alternate Compression of them by the Diaphragme in inspiration by the Muscles of the Abdomen in exspiration Why then should not Anatomists be able by compression or any other way whatsoever to force the Chyle or other liquor injected through this Parenchyma or supposed Streiner I answer First that the Mechanic Ration of this Colatory being not yet for ought I know discover'd even by those curious Dissectors who have with the best Microscopes contemplated the texture of it I dare not pretend to understand the true reason of the difficulty objected Secondly that if I were permitted to declare my present conjecture concerning the same I should venture to say that the impediment to the manual expression of liquors out of the gutts into the Milky veins in Animals dissected alive may perhaps consist in one of these two things either that of the several causes or motions in the state of health and ease or indolency concurring to this complex and organic operation one or more is wanting and the Mechanism of the principal Organ the interior Membrane of the gutts altered and vitiated in the praeternatural and dolorose state of the Animal dissected or that by reason of the cruel torments the miserable Beast feels the Tone of the gutts becomes so strongly contracted and rigid as to be wholly impervious Which is the more probable because 't is well known that great and acute pain always irritates nervose and fibrose parts to contract themselves even to rigidity which is opposite to the gentle compliance and yieldingness requir'd to permeability Which may be one cause why Nature hath endow'd all Glandules ordain'd for Secretion with so little sense viz. lest otherwise being sensible of every light irritation they might be apt to shrink and condense themselves to the interruption and hinderance of their office And for Animals dissected after death I should guess that in them the Colatory of the Chyle is rendered impervious by Cold which by strong constriction or constipation shutts up all slender and inconspicuous passages of the body that had been kept open by the heat and motions of life But these are my private Conjectures as I have already declar'd offer'd rather to your examen than to your belief So is whatsoever I have said in this disquisition concerning the Distribution of the Chyle which I here conclude ¶ There remain yet two other Faculties of the stomach to be consider'd viz. the SECRETIVE by which it separates from the blood brought into its membranes by the Arteries a certain slimy and subacid mucus call'd pituita emortua dead Phlegm because the spirits thereof being exhausted it is of no further use to the blood and the EXCRETIVE by which it exonerates it self of that dead Phlegm of the sowre reliques of the food of its own decay'd Ferment and in fine of whatsoever else is unprofitable or offensive and that either upward by Eructation or by Vomit or downward into the intestines But because the explication of the Constitutions of the stomach upon which these Powers are chiefly founded and of the different motions and ways by which they are respectively executed is less pertinent and requisite to the short History of Nutrition at this time by me design'd than those precedent are upon which I have hitherto insisted and because the Sands in my glass are a good while since all run down therefore I find my self doubly obliged to pretermit the explanation of them lest I should at once both rove from my principal scope and further transgress the law of this Royal Colledge which hath set bounds to all Exercises of this kind when here perform'd By the later of which reasons I am hinder'd also from tracing the Chyle in the narrow obscure and anfractuose ways through which it passes before it can attain to the end of its journey and from observing particularly the Mutations it undergoes the Exaltation and Refinement it gradually acquires and the Secretion of its unassimilable parts made in Organs by Nature to that use ordain'd Let it therefore at present suffice if to gratifie the Curiosity of the Yonger Students of Anatomie I set before their eyes not an accurate Map but a rude Landskip of the Galaxy or Milky way in which the greater part of the Chyle glides along through the purple Island of the body to replenish the ocean of blood The Chyle being now as I said squeez'd out of the stomach and gutts into the slender pipes of the Venae Lacteae flows gently on in them from the Circumference toward the Centre of the Mesentery the precedent parts of it being necessarily pusht forward by the succedent ut unda undam pellit till it enter into certain Glandules there placed And this may be call'd the First stage of the Chyles progess through the Galaxy Extruded from thence partly by more Chyle crowding in partly by compression of the Glandules by the distended Midrif and contracted Muscles of the Abdomen it flows into the Common Receptacle or Cistern first discover'd by the Curiose and fortunate Monsieur Picquet and thence call'd by his name Which I accompt the Second stage or remove of the Chyle From the Common Receptacle which consisting of a membranose substance situate at the very root of the Mesentery upon the sphondyls of the Loins and filling up the space between the Muscles Psoae is incumbent upon the two long and fleshy productions of the Diaphragm the Chyle is transferr'd into the Ductus Chyliferus which running upward near the spine of the back and continued quite home to the Subclavian branches of the Vena Cava exonerate themselves into them and commix the Chyle with the blood and this also seems to be done by impulse or protrusion Because the two Productions of the Diaphragm lying immediately under the Common Receptacle cannot be distended as together with the Diaphragm they always are in every inspiration but they must force the Chyle therein contain'd to give way by ascending in the pipes that from thence tend upward after the same manner as in artificial fountains the water is mounted into pipes only by pressing the surface of that in the Cistern Perhaps the so often mention'd Compression of all parts included within the Abdomen by constriction of the Muscles thereof may not a little contribute to this Elevation of the Chyle which is the Third remove of it Next the Chyle by the said Subclavial veins brought into the Ascendent trunc of the Vena Cava is immediately imported together with the blood therein descending into the right ear and ventricle of the Heart Which by its Systole or contraction squeezes it into the Lungs where by their Reciprocations it is more perfectly mixt with the blood and whence it is devolv'd into the Left Ventricle of the Heart and finally thence squirted into the Arteries so soon as it hath receiv'd the form and name of blood Which is the Fourth and last stage of its journy at least of so much of it as is ordain'd
delivers the first into a free injoyment of her essential immortality but dissolves the latter into the Elements or matter of which it was composed is an opinion very antient highly consentaneous to reason and defended not only by many eminent Philosophers as well antique as modern but even by some Divines of great learning Piety and Fame among whom I need name only Gassendus of the Roman and Dr. Hammond of our Church The former of which hath professedly asserted it in Physiologia Epituri cap. de Animae sede the other in Notes on the 23. Verse of the 5 Chap. of St. Pauls first Epist. ad Thess. Where interpreting these Words of the divinely inspir'd Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integer vester spiritus anima corpus he conceived that the Apostle divides the whole Man into his three constituent parts viz. the Body which comprehends the Flesh and Members the Sensitive or Vital Soul which is common also to Brutes and the Spirit by which is denoted the reasonable Soul originally created by God infused into the Body and from thence after death to return to God and this his exposition he confirms by agreeing Testimonies of many Ethnic Philosophers and some antient Fathers Much more I should here have said in defence of this opinion had I not thought it less labour to direct the unsatisfied to a little Treatise intitled a Natural History of the Passions publish'd about three Years past where the Author professedly handles it Now if either of these two recited opinions be granted to be true and 't is no easy task to refute either of them then both my positions that occasioned my recital of them may be also true and so the supposed inconsistency of them solved Presuming then that what I have said concerning the First Act of the Blood or the Generation of Original Life in the Blood and the manner how it is performed is probable and sufficient to explicate the Theorem I here conclude my discourse of it ¶ The SECOND Act of the Blood in the race of Life is the Excitation of the Motion or Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries which seems to be done in this manner The Blood descended partly out of the Trunc of the Vena Cava partly from the Arteria Venosa into the Ears or Portals of the Heart and there beginning its expansive motion fills them even to distention and by that distention irritates or incites their Fibres which are numerose and strong to contract themselves by the motion of Restitution By this constriction of the Fibres on all sides the cavities of the Ears of the Heart are necessarily closed or streightned and by consequence the Blood newly admitted into them is sequeez'd out into the two Ventricles of the Heart forcing the Valves called Tricuspides or Trisulcae which are seated at the Gates or Mouths of the Ventricles and open from without inward to open themselves and give way The Blood thus propuls'd into the Ventricles of the Heart and somewhat increasing or intending its expansive Motion fills them even to distention and to the shutting of the Valves which it so lately open'd so that at that time no more Blood can be admitted nor what is admitted recoyl or return by the Wicket through which it enter'd The Ventricles of the Heart being thus filled and distended and by virtue of their Fibres spontaneously contracting themselves into a much narrower compass strongly compress the Blood contained in them and force it to thrust back three other Valves call'd Sigmoides which open outwards and to rush forth partly into the Venae Arteriosa leading it into the Lungs from the right Ventricle partly into the Aorta or great artery from the left By this constriction of the two Ventricles of the Heart which is their proper and natural Motion the Circulation as they call it of the Blood is chiefly effected that Blood which is out of the right Ventricle express't through the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs being impell'd forward till it arrive in the Arteria Venosa that brings it into the left Ventricle and that which is expell'd from the left Ventricle into the great Artery being by the Branches thereof distributed into all the parts of the Body The Blood being in this manner squirted out and the irritation ceasing the Ventricles instantly restore themselves to their middle position and make way for the reception of more Blood from the Ears of the Heart as before and then being by the Influx and expansive Motion thereof again distended and irritated repeat their Constriction and thereby eject it and this reciprocation or alternate dilatation and constriction or Diastole and Systole of the two Ventricles of the Heart together with the Arteries continued to them is what we call their Pulsation and the grand cause of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood as the alternate expansion and repression of the Spirits during that pulsation is that motion which Dr. Glisson first named the Mication of the Blood comprehending the double motion in that single appellation The Blood then it is that alone excites the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries by distending them not by reason of any actual Ebullition or any considerable Rarifaction it undergoes in either of the Ventricles or in their avenues but as I humbly conceive merely by its quantity rushing in Not by Ebullition or Effervescence as Aristotle who gave it the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believ'd 1 Because no ebullition of any Liquor whatsoever proceeding either from external Heat or from intestine Fermentation is constantly equal or uniform whereas the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries and consequently the motion of the Blood that causeth it is in Men healthy temperate and undisturbed by Passion constantly equal or of the same tenor and rhythm 2 Because the greater the Ebullition of the Blood the greater would be the pulsation of the Heart but in burning Fevers though there be a very great effervescence of the Blood arising from an extraordinary effort of the vital Spirits contending against oppression by the putrefactive or febrile Ferment yet the Pulse most frequently is low and weak as Galen himself observed 3 Because in living dissections if either of the Ventricles of the Heart or the great Artery be pierced with a lancet pure and florid Blood indeed will spring from the Wound in every Systole but not frothy not boyling nor meteorized nay not to be by any sign of difference distinguished from Blood at the same time emitted from the Vena Cava of the same Animal An Argument certainly of itself sufficient to subvert the Ebullition of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart excogitated by Aristotle at least if he were Author of the Book de Respiratione vulgarly ascribed to him to solve the Phaenomenon of the Pulse and to this day obstinately defended by many learned men seduced by the Authority of his great name 4 If the Blood suffer'd any such Ebullition an immersion or
manner that the Stomach Gutts Bladder Womb c. membranose and fibrose Cavities of the Body when they are above measure fill'd and distended do by spontaneously constringing themselves forcibly expell whatever irritates them And that in every Diastole of the Heart Blood rushes into the Ventricles in a quantity sufficient to distend them seems inferrible even from this that it is abundantly brought in both by the Vena Cava and by the Arteria Venosa and that it is continually driven on thitherward partly from the habit of the Body by the tonic motion of the parts partly from the Lungs by help of their motion according to the fundamental Laws of its Circuition But why do I insist upon Reasons when an easie Experiment offers itself to determine the Question In a Dog opened alive if the two Vessels that bring Blood into the Heart namely the Vena Cava and Arteria Venosa be girt with Ligatures so that the course of the Blood be there intercepted the Ventricles by three or four Systoles emptying themselves their orderly pulsation will cease only a little undulating Motion and irregular vibration will thereupon immediately succeed and upon solution of the Ligatures and influx of Blood the Heart will instantly repete its pulsation I conclude therefore that the Blood causeth the Dilatation of the Heart not by its Ebullition nor by its Rarifaction but only by its replenishing and distending the Ventricles thereof and that the Heart by its spontaneous constriction expresses the Blood into the Lungs and great Artery and so the motion of both is perpetuated I admit nevertheless a certain gentle and pacate expansive Motion of the Blood to be excited in the Ears and Ventricles of the Heart as necessary to the generation of Original Life though not of force sufficient to move the whole Machine of the Heart For the vital Spirits in the Blood though brisk and vigorose in their endevor to expansion chiefly when they are agitated by the motion of the Heart are notwithstanding somewhat checkt and repulsed by the reluctancy of the grosser Particles of the Blood and therefore it cannot be imagined they should suffice to dilate the Heart also I admit also a constant invigoration of the Fibres and fleshy Columns or Pullies of the Heart by a continual Influx from the Brain that they may the more expeditely and strongly and without lassitude perpetuate the Systole of the Heart For that such an Influx is necessary every Moment to recruit their Vigor and conserve the due firmness of their tone is evident from this singular Experiment If the Nerves of the eight pare be constringed closely by ligatures in the neck of a Dog ye will admire what a suddain and strange mutation will thereupon ensue The Heart which before performed its motions moderately and regularly will instantly begin to tremble and palpitate and the poor Animal will labour of anxiety and extreme difficulty of breathing while the ligatures continue on the Nerves above but upon removing them all those dismal Accidents which are perhaps to be ascribed to the surcharge of the Heart and Lungs by Blood not so fast discharged as it is imported and that by reason the Systoles are rendred weak and languid the influx from the Brain that should invigorate the contracting Fibres and Pullies being intercepted all the Accidents I say will foon cease and the Heart renew its pulsation as before To this Anatomic Experiment I might have added Arguments of the same importance drawn from the Palsie and Convulsions to which the Heart itself is liable had not the industrious Dr. Lower Author of the alleged experiment prevented me lib. de motu cordis cap. 2. and were I not conscious that I have staid too long upon the cause and manner of the Excitation of the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries or second Act of the Blood in the race of Life ¶ Proceed we therefore to the THIRD viz. the Distribution of the Blood into all parts of the Body which is an act wholly Mechanic and to be attributed to the Systole of the Heart and Arteries thereto continued To the Constriction of the Heart because the Blood contained in the right Ventricle is thereby of necessity express'd into the Vena Arteriosa and so into the Lungs and that in the left is thence expell'd into the great Arterie and driven on through the Branches thereof into all the parts of the Body Nor can it seem strange that this Constriction of the Heart should be effected with force sufficient to impell the Blood in a continued stream through the Pipes of the Arteries till it arrive at the extremities of them yea till it enter into the very substance of the parts in which they are terminated For if we attently consider 1 the structure of the heart that it is a Muscle of a substance Solid thick and firmly compacted every where intertext with various Fibres and corroborated within with fleshy Columns and fibrose Pullies and of a Figure fit to perform vigorose Motions 2 that if you put your Hand upon the Heart of any large Animal open'd alive you shall find it hard and tense not easily yielding to the Gripe and if you thrust a Finger into either of the Ventricles you shall feel it to be with great violence girt and pincht by the Systole thereof 3 that if you pierce the great Arterie neer the Original of it with a Lancet the Blood will be in every contraction squirted thence with incredible impetuosity and to great distance 4 that in some Men the Heart invaded by Convulsions hath vibrated itself with such stupendous Force that the very Ribbs have been thereby broken as the observations recorded by Fernelius Hollerius Forestus and Carolus Piso attest 5 that in Horses and Doggs after they have run the beating of their Hearts may be plainly and distinctly heard to a considerable distance If I say we consider these things we shall soon be induced to believe that the Systole of the Heart is more than sufficient to impell the Blood to the extreme arteries And as for the spontaneous Constriction of the Arteries that also must needs contribute somewhat to the Pulsion of the Blood by less'ning the Pipes through which it flows Remarkable it is that the Contraction of the Arteries is not Synchronical or coincident with the contraction of the Heart For the Systole of the Heart is perform'd in the time of its contractive Motion and the Diastole in the time of the remission thereof but on the contrary the Diastole of the Arteries is perform'd when they endevor to contract themselves and their Systole when they remit that endevor The reason is because the exclusion of a sufficient quantity of Blood out of the Ventricles of the Heart being perform'd the first cause that impugned the contraction of the Arteries viz. their distention by that Blood rushing into them instantly ceases and the three Semilunar Valves are shut to prevent the regress of it and at
throat and by that compression forces it into the mouth of the Gullet For being so environ'd as that it cannot slipp away either by the funnells above leading to the nosestrills or by the palate it must be cramm'd into the orifice of the Gullet there being no other way or door left open by which it may free it self from compression Nor doth this compression instantly cease but is continued till the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx filling up the whole cavity of the throat have thence driven all the matter contain'd therein and thrust it down into the Gullet 2. Whilst this action is perform'd the Muscles of the Pharynx being also vigorated i. e set on work by tension cause its membrane closely to embrace the roots of the tongue and head of the Larynx in their ascent but so as that the orifice of the Gullet is at the same time carried upward and a little forward to meet the matter to be swallow'd No wonder then if the describ'd compression easily squeez into the Gullet all the matter brought into the throat when the same is promoted by a clausure on each side from below by the ascent of the tongue and Larynx from above by the tension of the muscles of the Pharynx and at the same time the mouth of the Gullet is offer'd as a door by which it may slipp away and evade the compression 3. No sooner is the matter in this manner thrust down into the orifice of the Gullet than the Sphincter Muscle thereof constringing it self so girds the orifice as that it not only prevents the recoiling or slipping back of the matter into the mouth but squeezes it somwhat farther down And then 4. The Peristaltic or Compressing motion of the spiral fibres of the Gullet beginning and by degrees girding the sides thereof farther and farther downward soon thrusts the matter into the cavity of the Stomach And this seems to me to be the most reasonable and plain accompt that hitherto hath been given how the whole complex work of Deglutition is perform'd Mechanically A work of so great Use to the whole body that all men know and acknowledge it to be absolutely necessary to the conservation of the whole Experience teaching even the most illiterate that when it happens to be abolish'd as in various diseases of the throat chiefly in inflammations tumors and palseys of the muscles of the Larynx and Pharynx it often is miserable famin and death inevitably insue It is not then without good cause that Nature hath according to her accustom'd bounty in works of publick utility either to the subsistence of individuals or to propagation of the species to the exercise of the faculty of Deglutition annex'd an ample reward viz. a grateful Complacency of the instruments therein used yea a pleasure so inviting that many Animals are thereby allured to hurt themselves by eating more than they can digest and above all intemperate Man whose diet is in variety of tasts the most delicious With which vulgar remark I conclude this short and imperfect history of the Oesophagus ¶ PRAELECTIO II. HISTORIA VENTRICULI THAT we may not in our surveys divide parts that Nature hath so closely conjoyn'd let us in the next place convert our contemplation upon the principal Organ of Chylification wherein as in a publick Kitchin nourishment for the whole body is praepar'd viz. the STOMACH This common Receptacle of all our meat and drink and Laboratory in which all the profitable parts of both are by the inimitable Chymistry of Nature converted into a certain whitish liquor somwhat resembling barly cream and call'd Chyle hath been by the Antient Graec Physicians describ'd under three divers names By Hippocrates 't is sometimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to receive or contein because it receives all the Aliment swallowed down and wherever in his works we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without addition to appropriate it to the Head or Thorax which by him are also named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellies there we are to understand this part alone sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cavity and sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heart from the vicinity of the upper orifice of the Stomach to the Heart and the symptoms thence arising But of these Appellations the two first are common to all great cavities or receptacles in the body and the last in stricter sense denotes not the whole stomach but only the principal and most sensil part of it the Mouth Among the Latines likewise we find an equal variety of denominations For Celsus lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 4. cap. 5. uses the words Venter Ventriculus and Stomachus indifferently to signify this whole part and Cicero de nat Deor. lib. 2. expresses the same by Ventriculus and Stomachus indiscriminately But now use hath obtain'd that the diminutive Ventriculus quasi minor ventor without a limitation annext stand for the proper name of what the Vulgar calls the Stomach For tho' Anatomists name the cavities of the Heart and Brain also Ventricles yet they never do so without adding for distinction sake the name of the part viz. Heart or Brain of which they speak This Ventricle then being an Organical part of great dignity but greater necessity well deserves our strictest scrutiny Let us then with diligence and patience consider 1. The Structure or Organization 2. The Elements or similar parts and 3. The Actions and Uses of it For if we can attain to a competent knowledge of all these things I do not see what can remain to hinder us from coming at length to understand the nature of it fully and perfectly Begin we then from the Site or situation of it which being not the same in Animals of all kinds but various requires to be consider'd first in genere and then speciatim to the end that Comparative Anatomy may go hand in hand with simple or Positive In all Animals that have bloud Fowls that feed upon corn only excepted the Ventricle is seated in the upper part of the Abdomen The superior Orifice of it in Man in all four-footed Beasts and in all Fishes that have lungs is immediately under the Diaphragm but in all Fishes that respire not immediately appendant to the mouth as well because having neither thorax nor neck they consequently want the Gullet as because in them the belly is disterminated from the mouth by a certain membraneous partition not much unlike to and as to separation supplying the defect of the midriff Whereas in Animals that respire the Gullet is requisite because of the interposition of the breast betwixt the mouth and the Ventricle which could not be commodiously placed above the diaphragm in the thorax for more than one reason viz. 1. Because it would have straitned and compress'd the Lungs especially when fill'd and distended with food 2. Because the Thorax being inviron'd with strong bones could not be
distended enough to make room for the expansion of the lungs and repletion of the Ventricle both at once and 3. Because the steams arising from the meat and drink fermenting in the Ventricle would much infest the vital parts Which last incommodity Nature seems to have prudently prevented both in Birds that have the ingluvies or Cropp placed not in the lower belly but under the neck before and without the furcula and in Fishes also that want respiration by separating the heart from the ventricle with a certain membraneous partition instead of a diaphragm Again the same upper orifice of the ventricle in Man and in all Quadrupeds is placed immediately under the diaphragm to prevent the farther elongation of the Gullet which would have been unprofitable at least if not in many respects incommodious Nor is the providence of Nature less admirable in placing the Ingluvies in Granivorous Fowls we call it the Kropp or Craw and the Gorge in Carnivorous of Birds under the neck betwixt the horns of the os jugale call'd by us the Fork or merry-thought she seeming to have had three inducements thereto 1. The Crop having no commerce with any part in the Abdomen but only with the Gizard to which it is continued by a peculiar pipe or inferior Gullet and by which the corn steep'd and softned in the Crop is converted into Chyle there is no necessity why it should be seated therein 2. The Crop serves also to keep the body of the Fowl aequilibrated upon the leggs whereas if it were in the lowest belly it would when full of food make the hinder part much too weighty for the fore part 3. Fowls for the most part chiefly the Granivorous feed their young with half-digested chyle or corn macerated puking it from the crop into their mouth as is commonly observ'd in Doves and Rooks which they could not so commodiously have done if the crop had not been seated so near the mouth And as to the situation of the Ventricle consider'd in Specie it is placed in the highest region of the Abdomen partly in the left hypochondrium partly under the pitt of the stomach having on the right side the Liver not only accumbent but incumbent upon it on the left side the Spleen adhaering to it at the bottom the Omentum or Kell or Caul fastned all along and behind the Pancreas subjacent from thence named by some the Pillow or Cushion of the Ventricle and on the fore part the Colon and in this position it is establish'd by various connexions the superior orifice is continued to the Gullet and by the mediation thereof firmly annex'd to the midriffe the inferior united to the Duodenum and by the mediation of the Omentum connex'd to the Liver Back Spleen Colon and Pancreas The second thing remarkable in the Structure of the Ventricle is the Magnitude or Capacity of it which being various not only in Animals of divers kinds but in some individuals also of the same species chiefly in men requires therefore to be consider'd first Comparatively and then Positively If we compare the Magnitude of the Ventricle with that of the whole body of the same Animal we shall find it in weight not to exceed the hundredth part of it So that we might well admire that a part so small should suffice to cook provision for the whole did we not at the same time remember that the Gutts help it not a little in that office If we compare the Ventricle of Man with those of other Animals we shall find it to be in him less in proportion to the whole body than in them So that Aristotles general rule de hist. animal 2. cap. 17. Animalia majora majorem minora minorem habent ventriculum seems not to exclude all exception and there is reason for us to believe that Nature adjusted the capacity of the Ventricle in all sorts of Animals rather to the nature of their proper food than to the magnitude of their bodies For 1. Where the food is coarse yielding but little nourishment out of a great mass there much of it is required to satiate the appetite and recruit the body and consequently the greater the capacity of the Ventricle Hence perhaps it is that the Horse the Ass the Ox Sheep Goats c. that feed upon herbs grass hay stubble and other the like lean and poor aliments from a great quantity of which but little nourishing juice can be extracted have great bellies On the contrary where the food is rich i. e. conteining much of nutriment in a little there is requir'd a less quantity of it to satiate the appetite and repair the body and by consequence a less ventricle as in Man who living upon delicate meats that nourish much in little quantity hath but a small ventricle in comparison of his whole body and 't is observ'd that men of a more delicate diet such as is used at the tables of Princes and Grandees have generally less Ventricles than others that live upon coarse fare 2. Animals that eat but seldom ought to have the Ventricle of large capacity because they devour much at once to compensate their long fasting Which is exemplified in Lions Tygres Wolves c. beasts of prey which tho' carnivorous and consequently of an opime or highly nourishing diet are yet compell'd many times to undergo the sharp pinches of hunger long till they meet with food and then they gorge themselves as if they intended to barrell up in their panches flesh for many dayes to come and are to that end furnished with ample stowage in their bellies The like may be said also of those Men who are accustom'd to eat but one meal a day whether it be a dinner or a supper and that a great one for by that surcharge they so distend their stomach as of necessity to render it in tract of time thinner and by consequence weaker than is requisite to health And hence in all probability it is also that great Drinkers enlarge the capacity of the Ventricle by stretching the coats of it till at length they come to destroy the tone and strength thereof by habitual extenuation and to verifie Seneca's saying of intemperate men epist. 39. quae fecere patiuntur they are their own tormentors Finally if we compare Human Ventricles among themselves we shall find the variety to be great in respect of difference in age sex stature diet and above all in habitual temperance or intemperance Greater is the capacity of the Ventricle commonly in men than in women in proportion to their bodies and yet women are not as Aristotle believ'd greater gluttons than men but rather less as having less room in their bellies to receive and less of heat to concoct food Greater in men of middle age and of tall stature than in old and of low stature Greater also in Gluttons and Drunkards than in the Sober Difficult it is therefore to determine what is the Positive Magnitude of it in
Wherefore the native temperament of all fibres is cold and moist indeed but enrich'd with delicate and noble spirits however fixt and consequently they require to be nourish'd with a spermatic aliment The Corpulency or fleshiness of fibres is variable somtimes greater as in strong and laborious men somtimes less as in weak lean and sedentary The Cohaerence of parts ought to be firm and tough that they may be extended without danger of divulsion or rupture and return to their natural posture by spontaneous contraction after extension Their Flexibility depends partly upon their tenacity partly upon their middle constitution betwixt hardness and softness that they may be neither rigid or stiff nor flaggy The Organical native constitution of fibres consisteth in their due situation figure magnitude and continuity all which are included in their former description The influent constitution of them is either Vital or Animal If the vital influx be deficient the force and strength of the fibres soon languishes as in swoonings and faintings Yea if it be but depraved as in fevers their vigour in a few hours decayes If the Animal influx be intercepted as in the palsy they quickly become languid and stupid yea if the brain and nerves grow dull and sluggish the fibres at the same time grow flaccid and loose unapt for vigorous motion 2. The general Uses of all fibres are to corroborate the parts to which they belong and to move them The special uses are various respective to their various formation in divers parts as for instance in the Stomach and Gutts they serve chiefly to their Peristaltic motion 3. The Action of Fibres is either Common or Proper Common when being invigorated i. e. set on work by extension which is against their nature they pull and move the part to which they are connex'd as a chord pull'd by a mans hand pulls a plummet or any other body fastned to it but this seems to me to be in strictness of truth rather Passion than action in respect of the fibres themselves for they suffer extension being notwithstanding their natural renitency stretcht in length by the pulling of the nerves from which they are elonged Wherefore according to my weak judgment their Proper action is only Self-contraction by which they restore themselves to their natural posture A motion common indeed to all Tensil bodies whatever and therefore rightly term'd by Philosophers motion of Restitution the cause whereof I take to be the strong cohaerence of the parts of which they are compos'd If so what need we amuse our selvs by striving to deduce the spontaneous Contraction of nerves and fibres either from natural Instinct which implying I know not what secret suggestion pro re nata from some forein cause whether God or His servant Nature is to me unintelligible or what is equally abstruse from Natural Perception which supposes even inanimate things yea every the least particle of matter in the whole Universe to be naturally endowed with knowledge of what is good or evil to their nature with appetites to embrace the good and eschew the evil and with power to move themselves accordingly faculties that my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational creatures 4. The Passion therefore of a Fibre is the extension of it which is a passive motion coming from a cause without the essence of the fibre it self Which cause unless it actually relax or stupesie the fibres incites or irritates them to contract themselves and the more violent the irritation the stronger is the renitency and spontaneous contraction as is observ'd in convulsions To me it seems impossible that a simple fibre should by its own action alone extend it self in length nor have I wit enough to conceive how this can be done since all extension is a less or greater degree of force tending to the tearing asunder of the parts of the tensible body against which divelling force the firm cohaerence of the parts makes it strive And as for the Cessation of fibres that is when they neither act nor suffer but rest from all either extension or contraction having restor'd themselves to their natural posture of laxity This they attain to chiefly in sleep when all fibres of the whole body those that serve to respiration and the motions of the heart only excepted are at rest and thereby refresh'd acquiring after labour and weariness new strength and vigor from the sweet mild and balsamic juice dispensed to them from the brain by the nerves After this concise survey of the fibres in the membranes of the Ventricle there remains only their peculiar Parenchyma to challenge our observation which it may with the greater right pretend to because there are many who question whether it be real or imaginary because the whole Ventricle being of a white color seems therefore to be made up only of fibres and membranes It concerns us then to be certified 1. Of the real existence 2. Of the necessity 3. Of the quality and 4. Of the various uses of what we call the Parenchyma of the Ventricle as a distinct part thereof 1. To be assured even by our own eyes that there is really such a thing we need only to essay the excarnation of the stomach by laying it extended upon a plain bord and then scraping it moderately hard with a blunt knife in the same manner as Sheep skins are scrap'd by those who make Velom and Parchment or gutts by those who make Sawciges For by this easie means you may scrape off so great a quantity of soft white pulp as will by nineteen parts of twenty exceed all that you leave behind of membranes and fibres which will yet remain as strong and tenacious as they were before Against which experiment I see not what can be objected For if the firm cohaerence of the fibres of the Stomach be not only not abolish'd but not at all diminish'd by this scraping away of the pulp that stufft them it follows that the pure fibres in which alone the strength of the stomach consists still remain intire and that nothing but the Parenchyma or pulp hath been taken away From the same experiment it appears also that the membrane and pure fibres of the Ventricle are in themselves pellucid or transparent as we see in the skins of Sawciges and that they owe all their opacity to their stuffing with this Parenchyma 2. Which is necessary to the constitution of the Stomach in more than one respect Necessary it seems to fill up and make smooth and plain the inequalities arising from the contexture of the fibres which running various courses and riding each over other somtimes would otherwise render the surfaces of the membranes uneven Necessary it is also to stop the pores of the Stomach that it may hold liquors the better and be stanch even to vapors and wind as linnen cloth is made to hold water by dipping it into melted wax oyle and turpentine which fill up the void spaces betwixt
plunging of the Body into cold Water would depress and calm it and consequently repress the motion of the Heart but the experience of divers attesteth the contrary For these reasons therefore among many others here for brevities sake omitted I reject the supposed Ebullition of the Blood passing through the Ventricles of the Heart I reject also the suddain and impetuose Rarifaction attributed to it by the greatest of Aristotle's Rivals Monsieure des Cartes and strenuously propugned by Regius and others his Disciples For 1 If you open the Thorax of any more perfect Animal alive and while the Heart yet continues to beat strongly thrust an incision Knife into either of the Ventricles or into the great Artery the Blood thence issuing will not appear spumose or rarified at all but indistinguishable from Blood taken out of the Vena Cava just at its entrance into the right Ear of the Heart 2 If you cut out the Heart itself and squeez out all the Blood conteined in it you shall observe it to vibrate itself a little and to continue the rhythm of its Pulses till it be grown cold and this not from Blood rarified for now there remains none within its Ventricles but most probably from the reliques of the vital Spirits which yet inhering in the Fibres and little Pullies of the Heart are the cause that they alternately contract and relax themselves 3 The musculose Flesh of the Heart is of a contexture too firm and solid to be inflated by a little Froth and a greater force is requir'd so nimbly to agitate so massive and ponderose a Machine 4 If the Blood were so impensly rarified in both the Ventricles of the Heart doubtless the Orifices both of the Vena Arteriosa and of the Aorta ought to be much larger because the rarified Blood would require more of space to its egress than to its ingress 5 There would arise a confusion of the motion of the Heart and its Valves for the diastole of these would be coincident with the diastole of that which would annihilate the use of the Valves both which are repugnant to experience and to the institute of Nature 6 No reason why the Blood should be pufft up by great rarifaction in the Heart only that it may sink and be condensed again so soon as it is thence emitted into the Arteries for what use can there be of the supposed rarifaction which the very next moment ceaseth These then are the reasons that hinder me from believing that a drop or two of Blood can be by the heat of the Heart so extremely rarified as to replenish and distend the Ventricles thereof when the Cavity of the least of the Ventricles in a Man of middle Age and Stature will easily contein according to Harvey's accompt two Ounces much more according to Lower's lib. de corde cap. 3. and when I am fully convinced that in the State of Health and Quiet the whole mass of Blood is transmitted through the Heart at least thirteen times in the space of an Hour supposing no more than 2000 Pulses in that time which would be impossible if only a few Drops were received into each Ventricle in every Diastole and expel'd again by the following Systole For evident it is even to Sense that in the Diastole both Ventricles of the Heart are filled with Blood even to distention so that if you feel them at that time with your Hand they will be found tense and hard and that by the Systole all the Blood receiv'd is express'd the Sides being then strongly drawn together and the Cone pull'd up toward the Basis so that little or no room can be left within to contein Blood If you open an Eel or Viper alive you may observe the Heart to become white in the Systole because all the Blood conteined in it is then squeez'd out and red again in the Diastole from new Blood admitted and filling it Nor are we to doubt but the same happens in the Hearts of greater Animals also though the Parenchyma or muscular Flesh of the Heart be in them so thick as to hinder the Eye from discerning the like alternate change of Colours in their constriction and dilatation Taking then the total Repletion of the ventricles in every Diastole and the total Exinanition of them by every Systole for granted and Supposing that in a Man of a middle size each of the Ventricles of the Heart conteins about two ounces of Blood when it is fill'd and that the Pulses of the Heart made in the space of an Hour exceed not the number of 2000 which yet is the lowest computation I have hitherto met with among Anatomists it will necessarily follow that no less than 4000 Ounces of Blood are transmitted through the Heart in the space of an Hour which amount to 332 Pints at 12 Ounces to the Pint whereas the quantity of Blood contein'd in the Body of a Man of a Sanguine complexion tall Stature and plentiful Diet is not allowed by accurate Anatomists to exceed 25 Pints at most Let us therefore grant our Man to have that proportion of 25 Pints to be transmitted through his Heart by 2 Ounces at every pulsation and the consequence will be that the whole Mass of his Blood must pass and repass through his Heart thirteen times in the space of an Hour or else the pulsation of his Heart and his Life too must cease for want of Blood to continue the Motion But since few Men have either so much Blood or in the state of Health so few Pulses as we have now supposed 't is highly consentaneous that in most Men all their Blood runs through the Heart oftner than thirteen times in every Hour Now to come to the scope or use of this Computation if only a few drops of Blood rarified be transmitted through the Heart of a Man at every Pulse 2000 pulses could not transmit so much as a fourth part of 25 Pints in an Hour and in the mean time all the rest of it must stagnate and grow cold and then what would become of his Life which depends upon the actual Heat and perpetual Circuition of the Blood This argument certainly is if not apodictical yet morally convincing that Monsieur des Cartes his opinion of the impense Rarifaction of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart is manifestly erroneous There remain's then nothing to which the Diastole of the Ventricles of the Heart can be reasonably attributed but the Quantity of Blood flowing into and distending them For the substance of the Heart being as well without as within Musculose Robust Thick and intertext with Fibres of all orders or positions and furnish't also with fleshy Columnes which being commodiously placed in the Ventricles help much to the constriction of them so soon as the Blood flowing in hath distended them they being thereby irritated instantly begin to contract themselves by that contraction girding in the Ventricles and squeezing out the Blood After the same