of sense Now in animals motion doth always accompany sense as a thing necessary to the conservation of the animal for because it is preserved by nutriment it stands in need of motion to procure that nutriment but every animal by divine ordination doth generate the whole and perfect simile to it self in which generation matter is the seed of both sexes masculine and feminine or a certain simile that is in stead of seed although sometimes certain animates are produced out of putrefaction yet there must be some certain seminal force therein or else it could not be the efficient cause of any such generation B Because these sublunaries do consist of dissimilar natures therefore they are mortal corruptible therefore lest that God should seem to be wanting to them he hath or dained that they that cannot remain in the same number or at least in the same species be revived by annual succession and therefore by the benefit of procreation that one species should proceed out of another whence the life of the dead as we may say is placed in the memory of the living and the father doth live in the son as the artificer in his work But as God is always the first cause of all natures so is he the true proper and first efficient cause in the rise of all animals The secondary or instrumentary are the animals themselves whether masculine or feminine of the same species that they may make one when they are united and distinctly ordered to the obscene parts and instruments of generation for the masculine is generated in another and not in it self the feminine doth generate in it self and not in another Where observe that perfect animals onely can be said to proceed from the congress of the masculine and the feminine yet some may be excepted for of little animals as insects
aliment blood into the general mass of the body But here another question will arise how can the spirits flow into the inward and most remote parts but by penetration and dimension Answer Some bodies are crass and solid and some thin and tender through those that are hard they cannot penetrate but the spirits because they are thin do fly all manner of sense and are diffused without impediment in a moment this way and that way with a certain kind of celerity and do pervade the members neither by their presence filling them nor by their absence emptying them E And in this spirit all the causes come to be considered the matter is the natural spirit procreated in the liver thence carried by the vena cava with the arterious blood that is the purest of blood upwards going into the right side of the heart where it is attenuated most accurately by the passages not altogether occult but if a dog be dissected it will be found in the left side the efficient cause is the strong heat of the heart attenuating and making thin the vital spirit it 's form its rarefaction not unlike to the tenuity of a little flame its end is to conserve life diffused from the heart by the arteries into the universal body F The matter of this spirit is that vital which is carried by the crevices of the arteries to the basis of the brain and it doth slide thereinto as into a net which is placed there by nature as a labyrinth for when any matter would exactly elaborate it doth devise a longer stay in the instruments of coction and afterwards by another context is intromitted into ventricles of the brain the efficient cause is motion but chiefly the proper force of the solid substance of the brain whereby this spirit doth exactly elaborate and so become animal the form of it is rarefaction made perfect by the degeneration of the vital spirit into the animal its end is to shew a sensitive and moving faculty with great celerity from the middle ventricle of the brain by the nerves into the whole body by which spirit the animal faculty is apprehended in man of reason and memory if its force or motion be not hindred CHAP. 9. Of the similar parts of an Animate body 1. HAving expounded the contained parts the continent do follow which consist of substance by reason of that firmness and solidity they have 2. And they are either homogeneous or heterogeneous similar or dissimilar 3. A similar A part is that which may be divided into similes according to the particles of sense and into the same species 4. Of similar parts some are spermatical others carnous 5. The spermatick parts are those which are generated immediately of the crassament of seed and so coalesced into hard substances 6. Of which sort are Bones Cartilages Ligaments Membranes Nerves Arteries Veins Fibres Fat 's Skin 7. Bones are the hardest parts B of animates dry and cold begotten of the crassament of seed by exustion to the stability of the whole 8. These are endowed with no sense because first no Nerves are disseminated by their substance Secondly if they were sensible they could not endure daily labors without great pain and that sensation would either take away the greatest part of action or render it frustraneous 9. A Cartilage C is a kin to these which is a substance or part a little softer then bones and harder then any other member and flexible after a certain manner made to the keeping of motion in its destinated parts 10. A Ligament D is a simple part of the body hard and begotten of seed yet softer then a Cartilage and yielding to the touch knitting the bones together 11. A certain portion of these is called tendous which is a similar part begotten of Fibres Nerves and Ligaments mixed in a muscle all which are called articles 12. A Membrane is a similar part begotten of seed tender covering several other parts 13. The Nerves are spermatick parts arising from the brain or back-bone the interior part of the marrow the exterior of the membrane carrying the animal spirit to sense and motion 14. They are distinguished into softer or harder 15. They are soft which do arise from the former part of the brain 16. And they are seven conjugations for none of all the Nerves are simple but all conjugated whence they are called paria nervorum 17. The chiefest of these are inserted in the centre of the eye and are called the visive or optick nerves carrying the faculty of seeing unto them 18. The second propagation of moving of the nerves is the eyes 19. The third society is partly scattered into the tunicle of the tongue to propogate to the taste and part dispersed in other parts of the face 20. The fourth conjugation is a certain proportion dispersed in the palate 21. The fifth is carried by the auditory passage to the drum of the ears and they are called the auditory nerves 22. The sixth is a large portion of nerves wandring and running almost through all the bowels 23. The seventh arises from the hinder part of the head and the marrow of the back-bone and inserted into the muscles of the tongue and is said to move the tongue 24. The crasser nerves in which there is a more obtuser faculty and they do come out of the marrow of the back-bone carrying sense and motion to the internal parts 25. And thirty of these are alike and combined seven to the hinder part of the neck twelve to the Thorax five to the Lungs six to the sacred bones all which do disperse themselvs like boughs into the other parts of the body 26. The Arteries F are hollow vessels long having two tunicles and those crass and substantial ordained for the deducing of the vital spirit and for temperating and expurging of the heart and other parts to heat 27. And they do arise out of the heart of which two principal Arteries do spring out of the left side thereof from which two all the other take their original Arteria Aorta et Arteria venosa 28. The great Artery Aorta is the foundation of all other Arteries and doth carry the vital spirit to all the other parts of the body 29. The venous artery is stretched out like a quill from the same side of the heart into the liver from whence it brings air to cool the heart 30. A vein G is a similar part and round and hollow like to a reed arising from the liver consisting of one tunicle contexted of three Fibres carrying blood for nutriment together with the natural spirit to the several parts of the body 31. Veins are distinguished into principal and less principal 32. The Principal are those out of which as out of a trunk or stock others do arise and they are two vena porta and vena cava 33 Vena porta is a great vein coming out of the hollow part of the liver and excepting all the Mesenterian veins
by which it takes chyle out of the ventricle and intestines and so doth carry it to the concavity of the liver 34. Vena cava which is also called the great vein doth arise from the bunchy part of the liver and running over the whole longitude of the animal carries the blood to all the parts for nutriment 35. The less principal veins are branches of the former and either they have peculiar names allotted or not 36. The branched veins are partly Mesenterial and partly Hemorrhoidal 37. The causes of these are either external or internal 38. The internal are the emulgent or seminal veins 39. The exterior are the jugular veins in the head the intercostal in the trunk and the auxiliary in the arms of these and all the branches dispersed from them into both the exterior and interior parts of the body no particular names are allotted them 40. The fibres are H similar parts begotten white and solid of seed and dispersed every where over the whole membrane 41. And they are either right oblique or transverse 42. They are right which are carried according to the longitude of the membrane and do serve to attract aliment 43. Those that are transverse are such as are placed cross the body and they retain the attracted aliment 44. Oblique are those that are obduced with an organ crooked and do crosswise cut the two former and have an expelling force 45. Fat is a similar part I of the body moist without blood concreted of the aereal and fatty part of blood erupting by sweat through the tunicles of the vessels and congealed by the frigidity of the nervous parts 46. The skin K is a similar part ample and spermatick and it is the covering of all the parts of the body 47. To this may be added that which is no other then a thin and tender skin not unlike to the peeling of an onyon 48. Hitherto of similar parts which are spermatick they are carnous which are generated of blood and they are the flesh of the muscles 49. Flesh L is a tender part soft and rubicund and concreted of coagulated blood The Commentary A MAny definitions of similar parts are delivered both by ancient and late writers Aristotle doth call that a similar part which is divided into like parts which definition almost all have kept which notwithstanding seems to be imperfect for it must be understood of those things that may be divided into similar parts both according to sense and reason As for example flesh in the judgement of sense may be divided into parts which are similar mutually to it self and to the whole but in reason or imagination it is divided both into the four humours of which it consists and also into the four elements which neither are similar mutually to it self or by being compound to the whole therefore this particle is rightly added in the definition according to sense whence also Galen makes mention of sense saying That these are similar parts which are like in sense and therefore those parts are called rightly similar which do admit of no division altogether sensible into diversities and therefore they are called simple as to sense For although the elements alone are truly simple because they acknowledge no composition onely of matter and form notwithstanding they are called simple and similar parts of animals by a certain similitude and analogy for those things which are truly similar cannot be divided into the parts of a divers species neither in sense nor reason so that what things are onely similar in sense are not to be divided into diversities sense being judge B Bones are called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their substance is hard and dry whence it follows that the same is chiefly terrene that is partaking more of earth then of any other element they are void of sense because much portion of the nerves is disseminated by their substance by the benefit whereof all the parts are sensitive But because some do assert that there is a notable sense in bones We answer that this sense doth not arise from the bones but from that membrane which doth cover the bone for that being abrased the bone may not onely be cut without any pain but without sense But it may be objected that the teeth are bones which experience doth teach to be most exquisite in sense I answer That happens by accident and not of it self for certain soft and tender nerves do appear to be derived from the teeth which because they are disseminated to the inward parts of the teeth do so affect the substance thereof that it causes great pain Furthermore in hollow bones marrow is contained which is a simple substance moist fat and white and the aliment of those bones this marrow is without blood yet hath its original of blood which doth distil out of the orifices of the vessels to the Periostium and so doth pierce into the cavities of the bones the efficient cause is the frigidity of the bones whence it is that cold and moist bodies do abound with much more fatness and marrow then the hot and dry and for this reason the bones of a Lyon do want marrow which of all creatures is the dryest and hottest because they have bones hard and dense It s use is to nourish the bones and to binde with iâ—… incalescency with motions and other causes C A Cartilage is called by the Greeks Condros its substance is terrene and solid but not so much as the bone whence Aristotle doth rightly write that the matter of a Cartilage and Bone to be one and the same matter onely differing in dryness for a Cartilage is softer then a Bone and somewhat flexible whence it gives place with its softness neither doth it so resist as the bone It s use is multifarious for first it is a certain stay and prop and makes the proximate parts more stable Secondly it admirably defends the bones from knocking or grinding together but being annexed by the same they may be more firm and stable Thirdly they promote and cause certain light parts to a promptness of motion in the arteries Fourthly they defend them against many accidents for their substance is idoneous to cover them and defend them because they being hard cannot easily be broken or cut hence we conclude with good reason that a Cartilage is void of sense D The most noted ligaments are in the trunk or artubus the ligaments of the trunk are either in the head or thorax in the head either in the whole or in part for a ligament doth convert the whole head with the spina so the tongue with the jaws In the trunk of the joynts there are ligaments knitting the bodies intrinsecally and cloathing of them as it were extrinsecally the ligaments of the joynts do connect other bones os ilii with os sacrum But there is a certain portion of a ligament called a tendon consisting of the fibres of the nerves and
nourished and it is called exerementitious blood to difference it from the seminal excrement and it is an excrement of the second concoction which is made in the liver and veins and therefore it is that it hath a red colour furthermore that matter which is contained in the veins and expurged by the veins of the womb is this superfluous blood and excrement of the second coction for whereas the Bodies of women are more colder then mens they cannot make perfect their last aliment nor convert it into the substance of the body to be nourished whereupon that which is above and cannot be converted by little and little is thence conveyed to the veins of the womb where it gathers together into one place and what of it cannot be sustained by nature is expelled It s use is necessary for as it helps conception so it nourishes the yong But here a question will arise how the yong whilst it is conceived and framed in 〈◊〉 â—…omb is gotten nourished by this same blood when it is endowed with a bad quality and puts forth many ill affections I answer This blood is not always so bad as is imagined for those women whose bodies are temperate their blood also must needs be temperate and when the body is vitious the blood also must needs be infected But again this pravity in women is purged away every moneth and in them it is otherwise then in those who keep their tearms beyond their accustomed time the former hath no noxious quality in it as to hurt what is generated of it which need not seem strange but if the same blood be not evacuated at its accustomed time but retained it will stir up and cause many bad affections as the suffocation of the matrix 〈◊〉 and the like But now if it be considered in a woman that hath milk in her brests it is otherwise for then blood is conflated of a treble substance for then the alimentary or pure portion of it goes to the nourishment of the yong and part somewhat impurer goes to the brests and converts to milk and the worst of all is contained as excrements in the tunicles where the yong is enrolled which is evacuated at the womans delivery E After the seed of both Sexes together with the menstruous blood is received into the womb it closes up and the seed therein contained is cherished by its heat and begins to act the spiritual part of the seed passes to the bottom and begins the formation and of the crass part of the seed the spermatick parts are engendred and of the menstruous the sanguineous parts F The Notes of conception are these The close shutting up of the womb A kinde of trembling and tickling over the whole body And after that an exceeding refrigeration Loss of stomach Nauseating of victuals Vomitings c. G Generation is made by the mutation of the power into the act and an artificial composition of many existents in the act the Soul is the act of an organical body but the seed is not the organ therefore not the animate then the power above will be the animate for as the Sun not hot doth calefie the Whetstone not sharp yet doth sharpen so also the seed may animate that is the yong is animated by the seed although there be no soul or life in it I It is a great and difficult dispute among Physitians and Philosophers in what order the parts of the yong are framed some think the liver first to be generated others the heart which they say is the first that lives and the last that dies In this Controversie we are to observe that neither the Liver nor the Heart nor any other principal member nor umbilical vessels are generated first as divers have judged â—…everal manner of ways but that all are inchoated in one and the same moment and that for this subsequent reason The vital spirit which is the efficient cause of the generation and the internal natural agent not the external voluntary hath the whole formatrix faculty in every part where it is joyned to the matter fitly disposited it must necessarily act secundum potentias and therefore all the parts of the body are produced by it at once this experience confirms by those who have miscarried in ten twenty or thirty days after conception when the whole substance hath not exceeded the bigness a grain of Barley a Bee or the figure of a Bean yet all its bowels are formed as some late Anatomists have observed CHAP. 16. De Zoophytis or of things that are partly Animals and partly Plants 1. HItherto we have illustrated the first Species of Nature Aisthetices to wit an animal the other which remains to be explained is part Plant and part Animal 2. And these Zoophyta's are corporeal Natures endowed onely with certain senses contracting and dilating themselves by motion 3. Whence Hermolaus Barbarus calls them Plantanimalia Budaeus tearms them Plantanimes because they have a middle and as it were a third Nature between Plants and Animals 4. Whereas they have a certain sense with Animals Hence they dilate themselves pleasantly to such things as they attract and affect but contract themselves if pricked or offended 5. But in the effigies of the Body they come nearest to the Nature of Plants 6. Their formes differ according to their greater or lesser vertue of feeling all of them adhere to Rocks Sand or Mud of which sort are these Holothuria Stella marina Pulmo marinus Uâ—…tica spongiae 7. To these may be added that Tree which grows in the Province of Pudifetanea to which if a man draws nigh it will gather in its boughes as though it were ashamed and when he is gone spread them abroad for which cause the inhabitants thereabouts have nominated it the Chaste tree Scaliger Exer. 181. Sect. 28. FINIS An Advertisement to the Reader THere is now in the Press that excellent Piece intituled Natural Magick in twenty Books by John Baptist Porta a Neopolitane Enlarged by the Author himself and cleared from divers errors wherewith the former Editions were tainted In which all the riches and delights of the natural Sciences are set forth Carefully Translated from the Latine and rendred into English by a worthy hand The Books of Natural Magick are these 1 OF the causes of wonderful things 2 Of the Generation of divers Animals 3 Of the production of new Plants 4 Of increasing Houshold-stuff 5 Of Changing Metals 6 Of Counterfeiting precious Stones 7 Of the wonders of the Load-stone 8 Of strange Cures 9 Of Beautifying of women 10 Of extracting Essences 11 Of Perfuming 12 Of Artificial Fires 13 Of the most rare Tempering of Steel 14 Of Cookery 15 Of Hunting 16 Of invisible Writing 17 Of strange Glasses 18 Of Staticks Experiments 19 Of Pneumatick Experiments 20. Chaos