voluntary function enter oftentimes into spontaneous Contractions unless they be hindred by their Antagonists as it appears for that the Spasm or Cramp of one Muscle comes upon the Palsie of another Contraction and Relaxation are iterated more swiftly in the Heart than in the Muscles of Respiration and so perhaps in these than in several others In those ready to dye the fleshy Pannicle every where trembling clearly shews their changes by innumerable beatings or leapings As to what respects the Humors whereby all the fibres of a Muscle viz. the fleshy tendinous and membranaceous and what lies between them seem to be watered filled or blown up we ought to take notice of them at least two of them to wit the bloody and nervous liquor if not more And in the first place it is clearly manifest to the sense that the blood doth wash all the fleshy and membranaceous fibres which are interwoven with these because if the Spirit of Wine tinctured with Ink be put into an Artery belonging to any Muscle the Vein in the mean time being tyed close the superficies of all the fleshy fibres and transverse fibrils are dyed with blackness the Tendons being then scarcely at all changed in their colour it appears from hence that the blood doth every where outwardly water all the flesh or fleshy fibres and only those We have not yet found by any certain mark whether the blood enters more deeply the fleshy fibres or instils into them the subtil liquor falling from them although this last seems most probable but indeed we affirm that all the fibres viz. the fleshy tendinous and membranaceous are perpetually and plentifully actuated by the implanted and inflowing animal Spirits and constantly imbued with the nervous liquor which is the Vehicle of the Spirits But how far or how much the aforesaid humors conduce to the exercise of the animal Faculties doth not easily appear but because the animal Spirits cannot consist without the nervous liquor and depend very much upon its disposition we may conclude that it doth serve something to the actuating the motive power for that reason also that the continual afflux of the blood is nevertheless necessary an Experiment cited by the Ingenious Steno and proved of late by others plainly confirms He hath observed that in a living Dog the descending great Artery being tyed without any previous cutting off the voluntary motion of all the posterior parts have ceased as often as he tyed the string and as often returned again as he loosned the knot These are the chief Phaenomena to be observed concerning the frame and action of a Muscle in the dissection of Animals both of such as were living as also of the dead and dying From which however placed together and compared among themselves how difficult a thing it is to constitute the Aetiology of the animal motive faculty appears even from hence that the most Ingenious Steno after he had very accurately delivered the Elements of his Myology by himself first invented nevertheless he wholly avoided that Hypothesis which might be founded out of them for that he yet doubted whether the explication of a Muscle by a Rectangle were convenient to Nature in all wherefore when many run to the manner of musculary Contraction by the repletion of the fibres and others from their inanition and some to both he ingenuously professes that the true causes of this thing do not clearly appear to him And as to this abstruse matter although I do not believe that I am able to bring to light or shew any thing more certainly than others yet as in mechanical things when any one would observe the motions of a Clock or Engine he takes the Machine it self to pieces to consider the singular artifice and doth not doubt but he will learn the causes and properties of the Phaenomenon if not all at least the chief In like manner when it is brought before your eyes to behold and consider the structure and parts of a Muscle the conformations of the moving fibres their gests and alterations whilst they are in motion why is it that we should despair to extricate the means or reasons of the motive function either by truths or by what is next to truth Wherefore I think it may be lawful for me here to bring before you our conceptions and notions concerning this thing indeed not rashly taken or to comply with our former Hypothesis or to oppose any other which if they shall not satisfie all may at least excite others to find out better But we shall here repeat what we have mentioned before viz. that the power or virtue by which a Muscle is moved proceeds from the Brain is conveyed through the Nerves and is performed by the fleshy fibres contracted and by that means abbreviated This latter is proved by ocular demonstration yea it appears by it that the motive force doth depend also upon those former and is so transferred by a long passage that the influence of the Spirits being suppressed in their beginning or intercepted in the way for that reason the exercise of the designed motion may be hindred Further we notifie that the motive force is far greater in the Muscle or in the end than in the beginning or middle because the Brain and depending Nerves are made of a tender and fragil substance and can pull or draw nothing strongly but the Muscle putting forth strongly its contractive force seems almost to be equal to the strength of a Post or Crow or of a Pully or Windlace Sometimes the local motion is a compound Action to be performed of many Organs which consist in divers places and as its virtue is far more strong in the end than in the beginning or way we will inquire by what means as it were mechanical the motive force may be so augmented or multiplied in its progress then what is brought to the motion from the several Organs As to the first in Artificial things when for the facilitating of motion and the increasing the moving force many Instruments are invented all of them or at least the chief may be reduced to these two Heads viz. first either the same force or impression may be continued without the addition of any new force from one term or end to the other or from the first mover to the thing moved which notwithstanding may be much increased in the way as the Centers of Gravity are farther off or multiplied for the farther the motion is begun from the first Center of Gravity the stronger it proceeds as is beheld in a Crow or Leaver and in other things reducible to a Leaver Then if other things be disposed beyond the first Center of Gravity successively before the end of the motion as in a circular Wheel the same motive force is wont to be increased very much But to this there is required that the instruments of motion be sufficiently strong and tenacious in their whole tract for otherwise the motive force being
two Tendons are ordained to each of them to wit to the end that the animal Spirits might be carried through short passages from the Tendons into the fleshy fibres and might leap back again because the compounded Muscle doth not always contain more series of moving fibres that it might perform many and divers motions but that it might make the same motion often with the greater strength For as we hinted before as a simple Muscle was as a single leaver or bar the compound seems as if it were many leavers or bars serving for the removing the same body conjunctly Further hence we may observe in some Muscles which are simple and regular that all the fleshy fibres are equal and so all the tendinous of one extreme being put together are equal to all of the other end being put together yet they single where they are shorter in one Tendon are longer in the other and so disposed that the tendinous fibres on either part the top and bottom have their excesses inverse and at once equal to wit that here a long is laid upon a short or the longest upon the shortest and there quite contrary the shortest upon the longest to the end that the motion might be so made every where in this or that side of the Muscle or at the end more strong more plentiful Spirits flow together into those parts from the longer tendinous fibres and on the contrary wherefore in some Muscles less necessary where the part of the flesh growing to the bone either becomes immoveable or only serves for the filling up of empty spaces one Tendon is shorter or lesser and oftentimes degenerates into a bony or cartilaginous hardness Further it is observed as to other strong and greatly moving Muscles that their Tendons are not so disposed as if they were only stays props handles or hanging crooks of the fleshy fibres for so they are only constituted in their extreme ends yet the tendinous fibres that they may be made more apt promptuaries of the animal Spirits being stretched out almost into all parts of the Muscle receive every where both ends of the fleshy which indeed yet more manifestly appears in the compound Muscles for that one Tendon being compounded embraces the extreme flesh and the other enters into the middle of the flesh as hath been already shewn But truly the animal Spirits whilst they leap out of the tendinous into the fleshy fibres are not sufficient of themselves for the wrinkling of them but require another elastick Copula from the blood this may be argued from many reasons First it seems to appear from this that the same Spirits being solitary or by themselves though most thickly planted within the Tendons stir up no Tumor or Contraction whilst they are moved in them wherefore being dilated within the fleshy fibres in a lesser quantity and having got a larger space they would be stretched out unless they met or strove with other Particles much less would they obtain a contractive force Besides when any wound or grievous trouble happens to a Tendon the belly of the Muscle or fleshy part is chiefly troubled with a Tumor or Spasm for the Spirits being irritated not so much within themselves but where they are violently driven among heterogene Particles stir up the greatest tumults and inordinations But further when the fleshy fibres are watered with the sanguineous humor beyond other parts and more than may suffice for their nourishment for what other use should it be assigned unless that it may contribute to the motive function Especially we take notice in lean Bodies which are more sparingly nourished that the Muscles being fused or drenched with more plentiful blood do perform the strongest endeavours of motions moreover it doth not appear by what way besides the expence of the Spirits in a Muscle consumed with continual hard motions or labours should be made up or renewed unless besides the small supplements by the Nerves others sufficiently plentiful should be supplied from the bloody mass Add to these that members destitute of the wonted afflux of blood easily fall into weakness or a Palsie and that from the observation of Doctor Steno in a live Dog the trunk of the descending Artery being tyed all the lower or posterior members were suddenly deprived of motion And though it doth not yet appear plainly to me whether the exclusion of the blood from the spinal Marrow or from the Muscles themselves or from both together be the cause yet however it comes almost to the same thing for as much as the animal Spirits being procreated within the Head and stretched out by the medullary and nervous Appendices into every member without the concourse of the blood they should not be able to perform the loco-loco-motive power Having thus far explained by what means a Muscle being contracted in the fleshy part as to all the fibres at once performs the motive function we shall next inquire what is the reason of the Instinct whereby every motion both regular and irregular is wont to be obeyed or is performed Concerning this in general it first appears that the motions of every regular motion yea and the impulses of some irregular motions being conceived within the Brain or Cerebel are transmitted from thence by the Nerves to every Muscle This as we have elsewhere shewn is most evidently declared by the effects and consequences yet here great difficulties remain to wit how by the same passages fresh forces of animal Spirits are conveyed from the Head to every Muscle and at the same time the old ones exercising the Empire of the Soul besides with what difference and divers carriage of the inflowing Spirits the Nerves perform either of these tasks or both these offices Of these as I conjecture it seems that the animal Spirits which flowing continually from the Head to refresh the forces of the implanted Spirits are carried to the Muscle by the Nerves do move to it quietly and easily and being there presently received by the membranaceous Fibres they go apart into the Tendons which kind of relief although it should be but little in bulk yet because it is carried night and day by a constant course it easily arises to a sufficient provision for the continual filling up of the Tendons But that we suppose the Spirits so brought perpetually to the Muscle to be transferred by the membranaceous Fibres and not by the fleshy to the Tendons the reason is because if they should first enter into these straight running into an elastick Copula they would stir up the Muscle into continual motions more over for that in the Heart and Muscles of Respiration the fleshy Fibres are exercised with a perpetual motion they wait not for the passage of fresh Spirits to the Tendons But as to what respects the Instincts delivered through the Nerves from the Head for the performing or staying or any ways altering of the musculary motion of these we ought first to consider that the moving
make this sort of conjecture because the Arteries do carry the blood to this and the Veins bring it away neither any other thing is carried in or conveyed out and for that its substance is filled with black and stagnating blood it seems that it is as it were a store-house for the receiving of the earthy and muddy part of the blood which afterwards being exalted into the Nature of a Ferment is carried back to the blood for the heating of it Wherefore while the blood being carried by the Arteries enters the Spleen somthing is drawn from it to wit the muddy and terrestrial Particles which are as it were the dregs and Caput Mortuum of the blood that by this means the whole Mass of the Blood might be freed from the Melancholick or Atrabilous Juice which is separated in the Spleen even as the yellow Bile or Choller is in the Liver wherefore for the most part the Spleen is of a black or blewish colour by reason of the Feculencies or dregs there lay'd up But as this Juice deposited in the Milt or Spleen is not altogether unprofitable but by reason of the plenty of fixed Salt is of a very Fermenting Nature it is not presently as the Choler cast into the sink but is farther Cooked in the Spleen and being exalted goes into a Ferment which being lastly committed to the blood promotes its motion and Volatilisation Wherefore as somthing is drawn from the blood entring the Spleen by the Arteries to wit the Crude Juice of Melancholy so somthing is continually added to the same flowing back through the Veins to wit the same Juice concocted and exalted into the Nature of a Ferment Even as Chymists in Distilling that the Liquor may be made better separate the Subtile and Spirituous parts from the Caput Mortuum and then pour them on it again and this work they so often repeat till the Caput Mortuum or dead Head is by frequent Distillation Volatized and the Liquor rightly exalted even in all its Particles That this is the use of the Spleen it is a sign for that this inward being ill affected the blood either ferments too much as in the Scorbutick and Hypochondriack Distempers or if the Spleen be obstructed or beset with a Scirrhous Tumor the blood is destitute of fit Fermentation and causes the Dropsie Cachexie or evil disposition of the Body or the Tympany As we assert the Earth and muddy part of the blood which consists chiefly of Earth and fixed Salt being separated in the Spleen to pass there into a Ferment so it seems not improbable that also the Adust or as it were the fiery part of the blood to wit the Yellow Bile which consists chiefly of Salt and Sulphur being separated in the Liver and from thence transmitted to the intestines serves for some use of Fermentation For this being mixed with the Chyme or Juice fallen from the Ventricle to the intestines makes it there to grow hot and to swell up whereby both the Elementary Particles are more overcome and by reason of the Rarification or swelling up the purer part is wrung forth into the Milky Vessels for the Nutritious Juice We are not only born and nourished by the means of Ferments but we also die Every Disease acts its Tragedies by the strength of some Ferment For either the Sulphureous and Spirituous part of the blood being too much carried forth boils up immoderately in the Vessels like Wine growing hot and from thence Feavers of a divers kind and nature are inkindled or somtimes the Saline part of the blood being too much carried forth suffers a Flux and from thence it being made acid austere and somtimes sharp is apt for various Coagulations from which the Scurvy Dropsie Stone Leprosie and very many Chronical Diseases arise Yea we also endeavor the Cure of Diseases by the help of Fermentation For to the preserving or recovering the Health of man the business of a Physician and a Vintner is almost the same the blood and humors even as Wine ought to be kept in an equal temper and motion of Fermentation wherefore when the blood grows too hot even as Wine it is usual to empty some out of the Vessels and to allay its Fervor with temperat things If any extraneous or heterogeneous thing is mixed with it unless growing hot of its own accord it drives it forth of doors Purging Vomiting and Sweating Medicines by shaking and fusing the blood and humors promote its seclusion when that the blood is depauperated and grows less hot than it should do Cardiacks Digestives and especially Chalybeats or steeled Medicines restore its vigor and Fermentation no otherwise than Wines growing sowr or degenerating into a deadness or want of strength are mixed with more rich Lees whereby they may Purge or grow turgid anew I could easily unfold the Curatory intentions as also the effects and operations of every Medicine according to the Doctrine of Fermentation but I design a particular meditation for this thing for the perfecting of which serious work God willing I have determined to add to the business of Medicine as I hope somthing not unprofitable Having thus far wandered in the spacious field of Nature we have beheld all things full of Fermentation not only in the distinct Provinces of Minerals Vegetables and Animals do we discern the motions and effects of this but also the whole Sublunary world seems as if one and the same substance were planted and very pregnant through the whole with Fermentative Particles which in every Region and Corner of it as little Emmits in a Mole-hill are busied in perpetual motion and agitation they fly about here and there somtimes upwards somtimes downward they are hurried they variously meet one another associate themselves and again depart asunder with a continual Vicissitude they enter into divers Marriages and suffer Divorces on which the beginnings the death and transmutations of things depend These little Bodies do not only very much abound in the bosome of the Earth or in the midst of the waters but they are especially diffused through the whole Atmosphear of the Air in thick heaps It is sufficient that I have noted in this place some examples in a word I have not determined a more full speculation of them here It is time that we proceed from Physical things to the works of Art CHAP. VI. Of Fermentation as it is performed in Artificial things IN the works of Art so various and manifold provision of Fermentation is perceived that it is altogether impossible to enumerate their several Species or to reduce the divers instances of this to certain Classes or Heads of distribution Making use of the thrid of the following method we will subjoyn some examples which have happened to our observation by whose rule many others may be laid open Concerning Fermentation which is made in the Subjects made by hand or human industry these three things are chiefly to be considered First of what Nature and Composition
tumults of the Wines are presently appeased but as by this means the Spirits of the Wine are very much overcome it cannot keep long but soon after degenerates to Vinegar or without tast therefore the Vintners are necessitated to sell presently the Wines mended by this Artifice and very suddenly to draw them off These kind of heats of Wines tho they be timely appeased before they wholly spoyl the Wines yet they leave some viciousness by which the Vinous Liquor is altered from its due colour and consistency and is made less grateful to the Palate for Wines made hot oftentimes become of a more deep colour viz. they degenerate from a watery and clear colour to a Citron or Red and give to the tast a rankness all which indeed proceed from the Sulphur being too much carried forth and exalted For these kind of distempers of Wines they proceed after this manner for the mending the colour oftentimes simple Milk or boiled with Glew or fine Flour is poured into the Hogshead or Pipe for these procure a certain separation of the exalted Sulphur and with its whiteness give a clearness or restore the colour to a brightness Mucilaginous clammy or ropy Wines are amended by the infusion of burnt Alum quick Lime Gypsum or Plaster of Walls Salt and the like for these cause a new Fermentation that the more thick Particles are thrust forth from the rest and precipitated towards the bottom The unsavouryness is helped by the same means 3. As to the third proposition Wines are depauperated or made poor when by a long effervescency the Spirit and more pure Sulphur being exhaled the Saline Particles begin to be exalted in this case their languishing strength is sustained with certain remedies as it were Cordials As the Spirit and Sulphur being too much carried forth and exalted is cured by the drawing off the Wines from the rich Lees So the same being depressed the remedy is that they be put to a more rich Tartar or Lees wherefore the Vintners are wont to pour the depauperated Wines destitute of plenty of Spirits and Sulphur and which begin to grow sowr by reason of the Salts being carried forth to sound and fresh Lees or Tartar that they might as it were anew inspired with Spirit and Sulphur ferment and recover new strength and vigor besides they make Syrups of generous and rich Wines with Sugar and Spices which they pour among the stale and deadish Wines Further for Wines turning to Vinegar they are said to administer profitably some other remedies Gratarolus praises with many more Lard and Swines flesh salted wrapt in Linnen and put into the Cask and truly it is probable that the Sulphureous odor of this doth restrain the Flux of the sowring Salt for this end the same Author commends Leek-Seed Pine-Nuts blanched Wheat boiled Wine Ashes the shavings of Willow and many others for the Salt readily acts on these kind of Subjects and spends its force even as Virgins sick of the Green-sickness desire greedily to eat such like absurd things that may satisfie the extraneous and for the most part sowrish Ferment of the Ventricle but very hurtful to themselves There remains another kind of Cure whereby small Wines almost corrupted and growing vapid or smachless recover new vigor for a time to wit a portion of Rhenish Wine or others very Fermentable is laid up and hindred from Fermenting from whence it is made a perpetual Must commonly called Stum if a little of this Liquor be poured into a Cask of stale Wine and jogged together it gives a fresh and new Fermentation to the whole so that that Wine will froth and boyl and shut in a Glass will leap forth but the drink mended by this Artifice is accounted very unwholsom for that it is apt to stir up an immoderate Fermentation in our blood wherefore it is prohibited by Edict that the Wine-Coopers or Vintners make not use of this kind of Sophistication It is a usual thing also to stop up close in Stone or Glass Bottles for a time small Wines and new Ale or Beer which being afterwards opened the Liquor ferments so impetuously that being almost all rarified into froth it flies forth of the Bottles which besides contracts such an acrimony or sharp cutting that it can scarce be swallowed The reason of which as it seems is this The turgency or swelling up and the notable acetosity sharpness or quickness of these kind of Liquors proceeds chiefly from the Salt being exalted and having gotten a Flux for when as the Liquor being full of much Tartar and little Spirit is shut up close in a Vessel all the Particles together are forced to be fermented and when they cannot be separated and fly away from one another they do the more trouble one another and break themselves into small bits that by this means the bond of the mixture may be wholly broken but the little bodies loosened one from another and as it were freed by reason of the closeness of the Vessel are forced together wherefore when the Vessel is opened all the Particles at once being ready for flight like Air suddenly rarified break forth with noise and tumult and because the Saline parts having gotten a Flux by reason of the plenty of Tartar are stronger than the Spirit and Sulphur from thence the notable cutting sharpness is caused in the Liquor Cyder comes next to the Nature of Wine to wit of the smaller sort which kind of Liquor is only the Juice pressed from Apples and brought to maturity by Fermentation concerning this kind of Drink it is worth observation that if it be made of Summer Fruit or too much ripened it will not keep in strength but presently degenerates into a deadness but if it be prepared of very unripe and sowr Apples it contracts a bitterness for that the Spirits do not sufficiently arise in this but give place to the Salt having first gotten a Flux but in the other they are not long enough retained but wholly fly away before the mass of the Liquor attains to full Fermentation but there are Fruits and Apples exceeding fit for this business which being indued with a more firm consistency are not quickly corrupted neither do they attain their perfect maturity or softness but of a long time The Juice of these wrung forth and put into a Cask does not grow hot as Beer with a great frothy head but after the manner of Wines with a noise like a Pot boyling over the Fire whilst Fermenting after this manner it is made clear the more light recrements are carried upwards and remain in the Superficies as the flowering but the more thick parts and Tartarous settle plentifully in the bottom but the more solid Crust or Coagulated Tartar is not fixed to the sides of the Vessel which is a sign Cyder is a more wholsom Drink nor so infestous to the nervous stock because it abounds less with a sharp Salt than small Wines The Liquor swimming over these
Faeces or Lees settling in the bottom enjoys it as it were its food and is kept by its inspiration in strength from which if it chance to be drawn forth it quickly grows sowr for indeed this kind of Drink is in great danger to be destroyed by the Flux or sowrness of the Salt against this ill to preserve it some are wont to cast into the Cask Mustard Seed bruised or Mustard Balls for that the Volatile Salt of this hinders the Flux of the acetous Salt so that the Liquor thereby presently grows clear and keeps the longer another kind of remedy against the sowrness of Cider is that as soon as it begins to grow sowr it be drawn off from its Lees and kept in close stopped Bottles with a little Sugar for by this means it ferments anew and because together with the Flux of the Salt the Spirits being carried forth are deteined from flight a very grateful sharpness is caused to the whole Liquor Also almost by the same preparation and the like process of Fermentation a potable Liquor is made out of Pears which is however above measure sweet and if plentifully drunk renders the Belly loose as if they had taken Physick So much for Fermenting Liquors whose virtue consists in the Spirit being carried forth and obtaining the height of perfection there remains other preparations whose vigor is placed in the Saline part being exalted and having gotten a Flux among these Vinegar is of chiefest note the way of making of which being wholly unlike the aforementioned requires a method of Fermentation very different from those before described for example small Wines or more generous or strong Beer being put up into the Cask are exposed in the Summer time for a long while to the Suns Beams or else in the Winter they are kept near a Stove in some hot place after this manner whilst some Spirits evaporate the rest being put under the yoak the Saline parts are exalted and infect the whole Mass of the Liquor with their sharpness but not only Wines long kept or Stale Beer out of which the Spirits of their own accord begin to go away but fresh Must or new Beer pass after this manner into Vinegar for the Country-women are wont to place without doors all the Summer strong Ale and highly impregnated with Mault in a Cask by which means they make an exceeding biting and most penetrating Vinegar Yea after the same manner almost our kind of Hydromels Honnied Drink or Meath are wont to be prepared to wit they boyl sixteen parts of Water with one part of Hony to the consumption of a third part adding then some Spices togegether with a sharp Ferment they place the Cask and Liquor for many days in the Sun and afterwards in a Wine-Cellar It seems the Sunning of it is used that thereby the Saline parts being brought towards a Flux might somwhat restrain the nauseous sweetness of the Hony and by that means the sweet being tempered with sharpness a most pleasing tast is afforded to this Drink By reason of the sharpness arising from the Flux of the Salt also very many eatable things are wont to be prepared after various manners hence the flesh of living Creatures and especially of Fishes when they swell with too much Sulphur are pickled with Salt Brine or sharp Liquors that the Salt being brought forth they may become more grateful to the Stomach It would be a tedious business to insist here on particulars but I will in this place describe a certain noted kind of Oaten Broth Grewel or Flumery which profitably nourishes Feverish also Consumptive and Hectick people This kind of Drink that it may become gratefully sowrish the Meal of Oats is put into common water for about three days till it acquire a somwhat sowr tast then this infusion is placed upon the fire and with a Ladle is stirred about until it boyls and when it rises up ready to flow over the Vessel it must then be poured forth into a platter and presently cooled it will appear like Gelly and may be cut into bits which if heated soon melts In this preparation may be observed that by a long infusion of the Grain the Saline parts being brought forth do get a Flux then these so impregnate the Liquor that the more thick Particles being by the heat brought into its pores and passages they are so strictly shut up that they cannot easily sink down but that the whole mixture becomes like Gelly It would also be too great labour to heap together here the various Condites and kinds of Pickles for it would be to describe under that rank the whole Art of Cooking and Diet. For in both the only aim is that for healths sake and for pleasure the active Particles in our food may be placed in their vigor and exaltation for so they greatly please the Palate and by a more easie digestion go into nourishment for this reason not only Drinks and Confections of Corn and Herbs of a diverse nature and kind are thought on but also we variously prepare flesh both boyled and rosted and add to them sauces that the Particles now the Spiritous now the Saline being carried forth to a Flux might please the tast with a certain sharpness Those which are of a more fixed nature are brought to exaltation by Sauces made of Sugar Salt or Pepper They are wont to keep some flesh almost to putrefaction that by that means the active Particles being placed in their strength and motion may become of a more grateful tast Here might be interwoven a long discourse concerning Medicinal Compositions but because this subject deserves a peculiar consideration I will say nothing more of it here Let us next see by what motion of Fermentation and Habitude of Principles Natural Bodies tend towards dissolution or what is the progress of every thing to Putrefaction and Corruption CHAP. VIII Of the motion of Fermentation which is observed in the Death also in the Putrefaction and Corruption of Bodies NAtural Bodies in which Spirit Salt and Sulphur are found in but a mean quantity do not stay long in the same state for these active Principles are employed perpetually in motion As soon as they come together they tend from Crudity and Confusion towards Perfection for the sake of which when they have reach'd the height they are able to come to they are not quiet in this point but from thence they make hast towards the dissolution of that thing Those which are more volatile do first of all break forth from the loosened bond of the mixture then the rest separate into parts until the form of the mixture wholly perishes The Spirit being carried forth to the top flies away first with the water and the more pure Sulphur and by its expiration diffuses a very grateful odor afterwards the more thick Sulphur with the Salt being loosened from the band wherewith they were tyed and having gotten a Flux by degrees evaporate and
in which Spirits for that they are very nimble continually strive to expand themselves and to fly away but being intangled by the more thick Particles of the rest they are detained in their flight And being detained after this manner they toss about break to pieces and very much subtilise the more thick little Bodies by which they are hindered they volatilise the Salt otherwise fixed by a most minute kneading and by the adhesion of it they perfectly dissolve the Sulphur compacted in it self and not miscible with the rest and boil it in the Serum They break the Earth even to its smallest parts and mingle it with the rest But in the mean time by the striking and molding the Salt and the Sulphur Effluvia's of heat plentifully proceed which being mixed with the rest and on every side diffused increase the motion of the Fermentation And after this manner all being most minutely broken and diluted with watery Particles they constitute the Liquor of the Blood which whilst in the Vessels as Wine shut up in a Pipe continually ferments and according to all its Particles is in perpetual motion But the Fermentation of Wine and of Blood differs in this that in Wine there is no wasting of the old parts and a coming again of new but the Liquor being shut up in the Vessel remains still the same but 't is otherwise in Blood in which some parts are continually destroyed and in their place others are always generated anew In Wine the times of crudity maturation and defection are distinct and are successively performed in the whole In Blood that threefold state is celebrated at the same time and by parts Fermentation being once begun in Wine is continued even to the end but in Blood because it is washed still with crude Juices it ought still to be renewed by which means the Nutritious Particles not of kin are assimilated to the rest of the Latex wherefore for this work besides the Fermentation once begun in the blood there is need of some Ferments which may continue the same otherwise about to leave off That Ferments are required for the making of Blood this is an Argument that when they are wanting by Nature they are with good success supplyed by the work of Art for fixed Salts Alcaly Salt Extracts Digestives Openers and especially Chalybeate Remedies help for this reason that as it were by a certain Ferment they restore anew the weak or almost extinct Ebullition or Boiling of the Blood As to what respects the Natural Ferments very many may certainly be formed and in divers parts or hid in the Bowels for any humor in which the Particles of Salt Sulphur or Spirit being much exalted are contained puts on the Nature of a Ferment after this manner the flowring or dregs of Beer or new Wine being kneaded with Meal and the mass kept to a sowrness come under this rank by which new Beer and the like Liquors as also the mass of Bread are most excellently Fermented In like manner in the Ventricle a sowrish humour participating of exalted Salt there helps concoction and in the Spleen the feculencies of the Blood from Salt and Earth being exalted go into a Ferment How much vigor comes to the Blood from the Womb and Genital parts appears from hence because by the privation or evil disposition of them follow in Maids the Green sickness in men barrenness or loss of virility want of Beard and a shrill voice But the chief Ferment that serves for sanguification is established in the Heart for this is the chief fire-place in which the cruder Particles of the Chyme are as it were inkindled and acquire a volatileness which thing may be confirmed by many reasons but especially by its effects which we suffer in the precordia as often as the Blood ferments more or less than it ought to do for when it is too much inkindled in the Heart it is agitated impetuously as it were by fires put under it the signs of whose immoderate Ebullition are a deep pulse and vehement then almost an intolerable heat in the Precordia with a vehement thirst on the other side when the Fermentation of the blood is lessened in the Heart we are affected with an anhelous and difficult respiration upon any motion as may be perceived in the Dropsie Cachexia and Yellow Jaundice the reason of which is not because the Lungs are stuffed or filled full of a tough or clammy matter but because the blood doth not rightly ferment in that Repository of Fermentation wherefore being fallen into its Bosom it is not presently Rarified nor doth it soon leap forth into the Lungs but being apt to stagnate and remain there causes an oppression of the Heart it self for the helping of which frequent breathing is made that the blood being let forth into the Lungs succour might be brought to it but if by motion or exercise the blood be more provoked into its Ventricle than can be derived by respiration or the pulse into the Pneumonic Vessels there is danger of choaking The like happens in those that are dying when the pulse is very small and the blood being heaped up in the Heart for want of Fermentation begins to stagnate and to clodder we then breath deeply with a noise and elevation of the breast to wit the blood with the ultimate endeavour of Nature and the whole force of the Lungs as long as it is able to be done is emptied forth into the Lungs lest residing in the Heart it should wholly choak it Therefore Motion and Heat in the Blood depend chiefly on two things viz. partly on its own proper disposition and constitution by which it being forged very greatly with active Principles of Spirits Salt and Sulphur of its own accord swells up or grows turgid in the Vessels even as Wine in the Ton and partly on the Ferment implanted in the Heart which very much rarifies the Liquor passing through its Bosom and makes it to leap forth with a frothy heat that the blood which is quietly instilled to the Heart through the Veins running gently like a River from thence leaping forth through the Arteries like a Torrent with noise and rage might be carried forward to all the parts of the whole Body By what means this is done though it is not easie to explicate Mechanically yet the manner and some not improbable reasons of this thing are delivered by most Learned men Ent Cartes and others They suppose indeed as it were a fire to be set in the Chimny of the Heart which presently inkindles the blood infused through the Veins even as a flame put to Wine burns it which being so inkindled by its deflagration like lightning passes most swiftly through the Arteries so that heat a most rapid motion and Effluvia sent by Perspiration are wont to proceed from the accension of the blood in the Heart only Hogelandus affirms that there is a Ferment hid in the Bosom of the Heart that compels the
Particles of this or that being not agreeable to the rest are loosned from the mixture being loosned they become more violent than they ought shake much the Liquor of the Blood and bring forth a heat which is not allayed till the Blood being as it were inflamed burns forth with the long fire of a Feaver By either way whether the Blood grows hot in the Vessels by reason of the pouring in of a thing not miscible or by reason of the rage of the Spirit or Sulphur being carried forth because from thence its frame is more loosned therefore it is more inkindled in the Heart and the active Particles first loosned from the Ferment there implanted do grow exceeding hot leap forth from the mixture and disperse on every side by their motion a strong heat and as it were fiery but yet with this difference that the Effervency which depends upon the mingling of some extraneous thing with the Blood is for the most part short or renewed which when what was Heterogeneous is separated or subdued is quieted of its own accord and the shaken parts of the Blood and put out of order easily return to their Natural site and disposition But the Ebullition which arises from the inordination of the Spirit or Sulphur being enraged is continual to wit here the whole mass of the Blood is so loosned and dissolved from the strict bond of the mixture that as an Oily Liquor having taken fire it ceases not to grow hot or to be inflamed till the Particles of Spirit or Sulphur or the Combustible matter be for the most part burnt out There remains yet a third manner of Preternatural Fervency whereby the Blood is subject to alteration which happens not to Wine but most often to Milk viz. when at any time from a Morbific cause a coagulation of its Liquor is induced so that its substance is poured forth and goes into parts and there is a separation made of the thick and earthy from the thin by which means the Blood is not fitly circulated in the Vessels but that its congealed portions being apt to be fixed in the extream parts or to stand still in the Heart do interrupt the equal motion or grievously hinder it For the sake of the restoring of which Effervency greater are wont to be stirred up in the Blood to wit such as happen ordinarily in a Plurisie the Plague Small-pox or the Venereal Disease CHAP. III. Of Intermitting or Agues Feavers BY the Premises which we have spoken of already concerning the Anatomy Motion and Heats of the Blood there now lies open an easie passage to the handling of Feavers The Notions which are commonly set forth concerning a Feaver out of the force and Etymology of the word I here purposely omit It may be described after this manner that it is An inordinate motion of the Blood and a too great Heat of it with burning and thirst and other Symptoms besides whereby the Natural oeconomy or Government is variously disturbed As we have remarked already concerning the growing hot of the Blood so now we do of a Feaver that indeed its accession is either short and by fits which is therefore termed Intermitting or else great and long protracted which is called a continual Feaver We will first speak of the Intermitting Feaver Tho an Intermitting Feaver in our Popular Idiom is known by a proper Name and is distinguished contrary to a Feaver commonly taken yet because it hath too great Effervency of the Blood joyned to it it is to be called a Feaver It is peculiar to this from a continual Feaver that it hath certain remissions or times of intermission that every fit begins with cold or shaking for the most part and ends in Sweat that the accessions or coming of the fits return at set Periods and certain intervals of times that a Clock is not more exact Wherefore we will first discourse concerning this Feaver in general what sort of heat of the Blood it is which continues its fit and from whence it is raised up Secondly Wherefore the fit appears equally with cold and shaking as with sweat following Thirdly What may be the cause of the Inmission as also of its certain set Periods Fourthly and Lastly Are added some irregularities of Intermitting Feavers as when now cold now heat or sweat is wanting or when the Periods are wandring and uncertain when the Remission or space of Intermission is not equal but now comes sooner now later and somtimes redoubled and I will endeavor to show the reasons of these and of other Phenomena or appearances which variously happen in this Distemper These being laid open we will go on to unfold in the next Chapter the division of an Intermitting Feaver and the kinds of it As to the first The Effervency of the Blood in an Intermitting Feaver or Ague for the time of the fit is as violent and strong as in a continual Feaver wherefore it is concluded that the parts of the Blood among themselves or some Heterogeneous thing being mixed with it do strive together and Ferment above measure But there is required that they may Ferment or too greatly boil up among themselves that some Principle as chiefly Spirit or Sulphur being too much exalted and enraged do appear above the rest which when it cannot be yoaked with them brings in a continual strife and heat but from this cause a continual Feaver draws its rise because such an Ebullition of the Blood being once begun is not suddenly allayed and when it is appeased it does not afterwards presently return Wherefore for an Intermitting Feaver 't is to be supposed that some Heterogeneous thing is mingled with the Blood whose Particles when they are not assimilated make so long an Ebullition of the same till either being kneaded they are rendered miscible or being subtilised are shut forth of doors Wherefore such a matter being brought under or shut forth of doors the fit ceases and when this matter springs again it stirs up a new Ebullition and so a new fit is brought on Concerning this Matter which being mixed with the Blood induces the periodical Heats and the other Symptoms of an Intermitting Feaver 't is very ambiguously and diversly disputed among Physicians where it is generated in what seat or place it lodges and by what means it so exactly observes the times of its Motion and Ebullition But it would be a work of too much labour and tediousness to recount here all the Arguments of the Ancients and Moderns to reduce them into order and to weigh their reasons Wherefore doubting I propose what has come into my mind when I thought deeply of the matter and submit to the judgment of others Of necessity there is somthing which brings in the Heat of the Blood exactly periodical that is generated in our Body at the several periods or accessions of the Feaver always in a set measure and equal proportion and is communicated to the mass of Blood with which when
any part it grows more tumultuous in the other parts and so by this perturbation stirred up in the whole Blood the spontaneous Effervescency of the Liquor being about to follow is hindred But that the Fit by this or ony other means being once hindred does not afterwards easily return the reason is Because if this Feaverish and depraved matter be contained longer in the Blood it is afterwards cocted and in some measure ripened and therefore the Blood does not as before altogether pervert either this or the provision coming to it anew but begins to digest and assimilate it besides when the Fit is once stop'd its custom is broke by the instinct of which alone Nature oftentimes repeats those her Errors for as when it has once made a fault it is wont more readily to do ill after the same way so when it once omits its fault it more easily accustoms it self to do better The dogmatical cure is instituted for the most part by Vomitory and Purging Medicines also with the letting of Blood with which the sick are miserably tormented and the Disease seldom profligated or driven away that deservedly this Distemper is called the shame of Physicians but Tertian Feavers are sometimes carried away by a Vomit given just before the coming of the Fit which indeed happens as I think for the reason before mentioned For I have said That the cause of a Tertian Feaver is an evil disposition of the Blood whereby it passes into a four and bilous Nature and therefore it doth not rightly assimilate the nutritious Juice brought to it but changes it into a Fermentative matter wherefore if the Bile or Choler be copiously drawn forth of the Blood that Cholerick and hot intemperance is very much taken away and that Fermentative power ceases of it self But Emetick Medicines do chiefly perform this for if they operate-strongly a Convulsion is not only brought to the bottom of the Ventricle but also the Duodenum with an inverse motion is drawn together towards the Pylorus and the Choler by a continual thrusting forward being squees'd forth from the Choleduct passage is poured into the Ventricle which is presently cast out by Vomit which being copiously performed the galish bladder is almost emptied and after that it becomes a receptacle that draws forth and separates the bilous humor or the particles of adust Sulphur and Salt plentifully poured into the Blood the next Fit sometimes is by this means prevented not because the mine of the Disease is extirpated by Vomit but because an Evacuation and motion is excited contrary to the Feaverish motion and for that reason the spontaneous Effervescency of the Blood is prevented Also by this means sometimes the Disease is taken away after the Fit because this way the Blood is fully cleared from the bilous humor It is worthy observation that in a Quartan Feaver Vomits profit nothing and seldom in a Tertian unless administred presently at the beginning whilst the Feaverish disposition is yet light and not fully confirmed Concerning Intermitting Feavers in general there yet remain some Irregulars of them to be explicated which vary from the wonted manner for unless these unusual appearances be solved this our Hypothesis will seem to be defective and to halt in one part First therefore they are wont somtimes to lack the cold or shaking fit This Intermitting Feaver is frequent in Autumn whose fits are wont to exercise the sick only with heat and that most Violent and in many they come with great Vomiting but no Sweat or Cold then after four or five periods upon the coming on of the fit the sick are wont to be chil and presently after to quake and in the declination to sweat The reason of this was because from the very hot Summer the Constitution of the Blood was become sharp and very much burnt Wherefore the Particles of the crude Juice being commixed with it were presently terrified or made hot and scorched that they did not at first like new Beer grow hot with an Acrimony and then afterwards blaze forth but a turgescency being stirred up like dry wood laid upon a fire presently the whole took fire and broke forth into flames but afterwards the Liquor of the Blood being fired by several fits became less torrid that the depraved Alible Juice was not presently torrified but passed into a Nitrous matter and fermenting with a sharpness which at first swelling up induced the sense of cold to the whole Body When the cold fit was begun for the most part Sweat concluded it which indeed hapned because the Blood being made more watery is more easily resolved into vapour with the Feaverish matter even as a watery Liquor is more easily drawn forth by distillation than what is Oily or of a more thick consistency It often happens in the declination of this Disease when the fits begin to lessen that the sense of cold and shaking by little and little are diminished and at length vanish and the fit only troubles the sick with a light burning The reason of which is because at this time the Blood being somwhat restored towards its natural state begins to concoct and ripen the crude juice so that a great part of it is assimilated but some Excrements being heaped together in the Blood bring forth as yet a light burning but when the Feaverish Particles do not participate of the Nitrous Acrimony the Fermentation of the Blood is induced without any shivering by which what was extraneous burns forth is either subdued or carried forth of doors Somtimes also in the declination of this Disease the fits appear without any burning only with a light cold The reason of which is because the Morbific matter being rather Nitrous than Sulphureous when it is in Flux does somwhat blunt the Natural Heat and by that means is dissipated and vanishes without any great deflagration There is yet a great doubt concerning the intervals of the periods which somtimes seem to be double in the same Feaver that the first Accession answers to the third and either perhaps comes in the morning and again the second to the fourth and both happen in the Evening and so forward wherefore the Feaver bearing this figure is wont to be named a double Tertian or Quartan of which it doth not easily appear how they should be done if the fits depend upon the evil disposition of the Blood and from thence on a Congestion to a Turgescency of the depraved Nourishing Juice for which cause they commonly affirm that this double figure is stirred up or draws its original from a double Nest or Mine but to me it seems most likely that in this case somtimes it happens for the Feaver to be simple and of one kind also its types or figures to be alike and all congruous one to another but the error to arise because the interstitia of the periods are not computed by hours but days For when as the beginnings of the fits are distant one from
kind of Conformation be inquired into it easily occurs that in an humane Head where the generous Affections and the great forces and ardors of the Souls are stirred up the approach of the blood to the confines of the Brain ought to be free and expeditious and it is behoveful for its River not to run in narrow and manifoldly divided Rivulets which would scarce drive a Mill but always with a broad and open chanel such as might bear a Ship under Sail. And indeed in this respect a man differs from most brute beasts in which the Artery being divided into a thousand little shoots lest it should carry the blood with a fuller chanel or more quick course than is requisite makes the Net-like infoldings by which indeed it comes to pass that the blood slides into the Brain very slowly and with a gentle and almost even stream If that be true as some affirm that the wonderful Net also is sometimes found in an humane Brain I believe it is only in those sort of men who being of a slender wit or unmoved disposition and destitute of all force and ardor of the mind are little better than dull working beasts in fortitude and wisdom Secondly The conformation of the Carotidick Artery in a Horse comes nearest its structure in a man for in this the Artery enters the Skull also lower and with a greater compass than in other four-footed beasts which being passed its Trunk being intorted with a certain compass and then a little depressed goes forward whole to the side of the Turky Chair still with a full and broad chanel which truly ought to be made so because magnanimous and fierce forces are convenient for this Animal born as it were for War and any dangerous attempts and so there was need that the blood might ascend the Brain with a free and plentiful course and when occasion requires with a full Torrent But though the blood passes through the Basis of a Horses Skull in the same undivided chanel yet it ought not to come to the Brain it self in one single passage because the frame or substance of this in a Horse being far weaker and colder than in a man it might be overthrown and drowned by the blood rushing in by heaps wherefore the great River of the Artery disburdens it self by two Emissaries and pours out its Latex at so many distinct places of the Brain Further as if by this means there were not yet sufficient caution against the Deluge of the Brain a transverse or cross chanel as it were a diversion is formed between the chanels of either Artery through which the blood being straitned for room may go aside and flow and reflow from one bank or chanel to another rather than oppress or overflow the Brain Also besides certain shoots being sent out from the Trunk of either Artery are inserted into the pituitary Glandula the use of which is doubtless to separate certain serosities of the too watry blood and to lay them up into that Glandula whereby the rest of the bloody Latex to be carried to the Brain becomes more pure and free from dregs By what means the Carotidick Arteries in the head of a Horse pass through the Basis of the Skull is represented in the second Figure of the following Table I have not yet had the means to inspect the brains of a Lyon or a Monkey but there is reason to suspect that in these also the Carotides do pass through the Skull with a single Trunk In a Sheep Calf Hog yea in a Dog Fox Cat and other four-footed beasts which I have hitherto opened this Artery is divaricated into Net-like infoldings which Vessels for what causes and for what uses they are so made we shall now inquire into Thirdly therefore most other four-footed beasts different from a Man and a Horse have the wonderful Net adjoyned to the Carotidick Artery In truth this is met with in so many that common Anatomy hath ascribed it to all Animals and also to man it self In whom it is found we observe that the Artery about to enter the Skull is not carried about with so long a compass but rising up nigh the hinder part of the Turkish Chair is presently divided into small shoots yet so as one little chanel is stretched right out which the blood quietly running to passes through without any stay being carried straight into the Brain but from the side of this many rivulets are derived on every side into which the blood impetuously ascending may be easily diverted These little rivers are partly ingrafted into the veinous passages of the same and the Vessels of the other side and are partly carried into the pituitary Glandula and partly a compass being fetched are returned into the former chanel or belly of the Artery That it is so besides naked inspection appears plainly by this Experiment If below the Skull an inky liquor be gently and by degrees injected into the Trunk of the Carotis that passing through the strait passage is carried presently into the Brain nor does it dye the lateral infolded Vessels with its tincture but if this liquor be immitted continually and forcibly presently running into the folds it will make black the Vessels of the same and of the opposite side also entring the hither part of the Glandula and its interior substance If the use of these kind of infoldings of the Vessels or the wonderful Net be inquired into I say that it is made chiefly for these ends viz. First that the Torrent of the blood being divided into small rivulets it s more rapid course may be so far dull'd or broken that it may be but leisurely instilled into the Brain For otherwise in labouring beasts who go with their heads hanging down and have but a weak brain the more free influx of the blood might easily overthrow the fabrick of the Brain and spoil the animal Spirits Secondly the divarication of the Carotides into Net like infoldings hath another use of no less moment to wit that the more watry blood being as it is its temperament in most Beasts and especially in those who are fed with herbage before it be poured upon the Brain might carry away some part of the superfluous Serum to the pituitary Glandula and instil the other part into the branches or shoots of the Veins to be returned towards the Heart Thirdly and lastly for as much as the Vessels on either side are mutually inoculated by this means there is care taken both that the blood may be exactly mixed before it ascends to the Brain as also that more certain ways may be made for its passage because if perchance an obstruction should happen in one side of the wonderful Net the blood by that infolding being presently carried to the other may find a passage for this cause to wit that the blood might be the better prevented from any impediment in its passage the Vessels are not only inoculated under the Dura Mater about
in the whole or in part for that reason divers manners both of Actions and of Passions to wit the Senses which we call its Passions and Motions which we name the Actions of the same The formal reason of the former viz. the Senses consists in the retraction or drawing back of the Spirits or a flowing back towards their Fountains For where ever the impression of a sensible object is carried to this radiant or beamy contexture presently either the whole frame or some portion of it whereby it admits the species is compelled to wag and to be moved back as it were to leap back and recede into it self on the contrary the actions or motions of this Soul are made for that this shadowy Spirit being incited or stirred up in the whole or in a certain part unfolds it self more largely and by an emanation and as it were a certain vibration of the Spirits exerts or puts forth its virtue and force of acting Both the Senses and Motions of this sensitive Soul are made either transient when the Spirits or its constitutive Particles being moved somewhere in the System of the Nerves draw together with them the containing parts and deflect them with the like carriage or gesture with themselves as is observed in the five outward Senses and the local motions of the Members or else either both Actions and Passions are continuing to wit when both the Motions and Senses are silently performed without any great agitation or moving of the body or its parts within the first Fountains of the Soul viz. the Head it self These kind of Passions indeed made within the substance of the Brain are the common Sense and Imagination but the Actions are Memory Phantasie and Appetite and either of these as to their beginnings and instincts depend for the most part upon the outward Senses Concerning the former we take notice that as often as the exterior part of the Soul being struck a sensible impression as it were the Optick Species or as an undulation or waving of waters is carried more inward bending towards the chamfered bodies a perception or inward sense of the Sensation outwardly had or received arises If that this impression being carried farther passes through the callous Body Imagination follows the Sense Then if the same fluctuation of Spirits is struck against the Cortex of the Brain as its utmost banks it impresses on it the image or character of the sensible Object which when it is afterwards reflected or bent back raises up the Memory of the same thing The active Powers of this Soul viz. Local Motion Memory Phantasie and Appetite follow sometimes immediately the Passions sometimes are induced apart from them upon other occasions For indeed the sensible impression striking the streaked or chamfered bodies oftentimes the Brain being in no wise affected causes the local Motions to be retorted with a reciprocal tendency of the animal Spirits so in sleep the Appetite knowing nothing of it when pain troubles presently we rub the place moving the hand to it but more often after that the sensible Species having past from the common Sensory to the callous Body hath stirred up the Imagination the Spirits reflecting from thence and flowing back towards the nervous Appendix raise up the Appetite and Local Motions the Executors or Performers of the same And sometimes a certain sensible impression being carried beyond the callous Body and striking against the Cortex of the Brain it self raises up other species lying hid there and so induces Memory with Phantasie also often with Appetite and Local Motion associates Further these active Powers sometimes upon other occasions are wont to be stirred up and exercised apart from Passion In Man the Rational Soul variously moves the sensitive and at its pleasure draws forth and brings into act its Powers sometimes these sometimes those Moreover the blood boiling up above measure and by that means striking impetuously the border of the Brain excites the species of things lurking in it and driving them forward towards the middle or marrowy part of the Brain causes also the various Acts of the Phantasie and Memory to be represented Concerning the aforesaid interior or abiding Faculties we shall at present further take notice that their more perfect Exercises are chiefly and almost only performed by the Spirits already perfected and highly elaborated for those a making or that are new made being numerous they very much obstruct and hinder the acts of the animal Function to wit when from the Vessels on every side watering the Cortex of the Brain the subtil Liquor is plentifully instilled for the matter of the animal Spirits this flowing inwardly stuffs all the pores and passages of the Brain and so excludes for that time the Spirits from their wonted tracts and orbs of expansion Wherefore whilst the chief reflection of the Brain and Spirits is celebrated sleep or an Eclipse of the animal Spirits happens then waking returns when from the Liquor instilled the more subtil part is exalted into very pure Spirits and at length the more watry being partly resolved into Vapours is exhaled and partly supped up by the passages of the Veins entring the substance of the Brain or else is sweat out into the vacuity lying under the callous Body Concerning these I hope we may discourse more largely afterwards In the mean time that we may proceed to the rest of the things proposed concerning the frame of the Brain properly so called there yet remains that we speak of its Ventricles But since they are only a vacuity resulting from the folding up of its exterior border I see no reason we have to discourse much of their office no more than Astronomers are wont of the empty space contained within the vacuity of the Sphere But in truth as there is nothing met with in Nature that is not destinated to some use surely we suspect this same Vacuum or empty space not to be built in vain within the Globe of the Brain The Ancients have so magnified this Cavern that they affirmed it the Shop of the animal Spirits both where they themselves were procreated and performed the chief works of the animal Function But on the other side the Moderns or those of later days have esteemed these places so vile that they have affirmed the same to be mere sinks for the carrying out the excrementitious matter But indeed that opinion of the Ancients is easily overthrown for that the animal Spirits being very subtil and apt to fly away require not such large and open spaces rather than the more narrow passages and little pores such as are made in the substance of the Brain for these Spirits because they ought for the various Faculties of the Soul to be composed into various series and divers orders and dispositions therefore ought to be moved within peculiar orbs and tracts Further if any one shall exactly consider the fabrick of the Brain and seriously weigh that these Ventricles are not formed out
Body a transverse medullar process like a great Nerve stretched from one chamfered body to the other as it were joyns the same and makes them to communicate one with the other Certainly this joyning together of the chamfered bodies is made that their actions and passions may not be double but though the species of the sensible object or conceptions of the motions to be performed coming from the Brain or Sensory being double are carried also double to the first Sensory yet for as much as either substance or frame of this communicates with the other every impression coming this or that way becomes still one and the same For it may be observed in the whole Head that though almost all things are double yet each of them communicate among themselves either by a contiguity or by processes sent forth And so as by the duplication of it care is taken against the absolute privation or defect of the act so the joyning together of its duplicature provides against the empty or confuse multiplication of the same species After this manner the chamfered bodies in Man and four-footed Beasts are constantly found of the same species or form and in every one of them figured after the same manner and are as it were the Joynts that joyn the Brain to the shanks of the oblong Marrow But we have already shewn that in Fowls and Fishes whose brains being alike differ from those of men and four-footed beasts the thing is somewhat otherwise For in Fowls the callous body is wanting to the brain but what serves instead of it is found in the oblong Marrow to wit two little Ventricles shew themselves nigh the chambers of the Optick Nerves which are arched or chamber'd with a whitish substance such as the callous body is in man or four-footed beasts Then on the contrary the chamfered bodies or the parts which serve in their stead in Fowls are not a portion of the oblong Marrow after the usual manner but are entred into the Brain it self For near the fissure of the Brain two Membranes being marked with medullar chamferings both distinguish either Hemisphere of the Brain and cover over its Ventricles The streaks or rays of either Membrane descend and being concentred about the Basis of the Brain go together into a medullary process which is inserted on both sides to the oblong Marrow So these parts viz. the callous body in which the animal Spirits are expanded and the chamfered bodies in which their passing to and fro is instituted seem to be transposed in the head of Fowls The reason whereof as I elsewhere hinted unless I be deceived is this because these Animals are of less excellency in Imagination and Memory than four-footed beasts yea also for that the sense and motion of them are their chief Faculties therefore for the exercises of these to be performed with a greater expansion of Spirits the callous body is transferred into the oblong Marrow and in its place the chamfered bodies are removed into the Brain About the lower end of either chamfered body the smelling Nerves are inserted For you may take notice that the mammillary Processes a little more obscure in man but much more conspicuous in brute Animals who are endued with a more remarkable sense of smelling do pass into firm and plainly whitish bodies of Nerves which being dilated or brought nigh the lateral turnings and windings of the Brain are implanted into the oblong Marrow on either side about the lower angle of either Ventricle behind the chamfered bodies yet so that the Tube or Pipe of either Nerve may open into the Cavity of the Ventricle as we before shewed After this manner these Nerves are carried by a long journey from the fore-part of the Brain that they may bring the sensible species to the chamfered body as to the common Sensory first and rather than to the Brain But we shall speak of the smelling Nerves more particularly hereafter Where these chamfered Bodies end from either side a marrowy substance succeeds which being somewhat of a darkish colour going forward for some space is distinguished by a peculiar bending forward from the other contiguous parts This Galen perhaps not improperly calls the Chambers of the Optick Nerves for in this place the Optick Nerves shewing themselves from the highest region of either side being carried downward with a certain compass are united about the Tunnel Then being divided again and carried a little further enter the Skull going straight forwards to either Sensory The growing together of these Nerves and their being again separated seems to be ordained for this end that the visible species received from either Eye might appear still the same and not double for this conjunction of the twofold Organ frames the double image into one which once united when afterwards it is carried to either side of the common Sensory for that it is on both sides alike appears still the same If at any time through drunkenness or a distortion of the Eyes the object appears double and two Lights upon a Table it is because the image of the same thing is received after a different manner by one Eye than the other for that reason the objects are represented like two distinct things For that this Eye is distorted after one manner and that after another the same Species coming to either Pupil by a diverse angle of incidence appears diverse or double There is another reason of the coalition of the Optick Nerves to wit that one Eye being hurt all the visible animal Spirits might be bestowed on the other Further for that these Nerves are carried with a long passage their uniting helps to their mutual strength and support Whereas the Optick Nerves arise here from the oblong Marrow all or its most intimate substance is not bestowed upon them but these Nerves are inserted into the medullar Trunk as branches of a Tree to the stock that so they may receive by that means the influence of the Spirits and by this way transmit the Species of visible Things In the mean time this more inward substance of the oblong Marrow is the common passage both to the Eyes and to the other nervous System arising more backward through which by the going and returning to and fro of the animal Spirits the impulses of sensible things and the instincts of Motions between the Brain and the other nervous parts which depend upon it are performed Forasmuch as the smelling and seeing Nerves arise so near the chamfered bodies the reason hence is plain why odors or the objects of the sense of smelling so strike the Brain it self and immediately affect it also why there is so exceeding swift a communication between Sight and Imagination Concerning the Optick Nerves in a man which also in some measure is after the same manner in other living Creatures we shall advertise you that when they after their uniting or mixing together being presently again separated do go out of the Skull the
Spherical figure It s superior gibbosity coheres towards the superficies to the border of the Brain by the intervention of the Pia Mater but nevertheless it is intimately united to it nor is there any immediate commerce between this or that or their parts There hath been spoken enough already of the figure and situation of the Cerebel and of its various Processes and how it is fastned to the oblong Marrow it now remains that we proceed to design or draw out the offices and uses of it and its several parts Where in the first place shall be inquired into what kind of office the Cerebel is endued with in the animal oeconomy then when we shall descend to particulars there are more things worthy to be noted which will offer themselves to our consideration viz. first the infoldings of the Vessels covering the whole compass of the Cerebel and especially its hinder part with the heap of Kernels secondly its folds and lappets ordained with a certain and determinate series and almost after a like manner in all thirdly the double substance of the folds viz. cortical and marrowy and the concentring of all the medullary tracts in two large Marrows or middests fourthly either little foot or pedestal of the Cerebel made out of those two middle Marrows and in either pedestal three distinct medullar Processes to be found fifthly the annular Protuberance made by a process of the Cerebel descending into the medullar Trunk sixthly some Nerves which arising immediately from this Protuberance and other Nerves in the neighbourhood which being designed for the involuntary Function receive the influences of the animal Spirits from the Cerebel Lastly the Ventricle or Cavity lying under the Cerebel ought to be considered 1. As to the office or use of the Cerebel in general nothing of it occurs spoken by the Ancients worthy its fabrick or agreeable to its structure Some affirm this to be another Brain and to perform the same actions with it but if any one should have a soft and foolish Brain I greatly doubt if he should become wise though he should obtain perhaps a more hard and solid Cerebel Others place the Memory in this part supposing the Cerebel to be as it were a Chest or Box wherein the Idea's or images of things before laid up are kept apart from the incourse of fresh Species But it is far more probable that this faculty resides in the cortical spires of the Brain as we have elsewhere shewn For as often as we endeavour to remember objects long since past we rub the Temples and the fore-part of the Head we erect the Brain and stir up or awaken the Spirits dwelling in that place as if endeavouring to find out something lurking there in the mean time there is perceived nothing of endeavour or striving motion in the hinder part of the Head Besides we have shewn that the Phantasie and Imagination are performed in the Brain but the Memory depends so upon the Imagination that it seems to be only a reflected or inverse act of this wherefore that it should be placed with it in the same Cloister to wit in the Brain is but necessary for it plainly appears that there is no immediate commerce between the Brain and the Cerebel When some time past I diligently and seriously meditated on the office of the Cerebel and revolved in my mind several things concerning it at length from the Analogy and frequent Ratiocination this as I think true and genuine use of it occurred to wit that the Cerebel is a peculiar Fountain of animal Spirits designed for some works and wholly distinct from the Brain Within the Brain Imagination Memory Discourse and other more superior Acts of the animal Function are performed besides the animal Spirits flow also from it into the nervous stock by which all the spontaneous motions to wit of which we are knowing and will are performed But the office of the Cerebel seems to be for the animal Spirits to supply some Nerves by which involuntary actions such as are the beating of the Heart easie Respiration the Concoction of the Aliment the protrusion of the Chyle and many others which are made after a constant manner unknown to us or whether we will or no are performed As often as we go about voluntary motion we seem as it were to perceive within us the Spirits residing within the fore-part of the Head to be stirred up to action or an influx But the Spirits inhabiting the Cerebel perform unperceivedly and silently their works of Nature without our knowledge or care Wherefore whilst the Brain is garnished as it were with uncertain Meanders and crankling turnings and windings about the compass of this is furnished with folds and lappets disposed in an orderly series in the spaces of which as in designed Orbs and Tracts the animal Spirits are expanded according to the Rule and Method naturally impressed on them For indeed those in the Cerebel as it were in a certain artificial Machine or Clock seem orderly disposed after that manner within certain little places and boundaries that they may flow out orderly of their own accord one series after another without any driver which may govern or moderate their motions Wherefore forasmuch as some Nerves perform some kind of motions according to the instincts and wants of Nature without consulting the government of the will or appetite within the Brain why may it not be imagined that the influence of the Spirits is derived wholly from the Cerebel for the performing of these For it seems inconvenient that for these offices which should be performed without any tumult or perturbation the Spirits should be called out of the Brain which are continually driven into fluctuations as it were with the winds of Passions and Cogitations As I only imagined of the use of the Cerebel after this manner I was led to it at length by a certain thread of Ratiocination to which afterwards happened an Anatomical inspection which plainly confirmed me in this opinion For in the frequent Dissection of the Heads of several sorts of Animals certain Observations did occur which seemed to put this matter out of all doubt For I first observed the pairs of Nerves which did serve to the Functions wont to be performed by the Instinct of Nature or the force of the Passions rather than by the beck of the will so immediately to depend on the Cerebel that from thence only the influence of the animal Spirits seems to be derived into their origines or beginnings By what means the Nerves arising from the Cerebel or receiving from it the provision of the animal Spirits do perform only involuntary actions shall be declared hereafter in the mean time for the confirmation of this Opinion we have in readiness another Reason of no less moment Therefore secondly we took notice that not only the conformation or make of the Cerebel was ordained after a certain and peculiar manner that is that its frame or bulk was
both to the Brain and Cerebel I say it is not improbable but out of that Protuberance both a passage lyes open into the underlying tract of the oblong Marrow and as it were the high road as also another passage is opened into the Cerebel through the medullar processes of the same Ring But lest there should perchance be a confusion of the animal Spirits and the sensible Species which indeed can hardly be avoided if the way made for their passage should lye open into various passages and manifold apertures therefore concerning this it may well be supposed that the Ideas of the Sounds pass through the Cerebel when they are carried to the common Sensory which region being first past they are at length brought by a by-path viz. through the orbicular Prominences to the chamfered Bodies which perhaps is partly the reason that in the Hearing the perception of the sense succeeds so late and the impulse of the object in respect of sight follows so slowly Whilst therefore the audible Species passes through the Cerebel in some men it leaves in this region for that it is of a soft temper and fit for the receiving impressions tracts and marks of it self and so they obtain musical ears But in others who have a harder frame of the Cerebel they produce no tracts of the same Sounds and therefore such are wholly destitute of the faculty of Musick As therefore we suppose the audible Species to pass through the Cerebel after this manner a reason may be given from hence wherefore Musick does not only affect the Phantasie with a certain delight but besides chears a sad and sorrowful Heart yea allays all turbulent Passions excited in the Breast from an immoderate heat and fluctuation of the blood For since the animal Spirits serving for the motion of the Praecordia are derived from the Cerebel as the perturbations conceived in the Brain the influence being transmitted hither by moving these Spirits in the Fountain it self transfer the force of their Affections on the Breast so the Melody introduced to the Ears and diffused through this Province does as it were inchant with a gentle breath the Spirits there inhabiting and composes them called off from their fury to numbers and measures of dancing and so appeases all tumults and inordinations therein excited From these may in some measure be known the reason of the difference why the hearing Nerves are after a different manner in man and in four-footed beasts for because in these there is little need that the audible Species should pass through the Cerebel either for the reciprocations of the sound heard by the voice or for the impressing there the Tunes of the Harmony for neither is Musick required whatever Poets feign to the taming the Affections which move the breasts of beasts therefore in these I mean in four-footed beasts the annular Protuberance dispensing the animal Spirits to the auditory Nerves and receiving from them the sensible Species requires not so strict an affinity with the Cerebel yea whenas it may suffice that those Nerves arise from the oblong Marrow yet the annular Protuberance as it were a common Porch ought to be prefixed to them to wit in which both the Spirits going out from either side and the sensible Species to be carried to either ought first to be mixed and united together lest otherwise every sound should become double Among the Nerves which are seen to belong to the Cerebel and to perform its offices lastly follow the eighth or wandring pair which indeed hath its rise out of the common Trunk of the oblong Marrow near the place where the last process of the Cerebel is terminated and over against where the pyramidal bodies being produced from the annular Protuberance end so that we think these Nerves also by that process coming between on either side and also perhaps in some measure through the passage of the pyramidal bodies do derive all manner of influence of the animal Spirit from the Cerebel The beginning of these consists of very many fibres and filaments or little threads presently distinct one from another to which belongs from the very beginning of every Nerve a noted Trunk arising out of the spinal Marrow The description of the wandring pair of Nerves and its protension into the Praecordia and some Viscera are added hereafter For the present it shall suffice that we take notice that for as much as this Nerve is bestowed chiefly on the Praecordia the acts whereof are involuntary and are performed without our care or knowledge in sleep as well as waking and for that the same Nerve seems to receive the forces of the Spirits wholly from the nearer fountain of the Cerebel from hence it may certainly be well concluded that the government or oeconomy of the Cerebel regards only the involuntary Function So much for the Nerves which being subjected to the Government and Laws of the Cerebel seem to obey and serve under it among which moreover ought to be placed the fourth pair or the pathetick Nerves of the Eyes to wit which arising out of the first processes of the Cerebel come between that and the orbicular Processes of the use of which we have spoken already Further we shall here take notice that some other Nerves to be described below for that they communicate with the aforesaid Nerves near their originals cause also some involuntary acts to be performed of which sort are first the ninth pair the spinal Nerve accessory to the wandring pair also the Nerve of the Diaphragma and some others as we shall shew more at large in the particular History of the Nerves We may also observe concerning the Nerves but now described which owe their stock to the Cerebel and seem to be designed for the offices of the involuntary Function that sometimes some of them though of another Dominion are compelled to obey the beck and government of the Brain for we are wont to draw the parts of the Face usually moved pathetically and unthought of and also at our pleasure into these or those Configurations or postures we are able also in a measure to alter the motions and actions of the Praecordia and Viscera at the will or command of the Appetite The reason of these is partly because the Nerves of either Government communicate variously among themselves with shoots sent forth one to another so that oftentimes the offices of the one are drawn into the parts of the other But besides we have mentioned before that the sensible impression being inflicted on the parts of the involuntary Function forasmuch as it is vehement like a strong waving of water passing through the Cerebel affects the Brain it self In like manner it may be thought concerning the motion which belongs to those parts viz. that made after the ordinary manner that it is performed by the command of the Cerebel Notwithstanding some more severe Edicts of the Brain by the by-passage of the Prominences belong also to the Cerebel
roots of the Teeth Jaws Throat the farther end of the Palate yea and the Tongue for this reason chiefly that the nerves going out of the lower branch of the fifth pair might effect besides sense the divers offices of Taste and Touch or Feeling and motions of a various kind in the aforesaid members and parts most of which as the chewing of the aliment also those which have respect to configuration or framing of the mouth and face in laughing or weeping as we have already noted are performed unknown to the Brain that is involuntarily and by the help of the Cerebel only from which these Nerves are derived The other superior and also the greater branch of the fifth pair under the Dura Mater nigh the side of the Turkey Chair goes straight forward for a little space and is inlarged into some shoots over against the pituitary Glandula to the trunk of the Carotick Artery or the wonderful Net where it is present then it is inoculated into the nerve of the sixth pair and from thence sends back sometimes one sometimes two shoots which being united with another shoot turned back from the nerve of the sixth pair constitute the root or first trunk of the intercostal Nerve Concerning this intercostal nerve which is made of the lower ramification or branching out of the nerves of the fifth and sixth pair it shall be spoken of particularly hereafter Presently after the branches or shoots reflected or bent back for the root of the intercostal nerve that greater nerve of the fifth pair is divided into two noted branches The lesser and uppermost of these tending towards the globe of the Eye and becoming again twofold sends forth two branches from it self one of which turning towards the inward side of the Bone containing the ball or angle of the Eye is divided into two shoots The other of these having passed through the Bone nigh the mammillary Processes is carried into the nostrils the office of this nerve is to keep a Sympathy and consent of action between the nostrils and some other parts but the other branch of this division is bestowed on the Muscle by which Brutes wink The second Ophthalmick branch of the fifth pair is divided into four or five shoots all which going forward above the Muscles of the Eye and in some part passing through its Glandula's are almost all lost in the Eye-brows unless that in the passage they send down two small shoots which enter the Sclerotick Coat a little below the Tendons of the Muscles and reach to the Vvea or the fourth thin Membrane that cloaths the Optick nerve yea and also send in the passage small shoots to the Glandula's of the Eye It seems that these nerves of the fifth pair being distributed into the Glandula's of the Eyes and Eye-brows serve chiefly to the involuntary and pathetick actions of those parts the chief of which are the languishing and mournful aspect of the Eyes in weeping and the unwilling pouring out of tears For as the lower branching of the fifth pair to wit the intercostal nerve provideth in man for the Praecordia it easily happens that from the sad affection of these the Cardiack branches of this nerve being forced and wrinkled into Convulsions the aforesaid Ophthalmick branches also so correspond and by wrinkling the Eye-brows and by compressing the Glandula's produce those kind of looks of the Eyes and marks of sorrow and grief Further it is observed that from the Ophthalmick branch of the fifth pair a certain shoot is sent back higher nigh the heads of the Muscles which when it has passed through at a proper hole the Bone containing the ball of the Eye is carried straight into the caverns of the Nostrils Hence as I think a reason may be given wherefore passing out of a dark place into the light at the first beholding of the Sun presently whether we will or no we shall sneez to wit the eyes being too strongly struck by the object and being suddenly and disorderly moved that they might turn themselves aside the same affection is immediately communicated through the aforesaid Nerve to the Membrane covering the hollow caverns of the Nostrils which being thence contracted and wrinkled as it is wont by some sharp thing pulling it provokes sneezing The second or greater branch of the second division of the Nerve of the fifth pair being carried nigh the ball of the Eye is again divided into two branches The lower of these being bent downwards cleaving into many shoots is bestowed on the Palate and upper region of the Jaws The other and higher branch of this second division stretching beyond the ball of the Eye passes through together with the Vein and Artery a proper hole made in the bone of the upper Jaw which Vessels this Nerve climbs and variously compasses about with many shoots sent forth then arising out of the bone it imparts little branches to the Muscles of the Cheeks Lips Nose and to the roots of the upper Teeth Therefore forasmuch as this Nerve embraces and binds about the sanguiferous Vessels destinated to the Cheeks and the other parts of the Face from hence a reason may be given why the face is covered with blushing by shame for the animal Spirits being disturbed by the imagination of an unseemly thing by and by endeavouring as it were to hide the face their irregularities enter this Nerve so that the shoots of the same Nerve embracing the blood-carrying Vessels by compressing and pulling the same cause the blood to be more forced into the Cheeks and Face and the Veins being bound hard to be there for some time staid and detained But forasmuch as many shoots and fibres of the same maxillar Nerve derived from the fifth pair interweave themselves with the flesh and skin of the Lips hence the reason is plain why these parts are so very sensible and besides why the mutual kisses of Lovers impressed on the Lips so easily irritate love and lust by affecting both the Praecordia and Genitals to wit because the lower branching of the same fifth pair actuates these parts constituted in the middle and lower Belly and draws them into the like affection with the Lips The same reason holds of Love presently admitted by the eyes that as the Poet says Mars videt hant visámque cupit As soon as Mars saw her he desir'd her We have but now intimated that many shoots of this Nerve were destinated for the business of chewing and therefore because the aliments to be taken ought to undergo not only the examination of the taste but also of the smell and sight from the same Nerve whose branches being sent to the Palate and Jaws perform the business of chewing other shoots as it were fore-runners are carried to the Nostrils and Eyes to wit that these Organs of the other Senses might be furnished with some helps of probation also for the better knowing or distinguishing the objects of taste Certainly from the nearness of kindred
wandring pair do communicate one with the other with two branches as it were two hands meeting one the other that the influence of either nerve might equally reach to every region and part of the Stomach For whenas either Stomachical branch to wit both the upper and the lower is carried together from the two branches coming out from either side of the wandring pair it is provided that the Tributes of the Spirits destinated to the Ventricle should be at once certain and very plentiful For what appertains to the performing the action of this Bowel or Chylification the Spirits flowing in from either side are abundantly distributed into the Orifice and from thence into all its parts and private places and by that means it comes to pass that the Stomach dissolves bodies beyond the force of any Chymical Menstruum Then besides as to the feeling or sense of the Ventricle or the affection of it from things ingested it is carried also towards the Head by a double way whereby the passage may be the more certain to wit by either Trunk of the wandring pair that for that reason being indued with a most exquisite sense it might not be deceived concerning its objects and if that any thing inimical or contrary to it should lye hid among what is eaten it might discern it and thrust it out of its own accord or at least by the knowledge only of the Cerebel That from the same double Trunk of the wandring pair from whence the Cardiack Nerves arise a little above the Stomachical branches also proceed the cause is plain wherefore the Heart it self hath such a Sympathy with the Stomach so that its Deliquium or Swooning follows upon any great pulling or hawling of this Either Nerve of the wandring pair is terminated in the Ventricle it self for after the eighth Conjugation hath made as it were an high road for the passage of the animal Spirits to the Praecordia and to this noble Bowel it puts a bound to it self nor indeed does it seem meet to have its branches stretched out any further to the Viscera of the lower Belly because it seems an unworthy thing that the same path which leads to the chief office of nutrition and to the Palaces of life it self should lye open to the more vile Intestines also and the sink of the whole Body And truly although the ample path and broad way of the wandring pair is not produced beyond the Ventricle yet because a frequent commerce happens between this and the Praecordia and the other inferior parts therefore between the Stomach and the other Bowels though of a more base use certain Fibres as it were smaller paths are reached forth in which at least little bands of Spirits like Discoverers or Messengers run to and fro CHAP. XXV A Description of the Intercostal Nerve AFter the unfolding of the Nerve reaching forth to the Praecordia and the Ventricle we are led by the series or order of the inward parts to the describing a Nerve akin to this and which reaches forth its branches to the furthermost Province to wit to all the Viscera or Inwards of the lower Belly contained below the Ventricle This is commonly called the Intercostal because that going near the roots of the Ribs it receives in every one of their Interstices a branch from the spinal Marrow It s beginning is not yet sufficiently detected for by most Anatomists it is wrongfully taken for a branch of the wandring pair though indeed the wandring and the intercostal pair do communicate among themselves by branches sent forth one to the other yet as to both their beginnings Trunks and wandrings up and down they are plainly distinguished If that this latter Conjugation being denied the title of a peculiar nerve ought to confess it self of another stock certainly it owes nothing to the wandring pair but should borrow its original from the Nerves of the fifth and sixth pairs for two or three shoots being sent back from those nerves going out towards the Eyes and Face go into the same stock or Trunk which is the Trunk of the intercostal nerve as we have intimated before The intercostal Nerve being constituted after that manner and going out of the Skull at a proper hole presently contains the Ganglioform infolding near to another the like infolding of the wandring pair into which two nervous Processes are carried from the last pair within the Skull or the first Vertebral From that infolding one shoot is sent forth into the Sphincter of the Throat and another noted one into the Ganglioform infolding of the wandring pair Then this nerve descending towards the Vertebrae hath in the middle of the Neck another far greater infolding into which an ample nerve from the neighbouring Vertebral pair is inserted but from the same many nerves which respect the Praecordia are distributed on every side For two or three shoots are sent forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma and one shoot into the returning nerve besides numerous fibres and shoots are carried both into the returning nerve and towards the Trachea which are inserted into its Coats and into those of the Oesophagus and into the blood-carrying Vessels Further one branch descends into the Trunk of the wandring pair and two noted nerves into the Cardiack infolding then a little lower another nerve by it self proceeding out of the intercostal Trunk is inserted also into the Cardiack infolding which noted branches sent down on both sides from the intercostal nerve for that they joyn together with others derived from either Trunk of the wandring pair make the Cardiack infolding it self But these Cardiack branches from the intercostal nerve as also the Cervical infolding or that in the hinder part of the Neck whence they proceed are peculiar to men and are wholly wanting in brute beasts The intercostal Trunk descends from the cervical infolding towards the chanel-bone where being about to enter the cavity of the Breast it falls upon the axillary Artery as it were in right Angles and strains or binds it from whence it is drowned or hidden in the Thorax near the roots of the first and second Ribs and there receiving three or four branches from the Vertebral nerves next to those uppermost constitutes another infolding which is commonly called the Intercostal infolding The uppermost of these Vertebral nerves coming to this infolding in its journey binds the Vertebral Artery and almost compasses it about In Brutes by this nerve which comes upon the Vertebral Artery the intercostal infolding communicates with the root of the nerve of the Diaphragma and not by any other means unless by small fibres sent forth from the lower part of the infolding into the Vertebral nerves Further in Brutes a noted branch is carried from this infolding into the Trunk of the wandring pair But in Man the intercostal Trunk passes through the cavity of the Thorax without any communication had with the other parts unless that from hence in its whole descent running
was much more capacious in the proportion to the bulk of his Body and the turnings and windings of it were larger The orbicular Prominences called Nates and Testes also the ringy Protuberance sent down from the Cerebel came nearer the figure and magnitude of those parts in a man But what occurred chiefly worthy noting was this viz. That the intercostal Nerve although even as it is wont to be in other Brutes being included in the same sheath with the Trunk of the eighth pair was carried through the Neck yet departing from this Nerve near the Chanel-bone before it was inserted into the infolding placed nigh the roots of the upper Ribs did send forth some shoots into the Heart and its Appendix and certain Fibres into the nerve of the Diaphragma which perhaps partly is the reason why this Animal is so crafty and mimical above other Beasts and can so aptly shew and imitate not only the gestures but the passions and some manners of a Man But we will proceed to the explication of the intercostal Nerve from whence we have digressed We have already intimated for what use the Vertebral branch is inserted into its cervical infolding There is the same reason for this as for the other Vertebrals which communicate with the intercostal Nerve almost in its whole passage But for that the nerve of the Diaphragma is radicated in the same Vertebral nerve from whence a branch comes into this infolding I say from that a reason may be taken why the motion of the Diaphragma intimately conspires with the Praecordia yea and with the conceptions of the Brain which kind of Sympathy of the Diaphragma with the other parts because it is requisite to be more strict and noted in man it is observed That not only the Vertebral branch cometh between the infolding and the root of the nerve of the Diaphragma but two and sometimes three nerves are sent from this infolding into the trunk it self of the nerve of the Diaphragma Fig. 9 ε. ε. Truly from hence not only the joynt action or Sympraxis of the Diaphragma with the Praecordia may be derived but also the genuine cause is here manifest why Risibility is a proper Affection of a man For as often as the Imagination is affected by any pleasant or wonderful conception presently the Heart desires to rejoyce and as it were by shaking off its load to be eased wherefore that the blood might be more swiftly emptied out of its right bosom into the Lungs and consequently out of the left into the Aorta the Diaphragma instigated by the passage of the nerves going out of this infolding is drawn upward by a more rapid Systole and raises up the Lungs as it were making iterated leaps and causes them by their more frequent striking together to drive out both the Air and the blood Then forasmuch as the same intercostal Nerve which communicates lower with the nerve of the Diaphragma is continued also higher with the maxillary Nerves a cackling being made in the Breast with it the gesture of the Mouth and Face pathetically answers One or two noted shoots and many nervous Fibres are carried from this infolding into the returning Nerve Fig. 9. ζ. Certainly the reason of this communication seems to be that the Diaphragma and the Heart it self into which nerves are sent from this infolding might yet more conspire with the rough Artery which the returning nerve affects in its various actions and especially in laughing weeping and singing Moreover when the returning Nerves by pulling upwards the Trunks of the Aorta cause the blood for the stirring up some Affections to creep more swiftly towards the Head they may in the performing that office be much helped by the associate labour of the Nerves sent from this infolding From this infolding in the Neck many small fibres and shoots are spread into the sanguiferous Vessels as also into the Coats of the Trachea and the Oesophagus Fig. 9. ibid. As to what belongs to the former that respect the Trachea and the blood-carrying Vessels their office is that they may respectively draw together and spread abroad those chanels of inspired and exspired blood and Air according to the way and manner wherewith the Pulse and Breathing ought to be performed whereby the motions of either might be the better retarded or accelerated according to the necessities or requirings of the Heart Then numerous Fibres are stretched out from this infolding into the Coats of the Oesophagus placed near that by this means the admirable consent between the Heart and the Stomach by reason of the Nerves being reached forth from this infolding and from the wandring pair to both may be produced Concerning the Cardiack branches sent from this infolding we need not discourse any more after having but now intimated that these were as it were Internuncii peculiar to men which carrying to and fro the reciprocal impressions of the Brain and Heart cause Commerces in both Kingdoms But forasmuch as Nerves of a double kind viz. of the wandring and intercostal pair respect the humane Praecordia lest the gestures of one should be different from those of the other therefore the Cardiack branches which are of either family partly communicate in the same infolding and are partly inoculated mutually by shoots sent forth before they are distributed into the Heart it self Below the Cervical infolding the intercostal Trunk being demersed within the Thorax admits three Vertebral Nerves arising higher and constitutes the other infolding which is commonly called the Intercostal but more properly the Thoracical infolding Fig. 9. Τ. In this place the intercostal Nerve being about to pass into its last and more large Province viz. the Viscera of the lower Belly and therefore seeking aid for the journey and as it were a Viaticum for it self it gets together in this infolding an increase or aiding forces from the Vertebral nerves and afterwards receives lower others fresh nigh the several knots of the Vertebrae because it will have need of a great stock of Spirits which it must bestow on the Mesenterick infoldings and on other parts of the Abdomen That this Nerve about to enter the Thoracical infolding doth bind the Chanel-bone Artery Fig. 9. l. and that the superior branch of the Vertebral being sent into the same infolding doth bind about the Vertebral Artery Fig. 9. π. the reason of both seems that the blood for the uses and necessities of the lower Viscera to which the intercostal Nerve from thence serves may be driven forward with a more plentiful afflux downwards which thing those Nerves easily do by pulling together the blood-carrying Vessels towards their infolding so that they attempt this snatching of the blood in opposition to that which the returning Nerves perform And indeed when the blood tending upwards and downwards is wont sometimes to flow too much towards either bound sometimes to be wanting therefore the nerves as it were an incitement or remora are variously disposed both in the upper
other thing with various gestures whereof we are ignorant or not willing them we scarcely think or speak any thing but at the same time the hands are flung out here and there and whilst the Tongue hesitates or sticks or the words at it were stick between the Jaws the right hand is exercised as if by its gesture it were endeavouring to draw out more swiftly the sence of the mind Truly that these parts to wit the Hands and Arms do so nearly conspire with the Affections of the Brain and Heart in their motions in some measure in all living Creatures but more eminently in Man the cause seems to be this nerve's coming from the spinal Marrow to the beginning of the wandring pair and communicating with its nerves and receiving from them as it were the note or private mark of the involuntary Function So much for the spinal Nerve which also like a shrub growing from other shrubs hath no peculiar origine but having received various fibres is radicated for the greatest part in the spinal Marrow and as hath been shewn partly in the nerve of the wandring pair Concerning the nerve of the Diaphragma of which we shall speak next many things occur no less worthy remarking As to its beginning it may be observed That it arises from the brachial nerves with a double or triple root to wit two or three shoots going out of the aforesaid nerves grow together into the same Trunk which is the nerve of the Diaphragma In man its first shoot which is also the greatest is produced out of the second Vertebral nerve and when the first brachial nerve arises from the same handful of Vertebral nerves going out at this place the aforesaid shoot is rooted in its origine wherefore when in Brutes the first brachial nerve arises from the fourth or fifth Vertebral the nerve of the Diaphragma also begins its rise far lower two other shoots arise out of the same stocks of the brachial nerves which follow next Fig. 9. Υ. φ. But the Trunk which is made out of these shoots goes forward single through the passage of the Neck and the cavity of the Thorax without any branching forth even to the Diaphragma Fig. 9 χ. where being at last stretched out into three or four shoots it is inserted on either side to the fleshy or musculous part of it so that because the Diaphragma is a Muscle and performs both its motions to wit Systole and Diastole by its own Fibres the office of either nerve is only to carry bands or forces of animal Spirits requisite for the indiscontinued action of that part and also to convey thither the Instincts of the Motions variously to be performed As to the first use of this Nerve viz. for the passage of the animal Spirits the business is performed in this Muscle as it is in the Heart The Spirits flowing into the Diaphragma by the nerves receive subsidiary Forces to wit a sulphureous Copula from the blood upon whose explosion being still iterated by turns and the receiving of new the action of this perpetual moveable depends Concerning the Instincts of the Motions transmitted by the passage of this double nerve we may observe That they are especially in man of a double kind viz. either the action of the Diaphragma merely natural for the performing of Respiration is continually reciprocated according to the uses of the Heart and Lungs and altered many ways in their tenour according to their needs or secondly a certain irregular and unusual motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be excited at the beck of the Appetite or from the instigations of other parts for the which whilst the rest of the Organs of Respiration are compelled to conspire the act it self of Respiration becomes after a various manner interrupted or unequal 1. As to the first of these viz. the unforced motion of this Muscle it may be observed That the Diaphragma with the Muscles of the Thorax and the parts of either conspire in their motion with the action of the Lungs and Heart and that between all these such a joynt action may be sustained it is observed That three or four branches are sent out from the Vertebral nerves in the branches of which the nerve of the Diaphragma is rooted into the intercostal infolding Fig. 9. Τ. and whereas from this infolding the nerves are carried into the Muscles of the Thorax by this means a communication and consent of action is effected between these and the Diaphragma Therefore the Diaphragma drawing with it self the Muscles of the Thorax by reason of other nerves conspires with the Praecordia These in man going from the intercostal nerve are already described and in Brutes from the lower infolding of the wandring pair a nerve is sent down into the infolding of the Thorax to which besides so many shoots and certain fibres reaching forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma are instead of such a commerce 2. The Anomal and irregular motions of the Diaphragma proceed from various causes and from the divers instigation of other parts which also in man become much more signal than in brute Animals because in him the communication is notable by the nerves reaching out from the Cervical infolding of the intercostal pair into the nerve of the Diaphragma which kind of infolding and nerves are wanting in Brutes As to the Species themselves of irregular motions into which the motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be perverted it may be observed That we are able at our pleasure to stop breathing or respiration for some space and presently to take it or draw it out In laughing weeping and singing sometimes the Systole sometimes the Diastole becomes stronger and is made frequenter upward or downward with a repeated shaking which sort of actions of it are made by reason of those near commerces had between the nerve of the Diaphragma and other respective parts of the Breast and Face yea indeed from hence it is effected as we have already shewn that man is peculiarly a laughing Creature Further which we have shewn elsewhere from the Sympathy which happens between the parts of the Mouth and Face with the Diaphragma by those nerves a good reason of sneezing may be given and that Problem of Aristotles easily solved to wit why men alone or chiefly before other Creatures sneeze For the act of sneezing seems to be made for this end that man may not only clear his Nose but that all Torpor or heaviness may be shook off for him from the neighbouring Organs of the Senses yea and from all the fore-part of the Brain which thing easily succeeds if the Membranes and nervous passages besmearing the Nostrils and the Sieve-like Bone like the holes of a Sponge being strongly wrung forth or squeezed together be forced to shed forth their moistures for these parts so emptied presently like a pressed Sponge receive other humors to wit those coming from the neighbouring parts In the mean time that the watry heap
so that indeed they being drawn one from another and here and there inordinately moved induce convulsive distempers which are accompanied now with the contractures now with the languishing and resolutions or loosning of the containing parts But why the painfull Convulsions which are raised by the bite of the Tarantula In what the reason of the Musicks allaying the symptoms consists being presently allayed by musick are wont to turn into dancing does not so plainly appear That some affirm this little animal for that by the testimony of Aristotle it should be most wise to be delighted with musick and for that reason its venom being impress'd on man by fermenting the humours to induce the like love of musick I say this conjecture will not satisfie a minde desirous of Truth because that supposes a musick-loving nature in the spider and the same to be communicated to man by a matastasis or as it were a certain metempsychosis or transmigration of soul both which are taken upon trust and little satisfactory but it may be rather said that the venome inflicted on the nervous liquor by the bite of the Tarantula is too gentle to be able to extinguish wholly the Animal spirits or to dissipate them very much asunder and to compell them into more cruell explosions but only to put them to flight and to incite those flying here and there into lighter and somewhat painfull Convulsions and that the Musick with its flattering sweetnesse doth congregate together and mutually associate with ease the spirits so dissipated wherefore when as the same spirits by reason of the Infection sticking to them are apt to involuntary and Convulsive motions the melody disposes them delighted together and directs them to such Convulsions that entring the bodies of the nerves by a certain Course and Order they are carried as it were in certain prescribed limits and compasses until at length the particles of the venome being quite evaporated and the fury and rage of the spirits being worn out they wholly shake off that madnesse For truly musick doth easily carry men sound and sober whether they will or no or thinking of another thing into actions answerable to the sound of the harmony that presently the standers by at the first striking up of the Fiddle begin to move their hands and feet and can scarce nay are not able to contain themselves from dancing Let none therefore wonder that in men bitten by the Tarantula when the animal spirits being moved as it were with goads they are compelled to leap forth and wander about hither and thither willingly if they are excited to dancing and composed measures at the stroke of an harp so that as in these distempers the spirit of the musick as it were inchanting the outragious spirits and in some measure governing and changing their convulsive motions serves instead of an Antidote for that the animal spirits being very much and for a long while exercised after this manner wholly shake off the Elastic Copula contracted by the poyson or otherwise and they being very much wearied at length rest from that madness or its incitation A description of the dance of St. Vitus That which is called the Dance of Saint Vitus is an evill akin to this concerning which George Horstius relates that he had spoken with some women who for some years visiting the shrine of St. Vitus which is in the borders of Vlme did there exercise themselves even night and day with dancing and discomposure of minde till they fell down like people intranc'd by which means they seemed to be restored to themselves that they felt little or nothing for a whole year till about the time of May following when by the inquietude of their members they fay'd they were so far tormented that they were forced to go for their health sake yearly to the aforesaid place about the feast of St. Vitus Horst Epis Med. sect 7. de admirandis Convulsionibus The reason of it Indeed it is a usuall thing as I have observed both for men and women to be sometimes tormented with this inquietude of their members and as it were with a fury or madness that they have been forc'd to walk till they were tyred as also to dance leap and run about here and there that by this means they might shun the grievous trouble and sometimes faintings away which were about to invade them The reason of which seems to be that the animal spirits forasmuch as they being incited by an heterogenious Copula in the whole nervous kinde become fierce and altogether unbridled which so to exercise and tire out there is need both that they themselves may be tamed and that the explosive Copula may be shaken off Vniversall Convulsions from Witchcraft That Convulsive distempers are sometimes excited by witch-craft is both commonly believed and usually affirmed by many Authors worthy of credit and indeed as we do grant that very oftentimes most admirable passions are produced in the humane body by the delusions of the Devill forasmuch as he to cause wonders by which he might rule by the subtletie of working insinuates to the sensitive soul or the constitution of the animal spirits heterogeneous Atoms or little Bodies and so adds now spurs or pricking forward and now casts chains on its functions and now carries them to mischief also by some means he enters himself into the humane body and as it were another more mighty soul is stretched thorow it actuates all the parts and members inspires them with an unwonted force and governs them at his pleasure and incites to the perpetrating of most cruel Which are commonly but falsly so thought and supernatural wickednesses yet all kinde of Convulsions which besides the common manner of this disease appear prodigious ought not presently to be attributed to the inchantments of Witches nor is the Devill presently or allways to be brought upon the stage For indeed as often as a childe or relation of some man of the richer sort is by chance taken with most cruell and unusuall Convulsions for the most part it falls out that by and by the next old woman is accused of witchcraft she is made guilty and very hardly or not at all the wretch escapes the flames or an halter when in the mean time the disease proceeding from causes meerly natural may be easily Cured by no other Exorcism The reason of them than Remedies usually prescribed against convulsive diseases In truth the animal spirits being indued with a more cruell explosive Copula and being strucken by it all of a heap together obtain so much strength and vigour beyond their proper and wonted power as the flame of gunpowder has above the burning of the common flame so that those who obnoxious to this disease out of the sit may be govern'd lifted up and moved at pleasure with the light help of one man when the same is upon them make nothing of the utmost endeavours and force of at
with abundance of spitle and thick was excited this hapned in some about the declination of the disease to wit whilst the confines of the brain were serene as it were the clowds sent from thence to the thorax a great Catarrh suddenly rained down upon the Lungs But in others who especially had little infection of the disease in the head presently after the beginning of the feavour a cruell cough and a stinking spitting with a consumptive disposition grew upon them and suddenly and unthought of precipitated the sick into a Pthisis from which nevertheless they recovered by the timely use of Remedies often beyond hope It was observ'd in some that after a long ecclips of the sensitive facultie and oppression of the brain from the morbific matter at length tumors did follow in the glandula's neer the hinder part of the neck out of which being hardly ripened and broke a thin and stinking ichor or matter ran for a long time and brought help I have also seen watery pustles excited in other parts of the body which pass'd into hollow ulcers and hardly curable sometimes little spots and petechiales appeared here and there yet I never heard that any more broad or blew of these kinde were seen in the sick Notwithstanding tho this feavour was not remarkable for very many malignant spots yet it was not free from Contagion For that in the same Family it invaded almost all the Children and youths successively yea not rarely those of more ripe years and at mens estate who looking to the sick were familiarly conversant in their Chambers or about their beds were infected with the same infection But indeed there was not so much cause of suspition that for it the friends of the sick should be wholly interdicted from commerce with or visiting of them Altho the course of this disease unless when it intimately settled in the brain did appear so gentle and continued without any horrid Symptome yet its cure being always difficult succeeded not under a long time For the sick rarely grew well within three or four weeks yea for the most part scarce in so many months If this disease fell upon men of a broken Age or strength especially those who were before obnoxious to cephalic distempers as the Lethargie Appoplexie or Convulsion it oftentimes kill'd them in a short space but if there was any hope of recovering it could be but slowly procured all Remedies whatsoever scarce bringing any sensible help so that the sick did no sooner come out of the sphear of this disease than they fell into the confines of a Consumption The reason of them If the formal reason and courses of this aforesaid sickness be demanded it here easily appears the watering Liquor of the brain and nervous stock for the most part both together with the blood to be in fault and the immediate cause especially of the troublesome Symptoms to wit forasmuch as this water presently after the first assault of the disease was grown more poor then usuall and as it were lifeless therefore a Languishing and enervation with a spontaneous weariness and impotency to motion hapned in the whole body and with a sudden wasting of the body in the sick Further forasmuch as the same Liquor was stuffed with heterogeneous particles viz. partly narcotick partly explosive therefore a numbness a sense of pricking leapings up of the tendons and muscles and contractures also the Virtego giddinesse and other more grievous Cephalick distempers did arise Moreover forasmuch as by reason of the evil of the nervous juice being not quickly or hardly to be mended the cure or healing of the disease became so hard and lingring But for that the fault of this Latex necessarily depended on the discrasie or evill disposition of the blood also of the depraved constitution of the brain what their morbid dispositions were and by what means they brought forth the beginning or tinder of the Symptom of the feavour but now described let us now see As to the former it seems that at this season by reason of the hot and humi'd constitution of the year and no blast from the north the little bodies of which imbue the blood and juices of our body as it were with a nitrous seasoning and by agitating them defend them against putrefaction the blood in most men and chiefly in children youths and women became like standing-water that so contracts a setling very impure stuff't with heterogeneous particles and turning to a clammyness and watrishness in which the more pure spirit and sulphur being somewhat depress'd the watery particles being carried forth with the impure salt and sulphur were too much exalted Wherefore the blood both by reason of its Crisis or constitution being vitiated also by reason of heterogeneous particles being heaped up more plentifully in its bosome was made more fit either of its own accord or occasionally or because of the contagion to receive a feavourish Effervescency so that from thence very many fell at this time into feavours But the blood growing hot from the feavourish taint being received did not presently burn with an open flame but like green wood laid on the fire with a flame as it were suppressed and much incumbred with smoke Wherefore the morbific matter being heaped within its mass was not wont as in a regular feavour to be consumed by the burning and its reliques at the set time to be exterminated by the Crisis but yet a little after the beginning of the feavour a great portion of this matter being powred into the head at Thorax or into both at once and afterwards being continually supplied in those parts it induced either the aforesaid distempers of the brain and nervous stock or a cough with a consumptive disposition or both together and for this reason about the beginning of this disease when a pulse quicker than it ought to be and a high colour'd urine and full of contents did show the blood to grow hot with a feavourish distemper the sick did not complain of heat or thirst because the blood growing hot did lay up its impurities and recrements forthwith into the provision of the nervous Liquor or into the Lungs wherefore within these receptacles the Symptoms presently became worse but afterwards the disease growing on a somewhat sharp heat with scurfness of the tongue was wont to be troublesome to some yea in all a slow and as it were hectick feavour continued throughout which neither by sweat nor by insensible transpiration could be so wholly removed but that it was daily renued chiefly after eating tho never so small which thing truly seem'd to happen because the nervous juice being full of the feculencies brought from the blood did not afterwards receive them in so great plenty but that these recrements together with the nutritious humour and for that this was not consumed by nourishing the solid particles remaining within the bloody mass caused it then to grow feavourishly hot 2ly Besides this morbid disposition of
to take anti-hysterical Remedies and purges at certain set intervalls but without any help At last I being sent for because she seemed indued with a strong habit of body and with a notable fierceness of spirits I gave her a stronger Emetick by which she vomited forth ten times greenish Choller like to rust with phlegm sharp like stygian water and she was suddenly eased After this I gave her every morning a draught of white-wine dilated with the water of black Cherries with sows or hog-lice bruised and infused therein and strongly pressed forth By the Use of these she seem'd presently to be cured and was well above a Month And when afterwards the distempers being about to return she felt at any time some forerunners presently by the use of a vomit and the expression of the Millepedes or Cheslogs she averted the approach of the Disease within three months she so far recovered her former health that she has now liv'd for many years free from those kinde of Convulsive distempers But from the time the convulsive passions wholly ceased she was sometimes troubled about the parts of her mouth and throat with a defluxion of a most sour humour like the vitriolick Stagma besides sometimes she was obnoxious to the Pica or longing of women and at sometimes also to the Cough with a discolored spittle threatning a Consumption notwithstanding which by remedies used in these kinde of Cases she was easily cured The reasons of aforesaid case As to the Aetiologie or Rational account of the aforesaid Case there is no reason that we should fear to refer both the Causes and Symptoms of this disease to the explosive particles the brain being pass'd thorow without hurt sent as a supply Continually from the blood into the nervous stock which forasmuch as they being poured forth in great plenty were not restrained within private mines to be struck off only by turns cleaving every where both to the implanted and inflowing Spirits forced them as it were inspired with a madness to be perpetually exploded and to grow raging here and there by bands so that indeed they were not able at all to be ruled within the containing parts but there was need to overthrow and to tame them impetuously tumultuating and apt to be carried here and there like a whirlwinde by some very violent and strong exercise In truth in was in this sick person as it is in musical Organs which if filled above measure by too great a blast of winde unless presently the passages of more Pipes be opened the whole frame of the Organ is quickly shaken and in danger to be broken to pieces In like manner in this Lady when the animal Spirits actuating the pipes and the depending fibres of some of the nerves were moved beyond their due tenour there was a necessity that their force should be bestowed on many vehement local motions together whilst they inslated above measure the nervous bodies wherefore when their madness was hindred in on part by and by like winde pent up creeping somewhere else it broke forth more violently in some other part In this sick person the use of one or two Vomits brought help once or twice because that by it what was lodged in the gallie-vessell yea the glandula's and emunctuories and also about the viscera of concoction being by this means emptied the purging of the blood and nervous juce were more Copiously drawn into the same place therefore indeed that the animal Spirits flowing within the Pipes of the distemperd nerves might be less infected by them By this reason also the juice of the Sows or hog-lice was beneficiâ—l forasmuch as it derived the morbifick matter from the nervous kinde to the urinary passages Besides these Remedies the Root and in a great part the branches of the morbific matter being cut off and when others as it were antidotes hindring every where its vegitation were carefully administred whatsoever was left of it Nature at length becoming superior as she is wont in these criticall Cases sent away to the sinks of the mouth and Throat Observation 4 Whilst I was writing these things I visited an illustrious Virgin who was troubled with other kinde of Convulsive motions and those universal and no less to be admired she was about 18. years of age hansome and well made and before this time healthfull when the Pestilence raging in this neighbourhood she had come within the danger of its Contagion she fell into a panick fear with frequent swouning the night fellowing she suffer'd so great a deliquium or sinking down of her Spirits and insensibility that she seem'd just a dying hardly strugling with so great an evill afterwards she had every day Convulsive fits though at first at uncertain hours and returning after a manifold Kinde But within a short time its comings being made regular twice in a day to wit they constantly returned at eleven of the clock and before five in the afternoon that no intermitting feavour kept more exactly its periods yea also the same accidents of the fit dayly chanced after the same manner When she had thus been sick for three weeks one day I was sent for that I might take notice of all the Symptoms and the whole figure of the disease she being up about ten in the morning was well in her Countenance going and speech she behaved her self exceeding well so that none would ever suspect her to be sick at eleven of the clock she began to complain of a fullness of her head and numbness of Spirits with a light swimning by and by she felt a great pulsation and as it were the leaping of some live animal in her left hypochondrium putting my hand on her side I plainly perceived this motion then a stretching and belching followed which done she was presently put to bed and a maid siting upon a pillow held her down who during the fit most strictly graspt the sick person holding her to her bosom with her arms foulded about her wast besides servants were ready and her relations standing by who now press'd down her belly and hypochondria rising up and swelling to a great bulk now held her hands and arms The chief Symptoms of the Disease which being excited by turns almost divided the whole fit were these two viz. one while Cruel Convulsions of the Bowells did infest her so that the abdomen rising up into a mighty bulk strove against the hands of the by-standers held upon it that it could not be pressed down and at the same time her Praecordia being contracted upwards the motions of her blood and heart were almost stop't in which space of time this virgin her head falling down with a small pulse and almost without voice lay nigh sensless after two or three minutes of an hour these Convulsions ceased and then the sick person setting her self upright look'd about cheerfully and for a while the force of the disease changed into talking and singing both of which she without
aforesaid Cases those fits of the Asthma did wholly depend on the Convulsive matter being fallen into the nerves serving to the stretching forth of the Lungs which cleaving to the Spirits and being by them struct off or explosed by reason of plentitude or irritation caused the Praecordia to be lifted uywards and as it were inflated and by that means hindred from its reciprocal motion An Asthma sometimes exciteed by reason of the Bronchia being Convulsively affected Moreover we suppose that such a kinde of Convulsive Dyspnaea or difficult breathing is sometimes excited by reason of the bronchia of the Trachea or the sharp arteries of the Throat being too much streightned and often almost drawn together we have shown in our discourse of the Nerves that very many branches of nervous fibres and of the nerves do every where embrace all the ramifications of the asper Arterie and bind them about which nerves if it happen that they being possessed by the morbific matter should be irritated into frequent Convulsions for that reason it follows that the channells or passages which they compass about must be greatly bound together and in some places wholly shut up There was a very choyce Virgin of a tender constitution and of a flourishing Observation 3 countenance scarce past the second lustre of her Age i e. about 12. years old that began to be grievously tormented with Asthma fits and before she was entrusted to my cure she had liv'd obnoxious to them at least 4. years sometimes she remained free from any fit of this disease for two or three months yet oftentimes by reason of errors in Diet or the great mutations of the year or the air she fell into most cruel fits of the Dyspnaea or difficult breathing So that her Lungs being inflated and carried upwards towards her throat and there held almost in a continual Diastole she could hardly nay not at all breathe in the mean time for that respiration might be somehow made the Diaphragma and the muscles of the breast were exercised with repeated endeavours of motions This kinde of fit by degrees remitting within 7 or 8. hours at length gave over but then after a week or two it was wont to come again either of it self or from any the least occasion after that the force of the Disease its matter being bestow'd on very many of these kinde of fits pass'd away this excellent virgin was well enough for many weeks yea sometimes months after and breath'd freely without any fault of the Thorax For this person I instituted this following method Spring and fall and now it is more than two years since she has had any fit of this Distemper Take of our Sulphur of Antimony gr vi of Cream of tartar vi grains mix them Let it be given in the pap of a rosted apple with this medicine she was wont to vomit 4. or 5. times four days after she took this cathartic which was wont to be repeated twice after 6. or 7. days between Take Calomelun xii grains of the Resin of Jolop v. grains of castor gr iiii with what will suffice of Ammoniac dissolved make iii. pills every day besides she took morning and evening of the tincture of Antimony grains xii in a Spoonfull of the following Julap drinking after it 6. or 7. Spoonfulls of the same Take of the water of Snailes â„¥ vi of earth-worms â„¥ iiii of water of penny-royal and rue each â„¥ iii. of hysterical water â„¥ iii. of Castor tyed in a knot and hung in the glass Ê’ss of white-sugar â„¥ i. mix them in the glass and make a Julap About the Autumn of the last year another noble Virgin being sick after the same manner viz. with a Periodical Asthma I was sent for to cure her Observation 4 who received great help by the aforesaid Remedies being used in a little lesser dose and the same repeated at the first of the Spring In these Cases also nothing seems to appear more clearly than that the cause of the Disease without any phlegm or viscous humour being impacted in the Lungs as is commonly beleeved doth subsist within the nervous stock and that this kind of Dyspnaea or difficult breathing meerly convulsive is excited by reason of the Pneumonic nervs being possessed by the Convulsive Distemper The verity of this may be yet more clearly evinced by an anatomical observation An Anatical Observation lately Comunicated to me by the learned Physitian Doctor Walter Needham That most famous man told me that he knew a Butcher of Wallsallen in the County of Stafford who when he had been long sick of a periodical Asthma returning within 14. or 20 days at farthest at length he dyed in a fit The Body being opened all his Viscera appeared sound chiefly his Lungs neither were there to be seen any signes either of excrement gathered together in the Bronchia or of the blood restagnating in the veins this only hapned besides nature that the bladder of the gall contained in it many stones But added he the causes unknown to us certainly not Conspicuous to our eyes were to be attributed to the nervous stock being affected Sometime past I was consulted with about a noble child Anoiher Anatomical Observation who being about 12. months old was grieviously afflicted with Convulsion fits and as it were Epileptic of which he quickly dyed I often observed that whilest the Convulsion of the outward parts intermitted he was taken with a cruel sobbing or hooping Cough from whence I suspected that the morbific matter was no less fixed in the breast than in the brain But after its Death the body being opened the Lungs well furnish'd appeared clear from any fault that it clearly appeared that this cough meerly Convulsive was excited by reason of the Distemper of the nervous stock As to what respects the Remedies and curatory means which ought to be used in the aforesaid cases when that convulsive Symptoms come upon the Cough or difficulty of breathing first excited from the default of the Lungs and so by reason of the taint communicated to the brain it must be carefully heeded that Convulsive medicines be aptly compounded with those respecting all the Intentions of the Thorax Yea that sometimes these sometimes those being given by themselves may between whiles fill up the times of curing it will not be needfull in this place to bring the bechic or Pneumonic medicines and forms of them since an immense company of them are extant every where among Physical Authors It will be sufficient for our purpose to add a method of medicine also some more select Remedies convenient for the Cough and Asthma meerly Convulsive The cure of the Convulsive Cough As to the former Distemper which is most familiar to children the cure is difficult and for the most part not to be performed but of a long time The chief Indications will be to purge forth both the serous and sharp humours from the blood and Viscera that
Valves A part of the brain made like folding doors so called Van Helmont A Famous Dutch Doctor Vapid Dead decay'd without tast or smack Vegetation A growing or putting forth or flourishing as a Plant. Vegetal Belonging to such a growing or flourishing Vegetable That which hath life and groweth but not sense as herbs and trees Vehicle That which carrieth or beareth another thing as the blood is of the animal spirits Vena Porta See Porta Vena Vena Cava See Cava Vena Venous Belonging or appertaining to a Vein Ventricle Is the stomach or that part which receives the meat and drink being swallowed down and which hath in it self the virtue of digestion Ventricles Of the heart two notable little hollows caverns on each side of the heart Ventricles Of the Brain several notable caverns therein Vermiculations Creeping like a Worm or motions like the creeping of a Worm Vernal Belonging to the Spring or in the time of the Spring Verberation A beating or striking Vertigo A diziness giddiness and turning round within the head A certain disease which causeth a turning within the head Vertebral Belonging to the joynts of the back-bone Vertebrae Those several joyntings and knittings of the back-bone or chine so called of Anatomists Vesicatories Medicines that raise or cause Blisters where applied Veterans Old Soldiers or any thing that hath served long in a place Viaticum Voyage provisions as meat and drink upon a journey Vibration A shaking striking or quavering Vicinity Neighbourhood or nearness of dwelling or being Viscid Clammy or sticking like Bird-lime Viscosity A clamminess or glewiness Viscera Are the chief Entrals or Inwards as Heart Liver Lungs Spleen the Bowels c. Vitriol Copperas a certain Mineral found in several Countreys used in Medicines Vitriolic Belonging or appertaining to Vitriol Umbilic Belonging to the Navel or of the likeness or shape of the Navel Undulation A wavering like the waters where one follows upon the heels of the others Unctuosity An oyliness or juiciness Unctuous Oylie or juicy Volatile That easily flies away or that is apt to flie or vanish Ureters The pipes or passages by which the Vrine passes from the Reins to the Bladder Urinary Belonging to the Vrine or the passages of the Vrine Uterine Belonging or appertaining to the Womb. Uvea The fourth thin membrane of the eye called also Chorion W. Wezand The Windpipe or Throat X. Xeroeus Wine A Spanish Wine so called I suppose they mean Tent. Here ends the Table of hard names THE FIRST INDEX or TABLE WHEREIN IS Alphabetically digested the principal matters contained in the Treatises of Fermentation and Feavers A. AGues Of Agues Page 68. The reason of the Ague fits 69 70 71. The signs of the Disease 72. Of the Cure of the Ague 74. Of the double Tertian or Quartan 75 Of a Tertian Ague or Feaver 77 Some symptoms of the Disease 78 Its Cure 79 80 Histories of the Disease 81 82 Of Quotidian Agues 82 Their Cure 83 Of a Quartan Ague 84 Causes of it 84 Why it usually begins in Autumn 85 Its Cure 86 Aurum fulminans What it is 40. B. Beer How made by Fermentation 20 Blood The Blood Anatomiz'd 57 58 Compared with Wines 61 The motions and heats of the Blood 64 The difference of the Fermentation of Wine and the Blood 64 The difference of the Blood growing hot in Feavers 90 Of the inkindling of the Blood in a burning Feaver 109 How the Blood is infected by Poysons 121 and its several mutations thereby ibid. Of the great heat of the Blood in malignant Feavers 131 Of Blood-letting in the Small-pox 146 Blood Menstruous see Menstruous Blood Bread How made by Fermentation 20 Buboes In the Plague 126 127 C. Carbuncles Of Carbuncles in the Plague 126 127 Catarrhal Epidemical Feavers see Feavers Causon Or Burning Feavers 109 Cautions Concerning putrid Feavers 110 111 Concerning the Plague 128 Chrystilisation Of Salts how made 49 Chyle The Concoction of the Chyle in the Ventricle is made by Fermentation 14 Coagulation What it is 49 Congelation What it is 49 A second manner of Congelation 51 Of artificial Congelation ibid. Crisis Of a continual Feaver 91 Of a putrid Feavor 96 Cure Of Agues 74 79 80 83 86. Of putrid Feavers of every kind 110 Of the Plague 128 Of Pestilential Feavers 133 134 The Cure of the Small-pox 143 144 145 Of the Milkey feaver 151 Of the Malignant feaver of lying in Women 154 155 Of the Symptomatic feaver of Women in Child-bed 157 Of Epidemical feavers 167 168 171 176 177 178. Cyder How made by Fermentation 24 D. Death And Putrefaction of Bodies 26 Diarrhea Of a Diarrhea in Feavers 1â—4 Dysenterie Of a Dysenterie in Feavors 104 Of a Dysenterie in Child-bed Women 157 E. Earth Of the Chymists what it is 5 Ephemera Or a Feaver of a days continuance 91 Epidemical Feavers see Feavers Essential Putrid Synochus what it is 109 F. Feavers Of Feavers in general 57 Of Intermitting Feavers or Agues see Agues 68 Of continual Feavers 89 What causes continual Feavers 89 The several kinds of continual Feavers 91 Of the Feaver for a day ibid. The cause of it and of its Crisis ibid. An History of such a Feaver 92 Of a putrid Feaver 93 Four seasons to be observed in it 94 The causes of it ibid. A Prognostication of the Disease 97 Of the Crisis of a putrid Feaver ibid. The symptoms and signs of putrid Feavers 99 100 Of the putrid Synochus or continual Feaver 107 Of the symptomatic putrid Feaver ibid. Of the slow Feaver 108 Of the symptomatical Feaver from an Vlcer or a Consumption of the Lungs ibid. Of an Essential putrid Synochus 109 Of the Causon or Burning feaver ibid. The Cures of putrid Feavers of every kind 110 Histories of several putrid Feavers 112 113 114 115 116 117 118. Of a Pestilential or Malignant Feaver in general 119 Of a malignant Feaver in specie 131 How it differs from the Pestilence ibid. A description of malignant Feavers ibid. A difference of them 133 Causes of them ibid. The Cure of them 133 134 Of Feavers Epidemical of another sort 134 An History of a Pestilential Feaver 134 135 An History of a Malignant Feaver 136 137 Of the Feavers of Child-bearing Women 147 Of the Milkey Feaver 150 The causes of it 151 Its Cure ibid. Of a putrid Feaver in Women lying In 151 A figure of the Disease 152 153 The causes of it ibid. It s Cure 154 155 Of Symptomatic Feavers of Women in Childbed 156 The general reason of them ibid. The Cure of them 157 Histories of acute Feavers in Women lying In 158 159 160 161. Epidemical Feavers 163 A description of an Epidemical Feaver in the year 1657. ibid. The causes of it 164 The differenee of it from other Feavers 166 A Prognostication of it ibid. Of the Cure of it 167 A description of a Catarrhal Epidemical Feaver in the year 1658 169 The causes of it 170 The symptoms of it and the cure of it
of its flame 32 T. Tables Of the figures of the Nerves explained from page 183 to the end Tast The cause of the nearness of the Tast with the smell 139 Tendons Of the Muscles what they serve for 35 Tenasm What it is and causes of it 46 An History of it 47 Testes Of the Testes of the brain 107 Testicles Of the Nerves belonging to the Testicles 172 173. A spirituous Liquor distilled into the Testicles 173 Tongue The fifth and ninth pair of Nerves serve to the Tongue one for its motion and the other for its tast 177 Tunnel Of the brain 99 V. Veins Of the Veins belonging to the Spine 181 Venerial Act how the pleasure and tittillation in the Venerial act is made 171 Why the loynes are enervated by the Venereal act 173 Ventricles Of the brain 96 97. Vessels That arise in the hinder part of the brain 68 69. Of the Vessels of the Dura mater 79 Of the joyning together of the Vessels of the brain 82 Of the sanguiferous Vessels covering the Pia mater 85 Of the blood-carrying Vessels in the Spinal marrow 179 Why the blood-carrying Vessels of the Spine are frequently ingraffed one into another 180 181. Vomiting Why caused by a troublesome Cough 156 Ureters Of the Nerves belonging to the Vreters 170 Urines The elements and accidents of Vrines 1 Of the quantity and colour of sound peoples Vrines 2 3. How Vrine is made 3 Why Vrine after plentiful drinking comes forth clear 4 Of the consistence and contents of the Vrines of sound people 5 6. What the cloud in Vrine signifies 5 Of the quantity and colour of Vrine of sick people 6 7. Of a large quantity of Vrine suddenly flowing 7 The several colours of sick peoples Vrines what they signifie 8 9. Of the deep colours 10 11. Of pale-coloured Vrines 8 9. Why Vrines grow red in the Scurvy and Gout 11 Of a green and black Vrine 12 Why the colours in Vrines change 13 Of the contents of sick Peoples Vrines 13 14. What Vrines signifie full of contents 14 15. What the crust of the Vrine sticking to the sides of the pot or glass is 15 Of the gravel sand or stones in Vrines 16 Of the white contents in Vrines 17 Judgments of Vrines how to be given 17 18 19. The ignorance of some in the judgments of Vrines 18 Sickness sometimes not shewed by the Vrine ibid. The chief use of the inspection of Vrines 20 The examination of Vrines 21 How Vrines are to be ordered e're you give judgment ibid. Why many things taken in at the mouth colour the Vrine ibid. Of the odor or smell in Vrines 21 22. Of the sweeâ— smell in Vrines 22 Of the evaporation and distillation of Vrines 22 23 Of the putrefaction of Vrines 23 How the pain in difficult Vrine or making of water is made 172 Uses Of several parts Of the brain and its parts 77 78. Of the skull see skull Of the Dura mater 78 79. Of the Pia mater 81 Of the wonderful Net 85 Of the Choroeides 89 Of the Brain properly so called 91 Of the crankling turnings and windings in the brain 92 Of the Cortical and Medullar substance of the brain ibid Of the callous body of the brain 93 Of the Fornix 93 94. Of the Ventricles of the brain 96 97. Of the Tunnel 99 Of the sive-like bone 100 Of the oblong marrow and its parts 101 102. Of the chamfered or streaked bodies 102 103. Of the chambers of the optick Nerves 103 Of the pineal kernel 106 Of the choreidal infolding ibid. Of the Nates and Testes 107 108. Of the Cerebel and its parts 110 111 112. Of the orbicular prominences 121 Of the annular protuberance 122 Of the spinal marrow 124 Of the nervous humour 128 133. Of the mamillary processes 138 Of the cribrous bone ibid. Of the Nerves see Nerves Of the wandring pair 149 Of the intercostal Nerve 160 Of the infoldings of the Mesentery 164 165 166 Of the Nerves that serve the Spleen 166 167 168. Of the Womb 169 The use of the Renal infolding 168 Of the Nerves serving the pancreas cholduct vessels duodedum pylorus 168 169. The use of the spinal Nerve 173 174. Of the Nerve of the Diaphragma 174 175. Of the ninth pair 177 Of the Nerves arising from the spinal marrow 178 Of the bosoms in the spine 181 W. Water Of making water see Vrines Watry part of Vrines 2 Wisdom Why placed in the heart by the Ancients 162 Womb Why furnished with so many Nerves 169 The bigness of the Womb in Virgins 170 Y. Yard Why sometimes it is involuntarily erected 172 Yauning By what means caused 143 THE THIRD INDEX or TABLE WHEREIN IS Alphabetically digested all the principal matters contained in the Treatise of Convulsive Diseases A. AMulets For the Epilepsie 23 Apozems For the Epilepsie 24 Diuretick Apozems in a Feaver 58 Astmah Convulsive 102 103. Of a Convulsive Astmah by reason of the Bronchia being affected 104 Histories of such an Astmah 105 106. Anatomical observations on the same ibid. The Cure of it 106 B. Blood The Blood not the immediate cause of the Convulsive motion 5 The Blood the cause of the morbific matter of spasms 6 Why the Blood is soon congealed in Convulsions 39 Brain The Convulsive Copula proceeds immediately from the Brain 5 The Brain the cane of the Morbific matter of Convulsions by receiving it from the blood 6 The evil disposition of the Brain two-fold ibid. The Brain the cause of the Hystorical passion 78 Breast Why men beat their Breast in the fits of the Epilepsie 18 Bronchia The Bronchia being affected the cause of a Convulsive Astmah 104 C. Chalybiats See Steel Medicines Children Of Convulsions in Children 25 Children very liable to Convulsions 26 The causes of them 26 27. Why they follow upon their breeding of teeth 28 How to cure the Convulsions of Children 29 How to preserve Children from them ibid. How to Cure the Convulsion in Children coming of breeding of teeth 30 Of other sorts of Convulsions in Chldren 30 How to Cure them ibid. Children are subject to a Convulsive Cough 102 The reason of it 103 Convulsions Of Convulsive motions in general 1 What they are ibid. The conjunct cause of Convulsions 3 Repletion and emptiness not the cause of Convulsions ibid. The kinds of Convulsions 4 The more remote cause of Convulsions 6 How the morbific matter of Convulsions is disposed in the head 7 Twofold Convulsions continual or by fits 8 The evident cause of Convulsions 9 Of direct and reflected Convulsions ibid. Of the places affected by Convulsions ibid. The difference of Convulsions in respect of their origine 10 The cause of them 11 Of the extent of Convulsions ibid. Of the duration of a Convulsive fit ibid. Of an intermitting Convulsion 12 Of Convulsions in Children 25 The causes of them 26 Whey they come upon the breeding of teeth 28 How to cure Convulsions in Children 29 Of other