Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	time_n	1,743	5	3.4636	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43764	The history of generation examining the several opinions of divers authors, especially that of Sir Kenelm Digby, in his discourse of bodies : with a general relation of the manner of generation, as well in plants as animals : with some figures delineating the first originals of some creatures ... : to which is joyned, A discourse of the cure of wounds by sympathy, or without any real applycation of medicines to the part affected, but especially by that powder, known chiefly by the name of Sir Gilbert Talbots powder / by Nath. Highmore ...	Highmore, Nathaniel, 1613-1685.; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665. Discours fait en une célèbre assemblée, touchant la guérison des playes par la poudre de sympathie. English.	1651 (1651)	Wing H1969; ESTC R11065	44,928	157

transparent liquor as in the ●gg the other inclosing both that and the other parts of the seed from which these Atomes are enlarged and nourished This outward Membrane sticking to and about those asperities or papillar extuberancies which are caused by the orifices of Arteries and Veins opening into the cavity of the womb gives way to the gently distilling blood to descend to these Atomes to furnish them with store of cognate parts to be selected by and added to them for their future growth But that these yet tender parts may not be overwhelmed with too great a flux of blood and be stifled with too much nourishment before they are able to dispose of it a frequent cause of abortion Nature suffers it to wander through a Labyrinth of an infinite number of vessels dispers'd through this outmost membrane from whence by one chanel it is conveighed to this new Animal But not to remain all of it within the limits of this little frame but being conveighed to the heart of the Infant by its continuall motion some is thrown into every part according to the capacity of their vessels And because all parts of this too are not fit for the repair of these young Atoms but do require a greater choice therefore at every motion of the heart some of this blood is thrown out of this Infant by appropriated Arteries back to the Mother again So that by this continual circulation of the blood through this new Animal fresh and cognate moisture is supplied to irrigate and augment every part of it From whence as at the first cognate Atomes are selected adjoyned to every particle until the Foetus come to perfection and then breaking through those membranes it is brought forth a living creature It will be requisite I should here satisfie a doubt which may perhaps perplex some in the receiving this opinion of generation viz. why there should be a distinction of Sexes and why there should be a collection of these seminal Atomes by both Sexes and that without the admixture of both these there could be no generation The reason why there are distinct Sexes is because one of them must supply the part and office that the Earth doth to Vegetables which is to contain preserve and supply it with fitting nourishment which is done by the Female But why cannot all bee done by this one what need is there of another seed The use of these differing seeds is evidenced in the former discourse of Plants where I shewed you that these seminal Atomes were of two sorts spiritual and more material whose duty was to fix and cement the spiritual Atomes together that they might mutually cohere the one to the other the Masculine are to actuate enliven and to act for all the rest and this diversity of Atomes makes a difference in seeds and a distinction in Sexes The Masculine seed having undergone concoctions and separations by a greater and purer heat becomes more spiritualiz'd subtile and is like to those spiritual Atomes of the appearing and rising Plants out of the spirits of a former Plant corrupted as I before declared Which contains in it all parts fitting to constitute such a body as that was from whence it was taken and being thrown into a convenient pl●ce where it may have room and agreeable heat would by the disposing of every Atome into his pro●er place constitute a perfect body But not being furnisht with those more material particles it would soon vanish as the appearing supposititious Plants did these spiricual Atomes not being cemented and conjoyned together The feminine seed being extracted after the same manner from the same vessels by the female testicles containing the same particles but cruder and lesse digested from a cruder matter by lesse perfect Organs is left more terrene furnished with more material parts which being united in the womb with the spiritual particles of the masculine seed every one being rightly according to his proper place disposed and ordered with the other fixes and conjoynes those spiritual Atomes that they still afterwards remain in that posture they are placed in I shall forbea● the prosecution of this any further having sufficiently cleared the wayes of generation of perfect bodies I shall proceed to shew the causes of similitude in the Foetus to the generators and of mutilated and imperfect births How different Sexes and similitu●e of the ●oetus with the generators is caused Chapter the Tenth THe conjunction of these seminal material Atomes of both Sexes causeth this similitude of parts and marks with the parents that begot them For according to the exuber●ncy or power of the Atomes of either Sex so is the Foetus fashioned and distinguished If the Atomes constituting the Masculine parts prevail then is a Male generated but if the Atomes of the Females seed prevail either in quantity or energy over the Masculine then is the product a Female and those Atomes which were ordained for and belong to the Masculine parts being but few in number and lesse in power are obscured being scattered amongst the rest or else being of no use and having no parts to joyn with them to unite and cement them together are quite lost This is the cause too why the Foetus or Infant hath parts some resembling the Father some the Mother having sometimes the Mothers Lip the Fathers Eye c. according to the prevalency of the respective Atomes Besides by how much the more the Masculine Atomes abound in a Female Infant by so much the more the Foetus is stronger healthier and more Manlike a Virago If the Female Atomes abound much in a Male Infant then is that issue more weak and effeminate If either parent hath any extraordinary Mark or part more then usual as the Woman with six fingers whom our Author relates to have born all her Females with the like number of fingers It is caused by these seminal Atomes extracted from the blood carrying along with them Atomes belonging to every part communicated to the seed and so to the Infant especially if the Atomes in which these supernumerary parts or marks reside prevail over the rest As the example of that Woman illustrates who brought forth all her Males with the usual number of fingers all her Females with six upon an hand like her self The Sex shewed the prevalency of her seed which having the mastery of the Masculine all the several Atomes contained in her seed shewed themselvs in the same posture as in her own body In the Males those particles of her seed being weaker served onely to cement the masculine Atomes and no more The cause of defect of some parts or an ill disposition of them in places they ought not to be in may be from the avocation and disturbance of the imagination of the parent at that time when these Atomes are in disposing and ordering by the soul of the Infant in their proper places This I say is done by the imagination of the Mother disturb'd representing

Bodies they ●inde other Elements besides those four we received from the Ancients And perhaps could their separations and putrefactions be as accurate to distinguish as Nature is in the mixing wee might ●inde many more from whence these strange effects in several Bodies should arise For indeed how can we imagine that the complicated and reiterated mixture of heat cold moisture and drought should ever produce those ridling effects of Mercury the Loadstone and many others But this discourse I shall leave to those that have largely handled it The second part which they call Form ab informando they scarce tell us whence it comes onely magisterially they teach us and we must believe them that it ariseth from the power of the matter But how this if rightly considered doth agree with their own principles seems somewhat difficult to unriddle viz. How a Substance as they grant all Forms to be can subsist in an accident which hath no being of it self is no less a Riddle then repugnant to their own grounds This some of our later Philosophers have very well discovered and shewed us that those Forms w ch they thought and taught to bee but potentially in the matter are there actually subsisting though till they have acquired fitting Organs they manifest not themselves And that the effects which are done before their manifestation as the forming and fashioning of the parts wherein they are to operate can rise from nothing else but from the Soul it self This likewise I shall leave to the Readers enquiry and shall follow that other way of introducing Forms and Generation of Creatures as well Animals as Vegetables which gives Fortune and Chance the preheminency in that work A conceipt lately vented by the noble Author of the two Treatises the one of Bodies and the other of Mans Soul Where he describes the motions that are in Plants which are Nutrition and Generation to be by one part transmitting unto the next to it the juice which it received from that immediately before So that there is one constant course from the root that sucketh this juice from the Earth unto the top of the highest sprig And the passage of this moisture from one to another is in a manner but like the rising of Water in a Still w ch by heat is made to creep up by the sides of the Glass and so by the external cold is fashioned into that Body which at last it is Let us hear him describing the manner of it himself The Conceipt of Sir Kenelm Digby concerning the Generation of Creatures Chapter the Second LEt us frame saies he a conception that not far under the superficies of the Earth there were gathered together diverse parts of little mixed Bodies which in the whole sum were yet but little and that this little Mass had some excess of fire in it such as we see in wet Hay or in must of Wine or in wort of Beer And that withall the drought of it were in so high a degree as this heat should finde no means being too much compressed to play his game and that lying there in the bosome of the Earth it should after some little time receive its expected and desired drink through the benevolence of the Heaven by which it being moistned and thereby made more pliable tender and easie to be wrought upon the little parts of ●ire should break loose and they finding this moisture a sit subject to work upon should drive it into all the parts of the little Mass and digesting it there should make the Mass swell This increase saies he of bulk and swelling of the little Mass wil of its own nature be towards all sides by reason of the heat whose motion is on every side from the center to the circumference But it will be most efficacious upwards towards the Air because the resistance is least that way both by reason of the little thickness of earth over it as also by reason that the upper part of the earth lieth very loose and is exceeding porous through the continual operation of the Sun and falling of rain upon it It cannot choose therefore but mount to the Air and the same cause that maketh it do so presseth at the same time the lower parts of the Mass downw●rds But what ascendeth to the Air must be of the hotter and more moist parts of the fermenting Mass and what goeth downwards must be of his harder and drier parts proportionate to the contrary motions of Fire and of Earth which predominate in these two kindes of parts Now this that is pushed upwards coming above ground being expos'd to Sun and wind contracteth thereby a hard and tough skin on its outside but within is more tender In this sort it defendeth it self from outward injuries of weather whiles it mounteth and by thrusting other parts down into the Earth it holdeth it self stedfast that although the winde may shake it yet it cannot overthrow it The greater this Plant groweth the more juice is daily accrewed unto it and the heat is encreased and consequently the greater abundance of humors is continually sent up which when it beginneth to clog at the top new humor pressing upwards forceth a breach in the skin and so a new piece like the main stem is thrust out and beginneth on the sides which we call a branch Thus is our Plant amplified till Nature not being able still to breed such strong issues falleth to works of lesse labour and pusheth forth the most elaborate part of the Plants juice into more tender substances but especially at the ends of the branches where abundant humor but at the first not well concocted groweth into the shape of a Button and more and better concocted humor succeeding it groweth softer and softer the Sun drawing the subtilest parts outwards excepting what the coldness of the Air and the roughness of the Winde do harden into an outward skin So then the next parts to the skin are tender but the very middle of this Button must be hard and dry by reason that the Sun from without and the natural heat within drawing and driving out the moisture and extending it from the Center must needs leave the more earthy parts much shrunk up and hardned by their evaporating out from them This Button thus dilated and brought to this passe we call the fruit of the Plant whose harder part encloseth oftentimes another not so hard as dry This drought maketh these inner parts to be like a kinde of dust or at least such as may easily be dried into dust when they are bruised out of the husk that encloseth them And in every parcell of this dust the nature of the whole resideth as it were contracted into a small quantity for the juice which was first in the Button and had passed from the root through the manifold varieties of the diverse parts of the Plant and had suffered much concoction partly from the Sun and partly from the inward heat imprisoned

cylindrical as the Trunks of Trees do The Fruit also and Seed which he calls a Button or greater quantity of those hot and moist parts collected and dust or parts dried into the form of dust by the external heat of the Sun and innate heat of the Plant are in a more orderly method framed and repos'd For not onely in qualities but in figure they much vary one from another One producing a seed inclos'd onely in a husk another a seed of differing figure inclos'd in a fruit and hard shell Is cold Air the fruitful Mothe● of this variety too Nay if we bu more seriously examine this dust w● shall finde it orderly set with nave strings affixt to some part of their in closing Matrix by which nourishmen is conveighed for their growth an● subsistance And if we shall further anatomize these dusts we shall find● laid up in them Plants the very sam● Identical Plants which first grow up after the seeds are committed to th● ground In which indeed resides th● nature of the whole And this youn● seminal Plant we may truly call th● extracted tincture or Magistery of th● whole Plant as shall more largely appear hereafter Neither doth his 25 Chapter wher● he endeavours to shew how this wonderful effect as he calls it is performed how a Plant or Animal comes by tha● figure it hath afford us any greate● satisfaction For if we examine his firs● principle viz. That the several figure● of Bodies proceed from a defect in one of the three dimensions caused by the concurrence of accidental causes we shall finde it extreamly straightning the most delightful variety of the Creation and the infinite power of the Creator For upon these grounds it must be supposed that the most perfect figure is to be cubical and all Bodies should have been cast into that mould but that some external causes stepping in hinder almost all from obtaining that perfection the Creator not being able to withstand their prevalency or by patching up that defect could not give perfection to all that which his own mouth assures us was good The examples also which he produceth teach us there is but little truth in this position for how can we conceive the watry drops of rain falling should suffer violence as to be pared round by the softer Air which is not able so much as to hinder it from falling The fashioning of Salts as he relates doth as little satisfie As for Alume it is not of such unctuous parts as he reports for how then could it so indiscernably be dissolved in Water and so much resist Fire which is not proper to unctuous Bodies Besides being dissolved and falling again what should hinder the parts from meeting all in a lump and conforming themselves to the fashion of the bottom of the Vessel in which they are contained as we see all unctuous Bodies do As for Salt if that should acquire his figure on the superficies of the Water as he informes us it should be only long and broad without thicknesse whence then come those exact cubical forms in Salts which are suffered to coagulate of themselvs Where you shall finde the most exact Mathematician out-gone by this natural Art Neither is this caused by the falling of parts one upon another as hee speaks be●ore of Alume ere the former are throughly hardned for then why should it not arise still in height by the continual addition of descending parts as long as there are any Attoms to fall by which meanes it should not become cubical but a long square But we finde the contrary while it most exactly casts it self into cubes the angles sometimes looking upwards sometimes transversly which were impossible if those squares were made by long and broad Bodies falling one upon another And vitriol though calcined to perfect redness if dissolv'd and fixt again not onely recovers his bright shining greenness but is squared out into various angles looking every way as if it had been fashioned by the hand of the Artificer The figure of Saltpeeter is almost neglected by him onely he tels us that by reason of its drinesse it is more difficultly figured and therefore is not equally increased But if we examine it well we shall finde it more unctuous then the other two and is more readily cast into that figure then the other For it doth not onely shoot forth presently almost in water after it is removed from the heat but we shall finde it oftentimes upon new Wals shot forth to a great length without the help of Water to fashion it in So that there seems to be some more particular agent to be found out that immediately imprinteth these determinable figures which should rather work by a conceived designe of producing such a figure in such a Body How else could such effects continually be wrought accidental causes working not still alike and therefore it were impossible to expect ●arce a similitude in the works The formation of Animals affords us little lesse perplexity How heat sending forth or how those vapours emitted should settle themselves in such and such method and form such variety of parts without some other di●ector cannot appear That there are in all Animals three sorts of chanels is an unquestionable truth but that there are distinct Bodies conveighed by them though taught us by our Masters is not granted nor by him received for a truth For in the next Chapter we shall finde him applauding the circulation of the blood and describing its motion through and from the Arteries to the Veins and from them to the Arteries again Both of these chanels then must be filled with the same liquor onely perhaps in the Veins it may be something cooler and thicker as our Bath waters are lesse hot in the gutters then in the spring That which is conveighed in the other chanel the Nerves we can scarce afford it the distinction of another Body it being only the pure and most subtile selected parts of the blood which was conveighed in the other two chanels Neither if it were granted that three distinct Bodies were continually traversing those three several chanels into the Bodies of all Animals doth he shew us how they put themselves into such various shapes and figures when they have escaped this conquering expelling heat as we finde them wonderfully exprest in every creature All things arising in fumes steams as moist Bodies wrought on by heat will do when they are freed from that which rarified them return to their own nature and forms again As Water rarified when those minute particles of heat that divides it into such small Atomes and mixed themselves with it are either lost or overcome by the watery Atomes returns again to water Or if those particles remain still active they do but further divide it and so it becomes more like Fire by having a greater number of fiery Atomes mixed with it yet is not made another thing either in substance or figure But in the generation