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B23791 An essay concerning nutrition in animals proving it analogical to that of plants, and discovering the like structure and use of the organs to be alike in both, with many observations towards the practise of physick : together by Philip Guide ... Guide, Philippe, d. 1718. 1699 (1699) Wing G2183 8,422 24

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the Food out of the Stomach through Lacteal Veins Thorachick Lacteal Veins seems to be of no other use than to carry what they have receiv'd towards the smallest and most remotest Particles of our Body to furnish them Nurture with it but it may prove the thing to be otherwise The first Conjecture I had about it was in the Year 1684. and I gave then to the Publick in a French Letter directed to the most ingenious Squire Boyle Printed in London this Notion of mine there in P. 36. viz. I say there that the Chyle was immediately carried into Womens Breast to produce Milk without need to go into the Heart and into the Arteries first and that after the like manner this same Chyle may be distributed into every one Particle of our Body to furnish them Nurture Now what I called then Chyle I do reduce it since to a Juice of no Colour whereas the Chyle is whitish and this Juice of no Colour is the Original of all the Liquid of our Body of which we have more to say hereafter In this said Letter Directed to the said Squire Robert Boyle I did use some Arguments to prove That Blood was not the Fountain from whence the Particles of our Body received their Nurture and their Growth To these Arguments I have yet seen no Answer If the Arguments are good to prove what I did intend Blood being excluded accordingly from the Office of Nurture the Arteries at the same time must by all means fall short of their supposed Function viz. To carry Blood every where upon an Account of a Liquid intended to be a Matter desighed for the Nurture of every Particle of our Body This seems to me the more probable because Plants which have the Benefit of Nurture have none of their Organical Particles after the Likeness of an Artery or a Vein Moreover in Man's Body a great many Parts want these Vessels and consequently do not use them to receive Nurture through their Cavity Now it remains that we enquire which way then the Parts and Particles of our Body may receive their Food when the Arteries are excluded This Query does totally depend upon the Knowledge one may Borrow from the Structure of Plants and from the way of Distribution of their Nourishing Juice all over their Body Towards this Structure we do receive for granted what we had out of those Books Published a great many Years ago by the Ingenious Malpegius Dr. Grew and the Abbot Marriot three Eminent Men who diligently applyed themselves to look into Plants with a Magnifying Glass and do agree together That they have seen nothing else in the Texture of Plants but some Pores some Fibres some little Fistula's some little Bladders some short and scanty Holes like Store Houses without any Artery or any Vein Upon Examination of a great many Parts of Man's Body as Bones Gristles Teeth Nails we find them to have some Organical Particle like Plants but nothing of Artery or Vein The Structure then of Bones of Gristles of Teeth of Nails being very like the Structure of a Plant and both having alike their Nurture their Growth without any Artery we may conclude the said Pores Fibres c. to be alone the true Organical Particles of both these Mechanical Bodies and consequently Arteries are to be excused of this Function To come to the way of Distribution of the Nourishing Juice it must be all alike in both of them No doubt Nourishing Juice may get into the hardest piece of Wood into the Texture of a Rocky Bone Tooth c. and this must be a way something like Filtration and if it is plain as it is that these hard Bodies receive their Food by such ways from Pore to Pore from Fibre to Fibre c. Why should we not think that it is a way common to a soft part of Flesh as well as to an hard Bone or to a piece of Wood It seems to be so much the rather because the Rarity of the Texture of a soft part lies more open to the admission of any Liquid if then we do not see any Contradiction to it it will be unreasonable to suppose that our Wise Maker would have multiplied a Being without Necessity The little Organical Particles as we have said are alone sufficient enough for the Work in a Plant and in a great many parts of our Body without the help of any Artery And it would be against this said Rule of Wisdom to join an Artery to other Organs without any Necessity and when the thing may be done as well without it Finally we do not pretend for all this that the Arteries should not have some Influence into the Functions of Nurture and others It may be like the Sun's promoting these Actions in raising up the Juice out of the Earth and qualifying it by the Vertue of its Beams they both open the Passages and procure a free Course to the Liquid to go every where Such like Office we may allow to the Arteries which is a thing quite different from carrying into its Cavity the Food it self ●o be applied for Nurture to every part And this is that which I oppose We do conclude then from the Parity of these said Organical Particles from the likeness of the nourishing Juice and from the Parity of the Actions which we have proved in Plants and Animals to be totally the same kind that the presence of such like Causes must be attended with the same Effect and that the same Effect is to be supposed to come from the same Cause when so many Things in all Circumstances do agree so well together CHAP. II. What may be the Nature of the Faculty or Power which hath the greatest Share in any Action and what may be the Nature of that which is called a Soul in a Plant in Brutes and in Mankind NO Body knows better the Darkness the narrow Limits the Vanity of Learning than those who did apply themselves to the attaining of it and dived into the Mystery of Nature Ancient Philosophers surprised to a wonderful Admiration about the Regular Motion of Heavenly Things would have them to be Ruled by some Intelligent Being at this Rate every individual Creature below having its different Degrees of Perfections should deserve as well the Patronage and the Presence of an Intelligent Being to assist at its admirable Actions as things above should pretend to No wonder then if it has been thought on that something extraordinary besides the gross Parts and Juices of a Plant and of an Animal should work out in them these Actions of Nurture Growth and producing Seed and this hath been called the first kind of Soul in Plants now to an Animal which hath over and above a Plant the Priviledge of Local Motion and what is called Sensation must be allowed another distinct Soul to rule ov'r these different Actions and this will be a second kind of Soul It is a very hard Matter to give a just
definition of these pretended Beings and we think convenient to inquire if such like Beings are in Nature to be distinctly perceived from the Organical Particles or Parts from their Position Order Figure Juice joined together in a Plant or Animal To this end we think fit to Consult what is nearest to them viz. some more simple and less Compounded Machine plainly known to Mankind No doubt Man may say he knows a Thing when he is in a Capacity to compose it to set it in a way to play the Work he will have it to play accordingly a Watch-maker may be said to have a perfect Knowledge of a Machine we call a Watch this piece of Workmanship hath its Organical Parts made out of Metals to bring things nearer related to Plants and Animals Let us suppose a Machine composed with the Metallical Particles and Liquids to have Share in these Actions An Ingenious Man got the Art to compose a Bird which could walk alone and pick up with its Bill any Seed Corn or Gravel that is usual to this sort of Creature the Natural and the Artificial both could Pick up Grains let them go down their Throat into their Belly and from thence let them out after the manner of Excrements Such a Piece of Workmanship is easie to be known from Top to Bottom and is very much Inferiour to the Mechanism of a Plant or of an Animal but nevertheless it will look mighty strange and wonderful to an American of no Experience He would think with himself that such Machine had in its Bowels some kind of Animals which should Govern its rare Motions Now if a poor Mortal hath the Skill to work out such Machines fit to perform these said Actions in which we know of a certainty that there is no other Power Faculty or Soul but the Management of so many pieces joined together to work out of Necessity such an effect which we have foreseen and do expect to come What can we say about the Skill of our Great Master the Omnipotent and Wife Maker of this World Shall we reduce him to the necessity of calling in viz. to work out the Function of any part of a Plant or Animal any further Agent then their first Organical Particles and their Juices which Things he knew from Eternity sufficient to perform the work as we did observe in workmanship Doubtless it would be inglorious to his Infinite Wisdom to use unnecessary means to perform Actions which can be done without them We must confess a great Disparity between the Work of God and Man Our Mechanical Piece does borrow a great many things from its Prototype of God's Work and ours is very far distant from its Perfections for God's Work and Machine hath the Faculty to receive into its most intimate Parts a repairing Nourishing Juice and doth change it into its own Substance to build out of it a new Structure or at least to enlarge it in its Dimensions which we call Growth and further to produce out of its own Bosom Seeds and young ones of the same Nature This must be the Finger of God and in some way a continual work of a Creation above the Strength of Humane Power Let all Mens Workmanship then and Men together bow before the Throne of the Almighty to Worship and give him Glory He is the true Original of all Power and Knowledge the Light and the Living for ever In reference to him Men and their best Works are but Blind and Dead Idols Shall we then pretend to go beyond him to compose a Mechanical Body able to perform its Actions according to the Combination of its Particles and other Things which we have foreseen to be sufficient to do the Work alone without any other Agent to pretend to out-do God himself in his Work and to be Wiser than He which is the Eternal Wisdom it self This would be against all Reason for who can deny to allow him the same thing with us who has not only power to make a Machine fit for all the Actions our Artificial Machine is Capable of but to raise it also besides to these Perfections above our Artificial of receiving Nurture Growth and producing Seed These things being well considered we will lay aside the thought of a Soul and as no Body yet hath medled with it in Physick viz. to get any Instruction from it to redress what is missing and out of Order in Animal we must rank the Soul in Plants and in Animals amongst the Imaginary Beings which are Productions not of Nature but of Fancy only It is no matter then for Physicians to be busie about a thing of no use at all all our Measures and Indications by which we set into their former Order any of these Mechanical Beings will be in such one of their Organical Particles and Parts Number Position Figure Order and the true qualification of their Juice in fine to amend what may be wanting this I say must be all the Care of a Physician and the true Bounds of his Knowledge and acting What we have said against this imaginary Being a Soul in the Mechanism of a Plant and of an Animal in general must not be extended further then the Bodily Shape of a Man which to the performance of these Actions of Nuture Growth producing Seed is a simple Machine without any Soul like a Plant or other Animal and therefore after the same manner in the Performance of Local Motion and Sensation he wants by no means the help of a Soul But since in Mankind there are some Extraordinary Actions which are not common to other Animals as an indefinite Knowledge of all sorts of means to serve his Designs whereas Brutes have their bounds and limits every one in a small Compass A Notion we have in the heart of Justice and Equity the precision of Times of what is Past or present and what is to Come the large Instrument of Reason to go from Step to Step till we can discover Truth to know the Causes by their Effects and from the Effects to come back to their Causes to know the Propriety Relation and degrees of Parity and Disparity in the Nature of Numbers and Measures above all to Confess and Worship our Omnipotent Maker and to be sensible together of our own Weakness to be in a Capacity to feel an internal Joy distinct from what is produced in us by external and Organical Sensations to think and to make Reflections with our selves All these Perfections prove another sort of Power in Man then what is common to Animals in general Local Motions and Sensations this Power or Faculty we call a Humane Soul to discourse about whose Nature it is a very hard Task the most Ingenious Philosophers of Old have had but very dark Notions about it they are the most part incertain and wavering in their Opinions about this Matter and I think the Attainment of it to be above our Human Reach To this we have for Witness the Incapacity of our Fore-fathers which aimed at it and have done nothing at all the Modern Authors of themselves have had I think as little Success In my Opinion the true Cause of it is we would heartily know a thing of our selves which is beyond the bounds of Humane Capacity for the first Man himself being made by the Power of his Omnipotent Maker and adorned with the best Faculty for Discovery suppose he should have had a mind to enquire about the proceeding of his Production a thousand thoughts might have come into his mind about different Causes he could point at but they would have been altogether uncertain and wavering Opinions having nothing of Reality in them for in matter of Fact unparalel as this is one how and which way the first Man was made since he was not in Being before he was framed all his Care for a Discovery thereof would have been needless the perception of a thing done and the way of its doing before his coming into this World was a piece of work above his reach he could not be a competent Judge of it the only way to make him sensible of it was the way of Narration Accordingly it pleased the Lord God to teach our first Parents and to reveal to them what we have out of the Book of Genesis that God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a Living Soul This Soul we have above and over what we mention'd before viz. what Mechanism the Plants and Animals have in common with us this Frame alike theirs God gave us out of the Dust and directed all our Organical Parts and Particles with their Juices to his Ends and Intention without any other Agent distinct from them For besides the reason we have given of Conveniency which shows it would be below the Infinite Wisdom to give to his Machine an unnecessary Soul in short to determine all the difficulty about it God has not only revealed to Man his own Production but gave him an account how he proceeded in the making of Plants and Animals there the distinction is plain we have not a word of breathing into their Nostrils the Breath of Life a Living Soul then we conclude well that they have none and that for certain we have one because it pleaseth God to inform us of it this Faculty or Power hath something in its being totally distinct from the Machine and no wonder if the Ancient Philosophers have had but a wavering Opinion about it since they went a wrong way to get a solid and real Knowledge of their manner of making and this being a manner of Fact done before we had any kind of perception it is only to be known by way of revelation which in this present cause proves to be of an absolute necessity upon which only we rely for the exclusion of any being called a Soul in Plants and Animals and for asserting a Living Soul in the Breast of Man