part of Colon and the Spleen the right is spread through the Guts and the Mesenterium the left is called Vena splenica but the right Vena mesenterica The Vena splenica hath two branches before it come to the Spleen the superiour and the inferiour The superiour is called Gastrica or Ventricularis This is bestowed upon the Stomach the middle twig compassing the left part of its orifice like a garland is called Coronaria From the inferiour branch two twigs do spring The one is small and sends twigs to the right side of the lower membrane of the Omentum and to the Colon annexed to it This is called Epiplois or Omentalis dextra The other is spent upon the lower membrane of the Omentum which tieth the Colon to the Back and upon that part of the Colon it is called Epiplois or Omentalis postica When the Ramus splenicus hath just approached to the Spleen it doth send out two other twigs the uppermost and the lowermost The uppermost is called vas breve and is implanted into the left part of the bottom of the Stomach This Vein the Ancients believed to carry an acid juice from the Spleen to the Stomach to stir up appetite and to help the fermentation of the meat but it is certain both by Ligature whereby it filleth towards the Stomach and emptieth towards the Spleen and also by the general nature of Veins whose smaller branches and twigs still receive the superfluous arterial bloud from the part whereinto they are inserted into the larger chanels and conduct it towards the Heart I say it is certain from hence that this same vas breve carries nothing to the Stomach but only brings from thence into the Ramus splenicus the remains of the arterial bloud From the lowermost two Twigs issue The first is called Gastroepiplois sinistra this is bestowed upon the left part of the bottom of the Stomach and the upper and left part of the Omentum The second springeth most commonly from Ramus splenicus but sometime from the left Mesenterick vein and passing along according to the length of the Intestinum rectum it is inserted into the Anus by many twigs This is called Haemorrhoidalis interna as that which springeth from the Vena cava is called Haemorrhoidalis externa Now followeth Vena mesenterica or the right branch of Vena portae Before it be divided into branches it sendeth forth two twigs The first is called Gastroepiplois dextra this is bestowed upon the right part of the bottom of the Stomach and the upper Membrane of the Caul The second is called Intestinalis or Duodena It is inserted into the middle of the Duodenum and the beginning of the Jejunum and passeth according to the length of them whence some capillary twigs go to the Pancreas and the upper part of the Omentum After these twigs are past from it it enters by one trunk into the Mesentery where presently it is divided into two branches to wit Mesenterica dextra sinistra Mesenterica dextra placed in the right side is double and sendeth a number of branches to the Jejunum Caecum and the right part of the Colon which is next to the right Kidney and to the Liver It hath fourteen remarkable though nameless branches but innumerable small twigs One thing is to be noted that the greater branches are supported by the greater Glandules and the smaller by the smaller Glandules though they enter not into them for the Glands wait on the Venae lacteae Mesenterica sinistra passeth through the middle of the Mesenterium to that part of Colon which passeth from the left part of the Stomach and to the Intestinum rectum The use of the Porta hath been held till of late to be for the carrying nourishment to the Intestins and other parts contained in the Abdomen and also to bring back from the Guts the purer part of the Chyle to the Liver to make Bloud of and a thicker feculent part of it to the Spleen to be by it excocted into an acid juice and then carried to the Stomach by the vas breve venosum for the exciting of hunger As for this last opinion it appears by Ligature that the vas breve carries its contents from the Stomach to the Ductus splenicus and it is nothing but the Bloud remaining from the nutrition of the Stomach that was brought thither by the Arteries that is now a conveying back to the Liver and so to the Heart again in its circulation And as for the Mesaraicks carrying nourishment to the Guts or bringing back Chyle those errours have been sufficiently laid open before in the Chapters of the Venae lacteae and the Liver And their true use is only to bring back to the Liver from the Guts that Bloud which remains after their nutrition and which was carried to them by the mesaraick Arteries CHAP. XIII Of the Vena cava dispersed within the Abdomen THE Vena cava is so called from its large Cavity being the most capacious of any Vein of the whole Body for into it as into a River or Chanel do all the other Veins like Rivulets excepting the Pulmonaria empty themselves Both within and without the Liver it hath but a single Coat It s root may very properly be said to be in the Liver for by its Capillaries it receives the Bloud that is transcolated through the Parenchyma of the Liver from the Capillaries of the Porta and by its ascending trunk conveys it to the Heart Now these roots may in some regard be commodiously enough also called branches for the roots of a Tree in the Earth as well as its boughs in the Air are spread into many branches only there is this difference that roots bring juice to the trunk but boughs carry it from the same However we shall call them indifferently roots or branches The capillary branches then of the Cava are spread through the whole substance of the Liver and not its upper or gibbous part only as has formerly been taught even as we said before that the Capillaries of the Porta were indifferently dispers'd all over it Betwixt these Capillaries much less betwixt their larger branches there are no inosculations or anastomoses but those of the Porta being quite obliterated in the glandulous Parenchyma of the Liver these of the Cava arise out of the same and whiles they pass towards the Cava many of them meeting together make a twig as many twigs in like manner concurring make a branch which still proceeding further by the accession of new twigs and branches encreaseth its chanel untill at length it dischargeth it self into the Cava And thus do all the roots of the Cava in the Liver Wherein they do not all meet together in one common trunk as those of the Porta do but empty themselves apart into the Cava without the Liver And still the further distance the Capillaries have their origine from the
towards the Belly is called the Pubes and its lateral parts are called the Groins both which places in the Mature are covered with hair whereby Nature would in some measure veil the Privities seeing natural modesty requires it The Explanation of the Table Figure I. AA Parts of the Vasa deferentia which appear thick but have only a small Cavity BB The parts of the Vasa deferentia of a thin substance and large Cavity being widened CC The extremities of the Vasa deferentia narrowed again and gaping each with a little hole into the neck of the Seed-bladders DD The neck of the Seed-bladders parted from each other by a Membrane going between so that the Seed of one side cannot be mixed with that of the other before it come to the Urethra EE The Vesiculae seminales or Seed-bladders blown up that their wonderfull widenings and narrowings may be seen FF Vessels tending to the Seed-bladders GGG The Membranes whereby the Seed-bladders and Vasa deferentia are kept in their places HH The Sanguinary vessels running by the sides of the Vasa deferentia I A Caruncle-resembling a Snipe's head through whose eyes as it were the Seed issues out into the Urethra KK The Ducts of the Corpus glandosum or Prostatae opening into the Urethra by the sides of the Caruncle LL The Corpus glandosum divided MM The Urethra opened TAB VI. Figure II. A The upper or fore-part of the Bladder B The neck of the Bladder CC Portions of the Vreters DD Portions of the Vasa deferentia EE The Vessels running to the Seed-bladders FF The Vesiculae seminales or Seed-bladders GG The fore-part of the Prostatae or Corpus glandosum H The Urethra adjoining to its spongy part KK The Muscles called the Erectors or Extenders of the Penis LL The beginnings of the Nervous bodies separated from the Ossa pubis which puff up like Bellows when the Yard is erected MM The Skin of the Penis drawn aside NN The duplicature of the Skin making the Praeputium OO The Skin that was fasten'd behind the Glans PP The back of the Penis R The urinary passage whereby the Glans is perforated in its fore-part SS The Nerves running along the back of the Penis TT The Arteries running along the back of the Penis U The Nervous bodies meeting together WW Two Veins which unite together and run along the back of the Penis in a remarkable branch X The Vein opened that the valves in it may be seen Of the GENITALS in Women CHAP. XXIV Of the Vasa praeparantia THough it has been the method of divers Anatomists to begin with the description of the outer parts of the Privity yet because we would observe as much as may be the same order in Women as we have in Men we shall first begin with the Spermatick vessels which are of two sorts Arteries and Veins The Arteries are two as in Men. They spring from the great Artery a little below the Emulgents very rarely either of them from the Emulgent it self and pass down towards the Testes not by such a direct course as in Men but with much twirling and winding amongst the Veins with which tho' they have no inosculation as has been generally taught But for all their winding when they are stretcht out to their full length they are not so long as those of Men because in them they descend out of the Abdomen into the Scrotum but in Women they have a far shorter passage reaching only to the Testes and Womb within the Abdomen The Veins are also two arising as in Men the right from the trunk of the Cava a little below the Emulgent the left from the Emulgent it self In their descent they have no more bendings than in Men and therefore are considerably shorter Both the Arteries and Veins as they pass down are cover'd with one common Coat from the Peritonaeum and near the Testes they are divided into two branches the upper whereof is implanted into the Testicle by a triple root and the other is subdivided below the Testes into three twigs one of which goes to the bottom of the Womb another to the Tuba and round Ligament the third creeping by the sides of the Womb under its common Membrane ends in its neck where it is woven with the Hypogastrick vessels like a Net By this way it is that the Menstrua sometimes flow in Women with Child for the first months and not out of the inner Cavity of the Vterus but yet that Bloud does not flow at that time so much by the Spermatick Arteries as by the Hypogastrick The use of these Spermatick vessels is to minister to the generation of Seed according to the ancient doctrine but nutrition of the Eggs in the Ovaria or Testes according to the new the nourishment of the Foetus and of the solid parts and the expurgation of the Menses inasmuch as Bloud is conveyed by the Arteries to all those parts to which their ramifications come in which parts they leave what is to be separated according to the law of Nature the remaining bloud returning by the Veins CHAP. XXV Of Womens Testicles or Ovaria WOmens Testicles differ much from Mens both in their situation figure greatness covers substance and also use First their situation is not without the Body as in Men but in the inner Cavity of the Abdomen on each side two fingers breadth from the bottom of the Womb to whose sides they are knit by a strong Ligament that has us'd to be called and accounted the Vas deferens as if the Seed were carried by it from the Testes to the Womb. Of which afterwards They are flat on the sides in their lower part oval but in their upper where the Bloud-vessels enter them more plane Their superficies is more rugged and unequal than in those of Men. They have no Epididymides nor Cremaster Muscles They differ in bigness according to age In those newly come to maturity they are about half as big as those of Men but in those in years they are less and harder Preternaturally they sometimes grow to a vast bigness from Hydropical tumours in which several quarts of serous liquor have been found to be contain'd They have but one Membrane that encompasses them round but on their upper side where the Vasa praeparantia enter them they are about half way involved in another Membrane that accompanies those Vessels and springs from the Peritonaeum When this cover is removed their substance appears whitish but is wholly different from the substance of Mens Testicles For Mens as was said above are composed of Seminary vessels which being continued to one another are twenty or thirty Ells long if one could draw them out at length without breaking But Womens do principally consist of a great many Membranes and small Fibres loosely united to one another amongst which in the outer superficies of the Testes there are several little Bladders like to
red We will not spend time to shew in how many respects this similitude falls short of explaining the reason of the Phaenomenon but shall content our selves with inquiring from whence the difference of colour arises between the Venal and Arterial bloud Every one knows that Bloud let out of a Vein into a Porringer is indeed of a florid scarlet colour in its surface but all that coagulates is of a dark red colour from the superficies to the bottom and of such a colour it appears as it streams out of the Orifice of the Vein But if an Artery be cut the stream then looks of a far brighter colour like the superficies of the Venal bloud when it is congealed in a Porringer Now the Arterial bloud receives not this florid colour in the Heart but in the Lungs For if it receiv'd it in the Heart then might the right Ventricle be supposed to give it as well as the left but that it does not do so is clear by this experiment of Dr. Lower's If you open the Vena arteriosa which receives the Bloud out of the right Ventricle the Bloud differs nothing in colour from the Venal but its curdled part looks every whit as black But if one open the Arteria venosa as it is entring into the left Ventricle it has the perfect colour of Arterial bloud which shews that as it ows not that colour to the left Ventricle any more than to the right being not yet arriv'd at it so it must receive that alteration of colour in the Lungs in which the nitrous air being diffused through all the particles of the Bloud is intimately mixed with it and if you will accends it For if there be any such thing as a Flamma vitalis properly so called in Animals though the Bloud be to it instead of the Oyl or other matter whereon it feeds yet it oweth the continuance of its burning to the Air without the continued inspiration of which the Animal cannot live but instantly dies even as a Candle is presently extinguished if you put it in a close place where the air cannot come to it or by some Engine be suckt from it But this by the bye For I must confess that notwithstanding the plausibleness of the opinion this alteration of the colour of the Bloud by the Air in the Lungs is no sufficient argument to prove any such vital flame seeing the Arterial bloud being extravasated retains its florid colour when no doubt if there ever was any accension the flame is extinguished But this scarlet colour is meerly from the mixture of the particles of the Air with the Bloud from which it transpires in a great measure through the pores of the Skin while the Bloud circulates in the habit of the Body out of the Arteries into the Veins whence the Venous bloud becomes so much darker in colour than the Arterial And yet the Venous bloud it self when extravasated appears of a scarlet dye in its surface which is meerly from its being exposed to the Air for if one turn the congealed Bloud in a Porringer upside down the bottom which at the turning is blackish will in a little while turn red Though we have confessed that the Chyle does circulate through the Body several times before it be perfectly assimilated to the Bloud yet we do not think that it passes into the nourishment of the parts in the form of Chyle And therefore when speaking of the nutrition of the Foetus in the Womb Book 1. Chap. 33. we often mentioned a nutritious juice which was Chyle a little alter'd we did not call it so with respect to the solid parts of the Foetus but to the Bloud it self whose Pabulum or nourishment it is assoon as the Umbilical vein is formed as the Bloud is of the Body For as to the increase of the first delineated parts of an imperfect Embryo that is far different from ordinary nutrition The Bloud then consisting of particles of a different nature each particle passes into the nourishment of that part which is of the same nature So the salt and sulphureous particles being equally mixt are agglutinated and assimilated to the fleshy or musculous parts the oily and sulphureous to the Fat the salt and tartareous to the Bones c. Now this is not done by any election or attraction of the parts as if they pick'd and choos'd with a kind of discretion such particles of the Bloud as are suitable to their own nature For the mass of Bloud is equally and indifferently carried to all the parts But there is that diversity of figure both in the several particles of the Bloud and in the pores of each part that in the circulation through the habit of the Body some stick in these and others in those where they are fasten'd aud united to the substance of the respective parts and those which through their peculiar figure are unapt to adhere to one or other return again to the Veins and so to the Heart where they receive some new alteration So that as the Life of the Flesh is in the Bloud according to Levit. 17. 11. so has it its vital heat and nourishment from it also CHAP. VIII Of the parts of the Heart viz. the Auriculae the Ventricles and the Septum that divideth them HAving treated of the Heart in general and of its Action c. we now come to discourse in specie of the parts which it is compounded of viz. it s two Auriculae two Ventricles and the Septum The Auriculae or Ears of the Heart are so called from some similitude of shape they have with those of the Head for they rise from a long basis upon the basis of the Heart and end in an obtuse point making an obtuse triangle They are as it were two appendages of the Heart seated at its basis over the Ventricles They are of the same fabrick and use being both Muscles and made up of the same order of Fibres which are carried into opposite Tendons whereof that at the basis of the Heart is common to it and these Auriculae and the other runs along their upper part The right is larger and softer the left is less but more firm Their superficies is smooth when they are filled but when empty it is wrinkled and the left more than the right When they are cut open there appear in their Cavity many fleshy columns running from the upper to the lower Tendon and betwixt them there are pretty deep Ditches or long Cavities but fewer in the right than the left They are dilated and contracted in like manner as the Heart but at different times for the Systole of the Ventricles is at the same time with the Diastole of the Auriculae and on the contrary the Systole of the Auriculae with the Diastole of the Ventricles So that the Auriculae are a receiving their Bloud from the Veins while the Ventricles are expelling theirs into the Arteries and when
the Glands many do take for true Lacteals and therefore do believe that there are some Venae lacteae that conduct the Chyle directly to the Mammae But from whence those Lacteals have their origine is not agreed among the defenders of that opinion Some affirm them to rise from the Stomach some from the Pancreas and some from the Ductus thoracicus The truth is it is no wonder they should not agree concerning their rise seeing the opinion is grounded more upon rational conjecture than ocular discovery For as was said in the former Book Chap. 32. discoursing of the Venae lacteae their being said to convey the liquor into the Amnios That that were a plausible opinion if such could be demonstrated by Anatomy so we may say as to their conveying the Chyle to the Breasts where it comes to be called Milk But with all due respect and deference to the Espousers of this Hypothesis such as the most learned Sir George Ent Caspar Martianus Diemerbroeck c. we must crave leave to dissent therefrom with Doctor Wharton Doctor Needham c. till there shall be observed more certain footsteps of such Vessels The use of the Breasts in Women is to prepare or separate Milk for the nourishment of the Child Which how it is done we shall shew in as few words as may be It was an old opinion that Milk was made of Bloud sent from the Womb by the Epigastrick vessels ascending and as was thought inosculating with those branches of the Mammariae that descend towards the Navel But as later Anatomists have found those anastomoses only imaginary invented to serve an Hypothesis so it is generally denied that either Bloud sent from the Womb or from wheresoever is the true matter out of which Milk is made For not to mention which yet is very considerable that it is incredible that the Mother could every day endure the loss of so much Bloud suppose a pound and half as the Child sucks daily Milk from the Breasts I think the argument urged by Dr. Wharton may satisfie any Man Viz. Nature does nothing in vain she goes not forward and backward by the same path But if she make Bloud of Chyle which is certain and then make Chyle of Bloud again she goes so For Chyle is a sort of Milk as appears by the opening of the Lacteal veins If therefore that Chyle be first excocted into Bloud and then return again to the nature of Milk Nature should certainly frustrate her first work We shall not therefore spend further time to refute so improbable and now obsolete an opinion but shall avow that Chyle is the true matter out of which Milk is made which is done after this manner The Chyle being received into the common receptacle from the Venae lacteae of the Mesentery ascends up by the Ductus thoracicus and by it is conveyed into the subclavian Veins where it is mixed with the Bloud and from whence it is circulated with it through the ventricles of the Heart And when it comes out of the left Ventricle by the Aorta a good part of it as yet not assimilated to the Bloud is sent to the Breasts by the Mammary and Thoracick arteries whose Capillaries are inserted into the Glands through which it is strained or filtrated into the Tubuli lactiferi even as the Serum of the Bloud is separated from it by the Glands of the Kidneys into their Tubuli or Syphons And as those Syphons of the Kidneys carry the Serum into the Pelvis so do these of the Mammae the Milk into the common duct of the Nipple As for the Bloud that came along with the Chyle to the Glands that returns back again into the Subclavian and Axillar veins and so to the Heart Besides this matter of the Milk viz. Chyle Dr. Wharton suitable to his Hypothesis of the Succus nutritius of the Nerves thinks that the Nerves contribute their share which he calls spermatick for the nourishment and encrease of the spermatick parts of the Child But if it should be supposed that the Nerves have such Succus in them which we do not believe what weakness must it needs induce upon the Mother to have so much of it with the animal spirits daily drain'd out of them whereas we see that many Women are more chearfull and healthfull when they give suck than at other times We cannot therefore consent to that opinion And here a most difficult question may arise why the Chyle whether it be brought by some Venae lacteae or by the Arteries flows only to the Breasts at some certain times and not always seeing the Vessels that carry it are not obliterated nor it self exhausted They that taught that the Milk was made of Bloud and that that Bloud was sent from the Womb by the Hypogastrick vessels inosculating with the Mammary these I say deriving the Milk from the Menstrual bloud as its matter out of which it is made thought that the stopping of the Menses as commonly happens to Nurses unless very plethorick occasioned the regurgitation of the Bloud by the said Vessels up to the Breasts where so free a vent was found for it after it was first changed into Milk by their Glandules They assigned the same bloud for the nourishment of the Foetus in the Womb and that after the birth it ascended up to the Breasts But having in the former Book Chap. 33. shewn that the Foetus is not nourished at all by the Mothers bloud as also in this Chapter that Milk is not made of it we need not though it were easie to shew how ill this Hypothesis would satisfy the question if Bloud should be supposed the material cause of the Milk And indeed it is far easier to invalidate the reasons that have been urged for it than to produce any new ones that are more satisfactory For as above in Book I. discoursing of the manner and matter of the nourishing the Foetus in the Womb we scrupled not to expose our selves to the smiles of our so oversagacious Virtuosi in resolving all into the wise disposal of the Creatour so we shall not be ashamed to profess our I think invincible ignorance in this also and acquiesce in the wise providence of Nature However we will not omit to give Diemerbroeck's opinion which if it cannot satisfy may for its ingeniousness delight The cause of it says he is a strong imagination or an intense and often thinking of Milk Breasts and their Suction which worketh wonderfull things in our Bodies not indeed simply of it self but by mediation of the appetitive power or of the passions of the mind which induce various motions on the spirits and humours So the imagination and thinking of a great danger maketh a Man tremble fall be cold fall into a swoon yea hath sometimes turn'd all the hairs grey in a short time The imagination of a joyfull matter causeth heat and animosity of the Body thinking on a
substance of the parts and that in a greater quantity than suffices for their nourishment as was just now shewn what is superfluous must needs enter the mouths of the Capillary veins from which it goes forward to the larger and so to the Heart But seeing this way of transfusing the Blood through the substance of the parts answers not to that hasty circulation of the Bloud we above demonstrated it is necessary also to admit of the former way namely anastomoses in which the Veins are continued to the Arteries and that not only in their larger branches as that notable one of the Splenick artery with the Splenick vein but also in their smaller twigs in the extreme parts And secondly as to the space of time in which the whole mass of Bloud may ordinarily circulate through the Heart it is probably much shorter than many have imagined For supposing that the Heart makes two thousand pulses an hour which is the least number any speak of and some have told twice as many and that at every pulse there is expelled an ounce of Bloud which we may well suppose seeing the Ventricles are wide enough to contain two ounces and that it is probable both that they are filled near full in the Diastole and that they are near if not quite emptied by the strong constriction of the Heart in the Systole seeing the whole mass usually exceeds not four and twenty pound it will be circulated six or seven times over through the Heart in the space of an hour And by so much the oftener by how much the Bloud comes short of the supposed quantity or the pulse either naturally or by a Fever or violent motion is rendred more frequent By which quick motion the Bloud it self is kept from coagulation and putrefaction and the parts are cherished with vital heat which heat of the parts is much according to the slowness or rapidness of the circulation so when we sit still and the pulse is slow or rare we grow cold but when upon running or any violent exercise the pulse becomes more frequent and quick we become hot CHAP. VII How Bloud is made of Chyle of its Colour and whether the Body be nourished by it ACcording to Dr. Harvey's observations there appears in an Embryo a punctum saliens or red beating speck which is Bloud before any the least lineament of the Heart So that whatever instrument of sanguification the Heart may appear to be afterwards it contributes nothing to the elaborating of the first Bloud but it seems rather to be made for the Bloud 's sake to transmit it to all the parts of the Embryo or Foetus than the Bloud to be made by it But it must be confest that things proceed in the grown Foetus far otherwise than they do in the first formation For the parts of an Embryo are nourished and encreased before it have a stomach to concoct any thing and yet in a perfect Foetus none can deny that the Stomach does concoct and prepare nourishment for it so it moves before the Brain is formed so perfectly as to be able to elaborate Animal spirits and yet after it is perfected every one knows that the Brain does elaborate such spirits as being sent into all the parts of the Body by the Nerves enable them to move In like manner though there be Bloud in the Embryo before the Heart be formed yet after it is perfected nothing will hinder but it may at least contribute something to sanguification We will suppose then that as all the other parts are formed by the Vis plastica or generative faculty of the first vegetative and then animal Soul seated in the Ovum but assoon as they are perfected and the Foetus excluded are nourished by the Bloud so the Bloud it self being at first made in like manner assoon as the Veins Heart and Arteries are compleated so as it can circulate by them may not improperly be said to be nourished by the Chyle the Heart assisting the assimilation of the one into the other And this is done in this manner The Chyle ascending by the Ductus thoracicus as was described Book 1. Chap. 10. and flowing into the Subclavian vein together with the returning venal Bloud is poured into the right ventricle of the Heart in its Diastole or Relaxation then by its Systole or Contraction it is driven out from thence into the Lungs from whence it ascends again into the left ventricle of the Heart out of which it is expelled through the Aorta and passing along with the Bloud through the Arteries of the whole Body returns again with it by the Veins to the Heart For it undergoes many circulations before it can be assimilated to the Bloud Which is evident both because it is the Chyle but little alter'd that is separated in the Placenta uteri for the nourishment of the Foetus and in the Breasts for the Infant to suck in the form of Milk and also from hence that if one be let bloud four or five hours or later after a full meal there will a great quantity of the milky Chyle it self swim a top the coagulated Bloud But every time the new infused Chyle passes through the Heart with the Bloud the particles of the one are more intimately mixed with those of the other in its Ventricles and the vital spirit and other active principles of the bloud work upon the Chyle which being full of salt sulphur and spirit assoon as its Compages is loosened by its fermentation with the Bloud in the ventricles of the Heart especially but also in the Arteries these principles having obtained the liberty of motion do readily associate themselves and are assimilated with such parts of the Bloud as are of a like and suitable nature Now whether this alteration that happens to the Chyle especially in the Heart should be said to be by fermentation or accension or by what other action is a thing not yet nor likely to be agreed upon it is so full of difficulty But it seems to be by fermentation from the considerable heat observable in the Arterial bloud and if there be any thing of accension that seems to proceed not from any part inherent either in the Bloud or Chyle nor to be effected so much in the Heart and Arteries as in the Lungs whiles the Bloud passes through their Parenchyma out of the Vena arteriosa into the Arteria venosa and is inspirited or impregnated with nitrous air drawn into them by inspiration Which will be more evident by what follows Why the Bloud should be of a red colour rather than any other no reason can be given but the will of the Creatour though some attribute it to the Heart others to the mixture of salt and subacid juices with sulphureous even as the Oyl of Vitriol being poured upon Conserve of Roses or other thing that is of a palish red if it contain any thing of sulphur makes it of a most deep
the minor goes no further than the Muscles of the Hip. The other three are spent on the Muscles Skin c. of the Thigh Leg and Foot CHAP. V. Of the Arteries of the Thigh Leg and Foot IN B. 2. Ch. 11. describing the descending branches of the Aorta we traced them to the Thighs where the Rami iliaci begin to be called Crurales as was said of the Veins The Crural artery is less than the Vein and before it arrive at the Ham sendeth forth three branches viz. Muscula cruralis exterior interior and Poplitaea The first enters the fore Muscles the second the inner Muscles of the Thigh and the third runs down the hinder Muscles as low as the Ham whence it has its name When the trunk of the Crural artery is past the Ham it sends out three more called Tibiaea exterior posterior elatior and posterior humilior which are bestowed on the Muscles Skin c. of the Leg and Foot and what remains of it descends to the Foot upon which it is spent CHAP. VI. Of the Nerves of the Thigh Leg and Foot THE three lower pair of Nerves of the vertebrae of the Loins and the four uppermost of Os sacrum constitute the Crural nerves For all these very near their rise joining together and proceeding united for a while make four Nerves The first and third enter the Muâ—cles that lie upon the Thigh-bone whether for its motion or of the Leg. The second accompanies the Crural Vein and Artery down by the Groins and the inside of the Thigh on whose formore Muscles it is most of it spent but sends one notable branch down the Leg as far as to the great Toe The fourth is the thickest hardest and strongest of all the Nerves in the Body This distributeth twigs to the Skin of the Buttocks and Thigh to the Muscles of the Thigh and Leg and being descended to the Ham is divided into the outer and inner branches which bestow twigs on all the Muscles and Skin of the Leg and Foot to which there comes no other Nerve but the foresaid branch of the second The end of the Fourth Book The Fifth Book CONTAINING A Treatise of all the MUSCLES Of the BODY CHAP. I. The description of a Muscle A Muscle in Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mouse of which Musculus in Latin is but a diminutive as if it resembled a fley'd mouse or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to contract It is a dissimilar or organical part framed of its proper membrane a fibrous flesh a Tendon Veins Arteries and Nerves appointed by nature to be the instrument of free motion The parts then are either common or proper The common are three The Vein the Artery and the Nerve The proper as many viz. the fibrous flesh the Membrane and the Tendon The Arteries bestow on the Muscles as on all the other parts of the Body Vital heat and nourishment the Veins carry back from them what bloud is not assimilated to them and the Nerves bring Animal spirit whereby their action is performed And these Nerves spring either from the medulla oblongata within the brain or from the spinalis so called after it is descended out of the skull into the spine The Nerve is implanted either into one end or about the middle of the Muscle but at what part soever it is inserted that is the head or beginning of the Muscle As soon as it hath entred into the substance of the Muscle it is dispersed into a number of twigs which end in it and are continued or elonged into Fibres A fibre is thus defined by Dr. Glisson in cap. 4. de Ventric A body in figure like a thread slender tenacious tensile and irritable made of spermatical matter for the sake of some motion and strength Which he thus explains In figure like a thread i. e. oblong and round slender like a spiders web tenacious whose parts firmly cohere and are not easily broken tensile viz. that may be extended as to longitude its latitude being lessen'd and in like manner that may be thicken'd as to latitude its longitude being shortn'd irritable i. e. which by irritation may be excited to contract it self and the irritation ceasing to be remitted of its own accord made of spermatick matter namely if it be a bare Fibre but if it be stuft with a parenchyma perhaps it is not always made of only spermatick matter for the stuft Fibres may be divided into sanguineous and spermatick of the former kind are those of the Muscles of the latter those of the stomach and guts for the sake of motion and strength for in that it is tenacious it adds strength to the part and that which is apt to be extended and contracted is destin'd for some motion These Fibres being stuft in their interstices with a sanguineous parenchyma are that which we properly call flesh without fat For saith Dr. Croone all the flesh of a Muscle which makes the greatest part of it and of which the bulk of the whole body chiefly consists seems to be nothing else but that portion of the bloud that flows through the intervals of the Fibres which thickning by their coldness is staid amongst them and makes the musculous flesh The Fibres are commonly streight wherefore the Muscles of the belly called oblique and transverse have not their denomination from their Fibres for they are all streight but from their own position and situation so the Muscle called Masseter is accounted double because it hath two sorts or ranks of Fibres one lying upon another Every Muscle hath a proper membrane that invests it and distinguishes it from others It is continued unto the Tendon in such Muscles as have one The last proper part of the Muscle is the Tendon It is a similar body of a sinewy-like substance yet it hath a peculiar substance differing from a sinew white with a kind of brightness dense hard and smooth extended according to the length of the Muscle It s beginning may be reckoned to be at the head of the Muscle whence passing through the belly of it it endeth in the tail All Muscles which are appointed for the moving of bones have Tendons which are inserted into them but commonly those which move other parts as the Tongue Lips c. as also the Sphincter of the Bladder and anus have none or however such as are not easily discoverable for indeed some affirm as Dr. Croone that every Muscle has its Tendon It is not framed of the Nerve and Ligament mingled together as many have imagined First because a Nerve being lax and soft will not admit commixtion with the Ligaments being hard Secondly because the Nerve is not carried in the form of a Nerve to the Tendon but is either continued to or makes the Fibres of the Muscle Thirdly Ligaments are insensible but Tendons are of exquisite sense as appeareth by the great pain
the office of Arteries and that the Porta has so great society with the Porus bilarius that both their twigs are straitly tied together in the same cover 4. That the shoots of the said Vessels are not joyned by Anastomoses but that the grape-stone-like Glandules making the chief substance of the Liver are a medium between the importing and exporting Vessels so that by the interposition of these the importers transfuse their liquor into the exporters From these observations he concludes the Liver to be a conglomerate Gland separating the Bile and because it is usual for the conglomerate Glands to have besides Arteries Veins and Nerves a proper excretory Vessel as in the Pancreas c. dispersed through their substance and drawing out and carrying away the humour designed for them this kind of Vessel in the Liver is the Porus bilarius with the Gall-bladder And this is a very probable account of it It hath two sorts of Veins In its upper part the Vena cava entreth into it and spreads it self all through it in the lower as well as upper part Into the lower side the Vena porta is inserted whose branches likewise run through its whole Parenchyma Of both these Veins more fully in the two following Chapters It has but very small and few Arteries for the Porta serves it for an Artery bringing bloud to it Those which it has do all arise from the right branch of the Arteria coeliaca called hepatica there where it is joyned to the Vena portae whence being sustained by the coat of the Caul it ascends to the hollow of the Liver just by the Porta on whose coat with the bilary Vessels and the membrane of the Liver it is wholly spent For as was said the Parenchyma is nourished by the bloud brought by the Porta It has Nerves from the Intercostal pair namely one from the stomachical branch thereof another from the mesenterical called hepaticus But the Nerves are extended only to the Membrane and vessels of the Liver as the Arteries were so that the Parenchyma has but a very dull sense Till the ductus Thoracicus Chyliferus was found out it was still believed that the Venae lacteae were inserted into the Liver which was looked upon as the great organ of sanguification but now 't is known for certain that no Lacteae at all go to the Liver but that those vessels which were taken for such are Lymphatick vessels carrying from it a most lympid and pellucid juice That they are dispersed in the Parenchyma of the Liver has not yet been observed but it is very probable that they arise from its Glands and coming out of its hollow or lower side with the Porta they encompass it round as also the ductus Communis passing mostly towards the Mesentery and under the Vena cava near the Pancreas that is knit to the Stomach and Duodenum a great many do pass over a certain Gland sometimes two or three lying under the Vena porta and often adhering to it and from thence with many others passed by the Gland they open themselves into the receptaculum Chyli That these vessels bring nothing to the Liver and so cannot be Lacteals is apparent for if in a Live-creature you make a Ligature betwixt the Stomach and Liver in that part of the Mesentery that knits the Liver to the Stomach and Intestins in which Ligature let the Vena portae and ductus Communis be comprehended these vessels will presently swell betwixt the Ligature and the Liver but be empty on that side towards the receptaculum Chyli and the same is evident from their Valves also which open towards the said Receptacle but hinder any thing from coming back from thence to the Liver Concerning these we shall forbear to speak here designing a particular Chapt. for them viz. ch 14. Hippocrates in lib. 4. de Morb. says The fountain of bloud is the Heart the place of Choler is in the Liver This comes very near the truth as shall appear hereafter But from Galen downwards it was generally held that the Mesaraick Veins received the Chyle from the Guts and brought it to the Liver where it was turned into Bloud and carried from thence into all the parts of the Body by the Veins Yea and after the Venae lacteae were found out they would needs have them to terminate in it thinking it the sittest Bowel for sanguification and presuming that that task must be performed by some or other It would be needless here to stand to confute these opinions now that all the world is convinc'd of their falsity and by what hath been already said they may sufficiently appear to be erroneous no Chyle at all coming to the Liver How and where sanguification is performed we shall shew when we come to the Heart and here we shall declare the true use of the Liver The Liver then being discharged from sanguification it serves to separate the Bile from the Bloud brought plentifully to it by the Vena portae Concerning the nature of this Bile there have been divers opinions The Ancients amongst whom was Aristotle thought it to be a meer excrement and to be of no other use than by its acrimony to promote the excretion of the Guts And this opinion prevail'd so long as it was believ'd that the Liver had a nobler action than to transcolate this Choler But now it being found out that it has no other office it is believ'd that so bulky a Bowel was never made for the separation of a meer excrement and therefore they think it to be a ferment for the Chyle and Bloud whereby if they were not attenuated and prepared they could not be enspirited in the Heart This new doctrine I shall give entirely out of Diemerbroeck p. 154. The venous Bloud flowing into the Liver by the Porta out of the Gastrick and Mesaraick veins and may be a little by the Hepatick artery is mixed with an acrimonious saltish and subacid juice made in the spleen of the arterious bloud flowing thither by the Arteries and of the animal spirits by the Nerves which is brought into the Porta by the ramus Splenicus Now both these being entred the Liver by the branches of the Porta by means of this said acrimonious and acid juice and the specifick virtue or coction of the Liver the spirituous particles both sulphureous and salt lying hid in the said venous bloud are dissolved attenuated and become also a little acrimonious and fermenting a certain thinnest part whereof like most clear water being separated from the other thicker mass of the Bloud by means of the conglobated Glands plac'd mostly in the hollow side of the Liver is carried from thence by many Lympheducts as has been said But the fermentaceous spirits of greater acrimony mixed with the thicker and more viscid sulphureous juices for Sulphur is viscid and more strongly boiling whenas through the clamminess of the juices in which they
Menses flow It is otherwise called the Zone or Girdle of Chastity Where it is found in this form described it is a certain note of Virginity but upon the first admission of a Man's Yard it is necessarily broke and bleeds which Bloud is called the Flower of Virginity and of this the holy Text makes mention in Deuteron 22. verses 13. 21. And when once it is broke it never closes again But though a Bridegroom when he finds these signs of Virginity may certainly conclude he has married a Maid yet it will not follow on the contrary that where they are wanting Virginity is also wanting For the Hymen may be corroded by acrimonious fretting humours flowing through it with the Menses or from the falling out or inversion of the Vterus or the Vagina at least which sometimes happens even to Maids Or if a Maid be so indiscreet as to become a Bride while her Courses flow or within a day after then both the Hymen and the inner wrinkled Membrane of the Vagina are so flaggy and relaxed that the Penis may enter glibly without any lett and so give suspicion of Unchastity when indeed she 's unblameable saving for her imprudence to marry at that season Sometimes in elderly Maids the Hymen grows so strong that a Man is glad to make many essays before he can penetrate it Yea in some naturally it is quite closed up and these by this means having their Menses stopt are in great peril of their life if they be not relieved by Surgery viz. opening it with some sharp Instrument Close to the Hymen lie the four Carunculae myrtiformes so called from their resembling Myrtle-berries The largest of them is uppermost standing just at the mouth of the urinary passage which it shuts after water is made Opposite to this in the bottom of the Vagina there is another and on each side one so that they stand in a square But of these there is only the first in Maids the other three are not indeed Caruncles but little knobs made of the angular parts of the broken Hymen roll'd into a heap by the wrinkling of the Vagina according to Riolanus and Diemerbroeck These three when the Vagina is extended in a Womans labour lose their asperity and become smooth so that they disappear untill it be again contracted to its natural straitness De Graef affirms that the Vagina near its outer orifice has a Sphincter muscle almost three fingers broad that upon occasion constringes or contracts it So that he says Men and Women need not be solicitous concerning the Genitals being proportionable one to the other for the Vagina is made so artificially affabrè is his word that it can accommodate it self to any Penis so that it will give way to a long one meet a short one widen to a thick one constringe to a small one so that every Man might well enough lie with any Woman and every Woman with any Man Thus he Having thus described the parts of the Vagina its use is easily declared to be to receive the Man's Yard being erect to direct and convey the Seed into the Womb to serve for a Conduit by which the Menses may flow out and to afford a passage to the Foetus in its birth and to the After-birth CHAP. XXIX Of the Pudendum muliebre or Woman's Privity THE parts that offer themselves to view without any diduction are the Fissura magna or great chink with its Labia or Lips the Mons Veneris and the Hairs These parts are called by the general name of Pudenda because when they are bared they bring pudor or shame upon a Woman The great Chink is called Cunnus by Galen à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to conceive by Hippocrates Natura It is also called Vulva Porcus Concha and by many other names that fancy has imposed upon it It reaches from the lower part of Os pubis to within an inch of the Anus being by Nature made so large because the outward Skin is not so apt to be extended in travail as the membranous Vagina and Collum minus are It is less and closer in Maids than in those that have born Children It has two Lips which towards the Pubes grow thicker and more full or protuberant and meeting upon the middle of the Os pubis make that rising that is called Mons veneris the Hill of Venus which all those that will war in the Camp of Venus must first ascend It s outward substance is Skin covered with Hair as the Labia are which begins to grow here about the fourteenth year of age The inner substance of this Hill which makes it bunch so up is most of it fat and serves for a soft Cushion as it were in copulation to hinder the Ossa pubis of the Man and Woman to hit one against the other for that would be painfull and disturb the venereal pleasures Under this fat lies that Muscle that we spoke of from de Graef in the last Chapter that constringes the orifice of the Vagina and springs from the Sphincter ani By a little drawing aside the Labia there then appear the Nymphae and the Clitoris The Nymphs are so called because they stand next to the Urine as it spouts out from the Bladder and keep it from wetting the Labia They are called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wings They are placed on each side next within the Labia and are two carnous and soft productions beginning at the jointing of the Ossa pubis or upper part of the Privity where they are joined in an acute angle and make that wrinkled membranous production that clothes the Clitoris like a Praeputium or Foreskin and descending close all the way to each other reaching but about half the breadth of the orifice of the Vagina and ending each in an obtuse angle They are almost triangular and therefore as also for their colour are compared to the thrills that hang under a Cock's throat They have a red substance partly fleshy partly membranous within soft and spongy loosly composed of small Membranes and Vessels so that they are very apt to be distended by the influx of the Animal spirits and Arterial bloud The Spirits they have from the same Nerves that run through the Vagina and Bloud from that branch of the inner Iliacal artery that is called Pudenda Veins they have also from the Venae pudendae which carry away the Arterial bloud from them when they become flaccid They are larger in grown Maids than in younger and larger yet in those that have used Venery or born Children They never according to nature reach above half way out from between the Labia Their use is to defend the inner parts to cover the urinary passage and a good part of the orifice of the Vagina And to the same purposes serve the Labia above described Above betwixt the Nymphae in the upper part of the Pudendum does a part
dense Membrane and condensed into humour Dr. Lower opposing this opinion brings for argument that if it were collected this way because it would be continually a gathering it would soon encrease so much that this Capsula could not hold it But the abovesaid Lympheducts absorbing what is superfluous wash away this objection which if they did not his own opinion that it drops out of the Glands seated at the basis of the Heart would be liable to the same inconvenience For such destillation would be as continual as this condensation is supposed to be Naturally it is not in quantity above two spoonfulls This is that liquor that is supposed to have slown from the Side of our Saviour when the Souldier pierced it with a Spear for saith the Text John 19. 34. There came forth bloud and water The Pericardium is some sort of fence to the Heart but it seems to be chiefly made for the sake of the liquor it contains which serves for the moistening of the Heart and making it slippery that it may move more glibly CHAP. V. Of the Heart in general and of its Motion THE Heart in Latine Cor in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burn because it is the source of vital heat is the principal Bowel of the whole Body which no perfect Animal does want nor can long survive its wounds Vital spirit and natural heat are communicated from it to all the parts of the Body though perhaps not so much owing to its substance as to the fermentation of the humours in it as shall be discoursed hereafter It is seated in the middle of the Breast encompassed with the Pericardium and Mediastinum it s lower tip or Mucro bending a little to the left side Neither its Mucro nor sides are knit to any place but it hangs loose in its case only suspended by the Vessels that go in and out of its upper part or basis It s situation in Beasts that feed upon Grass is near the middle of the whole Body reckoning from the Head to the Tail but in Man and most carnivorous Animals it is nearer the Head whereof the learned Dr. Lower gives an ingenious reason Seeing says he the trajection and distribution of the Bloud depends wholly on the Systole of the Heart and that its liquor is not driven of its own nature so readily into the upper parts as into vessels even with it or downwards into those under it if the situation of the Heart had been further from the Head it must needs either have been made stronger to cast out its liquor with greater force or else the Head would want its due proportion of Bloud But in Animals that have a longer Neck and which is extended towards their food as it were the Heart is seated as far from the Head as from the other parts and they find no inconvenience from it because they feed with their Head for the most part hanging down and so the Bloud as it has farther to go to their Head than in others so it goes a plainer and often a steep way It has a firm thick dense substance thinner and softer in the right side thicker and more dense in the left but most compact and hard at its tip only on the left side of the tip it is thin as consisting mostly of the concourse of the inner and outer Membrane It s Parenchyma is for the greatest part made up of musculary Fibres so that it self may truly be reputed a Muscle It s Fibres are a few of them streight but far more oblique Both are inserted into a Tendon that is spread over its basis under the Auricles Part of which Tendon at the egress of the Aorta in some Creatures becomes bony as in a Stag c. On the outer superficies of the right Ventricle there run a few slender Fibres streight upwards and are terminated in its basis In which also terminate the oblique ones next under these ascending from the left side towards the right spiral-wise The Fibres that lie under these go clean contrary For they arise every where from the right side of the Heart whence being carried obliquely towards the left and having embraced each Ventricle of the Heart they rise to the basis of the left side spiral-wise as the other But they run not all of them the whole length from the basis to the cone for then would the Heart be as broad or thick at the lower end as the upper but some reach not above half way others a little further c. and some to the very Apex The Fibres of the left Ventricle differ not from those of the right as to kind only they are considerably stronger Which they are for this reason that whereas the right Ventricle only promotes the circulation of the bloud through the Lungs the left must cast it forth with that force as that it may circulate through the whole Body The curious Reader may find a most accurate description of these Fibres in Dr. Lower's treatise de Corde whither I refer him for to insist too long on such minute similar parts would not be suitable to this Epitome of Anatomy Though by a view of those Figures that I have borrowed of him their structure may be pretty plainly apprehended It s shape is like a Boy 's Top save that it is flattish behind or a Pyramid turn'd topsy turvy whence it is divided into its basis which is its broader part and upper and into its cone or apex or narrower and lower part which ends in a tip or mucro It is bigger in Men than in other Creatures considering the proportion of their Bodies It is lesser but more dense in hot and bold Men than in the cold and cowardly In adult persons it is commonly six fingers breadth long and four broad at the basis Outwardly it is cover'd with a proper Coat which is thin but strong and dense and very hard to separate from it it is the same with the outer Coat of the great Artery as that which cloaths the Ventricles on the inside is continued and common with that thin skin that covers the inside of the Arteries like a Cuticula and hence 't is likely says Diemerbroeck that the Arteries borrow these Coats of the Heart as the Nerves borrow their two Tunicles from the Pia and Dura mater of the Brain Upon this Membrane that invests the Heart there grows some hard fat about the basis which serves to moisten it It is not nourished by the bloud or nutritious juice received into its Ventricles but by Vessels running through its Parenchyma Its Arteries are two springing out of the Aorta before it pass out of the Pericardium and are called Coronariae because their trunks do not presently sink into the Parenchyma of the Heart but fetching a circuit on its surface the better to branch out themselves towards its cone they encompass its basis And
though at their rise they turn one on one side and t'other on the other of the Heart yet at their ends they meet again and inosculate one with the other so that if one inject any liquor into one it will run into the other It has also two Veins called Coronariae which encompass its basis in like manner and communicate one with the other These receive and carry back the Arterial bloud that remains from the nutrition of the Heart and refund it into the Cava Nerves it has from the sixth pair Dr. Willis's eighth which passing between the Arteria pulmonalis and the Aorta do send forth divers twigs on each side into the Auriculae and then are branched out into the substance of the Heart Dr. Lower says they are manifestly apparent over all the outer superficies of the Heart of a Calf or other Animal newly brought forth Great controversie hath been and still is about the motion of the Heart whether it depend on the influx of the animal spirits or on the dilatation ebullition or accension of the bloud in its Ventricles or partly on one partly on the other Plausible Arguments are produced on every side but such as rather tend to shew the shortness and insufficiency of the contrary opinions to solve this Phaenomenon than pretend to demonstrate any certain reason of it That the immediate instruments of its motion are its Fibres none can doubt but what sets these Fibres on work is all the question That it cannot be the Animal spirits conveyed by the Nerves only is apparent first because the Heart moves in the Embryo before either Brain or Nerve are so perfectly formed that the Animal spirits can be elaborated out of the Bloud by the former or transmitted to the Heart by the latter yea seeing they are made of Arterial bloud that must be sent to the Brain by the pulsation of the Heart before they can be generated And secondly because those muscular motions that depend on the influx of the Animal spirits are voluntary which this of the Heart is not for we can neither stop it nor hasten it at our pleasure Lastly because the Heart of living Foetus's as of young Puppies and of Eels being cut out of the Body and from all the Nerves by which any Animal spirits should flow into it will continue beating as long as 't is warm yea when it has ceas'd beating if one throw warm bloud or but warm water upon it it will recover some kind of pulsation again Which may serve also to convict the second opinion of errour for if its motion depended only on the dilatation of the bloud it would cease assoon as the bloud flows no longer into its Ventricles And as to ebullition or accension Dr. Lower's experiment or his observation are a sufficient confutation of their being the reason of this pulsation His experiment is this He drew out of the Jugular vein of a Dog about half of his bloud away injecting by turns into the Crural vein a like quantity of Beer mixt with a little Wine and this he repeated alternatively so often till instead of bloud there flow'd out of the Vein only a paler tincture like water wherein Flesh had been wash'd or Claret diluted with very much Water and yet the Heart in the mean time remitted but a little of its former pulsation ..... His observation which he had from a Physician worthy of credit is this A Youth about sixteen years old continuing bleeding for two days together his friends and those that waited on him gave him good store of Broth to keep up and recruit his Spirits which swallowing down greedily his bleeding was now and then encreas'd thereby so that at length having poured forth almost the whole mass of his bloud that which now run out was dilute and pale neither of the nature nor colour of bloud but liker the Broth he had drunk so much of And this kind of flux continued a day or two the Heart the mean while retaining its pulsation till at length being stopt the Youth was restored by degrees to entire health and grew to a robust and lusty Fellow This experiment and observation I say do make it apparent the motion of the Heart depends not on the ebullition or accension of the bloud for then when in the first the Beer and Wine in the second the Broth flow'd into its Ventricles instead of Bloud its motion must either have been more notably alter'd or rather have quite ceas'd these liquors being so far distant from the nature of bloud especially the Broth. And lastly that this motion is not caused partly by the influx of the animal spirits and partly by the ebullition or accension of the bloud may be evinced by the Arguments produced against each opinion apart and yet if a reason could be given this seems the most probable Namely that the bloud destilling into the Ventricles of the Heart is in them accended and rarefied and wanting more room expands or bears against their Sides and then the Parenchyma of the Heart being molested by that expansion calls in the Animal spirits for help which coming in in convenient plenty contract the muscular Fibres that make up the Parenchyma of the Heart and so by straitning its Ventricles drive forth the bloud contained in them into the Arteries But we had rather ingenuously confess our ignorance of the reason of so admirable an action and profess with Dr. Lower that it is too hard for Man to conceive of and that it is the prerogative of God only who searcheth the secrets of the Heart to know the reason of its motion also CHAP. VI. Of the Pulse and the circulation of the Bloud THE motion of the Heart is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Pulsus pulse or beating And this is performed by Diastole or Dilatation in which it receives Bloud into its Ventricles and Systole or Contraction by which it expells it Contraction being the proper motion of a Muscle the Systole is the proper motion of the Heart and the Diastole is but a ceasing or restitution from that motion For in the Diastole the Fibres of the Heart are relaxed so that the Bloud destills down into its Ventricles out of the Veins whereby when they are filled and in some measure distended the Fibres both streight and oblique begin to contract themselves and compress or straiten the Cavities of the Ventricles and also draw up the cone nearer its basis whereby the Heart becomes rounder and harder and the Bloud is expelled with force out of the Ventricles into the Arteries which motion is called the Systole But why the Heart should keep such stated turns of Systole and Diastole and continue them for may be fourscore years together that as we said above we cannot conceive the reason of but admire the wisedom and power of the Creatour in beginning and continuing such a motion Now seeing by this continual
inosculate with those of the Artery in all its ramifications The third vessel is called Vena pulmonaria or Arteria venosa this has but a single Coat as the other Veins have After it has accompanied the Wind-pipe and Arteria pulmonaris in all their branchings in the Lungs and by its small twigs has received the Bloud by anastomoses out of the Artery it unites first into two trunks viz. the right and left afterwards into one and opens into the left ventricle of the Heart At its orifice there are placed two membranous Valves called Mitrales because when they are joined together they do in some manner resemble a Bishop's Mitre They are of a stronger contexture than those called Tricuspides at the orifice of the Cava in the right Ventricle and so are the Fibres that ascend to them from the Papillae or fleshy columns stronger For seeing the Bloud is expelled more impetuously out of the left Ventricle than out of the right for the Bloud sent out of the one is to circulate only through the Lungs but that out of the other through the whole Body it was convenient that the Valves and Fibres should be stronger to sustain the violent motion of the Bloud and hindring it from returning into this Vein again to direct its course into the Aorta whose orifice opens in the Systole of the Ventricle Just as this Vena pulmonaria is entring into the left Ventricle there is in a Foetus in the Womb a Pipe called Foramen ovale that opens into it coming from the Cava as was noted above To which we shall here add that at its orifice into this Vein there is a Valve placed that hinders any Bloud from returning into the Foramen out of the Vein And here there is one thing worth noting concerning the pulmonary Artery and Vein That whereas in all the other Arteries and Veins through the whole Body besides the Bloud contained in the Arteries is of a bright scarlet colour and that in the Veins of a black purple on the contrary the Arteria pulmonaris containeth black purple Bloud and the Vein scarlet-coloured The reason whereof was shewn before Chap. 7. viz. That the scarlet colour of the Bloud is wholly owing to the mixture of Air with it in the Lungs And therefore that Bloud which the pulmonary Artery brings into the Lungs out of the right ventricle of the Heart being the Venal bloud that was brought thither from the circulation by the Cava changes not its colour till it passes out of the small twigs of the said Artery into those of the pulmonary Vein where the airy particles insinuate themselves into it and so alter its colour The pulmonary Vein hath no Valve in it except that at its opening into the left Ventricle Of which Dr. Willis giveth this reason That the Bloud within the Praecordia may always because of the Impetus of the passions freely fluctuate and regurgitate both ways backwards and forwards And lest the left ventricle of the Heart should at any time be suffocated by the Bloud rushing too impetuously into it the fleshy Fibres in the root of the Vein for both this and the Cava have such there by the instinct of Nature contracting themselves invert its course and make it flow backward towards the Lungs CHAP. XI Of the great Artery or Aorta THE fourth vessel is the great Artery called Aorta arcula a little Chest and by way of eminency Arteria magna because it is the greatest Artery of the whole Body from which all the others except the pulmonary are derived It springeth out of the left ventricle of the Heart and at its rise hath three Valves looking outwards called Semilunares being altogether like those at the orifice of the Arteria pulmonaris in the right Ventricle These hinder the Bloud from returning out of the great Artery into the Heart again The orifice of the Aorta or else the Tendon of the Heart that adheres to it in some Creatures especially in Harts does often grow bony and sometimes in Men according to the observations of Bartholin and Riolanus Assoon as the Aorta is gone out of the Heart it ascends not in a direct course towards the Head for if it had seeing it openeth streight upward out of the Ventricle it would have poured the Bloud in too rapid a stream into the Brain and the lower parts of the Body would have been defrauded of their due share but it first bends arch-wise so that its bowed corner sustains the first Impetus of the expelled Bloud and directs the greatest torrent towards its descending trunk and a lesser quantity passes up by the ascending being to convey the Arterial bloud to fewer and smaller parts In a Foetus in the Womb there comes a Pipe out of the Arteria pulmonalis into the Aorta called Canalis arteriosus which brings out of it the greatest part of the Bloud that was expelled out of the right Ventricle little more passing into the Lungs than may serve for their nourishment of which we gave the reason before Chap. 9. After the Foetus is born this Canalis degenerates into an impervious Ligament Before the Aorta come out of the Pericardium it sendeth forth sometimes one but oftener two small twigs from each side one which compass the basis of the Heart like a Garland and send down according to the length of the Heart other twigs These are called Coronariae When these two twigs have encompassed the basis and meet they inosculate with one another but not with the Veins At their rise out of the Aorta there is a Valve placed that permits the Bloud to flow out of the great Artery into them but hinders its reflux When it hath pierced the Pericardium and bended a little arch-wise backwards it is divided into two Trunks whereof the one is called Truncus ascendens the ascending Trunk the other descendens the descending Of these two the descending is largest because it ministreth to more parts The ascending Trunk running up under the Vena cava lies upon the Wind-pipe and is presently divided into two branches whereof one passeth to the right the other towards the left Arm They are called Rami subclavii because they march under the Channel-bones and assoon as they are gone out of the Breast are called Axillares The right is the larger and arising higher goes a more direct way towards the Arm the left is less and arising lower ascends more obliquely towards the left Arm. They send out several branches both from their lower and upper side From the lower proceeds the superiour Intercostal which runs along the interstices or intervals of the four uppermost Ribs and sends slips to the neighbouring Muscles and spinal marrow These sometimes arise from the cervical Arteries coming out through the holes of the Vertebrae From the upper side of each subclavian springs first Mammaria which descends towards the Breasts through the Muscles that fill
Till now the Foetus is encreased and nourished wholly by the apposition of the crystalline or albugineous liquor wherein it swims loose in the inner Membrane called Amnios having no Vasa umbilicalia formed by which to receive any thing from the Placenta But when it waxes bigger and begins to need more nourishment the extremities of the Umbilical vessels begin to grow out of the Navel by little and little and are extended towards this Placenta that out of it as Plants by their Roots out of the Earth they may draw a more firm nutritive juice and carry it to the Foetus But of this more in the 33d Chapter It has Vessels from a double origine some from the Womb and some from the Chorion The former are of four kinds Arteries Veins Nerves and Lympheducts all which though they be very large and conspicuous in the Womb and are so even in that very place where the Placenta is joined to it yet they send but the smallest Capillaries into the Placenta it self namely that half that is next the Womb. Those that come from the Chorion are Arteries and Veins and Dr. Wharton supposes also Lympheducts The Arteries and veins that come from the Womb spring from the Hypogaâ—tricks and also that branch of the Spermaticks that is inserted into the bottom of the Womb. Those that come from the Chorion are the Umbilical vessels of the Foetus Of the use of both the one and other we shall speak in Chap. 33. when we come to discourse how the Foetus is nourished as also of the use of the Placenta it self of which we shall only observe this further here That after it is joined to the Womb it sticks most firmly to it for the first months as unripe Fruit do to the Tree But as the Foetus becomes bigger and riper and nearer to the birth by so much the more easily will it part from the Womb and at length like to ripe Fruit after the Child is born it falls out of the Womb and makes part of the After-birth It was an old tradition continued for many hundred years that the Placenta adheres to the Womb by certain parts called Cotyledones or Acetabula That there are such in some Creatures it is certain Dr. Needham says they are only properly so called in Sheep and Goats in whom being with young the Uterine glands are hollow like a Saucer or an Acorn-cup and are adapted to the little Prominences or Digituli of the Placentulae that grow on the Chorion though Diemerbroeck say that on the contrary the Placentulae are hollow and so are truly the Acetabula and the Uterine glands protuberant and doubts not but these names were first given by those that dissected these kind of Creatures and were afterwards applied in following ages to other Animals So that no wonder there have been so great contests even about the signification of the word Cotyledon which is the Greek word for the herb Vmbilicus Veneris or Navel-wort and what that was that was so called in the several Creatures that were said to have them But because such Controversies are now obsolete and that 't is generally confessed that Women have them not we shall not in this Epitome run out into needless Disputes but only observe one singular opinion of Diemerbroâ—ck who ascribes Cotyledones to Women He thinks that each Woman unless she go with Twins has but one Cotyledon and that the foresaid Placenta uterina is it And indeed it must be confest that it resembles much the shape of that from which the Cotyledones have their name and therefore seeing he formed this opinion to defend our great Master Hippocrates who had ascribed them to Women that is as Diemerbroeck expounds it one Cotyledon to one Woman we shall not oppose it but confess it to be if not true yet both ingenious and ingenuous CHAP. XXXII Of the Membranes involving the Foetus and of the humours contained in them NEXT to the Placenta follow the two Membranes that involve the whole Foetus Chorion the outer and Amnios the inner betwixt which two after the Foetus is perfectly formed Dr. Needham c. affirms there is a third viz. Allantois which in Women likewise includes the whole Foetus Of each of these in their order with the liquors they contain The outer Membrane is called Chorion it is pretty thick smooth on the inside but without something unequal or rough and in that part of it that adheres to the Placenta and by it to the Womb has very many Vessels which spring from the Placenta it self and the Umbilical vessels It is but one even when the Mother goes with Twins for as in a Nut that has two Kernels in it they are both included within the same Shell but are each invested in their proper Membrane so Twins are both inclosed in one Chorion but have each a particular Amnios It invests the Ovum originally which Ovum being brought into the Womb and becoming a Conception this Membrane imbibes the moisture that bedews the Womb plentifully at that time For whiles the Conception is loose in the Womb and has no Vessels that reach out of it self nor is fasten'd to any part it must have its increase after the same manner as the Egg has in Hens which while it is in the racemus or knot attains no other substance but Yelk and when it drops off from thence and descends through the Infundibulum it receives no alteration but when it comes into the Cells of the process of the Vterus it begins to gather a White although it stick to no part of the Vterus nor has any Umbilical Vessel but says my Author the immortal Harvey as the Eggs of Fishes and Frogs do without procure to themselves Whites out of the water or as Beans Pease and other pulse and Bread-corn being steep'd in moisture swell and thence acquire aliment for the bud that is springing out of them so in like manner out of the plicae or wrinkles of the Womb as out of a Dug or Womb-cake does there an albugineous moisture slow whence the Yelk by that vegetative and innate heat and faculty wherewith it is endued gathers and concocts its White And therefore in those Plicae and the hollow of the Womb does there plentifully abound a liquor resembling the taste of the White And thus the Yelk descending by little and little is encompassed with a White till at last in the outmost Vterus having assumed Membranes and a Shell it is perfected Thus I say does the Chorion imbibe that albugineous liquor that from the first Conception increases daily in it and transudes through the Amnios wherein the Embryo swims till the Umbilical vessels and the Placenta are formed from and through which the Foetus may receive nourishment This liquor that it imbibes I take to be nutritious juice that ouzes out of the capillary orifices of the Hypogastrick and Spermatick arteries and is of the same nature
with that which afterwards is separated in the Placenta and carried to the Foetus by the Umbilical vein and with that also which abounds in the Amnios even till the birth For the plastick or vegetative virtue is only in the Ovum it self and the augmentation that the first lineaments of the Embryo receive is only by apposition of this nutritious albugineous juice But this Membrane Chorion by that time the Umbilical Vessels and Placenta are formed is grown so dense and compact that it is not capable of imbibing more but that which at this time is in it does in small time transude into the Amnios and so it self becomes empty and gives way to the encrease of the Allantois which thenceforward begins to appear whose liquor augments daily as the Foetus grows nearer and nearer to the birth This is my conjecture which I submit to the censure of the learned The Amnios is the inmost Membrane that immediately contains the Foetus It is not knit to the Chorion in any place save where the Umbilical vessels pass through them both into the Placenta It is very thin soft smooth and pellucid and encompasses the Foetus very loosly It has Vessels from the same origines as the Chorion It is something of an oval shape Before the Ovum be impregnated this Membrane contains a limpid liquor which after the impregnation is that out of which the Embryo is formed In it resides the plastick power and the matter also out of which the first lineaments of the Embryo are drawn But because its liquor is so very little there transudes through this Membrane presently part of that nutritious albugineous humour that is contained in the Chorion which it had imbibed out of the Vterus as was but even now shewn and this Dr. Harvey calls Colliquamentum And by the juxta-apposition or addition of this humour to the undiscernible rudiments of the Embryo it receives its encrease But though the Amnios have its additional nutritious liquor at first only by transudation yet when the Umbilical vessels and the Placenta are formed it receives it after another manner For then being separated from the Mothers Arteries by the Placenta and imbibed by the Umbilical veins of the Foetus it passes directly to its heart from whence being driven a great part of it down the Aorta it is sent forth again by the Umbilical arteries out of whose capillaries dispersed plentifully through the Amnios it issues into its Cavity even as far more gross and viscid juices in taking a purge or sometimes critically ouze out of the small mouths of the Arteries that gape into the Intestins There are some that think they have observed Venae lacteae to come directly to the Placenta and that out of it as out of the Glands in the Mesentery there arise others that convey the Chyle into the Amnios and this indeed were a plausible opinion if it were grounded on any certain or frequent observation of such Lacteals and were not rather invented to avoid some difficulties with which the former opinion seems to be pressed A third Membrane which invests the whole Foetus according to Dr. Needham c. is that called Allantoides though improperly as to Women For it is so called from its likeness to a Pudding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farcimen which indeed it does resemble in Sheep Does Hogs c. but in Women as also in Mares it has the same figure as the Chorion and Amnios betwixt which it is placed in their whole circumference Now though it must be supposed that this as well as the other two is originally in the Ovum yet there is no appearance of it till after the Umbilical Vessels and Placenta are formed and the albugineous liquor so often mentioned ceases to be imbibed by the Chorion out of the Vterus But assoon as the Foetus begins to be nourished by the Umbilical vessels and the Vrachus is permeable then presently this Membrane begins to shew it self containing a very thin liquor which is the Urine of the Foetus brought into it by the Vrachus from its Bladder and with which it is filled daily more and more till the birth It is very thin smooth soft and yet dense It may be known from the Chorion and Amnios by this that they have numerous Vessels dispersed through them but this has not the least visible Vein or Artery It is very hard to separate the Chorion from it because when it appears the Chorion becomes void of all liquor and so claps close to it But towards the birth of the Foetus it becomes so turgid with Urine that the Amnios immediately containing the Foetus swims in it and so may most easily be distinguisht and separated from it The liquor that it contains is as has been said the Urine of the Foetus brought hither by the Vrachus For assoon as the Foetus is perfectly formed its Kidneys must needs perform their office of separating the Serum from the Bloud for otherwise it would be affected with an Anasarca I say the Serum is separated in the Kidneys and glides down from thence into the Bladder in which it is found pretty plentifull when the Foetus is five or six months old Now it flows not out of the Bladder by its orifice because at that time the Sphincter is too contracted and narrow and if it should pass that way it would mix with that nutritious juice in which the Foetus swims in the Amnios and wherewith by taking it in by its Mouth it is partly nourished and so would defile and corrupt it and make it unfit for nourishment Nature therefore has provided it another exit by the Vrachus inserted into the bottom of the Bladder which though after the Child is born it grow solid like a Ligament like as the Vena umbilicalis does yet while the Foetus is in the Womb it is always pervious and conveys the Urine into the Allantoides that is placed betwixt the Chorion and Amnios where it is collected and preserved till the birth CHAP. XXXIII Of the Vmbilical vessels and of the nourishing of the Foetus HAving opened the Membranes that enwrap the Foetus there appears the Navel-string or Rope which is membranous wreath'd and unequal arising out of the middle of the Abdomen viz. the Navel and reaching to the Womb-liver or Placenta of a notable length being three spans or half an Ell long and as thick as ones finger It was convenient to be so long and lax that when the Foetus in the Womb grows strong it might not break it by its sprawling and tumbling about and after it is born the Secundines or After-birth might be drawn out the better by it The way that it passes from the Navel to the Placenta is very unconstant for sometimes it goes up on the right hand to the Neck which having encompassed it descends to the Placenta and sometimes it goes on the left hand up to the Neck