Muscles of the Breast The Pulse is nothing else but a percussion of the Arteries upon the variety of which the difference of Pulses depends The Cause of the Pulse according to Aristotle is the Natural heat of the Heart according to Galen it is the moving faculty according to Harvey this motion of the Heart and Pulse of the Arteries depends upon the circulation of the Blood which we will examine in the next Chapter Breathing comprehends two actions Inspiration and Respiration by the action of the first the Lungs receive the external Air and by the help of the last they drive it out The first is made by a dilatation of the Lungs and Breast as also by the motion of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are opened like a pair of Bellows and are by that means filled with Air the second is made by a pressing downwards of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are unlocked and the Air driven forth Breathing conduces to the tempering the heat of the Heart and to the exciting and preserving Natural heat besides it conduceth to the forming the Voice to perceiving Smells to expelling Excrements and dissipating the fumes of the Blood and lastly to produce vital Spirits in promoting their motion by which it happens that we dye when breathing ceaseth or when we take our last Breath CHAP. XVII Of the Motion of the Heart THat I may rightly explain the motion of the Heart I suppose it is moved by two different motions the first of which is Natural the second against Nature That resembles the motion of Machines and Clocks which are moved by help of Strings and Wheels So the Heart is the principal and chief Wheel of this animated Machine and moves and drives on all the others and takes its motion from the weight and impression of certain Fiery and Coelestial Atoms which like the Silk-Worm are shut up in the Seed and its covering and which give motion to it until they flye away from it which slight of the Atoms Death follows and an end of motion The Authors of the circulation of the Blood deduce the motion of the Heart from the Bloods entring into it saying that the Heart is opened by the motion commonly called Diastole the Blood entring into the Heart and that by the motion commonly called Systole the Blood returns back and this returning is the Cause of those two motions but it is more reasonable to say that the motion of the Heart hath its Principle in its self for it is Vital and the passing through of the Blood is rather an effect than a Cause of this motion for the Heart opens it self before the Blood enters in nor does the Blood go out but as it is driven by the opened Heart The second motion of the Heart is accidental and against Nature and proceeds from the intemperies of the Blood that passeth through the Heart and which impresseth this febrile motion whether as being more hot and subtile than it should be or having certain foreign Corpuscles mixed with it or being too thick and viscous or else offending in quantity it overwhelms the Heart and hereupon depends the difference of motions contrary to Nature as also the difference of Pulses and Feavers from hence proceeds the palpitation of the Heart intermitting Pulses Convulsions Suffocations and sudden Death And it is commonly said that the Life is in the Blood nor does any thing hinder why we should not say that Death is in it too when it is corrupted or very sharp and corroding or unfit for motion and containing such like Bodies as lie hid in Venoms and Narcoticks The motion which is observed in the Hearts of Animals taken out of their Bodies as for Example that of a Viper which continues a long while does not disanul Circulation but only lets us see that Circulation is not the Cause of the Natural motion of the Heart and if you stretch it never so far it is only its condition which makes it continue and keeps the same in its Natural state Whatsoever we say concerning the Heart and its motions does not make up that Idea which we conceive in our mind nor does it satisfie the mind of the Reader who expects we should explain from whence this motion of the Heart while it is in its natural state proceeds and what is the Cause of its immoderate motions That I may therefore satisfie the Reader I Affirm the Natural Motion of the Heart to be in the motion of the Vital Spirits shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart where they are detained by little Membranes made firm by the interweaving of Fibres and of thin threads so that they cannot escape out since the Pores of these membranes have a Figure opposite to the Pores of those Spirits or Vital Atoms And seeing that Atoms enjoy an actual motion and which can no more be separated from their Essence than Intelligence from an Angel or separated Soul or the Inclination from the Will it follows that they are always in motion and by their motions by turns dilate the Heart This Doctrine supposes what has been said of Vital Spirits being as it were the internal Principles of Life and Motion as also of the essential and proper motion of Atoms and of Bodies compounded of Atoms but it is convenient that we remember that we have said that motion is Natural to Atoms and that God who hath created them essentially moveable preserves their motion and moveable Nature in the same action that he Created them Besides it may be convenient to remember that there are such a sort of Atoms which may be detained and constitute the parts of a Compound Body and others which are not Naturally such yet may be shut up such as those are which we have said are shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart of Living Creatures And these indeed are shut up by the decree of the Creator and the determination of the seminal covering The Comparison of an Angel and the Rational Soul seems to contribute much to the illustrating this Doctrine An Angel is a certain indivisible spiritual thing and an Intelligence free from Matter and the Rational Soul is no less a certain indivisible Spiritual thing endowed with Understanding and Will as an Angel yet they differ in this that theSoul is consined or as being a part of the Compound can be consined by a material Body whereas an Angel neither is nor can be confined which notwithstanding does not hinder but that it may be shut up into a Body as it were an assisting Form yet it hath not any respect to an internal and substantial Form. Besides I look upon an Angel and consider it under the notion of Atoms naturally free and the Rational Soul under the notion of those which are subject to confinement It is true that a Rational Soul going out of this Dungeon or Physical Prison by reason of the Corruption of the Body which permits it a free exit is
clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is
I have Discoursed Physically of the Causes of our Diseases in General it will not be amiss to trace òut the Particular Causes of them That this Doctrine which may be accounted new may the better be understood I suppose that we are never subject to any Disease but whose immediate Cause is either some Poison or Toxick 2ly This Poison consists only in emancipated Atoms and Toxicks in loosned Corpuscles 3ly These Atoms are not emancipated nor these sharp Corpuscles loosned but in the Corruption of Bodies 4ly Corruption is nothing but a Total or Partial Division and separation of Bodies 5ly There is no new Generation by which a new Body is made but by a precedent corruption or Division of another Body which ceases to be in Nature when one or more other Bodies possess the Room of it So when Meat in the Stomach is turned into Chyle when the Chyle in the Liver and the Branches of the Vena Porta is changed into Blood and lastly when the Blood is changed into our Substance as Flesh Muscles Nerves and other Parts of our Body by the last degree of Concoction there is necessarily a Corruption of the Meat which begins to be divided and separated by Chewing of it in the Mouth and it is digested and separated or Corrupted in the Ventricle Chyle to the end it may be turned into Blood is altered in the Branches of the Vena Porta and the Meseraick Veins and thence it is wholly and perfectly Digested that is Corrupted Concocted and Divided in the Liver unless that hath lost something of its own Substance The Blood designed for Flesh is filtred out of the Veins into the Arteries and Circulates until it be sufficiently purged and freed from Foreign Bodies and then it is changed into the Substance of our Body This Doctrine being supposed I say there are made in us Three Principle Corruptions which are the Concoctions or Digestions whereof we speak and I say moreover that there are Atoms in every one of them which are emancipated and loosed as likewise Corpuscles flying and deserting more or less as the Digestion is the better performed that is as the Pure is more rightly separated from the Impure Therefore it follows that we cannot be nourished unless we take together into our Bodies the Causes and Seeds of many Diseases It follows likewise that these Diseases are diverse according to the difference of the Corruptions of the emancipated Atoms or the loosed Corpuscles and that these Atoms are Poisons and the Corpuscles Toxicks which do produce Diseases by their violent Motion and they labour so with Reiterated Corruptions that they deprave separate and divide all the Parts of our Body Here we may behold the just Cause of the Pains of the Stomach and of the Wind Chollick and also of the Wind proceeding from the first Concoction of our Meat in the Stomach these winds are the Corpuscles or the more subtile Parts of that Corrupted Nourishment and when the more subtile and sharp Corpuscles are received into the Body they do proportionably to the Nourishment which is taken produce most troublesome and dangerous Pains and vellications such as we observe in the Chollick And if it should happen that amongst Corpuscles there should be abundance of emancipated Atoms they do ordinarily betake themselves to the Brain whence do arise Apoplexies and Lethargies or if they penetrate into the Muscles and Nerves they occasion the Palsie which ordinarily follows these bilious Chollicks This Indisposition degenerates the Disease into a Vomiting and Loosness when the Wind or the subtile Particles the loosed Corpuscles and the emancipated Atoms are so plentiful that all the Symmetry of the Humours the intercourse of the Natural Spirits and the whole Anatomy of the Body are overthrown by them whence it is conspicuous what great Confusions Winds Vapours and little Bodies and depraved Atoms are capable of producing in our Bodies And that I have concluded upon good Reasons That there is Poison to be found in all our Diseases whether we consider them in their Beginning when we perceive our selves grieved indisposed and to have lost our Appetite or that we take a view of them in their progress when those Winds those little Bodies or little Atoms are advanced in the Body and do work a Division or lastly if we consider the end when these Poisons and Toxicks and these Corpuscles being freed from their Chains and these emancipated Atoms bear the sway by the confusion of the Principal Operations they are the Cause of Death In the second Digestion which is in the Liver we find Winds and Vapours which are called Flatus's and sometimes those loose Corpuscles and also the emancipated Atoms these Winds do produce a murmur and Flatus about the Liver Spleen Hypocondria and the Reins and the Corpuscles which are lodged there do prick and exulcerate the inward â—â—rts and are the Causes of Imposthumes which are so hard to be Cured Besides the emancipated Atoms Flying do sometimes ascend up to the Head where they beget Vertigo's and Buzzing in the Ears and also Convulsions by their vellications in the principal of the Nerves Thence proceed Epilepsie and other Diseases which have the same malignity which in the Opinion of all Men being not a Quality is a Poison that is the Atoms of the Blood are emancipated which are a Poison to the Brain and especially to the Membranes and Nerves From the same Fountain proceed Shakings and the duplications of continuant Fevers as the Periodick Fits of intermittent Fevers do happen from loosed Corpuscles and Atoms which are emancipated in the first Digestion in the Stomach by reason of a Fermentation which they make These loosed Bodies are also the Causes of Swellings in the Feet Hands and other Parts as Inflammations Erysipela's as also Itch and sore Puscles do arise from Atoms which are emancipated in the last Digestion as for the Dropsie we may say that it derives its Original from Atoms which are emancipated in the first and second Concoction for they penetrate the substance of the Liver and render it unfit to produce a well constituted Blood. Sudden death is often occasioned by the sudden motion of the flying Atoms which escape in the circulation of the Blood and the emancipated Atoms opening the heart and by this passage giving an opportunity to the vital Spirits to make their escape is the cause of that present death which follows it CHAP. XVI Of the Causes of our Health IF that be true which I suppose That all our Diseases do not arise from Natural Qualities nor from Antipathy which is in the nourishment we take and that they are nothing else but a confusion and an inordinate constitution of the Spirits humours and parts and that this confusion doth proceed from the impetuous and disorderly motion of the Winds Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms as I said before Then it is certain that our health which consists only in the just intercourse of the Spirits and a proportionate
that my Remedy is infallible For truly I believe and not a few of the most eminent and ablest Physitians of the Faculty in Paris are of the same Opinion with me that there is not a Remedy which can be called infallible and made publick Of which thing in the occasion of the fermentation of humours I will a little more specially treat in my Philosophical Reflections which in a little time will see the Light. I only add this here that the Heat which follows the shakeing does proceed from an agitation of the Spirits stimulated by the violent motion and repeated stroke of the emancipated Atoms which are at last expelled through the Pores of the Body as the Rebellious Angels were thrown out of Heaven by the more powerful good Spirits CHAP. XIX Of the Circulation of the Blood. AS many as have delivered themselves from the prejudices of Antient Physick and Vulgar Philosophy have taught after Harvey That the blood in our Bodies is moved in a circular motion from the extream parts to the Centre and not from the Centre onely to the extream parts as was heretofore believed Gassendus does not disapprove this Opinion although he does not embrace it for Reasons alledged in a particular Treatise set forth by him I use his Reasons to establish it as being better founded in Reason and more agreeable to the disposition of the Veins and Arteries Let us see therefore how the Circulation of the Blood is made according to Harvey and the most Learned Physitians The Blood say they passeth into the Heart from the Vena Cava and Arteria Venosa by two Valves where they are ended and as often as the Heart dilates it self a drop of Blood falls into each of its Cavities and as often as the Heart contracts it self the Blood passeth into the Lungs from the right Cavity through the Vena Arteriosa and from the left Cavity into the Aorta so that the Blood is moved from the extream parts of the Body to its Centre into which it is carried by the Vena Cava where it exonerates it self in the Right Cavity from whence it passeth into the Vena Arteriosa and drives on the Blood which is contained in that through Anastomoses already discovered and through Pores less sensible into the Arteria Venosa And as much Blood as the Arteria Venosa hath received so much of it deposits into the left Cavity from whence passing into the Aorta it is carried into the extream parts of the Body through Branches which go to the Branches of the Vena Cava from hence the Blood being brought into the Trunk continuing its journey by the same way it returns to the Heart and by the same reason as I said it wonderfully and without intermission performs the Circulation This Circulation of the Blood relies upon some Experiments the first of which is taken from Blood-letting For Chyrurgeons when they Bleed a Vein tye the Arm above the Orifice and if they put their Finger upon the Vein on the other side of the Ligament the Blood is stopped immediately From whence it is apparent that it comes from the extremity of the Fingers to the Trunk and not from the Trunk to the extremity of the Fingers but by Circulation of which we are discoursing The Second Experiment is made if a Vein be tyed in a part of the Body separated from the Artery for it will be emptied on that side towards the Trunk and it will be swelled on the other side on that side that is to say from whence the Blood according to this Opinion ought to proceed There is nothing therefore so certain as this Circular motion of the Blood and its passage into the Heart but here are three things to be observed First that the motion of the Heart does not depend upon this Circulation of the Blood although it conduce to its conservation and inordinate motion as this Circulation is made more or less hastily and as the Blood is more or less temperate in the disposition of its particles and in its saline serosities which serve for a vehicle to it and render it more fluid Secondly that the Circulation of the Blood as the Moderns indeed will have it may be performed three times in an hour yet so that all the Blood does not enter into the Cavities or Ventricles of the Heart as not once every hour but either sooner or later according to the greater or lesser quantity or greater or lesser subtilty or mobility of the Blood. Thirdly I say that the Blood in some cases cannot pass out of the Arteries into the Veins through the extremities that is when the extremities are cut off in which Case it goes on another way through insensible Pores which they call Transpiration or Transudation CHAP. XX. Of the Inward Senses and the Inferiour Appetite BEsides the exteriour Senses of which we have spoken there are also found to be in Man interiour Senses to wit the Imagination common Sense and Sensitive Memory The first forms a lasting Image of Objects The Second judgeth of the agreeableness or disagreeableness of them The third retains and preserves these Images or Ideas which is manifest in Dogs who represent to themselves persons absent and distinguish both between the good and the evil that hath befallen them witnessing that they remember the thing by running away if they have an opportunity or by Fawnings Appetite follows the interiour Senses and is common to all Animals and which is performed by the weight of Atoms whereby it comes to pass that an Animal hath a propensity and is driven to seek for that with which it is delighted and to abstain from that which might bring trouble So that Delight and Pain are the two great importances of the Life of an Animal Pleasure according to the Opinion of Epicurus depends upon Corpuscles which have a soft round and agreeable Figure especially to the Brain as to which the Object is represented by the imagination and from which it is carried by the Senses Pain on the contrary and both of them are performed by those Corpuscles whether they come to or go from or continue In Morals we will speak concerning these Passions as the two Scales of sensitive actions in the mean time I may here say that the interiour Senses receive these Corpuscles which bring pleasure or pain by the ministery of the exteriour Senses from whence it comes that those that Sleep or are Lethargick or Apoplectick feel nothing though they are pricked For the Brain is filled with strange Humours which hinder the motion of the aforesaid Corpuscles or else that motion is stopped by Vapours brought from the lower parts to the Brain which happens to those that are asleep CHAP. XXI Of Sleep Wakefulness and Death SLEEP is the Image of Death for all the Senses are at rest nor is there any motion left but that of the Heart Lungs and Arteries this Rest proceeds from Vapours arising out of the Stomach which by their
more violent because they are less subtile and less penetrating and whose Atoms are not so apt to rarifie the Humours and to draw them to the extream parts of the Body with so much facility and with so little danger as that doth which we spoke of before CHAP. XII Of Poisons and Toxicks THere are several sorts of Poisons and Toxicks some whereof do come at us with an infected air others are communicated to us from Animals or some Nutriment It is not my purpose in this place to shew all the differences of them It answers my purpose to reduce them to Five from the occasion of those things which I ought to speak of about the Antipathy that is betwixt Poisons and our Bodies Therefore I chuse three kinds of Poisons or Toxicks and I shall endeavour to explain the manner how they act upon our Bodies with the assistance of that fictitious Antipathy the Refuge of Ignorance The first is the Poison of the Heart because it immediately assails this Part such is the Poison of a Viper or the Plague the breathing of the infectious air draws and conveys the Plague to the Heart since we cannot say that the Air is carried into the Heart by a contrary quality whence therefore doth this arise from Antipathy or Repugnancy And after what manner doth the air which gives life to the Heart and matter to the vital Spirits bring death to it which sometimes invades it upon a sudden when the Poison of the Plague is Violent but ordinarily a Man doth not dye so suddenly and the Poison only by the motion of the Heart disperses it self thro' the Veins and corrupts the whole Mass of Blood and Bubo's and Pustules arising are the marks of it But when the Poison goes out by suppuration the person infected is sooner cured It is very hard to say what Poison is for if we say it is a contrary Quality or Air corrupted we talk foolishly we must know wherein that Corruption doth consist if it be corrupted it is no longer Air or if Air be a corruption it is a Quality so that still there remains the same difficulty Therefore to use no circumlocution we say that deadly Poison essentially is nothing but certain Atoms or Corpuscles which are very acute and crooked figured like little piercers or small Nails which penetrates cuts and divides the vital parts and by this motion interrupts the motion of those Spirits which give life And that I may explain my Opinion right upon this Subject I mention those things concerning Poisons and Atoms which as far as I know have not hitherto been mentioned by any Body which is That Poison is nothing else but certain loose and emancipated Atoms for many of such Atoms being loosed and separated from the Body we call Poison As to that we are to observe that being compounded in that manner which we are our conservation doth consist in the composition and as long as that lasts we live and so our destruction doth proceed from the division and dissolution of our Bodies so that Corruption is nothing but a solution of the Body This solution doth not happen but from emancipated Atoms who by their incomprehensible subtilty do find an intermediant space in the most solid Bodies and if these be not speedily driven out and dissipated or are repelled by certain aiding Corpuscles they will occasion Diseases Griefs and lastly Death Therefore Poison is not a pestiferous quality nor is it the Antipathy of the air or of any thing whereby they persecute our Temperament nor is it corrupted Air but they are hard Atoms which are set at liberty and emancipated whence it does appear how the Plague may be brought to us from places remote within a short space of time and how it may lye hid along while amongst Cloaths in Chests also the Reason is obvious why Bleeding and Purgation are not necessary in the Curing of the Plague and why only Cordials and Sudorificks are convenient in a Contagion The same thing may be said of the Poison of Vipers which is nothing else but some Atoms divided and separated from the whole which entring that part which is Bit by the Viper do creep presently through the whole Body and divide separate and cut it and at last dissolve and confound it It is therefare incredible that that Poison should proceed from a Great Cold because there are Bodies which are much colder which yet are not Poison besides that cold doth not so readily nor from so small a beginning destroy the whole Natural constitution of Man's Body Therefore I take that to be which wholy destroys us is to dissolve our Body and that nothing can dissolve it but free'd and emancipated Atoms whence Distempers do derive their Original and Death the consequence of it I say it follows that it is impossible but that there is Poison in all our Diseases and that we cannot enjoy a full and perfect Health as long as we have in us the least Atom of that kind which I say are emancipated these are so many Enemies which we cherish in our Bosome being the Principles of Division Dissolution and Death But some will ask whence come these emancipated Atoms who emancipates them and after what manner are they found in the Vesicle which is broke where the Viper Bites or in the Spittle which enters our Flesh by the Biting of this Creature I answer That they are Atoms not firmly complicated which get abroad or they proceed from some dead Body which is dissolved into its first principles as it happens with the Plague some of them get loose like Servants who wanting a Master do seek to be busied and employed in some business and as long as they stick to no body they may be called desolate and depraved Atoms which are continually moved drive others and dissolve them by their reiterated concussions so a little Poyson doth suddenly extend and disperse it self through the whole Body because these Atoms by their emancipation being made Venomous and Pestiferous to Emancipate others and confound the whole Body and in this sense it 's most true what the Physiicans say that the corrupt Humours of the Body do degenerate into Poison because these moist parts of our Body are more apt to break and divide than the solid parts of it they are also the first which begin to be corrupted and divided I know not by what instinct of Nature we commonly say when we apprehend any Distemper that we are ill Composed and of a Body that is Crazy and full of Humours that is wholly ill Disposed because in truth the emancipated Atoms do disturb it and hinder the Union and Composition of its Parts wherein the state of perfect Health doth consist Some will say that I have handled this Matter after a strange and odd kind of Method but if Truth and Reason confirm my Explication as I hope it does they have nothing to say against me but I speak those things which were
the Eyes are of that Figure that they cannot be placed elsewhere without a violent concussion of these mutually self impelling Atoms and these concussions are sometimes the cause why when the Women are hurt the Child is not at all formed and that by reason of the sole inordinate motion of one Corpuscle which either does not or being hindred by others which cause this motion cannot find a place due to its Figure It is plain therefore that seminal Corpuscles have the Figure of that part from whence they are derived and the whole humane Body is no otherwise shut up in a small part of Matter than an whole Oak in an Acorn and an Apple in a Kernel The example brought by me above concerning the divers kinds of Salt dissolved in water which in evaporating part asunder from each other and each possesseth his place not without a difference of Figures will give some light to this my Doctrine CHAP. V. Of Nutrition which Plants and Brute Beasts have common with Man. NUtrition is a vital action and so proper to Living Creatures that as there is nothing nourished that is not Living so there is no Living thing that is not nourished All the difficulty lies in the manner of Nutrition for no Man doubts but Animals and Plants at the beginning of their existence are nourished and grow which could not be without the addition of new Matter which is changed into the substance of the thing Living This addition of Matter takes in its attraction preparation digestion and its distribution through all the Parts of the Body nourished These opperations appear in Plants wherein it is amiss to attribute that to Nutritive Attractive Digestive and Distributive Qualities which may be explicated by the motion of the Atoms or seminal Corpuscles contained in the Seed But because Nutrition is much more conspicuous in Living Creatures and especially in Man it will be necessary to explain the Reason how that is performed in him in the first State after Conception and afterwards when the Organs are formed For there is need of Aliment that the Organs which are just formed and tenderer then to be sufficient to undergo their Operations may grow and be encreased So that at the very moment he begins to live there is a necessity that he should be nourished CHAP. VI. How and with what Aliment an Embryo is nourished 'till the time of his Birth THe first thing that is done after the laying together of the parts of the Embryo and the disposition of its Organs is the infusion of the Rational Soul which God in one and the same moment Creates and gives to this little Body as its Lodging Forty or sometimes more days after its Conception what is done before the infusion of this Soul to speak properly is nothing else but a disposition of the Organs to receive it This admirable Structure begins from the Heart Head Bones and other particular Fundamentals and when it is already compleated and the Soul infused the seminal Atoms Presidents of the formation of the Body persevere in performing their works taking as Companions of their Office these Particles of the Mothers Blood which may serve to nourish the Infant being sensibly solicitous for its increase 'till the time of its Nativity Yet nevertheless it is very difficult throughly to declare the true Reason of the Nutrition and Life of the Infant for seven or eight Months together Gassendus recounts three Opinions of the Antients concerning this thing the first is of Alcmaeon in Plutarch affirming the Infant to be nourished by all parts of the Body drawing in by the help of the Pores a necessary Aliment The second Opinion is by the same Plutarch attributed to Democritus this Philosopher teaches that the Infant is nourished in the Mothers Womb in the same manner as it is nourished when born to wit by the Mouth and this is the Cause he says why the newly born seek the Breast with open Mouth The third is Aristotle's Galen's and many others who conclude that the Infant takes no nourishment in the Womb but by the Umbilical Veins which taking their Original from the bottom of the Matrix insinuate themselves into the middle of the Abdomen or Belly where being collected into one Trunk they lead on the Mothers Blood into the hollow part of the Liver where part of it is carried into a Branch of Vena-Cava and part into a Branch of the Vena-Porta and the two Arteries which accompany the Umbilical Veins having passed the Liver each of them apart go to the two Branches of the Aorta or great Artery and carry the Arterial Blood which they bring thither that it may all be distributed through the whole Body of the Infant and changed into a substance fit for its Nutrition This Opinion is confirmed by the refutation of the two former For the first is false For if the Infant was like a Sponge it would not be nourished but swelled by the Water or serous humour in which it swims and which is contained in the Amnion The second Opinion is not probable For the Infants head is placed betwixt both knees nor can it suck the Caruncles which are covered with a Skin as is supposed unless at one and the same time it should attract the water wherein it lies hid or penetrate the Membrane in which it is involved The third Opinion standing firm which I believe rests upon a better foundation nor does the Infants Stomach generate Chyle nor its Liver Blood the Mothers Blood subministring all those things And from hence it is that a Woman with Child communicates to the fruit of her Womb the purity or impurity of her Blood her good or ill nourishment as also her Health and Diseases and these Diseases are hereditary not but that there are some which proceed from the Fathers whose impure Blood licentious living ill nourishment and frequent excesses afford matter to these evils Besides we may say that the Infant in the Mothers Womb does neither live nor breath but by the Mouth Heart and Lungs of the Mother from whence it comes to pass that the Infant for the most part follows the Mothers affections and inclinations and seeing that in the state wherein it is in the Womb it is tyed to its Mother in so strict a bond of Union it is impossible that she alone should be feaverish nor that the big-bellied Woman should dye the Child remaining alive and healthful CHAP. VII How Man is Nourished after he is Born. AMan Born hath need of Nourishment now nothing can nourish him which hath not some Spirit of Life So Roots Plants Corn Pulse Flesh serve to the nourishing of a Man and all this business is performed by the benefit of Atoms and vital Corpuscles passing from one Compound Body to another This Nutrition is necessary to encrease the substance of the born Infant and so there is need of a new Compound Body to serve it for Aliment And this Compound Body must of