whence at length he was stol'n And though I remember the famous Emperick Fiorouanti in one of his Italian Books mentions his having been prevail'd with by the importunity of a Lady whom he calls Marulla Greca much afflicted with Splenetick distempers to rid her of her Spleen and addes That she out-liv'd the loss of it divers Years Yet he that considers the situation of that part and the considerableness of the Vessels belonging to it in humane Bodies will probably be apt to think that though his relation may be credited his venturousness ought not to be imitated The Experiment also of detaining Frogs under Water for very many hours sometimes amounting to some days without suffocation may to him that knows that Frogs have Lungs and Breath as well as other Terrestrial Animals appear a considerable discovery in order to the determining the Nature of Respiration Besides the scrupulousness of the Parents or Friends of the deceased Persons deprives us oftentimes of the Opportunities of Anatomizing the Bodies of Men and much more those of Women whereas those of Beasts are almost always and every where to be met with And 't was perhaps upon some such account that Aristotle said that the external parts of the Body were best known in Men the internal in Beasts Sunâ— enim says he speaking of the inward parts hominum imprimis incertae atque incognitae quamobrem ad caeterorum animalium partes quarum similes sunt humanae referentes eas contemplari debemus And questionless in many of them the frame of the parts is so like that of those answerable in Men that he that is but moderately skill'd in Andratomy as some of the Moderns call the Dissection of Mans Body to distinguish it from Zootomy as they name the Dissections of the Bodies of other Animals may with due diligence and industry not despicably improve his Anatomical knowledge In confirmation of which truth give me leave to observe to you That though Galen hath left to us so many and by Physitians so much magnified Anatomical Treatises yet not onely divers of those Modern Physitians that would eclipse his Glory deny him to have learn'd the skill he pretends to out of the inspection of the Dissected Bodies of Men or Women or so much as to ever have seen a humane Anatomy But I finde even among his Admirers Physitians that acknowledge that his Knives were much more conversant with the Bodies of Apes and other Bruits then with those of Men which in his time those Authors say 't was thought little less then Irreligious if not Barbarous to mangle which is the less to be wondred at because even in this our Age that great People of the Muscovites though a Christian and European Nation hath deny'd Physitians the use of Anatomy and Skeletons the former as an inhumane thing the latter as fit for little but Witchcraft as we are inform'd by the applauded Writer Olearius Secretary to the Embassy lately send by that Learned Prince the present Duke of Holsteine into Moscovia and Persia. And of this the same Author gives us the instance of one Quirin an excellent German Chyrurgion who for having been found with a Skeleton had much adoe to scape with his Life and was commanded to go out of the Kingdom leaving behinde him his Skeleton which was also dragg'd about and afterwards burnt To these things we may adde Pyrophilus that the diligence of Zootomists may much contribute to illustrate the Doctrine of Andratomy and both inform Physitians of the true use of the parts of a humane Body and help to decide divers Anatomical Controversies For as in general 't is scarce possible to learn the true Nature of any Creature from the consideration of the single Creature it self so particularly of divers parts of humane Body 't is very difficult to learn the true use without consulting the Bodies of other Animals wherein the part inquired after is by Nature either wholly left out as needless or wherein its differing bigness or situation or figure or connection with and relation to other parts may render its use more conspicuous or at least more discernable Thâ—s Truth may be somewhat illustrated by the following Observations which at present offer themselves to my thoughts upon this occasion The Lungs of Vipers and other Creatures whole Hearts and whose Blood even whil'st it circulates we have always found as to sense actually cold may give us just occasion to inquire a little more warily whether the great use of Respiration be to cool the Heart The suddain falling and continuing together which we may observe in that part at least of a Dogs Lungs that is on the same side with the Wound upon making a large Wound in his Chest though the Lungs remain untouched is a considerable Experiment in order to the discovery of the principal Organ of Respiration If you dexterously take out the Hearts of Vipers and of some smaller Fishes whose coldness makes them beat much more unfrequently and leisurely then those of warm Animals the contraction and relaxation of the Fibres of the Heart may be distinctly observed in order to the deciding or reconciling the Controversie about the cause and manner of the Hearts motion betwixt those Learned modern Anatomists that contend some of them for Dr. Harvey's Opinion and others for that of the Cartesians Towards satisfying my self in which difficulty I remember I have sometimes taken the Heart of a Flownder and having cut it transversly into two parts and press'd out and with a Linnen cloth wip'd off the Blood contain'd in each of them I observ'd that for a considerable space of time the sever'd and bloodless parts held on their former contraction and relaxation And once I remember that I observed not without Wonder That the sever'd portions of a Flownders Heart did not onely after their Blood was drain'd move as before but the whole Heart observ'd for a pretty while such a succession of motion in its divided and exsanguious pieces as I had taken notice of in them whil'st they were coherent and as you may with pleasure both see and feel in the intire Heart of the same Fish Some of the other Controversies agitated among Anatomists and Philosophers concerning the use of the Heart and concerning the principal seat of Life and Sense may also receive light from some such Experiments that we made in the Bodies of Bruits as we could not of Men. And the first of these that we shall mention shall be an Experiment that we remember our selves formerly to have made upon Frogs For having open'd one of them alive and carefully cut out his Heart without closing up the Orifice of the Wound which we had made wider then was necessary the Frog notwithstanding leaped up and down the Room as before dragging his Entrals that hung out after him and when he rested would upon a puncture leap again and being put into the Water would swim whil'st I felt his Heart beating betwixt my
have been deservedly stiled The New World And that whereas the Common Account makes the circuit of this Terrestrial Globe to be no lesse then 22600 Italian miles consisting each of 1000 Geometrical Paces which number the more recent account of the accurate Gassendus makes amount to 26255 Miles of the same measure whereas I say this Globe of Earth and Water seems to us so vast Astronomers teach us that it is but a Point in comparison of the Immensity of Heaven which they not irrationally prove by the Parallaxis or Circular difference betwixt the place of a Star suppos'd to be taken by two Observations the one made at the Centre and the other on the surface of the Earth which Gassendus confesseth to be undiscernable in the fixt Stars as if the Terrestrial Globe were so meer a Point that it were not material whether a fixt Star be look'd upon from the Centre or from the surface of the Earth This may lessen our wonder at the Ptolomaeans making the Sun which seems not half a Foot over to be above a hundred sixty and six times bigger then the Earth and distant from it One thousand one hundred sixty and five Semi-Diameters of the Earth each of which contains according to the afore-mentioned computation of Gassendus 4177 Miles and at their supposing the fixt Stars whose distance the same Author as a Ptolomaean supput's to be 19000 Semi-Diameters of the Earth so great that they conclude each of the fixt or smallest Magnitude to be no less then 18 times greater then the whole Earth each Star of the First or Chief Magnitude to exceed the Tâ—rrestrial Globe 108 times And as for the Coperricans that growing Sext of Astronomers they as their Hypothesis requires suppose the vastness of the Firmament to be exceedingly greater then the Ancients believed it For Philippus Lansbergius who ventur'd to assign Distances and Dimensions to the Planets and Fixt Stars which Copernicus forbore to do supposes as well as his Master that the Great Orb it self as the Copernicans call that in which they esteem the Earth to move about the Sun though its Semi-Diameter be suppos'd to be 1500 times as great as that of the Earth is but as a Point in comparison of the Firmament or Sphere of the Fixt Stars which he supposes to be distant from the Earth no less then 28000 Semi-Diameters of the Great Orb that is 42000000 of Semi-diameters of the Earth or according to the former Computation of common Miles 175434000000 which is a Distance vastly exceeding that which the Ptolomaeans venâ—ur'd to assign and such as even imagination it self can hardly reach to I confess indeed that I am not so well satisfied with the exactness nor perhaps with the Grounds of these kinde of Computations by reason of the Difficulty I have met with in making exact Celestial Observations with either Telescopes or other Instruments sufficiently witness'd by the great disparity remarkable betwixt the Computations of the best-Artists themselves But on the other side I am not sure but that even the Copernicans ascribe not too great a distance to some of the Fixt Stars since for ought we yet know those of the sixth Magnitude and those which our Telescopes discover though our bare Eyes cannot are not really less then those of the first Magnitude but onely appear so by reason of their greater Distance from our Eyes as some Fixt Stars seem no bigger then Venus and Mercury which are much lesser then the Earth And therefore upon such Considerations and because the modestest Computation allows the Firmament to be great enough to make the Earth but a Point in comparison of it it will be safe enough as well as just to conclude with the Psalmist Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable The next Attribute of God that shines forth in his Creatures is his Wisdom which to an intelligent Considerer appears very manifestly express'd in the World whether you contemplate it as an Aggregate or System of all Natural Bodies or consider the Creatures it is made up of both in their particular and distinct Natures and in Relation to each other and the Universe which they constitute In some of these the Wisdom of God is so conspicuous and written in such large Characters that it is legible even to a vulgar Reader But in many others the Lineaments and Traces of it are so delicate and slender or so wrapt up and cover'd with Corporeity that it requires an attentive and intelligent Peruser So numberless a multitude and so great a variety of Birds Beasts Fishes Reptiles Herbs Shrubs Trees Stones Metals Minerals Stars c. and every one of them plentifully furnish'd and endow'd with all the Qualifications requisite to the Attainment of the respective Ends of its Creation are productions of a Wisdom too limitless not to be peculiar to God To insist on any one of them in particular besides that it would too much swell this Discourse might appear injurious to the rest which do all of them deserve that extensive Exclamation of the Psalmist How manifold are thy works O Lord in Wisdom hast thou made them all And therefore I shall content my self to observe in general That as highly as some Naturalists are pleased to value their own knowledge it can at best attain but to understand and applaud not emulate the Productions of God For as a Novice when the curiosest Watch the rarest Artist can make is taken in pieces and set before him may easily enough discern the Workmanship and Contrivance of it to be excellent but had he not been shown it could never have of himself devised so skilful and rare a piece of Work So for instance an Anatomist though when by many and dexterous Dissections of humane Bodies and by the help of Mechanical Principles and Rules without a competent skill wherein a Man can scarce be an Accomplish'd and Philosophical Anatomist he has learn'd the Structure Use and Harmony of the parts of the Body he is able to discern that matchless Engine to be admirably contriv'd in order to the exercise of all the Motions and Functions whereto it was design'd And yet this Artist had he never contemplated a humane Body could never have imagin'd or devis'd an Engine of no greater Bulk any thing near so fitted to perform all that variety of Actions we daily see perform'd either in or by a humane Body Thus the Circular motion of the Blood and structure of the Valves of the Heart and Veins The consideration whereof as himself told me first hinted the Circulation to our Famous Harvey though now Modern Experiments have for the main the Modus seeming not yet so fully explicated convinc'd us of them we acknowledge them to be very expedient and can admire Gods Wisdom in contriving them Yet those many Learned Anatomists that have for many succeeding Ages preceded both Dr Harvey and Columbus Caesalpinus Padre Paulo and Mr Warner
had to engage them to Acts of Religion And next since divers of the same Passages wherein they had set down their Opinions contain'd also the Grounds and Reasons of them whereby they have anticipated much of what we should say upon the same subjects I was unwilling to deprive you of their pertinent Ratiocinations or rob them of the Glory of what they had well Written And this necessary Apology premis'd let us proceed to consider his Passages and first Restat says he ut summatim de Causae disseramus quae cunctarum ipsa rerum vim habet tutricem continentem quemadmodum caetera perstrinximus Flagitii enim instar esset cum de mundo dicere instituerim tractatu si minus exquisito fortasse at certe qui sat esse possit ad formulam doctrinae crassiorem intactam praecipuam mundi partem principemque praeterire And a little after Etenim says he cunctarum quae rerum natura complectitur cum servator est Deus tum vero quaecunque in hoc mundo quoquomodo perficiuntur eorum omnium idem est Genitor Non sic tamen ipse ut opificis in morem animalisque lassitudinem sentientis labore affici possit ut qui ea facultate utatur quae nulli cedat difficultati cujus ipse vi facultatis omnia in potestate continet nec minus etiam quae longius ab ipso videntur esse summoâ—a To which purpose he elsewhere says Augustius decentiusque existimandum est Deum summo in loco it a esse collocatum Numinis ut tamen ejus vis per universum mundum pertingens tum Solem Lunamque moveat tum Coelum omne circumagat simulque causam praebeat eorum quae in Terra sunt salutis atque incolumitatis And in the same Book he adds Ut vero suÌ„matim loquamur quod in navi Gubernator est quod in Curru agitator quod in Choro praecentor quod denique lex in Civitate dux in exerctiu hoc Deus est in muÌ„do Nisi si hactenus interest quod labor motus multiplex illos exercet curae angunt variae cum huic illaborata succedunt oÌ„nia omnis molestiae expertia And certainly he that is a stranger to Anatomy shall never be able to discern in the circulation of the blood the motion of the Chyle and the contrivance of all the parts of a humane Body those Proofs as well as Effects of an Omniscient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Artist which a curious Anatomist will discover in that elaborate and matchless Engine as I remember I had occasion not long since to take notice of in the shape of that strange Muscle the obturator internus which some call from its Figure Marsupialis serving to the motion of the Thigh For this Muscle seems so made as if Nature had design'd in it to manifest That she is skill'd in the Mechanicks not onely as a Mathematician that understands the powers of Distance Weight Proportion Motion and Figure but as an Artificer or Handy-crafts man who knows by dextrous Contrivances to furnish the more endanger'd parts of his Work with what is more useful to make it lasting There being to omit other Observables belonging to that Muscle a deep notch made in the Coxendix to shorten the way betwixt the two extremities of the Muscle and make it bear upon the Bone with a blunter Angle And because the Tendon is long lest notwithstanding the former provision it should be apt to fret out upon the edge of the Bone Nature has provided for it a Musculous piece of Flesh wherein it is as it were sheath'd that so it might not immediately bear and grate upon the Bone just as our Artificers use to sow Cases of Leather upon those parts of silken Strings which being to grate upon harder Bodies were otherwise endangered to be fretted out by Attrition And a like skilfulness of Nature in the Mechanical Contrivance of the Parts is more obviously discernable in the Structure of that admirable Engine by which such variety of other Engines are made the Hand where not to mention the Ligamentum latum or Wrist-band that keeps the Tendons that move under it from inconveniently starting up upon the Contraction of the respective Muscles the wonderful perforations that are made through the Tendons of the Musculi per forat by those of the Musculi perforantes for the more commodious motion of the Joynts of the Fingers may conspicuously manifest the Mechanical Dexterity of Nature as it may her Husbanding if I may so speak of her Work That in a Fâ—â—tus whil'st it lies in the Womb because the Lungs are not to be display'd as afterwards and so the Blood needs not circulate thorow Them from the right Ventricle of the Heart into the left for the use of Respiration as it must in grown Animals she contrives a nearer way and by certain short Pipes peculiar to such young Creatures she more commodiously performs in them the Circulation of the Blood proportion'd to their present condition and afterwards when the Animal is brought out of the Womb into the open Air and put upon the constant exercise of his Lungs these temporary Conduit-pipes little by little vanish So careful is Nature not to do things in vain And therefore I do not much wonder that Galen though I remember he somewhere unprovokedly and causelesly enough derides Moses and seems not over much inclin'd to make Religious acknowledgements yet when he comes to consider particularly the exquisite Structure of a humane Body should break forth into very elevated and even pathetical Celebrations of God and tell us That in his Books De usu Partium he compos'd Hymns to the Creators praise And certainly he that shall see a skilful Anatomist dextrously dissect that admirable part of Man the Eye and shall consider the curious Contrivance of the several Coats Humors and other Parts it consists of with all their adaptations and uses would be easily perswaded That a good Anatomist has much stronger Invitations to believe and admire an Omniscient Author of Nature then he that never saw a Dissection especially if he should see how all of these concur to make up one Optical Instrument to convey the Species of the visible object to the Optick Nerve and so to the Brain as I have with pleasure consider'd it in the recent Eye of a Cat for with keeping it will grow flaccid cut cleanly off where the Optick Nerve enters the Sclerotis and is going to expand it self into the Retina for holding this Eye at a convenient distance betwixt yours and a Candle you may see the Image of a Flame lively exprest upon that part of the back side of the Eye at which the Optick Nerve enters the above-mention'd Sclerotis Some thing of this kinde we have also shown our Friends with the eyes of dead Men carefully sever'd from their heads and with the dexterously taken out Christalline humor of a Humane Eye we
intervallo eorum plura in manu mea deponeret An vero Prolifica sint futura nondum comperi Their Opinion that ascribe the redness of the Blood to the colour of the Liver through which it passes is not discountenanced by the Livers of Men But in Hen-eggs about the third or fourth day after incubation for we have found the circumstances of time much to vary you may observe the Punctum saliens or Heart to be ever and anon full of conspicuously red Blood before the naked Eyes can so much as discern a Liver at least before they can discover in it any redness a yellowness being all I could observe in the Parenchyma of the Livers of divers Chickens perfectly form'd and furnishâ—d with Feathers though not great enough to make their way out of the Shell And in divers great Fishes I have found the Vessels of the Liver full of very red Blood though the Parenchyma or substance of it were white or at least did not at all participate much less impart a sanguine colour The Doctrine so unanimously delivered by Physitians and Chirurgions concerning the irreparable loss of the Limb of an Animal once violently severed from the Body will appear unfit to be admitted without some restriction by what may be experienc'd in Lizards in Lobsters and Craw-fishes and perhaps in some other living Creatures For of Lizards it hath been often observ'd in hot Countreys and even in France that their Tails being struck off will grow again And the like hath been of old observ'd by Pliny and the experienc'd Bontius delivers it upon his own knowledge in these words Hoc in domesticis meis non semel animadverti dum filioli mei lusitabundi bacillo caudas iis decutiebant quas tamen post diem unum aut alterum ad solitum pabulum revertentes vidi caudasque iis paulatim reaccrescere That the Claws likewise of Lobsters being torn off another will sometimes grow in the room of it is not onely said by Fisher-men but hath been affirmed to me by very credible persons one of which assured me that he himself had observed it very often And I am the more apt to believe it because the like is to be met with among Craw-fishes which are so like Lobsters that by many they are taken though not considerately enough to be but a smaller kinde of them For I remember that going to look upon a Repository where a multitude of them was kept and causing divers of the fairest to be drawn up that I might take the stony concretions commonly called Oculi Cancrorum out of their Heads I observ'd one large Fish that had one of his Claws proportionable to the bulk of his Body but the other so short and little that the greater seem'd to be four or five times as big as it whereupon its good shape and fresh colour seeming to argue it to be but yong and growing invited me to ask one of them that had the oversight of the Fish whether he had formerly seen any Claws torn off to grow again he affirmed to me That in that sort of Fish it was very usual I could also tell you how fruitlesly I have indeavored to discover that stomachical Acidity to which many of our Modern Physitians are pleas'd to ascribe the first digestion of the Nutriment of Animals in the purposely dissected Stomachs of ravenous Sea-fishes in whose Stomachs though our taste could not perceive any sensible acidity yet we found in one of them a couple of Fishes each of them about a Foot long whereof the one which seem'd to have been but newly devoured hath suffered little or no alteration in the great Fishes Stomach but the other had all its outside save the Head uniformly wasted to a pretty depth beneath the former surface of the Body and look'd as if it had been not boil'd or wrought upon by any considerable heat but uniformly corroded like a piece of Silver Coyn kept a while in Aqua-fortis according to the criminal tricks of Adulterators of Money Yet I am loth till I have perfected what I design in order to that enquiry either to imbrace or reject the Opinion I finde so general among the Moderns concerning the Solution of Meat in the Stomach by something of Acid. And I remember that when I was considering what might be alleadg'd for as well as against that Opinion I devis'd this Experiment among others in favor of it I provided a Liquor with which I drench'd a piece of the Wing of a rosted Pullet havâ—ng first well crushed it between my Fingers to make some amends for the omission of chewing it and having a little incorporated the Liquor and the musculous Flesh they immediately chang'd colour and in about an hour grew to be a kinde of Gelly in colour and consistence not unlike Quince Marmalade This mixture by the next Mornâ—ng did as I expected turn to a deep Blood red or sometimes rather a lovely purple Liquor though all this while there had been no external heat imployed to promote the action of the Menstruum And the like Experiment I tryed also with a piece of Mutton with Bread and a piece of Veal and other edible things which at that time occur'd to me and found the operation of the Liquor almost uniform though it seem'd to act most effectually upon Flesh. And to gratifie in some measure your curiosity Pyrophilus I am content to tell you that the Menstruum was drawn from Vitriol and that with the bare Oyl of it I have though I could not with Aqua fortis perform'd no less then what I have yet mention'd but least this should be thought a digression let it suffice to have on this occasion mention'd thus much upon the by To what we lately took notice of concerning the Heart may be added That on the Sea-coast of Ireland I observ'd a sort of Fishes about the bigness of Mackrels whose Hearts were of an inverted Figure compar'd to those of other Animals the basis or broad end of the Heart being nearest the Tail and the accuminated part or apex being coherent to the great Artery and respecting the Head To all these trifling Observations divers more considerable ones might be added but they may be more seasonably insisted on elsewhere and those already mention'd may suffice to let you see That the Naturalist by his Zootomy may be very serviceable to the Physitian in his Anatomical Inquiries Nor is it onely by the dissection of various Animals that the Naturalist may promote the Anatomists knowledge but perhaps also he may do it by devising ways to make the dead Bodies of Men and other Animals keep longer then naturally they would do For since experience teaches us That Men finde it very easie to forget the originations windings branchings insertions and other circumstances of particular Vessels and other parts of the Body as well as those that study Botanicks are wont to complain of their easie forgetting the shapes differences and alterations of
those things as they are discoverable out of mans body may well be suppos'd capable of illustrating many things in man's body which receiving some Modifications there from the nature of the Subject they belong to passe under the notion of the Causes or Symptomes of Diseases If I were now Pyrophilus to discourse to you at large of this Subject I think I could convince you of the truth of what I have proposed And certainly unlesse a Physitian be which yet I fear every one is not so much a Naturalist as to know how Heat and Cold and Fluidity and Compactnesse and Fermentation and Putrefaction and Viscosity and Coagulation and Dissolution and such like Qualities are generated and destroyed in the generality of Bodies he will be often very much to seek when he is to investigate the causes of preternaturall Accidents in men's bodies whereof a great many depend upon the Presence or Change or Vanishing of some or other of the enumerated Qualities in some of the Fluid or Solid Substances that constitute the body And that the Explications of a skilfull Naturalist may adde much to what has hitherto commonly been taught concerning the Nature and Origine of those Qualities in Phisitians Schools a little comparing of the vulgar Doctrine with those various Phaenomena to be met with among Naturall things that ought to be and yet seem not to be explicable by it will easily manifest to you And questionlesse 't is a great advantage to have been taught by variety of Experiments in other bodies the Differing waies whereby Nature sometimes produces the same effects For since we know very little à priori the observation of many such effects manifesting that nature doth actually produce them so and so suggests to us severall wayes of explicating the same Phaenomenon some of which we should perhaps never else have dream'd of Which ought to be esteem'd no small Advantage to the Physitian since he that knows but one or few of Natures wayes of working and consequently is likely to ignore divers of those whereby the propos'd Disease or Symptome of it may be produc'd must sometimes conclude that precisely such or such a thing is the determinate Cause of it and apply his Method of relieving his Patient accordingly which often proves very prejudiciall to the poor Patient who dearly paies for his Physitians not knowing That the Quality that occasions the Distemper may be as probably if not more rationally deduc'd from an other Origine then from that which is presum'd This will scarce be doubted by him that knowes how much more likely Explications then those applauded some ages since of divers things that happen as well within as without the body have been given by later Naturalists both Philosophers and Physitians and how much the Theory of the Stone and many other diseases that has been given us by those many Physitians that would needs deduce all the Phaenomena of diseases from Heat Cold and other Elementary Qualities is Inferiour to the Account given us of them by those ingenious Moderns that have apply'd to the advancement of Pathologie that Circulation of the Blood the Motion of the Chile by the Milky vessels to the Heart the consideration of the effects deducible from the Pores of greater bodies and the motion and figuration of their minute parts together with some of the more known Chymicall Experiments though both of those and of the other helps mention'd just before them I fear men have hitherto been far enough from making the best use which I hope it will dayly more and more appear they are capable of being put to He that has not had the curiosity to enquire out and consider the severall waies whereby Stones may be generated out of the body not only must be unable satisfactorily to explicate how they come to be produc'd in the Kidnies and in the Bladder but will perhaps scarce keep himselfe from imbracing such errors because authoriz'd by the suffrage of eminent Physitians as the knowledge I am recommending would easily protect them from For we find diverse famous and otherwise learned Doctors who probably because they had not taken notice of any other way of hardning a matter once soft into a stonelike consistence have believ'd and taught that the Stone of the Kidneyes is produc'd there by slime baked by the heat and drinesse of the Part as a portion of soft Clay may by externall heat be turn'd into a Brick or Tile And accordingly they have for cure thought it sufficient to make use of store of Remedies to moisten and cool the Kidneys which though in some bodies this be very convenient are yet far inferiour in efficacy to those Nobler medicines that by specifick qualities and properties are averse to such coagulations as produce the Stone But not to mention what a Physitian skill'd in Anatomy would object against this Theory from the nature of the part affected 't is not unlike the imbraces of this Hypothesis would not have acquiesc'd in it if they had seen those putrefactions out of the bodies of men which we elsewhere mention'd For these would have inform'd them that a Liquor abounding with petrescent parts may not only turn Wood as I have observ'd in a petrifying Spring into a kind of Stone and may give to Cheese and Mosse without spoiling their pristine appearance a strong hardnesse and weight but may also produce large and finely shap'd Christalline bodies though those I try'd were much lesse hard then Chrystall in the bosome of the cold water which brings into my mind that I have diverse times produc'd a body of an almost stony hardnesse in lesse then halfe an hour even in the midst of the water by tying up in a rag about the quantity of a nutmeg of well and recently calcin'd Alabastre which being thus ty'd up and thrown into the botome of a bason full of water did there speedily harden into a Lapideous Concretion And that even in the bodies of Animals themselves such concretions may be generated much otherwise then the Hypothesis we have been speaking of supposes may appear by what happens to Craw-fishes which though cold animals and living in the waters have generated at certain seasons in their heads Concretions which for their hard and pulverizable consistence divers Authors call lapides Cancrorum though in the Shops they are often but abusively styled Oculi cancrorum And such strong concretions are affirm'd to be generated in these Fishes every Year which I the less scrupled at because I have not found them at all times in the Head of the Fish And besides these and many more Concretions that had they been observ'd by the Physitians we have been speaking of might easily have kept them from acquiescing in and maintaining their improbable explication of the manner of the Stones nativity There is yet another kind of Coagulation which may both be added to the former and perhaps also serve to recommend the use of Chymical Experiments in investigating the Causes
conduce to the discovery of its nature And not that I think as Spagyrists do the experiments or notions of vulgar Chymists sufficient to explicate the whole doctrine either of Digestion or of Diseases for it would be very difficult for them to make out the manner of Nutrition or so much as how they that feed only on Vegetables should to propose the difficulty in their own Terms have their Blood and Urine copiously enrich'd with a volatile sulphureous Salt of which sort plants are not wont to yeild any in distillation And much more difficult would it be for them by principles peculiar to Chymists to make out the propagation of Hereditary diseases or how madnesse some other distempers that do not visibly vitiate the organes of those functions that they pervert should not only prove hereditary but lurk very many yeares in the inheriting person's body before they begin to disclose themselves and sometimes too be transmitted from the Grandfather to the Grand-child and skip immediately the intervening Son And therefore I say again that I pretend not that Vulgar Chymistry will enable a Physitian to explicate all or most of the Pathologicall Phaenomena but that True Chymistry may assist him to explicate diverse of them which can scarce be solidly explicated without it And let me adde that he that throughly understands the nature of Ferments and Fermentations shall probably be much better able then he that ignores them to give a fair account of divers phaenomena of severall diseases as well Feavers as others which will perhaps be never throughly understood without an insight into the doctrine of Fermentation in order to which for that and other reasons I design'd my Historicall notes touching that subject Yet I am not sure but there may be effervescences and perhaps periodicall ones in the Blood and other Juices of the body without Fermentation properly so call'd For there may be divers other waies of begetting a praeternaturall heat in the Blood We often see that in Coughs when the flegme is rottten as they speak that is when its former viscous texture is alter'd it does no longer stick fast to the vessels of the Lungs to which it obstinately adher'd before And so at certain times other humors in the body either by growing more fluid themselves or by some change in the Blood whereby it becomes fitter to dissolve such humors may swimme in and be circulated with the masse of blood and thereby occasion praeternaturall heats either by their indisposition to be well and incorporated therewith or by altering its texture or disturbing the wonted motion of its minute parts or by opposing its due Rarefaction as it passeth through the Heart or by obstructing the more slender Vessels and so hindering the free Circulation of the Blood through them perhaps also causing some Extravasation as we see that wounds bruâ—ses are attended with some inflammation more or lesse of the part affected or by some other of the waies not now to be declared And tryall hath taught me that there are Liquors in which the bare admixture of Milk Oyle or other Liquors nay or of cold water will presently occasion a notable heat and I sometimes imploy a menstruum in which nothing but a little flesh being put though no visible Ebullition ensue there will in a few minuts be excited a Heat intense enough to be troublesome to him that holds the Glasse And yet it seems not necessary that this should be ascrib'd to a true fermentation which may rather proceed from the perturb'd motion of the Corpuscles of the menstruum which being by the adventitious liquor or other body put out of their wonted motion and into an inordinate one there is produc'd in the menstruum a brisk confus'd Agitation of 〈◊〉 small parts that compose it and in such an agitation from what cause soever it proceeds the nature of Heat seems mainly to consist But to dispatch I scarce doubt but that if in the history of diseases there were better notice taken of those Phaenomena that agree not with the opinions already in request as well as of those that are thought consonant to them and if also Chymicall tryals were skilfully varied and judiciously applyed to the illustrating of Pathologicall Phaenomena the former might be made conducing to the better explication of the latter especially if the businesse were mannag'd by a Naturalist well vers'd both in Chymicall Experiments and in Anatomy and the history of Diseases without being too much addicted either to the Chymist's notions or the receiv'd opinions of Physitians And as the Naturalist may thus illustrate Pathologie as a Chymist so may he do the like as a Zoologer for either the true knowledge of Anatomy must be much lesse usefull to Physitians then they have hitherto beleived or else the discoveries made by recent Anatomists of the Asellian Pecquetian and Bartholinian vessels by either overthrowing the receiv'd doctrine of Digestions from whose aberrations many diseases spring or at least by making diverse discoveries in relation to the aeconomy of Digestions unknown to the Ancients most probably contribute much to the clearing up of diverse Pathologicall difficulties in the explication of some diseases besides that the very liberty of making those Experiments in live Beasts which are not to be made but in living creatures nor are allowable to be made in living men may enable a Zoologist by giving us a clearer account of divers parts of the body to determine divers Pathologicall difficulties springing from either our ignorance or mistakes of the use of those parts as by the formerly mention'd Experiment of the exsection of a live dogge's Spleen and a watchfull observation of all the diseases upon that Account befalliâ—â—â—im and other Dogs so serv'd much light perhaps may be given to the doctâ—in of the use of the Spleen together with the diseases supposed to depend on that part which I fear is hitherto to the no small prejudice of the Sick by few Physitians throughly understood and by many unhappily enough mistaken And here we may represent unto you Pyr that not only the dissections of sound Beasts may assist the Physitian to discover the like parts of a humane body but the dissections of morbid beasts may sometimes illustrate the doctrine of the causes and seats of diseases For that this part of Pathology has been very much improved by the diligence of modern Physitians by dissecting the bodies of men kill'd by Diseases we might be justly accused of want of curiosity or gratitude if we did not thankfully acknowledge For indeed much of that improvement of Physick for which the Ancients if they were now alive might envy our new Physitians may in my poor opinion be ascribed to their industrious scrutiny of the Seat and Effects of the peccant matter of Diseases in the bodies of those that have been destroyed by them And that the instructions deducible from such observations may be either increased or illustrated by the like observations made
against the biting of Vipers I shall choose rather to decline the dictates of Method then those of Charity which forbids me to suppress a remedy that may possibly rescue from sudden death a Person or other fit to live or unprepar'd to dye because it does not strictly belong to the Theme whereto it is referred The remedy then is this That as soon as ever a Man is bâ—iten for if the Poyson have had time enough to diffuse it self and gain the Mass of Blood I doubt the Experiment will scarce succced a hot Iron be held as near the place as the Patient can possibly indure till it have as they speak drawn out all the Venom which Eye-witnesses assure me for I have not yet seen that my seâ—f will sometimes adhere like a yellowish spot to the surface of the Iron But being upon competent grounds satisfied of the Experiment to convinâ—e a Physitian that mistrusted it I last Summer hired a Man who doubted it as little as I to suffer himself to be bitten by a Viper and having in the Physitians house and presence pickâ—d out of a good number of them one of the blackest I could finde those of that colour being supposed the most mischiâ—vous and commanded the fellow to provoke and anger it which to my wonder he did a pretty while before the Beast would fasten on him At length being by his very rude handling thorowly exasperated it bit him with great fury as it seem'd for immediately his hand began to swell and the injured part was grown tumid before we could take from the Fire which was hard by a knife that lay heating there and having apply'd it as near as he could suffer it for about ten or twelve minutes we found that the swelling though it decreased not did not spread and the Man glad of his money without further Ceremony went about his affairs and told me since That though the tumor continued a while he had no other inconvenience attending it and hath divers times got money by repeating the Experiment though otherwise by the casual bitings of Vipers he hath been much distrest and his Wife almost killâ—d But Pyrophilus to return to the Experiments of Poysons made on Beasts we could wish Physitians were more diligent to make tryals of them not onely by giving Beasts poysons at the mouth but also by making external applications of them especially in those parts where the Vessels that convey Blood more approach the surface of the Body and also by dexterously wounding determinate Veins with Instruments dipt in Poysons especially moist or liquid ones that being carried by the circulated Blood to the Heart and Head it may be found whether their strength be that way more uninfringed and their operation more speedy or otherwise differing then if they were taken in at the mouth For I remember sober Travellers have shew'd me some Indian Poysons whose noxious efficacy they affirm'd to be by great intervals of time differingly mortal according as the slight hurt made by the points of Arrows infected with them did open a capillary or larger Vein and were inflicted on a part more or less distant from the Heart but having not yet made any tryal of this my self I dare not build upon it Yet I finde that the formerly commended Olearius in his Travels into Muscovie and Persia takes notice of a venomous Insect in Persia which the Natives call Encureck and which he how justly I know not makes to be a kinde of Tarantula because it is as that Creature in shape almost like a Spider and speckled though of twice the bigness of a Thumb This Insect says he instead of stinging or biting lets his Venom fall in form of a drop of Water which immediately produces insufferable pains in the part to which it fastens and suddenly penetrating as far as to the Stomach sends up vapors to the Head which sends again to use his expression so profound a sleep to all the Patients limbs that it is impossible to awaken him but by one onely Remedy which is to crush one of these Creatures upon the hurt whence he abstracts all the Poison Some horrid and unusual symptomes of this Venom which yet agree not so well with those that are wont to be produc'd in persons bitten by Tarantula's our Author proceeds to mention and furnishes us with a proof of what we were lately saying when we told you that some things were poysonous to Men which were not to some Beasts by adding as an admirable singularity that the Sheep of those parts do not onely eat these fatal Insects but seek for them I know also by sad experience in my self what an outward application even of Cantharides can do for having occasion to have a large blister drawn on my Neck the Chirurgion I employed unknown to me made use of Cantharides among other Ingredients of his vesicating Plaister which a few hours after I had taken it waken'd me with excessive torment to which it put me about the neck of my Bladder so that I apprehended it might proceed from some Stone unable to get out of which sudden and sensible pain after I had a while in vain conjectur'd what might be the cause I at length suspected that which was indeed the true one and having sent for the Chirurgion he confess'd to me upon my demand that he had put some Cantharides in his Plaister not thinking it would have had such an operation whereupon I soon reliev'd my self by drinking new Milk very well sweetned with Suger candy Postscript TO enable you Pyrophilus to gratifie those inquisitive Persons that have heard some and yet but an imperfect Report of a much nois'd Experiment that was some Years agoe devis'd at Oxford and since try'd in other places before very Illustrious Spectators I am content to take the occasion afforded me by what was in the foregoing Essay lately mention'd concerning the Application of Poysons to inform you That a pretty while after the writing of that Essay I happen'd to have some Discourse about matters of the like Nature with those excellent Mathematicians Dr. I. Wilkins and Mr. Christopher Wren at which the latter of those Virtuosi told us That he thought he could easily contrive a way to convey any liquid Poison immediately into the Mass of Blood Whereupon our knowledge of his extraordinary Sagacity making us very desirous to try what he propos'd I provided a large Dog on which he made his Experiment in the presence and with the assistance of some eminent Physitians and other learned Men His way which is much better leâ—rn'd by sight then relation was briefly this First to make a small and opportune Incision over that part of the hind-leg where the larger Vessels that carry the Blood are most easie to be taken hold of Then to make a Ligature upon those Vessels and to apply a certain small Plate of Brass of above half an Inch long and about a quarter of an Inch broad whose sides
affection I know a very eminent Commander obnoxious Your late Unkle the last Earl of Barrymore a very gallant Noble Man and who did his Country great Service in the Irish Wars had the like apprehension for Tansey I cannot see a Spider near me without feeling a notable commotion in my Blood though I never received harm from that sort of Creature and have no such abhorring against Vipers Toads or other venomous Animals You know an excellent Lady marryed to a Great Person that hath more then once govern'd Ireland whose Antipathy to Hony which is much talked of in that Country hath display'd it self upon several occasions notwithstanding which her experienc'd Physitian imagining that there might be something of conceipt in her Aversion took an opportunity to satisfie himself by mixing a little Hony with other Ingredients of a Remedy which he applyed to a very slight and inconsiderable cut or scratch which she chanced to get on hâ—r Foot but he soon repented of his Curiosity upon the strange and unexpected disorder which his in other cases innocent Medicine produc'd and which ceasing upon the removal of that and application of other ordinary Remedies satisfied him That those Symptomes were to be imputed to the Hony and not the bare hurt The same excellent Lady I remember complained to me That when she was troubled with Coughs all the Vulgar Pectoral and Pulmoniack Remedies did her no good so that she could find relief in nothing but either the Fume of powdred Amber taken with convenient Hearbs in a Pipe or that Balsamum Sulphuris which we have already taught you in this Essay I know a Person of Quality tall and strongly made who lately asked my Opinion Whether when he had need of Vomit he should continue to make use of Cauphy in regard it wrought so violently with him This gave me the occasion as well as curiosity of enquiring particularly both of Himself and his Lady concerning this odde Operation of Cauphy upon him and I was told That an ordinary Wine-glass full of the usual warm decoction of Cauphy boyl'd in common Water was wont within about two hours to prove emetick with him and before Noon did give him eight ten or sometimes twelve Vomits with so much violence that he was less affected by the infusion of Crocus metallorum or other usual emeticks and therefore was deliberating whether he should not change Cauphy for some of them though finding its Operation very certain he had for some Years accustomed himself to take that Vomit And that which is also remarkable in this mâ—tter is that he tells me That scarce any Vomit is more troublesome to him to take then that above-mentioned â—s grown of late so that even the odour of Cauphy as he passeth by Cauphy-houses in the Street doth make him sick and yet that Simple is to most Men so far from being Vomitive that it is by eminent Physitiâ—ns and in some cases not without cause much extoll'd as a strengthner of the Stomack And this very Gentleman himself used it a pretty while against the Fumes that offended his Head without finding any Vomitive Quality at all in it The Books of sober and learned Physitians afford us Examples of divers such and of much more strange Peculiarities and likewise of such Persons who having desires of certain things very extravagant and even absur'd ordinarily not onely improper but hurtful to their Distempeâ—s have been cured by the use of them of very dangerous and sometimes hopeless Diseases Of which kinde of Cures I may also elsewhere tell you what I have observed and some credit may be brought to such Relations by what we ordinarily see more greedily devoured without much harm by longing Women and Maids troubled with the Green-sickness But now Pyrophilus since the Engine of an humane Body thus appears to be so fram'd thâ—t it is capable of receiving great alterations from such unlikely things as those we have been mentioning Why should we hâ—stily conclude against the efficacy of Specificks taken into the Body upon the bare account of their not operating by any obvious quality if they be recommended unto uâ— upon thâ—ir own experience by sâ—ber and faithful Persons And that scarce sensible quantities of Mâ—tter having once obtained access to the masâ— of Blood which is very easily dâ—ne by the Circulation may by the contrary and swift motion and by the Figure of the Corpuscâ—es it consists of give such a new and unnatural impeâ—iment or determination to the motion of the Blood or so dis-compose either its Texture or that of the Heart Brain Liver Spleen or some such principal part of the Body as a spark of Fire reduceth a whole Barrel of Gun-powder to obey the Laws of its motion and become Fire too or as a little Leaven is able by degrees to turn the greatest lump of Dow into Leaven need be manifested by nothing but the Operations of such Poysons as work not by any of those which Physitians are pleased to call Manifest Qualities For though I much fear that most of those thâ—t have written concerning Poysons supposing that Mâ—n would rather believe then try what they relate have allowed themselvâ—s to deliver many things more strange then true yet the known effects of a very small quantity of Opium or of Arsenick of the scarce discernable hurt made by â— Vipers Tooth and especially of the biting of a mad Dog which sometimes by less of his Spittle then would weigh half a Grain subdues a whole great Ox into the like mâ—dness and produceth truly-wonderful Symptomes both in Mens Bodies and Beasts are sufficient to evince what we pâ—oposed And that Man's Body may be as well sometimes cured as we see it too often discompos'd by such little proportions of Mâ—ttâ—r mâ—y not now to mention the questionable Vertuâ—s â—scrib'd to many Antidotes be gathered from that Expeâ—iment so common in Italy and elsewhere of curing the invenom'd biting of Scorpions by anointing the bitten and tumid place with common Oyl wherein store of Scorpions have been drown'd and steep'd And a resembling Example of the Antidotal Vertue wherewith Nature hath enrich'd some Bodies is given us by the above-commended Piso in his Medicina Brasiliensis where treating of the Antidotal Efficacy of the famous Brasilian Herb Nhanby eaten upon an empty Stomack he adds this memorable Story That he himself saw a Brasilian who having caught an over-grown Toad and swell'd with Poyson such a one as Brasilians call Cururu which useth to be as big again as the European Toad and desperately venomous which perhaps our Toads are not he presently killed him by dropping on his back the Juice of the Flowers and Leaves of that admirable Plant. And you may remember that the same Author formerly told us in effect that as great and salutary changes may be produced even in humane Bodies where he relates That he had known those that had eaten several sorts of Poyson Snatch'd in a trice from imminent death