have undergone severall Circulations and as many fresh Accensions in the Heart For in every Circulation they grow more and more subtile and agile and so must at length be brought to the requisite height of volatility To which having once attained in the very next Circulation though they are restrained and kept in by the sides of the heart and coats of the arteries while they remain therein being diffused upon the outward parts of the body as they warm and vivify those parts so do they soon flye away and disperse themselves into air And while these thus flye away other Spirits lesse volatile are by the colder temperament of the parts by which they pass somewhat repressed so that the force of their expansive motion is much abated the Mication or panting of the bloud interrupted and the bloud wherein they are of Arterial or vital bloud is made venouse or Natural and such it continueth untill the next circulation bring it again to the heart there to be kindled afresh and exalted to the due heat of vitality Which once acquired it recovers its intermitted motion of Mication or rising and falling alternately and yeeldeth a fresh supply of spirits vital which being transmitted to the habit of the body are soon dispersed like the former And thus is the vital Flame kept alive at no lesse expence The Reason of the Mication or panting motion of the Blood in the arteries than a continual dissipation of the most votatile spirits of the blood For that vital Heat ariseth from within and the most subtile spirits are the first Movers to the excitement thereof the motion by which they do it being their indeavour to expand themselves and to dilate their bounds while the other grosser elements or ingredients of the bloud oppose them therein And this strife or Counter-activity of the spirits on one part and of the grosser ingredients of the blood on the other doth exhibite the general Essence of Heat To which may be added this short observation that in this Contention one while the spirits prevailing do lift up or swell the mass of bloud another while the grosser elements the contraction of the Heart and arteries assisting them prevailing countermand and interrupt that expansive motion and that by this alternate conquest of these Antagonists is made the Mication or Rising and Falling of the blood the one in the Dilatation the other in the Contraction of the Heart and arteries Forasmuch therefore as the vital Heat doth consist in the rarefactive motion of the spirits and the renitence of the grosser parts of the bloud and that the spirits for the most part at least alternately obtain the victory and dominion over their opponents it seems most consentaneous to truth that this vital Heat cannot be preserved without a perpetual expence of the most pure i.e. the most volatile spirits of the blood and consequently necessary that during life fresh spirits must be perpetually minted out of the blood to defray that vast and continual expence And this we conceive to be the true progress of Nature from the first reception of the spirits contained in the Aliment to their education into the Chyle their sublimation in the heart their gradual exaltation to the highest degree of volatility and lastly their dissipation through the skin into aer upon which depends the Conservation of the vital Heat and the continual Generation of the vital Spirits OF THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD ITS CONDITIONS AND CAVSES Exercitation the Sixth Of the Motion of the Blood its Conditions and Causes NAture which in all her works hath the End The Method of the Chapter and Means conducing to that End alwayes closely connected in one idea having ordained the perpetual generation of this vital Nectar the Blood in Animals for the Uses in the precedent Chapter recited that she might not be deficient in the means requisite to fulfill those Uses hath also ordained that the blood should be carried from the Fountain to all the parts in living streams by a certain admirable Motion necessary to its distribution through the whole body Now that we may fully understand the nature of this Motion we are to consider 1 the Manner 2 the Conditions 3 the Causes of it Concerning the FIRST we observe That the Motion of the blood is Circular that the blood is continually carried or rather driven from its fountain the Heart in the centre of the body by the Arteries to the circumference and back again from the circumference to the centre by the veins irrigating cherishing and vivifying all the parts as it passeth along and that therefore this Motion was by the glorious Inventer of it Dr. Harvey called the Circulation of the blood quòd Ejus enim semper redeat labor actus in orbem For in the first place From the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the heart the blood is effused out of the vena Cava into the right ventricle of the Heart as may be evidently seen in living Animals dissected especially in Coneys For if the trunck of the vena Cava be bound with a ligature both above and below the heart you may perceive all the blood contained in the space betwixt the ligatures to be speedily discharged into the right ventricle of the heart to which the vena Cava is conjoyned From the right ventricle of the heart it is the heart contracting it self expelled into the vena arteriosa From the right Ventricle by the Vena arteriosa into the Lungs and so into the Lungs but not through the septum transversum or middle partition of the heart as some have imagined conceiving the same to have some certain obscure passages from the right into the left ventricle only because they could without much violence thrust a style or probe through it when indeed those passages are not made by Nature but by the point of the probe the flesh of the heart being so tender as that it is easily penetrated by any hard and pointed instrument though but gently intruded Passing through the vena arteriosa into the very substance of the Lungs the bloud is immediately returned into the venosa arteria From the Lungs through the Arteria Venosa into the left Ventricle and through that into the Left ventricle of the Heart This is demonstrable thus Having made a ligature upon the great branch of the Arteria venosa neer the pericardium in the lungs of an Animal yet living you may observe that branch to be soon filled and much distended with bloud in that part which is toward the lungs and that emptied and flaccid that is next the heart and upon remove of the ligature the bloud will flow amain from the lungs to the left ventricle Now there being no other way by which this bloud can flow to the left ventricle but from the lungs it must of necessity descend thence by the Arteria venosa The left ventricle having thus taken in a quantity of bloud answerable to its capacity From the left ventricle into the great Artery and thence into the smaller Arteries the heart instantly contracting it self expelleth the same at least good part thereof into the Great Artery arising from the left ventricle thence
into the lesser arteries and so into the substance of the flesh from whence the bloud is intruded into the capillary veins by them into the greater veins from them into the vena Cava and at length into the right ventricle of the heart there to begin the same circular progress again We say from the capillary arteries into the substance of the Flesh. From the smallest Arteries through the substance of the flesh into the smallest veins For as to those who will have the bloud to pass out of the small arteries into the small veins per Anastomoses by certain inosculations or open passages from those into these we challenge them to demonstrate to the sense any such way of entercourse or communication betwixt arteries and veins in the whole habit of the body and Dr. Harvey did the same before us when He said De Anastomosi venarum arteriarum de mot cord sang cap. 9. ubi sit quomodo sit qua de caussa neminem hactenus rectè quicquam dixisse suspicari licet And why may not the blood be as wel conceived to permeate through the pores of the flesh as water through the pores of the earth the sweat through the skin the serum through the parenchyma of the Kidneys or as the same blood through the thick substance of the Liver Nor is only that bloud brought back to the heart by the vena Cava How the New-made blood is circâ—â—lated with 〈◊〉 old which passed through it before but the stream is augmented by the accesse of fresh Chyle also imported into the subclavian branches of the same vena Cava and thence into the right ventricle of the heart For this is not only easie to be done in respect of the vicinity of the ascendent and descendent trunck of the vena cava to the right ventricle but also necessary there being no other way for the new supply of bloud to passe and that it is done this experiment doth testifie The vena cava being bound both above and below the heart all the bloud contained betwixt the two ligatures will in a very short space be discharged into the right ventricle Again the Heart seems to immit more bloud into the Great Artery That more blood passeth through the heart in an hour than can be supplied from the chyle in severall dayes in the space of one hour than the proportion of Chyle can amount to in several dayes For in most men the Heart makes more than 3000. pulses in an hour and at every systole it expells some bloud out of its left ventricle into the Aorta as may be sensibly demonstrated by this that upon a ligation of the Aorta neer the heart and an incision made betwixt the ligature and the heart you may observe some quantity of blood more or lesse to be squirted forth by the incision at every systole unlesse the heart be grown weak and languid and yet even in that case some quantity of bloud will issue forth at the hole once in 3 or 4 pulses Nay when the cone or point of the heart is cut off and the heart held upright though the ventricles be not then full yet will some bloud be squeezed out of them every time the heart contracts it self 2 cap. de mat cord sanguin and that to the distance of 3 or 4 feet as Dr. Harvey observeth As for the Quantity of bloud admitted into the ventricles of the heart when it is dilated The Necessity of the Circulation inferred from three considerations viz. and expelled into the Great Artery when it is again contracted it cannot be precisely determined For if in the same individual person the motion of the heart being sometimes more strong and swift and sometimes more weak and slow doth make the Circulation of the blood more swift or more slow proportionately certainly in the species it must be impossible to commensurate the quantity of blood passing through the heart at every pulse since there is great variety among men in respect of their different temperaments ages sexes diet exercises passions and the like all which vary the pulse and consequently the motion of the blood However that some satisfaction may be given to enquirers herein we are to consider Three things viz. 1 How much blood may be contained in the heart of a Man in its Diastole 2 How much may be expelled out of it in its Systole 3 and How many Pulses or Diastole's and Systoles the heart doth commonly in healthy and temperate men make in an hour Concerning the First the quantity of blood contained in the heart in its Diastole there are different observations Harvey saith that in a mans heart dilated he found more than two ounces of bloud Plempius affirms that he found almost two ounces Riolan will allow scarce half an ounce in the left ventricle but somewhat more in the right And Hogeland comes much lower admitting only one dragme But all men generally grant that the whole masse of blood contained in the body doth seldome exceed 24 pounds or pints and as seldome come short of 15. Concerning the quantity expelled out of it in its Systole the Second we say that in every systole is expelled either the fourth or fifth or sixth or at least the eighth part of the bloud received into the heart at the precedent Diastole Harvey supposeth at least one dragme and proves that his supposition from the suddain effusion of all the mass of blood if but the least artery be cut and because all the blood may be transmitted through the heart in the space of half an hour He thereupon concludes for certain that much blood is expelled into the great Artery at every systole Conringius also makes the same compute Walaeus and Sleyelius admit half an ounce but compute only from one scruple Hogeland acquiesceth in one dragme And Thom. Bartholinus brings it down to only half a scruple But they all agree that in the contraction of the heart the sides of the ventricles are not drawn so close together as to expell all the bloud contained in them Concerning the Third The Number of Pulses in the space of an hour we remember that Primrose reckons 700. pulses in an hour Riolan 2000 Waleus and Regius 3000. Cardan 4000 Plempius 4450 Sleyelius 4876 Bartholinus 4400 or thereabouts and Harvey about 2000 each one numbering the pulses in his own wrist Now from these three things premised we may collect how much bloud may be expelled out of the left ventricle of the heart into the Aorta in the space of one hour according to the several numerations of pulses viz. From ℈ j 3000 times repeated there arise lb 10 â„¥ 5 Of
blood passing thorough the heart into the arteries in one houre ℈ j 4000 lb 13 ℥ 10 ʒ5 ℈ j ℈ j 4450 lb 15 ʒ3 ℈ j ℈ ss 4400 lb 7 ℥ 7 ʒ5 ℈ j ℈ j 2000 lb 20 ℥ 10 ℈ ij 2000 lb 41 ℥ 8 ℥ ss 2000 lb 83 ℥ 4 ℥ j 2000 lb 166 ℥ 8 Again setting it down for a ground that the quantity of blood contained in the whole body doth amount only to lb 15. for that is according to the most modest accompt and allowing some part thereof to be consumed by the Lamp of life and as much to be supplied out of the Chyle we may inferre these 4 necessary Conclusions 1 That more blood is transmitted through the heart once in every hour than can be supplied out of the Chyle in many hours 2 That all the blood in the body is transmitted through the heart once in a quarter or half or a whole hour or in two hours at most 3 That so much is not required to the conservation of the vital Flame and the confection of vital spirits 4 That since the vessells are not broken that the blood cannot return back out of the heart nor be any wayes dissipated it is absolutely necessary that the blood must return to the heart again by the veins or be Circulated perpetually as the immortall Dr. Harvey hath demonstrated Nor is this Circulation of the blood only Particular to some Arteries and Veins as some have inconsiderately imagined but Universal or common to them all That the Circulation is Vniversal in all the Arteries and veins of the whole body throughout the whole body For though it be indeed more demonstrable to the sense in the Limbs where the vessells being ample and conspicuous admit of ligatures more conveniently than those in the Inwards yet doth observation teach us that the motion of the blood is the very same in the very Entralls also In particular that we may deduce it through the most conspicuous Arteries and veins of other interior parts beside those already mentioned the blood is carried in the Abdomen to the Testicles by the spermatick Arteries from them by the spermatick veins into the left Emulgent and vena Cava Intestines by the Mesenterick Arteries from them by the Mesenterick veins into the Ramus Mesentericus and thence into the vena Portae Spleen by the left Celiacal Artery from it by the Ramus splenicus into the vena Portae and thence directly into the Liver Stomack and Omentum by other branches of the Celiacal Artery from them by the Gastrick and Epiploical veins into the Ramus splenicus thence into the vena Portae and so to the Liver Kidneys by the Emulgent Arteries from them by the Emulgent veins into the vena cava Outside of the Heart by the Coronary Artery back again by the Coronary vein into the vena Cava Thorax to the Pleura by the Intercostal Arteries from it by the veins thereof into the vena Azygos and thence into the vena Cava Head to the Membranes of the Braine by the Carotides and Neck-Arteries which tend to the four Cells of the brain but are not therein terminated as some Anatomists have thought from them by the jugular veins into the ascendent trunck of the VENA CAVA All which is discoverable to the sense by binding those vessels in Animals cut up alive For the swelling caused in either vein or Arterie by the flux of bloud there arrested will alwayes appear on that side the ligature from whence the blood flowes Here we are to advertise that in the Foetus or Infant-unborn the manner of the Circulation of the bloud But after a peculiar manner in an Infant unborn through the vessels of the Heart is different from that we have described For the blood is not carried from the Mothers womb into the Umbilical Arteries but from the Placenta Uterina in which those Arteries are terminated into the Umbilical vein which conducteth it along to the Liver of the Foetus from whence it is transmitted by the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the heart Being brought thither it is transferred into the Vena Arteriosa but because the Lungs are not yet moved as after the birth in respiration and so their vessels are not dilated and contracted alternately and consequently they can neither receive the blood out of the Vena Arteriosa not impell it into the Arteria Venosa therefore hath the providence of Nature contrived and framed Two peculiar passages the one a conduit or pipe conveying the blood from the Vena Arteriosa into the Great Arterie the other certain foramen hole or inlett by which the bloud passeth from the Vena Cava into the Arteria Venosa thence into the left Ear of the heart and so down into the left Ventricle From thence as well as that from the Vena Arteriosa it is infused into the Great Arterie So that in an unborn Infant Nature useth the two Ventricles of the heart as if they were but one and this lest the infant should have his Blood too hot and adust while he wants the ventilation of the air and expulsion of fuliginous exhalations through the Lungs From the Great Arterie the bloud is sent into the Umbilical Arteries which return it to the Placenta Uterina where permeating the substance thereof it is again infused into the small branches or rather roots of the Umbilical vein by them into the trunk and at length into the Liver Vena Cava and Heart as before Having thus explained by what wayes the blood is moved in a round This Motion of the blood is it follows that we consider the CONDITIONS of that its motion Concerning which we observe that the Circulation of the blood is 1 Continuall Continual For since the Heart is continually in motion and takes in blood in its Diastole and dischargeth the same again in its Systole never intermitting that its proper action but in great swooning fits or in the very article of death it is necessary that the motion of the bloud be likewise continuall 2 Vehement as may be inferred from the hardness and distention of an arterie vehement or vein bound with a ligature For nothing can be distended to great hardness by a thin and liquid matter especially upward unless that matter be with vehemence impelled into and retained in it But this vehemence of the motion is greatest neer the heart and is afterward diminished by degrees according to the severall degrees of distance from the heart so that the extream arteries have but little pulse unless it happens that the impellent force of the heart be encreased as in Fevers Inflammations Violent exercise some passions c. Which is also the reason why the veins have no pulse the impulse of the blood being less in them than in the smallest arteries 3 Swift swift For an artery or vein being compressed by ligature will swell up and be distended as it were
in a moment and the blood may be observed to flow in its course very swiftly so soon as the ligature is removed But how swiftly is not easily determined there being so great variety of Causes Natural Non-naturall and Preternatural that accelerate or retard the flux of the blood only thus may be inferred from the precedent compute of the number of Pulses and the quantity of blood expelled out of the left ventricle of the heart in every systole That the whole mass of blood doth pass through the heart once in an hour or two at most Yet is not the current of blood neer so swift in its channels while they are whole as when one of them vein or artery is cut because in that case the blood streams forth into the free and easily-yielding aer without any resistance but being confined in its vessels it is forced to distend them and drive-on the foregoing current 4 As swift in the Veines as in the Arteries For Of equall velocity in the Arteries and veins though the impulse be more vehement in the atteries as being continued to the heart than in the veins and therefore it might seem reasonable at first consideration that the motion should be proportionately more swift in the arteries yet considering that the Arteries are still smaller and smaller toward their extremities that the flux of the blood must needs be more and more retarded as it approacheth those extremities and on the contrary that the veins grow wider and wider from their extremities to the centre of the body and so the blood hath still larger and larger spaces to run through in its return to the heart we may safely conclude conjecturally that the velocity of the motion is as great in the veins as in the arteries This is also confirmed by sense for the Vena Cava in all that tract from the Liver to the subclavian division may be observed to beat as often as the Great Artery and so must import blood into the right Ventricle as fast as the Aorta doth export it from the left Which doubtless is the reason why the Vena Cava hath fleshy Fibres upon it when it approacheth the heart Nevertheless we conceive the motion to be swifter in the Arteries when the heart contracting it self doth impell the blood into and through them than when dilating it self again it doth intermit that its impulse Which is true likewise of the blood in the veins as may be sometimes observed in Phlebotomy when the ligature is not so streight as to cause much distension of the vein in which the incision is made for in that case the blood wil flow forth more swiftly every time the heart is contracted And these are the Conditions of this admirable motion of the blood Lastly concerning the CAUSE of this motion it is necessary that the blood be moved either by it self or by some other principle and if it be the Author of its own motion then that must be in respect of either an inherent motive-Faculty or of its Ebullition or of its Rarefaction or of its Quantity whereby the Ventricles of the heart are distended and so irritated as to discharge the same by contracting themselves If the motion be derived from an External principle then it must be referred either to Attraction or to Vection or to Pulsion Let us therefore see which of all these may be the most likely cause of the Motion of the blood First That the bloud is not the cause of its own Motion The blood not the cause of its owne motion in respect of any motive Faculty inherent in it ratione insitae sibi Facultatis by reason of any inherent Faculty may be inferred from hence that in bloud effused out of its vessels into the body or any other receiver no motion at all can be observed and it is hard to conceive that it should be so corrupted in a moment as wholly to lose a faculty essential to it Dr. Harvey we confess affirmeth that he observed a certain obscure motion of the blood in the right ear of the Heart where He supposeth the motion of the Heart first to begin and last to end after the Ear had ceased to move but we refer that to the Mication of the blood from the Vital Spirits not yet wholly extinguished Secondly That it is not the Author of its own motion Nor in respect of its Ebullition ratione Ebullitionis which Arist. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is manifest from these subsequent reasons 1 No Ebullition can be constantly equall or of the same tenour but the Pulse of the heart and so the motion of the bloud is in temperate and healthy men for the most part equall 2 As the Ebullition is greater so would the pulse but in burning Fevers the Ebullition is extream great by reason of the great intension of the heat and yet the pulse is frequently small and weak as also in the beginning of putrid Fevers as Galen long since remarked 3 The blood suffers no ebullition as it passeth through the heart For if in the dissection of a living Animal you make an incision either into the left Ventricle of the heart or into the Great Artery neer it you shall perceive the blood flowing out at the hole to be pure and such as before it came into the heart not frothy boyling or rarefied and to continue such as at its first efflux yea more if you receive the blood issuing from an incision of the Vena Cava in one sawcer and that issuing from the left Ventricle in another you shall not be able to discern any difference betwixt the one and the other either soon or a good while after An invincible argument against the Ebullition of the blood first imagined by Aristotle and since defended by many great men his sectators 4 The plunging an arme or legg into cold water would suppress the Ebullition and consequently the motion of the blood For if you apply a close ligature to a mans arme and then immerge the same into cold water or Snow upon solution of the ligature he shall find the blood returning to his heart with so great a sense of cold as very much to offend him Which cold arising to the bloud from its being long detained in the extremities of the arme bound Dr. Harvey will have to be the cause of swooning immediately after blood-letting in many men the heart receiving injury from that acquired cold Thirdly Not ratione Rarefactionis because 1 in living dissections Nor of its Rarefaction where the heart yet continueth its motion no man ever hath or can observe any such thing as rarefied blood to flow from either the left ventricle or the Great Artery if cut but pure and such as is from the Ears let down into the ventrices 2 The Heart it self when cut in pieces or wounded may be observed to beat yet not from any rarefaction of the blood for then it hath no blood in either of its Ventricles or Ears 3 It hath been observed in Doggs that after the point of the heart hath been cut off and the remainder turn'd upside down though the ventricles could
esse opinor and that even Harvey himself professeth that He found it rem arduam difficultatibus plenam We remember the modest sayings of two great Men upon the like difficulties the one of Galen Quo pacto haec fiaut si scrutaberis lib. 15. de usu part cap. 1. exercit 307. num 29. convineeris te non intelligere neque tuam imbecissitatem neque Opificis tui potentiam the other of Scaliger Quandam humanae sapientiae partem esse quaedam aequo animo nescire velle veram sapientiam nolle nimiùm sapere And we think we need say no more in excuse of this our professed ignorance Besides this Two-fold Proxime Cause there is also another Remote one The Fabrique of the heart a remote cause of the motion of the blood viz. the Peculiar Conformation or Fabrique of the Heart and its vessells And among all the parts in this curiously framed Machine of the heart those which are most official or instrumental to the motion are the Fibers and fleshy columnes which serve not so much to the strength of the heart as to the motion of it For in the Systole all the Fibers both small and great as well those in the inside of the ventricles as those in the Septum or partition-wall betwixt them like an artificial network made in the forme of a purse being contracted or drawn together the blood contained in the ventricles must necessarily be expelled or pressed out of them The Motion of the heart which is called the Pulse The Motion of the Heart described as consisting of two◠contrary motions and a Respite betwixt them as being continual and made partly by the influx of the bloud partly by the Pulsifick Faculty residing in the heart it self doth consist of 3 things the Systole the Diastole and the Perisystole all which are to be explained by their proper Causes according as ocular Inspection and Reason doth dictate them to the understanding 1 The Systole being the proper and natural motion of the heart is the Contraction or drawing together of the heart to a narrower compass that so the blood contained in the right ventricle may be expelled through the vena arteriosa into the Lungs and that contained in the left may be expelled into the Great Artery and so into all parts of the body 2 The Diastole being a motion only Accidentary to the heart is a Dilatation or opening of the heart that the blood may flow into the right ventricle out of the vena Cava and into the left out of the Arteria Venosa 3 The Perisystole is a certain quiet or short respite betwixt the Contraction and Dilatation of the heart during the small time that the blood is entering into or issuing out of the ventricles In healthy men this pause is so short as not to be distinguished from either of the two contrary motions but sufficiently manifest in men at the point of death It is also double there being one respite betwixt the Systole and Diastole and another betwixt the Diastole and Systole And this is the natural state of the Heart As to the Figure or Forme of the heart in those contrary motions And the Figure of it in each from the dissection of Animals alive from the commodity of its motion and quiet and from the position of its Fibers and other parts we have learned it to be thus In the Systole it may be observed that 1 the point of the heart is drawn upward toward the Basis of it in order to the expulsion of the blood the length of it being diminished and bredth proportionately encreased because the basis is immoveable in respect of the cone which is fastned neither to nor by any vessells 2 The inner walls or sides toward the ribbs are brought neerer each to other because they are constringed and made narrower as may be perceived by putting a finger into either of the ventricles at the time of their contraction but the outward becoming tumid seem to be enlarged in latitude from the contraction of all parts inflated in the tension or stretching 3 The fore part of the heart is lifted up towards the sternum and chiefly neer the base for where the pulse is felt there doth the heart strike the breast with its base that part being lifted up and brought neer to the sternon and at the same time not in the Diastole is the heart vigorated and the arteries dilated and filled and the pulses are felt both in the breast and wrist the Diastole of the Arteries being coincident with the Systole of the heart But the Pulse is more plainly felt in the left side because there is the origine and orifice of the Aorta 4 The whole heart becomes tense and hard and contracted to a smaller bulk as is manifest both to the sight and to the touch 5 The heart appears white especially in imperfect Animals such as Serpents Frogs Eeles c. by reason of the expulsion of the blood in the Systole In the Perisystole when the heart is soft lux and in its proper state 1 the cone recedeth from the base and in some Animals the base also recedeth from the cone 2 The lateral parts both the interior and exterior are tended toward the ribbs 3 The anterior face of the heart sinks down and the posterior is depressed especially neer the orifice of the great Artery In the Diastole which beginns in the middle of the Dilatation and ends in the middle of the Contraction 1 the upper side is lifted up and distended by the blood falling into the ventricles out of the Vena cava and Arteria venosa the swelling sensibly beginning at the base and progressing to the cone But the base doth not them strike the breast because the Arteries at that instant are contracted and the heart ceaseth from expulsion of the blood 2 The heart is flaccid and soft because it is then only passive in receiving the blood 3 The sides become extense and the cavities enlarged and therefore if you put your finger into the heart during the Diastole you shall perceive no constriction as in the Systole 4 The heart appears red because of the tenuity of its walls and their repletion with blood 5 The Cone receding from the base makes the heart longer that it may be more capable of blood And thus doth the heart vary its Figure in each of these three positions OF THE DEPURATION OF THE BLOOD Exercitation the Seventh Of the Depuration of the BLOOD FRom the Circulation of the blood we as Nature advance to the DEPURATION or Defecation of it from its unprofitable or excrementitious parts And here we are to consider 1 the Generation 2 The severall sorts of Excrements generated in and to be separated from the blood 3 The parts in which and 4 The Manner how they are separated Concerning the FIRST we observe that the blood being a heterogeneous liquor The Genealogy of the Excrements consisting of
which the parts are made is not blood but a certain liquid juice very like the White of an Egg. 60 13. Nevertheless blood may be the nourishment of such parts whose substance is mostly Sanguineous and what those are 61 14. The Manner how the Vital Heat is conserved and the vital spirits continually recruited ex Sanguine 62 15. The Reason of the Mication or panting Motion of the blood in the Arteries 64 Exercitation the Sixth Of the Motion of the Blood its Conditions and Causes Art 1. The Method of the whole Chapter 66 2. That the Motion of the Blood is Circular ibid. 3. From the vena Cava into the right ventricle of the Heart 67 4. From the right ventricle by the vena arteriosa into the Lungs ibid. 5. From the Lungs through the Arteria venosa into the Left ventricle ibid. 6. From the Left ventricle into the Great Artery and thence into the smaller arteries 68 7. From the smallest Arteries through the substance of the Flesh into the smallest veins ibid. 8. How the New-made blood is circulated with the old 69 9. That more blood passeth through the Heart in an hour than can be supplied from the Chyle in several dayes ibid. 10. The Necessity of this Circulation inferred from three Considerations viz. 70 11 The Quantity of blood contained in the Heart in its Diastole 71 12 The Quantity expelled out of it in its Systole ibid. 13 The Number of Pulses in an hour 72 11. That the Circulation is Universal in all the Arteries and veins of the body 73 12. But after a peculiar manner in an Infant unborn 75 13. That this Motion of the blood is Continual 76 14. Vehement 77 15. Swift ibid. 16. Of equal velocity in the Arteries and Veins 78 17. The blood not the Cause of its own Motion in respect of any Motive Faculty inhaerent in it 80 18. Nor in respect of its Ebullition ibid. 19. Nor of its Rarefaction 81 20. But of its Quantity distending the ventricles of the Heart 83 21. The blood not moved by Attraction 84 22. Nor by Vection ibid. 23. But by Impulsion of the Heart endowed with a Pulsifick Faculty if any such may be admitted ibid. 24. The Fabrique of the Heart a remote Cause of the Motion of the blood 87 25. The Motion of the Heart described as consisting of two contrary motions and a Respite betwixt them ibid. 26. And the Figure of it in each 88 Exercitation the Seventh Of the Depuration of the Blood Art 1. The Genealogy of the Excrements in the blood 91 2. Exemplified in the Destillation of Wine 93 3. The several sorts of those Excrements and their Definitions 94 4. The Reason why each particular Excrement is determinately imported into the part particularly comparated for its separation 97 5. Not that it is so directed by any Intelligence or Distinguishing Faculty 99 6. Nor that it is Attracted by the like Excrement contained in that part ibid. 7. But that there is a certain peculiar Conformity of the Magnitude and Figure betwixt the minute particles of this or that Excrement and the pores of this or that part peculiarly constituted for the reception of it 100 8. Which is also the Cause of the Separation of particular Excrements in particular parts 101 9. The Differences of Colatures used by Nature in the separation of Humors in the body 102 10. The Reason and Manner of the separation of the Serum from the blood in the Kidneys 104 11. Of the Phlegmatique Excrement in the stomach and Guts 105 12. Of the Bilious Excrement's accompanying the Phlegmatique so far 106 13. Why the blood is not carried immediately out of the trunk of the Vena portae into that of the Vena Cava but through the various meanders in the Liver 109 14. And why it is transmitted through the Parenchyma of the Liver ibid. 15. That the Parenchyma is the Principal part of the whole Liver 110 16. And a kind of Streyner 111. 17. Whose particles are contexed after a peculiar manner and pores of â—ivers sorts in respect whereof the Bile is therein separated from the blood Mechanically ibid. 18. The same inferred from Four Considerables viz. 112 The equal distribution of the capillary branches of all the vessels of the Liver ibid. The Pulsation of the vena portae within the Liver 113 The assistance of that pulsation by the Hepatique Nerve 114 The Resuscitation of vitality in the blood in the branches of the vena Portae within the Liver and a new Fermentation thereof previous to the separation of the Bile ibid. 19. The various Manner of the Excretion of Excrements after they are separated and collected 116 20. The particular Manner of the Excretion of the Bile and 117 21. The Cause thereof 118 22. Paradox that we have a certain Natural Feeling wholly distinct from the Animal and independent upon the Brain 119 Exercitation the Eighth Of Respiration Art 1. The Connexion of this discourse to the precedent 126 2. The Disparity betwixt Respirà tion and Pulsation both as to their Times or Periods and as to their Uses ibid. 3. Respiration described 130 4. The Efficient Cause of Inspiration is the Dilatation of the Breast impelling the ambient Aer into the Lungs ibid. 5. And the Cause of Exspiration is only the spontaneous Contraction of the breast 132 6. The Disatation of the Chest and Lungs not from any Motive Faculty congenial to the Lungs 133 7. Nor from the impulse of the blood out of the Heart into the Lungs 134 8. Nor from the motion of the Muscles of the Thorax 135 9. But from the Diaphragme moved by a congenite Faculty ibid. 10. Yet the Intercostal and Pectoral Muscles are allowed to conspire with the Diaphragme in respiration violent and arbitrary 137 11. The Final Cause of Respiration not the Refrigeration of the Heart or Vital Flame but the subtiliation of the blood which by the admistion of Aer is made the more convenient fewel of the vital Lamp and matter of the spirits 138 12. The same exemplified in the accension of flame in wood by Aer blown out of Bellows and 139 13. inferred from the structure of the Lungs 140 14. The Use of Expiration 141 15. A Problem of the respiration of the Foetus in the mother's womb 142 16. The motion of the Brain not dependent upon Respiration but upon the Pulsarion of the Arteries 145 17. The Secondary Uses of Respiration 147 Exercitation the Ninth Of the Lympheducts Art 1. The Lympheducts a new and excellent invention 149 2. To whom the honour of their discovery is to be ascribed ibid. 3. Their Description 150 4. Differences 151 5. Origination ibid. 6. Insertion ibid. 7. Situation and Progress 152 8. Liquor deduced partly from the Arteries and 153 9. paâ—tly fâ—â—m the Nerves 154 10. The Uses of that Liquor 155 Exercitation the Tenth Of the Distribution of the Nourishment through the Nerves Art 1. That the Nerves are vessells carrying the Nutritive juice
rule of Galen holds true as certainly it doth Quod mutatur in ejus speciem à quo mutatur facessit the veins can never be thought fit to transform the Chyle into blood For their Colour is white and somewhat translucid their substance viscid membranous and bloodless they have no parenchyma and very little either of heat or spirits of their own whereas on the contrary the Blood is of a deep red not translucid of a substance fluid and interminate and abounds with heat and spirits And therefore it were vain to expect an Assimilation where the supposed Agent and Patient are of natures in all things so incompatible so contrary We deny not that the veins in some respect conduce to the Conservation of the blood but how Only as they are Organs inservient to the defence of it from external injuries and the reduction of it from the parts upon which it was newly affused out of the arteries And as for any similar Action of the veins upon the blood they have none at all yea their office of Conserving it doth consist chiefly in their inactivity i.e. in this that they are not apt to alter or deprave it as Glass-vessells are the best to conserve liquors in because they neither communicate any ill qualities of their own nor permit the like to be communicated from others to them But that which doth principally conserve the blood in the purity of its nature is the very same thing that makes it from the beginning viz. the vital Heat and Spirits derived from the Heart which by their enlivening warmth and continuall motion do not only vindicate the blood from corruption but also all the solid parts of the body and so even the veins themselves also as long as the Lamp of life continueth burning And that being once extinguished how soon alas do all parts of the body yeeld to the quick tyranny of corruption 3 Nor hath the Heart more right to this noble office of Sanguification For Nor the Heart but the vital spirit residing in the blood that borrowes all its vital heat and activity meerly from the vital blood contained in its ventricles and distributed into its substance by the Coronary arteries Of which vital influx were the Heart deprived but for some few moments it would soon become as torpid and motionless as any other part of the whole body so far is it from exalting the Chyle into so noble a Nectar as the blood is by any similar action of its owne To assure this please you take out the yet-panting Heart of any the strongest and soundest Animal and having with warm water rinsed all the blood out of the ventricles fill them again with warm Chyle or Milk and see whether it will be able to convert the same into blood Certainly you shall find none the least change to be wrought upon the liquor infused Yet the Heart is a solid and strong part and one would scarce think it probable that that action which it is supposed to performe by reason of its solid substance should be intercepted in so short a space of time Forasmuch therefore as the Heart doth in a moments time surcease its activity and desist from the work of changing Chyle into blood as soon as the vital blood is effused out of its ventricles it is as manifest as certain that the virtue Generative of blood is not radicated in the solid substance of the Heart primarily but in somthing else viz. in that very thing upon whose absence immediately that virtue is destroyed which is the vital Blood Again the dissection of Living Animals teacheth us that the vital Heat is much greater in the ventricles than in the substance of the Heart and Reason biddeth us thence to inferr that the same Heat is originally in the ventricles and but at second hand or by way of communication in the parenchyma Now if the Activity of even the Heart it self be derived originally from the vital Blood and that the vital Blood be more powerfull than the Heart we can hardly deny the same to be the Primary Cause or Agent of Sanguification unless at least it shall appear that the vital blood is less apt for such a work than the Heart But comparing the agreeableness of the Heart to such an office with that of the vital Blood to the same we shall quickly perceive which of the two hath the greater For the vital Blood is of the same species with the thing to be made or produced but the substance of the Heart is far different from it It being therefore canonical that all Naturall Agents endeavour according to their energy to assimilate to their own nature the thing upon which they act it seems of equal certainty that the activity of the vital Blood is most properly consigned to the work of Sanguification A further evidence of this may be drawn from hence that the Chyle and Blood are most intimately mixed together in the ventricles of the Heart while the Chyle doth only superficially and in transitu touch the side of them To which may be added that the Chyle makes but a very short stay in the Heart but remains constantly commixed with the Blood untill it be thereto perfectly assimilated Lastly the blood flowing in the heart arteries and veins doth exceed the Chyle of one meal in quantity at least ten times and in strength or activity an hundred for what is more potent then that spirit which enliveneth the whole body what softer gentler and more easily superable than Chyle and therefore no doubt but the Bloud doth easily obtain the victory over the Chyle and over-run it with his own nature To secure this Assertion from all doubt whatever let us have recourse to the observations of Dr. HARVEY the true Oedipus in all abstrusities of this kind of the progress of Nature in the generation of the parts of an Animal successively one after another which alone formeth the blood in a chicken out of the Colliqua mentum and we shall soon be satisfied that the First Bloud is made by the vital spirit That great man attesteth that the white of the Egge doth for some dayes after the Hen hath sat a-brood upon it retain its native whitenesse and that out of the Colliquament or White made more thin and fluid the Chick is generated without the addition of any other matter The Question then is only this How that white colour in the Colliquamentum or so much of it as the Plastique faculty converts into blood comes to be changed into red Certain it is this cannot be effected by any thing that was red before because there is no part of the Egge of or inclining to that colour and the yelk remains intire a good while after there is bloud to be seen in the punctum saliens Nor is it the Fleshy parts that communicate this vermillion tincture to the bloud because they remain white after the bloud is made out of the Colliquamentum
not be halfe full the blood hath yet been squirted forth at the top even to the distance of three or four feet which were impossible in case the rarefaction of the blood were the cause of its motion 4 The musculous flesh of the heart is more firme and strong than to be subject to inflation and detumescence meerly from the rarefaction of the blood It must be a more forceible Agent that moves that great and weighty machine of the heart 5 If the blood were so much rarefied in the Ventricles then certainly ought the orifices of the Vena Arteriosa and Aorta to have been much larger because the blood would have required more room for its egress than for its ingress 6 The motion of the heart and of its valves would be confused for the Diastole of this and opening of them would happen at the same time and consequently the valves would become useless both which are repugnant to experience Besides the opening and shutting of the valves would be co-incident with the Systole of the Great Artery 7 That the blood should be rarefied in the heart and in a moment again refrigerated in the arteries is contrary both to sense and reason and if the rarefaction should so soon cease why is it at all It remains therefore that if the blood be the efficient of its own motion it must be so only ratione Quantitatis But of its Quantity distending the Ventricles of the heart by reason of its quantity filling and distending the Ventricles of the heart and irritating them to discharge it by contracting or shurting themselves For the heart being as it were burdened with the blood distending its cavities doth contract its Fibers and so its Ventricles to vindicate it self from that oppression no otherwise than the stomach guts bladder womb c. which being extended by meat chyle wind urine and the infant drive themselves together by the help of their Fibers and so exclude that was burdensome to them And thus is it probable that the Heart is continually moved by the blood like a Mill perpetually agitated by a stream of water which stream being cut off the motion instantly ceaseth This may be credited upon the force of this one experiment if the Vena Cava be intercepted by a ligature so soon as the heart hath disburdened it self of what blood it hath received from thence it instantly remitteth its motion and upon letting in the stream again by removing the ligature it as suddenly recovers it Than which there cannot be a more convincing argument that the quantity of the blood flowing into the ventricles is a cause of the motion of the heart and so of its own motion We say A Cause not the only cause for we shall soon find another efficient as necessary and immediate Thâ— blood not moved by Attraction to the motion as the blood in the respect mentioned That nothing doth Attract the blood either to or from the heart is evident from hence that in Nature there is no such thing as the motion of a body by attraction as hath been by solid and irrefutable arguments proved by that heroical wit Apolog pro circulat sang advers Parisan â—pag 27. ad 49. and most accomplish't Scholar Dr. Ent and also by our selves in the beginning of our discourse of Occult Qualities whither for expedition sake we referr the unsatisfied Nor is it moved per modum Vectionis by way of Carriage Nor by Vection For nothing can be imagined to carry along the blood in its course but the spirits and those would in respect of their Levity carry it only upward but we see that the blood is moved also downward and ad latera It remains therefore that the blood is moved in round But by Impulsion of the heart endowed with a Pulsifick Faculty per modum Pulsionis by impulsion or protrusion and the Impellent can be no other but the Heart contracting it self and so expelling the blood contained in its ventricles into the Great Artery from whence it is urged or pressed forwards into the smaller arteries by the succeeding current We conceive therefore that the Heart is endowed with a certain Motive-virtue inhaerent and essentiall called the Pulsifick Faculty which is conjoyned as a concomitant cause with the blood it self in giving it a due motion whether it be that this Faculty doth regulate the influx and efflux of the blood which would otherwise be irregular or that of it self it produceth the motion which cannot be afterward continued in case the flux of the blood be once interrupted That this Faculty is necessary may be inferred from these Reasons 1 As the Pulse so the influx of the bloud would be alwayes unequall unless it were regulated by a Faculty 2 When the bloud is moved vehemently in Fevers by the intense heat agitating and urging it and in men at the point of death propter extremos naturae conatus by reason of Natures agony and last efforts yet is the pulse more weak and low than at other times because the Pulsifick Faculty is either much opprest or much weakned On the other side though the Faculty continue strong yet is the influx of the bloud much diminished after large haemorrhages or upon great obstructions of the capillary arteries and veins in the habit of the body Which consideration seems to us sufficient to import the necessity of conjoyning a Pulsifick Faculty with the quantity of the blood distending and so molesting the Heart as a double proxime cause of the bloods motion 3 Though the heart be cut in pieces yet will each piece have a kind of weak pulsation as long as it continues warme which in all probability is to be ascribed to the Faculty implanted in all its Fibres and not yet utterly destroyed 4 It would be derogatory to the majesty of that Prince of all the parts the Heart to be moved by the violent impulse of an external principle and it self conduce nothing thereunto Notwithstanding these reasons alleaged we dare not set up our rest in this doctrine of the Ancients concerning a Pulsifick Faculty implanted in the heart only we have recited it as the most probable Conjecture of all others touching this abstruse Argument the proxime Cause of the Motion of the blood Nor shall we adhere to it longer than untill we shall be so happy as to meet with a more satisfactory solution of that admirable Phaenomenon In the mean time Modesty commands us to declare that we find this Knot to be too hard and intricate for the teeth of our weak understanding And well may we make this acknowledgment when the subtle Frucastorius after a long scrutiny into the same subject was at length forced to desist with Motum cordis soli Deo cognitum
aer moderately cold is beneficial to the heart when it is excessively heated so is aer moderately hot beneficial when the heart is too much cooled But while the heart is in good temper then the aer most agreeable to it is neither hot nor cold but temperate 2 It is inconsistent with the prudence of Nature to make the natural heat of the heart so intense and excessive as to require perpetual ventilation with cold aer when it had been much easier for Her to have kindled a more gentle fire there in at first than to bring cold aer to the hearth with so much adoe to keep it in moderation ever after And in case that-Fire should chance at any time to grow less or languish as it often doth in extreme cold aer many men being frozen to death in Green-land Russia and other Northern Countries what provision hath Nature made for the reaccension or instauration of it 3 If it be only the Cold of the aer that is beneficial to the heart then certainly the Water which is much colder than the aer would more conveniently satisfie that necessity in Fishes which yet cannot live without aer 4 In persons of cold and Leuco-phlegmatique constitutions there would be no need at all of Respiration especially in frosty weather when the heart hath as much want of warmth as of cold and more too We confess indeed that at such times our Respiration is more slow and rare and in the heat of Summer more quick and frequent as it is also in Fevers but the reason hereof is that in Summer the blood being made hotter is sooner subtiliated into spirits and those spirits faster consumed and dissipated and so requires more aer to promote the subtiliation and inflammability of its spiritual parts So that it should seem the Aer is required rather as an Excitement than as an hindrance to the vital Flame We say for the Excitation or Accension of the Flame of life by subtiliating the blood and making the inflammable parts thereof more convenient Fewell for the same vitall Flame and for the matter of the spirits which being diffused through the whole body serve to conserve and vivifie all the parts no otherwise than Bellowes conduce to the accension of flame in wood For as the Aer blown out of a Bellowes doth promote the accension of fire The same exemplified by the accension of flame in wood by aer blown out of Bellowes in wood or other combustible matter not by reason of any Cold for Contraries never generate each other but by the subtility of its particles and the vehemence of its motion in respect whereof it both dissipates the ashes that hinder the ingress of the fire and impells the particles of the fire into the pores of the wood so as that they penetrating more deeply into the substance thereof invade and kindle all the inflammable particles therein contained so doth the Aer brought into the Lungs and commixing it self with the blood circulating through them insinuate it self by the Arteria Venosa into the left ventricle of the heart and there partly by its subtility partly by its expansive motion so conspire with the pulse of the heart as to conduce to the rarefaction and subtiliation of the more thin and inflammable parts of the blood that so they may be made both commodious fewell for the Fire burning in the heart and also fit matter of the vital spirits All the difference is there are no Ashes made in the heart the Flame thereof being more pure than focal-fire and subsisting in a matter as fine and subtile as spirits of wine Nor are there any sooty exhalations such as arise from oyle burned in a Lamp but such a Flame is perpetually revived out of the blood in the heart as is made by the purest spirits of wine set on fire This Use of the Aer inspired may be in some sort inferred from the very structure of the Lungs And inferred from the structure of the Lungs For to what purpose doth both the Vena arteriosa and Arteria Venosa divide and disperse into so many branches and surcles throughout the lobes of the Lungs unless it be to convey the aer brought into them out of the Bronchia or pipes derived from the Aspera arteria together with the blood into the left ventricle of the heart there to excite the vital flame For certain it is from the structure of these vessells that the Aer doth not arrive at and enter the heart pure and sincere as it ought to do in case it were to refrigerate the heart but mixed with the blood returning out of the Lungs which is the reason why in the dissections of living creatures no aer is to be found in the Arteria venosa being before it comes thither throughly commixed or confused with the blood Nor can we force aer into the heart through the Lungs of a dead body because the motion of the blood is then ceased And this we conceive to be the Principal End or Use of Inspiration As for that of Exspiration it seems to be no other but the explosion of the same aer formerly received The Use of Exspiration together with the Halitus or vapours of the blood that steam from it while it is circulating through the Lungs For as to that Antique opinion of the discharging of Fullginous Exhalations issuing from the heart to the reasons by us formerly alleaged to discredit the Generation of them we shall subjoyn two or three convincing ones to disprove their Exclusion through the Lungs 1 The motion of the blood out of the Lungs by the Arteria Venosa into the left ventricle of the Heart being continual and strong doth manifestly forbid any thing to come from the Heart into the Lungs that way and 2 the situation of the Valves in the same Arteria Venosa doth as much 3 That the Aer passing to the Heart and the supposed Fuliginous exhalations issuing from the Heart should be carried through one and the same vessel by contrary motions is insolent to Nature and incompetent to the oeconomy of the body And here we aske leave to propose a Problem Certain it is A Probleme of the Respiration of the Foetus in the Mother's womb that the Foetus while in the Mother's womb doth receive nourishment not by the Umbilical Vessels for in them nothing is contained but Blood which is not the Aliment of the parts and the Umbilical Vein serveth onely to the Circulation of the blood by bringing back to the heart what the two Umbilical Arteries carried from it into the Placenta Uterina but by the Mouth sucking in that milky liquor wherein he swimmes which Hippocrates long since and Dr. Harvey of late have undeniably proved Now this being so doth it not seem necessary that the Foetus should also have the use of Respiration For since all Suction is by Impulâ—ion as we have elsewhere at large demonstrated being
which being equivalent to long Elixation doth so fully impraegnate the potulent part of the Aliment with the spirits and virtues of the solid as that it puts on the form of a whitish juice in colour and consistence not much unlike the Cream of barly generally called the Chyle as the function or action of the stomack by which it is so confected is called Chylification But here we are to advertise All parts of the Aliment not Chilified at once but successively and the first Chylified first discharged into the Guts that all the meat doth not receive this commutation equally soon it having been observed in dissections that some parts have been perfectly converted into chyle and that chyle detruded into the intestines and milky-veins while the rest have remained wholly crude Nor is it reasonable that the whole mass of Chyle should be detained in the stomack or that what is already concocted should there stay and expect the perfection of what is not concocted but that as fast as the chyle is made so fast should it be discharged out of the stomack We are to advertise also that as to the Time wherein the work of Chylification is wholly confummated The Time required to perfect Chylification various according to divers respects there is no small variety as well in respect of mens individuall temperaments as of quantity and quality of meats they eat and also of the time of their meals with other circumstances For in some men the digestion is compleated in 3 4. or 5. hours space while in others it extends to 8. 10. nay 13. which certainly is to be ascribed chiefly to the abundance of heat and Acidity in the stomacks of Those and to the decay of them in These Again by how much the greater quantity of meat is devoured by so much the slower is it digested The same likewise may be said of the quality thereof because the groâ—â—er tougher and harder the aliment is by so much the more difficulty is it comminished cutt dissolved and fermented and consequently the longer before it be concocted Moreover concoction is performed in the day much sooner than in the night notwithstanding the vulgar opinion of the recession of the naturall heat towards the stomack in sleep for the promotion of Chylification because in the day by reason of motion and exercise the Circulation is more free and swift and so the distribution of the Chyle more expedite Lastly Mastication of the meat in the month is so necessarily praecedaneous to concoction as that by how much the smaller the morsels are and the better chewed by so much the sooner are they digested Nay among the parts of the same meat there is no lesse-variety so that some parts of bread and flesh commonly remain unaltered a good while after others more tender and exsoluble are transformed into perfect chyle and protruded into the gutts So that no certain time can be assigned to Concoction in all men But Nature it self hath given us a signe by which every single person may know when this chylification is finished in his stomack and that is a sense of emptinesse and appetite to a supply or recruit of Aliment THE IOVRNEY OF THE CHYLE Exercitation the Third Article THe Chyle being The traduction of the Chyle from the stomack and intestines into the common Receptacle through the venae Lacteae according to the manner declared perfectly concocted is by degrees the stomack gently and gradually contracting it self expressed or detruded into the Guts and not attracted by them as hath been commonly taught The Guts being filled with this liquor and by a certain peristaltique motion or undulation like that of worms creeping contracting themselves successively from the first to the last transmit the same downward And as it passeth through them there is a separation made of the profitable or alimentary part from the unprofitable or excrementitious the latter to be excluded by stool the former to be protruded into the Venae Lacteae or milky veins Which opening themselves by small orifices or inletts in infinite number into the coats of the intestines and running in continued channells from thence into the Mesentery carry the Chyle into a certain common Receptacle or Gulph called Receptaculum Pecqueti from the inventor consisting of a membranous substance situate at the root of the mesentery upon the vertebrae lumborum and filling the space betwixt the Muscles Psoae From this common Receptacle there are drived other ductus chyliferi which running upwards neer the spine of the back through the Thorax and propagated quite home to the subclavian branches of the vena Cava neer the external jugular veins exonerate themselves into them so as the Chyle being there commixed with the blood is by the ascendent trunk of the vena Cava soon imported together with its new associate the blood into the right ventricle of the heart And this according to the late invention of Perquet and anatomical experiments of the most accurate Dissectors since is the true Traduction of the Chyle from the ventricle to the heart at least of so much of it as is to be converted into blood for the fewell of the vital Flame and confection of vital spirits That we may with the more exactness and certainty Of which there are two kinds one arising from the Intestines the other from the Glandules in the Abdomen into which the former sort exonerate themselves trace the footsteps of the Chyle in all its progress through these various and obscure Meanders we are to observe from Anatomicall Demonstrations two things concerning the Chyliferous Conduits First that there are besides the Common Receptacle and channells from thence ascending to the chest and subclavian veins two kinds or sorts of the venae Lacteae one arising in slender capillary roots from the Intestines themselves and thence delated through the Mesentery to some glandule or other situate either in the Mesentery it self or not far from it in some other part of the Abdomen and there disseminated into capillary surcles the other taking its origine out of that very Glandule into which the former sort exonerate themselves Secondly that the Glandules in the Abdomen are not seated in the same places in all men but are variously posited here in some there in others according as Nature sometimes affecting variety in the same species where conveniency admits thereof pleaseth to fix them and this without incommodity to the body and that from the incertainty of the position of these Glandules the Distribution of the venae Lacteae comes to be also various and incertain For Anatomy sensibly attesteth that all the small surcles of the venae Lacteae of the former sort arising from the intestines do constantly tend to some one Glandule in the lower belly and are distributed into the same before they arrive at the Common Receptacle or disembogue themselves into any vein yea as was newly said that they produce another race of Capillary
and it is much more reasonable that the fleshy parts derive their rednesse wholly from the bloud perpetually irrigating and washing them in its Circulation For their rednesse grows upon them by degrees and that sooner or later according to the degrees of Heat impressed upon the Egge by the Hen and according to the greater or lesse quantity of bloud arriving at them Some parts which are but lightly touched by the bloud never become red in which account are the coats of the Eyes the Ligaments Tendons Membranes Bones c. Others obtain a certain palenesse dashed with a sparing mixture of red as the Glandules which as they are furnished with greater or smaller arteries respective to their magnitude so are they tinged with more or lesse of rednesse The Musculous flesh is more deeply died with scarlet than the Glandules as being irrigated with greater streames of bloud The Kidneys Liver Spleen Lungs and Heart are all washed with full streams of bloud and therefore have a deeper dye of rednesse than any other parts and yet are much lesse red than the bloud it self Now it is more reasonable to conceive that the Greater should communicate its virtue to the Lesser than on the contrary the Lesser to the Greater For how can any Natural Agent operate beyond the sphere of its activity i.e. the measure of its power or communicate that to another which it self wanteth Again nothing can have an activity before it hath a beeing and consequently the solid parts cannot give a rednesse to the bloud because they are not in beeing till after the bloud Nothing therefore remains to be the Efficient of the Bloud but the Vital Spirit kindled originally in the purest part of the seminal matter or Colliquamentum which we may well denominate the Vital Liquor Concerning the THIRD considerable viz. the Manner of this grand operation of the Vital Spirit The Manner how bloud is first generated in an Embryo by that Vital Spirit though it be very obscure yet doe we not think it altogether inexplicable if we deduce the bloud from its first Origine the newly mentioned Vital Liquor This Vital Liquor before it assumes the colour and forme of Bloud doth begin to separate it self from the other parts of the Egge to which it is at first promiscuously admixed and to runne its selfe out into certain slender rivulets or branchings which afterward become Veins These rivolets concurring in a point meet altogether at the centre of the Colliquamentum which centre being the principal seat of the Plastique spirit and acquiring a certain mication or pulsation is then called Punctum Saliens And all this is done before there is any the least appearance of bloud in the Egge So soon therefore as these Rivulets are conjoyned the Flux of the Vital Liquor is for some time so hindred by and repressed in them as that being indeâ—inently agitated by the Spirit of Life it aestuateth and indeavours to expand it self and enlarge its bounds and seeing that it cannot flow back againe toward the circumference by the same passages which brought it toward the centre by reason of fresh supplies of Vital Liquor pressing it forward continually in the course begun it is compelled to force it self again into the seminal matter from whence at first it began its motion through other slender conduits newly for that purpose formed and then it begins to flow in a round For this appears to be the true reason of the Circumgyration of the Vital Liquor from the very beginning Soon after this the Rivulets or pipes first made and leading from the circumference to the Centre become Veins and the others made in the second place and leading from the centre to the cicumference become Arteries which yet others disallow in respect of the fabrick of the valves and then in the poynt of their concourse or confluence the Heart is framed Through which Heart and the conduits annexed or rather continued unto it the one sort tending toward the other from ward the centre the Vital Liquor doth while life lasteth perpetuate its motion and at the same time irrigate and vivifie all parts of the matter which it continually washeth in that its circular course Now this Circulaâ—ion is begun for some time before the Vital Liquor is excocted into bloud as may be conceived from hence that when the motion of the Punctum Saliens is plainly visible there is no bloud but only a clear transparent liquor or as the Learned Harvey call's it the Colliquamentum and also from hence that while the Seminal Matter is yet thin and fluid the Vital Liquor can easily disperse its channels through the same there being then no impediment to that its expansive motion and operation but if it should defer its dispersion and making of rivulets til after the solid parts were made 't is hard to conceive how it could be able to shoot it self forth into branches and make its way through them This Dance of Life being thus begun and in what part of the Conception it is first generated viz in the Châ—rion though no Bloud yet appears yet soon after it doth appear the Vital Liquor while continually though slowly circulated by little and little assuming the form of Bloud And the place in which the bloud first shews it selfe is the Chorion not the Heart For seeing that the Chorion ought to be made solid and firme before any other of the parts of the Conception insomuch as it serveth as well for the safeguard as nourishment of all the other parts and that to this end there is no moysture comming from without that might hinder its being made solid and that the Chorion as involving the whole conception is the first part that receiveth the warmth of the Hen during her incubation we say from hence it comes that the vital Liquor doth first of all obtain the forme of Bloud in the Chorion And this is effected the sooner because the vital Liquor doth more easily emit its exhalations in that place as being in the circumference than in any other more remote from it and unlesse those exhalations were freely emitted the Spirits of the Vitall Liquor would inevitably be soon extinguished It is moreover probable that at this time the Vital Heat is more potent and active in the exteriour parts of the Conception than in the Centre and so that the First Bloud is made in the Chorion where it first discovers it self to the sight of the inspector Hence also we may observe that because there is no bloud to be discerned in the Punctum Saliens for many hours together after bloud is discernable in the Chorion therefore must the Circulation of the bloud be exceeding slow in the begining for as soon as the bloud that is in the Chorion performing its circular motion arriveth at the Heart it cannot but be discerned in the Punctum Saliens Now In the generation of Blood what are the Concurrent Extrinsecal Causes and what the
subtile Agent the Vital Spirit or more plainly of what Use the Bloud is in Sanguineous Animals Concerning this there are for ought we know but Two opinions extant the One that the Blood is the general Nutriment of the body or Matter by which the substance of the parts is daily instaurated the Other that it serveth both for the maintenance of the vital Flame which cannot subsist without a perpetual supply of convenient fewell and for the refection of vital spirits The Former though very antient and generally embraced yet in our judgment deserveth to give place to the Latter because though the Latter be new and as it were of but yesterdayes standing yet it hath much more of probability as may be evinced by these ensuing Arguments 1 It is well known The contrary opinion is subject to sundry both inexplicable difficulties and irreconcileable incongruities that Aristotle in many places of his works hath earnestly contended Sanguinem esse ultimum totius corporis alimentum that the bloud is the ultimate or most perfect Aliment of the whole body and that the whole School of Physicians hath given its suffrage to verifie that his Tenent And yet many things not easie to be explicated and lesse easie to be reconciled one to another may be observed to attend thereupon For Physicians when in their Physiological discourses they treat of the nature of the Bloud and endeavour to make good that it serveth to no other use but only to afford Nutriment to the body they suppose it to be a substance not simple and homogeneous but mixt and compounded of Four several juices promiscuously flowing together in the same streams deducing their principal argument hereof from the Combinations of the Four First Elementary Qualities as they call them and accordingly teaching that the ingredients of bloud are the two sorts of Bile or Choler viz. the yellow and the blackish Phlegme and Blood properly so called Further of each of these different humours They make some Nutritive as assuming the whole body to be made up of them others Excrementitious and then They decree that the bloud doth consist of those diverse Nutritious humors as of Heterogeneous parts After though they allow the Phlegme to be the colder and cruder part and so capable of conversion into good and laudable blood by more intense heat and longer concoction and likewise allow the Choler to be convertible into Melancholy by adustion and blood to be convertible into both choler and melancholy by the same means yet will they by no means admit of a regression of either Choler or Melancholy into blood Now if these things be true as may well be doubted and that there is no possible regresse of Melancholy into Choler nor of Choler into laudable Blood then will it inevitably follow that all the other three juices are but only in Order to Melancholy and that Melancholy is the principall and most perfectly concocted Aliment Nay more They must grant two sorts of Blood the one the whole masse of blood contained in the veines and composed of those four humours The other the more pure more florid and more spiritual part thereof which in a stricter sense they call blood and which some will have to be contained only in the heart and arteries apart from the venous blood as deputed to peculiar and more noble Uses Now according to this distinction it is manifest that not the pure arteriall bloud is the nourishment of the body but the baser composed of diverse juices or rather chiefly the Melancholy to which as to their ultimate term or perfection the three others tend And how incongruous it is to conceive that the body is nourished either with impure juices or with Melancholy a cold dry and earthly humour as they define it is obvious to men of even the shallowest understandings 2 If the Blood were the Universal Aliment of the body There are sundry parts into whoâ—e substance the blood is not admitted then certainly no part could be nourished at which the blood doth not arrive but we see that many parts are nourished as the Brain Bones Nerves Ligaments Testicles c. to which notwithstanding the blood is not so brought as to be admitted into their substance and therefore the blood is not the Universal Nourishment We â—ay so as to be admitted into their very substance for though blood be found in those parts yet doth it not penetrate deeply into them as the Nutritive juice ought to do lib. de Alimento alimenti enim vis saith Hippocrates ad ossa usque pervenit ossium partes The blood doth indeed touch upon those parts in its running round the body and but only touch them and for this reason that all the parts may be cherished and enlivened by the Vitall Spirits which it carrieth along with it Thus in the Brain veins are no where found but disseminated upon the Membranes that are their support the Plexus Choroides and some other few places excepted Which perhaps is the reason 1 Hist. an c. 16. why Aristotle denyed any blood to be contained in the brain because it is not effused into the substance thereof as it is into the fleshy or musculous parts 3 Men that are fat and plump Fat men generally have the least blood and Lean the most have but little blood and such as are spare and lean have abundance which could not be if blood were matter of nourishment And because Lean persons have much blood therefore are they more lively couragious and active as abounding with Spirits in proportion to their great quantity of blood Hence is it also that Lean persons bear large evacuation of blood without detriment of health because their fleshy and musculous parts as being firme and solid drink up the least quantity of bloud in their pores and so there remains the more for the fewel of the Vitall Lamp Whereas on the contrary grosse and fat persons suffer great dammage by large effusion of bloud because the habit of their bodies being despoyled of Spirits and hotter bloud is filled with serous humours and so easily degenerateth into a Cachexy In like manner in a gross body where are more parts to be nourished there ought to be the more bloud to nourish them but grosse men for the most part eate much lesse than lean because they have lesse veins and being inclined to sedentary and unactive lives they consume but few Spirits For it is but a small portion of the Chyle that is converted into the Succus Nutritius the dissipation of the substance of the parts being neither so suddain nor great as hath been vulgarly conceived as we formerly explicated and the rest after its unprofitable parts are separated being brought to the heart is mostly consumed in Spirits Such things therefore as relieve the Spirits suddainly satisfie our hunger as good wine 2 Sect. Aph. 36. Whence that Aphorism of Hippocrates Famem vini potio solvit because vvine revives the
either to progression or to apprehension because the power and influence of the brain is extinguished by the government and moderation whereof those motions were formerly regulated either to progression or flying so in Convulsions our Muscles are contracted and our members variously agitated with irregular and ineffectuall motions because those motions depend upon a natural sense only without the regulating influence of the Brain which taketh no cognizance of the injuries done to the Muscles nor of the sense which irritateth them These things duly considered Reason adviseth us henceforth to lay aside that opinion of Des Cartes and his disciple Regius both great Philosophers and in many other things worthy to be followed that the influx of Animal spirits by the nerves is necessary to the performance of all Naturall Motions and actions done in the body and to take up this more probable one of Dr. Harvey that each Natural action is effected by the part doing it meerly in respect of a certain sense whereby it feeleth what is troublesome and injurious to it selfe and so is irritated to excite such motions of it self as may conduce to its vindication and this without any influx or regiment of the Brain or Common sense at all We might have added further out of the same Dr. HARVET that all Motions in the body are derivative from the Vitall Influence of the Heart and wholly dependent thereupon because no part is longer capable of this Natural sense than while it is irradiated and enlivened by the Vitall Spirits or blood flowing from the heart for no part once mortified i.e. no longer participant of the Vitall influence can have any sense or be irritated to motion Besides it is not unreasonable to conceive that the strength or Tone of each part doth mostly consist in its enjoying a due proportion of Vitality and if that Tone or firmeness be vitiated or diminished as soon it must if deprived of that requisite influx that part becomes languid dull and hardly capable of irritation But this noble speculation requires to be handled with more exactness than the narrow limits of a short Digression will admit of and we have already said more than enough to assert that all parts of the body have a certain Naturall sense of Feeling distinct from the Animal and wholly independent upon the Brain which was the Probleme proposed ¶ OF RESPIRATION Exercitation the Eighth Of Respiration THE Chain of Nature Article by which she connecteth various Operations conspiring to one and the same End brings us in the next place to discourse of RESPIRATION The Connexion of this Exercitation to the precedent betwixt which and the Pulsation is a manifest affinity For these two Actions or Motions as they are inservient to the conservation of the Lamp of Life and the Generation of Vital Spirits so do they both consist of a Dilatation and Contraction the one of a Diastole and Systole of the Heart and Arteries the other of a Diastole and Systole of the Breast and Lungs Now this Affinity hath given occasion to many Physicians to conceive the Diastole and Systole of the Lungs to be Synchronical or coincident with the Diastole and Systole of the Heart and to refer both their motions to the same cause and Original But They have grossly erred in confounding things so manifestly different For 1 There are many sorts of Animals that have Hearts The Disparity betwixt Respiration and Pulsation both as to their Times or periods and as to their Vses but no Lungs 2 The Dilatations and Contractions of the Heart are clearly distinct from those of the Breast and Lungs as is evident from hence that they are not synchronical i. e. made and terminated in the same periods and times one complete Respiration taking up more time then 4 or 5 Pulses and this in all Animals that have both Heart and Lungs 3 The Motion of the Heart and Arteries is much different from that of the Lungs as to their Uses For First if the Pulse and Respiration have one and the same Final cause and that as these men have assumed the Arteries take in the ambient aer through the skin at every Diastole and exclude it again the same way together with the Fuliginous Exhalations of the blood in every systole and that in the space of time intermediate betwixt each Diastole and Systole they contain both the inspired aer and exhalations then must we renounce both the doctrine of our Master Galen that in the arteries nothing is contained but the blood and our owne experience that confirms it Secondly if the Arteries were as the Lungs are filled with aer drawn in by their extremities and that the quantity of aer attracted were proportionate to the magnitude of each pulse or to the greater or lesser dilatation of the arteries then if while the pulse is great the whole body were immerged into a bath of water or oyle it would necessarily follow that the Pulse would become much smaller or much slower because it is highly difficult if not wholly impossible that the ambient aer should pass through the bath into the pores of the skin and so into the arteries Thirdly since all the Arteries as well those that lye deep in the body as those terminated in the skin are moved with equal velocity and at the same time it is not possible the ambient aer should as freely and swiftly pass through the habit of the body into the profoundest arteries as into those contiguous to the skin Fourthly it is not credible that Whales Dolphins and other Cetaceous Animals that have Respiration can draw aer into their arteries at every diastole through so vasta mass of waters as is from the bottom to the top of the sea Fifthly if in their systole the Arteries expell the fuliginous exhalations of the blood through the pores of the skin why should they not expell also the vital spirits that are far more subtile and fugitive than those supposed Exhalations can be Nature certainly hath made no such Colatory as should retain the thinner spirits and let the grosser fumes pass through Nor is it yet sufficiently proved that there are any such Fuliginous Exhalations generated in the heart and arteries and afterward excluded partly by the Lungs partly by the Arteries in their Contractions as are vulgarly believed For the blood suffereth only a simple agitation or conquassation in the ventricles of the heart and a propulsion in the arteries and that it can produce such an aboundance of sooty fumes from the blood as Physicians have talked of is not easie to conceive Truth is the blood by reason of its heat and swift motion doth emit some Halitus or vapours which streaming through the coats of the smaller arteries are received and condensed into a thin limpid liquor by the Lympheducts but is it therefore necessary that it should emit Fuliginous exhalations We confess also that there is a certain thin Excrement of the blood and
humors which passeth through the habit of the body but that it should be discharged in thick clouds of exhalations in every systole of the arteries this is plainly impossible because at that time the coats of the arteries are constringed and compressed and there might be an easier egress for them in the Diastoles when the cavities of the arteries are dilated So that among these many Arguments there is not one but doth clearly detect and throughly refute the Error of those Men who have confounded the Uses of the Arteries and Lungs of Pulsation and Respiration This capital Error eschewed we may the more safely progress to explicate the nature of Respiration as a thing in sundry particulars distinct from Pulsation though perchance instituted by Nature as in some sort subservient to the vital Faculty And that we may proceed methodically it is requisite we consider 1 the Manner of Respiration 2 the Efficient Cause and 3 the Final Cause or Use of it Concerning the First Respiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Action of the Breast and Lungs consisting of two contrary motions alternately successive or of two parts Respiration described viz. 1 Inspiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which the ambient aer is impelled into the Lungs and chest at that time dilated 2 Exspiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the same aer is again expelled out of the Lungs and Chest those parts spontaneously contracting or compressing themselves Concerning the Inspiration the grand Question is Whether the Breast and Lungs are dilated because they are filled and distended with the aer as a bladder is distended by aer blown into it or Whether they receive in the aer because they are dilated as a pair of Bellowes is filled with aer only because it is dilated or opened by external force To solve this difficulty in a word we say the Breast is first dilated The Efficient Cause of Inspiration is the Dilatation of the Breast impellinâ— the ambient 〈◊〉 into the Lungs before it can be filled with aer and that Dilatation or heaving up of the brest is the cause of the airs rushing in at the mouth and nostrills down the Aspera Arteria or wind-pipe into the Lungs For since there is no vacuity at least no Coacervate one in the world no body can be moved out of its place but the next body must give way and the next to that likewise give back till such a part of space as is adequate to the dimensions of the body first moved be made to receive it and the space which it abandoned be again fully possessed by another body succeeding into it we say since this is necessary it is manifest that the aer next incumbent on or contiguous unto the Breast and Abdomen being urged and impelled by the breast while that is dilated or expanded is forced to give back and press the aer next to it which likewise drives back the next aer untill at length the compressed aer wanting room to retreat into and endeavouring to avoid further compression its own Elater ingaging it thereto rusheth into the breast and there possesseth that room or part of space which was left by the breast when it began its motion So that so much aer is impelled into the breast as is driven out of its place by the superfice or outside of the breast during its expansion or dilatation As for the Attraction of Aer into the Lungs ad fugam vacui it is a meer dream as well because all motion is by Impulsion as because Nature doth not abhor vacuity primario or ex se In Physiolog-Epiarro-Gassendo-Charltoniae lâ—b 1. cap. 5 pag. 40. but only ex Accidente or in respect of the confluxibility of the insensible particles of Fluid bodyes as we have elsewhere amply demonstrated And if there were any Cause to be found that might blow the aer into the breast as it is blown into a bladder so as to distend it or at least if the aer could be conceived to enter into the breast spontaneously or of its own accord without impulsion so as to force or heave up the same then indeed would the Comparison betwixt the dilatation of the breast and that of a Bladder by wind blown violently into it hold good and we should not need to seek further But there being no such insufflating cause assignable and it being ridiculous to imagine the aer should spontaneously move it self so as to flow uncompelled into the cavity of the Chest as is manifest not only in dead men into whose breasts though their mouths and nostrils are wide open the aer doth not croud it self but also in living men when they at their pleasure keep their breasts compressed or hold their breath as the vulgar phrase is it seemes much more reasonable to explain the reason of Inspiration by that other similitude of the flux of aer into a pair of Bellows there being no other difference betwixt the repletion of the Chest and the repletion of a pair of Bellows with aer but only this that the Bellowes are opened by an externall force and the Chest is dilated by an internal And as for the Exspiration that is evidently from the compression of the breast and Lungs And the cause of Expiration is only the spontanâ—ous contraction of the Breast which is the naturall motion of Restitution For the Dilatation being an action whereby the parts of the Chest are distended into a position more large than is natural to them the Contraction seemes to be nothing else but a certain falling down or relaxation of the parts distended whereby they spontaneously return to their natural position and such as they hold in a dead body and this not onely in the Lungs but also in the Diaphragme which in dead bodyes is not extended downward to the stomach and guts as in inspiration but riseth upward toward the Lungs and Heart But if it be here demanded whether Inspiration or Exspiration be first we answer that it is necessary that the aer should be first inspired before it can be exspired and every ANIMAL dyes Exspirando in Exspiration Concerning the Second The Enquiry is By what cause the breast and Lungs are so dilated The Dilatation of the Breast and Lungs not from any Motive Faculty congeâ—iall to the Lungs as we have asserted And this indeed is a Difficulty not so soon resolved as proposed for besides the obscurity of the thing it self we find our selves benighted with the various opinions of Authors Some wil have that the Lungs are endowed with a certain Faculty of Dilâ—ting themselves and so elevating the whole breast as the Heart hath a pulsifick faculty by whose virtue the ventricles contract themselves in each Systole And hereupon was it that Aristotle the Author of this opinion doth compare the Lungs to a pair of Bellowes as if they did of themselves first attract the aer and then emit it again But though it be
true that the Lungs are filled with aer and emptied again or elevated and depressed alternately as Bellowes are yet is it doubtfull whether as the hand which moves the bellowes by opening and shutting them is the cause both of the influx and efflux of the aer in them there be not some other part of the Chest besides the Lungs which being first dilated and contracted is the cause why the Lungs are opened and shut or more plainly whether the â—xpansion of the Lungs be from an ingenite Faculty And that the Lungs have no such Ingenite Motive-Faculty is sufficiently manifest even from hence that their motion is alwayes conforme to that of the Diaphragme and from hence that we can suppresse accelerate or retard our respiration as we please Others derive the motion of the Lungs from the Heart Nor from the impulse of the blood out of the heart into the Lungs or rather the blood expelled out of the right ventricle of the heart through the Vena arteriosa into the Lungs and so lifting them up But this is erroneous because 1 the efflux of the blood out of the right ventricle is caused by an ordinary motion purely natural to the heart whereas as we said even now Respiration is sometimes arbitrary 2 the cause of pulsation and Respiration would then be not onely one and the same but those motions also would agree in their times and periods whereas scarce four nay six pulses are equal in time to one single Respiration 3 the blood doth not stay long enough in the vessels of the Lungs to keep them elevated all that while they are distended but is in continual motion and in a moment circulated by the Arteria venosa into the left ventricle of the Heart and where it is retarded in its course by any misaffection either in the capillary vessels or in the substance of the Lungs as it many times happens in the disease vulgarly called the Rising of the Lights it causeth extream difficulty of breathing 4 in great Apoplexies while the pulse continueth good and regular the Respiration many times ceaseth Others will have it that the Lungs borrow their motion from the Thorax or Nor from the motion of the Muscles of the Thorax Chest containing them but the reason which detaine us from assenting thereto is that after the chest is cut quite open the Lungs continue their motion for a good while and strongly which were impossible if they derived their motion from the chest Now it being evinced that the Lungs are not moved either by themselves But from the Diaphragme moved by a congenite Faculty or by the Heart or by the Thorax it remains that they must be moved by some other part in the Breast in which as in the first original the motion of Inspiraiton doth begin and this part seems to be no other but the Diaphragme and that for these reasons 1 In wounds or perforations of the breast the Lungs instantly falling together as it were close themselves for some short space while the Diaphragme is still elevated and depressed alternately contracting and againe relaxing the ends of the spuricus ribbs and cartilages to which it is annexed whence it comes that the aer rusheth violently into the cavity of the chest and upon the elevation of the Diaphragme is driven out again through the wounds with impetuosity sufficient to blow out a candle 2 Every man in Inspiration feels the Thorax to be dilated and the whole Abdomen lifted up and the ends of the lower ribs to be drawn inward the Diaphragme being extended downward with its middle part crowding down the stomack liver and guts and with its circumference or extream parts contracting the ribs 3 Allowing the Diaphragme to be the primum Movens among all parts inservient to inspiration we may easily understand why the Respiration becomes more frequent and remiss when the stomach is full and when the Aer is made more dense than ordinary by fogs and thick exhalations For in the former case the Diaphragme hath not room enough to expand it self downward as it ought and so is compelled to compensate the smallness of its motion by the frequency of it and in the latter the Lungs are so prepossessed with gross vapours as that they cannot admit much aer at a time and therefore the Diaphragme is necessitated to repeat its motions so much the oftner 4 In Apoplexies unless they be fatal though the Respiration be almost insensible yet the motion of the Diaphragme is continued as may be peroeived by the gentle motion of the Chest. 5 Respiration is more perturbed and vitiated by diseases of the Diaphragme than by those of any other part of the breast and it hath been observed by Veslingius that a steatoma grown upon even the carneous part of it caused extreme difficulty of breathing Now these are the Reasons that have induced us to believe that the Motion of Respiration begins in the Diaphragme which being a kind of Muscle of a peculiar figure Syntagm Anâ—tom p. iiâ— substance position and action may as well be conceived to be extended by virtue of a certain peculiar and ingenite Faculty as the Heart is by a Pulsifick Faculty so that we may conclude the same to be the prime and principal instrument of Respiration Natural or Gentle We say Natural or Gentle by contradistinction to Respiration Violent Yet as well the Intercost all as Pectoral Musclâ—â— are allowed to conspâ—re with the Diaphragme in Respiration violent and Arbitrary or Arbitrary For allowing of Galen's triple difference of Respiration viz. Free and Gentle violent and more violent or sublime we conceive the First to depend upon the Diaphragme alone the Second to require a concurrence of the Intercostal Muscles of which the interior serve to contract and the Exterior to dilate the Chest and the last to be effected by the Diaphragme Intercostal and Pectoral Muscles all being set a work and combining together to the motion And as for Respiration voluntary such as we can at pleasure suppress accelerate or retard that is manifestly by the help of the Intercostal Muscles there being no other instruments of Motion voluntary but the Muscles and no other Muscles immediately conducing to the contraction and dilatation of the breast ex arbitrio nostro but the Intercostal Concerning the Third viz. The Final Cause or Use of Respiration The most General opinion to omit all others as less considerable is The Final Cause of Respiration not the Refrigeration of the Heart or Vital Flame but the subtiliation of the blood which by the admistion of Aer is made the more convenient Fewell for the Lamp of life and matter of the Vital Spirits that the principal use of Respiration is for the Refrigeration of the Heart Which though very ancient and plausible is rather meerly Conjectural than Areopagitical or demonstrative For 1 AS aer over-hot is injurious to the heart so is aer over-cold and as