and deep Vallies where it is kept in on both sides and wheel'd about into eddies or Whirle-Winds 5 In the very manner of Ustion or burning which is always transacted through the minute Pores of the Body burnt so that Ustion doth always undermine and penetrate and prick as if it were done by the points of a great many Needles Thence it seems to come also that Aqua Fortis Chrysulca and other dissolving Liquors if proportionate to the Body on which they act do the work of Fire by their penetrating pungent and corroding Motions PROPOS IV. That this expansive repuls'd alternative and penetrating Motion requisite to the generation of Heat ought to be also rapid and to be made by Particles minute indeed but not reduced to extreme subtilty THe verity of this proposition may be collected 1 From a comparation of the works of Fire with the works of Time or Age. For Age dries consumes undermines and incinerates no less than Fire yea far more subtilly but because the motion that causes these effects is both very slow and performed by Particles extremely minute therefore no sensible Heat is thereby produced 2 from comparing the dissolution of Gold with that of Iron the first in Aqua Regis the other in Aqua Fortis For Gold is dissolved calmly without tumult or effervescence raised in the dissolvent Iron not without vehement excitation of Heat probably because in Gold the ingress of the Water of Separation is slow mild and subtilly insinuating and the yeilding of the parts of the Gold easy but in Iron the ingress is rough difficult and with conflict the parts of the Iron with greater obstinacy resisting the motion of the dissolvent 3 From Gangrens and Mortifications which invade and spread without inducing much either of heat or pain by reason the motion of putrefaction is both slow and performed by Particles extremely subtil otherwise it would certainly cause Pain in the part affected Now from these Propositions the three latter of which are certain necessary Limitations of the first we may deduce this genuine conclusion That Heat is a certain Motion expansive checkt or repuls'd striving quickned or incited by opposition perform'd by minute Particles and with conflict and some impetuosity Which to me I declare seems to be so perspicuous and convincing that I dare promise that if any man be able to excite a Motion tending to dilatation or expansion of the Movent and then to repress that motion so as the dilatation may not proceed equally and uniformly but prevail and be repulsed alternately he shall thereby most certainly generate Heat in the Body whose parts are so moved of what kind or constitution soever the Body shall be For whether it be a Body Elementary as they speak or luminose or opaque rare or dense locally expansed or contein'd within the bounds of its first dimensions tending to dissolution or remaining in its stare whether it be Animal Vegetable or Mineral Water or Oyl or Aire or any other substance susceptive of the Motion described it will make no difference as to the effect aimed at the production of actual Heat Why then should I not believe that Nature hath instituted such an actual Motion or Heat in the Blood of Animals that Life Original might be therein perpetually generated since to make that actual Heat also Vital nothing more is required as I said before but that it arise from an internal Principle or Mover viz. the vital Spirits ingenite in the Blood and that it be amicable benign and placid as in the State of Health it always is and since both those requisite conditions or qualifications are found in the motion of the Blood If in the assertion of the precedent Propositions or in the deduction of my conclusion from them I have from weakness of Judgment admitted any Paralogism I shall receive the discovery thereof as a singular favor from any man of greater perspicacity and more skilful in the art of reasoning rightly and will ingenuously acknowledg and retract my error Meanwhile I acquiesce in this perswasion that the vital Heat of Animals is an expansive Motion of the Spirits of the Blood somewhat checkt or repulsed but still endevoring with sufficient force and alternately prevailing which I owe partly to the Ld. Chancellor Bacon in novo Organo ubi agit de praerogativis instantiarum in vindemiatione 1. partly to his equal sectator Dr. Glisson who had the felicity to improve whatsoever he had borrowed and to raise illustrous Theories from obscure hints But hold a little and give me space to reflect upon what I have lately said Have I not in this place incurred the danger of being accused of contradicting myself 'T is not half an Hour since I declared my assent to that common Doctrine of all Theologs and most Philosophers that the Life of a Man doth originally spring from and perpetually depend upon the union of his rational Soul with his Body And now I affirm that the Life of all Animals Man himself not excepted consists in the expansive motion of the Spirits in their Blood Are not these two assertions to be numbred among 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent yea manifestly repugnant each to the other If either of them be true is not the other necessarily false To obviate this formidable accusation I say that these two positions though seemingly opposite are yet really capable of reconciliation each to the other and by consequence both may be true For 1 well known it is to all versed in the Jewish Commentaries upon the Pentateuch that the most learned Rabbins interpreting these words in the History of Mans Creation Deus inspiravit in faciem hominis spiraculum vitae to shew the excellency of Man above all his fellow Creatures give this Paraphrase upon them Homini Deus in creatione imaginem suam indidit inspiravit halitum vitae duplicis mortalis immortalis So that according to the Sense of this Paraphrase at least if I understand it rightly God was pleased to give to Man a double Life not two lives successive one before Death the other after but two conjoyn'd in the Body one Immortal which can be no other but that which is essential to the rational Soul and communicated to the Body by virtue of the intimate union of those two so different substances the other Mortal common to Brutes also and extinguishable by death which I deduce from the expansive motion of the Spirits of the Blood Nor hath this interpretation of the Iewish Doctors been for ought I know rejected by the Christian Scholes as unsound much less as Heretical and therefore I humbly conceive it is not unlawful for me to embrace it 2 That in this Life every individual Man hath also two distinct Souls one Rational by which he is made a reasonable Creature the other Sensitive by virtue of which he becomes a Sensitive Animal and that these are coexistent conjunct and cooperating in him untill death which
as to reject them should dare also to substitute in the room of them some new one of my own excogitation if not more perfect yet at least less culpable To these expecting Gentelmen therefore I say that much less of skill and strength being required to demolish than to build a Pigmy may be able to pull down what Giants have raised and that to form a true and complete definition of any the most obvious thing in Nature much more of Life which is extremly abstruse would puzzel a much stronger Brain than mine Well then may I be excused if conscious of my imparity to a task so desperate I forbear farther to expose my weakness by attempting it and choose rather to leave them to collect what my sentiments are of the nature of Life from my following discourse WHICH being designed only as a modest disquisition of the natural causes of Human Life I professedly pass by what that over-curiose nation of Scholemen impensly addicted to notions abstracted from all commerce with the Senses and to Speculations Metaphysical have delivered of the Life of Spirits of Angells Daemon's and other Beings of that kind subject neither to the Laws of Nature nor to the Empire of Fate And this I do because some of their Doctrines far transcend the capacity of my narrow Wit others seem more fine than useful and all are remote from my present institute I omit also what our equaly acute Dr. Glisson hath with admirable subtility of Wit and immense Labour of Meditation excogitated and not many Years before his Death divulged of the Energetic Life of Nature and its Faculties by virtue of which he supposed that even the most minute particles of this aspectable World do naturally perceive desire move themselves with Counsel and what is yet more wonderful frame Bodies for themselves to inhabit animate or inform them and perform other most noble operations Which I do not only because this opinion how favorable soever hath not yet been received as canonical by common assent of Philosophers but also because I humbly conceive it to be in all things the Name only excepted the same with that antique Dogma first delivered by Plato and after asserted by his Followers that all things in the Universe are Animate that is are naturally endowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Sense and Self-motion which hath been sufficiently impugned by Aristotle Lucretius Gassendus and all others who have refuted Plato's Doctrine de Anima mundi upon which it is grounded Not that I reject this opinion of natural Sense or Perception attributed to all things but that I am not yet convinced of the truth of it Insipientis est aliis dogmata illa aut commendare aut convellere de quorum veritate ipsemet adhuc dubitat And well may I suspend my assent to this opinion which gives to things inanimate such Faculties which my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational Creatures Nor indeed would either Lucretius or Des Cartes For the former though according to the Epicurean Hypothesis which he in all things followed he attributes to Atoms or as he calls them Solida Primordia rerum a Spontaneous Mobility nevertheless denies that they are naturally moved with Knowledg or Design in these Verses Lib. 2. Nam neque consilio debent tardata morari Nec perscrutari primordia singula quaeque Ut videant qua quidque geratur cum ratione And the Later in one of his Epistles to Mersennus Epistol parte 2. epist. 44. where he strictly examines the Doctrine of a certain Monk that ascribed to even the most minute particles of Matter a Power of moving themselves and other ingenite propensions the very same I guess with those supposed to be inseparably conjoyn'd with Natural Perception plainly declares his Judgment of the unreasonableness thereof in these Words Non probo indivisibilia ista neque naturales quas illis tribuit propensiones istiusmodi enim propensiones absque intellectu concipere nequeo ne irrationalibus quidem animalibus tale quidquam tribuo Sed quicquid in illis appetitus aut propensiones vocamus per solas Mechanicae regulas explico These two praeliminary Advertisements premised I come into the direct way of my intended disquisition That the Life of Man doth both originally spring and perpetually depend from the intimate conjunction and union of his Reasonable Soul with his Body is one of those few Assertions in which all Divines and natural Philosophers unanimously agree And they have reason For while the rational Soul continues in the Body so long Life continues and when the same is separated from the Body in that very moment of Time Death succeeds Now this rational Soul being by most wise Men granted to be a pure Spirit or substance merely Spiritual it is from thence necessarily consequent that the Life of it is Substantial that is the very substance of it considered as Metaphysicians love to speak non in ordine ad esse per se sed in ordine ad operationes For we dull-brain'd Mortals to whom it is not granted to be able to conceive the nature of Beings purely Spiritual by notions adaequate to it according to the Module of our understanding distinguish even in Angels their subsistence Fundamental from their Energetic Nature although in reality both are the same substance but diversly considered For this substantial Life though it may be as to its Operations by the same Divine Power that gave it suspended cannot yet be wholly taken away so as that it should after continue to be a Spirit Because if a Spirit be supposed to be deprived of Life the very substance of it must also be supposed to be at the same time annihilated For who can conceive so gross a contradiction as a dead Angel The same may be as truly said also of a Rational Soul which is allowed to be a Spirit too Wherefore the Life of it is as I affirmed Substantial and Essential and consequently incapable to be taken away unless the Soul or Spirit it self be at the same time annihilated Which the Omnipotent Creator can indeed when he shall so please do but it doth not appear from any place of holy Scripture that he either hath done or ever will do it and therefore let no man doubt of the Immortality of his Soul Sic etenim lethi praeclusa ' st janua menti From this our fundamental position then that the Life of a Man is in his rational Soul essentially it follows of necessity that the same Life cannot be in his Body too essentially but by way of Participation or Communication Nor is it difficult to conceive in our mind that the Life of the Body being separable from it is only communicated to it or derived from another thing of a different Nature For if a substance essentially living be intimately united to another substance of its own nature void of Life the thing composed of those two substances so united must have Life but
so that the first part live substantially or by virtue of its Essence the other only by participation of that essential Life Certain therefore it is and evident that the Life of a Man comes immediately from and depends upon the Presence of his rational Soul in his Body Which is the Truth we sought after I say immediately because the Life of the Soul is originally from God who created it a living Substance Of the Souls of Brute Animals the same may not be affirmed For though it be true indeed that their Souls also are the Principle or Fountain whence Life is communicated to the Bodies they inform yet 't is equally true that these Souls being Material or Corporeal their Life cannot be essential to the matter of which they are composed but flows from and depends upon the determinate Modification of that matter from which their Souls Result So that in Brutes as it is the Mode or manner of the disposition of the Matter not simply the matter it self that constitutes the Soul So it is the Hypostasis or subsistence of the same Mode upon which alone the Life that is the Act Energy and Vigor of the Soul depends No wonder then if we believe the Souls of all Brutes to be by their nature Mortal and to be actually dissolved together with their Bodies by Death That I may explain what I understand by the Modification of the matter which is here supposed to constitute the Soul of a Brute give me leave in this place to make a short halt for it is not a digression while I briefly declare what my sentiments are concerning the Souls of Brutes I humbly and with Submission to wiser Heads conceive 1 That the diversity of kinds observed among Brutes proceeds immediately from the divers Modifications of the common matter of their Souls and the respectively divers Organizations of their Bodies from both which by admirable artifice conjoyned and united into one complex System or Machine various faculties and proprieties must of necessity result by which those several kinds are among themselves distinguished 2 That the Specific or determinate Modification of the Soul and respective Organization of the Body in every distinct kind is to be wholly attributed to the Plastic virtue or formative Power innate and affixed to the Seed of the Generants 3 That this Plastic virtue is originally founded in the still efficacious Fiat pronounced in the act of Creation by the Divine Architect of all things who commanding all Animals to increase and multiply gave them at the same time power to fulfill that Command by endowing their Seed with an active Principle to form and impressing upon that Agent a certain idea or exemplar according to which it is obliged and directed how to form and not otherwise provided the Matter upon which it operates be obedient and susceptible of that Idea So that the Idea first conceived in the Divine Intellect and then prescribed as a Pattern to the Plastic Spirit with which the genital matter is impregnated being not in all kinds nay not in any two kinds of Animals one and the same but a peculiar Idea assigned to each kind it comes to pass that the Plastic Spirit thus directed regulated and confined by the Law of Nature doth out of that genital matter form the Soul and Organize the Body of every Brute Animal of any one of those numerous kinds exactly according to the prototype of that kind And by this means I conceive all Brutes to be generated both Soul and Body and their distinct Species without confusion or innovation conserved throughout all ages If I conceive amiss be pleased to consider that many excellent Wits treating of the same Subject have done so before me and that the Theorem it self is so abstruse that as Cicero 2. Tusculan said of the various Opinions of Philosophers about the nature of a Soul Harum Sententiarum quae verasit Deus aliquis viderit quae verisimillima magna quaestio est so may I say Man may dispute what is most probable but God alone knows what is true concerning the Souls of Beasts and their production Notwithstanding this darkness of my way I must adventure to go a little farther in it and endevor to explain 1 What the Substance of a Sensitive Soul is or of what Particles it is contexed 2 In what the Life or Act and Vigor of it consisteth and 3 What are the primary Functions and Operations of it As to the First then it seems highly probable that a Sensitive Soul is not a pure Spirit such as the rational Soul of Man is but a meer Body yet a most subtile and extremely thin one as being context of most minute and most subtile Corpuscules or Particles For if it were Incorporeal it could neither act nor suffer in the Body which it animate's or informs not Act because it could not touch any part not Suffer because it could not be touch't by any part of the Body But that it doth both act and suffer in the Body is most evident from its Sensations of external Objects from its affects or Passions consequent to those Sensations from the motions it causeth in the Members respective to those Passions and from its Union and consension with the Body in all things I call it therefore a Body and say that it is composed or by an admirable contexture made up of most thin and most subtile Particles such perhaps as are most smooth and most round like those of Flame or Heat because otherwise it could not diffuse it self so swiftly through nor cohere within with the whole Body and all parts of it and because when it departs out of the Body the Body is not perceived to lose any the least thing of its former Bulk Figure or Weight no more than a Vessel of Wine loses by the exhalation of its Spirits or a piece of Amber-Grise loses by emission of its Odor So that we may imagine that if the whole sensitive Soul of an Elephant were conglomerated or condensed it might be contained in a place no bigger than a Cherry-stone These constituent particles or Elements of a Sensitive Soul I suppose to be for the most part analogous to the nature of Fire because the natural heat of all Animals comes from the Soul and their Life consisteth in that Heat I also suppose them to be at first conteined in the genital matter the most spirituose or active particles of which are in the act of formation by the Plastic Virtue Selected Disposed Formed and as it were contexed into a little Soul and the grosser or less agil framed by degrees into an organical Body of competent dimensions and of Figure answerable to the Specific Idea by the Divine Creator pre-ordained and assigned to that Species to which the Generants belong And this I suppose because the brisk vigorous and swift motions of the Soul in the Body require it to be composed of particles most subtile and active and because as well
the Soul as the Body is by all Philosophers granted to be formed of the seminal matter and because otherwise Brutes cannot be properly said to generate their like in Specie and by consequence the Power to that end entailed upon them by the first and universal command of God increscite ac multiplicamini would be rendr'd of no effect I farther suppose that this Embryon Soul after this manner newly formed or as it were kindled is dayly augmented by accession and assimilation of like Particles as the Body is augmented out of the grosser and less fugitive Parts of the Aliment till both Soul and Body have attain'd to the standard of Maturity or perfection of growth thenceforth slowly declining in Vigor by degrees answerable to those of their ascent till they arrive at their final Period Death which dissolving the system or contexture of the Soul leaves the Particles of which it was composed to fly away and vanish into Aire and the Body to be resolved into its first Principles by slower corruption For Nutrition and Augmentation are as yesterday I proved Operations of the Plastic Virtue continually reforming the whole Animal and the duration or subsistence of the Soul is the Vinculum of the whole composition or concretion So that the Soul may be by an apposite Metaphor called the Salt or Condiment that preserves the fleshy parts of the Body from putrefaction as the Spirits of Wine preserve the whole Mass of Liquor through which they are diffused from losing its Vigor and generose quality and according to that oraculous saying of Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul is always generated anew till Death Which very thing is argument enough to evince that if it be not really a most thin Flame finer and more gentle than that arising from the purest Spirit of Wine burning within a paper Lantern it is at least very like to Flame For as this so that is every moment regenerated at once perishing and reviving perishing by continual dissipation of some Particles and reviving by continual accension of others out of its proper aliment the more subtile and sulphureous Particles of the Blood serving to repair the decays of the Soul as the grosser Particles of the succus nutritius are convenient to recruit the exhausted substance of the Body So that it was not without reason that Democritus Epicurus Lucretius and Hippocrates among the Antients and among the Moderns Fernelius Heurnius Cartesius Hogelandus Honoratus Faber and Dr. Willis held the Soul of a Brute to be of a firy substance and that Aristotle himself called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the Ld. Chancellor Bacon natural Hist. centur 7. makes one of the two radical differences between Plants and Animals to consist in this that the Spirits of living Creatures hold more of Flame Finally I conceive that this sensitive Soul however it be a thing mixt or composed of Particles among themselves in Magnitude Figure Position and Motion somwhat various is notwithstanding by admirable Artifice so constituted and the parts of it so contemperate and context that it is made one most thin and yet continued and coherent substance diffused through the whole Body Nor can its component Particles while it subsists in the Body be dissociated otherwise than by their own evolation which is instantly supplied by the accession and unition of others no more than the natural smell colour or tast can be separated from an Apple Peach or any other Fruit. This universal diffusion of it through the Body is what the Ld. Chancellor Bacon calls Branching of the Spirits in Nat. Hist. Cent. 7. Paragraph 1 where he saith the Spirits of things Animate are all continued with themselves and branched in Veins and secret Canales as Blood is and what Dr. Willis calls Coextension of the Soul to all parts of the Body Granting then that this most thin continued and diffused Substance is conteined in the Body and as it were coherent with the same thereby sustained and bounded we may with the more probability conceive that it is to the Body the cause of all the Faculties Actions Passions and Motions belonging to its Nature as the Organ of such a Soul that it keeps the Body together at once both conserving actuating managing and governing it and that it can be no more separated from the Body without the dissolution thereof than the Odor can be separated from Frankincense without destroying the nature of it And this I think sufficient to explain what I conceive of the first quaestion proposed viz. of what Substance the Soul of a Brute is and of what Particles composed As to the Second viz. wherein the Life of such a Soul doth consist it seems to me probable that since Life according to the general notion of it is nothing but Usura quaedam vigoris mobilitatisque facultatum activarum ejus rei cui inest the Life of a sensitive Soul is immediately founded in a certain Motion of the active and spirituose Particles of which it is composed as the Life of an Animal consisteth in the continuation of the same determinate Motion of those Spirits by which it was at first kindled and of the actual exercise of the Faculties that emerge or result from the union of the Soul with its Body by the Fabrick of the various Organs thereof adapted to perform all the various Functions Offices and Actions requisite to consummate the nature of such an Animal in Specie What kind of Motion that is in which as in its Origine I conceive this Life to be founded I shall by and by declare when I come to enquire what is the immediate Subject or Seat of Life having first endeavor'd to solve the Third Question proposed viz. what are the principal Faculties and Operations of a sensitive Soul These then are as ye well know all comprehended in Life Sense and motion Animal of which I shall here consider only the Second reserving the First till by and by and the Last till the Clew of my method hath brought me to treat of it in its proper place As to the Faculty of Sense therefore which constitutes the chief difference between living Creatures and things inanimate which Lucretius elegantly call's animam ipsius animae and the extinction or total privation of which is Death since I have supposed a sensitive Soul to be Material or Corporeal I must seek for this noble Power whereby she is qualified not only to perceive external Objects but to be also conscious of all her Perceptions in Matter after a certain peculiar manner so or so disposed or modified and in nothing else lest I recede from that supposition But in what matter is it most likely to be found whatsoever the determinate modification requisite to create such a Power shall at length be imagined to be in the Matter of the Soul herself or in that of the Body she animates Truly if we distinctly examine either the Soul or Body of a Brute as
delivers the first into a free injoyment of her essential immortality but dissolves the latter into the Elements or matter of which it was composed is an opinion very antient highly consentaneous to reason and defended not only by many eminent Philosophers as well antique as modern but even by some Divines of great learning Piety and Fame among whom I need name only Gassendus of the Roman and Dr. Hammond of our Church The former of which hath professedly asserted it in Physiologia Epituri cap. de Animae sede the other in Notes on the 23. Verse of the 5 Chap. of St. Pauls first Epist. ad Thess. Where interpreting these Words of the divinely inspir'd Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integer vester spiritus anima corpus he conceived that the Apostle divides the whole Man into his three constituent parts viz. the Body which comprehends the Flesh and Members the Sensitive or Vital Soul which is common also to Brutes and the Spirit by which is denoted the reasonable Soul originally created by God infused into the Body and from thence after death to return to God and this his exposition he confirms by agreeing Testimonies of many Ethnic Philosophers and some antient Fathers Much more I should here have said in defence of this opinion had I not thought it less labour to direct the unsatisfied to a little Treatise intitled a Natural History of the Passions publish'd about three Years past where the Author professedly handles it Now if either of these two recited opinions be granted to be true and 't is no easy task to refute either of them then both my positions that occasioned my recital of them may be also true and so the supposed inconsistency of them solved Presuming then that what I have said concerning the First Act of the Blood or the Generation of Original Life in the Blood and the manner how it is performed is probable and sufficient to explicate the Theorem I here conclude my discourse of it ¶ The SECOND Act of the Blood in the race of Life is the Excitation of the Motion or Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries which seems to be done in this manner The Blood descended partly out of the Trunc of the Vena Cava partly from the Arteria Venosa into the Ears or Portals of the Heart and there beginning its expansive motion fills them even to distention and by that distention irritates or incites their Fibres which are numerose and strong to contract themselves by the motion of Restitution By this constriction of the Fibres on all sides the cavities of the Ears of the Heart are necessarily closed or streightned and by consequence the Blood newly admitted into them is sequeez'd out into the two Ventricles of the Heart forcing the Valves called Tricuspides or Trisulcae which are seated at the Gates or Mouths of the Ventricles and open from without inward to open themselves and give way The Blood thus propuls'd into the Ventricles of the Heart and somewhat increasing or intending its expansive Motion fills them even to distention and to the shutting of the Valves which it so lately open'd so that at that time no more Blood can be admitted nor what is admitted recoyl or return by the Wicket through which it enter'd The Ventricles of the Heart being thus filled and distended and by virtue of their Fibres spontaneously contracting themselves into a much narrower compass strongly compress the Blood contained in them and force it to thrust back three other Valves call'd Sigmoides which open outwards and to rush forth partly into the Venae Arteriosa leading it into the Lungs from the right Ventricle partly into the Aorta or great artery from the left By this constriction of the two Ventricles of the Heart which is their proper and natural Motion the Circulation as they call it of the Blood is chiefly effected that Blood which is out of the right Ventricle express't through the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs being impell'd forward till it arrive in the Arteria Venosa that brings it into the left Ventricle and that which is expell'd from the left Ventricle into the great Artery being by the Branches thereof distributed into all the parts of the Body The Blood being in this manner squirted out and the irritation ceasing the Ventricles instantly restore themselves to their middle position and make way for the reception of more Blood from the Ears of the Heart as before and then being by the Influx and expansive Motion thereof again distended and irritated repeat their Constriction and thereby eject it and this reciprocation or alternate dilatation and constriction or Diastole and Systole of the two Ventricles of the Heart together with the Arteries continued to them is what we call their Pulsation and the grand cause of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood as the alternate expansion and repression of the Spirits during that pulsation is that motion which Dr. Glisson first named the Mication of the Blood comprehending the double motion in that single appellation The Blood then it is that alone excites the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries by distending them not by reason of any actual Ebullition or any considerable Rarifaction it undergoes in either of the Ventricles or in their avenues but as I humbly conceive merely by its quantity rushing in Not by Ebullition or Effervescence as Aristotle who gave it the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believ'd 1 Because no ebullition of any Liquor whatsoever proceeding either from external Heat or from intestine Fermentation is constantly equal or uniform whereas the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries and consequently the motion of the Blood that causeth it is in Men healthy temperate and undisturbed by Passion constantly equal or of the same tenor and rhythm 2 Because the greater the Ebullition of the Blood the greater would be the pulsation of the Heart but in burning Fevers though there be a very great effervescence of the Blood arising from an extraordinary effort of the vital Spirits contending against oppression by the putrefactive or febrile Ferment yet the Pulse most frequently is low and weak as Galen himself observed 3 Because in living dissections if either of the Ventricles of the Heart or the great Artery be pierced with a lancet pure and florid Blood indeed will spring from the Wound in every Systole but not frothy not boyling nor meteorized nay not to be by any sign of difference distinguished from Blood at the same time emitted from the Vena Cava of the same Animal An Argument certainly of itself sufficient to subvert the Ebullition of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart excogitated by Aristotle at least if he were Author of the Book de Respiratione vulgarly ascribed to him to solve the Phaenomenon of the Pulse and to this day obstinately defended by many learned men seduced by the Authority of his great name 4 If the Blood suffer'd any such Ebullition an immersion or
namely into bones cartilages ligaments tendons membranes fibres c. So that all the Organs are at length compos'd of dissimilar parts by wonderful artifice context without the least of confusion or incongruity Which deserves to be reckon'd the seventh Act. 8. In that work of Organization 't is credible the inimitable Artist divides without section only by terminating the parts and unites without glew or cement only by continuing them to the common term or bounds which depends more upon union of matter than upon union of nature By these admirable artifices of Division and Unition the Plastic Spirit perforates separates conjoins cements the yet fluid at least soft Stamina of the parts where how and as often as need requires it deduces and runns out their Rivulets terminated in the fluid matter as by chanels it preserves from confusion the two different Colliquamenta and the Yolk divided as it were by partitions it so distinguishes and disterminates even contiguous and semblable parts that they may be diversly moved at the same time without interfering or impediment and each yield to other when occasion requires and thus almost all fibres very many membranes and in many sorts of Animals the Lobes of the Lungs and Liver and the Cartilages mutually touching each other in the joints c. are divided among themselves In a word by these wayes and degrees here by me from Malpighius his Microscopical Observations collected and rudely described it seems most probable that the Embryo is form'd augmented and finish'd in an Egg. Now therefore that we may accommodate this Epitome to our present Argument if this be the method and process that Nature uses in the Generation of Oviparous Animals and if she uses the like in the production of Viviparous also as Dr. Harvies observations and our own assure us that she doth we may safely conclude that Human Embryons are in like manner form'd augmented and finish'd by one and the same Plastic Spirit out of one and the same matter the Colliquamentum Quod er at probandum I add that the same Plastic Spirit remaining and working within us through the whole course of our life from our very first formation to our death doth in the same manner perpetually regenerate us out of a liquor analogous to the white of an Egg by transmuting the same into the substance of the solid parts of our body For as I said before Nutrition is necessary to all Animals not only in respect of the Augmentation of their parts while they are little Embryons but also in respect of their Conservation after during life because their bodies being in a natural consumption or exhaustion would inevitably be soon resolv'd into their first elements unless the providence of Nature had ordain'd a continual renovation or reparation of the parts by substitution and assimilation of fresh matter in the room of those particles dispers'd and consum'd Having therefore to some degree of probability explain'd the former necessity of Nutrition and the causes of it my next business must be to inquire into the Later Which that I may the more effectually do I find my self obliged to begin my scrutiny from the Causes of the perpetual Decay or Depredation of the substance of our bodies viz. the Efficient or Depraedator and the Matter or substance thereby consum'd and the Manner how The Depraedator then or Efficient cause of the perpetual consumtion of our bodies seems to be what all Philosophers unanimously hold it to be the Vital Heat of the bloud therein first kindled by the Plastic Spirit continually renew'd by the Vital Spirit and by the arteries diffus'd to all parts of the body that they may thereby be warm'd cherish'd and enliven'd This Lar familiaris or Vital Heat continually glowing within us and principally in the Ventricles of the Heart call'd by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingenitus ignis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde and flamma Biolychnii the flame of the Lamp of Life by others and by others again ignea pars Animae Sensitivae is what Physicians generally have heretofore understood by Calidum innatum tho' they seem to have had but an obscure and inadaequate notion of the thing it self as I hope to evince when I shall come to inquire what life is and upon what it chiefly depends Meanwhile supposing it to be an Actual Heat consisting in a certain motion of the various particles of the bloud and in some degree analogous to fire or flame I cannot conceive how 't is possible for it to subsist or continue for so much as one moment of time unless it be maintain'd by convenient fewel which is thereby uncessantly fed upon and by degrees consum'd for it is of the nature of all fire how gentle or mild soever to generate and conserve it self only by preying upon and destroying the matter in which it is generated This Vital Heat therefore without intermission agitating dissolving and consuming the minute and most easily exsoluble particles of the body must be the Depraedator here sought after So that in truth we have one and the same cause both of our life and of our death or to speak more properly our very life is nothing but a continual death and we live because we die For we live so long as while this internal Vestal Heat is kept glowing in the bloud and when it ceases to glow either from want of convenient sustenance or by violent suffocation life is instantly extinguish'd So true even in this natural sense is that Distich of Euripides Quis novit autem an vivere hoc sit emori An emori hoc sit quod vocamus vivere The Matter consum'd I humbly conceive to be for the greatest part the fluid parts of the body chiefly the bloud and spirits which are most easily exsoluble and somewhat tho' but little of the substance also of the solid parts For Experience teaches that divers Animals Bears Dormice Swallows c. sleep the whole Winter without receiving any supply of aliment and yet have all the solid parts of their bodies as large and firm when they awake again in the Spring as when they first betook themselves to their dens or dormitories and the Reason hereof seems to be this that their Vital Heat being all that time calm and gentle consumes their bloud and spirits but slowly and very little of their solid parts as a lamp burns long when the oyl that feeds it is much and the flame but little and calm We have Examples also of Leucophlegmatic Virgins who from a gradual decay of Appetite have fall'n at length into an absolute aversion from all food and endur'd long abstinence without either miracle or imposture and yet notwithstanding have not been emaciated in proportion to the time of their fasting Whence 't is probable that in our bodies there is not so rapid and profuse an expense or exhaustion of the substance of the solid parts as heretofore many learn'd Physicians
of Doggs 'T is somwhat strange then that the curious Dr. Willis should never perceive any of these Chyliferous vessels in the Ventricle or at least not so much as mention them in his Anatomic history of that part wherein he pretends to so much accurateness but much more strange that he should in the same book teach that the sanguiserous veins of the Ventricle take in part of the Chyle out of its cavity and carry it immediately into the mass of bloud when if he had considered the use of the Glandules of the Mesentery and the separation of the purer parts of the Chyle from the impure and excrementitious performed in the Gutts he might have inferr'd from either of those reasons that while the Chyle remains either not perfectly concocted or not sufficiently defaecated in the stomach no part of it ought to be so immaturely commixt with the bloud But this is my opinion and that was his and therefore every man is free to approve which he thinks most consentaneous As for Lymphaeducts if we take them as contradistinct to the Venae lacteae hitherto I have heard of none discover'd and therefore believe there are none in the Ventricle the rather because there are some Venae lacteae which are congenerous to them nor is it Natures use to multiply kinds of vessels where one kind is sufficient True it is indeed that in the Mesentery both venae lacteae and lymphaeducts are found but this objection hath been fully answer'd by Dr. Glisson in libr. de ventric intest cap. 3. num 8. saying they those vessels differ more in respect of the liquors that carry than of the structure or constitution of their similar parts For the Lympha is a thin hungry liquor the Chyle thicker succulent and rich this is brought from parts newly recruited with fresh aliment that from parts that want refection though both are discharg'd into the Common Receptacle Wherefore although Lymphaeducts pass through the Mesentery yet are they not to be reputed the genuine vessels thereof but aliens travelling along the nearest way through it And if they staid to bait at any part well stored with Chyle 't is probable the liquor they would suck in would make them of the same milky colour with the true venae lacteae And these are all the Common Similar parts of the Ventricle ¶ The Proper are as I said afore three Tunics or Membranes with their Fibres and Parenchymata The three Tunics although they seem to cohaere but slightly so that being moved by a little impulse of the finger any way they slip one upon another are notwithstanding connected with that pretty artifice that each hath its Fibres implicated with those of the next which fibres must be dextrously cut off before the Tunics can be separated whether the Ventricle be raw or boyl'd That which first offers it self to the view is the Exterior Tunic which some will have to be borrowed of the Midriff and others from the peritonaeum both which opinions will be found light if put in the ballance against the moments of reasons brought to refute them by the most judicious Dr. Glisson de ventric intest cap. 4. num 2. who with more justice affirms it to belong to the Ventricle by right of origination as properly as either of the other two at least in respect of its peculiar fibres and parenchyma Thicker it is and furnish'd with more nervose fibres and consequently stronger than any membrane deriv'd from the Peritonaeum in substance texture and course of fibres exactly resembling the exterior coat of the Gullet so that if ye remember our description of that ye will need no other idea of this The uses of it are many viz. 1. To invest and corroborate the Ventricle and to preserve it from cruentation on the convex side 2. To sustain the great multitude of vessels that are divided and subdivided into innumerable surcles as they diffuse themselves betwixt it and second or middle coat 3. To conserve the heat of the Ventricle so requisite to concoction 4. To concurr to the peristaltic motion of the same which it doth by vertue of its transverse fibres contracting or shortning themselves spontaneously Here recurrs to my memory a certain Pathological remark added by Dr. Willis to his description of this utmost coat of the Ventricle I have observ'd saith he in the bodies of many who had long languish'd under loss of appetite continual nauseousness and frequent vomitings dissected after death that somtimes a serose humor somtimes an effusion of bile somtimes an abscess upon the outside of the Ventricle had by irritation of it been the cause of those dismal symptomes A singular observation which I the more willingly recount because 'thas been my luck once or twice to meet with the like The second or Middle Tunic is much thicker and more fleshy than the first laced every where with fibres and consequently both stronger and more potent to perform the Peristaltic motion to which chiefly it seems to be adapted The position and course of these fibres are various in the various parts and sides of it On the Concave or inside strong fleshy fibres run down obliquely from the left hand toward the right till they arrive at the bottom so that when they contract themselves they must of necessity pull the bottom of the Ventricle obliquely upward toward the left orifice and therefore conduce to vomiting and other expulsive motions by the same On the top or ridge of the same convex side are many fibres of a distinct order which hemming in the left orifice of the Ventricle tend to the right and rising a little therewith cover it and then terminate therein So that they seem by their action which is contraction to bring the right orifice nearer to the left which is alwayes done in vomiting which motion being continued somtimes even to the bottom of the Duodenum both the Bile or Gall and Pancreatic humor are pumpt up into the stomach and thence ejected by vomit On the Convex or outside are likewise fibres of two sorts tho' both circular For some incircling the mouth of the stomach where the Oesophagus ends gird it about and so close it and others incomparably more in number incompass the whole Ventricle tending from the upper parts to the bottom in parallel lines and thence ascending again from the bottom to the top like so many Zones or girths so that when they are put into action they must needs bring the bottom of the whole Ventricle nearer to the top and the sides also nearer together and so lessen the cavity thereof so that whatever is at that time contain'd therein being rais'd upward and pressed on every side can hardly evade being expelled by one of the two orifices or by both as it often happens from violent irritations of the stomach and alwayes in the Cholera Now from these various orders of strong fleshy Fibres wherewith this Middle coat is garded we may easily collect that
Hysteric and contractions of the Nerves descending ad uterum 3. That the custom of sprinkling cold Water upon the Face of Women in Swouns is more antient than Philostratus Otherwise he could not have been so easily inclined to believe that a few drops of Rain that fell upon the Maids Face might conduce to her restoration especially when the reason he brings why an effect so considerable should proceed from so mean a cause is weak and trivial and when a sprinkling with hot Water might have been more efficacious 4. And lastly That Philostratus nevertheless shews himself no small Natural Philosopher in this very Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an scintillam animae in ipsa invenerit than which none could have been more proper more significant more emphatic at least if the notion of Original Life inkindled and perpetually glowing in the Blood which I have laboured here to explain be consentaneous to Truth And ye may remember that Salomon uses the very same Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description of Life in the forecited place of Ecclesiastes Which is alone sufficient as to give credit to the Expression itself so also to excuse my induction of this Story into the place of an Epilogue Now this Animae Scintilla is liable to Languors and Eclipses chiefly in Women of more frigid and delicate Constitutions i. e. of little Heat and certainly in every Syncope there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animula infirma the vestal Fire in the Heart dwindling into a Spark Whence it is that at such times all parts of the Body wanting a due influx of warm Blood during the cessation of the Heart become pale wan liveless and torpid imitating the Cold of Death But when the same Vital Spark begins to glow again and renew the Mication of the Blood it soon restores to the whole Body that vividam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brisk Effulgency whereof it was deprived during the Eclipse And this probably was the case of our Virgin No wonder then if Apollonius either perceiving by her feeble Pulses the Mication of her Blood not utterly extinguished or coming luckily in the very Article of Time when the same began to be more discernible to the touch than it had been awhile before to the Physicians that were retired made his advantage thereof pretending to restore her to life by Miracle He being an Impostor of singular cunning and watching all occasions to raise his reputation among the credulous Vulgar by appropriating to himself the causing of Events which in truth though perhaps rarely contingent were yet nevertheless merely Natural For who can believe that this Spark of Life when once utterly extinct can ever be rekindled in whatsoever Animal unless by a Power that can reverse change and surmount the fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Nature and that any such supernatural Power was at any time given to Apollonius Philostratus himself was not able to prove Safely then may we conclude that this Bride was not really but seemingly Dead when Apollonius came to her The same I dare say also of those Animals which Malpighi and some of our English Virtuosi have imagined and written they had restored to Life after Strangulation only by blowing Air sometimes into their Lungs sometimes into the Ductus Pecquetianus For that those Animals had been propemodum suffocata or brought by the Experimentors and confinium usque mortis is easy to believe but that they were quite dead and then revived extremely difficult to a Philosopher who knows that the Laws of Nature permit no regress to habit from total privation I conclude therefore with Sr. G. Ent's most judicious reflection upon this so magnified Experiment Antidiatribae pag. 143. Mirandum sane magis illis Authoribus cum Atropo fatalia abscindente stamina eam intercessisse necessitudinem ut ipsum mortis articulum tam accuratè persentiscerent c. For in Patients oppressed by the Apoplexy Epilepsy Lethargy Syncope or Hysteric Passion chiefly where no Pulse is perceptible and the outward parts of the Body are grown cold and stiff t is extremely difficult to distinguish utrum scintillula illa vitalis tantum delitescat an sit in corde penitus extincta So that even Physicians themselves and those too of the highest classis for learning Experience and Iudgment have sometimes mistaken the Living for the Dead Of which we have an eminent example in that Prince of Anatomists but most unfortunate Man Andreas Vesalius who as Hubertus Languettus hath left upon record in an Epistle to Casper Pucerus and Melchior Adamus in vita Vesalii dissecting the Breast of a certain Grandee of Spain whom he thought to be dead the Day before found his Heart yet panting to his own and the spectators astonishment to his eternal disgrace the danger of his Life and exile in which he miserably perisht upon the Shore of the Island Zant in his return from Palestine Doth any Man here expect from me other Examples of the like Mistakes Let him seek them in Pliny Nat hist. l. 7. C. 52. Georgius Pictorinus Sermon Convival l. 1. Alexander Benedictus Practic l. 10. c. 10. Paraeus Forestus Albertus Bottonus Schenckius Levinus Lemnius Fabricius Hildanus c. for now I have not time to recount them Prudenter itaque faciunt Magistratus saith Hildanus Observat. Chirurgic centur 2. observ 95. uti ego Genevae in quibusdam aliis locis observavi qui neminem sepeliri permittunt nisi priùs à quodam viro artis Medicae perito ad hoc negotium destinato inspecto atque explorato Cadavere For the same reason I approve not the vulgar Custome of setting great Pewter Dishes Turfs of Earth or other the like cold and ponderose things upon the Breast and Belly of Men newly defunct For by that means though the putrefaction and consequent fermentations of Humors congested within those Cavities may perhaps be somewhat checkt and retarded chiefly in Dropsies and great Apostems yet in other cases and where the person is not really but only in appearance Dead the spark of Life which is only eclipsed and otherwise may shine forth again is liable to be totally extinguished Nor am I singular in this opinion For I could at this very instant of time convert my eye upon one of the most Eminent Physicians not only of this Royal Colledge but of the whole World who languishing of a grievous and long Sickness and well prepared for a decent Exitus did nevertheless in my hearing for I had the honour of watching with him that night give order to his Attendants to omit that kind of treatment of his Body after all signs of Life should cease in him adding the very same Reason I have here given And this I have good reason to believe he did not from fear of Death but only from his deep insight into the Nature of Life of which he ceased not to Philosophize even when he expected