alternate Compression of them by the Diaphragme in inspiration by the Muscles of the Abdomen in exspiration Why then should not Anatomists be able by compression or any other way whatsoever to force the Chyle or other liquor injected through this Parenchyma or supposed Streiner I answer First that the Mechanic Ration of this Colatory being not yet for ought I know discover'd even by those curious Dissectors who have with the best Microscopes contemplated the texture of it I dare not pretend to understand the true reason of the difficulty objected Secondly that if I were permitted to declare my present conjecture concerning the same I should venture to say that the impediment to the manual expression of liquors out of the gutts into the Milky veins in Animals dissected alive may perhaps consist in one of these two things either that of the several causes or motions in the state of health and ease or indolency concurring to this complex and organic operation one or more is wanting and the Mechanism of the principal Organ the interior Membrane of the gutts altered and vitiated in the praeternatural and dolorose state of the Animal dissected or that by reason of the cruel torments the miserable Beast feels the Tone of the gutts becomes so strongly contracted and rigid as to be wholly impervious Which is the more probable because 't is well known that great and acute pain always irritates nervose and fibrose parts to contract themselves even to rigidity which is opposite to the gentle compliance and yieldingness requir'd to permeability Which may be one cause why Nature hath endow'd all Glandules ordain'd for Secretion with so little sense viz. lest otherwise being sensible of every light irritation they might be apt to shrink and condense themselves to the interruption and hinderance of their office And for Animals dissected after death I should guess that in them the Colatory of the Chyle is rendered impervious by Cold which by strong constriction or constipation shutts up all slender and inconspicuous passages of the body that had been kept open by the heat and motions of life But these are my private Conjectures as I have already declar'd offer'd rather to your examen than to your belief So is whatsoever I have said in this disquisition concerning the Distribution of the Chyle which I here conclude ¶ There remain yet two other Faculties of the stomach to be consider'd viz. the SECRETIVE by which it separates from the blood brought into its membranes by the Arteries a certain slimy and subacid mucus call'd pituita emortua dead Phlegm because the spirits thereof being exhausted it is of no further use to the blood and the EXCRETIVE by which it exonerates it self of that dead Phlegm of the sowre reliques of the food of its own decay'd Ferment and in fine of whatsoever else is unprofitable or offensive and that either upward by Eructation or by Vomit or downward into the intestines But because the explication of the Constitutions of the stomach upon which these Powers are chiefly founded and of the different motions and ways by which they are respectively executed is less pertinent and requisite to the short History of Nutrition at this time by me design'd than those precedent are upon which I have hitherto insisted and because the Sands in my glass are a good while since all run down therefore I find my self doubly obliged to pretermit the explanation of them lest I should at once both rove from my principal scope and further transgress the law of this Royal Colledge which hath set bounds to all Exercises of this kind when here perform'd By the later of which reasons I am hinder'd also from tracing the Chyle in the narrow obscure and anfractuose ways through which it passes before it can attain to the end of its journey and from observing particularly the Mutations it undergoes the Exaltation and Refinement it gradually acquires and the Secretion of its unassimilable parts made in Organs by Nature to that use ordain'd Let it therefore at present suffice if to gratifie the Curiosity of the Yonger Students of Anatomie I set before their eyes not an accurate Map but a rude Landskip of the Galaxy or Milky way in which the greater part of the Chyle glides along through the purple Island of the body to replenish the ocean of blood The Chyle being now as I said squeez'd out of the stomach and gutts into the slender pipes of the Venae Lacteae flows gently on in them from the Circumference toward the Centre of the Mesentery the precedent parts of it being necessarily pusht forward by the succedent ut unda undam pellit till it enter into certain Glandules there placed And this may be call'd the First stage of the Chyles progess through the Galaxy Extruded from thence partly by more Chyle crowding in partly by compression of the Glandules by the distended Midrif and contracted Muscles of the Abdomen it flows into the Common Receptacle or Cistern first discover'd by the Curiose and fortunate Monsieur Picquet and thence call'd by his name Which I accompt the Second stage or remove of the Chyle From the Common Receptacle which consisting of a membranose substance situate at the very root of the Mesentery upon the sphondyls of the Loins and filling up the space between the Muscles Psoae is incumbent upon the two long and fleshy productions of the Diaphragm the Chyle is transferr'd into the Ductus Chyliferus which running upward near the spine of the back and continued quite home to the Subclavian branches of the Vena Cava exonerate themselves into them and commix the Chyle with the blood and this also seems to be done by impulse or protrusion Because the two Productions of the Diaphragm lying immediately under the Common Receptacle cannot be distended as together with the Diaphragm they always are in every inspiration but they must force the Chyle therein contain'd to give way by ascending in the pipes that from thence tend upward after the same manner as in artificial fountains the water is mounted into pipes only by pressing the surface of that in the Cistern Perhaps the so often mention'd Compression of all parts included within the Abdomen by constriction of the Muscles thereof may not a little contribute to this Elevation of the Chyle which is the Third remove of it Next the Chyle by the said Subclavial veins brought into the Ascendent trunc of the Vena Cava is immediately imported together with the blood therein descending into the right ear and ventricle of the Heart Which by its Systole or contraction squeezes it into the Lungs where by their Reciprocations it is more perfectly mixt with the blood and whence it is devolv'd into the Left Ventricle of the Heart and finally thence squirted into the Arteries so soon as it hath receiv'd the form and name of blood Which is the Fourth and last stage of its journy at least of so much of it as is ordain'd
matter For whatsoever is superadded to the first rudiments of the parts ought certainly to be of the very same substance with what was praeexistent and so must consist ex congenere materia their renovation as well as first corporation being effected by Aggeneration or superstruction i. e. per Epigenesin So that from all these reasons put together it is constant that Nutrition is nothing else but Generation continued and as necessary to the conservation of every individual Animal yea every individual Plant also as Generation it self is to the conservation of the Universe Which our most sagacious Sr. G. Ent well understanding recommends to the belief of his Readers in these few but memorable words in Antidiatribae pag. 40. Nutritio sane videtur esse veluti continuata quaedam generatio quae est opus ideale ad exemplar primitivum actiones suas dirigens c. That I may both illustrate and confirm this Theorem give me leave to represent to you in a few lines the method and process of Nature in the formation of a Chick out of an Egg according to the most accurate Observations of Malpighius the summe of which is this From those Observations containing eight several acts of the Formative power it is highly probable 1. That the Spirit Plastic Virtue or Archeus call it by what name you please of the Egg lies dormant as it were and unactive for some time after the Egg hath been laied as if it expected the incubation of the Hen or some other warmth equivalent thereto to help it to exsert its power and begin the great work of building for it self a house according to the idea or modell prescrib'd by the Divine Architect whose instrument it is and that having obtain'd that requisite aid it soon acts upon the genital humor in which it is lodged by way of attenuation or eliquation that so the Matter may be made more fluid and obedient to its energy Which seems to be the first Act. 2. That this Spirit having drawn the first lines or threds of the solid parts of the Embryo and dispos'd them into their proper seats doth immediately after design certain wayes or passages by which those slender and delicate Stamina may be commodiously supplied with vital and nutritive liquors for their enlivening and nutrition and to that end mark out and appoint three Fountains as it were in the now more fluid Colliquamentum and thence deduce as many Canales or rivulets two of which are from their origine united and therefore somewhat greater one out of the first rudiments of each ventricle of the Heart not yet conspicuous because not coagulate but pellucid and a third consisting of many smaller rills flowing from the like rudiments of the Brain So that we may thence collect that the two former of these Canales are made to bring in the vital humor from the Heart the third to bring in the Succus Nutritius from the Brain to the first rudiments of the Chick and that in process of time those are turn'd into the Aorta and arteria Pulmonaris these into pairs of Nerves And this I take to be the whole work of the second Act. 3. Lest these so necessary fountains should by exhaustion fail the same Architect directed by divine instinct provides also for their perpetual supply To irrigate the Brain Rivulets are brought thither from the trunc of the grand canale of the Heart and to feed the current of the Heart three new streams are deriv'd to it one from the interior Lake or Colliquamentum a second from the exterior by the wayes of the Navill and a third from the yolk of the Egg by veins that by all these importing conduit-pipes fresh liquors may be continually deduced from the parts nourished into the Heart Which pipes are soon after compacted into veins either such as are design'd to bring back the Bloud or such as are ordain'd to convey the Chyle or the Lympha And this may be call'd the third Act. 4. 'T is evident that the same invisible Agent advances in the next place to distribute the vessels derived from the rudiments of the Heart viz. the Arteria Pulmonaris and Aorta first whole then divided and subdivided into branches still smaller and smaller till at last they dwindle into Capillaries and on the contrary to collect and by degrees unite all the rivulets that return from the Stamina of the solid parts to the Heart till they all meet and make a confluens in the single trunc of either the vena portae or vena cava For even common sense teaches us to call that the original or sourse of a Canale from whence the liquor which it conveys flows as every River is truely said to begin from its head or spring And Malpighius hath by the help of Microscopes observ'd and in his sixteenth and eighteenth Figures faithfully as I believe represented certain varicose veins lying in the Umbilical area or space not yet extended to either the Heart or Liver and therefore also not the Heart but the Stamina of the parts circumjacent ought to be reputed the Origin of the veins And this distribution of one sort of Canales and collection of another completes the fourth Act. 5. No less evident it is that from the beginning the Vital Nectar is clear and transparent and so remains till somewhat of the Yolk hath been mix'd with it For not only Malpighius but our equally curiose Dr. Glisson de ventriculo intestinis cap. 20. num 67. expresly affirms that he had seen bloud of a rusty colour in the coats involving the Embryo of a Chick before any the least signe of bloud could be discern'd in or about the Heart But this so early beginning of bloud may be ascrib'd either to the speedy excitation of the Spirits by the incubation of the Hen to whose heat those veins are somewhat nearer than the Heart is or to this that perhaps somewhat of a yolky tincture had preceded and caus'd that rusty or dark red However this beginning of Change in the Vital liquor from transparency to redness seems to be the fifth Act. 6. All the Canales just now describ'd being fix'd and open'd and the vital liquor exalted some degrees nearer to perfection the Plastic Spirit proceeds to finish the whole body so regulating its operations as to augment those parts first which ought to be first used and then to add to the dimensions of others whose use may be longer wanted without detriment And this slower work of accomplishing all parts by way of Nutrition and Augmentation may be accounted the sixth Act. 7. The same Architectonic Spirit as it spinns the first Stamina of all the solid parts so doth it gradually augment and complete them all out of one and the same homogeneous liquor viz. the Colliquamentum or spermatic humor clarified by Eliquation and this by transmuting the same into as many several forms as there are different kinds of similar Spermatic parts in the whole body
stomach or both together can do For in all Aliments Vegetables or Animals there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates de prisca Medicina calls them certain indelible characters or insuperable qualities that may be as it were tamed or kept under but can never be totally destroy'd Our meat indeed is cookt by fire broken into small pieces by our teeth softned by the liquor salivalis boyl'd in the stomach melted by the acid ferment exagitated by the peristaltic motion of the gutts and therein farther elaborated and separated from its dreggs squeez'd into the milky veins thence transmitted into the common receptacle thence propell'd by the Chyliferous pipes into the subclavian veins and so mixt with the bloud exagitated again by the motions of the heart and impraegnated with vitality by the powerful energy of the vital spirits all these alterations I say it doth undergo and yet notwithstanding it still reteins much of those invincible reliques of its former nature which the Chymists have named mediae vitae characteres and others Seminales impressiones And hence it is quòd omnia animalia sapiant alimenta quibus vescuntur All Animals however praepared or cook't still retain some savor some ragoust of their usual food as Birds that live upon little fishes yield a sishy Haut-goust and the flesh of Swine fed with Sea-Onions is apt to cause vomiting in the Eaters of it c. Wherefore by this last act of Concoction we are to understand only such a change of the Aliment as renders it more familiar and assimilable to the nature of the parts of the body therewith to be nourished for a perfect Assimilation is not to be expected till the same shall be intimately united with them Nor is Chylification what many have conceiv'd it to be an absolute Metamorphosis of the Aliment or corruption of its first form and change of it into a new species there seeming to be no such thing as Corruption in the case but an Exaltation rather or Melioration of the nature of the food by advancing it from the state of fixation to that of Fusion that it may be praedisposed to its succeding conversion into bloud and the Succus Nutritius True it is indeed that the meat is somtimes corrupted in the stomach by vitious humors therein contem'd and depraving it and by various other causes but it doth not from thence follow that absolute Corruption is necessary to the praeparation of the Chyle but rather that the meat if by accident it be absolutely corrupted in the stomach is thereby render'd unprofitable to nutrition for the most part True it is also that the dreggs of the Chyle being by way of Degradation from their former nature changed into Excrements put on a new form in the Colic Gutt and differ in specie from that part of the meat out of which they are made and yet notwithstanding we can not from thence rightly inferr that the Chyle which is by a perfective motion gradually meliorated is necessarily changed also into a new species before it can actually nourish Is no part of the Aliment then in the act of Chylification metamorphosed from one species to another I conceive not unless the Version of the Acidum Vegetabile in salsum Animale be accounted a Specific Mutation If so then this must be excepted from the general rule For certain it is and acknowledged even by Chymists themselves that Vegetable Salt such as is usually extracted from Plants is no where to be found in the bodies of Animals neither in their bloud nor in urine nor in flesh nor in bones hairs nails c. and therefore very probable that every Acidum Vegetabile is transmuted in Salsum Animale either in the stomach or in the descent of the Chyle into the Gutts or soon after Nor is it in my poor judgement at least a thing of small moment or lightly to be regarded that all parts of all Animals are composed of a Saline principle of a divers nature from that of either Vegetables or Minerals yea more that the Saline volatile spirits of Animals come much nearer to the nature of Sal ammoniac than to that of Salts Vegetable or Mineral But whether these saline spirits of Animals may in all things be consistent with the Nitro-aereous spirit asserted by the ingenious Dr. Mayow may with good reason be doubted For although it be said that this Nitro-aereous spirit doth in passing through the Lungs put on the genius of Animal Salt yet it remains still to be inquir'd why Nature should ordain that spirit to be fetch 't from without from the Aire which Animals have in abundance within them in the Aliments praepared in themselves This nicety therefore I leave as I found it doubtful and proceed to inquire Whence it is that the Stomach infects all meats and drinks with Acidity This requisite and remarkable quality seems to be superinduced by the Stomach upon the newly receiv'd aliment by four several wayes viz. First By educing and separating the sweet and benign spirits of the Aliments from the grosser parts of them and then either absorbing them into its Venae Lacteae or transmitting them by the Pylorus into the Gutts or dissolving them into wind For all nutritive juices whatsoever so soon as the sweet and easily dissipable spirits that praeserve them are exhaled grow acid as is commonly observed even in Milk whose fugitive spirits being for the most part drawn forth by the stomach and thence discharg'd by belching the remaining part soon acquires to it self somwhat of acidity But the truth is this Eduction of spirits though it make way for acidity to succeed doth not yet produce it in that degree which we frequently perceive in very sowr belchings and therefore we are obliged to advance to the Second Cause which consists in this that the stomach turns liquors sowr by bringing their Saline principle or element to the state of Fusion For this Saline Principle while it remains fixt retains its saltness but being advanced to the state of fusion soon becomes acid and that so much the more fiercely by how much the nearer it is promoted to Volatility Whence it is that meats and drinks long detained in the stomach are observ'd to acquire vehement acidity So likewise when any of the Glandules that serve either to secretion or to reduction have by reason of their obstructions long detain'd in them the humors that remain to be carried off after the distribution of the Succus nutritius they cause them by that means to grow more and more acid by degrees to the no small detriment of health Of this we have a remarkable Example in sharp and acid Catarrhs which seem to owe their origin to the recrements of the brain and nerves longer than is fit retain'd in the Glands destined to their secretion and exportation and by reason of their stagnation grown acid and which somtimes become so extreamly sharp as to corrode and ulcerate the Tonsills throat nose and other
delivers the first into a free injoyment of her essential immortality but dissolves the latter into the Elements or matter of which it was composed is an opinion very antient highly consentaneous to reason and defended not only by many eminent Philosophers as well antique as modern but even by some Divines of great learning Piety and Fame among whom I need name only Gassendus of the Roman and Dr. Hammond of our Church The former of which hath professedly asserted it in Physiologia Epituri cap. de Animae sede the other in Notes on the 23. Verse of the 5 Chap. of St. Pauls first Epist. ad Thess. Where interpreting these Words of the divinely inspir'd Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integer vester spiritus anima corpus he conceived that the Apostle divides the whole Man into his three constituent parts viz. the Body which comprehends the Flesh and Members the Sensitive or Vital Soul which is common also to Brutes and the Spirit by which is denoted the reasonable Soul originally created by God infused into the Body and from thence after death to return to God and this his exposition he confirms by agreeing Testimonies of many Ethnic Philosophers and some antient Fathers Much more I should here have said in defence of this opinion had I not thought it less labour to direct the unsatisfied to a little Treatise intitled a Natural History of the Passions publish'd about three Years past where the Author professedly handles it Now if either of these two recited opinions be granted to be true and 't is no easy task to refute either of them then both my positions that occasioned my recital of them may be also true and so the supposed inconsistency of them solved Presuming then that what I have said concerning the First Act of the Blood or the Generation of Original Life in the Blood and the manner how it is performed is probable and sufficient to explicate the Theorem I here conclude my discourse of it ¶ The SECOND Act of the Blood in the race of Life is the Excitation of the Motion or Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries which seems to be done in this manner The Blood descended partly out of the Trunc of the Vena Cava partly from the Arteria Venosa into the Ears or Portals of the Heart and there beginning its expansive motion fills them even to distention and by that distention irritates or incites their Fibres which are numerose and strong to contract themselves by the motion of Restitution By this constriction of the Fibres on all sides the cavities of the Ears of the Heart are necessarily closed or streightned and by consequence the Blood newly admitted into them is sequeez'd out into the two Ventricles of the Heart forcing the Valves called Tricuspides or Trisulcae which are seated at the Gates or Mouths of the Ventricles and open from without inward to open themselves and give way The Blood thus propuls'd into the Ventricles of the Heart and somewhat increasing or intending its expansive Motion fills them even to distention and to the shutting of the Valves which it so lately open'd so that at that time no more Blood can be admitted nor what is admitted recoyl or return by the Wicket through which it enter'd The Ventricles of the Heart being thus filled and distended and by virtue of their Fibres spontaneously contracting themselves into a much narrower compass strongly compress the Blood contained in them and force it to thrust back three other Valves call'd Sigmoides which open outwards and to rush forth partly into the Venae Arteriosa leading it into the Lungs from the right Ventricle partly into the Aorta or great artery from the left By this constriction of the two Ventricles of the Heart which is their proper and natural Motion the Circulation as they call it of the Blood is chiefly effected that Blood which is out of the right Ventricle express't through the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs being impell'd forward till it arrive in the Arteria Venosa that brings it into the left Ventricle and that which is expell'd from the left Ventricle into the great Artery being by the Branches thereof distributed into all the parts of the Body The Blood being in this manner squirted out and the irritation ceasing the Ventricles instantly restore themselves to their middle position and make way for the reception of more Blood from the Ears of the Heart as before and then being by the Influx and expansive Motion thereof again distended and irritated repeat their Constriction and thereby eject it and this reciprocation or alternate dilatation and constriction or Diastole and Systole of the two Ventricles of the Heart together with the Arteries continued to them is what we call their Pulsation and the grand cause of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood as the alternate expansion and repression of the Spirits during that pulsation is that motion which Dr. Glisson first named the Mication of the Blood comprehending the double motion in that single appellation The Blood then it is that alone excites the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries by distending them not by reason of any actual Ebullition or any considerable Rarifaction it undergoes in either of the Ventricles or in their avenues but as I humbly conceive merely by its quantity rushing in Not by Ebullition or Effervescence as Aristotle who gave it the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believ'd 1 Because no ebullition of any Liquor whatsoever proceeding either from external Heat or from intestine Fermentation is constantly equal or uniform whereas the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries and consequently the motion of the Blood that causeth it is in Men healthy temperate and undisturbed by Passion constantly equal or of the same tenor and rhythm 2 Because the greater the Ebullition of the Blood the greater would be the pulsation of the Heart but in burning Fevers though there be a very great effervescence of the Blood arising from an extraordinary effort of the vital Spirits contending against oppression by the putrefactive or febrile Ferment yet the Pulse most frequently is low and weak as Galen himself observed 3 Because in living dissections if either of the Ventricles of the Heart or the great Artery be pierced with a lancet pure and florid Blood indeed will spring from the Wound in every Systole but not frothy not boyling nor meteorized nay not to be by any sign of difference distinguished from Blood at the same time emitted from the Vena Cava of the same Animal An Argument certainly of itself sufficient to subvert the Ebullition of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart excogitated by Aristotle at least if he were Author of the Book de Respiratione vulgarly ascribed to him to solve the Phaenomenon of the Pulse and to this day obstinately defended by many learned men seduced by the Authority of his great name 4 If the Blood suffer'd any such Ebullition an immersion or
plunging of the Body into cold Water would depress and calm it and consequently repress the motion of the Heart but the experience of divers attesteth the contrary For these reasons therefore among many others here for brevities sake omitted I reject the supposed Ebullition of the Blood passing through the Ventricles of the Heart I reject also the suddain and impetuose Rarifaction attributed to it by the greatest of Aristotle's Rivals Monsieure des Cartes and strenuously propugned by Regius and others his Disciples For 1 If you open the Thorax of any more perfect Animal alive and while the Heart yet continues to beat strongly thrust an incision Knife into either of the Ventricles or into the great Artery the Blood thence issuing will not appear spumose or rarified at all but indistinguishable from Blood taken out of the Vena Cava just at its entrance into the right Ear of the Heart 2 If you cut out the Heart itself and squeez out all the Blood conteined in it you shall observe it to vibrate itself a little and to continue the rhythm of its Pulses till it be grown cold and this not from Blood rarified for now there remains none within its Ventricles but most probably from the reliques of the vital Spirits which yet inhering in the Fibres and little Pullies of the Heart are the cause that they alternately contract and relax themselves 3 The musculose Flesh of the Heart is of a contexture too firm and solid to be inflated by a little Froth and a greater force is requir'd so nimbly to agitate so massive and ponderose a Machine 4 If the Blood were so impensly rarified in both the Ventricles of the Heart doubtless the Orifices both of the Vena Arteriosa and of the Aorta ought to be much larger because the rarified Blood would require more of space to its egress than to its ingress 5 There would arise a confusion of the motion of the Heart and its Valves for the diastole of these would be coincident with the diastole of that which would annihilate the use of the Valves both which are repugnant to experience and to the institute of Nature 6 No reason why the Blood should be pufft up by great rarifaction in the Heart only that it may sink and be condensed again so soon as it is thence emitted into the Arteries for what use can there be of the supposed rarifaction which the very next moment ceaseth These then are the reasons that hinder me from believing that a drop or two of Blood can be by the heat of the Heart so extremely rarified as to replenish and distend the Ventricles thereof when the Cavity of the least of the Ventricles in a Man of middle Age and Stature will easily contein according to Harvey's accompt two Ounces much more according to Lower's lib. de corde cap. 3. and when I am fully convinced that in the State of Health and Quiet the whole mass of Blood is transmitted through the Heart at least thirteen times in the space of an Hour supposing no more than 2000 Pulses in that time which would be impossible if only a few Drops were received into each Ventricle in every Diastole and expel'd again by the following Systole For evident it is even to Sense that in the Diastole both Ventricles of the Heart are filled with Blood even to distention so that if you feel them at that time with your Hand they will be found tense and hard and that by the Systole all the Blood receiv'd is express'd the Sides being then strongly drawn together and the Cone pull'd up toward the Basis so that little or no room can be left within to contein Blood If you open an Eel or Viper alive you may observe the Heart to become white in the Systole because all the Blood conteined in it is then squeez'd out and red again in the Diastole from new Blood admitted and filling it Nor are we to doubt but the same happens in the Hearts of greater Animals also though the Parenchyma or muscular Flesh of the Heart be in them so thick as to hinder the Eye from discerning the like alternate change of Colours in their constriction and dilatation Taking then the total Repletion of the ventricles in every Diastole and the total Exinanition of them by every Systole for granted and Supposing that in a Man of a middle size each of the Ventricles of the Heart conteins about two ounces of Blood when it is fill'd and that the Pulses of the Heart made in the space of an Hour exceed not the number of 2000 which yet is the lowest computation I have hitherto met with among Anatomists it will necessarily follow that no less than 4000 Ounces of Blood are transmitted through the Heart in the space of an Hour which amount to 332 Pints at 12 Ounces to the Pint whereas the quantity of Blood contein'd in the Body of a Man of a Sanguine complexion tall Stature and plentiful Diet is not allowed by accurate Anatomists to exceed 25 Pints at most Let us therefore grant our Man to have that proportion of 25 Pints to be transmitted through his Heart by 2 Ounces at every pulsation and the consequence will be that the whole Mass of his Blood must pass and repass through his Heart thirteen times in the space of an Hour or else the pulsation of his Heart and his Life too must cease for want of Blood to continue the Motion But since few Men have either so much Blood or in the state of Health so few Pulses as we have now supposed 't is highly consentaneous that in most Men all their Blood runs through the Heart oftner than thirteen times in every Hour Now to come to the scope or use of this Computation if only a few drops of Blood rarified be transmitted through the Heart of a Man at every Pulse 2000 pulses could not transmit so much as a fourth part of 25 Pints in an Hour and in the mean time all the rest of it must stagnate and grow cold and then what would become of his Life which depends upon the actual Heat and perpetual Circuition of the Blood This argument certainly is if not apodictical yet morally convincing that Monsieur des Cartes his opinion of the impense Rarifaction of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart is manifestly erroneous There remain's then nothing to which the Diastole of the Ventricles of the Heart can be reasonably attributed but the Quantity of Blood flowing into and distending them For the substance of the Heart being as well without as within Musculose Robust Thick and intertext with Fibres of all orders or positions and furnish't also with fleshy Columnes which being commodiously placed in the Ventricles help much to the constriction of them so soon as the Blood flowing in hath distended them they being thereby irritated instantly begin to contract themselves by that contraction girding in the Ventricles and squeezing out the Blood After the same
manner that the Stomach Gutts Bladder Womb c. membranose and fibrose Cavities of the Body when they are above measure fill'd and distended do by spontaneously constringing themselves forcibly expell whatever irritates them And that in every Diastole of the Heart Blood rushes into the Ventricles in a quantity sufficient to distend them seems inferrible even from this that it is abundantly brought in both by the Vena Cava and by the Arteria Venosa and that it is continually driven on thitherward partly from the habit of the Body by the tonic motion of the parts partly from the Lungs by help of their motion according to the fundamental Laws of its Circuition But why do I insist upon Reasons when an easie Experiment offers itself to determine the Question In a Dog opened alive if the two Vessels that bring Blood into the Heart namely the Vena Cava and Arteria Venosa be girt with Ligatures so that the course of the Blood be there intercepted the Ventricles by three or four Systoles emptying themselves their orderly pulsation will cease only a little undulating Motion and irregular vibration will thereupon immediately succeed and upon solution of the Ligatures and influx of Blood the Heart will instantly repete its pulsation I conclude therefore that the Blood causeth the Dilatation of the Heart not by its Ebullition nor by its Rarifaction but only by its replenishing and distending the Ventricles thereof and that the Heart by its spontaneous constriction expresses the Blood into the Lungs and great Artery and so the motion of both is perpetuated I admit nevertheless a certain gentle and pacate expansive Motion of the Blood to be excited in the Ears and Ventricles of the Heart as necessary to the generation of Original Life though not of force sufficient to move the whole Machine of the Heart For the vital Spirits in the Blood though brisk and vigorose in their endevor to expansion chiefly when they are agitated by the motion of the Heart are notwithstanding somewhat checkt and repulsed by the reluctancy of the grosser Particles of the Blood and therefore it cannot be imagined they should suffice to dilate the Heart also I admit also a constant invigoration of the Fibres and fleshy Columns or Pullies of the Heart by a continual Influx from the Brain that they may the more expeditely and strongly and without lassitude perpetuate the Systole of the Heart For that such an Influx is necessary every Moment to recruit their Vigor and conserve the due firmness of their tone is evident from this singular Experiment If the Nerves of the eight pare be constringed closely by ligatures in the neck of a Dog ye will admire what a suddain and strange mutation will thereupon ensue The Heart which before performed its motions moderately and regularly will instantly begin to tremble and palpitate and the poor Animal will labour of anxiety and extreme difficulty of breathing while the ligatures continue on the Nerves above but upon removing them all those dismal Accidents which are perhaps to be ascribed to the surcharge of the Heart and Lungs by Blood not so fast discharged as it is imported and that by reason the Systoles are rendred weak and languid the influx from the Brain that should invigorate the contracting Fibres and Pullies being intercepted all the Accidents I say will foon cease and the Heart renew its pulsation as before To this Anatomic Experiment I might have added Arguments of the same importance drawn from the Palsie and Convulsions to which the Heart itself is liable had not the industrious Dr. Lower Author of the alleged experiment prevented me lib. de motu cordis cap. 2. and were I not conscious that I have staid too long upon the cause and manner of the Excitation of the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries or second Act of the Blood in the race of Life ¶ Proceed we therefore to the THIRD viz. the Distribution of the Blood into all parts of the Body which is an act wholly Mechanic and to be attributed to the Systole of the Heart and Arteries thereto continued To the Constriction of the Heart because the Blood contained in the right Ventricle is thereby of necessity express'd into the Vena Arteriosa and so into the Lungs and that in the left is thence expell'd into the great Arterie and driven on through the Branches thereof into all the parts of the Body Nor can it seem strange that this Constriction of the Heart should be effected with force sufficient to impell the Blood in a continued stream through the Pipes of the Arteries till it arrive at the extremities of them yea till it enter into the very substance of the parts in which they are terminated For if we attently consider 1 the structure of the heart that it is a Muscle of a substance Solid thick and firmly compacted every where intertext with various Fibres and corroborated within with fleshy Columns and fibrose Pullies and of a Figure fit to perform vigorose Motions 2 that if you put your Hand upon the Heart of any large Animal open'd alive you shall find it hard and tense not easily yielding to the Gripe and if you thrust a Finger into either of the Ventricles you shall feel it to be with great violence girt and pincht by the Systole thereof 3 that if you pierce the great Arterie neer the Original of it with a Lancet the Blood will be in every contraction squirted thence with incredible impetuosity and to great distance 4 that in some Men the Heart invaded by Convulsions hath vibrated itself with such stupendous Force that the very Ribbs have been thereby broken as the observations recorded by Fernelius Hollerius Forestus and Carolus Piso attest 5 that in Horses and Doggs after they have run the beating of their Hearts may be plainly and distinctly heard to a considerable distance If I say we consider these things we shall soon be induced to believe that the Systole of the Heart is more than sufficient to impell the Blood to the extreme arteries And as for the spontaneous Constriction of the Arteries that also must needs contribute somewhat to the Pulsion of the Blood by less'ning the Pipes through which it flows Remarkable it is that the Contraction of the Arteries is not Synchronical or coincident with the contraction of the Heart For the Systole of the Heart is perform'd in the time of its contractive Motion and the Diastole in the time of the remission thereof but on the contrary the Diastole of the Arteries is perform'd when they endevor to contract themselves and their Systole when they remit that endevor The reason is because the exclusion of a sufficient quantity of Blood out of the Ventricles of the Heart being perform'd the first cause that impugned the contraction of the Arteries viz. their distention by that Blood rushing into them instantly ceases and the three Semilunar Valves are shut to prevent the regress of it and at
with requisite Vigor endevor to expand themselves and then the Fever first invades as shall be more fully explicated when we come to examine the process of Fermentation in the Paroxysm of an intermittent Fever In the mean time it follows to be inquired wherein this Aptitude of the Fermentum Febrile to fix the Spirits of the Blood doth chiefly consist I conceive with Dr. Glisson that it is radicated in a certain Lentor or clamminess of the Crudities mixt with the Blood analogous perhaps to that viscidity observed in Wine and Beer not perfectly fermented which are therefore call'd Pendula or Ropy nor can they be ever corrected unless by a new Fermentation which exciting the oppressed and sluggish Spirits contained in the Liquor and dissolving the clammyness of the grosser Parts quickly clarifies it For what can be imagined more apt to Clog oppress and fix the Spirits of the Blood so as to hinder their expansive Motion than such a pendulous clamminess of Crude Humors diffused through the whole Mass of it I believe therefore that the formal reason of every febrile Ferment in putrid Fevers doth consist in such a Lentor of the Blood As for that kind of it that arises from defect of Concoction in the Stomach and that may therefore rightly enough be distinguished by the Name of Crude Chyle it seems not at first to be affected with the pendulous Clamminess here described but only with a certain disposition or tendency toward it by reason the Spirits of the Chyle have not been sufficiently excited and exalted from the State of Fixation to that of moderate fluxility as they ought to have been and yet this tendency may be sufficient by degrees to induce a clamminess upon the whole Mass of Blood when crudities are daily increased and accumulated as commonly they are before a Putrid Fever is generated Other kinds of it are almost all derived either from transpiration intercepted or from extravasation of Humors as in internal Apostems and in the Dropsy or from inflammations and tumors where the course of the Blood is stopt For part of the Blood so arrested and for want of due Motion corrupted being at length carried off by the Veins and remixt with the whole Mass thereof must of necessity more or less pollute it But if we convert the Eyes of our Curiosity upon the Effects of this febrile Ferment and consider the manner and process of its acting upon the Blood we shall soon find that what hath been said of the narcotic and fixative Power of it will be sufficiently consentaneous and evident to engage our Belief For from thence it will appear by what reason and way the Ferment is wont to exert its forces and exercise its tyranny upon the Vital Spirits in the divers times of a Paroxysm or fit of a Fever viz. in the begining or invasion in the augment or increase in the vigor or Achme and in the declination I say then that before the actual invasion of a Paroxysm the febrile Ferment is already diffused through the Blood and united with the vital Spirits Upon this it of necessity comes to pass that the Spirits being clogg'd and as it were inviscated by the pendulous clamminess thereof remit somewhat of their vigor and endevor to expansion and consequently with less briskness irritate the Ears and Ventricles of the Heart and Arteries conjoyned to them to contract themselves in order to the distribution of the Blood Hence it comes that the free transpiration of the halitus or steams of the Blood is more or less checkt and render'd more slow and weak than it ought to be And this makes the first insult or surprise of the Cold Fit which though scarcely perceptible in the beginning comes creeping on more and more till the Eclipse it brings upon the vital Spirits be manifest from the weakness and languid Motion of the Pulse and from the chilness of the whole Body and dead paleness of the Face c. A little after the Pulse is more retracted and languid and the Eclipse increasing the Nayles of the Fingers become pale and of a leaden Blew the extreme parts grow sensibly cold and all the other symptoms grow more strong and vexatious so that the Patient is now compell'd to feel the Attacque his Enemy is making upon the Guards of his Life And this is the second step of the cold Fit Which ceases not yet but is continued a good while after its first sensible Invasion the depression of the vital Spirits the retraction of the Pulse and the consequent diminution of Heat still by degrees increasing Nevertheless soon after the beginning the irritation of the vital Spirits to rise up and oppose their intestine Enimy and to repell it by their spontaneous expansion begins For first they strive to resist oppression by the clamminess of the febrile Ferment and to shake off the Clogg by their natural agility Then the Mass of Blood being slowly and heavily diffused into the parts of the Body doth in some degree stagnate in the Avenues of the Heart and by its resistence burden the Heart and Arteries and so incite them to make more frequent Pulses to discharge it Then the Effluvia of the Blood being by intercepted transpiration retained and by the Veins returned to the Heart serve somewhat to excite the Spirits and to discuss a little of the clammy Ferment repressing them But yet these three irritations conjoyned are not from the beginning of so great Moment as quickly to hinder the increase of the Cold or farther depression of the vital Motion only they so far avail as to hinder the influent Life from being wholly eclipsed And at this time it is that the first certain Signs of actual Fermentation of the Blood shew themselves to Physicians accurately observing them For so soon as the certain Signs of an universal oppression of the vital Spirits appear we may from that time date the commencement of the Fermentation immediately consequent thereunto because they declare that the Ferment hath already actually begun its Work These Signs and Symptoms then are as I have said first retraction of the Pulse chilness paleness and sometimes blewness of the extreme Parts chiefly of the Nayls tipp of the Nose and Lips and some light constriction of the whole Skin Because at that time there happens some oppression of the vital Heat which governs the Pulse renders all parts actually hot gives a vivid and grateful tincture of red to all and plumps up the Skin that otherwise would shrink itself up Secondly a troublesom Sense of Cold accompanied with a Horror trembling shivering or shaking All from the difficult passage of the Blood through the habit of the Parts For the Blood being but weakly emitted from the Heart and passing slowly through the substance of the muscular Parts hurts and offends them by vellication or attrition Thirdly a weak and quivering Voice and shortness of Breath for the most part trembling and unequal which seem to arise
may be inferr'd from hence that there are some perfect Muscles particularly those of the Forehead the Temples Bladder the fundament c. In the composition of which neither Tendon nor Ligament is to be found But because there is in some parts to be moved by reason of their greater Gravity a greater resistance to Motion than the musculous Flesh in respect of its softness and tenderness is of itself able to overcome chiefly in some positions therefore ought there to be an addition of some stronger and tougher Substance which being connected or united to the Flesh of the Muscle may both corroborate the same and more firmly conjoyn it to the Bones so as to inable it to overpower that resistance Hence it is that some Muscles especially such as are destined to bear great stress in surmounting the weight of great Members or in strong Motions are furnished with Ligaments as well for their better firmation to the Bones as for augmentation of their strength All which Galen de usu partium lib. 12. cap. 2. de motu muscul lib. 1. cap. 2. intimates in these few words Vinculo enim tuto quodam opus erat musculis cum osse ab ipsis movendo nec erat aliud ad hoc aptius Ligamento But this necessity not extending to all Muscles and a ligament being of it self immoveable and insensible and the Nerves being in respect of the softness and laxity of their Substance not sufficiently strong to pull great and heavy Bones without some accession of strength it was requisite there should be of both those parts composed a Third that might be firmer and stronger than a Nerve but softer and weaker than a Ligament Such is a Tendon which in Sense and Aptitude to Motion much exceed's a ligament and in strength a Nerve and is therefore made a part of many Muscles I say of many Muscles not of all because some have no need of Tendons as the Muscles of the Tongue of the Testicles of the Penis Lipps Forehead and all Sphincters but those only that are framed for Motions either strong or continual Those that were destined to the motion of Bones do all end in Tendons greater or less and are inserted not into the Syntax or conjunction of two Bones nor into the end of the same Bone from which they arise but near to the Head of another which they are to move Those which are to be kept long in Motion have likewise need of Tendons both to corroborate and facilitate their Motions as is most evident in the Muscles of the Eye all which are furnished with Tendons Hence we come to understand why Tendons are by Nature conferr'd upon all Muscles designed to perform strong Motions in Hexion in extension and in that which holding a part in a stiff and steady Posture is termed Motus Tonicus as in the Arms and Leggs and in the Back for erection of the Spine c. and why other Muscles are made up without Tendons being as in their Originals so likewise in their ends only Fibrose That these four parts of a Muscle namely Flesh Nerve Ligament and Tendon might not want either Covering or Combination Nature has providently invested and bound them together with a proper Membrane or Coat which seems to have these two farther Uses to cause Muscles touching or incumbent upon each other to slip up and down smoothly easily and without interfering and to unite the force of all the Fibres when they act And finally because the whole Organ requires to be continually supplied with Life as being Pars Corporis Vivens therefore is it copiously furnished with Arteries and Veins those to bring in Blood by whose vital Heat all parts are impregnated with influent Life these to return the same Blood to the Heart after it hath performed that Office And this may be sufficient to explain the Constitution of a Muscle upon which if we reflect we may conveniently enough define a Muscle to be an organical part of an Animal participant of Life composed always of Flesh and a Nerve and many times also of a Tendon and Ligament covered with its proper Membrane and so framed to be the proxime instrument of voluntary Motion ¶ As for the SECOND general to be considered namely the DIFFERENCES observed among various Muscles these are many as being desumed from their diversity in Substance Quantity Figure Position Origination Insertion Parts Actions and Uses all which I will run over lightly In respect of Substance some Muscles are mostly Carnose as all the Sphincters the Muscles of the Tongue c. others mostly nervose or membraneous as the fascia lata abducing the Tibia the Quadratus call'd by Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 musculosa expansio by others Distortor oris because it is first contracted involuntarily in that Convulsion named Spasmus Cynicus and some others In respect of Quantity which comprehends all the three dimensions of Longitude Latitude and Profundity some are Long as the Rectus abdominis the Longissimus dorsi the Sartorius in the Thigh c. Others short as the Pyramidales in the bottom of the Belly Surrogates of the oblique ascendent Muscles and by a peculiar right conducing to compression of the Bladder of Urine when we make Water Others broad as the Oblique and Transverse Muscles of the Abdomen the Latissimus dorsi depressing the Arm c. Others narrow as those of the Fingers and Toes Others thick and bulky as the two Vasti of the Thigh the Glutei of the Buttocks c. Others thin and slender as the Gracilis bending the Legg c. In respect of Figure some are Triangular some Square some Pentagonal some Pyramidal some Round some of other Shapes as is exemplified in the Deltoides Rhomboides Scalenus Trapezius c. In respect of the Position or course of their Fibres some are Oblique some Transverse some above some below some before some behind some on the Right others on the Left Side Where we may observe in the general that all oblique Muscles serve to oblique Motions all Right to direct flection or extension all internal to flection all External to extention In respect of their Origination some arise from Bones and that either from the Heads of them as most of the greater Muscles do or a little below or from some Glene some Sinus or small cavity in the Bone some only from one Bone some from two or three others from Cartilages or Gristles as the Muscles proper to the Larynx others from the Membrane inshrouding the Tendons as the Musculi Vermiculares sive I umbricales in the Hands and Feet and others again from other Parts as the Sphincters In respect of their Insertion some are inserted into Bones some into Cartilages as the Muscles of the Eyelids and of the Larynx others into a Membrane as the Muscles moving the Eye others into the Skin as those of the Lips some arising from divers parts are inserted into one and on the contrary others single in
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quos duo ducebant Medicorum principe nati Praestantes Medici Podalirius atque Machaon So that if we compute from the second King in the first Dynastie of the Aegyptians down to the fifty third year precedent to the Excidium Trojae we shall find the intervenient space of time to amount to about a thousand years Of so much greater antiquity is the first Inventor of Medicine among the Aegyptians than that Aesculapius to whom the Graecs erroneously or arrogantly ascribe it and of whom Lactantius saith quid fecit aliud divinis honoribus dignum nisi quòd sanavit Hippolytum This I have noted only to shew the great Antiquity of my Profession not to detract from the renown of the Graecian Aesculapius who being also excellent in the Art of Medicine augmented the honor of it in his own Nation and therefore deserves from me the incense of a little breath in sacrifice to his memory Give me leave then I pray to speak a few words concerning him toward the satisfaction of those among my Auditors who perhaps have been less conversant in Books At Epidaurus a City in Argolis or Argia at this day call'd by some Saconia and Romania Moreae by others situate near the Aegean sea he was worship'd as a Divine Numen having there erected to him a magnific Temple in which the Sick after due oblations were lay'd to sleep and said to be secretly taught by the God himself in their dreams by what remedy they might certainly be heal'd This is more fully deliver'd by Pausanias and Strabo reports farther that among many others in that place and manner restor'd to health one Archias son of Aristaechmus of Pergamus was freed from dreadful Convulsions in all his limbs only by following the counsel of his dream and that returning to Pergamus in gratitude he brought with him the religion and worship of the Epidaurian Temple building another in imitation of it De quo templo etiam Corn. Tacitus Annal. 3. in asylorum apud Graecas civitates antiquitùs constitutorum origines inquirens haec habet Consules apud Pergamum Aesculapii compertum asylum retulerunt caeteros obscuris ob vetustatem initiis niti From Pergamus the same Superstition was in process of time transferr'd also to Smyrna and a third Temple rais'd there in which one C. Claudius Valerius Licinnianus was Chief Priest as appears from a Marble not long since brought from Smyrna and now extant in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxon. in number the forty sixth Marble The testimonies I have brought are you see authentic nor can you longer doubt that among the few reliques of the younger world that have escap'd the jaws of Oblivion some are yet extant to attest the great Age and honor of this pair of Noble Sisters Medicine and Anatomy So solid were their Principles so durable have been their Constitutions so illustrious their Propagators so sacred their Records and if I may be permitted to speak as a Platonist so powerful a Genius has preserv'd them ¶ Was Anatomy then taught by the Founder of Memphis Is it by a whole Age at least elder than the eldest of those mountains of brick or as Diodorus Siculus vainly calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal Habitations the Aegyptian Pyramids And has it from that time to this day continued in use and esteem among wise men wheresoever Letters and Civility have flourish'd This certainly is alone sufficient to evince the great UTILITY of it were all other arguments wanting For Human Inventions however subtil and grateful at first to the Curious are never long-liv'd unless afterward they be found useful also and beneficial to Mankind But in what do's the Utility of it consist In so many things I want time to enumerate them and must therefore content my self to touch only two or three such as lye most open and obvious even to vulgar observation I say then that the study of Anatomy is singularly profitable to a Man in respect of Himself in respect to God in respect of the Divine Art of Healing each of which requires to be singly consider'd 1. In respect of Ones-self That Apollo when from his Delphic Oracle as Plato in his Alcibiades relates he deliver'd that most wise precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self thereby implicitly injoyn'd the study of Anatomy is more than I shall venture to avouch but this I dare boldly affirm that no Mortal can attain to any profound knowledge of Himself without long and strict scrutiny into the mysterious Oeconomy of Human nature which can be no otherwise made than by the helps and light of Anatomy Of the simple essence of the Rational Soul we seem in this umbratil life uncapable to know much For She being as Wise men teach and most of us believe a pure Spirit we can have of her no idea or image in our Phantasie and consequently no Notion all our Cognition being built upon Idols or Images stamp'd in the mint of Imagination and all our Reasonings or Discourses nothing but connection of many of those Images into chains sometimes of more sometimes of fewer links We cannot therefore deny our ignorance of the nature of that noblest part of our selves from which we derive all our little Science and must be content to entertain our irrequiet Curiosity with the faint glimmerings of light that shine through the acts and operations of that Celestial Ghest in our frail and darksom Tabernacles of flesh What then remains to be known by us of our selves Nothing I think but the Divine Architecture of the Body the fabrique of the various Organs by which the Soul acts while she sojourns in it and these ye know are not to be understood but by dissecting and distinctly contemplating the several parts of each Organ so as to investigate the Mechanical reason of its aptitude to its proper motions actions and uses Doth any man here conceive that the Oracle is to be expounded only of the Passions of the Mind and the Art of moderating them by the dictates of Prudence and rules of Virtue I say that neither is the knowledge of the Passions to be acquir'd without frequenting the Scholes of Anatomists For the Passions seem to be in the general only certain Commotions of the Spirits and bloud begun in the seat of the Imagination propagated through the Pathetic nerves to the heart and thence transmitted up again to the brain and therefore whosoever would duly enquire into their nature their first sources and resorts their most remarkable differences tides forces symptoms c. will soon find himself under a necessity to begin at Anatomy thence to learn the course of the bloud the structure of the brain the origin and productions of the nerves the fabric of the heart with its pulses and the wayes by which a reciprocal communication or mutual commerce is so swiftly effected so continually maintain'd betwixt the Animal and Vital machines Otherwise how highly soever he might think of
namely into bones cartilages ligaments tendons membranes fibres c. So that all the Organs are at length compos'd of dissimilar parts by wonderful artifice context without the least of confusion or incongruity Which deserves to be reckon'd the seventh Act. 8. In that work of Organization 't is credible the inimitable Artist divides without section only by terminating the parts and unites without glew or cement only by continuing them to the common term or bounds which depends more upon union of matter than upon union of nature By these admirable artifices of Division and Unition the Plastic Spirit perforates separates conjoins cements the yet fluid at least soft Stamina of the parts where how and as often as need requires it deduces and runns out their Rivulets terminated in the fluid matter as by chanels it preserves from confusion the two different Colliquamenta and the Yolk divided as it were by partitions it so distinguishes and disterminates even contiguous and semblable parts that they may be diversly moved at the same time without interfering or impediment and each yield to other when occasion requires and thus almost all fibres very many membranes and in many sorts of Animals the Lobes of the Lungs and Liver and the Cartilages mutually touching each other in the joints c. are divided among themselves In a word by these wayes and degrees here by me from Malpighius his Microscopical Observations collected and rudely described it seems most probable that the Embryo is form'd augmented and finish'd in an Egg. Now therefore that we may accommodate this Epitome to our present Argument if this be the method and process that Nature uses in the Generation of Oviparous Animals and if she uses the like in the production of Viviparous also as Dr. Harvies observations and our own assure us that she doth we may safely conclude that Human Embryons are in like manner form'd augmented and finish'd by one and the same Plastic Spirit out of one and the same matter the Colliquamentum Quod er at probandum I add that the same Plastic Spirit remaining and working within us through the whole course of our life from our very first formation to our death doth in the same manner perpetually regenerate us out of a liquor analogous to the white of an Egg by transmuting the same into the substance of the solid parts of our body For as I said before Nutrition is necessary to all Animals not only in respect of the Augmentation of their parts while they are little Embryons but also in respect of their Conservation after during life because their bodies being in a natural consumption or exhaustion would inevitably be soon resolv'd into their first elements unless the providence of Nature had ordain'd a continual renovation or reparation of the parts by substitution and assimilation of fresh matter in the room of those particles dispers'd and consum'd Having therefore to some degree of probability explain'd the former necessity of Nutrition and the causes of it my next business must be to inquire into the Later Which that I may the more effectually do I find my self obliged to begin my scrutiny from the Causes of the perpetual Decay or Depredation of the substance of our bodies viz. the Efficient or Depraedator and the Matter or substance thereby consum'd and the Manner how The Depraedator then or Efficient cause of the perpetual consumtion of our bodies seems to be what all Philosophers unanimously hold it to be the Vital Heat of the bloud therein first kindled by the Plastic Spirit continually renew'd by the Vital Spirit and by the arteries diffus'd to all parts of the body that they may thereby be warm'd cherish'd and enliven'd This Lar familiaris or Vital Heat continually glowing within us and principally in the Ventricles of the Heart call'd by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingenitus ignis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde and flamma Biolychnii the flame of the Lamp of Life by others and by others again ignea pars Animae Sensitivae is what Physicians generally have heretofore understood by Calidum innatum tho' they seem to have had but an obscure and inadaequate notion of the thing it self as I hope to evince when I shall come to inquire what life is and upon what it chiefly depends Meanwhile supposing it to be an Actual Heat consisting in a certain motion of the various particles of the bloud and in some degree analogous to fire or flame I cannot conceive how 't is possible for it to subsist or continue for so much as one moment of time unless it be maintain'd by convenient fewel which is thereby uncessantly fed upon and by degrees consum'd for it is of the nature of all fire how gentle or mild soever to generate and conserve it self only by preying upon and destroying the matter in which it is generated This Vital Heat therefore without intermission agitating dissolving and consuming the minute and most easily exsoluble particles of the body must be the Depraedator here sought after So that in truth we have one and the same cause both of our life and of our death or to speak more properly our very life is nothing but a continual death and we live because we die For we live so long as while this internal Vestal Heat is kept glowing in the bloud and when it ceases to glow either from want of convenient sustenance or by violent suffocation life is instantly extinguish'd So true even in this natural sense is that Distich of Euripides Quis novit autem an vivere hoc sit emori An emori hoc sit quod vocamus vivere The Matter consum'd I humbly conceive to be for the greatest part the fluid parts of the body chiefly the bloud and spirits which are most easily exsoluble and somewhat tho' but little of the substance also of the solid parts For Experience teaches that divers Animals Bears Dormice Swallows c. sleep the whole Winter without receiving any supply of aliment and yet have all the solid parts of their bodies as large and firm when they awake again in the Spring as when they first betook themselves to their dens or dormitories and the Reason hereof seems to be this that their Vital Heat being all that time calm and gentle consumes their bloud and spirits but slowly and very little of their solid parts as a lamp burns long when the oyl that feeds it is much and the flame but little and calm We have Examples also of Leucophlegmatic Virgins who from a gradual decay of Appetite have fall'n at length into an absolute aversion from all food and endur'd long abstinence without either miracle or imposture and yet notwithstanding have not been emaciated in proportion to the time of their fasting Whence 't is probable that in our bodies there is not so rapid and profuse an expense or exhaustion of the substance of the solid parts as heretofore many learn'd Physicians
have imagin'd to be made by the activity of the Vital Heat If it be objected that in many diseases the habit of the body is wont to be very much extenuated we are provided of a double answer First That extenuation seems to proceed rather from a meer subsidence or flaccidity of the Musculous flesh for want of bloud and the nourishing juice to fill and plump it up than from any great deperdition of the substance of the fibres of which the Muscles are mostly made up otherwise such decayes could not be so soon repair'd as we observe them to be in the state of convalescence Secondly Whatever be the cause of the extenuation objected it impugns not our present supposition which extends not beyond the natural and ordinary depraedation made by the Vital Heat in the state of Health And as for the Manner how the bloud spirits and other fluids and if ye please to have it so also the less fixt and more easily exsoluble particles of the solid parts are consum'd by the Vital Heat this may be sufficiently explain'd by the familiar example of oyl consum'd by the flame of a Lamp Whether we take fire or flame to be a substance luminose and heating or conceive it to be only a most violent motion of globular particles in its focus most certain it is that it consisteth in a perpetual fieri i. e. in a continual agitation or accension of the particles of its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pabulum or fewel and perishing as fast as it is propagated so that fire is made fire and again ceaseth to be fire in every the shortest moment of time and when in the combustible matter there remain no more particles in which it may generate it self anew it instantly perishes Now continual Dispersion being the proper and visible effect of fire or flame the matter or fewel wherein it subsisteth cannot but be in continual flux or decay In like manner the Vital Heat of Animals subsisting by a continual accension of new spirits in the blood as that is passing through the Heart those vital spirits transmitted from thence through the arteries to the habit of the body no sooner arrive there but having warm'd and enliven'd the solid parts they immediately fly away and disperse themselves by insensible transpiration carrying along with them many watery vapors and perhaps some sulphureous exhalations Moreover there being in all the solid parts of the body certain mild sweet and balsamic spirits as it were affixt unto and concorporated with them 't is very probable that the Vital Spirits acting upon them also by way of exagitation by little and little dislodge them render them Volatil and at length wholly disperse them whereupon the minute particles in which they did reside become mortified and as excrements are excluded together with the exhalations of the blood And this I apprehend to be the reason and manner of the depraedation made upon the body by the Vital Heat Here no man will I hope exact from me an accurate computation of the daily expenses of this Vital Heat which like some Governors rules by exhausting If any should I might perhaps applaud his curiosity but should not be able to satisfie it For so great is the difference among men in respect of temperament diet age exercise the season of the year and various other circumstances that no definite calculation can be made of this dispense no not in those who keep to the strictest rules of an Ascetic life weighing themselves and their meat and drink as Cornaro is reported to have done daily We may indeed conjecture from the Static experiments of Sanctorius that the expense is great for instance if forty pounds of meat and drink be suppos'd sufficient to maintain a man of a middle stature sober and of good health for ten days and about twenty pounds be assign'd to the excrements voided by stool and urine in that time the other twenty pounds may be reasonably ascribed to insensible transpiration but still this is mere conjecture Let it then suffice that we certainly know the quantity of bloud and spirits daily exhausted by the Vital Heat that conserves life in us is very great and that the greatest part of the matter of insensible transpirations is the Vital Spirits which are continually generated and continually dispers'd How apt and powerful these Vital Spirits are by reason of their subtility and brisk motions to exagitate and disperse the more exsoluble particles of even the nerves fibres membranes and other tender and sensile parts may be in some measure collected from various diseases and symptoms that seem to arise from their various depravations or vicious qualities I shall not therefore goe much out of my way if I make a short Digression to recount a few of those painful and contumacious Maladies which are with good reason referrible to the vices of the Spirits rendring the tone of the nervous parts either more strict or more lax than it ought to be at least according to the doctrine of Prosper Alpinus not long since reviv'd and illustrated by Dr. Franc. Glisson whose name is Elogie sufficient If it happens that the Blood is too vinose i. e. too abundant in Spirits as in Good fellows commonly it is many times it induceth diseases depending upon Fluxion For being by the arteries protruded into the more tender parts with greater force and impetuosity than is fit it rather invades than cherishes them by that violence putting their unfixt particles into a flux And this Fluxion usually first invades such parts as being weaker than the rest are therefore more dispos'd to receive it If the prevailing Spirits of the bloud be not only Vinose but Saline also many times there insues the like Fluxion conjoin'd with a languor and laxity of the tone of the parts such as is alwayes observ'd in Catarrhs in moist Coughs in Ebriety great heaviness to sleep the running Gout c. And 't is remarkable that these Fluxions are usually so much the more fierce and vexations by how much the more infirm and yielding the nerves and fibres of the part invaded are because these want strength to make resistence by vigorous contraction of themselves whereas nerves naturally strong and tense somewhat repress and break the force of the bloud rushing in upon them Which is perhaps one if not the chief reason why men of firm and vigorous nerves are very seldom or never infested by the Gout If this resolving fluxion chance to be accompanied with a Fermentation of the bloud then commonly the evil consequent is a rheumatic arthritic or pleuritic Fevre On the contrary if the Spirits that have obtain'd dominion in the bloud be Sulphureous or oyly there follows a Fluxion causing a Constriction and shutting up of the invaded part For tho' the arteries poure out bloud abounding in impetuous Spirits and so cause a Fluxion yet notwithstanding those Spirits by reason of their oyliness neither easily pass through the habit of the parts as
throat and by that compression forces it into the mouth of the Gullet For being so environ'd as that it cannot slipp away either by the funnells above leading to the nosestrills or by the palate it must be cramm'd into the orifice of the Gullet there being no other way or door left open by which it may free it self from compression Nor doth this compression instantly cease but is continued till the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx filling up the whole cavity of the throat have thence driven all the matter contain'd therein and thrust it down into the Gullet 2. Whilst this action is perform'd the Muscles of the Pharynx being also vigorated i. e set on work by tension cause its membrane closely to embrace the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx in their ascent but so as that the orifice of the Gullet is at the same time carried upward and a little forward to meet the matter to be swallow'd No wonder then if the describ'd compression easily squeez into the Gullet all the matter brought into the throat when the same is promoted by a clausure on each side from below by the ascent of the tongue and Larynx from above by the tension of the muscles of the Pharynx and at the same time the mouth of the Gullet is offer'd as a door by which it may slipp away and evade the compression 3. No sooner is the matter in this manner thrust down into the orifice of the Gullet than the Sphincter Muscle thereof constringing it self so girds the orifice as that it not only prevents the recoiling or slipping back of the matter into the mouth but squeezes it somwhat farther down And then 4. The Peristaltic or Compressing motion of the spiral fibres of the Gullet beginning and by degrees girding the sides thereof farther and farther downward soon thrusts the matter into the cavity of the Stomach And this seems to me to be the most reasonable and plain accompt that hitherto hath been given how the whole complex work of Deglutition is perform'd Mechanically A work of so great Use to the whole body that all men know and acknowledge it to be absolutely necessary to the conservation of the whole Experience teaching even the most illiterate that when it happens to be abolish'd as in various diseases of the throat chiefly in inflammations tumors and palseys of the muscles of the Larynx and Pharynx it often is miserable famin and death inevitably insue It is not then without good cause that Nature hath according to her accustom'd bounty in works of publick utility either to the subsistence of individuals or to propagation of the species to the exercise of the faculty of Deglutition annex'd an ample reward viz. a grateful Complacency of the instruments therein used yea a pleasure so inviting that many Animals are thereby allured to hurt themselves by eating more than they can digest and above all intemperate Man whose diet is in variety of tasts the most delicious With which vulgar remark I conclude this short and imperfect history of the Oesophagus ¶ PRAELECTIO II. HISTORIA VENTRICULI THAT we may not in our surveys divide parts that Nature hath so closely conjoyn'd let us in the next place convert our contemplation upon the principal Organ of Chylification wherein as in a publick Kitchin nourishment for the whole body is praepar'd viz. the STOMACH This common Receptacle of all our meat and drink and Laboratory in which all the profitable parts of both are by the inimitable Chymistry of Nature converted into a certain whitish liquor somwhat resembling barly cream and call'd Chyle hath been by the Antient Graec Physicians describ'd under three divers names By Hippocrates 't is sometimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to receive or contein because it receives all the Aliment swallowed down and wherever in his works we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without addition to appropriate it to the Head or Thorax which by him are also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellies there we are to understand this part alone sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cavity and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heart from the vicinity of the upper orifice of the Stomach to the Heart and the symptoms thence arising But of these Appellations the two first are common to all great cavities or receptacles in the body and the last in stricter sense denotes not the whole stomach but only the principal and most sensil part of it the Mouth Among the Latines likewise we find an equal variety of denominations For Celsus lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 4. cap. 5. uses the words Venter Ventriculus and Stomachus indifferently to signify this whole part and Cicero de nat Deor. lib. 2. expresses the same by Ventriculus and Stomachus indiscriminately But now use hath obtain'd that the diminutive Ventriculus quasi minor ventor without a limitation annext stand for the proper name of what the Vulgar calls the Stomach For tho' Anatomists name the cavities of the Heart and Brain also Ventricles yet they never do so without adding for distinction sake the name of the part viz. Heart or Brain of which they speak This Ventricle then being an Organical part of great dignity but greater necessity well deserves our strictest scrutiny Let us then with diligence and patience consider 1. The Structure or Organization 2. The Elements or similar parts and 3. The Actions and Uses of it For if we can attain to a competent knowledge of all these things I do not see what can remain to hinder us from coming at length to understand the nature of it fully and perfectly Begin we then from the Site or situation of it which being not the same in Animals of all kinds but various requires to be consider'd first in genere and then speciatim to the end that Comparative Anatomy may go hand in hand with simple or Positive In all Animals that have bloud Fowls that feed upon corn only excepted the Ventricle is seated in the upper part of the Abdomen The superior Orifice of it in Man in all four-footed Beasts and in all Fishes that have lungs is immediately under the Diaphragm but in all Fishes that respire not immediately appendant to the mouth as well because having neither thorax nor neck they consequently want the Gullet as because in them the belly is disterminated from the mouth by a certain membraneous partition not much unlike to and as to separation supplying the defect of the midriff Whereas in Animals that respire the Gullet is requisite because of the interposition of the breast betwixt the mouth and the Ventricle which could not be commodiously placed above the diaphragm in the thorax for more than one reason viz. 1. Because it would have straitned and compress'd the Lungs especially when fill'd and distended with food 2. Because the Thorax being inviron'd with strong bones could not be
distended enough to make room for the expansion of the lungs and repletion of the Ventricle both at once and 3. Because the steams arising from the meat and drink fermenting in the Ventricle would much infest the vital parts Which last incommodity Nature seems to have prudently prevented both in Birds that have the ingluvies or Cropp placed not in the lower belly but under the neck before and without the furcula and in Fishes also that want respiration by separating the heart from the ventricle with a certain membraneous partition instead of a diaphragm Again the same upper orifice of the ventricle in Man and in all Quadrupeds is placed immediately under the diaphragm to prevent the farther elongation of the Gullet which would have been unprofitable at least if not in many respects incommodious Nor is the providence of Nature less admirable in placing the Ingluvies in Granivorous Fowls we call it the Kropp or Craw and the Gorge in Carnivorous of Birds under the neck betwixt the horns of the os jugale call'd by us the Fork or merry-thought she seeming to have had three inducements thereto 1. The Crop having no commerce with any part in the Abdomen but only with the Gizard to which it is continued by a peculiar pipe or inferior Gullet and by which the corn steep'd and softned in the Crop is converted into Chyle there is no necessity why it should be seated therein 2. The Crop serves also to keep the body of the Fowl aequilibrated upon the leggs whereas if it were in the lowest belly it would when full of food make the hinder part much too weighty for the fore part 3. Fowls for the most part chiefly the Granivorous feed their young with half-digested chyle or corn macerated puking it from the crop into their mouth as is commonly observ'd in Doves and Rooks which they could not so commodiously have done if the crop had not been seated so near the mouth And as to the situation of the Ventricle consider'd in Specie it is placed in the highest region of the Abdomen partly in the left hypochondrium partly under the pitt of the stomach having on the right side the Liver not only accumbent but incumbent upon it on the left side the Spleen adhaering to it at the bottom the Omentum or Kell or Caul fastned all along and behind the Pancreas subjacent from thence named by some the Pillow or Cushion of the Ventricle and on the fore part the Colon and in this position it is establish'd by various connexions the superior orifice is continued to the Gullet and by the mediation thereof firmly annex'd to the midriffe the inferior united to the Duodenum and by the mediation of the Omentum connex'd to the Liver Back Spleen Colon and Pancreas The second thing remarkable in the Structure of the Ventricle is the Magnitude or Capacity of it which being various not only in Animals of divers kinds but in some individuals also of the same species chiefly in men requires therefore to be consider'd first Comparatively and then Positively If we compare the Magnitude of the Ventricle with that of the whole body of the same Animal we shall find it in weight not to exceed the hundredth part of it So that we might well admire that a part so small should suffice to cook provision for the whole did we not at the same time remember that the Gutts help it not a little in that office If we compare the Ventricle of Man with those of other Animals we shall find it to be in him less in proportion to the whole body than in them So that Aristotles general rule de hist. animal 2. cap. 17. Animalia majora majorem minora minorem habent ventriculum seems not to exclude all exception and there is reason for us to believe that Nature adjusted the capacity of the Ventricle in all sorts of Animals rather to the nature of their proper food than to the magnitude of their bodies For 1. Where the food is coarse yielding but little nourishment out of a great mass there much of it is required to satiate the appetite and recruit the body and consequently the greater the capacity of the Ventricle Hence perhaps it is that the Horse the Ass the Ox Sheep Goats c. that feed upon herbs grass hay stubble and other the like lean and poor aliments from a great quantity of which but little nourishing juice can be extracted have great bellies On the contrary where the food is rich i. e. conteining much of nutriment in a little there is requir'd a less quantity of it to satiate the appetite and repair the body and by consequence a less ventricle as in Man who living upon delicate meats that nourish much in little quantity hath but a small ventricle in comparison of his whole body and 't is observ'd that men of a more delicate diet such as is used at the tables of Princes and Grandees have generally less Ventricles than others that live upon coarse fare 2. Animals that eat but seldom ought to have the Ventricle of large capacity because they devour much at once to compensate their long fasting Which is exemplified in Lions Tygres Wolves c. beasts of prey which tho' carnivorous and consequently of an opime or highly nourishing diet are yet compell'd many times to undergo the sharp pinches of hunger long till they meet with food and then they gorge themselves as if they intended to barrell up in their panches flesh for many dayes to come and are to that end furnished with ample stowage in their bellies The like may be said also of those Men who are accustom'd to eat but one meal a day whether it be a dinner or a supper and that a great one for by that surcharge they so distend their stomach as of necessity to render it in tract of time thinner and by consequence weaker than is requisite to health And hence in all probability it is also that great Drinkers enlarge the capacity of the Ventricle by stretching the coats of it till at length they come to destroy the tone and strength thereof by habitual extenuation and to verifie Seneca's saying of intemperate men epist. 39. quae fecere patiuntur they are their own tormentors Finally if we compare Human Ventricles among themselves we shall find the variety to be great in respect of difference in age sex stature diet and above all in habitual temperance or intemperance Greater is the capacity of the Ventricle commonly in men than in women in proportion to their bodies and yet women are not as Aristotle believ'd greater gluttons than men but rather less as having less room in their bellies to receive and less of heat to concoct food Greater in men of middle age and of tall stature than in old and of low stature Greater also in Gluttons and Drunkards than in the Sober Difficult it is therefore to determine what is the Positive Magnitude of it in
Wherefore the native temperament of all fibres is cold and moist indeed but enrich'd with delicate and noble spirits however fixt and consequently they require to be nourish'd with a spermatic aliment The Corpulency or fleshiness of fibres is variable somtimes greater as in strong and laborious men somtimes less as in weak lean and sedentary The Cohaerence of parts ought to be firm and tough that they may be extended without danger of divulsion or rupture and return to their natural posture by spontaneous contraction after extension Their Flexibility depends partly upon their tenacity partly upon their middle constitution betwixt hardness and softness that they may be neither rigid or stiff nor flaggy The Organical native constitution of fibres consisteth in their due situation figure magnitude and continuity all which are included in their former description The influent constitution of them is either Vital or Animal If the vital influx be deficient the force and strength of the fibres soon languishes as in swoonings and faintings Yea if it be but depraved as in fevers their vigour in a few hours decayes If the Animal influx be intercepted as in the palsy they quickly become languid and stupid yea if the brain and nerves grow dull and sluggish the fibres at the same time grow flaccid and loose unapt for vigorous motion 2. The general Uses of all fibres are to corroborate the parts to which they belong and to move them The special uses are various respective to their various formation in divers parts as for instance in the Stomach and Gutts they serve chiefly to their Peristaltic motion 3. The Action of Fibres is either Common or Proper Common when being invigorated i. e. set on work by extension which is against their nature they pull and move the part to which they are connex'd as a chord pull'd by a mans hand pulls a plummet or any other body fastned to it but this seems to me to be in strictness of truth rather Passion than action in respect of the fibres themselves for they suffer extension being notwithstanding their natural renitency stretcht in length by the pulling of the nerves from which they are elonged Wherefore according to my weak judgment their Proper action is only Self-contraction by which they restore themselves to their natural posture A motion common indeed to all Tensil bodies whatever and therefore rightly term'd by Philosophers motion of Restitution the cause whereof I take to be the strong cohaerence of the parts of which they are compos'd If so what need we amuse our selvs by striving to deduce the spontaneous Contraction of nerves and fibres either from natural Instinct which implying I know not what secret suggestion pro re nata from some forein cause whether God or His servant Nature is to me unintelligible or what is equally abstruse from Natural Perception which supposes even inanimate things yea every the least particle of matter in the whole Universe to be naturally endowed with knowledge of what is good or evil to their nature with appetites to embrace the good and eschew the evil and with power to move themselves accordingly faculties that my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational creatures 4. The Passion therefore of a Fibre is the extension of it which is a passive motion coming from a cause without the essence of the fibre it self Which cause unless it actually relax or stupesie the fibres incites or irritates them to contract themselves and the more violent the irritation the stronger is the renitency and spontaneous contraction as is observ'd in convulsions To me it seems impossible that a simple fibre should by its own action alone extend it self in length nor have I wit enough to conceive how this can be done since all extension is a less or greater degree of force tending to the tearing asunder of the parts of the tensible body against which divelling force the firm cohaerence of the parts makes it strive And as for the Cessation of fibres that is when they neither act nor suffer but rest from all either extension or contraction having restor'd themselves to their natural posture of laxity This they attain to chiefly in sleep when all fibres of the whole body those that serve to respiration and the motions of the heart only excepted are at rest and thereby refresh'd acquiring after labour and weariness new strength and vigor from the sweet mild and balsamic juice dispensed to them from the brain by the nerves After this concise survey of the fibres in the membranes of the Ventricle there remains only their peculiar Parenchyma to challenge our observation which it may with the greater right pretend to because there are many who question whether it be real or imaginary because the whole Ventricle being of a white color seems therefore to be made up only of fibres and membranes It concerns us then to be certified 1. Of the real existence 2. Of the necessity 3. Of the quality and 4. Of the various uses of what we call the Parenchyma of the Ventricle as a distinct part thereof 1. To be assured even by our own eyes that there is really such a thing we need only to essay the excarnation of the stomach by laying it extended upon a plain bord and then scraping it moderately hard with a blunt knife in the same manner as Sheep skins are scrap'd by those who make Velom and Parchment or gutts by those who make Sawciges For by this easie means you may scrape off so great a quantity of soft white pulp as will by nineteen parts of twenty exceed all that you leave behind of membranes and fibres which will yet remain as strong and tenacious as they were before Against which experiment I see not what can be objected For if the firm cohaerence of the fibres of the Stomach be not only not abolish'd but not at all diminish'd by this scraping away of the pulp that stufft them it follows that the pure fibres in which alone the strength of the stomach consists still remain intire and that nothing but the Parenchyma or pulp hath been taken away From the same experiment it appears also that the membrane and pure fibres of the Ventricle are in themselves pellucid or transparent as we see in the skins of Sawciges and that they owe all their opacity to their stuffing with this Parenchyma 2. Which is necessary to the constitution of the Stomach in more than one respect Necessary it seems to fill up and make smooth and plain the inequalities arising from the contexture of the fibres which running various courses and riding each over other somtimes would otherwise render the surfaces of the membranes uneven Necessary it is also to stop the pores of the Stomach that it may hold liquors the better and be stanch even to vapors and wind as linnen cloth is made to hold water by dipping it into melted wax oyle and turpentine which fill up the void spaces betwixt
Theologues if I take the innocent liberty of believing that this admirable act of Vivification done by the Omnipotent Creator upon Adam was done by way of Inspiration by which according to the genuine and proper Sense of the word is to be understood a blowing in of some subtil and energetic substance into a place where before it was not viz. into the Nostrils of the human Body newly formed of the Dust of the Earth Which will perhaps be found somewhat the more reasonable if the manner and circumstances of the miraculous Revivification of the good Shunamites Son by the Prophet Elisha Kings 2. Cap. 4. be well considered For we read that after the Prophet had layn some time and much bestirred himself upon the Body of the dead Child putting his Mouth upon his Mouth and his Eyes upon his Eyes and his Hands upon his Hands and stretched himself again and again upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Flesh of the Child waxed warm and he Neesed seven times and opened his Eyes So that from thence it seems inferrible that as the first Man was inlivened so this Child was revived by Inspiration Both acts doubtless were done miraculously because by the same divine Agent God yet with this difference that the former was performed immediately by God himself the latter mediately by his Instrument the Prophet to whose Breath blown into the Childs Mouth and to whose Heat communicated to the Childs Flesh and consequently to his Blood the Author of Life was pleased to give a Virtue so Efficacious as to restore and renovate the Vital motions of the Blood Heart Lungs and Diaphragm of the Child that had been stopped by the cold Hand of Death and those Motions being recommenced and the Brain reinvigorated by a fresh influx of arterial Blood replete with vital Spirits by strong contraction of its Membranes as it were by a Critical Motion expell'd the material and conjunct cause of the Disease by Sternutation seven times repeted before the Child opened his Eyes For that the Seat of that most acute Disease was in the Brain is manifest even from the Childs complaint to his Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Head my Head I am not ignorant there are some who expresly affirm that the word inspiration is in sacred Scriptures used only Metaphoricaly whether truly or not let Divines dispute Meanwhile I am certain the word Spirit upon which inspiration depends is in many places of the holy Bible used to express Life In Job c. 27. v. 3 quamdiu spiritus Dei est in naribus meis signifies so long as I shall live or have Life And in Ezech c. 1. v. 20. Spiritus vitae erat in rotis seems to me to say the Wheels were living Other Instances I might easily collect if these were not sufficient to my Scope and if I were not obliged to hasten to other appellations and Characters of Life less liable to controversy and used by Philosophers By Hippocrates Life is per periphrasin call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis ingenitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde by Aristotle The Hebrews express it sometimes by nephesch sometimes by neschama both which words indifferently signifie Soul or Life The Graecians whose Language is more copiose name it either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to Breath or refrigerate by blowing nor unfitly because to Breath or respire is proper to living Creatures or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliàs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Hesychius addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latines commonly Vita which is deflected from the Graec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by cutting off the Vowel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and changing b into v as is usually done and sometimes Anima whch is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Wind an Etymology owned by Horace himself in this odd exprssion of his Impellunt animae lintea Thraciae in Carmin lib. 4. Ode 12. and before him by Lucretius lib. 6. in these Words Ventus ubi atque animae subitò vis maxima quaedam Aut extrinsecus aut ipsa ab tellure coorta Who often calls the Soul Ventum Vitalem FROM the various Names we come to some few Notions that eminent Philosophers have formed to themselves of Life such as among many others seem to me more memorable than the rest as well for the credit they have obtained in the Schools as for the great renown of their Authors Cardanus a man of admirable Subtility of Wit in his lucid intervalls defines Life to be the Operation or action of the Soul and as Iul. Scaliger in Exercit. 102 Sect. 5. not without Signs of envy observes hath therein many Followers In the number of whom I must not list my self 1 because if Life be an action of the Soul the Body cannot be truly said to live 2 if Life be an action there must be an action of an action for the actions of Life in Man are as Arist 2. de anima truly teaches to understand to have Sense to move voluntarily to be nourished to speak c. and to suppose an action of an action is manifestly absurd In this point therefore I declare my self to be no disciple of Cardans Fernelius equal to Cardan both in time and fame nor inferior in Sagacity of Spirit defines life thus Est Animantium vita facultatum actionumque omnium conservatio But this definition is too narrow for the thing as taking no notice of the Body which yet is participant of Life and upon whose Organs the exercise of all the faculties and actions of the Soul depends Ludovicus Vives describes Life to be Conservatio instrumentorum quibus anima in corpore utitur because saith he when the instruments are corrupted life ceaseth But neither in this description is it safe to acquiesce 1 because Life is conserved not so much by the integrity of the Instruments as by the Faculties which are before the Instruments and upon which all the Functions proximly depend 2 The conservation of the Instruments doth not make or constitute Life but rather follow it as an effect 3 if Life were only the conservation of the Instruments then would it necessarily follow that part of Life is lost or destroyed when any of the Instruments are corrupted or cut off which is absurd life being indivisible and daily experience attesting that one or more of the Organs of the Body as Hands Feet c may be cut off without diminution of Life Which even Lucretius himself acknowledged in these elegant Verses At manet in vita cui mens animusque remansit Quamvis est circum-caesis lacer undique membris Truncus ademptâ animâ circum membrisque remotis Vivit aetherias vitaleis suscipit auras c. Lib. 3. Neither of these three Select Definitions proving in all points absolute and Scientific some here perhaps expect that I who am so bold
human understanding and whosoever shall with attention and Judgment read what that most acute and no less profound Philosopher Gassendus hath written on this Aenigmatic Question Quî sensile gigni ex insensilibus possit in lib. 10. Diogen Laertii will I presume with him conclude Hanc rem videri omni humanâ perspicaciâ sagacitate superiorem Leaving then this Problem as I found it desperate and ending the halt I with your permission made to consider the nature Life and Principal Faculties of a sensitive Soul I proceed to the THIRD capital Enquiry designed in this discourse ¶ WHAT Opinions I at present hold to be most probable as well concerning the nature of Life in general as touching the different origines of Human and Brutal Life in particular ye have with obliging patience heard Be pleased with like patience to hear also what I have to say concerning the SUBIECT wherein the Life both of Man and Brutes seems primarily to Subsist That the Life of all Animals is originally as it were kindled in their Blood we may learn from the wisest of Men and Kings Salomon himself Who in his Book of Wisdom Cap. 2. v. 2. according to the Graec version of the LXX Interpreters introduceth impious Men discoursing among themselves of the short incertain and easily extinguishable Life of Man in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoniam fumus est afflatus in naribus nostris serino scintilla in motu cordis nostri which our last Translators have thus englished for the Breath in our Nostrils is as Smoke and a little Spark in the moving of our Heart For if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life be understood we may from this remarkable text safely infer that Salomon was not far from holding the same Opinion concerning the Fountain or Origine of Life that is asserted by all our modern Anatomists viz. that Life first ariseth from and is perpetually as it were kindled a new by the motion of the Blood though it be scarce probable he had any the least knowledg of the perpetual Circuition or Circulation of the Blood first discovered to the World by our thence immortal Dr. Harvey And by one infinitely greater than Salomon even by the Author of Truth and giver of Life God himself we are certainly taught that the Life of all Animals of what kind soever is seated primarily and doth continually subsist in the Blood tanquam in subjecto suo primordiali or at least in some certain humor analogous to Blood and therefore not unworthy to be call'd a vital Humor For in Levit. cap. 17. v. 14. He saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye shall eat the Blood of no manner of Flesh for the Life of all Flesh is the Blood thereof Being then by Divine Authority assured that Life is the Of-spring of the Blood and perpetually resident therein we may with good reason distinguish Life into Original and Influent The Former is that which is perpetually as it were kindled in the Blood passing through the Ventricles of the Heart not from the influx of any adventitious Principle but by the Sole power and energy of the vital Spirit itself contained in and ruling the Bloud For the vital Motion itself comes immediately from no other Principle but that ruling Spirit and therefore the Act of the same Spirit is by consequence Vital And forasmuch as the reason of the actual Heat of the Blood consisteth only and wholly in that vital Motion that Heat also must be Vital and the regent Spirit that suscitates that motion first in it self and then in the Blood must be the true Fountain and Origin of the vital Heat This great truth certainly was not unknown to the Antients For Virgil seems to more than hint it in that Verse of his Aeneid lib. 10. Una eademque via sanguis animusque sequantur And Suidas where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also as Aristotle relates Critias who held Sentire maximè proprium esse animae atque hoc inesse propter sanguinis naturam To these may be subjoyned Thales Milesius Diogenes Heraclitus Alcmaeon c. who all consented in this position id animam esse quod sua natura vim movendi obtineret Evident it is then that this Doctrine that the vital Spirit is the principle of motion or heat and consequently of Original Life in the Blood was taught by some of the antient Philosophers though probably not so clearly and fully as by the Anatomists of our Age who have had the advantage to know the whole mystery of the Circuition of the Blood whereof the former seem to have been ignorant Hence it appears how far those of our late Writers have erred from the Truth who permitting their Phantacy to overrule their Judgment and indulging I know not what Chymical shall I say or Chimerical Hypotheses drawn from the contrariety between Alchali's and Acids have confidently taught that Life ariseth from a conflict or Fight of two Antagonists whether of an Acid or Saline and a Lixiviose or of a Saline and Sulphureose or of the Bile Chyle or nitroaereal Spirit and the Blood For the vital Motion really proceeds as I said from the very nature of the thing which causeth it that is in the Blood from the vital Spirit regent of the Blood which being naturally agil active and votatil and alwaies endevoring to extricate itself necessarily contends with the grosser parts that clogg and restrain it and by that contention excites motion in the Blood and such a motion upon which the vitality of the Blood depends Impossible therefore it is that Life should come to the Blood from a mutual conflict of extraneous or forein Principles whatsoever they are supposed to be The Later or Influent Life is communicated from the Blood now impregnated with vital Spirits to all parts of the Body Of which much remains to be spoke in its proper place Meanwhile that we may know what is to be understood per curriculum vitae the race or cours of Life 't is necessary for us to run through all the Uses and Acts of the Blood while it flows in a Circle to and through all parts of the Body For these being attentively survey'd will at last reward our diligence with Light enough to direct us to judge more clearly of the Power and Energy of as well Original as Influent Life But first for perspicuites sake we must advert that Arteriose Blood seems to differ from Venose chiefly in this that in Arteriose Blood the Heat or Motion Vital for both are one thing and so we shall by and by find them to be is actual in venose only in the way or disposition to become actual as will appear from our following discourse concerning the Acts of the Blood in the race of Life Which are accompted in number five viz. 1 Actual Generation of Original Life or of vital motion or heat in the Blood itself 2 Excitation of
the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries 3 Distribution of the Blood by virtue of that pulsation 4 Communication of Life to all parts of the Body by means of that distribution and 5 Reduction of arteriose Blood to the state of Venose the exhalations of it being first partly consumed partly condensed and absorp't into the Lympheducts Of each of the Acts we must particu-larly enquire The FIRST Act viz. the Generation of Original Life in the Blood it self seems to be perform'd in this manner The vital Spirit rector of the Blood by its own natural force and expansive energy endevors to exagitate and expand the Blood now again brought into the Ventricles of the Heart while the grosser parts of the Blood by their nature more sluggish and unactive resist and hinder that endevor to expansion From this resistence or checking instantly arises a certain Colluctation or mutual striving between the expansive motion or endevor of the vital Spirits on one part and the renitency of the grosser parts of the Blood on the other And from this Colluctation an actual Heat is quickly excited or kindled in the Blood actual Heat being nothing else but an expansive Luctation of the Particles of the Body or Subject in which it is as the illustrious Lord Chancellor Bacon hath with admirable sagacity from many instances collected in historia calidi in novi Organi Pag. 218. Seeing therefore that this motion of the Blood consisteth in the expansive endevor of the Spirits and the reluctation of the other parts of it this Motion consequently is actual Heat But because this expansive Luctation is not hostil or noxious but Amicable Benign and tending not only to the conservation of the Blood but also to the exaltation of all its Faculties and Operations and because it comes as I said a little before from within from the Spirit conteined in and ruling the Blood therefore the Motion or Heat thence resulting is also Vital For in that very expansive motion of the Blood doth the formal reason of Life originally consist This being a Theorem not a little abstruse and of very great Moment chiefly to Physicians 't is requisite I should endevor both to clear and establish it That I may do so I begg leave to set before you a short Series or Train of certain Propositions of which the subsequent depending like the Links of a Chain upon the antecedent they may at length convince you of the Truth from thence to be concluded PROPOS I. The Heat is only Motion THe verity of this is apparent 1 From Flame which is perpetually and violently Moved 2 From the like agitation of all parts of servent or boyling Liquors 3 From the incitation and increment of Heat caused by Motion as in blowing up Fire by Bellows or Winds 4 From the very extinction of Fire and Heat by all strong compression which arresteth the Motion thereof and instantly causeth it to cease 5 From hence that most Bodies are destroyed at least sensibly altered by all Fire and by strong and vehement Heat which introducing a Tumult Perturbation and rapid Motion upon their parts by degrees totally dissolves the cohesion or continuity of them Nevertheless this Proposition is to be understood with due limitation or as it stands for the Genus of Heat not that Heat generates Motion or that Motion generates Heat always tho both these be in some things true but that Heat it self or the very essence of Heat is Motion and nothing else yet a certain peculiar sort of Motion or limited by the differences to be subjoyned PROPOS II. That Heat is an Expansive motion by which a Body strives to dilate it self and recede into a larger space than what it before possessed THis also is evident 1 In Flame where the Fume or Fat Exhalation manifestly widens itself and spreads into Flame 2 In all boyling Liquors which sensibly swell rise up and emit Bubbles still urging the process of self-dilation untill they become more extense and are turned into Vapor or Smoke or Aire 3 In Wood and all other combustible matter set on Fire where is sometimes an exudation of moysture alwaies an evaporation 4 in the melting of Metals which being most compact Bodies do not easily swell and dilate themselves and yet the Spirit of them being once excited by Fire begins instantly to dilate itself and continues to push away and drive off the grosser parts till their coherence being interrupted they become liquid and if the Heat be more and more intended it dissolves and converts much of the fixed Metal into a volatil Substance Gold only excepted 5 in a Staff of Wood or Cane which being heat in hot Embers becomes easily flexible a sign of internal dilatation 6 In Aire above all things which instantly and manifestly expands itself by a little Heat 7 In the contrary nature of Cold which contracts most Bodies forcing them into narrower spaces and shrinking their dimensions so that in extreme Frosts Nayls have been observed to fall out of Doors and Vessels of Brass to crack with many other admirable effects of great Cold noted by the Honourable Mr. Boyl in his most accurate History of Cold. So that Heat and Cold though they do many actions common to both are yet è diametro contraries in this that Heat gives a Motion expansive and dilating but Cold gives a Motion contractive and condensing PROPOS III. That Heat is a Motion expansive not uniformly through the whole Subject but through the lesser Particles thereof not free but checkt hinder'd and repulsed or reverberate So that the Motion becomes interrupt alternative perpetually trembling and striving and incited by that resistence and repuls Whence comes the Fury of Fire and Heat pent in and opposed in their Expansion OF this we have instances 1 In Flame boyling Liquors melted Metals glass Furnaces c. all which perpetually tremble swell up and again subside alternately 2 In Fire which burns more fiercely and scorches more ardently in frosty Weather 3 in common Weather-glasses in which when the Aire is expanded uniformly and equally without impediment or repuls no Heat is perceived but if you hold a Pan of burning Coals near the bottom and at the same time put a Cloth dipped in cold Water upon the top the check and repuls thereby given to the expansion of the Aire will cause a manifest trepidation in the Water and intend the borrowed Heat of it 4 In Winds pent in which though they break forth with very great violence so that their motion must needs be extremely rapid and dilating do not yet from thence conceive any sensible Heat because the motion is in all the particles of them equally and proceeds uniformly without check or interruption whereas in the burning Wind from thence called by Aristotle in Meteor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great heat seems to be generated from the frequent repulses and repercussions of its rapid Motion insomuch that it scorches where it blows chiefly in narrow
the same time the rest of the Blood in the Arteries remits its expansive Motion which was the other cause that hinder'd the Arteries from contracting themselves and those two impediments removed for that time the Fibres of the Arteries now prevail and by contracting themselves return to their middle posture of quiet by that contraction pressing the Blood forward on its Journey till it be impell'd into the substance of the Parts From whence after it hath done its Office it is soon forced to return toward the Heart through the Veins partly by more Blood flowing after and pressing it behind partly by the renitency and tonic Motion of the parts partly by the tension of the Muscles in the habit of the Body and in fine by the Pulsation of the Vena Cava which though but light is yet perceptible at its approach to the Heart where to that end it is furnisht with fleshy Fibres so that from thence Walaeus in Epist. de motu Sanguinis concluded that the circular Motion of the Blood beginn's from that part of the Vena Cava If I do not here particularly explain the reason and manner how each of these various Causes conduceth to the effect ascribed to their Syndrome or concurse it is because I presume that the whole History of the Circuition of the Blood with all its helps and circumstances is well known to the greatest part of my Auditors and because I hast to the FOURTH Act in the race of Life which beginns where the distribution of the Blood through the Arteries end 's and is the Communication of Life from the Blood distributed to all parts of the Body For these receiving the Blood impregnate with Original Life are thereby in a moment heated anew invigorated incited to expand themselves and made participant of Life Influent i. e. they are stirred up to the actual exercise of Augmentation or nutrition and of all other their Faculties And this Participation of Life is that vital Influx with so great Encomiums celebrated by Anatomists and the Heat of the Body both actual and vital and the general cause at least Sine qua non of all the noble Actions of the whole Body I say the General Cause because it is this influent Vital Heat that revives and stirrs them up to activity when without it all parts would be dull flaggy and torpid and yet notwithstanding it is not sufficiently able of itself to produce those Effects unless so farr forth as it is at the same time contemperated and determinated to this or that particular effect by that which some call the peculiar temperament and others the Spiritus insitus of that Member or Part whose proper Office it is to cause that effect For this vital Heat or general enlivening and invigorating influence operates one thing in the Liver another in the Spleen another in the Stomach and Gutts another in the Kidneys Sic de caeteris assisting and promoting the faculties of all parts so that no one can execute its proper function without it as the irradiation of the Sun is requisite to make the Ground fruitful and to excite the Seeds of all Vegetables lying in it and indeed this vital Heat is to Animals the Sun within them their Vesta perpetual Fire familiar Lar Calidum innatum Platonic Spark pepetually glowing not that like our common Fire it shines burns and destroys but that by a circular and incessant Motion from an internal Principle it conserves nourishes and augments first itself and then the whole Body Undè Entius noster in Antidiatribae pag. 6. in hunc finem extructum est cor quod calentis sanguinis rivulis totum corpus perpetim circumluit Cumque Plantae omnes à Solis benigna irradiatione vigorem vitamque adeo suam praecipùe mutuentur animalibus caeteris cordis calor innascitur unde tanquam à Microcosmi sole partes omnes jugiter refocillantur Ac propterea minùs placet quòd plantarum germen Corculi nomine indigitaveris Good reason then had our most Sagacious Harvey to sing so many Hymns as it were to this Sol Microcosmi that continually warms comforts and revives us Discoursing of the Primogeniture of the Blood in an Embryon Lib. de Generat Animal exercit 50. he falls into this elegant encomium of it Ex observatis constat Sanguinem esse partem genitalem fontem vita primùm vivens ultimò moriens sedemque animae primariam in quo tanquam in fonte calor primò praecipùe abundaet vigetque à quo reliquâ—â— omnes totius corporis partes calore influente foventur vitam obtinent Quippe calor Sanguinem comitatus totum corpus irrigat fovet conservat Ideoque concentrato fixoque leviter sanguine Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominavit veluti in lipothymia timore frigore externo febrium insultu contingit videas illicò totum corpus frigescere torpere pallore livoreque perfusum languescere evocato autem rursum sanguine hui quam subitò omnia calent denùo florent vigent splendentque Nec jecur munus suum publicum exsequitur sine influentia sanguinis caloris per arteriam Caeliacam Imò vero Cor ipsum per Arterias Coronarias influentem unà cum sanguine caliditatem vitamque accipit Quippe nullibi est caloris affluentia citra sanguinis influxum per arterias Sanguis denique totum corpus adeo circumflùit penetrat omnibusque ejus partibus calorem vitam jugiter impertit ut Anima primò principaliter in ipso residens illiûs gratiâ tota in toto tota in qualibet parte ut vulgò dicitur inesse meritò censeatur In another place Exercit. 51. vindicating the Supremacy of it over all parts of the Body he breaks forth into this memorable expostulation Si Neoterici quidam verè dicant animalium semen coitu emissum esse animatum quidni pari ratione affirmemus animam esse in sanguine cùmque hic primò generetur nutriatur moveatur ex eodem quoque animam primùm excitari ignescere Certè sanguis est in quo vegetativae sensitivae operationes primò elucent cui calor primarium immediatum animae instrumentum innascitur qui corporis animaeque commune vinculum est quo vehiculo animae omnibus totius corporis partibus influit In a third place Exercit. 70. where he with cogent reasons refutes the vulgar error de calido innato he puts an end to all false notions and all disputes concerning that Subject and then concludes in these words Solus sanguis est calidum innatum seu primò natus calor animalis Habet profectò in se animam primò ac principaliter non vegetativam modò sed sensitivam etiam motivam permeat quoquoversum ubique praesens est eodemque ablato anima quoque ipsa statim tollitur adeo ut sanguis ab anima nihil discrepare videatur vel saltem substantiae cujus actus sit anima
aestimari debeat These remarkable texts I have recited not to prolong my discourse but to confirm whatsoever I have said of the generation of Life original in the Blood and of the communication of influent Life from the same Blood to all parts of the Body that so I might with more assurance leave this fourth Act of the Blood fully explain'd and pass to the ¶ FIFTH and last Which consisteth in the dffusion of the exhalations of the Blood raised by the expansive Motion or actual Heat of it and which reduceth it from the State of Arteriose Blood to that of Venose For the Blood newly impregnate with Life and kept a while in restraint by the thick Walls of the Heart and firm Coats of the Arteries no sooner arrives at the habit of the parts but instantly it begins to disperse its more volatile Particles in Steams or Exhalations and those being diffused it becomes calm and sedate and is in that composed condition transferred into the capilray Veins to be at length brought again to the Heart Of these Exhalations the more subtil and fugitive part exspires into the Aire by insensible transpiration the rest striking against membranose and impervious Parts or perhaps against the very Parenchyma of them is stopped and repercuss'd and condensed into a Dew Which after it hath moistned the parts is by their tonic motion squeez'd into the Lympheducts and by them carried off toward the Centre of the Body In the mean time the Blood after this manner calmed and recomposed returns quietly and slowly toward the Heart therein to be quickned heated and impregnated anew by the expansive Motion of its Spirits being driven on all the way by more Blood continually following and pressing it and by other concurrent Causes by me a little before particularly mentioned And this I believe to be the manner and reason of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood during Life Now reflecting upon the five Acts of the Blood described in the circular Race of Life the Sum of all my perplex and tedious disquisition concerning it amounts to no more but this That the Mication of the Blood proceeds originally from the expansive motion of the Spirits of it somewhat restrain'd and repulsed by the gross and less active parts and incited by that opposition that from this Mication Life Original is as it were kindled in the Blood passing through the Heart that Life influent is communicated to all parts of the Body from the Blood transmitted to them through the Arteries and from the union of the vital Spirits contain'd in the Blood so brought into them with the Spiritus insitus of every part that receives it that to that noble end Nature hath ordained that the Blood should be speedily distributed to all parts through the Arteries by the Heart spontaneously contracting itself and so soon as it hath done that its grand Office of reviving them and diffused its exhalations be brought back again to the Heart therein to conceive vital Heat anew and in fine that the Life of all Animals depends immediately or primarily upon the regular Mication and next upon this perpetual Flux and reflux of the Blood by the glorious Inventor of it Dr. Harvey rightly called not the Circulation but CIRCUITION of the Blood Quòd ejus semper redeat labor actus in orbem How probable these things are Ye who are Philosophers and Anatomists have indeed a right to Judge but ye must pardon me if I adventure to say that ye have no right to Judge whether they be true or not For what Seneca Natural Quaest. lib. 7. cap. 29 with great Wisdom and Modesty spake of his own reasonings about the nature and causes of Comets may be with equal reason applied also to mine concerning Life which in more then one thing resembles a Comet viz. Quae an vera sint Dii sciunt quibus est scientia veri Nobis rimari illa conjecturâ ire in occulta tantum licet nec cum fiducia inveniendi nec sine spe Huc item referri potest quod Atheniensis hospes respondebat Clinio apud Platonem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vera haec esse approbare cùm multi de iis ambigant solius Dei est If you grant them to be consentaneous to right reason and observations Anatomic I may then not impertinently conclude this Disquisition with the same Sentence with which my Master Gassendus is said to have concluded his Life Quantula res est vita hominis ¶ EPILOGUE AUGUSTUS ye know notwithstanding he had long enjoyed whatever the greatest part of mankind calls Happiness could not yet when dying afford to call Human Life by any better Name than that of a Comedy or Farce asking his Friends that stood by him Ecquid iis videretur mimum vitae commodè transegisse And that this Farce consisteth of five natural Acts too I have endevored in my precedent Discourse to evince Why then may not ye expect that I should in keeping of Decorum so far persue this double Analogie as to my short History of Life to subjoyn an Epilogue Supposing therefore that ye do I hold myself obliged to add one such as seems to me to be neither indecent nor impertinent It shall be a short History or Tale call it whether ye please Written by Philostratus in lib. 4. cap. 16. de vita Apollonii Tyanei Which I through hast forgot to touch upon in its due place and in which there occurrs more than one thing worthy to be remarked Be pleased then to hear first the Story itself in the Authors own Words and then my brief reflections upon the things therein chieflly considerable The Story is this The things I thence collect are these 1. That the Maid was not really Dead but only seemed to be so and consequently that the raising of her by Apollonius was no Miracle For the Author himself though in the first Line so bold as to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Miracle is yet so modest in the second as to render it doubtful by these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgo mori visa est the Maid seemed to be Dead i. e. She was not really Dead and after in his Philosophical descant upon the act of her resuscitation in these Utrum verò scintillam animae in ipsa Apollonius invenerit quae ministros medicosque latuerat an decidens forte pulvia dispersam penè jam extinctam animam calefaciens in unum congregaverit difficile conjectatu est Which is a plain confession that probably she was only in a Swoun because the Rain that fell upon her Face might raise her 2. That 't is probable the Maid lay intranced from a violent fit of the Mother For this terrible Accident invaded her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very Hour of her Marriage a time when Virgins commonly are most prone to have their Blood and other Humours violently agitated by various Passions which many times cause great commotions
Hysteric and contractions of the Nerves descending ad uterum 3. That the custom of sprinkling cold Water upon the Face of Women in Swouns is more antient than Philostratus Otherwise he could not have been so easily inclined to believe that a few drops of Rain that fell upon the Maids Face might conduce to her restoration especially when the reason he brings why an effect so considerable should proceed from so mean a cause is weak and trivial and when a sprinkling with hot Water might have been more efficacious 4. And lastly That Philostratus nevertheless shews himself no small Natural Philosopher in this very Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an scintillam animae in ipsa invenerit than which none could have been more proper more significant more emphatic at least if the notion of Original Life inkindled and perpetually glowing in the Blood which I have laboured here to explain be consentaneous to Truth And ye may remember that Salomon uses the very same Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his description of Life in the forecited place of Ecclesiastes Which is alone sufficient as to give credit to the Expression itself so also to excuse my induction of this Story into the place of an Epilogue Now this Animae Scintilla is liable to Languors and Eclipses chiefly in Women of more frigid and delicate Constitutions i. e. of little Heat and certainly in every Syncope there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Plato calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animula infirma the vestal Fire in the Heart dwindling into a Spark Whence it is that at such times all parts of the Body wanting a due influx of warm Blood during the cessation of the Heart become pale wan liveless and torpid imitating the Cold of Death But when the same Vital Spark begins to glow again and renew the Mication of the Blood it soon restores to the whole Body that vividam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brisk Effulgency whereof it was deprived during the Eclipse And this probably was the case of our Virgin No wonder then if Apollonius either perceiving by her feeble Pulses the Mication of her Blood not utterly extinguished or coming luckily in the very Article of Time when the same began to be more discernible to the touch than it had been awhile before to the Physicians that were retired made his advantage thereof pretending to restore her to life by Miracle He being an Impostor of singular cunning and watching all occasions to raise his reputation among the credulous Vulgar by appropriating to himself the causing of Events which in truth though perhaps rarely contingent were yet nevertheless merely Natural For who can believe that this Spark of Life when once utterly extinct can ever be rekindled in whatsoever Animal unless by a Power that can reverse change and surmount the fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Nature and that any such supernatural Power was at any time given to Apollonius Philostratus himself was not able to prove Safely then may we conclude that this Bride was not really but seemingly Dead when Apollonius came to her The same I dare say also of those Animals which Malpighi and some of our English Virtuosi have imagined and written they had restored to Life after Strangulation only by blowing Air sometimes into their Lungs sometimes into the Ductus Pecquetianus For that those Animals had been propemodum suffocata or brought by the Experimentors and confinium usque mortis is easy to believe but that they were quite dead and then revived extremely difficult to a Philosopher who knows that the Laws of Nature permit no regress to habit from total privation I conclude therefore with Sr. G. Ent's most judicious reflection upon this so magnified Experiment Antidiatribae pag. 143. Mirandum sane magis illis Authoribus cum Atropo fatalia abscindente stamina eam intercessisse necessitudinem ut ipsum mortis articulum tam accuratè persentiscerent c. For in Patients oppressed by the Apoplexy Epilepsy Lethargy Syncope or Hysteric Passion chiefly where no Pulse is perceptible and the outward parts of the Body are grown cold and stiff t is extremely difficult to distinguish utrum scintillula illa vitalis tantum delitescat an sit in corde penitus extincta So that even Physicians themselves and those too of the highest classis for learning Experience and Iudgment have sometimes mistaken the Living for the Dead Of which we have an eminent example in that Prince of Anatomists but most unfortunate Man Andreas Vesalius who as Hubertus Languettus hath left upon record in an Epistle to Casper Pucerus and Melchior Adamus in vita Vesalii dissecting the Breast of a certain Grandee of Spain whom he thought to be dead the Day before found his Heart yet panting to his own and the spectators astonishment to his eternal disgrace the danger of his Life and exile in which he miserably perisht upon the Shore of the Island Zant in his return from Palestine Doth any Man here expect from me other Examples of the like Mistakes Let him seek them in Pliny Nat hist. l. 7. C. 52. Georgius Pictorinus Sermon Convival l. 1. Alexander Benedictus Practic l. 10. c. 10. Paraeus Forestus Albertus Bottonus Schenckius Levinus Lemnius Fabricius Hildanus c. for now I have not time to recount them Prudenter itaque faciunt Magistratus saith Hildanus Observat. Chirurgic centur 2. observ 95. uti ego Genevae in quibusdam aliis locis observavi qui neminem sepeliri permittunt nisi priùs à quodam viro artis Medicae perito ad hoc negotium destinato inspecto atque explorato Cadavere For the same reason I approve not the vulgar Custome of setting great Pewter Dishes Turfs of Earth or other the like cold and ponderose things upon the Breast and Belly of Men newly defunct For by that means though the putrefaction and consequent fermentations of Humors congested within those Cavities may perhaps be somewhat checkt and retarded chiefly in Dropsies and great Apostems yet in other cases and where the person is not really but only in appearance Dead the spark of Life which is only eclipsed and otherwise may shine forth again is liable to be totally extinguished Nor am I singular in this opinion For I could at this very instant of time convert my eye upon one of the most Eminent Physicians not only of this Royal Colledge but of the whole World who languishing of a grievous and long Sickness and well prepared for a decent Exitus did nevertheless in my hearing for I had the honour of watching with him that night give order to his Attendants to omit that kind of treatment of his Body after all signs of Life should cease in him adding the very same Reason I have here given And this I have good reason to believe he did not from fear of Death but only from his deep insight into the Nature of Life of which he ceased not to Philosophize even when he expected
partly from a depression of the vital Heat partly from Cold unequally affecting the Lungs and hindring the free ingress and egress of the Air and partly from the difficult passage of the Blood either through the Lungs themselves or through the Muscles helping to move them Fourthly the moisture of the Mouth and in the Glands circumjacent begins to be dried up and thereupon ensue thirst and driness of the Tongue The reason of which seems to be this that the Latex Serosus is in the febrile Fermentation so confounded with other Humors that it cannot be separated from them in the Glandules destined to the Secretion of it Other Effects or Signs of the Fermentation observable in this beginning of the Paroxysm I reserve till we come to the Augment in which they become more conspicuous In the AUGMENT therefore no new Motion arises only the former are either by degrees lessned or increased Those that belong to the simple depression of the vital Spirits are gradually diminished but those that are referrible to the incitation or suscitation of them are by little and little augmented Of the former sort are Chilness Sense of Cold shivering trembling quaking all which by degrees cease and vanish because upon the raising of the Pulse the Blood is transmitted more briskly and speedily through the habit of the Parts The Voice also becomes more strong and uninterrupt and the respiration more frequent and equal for the same reason On the contrary the provoked vital Spirits now rising up against their intestine Enimy cause a manifest increase of the febrile Fermentation and Tumult For the expansive luctation grows more and more fierce and exorbitant and recedes farther from the natural State till it becomes turbulent hostile and frothy and unequal The consequents of these irregular Motions are 1 inquietude jectigation and sometimes Pain of the outward parts but chiefly of the Head all from the difficult transmission of the Blood through them 2 Frequency of the Pulse and now and then robust vibration of the Heart and Arteries probably from the intercepted course of the Blood and the augmentation of Heat 3 Diminution of Transpiration which though now somewhat greater than from the beginning continues much less than it ought to be considering the abundance of Effluvia or exhalations of the Blood raised by the intense Heat 4 Greater Consumption of the Latex in all parts of the Mouth and consequently more grievous Thirst. 5 Nauseousness and sometimes vomiting or Flux of the Belly For the Stomach and Gutts are of all parts most troubled and offended by the tumultuose afflux of the Blood as well because of their nervose Texture and their exquisite Sense thence arising as by reason of the matters contained in their Cavity which the containing Parts being irritated fluctuate and so become more apt to be moved and ejected upward or downward and for the same Causes the same parts are often molested with Winds and Eructations all Pneumatic Fermentations in the number of which our febrile Fermentation hath a place conducing much to the generation of Winds During this time of the Paroxysm the Fermentation and Heat and all the consequents of them here recounted excepting perhaps the last are augmented by degrees till they arrive at the Achme or State But so soon as the Transpiration comes to be more free and answerable to the abundance of Exhalations steaming from the Blood so as they no longer recoyl by the Veins to increase the estuation of the Blood the Augment ends and the State of the fit succeeds In which the Fermentation and Ardor persist a while in their Violence and Fury And though at this time some parts of the oppressing Ferment begin to be discussed and expelled by laboriose Sweat yet the vital Spirits are by that tumultuose Motion so profusely spent and exhausted that nature suffers almost as much of loss by that exhaustion as she receives relief from the Victory and Expulsion Whence perhaps it comes that yet the conflict appears doubtful and equal till the beginning of the Declination when the febrile Heat and all its concomitants are by degrees mitigated And then it is that the Victory of the vital Spirits being complete the remaining parts of the febrile Ferment are by an universal Sweat flowing without any considerable detriment of the strength of the Patient dispersed and exterminated For this Sweat is a kind of despumation of the impurities of the Blood that caused the Paroxysm whereupon soon ensue a remission of the burning Heat a cessation of anxiety and Pains and a fresh diffusion of the Latex Serosus into the Throat and Mouth for the quenching of Thirst and in fine a Cessation of all other vexatious Symptoms of the late Conflict and so at length the Paroxysm is ended Now from this our congruous Solution of all the Phaenomena of the fit of a Fever ye may easily judge of the reasonableness of the precedent Hypothesis according to which I have endevored to explicate them and how far the same may deserve your approbation or dislike ¶ Nevertheless I am willing ye should suspend your Sentence till I have carried on the Hypothesis farther For there yet remain many other Appearances to be solved I proceed therefore to the primary DIFFERENCES of Fevers in hope that they also may be commodiously deduced from the same Principles Forasmuch as it is probable from what hath been said of the nature of a Fever in general that all Fevers arise from and essentially consist in a Fermentation of the Blood We may with reason infer that the diversity of Fevers how great soever it be proceeds from nothing else but the divers fermentations of the same Blood For the diversity of Effects is for the most part respondent to the diversity of efficients And since it is scarce possible but that from various Ferments various kinds of Fermentations should arise it necessarily follows that the various sorts of Fevers are to be deduced from equally various Ferments actually hindring the vital mication of the Blood And I hold that there are so many differences of febrile Ferments as there are divers Natures or Dispositions of Crudities incident to the Blood and apt to inquinate it To know all these distinctly and to explicate each of them by a particular discription is perhaps impossible so great is the variety of crude Humors that may be admitted into the Blood and so manifold the Combinations of them that may happen to pollute it Let it suffice then if reflecting upon the chief sorts of Crudities alredy described we shall from thence congruously derive the Primary i. e. the most frequently observed Differences of Fevers By Crudity I here understand any inquinament or depravation of the Blood whatsoever proceeding from defect of due preparation thereof for the generation of vital Spirits as I before declared Now the matter in this Sense Crude may be distinguished into Ordinary or familiar to human Nature such as arises from the erroneous use of
they were fomented only by Matter before contained in the Veins and Arteries and yet afterward when they began to be supplied with new Matter or Fewel from the colliquated Crudities that had been long congested in the habit of the Body they have raged in extremity and continued long before Nature however accurately assisted and succour'd by our Art could bring them to a Crisis Conclude we therefore that in putrid Fevers there is no other Fomes but the described Crudities by long intemperance and other errors in Diet congested in the babit of the solid Parts For these are in all putrid Fevers daily resolved or fused into a certain Sanies or corrupt Matter and constitute a new febrile Ferment which is the thing we have gone so far about to find But yet I must not omit to subjoin that these Liquamina of the solid Parts imperfectly nourisht are not confined within the narrow compass of one single Genus but diffused through a large Field of indefinite variety For as indulgent Nature hath granted to us various kinds of Aliments each of which is in its peculiar qualities or proprieties in some sort distinct from all the rest and as the Iuices or Tinctures extracted from them by the concoctive Faculty of the Stomach are in diversity respondent to the diversity of our Meats and Drinks So must it be granted that the Crudities after imperfect digestion admitted first into the Blood and then into the habit of the Body and there affix'd to the solid Parts and at length resolved into a certain kind of Sanies that is most apt to afford Fewel to putrid Fevers as hath been often affirm'd cannot be all of a Sort but some different from others respectively to the different matters of which they were generated And of these doubtless the variety is greater than can possibly be known by any Physician however curiose so far are we from hope to reduce them all to Computation It were hard then for me if any here present should exact from me an accompt of more of these obscure Differences than what my present institute requires me briefly to explain and all my learned Hearers will I presume be contented if I do my devoir to reduce them in general to the Analogous Humors of the Antients above described namely Choler Phlegm and Melancholy not pure or natural but Corrupt For from these Humors taken in the Sense afore explicated may be commodiously and congruously deduced both the principal differences of putrid Fevers and the most probable causes of those Differences First therefore I must put you in remembrance of what I have more than once asserted viz. That the Humors by this Hypothesis assigned to putrid Fevers for their Causes both antecedent and conjunct are such which are not exolete or stale and despoiled of their Spirits and grown vappid but sufficiently stored with Spirits noxious and infest to the vital mication of the Blood Then I with good reason suppose that when the Crudities received first into the Mass of Blood and after into the substance of the Parts come neer to the nature of the Serum of the Blood now corrupt and by that putrefaction render'd acrimonious and well nigh Corrosive which emulating the Bile contained in the Bladder of Gall makes the Choler of the Antients there is congested and prepared Matter most apt and disposed to produce Biliose Fevers as they are call'd Tertians either continual or intermittent That in case the congested Crudities neerly resemble the white and viscid Grumus of the Blood which makes the Analogous Phlegm of the Antients but corrupt then there is laid up Fewel most convenient to foment Pituitose Fevers Quotidians continual or intermittent That if it happens that the Crudities congested be of such a Nature and Condition as to be affine to the Analogous Melancholly of the Antients i. e. to the blackish Grumus of the Blood degenerate from its natural purity and corrupt then the Bodies carrying them about are obnoxious and prone to a Quartan ere long to invade them And this may suffice to explain the Sentiments suggested to me by Glisson's new Doctrine concerning the most general and obvious Differences of Crudities apt to produce Fevers so far forth as they may be taken for the Conjunct Causes of putrid Fevers ¶ I come then to the Fundament of the so often mentioned division of putrid Fevers into CONTINUAL and INTERMITTENT that we may opportunely investigate what that is on which this remarkable difference seems immediately to depend This in probability is nothing else but the very Fermentation of the Blood in which alone the formal Reason of all Fevers doth consist and which by vehemently exagitating the whole Mass of the Blood sometimes continually sometimes by Intervals and those one while certain and ordinate another while uncertain and inordinate induces that Intense and afflicting Heat in which alone the Antients have unanimously placed the essence of a Fever and renders the Pulses of the Heart and Arteries more frequent than they ought to be so that from thence alone as from a Pathognomonic Sign a Physician may certainly conclude of the presence of a Fever A continual Fever therefore is that which from the first Moment of its Invasion to the last of its duration continnes and afflicts without Intermission never coming in all that time to a perfect Apyrexia or utter Extinction This Fever if it be mild gentle unaccompanied with grievous Accidents or Symptomes and but of one days continuance is thence call'd an Ephemera or Diaria if in like manner mild but of two three or four Days duration it is denominated accordingly a Diaria of a few Days or more properly Synochus Simplex An Intermittent Fever is that in which the febrile Fermentation doth not dure from the beginning to the end continually but is intermitted and returns with diverse Paroxysms after Intervals now shorter now longer and these Paroxysms running through their peculiar times namely their beginning augment state and declination there alternately i. e. after the end of every single Paroxysm succeds an Apyrexia not perfect perhaps but quoad Sensum From this vicissitude or rather from the various Intercalation of the Paroxysms various sorts of intermittent Fevers have for distinction sake obtain'd various Names In particular when a new Fit in proportion respondent to the former returns dayly i. e. once in every twenty four Hours the Fever is named an intermitting Quotidian When a Paroxysm recurs every other Day or on every third Day t is called a Tertian and by the Vulgar a third-Days Ague When the Paroxysm recurs not till after two whole Days of intermission 't is call'd a Quartan or fourth-Days Ague and so forward for there have been observ'd also Quintans and Sextan's though very rarely Here give me leave en passant to note that the word Ague by which the common People understand an intermittent Fever is derived from the French adjective Aigù which signifies Acute or sharp perhaps