throat and by that compression forces it into the mouth of the Gullet For being so environ'd as that it cannot slipp away either by the funnells above leading to the nosestrills or by the palate it must be cramm'd into the orifice of the Gullet there being no other way or door left open by which it may free it self from compression Nor doth this compression instantly cease but is continued till the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx filling up the whole cavity of the throat have thence driven all the matter contain'd therein and thrust it down into the Gullet 2. Whilst this action is perform'd the Muscles of the Pharynx being also vigorated i. e set on work by tension cause its membrane closely to embrace the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx in their ascent but so as that the orifice of the Gullet is at the same time carried upward and a little forward to meet the matter to be swallow'd No wonder then if the describ'd compression easily squeez into the Gullet all the matter brought into the throat when the same is promoted by a clausure on each side from below by the ascent of the tongue and Larynx from above by the tension of the muscles of the Pharynx and at the same time the mouth of the Gullet is offer'd as a door by which it may slipp away and evade the compression 3. No sooner is the matter in this manner thrust down into the orifice of the Gullet than the Sphincter Muscle thereof constringing it self so girds the orifice as that it not only prevents the recoiling or slipping back of the matter into the mouth but squeezes it somwhat farther down And then 4. The Peristaltic or Compressing motion of the spiral fibres of the Gullet beginning and by degrees girding the sides thereof farther and farther downward soon thrusts the matter into the cavity of the Stomach And this seems to me to be the most reasonable and plain accompt that hitherto hath been given how the whole complex work of Deglutition is perform'd Mechanically A work of so great Use to the whole body that all men know and acknowledge it to be absolutely necessary to the conservation of the whole Experience teaching even the most illiterate that when it happens to be abolish'd as in various diseases of the throat chiefly in inflammations tumors and palseys of the muscles of the Larynx and Pharynx it often is miserable famin and death inevitably insue It is not then without good cause that Nature hath according to her accustom'd bounty in works of publick utility either to the subsistence of individuals or to propagation of the species to the exercise of the faculty of Deglutition annex'd an ample reward viz. a grateful Complacency of the instruments therein used yea a pleasure so inviting that many Animals are thereby allured to hurt themselves by eating more than they can digest and above all intemperate Man whose diet is in variety of tasts the most delicious With which vulgar remark I conclude this short and imperfect history of the Oesophagus ¶ PRAELECTIO II. HISTORIA VENTRICULI THAT we may not in our surveys divide parts that Nature hath so closely conjoyn'd let us in the next place convert our contemplation upon the principal Organ of Chylification wherein as in a publick Kitchin nourishment for the whole body is praepar'd viz. the STOMACH This common Receptacle of all our meat and drink and Laboratory in which all the profitable parts of both are by the inimitable Chymistry of Nature converted into a certain whitish liquor somwhat resembling barly cream and call'd Chyle hath been by the Antient Graec Physicians describ'd under three divers names By Hippocrates 't is sometimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to receive or contein because it receives all the Aliment swallowed down and wherever in his works we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without addition to appropriate it to the Head or Thorax which by him are also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellies there we are to understand this part alone sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cavity and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heart from the vicinity of the upper orifice of the Stomach to the Heart and the symptoms thence arising But of these Appellations the two first are common to all great cavities or receptacles in the body and the last in stricter sense denotes not the whole stomach but only the principal and most sensil part of it the Mouth Among the Latines likewise we find an equal variety of denominations For Celsus lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 4. cap. 5. uses the words Venter Ventriculus and Stomachus indifferently to signify this whole part and Cicero de nat Deor. lib. 2. expresses the same by Ventriculus and Stomachus indiscriminately But now use hath obtain'd that the diminutive Ventriculus quasi minor ventor without a limitation annext stand for the proper name of what the Vulgar calls the Stomach For tho' Anatomists name the cavities of the Heart and Brain also Ventricles yet they never do so without adding for distinction sake the name of the part viz. Heart or Brain of which they speak This Ventricle then being an Organical part of great dignity but greater necessity well deserves our strictest scrutiny Let us then with diligence and patience consider 1. The Structure or Organization 2. The Elements or similar parts and 3. The Actions and Uses of it For if we can attain to a competent knowledge of all these things I do not see what can remain to hinder us from coming at length to understand the nature of it fully and perfectly Begin we then from the Site or situation of it which being not the same in Animals of all kinds but various requires to be consider'd first in genere and then speciatim to the end that Comparative Anatomy may go hand in hand with simple or Positive In all Animals that have bloud Fowls that feed upon corn only excepted the Ventricle is seated in the upper part of the Abdomen The superior Orifice of it in Man in all four-footed Beasts and in all Fishes that have lungs is immediately under the Diaphragm but in all Fishes that respire not immediately appendant to the mouth as well because having neither thorax nor neck they consequently want the Gullet as because in them the belly is disterminated from the mouth by a certain membraneous partition not much unlike to and as to separation supplying the defect of the midriff Whereas in Animals that respire the Gullet is requisite because of the interposition of the breast betwixt the mouth and the Ventricle which could not be commodiously placed above the diaphragm in the thorax for more than one reason viz. 1. Because it would have straitned and compress'd the Lungs especially when fill'd and distended with food 2. Because the Thorax being inviron'd with strong bones could not be
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
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
the threads in the same manner as this mucilaginous pulp fills up the interstices betwixt the fibres and so makes the membranes impervious Necessary it is to the augmentation and extenuation of the fibres themselves For the fibres of the Stomach although seldom or never liable to fatness are yet easily capable of plumpness and leanness In men sick of a Consumtion they are alwayes extenuated in fat men alwayes plump and thick But these mutations could not so easily happen if the fibres were not stuff'd with some pulp for all Parenchymata are easily melted a way by degrees but fibres not without great difficulty nor do I know any thing more apt to colliquate their substance and destroy their tone than Brandy and other corroding Spirits how highly soever extoll'd by Chymists that distill them We may see in men languishing of Hectic fevers and ulcers of the lungs the Tendons of the muscles remaining intire when the pulp of them is in the mean time almost wholly consumed Whence 't is evident that the fibres which are more easily obnoxious to augmentation and diminution than other solid parts have much of a pulpy substance in their composition 3. This pulp if softned and diluted with water is like a mucilage or gelly otherwise tenacious tensible and strong like paste so as to be impervious to winds and liquors though apt perhaps to imbibe the thinner and spirituose part of the Chyle Different from the Parenchyma of the bowels and from that of the Muscles also as being neither bloody but white and spermatic nor congested into a mass but spread abroad like plaister so as to bear extension and contraction together with the fibres part of it being stuff'd or cramm'd into the fibres the rest dawbed upon and betwixt them so as to fill up and plane their interstices 4. Besides which two Uses it seems to serve also to three others viz. to the safe conduct of the Venae Lacteae proceeding from the Stomach which probably have their roots in the parenchyma of the inmost tunic thereof where the small Glandules observ'd by Steno and Malpighius are seated to the separation of the mucus or pituita emortua from the bloud brought by the arteries into the coats of the Ventricle of which we shall more opportunely inquire when we come to the uses of the Stomach and lastly to make way for a larger current of blood to pass through the membranes of the Stomach than otherwise they and their pure fibres could through their substance transmitt For Fibres by how much more firm and tenacious they are than the Parenchyma is by so much more they resist the transition of the blood and therefore if here were no Parenchyma certainly the Ventricle would be irrigated with more slender streams of blood and consequently colder than it ought to be Whereas now no less than five conspicuous arteries discharge themselves into its coats Certain therefore it is that a more liberal afflux of bloud is requir'd to the constitution of the stomach than seems possible to be transmitted through the naked membrane and fibres without this pulp Having now at length finish'd I wish I might say perfected my survey of all visible Elements or constituent parts of the Ventricle I should proceed to the functions actions and uses of it But remembring that an empty Stomach hath no ears and considering that it would be double wrong to you should I at once starve both your bodies and your curiosity I choose rather here to break off the thread of my discourse than to weaken that of your life by detaining you longer from necessary refection ¶ PRAELECTIO III. Of the ACTIONS and USES of the VENTRICLE AFTER dinner sit a while is an old and good precept to conserve health Let us then if ye please now observe it And that we may repose without idleness let us calmly inquire into the method causes and manner of Digestion resuming the clew of our discourse where hunger and thirst brake it off when it had brought us to that place where we might most opportunely consider the ACTIONS and USES of the Ventricle whose admirable Structure and various Parts we had so particularly contemplated in order to our more accurate investigation of them In this disquisition Nature her self hath plainly mark'd out the steps wherein we are to tread having assign'd to the Ventricle eight distinct operations or actions to be perform'd in order successively These Actions are 1. Hunger 2. Thirst 3. The Peristaltic motion 4. Reception 5. Retention 6. Concoction 7. Secretion 8. Expulsion each of which hath a peculiar Faculty respondent to it for every action in specie distinct necessarily implies a distinct power But because each distinct faculty and the action respondent to it are though in reason different yet in reality one and the same thing I shall not treat of them separately but describe them together under the more familiar name of action the rather because if we can be so lucky to find out the true reason of any one operation here specified we need search no farther to know the nature of the faculty to which it belongs all mechanical operations conducting our understanding to the knowledge of the proper powers by which they are perform'd Following then the order of Nature in examining these Actions I begin from the first viz. HUNGER Among the many differences betwixt Plants and Animals this is not the least remarkable that Plants are fixt by their roots which serve them also instead of mouth and stomach in the earth so that they remove not from their places in quest of nourishment Unde facundiss noster Entius in Antidiatribae pag. 5. Plantae inquit non sunt quidem gressiles sed humo affixae secum continuè habitant quòd pluviâ solùm ac rore tenuissimo scilicet victu pascantur Ideoque cùm ad rivulos potatum ire nequeant expansis veluti brachiis facundos imbres à Jove pluvio implorant But Animals having their Stomach within their bodies and sucking no juice immediately from the earth are therefore forced to change their stations and range from place to place to find food convenient for their sustenance And because the capacity of their Ventricles and Gutts is not so great as at once to contain a quantity of food sufficient to maintain life for many dayes together necessary it is they should often be recruited by eating fresh aliment To obtain which they must seek it and to oblige them to seek it they must be excited and urged by somthing within them to that quest and to that excitation is requir'd an internal goad as it were and that a sharp one too and irresistible the inevitable necessity of their nutrition consider'd otherwise they would neglect to supply themselves in due time with new sustenance and consequently soon pine away and perish Now the goad that compells them to feed is Hunger and Thirst the one urges them to seek meat the other drink both by
and consumption of whatever he devour'd So that in strict truth his stomach not he was the great Eater or rather the corrosive acidity of humors contein'd in his stomach The third enormity incident to this faculty is Depravation of appetite call'd in the general Pica in women with child Malacia seldom afflicting men frequently women and among these such chiefly who have either the green sickness or great bellies and proceding in them à suppressis Catamenus Which stagnating circa uterum and acquiring a peculiar kind of corruption when they have therewith infected the whole mass of the b'oud leave such a vitious tincture in the Mucus or dead Phlegm thereof separated from the b'oud in the inmost coat of the stomach as that from thence arises a perverse hunger not of good and wholesom meats but of things absurd and uncouth such as chalk loam charcoal ashes unripe and austere fruits turfs and other the like trash If I do not persue this extravagant Appetite farther in this place 't is not because I have no more to say concerning the Conjunct Cause of it but because the Law of decency obliges me to be reserv'd where the Argument belongs only to the knowledge of the grave Physician who alone is priviledg'd to philosophize chastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contenting my self therefore with what hath been said concerning the first Action of the Ventricle Hunger I proceed to contemplate the nature of the Second viz. THIRST ¶ The Faculty of THIRST is also necessary to nutrition as respecting the Vehicle of solid aliment whereby it is diluted and reduced into a thin and liquid substance call'd Chyle Yea more a Vehicle is requisite also in respect of the Bloud which would be of too thick a consistence and unfit to perform its circuits round the body if it were not now and then diluted by fresh supplies of drink nor could this Vital Nectar be commodiously purged and defaecated from various impurities and excrementitious parts namely the Bile salt tartar and mucus unless it were daily rinsed as it were with a sufficient portion of thinner liquor For it is by the help of our drink alone that the saline and earthy excrements of our bloud are driven out by urine Ye may add yet another use of liquids suggested first by Sr. G. Ent in Antidiatribae pag. 28. in these words Quo chyli pars tenuior expeditius è ventriculo per oesophagum per viam filtrationis ad cerebrum sursum ascendat humectatione opus est quemadmodum in filtratione usu venit atque hinc etiam potandi necessitas sicca enim ascensum hujusmodi frustrantur Ideóque ardente febre correpti quibus lingua faucésque arent subitò macrescunt And these are the principal reasons that seem to have induced Nature to institute thirst or Appetite of drink in all Animals That this Appetite of drink is seated in the Ventricle as in its subject can not be denyed but that it is confined to the Ventricle only can not be granted 1. Because drink receiv'd into the stomach doth not always mitigate thirst and therefore that part of thirst that remains after a competent quantity of drink must reside in some other parts vicine to the stomach For it is unconceivable that the stomach when replete with cold and moist should still feel and complain of want of both 2. Because they who in fevers are tormented with insatiable thirst complain not so much of heat in the stomach as driness and parching of their tongue throat and gullet Nay they find more alleviation and relief from frequent washing of their mouths and throats with fountain water small beer and other convenient liquors than from all the cold drink they can pour in The like solace they find also from holding in their mouths such things as any way promote the flowing forth of the Humor Salivalis or spittle though they be neither actually cold nor moist in themselves such as Prune stones polisht Crystal pieces of gold all which by their weight and pressure upon the tongue further the profusion of the spittle and sal prunellae which detain'd only in the mouth and there slowly melted palliates the thirst We may therefore conclude that the adaequate subject of thirst includes not only the Stomach but the gullet also and the throat with the tongue all which are cover'd with one and the same membrane and must therefore sympathize The OBIECT of this faculty is as of Hunger twofold Absent and Praesent The Absent Object is in the general whatsoever liquor is fit to be drunk and to satisfie thirst For we thirst after Wine Water Beer Ale Whey Cydre and any other delectable juice or tincture whatsoever But to render any of these or any other Potulent matter the genuine and formal object of thirst are requir'd these Conditions following 1. That it be liquid or fluid like water For solid bodies are unapt to quench thirst unless they be such as may be melted or dissolv'd in the mouth or by irritation cause the glandules of the mouth to discharge the spittle sooner or more copiously than otherwise they would do which is but to abate thirst by accident as a pipe of Tobacco somtimes doth only by bringing rheum down that moistens the mouth 2. That it be Humid or moist also at least effectively For certainly whatsoever potulent matter appeases thirst doth some way or other moisten the parts that were dry and thirsty before Vinegre and Sal prunellae though in some respect they may be said to be cold and dry yet being taken into the mouth may be nevertheless allowed to mitigate thirst in so much as they dissolve the viscid and adust humors adhaering to the surface of the tongue and open the sluices of the spittle that were before obstructed 3. That it be thin penetrating and in some sort cutting or sharp Thin it must be to irrigate the thirsty parts the sooner but not too thin lest it slide away before it hath moistned them which perhaps is the reason distill'd waters without any other mixture are ineffectual to quench thirst but a little thickned with cooling syrups and contemper'd with acids they make good julebs to that purpose It must be penetrating also and sharp or acid to insinuate the deeper into the membrane which is the seat of thirst and moisten more than the superficial parts thereof For daily experience teaches that thick viscid sweet and heavy drinks rather increase than abate thirst It appears then that the formal reason of drink in respect of which it is said to be the absent object of thirst doth consist in its fluidity humidity moderate tenuity and aptitude to penetrate and cutt If any accuse me of forgetfulness for that I have here omitted to list coldness among the qualities of drink most convenient to extinguish thirst I intreat such to take notice that I did it ex professo dissenting from this opinion of the Peripatetics that the absent object
able after all their pains and taedious processes to draw any thing from thence but a certain salt spirit not much different from the spirits of Urine of Harts-horn or of Sal Ammoniac unless that perhaps it was somwhat more subtile less acrimonious and less ingrate And certain therefore it is as I before affirm'd that whatsoever of Acid salt hath not been actually converted into salt in the stomach is soon after when the Chyle arrives at the Gutts changed into Animal Salt no such thing as Vegetable Salt being to be found in any part of any living creature ¶ Having now at length with more of haste perhaps than of satisfaction to my Auditors run through all the general Differences of Aliments to be concocted and all the various Alterations they undergo in the stomach before they can be brought to the perfection of good and profitable Chyle we come next to the Third Head of our praesent Disquisition viz. the CAUSES of those Alterations WHICH though many and of various kinds may nevertheless be commodiously enough reduced to two general Classes or Orders viz. such as are Foreign or Extra-advenient to and such as are Indigenary or Inbred in the stomach To the First classis belong all things that any way conduce to the promotion of Concoction either by praevious Alteration of the Aliments or by fortifying the stomach Of those that remotely conduce to the work of Concoction only by Praeparation of the food some correct the Crudity of it by the help of fire namely by boyling roasting frying or baking others render it more mild and tender by maceration in brines lixivia's pickles vinegre and the like others make the Aliments more familiar by way of hastning their Maturation and others again intenerate and dispose them to dissolution by mixture of some wholsom and agreeable Ferment Where it may be observed that whatsoever Aliments whether solid as bread or liquid as wine beer ale hydromel c. that have undergone Fermentation before they are receiv'd into the stomach invite other Aliments with which they are therein commixt to fermentation Hence it is that good wine strong beer vinegre bread made light by leaven and the like help very much to digestion Those that do so by corroboration of the stomach are Peptic or Digestive Remedies as mints roses wormwood Aromatics c. But all these of both sorts being only Accessories and forein require not to be farther prosecuted in this place The Inbred Causes of Concoction are either Instruments generated in the stomach or the Constitutions of the stomach in which the Faculty of Concocting is founded 1. The Instruments are the Ferments contein'd in the stomach four in number whereof two are Principal and the other two only Adjuvant The Adjuvant or less powerful are the Humor Salivalis and the Acid Phlegm of the stomach both which help somwhat toward the inteneration of the meat But because they help but little in comparison of the other two I content my self with the bare mention of them en passant The More powerful are the Acid reliques of the former meal which tho' more efficacious than both the Adjuvant ferments are yet in comparison of the grand one less considerable and therefore I may well be excused if I pass them also over in silence and the proper Ferment of the stomach which being the Principal instrument of Concoction deserves to be particularly consider'd The origin and nature of this admirable dissolving Ferment the only true Alkahest in nature having been first investigated not many years past by the great industry of the learned and judicious Moebius and professedly proved by convincing experiments and observations in a prolix dissertation conteined in his Book de Fundament Medicinae and since that time much illustrated by our happy Dr. Glisson de ventric intestin cap. 20. all that remains for me to do concerning it is only to recall to your memory the most remarkable heads of those things ye have read in those discourses by giving you a Breviary of them This therefore I will do and in as few words as can with reason be expected This Ferment then is nothing else but the spirituose and saline effluvia stirr'd up by the vital motion of the arterial bloud effused out of the arteries into the cavity of the stomach and gutts but chiefly of the stomach and therein condensed again into a sharp penetrating and dissolving liquor apt to dissolve the solid meat and to cause such a benign fermentation as tends not to volatilization but only to Fusion of the same and in fine acting upon it not by open force or violent invasion but after the manner of Contagiose ferments rather by clancular insinuation and mixing it self first with the saline and spirituose parts and then with the grosser and less exsoluble In this concise Abridgement I have I confess omitted two Positions both zealously asserted by the later of these two excellent Authors out of whose doctrine I abstracted it One is that that part of the blood which is by the Coeliac and two Mesenteric arteries dispensed to the stomach and gutts chiefly to the inmost coat of them is somewhat more salt and sharp than the blood distributed to other parts of the body The Other is that the Saline and spirituose parts of the Meat newly admitted into the stomach perceiving that they are ill lodg'd and that the Ferment with which they there meet is really semblable or like to them and with all more noble as retaining some reliques of vitality with which it had so lately been ennobled while it pass'd through the heart and arteries do easily admit embrace and conjoyn themselves with it But I declare withal that I omitted these Positions not from inadvertency nor for brevity fake but only because I doubt of the verity of them For the first supposes Similar Attraction or mutual coition of things alike ob similitudinem naturae which yet I do not find my self obliged to grant And the other depends upon the Hypothesis of Natural Perception which is not yet establish'd beyond disputation However it seems to me sufficiently probable that this dissolving Ferment is peculiar to and generated in the stomach because nothing like it is to be found in any other part of the whole body that to the constitution of it is required a concurse of both salt and sulphureous spirits such are the vital spirits themselves but chiefly of Salt than which nothing is more sharp penetrating and dissolving and that therefore it may be call'd as Moebius named it Sal spiritibus impragnatum acre ac pungens or as Dr. Glisson Fermentum Ventriculi fusorium feu principale coctionis instrumentum because it doth not only efficaciously dissolve the solid parts of the food but also give it the first degree of Assiimilation to the nature of the Animal out of whose blood the ferment it self is derived Which may be one reason why the same Aliment receives a divers praeparation in
the stomachs of Animals of divers kinds the ferment being in some sorts different from that in others respectively to the difference of the blood And this is all I have to say of the chief instrument of Concoction the proper and inbred Ferment of the stomach 2. The Constitutions of the stomach in which the Concoctive Faculty seems to be founded are three viz. Vital Animal and Natural Of these the two former are influent the first from the fountain of life the blood the second from the brain the third insite or implanted in the stomach it self from its very formation From all these Constitutions concurrent and by an admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom combined there results a certain power which is the Principal Cause of all the operations of the stomach Hence we properly enough say the stomach craves meat and the stomach digesteth For the Seminal Principle of the stomach including both the Vital and Animal influences together with the native Constitution is the whole and so the Principal cause of all its operations But this being a Complex cause cannot be well understood unless the three Constitutions here named of which it is composed be singly consider'd What the Vital and Animal are will be easily collected from what I have designed to say when I come to inquire concerning life and the influence of the brain And as for the insite or congenite Constitution that consisteth in the Temperament in the Habit in the Tone and chiefly in the implanted spirit as the Galenist calls it or as the Chymists and Helmontians Archeus which assisted by the influent vital heat and by the Animal influx is doubtless the grand cause of Concoction and together with the newly describ'd Ferment performs the whole work Which being accomplish'd there immediately succeeds another operation equally necessary to Nutrition viz. The DISTRIBUTION of the Chyle WHICH is perform'd by three distinct actions of the Distributive Faculty of the stomach and Gutts viz. 1 the Exclusion of the Chyle out of the stomach into the Gutts 2 The Agitation of it to and fro by the Peristaltick motion partly in the stomach but chiefly in the gutts and 3 the Transmission of it into the Milky Veins The reason and manner of all which actions I shall endeavor briefly to explain supposing them to be Organical As to the FIRST viz. the Transfusion of the Chyle out of the stomach into the gutts I conceive it to be effected by a double motion of the Chyle one impress'd upon the Chyle the other natural to it or spantaneous The first upward the second downward The impress'd and upward motion by which the Chyle is elevated to the Pylorus I ascribe to the Constriction or closing of the whole stomach For all the fibres of the stomach by the motion of self-restitution common to all Tensiles after they have been extended in length more and more contracting themselves by degrees of necessity lessen the cavity in which the Chyle is contein'd and this coangustation of the cavity of equal necessity raises it up to the Pylorus and the other orifice remaining closely shut up while the whole act of Concoction lasteth forces it out at the same in the same manner as the liquor of a Clyster is squeez'd out at the pipe only by compression of all parts of the bladder including it The natural and downward motion by which the Chyle slides down into the gutts is to be attributed to its Gravity which causes it to descend from the Pylorus into the gutts spontaneously But this later motion belongs not to that part of the Chyle which is carried off immediately from the stomach by the milky veins that are proper to it Which yet cannot be much perhaps not the hundredth part of the whole mass of Chyle because the Venae Lacteae of the stomach are but few their number scarcely holding the proportion of a hundred to one with the great multitudes of those that take in their fraught from the Gutts Nor is all the other part of the Chyle devolved into the gutts together and at once but by degrees as it comes to be concocted For it is constant from the dissection of Animals alive that the Chyle when it is confected is fluid or liquid and visibly distinct yea easily separable from the solid meats not yet dissolved as broath is in a pot distinguishable from the flesh boyl'd in it And because the solid meat is for the most part heavier than the liquor and therefore sinks to the botom of the stomach it must needs by pressure cause the liquor to rise to the Pylorus to give way to what presses it So that the thinner part of the Chyle is always first express'd For the two orifices of the stomach are of equal height and both a little higher than any other part of the same Whence may be collected one good reason why 't is more conducible to health to sit or stand than to lie down upon a full stomach For in a man that keeps the Trunc of his body in an erect posture for some time after meat the load of the stomach creates little or nothing of trouble to the orifices of it but beareth only upon the bottom and sides Whereas he that lies down soon after he has fill'd his belly inverts the order of his meat and turns the liquid part out by the Pylorus before it hath been sufficiently concocted and so fills his body with crudities than which I scarce know any thing more pernicious to health And this seems to me sufficient to explain the reasons and manner of the devolution of the Chyle into the gutts which is the first act of the Distributive Faculty As to the SECOND viz. the Agitation of the Chyle to and fro this equally distributes the Chyle to all the gutts as is not only convenient but of absolute necessity to Nutrition For since Nature hath dispens'd Venae Lacteae equally to all the Gutts 't is fit the Chyle al so should be equally distributed to them all sooner or later that each one may have its share of the dividend Again since only the outward superfice of the matter contein'd in the stomach and gutts bears against the orifices of the Venae Lacteae and since the Venae Lacteae do not hang forth or stand strutting into that matter but are terminated in the interior membrane 't is requisite the matter should be turned and revolv'd to and again that the whole may at length be brought to their doors and offer'd to them Now this is effected wholly by an operation Organical and the Efficient is the Peristaltic Motion of the stomach and gutts proceeding from the alternate contraction and extension of their Fibres as we have this day shewn when we described the Peristaltick motion and gave a Mechanic account of it Choosing therefore rather to exercise your Memory than to abuse your Patience by a vain repetition of the same things I will here consider only the Congruity
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
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
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
vast quantity of his brain yet retain'd the use of all the Animal faculties the other by Kerckringius observat anatomic 46. of an infant whose skull he had found full of a mucose water in the place of the brain Hither may be brought two other examples one from Fontanus resp med annot in Vesal of a boy cui caput erat cerebro vacuum another from Arnoldus Villanovanus in Spec. intr med of a man whose skull was found likewise empty Now if these be true Histories what will become of the supposition that the Animal spirits are generated in the brain Can they be made and conserved in water and after most part of the brain hath been taken away Here I am at a stand wanting the wit of Thom. Bartholin Who in observat centur 6. Hist. 91. having told a very strange story of a Swedish Ox whose brain was wholly converted into a stone and desirous still to prop up the antique opinion of Animal spirits which that observation impugned was first so ingenuous as to suspect and after so lucky as to find certain holes and open passages reserved for them in the petrified brain through which they might freely pass into the nerves to carry the heavy headed beast to and fro in the meadows for pasture A wonderful providence of Nature this to continue both the poor Animal in motion and the doctrine of the spirits in reputation And therefore lest ye should think I do the learned Author wrong I am obliged to recite his very words in the clause of the History Quam prima ad nos fama rem novam hactenus inauditam deferret dub rare caepi hinc inde cogitationes volvere quomodo integer bovi remanserit matus ad horam usque à lanione indictam cerebro lapideo suspicabarque in vivi bovis cerebro indurato sinus patulos remansisse per quos liberè spiritus animales ex arteriis nervisque commearent alióqui bovi omnis fuisset motus dudum ademptus Nec vana fuit conjectura Testabatur enim mihi Illustris Bielkius foraminula hinc inde in lapide nominato conspici dispersa perforata per quae paleae possint intrudi Here to question the truth of his relation would be Incivility to believe all parts of it shameful credulity and to conclude from thence that there are Animal spirits down right folly the Author having omitted to bring any good reason to support his conjecture that the holes observed in the petrified Brain had been left for no other cause but only to give free passage to them I add that in the head of the Rana piscatrix which yet is a fish of singular cunning in taking his prey and of great strenght no Brain but only clear water is to be found To come then to a conclusion of this desperate Argument from what hath been said it sufficiently appears that we are still in great uncertainty not only of the matter generation Nature qualities and motion of Spirits Animal but of their very existence also I had reason therefore to appeal to your more discerning judgment for a decision of this so difficult controversie concerning them being my self unable to determine what I ought to conclude of the Antient and at this day vulgar opinion of their being absolutely requisite both to all sensation and to all voluntary motion ¶ Nor do I blush to acknowledge this my ignorance of a thing which Nature seems to have wrapt up in clouds of impenetrable darkness ne veritatis Inaccessibilis lux teneram ingenii humani aciem splendore nimio perstringeret But frankly confess with Lucretius Multa tegit sacro involucro Natura neque ullis Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia Multa Admirare modò nee non venerare neque illa Inquires quae sunt arcanis proxima Namque In manibus quae sunt haec nos vix scire putandum est Est procul à nobis adèo praesentia veri And enquire with Casper Barlaeus de anim Human admirandis Qua ratione et quibus apparitoribus mandata mentis deferri possint momento ad membra remotissima cùm nec membra haec nec spiritus internuncii aut mandata capiant aut mandantem norint Volo Currere pedes currunt quiescere quiescunt c. Quin illud omni sapientiâ humana majus est quomodo pulsantes citheram digiti pari motu celerimas cogitationes assequantur ut nec a mente digitus nec a digito mens relinquatur But this my ignorance must not deter me from proceeding in the administration of my province I come therefore to the instrumentum proximum sive ultimum by which immediately and sensibly the act of voluntary motion is performed This all men rightly hold to be the MUSCLES in which there occur three Generals to be chiefly considered by the Anatomist viz. their common Constitution and structure their principal and senseble Differences and the Reason by which they move the parts to which they are affixt For these things being duely explain'd may perhaps bring us at length to such a degree of knowledge of the manner of voluntary motion as may if not satisfie our Curiosity yet at least advance the noblest of all our intellectual delights the grateful admiration of the infinite Wisdom of our Creator Which as it is the principal End of our Being so ought it to be also the grand scope of all our studies and Natural inquiries Concerning the FIRST therefore obvious it is to every mans reason that the immediate organ of voluntary Motion ought to be of such a Constitution as may render it apt both to receive invigoration i. e. to be excited to motion by the Brain at the command of the will appetite or fancy and to move the member or part to which it is affixt Manifest therefore it is that a hard inflexible rigid and bony substance is so far incompetent to both those uses that Galen de motu musculor lib. 1. cap. 2 affirmed that any part casually becoming hard and stiff though only from a thick cicatrice or skar is thereby rendred unfit for motion and that consequently the substance of a Muscle ought to be as Nature has made it soft rare flexible extensible and furnished with great store of fibres Requisite it is also in respect of the distance betwixt the Brain and the Muscle that there should be some third thing intermediate and continued to both by which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first impetus in the former may be communicated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the other whether the invigoration be effected by influx of any substance from the Brain or by Dr. Glissons way formerly described And the Nerves being the only part of the whole body qualified for this use Nature hath therefore most prudently inserted one or more of them into each Muscle Now these two parts Flesh and Nerves are the principal ingredients requisite to compleat the essence of a Muscle as