womb There are women that bear the childe in their womb ten or eleven whole moneths and such children have their conformation of much quantity of seed wherefore they will be more big great and strong and therefore they require more time to come to their perfection and maturity for those fruits that are great will not be so soon ripe as those that are small But children that are small and little of body do often come to their perfection and maturity in seven or nine moneths if all other things are correspondent in greatness and bigness of body it happeneth for the most part that the woman with childe is not delivered before the ninth moneth be done A male will be born soonner then a female or at the leastwise in the same moneth But a male childe will be commonly born at the beginnâ—ng or a little before the begining of the same moneth by reason of his engrafted heat which causeth maturity and ripeness Furthermore the infant is sooner come to maturity and perfection in a hot woman then in a cold for it is the property of heat to ripen CHAP. XXXI How to preserve the infant in the womb when the mother is dead IF all the signes of death appear in the woman that lieth in travel and cannot be delivered there must then be a Surgeon ready and at hand which may open her body so soon as she is dead whereby the infant may be preserved in safety neither can it be supposed sufficient if the mothers mouth and privie parts be held open for the infant being inclosed in his mothers womb Why it is not sufficient to preserve life in the childe to hold open the mouth and privie parts of the mother so soon as she is dead and the childe alive in her body and compassed with the membranes cannot take his breath but by contractions and dilatations of the artery of the navel But when the mother is dead the lungs do not execute their office function therefore they cannot gather in the air that compasseth the body by the mouth or aspera arteria into their own substance or into the arteries that are dispersed throughout the body thereof by reason whereof it cannot send it unto the heart by the veiny artery which is called arteria venalis for if the heart want air there cannot be any in the great artery which is called arteria aorta whose function it is to draw it from the heart as also by reason thereof it is wanting in the arteries of the womb which are as it were the little conduits of the great artery whereinto the air that is brought from the heart is derived and floweth in unto these little ones of all the body and likewise of the womb Wherefore it must of necessity follow that the air is wanting to the cotyledons of the secundines to the artery of the infants navel the iliack arteries also and therefore unto his heart and so unto his body for the air being drawn by the mothers lungs is accustomed to come to the infant by this continuation of passages How the bellie of the woman that dieth in travel must be cut open to save the childe Therefore because death maketh all the motions of the mothers body to cease it is far better to open her body so soon as she is dead beginning the incision at the cartilage Xiphoides or blade and making it in a form semicircular cutting the skin muscles and peritonaeum not touching the guts then the womb being lifted up must first be cut lest that otherwise he infant might perchance be touched or hurt with the knife You shall oftentimes finde the childe unmoveable as though he were dead but not because he is dead indeed but by reason that he being destitute of the accesse of the spirits by the death of the mother hath contracted a great weakness yet you may know whether he be dead indeed or not by handling the artery of the navel for it will beat and pant if he be alive otherwise not but if there be any life yet remaining in him How it may be known whether the infant be aâ—ive or not shortly after he hath taken in the air and is recreated with the access thereof he will move all his members and also all his whole body In so great a weakness or debility of the strength of the childe by cutting the navel string it must rather be laid close to the region of the belly thereof that thereby the heat if there be any jot remaining may be stirred up again But I cannot sufficiently marvel at the insolency of those that affirm that they have seen women whose bellies and womb have been more then once cut and the infant taken out when it could no otherwise be gotten forth and yet notwithstanding alive which thing there is no man can perswade me can be done without the death of the mother by reason of the necessary greatness of the wound that must be made in the muscles of the belly and substance of the womb for the womb of a woman that is great with childe by reason that it swelleth and is distended with much blood must needs yield a gread flux of blood which of necessity must be mortal And to conclude when that the wound or incision of the womb is cicatrized it will not peâ—mit or suffer the womb to be dilated or extended to receive or bear a new birth For these and such like other causes this kinde of cure as desperate and dangerous is not in mine opinion to be used CHAP. XXXII Of superfetation SUperfetation is when a woman doth bear two or more children at one time in her womb What superfetation is and they be enclosed each in his several secundine but those that are included in the same secundine are supposed to be conceived at one and the same time of copulation by reason of the great and copious abundance of seed and these have no number of daies between their conception and birth but all at once For as presently after meat the stomach which is naturally of a good temper is contracted or drawn together about the meat to comprehend it on every side though small in quantity as it were by both hands so that it cannot rowl neither unto this or that side so the womb is drawn together into the conception about the seeds assoon as they are brought into the capacity thereof and is so drawn in unto it on every side that it may come together into one body not permitting any portion thereof to go into any other region or side so that by one time of copulation the seed that is mixed together cannot engender more children then one which are divided by their secundines A womans womb is not distinguished into diverse cells And moreover because there are no such cells in the wombs of women as are supposed or rather known to be in the wombs of beasts which therefore bâ—ing forth many
defluxion or falling down of humors into the part Or these evacuations are performed by much matter evacuated from an opened Bile or running Ulcer a Fistula or such like sores Or by sweats which are very good and healthful especially in sharp diseases if they proceed from the whole body and happen on the critical days By vomit The force of vomits which often violently draws these humors from the whole body even from the utmost joynts which purging medicines could not evacuate as we may see in the Palsie and Sciatica or Hip-gout By spitting as in all who are suppurated either in the sides or lungs By Salivation Salivation or a Phlegmatick flux by the mouth as in those who are troubled with the French-pox By sneezing and blowing the nose for by these the brain opprest with moisture disburdeneth its self whether it be done without or with the help of sternutatories and errhines wherefore children and such as have somewhat moist brains purge themselves often this way By hicket and belching The whole body is also purged by urine for by these the windiness contained in the stomach is often expelled By urine for by this not only Feavers but which is more to be admired the French-pox hath often been terminated and cured For there have been some troubled with the Pox in whom a flux of the vicious and venenate humor could not by Unctions of quicksilver be procured either from the mouth or belly yet have been wounderfully freed bv abundance of Urine both from danger of death and their disease By bleeding for nature hath often found a way for grievous diseases especially in young bodies by bleeding at the nose and by their courses in women By a flux or lask purgation sweats insensible evacuation and transpiration for so tumors the matter being brought to suppuration do sometimes vanish away and are dissolved both of their own accord as also by dissolving or discussing medicines We do the same by exercise diet hot-houses long sleep waking and shedding of tears By sucking as with Cupping-glasses and Hors-leeches in wounds made by venemous bitings We must observe three things in every evacuation In all such kinds of evacuations we must consider three things the quantity quality and manner of evacuation As for an example When an Empyema is opened the matter which runs out ought to be answerable in proportion to the purulent matter which was contained in the capacity of the breasts otherwise unless all the matter be emptyed there may happen a relapse the matter should be white soft equal and nothing stinking Lastly you must let it forth not all together and at one time but by little and little and at several times otherwise not a little quantity of the Spirits and heat doth flow out together with the unprofitable matter and so consequently a dissolution of all the powers CHAP. XVIII Of the Perturbations or Passions of the Mind Why the Passions of the mind are called Accidents Their force THe Perturbations are commonly called the Accidents of the Mind because as bodily accidents from the body so may these be present and absent from the Mind without the corruption of the subject The knowledg of these must not be lightly passed over by the Chirurgeon for they stir up great troubles in the bodies and yield occasion of many and great diseases of which things joy hope and love may give an apparent testimony For by these motions the heat and spirits are sometimes gently sometimes violently diffused over all the body for the enjoying of the present or hoped for good For then the heart is dilated as to embrace the thing beloved and the face is dyed with a rosie and lively colour For it is likely that the faculty it self is stirred by the object by whose power the Heart it self is moved From whence they have their force For it is first necessary before we be moved by any Passions that the senses in their proper seats in which they are seldom deceived apprehend the objects and straight as messengers carry them to the common sense which sends their conceived forms to all the faculties And then that each faculty as a Judge may afresh examin the whole matter how it is and conceive in the presented objects some shew of good or ill to be desired or shunned For What man that was well in his wits did ever fall into laughter unless he formerly knew or saw somewhat said or done The reason of Joy which might yield occasion of laughter Therefore Joy proceeds from the heart for the thing causing mirth or joy being conceived the faculty moves the heart which shaken and moved by the faculty which hath dominion over it is dilated and opened as ready to embrace the exhilarating object But in the mean time by the force of that dilatation it sends forth much heat and spirits together with the bloud into all the body A great part of which comming to the face dilates it the fore-head is smooth and plain the eyes look bright the cheeks become red as died with Vermilion the lips and mouth are drawn together and made plain and smooth some have their cheeks dented with two little pits which from the effects are called laughing cheeks because of the contraction or curling which the muscle suffer by reason of their fulness of bloud and spirits The effects of Joy all which to be brief is nothing but to laugh Joy recreates and quickens all the faculties stirs up the spirits helps concoction makes the body to be better liking and fattens it the heat bloud and spirits flowing thither and the nourishing dew or moisture watering and refreshing all the members from whence it is that of all the passions of the mind this only is profitable so that it exceed not measure for immoderate and unaccustomed joy carries so violently the bloud and spirits from the heart into the habit of the body that sodain and unlookt for death ensues by a speedy decay of the strength the lasting fountain of the vital humor being exhausted Which thing principally happens to those who are less hearty as women and old men Anger Anger causeth the same effusion of heat in us but far speedier than joy therefore the spirits and humors are so enflamed by it that it often causes putrid Feavers especially if the body abound with any ill humour Sorrow Sorrow or grief dries the body by a way quite contrary to that of Anger because by this the heart is so straitned the heat being almost extinct that the accustomed generation of spirits cannot be performed and if any be generated they cannot freely pass into the members with the bloud wherefore the vital faculty is weakned the lively colour of the face withers and decays and the body wastes away with a lingring Consumption Fear Fear in like sort draws in and calls back the spirits and not by little and little as in sorrow but sodainly and violently
head one of the fundament and another of the yard or conduit of the bladder and furthermore in women one of the neck of the womb without the which they can never be made mothers or bear children When all these are finished nature that she might polish her excellent work in all sorts hath covered all the body and every member thereof with skin Exod. 20 qu â—2 Into this excellent work or Micrecâ—smâ—s so perfect God the author of nature and all things infuseth or ingrafteth a soul or life which St. Augustine proveth by this sentence of Moses If any man smite a woman with child so that thereby she â—e delivered before her natural time and the childe be dead being first formed in the wâ—mâ— let him die the death but if the child hath not as yet obtained the ful propertion and conformation of his body and members let him recompence it with mâ—ny Therefore it is not to be thought that the life is derived propagated or taken from Adam or our parents as it were an hereditary thing distributed unto all mankinde by their parents but we must beleive it to be immediately created of God even at the very instant time when the childe is absolutely perfected in the lineaments of his body and so given unto it by him The meâ—a in the womb liveth not as the childe So therefore the rude lumps of flesh called molae that engender in womens wombs and monsters of the like breeding and confused bigness although by reason of a certain quaking and shivering motion they seem to have life yet they cannot be supposed to be endued with a life or a reasonable soul but they have their motion nutriment and increase wholly of the natural and infixed faculty of the womb and of the generative or procreative spirit that is ingraffed naturally in the seed But even as the infant in the womb obtaineth not perfect conformation before the thirtieth day so likewise it doth not move before the sixtieth day at which time it is most commonly not perceived by women by reason of the smallness of the motion But now let us speak briefly of the life or soul wherein consisteth the principal original of every function in the body and likewise of generation CHAP. XI Of the life or soul The liâ—e goeth not into the mass of seed that doth engender the childe before the body of the childe and each part thereof hath his perfect proportrien and â—â—rm Why the life or soul doth not presently execute all his offices THe soul entreth into the body so soon as it hath obtained a perfect and absolute distinction and conformation of the members in the womb which in male-children by reason of the more strong and forming heat which is ingraffed in them is about the fourtieth day and in females about the fortie fifth day in some sooner and in some later by reason of the efficacie of the matter working and pliantness or obedience of the matter whereon it worketh Neither doth the life or soul being thus inspired into the body presently execute or performe all his functions because the instruments that are placed about it cannot obtain a firm and hard consistence necessary for the lively but especially for the more divine ministeries of the life or soul but in a long process of age or time Those instruments of the soule are vitiated either in the first conformation as when the form or fashion of the head is shaped upwards or pyramidal as was the head of Thersites that lived in the time of the Trojan war and of Triboulet and Tonin that lived in later years or also by some casualtie as by the violent handling of the midwife who by compression by reason that the seal is tender and soft hath caused the capacitie of the ventricles that be under the brain to be too narrow for them or by a fall stroak disorder in diet as by drunkenness or a fever which inferreth a lethargie excessive sleeepiness or phrensie 1. Coâ—c 12. Presently after the soul is entred into the body God endeth it with divers and sundry gifts hereof it commeth that some are endued with wisdom by the spirit others with knowledg by the same spirit others with the gift of healing by the same spirit others with power dominion and rule others with prophesie others with diversities of tongues and to others other endowments as it hath pleased the divine providence and bounty of God to bestow upon them against which no man ought to contend or speak For it is not meet that the thing formed should say unto him that formed it why hast then made me thus hath not the Potter power to make of the same lamp of clay one vessel to hâ—nor and another to dishonor It is not my purpose neither belongeth it unto me or any other humane creature to search out the reason of those things but only to admire them with all humility But yet I dâ—re affirm this one thing that a noble and excellent soul neglecteth elementary and a transitory things and is ravished and moved with the contemplation of ceâ—eâ—â—â—al which it cannot freely enjoy before it be separated from this earthly inclosure or prison of the body and be restored unto its original Therefore the soul is the inward Entelechia or perfection What the 〈◊〉 or life is or the primitive cause of all motions and functions both natural and animal and the true form of man The Antients have endevoured to express the obscure sence thereof by many descriptions For they have called it a celestiâ—â—l spirit and a superior incorporeal invisible and immortal essence which is to be comprehended of its self alone that is of the mind or understanding The life is in all the whole body and in every portion thereof The life or soul is simple and indâ—â—sible Divers names and the reason of divers â—â—mes thâ—t are given to humane forms Others have not doubted but that we have our souls inspired by the universal divine minde which as they are alive so they do bestow life on the bodies unto whom they are annexed or united And although this life be dispersed into all the whole body and into every portion of the same yet iâ— it void of all corporal weight or mixtion and it is wholly and alone in every several part being simple and invisible without all composition or mixture yet endued with many virtues and faculties which it doth utter in divers parts of the body For it feeleth imagineth judgeth remembreth understandeth and ruleth all our desires pleasures and animal motions it seeth heareth smelleth tasteth toucheth and it hath divers names of these so many and so great functions which it performeth in divers parts of the body It is called the soul or life because it maketh the body live which of it self is dead It is called the spirit or breath because it inspireth our bodies It is called reason because it discerneth 〈◊〉 from falshood as it
or breadth so much is wanting in their length The cause of the divers turnings of the womb into divers parts of the body and therefore it happeneth that the womb being removed out of its seat doth one while fall to the right side towards the liver sometimes to the left towards the milt sometimes upwards unto the midriff and stomach sometimes downwards and so forwards unto the bladder whereof cometh an Ischury and strangury or backwards whereof cometh oppression of the straight gut and suppression of the excrements and the Tenesmus But although we acknowledge the womb to decline to those parts which we named yet it is not by accident only as when it is drawn by the proper and common ligaments and bands when they are contracted or made shorter The womb is not so greatly moved by an accident but by it self being distended with fulness but also of it self as when it is forced or provoked through the grief of something contrary to nature that is contained therein it wandreth sometimes unto one side and sometimes unto another part with a plain and evident natural motion like unto the stomach which embraceth any thing that is gentle and milde but avoideth any thing that is offensive and hurtfull Whereof come such divers accidents of strangulation of the womb yet we deny that so great accidents may be stirred up by the falling of it alone unto this or that side for then it might happen that women that are great with childe whose wombs are so distended by reason that the childe is great that it doth press the midriff might be troubled with a strangulation like unto this but much rather by a venemous humor breathing out a malign and gross vapor not only by the veins and arteries but also by the pores that are invisible which pollutes the faculties of the parts which it toucheth with its venemous malignity and infection and intercepts the functions thereof Neither doth the variety of the parts receiving only but also of the matter received cause variety of accidents For some accidents come by suppression of the terms others come by corruption of the seed but if the matter be cold The cause of sleepiness in the strangulation of the womb it brinketh a drowsiness being lifted up unto the brain whereby the woman sinketh down as if she were astonished and lieth without motion and sense or feeling and the beating of the arteries and the breathing are so small that sometimes it is thought they are not at all but that the woman is altogether dead If it be more gross it inferreth a convulsion if it partipate of the nature of a gross melancholick humor it bringeth such heaviness fear and sorrowfulness that the party that is vexed therewith shall think that she shall die presently and cannot be brought out of her minde by any means or reason The cause of drowsie madness if of a cholerick humor it causeth the madness called furor uterinus and such a pratling that they speak all things that are to be concealed and a giddiness of the head by reason that the animal spirit is suddenly shaken by the admixtion of a putrified vapour and hot spirit but nothing is more admirable then that this disease taketh the patient sometimes with laughing and sometimes with weeping for some at the first will weep and then laugh in the same disease and state thereof But it exceedeth all admiration which Hollerius writeth A history usually happened to two of the daughters of the Provost of Roven For they were held with long laughter for an hour or two before the fit which neither for fear admonition nor for any other means they could hold and their parents chid them and asked them wherefore they did so they answered that they were not able to stay their laughter The ascention of the womb is to be distinguishâ—d from the strangulation The ascention of the womb is diligently to be distinguished from the strangulation thereof for the accidents of the ascention and of the strangulation are not one but the woman is only oppressed with a certain pain of the heart difficulty of breathing or swouning but yet without fear without raving or idle talking or any other greater accident Therefore oftentimes contrary causes inferr the ascention that is overmuch driness of the womb labouring through the defect of moisture whereby it is forced after too violent and immoderate evacuations of the flowers and in childe-bed and such like and laborious and painfull travel in childbed through which occasion it waxeth hot contrary to nature and withereth and turneth it self with a certain violence unto the parts adjoyning that is to say unto the liver stomach and midriff if haply it may draw some moisture there-hence unto it I omit that the womb may be brought unto its place upwards by often smelling to aromatick things yet in the mean while it inferrs not the strangulation that we described before CHAP. XLV The signs of imminent strangulation of the Womb. BEfore that these fore-named accidents come the woman thinks that a certain painfull thing ariseth from her womb unto the orifice of the stomach and heart and she thinketh her self to be oppressed and choaked she complaineth her self to be in great pain and that a certain lump or heavy thing climbs up from the lower parts unto her throat and stoppeth her winde her heart burneth and panteth And in many the womb and vessels of the womb so swell that they cannot stand upright on their legs but are constrained to lie down flat on their bellies that they may be the less grieved with the pain and to press that down strongly with their hands The womb it self doth not so well make the ascention as the vapor thereof that seemeth to arise upwards although that not the womb it self but the vapor ascendeth from the womb as we said before but when the fit is at hand their faces are pale on a sudden their understanding is darkned they become slow and weak in the leggs with unableness to stand Hereof cometh sound sleep foolish talking interception of the senses and breath as if they were dead loss of speech the contraction of their legs and the like CHAP. XLVI How to know whether the woman be dead in the strangulation of the womb or not I Have thought it meet because many women not only in ancient times Women living taken for dead but in our own and our fathers memory have been so taken with this kind of symptom that they have been supposed and laid out for dead although truly they were alive to set down the signs in such a case which do argue life and death Therefore first of all it may be proved whether she be alive or dead by laying or holding a clear and smooth looking-glass before her mouth and nostrils For if she breath although it be never so obscurely the thin vapor that cometh out How women that have the
Sena at one time brought forth seven children of which four were baptized In our time betweeen Sarte and Main in the parish of Seaux not far from Chambellay there is a family and noble house called Maldemeure the wife of the Lord of Maldemure the first year she was married brought forth twins the second year she had three children the third year four the fourth year five the fifth year six and of that birth she died of those six one is yet alive and is Lord of Maldemeure In the valley of Beaufort in the countie of Anjou a young woman the daughter of Mace Channiere when at one perfect birth she had brought forth one childe the tenth day following she fell in labor of another but could not be delivered untill it was pulled from her by force and was the death of the mother The Picture of Dorithie great with childe with many children Martin Comerus the author of the Polish historie writeth that one Margaret The ninth Book of the Polish Historie a woman sprung from a noble and ancient familie neer Cracovia and wife to Count Virboslaus brought forth at one birth thirtie five live children upon the twentieth daie of Jan. in the year 1296. Franciscus Picus Mirandula writeth that one Dorothie an Italian had twentie children at two births at the first nine and at the second eleven and that she was so big that she was forced to bear up her bellie which lay upon her knees with a broad and large scarf tied about her neck as you may see by this figure And they are to be reprehended here again who affirm the cause of numerous births to consist in the variety of the cels of the womb for they feign a womans womb to have seven cels or partitions three on the right side for males three on the left side for females and one in the midst for Hermophrodites or Scrats and this untruth hath gone so far that there have been some that affirmed every of the seven cels to have been divided into ten partitions into which the seed dispersed doth bring forth a divers and numerous encrease according to the varietie of cels furnished with the matter of seed which though it may seem to have been the opinion of Hippocrates in his Book De natura Pueri notwithstanding it is repugnant to reason and to those things which are manifestly apparent to the eies and senses The opinion of Aristotle is more probable who saith twins and more at one birth Lib. 4. de gen anim cap. 4. are begot and brought forth by the same cause that the sixth finger groweth on the hand that is by the abundant plentie of the seed which is greater and more copious then can be all taken up in the natural framing of one bodie for if it all be forced into one it maketh one with the parts encreased more then is fit either in greatness or number but if it be as it weâ—e cloven into divers parts it causeth more then one at one birth CHAP. IV. Of Hermophrodites or Scrats ANd here also we must speak of Hermophrodites because they draw the cause of their generation and conformation from the abundance of seed and are called so because they are of both sexes the woman yeelding as much seed as the man For hereupon it commeth to pass that the forming facultie which alwaies endeavors to produce something like it self doth labor both the matters almost with equal force and is the cause that one bodie is of both sexes Yet some make four differences of Hermophrodites the first of which is the male Hermophrodite who is a perfect and absolute male and hath only a slit in the Perinaeum not perforated and from which neither urine nor seed doth flow The second is the female which besides her natural privitie hath a fleshie and skinnie similitude of a mans yard but unapt for erection and ejaculation of seed and wanteth the cod and stones the third difference is of those which albeit they bear the express figures of members belonging to both sexes commonly set the one against the other yet are found unapt for generation the one of them only serving for making of water the fourth difference is of those who are able in both sexes throughly perform the part of both man and woman because they have the genitals of both sexes complete and perfect and also the right brest like a man and the left like a woman the laws command those to chuse the sex which they will use and in which they will remain and live judgeing them to death if they be found to have departed from the sex they made choice of for some are thought to have abused both and promiscuously to have had their pleasure with men and women There are signs by which the Physicians may discern whether the Hermophrodites are able in the male or female sex or whether they are impotent in both these signs are most apparent in the privities and face for if the matrix be exact in all its demensions and so perforated that it may admit a mans yard if the courses flow that way if the hair of the head be long slender and soft and to conclude if to this tender habit of the body a timid and weak condition of the minde be added the female sex is predominant and they are plainly to be judged women But if they have the Perinaeum and fundament full of hairs the which in women are commonly without any if they have a a yard of a convenient largeness if it stand well and readily and yeeld seed the male sex hath the preheminence and they are to be judged men But if the conformation of both the genitals be alike in figure quantity and efficacy it is thought to be equally able in both sexes although by the opinion of Aristotle Lib. 4. de gener anim cap. 5. those who have double genitals the one of the male the other of the female the one of them is alwaies perfect the other imperfect The figure of Hermophrodite twins cleaving together with their backs Anno Dom. 1486. in the Palatinate at the village Robach near Heidelberg there were twins both Hermophrodites born with their backs sticking together The effigies of an Hermophrodite having four hands and feet The same day the Venetians and Geneses entred into league there was a monster born in Italy having four arms and feet and but one head it lived a little after it was baptized James Ruef a Helvetian Cirurgian saith he saw the like but which besides had the privities of both sexes whose figure I have therefore set forth Pag. 647. CHAP. V. Of the changing of Sex AMatus Lusitanus reports that in the village Esquina there was a maid named Maria Pateca who at the appointed age for her courses to flow had instead of them a mans yard laying before that time hid and covered so that of a woman she became a man and therefore laying
violently on the last spondil of the back and first of the loyns both with the hand and knee for unto this place the orifice of the stomach is turned that by the power of the vomitory medicine and concussion of the stomach they might be constrained to vomit Neither did our purpose fail us for presently they voided clammy yellow and spumous phlegm and blood But we not being contented with all this blowed up into their nostrils out of a Goose-quil the powder of Euphorbium that the expulsive faculty of the brain might be stirred up to the expulsion of that which oppressed it therefore presently the brain being shaken or moved with sneesing and instimulated thereunto by rubbing the chymical oyl of Mints on the palate and on the cheeks they expelled much viscous and clammy matter at their nostrils Then we used frictions to their arms legs and back-bones and ministred sharp glysters by whose efficacy the belly being abundantly loosened they began presently to speak and to take things that were ministred unto them of their own accord and so came to themselves again In the do ng of all these things James Guillemeau Surgeon unto the King of Paris and John of Saint Germanes the Apothecary did much help and further us In the afternoon that the matter being well begun might have good success John Hauty and Lâ—â—is Thibaut both most learned Physicians were sent for unto us with whom we might consâ—lt on other things that were to be done They highly commended all things that we had done already thought it very convenient that cordials should be ministred unto them which by ingendring of laudable humors might not only generate new spirits but also attenuate and putrifie those that were cloudy in their bodies The rest of our consultation was spent in the inquity of the cause of so diâ—e a mischance For they said it was no new or strange thing that men may be smothered with the fume and cloudy vapor of burning coals For we read in the works of Fulgosius Volaterenus and Egnatius Lib. 9. cap. 12. lib. 23. An history that as the Emperor Jovinian travelled in winter-time towards Rome he being weary in his journey rested at a village called Didastances which divideth bithynia from Galatia where he lay in a chamber that was newly made and plaisted with lime wherein they burnd many coals for to dry the work or plaistering that was but as yet green on the walls or roofs of the chamber Now he dyed the very same night being smothered or strangled with the deadly and poysonous vapor of the burned charcoal in the midst of the night this happened to him in the eighth moneth of his reign the thirtieth year of his age and on the twentieth day of August But what need we to amplifie this matter by the antient histories seeing that not many years since three servants died in the house of John Bigine goldsmith who dwelt at the turning of the bridge of the Change by reason of a fire made with coals in a close chamber without any chimney where they lay And as concerning the causes these were alledged Many were of opinion that it happened by the default of the vapor proceeding from the burned coals which being in a place void of all air or winde infers such like accidents as the the vapor or must of new wine doth that is to say pain and giddiness of the head For both these kindes of vapor besides that they are crude like unto those things whereof they come can also very suddenly obstruct the original of the Nerves and so cause a convulsion by reason of the grossness of their substance Sect. 5. Aph. 5. For so Hippocrates writing of those accidents that happen by the vapor of new wine speaketh If any man being drunken do suddenly become speechless and hath a convulsion he dieth unless he have a fever therewithall or if he recover not speech again when his drunkenness is over Even on the same manner the vapor of the coals assaulting the brain caused them to be speechless unmoveable and void of all sense and had died shortly unless by ministring and applying warm medicines into the mouth and to the nostrils the grossness of the vapor had been attenuated and the expulsive facultie moved or provoked to expel all those things that were noisome and also although at the first sight the Lungs appeared to be greived more then all the other parts by reason that they drew the malign vapor into the body yet when you consider them well it will manifestly appear that they are not grieved unless it be by the sympathy or affinity that they have with the brain when it is very grievously afflicted The proof hereof is because presently after there followeth an interception or defect of the voice sense and motion which accidents could not be unless the beginning or original of the nerves were intercepted or letted from performing its function being burthened by some matter contrary to nature The occasion of the death of such as have the apoplexy And even as those that have an apoplexy do not dye but for want of respiration yet without any offence of the Lungs even so these two young mens deaths were at hand by reason that their respiration or breathing was in a manner altogether intercepted not through any default of the Lungs but of the brain and nerves distributing sense and motion to the whole body and especially to the instruments of respiration Others contrariwise contended and said that there was no default in the brain but conjectured the interception of the vital spirits letted or hindred from going up into the brain from the heart by reason that the passages of the Lungs were stopped to be the occasion that sufficient matter could not be afforded for to preserve and feed the animal spirit Which was the cause that those young men were in danger of death for want of respiration without which there can be no life For the heart being in such a case cannot deliver it self from the fuliginous vapors that encompass it by reason that the Lungs are obstructed by the grossness of the vapor of the coals whereby inspiration cannot well be made for it is made by the compassing air drawn into our bodies but the air that compasseth us doth that which nature endeavoureth to do by inspiration for it moderateth the heat of the heart and therefore it ought to be endued with four qualities The first is that the quantity that is drawn into the body be sufficient The second is that it be cold or temperate in quality The third is that it be of a thin and mean consistence The fourth is that it be of a gentle benign substance But these four conditions were wanting in the air which those two young men drew into their bodies being in a close chamber Conditions of the air good to breath in For first it was little in quantity by reason that small quantity that