the Soul as the Body is by all Philosophers granted to be formed of the seminal matter and because otherwise Brutes cannot be properly said to generate their like in Specie and by consequence the Power to that end entailed upon them by the first and universal command of God increscite ac multiplicamini would be rendr'd of no effect I farther suppose that this Embryon Soul after this manner newly formed or as it were kindled is dayly augmented by accession and assimilation of like Particles as the Body is augmented out of the grosser and less fugitive Parts of the Aliment till both Soul and Body have attain'd to the standard of Maturity or perfection of growth thenceforth slowly declining in Vigor by degrees answerable to those of their ascent till they arrive at their final Period Death which dissolving the system or contexture of the Soul leaves the Particles of which it was composed to fly away and vanish into Aire and the Body to be resolved into its first Principles by slower corruption For Nutrition and Augmentation are as yesterday I proved Operations of the Plastic Virtue continually reforming the whole Animal and the duration or subsistence of the Soul is the Vinculum of the whole composition or concretion So that the Soul may be by an apposite Metaphor called the Salt or Condiment that preserves the fleshy parts of the Body from putrefaction as the Spirits of Wine preserve the whole Mass of Liquor through which they are diffused from losing its Vigor and generose quality and according to that oraculous saying of Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul is always generated anew till Death Which very thing is argument enough to evince that if it be not really a most thin Flame finer and more gentle than that arising from the purest Spirit of Wine burning within a paper Lantern it is at least very like to Flame For as this so that is every moment regenerated at once perishing and reviving perishing by continual dissipation of some Particles and reviving by continual accension of others out of its proper aliment the more subtile and sulphureous Particles of the Blood serving to repair the decays of the Soul as the grosser Particles of the succus nutritius are convenient to recruit the exhausted substance of the Body So that it was not without reason that Democritus Epicurus Lucretius and Hippocrates among the Antients and among the Moderns Fernelius Heurnius Cartesius Hogelandus Honoratus Faber and Dr. Willis held the Soul of a Brute to be of a firy substance and that Aristotle himself called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the Ld. Chancellor Bacon natural Hist. centur 7. makes one of the two radical differences between Plants and Animals to consist in this that the Spirits of living Creatures hold more of Flame Finally I conceive that this sensitive Soul however it be a thing mixt or composed of Particles among themselves in Magnitude Figure Position and Motion somwhat various is notwithstanding by admirable Artifice so constituted and the parts of it so contemperate and context that it is made one most thin and yet continued and coherent substance diffused through the whole Body Nor can its component Particles while it subsists in the Body be dissociated otherwise than by their own evolation which is instantly supplied by the accession and unition of others no more than the natural smell colour or tast can be separated from an Apple Peach or any other Fruit. This universal diffusion of it through the Body is what the Ld. Chancellor Bacon calls Branching of the Spirits in Nat. Hist. Cent. 7. Paragraph 1 where he saith the Spirits of things Animate are all continued with themselves and branched in Veins and secret Canales as Blood is and what Dr. Willis calls Coextension of the Soul to all parts of the Body Granting then that this most thin continued and diffused Substance is conteined in the Body and as it were coherent with the same thereby sustained and bounded we may with the more probability conceive that it is to the Body the cause of all the Faculties Actions Passions and Motions belonging to its Nature as the Organ of such a Soul that it keeps the Body together at once both conserving actuating managing and governing it and that it can be no more separated from the Body without the dissolution thereof than the Odor can be separated from Frankincense without destroying the nature of it And this I think sufficient to explain what I conceive of the first quaestion proposed viz. of what Substance the Soul of a Brute is and of what Particles composed As to the Second viz. wherein the Life of such a Soul doth consist it seems to me probable that since Life according to the general notion of it is nothing but Usura quaedam vigoris mobilitatisque facultatum activarum ejus rei cui inest the Life of a sensitive Soul is immediately founded in a certain Motion of the active and spirituose Particles of which it is composed as the Life of an Animal consisteth in the continuation of the same determinate Motion of those Spirits by which it was at first kindled and of the actual exercise of the Faculties that emerge or result from the union of the Soul with its Body by the Fabrick of the various Organs thereof adapted to perform all the various Functions Offices and Actions requisite to consummate the nature of such an Animal in Specie What kind of Motion that is in which as in its Origine I conceive this Life to be founded I shall by and by declare when I come to enquire what is the immediate Subject or Seat of Life having first endeavor'd to solve the Third Question proposed viz. what are the principal Faculties and Operations of a sensitive Soul These then are as ye well know all comprehended in Life Sense and motion Animal of which I shall here consider only the Second reserving the First till by and by and the Last till the Clew of my method hath brought me to treat of it in its proper place As to the Faculty of Sense therefore which constitutes the chief difference between living Creatures and things inanimate which Lucretius elegantly call's animam ipsius animae and the extinction or total privation of which is Death since I have supposed a sensitive Soul to be Material or Corporeal I must seek for this noble Power whereby she is qualified not only to perceive external Objects but to be also conscious of all her Perceptions in Matter after a certain peculiar manner so or so disposed or modified and in nothing else lest I recede from that supposition But in what matter is it most likely to be found whatsoever the determinate modification requisite to create such a Power shall at length be imagined to be in the Matter of the Soul herself or in that of the Body she animates Truly if we distinctly examine either the Soul or Body of a Brute as
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ENQUIRIES INTO Human Nature IN VI. Anatomic Praelections IN THE New THEATRE of the Royal Colledge of Physicians in LONDON BY WALTER CHARLETON M. D. and Fellow of the same Colledge Publish'd by Order of the Most Learned PRESIDENT Furori ac dementiae proximum est suprema inquirere aliena perscrutari iis ignoratis quae sunt in nobis Socrates LONDON Printed by M. White for Robert Boulter at the Turks Head in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange 1680. J. P. Sc. Printed for Robert Boulter at the Turks head in Cornhill against the Exchange 1680. TO THE Right Worshipfull Sr. JOHN CUTLER Knight and Baronett WHatsoever Sacrifices Men have at any time offer'd up to God they had first receiv'd from His Bounty nor were they therefore the less Acceptable to Him if offer'd with humility gratitude and sincere devotion I have reason then to hope Noble Sir that this Book which I now bring as an Oblation of Honor to your Name and bring with grateful sentiments of your exemplary Munificence so happily exercis'd upon our Illustrious Colledge of Physicians will not be the less acceptable to You because it is already Yours by unquestionable right I call it Yours because though it be an abortive Child of my weak brain 't was begotten by a Conjunction of my Obedience to the Command of our Most Worthy President with my honest Ambition to contribute my Mite toward the advancement of the Noble Art of Dissection to which You have given so ample Encouragement because 't was born in Your Magnific Theatre at the Inauguration thereof and because it now comes abroad into the World with no other aim but publickly to acknowledge Your Heroic Beneficence Nor do I indeed know any other way of making that Acknowledgement so agreeable either to the Generosity of Your Mind or to the Nobility of Your Design in erecting the Anatomic Theatre as this I have taken is For to Your Great Spirit 't is much more delightful to accumulate Benefits than to receive Thanks and Eulogies from Your Beneficiaries and You are alwayes best pleas'd with those acts of Your Charity which are done in secret and which are not otherwise to be known than by the light of their own Merit Whence it is that Your Liberality walks in paths new and remote from the Common rode yet direct and leading at length into most spatiose fields of public Utility where industrious Men may reap a more plentiful harvest of rewards than they can at first expect and that the streams of Your Goodness resemble those Rivers which though running under ground diffuse fertility to whole Countreys and Provinces through which they pass Of this the Mechanic Lecture You have founded in Gresham Colledge for the promotion of Manual Trades and Your Anatomic Theatre are illustrious Examples worthy the imitation of Good Kings and the envy of Bad being Both so deeply founded upon Wisdom that the Advantages they promise are of Universal concernment to the present Age and if Men be not wanting to themselves cannot but extend to all in Ages to come rendering their Usefulness more and more Conspicuous the lower they descend to Posterity And as for the Nobility of Your Design in the later that can not be deny'd to be full of Piety toward God and of Benevolence toward Men. Of Piety toward God in that it aims at the incitement of even Philosophers to make farther researches and discoveries of the infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power of God discernable in all his Creatures but more eminently in the admirable fabric of Man's Body and by consequence to encrease their Love and Veneration of the Divine Majesty For most certain it is that profound Contemplation of the Works of Nature is of it self powerful enough even to compell Human Reason to admire love praise and adore the Transcendent Perfections of the Author of Nature that we are all naturally disposed to form in our Minds such Notions of the Deity as are proportionate to the discoveries we make of the Excellencies thereof in the Objects we contemplate and in fine that our Devotion toward the same Deity is alwayes proportionate to those Notions Hence doubtless it was that the most inquisitive Naturalists amongst the Antients were also the greatest Celebrators of the Supreme Being and that the Indian Gymnosophists the Persian Magi the Egyptian Sacrificers the Gallic Druids and the Athenian Hierophantae were to their several Nations both Philosophers and Priests teaching at once the mysteries of Nature the duties of Religion and the rites of Divine Worship Evident it is then that Your Theatre may be properly enough call'd a Temple of Natural Theology where the Perfections of God are studied in the Works of His hands and His Praises celebrated with Understanding Deum enim colit qui novit Of Good-will toward Men in that it hath provided the fittest Means to bring the most Antient the most universally Useful and therefore the Noblest of all Arts the Art of Healing to Perfection For Anatomy being the Grand fundament of Medicine and yet with sorrow I write it incomplete it cannot be but every new discovery thence arising to the Learned and Judicious Professors must conduct them not only to more certain Science first of the true Oeconomy of Mans body in the state of Nature and then of the disorders and perversions of that Oeconomy by Diseases with their respective Seats and Causes but also to the most rational and propre Indications for the preservation of that and the cure of these Nor can You think me to speak rather from affection or partiality than from right judgement if I affirm that no Men are more likely to make such Discoveries by accurate Dissections than some of the now flourishing Fellows of our Colledge are so great are the Testimonies they have already given to the World of their unwearied Diligence solid Erudition and admirable Sagacity of Spirit So that 't is not easie for me to determine whether these Gentlemen be more Worthy of Your Theatre or Your Theatre more Worthy of them But of this I am sure that such a Theatre hath been most fitly conjoyn'd to such a Colledge and I dare prophesie they will mutually add more and more Honor each to the other Now Honor'd Sir if You please to reflect upon what I have said of the Generose Temper of Your Mind and of the Wisdom of Your Design in this Magnificent Structure You will I presume be soon induced to believe what I before affirm'd that I could give no testimony of the great Respect and Gratitude I owe You more decent and congruous to Both than the Dedication of these my late Anatomic Praelections to You is in which how imperfect soever I have shewn my self willing at least and Zealous to be serviceable to Your End without offending Your Modesty The Reasons I have brought seem sufficient both to evidence the Right this Book hath to Your Favor and to justifie my Election
the product of the Fermentation arising from the inquinament or corruption of the Blood This Fermentation certainly is the very same thing that the Antient Physicians meant by the Putrefaction of the Blood in Fevers calling for distinction sake all such Fevers which they conceived to arise from thence Putrid Fevers For it is not credible that Men of so acute Judgment and so curiose in observing as their Writings declare them to have been by the Word Putredo intended to signifie that sordid and noysom Corruption observed in dead and rotting Carcases which is absolutely inconsistent with the Principles of Life but only a more mild manner of dissolution of the Blood and such as doth impugn and hinder but not wholly suffocate the vital Expansion of it And of this we are certain that they used to affix the Epithet Putrid to whatsoever doth by a swift Motion degenerate into the nature of Pus or Quitter Which is generated either slowly by degrees by a gentle and long process and also without tumult as when any Humour is without a Fever digested and converted into purulent matter or speedily and with great Tumult and disorder of the State of the Body as in putrid Fevers when the Materia Febrilis or inquinament of the Blood hastens to Concoction and the Disease runs through all its Times quickly and swiftly Of these two so different ways of producing Purulent Matter in the Body the former which is alway simple and without a Fever is called by the Antients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maturation or Ripening of the Matter the Later which is alwaies with a Fever is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Putredo Whence that Aphorism of Hippocrates lib. 2. aph 47. Dum pus confititur dolores atque febres incidunt magis quam jam confecto In their Sense therefore Putredo is the very motion of the matter of a Fever tending to purulency and this Motion is the very same that most of the Neoterics Name Fermentation For in Fevers it is the Fermentation that brings the impurities to digestion or Concoction and disposes them to separation from the Blood and therefore the Putrid Matter and the Fermenting Matter signify one and the same thing and by consequence the Materia Febrilis and Fermentum Febrile are but two different Names of the Cause whence the Fever or fermentation of the Blood comes Now if this be granted to be consentaneous to Reason and Experience as to me it seem's to be We need no longer amuse our selves with inquiring either wherein the formal reason of a putrid Fever consists or how those two Enimies Life and a Fever can subsist together in the same Subject the Blood for what I have said may serve to expound both those riddles Confiding therefore in the firmness of this Foundation I design to erect thereupon a short Theory of the nature causes differences and principal Symptoms of Fevers and that according to the Model left to us by that most accurate Surveyor of Natures Works Dr. Fr. Glisson in his last incomparable Book reputing it well worth my diligence to paraphrase upon the Text of so great an Author And because to Physicians accurately investigating the differences of preternatural causes inducing Fevers there occur to be considered more than one kind as of Crudities so likewise of Ferments that I may not leave myself sticking in the shallows of Ambiguties 't is requisite that I clearly and distinctly explain first what I understand by CRUDE HUMORS commixt with the Blood Which I take to be generally the Material Causes of putrid Fevers and then what I mean by the Fermentum FEBRILE which I suppose to be the Efficient cause of them for by this means the Fogg of Equivocations being discussed we shall by a clearer light of distinct notions contemplate the nature of the things sought after As to the FIRST thereof viz. the CRUDITY of Humours 't is well known that Physicians observing two kinds of Concoction or Digestion performed by Nature in the Body viz. One of what is natural and familiar of the Aliment requisite to the continual reparation of the Body which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other of what is preternatural and hurtful as the material cause of Diseases which is named for distinction sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have accordingly constituted two sorts of Crudity one Alimenti the other Inquinamenti Of which the former that respects nutrition is ordinary arising for the most part from some error committed in the use of the six Nonnaturals and consisting chiefly in this that the Spirits of our Food are either not sufficiently excited or if excited yet not sufficiently tamed and subdued by the concoctive faculty of the Stomach to serve to promote the vital mication of the Blood The Later viz. Cruditas inquinamenti is in the general any pollution or corruption of the Blood whatsoever arising from defect of its due preparation and fitness to admit the vital Mication And this being the Mother of Fevers is that intended by Hippocrates in that most remarkable Aphorism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concocta medicamento purgare ac movere oportet non cruda This Crudity is subdivided into two sorts one Simple which consisting only in defect of due preparation of the Blood may be corrected per pepasmum or maturation necessarily previous to Evacuation either natural or artificial the other Malignant which always includes certain seminal Reliques of some precedent form of the matter mixt with the Blood highly Hostile to the vital Spirits and incapable of correction or mitigation and many times of expulsion Now from this Malignant crudity of matter mixt with the Blood ariseth a Malignant Fever and from the simple Crudity comes a Putrid Of both which we shall speak more copiously when we come to consider the differences of Fevers As to the SECOND viz. the difference of FERMENTS incident to our Bodies I advertise that they also may be as to my present disquisition commodiously referred to two kinds Of which the one may be called Fermentum irritans because it doth primarily by it self and directly irritate the vital Spirits of the Blood to begin an extraordinary commotion and seditious Tumult with the grosser parts of it and to endevor to deliver themselves from confinement and by dissolving the common Bond of the whole Mass thereof to fly away And under this kind are comprehended all fermenting mixtures abounding with saline Spirits highly volatile and not easily tameable by the digestive faculty of the Stomack among which the Stum of Wine is eminent The other deserves to be named Fermentum Opprimens because it at first and immediately oppresses the vital Spirits of the Blood impugning their expansive Motion tho afterward secondarily and by accident it irritates them to a Pneumatic Fermentation not to dissolve the whole mixture thereof and so to make way for themselves to fly away but only to attenuate discuss eject and exterminate the
oblivio obruet CUTLERUS posteritati narratus traditus aeternum superstes erit ¶ Would I were equally secure of Your good acceptance I dare not say Approbation of the mite I am about to contribute toward the accomplishment of his so gloriose Design But alas this is a wish without hope so destitute I know my self to be of all the Faculties of Mind requisite to so difficult an Atchievement my Zeal for the promotion of Anatomy only excepted and much more reason there is why I should apologize for my insufficiency before I farther expose it Notwithstanding this discouragement considering with my self that profound Erudition and great Humanity are like Love and Compassion inseparable I think it much safer to confide in Your Candor and Benignity for pardon of my Defects than to attempt to palliate them by Excuses however just and evident Not to be conscious of my faileurs and lapses in my following Lectures would argue me of invincible ignorance not freely to acknowledge them would be tacitly to defend them to seek by speciose praetences of hast of frequent diversions of natural impatience of long meditation of bodily indispositions intervenient and other the like vulgarly alleged impediments to extenuate them were the most certain way to aggravate them and to conceal them from your sight is in this place and occasion impossible Having then no other Refuge but in Your Grace and Favor I fly to that alone to secure me from the danger of malignant Censures which I am more than likely to incurr nor will I fore-arm my self with any other defense but this If the Matters of my subsequent discourses shall appear to be neither Select nor of importance enough to compensate Your time and patience be pleas'd to remember that saying of Aristotle Metaphys lib. 2. cap. 1. Non solùm illis agendae sunt gratiae quorum opinionibus quis acquiescet sed iis etiam qui superficie tenus dixerunt Conferunt enim aliquid etiam isti habitum namque nostrum exercuorunt Si enim Timotheus non fuisset multum melodiae nequaquam habuissemus Si tamen Phrynis non fuisset nè Timotheus quidem extitisset c. If my Stile shall sound somewhat harsh and ungrateful many times to Ears unatcustomed to any but their Mother tongue as coming too near to the Latin I intreat you to consider this is either no indecency in this place or such a one at worst which I could not otherwise avoid than by involving my sense in the obscurity of words less proper and significant the nature and quality of the Subjects treated of being such as cannot be fully expressed in our yet imperfect Language So that I have a clear right to that honest plea of Lucretius Abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas ¶ PRAELECTIO I. Of Nutrition MAN being consider'd ut Animal Rationale as a living Creature naturally endow'd with Reason and compos'd of two principal parts a Soul and a Body each of which hath various Faculties or Powers the summe of Human Nature must be comprehended in those Powers conjoyn'd Of these Powers some are peculiar to the Soul or Mind others belong to the Body as Organical and animated by the Soul To the Former sort are referr'd the Faculties of thinking knowing judging reasoning or inferring concluding electing and willing all commonly signified by Understanding and Will All which being remote from the Province of Anatomists I leave them to be handled by Philosophers inquiring into the nature of the Soul Of the Later some are requisite to the complement of Man as single or individual viz. the Faculties of Nutrition of Life of Sense and of Voluntary Motion and there is one that respects the Procreation of Mankind namely the Power Generative And these are the natural Faculties to which as principal Heads the Learned Anatomist is to referr all his Disquisitions that at length he may if it be possible attain to more certain knowledge of the Mechanic frame of the Organs in which they are founded But being more than can be tho' but perfunctorily enquir'd into in so few hours as are assign'd to this publick Exercise I have therefore chosen to treat of only some of them at this time viz. Nutrition Life and voluntary Motion not as more worthy to be explain'd than the rest but as more comprehensive or of larger extent I have chose also to begin from NUTRITION not only because the Stomach Gutts and other parts principally inservient thereto being by reason of impurities contain'd in them more prone to putrefaction ought therefore first to be taken out of the cavity of the Abdomen to prevent noisomnes but because Nutrition seems to be if not one and the same thing with yet at least equal or contemporany to Generation it self and that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Time and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Nature For tho' the operation of the Power Gen rative or Formative Virtue may seem to precede that of the Nutritive yet in truth the Stamina or first rudiments of an Embryo are scarcely delineated when they begin to be augmented also by nutrition so that 't is consentaneous as well to the observions of Dr. Harvey and others since as to reason that Formation and Nutrition are but different names of one and the same act of the Plastic power Again Generation and Accretion are not perform'd without Nutrition nor Nutrition or Augmentation without Generation To nourish what is it but to substitute such and so much of matter as is by reason of exhaustion wanting to the solid parts of the body namely flesh nerves veins arteries c. and what is that in reality but to generate flesh nerves veins arteries c. In like manner Accretion is not effected without Generation for all natural bodies capable of Nutrition are by accession of new parts augmented and these new parts must be such as those of which the bodies were at first composed and this is done according to all their dimensions So that in verity the parts of an Animal are increas'd distinguish'd and organiz'd all at the same time by the same Formative power Moreover if we reflect upon the Efficient cause of Formation and Nutrition and upon the Matter it uses we shall on both sides find it necessary that those two works if ye will have them to be distinct be carried on together On the part of the Efficient because idem esse principium efficiens nutriens conservans in singulis Animalibus necesse est nisi aliam formam in puero aliam in adolescente in sene aliam constituamus quod absurdum est On the part of the Matter ex qua because all Animals such as are produced per Epigenesin of which alone is our discourse not of such Infects that are generated per Metamorphôsin are made of one part of the Matter prepar'd by the Formative Spirit and nourish'd and augmented out of the remainder not out of a divers
namely into bones cartilages ligaments tendons membranes fibres c. So that all the Organs are at length compos'd of dissimilar parts by wonderful artifice context without the least of confusion or incongruity Which deserves to be reckon'd the seventh Act. 8. In that work of Organization 't is credible the inimitable Artist divides without section only by terminating the parts and unites without glew or cement only by continuing them to the common term or bounds which depends more upon union of matter than upon union of nature By these admirable artifices of Division and Unition the Plastic Spirit perforates separates conjoins cements the yet fluid at least soft Stamina of the parts where how and as often as need requires it deduces and runns out their Rivulets terminated in the fluid matter as by chanels it preserves from confusion the two different Colliquamenta and the Yolk divided as it were by partitions it so distinguishes and disterminates even contiguous and semblable parts that they may be diversly moved at the same time without interfering or impediment and each yield to other when occasion requires and thus almost all fibres very many membranes and in many sorts of Animals the Lobes of the Lungs and Liver and the Cartilages mutually touching each other in the joints c. are divided among themselves In a word by these wayes and degrees here by me from Malpighius his Microscopical Observations collected and rudely described it seems most probable that the Embryo is form'd augmented and finish'd in an Egg. Now therefore that we may accommodate this Epitome to our present Argument if this be the method and process that Nature uses in the Generation of Oviparous Animals and if she uses the like in the production of Viviparous also as Dr. Harvies observations and our own assure us that she doth we may safely conclude that Human Embryons are in like manner form'd augmented and finish'd by one and the same Plastic Spirit out of one and the same matter the Colliquamentum Quod er at probandum I add that the same Plastic Spirit remaining and working within us through the whole course of our life from our very first formation to our death doth in the same manner perpetually regenerate us out of a liquor analogous to the white of an Egg by transmuting the same into the substance of the solid parts of our body For as I said before Nutrition is necessary to all Animals not only in respect of the Augmentation of their parts while they are little Embryons but also in respect of their Conservation after during life because their bodies being in a natural consumption or exhaustion would inevitably be soon resolv'd into their first elements unless the providence of Nature had ordain'd a continual renovation or reparation of the parts by substitution and assimilation of fresh matter in the room of those particles dispers'd and consum'd Having therefore to some degree of probability explain'd the former necessity of Nutrition and the causes of it my next business must be to inquire into the Later Which that I may the more effectually do I find my self obliged to begin my scrutiny from the Causes of the perpetual Decay or Depredation of the substance of our bodies viz. the Efficient or Depraedator and the Matter or substance thereby consum'd and the Manner how The Depraedator then or Efficient cause of the perpetual consumtion of our bodies seems to be what all Philosophers unanimously hold it to be the Vital Heat of the bloud therein first kindled by the Plastic Spirit continually renew'd by the Vital Spirit and by the arteries diffus'd to all parts of the body that they may thereby be warm'd cherish'd and enliven'd This Lar familiaris or Vital Heat continually glowing within us and principally in the Ventricles of the Heart call'd by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingenitus ignis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde and flamma Biolychnii the flame of the Lamp of Life by others and by others again ignea pars Animae Sensitivae is what Physicians generally have heretofore understood by Calidum innatum tho' they seem to have had but an obscure and inadaequate notion of the thing it self as I hope to evince when I shall come to inquire what life is and upon what it chiefly depends Meanwhile supposing it to be an Actual Heat consisting in a certain motion of the various particles of the bloud and in some degree analogous to fire or flame I cannot conceive how 't is possible for it to subsist or continue for so much as one moment of time unless it be maintain'd by convenient fewel which is thereby uncessantly fed upon and by degrees consum'd for it is of the nature of all fire how gentle or mild soever to generate and conserve it self only by preying upon and destroying the matter in which it is generated This Vital Heat therefore without intermission agitating dissolving and consuming the minute and most easily exsoluble particles of the body must be the Depraedator here sought after So that in truth we have one and the same cause both of our life and of our death or to speak more properly our very life is nothing but a continual death and we live because we die For we live so long as while this internal Vestal Heat is kept glowing in the bloud and when it ceases to glow either from want of convenient sustenance or by violent suffocation life is instantly extinguish'd So true even in this natural sense is that Distich of Euripides Quis novit autem an vivere hoc sit emori An emori hoc sit quod vocamus vivere The Matter consum'd I humbly conceive to be for the greatest part the fluid parts of the body chiefly the bloud and spirits which are most easily exsoluble and somewhat tho' but little of the substance also of the solid parts For Experience teaches that divers Animals Bears Dormice Swallows c. sleep the whole Winter without receiving any supply of aliment and yet have all the solid parts of their bodies as large and firm when they awake again in the Spring as when they first betook themselves to their dens or dormitories and the Reason hereof seems to be this that their Vital Heat being all that time calm and gentle consumes their bloud and spirits but slowly and very little of their solid parts as a lamp burns long when the oyl that feeds it is much and the flame but little and calm We have Examples also of Leucophlegmatic Virgins who from a gradual decay of Appetite have fall'n at length into an absolute aversion from all food and endur'd long abstinence without either miracle or imposture and yet notwithstanding have not been emaciated in proportion to the time of their fasting Whence 't is probable that in our bodies there is not so rapid and profuse an expense or exhaustion of the substance of the solid parts as heretofore many learn'd Physicians
of Doggs 'T is somwhat strange then that the curious Dr. Willis should never perceive any of these Chyliferous vessels in the Ventricle or at least not so much as mention them in his Anatomic history of that part wherein he pretends to so much accurateness but much more strange that he should in the same book teach that the sanguiserous veins of the Ventricle take in part of the Chyle out of its cavity and carry it immediately into the mass of bloud when if he had considered the use of the Glandules of the Mesentery and the separation of the purer parts of the Chyle from the impure and excrementitious performed in the Gutts he might have inferr'd from either of those reasons that while the Chyle remains either not perfectly concocted or not sufficiently defaecated in the stomach no part of it ought to be so immaturely commixt with the bloud But this is my opinion and that was his and therefore every man is free to approve which he thinks most consentaneous As for Lymphaeducts if we take them as contradistinct to the Venae lacteae hitherto I have heard of none discover'd and therefore believe there are none in the Ventricle the rather because there are some Venae lacteae which are congenerous to them nor is it Natures use to multiply kinds of vessels where one kind is sufficient True it is indeed that in the Mesentery both venae lacteae and lymphaeducts are found but this objection hath been fully answer'd by Dr. Glisson in libr. de ventric intest cap. 3. num 8. saying they those vessels differ more in respect of the liquors that carry than of the structure or constitution of their similar parts For the Lympha is a thin hungry liquor the Chyle thicker succulent and rich this is brought from parts newly recruited with fresh aliment that from parts that want refection though both are discharg'd into the Common Receptacle Wherefore although Lymphaeducts pass through the Mesentery yet are they not to be reputed the genuine vessels thereof but aliens travelling along the nearest way through it And if they staid to bait at any part well stored with Chyle 't is probable the liquor they would suck in would make them of the same milky colour with the true venae lacteae And these are all the Common Similar parts of the Ventricle ¶ The Proper are as I said afore three Tunics or Membranes with their Fibres and Parenchymata The three Tunics although they seem to cohaere but slightly so that being moved by a little impulse of the finger any way they slip one upon another are notwithstanding connected with that pretty artifice that each hath its Fibres implicated with those of the next which fibres must be dextrously cut off before the Tunics can be separated whether the Ventricle be raw or boyl'd That which first offers it self to the view is the Exterior Tunic which some will have to be borrowed of the Midriff and others from the peritonaeum both which opinions will be found light if put in the ballance against the moments of reasons brought to refute them by the most judicious Dr. Glisson de ventric intest cap. 4. num 2. who with more justice affirms it to belong to the Ventricle by right of origination as properly as either of the other two at least in respect of its peculiar fibres and parenchyma Thicker it is and furnish'd with more nervose fibres and consequently stronger than any membrane deriv'd from the Peritonaeum in substance texture and course of fibres exactly resembling the exterior coat of the Gullet so that if ye remember our description of that ye will need no other idea of this The uses of it are many viz. 1. To invest and corroborate the Ventricle and to preserve it from cruentation on the convex side 2. To sustain the great multitude of vessels that are divided and subdivided into innumerable surcles as they diffuse themselves betwixt it and second or middle coat 3. To conserve the heat of the Ventricle so requisite to concoction 4. To concurr to the peristaltic motion of the same which it doth by vertue of its transverse fibres contracting or shortning themselves spontaneously Here recurrs to my memory a certain Pathological remark added by Dr. Willis to his description of this utmost coat of the Ventricle I have observ'd saith he in the bodies of many who had long languish'd under loss of appetite continual nauseousness and frequent vomitings dissected after death that somtimes a serose humor somtimes an effusion of bile somtimes an abscess upon the outside of the Ventricle had by irritation of it been the cause of those dismal symptomes A singular observation which I the more willingly recount because 'thas been my luck once or twice to meet with the like The second or Middle Tunic is much thicker and more fleshy than the first laced every where with fibres and consequently both stronger and more potent to perform the Peristaltic motion to which chiefly it seems to be adapted The position and course of these fibres are various in the various parts and sides of it On the Concave or inside strong fleshy fibres run down obliquely from the left hand toward the right till they arrive at the bottom so that when they contract themselves they must of necessity pull the bottom of the Ventricle obliquely upward toward the left orifice and therefore conduce to vomiting and other expulsive motions by the same On the top or ridge of the same convex side are many fibres of a distinct order which hemming in the left orifice of the Ventricle tend to the right and rising a little therewith cover it and then terminate therein So that they seem by their action which is contraction to bring the right orifice nearer to the left which is alwayes done in vomiting which motion being continued somtimes even to the bottom of the Duodenum both the Bile or Gall and Pancreatic humor are pumpt up into the stomach and thence ejected by vomit On the Convex or outside are likewise fibres of two sorts tho' both circular For some incircling the mouth of the stomach where the Oesophagus ends gird it about and so close it and others incomparably more in number incompass the whole Ventricle tending from the upper parts to the bottom in parallel lines and thence ascending again from the bottom to the top like so many Zones or girths so that when they are put into action they must needs bring the bottom of the whole Ventricle nearer to the top and the sides also nearer together and so lessen the cavity thereof so that whatever is at that time contain'd therein being rais'd upward and pressed on every side can hardly evade being expelled by one of the two orifices or by both as it often happens from violent irritations of the stomach and alwayes in the Cholera Now from these various orders of strong fleshy Fibres wherewith this Middle coat is garded we may easily collect that
Wherefore the native temperament of all fibres is cold and moist indeed but enrich'd with delicate and noble spirits however fixt and consequently they require to be nourish'd with a spermatic aliment The Corpulency or fleshiness of fibres is variable somtimes greater as in strong and laborious men somtimes less as in weak lean and sedentary The Cohaerence of parts ought to be firm and tough that they may be extended without danger of divulsion or rupture and return to their natural posture by spontaneous contraction after extension Their Flexibility depends partly upon their tenacity partly upon their middle constitution betwixt hardness and softness that they may be neither rigid or stiff nor flaggy The Organical native constitution of fibres consisteth in their due situation figure magnitude and continuity all which are included in their former description The influent constitution of them is either Vital or Animal If the vital influx be deficient the force and strength of the fibres soon languishes as in swoonings and faintings Yea if it be but depraved as in fevers their vigour in a few hours decayes If the Animal influx be intercepted as in the palsy they quickly become languid and stupid yea if the brain and nerves grow dull and sluggish the fibres at the same time grow flaccid and loose unapt for vigorous motion 2. The general Uses of all fibres are to corroborate the parts to which they belong and to move them The special uses are various respective to their various formation in divers parts as for instance in the Stomach and Gutts they serve chiefly to their Peristaltic motion 3. The Action of Fibres is either Common or Proper Common when being invigorated i. e. set on work by extension which is against their nature they pull and move the part to which they are connex'd as a chord pull'd by a mans hand pulls a plummet or any other body fastned to it but this seems to me to be in strictness of truth rather Passion than action in respect of the fibres themselves for they suffer extension being notwithstanding their natural renitency stretcht in length by the pulling of the nerves from which they are elonged Wherefore according to my weak judgment their Proper action is only Self-contraction by which they restore themselves to their natural posture A motion common indeed to all Tensil bodies whatever and therefore rightly term'd by Philosophers motion of Restitution the cause whereof I take to be the strong cohaerence of the parts of which they are compos'd If so what need we amuse our selvs by striving to deduce the spontaneous Contraction of nerves and fibres either from natural Instinct which implying I know not what secret suggestion pro re nata from some forein cause whether God or His servant Nature is to me unintelligible or what is equally abstruse from Natural Perception which supposes even inanimate things yea every the least particle of matter in the whole Universe to be naturally endowed with knowledge of what is good or evil to their nature with appetites to embrace the good and eschew the evil and with power to move themselves accordingly faculties that my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational creatures 4. The Passion therefore of a Fibre is the extension of it which is a passive motion coming from a cause without the essence of the fibre it self Which cause unless it actually relax or stupesie the fibres incites or irritates them to contract themselves and the more violent the irritation the stronger is the renitency and spontaneous contraction as is observ'd in convulsions To me it seems impossible that a simple fibre should by its own action alone extend it self in length nor have I wit enough to conceive how this can be done since all extension is a less or greater degree of force tending to the tearing asunder of the parts of the tensible body against which divelling force the firm cohaerence of the parts makes it strive And as for the Cessation of fibres that is when they neither act nor suffer but rest from all either extension or contraction having restor'd themselves to their natural posture of laxity This they attain to chiefly in sleep when all fibres of the whole body those that serve to respiration and the motions of the heart only excepted are at rest and thereby refresh'd acquiring after labour and weariness new strength and vigor from the sweet mild and balsamic juice dispensed to them from the brain by the nerves After this concise survey of the fibres in the membranes of the Ventricle there remains only their peculiar Parenchyma to challenge our observation which it may with the greater right pretend to because there are many who question whether it be real or imaginary because the whole Ventricle being of a white color seems therefore to be made up only of fibres and membranes It concerns us then to be certified 1. Of the real existence 2. Of the necessity 3. Of the quality and 4. Of the various uses of what we call the Parenchyma of the Ventricle as a distinct part thereof 1. To be assured even by our own eyes that there is really such a thing we need only to essay the excarnation of the stomach by laying it extended upon a plain bord and then scraping it moderately hard with a blunt knife in the same manner as Sheep skins are scrap'd by those who make Velom and Parchment or gutts by those who make Sawciges For by this easie means you may scrape off so great a quantity of soft white pulp as will by nineteen parts of twenty exceed all that you leave behind of membranes and fibres which will yet remain as strong and tenacious as they were before Against which experiment I see not what can be objected For if the firm cohaerence of the fibres of the Stomach be not only not abolish'd but not at all diminish'd by this scraping away of the pulp that stufft them it follows that the pure fibres in which alone the strength of the stomach consists still remain intire and that nothing but the Parenchyma or pulp hath been taken away From the same experiment it appears also that the membrane and pure fibres of the Ventricle are in themselves pellucid or transparent as we see in the skins of Sawciges and that they owe all their opacity to their stuffing with this Parenchyma 2. Which is necessary to the constitution of the Stomach in more than one respect Necessary it seems to fill up and make smooth and plain the inequalities arising from the contexture of the fibres which running various courses and riding each over other somtimes would otherwise render the surfaces of the membranes uneven Necessary it is also to stop the pores of the Stomach that it may hold liquors the better and be stanch even to vapors and wind as linnen cloth is made to hold water by dipping it into melted wax oyle and turpentine which fill up the void spaces betwixt
consisting in a certain Complacency or delight which the fibres receive from the praesence and contact of the meat and drink But this opinion being grounded wholly upon the Hypothesis of Natural Perception which yet seems obscure intangled with various difficulties and therefore doubtful I suspend my assent thereunto till I shall have learn'd from you whether I ought to embrace or reject it Meanwhile I take liberty so far to justifie this my suspence as to allege a reason or two in defence of it That not only the stomach but all other sensile parts of the body are from the very first moment of their formation naturally endowed with a certain power by which they distinguish what is grateful and profitable from what is ungrateful and noxious and which is the cause of all those motions and actions by Physicians generally and truly ascribed to irritation is most certain and to all men that consider Human nature evident even from these arguments following 1. In an egg the very Vesicula pulsans before it is formed into a heart and a day or two before any the least rudiment of brain or nerve can be discerned if it be though never so gently toucht with the point of a needle doth instantly contract and like the sensitive plant shrink in it self as feeling the hurt done to it 2. And the first modell or draught of the Embryon while it appears to be a mere mucilage or gelly before there is any distinction of members and when the brain is yet nothing but clear water if it be in any part likewise prickt contracts and wreaths it self like a maggot or caterpiller demonstrating to the eye of the Spectator that it feels the puncture and endevors to avoid it 3. After the whole work of Formation hath been consummated from the hour of our nativity to that of our death there are performed within us many secret motions and actions which are by Physicians for distinction sake call'd Natural because they are done not only without our knowledge or direction but even against our will so that we cannot moderate accelerate retard or inhibite them as being independent upon the regimen of the Brain and yet notwithstanding this independency they must proceed from some kind of Sensation by which the parts wherein they are done are incited irritated and altered For instance in the Heart it self there often happens great disorder of its motions causing palpitations tremblings convulsions faintings swounings and various alterations of the Pulse in magnitude celerity rhythm c. and all from some morbifick matter offending the fibres and hurting their natural sense For whatsoever by its own motions endevors to deliver it self from offences and harms must certainly be endowed with a power to perceive or feel them Nor is the skin it self destitute of this distinct faculty For Experience convinceth us that it easily distinguishes a venenate or poysonous prick from a simple one and thereupon constringeth it self and becomes more dense so that an inflammation and burning Tumor arises from thence as may be observ'd in the invisible punctures made by the sting of a Wasp the tooth of a Spider or the proboscis of a Gnat. To be the more ascertain'd of this our most sagacious Dr. Harvy made a pretty experiment upon himself and hath left it upon record in 56. exercitat of his incomparable Book de Generat Animal I prick'd my hand with a needle saith he and soon after rubbing the same needle against the tooth of a Spider I thrust the point of it into my hand in another place nor could I perceive any thing of difference betwixt the two little punctures But in the skin it self there was somwhat that discerned betwixt them For in the place where the venenate prick had been made the skin soon contracted it self into a little hard tumor accompanied with redness great heat inflammation and acute pain as if it fortified it self against the invading enemy and strove to expugne it To come to the stomach our praesent subject this part also and the gutts being offended and provok'd by ill humors often raise great commotions nauseousness belching vomiting and fluxes of the belly and as it is not in our power at pleasure either to suppress or to promote those disorders so neither do we know any sense depending upon the brain that can exstimulate those parts to such violent and tumultuous actions 'T is wonderful even to a Philosopher that a little of the infusion of Crocus Metallorum should produce such strange commotions in the stomach We can not distinguish that infusion from good Sack by the taste nor perceive any trouble or offence in swallowing it and yet there is in the stomach a certain sense that soon discerns the Antimony from the Wine that abhorrs it and incites the stomach with all its forces to eject it by vomiting Hence also it is perhaps that Alum Vitriol Salt of Vitriol and sometimes Salt of Steel though by their astriction they augment the asperity of the inmost membrane and the contraction of the fibres of the stomach which are the two Organical Constitutions in which the Retentive power of it is according to my opinion wholly founded are observed notwithstanding commonly to excite vomiting and this only because they have somwhat in them that is highly ingrate and offensive to the natural sense of the stomach Now from these Arguments and particular instances to omit others of the like importance in other sensile parts of the body it seems most evident that there is in us a certain sense of Touching that cannot be referr'd to the common sense nor belong to the jurisdiction of the brain and therefore is rightly distinguished from the Animal sense of Touching Such a sense we observe in Zoophytes or Plant-animals the Sensitive plant sponges and the like And as Physicians teach that Natural actions differ from Animal so with equal reason may we say that this Natural sense of Touching whereof we are not conscious differs from the Animal sense of Touching whereof we alwayes are conscious and that it constitutes a distinct species of Touching This manifest from its effects but perplexingly obscure in its origin and essence Campanella who wrote large and most subtile Commentaries concerning it now almost neglected and our Excellent Dr. Harvy call'd by the name of Tactus Naturalis but their Equal Dr. Glisson coming after to consider the thing more Metaphysically and founding the very life or substantial Energie of Nature wholly upon the same denominated it Perceptio Naturalis thereby to distinguish it from all the Senses as well internal as external from which he will have it to be really different as for many other Reasons alleged in cap. 15. lib. de Vita Naturae so chiefly for this that it is not immediately communicated to the Brain or Common Sensory as Nature hath instituted that all Sensations of the Organs of the External Senses should be communicated before the act of Sense can be complete though
the same time the rest of the Blood in the Arteries remits its expansive Motion which was the other cause that hinder'd the Arteries from contracting themselves and those two impediments removed for that time the Fibres of the Arteries now prevail and by contracting themselves return to their middle posture of quiet by that contraction pressing the Blood forward on its Journey till it be impell'd into the substance of the Parts From whence after it hath done its Office it is soon forced to return toward the Heart through the Veins partly by more Blood flowing after and pressing it behind partly by the renitency and tonic Motion of the parts partly by the tension of the Muscles in the habit of the Body and in fine by the Pulsation of the Vena Cava which though but light is yet perceptible at its approach to the Heart where to that end it is furnisht with fleshy Fibres so that from thence Walaeus in Epist. de motu Sanguinis concluded that the circular Motion of the Blood beginn's from that part of the Vena Cava If I do not here particularly explain the reason and manner how each of these various Causes conduceth to the effect ascribed to their Syndrome or concurse it is because I presume that the whole History of the Circuition of the Blood with all its helps and circumstances is well known to the greatest part of my Auditors and because I hast to the FOURTH Act in the race of Life which beginns where the distribution of the Blood through the Arteries end 's and is the Communication of Life from the Blood distributed to all parts of the Body For these receiving the Blood impregnate with Original Life are thereby in a moment heated anew invigorated incited to expand themselves and made participant of Life Influent i. e. they are stirred up to the actual exercise of Augmentation or nutrition and of all other their Faculties And this Participation of Life is that vital Influx with so great Encomiums celebrated by Anatomists and the Heat of the Body both actual and vital and the general cause at least Sine qua non of all the noble Actions of the whole Body I say the General Cause because it is this influent Vital Heat that revives and stirrs them up to activity when without it all parts would be dull flaggy and torpid and yet notwithstanding it is not sufficiently able of itself to produce those Effects unless so farr forth as it is at the same time contemperated and determinated to this or that particular effect by that which some call the peculiar temperament and others the Spiritus insitus of that Member or Part whose proper Office it is to cause that effect For this vital Heat or general enlivening and invigorating influence operates one thing in the Liver another in the Spleen another in the Stomach and Gutts another in the Kidneys Sic de caeteris assisting and promoting the faculties of all parts so that no one can execute its proper function without it as the irradiation of the Sun is requisite to make the Ground fruitful and to excite the Seeds of all Vegetables lying in it and indeed this vital Heat is to Animals the Sun within them their Vesta perpetual Fire familiar Lar Calidum innatum Platonic Spark pepetually glowing not that like our common Fire it shines burns and destroys but that by a circular and incessant Motion from an internal Principle it conserves nourishes and augments first itself and then the whole Body Undè Entius noster in Antidiatribae pag. 6. in hunc finem extructum est cor quod calentis sanguinis rivulis totum corpus perpetim circumluit Cumque Plantae omnes à Solis benigna irradiatione vigorem vitamque adeo suam praecipùe mutuentur animalibus caeteris cordis calor innascitur unde tanquam à Microcosmi sole partes omnes jugiter refocillantur Ac propterea minùs placet quòd plantarum germen Corculi nomine indigitaveris Good reason then had our most Sagacious Harvey to sing so many Hymns as it were to this Sol Microcosmi that continually warms comforts and revives us Discoursing of the Primogeniture of the Blood in an Embryon Lib. de Generat Animal exercit 50. he falls into this elegant encomium of it Ex observatis constat Sanguinem esse partem genitalem fontem vita primùm vivens ultimò moriens sedemque animae primariam in quo tanquam in fonte calor primò praecipùe abundaet vigetque à quo reliquâ—â— omnes totius corporis partes calore influente foventur vitam obtinent Quippe calor Sanguinem comitatus totum corpus irrigat fovet conservat Ideoque concentrato fixoque leviter sanguine Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominavit veluti in lipothymia timore frigore externo febrium insultu contingit videas illicò totum corpus frigescere torpere pallore livoreque perfusum languescere evocato autem rursum sanguine hui quam subitò omnia calent denùo florent vigent splendentque Nec jecur munus suum publicum exsequitur sine influentia sanguinis caloris per arteriam Caeliacam Imò vero Cor ipsum per Arterias Coronarias influentem unà cum sanguine caliditatem vitamque accipit Quippe nullibi est caloris affluentia citra sanguinis influxum per arterias Sanguis denique totum corpus adeo circumflùit penetrat omnibusque ejus partibus calorem vitam jugiter impertit ut Anima primò principaliter in ipso residens illiûs gratiâ tota in toto tota in qualibet parte ut vulgò dicitur inesse meritò censeatur In another place Exercit. 51. vindicating the Supremacy of it over all parts of the Body he breaks forth into this memorable expostulation Si Neoterici quidam verè dicant animalium semen coitu emissum esse animatum quidni pari ratione affirmemus animam esse in sanguine cùmque hic primò generetur nutriatur moveatur ex eodem quoque animam primùm excitari ignescere Certè sanguis est in quo vegetativae sensitivae operationes primò elucent cui calor primarium immediatum animae instrumentum innascitur qui corporis animaeque commune vinculum est quo vehiculo animae omnibus totius corporis partibus influit In a third place Exercit. 70. where he with cogent reasons refutes the vulgar error de calido innato he puts an end to all false notions and all disputes concerning that Subject and then concludes in these words Solus sanguis est calidum innatum seu primò natus calor animalis Habet profectò in se animam primò ac principaliter non vegetativam modò sed sensitivam etiam motivam permeat quoquoversum ubique praesens est eodemque ablato anima quoque ipsa statim tollitur adeo ut sanguis ab anima nihil discrepare videatur vel saltem substantiae cujus actus sit anima
to arrive at the Period of his own within few Hours after ¶ PRAELECTIO V. Of Fevers IT is the custom of Mathematicians as ye most Candid Auditors well know when from a Series of Propositions premised and verified they have inferred the conclusion they sought to add as overplus certain useful Theorems or consectaneous Speculations by the Graecs called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Consectaria sive Coroltaria by the Latins the knowledg of which is many times of equal moment with that of the Verity on which they depend Give me leave then I beseech you so far to imitate this Method of those great Masters in the art of Reasoning rightly as from my discourse on Saturday last in the morning concerning the Primordia perpetual Source and circular race of Life to deduce a few Pathological Consectaries such as may perhaps afford some glimses of Light toward the discovery and nature and causes of a certain Malady which is of all others incident to Mans frail Body the most common most grievous and most dangerous And this Leave I with the greater confidence ask because I intend not to abuse it by digressing impertinently from either my present Subject or my Duty For the Subject of my Speculation designed is the same with that of my antecedent disquisition viz. the Blood and to find out the most probable Causes and reason of curing great Diseases is the principal scope and end of all our Enquiries as well Physiological as Anatomical Of which none can be ignorant who hath perused that little but oraculous Book of Hippocrates de Prisca Medicina where he teacheth that it is the great Duty of all Physicians who desire to render themselves worthy of that honourable appellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by discours alone but also by their Works and real succoring of the Sick to be solicitous about investigating the true Nature Causes and Remedies of Maladies above all things Nor is it new to find in the Writings of Anatomists Pathological reflexions subjoyned to the description of the part which is known to be the primary Seat of the preternatural Assections incident thereunto Secure then that what I have resolved with my self at this time to speak cannot in the end be justly esteemed a Parergon or beside the principal purpose I have taken in hand and conceiving great Hope both from the frequency and from the benign Aspect of this learned Assembly that hitherto my dulness hath not been able wholly to overcome your Patience I will presume ye are not unwilling to grant my so equitable Petition In my last Exercitation I endevored to evince as ye may be pleased to remember that the Vital Heat or Motion of the Blood doth formally consist in a certain expansive luctation of the spirituose Particles thereof with the less moveable or unactive repulsed and prevailing alternately but mild amicable benign and conducing to the exaltation of all the faculties and Uses of the Blood Now I come to add that it is not only possible but that it often happens that this Vital Motion although proceeding only from the Spirits that conserve and rule the Blood is by causes beside the institute of Nature invading it perturbed interrupted perverted and sometimes also wholly extinguished the vital Oeconomy being thereby sooner or later utterly subverted Of this we have instances almost innumerable Nor is there any one kind of preternatural Causes assignable by which Nature may not be impeded in her production of this Vital Motion and more or less perturbed as we cannot but observe it within our selves to come to pass sometimes from the immoderate Heat of the Aire surrounding us as in Ephemera sometimes from Meats and Drinks potentially too Hot as in Surfets and drunkenness sometimes from vehement Passions of the Mind as in anger Fear Grief c. Sometimes from a fermentation of the Blood as in putrid Fevers sometimes from venenate effluvia of Bodies as in pestilential and contagious Fevers sometimes from a simple solution of continuity of the Parts as in Wounds so that in fine to enumerate all the various causes by the hostility of which this Life conserving work of the vital Spirits may be hindred and perverted is a thing extremely difficult if not plainly impossible But in all these so various cases this is worthy to be noted as a general verity that the vital Spirits of the Blood are always preternaturally affected and that the disorder from thence emergent ought to be imputed to a p. n. Cause Every thing then that pollutes the Blood and that putts Nature to an effort or essay to separate and eject it from thence as alien and hostile is wont more or less according to the diversity of its Nature and Malice to impugn and repress the vital Motion of the Blood But nothing hath been observed to do it either more frequently or more contumaciously than impurities arising from Crude Humours congested in the Mass of Blood which cannot be separated and extirpated without previous Concoction or Digestion For these constituting a certain peculiar Inquinament or Pollution of the Blood put on the nature and acquire to themselves the efficacy of a Ferment not indeed such as the Leven of Bread or as the Yest of Ale and Beer but such that being in our Bodies mixt with the Blood which perpetually conceives new vital Heat in itself produceth the like commotions therein that those domestic Ferments do in their respective Subjects and may therefore be not unfitly called a Ferment according to the Name given to it by all Modern Physicians For it causeth a manifest Tumult or intestine War in the Blood after this manner The inquinament of the Blood by reason of the crudity and viscidity of its parts impugnes and hinders the benign expansive Motion of the Spirits in which I have declared the Generation of the vital Heat of it to consist and the Spirits on the contrary by their natural tendency to expand themselves oppose that repressive Force and strive to defend themselves from oppression producing by their energy a continuation of the Mication of the Blood imperfect indeed and mixt with Fermentation but the best they are able till they have gained the Victory to produce So that the Fermentation of the Blood in Fevers seems to proceed not from the impurities mixt with the Blood alone but partly from them and partly from Nature i. e. from the vital Spirits conserving the vitality of the Blood For while these are impugned checkt and hindred by those the Motion resulting from that conflict is indeed a certain Mication of the Blood but tumultuous violent unequal and interrupted with little Bubles and Froth I say therefore that this civil War in the Blood as it includes a certain Vital though imperfect and irregular Mication of the Blood cannot be denied so far forth to be the work of Nature but as that Mication is supposed to be tumultuose seditiose hostil and unequal it must be in that respect
Ferment that by clogging and oppressing them hinders their spontaneous expansion and the vital Mication of the Blood thereon depending And this to me seems to be that kind of Ferment by which a Fermentation of the Blood is wont to be excited in putrid Fevers and which for that very cause ought to be nominated Fermentum Febrile It seem's also to consist of any crude humor whatsoever commixt with the Mass of Blood For this doubtless is that Crudity which Hippocrates in the newly cited Aphorism forbids to be importunely attempted by purging Medicaments until Nature hath mitigated tamed and prepared it for evacuation by gradual digestion Of which Counsel though many reasons have been by the learned Commentators on his Aphorisms chiefly by Cardan alleged yet the most credible and therefore the most considerable seems to be this That Nature hath provided no Organs for the Separation or Secretion of such Crude Humors from the Blood the Spirits of which are not yet exhausted Most true indeed and evident it is that Nature has with amirable Wisdom and Providence taken care to preserve the Blood pure and undefiled and to that end framed and most advantagiously placed three conspicuous Secretory Organs for the purifaction of it viz. the Liver Kidneys and Stomach with the conjoin'd Intestines and yet it is no less true that none of these is by her primary institution destined to separate and drein from the Mass of Blood any matter yet remaining in the state of Crudity or no yet despoiled of its Spirits but all three ordained lest the Blood after it hath spent and consumed the sweet and profitable Spirits of the Aliment and becomes thereby effete and ungenerose should be longer detained in the Body and like a dead Body bound to a living pollute and infect the Blood newly made of Chyle lately imported and replenish'd with sweet and useful Spirits Now the Humors here by us supposed to be both the antecedent and conjunct Causes of Fevers are not such as have already been spoiled of their Spirits and apt to turn vappid but such as abound with Spirits yet unvolatilized and infest to the vital Mication of the Blood For the matter not sufficiently digested altered and elaborate in the Stomach becomes at length apt to produce Fevers in this respect only that the Spirits contained in it are either not sufficiently excited or not sufficiently subdued and tamed Likewise the matter that grows crude and apt to generate Fevers either from defect of due eventilation by insensible transpiration or from want of free motion is not vitiose because the Spirits of it are already dissipated but only because they are contrary to the institute of Nature detained and because they at the same time impede and somewhat suppress the vital Mication of the Blood In fine the Seminia heterogenea unalterable reliques of some precedent form remaining in the crude Matter commixt with the Blood cause a Malignant Fever not because the Spirits of that matter have been already exhaled but because they are hostile highly infense and pernicious to the Vital Spirits and incapable of being tamed We have reason then to believe that the material causes of Fevers are not the dead useless and excrementitious parts of the Blood not the Phlegm not the Bile nor that thin Humor consisting of the Serum Salt and Tartar of the Blood which is separated in the Kidneys for all these have their peculiar Secretory Organs by which they are daily separated and carried off nor do they require any other Preparation to their Separation but what consists in their transmutation into those Humors in Specie Wich is done only by the gradual deflagration of the Blood by which the vital Heat is sustained For hence it is that in tract of Time the nobler parts of the vital Juice are dissipated and consumed and the remaining Parts which they had before kept united divided into various parties and becoming excrementitious pass some into Bile some into Phlegm and more into the matter of Urine and all these now unprofitable Humors being brought together with the Blood to the respective Organs in which they ought to be separated are there by way of percolation secerned and by their proper excretory Vessels carried off and ejected If this be admitted for true what then are we to think of the long-lived and even to this Day flourishing Doctrine of the Antients that attributes tertian Fevers to Choler Quotidian to Phlegm and Quartan to Melancholy I answer with Dr. Glisson who in all arguments endevor'd as far as his Devotion to Truth would permit him to sustain the auctority of the Antients that those Humors were or at least might be taken either for the reliques of the Stale and vapid Blood or for Humors analogous to them The Reliques of the Blood are as was just now said resolved into Bile Phlegm and Urine in the last of which are contained four other kinds of Excrements viz. the potulent matter Salt Serum and a certain earthly liquamen commonly distinguished by the name of Tartar But as for Melancholy no place is to be found for it among the reliques or stale and rejected parts of the Blood For in the whole Body we find no peculiar Organ provided by Nature for the Secretion reception and exclusion of any such Humor and therefore saving the respects and veneration due to those Fathers of our Art the interest of Truth which is still more sacred and venerable obliges us to affirm that they erred most egregiously when they assigned that Office to the Spleen The Humors Analogous to the newly enumerated Reliques of the Blood are signified by the same Names in particular the viscid insipid and white part of the Blood is called Pituita or Phlegm the hot drie acrimonious and pungent or corroding Bilis or Choler the cold drie blackish and adust Melancholy if at least any such Humor may be admitted to lye concealed in the Mass of Blood For we must confess we usurp more than a Physical License when we call this an Analogous Humor to which nothing that holds any the least resemblance or analogie can be any where in the whole Body found and yet nevertheless it may be lawful to say that the Analogie that some parts of the Blood seem to have to that fictitious Humor which the Antients imagined to be separated and received by the Spleen may serve to excuse us if out of compliance with custom and the vulgar Doctrine of the Schools we retain the denomination while we rectify the Notion of Melancholy For though the Analogatum be wanting yet if in reality a thing respondent thereto hath existence in Nature the supposed Analogy is enough to justify the appellation Considering this I assert that in the Mass of Blood are most commonly contained 1 A sharp pungent or corrosive Serum such as is wont to be cast out by exsudation in an Erysipelas and in the little Bladders or Blisters raised by Epispastic emplasters which
fermentation upon the Blood As for the OTHER viz. Where the same crude Matter is wont to be congested and to lye in ambush till that time if the whole matter of the precedent Paroxysm be spent and consumed in the Paroxysm as hath been supposed then it necessarily follows that the matter of the subsequent Paroxysm must either be generated anew in the time intervenient betwixt the two Fits or lie conceal'd somewhere in the Body either in the Vessels carrying the Blood or out of them from whence as from its Fomes it may after certain intervals of Time sally forth to infect the Blood and invade the vital Spirits For both these cannot be true and therefore it remains to be inquired which of the two is most likely to be so My Opinion is that the matter of every subsequent Paroxysm is not generated anew and my Reasons are these 1 So soon as any Paroxysm is ended the very essence of the Fever Ceases for that time and the Blood quickly returns to an Apyrexia Now if the Cause be extirpated together with the Disease nothing will be left remaining in the Body to continue it and by consequence every new Paroxysm will be a new Fever which no experienced Physician who hath observed the Disease to be of the same genius or nature from the first Fit to the last will easily be brought to grant 2 The same may be confirmed by this that intermittent Fevers even in poor Country People frequently run through alll their times regularly by degrees ascending to their State and thenceforth gradually tending to their Declination when no Physician is called to Succour Nature So that merely from diligent Observation of the motion of the Fever a certain prognostication of the State and final cessation of it may be collected which would be impossible if the matter of the Disease were every Day generated de novo for who could foresee when that new Generation would Cease 3 The cause of the Fever coming ab extra is accidental and depends on a less or greater Error committed in Diet and is constituted extra Febris essentiam nor can any indication be from thence desumed And our Dr. Glisson affirms that he knew a Man who being of a strong Constitution and afflicted with a Tertian Intermittent obstinately abstained from all Meat and Drink from one Fit to another and yet could not thereby elude the return of his Fever It may be therefore with good reason inferred that putrid Fevers have an internal Focus some where in the Body whence the material Cause of them breaking forth and gathering fresh Forces invades and irritates the Vital Spirits again and again even till the Fomes be utterly exhausted and consumed There are I confess many great Wits who in every intermittent Fever seek for a peculiar Fomes or Seat of the Cause I confess also that sometimes such a particular and partial Fomes may be found as for Instance in the Stomach or in the Pancreas or in the Mesentry and other Parts of the Abdomen and an inflamation of the Lungs is in some sort the Fomes of a Peripneumonia an inflamation of the Pleura the Fomes of a Pleurisy and sic de multis aliis partibus So that itcannot be denyed but both intermittent and continual Fevers may arise from particular Seats and that an Aposteme chiefly an Empyema may minister Fewel to a Fever yea more that an inflamation repercu'st from the outward parts and a Gangrene in any the remotest Member of the Body may produce a continual Fever by sending forth corrupt matter to pollute and infect the Blood All this I say must be confessed And yet nevertheless it must be acknowledged that besides these particular Fomites of Fevers there is a certain General one common to all putrid Fevers and this general Fomes I hold to be the very Parenchyma of the Parts nourished out of impure Juices For this FOMES is of all others hitherto supposed most consistent with the Circuition of the Blood by which it is commodiously carried to all Parts and diffused universally whereas other impurities can scarcely be so accumulated in the Solid Parts but they must when extravasated obstruct the free course of the Blood If they be supposed to stick and be congested in the capillary Vessels or in the inconspicuous Pores of the Parts they must be a manifest and intollerable Obstacle to the pertransition of the Blood If out of the Vessels they stagnate in the habit of the Parts they must induce not a Fever but a Cachexia or an Anasarcha Compelled therefore we are to fly to the very Parenchyma of the Parts which in every putrid Fever are necessarily fused or melted by degrees and being fused as necessarily become Fewel to continue the Fever For in continual Fevers the substance of the Parts amass'd out of Crude and impure Chyle is continually melted and so maintains the fermentation without intermission until all the Fewel be consumed and then the Fever is extinguished But in intermittent the same impurities are melted by turns or Intervals and in every Paroxysm some portion of them is colliquated into a kind of Sanies or putrid Matter which being remixt with the Blood becomes in a Tertian the Fewel of a Paroxysm to recur on the third Day from its Fusion in a Quartan of a Paroxysm to invade on the fourth in a Quotidian of a Fit to return on the next Day sic de caeteris And as to the Duplication and Triplication of these intermittent Fevers 't is probable that when of a Simple Tertian is made a double one the Simple is not the direct Cause of the double but the later arises from Causes like to those from which the former took its beginning So that a double Tertian may be rightly enough accounted to be two single Tertians alternately succeding and complicated with each other And the same mutatis mutandis may be said with equal congruity also of the origin of a double and treble Quartan But there remains yet another Difficulty greater than either of the two precedent viz. concerning the Suspension of the Action of the crude Matter to the time of the Paroxysm in which it is actuated That the State of which Question may be the better understood let us for instance Sake suppose that in a double Tertian A. B. C. D. are four distinct crude Matters melted and set afloate in the Mass of Blood in four successive Paroxysms Let us suppose also that this Fever first invaded the Patient upon Munday and that in the first Fit it melted so much of the crude Parenchyma of the solid Parts as may suffice to produce a new Fit on Wednesday following Let us suppose farther that on Tuesday another Tertian began and during that first Fit in like manner melted so much of the Crude Parenchyma as may be sufficient to raise a second Fit on Thursday following These things being supposed the Question is why the crude Matter B. melted on Tuesday is
not dissipated or corrected on the Wednesday following when the crude Matter A. causing a Fit is by the Fermentation rarefied and expelled by Sweat Why I say the Matter B. being remixt with the Blood all Wednesday when the Matter A. was fermented is not by that Fermentation corrected and dissipated at the same time but suffered to lye dormant and cause a Fit on Thursday following To untie this Knot therefore I say that the febrile Fermentation doth not much alter any crude Matter that doth not yet actually impede the vital motion of the Blood For the Fermentation is regulated by the vital Spirits which in the Case proposed chiefly oppose and dissipate the Matter A. which alone by its clamminess actually hinders their expansive Motion Hence it is that in the Fermentation hapning on Wednesday the vital Spirits are not much offended with the new Matter B. then melted and sloating in the Blood because it is not actually Febrile nor doth it oppress them so as to incite them to vindicate their Liberty by their expansive Motion And thus the difficulty seems to be solved ¶ WHAT hath been said a little before of the general Fomes of all putrid Fevers as well continual as intermittent viz. that it is in the very Parenchyma or Substance of the solid parts amassed out of crude or impure Chyle may perhaps to some of my Auditors long accustomed to the vulgar Doctrine of Physicians concerning the Genealogy of Fevers seem to be only precarious and as easily denied as affirmed because it still remains doubtful how Chyle crude or impure can be instead of good and laudable Succus Nutritins or Aliment converted into the substance of the solid parts To obviate this their doubting therefore before it settle into a prejudice more difficult to be removed it concerns me to assert that there is many times an imperfect Nutrition or Vegetation and Augmentation as well as a perfect observ'd in the Bodies of Men and consequently that the Succus Nutritius or proxime Aliment of all parts is either pure i. e. perfectly concocted or impure i. e. imperfectly concocted Whence it comes that the Bodies of some Men are even vulgarly said to be more or less pure than those of others Those few who are so happy as to have Bodies in all parts pure and clean from crude and vitiose humours do not only from the right use of the six Non-naturals enjoy perfect health but have this farther advantage that their solid parts not being augmented by the accretion of crude matter they carry in them neither any Febrile Fomes congested in the habit of their solid parts nor the least disposition to any other Disease When on the contrary impure Bodies either through intemperance or too full Diet Surfeits Compotations and other Debauches and Disorders or from want of exercise to correct and dissipate the crudities they have congested are cramm'd and plump'd up with impure nourishment and perhaps also augmented to an unprofitable and unwieldy Bulk These then must of necessity abound with a great stock of crude Matter accumulated chiefly in the Substance of their solid Parts Which when a Fever comes from what cause soever are melted by degrees and dayly afford new Matter to serve as prepared Fewel to the long and dangerous Fever whether continual or intermittent But Bodies clean and pure though perhaps liable to be surprised with a light feverish Distemper are in much less Danger from thence because their solid Parts have not been imperfectly recruited with impure Nourishment and consequently the Liquamen of them is not so Crude as to suffice to renew often or long continue the Fermentation From the Testimony of our very Senses it is evident that in all putrid Fevers the parts of the Body are more or less extenuated and colliquated and that the Crude Liquamina of them are the material Causes of new Exacerbations in continual Fevers and of new Paroxysms in intermittent is highly consentaneous to reason Hence it is that Men recovering from long Fevers if they manage their Health circumspectly and with temperance attain to a renovation as it were of their Youth because all the substance of their Parts that was amass'd out of Crude and impure Matter being by the Fever consumed their Bodies are now repaired with pure and convenient Juices such as abound with sweet Spirits duly exalted and excited by Concoction in the Stomach Hence also we are led to a clear understanding of the true Reason of that Aphorism commended to our Observation by Hippocrates Si febricitanti nec omnino leviter suo in statu maneat corpus nihilque concedat morbo aut hoc etiam plus aequo gracilescat calamitosum hoc enim aegri infirmitatem significat illud vero diuturnitatem morbi For the prognostic holds certain ratione tum causae tum signi If the habit of the Body be not extenuated in proportion to the Violence or duration of the Fever the Cause must lye either in the abundance or in the contumacy that is the great viscidity or clamminess of the crude Matter congested and affixt to the Parenchyma of the Parts and therefore an observing Physician may from thence safely predict that the Fever will prove of long continuance at best if not fatal in the end On the other side if the extenuation be too great it must come from the great force of the heat or fermentation in the Blood that dissipates all things not only the crude Matter preexistent in the habit of the Parts but even the vital Spirits themselves and the insite Spirits that being intimately united with the Vital should reinvigorate the Parts with Life and conserve them And therefore such impetuous Extenuation is likewise both cause and signe of extreme Calamity Exhaustis enim supra modum spiritibus partibus Solidis omnis ratio pepasmi desideratur All these Reasons duely consider'd it must be granted that Bodies cannot possibly continue in all points pure and clean if they be nourish'd with impure or crude Juices Sound indeed and healthy they may be said to be at present because they seem to foster no proxime Cause of Sickness discernable by a Physician and yet nevertheless since they carry about Crudities secretly congested in the very substance of the solid Parts which by occasion of any light feverish Distemper that would not otherwise last above a Day or two may be melted and remixt with the Blood and long protract that Distemper we are obliged to acknowledg that such Bodies are really foul or impure and contain in them a Disposition to a Fever more or less remote Otherwise it will follow that all Bodies actually sound are in respect of the habit of their Parts either equally disposed or equally indisposed to Fevers and to the continuation of them than which nothing certainly can be more false For have we not observed frequently that Fevers as well continual as intermittent have in the beginning appear'd mild and gentle so long as
Brain can ye name which hath not been referred to their Vices either to their defect or excess to their stupidity and sluggishness or their fury and tumults to their interception or too copiose and impetuose Influx to their fixation or incessant exagitation to their depravation by exotique and inconvenient Mixtures to their dissipation by Opiates and Narcoticks or to some other of a thousand accidents to which they are supposed to be Obnoxious Nay some have gone yet much farther and were it not-indecent to divert to Romantic Writings I could quote an Author of no small Fame who hath not many Years past enrich'd the Commonwealth of Philosophy with a whole Legend of the Empire of Animal Spirits their Laws and Constitutions politick their quickness of perception presagition of Dangers Passions of Love Anger Hate their Seditions Tumults Insurrections military Rangings Sallies Excursions Combates Incampings Marches and Countermarches Explosions or Fireings Retreats in order confused Flights and infinite other admirable things such as I for my part should not have had Wit enough to ascribe to any but Reasonable Creatures Nor shall I blush to confess that when I was reading this Fanciful Book I could not but recall to mind many of the Witty Fictions of Lucian verar. historiarum Lib. 1. concerning the Militia and adventures of his Hippogypi Lachanopteri Cencroboli Scorodomachi Psyllotoxotae Anemodromi Struthobalani Nubecentauri Aeroculices Solarii Lunarii Nephelococcygians and other chimerical Nations by him in Drollery described and all the pleasant Dreams of a certain great Lady recounted in her most delightful Histories of the Blazing World and of the Kingdoms of Fayries in ever Mans Brain though I at the same time considered that Lucian and the Lady had written only in Jest to exercise their Wit but the other in serious earnest and with design to reform the State of Physic by new discoveries So true is that saying of a late ingenious Writer Ubi semel occupatum ingenium est novis Hypothesibus licet solis innitantur conjecturis in infinitam conceptuum libertatem se diffundit ne disputare quidem cum rei veritate amplius sustinet Tam irrequieto exultante impetu stimulat in ulteriora voluptas gloriosa And yet notwithstanding after all our speciose discourses of these Emissaries of the Soul Animal Spirits we are distracted by various Opinions concerning them still anxiously inquiring of what matter in what place and how they are generated what are their Qualities Motions Ways and Manner of acting and in fine uncertain whether they be real Creatures of Nature or only the Idols of human Imagination Risum teneatis amici an lachrymas Certè res est hand perfunctoriè lugenda Some have affirmed that the Fluid contained in the Pores and Fibres of the Nerves is the more subtil part of the Blood separated and sublimed in the Brain giving it the noble Name of Spirits but they have not yet by certain reasons or Experiments taught us to which of all the Fluids that are known to us that is like Others therefore proceeding somewhat farther pronounce that these Spirits consist of Saline and Sulphureous Particles highly analogous to the Spirits of Wine But this is to feed our curiosity with fine Words that signifie little of certainty True it is indeed that upon drinking a little Glass of Spirit of Wine we find our Strength suddainly recruited but whether from the Humor we call Spirit or from that other Matter that makes that Spirit Fluid or is perhaps for some other reason joyned to it who hitherto has determined Besides the animal Spirits if any such there be seem to be so so far remote from the subtility Acrimony and volatility of Spirit of Wine that we want not just reasons to convince us they are nor volatile nor actually Rarefied into Exhalations nor acrimonious Not Volatil because if they were such certainly they would offend and trouble the Brain as may be inferred from the Lassitude Headach giddiness and other Symptoms that commonly invade Men next Morning after a Debauch with Wine all which come from the volatile Spirits of the Wine Not actual Exhalations because in that State being mixt with other Humors of the Body they would produce Bubles or Froth or cause also an inflation of the Parts containing them neither of which is to be endured Not Acrimonious pungent or offensive by asperity of their Particles because if such they would continually irritate prick and corrode the Brain and Nerves and necessarily force them into Convulsions and other tumultuose Motions I add that they are not as Fr. Sylvtus imagined them to be apt to Ferment because if such they could not but fret and dissolve the soft and tender Substance of the Brain and the Pith of the Nerves By these and other Reasons induced our most excellent Dr. Glisson de Ventric and Intestin Cap. 8. num 7. formed his animal Spirits of a constitution exempt from all these inconvenient Qualities He describes them to be Mild Placid Sedate Fixt Sweet Nutritive Corroborating and apt to consolidate and in all these respects exactly like the Spirits conteined in the white of an Egg. Their Subject he held to be the true Succus Nutritius distributed from the Brain through the Nerves to all spermatick Parts which he would have to be generated only in the Brain corticem inter medullam by way of Secretion and that the matter of which they are in that manner generated is the more mild and spermatic part of the Blood the acrimonious and more elabourated Part being reduced thence by the Veins for that purpose perhaps distributed into the Cortex of the Brain concluding that the select part is changed into animal Spirits not by sublimation or meteorization as all others held before but by mitigation refrigeration and Whitening So that in fine if their Nature agree with this Character I do not see by what right they can be called Spirits according to the common notion Men have of all things known by that Name In so dense a Mist of our understanding in so great and irreconcilable a dissention of Opinions concerning the matter generation and qualities of animal Spirits how shall we discern the truth Whom can ye give me so sagacious so happy above all other Mortals in explicating the Secrets of the Oeconomy of mans Brain as to be able by clearly defining what they are whence they proceed and how they are generated to put an end to the Dispute For till this be done we shall still be to seek how they can conduce to invigorate the Nerves and Muscles in voluntary Motion In the mean time we can be certain only of this that so great a War of Opinions among the Princes of Phylosophy is a strong Argument that the thing about which they contend is not yet sufficiently understood Equally uncertain it is by what kind of Motion these invisible Emissaries are transmitted from the Brain through the Nerves whether they fly swiftly or