Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	blood_n	part_n	reason_n	1,453	5	4.9686	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35745	A discourse of a method for the well guiding of reason, and the discovery of truth in the sciences; Discours de la méthode. English	Descartes, René, 1596-1650.	1649 (1649)	Wing D1129; ESTC R22748	43,779	138

very hot vessel For after this I need say no more for to unfold the motion of the heart but that when these concavities are not full of bloud necessarily there runs some from the vena cava into the right and from the veinous artery into the left for that these two vessels are always full of it and that their openings which are towards the heart cannot then be shut But that assoon as there is thus but two drops of bloud entred one in either of these concavities these drops which cannot but be very big by reason that their openings whereby they enter are very large and the vessels whence they come very full of bloud are rarified and dilated because of the heat which they find therein By means whereof causing all the heart to swel they drive and shut the five little doors which are at the entry of the two vessels whence they come hindering thereby any more bloud to fall down into the heart and continuing more and more to rarifie themselves they drive and open the six other little doors which are at the entry of the other two vessels whence they issue causing by that means all the branches of the arterious vein and of the great artery to swel as it were at the same time with the heart which presently after fals as those arteries also do by reason that the bloud which is entred therein grows colder and their six little doors shut up again and those five of the vena cava and of the veinous artery open again and give way to two other drops of bloud which again swell the heart and the arteries in the same manner as the preceding did And because the bloud which thus enters into the heart passeth thorow those two purses which are call'd the ears thence it comes that their motion is contrary to the heart's and that they fall when that swels Lastly That they who know not the force of Mathematical demonstrations and are not accustomed to distinguish true reasons from probable ones may not venture to deny this without examining it I shall advertise them that this motion which I have now discovered as necessarily follows from the onely disposition of the organs which may plainly be seen in the heart and from the heat which we may feel with our fingers and from the nature of the bloud which we may know by experience as the motions of a clock doth by the force situation and figure of its weight and wheels But if it be asked how it comes that the bloud of the veins is not exhausted running so continually into the heart and how that the arteries are not too full since all that which passeth thorow the heart dischargeth it self into them I need answer nothing thereto but what hath been already writ by an English Physician to whom this praise must be given to have broken the ice in this place and to be the first who taught us That there are several little passages in the extremity of the arteries whereby the bloud which they receive from the heart enters the little branches of the veins whence again it sends it self back towards the heart so that its course is no other thing but a perpetuall circulation Which he very wel proves by the ordinary experience of Chirurgians who having bound the arm indifferently hard above the the place where they open the vein which causeth the bloud to issue more abundantly then if it had not been bound And the contrary would happen were it bound underneath between the hand and the incision or bound very hard above For its manifest that the band indifferently tyed being able to hinder the bloud which is already in the arm to return towards the heart by the veins yet it therefore hinders not the new from coming always by the arteries by reason they are placed under the veins and that their skin being thicker are less easie to be press'd as also that the bloud which comes from the heart seeks more forcibly to passe by them towards the hand then it doth to return from thence towards the heart by the veins And since this bloud which issues from the arm by the incision made in one of the veins must necessarily have some passage under the bond to wit towards the extremities of the arm whereby it may come thither by the arteries he also proves very well what he sayes of the course of the bloud through certain little skins which are so disposed in divers places along the veins which permit it not to pass from the middle towards the extremities but onely to return from the extremities towards the heart And besides this experience shews That all the bloud which is in the body may in a very little time run out by one onely artery's being cut although it were even bound very neer the heart and cut betwixt it and the ligature So that we could have no reason to imagine that the bloud which issued thence could come from any other part But there are divers other things which witness that the true cause of this motion of the bloud is that which I have related As first The difference observed between that which issues out of the veins and that which comes out of the arteries cannot proceed but from its being rarified and as it were distilled by passing thorow the heart it s more subtil more lively and more hot presently after it comes out that is to say being in the arteries then it is a little before it enters them that is to say in the veins And if you observe you will finde that this difference appears not well but about the heart and not so much in those places which are farther off Next the hardnesse of the skin of which the artery vein and the great artery are composed sheweth sufficiently that the bloud beats against them more forcibly then against the veins And why should the left concavity of the heart and the great artery be more large and ample then the right concavity and the arterious vein unless it were that the bloud of the veinous artery having bin but onely in the lungs since its passage thorow the heart is more subtil and is rarified with more force and ease then the bloud which immediately comes from the vena cava And what can the Physicians divine by feeling of the pulse unlesse they know that according as the bloud changeth its nature it may by the heat of the heart be rarified to be more or lesse strong and more or lesse quick then before And if we examine how this heat is communicated to the other members must we not avow that 't is by means of the bloud which passing the heart reheats it self there and thence disperseth it self thorow the whole body whence it happens that if you take away the bloud from any part the heat by the same means also is taken away And although the heart were as burning as hot iron it were not sufficient to

there is no means left to convince them Wherein they seem like to a blinde man who to fight without disadvantage against one that sees should challenge him down into the bottom of a very dark cellar And I may say that it is these mens interest that I should abstain from publishing the principles of the Philosophy I use for being most simple and most evident as they are I should even do the same in publishing of them as if I opened some windows to let the day into this cellar into which they go down to fight But even the best Wits have no reason to wish for the knowledge of them for if they will be able to speak of all things and acquire the reputation of being learned they will easily attain to it by contenting themselves with probability which without much trouble may be found in all kinde of matters then in seeking the Truth which discovers it self but by little and little in some few things and which when we are to speak of others oblige us freely to confesse our ignorance of them But if they prefer the knowledge of some few truths to the vanity of seeming to be ignorant of nothing as without doubt they ought to do and will undertake a designe like mine I need not tell them any more for this purpose but what I have already said in this Discourse For if they have a capacity to advance farther then I have done they may with greater consequence finde out of themselves whatsoever I think I have found Forasmuch as having never examined any thing but by order it 's certain that what remains yet for me to discover is in it self more difficult and more hid then what I have already here before met with and they would receive much lesse satisfaction in learning it from me then from themselves Besides that the habit which they would get by seeking first of all the easie things and passing by degrees to others more difficult will be more usefull to them then all my instructions As I for my part am perswaded that had I been taught from my youth all the Truths whose demonstrations I have discovered since and had taken no pains to learn them perhaps I should never have known any other or at least I should never have acquired that habit and that faculty which I think I have still to finde out new ones as I apply my self to the search of them And in a word if there be in the world any work which cannot be so well ended by any other as by the same who began it it 's that which I am now about It 's true That one man will not be sufficient to make all the experiments which may conduce thereunto But withall he cannot profitably imploy other hands then his own unlesse it be those of Artists or others whom he hires and whom the hope of profit which is a very powerfull motive might cause exactly to do all those things he should appoint them For as for voluntary persons who by curiosity or a desire to learn would perhaps offer themselves to his help besides that commonly they promise more then they perform and make onely fair propositions whereof none ever succeeds they would infallibly be paid by the solution of some difficulties or at least by complements and unprofitable entertainments which could not cost him so little of his time but he would be a loser thereby And for the Experiments which others have already made although they would even communicate them to him which those who call them Secrets would never do they are for the most part composed of so many circumstances or superfluous ingredients that it would be very hard for him to decypher the truth of them Besides he would find them all so ill exprest or else so false by reason that those who made them have laboured to make them appear conformable to their principles that if there were any which served their turn they could not at least be worth the while which must be imployed in the choice of them So that if there were any in the world that were certainly known to be capable of finding out the greatest things and the most profitable for the Publick which could be and that other men would therefore labour alwayes to assist him to accomplish his Designes I do not conceive that they could do more for him then furnish the expence of the experiments whereof he stood in need and besides take care only that he may not be by any body hindred of his time But besides that I do not presume so much of my Self as to promise any thing extraordinary neither do I feed my self with such vain hopes as to imagine that the Publick should much interesse it self in my designes I have not so base a minde as to accept of any favour whatsoever which might be thought I had not deserved All these considerations joyned together were the cause three years since why I would not divulge the Treatise I had in hand and which is more that I resolved to publish none whilest I lived which might be so general as that the Grounds of my Philosophy might be understood thereby But since there hath been two other reasons have obliged me to put forth some particular Essays and to give the Publick some account of my Actions and Designes The first was that if I failed therein divers who knew the intention I formerly had to print some of my Writings might imagine that the causes for which I forbore it might be more to my disadvantage then they are For although I do not affect glory in excess or even if I may so speak that I hate it as far as I judge it contrary to my rest which I esteem above all things Yet also did I never seek to hide my actions as crimes neither have I been very wary to keep my self unknown as well because I thought I might wrong my self as that it might in some manner disquiet me which would again have been contrary to the perfect repose of my minde which I seek And because having alwayes kept my self indifferent caring not whether I were known or no I could not chuse but get some kinde of reputation I thought that I ought to do my best to hinder it at least from being ill The other reason which obliged me to write this is that observing every day more and more the designe I have to instruct my self retarded by reason of an infinite number of experiments which are needful to me and which its impossible for me to make without the help of others although I do not so much flatter my self as to hope that the Publick shares much in my concernments yet will I not also be so much wanting to my self as to give any cause to those who shall survive me to reproach this one day to me That I could have left them divers things far beyond what I have done had I not too much neglected to make them