X. Both Aristotelians and Galenists affirm that the child at first lives the life of a plant but from hence the Aristotelian concluds that the heart is the first members begot in us because it is answerable to the root in plants which is first generated but the Galenist infers that the liver must be the first member because the child living the life of a plant hath no other faculty but nutritive which is the faculty of the plant the seat whereof is in the liver But here I side with Aristotle because the liver is no more the seat of nutriment then the heart And because the heart is as the root but it is by the root the plant lives and is nourished And if the liver be the seat of nutriment because of the blood thereof I should rather say the heart is this seat because we finde blood there out of the veins as in a cistern but in the liver there is no other Blood then what is in the veins Neither can the liver be the originall of the nutritive power because there is the sense of indigence or want for so the stomack should rather be this originall because there is the most exquisit sense of want XI The liver cannot be generated without heat and spirits But the seat of heat and spirits is the heart therefore this must be first If any will say that the heat of the matrix is sufficient I deny it for that heat is onely conservative not generative it hardeneth and consolidateth the outward parts but doth not produce the inward XII Aristotle will have the right ventricle of the Heart the nobler Galen the left but I subscribe to Aristotle because I finde that the right Ventricle liveth longer then the left 2. That the Pulse in the right side of him that is dying is more valid then in the left side 3. The right ventricle leans upon the lungs as upon a Cushion or supporter Nature shewing as it were a greater care of this then of the other 4. The right parts are nimbler and stronger then the left because they are hotter 5. Though the spirits receive their completion in the left ventricle yet they are prepared and fitted in the right and therefore there needs not so great a heat in the left ventricle as the Galenists speak of for a moderate heat will suffice to perfect that which is already begun 6. The left ventricle is but a servant to the right in finishing that work which was begun by the right and distributing it into the body being finished XIII The Aristotelians make the vital and nutritive faculty the same the Galenists make them distinct but the Peripateticks reason prevails with me which is this That where there are distinct faculties there must be distinct operations because the faculty is for the operation But there are no distinct operations of the vital faculty from that of the nutritve for accretion diminution and generation are actions of the vital or nutritive Sense and motion are actions of the animal faculties 2. Life is the presence of the soul in the body this presence consists in action this action is nutrition for when this action fails life fails because the chief and first action of the living creature is to preserve it self which cannot be without nutrition seeing nutrition is not without tact in the sensitive creature but when tact faileth animality must needs fail XIV The Aristotelians make heat the efficient cause of the hearts publick motion Others will have the soul Others the vegetive faculty but Aristotle is in the right for the soul works by its faculties and these by heat so that heat is the immediate cause of this motion and the souls instrument yet not such an instrument as worketh nothing but by the force of the principal agent for the heat worketh by its own natural force though it be directed and regulated by the soul the heat then of the heart rarifying the blood into vapors which require more room dilate the heart but by expelling some of these vapors into the arteries and receiving also some cold air by the lungs the heart is contracted this is called Systole the other Diastole And as heat is the efficient cause so it is also the end of this motion For therefore doth the heat move the heart that it by this motion might impart heat to the body But I understand not here by heat a bare quality but that which is called Calidum innatum If it be objected that there is in Plants a vegetive faculty and heat but not this pulsifick motion nor yet in effects I answer the reason is because there are not instruments fit for such a motion nor is there any use of it 2. This motion of the heart is local not totally but partially for not the whole heart but the parts thereof change their place or seat and so in this regard augmentation and diminution are local motions XV. That the heart is not only first formed but is also first informed and first exerciseth the action of life is plain by this reason drawn from the Peripateticks the heart was made at first an Organical member but that could not be if it was not first informed by the soul which is the first act of the organical body and if it was made organicall it had been made to no end and nature had been idle to have made an useless member which could no more deserve the name of heart then a blinde eye the name of eye But the soul that I speak of here is the vegetive or sensitive resulting out of the matter which is first prepared in the heart for reception of it and not the reasonable soul which with all its perfections is created and infused by God into the whole body after it is articulated and made capable of such a noble Guest XVI The Aristotelians are more rational in placing but one principall member in the body then they who place either three or four For it is nedless to make so many principals when as one will suffice Nature aimeth always at unity for all the five senses are united in one common sense all the members in one body all the different specificall parts of the world into one common nature so all the members into one heart which hath in it the natures of all or their temperaments Nor could the soul being but one work upon so many different temperaments if they were not united into one temperament Besides we should be forced to run in infinitum if we should hold more principles then one for avoiding of which inconvenience we must stay in one chief principle If it be objected that the nerves veins and arteries are of different temperaments therefore must proceed from different principles I Answer that from one principle in which divers temperaments are united may issue different temperatures 2. I denie that the temperature of the veins nerves and arteries are different otherwise then Secundum magis
reparation by generation of spirits 5. It differs from the animal motive faculty because it is necessary and perpetual the animal is voluntary and sometimes ceaseth VII The vital spirits are ingendred in the left ventricle of the heart partly of aire prepared in the lungs and conveyed to the heart by the Arteria venosa and partly of the purest blood powred out of the mouth of Vena cava into the right ventricle where it is prepared and attenuated a part whereof is conveyed for nourishing of the lungs by the Vena arteriosa the other part sweats through the partition that divides the heart and in the left ventricle is mingled with the aire and turned into spirits by its excessive heat VIII The Diastole and Systole that is the dilatation and contraction of the heart and arteries is all one and at the same time for the heart and arteries are so united that they make but one body so there is but one pulsifick vertue in both and the end of their motion is the same to wit the vegitation and life of the body the suddenness of the motion in the remotest arteries from the heart and the strong beating of the pulse and heart in Feavers and anger do shew the identity of motion in both 2. The arteries are moved by the spirits of the heart conveyed by their tunicles rather then their cavity for upon the pressing of the tunicles the pulse ceaseth but not when the cavity is stuffed or stopped They are not then moved by their heat and blood but by the heart as may be seen by binding the arteries whose motion beneath the binding saileth the commerce between it and the heart being intercepted 3. The heart is first dilated by receiving the aire then it is contracted by expelling the fuliginous vapours 4. The heart strikes the breast in its dilatation not in its contraction or Systole because the left ventricle which is the originall of the Arteries is distended in the Diastole and so toucheth the breast about the left pap IX The motion of the heart is not voluntary because we cannot command it nor sensitive because it is not performed by the nerves and muscles nor simple because there are two motions nor compounded because they are contrary and of contrary motions can be no compositions nor is it violent because it is not repugnant to its nature nor is it caused by an externall agent as the trembling of the heart is by distempers vapours or humours but the hearts motion is natural yet not caused by the elementary form for so there should be more agents in our bodies then one and its motion should be â—itâ—eâ— upward or downward but it is natural in respect of the soul which is the chief nature that works in animal bodies and in respect of the fibers heat and spirits of the heart which are natural organs and in respect of the natural use or end of this motion for the heart dilates it self to receive aire and blood it contracts it self to be emptied of its fumes and to communicate its spirits to the nerves which ends are naturall X. When Aristotle saith that the motion of the heart is caused by heat and cold he contradicts not the Physitians in affirming the soul or its vital faculty to be the cause of this motion for heat and cold are subordinate instruments to the soul which by the heat of the blood and spirits dilates the heart and by the attraction of the cold air contracteth it as we see water by the heat of the fire swel and dilate it self but upon the breathing of cold air to contract and fall down again CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutriment 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs ARistotle differs from the Galenists about the motion of the Lungs he will have them moved by the heart whose heat listeth up the Lungs upon which motion the air enters for avoiding vacuity which being entred the Lungs fall The Galenists will have their motion to depend on the motion of the breast but both are in the right For the motion of the Lungs is partly voluntary and so it depends on the moving of the muscles of the breast and partly natural and so it is moved by the heart 2. When Aristotle denies that the air is the nutriment of the spirits which the Galenists affirm his meaning is that the air doth not properly nourish the spirits as meat doth our bodies for there is no assimilation or conversion of the substance of the air into our spirits which are properly nourished by blood but only a commixtion of the air and spirits for refrigeration And indeed if the spirits were properly fed by the air there would not come out the same air that went in For the spirits would not part from their food the air then nourisheth the spirits as it doth the fire by refrigeration and preserving it from suffocation II. Respiration is not so necessary for preservation of life as the motion of the heart for histerical women can live without that but they cannot live without this Neither is the motion of the arteries of absolute necessity for the member is not deprived of life though the arterie be stopped or tied and deprived of its motion 2. The motion of respiration is more noble then the motion of the heart because this is meerly natural that is also animal and voluntary yet as the motion of the Lungs is subservient to the motion of the heart that is more noble then this for the end excels the means III. The Lungs are hot and moist hot that they mighâ— temper and alter the cold air therefore the substance is fleshy light and spongy and fed with hot and spirituous blood from the right ventricle of the heart It is also moist as appears by its soft and loose substance It is also moist accidentally by receiving the flegme and rhumes that fall from the brain 2. The Lungs refrigerate the heart not because their substance is cold but because the air is cold which they attract IV. Respiration is a motion partly voluntary as it is performed by the muscles nerves and diaphragma which are the organs of voluntary motion and as it is in our power to breath or not to breath to hasten or retard it And it is partly natural as it is performed by the Lungs which are organs of natural motion as it is not subject to fatigation as it is performed in our sleep when we have no command over our selves and the sensitive faculties then cease as it is not performed by election or apprehension of the object as voluntary motions are And lastly as in Apoplexies when the senses fail the brains and nerves are hurt yet respiration continues it is then a mixt action as the expulsive actions of the
Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's Body discovered In an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the Parts thereof As also By a Discovery of the strange and marveilous Diseases Symptomes Accidents of MAN's BODY WITH A Refutation of Doctor Brown's VULGAR ERRORS The Lord BACON's NATURAL HISTORY And Doctor Harvy's Book DE GENERATIONE COMENIVS and Others Whereto is annexed a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author and his Answer thereto touching Doctor Harvy's Book de Genetatione By A. R. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to bee sold by Iohn Clark entring into Mercers-Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1652. TO THE WORSHIPFUL and my much honored FRIEND EDWARD WATSON ESQUIRE Son and Heir to the Right Honorable the Lord ROCKINGHAME SIR WHen I consider your proficiency in the Schoole of Wisdome your daily exercises in the Temple of Vertue for which you may in time deserve a Shrine in the Temple of Honor your hearty affection to true and solid Philosophy not that which the Apostle calls Vain and deceiving and lastly your sincere love to me I thought good not in way of retaliation but of a thankfull recognition of your favours to present this piece to you wherein you may perceive how many strange wonders and secrets are couched up within the Microcosme of our body and with what admirable artifice the base and infirm materials of this our earthly Tabernacle are united and composed Likewise you may see how much the Dictates and Opinions of the ancient Champions of Learning are sleighted and misconstrued by some modern Innovators whereas we are but children in understanding and ought to be directed by those Fathers of Knowledge we are but Dwarfs and Pigmies compared to those Giants of Wisdom on whose shoulders we stand yet we cannot see so far as they without them I deny not but we may and ought to strive for further knowledge which we shall hardly reach without their supportation I disswade no man from inventing new but I â—ould not have him therefore to forget the old nor to lose the substance whilst he catches the shadow Women and Children love new wine because pleasant to the palat but wise men chuse the old because wholsomer for the stomach As I abridge no man of his liberty to invent new wayes so I hope they will not debar me of the like liberty to keep the old paths so long as I find â—hem more easie and compendious for attaining the end of my journey Sir I will not trouble you with any larger Discourse on this subject I wish an accumulation of all vertueâ— and happinesse on you and withall the continuation of your love to him who professeth himself Your humble servant Alexander Ross. The Contents of each Chapter in these foure Books CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three â—entricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in â—the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form CHAP. III. 1 Why the heart the originall of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensitive spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concoâ—ted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felâ— the pith in the back bone hor. 11. Why the brain and heart at such aâ—d stance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or becausâ— they cause an alteration in the body from wheâ—ce is the distinctioâ— of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter weaker and colder Lib. II. CAP. I. 1. Mans Body fitted onely for mans Soul Tritons are not men 2. How Mans body is more excellent then all others 3. How the Soul is most in the Brain and Heart 4. A twofold heat in us 5. What Creatures nourish most 6. The Womans imagination cannot alter the form CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two lights and its colours Light gives the second act CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest
as Galen thinks CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2 The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud CHAP. IX 1. The Livers heat inferiour to that of the Stomachs 2. Of the natural Spirits in the Liver and how it is cherished by air 3. Of the Gall and how it is nourished How the Choler is conveyed to it of its two passages and one membrane CHAP. X. 1. The use of the Gall and Spleen its obstructions its Veins and Arteries without concavity 2. Vas venosum 3. How the Spleen purgeth it self 4. The Veins and its humours 5. Why the stone causeth vomiting and numbness in the thigh 6. The bladder its attraction and expulsion CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testieles how the noblest parts Generation without Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuaâ—ion 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membranes first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4 The similitudeâ— of the parents on the children 5. Twins how bâ—got and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Supersetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The Childs heart moveth in the matrix CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How caused CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutrimeâ—t 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye both watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eye is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eye proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus of the sympathy between the ear and the mouth CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell realâ— odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without tact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories LIB III. A Refutation of Doctor BROÌ„WNS Vulgar Errors CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5 Of one that lived some years without a brainâ— another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fought after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie while we are alive 6. Worms in the brain CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange
under water and hardned by the air Viscum or Missletoe how it grows The shade of the Ash-tree pernicious to Serpents CHAP. XXI 1. The existence of the Phoenix proved by divers reasons and thcontrary objections refelled the strange generation of some birds 2. The Ancients cleared concerning the Phoenix and whether the Phoenix be mentioned in Scripture Divers sorts of generation in divers creatures The Conclusion with an Admonition not to sleight the Ancients opinion and Doctrine The fourth Book Containing a Refutation of the Lord BACON Doctor HARVEY and others CHAP. I. 1. Fishes breath not the Reasons thereof and the contrary objections answered 2. Fossil or earth-fishes 3. Fishes delight in the light 4. Fishes of Humane shapes 5. Fishes are cunning and dâ—cible creatures 6. Why some Fishes have Feet and Wings 7. Many monstrous fishes CHAP II. 1. Publick and privat calamities presaged by owles 2. By dogs 3. By ravens and other birds and divers other ways 4. Wishing well in sneezing when and why used 5. Divers strange things in thunderâ—struck people CHAP. III. 1. The Female hath no active seed of generation Doctor Harvies and Fernelius reasons refutaed 2. A Discourse of the Cholick 3. The same soul in a subventaneous and prolificall egge Doctor Harvies reasons to the contrary refuted 4. Blood not the immediate instrument of the Soul Doctor Harvies reasons answered 5. Doctor Harvies way of conception refuted CHAP. IV. 1. My Lord Bacon's opinion confuted concerning the French disease 2. Concerning the expulsion of pellets out of guns 3. Of the wax candle burning in spirit of wine 4. Of the parts most nutritive in animals 5. Of the spirits in cold bodies 6. Of air fire water oyl whiteness the hands and feet 7. Of souls and spirits 8. Of visible objects and hearing 9. Of sounds and musick 10. Of singing birds descending species light 11. Ingrate objects and deafness with other passages CHAP. V. The Lord Bacons opinions refuted Of holding the breath when wee bearken Of time Of long life Of making gold Of starres Of oyl Of indisposition to motion Of death diseases and putrifaction Of stuttering Of motion after the head is off Of sympathies and antipathies of the Vine and Colewort the Fig-tree and Rew. Of white colour Of the Oke bough in the earth Of transmutation of species Of Incubus Of grain in cold Countries Of determination and figures Of accretion and alimentation Of the period of life Of sugar leaves roots snow and putrifaction CHAP. VI. The Lord Bacons opinions confuted concerning Snow Ephemera gravitie the sperme of Drunkards putrifaction teeth bones and nails thick and thin mediums Nilus hot Iron broin sudden darkness drie and moist bodies fish cornes hunger liquifaction hardness moisture accidents light right side spungy bodies stone-walls imagination the cramp hedghog mummy salt Cominus and others refuted concerning motion qualities colours forms the Epilogue Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's BODY discovered WITH A Refutation of Doctor BROVVNS VULGAR ERRORS My Lord BACON'S Naturall History AND Dr HARVEY's Book De Generatione CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three ventricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many AS in all States and Kingdomes there have ever been factions and sidings so have there been still oppositions in the Common-wealth of Learning amongst many others there are two great factions concerning the fabrick of Mans Body namely the Peripateticks and Galenists so that in Rome there was not greater emulation between the Pompeians and Caesarians then there is between the Philosophers and Physitians in the points of Anatomy I stood as neuter a long time but at last being evinced by the multitude and strength of Aristotelian reasons am forced to side with them against the Galenists but so that I do what I can to reconcile them in some things and to make peace for Nulla salus bello I. I will therefore briefly set down the reasons that have induced me to side with the Aristotelians And first concerning the Heart I finde that it is the first member that lives and is formed in our bodies and consequently the noblest and chiefest of all our members whatsoever the Galenists say to the contrary For 1. The Heart is placed in the midst of the breast as the Sun in the midst of the world that it might impart its vital heat and motion to all parts So the seed is in the midst of the fruit 2. Where there is a medium there must needs be extreams but we finde in mans body this medium to wit that there are some parts which both give and receive life and motion therefore there must be some that receive but give not and consequently some that give but receive not and this must be the heart or brain or liver for to make more originals then one is needless seeing Nature always tends to and aims at unity Now that the heart is this principal appears by these reasons 3. First that is most likely to be the originall of life sense and motion in other members which is most apt and capable of these and so that had first life and motion which had the greatest inclination and aptitude to receive them but the heart of all other parts is most apt to receive these from the formative faculty Therefore doubtless this faculty in the seed would first produce the heart as being a matter prepared to receive first the impressions of the formative 4. What the heart is in Animals that the root is in Vegitables but the root is the first thing the plant thrusts out therefore the heart is first formed 5. The heart dieth last therefore it lived first for this method Nature observes that the parts which are last made decay first as the eies and teeth and consequently that decayeth last which was framed first 6. They that have been curious by inspection into eggs to observe Natures progress in the generation of the chick have found a red spot the third day which had a motion like palpitation this could be nothing else but the heart 7. The other members cannot live without the heart but the heart can live without the other members as I have seen a Monkeys heart live a great while after it hath been taken out of the body If then the life of the other members depends from
the heart and not the heart from them the heart must needs be the first that liveth 8. The heart imparts the vitall heat to the other parts it must therefore have existence before the other parts for operation follows the existence 9. The formative power of the seed doth not operate but by the vital heat of the heart therefore this must be first before that can operate 10. The matter cannot be disposed to receive the form of the members nor can the parts be distinguished one from another without the heat and motion of the heart 11. Nature in her operations aims at an end but where there is an end there is order and where there is order there is priority and something that was first II. There are some who hold that the heart is not first generated but that all the members are at the same time begot and formed together But this cannot be so for in the Embryo we see that all the parts are not equally articulated and figured but some sooner some later 2. We see this in art which imitates Nature for the artificer carves and figures one part before another 3. We see the teeth are begot long after the other parts for nature produceth the members as there is 〈◊〉 of them the infant needs no teeth whilst it feeds on milk 4. If all the parts are at the same time framed and articulated then all the body is at the same time perfected but this is not Natures work which proceeds by degrees to perfection having imperfect beginnings III. The Galenists object that Nature had to no purpose made the heart before the rest of the body seeing there is no use of the heart till the body be formed I answer there is a two-fold use namely of Animation and of preparation the heart could not animate the body before it was but it could prepare the matter by its vital heat and motion to receive the impression and influence of the formative power working by the heart on the matter the heart then is usefull not only to the body after it is generated but also whilst it is in Fieri and in generation the heart is the foundation of the whole corporeal Fabrick we cannot say the foundation is needless because it is laid before the house is built for though it doth not support the superstructure before it be yet it is ready and sitted to support it when it shal be Neither will it follow that because the house before it is built needs no foundation therefore the foundation must not be first laid There is need of priority and order the building needs it when it shall be and the builder needs it before it be though the body not yet formed needs not the heart yet the formative power needs it Secondly they object that the formative power is common to all the parts alike having no more relation to one then to another and therefore works upon them all alike and produceth them together I answer God is the common and universal cause of all his creatures yet he did not create them all in one day the universality of the cause excludes not the order of casuality nor is the common relation it hath to the effects any reason of producing them all at one time Again though the formative power hath an equal relation to all parts as they are parts yet it hath a nearer relation to the heart as being its organ by which it works on the other parts IV. If it be asked whether the heart be perfect or imperfect before the other members be articulated I answer It is perfect if it be compared with any other member but imperfect if compared with the whole compositum Again it is imperfect to what it shal be when it shall be fitted with all necessary Organs for animation 2. If again it be asked how the heart can live without nutriment seeing the liver by blood feeds it I answer though the liver be not yet formed yet the heart is nourished by some adjacent matter as the chick is by the yeolk of the egg and this nourishment sufficeth the heart till blood a perfect nutriment be prepared Again the nutritive faculty doth not flow from the liver as the vitall from he heart but it is inherent and implanted into every part as well in the heart as in the liver whereas the vitall is implanted only in the heart and from thence flowing into every member Lastly we may say that the heart needs no food till there be a dependition or wasting of its substance V. The unity of the vegetive soul cannot be preserved in so many different temperaments or the body for there are as many as there are parts if it were not for the common temperament of the heart in which all the others are united receiving from thence heat and spirits It was needfull then that the heart should be first formed as being the common originall of all the other parts all which may be said to have but one common temperament and one soul because there is but one heart VI. Though the Galenists affirm that the heart hath but two ventricles yet the Aristotelians in affirming three in bigger creatures seem to speak more reason For if in bigger animals there is greater store of spirits and a greater elaboration of them then in the lesser it stands with reason that their hearts being bigger should have also more receptacles for containing the vitall blood and spirits then the lesse VII It stands also with reason that the substance of the heart is nervous that it might be the more firm and solid 2. Because the heart is the original of motion which is performed by the nerves 3. Because the substance of the veins and arteries whereof the heart is the originall is nervous VIII The parts which the Galenists call Spermaticall are not made of the Sperma or Seed more then any other parts are but of the dryer and more solid parts of the blood as the Sanguineall are of the thinner parts thereof 2 The males seed is onely active the woman hath no other seed then the menstruous blood which is meerly passive in both which seeds there is a power or potentiality of generation the active in the male the passive in the female both which are from the heart In this also I subscribe to Aristotle IX I cannot assent to the Galenists in affirming the liver rather then the heart to be the first that lives in us and therefore the original of other parts because it is bigger and nearer to the matrix then the heart for the Aristotelians say well that the original of things consisteth not in bulk but in vertue the seeds of trees and plants are least in bulk and yet are the originals of great bodies 2. The vicinity to the matrix is not the cause of priority for the matrix is the place of but not an agent in generation the agent is only the formative faculty in the seed
the superfluous moisture of the body by the natural heat be exhausted and the organs made drier 3. The bodies of other creatures are not capable of mans soul because they are not of that fabrick temper and constitution 4. The faculties of the animal soul have not their originall from the gross and earthy part of the seed but from the aereal by means of its celestial heat 5 The rational soul bringing with it all its perfections the former faculties of sense and vegetation which were in the Embryo give place to it so that now it alone works by its faculties 6. The seed brings with it from the parents it s own heat by which the formative faculty worketh the heat of the matrix is not operative but conservative of the other heat 7. The seed consisting of grosser and aereal parts cannot be called uniform and if it were yet it may have divers operations and faculties ad extra so hath the Sun and other uniform bodies 8. The Embryo is not capable of three specificall forms or souls for so it should be a threefold compound specifically distinct but it is capable of divers generical forms and subordinate the superior being preparatives for reception of the inferior and ultimate specificall form which giveth name and entity as the rational soul doth to the child being perfected CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How câ—used AS soon as the child groweth big about the fourth month the menstruous blood flowes upward to the breasts and when the child is born it flowes from thence and being suck'd by the child the veins of the breasts do avoid vacuity draw the blood upward for generation of new milk 2. In the breasts of Virgins and of some men also there is sometimes found a whitish liquor which is not milk because it hath neither the tast nor thickness nor nutritive quality of milk 3. The breasts or paps are glandulous bodies principally ordained for generation of milk and in the second place for reception of excrementitious humors and guarding of the heart 4. The reason why about the fourth month the blood flowes upward into the breasts is that the child growing big and wanting sufficient food might struggle to get out which it would not do having sufficient nutriment 5. It is not fit that the child out of the womb should feed on blood as it did in the womb because then the mouth of the veins being opened the blood would run out and so nature be overthrown neither would God accustom man to blood left he should become cruel and bestial II. Upon the inflammation of the diaphragma follow oftentimes phrensies by reason of the society it hath by the nerves with the brain to which it sendeth fumes and hot vapors which phrensie is known from that of the brain by the shortness of the breath the chief organ of breath being ill-affected so that the breast cannot freely move it self and because the Diaphragma is united to the Pleura and Peritonaeum which containeth all the organs in the inferiour belly hence all these parts are drawn upwards by the motion of the Diaphragma III. The tunicle of the heart called Pericardium hath within it a water for refrigeration and moistning of the heart which is begot of vapours condensate by the coldness of the membrane as some think or else it sweats through the tunicles of the veins and arteries they that have hot hearts have but little of this water and it abounds most where the heart is colder but whether the defect of this water be the cause of the heat in the heart or the heat the cause of this defect it is uncertain as it is with the sea-water which is turned into vapours by the suns heat and these vapours turned into water again by the coldness of the middle Region so the heat of the heart turns this water into vapours and the membrane converts these vapours into water again and so this circulation continues till the heat of the heart be extinguished by death then is found water onely IV. The heart hath a peculiar hard flesh of its own that it might be the better able to undergo its perpetual motion to contain the spirits and life-life-blood and to resist external injuries 2. This flesh is not musculous because the motion of the muscles is voluntary but the hearts motion is natural 3. The heart hath both straight transverse and circular fibers for attraction and expulsion and oblique fibers also for retension but these fibers are of the same substance with the heart and not of a different as the fibers of the Muscles which are parts of the nerves and Tendons 4. The heart is fed with gross blood answerable to its own gross substance by the vein called Coronaria compassing the Basis of the heart 5. The heart hath two ventricles whereof the right is hottest extensive as Aristotle will have it for it contains the life-blood the left is hottest intensive as containing the vital spirits and so Galen saith 6. If we consider the situation of the right ventricle which is in the right side and the priviledge it hath in living longer then the left we may with Aristotle say that the right ventricle is the more noble of the two but if we consider that the left ventricle contains the vitall spirit which in dignity excels the blood which is in the right we must with Galen give the preheminence to the left and so these two may be reconciled V. The heart is a hot and drie substance that it might be the fitter both to beget and to preserve the vital spirits to attenuate the venal and to procreate the arterial blood And though the spirits be hotter extensively yet the substance of the heart is hotter intensively as burning coles are hotter then flaming straw VI. The vital faculty by which the vital spirits are ingendred for animating the body and preserving the natural heat is an effect of the soul as all faculties are and not of the heart yet here it chiefly resides because of the soul which here exerciseth her chief functions of life 2. This vital faculty differs from the animal because it is not subject to fatigation nor rests in sleep nor doth it accompany the imagination or apprehension of the object as the animal doth 3. It is different from the pulsifick faculty because this is subservient to the vital neither doth the pulsifick beget spirits or is it diffused every where as the vital is 4. The vital differs from the vegitive faculty because the vegitive is in plants and insects but not the vital as it is procreative of spirits for the dull heat of insects is not so soon spent as to need
minus CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form I. IF blood were begot in the liver there should be some Cavity in it that the blood there might be concocted and receive its form for in the stomack Heart Gall bladder c. there are sensible cavities for generation and reception of the Chylus vital blood choler urine c. but in the liver there is no such receptacle and to say that the blood is begot in the substance of the liver is to make penetration of bodies Therefore it is more likely according to Aristotle's Doctrin That blood is begot in the heart If it be objected that if blood were not begot in the liver to what end did Nature fasten the gall-bagg to the liver if it were not to purge the blood and receive its excrementitious ' choler as the spleen doth its melancholy I answer The gall and spleen do not purge the blood made by the liver but that matter which was to be prepared by the liver for the heart the heart then makes the blood which was prepared by the liver and purged by the gall and spleen that the matter might be the fitter to receive the form of blood in the heart being purged before from its gross humors II. Because the heart is the original of the nutritive and â—uctive faculties it must also be the original of the veins â—hrough which these faculties are conveyed through the whole body The liver then hath not so much heat as is requisite for â—utrition auction and generation Therefore the original of these must be in the heart which is the fountain of heat â— And because the heart is the seat of Passions it must be also the original of sense and motion without which there can be no passion and consequently it must be the first organ of the nerves 3. The heart and veins have the same essential form which is nutritive or vitall the same essential work and end also which is to nourish the body or to give it life and vegetation The like may be said of the nerves therefore it must follow that the matter of the heart veins and nerves is the same and that from the heart they have their beginning III. The Galenists will not have the heart the originall of the nerves and vâ—ins because they do not beat as the arteries do which they grant proceeded from thence but rather will have the liver to be the original of them as also of blood because when the liver is corrupted sanguification fails and so arises Hydropsies I answer though the nerves and veins arise from the heart yet they beat not as the arteries do because the blood in the veins is grosser less hot and spirituous then that in the arteries and the nerves beat not because they have not those â—umes which by the motion of the arteries must be expelled their heat also is tempered by the frigidity of the brain and if there were any motion in the nerves it could not be so easily discerned because of the thickness of the nerves and their lying deeper within the body as for Hydropsies they are caused not because the liver doth not sanguisie but because it doth not prepare fit matter for the heart to sanguifie And indeed if the liver did sanguisie the Hydropick would presently die upon the cessation of that action for life cannot subsist without nutrition nor this without sanguification Therefore doubtless in Hydropsies the heart being found converts some part of that inconcocted matter into blood which the corrupted liver could not prepare and by this means the hydropick lives a while IV. All the blood in the veins is not elaborated in the heart but only that portion which is by the arteries distributed into al parts of the body and hath a formative power over the veinal blood The heart blood then is not conveyed by the Vena cava into the body but by the arteries 2. When the heart is called the original of the veins we do not mean the efficient cause for that is the formative power joyned to the heart but the place in which they are formed And there is no place so fit for this generation both of blood veins and other parts as the heart because it is the fountain of heat whose action is the first and the most common of all actions in the body for without the action of heat there can be neither nutrition motion sensation nor understanding as it works by the phantasie V. If the arterial blood were not the nutriment of the body and so wasted being converted into the substance of the body what becomes of it all it must infinitely increase being it is continually generated and not wasted neither can the veinal blood nourish but as it is perfected and receives its form by and from the arterial blood VI. That the heart is the proper seat of the blood appears by this that the blood never thickneth in the heart as it doth in other places being out of the veins But whereas the blood is found curdled in the heart of dead bodies and thin in the veins of the liver it is plain that the blood had received its full concoction and perfection in the heart but not in the liver as being not so fibrous and therefore more thin and watrish VII Because the heart is the seat of passions and appetite it follows that it must be also the seat of sensation for without this there can be no appetite in the sensitive creature and if of sensation then also of nutriment for the sensitive includes the nutritive faculty and if it be the original of the nutritive it must be also of blood by which we are nourished and consequently of the veins which conveyeth the blood chiefly of Vena Cava which ariseth from the superficies of the heart and so fastned to it as to its principle that it cannot be parted from it VIII Because the heart is an organical body being distinct into divers dissimular parts it is a fitter place for the soul then the liver which is altogether simular seeing the soul is the act of an organicall body and therefore the nutritive faculty must be rather in the heart then the liver and though sensation be by the simular parts yet motion requires dissimular and organicall parts because divers bendings and turnings require divers organs IX All sensitive creatures have a
double unity to wit of the matter and of the form The unity of the matter consists in the unity of the parts and temperaments which is to â—e found in the heart onely the unity of the form consisteth â—n the sensitive soul containing in it the vegetive and the parâ—icular forms of each part CHAP. III. â—Why the heart the original of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensative spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concocted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felt the pith in the back bone hot 11. Why the brain and heart at such a distance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or because they cause an alteration in the body from whence is the distinction of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter we aker and colder THough the organs offense be in the brain yet the originall of sensation is the heart because it is the originall of the spirits the chief causes of sensation and without which the organs were no organs But the frigidity of the brain is not the cause of sensation nor of the sensitive spirits it only tempers the heat of the heart and vital spirits that they may become animal Neither is softness and hardness any thing to sensation seeing this is no material but a spiritual and perfective quality Now the heart is sensitive not by the animal spirits derived thither from the brain for these spirits in the heart would quickly lose their temper by reason the heat of the heart is a more active quality then the coldness of the brain but it feeleth by its own spirits whether we call them vital or animal or both For the spirits being turned from vital to animall receive only an alteration but not a substantial change For that only is in the aliments which is transubstantiate into our bodies II. The brain being cold and moist useth to convert superfluous vapours into those humours which most resembleth it self in these qualities to wit into watrish Catharrs and cold distillations therefore it is likely that the brain can transform the vital spirits into other more excellent then themselves especially seeing coldness is a quality hurtful to nature which consisteth in heat and moisture and hath no other use in our bodies but to condensat and to temper the activity of our natural heat therefore we finde the animal spirits most active and copious in those creatures that abound most in heat as in Men Lions Birds c. and in young men more then in old men III. If there be a substantial mutation of the vital spirits into the animal the generation of the one must be the corruption of the other and so the vital spirits must die that the animal may receive the essential form But how can the animal spirits subsist without the vital Or how can that be called an animal or sensitive creature whose vital spirits are dead seeing there can be no sense where there is no life nor life where the vital spirits are dead 2. The animal spirits are not generated of the aire which we draw in by breathing for there can be no generation without mixtion nor mixtion but of divers bodies Now the aire is but one simple body which cannot make a perfect mixtion without the other elements If it be objected that the air is impure and not simple I answer Though the aire be not pure yet it is not a mixed body Physically and properly but only by apposition as Wheat and Barley may be said to be mixed when they are joyned together which is no Physical mixtion wherein the elements lose their forms IV. The animal spirits cannot be generated in the â—entricles of the brain because there the excrementitious flegme is concocted Nor can they be said to receive concoction there seeing what is concocted is thickned but the animal spirits are attenuated now the cold brain is not fit to attenuate Again â—eeing there is continual use of the animal spirits they must be continually generated but if they be continually generated and never wasted where will there be room enough for them And that they are not wasted is plain because they are not consumed by nutrition as not being fit to nourish nor by sensation seeing this is a spiritual and perfective not a material or destructive act Nor lastly by transpiration for nothing is exhaled but excrements Lastly how can the brain be without feeling seeing it is full of sensitive spirits by which all other parts of the body feel V. When the brain is hurt and distempered there followes a defect in sensation and motion which is not a sufficient reason to prove that the nerves sense and motion have their original from the brain no more then that the brain should have its beginning from the stomach or other nervous parts for we know that the mouth of the stomach being hurt the brain by consent is made ill affected by reason of the sympathy and union of the nervous parts so motion is hindred upon the ill affection of the brain because of the many nerves united to the brain and back-bone the brain then is not the principal agent of sense and motion but instrumental onely in that by its frigidity it tempers the vital spirits and so makes them apter for sense and motion so upon the defect in the pen followes the faults in writing and yet not the pen but the pen-man is the chief agent in writing VI. The reason why upon the distemper of the heart sensation and motion do not cease as they do upon the distemper of the brain because though the heart be distempered yet it makes spirits which spirits being refrigerate by the brain and conveyed through the nerves cause sensation and motion which could not be if
the brain were hurt this being the immediate agent and instrument without which the heart doth not operate in sensation VII To conclude the nerves to have their originall from the brain becauseâ—of their similitude is a weak argument For 1. Many children are not like their parents from whom they have their originall but like strangers many times to whom they have no relation 2. There is no similitude between the brain and nerves for that is soft and moist these hard and dry 3. Nor is the nerve in its medullary part like the brain for this is cold the marrow is hot 4. If the nerves are from the brain because their inward parts are soft and marrowy then the bones should be derived also from the brain for they have much more marrow in them 5. If the nerves are from the brain because they have two tuniclesâ— as it hath by the same reason let the Arteries also have their beginning from thence for these also are double tunicled 6. All nerves have not this medâ—llary substance within them VIII Though the heart hath but one little nerve which being tied looseth its sense beneath the knot but above retains it though this I say be so yet from hence it cannot be proved that the brain is the originall of the nerves or of sensation but rather the heart for the upper part of the nerve is sensible because it is joyned with other nerves whereas the lower part is joyned to none 2. The spirits in the upper part are tempered by the frigidity of the brain whereas the lower part hath no refrigeration and though the faculty or power of sense is from the heart yet the act of sensation is not exercised without a temperate heat or refrigeration 3. I think this is rather a conjecture of the Galenists then an experiment for who did ever find this nerve in a living creature IX Aristotles reasons for the coldnesse of the brain are to me not improbable or easie to be answered for if the brain were hot we should never sleep seeing coldness causeth sleep 2. There are more moist humors and flegme ingendred in the brain then any where else 3. There is not blood in the brains as in other parts of the body for it is the blood that warms the body I say there are not veins incorporating themselves into the substance of the brain and terminating there as they do in the flesh and skin which is the cause that every part of the flesh or skin being pricked bleeds so doth not the brain whose substance is white and bloodless therefore though there be veins in the brain yet they are distinct from the substance of the brain and not ending in them neither is that heat which is in the brain it s own but adventitious and externall to wit of the arteries and veins as also of fumes and vapours so then the brain is the coldest of all the parts of mans body yea colder then the bones because the bones are dry the brain moist but cold with moisture is greater effectively then with siccity so the water is colder then the earth If it be objected that the brain is hot because the head is more hairy then any other part of the body and because the brain stands continually in need of ventilation by the nostrils and transpiration by the seams of the skul I answer That hairs are ingendred by the adventitious heat of the brain out of the excrementitious humors of the head and fumes which ascend thither and therefore the brain stands in need of ventilation â—ecause of the many hot fumes and vapours continually ascenâ—ing thither X. The blood and spirits which are in the brain alter not â—ts natural temperament which is cold especially seeing the â—lood is sent thither for nutrition but nourishment is to cheâ—â—sh the part nourished being converted into its substance â—nd not to alter its temperament Now the reason why we â—eel the moisture of the brain but not its frigidity is because â—here is nothing to hinder the tact from discerning its moisture â—eing in a soft substance for where the substance is hard there â—he tact is hindred from feeling the moisture though it be â—oist as when we touch ice but the tact is hindred from dicerning the frigidity of the brain because of the veins and â—rteries within it containing warm blood and spirits yet â—hough the brain be cold the pith in the back-bone which is â—oyned to the brain is hot because we finde no flegme aâ—out it as about the brain it is harder then the brain thereâ—ore more apt to receive and to retain heat it is begot of blood which is hot and it was fit that this warm pith should be joyned to the cold brain for moderating the brains frigidity XI The brain was made cold to temper and moderate the â—eat of the heart but not to diminish or destroy it and for the same cause the heart was made hot to temper but not to destroy the brains frigidity therefore nature hath placed them at a proportionable distance for had they been nearer their actions upon each other had been more violent 2. Though the organs of the sense be in the brain yet the original of senâ—ation is not there but in the heart for the brain with its organs are helps and instruments not the efficient causes of sensation 3. The mutuall action of the heart and brain upon each other is not done immediately but by the intercourse of the spirits XII Though nature doth not make two members specifically different in the same body for the same operation therefore fishes want Lungs because they have gills for refrigeration yet she hath made both the brain and lungs too in our bodies for the same end and work namely to refrigerate the heart and yet in this she is not superfluous because the heart stood in need of a double refrigeration as being subject to a double heat the one is natural for tempering of this the brain was made that so the animal spirits might be generated the other is adventitious caused by hot fumes for cleaâ—â— of these and of cooling the heart the lungs were made aâ—â— so were the arteries too As for the two eyes and two ears and other double organs in our bodies they are not specificallâ— different XIII As the male hath a hotter heart then the female 〈◊〉 he hath a larger brain for the most part that there may be the more refrigeration I say for the most part because the work of nature admit divers times exceptions so Lions though hoâ—ter then men yet have lesser brains then men but that heat iâ— the Lion is more terrestriall â— and therefore needs lesseâ— refrigeration then that which is more aerial yet it may be supposed that man abounds more in heat then Lions because he hath a strait body which is caused by the abundance of hot bloud and spirits in mans body more then in other creatures XIV That the testicles are not
of such absolute necessity as the heart even in respect of generation is plain because many creatures as plants and insects have the faculty and power of generation without testicles 2. The heart and brain in dignity far exceed the testicles because these doe not communicate to all parts the power of generation as the heart and brain doe impart life and sense 3. Creatures that have lost the testicles can live long without them but no creature can live long without the heart and brain XV. In sensitive creatures that doth originally communicate the generative faculty which imparts the sensitive because this includes that but it is the heart not the testicles which imparts sensation and consequently the heart not the testicles causeth generation If it be answered that the power of sensation is derived from the heart to the testicles and consequently of generation then we must know that this very answer confirms the Aristotelian opinion namely that the heart not the testicles is the original of the generative 2. It is a weak argument to prove the principality of the testicles from their necessity for every part of the body though never so base is necessary and yet there is but one principal member And as weak is it to argue the principality of the testicles from the change that is caused in the body upon the loss of them for so there is upon the losse of any other member and many times death it self 3. The distinction of Sexes proc eeds from the formative power but this hath not its original residence in the testicles but in the heart as being the perfectest member and chief receptacle of heat and bloud and spirits by which the formative power operates XVI The seed receives its specifical form and essence in the heart not in the testicles in which it receives indeed concoction that it might be made fitter for generation but concoction causeth only an alteration in the quality not a mutation in the substance So the fruit receiveth its maturity or ripeness immediately from the bough on which it hangeth but its generative power from the root alone so that the testicles are but the hearts instruments working by its heat and concocting the seed that it may be the fitter for generation XVII The bodies of Eunuchs are fatter weaker and colder then of other men not because the testicles do corroborate the body as the Galenists think but because the seed wanting evacuation is turned into fat and many vapours or excrements which with the seed are evacuated in other men are retained in Eunuchs which oppresse the natural heat and consequently cause debility and because of this coldnesse Eunuchs are lesse hairy for hairs are begot of hot fuliginous vapours Finis Libri Primi BOOK II. GALEN in some things maintained in some things rejected or reconciled to ARISTOTLE CAP. I. 1. Mans Body fitted onely for mans Soul Tritons are not men 2. How Mans body is more excellent then all others 3. How the Soul is most in the Brain and Heart 4. A twofold heat in us 5. What Creatures nourish most 6. The Womans imagination cannot alter the form I. AS GOD hath bestowed upon Man the most excellent Soul of all others so hath he fitted him with a Body answerable to such a Soul of which no other Body is capable and if it were yet for want of fit Organs the Soul could not exercise her functions as we see in that Fiction of Apuleius whose soul being in the body of an Asse could neither speak nor write nor doe any thing but what was proper to an Asse yet I have read of Tritons or Fishes having the face lineaments and shape of mans body One was seen in the days of Tiberius another in the time of Augustus a third under Nero Pliny AElian Theodor Gaza Trapezuntius Alexander ab Alexandro Scaliger and divers others affirm the truth of this yet these Tritons or Nereides cannot be called nor are they men though they have the outward shape for it is not the matter not outward lineaments but the form that gives essence and denomination II. Mans body is of all others the most perfect and excellent though he hath not wings like a bird to fly nor can see so far as an Eagle nor hear so quickly as a Fox nor smell so well as a Dog nor taste so well as Poultry nor hath so quick a tact as Oysters and Spiders yet his hands speech and reason doe countervail all these for celerity and reception his senses yeild to the beasts for variety and judgement they must yeild to him III. Though mans soul in respect of understanding and will be inorganical and therefore not properly resident in any particular member more then in another yet accidentally because the brain is the seat of the fantasie from which the intellect receives its objects and the heart the seat of the affections subservient to the will the brain is the seat of the intellect the heart of the will IV. There is in us a twofold heat the one celestial the other elementary that preserves us this destroys us that concocts our food and turns it into nutriment this corrupts and putrifies it and turns it into noxious humours and excrements as we see in burning Fevers It is not then every heat that chylifieth or sanguifieth or assimulateth but this celestial heat Neither is it the quantity but the quality thereof and affinity it hath with the things concocted For there is more heat in a Lion then in a Pigeon and yet the Pigeon will concoct that which the Lion cannot yet this celestial heat is helped by the elementary heat if it be temperate and by the crasis temperament or constitution if it be sound V. Nothing by way of food can cherish our natural heat and maintain our life but what had life and heat it self and the more perfect life it had the better it nourisheth as having neerer affinity with us Hence animals nourish more then vegitables because the matter of their bodies and spirits are more consonant to ours then of hearbs or fruits which if they bee contrary to us in their nature and qualities they destroy us as poisonable hearbs do Purging medicaments are of a middle nature as having some similitude with the humours of our bodies which they attract as Agary with Flegme Rubarb with Choler c. and some dissimilitude with our bodies upon which they work by weakning them especially if they have any delatory quality VI. Though the woman in conception or afterwards can by the strength of imagination impresse some note or mark upon the seed or Embryo yet she cannot alter the sex or form as she pleaseth because this is not the work of imagination but of a diviner power to wit of the external formative agent for which cause a man cannot beget any other then a man for that his seed is not capable of any other form neither doth the formative agent work otherwise theâ— as the seed
flowes from it when it is hurt 2. By the fat which is about it this would consume if the eye were fiery 3. By the watrish humour which is in the cavities of the face in the new formed Embryo 4. By the reception and conservation of the species for the fire can neither receive nor confer any image or species as the water doth VI. Though there be two eyes there is but one sight or one object seen 1. Because the optick nerves are united in one before they reach to the eyes 2. Because there is but one fantasie and one common sens which judgeth of the external object VII The eye in respect of its grosse and solid parts is a patient in seeing by receiving the species or shape not the substance into the chrystalline humor but in respect of the spirits in the eye it is an agent by perception of the species and partly a patient for there is some impression in the spirits or else by them the species could not be conveyed into the common sense and phantasie The spirits then are agents not outwardly upon the object but inwardly upon the spirits received from the object and when they are employed about som other thing in the phantasie the eye seeth not its object though the species be impressed in the chrystalline because there is required for sight not only the impression in the chrystalline but also a perception and apprehension in the spirits in which action properly and formally vision consisteth And though the spirits be no part of the eye as it is a solid substance yet they are part as the eye is the instrument of sight VIII There are in the eye when it seeth two lights the one from without whereof there is greatest quantity in the white of the eye the other from within which is most prevalent in the chrystalline disposing it to receive the species as the outward light disposeth the air The outward light if it bee not proportionable to the inward makes this unfit for vision not by extinguishing or destroying it for one light cannot destroy another but by too much extending or destroying the mean and proportion of the inward light There is besides these two a third light in the eies of owls cats such creatures as live by preying in the dark which light is not immanent in the eye but transient into the air that the medium being illuminate the species of the object might be raised IX The eye hath not such colours as are made by the mixture of the four elements or prime qualities but such only as are made by the mixture of the light and the diaphanous or perspicuous body The first sort of colours are in the dark in respect of their existence or quality the second sort hath no existence at all in the dark And though the light give not the first act or beeing to colours yet it giveth the second act in making them visible and actuating them to work upon the eye by sending their species thither CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest as Galen thinks THAT there is in living creatures besides the elementary heat another called celestial is manifest because the fire or elementary heat neither in part nor in whole is the cause of generation 2. Because the elementary heat remains after the celestial is gone as may be seen in spices which retain or rather increase their elementary heat as they grow drier being separate from the Tree and yet they want that celestial heat by which they did live and had vegetation for now being dead nutrition attraction vegetation growth and other functions of life cease which were the effects of the celestial heat 3. Because in Mandrakes and other cold herbs there is this celestial heat by which they live and yet no elementary heat at all for they are cold both actually and vertually II. As in living creatures there be divers dissimular parts so there be temperaments and diversity of heat all which are united in the heart the fountain of heat which it communicates to all parts by the bloud and spirits this primitive heat is in perfect creatures compacted within the heart in Trees and Plants within the root in Insects it is diffus'd through all the body without any union in one part more then another which is the cause that when snakes and worms are cut in pieces every piece moves which is not so in the hand or foot of perfect animals if they be cut off so wee see in some twigs of Trees that being set in the ground grow and take root which shews That the original heat and substance of the root is in every part of the Tree and that the primitive heat of the creature might bee brought to a temper refrigeration is required which in terrestrial animals is performed by the air in fishes by the water in herbs by the earth moistned by which they are nourished and refreshed III. The animal and vital spirits in our bodies are not a celestial substance as some have thought For 1. The Heavens are not subject to generation and corruption as these are 2. The Heavens are a quintessence but these are elementary or aerial 3. The Heavens cannot be diminished which they must needs be if our spirits be heavenly bodies for they are as they say pieces of that great body which at last will be quite spent except they be repaired either by a new addition or by the reuniting of the same spirits to it again 4. Seeing the Heavens have but one motion which is circular how can any part therof come down into our bodies except it hath also a strait motion 5. Gravity and levity are elementary qualities whereof the Heaven is not capable and therefore cannot descend 6. Our spirits must either be united to the bodies of the Heavens and so continuated bodies with them or else separated and divided both which are absurdities 7. These spirits did either move them selves downward or else they had some other mover the first we cannot grant except wee make the celestial bodies living creatures for only such move themselves neither can we grant the second except we know what this mover should be it cannot be natural for the motion is violent nor can the mover be violent for the work of generation is natural it remains then that these spirits are aerial in their nature and substance but the instruments of the soul in regard of their function in which regard only we consider them as they are in our bodies for many actions proceed from them as they are the souls instruments which cannot be effected by the air as air IV. The natural or primogenial heat in living creatures is not a substance made up of seed
drowned hath his spirits extinguished he that dieth of sicknesse hath his spirits wasted Thus the flame in the candle by the wind is extinguished by the defect of wax it is wasted the quantity remains in that it is lost in this II. The Animal Vital and Natural spirits are distinct in their originals for the animals are from the brain the vital from the heart the natural from the liver 2. In their Vessels for the animal are in the nerves the vital in the arteries the natural in the veins 3. In their operations from the animal we have sense and motion from the vital life from the natural auction and nutrition 4. The vital spirits remain when the animal and natural are gone In a Palsie there is neither sense nor motion in an Atrophy there is neither auction nor nutritition and consequently neither animal nor natural spirits and yet there is life and vital spirits 5. The Natural spirits are in every part of the body so are not the Animal and Vital but in their proper vessels 6. The motion of the Animal spirits is voluntary and in our power so is not the motion of the other spirits 7. The Animal spirits rest in sleep the Vital and Natural are then most active 8. The Animal spirits are subject to fatigation and cessation the others not 9. In Vegitables there are Natural and Vital spirits but not Animal in imperfect Animals there are all three but grosser and colder therefore not so apt to be dissipated III. That there is no active seed in the female for generation but that she is meerly passive in furnishing only the Matter or Menstruous bloud with the place of conception is according to Aristotle manifest because if the females seed were active she may conceive of her self without the help of the male seeing she hath an active and a passive principle to wit seed and bloud and where these principles are there will be action and passion If the Galenists object that the females seed is colder then the males and therefore not procreative without it I answer That though it be colder then the males yet it is hotter then the bloud and therefore active the bloud being meerly passive Again the heat of the males seed is but an accident no ways concurring essentially to generation but only by way of fomenting and cherishing the females seed as the heat of the Hen doth to the generation or production of the Partridg wheras the whole power and faculty of generation was in the Egg not in the Hen so by this opinion the males seed affords nothing but heat or fomentation 2. If the females seed bee active and the males too it will follow that two efficients numerically different and having no subordination to each other do produce one effect which is absurd 3. It will follow that there are three material causes to wit the males seed the females and the bloud and therefore must be three forms for one form hath but one matter 4. It will follow that the female is perfecter then the male as having more principles of generation to wit the seed the bloud and the place or matrix 5. And in this respect that the male will stand more in need of the female then she of him he being more indigent of these principles of generation then she and having a greater desire to perpetrate the species then she 6. The Galenists are mistaken in thinking those glandulous substances in the female to bee testicles containing seed whereas they are kernels to receive the superfluous moisture of the matrix 7. The arteries nerves and veins are not spermatical parts for of the seed no parts are procreated but they are sanguineal as the flesh differing from the flesh in this that being cut they do not unite again as the flesh because of their hardnesse and drinesse and want of that moisture which is in the flesh 8. The males seed being received into the menstruous bloud doth evaporate and turn into spirits animating the informed masse 9. The child sometimes resembleth the Father sometimes the Mother according to the predominancy of the seed or the bloud 10. As the bloud nourisheth the nerves veins c. so it may be transformed into them 11. The bloud may be called seed because the seed is begot of it and as in Vegitables Hearbs and Trees are begot of seed so in animals procreation is of the bloud Hence Christ is called the Seed of the Woman IV. The Adeps or fat in our bodies is generated not by heat for heat dissolves and melts it 2. Coldest temperaments are fattest as Women are fatter commonly then men in Winter creatures are fatter then in Summer in cold more then in hot Climats men are fatter English and Dutch are fatter then Italians or Spaniards 3. Fat adheres only to the colder parts as the membranes Nor is it generated by cold For 1. No part of our body is actually cold but hot 2. The Kidneys and heart which are very hot have far adhering to them 3. Melancholy men and old men who are cold have little or no fat It remains then that the Adeps is begot of a temperate heat which in respect of a greater heat may be called cold as the brain in respect of the heart And nature hath placed the fat next to the cold membranous parts for cherishing of them so the far of the Cawle was chiefly ordained for fomenting of the stomach which is oftentimes wasted by the excessive heat of the liver Hence it is that a hot liver is accompanied with a cold stomach for the hot liver like a cupping glafse sucks and draws the heat of the neighbouring parts to it V. When we consider the cold flegm with which the lungs are still infested 2. The office of them which is to refrigerate the heart 3. Their colour which is whitish we would think that they were of a cold constitution On the other side when we 1. look upon their light and spongy substance 2 on their office which is to temper and warm the cold air that it may not offend the heart 3. On their nutriment which is the cholerick or bilious bloud we would think they were hot of constitution and indeed so they are and cold only by accident by reason of the external air and water from the brain and other parts CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared THE Heart hath divers prerogatives above other members 1. It is the Fountain of our natural heat 2. Of the Vital spirits from whence the Animal have their Original 3. It is placed in the midst of the breast 4. It is the first that lives and the last that dies 5. It is of that absolute necessity that the welfare of the sensitive
creature depends on it therefore Nature preserves it longest from diseases and as soon as the heart is ill-affected the body droopeth 6. Sensitive creatures can live some without Lungs some without a Spleen some without Kidneys some without a Gall some without a Bladder but none can live without the Heart or something answering to the Heart as bloudless animals 7. The Heart is admirable in its motions if either we consider the manner or perpetuity thereof or that it is of it self not depending upon our will or pleasure II. The actions of our members depend originally from the temperament of the â—imular parts but in respect of perfection and consummation from the conformity and right situation of the Organ so the temperament of the Chrystalline humor is the efficient cause of sight but the situation and conformity of the parts of the eye is the perfecting or consummating cause For if the Chrystalline or other parts of the eye were otherwise situated we should either not see â—o well or not at all III. That there are no spermatical parts as Nerves Bones Veins c. but sanguineal only is plain by these reasons â— To make more material causes then one is to multiply entities needlesly whereas the menstruous bloud is sufficient matter for all the parts which because it is the matter of our bodies it had an inclination disposition or potentiality to all parts and because the work to be produced was Heterogenious and the form heterogenious therefore the matter had an heterogenious potentiality as well to those parts which the Physitians call spermatical as to the sanguineal 2. I would know which be the spermatical parts of an Egge not the white for of that they grant the whole Chick is formed not the yelk for that is they say the food of the Chick and yet we see the Chick hath bones and other spermatical parts as they call them If then Bones and Nerves are no seminall parts in a Chick neither are they in a Childe the reason being alike in both 3. The spermatical parts are nourished by the blood then doubtless they were generated of blood for iisdem nutrimur ex quibus constamus and there can be no nourishment without transition and transinutation of the blood into the parts nourished Now to say that the blood which nourisheth these parts becomes seed or spermatical is to employ the testicles in continual working of seed for nutrition of the spermatical parts how can so much seed be generated and by what vessels shall they be carried to the upper parts of the body 4. The heart and liver are sanguineal parts then doubtless the nerves arteries and veins which are from them bee sanguineal IV. The Bones Nerves Arteries Veins and Grissles being cut or broke are not so easily re-united as the fleshy parts not because they are spermatical but because they are harder and drier then the fleshy for in children while they are soft and moist they are easily reunited and the Veins which are softer then the Arteries are sooner healed for the hardness thickness and perpetual motion of the Arteries hinder its coalition 2. Likewise where there is defect of natural heat as in old men these are hardly knit together For heat is the chief Artificer or Agent in the body 3. And where there is defect of matter or radicall moisture the cure is difficult as in old men 4. If there be not a sufficient time given the cure will never be effected Thus the heart being wounded is never united because life flieth before the cure can be performed V. The spermatical parts by most are counted colder then the sanguineal which cannot be for we find by experience that there is more heat in the stomach then in the liver for it is a greater heat that turns bones or such hard meats into a liquid substance then this which turns our liquid substance into another to wit the Chylus into blood If it be objected that those creatures whose stomachs are incompassed with flesh concoct best I answer it is true not because the flesh is hotter then the stomach but because it keeps in the heat thus though our cloaths keep in our heat no man will say that they are hotter then we for this cause our bones and nerves are wrapped about with flesh and yet these are hotter then the flesh in their opinion that call them spermatical for they conâ—efs that the seed is hotter then the bloud therefore that which is generated of seed must needs be hotter then that which is begot of blood If it be objected that the seed is hot in respect of its spirits but cold in respect of its matter I answer that if the matter of the seed were not hot it could not so much abound in spirits for by the heat the spirits are begot and not heat by the spirits therefore when the heat fails the spirits fail Hence it is that the animal spirits in the nerves move not the hand when it is benummed with cold but let the hand be warmed and then the spirits have life again 2. Those parts which they call spermatical are more sensible of the cold and sooner offended by it then the sanguineal parts and therefore must needs be hotter for one contrary is most sensible of another thus are we more sensible of a little cold in Summer when we are hot then of a great deal in Winter Southern people whose bloods are hot are sooner offended with cold then the Northern whose constitution is colder 3. The heat of the bladder which they call a spermatical part is so great that it can bake the slimy substance of the urine into a hard stone which argue s its heat above the sanguineal parts Some Physitians answer that this is done not because of the heat but by reason of the long stay and sliminess of the matter but they must know that the slimy matter is meerly passive and that it is the heat which is the agent and artificer of the stone as for the long stay that is but a help for time is no agent 4. That the bones are hot is manifest for they have much fat in them as we see in bones when they are burned and a greater heat was required to bring them to that hardness then the ordinary heat of the sanguineal parts VI. The brain was not made for the skul but the skul for the brain therefore it is like they were formed both together and that the skul was proportioned to the bigness of the brain and not this to the bigness of the skull 2. The brain and skull were placed uppermost for the eyes which were to be neer the brain because of the spirits and optick nervs which by reason of their softness were fittest to be implanted in the eye otherwise they had been too hard for the nerve is harder as it is farther from the brain and no place was so fit for the eyes which were to watch over the body as the
upper place neither could the eyes be so secure any where as within these concavities of the skull 3. The skull being a bone feeleth not for bones have no other sense but what is in the membrans or Periostium neither can there be sense but where there be nerves but there be none in the bones except in the teeth which therefore feel because the nerves are incorporated in them and communicate the sensitive spirits to all parts of them and the sensitive faculty with them yet they are more sensible of the first then of the second qualities 4. The teeth are still growing because there is continual need of them and are harder then other bones because they were made to bruise hard meats 5. They are more sensible and sooner offended with cold then with heat and yet heat is the more active quality which sheweth that the constitution of the teeth is hot for if they were cold they should not bee so soon troubled with cold being a friendly quality CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2. The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion I. THERE are in our bodies two sorts of blood the one arterial begot in the heart for the exciting of our heat the other venal begot in the liver for nourishing of the body â—o according to Aristotle the heart and according to Galen the liver may be called the fountain of bloud 2. As the heart is the first thing that liveth in us so it must needs be first nourished for life cannot be without nutriment nutriment cannot be without blood therefore there must needs be blood in the heart before there was any in the liver 3. As the heart first liveth so it first operates for life consists in operation but the proper work of the heart is to beget arterial blood and vital spirits therefore the blood was first in the heart 4. Though blood resemble the liver in colour it will not therefore follow that blood hath its first original from the liver but only that it is the receptacle and cystern of blood so the bag in which the gall lieth hath the same colour with the gall and yet this is generated in the liver and onely contained in the bag and it s a question whether the liver coloureth the blood or the blood the liver 5. In fear and sadness the blood retires into the heart which is by means of the spirits recoiling thither with the blood as to their original 6. In the brain we finde four sensible concavities for the animall spirits in the heart two for the blood and vital spirits but in the liver none for the blood in the resticles none for the seed nor in the breast for the milk which makes me doubt whether the blood seed and milk have any concoction in these parts if they have it must be surely in a very small quantity 7. I finde pure blood no where but in the heart and veins by which I gather that there must be a greater commerce between the heart and veins then some doe conceive which appears also by the implantation of the vena cava in the heart which cannot be separated without tearing of the heart or vein and that either the blood is perfected in the heart and prepared in the liver or else prepared in the heart and perfected in the liver besides that the arteries doe all along accompany the veins II. I see no reason why we may not affirm that the heart is continually in its Diastole drawing blood out of the vena cava and in its Systole or contraction refunding blood into the same vein for this continual motion of the blood is no more impossible then the continual motion of the heart and arteries neither is it more absurd for perfect and imperfect blood to bee mingled in this motion then for cholerick melancholick and flegmatick blood to be mingled with pure blood in the veins 2. When the liver is vitiated sanguification faileth and so hydropsies follow which doth not prove that the liver is the sole cause of sanguification but that it is subordinate to the heart so when the Chrystalline humour is vitiated the sight faileth and yet this humour is not the sole cause of fight but is subordinate to the opâ—ick nerve and spirits The heart then by the liver distributes blood to the members 3. The veins have their radication in the liver their office and distribution from the liver and the heart their original from neither in respect of matter but in respect of efficiency from the heart for this first liveth and therefore the fittest place for the formative faculty to reside in III. The Chylus is turned into blood not by the substance of the Liver for the Chylus comes not neer it and there can be no alteration or concoction without contact nor by the veins for their office is to convey and distribute the bloud not to make it So the arteries doe not make the arterial blood which they convey besides thaâ— the form temperament and colour of the blood is far different from that of the veins therfore the blood is made by the power of that celestial heat by which we receive life growth and nutriment for the same heat produceth divers effects in the divers subjects it works upon in the stomach it turns our meat into a white Chylus in the veins into red blood in the â—eminal vessels into seed in the breasts into milk c. IV. The same Meseraick veins which draw the purest pare of the Chylus from the intestins that it might there receive sanguification contain also pure blood which the intestines draw for their nutriment for every part draws that food which it most delights in Thus from the same mass of blood the Spleen draws melancholy the gall choler the kidneys water V. The Peripateticks will have the heart to be the first original of the nerves and of the sensitive motion The Galenists will have the brain but this contention is needless For the heart is the first principle because it is the first that lives and moves whereas the brain moves not but by the heart In a Syncope or swowning fit of the heart all sense and motion suddenly fail which could not be if these had not their original from the heart the brain may be called the secondary or subordinate caus or principle for this by its cold tempers the vital spirits and so they become sensitive or animal Hence it is that in an Apoplexy there is a sudden failing of sense and motion If any say that the body can move after the heart is taken out and that therefore the heart cannot be the first principle of motion I
motions from divers muscles 2. The muscles of the abdomen are chiefly made for pressing of the same when nature desires to expel the excrements and in the next place to move the breast with the other muscles appointed for respiration 3. The muscle of the bladder called Sphincter was made partly for opening a passage for the urine to passe away which it doth by dilating and extending it self and partly for shutting up of the bladder by contracting it self lest the urine should passe from us in sleep or against our wills whilest we are awaked 4. The muscle called diaphragma or the midriff was made for exspiration and inspiration in inspiration it dilateth it self but in expiration it is contracted upward as we see in dead bodies 6. The muscles of the ribs called Intercostals are some of them external which distend the breast for inspiration some internal which contract the breast for exspiration VI. Aristotelians will have the flesh Galenists the skin to be the organ of tact but I think both are for I take the skin to be nothing else but the outward superficies of the flesh a little dried and hardned and differing no other way from the flesh then the outward skin of the apple from the softer substance thereof so then the flesh both as it is a soft substance and as it is hardned in its outward superficies is the organ of tact by means of the nerves and fibres diffused into it and whereas vision hearing and smelling have the air for their medium tact and taste which are the two absolutely needfull senses without which we cannot live whereas without the other three we may have no medium at all CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud I BLOOD Milk Fat Marrow are not properly integral parts of our bodies for the body is perfect in its limbs and members without these and these in time of hunger nourish the body whereas one part cannot be the aliment of another besides every part hath its figure and shape but these have none yet in a large sense they may bee called parts as they help to make up the whole II. As the Loadstone draweth Iron and Plants nutriment from the earth so doth every part of our bodies draw that aliment which is most proper for it some by the help of the fibres as the heart in its Diastole draws blood from Vena cava into its right ventricle by the help of the fibres some without their help as bones grissles and ligaments So the Intestines draw without fibers the Chylus from the Ventricle with which they are delighted and they draw blood from the Meseraick veins with which they are nourished and the same veines draw the purer part of the Chylus from the Intestines for sanguification III. The same part that draws things needful expels the same things when they grow superfluous or hurtful thus the ventricles expel the Chylus into the Intestines and these expel their grosâ—er and excrementitious parts out of the body so the heart expels by its transverse fibers blood and spirits and hurtful vapours too And indeed nature is more solicitous in expelling of things hurtful then in attracting of things needful Thus we see in dying people that expiration is stronger then inspiration nature being more willing to be rid of hurtful vapours then to receive fresh aire so when the intestines are affected with inflammations obstructions or ulcerations that they cannot send the excrement downward they force it upward into the stomach again and so expel it by the mouth as in the Iliaca passio IV. The expulsion of the Foeces is partly the natural or peristaltick motion of the intestines and partly the voluntary motion of the muscles of the Abdomen which muscles being contracted presse the intestine 2. There are straight Fibeâ—s in the intestine called Rectum not so much for attraction as for strengthning the circular Fiberâ— 3. The Colon is sâ—ated uppermost neer to the bottome of the stomach and hollownesse of the liver thaâ— by the touch of these parts the remainders of the meat which are in the cels of the Colon might be better concocted 4. The stink of the foeces proceed partly from the superfluous humidity which is the mother of putrefaction and partly from the heat of the intestin which though it be natural to the aliment which it concocts yet it is external to the excrement which it expels 5. The length of the intestins which are seven times as long as the body and â—he many windingâ— or folds of them besides the Valâ—ula or shutter in the end of the Coecum do shew that the injections by the fundament can ascend no higher then the blind intestine except there be any of those three distempers in the guts which I mentioned but now or else the stomach be distempered by Bulimia for in such a case it will draw the foeces to it 6. Clysters are sometimes carried to the liver by means of the meseraick veins which suck some part of it from the intestins V. The substance temper and colour of the intestines and ventricles is the same therefore the Chylus is not only concocted in the ventricle but in the intestins also and as the one of these members is affected so is the other 2. As in the intestines there is an attractive concoctive and expulsive faculty so there is also a retentive for all these affections are in the ventricle which is of the same substance with the intestines To what end are stiptick or restringent medicaments used in Fluxes but to corroborate the retentive faculty of the intestins in the lientery the meat passeth away without concoction because the reâ—â—ntive faculâ—y both of the ventricle and intestins is hurt VI. The mouth of the stomach being united to the Diaphragma and this to the breast-bone is the cause that we find much pain about this bone when the mouth of the stomach is ill-affected 2. In the mouth of the stomach is the â—eaâ— of appetite by reason of the two stomachical nerves thâ—re which when they are refrigerated or obstruâ—tâ—d the appetite is dissolved as in Bâ—limia where there is a continual attraction from the stomach but no sense or appetite but when the stomach is molested with cold and sâ—wre humours there is a continuall sense or appetite though there be no inanition of the part as in the disease called the Dogs appetite 3. By reason of the sympathy that is between the mouth of the stomach and the heart they had of old the same name and they have the same symptomes 4. The appetite being an animal faculty â—ath its seat in the braine originally in the stomach subjectively the faculty is in both but the action onely in the stomach VII
aberration of nature for the one sex is no less needfull for procreation then the other 2. The male is hotter then the female because begot of hotter seed and in a hotter place to wit the right side and because the male hath larger vessels and members stronger limbs a more porie skin a more active body a stronger concoction a more couragious minde and for the most part a longer life all which are effects of heat Besides that the bodies of males are sooner articulated and conformed to wit by 10 days in the womb then the females are the motions of the male in the womb are quicker and stronger then of the female The fatness softness and laxaâ—ie of the womans body besides the abundance of blood which cannot be concocted and exhaled for want of heat argue that she is of a dol'der temper then the man She indeed hath a swifter pulse because of the narrowness of the arteries and her proneness to anger and venery argue imbecility of minde and strength of imagination not heat 3. The male groweth flower then the female because he was to live longer therefore nature proceeds the flower as we see in trees and plants a Cherry-Tree groweth up sooner then an Oak and decayeth far sooner Besides the soft and loose flesh of the female is sooner extended then the solid and harder flesh of the male We may then conclude that the male is hotter intensively but the female by reason she hath more blood is hotter extensively II. The seed is no part of the body because the body is not more perfect by its presence nor malmed by its loss or absence nor is it the aliment of the body because then the body would not part with it nor is it properly an excrement peccant in the qualitie but it is the purer part of the blood or quintessence of it unuseful for the body when it is peccant in the quantity 2. Because the blood is in every part of the body and the seed is the quintessence of the blood therefore the seed may be said to be derived from all parts of the body for all parts of the body consume upon much evacuation of seed and as it is from all parts in respect of its material and grosseâ— substance so it is principally from the head heart and liver in regard of its more aerial parts III. Though the menstruous blood may receive corruption by its long suppression or by the moisture of some bad humors yet in sound women it is as pure as any other blood in the body For it is appointed by nature for nutriment of the infant whilst it is in the womb and after birth it is converted into milk neither doth it differ from other blood in its material and efficient causes besides that it is as red and coagulates as soon as the purest blood of the body Neither doth nature send it away because it is peccant in the quality but because it is exuberant in the quantity 2. By reason the menstruous blood is infected with ill humours on which the child in the womb feeds hence it is that there are few or none but one time or other are infected with the small pox which as divers other poisons doth not presently shew it self but lieth a long time lurking in the body And if at the first time the venome of this disease is not thoroughly purged out it returns Hence it is that some have this disease divers times 3. The menstruous blood is not the cause of the small pox whilst it remains in the vessels but when it is converted into the substance of the body hence it is that women whose moneths are stopped are not infected with this malady 4. This blood is evacuated once in a moneth ordinarily at such time as the Moon which hath dominion over humid bodies is most prevalent Nature also observes her own periods and times of evacuation of which we can give no reason But this is certain that if the evacuation of this blood were as frequent as of other excrements there would be no conception IV. The chief uses of the matrix are to draw the seed to it to mingle it with the blood to contain it to excite its faculties and spirits for it is not actually animated till now and so the seed by its spirits is made capable of animation and shortly after being incorporated with the blood of articulation These fore-named functions of the matrix are performed not so much by its heat as by its natural temper V. Oftentimes the vitiosity of the matrix is the cause of monstrous births so likewise is the imagination the defect or exuberance of seed the unlawful permistion of seeds the heat of the body and the formative faculty 2. The false conception called Mola is begot when the seed is faulty weak or deficient and the blood predominant which is known from a true conception because there is no milk in the breasts when there is a false conception neither doth it move after the fourth moneth as the child doth sometimes it is moved by the matrix but not by it self as the child besides it remains after the eleventh moneth which is the time prefixed for the birth of the child CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membrans first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4. The similitude of the parents on the children 5. Twins how begot and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Superfetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The childs heart moveth in the matrix I. ARISTOTLE will have the heart to be the first member that lives in us Galen the liver but indeed Aristotle is in the right for how can any thing live till the heart which is the fountain of heat and spirits live and how can the soul frame to her self a fit habitation for exercising of her functions â—ill first she hath framed the heart by whose heat and spirits she may work If it be objected that the heart cannot live without nutrition but nutrition is by blood and this by the liver therefore the liver must first live I answer that there needs no nutrition till the body be compleat and perfected for wee see imperfect creatures can live long without food I have kept a Spider nine moneths alive in a glass without food Again there needs no nutriment but when there is deperdition and wasture of the substance which cannot bee of the heart before the body be perfected And although the body live at first the life of a plant it will not therefore follow that the heart is not first framed for even in plants there is a principle of life which is the root and nature worketh methodically by quickning that first which must quicken the rest II. As the heart is the first member that is framed by the formative faculty so the outward membranes are first formed by the heat or natural temperament
bladder and intestines are So is the motion of coughing for as it is performed by the muscles it is animall but as it is stirred by the expulsive faculty it is naturall and as it proceeds from some morbifick cause it is preternatural So deglutition or swallowing is an animal action as it is performed by the muscles and is some times hindred by imagination for we swallow with much adoe those things of which we have no good conceit It is also natural as it is performed by the attraction of the fibres which are in the external tunicle of Oesophagus Now attraction is subservient to the nutritive faculty which is naturall V. That no portion of our drink can pass into the lungs is plain because we cough if the least drop of rhume fall from the head upon the lungs besides our breath and voice should be presently stopped the light and spongie substance also of the lungs would be hurt and corroded when we drink any sharp or soure liquors or medicamenâ—s Therefore in swallowing the Epiglottis or little tongue of the wind-pipe covers the Laâ—iâ—â— or top of the Aspera arteria that nothing may fall into it yet the siâ—es of Aspera arteria are moistned by syrrups which somewhat ease our coughing CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain AS the heart is the first remote and mediate originall of motion and sense because the spirits and heat are originally from thence so the brain is the secundarie proximate and immediate organ of the senses which have their particular seats there to wit the â— externall senses and the 4 internal namely the common sense the imagination the discursive and memorative qualities which have their distinct cels The common sense is placed in the substance of the brain the imagination in the fore cel the discursive in the middle the memorative in the back cell the fore cell is softer the back cell somewhat harder the middle is of a middle temper sometimes the one is hurt when the other is sound a good memorie may accompany a bad imagination and contrarily II. When Aristotle saith that the brain was made only for refrigeration of the heart his meaning is not as the Galenists think that the brain was made for no other use but that neither the brain nor heart could be any way useful if the heat of the one were not tempered by the cold of the other for all our frame is out of order when the brain is overheated or inflamed and though the brain be not actually cold yet by its moisture and weak heat it tempers the excessive heat of the heart and vital spirits by means of the arteries which are common to both these organs therefore it is that the brain hath not blood and veins 2. The innate temperament of the brain is cold the adventitious is hot that is iâ— is hot by means of the spirits from the heart but cold in its own substance 3. It was made cold and moist that being the seat of imagination and of the attenuated animal spirits the one might not be distempered with heat nor the others dissipated 4. It is moist that it might be the fitter for generation of the nerves for receiving the images and impressions of things with the more facility and the more apâ— for sensation which consisteth in passion 5. The actions and functions of the brain depend both upon its right fabrick and conformation as also upon its temper for if either of these be hurt the actions of the brain are vitiated III. The brain is void of sense in its own substance but senfitive in its membranes nor was it fit that the brain should feel seeing it is the common receptacle and judge of all the senses and seeing it is in the highest place and receives all exhalations from the inferior parts it should be continually molested if it were sensible of all these vapours 2. As it is void of sense so it is of motion in it self it is indeed moved by the arteries for the feeding purging and tempering of the animal spirits but the brain being the original of motion ought to be immovable in respect of self motion neither are there any fibres in the brain bâ— which it should be moved as there are in the heart neither could ever the motion of the brain be observed other then what is caused by the arteries IV. The animal spirits are so called because they are the chief organs of the soul for her chief actions of sense and motion without the brain of imagination discoursing and remembring within the brain therefore these spirits receive from the senses the images and species of things and convey them to the brain where they retain them for the soul by the phantasie to work upon 2. These animal spirts are begot of the vital but are cherished and refreshed by the external air drawn by the nostrils to the brain so that without air and vital spirits the animal canot long subsist and becaus blood is the remote matter of the animal spirits they grow feeble when much blood is evacuated V. Because there is more need of the vital then of the animal spirits therefore more plenty is required of them then of these for nothing is begot of the animal spirits therefore they waste not so fast as the vitall of which the animal are ingendred besides the vital spirits are perpâ—tually imployed even in sleep so are not the animal but they rest then nor is there any part of the body which hath notlife but divers parts have not sense which is an animal function as the bones and ligaments 2. The animal spirits are prâ—pared in the intricate labyrinth of arteries within thâ— brain but they receive their perfection in the cels therâ—of 3. Though the faculty of sense be an inseparable property of the soul yet it doth not always operate but where there is a fit organ in sleep the soul is in the eye but then seeth not 4. The ventricles of the braine serve not onely for generation of the spirits but for purging out also of superfluous excrements CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye boâ—h watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eâ—e is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eâ—e proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye THough the substance of the eye be watrish as we shewed before yet the visive spirits are fiery as may be seen by their light in the dark their mobility and their resistance to cold for they are not molested with it as other members are 2. When
of Monsters of a woman whose milk did so abound that in the space of two or three days she voided a gallon and an half of which was made very savory Butter and Cheese Though this be rare yet it is no miracle for that woman abounding much in blood must also abound in milk And some Livers are of that constitution and temper that they sanguifie much more then others especially in constitutions that are inclined to cold and moisture for hot and dry bodies have but little blood and therefore little milk and where there is much sweet flegm or rhume it is easily converted into blood III. I read divers stories of women with child who have lusted after and have eat mens flesh and for that end have faln violently upon them and bit them This is also a disâ—ase proceeding of natural causes as that infirmity of eaâ—ing chalk coals dirt tar ashes in maids and some married women called by Physitians Pica or Malacia and is caused by the distemper of the phantasie and soure malignant melancholy humors in the mouth and concavity of the stomach and impacted in the runicles of the ventricle proceeding partly from the suppression of the flowers whereby the appetite is vitiated and the phantasie disturbed and partly from the malignity of the humor coveâ—ing after such things as are like to it in malignity yet contrary to it in some of the prime qualities heat cold humidity and siccity for Nature looks in the contrary quality to finde remedy IV. I read of divers maids one in Colen another in the Palatinate a third in the Diocesse of Spira divers more who have lived without meat and drink two or three years together This indeed may seem strange yet it is not against nature for naturally such bodies as have in them little heat and much humidity can subsist longer without food then hot and dry bodies can as we see in women and old people who can fast longer then men and youths And we know that divers creatures for many moneths together can subsist without food therefore these maids having much adventitious moisture and little heat to waste the radical humidity might continue a long time without food for where there is little deperdition there needs not much reparation besides the moisture of the air is no small help to them V. But that is more strange which Zacutus in his Praxis Admiranda lib. 1. obs 4. mentioneth of a Boy who lived 3 years without a brain if he had brought an example of one who had lived 3 years without an heart I should have subscribed to Galen against Aristotle that the heart in dignity is inferiour to the brain But I suppose that he was not altogether without a brain For that water which was found within the membrans of the skull when his head was dissected was doubtlesse his brain converted into water or else it had some analogy with the brain by which the heat of the heart was for a while â—empered and the animal spirits generated but weakly therefore life could not subsist long in him So I have read in Laurentius or Parry of one who lived many years without a spleen but there were found some kirnels in the place of the spleene which supplied its office As for that woman mentioned by Zacutus Ob. 5. who lived eight years together with the half of a knife in her head between the skull and Dura Mater doâ—btlesse that knife touched not the substance of the brain therefore could be no hindrance to the animal functions VI. It is strange that whereas Anacreon was choaked with a Resin stone yet some as Forestus in his observat recordeth l. 15. obs 24 25 c. have swallowed iron lead long sticks glasse points of knives and of swords and other incredible things without hurt and have voided them by the stool This â—partly impute to the widenesse and capacity of the passages and partly to witchcraft or juggling for the eye in such cases is often deluded although nature sometimes by imposthumes câ—sleth our such stufâ—e for points of knives and pins have been this way ejected and some have perished and have bâ—en choaked whilest they have in their madnesse attempted such things And provident nature hath in some without hurt sent away needles and pinnes by the urine aboâ—t which have been found hard crusty stuffe wâ—ich was the matter or glassy slime that was gathered about these pins and baked by the heat of â—he body VII I have read of a certain Soldier in the Wars of Savoy Anno Dom. â—589 who was shot in the forehead with a Musâ—ueâ— bâ—lleâ— he was cured of the wound but the bullâ—â— remained Afterward falling from a Ladder whilâ—st he was scaling the walls of a Town he was stiffled in the Ditch into which he fell his head being dissected the bullet was found in the hinder part thereof But I believe this removal was by the fall for otherwise it could not have been removed by the heat or spirits of the head CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fâ—ught after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie white we are alive 6. Worms in the brain COlumbus in his Anatomy l. 16. speaks of a young man in Rome whom he dissected and in this found that his heart had no Pericardium the want of which was doubtlâ—sse the cause of his death and for want of it he fell into divers swouning fiâ—s and was often troubled with the Syncope by reason the heart wanted refrigeration which it hath from the water in the Pericardium For some whose Pericardium hath bâ—â—ne but sleightly touched by the sword in the wound of the breast have fallen into swouning fits cold sweats with a cessation of the pulse so needful is this membran and its water for the heart Yea I have read of some hearts quite dried shrunk to nothing for want of this water such was the heart of Casimire Marquess of Brandenbourge of whom Melancthon speaketh l. 1. de anima II. I have read of divers hairy hearts besâ—des those of Leonidas Aristomenes and Hermogines which is also the work of nature for hairs are produced of â—uliginous and grâ—sser excrements of the humours where the skin is hottest and driest for hairs seldâ—me grow where the skin is cold and moist now if these causâ—s be found in the heart the same effect will be produced there but this is seldome seen and in such onely as are of a fiercâ— truculent and audacious disposition III. Ambrose Parry speaks l. 9. c. 23. of a Gentleman who in a duel being wounded dâ—eply in the very substance of the heart did notwithstanding for a good while lay about him with his sword and walked two hundred paces before he fâ—ll down this is likely enough for though the heart was wounded yet the vital blood and spirits and heat of the heart
born with all his teeth and another with a long beard yet such have been and these are but the effects of nature which though in her ordinary course â—he observes a timâ— for the growth perfection and decay of things yet sometimes she is furthered and hindred according as the matter is disposed the heat proportioned and her instruments fitted Why should not Nature have the same priviledge that Art hath but we see that hearbs and fruits can be produced and perfected before their time by the Art of man therefore such works are meerly natural not miraculous for sublunary bodies are not like the â—elestial which are not suâ—ject to alteration but â—till keep the same constant tenor II. What force the imagination hath in women to make impressions of the things imagined on the tender infant in the womb is known by many Stories and daily Examples Hence it is that so many children are born with such variety of strange shapes and marks Besides we know how forcible the phantasie is both in curing and procuring of diseases yea oftentimes of death Thus one having eat of a Rabbit pie imagining she had eat of a cat fel a vomiting and died Another having passed over a dangerous bridg in the dark and returning the next day to look upon the place was struck with such an horror that he went home and died A third being in jest made believe that he must lose his head swouned and fel down dead Multitudes of such Examples thâ—re are but the imaginatioâ—s which proceed from hypochondriacal melancholy are most strange whereby one supposeth himself to be dead therefore will not eat Another is perswaded that he hath never a head A third that his breech is made of glass therefore will not fit down for fear of breaking Anothâ—r thinks the heaven will fall upon him therefore must have a Target born over him Another wil not piss for fear he should drown the world And many more such strange conceits are some men troubled with by reason of their imaginations which are distorted by the black and malignant fumes that disturb the animal spirits subservient to the phantasie Such are the imaginations of those who think themselves wolves and therefore run into the woods and bite men and cattel they meet with I have read of one who thought himself to be a cock and therefore fel to crowing And doubtless the Lycanthropie so much spoken of is nothing else but the strength of a distemper'd imagination whatsoe'r Bodin writes to the contrary III. The cause of many extraordinary distempers in us is poyson whether inteâ—nal bred within our selves by the corruption or putrefaction of the seed blood or humors of our bodies by which pestilent and venemous fumes assault the heart and brains or external as the biting of mad dogs or cats or other creatures For I have read of some that never were bitten and yet have beene subject to the same kinde of raging and fury that they arâ— who are bit by mad dogâ— but their fits were milder because the constitution of dogs is more melancholy then that of mans therefore their venom more dangerous and who would think there were such poyson in a mad cock who being angred struck one in the hâ—nd with his beck upon which blow the man fell distracted and died neither could any physick cure him IV. The madness that is caused by the biting of mad dogs is not in all men alike buâ— upon some the poyson worketh sooner upon some later â—ccording to the degree of madness in the dog or the deepness of the wound or disposition of the body wounded for foul bodies melancholick and cholerick constitutions are aptest to receive the venom therefore in some the poyson appeareth quickly in others not in a long time to wit not in a year or more for the malignity doth not presently assault the sâ—irits heart and brains And Capivacceus observes that this poyson is of a fiery quality and hot in the fourth degree as he sheweth by one who was thus bit his body being opened there was found no water in his Pericardium but a part of it was burned up and being touched fell into ashes the ventricles also were dried up and had no blood at all V. It is strange that some do piss blood upon the applying of the Flyes called Cantharides to the neck hands or feet so remoâ—e from the bladder by this we see that the malignant vertue of these flies hath a particular influence upon that member This action of the bladder cannot be by the first or second qualities of the Caâ—tharides â—or then they should work first uâ—on the next members therefore this action must be performed by an occult quality of the specifical form of the flie And much more strange is it that the body of this â—lie should be poyson and the wings thereof a counterpoyson which in the living fly are aâ— concord by reason of the specifical form or soul of the fly ruling all the parts and keeping them in unity but when that is gon in the dead fly the one part destroys the other Who can give exact reasons of Natures secrets VI. And no less stranâ—e is it that Euphorbium and Mustard are equally hot to wit in the fourth degree and yet the one is poyson not the other and Treacle which is hot in the first degree heats more then Pepper which is hot in the fourth degree this shews that the form of the one is not so aâ—â—ive as the form of the other and therefore four times so much heat in the one is not so prevalent as one degree of heat in the other which shewes that poysons do not work by their temper which consist of elementary qualities but by their substance or form whose qualities are occult to us VII Why Napelius or Wolfe-bane Hyosciamus or Henbane and other hearbs which are poyson to man are nutriment to birds can have no other reason but that birds have a greater heat in their stomachs to subdue the malignity of these hearbs to send away the noxious and excrementitious part and to convert the rest into their own substance which substance notwithstanding is not poysonable to man because the poyson was consumed by the heat of the bird Now the heat of mans stomack is more temperate and therefore less able to master such malignant hearbs yet Scaliger Exerc. 175.1 speaks of a man who was fed with poyson from his infancy whose flesh at last became so venomous that the flies which sucked his blood swelled and died VIII That Amphiam or Opium should stir up venery and cause a tickling in the skin and yet stupifie the members and cast them into a dead sleep is not without admiration but doubtless either the Amphiam or Opium are different that being made of the white this of the black Poppies or else in the Opium there be different substances the one being very câ—ld which causeth stupidity the other very hot by causing a tickling in
the skin which heat is also perceived by its bitterness but cold is most predominant or else we may say that it exâ—ites venery accidentally by temperating the excessive heat of the body which is an enemy to Venus The like effect is wrought by Mandrakes which perhaps was the cause that Rachel so much desired them Nor must we think it strange that the Opium produceth contrary effects for we know that the same Rose in some part of it hath a stiptick in other parts a laxative quality IX The plague to which our bodies are subject is an occult poyson killing us by the breath or touch and not an Hectick Feaver becaâ—se this drieth and burneth up the heart by degrees the plague kils suddâ—nly 2. The Hectick is not infectious as this 3. In a confirmed Hectick there is no recovery in the Plague divers recover nor is the pestilence a putrid Feaver because 1. the pulse is more remiss the urine clearer the head ach thirst and agitation of the body less in the plague then in a putrid Feaver 2. Because a pestilential feaver followes upon a 〈…〉 this is â—on that begins X. Epidemical diseases whereof pestilential are the most perhitious are conveyed to us by the air which we are continually attracting to the heart and brains 1. either when the air is infected with the impression of malignant and occult qualities from the influence of the Stars or 2. when it is poysoned with putrified corrupt and pernitious vapours exhaled out of pits caves ditches putrified lakes c. Or 3. When the prime qualities of the air to wit heat cold c. are intensive beyond ordinary but we must not think that the substance of the air is at any time putrified for being a simple body it is not subject to putrifaction CHAP. VI. 1. Antipathies to some meats 2. The force of Fear 3. Blood voided by the Gums and Navil 4. Black hairs suddenly gray 5. Violence of passions 6. Defects in nature recoÌ„mpensed 7. A Fly voided by Vrine 8. Monethly bloud in men 9. The causes of Monsters 10. Horns on mens heads and heels AS there are divers temperaments of men so there are divers sympathies and antipathies to certain meats and drinks some cannot indure the sight or smel of Cheese others abhor eggs others flesh others bread some cannot abide wine others abhor piggs and all kinde of swines flesh many cannot endure the smel of apples others detest all kind of sweet meats and which is most strange thaâ— the smel of Roses so pleasing to most men is odious and deadly to others Cardinal Carafa during the time of Roses used to inclose himself in a Chamber not permitting any to come near him that had Roses as Wierus Valerian shews in his Hieroglyphicks the smell of a Rose would cause a certain Jacobin swoun and be like a dead man as Amatus Lusitanus recordeth in his second Centurie the like is written of divers others This must either proceed from an occult quality or from the distemper of the phantasie and prejudicate opinion that some have of such things that they are hurtful to them or else it is in some an hereditary infirmity proceeding from the parents for Forestus writes that in a certain family the sons could not ear Cheâ—se but the daughters could eat it with a good appetite becauâ—â— the mother did love Cheese but the father could not abide it See his Annotations on the fifth Observation lib. 4. II. Fear is more powerfull in curing of diseases then any Physitians in the world for Zacutus l. 2. Obs. 86. speaks of a woman whose matrix had fallen and hung out of its place two years together neither could any Physick or Art replace it again till a sudden fear attracted it she feeling the mice running up her thighes which she had purposely holding them by a thread let run towards the part the matrix suddenly slipt into its own place again III. Nature is more skilfull then any Physitian to cure her self and if she cannot finde a way for evacuation of her superfluities she will with Hannibal make a way though it be through Rocks for he shewes that the ordinary passage of the menstruous blood being stopped in a certain woman Nature made her a passage through the gums out of which monthly for two days together great store of blood was voided He speaks of another who on the like occasion had a vent for the blood through the navel lib. 2. Obs. 91 92. IV. That black hairs should become suddenly white may to some seem incredible yet we have stories of this sudden change Scaliger Exercit. 212. tells us of one Francis Gonzaga who being imprisoned upon suspition of treason in one night his black hair turned white Vives in his Preface on Scipio's Dream and Hadrian Iunius in Comment de Coma. c. 10. speaks of a young Spanish Gentleman who in a night became as white as one of 80 years old Caelius Rodiginus in his 13 Book Antiq. lect speaks of another who searched after young Hawkes upon a high steep Rock and fearing the rope would break with which he was held became instantly white Divers other examples I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see that the change of our hairs which is perform'd by nature in space of time ordinarily is upon an extraordinary fear effected suddenly in some the roots of the hairs being deprived of that heat and radical moisture between the flesh and skin of the head by which they were fed the spirits and blood flying suddenly to the heart leave the other parts destitute This we see in trees when blasted with a piercing cold wind their leaves suddenly change colour and of green become yellow their naturall heat and moysture being extinguished and dried up V. There is no passion in our bodies more violent then fear which distempers the fantasie troubles the other senses causeth our hairs to stand an end makes us dumb all which the Prince of Poets expressed in one verse Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit and indeed the fear of death hath upon some brought sudden death the spirits heat and blood flying suddenly to the heart by which this is oppressed and the senses left destitute Others by sudden fear have lost their judgement and become distracted strange effects also are produced in us by excessive anger and joy â—o that some have suddenly died with immediate anger and excessive joy the spirits and heat flying suddenly from the heart into the exterior parts by which means syncopes swoundings and death follow As I could instance in many examples VI. I observe that where Nature is defective in one part there is a recompence made for they who are born blind exceed us in memory and they who are born deaf and dumb excell us in apprehension they who are born without hands or arms perform with their feet what we do by our hands Phil. Camerarius in his Historical meditations c. 37. speaks
the seat of the senses therefore in Aristophanes the word sneezing is used for feeling as when he saith I sneezed not the blow his Interpreter expounds it I felt it not as Caelius observeth But now because the Gentiles abused sneezing superstitiously and wished well to the Sneezer we must not hence inferre That to pray for the safety of him who sneezeth is superstition or Gentilisme as some do for so we may conclude by the same reason that to pray at all is superstition because the Gentiles used to pray It is an ancient custome among Christians to wish well to him that sneezeth taking its originall from the time of St. Gregory when at Rome in a great sicknesse men died with sneezing Doctor Brown out of Fernandes brings some proofes to shew that the original of wishing wel to the sneezer is more ancient then Gregory to whom I answer That it was used among the Gentiles before Gregories time but I deny that it was usuall among Christians till then From this sicknesse therefore at Rome in Gregories dayes in which this wel-wishing was used and not from the Gentiles practice we draw this civill and charitable custome in praying for our friend or neighbour when he sneezeth V. In those that are thunder-struck divers things are remarkable as 1. They keep the same posture of body being dead which they had when they were alive at the time when they were struck as Cardan de rer var. lib. 8 c. 44. instanceth of 8 harvest people in the Isle Lemnes who sitting together under an Oak at supper were all thunder-struck retaining the same posture they had before one with his hand on the cup ready to drink the other with the cup at his mouth a third with meat in his mouth so that they looked like so many statues The reason of this may be the stifnesse of the nerves and muscles being parched and dried up by the hot and sulphury matter of the lightning The like I read of those that are killed with excessive cold which so stiffeneth those parts mentioned that the body retains its posture whether sitting or standing 2. They that are thunder-struck look black because the heat drieth up the radicall moisture The like we see of fire which makes the whitest paper and linnen grow black and the Sun tans mens skins 3. Their bodies do not putrifie by reason their moisture which is the mother of putrifaction is exhausted 4. There is neither wild beasts nor ravenous birds will touch or come neere such bodies because of their sulphury smell which is noisome to them and their drinesse is such that they can afford no nutriment 5. That part which is wounded by the thunder is colder then any other notwithstanding that the lightning or thunder is of a fiery nature because all things which have been heated by the fire grow colder then before by reason the inward heat is drawn out by the fire for in things of the same nature or quality the stronger attracts the weaker 6. The Romans never suffered their bodies to be burned that were thunder-struck but covered them with earth in the same place where they were struck or let them remain unburied nor would they suffer any funeral obsequies to be performed to them perhaps they thought it unfitting to burn those with terrestriall fire who had been scorched already with fire from heaven or to take the shape away or figure of that body with their fire which the celestiall fire had spared nor would they honour him with a a funerall whom they thought execreable and extreamly hated of the gods therefore none would venture to come neer the place till it was expiared by a sacrifice which was called Bidentaâ—l being a sheep of two years old or of two eminent teeth which word also by Persius is given to the party that is thunder-struck whom he calls evitandum Bidentall Sect. 2. because none durst touch or come neer him 7. The thunder seldome or never kills those that are asleep but such onely as are awaked this may proceed from the fear which is in those that are awaked by which the spirits blood suddenly suffocate the heart whereas in sleep there is no fear or apprehension of danger and not only men but cattell also are much afrighted wherefore in thundring times the shepheards use to gather their sheep together that being united they may be the lesle fearfull whereas any creature alone is subject to be fearfull 8. It is a strange quality in the thunder to break the bones to melt the sword to dry up the wine to kill the infant in the womb and yet not touch the skin the scabbard the barrell nor the mother perhaps the skin and leather being pory transmits the sulphury vapour which is resisted by the bones and metall As for the wine exhausted I think Pliny Plutarch and others mean onely the Spirits of the wine evaporated and so the child being more tender and apter to receive the malignant vapour of the thunder then the mother might die and she live CHAP. III. 1. The Female hath no active seed of generation Doctor Harvies and Fernelius reasons refutaed 2. A Discourse of the Cholick 3. The same soul in a subventaneous and prolificall egge Doctor Harvies reasons to the contrary refuted 4. Blood not the immediate instrument of the Soul Doctor Harvies reasons answered 5. Doctor Harvies way of conception refuted WE have proved already l. 1. c. 4. sect 3. that the female hath no active active seed for generation but is meerly passive affording onely blood and the place of conception according to the truth of Aristotles doctrine but because the Physicians are of another opinion that the female hath also seed actively concurring to generation we will examine the solidity of their reasons 1. Doctor Harvy Exercit. 32. proveth That in the female there is an active principle of generation Because of the Horse and Asse is procreated a mixt species to wit the Mule the whole form whereof is made up and mixed of both parents so that the Horse alone was not sufficient to produce this form of the Mule in the matter but as the whole form is mixed therefore the Asse must concurre as an other efficient cause Answ. The Mule is not a compounded species or mixed of the Horse and Asse but rather a third species different from both as having neither in whole nor in part nor separated nor mixed their essentiall forms but hath its own specificall form and properties distinct from those of the parents as we may see in the Mules sterrility which is a property not individuall as in some other animals but specificall of which the species of the Horse and Asse is not capable As for some outward resemblances in the Mule to the parents these are but accidentall and are in animals of farre different species as also in trees and other vegetables Besides the forms or species of things cannot be mixed because essences are impartible and admit