Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	left_a	lung_n	ventricle_n	2,628	5	12.9083	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29007	New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the air; New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air, and its effects	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Sharrock, Robert, 1630-1684.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Defence of the doctrine touching the spring and weight of the air.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Examen of Mr. T. Hobbes his Dialogus physicus de naturâ aëris.	1682 (1682)	Wing B4000_PARTIAL; Wing B3942_PARTIAL; ESTC R23366	337,085	461

our Engine seemed manifestly for a pretty while and not long before he dy'd to move his Thorax as if he exercis'd Respiration the diligent Wallaeus relates that he divers times observed in the dissection of live Bodies that the Membrane that invests the Lungs had Pores in it as big as the larger sort of Peas which agreeth with the Observations of Chyrurgions and Physicians viz. That Matter collected in the Thorax hath penetrated into the Lungs and been discharged by coughing And I remember too that most of the Animals we kill'd in our Engine were Birds of whose Lungs Harvey somewhere informs us That he observ'd them very manifestly to open at their extremities into the Abdomen And by such perforitions we may well'suppose the passage free betwixt the external Air and that in the Abdomen But this Conjecture may be farther consider'd Besides to show that the Animals that died in our Glasses need not be supposed to have been kill'd by the want of Air we foresee another Argument that we must deal so ingeniously with Your Lordship as not to conceal You very well know that besides the generality of the Schools there are many new Philosophers who though they dissent from the old Peripateticks in other things do as they deny the possibility of a Vacuum and hold that those spaces which are devoid of Air and other grosser Bodies are all of them exactly replenished with a certain Etherial Matter so thin and subtle that it can freely permeate the Pores of the compactedst and closest Bodies and ev'n of Glass it self Now some of those Naturalists that are of this perswasion may object That the Animals that died in our Receiver did so not so much for lack of Air as by reason that the Air that was pump'd out was necessarily succeeded by an Etherial substance which consisting of parts vehemently agitated and so very small as without resistance to pass in and out through the very Pores of Glass it may well be supposed that a considerable quantity of this restless and subtle Matter meeting together in the Receiver with the excessive heat of it may be quickly able to destroy a little Animal or at least make the Air too intemperately hot to be fit for Respiration But though this be a Difficulty not so easily to be resolved without the assistance of our Engine yet I suppose we have already answer'd the Objection by our 38th and 39th Experiments which though we made partly for other purposes yet we premis'd them only to clear up the difficulty proposed Another suspicion we should have entertain'd concerning the death of our Animals namely That upon the sudden removal of the wonted pressure of the ambient Air the warm blood of those Animals was brought to an Effervescence or Ebullition or at least so vehemently expanded as to disturb the circulation of the Blood and so disorder the whole Oeconomy of the Body This I say I should have had some suspicion of but that Animals of a hot Constitution are not the sole ones that cannot in our exhausted Engine exercise the Function of Life But I must not now dwell upon matters of this nature because I think it high time to proceed to the consideration of the principal subject of our Engine namely the use of Respiration or rather The use of the Air in Respiration For whereas of the divers uses of it mentioned by Anatomists the most such as the Production and Modulation of the Voice by the Elision of the Air the Larynx c. the expulsion of Excrements by Coughing the conveying in of Odours by Inspiration and some others rather convenient for the well being of an Animal than absolutely necessary to his Life Whereas I say the other uses are such as we have said The great Hippocrates himself gives this notable Testimony to the use of the Air as to Animals endow'd with Lungs Mortalibus saith he hic spiritus tum vitae tum morborum aegrotis causa est Tantáque corporibus omnibus spiritûs inest necessitas ut fiquidem aliis omnibus cibis potionibus quis abstineat duos tamen aut tres vel plures dies possit vitam ducere At si quis spiritus in corpus vias intercipiat vel exiguâ diei parte homini pereundum fit Adeo necessarius est usus spiritûs in corpore Ad haec quoque quum omnibus aliis actionibus homines quiescant quod mutationibus innumeris vita sit exposita ab hâc tamen solâ actione nunquam desistant animantia quin aut spiritum adducant aut reddant But touching the account upon which the Inspiration and Exspiration of Air both which are comprehended in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respiration is so necessary to Life both Naturalists and Physicians do so disagree that it will be very difficult either to reconcile their Opinions or determine their Controversies For first Many there are who think the chief if not sole use of Respiration to be the cooling and tempering of that Heat in the Heart and Blood which otherwise would be immoderate And this Opinion not only seems to be most received amongst Scholastick Writers but divers of the new Philosophers Cartesians and others admitted with some variation teaching That the Air is necessary by its coldness to condense the Blood that passeth out of the right Ventricle of the Heart into the Lungs that thereby it may contain such a consistence as is requisite to make it fit Fewel for the vital fire or flame in the left Ventricle of the Heart And this Opinion seems favour'd by this That Fishes and other cold Creatures whose Hearts have but one cavity are also unprovided of Lungs and by some other considerations But though it need not be deny'd that the inspir'd Air may sometimes be of use by refrigerating the Heart yet against the Opinion that makes this Refrigeration the most genuine and constant use of the Air it may be Objected That divers cold Creatures some of which as particularly Frogs live in the Water have yet need of Respiration which seems not likely to be needed for Refrigeration by them that are destitute of any sensible heat and besides live in the cold Water That even decrepid old Men whose natural Heat is made very languid and almost extinguish'd by reason of Age have yet a necessity of frequent Respiration That a temperate Air is fittest for the generality of breathing Creatures and as an Air too hot so also an Air too cold may be inconvenient for them especially if they be troubled with an immoderate degree of the same quality which is predominant in the Air That in some Diseases the natural heat is so weaken'd that in case the use of Respiratic were to cool it would be more hurtfull than beneficial to Breath and the suspending of the Respiration may supply the place of those very hot Medicines that are wont to be employ'd in such Distempers That Nature might much better have given the Heart but a

moderate heat than such an excessive one as needs to be perpetually cool'd to keep it from growing destructive which the gentle and not the burning heat of an Animal's Heart seems not intense enough so indispensably to require These and other Objections might be oppos'd and press'd against the recited Opinion But we shall not insist on them but only add to them That it appears not by our foregoing Experiments I mean the 38th and 39th that in our exhausted Receiver where yet Animals die so suddenly for want of Respiration the ambient Body is sensibly hotter than the common Air. Other Learned Men there are who will have the very substance of the Air to get in by the Vessels of the Lungs to the left Ventricle of the Heart not only to temper its heat but to provide for the generation of Spirits And these alledge for themselves the authority of the Ancients among whom Hippocrates seems manifestly to favour their Opinion and both Aristotle and Galen do sometimes for methinks they speak doubtfully enough appear inclineable to it But for ought ever I could see in Dissections it is very difficult to make out how the Air is convey'd into the left Ventricle of the Heart especially the Systole and Diastole of the Heart and Lungs being very far from being Synchronical Besides that the Spirits seeming to be but the most subtle and unctuous Particles of the Blood appear to be of a very differing Nature from that of the lean and incombustible Corpuscles of Air. Other Objections against this Opinion have been proposed and press'd by that excellent Anatomist and my Industrious Friend Dr. Highmore to whom I shall therefore refer you Another Opinion there is touching Respiration which makes the genuine use of it to be Ventilation not of the Heart but of the Blood in its passage through the Lungs in which passage it is dis-burthened of those Excrementitious Steams proceeding for the most part from the superfluous Serosities of the Blood we may add and of the Chyle too which by those new Conduits of late very happily detected by the Famous Pecquet hath been newly mix'd with it in the Heart And this Opinion is that of the Industrious Maebius and is said to have been that of that excellent Philosopher Gassendus and hath been in part an Opinion almost vulgar But this Hypothesis may be explicated two ways For first The necessity of the Air in Respiration may be suppos'd to proceed from hence That as a Flame cannot long burn in a narrow and close place because the Fuliginous Steams it uncessantly throws out cannot be long receiv'd into the ambient Body which after a while growing too full of them to admit any more stifles the flame So that the vital Fire in the Heart requires an ambient Body of a yielding nature to receive into it the superfluous Serosities and other Recrements of the Blood whose seasonable Expulsion is requisite to depurate the Mass of Blood and make it fit both to circulate and to maintain the vital heat residing in the Heart The other way of explicating the above-mentioned Hypothesis is by supposing that the Air doth not only as a Receptacle admit into its Pores the Excrementitious vapours of the Blood when they are expell'd through the Wind-pipe but doth also convey them out of the Lungs in regard that the inspired Air reaching to all the ends of the Aspera Ateria doth there associate it self with the exhalations of the circulating Blood and when 't is exploded carries them away with it self as we see that Winds speedily dry up the surfaces of wet Bodies not to say any thing of what we formerly observed touching our Liquor whose fumes were strangely elevated upon the ingress of the Air. Now of these two ways of Explicating the use of Respiration our Engine affords us this Objection against the first That upon the exsuction of the Air the Animals die a great deal sooner than if it were left in the Vessel though by that exsuction the ambient space is left much more free to receive the Steams that are either breathed out of the Lungs of the Animal or discharg'd by insensible Transpiration through the Pores of his Skin But if the Hypothesis propos'd be taken in the other sense it seems congruous enough to that grand observation which partly the Phaenomena of our Engine and partly the relations of Travellers have suggested to us namely That there is a certain consistence of Air requisite to Respiration so that if it be too thick and already over-charged with Vapours it will be unfit to unite with and carry off those of the Blood as Water will dissolve and associate to it self but a certain proportion of saline Corpuscles and if it be too thin or rarefied the number or size of the Aërial Particles is too small to be able to assume and carry off the halituous Excrements of the Blood in such plenty as is requisite Now that Air too much thicken'd and as it were clogg'd with Steams is unfit for Respiration may appear by what is wont to happen in the Lead-Mines of Devonshire and for ought I know in those too of other Countries though I have seen Mines where no such thing was complain'd of for I have been informed by more than one credible Person and particularly by an Ingenious Man that hath often for curiosity digg'd in those Mines and been imploy'd about them that there often riseth Damps as retaining the Germane Word by which we call them which doth so thicken the Air that unless the Work-men speedily make signs to them that are above they would which also sometimes happens be presently stifled for want of Breath and though their Companions do make haste to draw them up yet frequently by that time they come to the free Air they are as it were in a swoon and are a good while before they come to themselves again And that this swooning seems not to proceed from any Arsenical or Poysonous Exhalation contain'd in the Damp as from its overmuch condensing the Air seems probable from hence That the same Damps oftentimes leisurely extinguish the flames of their Candles or Lamps and from hence also that it appears by many Relations of Authentical Authors that in those Cellars where great store of new Wine is set to work Men have been suffocated by the too great plenty of the Steams exhaling from the Must and too much thickning the Air As may be gathered from the custom that is now used in some hot Countries where those that have occasion to go into such Cellars carry with them a quantity of well kindled Coals which they hold near their Faces whereby it comes to pass that the Fire discussing the Fumes and rarefying the Air reduceth the ambient Body to a consistence fit for Respiration We will add by way of Confirmation the following Experiment In such a small Receiver as those wherein we kill'd divers Birds we carefully clos'd up one who though for a

And Whence it is that the Air swells the Lungs in Inspiration any farther than they may receive light from our Engine But that it may appear what kind of service it is that may be expected from it on this occasion we must premise a few Words to shew wherein the strength of the Objection we are to answer lies In favour then of those that would have the Lungs rather passive than active in the business of Respiration it may against the common opinion be alledg'd That as the Lungs being destitute of Muscles and of Fibres are unfit to dilate themselves so it appears that without the motion of the Thorax they would not be fill'd with Air. Since as our Learned Friend Dr. Highmore hath well and congruously to what our selves have purposely tried observed if a live Dog have a great wound made in his Chest the Lobes of the Lungs on that side of the Mediastinum will subside and lie still the Thorax and the Lobes on the other side of the Mediastinum continuing their former motion And if suddenly at once the Muscles of the Chest be on both sides dissected upon the Ingress of the Air the whole Lungs though untouch'd will remain moveless at least as to any expansion or contraction of their substance To which we may add the Observation of the diligent Bartholinus who affirms the like of the Diaphragme also namely That it being wounded the Lungs will fall together and the Respiration cease which my Experiments oppose not provided the Wound be any thing great And indeed the Diaphragme seems the principal Instrument of ordinary and gentle Respiration although to restrained Respiration if I may so call it the intercostal Muscles and perhaps some others may be allowed eminently to concur But the chief of the Controversies formerly pointed at is not yet decided namely what it is that conveys the Air into the Lungs For when to counterballance all that hath been alledg'd those that plead for the Lungs demand what it is that should bring the Air into the Lungs if themselves do not attract it their Antagonists disagree about the Reply For when to this question some of the best Modern Philosophers answer That by the dilatation of the Chest the contiguous Air is thrust away and that pressing upon the next Air to it and so onwards the Propulsion it continued till the Air be driven into the Lungs and so dilate them When this I say is answered it is Objected even by Bartholine himself as a convincing Reply that according to this Doctrine a Man could not fetch his Breath from a great Vessel full of Air with a slender Neck because that when his Mouth covers the Orifice of the Neck the dilatation of his Thorax could not propell the Air in the Vessel into his Lungs by reason of its being separated by the inclosing Vessel from the ambient Air and yet say they Experience witnesseth that out of such a Vessel a Man may suck Air. But of this difficulty our Engine furnisheth us with an easie Solution since many of the former Experiments have manifested That in the case proposed there needs not be made any though 't is true that in ordinary Respiration there is wont to be made some propulsion of the Air by the swelling Thorax or Abdomen into the Lungs since upon the bare Dilatation of the Thorax the Spring of that internal Air or halituous substance that is wont to possess as much of the cavity of the Chest as the Lungs fill not up being much weaken'd the external and contiguous Air must necessarily press in at the open Wind pipe into the Lungs as finding there less resistance than any where else about it And hence by the way we may derive a new assistance to judge of that famous Controversie disputed among Naturalists and Physicians ever since Galen's time some maintaining that the Chest with the contained Lungs may be resembled to a pair of Bellows which comes therefore to be fill'd because it was dilated And others pleading to have the comparison made to a Bladder which is therefore dilated because it is fill'd For as to the Thorax it seems evident from what hath been lately said that it like a pair of Bellows happens to be partly fill'd with Air but because it was dilated But as for the Lungs themselves who want Fibres to distend them they may fitly enough be compar'd to a Bladder since they are dilated by being fill'd namely by that Air which rusheth into them upon the dilatation of the Chest in whose increased cavity it finds as we freshly noted less resistance to its Spring than elsewhere And this brings into my mind that strange Observation of Nicolaus Fontanus a Physician at Amsterdam who testifieth That in a Boy of the same Town four years old there was found instead of Lungs a certain Membranous Bladder which being fill'd with Wind and furnish'd with little Veins had its origination from the Wind-Pipe it self which being suppos'd true how well it will agree with most of the Opinions touching Respiration I leave to be consider'd And thus may the grand Objection of Bartholine and others be answered But I leave to Anatomists to consider what is to be said to some Observations that seem to contradict those Anatomical Experiments already mention'd Such was particularly that which I remember I have read in Sennertus from the observation of his Father-in-law Schato of a Melancholy Student who having stabb'd himself and pierced the Diaphragme in the thinner or tendonous part call'd by many the Nervous Circle lived seven Months after he had wounded himself though after his death preceded by violent Vomitings the Wound perchance dilated by those strainings appear'd so great that the whole Stomach was found to have got in by it into the left side of the Thorax And such also was the accident that happen'd to a Noble Man whom I remember I have seen and who is yet alive in whose Chest there hath for these many years remain'd a hole so great that the motion of his Heart may be perceiv'd by it These I say and some other Observations I shall now forbear to insist on because I hold it not unfit before we come to consider the use of Respiration that we acquaint Your Lordship with an Ingenious Conjecture that was made at the cause of the hasty death of the Animals our Engine kill'd namely That it was not the want of Air that destroy'd them but the Pressure of the innate Air in the cavity of the Chest as if the spring of the Air being no longer counterballanc'd by the ambient Air was thereby become so strong that it kept the Thorax forcibly distended and hinder'd its wonted contraction and so compress'd the Lungs and their Vessels as to obstruct the circulation of the Blood And this Conjecture as it is specious enough so I might have admitted it for true but that I consider'd that not to mention that one especially of the Animals kill'd in