either to progression or to apprehension because the power and influence of the brain is extinguished by the government and moderation whereof those motions were formerly regulated either to progression or flying so in Convulsions our Muscles are contracted and our members variously agitated with irregular and ineffectuall motions because those motions depend upon a natural sense only without the regulating influence of the Brain which taketh no cognizance of the injuries done to the Muscles nor of the sense which irritateth them These things duly considered Reason adviseth us henceforth to lay aside that opinion of Des Cartes and his disciple Regius both great Philosophers and in many other things worthy to be followed that the influx of Animal spirits by the nerves is necessary to the performance of all Naturall Motions and actions done in the body and to take up this more probable one of Dr. Harvey that each Natural action is effected by the part doing it meerly in respect of a certain sense whereby it feeleth what is troublesome and injurious to it selfe and so is irritated to excite such motions of it self as may conduce to its vindication and this without any influx or regiment of the Brain or Common sense at all We might have added further out of the same Dr. HARVET that all Motions in the body are derivative from the Vitall Influence of the Heart and wholly dependent thereupon because no part is longer capable of this Natural sense than while it is irradiated and enlivened by the Vitall Spirits or blood flowing from the heart for no part once mortified i.e. no longer participant of the Vitall influence can have any sense or be irritated to motion Besides it is not unreasonable to conceive that the strength or Tone of each part doth mostly consist in its enjoying a due proportion of Vitality and if that Tone or firmeness be vitiated or diminished as soon it must if deprived of that requisite influx that part becomes languid dull and hardly capable of irritation But this noble speculation requires to be handled with more exactness than the narrow limits of a short Digression will admit of and we have already said more than enough to assert that all parts of the body have a certain Naturall sense of Feeling distinct from the Animal and wholly independent upon the Brain which was the Probleme proposed ¶ OF RESPIRATION Exercitation the Eighth Of Respiration THE Chain of Nature Article by which she connecteth various Operations conspiring to one and the same End brings us in the next place to discourse of RESPIRATION The Connexion of this Exercitation to the precedent betwixt which and the Pulsation is a manifest affinity For these two Actions or Motions as they are inservient to the conservation of the Lamp of Life and the Generation of Vital Spirits so do they both consist of a Dilatation and Contraction the one of a Diastole and Systole of the Heart and Arteries the other of a Diastole and Systole of the Breast and Lungs Now this Affinity hath given occasion to many Physicians to conceive the Diastole and Systole of the Lungs to be Synchronical or coincident with the Diastole and Systole of the Heart and to refer both their motions to the same cause and Original But They have grossly erred in confounding things so manifestly different For 1 There are many sorts of Animals that have Hearts The Disparity betwixt Respiration and Pulsation both as to their Times or periods and as to their Vses but no Lungs 2 The Dilatations and Contractions of the Heart are clearly distinct from those of the Breast and Lungs as is evident from hence that they are not synchronical i. e. made and terminated in the same periods and times one complete Respiration taking up more time then 4 or 5 Pulses and this in all Animals that have both Heart and Lungs 3 The Motion of the Heart and Arteries is much different from that of the Lungs as to their Uses For First if the Pulse and Respiration have one and the same Final cause and that as these men have assumed the Arteries take in the ambient aer through the skin at every Diastole and exclude it again the same way together with the Fuliginous Exhalations of the blood in every systole and that in the space of time intermediate betwixt each Diastole and Systole they contain both the inspired aer and exhalations then must we renounce both the doctrine of our Master Galen that in the arteries nothing is contained but the blood and our owne experience that confirms it Secondly if the Arteries were as the Lungs are filled with aer drawn in by their extremities and that the quantity of aer attracted were proportionate to the magnitude of each pulse or to the greater or lesser dilatation of the arteries then if while the pulse is great the whole body were immerged into a bath of water or oyle it would necessarily follow that the Pulse would become much smaller or much slower because it is highly difficult if not wholly impossible that the ambient aer should pass through the bath into the pores of the skin and so into the arteries Thirdly since all the Arteries as well those that lye deep in the body as those terminated in the skin are moved with equal velocity and at the same time it is not possible the ambient aer should as freely and swiftly pass through the habit of the body into the profoundest arteries as into those contiguous to the skin Fourthly it is not credible that Whales Dolphins and other Cetaceous Animals that have Respiration can draw aer into their arteries at every diastole through so vasta mass of waters as is from the bottom to the top of the sea Fifthly if in their systole the Arteries expell the fuliginous exhalations of the blood through the pores of the skin why should they not expell also the vital spirits that are far more subtile and fugitive than those supposed Exhalations can be Nature certainly hath made no such Colatory as should retain the thinner spirits and let the grosser fumes pass through Nor is it yet sufficiently proved that there are any such Fuliginous Exhalations generated in the heart and arteries and afterward excluded partly by the Lungs partly by the Arteries in their Contractions as are vulgarly believed For the blood suffereth only a simple agitation or conquassation in the ventricles of the heart and a propulsion in the arteries and that it can produce such an aboundance of sooty fumes from the blood as Physicians have talked of is not easie to conceive Truth is the blood by reason of its heat and swift motion doth emit some Halitus or vapours which streaming through the coats of the smaller arteries are received and condensed into a thin limpid liquor by the Lympheducts but is it therefore necessary that it should emit Fuliginous exhalations We confess also that there is a certain thin Excrement of the blood and
in a moment and the blood may be observed to flow in its course very swiftly so soon as the ligature is removed But how swiftly is not easily determined there being so great variety of Causes Natural Non-naturall and Preternatural that accelerate or retard the flux of the blood only thus may be inferred from the precedent compute of the number of Pulses and the quantity of blood expelled out of the left ventricle of the heart in every systole That the whole mass of blood doth pass through the heart once in an hour or two at most Yet is not the current of blood neer so swift in its channels while they are whole as when one of them vein or artery is cut because in that case the blood streams forth into the free and easily-yielding aer without any resistance but being confined in its vessels it is forced to distend them and drive-on the foregoing current 4 As swift in the Veines as in the Arteries For Of equall velocity in the Arteries and veins though the impulse be more vehement in the atteries as being continued to the heart than in the veins and therefore it might seem reasonable at first consideration that the motion should be proportionately more swift in the arteries yet considering that the Arteries are still smaller and smaller toward their extremities that the flux of the blood must needs be more and more retarded as it approacheth those extremities and on the contrary that the veins grow wider and wider from their extremities to the centre of the body and so the blood hath still larger and larger spaces to run through in its return to the heart we may safely conclude conjecturally that the velocity of the motion is as great in the veins as in the arteries This is also confirmed by sense for the Vena Cava in all that tract from the Liver to the subclavian division may be observed to beat as often as the Great Artery and so must import blood into the right Ventricle as fast as the Aorta doth export it from the left Which doubtless is the reason why the Vena Cava hath fleshy Fibres upon it when it approacheth the heart Nevertheless we conceive the motion to be swifter in the Arteries when the heart contracting it self doth impell the blood into and through them than when dilating it self again it doth intermit that its impulse Which is true likewise of the blood in the veins as may be sometimes observed in Phlebotomy when the ligature is not so streight as to cause much distension of the vein in which the incision is made for in that case the blood wil flow forth more swiftly every time the heart is contracted And these are the Conditions of this admirable motion of the blood Lastly concerning the CAUSE of this motion it is necessary that the blood be moved either by it self or by some other principle and if it be the Author of its own motion then that must be in respect of either an inherent motive-Faculty or of its Ebullition or of its Rarefaction or of its Quantity whereby the Ventricles of the heart are distended and so irritated as to discharge the same by contracting themselves If the motion be derived from an External principle then it must be referred either to Attraction or to Vection or to Pulsion Let us therefore see which of all these may be the most likely cause of the Motion of the blood First That the bloud is not the cause of its own Motion The blood not the cause of its owne motion in respect of any motive Faculty inherent in it ratione insitae sibi Facultatis by reason of any inherent Faculty may be inferred from hence that in bloud effused out of its vessels into the body or any other receiver no motion at all can be observed and it is hard to conceive that it should be so corrupted in a moment as wholly to lose a faculty essential to it Dr. Harvey we confess affirmeth that he observed a certain obscure motion of the blood in the right ear of the Heart where He supposeth the motion of the Heart first to begin and last to end after the Ear had ceased to move but we refer that to the Mication of the blood from the Vital Spirits not yet wholly extinguished Secondly That it is not the Author of its own motion Nor in respect of its Ebullition ratione Ebullitionis which Arist. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is manifest from these subsequent reasons 1 No Ebullition can be constantly equall or of the same tenour but the Pulse of the heart and so the motion of the bloud is in temperate and healthy men for the most part equall 2 As the Ebullition is greater so would the pulse but in burning Fevers the Ebullition is extream great by reason of the great intension of the heat and yet the pulse is frequently small and weak as also in the beginning of putrid Fevers as Galen long since remarked 3 The blood suffers no ebullition as it passeth through the heart For if in the dissection of a living Animal you make an incision either into the left Ventricle of the heart or into the Great Artery neer it you shall perceive the blood flowing out at the hole to be pure and such as before it came into the heart not frothy boyling or rarefied and to continue such as at its first efflux yea more if you receive the blood issuing from an incision of the Vena Cava in one sawcer and that issuing from the left Ventricle in another you shall not be able to discern any difference betwixt the one and the other either soon or a good while after An invincible argument against the Ebullition of the blood first imagined by Aristotle and since defended by many great men his sectators 4 The plunging an arme or legg into cold water would suppress the Ebullition and consequently the motion of the blood For if you apply a close ligature to a mans arme and then immerge the same into cold water or Snow upon solution of the ligature he shall find the blood returning to his heart with so great a sense of cold as very much to offend him Which cold arising to the bloud from its being long detained in the extremities of the arme bound Dr. Harvey will have to be the cause of swooning immediately after blood-letting in many men the heart receiving injury from that acquired cold Thirdly Not ratione Rarefactionis because 1 in living dissections Nor of its Rarefaction where the heart yet continueth its motion no man ever hath or can observe any such thing as rarefied blood to flow from either the left ventricle or the Great Artery if cut but pure and such as is from the Ears let down into the ventrices 2 The Heart it self when cut in pieces or wounded may be observed to beat yet not from any rarefaction of the blood for then it hath no blood in
arrest me with this curious scruple saying Doth not this Irritation and spontaneous Contraction of Membranous and Nervous parts when they are molested imply a certain sense in them distinct from the sense of Feeling or Touching and independent upon the Common sense or Brain For whatever is any wayes moved by it self in avoydance or resistance of what is offensive to it must be endowed with a sense whereby to discern that offensiveness according to that rule Quic quid contra irritamenta molestias motibus suis diversis nititur id sensu praeditum sit necesse est But we are not conscious to ourselves of any such sense within us as we are of all our Animal senses whereby those parts are made sensible of their irritations and therefore it seems you have imagined one sense more than Nature hath made For the solution of this Difficulty therefore we Answer that those Motions and Actions which Physicians call Natural because they are not instituted by the Will but done even against it and cannot be moderated accelerated retarded or suppressed ex Arbitrio nostro at our pleasure and so have no dependence upon the Brain that is the Common instrument of all the senses these motions and actions we say are not yet made without some sense naturally inhaerent in the parts moved For instance we are certain that in palpitations tremblings syncopes swooning fits and other Cardiacal symptoms or affections the Heart doth variously move and agitate it self as being offended with something preternatural and noxious to it and irritated to resist and repell the same and this in respect only of some sense or feeling by which it discerneth what is incommodious and harmfull The stomach and Guts in like manner being oppressed and provoked by vicious humors instantly rise in armes and raise impetuous vomitings nauseousness convulsions fluxes of the belly and the like motions for the expulsion of their enemies and as we have it not in our power to excite or suppress those commotions so have we no particular cognisance of any such sense which should extimulate those parts to begin and continue them Truly we cannot but wonder as oft as we observe the effects of Antimony infused in wine and taken into the stomach It is not our Tast that doth distinguish the tincture of the Antimony from the wine nor are we sensible of any disagreeableness therein to our nature while we are swallowing it down and yet in the stomack there is a certain sense that discerns the offensivenesse of that draught and quickly engageth the stomach to raise and contract it self and to eject it again by vomiting nor will it ever cease till it be wholly discharged Consider how even the Flesh it self doth presently distinguish a poysonous puncture from a simple one and how soon it contracteth condenseth and fortifieth it selfe to expell the venome whereupon ensue swelling inflammation and great pain in the part pricked as is observed in the stinging of Bees and Hornets and Scorpions and the biting of Spiders Vipers and other venenate Animals and all this meerly from some sense which teacheth the flesh that difference and excites it to make resistence Consider further how the Contorsion Falling downe Ascent suffocation and other violent Agitations of the Womb in women proceed not from the brain or Common sense but from a Natural sense inhaerent in that part without which it could not be provoked to those impetuous strivings and motions For whatever is wholly destitute of fense is wholly uncapable also of being irritated to performe any action or motion in order to its safety Nor can we indeed otherwise discern what is Animate and sentient from what is Inanimate and void of sense but only by some Motion excited in it by something molesting and irritating it which Motion doth continually both follow and argue sense To evince this Natural sense yet further we shall thus reason We find in our selves that we have Five External Senses by which we perceive objects without us but because we do not perceive our perception by the same sense by which we perceive objects for we see with our eyes but do not by them perceive that we see but by the mediation of another internal sense or sensitive organ the Brain by which we judge of all objects offered to the External senses therefore is it manifest that the common sensory is the Brain which together with all its Nerves and external organs annexed to those nerves ought to be held the adequate Instrument of sensation And we may fitly resemble it to a sensitive Root which shooteth forth many Fibers or strings whereof one doth see another hear a third tast a fourth smell and the fifth feel Nevertheless As Experience assureth us that there are some Motions and Actions in us whose regiment or moderation is no ways dependent upon the Brain and therefore by contradistinction to voluntary or Animal motions and actions they are named Natural So also doth Reason teach us that we have a certain sense of Feeling which is not referrible to the Common sense nor communicated to the Brain and of which we take no cognisance but by the various effects and commotions that it causeth in our bodyes For in this Sense we do not perceive that we feel but as it fares with men distracted or otherwise agitated with any violent passion of the Mind who neither feel pain nor take notice of objects offered to their senses so is it with us in this Sense which operating without our knowledge is therefore to be distinguished from the Animal sense and may be properly enough called a Sensation without Sense And certainly such as this is that sense observed in Zoophyâ—es or Plant-Animals as the sensitive Plant the Boramets or Vegetable Lamb of Tartary Sponges c. We know there are many Animals that have both sense and motion and yet have no brain or Commonâ—sense as Earthworms Caterpillers Silkworms c and that there are some Natural Actions in us which are performed without the influence or help of the brain As Physitians therefore teach us to distinguish such actions Natural from actions Animal why may not we with equall reason distinguish the Feeling Natural from the Feeling Animal so as to refer one to the brain the other not We know moreover that it is one thing for a Muscle to be moved or contracted Spontaneously as in Convulsion and another for it to be moved Voluntarily or with various regulated contractions and relaxations in order to the performance of some action intended as Progression or Apprehension The Muscles certainly or Motory-Organs are in cramps and convulsions moved spontaneously upon their irritation by some acrimonious vapours or other injurious cause no otherwise than the body of a Fowl is moved after the head is cut off For as the body is tumbled up and down and agitated by various convulsive motions of the feet and wings yet such as are wholly confused and irregular and of no effect
and transportation of it to the principle of its Dispensation For it seems the Nutritive juice is first imbibed by the small branches of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation and those though very many being yet too few for the transportation of so large a quantity of that rich Nectar as is required to the nourishment of the whole body Nature hath conjoyned with them a vast number of other Nerves as Auxiliaries in that great work So that it is not dissentaneous to reason to conceive that by these Nerves and their Coadjutors the Succus Nutritius is carried to the brain and Spinal Marrow thence to be afterward derived to all parts for their sustenance Concerning the Fourth What is the Motion of the same in the Nervs viz. not continual nor vehement but by intervalls and slow and gentle to the brain in sleep and from it to the members after sleep viz. the Motion of the Succus Nutritius in the Nerves though it be a problem of great obscurity yet doth the light let in at the postern gate of Conjecture discover thus much that it is not continual as that of the blood in the Arteries and veins but by intervals nor violent but slow and gentle as the defect of any swelling on either side of a Nerve bound about in a living creature doth sufficiently manifest Nor is it unreasonable to conceive that in a short time after each meal immediately upon the distribution of the Chyle through the Venae Lacteae the Succus Nutritius is imbibed by the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation and by them carried to the brain and Spinal Marrow Which perhaps is the reason why alwayes within an hour or two after meat we perceive a certain dulness in our heads together with an indisposition to motion and a propensity to sleep according to that proverb When the belly is full the bones would be at rest and soon after all those vanish again and we perceive our selves more light strong and active than before our refection because then the nourishment begins to be diffused from the principle of Dispensation of outwards into the limbs and other parts of the body And with this opinion agrees that observation of Bartholinus that the Lympheducts are more plainly discernable about five or six hours after meat than at other times as being at that time more filled with the superfluities of the Succus Nutritius Nor is it improbable that the Brain and Spinal Marrow are chiefly nourished in sleep and that then the Nutritive Liquor is usually carried to them relaxing them with its sweet and mild vapours and so both inducing and prolonging sleep From whence perhaps it comes that after long sleeps we perceive our brains to be oppressed and beclouded with vapours our senses dull and the motive-faculty enervated Besides in sleep all motions of humors flowing to the patts by the Nerves seem to be suspended and yet the Circulation of the blood is certainly at that time more free and quick than while we wake So that It cannot be thought the cause of that cessation but the Nerves onely which intermit their office of distributing the Succus Nutritius during sleep And all this will appear more reasonable if we reflect upon the flux of humors in the Nerves immediately after sleep For then the Brain and Spinal Marrow re-contract themselves and become more tense so that the Nutritive liquor is from thence transmitted partly to the members to be nourished and partly to the Glandules as well such as serve for the excretion of its absolute Excrement as those that serve for the reduction of its relative viz. it s acrimonious parts that are returned into the blood for the reason formerly mentioned And concerning the Last And what the Causes of that Motion viz. the motions of the Diaphragme of the Brain and of the Nerves themselves viz. the Causes of this Motion of the Succus Nutritius we may be allowed to conceive at least untill Time shall have dispelled that Obscurity which yet surrounds this abstruse Theoreme and the industry of some more dextrous Anatomist pierced deeper into the mystery of the Nerves a subject not much lesse inscrutable than the Nature of the Soul it self which useth them as her principal instruments we hope we may have the liberty to conceive that the Succus Nutritius is not imported to the brain and Spinal Marrow nor exported from thence to the members by any Attraction similary or Elective against which we have formerly alleadged convincing arguments unnecessary to be here repeated but as the blood and indeed all other humors of the body are moved by meer Impulsion or Protrusion the immediate Cause of all motions in Nature And the Agents in this case impelling we conceive to be the motions of the Diaphragme of the Brain and of the Nerves themselves For since the Depression of the Diaphragme is generally admitted to conduce to the distribution of the Chyle out of the stomach guts Venae Lacteae common Receptacle and Ductus Chyliferi successively into the subclavian Vein by alternately compressing all those parts and so compelling the Liquor contained in them to flow upward and indeed to all other Natural motions why may not the same be thought sufficient also to the Expulsion of the Nutritive juice both out of the Praeparing Glandules into the Nerves of the Sixth conjugation and their Auxiliaries and out of them into the brain and Spinal Marrow their position being such as renders them no lesse subject to compression by the descending Diaphragme than the Venae Lacteae common Receptacle and other Chyliferous parts are If this seem difficult we may have recourse to the reason of the ascention of a liquor from the bottome through all parts of a sponge cloath or other filamentous substance as is experimented in the percolation of Aqua Calcis made by a long piece of woollen cloath whose one end is dipt in the water and the other hung over the brim of the vessel containing it which we have professedly explained in the 356 page of our Physiology and seems to be the same with the reason of the ascention of the nutritive juice of all plants from the roots to the top of the branches And as for the Motion of the Brain though it may seem to be no other but what is impressed upon the brain by the Pulsation of the Arteries ascending from the Plexus Arteriosus mirabilis chiefly to the Dura Mater and copiously disseminating themselves upon it yet since it is credible that the Pulsation of the arteries doth promote the flux of the liquor in the Nerves in other parts especially such where Nerves are either contiguous or neer enough to Arteries to participate of their impulse why may not the motion of the Brain also to which the Nerves are continued serve to ex-press the liquor out of them toward the parts wherein they are terminated Besides it is most certain that immediately after sleep the whole Brain together with the
branches in the Glandules in which themselves were terminated and that many of those small rivulets concurring and uniting make one greater channell before they lose themselves either in the Common ocean or any branch of the vena Cava Now from the foresaid various position of the Glandules it comes to pass that the Distribution of the venae Lacteae into their substance and their new propagation out of them again are so uncertain as that it hath given occasion to some Anatomists to suspect that the venae Lacteae are disseminated into very many parts of the body when indeed they only come neer those parts and then passe by them without effusing any part of the Chyle into them Now from these observations But none of either kind tend to the Liver it is very probable that all the venae Lacteae before the Chyle loseth its milky colour do exonerate themselves either into the vena Cava or some branches of it And as for the Lacteae Thoracicae our sense demonstrates that they empty themselves into the subclavian or Axillary veins branches of the Vena Cava so that none disgorgeing their fraught or chyle into any branch of the vena Portae it is most manifest that no part of the Chyle is imported into the Liver as was long believed and taught there to be converted into blood and consequently that the office of the Liver is not Sanguification Whether any of the venae Lacteae are distributed into the Paps and womb That the Milk in the Papps is not made of Blood but of meer Chyle brought thither by some peculiar vessels because in women though highly probable is yet in dispute no Anatomist having hitherto been so happy in his searches as to discover by what secret wayes or passages they tend to either We say highly probable for according to that judicious saying of Hippocrates Licetvisum oculorum effugiant ea tamen mentis acie comprehendantur though they have thus long concealed themselves from the eye of the body yet are they obvious to the eye of the Mind and the acuteness of our Reason may herein supply the dullness of our sense Now to evince the probability of this Opinion let us consider the sundry and weighty Arguments that seem to assure that the Milk in the paps is not made of blood but mere Chyle brought into them by some peculiar vessells Which though a seeming Parergy is yet fully pertinent in this place First there are no convenient wayes or conduits There are no convenient conduits by which Blood can be brought into the paps in sufficient quantity by which Blood may be in a due quantity imported into the Paps there to be whitened into Milk For 1 the Arteriae Thoracicae can adferre but a small tribute of blood into the treasury of the Paps and what they bring in is soon exhausted and carried off again by the veins according to the apodictical doctrine of the Circulation of the blood But did the blood remain in them yet would it hold no reasonable proportion to the large quantity of milk usually effused in a day which in healthy Nurses commonly amounts to two pints Because the Arteries disseminated into the Paps are exceeding small as our eyes witness and Vesalius Examin observat Fallop pag. 89. long since well observed where He saith Exiguae out ferè nullae arteriae adeunt mammas quod in mammarum cancro affectarum ablatione constat ubi paucae aut ferè nullae arteriae sanguinem fundunt cùm tamen venarum magna copia sit 2 The Arteriae Hypogastricae cannot be thought to convey blood into the Paps because they are terminated in a part far distant from their confines and empty themselves where their streams are soon swallowed up and returned into the vena Cava by the Hypogastrick veins 3 The same may be said of the Epigastrick arteries and veins So that in respect of wayes importing blood into the Paps it appears altogether unlikely that that should be the matter of Milk Secondly Blood is not a fit Blood is nor a fit nor possible Matter for the generation of Milk nay not a possible matter for the generation of Milk For 1 if blood should be imported into the paps in sufficient quantity and there extravasated certainly it would be converted rather into pus than into milk as is frequently observed in Inflammations and Apostems of the Paps 2 To what end should nature convert blood into milk when that milk is to be soon converted again into blood in the infant sucking it 3 How is it possible that the Chyle which loseth its whiteness and other qualities when it is transformed into blood should resume them again as soon as it becomes milk a privatione ad habitum is repugnant to Nature 4 Meat and drink cannot be suddainly changed into blood and that blood changed into milk but experience teacheth that the paps of nurses are filled soon after their repasts and many women feel their milk flow swiftly into their breasts almost as soon as they have drunk 5 Women that are somewhat fat have greater plenty of milk than such as are lean but if blood were the matter of milk the lean would afford more milk than the fat because the lean have larger arteries and veins and so more store of blood 6 If blood were the matter of milk then would the bodies of Nurses fall into dangerous sicknesses from excess of blood soon after they cease to give suck because being long accustomed to the generation of so profuse a quantity of blood for the supply of their milk and that daily evacuation thereof ceasing the whole body must needs be oppressed with that redundancy but they seldome complain of any Plethora therefore c. 7 If blood not chyle were the matter of milk then were it impossible the milk should retain the odour and qualities of the meats eaten since no manifest quality of the meat can be deprehended in the blood much less in what is generated of blood as being one remove further from it but the Milk doth frequently retain the odour and other qualities of the meat and drink Ergo. This is attested by the experience of Physicians who give purging medicaments to Nurses Comment in lib. Hippocr de nat pueri when there is cause to purge their children Prosper Martianus the best Commentator upon Hippocrates hath an observation of a woman who having taken a purge soon after gave her child suck and thereby endangered the childs life a superpurgation ensuing in the child while herselfe felt no effect of the medicament at all No obscure argument that the Milk deriveth its purgative faculty from the Chyle not from the blood for it were to be carried so long a journey as through the heart and arteries and therein undergoe so many and great changes doubtless the virtue of the medicine would be much weakned and dulled nor could it be derived into the paps so soon after
the Milk by vessels tending from the paps to the womb is not so open and free as while the burthen of the womb was lesse thence it comes that so small a quantity of the Chyle is imported into the womb as will not suffice to the nourishment of the Foetus Much Chyle therefore flowing to the paps from the Venae Lacteae and the Common Receptacle and some milk also reflowing from the womb to them by reason of this Compression mentioned it is no wonder if the paps at that time swel above measure A second memorable place of Hippocrates libr. citat to this purpose is that Ad mammas enim uterum ejusmodi venulae consimiles feruntur Cumque ad uterum pervenerit lactis formam habet â—oque exiguo puer fruitur mammae verò ubi lac exceperint attolluntur implentur A third to the same effect is this Foetus quod in sanguine dulcissimum est ad se trahit simulque aliquantulâ lactis portione fruitur Where He hinteth the true cause why it is unwholesome and dangerous for Infants to suck women with child viz. because the best of the milk is attracted by the Foetus in the womb and the worst is carried to the paps Which He more expresly declares in these words Dum mammae exsuguntur venae quae ad eas tendunt ampliores redduntur ampliores effectae quod pingue est è ventre aâ—trahunt in mammas transmittunt giving the reason why the fat and richer parts of the milk do not ascend to the paps till after the birth of the child who by frequent sucking doth dilate and amplifie the vessels formerly too small through which the milk is to pass from the womb to the paps and so make them more capable of the thicker liquor and hence doubtlesse is it that the milk in womens breasts is alwaies much thinner and wheyish while they are with child than after their delivery From Hippocrates the First let us go to Hippocrates the Second Of Dr. Harvey the immortal Dr. Harvey who by frequent dissections of praegnant and suckling Animals discovered that there is Chyle or milk imported into the womb For describing the Cotyledones or Acetabula of the womb Exercit. de Vteri membranis humoribus He saith Cavitates istae spongiae majoris loculamenta magnitudine non excedunt inque singulas earum totidem vasorum umbilicalium ramuli tenuissimi profundè penetrant quippe in iisdem alimentum foetui reconditur non quidem sanguineum sed mucosum ovique albumen crassius planè referens Unde etiam manifestum est bisulcorum Animalium Foetus ut alios omnes sanguine materno non ali And in the subsequent paragraph He adds coarctatis hisce acetabulis non sanguis sed albugineus liquor emanat eodemque expresso illa statim contracta albidiora flaccida conspiciuntur ac demum mammarum papillas aut verrucas pensiles majores referunt And a little after Opinor carunculas omnes uberum modo non sanguinem sed succum albumini similem concoquere eundemque foetui subministrare Again in another place tracing the way of this milky juice more accurately He saith ab utero per cotyledones pertingit ad carunculas placentae quas quidem si digitis compresseris ex earum una aliqua tanquam ex papilla succi istius alibilis facilè cochlearis mensura emulgetur idque nullo apparente sanguine quem attractu etiam valido numquam elicueris quinetiam caruncula sic emulcta atque inanita compressaespongiae instar contrahitur flaccescit plurimisque foraminibus pertusa cernitur Adeò ut omnibus indiciis pateat carunculas istas esse ubera uterina sive albuminis nutritii conceptacula And a little after He expresly affirms succumillum in Gravidis ante partum in acetabulis conservari post partum verò ad mammas deferri Than which nothing can be more plain more positive To the Authorities of these great men let us adde the consideration of that great Sympathy or consent betwixt the womb and paps And from the sympathy betwixt the womb and the paps so frequently observed in women Which Consent cannot be caused by nerves nor by veins nor by arteries nor by similitude of substance nor by contiguity of situation and therefore most probably by mediation of these presupposed Chyliferous vessels tending from the paps to the womb 1 Not by Nerves because the paps derive their nerves from the fourth intercostall pair or the fifth pair of the thorax and the womb is supplied with sense from the nerves of the oâ—sacrum and also from the sixth conjugation of the brain 2 Not by veins or arteries because they are both destitute of sense as Galen himself affirms 3 Not by Similitude of substance because the paps consist mostly of Glandules and the body of the womb is membranous 4 Not by Contiguous situation because the paps and womb are far distant each from the other It being therefore most certain that all sympathy betwixt parts of the body doth arise either ex Vasorum Communione or ex operis societate or both and that betwixt the paps and womb there is no communion of vessels unlesse it be of some chyliferous vessels derived from those to this and that there is a society of office betwixt the paps and womb both containing the Aliment of the child it is highly consentaneous to truth that there are such vessels though yet undiscovered by which the Chyle is carried from the paps to the womb while the infant remains therein and back again from the womb to the paps after he is born This being granted we may cleerly understand the wayes and manner of the ascent of the milk from the womb to the paps and the reflux of it from the paps to the womb so frequently mentioned by Hippocrates We may understand also how the good or evil affections of the womb are communicated to the paps and how it comes that a Cancer cured in the paps doth revive and grow again in the womb and vice versâ And thus may we understand those Aphorisms of Hippocrates Si gravidae mammae graciles fiunt repente illa abortit si gravidae lac multum è mammis effluâ—t foetum imbecâ—llum significat si solidae mammae foetum saniorem In respect of these vessels are we moreover to interpret that Rectitude of consent betwixt the papps and womb intimated in that Aphor. Gravida gemellos gerens si dextera mamma fiat gracilis marem si verò sinistra foeminam abortit foetus enim mares in dextris foeminae in sinistris magis To conclude this Disquisition therefore A conjectural description of the Chyliferous vessels tendin from the paps to the womb since it is manifest that there are some such Chyliferous vessels or ductus by which the paps and womb have a reciprocall commerce it is not improbable they are derived from the extremities of the Chyliferous veins
Spirits 4 In Animals dying of famine and men dying of Consumptions Men perishing by famine have their arteries and veins full of bloud good store of bloud hath been found in the veines and arteries Which were impossible if bloud were the nourishment of the body for then no Animal could perish by famine while it had any bloud in its vessels nor could the body be so emaciated in consumptions while the veins contain so plentifull a source for the resarcition of the parts Which reason among others induced Dr. Harvey de gener Animal exercit 52. to conclude etsi sanguis sit pars corporis non tamen huic nutriendo solum destinatur Enimvero si huic duntaxat usui inserviret nemo fame periret quamdiu sanguinis quicquam in venis reliquum habetur quemadmodum lucernae flammula non extinguitur quamdiu inflammabilis olei in eâ vel minimum suppetit 5 If the bloud were changed into Ros Cambium as they call them The bloud continueth red and florid in the habit of the body then certainely in the habit of the body and capillary veines it would appear white or inclining to whitenesse but our sense assureth that it is no less red and florid in those places than in the centrall parts of the body 6 Hippocrates hath a singular observation libr. 5. Epidâ—m â— 25. of a certain man a patient of his who being much emaciated and every day more and more consuming Hippocrates cured a man of extream Leannesse only by profuse Phlebotomy notwithstanding the most restorative aliment he could take was at length cured only by a very profuse eduction of bloud out of the veins of each arme after all other means had been in vain attempted Which would not have hapned if the bloud were the nutriment of the parts The reason of this admirable cure seems to be this There is as we have more than once declared a twofold expence of the Chyle one part goes to the instauration of the parts as being or constituting the Succus Nutritius the other supplyes the Vitall Spirits under the form of blood Now when one of these exceeds the other languishes and the too plentifull exhaustion of the Chyle upon the blood being the cause of this mans Leannesse his recovery succeeded upon a turning of the streame of the Chyle upon the parts for their sufficient Nutritive juice 7 If the blood did nourish then would Fat The blood is observed to be less unctuous and glutinous in the Arteries that carry it to the parts than in the veins that return it from them unctuous and glutinous blood be most accommodate to that use for the serum hinders the apposition of the blood and therefore Ichorous and weeping Ulcers are seldome consolidated Now the blood is observed to be more unctuous and glutinous in the veines than in the arteries in which it is commonly more diluted and full of serum but the blood is carried to the habit of the body by the arteries and from thence brought back again by the veines Which certainely is a very weighty argument against the Blood 's being the nourishment 8 Betwixt the thing nourished and its nutriment There is a manifest Dissimilitude betwixt the blood and sundry parts of the body there ought to be a certain Analogy or similitude according to that old saying Partes quaslibet alimento ipsis maximè consimili enutriri but betwixt the blood and severall parts of the body instead of this requisite resemblance or affinity of qualities there is in many things a perfect Dissimilitude or disparity For if we compare the blood with the brain the Horny coat or Humors of the Eyes the Bones tendons and other the like parts we shall find little or no proportion or resemblance betwixt them In an Appolexy where the brain is overflowed with bloud effused into the substance of it all the ideas or marks of things formerly known are quite obliterated nor doth any perception of them remain Likewise when the eye is bloud-shodden the perspicuity of the coats of the eye is changed into opacity and the transmission of the visible species through them hindered The bones also are so many wayes discrepant from the bloud that it seems impossible they should be constituted thereof And of the tendons Nervs membranes c. the same may be said 9 The Manner of Nutrition is a certain promotion of the aliment from the state of crudity The progâ—ess of Nutrition is from crudity to fusion and volatility not retrograde from volatility to fixation and so the Aliment ought to be more crude or fixed than the parts to be nourished to the state of concoction or an Exaltation of its Spirits to a further degree of activity And therefore the aliment must of necessity be more crude than the part therewith nourished For that promotion is not by any degradation or Fixation of the Spirits of the aliment but by an Exaltation or reduction of them neerer to volatility Forasmuch therefore as the Spirits already in the bloud are approached or advanced neerer to the state of volatility than those contained in the parts above mentioned certainly the bloud cannot be thought a convenient nourishment for them The redintegration of those parts ought to be expected from such nutriment as is more fixed than themselves are Otherwise how could it suffice to the solidation or firmation of them But the blood is of a more rough and grating nature and its spirits more advanced toward volatility than those residing in the solid parts and in that respect is wholly unfit to nourish them Moreover it is necessary the Nutritive juice should be sequestred from the blood before it can be opportunely brought and apponed to the parts if so to what end was it admixt to the blood at all shall we believe that Nature rather than seem idle doth make any thing only that she may unmake it again afterward 10 What is it selfe nourished cannot without absurdity be thought to be the nourishment of another The blood is it self nourished and doth consume the substance of the solid parts and so cannot be their nourishment nor can that which is the cause of the exhaustion of the solid parts be the matter of their redintegration That the blood is it self nourished is manifest from the large access of Chyle to it after every meal and that it is the cause of the exhaustion of the solid parts is also manifest from hence that the Vital Heat whose subjectum inhaesionis is the blood is the only consumer or depredator of the solid substance of the body For whatever be the effects of the Vital Heat residing in the blood as its proper and original subject the very same may be justly imputed also to the Blood itself For albeit we sometimes ascribe the actions of things to their Qualities or Faculties thereby indicating the Formal Reason or Manner by which the substance operateth yet we cannot deny
blood passing thorough the heart into the arteries in one houre ℈ j 4000 lb 13 ℥ 10 ʒ5 ℈ j ℈ j 4450 lb 15 ʒ3 ℈ j ℈ ss 4400 lb 7 ℥ 7 ʒ5 ℈ j ℈ j 2000 lb 20 ℥ 10 ℈ ij 2000 lb 41 ℥ 8 ℥ ss 2000 lb 83 ℥ 4 ℥ j 2000 lb 166 ℥ 8 Again setting it down for a ground that the quantity of blood contained in the whole body doth amount only to lb 15. for that is according to the most modest accompt and allowing some part thereof to be consumed by the Lamp of life and as much to be supplied out of the Chyle we may inferre these 4 necessary Conclusions 1 That more blood is transmitted through the heart once in every hour than can be supplied out of the Chyle in many hours 2 That all the blood in the body is transmitted through the heart once in a quarter or half or a whole hour or in two hours at most 3 That so much is not required to the conservation of the vital Flame and the confection of vital spirits 4 That since the vessells are not broken that the blood cannot return back out of the heart nor be any wayes dissipated it is absolutely necessary that the blood must return to the heart again by the veins or be Circulated perpetually as the immortall Dr. Harvey hath demonstrated Nor is this Circulation of the blood only Particular to some Arteries and Veins as some have inconsiderately imagined but Universal or common to them all That the Circulation is Vniversal in all the Arteries and veins of the whole body throughout the whole body For though it be indeed more demonstrable to the sense in the Limbs where the vessells being ample and conspicuous admit of ligatures more conveniently than those in the Inwards yet doth observation teach us that the motion of the blood is the very same in the very Entralls also In particular that we may deduce it through the most conspicuous Arteries and veins of other interior parts beside those already mentioned the blood is carried in the Abdomen to the Testicles by the spermatick Arteries from them by the spermatick veins into the left Emulgent and vena Cava Intestines by the Mesenterick Arteries from them by the Mesenterick veins into the Ramus Mesentericus and thence into the vena Portae Spleen by the left Celiacal Artery from it by the Ramus splenicus into the vena Portae and thence directly into the Liver Stomack and Omentum by other branches of the Celiacal Artery from them by the Gastrick and Epiploical veins into the Ramus splenicus thence into the vena Portae and so to the Liver Kidneys by the Emulgent Arteries from them by the Emulgent veins into the vena cava Outside of the Heart by the Coronary Artery back again by the Coronary vein into the vena Cava Thorax to the Pleura by the Intercostal Arteries from it by the veins thereof into the vena Azygos and thence into the vena Cava Head to the Membranes of the Braine by the Carotides and Neck-Arteries which tend to the four Cells of the brain but are not therein terminated as some Anatomists have thought from them by the jugular veins into the ascendent trunck of the VENA CAVA All which is discoverable to the sense by binding those vessels in Animals cut up alive For the swelling caused in either vein or Arterie by the flux of bloud there arrested will alwayes appear on that side the ligature from whence the blood flowes Here we are to advertise that in the Foetus or Infant-unborn the manner of the Circulation of the bloud But after a peculiar manner in an Infant unborn through the vessels of the Heart is different from that we have described For the blood is not carried from the Mothers womb into the Umbilical Arteries but from the Placenta Uterina in which those Arteries are terminated into the Umbilical vein which conducteth it along to the Liver of the Foetus from whence it is transmitted by the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the heart Being brought thither it is transferred into the Vena Arteriosa but because the Lungs are not yet moved as after the birth in respiration and so their vessels are not dilated and contracted alternately and consequently they can neither receive the blood out of the Vena Arteriosa not impell it into the Arteria Venosa therefore hath the providence of Nature contrived and framed Two peculiar passages the one a conduit or pipe conveying the blood from the Vena Arteriosa into the Great Arterie the other certain foramen hole or inlett by which the bloud passeth from the Vena Cava into the Arteria Venosa thence into the left Ear of the heart and so down into the left Ventricle From thence as well as that from the Vena Arteriosa it is infused into the Great Arterie So that in an unborn Infant Nature useth the two Ventricles of the heart as if they were but one and this lest the infant should have his Blood too hot and adust while he wants the ventilation of the air and expulsion of fuliginous exhalations through the Lungs From the Great Arterie the bloud is sent into the Umbilical Arteries which return it to the Placenta Uterina where permeating the substance thereof it is again infused into the small branches or rather roots of the Umbilical vein by them into the trunk and at length into the Liver Vena Cava and Heart as before Having thus explained by what wayes the blood is moved in a round This Motion of the blood is it follows that we consider the CONDITIONS of that its motion Concerning which we observe that the Circulation of the blood is 1 Continuall Continual For since the Heart is continually in motion and takes in blood in its Diastole and dischargeth the same again in its Systole never intermitting that its proper action but in great swooning fits or in the very article of death it is necessary that the motion of the bloud be likewise continuall 2 Vehement as may be inferred from the hardness and distention of an arterie vehement or vein bound with a ligature For nothing can be distended to great hardness by a thin and liquid matter especially upward unless that matter be with vehemence impelled into and retained in it But this vehemence of the motion is greatest neer the heart and is afterward diminished by degrees according to the severall degrees of distance from the heart so that the extream arteries have but little pulse unless it happens that the impellent force of the heart be encreased as in Fevers Inflammations Violent exercise some passions c. Which is also the reason why the veins have no pulse the impulse of the blood being less in them than in the smallest arteries 3 Swift swift For an artery or vein being compressed by ligature will swell up and be distended as it were