forth do not so readily convey away the vaporous Effluvia's of the blood hence it is that we fan the Air that it may be made more moveable and carry away more quickly and plentifully the soot or smoke from our Praecordia There yet remain some other smaller Considerations of Fire and Flame respecting indeed not so much the Essence as the production and extinction of either which whether and how far they may agree with the life of the Blood we shall briefly inquire into Fire or Flame is produced two ways viz. either it is kindled from another fire or flame or begot by an intestine motion of sulphureous Particles We have largely shewed the Species of either and the manner of their being made in our Tract of Fermentation only we omitted there that the accession of nitrous food was necessary for the sustaining it even as flame the life also of the hot or warm Blood we have observed to be produced by a twofold way to wit it is either inkindled from another life or soul as in Creatures that bring forth alive or intrinsical Particles predisposed to animation are at length raised up to life with the blood by a long cherishing of external heat as in oviparous or egg-laying Creatures If it be further demanded when and how the vital Flame is kindled first in the Blood I say some small beginnings of it are laid up from the conception it self in the Genital humour to wit when the rudiment of the bodily Soul culled out from the Souls of the Parents as a little spark stricken from those flames is hid in a convenient matter which being from thence raised up by the Mothers heat begins a little to glow and shine and afterwards being daily dilated with the blood brought forth and leisurely increased is equally extended with the Body which it actuates and animates But yet as long as the young one is included in the Egg or Womb the vital fire getting very little or scarce any aery food doth not yet break out into open flame but like a Brands end covered over with ashes burns only slowly and very little and spreads abroad scarce any heat wherefore both the formation and increase of the Embryo depends very much on the Mothers heat or the cherishment of some other analogical thing whereof being destitute it perishes but as soon as the young one is born in due time and begins to breathe the vital fire presently receiving the nitrous food largely unfolds it self and an heat or effervescency being raised up through the whole bloody mass it inkindles a certain flame and because the blood then first rushing into the Lungs having there gotten an accession of Air begins to burn the flesh of that Bowel at first reddish is shortly changed into a whitish colour like burnt ashes and the blood it self undergoes a notable alteration for what did flow of a dark Purple colour into the Pneumonick Vessels from the right side of the Heart returning from thence presently out of the Lungs becomes Crimson and as it were of a flame-colour and so shining passes through the left Ventricle of the Heart and the appending Arteries Indeed that in Creatures new-born the colour of the Lungs is so suddenly changed I think it ought to be attributed to the blood there at first more openly inkindled and their flesh as it were somewhat roasted although the mere inflation of the Lungs in a dead Embryo produces the like effect because the Membranes of the Lungs and the Parenchyma being distended and increased into a greater capacity shake off the stagnating blood and so draw it away into little and scarce to be discerned rivulets As to the Colour of the Blood so variously changed into circulating from a dark purple to a crimson and from this to that I say that the immediate cause of this is the admixtion of the nitrous Air with the Blood which certainly appears because the change into a crimson begins in that place where the blood chiefly gets the access of the Air viz. whilst it is transferred out of the Arteries into the Pneumonick Veins for in those it appears of a dark Purple in these every where florid as the most Learned Doctor Lower hath observed Further it yet farther appears that this alteration of the colour proceeds from the admixture of the Air because that crimson colour follows in the superficies of all blood let out of the Vessels by reason of its meeting or mingling with air and if the flowering or top be taken away another presently arises Besides the blood being let out of a Vein and very much struck with a switch or rod it becomes crimson through all and in like manner the blood of living Creatures shines at first within the Pneumonick Veins to wit presently after the influx of the air by the Wind-pipe and from thence by reason of the same Particles of inkindled air being yet retained it passes through all the Arteries still florid in the mean time from the Nitre of the Air mingled with the sulphureous Particles and burning with them the blood being greatly rarified and in truth expanded into flame impetuously swells up within all the passages of the Pneumonick Vein and the great Artery sending from it self copious breaths and hot Effluvia's but being dilated towards the ends of the Arteries and returning towards the Heart that it may enter more closely into the little mouths of the Veins it lays aside its turgid and burning aery Particles and being presently made more quiet and half extinct and so both its vigour and also its colour being changed it returns through the passages of the Veins that at length running into the Lungs it might renew its burning After this manner that the inkindled blood might flame through the whole Body with a perpetual and equal flame and successively renew its burning in all its Particles it ought to be carried about by a perpetual course from the nest of its accension into all parts and from these to that For this end the Machine or Engine of the Heart was needful as a Pin or Cock which being made with a double bosom might receive in it self from the whole Lungs the blood fresh inkindled that it might presently drive forward whilst burning into every part of the whole Body and might then receive the burnt and half extinguished blood returning from the whole Body which being imbued with new inflammable juyce it might deliver to the Lungs to be re-inkindled In performing this task although the Heart be a mere Muscle and exercised only with an animal motion seems to serve alone for the Circulation of the Blood yet in the mean time it so much helps to moderate the accension of the blood and its burning according to the rage of the passions and to direct other works and uses of the animated Body that we have thought the vital or flamy part of the Soul to have its chief and as it were Imperial seat in the Heart and
in which Spirits for that they are very nimble continually strive to expand themselves and to fly away but being intangled by the more thick Particles of the rest they are detained in their flight And being detained after this manner they toss about break to pieces and very much subtilise the more thick little Bodies by which they are hindered they volatilise the Salt otherwise fixed by a most minute kneading and by the adhesion of it they perfectly dissolve the Sulphur compacted in it self and not miscible with the rest and boil it in the Serum They break the Earth even to its smallest parts and mingle it with the rest But in the mean time by the striking and molding the Salt and the Sulphur Effluvia's of heat plentifully proceed which being mixed with the rest and on every side diffused increase the motion of the Fermentation And after this manner all being most minutely broken and diluted with watery Particles they constitute the Liquor of the Blood which whilst in the Vessels as Wine shut up in a Pipe continually ferments and according to all its Particles is in perpetual motion But the Fermentation of Wine and of Blood differs in this that in Wine there is no wasting of the old parts and a coming again of new but the Liquor being shut up in the Vessel remains still the same but 't is otherwise in Blood in which some parts are continually destroyed and in their place others are always generated anew In Wine the times of crudity maturation and defection are distinct and are successively performed in the whole In Blood that threefold state is celebrated at the same time and by parts Fermentation being once begun in Wine is continued even to the end but in Blood because it is washed still with crude Juices it ought still to be renewed by which means the Nutritious Particles not of kin are assimilated to the rest of the Latex wherefore for this work besides the Fermentation once begun in the blood there is need of some Ferments which may continue the same otherwise about to leave off That Ferments are required for the making of Blood this is an Argument that when they are wanting by Nature they are with good success supplyed by the work of Art for fixed Salts Alcaly Salt Extracts Digestives Openers and especially Chalybeate Remedies help for this reason that as it were by a certain Ferment they restore anew the weak or almost extinct Ebullition or Boiling of the Blood As to what respects the Natural Ferments very many may certainly be formed and in divers parts or hid in the Bowels for any humor in which the Particles of Salt Sulphur or Spirit being much exalted are contained puts on the Nature of a Ferment after this manner the flowring or dregs of Beer or new Wine being kneaded with Meal and the mass kept to a sowrness come under this rank by which new Beer and the like Liquors as also the mass of Bread are most excellently Fermented In like manner in the Ventricle a sowrish humour participating of exalted Salt there helps concoction and in the Spleen the feculencies of the Blood from Salt and Earth being exalted go into a Ferment How much vigor comes to the Blood from the Womb and Genital parts appears from hence because by the privation or evil disposition of them follow in Maids the Green sickness in men barrenness or loss of virility want of Beard and a shrill voice But the chief Ferment that serves for sanguification is established in the Heart for this is the chief fire-place in which the cruder Particles of the Chyme are as it were inkindled and acquire a volatileness which thing may be confirmed by many reasons but especially by its effects which we suffer in the precordia as often as the Blood ferments more or less than it ought to do for when it is too much inkindled in the Heart it is agitated impetuously as it were by fires put under it the signs of whose immoderate Ebullition are a deep pulse and vehement then almost an intolerable heat in the Precordia with a vehement thirst on the other side when the Fermentation of the blood is lessened in the Heart we are affected with an anhelous and difficult respiration upon any motion as may be perceived in the Dropsie Cachexia and Yellow Jaundice the reason of which is not because the Lungs are stuffed or filled full of a tough or clammy matter but because the blood doth not rightly ferment in that Repository of Fermentation wherefore being fallen into its Bosom it is not presently Rarified nor doth it soon leap forth into the Lungs but being apt to stagnate and remain there causes an oppression of the Heart it self for the helping of which frequent breathing is made that the blood being let forth into the Lungs succour might be brought to it but if by motion or exercise the blood be more provoked into its Ventricle than can be derived by respiration or the pulse into the Pneumonic Vessels there is danger of choaking The like happens in those that are dying when the pulse is very small and the blood being heaped up in the Heart for want of Fermentation begins to stagnate and to clodder we then breath deeply with a noise and elevation of the breast to wit the blood with the ultimate endeavour of Nature and the whole force of the Lungs as long as it is able to be done is emptied forth into the Lungs lest residing in the Heart it should wholly choak it Therefore Motion and Heat in the Blood depend chiefly on two things viz. partly on its own proper disposition and constitution by which it being forged very greatly with active Principles of Spirits Salt and Sulphur of its own accord swells up or grows turgid in the Vessels even as Wine in the Ton and partly on the Ferment implanted in the Heart which very much rarifies the Liquor passing through its Bosom and makes it to leap forth with a frothy heat that the blood which is quietly instilled to the Heart through the Veins running gently like a River from thence leaping forth through the Arteries like a Torrent with noise and rage might be carried forward to all the parts of the whole Body By what means this is done though it is not easie to explicate Mechanically yet the manner and some not improbable reasons of this thing are delivered by most Learned men Ent Cartes and others They suppose indeed as it were a fire to be set in the Chimny of the Heart which presently inkindles the blood infused through the Veins even as a flame put to Wine burns it which being so inkindled by its deflagration like lightning passes most swiftly through the Arteries so that heat a most rapid motion and Effluvia sent by Perspiration are wont to proceed from the accension of the blood in the Heart only Hogelandus affirms that there is a Ferment hid in the Bosom of the Heart that compels the
it much higher here the other nerve from the intercostal infolding is plainly wanting About the Region of the first or second Rib another noted infolding appears in the Trunk of the wandring pair from which many shoots and fibres are sent towards the Heart and its Appendix Fig. 9. k. Further in brute Animals about this place the intercostal nerve leaves the Trunk of the wandring pair Without doubt some animal Spirits go apart in this infolding which are destinated to the anterior region of the Heart also to the Pericardium and some of its Vessels whilst other Spirits pass through which a little lower are derived into the hinder region of the Heart and which being yet carried further go to the Lungs and lastly to the Ventricle We may observe that from the aforesaid infolding of the wandring pair numerous shoots and fibres are sent forth which are distributed into the little ears of the Heart and all the sanguiferous Vessels belonging to the Heart Fig. 9. l. m. which fibres and nervous shoots creeping along like Ivy thickly cover over the Coats of the Vessels and enter them in very many places and variously bind them about Truly this copious distribution of the nerves doth effect the pulsifick force in the little ears of the Heart and in the Arteries or at least seems to excite it and so to erect and strengthen those parts by a continual influx of the animal Spirits through these nerves that they may be able to sustain an undiscontinued reciprocation of Systole and Diastole Moreover that the thick fibres and shoots of the nerves are inserted both into the Veins and Arteries and bind both those kind of Vessels and variously compass them about we may lawfully suppose that these nerves as it were Reins put upon these blood-carrying Vessels do sometimes dilate and sometimes bind them hard together for the determining the motion of the Blood according to the various force of the Passions or to deduce it here and there after a manifold manner for by this means it comes to pass that in fear the excursion of the blood is hindred and in other Affections its motion is respectively altered But that many shoots and branches are inserted into the Pericardium it seems to be for this use to wit that that little Chest which is made like a Fort for the defending the Heart from injuries as often as any troublesom matter assaults or besieges it might be able to draw it self together and to shake off the enemy For it seems that the inordinate tremblings and shakings of the Heart which are manifestly different from its natural Pulse proceed from the violent shaking of this Membrane As to the Cardiack branches sent from this infolding we observe that they because destinated to a publick office do therefore communicate and enter into the pairs of either side before they are inserted into the Heart for which end the infolding is made before the Basis of the Heart where the aforesaid shoots from the wandring pair and many others going out from either intercostal nerve meet together From that infolding placed between the Aorta and the pneumonick Artery very many branches being sent forth above cover over the Hemiphere of the Heart but yet from these certain branches carried under the Aorta are brought into the left side of the said Hemisphere and as other pairs tend towards the right side one of the first of them making a little handle binds about the pneumonick Artery then meeting with other Cardiack shoots makes the lesser infolding out of which branches are sent forth into the right and anterior side of the Heart That from the greater Cardiack infolding nerves departing one from another do institute contrary journies towards the Heart it is indeed that they might come to divers regions of the Heart without meeting one another and might affect its Vessels respectively in their passage to wit the branches carried this way insert their shoots into the Aorta and from the others going that way one compasses about the pneumonick Artery The reason of both seems to be that the blood might be either sooner or slower drawn from the bosoms of the Heart for its various need or necessity For whilst the aforesaid nerves do both sustain its motion by their influx and also moderate and temper it by their instinct it so comes to pass from thence that those Vessels also being affected by the same nerves do further compose themselves to the requisite Analogies and proportions of the Pulses Indeed there are many Nerves and those conspicuous enough which are inserted into the Heart and cover its outward substance with shoots sent forth from all sides yet it is not to be thought that these nerves alone perform and sustain the undiscontinued motion of the Heart because so small little ropes seem too unequal for the perpetual agitation of such a Machine Yea it may be observed that more shoots and fibres of nerves are distributed into the little ears of the Heart and the depending Vessels than into its frame or substance Further it is obvious to any that will behold it that there is a greater plenty of nerves destinated to the Lungs Liver Spleen Ventricle or Reins than to the Heart it self so that some Anatomists as Fallopius says were doubtful whether there were any nerves that belonged to the Heart or not But this being clear enough that we may describe the motive power of this Clock or Machine stirred up by the help of some small nerves as it were an explosive motion we say that the substance of the Heart it self consists of a very fibrous flesh and may rather be called a Muscle than Parenchyma or congealed substance wherefore in this as in other Muscles the implanted and proper fibres cause the local motion and constant shaking but by the inserted nerves is only conveyed the instinct of the motion or action for the performing of which office both fewer Nerves and fewer animal Spirits flowing in through their passages do suffice But indeed we suppose that the animal Spirits implanted in the Heart and abiding within its Fibres did at first flow thither through the nerves and that by this way their expences or loss are made up or supplied yet that the animal Spirits which seem to be dispensed to the Heart by so sparing an hand may suffice for the actuating this perpetual motion they receive continually subsidiary Forces from the arterious blood For elsewhere we have shewed that in the Heart as in the whole musculous stock besides a sulphureous Copula from the suggested blood is joyned to the spirituous saline Particles of the implanted Spirits which matter whilst the Spirits are agitated being at length struck off and as it were exploded just like the rarified and inkindled Particles of Gun-powder for the effecting the motive endeavour do blow up or intumifie the Muscle or the Heart it self and so from the indiscontinued action of the Heart much of this sulphureous Copula which is easily
the action of this Salt and Sulphur with which eatable things very much abound are broken in the Ventricle and are reduced into very small parts The Chyle being after this manner Fermented acquires a Milky colour by reason that the Sulphureous Particles are dissolved together with the Saline and mixed with the Acid Ferment For if you pour an Acetous humour to any Liquor impregnated with Sulphur and volatile Salt it presently grows white like Milk as may be discerned in the preparing the Milk of Sulphur or the Resinous extracts of Vegetables Yea the Spirits of Harts Horn or Soot being very full of Volatile Salt if they be poured to any Acid Liquor or simple Water acquire a Milky colour Concerning this Ferment hid in the folds of the Ventricle it is observed that it is after various manners and changes the Aliments by a diverse means for tho in a sound Constitution it is indifferently Acid and chiefly owes its force and energie to the Salt being brought to a Flux yet it often declines from this laudable condition and conteins in it self either too much of sowrness or less than it ought to have In the former Case where the Salt hath got too sowr a Dominion all things taken in the Saline Particles being carried forth to a Flux and the rest unduly brought under presently grow sour as most often happens in Hypochondriack Distempers on the other side where the Volatile Principles obtain the first place Fermentation being too hastily made the Sulphureous parts of the Chyle are suddenly and as it were forceably exalted and the unconcocted of the Saline pass into Choler which ordinarily happens to those abounding with bitter Choler They therefore who have the Ventricle affected after this latter manner Sweet and Fat meats being eaten they are troubled with a bitter and bilious Taste Again they who suffer the contrary disposition altho they eat the most simple Food send forth plentifully Acid and Stinking belchings and indeed this seems to come to pass even after the same manner as when a little too much Yest is put to the Batch of Dough it becomes bitter or when too great a Portion of sour Ferment or Leven is put to the same Dough the Bread from thence contracts a mighty sowrness As the Blood in the Heart and appending Vessels the Chyle in the Ventricle so the Animal Spirit is wrought in the Brain whose Original and Motions are very much in the dark Neither doth it plainly appear as to the Animal Spirit by what workman it is prepared nor by what Channels it is carried at a distance quicker than the twinkling of an Eye But it seems to me that the Brain with Scull over it and the appending Nerves represent the little Head or Glassie Alembic with a Spunge laid upon it as we use to do for the highly rectifying of the Spirit of Wine for truly the Blood when Rarified by Heat is carried from the Chimny of the Heart to the Head even as the Spirit of Wine boyling in the Cucurbit and being resolved into Vapour is elevated into the Alembick where the Spunge covering all the opening of the Hole only transmits or suffers to pass through the more penetrating and very subtil Spirits and carries them to the snout of the Alembick in the mean time the more thick Particles are stayed and hindred from passing Not unlike this manner the blood being delated into the Head its spirituous volatil and subtil Particles being restrained within by the Skull and its menynges as by an Alembick are drunk up by the spungy substance of the Brain and there being made more noble or excellent are derived into the Nerves as so many snouts hanging to it In the mean time the more crass or thick Particles of the blood being hindred from entring are carried back by Circulation But the highly agil and subtil Spirits enter the smallest and scarcely at all open pores of the Brain and Nerves and run through them with a wonderful swiftness For there is need only of such Receptacles and Channels for the Animal Spirit in which there are none or at least very small cavities or holes otherwise the blood or excrementitious humours their Followers and Companions would not be excluded Also besides if these Spirits should run about through too open and loose spaces being easily dissipated they would fly away wherefore when there is need of a Pipe for the transmitting of blood or serous water the Spirit of Wine runs rapidly through the secret passages of the Instrument or Leather Neither doth the more strict frame of the Brain and Nerves serve only for the straining of the subtil from the thick and the pure from the impure but also that spirituous and most subtil Liquor being as it were distilled from the blood gets yet a farther perfection in the Brain for there being inspired by a certain Ferment whereby it is yet more volatilised it is made more fit for the performing the offices of motion and sense Because the substance of the Brain is exceeding full of a Volatile Salt which is of great Virtue for the sharpning and subtilising the Spirits therefore the Spirits of Harts Horn or of Soot are far more penetrating than Spirits of Wine The Seminal Vessels and Genital Parts do so swell up with Fermentative Particles that there is nothing more here Spirit Salt and Sulphur being together compacted and highly exalted seem in the Seed to be reduced as it were into a most noble Elixir These kind of active Principles do not only Ferment in the Womb for the forming of the Child or Young ones but also as it were with a living Ferment they inspire through all the Body the whole Mass of blood that it may be more Volatile and more sharply Hot wherefore in women who have the Ferment of the Womb in good order their Face is furnished with a curious and flourishing colour their heat is more lively and copious moreover the Mass of Blood growing too rank there is need of emptying it every Month by the Flux of their Courses but when this Fermentation from the Womb is wanting both Virgins and Women become Pale and as it were without blood short winded and unfit for any motion Also in men from the Seminal Ferment happen abundance of heat great strength a sounding Voice and a manly eruption of Beard and Hair by reason of the defect of this men grow womanish to wit a small Voice weak Heat and want of Beard are caused Since we Treat of Ferments which are found in the Animal Body we may here opportunely inquire what is the use of the Spleen concerning which all good things are said by some that it is as it were another Liver and serves for the making of blood for the Viscera of the lower Belly It is by others reputed to be of a most vile use that it is only the Sink or Jakes into which the Feculencies of the blood are cast By reason of its structure we
c. arise somtimes from the Blood being in a rage and so stirring up inordinate motions in the Brain and somtimes also from the nervous Juice being depraved and therefore made improportionate to the regiment of the Animal Spirits But most often these kind of symptoms are frequent in Feavers by reason of the translation of the Feaverish matter from the bosom of the Blood into these parts For the Blood being full of the adust recrements remaining after the deflagration endeavors like the flowring of new Wine to subdue and exclude them from its Company by every manner of way which a Flux being arisen when it cannot expel by Sweat Urine or bleeding it oftentimes transfers to the substance of the Brain and there fixes them and from hence chiefly the aforsaid distempers when they are fixed and firmly rooted draw their original when as the lighter and that are easily moved often proceed from the afore-recited causes 9. Convulsive motions happen in Feavers for divers causes somtimes because of the matter being heaped together in the first passages which there haules the membranous parts with its notable pravity and then by the consent of the nervous stock the Convulsion is presently Communicated to the beginning of the Nerves in the Brain and by that means draws aside now these and now those parts by which means Worms abounding in the Viscera sharp humors being stirred and strong Medicines induce Convulsions or secondly when the Feaver is a partaker of some malignity so in the small Pox Measels or the Plague frequently Convulsions happen to wit because the Blood is altered from its benign and natural temper into a destroying and venomous by which the Nerves and their beginnings are pierced and forced into Convulsions Also oftentimes without the suspition of malignity in a putrid Feaver Convulsive motions are induced by reason of the translation of the Feaverish matter to the Brain as was but now intimated so I have often observed when the Disease is not presently cured with the Crisis the sick ly by it with a tedious sickness and are made obnoxious to tremblings and Convulsive motions Thirdly and lastly for the most part in every Feaver which terminates in Death Convulsive motions are the sad forerunners of it which I think to happen not only from the malignity of the matter with which the nervous stock is pulled and pierced but because the Spirits very much exhausted and debilitated do not sufficiently blow up and distend the Bodies of the Nerves wherefore being released from their wonted extension and tonick motion they are however by a more weak indeavor of the Spirits agitated into a disordered motion 10. A syncope or swooning is wont to be raised up several ways in Feavers but chiefly for these three causes to wit either from the mouth of the Ventricle being distempered which part as it is interwoven with a manifold texture of Nerves is very sensible and because from the same branch of the sixth pare little shoots of Nerves are equally derived to the heart and to the Ventricle of the Orifice of the Ventricle so implanted with Nerves be distempered with any great trouble it is also Communicated to the heart and either the motion is stopped in it or at least an inordinate one is excited whereby the equal Flux of the Spirits and the Blood is interrupted for a time I knew one in an acute Feaver taken with a frequent swooning which distemper wholly ceased after he had cast forth by Vomit a long and smooth Worm Secondly a syncope also is somtimes induced because the invenomed matter is circulated with the Blood which suddenly fixes and extinguishes the vital Spirits and congeals the Blood it self that it is apt to stagnate in the heart as usually happens in the Pest small Pox c. of which we shall speak particularly hereafter Thirdly a syncope is wont to happen by reason of the more rare texture of the Spirits which as they are very tender and subtil are easily unbent by any immoderate motion or pain so I have known some who being quiet in bed have found themselves well enough but being removed from one place to another presently have swooned away 11. The pain of the Heart happens in Feavers when the Ventricle and especially its Orifices by reason of the manifold insertions of Nerves being very sensible are beset with a sharp and bitterish humor or else with an acid and corrosive for hence a pain and trouble arises from the acrimony of the humor after the same manner as when the sphincter of the fundament is afflicted in Cholloric dejections with pain and molestation 12. By reason of the same cause Vomiting and nauseousness are wont to be excited to wit by the Ventricles being beset and irritated to a Convulsion from an extraneous matter and not akin to it self Such an excrementitious matter may be gathered together in the Ventricle by three ways for either the aliments partly by reason of a want of an acid ferment by which they should be rightly Cooked and partly by reason of the burning heat of the Ventricle are roasted into such a Corruption or Secondly this kind of matter is laid up in the Ventricle from the Arteries terminating in its Cavity as uses to happen in the small Pox the Plague and malignant Feavers or Thirdly meer Choler being pressed forth from the Choleduct Vessels into the empty intestine by reason of an inverse motion and as it were Convulsive of that intestine it is poured into the Ventricle want of Appetite also happens by reason of the Ventricles abounding with vitious Juices and because the acid ferment is wholly perverted by the scorching heat These kind of distempers of the Ventricle and Viscera somtimes arise from an excrementitious matter to wit alimentous degenerated in the concoction heaped together a long while before the Feaver in the first passages which not seldom becomes the occasional cause of the Feaver it self but somtimes nauseousness want of Appetite Vomiting pain of the Heart c. are the immediate products of the Feaver for when the day before the sickness those distempered have been well enough in their Stomack as soon as the immoderate heat of the Blood was induced whilst it boiled up above measure both the Effluvia and the recrements being wonted to be evaporated outwardly also the bilous humor flowing out of the Choleduct Vessels are poured into the Ventricle by which its Crasis is overthrown also the Reliques of the Chyle and other contents in the Viscera are egregiously depraved from whence the aforesaid Distempers draw their Original 14. No less frequent a symptom in Feavers is a Diarrhea or Flux of the Belly which somtime happens about the begining of the Disease and arises for the most part either from the Bile flowing forth of the Coleduct Vessels into the Duodenum or from the recrements of the Blood and Nervous Juice poured forth from the Arteries and the passage of the Pancreas into the intestines All the
Spirits it very rarely can be blotted out or dissipated by Medicines or blood letting but that its hidden disposition will break forth into act wherefore at first it diffuses it self by little and little and inspires the mass of Blood as it were with a ferment hence an ebullition and growing hot are produced in the whole Body the Vessels are distended the Viscera provoked the membranes pulled until the seeds of the contagion by fusing and coagulating the Blood being at length involved with its congealed portions are thrust forth of doors The essence of this Disease will be better laid open if that I shall recount the signs and symptoms which are to be observed in its whole course and shall add in order the reasons and causes of them on which they depend but they are those which either indicate the Disease being present or that foretel its state and event As to the Diagnosis of this Disease by which it may be known whether any one at first falling sick will have the Small-pox or not at that time are to be considered the force of the contagion and the concourse of the symptoms first appearing for if by reason of the evil constitution of the Air this Disease doth spread abroad every where none then is taken with a Feaver without the suspition of the Small-pox especially if they never had them before in their lives but if this Disease be more rare and without fear of contagion yet its unlooked for assault quickly betrays it self by these sort of signs and symptoms 1. There is a wandring and uncertain Feaver somtimes strong somtimes more remiss observing no reason of increase or growing continually hot so that the sick are now highly hot by and by without any evident cause they are without a Feaver the cause of which is for that the fermentative seeds are not agitated by an equal motion but like fire half choaked now increases more and now are almost quelled and ready to expire until the burning spreading more largly the flame every where breaks forth 2. A pain in the Head and Loins is so peculiar a sign in this Disease that it almost alone in a continual Feaver signifies the approach of the small-pox the reason of which is commonly imputed to the greater Vessels being very much distended by the effervency of the Blood but indeed it appears not wherefore the same trouble is not caused equally in other parts by reason of the like distention of the Vessels and wherefore in the small-pox more than in a burning Feaver or in other Feavers where the Blood grows more hot these kind of pains should increase yea it may be observed that great pains now in the Head now in the Loins do urge when the Blood but little swelling up the Vessels are not amplified viz in the beginning of the Disease when the Feaverish distemper is not yet conspicuous whilst the sick as yet goe abroad and are well in their stomach upon the first coming on of the small-pox they betray themselves by these kind of pains Wherefore the cause of these kind of dolorific pains seems rather to subsist in the nervous stock viz. in the Brain and spinal marrow and that by reason of the membranes and nervous parts being pulled or hauled by the particles of the Poyson these pains do arise For it is most likely that the innate seeds of the small-pox are chiefly hidden in the Spermatick parts and that first of all the Contagion lays hold on for the most part the animal Spirits hence the first effervency is stirred up in the juice wherewith the Brain and nervous parts but especially the Spinal marrow are watered and from thence the evil is Communicated to the mass of Blood wherefore this Disease beginning the Head and Loins are tormented with cruel pain afterwards the venom being translated into the Blood the Feaverish effervescency is stirred up in the whole 3. Great anxiety and unquietness and somtimes a swooning infest the sick viz. by reason of the perturbed motion of the Blood as also its equal mixture beginning to be solved by the Poysonous ferment the Blood from thence being apt to stagnate in the Heart and to be hindred in its Circuit causes these affections to be thus excited 4. Cruel Vomiting also when the Ventricle is free from an impure ballast of humors very often accompanies this Disease the reason of which is because the fermentative seeds being stirred up into motion by the little Arteries gaping into the Coates of the Ventricle are deposed by every appulse of the Blood and raise up Vomiting as if the particles of stibium had been swallowed but afterwards assoon as sweating being procured the Poyson is driven forth outwardly this Symptom ceases and the sick are well in their stomach without any purging forth of the noxious matter 5. With these may be ranked the Symptoms which shew themselves according to the various habitudes of the Body after a diverse manner as heavy sleepiness terrors in sleep deliriums tremblings and convulsions sneezing heat redness a sense of pricking over the whole Body involuntary tears a sparkling and itching of the eyes a tumor or swelling up of the face a vehemency of Symptoms from the beginning that the Disease seems presently to have attained its strength the reason of all which may easily be elucidated if what hath been already said concerning the Symptoms of Feavers be observed with respect to the diverse tempers of the sick their habit and age as also the condition of the year 2. As to the Prognosis of this Disease by the Symtomatick signs it is indicated to be either salutary or mortal or of a doubtful Event 1. The business promises well when this Disease has benign circumstances to wit when it happens in a good constitution of the Air and Year at what time the small-pox are less malignant and pestilential as in the year 1654 at Oxford about Autumn the small-pox spread abundantly yet very many escaped with them but before in the year 1649. this Disease was more rare yet most dyed of it Also there is less danger if it should happen in the age of Childhood or Infancy or in a sanguine temper and good habit of Body or in a Family to whose Ancestors the small-pox have not proved mortal Besides if in the whole course of the Disease the Symptoms prove laudable if in the first assault there be a gentle Feaver without cruel Vomiting Swooning Delirium or other horrid Distempers if the Feaver about the fourth day be allayed with the Symptoms chiefly urging and then some little red spots begin to appear if on the second day of the coming forth of those little red spot they become more conspicuous which afterwards grow together by degrees into little Pimples and are ripened into matter if about the tenth day or thereabouts after the eruption the white tumors begin to scab and by little and little from thence to fall off if after their first coming forth the small-pox
and from thence passes thorow the Ureters into the Bladder and so is carryed forth of doors From the origine and lustration of the Serous Latex but now described it plainly appears that the Urine ought to answer to the quantity of the liquids taken in somewhat a lesser proportion perhaps under a third part which plainly shews the disposition and strength of the Viscera serving for Concoction as also the temper and distribution of the Blood it self and after a sort of the nervous juice moreover it carries with it signs of the affections of the Urinary passages The quantity of the Urine declines often from this Rule so that sometimes it superabounds also sometimes is deficient and either for a short time may consist with a disposition not much unhealthful but if these kind of distempers continue long they argue a sickly condition Concerning these we shall speak among the appearances of the Urine in a diseased condition of the Body we shall now next consider the colour of a sound Urine The Urine of Sound People which is rendred after Concoction is finished in the Body is of a Citron colour like Lye a little boyled which without doubt proceeds from the Salt and Sulphur of the nutritious juice and the Blood dissolved in the Concoction and boyled in the Serum This colour doth not arise only from Salt as some would have it because the Liquor impregnated with Salt unless it be evaporated to a certain thickness will not grow yellowish Also Salt of Tartar being dissolved by melting continues still clear What may be objected concerning the Lye of Ashes I say there the whole Sulphur is not consumed by burning but the Citron colour arises from some saline Particles and others Sulphureous burnt and sticking together in the Ashes and then infused or boyled in the liquor Neither doth the Urine of sound people acquire this same colour from Sulphur only because Sulphur in a watry Menstruum is not dissolved unless by the addition of Salt nor will it give any tincture of it self but if Salt of Tartar and common Sulphur be digested together in water or if Antimony be boyled in a saline Menstruum both liquors will by that means grow yellow like Urine after the like manner the saline and sulphureous Particles of Aliments being incocted and most minutely broken in the Serum by a Digestion in the Ventricle and Intestines and by a Circulation with the Blood in the Arteries and Veins impart to it a Citron Colour This kind of dissolution of Salt and Sulphur by whose means the Urines are made of a Citron Colour is first begun in the Bowels and afterwards perfected in the Vessels and very much depends upon the Concoction performed in the Ventricle and the Intestines For here by the help of heat and of ferments the Aliments taken are chiefly subdued the bond of mixture being broken the saline and sulphureous Particles being most smally broken and made small go into a milkie Cream and from thence the Serum remaining after that Concoction and distribution of that milkie juice becomes of a Citron colour after the same manner as when the Salt of Tartar and common Sulphur being dissolved together and mixed with some acid thing indue a milkie colour then the contents being separated by setling the remaining liquor grows yellow like Lye If that the aliments by reason of an evil disposition of the Ventricle are not rightly digested in the first Concoction as in the Longing Disease or Pica the Dropsie and other ill dispositions of the Bowels usually comes to pass the Urine also is rendred crude clear and almost insipid like Fountain water but if by reason of the ferments of the Viscera being more than duly exalted or otherways depraved as in the Scurvy Hypochondriac distemper or Feavourish intemperance the particles of things eaten are too much dissolved in the first Region by that means Urines are rendred red and thick The Serum as hath but now been said being imbued with a lixivial tincture in the first Concoction and confused in the Blood so long as it is circulated with it it is yet further Concocted and acquires a more deep colour for the particles of the Blood being roasted and scorched although for the most part they are laid aside into the Gall bag yet being in a manner boyled in the Serous Latex they heighten its colour hence the Concoction being ended the Urine which is first made is more Pale and that which is last more Red. That which is made after long fasting is yet more high Coloured Where the Blood is more cold as in Cachectical people the colour of the Urine is made less where the Blood grows raging with a feavourish Heat and is roasted the Urine grows highly Red. Concerning the Urines of sound people it is worth observation that which is made after plentiful Drinking hath no tincture but is pale like water of which we shall enquire by what means the Serous Latex so suddenly slides away out of the Ventricle contrary to what is vulgarly believed and passing thorow all the Chyliferous passages then the Veins Arteries the bosom of the Heart it self and the turnings and windings of the Veins and Ureters is put forth of the Body within so short a space moreover how it comes that the Urine being so precipitately made contrary to most other things is not only changed into no Colour in its passage but it also loses its own proper For as the Proverb is Our Drink goes thick in and comes forth thin or We Drink thick Beer and Piss clear Concerning this we say that besides the long wandring of the nourishing juice to wit whereby after some stay in the Ventricle it slides into the Intestines and from thence thorow the milkie Vessels into new passages and thence is carried into the Veins which carrying about cannot be quickly performed it is most likely that there is another nearer passage of the same Nutritious Juce whereby indeed it may be conveyed immediately and without delay to the Mass of Blood and perhaps to the nervous Liquor and therefore after fasting there immediately follows a most quick refection of strength and spirits after Eating and especially after Drinking which indeed cannot be thought to be made by the Spirits and Vapours also from such drinking the Urine is presently rendred and indeed sooner than it can be thought that the Mass of the Chyle can be sent out of the bosom of the Ventricle wherefore it is not improbable that when the Alimentous Liquor is entred the Ventricle presently the more thin portion of it which consists chiefly of Spirit and Water is imbibed by its Spongeous Membranes and from thence being instilled into the little mouths of the Veins it is presently confounded with the Blood flowing back towards the Heart For of this opinion though not very stubbornly I always was That the Chyme was in some measure immediately derived from the Ventricle and Intestines by the branches of the Vena Porta
distempered with Sweats in the night or perhaps to have an Atrophy or general wasting or to be inclining to a Consumption If the Urine be continually made in a lesser quantity than it should unless there be a larger transpiration it is a sign that the blood is not sufficiently purged from the serous Juyce wherefore there is a necessity that it become more watry and that at length a Cachectical disposition of the body or a Dropsie be brought in But if it be suddenly suppressed or made with pain and difficulty it is a sign of the Stone or Gravel 2. Something is added to the Urine to wit when the colour is heightned and in the mean time the consistency and contents shew themselves in due measure there may then be a suspicion of a Feaverish or Hectical distemper perhaps some evident cause may precede as the use of Baths Heat Surfeit or immoderate Exercise which might have heated the blood or Cold may have heedlesly been taken whence may arise a shutting up of the Pores and difficulty of Perspiration If the urine be of a Saffron-colour and tinges the Linen with yellowness you may say it is the Jaundice but if it be of a Saffron colour or red without a Feaver and doth not dye Linen it shews for the most part the Scurvy or Hypochondriack disposition Though the Colour and Hypostasis may be in good order preternatural Contents are often in the Urine therefore when it grows cold it is troubled and makes a sediment sometimes white and then there is a suspicion of the blood's overflowing with filth also of an impure Ventricle stuffed with excrementitious matter or with Worms sometimes red which often happens by reason of Transpiration being hindred a Consumption and sometimes by reason of a Surfeit or the beginning of a Feaver Preternatural and thicker Contents are sometimes in Urines shewing themselves naturally which denotes a distemper of some part about the urinary passages whence Matter Filth Blood the Whites corrupt Seed or the like are mixed with the Urine and you may easily know by asking how and in what place the Patient is ill what part is distempered and the straining the sediments of those urines will shew what the disease is and you may be more sure of the nature of the distemper When Urines have stood some time copious white sediments are thence made it is not easie at first sight to know from whence they come viz. whether from the whole mass of blood or only from a particular bowel imployed for the preparations of the Serum or the Seed For the impurities of the blood and nervous juyce being deposited under a mealy species in the bottom of the Urinal are wont to cause a suspicion in the Physician of the Whites in Women and of the Running of the Reins in Men such like contents are also seen in Urines which proceed from the urinary and spermatick parts Amidst these ambiguities lest you should guess rashly and confidently by the urine and assert uncertain for certain things and falshood for truth the difference of these kind of urines ought to be indicated after this manner If the contents be universal and their signs be to be applied to the mass of blood for the most part these presently after the making unless sometimes by chance in a Critical separation are wholly inconspicuous as in a thinner substance then the urine being troubled by cold they descend slowly to the bottom and being setled and the Urinal heated they disappear again But if these white settlements are sent from a particular nest they presently disturb and thicken the urine newly made are soon precipitated and vanish not by heat But that it may appear to what bowel these kind of particular contents should be ascribed 't is easily made known to Learned men by other circumstances 3. The Urine is sometimes wholly altered from the natural state the colour and contents which should be therein are wanting and strange things are in their place then indeed is indicated that there is an intemperance in the whole body and that the Concoction in the Bowels and Vessels is depraved you may say the Patient is sick of a Feaver and thence by asking you may learn and presently pronounce that he is distempered with the Head-ach Thirst Heat queasiness of Stomach want of sleep and by consequence with other Symptoms It happens sometimes that the Urine declines from its natural state yet not to shew the distemper the Patient complains of but either the cause of the disease or the consent of some other part with the distempered as if any one should complain of a cruel Head ach or trembling of the Heart and make a watry Urine that doth not denote those distempers but only a crudity in the Ventricle and some obstructions about the Spleen and Viscera which may be the cause of those distempers I say in this case the urine being inspected the chief indications are taken about the Method of Curing and we must not use Cephalick or Cardiack Remedies but either Catharticks which cause Vomit or Purging or Openers and especially Chalybeats But the urine is sometimes vitiated and yet its signification is wholly a stranger to the distemper the Patient complains of as if any one were subject to the sleepy disease or a Lethargy and makes it red and full of preternatural contents its inspection suggests chiefly coindications viz. that we insist not on too hot but temperate Remedies The chief use of Inspection of Urines will be for the observing the state and progress of every disease as also the alterations towards health or death For in Chronical diseases by daily inspecting the urine is made known to the Physician by what degrees the sickness may increase day by day at what time purging or altering Remedies will be most fit and what Medicines will be most profitable hence is to be observed whether Nature prevails on the disease or not and a most certain Prognostication may be drawn from hence either of the hope or danger of health to wit according as the signs of Concoction or Crudity appear in the Urines In acute diseases hence the state and height of the Feaver may be best known at what time the Crises may be expected and with what success when it is best to insist upon Evacuations and when on Cordials The Compass is not beheld with more certainty and diligence by the Mariner or Steers-man than the appearances of Urines ought to be observed by the Physician for fit times and ways of Curing These were what I had to had to say concerning the Judgments of Urine not collected from the vain Traditions of Quacks but what are consonant to reason and truth Besides I know there are ordinarily delivered by Medicasters and Old women almost an innumerable company of Rules and Directions of Urine-divination that the Urinal is no sooner inspected but they will undertake to divine whether it be a man or a woman that is sick how
Lungs in every distemper or affection as of Grief Joy Fear and the like also in the fits of Diseases the Heart is disposed after a various manner and hence it comes to pass that the blood flowing in fluctuates and is inkindled with a diverse rage of which there will be a more opportune place of discoursing when we shall treat of the Passions Whilst we consider that the burning of the Blood and for that reason the vital or flamy part of the Corporeal Soul doth not appear lively or vigorous in all nor ever after the same manner or measure yet it exists according to the various constitutions of the blood to wit as it is more or less sulphureous spirituous saltish or watry yea and according to the divers constitutions and conformations both of the food with which this flame is nourished as also of the little spiracles or breathing holes by which it is eventilated and further of the Heart it self whereby it is agitated and driven about here and there the accension of blood varies also in every one by means of several other accidents to wit as its flame is sometimes great clear and expanded sometimes small contracted or cloudy sometimes equal and in order sometimes unequal and often interrupted yea and it becomes subject to many other mutations also because the Soul it self having gotten a various nature or disposition it conceives divers affections and manners whereof we shall speak hereafter for as much as it is not a little thing that the disposition of the whole Soul depends upon the temperament of the bloody mass and the degree and manner of its accension or inkindling It clearly appears from what hath been said that Fire and Life do dye or are extinguished alike many ways to wit there is an end of either if the access of nitrous food or the departure of Effluvia's be hindred or if the oily or sulphureous aliment requisite to either be consumed too much withdrawn or perverted from its inflammable disposition of each whereof it is so clearly apparent that there needs no farther explication Thus far we have shewn that the Life of the Blood or that part of the Soul growing therein is a certain kind of Flame let us now see by what means it is disposed to burning and how near it comes to the similitude of a burning Candle or Lamp A common Lamp whether designed to give heat or light for the most part is wont to be made after this manner to wit the Oyl flowing perpetually to the wick gives continual food to the flame wherefore as there is but one fire-place or hearth only of light and heat the action of either is limited only to one place and so as often as there is need of more places at once or divers parts of the same space or body to be illuminated or made warm we place here and there divers lighted Candles or Lamps But if an Instrument made with great artifice such as is truly an animated Body with one liquor only contained in it should be made hot throughout the whole and to be kept always warm it ought not only to be lightly inkindled in the wick but in the whole superficies and derived by fit Tubes or Pipes to all the parts of the Machine then the burning liquor ought to enjoy proportionably to all its parts an access of nitrous Air and to lay aside Effluvia's and other recrements and ought also to have a supply of that constant expence these kind of offices are not to be performed any where up and down but only in some set places therefore the burning liquor ought to be carried about through the whole with a perpetual turn that all its portions might enjoy successively all those priviledges and at once heat the whole capacity of the containing Machine to wit both the inward and outward recesses Indeed such a Bannian or Bathing Engine artificially made might aptly represent the real Divine handy-work of the Circulation of Blood and what burns in it the Life-lamp But it may be objected that the Blood seems not to be inflammable of its own nature further since there is no flame of this heat or effervency to be beheld with the eyes it may well be doubted whether there be such a thing or no. I say first That the Chymical Analysis of the blood shews very many particles of Sulphur and of Spirit yea a plentiful stock of inflammable Oyl which are however mixed with other more thick Elements in a just proportion to bridle their too great inkindling to wit that this liquor might flame out by little and little and only through fewer parts for the constituting of a benign and gentle Lamp of life wherefore the blood being let out of a Vein upon a burning fire doth in some measure burn though it is not like the Spirits of Wine or Oyl of Turpentine turning all into a flame besides the whole mass of blood as the Oyl of a Lamp ought not to be fired yea its burning is instituted for that end that whilst all the Particles of the Mixture being freed some sulphureous and spirituous are consumed by burning others more subtil being sent in Troops might serve for the necessary uses of the animal Regiment and also others more thick or crass and nourishing as it were boiled or roasted might be dispensed for the cherishing all parts besides that all the dead or worn out and excrementitious may be sent away by fit or convenient sinks and others constantly substituted in their places by nourishment But in the interim that the vital Flame which destinated to so many offices we suppose to be inkindled in the Blood otherwise than the common flame which is plainly conspicuous appears not at all a probable reason thereof may be given as it is most thin and burns in the Heart and its depending Vessels as it were shut up in Receptacles it doth not clearly flame out but perhaps remains in the form of smoke or a vapour or breath yea although the blood should openly flame out yet it might be so done that its shining being most thin may not be perceived by our sight as in the clear light of the day we cannot behold a glowing red hot Iron nor shining sparks nor false fires nor rotten wood nor many other things shining by night why then may not the vital fire even thinner than they quite escape our sight Although sometimes hot living Creatures use to send forth a certain fire or flame only conspicuous by night For we have known in some endued with a hot and vaporous blood when they have put off their inner garments at night going to bed near a fire or Candle a very thin and shining flame to have shewn it self which hath possessed the whole inferiour region of the Body The reason of which affection seems wholly the same as when the evaporating fume of a Torch just put out is again inflamed by a light inkindling and manifestly argues that another flame
knots of reflection are not alike on both sides also for what end the Cardiack branches proceed from both knots As to the first that the left returning Nerve not as its pair binds about the axillary Artery some reason seems to be because the left axillary Artery arising below is carried as the right by a bending and not a straight passage into the Arm wherefore the little cord of the Nerve compassing about its Trunk hath no fixed but a very moveable knot of reflection for that it might easily slide from its place But it may rather be said that it is for other uses and those more necessary that these Nerves compass about those Vessels after that manner For when they as it were Reins or Bridles cast on the blood-carrying Vessels by pulling them hither and thither variously determine the course of the blood it seems to be required that one returning Nerve should bind together or constringe the axillary Artery and the other the descending Trunk of the Aorta for as often as there is need for the blood to flow forwards towards the Head more plentifully the returning Nerves perform it easily by pulling upwards the aforesaid Arteries But the blood after a sort ought to be continually urged into the higher parts lest otherwise by its weight it should turn too much downwards wherefore in all Expiration or breathing forth when the Trachea drawing nearer together its folds is contracted upwards the blood about to descend through the Aorta is snatched upwards by one tract of the nervous little cord and in like manner the axillary Artery in the right side being shaken with it the blood flowing in the whole ascending Trunk of the Aorta is driven upwards a little swifter But besides this continual and equal snatching up of the blood towards the upper parts it is sometimes occasionally urged towards the Head by a more intense and quick motion of the Trachea and also by a more full and swift course For as often as any Animal grows angry the voice presently shews signs of such an Affection and oftentimes by chiding they make it sharp as men when they are angry chide or brawl and Dogs bark Now from such an intension of the voice and chiding as the upper rings of the Trachea a reciprocation being there made are often struck together so the blood also the Aorta being strongly drawn is urged upwards by a copious afflux so that it presently dyes the countenance and eyes of angry people with a redness and induces to the Brain it self a greater heat and provocatives to anger and a greater glowing or infiring to the Spirits by stirring them up For the same reason in Joy and Gladness forasmuch as the Trachea is exercised by singing or laughing the blood also is poured out more plentifully towards the exterior and especially the upper parts And from hence the cause is plain wherefore either returning Nerve sends forth Cardiack branches from the knot of reflection or turning back to wit that in those kind of affections the notice of which the Trachea in sounds or voices gives by the help of the Nerves the Heart it self by its means also might be affected For so as often as we wrangle or brawl the Heart being irritated presently inkindles the blood more and drives it forward more plentifully as food for those Affections towards the Brain Also in laughter great rejoycing or singing by the passage of those Nerves the Heart being brought into a consent or Sympathy or joynt action presently explodes or drives out the blood by a swifter pulse and casts it hastily out which otherwise would be heavy and troublesom by a slower motion or stagnation wherefore those sort of actions to wit laughing and singing are said to alleviate the Heart because they make the blood more freely and readily to be poured out of the bosoms of the Heart and also by the supplying help of the Lungs to be emptied into the same Below the production of the left returning Nerve another noted Nerve is carried towards the hindermost region of the Heart which being carried with a certain compass about its Basis sends forth frequent shoots which cover the left side of the hinder Hemisphere Fig. 9. o. Then this branch meeting with another pair sent from the opposite side towards the Heart and distributing shoots into the right side of the hinder Hemisphere is united with it Fig. 9. q. This Cardiack branch destinated to the hinder region of the Heart is produced apart below the rest that it might be carried by it self to its Province without the meeting with or implication of others the pairs are ingraffed on either side that they might accompany one another and be together drawn in the same action of the Heart It appears not plain whether these nerves conspire with the other Cardiack nerves arising above reaching forth to the anterior Hemisphere of the Heart or whether this pair effect not the Systole of the Heart and the upper its Diastole However it is certain shoots of the kindred or stock of either being ingraffed with others of another stock communicate one with the other The Trunk of the wandring pair sends forth on both sides very many noted branches from the region of the Heart which are spread on every side into all the Lobes of the Lungs the Bronchia of the Trachea and the Coat of the Oesophagus hard by descending Fig. 9. s.s.s. Those which go into the Lungs pass every where through their whole substance following the ramifications of the Veins and Arteries and the Pipes of the Bronchia which chanels of blood and air they variously climb over and bind about through their whole tract When that so many noted branchings of the Nerves are bestowed on the Lungs it is a wonder that by some they should be thought to be insensible and immoveable of themselves Yea it is doubted by many whether these Bowels do cause the motions of the Systole and Diastole of themselves by their own endeavour For that it is a received Opinion That this reciprocation of the Lungs doth proceed wholly from the motion of the Thorax and doth obey or observe its dilatation or constriction with a certain necessary dependency viz. that the Breast being dilated or spread open after the manner of a pair of Bellows doth compel the ambient Air into the Trachea which rushing into the Lungs blows up and distends them then the same Breast subsiding or sinking of it self that the Lungs being pressed together with the weight of it do breath forth the Air before intruded In truth however that I might judge that the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Breast do conduce much to Respiration yet that these parts should perform this office alone and that the Lungs are merely passive I cannot grant For Respiration is chiefly instituted for the sake of the blood and the Heart and its act is wont to be determined according to the various disposition of these and to be
altered every minute of an hour almost according to the manifold necessity of the Pulse But indeed the Lungs themselves are they and not the Diaphragma or the Muscles of the Thorax which the blood boiling out of the Heart passes through and continually affects according to its temper and the tenour of the Pulse wherefore from hence it may be concluded That the Lungs themselves do conceive the first instincts of their motions and by the help of the aforesaid Nerves do in some measure exercise themselves and endeavour the Systole and Diastole and design them according to the sense of its proper necessity but when in these Fibres requisite for local motion are wanting therefore the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Thorax help continually the endeavours of the Lungs and by the cooperation of these compleat breathing is effected And so when Nerves of a twofold kind to wit some from the Spine being inserted into the Muscles of the Diaphragma and the Thorax and others from the wandring pair distributed into the Lungs actuate the Organs of Respiration for that reason it comes to pass that the act it self of Respiration of it self unforced and involuntary may be at our pleasure somewhat restrained interrupted and diversly altered The Sympraxis or joynt action of the Nerves of either kind in the work of Respiration shall be shewed hereafter when we shall speak particularly of the Nerve of the Diaphragma It yet appears more plain that the Lungs are oftentimes the chief in the act of Respiration because they being irritated from strange and improportionate objects presently conceive irregular and violent motions as when a vehement Cough is stirred up for the exclusion of any troublesom thing to which motion the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Thorax presently obey In like manner in difficult and sighing breathing or any other ways unequal its first instinct for the most part is begun by the Lungs yet sometimes when the exterior Organs of Respiration are excited into irregular motions the Lungs also are compelled to follow their irregularities so when the Diaphragma after a manner begins laughter the Lungs perform the same with a following cackling sound so all the Organs of Respiration intimately conspire and agree among themselves that although one of them do a thing inordinately rather than there shall be a Schism the rest do imitate or follow its irregularity But that the Nerves following the Arteries and Veins through the whole frame of the Lungs do variously bind about and cloath their Trunks with a thick series of shoots the reason seems to be both that the Coats of the Vessels being gifted with a constant influx of animal Spirits might imitate the motion of the Heart and by that means by a continual pulsation of the Arteries and the constriction of the Veins they might easily carry the blood in this its more short lustration through the Lungs and the rather that the pneumonick Vessels being bound about with such Reins of Nerves might moderate the course of the blood according to the forces and instincts of the Passions For whenas the exterior circulation of the blood depends upon this interior as the blood is commanded to pass sooner or slower through the Lungs or to stay there and be hindred the excursion and return of it also from or towards the Heart is wholly performed In Joy or Anger because the Lungs rapidly transfer the blood out of one bosom of the Heart to the other therefore it s swifter and more plentiful flowing out into the outward parts follows In like manner in Fear and Sadness for that the Lungs its Vessels being strained together deliver the blood to the Heart by the Veins and do not then presently carry it back by the Arteries the outmost region of the Body is destitute of its due influx Notwithstanding these kind of pathetick snatches of the blood are in some measure performed because its Vessels are bound about in other places in like manner with the Nerves If at any time Spasmodick Affections should afflict the pneumonick Nerves from a morbific cause so that being twitcht with inordinate motions they should pull or draw together here and there the Arteries and Veins which they embrace for that cause the blood either too much flowing out of the Lungs makes them to flag and to fall together into themselves so that drawing to them copiously the Air they do not easily render it back again or which frequently happens the blood being detained within the Lungs and there stagnating stuffs them up and holds them a long while stiff that they cannot inspire or drawn in the Air. The Symptoms of either kind ordinarily happen in the Hysterick distempers and in some Hypochondriacal Yea sometimes the Bronchia themselves are pulled together by the like Convulsion of the Nerves and are hindred in their motion so that they cannot take in and send forth the Air after its due manner as may be seen in Asthmatical Fits The distempers of which sort are oftentimes produced by the fault of the Nerves without any implanted Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Lungs I have sometimes observed some Cases of sick people in which when at one time the morbifick matter besieging the Brain had induced Lethargick or Vertiginous Symptoms a little after the same matter occupying or possessing the origines or middle processes of the nerves belonging to the Lungs has suddenly excited a most horrid Asthma without any previous Cough or Catarrh But that out of the same tract of the wandring pair many shoots are distributed into the Lungs and also many others into the Coats of the Oesophagus from hence a reason may be given why a troublesom Cough oftentimes causes Vomiting and a subversion of the Ventricle why also on the other side a perturbation of the Ventricle so frequently induces a troublesom endeavour of Coughing I have known in Hypochondriacks that aliments of ill digestion taken into the Stomach have presently excited a vain and very pertinacious Cough in the mean time that the Lungs were free from any consumptive disposition The cause of either distemper seems to be that when the nerves disseminated in either part are taken with a Convulsion oftentimes those which are of the other part are drawn into a consent of the same distemper Perhaps from hence it happens that sometimes an Asthma is induced by reason of the evil of the Ventricle and that that distemper as Riverius observes is often wont to be cured by an emetick Medicine After so many branches and shoots have been sent from both sides the wandring pair at length its Trunk is divided below the Lungs into two branches viz. the exterior and interior either of which inclining towards the pair of branches on the other side are united to them and after a mutual communication they constitute the two Stomachical branches viz. the superior and the inferior Fig. 9. t. u. w. x. It is worth observing with what wonderful artifice either Trunk of the
wandring pair do communicate one with the other with two branches as it were two hands meeting one the other that the influence of either nerve might equally reach to every region and part of the Stomach For whenas either Stomachical branch to wit both the upper and the lower is carried together from the two branches coming out from either side of the wandring pair it is provided that the Tributes of the Spirits destinated to the Ventricle should be at once certain and very plentiful For what appertains to the performing the action of this Bowel or Chylification the Spirits flowing in from either side are abundantly distributed into the Orifice and from thence into all its parts and private places and by that means it comes to pass that the Stomach dissolves bodies beyond the force of any Chymical Menstruum Then besides as to the feeling or sense of the Ventricle or the affection of it from things ingested it is carried also towards the Head by a double way whereby the passage may be the more certain to wit by either Trunk of the wandring pair that for that reason being indued with a most exquisite sense it might not be deceived concerning its objects and if that any thing inimical or contrary to it should lye hid among what is eaten it might discern it and thrust it out of its own accord or at least by the knowledge only of the Cerebel That from the same double Trunk of the wandring pair from whence the Cardiack Nerves arise a little above the Stomachical branches also proceed the cause is plain wherefore the Heart it self hath such a Sympathy with the Stomach so that its Deliquium or Swooning follows upon any great pulling or hawling of this Either Nerve of the wandring pair is terminated in the Ventricle it self for after the eighth Conjugation hath made as it were an high road for the passage of the animal Spirits to the Praecordia and to this noble Bowel it puts a bound to it self nor indeed does it seem meet to have its branches stretched out any further to the Viscera of the lower Belly because it seems an unworthy thing that the same path which leads to the chief office of nutrition and to the Palaces of life it self should lye open to the more vile Intestines also and the sink of the whole Body And truly although the ample path and broad way of the wandring pair is not produced beyond the Ventricle yet because a frequent commerce happens between this and the Praecordia and the other inferior parts therefore between the Stomach and the other Bowels though of a more base use certain Fibres as it were smaller paths are reached forth in which at least little bands of Spirits like Discoverers or Messengers run to and fro CHAP. XXV A Description of the Intercostal Nerve AFter the unfolding of the Nerve reaching forth to the Praecordia and the Ventricle we are led by the series or order of the inward parts to the describing a Nerve akin to this and which reaches forth its branches to the furthermost Province to wit to all the Viscera or Inwards of the lower Belly contained below the Ventricle This is commonly called the Intercostal because that going near the roots of the Ribs it receives in every one of their Interstices a branch from the spinal Marrow It s beginning is not yet sufficiently detected for by most Anatomists it is wrongfully taken for a branch of the wandring pair though indeed the wandring and the intercostal pair do communicate among themselves by branches sent forth one to the other yet as to both their beginnings Trunks and wandrings up and down they are plainly distinguished If that this latter Conjugation being denied the title of a peculiar nerve ought to confess it self of another stock certainly it owes nothing to the wandring pair but should borrow its original from the Nerves of the fifth and sixth pairs for two or three shoots being sent back from those nerves going out towards the Eyes and Face go into the same stock or Trunk which is the Trunk of the intercostal nerve as we have intimated before The intercostal Nerve being constituted after that manner and going out of the Skull at a proper hole presently contains the Ganglioform infolding near to another the like infolding of the wandring pair into which two nervous Processes are carried from the last pair within the Skull or the first Vertebral From that infolding one shoot is sent forth into the Sphincter of the Throat and another noted one into the Ganglioform infolding of the wandring pair Then this nerve descending towards the Vertebrae hath in the middle of the Neck another far greater infolding into which an ample nerve from the neighbouring Vertebral pair is inserted but from the same many nerves which respect the Praecordia are distributed on every side For two or three shoots are sent forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma and one shoot into the returning nerve besides numerous fibres and shoots are carried both into the returning nerve and towards the Trachea which are inserted into its Coats and into those of the Oesophagus and into the blood-carrying Vessels Further one branch descends into the Trunk of the wandring pair and two noted nerves into the Cardiack infolding then a little lower another nerve by it self proceeding out of the intercostal Trunk is inserted also into the Cardiack infolding which noted branches sent down on both sides from the intercostal nerve for that they joyn together with others derived from either Trunk of the wandring pair make the Cardiack infolding it self But these Cardiack branches from the intercostal nerve as also the Cervical infolding or that in the hinder part of the Neck whence they proceed are peculiar to men and are wholly wanting in brute beasts The intercostal Trunk descends from the cervical infolding towards the chanel-bone where being about to enter the cavity of the Breast it falls upon the axillary Artery as it were in right Angles and strains or binds it from whence it is drowned or hidden in the Thorax near the roots of the first and second Ribs and there receiving three or four branches from the Vertebral nerves next to those uppermost constitutes another infolding which is commonly called the Intercostal infolding The uppermost of these Vertebral nerves coming to this infolding in its journey binds the Vertebral Artery and almost compasses it about In Brutes by this nerve which comes upon the Vertebral Artery the intercostal infolding communicates with the root of the nerve of the Diaphragma and not by any other means unless by small fibres sent forth from the lower part of the infolding into the Vertebral nerves Further in Brutes a noted branch is carried from this infolding into the Trunk of the wandring pair But in Man the intercostal Trunk passes through the cavity of the Thorax without any communication had with the other parts unless that from hence in its whole descent running
other thing with various gestures whereof we are ignorant or not willing them we scarcely think or speak any thing but at the same time the hands are flung out here and there and whilst the Tongue hesitates or sticks or the words at it were stick between the Jaws the right hand is exercised as if by its gesture it were endeavouring to draw out more swiftly the sence of the mind Truly that these parts to wit the Hands and Arms do so nearly conspire with the Affections of the Brain and Heart in their motions in some measure in all living Creatures but more eminently in Man the cause seems to be this nerve's coming from the spinal Marrow to the beginning of the wandring pair and communicating with its nerves and receiving from them as it were the note or private mark of the involuntary Function So much for the spinal Nerve which also like a shrub growing from other shrubs hath no peculiar origine but having received various fibres is radicated for the greatest part in the spinal Marrow and as hath been shewn partly in the nerve of the wandring pair Concerning the nerve of the Diaphragma of which we shall speak next many things occur no less worthy remarking As to its beginning it may be observed That it arises from the brachial nerves with a double or triple root to wit two or three shoots going out of the aforesaid nerves grow together into the same Trunk which is the nerve of the Diaphragma In man its first shoot which is also the greatest is produced out of the second Vertebral nerve and when the first brachial nerve arises from the same handful of Vertebral nerves going out at this place the aforesaid shoot is rooted in its origine wherefore when in Brutes the first brachial nerve arises from the fourth or fifth Vertebral the nerve of the Diaphragma also begins its rise far lower two other shoots arise out of the same stocks of the brachial nerves which follow next Fig. 9. Υ. φ. But the Trunk which is made out of these shoots goes forward single through the passage of the Neck and the cavity of the Thorax without any branching forth even to the Diaphragma Fig. 9 χ. where being at last stretched out into three or four shoots it is inserted on either side to the fleshy or musculous part of it so that because the Diaphragma is a Muscle and performs both its motions to wit Systole and Diastole by its own Fibres the office of either nerve is only to carry bands or forces of animal Spirits requisite for the indiscontinued action of that part and also to convey thither the Instincts of the Motions variously to be performed As to the first use of this Nerve viz. for the passage of the animal Spirits the business is performed in this Muscle as it is in the Heart The Spirits flowing into the Diaphragma by the nerves receive subsidiary Forces to wit a sulphureous Copula from the blood upon whose explosion being still iterated by turns and the receiving of new the action of this perpetual moveable depends Concerning the Instincts of the Motions transmitted by the passage of this double nerve we may observe That they are especially in man of a double kind viz. either the action of the Diaphragma merely natural for the performing of Respiration is continually reciprocated according to the uses of the Heart and Lungs and altered many ways in their tenour according to their needs or secondly a certain irregular and unusual motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be excited at the beck of the Appetite or from the instigations of other parts for the which whilst the rest of the Organs of Respiration are compelled to conspire the act it self of Respiration becomes after a various manner interrupted or unequal 1. As to the first of these viz. the unforced motion of this Muscle it may be observed That the Diaphragma with the Muscles of the Thorax and the parts of either conspire in their motion with the action of the Lungs and Heart and that between all these such a joynt action may be sustained it is observed That three or four branches are sent out from the Vertebral nerves in the branches of which the nerve of the Diaphragma is rooted into the intercostal infolding Fig. 9. Τ. and whereas from this infolding the nerves are carried into the Muscles of the Thorax by this means a communication and consent of action is effected between these and the Diaphragma Therefore the Diaphragma drawing with it self the Muscles of the Thorax by reason of other nerves conspires with the Praecordia These in man going from the intercostal nerve are already described and in Brutes from the lower infolding of the wandring pair a nerve is sent down into the infolding of the Thorax to which besides so many shoots and certain fibres reaching forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma are instead of such a commerce 2. The Anomal and irregular motions of the Diaphragma proceed from various causes and from the divers instigation of other parts which also in man become much more signal than in brute Animals because in him the communication is notable by the nerves reaching out from the Cervical infolding of the intercostal pair into the nerve of the Diaphragma which kind of infolding and nerves are wanting in Brutes As to the Species themselves of irregular motions into which the motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be perverted it may be observed That we are able at our pleasure to stop breathing or respiration for some space and presently to take it or draw it out In laughing weeping and singing sometimes the Systole sometimes the Diastole becomes stronger and is made frequenter upward or downward with a repeated shaking which sort of actions of it are made by reason of those near commerces had between the nerve of the Diaphragma and other respective parts of the Breast and Face yea indeed from hence it is effected as we have already shewn that man is peculiarly a laughing Creature Further which we have shewn elsewhere from the Sympathy which happens between the parts of the Mouth and Face with the Diaphragma by those nerves a good reason of sneezing may be given and that Problem of Aristotles easily solved to wit why men alone or chiefly before other Creatures sneeze For the act of sneezing seems to be made for this end that man may not only clear his Nose but that all Torpor or heaviness may be shook off for him from the neighbouring Organs of the Senses yea and from all the fore-part of the Brain which thing easily succeeds if the Membranes and nervous passages besmearing the Nostrils and the Sieve-like Bone like the holes of a Sponge being strongly wrung forth or squeezed together be forced to shed forth their moistures for these parts so emptied presently like a pressed Sponge receive other humors to wit those coming from the neighbouring parts In the mean time that the watry heap
Thorax under the same sheath with the Trunk of the wandring pair yet it is not united to it but they remain distinct still both of them in the whole tract and the Membrane being dissected they easily separate one from the other unless they be knit together by some fibrils sent from one another in some places but forasmuch as by this means the intercostal nerve being joyned to the Trunk of the wandring pair goes under its cover it seems to be so made only for its safety and better passage wherefore in some perhaps where the intercostal Trunk is greater or the course of its passage shorter where such a safeguard is not needful it descends alone We have seen this Nerve covered with the safeguard of the wandring pair of one side and in the other to have gone out by it self alone Whether the intercostal Nerve departs from the lower Infolding of the wandring pair or not however a branch is stretched out between this infolding and that of the Thorax in many perhaps in all brute Beasts which in its passage binds about the Vertebral Artery whereby the Sympraxis or joynt Action between the Praecordia and the exterior Organs of Respiration is sustained yea from this lower infolding of the wandring pair sometimes we have observed a shoot and fibres to be carried to the beginning of the Brachial branch in which the nerve of the Diaphragma is rooted also sometimes though rarely we have seen some shoots sent from the infolding of the Thorax towards the Heart and its Appendix In a Monkey above this infolding of the Thorax as we have intimated before were some shoots and small branches reaching from the intercostal nerve towards the Praecordia We may take notice concerning those Nerves below the Praecordia distributed every where into the Ventricle and the lower Viscera that there is scarce any difference of them in Man and Beasts The nerve of the Diaphragma is placed lower in four-footed beasts the reason of which is because the Brachial nerves out of which that ought to proceed arise lower to wit because Brutes have longer necks as if destinated to the yoke These things being thus premised concerning the difference of the Nerves in either Species it remains that we pass on to the unfolding the remaining pairs of them Therefore of those arising within the Skull the ninth pair is made up of many Fibres also in its beginning as was shewed before out of which being gathered together one Trunk being made is carried towards the Tongue through whose whole substance to wit from the bottom to the top having passed it disperses in its whole passage small shoots on either side Fig. 9. σ. So that nothing is more obvious than that this nerve performs the motions of the Tongue requisite for the articulation of Sounds as the nerves of the fifth pair spread into this member serve for the distinguishing of Tastes for the exercise of either Faculty viz. both motive and sensitive the texture of the Tongue being notedly fibrous hath the virtue of a double Organ therefore by the two nerves besides the supplements of Spirits are carried both the Instincts of the Motion and the sensible Impressions That the aforesaid Nerves of the ninth pair may more easily perform the motions of the Tongue it sends forth downwards one shoot before the entrance of the Tongue which is united with a shoot from the tenth pair meeting it destinated to the Sternothyroeidal Muscle and the other little branch of the ninth Conjugation is distributed into the Muscles of the Bone Hyoides Fig. 9. Τ. ☉ In truth these shoots being sent down as so many little ropes conduce to the moving of the Muscles which are fixed to the bottom of the Tongue which Muscles being placed as so many Props to the Tongue do facilitate its motion The Nerve of the tenth pair although it may seem to arise within the Skull with many little Fibres also yet being sent down from thence into the bony Cloisters of the Spine not arising but within the first and second Vertebrae it is carried without Presently after its entrance it sends forth two nerves into the infolding of the intercostal nerve for what end hath been already shewn But its chief Trunk spreading downwards and receiving a shoot produced from the ninth pair is bestowed on the Sternothyroeidal Muscle Moreover this nerve reflects branches outwards which are distributed into the Muscles of the Neck reaching out towards the hinder part of the Head so this pair as if it were only of the number or rank of the Vertebral nerves imparts some branches to the intercostal nerve and all the other shoots and branches of it serve for the performing of the motions of the Muscles of the Neck Fig. 9. H. ⚹ □ ▵ So much for the Nerves arising within the Skull which as was shewn having their being from the parts of the Brain or Cerebel are destinated to the offices of the spontaneous or the involuntary Function and are chiefly distributed into the Organs of the Senses or the Viscera of the vital and natural Faculty There remain many other Conjugations of Nerves the roots or beginnings of which consist in the spinal Marrow which is only the exterior production of the oblong Marrow These spinal Nerves besides some branches that they bestow on the intercostal pair are imployed almost wholly on the musculous stock and the office of them is to carry outwardly the forces of the Spirits and the Instincts of the Motions to be performed and to convey inwardly the impressions of sensible things Forasmuch as the spinal Marrow seems to be derived from the Brain and is as it were a broad and high road produced or leading from the same without any paths or tracts inserted to it from the Cerebel therefore the animal Spirits flowing within its nerves do almost wholly execute the Acts of the spontaneous Function To describe all the several pairs of the spinal Nerves and to rehearse all their branchings and to unfold the uses and actions of them would be a work of an immense labour and trouble and as this Neurologie cannot be learned nor understood without an exact knowledge of the Muscles we may justly here forbear entring upon its particular institution but it may suffice concerning these nerves and their medullar beginning that we advertise only in general what things may occur most notable and chiefly worth taking notice of As to the Nerves therefore produced out of the spinal Marrow it may be observed That in both sides of it nigh the outward margine or brim four or five Fibres arise in the superior brim and as many in the inferior either maniple or handful pass through with distinct Fibres the Pia Mater or the lowest Coat of the spinal Marrow which is as it were the common sheath of them all but afterwards the Fibres passing through the third Membrane of either margine for three cloath the spinal Marrow they joyn together and having cloathed themselves
a branch from between the several knots of the Vertebrae H. The Nerve of the tenth pair consisting of many fibres in the beginning arises between the first and second Vertebrae where presently it sends forth two nervous processes b. b. into the upper infolding of the intercostal Nerve âš¹ A branch of it which being united to a shoot of the ninth pair is bestowed into the Sternothyroeidal Muscle immediately lying on the rough Artery â–¡ A shoot reflected into the posterior muscles of the Neck â–µ A shoot into the pathetick Spinal Nerve + + + Shoots from the chief branch of the same Nerve into the Sternothyroeidal Muscle L. The original of the chief Vertebral Nerve which in this as in all other Vertebrals consists of many Fibres one band of which going out of the lower margine of the Spinal Marrow and another from the upper meeting go together into one trunk which is presently divided into nerves distributed many ways Ï. A shoot from this Nerve into the branch of the tenth pair e. Another shoot into the Spinal Pathetick c. A noted shoot sent forth upwards into the muscles of the Neck and Ears T. A shoot from the crooked Nerve into the muscles of the Neck 7. A Nerve from this pair into the first brachial nerve out of which the nerve of the Diaphragma hath its highest root M. The beginning of the second Vertebral out of which the upper Brachial branch proceeds and in which the nerve of the Diaphragma is first rooted This Brachial nerve in four-footed Beasts arises near the fourth or fifth Vertebrae and so the root of the Diaphragma is placed lower v. The Vertebral branch destinated to the Arm. Î¥. The Nerve of the Diaphragma a shoot of whose root δ. comes to the Cervical infolding and a little lower two other branches from the same infolding ε.ε. are reached out into its trunk This communication is proper to man φ. The other root of the Diaphragma from the second and third Brachial nerve χ. The lower trunk of the nerve of the Diaphragma being removed out of its place which in its proper situation passing through the cavity of the Thorax without any communication goes straight forward to the Diaphragma where being stretched out into three shoots it is inserted into its musculous part ψ.ψ.ψ.ψ. The other Brachial nerves out of whose roots nerves go into the intercostal Infolding ω.ω.ω.ω. The beginnings of the Vertebral nerves from the several roots of which a branch is carried into the intercostal nerve ♃ ♃ The last beginning of the Spinal accessory Nerve going to the wandring pair beginning with a sharp point ♀ The trunk of the same Nerve ascending which in its whole ascent going through the side of the Spinal Marrow passes through the midst of the beginnings of the Vertebral nerves and receives Fibres from the stock of the Marrow ♂ The trunk of the same Nerve descending which departing from the wandring pair is reflected outwards and after having had communications with the nerves of the ninth and tenth pairs it is bestowed wholly on the muscles of the Shoulder ☽ The lower process of the same Nerve The Tenth Table Shews the beginnings and Branchings out of the same Nerves which were described in the former Table as some of them are found in brute Beasts otherwise than in Man A. The trunk of the intercostal Nerve going out of the Skull B. The upper Ganglioform infolding springing out of the trunk of the intercostal nerve C. The intercostal nerve arising out of the aforesaid proper infolding and sent down into the other neighbouring infolding of the wandring pair D. A shoot from the upper infolding into the Sphincter of the throat E. Both the Nerves included in the same sheath as if they were the same trunk descend towards the Thorax out of which trunk appearing in this place a branch is sent out into the returning nerve F. The lower infolding in the trunk of the wandring pair or rather consisting in the common sheath of either nerve f. A shoot out of this infolding into the Brachial branch coming between in which branch the nerve of the Diaphragma hath its root G. The intercostal Nerve departing from the same infolding and going under the axillar Artery is inserted into the infolding of the Thorax g. Another Branch going between the two infoldings and going above the axillary Artery so that these two nerves having made an handle bind about the Artery H. A noted shoot out of the aforesaid infolding of the wandring pair into the Cardiack infolding i.i.i.i. From thence many nervous Fibres are sent down into the Vessels belonging to the Heart and into the Pericardium k.k.k.k. The greater Brachial nerves which are produced a little lower in Brute animals than in Man and therefore the nerve of the Diaphragma arises lower L.L.L. The Brachial nerves mutually cutting one another by the cross processes communicate among themselves M. The Nerve of the Diaphragma consisting of three roots when in Man they are only two 1. The first root of the same Nerve 2. Its second Root 3. Its third Root which communicates mediately with the infolding of the wandring pair viz. by the trunk of the Brachial branch to which it is fixed n. A Nerve carried from the second Brachial branch into the intercostal infolding which binds about in its passage the Vertebral Artery N. Shoots and suckers sent down from both knots of the returning nerve towards the Heart and its Appendix The other Nerves and their Branchings out are as in the other Figure which shews the pattern of them in Man Tabula x The Eleventh Table Shews the lower Branchings out of the wandring and the Intercostal Pair distributed to the Ventricle and the Viscera of the Abdomen also the beginnings of the Vertebral Nerves which are placed over against the former and are ingraffed into some of them The Figure of these in Man and in four-footed Beasts is almost alike so that this Table may be common for both A. The lower Stomachical Branch which is made up out of the internal branches of each wandring pair being united together and covering the bottom of the Ventricle disperses shoots on every side in the whole tract B. The upper Stomachical Branch which is made out of the external branches of the wandring pair on either side united together and creeps through the top of the Ventricle C. The Coalition or joyning together of the Branches D. The nervous Infolding out of the Fibres of both the Stomachical nerves being united together nigh the Orifice and as it were woven into a Net a.a. The ends of both the Stomachical nerves which there meet with the nerves of the Liver and communicate with them E.E. The Intercostal nerve descending on either side nigh the roots of the Ribs and in its whole descent receiving a branch from the several Vertebral nerves ε.ε. F. A branch going out of the Nerve of the left intercostal side and sent down towards the Mesenterick infoldings G.
Why Epilepticks fall down with violence do not fall as those that are apoplectick or have swounding fits but are rather stricken down with violence against the Earth or any other bodys that are by chance opposite to them as if they were smitten down by some wicked Spirit so that very often some part of the head or face is hurt with the violent fall And those so distempered even like the Daemonaicks in the Gospel are frequently flung into the fire or the water but it may be here declared that the Epilepticks become obnoxious to these kinde of evills for that the fit coming upon them all knowledge or providence is taken from them and further the nerves neighbouring to the head being strongly contracted the whole bulk of the Body is carried away headlong but in the Syncope and Apoplexie the fall of the distemperd Body seems as the ruines of a building which happens by reason that its props are taken away but indeed in the falling Sicknesse it is no otherwise than if a house were overthrown by the blowing up of Gunpowder which is removed much from the place where it stood 2ly It is commonly esteemed a great pathognomick From whence the Foam at the mouth of these troubled with the falling sickness comes or peculiar Symtom of the Epilepsie if when the diseased being fallen to the earth and suffering most horrid Convulsions there flows from the mouth a spumous Spittle or foam which indeed is thought to be pressed from the Brain being strongly contracted into the palate But in truth though it be granted that this flux of spume be very often a signe of the falling Sicknesse yet it is not so appropriated to this disease but that the same sometimes happens in the Apoplexie in deep sleep in hysterical distempers and other convulsive diseases Besides this kinde of Foam does not descend from the Brain for there is no passage open by which it may pass but from the Lungs being inflated and elevated even to the Larinx or the top of the sharp arterie from whence spittle foams forth with a certain fervency and ebullition For the fit of the falling evill growing urgent when most of the nerves in the whole Body are drawn together those also that serve for the motions of the Lungs and Diaphragma suffer most cruel convulsions and lifting up all the praecordia upwards continue them almost immovable in a long Systole so that the breathing and pulse cannot be at all perceived In the mean time because the blood straitned within the bosom of the heart distends it and also almost choakes it the Lungs however hindred that they cannot be moved after their wonted and natural manner perform what they can with a thick and hasty agitation whereby the blood may be drawn forth from the Heart by which endeavour of theirs the shaking aire by the frequent or thick respiration raises the viscous or clammy humidity into froth like the shaking of the white of an egg by and by it lifts it upwards towards the Cavity of the mouth and so at last drives it out of doors wherefore a foam or spumous spittle does often succeed in other distempers where the pneumonic or breathing nerves are either contracted or are hindred from performing their Function Why some in the Falling knock their Breasts 3ly Moreover from the same reason it comes to passe that some Epilepticks being fallen to the ground beat most greviously their Breasts with their Hands and are hardly to be held from it for when the Praecordia being troubled with the Spasm and hindred that they cannot move themselves after their wonted manner and the blood stagnating in them not without a great oppression of the heart threatens a suffocation of Life then it is that the sick strikes their Breast to wit that the praecordia so shaken and as it were moved up and down might renew their motions and so the blood might be relieved from its stagnation and the heart from its heavy oppression and this is done after the same manner as when some that are sleeping being tickled or bit by a flea unknown to themselves presently rub or scratch the affected place The prognostication of the Disease As to the Prognostication of the disease we have already declared that it is of very difficult Cure which difficultly consists in this that the middle of the Brain in which is the chief spring and fountain of the animal Spirits is very much debilitated not only by the morbifick cause but also by its effects to wit the several fits and its pores loosened so that they ly open for the entrance of every heterogeneous matter and so the morbid disposition it self being confirmed by the repeated Paroxisms and taking deeper root it is hardly taken away But it is to be observ'd that the Epilepsie sometimes terminates of it self and is sometimes overcome by the help of medicines which happens about the age of puberty and then only so that who are not cured that time being elapsed that is before the twenty fifth year of age they scarce ever after recover their health for about the time of ripe age there is a twofold alteration of the humane Body and therefore there often happens a Solution or loosing of the falling sicknesse or of any other disease deeply rooted For first at that time the genital humour begins to be heaped together in the spermatick Vessells from whence it follows that the Spiritious particles and what are wont to grow to them nitro-sulphureous and morbifick particles are layd up not only in the brain but also in the testicles wherefore if this heterogenious Copula of the Spirits be more plentifully caryed to that new storehouse from thence the brain becoming free often leaves the epileptical or otherways morbid disposition 2. About the time of ripe age as the Blood pours forth something before destinated for the brain through the Spermatic Arteries to the genitals so also it receives as a recompense a certain ferment from those parts through the veins to wit certain particles imbued with a seminal tincture are caryed back into the bloody mass which makes it vigorous and inspire into it a new and lively virtue wherefore at that time the gifts both of the Body and minde chiefly shew themselves Hairs break out the voyce becomes greater the courses of women flow and other accidents happen whereby it is plain that both the blood and nervous Juce are impregnated with a certain fresh ferment wherefore the morbific ferments or seeds unlesse they be overcome by this new natural firment they afterwards continue untameable even to Death But that the Epilepsie is sometimes cured by the help of medicines Experience doth testifie we shall anon discourse of the method of healing and shew the reasons of the most famous medicines in the mean time as to what further belongs to the prognostication of this Disease if it end not about the time of ripe age neither can be driven away
shops or dispensatory are to be prescribed but magistralls as cause arises according to the appearances of the admirable Symptoms A gentle vomit Purge blood-letting ought in the first place to be ordained and to be repeated as often as shall seem fit As to specisick medicines also and appropriate in these cases when the chief Indication shall be to mend the temper of the Nervous juice you may try many and by their effect judge of their virtues Therefore it may be lawfull to try what the Remedies indued with a volatile or armoniac salt may effect For this end the spirits and salts of Harts-horn Blood soot and the flowers and spirits of Sal-armoniac are taken These helping nothing you must come to Chalybiats or Steel medicines the tinctures and solutions of Corall and Antimony are given which kinde of medicines are exhibited in such a dose and form and so often that some alteration may be made by them on the whole blood or nervous juce Further If successe shall fail in such like you must then proceed to Alexipharmaca which help against poysons and the malignancy impressed on the humours to wit to institute from these decoctions and distilled waters of vegitables powders Conserves and other preparations and to compound variously some with others and to administer them diversly It is likely that those kinde of medicines which are wont to be helpfull to such as are bitten by a viper or a mad Dog or that have taken woulfs-bane or poyson may be usefull also in the aforesaid Convulsions It may be lawfull here according to the example of Gregory Horstius in his tract of the malignant Convulsive disease and also of wonderfull Convulsions to prescribe magisterial Remedies in the form of a purging Electuary and also of a powder and Convulsive Antidote and to compound them variously partly of simple Alexipharmacks or poyson resisters and partly of Antiepilepticks or things good against the falling Evil. CHAPTER X. Of the Passions Commonly called Hystericall THE hysterical passion is of so ill fame among the Diseases belonging to women that like one half damn'd it bears the faults of many other Distempers For when at any time a sicknbss happens in a womans body of an unusual manner or more occult original so that its Cause lyes hid and the Curatory Indication is altogether uncertain presently we accuse the evill influence of the womb which for the most part is innocent and in every unusual Symptom we declare it to be something hysterical and so to this Scope which oftentimes is only the subterfuge of Ignorance the medical Intentions and use of Remedies are directed A description of the hysterical passion The Passions which are wont to be referred to this cense or order are found to be various and manifold which rarely happen in diverse women or which come wholly after the same manner The most Common and which commonly are said to constitute the formal Reason of the hysterical distemper are these viz. A motion in the bottom of the belly and an ascention of the same as it were a certain round thing then a belching or a striving to vomit a distention and murmur of the hypoehondria with a breaking forth of blasts of winde an unequall breathing and very much hindred a choaking in the throat a vertigo an inversion or rolling about of the eyes oftentimes laughing or weeping absurd talking sometimes want of speech and motionless with an obscure or no pulse and deadish aspect sometimes Convulsive motions in the face and Limbs and sometimes in the whole body are excited But universal Convulsions rarely happen and not unless this disease be in the very worst state Because for the most part the Tragedy of the Fit is acted without Contraction of the members only in the inferior belly Thorax and head to wit in some of them or successively in all women of every age and Condition are obnoxious to these kinde of Distempers to wit Rich and poor Virgins wives and widdows I have observed those Symptoms in maids before ripe age also in old women after their flowers have left them yea sometimes the same kinde of Passions infest men as plainly appeared by the example already shewed As to the causes of those symptoms most ancient The causes of the Symptoms inquired into and indeed Modern Physitians refer them to the ascent of the womb and vapours elevated from it The former opinion although it plead antiquity seems the less probable for that the body of the womb is of so small bulk in virgins and widdows and is so strictly tyed by the neighbouring parts round about that it cannot of it self be moved or asccnd from its place nor could its motion be felt if there were any as to that vulgar opinion or Reason taken from the vapours we have often rejected it as wholly vain and light for just reasons elsewhere But we judge the passions but now described do neither always nor at all proceed from the ascent or the vapours of the womb and that indeed other very famous Physitians have already determined For in times past Charles Piso and of late the most learned Highmore have vindicated the womb from all fault and the passions which are commonly call'd hystericall are thought by this latter to arise from the blood most impetuously rushing on the Lungs and by the other from a serous colluives heaped together neer the origin of the Nerves How probable this latter opinion doth seem shall appear from what follows But as to the opinion deliver'd by Doctor Highmore concerning this thing tho it be far from our Custom to contradict any ones opinion and that it is almost unlawfull for me to diffent from this famous man yet because our Pathologie standing on a contrary basis viz. the cause of the hystericall distemper being imputed more immediately to the nervous stock than to the blood will seem to be only asserted unless we shew the Reasons which combat against that hypothesis and forours therefore taking leave here we will try more exactly either opinion put as it were in a ballance In the fit therefore commonly called hysterical this famous man supposes Doctor Highmores Opinion Examined the blood for that it is thin flatulent and with a certain effervescency to rush too much in heaps into the pneumonick vessells and the vessells of the heart and in them to broyl up impetuously and so to stuff up the lungs and very much to aggravate them that neither they can exercise their motion nor that the blood can be drained from the bosom of the heart Hence from the blood stagnating in the Praeoordia a great oppression difficult breathing and often none with a melting of the vital Spirits were wont to be inferred then the diaphragma that it might give place to the Lungs more and more distended and that breathing at least might be some way made is carried downward with a mighty and long continued Diastole and so by pressing down the Intestines it
lifts up the ahdomen and hypochondria and feins a motion as it were the arising of a globe But afterwards the vital function labouring after this manner the animal faculty arises in its aide wherefore a necessity of motions in various parts urging the animal Spirits being driven impetuously into the beginnings of the nerves produce divers manners of Convulsions running here and there The Author endeavours to confirm this Opinion by the great help in this disease had by the taking away the bloody excretion both from things helpfull and things hurtfull in this paffion But though I cannot but praise this Doctrine of the suffocation of the womb as very ingenious and cunningly wrought yet that I do not consent to it in all things some reasons of great moment clearly hinder me Truly I confess that I do not understand how in some hysterical persons to wit who are of a more frigid temperament and are often troubled with the Pica and longing disease the blood should so immoderatly boyl up in the Lungs without any conspicuous notes of its growing hot in some other place I have known young maids by reason of the green-sickness as it were without blood to wit whose blood indeed being without life did remain without any exercise in the heart and was from thence difficâ—ltly enough drawn forth into the Lungs who yet were grievously obnoxious to the passions called hysterical Certainly it is not probable that the blood of these persons growing immoderatly hot should rush impetuously into the Pneumonick vessells and should stuff up their pores and passages very thickly when in the mean time such become short-breath'd by reason of the absence of the blood from the Lungs or its difficult admission to them Besides by what means comes it to pass that this violent course of the blood into the Lungs which is supposed to be made in this Fit brings forth no Inflammation in them for that the blood being too much heaped or rapidly put into any part is easily extravasated and is wont to excite an Inflammation hardly to be shaken off From whence it is therefore in the hysterical distemper the blood entring violently into the Lungs and distending them does not cause a peripneumonie or impostume of the Lungs Or wherefore the distempers as it were hysterical come not on an Inflammation of the Lungs otherwise caused wherefore it seems improbable that the blood swelling up with its proper anger or heat should rush into the Lungs and by stuffing them renders them too immovable and so secondarily and consequently induce Convulsions of the Diaphragma and other parts but it may rather seem that by reason of the Diaphragma and other organs of breathing being first affected with a Convulsion the blood should be forced to stagnate in the praecordia Besides it may be observ'd that the Lungs are not always afflicted before other parts for oftentimes the convulsive Symptoms begin elsewhere and not rarely bear the region of the breast wholly untouch'd Because in some the vertigo and Corruscations or sparklings of the eyes begin the fit to which succeed either weeping or laughing or convulsive motions of the Limbs without any straitness of the breath or oppression of the heart in others before respiration troubles them any way a swelling in the bottom of the belly with a vomiting and rumbling of the belly begins and often ends the fit so that the difficulty of breathing oftentimes follows these Symptoms at a great distance and is wont to be prevented by the tying strictly of swathing-bands about the hypochondria Moveover it seems that this ascent as it were of a certain round thing from the Hypogastrium or lower part of the belly can never proceed from the depression of the Diaphragma because in the hysterical fit this part is not always pressed down towards the lower parts but oftentimes drawn up to the higher parts and drives the Lungs upwards so that the spirit or breath being almost shut forth threatens the danger of Choaking By these and other reasons The hystericall distemper chiefly belongs to the Brain and nervous stock we are at length perswaded to that opinion that the distemper named from the womb is chiefly and primarily convulsive and chiefly depends on the brain and the nervous stock being affected and whatever inordination or irregularity from thence happens about the motion of the blood is only secondary and is made dependingly by the Convulsions of the Bowells But that this doth consist within the bounds of the head both the comparing of the symptoms which happen in the living and the anatomical observations of the dead clearly shew because we may observe that this distemper often takes its rise from a sudden fear great sadnesse or anger or other violent passion in which the spirits inhabiting the brain are chiefly affected besides to some an ill manner of dyet and various accidents whereby the humours being vitiated are heaped more plentifully within the head at first brings this evil Yea the manner of the fits clearly evinces the same forasmuch as a fullness of the head a vertigo a sparkling of the eyes a ringing noyse of the ears begin in many the hysterical fit and often conclude it Besides I have opened some women dead of other diseases tho while they were sick very obnoxious to hysterical passions in whom the womb being very well I have found in the hinder part of the head the beginnings of the nerves moistned and wholly drowned with a sharp serum as shall be more largely declared anon Having weighed these and other Reasons we doubt not to assert the Passions commonly called Hysterical to arise most often for that the animal spirits possessing the beginning of the Nerves within the head are infected with some taint to wit they being either acted or brought into Confusion or being tincted with vitious humours get to themselves an heterogeneous and explosive Copula The cause of the disease most often begins about the beginnings of the nerves which they carry far away with themselves into the Channells of the nerves and when the same spirits are filled to a plenitude with that Copula thorow all their series or orders either of their own accord or being occasionally moved they enter into explosions and so stir up Convulsive motions But that such a Copula adhering to the spirits is chiefly derived together with them into the interior nerves the reason is because in this passage towards the praecordia and viscera the animal spirits by reason of the distemper of the minde are very much disturbed wherefore they more easily admit any evills brought from another place and more readily conceive irregularities For the animal spirits chiefly for this occasion contract a convulsive disposition forasmuch as they from a violent impression are perverted out of their Courses and their wonted manner of Influence and acting hence they not only repeat their inordinations but also receive the heterogenious particles into their embraces and more easily
combine with them Wherefore forasmuch as the animal spirits running thorow the nerves of the wandring pair and Intercostals are continually entangled with all perturbations both of the Concupiscable and irascible Appetite it is no wonder if they acquire a convulsive disposition before the rest It being supposed which indeed ought to be supposed that the animal spirits have contracted an heterogenious and explosive Copula The same cause afterwards disposed thorow the whole passage of the Nerves now the nervous origines and carried it together with it self into the interior nerves and spread it thorow all their passages it will not be hard to assigne the Reasons of the hystericall fit and of all its Symptoms For first of all the disease being ready to fall upon one oftentimes the Vertigo a rolling about of the eyes and a certain inflation of the brain as it were praevious skirmishings are stirred up because the whole band of the Spirits being in readiness for explosions the more light companies of them leaping back towards the brain are first struck off then Presently a perturbation succeeds in the bottom of the belly or hypochondria for that the Spirits within the enfoldings here and there are next disturbed For we have elsewhere shown if at any time the animal Spirits are exploded in a certain whole Series those which abode in the extream parts first of all enter into that assertion Wherefore the beginnings of this Disease are found to be or the most Part in the head and Bowells but that the Convulsions are first perceived now in the bottom of the belly now in the hypochondria the reason is because the morbific matter is sometimes carried by the passage of the intercostal nerve into the utmost mesenteric enfoldings but sometimes the same being slid down not beyond the ends of the wandring pair subsists much neerer to wit about the enfoldings of the spleen or stomack When therefore the animal Spirits as hath been shown within the nervs of the wandring pair and intercostals are imbued from their origine The reason of the hysterical symptoms unfolded even to their utmost ends with an heterogeneous and explosive Copula they at length either from mere fullness or by an irritation somewhere made are stirred up to explosions in which affection if any Spirits leap forth towards the middle of the brain they induce the Vertigo the inflation and other praevious accidents of the head but the Spirits inhabiting the other extremity of the nervous Trunk viz. the mesenteric enfoldings begin chiefly to be exploded which presently by their letting off compell the lower Parts of the hypogastrum to be lifted up and contracted upwards and so induce the ascention of a certain bulk as it were of the womb then when the upper parts of the enfoldings of the mesentory are by degrees intangled with the same distemper and the bowells annexed to the same are elevated and drawn forceably towards the upper parts the violent swelling of the Abdomen as it were with a certain leaping forth succeeds Further the Ventricle is not only elevated by changing its place all its fibres to wit the direct oblique and transverse being affected at once with the Convulsion is often distended like a blown bladder hence very often vomiting or at least a rumbling and murmur of the hypochondria are excited but as soon as the Spirits being exploded with a certain series it comes to the Region of the Thorax the diaphragma being drawn together with an huge diastole is sometimes depressed and so meeting with the ascention of the viscera causes an Inflation and high intumescency or swelling up with a mighty strugling so that the laces of those in this distemper must be forthwith loosned or else they are in danger of falling into a trance In the mean time the Diaphragma being so depressed and its diastole continued the bloud remains almost immovable in the praecordia and so by its stagnation causes a great oppression and very often a faâ—ling of the vital function Further the Convulsion of the Diaphragma happens sometimes towards the upper parts and so that driving the Lungs upwards induces a violent Systole and protracted longer than it should be and when by this means the blood is driven forward into the pneumonic vessells and is not at last received from the bosome of the heart it stagnates there and besides in the whole Body from whence the oppression of the heart and oftentimes a swooning yea sometimes a want of speech and motion now with a blewness of the face and now with a dead aspect follow After these things are acted in the lower and middle Region at length the distemper reaches to the head by the passage of the nerves as it were a fiery inkindling and the spirits being there exploded leaping now towards the middle of the brain produce a swimming in the head and often symptoms very like the Epilepsy sometimes the spirits there exploded rush into the beginnings of the other Nerves and there stir up the like explosions wherefore hysterical people towards the end of the fit often Laugh or weep or talk Idly sometimes the parts of the face and mouth yea sometimes the arms and other members are troubled with convulsive motions and so when at length all the spirits which had contracted an heterogeneous Copula are exploded the fit ends but presently after matter for another fit begins to be gathered together From whence the diversity of the symptoms happens It sometimes happens that the convusive disposition is not drawn out so long and largely for besides that oftentimes the nerves only of the wandring pair and the intercostalls are troubled with it that neither the brain nor the outward members are at all molested yea sometime neither the interior nerves themselves are possessed with the morbific cause thorow their whole processes for the convulsive Disposition as we but now intimated oftentimes arrives not beyond the enfoldings of the spleen or stomack and then the fit beginning from the inflation of the ventricle or left hypochondrium is thought to arise not from the fault of the womb but of the spleen which kinde of distemper by and by being brought to the Thorax and there involving the Diaphragma and Lungs with a Convulsion stops respiration and the motion of the heart or in some manner perverts it but then from thence the fit passes over now with and now without a great perturbation of the Head These things happen indeed after a various manner according as it happens that the morbific matter or explosive Copula descending from the head is gathered together as it were heaps of gun-powder more or less now in this now in that part But concerning which matter by what means the same being brought forth in the head first affects the beginnings of the nerves and so constitutes the procatartick or more remote Cause of the passion called Hysterical now remains next to be inquired into The more remote Cause of
the side of the groin is wont to give a suspition of another child or the secondine or afterbirth to be left behinde or also of some hard swelling tumor there increasing but afterwards when the menstruum coming plentifully away the womb is reduced to its due magnitude that tumor by degrees vanishes but while it there remaineth unless for that reason the Lochia or menstrua were stopp'd it doth not produce the hysterical passions For the reducing of this part the sooner into its due position fomentations Liniments and Plaisters are convenient But most times that Symptom passes over of it self without any further harm To what other distempers the womb is obnoxious in child-bearing and by what method to be helped we have fully shown in another place As to the other vices of that part which happen to some women not bearing children we declare that they chiefly are either a disease of the womb made by the breaking of the unity viz. which is either some ulcer or Tumor or an inhibition of some wonted excretion or putting forth to wit a suppression either of the menstruous blood or the whites or the seminal humour Moreover because of the menstrua being retained the heterogeneous particles being often poured forth into the head bring in the Convulsive passions in like manner when the whites are stopped the excrementitious matter being supped up by the blood is deliver'd to the brain and nervous stock yea when an usual evacuation of the seed is hindred the superfluities of the nervous humour flow back upon the brain and infect its indwelling Spirits with an explosive and morbific tincture There is no need here to discourse more largely or particularly of those Peculiar distempers of the womb but to compound medicines and intricate administrations proper for womens diseases with anticonvulsive Remedies CHAPTER XI Of the Distempers commonly called Hypochondriack which is shown to be for the most part Convulsive briefly also of Chalybeats or Steel-Medicines IN the foregoing Chapters we have clearly shown that the Passions called hysterical do not allways proceed from the womb yea more often from the head being distemper'd next we shall inquire concerning the hypochondriacal Distempers of what original and nature they are and upon the fault of what parts they chiefly depend The vulgar opinion is that the symptoms wont to accompany this disease are wholly produced from the spleen wherefore they are ascribed very much to vapours arising from this inward and variously running up and down here and there when in truth these sicknesses for the most part are convulsions and contractions of the nervous parts but that it might appear by what causes they are wont to be excited we ought to consider first the Symptoms themselves and to place them into some order or rank A description of the hypochâ—ndriaca Affections As to the Distempers therefore which are vulgarly termed hypochondriac it is observable that they happen chiefly to men of a melancholly temperament with a dark aspect and more lean habit of body it is rarely that this disease troubles fair people with a fresh Countenance or also those indued with a too Phlegmatic complection It betrays it self in manifest fignes about the hight or midest of their Age men are found to be more frequently obnoxious to this than women being made habitual in either it is very hardly or not at all to be cured in women by reason of their weaker Constitution it is accompanied with a great many more Convulsive Distmpers wherefore Commonly it is said in this Sex the hysterical to be joyned with the hypochondriacal Passion The Symptoms which are imputed to this Disease are commonly very manifold and are of a divers nature neither do they observe in all the like beginning or the same mutual dependency among themselves for they seem in these most to affect the Inwards of the lower belly in those the Praecordia in others the Confines of the Brain and in most though not in all the ventricle labours much concerning the appetite it is often too much but presently burthened with what it hath taken in and when the food staying longer in it by reason of slowness of Concoction their Saline particles being carried forth into a flux pervert the whole mass of the Chyle into a pulse or pottage now Sour or austere now salt or sharp from hence pains of the heart great breakings forth of blasts rumbling of winde and often vomiting succeed and because of a pneumatick defect or of Spirits the Chyme or juice is not wholly made volatile and carried forth of doors but that the ballast of the Viscous or Slimy matter sticking to the coats of the ventricle is left behinde an almost continual Spitting infests them a distention in the hypochondrium and often there and under the ventricle a cruell pulsation is felt also there pains ordinarily arise which run about here and there and for many hours miserably torment with a certain lancing In the mean time from the Contractures of the Membranes and from the fluctuation of winds stirred up by that means rumbling and murmurs are produced Also in the Thorax oftentimes there is a great constriction and straitness that the respiration becomes difficult and troublesome upon any motion also most grievous asthmatical fits fall upon some moreover the sick are wont to complain of a trembling and palpitation of the heart with a noted oppression of the same also a sinking down or melting away of the Spirits and frequent fear of a trance comes upon them that the sick think Death is always seising them In this Region about the membranes and chiefly the mediastinum or that divides the middle of the belly an accute pain which is now Circumscrib'd to one part now extended to the shoulders is a familiar Symptom of this Disease But indeed in the head an Iliad of evills doth for the most part disturb hypochondriacal people to wit most cruell pains returning at set times do arise also the swimming of the head and frequent Vertigoes long watchings a Sea and most troublesome fluctuation of thoughts an uncertainty of minde a disturbed fancy a fear and suspition of every thing an imaginary possession of diseases from which they are free also very many other distractions of Spirits yea sometimes Melancholly and madness accompany this sickness besides these interior Regions of the Body beseiged by this Disease wandring pains also Convulsions and numbness with a sense of pricking invade almost all the outward parts nightly Sweats flushings of the Blood in the face and the palms of the hands eratick feavours and many other Symptoms of an uncertain original do every where arise concerning which forasmuch as the genuine Causes and the manner of their coming to pass could not be readily determined presently all the fault is cast upon the Spleen and Physitians accuse that as if it were the chief author of every irregular Distemper but by what right or authority by and by shall be sought into In
the mean time it is to be observed The hypochondriacal distempers belong to the nervous kinde that the chief Symptoms of this sickness are Convulsive and depend immediately upon the irregularities of the animal Spirits and the nervous juice rather than on the evill disposition of the Viscera serving for Concoction But indeed from whence the first rise of this most complicated Disease proceeds and by what means it brings forth the divers manners of distempers in so many places will not be so easie to determine It would be a tedious thing to shew here The causes of the hypochondriac passion is inquired into what the ancient and modern Physitians thought of the hypochondriack Passion and of its essence and Causes we will only take notice that most of them do ascribe this sickly Disposition to the only fault of the Spleen In the mean time some contend that the whole confines of this Inward partaking of part of the fault the blood flowing every where in the Splenetick and Epigastric Vessells or those belonging to the Spleen and belly for that it being guilty of an hot and dry intemperature and so obnoxious to too much fermentation brings forth the original or gives a beginning to this manifold evill But the famous Highmore affording relief as well to the Spleen as the Womb hath cast the chief Cause of this Disease wholly on the vitious Constitution of the ventricle and from thence he would have the reasons of the aforesaid Symptoms to be originally sought But indeed that he might frame a fit hypothesis for the solving the Phaenomena of this sickness he first supposes the tone of the stomach to become too loose and weak that for that reason it hardly and very imperfectly Concocts the aliments so that the thin and more Spirituous part of the Chyle being sent from thence sooner than it ought to the blood perverts its disposition to a hot and sour temper then the residue of the food by a longer stay within the Ventricle degenerates into a ponderous and viscous or clammy Phlegme which also by its Stagnation even as it is observable in things to be eaten being longer kept becomes very sour or sharp But from hence that learned Man argues that from the blood made too serous and thin its effervescencies quickly passing thorow it are induced and from the stomach loaded with ballast of ropy or viscous matter the winde and distentions of the Ventricle and hypochondria as also the belching and troublesome Spitting do arise whereby indeed he wholly exempts the Spleen from this fault he contends that it doth neither draw to it self the melancholly dregs of the blood nor serves for any office whatsoever about the Sanguification or the making of blood but that its use almost only consists in this that this Inward swelling up or growing turgid with very hot blood it administers heat to the adjacent Ventricle and cherishes it with gentle warmth Altho I may so far assent to this famous Author concerning this opinion The Hypothesis of Dr. Highmore sifted that I yield the ventricle doth often grievously labour in this Distemper forasmuch as the tone of which being made lax and its strength broken by reason of the indigestion of the aliment a load of viscous Phlegm or Petuitous matter is begotten even in its bosom to which by reason of the Saline particles being brought into a flux by their long stay oftentimes a notable soarness and austereness happen then because the fault in the first Concoction is not mended the dyscrasies and disorders of the blood receive that want of digestion in the second But yet he cannot draw me into that opinion that the ventricle is always chiefly in the fault or that the other Symptoms of the hypochondriacal Disease depend only on its vitious Constitution For I have known many cruelly afflicted with this sickness who have been well enough in their stomach although they have very much complained of the pulsation in the left hypochondrium of the straitness of the breast and a wandring pain excited in it also of the trembling and oppression of the heart with a continual fear and disturbed Imagination in the mean time they were wont to desire food greatly and to digest whatsoever was eaten without any trouble of the ventricle or heaviness and also without any spitting or acid belching yea I have observed others great drinkers and using an evill manner of living to have contracted a loosness of the stomach with an ill digestion windiness and frequent vomiting who sound enough about their praecordia and animal faculties were not at all accounted for hypochondriacs Besides in this Distemper the ventricle is often rather sick from the vitiousness of other parts or of the Blood than from its own default because it is usual for those sort of sick people to be well in their stomach so long as they may lye abed and breath it forth but when they are raised up the pores being shut up and the dregginess of the bloudy mass stagnating within presently to be afflicted with the pain of the heart an aggestion of winde and frequent endeavours to vomit For these and other Considerable Reasons I judge the original of the hypochondriacal Disease to be derived from some other fountain than the weakness of the Ventricle but forasmuch as among the parts here primarily suspected to be affected great complaints are made against the Spleen it will be worth our while to enquire what office this Inward doth discharge then as often as it fails in it whether it contributes to this Disease The use of the Spleen is inquired into Tho I may grant with Doctor Highmore that the Spleen doth cherish the Ventricle with its warmth and so perhaps in some measure help Concoction yet I do not conclude this part to be framed chiefly for that end but for some more noble uses because there seems to be need for the digesting of the food in the stomach not so much of heat as of an active ferment For fishes being actually cold devour their food whole and without the help of heat easily concoct the same being resolved as it were by a certain menstrum besides it is observed of the spleen that though in man its whole substance lyes near to the ventricle in most other creatures who are indued with a longish form as to the greatest part of it it is removed far from the Ventricle Further if the Spleen be the only Chimny in which the blood warming the Ventricle is contained what is the reason that it rather than the Liver or Lungs becomes of a livid or blewish colour and is stuffed with a black blood and that less hot See his discourse of fermentation Chap. 5th When I consider these things which sometime since I have observed concerning the use of the Spleen it seems far more probable that a certain dreggy portion viz. a matter consisting of an earthly and fixed salt is layd up in this Inward