womb and those of either side of the womb to the respective breast of which are most apparent footsteps in the fabrick of nature for though in some vessels as Blood-veins water-veins chyle-veins arteries c. this distinction of sides be again lost and confounded by insertion into some common Trunk before they can be traced from the one part to the other collateral part yet in some other vessels without any such confusion in the midway the same collateral vessels ramify themselves distinctly unto the parts all along on the same side as is most manifest in the visceral sinew or wandering pair but yet hereby is not opened any window to see into the sex of unborn conceptions And as herein I desire to reverence antiquity but follow reason so upon your more serious thoughts I doubt not but you will judge with me another Point upon this subject very well worthy calling in Question and that is the much noysed ground of this sympatly between the Breasts and womb said and formerly thought to be the inosculations of the mammary veins and Arteries with the Epigastriks It is well known how many lateral heterogeneal inosculations between Arteries and Blood-veins have been introduced by closet Anatomists while in Bloudless speculations they formed nature according to their reasonings to solve appearing phaenomena's instead of forming their reasonings according to what they ought first to have observed in nature the verity and authority of all which among Anatomists at sharp that carry their Eyes in their hands and will believe no more than they see is at present not much however formerly solemnly and for singular purposes placed in and very near several of the chief Bowels yet the fumultous aestuation which this Hypothesis continually placeth nature under like the meeting of two contrary seas may be sufficient in reason also to decry and discard it for which reason also lateral homogeneal inosculations of bloud-veins with bloud-veins as they are frequently found so they may as easily in reason be admitted But the inosculations in the Question being final I wave these that are lateral And final inosculations are on all hands agreed to be in a manner impossible to be shewn because when granted to be yet there where they are the vessels are so minute and slender that it neither can be easy for the quickest sight nor the most cautions hand either without hurting them to come at the vessels where they are inosculated or to distinguish the vessels when heterogeneal at their inosculation or to discern a final inosculation whether of vessels of the same or of different kinds So that this whole Question about final inosculations being to receive its decision by the judgment of reason such final inosculations as are homogeneal as of Arteries with Arteries and Bloud-veins with Bloud-veins of the same Trunk such as in this Point were understood and intended by the Antients are no way capable of desence allowance or justification at the Barr of reason for it experimentally and to the eye appears that if any such inosculations should be supposed the same Humours at the same time from the same place should move two contrary ways to wit both to and from the heart and in vessels rising from or gathered at after into the same trunk in which account the lung vein the hollow vein and the port vein though all of them bloud-veins yet because of the diversity of their Trunks are to be esteemed as heterogeneal And finall homogeneal inosculations generally and therefore also between the Mammaryes and Epigastricks being thus everted the old doctrine oncerning the ground of the sympathy between the Breasts and womb cannot be retained And if any think by a short alteration of and putting heterogeneal inosculations for the rejected homogeneal the ground of this sympathy will remain firm and clear as of old to wit by making humours to be transferred from the womb by the Epigastrick arteries and mammary veins to the Breasts and by the mammary arteries and Epigastrick veins from the breasts to the womb I suppose that though such inosculations be not as the other impossible though undemonstrable to sense yet upon mature considerations these will not be judged sufficient to found this sympathy upon If we lay the matter seriously in the ballance even such heterogeneal and final inosculations do rather hinder the transferring of humours from the one part to the other to be sure look how much salls or is any ways drawn into their capacities and cavities cannot by them be so transferred but is otherways disposed of for the mammarie veins carry not to the breasts but to the subclavians and so to the heart and the mammary arteries carry not to the breasts but to the Muscles and parts on the forebelly In like manner the womb will appear equally unconcerned in those veins and arteries for the Epigastrick veins carry not bloud unto the womb but unto their collateral Iliacks and so to the heart and the Epigastrick arteries carry not bloud from the Iliacks to the womb but to the Muscles lying on the fore part of the belly And of themselves neither mammary bloud-vessels reach the womb nor either of the Epigastricks the breasts so as notwithstanding any thing in these vessels we yet seem to be in the dark as to the grounds of this confessed sympathy Not to add that in many Animals some and in some all the breasts are quite out of the way of the Mammaryes on the same side of the Epigastricks with the womb and on that side as farr removed from the capillar terminations of the Epigastricks and mammaries as the womb it self And professedly I understand not upon what necessity the vessels founding or contributing to the sympathy of these two parts must needs pass directly between the one part and the other and may not as well here as in the sympathy of other parts be admitted sufficient for this purpose by their common concern and relation to some special branch or general trunk And vessells thus related touching and terminating in these two parts are not hard to be found in several kinds as arteries and sinews to convey like matter to both these parts veins and sinews to reduce what is improper superfluous useless or redundant in either or meet and apt to be transferred from the one to the other in which both cannot but be assisted by the agreement of their similar attractions and that conformity of substance which is either constant or at some special times between some or all of each of their parts which as it may be a ground of the maturation exalting of these parts together so thereby the Bodies pores and passages of both are alike open for the reception of like humours and the same conform substance may be the cause why those vital emanations irradiations which the generative parts receive from the parts which are principal when I say those vital emanations come to be remitted and reflected back again from the
surface or a portion of a Sphaeral surface is because the inequality of the visual beams between the Eye and the several luminous points is not so proportionate as to be discernable by our ordinary sight for without such inequality to be discerned in the visual beams neither sense nor reason can conceive true Idea's of a spheral surface And upon these Hypotheses and principles all phaenomena's concerning the Moons shapes as to magnitude proportion continuance situation alteration alternation being perpetually and accurately solved the Novelty which would dethrone this doctrine so apparent so rational and unconvincible of the Antients as it is unworthy the acceptance of the considerate and judicious so it cannot but be unmeet for them to impose and obtrude upon others to omit the grosse inconsistency involved in it which I shall in my next at large unfold if these things fall short of giving Satisfaction The third Answer That there are fresh watersprings at the bottoms of the most antient seas Whether Mercury by frequent transhaping it self and often reduction loose not somwhat of its powers and virtues That the Doctrine and being of the four Elements as unmixed bodies by their mixture making up all other bodies is not unquestionable In the four Elements may be allowed to be the general and most common lodges of the Worlds first Elements but themselves at the most can but be allowed to be only secondary Elements How nature may so ballance the first or second Elements by some special Symbolical properties among them as to elude all the endeavours which art can possibly make for the bringing of the first Elements to view and light That the number of the four Elements and of their properties or qualities singly or in Conjugations ascribed to them seemeth insufficient to vest them in the right of first Elements upon the knowledge of whose natures all Physical phaenomena should be capable of explication That the antients seem to have allowed a greater number of first Elements A conjecture what the antients might rationally at first design at their first introducing the Doctrine of the four Elements SIR THat fresh water springs lye at the bottom of the seas both frequent and with flashing issues is to me upon several observations not undiligently made as absolutely certain as to you it seems impossible and this I judge not only in the seas which have made inchroachments by inundation upon the antient bounders of lands which before were plenteously up and down watered with springs but as well there being the like reason in those seas which are able to plead the highest and most antient praescription and cannot be any other wayes chargeable then in their dayly fluxes and refluxes with the least new invading of the earths bosome and of those wells of coldboiling-natural nectar with which it is usually there stored And why should natures opening a vein of freshwater into the sea seem such a sea monster when at land we ordinarily meet with divers springs of different virtues and originals meeting at after together in the same channel from their concourse and mixture conceiving secret virtues manifest alterations and special properties as strange to the illiterate and unexperienced and generally wondered at by the most as the boiling heat appearing presently in the suddenly mixt Oyles of Tartar and Vitriol though cold when poured together I shall not urge that some would have the seas proportionately to their depth fresh at the bottom I only move if this be not more easy to be assented to then what is dayly seen and therefore not to be questioned in point of truth that the sea fishes c. Though continually living in that briny pickle remain still however fresh many times the sea-fowle that most-what fly but about it sometimes swim in the surface of it senting and tasting much stronger of the sea than the fish that live deep and constant in it But Experience being the grand Umpiress in the Question in assurance of its convictiveness I forbear at present For your reducing of Mercury after all operations of fire whether actual or potential upon it I have no reason to cherish suspitions of the truth of such performances but that reduction shall be so perfect as to give back the Mercury as absolute in all virtues as it was or could at first be delivered will not be easily consented to by those that know that fire burns the chief wing upon which in Amalgames Mercury carryes along with it Gold and the force of fire upon it is in the nature of a rape robbing it of that virgin treasure to which the noble mettal is so sequacious which once lost can never be restored again to the defloured Mercury as in all volatiles that which is of nimblest wing flyes first and the highest spirit first and when an impregnation is to be made by fire the work of Philosophy is judged chiefly to lye in the governing of the firing that like the Sun it may give enlivening heat and not become as a destroying Element The reason why so few are acquainted with the excellency and praerogative of this pure Mercury is because generally it is a fire-burnt Mercury which is at first delivered to us I omit that in a thousand instances after Art has separated the natural union of parts though it may again unite them yet that re-union will in many points fall short of the first natural union But why does it seem so monstrous to you to call in Question the existence of the four Elements it being a doctrine which in all Ages has been attended with doubts if you think you can shew as Air and Earth and water yet what shew can you make of Elemental fire And since the dissolution of the Orbes there being no Concave of the Moon what region is designed and intended for it I presume both Hearths and Altars are too low to be the proper Sphaere of this high Element And upon the whole as little can be said for any of the other three as for this the State of the Question and controversie being rightly understood For it is not fire that is denied or Earth or Ayr or water but all as Elemental How great a share and proportion these have in making up this part of the worlds systeme is too evident to sense to be called in Question many leagues of Earth or sea answering to each single degree but that these four are the first uncompounded compounding bodies of which all others by their mixtion consist and are made seems from hence to follow by a very sickly consequence Not without solid consideration and sufficient cause did the Antients honour the Earth with the style of the All-feeding-Earth what innumerable vegetables and Animals spring live and grow in its bosome not to touch at the inestimable treasures lodged in its bowels Others and of the worlds sages with honours not unequal assign unto the water not only Beauty's birth but the Rise and original of all things
clear and sufficient ground for real and peremptory distinction Things thus standing in the contest you mention how easy is it to make on the same side the seams by which the Temple bone and wedge bone are joyned one to another and as before to the Nowl bone Crown bone and Forehead bone to be at pleasure either five in number or if you please six For the one or the other number follows according as you shall take the connexion of the Temple-bone with a Crown-bone and the wedge-bone to be one seams as it is most usually accounted or else to be two for which being the connexions of two and two several bones there wants not as appears some fair and probable ground And thus though I would not charge with falsity that whose truth is from real grounds so plainly defensible howbeit somewhat varying from the ordinary methods and systems of Authors yet I judge it not meet we be too forward by reason of our more clear insight into things in altering slighting and rejecting the Terms names distinctions and methods which have time out of mind been in continual use with learned men For names that were first coyned for distinction and instruction if they should be dayly and hourly changed would be sure to introduce confusion And though in Names and numbers the Antients have used somewhat of authority they have notwithstanding in the same subject fairly exercised their reason So with a very little allowance this whole doctrine of the sutures has been cast by them into a Mould methodical enough the sum whereof in few may be this The sutures of the head either concern not or else concern the bones of the upper chap those which concern not the Bones of the upper chap are either largely toothed sutures Viz. the Crown suture the Dart suture and the Lambda suture which may also receive another ground of distinction from their concerning the two Crown-bones connexion one with the other or with the Forehead bones and the Noul-bone or otherwise other sutures not concerning the bones of the upper chap are not so fairly not deeply sometimes scarce at all at least not so manifestly dented or not in the same manner as the Lepidoidal connexting the Temple-bone to the Crown-bone and to the wedge-bone the connexion between the Crown-bone and wedge-bone the connexion between the Noul-bone and Temple-bone commonly called the Additament of the Lambdoidal the connexion between the Nouls additament and the wedge-bone and the connexion between the Fore-head-bone and the wedge-bone which may also receive another ground of distinction from their concerning the connexion of the Temple-bone and wedge-bone one with the other and with the Noul-bone Crown-bones and Forehead-bone So the sutures which concern the bones of the upper chap either concern some one or more of them in common with some of the aforementioned bones or else they concern the bones of the upper chap alone as connexed mutually amongst themselves The sutures which concern some one or more of the bones of the upper chap in common with some of the aforementioned make connexion only with some of these Viz. the Temple-bone wedge-bone or Fore-head bone for the Crown-bones and Noul-bone are no where connexed to the bones of the upper chap And they are particularly these Viz. the connexion of the outer processe of the Fore-head bone with the inner processe of the first bone of the upper chap the connexion of the first bone of the upper chap with the wedge bone the connexion of the inner processe of the Forehead-bone with the fifth fourth second and third bones of the upper chap being in the order recited connexed from within outwards the connexion of the outer or yoke processe of the first bone of the upper chap with the yoke processe of the Temple bone in the middle of the yoke bone which yoke bone is not a distinct and several bone but made up of two processes of two several bones and the last is the connexion between part of the upper part of the dissepiment and the wedge-bone Lastly the seams which concern the bones of the upper chap only among themselves are the connexion of the first and fourth bone the connexion of the second bone with the third and fourth the connexion of the third and fourth bones the connexion of the fourth and fifth bones the connexion between the two fifth bones the connexion of the fourth and sixth bones the connexion between the two sixth bones the connexion of the other part of the upper part of the dissepiment with the fifth bones the connexion of the lower part of the dissepiment in the Plough-share bone with the sixth i. e. the palat bones and some small part of the fourth bones In all which if somewhat at pleasure they have used authority in the numeral order of the bones and in the account and order of the seams it is no more than is freely allowed to each Artist in his Art so long as the Authority they use neither bears nor creats any repugnancy to the subject matter And so even in abstract Mathematicks somethings are determined not by necessity because they can be no otherwise but by long usage and authority because they may conveniently be as is determined So Arithmetical numerations which are every where received and taught in Decuple proportion with as much facility and Mathematical accurateness might be instituted in undecuple proportion and then the usual Probes should not be by casting away of nines but of tens or in sexage cuple proportion and then the Probes should be by casting away of fifty nines or non cuple proportion and then the Probes should be by casting away of eights And the like instances might be given in Geometry and in several if not most parts of Concrete Mathematicks So in ordering the Account of the Brain ventricles of the sides of the same bones and sometimes of the branchings of sinews veins Arteries other vessels and the like custome and authority commonly gives praecedency to the parts cavities or branchings posited on the right side though without offence unto Truth all Accounts might as exquisitely be compleated in a quite contrary order But though these things might be and as well as what is yet what is being as accurate as what otherwise might be it is sufficient to know that these things might be otherwise methodized without renouncing the Antients method I have you see too high an Opinion of the persons concerned to imagine their difference could arise from some peculiarities in unusual skulls in which it is not uncommon to find great difference in the numbers of bones seams and holes not only under diversity of Age and sex which is so common it is not otherwise to be expected but as well when no such causes can be alleadged for the diversity nay many times in the main and principal commonly called True seams we do not ever find a constant regularity and uniformity But of those things which