the right Ventricle of the heart where the blood is hottest and most boiling not onely because the Liver which is the Source of blood is neerer unto it not onely because the veins of all the right parts are more full according to Hippocrates but also because it is placed on the Right side where Motion ought alwayes to begin For as the Spirits are the principal Organs of all the Actions of the body and that Nature send them more abundantly where they ought to be strongest and most painfull we need not doubt but motion being to begin on the right side and all those preparatives which are necessary for it and the principal effect it requires being to be done in that place there must needs be a greater quantity of spirits flowing thither which heat and fortifie it by the heat it carrieth along with it and by those secret influences of those principles of life which she communicates unto it whence it comes that the parts themselves which serve nothing at all to motion and are on that side resent that force and that vigor which was destined for that onely action for the right eye is stronger and more exact then the left and the rectitude of the sight which is made by both together depends absolutely from it all those Organs which serve for generation and are on that side form males and those on the left females and speaking generally sickness most commonly assaults the left parts as those which have least heat and consequently are weakest Article V. NOw that Motion naturally begins on the right side is a truth which connot be contested if we consider what is done in all Animals for the four-footed begin to go with the right foot forwards others which have but two alwayes lift up the right first a man can better bear a burthen on his left then on the right shoulder because the principle of motion must be free and undisturbed And Painters never forget in the posture they place their Figures in to make them keep their left foot foremost as commonly we do when we stand upright forasmuch as it is that posture which brings the body to a condition to move when it would march There are even Creature to be found who by reason of their figure could not have those differences of Right and Left as Purple-shel fish and all the rest whose shels are in form of a Snails yet are they not deprived of Right because when they ought to move they must necessarily have the principle of motion All these truths being thus therefore established to wit that there are places and parts in the body which are more and less noble that the most noble are destined there to place the most excellent parts that the excellency of the parts is deduced from the profit they afford and that consequently the hands who for several services which they render are placed on high as in the most noble place ought to be more excellent then the Feet It remains now that we should shew that they receive a most considerable assistance from the principles of life and that all the noble parts communicate unto them some greater vertue then to any other whatsoever Article VI. TO which purpose we must first observe that Nature hath more care of those parts which are the most excellent that she commonly forms them first and that she useth more art in making them and more foresight in preserving them then she doth in the rest This appears in the order she keeps at their first conformation For after the Heart and the Brain which she first rudely forms the eyes which without doubt are the most delicate and the most noble Organs appear before all the rest of the parts even before there is any sign of the Liver Spleen or Reins The Mouth in all Creatures is also one of the first formed after the eyes the Organs of the progressive Motion are afterwards seen and then we observe the Liver the Spleen and the rest of the bowels as the last and most exact observations on Anatomy witness Besides we see that the higher parts are sooner finished and that in Children they are greater and stronger then the lower whence it is that they have all the same proportion which is in the stature of Dwarfs and that they cannot go by reason their legs are too short and too weak Now its certain that all the care which Nature takes either in forming them first or in advancing their perfection depends from the natural heat which she communicates in greater abundance for it is the general instrument of all her actions and the true subject wherein all her faculties recide So that if there are parts which are first formed it must needs be that the first portion of this heat which is alwayes most pure and of most efficacy in its Scource must have been dispenced unto them and if they perfect themselves before the rest it must be by a particular application of this quality which acts therein more strongly then in any other part and which for that cause is continually supplyed by the influence of the Spirits which augment and fortifie it whence it follows that the hands which are formed before so many parts and which are sooner found perfect and compleat then the feet have also had a more advantageous share of natural heat and a more ample distribution of the Spirits then they have had Article VII BUt if we will consider these parts in a more perfect condition and in a time when they are able to perform the principal functions which they are destined unto its certain that the Heart the Liver and the Brain do communicate them some greater vertue then they do to the rest of the parts for besides the actions of a natural and sensitive life which they have in common with them progressive motion is particularly reserved unto them So that to perform this action wherein is more pains and whereto more strength is required they need have a greater help and a stronger influence from those principal Members then is necessary for the rest of the actions of life So they must have more blood more heat and more spirits more blood to render their consistence more firm more natural heat to inspire more strength in them and more animal spirits to give them beyond Sence the motive faculty for without those conditions those Organs were useless and no motions could be made In a word since the instruments are no instruments but by the vertue which they draw from the cause which imploys them it must needs be that those parts which are instruments of motion must receive also from the principles of motion that vertue which make them act consequently they must have this vertue more then the rest they have more spirits to afford in them they have therefore also more communication with those noble parts which are the Sources of the spirits and of this vertue This reason is indeed common
is made and these veins part even from a common branch but it s so far off from the eyes that we cannot precisely say that they send veins to one another unless it be in consideration of the sympathy which is betwixt them And this is so true that often even he considers not the continuity of the veins in the distribution which he makes since he shews that the Head and the Lungs have a consent with the Spleen although the veins of the Spleen are not united nor continued with those of these parts because its sufficient for the consent he speaks of that these veins should have communication together by some means or other as shall be said hereafter But the more particularly to make the secret and profit of this admirable distribution appear we shall examine some of the Articles for when he teacheth us that of these four pair of veins which issue from the Head there is one which hath two branches which passes from the Temples and descends into the Lungs whence the one passeth from the right side to the left and goes into the Spleen and into the left Rein and the other parts from the left side and goes to the Liver and right Rein and then they end both in the Hemorroid veins Doth he not thereby demonstrate not onely why the opening of the Hemorroids serves to the Nephriticks and to those who have the Plurisie and Peripneunomy but why also their suppression causeth the Dropsie and the Ptisick for although there are other places wherein it seems that the reflux of the blood which they contain might be made yet the consent they have with the Liver and the Lungs is the cause that it is not elsewhere effected And without doubt those branches which descending go from the right to the left and from the left to the right observe the cause which we have so unprofitably sought why those imposthumes which are made from above downwards are not alwayes found on the same side where the Source of the Disease is but sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left although those which are made from below upwards keep still the rectitude of the part wherein the seat of the malady is for without this distribution of veins its impossible to give a reason of all their accidents Without which we should not yet know why the Breast and Genitals have so great a correspondence betwixt them that the Cough ceaseth when they are tumified that the swelling dissipates when the Cough comes and that even the swelling of the veins which happens unto them corrects those defects which render the voice wheazing and shrill To conclude it s the onely secret whereby Natures wayes are discovered in the transport of the humors which she makes from one part to another and to discern those veins which are to be opened in every sickness For although they have all one root although many of them have common branches which equally ought to distribute unto them the blood and humours which they contain yet the correspondence and friendship which is betwixt the parts obligeth Nature to drive them rather through one vein then another and choosing that which is most fit for it she leaves the rest which are neer unto it and have the same origine This evidently appears in the sympathy which we have before urged with such conducing examples for very probably its through the veins and arteries that this secret vertue runs which the Heart and Liver communicates to some of the fingers whilst the rest of those which are of the Hand are not therein employed and although they issue out of the same branch yet there is but one which bears this vertue from the heart and another that of the Liver otherwise there would be no determinate place to receive their influence and all the fingers of the hand which have veins and arteries would equally receive it which is contrary to experience To speak the truth also all these Vessels are but Channels and Conduits which cannot more then those of Fountains give any motion to the humours but it s the spirits onely which carry and draw them to those places whereto they are ordered and as the consent which the Members have one with another is entertained by means of those spirits we cannot doubt but the blood wherewith they are mixt goes not as they do from one part to another and but that in pursuit it makes that admirable Harmony of the veins which Hippocrates hath observed For without doubt this is the Foundation whereon he and the ancient Masters in Physick have observed in one and the same Member veins which had correspondence with several parts as in the arm the Cephalick the Hepatick and the Splenetick which they have alwayes opened of course in the particular diseases of those parts not sticking at those weak reasons which the inspection of bodies and love of novelty hath since authorized Article XVIII ANd certainly had we not had recourse to this direction of the Spirits we should never have been able to have given a reason for the rectitude which Nature observes in her motions when she is absolute Mistress thereof and whom Physick imitates in the evacuations which it ordains for when by the inflammations of the Liver the right ear grows red that ulcers happen on the right hand or foot that we bleed out of the right nostril or that there is an imposthume in the right ear and that on the contrary all the same accidents happen on the left side from the inflammations of the Spleen when I say Physick commands us to let blood on the same side the malady is and teacheth us that all the evacuations which are made on the contrary side are dangerous if made of themselves or useless if done by Art What other reason is there of this regularity which can satisfie the minde more then this which we have produced for what is said of the right fibres which enter into the composition of the vessels whereby some will have the humors to be drawn it s altogether impertinent since they are unable to make this attraction as we have elsewhere demonstrated That they are equally on all the sides of the vessels and consequently cannot determine the motion of the humors to the one sooner then to another that there are not alwayes fibres to favour this rectitude since from the Spleen to the left nostril there can be none the veins of the nose proceeding from the vena cava with which the Spleen hath no connexion and that in fine the humors which we finde out of the vessels those simple vapours and qualities communicate themselves from one part to another after the same manner without need of any fibres to agitate the business and which if there were any would be useless for the transporting of vapours and qualities To say also that this is done by secret conduits which are to be found in the flesh and which move from below
fever and impostume which was formed in her bowels brought her to her death Whence we may conjecture that a portion of that humour which was in the Spleen discharged it self on the finger as on a part which had connexion and consent with it and that this little discharge afforded her some ease but because all the cause of the ill could not be contained in so small a room the rest of it caused the imposthumation whereof she died yet to speak freely these are but conjectures which we bring in parallel with the foregoing observations which seem demonstrations of the Truth which we seek Article XIV ANd it were to be wished that we had the like to shew distinctly the rest of those sympathies which the other interiour parts have with other parts of the Hand But from the negligence men have had to finde them we are obliged still to speak truth that since those of the Heart and Liver are not to be doubted the rest must needs be so although they appear not so manifestly unto us and that not onely the Brain and other parts which have a publick and principal function as well as the Heart and Liver but also the Spleen the Stomach the Lungs the Kidneys and perhaps others also have every one in the Hand their proper and affected place with which they have consent and communication Article XV. SO that we may affirm and for a proof of this secret intelligence which the parts have one with another and for the honour of that whereof we discourse that the Hand and the Face contain an abridgement of all the parts of the Body for this is an Epitomy of all the outward Members having no part which hath not its particular and manifest relation with some one of them as that also hath of all the interior parts having no place which hath not its colligation and sympathy with some one of them And without doubt it s one of the principal reasons for which they have both had a constitution of hides altogether particular and that the skin which is every-where else separate from the Muscles is so united to that that its impossible to be separated Nature which hath destined those parts to be as it were Looking-glasses wherein all the rest ought to be represented would in them have the flesh joyn to the hide that the impression which it receives of the neves veins and arteries which are shed abroad in them might the more easily communicate it self and appear the more readily outwards That which is also to be found in the Soles of the Feet which in some manner participate the same advantages which the hands have whereon Podomancy hath been established which promiseth the same things that Chiromancy doth but with less success for those reasons which we shall deduce Howsoever it be it s an admirable thing and in my opinion not enough considered that there is none of the marks on the Face which we commonly call Moles but another is to be found in some part of the Body certain and determined which particularly answers thereunto for if any be on the forehead there will be another on the brest and according as that is in the middle high or low on this or that side this will have the same difference in its situation for one on the cheeks you shall have another on the thighs if on the brows another will be on the shoulders if on the ears another on the arms and so for the rest Now we cannot say that this correspondence is simply in those marks since all of them are formed of the same matter and that consequently they cannot have more relation one with another but they must be in the very same parts and that the society which they have together must be the cause that the one cannot be marked but its correspondent must at the same time suffer the same impression we see likewise that besides the secret consent which they may have together a sensible and manifest relation in the situation and in the structure which they have for the breast which is that part of the body which is below the head the most flat bony answers directly to the fore-head which hath the same qualities the thighs which are on the sides and are very fleshy relate to the cheeks which are even so the brows to the shoulders by reason of the eminency which both of them have the ears to the arms being both advanced and as it were without the work and so of the rest Yet all this signifies not that this resemblance is the true Source of this sympathy it s neither just nor exact enough to produce such like effects and its necessary there should be some secret bond which binds these parts one with another and which must be the principal cause of this wonderful har mony which is amongst them whereof these natural Characters are unreproachable witnesses Article XVI BUt it is not onely betwixt the exterior and manifest parts that this society is to be found there is yet another which is more general which was known by Hippocrates and serves for the ground-work of that ingenious division of the veins which he hath made in his Book of Bones for that admirable person having considered the several transports of humors and change of diseases which so often happens of some certain parts to others hath observed those veins whereby it might be effected and which were to be opened for their cure and to observe a method which might avoid confusion he established several Heads and as it were divers Articles in which he began the distribution of those vessels for he placed the first at the Heart the second at the Reins the third at the Liver the fourth at the eyes the fifth at the Head whence he makes four pair of veins to issue which afterwards spread themselves into several places Article XVII NOt that he did beleeve that those were the first Sources whence the veins draw their origine as Aristotle Galen and almost all their Sectators have imposed it on him since he knew that they were all rooted in the Liver whence they distribute themselves to all the parts of the body to convey nourishment unto them as in pursuit he makes it appear in the distribution which he makes of the Hepatick vein what he hath also reported in his second Book of Popular Diseases but it was to remark the consent which there was betwixt those five parts with the rest and those sicknesses and symptomes which they mutually communicated to one another So when he says that the left eye receives a vein from the right eye and this one from the left this must not be litterally taken as if they truly took their origine from those parts but it s to shew that the diseases of one eye are communicable to the other as if they had veins which carried them directly thither It s truely by the means of veins that this communication