or melted substance is to be reputed the truer seed of the Hen though it be not ejected in coition but provided ready before coition or else collected after it as shall be perhaps more largely declared to be incident to several Animals which the geniture of the Male doth according to Aristotle coagulate Since therefore I plainly see that all the parts are fashioned and fed by this one moisture onely as the matter and first root of all and since the fore-cited argument doth necessarily conclude as much I can scarce refrain my pen from rebuking those that follow Empedocles and Hippocrates also who will needs have all similar bodies to be generated by the congregation of the four contrary Elements as being mixt bodies and dissolved or corrupted by their segregation nor is Democritus and the Epicureans who follow him less blameable who constitute all things out of the confluence of Atomes of different Figures For it was their errour of old and is a popular errour at this day that all similar bodies are framed out of heterogeneous or different bodies For according to this opinion had a man Lincous his eyes he could not discerne any thing that were similar one in number identity and continuity but there were nothing but an appearing union and an assembly or heap made up of a congregation and certaine colligation of indivisible bodies so that generation were nothing else but an aggregation and convenient positure of several parts But for my part neither in the production of Animals nor in the generation of any similar body whatsoever whether it were of the parts of Animals Plants Stones or Minerals c. I could never discover any such congregation or any several praeexistent miscible bodies which were to be united afterwards in the work of Generation Nor so far as I could ever yet perceive or by any meanes observe are there any similar parts which are first constituted in their several order or existence at the same time together as membranes flesh fibres gristles bones c. that so from them conioined together as out of the Elements or first rudiments of Animals the organs or parts and the whole entire animal should at last be framed but as we said before the first rudiment of the body is onely a similar soft gluten or stiff substance not unlike a spermatical concernment or coagulated seed out of which the decree of Generation going on being changed cut in sunder or distributed into several parcels as by the divine Mandat as we have said let here be a Bone there a Nerve or a Muscle here the Bowels the receptacles of the Excrements c. out of an inorganical substance was made an organical out of one and that one being of the same nature were many things made and those also diverse and contrary not by a kind of transposition or local motion as if by the virtue of the heat there did arise a congregation of homogeneous and a disgregation of hetorogeneous bodies but rather by a disgregation of homogeneous parts or bodies then any composition of heterogeneous And this do I believe to be observed in every Generation so that the Similary mixt bodies have not their Elements existent in time before them but are rather themselves in being before their Elements whether you understand by Elements the Fire the Aire the Earth and the Water with Empedocles and Aristotle or the Salt the Sulphur and the Mercury with the Chymists or the Atomes with Democritus as being in Nature more perfect then they There are I say mixt and compounded bodies even in respect of time before any Elements as they call them into which they are corrupted and determine for they are dissolved into those elements rather in order to our apprehension then really and actually And therefore those bodies called Elements are not before those things which are made and generated but rather after them and their Reliques rather then their Principles Nor doth Aristotle himself nor any other Philosopher demonstrate that the elements do subsist apart or are the Principles of similar bodies Indeed Aristotle where he goes about to prove that there are such things as Elements seems to waver in his judgement whether he should resolve that they were actually in being or onely in potentiâ and doth conceive that in natural things they are in potentiâ rather then actu and therefore he affirms that there are such things as Elements out of the division segregation and solution of things And yet that is but an infirme argument namely that natural bodies are generated or compounded first out of those things into which they are at last dissolved and corrupted for by that argument somethings should be compounded of Glasse of Ashes and of Smoak because we see them reduced at last into such bodies and since Artificial Distillation doth clearly demonstrate that so many several Vapours or Waters and those all of them of different Species are extracted out of so many several bodies the number of the elements ought to multiply in infinitum Nor doth any Philosopher say that the Bodies which are dissolved by Art and are called Sincere Bodies and indivisible in species are more single elements then the Aire Water and Earth which we perceive by Sense and are obvious to our eyes And lastly we do not see that any thing is naturally produced out of fire as a miscible substance and perhaps it is altogether impossible there should since fire like a kind of living body is in contiual flux and seeketh sustenance whereby it may be nourished and conserved according to that of Aristotle that fire onely is nourished and that chiefly because of its form But whatsoever is nourished cannot possibly be it self mixed with its nutriment Whereupon it followeth that it is impossible for Fire to be miscible For Mistion according to Aristotle is miscibilium alteratorum unio the union of miscible things altered where one miscible thing is not transformed into another but both of them being both active and passive in regard of themselves do constitute a third thing but generation especially that which is by a Metamorphosis is the distribution of one similar thing which is to be altered into diverse more Nor are mixt similar bodies said to be generated out of the Elements but in some sort to be constituted out of them into which also they are capable to be dissolved But these matters do properly relate to that part of Physiology which treateth of the Elements and the Temperaments where also we shall discourse more copiously of them Of the Birth AFter the Generation the Birth succeedeth by which the Foetus comming into the world doth enjoy the outward Aire Whereupon we conceive it convenient to speak something concerning it And therefore with Fabricius we shall consider the Causes Manner and Times of Birth as also those things which are precedent and subsequent thereunto Those things which are incident a litle before the Birth and especially to Women
like to those but the spirit which is inclosed in the seed and spumous body and the nature which is in that spirit being answerable and like in proportion to the Element or substance of the Stars Wherefore though wee should indulge Fabricius in his opinion that the Seed is reserved in that pouch yet notwithstanding after the prolifical effervency or the spirit is resolved it would grow useless and improlifical And from hence may Physitians take notice that the geniture of the male is not therefore the architect of the foetus because the first cenception assumes its body from it but because it is spirituous and boyling as being inspired with a fertile spirit and turgent like a thing possessed For otherwise Averrhoes his fable of the woman that conceived in a Bath might have some title to true story But of these things more in their proper place As therefore the Egg is made by the Hen so iâ— it also very likely that all the first conceptions aâ— shall be shown hereafter doe assume both their Matter and Form from the female and that also after the males geniture is immitted and now for some time quite departed and vanished away For the Cock doth not conferre any fertility to the Hen or Eggs by the bare emission of his geniture but onely so farre forth as that geniture is prolifical and impowered with a plastical virtue that is to say spiritous operative and proportionable to the subtence of the Stars The male therefore is no more to be prized as the chief principle of the conception and foetus by reason he can concoct and emit seed then a female which can produce an egg without his help But he therefore rather claims prerogative in that he impowers his seed with spirit and divine efficacy and so that in a moment it can perform its affaires and conveigh fertility For as we see things immediately set on fire and infamed by a spark struck from a flint or by a flash of Lightning from a cloud so the geniture of the male doth immediately affect the female with the touch and transferres fruitfulness unto her which doth not onely virtuate the eggs but the womb also and the Hen herself and all in an instant for to combustible substance is sooner set on fire by the approach of the flames then the Hen is made pregnant by the coition of the Cock. But what it is that is transferred from him to her we shall have occasion to discover in its order then we shall determine the matter more perspicuously and in general In the mean time we must take notice that if it be derived from the soul for it is most likely that whatsoever is fruitfull the same is also animate and we have said before that an Egg in Aristoiles opinion is indowed with a vegetative soul as also all the seed of Plants that soul at least the vegetative must of necessity be ex traduce and derived in a Prolificall Conception as after it as it is in the Generation of the Chicken out of the Egge and just in that manner as Plants do spring from seeds of their own kind For it doth not appear that the Male is required to the intent that hee should be as an Agent Operatour or Efficient per se nor that the Female is required that she should contribute the matter but both Male and Female are to be esteemed in some sort the Operatour and Parent and the foetus is procreated a mixt similitude and resemblance as if it proceeded from both mixt together Nor is it true which Aristotle often affirms and Physitians take for granted namely that presently after Coition there is something to be found of the foetus or conception as the Heart or the Tres Bullae or some other Principle part or something at least in the cavity of the Womb as some Coagulum or Spermatical mixt substance or the like But on the contrary in case the Female prove fertile and pregnant it happens that the eggs and conception in the most and most perfect creatures is first begun long after coition And that the Female also is prolifical before any thing of the conception be at all contained in the Womb many indications do conspire to ascertain as shall be afterwards discovered in the History of Viviparous Animals as the enlargement of the Breasts and the turgid swelling of the Womb by which and other Symptomes we may perceive an Alteration in the whole Body But as for the Hen though she have for the most part the Rudiments of eggs in her before coition which are afterwards by the Tread made prolificall and therefore she then hath something in her presenly upon coition or treading yet when it falls out so with her that like other creatures she hath nothing at hand ready in her Ovary or hath already layd all the egges she formerly had there she being afterwards trod though some time pass between and intervene as if she were then both Principles her self alone or did possess the power of both Sexes doth after the manner of Plants generate egges by her self and those too I speak it knowingly not subventaneous but prolifical For if you take all the eggs from under a Hen that is now sitting in case that very Hen was a fruitful Hen in former time though she have now already layd all the eggs she hath and have not so much as one remaining in her Ovary she wil lay again and those eggs shal be fructifying prolifical eggs having the principles of both Sexes in them In what respect the Henne may be called the Primum Efficiens the first or Chiefe Efficient And also of her issue EXERCIT. XLI WE have already pronounced the Hen to be an Efficient Cause of Generation or natures Instrument in that employment but she is not absolutely and per se but by commission and by vertue of the Male rendered prolifical But as the Male is by Aristotle counted the first principle of Generation suo merito upon his own score because the first Motus or progress towards Generation proceeds from him so the Hen also may in some respect be esteemed the first cause of Generation insomuch as the male by the approach and presence of the female like one possessed is inflamed to Venery The female-Fish saith Pliny at the time of coition will pursue and follow the Male punching his belly with her head And again about the time of bringing forth the Male will do the like to the Female I my self have sometimes seen the male Fishes follow the female that was ready to spawn just as Doggs doe a salt-Bitch all in troops that they might sprinckle her eggs so soon as she had laid them lacte suo with their milkey substance or seed But that is most sensible in wanton and lascivious females which will stirre up Cupids slow and drowsie fires in their tame males and instill a silent love into them And hence it is that the Dunghill-cock so soon
some of them it was quite empty But as to the order of the production of the Parts we have still found the same to be observed in all Viviparous Embryo's whatsoever as Experience hath revealed to us in that of the Egge the Hinde and the Doe Of the Innate Heat EXER LXXI BEcause there is much talk of the Calidum Innatum or Innate Heat we do intend in this place by way of second course or addition to discourse a while concerning both it and the Humidum Primigenium the Radical or Primigenial moisture and that the rather because I perceive many men to please themselves much with those two Notions when as according to my judgement they do not understand their meaning The truth is there is no need at all to enquire after any kinde of spirit distinct from the Blood it self or to introduce any forraign heat or invoke the Deities to appear in the fable and so trim up Philosophie with vain opinions and fictions for what we commonly derive from the Starres is bred and born at home and within us For the Blood alone is the true Galidum Innatum or first-born Animal heat as it is made apparent by our observations concerning the Generation of Animals especially of the Chicken out of the Egge and therefore to multiply Entities is meerly frivolous For indeed there is nothing either before or more excellent in the Animal body then Blood nor are those spirits which some men distinguish from Blood any where to be found a part from the blood and the Blood it self without spirit and heat is no longer to be called Blood but Gore The Blood saith Aristotle is in a manner hot and in such a manner as it hath the essence of Blood in being hot just as if we should express Hot water under one word but yet being considered as the subject of Heat and such a substance as when it is in being is Blood so it is not hot for it is in some respect hot per se or essentially in some respect it is not hot per se for Heat is of its essence as Whiteness is of the essence of a white man but for asmuch as it is blood in relation to Action or Passion so it is not calidus per se or essentially hot We Physitians call that Spiritus a Spirit which Hippocrates called Impetum faciens that is whatsoever doth attempt any thing proprio conamine by its own proper endeavour and doth set upon any action or excite any motion with agility and vehemence and under that capacity the spirits of Wine or of Vitriol are called spirits And hereupon Physitians count as many spirits as principal parts or operations namely Animal Vital Natural Visory Auditory Concoctive Generative Implanted Influent Spirits c. But the Blood the primogenit and principal part of the Body is furnished with all these respective qualities and endowed with active power beyond all other parts of the body and doth therefore deserve the name of a spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger Fernelius others having not throughly considered the excellent endowments implanted in the Blood have phansied other Aerial or Aetherial spirits composed of an Aetherial and Elementary substance to be a more excellent and diviner Innate heat then blood which they conceited to be the most immediate instrument of the Soul most proportionable to all its operations grounding their opinion upon this opinion namely that the Blood as being a substance compounded out of the Elements only cannot perform any action beyond the sphere or activity of the Elements and such bodies as are framed out of them Hereupon they feigned a distinct spirit and innate heat which is of a celestial extract namely a most simple most subtle most thin swift lucid and aetherial substance partaking of a fift essence But yet they have no where demonstrated that there is any such substance or that it doth act beyond the power of the Elements or execute greater things then the Blood alone is able to accomplish But we who examine the nature of things according to sense have never discovered any such substance Nor are there in the Body any receptacles designed to the conservation or generation of such matters and they themselves also have not assigned any Feruelius indeed saith That whosoever hath not yet attained to the knowledge of the substance and condition of the Innate Heat must first consider the structure of our bodies and then address himself to the arteries which are seated in the cavity of the Heart and to the Ventricles of the Braine which when he shall discover void and empty and without any humour contained therein yet can be not imagine that such worthy matters are made by Nature rashly and to no use and upon this consideration I conceive he will presently conclude that while the Animal was alive they were replenished by some thin Aerial substance which when the animal Soul departed being exceeding light did insensibly vanish Now to support this substance the faculty of Inspiration is bestowed upon us which doth not onely coole the body for that might be derived to us by other meanes but also administer a kinde of nourishment But we affirm that so long as the Animal is alive the Arteries Ventricles of the Heart are filled with blood reputing the Ventricles of the Brain to be too mean instruments for so noble a work conceiving them rather allotted to the reception of excrements For what shall we say of those several Animals whose Brain hath no Ventricles at all And though we should admit that a kinde of Aire or vapour may be there found because Nature doth decline a vacuity yet that that substance is of a celestial extract and heir apparent to such excellent performances hath no semblance of truth at all But that which we most admire is How this so exquisite so divine a Spirit should be sustained and fed by our common elementary aire especially since themselves assure us that none of the Elements can perform any thing beyond their own abilities These men do likewise confess that the spirit is in continual declension and quickly dissipated and corrupted and that it could not subsist one moment of time were it not repaired by the plentiful accession of outward aliment and that therefore like the Primum Vivens the first particle inspired with life it must continually be fed And now what need of this forraign guest this Innomate Spirit or etherial heat Since the blood is of ability to execute whatsoever is attributed thereunto and since these spirits cannot recede from the blood without their dissolution Nay they do not move any whither or insinuate themselves into any part as distinct bodies without the company of the blood For whether you conceive them to be framed nourished and increased out of the thinner part of the blood as some imagine or out of the primigenial moisture as others yet all confess that they are no where to be found out
of the blood but that they continually cleave to the blood as to their support as the flame cleaveth to the oyle in the lamp And therefore their tenuity subtlety and mobility c. are of no more use then the blood whose inseparable companions they are So that the blood is sufficient to become the proportionate and immediate instrument of the Soul because it is every where present and doth fly to and fro with an admirable agility Nor are there any other bodies or spirital incorporeal qualities or any diviner heat to be allowed of as lux lumen the Light and Shine as Caesar Cremoninus a man excellently versed in Aristotles Philosophy doth solidly contend against Albertus If these men pretend that these spirits do reside in the primigenial moisture as in the last Aliment and from thence insinuate themselfs into the whole body thereby to nourish all the parts they then conclude upon an impossibility namely that the Calidum Innatum the Innate Heat which is the primigenial part of the body and stands it self in need of sustenance doth nourish the whole body For upon this account the same thing is both the thing that is nourished also the thing by which it is nourished and the self same substance under the same respect should both feed it self and be fed also which is indeed impossible for in probability the thing which doth feed and the thing which is fed are not so much as mixed together for miscible things must be of equal power and operate one upon the other And Aristotles position is Ubi nutritio ibi nulla mistio est Where there is Nutrition there is no Mistion For wheresoever Nutrition is there the Aliment is one thing and the thing nourished another and a necessity of the transmutation of the one into the other But whereas they conceive that the Spirits and the last or primigenial Aliment or some other thing what ever it be in an Animal can more then the blood operate above the power of the Elements they seem not to understand what it is to operate above the power of the Elements nor do they rightly interpret that place of Aristotle where he saith Every vertue or faculty of the Soul seemeth to partake of another substance and that more divine then those substances which are called Elements And likewise where he saith There is a certain thing in the seed of all things causing them to be fruitful which thing is called heat which is not fire nor no such faculty but a spirit which is conteined in the seed and frothy body and the nature which is in that spirit is answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars For fire doth not generate any Animal nor doth any thing seem to be constituted by thick moist or dry qualities But the heat of the Sun and of Animals not that onely which is conteined in the seed but also whatsoever excrement there be though of a different nature yet even that also hath a vital principle Wherefor it appeareth by what hath been said that the heaâ— conteined in Animals neither is it self fire nor doth take its original from fire For I also do affirm the same of the Innate Heat and of Blood namely that they are not Fire neither do they take their original from fire but do partake of a different and more divine substance then fire is and therefore do not act by any elementary faculty but as in the seed there is something which doth make it fruitful and exceeds the vertues or powers of the Elements in constituting an Animal body namely the spirit and the nature which is in that spirit answerable in proportion to the element or substance of the Stars So likewise in the Blood there is a spirit or virtue which doth act above the power of Elements most conspicuous in the nutrition or preservation of each particular part and also a nature nay a soul in that spirit and blood answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars And lastly it is most evident and my observations do plainly shew it that there is a Heat in the Blood of Animals whilest life continueth which is neither fire nor doth derive its original from fire But for the clearer illustration of these matters give us leave to digress a while from our purpose and declare briefly what a spirit is and what it is to act above the power of Elements and likewise what is meant by these words namely to partake of a different body and that more divine then those bodies which are called Elements as likewise what is that nature in that spirit which is answerable in proportion to the element or substance of the Stars What A Spirit and Vital principle is we have partly spoken already and shall now handle something more largely There are three several simple bodies which do chiefly seem to challenge the name or function at least of a spirit namely the Fire the Aire and the Water and every one of these doth seem to partake of a life or other body by reason of their perpetual motion and flux I mean the Flame the Wind and the Floud The Flame is the Flux or Stream of Fire the Wind of Aire and the Flood of Water Flame like an Animal doth move it self nourish and increase it self and is an Embleme of humane life And therefore it is much used in divine Ceremonies and was religiously kept as a sacred thing in the Temples dedicated to Apollo and Vesta by Virgins and amongst the Persians and diverse other Nations it was from all Antiquity honoured with divine worship As if God were more visible in Fire and did converse with us as heretofore with Moses out of the Fire The Air also seems to merit the name of a spirit too for a spirit is called spiritus a spirando from breathing and Aristotle confesseth in plain tearms that there is a kind of life and death of Winds And lastly the Water of the Flood or River is called Viva living Water Those three bodies therefore in as much as they enjoy a kind of life do seem to operate above the power of Elements and so partake of a diviner body or substance and hereupon were by the Heathen ranked amongst the gods who conceived that whatsoever did perform any eminent effects which did surpose the naked abilities of the Elements those effects did proceed from some diviner Agent As if it were the same thing to act above the power of the Elements and to partake of a more divine essence which did not deduce it selfe from the Elements Thus in like manner the Blood doth act above the Power of the Elements when now being the Primogenite part and Innate Heat as it is in the Seed and in the Spirit it doth constitute the other parts in order and this with an eminent providence and understanding acting in order to a certain end as if it did exercise a kind of Ratiocination or discourse
For it doth not these offices as as it is Elementary and deriveth its original from Fire but in as much as it is made the Primigenial Heat and most immediate and convenient instrument of life it self by being impowred by the Plastical virtue and function of the Vegetative soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Blood is the Vegetal part of Man saith Suidas which is true also of all other Animals And Virgil seemeth to have intended as much where he saith Unâ eâdemque viâ sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Both Soul and Blood Stream in one Flood The Blood therefore is a Spirit in regard of its excellent power and virtue and also celestial because the Soul is an Inne-mate in that spirit which Soul is of a nature answerable in proportion to the Element of the Stars that is something which beareth an Analogy to the Heavens as being the Instrument and Deputy of the Heavens And so in this manner all natural bodies fall under a double consideration namely as they are considered in their private capacity concluded within the bounds of their own proper nature or else as they are the Instruments of a nobler Agent and superiour power For being considered in their own proper abilities it is perhaps no question but that being all subject to generation and corruption they do derive their original from the Elements and act according to their rule but being considered as they are the Instruments of a more worthy Agent and regulated thereby they do not now act of themselves but by the guidance of another and thereupon seem to participate of another more divine Essence and so exceed the power of the Elements So likewise the heat of the blood is an animal heat inasmuch as it is guided in its operations by the soul and also a Celestial heat as being subservient to the Heavens and lastly a Divine heat in that it is the Instrument of Almighty God as we have formerly said where we also did demonstrate that the Male and Female are the Instruments of the Sun the Heavens and of God himself as being subservient to the generation of Animals The Inferiour World according to Aristotle is so continuous to the Superiour Orbes that all its motions and mutations do seem to borrow their original and regulation from them And truly in this World which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the beauty of its order the inferiour and corruptible things are subservient to the superior and incorruptible and yet they all are obedient to the will of the Almighty and Eternal Creator They therefore who conceive that in a body compounded of the Elements it cannot act beyond the power of the Elements except it do also participate of another more divine body and upon that ground do suppose those Spirits whereof they treat to be constituted partly out of the Elements and partly out of a certain Aetherial and Celestial substance do seem to have built their reasons upon a very shallow foundation For you can hardly finde out any Elementary body which doth not in its actions surpass its own proper power Not to seek farre for an instance which is every where obvious the Aire and the Water while they carry ships to the farthest Indies and round the world and many times also into contrary parts while they Grinde Bake Sift drain deep Wells cut Timber in sunder kindle fires bear up some things and overwhelm others and perform many other innumerable and wonderfull offices do they not seem to act above the power of Elements So also Fire how many and how strange employments doth it undergo viz. in the Kitchen and also in the Shops of such as deal in Mettles and in the Chymists furnace by subâ—â—â—ation fusion concoction corruption coagulation and infinite other uses What shall we say of it when Iron it self is produced by its assistance quod terram domat quaetit oppida bello Which tills the Field And makes Towns yeild When the Load-stone to which Thales did therefore ascribe a Soul draws Iron unto it and that Mettle which subdueth all opposers as Pliny speaketh pursueth after I know not what vanity and the Needle also being only touched by this Loadstone doth still direct it self towards the Poles of the world When our Clocks do faithfully strike all the houres both of Day and Night do they not seem to partake of another Body besides the Elements and that more divine then the Elements Since then such excellent Operations are produced by the dominion and sway of Art which operations do farre exceed the power of the Materials themselves what shall we then think may be produced by the prescript and regiment of Nature whom Art doth onely imitate And if they effect such wonderfull things in obedience to Men what performances may we expect from them when they are instruments in the hands of God himself In short therefore this distinction is necessary namely that no Primary or first Agent doth act any thing beyond its own power but every Instrumental Agent doth exceed its own power for it acts not onely by its own power but also by the virtue of the superiour efficient They therefore which deny such eminent endowments to the blood and flye up to Heaven to fetch down I know not what Spirits to whom they may ascribe those divine operations they do not know or at least do not consider that the work of Generation and of Nutrition also which is indeed a Species of Generation for whose sake they attribute such notable prerogatives to those Spirits doth much exceed the power of those spirits themselvs not of those spirits only but even of the Vegetal Soul nay of the Sensitive in a word of the Rational soul her self and not the power only but the very apprehension of the Rational soul for the Nature and Order of Generation is truly admirable and divine beyond the comprehension and grasp of our thoughts or understanding That it may therefore more clearly appear that those eminent attributes which learned men bestow upon the Spirits and the Innate Heat do belong to the blood alone These few following considerations do offer themselves over and above those things which are wonderfully evident in an Egge before any rudiment of the Chicken appear and also in a perfect and adult Foetus Namely that the blood being considered absolutely in it self out of the Veins as it is an elementary substance and composed of several parts namly of serous thin crass and concrete parts is called Cruor Gore and doth possess a few onely and those obscure abilities But being in the veins as it is a part of the body and that also an Animate and Genital part and the Immediate Instrument and primary seat of the soul and also as it seemeth to partake of another more divine body and is inspired with a divine animal heat it is then endowed with excellent abilities and answerable in proportion to the element of the Stars
of Ingravidation have not onely deluded the silly Women but the experienced Midwives and the skilful Physitians themselves Wherefore since besides the deceits of Women themselves there are several false Indications of Gravidation we must not rashly determine of the Inordinate Birth before the Seventh Moneth or after the Eleventh The ordinary Computation of going with Child observeth that time which our blessed Saviour the perfectest of all men did fulfil in the Virgins Wombe namely from the day of the Annunciation which is in March to that blessed day of the Nativity which we celebrate in December And according to this Rule the Sager Matrons keeping their account while they cast in the wonted day in every moneth whereon they were accustomed to have their purgations they are seldom out of their Reckoning but ten Revolutions of the Moone beeng expired they are delivered and reap the fruit of their Wombe upon that very day whereon were it not for their Praegnation their Purgations would ensue As concerning the causes of the exclusion or delivery of the Foetus Fabricius besides that given by Galen wherein he delivers That the Foetus is so long continued in the Wombe till being now enlarged and made perfect he is capable of being sustained at the mouth by which argument the weaker sorts of Foetus ought to protract their continuance in the Wombe which yet is no such matter conceives the other reason and that the more rational one too to be the necessity that the Foetus standeth in of more large refrigeration procured by respiration because the Foetus so soon as it is borne doth presently respire but doth not so soon feed And this he affirmeth is not onely observable in Men and Beasts but chiefly in Birds which though they be small and have yet but a tender bill yet will the Chickens peck that part of the shell where they stand in most need of respiration which thing they doe being more streightned for Breath then Aliment Seeing that immediately as soon they are escaped out of the shell they doe respire but abstaine from meat two or three dayes together But whether Respiration be instituted for Refrigeration or for any other use we shall more largely debate elsewhere out of our Observations In the mean time I shall propose this Probleme to the Learned namely How the Embryo doth subsist after the seventh moneth in his Mothers womb when yet in case he were borne he would instantly breath nay he could not continue one small hour without it and yet remaining in the womb though he pass the ninth moneth he lives and is safe without the help of Respiration I shall deliver it yet more plainly How commeth it to pass that the Foetus being now borne and continuing yet covered over with his entire membranes and abiding still in his water can subsist for some hours space without any danger of suffocation and yet being shifted out of those membranes if he have but once attracted the Aire into his Lungs he cannot afterwards live a minute without it but dyeth instantly doubtless this is not for want of Refrigeration for in a difficult Delivery he sticketh fast in the streights without anȳ Respiration sometimes for some houres together and yet we find him alive but yet so soon as he hath escaped and tasted the vital air if you deprive him of it you destroy him in a moment So likewise in the Cesarean Section the Infant is taken out of his Mothers wombe many houres after his Mothers decease and yet he is found alive and continueth safe without the use of Aire though he lye intombed in the Secundines but having once attracted the Aire though you instantly restore him to the Secundines againe he will expire for want of breath Whosoever doth carefully consider these things and look narrowly into the nature of Aire will I suppose easily grant that the Air is allowed to Animals neither for refrigeration nor nutrition sake For it is a tryed thing that the Foetus is sooner suffocated after he hath enjoyed the Aire then when he was quite excluded from it as if the Heat within him were rather inflamed then quenched by the Aire But thus much we have discovered by the way concerning Respiration being perhaps resolved to discuss the debate more fully in its proper place then which disquisition you shall hardly meet with a more nice for it is debated with Arguments of almost equall weight on both sides I return to the Birth which Fabricius conceiveth to come to pass besides the fore-mentioned necessity of Respiration and want of Sustenance because the Foetus being grown bigger doth press out by his weight and also can be no longer conteined within by reason of his large bulk and likewise saith he the Excrements are so multiplied that there is no longer place for them in the membranes But we have already proved that the humours in the Wombe are not Excrementitious Nor is the reason deduced from the Weight and Magnitude of the Foetus more available then the former for the Foetus swimming aloof in the humours is scarce any burden at all to the After-birth or Womb for some Infants of nine moneths are very litle and less then some others of eight moneths onely yet can they no longer subsist in the Womb. And as to the Weight Twins of eight moneths do preponderate any one single Foetus whatsoever though of nine moneths abode in the Womb yet are they not born till the nineth moneth Nor can we quarrel at the scarcity of Aliment since at that time there is entertainment enough even for Twins and sometimes for more Infants and also the milk which is conducted to the Breasts of Women in Child-bed being recalled to the Uterus would as conveniently supply the foetus in the Womb as out of it I shall rather impute the cause of being born to the juice conteined in the Amnion which being most proportionate to the nourishing of the Foetus doth either much faile or else is depraved by the admixture of the superfluities As I have also hinted before But as for the diversity of going with Child which is contrary to the time allotted by Nature which diversity doth chiefly respect Women I do ascribe it to the custome of living the infirmity of the constitution and the several passions incident to Women And therefore those tame Animals which live amongst us by reason of their lazy lives and plenty of food are of more incertainty in their times of Coition and production then wild Beasts which live according to Natures intent Likewise sickly Women have easier and greater dispatch in their Travaile then others but it falls out clean contrary to such Women whose strength is very much consumed For the same thing befalls them as happeneth to Plants whose fruits and seeds do more slowly and seldom arrive to maturity in cold Countries then to other Plants of the same kind which are in a fat and warm soile So Orenges in England adhere