everlasting light the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodnesse ver 27. And being but one she can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new c. Wherefore let us turn over leafe to our easier Lesson the Body CHAP. III. Of the Human Body and its Functions THE Human Body is by the Eternall Architect contrived and composed of Parts 1. Similar or simple which are so subdivisible 1. Similaris that every minute atomicall particle is of the same substance with the whole 2. Dissimilar Compound 2. Dissimilaris Organicall or instrumental which may be resolved or undone into lesser compound parts substantially different as the Hand may not bee divided into other hands but into Bones Muscles Veines c. To the Similar and Dissimilar is required Unity and Integrity to the Similar considered distinctly is required a just harmonious Temper to the Organicall is required decent Composition and comely Conformation which according to the Variety of Actions in each distinct member is various and severall The Temperament Temperamentum quid Crasis or Constitution is one moderrte harmonious actually simple quality resulting from the intense degrees of the four first Elementary qualities by mutuall Action and Passion in Commistion refracted and allayed And this is double 1. that which belongs to the Body quatenùs simply mixed and Compound 2. that which pertaines to it quatenùs Animate and living For in death this vanishes together with the life but in the Carcase untill its universall resolution by putrefaction the parts a long time Conserve the former Though this temper of living man which results from the harmony and determinate Conspiracy of all parts be Hot and Moist and life subsist in the same materiall principles yet there is framed a great variety of parts of which the most exquisit in Temper is the skin especially that of the Hand 1. In the Classis of Hotter parts is first ranked the Heart 2. the Liver 3. Spleen 4. Flesh of the Muscles 5. Kidnies 6. Lunges 7. Veines 8. Arteries 9. The softer oleaginous Fat or Grease 10. The harder Fat or Tallow 2. The colder are 1. the Bones 2. Cartilages or Gristles 3. Ligaments 4. Tendons 5. Nerves 6. Membranes 7. Spinall Marrow 8. Brain 3. The moister are 1. Fat 2. Marrow of the Bones 3. Brain 4. Spinal Marrow 5. Testicles 6. Duggs 7. Lunges 8. Spleen 9. Kidneies 10. musculous Flesh 11. Tongue 12. Heart 13. Softer Nerves 4. The dryer are 1. Bones 2. Ligaments 3. Tendons 4. Membranes 5. Arteries 6. Veines 7. harder Nerves This Temper proper to the body Animate consists of the Calidity Calidum innatum 1 innate or primitive 2. influxive or advenient This Calidity ingenerate subsists in the Callidum innatum For by the Calidum innatum we understand not a bare quality divorced from but resident in its subject Humidum radicale This increated Heat consists of the implanted spirit and primigenious Moisture and is exactly defined the radicall moysture exquisitely perfusEd dashed or incorporated with the implantate Spirit Spiritus insitus and native warmth For these three viz. Heat Spirit and Originary Balsame are by so subtile and firm an Union married that they admit no possibility of divorce or Extraction Which mysterious trine-unity the amazed Philosopher Lib. 2. de Gen. Animal cap. 3. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Originary heat disseminated and diffused principally in the spermatick parts called by Arist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but chiefly radicate and seated in the heart for the same reason by Galen surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Focum Calidi innati Is the grand instrument whereby the Soul doth enterprise and perform all her actions corporeal and is the Taper of life which while drenched with a wealthy revenue of primitive oyle diffuseth a vigorous and orient lustre In the second or consistent age when there is no contributing unto but a prodigal wast of the unctious pretious fuel begins to wane and yeelds but pale and sickly flames in the last age or natural marasm for extream poverty winks out and an everlasting midnight succeeds The influent conserves fosters Calor influens and invigorats the congenerate heat by mediation of the spirits which are most subtle volatile bodies materially the most refined meteorized exalted part of the blood associated with the Calidum innatum become the proxim and principal instrument in the execution of all actions and enable the faculties of the Soul to arrive at the second act That these spirits are the tie or obligation of the Faculties and that the Faculties flow from the more into the lesse noble parts by the coadjutancy of them is a Doctrine popular yet discordant to truth For since the faculties are inseparable proprieties of the Soul she is diffusively equally resident in every part we shall affront our reason not to infer that she is every where richly provided of her own efficacious faculties and receives them not at second hand or by the indigent way of mutuation Great is the variety of opinions concerning these spirits Spiritus numero tres viz. for one sect substracts them to a numberlesse unity a second multiplies them to a superfluous plurality a third and most regular computes a a trinity to which opinion as in neerest cognation to verity we adhere For though the originary material of them all be the same viz. the purified and most sublimed part of the blood yet they admit a divers impression and distinct form according to the diversity of parts wherein they receive elaboration and spirituousnesse and are comparated and destined to divers and distinct uses and are only 1. the Natural 2. Vitall 3. Animal Concerning the existence of the natural Spirit 1. Naturalis many suspend their determination and we although we admit it into the number of spirits must acknowledge no small graduall difference betwixt it and the two other neither do we concede it charged with the same office that the other bear Generated it is in the liver contained in the veines and is a subtle spiritual body produced from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rarefaction of the blood and becomes a subministred material to the Vital spirit Which all men concede to be generated in the left ventricle of the heart from the Natural spirit 2. Vitalis flowing into the right Ventricle of it there attenuated and more elaborate and the aire attracted by inspiration and dilatation of the Arteries This spirit is not only in the heart concurring with the innate heat of the same the principal instrument of all its actions but by the arteries diffused into the whole body cherishes excites and impraegnates the congenerate heat in every part whence it derives the appellation of Calidum influens This also is the prime materiall of the Animal spirit The partiality of some 3. Animalis to magnifie the prerogative and enlarge the dominion of
these rulers is supream and yet they are all equal The vital faculty Facultas Vitalis by proper actions and peculiar Organs absolutely distinct from the natural animal is seated in its own royal Throne the heart The 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thumetick powers resident in the Heart all comprehended under the name vital are first the faculty Generative of the arterial blood and spirits 2. of the vital conservatory Heat 3. the Pulsifick or motive official to the former From the irascible faculty Fac. Irascibilis stream all the Pathemata affections or passions of the mind Anger Animi Pathemata Mansuetude Audacity Fear Hope Despair Dejection or Prostration of the spirit Joy Sorrow and others of the same Classis that are either compoūded of or dependent on the former Of these passions some are performed materialiter seu per modum causae efficientis by expansion or excentrick motion of the vital Heat Blood and Spirits of this order are Anger Joy c. others by concentration of the same as Fear Sorrow c. but formaliter all are nothing but the motions of the Appetite either in prosecution of the delectable and friendly or flight and retreat from the odious and offensive object of which the former causeth an expansion or circumferentiall salley the latter a retraction or concentrick retreat of the vital blood and spirits But these appetitions or irascible and concupiscible motions cannot be executed but the agitation of the Heart Arteries and fervent spirituous blood From this we receive satisfaction why the Facultas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of necessity hath its residence assigned in a part of the hottest temperature and endued with the power of perpetual agitation The situation of the heart is though vulgarly deluded by the sensation of its pulse Cordis Situs and the sinister declination of its mucro or cone oppinion it to be placed in the left side in the center of the body if in our measure we except the thighes and legs and its Basis or Center fixed in the middle of the Thorax or middle region of the body that from it as from a plentiful fountain the vital Heat and spirits may be promptly diffused into the whole body The ventricles Ventriculi cavities or closets of the heart are two the right and left the right does by Diastole or dilatation suck in blood from the gapeing ostiary or floud-gate of the ascendent hollow vein by its intenser fire cohobate refine and rarify it the more subtile and meteorized part whereof is through the Foramina or capillary perforations of the septum interstitiary skreen which notwithstanding Columbus Spigelius Hoffmannus and our Hippocrates Septum interstitium Doctor Harvie will by no means admit of or partition wall betwixt both ventricles transcolated into the left ventricle the other parcel passeth by the Vena Arteriosa into the lungs and one small portion of it converts into the Aliment of the Lungs the remainder is transported by the Arteria Venosa into the left Chamber of the heart These businesses which we are sorry to confesse more the imployment of our wonder Cardis motus then our knowledge are transacted by a certain admirable and uncessant motion of the Heart whereby in the diastole 1. Diastole the extremities of it are contracted and the mucro or point ravelled up towards the Basis so that the Heart in longitude abbreviated and in latitude expansed but in the Systole or Compression it is by coangustation of the sides enlarged in longitude 2. Systole and diminished in latitude But since to the regeneration of vitall spirits and Arteriall blood are required two necessary ingredients Venal blood and the Aer and these two materiall principles cannot by one and the same motion bee attracted besides these two Ventricles recipient and elaboratory there are superadded two notable Cavities Christned by Anatomists Auriculae processes or superstructions on each side one extending to the surperior part of the Ventricles The uses whereof are 1. to inspire Aer for the refocillation or recreation of the vitall spirits and to bee the Hearts promptuaries or storehouses to receive the blood and Aer that they may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with too suddain an impetuosity rush into the heart and cause suffocation 2. to fortifie and guard the Vena Arteriosa Arteria Venosa to which they are adjoyned 3. according to the doctrine of Hippocrates Lib. de Corde to serve the heart in stead of a Fan or Refrigeratory for they are therefore distended because impleted whereas the Heart by a motion quite contrary to this is therefore impleted because distended That the Heart in its Contraction and Expansion might be guarded from impediments Pericardium Nature hath constituted it a capacious membranous domicilium or Tent called the Pericardium or Purse of the heart the use whereof is 1. to defend the heart in its motion from the shocks of the circumjacent parts 2. to contain the serous Humor wherein as in Balneo the heart is refrigerated moystned and its motion facilitated Moreover since nothing can have ingresse to Vasa and regresse from the heart but through Conduits and Sluces there are for this purpose ordained four conspicuous vessells in the Basis of it two in the right and two in the left ventricle of the heart in the right are the vena Cava vena arteriosa 1. Vena Cava in the left Arteria magna Arteria Venosa 1. The hollow veine with an ample and patent orifice looks into the right sinus of the heart and into it drops blood for the generation of Arterial blood the vitall spirits and provision for the Lungs Others notwithstanding opinion that the blood redistilled and elaborated in this preparatorie is immediately distributed through the whole body 2. Vena arterialis 2. the vena Arterialis is the derivatory of blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the Longs for their nutrition and the principall materiall of the vitall spirit and blood Arteria venalis 3. The Arteria Venosa conducts the Aer extrinsecally advenient and prepared in the Lungs and the blood by the Vena Arteriosa effused from the right into the left ventricle and expells the fuliginous Exhalations and at the sameinstant conveies a parcel of the vital spirits into the Lungs 4. Aorta 4. The Aorta or grand Arterie dispenseth the vitall spirits and Arteriall blood after their Exaltation in the left ventricle into the whole body These four Sanguiducts Hippocr Lib. de Corde calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Fountaines of Human Nature and fructifying rivulets wherewith the purple Iland is irrigated But since each of these four Considerable vessels is ordained to a double use Ex. Gr. the Arteria Venosa doth not onely suck in Aër from the Lungs and inspire it into the left Ventricle of the Heart but also returns up the vitall spirit
Valvulae and Artrerial blood to the Lunges and belcheth out the smoaky Exhalation that the substances admitted into the Heart may not rebound back by the same way they entered before they have attained full trāsmutation and intended perfection or what is effused from the Heart may not remeate into it again the omniscient Contriver hath annexed eleven Values or Flood-gates to the orifices of these vessels two to the Arteria Venosa and three apiece to the other three To the Vena Cava are signed three called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tricuspides three-pointed Values that look inwards that the blood may have intraction into the right Ventricle but no regression into the hollow veine 2. Contrarily those of the Vena Arteriosa named from their figure Sigmodies Semi-Cynthian Values shut inwardly but open outwardly that the blood may have Eructation but be denied readmission 3. the two Janitors allowed to the Arteria Venosa being conjoined represent an Episcopall Mitre open outwardly and shut inwardly and forbid the reflux of the emitted vitall spirit and fuliginous expiration 4. Those affixed to the Grand Arterie are three semicircular or halfmooned look outwardly and occlude inwardly that the Arteriall blood and vitall spirit powred out for the vivifying supportment of the whole may not remeat into the left Ventricle The Ductus Pipes or Conduits Arteria through which the heart transmits vitall heat spirits and blood to the whole body are branches of the Aorta which are also dilated and contracted Pulsus quid and by this motion draw in the Ambient Aer through the spiramina or slender evaporatories of the skin and distribute the vitall spirits and arteriall blood which motion of the heart and Arteries is called the Pulse Which consists of two Contrary motions a Diastole or dilatation Arteriarum 1. Diastole a Systole or Coanguistation after a momentary respite or articulate intervall of time mutually succeeding each other 1. in the Diastole the heart is impleted with Aer and Blood drawn in from the Lunges by the Arteria Venosa and the Arteries through their subcutaneous orifices attract a convenient quantity of the environing Aer 2. in the Systole the heart 2. Systole by the great Arterie delivers out vitall heate and Arteriall blood invigorated with vitall spirits for the Conservation of all and by the Arteria Venosa discharges the smoky effumations and the Arteries by their small ostiaries squeeze out their vaporous superfluities which action is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insensible Transpiration Again Pulmones in the regard the inspired Aer must part with its intense frigidity be refracted and suffer some graduall mutation before it penetrate to the heart the prudent Conformator hath instituted Respiration provided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respirators Lungs as the praeipuous Organs thereof For although the Thorax and other neighbouring parts may be allowed causes sine qua non and contribut their inserviency to respiration modo secundario yet primarily as from its Causator this motion flowes from the Lungs to which as well as to the heart and brain by the inviolable Charter of Nature is granted a peculiar innate power to dilate and contract themselves * Et si meritò concedamus hanc de Pulmonum thoracis motu litem nostro arbitrio discerni non posse tamen motum Pulmonum ab insita iis facultate non thoracis motum sequi prosicisci veritati maximè consentaneum videtur peritissimorum Anatomicorum observationibus ac rationibus confirmatur which in living Anatomies and vulnerary perforations of the Thorax may with easie animadversion be confirmed For neither is Respiration a motion arbritrary or dependent on the injunctiō of our wil nor are the Lungs dilated ob fugamvacui which would accuse Nature of the want of forecast and shifting into one absurdity to avoid another when the Thorax is distended but they are moved by their owne inherent virtue respiratory and the Lunges and Thorax are therefore in one and the same instant moved because they conspire to one and the same end But that this might be with the greater convenience performed and the Lungs have a room accommodate to their motion the Animall Faculty at the same instant moves the Thorax These two motions keep time together and observe so even a proportion in Expansion Coarction that some have thence hinted the error that they are regulated by one and the same faculty Neither are the lungs distended because repleted as a bladder by the inflation of Aer but since there is no inflatorie instrument that should from without puffe Aer into them are therefore repleted because dilated as in a bellous the cause of its repletion is dilation This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respiration is compounded of two contrary successive motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inspiration and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expiration 1. Inspiratio and a short quies intervening 1. In inspiration the Lungs and Thorax being dilated the Aer by the mouth and nostrils is drawne in for the fanning and refrigeration of the heart and generation of the vital spirits 2. Expiratio 2. In Expiration the Lungs and Thorax being compressed the Fuliginous Excrements which in winter when the intense frigidity of the furrounding aire condenses them are visible are by the mouth and nostrils excluded And for this reason Excrementa Fuliginosa that both a plentiful proportion of Aer may be sucked by and contained in them the Lungs in magnitude proportionably exceed any other of the Viscera and have obtained a porous spongy substance The Fistula or Cane that conveys the inspired Aer from the mouth and nostrils into the lungs Aspera Arteria Ejus is the Aspera Arteria or Trachea with our Nation the Weazon or Wind-pipe whose superiour part from the Larynx to the Bronchi is one single trunc Bronchi but the inferior is devaricated into innumerable smaller branches or disseminations by Hippocrates surnamed Syringae and distributed into all quarters of the lungs for their total implection with Aer which the vessells extended from the heart receive and defer into the ventricles of it And since we cannot the shortest account of time survive the defect of Aer both to ventilate and allay the fervour of our cordial fire which would else intend to conflagration and terrify our heart to Cynders Conformationis ratio and to recruit our vitall spirits so prodigally exhausted This Aspera Arteria is contrived of many round annular or rather sigmoidall Cartilages connexed by intermediate ligaments that by this structure it might be alwaies kept open and we secured from strangulation which immediately succeeds its concision But that our deglutition might not prove our destruction and no part of our meat and no more of our drink then may only betermed a guttulous irrigation might drop down into the Trachea or rough arterie to the hazard of suffocation providence hath in the upper
Mutilates if he be destitute of power to procreate another man perfect and altogether such as himself This hath prevailed upon most Naturalists many Divines to conclude That man does absolutely procreate man and the whole man which could not be if the procreator did not communicate the Soul to his issue for since man consists of a body and a Soul if the Soul be not communicative from the Genitors man cannot propagate man This also is consentaneous to the sence of sacred Scripture For God Gen. 1. verse 28. distributed to man equally with all other living creatures his virtual benediction of crescite multiplicamini by the lineal inheritance of which the whole man does propagate the whole man And were it not a frustration of the Energy of the Almighties blessing if our opinions concede the Soul deduceable from any Extrinsec cause For whatsoever belongs to the essential integrity of human nature Arg. 2. doth man propagate by generation but not only the body but the Soul also is essentiall to human integrity Ergo the soul is also propagated by generation Hence Damascen Lib. de Orth. Fide defines generation to be ex concursu maris et faeminae similis substantiae individui procreationem Neither is the Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent excellence to be derived from her Creation For not quicquid creatur est immortale but rather every created nature if we regard its principal is per se mortal and the reason why some natures are mortal others immortal is not deducible from the condition of their materials but from the omnipotent sic placuit and voluntary decretal of the Creator who created whatsoever whensoever and howsoever he pleased And such is the human nature as the eternal will of God resolved it and firmly conserving the essence granted is according to the institutiō of the same wil propagated Argu. 2◠Our other firmer Basis on which our affirmation of the Souls extraduction relies is the propagation and hereditary transmission of sin together with the Soul from our fist Grandfather Adam to all posterity and is erected by an argument betraying to impossibility or absurdity thus If the Soul be created by infusion or infused by Creation God either created the Soul evil and depraved or infused a tincture of evil into it after it was created both which while they allow God to be the immediate original of the Soul inferre a dangerous impiety and conclude him the Author of sin Or secondly the Soul being by her creation perfect white and immaculate doth contract her inquination corruption and blemishes from the body But according to the Canon Law of Metaphysicks no material can agere on an immaterial by a natural act True it is by a general confession that the customary inclinations of the mind do more then frequently confesse their subjection to the influence of the constitution of the body but this is done actu morali by inclination and disposition not by impression of any real Physical miasme or pollution by the same way whereby the stars rule us and God the starres 2ly Our Saviour Mat. 15. V. 2. expresly declares that from the Heart as from a polluted fountain do spring the streams that render man sullied and impure and that which commeth out of the mouth defileth man i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind and radical Concupiscence are the common sources from which all sin is derivative Or thirdly we must compulsively concede that sin is transmitted or descended from Adam to us by way of imitation not propagation or production which error of Pelagius is hissed out of the Schooles by the Arminians But Peter du Moulin conceives to himself an easie protection from the danger of these rocks by affirming that God created the Soul morally good and perfect but by supervention of Adams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precipitous fall destitute of supernaturall light and therefore because the Soul is by the natural swindge of Essential appetite rapt on to good but for want of the manuduction of divine light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is purblind and insufficient to steer it selfe to the true supream good viz. God it violently pursues the creatures viz. Bonum jucundum et utile and thus by aberration from and dereliction of the principal and true good doth become spiritually depraved and tainted But this way of evasion is unsafe upon a maturer sounding and this resolve without impeachment of the honour due to so much learning too narrow a tablet to pourtraict the nature of Original sin on as if it could be nothing but barely the privation of supernatural light by the dictates whereof it might direct to and fix on the summary good where the Soul is purely passive When Gen. Chap. 8. Verse 22. it is intituled Figmentum Cordis the contrivment or Poesie of the heart evill and totally corrupted from the Cradle because like a Potter it moulds fashions and actuates lusts and concupiscence as if in our soul were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformative power whereby our hearts can fashion and proportion evil Truly the cause procatarctica or provocative is from without but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the native and preconceptive is in the very Soul 2ly That universal determination of Divines that the Soul in supernaturalibus est deprivata in naturalibus depravata Whence therefore is this Cymmerian dimnes and obscurity of the understanding even in the businesse of her own proper objects viz naturals and intelligibles to which is no way required the assistance of divine light when our ingenerated protogenitor Adam before his transgression contracted a black cloud over his reason and obnubilated its primitive clarity was exactly read and experienced in the natures of Animals and hence accommodated appellaations to each distinct species 3ly Why in the Sacrament of Baptism doth the element of water Symbolize washing clensing and purging unlesse in implicite relation to our uncleannesse and the Minera of our polluted Nature the reaty or guilt though not the reality whereof is absterged and expunged by Baptism And were it not a Parergie we could urge the same of Circumcision 4. Lastly if we perpend the nature and symptomes of the primitive crime of Adam we shall discover a tract or view of it deeply impressed in all his succession so that thence we may sympathetically confesse it to be malum haereditarium an evil radically and lineally descending to all posterity a desire of knowledg a palliation and extenuation of the fact a translation of the guilt on others et quod nemini obtrudi potest on God himselfe All which are the Vestigia of the first sin and evidently conclude in the phrase of the sacred Historiographer Gen. Chap. 5. Ver. 3. that Adam begot sons in his likenesse after his own image which image all Divines conclude to include Original sin and the penalty of eternal death which he propagated in his issue in the room of that Majestick image of Divinity received
virtuall and medicinal sense by which the great Physician of the world was pleased to restore sight to the blind strength and activity to the lame hearing to the deaf to extinguish the feaver of Peters Mother-law stop the inveterate issue of his Haemorrhoidal Patient unlock the gates of death and reduce the Widowes Son from the total privation back to the perfect habit of life Concerning this sense there are no mean controversies among Philosophers and the first enquirie is An tactus sit unus numero sensus An tactus unus numero sensus sit Whether there be only one single power of touching as there is one faculty of seeing a second of hearing a third of smelling a fourth of tasting or many distinct powers Aristotle moves this query Lib. de Anima cap. 2. and subjoynes this reason of his dubitation Vnus sensus est unius primae contrarietatis c. One single sense hath but one proper object to which all that it perceives may be referred But the touch seemes not to have one common object but many for it judgeth hot and cold dry and moist heavy and light hard and soft rough and smooth thick and thin c. which are not reducible to any one common Genus and the same reason according to which they are qualified for the perception of the touch And by the treachery of this ignis fatuus the facilitie of some who were far on their journey toward Athens hath been seduced so wide off the tract of truth as to fall upon the absurd belief Plures esse Tactus that there is a plurality of touching Faculties and of these some make two one for the discernment of calidity and frigidity another for the dignotion of humidity and siccity others superadd a third for the perception of gravity and levity a third sect determines that there are as many distinct powers of touching as there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differences and contrarieties of tangibles a fourth hath yet multiplied their number and superaded others to the sensation of pain and pleasure delectation venery hunger and thirst On the contrary many conclude on the singularity of the touch which although it comprehend objects in number numerous and in nature various and repugnant yet doth apprehend them all under one common reason and determinate qualification after the same manner that the sight discerns white black red yellow green and all sub communi colori coloris ratione Although we confesse our judgment below the decision of this high dispute and that many great Clerks have determined of nothing but the immpossibility of its determination yet probability invites us to this latter opinion unam esse tangendi potentiam For although there be a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or materiall immutation in the Organ preambulous to Taction and this alteration is various and different according to the variety and difference of tangibles yet from this the unity of the Touch is not aestimated but only from the spirituall alteration since it is proper to every sense to receive not the substantiall but intentionall formes of its proper object And this spirituall alteration which is the same in all the contrarieties of the tangible objects constitutes one individuall sense otherwaies we may find no lesse varietie in any of the other senses Neither shall we need to grant a plurality of Touches for pain and pleasure since pain and pleasure are not perceived and distinguished by the Touch but the objects of those passions The other greyheaded contention devolved from great antiquity to the present Organum tactus and not unlikely to descend to the bottom of future times is concerning the instrument of this sense some concluding for the Flesh others the Skin and most the Nerves how lame and inconsistent with the integrity of truth each of these opinions is our succeeding lines will attempt to declare Adaequatum est Membrane Since every sense hath its peculiar Organ without which the facultie must remain uselesse and unactive and this Organ is by the provident law of constitution and praedisposition subject to the admission of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or affection which the object shall impose or impresse on it and that part is to be accounted the Organ which is manifestly affected and altered by the object we suppose the induction good if applyed to the touch that in all members which discern tactile qualities there is the instrument of touching and that part which in every place of the body is affected and changed by tactile qualities is the Organ of touching And since the touch resides in no part which is not furnished with a membrane and ècontra wheresoever any membrane is there is the sense of touching also we conclude that the Heart Membranes are the true prime and adaequate Organs of the Touch and that all parts receive their sensibilitie from them Some have endeavoured the subversion of this opinion but with vain and inconsiderable objections Non Caro. for what they urge that the Flesh is endowed with the sense of feeling is manifestly false For the Flesh feels not per se or by any sensible power inhaerent to it selfe but as it is furnished with Nervous or Membranous Fibres which are bestowed on the substance of the Muscles But the Flesh of the viscera and glandules whose substance is unprovided of Fibres is wholly devoid of sensibility And although Galen teach us Nee Necuus Lib. de placit 7. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every part furnished with a Nerve enjoys the sense of feeling yet are we to allow his Axiom tru ōly in a qualified sense that is quatenus ipsi nervi membranosi sunt as the nerves themselves are membranous and disseminate their fibrous surcles and capillary productions on the parts Otherwise if we consider the Nerves in sensu diviso in the naked simplicitie of their own natures as they are strictly and properly nerves they are not the proper instrument of touching but Canales or conduits inservient to the distribution and transvection of the Animall spirits into all parts of the body in which respect they are officiall to the touch no more then to the rest of the senses But that qualification and endowment of sensibility they possesse they borrow from the membranes wherewith they are invested as ordinary observation of wounds of the Nerves especially the greater ones wil inform us for the meduallary substance may be handled and drawn forth of the wound without any pain at all but if the coat or membrane be but touched most exquisite and invincibletorments immediately ensue Concerning the skin Cutis est instrumentum tactus praecipuum sed non adaequatum we grant it to be the common integument of the body whose principal and publick action is esse tactus instrumentum ad subjectarum partium tutelam to be the instrument of Touching and discern external injurious instruments that invade the body and we beleeve that Galen said very truely Cutem maxime quae est in manu omnium sensibilium normam esse tactus instrumentum prudentissimo Animali proprium qua ut communi instrumento adres tangendas apprehendendas omnium qualitatum tangibilium differentiae melius quam ulla alia corporis parte dignoscuntur Yet we cannot concede it to be unicum et adaequatum tactus Organum the only and adaequate instrument of touching but since other parts could not want this sense for the avoidance of destructive and noxious objects nature hath been far more bountifull and diffused it into the most retired parts and for this reason the Membranes are dispersed through all the body and by their mediation the sense of touching which in many of the internal parts is most exquisite and acute The collection of all is that the praecipuous Organ of the touch is the skin chiefly that part wherewith the hands are lined as destined to the common apprehension of all things tangible but the adaequate are the membranes by the benefit whereof all other parts the skin excepted obtain the sense of Feeling FINIS