the Principles of the Blood and of all Remedies likewise I know that the Chymists will immediately answer That they have with a great deal of Toil and Labour not only separated from mixt Bodies the before mentioned four Principles but also discovered their Nature for they confidently tell us that the nature of Earth is to be porous to absorb Water Salt and Oil that the nature of Water is to dissolve Salt of Sulphur to be inflammable and of Salt to prick and be dissolved by Water But they need not take so much pains to tell us of a thing that every body knows without the least insight in Chymistry A Country-man knows that a Pot full of Ashes will soak a great deal of Water or any other fluid Body That Water dissolves Sugar and Salt that Oil burns and Salt pricks the Tongue This is not answering the Question for they take the Effects of those Elements for their Nature To say that Earth absorbs that Water dissolves Salt that Oil takes flame and that Salt bites is to tell me only what these Principles are capable of doing not what they really are in themselves If being asked by a Person What is Man I should answer that he is a reasonable Animal or an Animal capable of Reason he should not doubtless be satisfied with my Answer because I tell him what Man can do not what he is since he exists before he can reason I desire to know what is the particular Figure the Specifick Fabrick and the inward Nature of Earth that makes it produce an Effect different to that of Water and of Salt to produce a different Effect to that of Oil. Until therefore we are more intimately acquainted with the different Bulk Texture and Figure which are the ground of the Virmes and Qualities of all these Elements we can give no satisfactory Account of their Effects and we must consequently be uncertain as to the Operation of a Remedy which has any of 'em predominating in it I confess it will be a difficult matter to determine the different bulk and figure of the Atoms of Principles à priori as they term it for they are so small and imperceptible that we cannot discern any of 'em even with the most refin'd Microscopes Yet I do not despair but by calculating and summing up all the Effects and Proprieties of each of 'em by Reason I may discover at least à posteriori as they call it their different Bulk and Figure which are the only primary Qualities they differ in For it is plain to me that when I consider that a drop of Water is insipid transparent easily evaporated that it penetrates most Bodies and dissolves all Salts I can reasonably determine the Figure and Bulk of its Particles that are sutable to these Phenomena I can say as much of a spoonful of Earth when I observe that it is spongy solid poroud friable opaque insipid that it sinks in Water that it cannot be raised by Fire in Distillation that it is the Matrix and Support of the rest of the Principles of any mixt Body Likewise of Oil or Sulphur when I find it is fluid insipid ropy inflammable extreamly penetrating and immiscible with Water I can guess the Nature or Texture of Parts which is capable of such Effects When I see that an Acid Salt is always of its own nature fluid sharp transparent penetrating that it dissolves solid Bodies and coagulates sulphureous ones as Blood Milk c. When I consider that an Alkali Salt is always of its own nature solid white porous friable sharp dissolvable by Water easily movable that it ferments with Acids absorbs them and dissolves sulphureous Bodies I can reasonably conjecture the Figure that renders both Salts capable of producing such different nay contrary Effects which I endeavour to perform in the Chymical and Anatomical Experiments which I make at present in my Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Library which his Grace out of his wonted Inclination to serve the Publick has been pleased to give me the use of for this purpose After having examin'd the nature of the different Atoms of Matter I trace their Effects and Operations all which I find are perform'd by Motion which is the only Cause of all things and which has no other Cause or Nature it self that I know but the pure Will of the Deity For a Body cannot be moved without it receives all its Motion from another Body that is in motion which Motion this second Body receiv'd from a third that was put in motion by a fourth and this fourth by a fifth So tracing backward to the Creation the successive Transit of Motion from one Body to another we must come to a first Motion of Bodies which flowed immediately from the Creator A Body cannot lose its Motion without communicating it all to another Body consequently there must be the same quantity of Motion now in the World as was in the beginning For no Motion can be lost and no new Motion can be produced By examining the Laws and Occasions of Motion I consider the Nature Conditions and Effects of Fermentation which is the chiefest and most universal Motion in Nature by the means of which are formed so many different Minerals Vegetables and Animals of the different Proportion different Situation and different Application of our four Elements Earth Water Salt and Sulphur But my chief Design is to shew how the different Parts of Man's Body which is the principal Subject of this Animal Oeconomy are made of them For out of his Bones his Flesh his Viscera and even his Blood and other Humours I draw in more or less quantity first Water then Volatil Spirit or Salt afterwards an inflammable Oil and there remains the Earth out of which I draw by Water a fixt Salt I do not only examine the Nature and Proportion of the four essential Principles of our Body but also what is more necessary I design by Anatomy to demonstrate to the Eye the Structure Texture and Use of its solid sensible and integrant Parts as Bones Cartilages Ligaments Muscles Membranes Veins Arteries Nerves Lymphatic Vessels and Glands all which I find to be formed of vascular Fibres of the same kind for I do not see that the Fibres of a Muscle differ from them of a Tendon nor the Fibres of a Membrane from them of a Ligament nor them of a Cartilage from the Fibres of a Bone nor the Fibres of any part as for their Structure from the Fibres of all the parts I confess the Fibres of some parts of the Body are more strictly united together than others which makes the Compactness of some Parts and the Limberness of others so all parts differ from one another only in a stricter or looser Union of their Fibres since we find by Experience that Flesh becomes as hard as Bone and Bone as soft as Flesh For we frequently discover in dissecting dead Bodies that the Center of the Heart which is naturally
Parts of the Body desir'd to know what was properly Death The School Divinity maintains that Death was a Separation of the rational Soul from the Body I own'd indeed that in Death the Soul was actually separated from the Body but I could not allow that that Separation was the cause of Death but that the Death of the Body was the Cessation of the Motion of the Heart of the Blood and of the Spirits which Cessation could not proceed from the Separation of the Soul since these don't at all depend upon it as I proved before but it was occasion'd by some Defects in the Organs and Fluids of the Body which losing their due Disposition and their mutual Correspondence with one another all their Actions cease which Cessation is properly called Death so that the Soul finding them incapable of receiving its Influence and of obeying its Commands quits the Body after it is dead by which it appears that the Separation of the Soul is not properly the Cause of Death but that the Death of the Body is the cause of the Separation The King himself illustrated this Opinion with a familiar Example of an Organ and an Organist While the Organs were in their due order and symetry the Organist play'd upon them but when by length of time they were either broke used too much or any other way quite put out of Tune he leaves off playing on them This Discourse my Lord held from three of the Clock till seven and the Divines were extreamly warm in it and some of them had the boldness to tell the King that his Majesty should not suffer such Heretical Opinions as they called them to be introduc'd before such a great Assembly contrary to the receiv'd Doctrine of the Church This Discourse caused a great many other Matters to be talk'd on of which it would be too long to inform your Lordship By this you may plainly see how fond the Divines are of their old Opinions relying upon the Doctrine of Aristotle whom we can't suppose to be so throughly acquainted with the Structure Springs and Motions of the Humane Body nor indeed with all other Natural Causes as the Modern Physicians are yet it is the Policy of the Divines not only in Poland but in Spain Italy and in most other Countries where their Power is very great not to let any Opinions creep in among them that would seem to contradict those of Aristotle for having built their Systems of Divinity upon the Principles of this Pagan Philosopher they are justly afraid that if Experience and Reason should shake the Foundation the Superstructure would fall to the Ground as doubtless it would for the most part This King built several fine Houses both in Russia and other parts of the Kingdom particularly three Miles from Warsaw a neat Country House call'd Villa Nova very richly furnished He has had several Natural Children but took no care of any of them for it is not customary in Poland to have that Consideration for them as there is in other Countries but he left vast Riches to his Lawful Children and made a Motion in the Diet five or six Years before he died to settle the Succession on one of them He told the Assembly of the Disorders that usually happened in Elections after the King's Death that the Turks and the Tartars took then Opportunities to make Inroads into the Country and ravage all before them that the Nobility of the Kingdom were generally divided headed by Factions and biass'd by Self-interest against the publick Good of their Country and that he himself would be glad to prevent all those dangerous Broils before he died out of the Love he bore to his Country and Subjects But the Diet finding that his private Design was to get one of his Sons elected answered That they hoped that his Majesty would live yet a long while that it was necessary to take a long time to consider of a Matter of that great moment which the King seeing it was a civil way of refusing to enter upon that Subject never after intimated any thing to them like it but took all possible care to enrich his Children in case none of them should be elected after his Death It was exactly computed to me that he laid up every Year for above twenty Years 100000 l. Sterl which he left partly in Bankers Hands at Dantzick Hamburgh and Amsterdam and put the rest into the hands of the Jews who are very numerous in that Kingdom to trade with it besides he bought great Territories in the Kingdom tho it is against the Constitution so that his three Sons James Alexander and Constantino if they manage their Affairs right may be worth each above 50000 l. Sterling per Annum for it is the Law in Poland to divide equally the Estate among the Children The Queen was but ten or twelve Years of Age when she together with the present Duke of Gordon's Aunt afterwards married to Count Morstin great Treasurer of Poland came from France into this Kingdom with Ladislaus King of Poland's Queen who made them both her Maids of Honour and took great care of Madamoiselle d' Arquien being very ingenious and beautiful She got her married first to Prince Zamoiski who soon left her a Widow with a Jointure of about 2000 l. a Year she was afterwards married in Casimir's Reign to John Sobieski then Captain of the Guards who was not very willing to marry her until the King promis'd that he would give him considerable Places which he accordingly did by the Instigation of the Queen for he made him Great Marshal and Great General of Poland which gave him Authority and Interest enough to make himself afterwards King and her Queen so that this Marriage was the occasion of his Rise in the World which he was so sensible of that he refus'd to be divorced from her as the Diet would have perswaded him to do after his Election The Queen is now about fifty four Years of Age tho she appears not to be forty she goes in the French Dress as all the Polish Ladies do she speaks almost naturally the Polish Tongue which with lier sweet Temper refin'd Sense and majestick Air gain'd her such Affection with the Poles such Influence over the King and such Interest always in the Diet that she manag'd all with a great deal of Prudence and that to the advantage of her native Country France whose Interest she generally espous'd upon most occasions during the King's Life which was believ'd to be the Cause that he did not carry on the War with vigour these late years against the Turks and Tartars She maintain'd at her Court her Father Cardinal D' Arquien and her Brother Count Maligny who had but a very small Estate of their own She has two Sisters one is the Widow of the late Count Bethune who was Ambassador from France in Poland and afterwards dy'd in his Embassy in
shew'd it to some Friends They owned the Notions I advanced and the ways of Explication I proposed were new to them and might be so to others and tho they were not nor could be convinc'd that these were the very ways the Supream Power proceeded in the effecting of such Operations yet they seemed inclinable to imagine that upon these Principles supernatural Effects and the Operations of them were conceivable by such as know any thing of the Nature and Laws of Motion This Communication of my Thoughts gave oecasion to others to discourse with me about them and to desire that if I did intend to publish them I would in the mean time give them at least the general Heads of my Design This I was willing to have been excused in as having not digested them into that Order I might at last publish them in and was willing to reserve to my self a Power of making what Additions or Retrenchments I should afterwards think fit to make but the Plan of the Essay happening not to be fully represented and afterwards being worse understood and commented upon I at last resolv'd to publish it as soon as I could seeing Persons industriously reported things I never thought of My Design therefore Sir is to endeavour to make it no longer a Difficulty to conceive and make evident by Reason and the Principles of Physick I mean the Principles of Nature all the supernatural Effects authentically delivered to us concerning Bodies chiefly but particularly the Humane I mean supposing those Effects to be true Matters of Fact and all Matters of Fact as well Natural as Supernatural to be immediate Effects of a Supream Being which must be granted it is as easy to conceive the manner how this Infinite Power may be apply'd to Bodies to work supernatural Effects as to produce the common Phaenomena of Nature By this I hope to convince our Scepticks the Deists who must give their Assent when they have the same evident Reason to conceive the Possibility and consequently to believe the Truth of such miraculous Effects that are authentically related as they have to conceive that Straw can burn in a flaming Fire The Foundation I go upon is the Structure of the Human Body which I have often taken to pieces by Anatomy and resolv'd into its essential Elements or minute Particles by Chymistry for I find it as necessary to be acquainted with its Fabrick to give an Account of the miraculous States it is supposed to have been in supernaturally as it is to explain the natural Effects commonly produc'd in it For want of a sufficient Insight in this matter several Divines of the latter Ages have given very gross Ideas of the supernatural Effects they have pretended to explain and in several places where I have been I saw them either through Ignorance or for Interest give out for Miracles Phaenomena that were only surprizing Effects of Natural Causes which has given so great an occasion to Scepticism and increase of Deism Having laid down for my Basis the Structure of the Human Body as far as I could discover from my Senses Anatomy Fire Microscopes and Experiments I proceed to examine and endeavour to explain the different ways its natural State is suppos'd to have been supernaturally alter'd by an Infinite Power For finding that the Human Body is all Matter and that all this Matter is nothing but a Union of Particles with Bulk Figure and respective Situation I thought that all the Alterations that could supernaturally happen to this Bulk Figure or situation could be conceiv'd But before I enter upon those nice Subjects I find it first necessary to enquire into the Cause Nature and Laws of Motion because Motion is the only true Cause of all Natural Phaenomena and the Suspensions of the Laws of this Motion are the only Causes of all supernatural Effects I conceive the Laws of Motion can be suspended three different ways and by one or more of those Laws of Suspension it is as easy to solve clearly all supernatural Effects as it is to explain the most evident Effects of Natural Causes by the common Laws of Motion Tho I mention that all supernatural Effects whatsoever can be easily reduc'd to some of the three Laws of Suspension of Motion notwithstanding I do not design to speak of them all in particular but of such only as are most in dispute among the Learned Yet any understanding Man may easily make his Application and resolve all other miraculous Effects into one or other of ' em By the Suspension of the Laws of Motion I do not mean that these Laws are changed or abrogated but only that their Course is stopt while an Effect is produc'd by the immediate Action of the Deity without any Influence of theirs for some particular end and it cannot be denied but that the Supream Legislator who made first the Laws may suspend them when he pleases and in that state of Suspension produce of himself alone without their Concurrence the same Effects which are wont to be produced only by the same Laws put in Execution So that tho a Body for Example of a hundred Pound Weight by the established Laws of Motion must be moved by another that has several degrees of Motion yet an Infinite Power may of himself either move it without the Concurrence of another Body or hinder its being moved by any other Body of what weight soever tho put into the most rapid Motion as if combustible Matter should be in a flaming Fire without burning Because my Design in that Book is to explain all the supernatural States that our Body is supposed to have been put into and since its being in two places at once is the State the most disputed and doubted of I thought it convenient to examine the Reasons of those that assert it capable of being in several places at once to see whether they are reconcileable with our Senses and with the Nature and Structure of a Human Body which is the chief thing to be consider'd I find it impostible to conceive that a Human Body can be in two places at the same time after the manner they have hitherto describ'd since the same Human Body can never be in two places at once with the same Bulk and with the same quantity of Matter It is true that considering the Divisibility of Matter the Structure of the Human Body the smalness of the first Stamina of the Embryo and Foetus and the Principles and Mechanism of Generation I have thought of one particular way different from all that has ever been said upon this Subject by which I may conceive that tho the self-same numerical Particles of Matter can never be in two places at once yet a Human Body tho not the rational Soul can be multiplied by an Infinite Power But since we have no evident Proof or Experience that any Human Body has ever been thus multiplied and because from conceiving the poslibility of it it is thought
any that I have seen in Europe for their Furs are very fine and dear their very Fur Caps cost sometimes 20 or 30 Guineas they change the Fashion of making their Clothes as often as our Western Countries do The King was a well spoken Prince of very easy Access and extream civil and had most of the good Qualities requisite in a Gentleman he was not only well vers'd in all Military Affairs but likewise in all Polite and Scholastick Learning besides his own Tongue the Sclavonian he understood the Latin French Italian German and Turkish Languages he delighted much in Natural History and in all the parts of Physick he us'd to reprimand the Clergy for not admitting into the University and Schools the Modern Philosophy he lov'd to hear Persons discourse of those Matters and had a particular Talent to set People about him very artfully by the Ears that by their Disputes he might be diverted as hapned often in my time especially once when I was undesignedly concerned my self the King being at Dinner and having the Bishops of Posnania Plosko Vilna and other Divines about him particularly Father Vota an ingenious Jesuit the King ask'd me in Latin What part of the Body I thought the Soul was in I was willing to decline talking of that Subject and told the King That being a Physician my chief Enquiry was about the Body and that the Divines there present were able to satisfy his Majesty The King reply'd That since the Soul has an Influence upon the Body and since the Passions of the Mind as Anger and Fear breed Fevers and other Distempers it was necessary that the Physicians should examine the Soul in that respect as well as the Body I answer'd That Physicians did enquire into the Nature of Passions and observ'd that there was such an Influence of the Soul upon the Body and of the Body upon the Soul that alter'd the thoughts of the one as well as the Operations of the other but that the Soul being a Substance invisible and without Extension it was impossible for Physicians to conceive the Nature of it themselves or explain it to others as they do that of the Body which they take into pieces by Anatomy and resolve into its minutest Elements by Chymistry that the Physicians only agree in the main that the supreme Author of things has establish'd such Laws between the Soul and the Body which make a mutual Correspondence between them that as for the Seat of the Soul I might perhaps differ from the Divines then present and consequently oppose the common Doctrine of the Schools for they hold with Aristotle that the Soul is entire in all the Body and wholly in every part of the Body which was impossible to conceive for if the Soul was entire in every part of the Body there would be as many Souls in the Body as there are Parts since it is impossible that the self-same Substance tho an indivisible Spirit can ever be in two places at the same time besides the Soul can't be but where it does think and every one finds by Experience that his Thought is not in his Hands nor Feet but is conscious to himself that his Thought is in his Head and that consequently the Soul must be only in the Brain which is the Seat of Sensation and the Origin of all the Nerves which are the Organs of Perception and Motion Father Vota being alarm'd at this Doctrine which seem'd altogether new in that part of Europe said That if the Soul was only in the Head the rest of the Body would be dead since the receiv'd Opinion was that the Soul was the Life of the whole Body and that to enliven the whole Body the Soul must be wholly present in every part of it This drew on a longer Dispute than I expected for I answer'd That the Rational Soul was not the Life of the Body but the Blood only and the Animal Spirits and that this Blood and Spirits circulated equally all over the Body and gave it its natural Heat and Motion which is properly its Life and that this Circulation of the Blood and Spirits could not possibly depend on the Rational Soul because it was an involuntary Motion formed by the Mechanic Structure of the Body and by the natural Impulse of the Heart which is the Primum Mobile of the whole Machine and that tho they all held not only in Poland but in other Countries that the Rational Soul perform'd every minute Action in the Body yet this Opinion was irreconcilable with the free Will of the Mind which they all admitted for since they allow that whatever the Soul does not only it is conscious of it but likewise does it freely without being necessitated thereto when as it is evidently obvious to every one that the vital Motions in our Bodies I mean the Motion of the Heart and that of Respiration with the Peristaltic Motion of the Stomach and Guts are perform'd naturally with such Mechanism that the Soul can't stop them no nor as much as hasten or retard them and that the Soul is not at all conscious of them for if we think of any Object or not think at all as when we are asleep or in an Apoplex those vital Motions go on equally the same The Bishop of Posnania who was bred up in his Youth a Physician seem'd to speak in favour of this Opinion as did likewise some others of the Company which made the Jesuit very angry insomuch that he acquainted them in a kind of Passion That neither the King nor they ought to hearken to any Discourse contrary to the receiv'd Opinion of the Church that it might have been a pernicious Discourse had it been publick for says he if the Soul be not in all the Body and if it does not animate the Body and perform all its vital Functions it would be of no use and consequently we should live like other Animals I answer'd him That doubtless the Operations of Life were perform'd by the same Mechanism in us as they were in Brutes since we have the same Organs with them as likewise the same Fluids to enliven us That the Prerogatives of the Soul are not less for its not being present to every Action of the Body for the Soul tho it is not the cause of spontaneous or vital Motion in us yet it performs all voluntary Actions as speaking walking and all other free Motions of the Body it receiv'd all Impressions from the five Senses it forms to it self all Ideas of ambient Objects it reasons upon them to know what 's most useful and hurtful to it self and to the Body The Soul in short is like the Pilot tho it does not set the Body in motion as the Wind does a Ship yet it is capable of governing its Actions and directing voluntarily its Course The King being thus satisfied that the rational Soul did not actuate as they call it or enliven all the
1290 46 XXXIII Henry I. 1290 6 1296 48 XXXIV Premislus 1296 7 Mon. 1296 ib. XXXV Vladislaus Locticus 1296 4 1300 49 XXXVI Winceslaus K. of Bomia 1300 5 1305 ib. XXXVII Locticus restor'd 1305 28 1333 50 XXXVIII Casimir III. the Great 1333 37 1370 54 XXXIX Lewis K. of Hungary 1370 12 1382 56 XL. Queen Hedwigis 1382 4 1386 58 XLI Jagello or Vladislaus V. 1386 49 1435 59 XLII Vladislaus VI. 1435 21 1446 60 XLIII Casimir IV. 1446 43 1493 63 XLIV John Albert 1493 8 1501 66 XLV Alexander 1501 6 1507 67 XLVI Sigismund I. 1507 41 1548 69 XLVII Sigismund II. 1548 26 1574 75 XLVIII Henry of Valois 1574 5 Mon. 1577 85 XLIX Stephen Batori 1577 10 1587 88 L. Sigismund III. 1587 45 1632 106 LI. Vladislaus VII 1632 16 1648 121 LII John Casimir 1648 22 1670 124 LIII Michael Wiesnowiski 1670 4 1674 145 LIV. John Sobieski 1674 23 1697 163 LV. Frederic Augustus now reigning 1697 5 Mon. 207 FINIS Partis Prima A Compendious Plan OF THE Body of Physick A Letter from a Gentleman in Cambridg to Dr. Connor concerning the Method he us'd in his Physical and Anatomical Lectures and in explaining the Materia Medica at Oxford in the Year 1695. SIR WE have here some Account of the accurate Course of the Chymical and Anatomical Lectures which you perform'd last Spring at Oxford and of your new method of explaining the Virtues of Medicines there with the Approbation and Improvement of all that had the Happiness to assist at them I have spoke with some curious Genntlemen that some Years ago saw your Dissections at Paris with the like good Success And I doubt not but your Skill and Insight in all the Parts of Physick is considerably augmented since by your Travels into Italy Germany Poland and the Low Countries having had thereby the Opportunity of conversing with Malpighi Bellini Redi and the most celebrated Physicians of those Places I have also with a great deal of Pleasure perused your ingenious Dissertationes Medico-Physicae or Latin Treatises lately printed at Oxford concerning malignant Damps pestilential Steams infectious Air and Subterraneous Poisons with certain other stupendous and rare Phaenomena From all this I conclude that you not only understand Chymistry Anatomy and the Materia Medica very well your self but that also you are capable to lead others into the Knowledg of them by a most easy and compendious Method in which Opinion I am confirmed by my Correspondent in Oxford Many besides my self in this University do earnestly wish that your other Occupations would permit you to pass some Months here with us as indeed we expected you should when you left Oxford last Summer But since it so falls out that your Practice keeps you at London we intreat the Favour of you to let us understand whether we may obtain a Scheme of your Method in those Physical Exercises or whether at London you can spare any time to such as are desirous to wait upon you to this purpose Sir by so doing you are like to oblige several but more particularly Cambridg Octob. 15. 1695. Your most humble and obedient Servant C. P. Dr. Connor's Answer containing a Plan of his Corpus Rationale Medicum or of his new and compendious Method Chymical and Anatomical for understanding the Oeconomia Animalis the nature of Diseases and the Materia Medica SIR WHatever you are pleased to say in Commendation of me or my Book I must wholly attribute to your Civility and will return no other Compliment to you for it but that I shall endeavour to deserve your good Opinion I am extreamly oblig'd to your Correspondent in Oxon for the advantagious Character he gives of me and I assure you that I have not met with better Discipline nor with Persons more universally learned in any University of Europe As for the Method or Scheme I observed at Oxford to lead the Proficients in Physick and other ingenious Gentlemen there into the Knowledg of the Fabrick natural Functions and Distempers of the Human Body as likewise into the Knowledg of the Materia Medica to cure the same Diseases it is as follows I consider'd Man in the first place as a Being compounded of Spirit and Matter But seeing it is only the last of these Parts wherein our Faculty is concern'd I took a stricter veiw of the Human Body and find the Structure of it like that of most other Animals But to have any accurate Knowledg of Man we must not only have a distinct Account of his constituent Parts but likewise of all the external Bodies which any way affect him or contribute to his Preservation Since therefore he cannot live without Earth to tread upon Air to breath Animals and Vegitables to feed upon Sun and Stars to afford him Warmth and Light c. we must by consequence examine the System and Elements of the World and particularly as they concur to the Preservation or Destruction of Man We must be very well acquainted with the nature of the three mixt Bodies of our Globe viz. Animals Vegetables and Minerals before we can give any tolerable Account of the Generation Nourishment Health Diseases or Death of Man before we can discover the admirable Fabrick and Contexture the Mechanick and Hydraulical Actions Chymical Preparations the various Operations of Medicines and an infinite number of other surprizing Phoenomena in the Human Body The best Method therefore I presume is to proceed Analytically from the previous Examination of all the known Parts of the great World to particular Enquiries into the Microcosm Now the first step to this Method is a good Insight by Chymical Experiments into the Nature more especially the Figuration and Qualities of the Principles of mixt Bodies and chiefly of the Blood For the want of such a Discovery which is not impossible has hitherto been a great Obstruction to the Improvement of Natural Philosophy and the Practice of Physick It is plain to me that a Man void of all Prejudice and who considers that all the Operations of Bodies are perform'd by natural Causes without Miracles may be easily convinc'd that the Causes of Diseases and the true use of Applications to cure them can be render'd very intelligible so that vulgar Axiom That there 's no certainty in Physick will be found most erroneous I don 't Sir pretend to have discover'd this just Method which I hold necessary to lead us into the abstruse Secrets of Nature but I would fain hope that the following Scheme which is that I observ'd at Oxford may approach it in some degree which Method tho it may be call'd altogether new may perhaps be a just Model for others to imitate hereafter in the true Theory and Practice of Physick which rightly consider'd are one and the same thing A NEW PLAN OF AN Animal Oeconomy Demonstrated at Oxford in the Spring Anno 1695 at London the Winter following and at Cambridg in the Year 1696. 1. OF the Elements
Fabrick and System of the World with the mutual Cohesion Influence and Dependance of its Parts 2. Of the Elements of Terrestrial Bodies where after various Chymical Experiments are consider'd the Nature Properties Figures and Effects of the four Chymical Principles Earth Water Salt and Sulphur and their main mutual Action Fermentation as also the Productions of Animals Vegetables and Minerals 3. Of the Structure of the Human Body and its division into fluid and solid Parts where a particular and new Account is given of the Nature and Contexture of the solid Parts being all made of Vascular Fibres and demonstrated to the Eye by Dissection 4. Of the fluid Parts of the Human Body of the Nature Principles Fermentation and Circulation of the Blood of Nutrition of the Temperaments of the Humours contain'd in the Blood of the seat and nature of Fevers where likewise of Youth old Age and Death 5. Of the Reparation of the Blood of the Chyle Lacteous Vessels Chyliferous Duct of Appetite Mastication Digestion and the Ferment of the Stomach of the Precipitation or Separation of the Excrements from the Chyle where of the Structure of the Oesophagu Or Gullet of that of the Stomach and all the Intestines of the Peristaltic and Antiperistaltic Motions of the Guts of the Glands of the Mesentery of the Lympha and the Lymphatic Vessels 6. Of the Structure Motion and Vse of the Heart where of the various kinds of Pulses of the Polypus in the Heart Palpitation and Swooning likewise a new Hypothesis of the Motion of the Heart and of Sanguification 7. Of the Contexture of the Windpipe or Trachea Arteria and the Lungs where of the Cause and Vse of Respiration a new Account of the Nature of the Air Nitre and of the Vnvoluntariness of Respiration of the Hiccock 8. Of the Praecordi Or sanguiferous Vessels appended to the Heart where the Structure Motion and Difference of the Veins and Arterics are demonstrated 9. Of the numerous Ramifications of the Vena Porta and both the Vena Cava 's of Varix 's Hemorrhoides Bleeding c. 10. Of the Ramifications of both the Aorta 's throughout the whole Body of an Anevrism 11. Of the Brain and Cerebellum a new Account of the Animal Spirits their Generation Motion and Vse of Perception Sleeping Waking and the Influence of the Soul upon the Body where of Sensation and the five Senses 12. Of the Eye Tears Nasal and Aqueous Ducts Of Sight Blindness Light Colours and the sharp Sight of some Animals 13. Of the Fabrick of the Nose the Membrana Pituitaria Snot Smelling and Sneezing Of the mutual Influence of the Nose and Tongue 14. Of the Tongue Palat and Gums of the Muscles and Motions of the Tongue of Taste Voice Stuttering and Dumbness 15. Of the Larynx Pharynx the Os Hyoides Of the Glands Salivation and Spittle of the Almonds and Uvula c. 16. Of Feeling the Cuticula Skin Hairs milliary Glands the mucous and reticular Bodies of Fat Transpiration Sweat the Itch cutaneous Diseases Palsy and Plica Polonica 17. Of the Ear Aquaeduct Hearing Deafness Tinnitus c. 18. Of the Structure Vse and Number of the Nerves of Motion and Sense of the Par vagum and the Intercostal Nerves spread over all the Viscer Of the Breast and Abdomen 19. Of the Structure and various Figures of the Muscles the vascular Fibres where Muscular Natural and free Motion are explain'd as likewise stretching and gaping leaping swimming and flying with Convulsive Tonic Systaltic Epilectic and Hysteric Motions of Vapours and Rheumatisin 20. Of the Liver Gall and Pancreas where the Secretion Motion and Mixture of the Bile and Pancreatic Juice with the Chyle are shewn of the Green Sickness Yellow Jau idice and Pica 21. Of the Nature and Differences of all the Glands or Strainers of the Body a new account of the various Filtrations of the excrementitious and recrementitious Humours as Lympha Spittle Gall Vrine Seed c. Of Obstructions and Dropsies 22. Of the Structure and Vse of the Spleen and what Melancholy is what Symptoms happen when the Spleen is taken out of the Body 23. Of the Reins or Kidneys the Atrabilary Glands the Vreters and Bladder where of the Scrum of the Blood Vrine and what is contained therein of the Stone and Gravel 24. Of the Structure and Vse of the Bones Marrow Ligaments Periosteum and Apophyses of the different Articulations or Joints of the Nature and Seat of the Gout Spina Ventosa Caries Exfoliation and Rachitis 25. Of the Parts of Generation in Man of the Nature and Formation of the Seed with its Effects in the Body of the Woman the Cause and Seat of Venereal Diseases 26. Of the Parts of Generation in the Woman of the Eggs and Ovarium of Generation Conception going with Child Flowers Birth Monsters Floodings false Conceptions Whites c. 27. Of the Posture and Nourishment of the Embryo in the Womb of the Vmbilical Vessels the After-birth the Force of the Mother's Imagination and the peculiar way of the Circulation of the Blood in the Foetus of Longings 28. S ome Considerations of the Vnion of the Soul and Body where the Laws and Effects of that Vnion are inquired into You see Sir that after having examin'd the different Parts of the World and the Elements of Bodies by Chymistry I have divided the Human Body into solid and fluid Parts Before I consider'd the solid Parts in particular I thought it necessary by way of Chymistry to be acquainted with all the Humours and specially with the Principles and Motions of the Blood which is the Primum Mobile of the whole Machine for which purpose it is fit to know how by Digestion the Meat becomes Chyle the Chyle becomes Blood how the Blood becomes Flesh and Bone and consequently how it must be continually repaired by Aliment how the Heart is put in motion to communicate the same to the Blood how the Blood expelled by the Heart after having been rarefied by the Air in the Lungs is convey'd by Arterial Tubes to all the Parts of the Body and from these Parts is brought back again by the Veins to the Heart To know why this Blood is carried to all the Parts and what Alteration it receives in them we must by ocular Inspection see the different Structure of all the Parts of the Body and first follow the Blood to the Brain to generate Animal Spirits which Spirits furnish the Soul with Ideas in the Brain and convey'd through the Nerves to all the Parts of the Body they are the Causes of Motion in the Muscles and of Sense in the five Organs which convey the Impression of exteriour Bodies to the Soul I follow the same Blood into the Liver where it discharges its Bilious Juice and into all other Glands where it leaves some superfluous Humonr into the Spleen where its Motion is moderated into the Reins where it leaves its serous Particles into the Testicles where is strained from