clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is
very well known that he that puts on a Garment or touches it leaves upon it his Scent that is Corpuscles which proceed from his Body and which constitute part of it and by the help of these Corpuscles a Dog is able to know his Masters Handkerchief Hat or Garment from ten thousand others This being supposed if the Dead Man's Garment or Gloak be put into a Press or Chest first and for some days when the Body that is Buried begins to putrifie there will be a considerable noise and disturbance in the Press or Chest enough to frighten Children and other folks too and the Corpuscles of the dead Body being attracted by those that are going away by their motion make this noise among the Cloaths And whereas this attraction is made in a streight Line and these Corpuscles cannot pass through the Bords but obliquely the Wood suffering violence makes a noise as if it were crackt Any one may trye this and know whether this Experiment made by others be true or no I see no reason to doubt of it From hence appears that invisible Bond of the Parts with the Body from whence they did proceed A third Experiment may be made which will serve to the illustrating this Subject Take a piece of Veal or any other Flesh from the Shambles and with it rub the Warts of any ones Face or Hands then afterwards fling it upon the Dunghil or Bury it and as that putrifies the Warts will fall off which denotes that the Corpuscles of Flesh returning to their whole or greater part and being violently attracted do in the same manner attract the Warts and make them go away which some Learned Men say they have Experienced We may admire in all these things the Providence of God who hath Created Atoms and out of them hath compounded the Universe wherein we find so great a number of wonderful things which are the subject of our admiration and convince our Ignorance CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals SEeing that Man dyes other Animals cannot escape Death let us see wherein it consists The Followers of Aristotle are very much puzzled in explaining the Death of a Dog for when it is destitute of all Sense and Motion it is dead without doubt yet in the mean time it hath all its parts and Organs What therefore happens to this Animal It s Soul is separated from its Body say they and the Spirit of Life is not in him they do the Beast much honour who speak thus in his Favour But what becomes of this Soul Is it corrupted or annihilated or does it subsist apart in some other place or is it taken into some other Body No by no means say they it is not it is destroyed and that 's sufficient So it is sufficient to People who don 't seek after the Truth For if this Soul be a substance as they say it is a material one it is impossible but it must go into some other thing or else be reduced into nothing It is reduced into nothing say they therefore it is annihilated therefore it is Created and made out of nothing which is Ridiculous and unbecoming a Christian Philosopher It is true this Opinion is very common in the Schools but this Errour is detected and they who are wiser than others say with us that the Spirits of Life or Corpuscles of Light being altogether dissipated or hindred in their motion do withdraw and return to their Original and Copulate with others which are in the Air so dyes a Dog without the loss of that which God made the Parts are separated the Spirits seek the Air the Body the Earth Plants dye like other Living Creatures but their Death very much differs from the Death of Animals for as much as their Organical Parts do not appear so as they do in Animals nor does a Plant dye so easily as an Animal For a Plant is not dead so soon as it is pulled out of the ground its Life continues to the extream dryness or evaporation of the Radical moisture which contains all the Spirits of Life and though the Plant be calcined or burnt to Ashes part of the Spirits will remain in those Ashes for the Lixivium that is made or the Salt that is extracted gives all the Savour of the Plant and where that Lixivium is congealed by the Cold of the Night the Figure of the burnt Plant will appear in the very Ice But what is more to be observed is that a Plant dryed in a Kilne and put into a particular Water whose Virtue is Universal receives its pristine Greenness Leaves and Flowers without doubt in this dryed Plant some Vital Spirits were shut up which are relaxed by the Spirits of this Water or the Vital Spirits exhaling give way to the Spirits of the Water we speak of to take their places This Water is endued with Vital Spirits which can fill the place of those that exhale in us and with this sole Remedy Life may be prolonged and the losses of ruined Old-Age be repaired by filling up the Vacuities of the radical moisture which is dissipated But you will say where is this Water it is to be found in Light according to our Principles and certainly no where else This Water is the true Elixir-Vitae and the Universal Medicine of the Antients and it is meet that we use it to the preservation of the most Sacred Persons Mettals have a more abstruse Life than Plants nor is their Death more conspicuous Their Life consists in a certain disposition of Parts which permits a free motion to the Atoms of Life and Light. This is the State of Mettals in their Mines and when they are melted this Liberty is lost by the intervention of the Atoms of Fire and when after melting they grow cold they may be called Dead for they are deprived of motion nor do they perform any action Gold melted when it is grown cold is dead it Lived in the Mine it is dying whilst it is melting and it is dead when cast into Ingots In vain therefore do the Chymists seek for the Living among the Dead Common Gold is dead and good for nothing but to make Money of but if any one can dissolve this Body and bring the Dead to Life again by the benefit of that resuscitative Water which we spoke of before he may prepare a Medicine profitable to humane and Mettalick Bodies It is said before that Stones want Life But this I meant that they not a Life so notorious as Mettals whose Life hitherto is yet obscure enough for I have Learnt being convinced by Experience that the greatest part of Stones are multiplied and encrease according to all their dimensions and that Sand is turned into Shells And this very thing is the Cause that I conclude Light to be the Spirit of Life that by the benefit of it all things Live the very Stones also take their Life from hence Seeds owe all their Vigour to Light and seeing that Light is woven out of thin threads of Gold all things therefore Live by the Spirit of Gold. But the Soul of Man is Spiritual and a Ray of Divine Light and owes its Life to God and his Word as also it is an Immortal Substance as we shall say in the next and last Chpater
run downwards For to say that Water will seek after its proper Centre is to flye back again to an Occult Cause and to renounce our Principles I conclude therefore that the Atoms Corpuscles and drops of Water are of a perfect round Figure and since they have a certain inclination without hindrance nothing can keep them back but that without interruption they do and will drive one another forward even to the World's End. The Fourth Part of Physick Of those things which are in Man and of Man himself as he is a Compound Physical Animated Body WE are now come at length to our Fourth and last part of Physick wherein according to what we proposed we are to speak of the things which are in Man whom now we consider as a Body animated Which compels us to speak of the Soul and of Life in general and afterwards descending to special we will explain the Life of Man as he is rational and we shall endeavour by Natural Reasons to prove the immortality of his Soul. CHAP. I. Of Life in general LIfe as we have said elsewhere appears only by action and motion So those Beings which have most of action and motion obtain also most of Life And we say a Man is dying when there is but little motion left in him and dead when it is quite abolished Every motion is not a vital motion for that it may be so it must be Internal of the thing that acts and proceed from a Principle that is not external Wherefore the motion of a Stone that is thrown into the Air is not a vital motion because it comes from an external Cause to wit from the hand of him that throws it I say further that it must be the motion of a Compound Body if it be a vital motion and for this Cause the motion of Atoms is not so because they are simple and indivisible beings neither capable of Life nor Death And for as much as Atoms are not Compounds tho' they compound Bodies so they are not said to live in the least although without their impression and ministery there is no Life nor no motion in the Bodies we speak of Life therefore is an action and motion of a Compound and Organical Body arising from an internal and seminal Principle And in this sense Mettals may be said to possess a certain kind of Life since they obtain a certain motion of vegetation by which they grow and we may determine this motion to arise from an internal and seminal principle though it be abstruse enough and the Organs of Life scarcely appear so that it is a very difficult matter to distinguish them in Plants and in some Animals as in the Fish called a Muscle and in Oysters which are nevertheless endowed with a more perfect life than Mettals and Plants We shall in the following Discourse tell you wherein this Life consists and how Mettals and Plants dye as well as other living Creatures There is a great difference between Life and the Principle of it tho' not in like manner between Life and motion or vital action For Life is the action and motion of divers Beings gathered by Nature together and united after such a manner as that the parts of it move one another as we see in Machines and what the Pullies and Springs are in these the same are the Spirits in Natural Compound Bodies that is the most swiftly moving Atoms From this Doctrine is collected first of all That there are Atoms more swift and fuller of Motion than others by reason of their subtilty and figure such as are Coelestial Fiery and Luminous Atoms to wit such as Heaven the Stars Fire Heat and Light are compounded of This we judge by the compound Bodies that are made and framed out of them For humane Spirits instructed with material Senses is not able to penetrate into the essence of Atoms and their special difference But we determine that the Atoms out of which Heaven the Stars and Light are made have Figures and activities greater more perfect and more fit for motion than those that compound cold and heavy Bodies although when the thing is well considered it may arise from their greater liberty and more perfect Figure Secondly according to our Principles we must say That the Vital Spirts so called are nothing else but a certain number of Atoms free from all composition and such whose Figure and condition renders them unfit for service and slavery This Doctrine supposeth that there are two sorts of Atoms in Nature some of which like Common-People are destined to Imprisonment Service and Bonds but others like Nobles to liberty and command over others Now those whose Lot it is to be like the Commons are made to compose the Machines of our Bodies and they are such as entangle one another and are linked and bound together in the formation of Bodies whereas those which cannot be bound nor undergo Slavery are destined to move the whole Machine of our Bodies as not being fastned to any part but running through all parts and bestowing every where motion sense and disposition These are what are called Vital Spirits because they bestow Life that is motion These Atoms therefore are not Life but the Principles and Authors of it Sometimes Atoms that Compound Bodies get out of Service and as often as occasion offers and Bodies â—uffer division are emancipated for in all separations and corruptions of Bodies some Atoms do flye away and like the first seek to recover Liberty and when it happens that these Fugitive Atoms are mingled together with those that are essentially free from thence arise conflicts in our Bodies and from These Ill dispositions and our Diseases which there is no help to be hoped for nor any cure unless these rebellious and emancipated Atoms are restored to their first confinement or else driven out of the Body that so by this means the Spirits may remain pure and altogether free in their motion and not be interrupted by these irregular Atoms which are the common disturbers of Nature and Health And for as much as some Atoms continually flye out of those Bodies which we use for nourishment by reason of divers degrees of Corruption which they are forced to undergo before they can be changed into our substance So it is certain that there is always in us some principle of a Disease to be found and that we never in this World enjoy a perfect Health and that those are only most healthy who are less sickly than others As I have said elsewhere that there are no Men absolutely wise but that they that are called wise are less ignorant than others But moreover if Captive Atoms are sometimes free'd by emancipation so on the other hand those which are not used to be detained are sometimes incarcerated and involved with others nor can they stir beyond the limits of their Prison And there are some which in like manner are so included with others by the Providence of
carry these Antidotes about them and that those who have free access to those Sacred Persons would advise them to it and likewise demonstrate the use and vertue of them I proceed to Purgative Remedies This carries off Choller That Phlegm Others Melancholly and Others do Purge the Blood and all the humours It is hard very often to give a reason why Rubarb and the Leaves of Sena do Purge Melancholly Jallap and Diagridium purge out Phlegm and waterish humours Whether this be done by Sympathy which attracts the Humours from the several parts or by Antipathy which expels and exterminates but it may be said that it is done neither way and that a matter of so small a moment did not deserve that strife betwixt the Followers of Galen and Paracelsus for their Axiomes concerning contraries against contraries and like to like contribute nothing to the explanation of these Effects for I take it to be a certain and constant truth that every purgative Medicine doth comprehend in it certain Spirits or Corpuscles which are venomous that is acute sharpned pungent and biting so that Nature being stirred up by them and thereby the internal Parts and Membranes being touched and agitated the Animal Spirits get together by troops in order to assist the part affected and they draw along with them the foreign Humours which are less fixed and then Nature by the help of these Spirits doth discharge it self and expel them by their proper ways But to say that Rubarb makes choice of exterminating Choller or the Leaves of Sena of carrying off Melancholly is ridiculous It is true that after a Purgation with Rubarb the waters proceeding from the Body are yellow and after the use of Sena or Cassia they are black yet it does not follow from thence that This purges Choller and That Melancholly they are only the superfluous humours which are discharged neither doth the Body afford any thing besides that which it hath whether Sena or Rubarb be taken the colour of what is Purged proceeds from a tincture of these Medicines CHAP. XI Of Emeticks Sudorificks and Specificks OF all Medicinal Remedies those seem most admirable to me which are called Emeticks or Vomitives which have in them a great deal of Poison and likewise abound with Arsenick Spirits Amongst Minerals Antimony and Arsenick are of this kind so are the Herb Asarum and other Herbs amongst Vegetables It is evident that all these Simples and Minerals consisting for the most part of many sharp and corrosive Corpuscles do not purge the Body but by pricking and irritating of the Membranes and that some times with such vehemency that the Belly and other contiguous parts being Ulcerated thereby there happens a breach of the internal continuity c. which occasions the death of the Party who is thus affected It is apparent that it ought to be acknowledged for a certain truth that these sort of Medicines ought to be used but very seldome but if necessity requires the use of them none but the gentlest are to be applyed it being taken for a constant truth that those Persons who use these Remedies too-often do never enjoy a perfect Health and that their Lives are always short and crazy Let us consider an Emetick and especially Antimony which being well prepared performes wonders I mean by a good preparation of it that it be freed from a great quantity of its pernicious and poisnous Corpuscles As to this it ought to be prepared by Judicious Artists for if it be so ordered that the Antimony Purges neither upwards nor downwards and that it retains only a Sudorisick Vertue being thus qualified it is very proper and very useful to purifie the Blood to increase the Animal Spirits the natural heat and radical moisture for reasons which I shall shew hereafter But if these Venomous Arsenick and corrosive Corpuscles be not separated from the Antimony it may prove to have very ill effects in that it imposes violence upon Nature It is not to be administred but by a prudent and most expert hand though the substance of it be not taken but only the Wine wherein it is infused But your crude and Diaphoretick Antimony which the late Mr. De L'orme called his Milk of Pearls is very comfortable to Nature and may be safely used with very good success but to find the Cause of that Effect the Learned are very much puzled I shall endeavour according to my Principles to shew the Reason of this Effect It is made in this manner take Crude Antimony and thereof make a Starry Regulus which is all as one if it be not Starry of this melted Regulus you are to make a Cup put Wine into it in the Evening pour out the Wine the next Morning and you will find that it hath lost nothing either of its tast or colour yet notwithstanding it is very Purgative That which is to be admired at is that this may be done continually every day without any remarkable diminution of the Cup or loss of its Vertues If the Wine loses or receives nothing as it seems it does not how then can it be Purgative or Emetick and if the Cup communicates to it either its substance or Vertue how then is it possible that either one or the other is not in the least diminished According to our Principles I return this answer That the Wine every time it is put into the Cup doth take from thence certain Corpuscles or invisible Spirits wherewith it is impregnated and That little is sufficient to give the Wine a Purgative Vertue and to stir the Membranes of the Ventricle and the inward Parts in order to Evacuate the peccant humours which is evident from this that the Wine according to the proportion of time it hath stood in the Cup is either more or less Purgative though the Cup suffers no sensible diminution in its Substance yet not withstanding it is certain that it will suffer some small diminution in the course of some Years which it were worth while to observe I have spoken above of a Regulus Starry and not Starry that I may let the Reader see somewhat that is strange in the Confection of Regulus when it is well Prepared with Mars that is with Iron there is to be seen a great Star upon the upper side of it which hath Five Rays like the Rowel of a Spur I confess that in this strange Phoenomenon there is something that is wonderful and which is beyond the reach of Humane understanding especially if we observe that this Star is more bright and its Rays better formed if the Regulus be Prepared either Tuesday or Friday especially if the Sky be clear and serene and if it be made between Seven or Eight of the Clock in the Morning or Two or three of the Clock in the Afternoon and that I may build one Wonderful thing upon another it is certain that if in the Preparation of Regulus Tin be added with Iron there will be seen two Stars
more violent because they are less subtile and less penetrating and whose Atoms are not so apt to rarifie the Humours and to draw them to the extream parts of the Body with so much facility and with so little danger as that doth which we spoke of before CHAP. XII Of Poisons and Toxicks THere are several sorts of Poisons and Toxicks some whereof do come at us with an infected air others are communicated to us from Animals or some Nutriment It is not my purpose in this place to shew all the differences of them It answers my purpose to reduce them to Five from the occasion of those things which I ought to speak of about the Antipathy that is betwixt Poisons and our Bodies Therefore I chuse three kinds of Poisons or Toxicks and I shall endeavour to explain the manner how they act upon our Bodies with the assistance of that fictitious Antipathy the Refuge of Ignorance The first is the Poison of the Heart because it immediately assails this Part such is the Poison of a Viper or the Plague the breathing of the infectious air draws and conveys the Plague to the Heart since we cannot say that the Air is carried into the Heart by a contrary quality whence therefore doth this arise from Antipathy or Repugnancy And after what manner doth the air which gives life to the Heart and matter to the vital Spirits bring death to it which sometimes invades it upon a sudden when the Poison of the Plague is Violent but ordinarily a Man doth not dye so suddenly and the Poison only by the motion of the Heart disperses it self thro' the Veins and corrupts the whole Mass of Blood and Bubo's and Pustules arising are the marks of it But when the Poison goes out by suppuration the person infected is sooner cured It is very hard to say what Poison is for if we say it is a contrary Quality or Air corrupted we talk foolishly we must know wherein that Corruption doth consist if it be corrupted it is no longer Air or if Air be a corruption it is a Quality so that still there remains the same difficulty Therefore to use no circumlocution we say that deadly Poison essentially is nothing but certain Atoms or Corpuscles which are very acute and crooked figured like little piercers or small Nails which penetrates cuts and divides the vital parts and by this motion interrupts the motion of those Spirits which give life And that I may explain my Opinion right upon this Subject I mention those things concerning Poisons and Atoms which as far as I know have not hitherto been mentioned by any Body which is That Poison is nothing else but certain loose and emancipated Atoms for many of such Atoms being loosed and separated from the Body we call Poison As to that we are to observe that being compounded in that manner which we are our conservation doth consist in the composition and as long as that lasts we live and so our destruction doth proceed from the division and dissolution of our Bodies so that Corruption is nothing but a solution of the Body This solution doth not happen but from emancipated Atoms who by their incomprehensible subtilty do find an intermediant space in the most solid Bodies and if these be not speedily driven out and dissipated or are repelled by certain aiding Corpuscles they will occasion Diseases Griefs and lastly Death Therefore Poison is not a pestiferous quality nor is it the Antipathy of the air or of any thing whereby they persecute our Temperament nor is it corrupted Air but they are hard Atoms which are set at liberty and emancipated whence it does appear how the Plague may be brought to us from places remote within a short space of time and how it may lye hid along while amongst Cloaths in Chests also the Reason is obvious why Bleeding and Purgation are not necessary in the Curing of the Plague and why only Cordials and Sudorificks are convenient in a Contagion The same thing may be said of the Poison of Vipers which is nothing else but some Atoms divided and separated from the whole which entring that part which is Bit by the Viper do creep presently through the whole Body and divide separate and cut it and at last dissolve and confound it It is therefare incredible that that Poison should proceed from a Great Cold because there are Bodies which are much colder which yet are not Poison besides that cold doth not so readily nor from so small a beginning destroy the whole Natural constitution of Man's Body Therefore I take that to be which wholy destroys us is to dissolve our Body and that nothing can dissolve it but free'd and emancipated Atoms whence Distempers do derive their Original and Death the consequence of it I say it follows that it is impossible but that there is Poison in all our Diseases and that we cannot enjoy a full and perfect Health as long as we have in us the least Atom of that kind which I say are emancipated these are so many Enemies which we cherish in our Bosome being the Principles of Division Dissolution and Death But some will ask whence come these emancipated Atoms who emancipates them and after what manner are they found in the Vesicle which is broke where the Viper Bites or in the Spittle which enters our Flesh by the Biting of this Creature I answer That they are Atoms not firmly complicated which get abroad or they proceed from some dead Body which is dissolved into its first principles as it happens with the Plague some of them get loose like Servants who wanting a Master do seek to be busied and employed in some business and as long as they stick to no body they may be called desolate and depraved Atoms which are continually moved drive others and dissolve them by their reiterated concussions so a little Poyson doth suddenly extend and disperse it self through the whole Body because these Atoms by their emancipation being made Venomous and Pestiferous to Emancipate others and confound the whole Body and in this sense it 's most true what the Physiicans say that the corrupt Humours of the Body do degenerate into Poison because these moist parts of our Body are more apt to break and divide than the solid parts of it they are also the first which begin to be corrupted and divided I know not by what instinct of Nature we commonly say when we apprehend any Distemper that we are ill Composed and of a Body that is Crazy and full of Humours that is wholly ill Disposed because in truth the emancipated Atoms do disturb it and hinder the Union and Composition of its Parts wherein the state of perfect Health doth consist Some will say that I have handled this Matter after a strange and odd kind of Method but if Truth and Reason confirm my Explication as I hope it does they have nothing to say against me but I speak those things which were
I have Discoursed Physically of the Causes of our Diseases in General it will not be amiss to trace òut the Particular Causes of them That this Doctrine which may be accounted new may the better be understood I suppose that we are never subject to any Disease but whose immediate Cause is either some Poison or Toxick 2ly This Poison consists only in emancipated Atoms and Toxicks in loosned Corpuscles 3ly These Atoms are not emancipated nor these sharp Corpuscles loosned but in the Corruption of Bodies 4ly Corruption is nothing but a Total or Partial Division and separation of Bodies 5ly There is no new Generation by which a new Body is made but by a precedent corruption or Division of another Body which ceases to be in Nature when one or more other Bodies possess the Room of it So when Meat in the Stomach is turned into Chyle when the Chyle in the Liver and the Branches of the Vena Porta is changed into Blood and lastly when the Blood is changed into our Substance as Flesh Muscles Nerves and other Parts of our Body by the last degree of Concoction there is necessarily a Corruption of the Meat which begins to be divided and separated by Chewing of it in the Mouth and it is digested and separated or Corrupted in the Ventricle Chyle to the end it may be turned into Blood is altered in the Branches of the Vena Porta and the Meseraick Veins and thence it is wholly and perfectly Digested that is Corrupted Concocted and Divided in the Liver unless that hath lost something of its own Substance The Blood designed for Flesh is filtred out of the Veins into the Arteries and Circulates until it be sufficiently purged and freed from Foreign Bodies and then it is changed into the Substance of our Body This Doctrine being supposed I say there are made in us Three Principle Corruptions which are the Concoctions or Digestions whereof we speak and I say moreover that there are Atoms in every one of them which are emancipated and loosed as likewise Corpuscles flying and deserting more or less as the Digestion is the better performed that is as the Pure is more rightly separated from the Impure Therefore it follows that we cannot be nourished unless we take together into our Bodies the Causes and Seeds of many Diseases It follows likewise that these Diseases are diverse according to the difference of the Corruptions of the emancipated Atoms or the loosed Corpuscles and that these Atoms are Poisons and the Corpuscles Toxicks which do produce Diseases by their violent Motion and they labour so with Reiterated Corruptions that they deprave separate and divide all the Parts of our Body Here we may behold the just Cause of the Pains of the Stomach and of the Wind Chollick and also of the Wind proceeding from the first Concoction of our Meat in the Stomach these winds are the Corpuscles or the more subtile Parts of that Corrupted Nourishment and when the more subtile and sharp Corpuscles are received into the Body they do proportionably to the Nourishment which is taken produce most troublesome and dangerous Pains and vellications such as we observe in the Chollick And if it should happen that amongst Corpuscles there should be abundance of emancipated Atoms they do ordinarily betake themselves to the Brain whence do arise Apoplexies and Lethargies or if they penetrate into the Muscles and Nerves they occasion the Palsie which ordinarily follows these bilious Chollicks This Indisposition degenerates the Disease into a Vomiting and Loosness when the Wind or the subtile Particles the loosed Corpuscles and the emancipated Atoms are so plentiful that all the Symmetry of the Humours the intercourse of the Natural Spirits and the whole Anatomy of the Body are overthrown by them whence it is conspicuous what great Confusions Winds Vapours and little Bodies and depraved Atoms are capable of producing in our Bodies And that I have concluded upon good Reasons That there is Poison to be found in all our Diseases whether we consider them in their Beginning when we perceive our selves grieved indisposed and to have lost our Appetite or that we take a view of them in their progress when those Winds those little Bodies or little Atoms are advanced in the Body and do work a Division or lastly if we consider the end when these Poisons and Toxicks and these Corpuscles being freed from their Chains and these emancipated Atoms bear the sway by the confusion of the Principal Operations they are the Cause of Death In the second Digestion which is in the Liver we find Winds and Vapours which are called Flatus's and sometimes those loose Corpuscles and also the emancipated Atoms these Winds do produce a murmur and Flatus about the Liver Spleen Hypocondria and the Reins and the Corpuscles which are lodged there do prick and exulcerate the inward â—â—rts and are the Causes of Imposthumes which are so hard to be Cured Besides the emancipated Atoms Flying do sometimes ascend up to the Head where they beget Vertigo's and Buzzing in the Ears and also Convulsions by their vellications in the principal of the Nerves Thence proceed Epilepsie and other Diseases which have the same malignity which in the Opinion of all Men being not a Quality is a Poison that is the Atoms of the Blood are emancipated which are a Poison to the Brain and especially to the Membranes and Nerves From the same Fountain proceed Shakings and the duplications of continuant Fevers as the Periodick Fits of intermittent Fevers do happen from loosed Corpuscles and Atoms which are emancipated in the first Digestion in the Stomach by reason of a Fermentation which they make These loosed Bodies are also the Causes of Swellings in the Feet Hands and other Parts as Inflammations Erysipela's as also Itch and sore Puscles do arise from Atoms which are emancipated in the last Digestion as for the Dropsie we may say that it derives its Original from Atoms which are emancipated in the first and second Concoction for they penetrate the substance of the Liver and render it unfit to produce a well constituted Blood. Sudden death is often occasioned by the sudden motion of the flying Atoms which escape in the circulation of the Blood and the emancipated Atoms opening the heart and by this passage giving an opportunity to the vital Spirits to make their escape is the cause of that present death which follows it CHAP. XVI Of the Causes of our Health IF that be true which I suppose That all our Diseases do not arise from Natural Qualities nor from Antipathy which is in the nourishment we take and that they are nothing else but a confusion and an inordinate constitution of the Spirits humours and parts and that this confusion doth proceed from the impetuous and disorderly motion of the Winds Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms as I said before Then it is certain that our health which consists only in the just intercourse of the Spirits and a proportionate
upon the Quick-silver as Ships upon the Sea. Another thing that I observe are the various colours found in Lead which are conspicuous only by an inversion of Atoms and division of Bodies as Black White Yellow Red and all the Colours of the Rain-bow A third thing lastly is the Salt of Lead which the Chymists call Saturn which powerfully refrigerates and is of great use against the too libidinous provocations of Venus for it quite extinguisheth them It is extracted by the help of Vinegar from whence it becomes sweet and loseth its acrimony which happens only from the mixtion of the Atoms as does the milky whiteness which upon this occasion the Vinegar is endowed with CHAP. XI Of Quick Silver and Arbor Dianae or Silver-Tree QUick-Silver the last and to appearance the most imperfect of all Mettals because it neither endures the stroak of the Hammer nor melting nor indeed any other Tryal is yet most perfect because it is nearest to Gold that is to the most perfect Body the Atoms of it are round and in continual motion they adhere so loosely together that they may be separated with never so little Fire and be sublimed into a Mass of white or chrystalline Powder It degenerates likewise into Poyson by a sole inversion of it and by being sublimed with an addition of Salts It can also be reduced into its first State if the Artist so pleaseth and it may be truly called Protheus every moment putting on a new shape and receiving and exhibiting various qualities and colours according to the diverse preparations which it undergoes There are three kinds of Mercury or Quick-Silver there is to wit a Mettalline a Mineral and lastly a common Quick-Silver the first of which is extracted out of Mettals the second out of Minerals and the third is the Vulgar Quick-Silver which last is also of three sorts viz. either running or sublimated or precipitated the sublimated is again either corrosive or sweet it is sweet to wit when the sublimated is mingled with running Quick-Silver for if these two are a second time sublimed the corrosive becomes sweet because the sharp points of the Sublimate are softned and blunted by the round particles of the crude Mercury which destroys the sharp and sharp-pointed Atoms of the Sublimate It is therefore needless to look for Physical qualities in the names of sweetness or acrimony since the only mutation of Atoms is sufficient to make that Matter sweet which before was sharp and sowre This Mettal is call'd Mercury and Quick-silver because it is in perpetual motion so that it seems as it were to live And to make manifest that there is in it a certain Internal and hidden principle of Life we need only examine what happens in the making of the Silver-Tree or Arbor Dianae whose preparation is as followeth Take one Ounce of fine Silver and pour upon it in a Bolt-head three Ounces of Aqua Fortis and let these be left in hot Ashes till the Silver be turned into Water then take nine Ounces of Quick-silver divide them into three parts and put them into three Bolt-heads or other Vessels to which pour on first warm Water to the height of four Fingers and then the solution of the Silver taking care of each of the Vessels and of the Matter contain'd in them which afterwards let them stand all night in the Window and in the morning in every Vessel you will see little Trees rightly distinguished with a Trunk and Branches There seems here indeed a certain Principle of Seminal and Vegetative Life since these Trees are shaped after the manner of Plants although there is some difference From whence it plainly appears that Mettals have their Seeds likewise and as well as all things else are generated out of Seed But how this comes to pass I shall not now explain because I shall speak of it elsewhere in the generation of Plants where I shall give an account of their coming out of the Earth and of their growth What is specially to be taken notice of is that these Trees are produced in one Night which is never seen neither in Fruits nor Corn. And all that can be said upon this occasion is that from this very thing the motion of Atoms and the various disposition of Corpuscles which by their dissolution in so little a time form these Trees is best of all demonstrated These Trees would without doubt bear their Fruit if we knew how to water them with a water of their own kind and to transplant them into a Earth convenient for them CHAP. XII Of Minerals MInerals possess the next rank to Mettals The first of which is Antimony called the Lead of Philosophers containing in it self an Arsenical Sulphur which is Poyson by reason of the subtilty of its Corpuscles by means of which it vellicates and corrodes the inward Membranes as also produceth Ulcers after which follows a Gangreen with a corruption and division of the Parts as also of the whole Body and then Death From hence it is that the scent or fumes of Antimony melting in a Crusible and drawn in by the Nostrils is deadly for its sharp and rough Particles hurt the Brain by their continual motion and agitation Yet notwithstanding the harmfulness of this fume it conduceth not a little to correct places infected with the Plague because one Venom sixeth another and hinders its activity Gold is purified by Antimony for both being melted together and the Antimony being evaporated by the Fire the Gold remains most bright and most pure Antimony carries along with it all the foreign Particles of the Gold in as much as they adhere to the Atoms of Antimony from this also is made a vomiting Wine wonderfully purging the Body yet not without some violence by reason of its vellicating the inward Membranes The Mineral that next follows is Cinnabar compounded of Mercury and Sulphur it is found in Gold-Mines especially in Hungary from whence it is brought to us there is found in it some portion of Gold but volatile and indigested Mercury is separated from it by distillation in a Retort because the Mercurial Atoms do not closely adhere to the Sulphurous ones and this Sulphur is foreign crude and not very well digested but if the seminal Spirit could without hindrance have caused that the Sulphur should have been by degrees separated from the Mercury and the Mercury digested by a central and Astral heat Nature would have produced Gold out of it but the impure Sulphur hinders the action of the seminal Spirit in that place where the Cinnabar is found although below or round about it Gold may be found ready made having Branches like the Branches of Trees There is an artificial Cinnabar also made of Sulphur and common Mercury from these mixed and sublimed we see a most beautiful red is made by a sole inversion of the Atoms The third Mineral is Emmery or the Smiris-stone which is a Marcasite found in the Gold-Mines of India
luminous substance The particulars belonging to the composition of the Eye Anatomy will teach Let us speak something of the Object of Sight and first of Colour Colour which Bodies exhibit to us is nothing else but light reflected and interrupted by the Angles of the Atoms and the very small Cavities in the extremities of Bodies as also a diverse reflection and refraction of that Light upon which the variety of Colours depends Experience favours this Doctrine for Galls being broke and thrown into artificial or Natural Vitriolated-Water give a black colour like Ink and hereby is known whether Waters contain any high of Vitriol Iron or Copper For Mineral-Waters when they pass through an Iron Mine by an addition of Galls grow black but others not and this blackness is not any Physical and accidental quality produced in Water by the throwing in of Galls which are not black but this change arises only from a new position of Atoms and Corpuscles whereby the Rays of Light are bended and broken after a new manner The same thing happens if you mix Minium which is red in its own Nature with Wine-Vinegar for that will turn white and the yolk of an Egg mixt with Turpentine looks altogether like a white kind of Cream Now in all these and other Experiments nothing happens besides a perturbation of Atoms which take a new place and reflect or refract Light after another manner without any production of any new Accident Nor is Light any accident or Physical Quality as the Disciples of Aristotle will have it but a real effusion and spreading of Corpuscles which flow from the substance of the Sun and upper Stars and more or less penetrate through the empty spaces of the Air as the Air is more rarified or more condensed It will be convenient to remember here that we place the Sun in the Centre of the World and say that the Sun is of one and the same substance with Gold Gold melted and purified and that its glittering and rayes is properly that which we call Light and which is reflected upon all the Bodies of Planets amongst which the Earth only is supposed habitable these Sun-Beams are nothing else than that which we call Light so Light is a certain thing compounded of the Atoms of Gold by a mutual connection amongst themselves bound together and which tye all the parts of the World to their Centre the Sun. From whence it is easily gathered how all things act by vertue of the Sun and that the Sun it self also is an helper that Man be produced from Man. The truth of this our Doctrine appears from those things which we brought from Monsieur Bezancon's Experiment Light therefore is of the same Nature with Gold and the Sun and is therefore Gold or the Sun rarified and Air in the day-time is full of this dispersed Gold so that in breathing we draw in some Atoms of this rarified Gold which brings Life to us in bringing to us the Principle of Natural Heat and radical moisture No wonder that Aurum Potabile is of so great esteem and sought for by every illustrious personage to restore Health But since true Aurum Potabile is scarce by reason of the defect of a solvent and of a Natural and Radical Vehicle God provides for this by giving us Light which we take in by the Air which serves instead of a Vehicle to it Light therefore is our Life and preserves it and we say of a Man that is dead that his Light is extinguished and of a Man tha lies confined in a Dungeon that he dwells amongst the Dead Upon the occasion of this Sentence which I have thought fit to confirm I observe that Light is the Universal Spirit of the vulgar varying according to the Subject it meets withal and that the same is that famous dissolvent from which only or by the addition of common Gold may be made the Universal Medicine But for as much as to the obtaining this effect there is required that this Light be made liquid and out of it be made a living Water and Stream or Rain of Gold which few can perform From hence it is that few possess this supream Remedy I observe Secondly that Light excites the seminal Spirit which is of the same Nature and is contained under divers Seeds and divers coverings and that the same light produces in us and reproduces those Spirits which are called Vital and Animal and which are nothing else than Luminous Corpuscles which are always in motion whilst they take Air and together with the Air the Light annexed without which their motion ceaseth We see also that a Man dyes for want of Air and by the hindrance of respiration and these Spirits are more dulled by Night than by Day and so do partly fail in the Body the Light failing And unless there did still continue some Luminous and Solar Spirit in the Air or if the Stars did not afford a sufficient quantity of it in the Night in the Night it were impossible we should be able to escape Death Besides we may observe that by this Light which penetrates and creeps through the Bowels of the Earth Mettals are produced for it is their Seed lying invisibly hid in their Bodies We may say likewise that every Living thing receives Life from this Light so that we live by Gold only we subsist by the benefit of Gold and all things are filled with Gold that is with the Sun rarified and expanded through all things through all the most secret places and through our very Hearts whose motions will cease when the Light of the Sun and other Stars shall cease whose motion will likewise cease at the end of all Ages By the help of this Doctrine we understand what the Antients meant when they said all was full of Jupiter and Gold and that the Commerce of Heaven and Earth was bound together with a Golden Chain That the Universal Medicine cannot be extracted but out of the water of the Beams of the Sun and Moon By this means also we comprehend the truth of the saying about Apollo and his Golden hairs and we shall know that which the Philosophy of the Antients could not explain to wit from whence the motion of the Spirits in our Bodies proceed and in what the Life which we enjoy does properly consist And so even the new Philosophy will no less Labour in explaining the Essence of Life unless it follows these our Principles As many as shall have been sufficiently illustrated by this Light will here find a Secret for the Nobility by which for many years they will be able to preserve Health and Vigor beyond the ordinary term I say enough of this thing to move Illustrious Wits as being enlightned People to enquire into the Nature and Effects of the Light and Colours which we see which the Sun produceth in the Rainbow and in the Peacocks Tail where by the help of a Microscope a thousand Golden threeds are