known nor the dose and consequently the Project not like to improve Physick at all unless our Magistrates will licence men to try so many Experiments even to the apparent hazard or certain death of the parties and may regulate and authenticate the practice in such manner as becomes a Baconical Experiment and to encourage Rational men to this procedure there ought to be a greater deficiency in Physick then yet appears and a more hopeful success then any man can yet expect supposed by this way A Paynim told us Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est A sober Physician will look upon the act to be as indiscreet as the Comedian describes love to be Quaeres in se neque consilium neque modum habet ullum eam consilio regere non potes That there is no probability that this way of Medicine can ever amount to any thing appears from this consideration that Liquors immediately injected into the blood have a different Operation there then when taken in by the Stomach and that the mixtures of Liquors with blood upon Phlebotomy in a Pottinger gives no light to the Experiment As I shall now shew Seignior Fracassati Professor of Anatomy at Pisa tried these Experiments by injecting Medicaments 1. Having injected into the jugular and crural veins of a Dog some Aqua fortis diluted the Animal died presently and being opened all the blood in the vessels was coagulated and fixed but that which was in the Viscera which I dare not English Guts but take it to denote the Heart Liver Lungs Spleen where the blood passes extravasated through though the Transactions render it Guts and destroy the antithesis betwixt vasa and viscera did not so easily coagulate It was also observed that the great vessels were burst or as it were cut asunder yet have I known who hath put Aqua fortis into cooling Juleps in Fevers as others do spirit of Vitriol without any harm 2. There was also infused into another Dog some spirit of Vitriol which had not so present an effect for the Animal complained a great while and foamed like Epilepticks and had its respiration very thick and observing the beating of his breast one might easily judge the Dog suffered much who dying at last his blood was found fixed in the veins and grumous resembling Soot whereas in the Experiment with Aqua fortis which may as easily be given inwardly as spirit of Nitre the blood is not said to have been changed in its colour from other coagulated blood It was also observable though the Transactions minde it not that the blood in this last Dog was not upon coagulation continuous in the veins but broken and severed into parcels 3. There was also injected into the jugular of another dog some oyle of Sulphur per campanam but he died not of it though this infusion was several times tried on him And the wound being closed and the dog let go he went into all the corners of the room searching for meat and having found some bones he fell to gnawing them with a strange avidity as if this Liquor had caused in him a great appetite 4. Another dog into whose veins some Oyle of Tartar per deliquium was injected did not escape so well for he complained much and was altogether swoln and then died Being opened the Spectators were surprised to finde his blood not curdled but on the contrary more thin and florid then ordinary 5. Dr. Lower having extracted half a pound of blood out of the crural urine of a Mastiff dog did inject the like quantity of warm milk into him within half an hour the dog became very sick breathed with difficulty and seemed to labour much with his heart and diaphragme and after to palpitate tremble and sigh grievously and at length miserably died Upon dissection he found the vena cava the ventricles of the heart the vessels of the Lungs and the Aorta full of blood and milk coagulated together and the concretion was so hard that it was not easie to part it This he tried but once But Monsieur Dennys the French Physician saith he tried it with a different success For having syringed about a quarter of a pint of milk into the veins of an Animal he tells not what and having opened the same some time after he found the milk so perfectly mixed with the blood that there was not any place in which appeared the least footstep of tho whiteness of the milk and all the blood was generally more liquid and less apt to coagulate 6. I received an account of some Experiments from one much versed in these injections which he may one day acquaint the world with to this effect That the infusion of Crocus Metallorum injected in a less quantity then otherwise viz. ℥ β will work by vomit in a dog almost presently and very strangely and make him grievously sick Yet Dr. Wren informs Mr. Boyle that a moderate dose of the infusion of Crocus Metallorum did not much move the dog that he injected it into but a large dose of two ounces or more wrought soon and so violently that he vomited up life and all That a dog will take two drams of Opium into his Stomack and seem never the worse if you keep him from lying down half an hour after but two drams of Poppy-seeds made into an Emulsion and injected into his veins will kill him presently 7. Mr. Boyle saith that he conveyed a small dose of the tincture of Opium into a dog this way which began to work so speedily upon the brain that he was scarce untied before the Opium began to disclose its Narcotick quality and almost as soon as he was upon his feet he began to nod with his head and reel and faulter in his place but being kept awake and in motion by whipping up and down the Garden after some time he came to himself again and not only recovered but began to grow fat so manifestly that'twas admired 8. A certain German Count coming into England relates an Experiment which he saw in the presence of Pr. Rupert After some blood taken from a dog there was injected into him a small quantity portiuncula of Spanish wine within sometime after the dog was perfectly drunk being giddy performing sundry ridiculous actions then vomiting with a profound sleep 9 Dr. Fabricius Physician to the City of Dantzick injected purgatives into humane bodies with this effect A strong bodied Souldier being dangerously infected with the Pox and having grievous protuberations of the bones in his armes two drams of a purgative liquor were injected he presently complained of great pains in his elbows and the little valves of his arm did swell so visibly that it was necessary by a great compression on 's fingers to stroke up that swelling towards the Patients shoulders Some four hours after it began to work not very troublesomely and so it did the next day in so
in pulmone vas dextri ventriculi haec enim e corde recipit ut Arteria magna similiter fabricatum est ejus corpus Vas autem sinistri ventriculi non pulsat quia introducit tantum ejus corpus simile est reliquis venis He holds that the motion of the Heart and Arteries depends not upon any pelsifick Faculty but that it ariseth from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ebullition or effervescency of the blood in the Ventricles and that the Heart and Arteries are dilated at the same time the blood dilating the Heart and issuing out thorough the valves of the Aorta and Pulmonique Artery at the same instant which is pure Cartesianism He holds that the Blood comes up from the veins to the Heart and there acquires the last Perfection and becomes vital and spirituous in the mention of the Arterious Blood he useth indifferently the termes of Blood spirit and natural heat which I desire may be observed lest the proofs seem not full enough and he be construed to speak of nothing but spirits and natural heat in the Arteries He saith that this Blood having acquired its Perfection in its passage through both the ventricles is distributed through all the parts of the body for its nutriment by the Arteries in which Arteries there is such a constant quantity of Blood that the effervency of that in the Heart impells the whole continuation of the Arteries so that they beat all at once Cum enim pulsatio Cordis Arteriarum sit accidens quoddam quod ex necessitate insequitur humoris in corde effervescentiam qua sanguinis generatio per ficitur ut in caeteris quae igne elixantur accidit lib. de vita mort c. â— intumescente corde necesse est simul omnes Arterias dilatari in quas derivatur fervor non enim repleri potest una pars quin totum fiat majus ubi non omni ex parte vasa quae continua sunt fuerint exinanita Nam nullo intus existente corpore non contingit simul repleri principium extrema cum motus non fiat in instanti existente autem per totos canales aliquo spiritu simul ac in principio alius fuerit genitus necesse est totum simul dilatari unum enim sit spiritus accedens cum toto Cum ergo totum reddatur majus simul ac accesserit pars non potest una pars dilatari quin eodem tempore dilatetur totum Est autem veluti totum quoddam Arteriae omnes cum corde Continuum enim est vas sanguinis perfecti Spiritu autem efflante inhabitum corporis distributo particulis sanguine necesse est tumorem vasorum desidere quae est pulsus contractio Continue autem hoc fit quia continua est partium nutritio continua sanguinis generatio in corde Elevatio igitur Spiritus a calore fit non tamen temere sed alicujus gratia Nam sine hujusmodi amplificatione non fieret distributio alimenti in omnes partes He plants a kind of Flammula cordis or fire in the heart which causeth the ebullition and imprints a spirituousness in the blood that issueth out into the Arteries Hujusmodi locâ—s Cor est in quo secundum Naturam elementum praeparatum ardere possit fieri spiritus venae alimentum suppeditant Arteriae flammae spiritum recipiunt He saith that the Blood moves towards the Heart as the Oyle to the flame of the burning Lamp and that the Valves as the orifice of the Vena Gava which immit the blood are placed there to moderate the source of the blood lest it should fall in too fast extinguish the vital fire and that the valves at the entrance of the Aorta do flie open upon the effervescency of the blood by the pressure of it every way to get more room it finding no out-let but by those yielding valves which were so placed lest upon any accident or viclent passion the arterious blood should regurgitate into the Heart Motus fit ex venis in Cor caliditate alimentum trabente ex corde autem in arterias quia hac solum patet iter propter membranarum positionem positae autem sunt hoc modo membranae ne unquam contingeret contrarium motum fieri quod accidere posset in vehementibus animi perturbationibus aut aliis causis a quibus sanguinis retractio fit ad Cor Obsistunt enim huic motui membranae Nam si hoc modo condite non essent ignis cordis vel levi causa extingueretur Si enim metus fieret contrarius simile esset ac si flamma compingeretur deorsum ad alimentum quod cum minime sit praeparatum aut cepiosius quam oportet ignem suffocat Oportet enim alimentum praeparari paulatim dispensari ad locum flammae He saith that this arterious blood or spirit is distributed into all parts of the body with great celerity and that it is that which nourisheth the parts and that upon its diffusion into the habit of the body the spirits are very much exhausted and the corpulent part of the aliment doth remain being coagulated partly by heat and partly by cold He saith that the variety of the pulse as to strength or debility celerity and slowness depends upon the nature of the vital fire the nature of the aliment with which it is fed and sometimes upon the particular Fabrick or conformation of the Heart in which that Fire is seated He placeth Anastomoses betwixt the veins and arteries every where in the body Osculorum communio est non solum in corde sed etiam per totum venerum arteriarum ductum He saith that the blood is never extravasated but where it is aggregated to any part by way of nourishment or else it putrifies he doth not understand how it should not coagulate if once extravasated nor can he comprehend how it should be reassumed into the veins in such a case Venam continuam esse oportet usque ad cordis ventriculos ut inde omnis virtus descendat nec ullibi contingit disjunctam esse sanguis enim calore cordis destitutus concrescit tandem putrescit He makes the Blood to pass betwixt the right and left ventricle of the Heart partly by the Lungs and partly by the Septum Cordis Pulchre igitur condita sunt omnia Cum enim fervere oporteret in corde sanguinem ut fieret alimenti perfectio primo quidem in dextro ventriculo in quo crassior adhuc continetur sanguis deinde autem in sinistro ubi sincerior sanguis est partim per medium septum partim per medios pulmones refrigerationis gratia ex dextro in sinistrum mittitur Interim autem pulmo abunde nutriri potest totum enim eum sanguinem absumere quem recipit egreditur fines rationis Non enim rara esset ejus substantia levis ut videtur si tantum alimenti vim in suam naturam converteret This he
excrements resulting from it It is in the Stomach and first digestion where food is so concocted by the Humane heat or Acidity as to turn to a chyle adequate to the nourishment of man and generating such blood and such excrements as are the result of such a concoction as is agreeable to the nature of man And so it is in all creatures Thus we see that in different Animals different Excrements are generated nor is it to be doubted but that the concoctive principle differs as much in a dog or cat as do those excrements which differ much from those of men though both eat the same meat Sicut acidus spiritus quilibet animam inseparabiliter in ventre suo portat atque in illud corpus cuâ—infunditur dominium suscipit illudque confestim juxta sui naturam format hinc spiritus salis in Alcali Tartari fusus statim sibi format corpus salinum propriae naturae consentaneum fit sal aceti spiritus vel acetum distillatum in eodem Alcali tartari sibi format corpus adaequatum suae propriae naturae fit tartarus vini sic de vitriolo reliquis acidis Ita quoque acidum Stomachi humani cum apprehendit panem vel quicquam alibile in quod dominari possit illud convertit commutat in chylum exinde in carnem humanam eundem panem Acidum Stomachi canini convertit transmutat in carnem caninam uti de reliquis viventibus quotidie docemur eo quod natura in omnibus iisdem instrumentis operatur If the Case be such and that the blood transfused hath received those impregnations of vitality which are agreeable to the nature of the Animal whence it is transfused and is qualified to generate such nourishment and such excrements as are the consequences of those digestive characters if I may so call them and impressions How can we imagine that such blood being immediately transfused into our veins without those previous alimental sigillations and digestions produce those effects which are to be expected in humane bodies and are though irrationally in this case wished for But perhaps they think to atchieve their design by introducing a new texture in the vitiated blood and vessels or fermentation whereupon should ensue the amendment I perceive indeed by their stories a new fermentation that the dogs piss blood no desirable or trivial accident But what a little time is there for the blood to pass unto the heart and mix with those other Liquors and ascending blood and so to pass into the Heart and Lungs How do they know that the blood they transfuse is good Upon burning they shall finde a difference in blood of beasts and a different taste and coagulation in the Serum Besides that the blood of young Animals is generally less balsamical and inflammable of another texture and colour the Serum very saline and in a word exceeding different from what is in men and women of years And in the blood of men and women there are often defects not to be perceived but by coagulating and burning of the Serum and blood I have taken the Serum of a Maid seemingly healthful only pained at Stomach and abounding in blood it coagulated and looked like tallow and would not burn at all and smelt noisomely after coagulation not before I have several strange instances of this kind If there be such indiscernable causes of distempers and mixtures in blood of persons that are not well if they neither know what they aim at in transfusing in nor what they transfuse Let Mr. Glanvill talk of great Advantages to be expected and let them try it for me Sure I am that the Transactions report an Untruth in saying that Coga was ever the better for it I am told his Arm was strangely ill after it and difficultly cured and if all the great likelihood of Advantages from Transfusion that are in their present Prospect arise from no other grounds they are very improbable The Parliament of Paris have forbid it to be prosecuted but by the allowance of the Parisian Faculty of Physicians A Swedish Baron died upon it and to argue from the cures of Madmen or from what they suffer without hurt is not for a Physician but for one that deserves to be sent to Bedlam for mad people endures a thousand ills and strong Physick such as others cannot endure and if they find any amendment sometimes by uncouth means it is by accident as it makes them ill which sometimes prove their recovery As for dogs they cannot declare what they suffer but I am in haste and refer my Reader to the perusal of the Histories in the Transactions in which what I last objected is all confessed and if after all I have said he find encouragement to try a remedy that hath sometimes proved not unfortunate but is always rash let him do it for me I am satisfied That the operation carries more of terror and many swoon upon bleeding then a potion or Galenical Physick and that the greatest part of our distempers do not arise from the scarcity or malignant tempers and corruption of our blood is as manifest as can be more arise from the depraved motion and redundancy of the blood and serosities in and about the brain and the laxity and strictness of the habit and pores of the body and in these cases Transfusion is no remedy much less in malignant diseases in which to let blood is often mortal commonly dangerous and it always must be antecedent to Transfusion excepting only the scarcity of blood in which case what strength is there to assimilate or ferment with the new blood As to the Transfusion of blood in Pleurisies the attempt is very ridiculous considering what an Ebullition and Inflammation of the blood there is then in the Lungs whither the transfused blood immediately flows what extravasated serosities do afflict those parts how unfit are they for any seasonable fermentation And in the Small Pox how few are they in England which allow of Phlebotomy in that disease at all and how irrational must that Transfusion seem which disturbs and diverts nature in her present work what hazard must the Patient run amidst a Fever and that violent commotion of humors which afflicts his head back heart and lungs at that time should he besides all other accidents fall into pissing of blood a symptom so dangerous in that disease and so usual a consequent of this Operation Having dispatched these papers thus far the length of time since they were sent to London to be transcribed perused and several insertions made according as my memory amidst a constant employment suggested any thing new unto me and the delay of the Printing till Michaelmass-Tearm gives me an opportunity to relate some Observations I made at Bath during my stay there this Summer As famous as the Bathes are and of as general an use as they are there being no better Remedy in the world for
thus further explains Pulmo per venam arteriis similem ex dextro cordis ventriculo fervidum hauriens sanguinem eumque per anastomosin arteriae venali reddens quae in sinistrum cordis ventriculum tendit transmisso interim aere frigido per asperae arteriae canales qui juxta arteriam venalem protenduntur non tamen osculis communicantes ut putavit Galenus solo tactu temperat Huic Sanguinis Circulationi ex dextro cordis ventriculo per pulmones in sinistrum ejusdem ventriculum optime respondent ea quae ex dissectione apparent Nam duo sunt vasa in dextrum ventriculum desinentia duo etiam in sinistrum Duorum autem unum intromittit tantum alterum educit membranis eo ingenio constructis Vas igitur intromittens vena est magna quidem in dextro quae cava appellatur parva autem in sinistro ex pulmone introducens cujus unica est tunica ut caeterarum venarum Vas autem educens Arteria est magna quidem in sinistro quae Aorta appellatur parva autem in dextro ad pulmones derivans cujus similiter duae sunt tunicae ut in caeteris arteriis He holds that the spirituous or arterious blood is cast ouâ— and diffused vigorously into the habit of the body that the veins and arteries being continuous by Anastomosis it returns to the Heart again vigorating the blood of the vena peria and Cava as it returns which is sufficiently intimated in that he deduces all the vigour and vitality of the blood from the Heart and that this vigour or natural hear is carried over the body by the Arteries alone and that it is necessary that the whole venous Systeme or contexture of Arteries and veins be continuous lest the blood in the veins being destitute of the cordial heat should coagulate and putrifie He holds that this motion or Circulation of the blood is without intermission and that the swelling of the veins upon the Ligature is a sufficient proof of it But he holds that the recourse of the blood by the veins is greater in the sleep then when we awake which he proves thus in that the veins are more full and tumid during sleep then waking and the pulse weaker and more slow as any man may observe From whence he concludes that the natural heat which is the Arterious blood as I observed before to prevent all possible mistakes which was otherwise in great part expended upon the nerves and sensories doth in sleep return and fill the veins more visibly that exhaustion ceasing then when we are not asleep His opinion will be best set down in his own words and I think it necessary to do it because Nardius hath done it so imperfectly that one would attribute as little to his allegations as to those which are cited out of the Ancients and if I had not read Caesalpinus long before I should have thought the Florentine to have intitled Caesalpinus to the opinion out of envy to Harvey or out of a partial desire to advance the glory of the Tuscan Academy at Pisa when Caesalpinus was Professour Thus that learned man writ about the year 1590. or a little after Andraeas Caesalpinus Quest Medic. l. 2. Qu. 17. edit venetae secunda in 4 to A. D. 1593. fol. 234. col 1. Sed illud speculatione dignum videtur Propter quod intumescunt venae ultra locum apprehensum non citra quod experimento sciunt qui vena secant vinculum enim adhibent citra locum sectionis non ultra quia tument venae ultra vinculum non citra Debuisset autem opposito modo contingere si motus sanguinis spiritus a visceribus fit in totum corpus intercepto enim meatu non ultra datur progressus tumor igitur venarum citra vinculum debuisset fieri An folvitur dubitatio ex eo quod scribit Aristoteles de Som c. 3. ubi inquit Necesse enim quod evaporatur aliquousque impelli deinde converti permutari sicut Euripum calidum enim cujusque animalium ad superiora natum est ferri cum autem in superioribus locis fuerit multum simul iterum revertitur ferturque deorsum Haec Aristoteles Pro cujus loci explicatione illud sciendum est Cordis meatus ita a natura paratos esse ut ex vena Cava intromissio fiat in Cordis ventriculum dextrum unde patet exitus in pulmonem ex pulmone praeterea alium ingressum esse in Cordis ventriculum sinistrum ex quotandem patet exitus in Arteriam Aortam membranis quibusdam ad ostia vasorum appositis ut impediant retrocessum Sic enim perpetuus quidam motus est ex vena cava per Cor pulmones in Arteriam Aortam ut in Quaestionibus Peripateticis explicavimus Cum autem in vigilia motus caloris nativi fiat extra scilicet ad sensoria in Somno autem intra scilicet ad Cor putandum est in vigilia multum spiritus sanguinis ferri ad arterias inde enim in nervos iter est In somno autem eundem calorem per venas reverti ad Cor non per Arteriam Judicio sunt pulsus qui expergicentibus fiunt magni vehementes celeres crebri cum quadam vibratione in somno autem parvi languidi tardi rari notante Galeno 3. de caus pul 9 10. Num in Somno calor nativus minus vergit in arterias in casdem erumpit vehementius cum expergiscuntur Venae autem contrario se modo habent nam in somno fiunt tumidiores in vigilia exiliores ut patet intuenti eas quae in manu sunt Transit enim in somno calor nativus ex arteriis in venas per osculorum communionem quam Anastomosin vocant inde ad Cor. Ut autem sanguinis exundatio ad superiora retrocessus ad inferiora ad instar Euripi manifesta est in somno vigilia sic non obscurus est hujusmodi motus in quacunque parte corporis vinculum adhibeatur aut alia ratione occludantur venae Cum enim tollitur permeatio intumescunt rivuli qua parte fluere solent From hence it is clear that He held that the blood did circulate continually falling into the Heart by the vena Cava and issuing out by the Aorta into all parts of the body that this motion of the blood was perceivable by the Ligatures at any time but most manifest in the intumescence of the veins in sleep at what time also the blood or natural heat which is all one to him did pass by way of Anastomosis out of the arteries into the veins as well as at other times So that we are not to imagine any interrupted circulation in him but that it did constantly flow night and day sleeping and waking though with unequal celerity In letting of blood he tells us that the blood which first issues out is venous and blacker then that which follows and comes more immediately
out of the Arteries Venas cum Arteriis adeo copulari osculis ut vena secta primum exeat sanguis venalis nigrior deinde succedat arterialis flavior quod plerumque contingit And he explains the motion of the blood and natural heat thus to prevent all ambiguity At instabit quis in somno nequaquam prohiberi calorem in cerebro sensoriis pulsant enim arteriae in toto corpore etiam in somno At praesente calore innato debuisset duci in actum facultas animalis An calor innatus in somno viget in venis arteriis non in nervis sine quibus non sit sensus motus Extra igitur ferri est nervos petere intra autem non solum ad viscera sed in omnes venas arterias unde operationes naturales magis perficiuntur in toto corpore I hope I have now determined the Question which hath occasioned so many heats in the world concerning the Circulation of the blood who was the first Inventor of it I have demonstrated that Andraeas Caesalpinus a rigid Peripatetick upon sensible Experiments Mechanical considerations not notional apprehensions did not only discover this motion of the blood even through the Lungs but gave it the name of CIRCULATIO SANGUINIS which name is not so proper in it self considering the Fabrick of the veins and arteries and the Labyrinth in which the blood moves universally describing a Line no way circular as that a man would have pitched upon it in any other Age then when Caesalpinus lived when the knowledge of the Learned Languages was less general then now and such a barbarous stile in fashion as our Inventour used But it was not so in the days of Dr. Harvey who published his Treatise in 4 to at Francfourt in the year as I take it 1628. I must confess I am apt to think upon this consideration that Dr. Harvey who was a Peripatetique Physician and in whose time at Padoa those Physicians did flourish with the greatest repute of Learning and skill in Anatomy as well as Philosophy did take up this opinion from my Author And although there wanted not occasion by reason of what Walaeus Riolanus Slegelius and others had said upon the point for him to declare the original of the discovery yet in his two Answers to Riolanus and his Book of Generation He no where asserts the Invention so to himself as to deny that he had the intimation or notion from Caesalpinus but leaves the Controversy in the dark which silence of his I take for a tacite Confession His Ambition of Glory made him willing to be thought the Authour of a Paradox he had so illustrated and brought upon the Stage when it lay unregarded and in all probability buried in oblivion Yet such was his Modesty as not to vindicate it to himself by telling a Lie And such his Prudence as rather to avoid the debate then resolve it to his prejudice Had Dr. Harvey been a Chymist I should have guessed that he might have fixed upon the word Circulation upon other reasons and those congruous enough to his Hypotheses but since especially in the days when he writ those Studies were unknown to him and not valued by him I am inclined to think that He did receive his first Iutelligence from this Professour at Pisa where Harvey also was and so improved those hints that in the divulging of his Opinion they are as little to be seen as the first indeclines which Painters draw in Pictures that are lost when the Pourtraict is finished or as in the first Appearances of Plants above-ground where those leaves and buds which often give growth to the succeeding stemme flower and fruit are lost or altered so as not to be known Let it suffice that Dr. Harvey had parts and industry enough to have discovered it had he not been prevented therein And I should have imagined that our Countreyman had found it out without any communication with those other books a thing possible enough and of which we have instance in the case of Rudbek Bartholine and Jolice but that the reasons I have alledged render the case suspicious Had Caesalpinus writ a distinct Treatise I doubt not but much of the Glory had been his since there are as great differences between one Circulator and another and greater then betwixt him and Harvey but his notions being confusedly laid down here and there in his Peripatetick and Medicinal Questions and he being not ambitious to pretend to any new discoveries only to illustrate Aristotles tenets I shall allow Harvey the possession of his present repute nor do I give my self this trouble of collecting up into a method these confused assertions of Caesalpinus out of any envy to the dead but out of animosity to Pretenders to Wit and Learning that brave it thus amongst us yet if to be ignorant of what hath passed in the world heretofore be an argument of childishness there is not any thing more puerile then this sort of Virtuosi I might not dismiss my Reader but that the great noise which this Circulation of blood makes in the World enforceth me to speak a little more about the utility of this discovery which our Authour describes to be the most noble of all those discoveries in the Oeconomy of humane nature which Wit and Industry have made I do confess I think the Arguments for it to be such as admit of no Answer in general but when we come to debate how it passeth through the Lungs which Riolanus almost invincibly disproves or through the Septum Cordis which Riolan and Bartholin asserts but Harvey Slegelius Vander Linden and others reject it oâ— good grounds what it is that causeth the pulsation of the Heart what continues on the motion of the blood in the veins even when a Ligature is made betwixt the antecedent and subsequent blood Whether the blood be diffused into the habit of the body and reimbibed by capillary veins or conveyed on by Anastomoses whether there be any difference betwixt the venous and Arterious blood How the Phaenomena which undeniably are observed about the pulse can be made out and particularly how some have lived without any Pulse others which I have known in the palpitation of the Heart suffer no change in their Pulse How upon dissection or wounds somtimes both ends of the veine divided do bleed How some bleed at the arme without any Ligature some upon a double Ligature These and many other questions when I come to dispute with my self methinks I am forced to constrain my judgement in the assent I give to that Probleme and what I am ashamed to deny I finde I cannot own without some reluctancy which is daily encreased in me by scruples arising from the Practick Part of Physick nor do I blush to declare my self an Abettour only of such Tenets as are consistent with and illustrated by Practical Physick it was thought at first that this Circulation of
what it is if the spirit of Harts-horn be poured on the blood I did so and â— found at this time that it kept my blood from coagulating into such masses as otherwise it would but the blood turned blackishly-red and in it there was observed a crimson gelatine which run off the knife as jelly of red currants would when beginning to cool After two days it continued still fluid but blackish I have sundry times tried that way of putting spirit of Harts-horn into the pottinger first and then caused them to bleed upon it with this success that immediately it spoiles the red giving it a more dirty colour and casts up a mucous phlegme such as I never saw in any blood upon other Essays just like what many spit and blow out of their noses in catarrhs this covers all the pottinger without any mixture of blood in it and would be white but that the subjacent blood gives it another muddy colour The blood under it was always fluid and unequally mixed with parts of a bright and blackish red Whether my journey or distemper prevented that appearance in my blood I know not 9. I had a Patient there which had unknowingly taken much of Mercurius dulcis in pills at Loâ—â—oâ— to her great prejudice several ways and though she had taken golden-bullets and used other means to discharge her body of that troublesome Inmate yet found little benefit At the Bath I let her blood and to try an Experiment I cast a Guinny into one of the middle Pottingers as she bled I could observe no difference betwixt the blood preceding and that therein but in the afternoon I came and went to that pottinger which had the most florid and best coloured blood and searching there found my gold and that stained with white spots from the Mercury on the lower side Whether the separation of the Mercury or some other efficacy in the Gold of whose power in such cases I can give good instances caused that difference in the bloods I cannot tell having never tried it since Being not well at Warwick by reason of a violent defluxion into the Glandules of the Throat I caused my self to bleed Octob. 20. 1. I took six drams of spirit of Harts horn not very well rectified nor clear of colour and put it into a crystal-glass and bled thereupon about half an ounce of blood it turned of a dark red presently inclining much to black though as it stood or as it was held on one side you might perceive a lighter but not florid red at the sides It seemed fluid for two dayes but as I poured it out it appeared to be very Gelatinous and of colour like that which is become sanious and degenerated into blackishness with keeping 2. I bled upon the same liquor of Salt-peter about half an ounce of blood upon four ounces of liquor at first the blood did turn on the surface to a bastard-scarlet which is an effect every thing of Nitre mixt with blood so produceth afterwards the whole blood sunk to the bottom the upper part being all of one colour and consistence such as is observed in the Serum of the blood sometimes when the supernatancy is whitish and not transparent Being poured from the blood I found that coagulated into a mass which was all of a very natural red all over only spotted in many places underneath with black spots The concretion was so brittle that it would not hang together nor endure any light-pressure but as it were melted and seemed gelatinous 3. I bled upon a Solution of the Alcali of Nitre it appeared upon the first mixture like bastard-scarlet then the blood sunk to the bottom the top being transparent yet of the colour of High-countrey-white-wine the bottom seemed redder then that of tâ—e former the limpid liquor being poured out seemed all gelatinous and had incorporated with it the serous part of the blood the red at the bottom was fluid and not tenacious but of the consistence that blood is of when it is hot and newly received in a vessel out of the veins N. B. After I had poured out the blood and mixtures out of the several glasses and that the glasses had stood a while I observed that that of the raw Liquor of Nitre which remained in the bottom did turn of a most beautiful red as ever I saw in any thing but that with the spirit of Harts-horn or Solution of Alcali c. did not vary after two days all the remains of blood in the several glasses turned blackish and sanious only that with the raw liquour altered not 4. I bled upon the liquors of Salt-peter which had passed the ashes and on that which had never passed the ashes both were of the same blackish and sanious colour after the first bastard-scarlet was past both had on the top a certain cremor which being cast into the fire discovered it self to be nitrous both of them though they were of such a dirty red inclining to black yet were they of one consistence from top to bottom all fluid nothing gelatinous nor any one part blacker or redder then the other Which is very much considering the difference of the two Liquors 5. I bled upon the unctuous Mothers of Salt-peter which turned at first to a bastard-scarlet the blood did never mix with the Mothers nor otherwise ting their colour then as it cast a shadow by its innating on the surface of them It coagulated on the top of the Mothers being of colour all thorough exactly like to Ocher the concretion was a quarter of an inch thick a firm mass to seâ— to like so much bees wax cast into a cake I took it up in one mass with my knife but trying its tenaciousness I found it as brittle as most short cakes are Upon the surface there was an appearance of certain striae which might be saline All the blood did not coagulate so but underneath there was a quantity which in the glass was of equal dimensions with the other mass it was of the colour of Oker and fluid and would not mix with the Mothers at all I took of the mass and tried to burn it in an arched fire twice or thrice it boyled and bubled up upon the fire-shovel like impure Niter and so burned with a flashing as if it had been most of it Peter it never came to flame as blood doth usually only one blaze as it were always hovered over it for a moment or two not being continued to the body otherwise then by a parcel of smoke issuing out them 6. I took also two pottingers of blood the first and the last of the blood I took away there was no difference in the blood of one and the other the coagulated mass well-coloured of a good consistence less of that black or melancholick crastament then is commonly found the Serum well coloured of tast brinish I placed it in an arched fire it rose up with a globous intumescence but crackled not